Terra Branford: The Power Of Love

Terra Branford
The Power of Love

BASE STATS

Vigor: 30 / Magic: 42 / Speed: 30 / Stamina: 30

HP: 60 / MP: 45   BatPwr: 32 / Def: 30 / M.Def: 36 / Evade: 6 / M.Evade: 12

EQUIPMENT

Weapons: Swords, Maces, Thrown Weapons
---
Shield: Heavy Shields, Light Shields, Elemental Guards
Head: Helmets, Veils, Crowns, Hats
Body: Heavy Armor, Medium Armor, Dresses, Robes, Vests
 

SKILLS

Morph - 50% bonus to all damage/healing output, double damage taken (Stamina reduces incoming damage penalty to a minimum of 25%)

ESPERS

Maduin - Magic+1/Stamina+1  -----  48 MP: defense-ignoring wind damage (Magic) on all foes
Unicorn - HP+30/Stamina+1  ------  36 MP: restores HP to party (Stamina) and lifts most bad statuses
Carbunkl - MP+25/Stamina+1  ---  24 MP: sets Rflect on party
Bismark - Vigor+2  -------------------  32 MP: water damage (Magic) on all foes
Tritoch - Stamina+2  ---------------  64 MP: fire/ice/bolt damage (Magic) on all foes
Phoenix - HP+30/MP+15  -------  80 MP: revives all dead allies to max HP
Ragnarok - MP+40  ---------------  99 MP: 9,999 damage to one foe

SPELLS

Fire (lv. 4)
Fire 2 (lv. 10)
Fire 3 (lv. 20)
Ice 3 
Bolt 3
Break
Storm
Ultima

(All of Terra's black spells scale with Magic)
---
Muddle (lv. 6)
Mute
Imp (lv. 8)
Stop
Slow (lv. 16)
Shell
Rflect
Scan
---
Cure (lv. 1) - Magic
Cure 2 - Magic
Cure 3 - Magic
Life
Life 2 (lv. 20)
Remedy - Stamina
Regen - Stamina
RegenX (lv. 30) - Stamina

Terra

The Main Character, the Esper-Human Hybrid, the Magitek Knight, the Caretaker of Orphans. (Oh, you thought "love" meant teenage romance? Haha, you're silly).

Strengths

• WoR Elemental Control
• Primary Healer, has Life 2
• High Base Magic with Magic+ Equipment
• Tanky; HP Espers with Incredible Armor Selection
• Good Weapon Selection; Weapons Complementary to Magic (providing weakness sniping vs. neutral damage, or vice versa)
• Can Stance Shift to a Glass Cannon for Boss Fights (Morph)
• Solid Status Control
• Decent Party Buffs (esp. Regen & Shell)

Weaknesses

• Low Speed
• Party Buffs are either single-target, niche, or very latecoming
• For almost whole game, AoE damage is niche, mediocre, or average
• For most of WoR, no great neutral magic damage options (Fire 3 is average)
• Offense uses Lots of MP
• Morph may be Tricky to Use

Terra's role on the team is as a bulky attacker & cleric, who can optionally stance shift during boss fights into a glass cannon (& healer, still). Surprisingly, her job is not about being an all-around mage - that is more of a job for the Thamasa Duo.

Builds

Magic Knight / Battlemage

Vigor Terra, building vigor & HP to strengthen Terra's role as a tank & dps fighter. Grab one or two of many of her good weapons, Morph (for boss fights), kill things. Dual-wielding works especially well with self-Berserk (and Morph). Terra can also build a little bit of MP through Phoenix (HP +30, MP +15) to strengthen her healing (Life 2 & Cure 3 are expensive), and perhaps even her lategame elemental control.

Going without HP ELs is not advised. Even her Morph stance wants HP, so that she can at least survive one, maybe two, attacks. Also, if you're doing Apocalypse + shield for the endgame, Morph & Berserk are only half as valuable.

Paladin

Jedi Esper Terra, built with HP & stamina (Unicorn & Tritoch), maybe some MP (Carbunkl). Grab the Atma Weapon, Genji gear, and hack things up with a lightsaber. Less potential damage than vig Terra, but much tankier. Your high stamina also gives you a very high counterattack rate, so don't forget to wear a Black Belt. You also still have Terra's solid magic selection at your disposal, as well as a stronger RegenX come endgame.

Thanks to all the stamina, Morph is a safe move with this build. You can ignore normal precautions & just rely on Morph Terra's absurd regen ticks for survivability. Berserk strats are also still a very real thing.

Unfortunately, Covering allies probably won't work as well, as it's anti-synergistic with Atma, Morph, & Berserk.

