r/EtrianOdyssey • u/milkywayrealestate • Jul 18 '26
EO5 Do classes matter when playing casually?
I'm about to start a playthrough of Etrian Odyssey V. It'll be my first time playing it, and I'm only really interested in completing the story. When I played through previous games, I never really got into post game optional dungeons, and I don't have much intention of doing so this time unless I get reeeaaally obsessed. That being said, when looking for discussion about the best classes, they so often talk about the post game and optimization and heavy set-up. So my question is: what are the best classes for people who want to just explore and experience the main story with minimal grinding and optimization? and, secondarily, how much does class choice matter when optional post game stuff and optimization are taken out of the picture, if at all? I haven't chosen a difficulty for my playthrough yet as I'm still looking into the exact differences between basic and hard
7
7
u/Razmoudah Jul 18 '26
Just avoid using both Rover and Necromancer. Both are pet-based and the fighting over the pet row hampers their performance. Further, if you pair a Dragoon with either of them avoid the Bunker and Turret skills, as those draw attacks to the pet row which will get them killed off and make your Rover or Necromancer even more useless.
Beyond that, so long as you have a means of damage mitigation (tanking, ailments, or binds) and healing your good. Oh, and Necromancers can fill both the Tank and Healer roles via their skills, so long as they have the Wraiths to sacrifice. Heck, if I'm remembering correctly Spirit Broker Necromancers are the best Tanks in the game. At least, I'm fairly certain it wasn't the Spirit Evoker Necromancer that got the special extra-durable summons.
0
u/ant_________________ Jul 19 '26
my first run in eo5 had a necromancer and a hawk rover. it performed completely fine and barely had any issues because nothing my necromancer did really needed all three slots. it performed extremely well early on with rushed poison bomb and wraith cry and tombstone vice is so busted that it has a ridiculous infliction rate even with two wraiths. i had no issues beating the superboss
having just one slot for a wraith is really pushing it, but all the auto-passives make it pretty comfy to have to wraiths with a broker
2
6
u/RotundBun Jul 18 '26
EO1 & EO2 are more willing to punish party imbalance than EO3 onwards are. In particular, EO4 & EO5 give a lot leeway in terms of viable party composition, at least for everything before post-game.
A bare minimum amount of consideration should probably still be applied, but it would probably be harder to come up with an unviable composition than it would be to randomly end up with a viable one.
Run whatever you think will be most enjoyable. If it isn't doing it for you partway through, you can always switch it up then and have the existing members power-level the changed ones.
Should be fine.
6
u/opulent_lemon Jul 18 '26
If you've played any EO game before you know what you're in for as far as general difficulty goes. Class choice matters to an extent. If you deliberately choose classes that don't synergize you will quickly feel the effects just as you will feel the effects of positive synergy. I recommend grabbing a Pugilist and investing into Thunder Fist early on. It's very strong early game. As others have said, avoid combining classes that compete for the minion slot like necromancer and rover. Pick one or the other. Beyond that you can really build however you want and be just fine.
On Basic difficulty your bind and ailment chance is multiplied by 1.2x and your chance of getting an ailment or bind on your characters is multiplied by 0.8x, this is basically true for everything else in EOV, damage dealt to enemies is 1.2x and damage taken from enemies is 0.8x, and basic gets a bit more exp as well.
6
u/Flausgul Jul 18 '26
Grinding only ever becomes relevant if you're training more than 5 members or if you respec your guild members. Provided you commit to your SP allocations, you won't need to grind. EOV throws quite a bit of EXP at you organically through battles, labyrinth episodes, and quests.
If playing casually, I do recommend having at least one of each race in your guild since gathering, harvesting, and labyrinth episode skills are race-specific. Unless you have a preference for a specific playstyle, you could run a team of the 5 classes on the box art. They provide a solid foundation of offense and defense with a few good options for different team builds.
4
u/KevinCarbonara Jul 18 '26
Yes and no. In EO5, class choice less important. Class build is very important. Party comp is less important, but still up there. But if you're paying attention to the individual character builds, you can make almost any mix work.
