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[Head of Vengarl]

Alright I put Shulk and Dunban in full Rondine, and Melia and Riki in full Hierax because I like how ridiculous they look in it (Riki looks like a fluffy cat lol). I also don't use Melia too much anyway; I prefer melee characters.

What about Reyn? I have full Rex and M-100 sets, and it's kind of like Rondine/Hierax where one has more physical defense and the other has more ether def. Which is more important for him?

And yeah, Sharla. I guess she can wear whatever, something like Lancelot works because her agility doesn't matter much. I generally avoid using her since she is like the worst character in the game, I don't even remember what her HP is like but I'd probably avoid heavy if it's low unless I know I won't be dealing with any ether attacks.

Lol, poor Sharla. But it's true. I just put her in a full M-100 set because it makes her look like a

Spoiler

Machina

lol.

 

[BassForever]

So I just got the heropon Riki on my team, little dude is awesome. I thought for sure Dunban would be my main character but now Melia and Riki all vie for my attention.

Also what exactly is a good Reyn build? I use everyone equally but I always find parties with Reyn take longer to kill things then parties without him (ignoring Sharla who at least has great healing and decent support).

 

[Karsticles]

I just want to say that with Sharla, I think it's worth putting status debuff gems on her. Her DPS will always be low, but she can compliment the team's DPS to make up for her lack, which balances out her support role.

 

[Rebel Leader]

So I just got the heropon Riki on my team, little dude is awesome. I thought for sure Dunban would be my main character but now Melia and Riki all vie for my attention.

Also what exactly is a good Reyn build? I use everyone equally but I always find parties with Reyn take longer to kill things then parties without him (ignoring Sharla who at least has great healing and decent support).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smM7SfUfLbs

 

[BriareosGAF]

Also what exactly is a good Reyn build? I use everyone equally but I always find parties with Reyn take longer to kill things then parties without him (ignoring Sharla who at least has great healing and decent support).

I think in the Gospel According to Chaosblade(tm), there is no good Reyn build, and Sharla is dead weight. Focus on Dunban tank with agility buff, Shulk for DPS and Monado Arts, and then your pick of DPS third/cycle through to build affinity.

 

[chaosblade]

Well, there are good Reyn builds, sort of.

Berserk + Magnum Charge + Sword Drive is a great combo, does insane damage but it's a one-off thing, and I don't think the AI will do it. He's also one of the best party members for toppling/dazing since he is the only character with basic arts for both, each with low cooldowns.

 

[ActStriker]

So I finally decided to play through Xenoblade, and got past the part where I stopped in the EU version because of the NA announcement (before Ether Mine). I love this game.

Satorl Marsh at night is stunning.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

^ Yes it is. Dat music.

So I got tired of collecting art manuals, which is basically all I have left to do, so I went ahead and beat the final boss again and chose to start a NG+ this time. Man, I forgot how fucking awesome that final stage is. And that final boss music with the choir chanting...

And the epilogue still got me all

Spoiler

warm and fuzzy. Even though I'm still mad at Shulk for being too much of a pussy to make a move on Fiora.

I love this game. Can't wait to play through it again. And again, and again (gotta get those affinity coins).

 

[chaosblade]

Affinity coins mean insane things.

One standard NG+ playthrough will give you enough coins to break the game quite a bit.

On the second NG+, things get well beyond broken and more in the territory of "destroyed." That's how a level 55 party killed Abaasy with no chain attacks or topples! ;D Something a lot of people can't seem to pull off with a standard level 99 party (but they should).



And yeah, I love the final dungeon. They really, really should have disabled the battle theme for it though. It would have made it that much more intense.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Haha yeah I can't wait. How many coins are you up to at this point? I imagine you've beaten the game quite a few times by now.

And yes the final dungeon is boss, but I was referring to the final, final area. So epic and pretty. I remember the first time I got there and I was like, whaaaaaaaaat!

 

[chaosblade]

I only did NG+ once, and that was with reduced levels so I ended up with basically NG+ and a half worth of coins. Was around 360, and I was way more limited by the skill shapes available than I was by coins.

Didn't even spend all of them on 7th, had 20 something left and just nothing relevant to spend them on since that character has no star shape links.

