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(Every time I walked by my computer I noticed a typo in my previous posts x.x)
Rogue Classes
This section is going to be shorter than the Mage section because... I'll be honest with you. If I played this game again the only reason I would justify taking a Rogue over a Warrior (who does more damage) or a Mage (who has more utility) is because EVERY Rogue can eventually promote into the Daredevil Master Class. The Daredevil class is essentially every Rogue class 2.0 (minus Tarot cards and Goof Off which won't be missed). The mixed bag that each individual Rogue Class brings to the table (plus one Hero Class) combines to make a bag of tricks for every situation (and a bunch of extra stuff besides) in the Daredevil's arsenal. But this isn't about Daredevils, this section is about the individual parts that make up one complete Dare_ I mean this is about Rogue Classes.
Bandits:
Don't roll a Bandit. Moving on to Harlequins now... No? FINE.
Bandits have four things going for them (sort of): High Agility; Stealing (this is what I meant by sort of); Access to whips (these weapons hit twice); and Traps (again with the sort of). High agility and access to whips would be nice if their Strength stats weren't so subpar that they can't do much with those extra turns / hits to begin with. If you wanted to hit twice for more damage you could just roll a Ronin (which isn't saying much because Ronins aren't a great Warrior Class to begin with). What are you going to do with those extra turns? Fight? Shapeshifters move fast too and they hit like trucks. Steal? Scroll up a few posts to read what I think of Stealing. Use traps? Traps are a mixed bag of abilities that all have a chance to fail and are not that great to begin with. The only traps you might get any use out of are Live Wire (learned late so you would probably only use this on a Daredevil and DDs have better options) and the single target slow.
Don't roll a Bandit. If you must, they are viable (tolerable) for the prologue chapters. Promote to a Master Class or Joker (with intent to promote to a Daredevil) ASAP.
Harlequins:
Don't roll a Harl_ OKAY FINE! Just note that I am now going to disregard Tarot Cards entirely. If you want to know what I think of Tarot Cards scroll up a few posts.
Harlequins at least have utility they bring to the table. They have Sing Skills; which bring a weak multi-target heal (doesn't matter if it's weak if you're using it to top off your HP between battles), a multi-target cure-all ailments, a multi-target sleep (not Sleepmore), and a party-wide late game Heroic Buff. Sounds useful? It is but... Everything I just listed is also shared with Daredevils and Jokers. What do they bring to the table that Jokers and Daredevils do not? Dice and Card weapons (while Jokers can equip these as well, they can't actually use them). Dice weapons are low base damage weapons with somewhere around a 75% critical hit rate. Arcana Cards are the highest base damage weapon in the game... But base damage is not the most important factor in what makes a weapon good and most of the time the dice will actually hit harder. Are Harlequins any good with these weapons? No. Their mediocre Strength growth means they'll never amount to much of anything with these weapons. Harlequins can also equip almost all whip weapons, but again mediocre strength (and Daredevils can equip ALL whip weapons and dual-wield them).
Harlequins are at least viable for the entirety of the game due to their utility and the fact that their unique weapons allow them to at least do some passable single target damage (nowhere near any Warrior class). You're better off promoting (or cheating and just starting with a Joker). If you don't want a Daredevil, and you just want some utility, you should roll a Mage.
Engineers:
If you're going to roll a Rogue, rolling an Engineer is not a bad idea. They are a sturdy class with strong unique armor choices. They also have access to tools. Tools are essentially physical based spells that don't cost any MP. What does this bring them? Two multi-target physical attacks (one is mid-to-late game but ignores defense), a multi-target poison, a single target death attack, and a mid-to-late game multi-target earth attack that actually does good damage (it's earth so it also hurts ghosts). They have mediocre strength, however. Although they have access to a larger weapon selection over-all, dice are strictly better, and I don't believe they can use whips (at least not the early whips). They can trash-clear as soon you can afford to buy the auto-crossbow tool so they still take the early game advantage from Harlequins and Bandits.
Engineers are viable for the entire game, but you should promote (you're gonna promote right? You should promote. Daredevils have tools too. Promote). You don't really need the excessive defense and unique armors they have available. They do make a good stepping stone to promoting towards Daredevils; so I can't really say don't take one.
Rangers:
It is also not a bad idea to roll a Ranger. If equipped with a bow, Rangers will put out better single target damage than all previously covered Rogue Classes (Daredevil will still do more damage though) for most of the game (later on they can still put out better damage if buffed by someone else). With a bow equipped they have access to a self-buff of Bi-kill (2x damage) for the cost of 0 mp and one turn to actually use the buff. This of course means that on their second turn it's as if they attacked normally for two turns and on their third turn they've now done four turns worth of damage (this is an approximation. This is not how the damage formula works exactly). Their damage in the early game is actually competitive with Warriors but it falls off late game. They also have Nature Skills which are a mixed bag that has skills dependent on your location (are you outside? are you in a dungeon?) unless you have the requisite Training skill (Wilderness Training, Cave Training, Etc). The training skills are learned through books found throughout Chapter 5, but Daredevils learn them just by leveling up. Nature Skills mostly bring a bunch of different elemental spells (yep they can fight ghosts quite well... they even have strong bless magic) and some self-buffs. Some notable exceptions are: a sap; a revive; a single-target death spell; and several multi-target heals. The Daredevil has better stat growths so it can do everything a Ranger can better.
Rangers are viable for the entire game if you find the skills books, but again you should promote. For the prologue chapters they'll have access to two bows and are able to hurt ghosts much of the time as well as heal during world map encounters (unless on the sea). They are a great stepping stone to other classes.
