Advanced Recruitment & Combo guide

Start planning your ultimate team to conquer Teora! Explore combos and unlock the true potential of every class!

Recruitment and planning your roster (light spoilers)

In this section I give some suggestions for players who haven't started the game which are relevant to roster planning.
Note, this section includes spoilers on who will join your party later!

Gender choice for non-story characters.

• Females get access to the Princess badge class which is primarily MND-based. It grants access to the Double Cast II passive , which allows casting of spells twice in a turn with no penalty (as opposed to the Druid's Double Cast which applies a 25% penalty to damage and healing for each spell). So females are better spellcasters.
  
• Males get access to the Lord badge class which is primarily melee ATK. It grants access to the Cleave passive which gives an immediate extra turn after defeating an enemy. While Cleave is useful to both spell-casters and martial characters, note that you don't get another 10 mana at the start of your immediate extra turn. So Cleave generally works better for ATK characters (be it melee or ranged). On that basis, males are better warriors.
  
• With that in mind, we need to talk about Virgil , the starting wizard you're given by default. Virgil is male, and he's a spell-caster. He's never going to be able to learn Double Cast II. So there's reason to kick him out and replace him with a female recruit.
  If you really want to keep Virgil there's a few ways to make a male spell-caster worthwhile:
  a) Use Virgil as a spellcaster with Cleave.
  Tricky, since although he gets an extra turn after killing an enemy, he won't get an extra 10 mana at the start of this extra turn as he normally would. Blood Magic (from Lich) can help take care of this issue.
  b) Use Virgil as a buffer/debuffer
  The main difference between Double Cast from Druid and Double Cast II from Princess is the damage/healing penalty. But what if the spell your are casting has no damage/healing? Then Double Cast II is irrelevant.
  c) Virgil primarily uses the Gadgeteer and/or Vessel badge class skill set.
  The abilities from the Gadgeteer and Vessel are not considered spells, and hence cannot be double-cast anyway. So who cares if Virgil cannot double-cast?
  It's up to you if you'd like to keep Virgil or kick him out in favor of a female recruit who may have access to the Double Cast II passive.

Story characters who join later (slight spoilers)

• In rough order (where Battle indicates story battles and not patrols), future characters who may join your party include:
  1) (After Battle 1) Reiner, a high SPD Scoundrel. Story class: very unusual but balanced
  2) (After Battle 11) Yates, high MND mage. Story class: powerful healing but not reviving, casts dark magic.
  3) (After Battle 18) Bzaro, high anything. Does not learn any standard classes. Can completely change statistics to fit any role except ranged ATK. Optional.
  4) (After Battle 31) Katja, high SPD rogue. Story class: Assassin which favors guns, knives and spears.
  5) (After Battle 37) Kairu, Balanced ATK/MND. Story class: Warrior/mage which favors swords and AoE damage. Hidden.
  
  
• Assuming you collect them all, including Kyrie (Balanced ATK/MND) and Anadine (High ATK), you will eventually have:
  a) 1 High ATK tank (Anadine)
  b) 2 Balanced ATK/MND warrior/mages (Kyrie & Kairu)
  c) 2 High SPD rogues (Reiner and Katja)
  d) 1 High MND squishy mage (Yates)
  e) 1 flex (Bzaro)

Example recruitment plan

• I like to field 2-2-2; That's 2 Warriors (ATK or ATK/MND melee with good survivability), 2 Rogues (SPD and mobility to take out/disable priority targets. Can be melee or ranged), and 2 Mages (MND spells which provide AoE or support).
  Alternative party compositions could include:
  a) 3-3; 3 Front-liners, 3 Back-liners
  b) 1-4-1; 1 Tank, 4 DPS, 1 Healer
  ... and so forth. It's up to you. How you plan to field units affects how you should plan your roster.
  
  
• Early on, we'd have:
  a) 2 Warriors (Kyrie & Anadine)
  b) 1 Rogues (Reiner)
  c) 2 Mages (Virgil & Lana)
  
  
• Because I field 2-2-2 (Tank, Rogue, Mages), early on I want to have a roster of at least 3 people in each role. That way I have an extra if someone is injured. I decided to keep Virgil with plans of making him a Vessel later.
  
  So I recruit 1 male Mercenary, recruit 2 male Scoundrels, and recruit 1 female Mender.
  After recruitment I'd have:
  a) 3 Warriors (Kyrie, Anadine, 1 Mercenary)
  b) 3 Rogues (Reiner, 2 Scoundrels)
  c) 3 Mages (Virgil, Lana, 1 Mender)
  
  
• Later on I want 4 in each role. Conveniently, the additions later on from story characters line up with that plan:
  a) 4 Warriors (Kryie, Anadine, 1 Mercenary, Kairu)
  b) 4 Rogues (Reiner, 2 Scoundrels, Katja)
  c) 4 Mages (Virgil, Lana, 1 Mender, Yates)
  d) 1 Flexible (Bzaro)
  for a total of 13 members in my roster.
  If you want more, go ahead and add as needed. There's an argument for more warriors who may get injured more often (depending on your style of play).
  
  
• Do note that if you want to experience the badge classes, you'll need to manage the recruits so that I have at least one recruit who meets each of the following requirements:
  a) Werewolf; Mercenary 4
  b) Vampire; Scoundrel 6, Alchemystic 3
  c) Lich; Plague Doctor 4, Sorcerer 6
  d) Vessel; Mender 5, Wizard 5
  e) Princess Mender 7, Female Character
  f) LordTemplar 6, Male Character
  
  I planned for 6 non-story characters, and conveniently 1 of them is a Tank (good for Lord), 2 of them are Rogues (good for Vampire and Werewolf), and 3 of them are mages (good for Lich, Vessel, and Princess). In reality though Not all the badge classes are really worthwhile using anyway, in my opinion. So I'd grab passives from more than one of the badge classes and mix and match as necessary.
  
  Alternatively, you could meet the requirements for the multiple badge class on the same character if I wanted to play with them all. Which is exactly what happened in my playthrough. You may even touch one of the badge classes briefly just to grab a tasty passive ability.
  

Leveling tips 1: Game Mechanics & Guidelines

Let's establish the ground rules for leveling up our characters in order to reduce grind.

Game Mechanics on leveling:

• Characters gain EXP and thus Levels from taking actions in battles. Gaining Levels while in a certain class grants that class's stats growth.
  
• Characters gain AP in a class and thus learn abilities and Class levels from that class by being fielded in battle.
  
• You can also gain AP while benched in a class. However you will not gain EXP while benched and thus will not gain that class's stat growth.

The thing is, you really want to level up in a class whose stats growth you like for that character's role. But you also might want to learn abilities and passives from a class whose stats growth you don't want for that character. You'll want to earn AP without EXP for classes whose abilities you want but dislike the stats growth for.

My guidelines for leveling:

• Level up in a character up in a class which you like the stat growth for and is on the way to your desired passives and skill sets.
  
• While benched, change to a class you want to gain AP for but don't want the stat growth for.

Follow these two simple rules, and you won't go wrong with developing your character's stats.

Based on first rule, it's generally okay to level up in classes which have similar stats distribution.
Therefore, it's important to know which classes have similar stats distribution (see next section).

Example
Although I don't want Kyrie to use the Assassin skillset, I want Kyrie to learn the Dual Wield passive from Assassin. I decide that I like the stat distribution for Assassin and plan to field Kyrie as an Assassin in battles so that she gains AP in Assassin faster.
Before I can level Kyrie as an Assassin however, I need Gunner 4 to meet the requirement for Assassin. However I hate the stats growth for Gunner. So whenever Kyrie is benched, I make it a point to change Kyrie's class to Gunner so that she gains AP in Gunner without having to level up as a Gunner.

If I can tolerate grind, I can field Kyrie in extremely low level Battle map (Crossroads will always be low level, regardless of difficulty settings) and refuse to take any actions which grant EXP with her. That way Kyrie will gain good AP, but not EXP.

As a last resort if I mess it up, there's always resetting Kyrie's level back to level 1 and starting over after I have gotten collected all the AP I wanted.

Where is the best map to grind levels/AP?
For AP only, Crossroads and other low level maps.
For Levels & AP, Phougamouth Bogs is probably the fastest to clear due to the sheer number of enemies who can't swim and convenient ways to dunk them in water. Lava levels like Devilsblood Ascent work well too if you're leveling up Assassins with hover boots.

