Reply With QuoteNah, exorcism is easily handled via scrolls.
And no exorcism either, so you might have trouble against the undead.
Does anyone know whether Spellstrike improves terror knights' chance to succeed with Lament of the Dead? This ability sounds way cool on paper, but in practice I get much better results with fearful impact.
Nah, exorcism is easily handled via scrolls.
You might have a rough time in random battles featuring lots of Golems, Dragons, and Octopi though, they don't take much damage from pierce attacks and even with double shot/double attack, you will be facing foes who are triggering their powerful abilities very often.Originally Posted by Hawkeye Fierce
But if you gave everyone Field Alchemy III or even IV and some high end healing gear, plus scrolls, yeah I'm sure it's very doable.
I've created a mixed party for varieties sake. But if I was trying to create the most powerful mid/late game party possible it would probably just be: 5 archers, 5 ninjas, 2 mages. (replace mage with the variety of your choice and maybe replace 1 ninja with Ozma as a Knight Commmander I haven't tried her yet).
Mid/late game seems to be about high speed, high damage, and finishers if required (plus some crowd control from mages).
This is in contrast to the early game where everyone does less damage and healing is comparatively more powerful, so tanking is more of a real option. In the early game I'd say the most powerful party is almost all Knights (tanking+healing) with a couple of mages to weaken golems and dragons.
Having said all that I'm fairly happy with class balance. I've found that just about every class has a role and an opportunity to shine.
Tony
You know, I never found ninjas to be the gamebreakers described, due to their vulnerability (even with steelstance up) and the big drop-off in damage they suffered against heavily armoured targets. Admittedly I also tended to be lazy when it came to forging armour - I think Denam had the only +1 suit of armour I made in the entire game.
Heh, I still can't seem to master the art of leveling these guys. I'm at some castle in Chapter III, having just killed Lanoar (sp) or somesuch, the guy who was Arycelle's squeeze before he turned to the dark side. My party is largely level 15-16, with my lowbies 7-9. Grinding is painfully slow, with all of three locations (a moor, an aqueduct, and some paved area or pass/road thing) to choose from, and I always have to bring a cleric because I never can tell if undead will pop up. I have never figured out how to use scrolls, or even technically what a scroll is, as AFAIK they don't show up in the stores or in my inventory as such (I'm sure I'm missing something). Or maybe they require Field Alchemy III or better? Only one or two of my guys have that.
I'm enjoying it but it seems I'm way behind the curve here.
Undead will show up at the Moors, but not at the other two areas you named, I think. (I know for sure they don't appear at the Rhea Boum Aqueduct.) Grinding should become easier again soon. :)
Scrolls are used via the "Arcana" command in combat. If you buy spell scrolls but don't teach them to your characters, they become usable as one-off casts (which is what Hawkeye alluded to upthread, and which I'd forgotten about).
Ah, ok; that makes sense now. I'll give it a try.
I remember that point - it's a bit of a bottleneck and it caused me to put the game down for a bit. My advice is to power through the next few story missions and then the world opens up again. Trying to level with only those places available will drive you nuts.
I beat Ozma. I grinded out a couple of battles to gain an extra level so my party was level 15-17 this time around. The extra level made the difference. Until now I've been passing on all random encounters (because I figure I should collect as many unique units and classes as I can before I start power leveling, so I'm not grooming units I'll abandon later).
The very next story encounter was back down at my level (Ozmas was 6 levels higher when I first encountered it). So it seems this was a temporary difficulty spike. Maybe it was an optional encounter, I'm having trouble following the story. In any case its good to have Ozma on the team. She has Healing, Double attack, Rampart II and the fastest base speed of any class (faster than a ninja, but in practice shes actually slower because of heavier armor). So shes the only unit on my team who doubles as a Tank and DPS (or at least she will when her level catches up).
I picked up Sherri too. The first non-Cleric spellcaster on the Lawful path (I converted Donalto from a Cleric into a Warlock).
Tony
By Warlock do people mean Wizard? Or am I just missing a class :)
They're separate classes.
Calculators. Use their original, far more hilarious name.
