Useless Useful Spell: Difference between revisions

# The effect is something which only becomes significant after surviving a battle. Poison is often far too slow to make a difference during [[Random Encounters]], but you have to cure it or take constant damage even when not fighting.

# They are replaced by spells that effectively do the same thing and more later on in the game, for example, any status healing spell can be replaced by a "heal-all" spell.

 

Of course, when any enemy possesses such spells, [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|they will invariably be effective when used on you]], unless you happen to be wearing a type of armor that protects against such attacks or status effects.

Most character classes made up of [[Status Buff|buff]]/[[Standard Status Effects|debuff]] effects like this tend to be much [[Spoony Bard|less popular than others]] for these reasons. However, it's averted with relative frequency; many games do allow for some very effective use of traditionally "Useless" spells. One trick is to pair up the effect with a normal attack, meaning that if the spell misses, the player still deals damage. Other games, especially the more strategic ones, make these spells useful by having genuine [[Elite Mooks]] who are dangerous in battle but without such immunities, or simply by having base [[Mooks]] be more credible opponents.

 

 

 

[[Super-Trope]] to [[Contractual Boss Immunity]]. Compare [[Awesome but Impractical]]. Contrast with the [[Inverse Law of Utility and Lethality]], where the more powerful something is in combat, the less it is outside of it.

** The Orb of Imposition's penalty now only applies to one saving throw. There are other saving throw penalties that you can apply to all saves, but not enough to make the save impossible (and thus permanently lock the enemy down).

** 3.5 ed Cleric spells like Righteous Might and Divine Power tend to fall into this category. A fully buffed Cleric is perhaps the most deadly close combat fighter in the game, but by the time you're finished casting spells, the fight is almost over anyway. Now, if you have time to plan your attack, then it's another matter entirely...

** Specific example: ''Detect Undead''. [[Detect Evil]] is of the same level and lasts 10 times as long and picks up every undead creature (even the ones of good alignment). The only saving grace detect undead has is that it appears on the wizards spell list as well.

*** ''Detect Undead'' also detects Deathless, which show up as Good instead of Evil - so it's not ''completely'' useless... Why anyone who worries about Undead would also worry about Deathless is another matter entirely.

** ''Wish'' often seems like is should be treated as a Useless Useful Spell, as it's traditional for the DM to scrutinize all wishes for [[Jackass Genie|ways to punish]] the wisher. [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]...

*** There are, however, "stock" uses for Wish (and its divine cousin Miracle) which are reliable and usually not subject to any [[Jerkass Genie]] tendencies the DM may have. These include permanent stat boosts (expensive as hell, but worth it for high level characters), the creation of magic items (though by now you can probably craft them yourself with less XP cost), and duplicating pretty much any lower level spell. That last one is why high level spellcasters ''love'' to have a Wish or Miracle available. Sure, trading a 9th level spell for an 8th or lower level one sounds like a lousy deal, but the fact that it can grant access to spells you don't have prepared, don't know, or aren't even available to your class makes it a great tool in an emergency.

** Also, there are very powerful weapons called meltas that basically take any vehicle or [[Elite Mook]] and melt them into slag. However, nearly all meltas in the game have a 12" range (pretty much the shortest range outside of some irregular Tyranid ones) and only obtain their extra armour penetration ability within half that. While Space Marines with insane defenses can quite happily walk up to an enemy Heavy Support unit and annihilate it with one of these, more physically frail units like Eldar will often find themselves floored by [[More Dakka|the entire enemy's weapons]] before they can fire them.

