- You should join the Official Astria Ascending Discord for any questions you might have about the game: https://discord.gg/G4sM4MnjBM

- You can complete the game with any type of class and combination, even if post-game content might present a greater challenge.

• Use any build you like and any build you make up for yourself. Enjoyment is the first thing you should always aim for.
  
• You don't have to follow this guide to the letter, these guides are for optimizing, and so you may forfeit or ignore certain aspects of the builds for the sake of comfort.
  
• Some of these builds are aimed at long-term investment. A little knowledge or general JRPG knowledge might be required for some encounters. Should you have issues with certain fights in some capacity, switch your tactics around.
  
• With regards to the point above, most of these builds are aimed at the inevitability of post-game. I have done it with odd and sub-optimal class builds just for fun as well and knowledge goes a long way.

The way the game explains how jobs work can be confusing, even more so because the Journal has information about everything relating to the game, misinforms the players on about the classes. It should explain how it all works right away to make an informed decision and not regret it later. Only a small amount of information is wrong regarding this and is explained below.

- There is no way to 'respec' your character's classes in any way. Make a save point before changing and have that as your backup if you intend to do multiple playthroughs.

• Main Job - This is effectively the class your character becomes for the rest of the game. This choice allows you unrestricted access to Abilities, Support/Passive Abilities, Stat-Up nodes and is the starting point for all your builds.
  
  • What you may equip such as Weapons and Armors change to suit the Main Job, effectively replacing your equipment choices from your Base Job.
  
  
• Sub Job - This choice allows you access to a Jobs Abilities only. You won't have access to any Support/Passive Abilities or the features the Main Job would otherwise give you.
  
  
• Support Job - This choice allows you access to a Jobs Support/Passive Abilities only. Some Classes have some worthwhile Support/Passive Abilities that can make another job shine or make it even stronger than it was before.
  
  • It might be misleading to read the journal as it states otherwise.

In the menu, navigate to Journal > Jobs to see every class available and their abilities. You will notice that some Abilities are under the tag of Ophiuchus. In the class trees, there are Silver-star nodes, and all of these are related to Ophiuchus. You are only granted 1 choice for one single character. This comes in extremely late into the game.

• These abilities will not be considered for optimization, as you should have enough knowledge of the game at this point to know what you want to use should you ever want to use one of them.

Kress' base kit is designed around manipulating weaknesses and having the flexibility to hit many different types of enemies. The main hitch is that her abilities hit twice, once for physical and once for magical which splits her damage up between STR and MAG. This can leave her damage in the lower range due to one hit being outright resisted or nullified, or just dealing less than what it should, Force Blade being the exception, as it scales with STR on both hits.

Kress' class combinations don't come with any inherent Support/Passive stat or damage increases to push her further (Such as Assassin, Wushu, etc), and all 3 of her classes scale with STR. But her own Fencer Job passive, Double Chance, can help her quite a bit. (25% chance to hit twice, doesn't work on Cosmobreak but works on *every* ability). Fencer Master and Fencer Legend can be attractive choices but fall under the same rule above, as you are better off having your party support you instead and focus on using STR-based abilities. The upside is that STR-based abilities scale better too.


Here are some support alternatives to help Kress when focused on STR/Physical:

• Shaman (Dagmar/Arpajo)
  Elemental infusions (Causes Physical attacks to become an element of your choice), if you have the correct knowledge on the weaknesses of the enemies/bosses then this will be your go-to choice and is an incredible alternative for damage. This will not cause your Blade Skills to deal damage with one stat, it's still split up between STR and MAG.
  
  
• Kaydin(Hunter+Assassin), using [Physical Weakness] + Spread
  This makes the enemies weak to an element of your choice while spreading it to their entire group. This does not work on bosses, and only Kaydin can have these two class combinations work together.
  
