etrian odyssey 3 questions...

[aweigh]

ok so apparently poison is motherfucking tiltowait in this game. ok, ok. FINE.

i have everyone using a poison charm but that does exactly JACK and SHIT; all the FOEs and even the little poison-shrooms always poison me when they attack.

it's not that i can't handle it i just want to know if i'm missing *something*. currently i'm finishing up mapping floor b3, still have 1 last foe (the hippos) left to go steam roll. i assume the ladders to b4 are past his particular spot, cos i already trawled thru most of the floor.

anyway, party is level 12 all around and is:

front-line: gladiator (points in endless battle, maces, arm break and going for nine smashes) -- (the plan is to keep this guys skills as clean as possible and concentrate only on attacking every single turn and dealing damage)

front-line: gladiaator (points in endless battle, swords, rush and aiming for blade rave; she's a few points behind her gladiator-bro because i'm using her to put points into the gladiator debuffs, the one that lowers enemy DEF and the one that takes away a few of your hit pts in exchange for attack power)

front-line: hoplite (points in her defense-up class skill, shield mastery, line guard, provoke and parry; aiming for the elemental breaks eventually and possibly bodyguard)

back-line: prince (points in royal veil and monarch's cry for healing during battle and after battle, points in attack-row and guard-row for buffing and the goal is to get protection order and have healing-per-turn, but still got a long trail of points to go from that)

back-line: arbalist (points in Ambush, because it works amazing and it works when fighting FOEs as well. it's only 5 points to master and having a guaranteed free turn for buffing when fighting FOEs has been a godsend; and every other single point has gone into Giant Attack or whatever its name is)

i'm not having any particular problems with the game this time and in fact am enjoying it immensly. it's the complete opposite ofmy previous experience. it's the difference between having fun utilizing solid classes in a solid party concept that works as opposed to when i played 1st time without even reading the title screen i made an entire party of back row chars and each level spent a point on something completely useless.

however i AM wondering how best to handle status ailments, since i lack a Monk. currently i just tough it the fuck out and churn through medicines while they clear the poison out of their buttholes turn by turn. another thing that has allowed me to enjoy the game this 2nd time around, and in fact if it hadn'e been for what i'm about to mention i probably would have given up for a second time on EO3...

i googled how to fucking earn money so i can at the very least have a decent excursion into a dungeon floor with at least a few fucking medicines, know what i mean? saw that everynoe basically found out that the trick is to make farmer colony lol my god it's so sweet and effective. i made 4 farmers named f1-f2-f3-f4 and i have my Prince escort them to the harvesting spot right near the 1f entrance. in less than 15 minutes i can make 3k bucks selling fucking wood. money woes resolved; everyone can now afford gear AND medicine.

seriously ifit hadn't been for my team of farmers i probably would have gotten too bored with always being broke and never being able to take as many medicines as i wanted to or buy all the new gear. that shit should be in the manual.

so anyway should i just dump the poison charms? they're taking up a valuable slot that could be utilized for DEF gear... and i keep getting poisoned anwyay

 

[Courtier]

Dump the charms, use the slots for more armor or stat-accessories. You have a Prince so get prevent order, it blocks one ailment each for a whole row, so you'll never get poisoned again. Have you been checking the bar? Get conditional drops whenever you can. Do sea quests as soon as you can handle them. The very first sea quest boss drops an Eastern Nest if you kill it while its arms are bound, you want that.

Narmer is weak against volt. You might want to give your Arbalist volt barrage or one of the other barrages so you can hit all enemies at once.

You're going to need a mix of elemental attacks, ailments and binds later, keep that in mind. By the third stratum every character gets a second class, so you can really round out your party and fill in all the gaps.

 

[aweigh]

that sounds right on. first thing i did was dump the charms just now and noticed immediately i was faring much better when poisoned. apparently the dmg from the poison rolls versus your physical defense stat as well, at the very least in some amount. i was definitely receving LESS damage while poisoned WITHOUT the poison charm than WITH.

lol i tried taking the ship out for a spin i can't go five paces without running out of food. i don't understand where i can get more sea rations.

 

[aweigh]

right now my main disable is using my mace-gladiator's arm break to bind their arms (-50% damage from their arm... weapons). it works almost every single time, so far it's been perfect. i use the other gladiator meanwhile to use the enemy defense debuff. however besides that and using the prince's attack/defense-row abilities (he's making his way through Rally, almost there into protection order), i don't see ow else to inflict disables.

the arbalist elemental barrages are an excellent suggestion. i wasn't even thinking about those. i know arbalist has like three crossbow abilities that each do some status shit, but everything i read regarding them suggests they're mostly worthless and should instead concentrate on mortar fire, proper form and giant attack for guaranteed returns on investment.

i don't think i have anyone who can inflict ailments reliably at the moment. of course once the sub classes are in play well that's a different story then.

 

[Courtier]

Well, it's like a puzzle. You go as far as you can with your limited sailing provisions, and try to find stuff that helps you get farther the next time. New parts for your ship are unlocked as you find them, trade, progress and do the quests. Time passes really quickly as you sail (days fly by), which allows FOEs and bosses in the labyrinth to respawn. I consider the trips little vacations for my party. Once you unlock a certain sea quest fight, you don't have to go sailing to do it again and can simply select it from the menu.

Edit: OK, you explore all the spaces and examine everything

 

[aweigh]

i literally didn't understand a single thing about that LOL

so like how the fuck do i sail dude?

 

[aweigh]

wtf i'm at narner the first boss and i have to fucking catch him? i been chasing him for like 15 mins

this motherfucker FLED. wooooow japan wooow. COOOME ONNN

 

[aweigh]

yay. beat him.

 

[Suicidal]

I thought that boss was pretty cool cause you had to beat him not only through combat but also through dungeon navigation and the fight itself was hard for my party. The second dungeon boss was a huge disappointment though :/

 

[aweigh]

yeah i actually ended up really enjoying the experience. i had never had such an interactive boss battle before be it in a traditional jrpg, a traditional western crpg or any sort of *blobber/crawler. top-notch design there. i haven't had any time for playing EO3 recently been busy but last few days i played was currently in 2nd floor of 2nd stratum.

i think the 2nd stratum's under the sea little mermaid motif and music is EXCELLENT and a HUGE improvement over the 1st stratums horrifyingly aliased forest. the way the FOEs double-step and follow you around in the 2nd stratum is also downright horror movie scary. :D

 

[aweigh]

is the arbalist's blind-skill (smoke granade) worth it or a trap? i lucked out with his pop flares, but don't know how useful blind will be in the long run.

 

[Courtier]

Well I never used it, made it to the postgame without mine having a single point in it. You're better off investing in damage skills, most importantly elemental ones because you don't have a dedicated caster on your team. For ailments Wildlings are king. You might want one of those or somebody subclassed as Ninja for their clone (but not both), so you can fill out your 6th slot.

 

[aweigh]

when do you get sub classes?

 

[duanth123]

when do you get sub classes?

When you reach the 3rd stratum

Don't look for more information, unless you want spoilers.

And believe me that you don't for this part of the game. It has a very nice twist.