Still not really feeling this... I'm still wandering around the early two areas. So far these are my impressions: very primitive item and equip interface, monsters are way too boring, the extra adds on almost every battle are extremely annoying, the complete lack of feedback or info when battling Demons is super annoying too; all my characters are super weak and lack any interesting abilities, the hurt floors are way too prevalent and powerful, the outings net me far too little reward. thus far I can either kill foes with regular attacks and do a few weak heals with the pitiful amount of MP my healer has.
cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
It gets easier when you get Chronos' ability, which takes damage floors out of the equation entirely.
Also, buff MYS ASAP for the healer. They'll get some abilities that will help a lot too.
I'm at the Star Curtain. It's fun enough, but just that; good, but not great. Class of Heroes is way better balanced(and slightly better art, though not by much).
This definitely wins for music, at least overall. (CoH2 doesn't even have dungeon BGM, which I loathe.)
My wizard is just more and more useless the deeper I get into the game. She does less damage than the assassin single target, and less aoe than the gazer, while having mana issues. Should probably just switch her to a samurai, since the game seems to favor physical damage dealers in a huge way.
Fast cast quad bolt is really good. And as I've said before, convert mana leech off of the healer and she basically has infinite mana.
That's of course not mentioning their already pointed out utility.
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AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
The wizard isn't too bad really, especially for spamming slow.
It turns out I just completely pasted Astarte on the first time I actually encountered her (given how much had been said about her in the thread, I damn near crapped my pants when I encountered her completely unprepared). Thankfully my obsessive grinding for items that any JRPG instills in me, combined with a dedication to dapper hat wear was more than enough to just annihilate her. My Gazer/Paladin/Assassin front line barely took any damage and only my healer had an accidental (but entirely unlucky) death. Thankfully the fact I summoned Neptune right off the bat was a very very good decision.
I'm even playing on the hardest difficulty setting, making annihilating her all the more enjoyable.
My wizard is just more and more useless the deeper I get into the game. She does less damage than the assassin single target, and less aoe than the gazer, while having mana issues. Should probably just switch her to a samurai, since the game seems to favor physical damage dealers in a huge way.
Fast cast quad bolt is really good. And as I've said before, convert mana leech off of the healer and she basically has infinite mana.
That's of course not mentioning their already pointed out utility.
Quad bolt is just so damn expensive when fast casted though. And my current woe is the... mirage something? The boss you meet after getting all 10 demons, can't quite get trough her 7k heal every few turns while also protecting formation and buffs.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
Samurai makes a dynamite archer thanks to Slash 1.
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AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
edited May 2014
I am a super grinder, mostly because if there is a hat I want I get that hat all the way to +10. Plus I wanted like a cash reserve so I have about 50k or so and all my shit is +10. My characters are between 15-18ish. My Paladin leads the way at 20 because she has literally never died, while my Gazer has bit it a couple of times. I can keep demons out for 24+ turns too, so I don't even bother not having one summoned every single fight just about.
For Astarte I just used Magic Wall (Healer Skill) and then put all the various Force Buffs/Debuffs I had. For the Paladin I had the fighters 3x attack artifact on her, Assassin kept using sneak attack (which did about 300-400 damage each time) and Gazer the 3x damage demon rage attack (or whatever it is). The wizard did whatever to be honest, mostly a lot of slow at first and then I just resorted to throwing fire spells at Astarte for a lack of better ideas (Wizards are kind of shit). I hadn't even leveled Nepture beyond level 1, but I had a level 15 or so Chronos and that possibly made a huge difference (not sure).
Been playing the game on Hot too, which means I get substantially rarer item drops and I notice reading around I seem to have better katanas/spears and similar that what some people have. So this could have been a big factor. Also since my assassin lucked out and got a slash 1 artifact I've not missed my Samurai at all, which really didn't pull its weight IMO.
Kind of tempted to get rid of the wizard and pick up a ranger instead - But I will miss spamming slow (her main purpose).
