You can make black magic pretty strong, but you kind of have to jump through hoops to do it.
Right now I have Ringabel as an Arcanist/Black Mage with M.Attack 10% Up and Black Magic Amp, and during boss fights I use Sacrifice, have my Spiritmaster use Fairy's Aid, and hit the target with Scale Strip before opening up with level 5 black magic. To be honest it's a lot of set-up for something that's about as effective as a Dark Knight is regularly.
Argh! Chapter 4 is just infuriating me right now. So much in how it's presenting it's story.
YES! Please listen, Braev. TALK. LISTEN. STOP WITH THE CRYPTIC BULLSHIT!
He opens up later. He explains his reasoning and the the exact event that sparked his course of action.
Granted, it's still frustrating that the characters in the game go way out of their way to not share pertinent information with the cast, and this is heavily implied the whole time.
Argh! Chapter 4 is just infuriating me right now. So much in how it's presenting it's story.
YES! Please listen, Braev. TALK. LISTEN. STOP WITH THE CRYPTIC BULLSHIT!
He opens up later. He explains his reasoning and the the exact event that sparked his course of action.
Granted, it's still frustrating that the characters in the game go way out of their way to not share pertinent information with the cast, and this is heavily implied the whole time.
Agreed, but once you learn the exact event that caused him to do what he's doing you'll understand why he's a bit hesitant to share it with just anyone.
Sooo many rpg stories rely on npcs being cryptic jerks though. It is annoying.
I've been kind of scratching my head at the last couple of pages. My Ringabel's been Black Mage for most of the game so far (early Chapter 3) while only recently swapping to Red Mage, and attack magic has been pretty fantastic thus far. Keep as much +matk gear on as possible and dual wield wands. The only way my bow-using Thief Tiz or Spell Fencer Edea match the damage is if they hit elemental weaknesses or Tiz uses Hunting.
Of course I'm also only around 32 and have been sent to Grapp Keep, so I'm also not overleveled.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
I've been kind of scratching my head at the last couple of pages. My Ringabel's been Black Mage for most of the game so far (early Chapter 3) while only recently swapping to Red Mage, and attack magic has been pretty fantastic thus far. Keep as much +matk gear on as possible and dual wield wands. The only way my bow-using Thief Tiz or Spell Fencer Edea match the damage is if they hit elemental weaknesses or Tiz uses Hunting.
Of course I'm also only around 32 and have been sent to Grapp Keep, so I'm also not overleveled.
Gear scales faster than magic. Have you started unlocking the cool town weapons yet? Like the Angel Bow?
I've been kind of scratching my head at the last couple of pages. My Ringabel's been Black Mage for most of the game so far (early Chapter 3) while only recently swapping to Red Mage, and attack magic has been pretty fantastic thus far. Keep as much +matk gear on as possible and dual wield wands. The only way my bow-using Thief Tiz or Spell Fencer Edea match the damage is if they hit elemental weaknesses or Tiz uses Hunting.
Of course I'm also only around 32 and have been sent to Grapp Keep, so I'm also not overleveled.
Gear scales faster than magic. Have you started unlocking the cool town weapons yet? Like the Angel Bow?
My town's 100% complete. I haven't bought much Norende gear aside from the Angel Bow and some stuff like the Lambent and Red Caps, the mage robes, and so on. Yeah the Angel Bow completely dominated damage for a long while, but by the end of Chapter 2 it gets rivaled (or surpassed!) by other stuff, like a Two-Handed Nodachi/Sleep Blade/Defender or any -ra spell. Hell, Chapter 3 enemies start getting so much HP and stat boosts that even Tiz with a bow only does 1200-1300 (1600-1700 with Hunting attacking enemy types) compared to Ringabel hitting for 1100 with first tier black magic against elemental weaknesses. And if I'm against something without an elemental weakness? I either use Withering Ripple on Agnés (who main hands a staff and off-hands a rod) to give it one, or I just cast the spell of the element Ringabel's gear Amps the most; at this point, Blizzara. He'd be doing even more damage if I swapped him back to Black Mage.
I mean sure, if you overlevel to hell and gone and grind up 100k pg and buy a Night Emperor, a Spellsword is going to easily eclipse black magic in damage, but if you're not going crazy, black magic more than easily holds its own.
korodullin on
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
I've been kind of scratching my head at the last couple of pages. My Ringabel's been Black Mage for most of the game so far (early Chapter 3) while only recently swapping to Red Mage, and attack magic has been pretty fantastic thus far. Keep as much +matk gear on as possible and dual wield wands. The only way my bow-using Thief Tiz or Spell Fencer Edea match the damage is if they hit elemental weaknesses or Tiz uses Hunting.
