Shining Soul II: Which character do you prefer?

[Kaihaku]

Priestess.

[ptracey]

Awesome, I've finally been registered by the SFC Staff!

...

Sorry, but I've been viewing all the SSII Forums for about a month, but I could never post! So do people still reply to these things, or am I all alone here.

Anyways, I'd have to Vote Priestess becuase there are a few different Builds to make for her, and I've already messed up on my second one.

I'm currently Training my "Intfull" Priestess. I'll Edit late with the Stats, but it's late now so I'm gonna get going. Hope I can get some coneversation going on this awesome Topic!

[Martin III]

I rather like the Priestess too, but I haven't yet played through this game nearly enough times to make a vote here. I'll probably play through with each of the characters once before I go for any repeats.

[ptracey]

Good choice. And I'm not sure of your playing style Martin, but I suggest playing through legit with each character before going through any of them with Godly Equips or Weapons. Have fun playing the game.

[Jun]

Good choice. And I'm not sure of your playing style Martin, but I suggest playing through legit with each character before going through any of them with Godly Equips or Weapons. Have fun playing the game.

lol, legit. I always liked Martin, so I'm sure he'd be an honest player.

So from your experience(s), what do you think of each of the character classes?

[Martin III]

For me:

Archer - Love the power to attack at range, especially with charged shots. I'm guessing that tactical retreats are necessary for all of the characters at times, so I like the excuse of being a non-melee fighter. Auto-healing is also very nice for me. Bosses are very interesting to fight using archers, on the whole. It's important to make each charged shot count.

Priestess - With the archer, I did my best to grind just enough to beat the game, maximizing the challenge. With the priestess I relaxed and power-leveled a bit. Her healing spells and most especially Bless make it easier to grind with her. In general I enjoy her ability to boost herself, and her staff attack is surprisingly satisfying.

[ptracey]

lol, legit.  I always liked Martin, so I'm sure he'd be an honest player.

So from your experience(s), what do you think of each of the character classes?

Well I think all the characters have their own style of fighting with advantages and disadvantages, but of course, the easiest player to play is the Brawler.

I'll just make a little list of what I think of each Class in a few sentences.

Warrior - Excellent for any "First-Timer" becuase of his superb Abilities (Armor Up, Block, Efficiancy, Tactics), and also since he has the choice of three different weapons. He can wear all kinds of armor and he can even hold a Shield! In terms of weapon charges, his Sword is very quick and strong, the lance is excellent for quick mobbing, and the Axe is just very powerfull. Also, His high armor and Efficiancy put together really helps out beggining players last longer before returning to town.

Dragonute - As with the Warrior about Armor, he can take lots of hits becuase he can wear all kinds of armor and also Parry a Shield. However, he can only choose from two weapons, which are both a slower, so he takes more time to get used to. But with the sacrifice of speed, he gains more raw power. He comes with a *working* Counter attack (Breath) and also has the Skill Magic Resistance Up, so that makes him very well rounded, but is even more of a tank than the Warrior! Not reccomended for a main player though, another good begginer choice.

Archer - Not reccomended for Begginers becuase of his Bow; it can only attack one enemy at a time. Also, if you decide to go for Spear, since the charge shot only homes in on one enemy, it's hard to Mob with it, and that's the only way an Archer can hit more than one enemy at once. Critical is usefull, but ou can't really rely on it. Also the Enchant is not a very helpfull skill becuase of it's low % of working, and you will have probably already killed the enemy by the time you realize their Enchanted.

Ninja - A good player to start out as becuase of his usefull Skills and fast attack speed with the Sword. He also has the option of using a ranged weapons like the Archer, so you can occasionally "snipe" your foes. Armor isn't too great, but it's not bad either. Some spells to give him different Builds, and also Critical, Backstab, and Wood are fun and usefull skills.

Brawler - KNIFE BRAWLER'S ARE OVERPOWERED. If you make a Knife Brawler and simply put Points into your Knife Charge, that will get anyone through the game with ease. Claw Brawler's however are somewhat challenging and fun. The Claw Charge is somewhat like the Warrior's Sword Charge, except it hits three times, so that's a usefull Mobbing technique. Since he also has Critical, Counter, Evade, and Stun, he's pretty well-balanced in every way you could want. Also, the Healing Skill is usefull, even at Lv.1. Lastly, having the most powerfull Critical set in the game when using Claw is just another reason why he's still a little overpowered.

