Dragon Quest XI

[SnowFire]

According to legend, whenever the forces of darkness arise, a chosen one will come, commune with tree roots, fight evil, be turned into a fish, play minigames, and save the world.

This was using the PC version of the game, which is mechanically equivalent to the PS4 version from all accounts (you can install better music, though).  The 3DS JP-only version has some small balance changes vs. this version, and this version is mostly for the better, e.g. Pep Up lasting a longer time.

Useful resources:
* This spreadsheet of equipment: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pGQGO9M_OLNstXbY45t1_zMDCLpiw8pwB7y8fM3IKkA/htmlview?sle=true#
* This GameFAQs thread with the (JP) mechanics, stat ranges, etc.: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/179347-dragon-quest-xi-echoes-of-an-elusive-age/76888622


Normal Ending vs. True Ending

DQ11 has three distinct acts: Final Fantasy 6 World of Balance, Final Fantasy 6 World of Ruin, and Chrono Trigger-meets-Bravely Default.  There's a "normal ending" that rolls the credits after you beat the WoR final boss (Level 50 or so), and there's a "true ending" you get if you beat the Part III final final boss (Level 75 or so).  I've elected to take the game at the True Ending for a few reasons:

* You don't have access to your full party for the Normal Ending.  (See: Tide's Trails of Cold Steel II topic, which took the game at the Epilogue where you have full party member access.)
* The "True Ending" feels a lot plottier than, say, the DQ8 Dragovian Trials which were "I dunno, challenge some friendly dragons since you're bored I guess" or DQ5's "hey do a giant random 100 floor dungeon for no reason."  You're fighting real enemies & advancing the plot, which makes it feel closer to, say, Fire Emblem 6/12's extra true ending levels.
* Entire new skill trees open up for some characters, there's upgrades to existing abilities, etc.  Would feel weird to leave that stuff out.  Skill point allocation conundrums are easier to handle too with more levels.

All characters have around 4 million to 4.1 million XP.  (The characters do differ in level despite similar amounts of XP since they have slightly different levelling speeds, for whatever reason.)


Attack, Abilities, & Magic

DQ11 mostly uses the classic DQ formulas.  Characters can input Attack, Abilities, Magic, and DL-irrelevant Item / Defend.  However, Abilities tend to use two different formula types: one that is based off regular attack damage, one that is closer to the magic formula.  I have arbitrarily called them "Physical abilities" and "Psuedomagic abilities".  So:

* Regular attack: DMG = (Attack Power)/2 - (Enemy's Defense/4).  (If a critical hit: DMG = Attack Power, ignore defense / attack buffs.)
* Physical abilities: Are a multiplier times regular attack damage, and possibly multiple hits.  Example: Jade's Multifeet is 7x hits of DMG * 0.5  = 3.5 * normal attack damage total.  If one of those 7 hits is a critical, apply the multiplier as usual (e.g. multiply it by 0.5), and if somehow the crit would do less damage than 1.2x the normally calculated amount (massive atk buffs vs. a defense debuffed enemy?), do 1.2x the normal amount instead.
* Psuedomagic abilities: Based off a stat (differs by ability), deals damage based off a formula that scales up as the stat rises (perhaps you got Pep'd Up).  Not resisted by an enemy "stat"; however, many of these have an element attached, and that element can be resisted.  (For enemy psuedomagic, "Breath" typed attacks can also be resisted by Insulatle.)
* Magic: Based off Magical Might (MMi), magic spells deal damage based off a formula that scales up as MMi rises.  Not resisted by an enemy "stat"; however, almost all of these have an element attached, and that element can be resisted.  Additionally, buffs / debuffs like Magic Barrier & Anathemsize will affect spell damage.

Or, put another way:
* Physical attacks & physical abilities are heavily affected by enemy defense, and attack & defense buffs and debuffs.  Examples: Oomph / Blunt, Sap / Buff.
* Psuedomagic abilities arguably ignore most defensive stats in the DL, barring elemental resistance, and buffs / debuffs don't usually matter.
* Spells clearly can be resisted, but all PCs have equivalent magic resistance at base, so only buffs / debuffs cover blanket spell resistance.  Elemental resistance also works, of course.

Damage figures in this stat topic assume an enemy defense of 480 (= reduces damage by 120).  Durability vs. defense-subject physical attacks assumes an enemy attack of 650 = 325 incoming damage before defense = 227 damage to DL "average" defense, which is equivalent to .41 PCHP damage.


Evasion, parrying, and blocking

All the block rates, parry rates, and evasion rates below are exactly what they appear to be: Erik has a 16% chance to dodge physicals & physical-ish abilities, Serena has a 10% shield block rate, Jade has a 3% weapon parry rate, and so on.  There isn't an "accuracy" stat or anything to be compared against.  There do exist abilities which explicitly ignore evasion, ignore parry / block, or both, however.


Equipment

I've ignored certain extremely late-breaking item creation recipes in this topic.  For details, see the Appendix.  Short version: I'm ignoring rewards from the Final Trial of the Wheel of Harma and equipment recipes found inside the final postgame dungeon.

All equipment in the topic is forged to +3, which becomes way easier in the postgame.  I also only list "uniqueish" effects & stats.  For the optional equips, if I don't mention the likes of "big defence drop" then assume it's negligible.  For example, Rab loses 10 Defence and 8 Magical Might from equipping an Angel's Robe, which should matter approximately never.

Characters have 2 accessory slots; the stats here don't include them.

Character loadouts have opted for defense more than raw damage for the characters with a choice between two-hands vs. one-hand weapons - Serena and the eighth character, notably, who can both get mildly better damage from going two-handed.  I believe it's the overall better setup.  (Luminary, Sylvando, & Veronica can all go two-handed as well, but don't get better turn 1 damage from it.)

Note that not all abilities are listed.  Presume that if characters want to chip for less damage or be MP-efficient, they have an absolute ton of ways to do so.


Stats

Magic abilities all tend to run off Magical Might or Magical Mending.  Psuedomagic abilities all run off a stat too, although which stat it is changes.  Most of Sylvando's abilities run off Charm, most of Serena's run off Magical Mending, etc.  Strength & Resilience help determine Attack & Defense when combined with equipment for defense-subject attacks.  Charm and Deftness, when not powering a psuedomagic effect, don't really do much.

There are three derived stats below: PCHP, Physical Durability, and standard deviations from cast average agility.  PCHP is just max HP relative to the cast average (1.16 = 116% of the average 553 max HP).  Physical Durability is PCHP modified by the amount of damage taken from an attack of power 650 vs. average defense, and gives a sense of true durability vs. defense-subject attacks.  Std. deviations vs. average is exactly what it says, gives a sense of relative speed.

Cast Averages

HP: 553
MP: 382
Defense: 392
Agility: 266 (Std. deviation: 99)
Elemental damage reduction w/ default equipment, no accessories: 25% resistance

Damage, 1-turn: 579 (2.5x killpoint: 1448)
Damage, 3-turn: 609 (2.5x killpoint: 1523)

[SnowFire]

WARNING: The 8th character is a mild spoiler (think Magus in Chrono Trigger, but even less spoilerific).  They're named below, so…  you were warned.


Luminary / Hero / Eleven
Level: 77, HP: 641, MP: 354
Attack: 580, Defense: 465, Agility: 263
Strength: 365, Resilience: 164, Magical Might: 375, Magical Mending: 363, Deftness: 164, Charm: 568
PCHP: 1.16, Physical Durability: 1.26, Agility (std. deviations from average): -0.03


Default setup: Sword & Shield.  (Alternates: 2x Swords, Greatsword)

Supreme Sword of Light (Deals Lightning elemental damage.  3% chance to remove beneficial buffs from enemies when attacking.  Cures an ally of negative status effects when used as an item.)
Erdwin's Shield (25% resistance to Fire/Ice/Dark, 10 MP restored a turn, 10% Block chance)
Irwin's Helm (20% resistance to all elements, resists curse by 50%)
Erdwin's Tunic (25% resistance to all elements, 10 MP restored a turn)

If Luminary shield-blocks or greatsword parries an attack, he gets a free counterattack (use regular attack damage).

