Orbment Builds

[Metus]

Hi all,

I have never really focused on Orbal builds, but I would like to start as I've seen someone tank/dodge all of the chp 1 bosses with no issues.

Whats a good way to learn on how to maximize orbs/builds?

[alicerinz]

Read item descriptions? They're pretty transparent

[Val the Moofia Boss]

A few build recommendations


=======================================

Dodge Counterattack

Counterattack builds are one of the strongest strats in the Cold Steel series, and it continues to hold true in CS3. Due to being able to equip two different MQs in CS3, this strat is possibly even more powerful than it was in CS2.

You get the Sirius master quartz at the beginning of the game, with it set as Kurt's default MQ. Sirius provides a passive stat increase to your evasion stat, starts off battle with the Insight buff (50%+ evasion), and boosts your counterattack damage (if a character dodges an attack and they are within attack range, they will counterattack).

Evasion works on a 0 to 100 scale. If your EVA stat is 56, then your dodge rate is 56%. If you have a dodge rate of 100%, you will dodge all incoming physical attacks (except boss S-crafts, which are undodgeable). Since the Insight buff grants you 50% evasion, you normally only need to get your EVA stat up to 50%, and then cast the Shining art on the character to give them the Insight buff, raising their evasion rate to 100%.

During the chapter 1 field exercise, you can buy an accessory called Green Pendulum for 3,000 mira from the boutique located inside the department store. You can then run to the antique store, and exchange that Green Pendulum and 20 U-materials for an item called an Evergreen, which boosts EVA by 15%. This is the most powerful evasion boosting accessory in the game. With two equipped, that's 30% evasion. With Pongee Shoes (+5% EVA), Evade 1 (+4% EVA), and a level 3 Sirius (+2% EVA), can have a 91% EVA rate during the chapter 1 field exercise. Once you reach chapter 2 and you can get Evade 2, you can pretty much cap your evasion.

Furthermore, there is a fire quartz you can get called Rage (it was called Wrath in CS2), which makes it so that your Counterattacks always crit. If you then equp the Gungir Master Quartz as your sub MQ (which increases your crit damage. This MQ was called Murakumo in CS2), you can turn your character into a powerhouse.

You will want to apply this strategy to a character with an attack range higher than 1. Kurt is not a good choice because his attack range is 1, so he will probably be out of range for most counterattacks. Altina is a good choice because her attack range is 3, so she will pretty much almost always be able to counterattack. Later on, Fie, Ash, and Gaius are good choices, as they have the range to pull it off.


=======================================

I am speed

For fast, physical attackers like Rean/Kurt/Fie

Simply equip Zephyr as your main MQ. Stack as much STR and delay as you can. Spam delay crafts. Your enemies will never get a turn. Even though bosses usually can't be delayed, this build is still great because it simply gives you so many turns.

Since you will be getting so many attacks in during battle, you can equip the Kaleido MQ (80% chance of getting sepith when you hit an enemy) as your sub to farm sepith.


=======================================

Rean clears trash battles in one single Gale

Sub in the Minotauros MQ on Rean (damage multiplied by 120% at level 7). Equip the Domination quartz (Rean's first attack is multiplied by another 100%). Stack as much STR as you can, and equip two Passionate Rouges (100+ STR accessories, you can get them as early as the chapter 1 field study by buying Red Pendulums from the Boutqiue in the department store, and then exchanging them along with 20 U-materials each at the antique store for a Passionate Rouge). When you begin a battle, simply have Rean use a Gale on the enemy and you will almost certainly kill every non-boss mob in one hit. If not, pop Spirit Unification beforehand and you will definitely kill everyone. Equip the Brigid MQ as your main so you can recoup CP.

If your dealing more than enough damage to kill everyone in one hit, you can swap out some accessories and quartz for things that increase loot, such as the Vein quartz (more sepith when killing an enemy) and the Stylish Piggy Bank (when killing an enemy, 50% chance for more loot).


=======================================

Status afflictions

This build works best on characters who have crafts that inflict status abnormalities (ie Machias), and/or have multiple quartz lines (Rean/Kurt/Gaius).

Equip the Thor MQ as the main and Gloom as the sub. For each quartz line, equip a status inflicting quartz (preferably one that stacks on the status condition the user's crafts inflict, increasing the chance of that condition being inflicted). Otherwise, stack SPD and STR.

During battle, spam AoE crafts that will inflict as many status conditions on as many enemies as possible. The Thor MQ will deal bonus damage to enemies with status conditions.


