Something You Might Not Know 6 - Enhanced Tactics

Enhanced Tactics (ET) is one of the most important stance every player has when pioneering in the new world. It greatly provides a boost of both offense and defense to the team. But not all ETs are created the same, somewhere along the line, after the release of characters after characters, characters with ETs are created with various subtle tweaks. I have compiled these subtle differences below out of curiosity and as a reference when choosing which is the best when assembling a team. I will be giving an explanation to various terms and my conclusion afterwards at the bottom of the page. But before that, let me start by saying that I recognize that choosing your buffer does not lie solely on the buffer's ET but it helps to know these things to be able to design an optimal team. All of the information is taken from the second successor of Wordwood: ge.sytes.net.

Casting Time, Casting Delay and Cooldown are the most important differences in ET and the inspiration for this post. These determine the speed of which you buff at the start of every endeavour. This is very important specifically in the end game where your buffer time might take longer than you finish a particular instance. Cooldown should be specially considered since it transfers between zones.

Casting Time is self explanatory and it is either instant or around one second. Instant casting is clearly better but it is usually paired with a longer cooldown. The skills with casting time have usually short cooldown but it renders the skill cancellable by enemy knockback especially when you are being mobbed down.

Casting Delay is the time it takes the buffer to cast the next skill. This only affects instant casters since the casting time and casting delay is the same for non-instant casters. It makes the whole buffing process feel smooth or feel clunky.

Cooldown is the time it takes the buffer to cast the same skill again. It is very important to choose low cooldown ET when doing very quick missions as it transfers between zones as I have mentioned above. It is also a factor when choosing the team composition. Having a dual melee, shooting or magic characters with a long cooldown ET will make it feel very slow when buffing.

Ancient Star Orb (ASO) consumption is also a difference that seems to be inverted with cooldown. ET with short cooldown seems to consume more ASO than with long cooldown. Although mostly a non-factor for most players since ASO is not that hard to acquire anymore, it is still an interesting variable for ET.

Weapon equipped is also another interesting factor where the one wearing rosarios are preferable since the rosarios provide a huge boost in Defense Rating which is very useful especially if you also rely on your buffer as your source of resuscitation. Rosario buffers are highly recommended especially to beginners.

With all said and done, Cano is clearly the best ET buffer if you're just looking for speed. She has instant cast time, shortest cast delay and short cooldown. Although she uses a book as a weapon instead of a rosario, she does not need to switch weapon to cast her other stance. She is also the only buffer who has block.

On the contrary, I highly discourage anyone from using Rosa for solo raiding. She has a very long cast delay which makes using her feel very clunky.

In the end, choosing an ET buffer may come down to your personal preference. I, for example, prefer Emilia just for her ability to fly which speeds up my daily quests. Others may prefer Viki for his summoning ability or the scout if you're wealthy or lucky enough to have the master stance.