Part 11: Class Discussions - Dark Hunter

Class Discussion - Dark Hunter



The rest of the portraits.
The EO1 class portraits.

No name change here, they were known as Dark Hunters in Japan as well. These guys were in the first game, and were a bit underused. They had a bunch of weird and situational skills, and were overlooked for other options, such as Landsknechts, Survivalists, or even Ronin. So Atlus decided to buff them. A little too much. They're the class of choice for taking down FOEs for this game, and unlike Alchemists, they can do it all game.

Dark Hunters are offensive supports that can operate on the front lines. They're more of a utility based class instead of a straight up damage dealer. Like Landsknechts, they know how to use two kinds of weapons, whips and swords. Whips specialize in binds, while swords specialize in status effects and deal more damage. Swords are a better choice if you want your Dark Hunter to be dealing more damage, but whips can provide some decent utility.

Shadow Cloak, Fury, and Boost Up are all gone, the last of which would have been incredibly broken in this game. (Hello rapid-fire Dominates!) But even then, Dark Hunters are a lot stronger than in the first game. Climax got a massive buff, and Bait now has a magical counterpart. Thanks to their force skill, they have the most reliable method of binding enemies in the game.

Stats

Level 1
HP - 42
TP - 26
STR - 7
TEC - 5
VIT - 5
AGI - 5
LUC - 5

Level 70
HP - 503
TP - 151
STR - 60
TEC - 36
VIT - 51
AGI - 54
LUC - 33

Level 99
HP - 731
TP - 330
STR - 77
TEC - 53
VIT - 69
AGI - 73
LUC - 51

Dark Hunters are slightly fragile, but they're pretty fast and have some decent offense. Like always, HP and TP Up are good choices for stats to level up. Strength is another choice if you want to increase their offensive power. Luck can also be a decent choice if you want your Dark Hunter to inflict ailments and binds more easily.

Whips/Swords

Max lvl: 10

Like most mastery skills, both skills give an 11% boost in damage to their respective skills when maxed.

Antisick/Antibind

Needs lvl. 3 Unbind
Max lvl: 5

These are passives that make the Dark Hunter more resistant to status effects and binds. They both scale the same way. Level 1 gives a 15% chance to resist status effects/binds, while level 5 gives an 80% chance. Could be something worth taking if you have any leftover skill points.

Viper

Needs lvl. 1 Whips
Max lvl: 5

A damage skill that has a chance of poisoning the enemy. This is the only whip skill that can dish out a status effect, and I don't consider it to be that great. At level 1 it costs 4 TP, deals 125% damage, and has a 25% chance to inflict Poison that ticks for 20 base damage. At level 5 it costs 9 TP, deals 200% damage, and has a 45% chance to inflict Poison that ticks for 140 base damage.

The damage is nice, but the Dark Hunter has other skills that deal slightly more damage, and has a much better side effect. If you want to poison something, just use the Hexer's version of it.

Shackles/Cuffs/Gag

Needs lvl. 2/3/4 Whips
Max lvl: 10

These are damage skills that can bind an enemy's legs/arms/head respectively. At level 1 each skill costs 4 TP, deals 125% damage, and has a 20% chance of binding. At level 5 they deal 135% damage, cost 8 TP, and have a 30% chance of binding. At level 10 they deal 210% damage, cost 13 TP, and have a 65% chance of binding their respective body part.

Only max out one of these skills. Taking anymore is a huge waste of skill points. The bind chance is unreliable, especially considering that they only have a 16% chance of working against bosses when luck isn't factored in. You take these skills for the damage, not the binds. The bind is just a nice side effect. If you really want to make use of a bind, Cuffs or Gag might be the better choice. There's not too many dangerous skills that make use of the legs. I prefer Gag myself, but if you really want to make use of binds, just use Dominate. The sword skills do more damage, so the only real reason to take one of these is if you intend on using Climax since there's not really any other damage skills whip users have otherwise.

Ecstasy

Needs lvl. 8 Whips, lvl. 5 STR Up
Max lvl: 5

This is a damage skill that does an insane amount of damage to an enemy that is fully bound. At max level it costs 20 TP and does 750% damage. However, it does a terrible amount of damage if the enemy isn't fully bound. It was a bit iffy to set up in the first game, since binds weren't reliable. However, Dominate provides an easy setup for the skill. It's an absolutely fantastic skill because of that, and you should definitely take this skill. While they do have better damage skills in the form of Bait and Magibait, those can't really do anything to an enemy that's fully bound. So Ecstasy gives the Dark Hunter something to do against fully bound enemies.

Climax

Needs lvl. 6 Whips
Max lvl: 10

This skill lets the Dark Hunter inflicts instant death on an enemy as long as their health is under a certain threshold. Unlike most instant death skills, this is a reliable form of it. All Climax checks for is two things. Is the enemy under the required threshold? Is the enemy immune to instant death? If it's no to the first, Climax will miss. If it's yes to both, Climax just deals a pitiful amount of damage. If it's yes to the first and no to the second, Climax will instantly kill the enemy, no exceptions. The Dark Hunter gets healed for the amount of HP the target had left, and it has a chance to restore a bit of TP.

