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Combat Strategies and Combinations

Openings

What Are Openings?

In combat, openings are critical opportunities to deal massive damage to enemies. Here’s how they work and when to use them effectively.

  • Openings occur when an enemy is forced into a vulnerable state, marked by a gold circle icon above their head.
  • During this state, they take increased damage from the next non-spell attack they receive.

How to Trigger Openings:

  • Defensive Blocking:
    • When a character successfully blocks or evades an attack while using Defend, an opening is created.
    • The Knight class excels at this with abilities like Cover and Cover All, making them ideal for initiating openings. However, testing has shown that these abilities don’t always reliably create openings.
    • While it might be counter-intuitive, having the MC or a front-line Thief use Defend also has a very high chance of triggering an opening with their evade while defending.
  • Universal Applicability:
    • Openings work on all types of enemies, from basic mobs to bosses.
    • This makes it a versatile strategy for both regular encounters and challenging battles.
    • This is extremely useful when you're under-leveled with your MC due to class switching, as the MC can defend when they won't be able to deal significant damage themselves.

Note: Opening can only be triggered on every other turn. You cannot get two consecutive turns of Opening being triggered.

Maximizing Damage from Openings:

  • Use high-damage attacks, such as a two-handed weapon strike (e.g., axe or sword), or skills like Heavy Attack and Precision Strike to take full advantage of the multiplier. The latter is exceptionally helpful due to its defense piercing nature.
  • Pair counterattacks with your heaviest hitters for optimal burst damage.

Using Openings in Gimmick Fights:

Some battles rely heavily on exploiting openings for victory.

  • Mimic Chest Fight (Floors 5, 7)
    • Strategy: Have your frontline enter Defensive Stance to block attacks and trigger openings. Counterattack immediately with high-damage skills.
    • Why: The mimic deals significant burst damage, so it’s crucial to take it down quickly while minimizing risk.
  • Arena Bosses (Reprobus Brothers, Shagtis, Gessi)
    • Strategy: Similar to the mimic fight, use openings to deal burst damage while mitigating incoming attacks.
    • Why: These bosses have high damage output, requiring you to balance survival and offense effectively.

Specific Combat Strategies

These strategies are effective in both early-game when your resources are low and late game when select fights are extremely difficult.

Sleep Tactics (Katino):

  • Why Use Sleep?
    • Sleep is a cheap and effective crowd-control spell that targets a row of enemies.
    • It reduces enemy actions by forcing them to "skip" their turn while trying to wake up.
  • How to Use Sleep Effectively:
    • Cast Sleep on a row of enemies.
    • Focus attacks on enemies not affected by Sleep to reduce their numbers.
    • If you attack a sleeping enemy, they will take an automatic critical hit (x2 or x3 damage).
      • This applies to both physical and magical damage. If you run two mages, it's often more cost-effective to sleep with one mage and use a row damage spell with the other, rather than using row damage spells with both.
    • Key Tips:
      • Even at Rank 1, Sleep remains effective up to level 50.
      • If available, use characters who can inherit Asha’s Sleep skill for added versatility.

Defense and Counterattack Strategy:

  • When to Use:
    • When outnumbered or facing overwhelming enemies.
  • How It Works:
    • Have your frontline characters go into Defensive Stance to absorb attacks.
    • Trigger openings by blocking, then counterattack with high-damage moves.
    • Use the opportunity to heal critical characters with your Priest while your frontline holds the line.
    • Benefits:
      • Defense increases survivability by boosting stats and reducing damage taken.
      • Counterattacks exploit openings to deal significant damage, turning the tide of battle.

Delay Attack

A useful tactic for dealing with stronger enemies and bosses is leveraging the Thief’s skill, Delay Attack. This ability can be particularly effective in controlling the flow of battle.

How Delay Attack Works:

  • Purpose: Delay Attack pushes back an enemy’s turn, potentially giving your party additional actions before the enemy can strike.
  • Chaining: In some cases, you can chain Delay Attack, allowing your Thief’s turn to come up again before the enemy gets a chance to act.
  • Boss Resistance: Be aware that bosses typically have high resistance to this skill. While the first use may succeed, subsequent attempts have a significantly reduced chance of working.

Strategy Example:

  • Start with Delay Attack:
    • Use the Thief to push back the enemy’s turn, disrupting their action sequence.
  • Follow Up with Crowd Control:
    • Have your Knight or Mage use abilities like Sleep or Stun to further delay the enemy’s turn and waste their action.
  • Capitalize on the Advantage:
    • While the enemy is incapacitated, focus your party’s attacks to deal as much damage as possible.
  • Repeat if Possible:
    • If Delay Attack is successful again, continue the cycle to prevent the enemy from attacking.
    • Aim to burn down the enemy quickly before they can retaliate.

This tactic is highly effective against stronger enemies that rely on heavy, infrequent attacks. However, for bosses with resistance to crowd-control effects, this approach may require adjustments to avoid relying solely on chaining Delay Attack.

Revival

When a party member dies, you get an opportunity to revive them, but the animation to hit the circle on first attempt is very fast and difficult to hit.

There are two tricks to doing it consistently that people have had luck with:

  • Press the revive as soon as the circle animation starts.
  • This is most consistent, if you set your game to run at 30fps.
  • If running at 60fps, then the correct timing is to press just a little bit after the animation starts, maybe 300-500ms later.
  • Do note that the target circle gets smaller according to dead character's fortitude, and so this trick also becomes less useful.
  • Tap on the screen immediately as (or slightly after) your MC touches the dead adventurer's back.

Key Takeaways

  • Openings are essential for both regular encounters and boss fights. Use them strategically for maximum effectiveness.
  • Sleep is invaluable from early to mid-game for controlling crowds and disrupting enemy actions, requiring minimal investment.
  • Controlling turn order with Delay Attack can be extremely beneficial in making sure you get necessary damage, heals, or other crowd control in before enemies attack.
  • Adapt your strategies to available resources:
    • Use counterattacks and defense when overwhelmed.
    • Focus on action economy to increase survivability in challenging encounters.