Dark Wizard / ??? (Gillespie) - NOT A BEGGINER CHARACTER. All his Spells are very different, so he has variety, but he doesn't have an eficiant Mobbing attack, so he's somewhat like the Archer. His skills are fun (Morph, Venom, Dagger Dance), but not very effective for long-term use (getting to Level 200). Dagger Dance is his (in my opinion) best Spell to use becuase it gets very powerfull as it levels up, and it allows you to run away while you attack simultaneously. But still, not a great character for begginers.

Sorceress - Another great starter, especially if you like Brute Strength while sacrificing Defence. Her crazy Spell selection makes her suit any fighting style. Also a great character for long-term playing. Blaze allows you to run through levels OHKOing everything, even in places like Chaos Tower (once you hit the 130ish range). Blast Spell makes Bosses a breeze ( ), so she's an all around excellent player. Other skills like SPark and Inferno aren't so great, but Freeze is also usefull for Mobs that are too strong to take out one-by-one.

Priestess - Hmm, it's really up to the player on this one becuase of her strange Builds and ability combinations. She can be a Warrior that never dies, a Powerfull Knife-Brawler-like player that just runs through everything with Shining Ray, or, she can just be a Buffer (which is great for Multiplayer!). If you shoose to be a Warrior, you have strong attacks, and you can "Heal" when you're hurt, so that's excellent. The only downside to being an "INT" user is that you are constantly running out of SP from Shining Ray. It's an awesome skill, bu the SP usage is somewhat rediculous. And when playing with friends (also usefull for solo), you've got plenty of Buff and party skills to use: Heal, Bless, Protect, Resist. A fun player in my opinion.

Well, there's my "brief" explanation on each of the character's from SSII. Sorry if I ranted a little too much.

And I also know you're very experienced at this game, so sorry if I phrased things a little to "nooby" for you.

[Jun]

Well, there's my "brief" explanation on each of the character's from SSII. Sorry if I ranted a little too much.

And I also know you're very experienced at this game, so sorry if I phrased things a little to "nooby" for you.

Oh no, not at all. It was interesting to see your and Martin's evaluations of them. Thanks for taking the time New perspectives are always nice ;D

For archers, I loved the range, too. Relatively fast charge time while running makes for a nice kill-before-you-reach-me pace. It feels slightly more exciting having to keep my distance than running into enemies. Like Tracey said, though, you can only target one at a time and the game likes to mob us at times. Also, I remember noticing sometimes that when enemies are behind the one you're attacking, charged attacks tend to bring them closer to you I still very much like this class, though.

I'm really surprised to hear about the priestess on staff, though. I thought the short range and single whack was rather boring and never checked it out much, but wow, that's cool, Martin Her versatility's nice, having multiple ways to build on her skills, as opposed to the warrior and dragonute's, eh? I've always wanted to try an int-ful (we'd say "pure int" in other games) and just run out with Shining Ray and be all untouchable, lol. Fun much?

Bleh... short attention span... dying... I'll edit more later...

[Martin III]

Actually, I did end up devoting the priestess's attentions to the flail, seeing as it does more damage... but mainly because I love watching her fly head-over-heels when she does a charged attack! I did use the staff for a decent while, though, and found it satisfying compared to the staff attacks of most RPGs. Ryuna's staff knocks in Shining Tears were such a disappointment after Shining Soul II's priestess.

[ptracey]

I'm really surprised to hear about the priestess on staff, though. I thought the short range and single whack was rather boring and never checked it out much, but wow, that's cool

I've always wanted to try an int-ful (we'd say "pure int" in other games) and just run out with Shining Ray and be all untouchable, lol. Fun much?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_eoH5Q4U5aw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

*I hope it's ok if I unclude a video, otherwise, I'll just Edit this with the link taken out if there's any problems.

After my friend showed me that video, I was extremely facscinated by the power of the Rod! And since the Dark Wizard and the Priestess can use almost all the same Rods, there really shouldn't be much/any difference in their capabilities! I agree that the whack is boring, and you don't really move at all with it, so it kind of leaves you open for a second if you happen to miss an enemy/(ies) with the single whack.

Sorry about the "INT-ful" thing. I have been reading about other games with the same stats and that's what they called it, but I'm used to calling it "Pure INT" just as you did.

