Know Your Unit Reborn: Swordmaster 

I took your advice seriously regarding Chamos RT+1 LOL. But seriously, is that sarcasm or do you suggest it’s a good idea to use him for Swordmaster?

Seemed appropriate. I think "stubbornly refuses to use sword in one hand", I think Dart. Who equips a shield. Somewhere. Checks out.

@@CoffeePotato Interesting thing is Dart uses what is called a "Bastard Sword" It is basically right in between what is a long sword and a broad sword. So a large enough man could one hand it easily while your smaller soldiers would be consistantly using two hands.

I came here to say this comment. Amazing game.

Thanks for watching them! Everything about the Smaster just clicks this time around, I love it. That preempt just feels so good when it stops attacks with a Stun, or gets those lucky Knockbacks you mentioned. Or hell, right advantage setup and they can still do the usual shred maneuvers.

They go from meh to chainsaw real quick.

Yea the swordsman class seems very reliant on the card system to be successful. I guess I would prefer a unit that performs well in all circumstances. Good point tho. It's pretty awesome watching Hobyrim dodging and attacking over and over as enemies just completely whiff and get cut down, Zatoichi for sure!

Seemed appropriate! Now I want an area Dodge buff called Gust of Wind Dance

I'm wondering if it was left off to keep the sort of defensive fighter vibes.

That's why they were given Spellstrike and Macuahatl in PSP next to Stonebloom, but still. Original was nuts just because someone's finger slipped and made Petrify scale off of Agility.

I did not know that. The thing I love about tactics ogre is the depth. You could spend your entire life playing this game bc of the staggering amount of detail in the game design and the world. I still dont really understand what agility does tho. Is it physical attack with weapo=check against the agility of opponent when calculating block opportunities vs clean hits? Whoever has higher agility will be more likely to land and more likely to deflect hits? Not much dodging going on in Reborn but end game in psp version everybody was dodging everything consistently. I think I still prefer the psp format for role playing. I love Reborn bc I keep finding new stuff about it. I have spent over 600 hours in this game alone. Also what the hell does luck do? @@CoffeePotato

@@GentleGiantAudio Agility is generally just physical accuracy directly. Yeah, most dodging in Reborn comes from the Dodge buff, Rain/Positioning, and Parry.

The Guts experience

Missed the part of the video about preempt, huh?

​@@CoffeePotatoI sent a swordmaster to kill a fusil boss in chapter 4. I thought fortify dance could tank his shot. But she lost 80%hp and downed after 1 boss crit (fusil skill). I no longer use that dance ever since.

Or stack for Res/Vit.

yeah i had the same experience with my main swordmaster. i actually raised them with some witch levels to get their base mp pretty high, but i had an insane amount of stat charms from potd grinding so i got her hp bulked up

Sounds like a plan !

I'd have to disagree on perspective grounds here. You can twist all of the above in your favor. You do have options for Mind, look at the video. Clerics make great platforms for turning into Swordmasters. Olivia came in with enough Kind on hand to regularly hit 70-80% without any extra stats on normal enemies. For post game, well, everyone's reliant on Spellstrike, them suckers don't like debuffs. Gear is limited on them, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. This combined with the above means they can tailor basic gear towards any particular preferred stat, but their ability to be offensive on their off turn means you shouldn't be attacking directly with a normal hit. Translated, this means even at 30%, their off turn cuts should be generating enough MP to spam debuffs until everything around them breaks. Weaken is devastating in the post game, and they can spread it farther than anyone. Lower defenses on them are fine, it makes them a more tempting target. That said, the AI is predictable. Put them in the right spots, and you're fine. They're unusual, but they're good at what they do.

@@CoffeePotato minor typo, I meant LUCT not OV I've run characters entirely as clerics for the 50 levels. That's not the class growths, that's the base stats doing the heavy lifting. Which is all fair enough for the numbers, but there's no intentional choice in the process. That entire second paragraph agrees with me, then proceeds to say that the opposite is true without proof nor logic. What. Look, I get it, 20-30% is perfectly fine when you aoe a lot. But that's not the point. At no point did I call them weak. You just can't build a swordmaster in any other way. You can't stack strength, you can't stack mind, best they can do is baldur gear which is single digit RES in total. And the AI is predictable? Dude, you have literal hundreds of hours combined across multiple devices on this game. That's about as convincing as saying "skill issue".

