Octopath Traveler II: All EX Skills RANKED!
The EX Skills were an amazing addition to Octopath Traveler II, as it made every character more unique and gave the combat even more depth than it already had! With each of the eight travelers having extra abilities to add to their primary job classes, it truly felt like these characters were diversely created and they all feel very unique to use in battle (something that was lacking in the original). While the EX Skills are awesome, not all of them are worth using in battle, and that is why I wanted to talk about which ones are truly the best, and which ones you should never think about using. Now without further ado, RPG Ranked presents... Octopath Traveler II: All EX Skills RANKED!
16. Hikari's Ultimate Stance - D Tier
At first, this sounded like an amazing ability that would allow the player to break tons of enemies and dish out huge amounts of damage. I used this ability a grand total of two or three times, and I believed that it was amazing right from the start—something I said in my outdated, yet entertaining video ranking the EX skills in this game. Recently, I've been pondering this ability, and I've been wondering why on earth I ever thought this was a good ability. Why would this ability ever be used over Hikari's Learned Skills, his Latent Power, or his other EX Skill Shinjumonjigiri? I honestly don't know why Ultimate Stance should ever be used. Normal physical attacks just can't cut it in a game with so many fantastic abilities! Overall, Hikari's Ultimate Stance isn't a worthless ability, but is so vastly outclassed by the rest of the abilities on this list.
15. Osvald's Teach - C Tier
If you stack up Osvald with a huge amount of status buffs, I guess this can be nice to duplicate them and give them to other characters in your party. However, there is a much better status-effect-related EX skill, as well as much better things to do with Osvald's turn. So seriously, skip this ability unless you can find some insane strategy built around this skill.
14. Throné's Veil of Darkness - C Tier
A lot of people absolutely adore this ability... but I just don't. Throné just isn't made to be casting magic in my eyes. Unless you build a whole strategy around her casting this spell, this just really isn't all that powerful. However, if you do build a strategy around this spell, it can dish out huge damage and protect Throné very well from oncoming physical attacks! I can see why people love this skill, but it just wasn't for me.
13. Ochette's Indomitable Beast - C Tier
This gives Ochette a whole lot of buffs, which is quite nice! However, I typically am spamming creatures with Ochette, so I don't exactly want to 1) waste a turn and 2) use an ability that doesn't buff her beasts, which is her main strength, so... that's awkward. Also, all the buffs you'll ever need can be given in better ways in my opinion. If this ability wasn't a self-target ability, Ochette could be a pretty phenomenal support character, but that sadly is not the case.
12. Castti's Drastic Measures - B Tier
This can be a fantastic ability for the first third of the game if you know what you are doing! This is definitely the first way you can hit 9,999 damage in Octopath Traveler II, which is more than enough to land it in the B Tier. However, since it is slow and difficult to set up, as well as it being outclassed pretty quickly, I just can't put this ability any higher on this list.
11. Osvald's One True Magic - B Tier
One True Magic is so much mediocre than it should've been. For being so tied into Osvald's story as the most powerful spell in the game, it is just so underwhelming how mid this ability is. This spell's shield-breaking abilities are incredibly mediocre, even if you utilize Alephan's Wisdom to buff this skill. And the actual damage output of this spell? It usually isn't worth the steep SP cost, and it usually won't do as much damage as an elemental spell that the enemy is weak to. Also, this spell cannot be buffed by elemental weapon buffs, so that makes this spell suck even more! Overall, this is a solid spell, but underwhelming and mediocre nonetheless.
10. Throné's Disguise - B Tier
This ability is rather situational, I will admit. However, if you need a backup healer or buffer on the fly? Throné is your gal. I really didn't use this ability much, but when it can be put to use? It is a phenomenal ability. Overall, if you form a strategy around this ability, it can be really powerful, but to me, it was just much too situational to be any higher on this ranking. Unfortunately, top of B Tier for this ability.