Of course I'm also only around 32 and have been sent to Grapp Keep, so I'm also not overleveled.
Gear scales faster than magic. Have you started unlocking the cool town weapons yet? Like the Angel Bow?
My town's 100% complete. I haven't bought much Norende gear aside from the Angel Bow and some stuff like the Lambent and Red Caps, the mage robes, and so on. Yeah the Angel Bow completely dominated damage for a long while, but by the end of Chapter 2 it gets rivaled (or surpassed!) by other stuff, like a Two-Handed Nodachi/Sleep Blade/Defender or any -ra spell. Hell, Chapter 3 enemies start getting so much HP and stat boosts that even Tiz with a bow only does 1200-1300 (1600-1700 with Hunting attacking enemy types) compared to Ringabel hitting for 1100 with first tier black magic against elemental weaknesses. And if I'm against something without an elemental weakness? I either use Withering Ripple on Agnés (who main hands a staff and off-hands a rod) to give it one, or I just cast the spell of the element Ringabel's gear Amps the most; at this point, Blizzara. He'd be doing even more damage if I swapped him back to Black Mage.
I mean sure, if you overlevel to hell and gone and grind up 100k pg and buy a Night Emperor, a Spellsword is going to easily eclipse black magic in damage, but if you're not going crazy, black magic more than easily holds its own.
My experience was completely different. Physical attackers using attack skills (not just plain old attacking) outpaced the hell of my magic users. They have access to way more combos. Hunters subbing Spell Fencer can exploit 2 vulnerabilities at the same time, Ninja can brave x 4 + dual wield + Ikkikasei to tear shit down and don't get me started on Pirates and Black Knights. They have combos which crush anything magic can do and are the prime offenders when it comes to reaching to 999,999 damage cap.
The key is gear + ability synergies. Maybe you haven't explored the ability combos fully yet or you're just in this weird part of the game where you haven't unlocked some of the nastier classes yet. I'd be interested to hear about your opinion on magic when doing the Chapter 5 stuff.
I'm sure my tune could change later on down the line (especially as I haven't unlocked some of the more broken combos yet), but right at this moment I'm pretty pleased with my damage thus far.
Besides, I have access to two JP Ups through Abilink if I really need to get Ringabel something else leveled ASAP.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
Really hate it when anything resembling importance is even remotely tied to streetpass though
It's not. You can spotpass all that stuff (aka connect to the internet and get stuff). Just add some people from this thread to your friends list and enjoy the rewards.
Three Chapter 8 Boss battles done thanks to my new adjusted team setup.
Tiz - Knight
Job Command: Holy Arts - Fixed Command Knight
Support Ability: Dual Shields, HP 30% Up, Absorb physical damage
Specialty: Protect Ally.
Agnes - Monk
Job Command: Inovocation - Fixed Command :Martial arts
Support Abilities: HP 30% Up, Absorb Physical damage and Natural Talent
Ringabel - Pirate
Job Command - Dark Arts - Fixed Command: Pirate
Support abilities: See you in hell, Two-Handed, Gloom and P.Attack 20% Up.
Edea - Spirit Master
Job Command: White Mage - Fixed Command Spiritism
Support Abilities: Steady MP Recovery, Group Cast all, M.Defense 10% Up.
Tiz is impenetrable when it comes to physical damage and every bit of damage is automatically recovered, his protect ally ability is ideal to build a wall infront of critical allies, I rarely attack with him and use Rampart and Super Charge for the most part.
Agnes is the real damage dealer and deals out 99999 damage on crits and specials but she's a bit frail but Tiz and Edea back her up.
Ringabel is sort of a weird one, I basically use him to spam his Torrent, Amped Strike and Double Damage attacks or his Dark Bane and Rage, he explodes and does 9999 damage when he does.
Edea focuses only on healing, casting reflect on the party and casting Enigma. Arise with Group Cast All is godsend.
I've been kind of scratching my head at the last couple of pages. My Ringabel's been Black Mage for most of the game so far (early Chapter 3) while only recently swapping to Red Mage, and attack magic has been pretty fantastic thus far. Keep as much +matk gear on as possible and dual wield wands. The only way my bow-using Thief Tiz or Spell Fencer Edea match the damage is if they hit elemental weaknesses or Tiz uses Hunting.
