The enemies that counter techs aren't particularly common and are intended as magic spoilers; Angela is generally seen as a respectable PC and all that.
Pretty much true. List of enemies that actually counter stuff with something noteworthy offhand (excluding bosses):
Ninja Masters w/ Shadow Dive (not threatening; even if there is two, they usually target the same PC twice even if the PC dies due to how the game lags Deaths a bit), found in Navarre and the Fire Dungeon.
Nightblades with Split Image Slice (actually threatening!), found in Glass Desert and Dark Cave.
Queen Bees w/ Light Shot Spear (threatening, especially since they can use Power Up as well, and thus OHKO you without a second though), found in...whatever the name of the place you fight Mispolm in.
The lesser version of Queen Bees (think they're called Lady Bees or something?) have Vacuum Spear, and Power Up, but are generally much less threatening and you'll often not see them do it since they die, but they're there.
Black Fangs w/ Water Moon Slice (ST, thus not threatening), found in Beast Kingdom
Silver Wolves with 100 Genbu Kick (ST, so again, not threatening), found in Beast Kingdom and Moon Reading tower (Note that Silver Wolves are a pain in the ass but NOT for damage reasons; its cause they are randoms with MT Heal Light and they like to spam it)
Bloody Wolves w/ Suzaku Sky Dance (Threatening and painful), found in Moon Reading Tower and Dark Cave
Wolf Devils w/ Seiryuu Death Fist (see above!), found in Forest of Illusions, I believe its called (area outside of Mirage Palace), and I think MIrage Palace itself.
Sword Knights w/ Whirlwind Cut (not that threatening, actually, since the attack isn't that strong, despite MT), found in Cave of Winds or whatever its called and Rolante.
Sword Masters w/ Vacuum Sword (Mildly Threatening, but not THAT painful; mostly just something you need to watch out for so they don't nail you with it when you have low health), found in the Ice Cave, whatever that's called.
Dark Lords w/ Eruption (Probably the most threatening counter a random has in the game, this thing hurts like hell if you've ever eaten one), found in Dragon's Hole.
A few other randoms counter with Magic, but beyond maybe Death Machines and their MT Silence + damage move, its nothing too threatening.
Either way, the counters are often exaggerated, and easy to avoid.
...oh, right, I left off Shadow Zeros, didn't I? Well, how threatening they are depends on who they turn into. An Angela Shadow Zero is one of the most laughable things around unless you idiotically provoke a counter over and over again and never heal (but that's your own idiocy), or are playing an SCC. Meanwhile, a Duran Shadow Zero is scary as hell (unless he's a Lord), since its High Powered FST. Note that Kevin always has a Throw Tech and its Human Kevin they mimic, so Shadow Zero's mimicing Kevin aren't as threatening as you'd think (actually, Vanadis Lise is more threatening than any of Kevin's Shadow Zero forms for that reason alone.)
(For that matter, yay! Another reason to bash the Vanadis! <_< >_>)
In any event, its not counters that get level 2/3 techs bashed anyway (if that's one of the train of thoughts here). Its the fact that you get far more bang for your buck, ESPECIALLY in Kevin and Hawk's case, using Level 1's, AND they can hit multiple enemies too if timed properly.
In fact, 2 level 1 Techs does more damage than a level 3, and takes the same amount of actions (Level 3 is 9 Attacks, 2 level 1's is 8 attacks, but requires two uses of the tech, hence same deal.) Its just an overkill comparison with Hawk's Back Slash and Kevin's Ashura Dream Fist since their Level 1's hit twice like their physicals, something their Level 2/3's don't factor into their multipliers (making Hawk and Kevin effectively having level 3's on their level 1's)
THEN there's the fact that Level 1's take Saber benefits into account, something level 2/3's do not. The Counter thing is more just an added penalty more so than the meat of the argument.
FSTs are useless for that reason, unless you have Aura Wave. By the time you built up a level 2 or 3 tech, the enemies are for the most part nearly dead anyway, so the hype they get isn't worth much. Granted, in rooms where enemies spawn, that's a different story, but those are the exception, more often than not, enemies do not spawn. Its true that an FST > ST Tech, but it doesn't save a classes worth like some will claim. For that matter, all of Lise's classes have a level 2 FST which is why the Vanadis level 3 FST is meaningless; the level 2 kills things dead anyway, and comes off faster...
...yeah, just finding reasons to bash the Vanadis, don't mind me <_< >_>
