Mercenary Analysis: Exorcist

A mercenary meant to control spellcasters in the enemy formation, and empower the spellcasters in one's own.

Rank: C

Basic: Exorcist
Stats: Str 290, Dex 170, Def 260, Int 240, Vit 240, M.Def 285

Upgrade 1: High Exorcist
Stats: Str 350, Dex 190, Def 400, Int 300, Vit 270, M.Def 295

Upgrade 2: Great Exorcist
Stats: Str 380, Dex 200, Def 550, Int 330, Vit 290, M.Def 300

Upgrade 3: Michael
Stats: Str 420, Dex 210, Def 600, Int 350, Vit 320, M.Def 305

Upgrade 4: Hero Michael
Stats: Str 449, Dex 224, Def 660, Int 374, Vit 342, M.Def 305

Historical / Legendary Source:
Michael is an archangel, one of the principal angels in Christian and Islamic tradition. He is viewed as the field commander of the Army of God. He is mentioned by name in the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation. In the book of Daniel, Michael appears as "one of the chief princes" who in Daniel's vision comes to the angel Gabriel's aid in his contest with the angel of Persia (Dobiel), and is also described there as the advocate of Israel and "great prince who stands up for the children of your [Daniel's] people".

[...]

According to a diary authored by Father Raymond Bishop, a Jesuit priest at Saint Louis University, the mere mention of the name of St. Michael caused scratches on a 13-year old boy during an exorcism. Near the end of the exorcism, the boy saw a vision of the Devil and ten of his helpers engaged in a fiery battle with St. Michael. At one point during the dream, the angel smiled at the boy and said "Dominus." Shortly thereafter, the boy shouted out: "Satan! Satan! I am St. Michael, and I command you Satan, and the other evil spirits to leave the body in the name of Dominus, Immediately." Father Bishop's diary was used by William Peter Blatty as the basis for his book, The Exorcist, and later, by Thomas B. Allen, in his 1993 book Possessed: The True Story of an Exorcism.

(Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_(archangel))

Pros:

• Mana Seal. Two turn silence of all spellcasters in an enemy formation. Pretty much, if a monk doesn't keep itself fully awakened with no Combo count on it, you will stun it, limiting the monk's choices as to where to target its Awakening.
• Speed Cast. If you've ever felt your spellcasting mercenaries just never had enough AP in a turn, Speed Cast will make all your problems go away. It also keeps your spellcasters somewhat healthy each turn.
• Speed Cast + Monk = Awakening every turn, if necessary.
• Decent strength, giving it a good source of melee damage.
• Being melee and a swordsman, it has a decent defense rating and good HP, making it a decent choice to rotate a middle line with, and a decent front choice once Guardian Stones are available.
• Surprisingly nice magic defense. Unusually, this may is the only mercenary who has any amount of gains in magic defense as it upgrades.
• Decent AP gain (nothing spectacular, but not bad).

Cons:

• Outside of its obvious applications and skills, it is an otherwise mediocre mercenary.
• Even though it can ostensibly become a decent front line choice, it will find itself being the first mercenary to rotate in any situation because enemies will focus on it. (This can be a good thing, sometimes.)
• Takes good damage from Flame Sword, but isn't fodder to it like other mercenaries seem to be.
• Mana Burn damage can be good, but only when taken to a very high level, which is difficult because Exorcists already have competition from two other excellent skills which take priority.
• Seal Staff is almost useless. It has very little use in PvE, and apparently only at very high levels.

Abilities:

• Mana Seal: All spellcasters in an enemy formation, prevents targets from using skills or spells. 175 AP cost. (9/10)
• Speed Cast: All spellcasters in your formation, adds AP and small amount of healing every turn. Passive. (9/10)
• Mana Burn: Single target, upgrades to row, upgrades to cross. Deals damage to targets' MP and deals that same amount of damage to their HP. 150 AP cost. (7/10)
• Seal Staff: All spellcasters in an enemy formation, lowers attack power and deals damage per turn. 150 AP cost. (2/10)

Breakdown:

Exorcists are pretty much staple mercenaries for just about every build in the world. Do you have any mercenaries in your build that have any methods of immobilizing enemy mercenaries? Do you have an Archer on your team and a way to open up the front line quickly enough to keep the enemy's back row permanently silenced? Do you run any amount of spellcasters in your formation and depend on them to keep your party in good condition or as a source of damage? Do you want to keep your enemy from dropping Holy Guards to remove the humongous amount of DoTs you just laid out all over his formation?

Do you like controlling your opponents and directly influencing what their actions in a turn will be?

If you answered yes, then the Exorcist is for you.

It's really hard to write anything more in a breakdown for the Exorcist because he really is that indispensable. I personally cannot think of a single build that would remain competitively viable at higher levels with no Exorcist presence, simply because no Exorcist presence in my enemy's formation would simply not force me to push forward my standard strategy. Exorcists are something you have to work around, and having that kind of clout in a mercenary is just extraordinarily beneficial.

Example Build:

There's no need to make one. I think every build I've ever made relies on an Exorcist being present in some way, shape or form. Look at other Mercenary Analysis, look forward to a Build Garage... to draw a terrible Yu-Gi-Oh! comparison, if you've ever played old Yu-Gi-Oh! at all, think of the Exorcist as a Pot of Greed or a Raigeki. Why in the hell would you not run one? Either you've got something very special going on with what you have or you simply don't understand what the Exorcist is doing for you. Just because of his ability to give a Monk extra AP to work with every round, you should consider having one in your formation. That's how indispensable the Exorcist is.

Total Grade: Early Game: 9/10 Late Game: 9/10