Level up , what bonus stat to focus on each characters? (spoilers)

[RYURYUNEKO]

What stat that benefits each 1 member the most in Damage?

Zale
Valere
Garl
Seraï
Resh'an
B'st

I know i can't pick the same stat over and over like Trials of Mana / Seiken Densetsu 3 original.

I usually mix and match anyways.

[Vahnkiljoy]

ALWAYS get mana, other than that, get whatever YOU want, it's a single player game.

[Schutzengel]

Zale - Magical and/or Physical ATK
Valere - Physical ATK

You receive loads of DEF and MDEF from gear. The idea is that high ATK causes enemies to die faster and thus improves survivability too. Also, ATK always works since you will always want to attack with that characters highest stat, while having a high DEF doesnt work when subject to MATK, same with MDEF and ATK.

You can build Garl with loads of DEF but when hes subject to MATK this stat is useless.

For some reason, Garl receives MATK upgrades during Level Up. He cant cast spells as far as Im aware of, so my advice is to pick HP and Physical ATK for him.

[DoEFotGS]

Mana is the best possible choice, HP is second. All other is up to you. At the some point some stat stop appearing. Maybe because you can choose each of them limited times, idk.

[Schutzengel]

Originally posted by Vahnkiljoy:

ALWAYS get mana, other than that, get whatever YOU want, it's a single player game.

Originally posted by DoEFotGS:

Mana is the best possible choice, HP is second. All other is up to you. At the some point some stat stop appearing. Maybe because you can choose each of them limited times, idk.

No explanation given from either of those 2 why one should pick Mana.

As far as Im aware of, one recovers 3 MP with each Basic Attack, so having 100 MP compared to 10 MP would be useless unless you plan to regain all those MP in a painfully long chain of only using Basic Attacks.

At the same time, having 100 ATK compared to only 10 ATK would yield drastically faster battles using Basic Attacks, since they do more damage. And you can still unleash the same ratio of Mana using attacks while your at it, since you recover 3 MP per each Basic Attack regardless of your max Mana.

More Mana only means battles are prolonged and you need to use up more of your Mana because your ATK stat is so low and your Mana using attacks do less damage.

.

Imagine your Mana ethusiast does 100 damage with his Mana using attack and doesnt kill the enemy. Now you ATK enthusiast does 150 damage with the same Mana using attack and kills the enemy.

Well ... the Mana user now needs to use twice the amount of Mana, since the enemy still stands. And he is also hit for 100 damage from that still-standing enemy and needs to regain his lost HP using healing spells that use up ... youve guessed it ... extra Mana.

.

Having high ATK or MATK is always the most useful approach.

[Weltall8000]

At the level of mana we're looking at, a few points invested is the difference between being able to cast spells/abilities consecutively.

Sunball is 8 mp to cast. Having 10 max mana means one cast will require two normal attacks to cast again. Then if casting without another attack in there, Zale is tapped at 0 mp. This would require 3 attacks to get 9 mp to be able to cast Sunball for 8. Zale also can't cast Healing Light for 4 and Sunball (8) without attacking in between.

The higher his mana gets, the easier it is to frontload spells and when normal attacking, because the capacity is higher recovery is more manageable. Eg if I have 14 mana, one normal attack between Sunballs means I am ready to fire another. If I have to do a second normal attack to break a lock or something, I don't lose the mana recovered.

IF we could get to stupid high mana levels, sure, it would make sense to make the mana more efficient per point by upping the MATK, but at the levels we are looking at, the Mana capacity is more valuable relative to the amount of MATK you can get. But sure, if I could either get 2 points of mana or 100 MATK, I'd take the latter. But it is never like that.

[DoEFotGS]

Originally posted by Schutzengel:

More Mana only means battles are prolonged and you need to use up more of your Mana because your ATK stat is so low and your Mana using attacks do less damage.

More mana means less situation where you has lack of mana to break locks, because game constantly ask you to use skills.

You gain about 20 levels during playtrought, so your example about 100 ATK vs 10 ATK is meaningless - you get enough ATK/MATK via basic equipment (weapon and armor) anyway + you get natural increase in stats during level ups. On the other hand you can increase your mana only by acessries (rarely natural with lvl ups) and you has more valuable things than +5 mana on this slots.