It's really fun once you reach the 70's becuase you can easily run through Driazhek Desert with little or no problems. The only thing to remember that's kind of a hassle is that you MUST Bless before you enter the next portal or else you could get mobbed and run out of Bless in a tight situation. But besides that, it's relatively simple to Level. And oh yeah, it's fun just running through everything, even with a low Level Shining Ray, it still gets the job done. It would be MUCH faster with Level 6 or 7 Shining Ray, but that would leave your SP totally drained by the third of fourth room (at least in Driazhek Desert it would).

I suppose I'll post my stats now in the Forum I talked about earlier. Check it out if you get a chance. Sure it's not my "best" character, but I hope she becomes my best character.

[Jun]

Oh wow, that was some quick boss fight. Thanks for the clip It's been the longest time since I've played, so I can't compare damage differences with the rod against any other weapon, but again, that was some quick fight

And no worries about the "INT-ful" thing -- to each their own terms. I just happened to hear "pure INT" more commonly and so I use that too, but no big. Your point of SR-plowing through the game is an awesome idea; kudos to you on a fun skill build~

And to finish up our character comparisons...

For the Ninja, which do you prefer between his charged attacks? For this game, I prefer decent mobbing skills as opposed to one-on-one attacks, so I opted for sword. His scroll skills didn't appeal to me much.

Total agreement about the Brawler. Some of the skills contradict each other, so what's your take on passive skills? Do you prefer more evade or would rather go guts+counter? Stun... I'm not sure what to say about that when wielding a knife since you'll likely kill it far sooner than would make stunning useful...

About the Dark Wizard... What is Dagger Dance's damage based on? I think I remember reading it was from strength, but then that'd be more conducive to a rod-holding wiz than a spell-casting one. Dagger Dance doesn't stun or mob, so other than being a cool char-revolving weapon, it didn't seem all that useful to me even to rely solely on it, as opposed to the priestess's SR. Agreed that he's definitely no char for beginners.

Love the Sorceress <3 Blaze decimates quick and easy and Blast can occasionally one-blast-KO when it swerves just right to multi-hit enough. Same opinion as you on Spark and Inferno, but I don't know about Freeze's frozen status being reliable enough to use as mob-control. It doesn't always freeze for me, and when it does, the other monsters either push the frozen monster closer to me or it defrosts before I can charge up maximally for another attack.

Aah, gotta run to that b-day dinner party... I'll reply to your char stats later...

[Musou]

Freeze has a pretty good chance of immobilizing enemies at the higher levels. What I really like about it though, is that it homes in on enemies and the rebounding effect generally means it'll double-hit at least one enemy, giving it Blaze-like power or stronger at the higher levels.

Magic Shield's also a decent spell; helps in Advanced mode since the enemies are faster. The Parry effect is very nice.

So yeah, Sorceress is the character I run with consistently; all of her good points have already been mentioned.

[ptracey]

Thanks for the kudos

I definately like the Sword Ninja becuase he can Mob just like the Knife Brawler and Lance Warrior. His Knives are useless to me becuase I like to just run through enemies, so when he stops to throw them, meh, it just slows me down and it's not very accurate. The ninja's spells are pretty useless as well, although I've heard lots about the Ninja's Debris. My friend tried making an SP Ninja, but just couldn't make it long enough to really get Debris up there becuase of it's massive SP cost. But if you can get it up there it will be well worth it. With the Blizzard Set however it would be a little easier. Speed also happens to be my personal favorite Spell of the Ninja becuase it helps me get through places faster.

For the Brawler, I prefer the Evade and Stun Brawler, but I do happen to have a few points in Guts and Counter.

Dagger Dance's damage is based on INT, not Strength, where did you hear that (if you can remember)? But Dagger Dance's damage is also affected like Blasts, it's affected by the enemies Armor instead of by their Magic Resistance. It's not as good as the Priestessess SR for a few reasons: It can't mob, it gets stuck in walls often, and lastly it doesn't always go for the enemy you want it too. But it's still a very usefull spell, probably the Dark Wizard's best Spell, in my opinion anyway.

Sure Blast is great, but the Charge time is a little slow, and since the Blast goes randomly off in one direction after you kill an enemy with replied. Freeze can be used as great mob control, but in my opinion, if you actually have to use Mob controlling skills just to stay alive, then you really shouldn't be training at that place. And yes, that defrost thing has happened to me numerous times. Especially with Harpies.

[Dark Angel]

So after buying the game and losing it, buying it and losing it, and I just bought it again and hopefully I wont lose it again.

