Part 152: War Magus

War Magi were introduced in the original EO2 as a somewhat jack-of-all-trades class--in theory, capable of both dealing damage and healing the party. While they weren't very good at the first part, due to both how crappy the War Edge skills were in that game, along with how disable infliction worked in EO2 (basically a complete crapshoot in FOE and boss fights), and they lacked Salve 3 compared to Medics, they were able to equip swords, which gave 2.0x speed modifiers compared to staves, which had 0.1x--basically, they were better Medics than Medics because they outsped them massively.

There weren't any really close analogues of War Magi from EO3 to EOU, and now they're back again in EO2U, buffed all around and now one of the best support classes in the game, and arguably near the top of the list as far as damage dealers go (for most of the game, anyway--they fall off eventually). While they no longer have the fact of EO2's badly designed speed system on their side, their healing skills now function in manners that make that irrelevant, and their War Edge skills are no longer complete and utter garbage, thanks to the skills themselves no longer requiring specific ailments, the secondary effects of each skill now being much more worth it, and War Edge Power, which gives them an option if inflicting ailments isn't really an option at the moment. In fact, War Magi got buffed enough that they're now arguably a requirement for certain postgame bosses for various reasons.


Stats:

Level 1:
HP: 30
TP; 31
STR: 8
TEC: 8
VIT: 7
AGI: 4
LUC: 8

Level 50:
HP: 208
TP: 261
STR: 32
TEC: 33
VIT: 30
AGI: 16
LUC: 32

Level 99:
HP: 495
TP: 492
STR: 59
TEC: 63
VIT: 58
AGI: 30
LUC: 60

Innate weapon choices: Sword, Staff

Innate armor choices: Light armor, Clothes

War Magi have the absolute lowest AGI out of any class, which doesn't matter due to how War Heal skills work, and none of the rest of their skills really rely on them being quick. Their HP is a little below-average, while the rest of their stats are all above average. TEC is probably their most important stat, since it's factored into both how much they heal for, and how much damage War Edge skills do. Their above-average VIT is both factored into the healing formula, and helps offset their slightly below-average HP.


War Lore Mastery
Requirements: None



Required to learn War Lore skills. Increases the amount of healing provided by War Heal skills, Artery, and War Response, increases the success chances of Random Disease, Displace, Barrier, and War Revive's end of turn revive (as well as the base poison damage of Random Disease), and the effects of Warmight and Rockskin.


War Heal
Requirements: War Lore Mastery level 1
Body parts used: Head



Restores one party member's HP at the start of the turn, and at the end of the turn.

The most basic War Heal skill. It provides incredibly cheap healing for the amount of TP it costs, and is the best choice when using a War Magus and Beast together.


War Heal Line
Requirements: War Heal level 5
Body parts used: Head



Restores one row's HP at the start of the turn, and at the end of the turn.

I don't value War Heal Line as much as War Heal or War Heal All, since the situations where you'd need to heal a line instead of the entire party in EO2U are few and far between.


War Heal All
Requirements: War Heal Line level 5
Body parts used: Head



Restore the party's HP at the start of the turn, and at the end of the turn.

Best used in emergencies where your entire party got hit due to, I dunno, your Beast or Protector dying mid-attack. Covers a lot more situations that'll occur in EO2U than War Heal Line did.


Warmight
Requirements: War Lore Mastery level 3
Body parts used: Head



Increases one party member's physical/elemental attack for a set number of turns. Has an 80% speed modifier at all levels.

A mediocre attack buff. With a maxed out War Lore Mastery, it gives a technically higher bonus than most attack buffs...by around 5%. And it's only single-target. Even in Story mode, you have access to Attack Order, which is better than Warmight in basically every way.


Rockskin
Requirements: War Lore Mastery level 3
Body parts used: Head



Increases one party member's physical/elemental defense for a set number of turns. Has an 80% speed modifier at all levels.

See above.


Artery
Requirements: War Lore Mastery level 5
Body parts used: Head



Places a buff on all party members that heals them whenever they act. Has an 80% speed modifier at all levels.

Artery is a form of proactive healing, and is very useful on that merit alone. Unfortunately, its low healing power means it eventually falls off once enemy damage starts massively outpacing what it can heal, and if you're looking to sustain a Beast, High Regen or Holy Crown + Protect Order are (most of the time) better options.


War Response
Requirements: Artery level 5
Body parts used: Head



Places a debuff on an enemy that heals all party members when the debuffed enemy acts. Has an 80% speed modifier at all levels.

War Response's heal amount is absurdly small, but it's healing that you don't have to use a buff slot for. I'm not that big on it, but again, it's basically free healing that doesn't consume a buff slot.


Random Disease
Requirements: War Lore Mastery level 7
Body parts used: Head



Attempts to inflict blind, poison, paralysis, sleep, curse, and fear on one enemy. Has an 80% speed modifier at all levels.

Random Disease is a joke skill. It's basically never going to hit the ailment you want, and is hilariously unreliable. The only use it has is if you're running a War Magus without a Survivalist, Dark Hunter, or Hexer, and you need some kind of setup for War Edge skills.


