Tales of Arise has a massive quantity of unlockable skills for each of its playable characters. The sheer number of skills available can be potentially overwhelming, especially for players unfamiliar with similar combat systems.
In general, skills can be divided into three types: skills that unlock new artes, new abilities, and skills that give passive buffs. Passive buffs are far more numerous than the other two types combined, but in turn, many of them aren’t as impactful. Overall though, all skills, no matter what, are useful in one way or another.
Between the three overall categories, here are the overall types of skills we recommend you prioritize picking up::
Mobility skillsTales of Arise can be punishing when getting hit, so picking up skills to avoid this fate is a must. The specific skills you’ll want to keep an eye out for are Mid-Air Evasion, Easier Perfect Evading/Guarding, and, for astral artes casters, Arte Casting Mobility.Max AG BoostMore AG, more artes in combat, more fun. Plus, with how expensive some artes get later in the game, you’ll start having some big problems pulling off decent combos without the extra breathing room.Have a diverse arsenal of artesUnlocking new artes can lead to new combos to play around with and even more new artes via using the originally unlocked ones enough times, providing an overall wealth of options for any opponent.
Weak Point damageHitting a weak point already causes your attacks to do a solid chunk of extra damage, but increasing that damage even further lets you melt tanky boss enemies much easier.Faster Magic ChargeAstral Artes take an exorbitant amount of time to charge up, especially as you unlock the more powerful ones, and they can even be interrupted by damage. Being able to cast astral artes faster makes every spellcaster much more capable in combat.Increased BG at Battle StartBoosts are highly useful attacks that can knock down certain enemies (based on which boost is used and the enemy) and even negate certain enemy traits (i.e., Law’s boost can break the armor on shielded enemies). Having these boosts available from the very start of every battle is invaluable, especially later in the game.Easier Over-LimitThe sheer damage potential and utility that comes from a character being in their Over-Limit (which removes all AG costs from artes for a time and allows for a special, massive attack) is amazing. Being able to enter Over-Limit as easily as possible is also amazing.KO PreventionThis is just a generally handy skill, but it’s borderline essential for the two healer characters on harder difficulties. Stopping your healers from getting one shot during the ending of a hard-fought boss fight can very well mean the difference between victory and defeat.
Every skill in Tales of Arise is potentially useful, but the previously mentioned skills are the most useful ones to prioritize.
A helpful article related to this one that you should take a look at is How to unlock new Artes and Skills in Tales of Arise!
