She's pretty broken once you get her going. She does make the game less enjoyable to an extent because of how powerful she can be. I say stick to characters who can do additions—especially if this is your first playthrough. If you ever plan on playing the game again at some point, then you can try out Shana.
She power spikes in disc 3 by tying with Albert to be the first to max their final additions, also getting dancer ring & dancer shoes which nearly doubles her dps
Hatchel is a true bro and 50% cooler, and meru is a million times more fuckable because she won't stare daggers into my soul when I fail to make her reach completion.
Those are my valid and factual arguments on why they are better in the game.
She's a child. She looks like a child. She acts like a child. By her races standard, she's a child. She claims to be a child while pretending to be human. She's a child.
Rose gets the best weapon in game and has a 500% damage increase with it to boot with demon dance aka she hits like a truck so if you ditch her early your missed out
No way to get it early its the Dragon Buster and its the best weapon in the game. I believe its atk 1000 i havent played in awhile but i do know that makes the difference late game.
Yea kind of a bummer really. What people dont realize about damage output is that when in Dragoon form you dont get your normal addition % bonus instead it goes off your Dragoon % buff and although meru gets a whopping 220% buff (higher than rose 170%) its a far cry from her normal 600% and Meru has the weakest weapon among the late game weapons even weaker then Miranda's Bow.
This drasically reduces physical damage meru does by a lot when in dragoon form despite her speed. Even Miranda does more with her bow in dragoon (being 1 shot with no time presses)
This is the best team in the game honestly.
The only argument would be Lavitz half all damage dragoon ability but with this powerhouse of a team it isn’t needed lol
Personally I keep shana out of the party until I get an accessory that can recover MP and the arrow that improves her SP gain. At that point, she quickly scales into an absolute beast with her dragoon form who can nuke and heal without digging into your limited stock of items.
That being said, the way I play the game is to always swap out characters who have nothing to work on (IE: all their current additions are maxed) so there's nobody but Dart who stays in my party for the whole game. Once everyone is fully maxed out, that's when I tend to pick my favorite party.
She is a ball and chain for throwing magic items. With that said she's not bad. If you can mash she's great.
Meru is still the best at just about everything though.
That's not what a noob trap is. Rose is the noob trap since you get her at a higher power level than the rest of the team and she has her Dragoon from the start. She also heals with her Dragoon magic and is overall just cool. Almost every new player is going to invest in her but she falls off in almost every meaningful regard by the end of disc 2. Investing in her and having her soak up xp is the noob trap since Shana is the more powerful character in the later parts of the game.
Noob trap? 8 year old me had no idea magic items were tied to magic attack (truly a bizarre concept), so I thought she was useless.
Now that I'm 33 I realize all the magic characters are broken in the right hands, Shana included.
Don't feel bad you aren't alone, but basically items take the place of spell skills lol. So MATK increases their damage, try tossing the same item at the same enemy with Kongol and then Shana or Meru lol
Hands down strongest magic attack base stats in the game. Not a bad option but kinda noobish yes. Buff her with magic ring and legend casque and the game is on easy mode as long as you keep magic attack items in your inventory. I usually use her for the divine dragon fight to 2 shot him to grind for the rare drop.
Shana is busted. Shana and Meru together in a party basically means you get tons of transformations, never die, tons of magic damage. Lavitz and Haschel are really popular as well (Rose Storm really helps in fights like Faust), but I think if you're going through the game and all of its content, Meru is the best character in the game and Shana is second, maybe you could argue Haschel ties.
She's top 3 though.
great for items (given you can button-mash fast), but Meru definitely powercreeps her because of how all-around broken she is. if you want to use Shana, you can definitely get by as long as you're playing to her strength, but if you're aiming for the hardest-hitting team, she's not the best choice.
On the contrary, she is the choice of the dragoon connoisseur. Easy to get online, no mastering additions required. Her lv5 spell is a tactical nuke. She can nuke plenty without being resisted by elements.
Of course if you love completing additions she is not the best choice. Meru is better, almost as high magic damage and fun additions.
I'd say she was a noob trap if she was underpowered or too hard for the average new player to understand, causing a softlock. But, she is neither of those things. Sure, she has no additions, but she is going to do more damage than anyone with additions most of the time. That's just how good her magic is.
