Hmm, I can't fight Eiki on 13f despite meeting the requirements (beat Glowing Azure Giant, have 72 achievements, Komachi has 1.3K battle points from grinding out the 3K battle achievement). Checked the JP wiki to confirm these are the only requirements. Is there something I could do to fix this?
Ended up being able to fight Eiki after grinding for a couple more achievements, dunno what happened there. But hey, I'll take it. Eiki fight ended up being a lot harder than I thought it would be (though not by too much), thought based on the JP wiki's comments about Spirit Decomposition that I'd need 200 DTH resistance on Tenshi, so I was underprepared for Last Judgement. Thought it'd be fine because the Glowing Azure Giant only hit 1K with Rasetsu Fist on Tenshi and 2K when buffed, but even with 250 SPI resistance and -50% ATK on Eiki, Last Judgement did 9K damage to Tenshi when she had 6K HP after being overhealed. Whoops! Sorely underestimated its strength there. Tenshi was hitting 0s on Eiki with World Creation Press after Concentrate anyway though, Iku was the MVP there.
But that's 13-15f done now! Current average level is 75 (I swear, I was evenly leveled when I entered 13f). I made another team change swapping Cirno out for Minoriko after realizing that, as nice as unresistable SPD debuffs sound, in the first place, how many bosses are immune to SPD debuffs with Reisen's Intense Vertigo? Looking at the main disc bosses, only Memorized Knowledge has debuff resistance greater than 100 in any stat, and that's just for MND (and targeting its MND seems really pointless). While that says nothing for plus disc, I do find it hard to justify using a frontline spot for Cirno instead of Reisen between Intense Vertigo and Discarder targeting all stats and not just SPD. If I'm going to put someone up for debuffing, versatility matters most, I think. Minoriko can heal and buff DEF/MND (and MAG passively) at the same time after Awakening with low delay, so I thought she'd be the most useful character to add. With the way Enhancer works with her post-Awakening skill, she can apply a total of +86% DEF/MND with Owotoshi Harvester, as the Sweet Potato Room effect that follows it applies Enhancer's Heart of Compassion. Pretty good for a 70% delay, and if Tenshi's on tank duty with Iku being the main attacker then there's no waste in not having an ATK buff (besides Enhancer's terrible ATK/MAG buff), so she can act as a viable substitute to Keine, temporarily or otherwise. Everyone besides Tenshi, Eiki, and Kogasa use MAG exclusively to attack anyway.
So far Tenshi's been turning out to be a very viable bulky attacker even pre-Awakening, provided a max ATK build. While she isn't seeing much in the way of taking 0s from attacks, most attacks still do about ~1K to her when she has about 4K HP with a First Aid Kit and an additional 3-4K when overhealed, and she's doing plenty of damage on her own thanks to her synergy skill with Iku. Iku has also been a great bulky attacker, taking damage similar to Tenshi while offering a completely different set of offensive actions, giving a lot of variety between the two of them. Right now I feel the biggest flaw is lacking in burst damage, instead focusing on dealing consistent damage over time, which makes bosses that heal themselves frequently, power up over time, or have party-wiping Concentrate phases a bit more difficult. But nothing insurmountable or anything.
With enough Stones of Awakening for every character (since I have a party of 10 currently), I've been looking into subclasses more since hitting 13f. Tenshi and Iku clearly need to switch around subclasses a lot depending on whether they're attacking (and how they're attacking) or supporting/tanking, but I think everyone else can comfortably fit one subclass for bosses and one for dungeon exploration (haven't put as much thought into the latter though).
Keine seems best suited as an Enhancer, since she doesn't really do anything besides buff. Dungeon exploration is definitely lacking, since she's got a decent (not amazing, but fairly decent) MAG stat but rather weak spell cards, and most subclass spell cards aren't really any stronger. Dunno what to do with her there, maybe Archmage when I get there.
Kogasa I made a Monk, primarily to reduce delays in attacking. Although the effect is kind of small, Dexterity Training's -10% ATB consumption effect puts A Rainy Night's Ghost Story from 59.5% delay to 63.55%, which is a small improvement. The 4% passive stat buff is nice too. For post-Awakening, I figure she can either rapidly buff herself (for a small amount) by taking turns with Speedy Formation Change after netting a TRR to abuse the 26% HP regen, or slow the loss of buffs if she's already been buffed substantially. Since Kogasa's TRR infliction rate is not particularly good, it seemed to make more sense to focus on increasing how quickly she can take shots at landing a TRR. If nothing else, it means more damage and more MND debuffing, too.
Minoriko, as mentioned above, was made an Enhancer. Nothing else seemed really suitable for her, since her biggest advantage is Owotoshi Harvester's low delay and her passive MAG buff skill. I somewhat want to look at alternative buffing methods like Elementalist, but it would probably be better to just switch her out instead of using something like that. For dungeon exploration, her low MAG stat seems like her biggest handicap, so I think something like Archmage will be most suitable (so that she isn't mono NTR too).
Aya was made a Magician to compensate for her somewhat high MP consumption rate compared to other characters. Usually, she gets off 2-3 times as many spell cards as other characters, and while the cost of Sarutahiko's Guidance is only 3 MP, it does add up when coupled with Divine Grandson's Advent and its 6 MP cost. Magic Transfer seems like a waste, but Magic Circuit has a low delay of 66% and effectively negates its own cost when used on the Magician. Besides that, I didn't really see anything else to do with Aya. For dungeon exploration, I'm thinking of maybe using Warrior to buff Wind God's Fan.
Eirin is a Healer, of course. I don't think any comment is needed there. For dungeon exploration, when she has People of the Moon, I'm thinking maybe Sorcerer or Transcendent. With 3 different elements on multi-target attacks, 50% defense piercing, and an excellent MP count and MAG stat, Eirin seems like a really good random encounter wiping character...but I can't really help but think of her exclusively as a healer.
Reisen's a Magician for MP efficiency, like Aya. Currently, Reisen has about 35 MP with +4 from main equipment and +6 from the Magician subclass, so she can actually start using Grand Patriot's Elixir and still have plenty of MP for Discarder. The +1 MP per turn negates the penalty of People of the Moon when it comes up, so Reisen's MP consumption is pretty stable. Haven't grabbed Magic Circuit, but I'm not really sure that's a good use of Reisen's time anyway...although it would help with long-term debuffing, it wastes time for short-term debuffing. Eirin's overheal roughly triples her HP though, so her durability is not bad at all. For dungeon exploration, I'm thinking maybe Archmage for spell card variety, since Reisen's only multi-target spell card is MYS (well, technically Gas-Woven Orb is NTR, but that's super weak).
Sanae's an Enhancer (that makes the third one). Gives her a stronger, healing Miracle Fruit and a DEF/MND buffing Yasaka's Divine Wind. Not really much else to say on the merits there. Similar to Minoriko, I was tempted to look at something else for Sanae to do. Unlike Minoriko, Sanae has a very good reason to stay in, at least for post-Awakening, due to her MP recovery skill, so maybe going Elementalist or something might actually be worthwhile for her. It'd give her something to do when nobody needs buffing or healing, and the delay on Elementalist buffs is extremely low at 80% so it can help her take turns for MP recovery. Sanae also buffs Sword of Hisou and other SPI attacks, but that's strictly for SPI weak bosses. For dungeon exploration, Sorcerer would buff Moses' Miracle since it's a row attack, so I'm thinking that'd be quite effective.
Iku's currently most commonly used as a Sorcerer right now (for all the MAG buffs and her normal attack buff), but I'm also looking at Strategist for when she's playing support. Since Tenshi or Iku will always be on the field at a given moment (unless they get knocked out), whichever of the two is least useful seems like the most viable option to make a Strategist. Post-Awakening Tenshi would be most appreciative of having a Strategist in the front, since she's very reliant on having all of her stats (besides MAG) buffed, and slowing buff decay is invaluable for that. Besides Sorcerer, I'm also strongly considering Transcendent for the combination of offensive and defensive bonuses it provides. Iku puts all of her stats (besides ATK) to good use, so she seems like a perfect fit for it. Thinking that, for bosses where normal attacks are a better offensive option, Sorcerer would be the best fit, and for WND, Transcendent would be better. For dungeon exploration, Archmage might be the best option for spell card variety, as I do find her only having a WND element MT spell card to be a bit of a handicap. Archmage is somewhat appealing for giving Iku spell cards of other elements to use on bosses too, but with their delays, I think it'd be better to just let another character handle them.
Tenshi's been getting switched around constantly, unlike the other characters. I've had her as a Guardian, Strategist, and Warrior primarily, but of those three, Guardian was simply not paying attention to how it worked exactly. Looking at all the subclasses, I noticed that Guardian is actually rather bad at tanking compared to Transcendent (which isn't available yet) and even somewhat inferior to Strategist. Since Absolute Defensive Line only comes into play when there are less than 4 characters, a Guardian normally only has the -8% damage reduction active and decent stat bonuses to HP/DEF/MND. A Transcendent, on the other hand, has a -10% damage reduction and higher stats in HP/DEF/MND, making it strictly superior for the sole purpose of tanking. Strategist also provides a -10% damage reduction, but to the whole party. It does have lower HP/DEF/MND, but with the lowered buff decay, having a Strategist as the tank actually makes a lot more sense than a Guardian. So that makes Guardian's real advantages lying in Shield Bash's excellent SHK application rate and Efficient Concentration's combo potential with Concentration oriented strategies (or just MP recovery).
So with that aside, Tenshi's mostly being used as a Strategist in the tanking role and a Warrior in an offensive role. Later on, Transcendent (for the same reasons as Iku), Swordmaster and Ninja are intended to be added to subclasses I switch around on Tenshi, depending on what kind of attacks she needs to use. For taking advantage of her Keypoints of Spirit post-Awakening, I'm thinking Transcendent for attacking with NTR and SPI, Warrior for PHY (normal attacks) and FIR, Swordmaster for CLD, and Ninja for DRK. For WND and MYS, Iku handles them better than Tenshi (and there are no ATK based subclass spell cards for MYS anyway), so going Strategist would make more sense, since Iku won't be one. If Tenshi needs to tank regardless of enemy weakness and Iku can't attack the enemy reliably, then another character can handle most of those elements, with PHY and FIR being the most lacking ones (no one has any spell cards of that element in the team at all). PHY feels like the most lacking element, without any spell cards besides Shield Bash (which is really lame as a purely offensive spell card) and nobody that uses ATK and possesses a normal attack buffing skill like Iku, it might not be viable to take advantage of PHY weaknesses at all. Gotta see how well Tenshi's normal attack does against those things. Memorized Knowledge was a thing, but it also has a much easier to exploit DRK weakness (Kogasa did 43K with TRR boosted A Rainy Night's Ghost Story, had 3-4 levels on it though) and merely 100 DEF anyway.
Anyway...for the last three, Eiki, Maribel, and Miko, I figure just make them Transcendents and that's it. Eiki has Majesty and solid overall stats, Maribel can buff all her stats to a great degree, and Miko has her Maintenance equivalent and her 20% buff enhancement/120% buff cap skill, so they all seem like they benefit more from having higher stats than anything else. Maybe something else for dungeon exploring (at least for Eiki and Miko, Maribel has Liberated Abilities so she should be fine with just that), like Archmage for spell card variety. Though, I say "Archmage for spell card variety" for like half these characters. Not much variety if 3/4ths of the party has a CLD or a DRK MT attack. Kind of a problem that there are a lot of MAG focused characters that only have 1 element to use on their MT spell cards (Minoriko, Reisen, Iku, Eiki, and Miko all fit this description).
As a much simpler list, character + subclasses are
Keine / Enhancer
Kogasa / Monk
Minoriko / Enhancer
Aya / Magician
Eirin / Healer
Reisen / Magician
Sanae / Enhancer
Iku / Sorcerer/Strategist/Transcendent
Tenshi / Warrior/Strategist/Transcendent/Swordmaster/Ninja
Eiki / Transcendent
Maribel / Transcendent
Miko / Transcendent
That's what I'm currently thinking about for bosses anyway.
Probably won't update on gameplay progress until Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi fight, which I'd like to record depending on how bad the game lags. Generally plays at about 50 FPS in combat without changing any settings. Hoping to see a substantial enough improvement to record with adequate quality. Action games lose a lot with just a 5 FPS loss, but an RPG should be fine with something like that. If that works out, then I'll probably record Enhanced Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi, Evil Dragon Yamata no Orochi, and probably every boss after that. But that's still a ways away.
