Despite being over thirty hours in, I'm still relatively early in the Xenoblade. I haven't even met all of the party members in the game, yet. But I've slowly seen more characters pop up, and have had more opportunities to tinker with my line-up. So far, I've rolled the most with Shulk/Dunban/Sharla, though there have been times in retrospect that might have been easier had I kept Reyn in the active line-up. Anyone else here have a preferred party that they've gone with?

Shulk/Dunban/Melia with Melia as the party leader.

I mix it up, constantly. Combat/sidequests is the fastest way to increase affinity without experimenting with collectibles so I change things around often. For example my Shulk/Sharla/Reyn all currently have max affinity with one another, so I never use them together anymore. I've learned some neat things from experimenting though, such as Shulk/Riki/Dunban party (with you in control of Riki) can spend entire fights inside of chain attacks if you play it correctly. Trivializes almost everything but it's hilarious either way.

45 hour story spoilers: don't click, warning, warning, warning, seriously:

Melia, Dunban, and Shulk because some guy on the internet told me this is the best party.

I still haven't got back to this game (sigh), I played up to the part where you met that other girl, she might be this "Melia". The last time I played the game I had her as the party leader, she's really interesting and fun to play as so I might keep her in. Before that I rolled with Shulk, Reyn and Sharla with Reyn as the traditional tank and me playing Shulk backstabbingslashing fools.

A lot of new players rely on the DPS/Tank/Healer team of Shulk/Reyn or Dunban/Sharla, but you can make almost any combination work for you, outside of some parts where a certain character is the best option.  I've been rocking a Melia/Sharla/Riki party, which can almost make you unkillable.
 
Also, a lot of people don't realize that when you use a chain attack and use a DoT attack with a high multiplier, the multiplier actually affects the tick damage.  For example, I used Riki's Lurgy in a chain, and instead of doing 500 or so poison a tick, it did 1.5k.  Also, never let the AI control Melia.

@rubberluffy said:

Also, never let the AI control Melia.

Melia is a beast when player-controlled.

I use Shulk/Riki/Dunban, not for any particular reason, though.

I went with good ol' Shulk-Reyn-Sharla. Not particularly adventurous, but I found it to be the best party for tough mobs and bosses. I switched Shulk for Dunban sometimes against trash mobs, though. Dunban is rad.

Pretty much went for the standard Shulk-Reyn-Sharla. Tried to use other party members at times, but got so used to my old ones I pretty much just stuck to what I already knew.

I try to swich it up when I can. As of now I'm using Shulk/Riki/Sharla but I might go back to either Shulk/Reyn/Sharla or Shulk/Dunban/Sharla. I would like to have a party without Sharla in it but I don't see a way to have a party without a healer.

When I am doing main quest stuff I tend to stick with Shulk / Dunban / Sharla. I find this combo can do a great amount of damage while still having good survivability.

Shulk, Dunban, Sharla, all the way. Shulk as dedicated DPS, Dunban as an evade tank, and Sharla as a dedicated healer. Great survivability and pretty decent damage output.

I usually go with Riki, Reyn, and then I switch out the 3rd slot with whoever I feel like.

At this point (Fallen Arm), my go-to team for tougher battles is Shulk-Reyn-Sharla (it helps that they have the best affinity). I'm comfortable with Shulk, he does great DPS, and the Monado abilities (especially Shield, Purge, Speed) help deal with tight situations; I find Reyn keeps aggro the best, is easy to keep alive, and can do a surprising amount of DPS with stuff like Sword Drive and War Swing; and I find I have a lot of trouble keeping any party alive against groups of whites or higher without Sharla, who is the only real healer. I like playing Melia a bunch, but against harder enemies managing aggro can be tough.

Right now, I'm rocking Shulk/Dunban/Fiora (terrible idea, since that turns Shulk into the main healer), but I do like me some Shulk/Sharla/Melia. However, I am considering putting Sharla back into my party at Dunban's expense once I max out all those potential affinities.

hello guys,

Melia is a beast when player-controlled.`