Of course I'm also only around 32 and have been sent to Grapp Keep, so I'm also not overleveled.
Gear scales faster than magic. Have you started unlocking the cool town weapons yet? Like the Angel Bow?
My town's 100% complete. I haven't bought much Norende gear aside from the Angel Bow and some stuff like the Lambent and Red Caps, the mage robes, and so on. Yeah the Angel Bow completely dominated damage for a long while, but by the end of Chapter 2 it gets rivaled (or surpassed!) by other stuff, like a Two-Handed Nodachi/Sleep Blade/Defender or any -ra spell. Hell, Chapter 3 enemies start getting so much HP and stat boosts that even Tiz with a bow only does 1200-1300 (1600-1700 with Hunting attacking enemy types) compared to Ringabel hitting for 1100 with first tier black magic against elemental weaknesses. And if I'm against something without an elemental weakness? I either use Withering Ripple on Agnés (who main hands a staff and off-hands a rod) to give it one, or I just cast the spell of the element Ringabel's gear Amps the most; at this point, Blizzara. He'd be doing even more damage if I swapped him back to Black Mage.
I mean sure, if you overlevel to hell and gone and grind up 100k pg and buy a Night Emperor, a Spellsword is going to easily eclipse black magic in damage, but if you're not going crazy, black magic more than easily holds its own.
My experience was completely different. Physical attackers using attack skills (not just plain old attacking) outpaced the hell of my magic users. They have access to way more combos. Hunters subbing Spell Fencer can exploit 2 vulnerabilities at the same time, Ninja can brave x 4 + dual wield + Ikkikasei to tear shit down and don't get me started on Pirates and Black Knights. They have combos which crush anything magic can do and are the prime offenders when it comes to reaching to 999,999 damage cap.
The key is gear + ability synergies. Maybe you haven't explored the ability combos fully yet or you're just in this weird part of the game where you haven't unlocked some of the nastier classes yet. I'd be interested to hear about your opinion on magic when doing the Chapter 5 stuff.
Agreed. Chapter 3, probably close to finishing it on account of picking up three of the four expected jobs and there's no way in heck a Black Mage is going to compete against some of the combos the melee fighters are packing. Anything the BLM is doing, a Spell Fencer can add to a melee attacker. Even a simple Knight/Spell Fencer can rip off nasty elementally enhanced Stomps with a 2H Zweihander. It takes Agnes with +30% MATK, dual wielding rods, best +MATK and +INT gear I can get to challenge the melee in straight up attack stats. Then the melee use the appropriate magic, then pop a Stomp or Double Damage. That's not counting a Ranger using weakness attacks + elemental weaknesses.
Magic does add some really reliable damage, but the Spell Fencer just adds all of that punch to the melee and gives them greater MP sustainability through Auto-Aspir and being able to make good use of it. Agnes in her top MATK gear? Maybe gets past 23 MP draining a target. Edea or Ringabel? They chomp 80MP in a single attack, then pop over to a magic spell and double damage/Judgement a sucker. Plus physical attacks can crit.
Here's hoping the sequel ramps up magic damage so that it's something to really respect at all stages of the game. Not happy to learn that the majority of the enemy attacks are physical.
Huh... the Ninja was easy... Walk in the park easy...
Tank Tiz is tanky. Duel wielding shields, and used Provoke from the Pirate skills so all attacks were being focused on the solid block of metal, and Tiz was taking 1 damage. Edea and Ringabel just Defaulted and prepared their damage trains and Agnes was busying herself with cooking up Synthesis items. A bit of Insect Antenna, a pinch of Pholgiston, mix 'em together and BAM! Instant Fire Vulnerability and oh look, here's Ringabel winding up a Fira imbued Double Damage after Tiz spent the last three turns systematically tearing down all defences. No big booms but it was such a lop sided fight... I feel sorry for the ninja
Pirate/Spell Fencer is now currently my go-to for sheer brute force damage. Swordmaster isn't living up to its earlier promise, I'm probably not using it right
For being sort of cutesy with the art, this game is surprisingly dark at times. Plot-wise, I mean.
Btw, I've never used dual wielding, how does that work exactly? If I have a 1 handed weapon that is 100, then I decide to dual wield and my right hand is 51dmg, and my left hand is 50dmg, is that technically more powerful? I guess you have to factor in the potentials for missing attacks too?
When in doubt, I just optimize :P.
Optimize is shitty because while it pays attention to the modifiers the E->S ratings make, it ignores how that affects hit count. When in doubt, use the best weapon you have in S rank, at least as an attacker. It's not really an issue for casters.
