At last we saw of our weary party, we were about to begin our trials at the River Styx. The area was full of even more annoying mobs but we managed to pull through, grab some useful items then hit the Halls of the Dead. Prior to that, there was the little Tomb of the Dead dungeon and island with a pair of nice restorative fountains. Using the old spin-2-win methodology of grinding XP out by a fountain, I learned that the only mobs popping up were the nuisance known as the Nightgaunts. As these mobs flocked in groups and had nasty spells but provided mediocre XP, I figured the area was not good for grinding and went below into the Tomb itself.
The Tomb of the Dead likewise has bad mobs for this style of grinding. Deciding that the bulk of the zone was not great for grinding out levels, I moved onto to finish the area and went to the Halls of the Dead where some of the best end game gear lie. There were a few very nasty encounters where my injuries and low mana began causing me some concern. Ultimately, the goal was to locate the restorative fountain as quickly as possible and run back and forth until I claimed all the mobs and mini bosses in the area. I did save the samurai boss for last since the gear I was toting around was beginning to weigh on me and I needed to sell the rest of the items to make room.
Along the way, I tried to use the restorative fountain as a zone to grind experience but the mobs were not consistently putting out great XP for the effort. So I decided to go back to the most reliable spot in the game for XP grinding: the gated area above the basement for the Enchanted Forest. While I have used this particular spot for grinding out my levels, the primary change here is that most of my party now had adequate gear finally. Since then I’ve mostly stayed in this spot to begin finalizing my party for the end game. As it stands, my party composition now appears like this:
- Male Dwarf Lord level 14 (formerly a Fighter)
- Male Felpurr Samurai level 10 (formerly a Bard)
- Male Dracon Ninja level 15
- Female Elf Monk level 9 (formerly a Valkyrie)
- Male Rawulf Bishop level 14 (formerly a Priest)
- Male Faerie Bishop level 11 (formerly a Mage)
This party composition probably could go all the way to the end game. However, I’m planning on doing a few more class changes. For now, the way this party is operating is based on several things:
- The Dwarf Lord is rushing all major Priest spells and will probably stick to the class for now while the Samurai and Monk are built up. Eventually, I’ll have the Dwarf Lord switch to Monk once the Monk’s Ninjutsu is at an acceptable level (which helps her AC).
- The Felpurr Samurai is the biggest damage dealer in the party as he’s armed with the Muramasa Blade. Since I managed to get the Bard’s Thaumaturgy to 100 before swapping classes, I can focus all skill points into Kirijutsu. Once that’s at 100, I should have around 37% critical chance which combined with the Wakizashi should make him into a fairly efficient killing machine.
- The Elf Monk is quickly dumping everything into Theosophy with 1-2 points placed into Kirijutsu. Ninjutsu is slowly leveling though as is her Hands & Feet skill. I’m avoiding placing her into the melee slot until Ninjutsu significantly improves so she can have a much higher AC. Otherwise, every level I’m mostly just collecting spells.
- The Dracon Ninja is taking a long time to reach maximum Alchemy. There’s only a few spells I’m really after at this point (namely Deadly Air) but I can never spare any extra points into Kirijutsu sadly. But once I get Deadly Air, I’ll be primed for changing into a Bishop. Not necessarily the best race to change into a Bishop but it’s either that or I have to swap him into a Lord and/or Samurai.
- The Rawulf Bishop is starting to split his leveling between Thaumaturgy and Theology depending on which spell side he receives. But he’s got adequate room for doing either or focusing while my Faerie catches up. Once he’s done with this class, he’ll move into the Monk as his final class.
- The Faerie Bishop has a maxed out Thaumaturgy skill so everything is being dumped into Theology. It almost feels that when I change the Ninja to a Bishop, I’ll have to swap the Bishop to a Ninja at the same time. But since I battle Ninjas almost all the time, I probably should just save some gear. It’ll be easier for the Faerie to become a Ninja than the Ninja to become a Bishop initially.
After this party, the final party should look like:
- Male Felpurr Lord
- Male Dwarf Samurai
- Male Rawulf Monk
- Male Faerie Ninja
- Female Elf Ranger
- Male Dracon Bishop
In a way, I really regret making the Ninja a Dracon or the Dwarf a male. Given that I ended up editing the party here and there anyway, I think I could’ve gotten away with a far better end game party. Like not being able to use the Valkyrie’s end game lance sucks. Having a Female Dwarf would’ve solved that issue. But that’s something to consider in the future after going through this play through.
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