I really appreciate the more personal, self-contained tales that come together to form the game as a whole - especially in a portable game. Nothing rubs me up the wrong way more than a game that continually rams its story down my throat, be it through cutscenes or NPCs that don't know when to shut up.
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Dragon Quest 9 |OT| Last chance* to shine
- Thread starter Aeana
- Start date
Lost Fragment
Obsessed with 4chan
brandonh83 said:
Yes, but you have to revocate your MC at least once and re-level him/her to get higher-level maps to drop.
If you are on Vista you need to install something from Microsoft, out of the box Vista won't work with WEP.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233/en-us
brandonh83
Banned
Lost Fragment said:
Revocate, as in, forget everything the MC knows? And how does that get higher level maps dropped? God this game :lol
Margalis, I'm on 7, not Vista. Thanks though
Lost Fragment
Obsessed with 4chan
brandonh83 said:
Yep.
brandonh83 said:
The quality of the map you get after you beat a grotto boss depends on your MC's level + how many times s/he's revocated + the level of the grotto you just beat. I might be wrong, but I think it's very hard if not impossible to get higher-level grottos without revocating at least once since you'll get bottlenecked.
brandonh83
Banned
I see. Kind of dumb, but whatever. I want to build up a Gladiator, so I guess that's some decent reasoning to do so.
I got maps up to like level 83 before I revocated, so it's not impossible, you just have to do a lot of grottoes. Pick your highest level one, and keep running it, going straight from staircase to staircase, stopping only for chests you see on the way, until you get a better map, then do that one.Lost Fragment said:
The final quality of the map will be +/- 10%, so don't get discouraged if you get a lower level map than the one you just beat.
If you put points into the priest's faith line to get Divination, that's useful out in the field to see how many exp you need to level up. If you are in a grotto, near the boss, but are a couple thousand exp away from leveling up, it would behoove you to fight some more mobs and get that extra level as that figures into the level of map the boss will drop.
Good luck!
If you put points into the priest's faith line to get Divination, that's useful out in the field to see how many exp you need to level up. If you are in a grotto, near the boss, but are a couple thousand exp away from leveling up, it would behoove you to fight some more mobs and get that extra level as that figures into the level of map the boss will drop.
Good luck!
brandonh83
Banned
Is Catoptric Armor worth making?
Yayyy Fygg #7! The games story I had almost completely forgotten about has returned! At L32 all around now is there any good grinding places up ahead or that I may have missed? Not feeling the heat or anything I just kinda wanna level up!
Banned
But yes I think you're right going by the zoom list order. I got all but Fygg #3 out of order x_x Yay for open endedness I think!
Are grottos the only places to get more maps? I just finished the very first one and wondered why I hadn't found any more in chests/jars/quest rewards/etc yet.
Emonk said:
Banned
But yes I think you're right going by the zoom list order. I got all but Fygg #3 out of order x_x Yay for open endedness I think!
Lost Fragment said:
Are grottos the only places to get more maps? I just finished the very first one and wondered why I hadn't found any more in chests/jars/quest rewards/etc yet.
brandonh83
Banned
rpmurphy said:
yeah I just wonder how far I'm from getting good grotto loot. I just beat a level 47 grotto, guess I'm getting "up there." I've did around 15 of them so far.
Lost Fragment
Obsessed with 4chan
BooJoh said:
When I originally said "higher-level" I should've said "higher-quality," because the number tacked on to the end of a map isn't the only indicator of the quality of a map. "Ruby path of gloom lvl 60" is more likely to have higher-level chests/monsters than "basalt path of gloom lvl 70," for example.
Anyway, more detail: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/937281-dragon-quest-ix-sentinels-of-the-starry-skies/55674123
Lindsay said:
You get at least a few maps from quests, and you'll be able to buy some maps from DQVC eventually (I think?) but otherwise, you only get new maps from beating a boss in a grotto.
I didn't foresee that this would be the case, but I honestly haven't felt too compelled to get right back into quests and grottoes since finishing the main story.
I'm sure I will at some point, but I believe this is the first moment since I got the game when I haven't been craving more and more.
I'm sure I will at some point, but I believe this is the first moment since I got the game when I haven't been craving more and more.
Woo-Fu
Banned
You don't "forget everything you know" when you revocate.
The only thing you lose are the spells for the class revocated, spells you don't get to use anyway unless you're playing that particular class at the time.
You keep all the skill points, you keep all the passives, you keep all the abilities, and you get a whole new set of skill points to further develop your character. You also get a unique accessory the first time you revocate each specific class, some of which are pretty nice.
