Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon: Characters and their efficiency

[bblade]

SFCD is cool and all (I scrounged up a list for that that I can post in the SFCD section if anybody's interested but really can we get back ontopic please

[Grandjackal]

Yeah, to get back on topic, anyone mind me shipping the current RotDD list over here to mess around with further?

[bblade]

ill do it in fact

New Game+:
Mawlock 2

Don Adams:
Max
Mawlock 1
Narsha

Top:
Luke
Earnest
Gort
Domingo
Kokichi
Hanzou
Zylo
Balbaroy

High:
Amon
Tao
Anri
Vankar
Pelle
Zuika
Khris

Mid:
Gong
Lowe
Diane
Ken
Mae
Torasu
Guntz
Musashi

Low:
Alef
Lyle
Hans
Arthur
Bleu

Threepio:
Adam

Mel Brooks's polar opposite:
Yogurt

[Balbazak]

Wait, Holy Ring? I don't ever remember finding that, where's it located?

The Holy ring is bought in Runefaust, it's really expensive, but it negates all cursed items on the character who equips it.
And I think you're right, Gong can't equip the Evil ring, but he can equip the Power ring.

[NightmareX1]

Arthur that far down?

[bblade]

yep

He starts out as the worst person on the force and Grandjackal reports he doesn't get much better

[NightmareX1]

Must have been some really bad case of RNG screwage or something because most of the time I use him he turns out as the second best knight.

[whiterose]

I forget how it is in the remake (haven't played it in a while), but I know in the original game, Arthur turns out really awesome after promotion, if you can be bothered to train him. During the Marionette battle, I usually Egress multiple times to let Arthur catch up to the rest of my party. He's okay after this, but his defense is still kinda weak. But like I said, once you promote him...

And, his promotion spells may not be strong, but that Bolt 1 can be really useful. Even Freeze and Blaze can come in handy at times. He's not on the level of any of the other mages, but still. If he's stuck with a lance and you need to reach an enemy, well, there you go.

[NightmareX1]

He is much weaker in the remake but not so much that he is an awful character.

[bblade]

Must have been some really bad case of RNG screwage or something because most of the time I use him he turns out as the second best knight.

Somewhat doubt it, and even then, have fun getting him there in a reasonable time on an Egressless run. He sucks less when you get the power spear, but he still has to worry about getting killed by a sneeze.

Maybe not as low as he is, but he's definitely a Low tier character.

[NightmareX1]

His durability is only bad when you get him. He picks up after a bit and considering the easier enemies he isn't that hard to build up. Besides Domingo comes 2 chapters later at level 1 with only Freeze and since you are rushing you aren't going to be waiting to feed him kills so he can catch up right? I'm not saying Arthur is better than Domingo but it isn't that bad to catch him up.

[bblade]

His durability is only bad when you get him.

No, it's bad all the way up to until he until his gains start spiking on promotion.

He picks up after a bit and considering the easier enemies he isn't that hard to build up

Easier enemies or not, you seriously cannot justify doing 6~ damage to things with a bronze lance. And everything still one shots him. He is the worst member on the force for a while, and that isn't changing for a while.

Besides Domingo comes 2 chapters later at level 1 with only Freeze and since you are rushing you aren't going to be waiting to feed him kills so he can catch up right? I'm not saying Arthur is better than Domingo but it isn't that bad to catch him up.

Domingo's join situation is not even comparable to Arthur's join situation.

For one, he actually has good bases for his arrival time (Good in HP/Def, anyway, at least they're good enough) so he can actually take some whacks. Two, he can glide around the Uranbatol walls making it easy for him to chip/kill roadblocks or just flying pests (And consider how much EXP he gets just by freezing something: Arthur is not getting 48 EXP just by attacking something, Domingo gets that much just by casting Freeze) who are just being irritating. Third, Domingo starts to get better a lot sooner than Arthur does. He learns Freeze2 in three levels. Freeze 3, one of the most cost efficient spells in the game, is nine levels away, and Desoul, THE absolute best singletarget spell ever (Instant death on most stuff for 8 MP? HELLZ YEAH) is just three levels after that. Factor in Domingo's lightning fast EXP gain and he's going to get all of this very quickly, and he wasn't even that bad to start with.

Arthur has no such luxury. All the way from the time he joins until the time his growths start to spike, he is one of/your worst member of the team. Even then, he needs a lot of uber promotion levels to cancel out his horrific bases that his promotion already screwed slightly to begin with. So you STILL have a long road ahead of you, just because he's 10/5 now doesn't mean he's magically stopped sucking now.

