Plasma Psynergy series

Plasma (プラズマ), Shine Plasma (シャインプラスマ), and Spark Plasma (スパークプラスマ) make up one of the strongest and most popular groups of Jupiter Psynergy available. It receives heavy usage throughout the series, as each level of the technique is very powerful for when it learned and retains much of that power for a long while afterwards. The Plasma Psynergy series is very similar to the Thunderclap Psynergy series used by the Ninja class series, which is also the (aforementioned) strongest of the Jupiter series.

Basic Description
Plasma, Shine Plasma, and Spark Plasma are offensive, ranged Psynergies. Each Psynergy has a specific base power that is modified based on the caster's Jupiter Power and the target's Jupiter Resistance.

The visual effects of each stage of the series is generally similar but varies slightly depending on the specific stage. In Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age, the series appears as purple-white bolts of lighting firing down on the enemies. The number of bolts increases for each successive stage: one for Plasma, three for Shine Plasma, and multiple bolts for Spark Plasma. In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, each stage is given a unique visual effect. Plasma is shown as one purple-white bolt of lightning, similar to the GBA version. Shine Plasma appears as a larger bolt that fires down, then forms a sparking ball of energy that disappears. Spark Plasma is similar to Shine Plasma, but the sparking ball of energy explodes in a purple-white blast.

Damage Calculation
Elemental Power attacks such as the Plasma series use a set base power as the base damage to be modified. For example, the base power of Spark Plasma is 180. Thus, an unmodified Spark Plasma would do around 180 points of damage.

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


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

To word this in prose, The Plasma series 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 Psynergies' damage is multiplied by.

For example, if an Adept with a Jupiter Power of 150 casts Spark Plasma on a monster with a Jupiter Resistance of 50:
 * damage = (base damage) * (1 + (Power - Resistance) / 200)
 * damage = (180) * (1 + (150 - 50) / 200)
 * damage = * (1 +  / 200)
 * damage = (180) * (1 + )
 * damage = 180 *
 * damage = 270

Therefore, a Spark Plasma cast under these circumstances would deal 270 points of damage to the main target. Adjacent targets are dealt a percentage of this total, with the percentage decreasing as the distance to the main target increases.

Availability
The Plasma series is available to four class series: the Wind Seer class series, the Pilgrim (Jupiter) class series, the Hermit class series, and the White Mage class series. Thus only Venus Adepts are unable to learn the series. Generally, non-Jupiter Adepts require large amounts of Jupiter Djinn to access the series. For all classes, Plasma and Shine Plasma are learned at Level 8 and Level 26 respectively. The White Mage class learns Spark Plasma at Level 46, while the other three classes learn Spark Plasma at Level 50.

Analysis
General: The second-strongest Jupiter Power-based series, (the title of strongest series goes to the Thunderclap Psynergy series), the Plasma series is one of the most useful Jupiter-based offenses for Adepts that focus on Psynergy-based Attacks. Good availability, combined with high power, means than it will be commonly used no matter the party setup. The high power of the series means that the power of each stage is retained for a significant portion of time. While the Thunderclap series is stronger, it is limited to the Ninja class series; additionally, the higher Jupiter Power of the Wind Seer class series helps to make up for the difference in power.

By Game
Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age: For the Wind Seers, Whirlwind and Ray will see more use until Spark Plasma (as they're otherwise never too far from a Plasma upgrade). Once there, Plasma will be the best offense available to Ivan and Sheba. For the other classes, Plasma will generally fill the role of Whirlwind/Ray instead, and Spark Plasma will often be the best Jupiter Psynergy at one's disposal.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: With Ray being replaced by Fresh Breeze, Plasma will be all Karis has other than Whirlwind, so it'll be seen a lot more often even before Spark Plasma. As several enemies are weak to Jupiter, it can be a viable weapon for certain boss battles.