When do you guys start "ditching" your starter monster?

[funkmonster7]

I'm trying out 3 of the 4 starters consecutively on three different playthrough, after accidentally overwriting my first save file on Eagle (oops). Currently playing Wolf, Eagle, Toad. (I checked out Lion and don't like him, I think.)

It's a bit of a pain to play the same thing three more times so, I wonder how important the starter is. Like, the general consensus is Toad is more useful over the whole course of the game, but I found that early on Toad has no means at all to purge debuffs, which makes the general consensus that "Toad is better" kind of false. Debuffs wrecked my team by level 20, and since none of the starters have debuff purging skills, it sounds to me that Eagle or Wolf might work better for me due to their burst damage (end fights before debuffs start affecting me hard). However, fighting against NPC in duels though, Eagle had a hard time because I can't burst enemies down that easily.

Also, I found that with Eagle, procuring eggs in earlier levels is easy as I just AOE everything in 0.33 turn, whereas Toad does have an AOE skill but given the way I skill him, I don't usually take the AOE skill.

But none of this really matters if the starter gets "swapped out" eventually... So I wonder, when do you guys swap it out (for something better)? By level 25, just before Horizon Beach (and just after Sun Palace), my Eagle was still in the main team.

[HeraldOfOpera]

From what I heard the last time this came up, the starters are deliberately designed so that you can use them all the way through endgame. I certainly did with Eagle, at least as far as the story goes.

[SmugLookingBarrel]

It's definitely possible to bring your starter through the entire game. You're correct that Toad is a healer while the other three are generally used for damage, and while debuffs are something Toad struggles with, using Toad to heal and buff, another monster to remove debuffs, and then a damage dealer, can be very effective.

[Noeat]

i was using Lion, Magmapillar and Vaero and for last bosses and postgame change Vaero for Arachlich. (and put there light Magmapillar instead of normal one.

it works nice, Lion and Magmapillar have nice synergy

[FrozenMoonsoul]

I didn't "ditch" mine (Spectral Wolf) in the first place. I ended up wanting to build both an Age and a Bleed team, and it fits in both, conveniently enough. I did swap it out for a couple of specific postgame champions temporarily, but it's always coming back if I don't need something else specifically.

[funkmonster7]

I guess my main issue is "does which starter makes any difference", as I found Grummy and Rocky make better healers for me than Toad. I'm currently using Eagle, and for some reason I'm having a harder time with him at Sun Palace, probably due to me slightly changing his skill build (less on crit, more on raw atk/mag). Instead, my Congeal team made up of Yowie, Frosty, Ice Snail works better, and I can even swap out Ice Snail for something else. (I'm only using Ice Snail to protect Frosty and cleanse debuffs.)

[Noeat]

Originally posted by funkmonster7:

I guess my main issue is "does which starter makes any difference", as I found Grummy and Rocky make better healers for me than Toad. I'm currently using Eagle, and for some reason I'm having a harder time with him at Sun Palace, probably due to me slightly changing his skill build (less on crit, more on raw atk/mag). Instead, my Congeal team made up of Yowie, Frosty, Ice Snail works better, and I can even swap out Ice Snail for something else. (I'm only using Ice Snail to protect Frosty and cleanse debuffs.)

isnt Toad tank/healer who even spread poison and even make poison stackable 3 times?

Protector Aura: Allied Monsters receive 7.5% less damage.
Extra Channel Aura: Whenever an allied Monster gains a non-Channel Buff, 12% chance they also gain Channel.
Multi Channel Aura: Channel can be stacked two additional times. Additional stacks are only half as strong.
Multi Poison Aura: Poison can be stacked two additional times. Additional stacks are only half as strong.
Channeling Support Unique Aura: Channel also improves all healing and shielding skills (active and passive) by 15%.

and then

Poison Glands When attacked, 50% chance to inflict Poison to the attacker.
Toxin Every hit has a 10% chance to apply Poison.
Toxic Feedback Heal for 5% of Max Health at the start of each turn for each Poison on enemies.
Weaken Every hit has a 10% chance to apply Weakness.
Healing Shield Healing skills (active and passive) also apply a Shield equal to 20% of the amount healed.
Warlock Healing For every heal applied, there is a 10% chance to apply Poison, Weakness or Armor Break to a random enemy.
Buffing Heal When applying a Buff, also heal the target by 50% of Magic.
Healing actions apply two random Buffs to the target. (Multi-Target-Heals apply one random Buff to each target)
Mystify When applying a Debuff, 50% chance to gain a random Buff.
Aging At the end of its turn, this Monster gains an Age stack.

