Blame yourself or God! Let's Play Final Fantasy Tactics!

Welcome back! Today, I completely forget how the story unfolds! Igros Castle ahoy!



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(Scene: Ramza heads into Igros Castle to confront his brother Dycedarg over the information
that Meliadoul gave him. He will be uniting with his brothers for the last time...)

(Doubtful Atmosphere)

(Ramza walks over to the chocobo.)

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(Scene: Zalbag confronts his brother Dycedarg in a fury, but
is his rage enough to fight one who holds a Zodiac stone?)

(Battle on the Bridge)

Dycedarg: You mean Duke Larg? He'd have died anyway! Think about it. He couldn't
even fight without relying on others for help!

Zalbag: I'llnever forgive that. Why him? Why'd you have to kill him? (sic)

Zalbag: Why, brother!? Why did you kill father!?

(The door behind Zalbag bursts open.)

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Hey Talking Time! What is utterly wrong with the victory condition?

This is a pretty easy fight, even if I forgot half of it. Knights are meaty (with high HP and shields), but their complete
lack of range (and you're probable excess of it by this point) makes them pretty weak. The only thing to worry about
with them is their Break skills. It sucks to lose a Genji Helm because of dumb luck. Killing the Knights are completely
optional, as only taking Dycedarg down to zero hitpoints is the only requirement to progress.

Also, it's this point in the game where the editing really took a sharp turn. I mean, sharper than it was before. You can
consider anything above or below to be an accurate transcription.


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Zalbag: Our brother's started a war and killed Larg to satisfy his own ambition! This is a disgraceful and cannot be forgiven!

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Dycedarg is essentially a combination of Agrais and Meliadoul, being able to use both their skills (although not any Dark
Knight skills like Orlandu). He's packing all of the Holy Sword and Mighty Sword skills, but he'll usually stick with Stasis
Sword, Lightning Stab, and Holy Explosion (I've seen Shellbust Stab too). None of them are that dangerous (although
they are powerful) as long as you spread your units out. Like most special units, he's immune to everything fun except
Slow. Dycedarg is using a Defender Sword which you can steal if you want, but it's certainly not necessary.

Zalbag is going to be focused on swinging at Dycedarg, which (unlike most guests) is pretty helpful. You don't need to
worry too much about him; Dycedarg mostly ignores him in favour of targeting Ramza or groups of units. Zalbag usually
has Auto-Potion too (although not the Brave for it to be too reliable), although this time he spawned with Gilgame
Heart (which is bloody useless). You can focus on either taking out the Knights (for crystals) or Dycedarg (for winning).


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Dycedarg: The powerful must rule the powerless ones! It's our duty! Even the once
mighty Royal Family has fallen and lost their power! It's only natural for us to take
their place! It's the right way to use our power!! Why can't you understand!?

Zalbag: The Beoulve name is only for the brave! You aren't worthy of it, Brother!

Dycedarg: You think such pretty ideals can govern the people!? Why are you able
to use that sword? Why do you think the people call you a hero?

Dycedarg: You should be thanking me, not despising me!!

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Please indulge me as I delve into a bit of my personal experience with video games. I'll let the screenshots talk for
themselves, while I talk about one of the more intriguing (and underused) aspects for Final Fantasy Tactics: the
setting.

Ivalice is the brainchild of Yasumi Matsuno, who (for obvious reasons) has had a hand in most of the games that star
Ivalice, the exceptions being the quasi-sequel to FFXII, Revenant Wings and Final Fantasy Tactics A2. None of the
games (save the sequels) share much of a connection story wise, but the setting developed in Final Fantasy Tactics
Advance introduced a lot of new races, which is perhaps the biggest connection between the various games. Final
Fantasy Tactics, perhaps because it was the first, is really the weakest link between the various games, since not
even Moogles are present.

Ivalice in FFT is presented as a Kingdom, but in the games that follow it Ivalice is more of a geographic area instead.
No map (to my knowledge) exists which can accurately place the setting of each game, and they all tend to be
contained in separate parts of whatever “Ivalice” represents.



