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Ok, I'm ready to get some Endless Fantasy Tactics talk going on these forums, so here goes.

When I'm building my 10 crystal EFT forces I usually find that I want to include a support model for healing/buffing often the choice has come down to the cleric, or the chemist. Both have there advantages and disadvantages so I was curious how other people made their decision between the two.

Cleric
- After a quick glance the cleric seems like the more defensive of the two models. Divine Protection, MAG 4, and the potential for DEF 4 with Symbol of Numina means that the cleric can take more hits then the chemist.

- Multi target healing. The clerics healing is AOE so try to get multiple allies in range for large total healing potential

- Very weak on attack unless you take holy smite, which uses up half your mana.

-Everything takes mana. Care has to be taken not the blow through mana too quickly. A possible solution to this is Faith combined with Silence, allowing the cleric a spell with the potential to use no mana.

Chemist
- chemist healing is predictable. Salve and Last Drop, along with some cheap healing items should make the Chemist a superior single target healer.

-Potential offense. Alchemical bomb at AOE1 is nothing to scoff at. Mad Mixture makes the chemist a monster and a chemist can easily be built using no other mana powers.



I have more thought but I am out of time. What do you all think?

Personally I prefer Clerics with a few mana potions... I would also rather (if I have the Crystals for it) take a Cleric as my main healer/buffer, and use a Chemist to replenish her Mana (once she's out of items that is).

I personally see the Chemist as 'filling in the gaps' Of an army, As Alf suggested, using the Chemist to replenish the clerics mana is great, but keeping your Sorcerer or other MP heavy model well refreshed could change the battle (letting them continue attacking, rather than wasting a turn using an item). Or if you're playing on a particularly large field, a chemist can fill the gap in a distance sense, being somewhere the Cleric would take a turn or two to get to (and by then the model in need of health could be dead).

If it is a definite choice between one or the other, I would go with the Cleric, they can heal more to more models with a single command, instead of requiring several command selections to make a heal potion viable as a long term heal (and then the chemist still only has a 33% chance to keep the potion, forcing them to take doubles or more, cutting into their other item selection).

I never really thought about the chemist as an MP caddy before. That is a great option. Looking at it again I have to agree with both of you. My cleric can have access to Heal, Purge, and Bless/Holy Shield, all at once, giving healing, status removal, and buffing in one package. The closest the chemist comes is 2 panacea, 2 healing potions, and maybe a gloves of striking and ring of protection to break over an ally. A Chemist with mostly mana potions as secondary support does look like fun.

Cleric all the way, and that is exactly why I did get one. I didn't want models that would make the game last longer....I don't have that much gaming time without kids and my son isn't old enough to game yet. The chemist does small heals tactically but a cleric w/ mana replacement strategy would like be long play game. At least that's how I saw it. I wanted some healing but I also wanted to ensure the game ended timely enough for my schedule....though in hindsight I should have avoid the knight then (because not getting hit is kind of does the same thing to game length)