_________ __ ________ / _____// |______ _______ \_____ \ ____ ____ _____ ____ \_____ \\ __\__ \\_ __ \ / | \_/ ___\/ __ \\__ \ / \ / \| | / __ \| | \/ / | \ \__\ ___/ / __ \| | \ /_______ /|__| (____ /__| \_______ /\___ >___ >____ /___| / \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ ____________________________________________________________________________ |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | T I L L T H E E N D O F T I M E | |____________________________________________________________________________| |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | Author: Danteh | | Began: February 3rd, 2008 | | Completed: April 1st, 2008 | |____________________________________________________________________________| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ O============================================================================== O Table of Contents O============================================================================== -->I have implemented a CTRL+F system to find the stuff easily! 1. Introduction.........................................................(hLkYu) 2. Fayt Leingod.........................................................(gmMch) a - Archangel Fayt..............................................(Gmcha) b - Divine Fayt.................................................(Gmchb) c - Uber Fayt...................................................(Gmchc) d - Dimension Fayt..............................................(Gmchd) e - Raid Fayt...................................................(Gmche) 2. Nel Zelpher..........................................................(bBrpQ) a - Mirror Nel..................................................(Chiab) b - Splitting Nel...............................................(Chiib) c - Wrath Nel...................................................(Chiic) d - Whirlwind Nel...............................................(Chivd) 4. Maria Traydor........................................................(GnWgm) a - Burst Maria.................................................(Ixilm) b - Atomic Maria................................................(Iximn) c - Magnetic Maria..............................................(Ixino) d - Scatter Maria...............................................(Ixvop) 5. Albel Nox............................................................(fKlRt) a - Fury Albel..................................................(Iiabc) b - Slasher Albel........l......................................(Iiibc) c - Doom Albel..................................................(Iiiic) d - Aura Albel..................................................(Iivde) e - Vampire Albel...............................................(Ivefg) f - Flash Albel.................................................(Ivifg) 6. Cliff Fittir.........................................................(cRftR) a - Shockwave Cliff.............................................(OPiab) b - Max Cliff...................................................(OPiib) 7. Sophia Esteed........................................................(sQtsT) a - Strike Sophia...............................................(Sqabc) b - Thunder Sophia..............................................(Sqbcd) c - Meteor Sophia...............................................(Sqcde) d - Explosion Sophia............................................(Itls2) 8. Adray Lasbard........................................................(Sqdef) a - Cross Adray.................................................(Sqefg) b - Chaos Adray.................................................(Sqfgh) 9. Peppita Rossetti.....................................................(Itcra) 10. Mirage Koas.........................................................(kKpRe) 11. Roger S. Huxley.....................................................(BtLtT) 12. Character Tier List.................................................(lgDIx) 12. Battle Skills Tier List.............................................(lgDIz) 12. Ultimate Teams......................................................(lgDId) 12. Contribute to this Guide!.................. ........................(lgDIf) 12. Version History.....................................................(lgDIl) 13. Legal & Contact.....................................................(lgDIr) 14. Credits.............................................................(CrdtS) O============================================================================== O Introduction (hLkYu) O============================================================================== Welcome to the Ultimate Setups & Teams FAQ!. This guide is designed to help you choose the builds that best suit you, and to have a general source of information about what factors to put in a weapon and the most useful skills to use. It is structured in the following manner: -A scheme with the skills, weapon and tactics used. -A brief description talking about the purposes of the factors and a recommendation about how to play it. -Finally, a ratings section with the strong and weak points of the setup. The ratings section has been done in the most objectively possible way, trying to show the good and bad points of the build, but it's destined to cause controversy. You probably won't agree with everything, but I have spent a lot of time tweaking the ratings and being more strict. Anyway, as time passes, some ratings will probably be changed. As you may know, there aren't that many different useful factors to put in the weapons, so it can get a bit repetitive if you read several builds without stopping. The main objective is always maxing ATK, so you will see this factors everywhere. I have added a Variant section when a setup is so similar to the previous one that it doesn't need a full description, so there is only a brief commentary with the main differences and the ratings without further explanation. And there is also an Ultimate Team section, but having a combination of absolutely all he setups would be too much, so I tried to make a team with a different one each time (without counting Variants). You can obviously change a member if it's for the same original purpose, and it'll work perfectly. The "icing in the cake" is the two Tier Lists: Character Tier List and Battle Skill Tier List. Finally, I really hope you enjoy the FAQ and hopefully becomes a universal source for all your end-game characters in Star Ocean 3! The following is a pattern of the scheme used in all of the guide's setups: PATTERN o--------------o |Character |-------------------------------------------------------------- o--------------o Class: Role in battle, for hybrids, you have the percentages of what they will be doing most. OFFENSIVE: 100% OFFENSIVE/Support: 75%/25% Offensive/Support 50%/50% SUPPORT/Offensive: 75%/25% HP Damager/MP Damager: Which type of damage the build is most focused in. Skills: Short X: Long X: Short O: Long O: Support skills: Equipment: Weapon: (Factors included) Armour: Accessory 1: Accessory 2: Stats: (lvl 255) ATTACK: (maximum 9999) DEFENSE: (maximum 9999) INTELECT: (maximum 9999) [Optional] HP: Health Points MP: Magic Points Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve HP/ Preserve MP Total Convert Damage: Berserk: ON/ OFF Aura: Stun/ Regeneration/ Homing Tactics: Attack enemy with all your might! Act in a well balanced manner! Concentrate on healing/recovery! Don't use coups de grace! Support the party! Formation Front/Back Description and tactics: A description of the weapon and its factors, and also some useful tactics to use with the build. Ratings: *: Terrible **: So-So ***: Nice ****: Very Good *****: Uber POWER: Overall damage output. SURVIVAL: Overall capacity to receive hits and general survivability in battle. SPEED: Overall speed, including movement through the field but also the quickness when dealing blows. STUNLOCKING: Capacity to interrupt attacks and help others massacre the enemy. SUPPORT: Capacity to help the party, healing teammates, buffing them, or keeping enemies in place. OVERALL: Final rating of the setup of this character. Behaviour: SOLO: How the setup works when battling alone. TEAM: How the setup works with a team, and if it's useful doing his task and helping others. AI CONTROL: How well the AI handles this setup. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VARIANT Builds that are very similar to the one commented before, but have some unique characteristics Skills: Equipment: Stats: (lvl 255) Differences: Main differences and subtleties that distinguish this setup and the previous one. Ratings: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT: Each rating is given compared to other characters, but also taking in account each character maximums and minimums. For example: a survivability of 2 stars for Sophia would probably be around 1 star (or less) compared to Uber Fayt. So some characters which have 4 stars in power may not have the same damage output, but the idea is that, with this concrete character, the build is very good in terms of damage. Note: You will see that in many setups I recommend giving Berries (especially Health+ and Magi+) to boost that particular build. As it isn't possible to have so many Berries, don't worry, exceptuating a few setups (mainly the "No Guard" ones like Archangel Fayt) it isn't very important. If you want to do it, I recommend making several files with all the characters at max lvl, then creating different Berry-powered characters for each file. Finally, I'm sure you'll like the p*ssy names that I've given the setups! Oh, and "build" = "setup". O============================================================================== O Fayt Leingod (gmMch) O============================================================================== Fayt is the main character of the story and wields a sword. He has some powerful attacks, some exclusive blade enchantments and one thing characterizes him: speed. o---------------------o | Archangel Fayt |-------------------------------------------------(Gmcha) o---------------------o Class: OFFENSIVE: 100% HP Damager/MP Damager Skills: Short X: Side Kick Long X: Short O: Ethereal Blast Long O: Support skills: No guard Equipment: Weapon: Levantine +1000 ATK +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF -3 Fury +30% Movement Speed No HP damage 30% of the time No MP damage 30% of the time Power-ups: 4 Health+ Berries and all Defence Berries given. Armour: Valiant Mail (Fully refined) Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Blazing Pendant (Fully refined) Stats: ATTACK: 9999 DEFENSE: 2500 HP: 99999 MP: 8000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve MP Total Convert Damage: --- Berserk: ON Aura: Regeneration Tactic: Attack enemy with all your might! Formation: Front Description and Tactics: This setup uses one of the most damaging skills in the game, Ethereal Blast, to tear apart bosses and massacre normal enemies. A 300% cancelled Ethereal Blast can do about 85000 HP damage per hit, and quite a lot of MP damage too. That's around 1300000 damage in about 5 seconds once the blast has gone off, quite insane. Now, let's see how we can pull this off, as many people complain about how easily interrupted EB is. Believe it or not, the key to this strategy is the support skill No Guard, and those four Health+ Berries you have hopefully given him. No Guard will avoid flinching when hit (that is, when the character says: ouch! and stops doing the action) if the damage doesn't exceed 1/15 of our current health. So, if Fayt is at max HP, any damage below 99999/15= 6600 damage won't interrupt your Ethereal Blast. With 2500 DEF, that's almost every attack except Ether Strike or Nibelung Valesti (which will kill you anyway). Of course, if your HP goes down, you flinch with less damage, but I can say from experience that when fighting Freya on Galaxy mode, you will rarely be interrupted if you keep your health around 60% (except if you get very punished with a strong attack or, obviously, Ether Strike). In Universe it also works very well (you will get knocked out of EB more easily, though), but 4D is another story, as you may know. The +30% ATK/DEF are there to max ATK and boost his already wonderful defence, the other factors are specific to this strategy: - The +No HP/MP damage 30% of the time factors are for raising even more his survivability, but also to synergize with No Guard: when taking 0 damage you will continue attacking, sometimes you'll be able to throw 2-3 more EB hits in the middle of an Ether Strike because of this. Then you'll die a horrible death. -The -3 Fury has a very important function, it allows cancelling Ethereal Blast to 300%! -The +30% Movement Rate improves even more Fayt's amazing speed, making it really easy to avoid almost every attack. With this you've got a general "uber weapon", it hasn't strategy specific factors but instead gives lots of useful powers. A fully refined Blazing Pendant (or at least set to absorb earth/wind) will prove invaluable against all the simbology that some superbosses like Lenneth or Freya cast: they will heal you! Tri-emblem is there because it's simply one of the best post game accessories. Tactics: Fayt's function is simple: massacre enemies in a few seconds dealing insane quantities of damage via Ethereal Blast. Some useful tips: Always try to keep his health over 55000 because of the reasons mentioned before; this is not difficult, Fayt has excellent defence and you will probably have an attack/support character and a caster (healer) with him. Also, make use of the incredible Side Kick to get unscratched from imba attacks: Side kick makes you invincible during the kick animation and dodges around enemies; it's also an excellent cancel fodder and has very low fury use. Stunlocking techniques will be your best friend (Max Shockwave, etc), as they will make the enemy unable to counterattack a stay there eating a nice buffet of Ethereal Blast in the face. Ratings: POWER: ***** Incredible damage output, especially a 300% EB. SURVIVAL: ***** Very nice defence, almost max HP, two No HP/MP Damage factors and dodging capacities with Side Kick. Excellent. SPEED: ***** Speediest character in the game by far, with increase speed factor this just gets better. STUNLOCKING: ** Ethereal Blast can keep enemies in place, but doesn't last long. SUPPORT:** His support for the team is doing massive damage and killing enemies, which he does very well. No support abilities though. OVERALL: ***** Uber build with no weak points: massive damage output, outstanding defence, max HP, and fastest character in the game. Needs support (healing) to get the best. Behaviour: SOLO: ***** Most enemies won't last more tan a few seconds, and with Fayt's lightning speed you can avoid almost anything, but remember that without a healing teammate you will have