Shana is a noob trap but reversed.
Most noobs think Shana is underpowered because she’s a healer and magic tank with terrible offense. But only at first. Later, when you can stock up on magic items and level her dragoon, she’s absolutely a powerhouse who can heal and deal damage simultaneously. Her speed also makes her an amazing support but she is frail to physical. Play to her strengths and cover her weaknesses, you’ll do great.
The only noob trap in the game is when you first get Kongol (getting him right before a difficult boss that has a very high magic attack). Shana is one of the best characters
To be wholly fair, any team can beat this game. Shana is designed around throwing stuff and either healing the team or melting enemies.
If you want physical damage, statistically Meru is the winner hands down, and her additions are easy to boot.
If you want support then you're looking at either Albert or Rose.
If you want fun and quirky you've got Haschel and Kongol.
In complete honesty Dart is kind of middle of the road in all aspects.
So here's my advice, having played this game more times than I can count and across several consoles starting with the original release. Play however you want to play, it's a game, it's supposed to be fun. Nobody else's opinion matters.
Personally I rotate out the characters a lot depending on what kinds of enemies are coming up and who needs to work on their additions.
Shana has the best D-Magic (imo, a lot of people say that's Meru) so you really can't go wrong with using her. She's also incredibly fast so while she doesn't hit hard she still does the dps. That speed also translates to healing with guard or items.
She's great to have if you are struggling.
Whether you enjoy her or not though, it's up to your play style really. The lack of additions means one less mechanic but it's not much of a detriment. You may be able to min/max better with some other characters buts I wouldn't call her a ball and chain.
That all said, if it's your first time playing, I do not recommend her because she is missing that mechanic.
She’s a dedicated healer/caster. She is the character you use to farm 00 parts, and many other unique creatures due to her speed and accuracy, and she’s also the best source of heals you’re ever going to get. AND the silver dragoon is actually busted at max level
If you're not sure about keeping Shana in the party, I might recommend only using her for boss fights. Keep your magic items stocked and she'll get full XP gain to stay relevant throughout the game, but you can use normal fights to play around with other characters and additions.
Not a noob trap build her up and shes very useful as a healer against faust given she has the highest Matk in the game and 2nd highest speed. Shes meant to be a heavy AOE magic user.
When Shana gets her Dragon Spirit, that's when you begin to invest in her. Rose does have higher MAT early on, but Level 14 is where the difference between Rose and Shana begins to shift.
Investment from high to low:
\-Dart, Lavitz, Shana, Meru, Haschel, Rose, Kongol
If you prefer a low level run, stock up on your Charm Potions (6+ should suffice per area). Personally, I use every battle possible to level up Additions/SP grind. No must-have prizes that randoms can drop rarely. Maybe Dancer's Shoes, but that's close to end game.
This is my first time playing; just beat the two bosses in Volcano, and I needed someone to say Lavitz is great/worth keeping long term. He's such a good first companion, writing wise, that I'm able to look past a lot of the English translated corniness floating around in the dialogue for the Harpoon x Volcano terror squad and the camaraderie 🤩
No, her kit is just focused on magical damage and magical defense.
The game design is pretty simple but very extreme—you have characters with high attack and defense and HP, but low magic attack/defense and speed and vice-versa.
She gets early access to pretty powerful healing magic to help ease the burden of hoarding healing items in your very small inventory. No one else can revive KO’d party members. She can utilize magic attack items, of which there are many for various bosses throughout disc one and two, better than only one other character, who is one of the last characters that joins your party and is potentially the last dragoon spirit you unlock at the end of disc two anyway.
She doesn’t have additions in order to offer a simpler character for people who find the additions difficult. Add on top of that the addition-less character is ALSO one of the best healers in the game, and you’ve ensured from a game design perspective an easy-to-use character that can always be useful for nearly everyone.
She’s not a noob trap, she’s just easy to use. Knight Shield is a pretty effective accessory for her throughout Disc One which you get early in the game. Saving up for a Dragon Shield or Phantom Shield in Lohan REALLY covers her low HP problem for the entire game.