Optimize will also give casters the gear that gives them the highest defense, instead of the gear that gives them the highest Intellect or Mind. So it's actually rather awful.
The 2 best defensive abilities in the game (in my opinion) are Dual Shields (wear 2 shields) and Default Guard (only take 25% damage while defaulting).
magic has always been competitive for me. tricky devilx2 on four summon amp'd convergence summons goes FWOOM
maybe it's you guys not using the magic combos well? it's easy to default to love power when you have two physical chars and only one mage and then think "well mages don't do any damage"
So, I'm about halfway through Chapter 2 and so far Black/White Mage Ringabel usually just Defaults while Monk Edea, Thief Agnes, and Knight Tiz wreck faces.
I'm just afraid I'm going to hit a point where I'll need a competent Mage and not have one, so Ringabel abides.
Black Mages are do competitive damage as long as an enemy is vulnerable to a certain element - which, by the way, can easily be achieved with the rod level 2 special.
my main complaints with mages early on isn't the power, it's that they are slow while physical chars are fast(thief, ranger) and that black magic lv3 takes far too long to unlock. time magic level 3 is a fair bit quicker and gives you comet, which is random but potentially will be the strongest attack you have at that time. summoner hasn't quite come into its own by then since you don't have your fire or lightning summons.
So, I'm about halfway through Chapter 2 and so far Black/White Mage Ringabel usually just Defaults while Monk Edea, Thief Agnes, and Knight Tiz wreck faces.
I'm just afraid I'm going to hit a point where I'll need a competent Mage and not have one, so Ringabel abides.
I ditched my black mage because enemies and especially bosses kept having a high magic defense and damage wasn't really that great, and went full on physical.
Conjurer is a nice compliment to black magic. Use the crit magic skill ,susano and deus ex. Proceed to Steamroll.
I use the brave tunic for easier set up
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Right now I have Ringabel as an Arcanist/Black Mage with M.Attack 10% Up and Black Magic Amp, and during boss fights I use Sacrifice, have my Spiritmaster use Fairy's Aid, and hit the target with Scale Strip before opening up with level 5 black magic. To be honest it's a lot of set-up for something that's about as effective as a Dark Knight is regularly.
Phoenix Flight + Minus Strike + 40% Bonus HP
Then like See You in Hell and Summon Substitute :P
Giant's Draft + Phoenix Flight + Minus Strike.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Oh wow, that'll do it.
I just tried it out on my level 60 Tiz, that's a guaranteed four 9999s.
He opens up later. He explains his reasoning and the the exact event that sparked his course of action.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
Granted, it's still frustrating that the characters in the game go way out of their way to not share pertinent information with the cast, and this is heavily implied the whole time.
Agreed, but once you learn the exact event that caused him to do what he's doing you'll understand why he's a bit hesitant to share it with just anyone.
Sooo many rpg stories rely on npcs being cryptic jerks though. It is annoying.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
Of course I'm also only around 32 and have been sent to Grapp Keep, so I'm also not overleveled.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
Gear scales faster than magic. Have you started unlocking the cool town weapons yet? Like the Angel Bow?
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
My town's 100% complete. I haven't bought much Norende gear aside from the Angel Bow and some stuff like the Lambent and Red Caps, the mage robes, and so on. Yeah the Angel Bow completely dominated damage for a long while, but by the end of Chapter 2 it gets rivaled (or surpassed!) by other stuff, like a Two-Handed Nodachi/Sleep Blade/Defender or any -ra spell. Hell, Chapter 3 enemies start getting so much HP and stat boosts that even Tiz with a bow only does 1200-1300 (1600-1700 with Hunting attacking enemy types) compared to Ringabel hitting for 1100 with first tier black magic against elemental weaknesses. And if I'm against something without an elemental weakness? I either use Withering Ripple on Agnés (who main hands a staff and off-hands a rod) to give it one, or I just cast the spell of the element Ringabel's gear Amps the most; at this point, Blizzara. He'd be doing even more damage if I swapped him back to Black Mage.
I mean sure, if you overlevel to hell and gone and grind up 100k pg and buy a Night Emperor, a Spellsword is going to easily eclipse black magic in damage, but if you're not going crazy, black magic more than easily holds its own.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
My experience was completely different. Physical attackers using attack skills (not just plain old attacking) outpaced the hell of my magic users. They have access to way more combos. Hunters subbing Spell Fencer can exploit 2 vulnerabilities at the same time, Ninja can brave x 4 + dual wield + Ikkikasei to tear shit down and don't get me started on Pirates and Black Knights. They have combos which crush anything magic can do and are the prime offenders when it comes to reaching to 999,999 damage cap.