to use items when fighting superbosses. TEAM: ***** The core of the team with his DMG, really shines when a teammate is stunlocking the unfortunate enemy and healing Fayt when necessary. Protection also helps a lot. AI CONTROL: ***** An easy build for the AI to handle, it will use the skills properly and almost always cancel Ethereal Blast to 200%, sometimes even to 300%! o----------------o | Divine Fayt |------------------------------------------------------(Gmchb) o----------------o Class: OFFENSIVE: 100% HP Damager/MP Damager Skills: Short X: Increase HP/MP Damage Long X: Short O: Increase HP/MP Damage Long O: Divine Blade Support skills: Critical Hit HP First Aid Equipment: Weapon: Levantine +1000 ATK Raging Anger +3 Attack Decision +30% Movement Rate Shoots powerful balls of light when attacking Emits balls of light when attacking Shoots powerful balls of fire when attacking Shoots powerful balls of lightning when attacking Power-ups: 2 Health+ Berries and all Defence Berries given (Optional) Armour: Valiant Mail (Fully refined) Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Victory Trophy Stats: ATTACK: 9999 DEFENSE: 1200-->Raging Anger-->600 HP: 73000 MP: 8000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve MP Total Convert Damage: --- Berserk: ON Aura: Homing (Important) Tactic: Attack enemy with all your might! Formation: Back Description and Tactics: This setup uses the skill Divine Blade to MP kill quickly and efficiently. It's simple to use: charge your sword with divine powers and go melee to tear apart some brains with weak and strong short attacks. The key to this strategy is juggling, so your best attack will be long O strong attack, use it and get as many hits as you can while the enemy is in the air. Here the AAA is very important because the Homing one always launches enemies in the air so you can kick them there. The +1000 ATK and Raging Anger are mainly to max Fayt's ATK. Now, the other factors are specifically put to boost this strategy: -The -2 Fury use (Victory Trophy) will allow to hit many more times with weak and strong attacks before the fury gauge empties. The freezing effect is just a nice bonus. -The +3 Attack Decision is to get the maximum number of hits every time, this factor is perfect because you will only use normal attacks, not skills. -The +30% Movement Rate can be useful because you will have to move to long range every time Divine Blade expires, cast it, and then move to short range again. Apart from that, putting this factor on an already ultra fast character makes Fayt a serious challenger to Sonic the Hedgehog. -The balls of light/fire/lighting are extremely important here, because you'll only use normal attacks and this will pump up the damage a lot. With 3 attack decision you can shoot millions of balls (methaphorically speaking) at a time. I can't stress enough how useful they are in this build. Tri-Emblem is always useful with all the good factors. Tactics: Always make sure that you have your blade enchanted; the AI will not always be so smart so you should cast Divine Blade whenever you can. Try to use the long O attack a lot, you are invincible while the run animation and if you hit you will be able to juggle the enemy dealing quite a lot of damage. When using the Homing Aura, make use of your high speed if the enemy isn't stupid and makes a strong attack while you are trying to AAA, you will avoid the attack easily: if the enemy does get hit with your Aura, abuse him as much as you can. This is especially useful when solo. Ratings: POWER: **** Very nice HP/MP damage output (especially with the fireworks), although without the aid of Battle Skills when fighting in a team, sometimes you can't match the damage of other setups. Five star when solo and Homing Aura- Flipkicking abusing. SURVIVAL: ** Bad defence but above average HP, your attacks only hit one enemy so be careful when fighting lots of them; you have no crowd control skills. Also, no healing capabilities. SPEED: ***** You will lol at Carl Lewis with this. Enough said. Apart from lightning speed, you will hit 3 times with every attack, so prepare to see lots of numbers in the screen. The best attribute of this build. STUNLOCKING: ** Some juggling capabilities when alone. SUPPORT: * No support abilities to help the team. OVERALL: **** Quite nice build against enemies with low MP (especially when solo), when fighting groups he really can't match the damage of other builds. If you like button mashing this is a excellent build though. Behaviour: SOLO: ***** Better build when solo, you will be able to avoid almost every attack with your speed (even Lighting Strike) and quickly attack them when they are off guard. Here you will use your precious Homing aura a lot. When solo is capable of brutal damage. TEAM: ** With no crowd control and so-so damage (loses a lot without the solo Homing Aura abuse), it is not meant to be used with a team, but with some healing support you can use this if you want. AI CONTROL: ** Has some problems when casting Divine Blade, but will do weak and strong attacks okay. o--------------o | Uber Fayt |-------------------------------------------------------(Gmchc) o--------------o Class: OFFENSIVE: 100% HP Damager/MP Damager Skills: Short X: Anything (Sidekick, Air Raid, Charge, Aerial) Long X: Short O: Anything (Dimension Door, Ethereal Blast, Air Raid) Long O: Support skills: No Guard Equipment: Weapon: Veinslay +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF Power-ups: All Defence Berries given. Armour: Valiant Mail (fully refined) Accessory 1: Blazing Pendant (Fully Refined) Accessory 2: Boots of Prowess (Fully Refined) Stats: ATTACK: 9999 DEFENSE: 5000 HP: 55000 MP: 8000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve MP Total Convert Damage: --- Berserk: OFF (Important) Aura: Homing Tactic: Attack enemy with all your might! Formation: Front Description and tactics Here it is: the famous Uber Fayt setup. The objective is simple, if you boost your DEF to 5000, Freya will do 0 damage in Galaxy (making you absolutely invulnerable in this playthrough) and little damage in Universe mode (0 damage too if you buff Fayt with Protection). In the brutal 4D of course there is no way of doing this (an experiment was done which involved getting DEF to 9999 and fighting Freya: Even like this, Ether Strike ripped off the part of the body that made Fayt a man. Poor Fayt. Sophia is not gonna be happy). So yes, that means that in 4D Freya actually goes over the ATK damage cap. To achieve this you must synthesise a full set of Boots of Prowess into your weapon and put one as your accessory. With this you'll have 270% DEF, with some defence berries you should get to 5000. Blazing Pendant will make you also immune to symbology, so you can only be hurt with Auras and non-elemental magic. IMPORTANT: Turn Berserk OFF. Tactics: no skill involved with this (that's why I really don't like the setup, what's the point of fighting while being immune?), just choose your favourite skills and pound the enemy to death while receiving 0 damage (No Guard will avoid flinching, it's important that you use it). Well, one thing you must be careful: don't get hit with any Aura. Of course, to avoid this you can just use strong attacks and that's it. Ratings: POWER: *** Depends on the skills you choose, but remember you have Berserk OFF, so that severely cripples the damage output. SURVIVAL: ****** Yeah, 6 stars, that's right :P. Well, that's the point of the build; with an insane 5000 DEF no enemy will stand a chance in Galaxy mode and only Freya (maybe someone else) in Universe mode. Enjoy your Godlike invulnerability. SPEED: *** Fayt is very speedy and depending on the skills you will hit faster, but with Berserk OFF you can't do combos quickly. None of this really matters with this setup. STUNLOCKING: * Again, with the high fury use you can't really stunlock anything SUPPORT: * No support abilities, not needed anyway. OVERALL: **** If you want to be God, of course this build is for you, but the problem is that it really isn't any fun, also because you can't use skills properly due to No Berserk. Apart from that, it's the perfect build to get Trophies, including the "No Damage" and "Defeat X alone" ones. Behaviour: SOLO: ***** God against mortals, nah, you can't lose. TEAM: *** Doesn't really contribute much (or need any teammates, anyway), but does his function, staying alive. AI CONTROL: ***** Leave the AI alone fighting Freya and you will definitely win, so no complaints here. o----------------o | Dimension Fayt |------------------------------------------------------(Gmchd) o----------------o Class: OFFENSIVE: 100% HP Damager Skills: Short X: Air Raid Long X: Short O: Dimension Door Long O: Support skills: Critical Hit HP Equipment: Weapon: Levantine +1000 ATK Raging Anger Paralyzing Effect +200 ATK +20 Critical Hit +10 Fury reduction when guard broken -3 Fury Use No HP Damage 30% of the time Power-ups: 2 Health+ Berries and all Defence Berries given. Armour: Valiant Mail (Fully refined) Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Victory Trophy Stats: ATTACK: 9999 (Raging Anger) DEFENSE: 1200-->Raging Anger->600 HP: 73000 MP: 8000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve MP Total Convert Damage: --- Berserk: ON Aura: Stun Tactic: Attack enemy with all your might! Formation: Front Description and Tactics: This build focus on a very useful attack, Dimension Door. This is Fayt's best skill to effectively crowd control big groups of enemies, that means stunlocking them so they can't do anything while the others pound them to death. Dimension Door has some interesting characteristics: hits a large radius of enemies, does nice damage over time, and if set in a strong slot it absolutely destroys, massacres and breaks enemy auras, so it's very useful to keep enemies without fury. The final slash it's also VERY damaging, something like 400%: with 9999 ATK you will get close if not to 99999 without even cancelling. Air Raid it's also a nice damaging spell which hits lots of enemies and knocks them down. The +1000 ATK and Tri-Emblem help to get around 5000 ATK. Now, Raging Anger doubles the ATK at the cost of halving our defence, so you will have 9999 ATK in battle. - The freezing and paralyzing effects are there to maximize the Dimension Door effect, you'll hit lots of enemies and many of them will get instantly Paralyzed or frozen (Victory Trophy). -The 10 Fury Drain factor (total of 20 Fury reduction) is very useful because you will break lots of guards with DD and you can keep them doing nothing with this. The +20 Critical HIt helps racking up the damage, and the +200 ATK just comes with the Mythril used and cannot get rid off. -The No HP Damage 30% of the time factor helps with survivability, but you shouldn't get hit much. -With a total of -5 Fury Use (max is 4-5 reduction, debatable) provided by the Victory Trophy and the -3 Fury Use factor you will be able to use DD a long time until the Fury gauge depletes. Tactics: The main purpose is to keep all enemies controlled with DD while they get killed, or to buy time to heal or escape. Stay in the middle, start with an Air Raid (careful to not get AAA'd) and keep using a 200% cancelled Dimension Door until the fury gauge is empty. Many enemies will end up shattered (frozen) or paralyzed. Remember your DEF is low, so try to not get hit; although you have a 1/3 chances of receiving 0 damage (No damage 30% of the time factor). Ratings: POWER: *** Good damage output, especially when fighting lots of enemies; you'll see lots of numbers at the screen. The final hit of Dimension Door is imba. SURVIVAL: ** Very low defence for Fayt, be careful, but remember that you have the handy No HP damage 30% of the time factor. SPEED: **** Fayt's speed helps to avoid attacks and get in the middle; also the teleporting blow of DD is very fast and damaging. STUNLOCKING: **** Dimension Door works very well at this, and so does Air raid, enjoy it. SUPPORT: *** Will keep enemies in place, paralyzing them, breaking guards, etc; and will be invaluable buying time to do anything, be it healing, killing or escaping. OVERALL: *** If you want someone to keep enemies helpless while dealing nice amounts of damage and like seeing red tornados making people appear and disappear, this is your setup. Behaviour: SOLO: ** With the poor defence and no healing capabilities, this build doesn't work well when solo, but if you are skilled you can perform decently as the damage output is quite good against groups on enemies. TEAM: **** The nice stunlocking and damage abilities make this an excellent addition to any team. The status alterations (freezing, etc) also help. AI CONTROL: **** The AI performs well; will cancel combo, and surprisingly it will let Dimension Door go for a long time, just as intended! o---------------o | Raid Fayt |-------------------------------------------------------(Gmche) o---------------o Class: OFFENSIVE: 100% HP Damager Skills: Short X: Blade of Fury Long X: Short O: Air Raid Long O: Support skills: Critical Hit HP Max Fury Equipment: Weapon: Levantine +1000 ATK +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +20 Fury reduction when guard broken No HP Damage 30% of the time Power-ups: 2 Health+ Berries and all Defence Berries given. Armour: Valiant Mail (Fully refined) Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Bunny Shoes Stats: ATTACK: 9999 (Raging Anger) DEFENSE: 3500 HP: 73000 MP: 8000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve MP Total Convert Damage: --- Berserk: ON Aura: Stun Tactic: Attack enemy with all your might! Formation: Front Description and Tactics: This build uses one of the best and quickest cancel-fodders, Blade of Fury, to chain to Air Raid and offer solid damage but above all vry quick disruption when needed. Air Raid knocks down very easily and interrupts any deadly attack if you time it well, but as said before, the characteristic that distinguishes this skill is the quickness to execute it. The +1000 ATK and five +30% ATK/DEF factors are more than enough to max ATK but also provide a high DEF, and there aren't many factors which are specially useful to this strategy: -The "+20 Fury reduction when guard broken" (Ring of Quietude) helps to the disrupting labor because the enemy will be left without fury most of the time with your quick Air Raid Chains -The "No HP Damage 30% of the Time" always increases survivability. The Bunny Shoes accessory is optional but very recommended , as you will be able to run quickly to an enemy and Air Raid them before they can react. Tactics: Stay away from the enemy if it's a dangerous one like Freya and quickly go for a BoF-Air Raid chain when you can. You will knock the mob down and interrupt the attack. Repeat when necessary and don't worry if you get hit, you've got a very solid