The Furball

Playing with Dolls

A small river flowed gently by me, glittering in the morning sun. The gardens of Ru’Aun was filled with tranquility, and I felt an inner peace as I walked down the ancient grounds of the Zilartians. Mighty guardians were lined up on each side of me, surrounded by a radiant blue light. The living statues seemed inactive, but I knew deep down they’d wake up if their limited motion detector were to go off. A few birds were flying cheerfully by, chirping to their hearts’ content. I smiled, thinking how they’d make a delightful dinner.

I had read an interesting article a few days earlier that peeked my curiosity. The author, Kimiko the tarutaru, explained how she had fought against the living statues, the Groundkeepers, and gotten some decent experience. I decided I’d give the dolls a spin, hoping they’d help me become a better Black Mage.

A Field Manual at the entrance listed eleven dolls as a viable training regiment, which was purrrfect as completing such a regiment would net me a nice bonus.

I felt really nervous as I walked toward the first groundkeeper. The enormous doll was completely oblivious to my presence and just continued to patrol. I looked around, making sure there were no other creatures nearby. Uh.. here goes… I guess, I said to myself as I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I concentrated as hard as I could, beginning to mold my mana into an enfeebling spell. A dark emptiness engulfed the doll, slowing it’s movement like magical glue.

I opened my eyes, looking at the groundkeeper. It chased after me, and I could hear a faint hum from inside it’s heavy armor. Intruder alert, the doll said, moving seemingly untouched by spell I had just cast on it. Aww, rats! I meowed in dismay, running away from the armored doll.

Once at a distance I cast a quick Stun to stop it from moving temporarily. I closed my eyes again and concentrated even harder, casting a binding spell this time. The spell once again failed to take effect, and I was starting to get quite nervous about this camp. I was at a loss, and decided to sleep the monster with a powerful soporific spell I had once learned. The doll stopped moving, standing completely still. Finally, I thought to myself. I deliberated on what to do for a few moments, deciding to take a different approach when casting my spells. With some minor adjustments to my chants, I was hoping I would be able successfully land the enfeebling spells.

Using an elemental seal, I cast a new gravitation field at it, using an ancient black spell. The spell finally went unresisted, and I knew I was safe. I closed my eyes again, concentrating on borrowing some of mother nature’s powers. My body was tingling, and around me I could feel the air become filled with small sparks of lightning. I kept concentrating, making sure the impact would be as big as possible. Suddenly a brilliant burst of lightning shot down on the groundkeeper, piercing through it. The doll roared, enraged by the attack. It walked toward me, in sluggish pace as the gravity field weighed it down.

I put some distance between the groundkeeper and myself, and started concentrating again. The enormous doll’s footsteps became louder and louder, and I sensed that it was but a mere seconds away from reaching me. The air around me became cold, almost bone-chilling. A hundred shards of crystal-like ice-taps shot through the groundkeeper, damaging it’s internal systems. By now I had managed to get it down just below half capacity. The damage from my freezing attack woke the doll back to life, and once again it began to chase after me.

With two rounds of tier IV spells I finally knocked it out, just like Kimi~taru said. I was a little proud of myself, having soloed a doll of my own for the very first time.

In the future I hope I can expand my knowledge of the black magic and become a better Black Mage. Hopefully the linkshell will take notice once I build a bit more experience, so I’m hoping for the best.

The Elemental Debuffs Guide

On a battlefield against the fiercest of monsters, having a good understanding of the tools you possess can be the key to success. Black Mages are blessed with a wide variety of useful and powerful spells, some that can help a party in numerous ways.

One of the spells that are often overlooked are the Elemental Debuffs, harmful elemental status effects that deal damage over time while reducing a monster’s attributes.

The Elemental Debuffs

There is an Elemental Debuff associated with each element, and each of them carry their own individual strengths. Some of them can be stacked together to form an even powerful detrimental effect to the monster.

The family of Elemental Debuff spells consists of:

Drown

Lowers STR – Target’s melee damage decreasd.

Burn

Lowers INT – Target’s magic deals less damage, while damage taken from black magic increases.

Frost

Lowers AGI – Target’s evasion, shield block rate and ranged accuracy is decreased.

Choke

Lowers VIT – Target’s defense is decreased.

Rasp

Lowers DEX – Target’s accuracy and chance of critical attack is decreased.

Shock

Lowers MND – MND-based debuffs hit more reliably and lasts longer

The monsters will, if unresisted, take damage over time and receive an attribute penalty for the duration of the spell. The severity of the effect depends on the caster’s Intelligence, so packing a healthy amount of INT doesn’t hurt.

Elemental Compatibility

Up to three Elemental Debuffs can be stacked, but some cancel each other out because they are incompatible. Below is a quick reference. If the debuffs are on the same row or column, they are compatible.

This means that stacking spells like Rasp and Choke would not work as the Rasp is negated by Choke as they are incompatible.

There are various combinations that may help your party considerably. Let’s consider the following example:

Rasp and Drown
The spells are in the same row, so they must be compatible according to the above chart.

The Rasp effect causes the monster’s DEX to be impaired and decreases it’s accuracy and chance of dealing a critical attack. The Drown effect causes the monster’s STR to be impaired and decreases it’s overall melee damage.

A combination like this would prove useful to lower the damage taken by the party’s tank.

Why bother?

An adventurous Black Mage has much to gain by casting Burn on it’s prey, but only if the monster does not have to be put to sleep. Because an Elemental Debuff damages the monster over time, the monster would instantly wake up. So the usefulness of an Elemental Debuff is largely dependant on the situation.

If the monster must be kited and slept, the Elemental Debuffs are out of the question. For monsters that are kited for an extended period of time, putting Burn on it would decrease the monster’s magic damage potency, while at the same time making it take more damage from your own black magic nukes.

Food for thought? Superbly useful or just fluff?