TMS#FE Question regarding Spirit, Body and Almighty skills

[Quintessence]

As most of you have seen, this is my first playthrough of the game and I've enjoyed it A LOT, so much that it's my fave among all the FE games, despite this one not being a main game in the series.

The question is if Spirit, Body and/or Almighty skills are worth taking a slot at the Command Skills? My main concern is that they don't trigger sessions (as far as I know and am in the game: Ch. 4 Intermission right when Yashiro joins, for reference) which limits imo the utility and usefulness of the skills. Life Leech and Mana Drain are quite nice skills, as well as Nosferatu and Lullaby Song but they just take a turn where you could've triggered a session/duo art and rekt the enemy. I currently have Megido+2 on Kiria since it hits hard but I feel sad for not exploiting them. What's the concesus for them? Or what would you advice me to do with them? Are they worth it or should I opt for something else?

Thanks in advance!

[Konnor97]

Eh. It kinda depends, a little. Like for Kiria, she doesn't have many options for skills, so she may dip into Megidolaon or whatever. Mamori maybe, but others, not so much. They're just kinda something to have around until you get other skills, but they generally aren't that useful imo.

[Knight Falchion]

I'm in agreement with Konnor. If you don't have anything better, use them, but the fact that they can't initiate sessions makes them overall worse than skills that can.

[Quintessence]

I'll see if there's room for it for Kiria, as I plan on giving her Agidyne, Bufudyne, Mabufudyne, Zandyne, Concentrate and probably Megidolaon. I saw they get an extra skill through a Radiant Skill with 5-Star Prestige, but as a Sage she also gets some recovery skills.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I wouldn't bother with Concentrate. Only two other PCs can use magic attacks in sessions (and not all the time in either case) and Concentrate doesn't boost physical session attacks. If you aren't getting very close to the full 2.5x boost out of Concentrate/Charge they lose their luster fast.

Megidolaon is decent, since it's substantially stronger than the ma-dyne spells (even with elemental boosting). You give up a session, and that's no small thing, but if there are enough targets it may be worth it. Megido felt relatively weaker for the time though I never checked exactly, and ST almighty/etc. spells are largely junk because sessions do more ST damage, always.

[eclipse]

I use the elemental spells to start sessions. The Megido series works if there's something that resists a lot of things. Never bothered much with Spirit/Body, as the Nosferatu healing wasn't worth it IMO.

[Quintessence]

What skill would I favor in exchange of Concentrate?

= EDIT =

At least in Itsuki's and Kiria's case?

Edited December 15, 2016 by Quintessence

[Konnor97]

Depends on what skills they have. Itsuki has options like Rakunda, Charge, Thunder Strike, or Espada + Diamondsplitter.

Kiria has Makaraguard/karn, Samarecarm, Tarunda, Rakunda, Amrita, or Naga (it can session off of the dragons she can't hit weakness on, if there are any).

[Dark Holy Elf]

I also like Mediarama for anyone who can learn it (unless/until they learn Mediarahan), since it's stronger than all but the rarest items.

[Quintessence]

Sorry I'm late to this. Thanks for the input and the suggestions.

Regarding Itsuki I'm thinking on Focused Blade, Espada, Wyrmicide, Thoron/Ziodyne+3, Mazandyne and probably Mediarama. I'm not so sold at the idea of Charge/Concentrate because I prefer to combo it with his Special Performance Strike a Pose and let another unit Charge/Concentrate and shoot the damaging session. If Itsuko keeps either of them he'll waste a turn and the rest of the enemies will move, making it uncertain if it is wise to deliver the powered session ir heal/revive/cure ailment.

Regarding Kiria, I have a doubt if I should give her the single target -dyne spells or the area ma-dyne spells? She'll have fire, ice, bufudyne, force, megidolaon, mediarama/mediarahan and either concentrate or Naga. Amrita looks really good but one can have plenty of items there. Unless I'll need it in battles where you can't use items like the Urahara Arena.

The cool part of the game and the characters is that all the females have healing abilities, like Give Me!, Dream☆Catcher, Microwavin' Heart/Soul and Grand Finale.

I love all these performances and sessions

[eclipse]

I stuck Kiria with the single-target spells, since they're cheaper, and her goal is to start sessions. The only multi-target she had was an Almighty spell, since I figured that if she couldn't start a session, she'd make everyone cry.

[Quintessence]

Good point, although I'll figure it out once I get to the point. Now that you mention SP, I've never ran out of SP with Kiria, in fact, the ones with huge SP usage have been Tsubasa, Itsuki and Touma, specially in the first chapter, but now she doesn't suffer from running out of SP.

if she weren't able to start a session, I'd rig so hard to pull The Labyrinth Ad-lib because it is so damn cool and the song is beautiful

[Konnor97]

7th skill for Itsuki? And I see your point for not wanting Charge/Concentrate on him.

