Ganbare Gincun wrote:
Roy wrote:Martial Artist: Either long enough for Psyche Up, or to max Focus for the stats.
I've heard that this pairs up well with an eventual transition into Gladiator. Do you concur with this opinion? Or instead pair up with Fighter first before going into Gladiator?
Um, you can do both. And there's no reason why you shouldn't. The stat bonuses stack. But yes, Tension is nice. Just watch those Disruptive Waves. They will ruin your day.
Roy wrote:I have heard this from everyone that I know that has played the game. An all cloth party is NOT going to cut in in the post-game. It may not even cut it *during* the game.
What is your opinion about the other weapons? I'm assuming that Bows, Knives, and Hammers are still sub-par like they were in DQ8, but how are Boomerangs, Claws, Fisticuffs, Staves, Wands, and Whips?
What does your party look like? I'm assuming you have a Paladin, Gladiator, and a Sage - what is the class of your fourth team member?
The main reason why I have not commented on other weapons is because I do not use other weapons.
But speaking theorycraft here...
Fistcuffs: Completely pointless. In DQ8 you could at least do a Fisticuff challenge game by only putting skills into unarmed, and the class specific tree and just using those + level up abilities to get through the game. And while post game wasn't viable this way without insane grinding the main game was fine. In DQ9 you can't do this because classes either have Fisticuff OR Shield, not both. So either you're going unarmed without any actual unarmed skills (have fun doing 1 damage), everyone is a Martial Artist or Thief until you get more advanced classes that can fight unarmed, or you have to go and grind out 100 Fisticuff then switch to the class you actually want. And oh yeah, you'll need Shields too.
Bows: Eh. They look ok. Not great. It depends on how much damage Rain of Pain does, as I don't remember. If nothing else they're a better weapon for MP regaining than the alternative.
Knives: *shrugs* I just put 3 points here to unlock Ranger. I don't see a single thing in there that isn't better done by another skill tree.
Hammer: There are good hammer skills? O.o
Staves/wands: Here is the main problem, in short. The primary function of these items is MP stealing. Mana leech is a function of damage. You are a low to mid Strength class, using a relatively low attack weapon. See the problem yet? And this is why I haven't fooled with them.
Claws: I haven't checked this, but I heard Hard Claw is two hits at 150% damage each. If so it gets the same damage multiplier as Falcon Slash + (Uber) Falcon Sword. The difference is a Falcon Sword has an attack power of 12, Uber Falcon Sword has an attack power of 26, and Claws have... higher than 26. Of course the other skills aren't as great as swords. But there actually is some merit here.
Whips/Boomerangs: Notice that encounter sizes are relatively small? That hurts these weapons. And whips get hurt more when it's 3 enemies, in 3 groups of 1. Twin Dragon Lash is ok vs single targets, but not as good as the gold standard. But ultimately what really hurts these weapons is that most of the challenge comes from bosses... which are single targets. It's not like DQ8 where random battles can actually be harder than some bosses. (well, when that happens in 9, it's a small encounter size)
As for my party if you are assuming that you are assuming incorrectly.
My main character has 90 levels of Ranger, almost that many levels of Paladin, and every other class is in the 40s and 50s except Luminary, which I haven't touched. Every class specific tree is maxed except Luminary (not touched), Warrior (didn't care about Attack Attacker, but got everything else), and Minstrel (rank 2 only). I also maxed swords, shields, spears, and a random 3 points in knives just to open Ranger. And I'm sitting on about 200 skill points for when I care to put them somewhere. So about 1.5k skill points in total.
If you're waiting for the rest of the party well too bad, that's it. Yup, soloed this far.
Now as for my active class:
Minstrel was ok until I got something better.
Paladin is better in every way.
Priest is ok... mostly due to the better heals.
Ranger gets that and better stats though.
Sage is... a lot better than I thought. I'm growing to like it actually.
None of the other classes are really viable in a solo game due to lack of sufficient healing ability. Yeah, you can kill trash mobs, and metals but in any sustained fight you'll lose, because you can't heal yourself.
However note that all of my advice was aimed at those playing the game conventionally, as in with a party. And there Gladiators are pretty fucking sweet at killing things, Armamentalist abuses elemental weaknesses like crazy (and as these are all skills, you can class change after), Sages are great party healers etc.