I did not show it off in this video, but since the Holy Knight's entire Strong combo set deals Light damage you can enhance all of the moves with Essence of Light or Light Assist. Also, another reminder that one of Annette's random unique action buffs is Elemental Infusion. Annette gives herself Wind Infusion so even though she does not learn Essence of Wind, Annette still has a chance to enhance her Wind elemental moves.
Shock paralysis effect, paralysis intervine with enemies attack basicaly they couldnt swing there axe because the shock gets to them first stoping there attack animation. Which useless because enemies usually affected by this is just fodders.
The Asura and Flugel Class actions are considered Dark Magic and the Asura learns Dark Spikes via rank up. And if you're hurting for Dark magic, spec into Warlock/Dark Mage for easy access to a pretty diverse Dark Magic list. He can still cast them when classed into Asura and Flugel.
@@LAZERAK47V2 I’ve no idea why, but when testing Asura with the Essence of Dark skill, Shez’s moves were not enhanced. Clearly it’s possible, as The Sacred Spear shows it in the video, but did you do anything special to activate it?
@@hedgehogexe8357 Only his unique action benefits from it in asura class, the dash he does when you just press x. Its also a good combo extender after u finish a strong attack. Sadly his darkness tornado and any other strong attacks dont benefit from it. I recommend teaching him Hades which benefits from the essence skill and is the strongest dark spell in the game, dark spikes is also decent
Fun fact, Wind spells cannot be guarded against. This makes them great combo openers, since if you managed to proc Windtorn on initial cast, you can juggle the enemy for massive damage. This is really powerful on units like Petra, who naturally class into Trickster and can just hold the strong attack button with a fully charged class action bar to rip enemy commanders apart. Follow it up with a Warrior Special or Critical Rush and nothing beyond monsters should survive.
As someone whose doing a NG+ Maddening run for AG, I must say light attack healing is actually much more impactful than in easier modes. I didn’t realize how crazy it was early game how fast the enemies forced u to use vulneraries. Recall u don’t have the tactics academy upgrades til like chapter 6 so ur stuck with 2 uses. Healing arts and Priest/Bishop (and Mercedes) were very valuable to not get game overs. Priest/Bishop regaining large amounts of health on critical rushes was quite impressive. However, healing becomes less impactful as chapters go on as you focus on more aggressive strategies. From which point it’s nice to top off AI units. I can’t speak for non-NG+ runs
Flayn is one of the few units that work better as an Advanced Class as opposed to a Master Class (that being Bishop rather than Gremory) due to the interaction of her Unique Action Luminous Prayer and Essence of Light. She gets an attack speed increase which allows for more chances to proc her Unique Action... Its actually kinda crazy how quickly she can swarm the field with normal attacks and Light Orbs to send out lasers. Give her something like Exorcist's Tome for Resistance Breaker plus the Caduceus Staff and Flayn is able to basically solo entire maps on her own... I was honestly surprised at how fast she attacked the first time I used Bishop on her, considering how much faster she was than any other mage when attacking.
Indra's Arrow Holy knight flayn, like all magic users who learn essence of light, would still be stronger, but yes, bishop flayn is better than gremory flayn.
@@WickedBlondie At least until you run into a map filled with Mages, Dark Mages, and Priests like I did... Indra's Arrow doesn't have enough might, even fully upgraded, to deal enough damage to mages even with 2 levels of advantage on higher difficulties. And Dark Mage classes even have advantage against mounted units so you'd have to dismount if you wanna keep your advantage. First time I ever died was due to this and I'm lucky it was a Record Keeper battle. Resistance Breaker is basically a requirement for Flayn if you want to do damage to Tome users.
Reminder you can go back to old classes after getting a Master Class and have new moves/comboes, Mercenary actually has a whole moveset unlocked if you select it after getting a Master class
@@callmezeldaonemoartime actually its not based on getting master classes but on weapon rank a character has I know kinda same thing but subtly different
Always enjoy these videos because I'm overwhelmed by the amount of skills in this game haha. One day, I hope someone does a guide on the best 10-15 skills so that I know which classes to master.
Generally, it's best to focus on survivability and healing during early game chapters (due to only having 2 vulneraries) then gradually transition to aggressive damage dealing in mid- to late game chapters especially in Maddening mode.
Light's healing definitely isn't necessary for normal mode, but I think it could definitely be useful in harder difficulties. For example, I use lifeforce + impossible feat on Byleth to melt enemies, which also melts his health, and instead of spamming vulneraries I'll use a combination of the shield of seiros, and his strong 4 combo to very quickly replenish all my health, which I feel will probably become useful in maddening (currently running through hard mode)
One thing that I feel kind of sucks is that in a Gremory's normal attack chain, there are no natural Ice or Dark strong attacks. Meaning the female characters with Essence of Ice or Dark have to use combat arts to reap the full benefit. Also it's a crime that Lysithea of all people doesn't get Essence of Dark.
