Micah's Abilities

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In your starter abilities, you get four D-Tier abilities and one C-Tier ability. You have five D-Tier abilities here.

From what I've seen so far, I think you misunderstand how we format abilities. Before I continue grading these to their full extent, I would like to try to help you out first.

Requirements | Drawbacks

What you have here is completely fine but it also needs some sort of physical requirement. (ie. Micah must twirl his staff. )

Scaling

All abilities require some form of scaling. You would be crippling yourself to NOT have scaling. If you're having trouble figuring out what kind of scaling your abilities should have, I'll help you out once you fix these general errors.

I would suggest you to refrain from making unique types of scaling as well until you get used to the systems and use the one's we have in the system first. Not that you have already, I just wanted to give a forewarning.

Sustain

This is a section that is a bit rough to understand for newer members so I'll try to explain it the best I can. You're not alone in this!

Sustain is a numerical value that represents how many times you have used the ability in a single post (or over multiple consecutive posts) before it goes on cooldown. There is a limit but that is shown in the chart on the systems page. At ability creation, this value should be set to 0. It will only be edited to higher numbers when you use the sustains in a thread. The default state is always 0.

Cooldown

Each tier of ability has different cooldown times. These are listed in the ability systems. We do not allow custom cooldown times, unfortunately. If an ability has an effect duration, it goes in the description.

Cost

Each tier of ability has different costs. These are listed in the ability systems.

For example: A D-Tier spell will cost 10 magoi on initial cast. A sustain on the ability costs 5 magoi. Half of the original cost. Any scaling you make costs 10 magoi per scale regardless of whatever tier the ability is.

You have this section correct but I just wanted to explain it just in case.

Description

I haven't really gone in depth with these yet because of the other issues. However, make sure you include the size of projectiles, area of effects, and the range of how far it can be cast. It is also important to include if the ability does ?-Tier damage and the duration of any effects.

Edits made!

Ranks: I figured this out from reading other people's starting abilities, but concluded, that because none of the five techniques matched with the more advanced skill and complexity I associated with C-rank magic (ex. tracking projectiles),  I should make just five D-ranks. I didn't know it wasn't acceptable to swap the one C-rank with D-rank, so I switched the fifth (offensive) ability to C-rank.

Requirements: I had a verbal and a physical requirement for each ability, but it was written on the description, because I thought it was kind of extra info and would fit there better. I've swapped these sentences with the commands given to rukh, which now come with an estimated casting time and a reflection of the complexity of the spell!

Scaling: This remains the same for each technique, but has been reworded. I took a scaling option from the guidelines for each technique, except for the first one. I don't really think it needs to be scaled, and I don't really see it as a major drawback to the technique, given it's extremely supplementary nature.

Sustain: I totally though this means how long a technique can be sustained, ie. it's duration. Numerical values have been set at zero, and durations of each ability have been added to the descriptions.

Cooldown: I totally missed the fixed cooldowns, thanks for pointing that out. It should be correct now.

Cost: Removed the additional costs, as they are listed in the guidelines already. Hope that's not a problem!

Description: Some of the description have been reworked to include casting time, rukh commands/complexity, durations, additional conditions, etc.

EDIT: Stripped most of the coding.

Edited! Here's a few things, though.

Illumination Orb: I kept the range at Medium, but dropped the number by half, since that's where a range of five meters would be at, according to your guidelines.

Reflect Image: The range is specified as 20m, and in the description, I limited it to the magician's field of vision (ie. he would need to see the place, where the illusion appears, directly) - you are free to assume, that the illusion becomes too unconvincing in appearance if it exits the range of 20m for him to attempt to cast it. This brings me to ask if adding yet another drawback is necessary, even for a D-rank ability. It already has five - dependence on magician's sight, inaudibility, dispersion on contact, limited in shape to human-ish and something the magician is visually familiar with. Personally, I think that's pretty limited and would be happy to keep it at that, but if you still think it needs another drawback, I will edit it again.

Blinding Light - The range has been halved. Edits to description done as requested.

Translucence - The duration has been changed to two posts.

Light Ray - The range has been halved. The knockback was removed, so the attack deals C-rank damage (ie. moderate burns) by default.

I'm not sure if I'm covering everything here, but I wanted to bring up a few things I felt were out of place for low-tier abilities.

Blinding Light - You say that it's "impossible to dispel", but you do need to keep in mind that there are ways to essentially cure temp blindness/blurry vision. A fellow magician could easily make a spell to reverse the effects, if they wanted to.

Translucence - Having a pseudo-invisibility is already a lot for a D-Tier ability. However, I feel like diffusing an incoming light-based spell is adding on way too much. What would even cause this? I would highly suggest just removing that part.

I hope these address your issues.