Jokers:
Speaking of stepping stones... We now look at our second "Elite" Class. Jokers are terrible with next to no redeeming qualities. They however are the only Elite Class that can promote again (to Daredevil). This makes them worthwhile. In the interim, while you're leveling them up to promote again (happens quite fast at the point in the game where you can get Jokers without cheating), they can use the Harlequin's Sing Skills to not be completely useless. They can't attack. They can only Goof Off instead. You should never Goof Off. It is literally a joke (it can even kill party members). They have stealing as well but I don't even know why I bothered to mention that. They also have flee but if I didn't bother to mention that when talking about the Engineer why would I elaborate on it here.
Jokers are not viable. They are worth it, however, because they promote to Daredevils. This is the only way to get more than four Master classes in a single play-through.
All Rogue classes should promote to Jokers (maybe not all at once though) with the intention of promoting again.
Next up are Warrior Classes... In the next post.
(I wonder how many typos I missed while proof-reading this post...)
Rogue Classes
This section is going to be shorter than the Mage section because... I'll be honest with you. If I played this game again the only reason I would justify taking a Rogue over a Warrior (who does more damage) or a Mage (who has more utility) is because EVERY Rogue can eventually promote into the Daredevil Master Class. The Daredevil class is essentially every Rogue class 2.0 (minus Tarot cards and Goof Off which won't be missed). The mixed bag that each individual Rogue Class brings to the table (plus one Hero Class) combines to make a bag of tricks for every situation (and a bunch of extra stuff besides) in the Daredevil's arsenal. But this isn't about Daredevils, this section is about the individual parts that make up one complete Dare_ I mean this is about Rogue Classes.
Bandits:
Don't roll a Bandit. Moving on to Harlequins now... No? FINE.
Bandits have four things going for them (sort of): High Agility; Stealing (this is what I meant by sort of); Access to whips (these weapons hit twice); and Traps (again with the sort of). High agility and access to whips would be nice if their Strength stats weren't so subpar that they can't do much with those extra turns / hits to begin with. If you wanted to hit twice for more damage you could just roll a Ronin (which isn't saying much because Ronins aren't a great Warrior Class to begin with). What are you going to do with those extra turns? Fight? Shapeshifters move fast too and they hit like trucks. Steal? Scroll up a few posts to read what I think of Stealing. Use traps? Traps are a mixed bag of abilities that all have a chance to fail and are not that great to begin with. The only traps you might get any use out of are Live Wire (learned late so you would probably only use this on a Daredevil and DDs have better options) and the single target slow.
Don't roll a Bandit. If you must, they are viable (tolerable) for the prologue chapters. Promote to a Master Class or Joker (with intent to promote to a Daredevil) ASAP.
Harlequins:
Don't roll a Harl_ OKAY FINE! Just note that I am now going to disregard Tarot Cards entirely. If you want to know what I think of Tarot Cards scroll up a few posts.
Harlequins at least have utility they bring to the table. They have Sing Skills; which bring a weak multi-target heal (doesn't matter if it's weak if you're using it to top off your HP between battles), a multi-target cure-all ailments, a multi-target sleep (not Sleepmore), and a party-wide late game Heroic Buff. Sounds useful? It is but... Everything I just listed is also shared with Daredevils and Jokers. What do they bring to the table that Jokers and Daredevils do not? Dice and Card weapons (while Jokers can equip these as well, they can't actually use them). Dice weapons are low base damage weapons with somewhere around a 75% critical hit rate. Arcana Cards are the highest base damage weapon in the game... But base damage is not the most important factor in what makes a weapon good and most of the time the dice will actually hit harder. Are Harlequins any good with these weapons? No. Their mediocre Strength growth means they'll never amount to much of anything with these weapons. Harlequins can also equip almost all whip weapons, but again mediocre strength (and Daredevils can equip ALL whip weapons and dual-wield them).
Harlequins are at least viable for the entirety of the game due to their utility and the fact that their unique weapons allow them to at least do some passable single target damage (nowhere near any Warrior class). You're better off promoting (or cheating and just starting with a Joker). If you don't want a Daredevil, and you just want some utility, you should roll a Mage.
Engineers:
If you're going to roll a Rogue, rolling an Engineer is not a bad idea. They are a sturdy class with strong unique armor choices. They also have access to tools. Tools are essentially physical based spells that don't cost any MP. What does this bring them? Two multi-target physical attacks (one is mid-to-late game but ignores defense), a multi-target poison, a single target death attack, and a mid-to-late game multi-target earth attack that actually does good damage (it's earth so it also hurts ghosts). They have mediocre strength, however. Although they have access to a larger weapon selection over-all, dice are strictly better, and I don't believe they can use whips (at least not the early whips). They can trash-clear as soon you can afford to buy the auto-crossbow tool so they still take the early game advantage from Harlequins and Bandits.
Engineers are viable for the entire game, but you should promote (you're gonna promote right? You should promote. Daredevils have tools too. Promote). You don't really need the excessive defense and unique armors they have available. They do make a good stepping stone to promoting towards Daredevils; so I can't really say don't take one.
Rangers:
It is also not a bad idea to roll a Ranger. If equipped with a bow, Rangers will put out better single target damage than all previously covered Rogue Classes (Daredevil will still do more damage though) for most of the game (later on they can still put out better damage if buffed by someone else). With a bow equipped they have access to a self-buff of Bi-kill (2x damage) for the cost of 0 mp and one turn to actually use the buff. This of course means that on their second turn it's as if they attacked normally for two turns and on their third turn they've now done four turns worth of damage (this is an approximation. This is not how the damage formula works exactly). Their damage in the early game is actually competitive with Warriors but it falls off late game. They also have Nature Skills which are a mixed bag that has skills dependent on your location (are you outside? are you in a dungeon?) unless you have the requisite Training skill (Wilderness Training, Cave Training, Etc). The training skills are learned through books found throughout Chapter 5, but Daredevils learn them just by leveling up. Nature Skills mostly bring a bunch of different elemental spells (yep they can fight ghosts quite well... they even have strong bless magic) and some self-buffs. Some notable exceptions are: a sap; a revive; a single-target death spell; and several multi-target heals. The Daredevil has better stat growths so it can do everything a Ranger can better.