Attack - 170 lightning damage
Sword Dance (8 MP) - 510 damage over 4 hits
Miracle Slash (4 MP) - 170 damage, recovers 69 HP (scales with damage dealt).
Sword Stance (2 MP) - Increases parrying chance by 33% for four turns
Blade of Ultimate Power (48 MP) - 700 pseudomagic damage

Gigagash (32MP) - 410 pseudomagic lightning damage to all
Quadraslash (24MP) - 355 pseudomagic damage to all
Flamesplitter, Seasplitter, etc. (32 MP) - 420 fire/ice/wind/earth/dark/light pseudomagic damage to all enemies

Pep Up (25MP)** - Enter Pepped Up state.  Lasts 4-6 turns as opposed to the natural 6-8 turns.  Phys Durability rises to 1.37.  Will buff Sword Dance damage to 895 when equipped with a Greatsword, but Kazap / Blade of Ultimate Power are already soft-capped.  Crit rate increases as well.

Spells

Kazap (48 MP) - 720 lightning damage to a group
Kafrizz (21 MP) - 320 fire damage
Kasizz (16 MP) - 220 fire damage to a group
Boom (12 MP) -145 light damage to all enemies

Kasnooze (8 MP) - Sleep a group of enemies, 80% base success rate   
Kaclang (8 MP) - Metalizes an ally for 2-4 turns.  (Invincible, but no actions.)
Fullheal (24 MP) - Heals all HP for an ally
Moreheal (12 MP) - Heals an ally for 220 HP

Greatswords
Metal King Gooreatsword (Attack goes to 689, lose 93 Defence & 10% Block rate, gain 3% Parry rate)
Attack - 225
Sword Dance (8 MP) - 675 damage over 4 hits
Gigacrash (32 MP) - 470 pseudomagic lightning damage to a group
Greatsword Guard (2MP) - Increases parry chance by 33% for four turns   


** You might respect the Luminary entering fights pre-Pep'd Up due to the Pep Up ability; you can certainly use it on a random encounter just before a boss battle if you desire, or just spam it near the end of random encounters, if you don't mind the Luminary being a nervous wreck.

Notable optional equips:
* Metal King Shield: Gets 10% resistance to all elements and (still) a 10% Block rate.
* Erdwin's Coronet (helm): 50% resistance to Sleep, Confusion, Spell-sealing, and instant death.  (No elemental resistance though.)
* Sword options: If Hero is using Sword Dance but doesn't want to use Supreme SoL, he can also opt for Metal King Sword (perhaps Lightning is resisted?), Uber Miracle Blade (restore 30% of damage dealt as HP, bit of a damage hit though), or can use a 2x sword Supreme SoL + Super SoL combo if he wants to hit a physical lightning weakness hard??  None of these will affect Blade of Ultimate Power, though, so no Uber Miracle Blade healing off that.

Erik
Level: 79, HP: 530, MP: 275
Attack: 479, Defense: 345, Agility: 469
Strength: 260, Resilience: 136, Magical Might: 243, Magical Mending: 0, Deftness: 374, Charm: 432
PCHP: 0.96, Physical Durability: 0.91, Agility (std. deviations from average): +2.05

Default setup: Swords, Guile, Knives

2x Metal King Swords
Pirate King's Cap (2% evasion, 45 Agility, 90 Charm, 50% resistance to Lightning)
Pirate King's Coat (4% evasion, 45 Agility, 90 Charm, 50% resistance to Wind)

Erik has a natural 10% dodge rate from passive skills (16% evasion total).

Divide (6MP) - Buff self, 1-turn duration.  On next turn, if Erik takes an action, it happens 3x times.  (If Erik loses his turn or defends or something, it does NOT persist.) 

Swords
Attack: 2x hits of 147 damage (294 total)
Fatal Slash (8 MP) - 735 damage, 40% chance of instant death
Critical Claim (64 MP) - 535 damage guaranteed critical hit. Ignores blind / evasion / defense.
Miracle Slash (4 MP) - 294 damage, recovers 98 HP (scales with damage dealt).
Sword Stance (2 MP) - Increases parrying chance by 33% for four turns

Spells
Ridgeraiser (36 MP) - Plants a sigil under an enemy group. Deals 270 earth damage at the beginning of enemy's turns for three turns (810 damage total).  Not affected by Bounce / Snub / magic reflection or nulling (think WA4 hex status).

Knives
Knife of Strife x2 (12% chance to Dazzle enemies on hit, attack-per-hand falls to 479)
Attack: 2x hits of 120 damage (240 total)
Sleeper Hit (3MP) - 290 damage to a single enemy, 50% chance of inflicting sleep
Persecutter (5MP) - 1490 damage to a single enemy if they're afflicted by sleep or confusion. Removes the ailments upon hit.
Cobra Strike (3MP) - 290 damage to a single enemy, 50% chance of inflicting envenomation (= generally 55 HP per turn damage at endgame)
Victimiser (5MP) - 1490 damage to a single enemy if they're afflicted by poison, envenomation, or paralysis. Removes the ailments upon hit.
Assassin's Stab (5 MP) - 240 damage, 20% chance of instant death

Boomerangs
Untested, not what Erik wants in a duel.
Starburst Throw (10MP) - 130 psuedomagic light damage


Notable optional equips:
* Metal King Jacket (armor): 10% resistance to all elements and 8% evasion (+4% evasion vs. default), at the cost of a bit of defense and Pirate King's Coat's Agility & Wind Resistance.
* Erik can mix in Uber Miracle Swords at a slight damage cut (-27 attack vs. Metal King Swords) but gain 30% of damage dealt restored as HP effect for that attack.



Veronica
Level: 78, HP: 443, MP: 579
Attack: 300, Defense: 266, Agility: 276
Strength: 197, Resilience: 113, Magical Might: 730, Magical Mending: 90, Deftness: 270, Charm: 310
PCHP: 0.80, Physical Durability: 0.70, Agility (std. deviations from average): +0.10


Default setup: Heavy Wands / Vim

Rod of Paradise
Crown of Eternity (3% Critical Spell Chance Increase, 100% MP Theft Reduction)
Angel's Robe (18% resistance to all elements, 50% resistance to instant death)

Veronica naturally resists all non-Dark elements by 20% from her Vim skill tree.  (Total: Resists Fire/Ice/Wind/Earth/Light/Lightning by 38%, Dark by 18% before accessories).

Enchanting Echo: Veronica's spells naturally have a chance to cast themselves again for free.  (25% or so?)

Spells
Magic Burst (All MP) Deals 3 * MP in non-elemental damage.  With a full 579 max MP, that is 1737 damage.  (With 2x Spirit Bracers, 1977 damage.)  (Not affected by Magical Might buffing/debuffing, but is affected by Spooky Aura / Anathematize, and of course reflection or immunity.)

Kafrizzle (52MP) - 650 fire damage
Kaboomle (60MP) - 620 light damage to all enemies
Kasizzle (48MP) - 550 fire damage to a group of enemies
Kacrack (20MP) - 240 ice damage to all enemies
Drain Magic (0MP) - Drains ~30 MP.  (Enemies can run out of MP, but many/most enemy attacks aren't magic.)