Leveling tips 2: Stat groups

For the purpose of fielding troops, I named three main roles: Warriors, Rogues, and Mages.
HOWEVER. For the purposes of leveling, the most important issue is having similar stats. So we have to group together classes which have good stats for a role. I define 4 broad categories for stat groups based on the role:

• Warriors
  HP, DEF, ATK
  
  

  Class	HP	DEF	ATK	HP+DEF+ATK
  Demon Knight	8	3.25	6	17.25
  Mercenary	8	4	4.5	16.5
  Knight	7.5	5	4	16.5
  Reaver	8	2.75	5.5	16.25
  Lord	7	4.25	4.5	15.75
  Duelist	7	3.5	5	15.5
  Marked	7	3.25	5	15.25
  Fellblade	7	3.5	4.75	15.25
  Plague Doctor	7.5	4	3.75	15.25
  Gunner	6.5	4.25	4.5	15.25
  Templar	7	3.5	4.5	15
  Gadgeteer	7	4	4	15

  
  Melee front-liners should have the stats to take hits and deal out hits. So they need HP, DEF, and ATK.
  
  
• DPS and HPS
  SPD, ATK/MND
  
  

  Class	SPD	ATK	SPD*ATK
  Assassin	1.47	4.25	6.25
  Werewolf	1.1	5.5	6.05
  Bounty Hunter	1.37	4.25	5.82
  Vampire	1.33	4.25	5.65
  Gambler	1.2	4.5	5.4
  The Exiled	1.13	4.75	5.37
  Spymaster	1.25	4.25	5.31
  Duelist	1.05	5	5.25
  Warmage	1.13	4.5	5.09
  Marked	1	5	5
  Ranger	1.25	4	5

  
  

  Class	SPD	MND	SPD*MND
  Princess	1.08	5.75	6.21
  Alchemystic	1.33	4.25	5.65
  Warmage	1.13	4.75	5.37
  Spymaster	1.25	4.25	5.31
  Vessel	0.83	6.25	5.19
  Assassin	1.47	3.5	5.145
  Bounty Hunter	1.37	3.75	5.14
  The Exiled	1.13	4.5	5.09
  Anatomist	1	5	5

  Veterans of Final Fantasy know that SPD is a very valuable stat. But how valuable? At least for damage and healing roles, it's value is multiplicative in nature. The proportion of additional SPD translates to the proportion of additional turns to do damage. So multiply the SPD growth by the growth in the relevant damage/healing stat to get the added value of each level up in that class.
  
  Buffers and debuffers will want SPD alone.
  
  He's a bit of math to show what I mean. Compare the stats of the Gadgeteer and the Scoundrel (look it up).
  If you add up all the values other than speed, the Gadgeteer has 25.5 and the Scoundrel has 23. However, if you weigh the values of ATK and MND by their respective speeds, the Gadgeteer has 25.5 and the Scoundrel has 25.66 (from 6.5+2.5+3.5*1.38+3.5+3.5*1.38+3.5=25.66), which is much closer in value.
  
  
• Battle Mages
  ATK, MND, SPD

Class	ATK	MND	SPD	SPD Weighted DW+IE
Assassin	4.25	3.5	1.47	18.67
Vampire	4.25	4.25	1.33	18.09
Bounty Hunter	4.25	3.75	1.37	17.81
Spymaster	4.25	4.25	1.25	17
The Exiled	4.75	4.5	1.13	16.84
Warmage	4.5	4.75	1.13	16.61
Alchemystic	3.5	4.25	1.33	16.09
Werewolf	5.5	3	1.1	16.06
Gambler	4.5	3.5	1.2	15.84
Scoundrel	3.5	3.5	1.38	15.456
Marked	5	4.5	1	15.4
Ranger	4	3.5	1.25	15.25
Lord	4.5	4.25	1.08	15.23

This is a bit more complicated. You want to know who hit hardest with the Dual Edge + Infused Edge combo, don't you? (see the section on Combos) Well, you should. The formula for the last column is "SPD weighted DW+IE" = SPD*(2*ATK+1.2*MND). Constant multiplier of 2 for ATK because we hit twice with DW. Constant modifier of 1.2 for MND because that's the modifier for the Warmage's bolt spells. Whole thing multiplied by SPD, of course.

BTW, if you don't care about SPD then the top 10 best at the DW+IE combo are Demon Knight, Vessel, Marked, Lich, The Exiled, Fellblade, Warmage, Werewolf, Lord, Reaver.

Building by Role 1: Warriors

In general, when choosing a build for a character, we need to consider:

• Primary class
  The Primary Class determines stat growth, primary ability set, two passives, and equipment allowed
  
• Subclass
  The subclass determines a second ability set
  
• Custom Passives
  Two passive abilities can be taken from any class
  
• Counter ability
  Counter abilities can be taken from any class
  
• Equipment (not pictured)

----------
Warriors

Warriors are your front-line units. Their primary role is to engage the main bulk of enemy forces to draw fire away more fragile units. The AI will target units that are within range rather than take a turn walking towards priority units. So by stepping forward, hopefully your warriors will draw away most of the enemy fire. (But not ALL! Don't expect a single warrior to be able to withstand all the enemy attacks! That's part of the drawback of positioning your other units TOO far away.)

Anyway, point being. The warriors are going to need to be tough enough to take a lot of punishment, yet they should be proactive while fighting the enemies themselves. That's why I had prioritized stat growths of HP, DEF, and ATK.

So when building a warrior, we should prioritise:

• Primary class
  Should have good HP, DEF and ATK growth, melee focused ability set, melee weapons, heavy armor.
  These include Demon Knight, Mercenary, Knight, Lord, Marked, and Templar.
  There's also an argument for Plague Doctor, Reaver and The Exiled (who I consider more of a Rogue/DPS role).
  
  
• Subclass
  Actually, there are a lot of options here. A lot of the best stuff is close range. Oddly, even some support and debuff, say from the Plague Doctor or Gadgeteer, has quite short range.
  Try to balance out your build a bit with abilities which don't replicate what the primary class offers.
  Duelist is a top-tier for increasing your damage potential for warriors. 1.5x damage elemental attacks with a chance of status effects for no mana cost? Where do I sign up? Duelist is best paired up with Primary classes which also have a single target nuke to use all that mana they saved (see combo section on Cleave).
  Knight provides a lot of very useful defensive and even offensive abilities. Defend almost guarantees your warrior will survive diving very deep into the fray. Protect can help save a teammate. Defensive hit is great in emergencies. Heavy Hit is pretty effective opening attack from a tank. Rebirth in emergencies.
  Reaver has a lot of useful offensive abilities, including short ranged attacks and AoE.
  Warmage practically has it's own section due to an infamous combo (see Combo section on Dual Wield + Infused Edge). Warmage is always a great consideration for warriors with good MND growth who want to do more damage.
  Gunner may be better than Fellblade in some ways if you want debuffs, but both are good options.
  
  
• Custom Passives
  If your Primary class doesn't have defensive passives, try using a few defensive passives here to balance them out. Unless you have a specific combo in mind.
  Health Expert is boring but practical. 25% more health means 25% more toughness, no questions asked. Hard to top that. It also works well with Reaver due to the way Desperate Blow works.
  Fortitude is also interesting option for Reavers to prevent injuries from high risk play. But really, isn't roster your big enough to handle a few injuries?
  Sturdy grip isn't worth much in the early game because shields aren't that great early on. Later on however...
  Life Font is useful if you move around a lot to top of your tanks.
  No flank is very useful. Not only does it protect your tank from additional damage, it means enemies won't bother circling around your tank to hit for more damage. That means the won't come closer to your back-line.
  BTW, sometimes it's better NOT to target enemies from behind with your warriors and instead form a human wall that the enemies cannot run past. In that case, you won't really need No Flank.
  Defence expert is a great choice if you're stacking defence and have Knight as a Primary class or subclass because of Defensive Hit.
  Cleave has it's own combo section.
  
  
• Counter ability
  Often, you should set your counter ability based on the enemies you are facing.
  Counterattack is always nice, of course. A good counter against melee enemies with great SPD.
  Evade Magic (from Fellblade) is usually the Gold Standard (unless there are no enemy spellcasters or you're using a specific combo). Think about it. If enemy mages can't target your tanks, they will run right past the front-lines to get at your back-liners. That makes them sitting ducks. Saves you the effort of sending in your own deep into enemy controlled territory.
  Of course, the fact that you're wearing Heavy Armor which has low RES makes a strong case for Evade Magic.
  Evade skill is extremely useful as it negates all the big single target nukes (see Combo section on Cleave)
  Evade attack is the counter against all those Dual Wield enemies.
  Critical: Rebirth is particularly useful for warriors with Fortitude.
  Mystic shield would have been REALLY nice. But is probably too far out of reach.
  
  
• Equipment
  Heavy armor is pretty important. Using light armor is a tricky choice - better left for your DPS roles. as your it's probably good to have a few defensive passives. A dead character has a DPS of zero, after all. So sure, level up as a Reaver. But you'd better build very carefully to make up for the Reaver's lack of defences. If you like the Reaver's ability set, consider using Reaver as a subclass instead.

