NEUS Projects

Alternate title: Akashit Ass

Enemies. Youkai. Even hyattr. The vast majority of the time, a cost that scales up with level gets a benefit, such as Level/2 bonus damage. While some youkai skills are exceptions and cost more out of sheer inconvenience, such as Seeker Flame (Level 1 Firefox + Level 60 Summoner = Level 60 Seeker Flame evoke for the level 1 cost) I've recently remembered that Essence Blast scales up in cost with no benefit in exchange.

I'm sure you might be thinking, "But Liches have FP to burn!" But no, that's completely missing the point of just how trash Essence Blast is. Essence Blast is a SKILL, not a SPELL, meaning no tome bonus. As such, even Rank 1 Vyd would do far more damage, and that can be lowered to 3 FP via Mancy/Chapters, and also hits at diagonals. "But as a SKILL, it can be used while Silenced!" And? Considering the very nature of a Lich character, a Lich not carrying a counter to silence (Silent Prayer, Throatopeners, Screamers, etc) is just asking to suffer. "But it causes burn!" So does Underworld Flame, and it still does more damage at only 80% of will.

Akashic damage is nice, because the only defense is the Resistance Stat, and 8 range in a straight line is also nice, but the cost scaling is just abhorrent. Either give the skill buffs in other places, or remove the cost scaling on Essence Blast.

It's in a perfect spot as is. It does roughly the same damage as any mage skill (Wil + 10), does a damage type that can only be resisted by Sayakana and Golden Glow, and can apply the highest level burn in the game. Not to mention it has reasonably high range. The fact that it's line targeted and has a hefty (obscene to anyone other than a lich, but that's irrelevant since only liches have it) FP cost just makes it balanced. I don't WANT to have the optimal move every single turn to be essence blast spam. If burn is inflicted, this skill does far more damage by the end of the infliction than any single spell can hope to, outside of Invocations or charged mind attacks.

1) It is -WEAKER- than every single mage spell since it does not get a bonus from tomes. Even with a starter tome of 5 power, even Vyd, the weakest mage spell, comes up to Will + 12. This can be boosted much further via better Tomes/Spelledge Weapons (30 power spelledge weapons are not unheard of) as well as Aeromancy. Rank 1 Vyd (Will + 7) with R5 Aeromancy and a 30 power spelledge weapon comes up to Wil +42 while costing 5 FP... compared to Essence Blast still being stuck at a pathetic Will +10 with an FP cost that makes sure you will not use it unless all other elements are resisted.

Edit: For some reason, I was posting under the math of Vyd being Wil + 7 instead of Wil + 1. I do not know why I made such a stupid error, but I do apologize for the misleading math. While R4 Vyd is Wil+7, that is irrelevant to the point I was making.

2) While it does have the theoretical bullshit numbers insane potential to potentially cause the strongest burns a player can cause... in practice, it simply does -not- cause the highest level burn in the game. Against 0 Res, assuming the absolute maximum possible 100 Will (80 base + 20 mod, and of course the +10 from the skill itself) you can theoretically make Level 55 burn... but literally no one has 0 res. Every single Racial base has a Res above 0. Against a target with a respectable 30 res, you will do 80 damage, for a level 40 burn, tying with Underworld flame. A standard, run of the mill, non-optimized Lich (closer to 80 will total) versus an enemy with that same resistance stat will in fact only cause level 30 burn.


It has absolutely no business costing as much as it does at high levels. I'm not saying to make it cheap and spammable. But as it stands, it's not worth the skill slot for how terrible it is from a cost efficiency standpoint. Raise the base cost if needed, just don't add a bullshit level scaling for literally no reason other than to make it less convenient.


EDIT: Providing more numbers:




Considering it scales directly with a stat and not level - like every single class skill that does not magically cost more at high levels (Again: Fire Breath and Youkai skills DO get some level scaling) making it magically cost more at high levels is stupid. Just give it a flat cost of 30 or something, instead of just raising the cost as levels go up.

Burn isn't calculated based on damage done, just power calculation.

Spatial Corrupter takes 58 Akashic damage.
Status Infliction: 127 VS Status Resistance: 43
Spatial Corrupter was inflicted with Burn!



So yes, when Vyd starts doing 58 + 61*3 damage with the same will, we should buff this skill.

I stand corrected on the issue of the burn and the burn alone. It's been a long time since I had a level 60 lich (one of my apprentices forgot to lock the door to the dungeon and some asshole thief made off with my phylactery, so I begrudgingly deleted my original one) and at low levels, the status infliction formula is so stupid that you may have a 10% chance at best to inflict ailments. So I was wrong, and thank you for correcting me. (Although, one does need to wonder how Lv 61 burn is possible, since by my math, only 55 was possible due to the usual +20 mod cap. I double checked hellflame Uorate and it does not increase the burn level. I know some effects can bypass the mod cap, like Dragon King armor or Izabe Install, but I was not aware of one that would allow Will to go above the limit.)

But you seem to have missed the point where I'm not strictly aiming for a BUFF, just CONSISTENCY. Everything else with a scaling cost gets benefits from level. This does not. So it'd make infinitely more sense to raise the base cost and just keep it costing the same amount. "Yes, when X starts doing Y, we should buff this" shows you're just skimming and singling out very specific parts and not actually reading my posts as a whole.

"Considering it scales directly with a stat and not level - like every single class skill that does not magically cost more at high levels (Again: Fire Breath and Youkai skills DO get some level scaling) making it magically cost more at high levels is stupid. Just give it a flat cost of 30 or something, instead of just raising the cost as levels go up." (And no, stats going up does not count as level scaling, because that affects skills that don't cost more at high levels as well.)

Now, I do realize that I came in here ragging on "how shit it is," and saying that if it's going to scale like skills with level scaling, then give it some benefit from level, but it was purely from a standpoint of cost efficiency and consistency. That can easily give the wrong impression, and I do apologize for not being more clear in my intent, but this is what I meant to get across: Compare nearly every monster in the game to a Bandit Bruiser. Even at high levels, monsters run out of FP quickly since they get level scaling. But head cracker costs a consistent 5 since it gets no level scaling, only stats. It's just completely stupid to make a skill cost more as you level up with no benefit. There are very, VERY Few exceptions (Ingrain, Essence Blast, Evoked Seeker Flame, and I do believe that is about it) and the Youkai skills just come across as an oversight in a quickly baselined system. So what's Essence Blast's Justification?

Make it cost 40% FP instead and put on a damage based on (FP consumed / 2). Sounds more risky and thematic.