9. Castti's Remedy - A Tier
This just randomly buffs the party with tons of buffs. While you can't exactly choose what buffs Castti will give you, the sheer amount of buffs this ability can give is more than worth using this ability. And if you use Sealticge's Seduction on Castti? You can easily and massively buff the party with a plethora of beneficial effects! However, as solid as this ability may be, its randomness can be rather frustrating, and it really brings down this solid ability as a whole.
8. Agnea's Song of Hope - A Tier
Like Osvald's One True Magic, I just love how relevant to the plot this ability is. But unlike Osvald's One True Magic, this ability is definitely not a mediocre ability. This ability can extend the duration of the whole party's buffs by up to four turns! While this may sound weak since it doesn't affect buffs like Divine Skills, I have to assure you that that is not the case. The reason this is such a significant ability is that it affects the whole party, and it saves the player from the tedium and risk of reapplying buffs in the heat of battle. While this isn't exactly the best ability on this list because it is mostly just good because of the convenience of it all, Song of Hope is an incredibly solid ability that is worth putting to use (especially in difficult boss fights).
7. Partitio's Share SP - A Tier
This ability is like Share SP from the first game, but it shares SP to the whole party—this is a truly stellar ability. This ability allows the player to prepare your mages by overcharging their SP meters to allow for more consistent spellcasting and more convenient ability usage as a whole. While this isn't anything overly special that someone like Castti can't do, the SP overcharging of this ability makes it stand out from alternative SP-restoring methods.
6. Partitio's Negotiate Schedule - S Tier
Okay, I will admit, you've got to be stacked on Leaves to put this ability to good use, but grinding Leaves isn't all that bad if the reward is being able to use this ability! Basically, this ability just bribes the enemy to not use their turn! While this doesn't work on every boss, it works on many of them, and almost every in the game is targetable with this fantastic ability. Overall, I just can't justify putting this higher since it can't always be utilized and it requires grinding, but it is still an incredible ability.
5. Hikari's Shinjumonjigiri - S Tier
This ability might just have the best damage-to-SP ratio of any ability in the game. It has an absolutely insane damage multiplier, and it would probably be in third on this list if it weren't for Hikari having a bunch of broken Learned Skill abilities! This does huge damage to every target on the screen, and massive damage to one enemy! Overall, even though Learned Skills exist, this is a great ability I found myself using very often.
4. Temenos's Heavenly Shine - S Tier
Sure, this ability depletes all of Temenos's SP. But it also can dish out more damage than anything else in the game (save Hikari's Learned Skill), especially in combination with Alephan's Wisdom! This ability is absolutely busted, and since Temenos should always have Scholar as a secondary job in the first place, Temenos can become a self-sufficient, overpowered DPS character, unmatchable by any. Temenos is just insane, going to be honest. And this ability is one of the reasons I believe he is the third strongest character in the game.
3. Agnea's Windy Refrain - S+ Tier
Think the potential overpoweredness of Tressa's wind magic plus a party-wide Leghold Trap—that is this ability in a nutshell. This is easily Agnea's best ability in my eyes, and I cannot stress enough just how much I like this ability. Hitting huge numbers while speeding up my characters? What's not to love about this amazing ability?
2. Temenos's Prayer for Plenty - S+ Tier
This is a phenomenal ability! While not as broken as Saving Grace from the first game, this is still an insane spell nonetheless. If you combine this ability with Sealticge's Seduction? Your party is basically guaranteed to always be in the rafters in terms of HP. It's crazy how amazing this ability can be when put to good use, especially since you can basically get this ability as soon as the game starts! But there's still one better ability on this list.
1. Ochette's Provoke Beasts - S+ Tier
Just think about this ability for a second—how on earth did this pass playtesting?! Six beasts at a time? I can insanely buff and heal my party all at once with six Chubby Caits or Actas in a row. I can spam the enemies' weakness over and over and over, potentially breaking 50+ shields in the process. These two applications are just utterly broken, and it almost feels like cheating to use this ability because it basically trivializes the entire game. This is not only the best EX Skill in Octopath Traveler II, but also one of the best skills in the game.
Check out my old opinions on the EX skills in the video below! These opinions were rather stupid, so it's quite entertaining to see how bad at the game old me was!