What's funny is that I just unlocked this class today, and was thinking of pairing it with yumsmith. Also, he mentioned it possibly being one of the weaker attackers, but the description when you unlock it flat out tells you such
Me when I first unlocked this class on Noah: Oops, I "accidentally" spent Silver Nopon Coins to level this up to max. Guess I won't be using it to level it up and unlock it on other characters. On another note, Juniper funny chain attack 360 noscope art animation go whee.
It's a shame how many interesting classes are really hurt by the debuff issue, it's such a common issue with JRPG's to make debuffs insanely hard to pin if not impossible, but it's one of the coolest ideas for classes and playstyles. I feel like higher difficulty's should lower the effect or timer on debuffs as opposed to make them more resistant, it's def something I'm lowering when custom difficulty comes out if it's an option.
It's always the problem with buffs and debuffs, they tend to be very broken so they are hard to balance. Like the old SMT games let you just permanently buff/debuff stats making it nearly required for some fights.
Riki always worked in XC1. Blade combos always worked in XC2 This is the first time Monolith has decided enemies can just say "no" to taking damage over time.
Ok so, after a lot of testing in one of the discords im in its basically been datamined that shackle ring's "art boost" effect increases debuff chance a pretty significant amount. Tie that in with taions ouroboros skill that lowers enemy debuff resist work on the whole party like an aura and some people have been able to get things like machine assassin up and running quite well. I dont imagine it would be some kind of revolution but im sure it would also make stalker a bit more viable in the long term, just food for thought.
@@viciousclam2417 Correct, it acts as a multiplicative bonus with things like sappy sappy drain and taions ouroboros skill, so it wont ever completley negate resistances, but ive seen a guy who REALLY liked machine assassin get like 3 def down procs on a set that used no love lost using shackle ring on the 200 lvl superboss so id say im a believer.
Which discord is this by the way. I’m looking to learn more about the tools utilized for data-mining xenoblade games to hopefully build some tools for assisting with build crafting, but I’m having trouble finding a starting point.
When all the class guides are done, it'd be fun to see your thoughts on themed team builds. I know debuffs are the weakest at large but I'd like seeing how you'd approach making it work
@@Orih9 half of the party (Noah, Mio, Sena) does their role best or close in their base class anyway. It would mainly be a guide on making Lanz and Taion not bad.
I'm really confused as to why they made so many classes reliant on debuffs and also made debuffs really hard to apply. And it's not like debuffs are particularly powerful when they are applied, so it makes even less sense
The handsome man has returned from his break and I believe I speak for everyone when I say glad to see him back. Shame the first time we get to use a bow in Xenoblade it kinda sucks.
One time I decided to run like 3 stalkers all equipped with accessories to increase bleed damage and damage to bleeding enemies, just for kicks. Also had a couple machine assassins for debuff support. Which now has me thinking about Cursed Edge on Stalker, even if just for meme builds. Anyway, the result was absolutely hilarious. UMs and consuls alike were shredded mercilessly. Suboptimal, but so worth it.
i'm currently running a funny build with no defenders - load soulhackers with defensive arts, skills, and gems, but keep strike soul - get rid of all defenders - give everyone fraternal badge and zeon's class skill, forgot what it was called - terrible defense but everyone has 80% art recharge boost. a lot of fun but not built for serious battle
@@cobindaugherty1445 i have evolved this strategy even further beyond: one healing soulhacker who has the crit rate up + crit bonus up arts and aoe power charge set for chain attack and what have you, the skill that increases revive speed per downed ally, but most importantly, damage share, meaning they will always throw damage to someone else at low hp to ensure they always live to keep rezing (valdi is there as well because hes the only hero who has a fast revive gem) four burst damage soulhackers all equipped for decent damage output with the transient bond power charge into elimination beam art setup (accounting for combo arts sprinkled in, break monkey getting a break item and the one with smash having saturni rings etc), with the skills that fully recharge all their arts when someone dies and gives them 4 random buffs each when someone dies and finally, one, brave, valiant sacrificial strike souler who has as little hp as possible and as much aggro as possible, a nopon doll to keep aggro upon death, with the skill that fully heals all living allies upon death no matter what, the healer soulhacker should be unkillable as long as they dont get one shot early or doomed, and the ai can keep up with the revival duty well enough, so you can simply control one of the burst damage ones, unload your three fusion arts, die, switch to the next, unload, and so on. theoretically, the damage output is just insane because the four burst soulhackers have basically all of their equipment suited to damage other than like 2 or three skills and gems that could have been more crit bonus or what have you, and you get a full fusion art unload on FOUR PEOPLE about every two seconds when the monster gets up to killing speed, you dont EVEN need things like fraternal badges and fast recharge time. ironically, the only thing about this setup is that fighting enemies with LESS dps hinders you because not ENOUGH people will be dying. really the one thing you have to watch out for is if the ai controlling the sacrificial character(Sena the Undying in my case) wanders to the enemies back and dies really far away for some reason, you might start to lose revival momentum due to the healer having to cross timezones to go back and forth
It also stacks with itself which is kinna ok? I misread the skill and ran 6 FMJs with 4 of them running Art Follow Up. I couldn’t tell if the stacked damage was helping much.
