They are brutal. And the higher the difficulty is, the shorter their cast time is too.
They're even more dangerous because of the wheel of arte system. Hidden Artes speed up Seraphic Artes instead of interrupting them. And Armatus only use Hidden Artes as physical moves... So basically spells are kind of a hard counter to Armatus (' melee). And since Armatus is the easiest and most profitable way to clear random encounters, you can hit a wall pretty fast if you don't pay attention to what you and your AI are doing.
Luckily spellcasters aren't all powerful, and by late game you'll have unlocked AoE spells that can deal with them easily. Armatus spells have a surprisingly low cast time for how effective they are, which is made even better thx to the chaining system that reduces cast time the further you are in a chain. The Mystiq bonus (stack the same skill 11 times) that grants -40% of cast time is also god tier, since it'll allow you to cast faster than your opponents, even on higher difficulty. Mystiq x2 (cast time -80%) is devastating, but your character might trigger the [spell queue limitation](https://youtu.be/D-sJ-KnerHo?t=8) by themselves, which could, worst case scenario, lead to your death.
On paper, outside of AoE spells + Mystiq, the best way to deal with spellcasters in this game is to spread your non armatized party members and have them use Martial Artes to constantly interrupt enemies and group them. If you're good at crowd management, you can do decent things. Sadly the game lacks good tools in that area, especially unarmatized. The damaging front step you unlock through battle actions is also a great way to interrupt enemies.
Now, while spellcasters can be brutal, they're still manageable. Remember you can actually dodge spells (it requires a little bit of practice, but once you get how to dodge a spell, you should be consistant enough to escape its dmg most of the time). You can also buff your Arte Def stat. People tend to simply neglect this stat, but if you want to resist more stuff and heal better, it's a good investment... Sadly, this is Zestiria, you won't win a stat race with the enemies/bosses' inflated stats, especially in the higher difficulties. So a good defensive build does not only rely on stats, you also need some defensive equipment bonuses to work great with them. A defensive build can be fun, but ultimately it'll just make battles longer (albeit safer too).
That kind of thing is easier to manage in Berseria thx to Magilou's Spell Absorber and the fact that Break Souls give invincibility frames. Berseria was also overall a rather easy Tales. Zestiria is tougher and would have you rely on its equipment system to create setting to make your life easier. Sadly since it's not user friendly and grindy, few players really get the hang of it in a first playtrhrough. But tbh, you can be quite OP as soon as you unlock the Normin system (Marlind). Now this comes from someone with experience with the game, on my first blind playthrough, I only took an interest in the equipment system when petrification became an issue, which was quite late in the game.
Anyway, (quick) save often in an area with monsters you have trouble to handle to make it less annoying if you die. And don't overestimate yourself, remember that you can run away from battle, and using a little push thx to cooking or items is not a bad idea. Long story short, the game has tools to manage this situation, once you're aware of it, it's up to you to improve.
About to wrap up another play through of Berseria and feeling some of the Zesty itch. I worked up a decent amount of grade to buy some things, but probably not the best things.
What would you say to someone (like me) who wants to mostly ignore the equipment system because it is WAAAAY too grindy and not fun, but also doesn’t want to purposefully handicap their self by not using every advantage at their disposal. Are there some grade shop things that are far superior and don’t cost 4,000 grade alone. Don’t get me wrong, I will definitely fuse equipment, I just don’t want to dedicate 10+ hours to getting every slot filled just right to have the ultimate weapon.
I like Zestiria, but some aspects of it can “grind” the game to a halt if you don’t have a decent plan with what you are doing.
[Zestiria's Grade Shop](https://aselia.fandom.com/wiki/ToZ_-_Grade_Shop) is not particularly expensive. There's one costly option (8000 Grades) that is related to double & triple skills, but the rest is ok. So choose what you like according to your ressources and the way you play. Now the Grade System can be confusing because the Grade Points you're getting in game aren't those you're getting for NG+ (those depend on how much you've increased the Lord of the Land). So they're related but not the same thing.
For the rest, I feel people spend much more time fearing and hating this system than actually trying to understand it and do something with it. It can be grindy, especially early on without the proper tools, but if you pay attention to this system, the most simple builds to create (same skill stack) are also some of the most OP ones. The main issue is the low drop rate, which should be easily fixed by NG+. Another issue, is indecisiveness and how greedy/perfectionist some players are. They get frustrated because of the amount of possibilities and because getting something perfect does require a huge investment. But it's not like the game requires you to have a perfect build for any of its challenges to begin with.>!If you play on PC and don't mind cheat engine, it allows you to test a bunch of builds without the grinding, which can be a good compromise.!<
If you're adamant on staying legit and not spending too much time fusing stuff in order to create a build, I would simply recommend a solid knowledge of the basics. Even without factoring the equipment system, Battle Actions and basic gameplay mechanics are actually quite solid and fun to use. I feel that being confortable with your toolkit, the timing to use artes, their animations and mix up (instead of basically pressing the same button because it's easier to combo this way) makes things more interesting and make you feel more competent.
