Team Building

Constructing an effective team of Irises is key in clearing some of the more difficult content Iris Mysteria has to offer.

This page will explore general tips and tricks that you can use to build strong teams.

## Overview

This page assumes that you have read and are at least aware of the basic game mechanics featured on the Combat page.

Clearing difficult content basically boils down to three factors:

* **Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your existing units well**
* **Knowing the enemies present in the stage(s) you are attempting**
* **A certain degree of RNG (more on this later)**

## General Tips

Irises can generally be divided into these broad categories:

### Roles

**Melee Physical Attackers** deal damage directly to the Enemy Vanguard and should likewise be placed on the Vanguard. Placing them on the Rearguard instead will result in a **-30% damage penalty**.

Damage is roughly calculated via (Iris Attack - Enemy Defense). They are susceptible to enemy  Flight buffs and enemies with naturally high Evasion, as they will be able to dodge their attacks easily.

**Ranged Physical Attackers** can be placed in the Rearguard **without incurring a damage penalty** and excel in sniping enemy units **regardless of their position**, however, they deal considerably less damage compared to their melee counterparts.

**Melee/Ranged Physical Attackers** are flexible and can be placed in the Vanguard or Rearguard, although the Rearguard may be preferred to increase their survivability.

**Magical Attackers** deal magic damage, and can completely bypass the effects of enemy  Flight as well as Evasion. Damage is calculated via (Iris Magic Power - Enemy Magic Power), since the Magic Power stat doubles as your "Magic Attack" and "Magic Defense".

As most magical attackers are squishy, placing them in the **Rearguard** is preferable to increase their survivability.

**Hybrid Attackers** have a wide variety of skills/abilities that allow them to use either physical or magic attacks. Placement should be based on what types of attacks they would use.

For Patricia, as she is relatively tanky and has a high Counter rate, placing her in the Vanguard regardless might be preferable.

**Healers** are units dedicated to restoring the HP of other units, and are extremely important for content such as Trials or long battles in general.

While healers can play a secondary role in dealing magical damage with skills, this is usually not advised unless one has confidence in the number of healing skills needed to sustain their units.

Healers should always be placed in the **Rearguard**.

**Support** units generally provide buffs to other units, boosting attack, defense, magic power, or even MP (Meiou/Mana Points) and generally enhancing the combat effectiveness of your units.

"Support" is generally a secondary role fulfilled by many existing units and as such, placement usually depends on their original role.

**Tanks** are units that possess **incredibly high HP**, come with an array of skills/abilities designed to mitigate damage and possibly even redirect damage meant for other units onto themselves.

Tanks should always be placed in the **Vanguard**.

**Sharon** possesses abilities that allow her to reduce incoming magical damage as well as provide regeneration for herself passively, so she is a possible candidate for a tank as well.

**Laura** comes with incredibly high Evasion stats naturally (even more effective with Priscilla's vanguard evasion buffing ability), and can be used to "dodge-tank" enemies that only deal physical damage.

**Valeria** is a prime example of a "self-sustaining" unit and when combined with Kulcha's vanguard max HP buffing skill, can achieve ridiculous amounts of max HP and self-healing with her Vampirism abilities.

However, she is susceptible to  Curse (prevents healing) as well as **Assassination** from enemies, so having units that remove debuffs or grant the  Divine Protection buff will greatly aid her survivability against such enemies.

**Assassins** are units that have naturally high **Assassination** stats, and can be used to dispatch enemies with extremely high HP (>100k) if RNG is in your favour.

However, be warned that certain boss enemies are immune to it (Assassination will only deal 3x damage instead), and Raid Bosses are completely immune to Assassination and the 3x damage effects, so relying on assassination is not a very effective strategy.