Am I missing something about Almighty damage and also Satan?

[Reeve Asher]

So I know Almighty can pierce magic shields and enemies cannot repel, block, null it, ect. (Except sometimes they can resist it?) Anyway the thing I'm really confused about is how the damage works out. So I got super lucky and got Satan in an accident, but his severe aoe almighty seems... pathetically weak compared to my previous personas. Like, Naoto seems to be a 100% better version of me (if I built her to keep almighty). I do think the viper with mind charge is nice, but I honestly feel like my Satan is a weak-link in my team (mostly because I often go last, with Naoto being what my character should be as she truly kicks ass). What am I missing that is making Satan feel underwhelming somehow, and almighty feeling like the weakest element in most cases?

Satan Skills: (Note: I use an auto-skill dedicated persona, forgot to mention. Also all on normal difficulty)

Black Viper / Megidolaon / AOE heavy fire / Mind Charge / Absorb Ice / Regenerate 3 + Invigorate 3 / Null Physical. Stats are ST: 55 / MA: 75 / EN: 52 / AG: 46 / LU: 51.

[Tiasmoon]

If your AG sucks, then use an auto-ma (group) buff Persona with high AG and switch to your Satan during your first turn.

[Nito]

Ward

This is a very interesting post for me

[Nito]

Originally posted by Tiasmoon:

If your AG sucks, then use an auto-ma (group) buff Persona with high AG and switch to your Satan during your first turn.

He wants to know why Satan almighty damage sucks

The logical conclusion would be depends on the arcana but i really doubt it

[Bisquetz]

Why do you feel that Satan's underwhelming?

Mind Charge+Black Viper is afaik the most damaging single target combo in the game, you just need to increase your magic stat to do better damage.

[Reeve Asher]

Originally posted by Tiasmoon:

If your AG sucks, then use an auto-ma (group) buff Persona with high AG and switch to your Satan during your first turn.

Interesting, if I do ng+ I'll have to keep that in mind. But that's only half the issue.

[Tiasmoon]

Why would almighty feel like the weakest element when its precisely what makes Naoto good?

Almighty is good because it doesnt have a resist in most cases. On no resist and especially Weakness, a specific element with + accessory damage + Amp will deal more damage. (this makes Yukiko a great damage dealer once you give her a + fire damage accessory)

You use Almighty damage if you dont want to deal with resist and nulls.

[Reeve Asher]

Originally posted by Bisquetz:

Why do you feel that Satan's underwhelming?

Mind Charge+Black Viper is afaik the most damaging single target combo in the game, you just need to increase your magic stat to do better damage.

I acknowleged the strength of the viper + charge combo in post. My main issue is lack of speed (I got a decent answer to that) and why severe almighty aoe seems weaker than a damage tier lower elemental attacks.

[Reeve Asher]

Originally posted by Tiasmoon:

Why would almighty feel like the weakest element when its precisely what makes Naoto good?

Almighty is good because it doesnt have a resist in most cases. On no resist and especially Weakness, a specific element with + accessory damage + Amp will deal more damage. (this makes Yukiko a great damage dealer once you give her a + fire damage accessory)

You use Almighty damage if you dont want to deal with resist and nulls.

I guess with Naoto having access to pretty much every weakness exploitation I didn't see the use of it on her (barring some circumstances I deemed to rare to worry about). But I guess I shouldn't use it for clearing or anything anyway for my Satan. Still, amazing for bosses and mini-bosses I'd think.

[MayamSP]

https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Persona_4_Skills
According to this site black viper's power is 440 which is only 20 points higher than megidolaon's 420. Now from what I have read about damage calculation, the game takes the square root of this power which means if we consider them as a multiplier of damage then black viper only does 2.4% more damage than megidolaon. This is a big shame as even though black viper is satan's signature skill that no other persona can learn, it does not stand out at all heck they can be considered worse as SP consumption wise they do less damage since the cost is so high (also single target in black viper's case).
A very poor way of game balancing to be honest. It's not just satan tho mind you, most of the other magic based persona that learn signature skills are the same, i.e. tiny damage boost + much higher SP cost than respective -dyne magic skills.

[WhiteLezard]

Always carry a Persona with almighty so you can ambush and wipe out those *********************** golden hands.

[Shinigami Miroku]

Originally posted by WhiteLezard:

Always carry a Persona with almighty so you can ambush and wipe out those *********************** golden hands.

Not to mention leading with a Persona that has Auto-(Ma)Sukukaja because they are a bunch of dodgy buggers...

Of course, for the Hands I definitely think Megidolaon > Black Viper, but BV is more for bosses or single-target battles (like those Gundams).