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Hexer
Can equip: Staves, Clothing
What a terrible night to have level 10 Curses. Hexers weren't very good last game, you got them 3/5ths through the game and their only great skill was Sapping, since enemy ATK was pretty nuts. They had some utility, but were outclassed by Dark Hunters and were basically useless against Bosses. So of course when it came to this game, they needed a buff. AND BOY DID THEY GET ONE!!! Hexers are the most powerful class in the entire series, the amount of shit this class can do is absolutely insane. Between broken skills like Dampen and Revenge, they have crazy utility in Frailty, Torpor, Poison, binds, Suicide, pretty much everything about them got buffed and despite having a few issues that stick around from last game, this class is another way you can completely destroy any semblance of difficulty this game has. Enough teasing, let's get right into it!
In the first game, they were pretty much one of the worst classes in the game, if not the worst class due to being unlocked super late and the actual class itself was pretty mediocre, in a game that makes grinding incredibly difficult. So they weren't worth it to use. Now not only are they available from the start, they also got some MEGA BUFFS in the transition to EO2! They basically went from one of the weakest classes to complete gods of destruction that's basically a walking middle finger to several of the game's mechanics!
Of course, one of the big negatives of Hexers is their stats, it's all gotten a nerf from the last game, mainly because their level 99 stats in this game are the exact same as the level 70 stats in the previous game. Weird, but it does mean that ALL of their stats are worse than before. And it doesn't matter. Their LUC and HP are the two most important stats and they're... fine, it's a little easier to land ailments and binds in this game due to formula changes and like before their large TEC doesn't matter since they have nothing to use it with. For whatever reason Gunners have higher LUC than Hexers, but again, even with these low stats, the Hexer is still the best class in the series, so it's a pretty moot point.
Pretty much the only stats that matter for a Hexer are their defensive ones and TP. LUC is used in the infliction formula now, but uh, it doesn't really matter that much because LUC has a rather small effect. So they're basically a stat independent class since most of their skills (barely) scale off of their stats. AGI isn't much of a factor because Staves weigh them down to turtle levels of slow, and they only have 1 attacking skill, which has really high innate accuracy anyway. And one of the more popular ways to use a Hexer turns them into a glass cannon, so if you choose to use yours that way, don't bother investing in VIT. Though HP is probably one of the most important stats to invest in for that playstyle. Just trust me on this.
Common Passive Unlocks
TP Up: Lv5: Scavenge
TEC Up: Lv5: Scavenge
Well that's not very interesting. Scavenge is identical to the Medic's version, so this is one skill you absolutely want to get because of how stupid it is, and you need Scavenge to unlock Dampen, so yes, yes indeed. The 5 points of TEC are a bit wasted, but since the Hexer doesn't need many stats, you can invest in HP and TP and be just fine, maybe even LUC if you have space but Hexer's are very SP hungry because of all their ridiculous skills, so it's whatever.
Curses
Unlocks: Lv1: Sapping, Frailty, Leaden, Blinding; Lv2: Poison; Lv3: Cranial, Abdomen, Immobile, Torpor; Lv4: Evil Eye; Lv5: Paralysis; Lv6: Corrupt; Lv7: Revenge; Lv10: Dampen
BUGGED: Has no data, so does absolutely nothing, despite the game saying otherwise.
Okay, uh, not a great start. Last game, Curses was a 30% boost even if the game said otherwise, and now this time the game says this boosts the user's skills, but it actually does nothing at all. So this is a point sink, but since you need to max it out for Dampen, that doesn't matter. Now, if you didn't want to use Dampen, then you should get it up to 7 for Revenge. If you're ALSO not using that skill, then okay the Hexer won't be as good, but you could stop much earlier. If you have a War Magus, then Curse actually does something for once, so Corrupt is worth it, otherwise you can stop at Evil Eye. Also please remember that we still say this is the best class in the series EVEN THOUGH THEIR MASTERY SKILL DOES NOTHING!!!