Building by Role 2: Rogues

Rogues are typically less focused on soaking damage and more focused on dealing damage. Or putting out important conditions that debilitate enemies. Rogues are your best source of ranged combat, ranged weapons having longer reach than spells. But melee rogues can be very effective too, if more risky.

Ranged rogues are also able to pick-off priority targets, say that enemy Mender who keeps healing the enemy party. Placing important conditions on enemies (say, Mute on the enemy Mender) can change the course of the battle.

Melee rogues however can bring a lot more damage to the playing field due to the back attack mechanic. Melee rogues using daggers are also more adept at piling on numerous conditions on powerful enemies which don't die so quickly. A lot of folks build their so-called tanky warriors like melee rogues for the purpose of killing everything quickly. It's a fun way to play, especially if you have a big roster for injuries.

To do their job well, rogues typically need a lot of SPD. Rogues seeking to do damage will also need decent ATK or MND, or both.

So when building a Rogue, we should prioritise:

• Primary class
  Should have good SPD and ATK growth, damage/debuff focused ability set.
  Ranged rogues include Assassin, Bounty Hunter, Vampire, Spymaster, Ranger, and yes the Scoundrel too.
  Melee rogues include those as well as Werewolf, Gambler, Duelist, Warmage and perhaps The Exiled.
  Gunners deserve a special mention here: their skill set and base passives are good for ranged debuffing. But their SPD is bad, something a debuffer sorely needs. So I'd argue that Gunners are not suitable as a Primary but far better to be used as a Secondary Class. If you want to use guns, there's Vampire, Bounty Hunter and Spymaster.
  Fellblades suffer from the same issue. Fellblades, being primarily melee debuffers, really want good speed. But their SPD is poor. So use them as a secondary class.
  
  
• Subclass
  We just talked about Gunners and Fellblades. Gunners are the better pick for ranged, Fellblades for melee.
  If you're not using Ranger as a Primary class, it's also a top pick for a Secondary class. Espcially if you're fighting a lot of monsters. Ranger has the biggest single target nuke in the game, Sniper shot, with a whopping 3.6x damage modifier. Rooting shot however will likely see the most use.
  Assassin is the better pick against a lot of humans. Conveniently, assassin also has a single target nuke to dump all your mana in. One thing only the assassin has is the Sabotage ability; fantastic for dumping enemies who can't swim into water (or lava if you have hover boots).
  Warmage is going to be a top pick for gun users as well as melee rogues (see Combos section on Dual Wield + Infused Edge)
  Knight is discussed for All-for-one in it's own Combo section as well.
  Peddler is a bit different; main benefit is to support mages.
  
  
• Custom Passives
  MOAR offensive powah!
  Attack expert is surprisingly decent, even at higher levels. Even more so when dual wielding weapons.
  Malice is great for rogues who use Gunner.
  Know weakness I&II from Ranger, and Werewolf/Bounty Hunter respectively are great choices for certain builds which use regular attacks or skills that count as regular attacks (Fellblade, Scoundrel, see Combo sections for more).
  Concentration is the best counter for high evasion enemies.
  Execute from Vampire and Marked is great for Collecting Pelts and Trophies from enemies which rebirth themselves.
  Item Potency is a bit different: the main benefit is to support a mage with Mana Stone.
  Cleave is really really nice, but probably out of reach. Less important on high speed Rogues anyway. (see Combo section on Cleave)
  
  
• Counter ability
  Again, you should set your counter ability based on the enemies you are facing.
  Countershot is always nice. It ensures you win a ranged firefight. Counterattack, less so.
  Evade Magic (from Fellblade) is decent, but not such a big issue for ranged rogues who outdistance mages.
  Evade attack is the counter against all those Dual Wield enemies.
  Evade skill is probably best, as those big single target nukes are incredibly deadly against Rogues (see Combo section on Cleave).
  Condition counters, especially Cripple, Mute, Root, are all consistent and great choices, especially in condition focused parties (see Combo section on Condition Stacking). Bleed works well if you have a Vampire in the party (at least in theory. He's probably too busy shooting guns from afar)
  Mystic shield would have been REALLY nice. But is probably too far out of reach.
  
  
• Equipment
  You probably don't need help here. Pile on the damage! But do give SPD and Crit boosting items a try too. If you have greater SPD, more ATK gives more benefit. If you have more ATK, more SPD gives more benefit. Also, while movement is king, sometimes jump, fly or hover can be more important to melee rogues to get around the enemy.

Building by Role 3, Mages

Most of the best support skills come from the spell casters (for our intents and purposes, consider the Gadgeteer as a mage). The best healing abilities are MND based. So it's important to build mages to be able to support the rest of the party. So I like to be especially careful with how I build mages.

Our list of dedicated spell casters are: Mender, Wizard, Plague Doctor, Alchemystic, Gadgeteer (sort of), Druid, Sorcerer, Vessel (sort of), Lich, Princess, Anatomist.

Here are some of the different things mages should try to offer with their combination of primary class and secondary skill set, in order of importance:
1) Healing
2) Debuff removal (depends on stage of the game)
3) Buffs
4) Damage
5) Revive & Rebirth

So out of our dedicated spell-casters, who has which spells?

1) Healing

• Mender
  
• Plague Doctor
  
• Gadgeteer
  
• Druid
  
• Vessel
  
• Princess
  
• Anatomist

2) Debuff removal

• Mender (All)
  
• Anatomist (All)
  
• Plague Doctor (Poison, Bleed, Blind, Mute, Cripple, Sleep, Weaken)
  
• Druid (Poison, Bleed, Blind, Root, Mute, Cripple, Sleep, Berserk, Charm)
  Note: Slow is also removed by casting Haste. Root can also be removed with Fleet of Foot.

3) Buffs

• Alchemystic (DEF Up, RES Up, Haste, Barrier, Renew, MND Up)
  
• Gadgeteer (ATK Up & MND Up, Haste, Renew, Thorns)
  
• Druid (DEF Up & RES Up)
  
• Princess (Quicken)
  
• Plague Doctor (Thorns)

4) Damage
All except Mender

5) Revive & Rebirth

• Mender (Revive & Rebirth)
  
• Princess (Revive)
  
• Gadgeteer (Rebirth)

Here are some sample Primary/Secondary combinations which embody this Swiss Army Knife philosophy:

• Princess/Druid
  Provides Healing, Debuff removal, Buffs and Damage. Dispel too.
  
• Plague doctor/Gadgeteer
  Provides Healing, Debuff removal, and Buffs, but pretty light on the Damage. Lots of debuffs and dispel too. Note that both skill sets are relatively close range. So using the heavily armored Plague Doctor as the primary class is advised
  
• Alchemystic/Anatomist
  Provides Healing, Debuff removal, Buffs and Damage
  
• Vessel/Mender
  Provides Healing, Debuff removal and Damage. Quite a bit more damage focused.

You may have noticed I prioritized abilities over stat growth for my mages. If you want to prioritize using Primary Classes with good stat growth in MND weighted by SPD, then in descending order the highest MND*SPD growth are Princess, Vampire, Alchemystic, Warmage, Spymaster, Vessel, Assassin, Bounty Hunter, The Exiled, Anatomist, Druid and Scoundrel.

If you want to prioritize Primary Classes with good stat in MND and don't care about SPD, then in descending order the highest MND growth are Lich, Vessel, Princess, Sorcerer, Anatomist, Wizard, Warmage, The Exiled, Druid, Marked, Mender, Fellblade, Vampire, Alchemystic, Spymaster, Lord, Plague Doctor and Gadgeteer.

Note that the Lord, Gambler and Peddler has some powerful support skills. They will be discussed in the individual sections in Class In-depth.

*Phew!* That covers the Primary and secondary class considerations. Let's look at the rest.

• Custom Passives
  Mana tricks, mostly. You'll want Double Cast or Double Cast II. However, realistically you'll need some passive or counter ability support, or someone else to drop Mana Stones on your mages.
  Mana font is always good. So is Blessed One, for healers.
  Economy is a top pick, of course.
  Mana expert is slightly better for early battle buffing purposes.
  Talking about early battle buffing, Initiative has it's own Combo section.
  So does Blood Magic, which is too complicated to cover here.
  
  
• Counter ability
  I'll keep saying it: you should set your counter ability based on the enemies you are facing.
  Magic, unlike Counterattack and Countershot, is rarely used. How often will enemy mages come so far forward that they target your mages with magic? Even worse, why would they target your mages which generally have high resistance? Enemy Sorcerers and Liches with their global spells however make the Magic counter pretty valuable.
  Evade Magic (from Fellblade) is a bad choice. Your mages have high Res generally.
  Evade attack is the counter against all those Dual Wield enemies, as usual.
  Evade skill is probably best out of the evades, as those big single target nukes are incredibly deadly (see Combo section on Cleave). But it's too far out of reach.
  Condition counters, especially Root (and in a way, Teleport Other. But are you really making Reiner a mage?), are consistent and great choices, especially in condition focused parties (see Combo section on Condition Stacking).
  Absorb Mana is almost obligatory if you're using the Double cast passive.
  Mystic shield, while available to mages and a top choice to mitigate damage, is actually quite harmful. You need your mana. Unless you're depending on Blood Magic.
  
