No matter the Etrian title, the Medic type of class exists. Yes, the fifth entry in the series decided to go a different route with the Shaman and Botanist, but in essence the same archetype always exists in an Etrian Odyssey game: The full healer. Their role is to keep the party health topped up, remove ailments and generally make life as easy as possible for the remaining team members. It’s a job that they do tremendously well, better than any other class we’d argue, and whilst this doesn’t preclude them from dealing some reasonable amounts of damage when possible, they’re very single minded in nature. This isn’t a bad thing of course, because despite what you might hear on the most elite of Etrian forums the class is actually very useful, but in a game such as Nexus it can leave the player wanting a little more, especially when classes such as Sovereign and Arcanist can do the job of healing the party almost as well. How then, can we go about improving this? If you’ve managed to push your way through to the point of unlocking Subclassing then you’ve already seen everything the Medic is capable of, so what exactly are the best ways to expand their repertoire?
Protector
This is probably one of the most obvious Subclass choices for the Medic, but it’s worth expanding on exactly what the Protector does before we get into it. The Protector class itself is the prime choice for a singular tank in the Nexus party. By using it’s shield skills, party buffs and taunts it’s able to protect the entire team either through attack redirection or damage reduction. It too is an unashamedly simple class, with almost all of it’s skills leaning towards the ‘tank’ role, with little room for offensive options. Akin to the Medic, it’s certainly possible to get some reasonable damage out of the class, but it’s numbers will never approach the likes of an Imperial or Gunner, rather adding some simple damage flavour in turns when it’s defensive skills are not required.
So why does this work well with the Medic then? Well, by dote of not really being entirely active unless healing is required, the Medic is capable of doing things between rounds. In this case, we’re using the Protector skill set to fill those gaps with defensive buffs. Front Guard and Rear Guard are simple but effective physical defence buffs to either line, and Healing Wall is a nice passive way of getting heals, though it is worth noting that this does not scale with your WIS stat. Further point investment will also grant you the Fire/Ice/Volt Wall buffs, which will help tremendously against some nasty boss attacks, and this can all be capped off by some fantastic Protector passives like Phys Def Up, Elem Def Up and even HP Up.
Subclass Benefits
- Excellent defensive buffs ideally used when healing isn’t required, like the first round. These include Front/Rear Guard and the Elemental defensive buffs.
- Healing Wall is a nice passive heal when defending, and whilst it won’t break any records for amount healed it’s worth remembering that it’s free.
- Fantastic passives that buff the Medic’s defences – Phys Def Up, Elem Def Up and HP Up.
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Zodiac
Sitting in stark opposition to the Protector, the Zodiac class is all about dealing damage to your opponents – elemental damage to be specific. Well, at first glance at least, because it turns out that the class itself actually has quite a few defensive options, though they naturally take a back seat to the big numbers. The focus when initially playing this class is in the Star and Binary attacks, all of which can be used to great effect to deal tremendous damage to groups of enemies, but as the class fills out the focus shifts to the Prophecy skills, which offer the opportunity to completely nullify elemental attacks. The damage doesn’t just end there of course, and much like their Runemaster and Warlock cousins they can scale up quite considerably in the late game, but it’s worth noting that they’re not entirely a one track class.
This summary is exactly why we value the Zodiac as a Subclass for the Medic. There are obvious benefits to be seen; the Star/Binary attacks can deal a reasonable amount of damage thanks to the Medic’s INT stat, which isn’t as bad as you might imagine, and points in Singularity and Ether Mastery can help to buff this damage up if required. With enough of an investment it’s possible to reach the Prophecy skills, which nullify upcoming elemental attacks, but it’s worth noting that these do require a certain amount of encounter knowledge to truly take advantage of. Lastly, the Zodiac class has access to some nice passives that are worth grabbing, such as TP Up, Anti-Ether and the excellent Free Energy, which gives your spells a chance to cost zero TP.
Subclass Benefits
- Star & Binary spells can be used to deal damage thanks to the Medic’s reasonable INT stat. Don’t expect miracles here, but they can contribute fairly well between rounds of healing if required.
- It’s possible to get use out of the Prophecy skills, but this will require knowledge of the upcoming elements being used by an enemy.
- Fantastic passives are available, such as TP Up, Anti-Ether and Free Energy, the latter of which can make your spells cost zero TP.
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Sovereign
For regular readers our final recommendation is unlikely to come as much of a surprise. It’s easy to love the Sovereign class, to the point where we actually consider it to be one of the very best available in Nexus. It features a multitude of supporting skills and benefits, but it mainly operates by applying buffs to either of your party rows, whilst simultaneously healing them. By itself this isn’t unusual, after all quite a few classes are capable of passively healing the party through their skills, but the way the Sovereign scales up actually manages to make it a viable team healer entirely on it’s own. It achieves this by pairing it’s excellent heals and buffs with absolutely incredible passive skills, which push it from a reasonable supporting unit to an absolute powerhouse of party maintenance.
Understand then, that we’re essentially doubling down on the Medic’s healing and adding bonus features to the class. This combination is likely to produce the most party healing possible from a single unit, or at the very least the most sustained healing possible, perhaps approached only by a combination of either with the Arcanist class. The first benefit is rather obvious: Combining their Attack and Guard Order with the Reinforce skill will allow the Medic to buff the team whilst applying heals – ideal for turns when a large amount of full healing is not required. Building even further on the health restoration is the Royal Veil skill, which heals the party whenever the unit has full health, and Royal Dignity will double down on this, pushing your passive heals even further. It’s possible to play around with even more Sovereign skills, such as investing in the Decree skills to help with TP restoration, but we’d recommend sticking with the buffs and passive health restorations as much as possible to build your Medic into a healing monster, though you almost certainly must stop off for some points in Status DEF Up.
Subclass Benefits
- Healing whilst buffing the team, through Sovereign skills like Attack and Guard order, is an excellent choice for the Medic in rounds where their big healing skills aren’t required.
- Reinforce is a must to make this happen, and the healing scales with the Medic’s massive WIS stat.
- Royal Veil will provide even more healing when the Medic ends a round at full HP, and Royal Dignity will ensure that the chance of ending the round at max is even higher.
- Status DEF Up passive is an excellent bonus skill that will ensure that your Medic stays healthy and active as much as possible.
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Categories: Etrian Odyssey Nexus