Nothing much to say other than this skill got bugged into oblivion. Now it does nothing, so level it up as much as you need to, and nothing more. Of course if you want access to some of the most broken skills in the game, you'll have to max this out at some point anyways.
Scavenge
Prerequisites: TP Up Lv5, TEC Up Lv5
Unlocks: Lv5: Dampen
Additively increases drop rates. Stacks with itself. Passive.
It's back again and still as busted as ever. Since you're maxing this out to get to a stupid good skill, this gives another edge to Hexers, as they'll give you lots of drops and thus lots of money, making them even more worthwhile in taking along. It can even be worth taking a Medic and a Hexer to scary postgame fights to get some good rates, but you could also take 2 Hexers instead and have an easier time, so it's up to you.
If you saw Scavenge on Medic and wanted some of that action, but didn't want to cart around a Medic, don't worry, this class is here to fill that need! And a Hexer is a much stronger class to cart around so they can completely break the concept of random drops. You also have to max this out to get one of the most broken skills in the game, so there's little reason not to pick this up if you're going for that.
Sapping
Prerequisites: Curses Lv1
Reduces all enemy's ATK for 5 turns. Curse skill, uses the Head.
Sapping was probably the best Hexer skill last game due to some dummy thicc ATK stats towards the end of the game that went as high as the 400s, so the 60% reduction could do a lot of work, it was useful all throughout the game. Uh, not that you could use Hexers in EO1's early game when they were most useful. ANYWAY, Sapping got a few nerfs that make it pretty mediocre, enemies now have properly scaled ATK and DEF values so it takes off less of their bite, and it only goes as low as 80%, which is kinda pathetic. Add in a more survivable set of classes and you'll find that you don't really need Sapping that much anymore. It can still be useful, you want to take 1 point to remove ATK buffs, but it's definitely one of the weaker skills this time around, a real shame.
Oh dear, how the tables have turned. Sapping was a fantastic debuff in the last game, but it's a bit weaker here. It's an alright defensive though not likely what you'll be using a Hexer for. It's essentially a defense buff that doesn't eat up one of your buff slots, and debuffs are more valuable because of that, so it might be worth investing in slightly. However, this game really favors killing your enemies fast over playing defensively, so this skill isn't really a popular choice as a result. May want to take at least 1 point in it to dispel attack buffs at least.
Frailty
Prerequisites: Curses Lv1
Reduces all enemy's damage resistances for 5 turns. Does not affect Untyped damage. Curse skill, uses the Head.
Frailty has gotten an interesting change compared to last game. It was alright before, but since enemy DEF never got that high, it was never hugely effective. This time it actually makes all enemies weaker to all damage types, which makes it pretty great for other elemental attackers. It's can be useful in making resistances much softer, such as turning a 50% resistance into a 66% resistance, but the main draw is compounding weaknesses, making a 125% resistance into a 165% resistance at max level. Because it only affects resistances, it doesn't change Untyped damage, alas, but if it goes over 110%, it'll activate an Alchemist's Analysis so it is useful in that regard. Because of how little it really changes resistances, Dampen is a better pick for that, but for weaknesses, this is a way to stack good damage fast.
Frailty got a really good buff due to a change in mechanics. In the first game it lowered the DEF stat which... didn't do a whole lot in that game's damage formula. Here it affects the damage multipliers of an enemy, which is a much bigger buff! It also combos nicely with an Alchemist, since Frailty can create weaknesses if a damage multiplier goes over 110%! The downside of that is because it only affects damage multipliers and not your party's outgoing damage directly, it won't affect Untyped damage, so Megido and Eschaton won't get a boost. It doesn't stack with Dampen, another defensive debuff, so it has to compete with that. Frailty is better for amplifying normal damage multipliers and weaknesses, while Dampen is far better for dealing with resistances. If you're using an elemental oriented party, you'll want to focus more on this over Dampen.
