Runic still bad.

[Vambran]

It is still not good 25+ years later. You are better off having her cast shell and then focus on combat.

[Super]

Considering you can shut down entire fights with it, I'd say it's pretty good if you fight around the fact that you're doing it. It makes certain fights trivial.

[trancezegota]

it's really bad if you are using the autobattle system, but if you use it as intended, it works great

[Haddon]

Yeah it is a bit tricky to use well, gotta get the timing right to make sure you are covering the big spells from enemies. But used correctly, it makes Celes one of the best in the game. Also really, really useful for refilling MP early on so you can keep on casting heals, letting another caster deal the damage for minor fights. Makes you not need to go to town or tent nearly as often.

[Prince Mercury]

I just used it to wreck Dullahan and Tritoch. Some tough bosses are a total joke with it. I never used it much before but I'm trying to wean myself off my Sabin addiction with this run.

[CoffeePot?]

Runic is one of the best things to do if you know when and where to use it. Id much rather have one person not attack for a turn to prevent members of my party getting one shot by powerful magic.

[palladin9479]

I just replaced it with Shock, nuff said.

[Zsrai]

It's really good, but you have to think about it's use for more than a nanosecond. That's apparently too much for some people, so they discard it as "useless".

[Haddon]

Originally posted by Zsrai:

It's really good, but you have to think about it's use for more than a nanosecond. That's apparently too much for some people, so they discard it as "useless".

To be fair, when you get it (except a couple bosses) it isn't very useful, and doesn't become super useful until the WoR. So I can see some people kind of brushing it off, and then not using Celes and not going back to using it. There are parts of the game where it really doesn't serve much purpose other than to suck MP on your caster off your other non-casters (far more efficient than osmose), but there are part of the game where it is insanely powerful. More of the more difficult parts of the game, too. Not that really any of the game is difficult, but certain bosses and enemies can definitely 1shot with magic.

[Zsrai]

Originally posted by Haddon:

Originally posted by Zsrai:

It's really good, but you have to think about it's use for more than a nanosecond. That's apparently too much for some people, so they discard it as "useless".

To be fair, when you get it (except a couple bosses) it isn't very useful, and doesn't become super useful until the WoR. So I can see some people kind of brushing it off, and then not using Celes and not going back to using it. There are parts of the game where it really doesn't serve much purpose other than to suck MP on your caster off your other non-casters (far more efficient than osmose), but there are part of the game where it is insanely powerful. More of the more difficult parts of the game, too. Not that really any of the game is difficult, but certain bosses and enemies can definitely 1shot with magic.

Yeah, a large part is that the game isn't hard enough that you need to strategize heavily enough that Runic really shines. When it's good it's damn good. When it's bad, it's usually just misused, though. As long as the enemy uses spells at all, which most do after... Vector? anyways.

[Nooneyouknow]

Runic hits very few things that aren't on the player magic list. And most of what it does catch isn't threatening enough that it's worth losing a turn to Runic. Further, the skill is bizarrely affected by Celes' elemental resistance/absord/weakenesses.

There are a grand total of 14 enemy skills which are flagged as spells. And no blue magic spells are vulnerable either. Unless there were some radical overhauls to what counts as a spell in PR at least.

[Izza]

Originally posted by Haddon:

Yeah it is a bit tricky to use well, gotta get the timing right to make sure you are covering the big spells from enemies. But used correctly, it makes Celes one of the best in the game. Also really, really useful for refilling MP early on so you can keep on casting heals, letting another caster deal the damage for minor fights. Makes you not need to go to town or tent nearly as often.

Sometimes I wonder if people that say the timing is difficult have realised what I initially didn't either. When you select Runic, Celes stays in Runic status until you make another turn. I always thought you had to keep selecting it when her bar filled up again, but you can leave her sitting there in Runic status until she actually absorbs a magic attack, then immediately select Runic again.

[Super]

Celes is essential in a lot of low level runs where without her it's improbable to succeed.

I wish Runic and Morph were "funner" skills, but they're mostly there for min maxers TBH.

[Vambran]

Originally posted by Supercanta:

Celes is essential in a lot of low level runs where without her it's improbable to succeed.

I wish Runic and Morph were "funner" skills, but they're mostly there for min maxers TBH.

Yeah any fight that can be made trival with runic can also be made trival just by giving her good gear and stats and having her dps the boss down , and i find that option way more fun.

[Zsrai]

Originally posted by Vambran:

Originally posted by Supercanta:

Celes is essential in a lot of low level runs where without her it's improbable to succeed.

I wish Runic and Morph were "funner" skills, but they're mostly there for min maxers TBH.

Yeah any fight that can be made trival with runic can also be made trival just by giving her good gear and stats and having her dps the boss down , and i find that option way more fun.

Over gearing a fight and using auto battle to DPS the boss down doesn't sound as fun to me, but you do you.

No, really. I've still done that in the other PRs once I can just blow through dungeon trash. Maybe not for bosses, but definitely for the random battles. Not as fun, for me, but can certainly be satisfying.

[Dadalama]

Originally posted by Zsrai:

Originally posted by Vambran:

Yeah any fight that can be made trival with runic can also be made trival just by giving her good gear and stats and having her dps the boss down , and i find that option way more fun.

Over gearing a fight and using auto battle to DPS the boss down doesn't sound as fun to me, but you do you.

No, really. I've still done that in the other PRs once I can just blow through dungeon trash. Maybe not for bosses, but definitely for the random battles. Not as fun, for me, but can certainly be satisfying.

I think the problem is it's a bit too easy to do. People are lazy, and they will often hurt their own experiences to maintain laziness. It's to the extent in a hypothetical game design field I would always put every super weapon I have behind an obvious cheat code or with a pretty big drawback.