Kafuddle (8MP) - Confusion for a group of enemies, 95% base success rate
Bounce (6MP) - Reflects all spells cast by enemies for one ally, lasts ~4-6 turns.

Sap (2 MP) - Lower a single enemy's defense by -2 (-75%), 95% success rate.  (Twin Dragon Lash goes to 760 damage.)
Magic Barrier (4 MP)   Raises all allies' spell resistance by +1 (-50% damage; -75% damage if stacked)
Decelerate (2 MP) - Debuff target's agility by -2 (-40%), 95% base success rate
Fizzle (3MP) -  Silence an enemy group, 95% base success rate
Oomphle (8MP) Increases ally's attack by +2 (+50% Attack).
Blunt (6 MP) - Inflict debuff to reduce enemy Attack by 1 level, ~95% base hit rate, lasts 4-6 turns.  (Increases Veronica's durability to 0.98 PDur vs. average damage.  If stacked, increases to 1.70 PDur vs. average damage.)
Dedazzle (2MP) - Cures an ally of blindness

Abilities
Spooky Aura (3MP) - Reduce Spell Resistance -1. (+25% damage taken from magic, +50% if stacked.)
Staff of Salvation (4MP) - Heals 60 HP to an ally.
Antimagic (2MP) - Silence an enemy, 90% success rate
Wizard Ward (3MP) - Raise Spell Resistance +2 (-75% Damage taken from magic), lasts 4-6 turns.
Sage's Breath (0MP)- Restores 5% of max MP each turn, lasts 5 turns, does not activate on the turn it is used
Channel Anger (16MP) - Raises magical might by 50% for 4-6 turns.  (Kafrizzle goes to 765 damage, Kaboomle to 720 damage.)

Wand attack: 35 damage, restores ~9 MP or so

Whips (if skill'd for):
Anchor of Rancor (10% chance of Oomph when battle begins), Attack goes to 438
Attack: 99 damage
Twin Dragon Lash (8MP) - 395 damage over 2 hits
Hypnowhip, Hit the Hay, Trammel Lash, Starstrike (5 MP): 110 damage + meh status odds.  25% on Confuse/Sleep/Paralysis, 50% on Dazzle.
Whipcrackle (16MP): 315 lightning damage to group, high critical hit chance
Wyrm Whip (12MP): 180 damage over 3 hits, removes positive buffs

All whips allegedly have a hidden +10% damage boost vs. humanoids, so mildly better vs. a lot of the DL.


Notable optional equips:
* If Veronica optimizes around being a pure Magic Burst battery and you let her fool with accessories, she can equip 2x Spirit Bracers for +80 max MP, and +240 damage on her Magic Burst.
* Gown of Eternity (armor): Veronica gets +4% critical spell chance and mildly more defence / magical might with this (but loses Angel's Robe elemental defense).

Serena
Level: 74, HP: 503, MP: 521
Attack: 275, Defense: 368, Agility: 193
Strength: 210, Resilience: 122, Magical Might: 47, Magical Mending: 749, Deftness: 230, Charm: 325
PCHP: 0.91, Physical Durability: 0.89, Agility (std. deviations from average): -0.74


Default skill setup: Wands & Harpistry

Fantastick (Start battle with Snap, Crackle, Poof buff in-effect: Serena is immune to non-instant death status ailments for ~4-6 turns.)
Metal King Shield (10% resistance to all elements, 10% block chance)
Serenica's Circlet (Immune to instant death, 50% resistance to turn skip, +30 Max MP)
Angel's Robe (18% resistance to all elements, 50% resistance to instant death)

Abilities
Snap, Crackle, Poof (8MP) - Buff that renders ally immune to status effects.  Lasts 4-6 turns.
Grace of the Goddess (10MP) - Auto-Life buff on self, revives at 359 health if Serena dies.  Doesn't seem to lose turn on revival either.  Lasts 5 turns.
Divine Restitution (32MP) - 320 light damage to a group of enemies, also applies healing-over-time effect to Serena that heals her for 95 health every turn.  Healing buff lasts 5 turns, but does not kick in on turn used.
Doleful Dirge (12 MP) - 67% chance of inflicting a debuff that causes all elemental damage to deal (normal final damage) * 1.4.  Nothing resists this in-game.
Hymn of Fire/Ice/Air/Earth/Thunder/Light (6 MP): Applies a buff to all allies that reduces fire/ice/wind/earth/thunder/light damage by 40%.  (This is additive, so if Serena already resists ice by 60% say, she immunes ice rather than going to 76% resistance with Hymn of Ice.)  This is all DQ11 elements except Dark.  Lasts 5-7 turns.

Spells
Kaswooshle (50 MP) - 420 wind damage, high variance.
Fullheal (24 MP) - Restores all HP to an ally.
Moreheal (12 MP) - Restores 320 HP to an ally.
Kathwack (20 MP) - 80% base chance of instant death to all foes
Dazzle (3 MP) - 80% base chance of blind to a group
Fizzle (3 MP) - 80% base chance of silence to a group
Buff (3 MP) - Buff def by +2 (2x defense, PDur goes to 1.40)
Accelerate (2 MP) - Buff agility by +2 ( = +40%), lasts 5-7 turns
Anathematise (4 MP) - Attempts to debuff an enemy's spell resistance, ~55% success rate.  -1 is +25% damage from spells, -2 if stacked is +50% damage. 
Squelch (2 MP) - Cures ally of poison / envenomation

Attack w/ Wand: 18 damage, but gain ~6 MP or so!  (more MP theft against low-Def enemies too)


Spears
Metal King Spear (Serena gains an 8% Parry chance and Attack rises to 506, but loses the 10% block rate & elemental resistance and some Magical Might & Magical Mending.  Phys Durability falls to 0.80.  Damage figures below assumes she skills up and grabs all the Spear passives, so feel free to dock her some damage if you don't allow skill retooling.)
Attack - 133 damage
Crushed Ice (16 MP) - 480 ice damage over 4 hits, low crit chance
Thunder Thrust (4MP) - 50% chance of critical hit for 506 damage, ignores evasion / blind / defense.
Be Like Water (12MP)    - Increases parry chance by 20%, evasion chance by 50%, enables counter attacks at normal damage (133) for two turns.  (Total: .5 * .72 = 36% chance for enemies to hit Serena through this.)


Notable optional equips:
* Serenica's Surplice (armor): Absorb 20% MP from incoming enemy spells and gain 50% status resistances to Confuse/Curse/Beguilement; usually unneeded since Fantastick covers this.



Sylvando
Level: 76, HP: 527, MP: 294
Attack: 412, Defense: 468, Agility: 249
Strength: 255, Resilience: 167, Magical Might: 256, Magical Mending: 274, Deftness: 233, Charm: 544
PCHP: 0.95, Physical Durability: 1.04, Agility (std. deviations from average): -0.17



Default skill setup: Chivalry, Litheness, Showmanship, Knives, Swords. 

High-Born Blade (+18 Max MP, +40 Charm, 12% chance to beguile humanoids on attack, that rate buffed by ? amount by Nastier Knives passive)
Metal King Shield (10% resistance to all elements, 10% block chance)
Tiara Tremendisima (50% resistance to spell-sealing / ability-sealing / sleep, +100 Charm)
Gladder Rags (4% evasion, +100 Charm)

Abilities
Finger of Justice (24 MP) - 380 psuedomagic damage, high variance.  (If Pepped Up, 600 damage.)
Gold Rush (0 MP, 1000 gold) - 300 psuedomagic damage to all enemies
Have A Ball (12 MP) - 260 damage over 6x hits to random enemies, 10% base chance of applying confusion per hit (47% total chance of confusion if on a single enemy)  (with a sword: 310 damage)
Hustle Dance (12 MP) - 290 healing to all allies
Fuddle Dance (8 MP) - 50% chance of confusion to all enemies.
Pied Piper (4 MP) - 67% chance to beguile (charm) an enemy for 2-3 turns.  Beguiled enemies with no targets to attack will "assess the situation" and pass their turn.  Regular attacks will remove Beguilement, but psuedomagic or magic (read: Finger of Justice) will not.
Grand Stand (6MP) - Raise Atk & Def of self by +1.  See Oomphle for effects of atk buffing once stacked to +2; +1 def means ~1.40 PDur, +2 is 2.23 PDur vs. average damage.

