Part 52: Medic Overview

Medic Overview



Can equip: Staves, Light Armour, Clothing

The ones keeping your team alive. While Protectors reduce or stop damage, Medics recover health lost from the reduced damage, letting your team actually take down the threat they're facing, or go much further into the labyrinth than you would do otherwise. Able to revive, buff and heal more than you'll ever need, Medics are an absolutely necessity at certain points and give you a lot more room to breathe, as well as lots of room in your Bag so someone else isn't being the discount Medic. On top of that, they can even be an excellent front light fighter, if a bit repetitive in that role, as well as make your party take so little damage it nearly puts your Protector out of a job. Overall, the best class in the game, no contest.



It's easy to see a Medic's role with these stats, since they don't excel at attacking and are much more suited for support. Below average HP is a bit of a shame, but the second best TP pool means you can spam your costly healing skills as much as possible before needing recovery. Low STR, VIT and AGI along with low speed modifiers for healing skills means the Medic is best hiding in the back and healing the party after the enemy has dealt loads of damage. Unfortunately having the highest LUC doesn't mean much, while the second highest TEC doesn't mean much for a class with no elemental attacking skills, but can mean something lategame with oils. Still, the Medic can dish out damage when they need to through other means.

I don't normally pipe up here, but Medic is a special case, and I'm just gonna say that their low STR belies their true capabilities...

HP Up
Passive.


Another 150% increase which is pretty nice, able to boost your Medic's HP to high levels to keep them alive when on the front lines, if you want to go for that. Otherwise, since it doesn't lead anywhere, take it when you're done with everything else if you're interested.

Medics have below average durability, which shouldn't be an issue if you keep them in the back row. But if you want one to be in the front row (yes, there's a legitimate reason to do this), you'll probably want to grab this skill sooner than most classes would even think about taking this as a result of their not so great bulk. Otherwise, take this when you're done investing in their more important skills.

TP Up
Unlocks: Scavenge (LV3), TP Regen (LV10)
Passive.


Despite wanting to pump out skills every turn, Medics don't get a huge TP boost, though they already have such a high base to begin with. Because of this, the difference between level 1 and 10 isn't absolutely massive at 34TP extra. If you want less of a headache in this game, then going for Scavenge can be an idea, but TP Regen is garbage, so don't bother going for level 10. Your Medic won't be running out of TP very often, especially if you don't heavily invest into the big healing skills, so this skill is a meh choice.

Medics have the 2nd highest base TP pool out of all the classes, so this isn't really a huge priority for them. If at all.

ATK Up
Unlocks: Caduceus (LV10)
Passive.


Jesus christ this skill is on steroids. This is the only way the Medic can be an actual attacker, since it gets such a huge boost from this skill. Level 3 is when ATK Up normally caps, so this shows how crazy this one is. You need to max this to actually get a skill to spam with, but it does let the Medic stay at the front, take some hits and smack things back with a basic attack.

300% STR boost! Holy moly! Once this skill starts getting to the higher levels, you can start putting them in the front row and they'll dish out the hurt with their regular attacks. Granted the massive attack boost doesn't make Medics outdamage Ronin, but it does make their damage a lot more respectable, and gives Medics something else to do if they don't have to be on support duty. If you're going to abuse Immunize, you'll want to grab this after you get Immunize to a high enough level. If you're opting not to abuse Immunize, then I would advise grabbing a few healing skills, and then maxing this out as soon as possible.

Warning: Combat Medic in non-Niinou games may be hazardous to your health. Please see your local doctor before you decide if Combat Medic is right for you. Which is to say never in a Komori directed EO game, because this sort of playstyle got nerfed into the ground after this game!

Healer
Unlocks: Cure (LV1), Patch Up (LV2), Cure II (LV3), Salve (LV3), Unbind (LV3), Immunize (LV3), Cure III (LV5), Salve II (LV5), Refresh (LV5), Revive (LV7), H.Touch (LV10)
Passive.


Another powerful passive. Maxing this skill out is definitely worth it as it buffs so many of your healing skills to actually make them competitive throughout the game. By heading straight to Revive and then finishing it off later gives your basic healing skills such a boost that you don't really need to bother with the later, more expensive, healing skills, though that is still an option. Though don't max it out solely for H.Touch, that skill is garbage, get the skills you need on the way up and boost everything up nicely.

