Val is the main character in , so you're going to be spending a lot of time with him. While he's not a mandatory active party member despite his protagonist status, he's still just as viable as anybody else in a game that's fairly well balanced for each of its five playable heroes and hꦑeroines.

Any of Val's classes can be made to work. Even so, after spending over 60 hours with Visions of Mana, we developed a few favorites. If you're looking for some insight into Val's prowess 💃and which classes accentuate his strengths, we hope you'll find ou🃏r guide an informative one.

What Does Val Specialise In?

Val is the protagonist of Visions of Mana, so, you'll acquire him as a party member at the beginning of the game. He technically joins alongside Hinna, though between Hinna and Val, Val is the only character whom the player directly controls.

Val is a tank, through and through, though that's not to say he doesn't have utility as a more damage-focused melee character if you should so desire. We think there's a good middleground in there - which is to say, a damage-soaking, defensive, fighter who can dish out some hits.

To some extent or another, each of Val's classes focuses on survivability. Even Duelist, his class with the highest attack power, is still going to be slower on the DPS side than someone like Morley; Val's weapon types are simply too slow to compete in that regard.

As a result, HP and Defense are Val's biggest stats, with Attack not far behind.

The Best Builds For Val

Val is centered on tanking, but as we've stated above, you can still hit hard while you're at it. The classes we love most for Val combine his combat prowess with a strong focus on being the frontline fighter who soaks as many hits as possible to keep his more fragile allies safe.

In Visions of Mana, there are limited-availability stat-boosting items called serums. When you acquire Vitality Serums which raise HP, be sure to pop them on Val. Raise his Defense with Stamina Serums, too.

Val's classes include the full array of Elemental Saber and Elemental Shield abilities. Each of these will either imbue one's weapon wi✤th a particular element, or elevate one's defense agaꦓinst it.

This carries forward in a more appreciable way - if the ability includes a "+" symbol, casting it will apply the offensive or defensive elemental buff to the entire party.

Last but by no means least, Val has Howl Mark, which is the most straightforward example Visions of Mana has to an MMO-like tanking action. Howl Mark draws aggro toward Val, making him likelier to be targeted, so you should always have it in your ღarsenal once it's been💧 learned.

Rune Knight - Saber Magic Savant

For a large chunk of the game, we kept going back to Rune Knight, which is the earliest class you'll unlock since it's linked to the Wind Vessel.

That's not to say it's inarguably Val's best class, nor do we think it necessarily stays on top in the late game. But it has an impressive run. Here's a rundown on how Rune Knight works:

• You'll learn plenty of Saber spells as you advance through Rune Knight's Elemental Plot.
• Rune Knight's unique passives include turning Saber spells into automatic party-wide buffs rather than just for Val.
• More importantly, Val will gain passives which boost his ATK when a Saber spell is active. Therefore, you'll always have a direct incentive to apply one at the start of a battle.

Don't underestimate the build-up in physical damage that Val can unleash once he's on the higher end of his Rune Knight Elemental Plot. Despite having a somewhat middling ATK stat, the Rune Knight is nonetheless capable of pumping out pretty decent numbers relative to most of Val's other classes.

Berserker - Hurt Me More

We'll be honest. When we first unlocked Berserker, the Dark Vessel class, we really didn't know what to make of it. Its whole shtick revolves around allowing Val to take a serious beating, as the lower his HP gets, the more powerful he becomes.

Visions of Mana is, at least not on the surface, the sort of game where running around with low health for an increase in offensive firepower appears to be woꦚrth it. But we🍃 gave Berserker a chance, and we were quite satisfied.

• Enraged, Enraged+, and Dominating Darkness combine to send Val's damage output into the heavens.
• Furious Bellow helps even further, while simultaneously ensuring Val is safe from status effects whenever he's at 50 percent HP or below.
• Frenzy raises Val's Defense by 70 percent when his HP is at 30 percent or below.

The trick to making this all work in your favor is a little twisty, but well worth the effort. For starters, use Howl Mark to constantly get the enemies' attention on Val.

Make sure you have a reliable healer in the party for when things get too dicey, but don't set their strategy to let them heal Val automatically, or elsꩵe Val's incredible passives will never get the𓂃 chance to shine.

When you get the Lionheart ability seed later in the game, give it to Val, as it makes him immune to being knocked back from hits - which is good not only because you can keep swinging, but also, because it keeps Val in the line of fire on a permanent basis.

Paladin - True Soul Guard

On the other end of the spectrum, there's Paladin, which is acquired from (naturally) the Light Vessel. Unlike Berserker's Greatswords and Rune Knight's Small Swords, the Paladin is equipped with Lances, which come packed with a neat-looking shield to further accentuate their extreme defensive prowess.

The Paladin is the culmination of what you'll see with the Liege and Aegis classes. That doesn't mean those classes don't continue to maintain their own merits, and they're well worth wielding if you'd prefer; but Paladin is our pick for the best defensively-fixated class in the game.

The most important thing to remember when playing as a Paladin is that Val's shield should always be fortified. This is done through casting a Shield spell, which is convenient, as it's something you may v♔ery well find yourself doing when playing Val's other classes, anyway.

Fortifying Val's shield imbues some vast party-wide benefits, which come into play while you do the same thing you'll always do with Val, which is to say, get him up close and personal on a routine basis, drawing aggro as best you can.

• Scintillating Shield grants the entire party a 30 percent chance of recovering 40 percent of the damage Val sustains as HP when his shield is fortified. Scintillating Shield+ doubles the odds to 60 percent.
• Light of Hope keeps Val going by restoring 20 percent of his HP any time he's hit by an attack that deals at least 20 percent of his max HP in damage. This is perfect for those harder-hitting boss fights.
• Sanctum protects any party member with 20 percent or less HP by reducing the damage they sustain by 70 percent.

Could the argument be made that, if you're playing Visions of Mana optimally, you shouldn't need to worry about a party member ever falling that low? Maybe. But on Hard and especially the unlockable Expert difficulty, it's absolutely going to♏ happen, and Sanctum is a godsend.

Best Party Compositions For Val

Making the most of any party member in Visions of Mana is about more than setting them up properly. It's about factoring in who they're tagging along with in battles.

Since the Elemental Vessels are interchangeable, certain options will be blocked off at any given time - Val and Careena can't both be using the Dark Vessel, for instance - but by and large, there are ample options at your dis🎀posal to make the most of Val's capabilities.

Rune Knight

Of our three favorite Val classes,🧸 this one's probably the most adaptive to a broad 🌳range of compositions.

As Val isn't especially sturdy (by Val class standards), it's not a bad idea to bring Julei, the game's best healer - or simply anyone else whose class serves a healing role. Palamena can make it work especially well.

Other than that, well, go with your gut. Taking either Morley or Careena in a highly physical offensive role can help them to make the most of the effects of Saber magic.

Berserker

With the Berserker, you definitely want a healer. But remember: disable any strategy option that will compel them to heal Val without your direct input, lest they continuously prevent Val's low-HP passives f♕rom triggerওing as intended.

Once again, then, Julei is a good choice for backup, while a status-effect-slinging class from Careena can further dampen the enemy's od🌠ds of fig𒅌hting back.

Paladin

By contrast, Paladin has less need of a healer, since it's going to be reducing the damage received by the entire party when its own passives trigger.

You'll want to focus on upping your overall damage output, as Paladin itself is not going to clear the crowds. Bring Morley as a Nightblade or other high-attack class, and then consider one of either Palamena as Magus or similarly high magic-attack class, or alternatively, Careena for further melee firepower.