The JP name for this class is genkyūshi 幻弓士 which can be translated as "phantom archer," I don't know what possessed the localization team to translate it as Stalker. But no I'm not adding fuel to the Juniper/Yuzuriha debate lol.
I actually like Stalker, it’s a weird choice but it sounds more threatening than Hunter or Archer, which are more basic JRPG class names. It seems like they really wanted to avoid those for the most part. And at least “Phantom Archer” is somewhat kept by Juniper’s title “Ghostbow” Also I really like Juniper as a localized name, it sounds vaguely similar and pretty
If the Wave 3 DLC character really does have a Kevesi Smash Art, I can see how it could combo well with Landslide or Rapid Shot for huge Smash Chain Attack damage. I'm really looking forward to seeing how that will work
I've said it before, but I always find it a huge shame when RPGs just completely stomp out your debuff options by making them completely or borderline useless in fights against anything other than normal enemies. Like, I get that debuffs in some games can be crazy strong, but at least find a way to balance them so they're not just overpowered, rather than the "solution" simply being to make them actually useless. Bravely Default is one of the only games I can think of where pretty much all your different buffs/debuffs/statuses can affect bosses and big fights just as much as common mobs.
When I first saw the class system of this game, I was reminded of Bravely Default, one of my favorite games of all time When I first saw Bleed, the accessories that increase damage to enemies suffering it, and eventually this class, I was reminded of Dragalia Lost, my favorite and the best mobile game I've ever played (which has EoS later this year) So my first instinct was that this class would be busted Then I remembered how debuffs are treated And then I tried it out It was very disappointing
This was one of my favorite classes during my playthrough, I liked the idea of stacking damage buffs for launch and spamming the launch damage art. I only managed to get bleed and launch to work like once but it instakilled the unique monster when I did it and solidified me thinking it was one of the stronger classes.
Less strong class, more strong setup. Even as bad as stalker is, you can see how much power you can get out of properly stacking multiplicative damage buffs.
For anyone wondering the staying power and final boss thing, here's what I found on the wiki: Art Follow-Up's bonus damage bypasses Z's damage reduction skill while it is active, making it an effective method of speeding up the first phase.
The bleed debuff running out at the last second before the final atack of the chain atack (just as the super long animation ends) is for some reason super funny to me
Also noticed that. Could have probably done damage cap on the main art and 2.5M on the master art of the bleed effect was still up, but I digress if it applied it as I suspect some action bonuses (other than combos) may take place as the art starts
Hey Enel! Just want to point out the bleed seems to wear off JUST as you hit that final chain attack with Noah (before the Ouroboros finisher) so I'm not sure it actually applied the bleed bonuses. You can see it just as 16:30 hits
I came into the game thinking Juniper would be my favorite class, turns out she's pretty bad. ;( I still like her character though! I can't imagine how painful it was to get level 20 on the whole party for this class, but I'll find out once I work up the courage to do it.
Honestly I've been waiting for this guide because I've wanted to know your take on staying power. Sad to hear it's not good. Keves support classes have slim pickings in terms of field master arts options at least with the classes I have unlocked.
By now you've almost definitely got it, but there's a class later on with the best field in the game as a master art, and it's an Agnus class. Another Agnus class later in the game also has two other really good support arts as master arts, so Keves support/healer classes eventually become WAY better than Agnus ones.
I really wish this class was better just so I actually had a reason to bring Juniper with me because she’s great (just ask Kite, he knows). Also I always found it really frustrating that an art called “rapid shot” has possibly the longest animation in the game.
Enel, you probably know this already, but if you're willing to wait 20-30s for Perilwing to fly over to the cliff area you can fight him on land where mobility and visibility is much less of an issue. This wastes some time and will lose you the water benefits but might be worth considering.
I know it's probably worse than Demolition because it doesn't pierce, but what about running Ether Cannon as a paired master art with Rapid Shot? Ether Cannon is the 3rd most powerful art in the game damage ratio-wise, and paired with Rapid Shot I'm pretty sure that's the most powerful fusion art combination that's not on Soulhacker.
@@premonitiative The extra damage ratio is probably less impactful than the defense anul for most of the superbosses, but its not the worst idea on paper.
as stated, the annul defense is definitely going to make demolition stronger, but ether cannon can be useful to at least attempt to apply the accuracy down debuff, which could potentially be helpful for the class itsself and can synergize well with the evasion art too, on top of the things you mentioned, like the high ratio
Thanks for the guide! I saw a thumbnail for a video yesterday calling stalker op. I knew it wasn't the case glad I ignored that and waited for your guide. Keep up the good work please!
I'll be honest I actually prefer night hunt to rapid shot. With how slow it is and the class not beingt strong anyway I find the speed of not using rapid shot more fun to play
I've found that stalker works well in chain attacks purely for damage-dealing purposes. In the second round, I had rapid shot do about 30 percent of the enemy health bar in damage.