Rangers are viable for the entire game if you find the skills books, but again you should promote. For the prologue chapters they'll have access to two bows and are able to hurt ghosts much of the time as well as heal during world map encounters (unless on the sea). They are a great stepping stone to other classes.
Jokers:
Speaking of stepping stones... We now look at our second "Elite" Class. Jokers are terrible with next to no redeeming qualities. They however are the only Elite Class that can promote again (to Daredevil). This makes them worthwhile. In the interim, while you're leveling them up to promote again (happens quite fast at the point in the game where you can get Jokers without cheating), they can use the Harlequin's Sing Skills to not be completely useless. They can't attack. They can only Goof Off instead. You should never Goof Off. It is literally a joke (it can even kill party members). They have stealing as well but I don't even know why I bothered to mention that. They also have flee but if I didn't bother to mention that when talking about the Engineer why would I elaborate on it here.
Jokers are not viable. They are worth it, however, because they promote to Daredevils. This is the only way to get more than four Master classes in a single play-through.
All Rogue classes should promote to Jokers (maybe not all at once though) with the intention of promoting again.
Next up are Warrior Classes... In the next post.
(I wonder how many typos I missed while proof-reading this post...)
Class Tiers
Class Reviews
For the sake of simplicity I will review the Elite Classes with their respective archetypes (and why you should or should not promote to them). I will review the Master Classes (because any non-Hero can become any Master Class as long as you have the right Elfstone) and Heroes' Classes at the end.
Mage Classes
Magic in this game does not scale well. Mage classes will mostly be relegated to support, boss utility, and/or trash clearing by the end of the game (and other classes can clear trash better in the endgame).
Wizards:
The only class I did not try. The black mage of the game. They're incredibly straightforward (read: boring). They are the frailest class in the entire game (worse than Mesmer which I will be commenting on in the Mesmer section). They bring early multi-target spells and good int (magic damage stat) at a point in the game where magic damage is most useful. They also bring access to the Outside and Return spells (go to the entrance to a dungeon and go to a place you've been before during that chapter respectively); so you can save items and spend your hero's mp on healing instead of casting that. Late game they gain some utility with bikill and focus buffs, but you should probably have a source of heroic late game and YOU SHOULD NOT use wizards late game.
Wizards are completely viable and useful in a party seeking trash-clearing and a source of non-physical damage for the early game. Plan on class-changing to an elite or master class if you bring one though.
Druids:
They are the white mage of the game. They are far less frail than most mages and have better gear options than other mages. The healing they bring is only matched by two Master classes and one Hero in the game. The healing they bring is over-kill. So what else do they have? They bring multi-target earth spells for trash clearing (don't worry flying enemies do not resist earth magic in this game). They have single target bless-skills to obliterate physical immune undead enemies common throughout the game. They also bring Outside to the table so you don't need warp whistles to quickly exit dungeons. They can cure most ailments and revive late game (not an early source of revive). They have defensive buffs in the form of Increase and Resistance (but you don't really need these and that makes their excessive heals even more pointless). They have Slowall, Sleep, and are amazing poisoners. When not healing on boss fights they should be doing one of those three things.
Druids are completely viable for the entirety of the game if you really want to make sure you have enough heals. Aside from heals, other classes can fill their other roles just as well or better (since their healing is over-kill, other classes can arguably do this job just as well or better too). Keep in mind that their damage will never be great and will fall to near useless levels in the late game when magic just doesn't cut it anymore (enemies vulnerable to bless are an exception to this). Poison can still be useful even late game though. So they will never be completely useless unless their role overlaps with other members of the party.
Mesmers:
I've heard multiple of people claim these are completely worthless. I disagree. Yes you could be doing more damage instead, but Mesmers are completely viable. It should be noted that they are extremely frail. I ran a Mesmer through chapter 2 (because why not?) and nearly every surprise attack resulted in my poor trapped Mesmer being focus-targeted to death before I even got a turn.
Why are they useful? They can sleeplock bosses with Sleepmore. They can make it so bosses never get a turn. They also are one of the rare sources of Demi which will more than make up for the fact that they will never do any damage at all to a boss outside of poison. Speaking of which, they also are a good source of poison. They also have Sap to make bosses die even faster. For random encounters they are mostly relegated to doing mediocre multi-target poison damage, putting the enemies to sleep, or buffing the party. They get Speedup and Bikill around level 20. So if you aren't inclined to promote them to a sage right away (they are a prime candidate for a master class), they can still make your party twice as strong. Until you have a source of heroic (or an alternate source of Speedup and Bikill), they can contribute more over-all damage capability to your party than many other classes. They can even contribute some minor healing as well to keep your party topped off. Oh and I should obligatorily mention Outside and Return; since I mentioned those for the other two mages thus far.
Mesmers are viable until late game when you have access to heroic and are better off just outright killing an enemy with more damage anyways. They remain viable in boss fights for the entirety of the game, however. Sleepmore, Demi, Poismost, Sap, and even Regen means that they will never be useless during a boss fight. It should be noted that some of their roles overlap with Druids. You should probably not have both of those classes in the same party.
Warlock/Witches:
The most unique of the mage classes. They are a mixed bag. They get some glitchy spells like Raise Skeleton (which is basically useless) and Corpse Explosion (which doesn't always work) that should be disregarded right away. They get a spell that scales with level called Poison Dagger, which allows them to contribute some mediocre strength based poison damage and possibly inflict the poison ailment with their regular attacks for the rest the battle (it replaces their equipped weapon). The poison dagger isn't that great in practice; it is a single hit, does poison rather than physical damage (more enemies resist it), requires a turn to cast it in the first place, and the Warlock has the worst strength growth in the game (the high damage of the weapon does not compensate for this).