A really good passive, because this is the only way to boost the capabilities of healing skills, and the boost is so big. (Remember, TEC only started factoring into healing with EO2!) Doubling your healing is very good, but the base healing numbers are decent enough that this isn't a super high priority, but something you'll probably want to max out eventually.

Patch Up
Prerequisites: Healer LV2
Recovers a certain amount of HP after battle. Unaffected by Healer. Passive.


For the Medic skills, if it's affected by Healer, then it's good. If it's not, then it's bad. 12% boosted by Healer would be 25%, which ain't bad, honestly, after each battle. But 12% is nothing, a small drop in the bucket and your Medic is gonna be hugely pressed for SP, so PASS.

It would be alright I guess, if there weren't more important skills for the Medic to be going for.

TP Regen
Prerequisites: TP Up LV10
Recovers a certain amount of TP each turn starting from the second. Passive.


No. TP Up 10 probably isn't going to happen and to then put points into this? By the time you eventually get this, 5TP is NOTHING and it only affects your Medic, whereas the Troubadour's Relaxing affects everyone, so don't bother, it's not worth it.

Too little return for too much investment. Hard pass. SP is a very precious resource, so skills that don't give out enough for the cost should be ignored. Also if you need TP that badly, use an Amrita. It only eats up one turn.

Cure
Prerequisites: Healer LV1
Unlocks: Salve (LV3), Regen (LV5)
A single target heal that recovers health depending on the level of Healer. Healing skill, uses the Head.


The first healing skill is pretty damn basic, single target, doesn't heal a crazy amount, but will last you until you need to get better ones. I'm only listing the amount healed when Healer is at level 10, cause it should be max level as it's so good. Salve beats it out completely while being much more useful and single target healing isn't really necessary, though it's useful out of battle. Reach a healing amount that sounds good to you and then move onto the next one.

A very basic healing skill, and the first one you should go for since it'll save you a lot of money stocking up on Medicas and such. Though you won't need to max this out, since other healing skills vastly overshadow it after the earlygame.

Cure II
Prerequisites: Healer LV3
Unlocks: Salve II (LV3)
A single target heal that recovers health depending on the level of Healer. Healing skill, uses the Head.


An improvement on Cure, but due to the over the topness of Cure III, this skill shouldn't be used in battle since single target healing just isn't that useful and it's a lot slower than Cure. Definitely get Salve II from it, but it's not particularly necessary to level up further than that, since other skills are much more efficient. Just use it when you've got a breather, unless a Salve or a regular Cure is more TP efficient.

This skill hits a very ugly middle ground that makes it very hard to consider as a good usage of SP. Doesn't heal enough to be worthwhile, but never comes at a point in the game where just using Cure won't suffice. And that's not even bringing Immunize into account. It's pretty much not a good skill to grab, no matter what your Medic's skill build is.

Cure III
Prerequisites: Healer LV5
Unlocks: Revive (LV3)
A single target heal that recovers health depending on the level of Healer. Healing skill, uses the Head.


You want overkill? Well here it is. Only Healer affects how much this skill heals, as it has a set heal power regardless of level and it will fully heal anything in nearly every circumstance, as this skill heals under 999HP at certain Healer levels, which certain classes can reach with Troubadour's Stamina (something you'll never actually see). So reach the requirement for Revive (which is super useful) and there we go, enjoy all that overheal waste when you max out Healer, but don't die before you cast it, as you will be super slow trying to use this skill.

An emergency full heal may seem like a good skill, but before you grab this, consider your Medic's skill build first. If you plan on making use of Immunize, a skill that basically reduces damage to 1 or 2 digits, then you won't really need a full heal. A smaller heal will suffice. Healing skills and damage reduction skills basically fall under the same category, which is to say that they're ultimately defensive skills. And if you already have a skill that provides a huge form of defense, you won't need that much more, whether it's even more damage reduction (RIP Defender) or just more healing.

Of course if you're not abusing Immunize, yeah, you might want to grab this skill since your party will be taking a lot more damage without it. But it is single target and pretty slow, so those are some downsides to keep in mind.

Salve
Prerequisites: Healer LV3, Cure LV3
Unlocks: Immunize (LV3)
A party wide heal that recovers health depending on the level of Healer. Healing skill, uses the Head.