Refreshing Rain may not be the most useful talent art but hot dang does the animation make a good impression. Easily one of the highest range arts in the entire game and in a game with less versatile projectiles it could be quite useful. Sadly, Stalker Lacks the versatility of the various other ranged classes, but at least its not as bad as Tactician in most respects. I also wish its master arts were better because Art follow-up is a pretty meh field and it would be nice to have more Master Art fields
Funny thing is when I did the Agnian Portion of the Final Boss, on the Second Time I used Mio's Talent Art, the follow up was from Juniper(the First was from Miyabi) Refreshing Rain was what ended up finishing the Phase
So while I gave up on machine assassin (so fucking sad) I found two things to help with debuffs. Triggering taions oroborus in the beginning of a fight will let you stack a few debuffs right off the bat. And when you use Noah's sword of the end oroborus talent art, you will usually trigger All down which seems to make debuffs easier to land. But it is really hard to keep these up even with two machine assassins and sagiri increasing debuff duration.
5:31 Huh, I always wondered what "Art Follow-Up" meant, when "Art Recharge" is already a thing; guess I know now. Though, I still don't quite know what the distinction is between "Armour Veil" and "Defence Up"...
That's interesting I've been using Art Follow Up field constantly around my party characters so everyone just pelts the enemy with twice the attacks. I guess later on everyone's damage and setups will far outweigh the damage the follow up does, but it's been nice so far.
I think the issue with Art Follow Up is that it's an aura effect on a class that stays away from the rest of the party. I used it as a Master Art on a melee class and it boosted its usefulness significantly.
Great video, I like the class despite it being kinda ass, but i'll probably stop using it after I finish leveling up all classes on all characters. BTW, really looking foward to Royal Summoner guide, probably one of the dps I'll run even if it's not super good since I love it's aesthetic. Don't have a clue how to build it tho lol.
I'm still really confused as to why they made so many classes reliant on debuffs, and also made debuffs really hard to apply. It's not even like debuffs are particularly powerful when they are applied anyway.
My preferred use for this is actually on Mio in teams focused around stuff that boosts recharge time when non-defenders are targeted. Since this class comes with an evasion art, an evasion skill, and the highest (I think?) agility of any attacker class, it's really good at avoiding attacks, and Mio as a stalker can actually function as a pretty solid evasion tank. Add on stuff like Protector's Pride, Fraternal Badge, and some support from a Troubadour, and as long as you don't have an actual defender in your party, your arts will recharge really quickly. Only issue is that stupid Serene Heart skill. Everything else about this class makes it seem like it was made for this strategy, and then Monolith had to throw in an aggro down skill.
it's funny because if you want an ether attacker that can work as suedo-tank with high evasion and strong positionals with increased damage to low hp enemies you can just use full metal jaguar. the only thing this class has is staying power (which is bad) and bleed (which hopefully gets patched to have a higher chance of occuring)
@@sawyerthe4561 No need to run Wide Slash, it already has a dodge art, so there's your 3 dodge fusions. And Wide Slash's low crit rate can be a hinderance, especially with Frenzied Combo procs.
@@ianluk6385 I took to the habit of fusing Ring o’ roses with QuickDraw for my fmj builds. That way all my evasion arts can recharge fast and I can gan access to near invincibility
sadly pair of guns > bow in this game specially if you are looking for an ether attacker. grumpy old gunner beats cute, potato expert, forest colony leader.
So, I've been trying to figure out how to use the "flow" system, and I think I can see what it was revealed with stalker. It's not that the class "wants" to attack from the back. It's that the class wants back attack buff> bleed attack~to side for side attack which will hit harder if bleed stuck. At least from what I've been doing. It's been hitting pretty hard for me.
I've watched so many of these guides that the phrase "you probably won't be taking aggro anyway" sounds like the most cutting, passive aggressive insult ever
I want to speedrun this game, and I feel like Stalker might be pretty good for an any% category. Also was one of my personal favorite classes to use my first play through
@@AlexaRobin21 Not exactly since the skill Capable Hands can be put on any class. I have it on my Swordfighter Noah. Any regular or Elite monsters are destroyed.
I feel like one of the legacy of the 7 rings should have been a reduce enemy debuff resistance by 80 percent or 50% chance to bypass debuff resistance or something, cause I would like that, and definitely don’t need this 20 TP ring…
"One of the weaker dps classes." I would jokingly say this class relies on a tick system in a game were DoTs kinda just don't work. I do wish DoTs were more viable in this game.
in favor of Evasion Expertise, aside from the Arduns Rampage, I see that all Random AOE attack from the enemies are Ranged, so it is somewhat usefull in those specific situation also, if In Cold Blood worked on debuffs other than bleed, like Toxic or Blaze, even if it didnt stack, it would be better, because thanks to Royal Summoner, I found the only Debuff that seem to not have resistance, since it allways sticks when it hits, is Toxic, so giving Summon Elemental in the kit would be really helpfull in case someone doesnt know, Summon Elemental cast 2 elementals, and if you summon again, the olred ones get inmediatly cast as attacks, tough I do wonder what the element buffs are, since it mentions them giving buffs
Stalker is such a let down for me as someone who prefers Bows in RPGS. It just feels really clunky but at least it looks cool! Awesome video as always though mate! I really enjoy these and they have really helped me!
