Because Why Not.
Comments:
- ToX uses a combo system similar to Tales of Graces and ToD2. Ev ery PC has a certain number of Action Points (AP) that they can expend on regular physical attacks or special attacks (artes). So long as they have Action Points left they can continue comboing. These AP are restored to full after a PC is finished with the combo. WHile normally one would consider a traditional 'turn' to be a full expenditure of the AP gauge, there is a big impediment to that! Just about every important enemy ever (including nonfail randoms) breaks out of combos after ~7 hits. This little design choice means that artes with a large number of hits are a lot less useful than single or 2-hit artes that do a lot of damage per hit. As such I have designed this topic with that limitation in mind and a 'turn' is assumed to be ~7 hits. The exception to this is Milla, whose style allows her to attack from far above an enemy without concern (usually) for them breaking out of combos.
- Stats:
HP: Lose these and someone cooler than the party wins the game.
TP: These are expended to use special attacks (Artes)
P.Atk: Physical attack. Scales linearly with physical damage (double P.Atk = double physical damage)
A.Atk: Arte Attack. Scales linearly with 'magic' damage.
P.Def: Physical Defense. Scales inversely with damage taken (double P.Def = half physical damage taken)
A.Def: Arte defense. Commonly referred to as "magic' defense and scales inversely with damage taken.
Base stats:
Str: Strength. Improves odds of breaking enemy guard and adds 100% to P.Atk, 20% to P.Def
Vit: Vitality. Improves odds of avoiding a guard break. Adds 100% to P.Def and 20% to P.Atk
Agi: Agility. Improves speed of movement. Adds 60% to P.Atk and 60% to P.Def
Int: Intellect. Improves odds of inflicting status with elemental attacks. Adds 100% to A.Atk and 20% to A.Def
Psy: Psycotic. Reduces odds of being inflicted with status (not too reliably). Adds 100% to A.Def and 20% to A.Atk
Dex: Dexterity. Improves odds of critical hits (not by much). Adds 60% to A.Atk and 60% to A.Def
-ToX has a skill system with a lot of common skills between PCs (that they learn on their own version of the 'board' they use to level up). I assumed most any skill they'd want here since none of them are all that good for a duel. The exceptions are... Elemental Resistance Skills. I assume everyone grabs these because they are 30%, Link between PCs (so you can combine two PC's skills to get 60% when teamed up) and are generally very good. The balance point is that these skills are assumed to be 'default' elemental resistance. It only matters at all because it makes the elemental resists on armors look better... which is true to the way it works in-game. I'll list resistances on them taking this into account. They are 42% better than if no skills were possessed. The one skill I banned for everyone was Recall, which is a 40% chance to auto-revive. I am also considering the "Immunity" skill as default.
- Physical attack strings in this game regenerate TP but do crap damage. I won't be listing them for PCs. They regen 14% TP for a full one.
- Average number of enemy hits/attack chain is assumed to be '6'. This should be consistent with how many hits competent enemies take to deal 40% PCHP on the 'Moderate' difficulty setting. This has an effect on Milla, Elize, and Leia in regards to their defensive skills (which are dependent on how many hits are taken to deal 40% damage). "Average" is 6, so even when facing games where the average is 1, these skills should be scaled to 6. Just translates between systems more effectively that way. (We already do this for subtractive defense in most cases).
- I also assumed 'Moderate' for enemy defensive stats but it doesn't make a difference except for the magnitude of the numbers.
- Levels were taken at 70. Elize at 74 because she has a unique skill that triples exp in battles where she heals a lot, i.e. boss battles that represent a lot of the exp you gain.
- The 'Stun' Ailment is nice for adding on a spell or buff/healing move on top of a combo, but it doesn't reset the 'Enemy breaks out of combo!" counter and them breaking out cancels Stun. So it is no auto-win to have 100% stun + damage.
- I filled out the Lillium Orb (think FFX Sphere Grid) in a way to maximize DL benefit. Elize can be built as a damage mage but that is inferior to her physical version unless crowd control is under consideration. Alvin would normally drool over his "Auto-crit in Overlimit" skill but it is useless in a DL format because 2 PCs or more are required to Overlimit (same applies to most of the link-only skills).
