I decided to start this thread to discuss battle strategies, skills development and maybe help in specific battles. If you're stuck somewhere playing at Hard mode, and don't want to try a lower difficulty, this is your thread.

Also remember, ask Elmsdor: he's your man



My tip is:

Karen if equipped properly is one of the most powerful character in the game after Loren. Since she can both do melee and ranged well. And has many useful skills like focus target. I maxed Focus Target to III so you get 30% damage bonus with all your attack. I was playing as Saren Warrior mostly, but I could switch place with Karen when the battle was getting to tough in the frontline, so I could heal / rez everyone with Saren and then switch back in the front row

Well, for me, it's a matter of stat and skill allocation. Everyone pumps 2 points into Skill and the last point goes into the classes main stat. This creates a fast, relatively hard-hitting party with high defenses which makes sure that you move faster than the enemies and gain more turns than them since delay is factored by your speed as well. So for every one move the enemy makes, I make 2 for each party member, 3 for my thieves. AOE attacks are generally more welcome since they generate more damage per turn except maybe in the case of Loren who can easily dish out damage in the excess of 120+ to a single target.

Ah interesting, so you're effectively adding lots of points to the "Skill" attribute to all classes, including Warrior/Mages ? I thought it would be the ultimate battle setup but I never tried it myself!

It's a very "fast" play style in the sense that all party members act before and gain many more turns than the enemies. Enemies I notice tend to use the highest level powers available to them and thus have a very long wait between turns. I can usually send three enemy frontliners into stagger before they get to act so it's pretty decent but I have yet to hit chapter 4 (was just waiting until I get 0.93) so I'll let you know how it goes.

At which difficulty are you playing though? In Hard level enemies have more speed as well!

I'm playing on Hard difficulty.

Ok, then it's interesting

That's pretty good. You invested in speed as a base, and use gear to boost their main stats or attributes I take it?



I noticed, Speed is very much Life in Loren, and seems you got that pat too



I can't imagine you're doing much damage, but then again, you stagger everyone too.



I went for Speed gearing instead myself. Seems you got it good.



Cheers

In a test match I made, I put all STR to mages

Since you get (I think?) 5HP each STR points, At level 10 I had Mages with 250-300hp which were much harder to kill, and even if the spells weren't doing much damage, the condition was triggering still, so in practice I was doing damage over time mostly

For my gear, I went for the gear that boosts up all stats, with a main focus on Speed and SP recovery. This lets me spam the lower level heals and AOEs like crazy to push up my damage per turn.

I have 2 saves using the Tactics option and 2 using the Standard skill branch option. I like the Standard a lot better. I can get to the 3rd level of a dual branch set way faster. For example, if I want Dora's 3rd level rain of arrows, I don't have to get level 1 & 2 (I don't know if you planned it that way, Jack). I can get all 3 camoflage and all 3 sneak attack and have rain of arrows III maxed out around level 13 or 14.



That Skill trick is something I might try on my next time around. I seriously hated when I'd use normal attacks against Breza in her training, and the 2 goblin jerks with her would attack 2-3 times EACH!

Yes I had planned that way, since I'm lazy I use to play in Tactics mode. I should have named it "lazy player mode"

Jokes aside surely Standard gives more customization, while Tactics maybe is for those who will play it in a more "casual" way, not having to assign a skill every 2 levels.

That Skill trick is something I might try on my next time around. I seriously hated when I'd use normal attacks against Breza in her training, and the 2 goblin jerks with her would attack 2-3 times EACH!

Well otherwise she wouldn't grant you the achievement of "Formidable"

Alright, final analysis for the Skill-heavy party in Hard. Fost took only three actions, while I whittled him down from 1800+ hp in less than five minutes.

Alright, final analysis for the Skill-heavy party in Hard. Fost took only three actions, while I whittled him down from 1800+ hp in less than five minutes.

What level was your party? I was having a way hard time on normal with a party at levels 12-14. Thankfully I did some grinding in my other saves so it should go better in the future.

About level 18-19. Being way faster than Fost definitely helped a lot.

For a moment was shocked, but then I read your level. 18-19 + good equipment should let you beat Fost even without the "Skill trick"

When I tested, I was playing at same levels as faerirose, level 12-14 and indeed is difficult already at Normal level. But I have to say that in my playthrough I completely ignored most armor/weapons, so I think should be balanced at Normal if you do a bit of grinding/better equipping!



When the expansion is out I think will raise Fost difficulty, since people should be able to get at least to level 15-16 with the help of the new expansions quests.

Jokes aside surely Standard gives more customization, while Tactics maybe is for those who will play it in a more "casual" way, not having to assign a skill every 2 levels.

I probably should play the game more intensively before I start giving back feedback but it seems to me that the difference between tactics and normal mode isn't what is intended: if you want more customization and skills, you're actually better off with tactics as lurking the forum has made it clear one is unlikely to reach lvl20 playing normally, let alone lvl30 where tactics and normal mode would balance each other out. So assuming that most players will be in the lvl15 region when they finish the vanilla game, lets do the math:



For a lvl15:

Tactics: Start with 5+ 1 skill every 3 lvls (15/3=5)=10 skills

Normal: Start with 1+ 1 skill every 2 levels (15/2=7)=8 skills





Those playing in tactics not only start out with more skills but will consistenly have more then those who picked normal. Unless there are other modifiers i'm not aware off, tactics really does seem like the better choice if you don't mind spending skill points every 3 lvls rather then 2. I'd presume this also makes tactics mode easier since you start out with the skills you need and will always have more skills then those playing in normal.



Hope this isn't too nitpicky, I certainly ain't fussed about it, just trying to spot imbalances and such when I see them xP

That is true but you also lose out on 20% of your Stamina/Spell points. I prefer having a bit more of those than to have more skills as most of the skills in the game (imho) are not really worth it except the passive skills and the tier 1 skills. So really it's a matter of what you want more, less skills and more SP or more skills and less SP.

Yes what FireSeraph said. Originally I didn't plan to have two separate modes, but while testing I found out that more skills=more fun. So I thought to add the "Tactics" mode to please people which prefer other play style. But yes I don't think is really about difficulty, but about a different approach to the game.

About the ending levels, that depends how much you want to grind. I read some people here that were even 19-20 when they fought Fost, but if you don't do any grinding the average value will be 14-15 max. I think is good that you don't reach the max level cap, since that will make the expansion useful for that

I replayed the entire game, using the Skill trick and no training. Party level was around level 13-15. Fost was demolished in six minutes instead of five. Yup, I'd say it's official. The best way to beat the game to pump up your Speed so that you can get more moves than the enemy.



Edit: Forgot to mention. This is still on Hard mode.