1 - 4 TP - 10%
2 - 5 TP - 11%
3 - 6 TP - 13%
4 - 7 TP - 16%
5 - 8 TP - 20%
6 - 9 TP - 25%
7 - 10 TP - 31%
8 - 11 TP - 38%
9 - 12 TP - 46%
10 - 13 TP - 55%

This skill is the main reason to use whips over swords. If you don't want to use this skill, then just have your Dark Hunter use swords instead. It doesn't work on most bosses, but it does work on FOEs, making this a pretty broken skill.

Hypnos/Nerve/Petrify

Needs lvl. 1/2/6 Swords
Max lvl: 10

These are sword skills that can inflict sleep/paralysis/petrification on an enemy. Like the binding skills, the status effect just happens to be a nice side effect. You just take a skill for the damage, but the side effect is nice. Petrify can be a nice one to take for random encounters, since it basically is an instant kill, Although it's not as reliable as Climax, and no conditional drops in the game require you to petrify an enemy. It doesn't even count for the conditional drops that require you to instantly kill an enemy. They cost 4 TP at level 1, deal 135% damage, and have a 20% chance to inflict their status. Level 5 costs 8 TP, and has a 30% chance to inflict their status. Level 10 costs 13 TP, deals 230% damage, and has a 65% chance to inflict their status.

A note on one of the names.


Mirage

Needs lvl. 3 Swords
Max lvl: 5

A sword skill that has a chance to cause confusion. I don't like it. At level 1 it costs 4 TP, does 125% damage, and has a 20% to cause confusion. At level 5, it costs 8 TP, but deals 150% damage and has a 30% chance to cause confusion. Yeah, don't take this skill, it's not good damage, and it doesn't even have a good chance of inflicting confusion.

Drain

Needs lvl. 4 Swords
Max lvl: 5

A sword skill that heals the Dark Hunter depending on the amount of damage dealt. At level 1, it costs 4 TP, and 50% of the damage dealt is used to heal the Dark Hunter. At level 5 it costs 8 TP and deals 180% damage. The Dark Hunter is then healed for 100% of the damage dealt.

Bait/Magibait

Needs lvl. 8 Whips and Swords
Max lvl: 5

Now these are their big damage skills, and you want your Dark Hunter to have both of these eventually. Depending on which skill is used, this allows the Dark Hunter to retaliate with a strong counterattack if they, or anyone adjacent to them get hit with a physical or magical attack. In the first game, Bait was the only counterattack skill they had, meaning that they couldn't counter elementals. This was also limited to sword users in the first game, but now whip users can use these as well. The positioning of the Dark Hunter is important for this skill. This skill will only proc if the Dark Hunter, or anyone right next to the Dark Hunter gets hit. So to get the best results, have 3 people in the front line, with the Dark Hunter in the middle.

At level 1, the skills cost 10 TP, and the Dark Hunter has a 50% chance to counter any physical/magical attack headed for them or the people adjacent to them. At level 5, these skills costs 18 TP and will always counter any physical/magical attacks headed for them or anyone next to them. The counterattacks deal 400% damage at max level. The best part of this skill is that it can kick in multiple times. So if an enemy decides to attack your team with an AOE, the Dark Hunter will strike back with three 400% damage hits, assuming you're using the 3/2 formation. Ouch. This skill even procs if the damage was blocked through a Protector's Painless, or an Anti skill.

Unbind

Needs lvl. 1 TEC Up
Max lvl: 5

Aside from the TEC Up requirement, it's the exact same skill as the Landsknecht's Unbound, with the exact same scaling and everything. Take it if you want, although you can just have some Therica As on hand if you need to unbind someone.

Racket

Max lvl: 5

This is a field skill that works like a Lure Bell, in that it lures some FOEs to the spot this skill is used. At level 1 it costs 15 TP, has a 4 tile range, and stuns FOEs for 3 turns. And at level 5 it costs 7 TP, has a 6 tile range, and stuns FOEs for 7 turns.

I've never been a fan of field skills in the EO series, and this is no exception. With good movement and pattern recognition, you won't need any FOE items or skills. That said, this skill can have a very important use in the first stratum, so taking a few points in this can be something to consider. Then have your Dark Hunter rest or retire later and get back those skill points.

Gathering Skill: Chop

Force Skill: Dominate

A single target skill that will always bind the Head, Arms, and Legs of the target, effectively making them completely helpless. This does not take in account any resistances they have. It will always land every time it's used, so it's the only reliable way to bind something. It does have a low speed modifier, so most of the time the Dark Hunter will move after the enemy, so having a safe way to set this up like Riot Gun or Painless is recommended. Even though Whip Dark Hunters are the ones that can use binds, Sword Dark Hunters can still use this skill. Of course, just because you can use Dominate on everything doesn't mean you should. Certain enemies can still use their skills even if they are fully bound, and some do not react well to it. They do not react well at all.

Whether they use whips or swords, this class is a very good offensive support in combat. Being able to reliably lock down any enemy with binds is a huge plus, and being able to cut FOE encounters in half is a really valuable contribution. You can't really go wrong with having a Dark Hunter in your team. In fact if it weren't for Hexers, this would be the most broken class in the game.