Part 100: Mage: Don't ask where Healer went

Mage: Don't ask where Healer went





The Mage in 7D1 was all damage, all the time, with only a bare minimum of supportive skills.

In VFD, Mage is just... 2020 Psychic. Like almost entirely. They've been given a heavy 7D1 coat of paint, sure, plus the usual spate of VFD buffs, but beyond that they're the same damage-slinging, heal-tossing jack of all trades from the 2020s.

Stats



Tied with Fortuner for highest MAT in the game, the Mage trades out their blistering SPD for better defensive stats, letting them actually take a hit without dying.

Tier 1 Skills

Flame



Hits one enemy with ranged MAT-based fire damage with a chance to inflict Burn.

Freeze



Hits one enemy with ranged MAT-based ice damage with a chance to inflict Freeze.

Shock



Hits one enemy with ranged MAT-based lightning damage with a chance to inflict Paralysis.

Right off the bat there are already some big changes. The single target spells hit a middle ground between the early game and late game 2020 spells where they aren't as weak as 2020 Flame/Freeze/Shock, but aren't as strong as Ifritbane/Icicle Eden/Bolt Avenge. They also picked up the ability to actually inflict ailments. They may have lost their optional group-targeting...

Volcano



Hits all enemies with ranged MAT-based fire damage with a chance to inflict Burn. Volcano's Burn applies a 0.7x multipler to enemy ATK, MAT, DEF, and MDF.

Blizzard



Hits all enemies with ranged MAT-based ice damage with a chance to inflict Freeze.

Volt Storm



Hits all enemies with ranged MAT-based lightning damage with a chance to inflict Paralysis.

...but that's because the AOE spells got split off to their own spells, like 7D1. The power on these actually matches the late game 2020 spells, and are significantly cheaper to boot!

Also take a look at Volcano having an even stronger Burn effect. The devs just... felt like giving Mage a super Burn, I guess. Nothing else in the game gets this type of Burn. Between Volcano, lostpower.exe, and a standard stat debuff, you can ruin the day of pretty much anything.

Flame Veil



Gives an ally a shield that automatically counters with melee MAT-based fire damage and a chance to inflict Burn when targeted for a melee attack. Only one Veil can be active at a time. If the target or the Mage dies, the effect ends.

Changes from 2020-II: Infliction rate reduced from 85% to 75%. Burn damage increased from 91 to 181.

Freeze Veil



Gives an ally a shield that automatically counters with melee MAT-based ice damage and a chance to inflict Freeze when targeted for a melee attack. Only one Veil can be active at a time. If the target or the Mage dies, the effect ends.

Changes from 2020-II: Damage reduced from 2.5x to 2.35x. Infliction rate reduced from 85% to 75%. Freeze damage increased from 91 to 181.

Shock Veil



Gives an ally a shield that automatically counters with melee MAT-based lightning damage and a chance to inflict Paralysis when targeted for a melee attack. Only one Veil can be active at a time. If the target or the Mage dies, the effect ends.

The Veils are as strong as ever, giving you free damage and ailment infliction without eating your action economy, plus having a new (2020-wise) Veil for Paralysis infliction!

A thing to keep in mind, however, is that 'when targeted.' If you're running a Rune Knight with your Mage, then putting a Veil on the RK and having them use Substitute to eat a hit won't set off any counters, as they're not the ones being targeted. You'll have to put the Veil on everyone else for that. Provoke works like normal, however.

Shieldcraft



Places a shield on the user that absorbs all incoming damage. Excess damage from a single hit will not bleed over to the user, but multiple hits in a single attack can get through. Damage dealt to the shield will not cause recoil damage on a Cursed enemy.

Changes from 2020-II: Shield inherits Mage's DEF and MDF. Shield no longer blocks added status effects on attacks. Shield no longer triggers Curse.

In 7D1, Shieldcraft gave barely any LF, and had the row system to reduce the odds of your Mage being in danger to begin with, ultimately making it a subpar defensive option.

In 2020, Decoy Mirror gave a whopping 300 LF, but with no defensive stats it'll end up breaking from the slightest hit by end game.

VFD's Shieldcraft takes the best of both worlds from Shieldcraft and Decoy Mirror, giving Mages at least an extra 300 LF, thanks to excess damage being absorbed. In a game where life caps at 500, that's a massive increase! Sure it can no longer block status riders or deal Curse damage, but items are good enough to deal with ailments anyways and Curse is a joke outside of Agent/Fortuner combos.

