Nyarlathotep's Dungeon: Week 30

[Nephrite]

"So yet another steps into the final floors of my hallowed lair. Too bad for you, you won't be stepping any further..."


Team Unoriginal vs. Floor 6
Team Nephrite vs. Floor 5
Team Super and CT vs. Floor 1


Floor 6b: The Strongest and Others

So you want to fight the strongest beings? Fine, then. Let's see how you do.

Battle #26: Ultimecia and Gilgamesh

Ultimecia: Time kompression.
Gilgamesh: ...okay?

Battle #27: Izanami and Adachi

*The team has been fully healed!

Izanami: Fools! You cannot hope to outmatch me...
Adachi: I'll show you the power of Yomotsu-Izanagi...

Battle #28: Myria 1 and Zog

*The team has been fully healed!

Myria: You shall die here. The world needs not such as you.
Zog: Ha ha ha ha! Die, fools!

Battle #29: Rhapthorne and Dhoulmagus

*The team has been fully healed!

Rhapthorne: Ha ha ha! You shall all die!
Dhoulmagus: Such a pity...

Boss Battle #6: Xorn, Zera Valmar and Evil Gaia

*The team has been fully healed!

Xorn: ALL LOVE SHALL PERISH.
Zera: ALL HOPE SHALL PERISH.
Evil Gaia: Evil Gaia.



Floor 2a: THESE! ARE! BOSSES!!

Battle #6: Milon, Baigan and Kainazzo (FF4 SNES)

Milon: I have returned from death to crush you!
Kainazzo: Oh, that fool? The one who refused to give his kingdom to me...?

Battle #7: Booster and Mack

Booster: WELCOME TO MY TOWER!!!

Battle #8: Scarmiglione (FF4 DS)

Scarmiglione: Ha ha ha... I have come back from death yet again...

Battle #9: Kary and Kraken

Kary: I, the Fiend of Fire shall stop you!

Boss Battle #2: Augus and Nimufu

Augus: Yes! Fight to the death for my god...


Floor 1: A Re-introduction (The Beginning)

"Ho ho ho ho! You've decided to return! Let us see what you
can accomplish."

Battle #1: Palmer and Mist Dragon

Palmer: Muahaha! I am Science!!
Mist Dragon: Turn back!

Battle #2: Steelix, Shuckle and FF1 Knight

Knight: You shall not pass here!

Battle #3: Marle, Alice and FFT Priest

Marle: Yeah! Let's go!
Alice: Yuri...

Battle #4: Lich

Lich: I will... devour you...

Boss Battle #1:
Change
Relic

*The team has been fully healed!

"Welcome to Monado Mandala! Here, you shall die!"



---------------------------------------------
Team Nephrite | Yuri1, Yuri2, Arnaud, Ricardo (Life), Ditto (Quick Powder)
[Floor 6b: The Strongest and Others]
Team Nephrite vs. Ultimecia and Gilgamesh
*Full heal
Team Nephrite vs. Izanami and Adachi
*Full heal
Team Nephrite vs. Myria1 and Zog
*Full heal
Team Nephrite vs. Rhapthorne and Dhoulmagus
*Full Heal
Team Nephrite vs. Xorn, Zera Valmar and Evil Gaia

Team Super | Fogel, Jerin, Hellion (Speed?), FF1 Knight, Tia, Nall
[Floor 2a: THESE! ARE! BOSSES!]
Team Super vs. Milon, Baigan and Kainazzo (FF4 SNES)
Team Super vs. Booster and Mack
Team Super vs. Scarmiglione-Z (FF4 DS)
*Full Heal
Team Super vs. Kary and Kraken
Team Super vs. Augus and Nimufu (BoF2)

Team Tranquil | Dart, Albert, Meru, Sharanda, Rose (Synergy Bonus)
[Floor 2a: THESE! ARE! BOSSES!]
Team Tranquil vs. Milon, Baigan and Kainazzo (FF4 SNES)
Team Tranquil vs. Booster and Mack
Team Tranquil vs. Scarmiglione-Z (FF4 DS)
*Full Heal
Team Tranquil vs. Kary and Kraken
Team Tranquil vs. Augus and Nimufu (BoF2)

