Nyarlathotep's Dungeon: Week 30

[dude789]

Magic Barrier gets both breaths and PC spells, as well as Meteors and its ilk.

I agree that the game does do some things to differentiate the two, but the only two things which affect "magic defence" get both breaths and spells. It's a lot like Sabin's Fire Dance vs. Terra's Fire 2. Yes, one is "magic" (nailed by silence) and the other isn't, and one hits Reflect but the other doesn't, but both do hit MDef.

Okay, is magic also reduced by 20% because the stat topic is a little abiguous. If it reduces magic by a larger percentage than that doesn't help Neph much because he needs all the damage reduction he can get and if his buffs are only slightly reducing the damage than he shouldn't even bother using them.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

The 20% magic reduction is from -Magic Barrier in DQ8-. not SH defensive buffs. SH defense buffs are generally notably better than that.

[Magic Fanatic]

The 20% magic reduction is from -Magic Barrier in DQ8-. not SH defensive buffs. SH defense buffs are generally notably better than that.

Shadow Hearts buffs are usually bad-ass on principle.  Not to mention that, like I posted before, Rhapthorne's Magic Burst is slamming straight into Ricardo's resistance to Fire thanks to his innate element, and Rhapthorne doesn't really have much to recuperate the lost damage on him, before accounting for Ricardo's generally good S.DEF.

Just for Ricardo's resistances/weaknesses...
Assume for a moment that Rhapthorne uses Cold Breath -> Magic Burst.  For Ricardo, this means he's taking an extra 32 damage from Cold Breath...  Then drops the damage from Magic Burst by 67 points.  Dhoulmagus can try to recoup this damage with Arrows->Kacrackle, but it's only 3 points more damage to Ricardo when everyone else is being spared an extra 10.  If he just does Arrows->Belching Fire, Dhoulmagus is also losing another 15 points of damage off his best combo to Ricardo.

Note that Yuri2 can also easily take advantage of this by going to Fides his first turn instead of Neo Amon straight away for his first turn (and possibly his second, because a Galed Yuri2 using Energy Charge is FAST), while still having generally boosted stats from fusions.

EDIT:  This has yet to mention that the bosses have yet do anything other than have trouble with killing a Ditto-D.Dhoulmagus through all those innate-resistances, 50% Ice and 25% Fire being the important ones.

EDIT2: ALL TEAMS vs. Dungeon

[Taishyr]

All teams pass, yes. Don't think CT's team faces any issue but I need to review items, no clue why Neph took floor 6b but I don't see the DQ8 fight as holding him back, nor do I think they struggle much with Izanami.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

All teams pass, yes. Don't think CT's team faces any issue but I need to review items, no clue why Neph took floor 6b but I don't see the DQ8 fight as holding him back, nor do I think they struggle much with Izanami.

It was the best-suited for the team. Four Fiends, all of them holding good forms (which were the ones specified), would strike a rather startling amount of pressure. The MT nightmare of Melfice+Zio+Zog would give them fits as well and, unlike Rhap+Dhoul, killing one of the sources wouldn't do (and they just can't one-round Zio/Zog period, which they'd have to do), just from what I recall off the top of my head. Besides that, nobody wants to go through Smash Bros. floor ever.

[Taishyr]

Mmm. I must just underestimate the damage of both those groups, then. Very well.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Melfice+Zio+Zog muster up nearly 2x PC HP in full MT a pop, and they pile it up at way too opportunistic a timeframe (Zog and Zio basically drop 1.5x~ worth of damage in their turn alone, and Melfice has popped a 3HKO before most people move -and- will do it again before people move another time), and often teams don't survive Zio+Zog alone. The fact Zio has an easy OHKO on Arnaud with that ITE physical doesn't help either.

But the one that I really kneejerked as really nasty is the Fiends fight, where they can basically keep half the party under mass, mass pressure, and they have both enough durability to handle a first-turn blitz from that team -and- the pressure tools to keep the team badly locked down. Rubi alone OHKOing anyone in the field+Val 3-2ing the field by herself at -worst- while spamming Tornado is nasty alone. Sure, Scarmy can be taken turn one by using revival or full healing, I guess, but when half the field is shutting down effectively half the party in a mad rush and the other half is anything but trivial, you're in for a treat.