Dragon Cloud and Epicenter

Dragon Cloud and Epicenter are a pair of Mars Psynergies featured throughout the Golden Sun series. Among the single target techniques, they are of a somewhat lesser popularity, but are considered among the Samurai series' best attacks.

Basic Characteristics
Dragon Cloud and Epicenter are single-target Psynergies. The final amount of damage is determined by comparing the user's Mars Power to the target's Mars Resistance and using the difference to modify the base power of the particular Psynergy in use.

Visually, both Psynergies feature a vaporous dragon, somewhat similar to the one conjured by Fume, that winds about itself as it heads towards its target. Ultimately, it pierces through its victim, creating a small explosion and throwing them back. However, Epicenter has a larger dragon than Dragon Cloud.

Damage Calculation
Elemental Power attacks such as the Dragon Cloud and Epicenter use a set base power as the base damage to be modified. For example, the base power of Epicenter is 210. Thus an unmodified Epicenter would deal around 210 points of damage.

Epicenter'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, Dragon Cloud and Epicenter 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, 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 Epicenter on a monster with a Mars Resistance of 50:
 * damage = (base damage) * (1 + (Power - Resistance) / 200)
 * damage = (210) * (1 + (150 - 50) / 200)
 * damage = * (1 +  / 200)
 * damage = (210) * (1 + )
 * damage = 210 *
 * damage = 315

Therefore, an Epicenter cast under these circumstances would deal 315 points of damage.



Availability
Dragon Cloud and Epicenter are exclusive to the Samurai class series, available to Venus and Mars Adepts. Venus Adepts require large amounts of Jupiter Djinn and Mars Djinn, while Mars Adepts need Jupiter Djinn and Venus Djinn.

Dragon Cloud and Epicenter are learned at level 12. However, only Dragon Cloud is available at first: Many Psynergies are only available to the more advanced versions of a class, and Epicenter is no exception. What separates Dragon Cloud and Epicenter from most Psynergies is that Epicenter replaces Dragon Cloud. To access Epicenter, the Adept must be in the Ronin stage, which requires 5 Jupiter Djinn and 4 Djinn of their symbiotic element. Since Adepts in Golden Sun cannot have more than seven Djinn, the Ronin stage, and thus Epicenter, is unavailable.

Analysis
General: Dragon Cloud and Epicenter can be considered to be counterparts to the Flame User's Fume Psynergy series. As powerful single-target Psynergies, they can do large amounts of damage to enemies. However, the total amount of damage will be outpaced by Attack-based Psynergies late in the game. Despite this, they are still the strongest Mars-based techniques available to the Samurai, and are an effective counterpoint to Quick Strike. The main drawback is Epicenter's high PP cost, which can strain the Samurai's PP pool.