Well, I pulled the trigger on the first class change in the latest party in moving from Fighter to Lord. While my Fighter was doing reasonably well, the level 9-10 experience wall hurts during the mid-game for a basic class especially one like a plain Fighter. Already, his Sword skill was maxed out and I started leveling his Mace & Flail skill (which by the time of the change already reached above 50). Of course, there are some hits that I took in swapping the class, but I think it’s worth it.
The main hit I took was losing his high statistics. Probably, Strength and Speed were his two biggest attributes that got cut (Vitality too but low levels won’t matter since you only receive 1 HP per new level until you catch up) so he’s not hitting as hard as before. In certain fights, that makes a huge difference. On the other hand, in swapping weapons to the Vulcan Hammer, the damage is compensated as his previous weapon was the Sword of Striking. I could have swapped to the Bastard Sword you find in the sub-level in the Castle but you do receive a -1 to hit penalty which is terrible at early levels.
On the other hand, progression in Theology is incredible. He just received level 3 spells and only is level 7. I ended up getting Silence just to begin building up his Air spell pool and probably will grab Cure Paralysis next. Earth spells like Blades may sound good on paper but as a front line fighter and tank with low Oratory skills, the likelihood of pulling off a decent Blades cast is very low at this stage. I think it’s better to dump the bulk of any leveling skill points straight into Theology to rush towards the highest level spells. Besides, if I do need to return for a lower level spell like Blades, I have Monk selected as his next class change that comes up later on. Instead, it’s better just to build up various school spell pools and compliment the rest of the team.
With my Dwarf Lord making progress, my attention turns to the next character who would benefit from a class change in the near future. In all likelihood, that character will be my Priest simply because he can catch up to where my Mage is and dump everything into Thaumaturgy. The high end Priest spells mostly aren’t that great to be honest so there’s not as much of a rush at this stage to grab Astral Gate and Word of Death. Astral Gate comes in handier towards the end game where demons begin showing up. But in swapping to a Bishop, I always can pick those up later on without another class change.
Another motivation in swapping my Priest to a Bishop is to force him to improve his Oratory skills. The majority of the time I’ve been forcing myself to either Bless or Heal party members in that 2nd level of the Mines by the Fountains. In gaining the Mage side of spell casting as a Bishop, I can start contributing to more offensive spell casting, which will help improve his Oratory skills faster. Similarly, I can continue building up his other pools of magic and pick up missing spells that I’ve sacrificed as a Priest in favor of more potent higher level spells.
The Mage would be the following choice for a class change. However, the Faerie Mage is quite powerful and would suffer a great deal of damage loss for the party if I swap him in parallel with the Priest. Instead, I might continue to level him to 11 or so until the first Priest/Bishop catches up. Likewise, the Felpurr Bard is in a similar position where swapping to a Samurai right now means all points going into Sword rather than Thaumaturgy and Kirijitsu. I figure that a later profession change would make more sense. That way, I can continue to build up his Skulduggery and Music skills until my Ninja is in a better position to take over the role as the lock and trap expert. Lastly, with regards to the Bard, I learned that I cannot dual wield (at least not to my knowledge) but I can wield a Buckler. So when I can, I’m hiding in shadows more and backstabbing opponents. I’ve found that the Bard’s backstabbing damage actually can be quite good and he can attack people multiple times in a single hit.
I am a bit eager to push my Bard into a Samurai though. I feel my Valkyrie is almost like a 5th wheel at this point. She does okay in the #2 position but her damage output isn’t significant and she never has opportunities to cast spells during combat. She can soak up damage which is great or deflect attacks. Also, she has developed multiple attacks. With the Fauchard as her weapon, the damage is only adequate most of the time. Now, because she is in the #2 slot, I would give her a better weapon (like another Vulcan Hammer if I can afford it) but I don’t think it’s great investment at this stage. Perhaps, a 2h sword might be better in preparation for the long term switch to a Samurai. Either that or I change a variety of mid level plans (like make her into the Samurai rather than the Monk and make the Bard into a Monk)
I did pause the game for a break though. I screwed up in hitting level 7 on my Dwarf where I accidentally saved after getting some bad rolls. It sucks because the previous level I managed to get much better rolls over all. Le sigh. Then I looked at the amount of experience necessary for level 8 and felt a little burn out. That’s partly why I’m even contemplating the Priest switch at this point. But it does suck sitting and spinning without making significant progress. At least with the Enchanted Forest zone, the leveling experience isn’t as bad since you get a lot of experience and don’t have to worry about shit encounters at higher levels.
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