Oh geez, yeah, I think I was hovering more around 12 when I got to Astarte, and without any fancy equipment, on the standard difficulty. It doesn't help that I've been keeping the seven classes more or less in an even rotation. I don't think I had Magic Wall then, but did a lot of buffs/debuffs and relied on Chronos to soak hits. Neptune's per-turn heal spells are great too.
I love seeing how people do these parts and fights differently, because my samurai is a juggernaut on the front line and built to reliably do more damage (via either Slash or Carnage), safely, than anyone else in the party. Once I get out of a place that benefits from holy damage, I'm pulling my paladin out and probably bringing the wizard back for more debuffs and to get closer to late game (which is apparently where it shines, because it is not good early-game (even in Demon Gaze, linear fighter quadratic wizard)). If I ever get some healer artifacts, I could totally see some builds where I drop the healer entirely for all but special cases, and just rely on a tricked out wizard for all of that.
3DS: 2466-2307-8384 PSN: bssteph Steam:bsstephanTwitch:bsstephan Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e Occasional words about games:my site
The only thing I don't like about this game is the backtracking - especially with no indicators on the map.
I picked up Jupiter, but the power's still out to the elevator and the Shark party's got nothing new for me (never was sent for medicine, which apparently is something that happens - quest says Prometh wants me to investigate).
Now I'm just wandering around wondering what to do next (for the last 2-3 days). Fights are just tedious when I'm trying to figure out where to go next.
My wizard is just more and more useless the deeper I get into the game. She does less damage than the assassin single target, and less aoe than the gazer, while having mana issues. Should probably just switch her to a samurai, since the game seems to favor physical damage dealers in a huge way.
Fast cast quad bolt is really good. And as I've said before, convert mana leech off of the healer and she basically has infinite mana.
That's of course not mentioning their already pointed out utility.
Quad bolt is just so damn expensive when fast casted though. And my current woe is the... mirage something? The boss you meet after getting all 10 demons, can't quite get trough her 7k heal every few turns while also protecting formation and buffs.
It doesn't matter if it's expensive if your Healer has convert mana and heal mana. Run your mage to about 50 mana, Healer uses convert mana, mage now has full mana, a few turns later the Healer probably has close to full mana again, repeat. It helps if your Healer has item training 2 and healing staff as well because then you have a free, powerful single target heal and eliminate a mana drain on the Healer.
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My wizard is just more and more useless the deeper I get into the game. She does less damage than the assassin single target, and less aoe than the gazer, while having mana issues. Should probably just switch her to a samurai, since the game seems to favor physical damage dealers in a huge way.
Fast cast quad bolt is really good. And as I've said before, convert mana leech off of the healer and she basically has infinite mana.
That's of course not mentioning their already pointed out utility.
Quad bolt is just so damn expensive when fast casted though. And my current woe is the... mirage something? The boss you meet after getting all 10 demons, can't quite get trough her 7k heal every few turns while also protecting formation and buffs.
It doesn't matter if it's expensive if your Healer has convert mana and heal mana. Run your mage to about 50 mana, Healer uses convert mana, mage now has full mana, a few turns later the Healer probably has close to full mana again, repeat. It helps if your Healer has item training 2 and healing staff as well because then you have a free, powerful single target heal and eliminate a mana drain on the Healer.
Myeah. too busy casting divine weapon and the one that removes buffs from enemy right now. It does do decent damage, just not as much as my assassin or gazer. Slow is nice though I suppose.
My Samurai is my absolute mook killer. SLash 1 or Slash 2, good weapons (getting a bit old now) which are +17 and +14, 25 Agi so no dual wield penalty and good stats to take a hit or two. Carnage down big slow targets, Concentrate + Rush Attack otherwise. In a big fight, my Healer is tossing a Divine Armour on the Samurai first thing so I can Carnage all the time, and when the boss is low, go all in with a Carnage EX.
I've gotten a Slash 1 AND Slash 2 artefact, so my DG has the Slash 2 while the Ranger has the Slash 1. Let's just say that trash packs aren't a problem with three attackers all Slashing. The Ranger has a lot of artefacts: Slash 1; Cure Set, Support Set W, Mirage. So she's my supporter in addition to dishing out damage. Boss fights she tosses up the Slows before doing what's needed with damage or support.