Leaden
Prerequisites: Curses Lv1
Reduces all enemy's AGI for 5 turns. Curse skill, uses the Head.
And we end with a whimper, Leaden has never been all that great, but it is better than last game. AGI isn't divided by 5 this time around for whatever godforsaken reason and it does decrease AGI by quite a bit, so you would notice the difference. However, going first in a lot of cases usually isn't that big a deal, and Hexers have much better things to be doing than wasting 10SP into something like this. It's cool that it actually does something now, but that doesn't make it good.
Leaden is still basically the worst of the 3 basic debuffs the Hexer has access to. Due to the still fucked up speed system, it won't change the turn order too much. Fast characters will still go first, and slow characters will still move last most of the time. Reducing AGI does reduce accuracy and evasion, but doing so doesn't reduce it by a huge amount. Frailty is a better use of a debuff slot and the Hexer has a lot of other places they want to spend their SP.
DAMPEN
Prerequisites: Curses Lv10, Scavenge Lv5
Removes an enemy's resistances and immunities for 5 turns and sets all 6 damage resistances to the corresponding values, higher values remain. Is the last debuff checked for, so does not stack with Frailty, Ifrit, Ymir or Taranis. Curse skill, uses the Head.
Here it is, the best skill in the entire game. What the heck were they thinking with this? It takes a while to get to, but after this you'll be able to easily cleave through every enemy you encounter and completely sidestep their intended strategy. No matter the enemy resistances or weaknesses, at max level this sets the enemy's resistances to 120%, no matter what. If they had anything below 100%, it's now a weakness, if it was above 120%, that still fucking sticks, all you gain is weaknesses, no drawbacks, use it on any damn enemy you fancy.
The biggest boon is it gives physical weaknesses as well, which are pretty rare, making your Ronin or DH even more potent, as if they needed more help. For general weaknesses, Frailty will compound them, so it's easier to use that instead, but if you want to wipe out an enemy's resistances and make them so incredibly easy to burst down, then this all you need, it's so stupid. At least it doesn't give an Almighty resistance, though that's not really a thing until next game.
So say hello to one of the most broken skills in the entire game, if not the most broken! Yes that is right, Dampen eliminates resistances entirely! Oh they were immune to fire attacks? Now they take 120% damage from it. It's so busted, that a skill like this was never reused in the entire series, while all other broken skills usually came back in a nerfed form. The concept of resistances is one a Hexer gives a middle finger to, as they can convert them to weaknesses. This skill also especially shines in physical oriented parties (which tend to be the meta type of party) as quite a bit in this game resists physical attacks, and Dampen deals with that issue handily, allowing them to shred their targets within a few turns. It is so stupidly busted and yet another thing that elevates Hexer to a god of destruction.
Cranial/Abdomen/Immobile
Prerequisites: Curses Lv3
Attempts to inflict Head/Arm/Leg Bind on a single target. Curse skill, uses the Head.
Now it's bind time! They trade the damage of the DH or Gunner's binds for higher infliction rate, not that it's a huge issue since the game boosts your bind rate if you keep missing, so on average you'll probably land with enough tries on each class. Still, these are nice skills to have, though since it's covered by other classes, ESPECIALLY the DH's Dominate, the Hexer can focus on multi target ailments, which are pretty phenomenal. If you don't have those classes, then Abdomen is usually a good pick due to all the physical attackers everywhere, though Cranial is a very important skill for very dangerous enemies. As always Immobile gets the short stick, but there are some deadly Leg skills out there, though due to the ease of Dominate, there's really not much of a reason. The Hexer is SP strapped, so these are skills you could skip easily enough.
Take whichever ones you want. If you wish to avoid Dominate cheese, like I said with the Dark Hunter, Cranial and Abdomen would be good choices for binds. Unlike in the first game, it's not quite as important to snag all binds as the boss AI was designed differently in this game. They won't switch body parts if you bind a specific one. They can end up wasting a lot of turns trying to use a body part that was bound, which is a pretty huge buff. With that in mind, not a whole lot of deadly skills are attached to the legs, and nullifying evasion isn't really a huge deal in this game compared to the later titles, so Immobile is probably a safe skip if you absolutely have to.