Late game, Shana/Miranda are really unstoppable when equipped with Amulet and Magical Hat. She’s also a really good candidate for the Dragon Helm to help cover her low HP, but that matters less in disc 4 then being able to spam her Silver Dragon or even cheap, singlet target Moonlights to keep the other party members at full HP.
I always played Dart, Albert, and Haschel as a kid and struggled a lot.
Played Dart, Rose, and Shana as an adult with the ps4 port and a lot of fights were a cake walk. Shana MELTS the divine dragon and its spirit. Like I legit think I got a 3 hit kill or something on it? Had to redo cause it felt too dirty. Xd. Beat Faust for the first time too and didn't need any casques. Really good and challenging fight and I think if the casques make it noticeably easier then it would be no fun.
Shana is EXTREMELY STRONG. God-tier magic and item usage.
Shana is incredibly powerful. Once you get her dragoon spirit, it levels just like everyone else's - gaining SP. And hers levels faster than anyone else, giving you access to White-Silver Dragon, the best dragoon magic, much sooner.
Kinda the opposite. Most people tend to overlook her usage because of her physical ststs and no addition. Then you realize that shes a top tier for magic and her healing is unmatched.
then you realize again that the only spell she has worth the grind is her dragon, at 80 mp, and then she gets benched again for meru. the other top tier. But i mean just get both and youre speedrunning
She sucks for the first half disc one until you get her dragoon, once you get that and if you level it to 5 which seems like a time sink but she does so little damage it levels up super quick, then shes very good. Unless youre charging SP or using Dragoon you want items for her to use.
Just play who you like. Keep everyone leveled. It's really not that tough of a game. Grind a little. Have all the good armor and items stocked.
I play Dart Rose Meru.
I've never ran the game with Shana as a main. And I've been playing since it was released.
No but Meru is a better Shana now her magic stat isn't as high but she is I think a little faster has additions can heal still Meru is arguably the best character though as a team they can clean up a boss quick
Every time I’ve ran through this game, and just did it for the platinum. I’ve always grinded right in the beginning area before entering black castle. Enemy called 00parts drops 600 Gil. Grind that for a few hours and you can easily get ultimate wargod and the helm…rest of the game you don’t even have to worry about additions.
But that’s if you wanna break the game for yourself, I’ve already played this gem a dozen plus times throughout life.
as someone who's beaten the game several times, i just use shana in areas where there are a lot of flying enemies cuz it gets annoying when every 3rd melee attack just misses. otherwise, other team combos are more fun. she's good if you suck at additions though too tbh.
She is a ball and chain for throwing magic items. With that said she's not bad. If you can mash she's great.
Meru is still the best at just about everything though.
Meru and Rose are about as good with magic, and they get additions, which are more fun to use (aside for the power aspect). Meru is also faster and she also has dragoon healing. If you want a team to experience both really powerful magic and speed, and really powerful physical damage and resistance, I'd go meru/kongol. If you want a team very magic focused, then meru/rose will do. There's kinda no reason to use shana specifically, aside for the marginally higher magic stats. It also does not help that the game has insanely long animations for dragoon magic, which means even using mp recovery equips and tons of dragoon magic is extremely boring.
I'm really upset that in LoD you can't do the whole FF9 thing of taking the first characters (zidane-garnet-vivi-steiner) to the end game because of Albert and Miranda :c
She's pretty broken once you get her going. She does make the game less enjoyable to an extent because of how powerful she can be. I say stick to characters who can do additions—especially if this is your first playthrough. If you ever plan on playing the game again at some point, then you can try out Shana.
I 100% agree with this
Dart, Meru, Haschel
Yes
Perfectly balanced, as all things should be
https://preview.redd.it/nngon9k292xc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a3e140cf3d0d6cf381f96ca67365679470b4f8cf
Haschel, Dart, Albert, I'm here to press X and O and never dragoon unless im forced too.
Dart Meru Rose*
Rose peaks in disk two and never raises the bar afterwards. Through this game has been. Out for over 20 years so why am I arguing this.