I found this on the wiki: Art Follow-Up's bonus damage bypasses Z's damage reduction skill while it is active, making it an effective method of speeding up the first phase.
The saddest thing about this is that while this class works so hard to get 450k, Seraph gets 450k easily while missing some of the additive damage sources
I found this on the wiki: Art Follow-Up's bonus damage bypasses Z's damage reduction skill while it is active, making it an effective method of speeding up the first phase.
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finally I can learn to stalk properly
Unfortunately for Juniper, Kite is probably gonna flip the script and the stalker is gonna become stalked, lol.
What's funny is that I just unlocked this class today, and was thinking of pairing it with yumsmith. Also, he mentioned it possibly being one of the weaker attackers, but the description when you unlock it flat out tells you such
I mastered that art long ago.
I’m gonna be a great stalker. They’ll all fear me.
Me when I first unlocked this class on Noah: Oops, I "accidentally" spent Silver Nopon Coins to level this up to max. Guess I won't be using it to level it up and unlock it on other characters.
On another note, Juniper funny chain attack 360 noscope art animation go whee.
How do you use no pon coins to level up
@@artifice4723 Press Y on the class selection screen.
@@nerdycatlover8627 tsym
LIBERATION ARROW
You know, eventually
It's a shame how many interesting classes are really hurt by the debuff issue, it's such a common issue with JRPG's to make debuffs insanely hard to pin if not impossible, but it's one of the coolest ideas for classes and playstyles.
I feel like higher difficulty's should lower the effect or timer on debuffs as opposed to make them more resistant, it's def something I'm lowering when custom difficulty comes out if it's an option.
Why do the enemies even need so much debuff resistance, though?
its why I love it when a JRPG lets the status classes actually work. Etrian Odyssey being a great example.
It's always the problem with buffs and debuffs, they tend to be very broken so they are hard to balance. Like the old SMT games let you just permanently buff/debuff stats making it nearly required for some fights.
@@nahte123456 we don't need to go to a whole other franchise to explain it just look at Signifier
@@srlopez875 True but I was trying to use how debuffs could get out of control, not how good buffs are.
Remember when bleed/poison/chill/blaze applied 100% of the time if the attack hit in XB1? Good times.
Riki always worked in XC1.
Blade combos always worked in XC2
This is the first time Monolith has decided enemies can just say "no" to taking damage over time.
Melia’s DoT was so satisfying. Just sit there, wave your stick, and wait for them to die in a few seconds 😌
Ok so, after a lot of testing in one of the discords im in its basically been datamined that shackle ring's "art boost" effect increases debuff chance a pretty significant amount. Tie that in with taions ouroboros skill that lowers enemy debuff resist work on the whole party like an aura and some people have been able to get things like machine assassin up and running quite well. I dont imagine it would be some kind of revolution but im sure it would also make stalker a bit more viable in the long term, just food for thought.
But you have to remember that lowering debuff resist can be resisted or even negated
@@omegagoober513 He's referring to an item that allegedly reduces enemy debuff resistance, not the "resistance down" debuff.
@@viciousclam2417 Correct, it acts as a multiplicative bonus with things like sappy sappy drain and taions ouroboros skill, so it wont ever completley negate resistances, but ive seen a guy who REALLY liked machine assassin get like 3 def down procs on a set that used no love lost using shackle ring on the 200 lvl superboss so id say im a believer.
Which discord is this by the way. I’m looking to learn more about the tools utilized for data-mining xenoblade games to hopefully build some tools for assisting with build crafting, but I’m having trouble finding a starting point.
Is the goal to use an art before the debuff art? Or does shackle ring empower all of your arts based on how many you've used in the battle so far?
When all the class guides are done, it'd be fun to see your thoughts on themed team builds. I know debuffs are the weakest at large but I'd like seeing how you'd approach making it work
I feel like the only good debuffing move is no love lost just because it hits 4 times so 4 chances to get through the debuff resist
I'd like to see a vanilla team comp, how one might build a team of every character in their base class.
@@Orih9 half of the party (Noah, Mio, Sena) does their role best or close in their base class anyway. It would mainly be a guide on making Lanz and Taion not bad.
@@emc246 Taion's pretty easy thanks to Glittering Melody, Lanz is a lost cause though unfortunately
@@shinnemort4271 Well, if you control Lanz, he’s still at least serviceable.
Debuffs would have been WAY more useful if sappy sappy drain was 50% instead of 25. Having it be a coin flip would make it much more bearable.
I'm really confused as to why they made so many classes reliant on debuffs and also made debuffs really hard to apply. And it's not like debuffs are particularly powerful when they are applied, so it makes even less sense
The handsome man has returned from his break and I believe I speak for everyone when I say glad to see him back. Shame the first time we get to use a bow in Xenoblade it kinda sucks.
