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=======================Classes and Class Synergy Guide=========================
================================By: SageRyock==================================
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Contents

Section 1: About me, the Guide, etc
Section 2: The Classes
Section 3: Composition and Synergy
Section 4: Subclass Synergy
Section 5: Contact me, Version History



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====================Section 1: About me, the Guide, etc========================
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So it's been quite a long time since I've written a FAQ. After buying a 3DS and
purchasing Fire Emblem, along with Etrian Odyssey 4, I decided I might as well
contribute again since there seems to be a considerable lack of guides for 
this game at the moment. So I might as well write a guide I feel I have 
enough experience with to give help on.

Guides are something I love writing, and helping is something I love doing. I
like to give out information if someone needs it. With that in mind, if you
have further questions that you feel this guide does not answer, by all means
feel free to send me an email or send me a message through GameFAQs.

Now as for the guide. The guide is made to accomplish a number of things. Give
outinformation to each of the classes, an idea of what they can do and add to
the team, synergy, things like that. With that in mind, let's move forward.


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===========================Section 2: The Classes==============================
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1: Landsknecht

The Landsknecht has been in every Etrian Odyssey game. And in each game, they
were either not bad, or just eh. In this game, they have a lot more synergy
with parties, and can contribute a considerable amount of damage and chain
attacks to everyone. Landsknechts have link skills, which allow party members
to follow up attacks with an elemental attack. Not only that, but if you're
not interested in using them in this way, they bring a great deal of damage to
the team with basic attacks and attack skills. They are a great asset to just
about any team.

2: Nightseeker

Nightseekers are the Dark Hunters of this game. They work on both rows quite
nicely since they have throw attacks that won't lose damage. Their melee skills
though won't have much use outside of Assassinate unless you throw them on to
the front row. They get a lot more powerful if their enemy happens to be 
infected by a status effect. They can also attack multiple times as well, 
which can help with a party which focuses on using multiple basic attacks
together.

3: Fortress

This is the tank of the game. Some people live by them, others refuse to grab
them at all. With a Fortress in your party, they accomplish one main goal: 
take all the damage for the party. They do it quite well, too. There's not
much else to say about them, except they help keep the party alive, and are
difficult to kill. Good addition to any team.

4: Sniper

The Sniper is super helpful, but are late bloomers. Their best abilities are
post level 20 and 40 such as the snipe binds and Squall Volley. Great at
keeping an enemy bound and unable to use their certain abilities. A class that
can see a lot of use with Nightseekers and Landsknechts. Mainly support for
a while, Snipers can deal great amounts of damage in teams good with status
effects.

5: Medic

Honestly not a whole lot to say about this class. Excels at healing. I guess
another neat point about them though is they boost the effectiveness of your
party's healing abilities, so this can help greatly with your Arcanists or
Dancers.

6: Runemaster

The spell caster of the game. They use fire, lightning, and ice abilities. 
They are also very useful for preventing damage from those elements as well.
They can cast runes to protect the whole party from a selected element for a 
while. Not only that, they can boost the elemental attack power of their row,
as well as their defenses. They are also capable of using skills for no cost,
as well as negating elemental attacks completely. A great back row.

7: Dancer

The more odd support of the game, the Dancer is capable of just about anything
you want. Their dances only affect a line of people until they can get Wide
Dance, which will allow their dances to affect the entire party. They can
boost attack powers, defense, heal up status effects, binds, HP, help chase
for attacks, counter attacks, are really fast, everything. A Dancer is
fantastic on both rows as well, since they can use both swords/daggers and
bows.

8: Arcanist

The Arcanist is the spell caster that can do everything. Literally. They can
heal, bind, inflict damage and status effects, and they can equip rapiers.
Their abilities also happen to be aoe, so they make fantastic random battle
killers. Poison and sleep are extremely potent, and can end a battle within
a turn or two. Their circles also guarantee that the effects will try and
get on to the enemy with the end of each turn.