@@louly979 yeah its pretty dumb, everyone that was a default as a mage in the last game should definitely have the essence of something, they're the ones who benefit from it the most after all
@@louly979 yeah its pretty dumb, everyone that was a default as a mage in the last game should definitely have the essence of something, they're the ones who benefit from it the most after all
@@thats4thebirds its definitely less of a musou than this tho you gotta admit, much more of a focus on fighting many albeit weaker but still named shadows with affinities and weaknesses at the same time, as opposed to here its more so about the strongholds and bosses and such on top of the nameless hordes
I did [redacted]'s paralogue on hard (Lv. 110 enemies) with a Lv. 60 [redacted], and while I was far from getting the S rank, I won the battle because their light infused special heals for massive amounts because of the big damage it does in turn. That's about the only use I've gotten out of light magic healing, though. It feels very minimal elsewhere
Essence of Light is better used in a more offensive manner since it can be combo'd with faith to boost the amount you heal for. at least that is what I am able to tell while I am building my Constance Dancer right now
@@muchluck7981 yeah I mean doing any light based attack with it on is good, especially with Gremory into the class action, that beam is downright ridiculous when you have the essence of whatever on, you can literally drag people to you and follow up with a crit rush if their guard was broke at any point at all during it which it should after a second, plus doesn't the light infusion on an enemy just boost damage taken too? Seems like it should be one of the better ones to have if you ask me, but lightning is ridiculous too with certain moves... like my god Dimitri hits so hard with it lmao
@@SSlash I do agree but the gremory light beam attack requires you to match the element if I remember right to get the enhanced effect. Will need to play more gremory to figure that out. Any essence is better in general than without if you plan to use it a lot. Even the lords benefit from essences because their attacks become much bigger than you expect
@@muchluck7981 yeah you do gotta get to a point in the combo to do the one you want but I'm pretty sure for Gremory its either 1 or 3, maybe 4 but still stun them with whatever strongest combat art you have (bolganone for mercedes for example I guess) and then just get to work, shit can juggle multiple commanders at once
I made this reply for another user, but for anyone else who wants their main unit to teach spells and combat arts to adjutants, the requirements are as follows: #1: Both units must have at least C-rank support with each other #2: Both units must have A-rank proficiency with the weapon that the spell or combat art is associated with (A-rank tome proficiency for spells like Abraxas, other A-rank weapon proficiency for combat arts like lances for Dark Lance, etc.) #3: The main must have already leveled the spell or combat art up to level 3 before teaching it #4: The spell or combat art must be in the main unit's native movepool and it must not be something the adjutant unit can already learn by themselves #5: The spell or combat art must be something the main unit is allowed to teach (you will see if it is something they are allowed to teach if it has a speech bubble next to it) #6: The main unit must use the learnable spell or combat art in the middle of a mission while they have an adjutant unit assigned to them, and there is a random success rate that the adjutant unit will learn it each time the spell or combat art is used based on support level (0.4% for C-rank, 3% for B-rank, 8% for A-rank) Something to note is that certain character-exclusive spells and combat arts as well as all spells and combat arts granted by Heroes' Relics cannot be taught For example, if you want Shez to learn Hades Omega, it is recommended to have an A-rank support with either Monica, Lysithea, or Hapi, have one of those three assigned as the main unit while Shez is the adjutant unit, make sure that both the main unit (Monica, Lysithea, or Hapi) as well as Shez have an A-Rank in tome proficiency which you get by promotion through the tome-using classes and mastering them in some cases to increase your rank, make sure that either Monica, Lysithea, or Hapi has leveled Hades Omega up to level 3 before going into battle with Shez as their adjutant unit, and then repeatedly use Hades Omega in battle (not the mock battle which doesn't count). Since Shez does not have Hades Omega in their native movepool, they can learn Hades Omega from any of the three girls, but Shez will not in turn be able to teach Hades Omega to anyone else themselves. It is also recommended that whatever tome that Monica, Lysithea, or Hapi is using should have a high durability to be able to use Hades Omega a lot throughout the battle. Why I use Hades Omega as an example is that it is the only spell that counts as two elements: Darkness first and Fire next. Essence of Darkness and Essence of Fire both trigger for Hades Omega, making it something you can teach to units that learn Essence of Fire as well such as Lorenz or Byleth instead of only the ones that learn Essence of Darkness. Female Shez can also pick up Essence of Darkness in a new game run after Male Shez learns it so that she won't be left out (this applies to other gender-locked abilities for both Shez and Byleth in general).
So I’ve been giving all the lords their essence skills, but after watching this video, my understanding is that putting them through the warlock class line is kind of pointless since their unique ability acts like an essence skill. Not sure if I understood it correctly but thats how I understood your explanation
I find fiendish blow to still be worth using though. It appears in the top left corner of the screen where they show you what skills are being activated and it's being activated with every single attack since all the lords attacks are elemental.
Yes, that is my feeling unless I missed something. Getting Fiendish Blow might be worth using, but I have no idea if the chance to inflict statuses has a cap. You could still use the Essence skills if you overwrite the house leader's unique actions (via special accessories) so they aren't completely useless.
@@TheSacredSpear If I understood correctly, basically the essence skills will only work if the class by default has the appropriate elemental strong attacks? Combat arts are easier to understand. So if dimitri is high lord, essence of lightning won't ever trigger right? Despite his personal having all his attacks use electricity. Though it will trigger if hes a mage? I recall when I used him as a mage, it was always triggering when using the appropriate strong attack.
Yes, you can only enhance Strong Attacks with a default element from what I can tell. Edelgard's Emperor class does not seem to have innate Fire Strong Attacks, so they don't become enhanced with her own Fire Infusion or Essence of Fire. The Class Action is innately Fire though, hence it does get enhanced to a bigger version. I assume this is the same for Dimitri, but I did not test it. As for Claude his Class Action is technically Fire I think since it's a fire ball from his wyvern.