Hey akhos was a bow sometimes \s
@@meisterschwert mfw my bow turns into an axe
Dang, should have toppled him before he got out of break
And from our cute cat enby no less. 😔
Even when the battle is over, Juniper still has the spirit to finish liberation arrow.
The first time I saw her 360 noscope someone's ass in a chain attack I had to pause from how hard I was laughing. Monolith please
One time I decided to run like 3 stalkers all equipped with accessories to increase bleed damage and damage to bleeding enemies, just for kicks. Also had a couple machine assassins for debuff support. Which now has me thinking about Cursed Edge on Stalker, even if just for meme builds.
Anyway, the result was absolutely hilarious. UMs and consuls alike were shredded mercilessly. Suboptimal, but so worth it.
i'm currently running a funny build with no defenders
- load soulhackers with defensive arts, skills, and gems, but keep strike soul
- get rid of all defenders
- give everyone fraternal badge and zeon's class skill, forgot what it was called
- terrible defense but everyone has 80% art recharge boost. a lot of fun but not built for serious battle
@@cobindaugherty1445 i have evolved this strategy even further beyond:
one healing soulhacker who has the crit rate up + crit bonus up arts and aoe power charge set for chain attack and what have you, the skill that increases revive speed per downed ally, but most importantly, damage share, meaning they will always throw damage to someone else at low hp to ensure they always live to keep rezing
(valdi is there as well because hes the only hero who has a fast revive gem)
four burst damage soulhackers all equipped for decent damage output with the transient bond power charge into elimination beam art setup (accounting for combo arts sprinkled in, break monkey getting a break item and the one with smash having saturni rings etc), with the skills that fully recharge all their arts when someone dies and gives them 4 random buffs each when someone dies
and finally, one, brave, valiant sacrificial strike souler who has as little hp as possible and as much aggro as possible, a nopon doll to keep aggro upon death, with the skill that fully heals all living allies upon death
no matter what, the healer soulhacker should be unkillable as long as they dont get one shot early or doomed, and the ai can keep up with the revival duty well enough, so you can simply control one of the burst damage ones, unload your three fusion arts, die, switch to the next, unload, and so on. theoretically, the damage output is just insane because the four burst soulhackers have basically all of their equipment suited to damage other than like 2 or three skills and gems that could have been more crit bonus or what have you, and you get a full fusion art unload on FOUR PEOPLE about every two seconds when the monster gets up to killing speed, you dont EVEN need things like fraternal badges and fast recharge time. ironically, the only thing about this setup is that fighting enemies with LESS dps hinders you because not ENOUGH people will be dying.
really the one thing you have to watch out for is if the ai controlling the sacrificial character(Sena the Undying in my case) wanders to the enemies back and dies really far away for some reason, you might start to lose revival momentum due to the healer having to cross timezones to go back and forth
It's very ironic that "Rapid" Shot has such a painfully slow art animation.
Finally, I can learn what Arts Follow-Up does!
It also stacks with itself which is kinna ok? I misread the skill and ran 6 FMJs with 4 of them running Art Follow Up. I couldn’t tell if the stacked damage was helping much.
The JP name for this class is genkyūshi 幻弓士 which can be translated as "phantom archer," I don't know what possessed the localization team to translate it as Stalker. But no I'm not adding fuel to the Juniper/Yuzuriha debate lol.
I actually like Stalker, it’s a weird choice but it sounds more threatening than Hunter or Archer, which are more basic JRPG class names. It seems like they really wanted to avoid those for the most part. And at least “Phantom Archer” is somewhat kept by Juniper’s title “Ghostbow”
Also I really like Juniper as a localized name, it sounds vaguely similar and pretty
If the Wave 3 DLC character really does have a Kevesi Smash Art, I can see how it could combo well with Landslide or Rapid Shot for huge Smash Chain Attack damage. I'm really looking forward to seeing how that will work
6:15 I lowkey find it really funny that the art named "Rapid shot" is probably one kf thr slowest arts in the game
Mwambites unite! If we have a class as powerful as this, then surely we can get Monolith to give us Sharpshooter!
Quick Reference
Stalker
Skills: 1:10
Sappy-Sappy Drain!
Critical Strike
Eye for Weak Points
Arts: 4:22
Rapid Shot/Demolition
Driving Arrow/Hidden Thorn
Landslide/Cross Impact
Gems: 8:40
Steelcleaver
Analyze Weakness
Empowered Combo
Accessories: 9:35
Saturni Rings/Boost Attack
Warped Black Brooch/Ignore Ether Def
Silver Braided Belt/Damage when Bleed
Class Guide Stalker - “Don’t play stalker. The end”
Me who likes Juniper. :(
Sharla guide be like:
I’m going to do it anyway
@@SpeedDemonPowerage98 it's ok to like juniper kite does
Just don't like her class
@@KudaGeatsune3821 *their
Just having Juniper slowly turning in the middle of a chain attack makes them (and the class) S-tier enough in my book!
Thats either a glitch or the funniest thing i have ever seen
@@DarknessXER it's just a weird animation
it's horrible and ruins the pace of the battle.