Team Jo'ou | Deis1, Geno, Ryu3, Raja (Speed?), FFT Priest
Floor 1: An Introduction
Team Jo'ou vs. Palmer and Mist Dragon
Team Jo'ou vs. Steelix, Shuckle and FF1 Knight
Team Jo'ou vs. Marle, Alice and FFT Priest
Team Jo'ou vs. Lich (FF1)
*Full Heal
Team Jo'ou vs. Change Relic


Life - One character's healing effects now also allows for revival, but reduces the final effect of any healing by 50%. (This means full healing is always 50%) The healing also only revives characters with 1 HP.

Speed? - The effective speed of one character is reversed (60% becomes 140%), but after the first round of combat, their speed returns to default and can not be increased in any way.

Synergy Bonus - In the case of the Legend of Dragoon Team, they have access to items and accessories. The items are limited, however.

[SnowFire]

Team Jo'ou has earlygame Bleu/Deis1 who solos the floor so he passes.  Unless Neph wants to pull a Fogel "scale to time of join" Bleu would be *violently* broken if available with her lvl. 21 starting spell list from the beginning.

---------------------------------------------
Team Nephrite | Yuri1, Yuri2, Arnaud, Ricardo (Life), Ditto (Quick Powder)
[Floor 6b: The Strongest and Others]
Team Nephrite vs. Ultimecia and Gilgamesh
IIRC Ultimecia's form 2 isn't that scary?  Gilgamesh does something nasty to somebody then gets stomped by the Yuris.  If he took out 1 Yuri somehow Arnaud means he's not getting another turn in time.  Without Gilgamesh Ultimecia sucks (she's probably more useful if there wasn't a full-heal afterward, blowing away junctions is either equipment breaking, MP-busting, or both, but it's irrelevant).
*Full heal
Team Nephrite vs. Izanami and Adachi
No idea.
*Full heal
Team Nephrite vs. Myria1 and Zog
My Myria1 respect is not high.  She also gets owned by Idle in-game (even if due to a bug?) so I have no qualms about letting Arnaud ruin her with Slow Down.  The HP is impressive but comes off quickly enough once Hyper / Energy Charged Yuri hits come rolling in.
*Full heal
Team Nephrite vs. Rhapthorne and Dhoulmagus
Well any kind of buffing game pretty much sucks here and these two combine for a slowish MT OHKO.  If they need overkill Rhapthorne can do his big burst of fire thing but he doesn't even need to.  Okay, assuming Arnaud Slow Downs (to force a Wave of Ice at least) and the Yuris switch to Amon / Neo Amon for stat buffs...  three hits will probably only kill Ricardo and Ditto, as Arnaud will get some dodging in to stop it being a OHKO on him, and the Yuris stats are probably sufficient to tank.  Huh, can Rhapthorne do his Burst of Magical Power turn 1?  If so not sure the Yuris will be surviving after all, the DQ8 bosses might ignore Slow Down and just unload.  Actually, wait, while Dhoulmagus is normally physical he has magic too, so Arnaud evasion hype is out.  Yeah I think they just ignore Slow Down and do Sharp Arrows / Belches Blazing Fire / Exhales Cold Breath / Burst of Magical Power (if legal) and flatten everyone.  Even if they don't...  once Arnaud / Ricardo are down, any kind of full status immunity can be Ice Waved out, and then Rhapthorne can sleep a single Yuri a round, which can also turn the tide.  Looks bad, I think the team has to unload everything and kill one DQ8 boss on turn 1....  which might be possible on Floor 7 with the Seraphic Radiance, but probably not on Floor 6.
*Full Heal
Team Nephrite vs. Xorn, Zera Valmar and Evil Gaia
Much easier.  Horrific MT storm of death from the Yuris mean that Evil Gaia never sees a turn and Zera only sees one.  Xorn isn't TOO bad at full HP and is eminently beatable by a team once his support is gone - especially since hte Yuris can chip, do a horrific Energy Charge / Hyper setup, then smash Xorn to pieces.  Xorn wishes his Dispel was available at full health.