Spells
Accelerate (2 MP) - Buff agility by +2 ( = +40%), lasts 4-6 turns
Deceleratle (4 MP) - Attempts to lower a group of enemies' AGI by -1 (-20%), ~90% base success rate
Re-Moreheal (16 MP) - Heals an ally for 62 HP for 5 turns (including turn cast).
Swoosh (10 MP): 124 wind damage to a group
Oomphle (8 MP) - Raises an ally's attack by +2 (+50% ATK) for 4-6 turns.  With this buff and a 1H sword, Have A Ball goes to 645 damage.)

Knives
Attack: 86 damage (Highborn Blade), 97 damage (Knife of Strife) (values below assume Highborn, buff slightly for Strife)
Sleeper Hit (3MP) - 105 damage to a single enemy, 50% chance of inflicting sleep
Persecutter (5MP) - 535 damage to a single enemy if they're afflicted by sleep or confusion. Removes the ailments upon hit.
Cobra Strike (3MP) - 105 damage to a single enemy, 50% chance of inflicting envenomation (= generally 55 HP per turn damage at endgame)
Victimiser (5MP) - 535 damage to a single enemy if they're afflicted by poison, envenomation, or paralysis. Removes the ailments upon hit.
Sudden Death (8MP) - 170 light damage, 20% chance of instant death to target.

Swords
Metal King Sword (Attack rises to 446)
Attack: 103 damage
Sword Stance (2MP): Increases parry chance by 33% for four turns
Miracle Slash (4 MP): 103 damage, restore 45 HP

Whips
Untested, probably not good in a duel, main advantage in-game is hitting groups.  Sylvando does get Wyrm Whip to remove enemy buffs at least.  Sylvando loses a shield from going Whips and doesn't even deal more damage with Have A Ball than Sword & Shield.  Some weak group-hitting status options though.

Dual-wielding swords or knives
Also untested, see whips entry, Sylv's best damage is usually pseudomagic anyway, even if Oomphle'd the damage boost will be small since he lacks Erik's Dually Deadly.


Notable optional equips:
* Knife of Strife (dagger) has +21 attack (=+10 base damage) on the High-Born Blade, or 2 of them if he wants to go really YOLO, but loses the 40 Charm & max MP, and it doesn't help Finger of Justice.  It has a 12% chance to Dazzle opponents on attack, with the rate buffed by some unknown amount by the Nastier Knives passive.
* Metal King Jacket (armor) has 10% elemental damage reduction and 8% evasion, but -25 Def and -100 Charm.
* Mardi Garb (armor) is +150 Charm, but at a horrific 82 point cut to Defense by the postgame.  (Great for the normal ending though!)
* Note that High-Born Blade is technically not unique to Sylvando and there's only 1 of them, but Erik gets nothing from its charm and would rather have higher attack daggers anyway, so it's clearly a Sylv weapon.

Jade
Level: 76, HP: 617, MP: 189
Attack: 585, Defense: 352, Agility: 324
Strength: 279, Resilience: 141, Magical Might: 0, Magical Mending: 0, Deftness: 377, Charm: 635
PCHP: 1.12, Physical Durability: 1.07, Agility (std. deviations from average): +0.59


Default skill setup: Fisticuffs / Spears

Metal King Spear (3% Parry chance)
Xenlon Hair Ring (25% resistance to status ailments)
Xenlon Gown (15% resistance to all elements, 8% evasion rate)

Attack: 173 damage
Multifeet (10 MP): 605 damage over 7 hits.  (if one of the hits crits: 810 damage.  If two: 1015 damage.  Probably better DPS than Crushed Ice due to the higher crit rate.)
Crushed Ice (16 MP): 620 ice damage over 4 hits, low crit chance.
Miracle Moon (16 MP): Deals 435 damage over 5 hits.  Recovers HP equivalent to damage from the first attack (87).
Pink Tornado (18 MP): 400 pseudomagic wind damage to all, 10% chance of turn skip.
Lightning Storm (24 MP): 300 pseudomagic lightning damage, 20% chance of paralysis.
Lightning Thrust (9 MP): 67% chance of critical hit for 585 damage.  Ignores evasion, blind, and defense.

Re-Vamp (16 MP) - Buffs Jade's Defense & Attack by 1 level each, also increases deftness (critical hit rate) and resistance to status ailments (probably 50% reduction?).  Lasts four turns.  At Def+1, Jade is ~1.30 PDur; at Def+2, Jade is ~1.64 PDur.  At +1 Atk, Jade's Multifeet is 860 damage and Miracle Moon is 615 damage; at +2 Atk, Jade's Multifeet is 1115 damage / MM is 795 damage.  Flavor-wise, might give Jade a monster type for weakness-hitting weapons?

Flashback (10 MP) - Applies a buff to Jade that lasts two turns.  Her defense is lowered to 1, but her evasion goes to 100%, and she deals 260 damage counterattacks to evaded attacks.

Claws
Untested, but..  gonna be way worse than a spear build.  Hardclaw is a DMG*3.6x skill, similar to Multifeet/Crushed Ice, but for comparison, Crystal Claws +3 are 96 Atk, Metal King Spear +3 is 251 Atk.  No Parry rate either.  Only advantage is an HP-theft effect, but Spear Jade can get that from Miracle Moon anyway.  Claws have hypothetically better regular attack damage vs. very low-defense targets..  yeah that doesn't matter.

Jade has the highest crit rate of any character, but not sure on the exact rules for it, especially since she gets various buffs to this off Re-Vamp and Pepping Up.  It's still not likely to happen unless you're using Multifeets's 7x chances, and even then it's not really guaranteed to go off.  I would wildly guess her crit rate is about 5% normally and about 10% after Re-Vamp'd and maybe 13% if both Re-Vamp'd and Pep'd Up.


Notable optional equips:
* Minerva's Raiment (armor) offers +3% critical rate and +37 Agility, at a bit of a Defense / Charm / Evasion cut vs. Xenlon Gown.
* Minerva's Tiara (helm) offers +1% critical rate vs. the Hair Ring's status resist.
* Golden Tiara (helm), while not unique to Jade, has a strong plot claim (she's directly given it in a cutscene).  It reduces the odds of Sleep, Confusion, Spell-Sealing, and Instant Death by 80%.
* Empress's Robe (armor) offers 20% resistance to all elements at a substantial defense cut. 
* Jade has a unique accessory, Belle's Bow, that restores 6 MP a round.  (So yes, infinite Flashbacks if desired.)

Rab
Level: 74, HP: 469, MP: 614
Attack: 322, Defense: 284, Agility: 215
Strength: 652, Resilience: 128, Magical Might: 652, Magical Mending: 637, Deftness: 185, Charm: 229
PCHP: 0.85, Physical Durability: 0.76, Agility (std. deviations from average): -0.52


Default skill setup: Enlightenment & Heavy Wands.

Rod of Paradise
Yggdrasil Crown (3% Critical Spell Chance Increase, 100% MP Theft Reduction)
Yggdrasil Dress Coat (50% resistance to spell-sealing, confusion, and beguilement (=charm))

Spells

Kacrackle (60 MP) - 565 ice damage to all
Kazammle (42 MP) - 460 dark damage, 4x critical rate.  (if crit, 1035 damage.)