defence, just stay alert for super-attacks. Ratings: POWER: *** Okay damage output, nothing special, but goes off very quickly and efficiently. As AR knocks down, you can't do lots of quick chains and expect to hit with all of them. SURVIVAL: **** Very high DEF will make you resistant to almost all attacks. SPEED: ***** Fayt achieves his sonic speed with the help of the Bunny Shoes. Air Raid has an almost instant execution. STUNLOCKING: ***** Best stunlocking-knocking down build for Fayt, is reliable and useful in this task. SUPPORT: **** Interrupting attacks quickly will prove incredibly valuable for most difficult fights, so nice support to the team here. OVERALL: **** Nice build if you want a very though helper with amazing speed, but suffers a bit in the damage output department, as you can't do more than 250% Air Raids. Really good build for end-game and very widely used. Behaviour: SOLO: **** His quickness is his best ally to defeat most enemies without trouble. TEAM: ***** The knockdown abilities and survivability are very recomended for any team. AI CONTROL: **** Nice control, no complaints here. O============================================================================== O Nel Zelpher (bBrpQ) O============================================================================== Nel is a faithful servant of the kingdom of Aquaria, and wields two daggers. She is an excellent fighter, with lots of good skills and one thing that makes her above-average: comes preloaded with the Healing spell. She has long fingers, too. Really, really long. And she doesn't put them precisely in some monster's eye... o--------------o | Mirror Nel |-------------------------------------------------------(Chiab) o--------------o Class: OFFENSIVE/Support: 75%/25% HP Damager Skills: Short X: Shockwave Long X: Short O: Mirror Slice Long O: Support skills: Critical hit HP Max Fury Equipment: Weapon: Death Bringers +1000 ATK +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +6% MP /Intervals +20% MP No HP Damage 30% of the Time Power-ups: All Magi+ Berries and one Health+ Berry given. Armour: Valkyrie Garb Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Victory Trophy Stats: ATTACK: 9999 DEFENSE: 2500 HP: 82000 MP: 28000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve HP Total Convert Damage: 196000 Berserk: ON Aura: Stun Tactic: Act in a well balanced manner! Formation: Front Description and Tactics: This build focuses on one of the best attacks in the game: the famous Mirror Slice. Using shockwave as a cancel-fodder (which does ok damage; too), Mirror Slice will juggle, throw a fireball, throw some lightning, and annihilate the unfortunate enemy. Has wide range, it's very quick, knocks down enemies and does very good damage: a 300% cancelled MS will do about 50.000 DMG each hit, and 80.000 if it's a critical (48% possibilities with Critical hit HP). Performs a total of 10 hits, so around 600.000 DMG. Max Fury will let you start almost immediately with another combo once the fury gauge has emptied. The +1000 ATK and 30% ATK/DEF are mainly for maxing ATK but also getting high DEF, now the other factors are the interesting ones. -The +20 MP factor and +6% MP/Intervals are the key to this strategy. With this setup Nel is a MP Tank; that means that with Convert Damage set to Preserve HP, you can take large quantities of DMG: exactly 196000. Actually more, because with a total of +12%MP/Intevals provided by the factor and the Victory Trophy you can regenerate 3360 MP every few seconds (which convert to 24000 more DMG). -The No HP Damage 30% of the Time factor is there because you take the HP damage before the conversion, so it adds even more survivability. As you can see, with 2500 DEF and that capacity of absorbing damage, you've got a very good Nel, which in Galaxy mode can perfectly solo Ethereal Queen (without even breaking a sweat) and survive an Ether Strike if not fully hit. Victory Trophy is invaluable in this build, because it provides the MP regeneration and something very important: 1/2 Casting time. Nel is a Hybrid, and you should take full potential of her Healing capabilities, which will save anyone from death in a few seconds, before returning to combat to Mirror Slice some faces. Tactics: Always try to knock down enemies with Mirror Slice and then sidestep a few seconds to heal Fayt or other teammate. Remember: as an offensive/support Hybrid, you can do a lot of DMG but also heal when needed, so Fayt can continue Ethereal Blasting, for example. Maxing MP: To make the ultimate MP Tank and Soloer, you have to spend all five Magi+ Berries on the chosen character, in this case is Nel. Of course, you can only have one ultimate MP Tank, so spend them on the one you like best or divide them so you have 2 decent Tanks. Ratings: POWER: ***** Excellent damage output, quick combos with lots of hits, and easy to cancel them. Once you connect the first 3 MS hits, the enemy will most likely eat the remaining 7 too. SURVIVAL: ***** As a MP Tank, Nel one of the highest survivabilities in the game; with 2500 DEF + 278000 Convert Damage you can survive almost anything, even part of an Ether Strike. SPEED: *** Average speed but quick hitting combos with MS. STUNLOCKING: *** Good stunlocking capabilities, with Mirror Slice you will always juggle the enemy for quite a long time, even small foes like Freya. SUPPORT: **** Incredible support skills, this is the attribute which makes Nel so good. You will use her Healing spell over and over (very quick with 1/2 casting time), and always have MP to do it thanks to the regeneration. She will always be alive to help other teammates, and the stunlocking and knockdown capabilities are just the icing in the cake. The only bad thing is that you must run out of the melee to efficiently heal. OVERALL: ***** One of the most balanced setups, has excellent damage capabilities combined with an imba defence and great support via Healing and juggling. Uber build. Behaviour: SOLO: ***** Great solo character, can win most battles thanks to her durability, damage, and juggling capabilities. TEAM: ***** Very good support and damage output also make Nel a must for any party. Some problems when trying to Heal, though, as you must get out of the melee. AI CONTROL: **** No problems for the AI with this setup, will cancel frequently and heal when someone is near death (around 25% HP). Would be cool if the AI started to heal when someone was at 50%-60% HP, though. o---------------o | Splitting Nel |-------------------------------------------------------(Chiib) o---------------o Class: OFFENSIVE/Support: 75%/25% MP Damager Skills: Short X: Long X: Flying Guillotine Short O: Long O: Splitting Sky Support skills: Critical hit HP Max Fury Equipment: Weapon: Death Bringers +1000 ATK Raging Anger +20% MP +20% MP 6% MP/Intervals 1/2 Casting time -3 Fury No HP Damage 30% of the Time Power-ups: All Magi+ Berries and one Health+ Berry given. Armour: Valkyrie Garb Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Victory Trophy Stats: ATTACK: 9999 (Raging Anger) DEFENSE: 1000-->Raging Anger-->500 HP: 82000 MP: 34000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve HP Total Convert Damage: 240000 Berserk: ON Aura: Stun Tactic: Act in a well balanced manner! Formation: Back Description and Tactics: This build uses one of the most MP damaging skills: Splitting Sky. This skill is quite good at long distance, it lets you damage the enemy as long as you press the button, the problem is that it's wind-elemental and has quite a long startup. Flying Guillotine is a multi-hitting skill that does good HP damage and lets you cancel to Splitting Sky. Reaching 5000 ATK with the weapon and Tri-Emblem, Raging Anger doubles this granting max attack, leaving room for other factors: -The +20% MP factors and 6%/Intervals gives some Convert Damage and makes you more resistant. No HP Damage 30% of the time helps. -1/2 Casting Speed will make your preloeaded Healing more valuable and its good because you attack from a distance. -The -3 Fury factor will let you maximize the Splitting Sky Damage by spending less fury every tick. Tactics: Stay at long range and start using Flying Guillotine and cancel to Splitting Sky, then keep pressing the button to make a lot of MP damage. Heal when necessary and if you get hit you can survive with all the mana you have, don't worry. Ratings: POWER: **** Very good MP damage but be very careful with wind-elemental resistances, they can screw you a lot. SURVIVAL: *** Low DEF but high convert damage and regeneration, also when being at long range you don't get hit as much. SPEED: *** Average speed, nothing special. STUNLOCKING: * Not much stunlocking here. SUPPORT: **** Good support with preloaded Healing, fast casting speed and nice MP damage. OVERALL: *** Nice build which loses a lot of potential just because of the elemental nature of Splitting Sky. Still quite efficient and fun to use. Behaviour: SOLO: ** You can have some problems when trying to stay at range and perform the skill. TEAM: **** Her support skills are valuable and a party gives her more space to Split the Sky. AI CONTROL: *** Okay control cancelling and healing. o---------------o | Wrath Nel |-------------------------------------------------------(Chiic) o---------------o Class: OFFENSIVE/Support: 75%/25% HP Damager Skills: Short X: Poison Cloud Long X: Lightning Chain Short O: Divine Wrath Long O: Support skills: Critical Hit HP Equipment: Weapon: Death Bringers +1000 ATK +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF -3 Fury +30% Movement Speed No HP Damage 30% of the Time Power-ups: Two Health+ Berries given. Armour: Valkyrie Garb Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Star Necklace Stats: ATTACK: 9999 DEFENSE: 2500 HP: 95000 MP: 12000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: --- Total Convert Damage: --- Berserk: ON Aura: Homing Tactic: Act in a well balanced manner! Formation: Front Description and Tactics: This build is very "meleeish" and fun to use. It uses one of Nel's more powerful attacks, Divine Wrath: While this does certainly godly damage, it also has some range issues (leaves you far away when the combo ends) and a slow startup. To solve this, we make an unusual mix of short and long range skills, the result is quite good!. Poison Cloud is the cancel-fodder, low damage at low fury cost (but can posion the enemy; this is awesome), after this you perform a 200% cancelled Divine Wrath which will massacre the enemy and leave you far away from him. This is now good, because he won't be able to hit you and you will inmediately chain a 250% cancelled Lighting Chain in his face, at the same time this damages him and leaves you in range for another 300% brutal Divine wrath which will make around 60000 or 80000 damage each time if it's a critical hit. And, you know, its "only" 18 hits. Do the math, but that's around 1200000 damage just for your amusement! With four +30% ATK/DEF factors you have a solid defense and max ATK: -The -3 fury factor will give you the opportunity to chain all the way to 300% with ease. -No Damage factor, as always, helps with the beating. -The +30% Movement Speed factor is there because you have to get in range quickly to chain the Divine Wrath. Also improves Nel in general. The Star Necklace helps to get a quick Healing after you combo. Tactics: As said before, chain all the way to 300%, then repeat. Heal when necessary. Ratings: POWER: ***** Tremendous HP damage if you manage to do the combo and extremely satisfying. The "hit" noises are just awesome too. SURVIVAL: **** Good defence, she can defend herself. SPEED: **** Good speed with the increase factor, and useful. STUNLOCKING: *** You can sometimes "stunlock" because of the continous knocking down. SUPPORT: **** Good support with preloaded Healing, fast casting speed and uber HP damage. OVERALL: **** Good build because it's quite original and very damaging, but sometimes the combo just won't work. Behaviour: SOLO: **** No problem at all when soloing. TEAM: ***** Her damaging an healing abilities are just incredible for any party. A must. AI CONTROL: ** Better control it yourself, the ultra inteligent AI sometimes won't understand WTF is going on with the short/long mix. o---------------o | Whirlwind Nel |-------------------------------------------------------(Chivd) o---------------o Class: OFFENSIVE: 100% HP Damager Skills: Short X: Increase HP Damage Long X: Short O: Whirlwind Long O: Whirlwind Support skills: Critical hit HP Max Fury Equipment: Weapon: Death Bringers +1000 ATK Raging Anger +30% Movement Speed +20% MP +20% MP +20% MP +20% MP +6% MP/Intervals Power-ups: Two Health+ Berries given. Armour: Valkyrie Garb Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Victory Trophy Stats: ATTACK: 9999 (Raging Anger) DEFENSE: 1200-->Raging Anger-->600 HP: 95000 MP: 35000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserv HP Total Convert Damage: 240000 Berserk: ON Aura: Homing Tactic: Act in a well balanced manner! Formation: Back Description and Tactics: This setup uses the (technically) most powerful skill in the game in terms of pure HP damage: Whirlwind. This ability creates a tornado around Nel which continously hits enemy for quite a lot of damage. You can get up to 50 hits, so an insane total amount damage. The problem is that it's difficult to hit with all of them and the skill is wind-elemental. Still, in the hands of an experienced player its very good. You can also abuse a little "glitch": when you hit inmediately after casting Whirlwind, the WW hits will get the passive effect attached to short X, in this case Increase HP damage (you can put stun, drain, etc). With Nel's weapon you can get 5000 ATK, so, as always, a Raging Anger will double it granting max ATK: -The +30% Movement Speed is useful because you'll be moving from long range to short range quite often to maximize the WW damage potential. -I've never explained it before, but the No HP Damage 30% of the time gives more survivability, good to know, huh? -All the +20% MP and 6% MP/Intervals factors are just to improve survivability with Convert Damage. Tactics: Cast WW at long range, get close to the enemy and massacre him with the tornado while using weak attacks. WW will get the benefit of Increase HP Damage if you hit inmediately after casting it. Repeat when the Whirlwind ends, this time from short range. You can sometimes juggle the enemy and keep him in the air defenceless with WW if you raise them to the air before. Take advantage of this, it can be very useful. Ratings: POWER: **** Best HP damage potential in the game, which gets crippled because WW is wind elemental and hard to get all the hits. SURVIVAL: **** Bad defence but lots of MP which improve this a lot. SPEED: **** Good speed with the increase factor, and useful. STUNLOCKING: ** You can "stunlock" pretty