Dreaming up party builds is one of the great joys of an Etrian Odyssey title. Each of the games tends to come with a large selection of classes to choose from, and picking out those that best suit your team aims will often shape the entire experience of your play through. Today however, we’re aiming to look at some of the more unusual choices available in Nexus. With 19 classes to choose from you’re very much spoiled for choice, and we do get so tired of just picking the same old party setup, so why not change it up once in a while? The fantastic Etrian systems are malleable enough to complete the games with almost any team, but what do you think of our oddball choices below?
Ailment Allstars
- Harbinger
- Arcanist
- War Magus
- Ninja
- Protector
It’s hardly a surprise, given the title of this build, but what we’re looking to do here is maximise our ailment infliction. To achieve this we’ve, well, grabbed the best possible ailment inflictors available in Nexus! There’s some obvious crossover issues here, like Paralyze being available to both the Arcanist and the Harbinger, but more attempts at such things can never be a bad thing in an Etrian game. The Protector is taken to protect the team with its various buffs and shield skills, but also because it can access cut, bash and stab type attacks. The War Magus is there to provide some healing, whilst also providing a good amount of ailment coverage, and along with the Arcanist it has access to all possible binds. We’d recommend the Ninja take up the front lines alongside the Protector, mainly thanks to it’s defensive options, however it’s perfectly possible for the Harbinger or War Magus to take up this position too.
Build Highlights
- Access to every Ailment possible in Nexus.
- Also has access to every Bind possible.
- Two main sources of healing, in the Arcanist and War Magus.
- The Protector will do all of the heavy defensive lifting.
- Limited elemental damage types outside of Fire. Consider using your Subclass choices to patch up these holes in the late game.
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Max Restoration
- Hero
- War Magus
- Sovereign
- Medic
- Arcanist
From a team designed to stop damage incoming at all, we arrive at one that couldn’t care less what you throw at it, because it’ll heal it all up anyway. In fact, they’ll probably heal it all up in the very same round in which they took it. It’s safe to say that incoming damage or healing really isn’t going to be a problem here, but it’s equally true that outgoing damage is nothing to write home about. The Hero, with it’s afterimages, will be able to do a respectable amount, and the War Magus is pretty capable compared to the rest of the team, but it’s never going to win any awards in this regard. Expect battles to be long, protracted wars of attrition that never seem to end. Oh, and be sure to mind your TP whenever you can, things can get pretty expensive as the rounds progress.
Build Highlights
- Huge amount of party and single target healing. Even the Hero contributes to this through it’s Encourage skill.
- Reasonable amount of binds and ailments are available.
- Sovereign can help the Hero and War Magus deal damage, thanks to it’s elemental buffs.
- Limited damage capabilities overall, though the Hero will contribute well and the War Magus will eventually do so similarly.
Dual Gunners
- Protector
- Shogun
- Gunner
- Sovereign
- Gunner
Those familiar with the classes chosen here will no doubt be able to see what we’re going for with this build. This build revolves around using two powerful Gunners in the back row, and uses a Shogun to maximise their potential each round. The Blitz Command and Shot Command skills in particular will induce free attacks from the Gunners, which will allow for tremendous damage potential each round, especially when combined with their own actions. This is boosted even further by the Sovereign, which can imbue an entire line’s attacks with a particular element, through their ‘Arms’ skills. The single round damage resulting from combining all of these is remarkable, and it’s entirely possible to take down targets in a single specified round when done correctly. Oh, and we think it prudent to take a Protector with a team filled with squishies.
Build Highlights
- The Shogun can use it’s ‘Command’ skills to initiate free attacks from the Gunners, who are powerful damage units in their own regard.
- The Sovereign can use their elemental ‘Arms’ skills to buff these attacks further, by imbuing them with a particular element. Selecting one that your target is weak to is a recipe for big damage.
- Protector is again taken to reduce damage done to what is, on balance, a very defensively weak team.
- Sovereign alone should be enough to heal the team, however one of the Gunners can also be specified to assist in this regard.
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Elemental Monsters
- Imperial
- Protector
- Imperial
- Sovereign
- Zodiac
The intention of this particular build isn’t exactly a secret. We’re looking to maximise the amount of elemental damage done here, and we’re attempting to do so to the complete detriment of anything else. Yes it’s a bit of a comedy build, but it’s a surprising amount of fun. The Zodiac is a rather obvious inclusion, given that, outside of a few choice skills, it’s entire purpose is to deal magical and often elemental damage. Imperials, of which we have chosen to bring two, are also very good at dealing this through the usage of their Flame, Freeze and Shock Drive skills. Finally, the Sovereign can also induce this through their ‘Arms’ buff, though we will admit that any serious usage of this build will likely necessitate that they focus on defence and healing over attack. Per usual with a novelty build such as this, the Protector brings it’s excellent defensive options to the table, keeping our especially squishy unit choices safe.
Build Highlights
- Elemental damage from all units available here, either through innate skills or the buffs afforded by the Sovereign.
- Actually quite a good team all in all, though it does lack significantly when it comes to disabling your opponents.
- It’s possible for this team to do absolutely huge damage to single targets, especially when the Zodiac becomes able to direct their area spells at one.
- The Protector is very much the meat shield here, doing all of the heavy defensive lifting.
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Categories: Etrian Odyssey Nexus