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Tyler, Zack, Rheine, Colette
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Feb 7, 2016 23:56
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Votes are currently:quote:Colette: 9
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Feb 8, 2016 00:11
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Kemix posted:You goons get off on making our LPer suffer don't you? Isn't that the point? Colette, Tyler, Rheine, Nadia.
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Feb 8, 2016 01:03
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Nadia, Jackie, Asriel, Rheine
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Feb 8, 2016 01:20
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Seems like as good a time as any to call the votes, even though I'll be busier than normal for the next few days.quote:Rheine: 11 Alright, I can make that work. Phew.
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Feb 8, 2016 08:58
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So! Good news! Ragnar Homsar and I managed to finally crack the data for this game. Expect more concrete numbers for enemy data and skill stuff and all that jazz. 
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Feb 9, 2016 06:01
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Dr. Fetus posted:So! Good news! Ragnar Homsar and I managed to finally crack the data for this game. Expect more concrete numbers for enemy data and skill stuff and all that jazz. And then Ragnar gets to join you in the joy of going back and hunting down every little thing to fix it with new values.
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Feb 9, 2016 07:10
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Supremezero posted:And then Ragnar gets to join you in the joy of going back and hunting down every little thing to fix it with new values. Misery enjoys company. 
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Feb 9, 2016 07:11
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Having never played EO2 or either of the Untolds, I greatly appreciate this LP and have shotgunned it over the past day and change. I am also a complete sucker for a running gag so I made something stupid  Keep up the good work! Always nice to watch the downfall of tough bosses and FOEs from the comfort of home.
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Feb 12, 2016 23:54
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CapitanGarlic posted:Having never played EO2 or either of the Untolds, I greatly appreciate this LP and have shotgunned it over the past day and change. That is going straight in the OP. Thanks for the fanart! Also, the next update'll be sometime between this weekend and next, hopefully. Like Fetus said, I've been really hard at work poring through EO2U's data since ACMP got broken. I so far have complete data on every enemy, and hard numbers on about half the classes' skillsets.
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Feb 12, 2016 23:59
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CapitanGarlic posted:Having never played EO2 or either of the Untolds, I greatly appreciate this LP and have shotgunned it over the past day and change. And that sums up my feelings on Spiders. GG.
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Feb 13, 2016 00:01
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  Through the power of homebrew, I can now take screenshots without having to go through the process of using Miiverse. (This saves A LOT OF TIME) Also the screenshots are in higher quality. Heck, I'll probably do boss fights in screenshot format now (won't bother with video though!)
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Feb 13, 2016 10:37
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If that caster's really running around the labyrinth with a party of two she's some kind of demigod. Or at least has an unholy patience for grind.
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Feb 15, 2016 02:54
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Glazius posted:If that caster's really running around the labyrinth with a party of two she's some kind of demigod. Or at least has an unholy patience for grind. Maybe she's an EO2 Hexer, in which case her brother is purely extraneous.  In LP news, the update is not hitting this weekend, sadly, but expect it this week, since I really want to get it out before Fire Emblem Fates hits and my free time is eaten by that game.
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Feb 15, 2016 03:02
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Welp. I decided to bite the bullet and re-play EO2U, bringing over my Story Mode team into the game and basically everything they had besides shop stock. Also. what not to say around Asriel -Spiders (he's gonna -hate- strata 4 )-Probably squirrels (dunno about that one) -To be added
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Feb 20, 2016 00:08
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  Protectors are a class almost entirely dedicated to reducing the amount of damage the party takes. While their heavily-armored designs might scream "tank," Protectors don't actually do that--Provoke allows them to try and tank, yeah, but it's not entirely reliable and falls off vs. certain enemies. In terms of history, Protectors have changed slightly from game to game, but the core design behind them (damage reduction) is pretty much always the same. In EO1, Protectors...certainly existed. The class and most of its skills weren't really that notable due to how most of their skills worked--aside from Defender. Defender, in combination with the Medic's Immunize, could pretty much completely shatter any semblanace of difficulty in EO1. What both Defender and Immunize did was set each party member's resistance to certain elements. While Immunize affected every "element," including physical types, Defender only affected physical types, and provided a lesser bonus than Immunize. Still, having the ability to just give the entire party some flat resistance to physical damage was incredibly useful. Moving onto EO2, Protectors got some really strange reworks--namely, several Protector skills got reworked to factor in RNG--skills like the elemental Walls and Front/Rear Guard now had chances to fail before reaching certain levels. Defender also pretty obviously got scrapped, and replaced with All Guard, a profoundly useless skill since it would never be completely reliable even at max level. The idea of Protector skills being RNG-dependent never showed up again in the series. Even though Protectors technically didn't exist in EO3, Hoplites were basically massively buffed Protectors--the buffs being a combination of direct ones (the addition of the Parry passives and Bodyguard), and indirect ones (Ninja subclass allowing for dodge-tanking, along with Bunshin letting you have two Hoplites at once, enemies having a lot more elementals overall). That last one deserves particular mention, since the elemental Walls (known as Anti skills from EO1-3) suddenly became incredibly broken once enemies having hard-hitting elemental skills was no longer a thing mostly reserved for postgame bosses. On the surface, Fortresses from EO4 look a lot like Protectors and Hoplites. However, the actual truth of the matter is far different. Fortresses do not offer direct damage reduction like Protectors and Hoplites did--this is most visible through the loss of Front/Rear Guard and the elemental Walls. Fortresses in EO4 are a lot more akin to Beasts, in that their job is to tank damage headed towards party members. Now, we jump kinda back in time but also forward in time to EOU. Protectors returned with a tweaked version of their EO1/2 skillset, along with some pretty major changes. The first is a massive nerf to the elemental Walls in response to EO3--the Walls only proc once per character on a given turn. The second was the addition of Bravery's Gift, ostensibly inspired by Fortresses. What Bravery's Gift did was that it raised the user's maximum HP for one turn, and redirected all damage towards the party to the user. Lastly, EO2U. Bravery's Gift is just straight-up gone, since it kind of intruded on the Beast's job as a class. The elemental Walls also still retain the "once per character per turn" nerf from EOU. In terms of indirect changes, Protectors got, arguably, massively buffed through the fact that a lot of bosses now have skills seemingly designed with the idea that the player will have a Protector in the party (I blame Story mode). While you can easily get through most of the game without a Protector, quite a lot of bosses will be a lot more annoying without one, and certain postgame bosses range from "incredibly difficult" to "near-impossible" without one. Stats: Level 1 HP: 40 TP: 31 STR: 7 TEC: 6 VIT: 10 AGI: 5 LUC: 7 Level 50 HP: 257 TP: 261 STR: 31 TEC: 29 VIT: 39 AGI: 17 LUC: 27 Level 99 HP: 575 TP: 492 STR: 58 TEC: 55 VIT: 74 AGI: 32 LUC: 51 Innate weapon choices: Innate armor choices: Common passives: HP Up, TP Up, Phys DEF Up, Elem DEF Up, Mine Protectors, pretty unsurprisingly, have the highest VIT out of any class in EO2U. Their HP stat's also the second-highest out of any class, beating out Landsknechts while being beaten by Beasts. Their STR and TEC stats are best described as "middling"--the TEC part's actually kind of important, since TEC is factored into how much damage a character takes from TEC-based skills. Their LUC is also similarly "middling," meaning they're not as resistant to disables as classes like Hexers and War Magi, but they're not as susceptible to being tagged with disables as classes like Landsknechts and Ronin. As you might expect out of a heavily-armored class, their AGI is absolutely terrible--at level 99, they just have 2 more AGI than War Magi, who have the worst AGI in the game. Shield Mastery Type: Passive Requirements: None  Required to learn shield skills. Passively gives the user a chance to nullify physical attacks directed at them. A decent passive that'll help your Protector survive a little longer in fights, but it's not crucial