And that final dungeon, I actually didn't care for that part nearly as much. That part actually felt kind of overdone to me. But

Spoiler

revisiting Prison Island where you first met Zanza and where the story really began, now chasing down Zanza, was a perfect finale.

 

[Snacks the sober sea lion]

Xenoblade's story never did anything for me. Especially because Shulk is so ceaselessly boring. Rolled right off the shonen hero assembly line.

I wish you could reset your stats but not weapons. There's a lot to slog through one-hitting everything before you reach what you wanted to do.

 

[Elfforkusu]

So, on the one year anniversary of beating the game, I finally beat Avalanche Abaasy. Suck it down, stupid dragon!

Pretty standard 7th/Dunban/Shulk. Level 99, night vision, debuff resist. No NG+. Wasn't easy. Had him about 75% dead, but then daybreak hit and god damn it!

Special thanks to chaosblade for the tips at the top of this page! Though I really doubt most people could beat him "with any party" without NG+ skill link hax. Dunban is essential, the ability to dodge everything was a lifesaver.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Xenoblade's story never did anything for me. Especially because Shulk is so ceaselessly boring. Rolled right off the shonen hero assembly line.

:O

Well everyone knows the real hero of the story is

Spoiler

Dunban

. But he's too much of a boss to be the main character.

 

[patrickthehedgehog]

Why does my wii suddenly want to do an update for this game? I can't launch the disc without it.

 

[Elfforkusu]

:O

Well everyone knows the real hero of the story is

Spoiler

Dunban

. But he's too much of a boss to be the main character.

Spoiler

Melia

for life!

 

[Zornica]

:O

Well everyone knows the real hero of the story is

Spoiler

Heropon

. But he's too much of a boss to be the main character.

fixed that for you

 

[chaosblade]

So, on the one year anniversary of beating the game, I finally beat Avalanche Abaasy. Suck it down, stupid dragon!

Pretty standard 7th/Dunban/Shulk. Level 99, night vision, debuff resist. No NG+. Wasn't easy. Had him about 75% dead, but then daybreak hit and god damn it!

Special thanks to chaosblade for the tips at the top of this page! Though I really doubt most people could beat him "with any party" without NG+ skill link hax. Dunban is essential, the ability to dodge everything was a lifesaver.

I don't know about anybody doing it, but with a good enough understanding of the game or experience/practice with particular parties it should be possible with any party without NG+. I just didn't word that very well.

The party combination I can see having the most trouble is probably a group of Reyn/7th/Melia. This particular party has a lot of disadvantages, namely forcing characters into roles they aren't "intended" to be in.

-Crap healing (no Sharla, Riki, or Shulk) which makes it difficult to stay alive after his big attacks.
-Along with the above, Melia will have to heal and can't focus on DPS where she really shines
-Reyn is there and he can't really tank due to said crap healing, so he's basically going to work DPS, which he isn't great at outside occasional bursts (berserk and/or magnum charge + sword drive). The AI will want to anyway, so you have to work around that.
-Toppling is going to be extremely unreliable (no break arts), Melia can do solo topples but nobody can build off those. 7th can do an auto-topple, but I'm not sure if Reyn can follow it up. Combined with Abaasy's time resist, toppling is just about out of the question.
-Melia and Reyn typically aren't good characters for gauge building. You can make it work and probably have to in this fight with Reyn at minimum, but it's not ideal.

To make it work, 7th needs to tank despite complaints from Reyn's AI. 7th can be set up with skill links for self-healing even without NG+ if you hunted down almost all the Unique Monsters, but the other two aren't quite as lucky. You're stuck with Melia's weak healing arts for them. Probably worth trying to plug in burst affinity and chain healing, but those will probably cost too much.

Reyn's role would be DPS (bleh!) and working with 7th to build the gauge. Aside from attempting to heal, Melia also needs to try to keep DoT debuffs up. Giving her 7ths skill that increases the tension level on talent art usage is probably worth the affinity coins, because it will keep her in permanent burst mode to increase DoT (and healing w/ aqua? not sure) and make Mind Blast available.

Chains would be a must for this party, and you have to execute them while Melia has three elements ready so she doesn't break your multiplier by using Blue arts.


Other party combinations have the synergy to do it with less trouble, in theory at least. I'm actually tempted to try it with the above party and try to make it work.

:O

Well everyone knows the real hero of the story is

Spoiler

Dunban

. But he's too much of a boss to be the main character.

