mage set ups

[KFCrispy]

what's your recommended mage setups, particularly Runes?

for the most part, i find Cyclone, Lightning and Fire to be extremely useful.
Cyclone (or even Wind) - The Shredding has the best reach and decimates an area. Shining Wind capitalizes on Wind spamming, as well as characters that use and abuse their Cyclone Sword Runes.

Lightning provides an instant hit that can stun and has decent range. Berserk Bolt is great, too, but sometimes too slow or not quite powerful enough. Heavenly Thunder, of course, is great for when those dumb enemies set up Lightning on themselves because their troupe is Lightning. Furious Blow (Thunder Rune lvl 4) is great but i don't know about giving up the Thunder Runner for this attack.

Fire i find way more useful than Rage. The Rage level 4 spell has the exact same reach as Explosion, just more damage and longer cast time. Rage Rune loses the most useful Fire spell, Flaming Arrows (has less reach than Thunder Runner but is precise, hitting only 1 target). Blazing Wall is also useful at times.

Flowing sometimes for Silent Lake and Breath of Ice, although it lacks the instant heal (rarely neeed though...) that Water Rune has.

I like giving my useful mages Cyclone, Wizard, and either Lightning, Fire, or Flowing. useful as in having Extra Move.... Jeane and Pablo really can't get around, and Pablo has pathetic stats.

even with Wizard Runes, most of the characters still need some magic boosting equipment to get 1-hit kills on enemies level 45 and up. too bad most of the items that give a large boost to MAG are one-of-a-kind items...

[DK]

I put M. Earth and Flowing on Simeon (I may have had another one but I forgot),
(charm)Thunder and Cyclone on Jeane
And Rage, Lightning, and Wizard on Andarc

And those were the 3 mages I normally used.

Simeon became a Healer/Support and worked out great
Jeane I used as both an attacker and a healer (healing wind)
And Andarc I used as an attack mage.

Used Puffer Fish/ Tome of Black Arts/ Magic Hands whenever I could and the combo seemed to work really well.
Sometimes I would bring in Corselia for Healing Drops.

[Oppenheimer]

In order to set up my mages the best I have a few questions.

Are there elemental affinities for characters besides the one they are?

Are characters always the best at using the runes that match their affinity (assuming skills are all equal) or can they be better at a rune that doesn’t match their affinity? For example does Maxine do more damage with a wind rune even when she's a fire affinity?

I'd like to know so that I a) know to use/change the affinity of characters to match the runes they use the most often and b) so that I know what secondary runes to give my mages if they have an affinity for another element that isn't their own.

[MatildaWhiteKnightLeader]

There's armors in the game that can change a character's affinity. Like wing armor changes the characters affinity to wind. Thunder garb to thunder. etc...

i find it very useful to match the mage's magic to his/her affinity.
Reason, i usually cast my magic forward to where i'm going to next turn. So you can easily benefit from the terrain effects on the next turn without using up a bead.

Plus, it's much simpler to keep track of your characters and terrains if they concide. Imagine managing a party with all the different elements affinities and throwing beads all over the place. It's a mess to worry about.

[son_michael]

also, dont forget about mitsuba's chameleon rune, her element affinity will change to reflect the element of the current day

[Oppenheimer]

I know about changing a character's affinity. That's not what I was asking about. I'm not sure how else to word it. Can a character be better at casting a spell that isn't their affinity than one that is theirs?

Also, is there a hierarchy of spells that a character is good at so that when I equip a second rune I know which one he or she is better at even though it's not their affinity?

Edit: spelling

[killey]

You can probably judge it by the skill point cost to level up the respective skill. You'll probably find that for some mages, except for their best magic affinity all the others are the same but sometimes it varies.

[Oppenheimer]

If I changed a mage's affinity with a robe, for instance, would it now be cheaper to buy skills for that element? If not, then maybe it'd be a better idea to just stick with a character's natural affinity.

[killey]

I haven't tested it but it seems unlikely, however if you are standing on your character's element when casting the spell it's stronger.

[KFCrispy]

If I changed a mage's affinity with a robe, for instance, would it now be cheaper to buy skills for that element?

absolutely not. skill costs are predetermined and can't be changed by anything within the game. but once you have access to Obel and Hunting, you don't have to worry too much about conserving skill points (except for the fact that you will receive a huge number of characters at one time so it's hard getting their skills up)

[Oppenheimer]

So if the cost in skill points is the determination of how skillful a mage is at casting spells from a paticular element, then even if they change their element through use of a robe, they will still not be as good at their new affinity as they will always be at their natural affinity?

Or, is it more like this:
Before robe, afinity fire
Fire ****
Water *
Earth *
Wind **

After robe, affinity changed from fire to wind
Fire **
Water *
Earth *
Wind ****

Or is it like this?
After robe, affinity changed from fire to wind
Fire ****
Water *
Earth *
Wind ***
wherein wind gets a bonus but is still not as powerful as fire

[KFCrispy]

i think the only affinities in this game may be the natural affinities, causing spells to be cast quicker. like Corselia can cast Breath of Ice super fast but i am really not sure, i never really compared it to other mages casting that spell (i rarely use Water/Flowing). sometimes it seems to just be MAG, because i'll pump up Maxine's, and she's slower than the other mages but when i have everyone chant The Shredding, Maxine will start last and be the first to cast. i'm really not sure.

Pablo seems pretty slow at casting things (lowest MAG for a magician) but if i pump up his magic it does seem faster.

[Silent-Lake]

I think that thier affinities don't really matter, unless they have a specific, permenant skill that goes with their original affinity. by changing a characters affinity you'd be changing their strong-point and weakness. so instead of simeon being water, you equip him with an earth changing armour, his affinity will change to earth meaning that he will be healed, deal more damage, have better accuracy and have better defence on an earth terrain instead of water.

and about rune combinations. to me, i give them what suits them. such as corselia, i gave her a wind rune for her second slot. and andarc i gave him fire. to me it really depends on what i think if they're a support magician or an offensive magician.

[Kentut]

all char on my team are wind element.

because of wind mail & cyclone robe. (xcept kika&hero4)

and it is really easier if all of ur team has the same element. (ofcourse they can cast fire force but the AI are usually dumb, and u can change it back as soon as u got a turn if they did cast it)

with mages with wind/cyclone u can heal allies and at the same time change terrain to wind.
u can attack enemies with the shredding and let melee fighters kill enemies if they survive (on +affinity element)

and shining wind (lvl 4 cyclone rune) heals all ur characted and damages all enemies on wind element, which is nice.

i played like this since i got wing mail and i never had any problems vs any enemy, including golems.

pros :
*easy for all to stand on their +affinity terrain.
*after using healing wind, terrain are changed to wind
*The shredding damages enemies and makes wind terrain for ur melee fighters to step on later.
*HeroIV+Kika coop attack also changes terrain to wind.
*wind and cyclone rune has 1 more range than lightning, and lighntining rune has 1 more range than other runes IIRC.
*some enemies like to cast wind of sleep on you, and its instanteous, and even if it hits you, youre rather safe on your own terrain. (wind of sleep makes wind terrain)

Cons:

*if enemy uses rage force bead youre in trouble, but just use cyclone force bead on the next turn.