Fullheal (24MP) - Restore all HP.
Moreheal (12 MP) - Heals 290 HP.
Drain Magic (0MP) - Drains ~30 MP.  (Enemies can run out of MP, but many/most enemy attacks aren't magic.)

Bounce (6MP) - Reflects all spells cast by enemies for one ally, lasts ~4-6 turns.
Kasnooze (8MP) - Inflicts sleep, ~95% base hit rate.
Dazzle   (3MP) - Inflicts dazzle (=blind), ~90% base hit rate.
Thwack (10MP) - Instant death to all enemies, ~60% base hit rate.

Blunt (6 MP) - Inflict debuff to reduce enemy Attack by 1 level, ~95% base hit rate, lasts 4-6 turns.  (Increases Rab's durability to 1.09 PDur vs. average damage.  If stacked, increases to 1.91 PDur vs. average damage.)
Insulate (4MP) - Increase breath resistance of one ally (-50% damage from breath attacks at 1 level, -75% damage at two levels), lasts ~4-6 turns.
Anathematise   (4MP) - Attempts to debuff an enemy's spell resistance, ~65% success rate.  -1 is +25% damage from spells, -2 if stacked is +50% damage. 
Infinite Wisdom (32MP) - Raises magical might and magical mending by 50% on self, lasts 4-6 turns.  (Kacrackle goes to 720 damage, Kazammle goes to 555 damage, Moreheal goes to 360 healing.)
Sap (2 MP) - Lower a single enemy's defense by -2 (-75%), 95% success rate.  (Wild Animaul goes to 645 damage.)

Benediction (2MP) - Remove curse from an ally.
(Rab has various other status-healing that doesn't matter in a duel)

Abilities
Right as Rain (12MP) - Buff that restores 42 HP at start of round.  Lasts 5 turns.
Clear Your Mind (10MP) - Removes buffs from a single enemy
Antimagic (2MP) - Silence an enemy, 90% success rate
Staff of Salvation (4MP) - Heals 140 HP to an ally.
Pearly Gates (24 MP) - 280 wind damage to all enemies; vs. undead, 420 wind damage.

Staff attack: 45 damage, restore ~10 MP or so

Claws
(Usually not invested much in.  If Rab wants to get Hand of God & the claw passives, he needs to give up one of Kacrackle & Clear Your Mind, or Kazammle & Infinite Wisdom.  Not closely tested.)
Crystal Claws (Attack goes to 345)
Attack 53 + 37 = 90 damage
Hand of God (24 MP) - 420 psuedomagic light damage
Wild Animaul (24MP) - 240 damage over 5 hits, low critical hit chance.

Notable optional equips:
* Angel's Robe (18% resistance to all elements, 50% resistance to instant death) is a good alternate to the Yggdrasil Dress Coat.

Hendrik
Level: 77, HP: 696, MP: 232
Attack: 510, Defense: 586, Agility: 140
Strength: 318, Resilience: 209, Magical Might: 0, Magical Mending: 278, Deftness: 123, Charm: 367
PCHP: 1.26, Physical Durability: 1.60, Agility (std. deviations from average): -1.27


Default skill setup: Everything!  (Yes, Hendrik has enough skill points to easily cover all the DL skills & passives in all his weapons, so Heroism / Fraternity / Swords / Greatswords / Axes.)

Drustan's Sword
Drustan's Shield (25% resistance to all elements, restores 25 HP a turn, 14% block rate improved to 20% via skills)
Drustan's Helmet (+30 Max HP)
Metal King Armor (20% resistance to all elements)

Hendrik can dual-wield 1h swords & axes, but this is almost always a worse idea than Greatswords.

Spells:
Moreheal (12 MP) - Heals 205 HP to an ally.
Buff (3 MP) - Raises an ally's DEF by +2 (+100%,Hendrik's durability rises to…  8.50 PDur or so vs. average damage, take this figure with a grain of salt.).
Magic Barrier (4 MP)   Raises all allies' spell resistance by +1 (-50% damage; -75% damage if stacked)

Abilities:
Double Up - Applies +2 Atk buff, -1 Def debuff to self (= +50% Attack, -50% Defense) for 4-6 turns.  (Hendrik's durability falls to 1.18 PDur, Gryfalcon Slash rises to 1050 damage, Unbridled Blade rises to 1140 damage)
Hurt Converter (16MP) - Applies buff to self that causes Hendrik to heal 50% of all damage dealt, lasts 4 turns.
Blind Man's Biff - 380 damage to random enemy (w/ sword), high crit chance, ignores blind / evasion.

Sword
Attack - 135 damage
Gyrfalcon Slash (16 MP) - 540 damage over 4 hits
Miracle Slash (4MP) - 135 damage, heals 55 HP.

Shield abilities:
Blockenspiel (3MP) - 65 damage, takes 50% of usual damage until next turn
Holy Impregnable (5MP) - Become status immune, lasts ~5 turns.
Desperate Measures (10MP) - Blocks desperate/critical attacks for 4 turns?  Untested, horrible.

Axe
Aristocrat's Axe (Attack goes to 530)
Attack - 145 damage
Parallax (10MP) - 435 damage, 25% chance of inflicting paralysis.
Hatchet Man (4MP) - 50% chance of 530 damage critical hit to enemy, ignore defense / blind / evasion
Scrap Mettle (9MP) - 220 damage, 50% chance of lowering the enemy's DEF by -2 (-75%).  Gryfalcon Slash goes to 900 damage vs. average defense if debuff hits.

Greatsword abilities
Metal King Gooreatsword (Attack rises to 665, lose 93 Defence & block rate, gain 7% Parry rate - new PDur 1.41 PCHP or so)
Attack - 213 damage
Unbridled Blade (16 MP) - 640 damage, can't crit
Greatsword Guard (2MP) - Increases parry chance by 33% for four turns   

Pep up note: If Hendrik gets Pepped Up, he has one of the best Pep Up stat boosts - his agility is multiplied by 2.5, pushing him to +0.70 standard deviations vs. average speed.  His durability is further boosted (Resilence * 1.4) and there's the usual critical rate boost as well.


Notable optional equips:
* Drustan's Armor (armor): Has 25% resistance to fire & ice, a bit more defense, and a silly-looking DQ3 Soldier costume change.
* Hendrik has a unique accessory, Field Marshal's Footwear, that is one of the best pure-stat items.  If he equips one from a "naive" perspective (e.g. the rest of the cast still has no accessories), then his PCHP rises to 1.32, his PDur rises to 1.77, and his speed rises to -1.02 Std Deviations below average.  If you assume that the rest of the cast equips Angel's Sandals in response, he keeps the durability improvements but the relative speed increase is mostly lost (maybe -1.23 Std. Dev or so?).  He could hypothetically equip 2x of these as well, but I don't particularly encourage allowing that.

[SnowFire]

Accessories

I'm ignoring some incidental +10 Defenses and the likes here that shouldn't really matter at endgame.

Status-blocking accessories
* Catholicon Ring: Reduce odds of Sleep, Confusion, Poison, Venom, Bedazzle (=Blind), Paralysis, & Turn Skip by 50%.
* Elfin Charm: Reduce odds of Sleep, Confusion, Spell-Sealing (=Silence), Instant Death, & Turn Skip by 50%.  Reduces MP theft abilities to 50% effectiveness.
* Care Ring: Reduce odds of Spell-Sealing (=Silence) and Ability-Sealing by 50%.
* Protective Pendant: 25% Beguilement (=Charm) protection.
* Gemma's Eternal Charm: 70% Beguilement (=Charm) / Curse protection, Luminary-only.

