User:Thurhame/Class Setups
This is a page dedicated to various class builds for a Dark Dawn party, inspired by Tanooki's class setups page. These builds assume the player has all of the Djinn collected, but can easily be scaled down simply by reducing the numbers and lowering the Tier. No names are given for Mars and Mercury adepts as it's easy to interchange between Tyrell and Eoleo or between Rief and Amiti.
Disclaimer: This is NOT every single combination in the game. These are only my personal opinions on what some of the better setups are, hence the reason it's part of my personal page.
No Tri-Elemental
This section deals with everyone in mono/dual classes. This has the benefit of maximizing versatility - simply give each adept a second element from the pool of ///////, with no secondary limitations.
Brute Force
- Matthew: Chaos Lord
- Mars: Chaos Lord
- Mars: Chaos Lord
- Sveta: Prime Beast/Savage Fiend
- Karis: Wizard
- Mercury: Wizard
- Mercury: Guru
- Himi: Protector
- includes 4 Wish and 4 Revive
There is only one great offensive class among the mono and dual classes: the Chaos Lord's 1.7 attack modifier is far superior to the 1.4/1.5 of the other warrior classes. This setup focuses on the Chaos Lord, attaining maximum attack strength while maintaining great healing and caster support. While it is a less boring build than Lost Age's 4-Chaos Lord 4-Wizard counterpart, it retains the same simple "warriors attack, casters heal" strategy, great for those who prefer a sledgehammer approach.
One noticeable drawback is a lack of good AoE Venus spells, but as the setup relies primarily on physical attacks and healing, this shouldn't be a big problem.
Mage Storm
- Matthew: Chaos Lord
- Mars: Chaos Lord
- Mars: Radiant
- Sveta: Prime Beast/Savage Fiend
- Karis: Wizard
- Mercury: Oracle
- Mercury: Guru
- Himi: War Adept
- includes 4 Wish and 3 Revive
This setup covers all four elements of AoE spells at the cost of some attack power. A similar result can be achieved by replacing the Guru with another Wizard to put Himi in the Diabolist class: AoE Gaia is replaced by the weaker AoE Toxic Grit and the stronger single-target Undead Might, while Dire Inferno is a slightly better version of the Guru's Pyroclasm.
Jupiter Power
- Matthew: War Adept
- Mars: Chaos Lord
- Mars: War Adept
- Sveta: Gladiator/Savage Fiend
- Karis: Wizard
- Mercury: Guru
- Mercury: Guru
- Himi: Protector
- includes 4 Wish and 3 Revive
The primary purpose for this setup is taking down Dark Dawn's many Jupiter-weak bosses, as the War Adepts' high PP allows for greater reliance on their attack psyenergy, the Jupiter-aligned Thunder Mine. The extra Jupiter power also boosts the strong Jupiter unleashes, such as Centurion, available to many top tier weapons.
However, that role is filled much better by tri-element class setups, as both Ronin and Master have better attack and stronger Jupiter-aligned attack psyenergies, without sacrificing much PP efficiency.
3 Tri-Elemental
Once the Tri-elemental classes are added, class setups become a lot more interesting, because the tri classes' odd djinn requirements mean that only a few combinations are viable. Figuring these out is one of the main reasons I created this page.
There are only two possible 3-tri setups: Ronin-Master-Master and Pure Mage-Dark Shaman-Dark Shaman. The Masters/Dark Shamans must be adepts of different elements.
Ronin Master Master
- Matthew: Master
- Mars: Ronin
- Mars: Master
- Sveta: Gladiator/Savage Fiend
- Karis: Wizard
- Mercury: Guru
- Mercury: Guru
- Himi: Protector
- includes 4 Wish and 2 Revive
This is essentially an upgrade of the Brute Force setup, with four strong attackers and four healers. All four fighters gain access to multiplier-based psyenergy in one of their elements, including the Ronin's 1.8 Quick Strike. The drawback is the relative lack of revive: During beastform, there is only one revive in the whole party (compare to Brute Force's four revives).