@@benedict6962 But they are predictable. Everyone can only move so far, so you just put them in the path of someone else. It's not a personal thing, folks were telling me to try them in this way on those first two launch months too, it's just now they're used. You can mix and match for bonuses just like anyone else. It's not a huge amount, but you don't need much for a defensive stack. I was still using Chain and a circlet on most of the Swordmasters for better Vit and weakness resistance for ages. There just isn't much of a point in stacking anything other than Vit, Mnd, or Res, maybe Luck. Stats matter when you can get some direct benefit. Like even the best Dex gear can get you maybe 70 extra damage, but their breach gives far more. Just 10-15 extra Res from trash gear is enough to make those hits target somewhere else. They don't need to stack offense, because it's not where their hits come from, and not even their role on top of that. I'm not sure what other points are missed. If anything was missed, I'm usually responding while at work or dealing with kid/puppy chaos, so I apologize if anything is overlooked.

@@CoffeePotato The point is not that it's impossible to figure out how the AI works and how to gear accordingly, the point is that it's not taught well. Neither the stat system nor the level design, nor the new mission reward system was set to effectively teach it. Someone teaching you something at launch is the very definition of it not being taught by the game. You can argue that's not a problem, and that's fine. It is a design philosophy that was more popular back when we didn't have internet guides and magazines were only sometimes helpful. But you gotta acknowledge it's a different perspective, one that involves having fewer friends that play the same games. Yes, the gear is "enough". Assuming you have data on how much damage an enemy does relative to each party member. Which you can only indirectly get through damage forecasts on your turn. Which is halfway into the battle, long after the point where you can switch gear around. You could argue that the combined def/mdef rating in the stat screen is enough, but I've had mixed success with that, seeing how you still have to factor gear atk/def values and how it matches up to the enemy's. The last point is what I already said about build choice. Swordmaster doesn't have any. Your own arguments show that the tiny increments in stats are only good for tweaking aggro, not in changing how the unit plays. Strength and Dex and Int don't matter? Yeah, that just reduces what else you can do with it, in a way that leaves blank space where you could have put content. For example, if you gave 2H katana blowgun stats, it would not make swordmasters OP. It would, however, let you hold the weak high STR katana and use it as a budget defensive option, relying on knockback and dances to whittle away the enemy at a chokepoint while your army deals with enemies on a different side.

Especially when it comes to not needing to prepare a dozen hours ahead of time with an Aug to make the most use of your spell swords.

Sure can. Become TK, get Dark, swap to Swordmaster.

You sure they're hit with Fear or Silence or some such?

@CoffeePotato no just been unlucky i think. Ive tried my best to single them out and corner and try to bring their hp as low as possible to then recruit. But for some reason when i go to check their loyalty its always really high. Ill probably just build one up myself. Just wanted to let you know dude that youve become one of my favorite youtubers. I bought TOR when it released but gave up on it like two hours in. It was your videos that made me give it another chance , and honestly its one of my favorite games of all time now. Im just worried that after this i wont be able to find another tactical jrpg as good as TOR lol.

Chapter 3 store, or go into Phorampa in Chapter 2.

@@CoffeePotato okay as far as chapter 2 that’s where I’m at right now. I’m at some castle idk if that’s a side quest or but I don’t recall coming across the photos woods yet. Is that later in chapter 2? And how is it encountered in that certain part. You have to recruit him?

@@CoffeePotato I went into phorampa in chapter 3. Maybe it’s class factor. Right now I’m in adventure island in phorampa also it gonna be one of those 5 islands ima get him. I went to the shop as well. No sight of it.

True, though like 3-4 of them with Helm Halvers will spread enough stun to get that chuckle popcorn going.

That's why you don't use them as a primary Frontliner. Their main damage and defensive setups work best to the sides or second line, where their buffs , debuffs, and situationally strong finishers really get to shine. You want to save their basic attacks for their Preempt/Minds Eye combo, since they don't cost RT. If you're using them right, they have those flowy dance rhythm to them that's really cozy.