@@TheSacredSpearAh ok, thanks. Hmmm, so if dorothea has lightning assist and is paired with dimitri. Would all of his strong attacks for any class activate essence of lightning? How would that work for say dark knight where strong attacks basically go through different elements. Those would also have lightning as well mixed in and trigger essence of lightning? Or that can't apply to classes who already have different elements in their strong attacks?
Very cool and informative! I did not know that essence of darkness is locked to male shez but that makes sense... Sucks that female shez doesn't get any though :/
Male Shez is the only one who can LEARN it, however in NG+ if you swap shez's gender you still have access to all skills learnt and all gender neutral classes they've unlocked. Ideally you do your first playthrough as one gender mastering the gender locked classes (ie dark bishop/ war master for male Shez, Gremory/ falcon knight for female Shez)
Honestly, on harder difficulties light's healing feels super impactful. So much so, I honestly think I prefer Bishop to Gremory/Dark Bishop since all their attacks are light by default. It lets you get super aggressive and just spam magic with lifeforce and wild abandon on
@@Darkalanche Honestly, LInhardt's been one of my better mages in general. While I can't say how much damage the wind orbs add, more DPS is never a bad thing. Plus they keep firing while he's doing other things (Like healing or knocking windtorn enemies into the air so the wind orbs get a damage bonus) But really I think its his Wind and Excalibur spells that really help him shine, in conjunction with Essence of Wind (Haven't had quite as much luck with cutting gale, its nice but Wind and Excalibur are better). As far as I can tell wind magic can't be guarded against, so he's able to keep sweep a whole platoon of generals into the air and keep them there while shredding them to pieces with light attacks and wind orbs.
Question: Since they ready have abilities that add elements, is there a point to giving the essence abilities to the class leaders? (Essence of fire + solar prominence, for example)
As far as I could tell there is no extra benefits. Solar Prominence was already acting as Essence of Fire. However, you can overwrite Solar Prominence using Special Accessories so if Edelgard was using someone else's unique action then Essence of Fire will do something for her Fire moves.
In my experience with Dimitri and essence of lightning yeah it doesn't work with his basic attacks and stuff, but if you have him learn thunder rush or use him as a dark or holy knight with thoron he does put out some pretty stupid damage with it and fiendish blow, though he probably is still better off just using atrocity with crit boosts as his main source of damage
Worth noting as I found out to my disappointment, despite what the descriptions state, the Essence abilities don't help *everything* element-related, just specific things that seem very arbitrary at times. Some units' unique actions get boosted by their respective Essence abilities, some don't, and it really annoys me since some of them could be really fun (like Shamir, who gets Essence of Ice but it doesn't effect her passive to inflict ice damage when timing attacks). At the very least most elemental combat arts get some kind of range/damage bonus from the Essence no matter what, but it does limit some options.
Im pretty sure after a bit of testing its not random what's affected. Essence skills I believe affect all combat arts and spells, and any *unmodified* strong attacks that share an element. You mention Shamir with essence of ice not working with her passive, but curiously I found essence of fire actually did boost the bow knight's c6 (the spinning exploding arrow strong attack) likely because that class attack is default fire. This is also why essence skills do not work with the lords, since their attacks technically are not elemental by default as proven in the video with the merc whistle on edelgard. Tldr, it only works on unmodified elemental strong attacks making them good (imo) for Dark Knights, Gremory, Dark Bishop, and Mortal Savant.
Its sad that Marianne gets the Ice Assist, given its usually better having her just follow you around to have her ubique ability rain down snow orbs everywhere
No, I don’t think so, if you noticed, when using her class action, it sliced with two waves per slash, could be from fire assist but chances are that essence of fire would work the same since the base move is still a fire based move
It's kinda q shame how inconsistent essence abilities are. I spent a lot of time trying to get my shamir to learn the Ice one only for it to never activate when using her unique action
Same with Bernie's. I wish it made her ice field bigger, or something at least. It's only really useful if you're going to use her outside of the Archer line.
@@bluegallade yeah I don't think its misleading exactly, tho I was bummed to find out that like for Dimitri for example when his strong attacks technically trigger lightning damage sometimes that those instances didn't count for it
@@Megajmaster1000 "Shamir's strong attacks do become ice based" yes because of "Cold calculations" AKA her unique action and AGAIN unique actions are not affected by essence skills
wait is the reason as to why byleth's infusion skill last so short is because the devs thought we would use the merc whistle on the characters with the elemental infusion skills (that the 3 lords have) and give it to byleth? that way Byleth enlightened class becomes more viable??
So is there any point to using Essence of Fire on Byleth since he can already infuse his sword with fire? Also he has a skill that "increase elemental potency" for his unique classes' moves, is it good?
His class actions for his unique classes are garbage, you’re better of having consistent enhancements to your fire attacks, and if you put the time his other 2 elements, so I wouldn’t recommend mage knights ploy
Multi enhance how like, wind assist on someone as Claude's adjutant? Would that even make a difference for him or the other lords? Actually wait what happens if someone with an assist skill is the adjutant for one of the lords, does it overwrite it, combine both? Sorry if they mention that in the vid I haven't finished watching yet
For his normal combos and strong attacks yes, but if you want you can have him as dark/holy knight with thoron for some stupid damage, thunder rush is pretty good too
@@brawlfan9999 so long as it is a thunder based attack, then yes, but far as I can tell, its not like it makes the thunder effect of knocking people away like way stronger for something like paraselene or whatever else
@@SSlash I see, well, I suppose it's at least worth trying out, especially since he's gonna master Paladin anyways so it's just gonna be 1 master seal away from unlocking
I legitimately don't know what essence of wind does for claude. When he's proccing the like 5 skills that go off by just attacking turning the upper left of the screen into a mess essence of wind isn't one of them.