@@LBCAndrew I know it's like now watch this elegant two minute shot from an archery competition.
Juniper when you have buffs and Stasis: Give me a minute i got 360 no scope this ferret
I've said it before, but I always find it a huge shame when RPGs just completely stomp out your debuff options by making them completely or borderline useless in fights against anything other than normal enemies. Like, I get that debuffs in some games can be crazy strong, but at least find a way to balance them so they're not just overpowered, rather than the "solution" simply being to make them actually useless.
Bravely Default is one of the only games I can think of where pretty much all your different buffs/debuffs/statuses can affect bosses and big fights just as much as common mobs.
In Final Fantasy XII theres a whole class around debuffing and it works on all of the enemies. It's very strong too.
When I first saw the class system of this game, I was reminded of Bravely Default, one of my favorite games of all time
When I first saw Bleed, the accessories that increase damage to enemies suffering it, and eventually this class, I was reminded of Dragalia Lost, my favorite and the best mobile game I've ever played (which has EoS later this year)
So my first instinct was that this class would be busted
Then I remembered how debuffs are treated
And then I tried it out
It was very disappointing
Monolith said no punisher meta
I mean, Juniper at least let's us cancel arts into arts, that's something right?
Welcome back Enel! Hope you got some well deserved rest.
Picking Juniper in a chain attack be like...
...
...
...Liberation Arrow!
The slowest 360 No Scope ever
I feel like this class does super well in the later stages of a chain attack, but maybe I'm crazy.
Shout out to Welsh Catgirls
Gotta be one of my favorite Genders
This was one of my favorite classes during my playthrough, I liked the idea of stacking damage buffs for launch and spamming the launch damage art. I only managed to get bleed and launch to work like once but it instakilled the unique monster when I did it and solidified me thinking it was one of the stronger classes.
Less strong class, more strong setup. Even as bad as stalker is, you can see how much power you can get out of properly stacking multiplicative damage buffs.
For anyone wondering the staying power and final boss thing, here's what I found on the wiki: Art Follow-Up's bonus damage bypasses Z's damage reduction skill while it is active, making it an effective method of speeding up the first phase.
The bleed debuff running out at the last second before the final atack of the chain atack (just as the super long animation ends) is for some reason super funny to me
Also noticed that. Could have probably done damage cap on the main art and 2.5M on the master art of the bleed effect was still up, but I digress if it applied it as I suspect some action bonuses (other than combos) may take place as the art starts
When the ingame description of an attacker class says it deals low damage, it's not a good sign.
Hey Enel! Just want to point out the bleed seems to wear off JUST as you hit that final chain attack with Noah (before the Ouroboros finisher) so I'm not sure it actually applied the bleed bonuses. You can see it just as 16:30 hits
Welcome back. Thank you soo much for these guides. I know a lot of work goes into them.
When you're done with class guides I would definitely appreciate a video on what you think is the best Ultimate party of 6.
Juniper is Juniper. Juniper is cool, Juniper is fun, Juniper's class is unfortunately ass
I came into the game thinking Juniper would be my favorite class, turns out she's pretty bad. ;(
I still like her character though! I can't imagine how painful it was to get level 20 on the whole party for this class, but I'll find out once I work up the courage to do it.
Let’s go enel upload great video enel keep it up on chapter six gotta say chapter five was incredible so far my favorite
Honestly I've been waiting for this guide because I've wanted to know your take on staying power.
Sad to hear it's not good. Keves support classes have slim pickings in terms of field master arts options at least with the classes I have unlocked.
I'm watching just just to figure out what Staying Power even DOES. I don't thing the game exer explains what "Arts Follow-Up" means.
By now you've almost definitely got it, but there's a class later on with the best field in the game as a master art, and it's an Agnus class. Another Agnus class later in the game also has two other really good support arts as master arts, so Keves support/healer classes eventually become WAY better than Agnus ones.
I really wish this class was better just so I actually had a reason to bring Juniper with me because she’s great (just ask Kite, he knows).
Also I always found it really frustrating that an art called “rapid shot” has possibly the longest animation in the game.
They’re*
It really is unfortunate that her class is so bad
Juniper is non-binary they/them character lol (actually confirmed via data files plus game uses they/them pronouns).
@@SilverwingedBat I know
@@SilverwingedBat OK that’s cool but I haven’t datamined the game so please excuse the misuse of pronouns. Now I know.
For a class with "swift death", the length of the art animations is just ridiculous. I always found it funny that "rapid shot" was still so slow.
Looking forward to making this class actually good when custom difficulty comes out
Enel, you probably know this already, but if you're willing to wait 20-30s for Perilwing to fly over to the cliff area you can fight him on land where mobility and visibility is much less of an issue. This wastes some time and will lose you the water benefits but might be worth considering.
What are the water benefits?
@@alfredohdz9087 Shell Necklace boosts your recharge speed in water by 25%. Probably not worth using over other accessories, but it is a thing.
