really guys she works just fine for burst, you only need to limit her options so she will use the good arts...

what i used was:

earth
thunder
fire

for damage, all of this are good and the ai can handle them fine

sleep is another art the ai can handle right! it will often sleep an enemy at the start of the fight and ignore it to focus on other enemies, very handy to reduce number disadvantage

reflection is awesome to block "blue" special enemy arts (ether arts), just "warn" her with shulk a second before it gets off to have the enemy deal damage to itself instaed

psychic explosion is an awesome attack and she can only use it with a full elemental burst bar so it wont' interfere with other stuff

healing gift is cool, costs her a bit of hp but can be a lifesaver, just heal her later on with shulk

last art is up to you i'd say, if you can get anything with aura heal skill you cna give her that aura tha tdoubles element range so she'll keep herself healthy, or maybe i forgot something important, it's possible.

EDIT: RIGHT! i know what i forgot! summon copy! never leave home whitout that.

I'm just grinding against the level 72 flamiis and sardi's near colony 9 for some bitch of a mechon boss with cheap unavoidable attacks...

which is it? the mechon on the arm's beach? (no clue on what the name was)

if it's that one i couldn't defeat it until i got some very high defense against impact damage dealt by it's aura.

boss::

during the second phase the strong attacks wear my charachters down, though i coulld probably go back now and do it since im 3-4 levels higher.

Just had a crack at those lvl 36 defense thingies that attack the high entia fixing the transport... the ones that stop you using your arts, or moving? THroughout 95% of the whole fucking battle? Yeah, they're rage inducing. How do I stop them doing that?

Is that those kromars in eryth sea?

if so, yeah their bitches, I think you either oughta level slightly, or take out 1 or 2 by rushing them, then fleeing, re-genning and going back.

Okay, now I'm at Mumkhar. I'm guessing the thing to do is to simply level a few times, since my party's 44, and he's 48.

Double posting... :P

Can someone explain linking skill trees? I don't really understand what it is, how to do it, or what the benefits are...

Fire-lord Zuko wrote:

Double posting... :P

Can someone explain linking skill trees? I don't really understand what it is, how to do it, or what the benefits are...

RIghto, here we GO!

To begin.
A skill link allows one character, say, Shulk, to use a skill that they don't learn but another character, say, Reyn, does.

The shape of the skill slots limit which ones can be linked.
Additional slots are unlocked by increasing the affinity between the two characters.
You cannot link a skill that is unlearnt.

The benefits of this are profound when used correctly. For example, Shulk learns many Chain boosting skills, and linking these to all three members will make chains much more powerful. You can also use them to allow characters to use armour types usually unavailable to them.

characters can learn skills right?

those skills they learn are always active and available to them only. using skill links however other characters can learn those skills too for you to customise them further.

let's say character A has a skill that grants it +5% phisical def and it's O shaped,
you want to give character B that same skill.

you need to raise affinity between character A and B until in link skill tree page of character B you unlcok a O slot under char A list. click on that O slot to wiev all skills from character A then click on the +5% phisical def to equip it to character B.

now both characters have that skill.

equipping skills however costs you some points, every skill costing a different amount. the max amount of points a character can spend increases by 1 with each level up and by 1 whenever you defeat a named enemy the first time.

for example, my shulk knows a skill to raise chain extend chanches, i raised affinity between him and melia/dunban so those two could equip that skill too. now my team is linking like crazy :3

it's an essential system at endgame stages, before that your options are limited and it's not that important either except to unlock medium/heavy armors on some characters usually.

edit: curse you, ninja hic!

6 minutes is hardly a ninja. I like to feel that mine is the simple one whereas yours goes into more detail, so all in all, both worth reading.

Soooo, my last game to be able to get (unless MH is released in the US) will be Kid Icarus: Uprising. Which means after waiting all this time for Xenoblade to be released in the US I won't even be able to get it. I won't go into how heart broken I am and I could easily blame Nintendo for its long delay in a north American release but I will not. In the end I will be passing the game up for a good cause but still, a long long wait for a game and then to not even be able to get it... Oh well. (just so you know I am not choosing KI over Xeno it's just the way my last purchase worked out)

Theres a bitch of a phase where enemies give barely any xp and grinding is dull, and quests that give buckets of xp require OP monster hunting...

And Eryth Sea and Alcamoth is so dangerous now D:

Welp, wasn't expecting that.

What to do with 7? Swap her in? who to replace? Good arts for her?

edit: that character's name is "7". you don't want to spoiler possible other people.

7 basically fills the same role as dunban.

potentially she is even better however the time investment required to bring her to usable level makes it unpractical for main story. also geting the good equipment for her is pretty troublesome.

i don't suggest swapping her in at all until after endgame when you'll want her for some optional bosses (ex: i couldn't beat abaasy with dunban, i can with 7)

Because I neglected quests early on (stupidy)

I've got to do loads of crappy quests just to raise area affinity /versad/
Damn the skill trees...

I've never used 7, apart from that compulsory fight with her, but she was quite good...

Okay... what does she have that Dundun doesn't?

and... area affinity? Why do you need to raise that? Goddamnit I@m stupid xP

EDIT for new question: why do you need high Ether? Does it decrease when you use ether-based arts or something? What happens if it runs out? How can you get more?

Area affinity is needed to get more erwarding quests off of named npc's and potentially the skill tree quest chains.

speaking to named npc's, doing quests, all raise area affinity.

Okay, what arts should I put on each character?

as for what arts, depends on your team and playstyle....


as for other questions:

ether is a statistic, it's the equivalent of attack (or was it called strenght?) stat but for ether based arts, mostly useful for sharla and melia, other characters only need it marginally.

as for 7 vs dunban: 7 have more reliable aggro options, a comparable damage output but better overall capacity to take hits, arguably better skill trees and some really cool equipments. oh and boobs. all of that only IF you develop her a lot (except boobs), which might not be worth for mainstory.

Okay... any arts that are definitely not worth it? I hear Melia's aqua is shit...

I think aqua is bad, i didnt use it, some status arts can be replaced by far better ones. like Melia or Riki's sleep/burn moves.

I had to reload my save since the final boss kept roflstomping me /versad/
good thing I saved right before the point of no return.

Well, back to grinding

you can't save after the point of no return.... smart huh?

(i disagree on sleep/burn move sucking tho, especially since riki most used strategy relies on his damage over time moves so burn+poison+freeze)

Burninate + Lurgy + Freezinate + Bitey Bitey + the move that does extra damage per debuff on enemy = TONNES of damage


Think 20-30k damage outside a chain

Soo, the boss of agniratha. His ether attacks keep killing me. Seriously, why the &*^& would shulk get a vision if there's nothing I can do?

Any advice? My team's shulk/dunban/sharla. So far, I'm trying to get behind him, chain back slash/blossom dance or soaring tempest/headshot/monado buster, then any buff moves...

What did you guys do?