If I revocate a class, it takes all of 4-5 MKS battles to get it to mid-40s. Another hour and it will be back to 99. I don't even have an all MKS floor to do this on.
To get the best grotto maps in the game you'll have to revocate at least once. Further revocations will allow you to get *only* good maps.
Formula is this:
New Quality = Hero's Maximum Vocation Level + 5*Hero's Maximum Revocation + Level of Previous Grotto
Calculator is here(previously mentioned in thread)
What can be hard is getting a really high level grotto to work with. I had a level 89 for the past week and was very happy to get a level 98 without greygnarl(doesn't drop a regular grotto map) as boss just last night.
Running that map, with my hero having one of his jobs at 99, and having 3 revocations on another job, it limits me to B, A, and S-rank maps.
If I revocate 3 more times I'll be limited to A and S-rank maps.
The main reason you'll want the higher level maps is for the higher level blue chests which contain the base ingredients for some of the best gear/weapons in the game.
The only thing you lose are the spells for the class revocated, spells you don't get to use anyway unless you're playing that particular class at the time.
You keep all the skill points, you keep all the passives, you keep all the abilities, and you get a whole new set of skill points to further develop your character. You also get a unique accessory the first time you revocate each specific class, some of which are pretty nice.
If I revocate a class, it takes all of 4-5 MKS battles to get it to mid-40s. Another hour and it will be back to 99. I don't even have an all MKS floor to do this on.
To get the best grotto maps in the game you'll have to revocate at least once. Further revocations will allow you to get *only* good maps.
Formula is this:
New Quality = Hero's Maximum Vocation Level + 5*Hero's Maximum Revocation + Level of Previous Grotto
Calculator is here(previously mentioned in thread)
What can be hard is getting a really high level grotto to work with. I had a level 89 for the past week and was very happy to get a level 98 without greygnarl(doesn't drop a regular grotto map) as boss just last night.
Running that map, with my hero having one of his jobs at 99, and having 3 revocations on another job, it limits me to B, A, and S-rank maps.
If I revocate 3 more times I'll be limited to A and S-rank maps.
The main reason you'll want the higher level maps is for the higher level blue chests which contain the base ingredients for some of the best gear/weapons in the game.
ExtraKr1spy
Banned
Stupid quest wants me to find a dangerous bustier in a grotto chest. The chance of it showing up is also very low(single digit percentage). Reward better be fucking worth it.
Easystride
Member
Totally worth it. I got 140 hours out of the game. That's like three and a half RPGs.dolemite said:
Thanks, only just realized it reloads everyday. I wonder what other neat stuff I've missed since the game went live.
Anyway, I just got to
Am I probably more than halfway through the primary storyline? I haven't really managed to do a whole lot of quests or change jobs yet.
Anyway, I just got to
Wormwood Creek, and gave Serena her necklace
Hmm. I'm just before the boss battle on the last level of a grotto. It's one I have never fought before and I'm really low on MP.
I might as well fight it, right?
Even if I get creamed the worst that will happen will be the loss of about 10k in gold. If I warp out to refill I'll still have to fight through ten levels of enemies again.
Edit: Unf unf unf... Nothing but offense = narrow victory.
I might as well fight it, right?
Even if I get creamed the worst that will happen will be the loss of about 10k in gold. If I warp out to refill I'll still have to fight through ten levels of enemies again.
Edit: Unf unf unf... Nothing but offense = narrow victory.
My game just royally messed up.
Was playing around in a grotto for about an hour before I decided to tackle the boss. I had my priest cast Oomph on my thief while she cast Psych up, and my hero casting Egg On.
Psych Up gets 'a major boost' and gets my thief's tension to 100 right away, score! Then Oomph gets cast on top of that. So my thief is super powered. But when Egg On is cast it also gets 'a major boost', but it proceeds to say it 'does nothing' which I figure is normal since my thief was already full tension.
On the next turn, I have my thief attack using 'Flailing Nails' which is a 4x attack. But the text keeps saying 'critical hit' over and over and over again and 999's keep filling up the screen where the damage numbers should be. And he keeps slashing away, it's only supposed to hit 4x, but he got off around 20 hits while all this chaos is going on the screen. He has the Gladiator's Guide, which sometimes gets you 1 extra attack. But not 16! Then when the bottom sometimes reads 'attack does x amount of damage' it instead says 'attack does N@_% (and a bunch of other weird nonsense filling up the bottom part of the screen) damage'.