- Shop levels can be raised by donating materials to shops and buying from them. I assumed that endgame shops are Level 80 since anything more will require gratuitous grinding. This cuts out some 'aftergame' equipment and a lot of elemental defense options. The PCs still aren't hurting for that.
- Two common elements are not listed in ToX. Lightning and Ice. Lightning is a combination of Fire/Wind (and resistance/weakness to that is the average of those two weaknesses/resists). Same for Ice, which is Earth/Water.
- Statuses: The game has the following statuses, the durations tend to be for ~10 seconds. All elemental artes have a (low) chance of inflicting the corresponding elemental status.
Burn: Fire Physical status that peals of a ~1% Max HP every second for ~10 seconds. Very nice when it hits bosses.
Paralysis: Wind Physical status that gives a 50% chance of any action failing.
Slow: Earth Mental status that dramatically slows movement speed.
Weak: Water Mental status that halves max AP.
Terror: Darkness Mental status that makes it very easy to inflict stun on a target, and makes it so that stun lasts for it's entier duration even if the target is attacked. This doesn't stop enemy combo-breaker, of course <_<
Confusion: Light mental status that makes the target attack random targets including allies, without giving so much thought to healing and buffing anymore.
Poison: Physical status that causes periodic damage.
Psychic Drain: Mental status that periodically drains TP.
Arteseal: Mental status that removes the ability to use Artes. Does not wear off.
Skillseal: Mental status that invalidates all of a PC's passive skills. Does not wear off.
Linkseal: Mental status that cancels and prevents linking.
Petrification: Physical status that petrifies the target. If all PCs are petrified it's game-over.
- In case you wonder about the combos, the game penalizes you somewhat for repeating the same arte over and over. I inserted alternate moves into the attack strings to optimize damage while keeping this penalty in mind.
- Accessories: I assumed the ideal accessory for everyone was the Alexandrite (+25% HP/TP). If they want to equip one of the following blockers they lose that.
Poison Charm: Immunity to Poison
Seal Charm: Immunity to Arte/Skillseal
Stone Charm: Immunity to Petrify
Amulet: Immunes physical ailments
Stun Talisman: Immunity to Stun.
Mind Charm: Complete immunity to Psychic Drain (TP draining)
-This will be a fairly barebones topic. I'll include useful skills and main attack strings.
- Averages:
HP: 6029
Psy: 715
P.Def: 2573
A.Def: 1908
Damage: 5888 (2.5x Kill Point of 14721)
Jude Mathis:
HP: 7298
TP: 388
P.Atk: 3051
P.Def: 3011
A.Atk: 1559
A.Def: 1546
Str: 1085
Int: 493
Agi: 1381
Vit: 803
Psy: 633
Dex: 516
Physical Durability: 142%
Magical Durability: 98.1%
Equipment:
Weapon: Garm Fang (977 PAtk, 630 AAtk)
Armor: Rare Protector (775 Pdef, 115 Adef)
Helm: Rare Helm (387 Pdef, 392 Adef)
Accessory: Alexandrite (+25% HP/TP)
Unique Ability: Snap Pivot. When dodging an enemy using a backstep, Jude teleports behind the enemy even if the attack would have hid mid-backstep. Applies even to AoE magic if timed right. This should probably represent significant evasion on his part, since under player control he is very difficult to hit.
Coil->Palm Strike->Palm Strike->Whirlwind Snap->Palm Strike->Palm Strike->Beast.
Ideal Combo: 4634 damage. (63 TP)
Downs enemy unrecoverable [Beast]. Buffs Jude's P.Def for ~16% for 8 seconds [Coil]. High chance to inflict Stun during combo [Palm Strike].
Other Artes worth noting:
Immaculate Healer: Restores 36% HP (5 TP). Very fast, should be able to get a few in in a 'turn'. Can tie it onto the end of a combo after downing the enemy.
Recovery Ring: Removes status ailments (13 TP).
Skills of Note:
Life Reversal: Recovers 50% of the last damage taken as HP. Enemy attack strings are assumed to be 6 hits, so this would be regenerating 1/12th of the damage.
