So about Snow's Feymark weapon.

[Hexerin]

Am I missing some grand design, or is this weapon literally just that bad? A tiny increase in the Magic stat (which isn't his primary stat) but comes with a trait that severely reduces his Physical Damage dealt (which is his primary damage type).

[tiornys]

Yep, you're missing the grand design. Although it is just that bad when not upgraded.

Feymark gives a very large increase to Snow's Magic stat once you upgrade it. That, combined with the reduction to physical damage, makes it much easier to force a Magic-spec Snow to stick with casting spells instead of throwing in the occasional physical attack. Combine that fact with Snow's game-best casting speed (and a few other factors), and Snow becomes the most valuable ally character (as opposed to lead character) for fighting some of the hardest enemies in the game.

[talgaby]

In short: if you mix it with the right accessories and roles, it turns Snow into a magical gattling gun in battle.
Seriously, his magic casting is ridiculously fast.

[Purplefairy22]

i did the whole game without using sazh or snow (unless the story forced me)
The girls in this game have better abilities. (that includes hope)

[tiornys]

Originally posted by Purplefairy22:

i did the whole game without using sazh or snow (unless the story forced me)
The girls in this game have better abilities. (that includes hope)

This is ranging somewhat far afield from the main topic, but no. Sazh has exclusive Haste for a long time and a generally superior SYN ability list. Cold Blood raises the chain the highest among the three RAV full-ATB abilities, and Sazh's Blitz is the most abusable attack in the game. Add in discussion of secondary roles, and Sazh gets Curasa and the best SAB ability list in the game (since the multi-target SAB abilities are so bad compared to the single-target ones). If Sazh had faster animations and/or higher stats, he'd be the best character in the game; as is, he's "merely" the best character for 3.5 chapters or so and a star player in several challenges.

Snow, sure, his character ability list is overall mediocre, although he does at least get Curasa. However, his weapon abilities include Improved Guard (Paladin) and Improved Ward (Umbra), and these might be the best weapon abilities in the game (they're certainly in the top 5). That said, I'll concede that Snow's overall ability list is only passable, not great. Doesn't really matter, because his animations are fast enough to make him hands-down the best support character in postgame play.

[sammykneen]

Originally posted by tiornys:

Originally posted by Purplefairy22:

i did the whole game without using sazh or snow (unless the story forced me)
The girls in this game have better abilities. (that includes hope)

This is ranging somewhat far afield from the main topic, but no. Sazh has exclusive Haste for a long time and a generally superior SYN ability list. Cold Blood raises the chain the highest among the three RAV full-ATB abilities, and Sazh's Blitz is the most abusable attack in the game. Add in discussion of secondary roles, and Sazh gets Curasa and the best SAB ability list in the game (since the multi-target SAB abilities are so bad compared to the single-target ones). If Sazh had faster animations and/or higher stats, he'd be the best character in the game; as is, he's "merely" the best character for 3.5 chapters or so and a star player in several challenges.

Snow, sure, his character ability list is overall mediocre, although he does at least get Curasa. However, his weapon abilities include Improved Guard (Paladin) and Improved Ward (Umbra), and these might be the best weapon abilities in the game (they're certainly in the top 5). That said, I'll concede that Snow's overall ability list is only passable, not great. Doesn't really matter, because his animations are fast enough to make him hands-down the best support character in postgame play.

Yeah I'm really not a fan of Sazh in general compared to the other characters but I just can't resist using him for his buffs, especially haste.

[Purplefairy22]

mark 7 dismantle tetradic tiara's = Sprint shoes. Autohaste sorted.
Hope is a far better synergist and can heal, and is a better ravenger.
His Vidofnir/Hresvelgr weapon with a shouding talisman makes his buffs last 30% longer.

in short sazh isn't as good IMO.
Fangs just superior to snow.
So keeping in line with topic, yes snows feymark is useless.
use the girls in this game and you can't go wrong

[tiornys]

Originally posted by Purplefairy22:

mark 7 dismantle tetradic tiara's = Sprint shoes. Autohaste sorted.

Good for easy battles, not so good for hard ones. Also, mission 7 grinding is a waste of time even if you do want to make a bunch of Sprint Shoes; just push ahead to mission 14 and get the extra Tetradics from digging.

Hope is a far better synergist and can heal, and is a better ravenger.

"Far" better Synergist? Why? Because he has Veil instead of Vigilance? That's a tossup, quite frankly. Nah, I agree that Hope is eventually a bit better than Sazh as a Synergist (due to casting speed), but he's certainly not FAR better. Plus, he doesn't eclipse Sazh until he gets Haste in stage 9, and he's way, way behind until he picks up Bravery and Faith late in stage 8. Sazh has better SYN ability access for a longer period of the game; I don't see how this can be rationally disputed.

His Vidofnir/Hresvelgr weapon with a shouding talisman makes his buffs last 30% longer.

Oh come on. If you're going to try to debate this, at least pay attention to both characters. Sazh's Spica Defenders/Sirius Sidearms does the exact same thing. Oh, and they also inherently boost a BETTER subset of the SYN buffs than Vidofnir does. This is at worst a tossup, and probably a small edge to Sazh.

in short sazh isn't as good IMO.

I'm not saying that you have to use Sazh if you don't like him; all of the characters are good enough that you can succeed with any team. However, to say that Sazh has a worse ability list than most of the other characters is ludicrous. Sazh's flaws are his slow animations and his poor base stats. His abilities are his strength, and they're good enough to keep him relevant into mid-postgame, at which point he fades off into obscurity. Along with Hope. Who's even worse off than Sazh at that point, because he has even less to contribute.

Fangs just superior to snow.

True. Of course, you could have stopped at "Fang's just superior". There's room for two more characters alongside Fang, and Snow is tops for choices.

So keeping in line with topic, yes snows feymark is useless.
use the girls in this game and you can't go wrong

Use anyone, you can't go wrong. Unless you're talking about optimized play, in which case Snow features in the vast majority of strategies.

[talgaby]

Originally posted by Purplefairy22:

Hope is a far better synergist and can heal, and is a better ravenger.

He isn't a better SYN (he is probably not even in the top 3 best SYNs), anyone else can heal (Snow a lot faster and more), and he is the second worst RAV probably after Vanille.

His Vidofnir/Hresvelgr weapon with a shouding talisman makes his buffs last 30% longer.

It's needed in like 2-3 fights in the entire game. But he is a good choice for those.

[Hexerin]

Originally posted by Purplefairy22:

Fangs just superior to snow.

True, but Lightning is superior to both of them combined... at least as far as Sentinel role goes (which is the only role those two share). As any game where they exist will show you, Evasion Tanks are ludicrously OP on the fundamental level.

Granted, this only becomes relevant at max Crystarium, but whatevs man... whatevs...