Lava Shower Psynergy series

Lava Shower, Molten Bath, and Magma Storm are a series of Mars Psynergy featured throughout the Golden Sun series. Prior to Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, the series's visual effects were shared with the Volcano Psynergy series.

Basic Characteristics

Lava Shower is an offensive, single-target Psynergy, while Molten Bath and Magma Storm are offensive, ranged Psynergies. The total amount of damage is determined by comparing the user's Mars Power to the target's Mars Resistance and using this value to modify the base power of the particular Psynergy.

Lava Shower: “Attack with a volcano's might.”: This costs 4 Psynergy Points, has a base power of 40, and has a range of one target. A fiery pillar explodes through the enemy. It is available at level 8.

Molten Bath: “Attack with a volcano's might.”: This costs 12 Psynergy Points, has a base power of 70, and has a range of three targets. Two fiery pillars explode through the enemy party. It is available at level 22.

Magma Storm: “Attack with a volcano's might.”: This costs 27 Psynergy Points, has a base power of 120, and has a range of five targets. Four fiery pillars explode through the enemy party as the camera swivels around. It is available at level 48.

In Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age, the Lava Shower's visual effects are identical to those of the Volcano Psynergy series, featuring cylindrical pillars of fire that erupt below the target. Lava Shower shows one pillar, while Molten Bath shows 2, and Magma Shower shows 4. In Dark Dawn, the visual effects are more detailed. Lava Shower shows a small burst of lava emerging from beneath the targets. Molten Bath shows a slightly larger burst of lava, which sends rocks flying. Magma Storm shows multiple bursts of lava, which sends multiple rocks flying.

Damage Calculations

Elemental Power attacks such as Lava Shower, Molten Bath, and Magma Storm use a set base power as the base damage to be modified. For example, the base power of Magma Shower is 120. Thus an unmodified Magma Storm would do around 120 points of damage.

Magma Storm's attack takes this base damage value and uses it in the following equation:

final damage = (base damage) * (1 + (User's Mars Power - Enemy's Mars Resistance) / 200)

To word this in prose, Lava Shower, Molten Bath, and Magma Storm take the base damage of the particular attack, and then modifies this by how much higher or lower the user's Mars Power is than the target's Mars Resistance. The difference between the user's Mars Power and the user's Mars Resistance is then divided by 200, then 1 is added to this, resulting in what can be called the "elemental damage multiplier". This number is what the Psynergies' damage is multiplied by.

For example, if an Adept with a Mars Power of 150 casts Magma Storm on a monster with a Mars Resistance of 50:

• damage = (base damage) * (1 + (Power - Resistance) / 200)
• damage = (120) * (1 + (150 - 50) / 200)
• damage = (170) * (1 + 100 / 200)
• damage = (120) * (1 + 0.5)
• damage = 120 * 1.50
• damage = 180

Therefore, a Magma Storm cast under these circumstances would deal approximately 180 points of damage to the targeted enemy. Since Magma Storm is a ranged Psynergy, adjacent targets take a percentage of the total damage, with the percentage decreasing as distance from the main target increases.

Availability

The Lava Shower series is available to the Samurai class series, available to all Mars Adepts and most Venus Adepts, which the notable exception of Himi, who cannot enter the class by any means. Mars Adepts require a combination of Venus Djinn and Jupiter Djinn, while the Venus Adepts that can access the class need Mars Djinn and Jupiter Djinn. Lava Shower will be learned at Level 8, while Molten Bath is learned at Level 22 and Magma Storm is learned at Level 48.

Analysis

General: Like many Psynergies available to the Samurai, the Lava Shower series is meant as an alternative to a commonly available series, the Volcano series in this case. In comparison to the Volcano series, the Lava Shower series is much less efficient. The Volcano series is much stronger, and only slightly more expensive. While the Lava Shower series could see use as a cheaper alternative, each stage is learned too late to be of any real use. Finally, Volcano is more widely available, and the various classes that can access it will have higher Mars Power than a Samurai or Ronin using Lava Shower.

Unlike other Psynergies, which can see use due to being the only series of their element available to the class, the Lava Shower series is also outclassed by the Samurai's Dragon Cloud and Epicenter Psynergies. Dragon Cloud is more powerful than Molten Bath, while being less expensive, while Epicenter is nearly twice as powerful as Magma Storm. Thus, the Lava Shower series will see little use.