Elemental resistance accessories
* Sovereign Seal: 40% Ice & Dark damage reduction, +40 Charm.
* Venus's Tear: 40% Lightning & Wind damage reduction, +40 Charm.
* Lucky Dragon's Wing: 40% Fire & Light damage reduction.
* Earthwyrm's Eye: 50% Earth damage reduction, +40 Charm, +20 Max HP.
* Skull Ring: 50% Dark Damage reduction.  Reduces odds of Instant Death by 50%.

Raw stats
* Angel's Sandals: +30 Agility, 25% Turn Skip protection.
* Devil's Tail: +17 Agility, +5 Defence,  30% Dark damage reduction, 30% Curse Protection.
* Spirit Bracer: +40 Max MP, +10 Defence.
* Wristorative: Restore 25 HP a round.
* Field Marshal's Footwear: Hendrik only.  +40 Defence, +36 Agility, +30 Max HP, + who cares Charm.  80% Turn Skip protection.
* Belle's Bow: Jade only.  +15 Defence, +25 Charm, regen 6 MP/round.  (Unique…  but…  you can get 2 of them via time travel shenanigans.  If you miss your chance you can never get the 2nd though.)
* Suave Scarf: Sylvando only.  +4% Evasion Rate,  +13 Defence, +who cares Deftness, +52 Charm.

As for what accessories should be assumed to be the "default": I have no idea!  In-game, the raw stat accessories are generally terrible by postgame, you want the status & elemental blockers anyway even for Jade & Hendrik, so maybe a cause for "leniency" and no charge at all, lest Hendrik be rewarded for an accessory he probably won't actually equip.  On the other hand, this will mean that the PC cast can pick any one DQ11 element they dislike and null it.  If you assume optimizing for agility with no regard to other stats, most of the cast puts on Angel's Sandals and Hendrik wears Field Marshal's Footwear, meaning you take a minor speed hit to put on the other stuff like the status resist gear.


Damage average (1-turn)

1. 735 Erik: Fatal Slash
2. 720 Hero: Kazap
3. 650 Veronica: Kafrizzle
4. 620 Jade: Crushed Ice
5. 565 Rab: Kacrackle
6. 540 Hendrik: Gyrfalcon Slash
7. 420 Serena: Kaswooshle
8. 380 Sylvando: Finger of Justice

Average: 579 (2.5x killpoint: 1448)

Damage average (3-turn)

For most characters, spam the same move above 3x times, but for Eric:
1. 980 Erik: Divide -> 3x Fatal Slash -> Fatal Slash

Average: 609 (2.5x killpoint: 1523)

* Technically, Veronica's best 3-turn has Spooky Aura x2 -> Magic Burst for 2579 damage = 860 1 turn, but any opponent who lets her do this in Godlike deserves to lose anyway.

** You might want to peg the damage average down a little to reflect that many enemies tend to resist some elements.  This doesn't matter for Erik/Sylvando/Hendrik, and doesn't matter much for Hero/Veronica/Jade who lose little damage by switching to non-elemental Blade of Ultimate Power / Magic Burst / Multifeet, but Serena & Rab definitely lose some steam being heavily Wind/Ice/Dark reliant.


Speed average

1. 469 Erik (Std. dev: +2.05) (unequipped: 379)
2. 324 Jade (Std. dev: +0.59)
3. 276 Veronica (Std. dev: +0.10)
4. 263 Luminary (Std. dev: -0.03)
5. 249 Sylvando (Std. dev: -0.17)
6. 215 Rab (Std. dev: -0.52)
7. 193 Serena (Std. dev: -0.74)
8. 140 Hendrik (Std. dev: -1.27)

Average: 266 (unequipped average: 255)


HP & Defense averages

1. Hendrik: 696 HP, 586 Def (1.26 PCHP, 1.60 P Durability)
2. Luminary: 641 HP, 465 Def (1.16 PCHP, 1.26 P Durability)
3. Jade: 617 HP, 352 Def (1.12 PCHP, 1.07 P Durability)
4. Erik: 530 HP, 345 Def (0.96 PCHP, 0.91 P Durability)
5. Sylvando: 527 HP, 468 Def (0.95 PCHP, 1.04 P Durability)
6. Serena: 503 HP, 368 Def (0.91 PCHP, 0.89 P Durability)
7. Rab: 469 HP, 284 Def (0.85 PCHP, 0.76 P Durability)
8. Veronica: 443 HP, 266 Def (0.80 PCHP, 0.70 P Durability)

HP average: 553
Defense average: 392

[SnowFire]

Appendix

Elements

DQ11 has 7 elements.  Every spell in the game has an element, and some abilities (both physical abilities like Flame Slash and psuedomagic abilities like Luminous Toss) do as well.
* Fire: Frizz & Sizz
* Ice: Crack
* Light: Bang
* Dark: Zam
* Air: Woosh
* Earth: Rubblerouser
* Lightning: Zap

Of the elements, Lightning is by far the best element.  Few enemies resist Lightning (notably not including robots who resist all other elements and have high physical defense), and few enemies use Lightning themselves.


Elemental resistance & scaling

As noted above, elemental resistance is the real equivalent of magic resistance in DQ11.  You can argue it should be scaled some as a result.  With the equipment in this topic, that comes out to 25% resistance as standard - so Erik, with 50% resistance to Lightning & Wind, would take functionally 133% the usual damage from say Fire (100/75), and take 67% the normal damage from Lightning & Wind (50/75), equivalent to "really" only resisting by 33%, not 50%. 

Of course, if you allow free accessory shuffling, this hardly matters since the vast majority of the cast can drive any one element into the dirt and null it or practically null it.  (At least compared to, say, Final Fantasy Tactics Rubber Shoes, you can reasonably set up to use these accessories effectively in-game.)  If you price in a +40/+40 accessory as well like Sovereign Seal / Lucky Dragon's Wing / Venus's Tear, the "standard" resistance is 36%; two elemental accessories, 47%.

Quick chart of what this comes out to:

00%   20%   40%   60%   80% (Naive resistance)
-33%   -7%   20%   47%   73% (scaled vs. 25% resistance)
-56%   -25%   6%   37%   69% (scaled vs. 36% resistance)
-89%   -51%   -13%   25%   62% (scaled vs. 47% resistance)


Speed & Initiative

DQ11 is, under the covers, the same turn-based system as usual; there's some random die roll that affects your initiative, and the dice roll is potent, so you really want to outspeed by a lot if you want a consistent turn order.  The main difference from older DQs is that the "turns" are invisible, and characters enter their commands when their turn comes up, rather than having to enter in the whole team's commands at the start of the round blind.  This actually makes initiative a tad less valuable in long slugfests: you don't need to worry about mistiming / misaiming heal spells and the like, since you'll see what the boss did before entering your command.  And in a long fight, a healer who consistently goes last is just as useful as one who consistently goes first.  Still, good initiative is obviously still really useful for short fights.


Pep Up

The new equivalent of Tension.  Not 100% sure on what's "really" going on, but every time a character attacks / gets hit by an enemy action / sees an ally die, there's some hidden die roll incrementing some Pep Up counter, affected by who knows what (level of enemy?  Amount of damage taken?).  When it maxes out, characters get to glow blue and be pepped up at the start of their next turn, with an increase to various stats.  They can also do combo special moves with other pep'd up PCs (will usually end the Pepped Up state).  This will last for 6-8 turns, then turn off.  It persists from battle to battle, and even staying at an inn; this state can be "saved" by putting somebody in the back row, and it still won't go away.

Note that all characters have a skill panel that is "Pep Power Up" that increases the size of these bonuses.  Every character can reasonably get this by endgame except Veronica, I'd argue.


