SPOILERS! Best team for final dungeon? SPOILERS!

[Zokol]

So, I'm at the part where you've just entered the Aureole and I have to choose party members. My main ideas are Kloe and Agate, since Kloe is an amazing healer and Agate hits HARD. Any alternate ideas? I'm hoping to get through the dungeon and collect all the treasures without dying too much. I could consider Olivier too, since he's optimized for orbal arts pretty much.

[Erpy]

There isn't really an ideal team. Just pick whoever you like best. That said, a few pointers:

- You'll get two ultimate armors/boots for males and two ultimate armors/boots for females, so taking one guy and one gal along will allow you to get the most out of your equipment options.

- If you fight every encounter you run into once and open every chest, your party should be very close to level 40 by the time you get to the end. That's enough to beat the final boss without too much issues.

- The final few battles have enemies that resist kaempfer, taunt and blind and the final boss itself also resists impede and AT delay.

- Make sure to customize Estelle and Joshua to fit the two people you took along. Estelle is a decent physical fighter, an okay caster and a great candidate to put on buffing/healing duty. Joshua is a great physical fighter and also a good offensive caster.

- Arts become more effective during the final dungeon since many stronger enemies have fairly high defense.

Anyway, Agate and Kloe make a pretty good team. Kloe makes an excellent partner for Agate since the latter can raise his CP at the cost of his HP and healing is Kloe's major thing. Kloe's an excellent offensive caster too, mind you, who can generally do more damage with arts like Blue Impact and White Gehenna than Agate can do with his ordinary crafts.

[Mizufluffy]

During my first playthrough I think I'm quite sure I did last battle in final dungeon with Agate and Kloe but during 2nd playthrough I used Olivier instead of Agate when I wanted to get "S-Craft? What S-Craft?" achievement. Not only Olivier can get good arts but he also has high amount of EP and one of his crafts is quite good for healing.

For the most part in the final dungeon I was using Cloak quartz (from Grancel sewers) to avoid getting attacked so only real concern I had to worry about were treasure chest monsters. Those can be nasty with their status inflicting attacks and when some of them will explode on death so keeping distance is important. This is another reason why casting arts can be better than having someone like Agate in party who is better at close combat than casting arts. As long as you don't mute monsters which explodes on death and have protection against confusion (and optionally against sleep or faint) then treasure chest monsters shouldn't be too hard.

Just make sure to give good quartz for both Kloe and Olivier (if you select them). And obviously to Estelle and Joshua too. If you need any hints regarding quartz for characters then don't hesitate to ask.

Originally posted by Erpy:

Anyway, Agate and Kloe make a pretty good team. Kloe makes an excellent partner for Agate since the latter can raise his CP at the cost of his HP and healing is Kloe's major thing. Kloe's an excellent offensive caster too, mind you, who can generally do more damage with arts like Blue Impact and White Gehenna than Agate can do with his ordinary crafts.

It is true that Kloe's healing can cover Agate's health loss when he is raising CP but if you want to aim for S-Craft? What S-Craft? achievement then there isn't that much need for Agate's CP anyway. Or am I wrong about that?

[Erpy]

Those can be nasty with their status inflicting attacks and when some of them will explode on death so keeping distance is important. This is another reason why casting arts can be better than having someone like Agate in party who is better at close combat than casting arts.

That's where Agate's Draguna Edge comes in. Not only does it hurt stuff from far away, but it disrupts the enemy's casting process, making it ideal for those spell-spamming bots...especially if you use the move action first to line two of them up. Agate's Spiral Edge also causes him to jump back to his starting position after slashing the enemy, so it's semi-long range too.

It is true that Kloe's healing can cover Agate's health loss when he is raising CP but if you want to aim for S-Craft? What S-Craft? achievement then there isn't that much need for Agate's CP anyway. Or am I wrong about that?

From what I've seen, Agate's crafts all do slightly higher damage than his standard attacks (not a great deal, between about 10% and 15% more or so) and Flame Smash's cooldown time is pretty similar to the cooldown time of his normal attack, so even if you're only attacking a single enemy from up close who cannot be AT delayed or impeded, it's still beneficial to use his crafts.

Joshua spams White Gehenna and Shadow Spear.

A little note about Shadow Spear; if you have other level2 single-target attack arts aside from that one (like Blue Impact, Earth Lance or even Flare Arrow) and your target is immune to instant KO, use those instead. Shadow Spear's damage isn't that great compared to most other level2 attack arts, probably to offset its instant-death property.

[old Charlie]

kloe - because of kämpfer and her good magic
Oliver - because of his Cp-AOE - for interrupt purposses and his good magic

i never bothered with agate, since weapon attacks and CP-attacks are weak compared to arts. The only downside with this, is that kloes s-craft is kind of useless.

[Erpy]

Petrify Breath actually has the same strength as Shadow Spear. Earth Lance is more suitable since it does 100 points of damage more than Petrify Breath and is 10 EP cheaper.

Also, technically Zane's S-craft is more damaging because Zane can buff his strength by 30% while Agate's strength can be boosted to a maximum of 25% if you use one particular spell.

