Can anybody lend me a hand and tell which onmyo spells stay relevant up until the very end game? I kind of don't want to rely on stuff that falls off hard later. Obviously everything that buffs you or imbues your weapons should be good, but what about debuffs? Does stuff like sloth, weakness, lifesteal, devigorate etc stay strong later on?
The majority of what Onmyo has to offer stays relevant to the very end.
– Firestop/Lightningstop/Waterstop Talismans can be staples against many bosses. In particular, Lightningstop when fighting against the Lightning Gods Of Yomi can be of dramatic help.
– Fireshot/Lightningshot/Watershot Talismans increasingly need the backing of a solid build to be good offensive options, but in any case they are and remain one the quickest, most effective way to apply their corresponding ailment. If you build it right, you can fight entire maps and bosses using only these Shots, never using your weapon.
– Fire/Lightning/Water Shikigami are situational, but in the end requires a build entirely devoted to Onmyo in order to get good damage out of them.
– Explosive Shot/Geyser/Thunderstorm Talismans can be very good both for damage and applying ailments, but it can prove very difficult to get all the hits from Geyser and Thunderstorm to connect
– Fire/Lightning/Water Familiar Talismans can be used rather easily to steamroll many enemies and bosses. But I hate them; it's braindead gameplay and the visual clutter they add to an already visually busy game annoys me to no end.
– Devigorate Talisman is pretty much useless.
– Archyokai Talisman is either the most useless one or the most useful one. Its usefulness remains equal throughout the game, and depends entirely on your build. Almost nobody uses it, but in Dream Of The Nioh one of my builds needed it imperatively to get things started under certain conditions.
– Pleiades Talisman, well, same as the Archyokai one. If you use Yokai Shift a lot, it can integrated to great effect into a build. Otherwise, don't bother.
– Cutting Blast Talisman and Shockwave Talisman are meh to begin with and become worse still later on. Can be used somewhat effectively against human enemies, but it's finicky and too much effort for what they bring to the table.
– Weakness Talisman has some fuckery about it because for some reasons it gets overwritten by other debuffs like Saturation, but can be a solid way to increase your damage.
– Barrier Talisman is fantastic and stays that way. Huge bonus to Ki recovery and absolute invulnerability to some swarm attacks used by the likes of Tatarimokke and Itsumade. Though it makes you automatically dispel any Yokai pool you approach, so that can ruin certain builds.
– Resistance Talisman is meh, in my opinion. Later on, enemies tend to apply so much of something in one go that even with huge resistances and this talisman you'll suffer the ailment if you get hit.
– Sensory Overload Talisman can be awesome, but is highly,
highly situational and build-dependent.
– Oasis Talisman is mostly used in co-op or if you want to heal an npc. Situational and gimmicky, but why not.
– Rejuvenation is great in the beginning, great in the end, and great at any point between.
– Sloth Talisman can be very useful of course, but as you progress through the NG+ cycles, enemies—bosses especially—become more and more resistant to it.
– Protection Talisman can be a lifesaver if you don't get hit a lot but do get hit hard by one huge physical attack or another, but the protection it affords actually depends on your onmyo power, and I would definitely say that it's usefulness decreases as you progress through NG+ cycles.
– Steel Talisman is great if you get slapped around a lot. Arguably better than the Protection Talisman, and remains very good to the end.
– Blessed Bolt Talisman remain as useful as it is in the beginning, which is to say not a whole lot. It has its uses, but isn't fantastic by any means.
– Life Leech Talisman can be awesome if properly integrated into a build. Actually I'd say it's usefulness increases the further you go into the game if your build can use it well.
– Extraction Talisman is, funnily enough, better than the Life Leech Talisman when it comes to healing you, since at the end of the game it's very easy to get the 'Auto-Life Recovery (Amrita Absorption)' on a piece of equipment
