Name: Protagonist
Class: Highlander
Traits: Very high burst damage, Elemental damage follow-up, Some support abilities
Rating: 9/10
For the most part of EOU's story run, you are really going to be relying quite hard on your protagonist to do the brunt of the damage. While the main story has 3 potentially powerful main damage dealers, the Highlander is easily your hardest hitter, and can be considered the main carry of the team for most of the game. Being a newly introduced class, the Highlander is capable of many things, but there's only one thing bringing him down: most of his abilities eat away at his HP. Much like the Dark Knight from "Final Fantasy" games, this guy sacrifices some HP to do some nasty damage. Luckily, that isn't enough to wear him down, the Highlander is easily my favorite class among the story party.
The Highlander's kit stands out quite a fair bit. He does have some support abilities going on for him in the form of Black Sabbath to heal the party, or Battle Instinct to prevent ailments, which is a godsend. He can also increase the team's elemental defense and their ailment success rate, but these are only icing on the cake: if you really want to maximize the Highlander, you'll be solely focusing on his offensive abilities. His most devastating and high damaging combination would be the Delayed Charge+Cross Charge duo, which does an epic amount of damage, especially when charged with Limitless and buffed with Bloody Offense, both of which are abilities that he can learn. Repeated casts of these 2 abilities as Simon tops you up with heals can very quickly ensue a boss's doom. There's also Spear Assist, which has the Highlander follow-up a powerful elemental attack with a team mate's elemental attack, much like a Land's chasing skills. Considering Frederica and Arthur, this is also a very reliable form of damage.
Name: Frederica Irving
Class: Gunner
Traits: Elemental damage, Binds, Minor Heals, Action Boost
Rating: 7/10
While the Gunner isn't as OP in EOU, Frederica is still a decent damage dealer for the team. While being a very squishy character that dies a lot even in the back line, she pulls her weight quite well with proper set-up. While her damage is fairly pitiful in the early segments of the game, with points into the proper abilities, you'll start to see her damage take off, especially with Arthur's Dilution doing work. Frederica specializes in doing elemental damage...mostly. She can do some physical damage, but in all honesty, she's quite pathetic in that regard with the Gunner's poor physical offensive move set. However, being a gunner, she does have a couple of things going for her which makes her shine.
She won't be hitting as hard as Arthur, but her Charged elemental shots can put in some work. Realistically, those will be your best chances to do some decent damage with Frederica, but since her defense is reduced and she will always go last before she fires, she definitely needs protection from Raquna while putting in work. By right, that isn't enough, so to cover for it, she can assist with binds when needed, and while its quite pitiful, she can heal on the field (though it's too poor to be used in a fight). Her shining star ability is going to be Action Boost, which is a bread and butter ability to pass on to other classes, since its THAT good. Being able to move multiple times is a godsend, and if this does proc, she is going to be hitting for insane amounts. Then again, its all RNG, so she only really works if she wants to. Still, she's going to be a source of damage either way.
Class: Medic
Traits: Heals, Defensive Support
Rating: 9/10
Yeah, you're going to NEED Simon in this game. While his stats may not be perfect for being a Medic, you will still need his antics to survive. While the medic has remain mostly unchanged throughout the EO games, its still fairly apparent that you're going to need them to survive. Since he is pretty much our only source of healing in this game, Simon is a godsend. His role is pretty simple, he's here to keep the team on their feet. Healing, removing binds, status ailments....you name it. Sure, he can do some crazy stuff like poisoning or paralyzing enemies with low success rate, but most of the time, Simon will be too busy with making sure the team survives to even bother.
With the suicidal Highlander and 2 squishy characters in the back line, Simon's job as the healer in this game isn't an easy one. On expert (which is the only difficulty in this game IMO), most bosses can one shot Frederica and Arthur through Raquna's protection even at full HP, so Simon really has got to step up his game as the healer here. As usual, he's got the single target and full team heals. He can revive with...Revive, and remove status ailments with Refresh. Unbind removes binds, and Immunize increases elemental defense just in case Raquna can't use any of her Anti abilities. If you still need more, he's got CPR to ensure that the team has another chance of revival through RNG.
Name: Raquna Sheldon
Class: Protector
Traits: Team Defender, Elemental Defense, Minor Heals, Bravery's Gift
Rating: 8/10
Shoot, they really gimped up the protector for EOU. I never was a fan of Protectors since they did absolutely no damage, but with high DPS on your team, you can afford to take them along. I felt that the team in EOU was SLIGHTLY underwhelming, but Raquna will really save the team multiple times. If you look at it properly, the lineup in EOU other than Raquna is REALLY lacking in the tankiness department, which spells doom against bosses on expert. Being the Protector, her job is well, to protect the team, and as usual, she's got the tools for the job.
As usual, the Protector has basic defensive abilities to cover for the team like the all-important Front and Rear guard. The damage reduction is a must to sustain against most things on expert, and its what she will be doing most of the time against powerful enemies. Defender increases defense for 3 turns, further increasing survivability, and her elemental walls are an absolute godsend against elemental AOE killers, which many enemies pack, especially against the 3 dragons. She can heal, albeit its going to be meager compared to Simon, but hey, she can use it on the field. Honestly, that's all she's going to be doing in a boss fight, but then against the big boys, she can bust out Bravery's Gift, which has her increase her max HP and take hits for the whole team. This. Is. Broken. Considering how high her defenses are, she can easily tank hits for the entire team when you place her in the back line, which has GOT to be a design flaw. When you reach the late game, having Raquna on the back line spamming Bravery's Gift is honestly a little broken. Of course, make sure her hands aren't bound.
Name: Arthur Charles
Class: Alchemist
Traits: Elemental damage
Rating: 7/10
Arthur and Frederica fill up the secondary DPS slot in the team. If I had to choose one over the other, I'd say Arthur does more damage....consistently, anyway. When Frederica procs Action Boost, she obviously hits harder, but when we're taking the RNG factor out of the way, Arthur has it down. The Alchemist has always been the primary elemental damage dealer in the early EO games, and Arthur does just that. Whether you need to take out a singular enemy of a group of them, Arthur's formulas have got you covered.
Don't expect much from Arthur in the early game, especially against regular mobs where his TP burns out WAY too fast. It's a little better against bosses where he can go all out, but there are many times in a normal expedition where you feel Arthur is dead weight because you don't want him wasting TP on small fry. Anyway, most bosses have elemental weaknesses, making Arthur worthwhile to have along. Especially against bosses with multiple parts, his AOE formulas tear through the enemies where the Highlander and Frederica are more of single target damage dealers. Especially when paired together with Analysis and Dilution, he is going to do some massive damage. Hell, Dilution even works great along with Frederica, seeing as she's primarily elemental damage.
