So I finally got EOII...

[Apolloncrash]

[alexpk86]

Mine lags too when there are too many dmg tiles or flying FOEs, but it's limited to the big room on F1, 2nd and 4th Stratum.

[ZetaBladeX13]

[Maxine MagicFox]

Maybe I've just never noticed it then. Still... things like that are the kinds of things that I notice. :\ Weird.

[Apolloncrash]

[scy]

[Apolloncrash]

[Randomnicity]

G's should be phased out except for bosses

If your Gunner is already at max level, replace them with a Survivalist. Learn 1st Turn, should only take you a few levels. Although thanks to bosses in this game giving really big amounts of XP, you can have the S catch up by just giving them 1-2 escorts (Revenge H, add a R if Revenge isn't enough)

1st Turn Revenge then have the Dark Hunter use Climax. I think I've killed almost every single FOE that way in the 4th stratum up. Except for 1 FOE in the 6th stratum but they're kind of easy to get a preemptive on.

For bosses, that's what Riot Gun/1st Turn + Dominate is for. The first turn is risk free. I've never seen binds disappear on the second turn. The third turn is where bosses might lose binds, but if the battle goes that long, 1st Turn Revenge or just bring 4 Axcella's (not sure if they're available before the 5th Stratum though) and boost your G's Force up so they can use Riot Gun on that turn.

If you need a second Revenge before you can use Climax you can use Slowstep on your toughest party member, and have them use a Nectar on the H.

Then use 1st Step Revenge + Climax on the second turn.

---

Torpor is pretty useful. Although I've only relied on it during random battles were I used it to keep enemies asleep while either my D gains Force or my W is restoring everyone's TP.

And if you really want to kill things in the first turn, 1st Turn Torpor takes the damage of Warmight Kienzan to ridiculous levels. But it's not really that useful seeing as you can just have the R defend during the turn the H casts Torpor then use Kienzan on the next turn.

Not bad to have on a certain floor that spawns FOEs if battles take more than 1 turn though.

--

Dead Law isn't advisable at all. It only gives you a 20% boost to your total damage over 5 turns. Or to be specific, if you deal x damage over 1 turn.

w/o Dead Law, you deal 5 * x or 5x
w/ Dead Law, you deal 4 * (x * 1.3) or 5.2x

If you combine this with War Might (1.6 modifier)

w/o Dead Law, 5 * (x * 1.6) or 8x
w/ Dead Law, 4 * (x * 1.3 * 1.6) or 8.32x

Note that the bonus damage only comes into play after all 5 turns have passed if the battle only lasts 4 turns or less (or your Ronin doesn't attack in the 4 turns after Dead Law) then you end up losing damage.

Remember you don't do damage for the turn you cast Dead Law in. So your Ronin has to catch up for that lost turn of not doing damage. Dead Law real utility I suppose is to keep the Ronin's TP use down over those 5 turns. But if you can sustain their TP then you're just taking a ton of risk for minimal gain.

[Apolloncrash]

I am a little confused as to what to do now... you make some good points Randomnicity, both here and in gooogly2's "I have some questions about Etrian Odyssey strategys..." topic in the EOI section. To be honest I'd never thought of the Slow Step + Nectar combination.

I have yet to unlock Axcellas of any tier. How do you get them?

[Randomnicity]

Axcella I is made from a gather item from the 5th Stratum + some common enemy drop (I think 5th strata as well)

Axcella II is the same, except the materials are from the 6th Stratum instead.

[Apolloncrash]

That would explain why I have yet to get them then, as I have yet to use an Item Point in this game. Guess I should build up a Mine/Chop/Take Survivalist then.