Cleric / Sage

Healer/magic Terra, built with some mix of HP, MP, & magic (building the HP and MP first). The HP & stamina make her an excellent tank and potential bodyguard (Cover), and the MP & magic insures she's an excellent healer with her magics. Also still has her usual Wind magic & elemental sniping options, with more MP than any other build to actually utilize them. Best Ultima user for the endgame as well, if that's your thing.

While it might be flavorful & thematic to think of her as the "frail wizard with powerful magics," she's, again, more of a bulky healer & party tank. Her powerful magics are limited to either modestly powerful Wind magic or elemental sniping for most of the game. Elemental sniping is hardly bad, just enemy specific, and it's going to do great damage, regardless of how you build Terra. Also, Maduin isn't a good esper for building a "pure" mage. Still, if you just want to nuke stuff (and I don't blame you), an endgame respec into raw Maduin & Ragnarok for Ultima spam isn't bad.

Misc.

• Protect Morph stance with Image, Golem, elemental resistances, and HP ELs.

Updated for 2.0

Loses Bserk/Rasp and gains Stop/Mute, but that's about it.

I'm surprised to see that Cleric/Sage Terra is considered as more of a tanky healer build. With Maduin + Morph she'd outpace even Shiva Celes for magic damage. Of course, in reality, you'd need some Ragnarok and/or Phoenix levels in there, but still. She doesn't have to be sniping elements to see that one of Fire/Bolt/Ice will do decent damage, no? I've only played Stamina Terra before, so I was thinking I'd do a Maduin Terra this time and I definitely assumed I'd be nuking the hell out of things with Morphed Fire/Bolt/Ice3s...

How can you NOT make Terra a mage??? Not only does it fit her thematically, but it just works for her on so many levels.

1) Her character locked esper gives her +25% magic damage

2) As you build +Mag with Maduin, you also build +Stam, which helps her Morph survivability

3) Being in the back row also helps her morph survivability and does not reduce her magic damage output

4) She has access to Ice/Fire/Bolt 3 and Break, so in almost every fight she can attack with an enemy weakness.

Battlemage/Paladin Terra can be a amazing too I am sure, but it feels like such a wasted opportunity to not use her amazing spellcasting. 

With Morph, +Mag equipment, Ragnarok, and weakness sniping, she can still do roflstomp levels of magic damage without having to stack Maduin levels, freeing up more room for +HP and +MP alongside +Stam, so I can see the argument. I've built her both ways recently, and enjoy both. But if you wanna sit back and let Ultima rip on repeat, then stack Maduin with a side of Carbunkl and a dash of Unicorn, support with Image/Rerise/Battery/Chakra/Ethers, and have at 'er.

One thing I haven't especially enjoyed with Terra is her Vigor build options. More babysitting than I have the taste for, I think.

Any and all Terra builds will do very heavy magic damage when using a Morphed tier-3 element against a weakness. Easily 7k+ with any build as long as you equip her correctly, and seeing 9999 by the level 30. Therefore, all of Terra's builds can do big magic damage, with only one "11th hour" exception. Maduin ELs don't really DO much of anything for Terra. So, except for very endgame "15+ Maduin ELs", Terra doesn't really have a viable "frail nuke mage" build. Her builds are mostly about building physical damage versus building raw tankiness.

... I don't necessarily consider this ideal, mind you. Terra should have a mid-game "frail nuke mage" build that her other builds can't just easily match. But that'd require editing how elemental damage is calculated.

Maduin allow Terra to reach the cap earlier than her other build, but yes eventually the other build catch up due to the damage cap, the last benefit of Maduin Terra is very endgame with Ultima, Maduin build can reach almost 9000 damage with Ultima, the biggest use is for the Final Boss as it allow Terra to wreck through Tier 2 really fast.

Right. Maduin Terra can hit 9999 at mid-WoR levels, while her non-magic builds are still struggling with ... still a very mighty 7000 - 8000 damage. Yeah, biggest use for Maduin build seems to be punching through Tier 2. Considering how bad tier 2 is, that's not exactly a bad thing.

However, these guides are meant to guide new players. "Maduin Terra, big magic damage" is a trap. Even a non-mage Terra can get 8500+ damage with Ultima in endgame (Morph). Hence, I avoid mentioning "mage Terra" as an actual build, relegating it to simply an "endgame respec" option under Cleric / Sage build. Yes, it's not ideal, b/c we expect "big magic damage build" from Terra, but guiding new players down good paths takes precedence, and Sage Terra really needs to be building Unicorn and Carbunkl, using Maduin as filler once she's good on her HP and MP. So ... that's what I did.