@@BackpackBanjo oh got it, thank you
I know it's probably worse than Demolition because it doesn't pierce, but what about running Ether Cannon as a paired master art with Rapid Shot? Ether Cannon is the 3rd most powerful art in the game damage ratio-wise, and paired with Rapid Shot I'm pretty sure that's the most powerful fusion art combination that's not on Soulhacker.
demolition do aoe tho
@@beanpole_brando Not really relevant against superbosses tho
@@premonitiative The extra damage ratio is probably less impactful than the defense anul for most of the superbosses, but its not the worst idea on paper.
"50% chance to ignore defense" more than make up for the difference in power multiplier between the two arts.
as stated, the annul defense is definitely going to make demolition stronger, but ether cannon can be useful to at least attempt to apply the accuracy down debuff, which could potentially be helpful for the class itsself and can synergize well with the evasion art too, on top of the things you mentioned, like the high ratio
Thanks for the guide! I saw a thumbnail for a video yesterday calling stalker op. I knew it wasn't the case glad I ignored that and waited for your guide. Keep up the good work please!
I'll be honest I actually prefer night hunt to rapid shot. With how slow it is and the class not beingt strong anyway I find the speed of not using rapid shot more fun to play
Yus, new guide finally man, been really excited for this. Love you man, you're the goat in the xb community❤
I've found that stalker works well in chain attacks purely for damage-dealing purposes. In the second round, I had rapid shot do about 30 percent of the enemy health bar in damage.
i like the #seraph in the description
Refreshing Rain may not be the most useful talent art but hot dang does the animation make a good impression. Easily one of the highest range arts in the entire game and in a game with less versatile projectiles it could be quite useful. Sadly, Stalker Lacks the versatility of the various other ranged classes, but at least its not as bad as Tactician in most respects. I also wish its master arts were better because Art follow-up is a pretty meh field and it would be nice to have more Master Art fields
Funny thing is when I did the Agnian Portion of the Final Boss, on the Second Time I used Mio's Talent Art, the follow up was from Juniper(the First was from Miyabi) Refreshing Rain was what ended up finishing the Phase
I really hate how long some of the animations for this class can last
The cutscenes really made Juniper a real badass
Thanks Enel, always look forward to your video’s.
i love these videos cause it really helps improve the way I play and how much i enjoy it. Cant wait for the machine assassin video
So while I gave up on machine assassin (so fucking sad) I found two things to help with debuffs. Triggering taions oroborus in the beginning of a fight will let you stack a few debuffs right off the bat. And when you use Noah's sword of the end oroborus talent art, you will usually trigger All down which seems to make debuffs easier to land. But it is really hard to keep these up even with two machine assassins and sagiri increasing debuff duration.
5:31 Huh, I always wondered what "Art Follow-Up" meant, when "Art Recharge" is already a thing; guess I know now.
Though, I still don't quite know what the distinction is between "Armour Veil" and "Defence Up"...
i love how you absolutely carry xeno content like Atlas and the globe.
Pros and Cons of Stalker
Pro: Juniper
Cons: Using it
That's interesting I've been using Art Follow Up field constantly around my party characters so everyone just pelts the enemy with twice the attacks. I guess later on everyone's damage and setups will far outweigh the damage the follow up does, but it's been nice so far.
I think the issue with Art Follow Up is that it's an aura effect on a class that stays away from the rest of the party. I used it as a Master Art on a melee class and it boosted its usefulness significantly.
The fact that Ranged Expertise is only 50%... they learned from Brighid.
Great video, I like the class despite it being kinda ass, but i'll probably stop using it after I finish leveling up all classes on all characters. BTW, really looking foward to Royal Summoner guide, probably one of the dps I'll run even if it's not super good since I love it's aesthetic. Don't have a clue how to build it tho lol.
OMG the opening got me
made my day
I like Night Hunt on FMJ to pair with Fatal Barrage / keep aggro further under control instead of / in addition to Dead Set. Thanks, master arts!
I'm still really confused as to why they made so many classes reliant on debuffs, and also made debuffs really hard to apply. It's not even like debuffs are particularly powerful when they are applied anyway.
Funny thing is, the japanese name for the class is actually really cool (Phantom Archer)
My preferred use for this is actually on Mio in teams focused around stuff that boosts recharge time when non-defenders are targeted. Since this class comes with an evasion art, an evasion skill, and the highest (I think?) agility of any attacker class, it's really good at avoiding attacks, and Mio as a stalker can actually function as a pretty solid evasion tank. Add on stuff like Protector's Pride, Fraternal Badge, and some support from a Troubadour, and as long as you don't have an actual defender in your party, your arts will recharge really quickly. Only issue is that stupid Serene Heart skill. Everything else about this class makes it seem like it was made for this strategy, and then Monolith had to throw in an aggro down skill.
it's funny because if you want an ether attacker that can work as suedo-tank with high evasion and strong positionals with increased damage to low hp enemies you can just use full metal jaguar. the only thing this class has is staying power (which is bad) and bleed (which hopefully gets patched to have a higher chance of occuring)
@@sawyerthe4561 Yeah, while I still think this class has potential, I do think FMJ and Martial Artist can probably fill the role a lot better.