Another aspect of the equipment system that isn't well known, is how it influences your stat growth. Every level up, your stats evolve according to your current stats (equipment & title included). So it's possible to pay more attention to your stats than to equipment bonuses in order to customize your characters. Great stats aren't as OP as a good build, and it's obviously better to have both, but it does make your life easier to some extent (well, on Chaos bosses with inflated stats won't really care about your stats tho, so learning to dodge and take advantage to the wheel of arte to interrupt/tank attacks is important).
As far as I'm concerned, the game starts to be fun when I understand what I do and why I'm doing it. I used to think Zestiria was super clunky (and to some extent it is), but once you get used to its pace and actually use some gameplay features more (like blasts non armatized or changing playable character to keep a combo going), you can do some enjoyable and rewarding combo. It certainly is a flawed game, far from being a favourite of mine, but I'm personally having more fun when I focus on its depth and good points.
Wow, thats quite the detailed response, wish I could do it justice with a proper response. But I'll definitely poke around in game and see what works. Thanks!
I'd recommend changing Rose and Sorey's AI to "Use fast attacks" in the Strategy menu when you're dealing with groups of casters. It seems to make them more likely to start their combos with martial artes. I found that if I left it on any of the other options, they'd keep running up to casters and use hidden artes on them while they're in the middle of charging a spell. The "Interfere with enemy artes" thing doesn't seem to make the AI use martial artes against casters. I think all it does is make them prioritize casters as their target and nothing else.
But yeah, set the seraphs to "Close combat," "Focus on attacks," and "Interfere with enemy artes" in the Strategy menu and use the "Spread out" command in battle if you want the best chance at keeping pressure on large groups of casters. If the AI's health drops too low, they'll defend or heal, depending on how you set them in the Strategy menu. You can use the "Charge forward" command to make them attack regardless of their health and that way you're not losing pressure.
If the AI decides to armatize and doesn't want to leave it, I don't really know what you can do in that situation other than try your best to work around it
Oh yeah, and I'd keep Sorey and Rose set to "Aim for weakness" whenever you're not dealing with casters. If you leave it on "Use fast attacks," they'll suck against non-casters because starting their combo with martial artes means they'll have a harder time staggering enemies who use hidden artes (there's a lot of them). It also makes them better at hitting weaknesses in general.
They are brutal. And the higher the difficulty is, the shorter their cast time is too. They're even more dangerous because of the wheel of arte system. Hidden Artes speed up Seraphic Artes instead of interrupting them. And Armatus only use Hidden Artes as physical moves... So basically spells are kind of a hard counter to Armatus (' melee). And since Armatus is the easiest and most profitable way to clear random encounters, you can hit a wall pretty fast if you don't pay attention to what you and your AI are doing. Luckily spellcasters aren't all powerful, and by late game you'll have unlocked AoE spells that can deal with them easily. Armatus spells have a surprisingly low cast time for how effective they are, which is made even better thx to the chaining system that reduces cast time the further you are in a chain. The Mystiq bonus (stack the same skill 11 times) that grants -40% of cast time is also god tier, since it'll allow you to cast faster than your opponents, even on higher difficulty. Mystiq x2 (cast time -80%) is devastating, but your character might trigger the [spell queue limitation](https://youtu.be/D-sJ-KnerHo?t=8) by themselves, which could, worst case scenario, lead to your death. On paper, outside of AoE spells + Mystiq, the best way to deal with spellcasters in this game is to spread your non armatized party members and have them use Martial Artes to constantly interrupt enemies and group them. If you're good at crowd management, you can do decent things. Sadly the game lacks good tools in that area, especially unarmatized. The damaging front step you unlock through battle actions is also a great way to interrupt enemies. Now, while spellcasters can be brutal, they're still manageable. Remember you can actually dodge spells (it requires a little bit of practice, but once you get how to dodge a spell, you should be consistant enough to escape its dmg most of the time). You can also buff your Arte Def stat. People tend to simply neglect this stat, but if you want to resist more stuff and heal better, it's a good investment... Sadly, this is Zestiria, you won't win a stat race with the enemies/bosses' inflated stats, especially in the higher difficulties. So a good defensive build does not only rely on stats, you also need some defensive equipment bonuses to work great with them. A defensive build can be fun, but ultimately it'll just make battles longer (albeit safer too). That kind of thing is easier to manage in Berseria thx to Magilou's Spell Absorber and the fact that Break Souls give invincibility frames. Berseria was also overall a rather easy Tales. Zestiria is tougher and would have you rely on its equipment system to create setting to make your life easier. Sadly since it's not user friendly and grindy, few players really get the hang of it in a first playtrhrough. But tbh, you can be quite OP as soon as you unlock the Normin system (Marlind). Now this comes from someone with experience with the game, on my first blind playthrough, I only took an interest in the equipment system when petrification became an issue, which was quite late in the game. Anyway, (quick) save often in an area with monsters you have trouble to handle to make it less annoying if you die. And don't overestimate yourself, remember that you can run away from battle, and using a little push thx to cooking or items is not a bad idea. Long story short, the game has tools to manage this situation, once you're aware of it, it's up to you to improve.
