Arts are worthless

[Syrin]

I boosted my main caster with every arts boosting quartz and accessory, and even with that, casting against a create with a double weakness to the element, the art BARELY did more damage that a regular low level craft from Rean or even just a normal attack. Complete waste of a system

[Wilq]

How far are you in the game :D ?

[Koby]

Eh, Musse with a good setup could easily out damage physical attackers with her Arts casting by double or even triple. Add in a great Brave Order and Arts easily becomes the best method for taking out many of the bosses quickly.

[Wilq]

Jusis with 0 delay after casting is also powerful.

[Bobucles]

Arts don't get strong. Arts get FAST. The trick is to use cast speed (for attacks) and cast delay(for support) boosts on magic. The latter is much easier to stack up, because the Tier 2 bells work for ALL spells.

With fast support casting, it's very easy to stack up a huge array of buffs and recover nearly instantly after any attack.

Rean's battle order drops cast speed to zero. It's still important to reduce delay, but a quick arts user can definitely spam out serious firepower in a short time.

[Syrin]

I will take your words for it. I am mid chapter 2 so Musse isn't part of my team yet. I will focus on speed and hope they improve over the course of the game because right now it is a waste of a turn

[Bobucles]

For chapter 2, look for Chrono Drive and Crescent Mirror. CD is dirt cheap and more speed is more everything. CM is a bit costly, but is a godly defense spell that covers nearly everything for one action. Impassion, Heat Up and La Forte are solid, quick support spells.

This guide is the best one I've seen for quartz. The top google search is kinda junky.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/204985-the-legend-of-heroes-trails-of-cold-steel-iii/faqs/78073/1st-period-combat-fundamentals

All the cast delay quartz has an upgraded version. No matter the flavor, the upgraded variant improves ALL cast reduction. Keep an eye out and grab it right away.

[Syrin]

Oh wow, I had no idea it affected all spells, and now I know what you mean by bell. I need to reconfigure and test. Thanks for the great tips

[Khorm]

1. Damage Arts are worthless in early game, but once you get access to better quartz in mid-late game you can build a machine gun wizards and do outragous amounts of damage without enemy even moving. 2 BP order + bell + master quartz with half spell delay.

2. Healing Arts are pretty much worthless for the whole game. Early Game to slow, late game you will end fights before you need them.

In the old game AoE Crafts were very rare so spell AoE was a must, but since Cold Steel its rare to find a Craft that does not have some AoE.

[Syrin]

Good points Khorn. And Bobucles, that guide is insane. So much info it can be overwhelming

[ph0ne (greatijedi)]

Late game but:
Stack Titania + Magius on your Arts Caster.
Stack every 30% damage bell you can.
Stack ATS boosting equipment on your Arts Caster. Alfin gives you one that grants a +200 ATS boost.
Mass produce toxic food that puts your character into near death on use.
When the battle starts, force feed your Arts Caster the near death food.
Have Rean cast Divine Song.
You now have 0-cast arts. Use the strongest, largest art you have.
Your EP gets restored by the massive damage you're doling out. Link your caster with Altina or Machias if you need a little extra EP.
Even on nightmare, most enemies should fall over by the time you send out your 4th art.

[qwerty]

Aside from -50% cast time SR quartz(diabolos gem or something like that) and -cast time elemental quartzs there are also accessory with -33% cast time. Even without Divine Song(or similar -cast time orders) any art can be used instantly or within 1-2 turns. Even on Nightmare specialized caster deals 10-20k aoe dmg or give your party phis\mag reflect and overall speed buffs.
Previous games(Liberl and Crossbell games) has oposite situation where crafts useless due to ridiculously low CP increase rate and you fight with arts most of the time with only 1 CP-specialized char wearing all posible CP increasing stuff.