Black mages. . . .

[Brannigan]

To add to this. Why do the TP-based skills not necessarily increase in efficiency as you acquire them at higher levels. For example, why is fast blade still the best standalone special attack even though 10 levels later I receive flat blade? Why does Rage of Halone miss 3 out of the 5 blows on anything 1 level higher than me or above? This equates to a total amount of damage equivalent to like 2 regular melee attacks. Why does Riot blade miss 80% of the time? In other words, as I get stronger, why don't my skills show it? I just get a bunch of progessively suckier abilities.

Hi,

I'm assuming this post is serious here. Do you know how the combo system works? You use all of your weapon skills in this game. With a few exceptions, weapon skills should almost always be used in combos. Paladin, for example, has:

Fast Blade (front) > Flat Blade
Fast Blade (front) > Savage Blade > Goring Blade
Phalanx > Spirits Within
Riot Blade (rear) > Rage of Halone

Using Rage of Halone without first using Riot Blade from behind will result in misses. But, if you use Riot Blade from behind first, Rage of Halone will cost 0 TP and get a large accuracy boost. If your Riot Blade is missing 80% of the time then I would suggest you stop fighting things 20 levels above you, check your parser, or wear more accuracy gear.

Paladin's WSes are undeniably awesome. Phalanx and Savage Blade are probably the worst ones, but they're used in good combos so it evens out.

The reason individual attacks don't necessarily get stronger as you level (although they do - Riot Blade hits waaaaaaaaaay harder than 2 Fast Blades) is because they're not meant to be used outside of combos. When something is meant to be able to be used outside of a combo, it's usually pretty obvious. Steel Cyclone is the first one that comes to mind. It has the same TP cost as its combo starter (a cheap 1000) and stuns attackers even without a combo bonus.

This whole post will be irrelevant in 2 weeks so