skills system

[KFCrispy]

i hear the skills system is very different... anyone care to explain?

[patapi]

Well, it's mostly like III's system with a few changes.

- Skill points are put in a single pool like potch, not assigned to individual characters. That way you won't have excess points on characters after they mastered their skills, and let others use the points instead.

- Empty skill slots open up as you level up.

- There is no need to enter skills into your slots before learning now. Instead you learn skills before "equipping" them in your slots. Therefore you can level up any skills in the character's list, but you can only equip a limited amount based on their current open slots.

- Skills cannot be forgotten, once learned.

- The max level learn-able also increases as you level up. i.e. You can only train skills up to D in the beginning.

- The list of learn-able skills is more or less customised to each character. Only mage types can learn magic skills, for example. You can also enhance support skills this time, except for one-time upgrades like the "Jump" skill.

- Instead of visiting special shops, you manage skills simply from a menu item in the Caravan.

Hope that helps. Feel free to add/correct.

[dragonmasterx]

Not really different, I guess I'll talk about some new skills though.

Crash - For axe and broadsword users. Chance of ignoring defense and unbalancing enemy.

Spinning Shield - For spear users. Chance of deflecting ranged attacks.

Move+1, Jump+1 - One upgrade brings it to S.

Sniping - Bow and Dart users. Increase accuracy and crit. rate

Shiled Defense - Chance of completely nullifying attacks from the front

Armor Defense - With armor equipped, lessen damage from direct attacks

Mind's Eye- Evade, counter rate up against side and back attacks.

Latent Power - When on the verge of death, chance of HP recovery(I think if the damage dealt is greater than the HP sum and this skill activates, the character will survive and get HP recovery)

Narcissism - additional damage at end of attack, for Rainbappa and Charlemagne.

[son_michael]

I dont understand something, why can I only level up my skills up to a D rank? and why are some skills an S rank when you first learn them?

and finally, S skill rank is the best right? I ask because I got an S skill rank by teaching kyrill the"extra move" skill

[killey]

Some skills start automatically at S rank because it would make no sense to be able to level them up, such as the ones that give you +1 move, +1 jump etc. (I think) Also:





[spoiler]Although Kyril starts the game with S rank skills, he loses them because he doesn't fight or train for 3 years.[/spoiler]

[patapi]

I dont understand something, why can I only level up my skills up to a D rank?

Better skill ranks will open up as you progress with the story. The only exceptions are those one-time-level-up skills listed in killey's post, which nets you an S rank right away.

[KFCrispy]

what skills seem the most useful in this game? i like Counter-Attack; gives you a chance to return an attack, which nets some EXP. does dodging/parrying also gain EXP? do criticals or behind-the-enemy hits give more? O_o

[killey]

I usually get Battle Lust for every character (except mages) no matter how much it costs. After that I usually just get whatever skills are cheapest for that particular character, unless I've some plan for the character. Like with Gretchen I gave her a beserk belt so I levelled up Bull's Eye to make her a bit less inaccurate.

[patapi]

Bull's Eye. I like 100% accuracy.

Otherwise, Jump is pretty much essential for most of the mage types. Unless you do the Iwadori+Switch trick.

Battle Lust is always good because that is what we called Swing in Suikoden III.

Also, Extra Move is fun to have.

[son_michael]

for mages, I prefere godspeed and extra move,I let them learn whever magic I designate them to use and I also give them dodge


my ideal madge would be

{example} andarc= Lightning mage

Lightning magic C
battle lust C
God speed C <----------- these are my current skills for andarc
extra move C


I would like to add= jump, dodge and concetration


the reason why I gave andarc battle lust, is because his attack can be very strong and when lightning magic runs out, you gotta have somehting else


for warriors I use

battle lust
extra move
god speed
counter attack

I would like to add parry and minds eye but only certain characters cna learn those moves


I think battlelust is the best move in the game, followed by parry and then followed by minds eye

my characters are almost at level 15 and ive just met corselia and am now returning to fort el eal to meet with mizuki and akaghi. My strongest characters are dario and nalleo, there unite has a wide range so you can kill 5 or 6 enemies easily, they each do about 100-120 damage with regular mele attacks...sorry,got off topic there

I love this game

[KFCrispy]

yeah I gave Andarc a bunch of useful skills because he is a key player to getting S-rank for the early stages (since he's in all of the battles, and Kyril doesn't fight in one of the major ones). I also gave him Lightning and God Speed, but I've exchanged Lightning (since he only has 1 lvl 2 right now) for Extra Move and now Counter-Attack. (i'm working with 3 skills, max D)

Battle Lust is definitely useful for everyone - in this game each grade seems to add 1 swing, and each swing is 100% base dmg.. but it actually probably evolves as you get more because Edgar and Brandeaux do crazy combos.

are Jump and Bullseye skills that go to S immediately or are they like Accuracy that needs to be leveled?

[thcrock]

Jump goes right to S and you can't upgrade it further than that. Along with several other skills that are just a one-time upgrade.

Can't think of what the Bulls-eye skill is right now, so can't tell you.

[Angelis_Taleria]

Bulls-eye negates guard.

Also, you don't get an extra swing for each level up for battle lust. As a matter of fact, most people only get three swings with Kika and Lazlo being the exception. I say this because I've got my Battle Lust up to S rank on most of my characters and their amount of swings have not changed since I got it to B rank. B rank and D rank seem to be the only time that they actually gain another swing.

[KFCrispy]

oh yeah.. duh. my characters hit twice at most, even though their ranks are D.

does Jump allow people to escape from being surrounded? that would be useful..

[Angelis_Taleria]

No, it doesn't . I think riding a Iwadori, Giant Owl, may get you out of that situatuation. I haven't tested this yet or not. I'll update when I have some conclusive results.

Back on Battle Lust, can any one confirm what leveling Battle Lust up to S rank actually does, besides waste skills points, because I don't really see a difference between S rank and B rank Battle Lust.