=======================================

Musse the arts nuker

This is very straightforward. Equip Virgo as the main MQ (arts can crit, reduced delay after casting water arts) and Magius as the sub (arts damage multiplied by up to 250% the less health you have). Equip Hades Gem (first art's damage is multiplied by 100%) and Ocean Bell (water arts deal 30% more damage and delay halved), and then stack as much ATS as possible. You'll want to intentionally lower Musse's health to around 20-30%, so she can get the most out of Magius' damage buff. However, this can be tricky because Musse will have low defense and hits will probably take a big chunk out of her health, and since you will probably be leveling up after every few battles, you will have to undergo the tedious process of trying to lower her health down again with killing her. If you find this process too bothersome, just replace the Magius MQ with Pandora (flat 100% arts damage increase).


=======================================

Berserker

For Agate/Gaius

Equip the Chevalier MQ as your main (increased damage as health drops), and the Tempest MQ as your sub (increased crit rate as health drops). This means your character will deal the most damage if their HP is around 10-20%. Stack as much HP, DEF, and STR as you can. At the end of the game, the average health of my party members was 7-8k and 900ish DEF, but my Gaius had 17k health and 1800 DEF. That means I can spam Wild Rage on Gaius three times and he will have about 1,700 health, but his DEF will keep him from dying. Proceed to wreck your enemies.

This build can be applied to anyone, but because leveling up refills your health and you level up often in this game, the process of trying to lower your characters health can be tedious. Agate and Gaius' wild rage is a quick and easy way to do it.

P.S: If you do not have Chevalier, suggestions for a main MQ are Skuld (more break damage, but with the sheer amount of damage being output by this build, you probably won't need more break damage), Gungnir (crit damage), or Keeper (for more survivability).


=======================================

Elliot the Nightmare Lord

Same deal as in CS2. Equp the Scorpio MQ on Elliot (crafts can inflict Nightmare). Stack nightmare quartz. Spam Nocturne Bell. Watch as your enemies fall asleep and don't wake up as you wail on them. Remember, Nocturne Bell is a magical craft, so it deals more damage with higher ATS, so stack your ATS. With your enemies asleep, you won't need to focus on healing (Elliot's Holy Song and S-craft should suffice), so feel free to equip another damage dealing quartz, like Gloom, as your sub.

[Metus]

@Val,
You, are a saint, and should be awarded the highest plot this side of the Plotland has even seen.

[Mistfox]

If you're not going to cheeze the game and want to play properly, characters with wide area skills are very good as status dispensers while those with small areas are "best" (more like, you got no choice but to use them like that) as mages or high damagers/breakers.

If you want to cheeze the game, well you know of the evade tanks already and you can also superstack break quartz to kneecap the enemy into uselessness. Rakan/Break3/Break2 on all of them is sufficient to put almost any enemy into a break state if combined with Sledgehammer, then you get a BP generating cycle with Windblade. The enemy won't even get a turn.

Then there is the Alpha strikers with either stacked 1st hit Arts or Crafts damage boost. With a tier 2 + 50% damage and a tier 3 +100% damage and the Cevalier/Minotaurous MQ combo (damage up when HP low + 100% damage increase for 1.5x delay) you're talking about a 475% damage increase on first strike if you keep that one person's HP low.

There are a few others but these are more or less the basics.

Edit: Val beat me to it lol.

[Metus]

follow up question, i am not looking to 'cheese' so to speak, rather I am trying to find a good build.

I was just tired of getting merked with no knowledge in orbs. So what would be a good way to learn how to do builds without 'cheesing' it?

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by Cyrus The Great:

follow up question, i am not looking to 'cheese' so to speak, rather I am trying to find a good build.

I was just tired of getting merked with no knowledge in orbs. So what would be a good way to learn how to do builds without 'cheesing' it?

As I said, if you don't want overpowered builds, just keep to the general format of "large AOE = status dispensers", "small/no AOE = mages or breakers". The format in CS3 at this point is such that specialized healers are not really needed.

Examples of such are Juna's Gemini Burst with a huge area coverage. Stacking her with debuffs means that a lot of the mobs she'll face are going to end up frozen/petrified/sleeping/blind etc. On the other hand, this won't really work with Musse since her skills don't cover a large area, so to compensate, you can either turn her into a mage to give her more AOE or a breaker sniper to focus on specific enemies. In short, what you turn them into actually depends more on what they are lacking.

[stm8022]

Where "good build" ends and "cheese" begins is largely in the eye of the beholder, though.

Generally speaking you just take a character, decide what role you want them to perform in the team (fast/slow, damage/utility, melee/caster, damage output/damage resistance) and assign them quartz pieces and gear which will bestow them skills and improve the stats suitable for this chosen role.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by stm8022:

Where "good build" ends and "cheese" begins is largely in the eye of the beholder, though.

So true.

Originally posted by stm8022:

Generally speaking you just take a character, decide what role you want them to perform in the team (fast/slow, damage/utility, melee/caster, damage output/damage resistance) and assign them quartz pieces and gear which will bestow them skills and improve the stats suitable for this chosen role.