Healer has Item Training 2, Magic Weapon, Gazer Heart. Also picked up a new staff that has a stronger healing on-use, so yeah... MP isn't that much of an issue
The Fighter has Front Cover, Devotion, Divine Body. Pseudo-Paladin while retaining some ability to do damage safely.
Astarte was difficult for me because I didn't know Whistle can be used pre-emptively, and Neptune is awesome for that periodic heal every turn, which really took the edge off Astarte's damage. Once I ditched the Wizard, retuned the party composition and upgraded gear to +10 for most pieces, yeah it got a lot easier. The bosses since have been really disappointing since that periodic heal + Divine Armour makes a mockery of whatever the bosses have been throwing out.
I got a hold of a True Snipe artifact and put it on my Gazer. Ho-lee sheeit, just spammin' Jupiter Bane erry dayz. Wizard puts Divine Weapon on my Gazer and he's doing 1k x 5 to bosses without any other activations.
I'm finally at a place there I can get God's Arms, so I can also put dual two-handed weapons and Astro Force on either my Assassin or my Gazer(probably not him because of Demon Slayer's awesomeness) and just really rip into things.
My end-game plan is to get Jupiter Bane for my Ranger, so that she can join the DG with True Snipe -> Bane festivals. That's going to leave the Samurai in a rather bad position, so maybe giving it Wild Attack would be a good move for single-target damage that doesn't require prep.
Good lord, the Fighter is the late-bloomingest class in the game I'd have to say, moreso than the Wizard. Most of the heaviest 2h weapons are fighter-only and at the end of the game when you're getting A-rank stuff, they fly up to 450+ base damage apiece before enhancement. I feel like I may bench my Assassin and go Fighter now that I have God's Arms/Jupiter Bane/Astro Force and have him dual-wield 2-handers, because it seems most of the 2h stuff can't even be equipped by the Assassin or Gazer.
The only thing I don't like about this game is the backtracking - especially with no indicators on the map.
I picked up Jupiter, but the power's still out to the elevator and the Shark party's got nothing new for me (never was sent for medicine, which apparently is something that happens - quest says Prometh wants me to investigate).
Now I'm just wandering around wondering what to do next (for the last 2-3 days). Fights are just tedious when I'm trying to figure out where to go next.
Did you find the Shark God Priest? I think you have to run into him twice in Grimodar, once on the first floor and again on the second floor. The first time is what opens a bunch of gates, but I don't think he gives you the quest until the second time you see him, maybe? Check that you have all the doors and everything on the second floor.
3DS: 2466-2307-8384 PSN: bssteph Steam:bsstephanTwitch:bsstephan Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e Occasional words about games:my site
Just an FYI, Boost Magic works with Hit/Avoid to greater effect than Fast Cast(Edit: at low levels). I presume Slow has the same effect but you can't really tell enemy stats.
Edit: Upon further testing it seems it's actually a percentage of your hit rating(?). After changing some gear from my fighter and getting a few more levels into AGI, my damagers are getting more of an effect from Fast Casting than they were before. At higher levels it seems two turns of Fast Casting(edit2: severely) edges out using two turns to Boost Magic a Multi-Hit.
How should I use my good gems, like bronze and gold? Can I just drop them wherever, with whatever other gems I want? Or should I try to use them at the higher "level" areas, and use just nameless gems along?
How should I use my good gems, like bronze and gold? Can I just drop them wherever, with whatever other gems I want? Or should I try to use them at the higher "level" areas, and use just nameless gems along?
You can farm them at and after Sol (more reliably after), so you don't really need to strategically use them like you do with Artifact gems.
Basically you use them with equipment gems for a chance(multiple gold/silver/bronze gems stack) at getting a piece of gear/artifact that's a higher rank than is normally available for the area. Matter of fact that's the only way to get S-rank gear from the bonus dungeon.
