What's up with the mage mobs outside Harley?

[Arndell]

This isn't game stopping or anything as they are an avoidable random encounter.

But something seems way off here.

I'm playing on easy mode for a start, most enemies go down fast, but there is a random chance that on a standard purple rated enemy, that it will be some elf mages dressed in white.

These mobs are simply invincible because they rapidly spam out a spell called "Star Light" it deals 600 damage and hits multiple times per cast and each of the 4 mages spam it non stop.

I have Claude at lvl 16 and Rena at 12, 800 and 550 hp respectively, I equipped them both with rubies to lower fire damage by half, but it's no good, the balance for this one mob seems completely messed up.

Is something wrong with just this one enemy scaling? or are the encounters marked as normal purple littered with unbeatable overscaling examples like this?



This isn't a moan post or anything, as i said I can avoid them and all the other enemies are as expected when you pick story mode difficulty, i'm just very confused by this one enemy behaving this way, was it also part of the original game and the just kept it in the remaster?

[di eshor ribly]

One small thing, Star Light does star damage, not fire. Rubies won't help you resist it.

This is actually an early game lesson in learning to kill enemy mages asap. Ignore other targets, use the "interrupt enemy spells" ai order, use Rena's silence spell, use silence cards...

[Arndell]

Originally posted by di eshor ribly:

One small thing, Star Light does star damage, not fire. Rubies won't help you resist it.

This is actually an early game lesson in learning to kill enemy mages asap. Ignore other targets, use the "interrupt enemy spells" ai order, use Rena's silence spell, use silence cards...

Yeah it works when you get as single mage with another group of mobs.

but when you get unlucky enough to have 4 of those mages, there is literally nothing you can do as the entire arena quickly lights up with one shot star light spam.

I don't actually have the interrupt enemy AI order yet, didn't even know more orders unlocked, but that sounds like it will be extremely useful when I do get it.

[Doom_Cookies]

I guarantee to you that there are ways to handle them. There is no part of the game in which there is nothing you can do. But the mages are seriously in the top two or three most dangerous normal enemy types in the game, so I really don't blame you for feeling that way about them.

Just wait until you get into battle with the stronger ones later in the game. Up to 8 of them at a time, each with a field-wide AoE spell. :P You'll have more options to deal with them efficiently by then, though, so don't worry about it too much.

Originally posted by Arndell:

I don't actually have the interrupt enemy AI order yet, didn't even know more orders unlocked, but that sounds like it will be extremely useful when I do get it.

I think you're confusing the Strategy setting with the in-combat Order setting. On XBOX controller, you can press X in combat to bring up an Order menu, which will slightly adjust your entire party's AI. One of the Orders is "Interrupt enemy spells" or something like that. I honestly never use them, so I don't know how well they work.

Let me give you some general advice.

• Star Light is Light damage. Craft some Silver Rings for Light Resistance.
  
• Star Light can be dodged. As in, you can move out of the way if you're not stuck in an animation. Play defensively to prioritize being able to move when one of the witches are about to finish their cast, in case they target you. Not much to be done if they target an AI party member, though.
  
• A little damage usually breaks their cast. Try to get the timing of their casts down - play offensively only when none of them are about to finish casting.
  
• Silence cards are beautiful, if you have/can craft any (Art). They don't always work, but when they do it means effectively removing a witch from combat. Using one at the very start of the battle can make it easier to handle.

[Powersword]

Those fkers in the kidnap mission are lethal. The spinning attack did an instant death to my team, in fact I put that down to a glitch. Had no other battle losses at all apart from that scene

[Doom_Cookies]

Originally posted by UnholyBlood:

Those fkers in the kidnap mission are lethal. The spinning attack did an instant death to my team, in fact I put that down to a glitch. Had no other battle losses at all apart from that scene

It's crazy when one of them starts spinning and just so happens to coincidentally zig-zag to all of your team members directly. Had that happen once or twice in the Second Evolution version of the game for PSP. Luckily, it's rare that this happens.

[Arndell]

Originally posted by Doom_Cookies:

I think you're confusing the Strategy setting with the in-combat Order setting. On XBOX controller, you can press X in combat to bring up an Order menu, which will slightly adjust your entire party's AI. One of the Orders is "Interrupt enemy spells" or something like that. I honestly never use them, so I don't know how well they work.

Yeah I was, I assumed pressing square was auto battle or something lol
"i'll just let you handle it" with a square button next to it at the top of the screen.

If most mages in the game are like this, i would just appreciate it if the AI mindlessly ran at them to stop the spells as much as possible.

It does seem unintentional though, most of the enemies are easy, as easy mode would presumably be, but to have the cast speed and damage output this high seems crazy.

I mean, what difference does hard mode even make if the magic in the game is so powerful it one shots you anyway?

A one shot kill is still the same mechanic, it doesn't matter if it hits you for 3x your HP or 10X your hp.

[Second Duke Revier]

Enemy spells in general are dangerous, as they completely ignore defense and evasion and there's no magic defense stat in this game. Thankfully, resistances can be easily procured off either handy accessories like the Sacrificial Doll or late game armors, either of which should be fairly accessible through one item creation skill or the other.