Blinding/Torpor/Paralysis/Corrupt
Prerequisites: Curses Lv1/Lv3/Lv5/Lv6
Attempts to inflict Blind/Sleep/Paralysis/Curse on all enemies. Curse skill, uses the Head.
Here's a massive glow up from last game. We'll touch on Evil Eye and Poison in just a moment, but multi target ailments are so good, letting you roll multiple chances at once, and a great infliction rate too for how much you invest. While Blind and Paralysis aren't amazing ailments, Sleep and Curse are. Well, the latter is only useful with a Cursecut War Magus, otherwise it's as useless as ever, but multi target Sleep is kind of insane in letting your party get setup and burst the enemy down. Because they have great speed modifiers as well, you're likely to land a few before the rest of your party attacks, which is great for Sleep strats. They're just good skills to spam and try your luck with, you'll get good uses out of all of them if you want to invest a piddly 5SP, but Torpor is definitely the best one. Or at least, one of the best ones, we still have...
Now that ailment resistances are separate stats, you don't have to be stuck using the best ailment or not even bothering. Blind can be pretty decent since it reduces accuracy by 75% and can be used to dodge some really deadly attacks late in the game. Paralysis is basically worthless. Evil Eye does the exact same thing and can be used to combo into more of the Hexer's skillset, can be picked up sooner, and Paralysis and Fear have similar ailment multipliers on enemies.
Curse is slightly better than it was in EO1 due to enemies having smaller HP pools, but it's the hardest ailment to inflict against FOEs and bosses, and the backlash damage still isn't too great. Though since backlash damage still activates on deaths in the first two games, you could use a cheese strategy where a big enemy kills a bunch of weak party members then dies from that. However Atlus did take some measures against this, as Curse is one of the hardest ailments to inflict, so it's not a reliable cheese strategy. Pretty much the main use is having a War Magus use Cursecut on those enemies, but that doesn't really hold up all game.
Now Torpor on the other hand, is the big ticket skill of this lot. It's the Hexer's best skill for dealing with random encounters since it shuts down all enemies while your party sets up or quickly defeats them with little opposition, and this holds up all game. In fact, if you aren't going for Poison, this should be the very first skill you should go for. A Hexer can have a max level Torpor by level 6, letting them contribute heavily to the party from the get-go. Even in the post-game this skill holds up at disabling randoms immediately, so it's one of their best support skills and a real must-have. Oh, and as you can see from this table, infliction skills really need investment to be good due to the exponential scaling. They're terrible at level 1, so don't bother seriously using these until the skill is almost maxed.
Poison
Prerequisites: Curses Lv2
Attempts to inflict Poison on all enemies. Curse skill, uses the Head.
Last game this was part of the Alchemist's skillset, and was unfortunately bugged to buggery, making it pretty pathetic past the second stratum, when it really could've worked until the fifth stratum. Now that it's been fixed up, oh look at that, it can be used until the fifth stratum and is yet another reason why Hexers are so gosh darn good. It definitely drops off towards the end of the game, but with a fantastic infliction rate, even if it doesn't oneshot the enemy, it's still a way for a Hexer to contribute in damage with little effort. Of course, Revenge strats are better, but this works at any HP, so it's a great ailment to throw at mobs, you're sure to tag something! This is a skill you could have before you set foot in the labyrinth, but it really needs a lot of levels to land effectively, the exponential scaling works both ways after all.
If you wish to shatter the entire maingame at the cost of slightly weakening the Hexer's earlygame, this skill is for you! Poison basically eliminates several random encounters after 1 turn, giving your Hexer another way to contribute to those fights. There are some downsides compared to Torpor though. A Hexer won't be able to get this to max level until level 10 if you rush this from the get-go, which severely weakens how much they can contribute to the party during the first Stratum. It also starts falling off by Stratum 4, at which point enemies can survive the Poison damage, though they'll be severely weakened so they can be finished off pretty easily. But when you hit post-game, this won't do a whole lot, and you're better off using Torpor by that point.
