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This is in response to some things said in the Relm thread, but I wanted to make it a seperate topic because it has nothing to do with Relm.

A few people have deemed runic to be a really useless ability. Personally, this last time through Celes was my favorite character in the game, and Runic was a big reason why.

I was just playing for fun, so my characters had high levels. In restrospect, maybe the magic that she runiced wouldn't have done much damage. But still, assuming it would have, or that I was a newb with no knowledge of elements, or I was playing a low level game, there were quite a few occasions where runic came in handy.

The first fight that comes to mind is Kefka in Narshe. If you have Cyan and Celes in your party, just have her runic and him use quadra slam. Use someone else to heal, and Kefka is nothing. The other two fights that come to mind are Wrexsoul and Atma. While fighting Wrexsoul, runic is a great way to drain his two sidekicks of all their MP, which makes offing one of your characters not too big of a deal. When Atma charges up in Kefka's tower, Celes can just runic Ultima. With that in mind, she could probably runic Ultima off of Brachosaur too (as I mentioned in the Relm post, I used control to beat him this time...but if memory serves me right he does use Ultima).

Anyway, there were plenty of other times where runic came in handy. If you know enough about the enemies and the elements I'm sure you could equip your party to the point where runic is useless. But for me, it was really useful in the game.

I don't remember too clearly, but I think Runic didn't affect spells that targetting the whole party. I could be wrong about that, though. Otherwise it's a VERY overlooked method of beating the magimaster on top of Kefka's cult tower...

I used Celes mainly because she was one of the four characters who could equip Atma Weapon, and thus cause a guaranteed 4x9999+ damage every turn once her level was high enough. I honestly can't say I've ever found a use for Runic, mainly because the damage enemies caused with spells could be healed after a few turns with a well-placed cure spell, whereas using Runic meant locking a character up every turn. Didn't seem advantageous enough to me to warrant cutting my damage per round down in the WoB...

Granted, Runic is definitely not worthless. If spells were anything more fearful, then it would be THE ability.

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

If I'm not mistaken Silverlance, can't you only use Item and Magic in the Cult of Kefka's tower? With the exception of Gogo who always has mimic. However, I never use Celes so I could be mistaken. If so there would probably be a lot more people who would highly suggest using Celes in that tower. Basic strategy would be Berserk one party member, runic. Battle over.

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This is my world: (Got my second chapter up, 3rd Chapter about 80% complete)
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Could be; I haven't played FF3e since doing that no-exp challenge, and that was quite a while ago.

And, it is confirmed, you can't.

I'm still not clear on area-effect spells like Ultima either way. I THINK I recall Celes absorbing WWind once, but I'm not sure...

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

Your not mistaken Rachthoh, Runic can't be used in the Fanatic's Tower, none of the other specials can be used either. If you cheat with Beserk you've got a makeshift fight command but then again not really.

As far as party attacking spells, I'm almost certain that if its a spell that normaly consumes MP, it is absorbed by Runic. Otherwise I'd have just Cast Runic, have Celes sit around doing nothing and have everybody else Ultima to death in my first playthrough. However, please note that I said almost, as in my memory is faulty if I haven't tried it in over a month.

Anyway, Runic isn't the best of moves you can do. The only real reason being that it absorbs your magic as well as the enemy's. Losing magic such as Cure 3, the ememental spells and Ultima is just too much Drawback for this ability to be of use to most players.

However, used properly it can have its uses, you've just got to know how to work with it. Heal Rods, Genji Glove Offering and of course judicious Item usage are all good work arounds. There are probably others too but those are some good examples.

Here's a tip for FF VI newbies, if you use Runic once, you don't need to use it again untill it absorbs a spell or you use a different command. In fact, if you're just going to keep Celes in Runic mode, I reccomend that you don't reselect Runic as it wastes a turn. Not to mention that re-selecting Runic causes it to stop working untill its recast That. sucks, doesn't it?

However, for casual play or Magic users, Runic doesn't realy cut it. Only when you're intentionaly making it useful is where it realy shines. However, I can guess that the same can be said of all of the abilities to a certain extent.

Hmm, I wonder what would happen if I used a Golem/Runic combo (Golem cast first of course.). It sounds like a killer defense to me, I should try that sometime.

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Role reversal at its finest.

I actually find it pretty handy, especially since I've played it so many times I know what to expect from the bosses/enemies. If you know all they're going to do is cast magic, you've got a free defense against it and it REFILLS Celes' MP. Not too shabby. If you're playing a low level game it's invaluable, and if you're running low on MP and don't have Psych then it's nice also.

Far I know, Celes can runic Ultima,Tek laser, S.cross and N.cross.....very useful skill if you ask me.

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"Its no cheating if you don't get caught"

It's a useful skill, but it's easy to get by without using it except for against Tunnel Armour. And even then you don't need it.

It's a skill I can see the use of and I know could make battles fly by, but it takes up a turn. Though I may mess about with it at a later date (and wang it on Gogo. I don't like Celes much) it's just not necessart for me.

Anyway, what's next? A 'How do You Feel About Strago?' thread? I say we work through the entire cast. I may just go make the Umaro topic now.

Quote (Mimic @ 9th February 2005 10:31)

Anyway, what's next? A 'How do You Feel About Strago?' thread? I say we work through the entire cast. I may just go make the Umaro topic now.

Point taken, but the topic isn't Celes, it's Runic. I like Celes as a character, but wanted to focus specifically on her ability.

And no, you can't use Runic in the Fanatic's Tower. But speaking of Umaro, he's someone you'll want to bring for that board. Forget Blizzard Orb though. Rage Ring and Gauntlet. He will demolish all the enemies with physical attacks.

Absorbing some spells is never a bad thing, but there's downsides to consider:

You sacrifice a character who could otherwise be doing damage/healing/supporting.
If more then one spell comes your way, you absorb only one.

Fights that Celes, IMO, is more useful as a Runic user then anything else (I'll let Gogo slide, as he can be infinately more useful without Runic):

TunnelArmr, Narshe Kefka, Dullahan, Atma (for Ultima, but you shouldn't need to see it anyway), Final Kefka (During the period he counters with HyperDrive) and that's pretty much it. If you want to protect against spells, you can always wear Wall Rings, and those spells that are significantly dangerous which aren't reflectable are very rare.

In short, Runic, like Sketch is a skill best used for a select few fights. It's an interesting concept, sure, but not that great.




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The Collapse of Heaven and Earth