Warlocks, however... are awesome. They get access to Hurtmore fairly early and therefore always have a decent source of single target magic damage (magic damage still falls off late game). They have decent anti-undead damage for those pesky physical immune enemies as well (this never really falls off though there are better sources of bless damage). They are the earliest source of revive magic. They can also keep their own party topped off during the mid-game by casting Regen between battles.
They get Alchemy. Alchemy allows you to produce certain items by using mp and turns in combat. These can be used to heal or restore mp for your parties (yes other parties as well) during combat or outside of combat. This is not why Alchemy is great. Alchemy allows you to make rainbow drops; which are a single target item that causes heroic. Rainbow drops can be used outside of battle to pre-buff heroic before a boss fight. Rainbow drops also allowed me to break the second to last boss fight (woops! I'm not sorry). Alchemy also allows them to craft an item only they can use that does the most single target poison damage in the game (this is unnecessary. I just thought I should mention it).
It should be noted that Warlocks can equip any cursed equipment you find. This is mostly worthless... But, if you only plan on only using magic casting and Alchemy the entire time (no weapon attacking or poison dagger), then the downside of certain curses doesn't apply. You can therefore stack some extremely high defense on your Warlock, if you're so inclined. Be advised that cursed equipment are extremely glitchy, however (the curses may not always work or the item might randomly disappear for good).
Because of Alchemy, Warlocks are always viable in a party that isn't going to be fighting bosses during the end game. Have them make elixirs and rainbow drops while running through a dungeon and then party swap for a boss fight. Their damage on bosses during the prologue chapters is fairly good because of Hurt and possibly Hurtmore (if you grinded too much for whatever reason); so don't be concerned with that. Even if you don't take any other mages (in any of your parties) or you don't plan on using Channelers and Daredevils (strong end game sources of heroic) in a specific party, you should consider a Warlock (doesn't even matter which party they are in.. they can allow any party access to Heroic as long as you farm up some random encounters and make some drugz *cough*).
Sages:
The first of the Elite Classes I'll cover. Other mages can promote to this class after level 20 by going to a specific place and spending half of their current level rounded down (you can also cheat to get them earlier). They have chain magic which casts a spell of your choice twice in a turn (mp is consumed twice as well). This allows their damage to stay passable despite how weak offensive spells are in this game. They only carry single target damage and healing spells until the extreme late game (you won't see Thordain on them unless you grind like crazy or keep a sage in your most used party for the entire game). Their single target damage and healing is good though (as far as magic damage can get anyhow). What else do they have? Sleepmore, Demi, Bikill, Poismost, Sap, revive magics. See a theme here? Only lacking in Speedup, everything I said about the perks of a Mesmer during boss fights can apply to them as well. Unlike a Mesmer, they can still hurt the boss when sleep and poison do not need to be reapplied. On top of all this they can also heal ailments and have access to the obligatory Outside and Return (only Warlocks and Channelers lack both of these traveling spells as far as Mages are concerned).
Sages are viable for the entire game. Do not pick sages (or mage classes in general) if all you're looking for is damage. Their damage can be easily surpassed by most physical damage oriented classes unless they are level 45+ (way over-leveled), but they make up for that with boss utility and as a source of heals and revives. If you want to do damage as a mage during end game boss fights at all, Sage is the only choice (not counting the Magus Hero Class). The Channeler Master Class does not cut it for single target damage (and Templars have better things to do).
With the exception of a single Warlock (unless you cooked up an insane amount of rainbow drops first), promoting other mage classes to a Sage is usually a good idea. Their damage far surpasses Wizards against single targets (and there are plenty of better ways to kill groups than using wizards), and they can replace Druids as long as you don't care about losing group-targeted heals during fights. I've already mentioned how they are basically superior Mesmers in everything but the buff department (lack of speedup is a killer until you're spamming heroic).
That's all for the Mage Classes (I'll cover Channelers alongside the other Master Classes). I'll do this piecemeal over multiple posts since I don't have time to write up all this at once (plus there could be evil character limits).
For the sake of simplicity I will review the Elite Classes with their respective archetypes (and why you should or should not promote to them). I will review the Master Classes (because any non-Hero can become any Master Class as long as you have the right Elfstone) and Heroes' Classes at the end.
Mage Classes
Magic in this game does not scale well. Mage classes will mostly be relegated to support, boss utility, and/or trash clearing by the end of the game (and other classes can clear trash better in the endgame).
Wizards:
The only class I did not try. The black mage of the game. They're incredibly straightforward (read: boring). They are the frailest class in the entire game (worse than Mesmer which I will be commenting on in the Mesmer section). They bring early multi-target spells and good int (magic damage stat) at a point in the game where magic damage is most useful. They also bring access to the Outside and Return spells (go to the entrance to a dungeon and go to a place you've been before during that chapter respectively); so you can save items and spend your hero's mp on healing instead of casting that. Late game they gain some utility with bikill and focus buffs, but you should probably have a source of heroic late game and YOU SHOULD NOT use wizards late game.
Wizards are completely viable and useful in a party seeking trash-clearing and a source of non-physical damage for the early game. Plan on class-changing to an elite or master class if you bring one though.
Druids:
They are the white mage of the game. They are far less frail than most mages and have better gear options than other mages. The healing they bring is only matched by two Master classes and one Hero in the game. The healing they bring is over-kill. So what else do they have? They bring multi-target earth spells for trash clearing (don't worry flying enemies do not resist earth magic in this game). They have single target bless-skills to obliterate physical immune undead enemies common throughout the game. They also bring Outside to the table so you don't need warp whistles to quickly exit dungeons. They can cure most ailments and revive late game (not an early source of revive). They have defensive buffs in the form of Increase and Resistance (but you don't really need these and that makes their excessive heals even more pointless). They have Slowall, Sleep, and are amazing poisoners. When not healing on boss fights they should be doing one of those three things.
