Enemies and insta-death

[Gareque]

Is it me, or does CS4 seem to have ramped up the number of enemies that just randomly kill you from a single attack with no way of avoiding it?

At the start, as expected, you're so weak that you can't cheese the combat like you can end-game and it gets kinda frustrating when a non-boss encounter just destroys your party because it insta-kills 2 people right off the bat.

Currently my irritation is aimed the Grim Blades n the Gral...

[X@vierX™]

i personally never had any problem with any enemy thru the game, just equip the right accesories vs bosses and most things can be burst down easily before they hit you more than once or twice, if you really have some problems early, try to increase the ATS of altina and feed her strong arts with the bells for faster cast + ingenuty, just spam the arts each battle and then run a bit and you get the EP back, even faster when you get Emblem master quartz

[Gareque]

Originally posted by X@vierX™:

i personally never had any problem with any enemy thru the game, just equip the right accesories vs bosses and most things can be burst down easily before they hit you more than once or twice, if you really have some problems early, try to increase the ATS of altina and feed her strong arts with the bells for faster cast + ingenuty, just spam the arts each battle and then run a bit and you get the EP back, even faster when you get Emblem master quartz

Think I'm in the last half of act 2 now and to be frank, the game difficulty curve went pretty much as expected. Hard in the first part, then as you unlock abilities/power up orders and gain access to better quartz, it starts to get much easier.

My main tactic currently is piling art damage quarts on Musse and attack damage ones on Ash, set the master to the 1.5x delay extra damage one and then open hammer things down. In most instances, it's short work, when that fails swap out to a high evasion Kurt and Duvalie.

I'll not lie though, this thread took off a lot more than I anticipated lol.

[Tiasmoon]

Originally posted by Vighkael:

Originally posted by TheMartianGeek:

I don't know, I've been fighting every enemy, and last I checked, leveling up didn't protect you from a full-party sleep attack or bad luck with the turn bonuses.

That`s what the accessories are for, example, Prevent sleep, prevent confusion, prevent nightmare, stat down ect.

There's one maybe annoying boss later on that loves to spam aoe's with KO. Status effects can be annoying in trial chests as well. In both cases you can always start using said anti-status effects. KO boss is late enough in the game that black accessories are easily available.

[Tiasmoon]

Originally posted by Gareque:

when that fails swap out to a high evasion Kurt and Duvalie.

Yo, you should spoiler tag that.

[kageKun]

Okay, here's an update for my game experience. At first, I had early game hell during the first act but once I rescued Rean, things got better, a lot better. From that point on, I had access to better equipment like Gladiator gear and Impede quartz. Impede seems to be underrated here. It triggers so much delay, even on bosses. This neutralizes the quick recovery most monsters get after recovering from Break.

Another fun part that tipped the scales is Fie. Give Fie more than 50% evasion rate and give her the Master Quartz that grants automatic Insight and Stealth, put her in the midst of enemies, and watch the fireworks. As of now, battles are the one-sided affair it has always been in previous games.

I think what happened to OP is a case of early game hell. This isn't new as CS3 had an acute case when you fought the Queen Kumbada boss monster that did Deathblow multiple times in a row at the point when no resistant accessories were available yet. CS4's early game hell happened to be a bit milder, but more protracted. Just keep fighting and progressing and upgrading. You'll surmount this mountain eventually

[Gareque]

Originally posted by Tiasmoon:

Originally posted by Gareque:

when that fails swap out to a high evasion Kurt and Duvalie.

Yo, you should spoiler tag that.

My bad, totally forgot when it was that happens. Edited now.

[Alex]

Originally posted by Gareque:

This can lead to other things, like linking wish Rean before hand, then do it and getting a huge boost to CP just before Rean's turn to initiate his ogre mode

Funny but I find ogre mode useless as well, it pays back more to just have CP recovery main + CP speedup equip + some CP recovery spell + spam 200-CP S-Crafts in terms of damage dealt. But of course this varies by the player.