.... Which probably means I should be MUCH harsher on my evaluation of Unicorn Edgar, now that I think about it.

Well Maduin Terra was the build I did in my very first run of BNW, and it works perfectly fine back then I still considere her as one of my best character (also between 9999 and 7000-8000, that's a 24-42% difference not what I would call unoticeable) so while it may not be an optimal a Maduin Build still works perfectly fine and will do her job fine throughout the game and is pretty easy to use so I don't think going for this build will make the game really harder for a new player.

6 hours ago, Nesouk said:

Well Maduin Terra was the build I did in my very first run of BNW, and it works perfectly fine back then I still considere her as one of my best character (also between 9999 and 7000-8000, that's a 24-42% difference not what I would call unoticeable) so while it may not be an optimal a Maduin Build still works perfectly fine and will do her job fine throughout the game and is pretty easy to use so I don't think going for this build will make the game really harder for a new player.

I'll think. Terra's the strongest character in the game, so it's hard to go wrong with her. I'm still not perfectly sold, but for consistency, if I'm mentioning Unicorn Edgar, I should mention Maduin Terra. (And if I stick with not mentioning Maduin Terra, I need to fold Unicorn Edgar back into being an "alternate mention" under Edgar's magic build).

Well can't deny it, personnaly the only time I didn't like her was when I tried a Vigor Build with her, dunno what I did wrong as people seems to like this build, but for it was just shit her worst build by far for me, good for damage but sucks at everything else.

Hate to say it, but you did something wrong, and/or it's a psychological thing. It's affects me too, so I say that without any rudeness or judgment.

Apocalypse is just straight up better than Ultima, except for the AoE (tier 2). Just as strong, comes earlier than the 11th hour, much lower MP cost, stats+5, can counterattack (black belt). And that's ignoring the dual-wield berserk strats, which just skyrocket vig Terra to absolutely absurd levels. Also, so long as you give her HP and MP ELs (Phoenix), she's still got HP and good armor, she's still got Cure 3 and Life 2, and she's still perfectly able to equipment swap to magic equipment to rip a T3 element into any boss foolish enough to try having high physical defense. Mid-game, she's got elemental blades while mag Terra is playing pretend with Break, Rising Sun / Wing Edges for any idiot who decides to fly, and Rune Edge as perfectly good & inexpensive damage.

It's not how one thinks Terra should work, I agree. It's very strange thematically; Celes is who you think of as more "fighter" oriented. But it is what is. vig Terra is just one of the best builds in the game. Also, pretty much anything mag Terra can do, HP/MP Terra can do better (or just as good). Terra's and BNW's design just aren't set-up for mag Terra.

When I was designing Celes and Terra, I deliberately played to their dual natures - the player is nudged to build Celes physically and Terra magically - but I also wanted to make sure the inverse was perfectly workable.

The end result, of course, being the reverse of what you expect; vig Terra + mag Celes tends to be the better combo. Tbf, vig Celes works out perfectly fine. It's just mag Terra can't do anything that HP/MP Terra can't, and Maduin's not a great magic esper.

Well my problem with Vig Terra wasn't damage, it's just that for some reason couldn't keep her alive at all she was just dying left and right never happen on her other build but with Vig Terra I really had trouble keeping her alive, her healing were subpar compare to other character and her Magic Damage were nothing impressive, I won't deny the build has high damage potential, but IMO I just performed much better with Magic Terra or Stamina Terra, Vig Terra just didn't work for me at all and I definitly will not play it again, I have no reason to play it over her other builds.

1 hour ago, Nesouk said:

Well my problem with Vig Terra wasn't damage, it's just that for some reason couldn't keep her alive at all she was just dying left and right never happen on her other build but with Vig Terra I really had trouble keeping her alive, her healing were subpar compare to other character and her Magic Damage were nothing impressive, I won't deny the build has high damage potential, but IMO I just performed much better with Magic Terra or Stamina Terra, Vig Terra just didn't work for me at all and I definitly will not play it again, I have no reason to play it over her other builds.

Just play it conservatively. Don't Morph, just swing Apocalypse. Apocalypse is that good.

ITT: different people have different playstyles, there is no "right" way to play, etc. Inconceivable!

40 minutes ago, SirNewtonFig said:

ITT: different people have different playstyles, there is no "right" way to play, etc. Inconceivable!

Haha! >_>

5 hours ago, thzfunnymzn said:

Just play it conservatively. Don't Morph, just swing Apocalypse. Apocalypse is that good.

The problem is I generally prefer to pick Illumina for Celes over Apocalypse.

Ah. Yeah, Zantetsuken's not bad, but it ain't no Apocalypse. I can then see why you wouldn't care for vig Terra.