Druids are completely viable for the entirety of the game if you really want to make sure you have enough heals. Aside from heals, other classes can fill their other roles just as well or better (since their healing is over-kill, other classes can arguably do this job just as well or better too). Keep in mind that their damage will never be great and will fall to near useless levels in the late game when magic just doesn't cut it anymore (enemies vulnerable to bless are an exception to this). Poison can still be useful even late game though. So they will never be completely useless unless their role overlaps with other members of the party.
Mesmers:
I've heard multiple of people claim these are completely worthless. I disagree. Yes you could be doing more damage instead, but Mesmers are completely viable. It should be noted that they are extremely frail. I ran a Mesmer through chapter 2 (because why not?) and nearly every surprise attack resulted in my poor trapped Mesmer being focus-targeted to death before I even got a turn.
Why are they useful? They can sleeplock bosses with Sleepmore. They can make it so bosses never get a turn. They also are one of the rare sources of Demi which will more than make up for the fact that they will never do any damage at all to a boss outside of poison. Speaking of which, they also are a good source of poison. They also have Sap to make bosses die even faster. For random encounters they are mostly relegated to doing mediocre multi-target poison damage, putting the enemies to sleep, or buffing the party. They get Speedup and Bikill around level 20. So if you aren't inclined to promote them to a sage right away (they are a prime candidate for a master class), they can still make your party twice as strong. Until you have a source of heroic (or an alternate source of Speedup and Bikill), they can contribute more over-all damage capability to your party than many other classes. They can even contribute some minor healing as well to keep your party topped off. Oh and I should obligatorily mention Outside and Return; since I mentioned those for the other two mages thus far.
Mesmers are viable until late game when you have access to heroic and are better off just outright killing an enemy with more damage anyways. They remain viable in boss fights for the entirety of the game, however. Sleepmore, Demi, Poismost, Sap, and even Regen means that they will never be useless during a boss fight. It should be noted that some of their roles overlap with Druids. You should probably not have both of those classes in the same party.
Warlock/Witches:
The most unique of the mage classes. They are a mixed bag. They get some glitchy spells like Raise Skeleton (which is basically useless) and Corpse Explosion (which doesn't always work) that should be disregarded right away. They get a spell that scales with level called Poison Dagger, which allows them to contribute some mediocre strength based poison damage and possibly inflict the poison ailment with their regular attacks for the rest the battle (it replaces their equipped weapon). The poison dagger isn't that great in practice; it is a single hit, does poison rather than physical damage (more enemies resist it), requires a turn to cast it in the first place, and the Warlock has the worst strength growth in the game (the high damage of the weapon does not compensate for this).
Warlocks, however... are awesome. They get access to Hurtmore fairly early and therefore always have a decent source of single target magic damage (magic damage still falls off late game). They have decent anti-undead damage for those pesky physical immune enemies as well (this never really falls off though there are better sources of bless damage). They are the earliest source of revive magic. They can also keep their own party topped off during the mid-game by casting Regen between battles.
They get Alchemy. Alchemy allows you to produce certain items by using mp and turns in combat. These can be used to heal or restore mp for your parties (yes other parties as well) during combat or outside of combat. This is not why Alchemy is great. Alchemy allows you to make rainbow drops; which are a single target item that causes heroic. Rainbow drops can be used outside of battle to pre-buff heroic before a boss fight. Rainbow drops also allowed me to break the second to last boss fight (woops! I'm not sorry). Alchemy also allows them to craft an item only they can use that does the most single target poison damage in the game (this is unnecessary. I just thought I should mention it).
It should be noted that Warlocks can equip any cursed equipment you find. This is mostly worthless... But, if you only plan on only using magic casting and Alchemy the entire time (no weapon attacking or poison dagger), then the downside of certain curses doesn't apply. You can therefore stack some extremely high defense on your Warlock, if you're so inclined. Be advised that cursed equipment are extremely glitchy, however (the curses may not always work or the item might randomly disappear for good).
Because of Alchemy, Warlocks are always viable in a party that isn't going to be fighting bosses during the end game. Have them make elixirs and rainbow drops while running through a dungeon and then party swap for a boss fight. Their damage on bosses during the prologue chapters is fairly good because of Hurt and possibly Hurtmore (if you grinded too much for whatever reason); so don't be concerned with that. Even if you don't take any other mages (in any of your parties) or you don't plan on using Channelers and Daredevils (strong end game sources of heroic) in a specific party, you should consider a Warlock (doesn't even matter which party they are in.. they can allow any party access to Heroic as long as you farm up some random encounters and make some drugz *cough*).
Sages:
The first of the Elite Classes I'll cover. Other mages can promote to this class after level 20 by going to a specific place and spending half of their current level rounded down (you can also cheat to get them earlier). They have chain magic which casts a spell of your choice twice in a turn (mp is consumed twice as well). This allows their damage to stay passable despite how weak offensive spells are in this game. They only carry single target damage and healing spells until the extreme late game (you won't see Thordain on them unless you grind like crazy or keep a sage in your most used party for the entire game). Their single target damage and healing is good though (as far as magic damage can get anyhow). What else do they have? Sleepmore, Demi, Bikill, Poismost, Sap, revive magics. See a theme here? Only lacking in Speedup, everything I said about the perks of a Mesmer during boss fights can apply to them as well. Unlike a Mesmer, they can still hurt the boss when sleep and poison do not need to be reapplied. On top of all this they can also heal ailments and have access to the obligatory Outside and Return (only Warlocks and Channelers lack both of these traveling spells as far as Mages are concerned).