They gimped him so hard after his little disagreement with Shulk a bit over halfway through the game. Harshly implemented Worf Effect. He almost single-handedly defeats the defeats the Mechon army at the beginning of the game, wields the Monado despite [youknowwhat] and just generally kicks ass and practically acts as the leader for the first half the game. Then the next thing you know he can't handle himself without Shulk backing him up.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

They gimped him so hard after his little disagreement with Shulk a bit over halfway through the game. Harshly implemented Worf Effect. He almost single-handedly defeats the defeats the Mechon army at the beginning of the game, wields the Monado despite [youknowwhat] and just generally kicks ass and practically acts as the leader for the first half the game. Then the next thing you know he can't handle himself without Shulk backing him up.

Yeah that was some bullshit, but I guess it had to be done. Dunban is kind of like Kamina from Gurren Lagann, except

Spoiler

instead of killing him off to let the main character inherit the "chosen hero" role, they just gimped him.

 

[Karsticles]

-Toppling is going to be extremely unreliable (no break arts), Melia can do solo topples but nobody can build off those. 7th can do an auto-topple, but I'm not sure if Reyn can follow it up. Combined with Abaasy's time resist, toppling is just about out of the question.
-Melia and Reyn typically aren't good characters for gauge building. You can make it work and probably have to in this fight with Reyn at minimum, but it's not ideal.

Why are you not sure if Reyn can follow-up from Final Cross?

Other party combinations have the synergy to do it with less trouble, in theory at least. I'm actually tempted to try it with the above party and try to make it work.

How about we both do it and post our respective strategies? I have some ideas, but I like the idea of us both trying and defeating him using different means.

I'm actually curious if I can pull this off with Reyn tanking. Do you want to go for a 7th tank setup, and I'll go for Reyn?

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Reyn could follow up a Final Cross, but that still isn't very reliable. FC requires full tension and has a very long cooldown.

 

[chaosblade]

Why are you not sure if Reyn can follow-up from Final Cross?


How about we both do it and post our respective strategies? I have some ideas, but I like the idea of us both trying and defeating him using different means.

I'm actually curious if I can pull this off with Reyn tanking. Do you want to go for a 7th tank setup, and I'll go for Reyn?

I'll have to see if I have a save that will be good for it. If I do I'll probably have to do some gem grinding first.

And I don't remember if Reyn's topple art requires break or if it also works on a straight topple. But now that I think about it I ran Shulk and Dunban's topples off Final Cross, so there's really no reason why Reyn's shouldn't work either. But yeah, you're still talking a limit of two topples, and with Abaasy's time resist that's effective one "normal" topple (since Melia's does require Spear Break separately regardless of whether or not the enemy is toppled).


Edit: Yeah, I have a level 99 save on my PAL copy I should be able to work off of. Will have to collect some gems, art books, and finish unlocking a handful of skill though. Maybe nab a few more affinity coins since I'm only at 223, and I don't have a clue what I have and haven't killed.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

NG+ question: If I kill a unique monster at the beginning of the game, does the affinity coin carry forward to all of the characters? Or do I have to wait until I unlock them all again.

*Edit — I'm reading that affinity coins go in a shared pool. Is this true? I'll start my UM hunt tonight if that's how it is.

 

[chaosblade]

Yeah, every character gets affinity coins whether they are in your party at the time or not.

 

[Karsticles]

Reyn could follow up a Final Cross, but that still isn't very reliable. FC requires full tension and has a very long cooldown.

Team attacks.

I'll have to see if I have a save that will be good for it. If I do I'll probably have to do some gem grinding first.

And I don't remember if Reyn's topple art requires break or if it also works on a straight topple. But now that I think about it I ran Shulk and Dunban's topples off Final Cross, so there's really no reason why Reyn's shouldn't work either. But yeah, you're still talking a limit of two topples, and with Abaasy's time resist that's effective one "normal" topple (since Melia's does require Spear Break separately regardless of whether or not the enemy is toppled).

Reyn can re-topple from a topple. I might run Topple Plus to try for the lock, but we'll see how it goes.

Edit: Yeah, I have a level 99 save on my PAL copy I should be able to work off of. Will have to collect some gems, art books, and finish unlocking a handful of skill though. Maybe nab a few more affinity coins since I'm only at 223, and I don't have a clue what I have and haven't killed.