to their job since they don't really do tanking. Front/Rear Guard Type: Guard skill Max level (innate): 10 Requirements: Shield Mastery level 1 Required equipment: Shield Body parts used: Arms  Reduces all physical damage to the front/back line for one turn. For all intents and purposes, Front Guard is a Protector's bread-and-butter skill, and one that should be leveled up early and maxed out as soon as the TP cost is sustainable. Chances are good that if a Protector isn't using an elemental Wall or Sentinel Guard, they're using Front Guard. Cutting physical damage to your front row by 55%/70% is amazingly good. Rear Guard is pretty thoroughly bad, though, since the back row already gets a 50% reduction to melee damage, and they're not often the ones at risk of dying to all-target skills. Keep Guard Type: Guard skill Max level (innate): 10 Requirements: Front Guard and Rear Guard level 3 Required equipment: Shield Body parts used: Arms  Reduces all physical damage to one party member for two turns. The user becomes unable to use shield skills for one turn. To be entirely honest, I don't know why this skill exists. I guess if you're using a Beast, Keep Guard has some use. At that point, though, the question becomes why the gently caress are you stacking a Protector and Beast in the same party? Fire/Ice/Volt Wall Type: Guard skill Max level (innate): 10 Requirements: Shield Mastery level 3 Required equipment: Shield Body parts used: Arms  At levels 1-4, reduces the damage of one instance of Fire/Ice/Volt damage to each party member. At levels 5-9, nullifies one instance of Fire/Ice/Volt damage to one party member. At levels 10-20, absorbs one instance of Fire/Ice/Volt damage to one party member, healing the target for a percentage of the original damage. Despite the heavy nerfs that the Walls ate in EOU, they're still absolutely vital skills that you'll want leveled up to at least 5 by some point. There are a LOT of bosses that have all-party elemental attacks that will kill less-than-durable classes and leave everyone else severely hurt. Heal Guard Type: Guard and healing skill Max level (innate): 10 Requirements: Shield Mastery level 5 Required equipment: Shield Body parts used: Arms Stats used: TEC, VIT  Restores one party member's HP, and reduces all physical damage to that party member for one turn. Much like Keep Guard, I don't entirely get why this skill exists. Also much like Heal Guard, I guess it has some use with a Beast. The question of "why are you stacking a Beast and Protector in the same party" still remains. Shield Smite Type: Attack skill, attempts to bind arms Max level (innate): 10 Requirements: Shield Mastery level 7 Required equipment: Shield Body parts used: Arms Stats used: STR, VIT, LUC  Deals melee Bash damage to one enemy. Attempts to bind the target's arms. Shield Smite uses the average of the user's STR and VIT as a replacement for STR in the normal damage formula, and considers the user's shield to be their weapon, with the DEF value being multiplied by a certain amount to replace ATK. Has a 200% speed modifier at all levels. In theory, Shield Smite is useful for when your Protector doesn't have a shield skill they need to use for one turn. In practice, your Protector is most likely going to have their hands full at all times, rendering Shield Smite impractical at best and actively detrimental to your survival at worst. Shield Rush Type: Attack skill, lowers physical damage Max level (innate): 10 Requirements: Shield Smite level 5 Required equipment: Shield Body parts used: Arms Stats used: STR, VIT  Deals melee Bash damage to all enemies. Lowers hit targets' physical attack for a certain amount of turns. Shield Rush uses the average of the user's STR and VIT as a replacement for STR in the normal damage formula, and considers the user's shield to be their weapon, with the DEF value being multiplied by a certain amount to replace ATK. Has a 150% speed modifier at all levels. See my opinion on Shield Smite above. Sentinel Guard Type: Guard skill Max level (innate): 10 Requirements: Shield Mastery level 10 Required equipment: Shield Body parts used: Arms Stats used: VIT  Reduces all damage to the party for one turn. Also sets each party member's defense values (VIT, DEF, etc.) to the user's for one turn. Disables the user's shield skills for one turn after use. Sentinel Guard is a situational but still very good skill. The flat damage reduction is already nice, but the defensive-stat-setting makes it even better. As for the "disables shield skills" downside, what that means is Sentinel Guard is best used when you know an enemy is about to use a very hard-hitting attack, and you are confident the party can weather the storm on the turn after. Alternatively, you can just use Perfect Defense on the turn after Sentinel Guard, since that doesn't count as a shield skill. Provoke Type: Provoke Max level (innate): 10 Requirements: Phys DEF Up level 1 Body parts used: Head  Places a buff on the user that increases the chance of enemies targeting them, as well as increasing the user's physical defense, for a set amount of turns. Has a 500% speed modifier at all levels. Provoke's been a staple of the Protector skillset for pretty much all of the series--even Fortresses in EO4 had it. It's useful for random encounters, but very situational for boss fights. My issue with Provoke is that having to cast/re-cast it means your Protector isn't using a shield skill for one turn, which can potentially lead to bad things (to say the least). Pre-Provoke Type: Passive Max level (innate): 5 Requirements: Provoke level 5  If the user knows Provoke, passively gives them a chance to use it immediately upon starting a battle. If you really insist on using Provoke, Pre-Provoke is a decent little passive. There's not a lot else to be said about it. Fortify Type: Physical defense buff Max level (innate): 10 Requirements: Phys DEF Up level 3 Body parts used: Arms  Places a buff on the user that reduces the amount of physical damage they take for a set amount of turns. Has a 200% speed modifier at all levels. I don't really like Fortify. On one hand, it's a pretty fantastic defensive buff. On the other hand, it means your Protector isn't, y'know, protecting the rest of the party for one turn. Parry Type: Passive Max level (innate): 5 Requirements: Phys DEF Up level 5  Passively gives the user and all allies in their row a chance to nullify physical damage. A very, very nice passive. The chance might not seem high, but any passive reduction to damage is useful, especially when it can apply to other party members. Line Cure Type: Healing skill Max level (innate): 10 Requirements: Elem DEF Up level 3 Body parts used: Head Stats used: TEC, VIT  Restore one row's HP. Y'know how I've been down on skills that aren't shield skills? Yeah, this applies to Line Cure too. Line Heal Type: Healing skill Max level (innate): 10 Requirements: Line Cure level 5 Body parts used: Head Stats used: TEC, VIT  Restore one row's HP. Has an 80% speed modifier at all levels. See above. Aegis Type: Passive Max level (innate): 10 Requirements: Elem DEF Up level 5  Passively gives the user a chance to survive a mortal hit at 1 HP. Cannot be stacked with Deadly Resoolve. Aegis is a nice passive, even if your Protector probably isn't going to be the brunt of attacks most of the time. If you're running Provoke, Aegis can seriously increase your Protector's survivability. Armor of Light Type: Protecting buff Max level (innate): 10 Requirements: Elem DEF Up level 10 Body parts used: Head  Places a buff on the user that gives them a chance to nullify ailments, binds, and debuffs directed at them for a set number of turns. Armor of Light is an amazingly good buff, but much like every other skill that isn't a shield skill, using it means your Protector isn't guarding the rest of the party. Shield Protect Type: Force Boost If an ally is under the effect of a shield skill, the damage they take after the effect of the shield skill is halved. One of the most useless Force Boosts. Shield skills are already going to reduce damage heavily, an extra halving isn't going to do much. Perfect Defense Type: Force Break Body parts used: Arms Completely nullifies all damage to the party for one turn. Also nullifies any extra effects on damaging skills, such as ailments and binds. Does not do anything against skills that exclusively try to inflict stuff. On the flipside, one of the most useful Force Breaks. Perfect Defense has a lot of applications: completely stopping an enemy turn that would've killed your party, giving you a free turn to get your party back on its feet when you're severely hurting, protecting your party after Sentinel Guard, etc. Rea fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Mar 1, 2016 |
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Mar 1, 2016 02:58
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Update 23: Some Minor Ad-Hoc Cleanup     Meet the party for the second half of the 3rd Stratum. It's a little too elemental-support heavy for my normal tastes (Tyler and Rheine don't have any innate setup for Spear Assist/Link Order), but oh well, I can work around it. Incidentally, Phoebe is in the back row since no Protector skills rely on the row the Protector themself is in.   Here's Zack's updated build. I've opted to max out Hurricane and allocate his leftover skill points into Falcon Slash and one point in TP Up. Hurricane isn't the overall best damage option for Landsknechts (that honor goes to the Chasers), but it's not a bad choice.  Colette's War Edge skills haven't changed at all. As for her War Lore skills, I opted to level up Artery to 5 (heals for 40% healing power whenever an ally acts), and then started to go for Barrier, which involves leveling Random Disease and Displace (both of which I have no use for) to 3.  Tyler, fairly predictably, now has Delayed Charge maxed out. Delayed Charge now deals 670% damage if its full wait duration is run, and Cross Charge deals 370% damage if it activates Delayed Charge--the full combo deals 1040% damage if I activate Delayed + Cross Charge on Delayed Charge's last turn.  Phoebe's gotten nothing but more points in Ice Wall and Volt Wall. I have no need for the damage absorption, so all of these are getting left at 9.  Rheine's skill points have gone pretty much entirely into both Link Order (168% damage + 40% of the activating skill's damage) and Link Order II (172% damage + 40% of the activating skill's damage), mostly because I had no interest in leveling up any Order Mastery skills right now.        Here's some stuff I unlocked by selling materials acquired during grinding.   The Byeahs got a lot of levels through the EXP tea. As such, I have all of them max out Natural Instinct.     I also had one of the Byeahs learn Stalker level 10. The long and short of Stalker is that it reduces the chance of getting into a random encounter when walking. Trash in a normal party, really good in a gathering party.        Look at all of those materials, just from one point.         Here's all the stuff I got while gathering materials.  There's a conditional drop that I need to inflict disables for, so I'm temporarily bringing Sophie in.      Not pictured: literally 15 minutes of me trying to petrify a Hell Dragon with a Petrify Gas and failing every single time. That's gonna have to wait till later.        Baby Salamander HP: 5723, STR: 26, TEC: 24, VIT: 22, AGI: 17, LUC: 22 Skills:
Disable resistances: It cannot help but spit fire when it senses a threat is near. Don't get hit! Baby Salamanders can be really annoying to take down. 5723 HP would take a while to chew through even if I still had Stardust. Harsh Cry is also basically a guaranteed bind to most of our party right now.  I just have Zack turn on Full Charge immediately and unload Hurricane, since Attack Order will (probably) be applied before he gets his turn.  Colette has absolutely no ailment support right now, so I have her also immediately turn on her Force Boost.  Tyler'll prep Delayed Charge.  I really hope this thing doesn't use Flame Breath.  There's not much point to using Victory Vow right now.  Dammit. This went before Attack Order.  Hurricane is basically a Landsknecht's best damage option outside of the Chasers, even given that it disables the Landsknecht's skills for one turn after use.    That was less than ideal. Ailing Slash factors in TEC for its damage, and head binds reduce TEC.  Okay, it's still decent.  Notice how Zack's Skills button is greyed out. I just have him Attack.  Spear Assist does really lovely damage if it doesn't have an element to capitalize off of, so I just have Tyler fall back to Long Thrust.  This'll dispel Harsh Cry's debuff on Colette.   Ew, that's bad damage. I should've brought some Oils or something and had Rheine attack.   You've gotta be stirring my pasta. Rheine's the worst party member to get tagged by Harsh Cry.  I don't think Zack'll get Full Charge again before the fight's over.    Close, but not quite.  Aw crap.     You can see Delayed Charge is ready to activate. To that end, I turn on Hero Battle for the damage boost.  I'm paranoid about being burned again.      This is...kinda a waste, but whatever.  I want to guarantee that Zack and Colette'll stay alive this turn.     Well, that could've gone better, but it still wasn't that tough a fight in the end.  Sold off the Fiery Chip before resting up.      Fire Drake HP: 7043, STR: 29, TEC: 25, VIT: 23, AGI: 19, LUC: 23 Skills:
Disable resistances: A dragon of sorts, it is full of a noxious gas that lets it breathe fire! The Fire Drake's HP will take a long while to chew through, and while spamming Fire Wall will take care of Fire God's Fury quite easily, Fearsome Roar is a very serious threat. I'd heavily advise bringing a Sovereign along for Prevent Order, or else you run the risk of a good attempt being ended by Fearsome Roar.     Basically the same setup as last time, except this time I used Victory Vow because...actually, I don't really know why.      The odds of Tyler binding the Fire Drake's head or instantly killing it are so small that they're effectively 0%.     Same reasoning as using it in the Baby Salamander fight.      Hm. Only took off half its HP even with expending Zack and Colette's Force Boosts.  In case you wanted to know how much of an effect Full Charge has on Zack's damage.   Protectors pretty much trivialize the Fire Drake.   Delayed Charge is ready, so I turn on Hero Battle.      Prevent Order is so useful.     I put Zack's skill point into TP Up.  Lastly, one item to close out the update. Next time: 13F. Rea fucked around with this message at 11:25 on Mar 25, 2016 |
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Mar 1, 2016 11:59
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I loved the John Oliver reference.
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Mar 1, 2016 20:26
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10% fire resistance doesn't seem all that significant. I suppose you're supposed to combine it with other equipment and buffs.
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Mar 2, 2016 03:20
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Glazius posted:10% fire resistance doesn't seem all that significant. I suppose you're supposed to combine it with other equipment and buffs. You are correct, it isn't that much. For a bit of simple math, +10% resistance to Fire (assuming a base value of 100%) would mean 300 Fire damage would instead deal 270.
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Mar 2, 2016 03:22
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I didn't get the joke until I remembered I had the drumpf extension on my browser. hahaha.
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Mar 2, 2016 05:19
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This Guild dialogue is gonna make the subforum great again!
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Mar 4, 2016 10:23
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Update 24: Iced Eyeballs   Let's take care of some quests before going through 13F, shall we?    SYSTEM: You remember that you've accepted a request to investigate the truth behind the treasure in the back of a cave. Did this guard put up the request? You confirm to him that you're here to fulfill the assignment. SYSTEM: Indeed, there seems to be a dense copse nearby. Within, you can faintly make out a cavernous maw, and a road leading in... SYSTEM: You must decide whether you will ask questions of the nonchalant guard, or begin exploring the cave. SYSTEM: The guard shrugs amiably, and asks you if there's any other questions. If you want to know anything else, you can ask now. SYSTEM: The guard laughs heartily, assuring you he'll answer any more questions you have. You seem to have the full story, but if you want to ask or clarify anything more, you are free to consult him. SYSTEM: When you were asking questions, something the guard said did seem odd, and out of place. Whether he was mistaken or lying, you can't be sure, but you can't shake off the feeling that he may be trying to deceive you... SYSTEM: With those words, the Guard fumbles out a thin scroll from his inner pocket, and hands it over to you. It appears to be a document: official parchment, with a statement confirming that he is a certified Guard of the Duchy... SYSTEM: You feel bad about accusing the Guard of being fake solely based on his attitude, and return the document with an apology. SYSTEM: Fortunately, the guard appears unusually tolerant--he shakes off the accusation, and simply laughs. You drop the matter for now. Instead, you must decide whether if you will enter the cave or not. SYSTEM: You ask the guard to keep watch for you, and enter the cave.  SYSTEM: Further through the winding caverns, you notice a small hole in the limestone walls, and draw closer to investigate. SYSTEM: Upon closer examination, you realize that the small hole contains some kind of cylindrical object deep within it. Could this be the treasure in question? You reach in to pull out the object, but your reach falls just short of it... SYSTEM: As you consider your options, you hear a distant sound--a high-pitched tone, like a flute. Immediately after, a monster's roar echoes through the cavern, and you hear the guard at the entrance cry out! SYSTEM: Something must have happened to the guard! You hurry back outside to his last position!  SYSTEM: As one, they notice you. Their jaws creak as they turn to face you, gaping hungrily, and they rush you without any hesitation!   Oh no. Five regular enemies. What can I do to end this battle quickly?     SYSTEM: However, the guard is nowhere to be seen. His post has no signs of a struggle, and nothing seems to have been left behind. However, on closer inspection, you notice the tracks of guardsman's boots, headed away from the scene of the monster attack. Following the footprints, you find food scattered around the area. The tracks end in front of a clump of shrubbery. Perhaps he distracted the monsters with food, then seized his chance to escape? You are worried, but without any further clues, there is little more you can do here. SYSTEM: Satisfied that the guard is safe, you return to your duties, entering the cave to find the treasure...  SYSTEM: Returning to the crevice in the wall, you realize with a jolt that the treasure is gone from its hole! You search through the wall, and across the cave's floor, but find no trace whatsoever of the treasure...   Phoebe now has all of the elemental Walls where I want them. I'm gonna start buildling towards Sentinel Guard now.     We still get the full reward. Cass saying what he gave us out of his pocket "wasn't exactly what we wanted" was just for flavor.  I leveled up Displace on Colette to 3, which unlocked Barrier. What Barriers does is it attempts to nullify a certain amount of ailments/binds for one turn. Key word: attempt. Barrier's chance to nullify ailments and binds ranges from 45% at level 1 to 85% at level 20. However, remember that War Lore Mastery "boosts the effects of War Lore skills." For Barrier, what this means it that War Lore Mastery affects its success chance. Now, the key part is that with a level 20 Barrier and level 15 War Lore Mastery, the chance becomes .85 + (.85 * .18) = 1.003--in other words, Barrier becomes a 100% chance. For several boss fights later on in the game, it cannot be overstated how useful Barrier is.  So close to maxing out Cross Charge.  I'll be leaving Link Order II at 9 for now, since a 40 TP cost is really unmanageable at this point in the game.     SYSTEM: As you reach out to begin gathering them, a roar rips through the stillness behind you! You whirl, and are confronted with the dull glare of an approaching fish monster. Blood is spattered over its mouth... SYSTEM: It must have been hiding at this dead end, to trap its prey and avoid a tiring hunt. Now, draw steel, and stand against the fishlike beast, its eyes agleam with murderous intent!    Mbenga HP: 656, STR: 32, TEC: 24, VIT: 25, AGI: 20, LUC: 23 Skills:
Disable resistances: Best to deal with this amphibious terror swiftly before it swallows you whole. It's literally just a Fishman with more HP.     SYSTEM: The monster that shattered the young bride's heart has at last been stilled forever. SYSTEM: After calming yourself and catching your breath, you notice something caught in the bushes nearby. Looking closer, you catch a gruesome glimpse... SYSTEM: It's a human arm! SYSTEM: It must have been caught in the bush in the final moments of the monster's attack on another passerby... Prying the gauntlet open, you discover that the dead arm was holding a sheaf of herbs. SYSTEM: You now remember the details of the quest you accepted in the Stickleback Bar... The lady of Lagaard lost her fiance to the Labyrinth just before her wedding. He sought medicinal herbs for her illness... This must be the same man... SYSTEM: After a silent prayer for the unnamed man, you pull the remains free and stow them in your bag to bring back to the bar.     Recipes are always a welcome sight.   Alright, let's start 13F.   SYSTEM: Moreover, this time there is a monster flying above the ice. SYSTEM: You doubt that a flying creature will share your difficulties moving about on the ice... You will have to keep a close watch on the distance between you and the monster as you go if you hope to avoid it. Once you have a firm grasp on the situation, you can begin moving about. Evil Eyes, like the game says, move without caring about the ice. Once we aggro them (once we're within a 2-tile radius area around them), they'll try to directly chase us until we leave their normal patrol area. It's worth noting that Evil Eyes get one turn whenever we start sliding on ice--if we step on ice while it's facing where we'd step on the ice, it would catch us and start a fight.   Just have to wait until it's on the other side of the ice lake, at which point it's safe to slide.    First Take point of the floor, with Meltwater for its ingredient.      Great Hermit HP: 296, STR: 24, TEC: 22, VIT: 22, AGI: 19, LUC: 29 Skills:
Disable resistances: A hermit crab the size of a large dog! Their shells fetch a high price though... Great Hermits can be annoying to take down if you let them cast Shielding Shell (or if you just don't have elemental damage, like I do right now), but otherwise there's not a ton to say about them.        Ailing Slash is technically Cut damage, but it bypasses the target's Cut resistance, making it useful for enemies that resist physical damage.  Great Hermits' greatest threat is that they can prolong battles against annoying enemies like Snow Lizards.   Even though I have to cross multiple ice tiles, the sliding only counts as one turn, meaning the Evil Eye will only get near us instead of colliding with us as we cross the ice.     SYSTEM: You look around and spy a raccoon cub under attack from a forest monster! There is no reason or reward for rescuing the cub, but you feel compelled to act... SYSTEM: You rush in to protect the cub by moving between the monster and its prey! Quickly understanding, the raccoon cub escapes into the forest. The monster, however, is furious at losing its prey, and will not let you go without a fight!    Evil Mammoth HP: 1314, STR: 32, TEC: 21, VIT: 28, AGI: 16, LUC: 22 Skills:
Disable resistances: A woolly beast, bred to endure extreme cold. Get too close and you might see its tusks up close! Much like War Bison, Evil Mammoths are both very durable and hurt a lot. Good luck chewing through 1314 HP before the Evil Mammoth can act! I thankfully have Phoebe here, but parties using Beasts or neither can have pretty bad issues dealing with these things.  13F is short enough that I have no qualms about using Zack's Force Boost and Hurricane to kill this elephant.   This might be slightly overdoing it, but eh.  That 50% resistance to Stab means that Tyler deals pitiful damage to the Evil Mammoth.  No-one died, thankfully.  SYSTEM: You see that it clutches something in its mouth, and it scurries over to you and places it on the ground. It seems to be a type of rare material found in the forest. This must be its thank-you gift for the rescue. SYSTEM: You gracefully accept it and the raccoon cub gives a happy squeal before rushing back into the underbrush. You watch the cub go before putting away the material and leaving the area.  Can't say no to rare gathering materials.   SYSTEM: Searching for a way through, you come upon a large block of ice. Though it is hard to see due to the obstacle in your way, you notice a monster flying further down the path. Seeing the ice block and the monster lined up this way gives you an idea...  SYSTEM: You push the block of ice, which glides along the slick ground and strikes the monster blocking your way! The collision is so fierce that the block shatters, killing the monster! You have successfully eliminated the obstacle in your path without fighting it! You mark what happened here, in case it proves useful later, before proceeding on your way.     Trees in the middle of ice are solid objects, and will stop you while sliding.   The only way we're getting to 14F is by using these ice blocks to kill the Evil Eyes.   First one was basically already set up for us.   The other Take point on this floor, which gives Goatgrass for its ingredient.    Got a level up from a random encounter not worth documenting. The skill point goes into TP Up.          Yeah, 13F is really, really short, like 9F was. EO2U has a few really short floors, but they're thankfully not too numerous.    Let's begin our brief respite by talking to Hanna.       Here's what I unlocked since the last time I offloaded materials.        At this point, I sent the Byeahs out to get the Take materials for the 3rd Stratum, and predictably got some Narcissus, which we need to finish Playing Cupid II.     I don't think I've talked about Somas yet. They're basically party-target Medicas, and restore 80 HP to the entire party.  Colette's skill point goes into Barrier, which is a measly 45% chance to block an ailment or bind a maximum of 3 times per use.  And I'll have Phoebe start building towards Sentinel Guard now.  The 14F quests. No new bar patrons, unfortunately. The sun shines down: Yggdrasil cider: We've already seen Crabshells (and now I'm kind of regretting selling off the ones we got), but Red Fins come from Redfishes on 14F. And that's all for now. Next time: 14F. Rea fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Mar 7, 2016 |
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Mar 7, 2016 02:21
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Giant eyeball monsters never fail to creep me out.  Serious question, though: Has anyone ever decided to not help out the animals in these events just to see what happened? I remember there was something like this in EO4 with one of those Fanged Vine enemies, too, but I always chose to help out. Blueberry Pancakes fucked around with this message at 03:52 on Mar 7, 2016 |
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Mar 7, 2016 02:57
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Dang, taking out FOEs on the map like a boss. Though... I always kind of regret that you're missing the actual rewards from killing them.
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Mar 7, 2016 05:08
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Hobgoblin2099 posted:Giant eyeball monsters never fail to creep me out. For the 13F cub thing, this is what the game says if you decline to help it: quote:It feels wrong in your heart, but you must consider your own survival. You sigh at the relentlessness of nature as you leave the area. Nothing else happens.
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Mar 7, 2016 05:11
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Oh, that's good. I'm glad the elephant doesn't step on it or something awful like that.
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Mar 7, 2016 05:51
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So is actually preventing the dude from getting the treasure gonna be for another playthrough or something?
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Mar 7, 2016 05:53
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alcharagia posted:So is actually preventing the dude from getting the treasure gonna be for another playthrough or something? I'll let Dr. Fetus handle it in the Story mode playthrough. (I'll be perfectly honest: up until I actually finished the recording, I had no idea you could actually do that.)
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Mar 7, 2016 05:56
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Hobgoblin2099 posted:Oh, that's good. I'm glad the elephant doesn't step on it or something awful like that. That event had you fighting wolves in the original, so they pretty much just feast on it there. Ragnar Homsar posted:I'll let Dr. Fetus handle it in the Story mode playthrough. Yes this is still a thing, despite me not updating it for 2 months. Working on an update right now.
Araxxor fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Mar 7, 2016 |
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Mar 7, 2016 05:58
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Those Evil Eyes used to be regular encounters from the first stratum. And they would get guaranteed blindsides and gently caress your poo poo up. gently caress those guys.
