Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Best Gems For Each Role

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  • What Are Roles
  • Best Gems For Attackers
  • Best Gems For Defenders
  • Best Gems For Supporters

There’s a lot of room for customisation in Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Sure, your party members are more or less set in stone, but how you develop them, how they act in battle, and how you deck them out, is all on you. This gives Xenoblade Chronicles 3 a staggering amount of depth.

This is enhanced even further with the inclusion of gems. Gems are introduced fairly early on, and allow you to exchange resources for powerful passive bonuses to various attributes. Not all roles are going to find use out of every gem, but there are certainly some standouts that absolutely should be given some consideration when building your ideal Attacker/Defender/Support.

What Are Roles

There are a lot of classes in Xenoblade, and that number is almost always on the rise. They crop up mostly from quests, and despite the quantity, they all fall into three broad categories. They are Attackers, Defenders, and Supports.

The names are fairly self-explanatory, and whilst there is some wiggle-room based on the exact class in question, the general rule is that Attackers deal damage, Defenders protect your party, and Supports heal and apply buffs.

Best Gems For Attackers

For Attackers, you want to focus on your damage output as your primary goal. An increase to your raw damage stats and crit chance is nearly always a good idea, but there is room to dabble elsewhere.

  • Steelcleaver
  • Analyse Weakness
  • Empowered Combo

There are so many great gems for Attackers that it is hard to boil them down to the very best. We have focused purely on damage here, but there are “safer” picks, such as Disperse Bloodlust or Ironclad.

Firstly, Steelcleaver is just straight damage. There is nothing special here – you simply hit harder. It’s a great, and obvious pick. All your Attackers should consider slotting this into their loadout.

Analyse Weakness is another great one – although it certainly shines more on specific classes. This gem increases your Critical Hit Damage. This is a great increase to your DPS, especially if you can raise your Critical Hit Chance to maximise your output.

Empowered Combo is outstanding. A major part of Xenoblade’s combat is cancelling your attacks. The further you get in the game, the more attacks you can cancel, letting this gem scale beautifully. A must-take.

Best Gems For Defenders

Defenders are tricky because not all Defenders, well, defend, in the same way. Their main goal is to draw aggro, but how they stay alive differs from class to class. Here are some great picks:

  • Brimming Spirit
  • Tailwind/Steel Protection
  • Ironclad

Brimming Spirit is a must-have on just about every Defender. It increases your Aggro Generation, which in turn, keeps your team alive. Slot this early and keep it slotted until the credits roll.

Tailwind and Steel Protection are interchangeable based on the class you are playing. Tailwind is excellent for boosting any class that relies on Evasion to stay alive, whilst Steel Protection is there for classes that want to mitigate damage with resistances. Pick the most relevant one, and have fun.

Finally, Ironclad. This is another on-the-nose, and frankly, basic gem. All it does is increase your HP, but when your whole reason for existing is to stay alive, having more health is nearly always a good thing.

Best Gems For Supporters

Support characters tend to mess around with restorative and buffing abilities – although how they go about achieving this changes. Not all gems will work on all supports, but here are some great go-to gems for just about any class:

  • Lifebearer
  • Swelling/Refined Blessing
  • Lifesaving Expertise
  • Disperse Bloodlust

Support classes are fairly awkward to gem for since they do so much for your team, and each class is so varied in its approach to the role. Lifebearer is a pretty solid pick, however. This gem increases your healing power, and that’s about it.

Swelling and Refined Blessing are interchangeable – heck they are even usable together. Swelling Blessing increases the power of your buffs, whilst Refined Blessing increases the duration. Both are excellent, although we found that Swelling was often more effective.

Lifesaving Expert is there for when things start to go wrong. Characters fall in battle all the time, and whilst this can be resolved with a cheeky revive, Lifesaving Expert is there to make that process easier. When reviving, the time it takes to complete the action is reduced. Good to have in your back pocket when fighting a tough enemy that’s for sure.

Finally, Disperse Bloodlust. This gem is amazing because it makes your Defenders job easier. You simply reduce the amount of aggro generated. This keeps your Defenders on task, your healers safe, and by extension, your party alive.

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