Displace
Requirements: War Lore Mastery level 7
Body parts used: Head



Cures one party member of ailments/binds. Attempts to transfer said party member's status ailments and/or binds to one enemy. Has an 80% speed modifier at all levels.

Displace's main function is letting your War Magus have a non-item method of curing ailments and binds. The transfer is so situational it's almost funny.


Barrier
Requirements: Random Disease level 3, Displace level 3
Body parts used: Head



Attempts to block incoming status ailments, binds, and debuffs to all party members a set amount of times per turn. Also blocks self-inflicted ailments and binds, such as from Reincarnate and Stigmata.

Barrier is an incredible utility skill, and is a borderline necessity for certain boss fights later in the game on Expert. While it's not completely reliable on its own (even though 85% is nothing to sneeze at), it can be made 100% reliable through War Lore Mastery. Remember that one of the components of War Lore Mastery is that it boosts the success chances of skills like Barrier, and at level 15, that bonus is 18%. (.85 * 1.18) = 1.003, or 100.3%--completely guaranteed, up until it hits the max blocks limit.


War Revive
Requirements: War Lore Mastery level 10
Body parts used: Head



Revives a dead party member at the start of the turn with a fixed amount of HP. At the end of the turn, attempts to revive the same party member again at 1 HP.

War Revive's primary benefit is that the end of turn revive (sometimes) helps with situations where you revive someone, and then they get killed again on that same turn. There's a certain postgame boss where it's both incredibly useful in combination with a Beast, and also simoultaneously a huge liability.


War Edge Mastery
Requirements: None



Required to learn War Edge skills. Passively increases max TP if using a sword, or damage if using a staff. Allows the user to use any sword skill with a staff.


Strength/Guard Slash
Requirements: War Edge Mastery level 1
Required equipment: Sword or Staff
Body parts used: Arms

(Strength Slash)
(Guard Slash)

Deals melee Cut damage to one enemy. Ignores the target's resistance to Cut damage. Lowers the target's physical/elemental attack/defense for a set amount of turns if they have an ailment. Substitues the average of the user's STR and TEC as a replacement for STR in the damage formula. Has no speed modifier and +15 base accuracy at all levels.

Strength/Guard Slash are, unfortunately, kind of pointless in any party that has access to attack/defense buffs already, due to the diminishing returns system on buffs/debuffs of equivalent type. They do last for a hell of a long time, though, which is useful if you're not going for very quick boss kills--Story mode, for example.


Headcut/Armcut/Legcut
Requirements: War Edge Mastery level 5
Required equipment: Sword or Staff
Body parts used: Arms



Deals Cut damage to one enemy. Ignores the target's resistance to Cut damage. Attempts to bind the target's head/arms/legs if they are afflicted with an ailment. Substitues the average of the user's STR and TEC as a replacement for STR in the damage formula. Has no speed modifier and +15 base accuracy at all levels.

The Bindcuts actually have the highest base chances of any bind skill in the game, and are actually very useful in Story mode, where they're basically the only reliable methods that the Story party has to inflict binds.


Ailing Slash
Requirements: War Edge Mastery level 10
Required equipment: Sword or Staff
Body parts used: Arms



Deals melee Cut damage to one enemy. Ignores the target's resistance to Cut damage. Damage is increased if the target has an ailment. Substitues the average of the user's STR and TEC as a replacement for STR in the damage formula. Has no speed modifier and +15 base accuracy at all levels.

The best War Edge Skill, and what allows War Magi to function as amazingly good damage dealers. It does, of course, require that either the enemy have an ailment or you have War Edge Power turned on, but having a Hexer on your team takes care of the former problem quite nicely.


Vampire
Requirements: Ailing Slash level 5



Passively heals the user and anyone in their row for a percentage of damage dealt to enemies that are afflicted with status ailments. The healing is fixed, and cannot be boosted.

Vampire at level 1 will sustain you for most of the game, and once you get to the late and postgame, more points in it will basically mean that Ailing Slash on a target with an ailment will provide a (almost) free full heal to whatever row your War Magus is in (it should probably be the front).


War Edge Power
Force Boost

Enables the secondary effects of War Edge skills (Strength/Guard Slash debuffs, Bindcut binds, Ailing Slash bonus damage), even if the target doesn't have an ailment.

War Edge Power is best used when you've run out of ailments to inflict, most likely because of accumulative resistance, or because your War Magus is in a party that can't inflict ailments for some bizarre reason.


Fairy Robe
Force Break
Body parts used: Head

Restores the entire party's HP. Purges all current ailment, binds, and debuffs. Blocks all incoming ailments, binds, and debuffs for one turn. Healing power scales linearly from 300% to 900% based on user level.

Fairy Robe's mostly useful as a panic button for when you need to both heal up your party immediately and block ailments/binds for one turn. There's very few instances where this happens, honestly, and a level 20 Barrier + level 15 War Lore Mastery will cover you against most anything that a boss can throw at you as far as disables go.