Who are you giving which herbs? If using any at all.

[TheRaienryuu]

Recently picked this game up, because I was interested in the combat. Enjoying it so far as well. But I noticed these Herbs in my inventory that boost stats. From what I've gathered online the boosts are permanent, but I can't decide what would optimal.

Im too early in the game I'd say to really know my endgame party setup (just recruited Law and about to smack a boss). So I'll probably save them for now. But I'm interested in what others are doing with their Herbs.

[marsHm311oW]

Use all on Alphen.

[Bun]

I agree. Or use it on the character you want to main. If you don't know then it's safest to buff Alphen.

[mono_sloth]

herbs?

*rolls up and takes a puff*

[Xengre]

All to Alphen to be honest.

Want to abuse his Reigning attack? Physical boost. Want to abuse his Flaming Attack? Magic attack boost. He has the highest damage/DPS in the game going either of these routes and can 1-3 shot post game bosses. Rinwell, as a magic user, is not a burst mage but a DPS supportive mage. Her damage is among the weakest of all magic casters in pretty close to the entire franchise, but she isn't bad and is more consistent / less babying than other characters so you still want her on your team (just disable her melee range skills or she will die a lot more).

Shionne needs didly. Best AI in the game, best at dodging enemy attacks and staying alive, her healing/revival don't scale off stats, and while her aerial wind gun based attack is great it is pointless compared to Alphen unless you want to main her for fun.

You could give Kisara defensive stuff if you want to make her even more unkillable. Be warned though, as this is your first time she wasn't properly designed and has no dodge mechanic like the others instead swapped for a block mechanic that um... doesn't actually reduce dmg until a significant number of upgrades (yup, that happened. the devs must have been doing drugs or not enough coffee). However, later as she gets some of her necessary tanky skills unlocked and the right equipment she becomes very close to unkillable (ex. a high level 30s Kisara can actually tank level 60 post game bosses). Note: Defensive food buffs are the best buffs in the game, which play very well with Kisara. Exp buffs don't do squat due to how exp scaling works in this game making them, literally I kid you not, worthless so don't use them. Offensive buffs are trash compared to actually saying alive.

If you want to make Law even more of a monster you could put the physical dmg herbs on him, especially as the most popular late game build for Alphen is magic attack for flaming skills (ironically, Alphen's flaming skills are so bad they're outright suicidal and a noob trap before you can craft custom accessories at which point they become the most OP thing in the game...). Law is arguably the 2nd best AI character after Shionne as he scales extremely well with his skill unlocks and the right skills set/disabled, counter attack custom accessory for bosses or penetration to perma juggle mobs (make both if you want, and swap as needed).

I wouldn't use jack on Dohalim unless you want to main him. A notoriously bad character thrown in last minute without proper tuning and design. His kit is quite problematic but can be made to work. However, he is quite inferior to basically every other character, especially if AI controlled... Also, no you would not benefit from having Shionne + Dohalim as a double healer comp. He simply can't keep up with Shionne's AI and how fast she can revive people making Dohalim waste tons of MP (or was it called TP here? I forget) for nothing. Same for healing and Shionne, late game has a map wide full heal anyways. Dohalim's AI is typically the most suicidal too, and he often gets locked in combos making him unresponsive as a healer.



In short, this is my advice about the herbs unless you specifically want to main someone other than Alphen.

[mono_sloth]

Originally posted by Xengre:

All to Alphen to be honest.

Want to abuse his Reigning attack? Physical boost. Want to abuse his Flaming Attack? Magic attack boost. He has the highest damage/DPS in the game going either of these routes and can 1-3 shot post game bosses. Rinwell, as a magic user, is not a burst mage but a DPS supportive mage. Her damage is among the weakest of all magic casters in pretty close to the entire franchise, but she isn't bad and is more consistent / less babying than other characters so you still want her on your team (just disable her melee range skills or she will die a lot more).

Shionne needs didly. Best AI in the game, best at dodging enemy attacks and staying alive, her healing/revival don't scale off stats, and while her aerial wind gun based attack is great it is pointless compared to Alphen unless you want to main her for fun.

You could give Kisara defensive stuff if you want to make her even more unkillable. Be warned though, as this is your first time she wasn't properly designed and has no dodge mechanic like the others instead swapped for a block mechanic that um... doesn't actually reduce dmg until a significant number of upgrades (yup, that happened. the devs must have been doing drugs or not enough coffee). However, later as she gets some of her necessary tanky skills unlocked and the right equipment she becomes very close to unkillable (ex. a high level 30s Kisara can actually tank level 60 post game bosses). Note: Defensive food buffs are the best buffs in the game, which play very well with Kisara. Exp buffs don't do squat due to how exp scaling works in this game making them, literally I kid you not, worthless so don't use them. Offensive buffs are trash compared to actually saying alive.

If you want to make Law even more of a monster you could put the physical dmg herbs on him, especially as the most popular late game build for Alphen is magic attack for flaming skills (ironically, Alphen's flaming skills are so bad they're outright suicidal and a noob trap before you can craft custom accessories at which point they become the most OP thing in the game...). Law is arguably the 2nd best AI character after Shionne as he scales extremely well with his skill unlocks and the right skills set/disabled, counter attack custom accessory for bosses or penetration to perma juggle mobs (make both if you want, and swap as needed).

I wouldn't use jack on Dohalim unless you want to main him. A notoriously bad character thrown in last minute without proper tuning and design. His kit is quite problematic but can be made to work. However, he is quite inferior to basically every other character, especially if AI controlled... Also, no you would not benefit from having Shionne + Dohalim as a double healer comp. He simply can't keep up with Shionne's AI and how fast she can revive people making Dohalim waste tons of MP (or was it called TP here? I forget) for nothing. Same for healing and Shionne, late game has a map wide full heal anyways. Dohalim's AI is typically the most suicidal too, and he often gets locked in combos making him unresponsive as a healer.



In short, this is my advice about the herbs unless you specifically want to main someone other than Alphen.

Nailed it. This game was pretty much made with the expectation that most players would just main Alphen/Main starting character by default. Most tales games are made that way I think.

edit: this game series is almost as old as Final Fantasy, the first game being tales of phantasia on super famicom. maybe one day we'll see the older games released on pc.