Though care must be taken to see if they do fit into the role. For example, the previous point of Musse becoming a debuffer, her point target attacks makes her terrible at it and Eliot as a melee damager is not really.... fitting.

[stm8022]

Yes, i should've mentioned that what crafts the characters come with play a large part in what roles are optimal for them.

[butterbattle22]

The term min/max is probably also fitting here. As an answer to "how" to understand builds for RPGs in general, when looking at a character, there's an eternal debate of whether you should enhance their strongest traits or shore up their weakest traits. My experience is that you should usually play to a character's strengths i.e. if a character is the fastest character in the game, you should make them even faster. If a character hits the hardest in the game, make them hit even harder. If a character is the best healer in the game, make them an even better healer (although, note that I sorta agree with Mistfox's comment about healers in this game).

You do not put hp quartz in Fie because her hp her low. You put evasion quartz on her because her evasion is high. You do not strengthen Juna's arts because her arts are weak. You put break quartz on her because her ability to break is high.

[candlefume]

Originally posted by Mistfox:

If you're not going to cheeze the game and want to play properly, characters with wide area skills are very good as status dispensers while those with small areas are "best" (more like, you got no choice but to use them like that) as mages or high damagers/breakers.

If you want to cheeze the game, well you know of the evade tanks already and you can also superstack break quartz to kneecap the enemy into uselessness. Rakan/Break3/Break2 on all of them is sufficient to put almost any enemy into a break state if combined with Sledgehammer, then you get a BP generating cycle with Windblade. The enemy won't even get a turn.

Then there is the Alpha strikers with either stacked 1st hit Arts or Crafts damage boost. With a tier 2 + 50% damage and a tier 3 +100% damage and the Cevalier/Minotaurous MQ combo (damage up when HP low + 100% damage increase for 1.5x delay) you're talking about a 475% damage increase on first strike if you keep that one person's HP low.

There are a few others but these are more or less the basics.

Edit: Val beat me to it lol.

I'm pretty sure the tier 2 and tier 3 first attack quartz don't stack and the one higher on the list in quartz equipment will take priority.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by candlefume:

Originally posted by Mistfox:

If you're not going to cheeze the game and want to play properly, characters with wide area skills are very good as status dispensers while those with small areas are "best" (more like, you got no choice but to use them like that) as mages or high damagers/breakers.

If you want to cheeze the game, well you know of the evade tanks already and you can also superstack break quartz to kneecap the enemy into uselessness. Rakan/Break3/Break2 on all of them is sufficient to put almost any enemy into a break state if combined with Sledgehammer, then you get a BP generating cycle with Windblade. The enemy won't even get a turn.

Then there is the Alpha strikers with either stacked 1st hit Arts or Crafts damage boost. With a tier 2 + 50% damage and a tier 3 +100% damage and the Cevalier/Minotaurous MQ combo (damage up when HP low + 100% damage increase for 1.5x delay) you're talking about a 475% damage increase on first strike if you keep that one person's HP low.

There are a few others but these are more or less the basics.

Edit: Val beat me to it lol.

I'm pretty sure the tier 2 and tier 3 first attack quartz don't stack and the one higher on the list in quartz equipment will take priority.

I'll test it out.

Edit:
I think you're right, I replayed the stargazer fight with and without both of those on a stacked Rean and the damage was actually higher without the Lone Blade added to Domination. Rean's 7th Slash with Lone was only 53.6k damage while the one without Lone was 58k.

[ThanatosR]

Could be a little late to this party but Musse can also serve another role besides Water-Arts spamming. Although this won't be available until late-game/NG+ you can run Magius/Keeper on her at critical health. Magius has an error in the description for increasing Arts damage. It actually increases ALL magical damage sources, including crafts. And a second error is Musse's Cutie Bullet is Magical not Physical in damage formula. I found this strat from a guide somewhere and ran it. Combined with Glory Emblem to replenish CP I never had to worry about our dear green-haired noble getting KOed as Keeper kept the damage low and she was nuking in return. It's experimental but worth trying out.

[ping]

For me
Rean = tank (with Keeper) AoE DPS + status
Kurt = evade tank AoE DPS + status
Ash & Juna = breaker + status
Musse = heal + AoE arts with very fast delay
Altina = I don't know what to do with her, I put in sub most of the time

With Windblade or Accelerate pretty much all boss fights can be won without taking much damage. Just make sure to use Iron Will or other dmg reduction to tank their S-Craft.
Use Alisa when you're desperate (tanking 4 boss S-Craft, everyone dead, Alisa died twice then resurrect the others with Seraphic Ring)

[♡NeKO PriNCeSS♡]

Thank you Val and Mist these are very helpful and imag a must going into nightmare settings