EOIII Questions thread

[Kimiko]

[scy]

[Kimiko]

Second slot? Ah, that would be what I need to progress then. Labyrinth-wise I'm exploring/grinding on B4F, so not very far yet.

[scy]

Alright, you've gotten as far as you can before the 2nd Stratum. After reaching it, you should get the 2nd slot assuming you've done the pre-requisite "quest" involving Ayutthaya and their shipwright.

[IceMage88]

I thought once you got to the second stratum, you could enter from there instead of walking back down 4 earlier floors, is this not how it works? Because that's how I thought it did for all stratums.

(yes, im progressing slowly, but ive been pretty busy)

[Wolkenritter]

[Etrian Veteran]

All right, I'm new to playing Etrian Odyssey, but I know a a lot about it from a friend, so I'm not clueless. I got III a week or two ago and am grinding on B4F to fight Narmer, who is murdering me every time I fight him. My party is

Gladiator lvl 18/ Prince lvl 19/ Zodiac lvl 8
Monk lvl 15/ Arbalist lvl 17

Skills are:

[spoiler]Gladiator:
Endless Battle 3
Sword Mastery 5
Club mastery 2
Avenger 1
Break 2
Rush 4
Berserker Vow 1
Wolf Howl 1

Prince:
Royal Lineage 1
Royal Veil 5
Triumphant Cry 6
Monarch March 5
Nobility Proof 1
Guard Order 1

Zodiac:
Ether Mastery 1
Fire Mastery 1
Volt mastery 4
Fire Star 2
Volt Star 2

Monk:
Form Qi: 3
Fist Mastery 1
Ascetic Reward 1
Healing 5
Line Heal 5
Party Heal 1

Arbalist:
Giant Kill 5
Bolt Mastery 3
Proper Form 3
Extend 1
Heavy Shot 4
Strafe 1
Ambush 1[/spoiler]

Any ideas, and/or suggestions?

[scy]

Well, most your skills are pretty poorly placed to be honest though not really a big enough deal to warrant a rest:

(Spoilered for size):
[spoiler]A general note here: Don't raise weapon skills (or the Zodiac Elemental Masteries) past whatever you need to unlock whatever skill you want. That means you'll only end up maxing Sword Mastery for Blade Rave on the Gladiator and you probably won't go past 5 for the Barrages on the Arbalist (or 7 for Front Mortar pre-requisites) and 1 of each mastery on the Zodiac.

Gladiator:
Either go towards Charge (Avenger 3, Berserker's Vow 3 -> Charge) or work towards Blade Rave (Sword Mastery 10, Rush 5 -> Blade Rave). Other option is to just max Endless Battle first for some boost to your regular damage and just use Break for the time being.

Prince:
Don't bother with more points in Royal Lineage and Nobility Proof (and, for that matter, Triumphant Cry; 5/10 is all you want in that as it's the worst skill of the three in that line). Protect Order (Guard Order 5, Rally Order 5 -> Protect Order) is probably the best choice for your next goal though a point of Attack Order wouldn't hurt. Additionally, if you use your Monk as a primary healer than you can work on Attack Order instead first.

Zodiac:
This is, honestly, kind of a mess. You'll only want 1 of each Mastery and 1 in each Star spell and then work towards Etheric Charge and Singulairty (Dark Ether 5 pre-req for both). Etheric Mastery is a bigger priority than any points in the individual masteries or Star spells for the time being. That said, Volt IS the weakness of Narmer so at least you have that going for you here.

Monk:
Nothing really to say besides you can probably safely do away with working on Fist Mastery and Ascetic Reward. Honestly, both a Monk and Prince(ss) is kind of overkill, especially since the Prince(ss) already has Monarch's March. Not sure what to do with this character since you went the healing route on them AND the Prince(ss) so there's a lot of overlap.

Arbalist:
Extend and those extra points in Heavy Shot (or any, arguably, if you're not getting Front Mortar). The biggest thing is you really want Volt Barrage for the Narmer fight for when he dives since it is easily the fastest and most reliable way to hit him out of his dive.[/spoiler]

As for the fight itself, your group looks to be a high enough level (~16 on average, sans Zodiac) to make the fight pretty easy even with some unfocused points. Maybe a few more levels or resting to make more optimal builds (even something as simple as Etheric Charge + Singularity + Volt Star on the Zodiac as that'll help you the entire game) makes the fight fairly simple.

The big thing to worry about is clearing Narmer's dive and the easiest option is having a Barrage to hit them all (or Rush + Strafe since you have them already). That said, 5 people attacking has an ~83% chance of hitting the right hole to stop the dive.

What is giving you the most trouble with Narmer? His regular attacks aren't that life threatening, especially with both Party Heal and Royal Lineage ticking away (especially with Guard Order up if you have it). You may want to forge Volt on your weapons to boost your regular attack damage for that extra edge so you can save your TP for when you need it. Honestly, only Earthquake from Narmer is really troublesome and it's manageable by just making sure to "find" him before it happens.

[Etrian Veteran]

Well, I'll definitely try what you said, and the reason my skills are all over the place, I try not to use guides for games, and I was experimenting. It obviously didn't work.

The reason I have both Prince and Monk was because the only remaining members of my guild are very weak, so it would be worse not to have them with me.

The biggest problem I'm having with Narmer is that my equipment, for the most part, is terrible, though I do have Volt on a few of the weapons. I haven't fought him for a while, because I was grinding for money to get better equipment, though I'm going to give it another chance soon. Thanks for all the advice, it's very helpful.

[Maxine MagicFox]

*doesn't use guides for games either until she comes up against a brick wall* Don't feel bad. We should consider ourselves one of the few remaining TRUE GAMERS out there.... or something... <_<;; *sigh*

[Etrian Veteran]

Wow, it sure took me long enough to beat him! I ended taking out the Zodiac and replacing him with my Hoplite, and that seemed to help. I also over-leveled a bit. Everyone but the Monk was at 19 or 20, and I understand that's kinda high for the first Stratum. Oh, well at least I did it!

[greycolors]

A few quick questions. I'm sure these have been answered before, but I can't find the answer so apologies.

Firstly, I know warrior might chases attacks and skills, but does it chase every hit of every skill? For example, will it chase all 10 hits of 5 ring swords?

Secondly, is ninja/prince a good combination. I have seen some suggestions for prince/ninja, but not the other way around. I would have thought the 9 tp discount would be a boon for a class that casts all the time.

[SirthOsiris]

Warrior's Might chases an individual attack, not the hits. Each swing of Swashbuckling and Dual Wield counts as an individual hit, though.

There are probably better combos, but if you're using prince skills all the time, might as well. That combo sounds more for long-range dungeon diving, though.

[Sampson]

[scy]

Well ... that story doesn't go past the 5th Floor so not sure how to answer. The only step after the 5th Floor Hypatia meet is to [hide]return to where you saw Olympia and make a choice that determines their fate.[/hide] It's typically missed since you can just open the two-way shortcut to bypass the huge run-around and, thus, miss the trigger.