Found a use for Ancient Magic spell (finally)

I found a reasonably viable use for Ancient Magic today. It's fairly niche, but it's a start :D

Here it is:
Used when soloing enemies. In this example I used Tornado.

1. Stand close enough to enemy to use Spirit Dart, but out of aggro range.
2. Cast Tornado on self.
3. Cast Spirit Dart on enemy. (this could be Choke II if in range)
4. Begin regular chains of Choke II, Aero, Aero II.
5. By the time Tornado activates, enemy will be in range and take Tornado damage.

Essentially Ancient Magic lets you "pre-load" damage. The casting time doesn't matter, since it's done before combat begins. The MP cost is high, but for fighting single enemies is not critical. The time delay is actually GOOD, since it allows time for the enemy to approach within range.

Alternately, it can be cast on the main tank, who then pulls. Unfortunately, the caster of the AM spell still receives all of the enmity for the spell damage.

Regarding enmity, I'd like to propose that some of the enmity from the activation of an Ancient Magic spell be received by the target (if a player) of the spell. This would make the spell IMMENSELY useful, as a way to generate more enmity on the tank, while avoiding generating it on yourself.

Perhaps having ALL enmity from the damage dealt register to the (player) target would be too overpowered, but splitting it might not be. Currently this is not the case, but I'm hoping that SE would take this into consideration.

Very intriguing ...

How much enmity does it generate? Some testing with Accomplice is in order, I believe.

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Originally Posted by origamikitsune

How much enmity does it generate? Some testing with Accomplice is in order, I believe.

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Enmity generated is the same for all other damaging actions : 1 point of enmity for every point of damage dealt. (I presume)

We tested this by having a MRD proximity aggro an enemy (so zero enmity generated). This results in my not having an enmity icon still (no actions taken, so no enmity at all). I cast Freeze on the MRD, and still have no enmity icon. After the freeze activated (~900 damage for these enemies), I went immediately to red-flashy icon. Given the number of auto-attacks and taunts that the MRD then had to execute, it appeared that all 900 points of enmity were accrued by me, the CON.

Ya, I have kind of done this but... I dunno I still don't like it, hopefully if/when they add blackmage I get my "BIG BADDA BOOM" fix, cuz these don't do it for me lol. *twitch, twitch*

Done this before , not always practical in a party since the tank needs move up to an enemy (hard for him to always keep hate now)
the target (you/tank) will have to be in the location when you casted the spell as well ...

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Originally Posted by Sylkis

Done this before , not always practical in a party since the tank needs move up to an enemy (hard for him to always keep hate now)
the target (you/tank) will have to be in the location when you casted the spell as well ...

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I agree completely that they don't have much use in a party situation. Marginal utility in a duoing situation.

However, would you agree that they would be incredibly useful if the player targetted received all of the enmity from the damage? Would make a great way to (a) apply damage (b) add more enmity to main tank. Thoughts?

Have any of you actually tried this? Because for the actual spell to finalize, it has to be originally casted on an unfriendly target.

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Originally Posted by Actus

Have any of you actually tried this? Because for the actual spell to finalize, it has to be originally casted on an unfriendly target.

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I have done, this on many occasions. I've had an ancient magic spell trigger both when cast on another party member or on myself. I believe that it's still the case that the target cannot move very far after casting, or the ancient magic spell will fail to trigger.

However, if you cast on yourself or another party member, and then pull the enemy to you or party member, the spell will later trigger (after about 15 seconds) and the enemy will take damage.

Oh cool! At least I have something to look forward to with the Anicent Magic spells...

That's been the only conceivable use for it since the game's inception... not like it's anything new. The problem is that the effects are lackluster and the damage is laughable for 100MP cost. So it's utterly a waste of space.