I'm in much worse shape, haha. It'll be a few weeks before I have the time, but I'm excited to tackle this. I don't even have Night Vision gems (like, any).

NG+ question: If I kill a unique monster at the beginning of the game, does the affinity coin carry forward to all of the characters? Or do I have to wait until I unlock them all again.

*Edit — I'm reading that affinity coins go in a shared pool. Is this true? I'll start my UM hunt tonight if that's how it is.

As I understand it, it carries to all characters.

 

[chaosblade]

I could probably try for a lock right now, I have the gems for that, but I'm not setup enough for any sort of backup plan.

 

[Velti]

I don't know what you guys are talking about in regards to Reyn. He's a great sponge and delivers on damage, letting the other characters murder w/e you're dealing with. I pack him with w/e arts will up his defense and let him last longer, then use him to draw things off of Melia. >:3 Lately I've been summoning two winds on her to stack up everyone's agility, then using the third for damage delivery.

Sharla's been serving me surprisingly well also, especially on enemies with nasty spike damage. Her insta-kill has helped me out a few times, too.

I feel like I need to go art-book hunting for 7th. Most of her damage delivery arts are still first tier.

 

[chaosblade]

Got him to half HP twice. First time was just messy and I'm surprised I lasted as long as I did. Second was going really well until Reyn got aggro, then everything was ruined because Abaasy dropped Demon Purging Fire without a vision so Melia and 7th went down and Reyn survived with like 700HP, which didn't last long.

I found my best bet was keeping several Wind summons up for agility, Melia was hitting her spear breaks and starlight kicks consistently. Then with a chain going I could use a wind summon or two to keep the multiplier going with red arts after exhausting my topple options. With nothing else to do between cooldowns and chains, I'd fire off a DoT element.

I don't have the advanced book for Starlight Kick yet, which could make quite a difference with the improved cooldown, even a few seconds could make a big difference since I've really struggled keeping him down even with topple plus gems, but often I'm just a couple seconds off getting a chain going to re-topple. His time resist combined with this party's inefficient gauge building (even with haste + critical double attacks) just isn't a good combination.

 

[Samyy]

Tomorrow I finish my last exam and resume my glorious Xenoblade journey <3 Its been a long 4 months

 

[Karsticles]

Got him to half HP twice. First time was just messy and I'm surprised I lasted as long as I did. Second was going really well until Reyn got aggro, then everything was ruined because Abaasy dropped Demon Purging Fire without a vision so Melia and 7th went down and Reyn survived with like 700HP, which didn't last long.

I found my best bet was keeping several Wind summons up for agility, Melia was hitting her spear breaks and starlight kicks consistently. Then with a chain going I could use a wind summon or two to keep the multiplier going with red arts after exhausting my topple options. With nothing else to do between cooldowns and chains, I'd fire off a DoT element.

I don't have the advanced book for Starlight Kick yet, which could make quite a difference with the improved cooldown, even a few seconds could make a big difference since I've really struggled keeping him down even with topple plus gems, but often I'm just a couple seconds off getting a chain going to re-topple. His time resist combined with this party's inefficient gauge building (even with haste + critical double attacks) just isn't a good combination.

When you get a team attack going, what's your sequence of strikes? Personally, I like to put 7th first in a team like this because she can start the topple first, and then if she gets a second attack she can re-pop her haste buff and go to town.

Are there any good articles on aggro out there? This game's aggro really boggles my mind, like it resets after a while or it's based on "recent aggro" instead of net aggro. Sometimes I'm just ripping along and someone suddenly pulls aggro, and I just don't get what happened so late in the fight. It doesn't seem damage-based, at the very least, since I've had Reyn lose aggro shortly after pulling with the big bang combo.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Yeah, every character gets affinity coins whether they are in your party at the time or not.

Awesome. Time to go hunting.

I'm really enjoying playing through the story again, even though it's still pretty fresh in my mind. There's a lot of little things I either missed or didn't remember, though. I was expecting to be skipping most of the cutscenes but I haven't skipped a single one yet. I just got to Satorl Marsh.

I don't know what you guys are talking about in regards to Reyn. He's a great sponge and delivers on damage, letting the other characters murder w/e you're dealing with.

