"Magic Is Useless..."

Any other time, I would have agreed with this statement. But, now I feel I am on the opposite side of this argument.

In fact, magick alone has actually reinspired to sit down and play.

Using a character as a black mage, I feel that I'm actually doing something, not just pushing an analog stick around. By shutting their gambits off and switching the selection to "Last Selection," One can actually use magick effectively.

The melee strikers can stand up and auto-attack on their own, and that's boring if one of the is your leader (of course, this is just my opinion).

Also, my "black mage" is hitting harder than my melee users. Of course, I am attacking monsters with their weaknesses, but that's what you're supposed to do! :greenie:

With as many MP auto-recharge augments I can be licensed to use, I don't need to worry much about my MP being depleted. Any MP that isn't restored by these methods is refilled by walking around.

So, to you who say "magick is useless," I say "I disagree!" :mad2:

I totally have to agree I used Magick all the time. I love how one can exploit weaknesses in a foe so strategically.

And there is a magick for every occasion, from healing to inducing poison to non-elemental mayhem.

Of course there is some downsides as well, its never a good idea to rely solely on magic. Thats why I use a good mixture of melee, ranged attacker/supporter and a white/dark mage.

I use the oil/firaga combo alot. I also like always having Regen, Bubble, Shell, Protect, Haste, and Reflect up, that way Regen can heal me and all the other stuff prevents so much damage. I remember I once oiled a mob weak against fire and used Firaga and hit 9999, was pure devastation...

I found black magic to be the most useful in FFX. I used it fairly often in FFXII, but mostly I just use white magic in Final Fantasy games :p

By and large, I'd just have my gambits to physically attack, but for flying enemies I'd have a gambit set to attack them with magic. Also the general auto-Libra and heal/cure status ailments/revive whenever appropriate. I used magic plenty in FFXII. As I never usually bothered with gambits on the character I was controlling, I'd simply use whatever magic that was necessary as and when I needed to.

I agree. In both of my playthroughs I have a character set to perform magic more than anything. Fran in my first file and Penelo in my second file. I've found them both to be very useful. Aside from the obvious fact that some enemies are weak against certain elements, it's also very useful for flying monsters. Rather than have a ranged weapon equipped, I just have one of my non-mage characters cast Oil and have my mage cast Fire magic.

Magic is actually a pretty good example of the NFL-concept they used for gambits.

In each area, you have different and limited sets of enemies you know you will encounter (asides from rare game/marks), with their own weaknesses to elements and reasons to use specific status spells on them. Configuring gambits to deal with a specific area is like pre-planning to take on a different team.

Not to mention both positive and negative status ailments are more useful than they've ever been in FF, magic is definately useful.

I always found magic to be worthwhile in every RPG I play. XII was no exception. Having someone in the back lines spamming Black Magick adds strategy and also protection. I have no regrets spamming magic, especially when you use the proper gambits.

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Originally Posted by Bolivar

Not to mention both positive and negative status ailments are more useful than they've ever been in FF, magic is definitely useful.

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I second this... I had entire Mark Hunts and Boss battles won and lost because of how I implemented my Status Magic in the battle. Hell its the only game in series where having Silence, Berserk, and Blind was more important than Holy, Flare, and Scathe.

At a certain point in the game I always have Haste, Regen, and Float on the gambits xD


Float mostly 'cause it's purdy.

Mostly all the FF's I've found magic to be crucial to winning with the exceptions of VIII and VII where I mostly just used the standard cure and life spells in.

On my second playthrough I thought it would be cool to try to put my characters in certain classes, like Vaan for Blk Mage, Ashe for White which sort of worked okay, she got ko'd a lot. I think I also made Fran a time mage, weilding bows and maces, and I had Balthier as a gunner/green mage and Basch as a dark knight sporting strong attacks with arcane magic. Penelo I had as a red mage.

Shades of Black worked well with Vaan when facing enemies that didn't have a weakness although it was fustrating when he would occasionaly cast a weak water on a strong enemy.

Personally if using one character.... my gambit is set more to stealing and melee, but flying enemies have certain magic gambits set for them

I do use much magic on FFXII, althiugh I have to admit laziness when it comes to black magic or offensive magic + weaknesses gambit arrangements; I never buy the necessary gambits, always promising myself that I'll buy them later.
I'm personally a physical fighter, but even so, I wouldn't say magic is useless in FFXII, now, if we would be talking about techniks...

