The Etrian Odyssey Farmer is such an unusual addition to a class based roster. It’s not unusual for an RPG title to have options for maximising loot – a Thief for example, or the Merchant from Bravely Default – but to have one that specialises in maximising yields from every source, including the environment, is unusual indeed. We’re in no way complaining however; being given such an unusual class in a game so open ended is a license for creativity, and in this regard the Farmer endears itself to those that would consider more than just the battles they encounter. Subclassing however, is a different proposition, because whilst it’s relatively easy to plug the gaps in a full combat class by either giving it more of what it’s good at or diversifying, what should you give the class that barely performs at all in an encounter? Give it some battle performance, we hear you cry, but read on below and you’ll see that things aren’t always that simple.
Survivalist
If you have been keeping up with our Etrian Odyssey Nexus coverage, you will have perhaps noticed that we don’t exactly rate the Survivalist very highly. Thematically speaking it upholds the virtues of it’s name better than ever, offering you plenty of ways to increase your survival rate out in the wilds, but in a game as… ‘Creatively’ balanced as Nexus it tends to get left behind by better options. What it does have however, is an excellent-if-small selection of skills that offer considerable value for the intrepid explorer that’s looking to grease the wheels a little.
That said, this choice of Subclass will turn your Farmer into a one stop shop for everything that supports exploration. The Survivalist will add to your already excellent gathering point haul thanks to Natural Instinct, which makes you find additional materials when taking, chopping or mining, and further boosts this with Nature’s Blessing, which does the same but for rare gathered materials. Battle performance is also boosted, thanks to Speed Up buffing the Farmer’s evasion and act speed, and you can even play temporary healer thanks to the Efficiency skill, which makes Medica items influence a whole line with increased restoration effects! Probably the best of the benefits that the Survivalist brings however, is something tremendously simple in premise: Sorting Skill, which just plainly increases your inventory size, potentially making every single stratum trip more profitable by default. The Farmer class is already a loot finding, inventory filling powerhouse and choosing the Survivalist Subclass option just turbo boosts this into the stratosphere.
Subclass Benefits
- Natural Instinct and Nature’s Blessing will stack with the Farmer skills to boost yields of both normal and rare gathering items, though you’ll need to invest heavily to reach the latter.
- Sorting Skill will boost your inventory space – more room for loot!
- Does have some small battle benefits; Speed Up is a nice passive boost to evasion and act speed, whilst Efficiency will allow the Farmer to use Medica items to heal full lines of team mates.
- In a full farming team you might already have both of these classes – don’t worry, skills that increase gathering yield do stack with each other!
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Arcanist
This might give our whole idea away a bit, but it is worth noting that the LUC stat in Nexus determines, or at the very least contributes to how successful you will be when inflicting binds and ailments. Such is the way of the Arcanist, the class with the third highest LUC stat in the game, which focuses on laying down Circles on the battlefield to inflict a variety of ailments. These Circles tend to last three rounds and will attempt to inflict their ailment in each, though if required the Arcanist can dismiss these Circles to create additional effects like damage or healing. Thoeretically the class can accomplish a great deal of things, however in practice they’re almost always used as a support & healing class thanks to their Circle Boon skill, which heals the party for every round in which a Circle is placed.
Before we detail the benefits brought to the Farmer by this, it is worth noting that only one Circle can be placed on a battlefield at any one time, so if you’re already running an Arcanist then having another as a Subclass is a little redundant. Similarly, if you’re hoping for the Farmer to contribute meaningful healing then you’re likely to be very disappointed; the class has the second lowest WIS stat in the game, so anything other than top up drip healing should not be expected. When it comes to stats however, there is one in which the Farmer does excel: LUC. We noted earlier that the Arcanist has the third highest LUC stat in the game – can you perhaps guess which class tops the charts? Yes that’s right, the Farmer does, which makes it an ideal candidate for inflicting ailments, and specifically those that are not tied to certain weapon types.
All of that being the case, it’s best to focus on a few of the Circle options and some nice bonuses that can be achieved. Chain/Snare/Nerve/Curse Circle are all very good options, and once they’re paired with Proficiency you can expect a steady stream of TP to return to your Farmer. All of this can be improved upon by picking up the Status ATK Up skill in the Veteran tree, and if you’re looking for something extra to help out from a damage perspective, picking up Atrophic Eye is an excellent way to increase elemental damage output, depending on your party build. If you’re willing to invest further, TP Return is an even more powerful version of Proficiency, but we’d only really recommend that you do so if you’re heading for the powerful ‘Dismiss’ spells, something we’d urge you to stay away from since the Farmer has awful INT.
Subclass Benefits
- The huge LUC stat of a Farmer will help Circles land their ailments & binds.
- The Novice Circles – Chain/Snare/Nerve/Curse – are ideal for this and require minimal point investment.
- Status ATK Up is a must, since it boosts the chance for Circles to be successful.
- Circle Boon can be used to provide some party healing along with the Circles, however the Farmer class has a low WIS stat, so don’t expect this to amount to much.
- Stay away from damaging Dismiss skills – the Farmer has terrible INT, so the numbers will be feeble.
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Harbinger
Having played with and written about the virtues of Harbingers many times in the past, we have to say that they’re one of the most fun classes to play in Etrian Odyssey Nexus. Not only are they adept at reducing both the offense and defence of opponents with their Miasma skills, but they’re also capable of dealing quite considerable amounts of damage to them with Reaps. In many ways we consider them to be the most ‘individual’ class available, mainly because they seem able to achieve in one package as much as multiple others. They’re also a fantastic addition to almost any team build because their skills can be used to boost the performance of others. Any time spent with the Farmer class will soon teach you that they really don’t offer anything like that of the Harbinger. There are a few battle abilities of course, but they’re much more concerned with optimising your exploration as much as possible, which is exactly why we recommend squishing them together.
At a very basic level, the Novice Miasma skills – Eroding, Stifling and Sluggish – will perform very well, allowing the Farmer to begin tipping the scales in your favor in each battle, and Miasma Armour itself is an obvious boon for pretty much any class since it innately boosts act speed. Unlike other classes that benefit from the Harbinger Sub, we’d recommend you stay away from the ‘Reap’ skills – they’re powerful, but they rely somewhat on the STR stat to calculate their damage, which the Farmer is sorely lacking in. Depending on the rest of your party build, we’d recommend investing into the Wilting or Binding Miasma in the Veteran tree, and potentially consider the Black Shroud, Black Wave and Status ATK Up passives, though their use will depend on how aggressively you use the Farmer during battle.
Subclass Benefits
- The Novice Miasma skills are an excellent way to support an already developed team by debuffing the entire opponent group.
- Black Shroud is a nice defensive buff to your Farmer, though it will obviously require some investment into the basic Miasma Armour skill first.
- Black Wave can also be used to return TP to the Farmer.
- Spirit Absorb is another nice defensive tool. This restores HP if Miasma Armour is up and you debuff an enemy, which you’ll do constantly in this case.
- Reaps are unlikely to do great damage with the Farmer, though the weapon type can be used as a main. They can be used for status infliction, but don’t expect epic damage.
- This combination essentially expands the supporting elements of the Farmer in battle. It’s not necessarily designed to cause major damage or inflict a great deal of ailments, rather just tip the scales further in your favour through debuffs and defensive additions.
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Categories: Etrian Odyssey Nexus