Poison Flow

Poison Flow (ポイズンストリーム, Poison Stream) is a stand-alone Jupiter Psynergy introduced in Golden Sun: The Lost Age.

Basic Characteristics
Poison Flow is an offensive, ranged Psynergy. The total amount of damage is determined by comparing the user's Jupiter Power to the target's Jupiter Resistance and using this value to modify the base power of the particular Psynergy. In addition, it can also alter status, with the chance of a status change varying depending on the Luck of the target.

Visually, Poison Flow features a red-colored wind stream being blasted at the targets.

Damage Calculations
Elemental Power attacks such as Poison Flow use a set base power as the base damage to be modified. For example, the base power of Poison Flow is 125. Thus, an unmodified Poison Flow would do around 125 points of damage.

The base damage value of Poison Flow is used in the following equation:


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

To word this in prose, Poison Flow takes the base damage of the particular attack, and then modifies this by how much higher or lower the user's Jupiter Power is than the target's Jupiter Resistance. The difference between the user's Jupiter Power and the target's Jupiter Resistance is then divided by, then 1 is added to this, resulting in what can be called the "elemental damage multiplier". This number is what the Psynergy's damage is multiplied by.

For example, if an Adept with a Jupiter Power of 150 casts Poison Flow on a monster with a Jupiter Resistance of 50:
 * damage = (base damage) * (1 + (Power - Resistance) / 200)
 * damage = (125) * (1 + (150 - 50) / 200)
 * damage = * (1 +  / 200)
 * damage = (125) * (1 + )
 * damage = 125 *
 * damage = 187

Therefore, a Poison Flow cast under these circumstances would deal 187 points of damage to the main target. Since Poison Flow 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
Poison Flow is unique to the Dark Mage class series, an Item-dependent class accessed by equipping the Tomegathericon. The Tomegathericon is only found in The Lost Age, and thus the series is limited to the eight playable Adepts of that game. Poison Flow will be learned at Level 33.

Analysis
General: Poison Flow is one of only two Psynergies that can inflict the Venom status on a target, and the only one available in The Lost Age. Poison Flow's higher PP cost is meant to offset this. What makes Poison Flow useful is that unlike many status-altering Psynergies, it also has a decent base power with which to inflict damage. Thus, taking a turn to use Poison Flow will still be beneficial, as any target not under Venom will still take damage.

By Game
Golden Sun: The Lost Age: Due to its Jupiter alignment, Poison Flow can be used effectively by Ivan and Sheba, whose naturally higher Jupiter Power will boost Poison Flow's offensive damage. In addition, both Jupiter Adepts tend to be supporters rather than attackers, so Poison Flow's Venom chance will prove useful in weakening targets for stronger Adepts to finish. It should be noted that other ways of inflicting Venom exist: the Djinn Bane and Wheeze, the Unleashed powers of the weapons Wicked Mace, Pirate's Sabre, and Darksword, and the Summon Haures. However, Poison Flow is the only option that can be used on demand, as Djinn must be re-Set after use, side-effects from Unleashed are rare, and Haures has a requirement of certain Standby Djinn.

Trivia

 * Poison Flow does not exist in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, due to absence of the Dark Mage class. However, the game introduces Toxic Grit, available to the Curse Mage class series. The two Psynergies differ only in elemental alignment: Poison Flow does Jupiter-based damage, while Toxic Grit does Venus-based damage.