Toggle Background Color

Troubadour



May I compare thee to a summer's day? Troubadours are an absolutely great support class, buffing the whole party with their sweet melodies that last ALL BATTLE (so amazing against Bosses and FOEs) and swatting flies from the back with their bows, or swords if you're feeling adventurous. The difference between bringing a Troubadour or not is incredibly noticeable and really worth it if you don't mind a member not contributing damage wise. But as you'll see, they absolutely can contribute damage wise depending on the skill and they're basically a necessity in the postgame, but we'll get to that.



Troubadours have pretty good stats, obviously made to be in the back lines, but they won't immediately fall over if something looks at them like the Alchemist. Their HP is, uh, pretty bad, but their TP lets them spam their skills alright. Don't expect them to actually damage stuff with their meh STR, but they'll be busy buffing the party to begin with anyway. Their VIT isn't too amazing either, being on par with some of the squishier classes, but with their higher AGI they can be pretty quick, since their skills don't have too bad speed modifiers. They have the highest LUC, so yay, they'll boost item drops, otherwise it's useless. Finally they have meh TEC and can't do much with it, so oh well.

HP Up
Unlocks: Stamina (LV3), Healing (LV5)
Passive.


That's a nice boost to HP if you want to invest in it early enough, since the Troubadour has a pretty low HP pool. Since they're in the back most of the time, they won't get hit very often, so having some more HP means they'll stick around, as they'll need to apply buffs again if anyone dies. However, the skill itself can be a tricky sell due to the mediocre skills it unlocks.

TP Up
Unlocks: Relaxing (LV5), Stalker (LV5)
Passive.


You might think a 50% boost TP would be amazing for a class that sings all day erry day, but that's not really the case. Because songs last as long as the recipient is alive, you won't be using your skills very much, unless it's to reapply them. You won't be using that many different songs since you only have 3 buff slots and Defender and Immunize are just too good to ignore. Add on Relaxing on top of this and you might not need to bother with this skill. Still, it you want to make your Troubadour have basically endless TP and recover TP with Relaxing AND THEN have the TP boosting Instruments equipped, then this is good to take and then fill out in the postgame. HP Up is more worth it though.

Songs
Unlocks: Bravery (LV1), Shelter (LV1), Mercury (LV1), Erasure (LV3), Recovery (LV3), Stamina (LV3), Blaze (LV5), Frost (LV5), Shock (LV5), Ifrit (LV7), Ymir (LV7), Taranis (LV7), Relaxing (LV7), Divinity (LV10)
Passive.
BUG: Game incorrectly states this skill does nothing, it actually boosts the speed of song skills.


Well now, only having one mastery skill means that you only have one choice to get the good stuff. Songs unlocks a lot of good stuff and the speed boost is alright, but not exactly something to rely on, but what the hell, max it, you might want Divinity, depending on your strats. You at least want it to get the elemental buffs at level 7, with Relaxing being a nice little addition too if you're feeling the TP drain.

Bravery
Unlocks: Blaze (LV3), Frost (LV3), Shock (LV3)
Prerequisites: Songs LV1
Boosts STR for the entire party. Song skill, uses the Head.


Huh, that was fast, we've already reached the best song skill. Seriously, a pretty good attack boost that lasts forever and usually goes before anyone else can attack that you can get basically immediately? Holy crap. During longer battles this skill racks up damage SUPER FAST, though like most skills it falls off past level 5. Still, you should max this and use it in basically every fight, it's pretty nuts and is the main reason to use a Troubadour, since it doesn't step on the toes of the Protector or Medic.

Shelter
Prerequisites: Songs LV1
Boosts DEF for the entire party. Song skill, uses the Head.


You can understand why a DEF boost isn't as great as an ATK boost. Killing stuff is better than surviving stuff, but since it only boosts your party's DEF and doesn't reduce damage by a percentage like Immunize or Defender, it's not as impressive, especially compared to Immunize, but that's an unfair comparison. Still, it could help you survive a few things here and there, but that slot is much better suited for Bravery, though you can definitely use both. Compared to other defense boosts, it just doesn't match up, so it's probably a pass.

Mercury
Prerequisites: Song LV1
Boosts AGI for the entire party. Song skill, uses the Head.


Ah, another AGI boosting skill. Again, this won't matter much since either you're faster than the opponent, making this skill useless, or this skill will tweak the numbers just enough for you to outspeed, cause if not, you look like a dumbass. While it might be nice to try this out, it's not a good song when you have other excellent options like Bravery, so just ignore this one, the speed numbers are just too mean in this game.

Erasure
Prerequisites: Songs LV3
Removes a certain number of an opponent's buffs. Song skill, uses the Head.


This is a pretty good skill, as being able to just slap down whatever shit the enemy is able to pull is pretty rad. However, you absolutely should not max this skill, very few enemies even have the ability to get 3 buffs on them and if they do, they'll probably wanna debuff you instead, so it'll be rare they'll have 3 full buffs up. For enemies that just lay down an attack buff or a super annoying Fire resist buff (im not mad), then it's super useful. So get it so you get rid of 2 buffs on that rare case and leave it at that. And if an enemy gets up 3 buffs? Well, why did you let it?

Recovery
Prerequisites: Songs LV3
Increases the party's natural recovery of ailments starting from the next turn. Song skill, uses the Head.


