What percentage of battles are you running from versus fighting?
Quote from scaryice:
What percentage of battles are you running from versus fighting?
Actually, a good question. One of the things about battles that I've learned is some of the constructs of fleeing. All tribute goes to 1whoistornapart over at Gamefaqs for most of these. Assuming you're not at higher levels than the enemies you fight, you have a 50% of fleeing the first two times you try, then a 75% chance the third time, and 100% the fourth time. Odds wise, you have a 1/12 chance of not being able to flee in three attempts (1/2 *1/2 *1/4). Encounters I know I can defeat in one round are almost always auto fight. Two rounds I base on how badly I'd get hurt if I couldn't flee in two rounds vs. amount of damage I'd likely take if I fought. Three rounds to kill are kind of dependent on how fast I can get rid of the high damage enemies. Let's say a Putregon and three Green Dragons. If I fail twice, I'm likely dead, but if I attack, I can kill at least two of the dragons if not all three on the first round and then take the Putregon in the next two rounds if necessary.
I run from all normal enemies with regen that I can't kill in one round. Boss Trolls, Troll Kings most of the time, three Stone Hulks, three Scalgons. I run from enemies that compromise my party, Avenger Jackals with Surround, Hologhosts with Beat and Defeat, etc., although some I don't since they waste a turn casting it, like Defense if there are few enemies.
Some oddities about running that I've found: If you fail, it's not a given that all enemies will attack you. One must, but some enemies will have their turn skipped. I don't know why. You can also still do the Parry bug. Parry/Parry/Parry, back, back, back, run. If you fail, your three up front still enjoy 1/2 damage. Both of these things makes running safer.
Of course if I'm in need of exp., I don't run. In segment one, I only run from babbles and big sets of Spiked Hares and Magicians. I fight four Froggores even if they take three rounds. I'll run from the moths if they surround me, something you'll see in the run. I need to get the Hero to level four so I can bet 40 gold at the arena. I got to Romaly several times with the Hero at level 3. If I'm ahead of exp. expectations, I'll run more often.
I guess to summarize, I run either when it'll take a long time to defeat the enemy group, I'll take less damage over the long haul if I run constantly, or it'll be faster to run than fight if I don't need the exp.
I do this on the fly since random encounters, outside the first few battles of a segment, are exactly that, random. I know what all the enemies do and can do, (and in what frequencies, thanks again 1whois.) and act accordingly.
Another interesting thing about enemies is that they're grouped into three ways in how they attack, normal, non-weighted, and concentrated. Normal attacking enemies use a formula to attack the party, which ends up being about 44% against the head man, 41% against the second, 14% against the third, and 1% against the back. Non-weighted is just that, 25% across the board. Concentrated is random of the four and all enemies of that group target that one party member. Concentrated is the most dangerous, but only Demon Anteaters are enemies with concentrated that I ever need to worry about, and I didn't get a random with them in Segment 1.
Non-weighted, though, is very dangerous. Lots of enemies have 'em. Froggores in Segment 1 are dangerous because of that. Mummy Men and Mummies are one of the worst since they also have 25% chance of criticals. That means every attack they make is 1/12 to one hit kill my back row character. Granite Titans, Trolls, countless other are non-weighted, so those are more dangerous. Normal characters are great since 99% of the time they'll attack a parried member. I also take that into account when I decide to run or not.
Too long winded an answer?