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Mar 7, 2016 06:19
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  Dark Hunters, like most of the class roster, were introduced in EO1 (and I should really find a different way to introduce these things than that). They were kinda finnicky in terms of usefulness there due to how EO1's disables worked. Firstly, monsters only had two non-damage resistances: ailment resistance, and bind resistance (stuns did not count as ailments, effectively meaning every enemy had 100% stun resistance). Disable chances also were not influenced by any stat at all--the formula was literally just SkillBaseChance * TargetResistance. Since most bosses had 5% resistance to ailments and 25% to binds, this meant inflicting disables was irritating at best, even though all disable durations were hard-coded to be 5 turns. Moving back to Dark Hunters, they were basically a support class that could deal some minor damage. They did have Ecstasy for a big damage skill, but, uh, good luck setting that up. Given that Dark Hunters were slightly underpowered in EO1, Atlus saw fit to overbuff them in EO2 and make them ridiculously goddamn good. This is mainly through the Dark Hunter Force skill, Dominate--which was a guaranteed complete bind on one enemy. Dominate completely ignored resistances and even immunities, meaning NOTHING in the game could stop it (well, there was one enemy that would punish you quite heavily for using Dominate, but that's another story for another time). In addition to that, they also had Climax, which was almost-guaranteed instant death to an enemy under a given HP threshold--55% at level 10. While this didn't work on (most) bosses due to their immunity to instant death, FOEs, crucially, did not have instant death immunity, effectively meaning that a level 10 Climax meant any FOE had 45% of its actual HP. After a complete absence from EO3 with no parallels, Dark Hunters kinda sorta a little bit showed up again in EO4, as Nightseekers. I include all of those ambiguous adjectives because while Dark Hunters and Nightseekers are both about disabling enemies while dealing damage, Nightseekers focus solely on status ailments, and get BIG damage boosts from enemies that have ailments with their class skill (200% damage at the Novice level and 280% at the Master level). Moving onto EOU, Dark Hunters returned, nerfed in some aspects but buffed in others. Dominate was just completely gone (because EOU pretty obviously doesn't have Force skills), and Climax was changed to be a very big nuke instead of instant death, with certain enemies being able to ignore Climax entirely. Ecstasy, however, got buffed--hoo boy did it get buffed. In EO1 and 2, Ecstasy did massive damage to fully bound targets, but pitiful damage otherwise. EOU changed this so that Ecstasy's damage scales based on the number of binds the target has, meaning it's a very good ability even if the target isn't fully bound. As for EO2U, Dark Hunters mostly retained a lot of their changes from EOU, but the addition of passives like Curb ATK Up and Perseverance make them better at inflicting disables on their own. Ecstasy, for some reason, also got buffed pretty heavily, and became one of the best damage skills in the game. Most importantly, however, Dark Hunters gained Trance as their Force Boost--quite possibly the best non-Transform Force Boost in the entire game, as it doubles all damage dealt from a Dark Hunter to a target with binds and ailments. Dark Hunters are basically one of the better classes in EO2U, even if their usefulness (and damage) scale directly with how resistant a given enemy is to binds and disables. For optimum results, it's best to pair a Dark Hunter with a Hexer, but it's perfectly fine to run a party that just has a Dark Hunter on their own. Stats: Level 1 HP: 33 TP: 22 STR: 9 TEC: 4 VIT: 7 AGI: 9 LUC: 8 Level 50 HP: 224 TP: 208 STR: 35 TEC: 17 VIT: 27 AGI: 33 LUC: 33 Level 99 HP: 511 TP: 396 STR: 66 TEC: 32 VIT: 50 AGI: 62 LUC: 62 Innate weapon choices: Innate armor choices: Dark Hunters have above-average STR, AGI, and LUC, but sub-par VIT and abysmal TEC--the worst TEC stat out of any of the classes, in fact. While none of their innate skills use TEC at all, what this means it that Dark Hunters take a lot of damage from elemental sources, exacerbated by their sub-par VIT. Their STR being high (just 4 shy of the highest lv99 STR value, 70) is pretty obvioulsy important, since all of their skills use STR for damage. Their high AGI means that they're, in general, faster than most classes and enemies--which is pretty crucial if you're trying to get disables off before an enemy can act. For whip skills, this goes even further, since whips give a bonus to action speed and the whip skills have above-average speed modifiers. Lastly, their LUC means that Dark Hunters are okay at inflicting disables on their own. You'd ideally want a Hexer to support them since they can inflict skills more reliably, and have the benefit of Curse Mastery, but if you insist on running a Dark Hunter alone, it won't be that awful. Whip/Sword Mastery Type: Passive Requirements: None  Required to learn whip/sword skills. Passively increases damage dealt with whip/swords. Gag/Cuffs/Shackles Type: Attack skill, attempts to bind Requirements: Whip Mastery level 1 Max level (innate): 10 Required equipment: Whip Body parts used: Arms Stats used: STR, LUC  Deals STR-based melee Cut damage to one enemy. Attempts to bind the target's head/arms/legs. Has a 90% speed modifier and +10 accuracy at all levels. The most basic of the whip skills. Even at level 20, these things do not deal a lot of damage. You'll need each of these to 7 for Ecstasy, so there's not a lot of choice there. Whether or not you max one or more of them out, however, is up to you. I'd say maxing them out would be worth considering if you don't have a Hexer or if you're paranoid about RNG, but otherwise, I'd save your skill points. If you do put more than 7 points into these things, I'd say ignore Shackles--there's extremely few dangerous skills that use the legs. Elemental attacks and ailments tend to use the head, while physical attacks tend to use the arms. Ecstasy Type: Attack skill Requirements: Gag, Cuffs, and Shackles level 7 Max level (innate): 10 Required equipment: Whip Body parts used: Arms Stats used: STR  Deals STR-based melee Cut damage to one enemy. Damage is multiplied based on the number of binds the target has--game data and rough testing suggests it is 2.1x for one bind, 3.1x for two binds, 5.1x for three binds, but I can't be certain. Has a 90% speed modifier at all levels. The best Dark Hunter skill, absolutely no question. The damage to enemies with 2 binds is already pretty big, but the damage to completely bound enemies (which is easier to set up than it sounds) is incredible, borderline obscene. 1938% damage is already absolutely bonkers, but consider that Trance will further boost that damage to 3876%, and this isn't counting the possibility of buffs or, god forbid, Crusade. If you're using a Dark Hunter, there's very little reason not to go for Ecstasy. Viper Type: Attack skill, attempts to Poison Requirements: Whip Mastery level 5 Max level (innate): 10 Required equipment: Whip Body parts used: Arms Stats used: STR, LUC  Deals STR-based melee Cut damage to one enemy. Attempts to Poison the target. Has a 90% speed modifier at all levels. Pretty mediocre. The Poison base damage is actually pretty high, but your Dark Hunter's probably going to have better things to do than trying to Poison an enemy. The actual damage on the skill itself is really terrible too--like, really, really goddamn terrible. Crimson Rouge Type: Attack skill, conditionally attempts to bind Requirements: Whip Mastery level 10 Max level (innate): 10 Required equipment: Whip Body parts used: Arms Stats used: STR, LUC  Deals STR-based melee Cut damage to one enemy. If the target has binds, attempts to apply the target's binds to adjacent enemies. Has a 90% speed modifier at all levels. One of the most situational skills in any EO game. If Crimson Rouge at least dealt splash damage along with the bind spreading, I'd say there's a potential use for it as a way to have your Dark Hunter be slightly more useful in random encounters, but as it is, it's really not worth leveling up at all. Hypno/Nerve/Mirage Bite Type: Attack skill, attempts to inflict Sleep/Paralysis/Panic Requirements: Sword Mastery level 1 Max level (innate): 10 Required equipment: Sword Body parts used: Arms Stats used: STR, LUC  Deals STR-based melee Cut damage to one enemy. Attempts to inflict Sleep/Paralysis/Panic. Has an 80% speed modifier at all levels. The sword counterparts to Gag, Whip, and Shackles. Sword Dark Hunters focus on status ailments, compared to the bind-focused whip Dark Hunters. They deal slightly more damage than the equivalent whip skills do to the nature of swords vs. whips, even though they have the same damage modifiers. As for the Bites, given the nature of Sleep as a status ailment and how many enemies heavily resist Panic compared to other ailments, I'd personally prioritize Nerve Bite -> Mirage Bite -> Hypno Bite. Much like the basic whip skills, you're probably gonna level up all of them to 7 anyway, so it doesn't matter a ton. Unlike the basic whip skills, though, I'd probably max out each of the Bites eventually. Soul Liberator Type: Attack skill Requirements: Hypno Bite, Nerve Bite and Mirage Bite level 7 Max level (innate): 10 Required equipment: Sword Body parts used: Arms Stats used: STR  Deals STR-based melee Cut damage to one enemy. Damage is multiplied by 3.5x if the target has an ailment. Dispels the target's ailment, if it had one. Has an 80% speed modifier at all levels. The sword counterpart to Ecstasy. What Soul Liberator has over Ecstasy is that its damage sits slightly above that of a 2-bind Ecstasy at level 20, and actually outpaces it for most of the other levels, and a status ailment pretty obviously takes a lot less effort to set up than 2 or 3 binds. However, you've probably already noticed Soul Liberator's serious downside: it immediately cancels whatever ailment the target has. Given how heavily FOEs/bosses resist ailments and the number of FOEs/bosses that are straight-up immune to one or more status ailments, immediately cancelling whatever ailment an enemy has is a really serious downside. Just to be clear: yes, dispelling an ailment with Soul Liberator gives whatever enemy you hit accumulative resistance to that ailment. Most battles will end most likely after just a few applications of Soul Liberator, though. One must also consider Trance, as well. Drain Bite Type: Attack skill, heals based on damage Requirements: Sword Mastery level 5 Max level (innate): 10 Required equipment: Sword Body parts used: Arms Stats used: STR  Deals STR-based melee Cut damage to one enemy. Heals the user's row for 25% of the damage dealt. Has an 80% speed modifier at all