Panic vs. Coma (in-depth)

[Platypus]

I. Description
II. Elemental Advantages and Status Effects
III. Practicality/Uses and Comparison
IV. Crusader Skill Build

I've seen a lot of threads regarding which finisher to max first as a crusader, coma or panic. So I decided to write this guide using a combination of personal experience and research.

Descriptions:

First of all, here are the in-game descriptions of each:

Panic: Attack one monster with dark power. You can use this skill only when you equip the sword/axe and your combo should be charged up.

Coma: Enemy becomes panicked when they get damaged. You can use this skill only when you equip the sword/axe and your combo should be charged up.

Now, as usual, there are a few misconceptions in these descriptions.

Elemental Advantages and Status Effects

Panic does not induce any dark power. It has no elemental advantage of dark monsters, and does not give any status effect. To prove these rumours false, I have done some research. Note that my panic level is only 15. If you believe that this research is not conclusive based on the fact that my panic is not maxed, I will conduct these tests again in 5 levels when it is maxed.

Panic-Dark Power?

First I set out to test panic damage on dark monsters vs. non-dark monsters. I chose two monsters of similar wdef, one of which was dark. The monsters I chose were red drake and dark yeti. Both monsters have a wdef of 170, meaning any variation in data should be caused only by the inconsistency of panic damage and elemental advantage if it exists.

Out of 50 panics to dark yeti, I hit a total of 894,973 damage. This is an average panic damage of about 17.9k.

Out of 50 panics to red drake, I hit a total of 1,048,146 damage. This is an average panic damage of about 21k.

As you can see, panics to a red drake hit significantly higher than to a dark yeti. This proves that panic has no elemental advantage against dark monsters.

Panic-Darkness effect?

I also conducted a test to see if panic inflicted any non-visual darkness effect. The darkness status effect, used on characters by monsters like the jr. boogie, greatly lower the player's accuracy. Some have said that panic does this to monsters, causing more misses.

To test this rumor, I paniced a dual ghost pirate and walked into it 10 times. I did this to 5 seperate duals. Then, I simply ran into 5 dual ghost pirates 10 times each, without using panic on it.

Whether I paniced the monster or not, I missed it 2/50 times. This means that panic does not cause darkness.

Also note that coma causes stun 90% of the time when maxed, whereas panic has no stun.

Now that I've cleared up a few rumors about Panic, I'll get onto both skill's advantages.

Comparisons and Uses

Coma

When maxed, coma has a basic attack of +200% and stuns 90% of the time. To put this in perspective, if you have maxed coma at lvl 90, you will be doing around 12-15k to 6 monsters.

Panic

When maxed, panic has +350% wattk. To put this in perspective, if you have maxed panic at lvl 100, you will be doing around 30k to 1 monster.


So, at lvl 90, coma has an average potential of 80-95k damage total. At lvl 100, panic has an average potential of 30k damage total. Based on this fact, coma is BETTER.

Some argue that panic is better because it allows you to quickly take down an individual monster. However, note that after every panic, you must recharge your orbs. So, you might hit 30k, but then follow it up with 3k 4k 5k 6k 7k.

You might say that you also have to recharge your orbs with coma. However, when you use coma, you'll have killed a majority of the monsters, whereas with panic, there will most likely still be some around you. If you use coma and take down most of a mob, you can use your KB with PS to individually kill a monster and recharge your orbs, until you find another mob to coma.

Panic is best used at bosses. Because of this high-damage, single-hit skill, crusaders are capable of putting in more damage overtime at bosses like Zakum, Papulatus, and Pianus. But for training purposes, coma is essentially a more efficient skill.

So, if you were too lazy to read through the whole thread, know this:

Coma > panic.

How does all this fit into a crusader's skill build?

Combo Attack-->Coma-->Panic-->Shout

That will lead you up to level 110. By then you should be able to make your own decisions for the future (useless) skills.

If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to post them here. I'm pretty sure their might be some false reasoning in my research about panic, which might explain why my panics were 3k higher on red drakes. Something to do with monster level or mdef maybe? Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope this helps cut down on the number of threads on a crusader's skill build.

[MrBatman]

Sweet, your the man.

Hopefully, now we wont have anymore useless boards about 'what does darkness do' and 'what should i get next? Coma or panic.'

You helped alot of people out, you should be proud.

Have a cookie...

EDIT: I hear a Sticky ;D

[Collisions]

Jeesh yeah, thanks for officially writing it out- there are too many Panic vs. Coma threads.

You win! :D

[Platypus]

I find it funny how a few minutes after I make this thread, 2 more threads on panic show up =p

[macrsp]

Don't hit me Vas, but simply by reading your guide (the darkness part) it looks like... dark creatures have a resistance to panic. I don't know why Wizet would give Crusaders 'Dark Power' doesn't really make sense, but you did about 90% to darkes of what you did to the drakes. Drakes of course are both lower level'd and have lower mdef, so either of those might have contributed. Or it could easily just be random, as you 'only' did it 50 times. *cracks whip* MORE WORK! =P

[Goldenwrath]

I enjoyed reading your guide. But most importantly, I give you credit for putting this thread out there. Hopefully this will cause so many "question" threads about panic and coma to stop lol.

[Platypus]

Originally Posted by macrsp

Don't hit me Vas, but simply by reading your guide (the darkness part) it looks like... dark creatures have a resistance to panic. I don't know why Wizet would give Crusaders 'Dark Power' doesn't really make sense, but you did about 90% to darkes of what you did to the drakes. Drakes of course are both lower level'd and have lower mdef, so either of those might have contributed. Or it could easily just be random, as you 'only' did it 50 times. *cracks whip* MORE WORK! =P

Oh, very good point. Now that I think about it, if panic causes darkness, it would be strong against HOLY monsters, not dark, which someone else said. The only reason I tested my panics on dark yetis was because someone said they tested panics on dark monsters and saw significantly higher damage. But if panic causes darkness, it would be strong against holy, which means...weak against dark! This would explain my significantly lower damage to dark yetis with panic. Now the question is, what monsters are holy? Are there any?

[cherion]

So...What comes after Panic?

[narc]

I'm pretty sure dark-weakness doesnt exist, as of yet, at least

[macrsp]

You would think that something like Fierrys might be, but no. If there was a darkness element at the time, the way it would have to work would be an advantage against non-dark monsters and a disadvantage against dark creatures. I still think its the MDef or the level difference though. If you were interested, you could try seeing if you could hit PW for more or less then you could hit Grims (as a example that should be exactly the same regardless of 'darkness element'), or Bains more or less then Grims or PW.