Equipment weirdness

Per the intro, I've ignored certain super late item creation recipes, specifically: Orichalcum, Ore Blimey; A Guide to Godly Get-Up; If I Could Turn Back Time; Big Hitters of the Battlefield; Ye Manifold Methods of Mighty Drustan; and A Hero's Book of Brilliant Weapons.  These are so late that you could well fight no random encounters at all with the equipment they unlock, just the final boss, and that's if you forge them at all.  (Note that I have somewhat nicely let final postgame dungeon treasure be forged up, e.g. Erdwin's Tunic or Drustan's Sword, but you're much more likely to have/use those IMO.)

If you do allow the very very late stuff, some of the equips don't really change things (attack/defense values slightly higher, but the average goes up, so not really different - compare Angel's Robe and Seraph's Robe, for example).  Here's the interesting changes:

* Meteorite Bracer: Forgeable from the final trial of the Wheel of Harma.  Obliterates the speed curve that mattered for 99.5% of the game, even the slowest character is now the fastest character with one of these (+200 Agility!), everybody outspeeds the enemies.

* Timeshear Dagger: Has +42 Agility, and both Erik & Sylv could dual-wield them for +84 Agility.  Enables the obnoxious strategy of entering battle equipped with 2x Timeshear Daggers for a faster turn 1, then immediately switching off to charm dagger + shield or 2x Swords for Sylvando & Erik.  Would be totally insane to keep switching equips in-game, and no earlier daggers have an Agility boost, so meh.

* Sceptre of Time: Regens 10 MP a round.  Lets Serena start the battle with Alma Mater buff (irrelevant since she already immunes instant death).

* Heaven's Talon: Basically a Miracle Spear for Jade, so she could regen 25% of damage dealt with Crushed Ice or Multithrust rather than having to resort to Miracle Moon.  (Wouldn't work with Multifeet though.)

* Exotoga: Armor option for Erik/Serena/Sylvando/Jade/Rab with elemental damage -25%, and Sleep/Paralysis/Poison rates -35%.  No stats other than defense though.

* Potentate's Pallium: Armor option for Rab.  20% Elemental Resistance (vs. 18% on Angel Robe) & mildly better Def/Magical Might / Magical Mending stats than an Angel Robe.

* On the flip side: If we're banning the final trial of the Wheel of Harma, you might also credibly ban the prize for perfecting the 4th trial, the Recipe book "Shine on, Xenlon."  It's also really hard.  If you do, Jade loses her Xenlon equips above.


Optimizing equipment for Agility

Note that the Phantom Mask helmet is equippable by everybody and offers a +37 agility boost, although this isn't useful for Erik who already has a better boost with Pirate King's Cap.  This doesn't really help relatively, and is questionable in the game itself, so I wouldn't hype this much.  More of an argument for antihyping Jade's Minerva's Raiment, perhaps.


Normal Ending

If you take the game at the "Normal Ending", or allow characters to pick whether they want their Normal Ending or True Ending forms:

* My levels were at ~L51 for most party members, L49 for Serena.

* Serena has the biggest change.  As we know from DQ3, Sage = Pilgrim + Wizard, and she's a partial reincarnation of the Sage Serenica, so she gets Veronica's entire skillset, including the excellent Enchanting Echo passive.  On the other hand, she misses out on the powerful postgame status-blocking & elemental damage reduction accessories, and probably isn't high enough level to know Whack, let alone Kathwack nor Magic Burst.

* Hendrik's the same-but-better just on raw numbers since he peaks early.  He'll easily have access to his best damage in Gryfalcon Slash or Unbridled Blade, but lots of other PCs won't have access to their best damage, or else won't have enough MP to spam it, so Hendrik's damage is relatively better.  His healing is relatively better too, since HP scores are lower.  He'd lose a little off his Moreheal's raw potency due to lower Magical Mending as well, but it's still a winning trade.  No Hurt Converter, though.

* Everybody else is gonna be worse.  Less uber gear, less MP, fewer skills, etc.


Status effects / durations

Taken from https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/179347-dragon-quest-xi-echoes-of-an-elusive-age/76888622 :
Turn Skip / Stun - 1 turn
Paralysis - 1~4 turns
Sleep - 1~4 turns
Confusion - 3~6 turns
Charm - 2~3 turns
Poison - 20 turns (Deals 1~5 Damage per turn)
Envenomation - 5~7 turns (Envenomation does either: 1. 1/16 of the target's Maximum HP per turn, or 2. 55 Damage per turn; choosing whichever is lower.  For endgame tough monsters, it's gonna be the 55.)
Dazzle - 5~7 turns (possibly reduces Accuracy by 50% instead of the series' traditional 5/8 (62.5%), but sources are conflicted on this and some even say by 2/3 instead)
Silence - 2~4 turns
Ability Seal - 2~4 turns (only enemies are capable of causing this)
Curse - Never wears off, has to be cured via Ability or at a Church .  (effect varies; possible effects include: Instant Death, Halving of Maximum HP, and inability to act)
Metalization / Goldenization - 1~2 turns (prevents target from acting or taking damage, see Kaclang)

As usual, spells inexplicably won't break confusion.  Nothing but basic attacks seems to break charm. 


Bosses

Nope.  Here's two YouTube videos of SnowFire vs. the Big Antagonist, the Final Boss, and the Final Final Boss, but they're on Stronger Enemies, so not their DL form:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGBhwXtxAsY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI-uWLIO_KU

A few PCs have boss forms, but Sylvando's a special 2v2 fight where one of your allies is AI-controlled, and Rab is a very plotty / heavily scripted fight that's 1v1.  The main boss potentially worth thinking about is Jinxed Jade, which is the Evil Jessica equivalent.  She has the full Allure set from Jade…  is quite fast... and also double-acts…   so yeah, if you don't immune turn-skip / stun, she will give you a Puff-Puff then hit you with some damage-with-chance of status like Sleep, which means you will be skipping 80% of your turns smiling like a doofus while taking damage. 

[SnowFire]

DL thoughts

The main squirrely interp split is how you feel about accessory rotation legality.  Can characters equip elemental resistance accessories?  If so, can they adjust both their slots or just one?  Do they pay a stat penalty for doing this?  Should Hendrik get a stat bonus if characters are assumed to use raw stat accessories since he has the best one of them?

I am tentatively assuming that one accessory MUST be a status blocker of some sort, but will give free rein to the other accessory, but basically ignore the stats on that other accessory as they relate to relative averages (e.g. Jade's MP restoration is fine or maybe Veronica's max MP increase, but no credit for agility or defense or HP pumping).  Exceptions might be Serena & Jade, who gets a bunch of all-status blocking for free off their kits anyway, so they can have free choice of accessories.  Since I'm not handing out stats, not gonna bother with stat penalties.  But could be convinced!


* Luminary: Your standard stally Heavy.  A tiny bit on the wrong side of average speed, but great status blocking options, great elemental defense, full-healing, and natural MP restoration.  Kazap is solid damage, and if Lightning is blocked, there's Blade of Ultimate Power (which suuuuucks in-game, requires way too many skill points to get to).  MP concerns with both of those, but he doesn't lose that much falling back to Sword Dance, and can wait to get Pep'd Up before going in with Sword Dance. 

* Erik: High Heavy.  Game-best damage & curve-breaking speed backed by the usual good status blocking, kills you very hard on Turn 2 with Divide-> 3x Fatal Slashes.  Bit of a glass cannon in-game, but less true in the DL, where he can generally pick the "right" elemental defense accessory.  The instant death chance is just gravy on top of the damage.