well with WW if the enemy has been launched to the air. SUPPORT: ** The preloaded Healing can save you sometimes, but your main purpose is to kill enemies, don't forget it. Good juggling support. OVERALL: **** Weird and different build for those who like to try interesting skills and are quite skilled themselves, if you get the hang you can kill superbosses in a breeze. Behaviour: SOLO: **** Try not to get hit after you've used WW and you'll be fine. TEAM: **** Juggling is awesome and great damage too. Good in a party. AI CONTROL: :O No, I haven't forgotten to rate it. Zero stars. The AI will be absolutely clueless of what it's supposed to do, so don't, ever, let the AI handle it. Stupid, I know. O============================================================================= O Maria Traydor (GnWgm) O============================================================================= This overpowered blue haired woman uses a gun as a weapon and has the best ranged capabilities of the game. o--------------o | Burst Maria |-------------------------------------------------------(Ixilm) o--------------o Class: OFFENSIVE/Support: 75%/25% HP Damager/MP Damager Skills: Short X: Long X: Aiming Device Short O: Long O: Energy Burst Support skills: Common Support Symbols Max Fury Equipment: Weapon: Dragoon Laser +1000 ATK Raging Anger +20% MP +20% MP +20% MP +6%MP/Intervals No HP Damage 30% of Time +30% Movement Speed Power-ups: All Magi+ Berries and all Strength+ Berries given Armour: Valkyrie Garb Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Victory Trophy Stats: ATTACK: 9999 (Raging Anger) DEFENSE: 800-->Raging Anger-->400 HP: 50000 MP: 48000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve HP Total Convert Damage: 330000 Berserk: ON Aura: Stun Tactic: Act in a well balanced manner! Formation: Back Description and Tactics: This build uses the best skill in the game hands down: Energy Burst. I'll dedicate a special section just to talk about this skill: -Energy Burst: This skill produces a huge blast from Maria's gun which lasts until the fury gauge empties or you stop pressing the button. During this period it hits lots of times for around 26000 HP and 3000 MP damage if 200% cancelled. You will get around 20-25 hits if you start the combo with full fury gauge, so the total damage inflicted is quite brutal, around 600.000 HP /69.000 MP Dmg. Apart from this, it "holds" the enemy in place, and if set on the strong slot it breaks guards like no tomorrow. So, in conclusion, imba damage, very fast start-up, "holder", long ranged, and can be stopped whenever you want (to evade an attack for example). Indeed the best skill. This build also uses Aiming Device a skill that inflicts some nice HP and MP damage, but the most important: it can lauch the enemy. While this may seem trivial, it can decide life or death when interrupting Freya from doing an Ether Strike. It also uses little fury, so fits in very well. If you do not care about this, AD can be perfectly subtituted with Scatter Beams. The Dragoon Laser combined with Maria's 1000 base ATK and the Tri-Emblem provides a total of 5000 ATK. Raging Anger doubles this, maxing ATK and leaving lots of empty slots; Maria's DEF is very low so it doesn't matter much the loss in defence. -The +20% MP factors are the key when it comes to durability: combined with the Magi+ Berries they provide an insane 330000 Convert Damage, which makes Maria the best MP Tank in the game. -The 6%MP/Intervals just gives even more longevity, with a total of 12% MP regeneration (with Victory Trophy) you will get back around 7000 MP every few seconds, which will convert to 49000 more damage you can suck. -No HP Damage 30% of the time lets you survive almost any attack and buys time to regenerate more MP. -The +30% Movement Speed makes you lose less time when approaching the enemy to perform an Energy Burst and facilitates avoiding incoming attacks. -Victory Trophy's bonuses are especially important with Maria, as every one of them is useful in some way: the -2 fury reduction helps when getting to the maximum reduction, the 1/2 casting time is indispensable when healing, the 6% MP regeneration is also important for a MP Tank, and the balls of light and freezing effect are just a nice bonus to the inmense offensive power. Tactics: Maria is an innate soloer, and will always be the last one standing even after being brutally beaten by a gang of Batistas, Great Khalis and Undertakers together. With this setup you must leave it to the AI to heal and buff, and when this is not needed, switch to Maria and make the enemy eat a good ration of Energy Burst until the fury gauge empties, then switch to another character. Rinse and repeat. Very simple to control, really. Ratings: POWER: ***** As overpowered as Maria is, this damage/support hybrid build provides insane amounts of damage. SURVIVAL: ***** The best survivability in the higher difficulties by far: being able to survive a total of 500.000 damage (counting MP regenerations and base HP) is definitely nothing to laugh at. Can perfectly survive most of Freya's attacks, except Ether Strike (but part of it!). SPEED: *** Maria's biggest flaw gets mostly solved here because of her great sidestep and the 30% Movement Speed increase factor. Energy Burst hits are very quick. STUNLOCKING: *** The Energy Burst beam doesn't stunlock strictly speaking, but it "holds" the enemy so that he doesn't get knocked down (but still flinches) and lets you hit with all of the attacks. Imagine a barrage of a 300% Ethereal Blast coupled with a Max Shockwave and the Energy Burst holding the enemy and damaging him. Insane. SUPPORT: ***** All the Support spells, Healing, the advantage of being ranged and an almost infinite mana supply make Maria one of the best support characters. The only "but" is that you don't have a Resurrection spell, but it's not even that viable in big fights, Analeptics are better. OVERALL: ***** Uber build with the best and most overpowered character: high damage, top-notch survivability and support and ranged damage. You can't ask for more. Behaviour: SOLO: ***** Ultimate solo character. Maria is always used to get those "Defeat Freya/Lenneth in 4D alone" for a reason: she is a semi-god. TEAM: ***** If Maria is the solo goddess, definitely a god in the team too. Her support skills (Healing and Protection), damage output and hard rock defences will make you drool. AI CONTROL: ***** The AI will do everything right: healing, buffing and even emptying the Fury gauge with a killer Energy Burst. o--------------o | Atomic Maria |-------------------------------------------------------(Iximn) o--------------o Class: Offensive/Support: 50%/50% HP Damager Skills: Short X: Increase HP/MP Damage Long X: Aiming Device Short O: Long O: Radiation Bots Support skills: Common Support Symbols Max Fury Equipment: Weapon: Dragoon Laser +1000 ATK Raging Anger +20% MP +20% MP -3 Fury Use +6%MP/Intervals No HP Damage 30% of Time +30% Movement Rate Power-ups: All Magi+ Berries and all Strength+ Berries given Armour: Valkyrie Garb Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Victory Trophy Stats: ATTACK: 9999 (Raging Anger) DEFENSE: 800-->Raging Anger-->400 HP: 50000 MP: 40000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve HP Total Convert Damage: 280000 Berserk: ON Aura: Stun Tactic: Act in a well balanced manner! Formation: Back Description and Tactics: This build works around one of the most damaging attacks if used well: Radiation Bots. This skill produces 4 robots that will mimic Maria's attacks and multiply the damage by the corresponding Cancel % Bonus. That means that, on average, a 300% cancelled robot will do around 42.000 damage, so approximately 180.000 damage each time counting Maria's own shot. Max Fury is important so you can shoot as soon as possible after summoning the robot, because cancelling will empty your Fury Gauge. The Dragoon Laser combined with Maria's 1000 base ATK and the Tri-Emblem provides a total of 5000 ATK. Raging Anger doubles this, maxing ATK and leaving lots of empty slots; Maria's DEF is very low so it doesn't matter much the loss in defence. -The +20% MP are the key when it comes to durability: combined with the Magi+ Berries they provide an insane 280000 Convert Damage, which makes Maria the best MP Tank in the game. -The 6%MP/Intervals just gives even more longevity, with a total of 12% MP regeneration (with Victory Trophy) you will get back around 5600 MP every few seconds, which will covert to 40000 more damage you can suck. -No HP Damage 30% of the time lets you survive almost any attack and buys time to regenerate more MP. -The +30% Movement Speed solves Maria's biggest flaw. Normally this isn't necessary because Maria's sidestep is so fast. But just because of this, you will normally shoot from as far as possible with Sidestep-shot and then return to the necessary distance to cancel Radiation Bots again. Thus, with all the running this is a must. -The -3 fury gives you the maximum fury reduction, which is necessary if you want to have some fury left for shooting after summoning the robots. If you wait for the fury gauge to refill (even with Max Fury) you lose some valuable time. Tactics: This setup involves some clever use of the AI and your own skills. Maria's primary function is Healing and supporting the team via Protection, but whenever you can, you must summon a 300% cancelled army of robots, regain some fury and use the Sidestep Shot until the robots disappear after 12 seconds. Why? Well, you can see that the Short X has the Increase HP/MP Damage skill assigned, which provides a 60% damage boost. The tricky thing is that the Sidestep Shot counts a short X attack, so if you use it you can get a 140% damage bonus (80% Sidestep Shot + 60% Increase HP/MP Dmg skill) over a normal shot. Another unique feature of this shot is that you can fire it at any distance, like Sophia's spells, so you don't have to run to the enemy and eat that Ether Strike. The tactic is this: switch to Maria when Healing is not needed, control her for 12 seconds with the Sidestep-Shot, get far away, and cast a Healing spell before switching to another character. Let the AI heal and buff, but don't expect it to damage a lot, do it yourself if you can. Ratings: POWER: **** If timed well it can produce tons of damage, the problem is that if you have to move or if you get hit, you lose some of those 12 seconds of Radiation Bots and have to start cancelling all over again, reducing the offensive power. Still, very good damage (in fact, best damage "potential"). SURVIVAL: ***** The best survivability in the higher difficulties by far: being able to survive around 500.000 damage (counting MP regenerations and base HP) is definitely nothing to laugh at. The fact that the ranged attacks are done from a safe distance and the great sidestep-evading just helps even more. SPEED: *** Maria's biggest flaw gets mostly solved with the +30% movement speed factor. STUNLOCKING: * Not much stunlocking capabilities, but this is not her function. SUPPORT: ***** All the Support spells, Healing, the advantage of being ranged and an almost infinite mana supply make Maria one of the best support characters. The only negative thing is that you don't have a Resurrection spell, but it's not even viable in big fights, Analeptics are better. OVERALL: **** Very nice build with high HP damage and supporting capabilities, the only flaw is the loss of offensive power every time you are attacked with your Radiation Bots out. Behaviour: SOLO: **** Being solo Maria is very exposed when cancelling to Radiation Bots and if you get hit you will lose time and lower your damage capabilities. TEAM: ***** Excellent in a team although you will have to switch to her every time you want to do damage. Supporting the team is no problem for her. AI CONTROL: * The AI will heal and buff well, but don't expect it to Sidestep-Shooting, obviously. o----------------o | Magnetic Maria |------------------------------------------------------(Ixino) o----------------o Class: OFFENSIVE: 100% MP Damager Skills: Short X: Long X: Magnetic Field Short O: Long O: Energy Burst Support skills: Critical Hit MP Equipment: Weapon: Dragoon Laser +1000 ATK +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF -3 Fury use No HP Damage 30% of Time +30% Movement Rate Power-ups: All Magi+ Berries given. Armour: Valkyrie Garb Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Victory Trophy Stats: ATTACK: 9999 DEFENSE: 2000 HP: 50000 MP: 16000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve HP Total Convert Damage: 112.000 Berserk: ON Aura: Stun Tactic: Attack enemy with all your might! Formation: Back Description and Tactics: This setup uses the best MP killing skill to easily beat most bosses: Energy Burst. With the low fury consume of the cancel fodder Magnetic Field, you can get around 28 hits for 3000 MP damage each, which is quite a lot indeed. With four +30% ATK/DEF factors you have max attack quite a solid defence : -The No HP Damage 30% of the time factor also helps when you get hit. -The 30% Movement Speed increase can help to avoid some attacks, but sidestepping is better. -The -5 total Fury reduction allows for a 1 Fury Magnetic Field and is key to get the maximum possible amount of Energy Burst hits. Tactics: This build is simple to use: just use Magnetic Field and cancel it to Energy Burst, then use until your Fury Gauge empties, which should be after 28 hits. The good thing of Magnetic Field is that you can use it anywhere at the field, so it's much safer when soloing superbosses. Note: With Maria the MP Tank Weapon always works well, so use it if you want. I put here this defence boosting one to have some variety. Ratings: POWER: ***** Best MP Damage output of the game, allows for relatively quick boss kills. SURVIVAL: *** Average defence and high amount of Convert Damage, 220.000 should make you survive the occasional hit, but the idea is not to get hit much. Only 6% MP regeneration, so be careful. SPEED: *** The +30% Speed factor helps Maria a lot and the Energy Burst hits are very quick. STUNLOCKING: **** Very good stunlocking: when the Burst is going it will keep the enemy in place. SUPPORT: ** Has some buffs but no Healing: its primary purpose is to kill. OVERALL: **** One of the most loved builds; it is indeed an excellent setup when soloing, but not Uber because it's almost exclusively oriented for soloing superbosses with MP kills. The problem is that most of the damage from other party members is usually HP damage, so having Magnetic Field (a mere cancel-fodder that doesn't produce any ranged damage) doesn't work well in a team. It also doesn't have room for Common support symbols, which gimps her even more in a team (no healing). Behaviour: SOLO: ***** Undoubtedly the best build to solo bosses, especially in 4D