Arid Heat Psynergy series

Arid Heat, Arid Blast, and Arid Scorch are a series of Mars attack Psynergy featured in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Arid Heat, the first stage of the series, is also a necessary Utility Psynergy. The Sand Prince, found in Ayuthay, is the source of the Psynergy, via the Sand Prince Stone, the Sand Prince can become. Its encyclopedia entry reads as follows:
 * "This fire-based Psynergy can evaporate a water source in the blink of an eye."

Basic Description
Arid Heat, Arid Blast, and Arid Scorch are ranged Psynergies. The damage done by each stage is determined by comparing the user's Mars Power to the target's Mars Resistance, then multiplying this factor by the base power of the particular Psynergy in use.

Visually, each stage of the series resembles a column of orange-colored hot air rising from an circular orange energy field. The size of both the hot air column and the energy field increases for each stage of the series.

Damage Calculations
Elemental Power attacks such as the Arid Heat series use a set base power as the base damage to be modified. For example, the base power of Arid Scorch is 120. Thus an unmodified Arid Scorch would do around 120 points of damage.

The Arid Heat series'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, The Arid Heat series takes 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 Arid Scorch on a monster with a Mars Resistance of 50:
 * damage = (base damage) * (1 + (Power - Resistance) / 200)
 * damage = (120) * (1 + (150 - 50) / 200)
 * damage = * (1 +  / 200)
 * damage = (120) * (1 + )
 * damage = 120 *
 * damage = 180

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

Arid Heat as a Utility Psynergy
In usage, Arid Heat's function resembles that of Parch from The Lost Age, with the main difference being the elemental alignment (Parch's Mercury alignment opposed to Arid Heat's Mars alignment). Arid Heat is used to evaporate water out of small bowls, which usually assists in the manipulation of water levels in the surrounding area. Arid Heat is necessary to reverse the flow of the Alchemy Well in Ayuthay. The effects of Arid Heat can be reversed via the Douse Psynergy.

Availability
Like many Utility Psynergy, the Arid Heat series is only accessible when an item imbued with the Psynergy, i.e the Sand Prince Stone, has been equipped on a compatible Adept. In this case, the Sand Prince Stone is limited to Mars Adepts. Thus, the series is only available to Tyrell and Eoleo, who will retain it regardless of class, so long as the Sand Prince Stone is equipped. Unlike many series of Psynergy, which are learned in succession, the entire Arid Heat series is learned at once.

Analysis
General: The main advantage of the Arid Heat series is its ability to remain accessible across many classes. The series has fairly strong power, making it excellent for Mars Adepts that are in a class that has few or weaker Mars Psynergies. In comparison to other Psynergies of similar power, the Arid Heat series is fairly cheap, making it an efficient source of damage.

By Game
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: As the only Mars Adept in the party when Arid Heat is gained is Tyrell, he will be the most common source of the Arid Heat series. Since he can learn the entire series at once, he will have access to Arid Scorch around level 12-15. In comparison, he will not learn a stronger multitarget Psynergy in his base class until level 40, when he learns Supernova. Early on, however, his use of the stronger stages is limited by his poor PP pool. During the later portions of the game however, Arid Scorch becomes an efficient source of damage, being nearly half as costly as Supernova and Eruption for an only slightly lower base power; thus Arid Scorch is extremely useful when the player is in situations where Tyrell would need to use an multi-target Psynergy but still conserve PP.

Usage by enemies
As the source of the Arid Heat series, the Sand Prince has access to all three stages of the series when he is battled.