Sages are viable for the entire game. Do not pick sages (or mage classes in general) if all you're looking for is damage. Their damage can be easily surpassed by most physical damage oriented classes unless they are level 45+ (way over-leveled), but they make up for that with boss utility and as a source of heals and revives. If you want to do damage as a mage during end game boss fights at all, Sage is the only choice (not counting the Magus Hero Class). The Channeler Master Class does not cut it for single target damage (and Templars have better things to do).
With the exception of a single Warlock (unless you cooked up an insane amount of rainbow drops first), promoting other mage classes to a Sage is usually a good idea. Their damage far surpasses Wizards against single targets (and there are plenty of better ways to kill groups than using wizards), and they can replace Druids as long as you don't care about losing group-targeted heals during fights. I've already mentioned how they are basically superior Mesmers in everything but the buff department (lack of speedup is a killer until you're spamming heroic).
That's all for the Mage Classes (I'll cover Channelers alongside the other Master Classes). I'll do this piecemeal over multiple posts since I don't have time to write up all this at once (plus there could be evil character limits).
Class Tiers
Since I can't resist reviewing the classes of this game, I'll post my thoughts on them here. But before that I should talk about what a party needs, what they don't need but is still useful, and what they can do entirely without. Oh boy I hope there isn't a character limit.
What you need...
Damage: If you don't do damage you don't win.
Non-physical damage: You need a source of non-physical damage frequently in every stage of the game. The poison and dragon attributes do not count as non-physical for this purpose. Magic is a good source of this early on. Later on you can just use elemental weapons (plus there is Spirit Skaen).
Non-magical damage: You have this by default but if you equip the wrong weapons on certain parties, you can't win certain encounters. This also does not include poison sadly.
Agility: You need a decent amount of this to prevent enemies from walking all over you (how much depends on how far into the game you are).
What's useful to have
More Agility!: Go before your enemies almost every time! Buff with speedup and get twice or thrice as many turns as your enemies do! Always good in an ATB system.
Extra Healing: Until your offense is so strong that you'll mop the floors with every encounter (including bosses), you'll want some of this. Your hero classes learn this to varying degrees by default, however, so you don't really need more. You can use items to supplement this just fine; so it's useful, but not necessary. This is mostly useful during the prologue chapters (1-4).
High Defenses: High defenses and resistances can completely negate entire attacks (even on the final boss), but they're unnecessary. You'll want a certain baseline of defense, hp, resistances, and the like to help pass through the game. You do not need that much, however. If you keep your gear relatively up to date, you'll do fine. When upgrading defensive gear, prioritize the frailer party members first (there might be nothing you can do to prevent Wizards and Mesmers from dying to surprise encounters for the majority of the game).
Buffs: Specifically the relevant damage buff for that character (bikill, focus, werewolf), and speedup (werewolf counts here too). These will make end game fights go much quicker and will help you to break the game if you're so inclined to do so. Heroic is the pinnacle of all buffs (does not stack with the other buffs mentioned), and is available in two useful flavors: party-wide buff ability; and an item that can even be used outside of battle to buff before the next battle. The wolf shapeshifting buffs (mainly werewolf) deserve special mention because they also provide health regen and immunity to a lot of debuffs and ailments.
Sleep: (Especially sleepmore) You don't need it. However if you're going to inflict an ailment, this is the best one to inflict. It seems like next to nothing resists it (you can sleeplock most bosses so they never get a turn); and even if they wake up within a second or two you've delayed their ATB progress and are effectively damage mitigating.
Poison: Again you don't need it. Both physical and magical immune enemies will ignore it. However, nearly every non-undead enemy that can be hurt with physical damage, can also be poisoned. Keeping up poison on high hp enemies (bosses mostly) is a useful option for characters that otherwise won't be doing much damage (utility, healers, etc). Poison is more useful in this game than pretty much all the games that inspired it.
Demi: Basically a max-hp debuff (half health) that is almost never resisted. It's great to cast on bosses if you have it, but you can do without. Very few classes have this.
Sap, Slow, Inept: Sap is awesome for breaking the game. Slow is always a strong debuff in an ATB system. Inept is reverse heroic.
Money: It's useful in this game. If you upgrade gear frequently, you never have enough. If you don't upgrade frequently enough, party members might die. Why is this in a class review posting? Because skills that restore hp and mp out of combat, revive, or remove ailments will save you trips to the inn and church. Even stealing can be useful to some degree in saving you money and generating cash.
What you can do without
Paying attention to elemental weaknesses: Not a strongsuit in this game. There is no clear feedback when an enemy is weak to something (other than testing the numbers) and no way to bring up that information in a useful format in game. Is the enemy immune to that damage type (which is usually a blanket immunity to all of magic or physical)? No? Are they absorbing it (hard to tell sometimes)? No? That's all you need to know.
Coin toss: Worthless damage. Uses money to do it. This isn't Final Fantasy.
Stealing: Mostly worthless. It can help early on in a prologue chapter to give you a boost in items and money (sell hide herbs you get from it as well), but it's useless for most of the game. There is almost always something better to do (even a joker should probably be using lullaby). Let's be clear for new players. Steal never gives you equipment or unique items. It always gives chests that give either gold (not much) or consumables when opened. This is not Final Fantasy.
Tarot cards: These are mostly gimmicky, often risky, and sometimes fun. The harlequin would be better off doing something else however (killing your enemy, buffing your party, healing, sleeping the enemy, etc... or better yet, rolling another class).
Most debuffs and ailments not already mentioned: Some of these can also be effective damage mitigation, but most of the classes who can use them can also sleep (which they should do instead) or just kill the darn monster.
Vanish, ghosted, ironize: This is not one of those tactical dungeon crawlers like Etrian Odyssey where the enemies will follow specific patterns and eventually use a move that if you don't severely mitigate or avoid completely with a well timed skill, you will die. This is not that game. These are useless.