  
  • The other, lesser, and the more expensive alternative to emulate this is to have a Harnesser (Ulan/Eko) use Omni Cast on a Hunter (Kaydin/Arpajo) (All single target Abilities become Multitarget). Assuming the Harnesser even has a high enough AGI to go before the Hunter for a first-round wipeout.

Dark Knight is a class that can be hard to discern as it has a lot of good abilities at its disposal and falls in an odd middle ground of being a Utility-based Damage Dealer; while having minor synergies with other party members. Many of its Abilities are High-Risk / High-Reward, and most of them scale of STR or HP/MP. Overall it's a strong class that lacks any inherent passive damage increases but has multiple benefits all on its own despite not being as straightforward.

Kress can with a few adjustments on the same build be used as a Tank. The lack of Shield equipment puts us at a DEF deficiency with the lowest DEF growth. But we make full use of the Support/Passive abilities to make us durable for more value.


Pros :

• High STR.
  
• As a Tank, fits into many party compositions.
  
• Defense Break is one of the most reliable Debuffs.
  
• Forcerima is Neutral and scales off STR.
  
• Drain abilities can keep you going nonstop.
  
• Doom synergizes with a Harnesser class to trigger their Berserk.

Cons :

• Lowest DEF.
  
• Risky abilities that may kill you and make you lose XP when used incorrectly.
  
• Needs support to help with damage and Elemental support if using Physical attacks.

Stat investment:

• MP - 600~800 --- For comfortable MP management, then rest into HP.
  
• STR or DEF/MDEF --- All of it to STR, as a Tank you want to balance your DEF/MDEF out to start, then all into MDEF when you get Physical absorbing armor and/or Post-Game.
  
• ACC or EVA --- ACC for damage, EVA for Tanking.

Important Abilities to pick up:

Both builds :
• Defense Break - Deals physical damage and inflicts UnWall & UnShell status on a single target.
  
• Goety - Sets all allies to 1 HP and deal neutral damage to a single target with the amount of HP drained from allies.
  
• Consume - Sacrifice all HP to instantly kill an enemy.
  
• Drain / MP Drain Hit - Deals physical damage to a single target and gain HP/MP for up to 20% of the damage dealt.
  
• Dispell Slash - (Warrior) Deals physical damage to a single target and has a chance to remove any positive status effect on the target.

Damage Dealer :
• Omni Forceus - Deals high neutral damage to all targets.
  
• Forcerima - Deals a huge amount of neutral damage to a single target.
  
• Triple Slash - (Warrior) Deals 3 physical hits on a single target.
  
• Omni Slash - (Warrior) Deals physical damage to all targets.

Support Abilities in order of importance:

Damage Dealer :
• Double Chance - (Fencer) 25% chance to hit twice (Doesn't work for Cosmo Break, but works on *EVERYTHING*)
  
• Calamity - (Fencer) 10% chance to inflict Blind / Confuse / Mute with each physical attack.
  
• Last Stand - 40% chance to resist being KO'd and remain alive with 1 HP.
  
• Immunity - (Guardian) Reduces the chance for negative status effects to afflict the user by 50%.

Tank :
• Guard - (Guardian) If an ally with less than 50% HP is targeted by an enemy attack, the user will take the hit instead.
  
• Determination - (Guardian) Reduces all physical and magical damage taken by 10%.
  
• Resilience - (Guardian) 30% chance to heal the user for 30% of damage received when attacked.
  
• Last Stand - 40% chance to resist being KO'd and remain alive with 1 HP.
  
• Protection - 30% chance to resist an attack.

Free Support Ability choices.

• MP Saver - (Fencer) Reduces MP costs by 30%.
  
• Resilience - (Guardian) 30% chance to heal the user for 30% of damage received when attacked.
  
• Immunity - (Guardian) Reduces the chance for negative status effects to afflict the user by 50%.
  
• Magic Counter - 30% chance to counter with a neutral attack when receiving magical damage.
  