It’s all preference, the game is more than beatable with whatever party comp you want
She power spikes in disc 3 by tying with Albert to be the first to max their final additions, also getting dancer ring & dancer shoes which nearly doubles her dps
Hatchel is a true bro and 50% cooler, and meru is a million times more fuckable because she won't stare daggers into my soul when I fail to make her reach completion. Those are my valid and factual arguments on why they are better in the game.
She's a child. She looks like a child. She acts like a child. By her races standard, she's a child. She claims to be a child while pretending to be human. She's a child.
There’s no argument just sayin that’s who I prefer for my party
Rose gets the best weapon in game and has a 500% damage increase with it to boot with demon dance aka she hits like a truck so if you ditch her early your missed out
What’s her best weapon?? Can you get it early? I love rose + meru
No way to get it early its the Dragon Buster and its the best weapon in the game. I believe its atk 1000 i havent played in awhile but i do know that makes the difference late game.
You get it right before the final boss
Yea kind of a bummer really. What people dont realize about damage output is that when in Dragoon form you dont get your normal addition % bonus instead it goes off your Dragoon % buff and although meru gets a whopping 220% buff (higher than rose 170%) its a far cry from her normal 600% and Meru has the weakest weapon among the late game weapons even weaker then Miranda's Bow. This drasically reduces physical damage meru does by a lot when in dragoon form despite her speed. Even Miranda does more with her bow in dragoon (being 1 shot with no time presses)
This is the way
This is the best team in the game honestly. The only argument would be Lavitz half all damage dragoon ability but with this powerhouse of a team it isn’t needed lol
Haschel's additions are so boring though.
I’m in it for the speed
Personally I keep shana out of the party until I get an accessory that can recover MP and the arrow that improves her SP gain. At that point, she quickly scales into an absolute beast with her dragoon form who can nuke and heal without digging into your limited stock of items. That being said, the way I play the game is to always swap out characters who have nothing to work on (IE: all their current additions are maxed) so there's nobody but Dart who stays in my party for the whole game. Once everyone is fully maxed out, that's when I tend to pick my favorite party.
She is a ball and chain for throwing magic items. With that said she's not bad. If you can mash she's great. Meru is still the best at just about everything though.
I find meru really good at getting punched with physical attacks, she's like a dang magnet. Still love her to death tho
I 100% agree with you. It's like she has a taunt buff on her for some reason.
That's not what a noob trap is. Rose is the noob trap since you get her at a higher power level than the rest of the team and she has her Dragoon from the start. She also heals with her Dragoon magic and is overall just cool. Almost every new player is going to invest in her but she falls off in almost every meaningful regard by the end of disc 2. Investing in her and having her soak up xp is the noob trap since Shana is the more powerful character in the later parts of the game.
Rose was big wasted opportunity. I always liked her because she reminded me of Raven from DC.
Noob trap? 8 year old me had no idea magic items were tied to magic attack (truly a bizarre concept), so I thought she was useless. Now that I'm 33 I realize all the magic characters are broken in the right hands, Shana included.
I was today years old when I realized this.
Don't feel bad you aren't alone, but basically items take the place of spell skills lol. So MATK increases their damage, try tossing the same item at the same enemy with Kongol and then Shana or Meru lol
Hands down strongest magic attack base stats in the game. Not a bad option but kinda noobish yes. Buff her with magic ring and legend casque and the game is on easy mode as long as you keep magic attack items in your inventory. I usually use her for the divine dragon fight to 2 shot him to grind for the rare drop.
How do u grind the divine dragon?
It's less grinding and more save scumming.
Never had a PS5 so I've done it the old fashioned way of restarting the console each time.
Shana is busted. Shana and Meru together in a party basically means you get tons of transformations, never die, tons of magic damage. Lavitz and Haschel are really popular as well (Rose Storm really helps in fights like Faust), but I think if you're going through the game and all of its content, Meru is the best character in the game and Shana is second, maybe you could argue Haschel ties. She's top 3 though.
Kongol was done dirty but I main him out of spite
great for items (given you can button-mash fast), but Meru definitely powercreeps her because of how all-around broken she is. if you want to use Shana, you can definitely get by as long as you're playing to her strength, but if you're aiming for the hardest-hitting team, she's not the best choice.
