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Nov. 1st, 2011 06:31 pmThe EO series has always been fairly good about rewarding intelligent choices in your class selection/build/skill point allocation/etc. rather than just "if you can't beat this enemy, try again in fifty levels." (Although, since this is the series that invented FOEs, there is definitely a lot of that too....)
Case in point: I was getting absolutely nowhere with EO3's fourth stratum boss. (Note: the boss of the fourth stratum changes depending on which decision you make at a crucial plot point, so for the sake of avoiding spoilers, I'll just say the insanely status-happy one.) This was the only enemy I had encountered to date who was so insistent with status ailments that Julian's Prevent Order actually wasn't enough. The boss would generally go first, then mass-confuse my entire party before Julian could have fired off a Prevent Order that only would have saved one row or the other anyway. That just ... wasn't going to work. I was starting to get a "maybe I should just go do other stuff and try this fight later" vibe, but then....
I was never 100% ecstatic with the retired and remade Gladiator/Prince Julian. The idea was that he was supposed to keep doing Prince stuff (Attack Order, Prevent Order, the autoheals) while having a main class that was better at actually having offensive power. Sure, Prince Julian was at least competent with the Attack command, but up until that point I had exactly one person in my entire party (Simone, the Arbalist) who had any offensive moves whatsoever.
Well, that idea didn't work. It turns out that being a Troubadour-like buff dispenser is a full-time job anyway, and one for which Gladiators do not have nearly enough TP. I put points into Rush and Blade Rave and Bind Cut and everything, but he almost never actually used any of them--he spent random battles preserving his precious TP supply by just Attacking, and bosses kept him too busy with the Orders.
So, if he's just another Attacker anyway, I turned him back into a Prince main, and subbed Ninja. Being a Prince main gives him better equipment options (especially armor,) more TP, and the ability to recover it when buffs are added and removed, and being a Ninja allows him to cut his own HP and TP in half to make a persistent, able-to-be-controlled-with-skills-like-a-real-party-member-and-everything clone of himself. The idea was that the team of he and himself could Prevent Order both rows at the same time, and just by doing so, refill the TP hit each half took from the split.
Holy God did that work. I not only beat the fourth stratum boss just with that substitution alone, I humiliated it. After getting set up, almost every single round went like this:
* Julian, who is faster now because he's a Prince, goes first and casts Protect Order! Everyone in front row is safe from the next one status ailment that tries to get them!
* The other Julian, who obviously has the same stats, also goes first and casts Protect Order! Everyone in the back row is safe from the next one status ailment that tries to get them!
* The boss casts a party-wide status ailment spell! It bounces off everyone's Protect Orders!
* Julian, Julian, and the boss pretty much cancelled each other out, so the other four members of my party basically get to do whatever they want completely unopposed!
* REPEAT
Even the TP restoration worked just as I had intended; after starting at half TP and casting Prevent Order almost every single round, both Julians were actually full by the end of the fight.
Actually, I was so comfortably in control of the battle that I toyed with the boss, getting it down to a sliver of health and then having everyone else (except the Julians) just sit there while Jonas kept trying to bind its head, so I could get the conditional drop. It took about six rounds, but it's not like I was in any kind of danger or anything.
Speaking of conditional drops, let's see what I can get for this FHHHJJJJGRK
okay i pretty much have to have that crossbow
Case in point: I was getting absolutely nowhere with EO3's fourth stratum boss. (Note: the boss of the fourth stratum changes depending on which decision you make at a crucial plot point, so for the sake of avoiding spoilers, I'll just say the insanely status-happy one.) This was the only enemy I had encountered to date who was so insistent with status ailments that Julian's Prevent Order actually wasn't enough. The boss would generally go first, then mass-confuse my entire party before Julian could have fired off a Prevent Order that only would have saved one row or the other anyway. That just ... wasn't going to work. I was starting to get a "maybe I should just go do other stuff and try this fight later" vibe, but then....
I was never 100% ecstatic with the retired and remade Gladiator/Prince Julian. The idea was that he was supposed to keep doing Prince stuff (Attack Order, Prevent Order, the autoheals) while having a main class that was better at actually having offensive power. Sure, Prince Julian was at least competent with the Attack command, but up until that point I had exactly one person in my entire party (Simone, the Arbalist) who had any offensive moves whatsoever.
Well, that idea didn't work. It turns out that being a Troubadour-like buff dispenser is a full-time job anyway, and one for which Gladiators do not have nearly enough TP. I put points into Rush and Blade Rave and Bind Cut and everything, but he almost never actually used any of them--he spent random battles preserving his precious TP supply by just Attacking, and bosses kept him too busy with the Orders.
So, if he's just another Attacker anyway, I turned him back into a Prince main, and subbed Ninja. Being a Prince main gives him better equipment options (especially armor,) more TP, and the ability to recover it when buffs are added and removed, and being a Ninja allows him to cut his own HP and TP in half to make a persistent, able-to-be-controlled-with-skills-like-a-real-party-member-and-everything clone of himself. The idea was that the team of he and himself could Prevent Order both rows at the same time, and just by doing so, refill the TP hit each half took from the split.
Holy God did that work. I not only beat the fourth stratum boss just with that substitution alone, I humiliated it. After getting set up, almost every single round went like this:
* Julian, who is faster now because he's a Prince, goes first and casts Protect Order! Everyone in front row is safe from the next one status ailment that tries to get them!
* The other Julian, who obviously has the same stats, also goes first and casts Protect Order! Everyone in the back row is safe from the next one status ailment that tries to get them!
* The boss casts a party-wide status ailment spell! It bounces off everyone's Protect Orders!
* Julian, Julian, and the boss pretty much cancelled each other out, so the other four members of my party basically get to do whatever they want completely unopposed!
* REPEAT
Even the TP restoration worked just as I had intended; after starting at half TP and casting Prevent Order almost every single round, both Julians were actually full by the end of the fight.
Actually, I was so comfortably in control of the battle that I toyed with the boss, getting it down to a sliver of health and then having everyone else (except the Julians) just sit there while Jonas kept trying to bind its head, so I could get the conditional drop. It took about six rounds, but it's not like I was in any kind of danger or anything.
Speaking of conditional drops, let's see what I can get for this FHHHJJJJGRK
okay i pretty much have to have that crossbow