Weremage: It comes at a point in the game where offensive magic is lacking, requires a turn to cast, then another turn to setup combo magic, and does not stack with heroic. It's worthless. It could have been useful if it was given during the early levels.
Now on to the...
Class reviews in next post! (Worried about possible character limits)
What you need...
Damage: If you don't do damage you don't win.
Non-physical damage: You need a source of non-physical damage frequently in every stage of the game. The poison and dragon attributes do not count as non-physical for this purpose. Magic is a good source of this early on. Later on you can just use elemental weapons (plus there is Spirit Skaen).
Non-magical damage: You have this by default but if you equip the wrong weapons on certain parties, you can't win certain encounters. This also does not include poison sadly.
Agility: You need a decent amount of this to prevent enemies from walking all over you (how much depends on how far into the game you are).
What's useful to have
More Agility!: Go before your enemies almost every time! Buff with speedup and get twice or thrice as many turns as your enemies do! Always good in an ATB system.
Extra Healing: Until your offense is so strong that you'll mop the floors with every encounter (including bosses), you'll want some of this. Your hero classes learn this to varying degrees by default, however, so you don't really need more. You can use items to supplement this just fine; so it's useful, but not necessary. This is mostly useful during the prologue chapters (1-4).
High Defenses: High defenses and resistances can completely negate entire attacks (even on the final boss), but they're unnecessary. You'll want a certain baseline of defense, hp, resistances, and the like to help pass through the game. You do not need that much, however. If you keep your gear relatively up to date, you'll do fine. When upgrading defensive gear, prioritize the frailer party members first (there might be nothing you can do to prevent Wizards and Mesmers from dying to surprise encounters for the majority of the game).
Buffs: Specifically the relevant damage buff for that character (bikill, focus, werewolf), and speedup (werewolf counts here too). These will make end game fights go much quicker and will help you to break the game if you're so inclined to do so. Heroic is the pinnacle of all buffs (does not stack with the other buffs mentioned), and is available in two useful flavors: party-wide buff ability; and an item that can even be used outside of battle to buff before the next battle. The wolf shapeshifting buffs (mainly werewolf) deserve special mention because they also provide health regen and immunity to a lot of debuffs and ailments.
Sleep: (Especially sleepmore) You don't need it. However if you're going to inflict an ailment, this is the best one to inflict. It seems like next to nothing resists it (you can sleeplock most bosses so they never get a turn); and even if they wake up within a second or two you've delayed their ATB progress and are effectively damage mitigating.
Poison: Again you don't need it. Both physical and magical immune enemies will ignore it. However, nearly every non-undead enemy that can be hurt with physical damage, can also be poisoned. Keeping up poison on high hp enemies (bosses mostly) is a useful option for characters that otherwise won't be doing much damage (utility, healers, etc). Poison is more useful in this game than pretty much all the games that inspired it.
Demi: Basically a max-hp debuff (half health) that is almost never resisted. It's great to cast on bosses if you have it, but you can do without. Very few classes have this.
Sap, Slow, Inept: Sap is awesome for breaking the game. Slow is always a strong debuff in an ATB system. Inept is reverse heroic.
Money: It's useful in this game. If you upgrade gear frequently, you never have enough. If you don't upgrade frequently enough, party members might die. Why is this in a class review posting? Because skills that restore hp and mp out of combat, revive, or remove ailments will save you trips to the inn and church. Even stealing can be useful to some degree in saving you money and generating cash.
What you can do without
Paying attention to elemental weaknesses: Not a strongsuit in this game. There is no clear feedback when an enemy is weak to something (other than testing the numbers) and no way to bring up that information in a useful format in game. Is the enemy immune to that damage type (which is usually a blanket immunity to all of magic or physical)? No? Are they absorbing it (hard to tell sometimes)? No? That's all you need to know.
Coin toss: Worthless damage. Uses money to do it. This isn't Final Fantasy.
Stealing: Mostly worthless. It can help early on in a prologue chapter to give you a boost in items and money (sell hide herbs you get from it as well), but it's useless for most of the game. There is almost always something better to do (even a joker should probably be using lullaby). Let's be clear for new players. Steal never gives you equipment or unique items. It always gives chests that give either gold (not much) or consumables when opened. This is not Final Fantasy.
Tarot cards: These are mostly gimmicky, often risky, and sometimes fun. The harlequin would be better off doing something else however (killing your enemy, buffing your party, healing, sleeping the enemy, etc... or better yet, rolling another class).
Most debuffs and ailments not already mentioned: Some of these can also be effective damage mitigation, but most of the classes who can use them can also sleep (which they should do instead) or just kill the darn monster.
Vanish, ghosted, ironize: This is not one of those tactical dungeon crawlers like Etrian Odyssey where the enemies will follow specific patterns and eventually use a move that if you don't severely mitigate or avoid completely with a well timed skill, you will die. This is not that game. These are useless.
Weremage: It comes at a point in the game where offensive magic is lacking, requires a turn to cast, then another turn to setup combo magic, and does not stack with heroic. It's worthless. It could have been useful if it was given during the early levels.
Now on to the...
Class reviews in next post! (Worried about possible character limits)
Class Tiers
I was trying to write a review for this game and I realized that I was going to end up reviewing all the classes as well. That doesn't belong in the review, but I thought I should put it somewhere for any future players of the game (or maybe I just want to get it out of my system). Mind if I put that down here? Or should I post that somewhere else?
(Don't worry I will still write the review. It won't be a very well written review... But it will be something... Probably)
(Don't worry I will still write the review. It won't be a very well written review... But it will be something... Probably)
FAQ / Walkthrough
author=kentona
Thanks for playing, and thanks for all of the feedback! Now I am patiently awaiting your review...