[Crystalgate]

I find the Sorceress easiest to play with and I also like the Warrior and the Priestess. I think I go trough every class though.

Warrior: Done right for close quarter combat. He can get a lot of defense and the shield parry to reduce damage and Efficiency helps in making healing items last longer. I've seen FAQs claim that healing items are cheep, but I find that if I don't watch how much damage I take, they will quickly drain my economy. Other than being item efficient, the Warrior is also rather safe. If I make a mistake and get myself into a bad situation, the high defense usually means he can survive anyway.

Sorceress: Blaze is incredible powerful and easy to use. It can hit a whole mob, but is powerful enough to be efficient against single enemies as well. At high level the flame effect triggers more often than not. The only weakness it has is fire resistant enemies. I can however pair it with Freeze which is usually great against enemies Blaze doesn't work well against. I can also pair it with Blast which is a great boss killer, but is bad in tight corridors leaving me vulnerable against fire resistant enemies when there isn't enough space for Blast. That doesn't happen often though.

Dark Wizard: Didn't seem that good compared to the Sorceress. Demon Breath is like a poor man's Blaze and while the Dark Wizard has a few other tricks, none of them seem as straightforward and effective a Blaze.

Dragonute: Similar to the Warrior, but I find his weapons inferior and he doesn't have Efficiency. He does have other tricks though, like a passive resistance skill. Still, I find myself eating more healing items with the Dragonute making me think that the trade-off isn't good. He does have a working counter too, but I never have enough skill points for it. Since the counter is exponential, putting points into it both affects counter damage and it's chance to be triggered, it's not worth putting just a few points into it.

Priestess: Can also work as a melee fighter. Her healing saves a lot of money, and once I get a SP draining weapon I can keep Bless up. Bless greatly compensates for her lower defense and also means she will have more hitpoints than any other class so she can survive some situations that would kill other low defense classes. Her offensive spell also works, but I've found it empties her SP pool way to quickly and I had to return to town for rest frequently.

Ninja: Doesn't seem that great to me. Backing into enemies with sword charge does great damage, but is also riskier than if you actually face the enemy. Having great speed is nice, but often the area is to tight to make good use of it. All in all, I find myself eating more healing items with him than with the Warrior and it's also more dangerous with the Ninja if you make a mistake. Replace does help a lot here though. Lastly, he does have a few spells, but I'll need an SP draining weapon to make using them viable otherwise they will eat up SP needed for the weapon charge.

Archer: Looks like a poor man's Sorceress to me. Charged bow does good damage to single targets, but Blast does more and also works somewhat against multiple enemies. I've tried a Bow Archer, but it didn't work well in Advance mode. The fact that his arrows only can hit one enemy is a near death sentence. I've shoot into a group of rats and seen the whole groups charge unhindered because the rats in the rear pushes the one in the front forward even if that one is stunned. I've also tried a Spear Archer, but a charged spear attack seem to deal about half the damage Blaze would do and Blaze is also wider.

Brawler: That one can be really effective with an SP draining knife or if you're willing to constantly feed him SP items. I've never been to fond of martial arts type characters, but I think I should give him another go. When I played him I didn't know how to get SP draining weapons, so I couldn't use his overpowered charge with impunity. While the other skills he have can be useful (except evade which doesn't seen to do anything at all), I tend to regard them more as extra candy than something to build a character on. I'm not willing to frequently get his HP below half and then heal it up to trigger his passive.

[LordOddEye]

Warrior

[Khizer#1]

I have already played shining soul 2!
So in my opinion there are three:
1-A warrior with balance status,
2-A brawler with good speed and strength,
3-A Dragonute with high magic resistance and strength.

[786.Hero]

warrior,brawler and ninja.

[Andres]

Archer, but using the Summon Spell :P

[Sin Jackal]

Dragonewt and Brawler are the best to me. Brawler is just brutal and very fast, but Dragonewt, despite having no HP regeneration, is capable of just disgusting damage and outdoes Brawler at a much earlier level. I remember I got a Brawler up to a really high level, like 60 or 70 or something, then made a Dragonewt and was doing similar damage at level 40. Not including crits of course, or speed, and also not factoring the useful HP regeneration.

I've tried every class, but those are my favs. Dark Mage isn't too bad if you focus on mostly just raising Demon Breath and going very INT heavy. Didn't like Priest too much, thought Ninja was clearly worse than Brawler, Warrior was worse than Dragonewt. Archer was okay but not really my thing.