Nyathing To Do

So this is an older tumblr repost about EO4 and class choices. It's a bit outdated now, but still thought I'd repost it :)

For those wondering, I have played EO1 and EO2 now! I own both copies as well as EO:U.

Etrian Odyssey IV Party - Classes and How to Pick Skills

this is what I typed up in my free time because I’m a loser and I’ve been playing far too much EO4 recently :D

This is all like opinion-based, there is zero need for you to follow this and I suggest you play around with skills and stuff on your own :D You can always rest your characters! It costs two levels, but it resets their skill tree and subclass~! Two levels is a lot better than retiring to reset skill tree x__x

it’s worth noting before I start that skills don’t scale very well so like you shouldn’t max low skills like idk max up some passives and strong attacks and good heals and stuff but don’t max like, blaze link or party shield or steel arrow because it’s not worth it, the TP cost goes way up and the attack doesn’t get much stronger in comparison

also I haven’t played through the first three games (I can’t seem to find any copies of them available and DS doesn’t emulate very well — and I would much rather buy them. And I don’t like the classes in 3 QQ) so no real comparisons to other games in the series

ok so first is landsknecthhtasljfalkej such a weird word omg I hate typing it like I always spell it wrong





So these guys are like your basic sword-wielders, they’re p cool and kinda cute too. They have some nice skills, and they can work quite well without subclasses. They will always do a good amount of damage, even if they don’t do the MOST damage on your team. And they’re a bit tanky, so they’re great on the front lines because they can really take a hit (but you’re not going to want to have a landsknecht that’s like, sub-fortress, because trust me they’re not going to do a good job of protecting your team — but subclasses later in this post /o/

These guys are the same pretty much as they have been in other EO games. But they can wield rapiers now~! imho you should pick sword or rapier and stick with it… Starting in the second tier of skills, there are some sword- and rapier-exclusive skills. But you’re probably not going to want to dump all your points into BOTH of these skills, even when you unlock the ability to dual-wield. These weapon-exclusive skills are pretty nice. The two sword ones include an ability that does splash damage, and a slow but really powerful attack. The rapier ones include a piercing ability, and a random multi-target ability.

Now, since I mentioned random multi-target ability, I should mention: multi-target abilities are better than you think, especially with small groups of enemies. Like, if there’s just one enemy, that ability will hit that one enemy multiple times!

Their most popular use in EO4, however, seems to be links! Links are really great, and I mean really really great. At first I was like “lol I don’t get it” but then I used it and it’s really nice~! Basically it’s a strong elemental attack. That’s nothing special, but it’s called a “link” skill for a reason! The next character to attack that same enemy will do additional elemental damage, based on the landsknecht’s skills in that link - meaning, a medic and a sniper will both do about the same damage!

They also have a few defensive skills. They have a passive skill that boosts defense, and a passive skill that will occasionally halve damage dealt to their line. And if you opt to dual-wield, they have an ability that allows them to not sacrifice defense for it~! However, with a shield, you gain access to Power Break and Mind Break, attacking skills that will lower the Attack and Magic damage (respectively) of the target.

My linksknecht specializes in links (obviously, see the cute nickname) and sword skills. I opted to dump points mostly in one element, rather than evenly spread. He always has a shield, and I abuse power/mind break in boss battles, and his link abilities (especially when coupled with the runemaster’s abilities)

but wow let’s move on to the nightseeker





these are new guys :D I haven’t played a nightseeker, but they seem to be more support than damage. they have a lot of status effect skills. Which are SUPER SUPER important.

****SPOILERS**** the boss of stratum 2 requires you to know your status effects. the game literally forces you to use the arcanist you’re given

they also have an assassinate skill type of thing, which is cool but I’m sure as you can imagine there’s a relatively small proc % rate

next is fortress, which is the tank!





so like imo one of the best skills is their taunt! like wow their auto-taunt is really nice like my fortress has like a million more HP than the rest of my team and takes like no damage and even then if you’re that worried they have like a million defensive skills

they can soak up damage from the party, line, people low on damage, w/e. They have defensive skills for every situation. They also have a strike guard and elemental guard, which raises the defense and magic defense of your entire party. they’re like super dumb

dancers are next.