Elemental resistance options: [assuming the default 30% to all]
Armor:
Elemental Guard: 36% resistance to Fire/Earth/Water/Wind ( 688 Pdef, 101 Adef)
Helm:
Dragon Helm: 71% resistance to Fire (364 Pdef, 369 Adef )
Viking Hat: 71% resistance to Water (182 Pdef, 605 Adef)
Earth Cap: 71% resistance to Earth (100 Pdef, 334 Adef)
Green Beret: 71% resistance to Wind (90 Pdef, 299 Adef)
Comments: Jude has good durability and lots of healing, that even attaches to his regular combo by virtue of knocking down or stunning his foe. His damage is bad (a 4HKO). Still can keep going forever and ever and has good durability and very nice element blocking options. That is enough for Middle. Jude would have been an awesome comboer in a normal Tales game, but ToX rather spits on long combo strings so he isn't as good as one might expect.
Milla Maxwell:
HP: 6027
TP: 495
P.Atk: 2498
P.Def: 2395
A.Atk: 2286
A.Def: 1855
Physical durability: 93% (133% with Energy Barrier)
Magical Durability: 97.2% (139% with Energy Barrier)
Str: 921
Int: 1037
Agi: 924
Vit: 717
Psy: 502
Dex: 760
Equipment:
Weapon: Royal Rose (879 PAtk, 693 AAtk)
Armor: Rare Coat (638 Pdef, 227 Adef)
Helm: Rare Circlet (301 Pdef, 463 Adef)
Accessory: Alexandrite (+25% HP/TP)
Unique Ability: Spirit Shifting. Milla can instacast a 'mage knight' version of her spells. This, along with jumping into the air, is her best source of damage.
Thunder Blade Lightning-> TBL -> TBL -> Bolt Strike Lightning -> TBL -> TBL
Ideal Combo: 7562 lightning damage. 60% magical, 40% physical. (94 TP)
Alternate Non-lightning combo: Cloud Pierce->Cloud Pierce
Damage: 2709 physical damage. (54 TP)
Other Artes of note: ...
Noteworth Skills:
Elemental Armor: After using a spirit-shifted arte of any element, resistance to that element increases by 43% for 8 seconds (~turn)
Energy Barrier: All damage is lessened by 30%, but every individual hit taken drains 3 TP (~18 TP taken for each enemy attack)
Mind Reversal: Recover 3% of the last hit taken's damage as TP. This may slightly mitigate the 18TP cost of being hit.
Elemental resistance options:
Armor:
Queen's Coat: 43% WInd/Fire resistance (531 Pdef/189 Adef)
Bloody Coat: 100% Dark resistance. (459 Pdef/163Adef)
Rune Coat: 36% Wind/Earth/Fire/Water resistance (351 Pdef/125 Adef)
Aqua Gown: 100% Water resistance (315 Pdef/112 Adef)
Helms:
Queen Circlet: 57% Earth/Water resistance (283 Pdef/436 Adef)
Wind Crest: 71% Wind resistance (158 Pdef/243 Adef)
Maxwell Ribbon: 36% Wind/Earth/Fire/Water resistance (81 Pdef, 537 Adef)
Phoenix Ribbon: 71% Fire resistance (71 Pdef, 469 Adef)
White Ribbon: 71% Light Resistance (50 Pdef, 334 Adef)
Aqua Ribbon: 71% Water resistance (45 Pdef, 299 Adef)
Comments: A slugger with limited resources of a commonly resisted element, but she has good durability through Energy Barrier and laughs at elements. She does have TP problems, as someone with solid healing can run her out of resources and force her to try physical combo strings to regenerate TP. TP issues are a major issue for her in-game though. A Middle. The nature of her damage makes it harder to resist, since most folks with good Pdef have bad Mdef and vice versa.
Alvin:
HP: 7487
TP: 355
P.Atk: 3654
P.Def: 2739
A.Atk: 1256
A.Def: 1617
Physical Durability: 132% (147% with Defense Conversion)
Magical Durability: 105% (88% with Defense Conversion)
Str: 1450
Int: 442
Agi: 617
Vit: 826
Psy: 673
Dex: 710
Equipment:
Weapon: Ogre Sword (1172 P.Atk, 504 A.Atk)
Armor: Rare Plate (866 P.Atk, 38 A.Atk)
Helm: Rare Helm (387 P.Def, 392 A.Def)
Accessory: Alexandrite (+25% HP/TP)
Unique Ability: Charge. Alvin can, at the end of any attack, stack up to 4 charges that change his movesets. For damage purposes this is mostly useful for spamming long-ranged fire physical damage that is roughly as good as his combo. It does allow him to spam his healing area move 4 times in a row if he Charged the round before. If Alvin stacks 4 charges he regenerates 43 TP.