Still, this is a good way to utterly shatter randoms during the entire main-game, and using this on a few bosses is a fantastic way to utterly break the economy, another way the Hexer shatters a piece of game design. And unlike in 1, the bugs relating to Poison got fixed, so its damage doesn't cap at 255 anymore. Though now there's a 20% damage variance in how much Poison damage deals, but that's only really a factor once you get to lategame.
Evil Eye
Prerequisites: Curses Lv4
Unlocks: Lv1: Suicide, Betrayal, Paralyze
Attempts to inflict Fear on all enemies. Curse skill, uses the Head.
While similar to the other ailments, the FEAR TREE has some uniqueness that make it a worthwhile venture. Or, well, mainly Suicide so Hexers can contribute "damage wise" in FOE and Boss fights, but Fear is an alright ailment that can stop the enemy from attacking. A War Magus's Fearcut isn't very useful, but they pair together very well, so I guess it could work, you're mainly using this to go into Suicide. I only really suggest this because of how cheap it is to use these skills, otherwise they're not too notable, but it's a bit of fun when you're bored breaking the game's difficulty into smithereens.
Assuming you don't want to take the infamous Revenge skill to smash the game into smithereens, this is probably one of the Hexer's best skills for dealing with FOEs and boss fights. It's the most reliable hard crowd control they have once they pick up Suicide. But until then it's just a reskinned Paralysis. To get the most out of Fear, it has to be comboed with one of the Hexer's next three skills.
Suicide
Prerequisites: Evil Eye Lv1
Makes a Fear inflicted enemy attack themselves. Curse skill, uses the Head.
First skill is best skill in the FEAR TREE. Suicide scales really nicely, becoming super cheap to use while making the enemy deal a lot of damage to themselves. Admittedly it's not as good as the first game because ATK and DEF are scaled properly, but 3 self inflicted hits will do more damage than the Hexer would do otherwise, so why not. There's not much to it, gives you a free turn at least, but it's definitely interesting.
Pretty much the only skill in the fear tree worth using. Once you land Fear on the enemy, you can have them smack themselves a few times for some free damage on top of completely wasting their turn. The hits do go through the damage formula, so you won't see a ton of damage from this, but guaranteed stuns on a big enemy is pretty much the Hexer's biggest contribution to those fights that doesn't utterly vaporize the game's difficulty into ashes. And free damage is free damage, hard to say no to that.
Betrayal/Paralyze
Prerequisites: Evil Eye Lv1
Makes a Fear inflicted enemy attack an ally once/do nothing. Curse skill, uses the Head.
These skills, however, are not interesting. Betrayal would be kinda fun if it scaled like Suicide, but one attack on another enemy is pretty mediocre. Paralyze is... completely pointless since that's what the other two skills already do in addition to damage, so I don't see the point of this. Never put more than one point into these if you want to try them out for whatever reason, but otherwise the FEAR TREE only has the one interesting skill.
Betrayal is alright, but it's ultimately a worse version of Suicide and there's little reason to invest in that when Suicide is unlocked at the same time as the other 2 skills. Paralyze should never be touched, as the other 2 skills already waste the terrorized enemy's turn.
REVENGE
Prerequisites: Curses Lv7
A single target ranged attack that deals more damage the less HP the user has. Ignores the enemy's defensive stats and resistances, as well as damage buffs or defensive debuffs. If used at full HP, will always miss. Curse skill with TEC-based Bash damage, though only for accuracy calculations, uses the Head.