Ah thanks, I literally just encountered them in the next battle after my post. Talk about a facepalm moment :)
OK forgive me, I can't help but get very crunchy when I play strategy games. I noticed that my Ravness Archer was moving faster (more often) that my Arycelle archer, despite being the same level and class. It turns out that all the unique characters have a unique speed bonus that makes them move faster than regular units.
This stacks with with the base speed of the characters class, plus the weight of the gear you're using and the movement cost of the actions you choose. It means Ozma is even better than I thought. Not only has she got the fastest class (Knight Commander) but she also has the fastest native speed bonus to stack on it.
That means that Ozma as Knight Commander, will move about 25% faster/more often than a regular no name Knight with the same gear.
Looking at each characters stats and speed, I'm not convinced that Arycelle is that great a candidate for the team archer. Shes certainly better suited to archer than any other job, but other characters can do the job better. For example Hobyrim has good stats for an archer and moves faster.
I know, right? This changes everything. Wipe your memory card and start over. :)
Tony (aspiring to be a fully trained Arithmetician)
I wouldn't overly stress that; it's nice, but truthfully, once you're at that level of min-maxing, there's nothing left that can stand up to you anyway.
And you'll have enough skill points built up (most likely, anyway) to be able to easily swap between classes. I did this when testing Canopus as a vartan; once I realized he easily did more damage as an archer, right back he went!
On that note, team update!:
Denam, Lord - He's dual wielding Brynhildr and Lombardia. The first has 759 attack, the latter 694. This is not the highest attack stat on my team for a single weapon, but as a ninja/knight hybrid class, there's nothing that can stand up to him! I only wish that the swords used the same element; I have two skill slots dedicated to Augment Light and Air because of this.
Vyce, Ranger - I tried Vyce as a Buccaneer, but was quickly disappointed; Losing access to archer gear really hurt his damage potential. Both his weapons are at 693 attack and share the water element. He wrecks shit, pure and simple.
Ozma, Knight Commander - The only character I have running Rampart Aura. She's not my highest damage dealer (670 attack) but she's the fastest character on my team, a good backup healer, and her whip finisher that can bewitch enemies is a game changer.
Ravness, Ninja - With her high Dex stat and good RT, she's almost as fast as Ozma (83 RT to 80 for Ozma) and hits harder. 690 atk for her two weapons. I'm working on raising her AVD stat to reduce her squishiness; the innately high HP helps mitigate this issue, though.
Canopus, Archer - 772 atk. With double shot, this means that his regular attack is better than my main character's. And it also has a chance to shackle enemies. From range. As an equal level Vartan (with equivalent weapon skill in crossbows; he's back to bows now) he was in the low 700's.
Iuria, Archer - She's moreso designed to be a caster, but a flying caster does nothing for me. I prefer my bow users to be fliers so they can get the extra range from terrain easily. She still has 732 atk, so I'm not losing much by going this route.
Hobyrim, Archer - He's my crossbow archer. Doesn't hit nearly as hard (662 atk) but makes up for it with crossbow finishers. He also hasn't hit max on his weapon skill, which makes a difference. Not much to say about him right now, elsewise. He may be moved to Rogue soon.
Jeunan, Rogue - Low RT, very good Dex, self-haste, and Tactician to improve TP generation; even though he only has 689 atk, he is able to use finishers so often that it doesn't matter anyway. I don't bother with stealing; I just love how ridiculously fast and mobile he is in this class. Dragoons don't matter when everyone can hit dragons for a ton of damage.
Tellah, Warlock - this is my only generic. He picked up so many INT tarot cards that he has a 43 base stat. He's a hybrid Air/Earth caster; with a wand of air his magic atk is 524. He hits in the 100's for damage, and can put enemies in sleep or stone status. He's not a gamewrecker, but he's very good at both damage and crowd control. I'm not sure if I'll move this guy or the next to Lich as yet.
Rudlum, Warlock - Just picked this unique up; he only gets a slight RT boost on my generic, and only has 2 more base INT. He is also lacking any points in Augment skills or Meditate, so he's actually worse in the end. I'm building him up because I want another mage, though. I have yet to decide where to build him for; I don't have any more Warlock cards so I can't swap him around to pick up Wizard skills, which is rather irritating.
