Part 55: Minor Notes: Floors 13 - 15

Minor Notes: Floors 13 - 15

Most things that I've said in the 3rd Stratum strategic notes still apply here. Day and night differences are still around. Minor ice puzzles are scattered around. Floors 14 and 15 are Darksoar minefields, but the party may be better equipped to deal with them by that point. Plotwise, well something big's gonna go down later, I'll say that much. There's no class specific shortcuts on these floors. Petrification makes a return on the 15th floor.

Top Picks

: Pauline is still a really helpful party member. 1st Turn helps the slower party members get their skills off before the enemy, and she can help navigate our party through the Darksoar infested areas, or help our party sneak up on each and every one. Offense wise, she isn't great, but she's not terrible.

: Nick is also a helpful choice. Being able to take down FOEs when they hit just over half their HP is nice, especially when there's a new kind that we haven't seen yet. It happens to be one of the tougher ones in the Stratum.

Offense

: Aliara is still one of the strongest characters in the game. Poison exterminates mobs, and she has Dampen to help her teammates deliver beatdowns on FOEs and the like. Not only that, but Scavenge makes hunting for random drops a lot less frustrating.

: Bellamy can deliver huge amounts of Volt damage to enemies. He's also very handy for serving as fuel for Emilia's chaser skills. Benefits heavily from 1st Turn support.

: Ken is the king of single target physical damage, although he's facing some competition from Fedot at this point. He has access to Fire skills, which can help Emilia's chasers deal more damage.

: Fedot is the strongest back row physical attacker, and his regular attacks will actually deal more damage than Ken's regular attacks thanks to a bug the Ronin class has. When skills are involved, Ken beats him easily. His elemental shots can help Emilia hit more with her chaser skills. He can also heal up any status effects with Medishot, but he can't heal up petrification. He would also benefit heavily from 1st Turn support.

: Emilia now has a new skill branch to play around with, her chaser skills. With these she can dish out elemental damage to enemies and FOEs, as well as dealing physical AOE damage to enemies on top of that. Of course they're useless if there's no one with elemental attacks in the party.

: Ling now has the ability to deal heavy damage to mobs and single targets. The downside? His Loyalty skill means he's gonna tank 75% of the hits, including AOEs, which means he's probably gonna rack up the most deaths in the next part of the Stratum. On the plus side this means that the rest of the party is less likely to die.

Support

: Gilbert can also buff the party's damage, buff their HP so they're more durable, and turn other party member's regular attacks into elemental attacks. This can help them hit weaknesses, and if Emilia's on the team, help her get more out of her chaser skills. He can't heal status effects, but he can help prevent the party from being hit by them. He can also erase enemy buffs.

: Frederik can heal the party, and make certain members be able to deal even more damage. He can also erase enemy buffs, and he's fast. In emergency cases he can transfer his own TP to other party members if they really need it, but he can't restore any of his own TP at the moment.

: Maverick is another healer, and one that can help with the Petrification problem that will happen later on. He can heal binds and status effects, and thanks to his Patch Up passive, he can heal the party's HP without using up TP. That can really help save on resources like items and TP. He also has a few points in Scavenge, so he can make random drop hunting a lot less frustrating. Heavily benefits from Pauline's first turn.

: Aegis can provide some physical defensive support. He's the party tank and can take most of the single target hits. His offense is lackluster, but unlike Ling, his defensive abilities are controllable.

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