So I'm new to the series, any advice for getting off to a good start?

@commisar123: I'm new to the series as well but several hours in. My characters are about level 16 right now and grinding towards the first labyrinth boss. Most of my regrets so far have been skill choices, I regret putting points into gathering / item drop modifier abilities. At this point they seem like a waste and detract from the important skills (defense for fortress, spell dmg for caster, binds for sniper.

I've been working on grinding up my runemaster, and however many great things I've read regarding this character I'm not seeing the awesomeness of it (assuming it's because of my spread out and poor skill choices)

Im running:

Dancer / Fortress / Nightseeker

Runemaster / Medic

Get a healing class. Medic or Dancer. If you're willing to risk not having a constant healer, than pick Dancer. Dancers can do a decent amount of damage and their samba's give your party some seriously needed buffs. Medics are still good all around healers, but that's all really all they do.

Always carry two warp wires (or Ariadne Threads in EO4).

Take your time when you're starting out. If you don't feel comfortable with a situation, just warp wire out, heal and try to maybe get some levels on the way back into the dungeon.

Squirrels are evil. Don't trust them.

And in case you're wondering

Night Seeker/Fortress(will be replaced with an Arcanist)/Dancer

Runemaster/Sniper

I beat him at level 15. I don't think you need anymore levels dude.

@joeyoe31: Am having a problem with damage output due to the defensive / utility classes (fortress doesn't hit too hard, medic doesn't do much except heal, and dancer hits for a mediocre amount when not twisting. Need to upgrade that dancer's sword, but the main problem is the runemaster is still level 10 as I had been grinding up a sniper until I changed my mind.

Well now I have to know.

@commisar123: I'm pretty sure he's referencing EO2, where you would occasionally happen across an event in a dungeon where a squirrel would steal your warp wire needed warp out of the dungeon, which sucked.

I haven't seen anything like that in this one so far though.

@beardfish: Yeah, that party might be a little lacking in damage until you get a little farther with the Runemaster. You can probably hit pretty hard at level 10. I think lightning was the strongest of the spells for Runemaster. Lightning Rune and Runic Gleam with a few points into TP boost was what I had at the beginning.

Just wait until you get that Nightseeker to level 20 and open up the Veteran skills for Shadow Bite. Oh boy does that do a stupid amount of damage. That and your Runemaster using Storm Rune will make your damage problems a thing of the past.

There are also some pretty good tips in this thread that you might wanna read over.

Binds and status changing spells play a large role in the game, make sure you can defend and dish em out.

In EO games it generally pays off to dump all the skill points into one skill tree and max it out, for example just make an Ice Runemaster.

The game also rewards playing slowly and cautiously: have plenty of those warp wire things, and when you can, equip the escape burst.

@joeyoe31: So I've been rocking

Landsknecht, NightSeeker, Dancer

Sniper, Runemaster

And it seems going pretty well so far, but I'm worried I might not be tankey enough or have good enough healing. Any thoughts?

Not having a Fortress or Medic at the start is going to be tough, but not impossible. Make sure to carry a good stock of items.

If you're just starting out, it really doesn't hurt to simply go with the RPG basics: a Fortress, Landshark, Night seeker, Runemaster, and Medic. Once you start getting the hang of the game's rhythms and mechanics, you can use some of the auto leveling items you get at the end of stratums to help fill in some different classes you start eyeing.

I'll just add that the "metagame" for EO4, if there is one, is all about links and chasers now with Dancers' Chase Samba and Lansharks' elemental links accompanied by vanguard and improved link, and finally the Nightseeker's biding slash to allow for what is essentially 8 to 10 free attacks a turn. It's very TP intensive and takes two turns to set up, but it wrecks things pretty hard.

Fortresses, on a side note, can probably be relegated to the back line actually, particularly because of taunt/auto-taunt. Their poor strength stat means putting them in the front results in little gain unless you are in dire need of their proficiency skill's TP generator.

Luck is actually a major stat for Nightseekers, Snipers, and Arcanists. It determines the chance of applying your status effects and binds to enemies, and if you don't have enough, you'll find yourself hard pressed to stick anything on a powerful FOE or boss where you'd really appreciate it.

@turambar: Why Biding Slash? There are plenty of other better multi-hit attacks in the game than that. The Nightseeker has Swift Edge that does 4-5 attacks or the Sniper's Squall Shot which hits up to 16 times. Or you could use a Dancer/Nightseeker or Nightseeker/Dancer with Sword Dance and Blade Flurry to do like 5+ normal hits. Or you could even take a gamble with the Nightseeker's Follow Trace and use Shadow Bite for huge damage all by itself. Just some examples.

The Fortress' attacks are actually rather useful in this game, as many of them are more than just flat damage modifiers. Holy Smite does respectable damage and heals by a notable amount. Vengeance Smite does more damage the more hits you take, which works nicely given that their whole purpose is to tank. Once you max out HP Up you can use Line Guard or even party guard and soak up tons of damage. I never bothered with anything but tank skills in the previous games, but I find myself using offensive attacks with my Fortress quite often. The regenerating TP helps a lot for this, since I don't have to worry about not having TP for tanking skills.

@zeik: Because I just got to stratum 3.

Re: skill speeds, I thought this might help new people as this stuff is not adequately explained in game (copied from a helpful thread in gamefaqs.) All this stuff is very useful for skills that rely on going first, like the Landsknecht's link skills, or having a medic that heals before the enemy has a turn :

Shield: -2 speed

Heavy Armor: -2 speed

Medium Armor: -1 speed

Light Armor: +2 speed

Gloves: +1 speed

Shoes: +4 speed

Accessories and helms are neutral.

Gunblade: -4 speed

Hammers: -3 speed

Swords: -2 speed

Thrusting Swords: +2 speed

Katanas: +2 speed

Daggers: +3 speed

Bows and staves are neutral.

Some skills start with negative action speed, others start with higher action speed.

Each point of AGI adds a point of speed.

The game rolls a random number between 0-4 each turn for every individual and adds that number to their speed.