[Nephrite]

If the DQ bosses have to Wave of Ice they aren't getting all four of their damage moves off, no? I'd also say that the Yuris go for their good stats and just pound into Dhoulmagus. I'd also toss out that Slow down on one would delay the turn for... quite some time, although getting both is obviously not possible, so the other one will Waves of Ice. Still not really sure it matters though, the Yuris are pretty good stat-wise. I ... also think that his Magic Burst is something he can only do as the first action so he can't double-act. I'm not 100% sure on that last part, though!

[SnowFire]

You're correct that he can't double act the Burst of Magical Power bit but if he's allowed even one on turn 1 it's pretty bad.  And my point about waves of Ice is that they're actually irrelevant if the DQ8 bosses can MT OHKO the team on turn 1 with their actions.  Even if they can't, let's say that both Yuris survive with a little HP.  One DQ8 boss is slowed down.  What's the plan for next turn?  If they stay on the offense and maybe kill one boss, the other will finish blowing up the other Yuris.  If they try and get on the defensive...  well, I doubt they'll be able to full-revive and full-heal the team.

Anyway, going off the stat topic...

Rhapthorne:
Cold Breath / Meteor Shower: 240 damage = ~.62
Cold Breath / Burst of Magic Power: 400 damage = ~1.04
Dhoulmagus:
Blazing Fire / Sharp Arrows: 145 damage = ~.62

I'm assuming that the "once a round" only applies to a specific move, pretty sure he can do two MT moves a round (rather than having to go MT / ST which might help).  Anyway that's ~1.24 PCHP if Dhoulmagus wants to be able to keep unloading next round, or 1.66 PCHP if they just go nuts (and if Rhapthorne can legally use the Burst of Magic Power turn 1).  Yuris are badass after transformation but not that badass?  And don't think I see Hypered Yuri physical + Demon Rays + Ricardo damage killing either one of these guys.  The 1.22 PCHP number should, if nothing else, slay all of the Yuri's support.

[Nephrite]

Yuri1 has an MT Revive and big HP healing spell.

            Sandalphon    48
                            Revive              4+ 64  Revive uncon. +
                                                       Restore HP(large) ->all
                            Sanctuary           4+ 54  Raise S-Def 30/36%->all
                            Pulse               4+ 72  Heavy Light damage->all

[superaielman]

Team Super | Fogel, Jerin, Hellion (Speed?), FF1 Knight, Tia, Nall
[Floor 2a: THESE! ARE! BOSSES!]
Team Super vs. Milon, Baigan and Kainazzo (FF4 SNES)- Kainazzo doesn't get a turn, the other two suck bad.
Team Super vs. Booster and Mack- Booster's a limit boss and Mack sucks.
Team Super vs. Scarmiglione-Z (FF4 DS)- I'm pretty sure Fogel can straight up solo this fight once gets Copper Flesh'ed.
*Full Heal
Team Super vs. Kary and Kraken- Copper flesh Hellion or Tia, whoever makes the fight easier; then smash.
Team Super vs. Augus and Nimufu (BoF2)- Nimufu isn't that durable; she won't get a second turn. Hellion can CF Fogel and he can kick Augus's ass around the block.

Team Jo'ou. Doesn't require much thought, as BoF1 attack magic is cracked the fuck out early on.


Team Tranquil | Dart, Albert, Meru, Sharanda, Rose (Synergy Bonus)
[Floor 2a: THESE! ARE! BOSSES!]
Team Tranquil vs. Milon, Baigan and Kainazzo (FF4 SNES)- Good fight to build up SP on. Shana probably OHKOS Kainazzo with a thunder item.
Team Tranquil vs. Booster and Mack- Booster can't OHKO anyone offhand. Dragoon defenses should let them blitz Booster effectively.
Team Tranquil vs. Scarmiglione-Z (FF4 DS)- Healing wrecks Scarm.
*Full Heal
Team Tranquil vs. Kary and Kraken- Both Kary and Kraken can dish out the OHKOs to Shana/Meru here. The team is probably best off blitzing Kraken's ass, then reviving whoever Kary kills and working from there.
Team Tranquil vs. Augus and Nimufu (BoF2)- Good question.Nimufu's sleep is a problem, and Augus has enough offense to seriously threaten the team. I'm pretty sure items+dragoon blitzing will do it, but not 100% on this.