The boss dies from all this and the message kept repeating that he had dropped a treasure chest, but wouldn't say what was in it. Just kept saying he dropped a treasure chest over and over every time I pushed the A button.
I eventually had to shut it off losing about an hour's worth of leveling and chest looting.
Turning it back on, everything seems okay. I hope that never happens again.
Was playing around in a grotto for about an hour before I decided to tackle the boss. I had my priest cast Oomph on my thief while she cast Psych up, and my hero casting Egg On.
Psych Up gets 'a major boost' and gets my thief's tension to 100 right away, score! Then Oomph gets cast on top of that. So my thief is super powered. But when Egg On is cast it also gets 'a major boost', but it proceeds to say it 'does nothing' which I figure is normal since my thief was already full tension.
On the next turn, I have my thief attack using 'Flailing Nails' which is a 4x attack. But the text keeps saying 'critical hit' over and over and over again and 999's keep filling up the screen where the damage numbers should be. And he keeps slashing away, it's only supposed to hit 4x, but he got off around 20 hits while all this chaos is going on the screen. He has the Gladiator's Guide, which sometimes gets you 1 extra attack. But not 16! Then when the bottom sometimes reads 'attack does x amount of damage' it instead says 'attack does N@_% (and a bunch of other weird nonsense filling up the bottom part of the screen) damage'.
The boss dies from all this and the message kept repeating that he had dropped a treasure chest, but wouldn't say what was in it. Just kept saying he dropped a treasure chest over and over every time I pushed the A button.
I eventually had to shut it off losing about an hour's worth of leveling and chest looting.
Turning it back on, everything seems okay. I hope that never happens again.
brandonh83
Banned
What's a good post-game team? I know it's sorta based on the party you used through the majority of the game so here's my lineup:
lv. 30 Gladiator (was a Warrior)
lv.48 Priest (now a lv. 48 Priest)
lv. 54 Martial Artist
lv. 45 Paladin (was a Minstrel)
I just unlocked Sage and I've read very conflicting stuff online concerning whether or not the Sage is better to have than a Priest post-game due to Priest having much better healing attributes, so I'm not too sure what I want to do at this point.
lv. 30 Gladiator (was a Warrior)
lv.48 Priest (now a lv. 48 Priest)
lv. 54 Martial Artist
lv. 45 Paladin (was a Minstrel)
I just unlocked Sage and I've read very conflicting stuff online concerning whether or not the Sage is better to have than a Priest post-game due to Priest having much better healing attributes, so I'm not too sure what I want to do at this point.
Sage has treated me just well in the post game, though I'm keeping my Priest at decent levels (up to 46 now, compared to a 75 Sage) in case grottoes start dealing out more damage that my Sage's multiheal can fix. Last I compared, I think my Priest's multiheal recouped about ~200 HP, versus ~150 or so from the Sage.
My primary party is the same Warrior, Ranger, Sage, Armamentalist I've used for a good 100 hours. On standby are Paladin and Gladiator for the Warrior, Martial Artist for Ranger, and Priest for Sage. In either case: Damage, Speed, Healing, Support. One could easily make an argument for swapping in another damage class for the Armamentalist though.
I finished all the non-grotto quests this evening, so I guess any further time I spend will be spelunking and ingredient hunting, occasionally at the same time! Still need an assload of flurry feathers and fresh water for torso armor.
My primary party is the same Warrior, Ranger, Sage, Armamentalist I've used for a good 100 hours. On standby are Paladin and Gladiator for the Warrior, Martial Artist for Ranger, and Priest for Sage. In either case: Damage, Speed, Healing, Support. One could easily make an argument for swapping in another damage class for the Armamentalist though.
I finished all the non-grotto quests this evening, so I guess any further time I spend will be spelunking and ingredient hunting, occasionally at the same time! Still need an assload of flurry feathers and fresh water for torso armor.
brandonh83
Banned
Here's another question too, if I want to build a Sage separate from my Priest, would it be a bad idea to build a Sage from scratch, or would I be losing anything by not crafting my Sage from my Priest?
I can't bring myself to complete the Armamentalist unlock quest :lol
I can't bring myself to complete the Armamentalist unlock quest :lol
Definitely build the Sage from the Priest. On the contrary, you're not going to affect your Priest any by putting time into the Sage (in fact, you'll make it better due to the Magical Mending trait boosts) and I can't really envision any time where you would want both a Priest and a Sage in your party to justify having two characters there.brandonh83 said:
Personally I do have two Sages, but one started off a Priest, and the other started off a Mage, so Sage was maxed out to get the extra Mending and Might boosts for each respectively.
brandonh83
Banned
Yeah. So basically, Priest and Sage should be the same character, and switch out when necessary? Sounds good. Now I need to figure out what to do with my martial artist... I suppose I could just keep him but I've heard that switching from that to Gladiator yields some pretty great results when it comes to damage output. However my main character is already a Gladiator, so... I dunno we'll see.
