Quartz advice needed badly...

[Dark_D_Shadow]

Hello,

I've been playing the trails games since Sky FC and I need help because I really feel like I don't understand the basics of this system...

Anyway I'm playing Zero on hard(feels like a mistake haha) and still feel like I'm building my characters wrong here.

My main question is when slotting quartz do you focus on giving everyone a specific build like as in this is a fire user and DMG dealer or do you have everyone use similar stuff so they're messed up because they've got too much focus on casts instead of an actual build ?

Also is it true everyone is better off with at least some speed quartz ?

Right now I make almost everyone have a heal but I feel like I'm gimping my dmg output...

Please help haha. :D

[Dr. Rudolf von Richten]

Everyone certainly needs Action. Beyond that you should specialise them.

Elie and Tio are your casters, and need Cast, Mind and EP Cut at least. Beyond those you want to have good AoE Healing (for which you need at least one Wind based Quartz in addition to what you have already) as well as some solid attack Arts, preferably of the Time/Space and/or Mirage element, meaning the EP Quartz is good as well.

That's 6 Quartz in total (including Action), and the 7th slot will be restricted (Water for Tio, Wind for Elie), so just put the one with the best Elemental Values. This should be a good basis to work from, you may want to fiddle with things to squeeze as much out of it as you can.

For Lloyd and Randy, thing are simpler. They are both attackers, so they need Attack and Hit. A Status Effect inflicting Quartz (like Seal or Petrify) is useful, and you also want to load all your utility Quartz (like Eagle Eye, Luck, Intimidation, Septium Vein, Detection and so on) on them. Again this is just a basis, you'll have to work out the details as you see fit.

I hope this helps, and good luck! :-)

[Dark_D_Shadow]

Originally posted by Dr. Rudolf von Richten:

Everyone certainly needs Action. Beyond that you should specialise them.

Elie and Tio are your casters, and need Cast, Mind and EP Cut at least. Beyond those you want to have good AoE Healing (for which you need at least one Wind based Quartz in addition to what you have already) as well as some solid attack Arts, preferably of the Time/Space and/or Mirage element, meaning the EP Quartz is good as well.

That's 6 Quartz in total (including Action), and the 7th slot will be restricted (Water for Tio, Wind for Elie), so just put the one with the best Elemental Values. This should be a good basis to work from, you may want to fiddle with things to squeeze as much out of it as you can.

For Lloyd and Randy, thing are simpler. They are both attackers, so they need Attack and Hit. A Status Effect inflicting Quartz (like Seal or Petrify) is useful, and you also want to load all your utility Quartz (like Eagle Eye, Luck, Intimidation, Septium Vein, Detection and so on) on them. Again this is just a basis, you'll have to work out the details as you see fit.

I hope this helps, and good luck! :-)

I guess I was playing the games before totally wrong then because I only used Action quartz on Estelle or Joshua before (or just the melee users in general) I feel like an idiot now XD

Also I think everyone except Lloyd has 2 restricted quartz lines with a certain fixed element ?

I was using Evade on everyone because I thought that was good but I guess not lol...
I swear I could've sworn someone somewhere said you could make a dodgetank out of Lloyd but now that I look at his stats maybe it was Joshua or maybe I'm just confused haha.

Could you please give me a rundown of which quartz NOT to use for example because I think I have some of those slotted. xD

Anyway thanks for trying to help me :D

EDIT: Yeah Tio and Elie have 2 restricted slots Randy just has one.

[Dr. Rudolf von Richten]

You're welcome. :-)

Almost any Quartz has at least some use in the right setup, but Effort and Prankster obviously have no combat application and should only be used when cooking. Also, higher numbers are better than lower ones, so Attack 2 is better than Attack 1, but I hope you don't need me to tell you that!

The numbered Quartz that aren't really worth using (for their effect, at least), are Shield and Impede, and you also want to replace weaker status effects like Blind and Mute with stronger ones like Petrify and Confuse when you can. Other Quartz that I don't think I ever used are Range and Information.

But here's the thing: since Quartz have an Elemental Value in addition to their effect, you may want to use them for that alone. Impede is a good example: it gives you both Time and Wind EV, which just might be what you need to get certain combinations of Arts that you really want. For this, you should study your guidebook, figure out which Arts you need and experiment with your setup. Use what I said in my previous post as a basis and go from there.

Oh, and about that Lloyd Evasion Tank you mentioned; in this game, you can get to a max of, I think, 85% Evasion. Which is good, but not good enough. You also don't really need it, and if you do, get him to 50% and have Tio or Elie cast Aqua Mirage on him. The game where you can and should make Lloyd a full 100% Evasion Tank is the next one, Trails to Azure.

[Dark_D_Shadow]

Originally posted by Dr. Rudolf von Richten:

You're welcome. :-)

Almost any Quartz has at least some use in the right setup, but Effort and Prankster obviously have no combat application and should only be used when cooking. Also, higher numbers are better than lower ones, so Attack 2 is better than Attack 1, but I hope you don't need me to tell you that!

The numbered Quartz that aren't really worth using (for their effect, at least), are Shield and Impede, and you also want to replace weaker status effects like Blind and Mute with stronger ones like Petrify and Confuse when you can. Other Quartz that I don't think I ever used are Range and Information.

But here's the thing: since Quartz have an Elemental Value in addition to their effect, you may want to use them for that alone. Impede is a good example: it gives you both Time and Wind EV, which just might be what you need to get certain combinations of Arts that you really want. For this, you should study your guidebook, figure out which Arts you need and experiment with your setup. Use what I said in my previous post as a basis and go from there.

Oh, and about that Lloyd Evasion Tank you mentioned; in this game, you can get to a max of, I think, 85% Evasion. Which is good, but not good enough. You also don't really need it, and if you do, get him to 50% and have Tio or Elie cast Aqua Mirage on him. The game where you can and should make Lloyd a full 100% Evasion Tank is the next one, Trails to Azure.

I see, again thank you for helping me because just as I expected I was using Impede and Blind and Mute Quartz which I will replace now haha.

I'm wondering if I'll make it through this game on hard though because I was fighting Yin and got destroyed a couple of times before finally beating him with only 1 character left alive... :/

Anyway thanks again I'm gonna try and see how far I get I guess haha.

[Dr. Rudolf von Richten]

Originally posted by Dark_D_Shadow:

Anyway thanks again I'm gonna try and see how far I get I guess haha.

You're welcome and good luck! :-)