Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums > Final Fantasy: The Quickening > Final Fantasy IX > Underused Skills

[Heath]

I was looking at Freya's skill list the other day and noticed that there are simply a lot of skills that she has that I never use or only used until a certain point. Take Lancer for instance. I never use that beyond disc two. Six Dragons I never bother to take the risk with. I think a lot of Amarant's skills fall into the same category in that I simply never found a particular use for them.

Naturally some of the more unorthodox spells are fairly easy to find a use for. Vivi's Doomsday, for instance, can be ridiculously great if you have Dark elemental absorbing equipment because then you're healing yourself as well as damaging the enemies. Likewise Reis' Wind is one of the most useful skills to have in a boss fight at the beginning of the game. Particularly if you don't happen to have a white magic user in your party.

So basically, what skills don't you use? And more importantly, have you ever found a cunning use for the less-used skills. Naturally we all use the elemental magic spells, but things like Six Dragons, Lucky Seven, Steiner's various Breaks and Slashes and Amarant's Curse tend are ones I tend to neglect. Any interesting strategies to share while we're at it?

[SeeDRankLou]

What's kind of funny about this game is how underused the Attack command is. It's not just as simple as attacking, the Attack command can be used and abused in a number of ways.

1. Add Status. Any character that can have this ability has the potential to, well...be Vivi. Zidane and Quina can Petrify. Freya can Stop. Steiner can Heat and Freeze (those are Quina's moves, but still). And Amarant can 1-Hit-Kill. And unlike Vivi, if the status doesn't connect, the damage does.
2. There are many ways to boost the power of an attack, and they can all stack:
a. Killer Abilities. Simple enough, if you have the proper Killer ability equipped, you will get a 50% increase to your damage. If the enemy has more then 1 type, only 1 of the killer abilities will apply, equipping more will just be a waste of your magic stones.
b. MP Attack. Simple again, at the cost of 1/16th of the character's max MP, you get a 50% increase to damage.
c. Trance/Berserk. These both give an automatic 50% increase to damage. However, I'm almost positive that when you enter trance you are cured of all status effects (except obviously Zombie, and probably Virus too), and while you are in trance you can't be affected by negative effects (again, except probably Virus). So it's Trance or Berserk. Everyone can Trance, and Garnet and Freya can cast Berserk. The exception to this is Steiner's trance, which gives him a 150% increase to his damage with all but the Blood Sword.
d. Back Attack. You get an automatic 50% increase to damage if the enemy is Back Attacked. Zidane and Freya can make for a back attack.
e. Mini. Automatic 50% increase to damage if the enemy is attacked while under Mini. Garnet and Eiko can cast mini.
f. Raise ___ Elem-Atk. If the character has a weapon with an Elem-Atk, and another piece of equipment with Raise ___ Elem-Atk for that element, you get an automatic 50% increase to damage. Only 1 item can give this bonus, so having 2 items with the same Raise ___ Elem-Atk will not give more of a bonus.
g. Elem-Atk. If the character has a weapon with an Elem-Atk that the enemy is weak against, you get an automatic 50% increase to damage. Amarant can give an enemy an elemental weakness (though it's random).

Here's how damage is calculated in this game for most weapons (everything in brackets is rounded down, when there are 2 numbers separated by a "...", that means the PS random picks an integer within the bounds of those 2 numbers)

Base = Atk Power (of Weapon) - Target's Defense
Bonus= Str ... {[(Lv + Str)/8] + Str}
Proper Killer: [Bonus * 1.5] (50% increase)
MP Attack: [Bonus * 1.5]
Trance: [Bonus * 1.5]
Berserk: [Bonus * 1.5]
Back Attack: [Bonus * 1.5]
Mini: [Bonus * 1.5]
From Back Row: [Bonus * 0.5] (Bonus Halved)
Enemy has Protect: [Bonus * 0.5]
Enemy weak to Elem-Atk: [Bonus * 1.5]
Raise Proper Elem-Atk: [Bonus * 1.5]
Enemy halves Elem-Atk: [Bonus * 0.5]
Character has Mini: [Bonus = 1]
(the changes to Bonus are calculated in this order)
Damage = Base * Bonus

