Trials of Mana Remake - Best Party Combinations

9 Comments

1. Your’re focusing more on the attack i personally recomed riesz duran and angela because the come with more unique stories

   Reply

2. A few corrections I’d make to these setups:

   On the “All-Around Beginner Setup” you put Riesz (Starlancer), Charlotte (Sage) and Hawkeye (Nightblade). I would swap the Nightblade for Ninja Master, which has more synergy with the party. Riesz (Starlancer) has multitarget stat up, Charlotte (Sage) has multitarget sabers, and Hawkeye (Ninja Master) has multitarget stat down – and high damage to boot.

   In your “Boss Killer (Physical Damage) Setup” you include Kevin (Fatal Fist), Riesz (Starlancer) and Hawkeye (Nightblade). This team looks strong, but it lacks healing. I would swap Fatal Fist for Warrior Monk, and again Nightblade for Ninja Master. Warrior Monk still has very high physical power, good class strikes, and he can also get a multitarget heal.

   Your “Boss Killer (Elemental Damage) Setup” actually looks pretty good and I wouldn’t change it. Duran (Edelfrei) brings multitarget sabers, Charlotte (Necromancer) brings Dark Curse to debuff all the boss’ stats, and the Fatal Fist brings pain on top of more pain.

   On your “Durable All-Around Setup” I would swap Duran’s Duelist for Edelfrei for multitarget sabers. Since you already have Charlotte (Necromancer), the Duelist’s Dark Saber would become redundant.

   Reply

3. Your comment is awaiting moderation.

   I would like to start off by saying that despite appearances I am not dissing any particular party setup. As the game was made so that every possible combination of chars/classes is at least viable. There is no such thing as a bad character, class or even party. However since this is advertised as ‘best party combinations’ I feel like putting in my 2 cents as a long-time player. As for which parties and characters I think are genuinely qualified to be considered ‘best’? Well just humor me for a moment and let me keep you in suspense. We’ll get to that soon enough. First some standard nitpicking about some of the character choices in the various parties listed. 😉

   Any party with dark charlotte doesn’t qualify for ‘best’ because hawkeye is a better debuffer, and as a healer she is rendered obsolete by one of the basic game mechanics; the item reel. The game constantly showers you with healing items (aside from how cheap they are to buy) and at no point will you ever run out of them prior to winning any battle or boss fight, even on hard. After multiple playthroughs on hard (and many more on the snes version over the years) I can say this with full confidence. It is, quite frankly, a waste of a character slot to include a dedicated healer. It is also not needed to have a 3rd character during the first and (by far) easiest boss in the game, which some people give as a reason to include her. So she’s out.

   As for kevin… while a powerful melee character in his own right (highest base atk, decent at building CS gauge) he is outclassed in terms of overall usefulness by both duran and hawkeye, as any pure melee setup requires those two to work in tandem for optimal performance, with the third character best complimenting the aforementioned two of course being riesz due to her full party buffs. So kevin does not fit in the 3rd slot either. So he’s out.

   Want to build the best parties the game will let you? The only question you need to ask yourself is whether you want a dedicated caster or go full melee. The former requires angela while the latter requires duran, and for both of these picks riesz and hawkeye are the best additions. Why are they better picks than the remaining two?, I will explain below as I describe the party compositions themselves and how they synergize. The real best parties are as follows, both for beginners and veterans:

   ~~~~~~~~~~{ Riesz(L>D) / Duran(D>L) / Hawkeye(D>L) }~~~~~~~~~~

   This is your ‘beginner’ setup. This party has decent attack and defense during class 1, allowing for the player to focus purely on melee combat and basic combat mechanics without managing magic that early on.

   Once you reach class 2 riesz gains the ability to buff attack, defense, m-atk and m-def. Hawkeye will gain his debuff ninjutsu for attack, defense, m-atk and m-def. And duran will gain his elemental sabers and the ability to buff the attack of anyone receiving his elemental sabers at the cost of increased MP consumption. Hawkeye will also be able to generate some more CS gauge with the first of his two ‘ninja SP’ abilities found in the spirit section of your skill tree. This is where the party comes into it’s own. Once the party reaches class 3 however things really start to get crazy. *drum roll*

   Riesz and hawkeye get AoE versions of their previously gained buffs and debuffs, while duran is able to take the buffing of the party’s raw attack power to far greater heights (from 15% to 40%). These two factors lead into what makes this party so disgustingly OP. As previously mentioned; in the spirit skill tree you will find two abilities for hawkeye which boost your CS gauge by 5% and 7% respectively per ninjutsu hit, so your fire ninjutsu (for example) which hits 3 times will yield 36% per enemy, up to 180% when fighting 5 enemies. And since the elemental buffs also increase class strikes (elemental weaknesses apply, + the raw 40% dmg bonus from duran’s skill tree) hawkeye goes from a supporting role with decent damage to a certifiable wrecking ball that trivializes the second half of the game. Taking on a definitive role as the party’s ‘anchor’. The centerpiece that makes it all come together, and without whom the party’s efficiency drops drastically.

   In this setup you also want hawkeye to have some abilities equipped that boost the damage you deal when exploiting an enemy’s elemental weakness. All of these bonuses (+dmg to elemental weakness/+40% dmg from duran’s elemental sabers/AoE buffs and debuffs to atk and def) stack to insane heights when put together. Especially when you equip duran’s ‘fraction’ chain skill (ncreases damage done to enemies with moderate elemental resistance by 150%) on hawkeye. Seriously, once you hit 38 it is game over for the baddies. This is one of the most GG EZ parties possible, only surpassed by the next party on my list and even then only when reaching class 3.

   Warning: Do not fall for the increased ninjutsu damage skills with this party composition as these are noob traps. The main point of your ninjutsu is not it’s AoE damage, it is to debuff the enemy while quickly building your CS gauge through those multi-target attacks. That’s all, you want that sweet sweet CS%, so you can unleash hell on your target of choice with a lv3 or lv4 class strike (or lv2 for the small fries). Duran, while powerful, is not your main source of damage. Even though he has access to crit chance and crit dmg boosting skills in addition to his attack saber I&II. He is mainly a supporting character that lets your hawkeye shine the brightest, and baby he is blinding. To quote the zohan; “I’ve seen this, I’ve done this, you don’t want this”.

   Hawkeye Skills:
   – Ninja SP boost
   – Ninja SP boost II
   – Ward Off II
   – Ward Off III
   – Fraction
   – Weak Point II
   – Weak Point III
   – dealer’s choice (put whatever you want in this last slot, but if nothing else enigma fits well here)

   Duran and Riesz skills:
   Anything to amp up the party’s attack, and some crit chance and crit dmg up for duran specifically.

   ~~~~~~~~~~{ Angela(L>L) / Riesz(L>D) / Hawkeye(D>L) }~~~~~~~~~~

