User blog:IsGamer13/Character Branches: Support

The Support character branch is oriented towards buffing character stats in many ways, every stat can gain a buff or a debuff, except for HP and any special system, not every character buffs every possible stat in-game, but most of them buff a wide variety of them, mainly Attack, Magic, Defense and Resistance.

Most characters in this branch have very random stat spreads, you can't exactly point out what stats do they have in common, it all comes down to seeing their stats at some points in the game, but still, this grants them a lot of versatility and makes them be a bit gimmick-y. Not to mention they already buff their own stats and the parties' as well. Very few characters can have some skills that are from the Healing branch, but they're really not amazing when it comes to filling a healing role.

The characters under the Support branch are:

Princess Daisy:  She is an offensive support, on the support part, she can heal any status ailment from party members, including herself, her few buff skills consist in allowing party members to have their lowest stat buffed by a set amount and making enemies target one party member for a turn, in exchange of lowering their defensive stats and their Speed, just use her buffs at the right time and choose the character properly so you won't regret it later. She can last long in battles thanks to her unique skill and her offensive skills, allowing her to sustain her own ''HP. ''Tanky characters are great back-ups for her, since Daisy can make enemies to attack them while she is left harmless, same applies to the rest of the characters, just don't overuse this buff and you will be fine.

Zelda: Zelda is another offensive support, when speaking about supporting skills, she can touch songs with her harp to buff the party member's Attack, Magic, Resistance and Speed, at the cost of her rechargeable energy system. This restriction to her powers limits her supporting skills, as well as her offensive skills as well, try to know what buffs to use beforehand so Zelda can be an effective support. Zelda gets along well with Link, because she covers his main flaws and allows him to be even more effective in battle, Impa is not behind as well in terms of back-ups.

Amy: Amy's main attraction is her arsenal of effective status ailments, which she can easily deal with her special hammer, her physical damage is average as well, since you NEED to hit enemies to inflict status ailments on them. She owns an unique skill which allows a party member to act first before everyone else (without taking in count the priority of the moves that go first), using this wisely will turn the tables in a battle in a big way, it can be used for limited times however. On the other hand, Amy cannot hit airborn enemies, making her supporting options limited as well. Characters that can Bind are great for Amy (and any other ground-targetting character as well) since it allows her to keep inflicting ailments.

Lucas: He is probably one of the most effective supports in the game, because of his skills taking part from the Healing branch as well, he can effectively buff the party member's Attack, Magic and Speed while healing their HP, his main offensive skill serves a lot to sweep groups of enemies, but it's greatly ineffective againist bosses (because it does more damage depending on how many enemies are present), specially with those who have high Resistance, limiting his offensive capabilities a lot. Lucas does not really need any back-up, but he can cover lots of character's offensive flaws when it comes to buffing their offensive stats, other than that, keep an eye on his PP, because he wastes it frequently and if you don't replenish it, Lucas won't be of use.

Paula: Opposite to Lucas, Paula has the special property of setting up special "Shields", which cut the incoming damage, be it either physical or magic damage (not both however), these shields break after the turn passes or after the enemy deals a certain number of hits as well. At some point, her shields can reflect damage back at enemies, not huge portions of it, but it makes her supporting skills a bit more effective. Also, she can buff the party's Defense, Resistance and recover PP on her own (which has the special feature of recovering PP for other Mother characters as well). She gets along nicely with those characters with a specified low defensive stat or that are fragile overall, as long as she stays conscious in battle.

Medic: Medics are actually much more focused to the Healing branch, but they own certain buffs that can prevent party members from falling if a hit is potentially mortal for them (including OHKOs), they can also passively heal HP if they're not damaged for the whole turn (the heal takes effect at the end of the turn). But still, Medics are much more for the Healing branch, they just own few skills from this branch. Any character welcomes a Medic's death prevention buffs.