Part 41: Minor Notes: Floors 8 - 10

Minor Notes: Floors 8 - 10

Here's another opportunity to shuffle up the party. For the most part, the things I've said in the Auburn Thicket Strategic Notes also apply to the rest of the floors. Damage tiles are still a thing and we'll be seeing them for the rest of the stratum. However, the Mystues no longer show up past the 8th floor. So once we get past it, we don't have to worry about petrification as much, and our back lines won't be dying all the time. Hopefully.

Plot wise, we do run into another guild pretty late into the Stratum, and learn about the Stratum boss.

There are a few class specific shortcuts that do show up, and I'll note which party members can get past them.

Party wise, most things are the same.

Emilia, Bellamy, Ken, and Fedot are all our main damage dealers. Bellamy and Fedot can deal elemental damage from the back, while Emilia and Ken are our physical front liners. Emilia can help clear out or weaken mobs with Tornado, while Ken deals a ton of single target damage. Fedot is kind of a jack of all trades sort of character, with being able to deal decent physical and elemental damage, along with supporting. Special mention goes to Fedot's Medishot, which can heal up any status effects we run into, which is even more important since petrification won't be as much of an issue past a certain point. Bellamy and Fedot can help deal with a specific enemy type found on the later floors.

Frederik is our healer and supporter. He can help our physical attackers hit harder, and he can heal up party members pretty fast. However, his healing is weaker than Maverick's and he can't get rid of status effects. However, unlike Maverick he has access to Salve 2 at this moment, which can heal the whole party.

Aliara is our panic button in case we run into a nasty random encounter or if there's a battle I just don't want to deal with by using Poison and Torpor. She doesn't have Revenge, so don't take that into account. Mystues no longer show up after the 8th floor so she's free to go on a rampage all over the 9th and 10th floors with Poison. Though there is an enemy that Torpor won't have an effect on.

Nick is our resident FOE exterminator, although he won't be able to pull off that job if the party composition can't actually chip off 45% of an FOE's health. He's a decent enough damage dealer at this point, so he's not useless if he can't accomplish that. He's the fastest character, so he can help a bit with supporting too. He's able to bind enemy heads at a decent rate. There is a class specific shortcut that he can get past, except there's an additional requirement to get past it other than bring a Dark Hunter. And while we could theoretically get past it, the additional requirement makes it a really risky thing to do.

Pauline is our field support, being able to help reduce or prevent our party members from taking damage from damage tiles. And she can ensure that someone will always act first in battle, which can work really well with Maverick, who doesn't have that much speed. Her main downsides is that she's lacking in the combat department, and the support department aside from her 1st Turn ability. 2-Bolt can help put a dent in some enemy mobs.

Maverick is our main healer, and his healing is stronger than Frederik's. Not only that, but he can help the party deal with damage tiles by healing the damage up, or nullifying it with Patrol. That said, he can't really buff party members like Frederik can, and his healing is a lot slower (which isn't an issue if Pauline's on the team). His ability to heal petrification isn't that important once we get past the 8th floor. He doesn't have access to any of the Salve skills yet, so that's something else Frederik has over him. He is needed for a class specific shortcut.

Aegis is our defensive support and tank. While he can't do much against elemental attacks and status effects, he's good at dealing with physical damage. So he can Provoke enemies and tank all the damage. Unlike Ling, he doesn't have the offenses to contribute to actually killing enemies. Provoke and Parry can help keep enemies off the other party members, but AOEs start showing up a bit more here, and more enemies have access to status effects.

Ling is also another defensive party member we can take here, although he has some decent offenses. Unfortunately, he may be a bit suicidal thanks to his Loyalty ability and the enemies here do hit hard. But with Devour, he's pretty durable and can't be killed that easily.

Gilbert is another support and can buff our party members into hitting harder, and can increase their max HP. Don't expect much from him in the damage department though, he's purely a support. He is needed for a class specific shortcut.

Vote for up to three party members you want to see used for part of the next stratum. Bold your votes, or they won't count.