levels. A really meh skill. The heal is nice for emergencies, I guess, but the damage is pretty mediocre, even if it's slightly above the normal Bites. If you have leftover skill points after getting the Bites and Soul Liberator maxed out, Drain Bite might be worth some consideration. Scorpion Type: Attack skill, conditionally attempts to petrify Requirements: Sword Mastery level 10 Max level (innate): 10 Required equipment: Sword Body parts used: Arms Stats used: STR, LIUC  Deals STR-based melee Cut damage to one enemy. Deals double damage to adjacent targets. If enemies adjacent to the target have ailments, attempts to petrify the target. Chance to petrify is increased if both adjacent enemies have ailments. Has an 80% speed modifier at all levels. Somehow even more situational than Crimson Rouge. However, unlike that skill, Scorpion's actually fairly decent for random encounters due to the double-damage splash damage. More importantly, however, it is the only non-Grimoire player skill that inflicts petrification. There's 3 conditionals in the game that require petrifying an enemy, so if you're going for 100% completion and don't want to use monster Grimoires, Scorpion's your only choice. Temptation Type: Stun skill + amplify damage Requirements: HP Up level 4 Max level (innate): 10 Body parts used: Head Stats used: LUC  Attempts to stun one enemy. If it is successful, also amplifies all damage to the stunned enemy for one turn. Temptation might seem really good at first, especially if you look at the stun chance. However, you also have to consider that almost every boss and FOE has 10% resistance to stun, if they don't just outright nullify it. That fact makes Temptation seriously unreliable, since at level 20, you'll have a 20% chance at best to have it activate (and that's not even counting for adjustments based on LUC). It has some use if you get a Grimoire of the level 10 version and put it on a Hexer, since they have the highest LUC of any class and Creeping Curse will boost the base chance to 450% (45% before LUC adjustments against most bosses/FOEs). Bind Heart Type: Evasion debuff Requirements: TP Up level 4 Max level (innate): 10 Body parts used: Head  Reduces one enemy's evasion for a set number of turns. Has no speed modifier. Bind Heart is a pretty trash skill unless you are seriously paranoid about a damage dealer whiffing a big skill. Attack/Elemental Bait Type: Counter skill Requirements: Phys ATK Up level 10 Required equipment: Sword or Whip Max level (innate): 10 Body parts used: Arms Stats used: STR  If the user or any allies adjacent to them are attacked with physical/elemental damage on the turn of use, the user will counter with STR-based melee Cut damage to the source of damage. The counter's damage depends on if the user or an ally was attacked. Before level 20, every time the user counters, the chance for them to counter again goes down. Cannot counter if the user's arms become bound. Oh man, how the mighty have fallen. Bait and Magibait in EO2 were arguably the best skills in the Dark Hunter skillset, since they were pretty easy to set up and could deal really big damage. Here...good lord, where do I start. Firstly, the biggest nerf: if the Bait activates on an adjacent ally rather than the user themself, it deals far less damage than if it activated on the user themself. Secondly, the fact that Bait can only activate a certain number of times per turn, and is unreliable before level 20. Okay, let's assume best case scenario: the user gets hit 4 times in one turn, and somehow doesn't die--1160% damage. While that's pretty good damage, again, evaluate the circumstanecs needed for that to happen: you'd have to be using a Dark Hunter, and they'd have to get hit 4 times in one turn and somehow survive. While that's feasible with Perfect Defense, that's only going to work once per battle. Just... Yeah, don't invest in the Baits at all. You're much better off just using the normal whip/sword skills. Snake Eyes Type: Phys defense debuff Requirements: Curb ATK Up level 3 Body parts used: Head  Reduces one enemy's physical defense for a set amount of turns. The defense reduction is increased if the target has ailments/binds. If you're using a primarily physical party, Snake Eyes with the ailment bonus is the best defense debuff in the game. Given how easy it is to apply just one ailment or bind to an enemy is, getting that bonus is trivial. Just drop it before you start using Ecstasy or Soul Liberator and then go to town. Perseverance Type: Passive Requirements: Snake Eyes level 5  If the user attempted but failed to inflict an ailment or bind last turn, passively multiplies their chance to inflict an ailment/bind on the next turn. A decent passive. It takes a bit of an investment to get to, but it's worth it if you're using your Dark Hunter to inflict stuff instead of relying solely on a Hexer or something. Trance Type: Force Boost Doubles the user's damage if attacking an enemy that has ailments or binds. Trance is essentially the best non-Transform Force Boost. The damage bonus activates even if an enemy only has 1 bind or has even a minor ailment like Blind. Consider that Ecstasy and Soul Liberator already do tons of damage on their own, and Trance just makes them ludicrous. Rose Prison Type: Force Break, attack skill, attempts to completely bind and Poison Body parts used: Arms Stats used: STR, LUC Deals STR-based Melee cut damage to one enemy. Attempts to completely bind the target and Poison them, with a 120% base chance each. The damage scales linearly from 250% to 700% based on the user's level. The Poison base damage scales non-linearly from 60 to 750 based on the user's level. And, conversely, Rose Prison is basically the worst Force Break. Sure, the infliction chances aren't bad, but here's the issue: not only did you spend a turn not getting the Trance damage bonus, you've now locked your Dark Hunter out of Trance for the rest of the fight. Rea fucked around with this message at 08:19 on Mar 7, 2016 |
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Mar 7, 2016 06:54
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Update 10: Okay, I guess Hedgehogs can be Trusted To your surprise, Arianna can evidently tell one hedgehog from another. If you are to credit her, one could say that fate has brought you and this hedgehog together several times. The hedgehog seems to have not yet noticed you, so you could try talking to it. Sure, why not? Let's talk to it. Even if you are inclined to talk to the hedgehog, though, should you approach it so casually? This hedgehog has caused you no small small amount of trouble in the past... You keep that in mind as you consider how to approach it... Let's make some noise. As well-acquainted with it as you are, it is still a monster, and it would be best not to make any sudden moves. You and Flavio deliberately rustle the nearby bushes... The hedgehog is not totally inattentive, it seems, for it turns its head your way. Now comes the test... you remember the hedgehog well enough, but does it remember you? An odd tension arises between you and the hedgehog... Suddenly, the hedgehog spins on its heels, turning its back to you, and-- A ramming sound is heard. You have no earthly idea what possessed the hedgehog to do this... As you ponder the hedgehog's mysterious behavior, a huge pile of leaves rains down upon you from the branches above! Flavio yells, but the hedgehog is already gone... However, after the rain of leaves stops, you spot something gleaming amidst the scattered leaves. After sifting through the pile to retrieve it, you realize that it's a set of useful materials for explorers. The hedgehog's intentions aside, you gather up the items and go on your way. Well, these will be useful.   And that's it for the 4th floor.   Now that we got to the 5th floor, let's go back to town and take a break. I'm sure Hrothgar will be fine. In fact, I think I'll take another nap.     Where? I'm looking for him.Oh. My mistake.   And that's the end of that. Hanna, Quona, Abigail, nor Regina have anything new to say in Story Mode for this floor.   This bar patron isn't in Classic.   Well, let's get back to the Labyrinth.    It is High Lagaardian currency... Could some explorer have dropped it? You may pick it up if you wish, though the option is always there to ignore the money.  Never say no to free money. Just as you are about to bend over to pick it up, a powerful force shoves you back! You are caught so off guard that you fail to catch yourself and end up falling painfully to the ground.   When you regain your footing, fighting the pain all the while, you find the dull-witted hedgehog you've come to know. Could those coins have been a trap to engineer your doom...? I knew I couldn't trust that hedgehog!  You brace yourselves, thinking that the time to fight this hedgehog has finally come... but it is acting strangely. The hedgehog keeps butting its nose at you, which hurts not at all. It's almost as if... it's trying to warn you away from here... Sounds of a fight ensue.  The hedgehog remains motionless on the ground, having been struck fiercely by a much larger monster. The monsters snort and hiss in anger at their snare being spoiled, as they turn their malicious gaze to you! You cannot fathom the hedgehog's true intentions, but there is a more pressing threat to deal with now! Take up your weapons and charge into the fray!  Okay no.   Screw that!  I will admit that I horribly misjudged it. Its sacrifice shall be remembered. The battle having ended, you begin searching for the hedgehog that was set upon by the larger monsters. The hedgehog lies still where it landed, but its injuries don't seem severe. Oh it's still alive. Never mind. Even when you approach, it shows no sign of fleeing, and instead raises its head to look up at you with its beady eyes. You have had enough encounters with it by now to recognize the dull-witted hedgehog when you see it... The hedgehog, unable to understand human speech, gives no response. Yet you feel certain that Arianna has hit upon the truth of what happened...  Well that was a pretty strong headbutt. The headbutt which saved you from the ambush was quite painful, and so you compliment the hedgehog's brute strength. Thinking back, you recall how every encounter with this hedgehog ended in pain, no matter what you did. Considered in that light, this may have been the most fitting way for the hedgehog to repay your kindness. The hedgehog obediently allows the black-robed girl to heal its injuries. When you stand back for it to return to the forest, the hedgehog remains at your feet and sniffs at your hand.  May as well. The hedgehog straightens its back to lick at your hand. It's focusing its attention right around where you were injured in battle...  At least, we can finally know what it's like to pet a hedgehog. Seeing this as the perfect opportunity, you pet the hedgehog to your heart's content. Its spines feel astonishingly soft when it is in this relaxed state... it feels truly heavenly...   