Skillchains

[Yinnyth]

The problem with skillchains goes much deeper than skillchains simply not producing much damage. Hell, skillchains can produce MASSIVE damage currently under the right circumstances, but those circumstances are so few and far between that the overbearing tactic is simply to burn TP everytime you hit 100 no matter what. The problems include:

1). At the higher levels of gameplay, TP gain is enormous. Double march, haste, SAM roll, and various pieces of store TP gear, and if you even attempt to coordinate a SC, everyone's TP will be capped at 300 long before they know the other players are paying attention and ready for the skillchain and magic burst. Proposed fix: Increase the maximum TP, force more powerful weaponskills to require a higher starting TP, and/or vastly increase the effect that higher TP has on weaponskills.

2). Skillchains are only as powerful as the weaponskill which closes the skillchain, which means it's really only worth doing a skillchain if you can close the skillchain with a powerful weaponskill. Powerful weaponskills are few and far between- there are always dominant WSs for each weapon which blow the other WSs out of the water in terms of damage. This puts ridiculous restrictions on your ability to create useful skillchains (except for extremely higher levels of gameplay where everyone in your party has an empyrean weapon which, for the most part, all have strong WSs that are really easy to SC with). When deciding on skillchains, the conversation usually turns to "Ok, this is our most powerful weaponskill, so we'll close with it, and you have to use a weak, gimpy weaponskill to open the skillchain." Eventually people just figured out they could all do more damage by using their most powerful weaponskills and ignoring skillchains. Proposed solution: Revisit all the underused weaponskills and make them more closely match the damage potential of that one weaponskill everyone with that weapon just tends to spam. Furthermore, add more higher level doppelganger weaponskills which are stronger than their lower level versions but keep the same skillchain properties. Wasp sting >> viper bite >> miasmic stab, for example.

3). Magic bursts are nearly worthless. First of all, unless the creature outright dies from the magic burst, you're building enormous hate on your most delicate party members. Second, the damage gained from setting up a magic burst is negligible, especially considering the amount of refresh that mages are capable of achieving now. It's simply better for everyone to spam all willy nilly. Proposed fix: Remove the "damage growth" from magic bursting on longer skillchains and set a fixed bonus to magic burst damage of 150%. Furthermore, reduce the enmity generated via magic burst damage.

4). Skillchains can be, and too frequently are resisted. That's ridiculous and there's really nothing the player can do to decrease the chances of their skillchain getting pwnt by random chance. Proposed fix: It's my opinion that skillchains-- and elemental weaponskills for that matter-- should have a magic accuracy based on the players skill with the weapon, and the attribute modifiers of the weaponskill. This means you could improve the magic accuracy of a skillchain ending in dancing edge by equipping more CHR equipment, and you could increase the magic accuracy of red lotus blade by increasing your sword skill or equipping more STR or INT gear.

5). Recent NMs are capable of absorbing damage at various periods of time, Glavoid being one of the worst skillchain killers. Not only does he simply absorb skillchain damage while he's casting, but he casts frequently and randomly, he increases the damage of anything he absorbs beyond its normal damage potential, he gains a stoneskin effect proportional to any healing he receives, and his Disgorge damage is supposedly increased by any absorbed damage. For these reasons, skillchains are a big taboo on Glavoid and many other NMs under most circumstances. Proposed fix: Make skillchain damage impossible to absorb except for special cases such as perhaps Shinryu.

Other thoughts:

-Add more tactical benefits to skillchains and magic bursts, such as adding newer, more powerful spells/JAs which can inflict devastatingly strong status effects but but have a 0% chance of working unless bursted on the appropriate skillchain (doom, terror, plague, mute, amnesia, stop, charm, curse, demi, stun II).

-Increase the potency of debuffs which land as a magic burst. For example, double the attribute penalty of elemental debuffs (burn, shock, etc) and absorb spells when they land as a magic burst.

-COSMIC ELUCIDATION