Vyce is a complicated character. In two of the game's routes he's outright antagonistic, but on the Lawful route he becomes one of Denam's steadfast allies and a really fantastic combatant. He comes with the unique Ranger class, a class no other Tactics Ogre: Reborn character can use.
With fantastic supportive and offensive options to use, Vyce can be built in multiple ways. We've got some pretty effective suggestions for you!
Support Ranger Build
This build takes advantage of two things: the Lobber skill's incredible versatility and how useful daggers can be.
|
Class |
Ranger |
|---|---|
|
Equipment |
Two of the strongest daggers you have. Offensive-based accessory. |
|
Skills |
Daggers, Double Attack, First Aid, Lobber |
|
Items |
Strongest healing item, a revival item, Dynast-King's Mead, Brand of the Sacrifice. Pick and choose your status items depending on the enemies in front of you. |
This build will turn Vyce into a very reliable support unit that can also pump out incredible damage numbers.
- We use daggers instead of swords as they have a lower RT cost. Dual-wielded daggers are still going to deal a ton of damage and you can elect to use only one dagger during an attack if you feel like you'll need Vyce's next turn to roll around sooner. You could go for swords for extra oomph, but you'd be sacrificing some versatility.
- Daggers also have an air-elemental Finishing Move in Heart Crusher, which is also ranged to boot - it's one of the game's best Finishing Moves and will deal extra damage for Vyce thanks to his inherent element. The fact it costs a low 50 MP doesn't hurt, either.
- Lobber is a brilliant support skill usually relegated to Beast Tamers, who aren't always the most useful choice to bring along. With Lobber, Vyce becomes a more potent healer than Clerics and a more reliable debuffer than Wizards. Yes, items are limited, but use them smartly and you have a significant advantage.
The strategy for this build is to keep Vyce in the midline. Bring him forward to finish off enemies when he can, preferably keeping him back a little and using Heart Crusher, and use him to rescue near-death units and debuff bosses.
This build turns Vyce into one of the best units for rescuing guest units in battles where they seem to have a death wish. Bring him along to battles where you have to keep the likes of Azelstan and Ocionne. With the World Tarot enabled, he can also help a ton with saving Bayin, Cerya, and the trio of Phaesta, Tamuz, and Chamos in their respective routes.
Ranged Ranger Build
This build is meant as a slight adjustment to let Vyce be as helpful as he usually is on maps that don't really work well with melee-focused characters. If you have a nasty height disadvantage or your team starts out significantly far away from the enemies, this might be the way to go.
|
Class |
Ranged (or Archer) |
|---|---|
|
Equipment |
The best bow you have, eventually the Tempest Bow that you can find in the Palace of the Dead. Also, equip a ring that grants a height-ignoring move type, such as the Ring of Clouds or the Sidhe Ring. |
|
Skills |
Bows, Constitution, Back Attack, Lobber (or Bows, Engulf, Double Shot, Eagle Eye) |
|
Items |
Strongest healing item, a revival item, Dynast-King's Mead, Brand of the Sacrifice. Pick and choose your status items depending on the enemies in front of you. |
The Ranger class isn't really geared toward ranged weapons (ironically), but it can still make do.
- Crucially, this build really comes online once you get the Tempest Bow, which is an air-elemenal weapon that suits Vyce perfectly. It'll deal a ton of damage, likely pushing his ranged attack into the quadruple digits.
- We stay in the Ranger class specifically to keep access to Lobber, as it's a wonderful utility skill, but a change to Archer could definitely serve this build's optimization. It certainly would help out Vyce's damage but could be easily pasted onto a more suitable Archer without access to the great Ranger class, such as Arycelle or even Sara.
- Once you pick up access to a height-ignoring move type, ranged characters become even more useful in general. The Ring of Clouds comes with Cloudwalk, letting Vyce float anywhere he likes, but the Sidhe Ring comes with the superior Blinkwalk, which will even let him teleport through walls.
This build plays quite simply - keep Vyce out of enemy range but close enough to pick weakened foes off. He should also be in range of your allies, in case his Lobber skill is required.
Frontline Buccaneer Build
Vyce also gets access to the Buccaneer build once you recruit Azelstan, and this lets him adopt a more aggressive frontline build.
|
Class |
Buccaneer |
|---|---|
|
Equipment |
Two of the strongest daggers you have. Offensive-based accessory. |
|
Skills |
Daggers, Double Attack, Evade, Apostate |
|
Items |
Healing items, Dynast-King's Mead |
This build revolves around Buccaneer's fantastic defensive skills, Evade and Apostate.
- Evade allows Vyce to completely ignore one physical attack and Apostate will let him negate a few magical attacks. Note that this does include healing items, so be wary if he gets low on HP.
- As this build relies on auto-skills, it's beneficial, if not very important, to pick up auto-skill buff cards. It's also why we still use daggers instead of swords - lower RT costs means more turns which equals more chances to trigger the skills.
- Depending on the enemy makeup, you may wish to swap Evade or Apostate out for Speedstar to really amp up Vyce's damage output. Swap Evade if there are more magical enemies, and the reverse if the enemy makeup is more physical.
Vyce makes for a great frontline with this build, especially if you can load him up with auto-skill and physical damage buff cards.