By Dimitri
NOTICE: This page is out-of-date. The battle system has been changed since this page was written. If you're having trouble, try reading A Battler's Guide to Elements & Proficiencies!
Team Building
-Tank: Main attacker, main stat is health, secondary stats are agility and strength.
-Fighter: Physical damage dealer, main stat is strengh, secondary stats are dexterity and health.
-Mage: Magical damage dealer. main stat is intelligence, secondary stats are dexterity and health
The main stat is the one you focus on in the proficiencies. For maximum output from the proficiencies, put points only and only in the main stat of your pet. The increase in stats increase with each point spent in the same proficiency in this order: 5, 15, 30, 50, 75, 110, 155, 215, 275, 350 (multiply by twenty for health). So if you spend five points in strength and five points in dexterity in the proficiency tree, you get only 150 bonus points instead of 350 at level 50. The points you put in your secondary stats is up to you. At the beginning though, you might want to make a fighter or a mage even if you have only one pet and focus on your main stat, that is not a problem. Still, you should put at least one quarter of your level points in health for your fighters and mages to prevent them from being “glass cannons” that need constant healing when dealing with bosses.
Proficiency Choices and Battle Tactics
Fighter
Air: Pure physical damage, this proficiency is geared toward ripping your enemies to shreds. You can put 10 points in the strength stat or enhance the slash ability, the bleeding slash causes can do a lot of damage on a single, tough enemy at level 60. You can use frenzy one turn out of three to increase critical chance or save it for just for the finsihing blows.
Ice: Physical damage, this proficiency is for a little more resistance and party support. I'd suggest putting all points in strength, bolt special ability being not that impressive when the sylesti is not attacked that often. Permafrost is useful only on tougher opponent (four or five stars,) to reduce their avoidance chance (one or two stars opponent have laughable avoidance chance)
Tank
Earth: Taunt and mitigation, this proficiency is made to concentrate enemy fire on your toughest sylesti. Perfect for tank, it doesn't dish out lot of damage, but it allows you to taunt the enemy and future skills are geared toward survival. I'd suggest putting all the points in health, since simply being the main attacker will assure you most of the time he is the main target and he needs that extra health.
Ice: Secondary choice for a tank, more geared towards party support than survival. Still a good choice and even if enhancing the first ability might look tempting for the damage reduction, it isn't very impressive when you confront bosses.
Mage
Fire: BURN! This proficiency is specialized in multiple target attacks. Great for casual battles, doing lot of damage to everything at once. I do not think it is the optimal choice for boss battles, for reason I will explain later. You can use flamethrow constantly to increase your damage or save it just for your finishing blows.
Light: Magical damage and healing, this proficiency is specialized in healing other sylesties. I think it is more focused for casual battles, keeping your party with maximum health. I prefer spending all the points in intelligence and use fairy light to heal when necessary. My reasoning for this is that first, when you use fairy light on three opponents, it deals a lot more damage, and a lot more healing, than a weaker beam healing every time. Also, a good party doesn't need constant healing, so more damage instead of a beam that heals every time is more useful in my opinion. I do not like to rely on their healing in boss battles, I will explain later why.
Dark: Life drain. That is basically all what the dark proficiency is for. Focusing in intelligence or enhancing the first abilities are both good choices, force's siphon being able to dish out a lot of damage. The dark proficiency life drains are optimal when dealing with normal enemies, and not particularly strong against bosses. It could be thought that using dark for a tank could be useful, but I think the life drain isn't strong enough when you don't focus on intelligence to recover from the damage dealt by enemies.
Why Certain Abilities are More or Less Useful Against Bosses
Well, first of all, healing abilities (dark and light) are based on damage dealt. Bosses often have around 40% mitigation, which greatly reduce healing done, and deal damage that often makes your healing quite useless in comparison.
Frost, the effect of bolt, protect from very little damage since it is based on the physical damage of your tank, which is not quite high. Fireball, which Attacks multiple enemies, isn't that helpful against bosses: sure, you might harm more, but the thing is, the faster you defeat an enemy, the faster he stops hitting you. Also, as soon as you encounter a boss that is alone, the fire proficiency is only useful if you have the flame throw ability that increase magical damage. Slash (air) and force (dark), on the other hand, with their damage over time, can do a lot of damage on a single boss. Permafrost (ice) can still be useful to reduce avoidance chance if that seems to be a problem. Mocking blow (earth) can be useful if you want to reduce the chance of another party member to be attacked, but remember that most bosses have attacks that target multiple targets at once, so saving mana for a finsihing blow might be a better idea. Finishing blow, of course, is very useful for every proficiency.
Equipment
Having quality gear that is at the level of your party is very important if you want to beat tougher enemies without spending all your consumables. If you're having trouble beating a boss (especially Cereth), make sure most equipment is at least rare and of the level of your pets. Cheap equipment can easily be found at the trade broker. For relics and armors, the stats that they give do not have a very important impact, but you should pay attention to give the right type of accessory to your sylesties. Here are the different types available:
Assassin: perfect for tanks, gives fighters a small defense boost
Myrmidon: perfect for fighters, can give tank a small offensive boost
Evoker: perfect for mages
Illusionist: gives mages a small def boost
Crusader: can be used by anyone for the damage boost and the mitigation increase
Warden: can be used for def boost and the accuracy bonus
Before deciding which piece of equipment is better simply by their names and their quality, compare each stat, including the "quality bonus" listed beside the stats increase. If you're still unsure which one is better, just equip the two of them on the sylesti and observe which stat increase and which stat decrease before making a decision.
Reputation gear: Once you earn enough reputation with a faction, you can buy them gear that is the minimum level requirement of the zone (0 for viridian meadows and 25 for the Umbra Forest) but they are equivalent to gear of 25 level higher. It is extremely useful to train new pets because you will be able to add them to a higher level team and battle enemies way out of their league. For example, you can add a level 0 to your level 50 party with the guardsmen equipment and battle level 50 enemies.
Defeating Bosses
Alright, so there's a boss that gives you trouble. First thing – when you are about to enter a battle with a boss, there's usually a screen with lots of blablabla and a begin battle under it. For optimum maximum battle potential, make sure your sylesties have full health, full mana, and the mend cooldown is at zero. This can be achieved by using potions or exiting the area to fight other monsters until mana is full or cooldown finished. Don't worry, the boss won't leave anytime soon, he'll just wait monologuing to himself until you come back.
During the fight, attack the weakest one first and read carefully the battle log to determine which enemy deals the highest damage and focus your fire on him. However, if the most dangerous one is also the toughest one, than you must evaluate if you want to eliminate the weak ones first, because they are quicker to eliminate or the toughest one who deals more damage. Take out the weakest first, unless the toughest one deals a lot more damage. This reduce the pressure on your sylesties, which makes the rest of the battle easier.
Do not try to defeat Talon before you have three sylesties party slot. It just isn't possible unless you have really high level (lot more than 25) and very good gear.
Bosses in dungeons need really good gear to be defeated (about epic gear of the dungeon level). They are not meant to be defeated right when you finish the area or at least not without difficulty.