Thanks for the advice.
Thanks for the advice.
brandonh83
Banned
Is Armamentalist pretty preferable for post-game stuff? I just remember taking a look at the class and not really seeing anything special enough about it.
I like the Fource skills when you can determine an elemental weakness, so it's not bad to at least have someone learn them, even if you don't actually use the job again. I don't really use much of his spells and whatnot otherwise, but I struggled the entire game trying to find a good 4th main job, and it was as good as any. I didn't really feel like doubling up on specializations.
brandonh83
Banned
Yeah I think that's my thing too, I don't think I would like a double specialization though plenty of people seem to like 3 Gladiators and a Priest :lol
My favorite party to play around with is...
Warrior
Sage
Thief
Paladin
I prefer the sage over the priest just because of the offensive spells sage learns. You've got the zam and boom line of spells. Plus Sage also learns Kazing, which 100% of the time brings a party member back to life. If a fight with a boss is really close, you don't want to be rolling the dice with zing, will it work, will it fail? Sage's ability tree also has Disruptive Wave - you might have seen a few bosses already use this on you. I mostly use this for bosses that like to up their tension. Nothing worse than the boss keep psyching themselves up every turn and suddenly you are dealing with a 100 tension boss ready to cast a spell over your whole party. Disruptive wave will drop their tension back to zero and remove any buffs they have as well.
The only thing priest has over sage is Omniheal, which fully heals every party member to full HP. The downside with Omniheal tho is that it costs something crazy like 120MP to cast, that's a lot of MP down the drain. If you do the quest to get the sage scroll, you can cast Twocus Pocus at the beginning of a fight (16MP) which will cast any spell 2x. If your sage is set up with that, just do 2x Multiheals (32MP) and it's basically equal to Omniheal, all for the cost of only 48MP total. Twocus Pocus will also allow you to cast 2x attack spells like Kaboomle (~500HP damage), or 2x kabuff/magic barrier (full party protection of physical attacks/spells) all in one turn.
Sage's special ability tho is the spell they learn near level 80 called 'Magic Burst' - It's an attack spell that uses up all remaining MP. So if you have 400MP, it'll use that, multiply it by 1.5 and attack a boss for 600HP of base damage.
But it seems kind of stupid to use up all your healer's MP, which is where the Sage's coup de grace 'Spelly Breath' comes in as it restores lost MP. So before casting Magic Burst, be sure to have the sage CDG ready to fire. Magic Burst one turn, coup de grace the next. You've unleashed a powerful attack and then get most of your MP back. It's kind of a great big 'FU' to the boss. :lol
It's great to use this in combination with the Paladin's abilities as well. Unleash the Paladin's Coup De Grace which blocks ALL incoming attacks directed at them. And every turn thereafter use 'Forbearance' which has your paladin step in the way of every single attack for the whole party. Basically it buys you several rounds of freedom to do whatever. Completely heal your party, buff everyone out, magic burst, spelly breath. Boss is going nuts as nothing is getting through, you are buffing your party, attacking him, basically unleashing holy hell for a bunch of turns free of charge.
Warrior
Sage
Thief
Paladin
I prefer the sage over the priest just because of the offensive spells sage learns. You've got the zam and boom line of spells. Plus Sage also learns Kazing, which 100% of the time brings a party member back to life. If a fight with a boss is really close, you don't want to be rolling the dice with zing, will it work, will it fail? Sage's ability tree also has Disruptive Wave - you might have seen a few bosses already use this on you. I mostly use this for bosses that like to up their tension. Nothing worse than the boss keep psyching themselves up every turn and suddenly you are dealing with a 100 tension boss ready to cast a spell over your whole party. Disruptive wave will drop their tension back to zero and remove any buffs they have as well.
The only thing priest has over sage is Omniheal, which fully heals every party member to full HP. The downside with Omniheal tho is that it costs something crazy like 120MP to cast, that's a lot of MP down the drain. If you do the quest to get the sage scroll, you can cast Twocus Pocus at the beginning of a fight (16MP) which will cast any spell 2x. If your sage is set up with that, just do 2x Multiheals (32MP) and it's basically equal to Omniheal, all for the cost of only 48MP total. Twocus Pocus will also allow you to cast 2x attack spells like Kaboomle (~500HP damage), or 2x kabuff/magic barrier (full party protection of physical attacks/spells) all in one turn.
