Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a huge game with tons of content for players to make their way through, including an abundance of endgame content for players that have already cleared the main story. Taking on these endgame challenges, including the tremendous challenges added by the DLC, will require players to put together a strong party and think carefully about the classes and gems utilized by each member of their team.

In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, players have access to 26 different classes when assembling a team, and these can be switched around at will when not in combat. Players can additionally equip gems to the party to modify their stats and provide additional benefits, and selecting the right combination of class and gems for a party member can greatly enhance their capabilities. Naturally, this guide will feature spoilers regarding classes, arts, and some aspects of the endgame including the identities of some heroes.

RELATED: Xenoblade Chronicles 3: How To Get Swimsuit Outfits

Noah

Noah is usually better as an Attacker class in most endgame scenarios, due to his unique Talent Art "Unlimited Sword." This Talent Art allows him to unsheathe Lucky Seven and replace all of his normal Arts with a set of six special Arts whose effects are determined by his current class role. Admittedly these arts tend to dish out a ton of damage regardless of his current class role, but the Attacker variant is preferable a lot of the time.

When it comes to choosing a specific class for Noah, the Flash Fencer is a fantastic choice that is available from quite early in the game. Its Capable Hands passive skill allows Noah to begin fights with his Talent Art fully charged and ready to use once the class is maxed out, and Fighting Instinct amplifies the damage dealt while using a Talent Art by up to 200%. This makes Unlimited Sword an even more devastating Talent Art and single-handedly makes Flash Fencer one of Noah's best class choices. Outside using his Talent Art, Flash Fencer also allows him access to some excellent self-buffs and a useful stance, in addition to making him fantastic and dealing out critical hits regularly.

On the subject of excellent Critical Hit Classes that Noah makes good use of, the Incursor Class is another excellent choice for him and should be maxed out on him regardless to acquire its highly useful Master Arts and Master Skills. The Incursor is a critical-focused sword class whose arts are all focused on boosting Crit Rate and Crit Damage.

Noah's original Class, Swordfighter, is also a very good pick for him, with attacks that inflict Break, boost damage with proper positioning, and allow him to reduce aggro on himself. Via a lategame quest players are able to upgrade the Party's weapons for their original classes to make them a bit stronger, making Noah objectively stronger as a Swordfighter than any other character using the Swordfighter class.

The recommendation here is to use Flash Fencer as Noah's class and add in an assortment of useful Master Arts, likely including Glitter Stream, Aerial Slash and Eye for Weakpoints from Incursor, Cypher Edge and/or Covert Attack from Swordfighter, and Fighting Prowess from Ogre. Another potentially useful option is No Love Lost from Strategos, which can be used to lower enemy physical defense and render them more vulnerable to attack, though a lot of enemies in the late-game are able to resist debuffs, making this less useful in endgame content than it is earlier on.

Here's a suggested loadout for Flash Fencer Noah:

Aerial Slash is an Incursor Master Art that grants an increased critical rate and evasion while active, preventing the user from getting hit while the art is being used. Jackal Claw has the same effect. On their own they can be used to evade a dangerous attack, or used as fusion arts to prevent interruptions when attacking with Cross Impact or buffing with Accelerations.

Acceleration boosts Auto-Attack and Arts Speed, allowing Noah to attack and charge up his master arts more quickly, but it also increases damage taken by 25%, so it's important to make good use of Aerial Slash and Jackal Claw to evade attacks and manage aggro using other party members in Defender roles.

The strategy with this build is to use Unlimited Sword to draw Lucky Seven and tear through weaker enemies via its instant death effect while performing Smash Combos using Lucky Seven's first Art "Gravity Blow", dealing out huge damage. When starting the fight players should set up acceleration and try to land a Cross Impact to buff up before using Unlimited Sword. Maybe start the smash combo by lining up a Glitter Stream first too. In most fights the battle will end before Lucky Seven's time runs out. Making use of Lucky Seven's other arts to buff the party and debuff the enemy where possible.

Good Gems for this build are Analyze Weakness for buffing Critical Damage, Doublestrike for hitting twice with Autoattacks sometimes and charging Master Arts faster, Empowered Combo for boosting damage when linking attacks together by canceling, Steady Striker for hitting faster to charge Master Arts faster, and Disperse Bloodlust to reduce aggro generation and keep enemies off of Noah.