  Equipment:
  Staff or Rod? If you have a choice, the staff is the better choice for staying away from the front-lines and reaching allies who went deep into enemy territory but need healing. As soon as you start crafting Prism Rods however, that huge leap in MND is hard to pass up.

Combos 1: Dual Wield + Infused Edge

Let's address the elephant in the room.

Yes, the Dual Wield passive (from Assassin) used in conjunction with the Infused Edge skill (from Warmage) is one of the strongest combos in the game. Essentially you hit with each weapon, then finish with a spell. This is a monster damage combo - not the strongest (see the section on Cleave combos) - but the easiest to pull off consistently. After all, characters gain 10 mana at the beginning of their turn and Infused Edge used to cast a Bolt costs 4+6=10 exactly. Total modifiers are 2xATK and 1.2xMND, or about 3.2x. So it hits as hard as a single target nuke (like Righteous Blade's 2.8x for 24 mana, or Sniper Shot's 3.6x for 36 mana) for a fraction of the cost.

Mind you, Infused Edge is one of the select few skills which interacts with Dual Wield in this manner. The only other active skill which allows both damaging hits from Dual Wield is One-for-all (which has it's own section in this guide).

For ranged, you have to use guns as they're the only one handed weapons (Sure you COULD use Sturdy Grip and Dual Wield to use two bows, but folks like the range of guns). Other than using the Equip All as a custom passive, that generally means Gunner, Bounty Hunter, Vampire. ALL of these classes have good stats for the combo, but the Vampire, Bounty Hunter and Spymaster excel (see the section on Stat groups).

For melee, well. You're probably going to end up dumping this combo on almost everyone. That's how powerful it is. Anyone with high ATK and semi-decent MND is a good candidate, regardless of SPD. It's even worthwhile on classes with mediocre MND growth like the Werewolf and Duelist (but I would recommend something else for Duelist, see Class In-Depth section on Base classes).

Check out the section on stat groups for more notes on which base classes have the best stats for Dual Wield + Infused edge.

In case you're interested, here's a list of interesting spells to consider combining with Infused Edge:

• Wizard: elemental Locus spells
  
• Lich and Anatomist: Dark Locus
  
• Princess: Holy Locus
  
• Druid: Bleed, Dispel
  
• Plague Doctor: Poison, Weaken, Slow
  
• Fellblade: Health Siphon, Miasma
  
• Gambler: Allure (Charm)

Unfortunately, Marked abilities are considered SKILLS, not spells, and so cannot be added to Infused Edge.

BTW, Reiner can inflict the Charm status with a gun. Can you figure out how? Any non-story character can do it too, but Reiner has two different builds which can use this combo.
Try to avoid charming more than one enemy at a time however since Charmed enemies can hurt each other and thus break Charm.

Combos 2: Cleave

So is there a combo which does more damage than Dual Wield + Infused Edge? Of course! Two in fact, one for single target nuking and one for mass nuking (see Blood Magic). Let's talk about the highest single target nuking combo.



Repeat after me: There is no such thing as overkill.
Anadine was fresh out of killing the final boss of the game when I took this screenshot. She had 538 ATK at the time, level 45. And yes, that's a zombie summoned by Yates for the convenience of setting up this screenshot.
Realistically, I was seeing numbers of about 800-1.2k throughout the game. My Lord/Templar did 780 damage to the final boss while the boss was still enjoying some damage reduction. Lots of fun.

Basic combo: Cleave + Boon
Advanced: + Scythe
Extreme: + Exploit weakness
FALCON PUNCH!!!: + Single Target Nuke Attack (egs. Templar's Righteous blade)

• Cleave: (from Demon Knight, Lord) Character gets another turn after felling an enemy (once per natural turn). MP gained on the extra turn is 0. Does not trigger if the target has Rebirth.
  
• Boon: (from Wizard) Upon felling an enemy, the character will be guaranteed Critical Hit on their next action. Boon will wear off at the end of the next turn even if it wasn't used. (Note: affects skills and spells)
  
• Exploit weakness: (from Scoundrel) Increases Critical Hit damage by 50%.
  
• Scythe: Increases Critical Hit damage by 25%.

Only two classes can have all three passives and a Scythe: Demon Knight and Lords.

There are a number of single target nukes skills in the game, that is abilities which have a high multiplier (about 3x) but often use a lot of mana. Often times these can take out an enemy by itself, after which Cleave activates and then you can take out another enemy with a regular attack. Sometimes though, you just want to see big numbers.

Here's a list of potential candidates who have single target nukes, in descending order of damage:

• Ranger: Sniper Shot
  Deals 3.8x Physical (ATK) damage to the target, but will inflict Root on the character. (36 mana) (Note: Sapphire Earring will take care of Root)
  
• Templar: Righteous Blade
  Deals 2.8x Holy (ATK) damage to the target. (24 mana)
  
• Demon Knight (Anadine) : Wrathful blade
  Deals 3x Dark (ATK) damage to the target. Also damages the character by 1/4 of their current HP. (24 mana)
  
• Assassin: Assassinate
  Deals 2.8x Physical (ATK) damage to the target from a distance and has a 50% chance of inflicting Poison, Bleed, Blind. (24 mana)

Characters with single target nukes can quickly start their Cleave chain with mana support from Mana Stone(s) or Energizer (from Gadgeteer). The Templar can also Siphon mana from enemies.

Not interested in overkill?
While single target nukes are great for starting Cleave/Boon chains, it's not very pragmatic. Pragmatically, you don't benefit from overkilling everything. Once you've got the Cleave/Boon chain going, the Demon Knight's Enraged Blow (1.6x modifier) or the Duelist's skills (1.55x modifier with element) are sufficient for doing 400-600 damage to enemies; enough to kill most non-bosses.

Cleave works especially well with low base speed characters (*cough* Demon Knight *cough*). Deleting another enemy right after making a kill is extremely powerful, and if given another turn (*cough* Quicken *cough*) the Cleaver will probably delete another two enemies thanks to the way boon works. At which point the fight is over.

Not just Demon Knight and Lords
Having said that however, Cleave is a great passive for any martial character. Getting a free turn after downing an enemy is a huge benefit, even for a ranged Rogue who does not have Boon. Boon isn't so good with Dual Wield + Infused Edge anyway since Boon only affects the first hit.

Note: Cleave combos don't provide the highest damage potential in the game. See the Combo section on Condition stacking for that.

Combos 3: Blood Magic

Oh my. You're really going to do this? Really, really going down this path?
The potential rewards are great, this being the final combo that beats out DW+IE in pure damage. But you had better know what you're getting yourself into and plan VERY carefully.

Blood Magic is a passive ability from the Badge class, Lich.

• Character uses HP instead of MP when using Abilities. (2% of maximum HP is used for each point of MP)

You do NOT have a choice and MUST use your health instead of your mana, unlike Focused Rage (where you can choose if you want to use your mana to empower your regular attacks or skills which count as regular attacks).

If you don't have enough health to pay the health cost, you cannot use that Ability. So if you run out of health, you can't even cast Heal on yourself. However, since you pay the health cost FIRST, then use the ability, the effects of healing magic come after you pay the health cost. You can heal yourself to full health, in other words.

The Weakness condition is incredibly deadly to Blood Magic users.

Let's talk about supporting passives and counter abilities to make Blood Magic worth it.

• Economy, duh. Pay less health.
  
• Double Cast II. Not Double Cast I. The idea is to heal yourself after casting your main spell every turn. Or heal yourself first so that you can afford your main spell after that.
  
• Mystic Shield. Might as well use all that Mana for something, right?
  
• Life Font, perhaps? Worth considering as it heals a fixed amount, whereas Blood Magic uses a percentage of HP. Since mages have low base health, Life Font will heal up a large % of health. Makes sense?

And that's it.

But what abilities do we want to use Blood Magic with? The expensive spells, of course. Sorcerer spells come to mind.

THE Combo
First turn: Use Double Cast II to cast two Sorceror/Lich global spell.
Second turn: Use Double Cast II to cast one Healing Spell to replenish your health and one Sorceror/Lich global spell.
Repeat as necessary.

Global spell are a top pick not just because of the high mana cost, but because of safety. By casting global spells from afar, you negate the inherent risk of using your HP to fuel your spells instead of mana.