[dude789]

Neph dies to the MT blitz by the DQ bosses, others pass.

[Nephrite]

Since most people see me having trouble with the DQ8 fight, here's my opinion on how it goes:

Going with Dhoulmagus 2 but I don't think it really matters.

Turn order is Ditto -> Arnaud -> Yuri1 -> Ricardo -> Rhapthorne -> Yuri2 -> Dhoulmagus

Ditto transforms into Rhapthorne. Arnaud Slow Downs Dhoulmagus. Yuri1 transforms into... let's say Sandalphon and whacks Dhoulmagus. Ricardo throws a Gale onto Arnaud to speed his next turn up a little bit. Rhapthorne goes and Waves of Ice and we'll say Magic Bursts. This might kill Ditto, not sure, but it certainly doesn't kill anyone else. Yuri2's up. Now, if you let Yuri2 have Seraphic Radiance, he uses For Tomorrow and heals everyone of the damage Rhapthorne did. Assuming you don't allow that, he can go into Sominion and Delay Dhoulmagus' turn or he can heal Yuri1 with Neo Amon.

If you see Delay working then this is even easier because my team gets its turns in again and just bumrushes Dhoulmagus into a paste.

If you don't, then he heals Yuri1, Dhoulmagus does two MT spells and kills everyone who isn't Yuri1, though 2 might survive. Now Yuri1 just uses his MT healing and revive spell and... unless you see CT being completely reset on death, my team gets their turns and then this all repeats, except Dhoulmagus dies.

It seems hard, but Yuri1 has MT revival and healing, Yuri2 has MT revival, Ricardo has MT revival... I dunno, it's hard for me to see that fight being so hard.

[Random Consonant]

Team Super | Fogel, Jerin, Hellion (Speed?), FF1 Knight, Tia, Nall
[Floor 2a: THESE! ARE! BOSSES!]
Team Super vs. Milon, Baigan and Kainazzo (FF4 SNES) - Scrubs get handled easily
Team Super vs. Booster and Mack - Uh yeah.  Team can get Booster out of the picture pretty easy.
Team Super vs. Scarmiglione-Z (FF4 DS) - Fogel and Tia handle this easily, surely.
*Full Heal
Team Super vs. Kary and Kraken - Marilith gets taken out in fairly short order and DoS Kraken is shit.
Team Super vs. Augus and Nimufu (BoF2) - Thinking Fogel can solo this fight.

Team Tranquil | Dart, Albert, Meru, Sharanda, Rose (Synergy Bonus)
[Floor 2a: THESE! ARE! BOSSES!]
Team Tranquil vs. Milon, Baigan and Kainazzo (FF4 SNES) - Scrubs get handled easily.
Team Tranquil vs. Booster and Mack - Shouldn't be a problem
Team Tranquil vs. Scarmiglione-Z (FF4 DS) - Don't think he was that durable and he's being fed attack items/Gust of Wind Dance.
*Full Heal
Team Tranquil vs. Kary and Kraken - DoS Kraken is shit.  Marilith can OHKO Meru but dragoon defenses to the rescue here I think.
Team Tranquil vs. Augus and Nimufu (BoF2) - I'll buy a blitz here, sure, but it's close, I think.

Team Jo'ou | Deis1, Geno, Ryu3, Raja (Speed?), FFT Priest
Floor 1: An Introduction
Team Jo'ou vs. Palmer and Mist Dragon
Team Jo'ou vs. Steelix, Shuckle and FF1 Knight
Team Jo'ou vs. Marle, Alice and FFT Priest
Team Jo'ou vs. Lich (FF1)
*Full Heal
Team Jo'ou vs. Change Relic - Bwahahaha.

