Guild and Class selection

[Kinokokao]

[zamisk]

Subclass him as a monk for asthetic deeds or at least for the 5 free skill points

[FomeRubr555]

One of the things I like about subclasses is they're, more or less, entirely optional. If you mess up, they can be changed later, but even if you don't feel like regrinding, if all else fails you can just put those extra points into your main class.

Here's what I got:

Front:
[spoiler]Hoplite/Ninja: I thought I was pretty clever to come up with this. Then I went on this forum and realized practically everyone else was doing it. Double line guards is awesome, but I still can't wrap my head around a heavily armored ninja...

Buccaneer/Princess: Prince buffs seemed too nice to pass up. I knew I was going to give this to one of my classes, but I chose Buccaneer specifically because I wanted to be able to equip her with heavy armor! She was on the front lines, after all, and the added protection would help keep her alive. It was brilliant! ...Only after I subclassed her did I realize that it only unlocked new weaponry, and that armor can only be equipped by your main class... Oh well. She has elemental chase skills with pistols (which I'm kind of glad I went this route for reasons that will be listed below), and ad nihilo.[/spoiler]

Back:
[spoiler]Zodiac/Arbalist: I was actually surprised how well this worked. Basically, I gave her this so that she would have something to hit enemies that aren't weak to elemental damage. Not only would it allow her to contribute to fights while saving TP, but also to give her another type of attack to hit enemies with (piercing I guess?). Surprisingly, her normal attack works with singularity too, and makes her hit rather hard on enemies that are weak to physical damage, despite being such a lightweight. I feel sorry for her though, I picture the look on her face when they told her to replace her little book with this huge ass crossbow... The only Arbalist skills she has are Pop Flares and Snipe, mainly because it works well with my Ninja to some degree.

Ninja/Monk: I really had no idea what to give her. There were a lot of ideas, like Gladiator, Buccaneer, etc., with nice passive abilities. Two problems with that though. One, they required a heavy point investment into skills that wouldn't benefit me much (Rapier and Gun Mastery? Why would I give up my knife and lose all my Ninja skills I've worked so hard to earn thus far?). And two, she wasn't dealing very great damage. Her purpose right now is pretty much to Kubikiri everything to death that she can. The added support of a light heal and refresh/unbind (eventually ressurect, maybe) gives her more utility and frees up my Monk to focus on keeping everyone alive. Plus, her natural speed reduces the danger of any fast enemies outrunning my Monk and killing someone before they can be healed.

However...
I am waiting for her to get to 40 to retire her, and replace her with Yggdroid. Not sure what subclass to go there, and I kind of wish I hadn't given the Princess subclass to my Buccaneer simply because the thought of a robot princess is amusing to me. Though, the bot skills, plus elemental chase skills = double elemental chase for my Zodiac abilities, which should be fun if nothing else.

Monk/Farmer: Mainly for camp mastery, but there's other things that can be useful in that tree. I haven't paid much attention to them. Currently she only has Camp Mastery and Waste Not.[/spoiler]

Anyway, these were all my first attempts at subclassing. I'm not going to say I didn't put thought into each one, but I didn't use any guides or anything, and just went with what I felt would be good. Anyone having difficulty deciding, just remember, you always have your main class to fall back on. For that matter, you'll probably end up spending the majority of your points in your main class skills anyway, so the subclass is really sort of a bonus thing. To restate, and as others said, don't be afraid to experiment. Even if you mess up, you can correct it if you don't mind the grind, and if you DO mind the grind, remember that it probably won't be major enough to really matter if you decide not to correct it.

[Lord Zombie]

[zamisk]

[FomeRubr555]

[zamisk]

[mandoris]

[spoiler]
Just putting this whole thing in spoiler tags since I'm not sure what shouldn't be mentioned.

I actually read this entire thread to figure out how I wanted my party to be, up to post 43... Back in the 1st stratum. I just made it to the 4th stratum, when I figured I could make my "final" party.

Only problem, my final party was built with two Shoguns in it, and I was careful not to read spoilers beyond knowing that end of 3rd stratum would unlock the bonus classes. I did not realize it would be one or the other though, and my story choices gave me the Yggdroid instead. I'm going to stick with that as I want to play the story as I have, but now my whole party idea is ruined.

Here is my current party, I didn't subclass them much as I was planning to take out two of them and replace with Shoguns:

Hoplite/??? Bucaneer/??? Arbalist/???
Prince/??? Zodiac/Arbalist

Now I am back to square one, I was hoping to get some ideas from you guys I can build off of. I don't mind eliminating party members entirely, I just want to put together a powerful group that can run through the game without terrible pain.

Also, can someone tell me, what are some good ways to use this Yggdroid class? I find I don't really understand it that well. Thanks tons for the help.
[/spoiler]

[FomeRubr555]

[Lord Zombie]

[zamisk]

[Kinokokao]

[zamisk]

That's fine, but if you have a hoplite, you can keep him alive anyways. Vit is not a bad thing, and you still get endless battle

[scy]

[mandoris]

Awesome, thanks for the Yggdroid insights.