#BD1 can be a bit of a slot at times though especially with the bad grinding spots

[ninesnowfang]

Ramble about Bravely Default's offensive spells and why they're bad and how Bravely Second made it amazing

first of all i'm gonna mention that i will default to BD for bravely default and BS for bravely second in this, BD2 isn't gonna be mentioned much if at all. I will also note that this is mostly stated for boss encounters since regular encounters are so easy it barely matters what you use, any sort of AoE spammed enough will clear the encounter, This will also talk about Hard mode being the played difficulty (normal and especially casual mode you can literally run whatever and it'll work) BD has probably the worst magic in any "final fantasy" style RPG i've ever played, it's very strong SUPER early on (aka once you get it) and no further than the first optional asterisk holder it's already becoming so weak comparitively to the sheer damage output that thief and its massive agility stat lets you do, this is partially because of bosses not having many elemental weaknesses to exploit and also because rods don't give magic attack via proficiency, a Brawler and a Black Mage will get the exact same amount of magic attack from the same rod which holds back magic starting late Florem or early Eisen. It's also held back by Spell Fencer taking away what COULD be its niche, having elemental variety to exploit any and all weaknesses if a boss DOES have them (mostly crystal bosses). By the time you get Hunter especially there's no longer much reason to use magic at all offensively thanks to hawkeye taking away the one issue physical attacks could have, that being the chance of missing or whiffing to many hits, doubly so once you get the strongest class in the game aka Ninja. Lastly the amount of JP needed as well as magical damage support being incredibly scarce as the game goes on compared to physical support (merchant's crit boost, quick, agility boosting equipment and ofc spellblade) just makes it an awful feel to use it compared to mowing down enemies with pyhsical damage. Then comes BS and your literal first asterisk you get is wizard with the glorious Spellcraft ability, Spellcraft lets you change your spells with different properties, need a priority spell that does 1.5x its original damage/heal? level 2 of the class which you reasonably get before the bella/cu fight where you really want those lightning darts, enemy magic defense too high? at level 4 you get spellcraft: hammer which deals PHYSICAL damage based on your magic attack, it can also crit for double damage, the same spellcraft level also gives you mist which keeps the spell on the side you cast it on for a few turns, this can be used with healing spells or even REVIVES, the next spellcraft tier includes wall, a counter that casts the spell after getting hit by a physical attack and blast which turns the spell used into an AoE and boosts the effect of it. So yeah Wizards give you a massive utility boost right out of the start with any caster you get… and it somehow also has the highest intelligence stat in the game + the now SCALING magic attack rods which lets you use magic offensively throughout the game… especially with the last spellcraft tier where you get spellcraft: Rain, changing the spell to be cast four times with no effect boost besides that.

This works with meteor and every hit does capped out damage and with the right setup you can do this 14 times per full brave turn, that is 56 capped damage hits which no boss in the game can survive. But it costs a ton of MP so unless there's a simple way to take care of that you really won't be able to spam it...

thankfully MP free in a pinch + ghost status turns these frail glass canons into a zero risk maximum reward team setup that obliterates the entire game and you can get that setup going at around 60% of the game being complete. Now how does physical stack up to that? well, magic is far easier to use in BS but physical builds have a lot of neat new tools too, fencer in particular is such a good class that it's worth using as a sortof hybrid tank and DPS or main DPS. thanks to spellcraft on Supportive magic like keeping up buffs every turn, immediately rebuffing someone with dart after they were just revived it doesn't really matter what kind of build you go for, hell use both magic and physical in the same team it's ABSOLUTELY viable in this game because Bravely Second is probably the most free "just go nuts it'll work somehow" class based RPG i've ever played and that's likely going to stay that way

On that note just to have it mentioned, BD2 also has good class balance as long as you ignore beast tamer and freelancer overshadowing the other classes as main jobs due to sheer stats, the game also has a good mix of phys and magic balance so it's another sorta "just use whatever lol" game, but not to the degree of BS

#bravely second #bravely default #whoops made it too long again oh well #all three games slap btw you should play them if given the chance #BD1 can be a bit of a slot at times though especially with the bad grinding spots