Mechanics

This page covers advanced mechanics tied to customization/battles to really help your characters shine through the toughest content.

## Battle

#### Chaining

   When a skill is performed directly after another skill, a **Skill Chain** occurs, offering bonus damage based on the amount of skills used before. The bonuses are **120%** for chaining 2 skills, **140%** for 3 and **150%** bonus damage for 4. It is important to note that **any attack**, whether it be the enemies or your own auto attacks, in addition to using a skill that does not target the enemy (such as heal) will break the chain. Typically, the last attack in a chain should be the strongest one to really boost your damage. There are even some advanced vocations that can trigger a skill chain in a single turn, such as Armamentalist and Sage.

#### CT Bonuses

   There are ways to increase how quickly your skills fill up. The easiest way is done through the **Overkill** mechanic which triggers a **Skillful Finish**. To do this simply lower an enemies HP to 0, then all the skills you use after that point will count towards the overkill bonus, with the more damage you do allowing for a great bonus to your CT at the end of the current battle. 0-249 damage gives you a 25% CT bonus to your next encounter, 250-499 gives you 50% and 500+ gives you 75%.

Another way to decrease a skill's CT is through **Tricks**. Tricks are special passive abilities tied to a specific skill that lowers that skill's CT, usually learned from advancing a standard vocation to level 70. For example, if you level a Warrior to level 70 then an Armamentalist will gain **Magic Flurry Tricks (Low)** which lowers the CT on Magic Flurry by 3%. It is important to note that this decrease in CT is **not** indicated in the CT of the skill when you hover over it for more information, it is applied in battle.

#### Magic Damage Calculations

How magic damage is done can look confusing at first, but it is easy to grasp once explained. Attack spells, unless otherwise indicated, use the **Magic Attack** stat when calculating damage. Each spell has two values associated with it a **Damage bonus** number and then **Added damage** value. The damage bonus takes your **Magic Attack** and then multiplies it by itself, and then the **Added damage** is tacked on. For example, if you have a **Magic Attack** value of 100 (for simplicity's sake) and cast Sizz which has a Damage bonus of 22 and an Added damage value of 7, the total damage done would be around [(100 \* .27) + 7] = 34.

#### Elemental Resistances

DQotS features the same elemental system the series is known for, alongside the (admittedly confusing) naming conventions. Each boss has its own set of resistances and weaknesses, forcing you to change equipment or skill allocation in order to deal the most optimal damage possible. For conveniences sake, the names/corresponding elements are:

 Rabblerouser | Earth | Rabblerouser

Note that despite Frizz and Sizz both being fire element, they have different resistance within the game. A Frizz charm will not reduce Sizz damage. Frizz spells hit 1 target, Sizz spells hit all party members.

When you hit an enemy with an element it is weak to you will do bonus damage and the text **Brilliant!!** will display indicating you have hit a weakness. **Subpar** displays when the enemy resists that element.

#### Threshold Attacks

   Almost every boss has some sort of threshold attack they do when they are either low on HP or have an entire bar of HP depleted. These are typically either massive self-buffs (such as **Anger**) or AoE attacks that decimate your party. It is important to always plan ahead when doing difficult content and anticipate some sort of retaliation, whether it be applying a defensive buff or healing, prior to lowering the boss's HP.

#### Defending

Defending is a core skill that many players seemingly ignore at first but it is absolutely vital to survive, especially with the aforementioned threshold attacks. When you defend all incoming damage is reduced by 50% for approximately 2 turns, but you cease auto-attacking. Using **any** skill will take you out of the defensive state so be warned. You must equip a shield in order to defend.

## Advanced Customization

#### Skill Allocating

Often times you will faced with bosses that resist a certain element or damage type, and you must change your weapon/skill allocation to guarantee the highest possible damage. This can be accomplished through **setting** skills (and **extracting** them as well).

To set a skill you must be aware of two things, the **skill type** and **skill rank.** There are four types of skills: Attack Skills, Support Skills, Attack Spells and Support Spells. Notice how each skill/spell has a unique icon color and shape. Skill slots in weapons have these same icons that indicate what type of skill can go in the slot. There are also ranks for each skill and skill slot that can prevent you from allocating skills. As an example, a B-Type Support Spell slot  can take a B, C or D Heal spell, but not an A spell. Weapons can be evolved to allow for more skill slots. This can easily be seen when looking at a weapon on this wiki, such as Lightning Sword as an example.

You can also **extract skills** from weapons, which breaks the weapon in question but allows you to allocate the skill to whatever weapon you choose so long as it matches the restrictions discussed before.

#### Level Bonuses

In order to obtain any Specialist Vocation you must first level two Standard Vocations to level 50. Should you choose to continue leveling these Standard Vocations you will get various bonuses that are applied to the Advanced Vocations every 10 levels. The most important boosts you can receive are the **Tricks** mentioned before, which boosts your CT reduction by 3% at level 70 and 5% at level 90.

Leveling a Specialist Vocations past Level 50 grants additional boosts as well, but the most noteworthy one is at Level 80, in which the passive you get is applied to **all other specialist vocations**.

#### Revocation

This only applies to **Advanced Vocations**. Essentially, once you hit level 99 you are able to revocate, or go back to level 1 again. You retain all of your stats and equipment and now sport a flashy green icon next to your level. You **will** not gain stats anymore when you level up, instead you gain stat boosts or skill boosts every 10 levels. For example, Sage gains **Max HP +3** at level 10, **Resilience +3** at level 20 and an upgrade to Zing at level 30.