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AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
I really wish I knew about how extremely limited artifact gems were before I started to use them.
I kinda wish I had paid attention to the fact that artifacts are a one and done kinda thing before selling them to fund my human wave tactics of party members.
So Light Veil from Uranus means that enemies can't attack your back row with single target abilities, and enemies behind their front row can't target any of your team with single target abilities, meaning the only option they have is to aoe magic cast or their front row funnel 1-50 damage hits in on my Paladin. A Maxed Uranus reduces magic damage taken by 70%, so quite literally nothing outdamages Neptune's Heal Shower 3.
And since the only thing remotely damaging my fighter is magic(which isn't affected by the defense stat anyway), I can quite literally open up right off with Providences to still deal severe damage even before getting buffed up enough for Wild Swing. Since Providence gives each weapon 1 additional hit(based on the hit count stat of the weapon), x1 hit weapons do double damage in addition to the defense-ignoring effect of Providence, making it extremely competitive with Wild Swing(Wild Swing still doing better damage but being highly inaccurate pre-buff).
I even crit something for the damage cap today this way with Divine Weapon.
Oh and apparently the MYS stat affects Gazer Heart's success rate according to FAQs, so it turns out putting Gazer Heart on a Healer is the best thing.
If anyone was still doubting the power of Wizard later on, it has been absolutely instrumental to my steamrolling some of these bosses. Like Donnicton said, Fast Cast Quad Bolt does so much damage, just so much damage. My strategy for the last couple bosses I've done has been to have the party buff/heal while the Wizard lays on FCQB after FCQB. For a couple tricky/healy bosses, things switched to having the Wizard buff/debuff and then point the Samurai at it, but once you get Fast Cast and Evil Flare/Quad Bolt/Omega Impact and have a Healer to act as a battery, damage is no longer a concern.
3DS: 2466-2307-8384 PSN: bssteph Steam:bsstephanTwitch:bsstephan Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e Occasional words about games:my site
My Wizard equiped with healing spell artifact(s) and holy Shield is working out extremly well for me as I'm not at your godly late game damage level yet. ultimate support character.
Also, my Fighter keeps doing more and more absurd damage each level.
I was rocking Holy Shield for the longest time. Late game it seems to become less useful (but still good in general) just due to the number of things that have multiple hits and/or the amount of damage that happens when they do eventually get through. Wish I could get an artifact of it to drop, though, it would be nice to free up my Healer a bit more.
My Fighter is pretty absurd too. Had her with an Anti-Undead weapon in the undead areas and it was just silly.
3DS: 2466-2307-8384 PSN: bssteph Steam:bsstephanTwitch:bsstephan Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e Occasional words about games:my site
If anyone was still doubting the power of Wizard later on, it has been absolutely instrumental to my steamrolling some of these bosses. Like Donnicton said, Fast Cast Quad Bolt does so much damage, just so much damage. My strategy for the last couple bosses I've done has been to have the party buff/heal while the Wizard lays on FCQB after FCQB. For a couple tricky/healy bosses, things switched to having the Wizard buff/debuff and then point the Samurai at it, but once you get Fast Cast and Evil Flare/Quad Bolt/Omega Impact and have a Healer to act as a battery, damage is no longer a concern.
Her damage contribution arced. She dipped back down later in the game because in the same way you need Mars for Physical users, you need Pluto and Astro(?) to make spell damage not suck later on - and it's better to just use mars than it is to use two other demons, since the end-game super combo seems to be Mars/Uranus/Neptune.
However, she became an incredibly good buffer. Int/Agi and she's perfect for putting up dispel guards and Divine Weapon/Armor/Fast Cast Multi-Hit. Divine Weapon alone turns my fighter into a monster that can kill any of the end-game bosses in two swings of Providence.
Unfortunately I've completed all of the quest in the game so I've had to put it down for now to work on the rest of my backlog - my Fighter still had about 5 ranks left to go on one of his weapons and I didn't even get started on his off-hand. I would have loved to see where I could take him.
I also got my Paladin up to 400 defense. That was just monstrous.