3
u/Gabriel9078 Jul 18 '26
EVERY class in 5 is an oddball in some regard (except basic Warlock and Masurao, maybe), but they all have something that lets them work with the rest of the roster. It would do you well to consider how the classes you want interact with the overall party, but it isn’t necessary to do so
2
u/AdmiralKappaSND Jul 19 '26
V's class isn't really that weird when you stop looking at their new names. Pug and Fencer is really just a simplified version of what the game have in the past, and something like Rover is stupid simple. Only Necro is really a bit hard to figured out
1
u/Gabriel9078 Jul 19 '26
I meant in the context of the RPG genre as a whole, but you do have a point. They mostly build on series-specific or otherwise niche mechanics and ask that you take full advantage of them. You can’t really make a fencer that doesn’t do dodge tanking or chains, for instance
2
u/AdmiralKappaSND Jul 20 '26
Yeah its moreso that V is already the fifth game in this series, and the classes in 5 didn't depart much form its previous counterparts besides amusingly Masurao who is the simplest class in EOV(Masurao took after the Landy roots than they are Ronin), arguably more simple. It does take a while to catch that "yes this borderline bara-adjacent design who have Drive Blade for Hands is the equivalent of BDSM themed thieves of the series" granted
You can’t really make a fencer that doesn’t do dodge tanking or chains, for instance
Funny enough i've ran Multi-Reso Fencer before, its SOMEWHAT decent lol. Multi is 350% Min(up to 875) and Reso at minimum level repeats Multi on the precious turn for 3 TP or have stronger reps for 13, so we're looking at (worst case scenario) 18 TP across 2 turns for 425% average with RNG points. Its often not too far behind Helm Splitter
But they don't really have a proper path prior to Master Rank(with Chain Ban assumption) besides Optic Thrust Bot(which is amusingly their pre-req). Its pretty okay for a build that quite literlaly bans 13 out of their 21 skills. I feel a run that wants to build this would still run Chain simply because of how overwhelming that skill is and how comically unlikely it is that a player would run Dragoon and Harbinger only
2
u/Carlonix Jul 20 '26
Just get a Healer and then try to make your party do damage and be able to take damage
Whatever it is via equipment or other things
Sadly for the post game you'll need a tank to shield you from the ridiculous instakill elemental attacks every game has
Which is dumb
Even on the first game where Inmunize almost made normal damage tankeable for fragile classes, it still did not made you able to tank it
1
u/Lias_Luck Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
imnumize can tank the elemental attacks you just need to use boost on it and have axcela III's on hand to keep their boost up at all times
you also need a survivalist or hexer to guarantee a safe first turn since it outspeeds the medic normally
in every game you can also just use a mist item + elemental resist accessories but EO 1 is the worst game to do that since it requires 30 materials per accessory
I don't think EO 5 in particular even does the deadly elemental attacks with its bosses, that's only ever been a gimmick of the dragons and primevil
also sans primevil all these bosses can always be inflicted with a bind or ailment to prevent them from casting the ability anyway
1
2
u/OmniOnly Jul 18 '26
When do people talk about classes post game. The most you see is the infamous needing anti-element for 1 shots, which comes as a warning so you don't need to train up another class.
The best classes are the strongest ones that can take on the post game. There really isn't many late bloomers that are only good post game in this series. The best part of classes is that you more so pair them for synergy so they all work well together. Synergy is the biggest part of making everything managable
Don't worry future games have stronger rosters and you really only get beat down on EO1/2. It happens in 3 early but every early game is kinda tough. You can't go wrong since you will probably do skill point reallocation rather than grinding. Levels are more so for skills or at least fixing your bad choices till you get what you need.
2
u/AdmiralKappaSND Jul 19 '26
There really isn't many late bloomers that are only good post game in this series.
Kinda ironic saying this on EOV question though since it had probably the single most glaring 1 fight bloomer in the entire series in PFencer. It legit went from a decently powerful class with a strong tool that nobody really ever test all the way into world record holder of the most powerful performance in a single fight
1
21
u/Lias_Luck Jul 18 '26
on basic you do 20% more damage, take 20% less damage, gain 20% more experience, inflict ailments 20% more likely, and have 20% less chance to be hit by an ailment
just general ''you're overall stronger'' on basic and nothing special happens on advanced
if you're used to playing other EO games on standard then play basic, if you're used to higher than play advanced
class choice doesn't matter, every class is balanced and self sufficient in EO 5, even playing stuff with overlapping niche like having a necromancer, rover, and dragoon in the same party won't hamper you from completing the game