[Clear Tranquil]

Teams super, Jo'ou and Nephrite vs dungeon

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Team Nephrite | Yuri1, Yuri2, Arnaud, Ricardo (Life), Ditto (Quick Powder)
[Floor 6b: The Strongest and Others]
Team Nephrite vs. Ultimecia and Gilgamesh – Gilgamesh is obnoxious, but between two status healers, two strong MT healers and Ricardo's status immunity song, they're pretty sound.
*Full heal
Team Nephrite vs. Izanami and Adachi - Trolling through Izanami's first form to buff and smash works nicely. Adachi sucks and is facing the kind of offense he hates.
*Full heal
Team Nephrite vs. Myria1 and Zog - Illusion and Slow Down against Myria? Yeah, they're doing fine.
*Full heal
Team Nephrite vs. Rhapthorne and Dhoulmagus - Yay, more people massively overrating worthless DQ8 bosses. Dhouly's MT is -trash-: 3HKO MT damage -once- you factor in the double-acts deserves mockery, and Rhaptorne's MT is very unfocus-friendly in-game, (heck, those meteors struggled to MT 2HKO after the doubles from my memory) which I'm plenty willing to punish in the Dungeon. That's before even getting into how Rhaptorne sucks at taking hits and gets 4HKOed by Neph's party -anyway-, and he's not outspeeding anything.
*Full Heal
Team Nephrite vs. Xorn, Zera Valmar and Evil Gaia - Xorn's dispel only kicks in at 75% HP. That's game. Fun stuff. I mean, Xorn does apply pressure, but once Slow Down is up, the team's fine.

Team Super | Fogel, Jerin, Hellion (Speed?), FF1 Knight, Tia, Nall
[Floor 2a: THESE! ARE! BOSSES!]
Team Super vs. Milon, Baigan and Kainazzo (FF4 SNES)
Team Super vs. Booster and Mack
Team Super vs. Scarmiglione-Z (FF4 DS)
*Full Heal
Team Super vs. Kary and Kraken
Team Super vs. Augus and Nimufu (BoF2) - Um yeah.

Rest later. >_>

Team Tranquil | Dart, Albert, Meru, Sharanda, Rose (Synergy Bonus)
[Floor 2a: THESE! ARE! BOSSES!]
Team Tranquil vs. Milon, Baigan and Kainazzo (FF4 SNES)
Team Tranquil vs. Booster and Mack
Team Tranquil vs. Scarmiglione-Z (FF4 DS)
*Full Heal
Team Tranquil vs. Kary and Kraken
Team Tranquil vs. Augus and Nimufu (BoF2)

Team Jo'ou | Deis1, Geno, Ryu3, Raja (Speed?), FFT Priest
Floor 1: An Introduction
Team Jo'ou vs. Palmer and Mist Dragon
Team Jo'ou vs. Steelix, Shuckle and FF1 Knight
Team Jo'ou vs. Marle, Alice and FFT Priest
Team Jo'ou vs. Lich (FF1)
*Full Heal
Team Jo'ou vs. Change Relic

[SnowFire]

Team Nephrite vs. Rhapthorne and Dhoulmagus - Yay, more people massively overrating worthless DQ8 bosses. Dhouly's MT is -trash-: 3HKO MT damage -once- you factor in the double-acts deserves mockery, and Rhaptorne's MT is very unfocus-friendly in-game, (heck, those meteors struggled to MT 2HKO after the doubles from my memory) which I'm plenty willing to punish in the Dungeon. That's before even getting into how Rhaptorne sucks at taking hits and gets 4HKOed by Neph's party -anyway-, and he's not outspeeding anything.

Unless I'm missing something according to the stat topic Dhoulmagus can do .62 PCHP MT damage a round which is way better than a 3HKO.  And *some* of Rhapthorne's MT is unfocus friendly (the boulder drops) but he's got other MT that isn't,  so he uses that.  I can see an HP penalty for "sucks more than stat topic represents" (I do the same) but I wouldn't force him to act stupidly and use the meteors.

