Wars and magic

[LucMcDohl]

I really want to make an army of mages for the war battles but... I'm not sure how to go about doing this.

I distinctly remember Bazba casting Funeral Wind once and yet I stumbled on something that said you must have an A rank in a type of magic and have a Mage/Magician/Priest title in order to cast in war battles (or have a command rune or a true rune).

Presumably, based on this, my options as far as magic casting are limited to Hugo, Chris, Geddoe, Sasarai, Thomas, Elaine, Viki, Twaikin, Yumi, Lucia, and Salome (and many of these options are probably detrimental as they would require forgetting skills on those characters in order to give them mage titles).

Is there any other method of encouraging characters to cast? Are the level 2 elemental runes able to cast in war battles with less proficiency maybe? Has anyone done any extensive testing on this?

[Rooks]

Hm. Well, I know that it takes far less than an A rank to cast in-battle. Piccolo has done so for me on many occasions in Thomas' chapters. At the time, he had a C-rank naturally with a Lightning Magic Ring bumping that up to a B-rank. In the end though, you will always be in a showdown with the RNG more than the opponent. It may very well be that the base stats of the character help to determine their chance of casting magic in major battles. So, characters like Rody that often defend rather than attacking with the attck command would likely work better. Though Wizard Hats and Magic Rings to bump up their magical skills may help. I can help you test this is you want, as I have a few saves in an array near Chapter 4. I am kinda busy with stuff right now until SI and SII release in the EU.

[wataru14]

I definitely want to hear how this plays out. I am very interested in Viki with a Pale Gate Rune destroying every enemy unit by herself.

[LucMcDohl]

Fun fact: You can't unlearn some mundane skills if they were pre-loaded onto a character. ...which sucks because I overpowered Queen and now I can't make her into anything other than a Slasher. I guess I'll let it slide since she does pretty decent damage for the parts that she's required but... ugh, not cool, game. I suppose there are plenty of other test subjects but... still, what a waste.

I think Thomas is going to end up being my guinea pig since he's terribad at everything (including learning Wind Magic at a respectable pace) which hopefully means I can mold him into a WindMage and keep him that way (since... really, what business does the little bugger have in attacking? Well... I might power up his Swing too, if I can get away with it).

Also, sadly, assuming the A or better requirement is factual, no one will ever cast Pale Gate Magic in a war other than Sasarai and that is unlikely since his True Earth Rune is a boss (I'd much rather have quick cast Earthquake than anything else ...even though he'd likely be an idiot and do something defensive and useless ...you know, I don't actually remember him ever casting anything in a war now that I think of it).

I should probably finish up Geddoe's Chapter 3 so I can get to everyone else and get trucking on this, huh? I decided to start a new file two days ago and I'm already at the end of Geddoe's Chapter 3 o.O

[wataru14]

I've had Viki cast the first level Pale Gate spell and kill the entire enemy unit many times while she had an S in Blinking and a B+ is Pale Gate. Which is why I made my above comment. Anything that wiil make her do that more often is A-OK with me.

[LucMcDohl]

Ooh, that's good to know. This game was ahead of its time as far as quirky AI is concerned.

[LucMcDohl]

Started over to make sure that Queen can cast; she's now a StormMage and I'm only just now done with the fight against Chris and her soldiers. Granted, that means I'm 12 hours behind where I was do it might be a while until I see anyone casting in a war but... now everyone who can cast will be set up for it.

[LucMcDohl]

UPDATE: If Chris's chapter 3 army battle is any indication, this plan is an utter failure. Nash, Wilder, and Yumi all were Mages in title but... did no such mage-ing. I feel like magic/physical preference is more of a spectrum and the Titles simply indicate which end of the spectrum you're in but... to get someone who will actually cast in an army battle, you have to fully commit and sink multiple magical skillsets into them in order to get them to cast (since I was able to see Sasarai casting against me).

If the titles are anything to go off of though, Repel is okay for a Mage type character to pick up so you won't necessarily create a glass cannon by pouring all of your skill points into magic. But still... if they STILL don't cast, they're basically worthless.

This might be a lost cause in a game that wasn't all that thought out.

[KFCrispy]

that's too bad... thanks for putting in the time to test it out and sharing the results though!

[LucMcDohl]

I still can't say anything definitively; my disappointment is only based on one fight. We know that it IS possible to cast in a battle since it's been witnessed before, but I think the game is heavily biased towards having everyone using physical attacks so it'd probably take a lot more than just a title to get it to happen. I'll use Elaine, Viki, and Sasarai as guinea pigs later just to see if I can make it happen reliably though.

[KFCrispy]

Viki normally ends up casting magic in most peoples' games--- are you trying to turn her into a slasher or something to see if she doesn't cast?

[LucMcDohl]

Ooh, that's a neat idea. I wonder if I can figure out exactly when the switch happens.

[LucMcDohl]

I'm kind of leaning towards only characters with permanently affixed runes or skills will use them. This would explain why Bazba casts, why True Rune users use their True Runes, why Yumi uses her Great Hawk Rune and totally ignored her Mother Earth Rune, why other command rune bearers will whip them out, why Sasarai and Viki use their runes, why Viki will use Pale Gate Magic when it's available, and why I can't get anyone else to cast.

By this logic, I should be able to get Edge to use a Lightning Rune, Elaine to use a Water or Fire Rune, and maybe Percival, Queen, Sanae Y, and Salome would use a Shield Rune for me.

While I'm here, has anyone seen unites used in war battles? That will greatly influence my party setup (i.e. Leo and Mua are both fantastic tanks but have a unite together so I kind of want them to use it).

[highwind44029]

I've never witnessed unite attacks being used in war battles. I think the AI just gives individual commands per character.

[gildedtalon]

Yes, unite attacks can not be used in war battles. I think only suikoden iv allows that