[Ranylyn]

Okay. I get it. The intent is to go "Level up your damn spells instead of leaving them at 1 for lower FP costs."

Here's the major issue, though. Who lacks the SP to sink into it? Lower levels. You know, the ones who have the pathetically poor FP pool by comparison?

I think the absolute highest FP I have on a low level character is 197 FP on a level 24 Wyverntouched Evoker with nearly perfect will growths, Exceptional will, and various FP bonuses from gear. Remove all those bonuses and suddenly 3 spells has it completely drained.

"Oh, Arcane Tattoo!" Sure, that should always be the first point you spend on Evoker anyways. But when the choice comes down to a 40 FP Magaisendo vs a 45 FP Isenshi, where would you rather apply that percentage based FP cost reduction?

Long story short, this guarantees that spells ideal for levelling... can't be used without sinking many levels into them first. Which is counterproductive.

[Neus]

Well, actually, that was only half the intent. The other half was to make their strongest and longest range AoE be more costly to spam. Yes, I know Lantern Bearers also have long range and somewhat low FP costs, and they will be getting adjustments at some point too. However, I wanted to do it to Evoker first, because Evoker can probably manage the higher FP costs better and have other options to make due with in the meantime.

[Ranylyn]

At higher levels, I'd agree, so long as they have decent food.

I just think the costs are a liiiiiiitle too high for lower levels, is all. Sure, this does give them more time before they "outgrow" the mage skills, but this also brings up the old pre-buff Engineer argument again: "You hit 20, unlock a new class and... you're dropping a level 1 turret against level 20 enemies. Kind of useless, really."

[LadyLightning]

Still though.


40 base - (40*0.4) tattoo - 2 Geomancy - 2 Isespian Chapter = 20, which was its previous FP cost.

[Daisuke]

It seems more like minor inconvenience at best and there's a few ways to play around that.
Head into a crazy dungeon around your level when you're in the 20's and you'll start shooting up in levels very fast.

It's also why you shouldn't ditch your normal mage spells right off the bat. For almost every promo, you don't immediately start getting into it without a few a levels first. VAs can't do their insane backstabs without some points, BKs aren't as tanky, Kensei won't have their tons of buffs, Verglas won't be doing insane rapid kicks, etc. It's not really counterproductive, it's more like "You just got this class but you need to train for a bit longer using the skills you've already learned before you can fully utilize it" which makes a good amount of sense. It's like, you got to level 20 just fine playing as a mage, why kill your FP with a spell you haven't fully learned yet when the base class equivalent does more damage with less than half the FP cost.

[Ranylyn]

An evoker already didn't do that, though.

The very first thing any evoker wirth two brain cells to rub together does is get Arcane Tattoo. After that, it's debatable, but +10 damage to all spells is very tempting when still using spells you can have at below 5 FP to cast, at a point in time when food doesn't amount to much (And even if you subbed GS for the FP regen, a friendly reminder that it doesn't regen on turn 0, even on a back attack which starts before turn 0, making 1-2 turns where your FP regen literally doesn't work at all.)

Unless they have a ton of blue potions or very good food or something, it's likely not until level 25 or so that they finally spend their first points in Sear/Magaisendo. By level 25, for comparison, an MG is already using magic shells to rather decent effect, a BK is already tanking like a boss, a Verglas can have Rank 5 Rapid Kick and a few ranks in Ice Point Greaves, etc.

And yes. Arcane Tattoo + ____ Page + ____mancy can get the cost of these two spells down to 20, their old base. However, these same effects used to take them down to 8, which is actually sustainable. As it stood with the old costs, I semi frequently use my Arcane Tattoo'd spell over my non AT'd spell for the cost difference alone, even when disadvantageous (Example: AT'd Magaisendo vs Sear against Goblins) simply for the difference between 8 and 20 FP, because 20 is a bit much for repeated casting several times per turn.


At high levels, this change is completely fair and balanced. I just feel that this change literally forces lower level evokers to sink more points into Fir (Read: Raising the FP cost for a boost in damage which is not worth it in the slightest) just to unlock Explosion for an AoE with a decent radius. It's a work around, yes, but... it's not a -good- work around, since it can't be used with a lot of tricks evokers have up their sleeves. (Oh, enemy is out of range? Charge mind to make that first spell hit harder! OH WAIT! I don't have viable evoker spells to use it with, lolol)