Cookie-Cutter Party

[nano]

Hi,

I tried EO2 long ago and was quickly frustrated by the rather high difficulty level and confusing variety of skills. Now I want to give it another shot, and start over with a good party for an EO-Newbie.
So, can anyone give me a suggestion for a party that will make the game "easier" for me?

Thanks in advance

[Isabelyes]

I'm assuming Scy will pop up with all kinds of reasons why his team became the general cookie-cutter team, but just know that any team will get you through the main game.

Still, A Landsknecht, Protector and a Medic are somewhat recommended.
Heard that a gunner is good, too, and you could give the fifth spot to a Ronin.
They're pretty strong, and have some of the best attacks in the whole game.

Still, you should wait for Scy if you want to have the most optimal (?) team.

[beekee]

Scy is quite savvy with EO's mechanics, so I'm certain he will be able to provide you with a detailed breakdown.

However, a few rules of thumb can help you build your party. See if this helps.

Party members generally fill a variety of roles both in completing battles or in acquiring items and farming experience. You don't necessarily need to fill every role, but including basic elements of most of them can make battle easier.

Protectors and Beasts both occupy a defensive function, preventing allies from taking as much damage and stopping total-party-kills. Protector is likely simpler to use, and doesn't need to be unlocked.

Several classes are designed to defeat enemies; offensive classes are good to add in multiples usually. Ronin is well known for tremendous damage output, but Gunner, Landsknecht, Alchemist, Dark Hunter, and Survivalist can all fill this role to varying degrees. Alchemist can be very TP dependent, but is useful for taking out certain kinds of FOEs who are resistant to physical damage. I believe Ronin and Gunners are the top tier of damage-dealing; someone who has experimented with different builds may want to correct that. Hexers using Revenge can dish out the most damage per hit, but it takes manipulation.

Healers are essentially Medic and War Magus (Beast gets a little bit). This is an important role and will definitely make your play experience easier. You will probably only need one, unless you use two that are less focused on healing. Medic is the superior option for straightforward healing, including status removal and reviving allies. War Magus functions well, though, and has some other stuff to boot.

Debuffers or debilitators mainly include Dark Hunters and Hexers, using binds and various other conditions. These are often helpful against susceptible bosses or FOEs, but aren't strictly necessary, especially not in normal fights. Hexers are nice in that they can penalize enemy defenses and offense, which acts a bit like party buffing. Poison and Torpor are also quite strong.

Buffing or enhancing party members helps a lot, in my experience. Troubadours are the main buffing class, buffing attacks, defenses, elemental damage, HP, and status recovery, as well as eventually being able to boost experience. War Magus only gets three buffs, but they're good: Warmight, Rockskin, and Elkskin. Warmight is especially useful.
I used a War Magus through most of the Labyrinth, but Medic's TP Regen and skills such as Revive and Patch Up may be better for while exploring.

Some classes excel at out-of-battle utility, notably Survivalists. I have never used a Survivalist so I'm not sure what their others strengths really are.

For a simple but sturdy party, I suggest at least 2 offensive classes, 1 defensive class, and 1 healer. The last character could be anything you like, but another offensive class couldn't hurt. I like to include a buffer or debuffer.


Specific classes:
Protector, Ronin, Dark Hunter, Medic, Gunner.
Dark Hunter's Bait and Magibait are excellent against many bosses, Gunner and Ronin do a lot of damage without much effort and are quite versatile, Medic is the strongest straightforward healer, and Protectors are durable as hell.
Troubadour and Hexer are great too. Hexer in particular can make some challenges easy-peasy. Poison, Torpor, and Revenge simplify very difficult floors.

[Twat]

[scy]

[beekee]

[Isabelyes]

...Fuck EOII's Final Boss for now.
I'm just gonna wait until my brother is done playing SMT:SJ,
and then I'm going to retire everyone, level them like hell and study this thread in order to become the best party trainer (!) ever! ^-^

Seriously guys, great tips you've got there.
I also never tried a Gunner, so I'm gonna try that class out, too.

[nano]

Wow, thanks for the extensive answers. I'm going with Scy's recommendation at the moment and after the first level-ups it seems to work quite good.
But two more questions:
Is it advisable to buy equipment at the store, or do you find better (i.e. with bonuses or something) stuff regulary?
Do I have any disadvantages if I'm using all 72 skill points? I noticed Scy didn't distributed all of them, or is the rest just for free distribution?

[scy]

[Twat]

May I hijack this thread? Good.

Well I have just about ruined the game with Hexer.

Again.

So with that I am going to go with a different party. This time with the Troubadour. Should I still have a Protector? I figured Front Guard would make it worth it, though do I want the Anti-Elemental abilities when I can instead go for the Troubadour counterparts? What if I went with a Beast instead? The thing is the elemental protection songs only reduce the damage by 30%. I still plan to use a War Magus healer since they are decent fighters and heal faster than the Medic, but I'm not sure how well it sits when the Troubadour has party-wide buffs since they do not stack with War Magus lore. I guess the War Magus would save points and focus on getting more offensive abilities, right? I should also mention I want a Dark Hunter and Gunner in there.

Oh Scyyyy~ <3[spoiler]Some advice would be much appreciated[/spoiler]

[scy]

Well, first off, War Magus buffs do stack with Troubadour songs.

As for the Elemental songs, they're ... not really that great. They work better on the dragons (due to their more random script) than the Anti-Elements but are practically useless vs the Floor 30 boss. But, post-game is a different story altogether anyway I suppose.

Beast vs Protector ... probably just preference. At least, until the post-game. Beast group-wide defense abilities (and Elemental defenses in general) are all pretty awful.

[spoiler]PDW / GT is perfectly fine as a group though you do lack good ways to deal with Physical resistant guys. That's probably the best reason to get the Troubadour abilities.[/spoiler]

[Twat]

Yeah. I figured the elemental endowment would have to substitute for Dampen. Should I max those out? I know that usually maxing things out for a speed increase and TP reduction is usually not worth it, but I wondered if it would be different with the drastic differences here. Aside from that, I want to assume I'm supposed to get Bravery, Shelter, Stamina and Health?

[redcrayon]

[zamisk]

[Wolkenritter]