This is great info, Boron. Thanks!
I am seeing some successful tests now, there are a lot of variations with scripts and positions, and it took a while to hone in on a successful combination.
Flare does seem to work, although I really haven't tested enough to say if it might work better than fire darts.
The section you just wrote on buffs was very helpful for Pretender design in general, that was a nice, succinct summary that helps a lot in knowing what various research goals can do for you.
Since you seem to be in an informative mood
Do you have any opions on how SCs develop in later game?
For example:
1) If you don't take any N (or E or A), is it ever reasonable to plan on doing empowerment by late game to get N2 (and thus personal regen)? And of course similar questions for E or A. Or, is empowering your Pretender from zero to 2 or 3 nearly always cost-prohibitive?
2) Your description doesn't talk about items - but it would seem reasonably easy with a Moloch to get to prot 30 w/ items - is this not so? I'm not sure how this all adds up, and I don't have a convenient test available, but even just jade armor + a black steel helm would get you close, correct?
3) I do worry a lot about afflictions, with every position I play (as I've never played Arco), but this is one of the areas of the game that I think I know least how to handle. I have done
a lot of SP testing of all my MP pretenders up to turn 10-20, so I am beginning to develop some knowledge here, if not real solutions.
In the case of Abysia, I can see how it would be hard for them to reach GoH or the Chalice until long after other nations get there. How about (in the end game), Faery Queens? I know that's a lot of nature development for a non-nature nation, but at least it's not a race. Maybe by the time you could do that you could so many other things that its not so relevant.
What I'm doing in my other Abysia MP game, where I know I have a sub-optimal pretender, is to rarely, if ever use him solo until I can equip him and get some of the buffs you describe. Still it's a very hard judgement for a newbie to make - and you do see us newbies getting their pretenders killed an awful lot!
4) As you mentioned, it seems likely that a key part of Frosted agressive strategy relies on the fact that he doesn't need to worry about afflictions as much as the rest of us do. For the rest of us that
do need to worry about afflictions would you say that E3 for solo SC pretenders is a must? Or if not, do you wait to do soloing until you know you can get prot 20 via equipment?
Anyhow, sorry to bend your ear so much, but this is very helpful stuff, Boron!