If you're talking about him in barbarossa, it doesn't do anything since barbarossa's attacks are non-elemental boosted with his personal to have wind, except maybe that dash attack that spawns small tornados, not sure on that one. Essence of wind won't do anything in general since dust-storm already boosts wind abilities
I wanna know shamir unique ability best way to use and monica unique ability i have stupid time to use these abilities...while they are not bad they are elemental like shamir change default regular hits to ice hits but i have very hard time using it and monicas ability is just so bad while they use them automatically much better when i use them and aiming to use their unique abilities its like very hard and they almost never use them when i use regular hits...i wish everyone would have abilities that have easy usages like dimitri,edelgard and claude and the abilities where just need to fill the gauge and abilities like felix ability where he just need to use skill and dodge
Essence skills seem niche at best to me. They mostly increase the area of effect of the affected attacks (and make them look cooler for sure) but I don't think they are worth making builds around or picking a class for and I am seeing a lot of people make this mistake. Fiendish Blow also seems very niche depending on elemental availability.
It varies per character. Essence of wind is great on Yuri and Linhardt but almost pointless on Claude and Petra unless you're using their one or two wind-based attacks. It's also good for the 2 lance-based wind attacks. Essence of Ice is great for Marianne but is worthless for bow units. Essence of Fire is particularly good for Byleth and dark mages if you know their combo strings or have bolganone which can trap enemies in a loop for a wide range. As far as anything else, it's just good to break through guard and have more AOE. Fimblevetr is comparatively bad with essence of ice but blizzard becomes really great to freeze a larger amount. Same for dark spikes and luna having a larger range while abraxas becomes a little awkward.
@@Zach984racer I agree they have their uses for wave clearing and just making it easier to land certain CAs/Spells but they don't give raw damage like some people think.
@@Zach984racer About Claude and Petra learning only one or two elemental based moves: all units in the game have the potential to learn combat arts & magic from other units as long as both of them have A-level supports and paired up as adjutants together. Then simply spam the move you want the other partner to learn during battle and the adjutant partner will eventually learn the combat art/magic.
I'm playing Maddening Mode and healing is kinda useless since you have a whole requirement of not taking damage for S Ranks. Yeah it's helpful to keep AI units Alive , But I've never had to rely much on it. If a Unit is hurt badly they use their vulnenaries or close green pots instead. I don't really get a chance to level up my healing Combat arts when I could be using the durability to break stun Gauges.
Darkness, same as male Shez so if you want to unlock their Essence skill you need to unlock it via Dark Mage which is gender locked to male. The good thing is that once the skill is unlocked it can be assigned to Shez regardless of gender on future NG+ cycles.
Female Shez gets Magic Attack Range+ from Gremory, and combined with Male's Essence of Darkness and the Range Master skill that both of them get...things can get pretty nutty in NG+.
@@traskth yeah, it should work the same way for Byleth and another spoiler character, just select the opposite gender in your second playthrough and you should be able to access all skills.
I did not show it off in this video, but since the Holy Knight's entire Strong combo set deals Light damage you can enhance all of the moves with Essence of Light or Light Assist. Also, another reminder that one of Annette's random unique action buffs is Elemental Infusion. Annette gives herself Wind Infusion so even though she does not learn Essence of Wind, Annette still has a chance to enhance her Wind elemental moves.
Yeah I thought that was the case. Basically means Holy Knight is really good for characters with Essence of Light.
Do you know ho to teach magic to adjutants
Shock paralysis effect, paralysis intervine with enemies attack basicaly they couldnt swing there axe because the shock gets to them first stoping there attack animation. Which useless because enemies usually affected by this is just fodders.
Annette gives everyone around her the essence skills????
By strong combo set you you mean just holding down X?
I really wish that Shez’s Asura class had moves that were classified as dark magic, I saw he had essence of darkness and was very hopeful it did.
He gets good dark magic spell from Dark Mage/Bishop and shadow blade from mastering thief. Mine runs Shadowblade and dark spikes.
The Asura and Flugel Class actions are considered Dark Magic and the Asura learns Dark Spikes via rank up.
And if you're hurting for Dark magic, spec into Warlock/Dark Mage for easy access to a pretty diverse Dark Magic list. He can still cast them when classed into Asura and Flugel.
@@LAZERAK47V2 I’ve no idea why, but when testing Asura with the Essence of Dark skill, Shez’s moves were not enhanced. Clearly it’s possible, as The Sacred Spear shows it in the video, but did you do anything special to activate it?
Wait he doesn’t?? That’s so weird bc it’s literally all purple lmao
@@hedgehogexe8357 Only his unique action benefits from it in asura class, the dash he does when you just press x. Its also a good combo extender after u finish a strong attack. Sadly his darkness tornado and any other strong attacks dont benefit from it. I recommend teaching him Hades which benefits from the essence skill and is the strongest dark spell in the game, dark spikes is also decent
Fun fact, Wind spells cannot be guarded against.
This makes them great combo openers, since if you managed to proc Windtorn on initial cast, you can juggle the enemy for massive damage.
This is really powerful on units like Petra, who naturally class into Trickster and can just hold the strong attack button with a fully charged class action bar to rip enemy commanders apart. Follow it up with a Warrior Special or Critical Rush and nothing beyond monsters should survive.
