So far, we have gone to great lengths to describe the characters that we consider ‘best’ at both healing and dealing damage in Persona 3 Portable, however none of these would be able to do their job without the final piece of the puzzle: The Support. MMO or MOBA players will no doubt be familiar with these, but to generalise their role in a party we would best describe them as ‘enablers’. By throwing out buffs, debuffs, spot heals or indeed damage at any point, they adapt and suit the needs of the party, no matter the situation. The following are the two – yes there are only really two – that fit the bill in P3P.
Akihiko
Thankfully the first support to join your team does so quite early, and immediately begins to learn skills that are supportive in battle. Of the two characters detailed today, Akihiko is what we’d refer to as the more ‘defensive’ support. This is because he is somewhat limited in his attacking capabilities, but tremendously gifted in the art of debuffing the enemy. Not only will he have access to every single target debuff, each of which prove immensely useful against bosses in the early and mid game, but he’ll also gain access to the group version of these skills in the late game.
As noted, he will sometimes struggle to contribute meaningful damage to your enemies, which will mean that the remainder of the team has to cover such things, but thanks to Elec spells and single target heals, his usefulness extends further than just a buff-bot. Overall, we’d rank Akihiko as the best support available in Persona 3 Portable, mainly because the debuffs that he offers cannot be replicated by any form of ‘Auto’ skill by the Protagonist. The same cannot be said for our alternative option, though they themselves do have additional benefits that we’ll detail below.
Support In Short
- Akihiko has access to all single and multi target enemy debuffs, meaning he’s able to reduce their defence, attack and agility. The former makes him very powerful versus bosses in the early and mid game.
- He also brings a good selection of Elec spells, which become more powerful when he unlocks Elec Boost and Amp.
- Three single target heals round out his kit very nicely, including a highly appreciated source of Dia in the early game.
- Akihiko has reasonable physical damage in the early game, including a physical damage skill. This is appreciated, because it’s the portion of the game during which the Protagonist is physically rather weak, and party members skilled in such things are yet available.
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Aigis
As you might imagine, by calling Akihiko the ‘defensive’ support, a more ‘offensive’ version is available, and in this regard we consider Aigis to be such a thing. Instead of targeting the opponents with debuffing skills, she rather opts for buffing her own team, and has access to both single and multi target versions of every basic buff type. Players familiar with the series will understand just how powerful these are, and since we’re lacking something like Heat Riser in Persona 3 Portable, at least outside of Best Friends, they’re all the more useful.
Party buffs don’t exactly sound that offensive though do they, after all they’re technically achieving the same thing as enemy debuffs, right? Well this is true, however it’s the remainder of her kit that brings the offence, by granting her access to massive physical damage skills. She’ll join with a nice selection and, should you choose to bring her with you on your adventure, she will eventually learn the savagely powerful God’s Hand skill. Were this not enough, Aigis will also get a revive, a single target heal and even the ability to remove all debuffs from the party.
Her power is eventually diminished, ironically by the protagonist. Should you decide to learn the powerful ‘Auto’ buff skills with the main character, then Aigis becomes significantly less useful, shuffling her below Akihiko in the support standings. This doesn’t mean she’s terrible, and it would take quite the commitment to fuse a full Auto buff persona never mind continually switching it into the equipped slot, but it’s a detriment that cannot be ignored.
Support In Short
- Aigis has access to all possible party buffs, which means that she can apply increases to attack, defence and agility.
- She also has access to Dekunda, which will remove debuffs from the entire party. This has limited uses, but it’s very powerful on a few occasions.
- As opposed to a single element of spell damage like Akihiko, Aigis learns a big selection of physical skills. Some of these are very powerful, especially in the late game.
- Where Akihiko learns three single target heals, Aigis will learn a single target full HP heal and Samarecarm, which is a full health revive.
- It’s worth noting that the Protagonist can learn an ‘Auto’ version of the party buffs that Aigis learns, making a lot of her kit a little obsolete and, in our opinion at least, making her less useful overall than Akihiko.
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Categories: Persona 3