Sonic Thrust->Variable Trigger->ST->VT->ST->Hell Fryer
Ideal Combo: 5581 physical damage (68 TP). Mostly fire elemental. Downs enemy (recoverable)
Other Artes worth noting:
Guardian Field (Charged: Guardian Grove): 24% Healing (60 TP). Does some miniscule Light damage to enemies within range. The Charged version can be combo'd into itself 4 times for 96% healing. Charging 4 times to use this combo covers 43 TP of the cost.
Skills of Note:
Attack Conversion: +25% base Patk and -25% base Atk. This is default.
Defense Conversion: +25% base Pdef and -25% base Adef. This is if he faces a physical slugger
Chivalry: +5% base stats per female in the party.
Mind Charge: +3% TP for every Charge.
Life Reversal: Recovers 50% of the last damage taken as HP. Enemy attack strings are assumed to be 6 hits, so this would be regenerating 1/12th of the damage.
Natural Recovery: Doing nothing for 5 seconds will remove any physical ailments.
Elemental Resistance Options:
Armor:
Dragon Mail: 71% Fire resistance (818 Pdef, 36 Adef)
Rune Mail: 21% Wind/Earth/Fire/Water resistance (476 Pdef, 21 Adef)
Knight Armor: 71% Light resistance (378 Pdef, 17 Adef)
Helm:
Dragon Helm: 71% resistance to Fire (364 Pdef, 369 Adef )
Viking Hat: 71% resistance to Water (182 Pdef, 605 Adef)
Earth Cap: 71% resistance to Earth (100 Pdef, 334 Adef)
Green Beret: 71% resistance to Wind (90 Pdef, 299 Adef)
Comments: He has damage that doesn't suck and full healing, along with some elemental resistance options that is an easy Middle ranking. Hid surability being good is just icing, especially when he is against other physical fighters.
Elize Lutus:
HP: 4930
TP: 489
P.Atk: 2318
P.Def: 2156
A.Atk: 2075
A.Def: 2550
Physical Durability: 68.5% (127% averaging Auto-Medicine)
Magic Durability: 109% (416% averaging Auto-Medicine)
Str: 799
Int: 458
Agi: 696
Vit: 731
Psy: 1251
Dex: 737
Equipment:
Weapon: Princess Premiere (955 PAtk, 925 Aatk)
Armor: Rare Cloak (547 Pdef, 302 Adef)
Helm: Rare Circlet (301 Pdef, 463 Adef)
Accessory: Alexandrite (+25% HP/TP)
Unique Ability: Teepo ON/OFF.
Elize can, by using a taunt, switch her 'mode' from Teepo ON (magic mode) to Teepo OFF (physical mode). She has passive skills that increase magic damage and spellcasting speed in ON mode, and passives that increase physical damage and movement speed in OFF mode. For this stat topic Elize was mostly a physical build with the casting speed reduction there if she wanted to go mage and try to utilize that mode's status immunity and faster auto-life. Combo damage is reduced to ~40% the normal in Teepo ON mode. She also has some poor damage magic attacks in that mode.
Teepo Squash->TS->TS->Pow Hammer->TS->TS->TS.
Ideal Combo: 8115 damage (70 TP). Pow Hammer has a high chance of applying Stun, for what that is worth. She can use Teepo Roar instead of the last Teepo Squash to unrecoverably down the enemy and apply massive throwback. This reduces her damage by about ~100.
Other Artes of Note:
Revive (50 TP): Applies auto-life to Elize. (Slow spell with Teepo OFF). Takes precedence over Angel's Cry if both are present.
Nurse (36 TP): Restores 70% HP to all allies (50% if Teepo OFF)
Dispel (22 TP): Removes all status ailments from allies. (Teepo ON: Grants status immunity to all allies). Very fast spell.
Dark Visitor (32 TP): 1522 dark magic damage in Teepo ON mode.
Skills of Note: (some are 'universal' but only Elize can benefit from them)
Survive: Always remain alive with 1 HP when defending.