After it has licked until it is satisfied, the hedgehog walks away, its purpose fulfilled. It glances back at you only once before quickly darting into the brush. You take a moment to reflect on the twist of fate that united you with the small rodent before resuming your exploration. Farewell little guy. And that's the last we'll see of it. Incidentally, in Classic Mode, the event plays out a bit differently. You lose 50 HP because the monsters decided to attack you, not because a hedgehog headbutt everyone that hard. Oh and here's another audio only conversation in the 1st Stratum.   As Flavio notes, it takes a great deal of water in the environment for moss to grow. You look around, wondering if there is a water source at hand. As Arianna points out with surprise, water has begun to seep out, quickly forming a small pond.  The pooled water reflects the moonlight; its shine rippling like a living thing, even in the absence of wind.  Bertrand scratches his head sheepishly and looks away. Bertrand scratches his head sheepishly and looks away. But hearing that phrase does trigger something in your memory... You suddenly recall a request that you undertook at the bar. The Braggart Chap asked you to look into where the tears of the moon could be found. Could these “tears of the moon" be the same ones that Bertrand referenced in his moment of reverie? All that's left to complete the quest is to visit the bar and tell the client about this spot, whenever you have the time. I go back at this point. The advertisement I put up just ended, so I go to get my money.  In fact, this is the best way to make money in this game. Developing the town is definitely in your best interests.  And then the game gives us a tutorial on developing the town. I go to get some more quests done.  And now back to the Labyrinth.   Is it your imagination, or does that howl seem suffused with sorrow...?   You nod at Bertrand's sensible advice, and then begin walking again to catch up to the Beowulf Guild.   Arianna gasps, apparently noticing something, and calls out to you.   But his red-haired companion is nowhere to be found, and the beast's slick fur is matted a darker black…   Perhaps because of this, Wulfgar remains tensed, despite his familiarity with your guild.  The black beast heeds the robed girl's words, then looks hesitantly at the rest of you. Eventually, though, he stops growling and obediently lies down.  The rest of the party gives the robed girl space to work, and you quietly watch her treat the beast's wounds... Fade to black.   There's no telling what drives the beast, but he suddenly headbutts the robed girl with his large head! The slender girl, unable to withstand its force, falls on her bottom. The girl gets to her feet, seeming confused. It doesn't seem as if she's hurt anywhere. You try to think of what to say to the nonplussed girl in the silent Wulfgar's stead.  The robed girl has not yet finished her muttering when Wulfgar butts his head against her again! The beast's show of gratitude seems to have drained his strength. He sits back down and gazes sadly into the forest. He lets out a howl suffused with sorrow and anxiety, and it sounds as if he is trying to tell you something. The beast howls again at Arianna's comment. He gazes at you, then turns deeper into the forest, urging you on.  The black beast, hearing you, lets out a low and threatening growl.  Fine. The black beast, hearing you, closes its eyes in relief. Chloe seems to be correct. You can hear the beast's peaceful breathing, showing that he is indeed merely asleep. We can talk to Wulfgar again.  Seeing this, you decide that you must forge onward to save his master, Hrothgar. We'll do that later. He can wait. I just need to get a few other things done first. Also yeah, Wulfgar lives in Story Mode, where he died in Classic.  Successfully advertising Deer Steak for that quest has the Story party chime in. We'll get around to dealing with Chimaera next time. Araxxor fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Mar 9, 2016 |
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Mar 9, 2016 06:56
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I'm pretty sure that last hedgehog event is meant to be a way to make sure you know about Force Breaks.
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Mar 9, 2016 10:34
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Hobgoblin2099 posted:I'm pretty sure that last hedgehog event is meant to be a way to make sure you know about Force Breaks.
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Mar 9, 2016 16:14
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Update 11: Chimaera     There is no doubt that what lurks in this room must be the Chimaera... king of the beasts! As you reflexively brace yourselves for battle, a knight appears and addresses your party.   Though the red-haired young man's breathing is labored and painful, he smiles to you nonetheless.  The red-haired young man spurns your offer and turns his blade once more to the Chimaera!  Seeing your comrades try to restrain the red-haired young man, Bertrand, who had remained silent, speaks up. The unchangeable past... What it means to Hrothgar to defeat the monster which felled his former guildmates... The usually fickle protector's words weigh heavy on your mind... But is it truly right to allow someone to risk their life to absolve them of their past?  Hearing the name of the black beast who has been his constant companion causes the young man to hesitate.    Hrothgar turns to you and nods. You stand ready with the red-haired warrior to challenge the beast before you to combat! And like Wulfgar, Hrothgar lives in Story Mode, and he joins our party as well. This does mean the Story party misses out on Hrothgar's Sword, the Iron Nail, and the Trust Collar. Not that the latter two pieces of equipment would have been of any use to them. Let's take a look at our guest.    Sheesh. No wonder he got killed by Chimaera so easily in Classic Mode, aside from trying to fight Chimaera with only 2 party members. His skillset is really bad. Front Guard being at level 1 is fine, but Fire Wall really should be around level 4. It's not gonna help much at level 1. Story may seem like they're getting an unfair advantage since they can fight Chimaera with 6 people, but trust me when I say that having Hrothgar help out isn't that big of an advantage.  Anyways, the food of my choice? The one that boosts the party's TP by 30%. In my opinion, this is one of the most important meals in Story Mode. Yes I could have ate the food that gave my party 80% Poison resistance, but that's not guaranteed to protect the party, and I just put Venom Rings on everyone anyway. Now let's take a look at my builds for Story Mode.                If you're wondering why my skill builds are so conservative and not really maxing out specific skills, that's because that would do me way more harm than good at this point. You'll understand why in a bit.   I lured Chimaera into the 4 pits. Now it doesn't really matter if you get a preemptive strike or not here, but I opted to position myself in the most favorable place possible before starting out. Oh and for the record, the boss fights will be documented in screenshot from now on. I won't be doing anymore videos.   Chimaera Level: 15 HP: 8220 STR: 21 TEC: 16 VIT: 17 AGI: 14 LUC: 17 Skills:
Disable resistances:  Opening up with setting up a Delayed Chase.  I don't really want Chloe to spend a lot of her turns healing, when there are so many other things she could be doing. Artery is perfect for that, since it's a nice bit of passive recovery.  No point in having Hrothgar defend the party when Chimaera is currently helpless.  Once Chimaera gets out of the pit, I'll want to inflict Blind on him, but inflicting it now would be a waste of that ailment.  Gonna have Arianna buff the front row's damage output. Actually come to think of it, if I really wanted to be efficient, I could have just put Knight, Arianna, and Flavio in the front row and buff them, then switch them to the proper positions on the next turn. I am good at video games.    Those Vampire Bats in the room WILL join in on the fight and make life miserable for us, so I'm gonna have Bertrand use some Flash Grenades to keep them at bay for a while.       Unfortunately I discovered that I used the Flash Grenade too early. Bah.   Okay, go time!   Ice is Chimaera's weakness, so those are the main kinds of attacks I'll be using.     Chimaera always gets out of the hole on his 2nd turn. It doesn't matter whether you got a preemptive or not.  Ice Wave ended up dealing a total of 173 damage.  And there's Delayed Chase activating. Don't make the mistake of overestimating how powerful Fafnir is. He's strong, but takes a while to get going. So I've done a total of 431 damage in this turn. And keep in mind that's with Knight's Force Boost active, which doesn't last that long. Even after dropping Chimaera into all 4 holes, we have 5000 HP to chew through. I'm sure you're aware of how Ragnar destroyed the bosses in this game easily. This is not the case in Story Mode. Expect the exact opposite, where fights are long and grueling, so the party has no choice but to outlast the boss. In terms of offense, they're very weak earlygame. Trying to win a damage race is not an option for them.  And to finish up the combo, I'll have Knight use Blade Recoil.  Might as well have Hrothgar make himself useful and increase the front row's defenses by 30%.  Here's another dumb mistake I made. I waited until Chimaera got out of the hole to activate his Force Boost. I should have just activated it at the start of the fight since unlike Knight's Transform, there's no benefit to holding off on it here. Sure it provides that +999 evasion boost, but he's in no danger of dying in this fight. Especially since he's wearing a Venom Ring.  Gonna have Flavio try to Blind Chimaera. Blind Arrow is the only ability I maxed out not because I wanted the damage, but because I wanted the infliction rate to be as high as possible. Unfortunately, Flavio has a pretty big LUC disadvantage against Chimaera, so he has less than a 32% chance of inflicting it.  And here's another stupid thing I did. I used Guard Order too early. A 15% defense boost is nice, but it's redundant since Hrothgar can use Front Guard. I should have had her just use Link Order for extra damage. These little mistakes may not seem like much at first, but if you make too many of them in a boss fight, they can add up to cause a devastating loss. Especially due to how EO2U's boss fights are structured.  I have no idea if Chimaera is gonna use Great Blaze or not, but at this point it only costs 4 TP, and Hrothgar is already using Front Guard, so there's no reason to not use it. Especially considering that it can turn Great Blaze into a free turn.    Blind Arrow failed to inflict its ailment. Not too surprised there.      