Sage's special ability tho is the spell they learn near level 80 called 'Magic Burst' - It's an attack spell that uses up all remaining MP. So if you have 400MP, it'll use that, multiply it by 1.5 and attack a boss for 600HP of base damage.
But it seems kind of stupid to use up all your healer's MP, which is where the Sage's coup de grace 'Spelly Breath' comes in as it restores lost MP. So before casting Magic Burst, be sure to have the sage CDG ready to fire. Magic Burst one turn, coup de grace the next. You've unleashed a powerful attack and then get most of your MP back. It's kind of a great big 'FU' to the boss. :lol
It's great to use this in combination with the Paladin's abilities as well. Unleash the Paladin's Coup De Grace which blocks ALL incoming attacks directed at them. And every turn thereafter use 'Forbearance' which has your paladin step in the way of every single attack for the whole party. Basically it buys you several rounds of freedom to do whatever. Completely heal your party, buff everyone out, magic burst, spelly breath. Boss is going nuts as nothing is getting through, you are buffing your party, attacking him, basically unleashing holy hell for a bunch of turns free of charge.
brandonh83
Banned
damn that was a great post Koom, it definitely helps me understand that class a lot more and it does make Sage sound better than Priest especially considering the MP it takes to cast Omniheal anyway. That plus the fact that you explained how Sage and Paladin work well off one another and I wasn't planning on changing my Paladin.
Now I just need to figure out what to do with my martial artist and I think I'll be good to go.
Now I just need to figure out what to do with my martial artist and I think I'll be good to go.
It doesn't affect a full party spell. Like if a boss casts lightning which attacks the whole party. Even tho they are enraged it's not directed at the paladin. The paladin will block the attack on them, but everyone else will get hit. That's were forbearance comes in, it'll absorb ALL that lightning so nobody gets hit with anything.botticus said:
Boss' rage tends to cool quicker than normal enemies as well, especially when they attack 2/3x a turn. You can enrage them one turn with the paladin, then they will cool off the end of the next turn and start attacking everyone individually again. Forbearance gets over that by absorbing every attack, and since the CDG Knight Watch is in effect, no damage gets through ever.
Paladin's are pretty handy to have around, plus they can simply sacrifice themselves in battle if you are that bad off. If someone is ready to die, you can do forbearance or selflessness and they will take some hits, even if it means they die while your party is healing up. Or if your sage happens to suddenly die, a paladin can cast 'Kerplunk', basically killing themselves to bring your sage back to life. Your sage can then return the favor next turn with a nice Kazing.
Basically Sage + Paladin is good teamwork.
brandonh83
Banned
wow what a coincidence, my paladin just learned kerplunk :lol
is it strange that I'm considering making a new MA from scratch? I don't know, I have this complex where if I don't like the look of something I want to change it which probably explains why I feel the urge to rearrange my apartment a few times per year. I know it's probably not an ideal decision considering I'm in post-game but then again I don't guess it would hurt to have another character.
is it strange that I'm considering making a new MA from scratch? I don't know, I have this complex where if I don't like the look of something I want to change it which probably explains why I feel the urge to rearrange my apartment a few times per year. I know it's probably not an ideal decision considering I'm in post-game but then again I don't guess it would hurt to have another character.
Dunno how true it is, but I have read that Deftness = hands, while Agility = feet.Meier said:
So things you would do with your hands, like stealing, attacking with a weapon, spells (i suppose) would be helped by deftness.
Things you would do with your feet, like fleeing from battle, dodging attacks, moving first in a round, would be helped by agility.
Seems a good way to remember what each does.
Still trying to get through the end
But taking my time. I'm leveling up my mage/armamentalist as a sage right now, and my main character (gladiator) as a sage also, since I want to have a good healer for multi player games.
Also, If you look up Seth and Roto on youtube, you'll see the guys that I was talking about last week from my best buy event taking down some legacy bosses. Insanity. They've both revocated multiple times, a gladiator and a sage. My inspiration, haha.
obiulette (sp?), I know there's a tiny bit more
Also, If you look up Seth and Roto on youtube, you'll see the guys that I was talking about last week from my best buy event taking down some legacy bosses. Insanity. They've both revocated multiple times, a gladiator and a sage. My inspiration, haha.
brandonh83
Banned
damn, I'm really digging armamentalist. they do seem pretty helpful. is there any specific armor or weapons that are particularly good for them that I could make or is most of it just stuff I'll find in grottos?