Esuna Confusion

Did a quick search and I didn't see anything about it, so with any luck some of the more experienced healers out there can help. Esuna's description says it removes detrimental effects, but it doesn't seem to remove any and all negative effects on party members. To me, "detrimental effects" are any nasty effects on party members we can see in the party window; however, that doesn't seem to be the way it's intended...perhaps I'm just misinterpreting it...

My question...what will it remove and what does it not work on? "Detrimental effects" seems like a vague term so I was hoping someone could spell it out in not so uncertain terms.

It should work on most things except the Brink of Death type of effects, terrain based effects such as the swamps in Totorak, or standing in pits of fire. I'm uncertain yet, but I'm not sure if it can remove a molbol's pollen poisonous effect either.

But things like Slow, Silence, Pacification, Physical Vulnerability Up, Magic Vulnerability Up, Blind, Poison, Heavy, Bind, and the like.

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Originally Posted by Imakles

Did a quick search and I didn't see anything about it, so with any luck some of the more experienced healers out there can help. Esuna's description says it removes detrimental effects, but it doesn't seem to remove any and all negative effects on party members. To me, "detrimental effects" are any nasty effects on party members we can see in the party window; however, that doesn't seem to be the way it's intended...perhaps I'm just misinterpreting it...

My question...what will it remove and what does it not work on? "Detrimental effects" seems like a vague term so I was hoping someone could spell it out in not so uncertain terms.

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It will remove the vast majority of debuffs. There are a couple of fights which use debuffs as a main part of the mechanic which can't be removed by Esuna, and usually require another tactic to be removed (interacting with an item in the fight for example). Esuna also won't remove the Raise/Resurrection weakness. There isn't really that much it won't remove in the grand scheme of things.

I can say from experience it removes: poison, slow, and bind. I'm only level 30, so I haven't seen anything else it works on yet.

In Haukke Manor, the Maidens/Boss use a Terror ability. Esuna does NOT work on Terror. Please alert your party that you can't remove it, many people stay in the blast radius and become useless for 5-10 seconds.

I don't know if it's coincidence of the timer but it seems that some damage over time debuffs can be removed as well like fire damage and ice damage over time that I saw in Stone Vigil.

Esuna takes off just about everything, the problem I have with it is that it's one debuff at a time, and there's no enhanced trait or anything to make that easier after ohhhh a Malboro? -_- I know there are a few things that are immune to it, and certain versions of things that would normally be removed that are also immune, like from specific bosses.

Esuna has always been a spell in other Final Fantasy games that removes all status effects.

In this game, removes one debuff. Save for stuff like standing in acid or debuffs from getting rezzed.

Esuna won't remove petrification either, but I've only seen that status effect in a guildhest so far.

The only things I have seen that can't be removed as mentioned already are the AOE stuns from the Maidens in Haukke Manor and petrification. Everything else can be removed.
It only removes One effect per cast though.

Esuna can remove everything that is not Curse and Petrified. Terror = Curse, as well as Doom.

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Originally Posted by Aedra

Esuna can remove everything that is not Curse and Petrified. Terror = Curse, as well as Doom.

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Believe this was mentioned in another thread, and seems to be accurate. Esuna is a quick enough cast time that I'd say when in doubt, cast it anyway.

This is probably bad advice, but just from what I can remember off the top of my head:

If the debuff doesn't have a red tag for it's icon, it can't be removed by Esuna. So things like Slow, Poison, Silence, Bind, Weight, Blind, etc. which all have a red tag for their icon all can be removed, but things like Weakness, Brink of Death, and Terror, which do not have a red tag for their icon (I think it's black), cannot.

Another thing you can do is got get yourself hit by a Malboro's Bad Breath attack. Everything it hits you with can be removed by Esuna.

I actually don't mind the one debuff removal at a time, if you could remove everything with one Esuna then things like the Malboro breath would become absolutely trivial and boring.

In a caste like bad breath where there are multiple debuffs, how does it prioritize what to remove? Is it a set order?

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Originally Posted by Gags

I actually don't mind the one debuff removal at a time, if you could remove everything with one Esuna then things like the Malboro breath would become absolutely trivial and boring.

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I'd mind it a lot less if similar effect types didn't stack as separate casts -- see the Ochus in Toto-Rak as an example. If you're in range of three poisoning Ochus, you get three separate stacks of poison. If the rest of the party is melee, and you wanted to clear this with Esuna, you'd have to find time for 9 casts.

At that point Esuna has no value; it's more mana efficient to heal through the ticks.

But how are parties to deal with this over the game's duration? Is alchemy for potions going to be the way forward for melee players?

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Originally Posted by Bridgeburner

I'd mind it a lot less if similar effect types didn't stack as separate casts -- see the Ochus in Toto-Rak as an example. If you're in range of three poisoning Ochus, you get three separate stacks of poison. If the rest of the party is melee, and you wanted to clear this with Esuna, you'd have to find time for 9 casts.

At that point Esuna has no value; it's more mana efficient to heal through the ticks.

But how are parties to deal with this over the game's duration? Is alchemy for potions going to be the way forward for melee players?

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Besides that example you've given I'm yet to see the same type of thing happen anywhere else. The only other time where you'll see multiple debuffs on a target is a malboro breath, which they should be avoiding anyway.

Most fights typically have 1 at max 2 debuffs that can be dispelled, so it's not really a major problem.