In general this build doesn't need any gems to boost its critical rate since it has excellent critical rate boosting already, but critical damage boosts can be very potent here. Equipping accessories to boost critical rate, attack, and critical damage can also be very powerful here.

RELATED: Best RPGs of 2022

Mio

Mio begins the game in the Defender role as the Zephyr class, and she certainly performs very well in that role as a dodge tank. However, she is also an excellent choice for one of the best Healer classes in the entire game, which becomes available after the main story is done.

This Healer class is the Lifesage, represented by Nia. Mio is the inheritor of the class, which specializes in dealing a surprising amount of damage whilst dishing out tremendous healing. With abilities like Saber Slash and Water Lily to provide regular and consistent healing, Redemption as a powerful AOE heal, and access to the Talent Art Divine Sword to pierce through an enemy's defense for huge damage while healing the party at the same time.

Mio, like Noah, also has a unique Talent Art to utilize in the form of "Dominion Flower." This Talent Art deals huge damage in a large AOE that pierces enemy defenses and inflicts Burst, allowing it to serve as the end of a Burst Combo to amplify damage further and get additional item drops from an enemy. This can be useful to players when farming enemies for specific drops, and also serves as a fantastic damage dealing option.

For the purposes of this guide Lifesage Mio is recommended, providing an exceptional healer who also puts out plenty of damage.

Here's a suggested Loadout for Lifesage Mio:

Myopic Screen is here to allow Mio to inflict Daze, letting her continue the combo from Smash and set up for a Burst. This is useful, especially when Noah doesn't have Unlimited Sword Active, or isn't in position to land the Launch/Smash art from it. When paired with Dominion Flower as a Talent Art Mio is able to perform the second half of the Burst combo by herself. Advanced Cooldown is paired with Water Lily to allow players to buff party defense and grant regeneration via fields in one motion, though Mio will need to equip the "All About Support" Master skill from the Signifier class in order to equip both arts. Shadow Eye from Swordmaster will allow Mio to reduce her aggro generation and also buff her attacks.

In terms of Gems, Mio is gonna want Disperse Bloodlust to keep the enemy off her, Swelling Blessing to strengthen her buffs, and either Steady Striker for faster art recharging or Refined Blessing to make those buffs last even longer.

Accessories for boosting healing and reducing aggro are very good on this build, so keep an eye out for those.

RELATED: The Most Beautiful Games of 2022

Sena

Sena is quite possibly the best character in the game for using the Ogre class, which is also the class she begins the game with. The Ogre class has access to the incredibly useful skill "Fury Smash", which can't be learned as a Master Art and increases the success rate of reactions by 10 percentage points. This means that Ogre is much better at inflicting break than any other class, which is essential for beginning combos. When paired with a Master Art that allows them to inflict Break they become an excellent combo starter, and they can dish out some very good damage too.

Some notable classes Sena can also perform well in are Swordfighter, Incursor, and especially Martial Artist.

Here's a suggested loadout for Ogre Sena:

With Hammerhead/Flashback as a Fusion Art Sena can deal a highly damaging blow when attacking from the side, which also inflicts Break, and Shield Bash allows her to inflict topple. If the enemy becomes dazed (likely thanks to Mio) then she can use Cannonball to inflict bonus damage. Maximum Voltage gives Sena unblockable attacks and a damage boost, with Shadow Eye also boosting damage and reducing aggro to keep the enemy off her.

Sena's role in this team is to initiate combos, inflicting Break and then Topple whenever possible, and deal damage with positional arts and Cannonball. She can also Launch enemies using the Ogre Class Talent Art "Pressure Drop." When picking gems, the big ones are Steady Striker to help her recharge her arts quickly, Steelcleaver or Accurate Grace (depending on player preference for damage vs accuracy), and either Empowered Combo for even greater damage or Doublestrike to recharge even quicker and land extra auto-attacks.

Sena performs well with accessories that boost damage against launched or dazed enemies, and most damage-boosting accessories in general. Good Master Skills here are Cursed Edge for boosting damage against rebuffed foes, "Now That's Tactics!" to help mitigate her low TP base value in chain attacks, and either Covert attack to reduce aggro generation or Shock Shot to deal extra damage during enemy arts (which are usually frequent enough to make this incredibly powerful).