The Ivalice setting has been used in the following games, and roughly in this 'timeline':

• Final Fantasy XII
• Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
• Final Fantasy A2: Grimoire of the Rift
• Final Fantasy Tactics
• Vagrant Story
• Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

There is also the "Ivalice Alliance" which was Akitoshi Kawazu's brainchild. The "alliance" is mostly spin-offs and
remakes, such as Revenant Wings, The FFT War of the Lions port, Final Fantasy A2: Grimoire of the Rift, and the
International version of FFXII. Finally, there is one mini game (Dive II Hunt: the Adventures of Sorbet, which is a flash
minigame I think) and an upcoming sequel of sorts to FFXII that is codenamed "Fortress", which appears to be some
sort of action game.





Final Fantasy Tactics (Playstation, 1997/1998)

Hey, I recognize this game...

Time wise, FFT takes place about 1300 years after the events of Final Fantasy XII; About a hundred years after the
events of FFXII, some catastrophe hits and wipes out most of civilization as they know it. All the other races that were
introduced in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and beyond disappear (or rather, they weren't invented proper back in
1997). Those ruins that Mustadio and his pops were digging up are likely relics of the FFXII Ivalice, although I've got
to say that I'm disappointed there were no Worker 8 like constructs in FFXII.

Also, Magical Guns didn't work like they do in this game, but we'll forgive that.





Vagrant Story (Playstation, 2000)

Did I tell you I got a copy of Vagrant Story for winning a Gaming Intelligence Agency contest? (The answer is: "more
times than you should have Eddie").

Vagrant Story is kind of a self-contained story in the land of Ivalice. There is not too many connections between
Vagrant Story and FFT, the majority of them being items you can find that relate to characters from FFT. For example,
you can find gemstones that contain locks of Beowulf’s hair and pieces of Orlandu’s bones (named "Beowulf" and
"Orlandu" respectfully). You can also find a necklace called “Agrais’s Balm,” amongst other items. Final Fantasy XII did
the most to connect Vagrant Story to Ivalice, actually mentioning the country Vagrant Story takes place in, Valendia
(absorbed by the Arcadian Empire in FFXII). Political stuff be going down and Ashley Riot, a Riskbreaker, is sent in to
quell a cult under the charismatic Sydney Losstarot. The story has some parallels to Final Fantasy Tactic's and, while it
(like FFT) gets kind of confusing towards the end, its got a very satisfying ending.

(Well, I think FFT has a satisfying ending. I await the discussion of it!)

Vagrant Story is somewhat famous for getting a perfect 40/40 in Famitsu. I don’t think it’s a perfect game, but it
blends its RPG and action game elements pretty well. There’s a lot of stats for someone like me to delve into, and while
there’s a steep learning curve the game is actually pretty easy once you get the hang of its system.



Perhaps it’s most notable feature is that the localization it received was absolutely fantastic. Sure, the flowery faux old
English speech didn’t impress everyone, but it was extremely obvious that Alexander O. Smith (the guy responsible) put
a lot of work into it. He’s since worked on quite an impressive resume of games, including Final Fantasy IX, X, XII,
Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and recently Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together. Still,
Vagrant Story remains notable particularly because a lot of the Squaresoft games (notably Final Fantasy Tactics, but
also Final Fantasy 7) weren’t exactly praised for their English scripts. Final Fantasy VIII (which Smith also worked on) is
probably the turning point in regards to Square’s efforts to improve their localization, but the mess that was the
endgame plot probably overshadowed the localization effort. Vagrant Story’s archaic English was, in contrast, in your
face: you couldn’t help being impressed by it. Overall, Vagrant Story was an excellent game, that really deserves a
sequel or remake (also: perhaps simplifying combat/increasing the inventory space a little).

Also? Ashley Riot is pretty kick ass. Perhaps even a bad-ass? For evidence: the cold intro and the first 10 minutes or so
of gameplay. Vagrant Story was pretty for a Playstation game, and its music was pretty atmospheric. I think the 2nd
movie points out some of the problems with combat, so I'll leave it at that.



Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (Gameboy Advance, 2003)

I remember when I heard Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was announced, I told myself “Ed, if FFTA is half the game the
original Final Fantasy Tactics is, you’ll love it.”

Of course, now that I’m older, I recognize that if one scored a game at 90% and then asked for a game that was half
as good, one would probably get a game that was not 70, or 80%, but 45%. That isn’t to say that I thought FFTA was
trash, just simply that it was extremely underwhelming. Understanding this, I believe, requires understanding both what
I like about games, and how FFTA differs from the PSX original.