And that's some nice damage. If a Wave and Blade Recoil are at the same level, using Blade Recoil after a Wave will deal more damage than just Waving twice. It's also more TP efficient, which is a very important thing to be concerned about in Story Mode.   And that's what I meant about Fire Wall turning Great Blaze into a free turn. Unfortunately, Hrothgar's version isn't at a high enough level to do that, which is why I'm having Bertrand use that.  Sadly, you can't chain Blade Recoils. You have to use an actual elemental attack before the 2nd attack can activate again. Oh and don't make the mistake of blowing a Force Break too early if the fight is nowhere near close to over. If the fight goes on long enough, it can be possible to use a Force Boost twice, which can can benefit you way more than just using a Force Break at the first opportunity.   Until Knight's Force Gauge fills up again, he's gonna be stuck using Delayed Chase + Freeze Sabre.  This is the last turn of Flavio's Force Boost, and I'm refraining from using the Force Break for the same reasons I talked about a bit earlier.  Even with a 30% damage reduction, Chimaera hits hard.   Gonna have Chloe patch up Knight. Hopefully Artery and the first heal can keep him alive this turn.  Victory Vow is a pretty mediocre Force Boost. But the reason I'm using this is to get the most out of it before I use Arianna's Force Break.  Gonna refresh Attack Order. Victory Vow does let you avoid having to cast a buff twice to get it to affect the entire party.  Okay, that should lighten up the pressure on my party for the next few turns.  I should note that there is a disadvantage to using Venom Rings over the Poison resistance food. That food will affect Hrothgar as well, but since I'm not using it, he's fully susceptible to the Poison from Snake Pile.    And like Blade Recoil, Delayed Chase + a Sabre deals more damage than just using a Sabre twice, assuming they're both at the same level anyway. It's not as TP efficient, though.    Chloe has an even bigger LUC disadvantage against Chimaera, but her Bind Cuts have a pretty good infliction rate. She has less than a 50% chance of binding his arms with this. One of those bats is gonna be joining the fight on the next turn, and I'm nowhere near close to killing Chimaera.   Menacing Roar's defense debuff is enough to make Chimaera's attacks dangerous, and Chimaera starts using it when he drops below 50% (Of his original HP, mind you.) It makes Chimaera's hard hitting attacks into one hit kills. You saw how hard he was hitting through Front Guard, so it won't help after Menacing Roar's defense debuff is applied.  Fortunately, I had the foresight to put up Guard Order right beforehand, so all it did was dispel the front row's defense buff. Now I'm reapplying it in case Chimaera uses it again.   Great. Fortunately with the way I've positioned myself, the other bat has to take quite a detour to reach us. Though I doubt we can finish the fight before that happens.  I opt for Headcut this time, since I felt like shutting down Great Blaze and Menacing Roar.  I'm not concerned about Proof of Nobility's healing. Rather, its TP restoration. Take a look at Knight and Flavio's TP pools. They're both almost out of TP, and we're still not close to done with the fight. Proof of Nobility is kind of a terrible Force Break in Classic Mode, since the heal isn't too great and too slow to go off, while the TP restoration is kind of irrelevant, since fights are over much faster in Classic than in Story.    But since the Story party takes a long time to kill any boss, this Force Break is absolutely vital in boss fights. Being efficient with your TP is of the utmost importance here, otherwise you'll be stuck using regular attacks when the boss still has a lot of HP left. That's why I didn't max out any of my skills aside from Blind Arrow. The damage to TP ratio gets worse as you increase the skill levels, and at this point the damage increase isn't enough to kill the boss any faster, and doesn't make up for how fast our TP runs out.     Thanks to accumulative resistance, Flavio only has a 12% chance of landing another Blind, not counting the LUC disadvantage he has. So I opt for Paralysis Arrow. Sure it only has a 21% chance of landing (again, not counting Flavio's LUC disadvantage), but that's better than Blind Arrow now.  Time for Arianna to chip in on dishing out some damage.     Bah. Neither the Paralysis or Head bind landed.   Link Order is something a Sovereign can do if they don't need to perform any support duties on their turn.   And the fight is about to become an even bigger pain, as I'm still not that close to killing Chimaera.  Okay, that was a really lucky break since the Paralysis landed AND stopped Chimaera from doing anything this turn.   At the very least, all the Vampire Bats do in this battle is try to bind our party members' heads. Okay, gonna have Chloe get to work this turn. Ailing Slash is her best damage skill, and it's time you get to see how good it is.      And there's Ailing Slash in action! Look at that number. Chloe pretty much dealt the same amount of damage as Knight, our best damage dealer. And Ailing Slash is only at level 1. Chloe is pretty much our other offensive party member.  While Chimaera has less than 25% of his HP left, don't think that the battle will be over that quick. We still have around 2000 HP to chew through. And remember that Chimaera started out at 60%. So we're only over halfway through the fight.   Unfortunately, the Paralysis wore off immediately, and the chances of landing another ailment are slim, so I activate her Force Boost so she can keep hitting like a truck.  Despite Hrothgar's skillset not being that great, having him in our party means that we get access to 2 uses of Perfect Defense, which buys us 2 free turns.  Blind Arrow is still Flavio's best damage skill that we have, and it's not like he can do much else in this fight.    Whatever.  Of course that didn't do anything.  At least Chloe still hits hard.   Okay, I'm starting to run out of TP here.   Oh, I knew putting that one point into Force Mastery was a good idea! Time to end this!    Wanna see a neat little trick?  Unfortunately, Chloe's head being bound stops her from using her Force Break and freeing the others from their binds.  At least I can block all incoming damage for the turn. Unfortunately, while Knight's Force Boost is back up, Flavio's isn't. This is why not using that at the start of the fight was a mistake. Flavio's Force Gauge didn't recharge in time for the final assault, which is gonna prevent me from using Summer Rain to deal even more damage and end the fight sooner. Timing and using your Force Boosts wisely is key to winning boss fights.     So, that neat little trick I was talking about?    If you use Delayed Chase, and then a Wave on multiple enemies on the next turn, Delayed Chase will go and hit everything the Waves hit. Not that useful in this fight, but this little trick can help you get in some extra damage on other fights. Actually, there's an upcoming fight where I could make good use of this trick.    Time for the final assault. Chimaera can't last much longer. Though neither can my party.     While Chloe doesn't hit as hard with Ailing Slash if the target doesn't have an ailment, it still deals an okay amount in that case.   FINISH HIM!      Phew! Finally, it's over. Oh and a nice change made to boss fights since EO4 is that finishing off the boss while they still have minions on the field will end the fight instantly, instead of forcing you to do cleanup.  Also, you tend to get lots of Grimoire Stones during boss fights. Not all of them will be useful, though.  You exult in your feat of slaying the loathsome Chimaera!  As your joyous chatter over the hard-won victory dies down, the red-haired young man stands and claps his hands.    The smiling young man bows deeply in an expression of his gratitude.  This is the last we see of guild Beowulf. Hrothgar nor Wulfgar make anymore appearances in Story Mode.  The rest of the guild gently reassures your shocked friend.  As the Princess is technically your employer, you decide to join your guildmates in the search for the stone... Fade to black.  Music stops.      After Fafnir beats a boss, he'll gain a new ability. In this case, he learned Meteor Smash, which is a single target Bash attack that deals 350% to 795% damage (damage scales linearly from level 1 to 99.) But it can only be used once per Transform.  On seeing you stand dazed by the sudden sensation that overcame you, the usually apathetic knight turns solemn. He walks towards you slowly, with that same sharp gaze fixed upon you. Bertrand stares at you, muttering to himself, but eventually relaxes and gives a small sigh. Despite this, the knight continues to look critically at you. As you search for a way to respond, you hear a cheerful voice.  The young man who had been examining a vein in the rock wall seems to be holding a mysterious, glowing stone. The stone, which shines a dull yellow, emits small sparks from time to time that illuminate the area. The eagerness in Arianna's voice is evident as she approaches you. As Arianna says, you have defeated the Chimaera and obtained the needed stone. It is now time to return to High Lagaard.   I use an Ariadne Thread to return to town.    Araxxor fucked around with this message at 09:06 on Mar 11, 2016 |
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Mar 11, 2016 08:59
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Exhibit A for why I prefer Classic mode over Story. Good lord that was slow.
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Mar 11, 2016 09:05
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Once you drag Chimera into all the holes, though, I'm pretty sure he stops moving period. I used that to take out all of the bats ahead of time instead of risking them joining mid-fight.
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Mar 11, 2016 09:34
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That was an interesting read. Having recently finished my own Story playthrough, this is the first Story update I've read and that was considerably different from my time. I suppose its just a matter of play style differences, but I was significantly more aggressive when I played through. Link Order is a really good skill.
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Mar 11, 2016 09:41
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| # ? May 24, 2024 00:38 |
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siotle posted:Once you drag Chimera into all the holes, though, I'm pretty sure he stops moving period. I used that to take out all of the bats ahead of time instead of risking them joining mid-fight. Chimera's mildly irritating, but thankfully no more than that.
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Mar 11, 2016 15:39
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