With all the discussion of our build I thought it might be a good idea to look at the good quality builds we've seen so we have some idea of what we should be aiming for in terms of arts supporting each other.
We have three examples of what good art synergy is supposed to look like. Two of them are mentioned here:
Not the way Xiulan's skills empowered her flames, or Meizhen's all supported her utterly impregnable defense.
It is worth noting that Meizhen's suite is focused on her combat role rather than an element or weapon.
Unfortunately we don't have a lot of details about their arts. The third example of art synergy, however, is something we are very familiar with: SCS, FVM and EPC, three techniques personally handed to us by the Moon, selected for us and of a quality even Meizhen respects.
We've known they work together from the beginning, FVM creating the low light conditions for SCS, but I wanted to see if there was anything else to learn from them
Upon studying them I realized they reinforced each other even better than I had remembered.
Short version?
It's been said before, but Ling Qi is basically a horror movie.
P.S. Sneak Atttack FTW.
In more detail,
EPC and SCS both give passive bonuses to stealth, but SCS works better in low light
Mist of the Vale+Diapason creates low light and gives a bonus to stealth and a penalty to enemy perception
SCS gives a passive bonus to attacking unaware enemies, such as enemies who couldn't perceive you because you were stealthed
One With Shadow gives an even bigger surprise-attack bonus and an additional stealth bonus
Despair of the Lost completely isolates a target from their companions IF our stealth can beat their perception.
And if our stealth is good enough that they can't perceive the target that also means that they can't perceive
us while we kill the target.
One moment, your buddy is right beside you in the creepy fog, the next moment he's vanished into thin air, and the moment after that he's a corpse.
Looking at the whole set a coherent combat style begins to emerge. SCS gives its bonuses for surprise attacking people, not for staying engaged. Combined with our stealth bonuses this suggests hit-and-fade tactics. We attack them one turn and the next turn we break off to reestablish stealth so that we can surprise them again. Our attack pattern would basically go: Attack> disengage> attack> disengage etc.
Now, only attacking every other turn would normally be very inefficient exceeeeept... We have a bunch of debuffs. The every-other-turn nature of SCS create a natural place in our attack pattern for our debuffs, including techniques from FVM. So now our pattern goes Debuff> attack>Buff> attack>Debuff etc.
These arts really do work together beautifully and I think we should build on that.
So I sat down and asked myself what kind of arts would we need to support this foundation. I didn't want to just say "get a music art" or "get an archery art" because simply stacking passive bonuses to the same stat is clearly not good enough.
The simplest thing to add to this combo would probably be Sneak Attack art, an art that gives bonuses to remaining undetected and gives bonus dice/damage if you attack people by surprise. Maybe something that gives a bonus based on how badly your stealth beat their perception.
Since a number of our bonuses become even better in complete darkness, an art that provides darkness rather than just low light could help. Shadow Mantle art, that cloaks the user in a cloud of living darkness, or an art that surrounds a target enemy in darkness, which would both debuff them and mean that when we attacked them we would get our bonuses for being in complete darkness. Of course, a generic cloud of darkness is also a possibility but I wanted to add something new to the toolbox as well rather than just a second FVM type AoE debuff.
Passive Stealth Art might be useful, assuming SCS doesn't develop this on its own. An art that lets you automatically enter stealth without spending in action in low light or darkness would let us use more than just instant debuffs when we disengage. Admittedly, most of our buffs/debuffs are instant, but you can see how an art like that might be mediocre for other people but combines amazingly for us to boost our action efficiency.
I've tried to come up with a pithy name to describe this sort of build but the best I can come up with is Movie Monster. Zhengui, on the other hand, with his ambush techniques, will clearly be a Ninja Turtle.
Aside on the limitations of playing FVM :
FVM can currently be sustained for six turns after we stop playing (4 tech+1 passive+1 flute) and the duration is likely to continue extending. If we spend one or two turns at the start casting it that would be eight turns, which is longer than most of the battles we'd ever faced. I don't think having to stop playing FVM in order to attack people is going to be much of a problem. If we really want to keep it going we can even use the flute to sustain it during the turn when we attack people and then resume playing afterwards.
Losing a turn to switching between the flute and a weapon has already been addressed, either by dropping the flute, attacking with it, or buying a second storage ring so we aren't trying to move objects in and out of the same storage ring at the same time.
FVM is actually quite robust, tactically.
TL;DR SCS, FVM and EPC are an extremely synergistic combo and art synergy isn't about stacking elemental art bonuses it's about techniques that make each other stronger e.g. a stealth art and a sneak attack art, if hitting people also made the stealth art better.