- Matthew: Ronin
- Himi: Master
- Mars: Master
- Mars: Chaos Lord
- Sveta: Gladiator/Savage Fiend
- Karis: Wizard
- Rief: Angel
- Amiti: Guru
- includes 3 Wish and 2 Revive
This setup uses Himi's ability to obtain Master to power a 5-warrior setup. However, this forces one of the Mercury adepts into their base class series.
Pure Mage Dark Shaman Dark Shaman
- Matthew: Chaos Lord
- Mars: Radiant
- Mars: Hero/Hull Reaver
- Sveta: Prime Beast/Savage Fiend
- Karis: Dark Shaman
- Mercury: Pure Mage
- Mercury: Dark Shaman
- Himi: Protector
- includes 3 Wish and 5 revive
Going to the Pure Mage side results in a rather lackluster offensive lineup, as the caster triples take most of the available Venus djinn. In addition, Dark Shamans lack the Wish series available to dual classes. Not recommended.
4 Tri-Elemental
Four tri classes must be split evenly; i.e. one class of each element group. Ronin and Pure Mage can be included or excluded, but you can't have one without the other.
Master Paladin Dark Shaman Warlock
- Matthew: Master
- Mars: Paladin
- Mars: Chaos Lord
- Sveta: Prime Beast/Savage Fiend
- Karis: Warlock
- Mercury: Dark Shaman
- Mercury: Guru
- Himi: Protector
- includes 3 Wish and 3 Revive
The primary purpose of this setup is to allow Matthew and his Sol Blade to take advantage of the Master's 1.7 attack multiplier. Unfortunately, it falls short of the Ronin Master Master setup in nearly every area.
Ronin Paladin Pure Mage Warlock
- Matthew: Paladin
- Mars: Ronin
- Mars: Chaos Lord
- Sveta: Prime Beast/Savage Fiend
- Karis: Warlock
- Mercury: Pure Mage
- Mercury: Guru
- Himi: Protector
- includes 4 Wish and 3 Revive
Not a bad setup; compared to Ronin Master Master, it knocks Matthew down a peg offensively to upgrade the Wizard for an extra revive. It's a trade off, and up to the player's preference.
6 Tri-Elemental
Again, there are two possible combinations of tri classes available. The difference is, in this case one is clearly better than the other: The tri class Mars and Mercury adepts can choose Master + Dark Shaman or Ronin + Pure Mage. I can't see any reason to choose the first over the second.
From this point on, Sveta is forced into a tri class, losing access to her Savage Fiend form. If you want full power from her beastform, stick to 3 or 4 tri class setups.
3x Ronin/Master 3x Pure Mage/Dark Shaman
- Matthew: Ronin
- Himi: Master
- Mars: Ronin
- Mars: Radiant
- Karis: Pure Mage
- Sveta: Dark Shaman
- Mercury: Pure Mage
- Mercury: Guru
- includes 4 Wish and 3 Revive
This setup includes more top-level classes than any other. Of course, a couple of adepts get stuck with the lackluster Radiant and Dark Shaman classes, so it's up to the player's preference whether it's worth taking this over one of the more rounded setups.
8 Tri-Elemental
This is basically two 4 tri groups put together, and the same limitations apply: There must be 2 Paladins and 2 Warlocks, while the remaining adepts come in Master/Dark Shaman and/or Ronin/Pure Mage pairs.
Ronin Master Pure Mage Dark Shaman
- Matthew: Master
- Mars: Ronin
- Mars: Paladin
- Karis: Warlock
- Sveta: Dark Shaman
- Mercury: Pure Mage
- Mercury: Warlock
- Himi: Paladin
- includes 3 Wish and 2 Revive
2 Ronin 2 Pure Mage
- Matthew: Paladin
- Mars: Ronin
- Mars: Ronin
- Karis: Warlock
- Sveta: Warlock
- Mercury: Pure Mage
- Mercury: Pure Mage
- Himi: Paladin
- includes 4 Wish and 2 Revive
Just like in the 4 tri setup, what you choose here will depend on whether you're willing to sacrifice a Pure Mage to put Matthew in the Master class.
While this is a good, high-power setup overall, it falls short of the mixed setups due to a lack of offensive depth.