Party wide healing is such a necessity, so this skill is super important. Especially if you're laying down all the defensive buffs, as it means you shouldn't have to touch Salve II until the end of the game. This means this cheap early skill will have a lot of utility until you pass it up for something stronger. You could do a lot worse.

If you're abusing Immunize, than this will suffice as your main form of healing. Salve is speedy and doesn't heal that much, but when you're taking so little damage, it'll do the job nicely. Even if you're not using Immunize, it can still be worth the pickup due to its higher speed modifier, letting it serve as an emergency AOE heal when Salve II will be too slow to serve as that.

Salve II
Prerequisites: Healer LV5, Cure II LV3
Unlocks: CPR (LV5)
A party wide heal that recovers health depending on the level of Healer. Healing skill, uses the Head.


The last healing skill is a real nice one, able to fully heal your party if you get it high enough in level. Because of how slow it is, it's not something you can use in an emergency unless you use 1st Turn (and you should), but for general use it's enough to keep you topped up and is a ridiculous over-the-top full heal if you Boost, so get it to level 10 for those rare emergencies. Though if you have your defensive buffs up, you won't really need this skill, so decide on how much you need depending on what you're doing and you'll be just fine. Probably.

Like with Cure III, Salve II is also situational. If you're abusing the hell out of Immunize, then just Salve will suffice, and you won't really need this. If you're not, you can grab this skill as your main form of defense, then. Just be mindful of the slow speed. You'll have to use it proactively, or eat up 2 party member's turns with 1st Turn support to turn this into an emergency healing skill.

Revive
Prerequisites: Healer LV7, Cure III LV3
A single target heal that resurrects a dead ally and recovers health depending on the level of Healer. Healing skill, uses the Head.


A very useful skill that unfortunately takes a while to get to. Death is pretty nasty in this game and Nectars are pretty expensive in the early game, so when you finally get the option to ignore them, it's such a relief. However, Nectar IIs are preferable mid to late game due to being not that expensive and a Medic using them benefits from Healer, so having Revive at level 1 saves a lot of SP and TP, since you can heal the newly revived member with a healing skill before they die again. Probably. Make sure not to die yourself before you use Revive.

This would be a useful skill... if you could get it sooner. As such, the skill has its uses, but Nectars and the higher tiered versions might end up overshadowing this skill instead. Especially since the healing from them is a lot better without a ridiculous amount of SP investment.

Unbind
Prerequisites: Healer LV3
A single target heal that removes a certain amount of binds depending on the level. Healing skill, uses the Head.


Definitely useful, but absolutely shouldn't be maxed out. Hell, you don't even need to remove 3 binds, since when the hell does that ever happen? 2 binds will happen at most and even then it's a bit rare, so it's a toss up between 1 and 2. You also can't use this skill when Head Bound, so maybe just stick to Theriaca As instead of bothering with this skill, or just ignore the bind, since they could be useless depending on the circumstances. Also you ignore the speed modifier, so, uh, yeah, just use an item, don't bother with this skill.

Just getting it to level 3 will be enough, assuming you don't decide to use Theriaca As instead. If you get to the point where 3 binds are landing on your party a lot, you have much bigger problems.

Refresh
Prerequisites: Healer LV5
A single target heal that removes certain ailments depending on the level. Healing skill, uses the Head.


Hmm, should you use this, or should you just use a Theriaca B while your Medic does something else? Let's see, you need to get to level 8 minimum before you can heal every ailment in the game, whereas Theriaca Bs can be obtained by B6F and do the same, especially with no speed penalty. So it's best to just ignore this skill since it takes some time to get going when you could be going for other skills.

This skill tends to be ignored because Theriaca Bs does the job right away. I guess you could go for it, but I'd rather be using the items here.

Immunize
Prerequisites: Healer LV3, Salve LV3
Unlocks: CPR (LV3)
Increases the party's resistance to all damage for 5 turns. Buff skill, uses the Head.
BUG: None. Works exactly as intended.