Anyway if you see Rhapthorne as getting one-rounded, then sure, Nephrite wins regardless of Dhoulmagus's damage.

Since most people see me having trouble with the DQ8 fight, here's my opinion on how it goes:

Going with Dhoulmagus 2 but I don't think it really matters.

Turn order is Ditto -> Arnaud -> Yuri1 -> Ricardo -> Rhapthorne -> Yuri2 -> Dhoulmagus

This came up a long while back, but Rhapthorne's speed is worse than the stat topic indicates - in-game setups will be using a Meteorite Armband on someone and stat-buff seeds, so Rhapthorne is definitely going after Yuri2.  Which is perversely bad for your team because that means R/D can stack their turns together, but Yuri's not from a system that allows free waiting a la FF4-9 and other teams get screwed on unfortunate turn orders too.  If there's no intervening healing turn, then your team has to either KO one of the bosses or tank the 4x MT Magic actions coming through.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Team Nephrite vs. Rhapthorne and Dhoulmagus - Yay, more people massively overrating worthless DQ8 bosses. Dhouly's MT is -trash-: 3HKO MT damage -once- you factor in the double-acts deserves mockery, and Rhaptorne's MT is very unfocus-friendly in-game, (heck, those meteors struggled to MT 2HKO after the doubles from my memory) which I'm plenty willing to punish in the Dungeon. That's before even getting into how Rhaptorne sucks at taking hits and gets 4HKOed by Neph's party -anyway-, and he's not outspeeding anything.

Unless I'm missing something according to the stat topic Dhoulmagus can do .62 PCHP MT damage a round which is way better than a 3HKO.

For starters, the average does look a bit low (HP seeds exist and they're not that rare, and I'd argue L29 at least is a better figure for Dhouly). Second, I'm not even sure either Dhoul -can- use different MT attacks twice per round, and all of his MT attacks have that annoying OPT limitation. He certainly seemed to not like spamming MT on me period, but that's a different issue. He -did- seem very shy on using two different MT offensive attacks in-game, regardless.

[dude789]

Team Nephrite vs. Rhapthorne and Dhoulmagus - Yay, more people massively overrating worthless DQ8 bosses. Dhouly's MT is -trash-: 3HKO MT damage -once- you factor in the double-acts deserves mockery, and Rhaptorne's MT is very unfocus-friendly in-game, (heck, those meteors struggled to MT 2HKO after the doubles from my memory) which I'm plenty willing to punish in the Dungeon. That's before even getting into how Rhaptorne sucks at taking hits and gets 4HKOed by Neph's party -anyway-, and he's not outspeeding anything.

Unless I'm missing something according to the stat topic Dhoulmagus can do .62 PCHP MT damage a round which is way better than a 3HKO.

For starters, the average does look a bit low (HP seeds exist and they're not that rare, and I'd argue L29 at least is a better figure for Dhouly). Second, I'm not even sure either Dhoul -can- use different MT attacks twice per round, and all of his MT attacks have that annoying OPT limitation. He certainly seemed to not like spamming MT on me period, but that's a different issue. He -did- seem very shy on using two different MT offensive attacks in-game, regardless.

He can, I'm playing through and he's at least doubled Kacrackle and Kasizzle together. I want to say he did one of those and Feathers as well at one point. Also I figure I should mention that Insulate does nothing the Sizz and Crack line of spells so if anyone plans on using Jessica keep that in mind.

[Magic Fanatic]

Also to note for Neph's team on the DQ8 fight, relevant resistances/weaknesses!

H.Dhoulmagus: 25% Ice (R)
D.Dhoulmagus: 50% Ice (R), 25% Wind (R), 25% Fire (R)

Ricardo: 25% Fire (R), 25% Ice/Water (W)
Arnaud: 50% Water (R) (only relevant if you see DQ8 spells running into one and the other, since I'm pretty sure WA4 has both Ice and Water).