The key is gear + ability synergies. Maybe you haven't explored the ability combos fully yet or you're just in this weird part of the game where you haven't unlocked some of the nastier classes yet. I'd be interested to hear about your opinion on magic when doing the Chapter 5 stuff.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
Besides, I have access to two JP Ups through Abilink if I really need to get Ringabel something else leveled ASAP.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
Really hate it when anything resembling importance is even remotely tied to streetpass though
It's not. You can spotpass all that stuff (aka connect to the internet and get stuff). Just add some people from this thread to your friends list and enjoy the rewards.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
Tiz - Knight
Job Command: Holy Arts - Fixed Command Knight
Support Ability: Dual Shields, HP 30% Up, Absorb physical damage
Specialty: Protect Ally.
Agnes - Monk
Job Command: Inovocation - Fixed Command :Martial arts
Support Abilities: HP 30% Up, Absorb Physical damage and Natural Talent
Ringabel - Pirate
Job Command - Dark Arts - Fixed Command: Pirate
Support abilities: See you in hell, Two-Handed, Gloom and P.Attack 20% Up.
Edea - Spirit Master
Job Command: White Mage - Fixed Command Spiritism
Support Abilities: Steady MP Recovery, Group Cast all, M.Defense 10% Up.
Tiz is impenetrable when it comes to physical damage and every bit of damage is automatically recovered, his protect ally ability is ideal to build a wall infront of critical allies, I rarely attack with him and use Rampart and Super Charge for the most part.
Agnes is the real damage dealer and deals out 99999 damage on crits and specials but she's a bit frail but Tiz and Edea back her up.
Ringabel is sort of a weird one, I basically use him to spam his Torrent, Amped Strike and Double Damage attacks or his Dark Bane and Rage, he explodes and does 9999 damage when he does.
Edea focuses only on healing, casting reflect on the party and casting Enigma. Arise with Group Cast All is godsend.
Agreed. Chapter 3, probably close to finishing it on account of picking up three of the four expected jobs and there's no way in heck a Black Mage is going to compete against some of the combos the melee fighters are packing. Anything the BLM is doing, a Spell Fencer can add to a melee attacker. Even a simple Knight/Spell Fencer can rip off nasty elementally enhanced Stomps with a 2H Zweihander. It takes Agnes with +30% MATK, dual wielding rods, best +MATK and +INT gear I can get to challenge the melee in straight up attack stats. Then the melee use the appropriate magic, then pop a Stomp or Double Damage. That's not counting a Ranger using weakness attacks + elemental weaknesses.
Magic does add some really reliable damage, but the Spell Fencer just adds all of that punch to the melee and gives them greater MP sustainability through Auto-Aspir and being able to make good use of it. Agnes in her top MATK gear? Maybe gets past 23 MP draining a target. Edea or Ringabel? They chomp 80MP in a single attack, then pop over to a magic spell and double damage/Judgement a sucker. Plus physical attacks can crit.
Here's hoping the sequel ramps up magic damage so that it's something to really respect at all stages of the game. Not happy to learn that the majority of the enemy attacks are physical.
No, 30%. But if you get somebody's defense jacked up enough, they usually only take 1 damage, which then is healed for 1 hp.
Then again, 1 hp out of 5000+ is the metaphorical drop in a bucket, so it's rather moot.
Spoilers in a fun way.
Pirate/Spell Fencer is now currently my go-to for sheer brute force damage. Swordmaster isn't living up to its earlier promise, I'm probably not using it right
Optimize is shitty because while it pays attention to the modifiers the E->S ratings make, it ignores how that affects hit count. When in doubt, use the best weapon you have in S rank, at least as an attacker. It's not really an issue for casters.
Yeah, my Knight has about 10k health, it's crazy. I still have to be careful with magic attacks and some special melee attacks though.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
maybe it's you guys not using the magic combos well? it's easy to default to love power when you have two physical chars and only one mage and then think "well mages don't do any damage"
I have done about 3/4s of the fights in chapter 5
I'm just afraid I'm going to hit a point where I'll need a competent Mage and not have one, so Ringabel abides.
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
I ditched my black mage because enemies and especially bosses kept having a high magic defense and damage wasn't really that great, and went full on physical.
They can drop stat boosters.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
I use the brave tunic for easier set up