I like games that are constantly rewarding me. It doesn’t need to be ‘big payoffs’ or anything. Even small incremental
rewards do a good job of keeping me interested (see: World of Warcraft). Final Fantasy Tactics awards both XP and JP
for doing dang near anything, making every move and ability further your character skill advancement. This sometimes
leads to a lot of Yellow Chocobos being abused and party members getting rocks tossed at each other... but you know,
that's a pretty good carrot to taunt players with!



FFT Advance meanwhile, only awards AP at the end of a battle. With the AP rewarded per battle, you can sometimes
be looking at doing 3 or 4 fights to master a particular skill. This is boring to me. Yes, I understand that I just said that
“sitting around for 20 minutes hitting and healing yourself is more interesting than spending 20 minutes fighting random
battles” but it’s true! I get immediate, tangible benefits for each action I take in FFT. Not so in FFTA.

Furthering my problems with FFTA: the law system is pretty lame (not annoying, just lame), there are huge imbalances
between races (Viera? Awesome. Bangaa? Not so much), a lot of the quests are really boring, and the AI is dumb as
hammers. That’s not to say there isn’t some improvements! Being able to see the map and spawn location before
selecting your team is a welcome change, and having race choices other than ‘human’ is awesome. And, as much as I
sort of described it as a “45%” game, it isn’t that bad. And you know, as much as people can point to Viera Assassins
for being ridiculously good, they're still not Calculator broken.

But the way the game is? It’s just kind of mediocre for my playstyle.

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Dycedarg: Ivalice would've been ours, the Beoulve's... You fools...

(The Pervert)

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Final Fantasy XII (Playstation 2, 2006)

There's a joke that most Final Fantasy games are pretty much Star Wars, and there are many parallels between XII and
the beloved trilogy. Sakimoto et. al's music could fit in nicely with John Williams' score, and hey, it's small team of
rebels against an empire.

The twelfth entry in the series is the main line is (timeline wise) the first look into Ivalice. There's certainly a lot of
history you can explore in the game (particularly involving the Espers, most of whom made their first appearance in
Final Fantasy Tactics), and is probably the most fleshed out "Ivalice" they you see in any of the games. The Viera and
Bangaa were introduced about three years earlier in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, but two new races (A race of
portly pig men named the Seeq, and tiger looking people named Revgaji) were added in here.



FFXII was a real leap from Final Fantasy X (let's put aside FFXI due to its online nature). Changing the combat from a
turn-based (or active-turn based as per most post-FF4 games) to a sort of real-time pre-programmed system was a
bold direction that alienated quite a few players. To be fair to the people who disliked it, not everything works. The
camera can be a real pain, magic sometimes slows action to a halt, and the 'limit breaks' (Quickenings) manage to be
overpowered in the early game and near worthless in the late. But for all of that, there's kind of a beauty when you
manage to finally get that damn MP < 10% Gambit and really start exploring the possibilities of the combat system.

And this game is huge. The game gives you a lot of freedom to run around (as long as you can handle the enemies),
allowing you to craft items that are way beyond what you could get in a normal playthrough. You can spend half your
playtime chasing dangerous monsters, collecting loot, and, uh, fishing. I would not envy anyone looking to do a 100%
of this game, there's just so much stuff.

Overall, Final Fantasy XII is a great game. It's not a perfect game, with perhaps a little too much to do sidequest wise
and the requisite amount of "you'll need a strategy guide to find this" bullshit (see: Zodiac Spear for sure, but also? The
Bazaar system is terribly unintuitive), but its got several likable characters, its battle system is fresh, and its a great
looking game. Highly recommended!



Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (Nintendo DS, 2007)

A sequel of sorts to FFXII, it also takes more or less immediately after. Not going to lie to you: I've never played this
game. It's apparently a sort of real-time strategy game I guess? Vann and Penelo are two of the more mediocre
characters from FFXII (I can't blame them, they were up against some stiff competition), but the game reviewed pretty
well. Anyone else want to vouch/grumble about it?



