Last Cloudia - Physical DPS Builds

When trying to build Physical Units, you'll want to look for passives and equipment that directly increase their STR, or that offer a damage boost under certain conditions.

You'll also want to balance the amount of Unit souls you spend both on Awakening and increasing the SC cap. If you're just starting out, I recommend spending your souls on the first two Awakenings first, which will cost you 30 and 60 souls respectively.

This is because at first you won't have access to that many skills to equip your character with, so 20 SC should be plenty for getting the essentials. As a general rule, you should expand SC only when you need the extra capacity, just be wary that the soul cost increases every five levels.

Before trying to learn any of these skills, make sure your Unit can't already learn them via their Ability Tree. This is an easy way to waste a lot of Blue/Red Souls, since there's no benefit to learning the same skill twice.

Here are a number of Arks that provide a significant boost early in the game. None of these skills take higher than Ark level 4 to attain, so you can comfortably aim for them before finishing the story.

Aurora Glacier (R) to Lv 2

• Lv 2 - Drain: Reduce an enemy's defense by 20%. Pretty handy to have for bulky bosses with high defense, at only 10 MP a pop.

Beast Hunter (SR) to Lv 4

• Lv 1 - Beast Killer: There are a lot of beast enemies throughout story, and this will help out a lot in taking them on
• Lv 2 - Pride: Increases STR by 20% when at max HP. This skill becomes better when combined with skills that restore your HP while fighting, but still solid early on.
• Lv 4 - Surprise Attack: A whopping 50% damage increase when attacking from the back. One of the strongest skills you can get for now.

Flaming Hero (SR) to Lv 2 or 4

• Lv 1 - Plant Killer: Likewise, there are a lot of plant enemies this will help you against.
• Lv 2 - Victory Pose: Restore HP by 5% after killing an enemy with physical attacks. Helps survival on stages with a large amount of waves.
• Lv 4 - Critical Up II: Increases Critical chance by 5%. Key for critical builds.

Pirate Ship Legnis (SSR) at Lv 1

• Lv 1 - Breaker: Increases the break value against bosses. A great skill to equip on boss fights in general, as enemies will lose a considerable amount of defenses when on Break status.

Skyship Lonvalion (SSR) to Lv 3

• Lv 3 - Attack Up III: Increases STR by 8%.

Having some of these on should help you finish out Story and most of the extra Subquests available at launch. Don't fret if you don't have some of these Arks available, you can do without any of these. This is true for all of the next recommendations as well.

You've completed story, cleared some of the subquests and your Orb spots are now on a relatively high level (after a week of play or so). Now you can slowly start aiming for your first level 10 Arks, which will mostly be R or SR rarity, since they cost significantly less to upgrade than SSR ones.

Geist Training Arena (R) to Lv 10

• Lv 6 - Fast Brave: Automatic Brave buff (STR 20%) at the start of battle. Vital for every physical build, and incredibly cheap at 2 SC.
• Lv 10 - Attack Up Max: Increases STR by 15%. The highest of the STR boosting passives, again pretty key for any physical Unit.

Broken Sword at the Shore (R) (optional) to Lv 7 or 10

• Lv 7 - Proud Force: Slightly restores HP when landing a critical hit. Incredibly useful to have on Units with high-hit count skills like Robin. Sevia already learns it naturally, and it really helps her survivability. Just remember to equip the Unit with Crit% boosting gear or passives to make full use of it.
• Lv 10 - Sword Equipment: Great for Units with a poor weapon-type selection, like Rei. Especially since swords are easily the best physical weapon type.

Divine Beast Hunter (SSR) to Lv 6

• Lv 4 - Aim: Vitals: Increases Critical damage by 30%. Another powerful skill for crit builds.
• Lv 6 - Sky High: Increase physical damage by 20% against flying or floating enemies. This is amazing on units with skills that launch the enemy up in the air, such as Shin or Sevia (Gravein already learns this from his tree).

You've now got all of your Orb Spots maxed and ready to go. Your orb production can't get any higher, and thus your focus will turn towards the more expensive SSR Arks, which usually provide the most powerful (and costly) skills.

Pirate Ship Legnis (SSR) to Lv 10

• Lv 7 - Fish Slayer: Increases physical damage against the Fish race.
• Lv 10 - Pirate's Feast: Fully replenishes all skill charges at the end of a wave. A crucial skill for any physical unit, as it will vastly improve your stage clearing speed.

Sandwyrm (SSR) to Lv 10

• Lv 4 - Double Impact: Inflicts additional damage on a normal attack. Also stacks with Impact and Triple Impact.
• Lv 10 - Dual Wield: A very powerful (and expensive) skill to have. It will cost your unit a whopping 14 SC to equip, but it's very worth it. While equipping a 2nd weapon on your armor slot, you will strike for double the amount of hits, albeit at a reduced multiplier for each. It's still a very noticeable increase in damage output.

Beast Hunter (SR) to Lv 10

• Lv 9 - Beast Slayer: Increases physical damage by 50% against the Beast race. This works exactly like killer, but also makes Skills and Ultimates extra effective. With the large amount of beast-type enemies in the game, this is usually worth your time.
• Lv 10 - Critical Up III: Increase Critical chance by 7%. A cornerstone for critical builds.

The Arks on this list shouldn't be made a priority over the above ones. The skills they have, however, are very useful in the right situations, such as facing enemies from a specific race or using a particular Unit.

Heavens Bow Star-Lord (SSR) to Lv 6, 9 or 10

• Lv 6 - Bird Slayer: Increases physical damage dealt to the Bird race.
• Lv 9 - Piercing: Physical attacks have a great chance to reduce enemy defense. Good for bulky enemies.
• Lv 10 - Magleon: For now only Lilebette can benefit from this skill. Will increase the power of normal attacks the farther the unit is from the enemy (caps at 50% increase).

Eternal Clock De Rowe (SR) to Lv 10

• Lv 10 - Auto-Haste: Permanent Haste buff (25% SCT speed). This skill would be very powerful, if not for its incredibly high cost (14 SC). Most players will usually prefer to use their points elsewhere, especially if they have access to Pirate's Feast. A good pick for PvP however, whenever that comes out.

Menon, Grave of the Blademaster (SR) to Lv 8 or 10

• Lv 8 - Undead Slayer: Increase physical damage dealt to the Undead race.
• Lv 10 - Holy Aura: Increase the STR given by equipped gear. Usually this skill is very costly (9 SC) for the amount of STR it provides.

Arks with Slayer skills

If you have nothing else to work on, or if you're looking forward to facing a certain type of enemy, these Arks have access to several different Slayer skills that will vastly increase your damage output against certain races:

• Bloody Moon (SR): Lv 9 - Spirit Slayer.
• Secret Room of the Hermit (SR): Lv 8 - Insect Slayer
• Flaming Hero (SR): Lv 9 - Plant Slayer
• Divine Beast Hunter (SSR): Lv 10 - God Slayer
• Raynicul, Dragon Treasure (SSR): Lv 10 - Dragon Slayer