@@Eyewarp fmj more so because of you being able to equip wide slash, atrial slash, and jackal claw all on it
@@sawyerthe4561 No need to run Wide Slash, it already has a dodge art, so there's your 3 dodge fusions. And Wide Slash's low crit rate can be a hinderance, especially with Frenzied Combo procs.
@@ianluk6385 I took to the habit of fusing Ring o’ roses with QuickDraw for my fmj builds. That way all my evasion arts can recharge fast and I can gan access to near invincibility
Ngl I just realized yesterday that the little doo dads in their hair are Skulls and I love it. Epic guide as always Mr. E!
sadly pair of guns > bow in this game specially if you are looking for an ether attacker. grumpy old gunner beats cute, potato expert, forest colony leader.
FINALLY! The star is here. The great Hero: 2
Roc's best partner and Kite's love interest!
The entire kit is summarised well by that sentence : "Rapid Shot is kinda slow"
Congratulations for the video!
Really well done 👍
So, I've been trying to figure out how to use the "flow" system, and I think I can see what it was revealed with stalker. It's not that the class "wants" to attack from the back. It's that the class wants back attack buff> bleed attack~to side for side attack which will hit harder if bleed stuck. At least from what I've been doing. It's been hitting pretty hard for me.
I've watched so many of these guides that the phrase "you probably won't be taking aggro anyway" sounds like the most cutting, passive aggressive insult ever
Fighting Perilwing Ryuho before Chapter 5 (and exploring certain areas that warping to his grave unlocked) softlocked the game for me
Kinda wish they made the attack look cooler. If the effects on each attacks were more spectacular then that would be enough for me.
glad this one is here, it's one of my favourite classes to play
How to use Stalker: Use Nopon Coins on your Designated tanks to gain evasion from ranged attacks
I want to speedrun this game, and I feel like Stalker might be pretty good for an any% category. Also was one of my personal favorite classes to use my first play through
Flash Fencer is Amazing for Speedrunning. Stalker is not.
@@ChillstoneBlakeBlast The only class to spam Lucky 7, right?
@@AlexaRobin21 Not exactly since the skill Capable Hands can be put on any class. I have it on my Swordfighter Noah. Any regular or Elite monsters are destroyed.
Bleed damage bonus is so hard to use consistently that I just went and built around heavy Launch damage to stack with Landslide instead.
I'm using this advice to perfect my 4 stalker build.
I feel like one of the legacy of the 7 rings should have been a reduce enemy debuff resistance by 80 percent or 50% chance to bypass debuff resistance or something, cause I would like that, and definitely don’t need this 20 TP ring…
"Mom, can we get Akhos?
Mom: "We have Akhos at home."
Akhos at Home:
Juniper definitely is a cute looking character.
I didn't realize I was a stalker until now
"One of the weaker dps classes." I would jokingly say this class relies on a tick system in a game were DoTs kinda just don't work. I do wish DoTs were more viable in this game.
in favor of Evasion Expertise, aside from the Arduns Rampage, I see that all Random AOE attack from the enemies are Ranged, so it is somewhat usefull in those specific situation
also, if In Cold Blood worked on debuffs other than bleed, like Toxic or Blaze, even if it didnt stack, it would be better, because thanks to Royal Summoner, I found the only Debuff that seem to not have resistance, since it allways sticks when it hits, is Toxic, so giving Summon Elemental in the kit would be really helpfull
in case someone doesnt know, Summon Elemental cast 2 elementals, and if you summon again, the olred ones get inmediatly cast as attacks, tough I do wonder what the element buffs are, since it mentions them giving buffs
I just unlock this class/character and RUclips recommend this… makes me wonder if RUclips been watching me getting undress.. 🤨
Stalker is such a let down for me as someone who prefers Bows in RPGS. It just feels really clunky but at least it looks cool!
Awesome video as always though mate! I really enjoy these and they have really helped me!
What's the fun thing you can do with follow up in the final battle?
I found this on the wiki: Art Follow-Up's bonus damage bypasses Z's damage reduction skill while it is active, making it an effective method of speeding up the first phase.
I was waiting for this guide
I'm bummed this class is so weak, Juniper has such a cute design
these guides are so funny to me how hes like ONLY 5 million in one attack when my peak chain attack was 7 million
The saddest thing about this is that while this class works so hard to get 450k, Seraph gets 450k easily while missing some of the additive damage sources
How to use the stalker class
Step 1: Don't
it really is a shame the class is lack luster cuz I find it really fun to play as, it just feels good to me.
rapid shot being a super slow art must be the biggest joke of the class
The real way to use this class is to hit X, go to "characters", go to "class" and switch it to basically anything else
You know a class is bad when Enel is constantly saying "at the very least"
Rapid shot is ironically slow
You mentioned some niche funny use of staying power for the final boss? What is it?
I found this on the wiki: Art Follow-Up's bonus damage bypasses Z's damage reduction skill while it is active, making it an effective method of speeding up the first phase.
HES BACK
The class is called stalker because Juniper definitely have many.