I don't think anybody thinks Reyn is bad — it's just that Dunban is better. He deals more sustained damage and is an easier tank to heal because he dodges so well. Still, I love the Shulk/Dunban/Reyn party for topple-locking. Reyn is the king of topple.

I feel like I need to go art-book hunting for 7th. Most of her damage delivery arts are still first tier.

First tier? Go to the

Spoiler

Hidden Machina Village on Fallen Arm

and buy the intermediate art books that they sell there. For the rest of her intermediate books, you'll have to get level 5 commerce in Colony 6 to buy them.

 

[chaosblade]

When you get a team attack going, what's your sequence of strikes? Personally, I like to put 7th first in a team like this because she can start the topple first, and then if she gets a second attack she can re-pop her haste buff and go to town.

Are there any good articles on aggro out there? This game's aggro really boggles my mind, like it resets after a while or it's based on "recent aggro" instead of net aggro. Sometimes I'm just ripping along and someone suddenly pulls aggro, and I just don't get what happened so late in the fight. It doesn't seem damage-based, at the very least, since I've had Reyn lose aggro shortly after pulling with the big bang combo.

Maining Melia, if I can't get spear break off before the chain I open with that, then 7th for Final Cross, Reyn with Wild Down, Melia Starlight Kick, then I'll start dropping some red arts and elements from Melia. It works really well when I can open with Starlight Kick instead, since that gives me a 3 green chain, then I can use an elemental to wildcard the multiplier and change it to red giving 7th and Reyn the opportunity to lay on some heavy damage with Spear Blade (3x to toppled enemies) and Sword Drive.

And I haven't seen any good explanations on how aggro works. I think on the most basic level it's damage dealt, but then once you start throwing arts in there it gets more complicated, and even more so with various aggro-affecting skills. And aggro might also wear off, that would fit how it seems to work.

 

[Scoops]

Had this since the North American launch but now that the semester's over I jumped right back in today by playing 5 hours.

What a game.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

^ Glad you're getting into it!

So I had a weird day. I took out every (available) unique monster in Colony 9, Tephra Cave, Bionis' Leg, Colony 6, and Satorl Marsh. I just arrived at Makna Forest and killed two of the uniques there before calling it a night. For some reason the hunting of uniques reminded me of Akatsuki hunting down the tailed beasts in Naruto, and I went back and started reading the manga. I had totally forgotten about it; it's been several years since I last read a chapter. Four hours of reading later I started wondering where my afternoon went. I never thought I'd still be reading Naruto comics at 23 years old. Oh well. It's still pretty entertaining.

 

[Zornica]

just tried playing the game with dolphin, it seemed to run slightly better than last time I tried it, not sure what changed... but that weird sound glitch is still present sometimes. are there any good configs to get rid of that?

 

[chaosblade]

just tried playing the game with dolphin, it seemed to run slightly better than last time I tried it, not sure what changed... but that weird sound glitch is still present sometimes. are there any good configs to get rid of that?

If your PC is fast enough LLE will fix it. There's also a patch that is supposed to help with HLE.

 

[Toth]

Here is a storyline question that has been bugging me:

Just how long was it from the war of the titans to the start of the story?

Spoiler

I ask because it seems like almost 1000 years but I cannot imagine how an angry, revenge driven Egil and the mechons could not enact his plans in all that time.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Fun NG+ tip: Put a Back Attack Plus VI gem on Reyn, sneak up behind unique monsters, and assassinate them by jamming a Sword Drive right up their tailpipes. Most uniques before Makna Forest have gone down in one shot so far, and a Magnum Charged Lariat has finished off all of the survivors. This also works with Shulk and Back Slash, but it's more fun with Reyn.

I've been on a lucky streak in Xenoblade lately &#8212; getting rare arts manuals on my first try, quickly getting thunderstorms on Bionis' Leg so I could take out the (somewhat) rare unique monsters there, and so on. I knew it was too good to be true, so when high winds caused a power outage at my house last night and I lost a good 1.5 hours of gameplay, I wasn't too upset. What upset me was that when I came back and redid all of my progress, I couldn't for the life of me get a goddamn hot day in Makna Forest. I seriously sat there changing the clock for 45 minutes. Finally, right before I was going to head off to bed at midnight, I got it, and Shimmering Forte happened to spawn right where I was standing, startling the shit out of me when dat music came on. Sheesh.

