Dragon Quest 8: Best Skill Sets Guide
Each of your party members has five different Skill Sets which they are given the opportunity to put Skill Points into each time they level up or when you use a Seed of Skill. This guide is going to cover each of the different Skill Sets that your party members have and which ones are the best for you to put points into.
Before we jump into it, let's start with some general advice. The final Skill Set for every character is one of the most important ones - it grants you passive upgrades as well as useful spells. For Yangus it allows him to heal and gives him some high damaging abilities. For the Hero it allows you to Zoom (fast travel) Evac (leave a dungeon) and also reduces the MP cost of all spell casts.
For Jessica and Angelo they both have a Skill Set called Staffs. Even if you don't ever plan to use a Staff (you shouldn't; Staves are weak) it's still worthwhile to put points into Staffs because it teaches them different spells. If you'd like to learn more information about each Skill Set and the abilities they grant click on the Skill Set below to be taken to a page detailing that information.
Hero Skill Sets
Sword: You want Swords or Spears for the Hero as your primary damaging skill set. I prefer to choose Swords. With Swords you get Metal Slash which makes Metal Slime hunting possible and with 100 Courage and 100 Swords you get an even more powerful move, Gigagash.
Metal Slash (30 Points) - One of the best attacks for fighting Metal Slimes.
Falcon Slash (52 Points) - Attacks twice, replaces auto attack if you're using a Sword.
Gigaslash (100 Points) - Damage increases as your level increases.
Spear: Second best damage dealing Skill Set. You get more damaging attacks than with swords but you lack Metal Slash and you can't get Gigagash.
Boomerang: This is the worst Skill Set you can put points into for the Hero. Boomerangs are useful for clearing trash but rather useless for bosses, metal slimes and the harder aspects of the game.
Super Throw (52 Points) - Deals more damage than a regular attack and damage doesn't decrease for consecutive targets hit.
Fisticuff: Thin Air is the only thing worth dumping points into Fisticuffs, a total of 42 points will get you that ability.
Courage: Extremely important for the Hero, it decreases the Mana cost of spells and teaches you new spells that can't be acquired elsewhere.
Zoom (8 Points) - Allows you to teleport to any town and some of the dungeons that you've previously visited.
Tingle (16 Points) - Cures Sleep and Paralysis on your whole party.
Holy Protection (28 Points) - You won't encounter any enemies that are lower level than the Hero. Same effect as Holy Water.
Zap (48 Points) - Hits all enemies with lightning. Deals 40 - 55 base damage and up to 90 damage in total.
Omniheal (82 Points) - Fully restores the HP of your entire party.
Kazap (100 Points) - Hits all enemies with lightning. Deals 100 - 140 base damage and up to 220 damage in total.
Gigaslash (100 Points) - Deals 160 - 190 base damage and up to a total of 240 damage. Your character's level determines how much damage this ability deals.
Gigagash (100 Points Sword & Courage) - Replaces the Gigaslash ability. Deals 220 - 285 damage and up to a total of 340. Your character's level determines how much damage this ability deals.
Yangus Skill Sets
Yangus only has two useful trees (1 Weapon and Humanity) and he gets more Skill Points than most other members of your party throughout the game. This makes him an ideal candidate for Thin Air, an ability which requires you to have no weapon equipped but deals heavy damage to all enemies on the battle field. It's a fantastic way to clear multiple groups of enemies throughout the first 60% of the game.
Axe: Arguably the second best skill set for Yangus is Axes, Hatchet Man and Executioner can be used to defeat Metal Slimes and the final ability is slightly better than what you get for Clubs.
Club: Worst line of weapons for Yangus, the final ability is only powerful against Demons and Material enemies.
Scythe: This is the most powerful Skill Set for Yangus, the final attack does a buttload of damage and increases with Yangus' level. Don't be fooled by the Steal Sickle & Stainless Steel Sickle ability you get with this weapon line up your odds of stealing an item are 1/1000 for Steal Sickle and 1/100 for Stainless. I honestly never successfully stole an item.
Big Banga (100 Points) - Yangus' second strongest move. Honestly we're mostly putting points into Scythes to improve our Attack Power while using them but also to get this great ability at the end.
Attack Power Bonuses with Scythes
Fisticuffs: As with everyone else, the only real reason to dump points into Fisticuffs is for Thin Air at 42 Points. I personally get Thin Air on Yangus and have him run around without a weapon equipped for the first half of the game.
Thin Air (42 Points) - Deals a buttload of damage to every enemy on the field for the first 3/4 of the game. One of the most efficient ways of taking out groups of enemies. Requires you to be unarmed though and becomes useless at end game. Still recommended you get it for Yangus.