Pow Hammer: 10% chance per hit of hitting enemy with a Pow Hammer, potentially interrupting combo. (Does not activate while Guarding)
Solid Guard: Halves damage when guarding (20% taken for Physicals, 12.5% for magic)
All Guard: Magic Guard reduces physical damage as if guarding.
Heal Guard: Recover 3.85% HP per second while guarding (comes out to 31%/turn)
Reflective Guard: 20% of damage taken while guarding is reflected to the enemy.
Unbreakable Guard: Can not be Guard Broken.
Healers Reward: Big exp bonus for healing in battle (up to 3x exp). Factored into her level
Auto Medicine: 15% chance of recovering 30% HP when receiving damage. This is way more potent then it sounds in a multi-hit game.
Auto Medicine 2: 30% chance of negating any physical or magical ailment that would otherwise be inflicted.
Angel's Cry: Automatically Revive when KO'd. Once Per Battle (Actually can trigger infinitely, but requires switching Elize in/out of the combat party). Revive takes precedence if both are present.
HP Surge: When revived, HP is at 100%
TP Surge: When revived, TP is at 100%
Elemental resistance options:
Armor:
Mystic Cloak: 100% Water resistance (517 Pdef, 285 Adef)
Elemental Cloak: 36% Wind/Earth/Fire/Water resistance (485 Pdef, 268 Adef)
Helm:
Rune Circlet: 21% Wind/Earth/Fire/Water resistance (175 Pdef, 271 Adef)
Wind Crest: 71% Wind resistance (158 Pdef, 243 Adef)
Phoenix Ribbon: 71% Fire resistance (71 Pdef, 469 Adef)
White Ribbon: 71% Light resistance (50 Pdef, 334 Adef)
Aqua Ribbon: 71% Water resistance (45 pdef, 299 Adef)
Comments: Elize is... shocking good. Mage-looks aside, Elize can bring a good amount of physical pain. Her solid enough effective durability, good status resistance (and immunity if it is required), decent damage, and Auto-Life would make her a good dueler by itself, but she also brings healing magic (notably Revive) and makes some of the best use of Guarding I've ever seen. It'd take a lot of damage to overcome the healing of Guard, so she can just put up Guard and wait till full HP. If the enemy attacks her she regenerates TP and they take miniscule damage for trying. If she is facing a faster 2HKOer she can Guard until a favorable Pow Hammer/Auto-Med string and work from there. For the price of most of her damage she can Stun her enemy with her combo and sneak in a spell on top of it. Elemental resists like everyone else are plentiful. Heavy?
Rowen::
HP: 4653
TP: 553
P.Atk: 1552
P.Def: 2130
A.Atk: 2744
Physical Durability: 63.9%
Magical Durability: 89.4%
Str: 486
Int: 1197
Agi: 458
Vit: 733
Psy: 725
Dex: 1046
Equipment:
Weapon: Steward's Sword (645 Patk, 774 AAtk)
Armor: Rare Coat (638 Pdef, 227 Adef)
Helm: Rare Helm (387 Pdef, 392 Adef)
Accessory: Alexandrite (+25% HP/TP)
Unique Ability: Arte Tuning
Rowen can alter his artes after they are cast by using button combos. This is notable for increasing his Fireball damage by 300% and Wind Blade damage by 100%. Otherwise it's mostly a novelty.
Fireball->Wind Blade
Ideal Magic Combo: 6004 Fire/Wind magic damage (24 TP).
Alternates (Turns off Arte Tuning for this and loses access to the above):
Diffusional Drive*3: 4553 magic water damage and 30% Healing (92 TP)
Rowen has a variety of elemental attack artes, but they aren't comparable for damage.
Skills of Note:
Mage Stun: 5% chance of stunning enemy with magic damage.
Speed Cast: Reduces casting time by 30%.
Abrubt Cast: No Arte Tuning, but virtually no cooldown time to spells, enabling chaining of Diffusional drive listed above.
Queued Spellcasting: If Rowen doesn't complete casting a spell, the next time he tries he'll pick up where he left off.
Absolute Reduction: 10% chance of no TP being consumed when spellcasting.
Anti-Magic: Magic immunity. This only applies to spells, not the likes of magic Mystic Artes. It DOES negate Milla's pseudomagic spirit-shifted artes, for what that is worth.
