JUDE'S PROFILE

I think it is hilarious that you invested six hours in compiling rips. In that amount of time you could have drawn most of them yourself.

author=Crystalgate
Anyway, this screenshot does give some insight on the power of finishers. WoodSlsh deals less damage against a single target than this deals against all targets.

Finishers are intended to be very powerful. However, they take three attacks to unleash. Three WoodSlsh attacks will outdamage LeafGust against a single target, and three WoodSlsh attacks will out-damage the single target nature finisher even (Thorn has a 200 attack power modifer). Clearly LeafGust outperforms WoodSlsh by a good amount if there are multiple targets involved.

To compare, let's assume a Lv10 Marcus with typical gear, against a "normal" archetype Lv10 monster. Their stats are as follows:

Marcus Attack: 47
Monster Defense: 24

3x WoodSlsh + 1x Envenom finisher = 3((1.1*47)-24) + 1((1.5*47)-24) = 83.1 + 46.5 = 129.6 damage

Additionally, the enemy is poisoned and you generated 9 Fury (based on a 180% Fury modifier from gear).

2x Cleave + 1x Rend + 1x LeafGust finisher = 2((1.0*47)-24) + 1((0.75*47)-24) + 1((1.25*47)-24) = 46 + 11.25 + 34.75 = 92 damage

Additionally, the enemy is bleeding and you generated 5 Fury. This changes when multiple targets are involved, as both Cleave and LeafGust are "target all" attacks. Against a full group of enemies, the total damage is then 253.5 and 9 Fury is generated. This kind of pattern will be preferable against a large group that isn't heavily armored (a 100% attack power modifier isn't that effective against enemies that are a Lv10 "guardian" archetype with 42 armor).

2x FireSwd + 1x WaterCut + 1x LeafGust finisher = 2((1.35*47)-24) + 2((1.0*47)-24) + 1((1.25*47)-24) = 78.9 + 46 + 34.75 = 159.65 damage

An alternative means to trigger LeafGust is by using FireSwd->WaterCut->FireSwd, which requires full investment into the Power Mastery, and will really only be useful against enemies with a neutral element (Fire heals Fire for 25%, but deals 50% to Water, and 200% to Nature for example). It will do very good single target damage against a neutral element, however. This combination inflicts no status effects and a whopping 12 Fury was generated.

Notice how in every case, the bulk of the damage is done by regular abilities and not the finishers. There are only a handful of finishers that can outperform abilities, but all of them require special conditions. One is a counterattack finisher that pulls ahead against monsters that do a considerable number of hits in one turn. One is a multi-hit finisher that scales with your current, uninterrupted combo count. The third is a single-hit finisher whose attack power modifier is multiplied by your current Fury (at high levels when your max Fury approaches 99, and you haven't spent any of it in battle... it is ridiculous).

author=Crystalgate
A combo that doesn't contain any basic move deals nature damage? I guess I do see some logic behind it, if the input for that finisher was Basic -> Basic -> Basic, it would be way to obvious against nature weak enemies.

This is done so that other specializations have access to elements they don't have direct access to in the form of an ability.

author=Neok

author=Jude

author=Neok
What program are you using to build that dungeon layout? I've done something similar using the 2k3 editor itself, detailed here: http://rpgmaker.net/tutorials/196/. Though cumbersome looking, it's pretty quick to build and easy to organize and change.

The layout was actually made on a napkin first. I just remade it in MS Paint for this blog post. Doing it in the maker itself isn't a bad idea, and is probably easy to test the logic flow in a more hands on way. Good idea. I could even use it as my dungeon parent map, which are just there to be labeled "Catacombs" or "Manor" anyway.

Glad to have helped :). Good luck.

Yeah, thanks. I will give it a spin on a dungeon I have already built. Basically I will just use the same switches/variables on a micromap layout.

My notes on the napkin just had a bigger key symbol for it. I updated the image and used the red dot/line instead, since the logic if a boss key is the same as a puzzle/switch/cutscene.