with the help of stun bombs. TEAM: *** No healing support and MP oriented damage doesn't make this setup very team friendly. AI CONTROL: **** Nice AI Control; if you let her she will empty the entire Fury Gauge with Energy Burst. Being a solo build, this is not very important though. o----------------o | Scatter Maria |------------------------------------------------------(Ixvop) o----------------o Class: OFFENSIVE: 100% HP Damager Skills: Short X: Scatter Beam Long X: Short O: Scatter Beam Long O: Aiming Device Support skills: No Guard Max Fury Equipment: Weapon: Dragoon Laser +1000 ATK Raging Anger +20% MP +20% MP +20% MP +6% MP/Intervals No HP Damage 30% of Time -3 Fury Power-ups: All Magi+ Berries given. Armour: Valkyrie Garb Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Victory Trophy Stats: ATTACK: 9999 DEFENSE: 800-->Raging Anger-->400 HP: 50000 MP: 48000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve HP Total Convert Damage: 330000 Berserk: ON Aura: Regeneration Tactic: Attack enemy with all your might! Formation: Front Description and Tactics: This setup uses Maria's most HP damaging skill (and one of the most damaging in the game): Scatter Beam. It has a peculiarity though; it must be used at close range to truly gert its potential. So with a close range Maria we murder the enemy chaining endless chains of Scatter Beam which will fire 10 deadly hits...at once. Scary. The Dragoon Laser combined with Maria's 1000 base ATK and the Tri-Emblem provides a total of 5000 ATK. Raging Anger doubles this, maxing ATK and leaving lots of empty slots; Maria's DEF is very low so it doesn't matter much the loss in defence. -The +20% MP are the key when it comes to durability: combined with the Magi+ Berries they provide an insane 330000 Convert Damage, which makes Maria the best MP Tank in the game. -The 6%MP/Intervals just gives even more longevity, with a total of 12% MP regeneration (with Victory Trophy) you will get back around 5600 MP every few seconds, which will covert to 40000 more damage you can suck. -No HP Damage 30% of the time lets you survive almost any attack and buys time to regenerate more MP. -The -3 fury gives you enough fury reduction to chain seven Scatter Beams until the fury gauge empties. Tactics: Get into close range and start Scatter Beaming the enemy until your fury gauge empties. Repeat. Having a brutal amount of MP and Comvert Damage you will almost never flinch thanks to No Guard, a very nice addition to this uncommon Maria. The enemy will die extremely quickly against such amount of bullets. Aiming device is thre just for CP filling purposes, it can sometimes interrupt attacks if you are lucky. Ratings: POWER: ***** Incredible HP Damage, and No Guard will avoid being interrupted. SURVIVAL: **** Very high Convert Damage so you can definitely take a beating, but being in close range puts you in danger and lowers survivability, so be careful. SPEED: * Maria's speed is her weak point, so you will have trouble avoiding attacks. STUNLOCKING: * No stunlocking, nothing more to say. SUPPORT: ** Has some buffs but no Healing: its primary purpose is to destroy. OVERALL: **** Good build for HP damage but doesn't take advantage of one of Maria's biggest assets: Her long range. Still, very useful and definitely good. Behaviour: SOLO: *** Maria doesn't really like being mobbed, but gets around it fairly well. TEAM: ***** With other team members tanking and helping, Maria can offer the best. AI CONTROL: *** The AI has a tendency to stay in long range, so you'll have to get her close. Cancel's nicely. O============================================================================== O Albel Nox (fKlRt) O============================================================================== This androgynous but Cooler-than-Dante (he wished...) character is a very skilled swordsman and a combo master. o--------------o | Fury Albel |-------------------------------------------------------(Iiabc) o--------------o Class: OFFENSIVE/Support: 75%/25% HP Damager Skills: Short X: Shockwave Swirl Long X: Short O: Double Slash of Fury Long O: Support skills: No Guard Common Support Symbols Equipment: Weapon: Fangs of the Wicked +1000 ATK +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF -3 Fury Use 1/2 Casting Time No HP Damage 30% of Time Shoots powerful balls of light when attacking Power-ups: 4 Health+ Berries and all Dexterity+ Berries given. Armour: Dragon Leather (fully refined) Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Bunny Shoes Stats: ATTACK: 9999 DEFENSE: 2000 HP: 99999 MP: 7000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve MP Total Convert Damage: --- Berserk: ON Aura: Homing Tactic: Don't use Coups de Grace! Formation: Front Description and Tactics: This build uses the various and powerful slashes Albel has at his disposal. Shockwave does okay damage, has low fury cost and the most imporant thing: it usually doesn't knock down, making it good to cancel with. It also costs only 2 CP, which is the reason I chose it over Double Slash, so you can fit in a Common Support Symbols. Double Slash of Fury does lots of damage (x 2) and juggles enemies very easily; you can keep pressing it to perform more slashes at the cost of some fury. With No Guard and max HP comboing will be easy. With a Tri-emblem and three +30% ATK/DEF factors it should be enough to maximize attack, leaving 4 slots to put other useful things: -The -3 Fury factor is essential for this setup because it allows a longer use of the Double Slash of Fury and his skills in general. -The No HP damage 30% of Time provides a nice defence to compensate that Albel's DEF isn't so high. -The shooting factors are a good addition because every few slashes you will fire some balls for 150% damage of the primary attack, which isn't bad. There aren't any enemies resistant to light, so these are the preferred fireworks: no one can absorb them (there is only 1 powerful balls of light factor in the game; it's in floor 210 of Sphere, so use it wisely). Albel's counter is another magnificent ability which will take advantage of the balls of light. -The Tri-Emblem, among other features, provides attack decision +2 this will skyrocket your damage sometimes allowing shooting lots of little bombs of light. -The 1/2 Casting Speed takes advantage of Albel's uber casting speed and makes him an even better sporadic Healer. Just heal in a second at continue slashing. -The Bunny Shoes help a lot because Albel's speed isn't very high and you need to move around a lot to return from the sides to catch another enemy in a Double Slash of Fury storm (DSoF takes you all over the battlefield). Tactics: Charge the enemy and start with some weak slashes, then start cancelling until you've got a 200% Double Slash of Fury chain going and massacre the enemy until the Fury gauge depletes. Your function is to stunlock the enemies, juggling and keeping them defenceless, all while doing high amounts of damage and occasionally Healing. Ratings: POWER: ***** Very good damage output, lots of quick double slashes will soon take care of most foes. SURVIVAL: **** High defense and maximum HP, you will survive most attacks. SPEED: **** High movement speed with Bunny Shoes and quickest hits in the game, the numbers will fly. STUNLOCKING: **** Excellent stunlocking capabilities with the incredible juggling of DS of Fury. You can literally keep an enemy flying for around 30 seconds totally defenceless. Until you hit a wall... Amusing. SUPPORT: ***** Albel has ultra-fast Healing and he is be very useful when it comes to keeping enemies defenceless, breaking Guards and juggling them. Magnificent. OVERALL: ***** Uber build, very balanced, with high ratings in all of its sections, high damage output and superb juggling. Until you hit the wall. That's his major problem. Behaviour: SOLO: **** Can perfectly beat any normal enemy but will suffer with superbosses if alone. TEAM: **** His stunlocking, damage, and general support make this character useful for any party, but sometimes DSoF interferes with the attacks of other members of the team. AI CONTROL: * The AI will not use the DS of Fury properly, so it's better to control Albel yourself. VARIANT o--------------------o | Slasher Albel |------------------------------------------------(Iiibc) o--------------------o Class: OFFENSIVE: 100% HP Damager Skills: Short X: Double Slash Long X: Short O: Double Slash of Fury Long O: Support skills: No Guard Equipment: Weapon: Dark Faerie Claw +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF No HP Damage 30% of the Time -3 Fury Use Shoots powerful balls of light when attacking. Power-ups: Four Health + Berries and all Dexterity+ Berries given. Armour: Dragon Leather (fully refined) Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Boots of Prowess Stats: ATTACK: 9999 DEFENSE: 2500 HP: 99999 MP: 7000 Differences: This build is more offensive with Double Slash, the classical option, and it also has "balls of light" shooting for more damage. Double Slash is quicker but costs 4 CP. Even though, it's an excelent setup. Ratings POWER: ***** SURVIVAL: ***** SPEED: *** STUNLOCKING: **** SUPPORT: *** OVERALL: ***** Behaviour: SOLO: **** TEAM: **** AI CONTROL: * o-------------------o | Doom Albel |---------------------------------------------------(Iiiic) o-------------------o Class: OFFENSIVE: 100% HP Damager Skills: Short X: Double Slash Long X: Short O: Hand of Doom Long O: Support skills: No Guard First Aid Equipment: Weapon: Dark Faerie Claw +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% Movement Speed No HP Damage 30% of Time Shoots powerful balls of light when attacking Power-ups: Four Health + Berries and all Dexterity+ Berries given. Armour: Dragon Leather (fully refined) Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Ring of Animosity (fully refined) Stats: ATTACK: 9999 DEFENSE: 3000 HP: 99999 MP: 7000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve MP Total Convert Damage: --- Berserk: ON Aura: Stun Tactic: Attack with all your might! Formation: Front Description and Tactics: This build uses the quick Double slash and the powerful Hand of Doom which can make a total of 7 hits if nothing misses. Some foes are especially vulnerable to this attack, Freya for example. You can massacre them at lighting speed! The Dark Faerie Claw is an unique weapon because it has the highest attack power of any of the virgin weapons (the ones that have 8 free slots). Thanks to this you can max attack by putting four +30% ATK/DEF factors so you also have a higher DEF. This makes it, objectively speaking, the best weapon in the game. The other factors are bonus aditions: -The No HP Damage 30% of the time factor, as always, will help tremendously coupled with the high DEF. -The movement speed increase will make Albel very good when alone and is a nice improvement in general. -The powerful balls of light factor will take advantage of the quick and deadly slashes that Albel performs with the sword and add even more damage. The Ring of Animosity is optional; you can put even more Boots of Prowess if you feel your Fury expense isn't very high. Tactics: Just go kick the enemy's ass with your combos and don't do anything else. This build is very "meleeish" so the high defence is important because you are definately going to be hit and No Guard will let you combo at ease while being damaged. Ratings: POWER: *** Good damage, especially if all hits land on target, as in the case of Freya. The problem is that Double Slash knocks down so some enemies won't take all the hits from Hand of Doom. SURVIVAL: **** High DEF and HP, can take lots of hits. SPEED: **** Good movement speed and Hand of Doom will combo lots of quick hits.. STUNLOCKING: ** Double Slash or Hand of Doom doesn't stunlock very well, but they knockdown a lot, so you'll have to rely on this. SUPPORT: * No support to the team with this build, his function is mainly killing enemies. OVERALL: *** Nice build if you want a okay damage (depending on the enemy) Albel who can defend himself. Behaviour: SOLO: **** Better build when solo, will handle enemies pretty well. TEAM: *** No stunlocking or healing spells, but contributes with his average damage output. AI CONTROL: **** The AI will normally cancel and kill quickly, so no problems here. o--------------o | Aura Albel |-------------------------------------------------------(Iivde) o--------------o Class: Offensive/Support: 50%/50% MP Damager Skills: Short X: Aerial Long X: Short O: Aura Wall Long O: Air Slash Support skills: Common Support Symbols Max Fury Equipment: Weapon: Fangs of the Wicked +1000 ATK +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% Movement Speed No HP Damage 30% of Time Shoots balls of light when attacking Shoots powerful balls of light when attacking Power-ups: Four Health + Berries and all Dexterity+ Berries given. Armour: Dragon Leather (fully refined) Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Star Necklace Stats: ATTACK: 9999 DEFENSE: 1600 HP: 99999 MP: 7000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve MP Total Convert Damage: --- Berserk: ON Aura: Homing Tactic: Don't use Coups de Grace! Formation: Front Description and Tactics: This build uses the famous Aura Wall to have the enemies constantly stunlocked. This skill creates a wall of skulls which MP damages any enemy that comes close enough. The good thing is that it hits lots of times every second, so it's easy to break guards and achieve very high combos with this. The disadvantage is that it's wind elemental, so be careful when using it or the AW will be absorbed. Aerial can juggle the enemy, making it the ideal skill to use before putting a Wall below the enemy, he won't be able to escape. The Air Slash is just there as a bonus, because we have plenty of CP's. Having maxed ATK with a few +1000 ATK and +30% ATK/DEF factors, we will put some more: -The +30% Movement Speed is essential: to play this setup skillfully, you must constantly change targets, just place an Aura Wall on some enemies face and run to kill the other one while this one is getting owned by the skulls. Thus, constant and high running speed is necessary. -The Balls of light factors are the key to this strategy and to boost the damage capabilities of Albel. -The No HP Damage 30% of the time factor will increase survivability. -If you need fury reduction for some reason use a Ring of Animosity, but if you just want more survivability use another pair of Boots of Prowess. Tactics: As said before, place an Aura wall of some enemy, and while he is stunlocked go for another enemy (use Manual Targeting and press square) and start using short weak slash move, now the Aura Wall you placed before keeps hitting the enemy while you do lots of damage with the slashes thanks to the fireworks factors (balls of light). This way you keep all enemies controlled