Originally posted by Schutzengel:

Imagine your Mana ethusiast does 100 damage with his Mana using attack and doesnt kill the enemy. Now you ATK enthusiast does 150 damage with the same Mana using attack and kills the enemy.

Does not matter. Combat system builded around lock breaking and almost don't work in regular fights, because of difference between regular enemies HP and bosses HP. More mana - more frequently use of skills. More skills - faster combo bar filled. More combo skills used - quicker ultimate gained.

[Me555]

Mana is easily the best stat to pick whenever it shows up. The weird dude going on the massive rant seems to forget that locks and enemy timers are a thing in this game. If you had the ability to just endlessly spam normal attacks to regen the mana, it wouldn't be a big deal. But oddly enough the bosses are designed around not letting you do that, shocking! Going into a fight with the ability to cast more spells will make the fight significantly easier, especially when it comes to Serai and her Disorient. If there was no mana option I focused either PAtk or MAtk > Health > Defenses

[597]

Exactly.

Interestingly, my MP at level 30 is the exact same for all characters that it was in the early 20s, by which time I had exhausted all MP upgrades. 22-28 MP max for each character.

MP just stops growing naturally, while all other stats continue growing. Devs expect you to notice MP is useful and max it out early. All the other stats are negligible.

Honestly no stat matters that much in a normal playthrough. Difficutly was set very low to make the story and aesthetics accessible to 7-year-olds. Hence the rating.

They expect adults to not use any boons, and to at least go with Dubious Dare. And challenge run enthusiasts they expect to progress to DD + Artful Gambit without Reaper's. The game becomes way more fun, the food limit starts to make sense, and finally you realize why there's an auto-save every 2 steps.

Taking 5 ATT or MATT upgrades vs none is only a total of 10 each. Does very little. HP, DEF and MDEF do nothing with Artful Gambit anyway.

[VertVentus]

Valere & Garl can only choose M.ATK 4 times. Zale & Resh'an can only choose ATK 4 times. Seraï & B'st can only choose MP 4 times. Otherwise they can choose the other 5 stats 5 times each for those 29 bonus stats, but realistically, you're only getting like 20.
I would do MP > ATK & M.ATK (Boost for Seraï, healing? for Garl/B'st?) > HP (+2 HP with Artful Gambit) >>> DEF (many physical enemies, multi-hits) > M.DEF, and since you can't choose the same stat consecutively, your distribution will look something like this (Valere):
Lv. 2 ~ 7 = MP > M.ATK > MP > M.ATK > MP > M.ATK
Lv. 8 ~ 10 = ATK > ATK > ATK
Lv. 11 ~ 15 = MP > M.ATK > MP > ATK > ATK
Lv. 16 ~ 20 = HP > HP > HP > HP > HP
Lv. 21 ~ 25 = DEF > DEF > DEF > DEF > DEF
Lv. 26 ~ 30 = M.DEF > M.DEF > M.DEF > M.DEF > M.DEF

To highlight why MP investments does add up, let's check the stat growth of your primary damage dealers.
Valere has 10 MP at Lv. 1.
11 MP from Lv. 2 ~ 5.
12 MP from Lv. 6 ~ 8.
13 MP from Lv. 9 ~ 11.
15 MP from Lv. 12 ~ 15.
17 MP from Lv. 16 ~ 18.
19 MP from Lv. 19 ~ 25.
21 MP from Lv. 26 ~ 28.
Earlier MP investments will let her consecutively double cast Moonerang (7 MP) / Lunar Shield (11-2 MP) and stockpile more MP with items: Yakitori Shrimp for +15 MP one one ally, Pain Doré for +9 party MP (purchaseable), Pudding Chômeur/Braisé for +100% ally MP, Legendary Feast for +100% party MP. There is an accessory that lets you use items without consuming someone's action once per turn, so you can keep on skill spamming.
+1 MP on Lv. 2, 4, and 6 (can't consecutive invest in a stat until later, currently can't go any higher due to soft cap unlocked at Lv. 11) gets you 15 MP at Lv. 6, 6 levels earlier than normal. Then by Lv. 13, you'll have 17 MP with those final 2 MP investments at Lv. 11 and 13, 3 levels earlier.
At Lv. 16, she can triple cast Moonerang 10 levels earlier with 4~5 MP investments for that last quarter of the game, when Lv. 26 is unobtainable without serious grinding