Oooooh that’s fun
As someone whose doing a NG+ Maddening run for AG, I must say light attack healing is actually much more impactful than in easier modes. I didn’t realize how crazy it was early game how fast the enemies forced u to use vulneraries. Recall u don’t have the tactics academy upgrades til like chapter 6 so ur stuck with 2 uses. Healing arts and Priest/Bishop (and Mercedes) were very valuable to not get game overs. Priest/Bishop regaining large amounts of health on critical rushes was quite impressive. However, healing becomes less impactful as chapters go on as you focus on more aggressive strategies. From which point it’s nice to top off AI units. I can’t speak for non-NG+ runs
Flayn is one of the few units that work better as an Advanced Class as opposed to a Master Class (that being Bishop rather than Gremory) due to the interaction of her Unique Action Luminous Prayer and Essence of Light. She gets an attack speed increase which allows for more chances to proc her Unique Action... Its actually kinda crazy how quickly she can swarm the field with normal attacks and Light Orbs to send out lasers. Give her something like Exorcist's Tome for Resistance Breaker plus the Caduceus Staff and Flayn is able to basically solo entire maps on her own...
I was honestly surprised at how fast she attacked the first time I used Bishop on her, considering how much faster she was than any other mage when attacking.
Indra's Arrow Holy knight flayn, like all magic users who learn essence of light, would still be stronger, but yes, bishop flayn is better than gremory flayn.
@@WickedBlondie At least until you run into a map filled with Mages, Dark Mages, and Priests like I did... Indra's Arrow doesn't have enough might, even fully upgraded, to deal enough damage to mages even with 2 levels of advantage on higher difficulties. And Dark Mage classes even have advantage against mounted units so you'd have to dismount if you wanna keep your advantage. First time I ever died was due to this and I'm lucky it was a Record Keeper battle.
Resistance Breaker is basically a requirement for Flayn if you want to do damage to Tome users.
Reminder you can go back to old classes after getting a Master Class and have new moves/comboes, Mercenary actually has a whole moveset unlocked if you select it after getting a Master class
@@callmezeldaonemoartime actually its not based on getting master classes
but on weapon rank a character has
I know kinda same thing but subtly different
@@Shirley4Vaga basically getting a master class
Always enjoy these videos because I'm overwhelmed by the amount of skills in this game haha. One day, I hope someone does a guide on the best 10-15 skills so that I know which classes to master.
Generally, it's best to focus on survivability and healing during early game chapters (due to only having 2 vulneraries) then gradually transition to aggressive damage dealing in mid- to late game chapters especially in Maddening mode.
Thanks for making these videos!! 🙏
It’s been hard to find good Three Hopes guides/informational vids on RUclips.
Light's healing definitely isn't necessary for normal mode, but I think it could definitely be useful in harder difficulties.
For example, I use lifeforce + impossible feat on Byleth to melt enemies, which also melts his health, and instead of spamming vulneraries I'll use a combination of the shield of seiros, and his strong 4 combo to very quickly replenish all my health, which I feel will probably become useful in maddening (currently running through hard mode)
One thing that I feel kind of sucks is that in a Gremory's normal attack chain, there are no natural Ice or Dark strong attacks. Meaning the female characters with Essence of Ice or Dark have to use combat arts to reap the full benefit. Also it's a crime that Lysithea of all people doesn't get Essence of Dark.
Gremory’s C2 is an Ice attack
@@dedragoon yeah and comboing that shit into the class action with Marianne is nuts lmao
I was outraged that Hapi and Lysithea didn't learn essence of darkness I thought fates ended sexism why they bring it back harder everytime
@@louly979 yeah its pretty dumb, everyone that was a default as a mage in the last game should definitely have the essence of something, they're the ones who benefit from it the most after all
@@louly979 yeah its pretty dumb, everyone that was a default as a mage in the last game should definitely have the essence of something, they're the ones who benefit from it the most after all
This is my first musou game (second if Persona Strikers counts) and the mechanical/build depth is surprisingly awesome
That definitely counts lol.
I was Impressed with both titles in how well they translated their unique gameplay systems to the musou genre.
@@thats4thebirds its definitely less of a musou than this tho you gotta admit, much more of a focus on fighting many albeit weaker but still named shadows with affinities and weaknesses at the same time, as opposed to here its more so about the strongholds and bosses and such on top of the nameless hordes
I did [redacted]'s paralogue on hard (Lv. 110 enemies) with a Lv. 60 [redacted], and while I was far from getting the S rank, I won the battle because their light infused special heals for massive amounts because of the big damage it does in turn. That's about the only use I've gotten out of light magic healing, though. It feels very minimal elsewhere
Essence of Light is better used in a more offensive manner since it can be combo'd with faith to boost the amount you heal for. at least that is what I am able to tell while I am building my Constance Dancer right now
@@muchluck7981 yeah I mean doing any light based attack with it on is good, especially with Gremory into the class action, that beam is downright ridiculous when you have the essence of whatever on, you can literally drag people to you and follow up with a crit rush if their guard was broke at any point at all during it which it should after a second, plus doesn't the light infusion on an enemy just boost damage taken too? Seems like it should be one of the better ones to have if you ask me, but lightning is ridiculous too with certain moves... like my god Dimitri hits so hard with it lmao
@@SSlash I do agree but the gremory light beam attack requires you to match the element if I remember right to get the enhanced effect. Will need to play more gremory to figure that out.