Phew, lot of caveats, but let's dive into the second best skill the Hexer has, and the best attacking skill in the game. Because it ignores all outside factors, the formula for this is simple, (MaxHP - CurrentHP) * SkillPower, so in a best case scenario, it would deal 998 * 2.55 = 2544 damage. What. The. Fuck. With Stamina and a few HP boosting equipment, you can get to 999HP easily enough and it's very, VERY easy to get to 1HP because of damage tiles, letting you fire off incredible damage turn after turn.
Of course, leaving your fragile Hexer at 1HP is risky, but just use a level 1 Revive and oh look, you're back at 1HP again. Hell even using a regular Nectar puts you at 20HP, which is still 2496 damage, so it's really not a big loss. Dampen and Scavenge would be enough to say this class is busted, high infliction rates on Poison and Sleep, effortlessly crushing mobs, makes this class broken, and Revenge, with its incredible damage and ease of setup push this class into the best in the entire series. It's just mindblowing how much they turned this class around from the worst one last game. All hail Hexers, all hail Cheese.
2544 damage may seem like a small amount of damage at first glance, but enemy HP pools in EO2 are much smaller than in the rest of the series. For reference, the final boss in EO1 has 18000 HP. In EO2? Only 8000. And the rest of the maingame bosses don't have as much, so a Hexer can nuke them in just 1 or 2 hits of Revenge. Most classes can't really reach this amount of damage in most circumstances so this actually makes Hexer the best DPS class. Yes, really.
It's super easy to reach or almost reach the 999 HP cap, so if you plan things out right, you can have a walking artillery cannon really early on in the game. And damage tiles in 2 deal percentage based damage, so it's really easy to set up a Hexer for fast nuking. If they go down, just use a Nectar to revive them. A Revenge Hexer doesn't give a damn about defenses because either the fight will be over before they can die, or they will die from a single hit (and then can be revived to get back to blasting the enemy.) This is the final aspect that truly elevates the Hexer to a god of destruction, and the best class in the entire series.
Caprice
Attempts to inflict Stun/Instant Death/Petrify/Curse/Poison/Sleep/Panic/Paralysis/Blind on all enemies, in that order. Force skill, uses the Head.
To end a ridiculous class is an alright Force skill. Caprice allows the Hexer to inflict every ailment in the game, but which ailment? Well that's its issue, because of the high infliction chance and the NINE rolls you'll do, you're bound to land something. But there's a huge disparity between the different ailments, so unless you're going for something the Hexer can't do themselves, it's better going for the actual skill for consistency, especially when you have additional strategies revolving around that ailment. Still, when you get it, might as well throw it out, you never know what you're gonna get, it can be fun. Or it'll land Stun and you've nearly wasted your turn. In any case, it's for the best this Force skill isn't good, we didn't need it to be.
At first glance this Force skill might seem amazing. In practice it's not. While on random encounters it'll land Instant Death or Petrify most of the time, against FOEs and bosses it's a complete crapshoot what will land. You're basically playing a roulette there. You might land an amazing disable like Confusion. Or you could just end up inflicting Blind. Or even nothing at all. If you do happen to get it active, you might as well use it, but surprisingly their Force Skill is the one thing that isn't broken about them.
And that's how not to balance a class. Ah, I said it again, but it's true, the Hexer is just so incredibly, phenomenally, positively the best class in the series and nothing really comes close. Sure you've got your Nightseekers and your Fafnirs and your Necromancers, but the sheer amount of bullshit EO2 Hexers have cannot be outmatched. This is even with a mediocre Force skill, a bugged Mastery, a Head Bind weakness and many stat issues, they don't matter. Bow down to your master.
Hexers are such a walking middle finger to so many of the game's mechanics it's unbelievable. They went from one of the worst classes in the first game to one of the best in the entire series! Drop rates? Doesn't matter. Resistances and immunites? Doesn't matter. The economy? Doesn't matter. Random encounters? Doesn't matter. FOEs and boss fights? A Hexer cares not for any of that nonsense! They'll destroy them all the same. This is a textbook example of overbuffing a class into godhood and it is a sight to behold.