9: Bushi

The Bushi is pretty sweet. They're dangerous to use though. They're able to
go into a rage which greatly increases their power, but causes them to lose
HP and TP with every turn. They are however able to recover their HP every
time they attack if you choose to get the ability in their tree. They 
encourage using both mace and katana weapons as well as dual-wielding. 

10: Imperial

This is quite possibly the strongest class there is in terms of just raw
damage and numbers. The damage requires a lot more setup than the other
classes though. On a good note though, they possess some of the greatest
elemental power of any class. It's very easy to break over 10k damage on a
single enemy with the proper setup. Pure melee class.

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====================Section 3: Composition and Synergy=========================
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1: Landsknecht Synergy

There are so many ways to build a Landsknecht for party play, it's somewhat
ridiculous. The most common ways a lot of people like to make them though are
as linkers. Get the fire link, ice link, and lighting links. Get improved link,
link mastery, vanguard, and initiative, and you have a very scary frontline.
Getting this setup going doesn't take a lot of effort, and can be terrifying
with Dancers and Nightseekers.

Dancers will trigger the links with their rush dance, counter samba, chase
samba, and trick samba. Because of this, Dancers are fantastic synergy with
Landsknechts, and with their attack boosting dance, make the frontline 
terrifying. 

Nightseekers are also great for one very obvious tactic. Attacking twice. 
Since Nightseeker can attack twice, that's two times you can activate the link
skills for the Landsknecht. 

Runemasters are also a great class for synergizing with them. Mostly thanks to
galvanic rune though, since each hit of the rune will trigger links.

2: Nightseeker Synergy

Nightseekers are incredibly versatile. With Arcanists, they can accomplish so
much. Arcanists will make inflicting status effects very easy with a 
Nightseeker to back it up. Assassinate becomes very easy to use, and highly
accurate. You can turn this combo into an FOE killer duo. Being able to throw
their status effects means they don't have to be on the front row to deal 
damage either.

Nightseekers work really well with Landsknechts and Dancers as well if you read
the Landsknecht section. 

3: Fortress works well in any team really. But since they do have some
abilities that encourage tanking for the party, they can work really well with
a front line Medic, or front line Dancer, just because they can recover HP
with defending. Couple that with Regen Waltz, and the Medic's healing
abilities, and you can easily recover up 100+ HP every turn.

4: Snipers are fantastic at binding. So having other characters who can also
bind and make their job a little easier are a welcome addition to the party.
If you use an Arcanist, they're a perfect fit with the Sniper. Having an 
Arcanist able to make up for one of the binds the Sniper is missing will make
the Snipers damage much more consistent and potent.

Snipers are also a fantastic fit for Landsknechts with their link abilities.
Use squall volley, and watch links go on for days. If you're running more than
one Landsknecht, it gets especially hilarious.

5: Medics provide healing and healing support. They make the other healers
stronger, and can be rather competent on the front line. They can't be bad
in any party that's lacking a healer though, so it's hard to give out a whole
bunch of synergy as far as the party composition goes.

6: Runemasters have lots of capabilities with anyone who has elements available
to them. Imperials get a lot of added benefits from Runemasters, turning their
elemental drive attacks into incredibly potent attacks of destruction. They
provide great defense against any elements, and also help provide defense
and protection on the line they accompany.

Oddly enough, Runemasters work extremely well together, since they boost the
powers of the line they accompany. Three Runemasters in a line means a great
deal of damage to the enemies.

7: Dancers work great in any line for any type of support whether it be 
offensive or defensive support. Healing, defense, offense, they provide it
all. Landsknechts, Snipers, Nightseekers, and other Dancers will greatly
benefit from their presence.

8: Arcanists benefit greatly from a front line Medic. With a front line 
Medic, the Arcanist can focus on staying in the back row, providing status
effects, binds, damage, and increased healing power. Arcanists can also
benefit from Nightseekers and Snipers in the party. Snipers benefit from
binds, and Nightseekers also benefit from status effects, so these three in
a party can be rather deadly.