Catiua, Princess - Decent damage dealer, good healer, has meditate. She also runs Field Alchemy and has a Lobber equipped. She's a support character with decent damage; if I had something else I was really in love with, I'd be kicking her out. For now, the utility keeps her around. She's what a Valkyrie wishes it could be.
Olivya, Cleric - I'm going to try her out as a Shaman soon. For now, I'm waiting to turn one of my Warlocks into a Lich so I can level the two of them together. Otherwise there's not much to say here - she heals, she lobs, but mostly she takes naps while my damage dealers slaughter everything without getting touched.
For all of these characters I dedicate at least 3 skill slots to defense. Everyone runs Fortify, Spell Ward, and Sidestep/Deflect at a minimum. A few also run Dodge/Parry, depending on how often they're in melee. Anyone who deals physical damage also has strengthen. All of my damage dealers now wield some sort of elemental weapon, so everyone has (at least one) augment skill as well. Skill slots are at a premium with this group; there's not a lot of fancy strategy here because of it.
One other entertaining note: everyone on my team has at least 400 for melee defense. My melee characters are typically closer to 500. Most enemies I'm fighting run between 300 and 400. In other words, my mages typically have better defense than most enemy knights.
Who needs Rampart Aura? Not me!
Holy cats. What levels are you using?
My characters are all around level 31. Do you mean level in a different sense here?
No, that's what I meant. I need to check on my guys, who are all pushing 30, and see if you're dwarfing me somehow.
I'd be curious to see. I'll note that I have high end crafted weapons on everyone along with the appropriate +1 ring. That makes a huge difference.
I agree. but thats not really why I do it. In fact if my objective was just to have really powerful characters, then I'd be wasting my time min/maxing when I could just be spending that time grinding more levels.
Tony
So it looks like Shmtur is well, well into the postgame, while Matt has only recently started on the other routes. How are the other postgame folks finding it? (I've WORLDed back to Chapter 4 to pick up a character whom I missed, and am currently slogging through his dungeon.)
Also, should we create a separate spoiler thread for story discussion?
I'm working on my 130th hour into the game, having beaten it at around hour 40 or 50, and there is a TON of post game content here. Several dungeons that have 20-30 or more (100+ in one case) levels to explore, an incredible amount of post-game loot, spells, classes, recipies, and items to acquire, and some of the games most challenging battles (I had to back out of one dungeon with my main party in the low 30's as the enemies were in the low 40's and really spanking me).
I'll probably never stop playing Tactics Ogre at this point, just picking it up here and there when I'm waiting for a turn in something, or when I'm in the car or at the doctors office, squeezing in a battle here or there to level up a unit or grind for rare ingrediants for crafting, etc.
EDIT: I'm game to talk about the story in a seperate thread, if there is an interest.
Well, I know that Shmtur has better gear than I do, as I am working on acquiring the recipe books for all of my characters, and I have yet to set one foot inside the Pirate's Graveyard or the Palace of the Dead. I haven't gotten Pirate Dude yet, but I did get the Songstress quest started. Since they both work in the Graveyard, do I need to get Pirate Dude first using WORLD, or am I good to proceed?
I've only tried one dungeon Phanoma (or whatever its called) Wildwood. I noticed that if you left and come back the dungeon reset. Does that mean that when you go into the 100+ level dungeon you have to bring many (character) levels worth of gear with you if you want your characters to use the latest gear, otherwise you lose all your progress?
Tony
The Palace of the Dead goes for 100 levels, but you don't have to fight all 100 if you want to make it to the bottom. There are, however, shops!
You also don't need to worry too much about gear on those dungeons. As you level, your enemies will too. Recruit them, take their stuff!
Yeah I've heard people talk about recruiting to steal gear and scavenge skills. It doesn't really appeal to me. It feels wrong somehow, plus I don't want to be looking through my enemies for guys with good gear or skills. I'm hoping to play the game without using recruiting.
Having said that I like the idea of doing a second playthough of the game playing a beastmaster type character and making my entire army out of recruited creatures.
Tony
I don't think you can do that -- the first part. There are plenty of items that cannot be found in shops, and your only hope otherwise is getting a lucky loot bag drop. Sometimes I prefer to think of it as accepting surrender, confiscating arms, and then returning them home to spare their lives. It depends how much role-playing I'm doing in my head.
With no pants.
Pants are needed for the war effort.
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