Elemental Equipment options:
Armor:
Hero's Coat: 43% resistance to Earth/Water. (566 Pdef/201 Adef)
Bloody Coat: 100% resistance to Dark (459 Pdef/163 Adef)
Rune Coat: 36% resistance to Wind/Earth/Fire/Water
Helm:
Dragon Helm: 71% resistance to Fire (364 Pdef, 369 Adef )
Viking Hat: 71% resistance to Water (182 Pdef, 605 Adef)
Earth Cap: 71% resistance to Earth (100 Pdef, 334 Adef)
Green Beret: 71% resistance to Wind (90 Pdef, 299 Adef)
Comments: Magic Immunity is always welcome in a duel, but it does shut off his "Heal and deal damage" game. He is all elemental, which is not a good thing. His physical durability is utterly terrible. But the option of magic immunity or pseudo-parasitic healing is a good thing. Also worth mentioning that he has an existential crit rate and magic crits hurt worse than normal crits (3x instead of 2x). Crits are still rare enough that it won't make much difference except in a longer heal lock situation. Makes a High Light probably? Was probably a mean mofo in his (sturdier) youth!
Leia:
HP: 5783
TP: 394
P.Atk: 2584
P.Def: 3009
A.Atk: 1548
A.Def: 1670
Physical durability: 112% (~185% taking Last Stand into account)
Magical Durability: 83.9% (~139% taking Last Stand into account)
Str: 913
Int: 437
Agi: 1118
Vit: 1080
Psy: 725
Dex: 470
Equipment:
Weapon: Gravity Rod (784 PAtk, 684 AAtk, Earth Elemental)
Armor: Rare Protector (775 Pdef, 113 Adef)
Helm: Rare Circlet (301 Pdef, 463 Adef)
Accessory: Alexandrite (+25% HP/TP)
Unique Ability: Elongated Staff
If Leia dodges an enemy via backstep, her staff elongnates and her attack reach increases. That's... it. Fairly worthless.
Darting Claw->Cerberus Strike->Crescent Flash->CF->CF->Rabid Lunge
Ideal Combo: 3435 damage (47 TP), Partially Wind, Earth, and Water.
Other Artes of note:
Cure (21 TP): 70% healing.
Noteworthy Skills:
Life Reversal: Recovers 50% of the last damage taken as HP. Enemy attack strings are assumed to be 6 hits, so this would be regenerating 1/12th of the damage.
Sky Soldier: Increases damage to aerial enemies by 25%, reduces TP consumed when attacking them by 25%. (Already factored in)
Last Stand: Take 25% damage when HP is below 25% of max. Since 6 hits is the 'normal' number of hits in an attack, and this triggers as soon as HP belows 25% (even mid-combo), it's effectiveness is incredible.
Lucky Item: 10% chance of not consuming an item when using it.
Multi-Item: Single-target restorative (including TP restore) items are now MT, but half effectiveness.
Item Knowledge: Items are 30% more effective.
Immediate Consumption: Use items without having to stand still
Chain Consumption: Use items with no wait-time between them.
Elemental Equipment Options:
Weapon: Mythril Rod (737 PAtk, 644 Matk, Non-elemental)
Armor:
Princess Guard: 43% Wind/Earth resistance (732 Pdef, 107 Adef)
Elemental Guard (36% Wind/Earth/Fire/Water resistance (688 Pdef, 101 Adef)
Helm:
Rune Circlet: 21% Wind/Earth/Fire/Water resistance (175 Pdef, 271 Adef)
Wind Crest: 71% Wind resistance (158 Pdef, 243 Adef)
Phoenix Ribbon: 71% Fire resistance (71 Pdef, 469 Adef)
White Ribbon: 71% Light resistance (50 Pdef, 334 Adef)
Aqua Ribbon: 71% Water resistance (45 pdef, 299 Adef)
Comments: Leia is the team's item-girl. You could find it in your heart to allow her access to common curative items on account of all those skills (it is a MAJOR source of her in-game worth to be that good at using items). Even without it she is fairly good thanks to healing and durability that is effectively badass. Last Stand lies and says it is a third as good as it actually is. She has elemental resistances and durability and healing. Toooo bad about the damage, which sucks horribly. But she can win attrition matches with healing/physicals to regen TP without worrying about running out of gas. A Low Middle probably? That damage is just SO bad.