This can be done with a Sorcerer/Mender, Lich/Mender, Sorcerer/Princess, Lich/Princess, Princess/Lich, you get the idea. Any combination which allows you to have at least the Double Cast II (from Princess), Blood Magic (from Lich), or Economy (from Sorcerer). So one of those classes has to be the Primary Class. Princess has the best stat growth out of the lot, by the way.
Works even better if you have two of these suckers in the same battle.

Kudos to my friend Vash who first shared this build with me. Incidentally, his Lich died instantly to party of enemies which had the Magic counter ability (or was it Thorns and Pounce?). Incidentally, that's the best way to counter global spells yourself. If you want to avoid being Pounced on, surround your lich/sorceror with allies/impassable terrain.

There are other ways to use Blood Magic, but I think they are difficult to justify due to the risks and inconvenience. Mana Font + Economy and Initiative tricks serve better than Blood Magic in my opinion.

Combos 4: Initiative

Initiative is a specific passive from the Gambler that grants a free turn at the start of battle. In the event of multiple units having Initiative, the last unit with Initiative placed on the field gets priority.

While you could do almost anything with the free turn, Initiative works well for preparing for battle rather than starting to do damage due to the enemies still being far away.

Initiative is best used in the following ways:

• Key conditions, early kills & pulling
  
• Mana support
  
• Buffs

Key conditions, early kills & pulling

• Key conditions: Using a gunner or ranger abilities to cripple, mute, and from afar with long ranged weapons. (The gambler's Charm combo and the Quarreler crossbow Berserk combo works too, see the Gambler and Werewolf sections in Class In-depth)
  
• Early kills: Sometimes possible at long range using guns DW+IE combo. Alternatively, environmental kills (water, lava) can work very well too. Use Initiative to get in, then quickly get out again on your normal turn.
  
• Pulling: Only relevant to enemies with the Pounce counter. Hit 'em at range, then gang up on the fool.

Mana support

Combo:
First; place down the Spymaster with Initiative and Item Potency.
-> Place down another character (say, Peddler) with Initiative and Item Potency.
-> Peddler gives Mana Stone to target fro 40 mana (Alchemystic, Lord and Sorcerer are all great targets)
-> Spymaster uses Mirror Trick to give Mana Stone to target for another 40 mana.

Your targets have just gained 80 mana before the combat has started. If you had used each mana stone on Sorcerors with Economy, Mana expert and Double Cast II, they can cast each Double Cast 5 global spells in three turns. If you had used both mana stone on a single sorcerer, she can double cast 8 global spells in 4 turns. Who needs Blood Magic?

Mirror trick, an ability from Spymaster, works as such:

• Character uses the last (non-boss) Ability that was used by any combatant. (Some Abilities are excluded from this.)

Buffs
Initiative is also excellent used in conjunction with Mana Expert for early buffs. Alchemystic and Gadgeteer have AoE Haste buffs. Lords has the stupidly powerful Rally which grants ATK Up, MND Up, and Haste all at once to him and adjacent targets.

But there are plenty of other shenanigans we can get up to. Stacking buffs on the Spymaster (such as the Druid's Total Shield which grants DEF Up & RES Up together, and the Gadgeteer's Molecular Infuser grants ATK Up & MND Up together, Crit Up from Peddler, Haste from Alchemystic) then using the Spymaster's Exemplar is super strong too.

Exemplar works as such:

• Copies all of the character's buffs to the targets in a small area around the character. (perma-buffs from items don't count)

As you can see, it can get pretty crazy. Just don't use this strategy when there are enemy Zohls, Templars or Scoundrels who will punish characters with buffs. Assassins and druids will dispel too.

If you want to use the Initiative Mana support strategy in combination with Initiative Buffing Strategies, just place the Mana Support units AFTER the buffing units with Initiative.

Combos 5: One For All

One For All is an ability from the Knight that works as such:

• Ends your turn. Every time an ally takes a single-target offensive action on a target within your weapon's range, you will follow up with a Regular Attack on that target (melee weapons attack at 1x damage and ranged weapons attack at .75x damage) (costs 16 mana)

Notice that it can be used with ranged weapons. So Gunner/Knight or Ranger/Knight is quite popular.

Here are some considerations to beef up One For All:

• One for all ends as soon as the character's next turn comes up.
  So it works best on low SPD characters, ironically. At least it cannot be dispelled, unlike Focus (from Gunner).
  
• Triggers for any single-target offensive action.
  Double-casting cheap spells like Poison and Bleed works really well. If you can afford the Mana costs, double-casting powerful locus spells works even better.
  
• Does a Regular attack, so Dual Wield works.
  Lots of folks like to dual guns with One for all. Dual melee weapons like Spears for a bit more range is nice too, especially on a Boss who has been inflicted with Root.
  
• Does a Regular attack, so the attack can Crit and carries weapon conditions.
  A Crit will also 100% induce all conditions in an attack from skills or weapons, ignoring the original % of inflicting the condition but not ignoring enemy immunities.
  There are two ranged weapons this becomes very interesting options on:
  
  1. Nail Gun, a gun, inflicts Root with a 50% chance.
     
  2. Quarreler, a crossbow, inflicts Berserk with 25% chance.
  With some Crit stack from Know Weakness I & II (from Ranger and Werewolf/Bounty Hunter respectively), a few items and maybe the Crit Up status (from Ranger and Peddler), you can Root or Berserk a lot of enemies in a single round.
  Berserk enemies will use their default Regular Attack, so the Evade Attack counter becomes very useful. A lot of enemies become quite harmless when Berserk, including mages and Niwots and just about anybody who is closer to his pals instead of your characters.

Combos 6: Condition stacking

Conditions are extremely powerful when used strategically. Berserk and Mute on Mages, Cripple or Charm on Warriors/Rogues, Sleep on Warriors or high evasion enemies (Sleep seems to lower evasion to zero), and Bleed and Poison does % damage, great on bosses.

But why on earth would we stack multiple conditions on a single enemy?

Well...

Opportunistic Bullet (Gunner ability)

• Deals 0.8x Physical.pngPhysical (ATK) damage to the target. Damage increases by 0.5x for each debuff the target is inflicted with.

Health Siphon (Fellblade ability)

• Deals 0.65x Magical (ATK) damage to the target and absorbs the damage dealt. Deals 0.4x more damage per debuff the target is afflicted with. (costs 16 mana)

Infestation (Arcafflictor's ability)

• Deals 0.55x Dark.pngDark (ATK) damage in a small area. Damage increases by 0.55x for each debuff the target is inflicted with. (costs 10 mana)

Opportunist (Arpia's passive)

• Character deals 0.2x more damage per debuff on their targets.

The general idea is to have a whole party of condition inflicting characters, then removing the enemies with Opportunistic Bullet, Health Siphon and . Due to the control benefits of conditions, this is a very safe and strategic way to play.

Most Fellblade abilities and a few Scoundrel abilities (Blinding shot and Arterial strike) count as regular attacks, meaning the attack can Crit and carry weapon conditions. Using these attacks with dual daggers with take conditions from both daggers, but only hit once. There's a dagger which both poisons and bleeds. There's also a Mute inflicting dagger and a Cripple inflicting dagger. Used with a Fellblade/Scoundrel skill, dual wielding daggers can consistently confer 4 different conditions in a single attack.

And look at that! There's a weapon which inflicts 4 conditions at once!
Pestilence (unique Maul)

• HP +10, ATK +112. Inflicts Poison, Root, Cripple, and Slow with a 35% chance each.

Mercenaries, Gadgeteers and Marked can use Mauls. If you crit with the Pestilence maul, you'll induce all the status effects the enemy isn't immune to. So that's 5 different conditions in a single attack. The next Opportunistic Shot will likely down the target immediately.

Passives and abilities to support condition stacking
For Fellblades and Scoundrels, crit stacking works best. So Know Weakness I & II are the best passives.The Ranger and Peddler have skills to give the CRIT Up status. Fellblade is favored over Scoundrel due to Sleep Slice and Chaos Strike.

For gunners, the Malice passive (which improves condition inflict chance by 10%) is generally better.

Biggest damage potential in the game
Did you figure it out? Condition stacking can lead to the biggest single target damage in the game. After inflicting every condition in the game (16 in all) on a poor sap, take a turn to Focus, then make an Opportunist Shot with a scythe and Versatile/Exploit weakness. If you're lucky enough to crit, that hit will yield the biggest damage in the game.

I didn't say it was practical!

Combo 7: Mystic shield mana charging

This combo was nerfed as of patch 1.2.0.
"Mystic Shield: Fixing an issue where Mystic Shield would absorb damage as MP if the character would heal from the damage due to high elemental resistances."

Oh well! It was broken anyway.

Mystic shield from Alchemystic works as such:

• "As long as the character has any MP when taking damage, the whole damage is negated. Damage taken will lower current MP."

But what happens if the damage heals you instead? You'll GAIN mana instead of losing it.

