Do you guys buff and de-buff?

[allknowingeel]

In mainline smt, buffing and de-buffing is practically mandatory to win fights. How does Persona do in comparison? I know there are differences like buffs and de-buffs don't stack in persona and only last for 3 turns, while in smt they stack up to 4 times and last forever (with the exception of smt 5 where they only stack up to 2 times and go away after 3 turns).

How necessary do you guys feel it is in Persona as opposed to mainline smt or spin off smt games?

[Turbo Alice]

Buff/debuff is not strictly necessary in this game. Fusing Personas with decent offensive trait is already enough for majority of the combat in this game.

I personally only use it for certain bosses. Most of the time I don't need it.

[Arifufu]

yes, i also play with ailments for doing technical damage especially against mobs, this game allow player to deal as high as 1 mil damage if u wanna do the setup.

Although this game can't stack with buff and debuff like your mentioned favorite SMT titles, at least each of them in this game will increase damage by 1,4x, so having tarukaja and rakunda in the same time will make u will deal damage 1,96x higher, not to mention focus and concentrate will give another 2,5x damage multiplier, techincal damage also will give another 1,4x damage multiplier (if u increase it, it will increase as high as 1,8x damage multiplier), i even not counting from amp or boost passive skills. Also buff and debuff in this game last for 3 turns, but there's two traits that can increase buff up to 5 turns and u can keep extend the turns up to 15 turns

well that's a lot of damage multiplier offered from this game

[Synavix]

I rarely used buffs/debuffs in P4G. I frequently used them in P3P because for a lot of boss fights it felt like the only way to do any real damage.

I'm still experimenting in P5R. Buffs/debuffs are useless for probably 95% of normal fights, since you have so many tools like knock-downs, baton pass, all-out-attacks, etc. But if used right they can be useful for boss fights, and it seems like they're very important for doing the challenge fights correctly.

[DaBa]

It may not be be all and end all, but it is still extremely powerful. Fully buffing yourself and fully debuffing you opponents will cause you to deal roughly double damage, take about half if it yourself, and make the enemy miss their attacks on a regular basis. Add to that abilities like charge that only multiply this difference, and it gets very disgusting.

So yeah, if you're not using buffs and debuffs, you're making things significantly more difficult. Not that it's a problem, P5R is not a difficult game.

[Exlz]

i mainly focus damage on joker while other member buff him (Izanagi-No-Okami Picaro with myraid truths)
1.use charge on joker (2.5 magic damage)
2.buff atk on joker
3.heal / buff def for all member / fix abnormal status

other than that is cast barrior, use item, etc.

[Wolfherz]

It's my experience that with the Persona series buffs/debuffs are really only needed for boss fights. Particularly end game boss fights such as the semester 2 final couple of bosses and the semester 3 final boss in P5R. TBH I really only used them in P3P and P5R. In P4G I really only ever used buffs like concentrate and charge. Charge is especially god tier when combined with Yoshitsune's special attack Hassou Tobi. If you combine charge + Hassou Tobi + enemy def debuff = insane damage. It's unfortunate he's not in any version of Persona 3 since that one is the hardest of the three, but you can still wreck bosses with other personas.

[Exic64]

For boss fights absolutely. Outside of that not worth wasting SP most of the time.

[Revenant Ghost]

I only buff/debuff during boss fights. Throughout normal battles, I exploit the enemies' weaknesses or use ailments/technical attacks for the ones who don't have any weaknesses.