Any essence is better in general than without if you plan to use it a lot. Even the lords benefit from essences because their attacks become much bigger than you expect
@@muchluck7981 yeah you do gotta get to a point in the combo to do the one you want but I'm pretty sure for Gremory its either 1 or 3, maybe 4 but still stun them with whatever strongest combat art you have (bolganone for mercedes for example I guess) and then just get to work, shit can juggle multiple commanders at once
I made this reply for another user, but for anyone else who wants their main unit to teach spells and combat arts to adjutants, the requirements are as follows:
#1: Both units must have at least C-rank support with each other
#2: Both units must have A-rank proficiency with the weapon that the spell or combat art is associated with (A-rank tome proficiency for spells like Abraxas, other A-rank weapon proficiency for combat arts like lances for Dark Lance, etc.)
#3: The main must have already leveled the spell or combat art up to level 3 before teaching it
#4: The spell or combat art must be in the main unit's native movepool and it must not be something the adjutant unit can already learn by themselves
#5: The spell or combat art must be something the main unit is allowed to teach (you will see if it is something they are allowed to teach if it has a speech bubble next to it)
#6: The main unit must use the learnable spell or combat art in the middle of a mission while they have an adjutant unit assigned to them, and there is a random success rate that the adjutant unit will learn it each time the spell or combat art is used based on support level (0.4% for C-rank, 3% for B-rank, 8% for A-rank)
Something to note is that certain character-exclusive spells and combat arts as well as all spells and combat arts granted by Heroes' Relics cannot be taught
For example, if you want Shez to learn Hades Omega, it is recommended to have an A-rank support with either Monica, Lysithea, or Hapi, have one of those three assigned as the main unit while Shez is the adjutant unit, make sure that both the main unit (Monica, Lysithea, or Hapi) as well as Shez have an A-Rank in tome proficiency which you get by promotion through the tome-using classes and mastering them in some cases to increase your rank, make sure that either Monica, Lysithea, or Hapi has leveled Hades Omega up to level 3 before going into battle with Shez as their adjutant unit, and then repeatedly use Hades Omega in battle (not the mock battle which doesn't count). Since Shez does not have Hades Omega in their native movepool, they can learn Hades Omega from any of the three girls, but Shez will not in turn be able to teach Hades Omega to anyone else themselves. It is also recommended that whatever tome that Monica, Lysithea, or Hapi is using should have a high durability to be able to use Hades Omega a lot throughout the battle.
Why I use Hades Omega as an example is that it is the only spell that counts as two elements: Darkness first and Fire next. Essence of Darkness and Essence of Fire both trigger for Hades Omega, making it something you can teach to units that learn Essence of Fire as well such as Lorenz or Byleth instead of only the ones that learn Essence of Darkness. Female Shez can also pick up Essence of Darkness in a new game run after Male Shez learns it so that she won't be left out (this applies to other gender-locked abilities for both Shez and Byleth in general).
Could you make a video where you showcase all "Essence" spells clearly with differences?
thank you for making the guide :D, watching this makes me want to max gremory for bernadetta and marianne to get those ice assists
Thanks for all the testing you do!
Burn also increases Stun Gauge damage
This is exactly what i was looking for ! Amazing and very helpful video, thank you so much ! ❤❤❤
So I’ve been giving all the lords their essence skills, but after watching this video, my understanding is that putting them through the warlock class line is kind of pointless since their unique ability acts like an essence skill. Not sure if I understood it correctly but thats how I understood your explanation
I find fiendish blow to still be worth using though. It appears in the top left corner of the screen where they show you what skills are being activated and it's being activated with every single attack since all the lords attacks are elemental.
Yes, that is my feeling unless I missed something. Getting Fiendish Blow might be worth using, but I have no idea if the chance to inflict statuses has a cap. You could still use the Essence skills if you overwrite the house leader's unique actions (via special accessories) so they aren't completely useless.
@@TheSacredSpear If I understood correctly, basically the essence skills will only work if the class by default has the appropriate elemental strong attacks? Combat arts are easier to understand. So if dimitri is high lord, essence of lightning won't ever trigger right? Despite his personal having all his attacks use electricity. Though it will trigger if hes a mage? I recall when I used him as a mage, it was always triggering when using the appropriate strong attack.
Yes, you can only enhance Strong Attacks with a default element from what I can tell. Edelgard's Emperor class does not seem to have innate Fire Strong Attacks, so they don't become enhanced with her own Fire Infusion or Essence of Fire. The Class Action is innately Fire though, hence it does get enhanced to a bigger version. I assume this is the same for Dimitri, but I did not test it. As for Claude his Class Action is technically Fire I think since it's a fire ball from his wyvern.
@@TheSacredSpearAh ok, thanks. Hmmm, so if dorothea has lightning assist and is paired with dimitri. Would all of his strong attacks for any class activate essence of lightning? How would that work for say dark knight where strong attacks basically go through different elements. Those would also have lightning as well mixed in and trigger essence of lightning? Or that can't apply to classes who already have different elements in their strong attacks?
Makes sense they get certain assist skills which provides support with elements and combat arts
fire fusion seems so op damn
Very cool and informative! I did not know that essence of darkness is locked to male shez but that makes sense... Sucks that female shez doesn't get any though :/
Male Shez is the only one who can LEARN it, however in NG+ if you swap shez's gender you still have access to all skills learnt and all gender neutral classes they've unlocked.
Ideally you do your first playthrough as one gender mastering the gender locked classes (ie dark bishop/ war master for male Shez, Gremory/ falcon knight for female Shez)
@@bluegallade wait the only one? As in nobody else at all gets it? I woulda thought maybe Hubert or Lysithea for sure
@@SSlash "only one" as in the only "Shez-gender" sorry for misleading.