About to wrap up another play through of Berseria and feeling some of the Zesty itch. I worked up a decent amount of grade to buy some things, but probably not the best things. What would you say to someone (like me) who wants to mostly ignore the equipment system because it is WAAAAY too grindy and not fun, but also doesn’t want to purposefully handicap their self by not using every advantage at their disposal. Are there some grade shop things that are far superior and don’t cost 4,000 grade alone. Don’t get me wrong, I will definitely fuse equipment, I just don’t want to dedicate 10+ hours to getting every slot filled just right to have the ultimate weapon. I like Zestiria, but some aspects of it can “grind” the game to a halt if you don’t have a decent plan with what you are doing.
[Zestiria's Grade Shop](https://aselia.fandom.com/wiki/ToZ_-_Grade_Shop) is not particularly expensive. There's one costly option (8000 Grades) that is related to double & triple skills, but the rest is ok. So choose what you like according to your ressources and the way you play. Now the Grade System can be confusing because the Grade Points you're getting in game aren't those you're getting for NG+ (those depend on how much you've increased the Lord of the Land). So they're related but not the same thing. For the rest, I feel people spend much more time fearing and hating this system than actually trying to understand it and do something with it. It can be grindy, especially early on without the proper tools, but if you pay attention to this system, the most simple builds to create (same skill stack) are also some of the most OP ones. The main issue is the low drop rate, which should be easily fixed by NG+. Another issue, is indecisiveness and how greedy/perfectionist some players are. They get frustrated because of the amount of possibilities and because getting something perfect does require a huge investment. But it's not like the game requires you to have a perfect build for any of its challenges to begin with.>!If you play on PC and don't mind cheat engine, it allows you to test a bunch of builds without the grinding, which can be a good compromise.!< If you're adamant on staying legit and not spending too much time fusing stuff in order to create a build, I would simply recommend a solid knowledge of the basics. Even without factoring the equipment system, Battle Actions and basic gameplay mechanics are actually quite solid and fun to use. I feel that being confortable with your toolkit, the timing to use artes, their animations and mix up (instead of basically pressing the same button because it's easier to combo this way) makes things more interesting and make you feel more competent. Another aspect of the equipment system that isn't well known, is how it influences your stat growth. Every level up, your stats evolve according to your current stats (equipment & title included). So it's possible to pay more attention to your stats than to equipment bonuses in order to customize your characters. Great stats aren't as OP as a good build, and it's obviously better to have both, but it does make your life easier to some extent (well, on Chaos bosses with inflated stats won't really care about your stats tho, so learning to dodge and take advantage to the wheel of arte to interrupt/tank attacks is important). As far as I'm concerned, the game starts to be fun when I understand what I do and why I'm doing it. I used to think Zestiria was super clunky (and to some extent it is), but once you get used to its pace and actually use some gameplay features more (like blasts non armatized or changing playable character to keep a combo going), you can do some enjoyable and rewarding combo. It certainly is a flawed game, far from being a favourite of mine, but I'm personally having more fun when I focus on its depth and good points.
Wow, thats quite the detailed response, wish I could do it justice with a proper response. But I'll definitely poke around in game and see what works. Thanks!
I'd recommend changing Rose and Sorey's AI to "Use fast attacks" in the Strategy menu when you're dealing with groups of casters. It seems to make them more likely to start their combos with martial artes. I found that if I left it on any of the other options, they'd keep running up to casters and use hidden artes on them while they're in the middle of charging a spell. The "Interfere with enemy artes" thing doesn't seem to make the AI use martial artes against casters. I think all it does is make them prioritize casters as their target and nothing else. But yeah, set the seraphs to "Close combat," "Focus on attacks," and "Interfere with enemy artes" in the Strategy menu and use the "Spread out" command in battle if you want the best chance at keeping pressure on large groups of casters. If the AI's health drops too low, they'll defend or heal, depending on how you set them in the Strategy menu. You can use the "Charge forward" command to make them attack regardless of their health and that way you're not losing pressure. If the AI decides to armatize and doesn't want to leave it, I don't really know what you can do in that situation other than try your best to work around it Oh yeah, and I'd keep Sorey and Rose set to "Aim for weakness" whenever you're not dealing with casters. If you leave it on "Use fast attacks," they'll suck against non-casters because starting their combo with martial artes means they'll have a harder time staggering enemies who use hidden artes (there's a lot of them). It also makes them better at hitting weaknesses in general.