[Grandjackal]

It is perhaps a case of Arthur being a character you probably don't want to promote early. I will test him again in this way, because promoting him at level 10 is just asking to torture yourself. His gains are crap all the way to level 10, then promotion his already meh stats take a dip, and for some reason Arthur doesn't gain any considerable spikes until past level 10 promotion, which by then is pretty much the ass-end of Dragonia. Only 9 battles left by the time he starts, that is WAY too long to be dealing with that much god awful.

On the other hand, past level 10 unpromoted, he might have great gains then, of which I did not check as it was a preliminary test run (that is to get a feel of the game again, of which I realized some characters are better off unpromoted, like Bleu). If his strength is still crap, I can at least know then that he'll learn his spells this time, of which would have an actual use lategame for him (lategame, you're basically stuck with power spears for spear range unless you're the person who gets the one Valkyrie, and Arthur sure as hell isn't getting it. This means every centaur knight has a crappy range option by then...Except for Arthur, who can actually hurt things with his magic at that point in time).

So I will test Arthur again, but don't hold your breath. If he still sucks, waiting that long just for magic chipping is not going to save him.

Also, lol at comparing him to Domingo, a semi-flying magical tank that gains Desoul and never has to go through promotion dipping his stats.

[Drakonis]

The other big problem with arthur in RotDD is that spells are generally weaker, meaning his freeze/blaze/bolt lvl 1 and 2 are pretty much crap by the time you get it. Plus the Immunity of the Jets, who are all over the place lategame. I guess he's just not that much worth it here.

[Grandjackal]

The other big problem with arthur in RotDD is that spells are generally weaker, meaning his freeze/blaze/bolt lvl 1 and 2 are pretty much crap by the time you get it. Plus the Immunity of the Jets, who are all over the place lategame. I guess he's just not that much worth it here.

In an egressless run, Blaze and Freeze 1 are the best you're gonna get. It's not a total loss, as it's still better than using the now far out of date throwing spears is bad enough you might as well be tinking everything.

...Still no consolation prize, especially since he's not using promoted weapons throughout his unpromoted career like the Chrome Lance, or some of the higher up stuff. In fact, best bet he's got is the Elf Slayer, which becomes pisspoor eventually, especially in his hands.

...In a way, I don't really need to test him. One way or another, he's screwed.

[Colonel M]

Ah, finally got approved.

So... what did I miss?

EDIT: Grandjackal, what did you find out about Amon anyway? Worthy of being same tier or her start still rubbish enough to keep the difference?

[Grandjackal]

Ah, finally got approved.

So... what did I miss?

EDIT: Grandjackal, what did you find out about Amon anyway? Worthy of being same tier or her start still rubbish enough to keep the difference?

Well, in both versions I find her the best user of the power ring (Balbaroy can't OHKO anything with it unless he uses the Attack boost, but it's still stupid to just send him in alone that early on) in both versions, however her performance was almost no different than in the old game aside from one major problem: At their start, in the quarry, there are 5 dark elves instead of 3, and they have a passive evasion boost now. It's harder on them both to deal with, and evne effects their performance at the laser eye battle. The main difference is that these elven archers do 3 damage a shot, which takes 7 shots to down Balbaroy, but only 6 to Amon, 5 if one procs an accidental 4. If the enemy could be killed quick enough this wouldn't be a problem, but that avoid makes it so that them dyign isn't necessarily gonna be as easy as it was in LoGI.

So obviously, Balbaroy is better at the start. However, I noticed something bizarre, that later on Balbaroy needed the power ring to meet her attack rather than vice versa. They're close still, as they basically switch sides partway through their existence, at one point being basically equal.

I'd say deserving of being same tier is fine, but I'd give Balbaroy the upper position this time around. Back then with the elves far easier to pick off, her future>Balbaroy's somewhat better start. This time around though, Balbaroy's winner.

If you count her needing a power ring (and I don't see anyone else using it better), then yeah, there would be a tier difference.

[bblade]

I disagree, I see Balbaroy using it much better. Give him the ring and have him cast Attack 1 on himself and watch, he's blicking skeletons off the map as soon as he exists.

[Grandjackal]

I disagree, I see Balbaroy using it much better. Give him the ring and have him cast Attack 1 on himself and watch, he's blicking skeletons off the map as soon as he exists.

He needs that to insta-blick dark elves, of which it is very possible for him to miss, along with being incredibly stupid to just send him in there alone.

Damn sure skeletons are tougher.

[bblade]

no ive seen it with my own eyes. Try it yourself. Did your Balbaroy have 21 base atk? Then he's eligible for skeleton blickage out of the gate.