Category:Banish Spells

Banish spells are a White Magic nuking staple. As one might expect, they have a variety of other effects when used against Undead enemies:

• Increased physical damage (Does 50% more damage against undead enemies)

• Does not alter magical damage taken or elemental resistance values.

• E.g. Banish will not alter the 25% magic damage reduction penalty or dark resistance for Corses.

• Different Banish spells reduce these Special Defenses for a certain amount of time, both of which increase with higher tier spells.

• This effect will overwrite itself, but only with an equivalent tier of Banish or higher.
• The effect duration may be resisted in the same way as other magic, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, or fully.

• Damage from Banish and the Special Defense reduction bonus duration are resisted separately.

• E.g. Just because the damage was not resisted does not mean the defense reduction bonus duration is the full length, and vice-versa.

• Banish effect Merit Points increase the duration of the bonus by 2 seconds for each tier for a maximum of +10 seconds.

• Banish does not stack with Tomahawk, each will not overwrite each other.

• Given that Tomahawk will reduce the magic damage penalty against a foe like a Corse, it would be situationally more useful over Banish.

Spell Name -SDR Duration Banish -50% (128/256) 15 seconds Banishga -50% (128/256) 15 seconds Banish II -70% (179/256 ) 30 seconds Banishga II -70% (179/256 ) 30 seconds Banish III -90% (230/256 ) 45 seconds

Assumed banish special defense reduction formula:

floor(SDT value - (SDT value × Banish Value)) = New Resistance

Example: Banish against a Skeleton with a 50% (128/256) Piercing resistance, would reduce the resistance to 25%.

• floor(128/256 - (128/256×128/256)) = 64/256 (-25%) Piercing for during the duration of Banish.

Example: Casting Banish III against the same Skeleton would reduce the resistance to 5%.

• floor(128/256 - (128/256×230/256)) = 13/256 (-95%) Piercing for during the duration of Banish.

Example: Casting Banish III against a Ghost (-25% / and -50% ) would reduce the resistance to ~2.5% / and 5% .

• floor(64/256 - (64/256×230/256)) = 13/512 → 6/256 (~ -97.5%) / Slashing/Piercing for during the duration of Banish.

• There has been no public testing on Banish since this incomplete test in 2009.

• Given that -97% for Banish III to a Ghost for slashing above matches the -97% from the old testing within an assumed margin of error with an assumed formula, it looks good enough until someone else wants to test it.

• What sounds the most plausible (despite working on additional values such as physical or magical damage) is how the JP wiki lists how Tomahawk is calculated. The formula for special defense reduction (SDT) was based off of this.

• Even this lacks information such as if there is a cap to the bonus provided by equipment or if banish passes a 255/256 value multiplier against special defense if the formula is followed.

Enhancing Gear

Various equipment enhances Banish's special defense reduction potency against undead when worn while casting. These bonuses stack, and are possibly additive with each other before being multiplied against the foe's resistance . Banish will not increase damage dealt to undead past ±0%.
None of these bonuses to Banish increase effect duration.

Example: So, in the case of a Skeleton with 50% Piercing resistance, casting Banish would make it take (1 - 50%×32÷64)) = 75% of normal damage. Wearing Fenian Ring and casting Banish would make it take (1 - 50%×32÷64×7÷8)) = 78.5% of normal damage.

This is technically: SDF reduction = floor( 32 × 7 ÷ 8 ) ÷ 64

Afflatus Misery

Taking damage with Afflatus Misery up provides a unique damage bonus to the Banish spell line, which caps at a 2x modifier (200% normal damage).
Unlike Afflatus Solace and Holy damage modification through HP Healed, Misery modification is based purely on the damage taken from the last hit. This bonus scales up from a 1x modifier and seems to take about 250 damage or -25% HP to fully charge.

References

• Afflatus Misery Testing (Alkimi, BG)
• Banish/Fenian Ring testing (Rainesong, BG forums)
• Banish Special Defense Down overwrites itself (Sawtelle, FFXIAH)