Yes, once you leave, the entire area resets and next time you will see somewhat different enemies and drops and potential recruits. But as far as I have seen, it remains an easy source of cash. Makes no difference whether you do one map or all of them. Or all of them multiple times.
You probably realize, but leveling up weapon skills lags behind getting getting all your units up to the union level. I found the woods to be a great place to do that.
You know, I keep reading about terrible guest unit AI, and yeah, I watched an archer self destruct idiotically early on. But as I go on, it seems to me that most guest units do very well most of the time. They’ve been attacking and providing heals wisely most of the time, and although they are a bit aggressive, not overly so. And if I provide them with healing items, they use them in plenty of time.
Enemy AI, actually, is having far worse lapses. Especially clerics. Just whittled a boss down to 50% health and watched two enemy clerics use their turns right behind the boss to heal themselves and consume that magic restore leaf. Apparently unaware that my units might use the next turn to remove the rest of the boss’s health.
In fact, to this point I would say that that is the theme of the battles. Enemy initially looks tough, but between bringing too little healing power and utilizing it poorly, they are less than they appear in a protracted fight.
Denaim has been using 2h swords since the start of the game and his weapon skill had hit the level 19 cap. I just unlocked level 22, and would like to experiment with him as a ninja, but I’m worried about the hit to his weapon skiil.
Definitely a concern. Lower levels will come quickly if you do a couple training battles. Then it might be time for a forest run, so you can level up while gaining other benefits. But he will need to get to level 10 to get his first finisher. So would be pretty gimped in any tough battle for a while.
thanks! So I have to decide how much Im willing to grind now. The fights of a pretty tough as it is.
Another question about class change: once you unlock warlocks is there any reason to stick with with wizards instead of switching?
You can run training full AI and watch TV. Only click for the occasional dialogue. They cant die in training ( they may lose loyalty?) And they do use items but after chapter 3 woods money doesn’t seem to matter
I have tried a dragoon, they can take half the hp from a monster so it’s fun. Paired it with beast master who can recruit dragons and beasts
Berserker aoe can be annoying but I discovered using the weapon skill can bypass the AOE normal attack
I made MC dread knight. The fear debuff is pretty good only 25 mana to proc
Archers still suck they seem to only be anti mage. I got some octopi they seem to be better archers
So, are the guests who join you in battle always going to be 3 levels behind?
Everyone I’ve got at this point is level 8 and the 3 guests joining me on this battle are 5.
I mean besides not controlling them in battle which is bad enough, I also can’t level them in training as they’re not available as an option.
Is the idea here to give you some dead weight the enemy can shoot at instead of the rest of your team?
Kinda struggling with the game mechanic idea behind non controllable canon fodder.
If your characters gain xp when level capped, you get experience charms which you can use to level up those guests.
OK, so unless you burn an experience charm these guys just stay where they are level wise?
What I wonder is the design concept fun wise behind having under leveled dudes you don’t control on the battlefield?
Usually, these are unique characters that you can “win as a prize” if you manage to protect them so that they can join, either now or later. They tend to have somewhat better base stats (when on the same level as the rest of your team) and better RT.
Ah, OK. So there is a point to them then. Good.
Guests do gain experience in combat if you mAnage to keep them from leaving before it’s over
Yep, just noticed that in the last battle. I’ll keep that in mind and make sure they survive the battle to insure they’ve leveled properly.
Edit: Oh and my uninformed initial hot take on units is this: clerics are too squishy and are seemingly just easy targets for enemy archers which then forces them burn a fair amount of their heals on themselves and my archers are meh.
They can be. Enemies are good about getting behind your lines and getting after your squishy units. Keep those clerics as far back as you can so they are healing at the edge of their range. You may need to move some other units back there to help them out if the enemy gets any melee through. I struggle more with wizards and archers since they need to be forward enough to hit enemies.
While I think Archers are still useful for dealing with squishy enemy units (especially those just out of range of other units), Clerics I struggle to defend. Knights and Rune Knights heal as well as Clerics do (or any other unit with access to heal really), except Clerics can do major heal and heal multiple targets. But I’m not sure that’s worth the minimal damage output Clerics have. Plus, by the time you get major heal, ~100 points of healing is rarely all that useful, comparatively. From a min/max perspective, Clerics only seem good for exorcising undead. Looks like a design oversight, which admittedly unit balance is never this genre’s strong suit. A simple fix to make them more viable would be increasing the healing output of Clerics by default (there is a class skill they get that does this, but only when it pops), but that’s not present.
That said, I still use a Cleric sometimes, but only for variety.
I’ve been keeping Quickness on my clerics to give them something to do so they don’t feel completely useless. I’m not 100% sure how it works though; it seems fairly expensive and I’m not sure if it works out to an extra turn eventually for the target or not. Also, if meditate doesn’t fire in the first or second turn it might not get cast at all.
It does seem to speed the target’s turn somewhat, but I have no sense of how powerful it is since I can’t really keep track of how many turns the target would have gotten and I don’t even really know how long it lasts. I feel I’m getting something out of it, and that’s about all I can really say for it.
I too waver on clerics. Some things I consider:
So for me, it is a case by case thing. But I disagree that this is a design weakness. For one thing, if healing were too powerful (for both sides) a battle could go on for an unacceptable amount of time. Also, as I am seeing it, this game is all about adjusting as time goes along. And the changing valuation of each item in the toolbox, including cleric heals, is what keeps the game fresh.
I think if I were willing to optimize more I’d try not running clerics on maps that have a heavy contingent of wizardly enemies. Instead, I just keep one all the time and add a second for fights featuring undead.
It seems to me the best way to get value out of Clerics is the major heal hitting 3 people or more. Then you’ve clustered up and an enemy wizard with one spell takes all of that healing away plus a bit more unless the Mothers Blessing procced to double your healing.
The single biggest mistake in this game, is making both sides use the same spells/skills/values. Casters in general are hugely gimped due to this. Being outnumbered by the A.I. doesn’t take into account that they have to try and balance battles with the same values on both sides, which leads to the games plodding combat, and to me, really uninspired feeling damage and healing.
Give the user spells, skills, and abilities that are more powerful, but give the enemy more numbers. That’s how you make the user feel powerful, but still make things challenging. Fundamental design choice flaw for me that it’s the way it is.
On the cleric point…yah, they are really almost completely useless and the spot is much better filled with a valkerie or knight if you want healing/haste on someone. Healing in general, even with buffs, is kind of a joke, as pretty early on you can craft full heal pots and everyone can carry 3 of them. Money not being an issue in this game, and being able to craft unlimited full heal pots makes any of the casted healers pretty worthless.
Keep in mind, though, that in many battles you ARE much more powerful. Enemy units often lack skills or finishers or items that they would need to really be the opponent that they appear to be on the face of it. And for me, scouting out these specific strengths and weaknesses of the opposing army is one of the fun aspects of the game. Of course, that’s just my taste.