Toad looks awesome just because its a tank what generate tons of buffs and debuffs, heal automatically self from debuffs on enemies (by 45 percent of max HP) and even can heal group

i was googling for you and find some nice teams, like
Toad Grulu Toxiqus or Toad, Fungi, Goblin Warlock
are you sure you use your toad right?

[funkmonster7]

I was just testing out Toad for the first 10-15 levels, I stopped using Toad for now and went back to Eagle (fresh start). I found out Eagle and Crackle Knight make for a deadly combo... Crackle Knight has a unique aura that makes any monster in my team remove debuffs on themselves (60% chance) when triggering Shock damage. And now all my monsters are at level 33 range, almost doesn't matter if Eagle is not suited against certain enemies now, as I'd just make a new team to fight — new teams freshen the experience so no big deal.

I'm pretty sure Toad is viable, I never said he's not. I just didn't like how he didn't have a means to purge debuffs but takes up the tank/healer spot.

Currently, my Rocky + Crackle Knight + Eagle is a rock solid team, Rocky handling all the debuff purging, Crackle Knight is virtually invincible, and Eagle wrecks everything. I specced Eagle into a crit + charge build as it does far more damage than raw atk/mag only. Because charge also builds from Shock damage crits, I can get 15 charge sometimes, and my Eagle is Dark-shifted (gives him a bit more base hp), and the two weapons I wield now give crit chance (main weapon) and some more raw dps and defense (cestus offhand). If I encounter enemies I can't beat easily with this team, I swap to the next trio, which is a Congeal/Bleed team, with Crystal Snail as the tank.

Basically, the best tanks I found so far aren't the ones with 25% chance to taunt, but the ones with protect, or even both (Thornish). If I get unlucky, my squishies can die if Taunt doesn't proc.

My main issue with Toad was his team was focused on slowly outlasting the enemy. It usually gets me a low score, which affects my drops (especially eggs). But now that I got Eagle and team to level 30+, I realized perhaps Toad isn't too different in a way... Because now instead of using Eagle to AOE bomb everything, I use Catzerker's Long Slash. I guess when it comes down to it, I can also use Tengu's aoe to farm shifted eggs — something I didn't know in my last playthrough.

Maybe next time I'll try Toad. Dunno... Keen to finish this run first.

[chairman_mentos]

Normally I ditch the starter monster out of the gate, but this game's starter monster I relied on, its very good.

[Judob0y]

i played with Lion, Blobby and vaero for 85% of the game (upgraded vaero tho)... then replaced blobby with king blob... and like the last zone i swapped vaero for vodinoy.

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

Toad kinda sucks for the first 10 levels since without any real synergies its just a weak elemental attacker with an above average movepool. Once you get down the tech tree though it starts becoming a debuff monster that also heals, recovers mana, buffs like mad, and has so many heal procs that it can build a fierce combo meter. Lots of monsters deal damage, none (admittedly debateable) support as well as the Toad.

[funkmonster7]

Originally posted by Super Cosmic Space Magnet:

Toad kinda sucks for the first 10 levels since without any real synergies its just a weak elemental attacker with an above average movepool. Once you get down the tech tree though it starts becoming a debuff monster that also heals, recovers mana, buffs like mad, and has so many heal procs that it can build a fierce combo meter. Lots of monsters deal damage, none (admittedly debateable) support as well as the Toad.

Thanks, great advice. I forgot about combo meter.