Zale has 8 MP from Lv. 1.
9 MP from Lv. 2 ~ 3.
10 MP from Lv. 4 ~ 5.
11 MP from Lv. 6 ~ 11.
12 MP from Lv. 12 ~ 15.
13 MP from Lv. 16 ~ 18.
15 MP from Lv. 19 ~ 25.
17 MP from Lv. 26 ~ 28.
He normally can't cast Sunball twice in a row for the entire game, while I was able to apply +4 MP by Lv. 12 so he could do it for the latter half of the game. To break a double Sun lock, you would need a boost charge if you had until next round, otherwise combo meter or use Resh'an's Ebb within the same round, but building combo requires breaking locks, which requires using skills, which requires MP, and oh.

Seraï at Lv. 7 has 10 MP, I think 1/4 MP was already invested for me at this point.
+1 MP at Lv. 9 = 11 MP.
+2 MP at Lv. 12 = 13 MP.
+2 MP at Lv. 16 = 15 MP. Now you can Disorient twice in a row normally.
+2 MP at Lv. 19 = 17 MP.
+2 MP at Lv. 26 = 19 MP.
I was able to put +1 MP on Lv. 9, 11, and 13 before MP was removed from bonus stat allocation, for 15 MP at Lv. 12 (4 levels earlier). She makes the best use of Signet of Clarity for MP Cost -1 and Blue Leaf for Max MP +5 for 25 MP at Lv. 19+ and being able to use 6 MP Disorients 4 times in a row before needing to refill than just 2.

[Army of Optimists]

As Vert helpfully pointed out, MP is the ideal stat to invest in early. At least until you can cast the highest cost skill twice in a row. That opens up your options tremendously, since you can now open a fight using a skill without lowering your ability to deal with any locks that might pop up. In circumstances where you want fights to end as soon as possible, you can also cast two turns in a row - there's not a whole lot of formations that can stand up to double Sunball or double Moonerang.

Once you have enough MP to give you that buffer after casting, though, it becomes less important to focus on. More Attack or M. Attack is what I chose to go after. 10 extra points doesn't sound like a lot, but that's about equal to two tiers of weapon upgrades. The Defense and HP upgrades seemed like the weakest choices. If you're not being one-shot, more HP isn't that helpful, and Defense seemed like a losing strategy when you could invest in Attack and end fights faster.

[597]

Oh, is there a list of all stats by level somewhere or you wrote down your own, Vert?

So, MP growth stops by mid 20s, not earlier like I said. Guess I remembered wrong after spending so much time in the last few levels to cap with no MP gain at all.

edit: Does anyone get MP from the spa? I know those stats don't carry over to NG+.

[VertVentus]

I wrote it down on my own, while the spa upgrades aren't MP unfortunately.
Valere = ATK +9
Zale = M.ATK +7
Garl = Max HP +35
Seraï = ATK +9
Resh'an = M.DEF +8
B'st = M.ATK +7

[Schutzengel]

Some good explanations were given in this thread.

Since the amount of upgrades you can get per each stat is limited in #, there is no reason to not get the stat you want at that particular time, since eventually you need to pick up something else.

Originally posted by VertVentus:

Lv. 2 ~ 7 = MP > M.ATK > MP > M.ATK > MP > M.ATK
Lv. 8 ~ 10 = ATK > ATK > ATK
Lv. 11 ~ 15 = MP > M.ATK > MP > ATK > ATK
Lv. 16 ~ 20 = HP > HP > HP > HP > HP
Lv. 21 ~ 25 = DEF > DEF > DEF > DEF > DEF
Lv. 26 ~ 30 = M.DEF > M.DEF > M.DEF > M.DEF > M.DEF

I count:
5x MP
5x ATK
4x MATK
5x HP
5x DEF
5x MDEF

If someone had explained that you essentially are forced to max out each of of the available stats as opposed to being able to pick say: 30x ATK, or whatever, it would have helped the topic at hand significantly.

Meaning it doesnt matter what you pick since you pick the other stats eventually anyway. The leveling system is meaningless.

[RYURYUNEKO]

Thanks for the info.

[Fate]

Personally, I focus on MP and +Attack/Mag attack depending on what's offered and who it is.

The faster you kill things the more enjoyable