9: Bushi are powerful front liners for several party compositions. They have
powerful aoe melee attacks that can attack every enemy in a line or even their
whole party. Bushi are also one of the only classes capable of doing this
without setup. Otherwise, magic would be required from the other classes if
you wanted entire coverage. 

They are also a great class for your group if you're lacking powerful front
line damage. Being able to equip both a mace and a katana means several attack
options as well. Being able to debuff the enemy is also an added benefit if
you lack an Arcanist.

10: Imperials are pure melee elemental damage for the most part. Dancers are
great for supporting the Imperial for more damage with her attack dances.
Imperials also have a very low TP pool, which means they can't use their most
powerful attacks very often at all. On top of that, they deal with cool downs.
Having Energy Tango means the attacks will cost considerably less, and make it
easier for the Imperial to deal with.

Having a party capable of reducing the enemy's defenses would also be a great
plus to the team, so you can be sure you're getting the most out of your
Imperial's attacks. Imperials require setup, so having a team that helps
shorten it or make the best of it will compliment this class the most.


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==========================Section 4: Subclass Synergy==========================
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1: Landsknecht

The Landsknecht has many options. They can work great as emergency healers 
since they get Vanguard, so even if the healing isn't fantastic, nothing
really beats a first turn Full hHeal and/or Revive.

Adding Bushi to the mix makes up for their lack of aoe, helping to make them
great mob killing powers. On top of that, the Landsknecht will always have
something to do if they're linkers.

If you sub Dancer, Landsknecht can benefit from the samba related skills on
top of their link abilities. Runemasters are also great for boosting the links
on the Landsknecht with their elemental boosting passives. They'll also be 
able to protect themselves and activate skills for free.

Next is Nightseeker, which is pretty awesome if you want to try and gamble
Follow Trace, which will allow you to have a chance at triggering an attack
move a second time.

2: Nightseeker

It's often seen that Nightseeker makes a better sub than a main class. But the
passive Nightseeker gets for dealing damage to an enemy with a status effect
is extremely tempting. For this reason, Nightseeker is often best with a sub
that can help make their job a bit easier.

With this in mind, Arcanist can make a great sub for this reason. Even at only
half their level, the binds and status inducing spells an Arcanist can learn
still hit very frequently, and can be incredibly dangerous for any enemy to
deal with. 

Another sub worth thinking about with Nightseeker is Dancer. The sambas can
once again make a great addition to the Nightseeker's passive ability to hit
twice and evade with ease. Fortress is also an option for added durability, or
Medic for side healing so the Nightseeker always has something to do.

3: Fortresses have such a straightforward job that it's often difficult to
figure out a sub class for them. One obvious option is Dancer or Medic so they
have greater supporting abilities. With these sub classes, there should never
really be a turn where they don't have something to do.

Runemasters also make great subs for the runes that they provide. Because of
this, it simply helps add to the amount of defensive options the Fortress
has available to it.

4: Snipers can be hilariously fun to work with. Nightseekers make a great sub
class for Snipers, because as strange as this may be to hear, you can actually
equip two bows at once. That can amount to many different attacks as a Sniper.
With Foul Mastery, Snipers can deal even greater amounts of damage as well.

Since Snipers have an easy time hitting enemies and getting binds, Arcanist
is something that's worth thinking about subbing as well if simply for the 
access to aoe binds and status effects, assuming your party is lacking an 
Arcanist.

5: Medics have a lot of options, since they actually make decent attackers.
You could sub Landsknecht for the first turn healing abilities thanks to 
Vanguard. You could also turn them into side job linkers with Landsknecht as
well. Another obvious choice is Arcanist so the Medic can bring more to the
team other than just healing. This way they can be great supporters in 
random battles as well, and not just boss battles.

For this reason, Bushi is also good since they can debuff and go into rages.
If you prefer a back row Medic, Sniper can always make a good addition for 
when you have the option to deal damage instead of healing. Gives your Medic
something else to do. Dancer is also a fantastic option since dances wear off
in a set amount of turns, the Medic's job is still busy as ever.

