Umbra Learnable Suggestions?

[Nevos]

I need help deciding what to go for. My party is made up of Bull, Lee, Maria, and Umbra. Came across the first animal, and decided on Heal since I don't have Doc, but looking toward the future I'm not sure WHAT to get! Any suggestions from you kind folks?

[Tiglionabbit]

You'll have some offensive options and some buffs. Personally I'm picking the buffs because I think I'll get more mileage out of applying them to Bull than to having Umbra deal damage directly. I even beat a pretty tough encounter early using this strategy. That said, I'm not sure what I'm missing out on by not picking the direct damage options. But if I want Umbra dealing damage with magic I better bring a lot of root beer!

[☃Residual Toast☃]

With maria, umbra as a full caster is more viable, since at about halfway through the game you'll unlock a vendor for 1000Tooth coffee. She can do pretty well especially since some of her spells ignore defense, and have the added bonus of not having to do the attack minigame to hit as well.

[Arzaac]

Flap vs Leech: I'd lean towards Leech. Leech is a very strong early game damage + heal that falls off. Flap is technically better later on, but also you're probably not gonna want to spend Umbra's turns casting a single target evade up. Both are pretty usable though. (Side note: if you picked Anne you would definitely want Leech, because Anne just straight up has a better AoE evasion buff.)

Howl vs Fang: Pick Howl, 100%. Fang is a pretty useful early damage spell but it falls off, and you really don't need it if you picked Leech. Howl, being a single target attack buff, is something you can spam on your best party member and watch their damage skyrocket. (Again, Anne has an AoE version of Howl, so parties with Anne probably just pick Fang.)

Hawkeye vs Gust: Gust. Hawkeye's biggest downfall is that it gives you a buff that everyone (except Lee, Umbra, and Rufus) can just pay money to learn. Meanwhile, Gust is very useful early AoE and you're not getting better for a long while.

Shield vs Snap: It's kind of a tossup. Shield is a single target defense up, Snap is a single target attack down. Snap is largely better, except for the fact that enemies can resist it. I'd still take Snap, but Shield probably works out fine.

Gallop vs Kick: Tricky one here. Gallop increases your parties speed, which is so incredibly useful on boss fights. It's hard for a boss to kill you if you can always heal before they attack. On the other hand, Kick is a huge damage move and if you pass this up Umbra will be lagging behind on damage for a while. You have enough damage in your party you can probably afford to pass on Kick, but either one works I think.

Regen vs Camo: Camo is the obvious choice. Regen is a really weak AoE heal + paralysis cure, which would be extremely useful if paralysis ever hit. Camo lowers encounter rate and is basically just QoL, but its basically no contest because Regen sucks.

Anti vs Squeeze: Which do you want to stop carrying, antidotes or lassos? Enemies start hitting poison reliably in the endgame, so Anti is actually really useful. On the other hand, you can just use squeeze to constantly stun enemies. Both are useful but not essential, so take your pick.

Heal 2 vs Crush: It's gotta be crush, imo. Heal 2 is legitimately weaker than a Medkit, and isn't more SP efficient than Heal 1. It's not worth giving up Umbra's best single target damage move. Especially not when you can just fill your inventory with coffees and carry like 5 medkits in case of emergency.

Revive vs Flurry: You can simply revive people with Heal 1. I don't think a revive skill is worth taking over the best AoE damage move in the game. And again, see the last entry; if you really need in battle revives, you can just carry some holy water.