while they get slaughtered by you and the other party members (with all this moving around the 30% Speed increase is very important). And there's even more, because you can place an AW in some enemy and keep him stunlocked while you Heal with your Common support symbols. If you are fighting a superboss, try to slash him while the Aura Wall is in place, and when it disappears, immediately place another one. This strategy is very effective. Ratings: POWER: ** Aerial provides some HP damage and Aura Wall some MP damage. Not very damaging in general (the balls of light help a lot), although okay for MP kills. SURVIVAL: *** Average DEF and high HP, can take a beating. SPEED: **** Good movement speed and the Aura Wall will get lots of hits very quickly. STUNLOCKING: ***** Albel's best stunlocking build, its his speciality. SUPPORT: ***** Excellent support when keeping enemies in place, stunlocking, juggling, and Healing. OVERALL: **** It's a good build for stunlocking and helping the other teammates. The problem is that is does little damage, and most of it is MP damage, which superbosses have lot of. Still, very valuable if used well and with perfect timing. Behaviour: SOLO: *** Average when solo, but can kill most enemies. TEAM: ***** Best when in a team, can offer lots of advantages. AI CONTROL: * The AI will stick to only one enemy and can't use this build properly (and he will use Aura wall only once), so control it yourself. o---------------o | Vampire Albel |-------------------------------------------------------(Ivefg) o---------------o Class: Offensive/Support: 50%/50% HP Damager/MP Damager Skills: Short X: Double Slash Long X: Short O: Vampire Flash Long O: Support skills: Max Fury Common Support Symbols Equipment: Weapon: Fangs of the Wicked +1000 ATK +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF -3 Fury Use No HP Damage 30% of Time 1/2 Casting time Shoots powerful balls of light when attacking Power-ups: Four Health + Berries and all Dexterity+ Berries given. Armour: Dragon Leather (fully refined) Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Victory Trophy Stats: ATTACK: 9999 DEFENSE: 1600 HP: 99999 MP: 8400 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: --- Total Convert Damage: --- Berserk: ON Aura: Stun Tactic: Attack with all your might! Formation: Front Description and Tactics: This setup uses a full powered (9999 ATK) Vampire Flash to kill all enemies around Albel while gaining massive amounts of HP and MP. One +1000 ATK and a few +30% ATK/DEF factors should be enough to max attack power, if not, give him a few Strength Berries, as is it especially important to have this parameter maxed to get the most of this build. -The 6%MP/ Intervals fator is very important because Vampire Flash is one of the few skills that use MP instead of HP, and, although you regain a lot by using it, you don't want to be stuck without the necessary MP to perform the skill. Also helps with Convert Damage, if you put the Ring of Mental Power you've got a total of 12% MP/Intervals. -The +20% MP also helps with survivability via Convert HP Damage. -The -3 Fury Use will get you more Vampire Flash ticks if you keep the button pressed. -No HP Damage factor, as always, is useful to help with the defences. -A Victory Trophy will be excellent in this build if you haven't spent it yet. The 1/2 casting time improves the already fastest casting speed in the game and the 6% MP/Intervals improves the durability of this MP Tank. Fury reduction, balls of light and freezing are a bonus to the attacking capabilities of Albel. If you don't have a Victory Trophy to spare, stick with a Ring of Mental Power. Tactics: Keep a little distance between you and the enemies and knock them down with a Double Slash. While they are down, start with a 200% cancelled Vampire Flash and suck out their life while gaining monstrous amounts of HP and MP. Rinse and repeat. Remember this works better against multiple normal enemies. Against superbosses you must have someone else to tank or to distract the enemy, don't forget it. When you aren't Vampire Flashing, use your uber casting speed to Heal all your teammates. Ratings: POWER: *** Average damage with DS but Vampire Flash is very good if there is more than one enemy. SURVIVAL: **** This (very) special skill lets you regain most of the HP/MP you lose because of the attacks, couple this with an okay DEF and you've got some nice survivability. SPEED: *** So-so speed, nothing outstanding. STUNLOCKING: ** DS knocks down, but remember that Vampire Flash barely affects the enemy movement and doesn't knock them down or stun them in any way. SUPPORT: **** Excellent support trough the ultra fast Healing and Vampire Flash will flinch the enemies a little bit. OVERALL: **** Good setup, with a balanced Power/Survival ratio thanks to the absorbing capabilities and very fast Healing speed. Behaviour: SOLO: ** Difficult to use when solo because you must avoid getting hit (below is another variant with No Guard, this mainly solves the problem) but you can kill enemies without ever needing to use an item, thanks to Vampire Flash. TEAM: **** Works best in a team with other people to distract the enemies and at the same time makes sure nobody dies with his healing capabilities. AI CONTROL: *** The AI will cancel correctly but sometimes will not use Vampire Flash at the right moment. VARIANT o--------------o | Flash Albel |-------------------------------------------------------(Ivifg) o--------------o Class: OFFENSIVE: 100% HP Damager/MP Damager Skills: Short X: Double Slash Long X: Short O: Vampire Slash Long O: Support skills: No Guard Equipment: Weapon: Fangs of the Wicked +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +20% MP +20% MP No HP Damage 30% of the Time Power-ups: Four Health + Berries and all Dexterity+ Berries given. Armour: Dragon Leather (fully refined) Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Victory Trophy Stats: ATTACK: 9999 DEFENSE: 3000 HP: 99999 MP: 13000 Convert Damage: Preserve HP Total Convert Damage: 91000 Differences: This build is much more tank oriented. The idea is as follows: with over 3000 DEF, a huge amount of HP and Convert damage on, just start to suck HP and MP with Vampire Flash. The beauty of this is that you wont flinch because of No Guard, and if you don't flinch you can keep sucking life while the enemy is beating you, and thus regaining life so No Guard continues being useful . This forms a very nice "circle of events" that will let you solo most enemies (not superbosses though). Ratings POWER: *** SURVIVAL: ***** SPEED: *** STUNLOCKING: ** SUPPORT: ** OVERALL: **** Behaviour: SOLO: **** TEAM: *** AI CONTROL: *** O============================================================================== O Cliff Fittir (cRftR) O============================================================================== He's the "funny-one" and very skilled with marcial arts. Apparently, Mirage has beaten him around 1600 times. o-----------------o | Shockwave Cliff |-----------------------------------------------------(OPiab) o-----------------o Class: OFFENSIVE: 100% HP Damager/MP Damager Skills: Short X: Long X: Max Shockwave Short O: Long O: Max Shockwave Support skills: Critical Hit HP First Aid Equipment: Weapon: Mythril Gauntlets +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF Power-ups: 1 Health+ Berries Armour: Valiant Mail (fully refined) Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Ring of Animosity (fully refined) Stats: ATTACK: 9999 DEFENSE: 4500 HP: 75000 MP: 6000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve MP Total Convert Damage: --- Berserk: ON Aura: Stun Tactic: Attack with all your might! Formation: Back Description and Tactics: The famous and best build for Cliff: Max Shockwave ownage. With this you can chain long range Max Shockwaves which do tons of damage and "stunlock" the enemy (MS juggles the bosses preventing them from doing anything). Very efficient and useful. With eight +30% ATK/DEF you've got a maxed attack and a very good defence: -The Ring of Animosity lets you chain more Max Shockwaves, although this is optional. Tactics: Stay at long range and start spamming Max Shockwave, you'll keep the superbosses defenceless while doing massive damage. Repeat until the superboss dies. Delay a little your Max Shockwaves so that each one hits the enemy (Freya for example) just as she's trying to get up, that way you can keep them permanently knocked down. Try to avoid any attack against you and rely on your uber defence if you get hit. Very easy to control. Ratings: POWER: ***** Quite massive damage output, but MS has a very slow startup. At long range this doesn't matter much. SURVIVAL: ***** Great HP and defence, you are a rock! SPEED: **** Very good speed, helps when trying to stay at range. STUNLOCKING: ***** Very, very good juggling, you can continously interrupt everything if you time your MS well. SUPPORT: *** No support spells but superb juggling support. OVERALL: ***** Cliff's best build by far (also applies to the similar setup "Max Cliff"), excels against superbosses like Freya due to Ether Strike interruption and superb damage. Behaviour: SOLO: **** Good when solo but be careful because MS startup is very slow. TEAM: ***** Magnificent in any team as a damage dealer and juggler. AI CONTROL: *** The AI has no problems cancelling MS at long range, but Cliff will sometimes go melee. VARIANT o---------------o | Max Cliff |-------------------------------------------------------(OPiib) o---------------o Class: OFFENSIVE/Support: 75%/25% HP Damager/MP Damager Skills: Short X: Long X: Max Shockwave Short O: Long O: Max Shockwave Support skills: Common Support Symbols First Aid Equipment: Weapon: Valorous Gauntlets +1000 ATK +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF +30% ATK/DEF -3 Fury Use +20% HP No HP Damage 30% of Time No MP Damage 30% of Time Power-ups: 1 Health+ Berries given. Armour: Valiant Mail (fully refined) Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Star Necklace Stats: ATTACK: 9999 DEFENSE: 2500 HP: 95000 MP: 6000 Differences: A more supportive setup which sacrifices some power (random Critical HP hits) to offer one of the fastest Healing (especially with the 1/2 casting time factors) and with the advantage of being at long range. It also has more HP and two "No Damage" factors to improve survivability. Attack with some Max Shockwave chains, cast a ultra-quick healing and continue Max Shockwaving the enemy to death. This build is even better than the previous one if your team doesn't have a "pure" healer like Sophia. Uber setup. Ratings POWER: **** SURVIVAL: ***** SPEED: **** STUNLOCKING: ***** SUPPORT: ***** OVERALL: ***** Behaviour: SOLO: ***** TEAM: ***** AI CONTROL: *** O============================================================================== O Sophia Esteed (sQtsT) O============================================================================== This adorable/repelent girl has some kickass spells, but she's very fragile. A pure mage. o---------------o | Strike Sophia |-------------------------------------------------------(Sqabc) o---------------o Class: Offensive/SUPPORT: 25%/75% HP Damager Skills: Short X: Long X: Thunder Flare Short O: Long O: Lightning Strike Support skills: Quick Symbol Equipment: Weapon: Adept's Staff +1000 INT +1000 INT +1000 INT 1/2 Casting Time 6 % MP/Intervals No MP Damage 30% of Time +20% MP +50% Damage to Wind spells Power-ups: 2 Health+ Berries given. Armour: Seraphic Garb (fully refined) Accessory 1: Bangle of Intellect (fully refined) Accessory 2: Bangle of Intellect (fully refined) Stats: ATTACK: 1000 DEFENSE: 600 INTELECT: 9999 HP: 60000 MP: 15000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve HP Total Convert Damage: 105000 Berserk: ON Aura: Stun Tactic: Concentrate on Healing/Recovery! Formation: Back Description and Tactics: This build mixes the best stunlocking spell, Thunderflare, with a stunlocking- damaging spell, Lightning Strike. The result is a balanced setup which can be used at any range. In Sophia's case the objective is to max INT, so the most efficient way to do it is to put three +1000 INT factors in the weapon and two Bangles of Intellect. Why? Well the accessories provide two +30% INT factors each, saving space in the weapon. The other useful features are the following: -1/2 Casting Time is very important to heal and buff quickly, Sophia's primary role. -The +20% MP and 6%MP factors are impotant because Sophia uses MP with all of his spells. It also gives more durability. -No MP Damage 30% of the Time has a tricky use. Most post-game bosses use attacks that drain HP and MP, and with Convert Damage you will get killed by the MP part most of the time. With this, you will Convert the HP part but nullify the MP damage (1/3 chance), effectively using the 60.000 HP cushion you have. -As this is a more offensive strategy, +50% Damage to our primary spells (wind elemental) will help to kill more quickly. Tactics: Stand in the back row and try to stun the enemies with your thunder spells, but don't forget that the primary purpose is to heal and resurrect. If you get hit, sidestep and pray you don't get killed, you are very fragile. Ratings: POWER: *** Medium damage output and elemental, so it can be resisted or absorbed. The best thing is being able to cast the spells at any distance. SURVIVAL: ** Very low DEF, you are dead if you get caught in a big attack but hopefully you will run and Convert damage will save you. SPEED: * Snail's speed, don't let enemies approach you! STUNLOCKING: ***** Best stunlocking spells in the game; you will keep all enemies immobilized and it will be great help in Universe and 4D mode especially. SUPPORT: ***** Best stunlocking character, all Healing and support spells, Ressurection make Sophia one of the best helpers, only Maria is on par with her. OVERALL: ***** A dedicated supporting build with lots of excellent features make this setup very useful for any team and difficulty. Behaviour: SOLO: * Ugh, Sophia alone is not very nice. Low speed and not so high damage will get you killed most of the times. TEAM: ***** In a party is where she shines. A must for any team, try to control her when fighting Freya and you will always survive if you attack from a long distance. AI CONTROL: **** The AI will heal, resurrect, and cancel, but it is annoying that sometimes Sophia will get near to do a weak long attack and get instantly killed. VARIANT o---------------o | Thunder Sophia |-------------------------------------------------------Sqbcd o---------------o Class: Offensive/SUPPORT: 25%/75% HP Damager Skills: Short X: Long X: Thunder Flare Short O: Long O: Thunder Flare Support skills: Quick Symbol Increase MP Equipment: Weapon: Adept's Staff +1000 INT +1000 INT +1000 INT 1/2 Casting Time 6 % MP/Intervals 6% MP/Intervals No MP Damage 