dancers are really weird I don’t understand how they work??? they have a really nice speed/evade passive but they’re not very good as support and they’re not very good as damage-dealers. idk. they’re supposedly good with landsknecht because their skills can proc his link skills, but so can like all of your sniper’s/runemasters/attacks and they’re much better at it because they do like a billion damage

also they’re adorable and I would totally cosplay one (I have the body for it as well)

SPEAKING OF SNIPERS THEY’RE NEXT THEY’RE ARCHERS I LOVE ARCHERS LIKE THEY ARE SO COOL





basically you can go bind-sniper or dmg-sniper or you can be a loser like me and be both (but then it’ll be kind of mediocre in both but hehehe idc)

snipers have a head bind, arm bind, and leg bind (if you’re curious, typically a head bind will block elemental/magic attacks, arm bind will effect melee dmg, leg bind will lower evasiveness) and they have a bunch of attacks that use binds. like, there’s chase bind - whenever someone binds an enemy, they’ll get an extra normal attack, which is p cool. they also have an ability that kind of “eats” the binds, like, it unbinds them and does dmg based on the number of binds. there’s also an ability that makes your crit rate go waaay up against bound enemies

snipers also do like TONS OF DAMAGE (sorry turned into phreak there) they have a bunch of abilities that raise crit rate (passively but there’s also lock on, which is not passive and I really like it, esp early on when your crit rate isn’t as high). they also have a piercing ability and a line-wide ability, steel arrow and flank shot, which are really nice. but like, they also have squall volley, which is random multi-target, and supposedly really good, but it seems to miss like every shot?? not particularly great imo EXCEPT THAT IT’S REQUIRED TO USE DIVINE SHOT (the ability that “eats” binds)

oh also they have a passive that raises their attack power

ok so next is runemaster aka mage like their outfits are sooo cute c: the white-haired girl looks just like my dnd mage omg ww also those hats are adorable I would totally wear that in the winter SOMEBODY MAKE ME A RUNEMASTER HAT PLS





so these guys basically have three elements, thunder, ice, and fire. I did the same kind of thing I did with my linksknecht, so she specializes in one element, but has every elemental attack at least unlocked with one skillpoint.

so let’s start with the runes that don’t do damage: volt rune, ice rune, and fire rune. These basically lower the enemy’s resistance to that element, and raise the party’s. so if you use like fire rune on an enemy and then use fire attacks, those fire attacks will do a bunch of damage because all of a sudden wham bam the enemy is weak to fire. these skills are a must

ok so fire abilities. the first one, fireball, hits one target and splashes to the enemy on each side. it’s really nice early-on. then you have flame rune, which hits all targets. like, all of them. not randomly. it just hits everyone. then is inferno, which hits one target.

ice~! first is ice lance, which is a piercing ability. so it hits an enemy, and an enemy in the back line. then is glacier, which is random multi-target. then blizzard, which hits everyone.

thunder! lightning hits every enemy in a line. storm hits one enemy, galvanic is random multi-target.

she has origin rune as well, which hits all enemies with untyped damage, but it’s really expensive (45TP at the lowest level… and it just goes up from there)

but runemaster would be nothing without her passives. like omg. obv there’s TP+ passive. and some other things that raise her elemental damage, and there’s a shield and stuff. blah blah. but she has free energy. which is worth putting at least a couple of points in. when it procs, she gets a skill for free! like imagine not having to pay a million TP for origin rune?? she also has runic guidance, which makes her abilities do extra damage if it’s an enemy’s weakness. so like, if you take an enemy that’s already weak to fire, use fire rune, and then inferno, like, it does even MORE damage. like omg you don’t even know it’s great. also runic shield, which is like the magic version of the landsknecht’s passive swordbreaker. it sometimes prevents elemental damage to allies in their line

oh yea and she has standard like “increases elemental power” passives

runemasters are like, glass cannons though. never put a runemaster in front line with linksknecht, no matter what people tell you. her class skill (increases magical attack and defense for allies in line) isn’t worth it. her defense prob actually saves my back line sometimes. but a rm gets oneshot. but they do SO MUCH DAMAGE

next is medic. your basic healer.





they have single-target heals, line heals, party heals, heal boosts, auto-heal, status eliminators, revive, auto-revive blah blah. it’s unfortunate that you only get TP boosts in the third tier :C

