Hi guys, instead of actually progressing with the game, I'm gonna talk a bit lot about the classes. Feel free to skip this part if you want, you're not missing much.
Like I've mentioned before, by equipping Djinn to your characters, you change their class. Class changes change your stat multipliers and your Psynergy. In addition, classes are grouped together in series, based on the similar element distributions. Naturally, the best classes require more Djinn, which means if you want to be powerful at all times, you're pretty much stuck when it comes to Summoning. (That's another reason I don't summon in boss fights, BTW)
The elements of the Djinn and the Adept are reflected in the Psynergy and stats of a class. Venus, when not being archetypal of The Mario tends to be raw attacking power, Mars is more physical defence oriented, Jupiter is fast and Mercury has an increased PP pool and is lucky. Of course, these also have downsides. Venus doesn't have much PP to work with, Mars is slow, Jupiter is physically weak, and Mercury tends to have weaker attacks.
Of course, the stats aren't all that matters. The Psynergy is important too. There are four useful types of Psynergy: attacks based off the Attack stat, healing, buffs and Break (which removes all enemy buffs). Attacks not based off the Attack stat get outclassed by Artifact Weapons fairly quickly (although they can still be useful), debuffs are getting harder to connect with as the Luck of enemies is going up, and staus ailments are, well, status ailments. Enough said.
So, I guess the best way to see which classes are good and which are bad are to just go through each of them. This is gonna be long.
First, we have the mono-elemental classes. These are the ones that point out the glaring weaknesses of each character, but accentuate their strengths. They also fall strongly into Crippling Overspecialization.
Isaac's mono-elemental is Squire. This series has good HP and Attack, but poor PP. In terms of useful spells, there's Ragnarok, Cure and Revive. A by no means bad class, but will run out of PP pretty quickly. I intend to use this class during Colosso, BTW.
Garet's mono-elemental is Guard. Oh boy. Good HP and Defence, but everything else is poor. Agility is downright abysmal. And its only good spells are Heat Wave and Guard. I do not use this class without a very good reason, and people experimenting with class combinations should start with Garet.
Ivan's mono-elemental is Wind Seer. Excellent PP and good Agility, but HP, Attack and Defence are horrible. He gets Impact and Ward for good spells. This class series is usable, but a lot of his other classes are better.
Mia's mono-elemental is Water Seer. Good PP, excellent Luck, but poor Attack and Agility. As for good spells, there's Ply, Cure Poison, Wish and Restore. A very useful class for healing, but not much else.
Dual-elemental classes are usually pretty useful. They make up for most weaknesses and usually give the Adepts a backup in case their main element isn't usable. The first two listed classes are combinations available to two Adepts, the rest for one Adept.
Let's start with Venus/Mars. This gives us the Brute. Excellent HP and Attack, good Agility, but PP is still lacking and Luck is the worst possible in game. The class gets Planet Diver and Revive. It's a good class in higher tiers, but there's still some better options.
Jupiter/Mercury results in the Hermit. Excellent PP and Agility, good Luck, but poor Attack. It also gets Wish, Impact and Break. An excellent support class, but I wouldn't use it for pure attacking.
Jupiter on Isaac results in the Apprentice. Good HP, PP, Attack and Agility, with the only drawback being bad Luck. The good spells are Impact, Ward and Astral Blast. As you can see, the good stats are let down by a mainly supportive set (There are a lot of status ailment spells in this class).
Jupiter on Garet results in the Page. This class series is nearly the same as Apprentice, but also gets Guard. More useful, and its not as useful Psynergy is more towards attacking, but still has the problem of being the wrong set of spells for the class.
Mercury on Isaac results in the Venus Swordsman. Good HP, Attack and Defence and excellent Luck, but bad Agility and PP. And for spells, we get Ply, Cure Poison, Wish, Cutting Edge, Restore, Revive and Break. It's a brilliant class, but is less useful in long battles.
Mercury on Garet results in the Mars Swordsman. Same stats as the Venus Swordsman, but exchanges Revive for Guard. Slightly less useful, still a brilliant class.
Venus on Ivan results in the Jupiter Seer. Excellent PP and good Agility, with no real downsides. It gets Cure, Ward and Revive. The good stats are broken by a poor Psynergy set.
Venus on Mia results in the Mercury Seer. Same stats as the Jupiter Seer, with Ward replaced with Cure Poison, Wish, Restore and Break. This is a very nice class with no real penalties.
Mars on Ivan results in the Jupiter Pilgrim. Good PP, Defence and Agility, and Excellent luck, again with few downsides. But, it's spells lens more to non Attack stat based attacking, with the only useful spell being Ward. If you want a caster, this is an excellent class.
Mars on Mia results in the Mercury Pilgrim. Same stats as the Jupiter Pilgrim, but fares much better with spells, having Cure Poison, Wish, Restore and Break. This is probably the best dual-elemental caster class.
Finally, we have tri-elemental classes. The strengths of these classes heavily outweigh the weaknesses, and they get a ton of Psynergy of which at least one element is always useful. However, these are downright hard to keep if you like to use Djinn and Summons. The Djinn required are the two elements that the Adept does not have. They all need at least 6 Djinn, so they are purely late game classes.
Ninja is available to Isaac and Garet in a mix of Venus, Mars and Jupiter, with equal amounts of the two needed elements. Excellent HP and Attack, and pretty much godlike Agility, but Luck is bad. As for spells, we get Death Plunge, Shuriken and Annhilation. As a purely attacking class, it's good, but will need some backup.
Samurai is available to Isaac and Garet in a mix of Venus, Mars and Jupiter, with less Jupiter than the other needed element. Excellent HP and good Attack and Defence, but has bad Luck. And for spells, there's Guardian, Demon Spear, Magic Shell, Helm Splitter and Quick Strike. And most of the spells are cheap, so the slightly below average PP will last as long as other tri-elemental classes. This is an excellent class, and we'll want at least one of these.
Medium is available to Ivan and Mia in a mix of Venus, Jupiter and Mercury, with equal amounts of the two needed elements. Excellent PP and Agility, but Luck is bad. The move set is among the best a caster can have, but the spells I care about are only Cure and Revive. It is great for casters, though, so while I don't think there are enough useful spells, you should find something good in there.
White Mage is available to Ivan and Mia in a mix of Venus, Jupiter and Mercury with less Venus than the other needed element. Excellent PP, Agility and Luck with no downsides. As for spells, we have Cure Poison, Ward, Wish, Restore and Revive. Purely The Medic, and it's very useful.
Ranger is available to Ivan and Mia in a mix of Mars, Jupiter and Mercury. Excellent PP and Luck, and similar godlike Agility to the Ninja, with no downsides. As for spells, it's a purely caster class, with a unique attack set for a tri-elemental class, and very cheap, but for what I care about, Ward and Break. An excellent caster class, and your PP will last forever.
Dragoon is available to Isaac and Garet in a mix of Venus, Mars and Mercury. Excellent HP, Attack, Defence and Luck, but has low Agility. We also get for spells Ply, Cure Poison, Wish and Restore. When you see the spell set, it's not much to talk about, but will have amazing results when combined with other tri-elemental classes.
That's it. I don't have much more to say, but maybe now that I've explained things, I'll get a few more class suggestions. I really don't have a favourite set myself, as it's practically impossible to have all four Adepts on tri-elemental classes.
See you guys on the next proper update.