• Auto-Regen - Automatically activates Regen. (5% of your health, use on Tank)

No matter the choice between Damage Dealer or Tank, you will consistently use Defense Break. Use everything to your advantage and to benefit the team where possible. Since both builds use the same utility-based abilities, I'll instead give you a breakdown of what you can do with a few of them.

• Consume combined with Last Stand is quite powerful. Can be used with Omni-Cast from a Harnesser, but if everyone dies and the user dies, the character gets no XP.
  
• Goety is a very easy and efficient way to deal with the Miglove, the "Metal Slime" of the game for JRPG enthusiasts. The elusive little Impish bundle of SP tends to be too survivable for its own good and Goety bypasses its resistances.
  
• MP Drain Hit refunds your MP and itself quite easily, even on low STR you will gain a sizable amount back.
  
• Doom is an efficient way to trigger the Support/Passive ability Berserk from a Harnesser class (Ulan/Eko), and will make them deal more damage or become tankier.

Hunters and Shamans are your best friends but don't forget to bring a Harnesser with you. (And if you for some reason don't want a Harnesser in your party, do use Omni Courage (STR increased by 20%))

Do not ever forget to remove Demote (Turns off Support Abilities) from yourself or your party if anyone is afflicted by it.

• Sub Job - Warrior
  Gives us a few minor utilities through Dispell Slash, Omni Courage, and Triple Slash for some good physical damage. When not using anything else, fill in the gaps with Triple Slash.
  
  
  • Picking Guardian as your Sub Job gives us a lot of abilities that unfortunately have bad STR scaling. We can't use the Provoke abilities correctly, and only Rampart sees any use when used correctly.
  
  
• Support Job - Guardian
  Though this option allows us to Tank and do it properly, we do have some defensive options available to us that have good value even if we don't.
  
  
  • Picking Warrior as your Support Job is ideal for damage through Dangerous, but we miss out on minor utilities and Triple Slash, which more than makes up for it. Last Strike sees no use, while Counter sees almost no use once you're in the Post-Game.

Calamity might seem strange, but the effects packed into it are the more powerful ones to have when used against enemies. The chance might seem low but triggers more often than one might expect, and when you least expect it.

Last Stand is quite an obvious benefit no matter what, not needing to resurrect and lose out on a turn is amazing, and it synergizes with Consume quite wonderfully.

Magic Counter gains more value as enemies start throwing out more magical attacks on the party, and free damage is never a bad thing.

Guard is a powerful Support Ability to have in any party, and most of the time your party won't be able to sit at max HP no matter how hard you try, due to how enemies will gradually throw out more Omni/Multi cast abilities. This can turn a disaster into a save, and being able to take a hit for someone else is very powerful.

Auto-Regen recovers 5% of your total HP each round, it's usable on a Tank, but it isn't going to save you in Post-Game and tends to be mediocre at times.

Guardian is a great class to have for any playthrough but has less value on lower difficulties. Being able to take a hit and gaining high defensive stats is going to be a fantastic addition for anyone who needs a Tank. [Rampart] when applied correctly can make you fight much higher leveled monsters with ease, granted you have someone to revive the Guardian.

This is the easiest and most straightforward Tank you can build for your team. Guardian on its own is already a good class that provides a sizable amount of DEF that will keep Kress reliable with the tools for the job at hand. However, a lot of the Support/Passive ability combinations aren't ideal for the role itself leaving little room for anything else, there is synergy to be had with Dark Knight abilities as a net positive though.


Pros :

• Fits into most party compositions.
  
• High HP/Defense Stat.
  
• Great utility for the party all the way to the final boss.
  
• Defense Break is one of the most reliable Debuffs.
  
• Drain abilities potentially keep you self-sustaining.
  
• Doom synergizes with a Harnesser class to trigger their Berserk.

Cons :

• Low Speed/Agility.
  
• Provoke doesn't work on bosses.
  
• Despite high STR weapon, lacks inherent STR/damage scaling.
  
• Has no Support/Passive ability synergy between classes.