Cure



Restores LIFE for one target. Can be group-targeted starting from level 4. Can be used when not in battle.

Changes from 2020-II: MN cost reduced from 6 to 3. Speed multiplier increased from 1.3x to 2x.

It may not have priority, but Cure is still good to have on hand. A 250 heal backed by a Mage's titanic MAT will keep the party alive, and the 2x SPD multiplier makes it easier for them to outspeed anything that doesn't already have priority. The lack of priority can even be a benefit, if you want to revive and heal someone on the same turn but you're worried about an item heal going off before the revive.

Recover



Cures ailments. Can be used when not in battle.

Recover is unchanged from 2020. A free full party priority ailment clear is always useful.

Resurrect



Revives one party member. Can be used when not in battle.

Changes from 2020-II: MN cost increased from 3 to 4. Speed multiplier increased from 1x to 2x.

Resurrect, however, falls into the same issue as God Hand's CPR. Not having priority just makes it a pain to revive someone and heal them back up on the same turn. Just use an item instead.

MANA Restore



If the user does not have full MN, there is a chance for them to recover MN at the end of the turn. Cannot activate at the same time as MANA Burn.

Unlike Fortuners, Mages have no easy access to MN restoration, so they have to take what they can get.

Dead Man's React



For a number of turns, the user has a 100% chance to gain an extra turn whenever an ally dies.

Changes from 2020-II: Now activates if an ally dies from ailment damage.

Indirectly nerfed in VFD, just because of how safe items are to use and how rarely someone will die because of it.

You can use it to supercharge any suicidal Rune Knight strats, however!

Tier 2 Skills

Tier 3 Skills

No, you aren't reading that wrong, Mages (and Banishers) have no Tier 2 skills. If you were to kill Nyala with Tier 1 skills, the Eden classes would just have twice the skills of everyone else.

Mana Bullet



Hits one enemy with ranged MAT-based damage.

Mage's first Tier 3 skill is... kinda bad, really.

Like sure, it hits a fair bit harder than the other ST spells, but that comes at the cost of costing significantly more and not having an ailment or the ability to hit weaknesses. The damage from Burn/Freeze will probably end up surpassing the raw damage on this, plus cut enemy stats in the process.

Heaven's Press



Hits one enemy with ranged MAT-based damage and a chance to inflict Bleed.

And this is just terrible! It costs barely anything, yes, but it only slightly outdamages the AOE spells, the infliction rate on it is garbage, and the Bleed damage is still outmatched by Burn/Freeze!

Mage's Consent



Increases the user's MAT on their next attack.

Changes from 2020-II: MN cost increased from 16 MN to 25 MN.

On one hand: Mage don't have skills that hit as hard as a Samurai, nor can they stack buffs like a Samurai.

On the other: 2.5x multiplier with VFD's buff system.

I just wish they gave Mage's Consent the same ailment booster as Solid Stance, just to increase the odds of landing Volcano's Burn.

MANA Burn



User has a chance to deal ranged MAT-based non-elemental damage at the end of the turn. Cannot activate at the same time as MANA Recover. Is not affected by Mage's Consent, nor will it use up Mage's Consent.

Changes from 2020-II: Damage increased from 3x to 4.5x.

Free damage! But conflicting with MANA Recover means you'll have to decide if you want free damage or free recovery more.

EX Skill

End of the World



Hits all enemies with ranged MAT-based non-elemental damage with a chance to inflict Bleed and Paralysis.

10.5x damage which can be boosted to 26.25x with Mage's Consent, with a near guaranteed chance to slap everything on the field with an extra 900 damage and paralysis. 'End of the World,' indeed.

Team Skills

Charge time: 1 turn.

Turns out I was wrong, the Eden recruits also get a 1 turn charge class. Could have sworn they were a 2 turn...

Buddy

Deals 2.1x melee ATK-based damage to the target with a 100% chance applying a 0.8x MAT multiplier for 2 turns.

Running off ATK means this will deal jack for damage, but being able to cut something's MAT by 20% takes a good bite out of the target's damage if you know they use it.

Support

Increases team's MAT by 1.2x for 1 turn.

This, meanwhile, is spicy. Make your front row something MAT-focused like, say, Duelist/Fortuner/Rune Knight and laugh as they get to break things in half even harder.

However, it runs into a lategame VFD problem where burning a bar on half your backrow can heavily delay Unison attacks depending on your team compositions, so never using this and instead waiting for everyone to hit 2 bars is a far more effective use of meter.