Incline Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children - isometric tactical Korean SRPG

[Haplo]

I think you're doing the OP a disservice. I initially reacted critically as well in the vein of "Albus is good", but OP isn't really saying he sucks. He's just saying "who isn't better." And I must admit if I had to leave one character behind right now, it'd probably be Albus. Maaaaaaybe Ray.

Leaving Ray? Are you crazy?

And for me, there are plenty of characters I would leave home rather then (GS) Albus:
Leton
Kylie
Irene
Sion
Heixing
Giselle

 

[Sykar]

So you would consider Anne, Ray and Bianca to be as valuable or more than Albus?

 

[True Ukrainian]

So you would consider Anne, Ray and Bianca to be as valuable or more than Albus?

Ray is an incredible grenadier and can double as an off healer. Anne is your main healer and debuffer. Bianca is well, OK I suppose.

 

[Haplo]

So you would consider Anne, Ray and Bianca to be as valuable or more than Albus?

Grenadier Ray - YES, she destroys
Witch Anne - Maybe? She's pretty versatile as buffer, debuff remover (pretty big aoe on that AND gives a random buff to everyone in radius - sometimes stuff like "Immortal"), healer AND tactical nuclear strike on demand
Bianca - I didn't really consider her, as she comes in the DLC. Also, I haven't completed her masteries yet. I'd guess - no.

 

[gurugeorge]

I think you're doing the OP a disservice. I initially reacted critically as well in the vein of "Albus is good", but OP isn't really saying he sucks. He's just saying "who isn't better." And I must admit if I had to leave one character behind right now, it'd probably be Albus. Maaaaaaybe Ray.

Leaving Ray? Are you crazy?

And for me, there are plenty of characters I would leave home rather then (GS) Albus:
Leton
Kylie
Irene
Sion
Heixing
Giselle

Definitely agree with GS Albus over Leton or Kylie. I just could never build either of those two to be all that effective. Surprised to see Sion in your list though - Sion's a wee bit squishy but he's such an engine of destruction it's hard to leave him behind.

For me, GS Albus is usually the lynch-pin of most teams, as he's just sooooo good at holdling choke-points with incoming mobs.

Leaving Ray behind? I agree, sheer madness!

 

[WhiteShark]

Don't really need to hold chokes when you can kill everything from 15 squares away. Leaving Giselle behind over Albus is the craziest choice on Haplo's list.

 

[Sykar]

Sion is my favorite. He does not get his turn that often but when he does shit dies regardless of block or damage reduction. His base damage is insane as Black Mage.

 

[gurugeorge]

Don't really need to hold chokes when you can kill everything from 15 squares away. Leaving Giselle behind over Albus is the craziest choice on Haplo's list.

Yeah, I think of the team (in rough MVP order) as:-

1) Long range destruction: reactive Giselle
2) Mid-range destruction: BM Sion and/or Gren Ray (Alch also great, but I like Gren Ray's skirmish capability)
3) cc, dealing with/distracting anomalies that crop up - GS Albus and/or MA Irene, maybe Leton. I actually quite like BM Irene too.
4) General support - Witchy Anne (healer Anne is good too, but I like Witchy Anne's more jack-of-all-trades aspect). Ray could theoretically be pretty good support, but I find her a bit fiddly to use for that.

Any of the others to fill in the rest. Sometimes Kylie's robits can be useful, sometimes Heixing is useful for reactive or AoE goodness.

I really must wheel the game out again, I haven't played the "White Lion Black Witch" new content yet.

 

[Haplo]

I think you're doing the OP a disservice. I initially reacted critically as well in the vein of "Albus is good", but OP isn't really saying he sucks. He's just saying "who isn't better." And I must admit if I had to leave one character behind right now, it'd probably be Albus. Maaaaaaybe Ray.

Leaving Ray? Are you crazy?

And for me, there are plenty of characters I would leave home rather then (GS) Albus:
Leton
Kylie
Irene
Sion
Heixing
Giselle

Definitely agree with GS Albus over Leton or Kylie. I just could never build either of those two to be all that effective. Surprised to see Sion in your list though - Sion's a wee bit squishy but he's such an engine of destruction it's hard to leave him behind.