RELATED: The Best Video Game Characters of 2022

Lanz

Lanz has quite a versatile set of classes he can specialize in, and this particular team composition will be using him as the Heavy Guard Class. This class is an exceptional Defender that can easily withstand the worst the enemy can throw at it with proper use of arts.

Lanz can also perform very well as both Guardian Commander and Lost Vanguard, with Lost Vanguard being another exceptionally strong defensive choice at the cost of attack power.

For this build, Lanz uses AOE attacks that boost aggro to draw enemy attention, and the Variable Turret Art to block the resulting barrage of attacks.

Here's a suggested loadout for Heavy Guard Lanz:

This set of arts allows Lanz to inflict topple and smash, and draw enemy aggro very effectively. Using Glow Ring and then Variable Turret/Shield Wall allows him to force a powerful target to focus on him and then block the damage while healing and pelting them with bullets.

In terms of gems, Lanz should grab Steel Protection and Brimming Spirit to give him an even better block and hold enemy attention better. Ironclad is also great for boosting his max HP just in case something gets through his defenses. Lanz favors accessories that enhance his HP and block rate, and can also benefit from accessories that boost damage when he is targeted. He can also use accessories that generate aggro over time to supplement his kit if necessary.

Good Master Skills for this setup include Natural Selection to boost damage reduction if Lanz' health gets low, "Com an' Get Me!" from Lost Vanguard to deal extra damage to aggroed enemies when blocking, and Anti-Erosion System to boost his resistance to debuffs.

RELATED: Best Video Game Music Scores and Soundtracks of 2022

Taion

Taion is another party member whose class options and stats allow for incredible build versatility, and this build will be using him as an attacker in the Full Metal Jaguar class.

The Full Metal Jaguar class is an attacker class with a specialty in AOE attacks and a stacking bonus that resets when they miss a shot, making them strongest in the hands of a character with high accuracy. This makes Taion an excellent pairing for the class, and it also gives him a snazzy cape.

Here's a suggested loadout for Full Metal Jaguar Taion:

The idea for this build is to take advantage of positional attacks to dish out damage, debuff enemy ether defense with Overfall to boost damage further, and utilize Hydro Blast to assist with allies' art recharge. Way Home supplies Taion with a way to inflict Burst and finish combos, while Dead Set allows him to remove all aggro from himself and boost accuracy to keep stacking the buff from Bullet Symphony.

For Master Skills, Eye for Weakpoints is an excellent choice to enhance Taion's damage by improving his critical hit chance, Covert Attack to keep the enemy off him, and Ethereal Ability to boost his Ether Attack. Taion's ideal gems for this build are Analyze Weakness, Accurate Grace, and Disperse Bloodlust, to boost Critical Damage and Accuracy while reducing aggro.

RELATED: The Game Awards 2022 Winners List

Eunie

Eunie is another character who excels in a number of different roles, including several outside of her initial specialization, but this team composition will have her in the role of Signifer. This class is an exceptional Healer class that specializes in applying buffs to the party and extending their duration.

Here's a suggested loadout for Signifer Eunie:

Aureole allows the Signifer to gain a random buff, which Resonant Flag can then spread to the rest of the party. This allows Eunie to generate and distribute buffs to the entire party as needed, while Cross Impact and Shadow Eye allow her to add damage buffs and power charge to herself before spreading them to the party. Multiblast and Heal Harmony provide her with ways to heal the party during combat.

With the Glittering Melody Buff from Troubadour to pause the timer on buffs and recharge the group's arts, Eunie further benefits from Master Skills like Ninja Healer, Strengthening Gambit, and Healing License. She is ideally paired with accessories that reduce aggro generation, especially from healing arts, and can also make good use of anything that increases her own healing.

When choosing gems for Eunie as a Signifer, the best choices are Swelling Blessing and Refined Blessing for buff strengthening and boosted duration, paired with Disperse Bloodlust to ensure the enemy focus elsewhere.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is available for Nintendo Switch.

MORE: Xenoblade Chronicles 3: How To Unlock the Hero Alexandria