Playing this again. Astarte is a pretty fun fight! Think I've got my strat figured out. It's given me a couple game overs so far, but I've learned three valuable things:
1. My Wizard is god and their Support & Wall spells are the crux of my party. I am also very glad I actually gave them Healing spells.
2. Have Holy Shield equipped on someone other than my Wizard for boss fights because of the above. My Wizard has more important things to do.
3. HOLY FUCK MY NEY ASSASSIN IS A WUXIA LEVEL EVADER! I had a wipe and just Defended with my last guys... with my Assassin as my last character it took 10 turns for the boss to even hit them while they were Defended and un-Hidden. Parry. Parry. Dodge. Dodge. Parry. Parry. Dodge. Parry. Parry. Dodge. Parry. Dodge. ....Yep, they are totally being equiped with Divine Body and Front Guard for this encounter (Sorry my Ney Fighter! You'll have to wait for the Parry Artifact to be this awesome!).
Oh, it seems the reward for completing the Skull quest is a caster staff that makes you immune to Soul Gaze if equipped on the Gazer.
The weapon damage on it sucks as you'd expect from a staff, but if you don't need really the Gazer for much direct damage, fuckin' a. If I ever get back to picking up a New Game+ run and it carries over, it's going to head up a completely different Gazer build.
And Astarte obliterated. All I had to do was learn from my failures, change my tactics, and a hard fight became a roflestomp. And hey, plot progress and new dungeon!
Gazer: Keeping Whistle Buff Up. Casts Restore 10% Hp/Turn from Neptune. Enrages Mars. Terra Banes.
Fighter: Rush Attack/Wild Swing.
Assassin: Defend. Abuse Shadow Step + Divine Body + Parry + Front Guard.
Ranger: Holy Shield. Poor girl not being able to shoot things this fight.
Wizard. Force shield spells. Slow and more Slow and more Slow. Magic Wall before a telegraphed big spell. AoE healing spell when needed.
I have transitioned my end-game party to Gazer/Paladin/Ranger/Healer/Wizard. I got a Slash 3 artifact to drop, so my Samurai was mostly done. (More on that in a moment.) After trying to race the (maybe final?) plot boss to a quick death, I've decided I need to level a bit and work on a more survivable strategy. I've been getting all the skulls and mushrooms as I level. I think a lot is going to rely, now, on how much of a damage my Ranger with Assassin artifacts and my Wizard with Healer can deal while the rest of the party supports defense/healing.
And of course opening up Mars for massive damage.
On wuxia Ney Assassins, there were entire boss fights that I won solely on my Ney Samurai's ability to Carnage EX and just never get hit. Feels good man. Unfortunately I couldn't get her EVD high enough for these last couple boss fights.
bss on
3DS: 2466-2307-8384 PSN: bssteph Steam:bsstephanTwitch:bsstephan Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e Occasional words about games:my site
Woo, final plot boss bodied free. Party build and strategy:
Gazer 41/Paladin 31/Ranger 30/Healer 40/Wizard 38
Mars 19/Chronos 26/Uranus 14
If anything I think I was overleveled. Going through all the skulls and mushrooms gave me about 10 levels for each character, which was too much. In any event, the boss fights were much easier this time since, compared to my old party, I had to worry less about healing since I had much stronger tanking ability.
Both battles started with Whistle, Force Avoid, Force Hit, Force Magic, Force Bio, of course.
Repeat until dead. Only brought Mars out to eat a Soul Gaze. I didn't even bother targeting the Luna Souls or Dark Demons, and just rushed down Luna/Sol.
Anyway, last time around, in addition to probably being a bit underleveled, I was wasting too much time keeping my Samurai alive, and this time, with more HP and better tanking, I only needed to heal once in Sol. It was crazy. Half the time, with Light Veil, Luna/Sol couldn't even do anything since they were sitting in the back row trying to do physical attacks.
I still have some stuff left to do, of course, but yeah. Pretty great game, I feel. Really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to do the last couple things to get the plat.