Enter elemental stacking. Water/Earth/Fire/Thunder shields gives 150 to an element, Flowing/Molten/Sand/Spark Robes give 100 to an element, Glacier/Blazing/Quake/Surge rods give yet another 100. But that's probably overdoing it.

Now combine this with Double cast II. Who needs Blood Magic?

Class specific highlights 1: Base classes (Warriors and Rogues)

This is less a detailed write-up on each class so much as highlighting useful abilities, ways to build them, and combo potential. Check out Lasci's Comprehensive Class Guide if you want a more detailed description of each class.

Base warrior classes
Mercenary

• Highlights:
  
  • Health Expert passive and Counterattack counter ability are useful to the very end of the game.
    
  • Merc skills are very useful.
    
  • Great stat growth for a pure warrior. (but not warrior mage)
• Combo potential:
  
  • Mercenary/Reaver which Dual Wields two Mauls. Mauls give extra health, so incredibly high health and so can make best use of Reaver's Desperate Blow. The Behemoth Shield gives more health than the best Maul, but Dual Wielding Mauls is more balanced for damage.
    
  • Assassin/Merc or Bounty Hunter/Merc can stun lock an enemy with Stunning Strike. Works best if hasted and the target is slowed.

Knight

• Highlights:
  
  • Defensive Hit is very useful early game. Grab the Defence Expert passive from Templar and go to town.
    
  • Heavy Hit is very useful early game as an opening move.
    
  • Defend and Protect can be used very well in teams which have 1 main tank, 4 ranged DPS, and 1 healer.
    
  • Taunt has 100% percentage! The Templar's Evade Attack counter is useful here.
    
  • One for all has it's own section and will not be elaborated upon here.
• Combo potential:
  
  • Knight/Reaver: Defend or Protect, then Desperate Blow. Very effective in the right teams.
    
  • Knight/Templar or Templar/Knight: Knight can cast rebirth on self. Templar can sacrifice self to heal and remove all conditions from team mates. Enough said.

Templar

• Highlights:
  
  • Righteous Blade and Siphon to power the Righteous Blade.
    
  • Cleansing Blade is the best punisher of enemies who buff too much (*cough* final boss*cough*)
• Combo potential:
  
  • See Knight and section on Cleave.

Reaver

• Highlights:
  
  • DESPERATE BLOW.
    
  • AoE attacks, short ranged attack, even short ranged AoE attack!
• Combo potential:
  
  • See Knight and Mercenary.
    
  • A favorite secondary class for Demon Knight which has only melee attacks and also hurts itself a lot. All the better to power up Desperate Blow.

Base Rogue Classes
Scoundrel

• Highlights:
  
  • Dirty Hit and Arterial Strike are some of the few skills which count as regular attacks. Dirty Hit is one of the very few consistent ways to inflict Blind in the game. Works well with high evasion builds.
    
  • The only consistent source of the Fleet of Foot buff.
• Combo potential:
  
  • See Condition Stacking.
    
  • Also a ally to a Vampire because of Arterial Strike.
    
  • See Vessel in badge classes concerning skills that count as regular attacks.

Ranger

• Highlights:
  
  • Rooting shot is the best ways to inflict Root from afar.
    
  • Collect pelt is one of the 4 counters to Rebirth. Only for monsters.
    
  • Evasion Up is a must for high evasion builds.
    
  • Countershot is a very good choice for ranged Rogues.
    
  • Know weakness is a must for crit builds.
    
  • Ranged AoE options.
    
  • Sniper Shot has the highest damage modifier in the game.
• Combo potential:
  
  • See section on Cleave and One For All.
    
  • A very decent Primary ranged class, and an excellent secondary class for any ranged primary.

Peddler

• Highlights:
  
  • Item Potency. Early game, Rocks rock. Late game, Mana Stone.
    
  • With clever placement, traps are actually very powerful against enemies which cannot fly. Negating an opponent turn AND inflicting Root/Charm/Half-health is extremely powerful. Even if the trap misses, the opponent turn is still negated. Hint: Enemies like to attack from behind. Show them your butt.
    
  • Critical Expertise is the only way to give Crit Up to an ally.
• Combo potential:
  
  • See section on Initiative, Condition Stacking and One For All.
    
  • Displacement skills (Forceful Strike, Sabotage, etc.) is another option for traps which didn't find a victim. Not really recommended; learn to place your traps better.
    
  • Traps, even damaging ones, do not benefit from Eruptor nor trigger Eruptor. Let the possibilities sink in...

Duelist

• Highlights:
  
  • One of the few sources of cripple
    
  • A short ranged attack
    
  • No mana 1.55x modifier elemental attacks which ALSO have a chance of inducing status effects? Incredible, yet overshadowed by Dual-Wield + Infused Edge.
• Combo potential:
  
  • See section on Cleave
    
  • One of the better secondary classes for pure warriors, especially those Primary Classes which have a single target nuke to spend all that mana they've saved. Works best with a scythe.
    
  • Werewolf/Duelist with Versatile and Know Weakness II. Give it a try.

Gunner

• Highlights:
  
  • One of the few sources of cripple, mute, slow and berserk. And it works from afar!
    
  • Focus for double damage next turn? Yes please. Use this with Opportunistic Shot or Ranger's Sniper Shot.
    
  • One of the few ATK-based classes with a magic damage option to punish high DEF but low RES enemies.
    
  • Concentration is one of the few counters to high evasion enemies.
    
  • Guns. Enough said.
• Combo potential:
  
  • See Condition Stacking.

Assassin

• Highlights:
  
  • DUAL WIELD.
    
  • Sabotage: Swapping places with someone seems useless? Not so! It's incredibly deadly when there is water and enemies who can't swim. It's even more deadly when you have hover boots in lava levels and the enemies don't.
    
  • Blind Powder is one of the very few consistent ways to inflict Blind in the game. Works well with high evasion builds.
    
  • Dispel powder is one of the few Dispel options in the game.
    
  • DUAL WIELD.
    
  • Sleep powder... you get the idea.
    
  • Collect bounty one of the few counters to rebirth... you get the idea.
    [[*] DUAL WIELD.
    *] Best SPD growth in the game.
    
  • Did I mention Dual Wield?
• Combo potential:
  
  • See Dual wield + Infused Edge, Condition Stacking, Initiative... yikes. A lot, basically.

Fellblade

• Highlights:
  
  • One of the few sources of Weaken and Sleep. Therefore, a key component of Condition Stacking setups.
    
  • Stat growth pretty good for warriors, particularly those who dabble in magic.
• Combo potential:
  
  • See Condition Stacking.

Warmage

• Highlights:
  
  • Do I even need to tell you?
• Combo potential:
  
  • See Dual Wield + Infused Edge

Gambler

• Highlights:
  
  • Do you like gambling? This is the class for you. The odds are *usually* in your favor.
    
  • One of the few sources of Quicken.
    
  • Initiative has it's own section.
    
  • Actually really decent stat growth.
• Recommended Primary/Secondary class:
  
• Combo potential:
  
  • See Dual Wield + Infused Edge and Initiative
    

Class specific highlights 2: Base class (Mages)

For this whole section, make sure to read Building Mages first as Primary/Secondary class combinations are based on Abilities.

Mender

• Highlights:
  
  • It's your first healer. It's still one of the best.
    
  • Blessed One and Mana Font will serve you well throughout the game.
    
  • One of two classes able to remove ALL conditions. The other is a story character class.
    
  • Not particularly good stat growth for a mage.

Wizard

• Highlights:
  
  • One of the few elemental damage specialists. Good against monsters.
    
  • Smart casting is useful throughout the game to help your mage position more safely away from the battle.
    
  • Boon pairs well with Cleave.
    
  • And... that's it. Really.
• Combo potential:
  
  • See Cleave

Plague Doctor

• Highlights:
  
  • One of the few sources of weaken, slow and thorns.
    
  • Permanence is a must-have for primarily buffer characters.
    
  • Most abilities have short range
    
  • Large AoE burst abilities, damage and healing.
    
  • Barrier counter is actually really good for enemies which like to stack conditions (Arcafflictors mostly)
    
  • Tanky support mage that wears heavy armor.
    
  • Quite bad stat progression for mage?

Alchemystic

• Highlights:
  
  • Buffs, buffs, buffs. Enough said.
    
  • Best SPD for mage.
• Combo potential:
  
  • See Initiative.
    
  • Permanence is a must have passive.

Druid

• Highlights:
  
  • Most flexible mage abilities. Heal, removal, damage, conditions, the druid has it all.
    
  • Double Cast I
    
  • You're just here for the prerequisite for Sorcerer, aren't you?

Sorcerer

• Highlights:
  
  • ECONOMY.
    
  • Global spells.
    
  • ECONOMY.
    
  • Eruptor passive gives a stacking damage modifier for every turn you don't do any damage... directly. Maxes out after 4 turns at 0.72x bonus.
    