 

[chaosblade]

Sword Drive + Berserk + Magnum Charge + Back Attack VI is easily the most powerful combination in the game.

If you could get that off just right at chain link 5, you could even knock off the majority of Abaasy's HP. That's actually one thing I want to try, but getting it to work is difficult since Reyn is stupid and constantly uses Mad Taunt ASAP (meaning I can't use Magnum Charge), even when I don't want him to have aggro. It's like, come on you idiot, you have a BACK ATTACK gem, why would I want you in front of the enemy?

 

[Head of Vengarl]

If you could get that off just right at chain link 5, you could even knock off the majority of Abaasy's HP.

I'd love to see you pull that off on video.

I've noticed something odd while "assassinating" monsters with Reyn. I'll go right up behind them and use Sword Drive or Lariat, and if they survive they turn around and start fighting. However, even though they are now facing my party, the AI Shulk will sometimes get a 3x power Back Slash on the monster. Is it because he started the animation before the monster fully turned to face us? It's good news for me in any case.

I got to Eryth Sea and cleared every unique monster (save for that one that only appears after a certain event). I got some unexpected treasures from the higher level uniques: a Blinding Blossom manual and the ether crystals that I later mega heated into 2 Lightning Attack VI gems, which chaosblade recommended I try.

I forgot how beautiful Eryth Sea looks in the evening and night — especially a starry night. I'm like 208 hours in and I still stopped and just stared at the scenery for a while. The only other game to have that effect on me was Okami. Amazing stuff.

 

[EulaCapra]

Well, after delaying the inevitable end and spending 193+ hours doing everything humanly possible in the game besides beating that super leveled monster and getting the game back in April and saying to myself that I should at least finish the game this year, I finally decided to end the game.

And oh boy, I loved it. For the ending,

Spoiler

I was initially just shell shocked that the game was actually set in the future past our Earth world and has origins thanks to Earth humans as I always assumed it was just set in an alternate world and time, but I loved the whole free will/power of a God themes. Not expecting Alvis to be a program either.

Excellent, excellent ending for an excellent, excellent game.

Last Boss Quibble:

Spoiler

could Zanza have any more sharp pointy things coming out of him? It's like each transformation he gets 10,000 more sharp and pointy things sticking out of every corner.

My expectations for all future RPG's I play has considerably been upped a notch now.

 

[chaosblade]

I'd love to see you pull that off on video.

I've noticed something odd while "assassinating" monsters with Reyn. I'll go right up behind them and use Sword Drive or Lariat, and if they survive they turn around and start fighting. However, even though they are now facing my party, the AI Shulk will sometimes get a 3x power Back Slash on the monster. Is it because he started the animation before the monster fully turned to face us? It's good news for me in any case.

I got to Eryth Sea and cleared every unique monster (save for that one that only appears after a certain event). I got some unexpected treasures from the higher level uniques: a Blinding Blossom manual and the ether crystals that I later mega heated into 2 Lightning Attack VI gems, which chaosblade recommended I try.

I forgot how beautiful Eryth Sea looks in the evening and night &#8212; especially a starry night. I'm like 208 hours in and I still stopped and just stared at the scenery for a while. The only other game to have that effect on me was Okami. Amazing stuff.

Lightning Attack is a flat +250 damage that ignores defense. Depending on the situation you might find that something like Attack Stability works better. The main difference, though, is the defense factor. When you're fighting an enemy like the superbosses that have a lot of defense plus your stat reduction due to the level difference, that 250 damage could very well be a better choice than a >+300 Attack Stability improvement. Especially on 7th where that 250 damage adds up very quickly.

And of course you can always improve that to a maximum of +1000 damage, but you have to use all three weapon slots to do that (two lightning attacks stack for 500 damage, plus lightning up for a 100% damage increase). And depending on what you're doing that can be a fun little thing, especially if your haste gem is in an armor slot.

And directional arts are checked when you activate it, not when it animates. So as long as you have the direction right when you start the attack, you'll get the added effect/damage.

 

[beanman25]

Have had the game for a while but never played it. Going to start it today.

Really excited!

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Hunted down all of the available uniques in Valak. I'm getting closer to the point in the game where I'll have to decide if it's worth it to go back and do all the quests that give you quest-exclusive unique monsters. There's only 6 of them at this point, and I really don't want to do sidequests anymore... I figure it would be more worth my time to just blast through the story and do another NG+ loop. Haven't decided yet though.

