Favorite Team

[Gath]

It's been out for almost a week and no one's created this poll yet? Weird.

So, just vote for your favorite team! (Besides Duvalier, of course.)

I think I'm missing one character, so if anyone knows who that character is, let me know and I'll add them.

[CraigStern]

Rajav.

[SmartyPants]

I would like to vote for Rajav, so....

[CraigStern]

Edited.

[Gath]

Thanks Craig.

[Chocobo_Fan]

Hm. Hard to say. I suppose it really comes down to...

Griffin vs. Qudssi vs. Rajav: All have roughly the same role -- melee attacking and tanking. Qudssi is very useful at the start for his high skill, speed, and mental resistance, but his specialization is too narrow. Griffin outclasses him later on, due to having more versatility. So it's really down to Griffin vs. Rajav in the endgame. In terms of tankiness, they're about evenly matched; Rajav has physical resistance, and Griffin has a counter-attack. It's hard to say who's better offensively; Rajav has a ranged attack and an (arguably) better area attack, but Griffin is better in terms of pure damage with Backhander and Double Strike. I generally go with both, to be honest.

Arman vs. Malis: It's a real pity, since I like shadowlings and Malis is the only one, but I generally find Arman to be better. He has a better damage output, and better speed. The only thing that Malis has over Arman is flight...and I guess shadow resistance? Eh. Doesn't do it for me.

La'Man vs. Naj: Naj, all the way. She has better speed and Mind Shield. All that La'Man has over her is a touch of extra health, but Naj is already a decent tank.

And I guess I'll do a numbered list thing, since everyone did that in the corresponding TRPG2 thread:

1. Rahel: Definitely one of the more valuable team members. She has the best range in the game, and can deal significant damage. Great for staying behind the main force and sniping enemies. Split Shot is really useful, too -- it's like Trick Shot, only better -- I didn't think that was possible! I was little disappointed to discover that Trueshaft was just a "deal more damage" skill, though -- I was hoping she'd get a skill that shot 4 spaces ahead, to give her even more range.
2. Set: A healer, and a good one at that. Invaluable, even if he can't damage enemies directly. Solid State Shield is pretty nice too, though I didn't get it until my second playthrough, which I'm still on, so I'll have to experiment with it a bit more.
3. Luca: I really like her, for no other reason than I love characters with weird, gimmicky abilities. Transfer is a godsend for me, since I'm a fan of high-cost abilities; most of my characters eat through their PsP like popcorn. Her physical resistance also makes her a decent tank. Also, she can fly -- always a good perk.
4. Griffin/Rajav: As I mentioned, I find that they about tie in usefulness.
5. Arman: He dies too easily! He can deal a lot of damage before he goes down, though. I think a ranged attack would have been really good for him -- allow him to keep his distance a bit. Or would that have made him too broken? :p
6. Naj
7. Malis
8. Qudssi
9. La'Man

To be honest I found the team diversity to be a little disappointing compared to TRPG2. It's mostly just boring humans.

Edit: Hm. It would be interesting if the poll showed team combinations instead of the individual team members themselves. Ah well, the limits of technology...

[Gath]

Well, I feel like I need to follow through on the rankings now, so here goes: (Keep in mind I haven't completed the game yet and haven't recruited Rajav.)

1. Arman: Speedy and powerful. There's not much more you could want. I also find that he doesn't go down that easily if you upgrade his defense, he only has a bit less HP than Griffin.
2. Griffin: The rock of my team, at this point. I like Qudssi for the speed and counter early on, but he is soon outclassed. Griffin may not be the strongest, but it's hard to imagine a team without him.
3. Malis: Similar to Arman here. Fast and strong is the way to go.
4. Rahel: Very good ranged support. Hits hard. A bit squishy for my tastes though-but that might just be because I don't protect her enough.
5. Naj/La'Man: Can't really choose here. Both Duvalier and Set can heal just fine, so Naj's healing is unnecessary, and I like the extra HP of La'Man for a tank.
7. Set: I'm not a big fan of healers, but they're necessary so I bring them anyway. My main complaint here is the low health and the expensive upgrades. This might just be because Festus was such a good healer and Set pales by comparison, but eh.
8. Qudssi: Good at the start. Weaker at the end, and not good enough to make the cut. If he had more attacks, then I'd use him, but all the other characters gain a big boost over their normal attack (i.e. double strike for Griffin) while he has nothing.
9. Luca: I've never really trained Luca, nor have I had any desire to. She could have some usage as a support character, and I use her early on as a flier, but there are too many good characters to include her as support.

My normal team is Duvalier, Griffin, Rahel, Arman, Set, La'Man, Naj, and Malis.

I like to keep Duvalier, Griffin, Rahel, and Set together as my 'main group' while using the other four to take out specific targets. I'm playing on normal right now, if it makes a difference.

[Chocobo_Fan]

Hm, interesting. Though Arman does have pretty high HP, the problem is that his playstyle tends to force him into dangerous positions behind enemy lines, which can easily get him swarmed. My Arman has 30 HP currently -- while that may seem like a lot at first, it isn't when he's being attacked by 3 Loyalist Soldiers, all of which can deal at least 12 damage... Maybe I'm just not playing him right. I did tend to have a similar problem with Darkling in TRPG2.

Since I didn't use Malis on my first playthrough at all, maybe I'll give her a try on this one. Maybe replace Arman with her, see how they compare.

And hm...it would have been nice to give Set a few more buff skills. I often have him do nothing the first turn, and every so often, no one will really need healing, so he just sort of dawdles around. I really like Fury and Stimulate (I love buff spells in general), but I often don't have a chance to use them, since Duvalier's offensive skills are just so much more valuable. I think it would be interesting if those buff abilities were given to a healer like Set, he'd have more opportunities to use them. A second psy fighter that was more specialized for damage (sort of like Guy), thereby freeing up Duvalier to do other things, would also be interesting. Ah well, maybe next game.

Also, Mind Shield isn't the only advantage that Naj has over La'Man -- she also has 1 extra point of speed, which can make a surprising deal of difference. Also, I generally find that more enemies use cold attacks than heat ones... (Actually, come to think of it, are there any heat-using enemies in SoG other than Fernatus?)

[SmartyPants]

I like to have Griffin and Qudssi be the tanks who take most of the hits.  Behind them will be strikers like Rahel and Duvalier.  Set and Naj are both necessary so Duvalier can use PsP to attack, while keeping teammates alive.  La'Man and Rajav are versatile and can be either tanks or strikers.

[Chocobo_Fan]

Actually, now that I've completed my second playthrough, I have to say I prefer Malis to Arman. Arman has a better damage output, but he has no range, and again, he goes down really fast -- total glass cannon. Malis can't deal quite as much damage, but a shadowblast to the back is still nothing to sneeze at, and she's far more durable -- mainly because she has Feedback. I also find that it's actually easier for her to get out of sticky situations, since Shadowport lets her roughly mach (or even surpass) Arman's mobility, and she can use it more often than Arman can Leap, due to her higher base PsP. Plus she can fly. Pity she doesn't have an equivalent of Stab -- though perhaps a mental equivalent will be included in a future game, who knows?