Humanity: Definitely the most important line for Yangus. Humanity teaches Yangus extremely useful abilities like Heal, Midheal and Kabuff and it has an awesome final ability, Golden Oldies.
Heal (10 Points) - Single target, restores 30 - 40 HP.
Kabuff (42 Points) - Whole Party. Increases your defense by 25% for 7 - 10 turns. You can cast this spell multiple times to increase defense further.
Midheal (68 Points) - Single target. Heals for 75 - 100 HP.
Golden Oldies (100 Points) - Attacks four random enemies or the same target multiple times. Deals 40 - 50 base damage and up to 131 damage per hit depending on your character's level.
Jessica Skill Sets
Knife: With 30 points into this you'll be able to Equip Swords with Jessica. The final attack, Sudden Death, isn't that good.
Whip: This is without a doubt the best weapon for Jessica. Twin Dragon Lash is one of my favorite abilities since it hits twice and deals more damage that a regular attack. With Jessica's Ultimate Whip she does more physical damage output than the rest of your party.
Twin Dragon Lash (23 Points) - Deals a little bit more damage than a regular attack and hits twice. It can hit a single enemy twice too which makes it an extremely powerful single target attack.
Attack Power Bonuses with Whips
Staff: As with Angelo this is still worth putting points into because it teaches you new spells. One of the spells it teaches Jessica is a heal.
Acceleratle (3 Points) - Increases your entire groups Agility by 100 - 130; lasts the entire battle and can be used multiple times.
Magic Barrier (31 Points) - Damage from attack spells is reduced and the effectiveness of any status altering spells is reduced on the party.
Caduceus (57 Points) - Heals the entire party for 75 - 100 HP.
Kazing (100 Points) - Revives a dead party member with full HP. 100% chance of success.
Fisticuffs: Not at all worth it with Jessica, the Thin Air ability costs 68 points for her instead of 42.
Evasion Up (52 Points) - Your chances of dodging an enemies attack is increased. I'm fairly certain this works while unarmed. Only get this skill if you've already maxed out Whip, Staff and Sex Appeal.
Sex Appeal: Despite all the sexual innuendos this Skill Set isn't all good. Most of the abilities focus on giving you a chance to Paralyze or Confuse your target but deal little damage. Hip Drop deals 50% more than a regular attack and Hustle Dance (final ability) gives Jessica a means to heal.
Hip Drop (48 Points) - Single target. Deals 50% more damage than a regular attack.
Hustle Dance (100 Points) - Heals your entire party for 70 - 100 HP.
Angelo Skill Sets
Sword: Metal Slash is all I recommend you get with the Sword Skill Set for Angelo. This one ability is still used a lot when you go Metal Slime hunting later in the game for EXP.
Metal Slash (22 Points) - Has a high hit % against Metal Slime enemies; deals regular damage to all other enemies.
Bow: This is the best weapon Skill Set for Angelo assuming you want to go Swords on Hero.
Cherub's Arrow (18 Points) - Deals regular damage and 6% of the damage done recovers as mana.
Seraph's Arrow (66 Points) - Replaces Cherub's Arrow. Deals regular damage and restores 13% of that damage as mana.
Shining Shot (88 Points) - Hits all enemies. Deals 115 - 125 base damage.
Staff: As with Jessica you're going to want to put a lot of points into the Staff Skill Set for different spells. One of the most noteworthy spells given to you by putting points into Staff is Oomph at 65 Points. Oomph doubles your attack power.
Caduceus (48 Points) - Restores 75 - 100 HP to the whole party.
Oomph (65 Points) - Doubles your targets attack power for 6 - 9 turns. While Oomph is affecting someone they can't score a critical hit.
Fisticuffs: Angelo can't learn Thin Air with Fisticuffs and none of the passives carry over with him so I wouldn't recommend putting any points at all into it. Angelo notoriously gets very low Skill Points so you need all you can get for his more useful Skill Sets.
Evasion Up (21 Points) - Don't get this unless you're a completionest type and you've already gotten everything else useful. Or if you don't care about maxing out Charisma and you went Swords not Bows with Angelo you'll be able to get this in your late 60s.
Charisma: After you've put enough points into staves to get Oomph, enough into Bows or Swords to be adept with that weapon and you've acquired Metal Slash, then you'll want to start dumping a lot of points into Chrisma. Hardly any of the abilities you learn from Charisma are any good but it's better than Fisticuffs.
Squelch (3 Points) - Cures Poison
Divine Intervention (27 Points) - Lowers a group of enemies resistances to spells for 6 - 9 turns.