Final Fantasy A2: Grimoire of the Rift (Nintendo DS, 2007/2008)

I'm not 100% sure if this game takes place before or after Revenant Wings, but regardless it takes place after FFXII.
You take control of a kid named Luso, who finds a mysterious book and gets transported to Ivalice. Since going back
seems difficult, Luso joins a clan captained by a Revgaji named Cid, and sets off looking for treasure, adventure... and
maybe a way home. A2 introduces a new race called the "Gria" who are like dragon-winged girls. Between them and the
Veira, I'm pretty sure they've got a lot of fetishes covered.



I was pretty lukewarm about Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, but A2 addresses most of my complaints about the first
game (at least, that I can remember) and puts together a solid package. Gameplay consists of accepting and
completing missions (like the first one) and skills are learned via wearing equipment (like FFTA and FF9). It's a very
bright and fun game, and I highly recommend it; it's one of the better portable experiences I've had on the DS. It still
shares some of the problems with FFTA (mostly regarding how unbalancing Speed can be), but changing the "Judge"
system from one where you're rewarded for following the rules (rather than punished) and even fixing the Bazaar
system introduced in FFXII makes this a real gem.

Note: the name of this game is a weird quirk from the fact that its a 'sequel' to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, but
since Grimoire of the Rift is on the Nintendo DS rather than the Gameboy Advance, they decided to abbreviate it to
"A2." Why? I don't know. Then again, Square has never been very consistent about its use of the name "Final
Fantasy"...



Wow, what a trip down memory lane! It almost makes up for the fact that I completely forgot that this was a Zodiac
boss fight while playing this. I mean, in case you were scratching your head why I would start the Adramelk fight with a
member having a staring contest with the floor.

Fortunately, it's a really easy fight. It is similar to the Wiegraf/Velius one, except he doesn't summon in help (in fact
any Knights still on the battlefield disappear when you move into phase 2 of the fight), and you've got five units with all
the buffs from the first part in play, including their previous CT (which usually ensures they'll go first). There's really not
much to say about Adramelk. He's got those Fear abilities (instant 100% Petrify, Don't Act, Silence and Confusion) and
his pick of the most powerful magic, including Fire/Ice/Bolt 4, Flare, Holy, Odin, Bahamut. What he doesn't have is the
time to really cast most of it. Your units are likely to be crowded around Adramelk, allowing you to sneak in hits while
he's charging, and he doesn't have the Speed nor HP to survive an assault, particularly if you've pre-buffed everyone
with Haste.

I mean, think about that. I completely forgot I had to fight him and I still wrecked his arse. Oh well.

I was going to show off the optional fight after this one, but I'll save that for a small supplemental update. This update
is already huge enough! The good news: We've got ourselves ten of the twelve Zodiac stones! The bad news: we're
down one brother (with one missing) and our sister is still nowhere in sight. Only one thing to do.

Let's go to church.

WARNING: Foul language ahead (for one screenshot)!

See you next time!

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Bonus Money: 27,800 Gil

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to be continued...

Dycedarg has a secret older brother?!

Seriously though, nice breakdown of the Ivalice games. I gave up on the handhelds after Tactics Advance, but you've convinced me to at least give A2 a chance.


In other news, Velius is down! I swear I've attempted this fight at least twenty times by now, but the result was satisfying enough to be worth it all. Here's the breakdown.

I leveled everyone to 33 before attempting this again, so Ramza began his solo fight with a bit more health than last time and I think at least one extra point of PA (it's tough to remember what his base is when I change his equipment so often). This time he was able to survive, at most, one lightning stab and one normal sword hit and still have about 14 HP left. I loaded him up with PA equipment, ate a lightning stab, and stabbed Wiegraf in the face hard enough to end the fight. Ramza hits about 56% of the time, and can survive a counter but will often block it.

Now, my current party:

Ramza (Geomancer): 258 HP, 16 PA, 4 Move, 7 Speed
Equipment: Platinum Sword, Diamond Shield, Twist Headband, Power Sleeve, Bracer

McGyle (Squire): 237 HP, 13 PA, 5 Move, 7 Speed
Equipment: Platinum Sword, Twist Headband, Power Sleeve, Bracer

Tamara (Thief): 223 HP, 10 PA, 6 Move, 9 Speed
Equipment: Orichalcum, Twist Headband, Power Sleeve, Sprint Shoes

McPherson (Knight): 314 HP, 13 PA, 3 Move, 7 Speed
Equipment: Platinum Sword, Diamond Shield, Platina Helmet, Diamond Armor, Bracer

Miles (Archer): 237 HP, 11 PA, 4 Move, 8 Speed
Equipment: Windslash Bow, Green Beret, Power Sleeve, Germinas Boots

When the fight with Velius starts, Ramza is standing next to my Knight, while the other three are in group 2 in the front row. The Knight is standing directly across from Velius. Ramza moves first, and walks straight backward behind the other characters. The Thief then gets her turn, and waits.