   This is a more advanced setup as it makes the class 1 section of the game a bit more challenging. After all the melee portion of your party lacks the elemental saber buffs, and angela is not yet a peak performance. But again, this starts to take a turn once you get class 2. This is the party you want for your second run, if you’re not confident enough to take it the first time around.

   Class 2 is pretty straightforward, As noted in the previous party setup riesz gains her buffs while hawkeye gains his debuffs and increased CS gauge generation, while the new character (angela) starts dishing out AoE spells to great effect. At this point both parties more or less break even with each other, the only real change being playstyle.

   Then once you hit class 3 angela gains access to lucent beam+ and enough crit related skills to cement her position as the highest damage dealer in the game. Adding together multiple crit chance boosts, a sizeable crit dmg boost, an elemental weakness dmg increase, and the sheer number of lucent beams on screen turns every enemy (even boss fights) into chopped liver in no time at all.

   Of course hawkeye and riesz still maintain the roles they had in the previous party, with the only real change being that the main focus will now be on angela. As hawkeye misses some bonusses duran would have given him, and not being the party’s ‘anchor’ changes the skill priorities for hawkeye. He still uses both ninja SP skills for quick CS generation, and still spams class strikes for decent damage in addition to the complete monster that is a properly built angela. This is also why I say hawkeye is a better debuffer than dark charlotte, because even as a full supporter he is just much more versatile and dangerous as long as he takes the ninja master route.

   Angela Skills:
   – Elemental Combo
   – Limit Break II
   – Limit Break III
   – Pinpoint II
   – Pinpoint III
   – Critical Damage II
   – Weak Point II
   – Judge II (or the normal enemy equivalent when not fighting bosses)

   Riesz and Hawkeye Skills:
   Same as before, anything to boost the party’s overall performance and play to it’s strengths. This time you want riesz to amp up angela’s m-atk further, and hawkeye can even take some ninjutsu boosting skills here if you want as he has slots left over. But again, hawkeye’s main source of damage is his class strikes so keep that in mind when making his build.

   Reply

   • I just started playing.. well by just started I completed it for the first time with Kevin/Riesz/Angela. Definitely not an optimal party as Angela basically never uses her magic and Riesz is just “meh”. Kevin though… you can make him an unstoppable mega-tank and with his healing magic literally make him a one man assault team who can literally single handed melt enemy health bars the other two are just there as distractions really.

     Reply

4. I never see anyone mention Reisz, Duran, and Kevin. This is the best team to me because you have Reisz put Str Up on everyone and have Duran give everyone an elemental attack and you will have all 3 characters doing insane physical damage and taking out bosses quickly

   Reply

   • I agree, my main party too.
     Especially if you factor in Kevin‘s ability to inflict Debuff -def on Crits aswell.

     Reply

5. How can you have two teams titled “Boss Killer” and Angela isn’t on either team? Lucent Beam+ the true boss killer.

   Reply

6. Hello, just wanted to share my experiences on teams. After finishing the game 2 times for the 6 stories, i started thinking about “how to kill everything badly, even in hard mode”.
   So, i’m currently destroying the hard mode with my First team opti, it’s :
   Duran : Edelfrei
   Riesz : Fenrir Knight
   Hawkeye : Nomad
   The strat is : Duran has insane power as Edelfrei, because you increase your weapon power by 15%, and you can go berserk, sacrifice your def for great power. You can go +70 atk -70 def, because of Riesz sharing hers. And you can build Critical as Edelfrei.
   Riesz perma debuff the armor of all ennemis / boss in 1 action, and it’s Op cause now Duran hit even harder.
   Hawkeye is here for dps buffs, with auras + random buffs at strat for free + increase critical chance for Duran, which is going even more crazy.

   When i’m done with this team, probably tomorrow for classe 4 and all, going to start another one, magical version, will talk about that later 🙂

   Reply

7. What happened to the post-game setup party of Duran, Hawkeye, and Riesz?

   Reply