  • ECONOMY.
    
  • ECONOMY.
• Combo potential:
  
  • See Blood Magic
    
  • To get the most out of Eruptor, can consider using Mender or Alchemystic as secondary and not using an offensive ability until MUCH later. But really, the fight should be over by then?...
    The key to Eruptor isn't using it on the Sorceror to vast global spells. It's to use it on single target nukes. (see Cleave for the list)
    So what do you do in the mean time? Buffs, debuffs, healing, all use mana. You want to unleash your single target nuke after 4 turns. So, what to do?
    Traps don't trigger nor use up Eruptor (even traps that do damage). And there is ONE trap with zero mana cost. So that's an option.
    Dropping potions on friend as well as noxious and corrosive bombs?
    (Pending confirmation: Then there's the Assassin's Sabotage. It has a very low mana cost, so you'll surely have enough mana by the fifth turn while dumping folks in water. And the assassin conveniently also has a single target nuke, Assassinate. It's a pity it's too difficult a combo for not enough gain.)

Gadgeteer

• Highlights:
  
  • Abilities not affected by Mute or Cripple!
    
  • Must find and craft gadgets, not learn them
    
  • Lots of buffs and debuffs, but all abilities have short range
    
  • HUGE AoE SLEEP
    
  • One of the few dispells in the game.
    
  • The only ability which gives mana to an ally. Use on allies with nukes.
    
  • Two abilities effective against high DEF/RES enemies.
    
  • MANA EXPERT
• Combo potential:
  
  • See Initiative for buffing.
    
  • Malice, Permanence and Smart Casting are good passives to consider

Class specific highlights 3: Story Classes (spoilers)

Most of the story classes have interesting Condition counter abilities that work well in Condition stacking combos. All the story classes also have superior stat growth and are thus great choices for Primary classes.

Marked

• Highlights:
  
  • All those spell-like abilities are actually skills! Watch out for Cripple.
    
  • Great stat growth for a warrior mage.
    
  • Passives are mediocre.
• Combo potential:
  
  • Marked/Warmage which Dual Wields swords is a favorite, for good reason. None of the Marked abilities give high single target damage.
    
  • Marked/Fellblade is one of the best options if you want to use the Pestilence maul (see Condition Stacking section).

Spymaster

• Highlights:
  
  • Equip all and copying other ability sets makes for a very flexible class.
    
  • Great stat growth. Look at the reward for mastering the class!
    
  • Mirror trick can copy item usage. Go figure. It also cuts out the mana cost of expensive skills.
    
  • One of the few classes which flies.
• Combo potential:
  
  • Spymaster/warmage is one of the best Dual-Wield + Infused Edge gun users in the game.
    
  • Did you figure out how to cast the Gamblers Charm spell with Infused Edge from gun range? Reiner has three ways to do this.
    
    1. With Gambler/Warmage, he can simply equip the Equip All passive.
       
    2. As a Spymaster/Gambler or Spymaster/Warmage, use Doppleganger to copy the moveset of a friendly ally.
       
    3. As a Spymaster/Gambler, make sure a Warmage's turn always precede's Reiner's turn, then Mirror Trick it. Not the most effective way, but it works.
  • Wait what? Yes, there's a way to guarantee that someone's turn (say a Warmage) comes before his. Equip both Reiner and the target ally with Initiative. Then fiddle with items so that their SPD is almost the same (Reiner's SPD can be slightly less but not more). Place Reiner on the field before the target ally. And there you go! Whatever this ally does, Reiner can follow because that ally's turn will always precede Reiner's.
    This probably works better with an ally whose big spells you can cast for cheap (say, a Sorcerer with Blood Magic).
    
  • Exemplar is used in Initiative combos for buffing purposes (see Initiative section).
    
  • More boringly, Reiner can copy the skillset that's anticipated to be needed most in a battle. Assassin for Sabotage in water levels or Collect Bounty vs humans, Ranger for Collect Bounty vs monsters, Knight for One For All, Gunner for Cripple/Mute, Princess for Holy Locus and Healing, etc.

Demon Knight

• Highlights:
  
  • The Demon Knight is one of the Queens of Damage. Look at how many stat charts she tops!
    
  • But is having so many ways to hurt herself really a good thing?
    
  • Single target nuke to spend her mana on... except it's Dark element. Hrm.
    
  • No ranged options.
• Combo potential:
  
  • One of the key classes for the Cleave combo. Demon Knight/Templar (for a Holy element single target nuke and Siphon) and Demon Knight/Duelist are good choices.
    
  • Alternatively, she's also great for the Dual Wield + Infused Edge combo. But instead of swords, she'll be Dual-Wielding axes. So expect to be putting out a lot of pain, but receiving a lot of pain too.
    In spite of her benign personality, Anadine really likes to go all out, doesn't she?
    
  • More modestly, a lot of folks like to use her with Reaver (for Desperate Blow, AoE and reach) and Knight (which can cast rebirth on herself).

Anatomist

• Highlights:
  
  • Reanimate enemies as zombies to prevent them from being resurrected! Enemies tend to target the zombie since it has high health but low defences. It's a great meat shield. But true to his story, he cannot cast Revive or Rebirth.
    
  • Legendary healer passive makes him THE best healer.
    
  • One of only two classes which can remove ALL conditions.
    
  • Dark magic is terrible in context. Trust me, you'll see what I mean in the end game.
• Combo potential:
  
  • NOT MENDER. Too many of his abilities clash with Mender.
    
  • All heals are single target. So consider Blessed One passive.
    
  • Other than that, the Anatomist class is fairly well balanced in damage, heals and removal. Consider balancing out his role with buffs and/or debuffs, such as Plague Doctor, Alchemystic, and Gadgeteer.

Bounty Hunter

• Highlights:
  
  • Impetus gives her more speed the more turns she gets. It's amazingly strong, and makes her hands down the best DPS character in the game.
    
  • Collect trophy works on both humans and monsters... but has a much lower damage modifier of 0.75x, making it difficult to use.
    
  • Boomerang bounce is one of the few ranged displacement abilities.
    
  • Shadowstrike is the last ability that counts as a Regular attack... and it buffs herself with mirage. Great for survivability.
    
  • Know Weakness II is used in a whole lot of combos.
• Combo potential:
  
  • Bounty hunter/Warmage is THE best Dual-Wield + Infused Edge gun user in the game, thanks to Impetus. She's also the best Dual spear + Infused Edge in melee, the best Fellblade with dual daggers thanks to Know Weakness II... she's really really strong. Grow her either as an Assassin or a Bounty Hunter.
    
  • Really enjoys Initiative and SPD stacking.
    
  • Bleed Counter is helpful to an allied Vampire.

The Exiled

• Highlights:
  
  • When you first get him, unequip his equipment and change his class so you can look at his stats without Hallowed Mind active. He has high ATK & MND but abysmal DEF and RES, consistent with his stat growth as The Exiled.
    His SPD on the other hand isn't consistent with his stat growth at all. It's as high as a SPD focused class. Leveling up as The Exiled shouldn't give that much speed. Now look at his HP. Compare that to your other warriors. What happened? The Exiled should give much more HP than that!
    Make no mistake. While he can equip heavy armor, The Exiled's poor health and defences means he cannot be expected to take many hits and survive. I consider him to be a DPS Rogue.
    
  • Lots of mobility options to get him into more trouble than he can handle: Pounce counter, dashing attack, leap.
    
  • Lots of AoE skills, but no high modifier attacks.
    
  • Hallowed Body improves both ATK and MND. It's the perfect passive for Warmages...
• Combo potential:
  
  • Yes, he's just begging to be The Exiled/Warmage who uses Dual-Wield + Infused Edge. It's difficult to argue for anything else, really. The Exiled itself lacks single target focus, which the DW+IE combo provides in spades. DW also works well with Pounce.
    Just... do consider using the Health Expert passive. It won't save him, but every little bit helps.

Class Specific Highlights 4: Badge Classes

Like story classes, most badge classes have counters that confer conditions. Good for Condition Stacking teams.

Werewolf

• Highlights:
  
  • No kidding about their 'unmatched' ferocity. Their stat gains are great for an ATK-based Rogue that can hopefully avoid getting hit too often.
    
  • Cunning Slash both bypasses evasion and counter abilities, but has poorer modifier (0.75x) than Mercenary equivalents.
    
  • Blood Trophy is the most damaging (1.8x) rebirth/revive counter ability in the game, if you can afford the mana costs.
    
  • Know weakness II is important for crit builds.
    
  • Also inflicts a plethora of conditions (poison, weaken, root), sometimes in an AoE. Short range, though.
• Combo potential:
  
  • Werewolf/Fellblade with dual daggers makes good use of Know weakness I & II.
    
  • Duelist stats match up well with the werewolf too. With Versatile and Know Weakness it can work pretty well, finishing off opponents with Blood trophy.
    
