Adequately describing Angelo can be quite the task, but after a long period of deliberation we’ve settled upon the word ‘Cheeky’. No matter the situation, be it dire or filled with brevity, he’s there to cushion the blow or lend a hand with a quip or two. Well, either that or he’s busy chasing tail to limited success. This unusual nature unfortunately extends into battle, where he’ll perform well but is often stifled by limited growth, thanks to his slightly different skill points distribution. So where exactly should you invest this smaller pool? We’ve put together a few of our favourite Angelo builds for your perusal.
Healing Angelo Build
- (Staves) – 100 Points
- (Swords) – 22 Points
- (Charisma) – 13 Points
The absolute first thing that you must know about Angelo, outside of his limited skill points during the story period, is that his Charisma skills aren’t exactly fantastic. They tend to focus on reducing tension, which in itself is actually very useful, but by far the best skill can be found for a meagre 13 points. This gives you access to a skill that removes tension from a single target – Sarcastic Snigger – and that’s probably all you’re bothered about given the ease of random battles in DQ8, so why invest more? Sure, Angel Eyes and Charming Look are technically non-elemental and as such, quite unique abilities, but they’re really not worth investing in over some of his alternatives.
Anyway, given that this is a health restoration focused Angelo, we opt to invest quite heavily into Staves for this build. By doing so, you will gain access to a variety of benefits, including an increased MP pool, a free single target heal in the form of Caduceus and even MP restoration every round once maxed. This last point is very key for a healing focused Angelo, because whilst there are other options to get your healing for free, the Hero technically does this much better through Omniheal, so Angelo needs all the help he can get. He’ll also get Oomph through Staves, which is very handy, and the remaining points are a little more free to be honest, but we tend to enjoy grabbing 22 in Swords, so that Angelo can assist with Metal Slime farming in the early game.
Build Features
- Excellent MP conserving possibilities through the Staves investment, including trickling restoration every round through maxing them out.
- Said focus on Staves will also unlock a free heal in Caduceus, and the powerful Oomph buff, which increases the damage of a party member. This is great for buffing the Hero, Yangus or Red when they’re going for big physical damage.
- Investing 13 points in Charisma will unlock Sarcastic Snigger, which reduces the Tension of a single target. It’s rare that you’ll want to reduce this from more than one enemy, and the remainder of the Charisma tree isn’t exactly fantastic.
- Remaining points can be spent anywhere, but we like taking some Sword investment, both for some powerful early models and the ability to use Metal Slash to take down Metal Slimes.
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Battle Mage Build
- (Bows) – 88 Points
- (Swords) – 40 Points
- (Charisma) – 13 Points
Our trend with DQ games is to play them through again and again, trying out numerous builds and generally enjoying experimentation. The same, we’re afraid, cannot be said about Angelo, because this is by far our favourite build for him. To fully understand this build, which is one that doesn’t really focus on healing very much at all, you must know that the Hero, once he reaches a certain level, is by far the best healer that DQ8 has to offer. Thus, we allow ourselves to focus on other aspects with Angelo, namely damage.
In this regard, we believe that his best option is the Bow, because the skills available are fantastic. Multishot is a great group or single target attack that hits 4 times, Seraphs Arrow is a great way to ensure that MP doesn’t run out and Shining Shot is a fantastic way to spend it, dealing as it does excellent damage to the entire enemy party. We will say that getting all the way to 100 is pointless, because it’s just an RNG focused instant death attack, but getting it to 88 will grant Angelo all the damaging abilities he needs. We do like to pair this with 40 points in Swords, because this will grant him Metal Slash and Falcon Slash, which combined with the Bow means that he has options for every occasion. Finally, 13 in Charisma will grab him the tension reducing Sarcastic Snigger, which is crucial in some boss encounters.
Build Features
- The Bow is very powerful with Angelo, and will grant him powerful attacking abilities throughout, the highlight of which is the entire enemy group targeting Shining Shot.
- Angelo will also gain a great MP restoration skill with Bows, namely Seraphs Arrow, which scales through damage to restore more MP.
- Most things pair with the Bow very well, however we’ve found that taking Swords up to 40 will really round out his kit, thanks to the addition of Metal Slash and Falcon Slash. The latter will likely help his damage output on single targets.
- Charisma is recommended for the tension reducing Sarcastic Snigger.
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Ultimate Angelo Build
- (Staves) – 100 Points
- (Bows) – 88 Points
- (Fisticuffs) – 68 Points
- (Swords) – 66 Points
- (Charisma) – 13 Points
You’re a brave, brave DQ gamer if you go for this build, but if you manage to weather the points drought throughout the early game, and perhaps even include some consumables to help out, then you can technically make the ultimate Angelo build. We’d honestly argue that there are benefits to focusing elsewhere, like perhaps spending your time powering up the two new additions in the 3DS version, but if you’re going to do it then this is your best option.
Little has changed in certain areas. For example, you can see that with continue to push no more than 13 points into Charisma; in our opinion it’s really not worthwhile, and certainly doesn’t feature anything close to the power you can get from his alternatives. One new addition is Fisticuffs, which are taken to 68 points to grab Defending Champion – this is a skill that vastly improves the Defend command, and whilst we wouldn’t expect you to use it a great deal, the damage reduction is massive. Otherwise you’re getting the excellent MP benefits and Oomph from Staves, the big group damage from Bows and the utility from Swords, the latter of which can now reach Miracle Slash to help keep Angelo alive.
Build Features
- This build features the benefits from the top two, rolled into one. This means MP restoration and utility from Staves, big group damage from Bows and single target plus utility with Swords.
- Fisticuffs feature Defending Champion at 68 points, and whilst this is a stretch, the damage reduction is incredible and can be useful when facing some post game bosses.
- Swords are now taken to 66 to access Miracle Slash, which is a single target attack that will heal Angelo for 25% of the damage done. This is useful versus bosses, specifically during their weaker damaging rounds.
- Charisma does not push over 13 again. Even in the ultimate Angelo build we cannot justify investing in this skill tree. We’ll accept some arguments about benefits to doing so, but none of these outweigh the other options he has, which is especially prevalent when he has limited skill points to spend throughout the story.
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Categories: Dragon Quest VIII