Edit: Haha, I went back to the boss's tile. Best message:
That Was For
Shark God
bss on
3DS: 2466-2307-8384 PSN: bssteph Steam:bsstephanTwitch:bsstephan Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e Occasional words about games:my site
Did I mention that I platted this? Because I did. I was one of the last within the first batch of people to finish this, has anyone else picked it up or continued playing? I really loved this game.
Anyway, I come with news for anyone who isn't following the Vita thread for some reason. Gematsu tells us two things: Demon Gaze shipped 200,000 copies with the Global Edition just now hitting Japanese shelves, and a Demon Gaze 2 for Vita is in the works! If there's some kind of save import functionality I will be hyped as hell, but really I'm hyped either way. Manager, please die with me!
3DS: 2466-2307-8384 PSN: bssteph Steam:bsstephanTwitch:bsstephan Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e Occasional words about games:my site
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Making me miss Etrian Odyssey.
Also, buff MYS ASAP for the healer. They'll get some abilities that will help a lot too.
I'm at the Star Curtain. It's fun enough, but just that; good, but not great. Class of Heroes is way better balanced(and slightly better art, though not by much).
This definitely wins for music, at least overall. (CoH2 doesn't even have dungeon BGM, which I loathe.)
Fast cast quad bolt is really good. And as I've said before, convert mana leech off of the healer and she basically has infinite mana.
That's of course not mentioning their already pointed out utility.
It turns out I just completely pasted Astarte on the first time I actually encountered her (given how much had been said about her in the thread, I damn near crapped my pants when I encountered her completely unprepared). Thankfully my obsessive grinding for items that any JRPG instills in me, combined with a dedication to dapper hat wear was more than enough to just annihilate her. My Gazer/Paladin/Assassin front line barely took any damage and only my healer had an accidental (but entirely unlucky) death. Thankfully the fact I summoned Neptune right off the bat was a very very good decision.
I'm even playing on the hardest difficulty setting, making annihilating her all the more enjoyable.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
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Quad bolt is just so damn expensive when fast casted though. And my current woe is the... mirage something? The boss you meet after getting all 10 demons, can't quite get trough her 7k heal every few turns while also protecting formation and buffs.
For Astarte I just used Magic Wall (Healer Skill) and then put all the various Force Buffs/Debuffs I had. For the Paladin I had the fighters 3x attack artifact on her, Assassin kept using sneak attack (which did about 300-400 damage each time) and Gazer the 3x damage demon rage attack (or whatever it is). The wizard did whatever to be honest, mostly a lot of slow at first and then I just resorted to throwing fire spells at Astarte for a lack of better ideas (Wizards are kind of shit). I hadn't even leveled Nepture beyond level 1, but I had a level 15 or so Chronos and that possibly made a huge difference (not sure).
Been playing the game on Hot too, which means I get substantially rarer item drops and I notice reading around I seem to have better katanas/spears and similar that what some people have. So this could have been a big factor. Also since my assassin lucked out and got a slash 1 artifact I've not missed my Samurai at all, which really didn't pull its weight IMO.
Kind of tempted to get rid of the wizard and pick up a ranger instead - But I will miss spamming slow (her main purpose).
I love seeing how people do these parts and fights differently, because my samurai is a juggernaut on the front line and built to reliably do more damage (via either Slash or Carnage), safely, than anyone else in the party. Once I get out of a place that benefits from holy damage, I'm pulling my paladin out and probably bringing the wizard back for more debuffs and to get closer to late game (which is apparently where it shines, because it is not good early-game (even in Demon Gaze, linear fighter quadratic wizard)). If I ever get some healer artifacts, I could totally see some builds where I drop the healer entirely for all but special cases, and just rely on a tricked out wizard for all of that.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
It doesn't matter if it's expensive if your Healer has convert mana and heal mana. Run your mage to about 50 mana, Healer uses convert mana, mage now has full mana, a few turns later the Healer probably has close to full mana again, repeat. It helps if your Healer has item training 2 and healing staff as well because then you have a free, powerful single target heal and eliminate a mana drain on the Healer.
