Add on [update past Windia - recruited Sten/Aspara]- Comments mainly pertain to fine tuning balance.
Joker's Lair.
- Once I realised what Rand's Bless does (+200% to MAG & ATK), and the fact that MP refills after it battle, significantly sped up the bandit fights quite a bit. Battles with x5 bandits went from approx. 15minutes to 7minutes. Made the biggest difference on Lin's ATK performance. A bit of a grind later (lvl 16) and Bless was key to defeating Joker as it BUFFed both ATK and Nina/Rand's MAG. It has become my between battle spam ability.
- I also loaded out Mina's BUFFs prior to the battle, which helped the boss segment. No Ryu transformation or Oil for Joker applied.
- Because I can now apply these BUFFs before battle - it does feel a bit of a cheese. It means that a support character like Mina can remain an inactive menu-based party member who applies BUFFs between each battle. Why bring her to battle if I can use her to pre-load a DPS party with Vanish and Healing Wind?
- I managed to complete the joker's den without any 'salt' spoils for cooking, so the Oils remain under-utilised and I have not yet been able to cook the advance oils.
- What they did drop, the Tomb of _____ which adds +10HP, was used liberally to increase Lin/Nina's HP. I wonder if they are suppose to drop to easily - and if their value impacts the economic progression.
Skill Progression selection
- I seem to have accumulated a lot of Light Dragon points - close to on par with my regular skill points (final tier has been unlocked before visiting Capitan). Some of these skills (+2 party levels, +200% party experience) I have tried to avoid as it would seem to break progression too early in the game. Dark Dragon Points tend to appear and disappear periodically.
Aspara Recruitment BUG:
- Aspara's recruitment still skips the boss fight (Mammoth) and allows you to recruit Aspara without a fuss. Haven't used Aspara in battle yet - but note she has the Observe ability, which is great to see.
Over-to-under-and-overpowered again?
- Now that I have the extra characters, the Fire Shaman (still +150% to ATK), and increased skill points/equipment/gems - I expect that the difficulty will decrease from here. Hopefully, it there's a way to preserve the 'thrill' of the 3.2 early Bosch-->Coursair segment, while ironing out the sudden wall that the Joker's Lair presents an avg. Lvl 10 party.