So, I first appeared on the forums some weeks ago, asking questions about my preliminary party ideas. The party in question was this:
Protector / Dark Hunter
Gunner / Troubadour / Medic
I picked them basically because I liked the classes conceptually, but as I started playing I quickly began to question the Troubadour's usefulness. I made a handful of posts on various forums asking whether or not my perception of the troub as somewhat lacking was valid or not, and mostly I got a resounding "yeah." The big issue one everyone's minds was that Relaxing, the skill that made the troubadour an invaluable party member in EO1, no longer exists.
Well, I've been toughing it out with him because even in spite of the initial "meh" feelings, I always love bard classes in games, and Tobias, my troub, has pretty much the most adorable portrait ever. (see my forum avatar)
And after a little experimenting... I love him. Not to give the wrong impression or anything, I don't think the troub is one of EOII's most powerful classes or anything (I suspect that'd be the hexer) and I don't think it's suited to all parties (there's a fair bit of redundancy if you use a hexer; notice that I do not.) But I do think he's a valuable part of the team. I'm only on the third stratum... I've been taking my time enjoying and painstakingly mapping ice puzzles... so I can't make any claims beyond that point. I don't know how viable he'll be for end-game and post-game encounters, but I have high hopes.
So, all that rambling aside, here's what I like about the class:
- Bows. I like that he uses bows. It means I can park him in the back and he'll still do non-negligible damage. My other "support" character is the medic, and though I love her, she hits like a lame kitten. The troub can at least make a dent in things when you're just out tackling random encounters. This is especially true if you nab the very powerful bow obtainable at the end of the first stratum, which I did.
- FOE skills. Tobias has saved my butt countless times through judicious use of Luring and Slumber. I only spend 1 point in each, but it's more than enough to get the job done. And I love feeling clever when I lure an aggressive FOE right where I want it and then freeze it in place with slumber. This is even good for offensive purposes, since you can Slumber a FOE and then approach it from behind for a guaranteed pre-emptive attack. (This comes with the obvious disclaimer that the troub is not the only class with these abilities, but he does have both and putting a point in each didn't hurt me at all. Which brings me to my next point...)
- Lots of possible skill points to spend. Because the troub doesn't have any super-drool-worthy must-max skills to speak of, I've never felt strapped for talent points with him. Although there is...
- Divinity. I love it. +30% experience is crazy. The downside is that it required 10 points in LUC UP, which seems a little useless... he doesn't inflict status ailments. But all in all I still think it's worth the levels its netted him and his guildmates.
- Weapon imbues. This has just become useful to me recently, but it's made killing certain monsters that are highly resistant to physical attacks much easier (my gunner's 1point ele-shots can only do so much... I have a very physical-heavy party.) And if you invest all 5 points, the buff is only 1 TP to cast. Can't beat that. And yes, a Hexer's Dampen makes this all fairly irrelevant... but I don't like Hexers.
- Nihilo. I've only encountered a few monsters with really annoying party buffs, but man wiping them all away for the low price of 3 TP (and only 5 talent points) is a happy prospect. Erasure doesn't seem worth it though, since you can just take Nihilo and 3 TP is not much worse than 1 TP.
- Crusade. I loooooove this force skill. Because I rely so much on tanking encounters with the Protector (rather than overpowering enemies through massive damage) the ability to instantly boost Health (by a lot!), Defense, and Attack all in one turn is huge. The downside is that the health gain increases max HP, not current HP. But again, this works just fine in my group because if Tobias has 100 Force, so does Aria (the medic) and H. Touch works wonders at filling the whole party's now-vastly-bigger health pools. It even synergizes well with Provoke--even though there are only 3 buff slots, when the Crusade-ified Protector provokes, she replaces the Attk Up part of Crusade, retaining the defensive buffs.
[spoiler](Small disclaimer... Crusade is not happy times against Hellion. That is all.)[/spoiler]
- Have I mentioned how much I love the portrait?
Here's Tobias' current build:
10/10 LUC UP
1/1 ESC UP
7/10 Songs
5/5 Divinity
1/10 Bravery
6/10 Shelter
5/5 Shock
5/5 Nihilo
1/5 Luring
1/5 Slumber
My current plan is to top off Shelter and then invest in TP UP, since while some of his skills are extreeeeemely cheap (Nihilo, Shock, etc) others are quite pricy (Shelter and Bravery especially.)
From there I'll probably start filling Bravery back up, and then probably HP UP and maybe another elemental weapon imbue. I'd also like to fill out STR UP when I have nothing better to do.
I'm not in love with Ifrit/Ymir/Taranis, despite their cool names. If I have a lot of points left over after I finish the above plans, I might take Taranis to complement the Shock imbue, but it's a little unlikely. 10 talent points just don't seem worth the gains, especially because I'll eventually have the Protector's Anti-Element skills on hand.
So, apologies for my longwindedness! I just wanted to put some love out there for the troubs.
I'd love to hear anyone else's plans or positive experiences with the class!