  • Can use Infused Edge decently, but poor MND gains suggests pure Dual Wield builds. To make up for it's lackluster defences, try stacking evasion with Main Gauches and the Evasion up Passive. The Evade Skill counter prevents some skills which ignore evasion.

Vampire

• Highlights:
  
  • Charm has 100% Charm chance? Really, 6 Eyes? Only downside is cost and range.
    
  • Like assassin, most skills are good at short distances. Unlike assassin, the vampire can use GUNS.
    
  • Most of their better abilities key off the Bleed condition on enemies. Vampires can inflict bleed. Having friends who inflict bleed is also very nice.
    
  • One of the few classes which flies.
    
  • Single target nuke which keys of Bleed to induce sleep as well. Huh.
• Combo potential:
  
  • One of the best Dual wielding + infused Edge gun users. So good in fact, that I found myself not bothering to move in close to Charm and inflict folks with bleed and the like. What a pity. Well, Imbued Edgig Blood Nova is an option before moving in. Use the Leech Mana passive so you have the mana to move in and use some big abilities on Bleeding enemies.
    
  • Alternatively, perhaps Vampire/Scoundrel to bleed target from afar with a gun, then move in to use Soul Suck, Blood Suck, or Night Embrace?

Lich

• Highlights:
  
  • Abilties are ONLY dark damage and maybe a bit of debuffs. Very weak in the end game.
    
  • TERRIBLE SPD growth! So terrible that overall stat growth is bad!
    
  • Chilling touch is nice, adding slow to every offensive action...
    
  • ...but what you really want from Lich is the Blood Magic passive.
    
  • Like Anatomist, reanimates zombies.
• Combo potential:
  
  • Blood Magic has it's own section.
    
  • Chilling touch is nice too.
    
  • Otherwise, I suggest leaving Lich ability skill set alone. Wizard is generally better as most monsters have base elemental weaknesses. In the rare occasion you're fighting lots of enemies vulnerable to dark, then can consider Lich/Mender.

Vessel

• Highlights:
  
  • Abilities are Special, therefore immune to Mute and Cripple.
    
  • Bad SPD growth, but not bad enough to make good MND growth not worth it. In fact, SPD*MND growth is pretty good for a mage overall.
    
  • Lowest HP growth in the game. Apparently it's to make up for good DEF and RES gains.
    
  • Wears Light armor and NOT Robes! This makes the Vessel a mediocre caster in the mid game, but okay again in the late game.
    
  • Most abilities have surprisingly short range.
    
  • Has a heal for allies next to her that doesn't heal herself. Again, that means short range.
    
  • Hallowed Mind is a great passive for warrior mages, boosting both ATK and MND.
    
  • Hallowed Body boosts damage next turn if he attacks with a regular turn, more if the regular attack is melee. ...really? On the lowest HP growth class in the game?
    The idea behind this passive is that the Vessel abilities are too expensive to cast every turn. So in between casts, the Vessel is meant to use... a regular attack? With a rapier or a crossbow. But the range of the Vessel's abilities is so short, so... Rapier is better?
• Combo potential:
  
  • Really needs Economy due to lack of cheap abilities. Mana Font is probably good too.
    
  • If you really want to make use of Hallowed Body, then get Leech Mana.
    
  • Vessel/Warmage may look tempting because Infused Edge uses both ATK and MND, but she can't survive Dual-wielding rapiers with that little health. But without Dual wield, Leech Mana won't leech enough mana for Vessel abilities since you're using that mana for Infused Edge.
    Using a crossbow instead like a good idea, except that many Vessel abilities have short range.
    
  • Using Infused Edge bleeds out too much mana. The Soundrel has mana-less skills that counts as regular attack. So a Vessel/Scoundrel using a rapier+shield which uses Dirty Hits and Arterial Strikes?
    
  • I don't really approve of either build, as I believe mages should be prepared to support their friends with healing, condition removal and or buffs. No, that super short range healing Vessel ability doesn't cut it; the range is too short to be useful. So I'd personally use Vessel/Mender with Mana Font and Economy, acting primarily as a Mender and ignoring Hallowed Body altogether.
    
  • Perhaps Hallowed Mind and Hallowed Body is better used as supporting passives for Fellblades and Warmages who don't use the Vessel ability set at all.

Princess

• Highlights:
  
  • One of the best classes in the game. Great stat gain, healing, revive, holy damage, quicken, Double Cast II, Equip all... but noticably lacks condition removal. Perhaps not so important once the game is
• Combo potential:
  
  • Double Cast II is a key component of Blood Magic combos.
    
  • I'd recommend Princess/XXX rather than XXX/Princess generally due to her great stat growth and good passive. Anything works, really. She's that good.

Lord

• Highlights:
  
  • One of the best classes in the game. Great stat gain, healing, ranged attack, AoE damage with debuffs, powerful buff, Cleave, Equip all... but noticably lacks a single target nuke to start get Cleave/Boon chains started.
• Combo potential:
  
  • One of the two classes who can make best use of Cleave combos. I like Lord/Templar for Righteous Blade & Siphon. But Lord/Duelist works well too, assuming you can nail the first kill quickly.
    
  • Works really well with Dual wield + Infused Edge combos too, especially thanks to Equip All passive.
    
  • I'd recommend Lord/XXX rather than XXX/Lord for same reasons as Princess.

Class specific 5: The Monster class hero (coming soon!)

(coming soon!)
Seriously, Bzaro is a real pain to write a guide for. I think he needs a guide to himself.

A couple of things really stand out, however.

• Daodrenner provides a single target nuke with Holy element.
  
• Stampede passive (Bzzerk) is incredibly powerful. There's actually a cap of 0.6x after moving six spaces... but all you need to do to get a huge 0.6x multiplier is move six spaces. Combine this with Plainswalker boots and Mana Font (which requires you to move too), and you might be able to afford that single target nuke from Daodrenner. Conveniently, Mana Font is a Daodrenner passive.
  
• Also, has access to Boon (from Arpia) and Cleave (from Harvester) passive. It's a pity there's no combination to get all four of Mana Font, Stampede, Cleave and Boon. At least you can get 3 of them.
  
• Arcane engine (from Cadaver) is powerful for gaining mana (just overheal Bzaro), but isn't quite as powerful as the Mystic shield combo human classes can get because the HP to mana conversion is only 10%.
  
• Pektite/tangrel is extremely strong. Pektite has crazy high Defence, and Tangrel has Defensive hit.
  
• I've mentioned before that he/she/it also works well in Condition stacking teams. After all, he has a global condition inflicting spell (from Arcafflictor) and ways to capitalise on condition stacking.
  
• The hidden monster class has the means to Charm enemies. Yikes.

[OneBullet]

Thank you, I understand

[mrbunnyban]

@One bullet: Eh, basically the math shows that if we assume the gadgeteer and the scoundrel's stats are comparable, SPD is considered a force multiplier rather than additive.
If A has 1.5x more SPD than B, then A probably gets 1.5x more turns compared to B.
Since buffers and debuffers don't do damage/healing, their ATK/MND stats don't matter and they only care about SPD so they get more turns.

[OneBullet]

"Buffers and debuffers will want SPD alone.

He's a bit of math to show what I mean. Compare the stats of the Gadgeteer and the Scoundrel (look it up).
If you add up all the values other than speed, the Gadgeteer has 25.5 and the Scoundrel has 23. However, if you weigh the values of ATK and MND by their respective speeds, the Gadgeteer has 25.5 and the Scoundrel has 25.66 (from 6.5+2.5+3.5*1.38+3.5+3.5*1.38+3.5=25.66), which is much closer in value."

I keep reading and re-reading this part and I just cannot seem to understand what is being said here.

[billytringuyen]

stop covering it up this is a guides it SUPPOSe to be spoiler

[BenWish]

Is there any way to turn off the spoiler dark boxes? Alternatively, remove them? A spoiler is something which is a surprise in plot or story line, or which is hidden, neither of which applies to any classes, nor any characters bar one. Still, good guide and thanks for all your work. Just drop the black boxes :)

[raonico]

Well done, thank you for this guide. It will help me a lot! :)

[mrbunnyban]

@Kitschy I should... but I haven't gotten around to playing it haha.

@Hemaka Drat, why did that happen? Thanks, gonna see if I can fix that

[Hemaka]

Is the link to fitz's guide in "Class specific highlights 1" supposed to open another guide? Cause right now it... well... opens yours.

[Kitschy]

Hey Bunny! Are you going to ever be writing something on the new monster tamer classes? C:

[Jyharl]

Thank you for this guide. As a new starter on Fell Seal and someone who likes min-maxing in RPGs, you saved me a lot of time. I'll make use of the "Reset to Level 1" option right away!

I love that they thought of this option. Saves me the trouble to restart a new game.