If anything, the team forces a threat of putting up any kind of S.DEF increasing that must be dispelled, otherwise Rhapthorne and Dhoulmagus risk not killing the team through that much MDEF.

[SnowFire]

Jo'ou: I fought Dhoulmagus at lvl. 26 myself I believe (before Multiheal, at least) and my in-game respect for him is rather high.  HP seeds are a point I'd agree on though.

Magic Fanatic: I'd have a hard time seeing Arnaud survive, Yulie is the real magic tank of the cast.  Ricardo has a better chance, though dude's got a point about Sizz getting past fire resistance, maybe.  Checking on the buff argument...  huh, Sandalphon does have a MT Special Defense buffer (which, dur, Nephrite already posted but I missed since I saw the MT revive).  Okay, Neph might have a shot after all.  If the DQ8 bosses have to waste a turn on Wave of Ice, then it's more like ~.92 PCHP to everyone if Rhapthorne wants to save his next turn.  Not enough to flatten Arnaud & Ricardo, so Rhapthorne uses the Burst of Magic Power for ~1.32 PCHP....  which is probably still enough.  Looking it up SH1 Amon does have a S. Def boost but in a system with subtractive defense, a 17 point boost doesn't mean that much when endgame bosses have magic attacks for 200-300 damage.  And stat topic claims SH1 Yuri has 1.13 PCHP...  which sounds low to me, but even if I make it 1.20 PCHP and call it 1.25 PCHP thanks to the Magic defense, it still looks bad.  It is close though!  Since if the Yuris can tank it, Rhapthorne is basically out of commission next turn, which might give the Yuris time to rebuild with the MT revive / healing.

This is incidentally still assuming that there are no weird rules on when Rhapthorne can use "Burst of Magic Power."

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Magic Burst can only be used once per round. He has to spend the next action meditating.

[dude789]

Snowfire, you missunderstood me. Sizz spells still get stopped by fire resistance, it's just that Insulate has a very limited scope of use (good against the Ryus maybe). However there is a very good argument that the breath attacks bypass magic defense buffs and if that's the case then Nephrite is definately screwed because Cold Breath-Magic Burst-Arrows-Belching Fire is definately fatal for everyone.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

What good argument is that? That the breath doesn't hit Insulatle? That's pretty bad, not good, especially given how you stated yourself Insulatle is trash.

[dude789]

I did some quick testing and neither Magic Barrier nor Bounce stop or reduce the effects of breath attacks.
Edit: Also armour that reduces magic damage does nothing to breath attacks.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Bounce is irrelevant for the defense buff - it doesn't affect a stat. Magic Barrier specifically affects PC spells - all breaths do is have a different typing. And since DQ8 doesn't -have- a magic defense stat, I'd be very skeptical on allowing something that bypasses a typing rather than a stat make no check at all (breaths still ram into elemental resistances, for instance, so it's a blow against letting it bypass everything). It's akin to hyping Zeon's Demon Breath as ITD just because it has a fixed damage range. Guess what, every spell in ShF2 does as well because the game doesn't -have- a MDef stat. I see this situation as much like ShF2's.

[Dark Holy Elf]

According to the BMG, Magic Barrier most definitely does affect breath attacks. Note that they generally have a high range of variance and Magic Barrier is only a 20% reduction so you may not have noticed it.

Divine Intervention, similarly, works on breath attacks, increasing the damage they do by 20%. I'm not sure any enemies use this, but you can see it yourself with your monster team breath attacks.

These are the only two moves which modify "magic defence" in DQ8. (Wisdom does not affect it.)

[dude789]

I agree with you that breaths should not get a free pass on elemental resistances. However, it seems that the game goes out of its way to differentiate spells from breaths. They use entirely different buffs to weaken them (Insulate vs Magic Barrier) and shield and armour description are very exact in their descriptions. Some shields will say that they protect the wearer from Fire and Ice based attacks, some will say they protect the wearer from Fire and Ice based spells, and others say that they protect from both.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

It... doesn't matter, though, if Magic Barrier -does- affect breaths according to the mechanics, the argument is completely worthless.

[Dark Holy Elf]

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.