* Veronica: Erik-but-better: Low Godlike.  She isn't as fast as DQ8 Jessica but she still blows you up on turn 1 (and not resistible with elemental defense, either!), and the rare cases where she doesn't, she uses Spooky Aura then blows you up even harder on turn 2.  Also wrecks many pure mages with Bounce and/or Antimagic.

* Serena: She's slow (unlike DQ8 Angelo), but has fantastic elemental spoiling and is flat status immune, so still Heavy.  She fears physical beatdown, but has some options if opponents don't immediately put her under immense pressure: Dazzle/blind, defense buffing, or Be Like Water every other turn.  She prefers to win with turn 1 instant death, but can slowly whittle ID-immune opponents down with either wind magic or ice spears if she's allowed to set up her buffs.

* Sylvando: Possibly the most important character for 80% of the game, yet the clear loser of the DL and also falls off at endgame.  Middle?  His healing isn't great by endgame even if he buffs his defense, but charm/beguile is pretty unfair if it lands at least.  The status & elemental hosing options he has with the rest of the cast also help him survive to turn 2 and save him from Light at least.  (In-game, Hustle Dance, Sobering Slap, and Oomphle'ing other people is amazing.)

* Jade: Low Heavy?  One dimensional, but that dimension works: she's fast and beats you down with Multifeet with some crits, although merely 3HKOing average durability when not getting crits isn't that special.  For pressuring healers or high-defense opponents, she can sexy herself up and add some reverb, which also nicely helps further stop status.  This package is still only Middle, but she also has infinite Flashback cheeze to hose evadable-physical-attackers forever.  Flashback is suicide and terrible and a waste of skill points in-game, but it unfortunately translates well to free wins against Fire Emblem fighters and the like in the DL, and with the free wins she collects against status slingers, I suspect she hustles it out to Heavy.

* Rab: Hard to say.  Low Heavy?  Like Jade, a borderliner.  Durability & speed both on the wrong side of the line, and his instant death is notably less accurate than Serena's.  However, if he does survive to his first turn, he's got accurate Sleep / Blind / Silence, and can use the time those status bring to drop some further debuffs on opponents and full-heal himself.   And the usual DQ11 accessory status / elemental walling options.  While his MP is cast-best, Kacrackle is kinda expensive, so he can potentially be run out of resources as well, though Drain Magic can help a bit as well as tax opponent's resources mildly.

* Hendrik: Another Low Heavy.  While his speed is painfully bad, he has a potent buffing game that makes him extremely tough against physicals with Buff, and can further buff his attack with Double Up, and then drop Hurt Converter to start parasitically healing off buffed defense.  Takes awhile to set up, but with that durability, he can survive to do so decently often.  He's got Magic Barrier, good HP, and the usual elemental defense accessory cheeze vs. mages.  Even has a status-immunity move, for all that accessories can usually cover that.

[Reiska]

A lesser known fact, perhaps, in the US is that a number of skill effects in DQXI were changed from the 3DS version to the PS4/PC versions.

With the release of the Switch version in the US and its 2D/3D mode toggle, these are important to document now because if you play in 2D mode on Switch, the 3DS skill balance is used.

So, a full list of 2D mode changes (source: KuuzokuOuGlider @ GameFAQs):

General
- Pep Up state lasts 5-7 turns instead of 6-8.

Weapon skills
- The Whip skill Lashings of Love hits twice.  The per-hit damage is unchanged from PS4, meaning this skill's damage is effectively doubled in 2D mode.
- The Claw skill Can Opener does 6x base damage against machines in 2D mode, instead of 3x plus an additional 10.  The damage against non-machine enemies is unchanged (2x base).
- The Claw skill Propeller Blade's damage is not based on weapon damage in 2D mode, and instead scales like a magic spell on raw Strength.  (This means it's probably ITD, as are other abilities I call out like this)

Magic
- Zing has a fixed success rate of 5/8 instead of it scaling with Magical Mending (the amount of HP still scales with Magical Mending and is the same as PS4).
- Whack and Thwack success rates scale with whichever of Magical Might or Magical Mending is higher, whereas on PS4 they only scale with Magical Might.  The actual rate is unchanged aside from that; this means Serena's Whack/Thwack are more accurate, since she has no Magical Might to speak of.
- Kathwack's success rate is a flat 90% and does not scale with any stat, unlike PS4 where it scales between 75% and 90% based on Magical Might.

Luminary
- Plot-granted elemental sword skills always require the Luminary be equipped with the Sword of Light or one of its upgraded variants on 3DS; on PS4 the upgraded variants of the skills could be used with any 1-handed sword.

Erik
- Rubblerouser, etc. activate at turn start instead of activating just before the affected enemies' action.

Serena
- Doleful Dirge only increases elemental damage dealt by 30%, instead of the PS4's 40%.

Sylvando
- Ladies First doesn't grant the targeted female ally a full turn with the ability to change equipment/etc., but only allows spells, abilities, or basic physicals to be used.  (This is a lot more minor than it sounds on paper; it's just a technicality due to the different way 2D handles turns.)
- Ladies First cannot target male characters.  (On PS4 attempting to use it on a male PC just wasted Sylvando's turn.)

Other
- There's a lot of little changes to pep powers.  The thread doesn't have the English names for the pep powers listed, so I'll have to list these by the abilities that unlock them.
-- Luminary + Erik default: only hits once instead of twice, but the single hit does double damage (effectively the same)
-- Luminary Cutting Edge + Erik Sleeper Hit: sleep chance is 80% instead of 90%
-- Luminary Metal Slash + Erik Metalicker: does 4-6 damage instead of 5-6, and must be initiated by Erik instead of Luminary
-- Luminary Sizz + Erik Rubblerouser: Fire/Earth resistance reduction on the target always hits (unless immuned)
-- Luminary Flame Slash + Jade Crushed Ice: Does exactly 5 less damage per hit, and must be initiated by Luminary instead of Jade
-- Luminary Dragon Slash + Jade Hardclaw: Does exactly 15 more damage if the target is a dragon, and must be initiated by Luminary instead of Jade
-- Luminary Gigaslash + Jade Vacuum Smash: Jade's hit scales with raw Strength instead of using weapon damage; also, the order of the two hits is reversed
-- Luminary + Rab default: lasts 4-6 turns instead of 3-5
-- Luminary Dragon Slash + Hendrik Dragon Slash: Does exactly 5 less damage if the target is a dragon
-- Luminary Helichopter + Hendrik Frost Fangs: Luminary's hit scales with raw Strength instead of using weapon damage; also, the order of the two hits is reversed; also, stun chance is 15% instead of 25%
-- Veronica Zing Stick + Serena Divine Intervention: HP after revival from Reraise effect is fixed 50% instead of scaling from 50-80% on target's Magical Mending
-- Veronica Spelly Breath + Serena Midheal: lasts 4 turns instead of 5
-- Sylvando + Hendrik plot pep power: first and second hits scale with raw Strength instead of using weapon damage
-- Sylvando Kiss Me Deadly + Hendrik Holy Impregnable: requires Defending Champion instead of Holy Impregnable on 2D mode
-- Jade Air Raiser + Rab Rake 'n' Break: works completely differently in 2D mode, doing a single hit scaling with the combined ATK of Jade and Rab instead of doing two hits that scale with each of their stats separately
-- Serena's special oh-crap button enabled by Luminary + Serena + Rab: base healing is 20% instead of 40%, but Magical Mending scaling factor is doubled
-- Luminary + Erik + Serena: Erik's self-buff lasts 3 turns instead of 5
-- Luminary + Veronica + Sylvando: lasts 5-7 turns instead of 4-6
-- Luminary + Veronica + Rab: lasts 4-6 turns instead of 3-5
-- Luminary + Serena + Jade: lasts 4 turns instead of 5