Here is a storyline question that has been bugging me:

Just how long was it from the war of the titans to the start of the story?

Spoiler

I ask because it seems like almost 1000 years but I cannot imagine how an angry, revenge driven Egil and the mechons could not enact his plans in all that time.

Spoiler

It's likely been about 1,000 years. When you first meet "Zanza" (the giant) at Prison Island, he says "I have waited centuries for you." So yeah. And I can't comment on why it took Egil so long... maybe he had to rebuild everything from scratch before he could even begin mass producing mechon again. Zanza did a number on their city.

Lightning Attack is a flat +250 damage that ignores defense. Depending on the situation you might find that something like Attack Stability works better. The main difference, though, is the defense factor. When you're fighting an enemy like the superbosses that have a lot of defense plus your stat reduction due to the level difference, that 250 damage could very well be a better choice than a >+300 Attack Stability improvement. Especially on 7th where that 250 damage adds up very quickly.

And of course you can always improve that to a maximum of +1000 damage, but you have to use all three weapon slots to do that (two lightning attacks stack for 500 damage, plus lightning up for a 100% damage increase). And depending on what you're doing that can be a fun little thing, especially if your haste gem is in an armor slot.

And directional arts are checked when you activate it, not when it animates. So as long as you have the direction right when you start the attack, you'll get the added effect/damage.

I had no idea Electric Plus had an effect on Lightning Attack gems, LOL. I'm having some fun with it. I'll probably put 2 Lightning Attacks on 7th for 500 damage and the third slot will be Double Attack VI, for dem crits.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Cleared S

Spoiler

wor

d V

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alle

y and G

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alaha

d F

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ortres

s, and now I'm at F

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alle

n A

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r

m. Two quick notes:

1. I had forgotten about the music at G

Spoiler

alaha

d F

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ortres

s; I think it might be one of the most underrated tracks of the game.

2. The intro scene to F

Spoiler

alle

n A

Spoiler

r

m (where

Spoiler

Shulk has that dream of falling and then it whites out to the camera panning down on the fallen arm

) is one of my favorite cutscenes in the game. I love how the music and the way you got there makes it feel so surreal and mysterious. I love this part of the story. Shit quickly starts to get real.

Now, off to kill me some uniques!

 

[BriareosGAF]

F

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alle

n A

Spoiler

r

m

This was my favorite area visually bar none. It's just really stunningly realized, and when you climb all the way up to that vista and can see the whole zone below (

Spoiler

and that dragon is sitting up there

), it's just great. Their engine is so aggressively well designed around LODing, it makes the game programmer in me very happy (and slightly sad when they waste it on shitty M

Spoiler

echoni

s interiors).

 

[depward]

Question:

I'm about 1.5 hours in now, at the first real quest (at the cave) with two party members.

I've now died two times to unique mobs. Like, they both just absolutely destroyed me. I'm level 8, equipped the best dropped equipment for all three party members (one was level 8 and the other level 10).

What am I doing wrong?

 

[chaosblade]

Question:

I'm about 1.5 hours in now, at the first real quest (at the cave) with two party members.

I've now died two times to unique mobs. Like, they both just absolutely destroyed me. I'm level 8, equipped the best dropped equipment for all three party members (one was level 8 and the other level 10).

What am I doing wrong?

Unique monsters are a lot stronger than normal ones, as you have found out. Early on in the game it will probably be pretty hard to beat most of them until you are a few levels higher than them.

All of them are beatable at a similar or even lower level if you are good enough though. Take advantage of chain attacks and topples, and good armor and gems will help a lot. If you can't beat them you can just skip them for now, but the drops and experience are good (for the time at least) so it's worth killing them when you can. And the affinity coins will be extremely useful later.

 

[Mockingbird]

Just started this yesterday even though I've owned the game since launch. Great game! Do I need to purchase talent arts manual to level them up? Or will they level up as I level up?

 

[BriareosGAF]

Just started this yesterday even though I've owned the game since launch. Great game! Do I need to purchase talent arts manual to level them up? Or will they level up as I level up?

The manuals determine your max level, you gain levels by spending skill points on the skills, which are accrued by all characters through battles, etc.