[darksteelhyren]

After you initially pick 2 males or 2 females for your achievement, I recommend repicking your party and bringing Kloe and Oliver. IMO, Spellcasting is the best way to get through the game, and White Gehenna is brokenly powerful spell, especially on someone with the Range quartz. Put a Mind quarts on everyone for healing spells, and put an Earth quartz on someone for the mass earth-wall spell and the last boss is pretty easy.

[Raddenleggaz Leggazschmeggaz]

Just finished it myself for the first time. What an amazing game and dat ending.... I used Agate and Olivier in the final dungeon and had no problems with the chest mobs. But the Endboss got lucky the first time cause his minions killed two with Shadowspear and then he used some badass AOE that killed the rest..

[Raddenleggaz Leggazschmeggaz]

Originally posted by Jaythelord:

Just realized I'm 2 BP short of a perfect score. I messed up on Perzel Farm Monsters early on. *repeated facedesk*

I just got the Weapon Connoisseur Achievment. I was really confused why it showed 1 missing weapon and the secret was...i had to choose Tita in the final dungeon and unequip her weapon *lol*.

[old Charlie]

Originally posted by Jaythelord:

Kloe's S-Craft is useless? So, instantly healing your entire party and +50% defence is useless?

yup. since she is able to do the same thing with her arts.

Agate's S-Craft practically instant kills everything it hits.

yeah, that goes for almost all offensive s-crafts. Thats the whole point about them.
And Arts are simply stronger in the long run. Therefore a spellcaster gives you not only more damage but also makes you more flexible to deal with other stuff.
if you're actually trying to min-max the last dungeon with a whole party (which is by no means necessary), skip melee - stick to arts.

I didn´t particulary like one character more than the others, therefore i did choose the team that could actually use the strongest attacks and buffs the most often -> Kloe & Oliver

[K.]

In my first run I chose zane and oliver, i liked zane for his taunt and his CP heal, and oliver because he is the best caster
In the end I killed the boss with only Zane alive, the big AoE took me by surprise. I panicked and used his S-craft as a final blow ((I didn't want use s-crafts)).

In my second run I picked Oliver and Kloe, the final boss was just spam of White Gehenna and Earth Wall

[Erpy]

Originally posted by An Album Cover:

Originally posted by Jaythelord:

Kloe's S-Craft is useless? So, instantly healing your entire party and +50% defence is useless?

yup. since she is able to do the same thing with her arts.

(facepalm)

By that logic, offensive S-crafts are also useless since you can also inflict physical damage by simply attacking. If there's a hidden orbal art that allows Kloe to cast a spell that heals everyone for 1500 hp, revives all KO-ed companions, cures all status ailments and ups defense by 50% in addition to covering half the playing field and being instantly castable, even when it's not your turn, let me know.

If emergency buttons aren't your thing, that's fine. But calling it useless is kind of a dumb thing to say.

[Sunder]

I used Agate and Olivier. I know Kloe is a popular choice for her arts (since physical damage does almost no damage, especially in nightmare mode), and especially kaempfer...but I don't like Kloe's character and I do love Agate and Olivier's character. I'd have Agate cast so he'd get hit with AA cancellers, Olivier for Happy Trigger and casting, Estelle for healing, Joshua for clearing out enemies with Black Fang and casting.

[old Charlie]

Originally posted by Erpy:

Originally posted by An Album Cover:

yup. since she is able to do the same thing with her arts.

(facepalm)

By that logic, offensive S-crafts are also useless since you can also inflict physical damage by simply attacking. If there's a hidden orbal art that allows Kloe to cast a spell that heals everyone for 1500 hp, revives all KO-ed companions, cures all status ailments and ups defense by 50% in addition to covering half the playing field and being instantly castable, even when it's not your turn, let me know.

If emergency buttons aren't your thing, that's fine. But calling it useless is kind of a dumb thing to say.

yeah, whatever dude ;)
You don´t have to believe me.

use 4 people with white gehenna, clockupEX and only one char with earth wall and you´ll laugh at yourself for believing in agate and his cutsie-wutsie swordattacks and the need for healing ;)

You asked a question. I gave you my answer.
Take it or leave it.

Arts > Crafts

[K.]

Originally posted by An Album Cover:

yeah, whatever dude ;)
You don´t have to believe me.

use 4 people with white gehenna, clockupEX and only one char with earth wall and you´ll laugh at yourself for believing in agate and his cutsie-wutsie swordattacks and the need for healing ;)

You asked a question. I gave you my answer.
Take it or leave it.

Arts > Crafts

He is talking about the usefulness of Kloe's s-craft, what you just say don't have anything to do with that

4 casters is the best strategy, but Kloe´s s-craft is far away to be useless

[SchwartZero]

Many may (or may not) know that the STR buff actually affects Art damage, and not just physical
damage. That's why Estelle's Morale craft is pretty useful!

It's also useful to boost Schera's speed with Clock Up EX and use Heaven's Kiss RIGHT before the boss's turn. That way, the boss won't have time to cancel out your allies synced art casting, and you will get your attack in first!

Many of the crafts really help, they're not there for show. There's much more to the gameplay than JUST casting Arts or spamming S-Breaks.

It's about combining these different elements.