I have to say that I'm not really enjoying this whole Salvage thing. The entire premise seemed fun at first, but the fact we haven't seen anything worthwhile and our consistent failures to the mega boss have been incredibly disheartening for me. Every time I finish Salvage, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
Sure, many of you have said, "Well, that's Salvage for you," and "It's not that bad." But, for me, it's just frustrating.
After pondering on the entire situation, I've started to wonder if my utter disdain for Salvage is based on being pigeonholed on Scholar the entire time. Now, I'm sure many of you are ready to reply with, "But we have to come on what's needed!" and I understand this. Salvage has pushed my Scholar abilities to the limit. In some ways, I enjoy this stress. It is the ultimate test. In Salvage, I see myself weaving throughout the arts (and their respective addendum). But, after a while, the weakness of scholar rears its ugly head. It is true that scholars are incredibly adaptive to their environments. Our job is to adapt to the situation at hand. As I like to quote from Aladdin, Scholar's have phenomenal cosmic power (their huge spell library, stratagems), but suffer from itty bitty living space (recast timers). And that is where my frustration comes in. For example, in the Bhaflau Remnants, the gears that weaken the boss's homing missile must be defeated within 60 seconds. Of course, to maximize damage, I jump to Dark Arts, ready to magic burst. But suddenly, someone takes a lot of damage, so I must jump back to Light Arts to take care of this. Now, both of my arts timers are down and, depending on the situation, I've wasted up to three stratagem charges (Addendum: White, Addendum: Black, Ebullience/Parsimony). On top of this, I can no longer magic burst, which is less damage against the gear. Having a gear warp out at 1% HP because I had to temporarily abandon Dark Arts for healing magic makes me feel awful because that magic burst would have made all the difference in the world.
TL;DR Salvage sucks.
I'm probably taking advantage of you being there and slacking on cures. I'll work on that.
ReplyDeleteAye, I know all too well what being SCH means in Salvage. Even though it's pretty limited to doing Arrapago.
ReplyDeleteIt is a test. However, seeing as you become the appointed cure bitch, you have absolutely every right to rein in everyone else. For example, if I see any of our melees consistently melee a mob with Ice Spikes up before I even get a chance to Dispel it, they are going to have a real problem. (They have since become much better at it. :P) >>;
As for the gears example, go right ahead and stick to Dark Arts. Although curing in the dark side is not particularly good in the long run, if you need to kill things ASAP, just stick it out. As far as I recall, you only kill one gear at a time, so if worst comes to worst, you can heal most of that lost MP back once it's dead where time isn't (as much of) an issue.
A SCH has to be much more shrewd in Salvage. I'm not saying don't disregard the others, but if you absolutely know that your next action will have a slightly better outcome than skimping on a cure every now and then, just do it!
Don't worry. The stigma we attach to you-know-who Arts is because of his blatant rigidity in a strategical approach, not because you should prioritise Light Arts above anything else. After all, curing is only MP. Nuking is MP, skill, and damage.
Sorry, long comment but I feel qualified to say these things. >>; lol
Addendum: Comment.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to emphasise leading everyone else! I imagine you go with most of the others and, thus, you are not the sole healer. You are adapt in both sides of magic. Report where your strengths are going to be for the strat and ensure others cover your weaknesses.
You are, after all, wearing the symbol of the angry schoolteacher telling all the kids to get in line.
Ha.