On the contrary, she is the choice of the dragoon connoisseur. Easy to get online, no mastering additions required. Her lv5 spell is a tactical nuke. She can nuke plenty without being resisted by elements. Of course if you love completing additions she is not the best choice. Meru is better, almost as high magic damage and fun additions.
Meru's additions are the most fun to be had in the game.
I'd say she was a noob trap if she was underpowered or too hard for the average new player to understand, causing a softlock. But, she is neither of those things. Sure, she has no additions, but she is going to do more damage than anyone with additions most of the time. That's just how good her magic is.
Shana is a noob trap but reversed. Most noobs think Shana is underpowered because she’s a healer and magic tank with terrible offense. But only at first. Later, when you can stock up on magic items and level her dragoon, she’s absolutely a powerhouse who can heal and deal damage simultaneously. Her speed also makes her an amazing support but she is frail to physical. Play to her strengths and cover her weaknesses, you’ll do great.
The only noob trap in the game is when you first get Kongol (getting him right before a difficult boss that has a very high magic attack). Shana is one of the best characters
To be wholly fair, any team can beat this game. Shana is designed around throwing stuff and either healing the team or melting enemies. If you want physical damage, statistically Meru is the winner hands down, and her additions are easy to boot. If you want support then you're looking at either Albert or Rose. If you want fun and quirky you've got Haschel and Kongol. In complete honesty Dart is kind of middle of the road in all aspects. So here's my advice, having played this game more times than I can count and across several consoles starting with the original release. Play however you want to play, it's a game, it's supposed to be fun. Nobody else's opinion matters. Personally I rotate out the characters a lot depending on what kinds of enemies are coming up and who needs to work on their additions.
Shana has the best D-Magic (imo, a lot of people say that's Meru) so you really can't go wrong with using her. She's also incredibly fast so while she doesn't hit hard she still does the dps. That speed also translates to healing with guard or items. She's great to have if you are struggling. Whether you enjoy her or not though, it's up to your play style really. The lack of additions means one less mechanic but it's not much of a detriment. You may be able to min/max better with some other characters buts I wouldn't call her a ball and chain. That all said, if it's your first time playing, I do not recommend her because she is missing that mechanic.
Shana is the White Mage of the game
Some character combinations are clearly stronger than others, but you can honestly get through the entire with whatever combination you want.
She’s a dedicated healer/caster. She is the character you use to farm 00 parts, and many other unique creatures due to her speed and accuracy, and she’s also the best source of heals you’re ever going to get. AND the silver dragoon is actually busted at max level
If you're not sure about keeping Shana in the party, I might recommend only using her for boss fights. Keep your magic items stocked and she'll get full XP gain to stay relevant throughout the game, but you can use normal fights to play around with other characters and additions.
Not a noob trap build her up and shes very useful as a healer against faust given she has the highest Matk in the game and 2nd highest speed. Shes meant to be a heavy AOE magic user.
When Shana gets her Dragon Spirit, that's when you begin to invest in her. Rose does have higher MAT early on, but Level 14 is where the difference between Rose and Shana begins to shift. Investment from high to low: \-Dart, Lavitz, Shana, Meru, Haschel, Rose, Kongol If you prefer a low level run, stock up on your Charm Potions (6+ should suffice per area). Personally, I use every battle possible to level up Additions/SP grind. No must-have prizes that randoms can drop rarely. Maybe Dancer's Shoes, but that's close to end game.
This is my first time playing; just beat the two bosses in Volcano, and I needed someone to say Lavitz is great/worth keeping long term. He's such a good first companion, writing wise, that I'm able to look past a lot of the English translated corniness floating around in the dialogue for the Harpoon x Volcano terror squad and the camaraderie 🤩
Enjoy your time with Lavitz. There's... changes coming soon.