PSN Hypacia
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Myeah. too busy casting divine weapon and the one that removes buffs from enemy right now. It does do decent damage, just not as much as my assassin or gazer. Slow is nice though I suppose.
I've gotten a Slash 1 AND Slash 2 artefact, so my DG has the Slash 2 while the Ranger has the Slash 1. Let's just say that trash packs aren't a problem with three attackers all Slashing. The Ranger has a lot of artefacts: Slash 1; Cure Set, Support Set W, Mirage. So she's my supporter in addition to dishing out damage. Boss fights she tosses up the Slows before doing what's needed with damage or support.
Healer has Item Training 2, Magic Weapon, Gazer Heart. Also picked up a new staff that has a stronger healing on-use, so yeah... MP isn't that much of an issue
The Fighter has Front Cover, Devotion, Divine Body. Pseudo-Paladin while retaining some ability to do damage safely.
Astarte was difficult for me because I didn't know Whistle can be used pre-emptively, and Neptune is awesome for that periodic heal every turn, which really took the edge off Astarte's damage. Once I ditched the Wizard, retuned the party composition and upgraded gear to +10 for most pieces, yeah it got a lot easier. The bosses since have been really disappointing since that periodic heal + Divine Armour makes a mockery of whatever the bosses have been throwing out.
I'm finally at a place there I can get God's Arms, so I can also put dual two-handed weapons and Astro Force on either my Assassin or my Gazer(probably not him because of Demon Slayer's awesomeness) and just really rip into things.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
Edit: Upon further testing it seems it's actually a percentage of your hit rating(?). After changing some gear from my fighter and getting a few more levels into AGI, my damagers are getting more of an effect from Fast Casting than they were before. At higher levels it seems two turns of Fast Casting(edit2: severely) edges out using two turns to Boost Magic a Multi-Hit.
You can farm them at and after Sol (more reliably after), so you don't really need to strategically use them like you do with Artifact gems.
Basically you use them with equipment gems for a chance(multiple gold/silver/bronze gems stack) at getting a piece of gear/artifact that's a higher rank than is normally available for the area. Matter of fact that's the only way to get S-rank gear from the bonus dungeon.
Yeah, I did the same thing, burned through my stock a couple times.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
PSN Hypacia
Xbox HypaciaMinnow
Discord Hypacia#0391
So Light Veil from Uranus means that enemies can't attack your back row with single target abilities, and enemies behind their front row can't target any of your team with single target abilities, meaning the only option they have is to aoe magic cast or their front row funnel 1-50 damage hits in on my Paladin. A Maxed Uranus reduces magic damage taken by 70%, so quite literally nothing outdamages Neptune's Heal Shower 3.
And since the only thing remotely damaging my fighter is magic(which isn't affected by the defense stat anyway), I can quite literally open up right off with Providences to still deal severe damage even before getting buffed up enough for Wild Swing. Since Providence gives each weapon 1 additional hit(based on the hit count stat of the weapon), x1 hit weapons do double damage in addition to the defense-ignoring effect of Providence, making it extremely competitive with Wild Swing(Wild Swing still doing better damage but being highly inaccurate pre-buff).
I even crit something for the damage cap today this way with Divine Weapon.
Oh and apparently the MYS stat affects Gazer Heart's success rate according to FAQs, so it turns out putting Gazer Heart on a Healer is the best thing.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
Also, my Fighter keeps doing more and more absurd damage each level.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
My Fighter is pretty absurd too. Had her with an Anti-Undead weapon in the undead areas and it was just silly.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
Her damage contribution arced. She dipped back down later in the game because in the same way you need Mars for Physical users, you need Pluto and Astro(?) to make spell damage not suck later on - and it's better to just use mars than it is to use two other demons, since the end-game super combo seems to be Mars/Uranus/Neptune.
However, she became an incredibly good buffer. Int/Agi and she's perfect for putting up dispel guards and Divine Weapon/Armor/Fast Cast Multi-Hit. Divine Weapon alone turns my fighter into a monster that can kill any of the end-game bosses in two swings of Providence.