Velius loves to open with Titan and will move forward, in front of my Knight, to hit Ramza with it. If he opens with anything else I'm screwed, but in this case he will be standing there charging, in range of all of my units and far away from his own support.

The exact order isn't important, but what happens is this. My Archer will hit for about 100 damage, then get out of the way. The Knight will deal 250+ damage, then move down into the water on the left side and out of Titan's vertical range. The Squire and Ramza will now both have a space to hit from,dealing 250+ and 350+ damage respectively. Titan goes off, killing Ramza and badly injuring anyone nearby. The Thief gets her turn, walks behind Velius, and hits for 60ish damage, ending the fight. Had Velius survived that, I'd still have most of my party available to get a few more hits in.

I could have picked better equipment for this, but the strategy worked so well that I didn't even have time to perfect it. I had previously been toying with having Ramza hit Velius right away, or move elsewhere to lure him away from the main party. Purposefully encouraging him to cast Titan right in the middle of my party didn't occur to me until I realized just how far Velius was willing to walk to hit Ramza.

Compared to that, the next fight was a joke. I didn't bother changing equipment as I completely forgot which fight this was (saving Rafa from Elmdor and the Assassins), but it didn't matter. Rafa takes a hit, and walks right between Elmdor and an Assassin because she's an idiot. My Thief walks a couple spaces behind the Assassin at the top of the roof, distracting her. My Archer takes a shot at the one near Rafa, then Ramza walks up and hits her for about 310 damage. I'm not sure why he hit that hard, but I'll take it. Killing anyone here ends the fight, so I save and go to bed.

I personally enjoy Revenant Wings quite a bit, myself. It does play mostly like an RTS, but kind of more in the vein of Dawn of War 2 in that individual units are tied to a master unit. You can control individual monsters, but it's far more useful to just control the master and let the monsters copy that.

It's also pretty hard in the later levels. I need to get back to playing it and beating the game.



It takes place after. Vaan is in A2, and he has matured to the self-confident, badass sky pirate that he was trying to be in 12 and 12-2.

No mention of Zalbag's awesome skills? Or that he has the Mime class unlocked, which more or less tells you the requirements for it?

They're not present, but they are accounted for.

Sir, you leave me no choice; we must duel. Aura + Meltdown at dawn?

We haven't seen the last of Zalbag. I'll get to his ridiculous skills then.



(raises a glass)

Where were you eight years ago!? I had like, so many quests I couldn't complete because I had to find someone else with a copy!

- Eddie

Revenant Wings was too frustrating/hard for me. I pretty much gave up after the stealth battle.

I find it mind-boggling when people say they dislike FFTA but like FFTA2. FFTA2 is the same game running at half the speed with a blind item-trading system preventing you from choosing the abilities you want to learn, and a story that somehow manages to be a lot worse.

I found that FFTA was a very solid game once I got over its divergence from the original FFT. Like a lot of people, I had doubts about the game at first. But once I realized that A)Most of the weak story is front-loaded in the opening cutscene and not in the actual game, B)You can just win battles more quickly to get AP faster, and C)You can easily control laws by moving around the world map, I wasn't left with much to complain about.

They're certainly nowhere near as good as FFT Assassins.

Isn't the real sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics called Tactics Ogre Knight Of Lodis? Oh, and the prequel's getting a prettty cool remake in 3 days.

Not in my book, although I enjoyed Knight of Lodis thoroughly. More games should let me turn units into kick-ass swords. Preferably without an agility bug.

- Eddie

Knight of Lodis preforms the unforgivable sin of allowing move->attack but not attack->move.

Most broken units in FFTA are the Juggler and Blue Mage. Assassins are way down the list.