As you can see, while the attack power of the weapon does factor in as a good portion of the damage, the bonus you get from things can really add up fast. Of course, the likelihood of having all 7 boosts to bonus is either highly unlikely or requires too much effort. However, it's rather simple to have 3 or 4: a killer, MP Attack, Elem-Atk weapon and equipment with Raise Elem-Atk for that weapon. All of these would be automatic, taking no additional turns for anything. For example:

Lv 25 Freya, 36 Str, Dragon's Hair (77 Atk), enemy w/ 10 Defense:
Base = 77 - 10 = 67
Bonus = 36 ... [(36+25)/8] + 36 = 36 ... 7 + 36 = 36 ... 43
Damage (at highest) = 67 * 43 = 2881

Lv 25 Freya, 36 Str, Holy Lance (62 Atk, Holy), Mythril Helm (raise Holy), enemy w/ 10 defense:
Base = 62 - 10 = 52
Bonus = 36 ... [(36 + 25)/8] + 36 = 36 ... 43
Raise Holy: [Bonus * 1.5] = 54 ... 64
Damage (at lowest) = 52 * 54 = 2808
Damage (at highest) = 52 * 64 = 3328

So as you can see, with a weapon that is 15 attack points weaker but has an Elem-Atk, Freya at her weakest will do only 73 points less damage than the strongest attack she can do with the Dragon's Hair. And this is without the addition of MP Attack, a Killer, or an enemy weak to Holy, in which case the Holy Lance would severely overpower the Dragon's Hair. Try out things like Amarant with the Kaiser Knuckles and a Bracer instead of the Duel Claws, or Steiner with the Excalibur and Mythril Helm instead of the Ragnarok (unless you got the Excalibur II). Zidane can't ever benefit from this, but his Thief Swords are affected by his Spirit, so that makes up for it.

3. Healing. The ability Healer makes several character's attacks into healing spells. Namely Amarant, who can have a powerful attack, which will get turned into a powerful healing spell.

I have more, but I just got busy at work, I'll post them later.

[Crossblades]

I pretty much use everyone's abilities depending on the situation. Freya's abilities are an exception because with her I mostly use Jump, Dragon's Crest, Cherry Blossom, and Dragon Breath

[Mr. Burns]

Zidane: What's That!?, Annoy and Sacrifice
Garnet: Silence, Blind and Confuse
Steiner: The Breaks, Thunder Slash and Iai Strike
Vivi: Sleep, Break and Poison
Freya: Six Dragons and Reis's Wind once everyone has Auto-Regen
Quina: Bad Breath, Doom, Frost, Goblin Punch, Lv3 Def-less, Lv4 Holy, Matra Magic, Mustard Bomb, Pumpkin Head and Roulette
Eiko: Panacea, Reflect, Silence and Jewel
Amarant: Spare Change and Countdown

[cloud21zidane16]

There are a few which are quite pointless or useless by the time you get them but i try to use all of them occasionally.

[Shotgunnova]

I don't end up using 95% of the characters abilities by endgame, despite wasting hours learning them. Heh... Anyway, most abilities are too specialized to be practical, but there are a few that are idiotic wastes of time no matter how the player slices it. The worst would probably Mag Elem Null which costs a great deal of magic stones just to make elemental magic non-elemental. Steal-Gil is another piece of crap, since the only time extra gil is needed heavily is in the early game, and the formula for the amount grows the higher Zidane's level is. All in all, near-worthless. Stuff like Six Dragons would fall into this category, but at least its outcome can have a positive effect as a last-ditch effort.

None of the characters' abilities are really meant for long-term use, though, except maybe Eiko's white magic and summons (and Dagger's to a lesser extent).

[Heath]

Originally Posted by Mr. Burns ^

Freya: Six Dragons and Reis's Wind once everyone has Auto-Regen
Eiko: Panacea, Reflect, Silence and Jewel
Amarant: Spare Change and Countdown

I still find Reis's Wind to be useful during boss fights if I think I could better use my magic stones to stop status effects. Doesn't save much, but it's a way to economise, I suppose. I find Jewel to be quite useful when I'm getting more stones (e.g. Peridots, Topazes, etc) to power up my summons. And as someone who likes the Samurai class from FFV, I've always had a soft spot for that skill and tend to use it when I use Amarant.

[Sarc the Swordsman]

I never use Thunder Slash, since...it never, ever hits the target due to a glitch or something.