For me Black Mage Sion was just insane in the first half of the game. But in the final parts he fell off kinda hard. When enemies start surviving his attacks, he looses initiative and he's not that fast. Impulse Fields are a nasty showstopper for him. He's still great against mechanic enemies, though!

 

[Haplo]

3) cc, dealing with/distracting anomalies that crop up - GS Albus and/or MA Irene, maybe Leton

In my team Albus often had an active role, charging the enemy, clearing enemy snipers on rooftops and sometimes flanking the enemies (though Irene was more of a flanker... but she died a lot later on). He was rarely the "roadblock" tank.

Giselle offered good kill support but was kinda slow for an aggressive playstyle and couldn't kill anything on her own... and Albus didn't really need kill support.

 

[gurugeorge]

3) cc, dealing with/distracting anomalies that crop up - GS Albus and/or MA Irene, maybe Leton

In my team Albus often had an active role, charging the enemy, clearing enemy snipers on rooftops and sometimes flanking the enemies (though Irene was more of a flanker... but she died a lot later on). He was rarely the "roadblock" tank.

Giselle offered good kill support but was kinda slow for an aggressive playstyle and couldn't kill anything on her own... and Albus didn't really need kill support.

Yeah I do use him aggressively too sometimes. Albus' flexibility is one of his main plus points. Also, that one ranged wind power of his I've found to be surprisingly clutch quite often, even just in GS mode.

 

[Sykar]

I think you're doing the OP a disservice. I initially reacted critically as well in the vein of "Albus is good", but OP isn't really saying he sucks. He's just saying "who isn't better." And I must admit if I had to leave one character behind right now, it'd probably be Albus. Maaaaaaybe Ray.

Leaving Ray? Are you crazy?

And for me, there are plenty of characters I would leave home rather then (GS) Albus:
Leton
Kylie
Irene
Sion
Heixing
Giselle

Definitely agree with GS Albus over Leton or Kylie. I just could never build either of those two to be all that effective. Surprised to see Sion in your list though - Sion's a wee bit squishy but he's such an engine of destruction it's hard to leave him behind.

For me Black Mage Sion was just insane in the first half of the game. But in the final parts he fell off kinda hard. When enemies start surviving his attacks, he looses initiative and he's not that fast. Impulse Fields are a nasty showstopper for him. He's still great against mechanic enemies, though!

If it were not for Impulse Fields he would be completely unstoppable and OP.

3) cc, dealing with/distracting anomalies that crop up - GS Albus and/or MA Irene, maybe Leton

In my team Albus often had an active role, charging the enemy, clearing enemy snipers on rooftops and sometimes flanking the enemies (though Irene was more of a flanker... but she died a lot later on). He was rarely the "roadblock" tank.

Giselle offered good kill support but was kinda slow for an aggressive playstyle and couldn't kill anything on her own... and Albus didn't really need kill support.

Yeah I do use him aggressively too sometimes. Albus' flexibility is one of his main plus points. Also, that one ranged wind power of his I've found to be surprisingly clutch quite often, even just in GS mode.

The one that removes cloud effects?

 

[gurugeorge]

The one that removes cloud effects?

Oh yeah forgot about that, yeah it can be situationally very handy too. No, I just meant the bog standard ST ranged blast that he starts off with. I can't count the number of times some dangerous enemy has had a sliver of health left over from backline damagers, and Albus is able to finish that last sliver off without having to move from an upfront holding position. When I say "I can't count" I'm exaggerating ofc, but that humble ability has pulled my fat out of the fire more than once.

 

[True Ukrainian]

Sion is my favorite. He does not get his turn that often but when he does shit dies regardless of block or damage reduction. His base damage is insane as Black Mage.

Sweeper Heixing is Sion but better, especially if you stack crit chance. Heixing doesn't have Sion's poor action time, fairly good accuracy for his aoe attacks and a powerful basic attack that always hits.

 

[Sykar]

Sion is my favorite. He does not get his turn that often but when he does shit dies regardless of block or damage reduction. His base damage is insane as Black Mage.

Sweeper Heixing is Sion but better, especially if you stack crit chance. Heixing doesn't have Sion's poor action time, fairly good accuracy for his aoe attacks and a powerful basic attack that always hits.