Stat investment:

• MP - 500~800 --- For comfortable MP management, then rest into HP.
  
• DEF & MDEF --- Balanced, or everything into MDEF and get an armor that absorbs physical. When you reach Post-Game, lean more towards MDef.
  
• EVA --- All of it here.

Important Abilities to pick up:

• Rampart - All attacks on all allies will be blocked for 1 turn. After 1 turn the user will die.
  
• Omni Provoke - All enemies will almost always target the user for 3 turns. (Does not work on bosses)
  
• Ultimate Shield - (Guardian Quest, Cosmo Break) Nullify next attack on all allies.
  
• Defense Break - (Dark Knight) Deals physical damage and inflicts UnWall & UnShell status on a single target.
  
• Goety - (Dark Knight) Sets all allies to 1 HP and deal neutral damage to a single target with the amount of HP drained from allies.
  
• Drain / MP Drain Hit - (Dark Knight) Deals physical damage to a single target and gain HP/MP for up to 20% of the damage dealt.
  
• Consume - Sacrifice all HP to instantly kill an enemy.

Support Abilities in order of importance:

• Guard - If an ally with less than 50% HP is targeted by an enemy attack, the user will take the hit instead.
  
• Determination - Reduces all physical and magical damage taken by 10%.
  
• Resilience - 30% chance to heal the user for 30% of damage received when attacked.
  
• Immunity - Reduces the chance for negative status effects to afflict the user by 50%.
  
• Invoker - (Fencer) Increases the Cosmo Break bar's fill rate by 25%.
  
• MP Saver - (Fencer) Reduces MP costs by 30%.

Guardian provides you with immediate tanking benefits to your party and will remain consistently good throughout the game. Even if Provoke / Omni Provoke doesn't work on bosses, having a Guardian is a benefit you can't replace anyway in regards to [Guard]. Keep applying Defense Break when able and use other filler abilities when it's not necessary, such as Drain.

There isn't much to say here, statistically you have a much higher DEF/MDEF ceiling and an easier time just having Kress in your party in this way. It's a tank, and she does what her job is supposed to do while applying a reliable debuff.

Do not ever forget to remove Demote (Turns off Support Abilities) from yourself or your party if anyone is afflicted by it.

• Sub Job - Dark Knight
  Has more reliable abilities for us to use alongside Defense Break, so that we can provide our party with something other than blocking damage.
  
  
  • Picking Warrior as your Sub Job will let us at best use Accurate and Omni Courage, but outside of that we won't find much use for it.
  
  
• Support Job - Warrior
  Redundant slot since we have no use for it, pick this as the very last choice in your party or not at all.
  
  
  • Picking Dark Knight as your Support Job nets us more defensive benefits but we lose out on abilities that could be used for the party. And since we don't have many abilities to use we end up with a rather weak character if this is your support slot.

Guard is a powerful Support Ability to have in any party, and most of the time your party won't be able to sit at max HP no matter how hard you try, due to how enemies will gradually throw out more Omni/Multi cast abilities. This can turn a disaster into a save, and being able to take a hit for someone else is very powerful.

MP Saver will keep your management of your MP consistently stable, but Drain should help you out quite consistently even without it.

Warrior is the game's premier Physical Damage Dealer, and the class itself comes with a small handful of useful abilities for the party. There should be little need for an introduction to [Triple Slash] and [Omni Slash], they are just overall powerful, useful abilities, and will carry you from start to finish. The straightforward nature of the Warrior should be emphasized, as you can supply its supportive abilities through other party members more efficiently; All in all the Warrior has less to take care of in terms of flexibility but has the option to do minor things should you wish for it.

The build is otherwise identical to the Dark Knight but with the addition of Dangerous for critical hits, rather than the utility options given to you. Use this build in a more straightforward fashion for Dangerous, else you are better off with the Dark Knight alternative.


Pros :

• Allows for massive STR boost early, due to straightforward skill tree.
  
• Sword Dance (Cosmo Break) can help in certain encounters.
  