S(he)z, Hubert, jeritza and one other character learns the dark essence skill
For the stronger fire fiendish blow activated. Maybe that’s why it ticks more. Not sure but could be
Honestly, on harder difficulties light's healing feels super impactful. So much so, I honestly think I prefer Bishop to Gremory/Dark Bishop since all their attacks are light by default. It lets you get super aggressive and just spam magic with lifeforce and wild abandon on
Just a little question. Do you think Linhardt is good for maddening thanks to his ability to just spam light attacks for easy wind orbs?
@@Darkalanche Honestly, LInhardt's been one of my better mages in general. While I can't say how much damage the wind orbs add, more DPS is never a bad thing. Plus they keep firing while he's doing other things (Like healing or knocking windtorn enemies into the air so the wind orbs get a damage bonus)
But really I think its his Wind and Excalibur spells that really help him shine, in conjunction with Essence of Wind (Haven't had quite as much luck with cutting gale, its nice but Wind and Excalibur are better). As far as I can tell wind magic can't be guarded against, so he's able to keep sweep a whole platoon of generals into the air and keep them there while shredding them to pieces with light attacks and wind orbs.
Question: Since they ready have abilities that add elements, is there a point to giving the essence abilities to the class leaders? (Essence of fire + solar prominence, for example)
Their unique skills don’t proc essence skills, no. Only combat arts
As far as I could tell there is no extra benefits. Solar Prominence was already acting as Essence of Fire. However, you can overwrite Solar Prominence using Special Accessories so if Edelgard was using someone else's unique action then Essence of Fire will do something for her Fire moves.
In my experience with Dimitri and essence of lightning yeah it doesn't work with his basic attacks and stuff, but if you have him learn thunder rush or use him as a dark or holy knight with thoron he does put out some pretty stupid damage with it and fiendish blow, though he probably is still better off just using atrocity with crit boosts as his main source of damage
Worth noting as I found out to my disappointment, despite what the descriptions state, the Essence abilities don't help *everything* element-related, just specific things that seem very arbitrary at times. Some units' unique actions get boosted by their respective Essence abilities, some don't, and it really annoys me since some of them could be really fun (like Shamir, who gets Essence of Ice but it doesn't effect her passive to inflict ice damage when timing attacks). At the very least most elemental combat arts get some kind of range/damage bonus from the Essence no matter what, but it does limit some options.
Im pretty sure after a bit of testing its not random what's affected. Essence skills I believe affect all combat arts and spells, and any *unmodified* strong attacks that share an element.
You mention Shamir with essence of ice not working with her passive, but curiously I found essence of fire actually did boost the bow knight's c6 (the spinning exploding arrow strong attack) likely because that class attack is default fire.
This is also why essence skills do not work with the lords, since their attacks technically are not elemental by default as proven in the video with the merc whistle on edelgard.
Tldr, it only works on unmodified elemental strong attacks making them good (imo) for Dark Knights, Gremory, Dark Bishop, and Mortal Savant.
Bro imagine having use to Icesweep that would be freezing everyone 24/7
There are a few more statues like poisoned, and the weakened/strengthened states.
did you know not all strong attacks from the bishop line are affected by light essence
Its sad that Marianne gets the Ice Assist, given its usually better having her just follow you around to have her ubique ability rain down snow orbs everywhere
Nah, I made a Mortal Savant Shez with Dustcloud from Claude’s ability item.
I named Shez: “Samuel”
I made a literal Jetstream Sam.
Fight me.
Question: is stacking Edelgards personal ability with essence of fire redundant?
No, I don’t think so, if you noticed, when using her class action, it sliced with two waves per slash, could be from fire assist but chances are that essence of fire would work the same since the base move is still a fire based move
So the # of dark magic sigils created from the dark knight class will be 3 with the essence of darkness equipped?
It's kinda q shame how inconsistent essence abilities are. I spent a lot of time trying to get my shamir to learn the Ice one only for it to never activate when using her unique action
Same with Bernie's. I wish it made her ice field bigger, or something at least. It's only really useful if you're going to use her outside of the Archer line.
To be fair the skill description doesn't mention affecting 'unique actions' only "___-based combat arts, magic, strong attacks and class actions... "
@@bluegallade yeah I don't think its misleading exactly, tho I was bummed to find out that like for Dimitri for example when his strong attacks technically trigger lightning damage sometimes that those instances didn't count for it
@@bluegallade but Shamir's strong attacks do become ice based. Therefore essence of ice should activate.
@@Megajmaster1000 "Shamir's strong attacks do become ice based" yes because of "Cold calculations" AKA her unique action and AGAIN unique actions are not affected by essence skills
My character shez is so beyond busted as a mortal savant with Luna spell
Light element shock effect make easier break armor of enemys.
What are you playing on. Why does it look so smooth
wait is the reason as to why byleth's infusion skill last so short is because the devs thought we would use the merc whistle on the characters with the elemental infusion skills (that the 3 lords have) and give it to byleth? that way Byleth enlightened class becomes more viable??
Probably not, considering the only lord byleth actually benefits from us dimtri
So leveling Edelgard for essence of fire is completely useless then?(not counting the changing of abilities)
So is there any point to using Essence of Fire on Byleth since he can already infuse his sword with fire? Also he has a skill that "increase elemental potency" for his unique classes' moves, is it good?