30% of Time +20% MP Power-ups: 2 Health+ Berries given. Armour: Seraphic Garb (fully refined) Accessory 1: Bangle of Intellect (fully refined) Accessory 2: Bangle of Intellect (fully refined) Stats: ATTACK: 1000 DEFENSE: 600 INTELECT: 9999 HP: 60000 MP: 20000 Differences: A more defensive setup with Thunderflare on both slots to maximize stunlocking and more MP % augments (support skill) and MP Regeneration to have more survivability with Convert Damage. Less power than the previous setup. Ratings POWER: ** SURVIVAL: *** SPEED: * STUNLOCKING: ***** SUPPORT: ***** OVERALL: ***** Behaviour: SOLO: ** TEAM: ***** AI CONTROL: **** o---------------o | Meteor Sophia |-------------------------------------------------------(Sqcde) o---------------o Class: Offensive/Support: 50%/50% HP Damager Skills: Short X: Long X: Fire Bolt Short O: Long O: Meteor Swarm Support skills: Quick Symbol Equipment: Weapon: Adept's Staff +1000 INT +1000 INT +1000 INT 1/2 Casting Time 6 % MP/Intervals -3 Fury -1 Fury & + 5% Speed +50% Damage to Fire spells Power-ups: 2 Health+ Berries given. Armour: Seraphic Garb (fully refined) Accessory 1: Bangle of Intellect (fully refined) Accessory 2: Bangle of Intellect (fully refined) Stats: ATTACK: 1000 DEFENSE: 600 INTELECT: 9999 HP: 60000 MP: 12400 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve HP Total Convert Damage: 105000 Berserk: ON Aura: Stun Tactic: Concentrate on Healing/Recovery! Formation: Back Description and Tactics: This build uses the most powerful spell in the game: Meteor Swarm. This spell sends huge meteors over the entire field which also does great damage; the problem is that it takes a lot of time to cast and tons of fury. In Sophia's case the objective is to max INT, so the most efficient way to do it is to put three +1000 INT factors in the weapon and two Bangles of Intellect. Why? Well the accessories provide two +30% INT factors each, saving space in the weapon. The other useful features are the following: -1/2 Casting Time is very important to heal and buff quickly, Sophia's primary role. -The 6%MP factor is important because Sophia uses MP with all of his spells. It also gives more durability. -No HP Damage 30% of the Time gives her more survivability in general. Because this is a more offensive strategy we don't even have lots of MP to tank, so this should make you able to take the occasional hit, but you'll be dead very quickly even so. -The key to this strategy is to get a total of -4 Fury reduction, this way we can cancel Meteor Swarm to 250% and do tons of damage. We accomplish this with the -3 Fury and an extra -1 Fury factor. This way we will have exactly 0 (nothing) Fury left when cancelling Meteor Swarm for the second time. -The +50% Damage to fire spells improves a lot our damage since MS is fire- elemental. Tactics: Stand in the back row and try to cast a full cancelled Meteor Swarm. It takes lot of time, so switch to another character in the meantime and distract the enemy until you see that Bruce Willis and his Armageddon have come to your game. Ratings: POWER: **** When you finally cast MS prepare to massacre the entire battle field, nothing will survive except the though superbosses. SURVIVAL: * Very low DEF and no MP durability, so not get hit by any chance. SPEED: * Snail's speed, don't let enemies approach you! STUNLOCKING: **** MS stunlocks pretty well, and not only one enemy, all of them! SUPPORT: ***** Best stunlocking character, all Healing and support spells, Resurrection... make Sophia one of the best helpers, only Maria is on par with her. OVERALL: **** A good damage setup that can be used at any point in the field and covers all of it. Has some excellent support features too. Behaviour: SOLO: * Don't even try this. You'll see Sophia dancing for five minutes and when you finally shout "Omg is teh Meteor Swarm!!11 a little soothie will come and happily kill you. TEAM: **** In a team with other to protect her you can perform quite well, but sometimes you won't heal in time because of the MS dancing. AI CONTROL: **** The AI will heal, resurrect, and cancel, but it is annoying that sometimes Sophia will get near to do a weak long attack and get instantly killed. o------------------o | Explosion Sophia |----------------------------------------------------(Itls2) o------------------o Class: OFFENSIVE/Support: 75%/25% HP Damager Skills: Short X: Long X: Explosion Short O: Long O: Explosion Support skills: Standby Healing Equipment: Weapon: Adept's Staff +1000 INT +1000 INT +1000 INT +20% MP 6 % MP/Intervals -3 Fury No HP Damage 30% of the Time +50% Damage to Fire spells Power-ups: 2 Health+ Berries given. Armour: Seraphic Garb (fully refined) Accessory 1: Bangle of Intellect (fully refined) Accessory 2: Bangle of Intellect (fully refined) Stats: ATTACK: 1000 DEFENSE: 600 INTELECT: 9999 HP: 60000 MP: 15000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve HP Total Convert Damage: 126000 Berserk: ON Aura: Stun Tactic: Act in a well balanced manner! Formation: Back Description and Tactics: This setup uses chains of the dreaded spell Explosion to anihilate all forms of life. And its an effective method, except when the enemy is fire-absorbing. Having maxed INT with the usual procedure, let's see the other factors: -The +20% MP and the 6% MP/Intervals improve durability and make sure you always have mana to cast Explosion, beause its quite expensive. NO Damage 30% of the time also helps at this. -The -3 Fury is mandatory in this build, as it allows to cancel explosion all the way to 300%. -Explosion being fire-elemental, the +50% damage to Fire spells just makes you do a lot more damage, don't even try this setup without this! Ratings: POWER: **** Explosion is extremely powerful and can be chained easily to have multiple Explosions in the battlefield. SURVIVAL: ** Very low DEF but some Convert Damage coupled with MP regereration and a No Damage factor. SPEED: * Snail's speed, don't let enemies approach you! STUNLOCKING: **** Explosion stunlocks surprisingly well, if you catch an enemy he will be in trouble. Still not as good as the stunlocking king: Thunderflare. SUPPORT: ***** Best stunlocking character, all Healing and support spells, Resurrection make Sophia one of the best helpers, only Maria is on par with her. OVERALL: **** A cool damaging build which will make the battle a true chaos, with three Explosions going on there is too much confusion, but it's very fun! Behaviour: SOLO: ** A little better for Sophia because casting Explosion is relatively wuick, but you'll suffer a lot. TEAM: ***** As always, with a team Sophia shines with all her Healing, stunlocking, and killing. AI CONTROL: *** The AI will heal, resurrect, and cancel, but it is annoying that sometimes Sophia will get near to do a weak long attack and get instantly killed. O============================================================================== O Adray Lasbard (Sqdef) O============================================================================== This underrated and emarginated character isn't as bad as it seems: with the right setup and equipment, this melee mage can do a nice job. Reminds me of the Retribution Paladin of World of Warcraft for those who have played it; without the right weapon, it was cow poo. o---------------o | Cross Adray |-------------------------------------------------------(Sqefg) o---------------o Class: Offensive/Support: 50%/50% HP Damager/MP Damager Skills: Short X: Aerial Long X: Short O: Southern Cross Long O: Support skills: No Guard Max Fury Equipment: Weapon: Heavenly Spirit +1000 ATK Raging Anger +1000 INT +1000 INT +1000 INT +30% INT 6 % MP/Intervals No HP Damage 30% of Time Power-ups: All Magi+ Berries and all Intellect + Berries Given Armour: Ablative Shield Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Bangle of Intellect (fully refined) Stats: ATTACK: 9999 (Raging Anger) DEFENSE: 400-->Raging Anger-->200 INTELECT: 9000 HP: 50000 MP: 19000 Tactical Skills: Convert Damage: Preserve HP Total Convert Damage: 130000 Berserk: ON Aura: Stun Tactic: Act in a well balanced manner! Formation: Back Description and Tactics: This is a very special setup. It uses an unique mix a physical skills (Aerial) with one of the best Area Spells: Southern Cross. The Aerial can hit up to 3 times and does surprisingly good damage, and Southern Cross will own all enemies in a large area. The good thing is that the Aerial skill knocks the enemies down, allowing to cast a cancelled Southern Cross. The ultimate weapon, Heavenly Spirit, has a very high ATK power and a +1000 ATK factor. Combine this with a Tri-Emblem and Adray's base attack and you get near 5000. We just put Raging Anger which doubles attack at the cost of halving our DEF (Adray's DEF is so low that it doesn't even matter at all) and we get the perfect 9999 ATK while still having 6 empty slots. Being a melee mage, INT is also very important and Adray is the only character that has to dedicate almost everything to have both parameters (ATK and INT) maxed. -With 3 +1000 INT factors, a +30% INT and a Bangle of Intellect (2 more +30% INT factors), we get near the 9000's, just give a few Berries and you have a very nice INT stat. -Having this almost maxed, we have a slot left to improve a little our survivability, what's why we will use a "No HP Damage 30% of the Time" factor. -The +6%MP/Intervals just ensures that we don't run out of MP, if you do; use physical attacks until the magic points replenish. Tactics: Go into the fray and try to get in an Aerial, then immediately perform a Southern Cross (Aerial knocks down which is perfect for the strategy), this will kill most enemies around; if they don't die, keep attacking until a 300% cancelled Southern Cross gets the job done. Remember you are very fragile, so don't get hit at all and try to sidestep frequently. Also try to heal when needed, as you are a support hybrid. Ratings: POWER: **** Surprisingly good HP and MP damage output; the enemies will burn in hell. SURVIVAL: ** You are a glass canon. Don't ever let anybody hit you or prepare to get killed easily, although Convert Damage helps a lot. SPEED: * Turtle's speed. Now the question is: which is faster, a snail or a turtle? Hmm. STUNLOCKING: ** Aerial will knock down easily, but Southern Cross will not. SUPPORT: **** Good support (all spells) but some problems when trying to get out of the melee to heal. OVERALL: ***** Easily the best build for this "special" character, this is the way to go if you want to have fun mass-owning normal enemies. Behaviour: SOLO: ** The bad survivability and speed can get you frustrated, but if done well the enemies will fall quickly. TEAM: **** In a party he isn't the centre of attention and can do his job without getting constantly punished. AI CONTROL: *** Takes a while, but at some point the AI will learn to go melee and cancel Aerial-->Southern Cross. In this case I don't know what to think about the AI training nay-sayers, just try it yourself. VARIANT o---------------o | Chaos Adray |-------------------------------------------------------(Sqfgh) o---------------o Class: OFFENSIVE/Support: 75%/25% HP Damager/MP Damager Skills: Short X: Aerial Long X: Chaos Tide Short O: Southern Cross Long O: Support skills: Critical Hit HP Equipment: Weapon: Adept's Staff +1000 ATK Raging Anger +1000 INT +1000 INT +1000 INT +30% Movement Speed +30% INT No HP Damage 30% of the Time Power-ups: All Intellect+ Berries given Armour: Ablative Shield (fully refined) Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Victory Trophy Stats: ATTACK: 9999 (Raging Anger) DEFENSE: 400-->Raging Anger-->200 INTELECT: 5200 HP: 50000 MP: 9000 Differences: A more offensive and speedy setup which takes advantage of Chaos Tide to get to the enemies in a second. Victory Trophy features lots of useful factors like 1/2 casting time, MP regeneration, -2 Fury use, or ball emiting. The weak point is that INT isnt' maxed, but Southern Cross still does plenty of damage. Nice and fun to use. Ratings POWER: **** SURVIVAL: * SPEED: *** STUNLOCKING: ** SUPPORT: **** OVERALL: **** Behaviour: SOLO: *** TEAM: **** AI CONTROL: *** O============================================================================== O Peppita Rossetti (Itcra) O============================================================================== This cute little girl has a tweety voice but packs some really powerful skills. -------------------------------<<< COMING SOON!!! >>> ------------------------- O============================================================================== O Mirage Koas (kKpRe) O============================================================================== A klausian woman friend of Cliff rumored to appear in a Devil May Cry prequel. She's really good at juggling and her fast speed helps a lot. -------------------------------<<< COMING SOON!!! >>> ------------------------- O============================================================================== O Roger S. Huxley (BtLtT) O============================================================================== This little tough boy recently won a head-size contest against Ness, and rumors say he brutally beat up Harry Potter in another competition: the Real Man Contest! -------------------------------<<< COMING SOON!!! >>> ------------------------- o-------------------------o | Character Tier List |---------------------------------------------(lgDIx) o-------------------------o Mmm, I love tiers. Let's see: Top Tier: 1) Maria: She is the best: ranged, brutal damage with Scatter Beam-->Energy Burst chains, best MP tanking, best sidestep, most of her damage skills don't interfere in the team and she also has almost all the support spells (Protection..) 2) Fayt: Highest natural defense, one of the best and most powerful skills in the game: Ethereal Blast, best movement speed, Side-Kick evasion, good stunlocking/juggling with Dimension Door/Air Raid... 3) Cliff: The best main-game and at the top post-game with the godly Max Shockwave chains, which is his reason to be. Sadly, that's his only "ultimate" build (being strict). Still, MS is so good (insane stunlocking/knockdown/juggling and damage output) that coupled with Cliff's high natural HP and DEF make him one of the best. High Tier 4) Albel: The best stunlocker hands down, Aura Wall is awesome, DSoF offers godly juggling, best casting speed, can attack from range with Air Slash of Fury. 5) Nel: Mirror Slice is just awesome, fast, easy to use, knocks down, does good damage. Whirlwind is also good. She comes with preloaded Healing, and has decend movement speed and defence. 