The only few amount of classes that I wouldn't recommend for subbing onto
Medic would be Runemaster, Nightseeker, Imperial, and Fortress. Otherwise, all
the other classes can make great subs for Medic.

6: Runemasters have extremely limited options sadly. Their job is something
that almost no class can really help benefit too much. You can turn them into
side healers and status inducers through the use of Arcanist. But even then,
the main job of the Runemaster is for elemental damage, so you can easily
squander their talents by subbing Arcanist and throwing points in there.

One of the only decent sub classes available to the Runemaster feels to be
the Imperial. The Imperial's passive elemental bonus will help the Runemaster
deal more damage with their spells, so that's a huge plus.

7: Dancers have some options, but not as many as one would probably think. A
Dancer's main job can't really afford to get interrupted, so very few classes
are going to bring much to the Dancer's table. Nightseeker is the most readily
available class that might bring more to the table than usual. If you have a
linker Landsknecht, then her ability to trigger Sword Dance on her second
attack from the Nightseeker's passive Blade Flurry can keep the links going
for a long time.

At 40+, Dancers may have the option to be an emergency healer, with their
dances lasting five turns. If you're able to sneak in a healing ability, then
that could also be an option. Another option may also be Fortress for the
defending HP healing, or the added HP you can gain from the Fortress' passive
HP bonus.

8: Arcanists run into a similar problem that Runemasters run into. Throwing
all your points into the Arcanist's main class skills, and having such a 
direct job means you don't have much time for other class skills. Runemaster
is a good option though for the class, since they can grant Free Energy to
help keep the Arcanist going for longer strolls in the dungeon and higher
endurance in battles.

Subbing a Medic is also a good option for the Arcanist, since the Medic has
some passive healing bonuses, and can give the Arcanist access to Revive. But
even then, the Medic is generally better to main class rather than sub class.

9: Bushi have some interesting options. Landsknecht is a good option if simply
just for Vanguard and Initiative. Medic is another option if you want the 
option for emergency reviving and healing if necessary. Imperials make for
an average sub class with their passive boosting abilities. Otherwise, not
many other practical options with a TP pool as low as theirs.

10: Imperials have some good options. They can run Runemaster for the passive
boosts that Runemasters can give for higher damage, and Runic Gleam also
greatly increases their power with their drive attacks. In addition, Free 
Energy, Runic Shield, Runic Guidance, and Runic Flare are all great additions
to the Imperial, all increasing the uses of the Imperial's effectiveness.

Another option is Landsknecht simply for once again... Vanguard. Imperials
have very low action speed when using their drive attacks, and so to counter
this problem, subbing Landsknecht can be a good option for making sure that
doesn't happen. Fortress is another option, but not a very good one. You'd
really only be doing it for the added HP bonus from the Fortress' passive.

Nightseeker is quite possibly greatest and worst sub class for Imperial though.
With Follow Trace, the Imperial can get around the cool down problem if 
lucky enough. A chance to use their drive skills twice in a row is absolutely
devastating and enough to knock out many bosses very easily. The job of an
Imperial though is raw straight damage to a single target, and because of that,
it can be difficult to find a good sub class outside of the ones listed.


===============================================================================
====================Section 5: Contact me, Version History=====================
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Version 1.00: The guide is added to GameFAQs with the experiences I've gained
through this game. Everything you see here was by my hand, and written purely
on experience through the game.

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Thank you so much for reading the guide! If it was helpful to you, fantastic.
As long as it provided some help and ideas for what to do with the classes
you chose, then that's the best I could have hoped for. If you are interested
in contacting me whether it be for advice such as what I could add to the,
ideas for subbing and class synergy, etc, please feel free to let me know, and
it will be added to the guide with credit to you.

You can contact me at this GameFAQs username by sending a message to me, or
you can send me an e-mail at [email protected].