For Kiria I prefer the Ma-dyne spells mainly because of a Radiant Skill Kiria gets later on that lowers their cost. Between those two skills for the 7th slot, they're both pretty good. Concentrate for better damage on her attack and possibly some session attacks/Duo Arts like Give Me! or Exhibition, or Naga for guaranteed sessions on Dragons.

[Quintessence]

For some reason I thought the standard spread was of 5 command skills plus the radiant one that grants the extra slot. Such a doofus I am! Let me check...

Probably Dekunda paired with Mediarama as a ways to keep the party clean. Checking the serenes wiki I see that all of them except Yashiro get a bootup passive, which is great cuz one can begin the battle buffed on the get go. Right now Touma has Tarakuja and Tsubasa has Sukukaja already.

Speaking of Tsubasa and me theory-crafting, I'm thinking on Piercing Void, Agidyne, Zandyne/Excalibur, Mazandyne, Prayer and Fog Breath, but for 7th skill idk if Sexy Dance or Samarecarm?

[eclipse]

Do you want to use her in regular battles, or boss battles? For regular battles, charm is super-OP, because it forces a session start no matter what you hit the enemy with. For boss battles, Samerecarm, since I don't know if you can charm bosses.

Edited December 19, 2016 by eggclipse

[Quintessence]

Well I don't have a specific team for boss battles, I just rotate all of them to keep them at good levels.

I've tried to lay debuffs on bosses and semi bosses but they regain normal status like immediately.

[Konnor97]

Status effects are sorta useful and sorta not useful for bosses. Most statuses, if they hit, don't last for too long. The most millage I've got out of a normal status effect on a boss from what I remember was a lucky Mute against Yashiro in the Excellus fight that left him useless. However, Kiria's Pastel Power skill is really useful, as it allows at least another turn of acting before the boss becomes an issue again. Plus for bosses that summon minions aka most, if not all, bosses, it keeps the minions from being annoying as well. Pastel Power is even Almighty too, so no worries about potentially not being effective due to resistances like with Spirit/Body spells.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Yeah, Pastel Power is really great. Unlike most other status skills it never fails barring immunity so it pretty much destroys savage encounters and mini-boss fights.

I believe the 7th skill I used on Tsubasa was Javein Rain, because MT skills can add up to a bunch of free damage (if you're starting a session with a lance skill, the difference in damage to the primary target doesn't matter that much, whereas the secondary targets can take a bunch of extra damage which will make them easier to kill with other things). Still her Str isn't too hot so the other options you listed are decent ones. I'd probably go with Sexy Dance because really Samarecarm doesn't restore that much more HP than a revival item, but if you're planning on doing arena fights then Samarecarm becomes much more useful.

[Quintessence]

Yeah I guess I'll go with Sexy Dance for now, since Tsubasa's Str is kinda average to low, and she fits better a role of magic/healer/support.

Also, holy hell, I'm surprised at Elie. By recruitment she's like meh, but once she get levels and promotes jer Str gets like on par of Touma's, hitting really hard and dealing crts frequently.

[Konnor97]

Eleonora is really useful for taking out Savage Enemies thanks to Mass Destruction. Stick enough skill incenses in her and she'll be instant killing all enemies on the field like 95% of the time.

[Quintessence]

Eleonora is really useful for taking out Savage Enemies thanks to Mass Destruction. Stick enough skill incenses in her and she'll be instant killing all enemies on the field like 95% of the time.

Coincidentially she almost OHKO'd Yashiro when fighting Excellus. I'd definitely opt for it when a lot of enemies appear.

Speaking of chances and mechanics, is there any wiki or resource site where one can find detailed stuff like hit chance, crt chance, avoid, damage formula and other skills like luna, sol and aether chance?

[Konnor97]

Not that I know of.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I've been slowly trying to do some testing (I'll save you time with Aether/Sol/Luna: their proc rates are bad) but yeah the lack of documentation for this game is a real downer as an FE fan. I'm so used to great documentation for Fire Emblem games!

I found Eleanora one of the less good characters personally; her durability/defensive typing leaves much to be desired IMO and I don't think crits are that great due to only being a 50% boost (which doesn't carry over into sessions) and being unreliable. She's fine in randoms because she gets three elements, though, which means more session opportunites than some characters. As for Mass Destruction, it takes 2 SP to do what Pastel Power does with 1, so I didn't find much use for it personally.

[Quintessence]

The difference is that Mass Destruction hits hard and has a high chance of landing OHKOs while Pastel Power is only a status move.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I can't speak to Lunatic or whatever the NG+ difficulty is called, but playing on Hard, I never saw a savage encounter or mini-boss recover from Pastel Power enough to threaten my team. It only statuses, but it leaves them utter sitting ducks for your sessions to take out (which conveniently boost your SP gauge back up to pay for it, something an instant KO doesn't).