ARCANISTS ARE REALLY COOL I ADOOOORE THEIR ADDITIONAL COLOUR PALETTES





they’re status dealers. most of their skills put down a “circle”. so like, if you use poison circle, for the next three turns there’s a chance for enemies to be poisoned. there are skills you can use to end a circle in order to heal your party or do damage to the enemies. they can poison, bind, paralyze, stun, sleep, etc. and they have a passive that returns TP when they cause a status effect, eliminate an enemy’s resistance to status effects (which happens over time during battle), and a passive which increases chance of inflicting ailments

next is bushi.





bushi’s are like, anthros. they are big on attacks… they have a bunch of skills that up attacks at the cost of health, a passive skill called endure (which lets them survive and attack that would kill them) idk much about them but it was fun to play around with

imperials are kind of weird but high-damage in terms of basic numbers





basically they can use super strong attacks, but it forces them into a kind of cooldown state. the abilities you can use depend on whether or not their sword is overheating, and even moreso some only are useable if you use certain attacks. so like they have attacks that do way more damage than anyone else on your team, but you can only do it once every like 8 or 9 turns

SUBCLASSING

imo, arcanist and nightseeker classes are very good subclasses. dancer and imperial make ok subclasses.

nightseekers are a nice subclass because they have a speed increaser. this is nice for anyone, but a landsknecht can take advantage of this really well, since they have a passive that lets them do extra damage if they go first. they also have a passive ability that lets weapon attack skills activate twice. you know. like LINKS. :D

arcanists as a subclass depend on the primary class. a sniper, for example, wants TP return for inflicting ailments, and an increased chance of inflicting ailments. but like, a medic will want bracing walk (heals party while walking around), circle boon (heals a bit of HP when there’s a circle, and some circles (and of course, dismiss blast, which removes circle to return HP to party). my medic has minimum points in each circle. hey, if he’s not healing, he’s dealing status effects

medic is also a really nice subclass for arcanist. arcanist/medic can be reversed, they’re both really good, and it doesn’t matter that much. but you kind of need both on your party, but they can often just be kind of useless without a subclass. so they fit together nicely~!

dancer is an ok subclass choice because of their speed boost passive, which increases speed, hit rate, and evasiveness. it doesn’t have any prerequisites, so as a subclass, anyone in your party can get like free speed for like two skill points

picking a subclass for a runemaster can be hard. obviously you don’t have to, but you get free points for subclassing, so there’s no reason not to. but runemasters are skillpoint hogs. they need every skillpoint they can get, because there are a LOT of great skills that are really hard to do without. imperialist is a good choice for runemaster, because there are a couple of skills that are really great. hawkeye and absorber are nice. hawkeye decreases an enemy’s elemental defense, and absorber recovers TP after striking an enemy’s weakness. absorber is a MUST, and hawkeye is pretty decent (you don’t need much more than those two points and honestly I could live without hawkeye, but it’s a prerequisite for absorber). finisher is really nice, as it recovers some TP when you defeat an enemy. it doesn’t seem to proc multiple times in a turn, so if your runemaster kills two enemies with blizzard, you only get TP return for ONE of those enemies. wide effect is unlocked with points in finisher, which gives some splash damage for attacks that usually target just one enemy. which makes things like inferno, a one-target third-tier ability, really nice. imperials also have element boost, which further increases elemental and untyped attack power.

but again these are all just opinions based off of my team, which probably won’t be very good post-game. But they certainly do their job in the main game, and you really can’t go wrong with L/N F/D S/A M/A R/I from what I’ve seen. Certainly give your own opinions :D RM and B are nice subclasses for linksknechts due to their damage increases and stuff. Before I unlocked Imperial, my runemaster was a sub-arcanist as well, mostly dealing with dismiss blow and the two eye skills (which lowered enemy’s attacks and defenses). Since I had three sub-arcanists, one of which focused on just passive bonuses and one on circles and healing, there were already circles for my rm to take advantage of to deal untyped damage.

no but really I don’t get why people put RM in front when they get one-shot… even a fortress isn’t going to be able to tank a lot of hits from like, a dragon, and like I don’t get why everyone loves squall volley when it never seems to hit - and when it does, for minimal damage?