[Gareque]

Originally posted by Alex:

Originally posted by Gareque:

This can lead to other things, like linking wish Rean before hand, then do it and getting a huge boost to CP just before Rean's turn to initiate his ogre mode

Funny but I find ogre mode useless as well, it pays back more to just have CP recovery main + CP speedup equip + some CP recovery spell + spam 200-CP S-Crafts in terms of damage dealt. But of course this varies by the player.

If you have high CP recovery on Rean and 3-4 smaller enemies with a boss, you can hit ogre mode, then use his slash move, trigger a rush and potentially kill all of the smaller ones, bringing him back up to almost 200CP again, if not there straight away.

This is especially so if you have the +100% and +50% damage quartz on him

[Alex]

Well, I don't even start to feel like doing that. For bigger ones I start with 200 CP, spam Rean/Laura S-Craft, then use Elliot to 'heat up', and in few turns taking/dealing a bit of damage I have 100+ CP on both to spam again :D What's left is to timely heal with Elliot, order damage reduction and use Alisa to create opportunities for BP growth :D (Rean as speed hitter + Alisa as break hitter + Laura as powerhouse + Elliot as healer team). Actually this team happens to be pretty well balanced for melee in all CS games, so I find myself sticking with it wherever possible :D

[Gareque]

Originally posted by Alex:

Well, I don't even start to feel like doing that. For bigger ones I start with 200 CP, spam Rean/Laura S-Craft, then use Elliot to 'heat up', and in few turns taking/dealing a bit of damage I have 100+ CP on both to spam again :D What's left is to timely heal with Elliot, order damage reduction and use Alisa to create opportunities for BP growth :D (Rean as speed hitter + Alisa as break hitter + Laura as powerhouse + Elliot as healer team). Actually this team happens to be pretty well balanced for melee in all CS games, so I find myself sticking with it wherever possible :D

To each their own way of doing things. Though using that same tactic, you could potentially get a CP200 and CP100 S-craft off with Rean before ogre mode runs out lol. I use it quite a lot tbf simply because he regains CP at stupidly fast rates lol.

Pretty much have Elliot in my team as a guarantee no matter who else. But typically, I also add Musse in with the +100% and +50% damage on first attack. Trigger the instant cast order and it can be brutal, especially on a crit lol. Think I oneshotted a boss because the first turn was a crit.

[Gareque]

I'd also say you have less need for a powerhouse in CS3 & 4 I find. By mid game, Kurt/Fie/Duvalie avoid most hits. Stick them with the Sirius as primary or secondary MQ and then Rage for the guaranteed crit on evasion and the damage is absolutely disgusting lol.

[Khorm]

I kind of like the rebalance to orders and enemy speed. I now have to actually play more defensively knowing the enemies will hit back.

My first gripe is Break - sometimes the enemies will recover instantly making it a joke, and sometimes you can go infinite turns with delay orders like in CS3. They need to rebalance it, so that breaking is useful and rewarding, but you cannot loop 30 turns before enemy recovers. Maybe fixed turns or maybe diminishing returns on delaying.

My second gripe is turn limit on AP conditions... F!*k You! Whoever came up with this BS. We are already handicapped with scanning mechanic, RNG Status effects lottery, and chain fights without ability to save in between.

[Gareque]

Originally posted by Khorm:

My second gripe is turn limit on AP conditions... F!*k You! Whoever came up with this BS. We are already handicapped with scanning mechanic, RNG Status effects lottery, and chain fights without ability to save in between.

Honestly for this, it's a pain in the ass early on, but by mid act 2, if not sooner, the human fights become a bit of a joke and I haven't seen any issues taking them down

[Tiasmoon]

For scanning in AP battles: if you die you can retry and it keeps enemy data.

[ping]

Just buy 8 Holy pendant and you're set to success. That's what I do.