EOIV Rantage!!

[Garlyle]

The formatted version should be one of the most recent posts on thispleasestormod , but here, I'll copypaste.

[Tumalu]

Wait, you couldn't do the Chameleon King? Isn't almost all the damage in that fight ice-elemental, allowing you to do the same thing you did with the blazing lizard?

Oh right, the counters activating at all means a ton of delay, plus the camo is a pain, right- you can hit through the camo if your accuracy is high enough, so taking accuracy forged weapons and the accessory on one dancer would probably be required. but even then I'm not sure how much you'd hit without subbing Sniper or something. And since it's optional and with no notable reward, it'd just be a big pain.

[igniz13]

Didn't realise you were doing it with just 3 dancers. I'd be interested in seeing some of this, shame 3DS is hard to steam / record.

Figured the lack of elemental dances would be a problem, it's one major sore point I have with this game is the proliferation of elemental attacks (and binds, as an aside)

Wonder what other classes could do it, not many from the start, or it'd be a painful chore. With subclassing, I guess anything is possible.

I think arcanist and bushi would be pretty easy once you get subclassing.

[Tumalu]

Arcanist would be horrible. They synergize together very badly, because you can only have one circle up at a time. With very careful management you might be able to chain-link summoning and dismissing circles, which would give you multiple proc chances as well as some damage, though... but you'd have to expend a lot of MP and rely on your circles actually landing. It'd be funny, though, at least.

[igniz13]

I forgot you could only have one circle down, but I still have a cunning plan....

Level 1 a I and b are pretty lame though it's clear they were focused on mid to end game effectiveness

I don't expect to do much for boss or foe killing but I might give 3 arcanists a quick go

[Garlyle]

New game Imperials are more hindered by the fact that their drives are useless without a drive blade and the earliest ones only show up after stratum 4.

I mean you might be able to do something with their single-target strikes until then, rotating Sharp -> Impulse (and later Sharp -> Charge), but it would be extremely uninteresting.

Bushi at least have attack options at early levels. They don't get Charge/Defiance/Auto-Surge/Deep Breath, yeah, but they have enough to make it through the first stratum (I'd hope). You just don't really have any in-battle healing early and will need a billion Medica.

[Tumalu]

Bushi are still great at low level, they get free TP when everyone is running out after a few moves otherwise so you can spam your skills, and Blood Surge makes your normal attacks as strong as everyone's skills would be. By the time the low max TP is actually starting to be notably apparent, you can recover it with Auto-Surge and Deep Breath. I got out Energy Tango on bosses though >>;

Arcanists are... okay, they're not that exciting, unless you're rushing Poison Circle I guess. Then it's probably pretty silly for awhile. EO4 has a pretty easy 1st stratum though, and you still get Bracing Walk to help out with exploration a lot- it can basically replace having a medic until you can Sub as it.

I actually have used a B and A from the start in my NG+ party, so this is from experience. I did a binding build on the A, though.

Imperials... uh, the Edge skills actually work without a drive blade? I was under the impression they basically didn't have anything but Power Boost, Hawkeye, and Rear Guard (aka, only Hawkeye) until lategame when you get Drive Blades. Cool/Charge Edge have alright damage formulas... but I think you still require a drive blade.

[igniz13]

Edge skills mention they need a drive blade, I've never tried it but I assume they wouldn't work. Even if there were appropriate drive blades I'm not sure I would be any good at low levels with just assault drive

[Tumalu]

If there was low-tier drive blades you'd be fine, before lv20 your party members are weak enough that it'd do like 4 turns worth of damage from anyone else (using skills) at once, and the Edge skills themselves are as strong as everyone else's normal skills at that point too- Impulse Edge would let you spam to hell and back to boot.

So, if there WAS any low Drive Blades, they'd be OP in comparison (but it'd be ng+ so yeah)

[igniz13]

The TP cost of drives is too high for every day use, you'd be losing out on DPR if you switched between edge skills. It's just awkward.

Arcanist circle costs are too cost ineffective as well. You can murder a party with poison, but you won't be able to do many rounds. Once dismiss blow becomes available its a different story, but until then it's just imbalanced.

[Tumalu]

Yeah, Arcanists are mostly rapier-users for stratum 1. You get a ring with a volt spell on it, at least- and you can keep circles up in FOE/boss fights since you get the TP back when it ends.

Impulse Edge restores a ton of TP and the edge skills actually have above-average damage formulas until late in the game. They'd still outdamage most conventional means of offense without considering Drives, and not have to worry about TP doing it. The point is moot since there's no low drive blades, though.

[igniz13]

Yeah, cunning plan fail :\ having just nearly died to a. Yellow blob thing I'm contemplating starting a new game+ again. But with my enthusiasm for low level a I gone, iI'm not sure what to try. Guess I'll stick with classes I didn't bother with in the past, or maybe a no medic main run

[Tumalu]

If you can sub medic, that's not very hard. Maining Medic isn't even worth it in this game, since an A or R (preferably an A) can heal enough subbing medic. If you start with any arcanists then you don't even miss the medic much before subclassing since you get Bracing Walk for not-bosses, and the Dancer's Regen Waltz can do a good job of replacing a medic in actual battles, especially if you grab Healing Step.

Medics aren't very good in this game. The only worthwhile build I can think of is M/L, which doesn't have as good of a Star Drop nor as much durability as an L/M but can heal well instead... which still probably isn't the best idea, but it's alright.

[igniz13]

Yeah, early game, my m was just patch up and refresh because my dancer was covering more of the healing. Later on, that changed and the active skills became more important for various reasons, but even then it was revives and refreshes normally with little else.

I still think they're good at their job, the core healer class have always been flawed though, with the common flaw I always have a problem with is speed.

The other healers are gimmicky though, I do like the straight forward nature of m's. I don't like relying on items either, their out of combat utility is not something I like giving up

[Tumalu]

Maybe I should reword that- Medic isn't a very good MAIN class in this game. I would certainly recommend subbing it in any party.

Half-level heals are still sufficiently powerful on a high-tec class, so there's not much point in main-classing Medic since they don't have much else to do in the meantime (which is most of the time) other than use subclass buff/debuffs. Medic attack skills aren't much good unless you're M/L for Star Drop or have a dancer with spare turns to Quick Step it- that being said L is probably the best subclass because you also get durability passives and Power/Mind Break in addition to vanguard for Star Drop if you want. (Not sure how well maxed Speed Boosts would work with Medic/Dancer for star drop, as dancer sub is always good)

I wouldn't say the medic class is always flawed though; EO3's Monk is pretty solid and better to main than sub, EO1 medic even without Immunize is VIP, and EOU's Medic gets a lot of flak because of other viable healing classes, but is really not a bad choice at all.