Oh gosh, I'm a terrible reviewer. I'll think about it :P.
FAQ / Walkthrough
author=kentona
welp. yep. looks like I left it with 100% crit at a cost of 5mp. I don't think I intended that - it was just supposed to be a high INT bonus. I probably copied the Forcestaff to make the item in the database and forgot to remove those buffs. So that is actually a bug.
Welp, accidental best mage weapon right there. Better than most spells that cost twice as much. I didn't even notice it was costing MP because I mainly used it on a Channeler (which means Forcewands and Witching Staves probably work for free on Channelers too)..
Anyhow, it's been a pleasure man. I really enjoyed your game. Thanks for taking the time to respond to all my questions.
FAQ / Walkthrough
author=kentona
I had to look it up - it's just a lame Revive All Dead Allies spell.
I know that magic is underpowered in the endgame. If I were to rebalance things, I would make magic more relevant and powerful, rejig the way I handed out immunities, and rethink how many ways you can stack multi-attacks. Plus a laundry list of other things. I have it all written down somewhere...
Hey thankfully you can't stack werewolf, heroic, and pummel (... yep I tested that).
Yeah, magic is mainly just relegated to support at end game. The fault lies in the math really. Physical attacks just have more numbers going for them: weapon damage stacking with strength; buff; number of hits; pummel is superior to combo magic and chain magic; little to no mp costs; can vary the element of the attack just by switching weapons; probably more I can't think.
Magic just ends up being a buff/debuff source and healing. Buffs and healing can be done with items and every hero has heal (which is more than enough for between battle healing). Debuffs can be done by Daredevils (whose versatility allows them to remain useful even though they have lower damage potential than any pummel class).
Well I'm done with your game now, but I do have one more question I meant to ask. Could be useful if someone mechanic minded like me plays your game in the future.
Does wizardwand use a different damage formula? Is it always critting? Is it using int instead of str?
It literally does more damage per attack than nearly every other caster weapon. I noticed this because my Channeler was hitting 800-1k with it from the back row when I was spamming attack during random encounters at the end game. I realized that it had always done oddly more damage than it should. So I started testing it.
Zefyrin did consistently more damage with it than she did with Arcana Cards (though she does even more damage when geared as a physical attacker with a multi-hitting weapon instead of caster weapons). Crystal staff does hundreds of damage less even though it has 120 more dam stat.
You don't even mention wizardwands in your high level item page, but they're essentially superior to crystal staves in every way that matters for casters: 55 int versus 50; can equip a shield/magefist versus can't (meaning even more int with a magefist or shield of wisdom); apparently more physical damage even from the back row; a hell of a lot cheaper and can be obtained much earlier.
TL;DR: I bolded the relevant sentences.
FAQ / Walkthrough
author=kentona
More like Overpowered Gear is Overpowered. How many things can survive a lightsabre attack?
Remind me again what Ancestral Spirit is? Its been 7 years...
Err it feels like 1/5 of the enemies in the game are immune to magic, so... A lot can survive a lightsabre attack (really wish it wasn't a magic element lol). That's not as common as the number of enemies immune to physical, but it's an endgame weapon that is resisted (and by resisted I mean complete immunity) by way too many end game enemies (including a major story boss).
Oh and I can do a 50k total damage, 20 hit attack with the same set up and the store bought Falcon Blade (2 turn execution on nearly anything in the game). Since it is store bought, I can just use more than one in a party and do 100k - 150k damage in the same number of turns if I have enough people who can pummel as well as someone to apply the debuff (can just use items to apply heroic before battle). Pummel is a huge multiplier on something that already has more multipliers to begin with... How is that not OP?
Ancestral spirit is listed as the spell a warlock learns at level 41. I didn't keep a Warlock in my A team (because why would I do that?) so I don't have one near that level. I do have a warlock in my gimpy Akira team (poor Akira and all those short ended sticks). So I suppose I could grind up and see what it does... But my suspicion is that it is just a better summon skeleton (which already fails on so many levels due to engine limitations) and not worth using in the first place.
I was curious because it is pretty much the only high level spell not shared with any other class (and what it does isn't listed anywhere I could see). Part of me still wants to love the Warlock (it's unique) for more than just rainbow drop manufacturing despite the over-all inferiority of spell classes in general; not to mention the Warlock doesn't do great spell damage in the first place and weapon damage is ruled by how many hits you can do (which is pretty much 1 hit with poor strength growth and an element more commonly resisted than physical damage in the case of the Warlock).
All that said, if I replayed this game with the goal of completely breaking it I would take a single warlock as my sole non-hero magic class for the entire game. My tier-list would look quite different than yours.
Well that was a rant so... TL;DR: Lightsabre is resisted a lot. Spell casting is inferior to things that use weapon damage. Warlock learns a spell called Ancestral Spirit at level 41. What does that spell do?
FAQ / Walkthrough
I just did a 30 hit attack for over 4k a hit (120k+ total damage LOL)... Or I would have if Iron Gaia Virus was able to survive all those hits. Yep pummel is broken.
Anyhow, what's the deal with Ancestral Spirit?
Anyhow, what's the deal with Ancestral Spirit?
FAQ / Walkthrough
So, Yeah. I can't find the chest on the desert cave plateau that supposedly has a medal. I'm either missing something obvious, or it doesn't exist. Is it buried or something? Both chests on the plateau that I've found had normal coins in them.
On another note there is typo on your tiny medal list where you counted 36 twice instead of 37. The typo exists both here and on your website.
Edit: Nevermind found it. That location is evil BTW. That rope looks like a crease in the cliff face. The typo still exists though ;).
On another note there is typo on your tiny medal list where you counted 36 twice instead of 37. The typo exists both here and on your website.
Edit: Nevermind found it. That location is evil BTW. That rope looks like a crease in the cliff face. The typo still exists though ;).
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