Xenoblade Character Builds (Spoilers)

[PM ME MARIANNE ART]

Okay so I just got Seven and am level 54 (Is that a good level for this point? I feel like I'm underleveled. Anyway, so I have questions about builds for characters, and I've gotten some opinions already, but I thought I'd spread my questions to a wider view.

Shulk: His gems are all agility and strength plus, with blade armor and some brave equips. I feel like I should just keep going with this so eh.

Arts: Back/Air Slash, Shaker/Stream/Slit Edge, Battle Soul, Shadow Eye, and Light Heal

Reyn: I have mixed opinions about Reyn. I can't decide whether I want him to be an all-out heavy armour tank, or if I want him to be a combination of strength and agility like Shulk. I don't really have any ideas.

Arts: Wild Down, Hammer Beat, Sword Drive, Berserker, War Swing, Bone Upper, Shield Bash

Sharla: I generally put muscle up and ether defense, with some ether gems on Sharla. She doesn't do too much aside from keeping people from dying

Arts: Head Shot, Thunder Bullet, Heal Blast, Heal Round, Shield Bullet, Cure Bullet, Heal Counter, Heal Bullet

Dunban: I do generally thew same as Shulk, but with aggro generator. He has mostly agility and strength gems, with some double attack and haste, but I need help. Agility tanking doesn't really work because he keeps getting hit. I'm curious about how to do naked Dunban.

Arts: Gale Slash, Worldly Slash, Tempest Kick, Electric Gutbuster, Steel Strike, Soaring Tempest, Spirit Breath, Peerless

Melia: No matter how hard I try, I can't get her to be good. She attacks slowly and doesn't do much damage. I give her almost all ether gems and some ether defnese

Arts: Summon Flare/Water/Bolt/Wind/Copy, Spear Break, Starlight Kick, Hypnosis

Riki: I give him a lot of muscle and strength gems, but I'm not too sure where to go. I really like him though

Arts: Tantrum, Burninate, Play Dead, Sneaky, Bitey, Happy Happy, You can do it, Roly Poly

Seven: I would really like to do a tank build, but I have no idea how to do that. I don't know how to make her work or much about her arts. I need the most help here

Also, I don't understand skills at all (Yeah, I'm pretty terrible at this game)

[Astromime]

I really enjoyed this game, haven't played it in a while though. I had a simmilar problem with dunban, but honestly, once you get some level 6 agility gems, he is totally worth it.

Who are you using for your main party?

I had melia(me), dunban(tank), shulk(dps). It was fine by end game, but you really need to invest some time into gem crafting.

here's a picture of my endgame stats for my final team if you're interested. Note, if dunban can't seem to hold aggro because of shulk, use arts stealth on shulk.

this isn't an optimal build, but its fun watching everything die quite quickly.

shulk

dunban

melia

Skills are annoying at first but once you get the hang of them it does make a difference. But you'll have to wait til you get more supports for its usefulness to actually show.

Edited January 19, 2015 by Astromime

[Kao]

Shulk/Reyn/Dunban FTW. And, if it helps, I beat the final boss underleveled. Anyway, I'm assuming you're only at the wreckage site *tryigg to avoid some spoilers* so I'd say that's an okay level provided you do the nearby quests.

Character thoughts

Shulk: Remember to level your Monado Arts, especially Shield. Those Talent Arts can get reeeeeeeal nasty.

Reyn: IMO, I'd ditch Bone Upper for Magnum Charge, since that multiplies the next physical art damage by a whole 4x at the cost of Talent gauge. It's well worth it, and I suggest going Muscle/Strength Reyn. Just throw some Aggro Down gems on him. "Can't have a rainbow without REYN!"

Sharla: Unless you're playing Sharla, I suggest you ditch her. The AI sucks. A lot. And the 2 person chain attacks certainly don't help the cause. Ugh. Cool down. "Gotta cool off!"

Dunban: Seems solid. I'd change breath for Thunder, since Gale Slash/Tempest Kick turns you around. That Daze force really does help. And Naked Dunban requires you to UNEQUIP ALL HIS ARMOR. Only equip he's allowed is his Katana. If you really want to stare at Dunban's abs, go for it. The slots on the equips are better though. "But we mustn't be careless."

Melia: 4 summons AND Copy? That's crazy. I just use 3. If you picked up the level 10 Bolt book in the...uh. Imperial Burial chamber iirc, use that. In fact, keep bolt. Melia's AI is eh, but yeah. Mind Blast > Hypnotise, and I find little use for the initial 2 summons that aren't bolt. Just me. "Your fighting spirit is mine!"

Riki: First time around, I neglected him. We got off on the wrong foot. Second time, I used him a bit. However, it wasn't until a little while ago that I found his true potential. (Emile "chuggaaconroy" 's LP also was a minor influence as well.) Happy Happy is great, and oftentimes I find myself chucking intitial tension on him just to use it/flee for easy Chain Attacks. Say Sorry is amazing. To use Say Sorry to its full potential, I pair it with the Ether Arts and Bitey Bitey. I throw a bunch of random gems on him. Str/Etehr, Spike, Aggro +, all that. "Her open is very cool!"

Seven: ...uh. Lesse. If you're planning on making her a tank, I suggest getting Dunban's 4th skill tree. IIRC, one of her's/Dunban's trees (3 or 4, not sure) had a skill which replenishes some HP upon a crit, and another making crits...uh. Something or other. Yeah. Dasit. I'm not the educated on Seven, sorry.

[Knight]

I gave strength, agility and aggro down to Shulk.