This skill right here is what makes the Medic the best class in the game. It's absolutely broken, but nothing about the data is bugged, though the developers might not have wanted Cut, Stab and Bash as "elements" this skill gives resistance to. Or maybe they did, the crazy bastards. A Boosted Immunize and Boosted Defender at max level makes you take EIGHT percent damage from physical attacks. And then 15% from elemental damage. It's absolutely insane the numbers involved and let's you take on every single enemy in this game with little problems. It's completely busted and it's almost a necessary skill in some cases, cause EO1 is a tough game, but it's something you can live without. Not the Anti skills though, those are necessary, but if you want to give yourself a hard time, don't use this skill. I'll be maxing this one out though, I'm not completely bonkers!

There's only one fight you absolutely need this skill for (and it proves that yes, it working on physical damage was entirely intended, otherwise it would be nearly impossible.) Outside of that fight, you don't need this skill to beat the game at all. So if you wanna go for that no Immunize challenege run, you can go for it! (Please don't do this on your first playthrough. You'll get utterly utterly mauled). It's fucking bonkers and to showcase just how bonkers it is, let's do some math.

In all EO games after this one, the damage formula generally follows this format in some way. (Attack - Defense) * Multipliers. Simple, right? Well in EO1, it follow this format instead. [(Attack * AttackMultipliers) - (Defense * DefenseMultipliers)] * SkillMultipliers.

Let's say an enemy has 200 attack and you have 40 defense. Without taking any multipliers into account, you're taking 160 damage, no matter which formula is being used in this case. But because Immunize directly modifies your resistances, it counts as AttackMultipliers in the formula. So in EO games after this one, that 160 damage would get reduced to 64 damage, and that's it. But in this game? Well that 200 attack would get reduced to 80 damage, but then further gets reduced to 40 damage thanks to your armor! A 40% damage multiplier is already very bonkers (let alone a 15% damage multiplier!), but due to how the damage formula works in EO1, the damage gets reduced even more than what the data suggests due to how damage formula works! Immunize basically gives your armor even more value since armor works as a flat reduction in this game, which is far more effective with smaller numbers, which Immunize is all too happy to provide! And that's not even taking damge multipliers from skills into account, which scale with the base damage of the attack. So if the base damage is really small, that high 400% damage multiplier won't mean much!

So Immunize is really fucking broken, and pretty much turns the game into easy mode. And those small numbers are just why you won't need the big healing skills if you're making use of Immunize. But because the skill is so broken, some people don't like to abuse the skill and opt not to use it. On the other hand, the game is really rough without it, and a non-Immunize playthrough isn't what I would suggest doing at all if it's your first playthrough. Even if you don't want to abuse the hell out of it, it can just be nice to have as a fallback option to make things less frustrating. So if you're going to use this skill at all, it should be maxed out (Or at least have some SP invested in it) ASAP.

I will use Immunize when necessary, but otherwise I'll only show it off when I fancy, or when it's the only defensive option I have due to party voting. It really breaks this game into many little pieces and while it can be fun, I am trying to show this game off, so it's an occassional skill.

CPR
Prerequisites: Immunize LV3, Salve II LV5
Gives the entire party a chance to survive a lethal attack with 1HP for 5 turns. Buff skill, uses the Head.


It's like Aegis, but for the whole party! CPR can be absolutely amazing... when it works. It's a coin flip at max level and if it works, you've got a 1HP guy. If not, they're dead and the buff dies with them. Great. It's also pretty damn expensive to just spam, for good reasons, so if you're feeling lucky, then it could be worth picking it up. It might be worth it if you're not picking up other crazy good skills and you're having a fun time against the last few enemies. Regardless, it's always nice to have the insurance, but it's not consistent in the slightest.

Only works against damage, and not instant death, so don't get this just for the latter.

Not really what I would consider a great skill. Even at level 10, the effect is just too inconsistent and unreliable to be making use of. And as a kicker, the way it works basically makes it a defensive skill which... is overshadowed by Immunize. Immunize provides much more reliable defense in the form of a damage multiplier reduction, which in turn, will make it harder to die. The only weaknesses the skill has is that it has no effect on instant death and disables... which CPR doesn't do anything to anyway. Aside from Poison damage, but again, Immunize would lower all other damage sources enough that Poison damage wouldn't be an issue anyways.

Fun fact, for whatever reason, Immunize and CPR were considered to be sister skills in the Japanese version. Their names there were "Medical Defense I" and "Medical Defense II", respectively.

I wonder why the developers considered this skill as an upgrade, as it were. I feel like they didn't really play this game.

