Yeah, Hydrosophist is the main healing magic branch, while Necromancy is the indirect 'lifesteal/heal by inflicting damage' branch. IIRC leveling Hydrosophist also increases the potency of direct healing spells, while leveling Necromancy increases the amount of lifesteal. You've probably noticed by now that Hydrosophist/Aeroteurge (more support/crowd control-oriented) and Pyromancer/Geomancy (more damage-oriented) combo very well together, but mixing any combination of elements other than those two might have mixed results (especially since things like the wet/frozen status effect lowers damage inflicted from fire spells and vice-versa for warm/burning).
Ironically, since most Necromancy spells are considered physical damage, leveling Warfare also boosts Necromancy damage. EVERYONE utilizing physical damage wants to level Warfare, including archers, even if they have no use for the majority of the skills.
The end of act 1 fight is considered one of the hardest fights in the game, and I think my easiest run of that on Tactician with a more traditional party setup (as in, not going all in on stacking either magical or physical damage, utilizing a 2-2 spread instead) was when I had a Hydrosophist/Aeroteurge-focused mage and a Necromancy/Hydrosophist/Summoner-focused mage. The enemy AI really doesn't know what to do when half the floor is frozen or electrocuted. They are generally far more willing to walk through fire or oil, but prioritizes avoiding ice or electrified surfaces due to their potential in outright canceling turns.
(I usually specced Fane as a Necromancy/Hydrosophist/Summoner mage, though the Hydrosophist is usually to support my actual Hydrosophist/Aeroteurge mage in crowd control, and summons provide even further support in that department. I tend to have him wielding a shield and wand, which makes him rather tanky, and would give him enough points in Warfare to learn Battle Stomp or whatever that AoE knockdown move was along with Shield Toss and Phoenix Dive. The power of Shield Toss actually scales off of your shield's armor amount most of all. He won't do much damage attacking with that wand, but it's more of a field effect manipulator and stat stick late-game. Battle Stomp doesn't do much damage with this build, but it still knocks down anyone without armor.)
IIRC there was a chart floating around years ago in which people calculated that Aeroteurge spells on average actually inflicted the most magic damage of all elemental types per AP spent, but there are less offensive Aeroteurge spells and some are conditional/more difficult to use without getting your allies caught in the crossfire. A lot of the calculation was also skewed by that 1 AP spell (Pressure Spike, from Act 2 onwards) that additionally turns cloud effects into surfaces, and it also does quite a lot of damage for a 1 AP ability. It's also one of the very few large AoE spells that doesn't have friendly fire.
Last edited by Saito Hikari; 31/07/22 07:41 PM.