• Defense Break is one of the most reliable Debuffs.
  
• Forcerima is Neutral and scales off STR.
  
• Drain abilities can keep you going nonstop.

Cons :

• Needs support to help with damage and Elemental support if using Physical attacks.
  
• Needs the party to supply with buffs/debuffs instead in order to get the most out of its own damage.

Stat investment:

• MP - 600~800 --- For comfortable MP management, then rest into HP.
  
• STR --- All of it here.
  
• ACC --- All of it here.

Important Abilities to pick up:

• Triple Slash - Deals 3 physical hits on a single target.
  
• Omni Slash - Deals physical damage to all targets.
  
• Dispell Slash - Deals physical damage to a single target and has a chance to remove any positive status effect on the target.
  
• Omni Forceus - (Dark Knight) Deals high neutral damage to all targets.
  
• Forcerima - (Dark Knight) Deals a huge amount of neutral damage to a single target.
  
• Goety - (Dark Knight) Sets all allies to 1 HP and deal neutral damage to a single target with the amount of HP drained from allies.
  
• Drain / MP Drain Hit - (Dark Knight) Deals physical damage to a single target and gain HP/MP for up to 20% of the damage dealt.

Support Abilities in order of importance:

• Double Chance - (Fencer) 25% chance to hit twice (Doesn't work for Cosmo Break, but works on *EVERYTHING*)
  
• Calamity - (Fencer) 10% chance to inflict Blind / Confuse / Mute with each physical attack.
  
• Immunity - (Guardian) Reduces the chance for negative status effects to afflict the user by 50%.
  
• Resilience - (Guardian) 30% chance to heal the user for 30% of damage received when attacked.

Free Support Ability choices.

• Dangerous - 30% chance to land a critical hit when spending at least 1 FP.
  
• MP Saver - (Fencer) Reduces MP costs by 30%.
  
• Determination - (Guardian) Reduces all physical and magical damage taken by 10%.

Immediately pick up [Omni Slash] and do not pick up Dangerous as it is quite expensive. Work your way down south beginning through Accurate > Stun Hit > Support Slot > HP Spend, and now you have access to 4 out of 5 stat upgrades. If you get all of the STR upgrades, Omni Slash should allow you to clear groups of enemies not immune to Physical regardless if they are resistant at times. Since you have free reign on all the stat upgrades at such a close distance, you can balance yourself out in the areas you feel needs an upgrade.

Use [Goety] on the Miglove to bypass its resistances and to earn yourself some easy points. Both [Drain] abilities will keep you topped off if you want to use them, otherwise, just let an ally heal you.

Hunters and Shamans are your best friends but don't forget to bring a Harnesser with you. (And if you for some reason don't want a Harnesser in your party, do use Omni Courage (STR increased by 20%))

Do not ever forget to remove Demote (Turns off Support Abilities) from yourself or your party if anyone is afflicted by it.

• Sub Job - Dark Knight
  Gives us a lot of utility, but we can make use of some of them as we like or just ignore them and let someone else handle that duty.
  
  
  • Picking Guardian as your Sub Job gives us a lot of abilities that unfortunately have bad STR scaling. We can't use the Provoke abilities correctly, and only Rampart sees any use when used correctly.
  
  
• Support Job - Guardian
  This choice does let us tank, but we are after the defensive benefits rather than what we can do for the party.
  
  
  • Picking Dark Knight as your Support Job does give us a lot of great options for damage dealing and survival, but we can't even use the offensive abilities a Guardian has. We end up with less, while still doing less overall.

Calamity might seem strange, but the effects packed into it are the more powerful ones to have when used against enemies. The chance might seem low but triggers more often than one might expect, and when you least expect it.

MP Saver will keep your management of your MP consistently stable, but Drain should help you out quite consistently even without it.

Dangerous loses some of its value in Post-Game where generating FP becomes more difficult. It will increase your damage by quite a lot when it does trigger, however.