His class actions for his unique classes are garbage, you’re better of having consistent enhancements to your fire attacks, and if you put the time his other 2 elements, so I wouldn’t recommend mage knights ploy
So even if there is no new animations for abilities beyond enhanced once, does it still do extra damage if you multi-enhance?
Multi enhance how like, wind assist on someone as Claude's adjutant? Would that even make a difference for him or the other lords? Actually wait what happens if someone with an assist skill is the adjutant for one of the lords, does it overwrite it, combine both?
Sorry if they mention that in the vid I haven't finished watching yet
how do you get the Sword of the Creator the nemesis one
My Constance is with essence of light but she doesn’t do the three beam from the Gremory class
You have to use the class action after one of the light strong attacks.
So, if I understood this correctly, giving Dimitri Lightning infusion wouldn't do anything, because his personal skill already gives him that effect?
For his normal combos and strong attacks yes, but if you want you can have him as dark/holy knight with thoron for some stupid damage, thunder rush is pretty good too
@@SSlash Ah, so it won't upgrade his regular attacks and combos, but it WILL upgrade his Combat Arts/Spells even further beyond?
@@brawlfan9999 so long as it is a thunder based attack, then yes, but far as I can tell, its not like it makes the thunder effect of knocking people away like way stronger for something like paraselene or whatever else
@@SSlash I see, well, I suppose it's at least worth trying out, especially since he's gonna master Paladin anyways so it's just gonna be 1 master seal away from unlocking
I legitimately don't know what essence of wind does for claude. When he's proccing the like 5 skills that go off by just attacking turning the upper left of the screen into a mess essence of wind isn't one of them.
If you're talking about him in barbarossa, it doesn't do anything since barbarossa's attacks are non-elemental boosted with his personal to have wind, except maybe that dash attack that spawns small tornados, not sure on that one. Essence of wind won't do anything in general since dust-storm already boosts wind abilities
@@Christopher-eq1rn Yeah it seems kinda weird to have an ability that is just an inferior version of his prf skill
I wanna know shamir unique ability best way to use and monica unique ability i have stupid time to use these abilities...while they are not bad they are elemental like shamir change default regular hits to ice hits but i have very hard time using it and monicas ability is just so bad while they use them automatically much better when i use them and aiming to use their unique abilities its like very hard and they almost never use them when i use regular hits...i wish everyone would have abilities that have easy usages like dimitri,edelgard and claude and the abilities where just need to fill the gauge and abilities like felix ability where he just need to use skill and dodge
Does anyone know if essence of fire and lightning work with Dedue and hilda's charging abilities?
Nope, personal skills are the only exception
Essence skills seem niche at best to me. They mostly increase the area of effect of the affected attacks (and make them look cooler for sure) but I don't think they are worth making builds around or picking a class for and I am seeing a lot of people make this mistake. Fiendish Blow also seems very niche depending on elemental availability.
It varies per character. Essence of wind is great on Yuri and Linhardt but almost pointless on Claude and Petra unless you're using their one or two wind-based attacks. It's also good for the 2 lance-based wind attacks. Essence of Ice is great for Marianne but is worthless for bow units. Essence of Fire is particularly good for Byleth and dark mages if you know their combo strings or have bolganone which can trap enemies in a loop for a wide range. As far as anything else, it's just good to break through guard and have more AOE. Fimblevetr is comparatively bad with essence of ice but blizzard becomes really great to freeze a larger amount. Same for dark spikes and luna having a larger range while abraxas becomes a little awkward.
@@Zach984racer I agree they have their uses for wave clearing and just making it easier to land certain CAs/Spells but they don't give raw damage like some people think.
@@Zach984racer About Claude and Petra learning only one or two elemental based moves: all units in the game have the potential to learn combat arts & magic from other units as long as both of them have A-level supports and paired up as adjutants together. Then simply spam the move you want the other partner to learn during battle and the adjutant partner will eventually learn the combat art/magic.
@@arch4609 ice makes the game easy no matter the difficulty
Wait, MShez gets an Essence but FShez doesn’t? That’s kinda wack
I'm playing Maddening Mode and healing is kinda useless since you have a whole requirement of not taking damage for S Ranks. Yeah it's helpful to keep AI units Alive , But I've never had to rely much on it. If a Unit is hurt badly they use their vulnenaries or close green pots instead. I don't really get a chance to level up my healing Combat arts when I could be using the durability to break stun Gauges.
Same here I’ve 0 mileage from healers through 3 playthroughs aside from the one time when shez attacks byleth
great guide! Anyone can tell me what's Ferdinand's ice attack at 0:15? I don't recognize it and it's not a combat art/spell.
Dark knight strong attack C5
I wonder about female shez elements is?
Darkness, same as male Shez so if you want to unlock their Essence skill you need to unlock it via Dark Mage which is gender locked to male. The good thing is that once the skill is unlocked it can be assigned to Shez regardless of gender on future NG+ cycles.
It's really foul how Male Shez gets essence of dark and Female Shez doesn't
I can confirm that if you gain the essence skill as male Shez, a NG+ female Shez will retain it, even though she cannot learn it herself
Female Shez gets Magic Attack Range+ from Gremory, and combined with Male's Essence of Darkness and the Range Master skill that both of them get...things can get pretty nutty in NG+.
@@UnlimitedMrX is there a similar combo with Byleth, since they are subject to the same gender selection that Shez is?
@@traskth yeah, it should work the same way for Byleth and another spoiler character, just select the opposite gender in your second playthrough and you should be able to access all skills.