Unfortunately I've completed all of the quest in the game so I've had to put it down for now to work on the rest of my backlog - my Fighter still had about 5 ranks left to go on one of his weapons and I didn't even get started on his off-hand. I would have loved to see where I could take him.
I also got my Paladin up to 400 defense. That was just monstrous.
1. My Wizard is god and their Support & Wall spells are the crux of my party. I am also very glad I actually gave them Healing spells.
2. Have Holy Shield equipped on someone other than my Wizard for boss fights because of the above. My Wizard has more important things to do.
3. HOLY FUCK MY NEY ASSASSIN IS A WUXIA LEVEL EVADER! I had a wipe and just Defended with my last guys... with my Assassin as my last character it took 10 turns for the boss to even hit them while they were Defended and un-Hidden. Parry. Parry. Dodge. Dodge. Parry. Parry. Dodge. Parry. Parry. Dodge. Parry. Dodge. ....Yep, they are totally being equiped with Divine Body and Front Guard for this encounter (Sorry my Ney Fighter! You'll have to wait for the Parry Artifact to be this awesome!).
Gonna have to come back and destroy her.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
The weapon damage on it sucks as you'd expect from a staff, but if you don't need really the Gazer for much direct damage, fuckin' a. If I ever get back to picking up a New Game+ run and it carries over, it's going to head up a completely different Gazer build.
Gazer: Keeping Whistle Buff Up. Casts Restore 10% Hp/Turn from Neptune. Enrages Mars. Terra Banes.
Fighter: Rush Attack/Wild Swing.
Assassin: Defend. Abuse Shadow Step + Divine Body + Parry + Front Guard.
Ranger: Holy Shield. Poor girl not being able to shoot things this fight.
Wizard. Force shield spells. Slow and more Slow and more Slow. Magic Wall before a telegraphed big spell. AoE healing spell when needed.
And Mars: MURDER ALL THE THINGS!
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
And of course opening up Mars for massive damage.
On wuxia Ney Assassins, there were entire boss fights that I won solely on my Ney Samurai's ability to Carnage EX and just never get hit. Feels good man. Unfortunately I couldn't get her EVD high enough for these last couple boss fights.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
Mars 19/Chronos 26/Uranus 14
If anything I think I was overleveled. Going through all the skulls and mushrooms gave me about 10 levels for each character, which was too much. In any event, the boss fights were much easier this time since, compared to my old party, I had to worry less about healing since I had much stronger tanking ability.
Both battles started with Whistle, Force Avoid, Force Hit, Force Magic, Force Bio, of course.
Round 1:
Gazer Light Veil, Gazer Concentrate, Paladin Defend, Ranger Concentrate EX, Healer Force Guard, Wizard Fast Cast Quad Bolt
Round 2:
Gazer Iron Shell 3, Gazer Jupiter Shot, Paladin Defend, Ranger Jupiter Shot, Healer Holy Shield, Wizard Fast Cast Quad Bolt
Repeat until dead. Only brought Mars out to eat a Soul Gaze. I didn't even bother targeting the Luna Souls or Dark Demons, and just rushed down Luna/Sol.
Anyway, last time around, in addition to probably being a bit underleveled, I was wasting too much time keeping my Samurai alive, and this time, with more HP and better tanking, I only needed to heal once in Sol. It was crazy. Half the time, with Light Veil, Luna/Sol couldn't even do anything since they were sitting in the back row trying to do physical attacks.
I still have some stuff left to do, of course, but yeah. Pretty great game, I feel. Really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to do the last couple things to get the plat.
Edit: Haha, I went back to the boss's tile. Best message:
Shark God
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
Anyway, I come with news for anyone who isn't following the Vita thread for some reason. Gematsu tells us two things: Demon Gaze shipped 200,000 copies with the Global Edition just now hitting Japanese shelves, and a Demon Gaze 2 for Vita is in the works! If there's some kind of save import functionality I will be hyped as hell, but really I'm hyped either way. Manager, please die with me!
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
I totally will though!
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //