Oh wow, you're right. With a Strategist, Aya, and Transcendent target, Yasaka's Divine Wind was healing half as much as it should have (cumulative total is either 50% or 56%, depending on if % damage reduction is additive or multiplicative), from 24K to 12K. That's just...what. So
any kind of % damage reduction impacts healing as well. Man, if I had Eiki active as well (or Awakened) it'd be down to 40%-51%. It seems like such a basic thing to get right, too.
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On a totally different subject, I finished the main disc with the Hisouten duo oriented party and recorded all of the major post-game bosses (except Aria-Singing Toruasutory, I messed up recording that). Run was done at brave level using Iku as the average and library levels at 1.2x the level of the lowest leveled character (Tenshi for now, Miko when I get her). Instead of posting about the run regularly, I thought it'd be better to finish everything and post about it once. Playlist link is
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbKPr8l6tlmCV1p0_paXnxPWDa0wzrJ9t. Currently working on Plus Disk content now.
Tenshi turned out to be a much stronger character than I expected in terms of offensive strength. Girl of Bhava-agra and Attack Boost puts her ATK stat as one of the best in the game (with 187 library level, 10 ATK Orbs, Attack Boost, Transcendent + Body Reinforcement, and Genji Gloves/Nodachi "Kotetsu"/Quartz Charm, level 156 Tenshi has 30371 * 1.4 = 42519 ATK, level 150 Flandre without SDM Residents has 46338, 9% more ATK), which works great with her excellent spell card formulas. There were circumstances, like with Aria-Singing Toruasutory, where Tenshi could out-damage Eiki (barely) with their SPI attacks (but that requires abnormally low DEF). As a tank, she had enough defensive prowess with Enduring Celestial and Keystone Formation that I never really found it useful to use State of Enlightenment (the EN wiki says that State of Enlightenment being a typical 1st turn action makes the use of Enduring Celestial questionable, but the other way around is true too). Since Tenshi's role as a tank is to switch, State of Enlightenment's delay is a bit counterproductive. Furthermore, buffing DEF/MND doesn't really help too much against some of the more powerful bosses like Avatar - Ama no Murakumo. For example, Ama no Murakumo's Wild Dance does 13K on average with no DEF buff for the setup I had Tenshi with (which I calculated to be the best possible setup that's also immune to all status), and 11K on average with 100% DEF. With 40K HP (before Scythe of Calamity), that's not even a 10% reduction. In general, the best way to reduce damage seems to be to stack HP and affinity, even with Tenshi's level of defenses.
Iku was a little difficult to use offensively because she needed MND debuffs to deal good damage with her spell cards, but she dealt excellent amounts of damage in those circumstances, as expected. In particular, pairing her with Reisen has led to a pretty reliable random encounter setup with Aya that goes Lunatic Red Eyes > Divine Grandson's Advent > Lunatic Red Eyes > Light Dragon's Sigh, which usually wipes out enemies regardless of their MND stat, unless they're of the high HP, low DEF/MND type (which Tenshi eliminates easily) or resist one/both elements. Her normal attack is also great for taking a boss down steadily (it's only about 10% weaker than Aspiration Surge on a -50% MND target, but better delay, lower cost, and calculates damage using 10% of the target's MND by default), but almost all of the post-game bosses were resistant to MYS. But as a tank/support character, Iku felt even more useful. Hisouten Guard bolsters her defensive stats high enough that, aside from her more lopsided affinities, she was able to endure all types of attacks better than Tenshi, while also having a more productive role as a tank. I ended up frequently using her as an Herbalist, as she had enough SPD (especially with Lightning Fish maxed out) to regularly buff characters and use Herb of Awakening. Since a lot of bosses apply annoying status effects like DTH and debuffs, and most equipment that boosts status resistances boosts all of them, the characters that would get buffed by Iku were already going to be immune to PAR and debuffs in the first place, so the negative effects don't matter too much. Iku could also apply PAR and DEF debuffs, so she could lock down PAR weak opponents and debuff enemies for Tenshi. Overall, I think Iku is the best character in the party composition, capable of excelling at every aspect of gameplay.
The rest of the characters generally acted as support or alternative attackers as necessary. Can't really say I have any complaints about them, the more I play with the party composition, the more strategies I find and the more complete it feels. The only thing that I've found disappointing thus far is overestimating how much Maribel can heal, as even with max MAG, Enhancer Keine usually heals more (and buffs too) with a lower delay. Luckily, that, along with Sanae and Healer Momiji, have thus far been enough to handle healing, so Maribel doesn't need to be good at healing.
That stuff aside, with every (important) boss I've been running calculations based on their stats and AI to figure out the most effective methods of attacking and setups for defending, but without any of Plus Disk's content datamined, that simply isn't an option. I could figure this stuff out through a more rough method of in-game testing, but that's more time consuming. So I was wondering, how does extracting stats and AI scripts go? If it's simply a matter of nobody wanting to do it, I'd happily do it. It'd be easier and more accurate than in-game testing this stuff (not to mention more interesting). It'd be nice to contribute that kind of information anyway.