6) Peppita: Dream Hammer and Faerie Friend are ownage, but her most useful skill, Power Dance, isn't so good post-game because some people want every character to have their ATK maxed without help. If you want to "experiment" with weapons, then Peppita is definitely Top Tier. Also, Counter-Peppita is incredible for superboss fights, allowing to avoid very powerful attacks. Middle Tier 7) Sophia: Useful because she can attack at any range, but magic isn't very good in SO3 and she gets killed in a few hits... Very good support character though. 8) Mirage: A worse version of Cliff, there are few reasons to choose her above him, really. This reasoning can generate hot debates though. She has some nice juggling skills which do good damage, and second best speed in the game. Low Tier 9) Roger: He's good main-game, having very high HP natural values, and being small makes him an excellent tank, but post-game he loses lots of power for not having "uber skills", only average ones that in the end don't make the difference. Bottom Tier 9) Adray: Sometimes underrated, Aerial-Southern Cross chains are ownage, but still his horrible speed and defence still make him the worse character. I know tier lists are very controversial and I'm already waiting the massive amount of "whine" mails that will come, but it's all in the fun: this are only orientative ratings based on my experience. --------------------------o | Battle Skills Tier List |---------------------------------------------(lgDIz) o-------------------------o And here it is another controversial Tier List with the best and most widely used skills: 1) Energy Burst: Arguably the best skill in the game, this enormous beam of power does incredible HP and MP damage, it's ranged, has a very fast startup, breaks guards easily, "holds" the enemies in place and can be stopped whenever you want to evade an attack. 2) Max Shockwave: Essential in any superboss, it's one of the few skills that can reliable knock down enemies to interrupt attacks like Ether Strike. It also does awesome damage and it's ranged. Uber. 3) Ethereal Blast: The skill with the most brutal DPS in the game, clocking at around 350.000 damage every second (70000x15 / 3 seconds aprox. once the blast has gone off), it murders enemies keeping them defenceless until finally knocking down. The startup is slow, but when you stay "floating", ground attacks will not hit you, improving your evasion skills. Superb damage skill. 4) Power Dance: This skill absolutely breaks the game at early stages, making it possible to reach the ATK cap (9999) at Moonbase. Post-game is excelent to experiment with weapons and save lots of spaces and time. For example, with an ultimate weapon and Power Dance you've got seven free slots and max ATK. Unfortunately, the primary objetive of this Ultimate Setups Guide is to get to max ATK without help, so it doesn't get any use. Still very, very good. 5) Mirror Slice: Nel's best skill, it's easy and reliable to use, does plenty of damage, juggles enemies very well and it's excellent in general. Coolest attack animation in the game (it's omg fire & lightning!) 6) Thunderflare: One of the best stunlocking skills, continuously paralizes enemies, can be used at long range and goes off very quickly. 7) Divine Blade: Fayt's best ally for soloing purposes, it boosts HP and MP damage by quite a lot, and it's deadly paired with Attack Decision+ factors. 8) Aura Wall: Another excellent stunlocking skill, if timed well it juggles the enemy and does nice MP damage, unfortunately it's short ranged. Honorable mentions: -Double Slash of Fury: This skill is one of the best jugglers out there, but the problem is that it stops when the enemy gets to a wall. Still, it does nice damage and it's very good. -Air Raid: This famous skill does plenty of damage, knocks down very easily, and has a very quick startup. The problem is that sometimes interferes with the other members battle skills. -Explosion: One of the best spells, it does really good damage (especially with several explosions going on) and stunlocks pretty well. Excellent. -Dream Hammer: One of the most damaging skills, with the "Roe Tablet" strategy it's just insane, but without it, it's easily interrupted and loses some potential. Best sound effect in the game :O -SideKick: This simple skills costs only 2 CP , has a very low fury cost, and provides the useful "Sidedick evasion", which lets you avoid almost any attack, even parts of Nibelung Valesti or Ether Strike. SideKick chains are cheap but effective. -Hammer of Might: One of the most reliable and widely used main-game, it ignores parry (essential in Universe and 4D) and hits a wide area, while doing high amounts of damage. In post-game it loses some power. O============================================================================== O Ultimate Teams (lgDId) O============================================================================== The following are some of the best teams you can have, taking into account the balance between damage, defences, and support capabilities. PATTERN o----------------o | Team |---------------------------------------------------- o----------------o 1) Leader: description (Function)* [The first party member in the menu, usually appears at the center of the battlefield formation] 2) Co-leader: description (Function) [The second party member] 3) Co-leader: description (Function) [The third party member] *Function: Damage Dealer / Support** / Stunlocker In each case they come in order of priority (1/2/3) **Support: This englobes Healing and Buffing. Note: I detail the build of every member of the party: the good thing about doing all the Ultimate Setups of each character is that now I can refer to them not only by Maria, Fayt or Nel, but also by Atomic Maria, Divine fayt or Splitting Nel. As you know, every skill setup is very different, and some work better toghether than others. Formation: Loose Line (three widely spaced members) Triangle (one hero at the front) Inverted Triangle (one member protecting the back) Front Line (agressive formation with the three members at the front) Ratings POWER: Total damage potential of the team DURABILITY: Total survivavility potential of the team, counting DEF, HP, MP and speed values but also healing and buffing capabilities. SINERGY: How well the team's skills combine: helping each other, and interfering the least possible. BALANCE: How close is the team of having an perfect equality between offensive and defensive capabilities. OVERALL: Final rating of the team. Again, feel free to laugh at the team's names, it's just to refer to them easily xD. o----------------o | Angel's Burst |---------------------------------------------------- o----------------o 1) Archangel Fayt: Excelent damage potential, max HP and very high defence. The Tank (Damage Dealer) 2) Max Cliff: Magnificent juggling and damage, long ranged. Absolutely amazing, brilliant and necessary for Freya (Stunlocker/Damage Dealer/Support) 3) Burst Maria: Superb damage potential, durability and support with Healing and Protection (Damage Dealer/Support) Formation: Loose Line Ratings POWER: ***** DURABILITY: ***** SINERGY: ***** BALANCE: **** OVERALL: ***** One of the best teams, doesn't achieve a perfect score in balance because of its ultra offensive nature: sometimes you'll miss having a pure Healer. Still, godly. o-----------------o | Wrath & Fury |--------------------------------------------------- o-----------------o 1) Fury Albel: Good damage ouput and juggling. Fast Healing (Damage Dealer/Stunlocker/Support) 2) Wrath Nel: Very high damage output, decent defence and speed (Damage Dealer/Support) 3) Thunder Sophia: Uber stunlocker, makes life easy to the other party members and also has all of the support skills (Stunlocker/Support/Damage Dealer) Formation: Inverted Triangle Ratings POWER: **** DURABILITY: *** SINERGY: ***** BALANCE: ***** OVERALL: **** Very nice team that works very well due to Albel's juggling and Healing, high damage output from Nel, and Sophia keeping enemies in place. Despite the fact that there isn't a "true" MP tank, excellent team. o---------------------o | Vampire's Dimension |------------------------------------------------- o---------------------o 1) Vampire Albel: Nice damage, great recovering skills and fast Healing (Support/Damage Dealer) 2) Whirlwind Nel: Godly HP Damage if done right, and some juggling capabilities (Damage Dealer) 3) Dimension Fayt: Very nice stunlocking, keeps enemies in place, stunlocks and deals decent damage (Stunlocker/Damage Dealer) Formation: Loose Line Ratings POWER: **** DURABILITY: ***** SINERGY: **** BALANCE: *** OVERALL: **** A great team with superior durability due to Vampire Flash recovery and Nel's MP tanking. Can offer magnificent damage against non wind-resistant enemies and does a nice job keeping enemies in place and defenceless, but the weak point is that sometimes you'll miss a dedicated healer. o------------------o | Atomic Raid |------------------------------------------------------- o------------------o 1) Raid Fayt: Good stunlocker, keeps enemies knocked down, okay damage (Stunlocker/Damage Dealer) 2) Explosion Sophia: Magnificent support, good damage and stunlocking (Support/Damage Dealer/Stunlocker) 3) Atomic Maria: Godly HP damage with the help of a stunlocker, and high durability (Damage Dealer/Healer) Formation: Triangle Ratings POWER: ***** DURABILITY: *** SINERGY: **** BALANCE: **** OVERALL: **** A good team that relies on Maria and her insane HP damage while Fayt and Sophia keep enemies stunlocked and defenceless. The total damage output is very good, but the team is quite fragile at times. o-----------------o | Doom's Cross |------------------------------------------------------- o-----------------o 1) Scatter Maria: Brutal HP damage, great survivability, the MP Tank (Damage Dealer) 2) Doom Albel: Nice damage, great knocking down skills (Stunlocker/Damage Dealer) 3) Cross Adray: Good area damage, excelent support skills (Support/Damage Dealer) Formation: Front Line Ratings POWER: **** DURABILITY: *** SINERGY: *** BALANCE: *** OVERALL: *** A nice team with a brutal HP damager and Tank, a knocking-down member to disrupt attacks, and a Healer which can also produce lots of damage in a wide area. The weak point its the sinergy, as sometimes the knocking down, although necessary, will interfere with other skills. o-----------------o | Meteoric Mirror |------------------------------------------------------- o-----------------o 1) Mirror Nel: Excelent damage potential, great durability, fast Healing. (Damage Dealer/Support) 2) Archangel Fayt: Excelent damage potential, max HP and very high defence (Damage Dealer) 3) Meteor Sophia: Good damage and decent stunlocking, but slow. Ranged (Support/Damage Dealer/Stunlocker) Formation: Inverted Triangle Ratings POWER: ***** DURABILITY: **** SINERGY: ***** BALANCE: ***** OVERALL: ***** A superb team that doesn't have brutal durability but instead has the perfect balance between damage (Fayt, Nel) and Healing (Sophia, Nel). o-----------------o | Magnetic Aura |-------------------------------------------------------- o-----------------o 1) Albel's Aura: Offers one of the best stunlocking, can Heal very fast, good MP damage (Stunlocker/Support) 2) Splitting Nel: Very good MP Damage, attacks from range (Damage Dealer/Support) 3) Magnetic Maria: Best MP Damage, attacks from range, great durability (Damage Dealer) Formation: Triangle Ratings POWER: **** DURABILITY: **** SINERGY: **** BALANCE: ** OVERALL: **** MP kill team aimed for defeating superbosses with Aura Wall's great stunlock and Nel & Maria's high MP damage. Not so good against groups of random enemies, and has a relatively low HP Damage output, hence the low balance score. Note: Divine Fayt and Uber Fayt aren't included because they are aimed towards solo play, but they can fit in any team as MP (mainly) Damager and Uber-Tank, respectively. O============================================================================== O Help it to be Complete! (lgDIf) O============================================================================== As you have seen, at the time of writing this the guide is not yet complete, with Peppita, Mirage and Roger missing. This is because I haven't used them that much and I still feel that I can't reliably write some good setups for them, but in the next update the builds will will definitely be there. If you feel you are an expert for any of this characters (and I can recall some of them in the SO3 boards), you can send me your setup, but USING THE SAME PATTERN AS THE ONE USED IN THE GUIDE!. This is to have it all well organized at to not drive me mad. Please use decent grammar and don't over do it in the ratings, try to be as objective as possible and think it well. I promise you it's very fun do do it, especially the ratings section. You can also send setups for the other characters only if you feel that they are really important. My objective is to have six setups maximum for each character. In any case, I reserve me all the right to reject your build if it's almost unreadable, does not follow the pattern or I feel it's not "ultimate" enough, so remember not to send main-game setups. You will be given ALL CREDIT, and I'm sure people will be thankful for contributing to the guide! O============================================================================== O Version History (lgDIl) O============================================================================== Version 1.00 (February 3rd, 2008) - I began the guide, this was something I wanted to do for one of the best RPG's I have ever played Version 1.00 (April 1st, 2008) - I finally completed it!. After two months of doing a little bit every day and enjoying every minute of it! O============================================================================== O Legal & Contact (lgDIr) O============================================================================== This document is Copyright (2008) of Danteh This guide is to be hosted in GameFAQs.com and IGN.com, any other site should contact me to ask for permission. If you want to contact me to contribute to this guide (or simply say how awesome this is :P) just send me an e-mail to: danteh_vs_ness@hotmail.com Whine mails saying how noob I am with the Tier Lists and everything are definitely interesting to read, but will finally be deleted. Contact e-mail: danteh_vs_ness(at)hotmail(dot)com O============================================================================== O Credits (CrdtS) O============================================================================== Thanks to Tri-Ace for making such a wonderful game. Thanks to A L E X for all of his wondeful FAQs and for letting me borrow the ASCII title art. Thanks to EChang for his very useful Battle Skills FAQ. Thanks to me (!) for taking the time to make this (hopefully) useful guide. Thanks to anyone that would like to contribute to the FAQ. And finally, more than anything, thanks to you for reading this, I really hope you enjoyed it! ==============================================================================