They wait forever to give you the truly good magic gambits. That pissed me off. To be honest I cast a few buffs and white magic but usually just ignore most of the other spells. I just let everyone whack .

I used magic, but the gambits available meant I didnt use it nearly as much as I would have.

Technics were pretty much useless for me.

I used Magick all the time! Whoever said it was useless was just...dumb. xD

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Originally Posted by Vivisteiner

Technicks were pretty much useless for me.

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Yeah, same here. Besides Steal & Libra, most of the others were just...there.

telekinesis took over magic for me cause the only time I used magic was for flying enemies. Thats not ture for cure cura curaga or curaja. With having the ultamite weapons attack was easy enough to do anything.

XII and IX are the only games were I can have as much fun with a party of tanks as a party of mages, as well as a balance of both (which I'm striving for in XII)

On my second play through, I tried to create balanced job types for each character. I believe Penelo was my black mage (black, green, and arcane magic) and Ashe was my white mage (white and time magic). Vaan was a paladin (sword/shield tank with basic white magic and the taunt ability). Fran was a bit more red mage (basic white and black magic, weak arcane magic, and great green magic). Basch was my pure damage dealer (originally zodiac spear, then masamune). Balthier was my ranged damage dealer and thief.

This made the game buttloads of fun. Magic definitely wins.

Now see, I'm focusing almost exclusively on the top half of the liscense board for all characters, so I got everyone knowing every spell I have, plus all battle lores, magic lores, swiftness, channelings, other augments. I typically only use Libra in terms of techs, and have almost everyone have a decent weapon (I'm on my way to Draklor, and my main party has some kinda nnja sword, idk, it's one step up from the Osafune) and everyone's gambits are set to cure first (if in a dire situation), then attack. I'm cruising through the game at this point, with all six characters being at about level 30. I ALMOST took down trickster, but unfortunately ran short on MP.

Penelo was my magick caster. I gave her optimal equipment for offensive and defensive magick casting and it made a difference in many battles and boss battles throughout the game.

Learning quickenings to triple your MP and equipping mage gear for your casters is absolutely insane. If you put effort into getting the quickenings, even early on you can get as much as +90 MP from gear this way. Helps an awful lot.

hmm just had a strange experience
i to would agree with the original post for almost all of the game
but just fought omega mark 12 for the first time and my mages(penelo and ashe surprisingly) where more a liability than anything else
by the time they had casted scourge once they could have used a physical attack at least 3 times and they kept getting knocked out all the time
had to eventualy just leave them dead and just had my fighters wear the fecker down

for yiazmat i may just make those 2 into physical fighters also and see if thats any use

I didn't really use magic. Except oil/firaga, maybe some faith/bravery or whatever, and cure spells.

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Originally Posted by Roto13

it's also very useful for flying monsters. Rather than have a ranged weapon equipped, I just have one of my non-mage characters cast Oil and have my mage cast Fire magic.

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Same.I think 80% of black magic i used in the game was on flying monsters.
White magic was very important too,maybe more than in any other FF i've played.

The only time I really use magic is in a buff/debuff situation. And when facing a mark/boss with a particular weakness. Reflect+aga. Triple the attack, double the damage, and oil if its fire weak. Pure madness. Also, status magic ftw.

I found magic to be useful in this game (though I typically use it in every other game quite a bit as well). Though I have to admit that I found status magic to be far more useful in this game than any other in the series.

magic was pretty great. I loved a lot of the arcane spells

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Originally Posted by the AJman

I found magic to be useful in this game (though I typically use it in every other game quite a bit as well). Though I have to admit that I found status magic to be far more useful in this game than any other in the series.

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Thats mainly because SE realized status magic has been useless because they decided to make everything immune to EVERYTHING.

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Originally Posted by Coma

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Originally Posted by the AJman

I found magic to be useful in this game (though I typically use it in every other game quite a bit as well). Though I have to admit that I found status magic to be far more useful in this game than any other in the series.

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Thats mainly because SE realized status magic has been useless because they decided to make everything immune to EVERYTHING.

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I completely agree, the regular monsters weren't immune to most of the status effects, but it was always just faster and more efficient to kill them with attack or anything that causes direct damage. Than the bosses, who would have been the best opportunity to use status effects, are immune to almost all of them.

I actually had Basche as my main physical dealer, in there on close lines... Ashe as my primary healer/Green mage, with some physical stuff too....
and my third character Vaan typically, with Main Gauche and other high evasion equipment, casting Black/Time/Arcane Magic.

THE JACKEL