Another tricky skill from what is starting to turn into a discount Medic. Ailments have a chance of lasting for a certain amount of turns and when maxed, this skill makes all ailments only last 1-2 turns, since they can vary from 3-7 turns. If, of course, at max level it reduces the timer by a third, we're not certain. In any case, you're still dealing with an ailment for a turn or two, but at least Confusion, Blind and Curse are wiped out immediately. Sleep, Paralysis, Fear and Poison have a 50% chance of sticking for 2 turns, so why not just use a Theriaca B or Refresh instead? It's awkward to work and mostly useless until the later levels, so don't bother with it.

Stamina
Prerequisites: Songs LV3
Increases the party's base HP. Does not recover the health gained. Song skill, uses the Head.


An interesting, if tricky, skill, that increases your base HP, but crucially does not recover the HP you gain, so you'll need to heal it on that turn, or after. This means you should not use this skill to try and survive a hit, since it won't work on that turn. Bit annoying, but the HP boost can be pretty significant, especially at later levels, turning 2HKOs into 3HKOs, which can be super important late game. It does require a bit of set up though and can screw you if it wasn't enough and they die, removing the buff. Maybe don't take so much damage?

Blaze/Frost/Shock
Prerequisites: Songs LV5, Bravery LV3
Imbues the target's basic attack damage with an additional Fire/Ice/Volt attribute damage. Single target Song skill, uses the Head.


Now these are pretty nice skills you'll pick up cause the prerequisites are easy to get. While it only affects basic attacks, it's as if you were attacking twice, once with your damage type and then again with an elemental attack. Add in elemental weaknesses and the damage can very quickly rack up. However, since there's not much elemental chasing in these games, it makes it tough to justify using these skills, especially since levelling them up doesn't increase the damage. Still, if your party members have nothing better to do, it's not a bad way to boost their damage against a big enemy. Still, you could just use an elemental oil instead of wasting your Troubadour's turn, buuuuuut, it makes your party use their TEC stat for once in their damn life, even if the bonus damage from that stat is pretty minimal.

Ifrit/Ymir/Taranis
Prerequisites: Songs LV7
Increases the party's resistance to Fire/Ice/Volt damage and decreases the enemy's resistance to Fire/Ice/Volt damage for 5 turns. Song skill, uses the Head.


These skills are super useful in the game, even if they're not permanent, like most Song skills. This makes certain conditionals a lot easier to try for, can make elemental weaknesses do so much damage and can be a fine alternative to the Protector's Anti walls (though with certain enemy skills (ESPECIALLY LATE GAME) they should not be a full substitute at all). They just cost a lot of SP if you want them all on a class that really likes the variety of their songs, so it's not recommended to max all of them. But damn they can be useful to compound the damage and make certain sections a breeze.

Healing
Prerequisites: Songs LV7, HP Up LV5
Recovers a certain percentage of the party's HP each turn. Song skill, uses the Head.


This song can be pretty useful as a way to keep your Medic from healing every single turn for eternity, but you need to invest a lot into it to actually make it noticeable. At max level it'll take 6 turns to reach max HP, which isn't amazing, but it can be helpful to keep you topped up. If you find a weak enemy you can take little damage against then you can just set this and wait and save items and keep exploring. Otherwise, it's nothing too amazing.

Relaxing
Prerequisites: Songs LV7, TP Up LV7
Recovers a certain percentage of the party's TP each turn. Song skill, uses the Head.


This song is much more useful than Healing, since TP recovery is much harder to come by. It's very easy to just set this at the start of the battle and just let it give you some good stuff. It takes a while to get going, however, so it'll be more useful in the late game, but if you can find a weak enemy to grind off, then you can keep exploring the labyrinth so long as you have bag space free. If you can Boost it as well, then you'll be making mad bank, though Bravery could use it more. Still, during long battles, this can be real nice, if nothing special, gives you a turn or two before you have to actually recover TP and isn't that what Etrian Odyssey is all about? Putting off TP recovery as long as possible?

Divinity
Prerequisites: Songs LV10
Passive.


Woah woah, hold on there. Before you beeline for this skill immediately, you should know that these numbers apply to the overall experience at the end of the battle, which is then divided by 5 to give to a full party, so everyone gets 6% extra. Now that might not seem like much, but when you get this skill going and go through the whole game, it will add up A LOT. And it stacks too, so if you're crazy to use more than one Troubadour, you'll be rolling in it. It's also useful to bring other members up in levels if you want to make the frog grind quicker. With 4 Troubadours maxed with this skill, your trainee will get... 37% more experience. Which might not be worth it, let's be honest. Look, take what you can get with this game, but it's very much a slow burn kinda skill, you'll see the effects late game, no doubt. But another problem is when you reach the level cap... the skill is useless and you've got 10 dead SP. So, uh, that could be a problem if your Troubadour wants other, more useful, skills.

Stalker
Unlocks: Return (LV3)
Prerequisites: TP Up LV5
Reduces the encounter rate for a set amount of steps. Field skill.


If you get this skill and Divinity, you're a fucking idiot.

Return
Prerequisites: Stalker LV3
Returns to the most recent staircase used, cannot be used successively, if a pitfall was used, or if you return to town. Field skill.


Yuck. This skill could be useful for general exploration if you need to fast track to some stairs for whatever reason, but it requiring Stalker and having so many caveats just makes it pretty shitty. Just use a Warp Wire and stop getting these garbage Field skills! Christ!

TAKE this as a hint I only have 2 of these left to write.