Heixing is very squisy even compared to Black Mage Sion though when he is not in cover while Sion gets decent flat damage reduction from one of his Black Mage sets. I never had a big problem with accuracy and there is a 20% hit chance mastery set from lighting masteries for Sion as well. Battle Mage Sion is a near indestructible demi god though does not have that much damage.

 

[True Ukrainian]

Sion is my favorite. He does not get his turn that often but when he does shit dies regardless of block or damage reduction. His base damage is insane as Black Mage.

Sweeper Heixing is Sion but better, especially if you stack crit chance. Heixing doesn't have Sion's poor action time, fairly good accuracy for his aoe attacks and a powerful basic attack that always hits.

Heixing is very squisy even compared to Black Mage Sion though when he is not in cover while Sion gets decent flat damage reduction from one of his Black Mage sets. I never had a big problem with accuracy and there is a 20% hit chance mastery set from lighting masteries for Sion as well. Battle Mage Sion is a near indestructible demi god though does not have that much damage.

Yeah, if Heixing is caught by an enemy, he's dead. He needs to be escorted by a melee fighter like Albus or Irene. One tanks, the other does damage.

 

[Sykar]

I actually managed to use his SP dash into a named enemy. Dead on arrival...



What a move that was.

 

[Haplo]

Sion is my favorite. He does not get his turn that often but when he does shit dies regardless of block or damage reduction. His base damage is insane as Black Mage.

Sweeper Heixing is Sion but better, especially if you stack crit chance. Heixing doesn't have Sion's poor action time, fairly good accuracy for his aoe attacks and a powerful basic attack that always hits.

Sion is way better vs machines, though.

 

[Grunker]

Black Mage Sion is good but later on, at least on the highest difficulty and challenge mode, battle mage is just straight up bonkers. Which is incidentally why I think that post has merit. In Melee, Irene and Sion just kick Albus' ass in every way.

If you don't know what they mean by Albus' squishyness, you simply haven't read their abilities. Odds are, you have Albus in better gear (i.e. more dodge chance) than Irene and Sion. If you look only at their masteries, Sion and Irene get a TON of damage reduction and defense, where Albus doesn't get all that much.

 

[Grunker]

Kylie is incredible for me. Two machines, "mind control" and almost unlimited protocols which are just better versions of most other abilities.

 

[Sykar]

Black Mage Sion is good but later on, at least on the highest difficulty and challenge mode, battle mage is just straight up bonkers. Which is incidentally why I think that post has merit. In Melee, Irene and Sion just kick Albus' ass in every way.

I do not like that you flat out lose a general ability slot. Yeah you get tankiness but lose in tactical depth, slightly, and damage.
It is also a reason why I prefer MA Irene over BM even though mastery wise I outfit her as a fire mage.

 

[Grunker]

^ I edited my post with a little bit of further explanation. The fact is Battle Mage just has more defense built into their kit than GM has.

 

[gurugeorge]

What does the esteemed assembly think about the pros and cons of Battle Mage Sion vs. Battle Mage Irene? I actually found her more useful as Battle Mage than a Martial Artist in the later game, while keeping Sion as a blaster - but Sion is amazing as a Battle Mage too obvs and maybe has the edge because he still has some formidable blasts even as Battle Mage, whereas Irene's ranged ability (the fireball kick), while still useful, is weaker than his.

 

[True Ukrainian]

Black Mage Sion is good but later on, at least on the highest difficulty and challenge mode, battle mage is just straight up bonkers. Which is incidentally why I think that post has merit. In Melee, Irene and Sion just kick Albus' ass in every way.

If you don't know what they mean by Albus' squishyness, you simply haven't read their abilities. Odds are, you have Albus in better gear (i.e. more dodge chance) than Irene and Sion. If you look only at their masteries, Sion and Irene get a TON of damage reduction and defense, where Albus doesn't get all that much.

Albus defense comes from blocking, not dodging. He also has a far more aggressive fighting style. GS masteries provide bonuses to block whenever Albus attacks.

 

[Sykar]

Level 35 blue gear for 95% of all available slots so there is not a huge gear disparity there.