(Two or three Jugglers + Blue Mage + either Summoner or a lot of appropriate equipment forms a combo which will win no matter what if they get a turn each; and they each have brokenly powerful moves in their own right. I think only Angel Whisper saved me against the final boss (I should have been levelled more); Ring is massively amazing, especially for stealing things; and most of the other Juggler moves aren't bad either, although Blue Mage moves vary wildly in quality.)

So does Fire Emblem, and ummm, the majority of TRPGs (from Japan), but noone complains about those.

I just defeated Meliadoul in the first fight with her. I loaded everyone up with mantles and other defensive equipment, lured the enemies down a little, then sent the Squire on a summoner murder-spree while everyone else beat on Meliadoul and her ninja. As a bonus, I stole the Chantage!

Now, I must pose a question. Shall I use this power, giving myself a Thief who can run among the enemy and steal/charm/stab to her heart's content, or should I instead challenge myself further and leave it in my inventory only as a trophy of war?

i do. it's the number one reason i hate suikoden tactics.

BTW, have all of the character class options been exhausted? Haven't really seen an update (for character classes) in quite a while. If you have a ridiculous abundance of free time and nothing better to do, it'd be cool to see some movesets for the special characters.

For the generics, pretty much. The only classes I don't think I've had anyone in is Mime and Dancer. I've more or less skipped over Archer and Time Mage, the former because it's not very good, and the latter I more or less only used to grab Teleport for Ramza. Tabatha is in the class now, so it will get its use.

I'm still open for specific combinations. I understand it's hard to know who has "mastered" what right now, and I'm not sure how to handle that. As veterns know, getting a little "MASTERED!" text next to a job doesn't really mean a whole lot, as many classes become about as good as they'll get. Do you consider a Monk class "mastered" only when it has all abilities? All but Hamedo? All but Hamedo and Secret Fist?

I don't have a very good answer for that because it's largely subjective. BUT if you have any requests I continue to accept them. Perhaps I'll take the time and write out the skilllist of each unit for closer perusal for those who enjoy that sort of thing.

As for the special characters, I've tried a few times to get solid video, and have failed miserably all but once. I guess I could show them in screenshots if there is some interest?

- Eddie

You can showcase how boring Archer is in FFT! Although Speed Save is a good midgame skill.

Time Mages have several goods spells. Slow, Haste... uh, Don't Move....

Actually, I suppose I enjoy Advanced Wars despite this flaw, but the series's focus on 'melee' range makes units it far less of an issue.

Definetely, if you have the time.

And the fact that in Advance Wars, ranged units can't move and attack in the same turn anyway, so for the few ranged units it's not a problem either. It's a completely different balance, but one that works quite well.

Battle for Wesnoth works similarly, by making all units attack at a range of 1 square whether melee or ranged (attacking at range simply prevents melee counterattacks). That works quite well, too, and has the advantage of making it much easier to write a good AI, meaning it isn't plagued with the AI issues most tactical RPGs are.

I'm actually more annoyed by games that don't let you take back a move before deciding on an action. It's the one thing that still bothers me about FFT, especially when I move my archer somewhere only to find that something is blocking his shot. It doesn't matter so much in games like Advance Wars, but I'd really like to know what my chances are of hitting various enemies before deciding which one to move toward.

Ok, I could calculate it out if I really wanted, but that's no fun.

BTW, another awful, awful flaw of the PSP version; there are NO battle quotes (for the spells and some special abilities). I was wondering why I'd never seen one of those. How depressing...

Doing an archer Solo Straight Character Challenge* totally makes the class like ten billion times more fun. Trigger speed save a few times, sit on the highest point, then giggle with childish glee as you pepper the entire field with Attack->Wait arrows like you're manning a machinegun nest.

*-The "Straight Character Challenge" part means you use the abilities from one job class only--no secondary action, no reaction/support/movement other than what your chosen job gets. The "Solo" part means exactly what it sounds like.
Then again, it's probably best not to delve into the depths of challenge-run madness that have bled the FFT community dry.
Meteor!
The bosses in this game aren't flagged as immune to gravity attacks, so Demi/Demi2 (and Life Drain) are pretty broken.
And Short Charge is practically required to get off any spell whatsoever on the endgame bosses beyond Life Drain. :/

Or you know, Arithmetiks.