A strange request: anyone know of a good guide for Dragonquest 9?

[Togath]

As the name suggests, I've been trying to find a good guide for Dragonquest 9..
I checked Gamefaqs.. but none of the ones there(other than the alchemy recipe lists) were very helpful
(the walk through for example assumes you have an Arramentalist, a Martial Artist, a Warrior, and a Priest.. the only one of which I'm using is a Warrior[with a very different skill-set])
The main ones I'm looking for are a guide to late game bosses(I think I just have the last four remaining, all of which are fairly close together), as well as a guide to what gear to go with(the main guide I found suggested the dragon warrior set.. which is about ten points lower in all stats that the weakest member of my party's current equipment).
One thing that may be contributing to the oddness is that I'm willing to(and have done so in several cases) grind in order to get the best gear possible(utilizing grinding for gold[including the Ear Cozy trick] as well as rare item drops from various mobs), which may be why I exceeded what was assumed to be the best gear you'd have at various points.

Alternatively, if anyone here has played the game and has tips, please feel free to mention them(especially any regarding how strong various skill trees are, and if any of them are traps, or how strong the Falcon Knife/blade/Uber-Blade are)


Current Party;
Bard(hero character, has 100 points in Litheness and Swords, and a splatter of skill points into various tree that boost Deftness/Agility, as well as enough into Focus to get Psych Up)
Warior(100 points in Spears and Shields, as well as about 40 in Courage, as well as enough into Focus to get Psych Up)
Rogue(100 in Acquisitiveness and Fisticuffs, as well as 42 into Claws)
Mage(84 into Wands and 100 into Spellcraft, with Faith at 80)

[Mando Knight]

Honestly? I didn't need to super-grind for the last several bosses in the main story. I did use class changing a good bit, though, and if you can find a Falcon Blade, those swords are crazy good despite their reduced base damage (since they double-attack). I think I had a Bard, a Warrior, a Monk, and a Priest when I cleared the main story. The Celestrian might have been in a different class... and no one was more than level 30-something, well below where they would have capped any skills.

For the content afterwards, though, the game does kinda expect you to over-grind... and I wish I could send one of my maps over the internet (the last floor in it is nothing but Metal King Slimes).

Also, I find that Golden Armor, while giving less of a %-based profit margin, is more valuable for profit farming than Ear Cozies, because there's a limit in the number of units you can carry, and Golden Armor gives you more gold per unit.

[Togath]

Sound slike I'm(probably) good to go then.(and good point about the gold armour, I'd forgotten the 99 item limit)
Do you think it would be worth re-classing my mage into a sage or priest(already at level 19, so less of a grind to bring it up to the 36-38 range my party is at) in order to get better healing?(bard's limit is about midheal, and the mage only has Caduceus.. so it' the one spot I'm rather lacking in at the moment).

[Mando Knight]

Yeah, heals, I think, were one of the things that kept me going. If you have Sage unlocked (I thought it wasn't possible until after the base story?), then that's my favored spellcasting class (and it gives you a cheap class change on the go skill).

[Togath]

I'll try Sage then(and aye, I though tit wasn't either, but everything I looked up says the quest is obtained in Gittingham.. though I suppose it might be the trolls needed for it that are after-story.. in that case, I'd probably go with Priest to finish up the storyline)

[Mando Knight]

I'm pretty sure the object you need to check to start the quest doesn't light up until after you defeat the "final" boss. (Final is in quotes because when you're done with the main story, there's a huge amount of post-game-only enemies that make him seem like a total wuss)

[tyckspoon]

Falcon Blade is pretty ridiculous, because it double-hits special attacks as well, not just basic attack commands. So if you're hunting Metal Slimes you can double Metal Slash (although the crit-or-miss attacks in the Spear and Axe lines are usually better, IMO), and if you Falcon Slash you double that too.. so you Oomph your designated attacker, and you tension him up a couple of times, and then you get four boosted attacks in one turn. Combine with a high base attack power from Strength and skill bonuses and you end up hugely overcompensating for the Falcon Blade's lower attack power- I remember 'one'shotting the weaker Treasure Map bosses like this.

Re: Healing-
Yeah, I'd suggest doing that. You want party healing about the strength of Midheal (been a while since I Dragonquested, forgot what the series name for that spell was..), whether you get that from the actual spellcaster or leveling whatever class gets the dance skills for Hustle Dance or whatever.

[Togath]

I'll go with Priest then. semi related; would it be a boost to use something other than rogue for my Fisticuffs character?(since Rogues have low strength), if I'm going to be re-leveling a little, I could try something such as Gladiator or Martial Artist for her(since she has those two, as well as warrior and ranger, at about the same level at the mage has priest)

[Mando Knight]

Gladiator has ridiculous Strength growth, if I remember correctly.

I prefer the Falcon Blade/Metal Slash combo for hunting Metal Slimes over Crit-or-Miss, since when that's spammed (by which I mean, four Falcon Blades), it almost guarantees the death of a Metal King or two. Crit-or-Miss attacks miss a lot more than they crit for me, and I prefer to see minor results repeatedly rather than a lack of results followed by a high-value result.