Part 144: Century 1
Solo Oracle: Century IZerky brandishes pure physical force and unbridled aggression.
Walt bends reality with his mastery of scientific principles.
Ours? Ours is a different fate.
Like Walter, we'll be foregoing omniscience in favor of our natural talents.
Unlike Walter, however, this isn't so much because we grow into universe-shattering powers. For the Oracle, it's because if we didn't, we'd be doing our damnedest to find something - anything - more reliable than our powers of prophecy.
You'll see why soon enough.
Stat-wise, the Oracle is the highest Magic class in the game, surpassing even the Summoner - but suffers grievously for it, with the fourth-worst Vitality, second-worst Agility, and tying for worst Strength.
Is it worth it?
In a word, no.
The Oracle starts with !Condemn. At first glance, it might seem like a decent utility kit, with a heal (Rejuvenation), Esuna (Recuperation), big three elemental damage (Brimstone for Fire, Black Frost for Ice, Judgment for Thunder), Frog (Salienta), Stop (Still Wing), and - last but far from least - Doom. There's a catch, though, if the name Doom didn't tip you off already.
The Oracle doesn't apply these effects directly. Instead, they all go through the 20 tick Doom counter before delivering their payload.
At this stage of the game, the results aren't that terrible - but they're also kind of a waste of time when you can, well, instantly kill things.
As for a name, I've gone with Mimir. The FF5 Oracle isn't powered by prayer or luck - like the mythical wise man, the Oracle is a patient and wise counselor, drawing precise conclusions on the future from information present and past.
And then he gets beheaded anyway. Apt.
Doom makes short work of most random encounters, but there are a couple potential showstoppers for a fragile job like the Oracle. Here's one of them.
Because the Oracle is slow and the Doom counter is slower, a lot of otherwise completely ignorable or tankable abilities that don't show up until turn 2 or turn 3 suddenly become horrible showstoppers. If a Moldwynd decides to Aero you on turn 2, there's fuck all you can do to stop it. Mani Wizards can be even worse, always casting a level 1 spell on turn 3 - which typically means getting splattered one tick before Doom goes off.
But those are minor inconveniences compared to...
code:
Wing Raptor (Heavy)
HP: 250
Vulnerable to Death, Poison, Blind, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow.
So, the catch with Oracle: the Heavy flag confers immunity to !Condemn. Not just Doom - all possible uses of !Condemn.
If you're left wondering why the skillset even has damage and status options at all, well, you're not the only one.
As for Wing Raptor, that leaves Mimir with one option.
(Don't actually watch the video, unless you want to see six minutes of bird punching, including punching closed Wing Raptor twice because it takes so long that I forget what point in the cycle he's at.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmW553gES0
LEVEL: 6
DEATHS (to bosses): 0
DEATHS (to random encounters): 1
Next time: Mimir taps into the true power of the cosmos. The true power of the cosmos fights back.