Blinding Light - The sentence refers to the fact, that the spell cannot be dispelled, because the only magic involved is the blinding light, that lasts very briefly. The blindness is the eyes' reaction to the magic, but not magical in nature, meaning a magician couldn't take it back, if they, for example, blinded themselves or their allies by accident. Another magician could very well devise a spell, that undoes it's effects, yes - altering/healing one's sight with light or life magic would be a simple counter. This is a drawback, not a strength.

Translucence - The spell is designed so, that it makes the magician translucent, instead of invisible or transparent - the latter I now see I've written in the description, and shall correct it. Translucence is defined as a state, where an object allows light to pass through, but diffuses it. While it's purpose definitely is to cloak the appearance of the magician, it happens to have another, cleaver application against light-based attacks. Light Ray - which is, essentially, the canon light magic spell, Flash, that we see used by Aladdin in Magnostadt against Titus - can be countered with a cloud of steam, which diffuses it.

We can conclude that this is a natural weakness of light-type attack, rather than a specific spell A countering a specific spell B scenario. Similarly, if light-based attack met a reflective surface like mirror, it can be expected to change direction, because that's how light works. Light magic uses light as a medium, and is bound to it's natural weaknesses, much like how lightning type magic is likely to hit an opponent using a metallic shield to block the attack or how sound magic wouldn't be able to travel in a vacuum space.

I did say the spell disperses if it has to diffuse a light-based attack. Since it's Magi and not real world (though Magi follows the rules of the real world too, they have gravity, DNA, etc.), we can say the rukh plays a part here, tearing the rukh used Translucence upon contact with it. I can add limit on C-tier attacks, if you are worried about the technique cheating it's way through, an A-tier attack for example.

Blinding Light - Alright, so I understand what you mean now. I think you're good to go on this. Sorry for the misunderstanding!

Translucence - Alright, so the ability was originally supposed to be a form of defense, not just a way to get around a bit more unnoticed. I understand this now as well. However, I feel like that spell you're trying to make would require a higher tier, for the sort of...complexity that's going into how it works. I'd suggest just reducing it to what it originally *seemed* to be, a simple way of cloaking yourself. Feel free to continue fighting for the ability if you wish, but I highly suggest to try making such an ability at a higher tier. Having a pseudo-cloak, AND allowing you to defend against a c-tier spell, that's easily a b-tier ability.

I understand that it might be frustrating, but sometimes our systems simply won't allow what always seems to be logical. To keep things balanced, some things are required to be knocked down a notch. The main issue you seem to be having right now, is the fact you're making spells super complex for their tier, which isn't a bad thing, but is something that is reserved for much higher tier abilities. D-Tier abilities are generally incredibly simple, almost parlor-like tricks. Of course they aren't all THAT weak, but that's the best example I could give.

An easier way to go about it, is like.. a common D-Tier ability you might see is a sort of fireball you shoot out via heat magic. But a B-Tier ability that uses heat magic, it might involve changing the actual temperature of an object, even freezing it if you want. I hope that helps you understand a bit more. ^^

Edited.

Trancelucence - I reworked this a bit. The ability is now called Chameleon, and has no defensive measures against light-based attacks. I would argue, that the ability and it's effect (a single effect) is simple, but it's applications are not - which in turn should not affect it's rank, as it doesn't make the spell more complicated in nature. But I do see your point. I will probably make this ability at a later date or not at all, but nonetheless will give up on it for now. I realize I've drawn this process out, but I do hope constructive negotiations about edit requests will happen in the future as well - my intention is not to be impudent, difficult or stubborn, but to lay out my perspective for you, if I don't agree on something. After I am sure you have seen my angle on the matter (even if you don't agree with it like now), I don't have any problem making changes.

Reflection - Speaking of which, was Diana happy with the edits I made to this ability?

Hey! I’m super sorry for the delay on grading these, we’ve all been a bit lazy/tired lately. Anywho, let’s go ahead and flesh out the last bit of kinks in these abilities.~ As for Diana’s opinion on reflection, we both were still a bit iffy on how potent it was for a D-Tier illusion. However we’re going to allow it, since there isn’t too much harm that could come from it. ^^

Blinding Light - I’ve talked to Diana about this further, and we both agree that a full-on blind is far too powerful for a D-Tier ability. I’d highly suggest making the ability simply blur the enemies vision for a single post. Oh and also, make sure you write down how far this ability travels in the description. I know you have 10-meters in the range section already, but it needs to be in the actual ability description as well. 10-meters would also be a bit too much for an ability like this, so knock it down to at least 5-meters if you will.

Chameleon - Before you had an outline on your being when using this, so we’re gonna need you to put that back in. Clear glass is very hard to notice, so you’re essentially trying to get away with a near-perfect form of invisibility as a D-Tier ability.