Caduceus
Prerequisites: ATK Up LV10
A single target Staff strike that has a chance to inflict Stun. Staff skill with Bash damage, uses the Arms.


Now that your Attack has been boosted to ridiculous levels, it's time to use a ridiculous skill. Caduceus has some good numbers that lets it deal enough damage to rival Axe Landys. It's slow as hell, making the Stun chance negligible, but 1st Turn solves all those problems. It's a pretty high Stun chance too, since there's no immunities to it, so you can swing this around and deal some real damage. Can you see why the Medic is so great in this game?

While the Medic's normal attack is respectable after ATK Up is maxed out, Caduceus is just ridiculous! A 320% damage multiplier is pretty high up there in terms of skills with high multipliers. And not only that, it has a huge Stun chance! Stun isn't really that great of a disable, since FOEs and bosses have high resistances to it, but when it's put on a skill you're naturally going to spam, sooner or later, that Stun will proc and can grant you a free turn. Which will give you an even bigger leg up in a huge battle. So this skill should be maxed out after you finish maxing out ATK Up. Medics aren't just a great support unit, they're a great front line fighter too, which just makes them into a fantastic class all around!

(Enjoy it while it lasts. The Medic's attack would get nerfed into the ground after this game, and a fighting healer isn't something that really works in the later games.)

Regen
Prerequisites: Healer LV5, Cure LV5
Recovers the entire party's HP by a certain amount for 5 turns. Unaffected by Healer. Buff skill, uses the Head.


Could be useful if Healer affected it, but it doesn't so it's not very good. It can be alright to lay it down while your Medic does other things, but buff slots are still at a premium, so it's better to just keep everything topped up, since 16% is basically nothing, that's 7 turns to get back to full health, ugh. It also doesn't work on the turn the battle ends and the Troubadour's Healing is similar but doesn't require refreshing. So just ignore this skill.

As a defensive buff, it's just overshadowed by Immunize. So again, don't bother with this skill if you're already using it. Even on its own, the effect is rather minimal, and there are other buffs you would have instead.

H.Touch
Prerequisites: Healer LV10
Recovers up to a certain amount of HP while not in battle. Unaffected by Healer. Field skill.


Your reward for maxing out Healer is this? Christ what a garbage skill, 40% really isn't all that much as a maximum it can heal up to, Cure doesn't have any such restriction and you can get that skill before you even enter the labyrinth! It could've been a slightly better Regen if you could use it in battle to keep everyone at 40% minimum, but you can't, it's only outside of battle where you'll use Salve and Cure to top up everyone anyway, so this skill is completely pointless.

Not to be confused with the actually useful Force Skill in EO2.

Yeah this skill sucks. Could have been useful if it didn't have all those handicaps placed on it. As it stands, you're better off using their actual healing skills instead.

Scavenge
Prerequisites: TP Up LV3
Increases the chance of getting drops after battle. Passive.


Eh, this skill ain't too amazing. If it was additive, then you could see some amazing gains, but it's multiplicative, so low numbers will get slightly higher and the already common drops become more or less guaranteed. Thankfully it does stack so if you can get a lot of Scavengers together, then you can increase 5% drops to 18%! Wowza, what a difference! I'm amazed! Yeah, it sucks that this is one of the best ways to increase item drops aside from the LUC stat, so if you have the chance to use the AR code that lets you choose what drops you get, then just do that instead. Like what I'm doing. Also be warned that if you use a load of Scavengers, then Common drops stop happening, since the game stops rolling drop chances if the Conditional or Rare drop was successful, so if you boost those up, it makes the Common drops very rare, even though they have a better chance of dropping now. Funny that.

The way the drop system in this game works, combined with the way this skill works just makes the entire drop system poorly designed all around. It's barely that much of an increase on its own, and since you can only get one drop at a time, you can lock yourself out of common drops if you stack too much of this. I guess it couldn't hurt to max this out if you have the skill points for it (though all the classes this skill appears on are pretty SP hungry...) But maxing out multiple instances will probably be overkill. And remember that you can't just take the SP out of this skill that easily if you have any regrets, due to how Resting works in this game. Though if you're trying to go for certain post-game drops, you'd actually want to stack as much as possible if you can, but just read the relevant updates for more details...

Medics can also Chop, but you should GATHER that it shouldn't touch that skill.