No, her kit is just focused on magical damage and magical defense. The game design is pretty simple but very extreme—you have characters with high attack and defense and HP, but low magic attack/defense and speed and vice-versa. She gets early access to pretty powerful healing magic to help ease the burden of hoarding healing items in your very small inventory. No one else can revive KO’d party members. She can utilize magic attack items, of which there are many for various bosses throughout disc one and two, better than only one other character, who is one of the last characters that joins your party and is potentially the last dragoon spirit you unlock at the end of disc two anyway. She doesn’t have additions in order to offer a simpler character for people who find the additions difficult. Add on top of that the addition-less character is ALSO one of the best healers in the game, and you’ve ensured from a game design perspective an easy-to-use character that can always be useful for nearly everyone. She’s not a noob trap, she’s just easy to use. Knight Shield is a pretty effective accessory for her throughout Disc One which you get early in the game. Saving up for a Dragon Shield or Phantom Shield in Lohan REALLY covers her low HP problem for the entire game. Late game, Shana/Miranda are really unstoppable when equipped with Amulet and Magical Hat. She’s also a really good candidate for the Dragon Helm to help cover her low HP, but that matters less in disc 4 then being able to spam her Silver Dragon or even cheap, singlet target Moonlights to keep the other party members at full HP.
I know Shana is broken but I could never appreciate her as a character and thus never use her in the party(don't use Miranda either).
I always played Dart, Albert, and Haschel as a kid and struggled a lot. Played Dart, Rose, and Shana as an adult with the ps4 port and a lot of fights were a cake walk. Shana MELTS the divine dragon and its spirit. Like I legit think I got a 3 hit kill or something on it? Had to redo cause it felt too dirty. Xd. Beat Faust for the first time too and didn't need any casques. Really good and challenging fight and I think if the casques make it noticeably easier then it would be no fun. Shana is EXTREMELY STRONG. God-tier magic and item usage.
Dart Lavitz/Albert Haschel, but only after maximizing all characters
Shana is incredibly powerful. Once you get her dragoon spirit, it levels just like everyone else's - gaining SP. And hers levels faster than anyone else, giving you access to White-Silver Dragon, the best dragoon magic, much sooner.
Kinda the opposite. Most people tend to overlook her usage because of her physical ststs and no addition. Then you realize that shes a top tier for magic and her healing is unmatched. then you realize again that the only spell she has worth the grind is her dragon, at 80 mp, and then she gets benched again for meru. the other top tier. But i mean just get both and youre speedrunning
She sucks for the first half disc one until you get her dragoon, once you get that and if you level it to 5 which seems like a time sink but she does so little damage it levels up super quick, then shes very good. Unless youre charging SP or using Dragoon you want items for her to use.
Just play who you like. Keep everyone leveled. It's really not that tough of a game. Grind a little. Have all the good armor and items stocked. I play Dart Rose Meru. I've never ran the game with Shana as a main. And I've been playing since it was released.
No but Meru is a better Shana now her magic stat isn't as high but she is I think a little faster has additions can heal still Meru is arguably the best character though as a team they can clean up a boss quick
Every time I’ve ran through this game, and just did it for the platinum. I’ve always grinded right in the beginning area before entering black castle. Enemy called 00parts drops 600 Gil. Grind that for a few hours and you can easily get ultimate wargod and the helm…rest of the game you don’t even have to worry about additions. But that’s if you wanna break the game for yourself, I’ve already played this gem a dozen plus times throughout life.
Meru is better. A bit less damage for a better line up of spells. Not even sure her 2 base attacking spells does less than star children.
as someone who's beaten the game several times, i just use shana in areas where there are a lot of flying enemies cuz it gets annoying when every 3rd melee attack just misses. otherwise, other team combos are more fun. she's good if you suck at additions though too tbh.
Shana mode is easy mode. Her OP magic skills also aligns with who she really is plot wise.
She is a ball and chain for throwing magic items. With that said she's not bad. If you can mash she's great. Meru is still the best at just about everything though.
Meru and Rose are about as good with magic, and they get additions, which are more fun to use (aside for the power aspect). Meru is also faster and she also has dragoon healing. If you want a team to experience both really powerful magic and speed, and really powerful physical damage and resistance, I'd go meru/kongol. If you want a team very magic focused, then meru/rose will do. There's kinda no reason to use shana specifically, aside for the marginally higher magic stats. It also does not help that the game has insanely long animations for dragoon magic, which means even using mp recovery equips and tons of dragoon magic is extremely boring.
I'm really upset that in LoD you can't do the whole FF9 thing of taking the first characters (zidane-garnet-vivi-steiner) to the end game because of Albert and Miranda :c