** Pinning is worse off. Blast and Melta weapons have limitations that can be overcome, as the [[Tank Goodness|tank-happy]] Imperial Guard are happy to demonstrate. Pinning requires that the enemy is vulnerable to it. Most armies have either a preponderance of Fearless units ([[The Corruption|Chaos Marines]], [[The Legions of Hell|Chaos Daemons]], [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Tyranids]], [[The Usual Adversaries|Orks]]), very high Leadership ([[Badass Army|Space Marines]], [[Our Elves Are Different|Eldar, Dark Eldar]]), or else use many small units of infantry who rely on tanks for their big hitters ([[Redshirt Army|Imperial Guard]]). Ironically, one of the few armies vulnerable to Pinning, the [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Tau]], are its biggest users.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]]'' has the ''Dementation'' discipline "Vision of Death" and the ''Dominate'' disciplines "Suicide" and "Mass Suicide", all of which kill human and lesser Sabbat [[Mooks]] instantaneously. They do not, however, have the same effect on tougher foes, and using such powers against them is pretty much pointless.

** Although one boss-level opponent (Chastity, a [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Slayer]] type, can be one-shotted with Vision of Death, ''if'' you catch her before she's braced for combat (and a Malkavian can). If you're not putting points towards guns, don't have Bedlam yet, and are ''[[Stealth Run|still]]'' feeling violent, there are also ambushes where it's a solid alternative to trying for stealth kills.

** The Gravity/Demi spells in almost any ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' suffer from a similar, if not quite identical, problem. Gravity spells cannot traditionally kill your enemy -- it deals a percentage of their current health as damage, usually in increments of 10% or 25%. Theoretically, this is very useful for bosses and strong enemies -- however, both of these tend to be resistant or immune to gravity. When they're not, though, it's often quite effective. It was also one of the best spells in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' since it could work on several enemies in close quarters and would pull them to the ground and immobilize them; in the sequel, however, it was removed and replaced with the Magnet spell, one with somewhat more obvious uses.

*** The Demi series, surprisingly, works against [[Final Fantasy VII|Emerald]] [[Bonus Boss|WEAPON]]. Since Emerald has, literally, [[Marathon Boss|a million hit points]], you'll do [[Cap|9,999]] damage with it on nearly every turn, and when it starts inflicting less than 9,999 it means you're almost there.

* ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' and its sequel. Bosses were invariably immune, petrification and disintegration would destroy your enemy's loot as well, and silencing was ''particularly'' useless, as every enemy wizard would immediately cast the "Vocalize" counterspell. Of course, ''you'' had to make sure to be protected against all of this; helmets of Charm Protection were indispensable. However, there were exceptions; debuff spells like "Dispel Magic" were indispensable even in your hands, since many of the bosses and mini-bosses of the game were spellcasters with so many protective spells stacked on that they were literally invulnerable without their aid. Furthermore, in the first game many of the bosses can be Charmed and even forced to kill themselves with their own spells.

** To counteract this, several spells exist solely for making enemies more vulnerable to magic, occasionally making the Useless Useful Spell, well, useful. If you're enough [[Crazy Prepared]] with spells of "Lower Resistance" ([[Self Explanatory]]) and "Greater Malison" (lower save rolls) then you can kill pretty much anything except the [[Big Bad]] and [[The Undead]] with a single "Finger Of Death" spell.

** Most boss fights in [[Baldurs Gate 2]] and [[Throne of Bhaal]] are almost puzzle-like in nature, in that you need to figure out precisely what protections the boss is using, combined with innate abilities, in order to neutralize them. When you add the fact that many bosses have hidden immunities, that some of them bend or outright ignore the game rules, and that none of this is explained in the manual or anywhere in the game, it all adds up to a massive headache. In the end, it's usually easier to rely on the universal "dispel magic" spell (or even better, Inquisitor ability), summon creatures, and just whack everything with a big sword until it dies, rather than try to figure out the spell-counterspell tangle. Thankfully, in later games the whole system was somewhat simplified.

** The second game also introduced Power Words which induce a status effect (sleep, silence, stun, or death, depending on the spell) in a single target. However, they're ineffective against targets with too many hit points, and in this case "too many" generally means "enough to be worth using a spell slot on it". The best use of most Power Word spells is in conjunction with Spell Trap and Project Image to refill a wizard's spell slots, although even that can be done faster with Wish.

*** Drain health 100pt for 1 sec, on the other hand, is a [[Disc One Nuke]]. The victim gets the health back after a second, except if he died. Drain strength/agility/speed are also useful.

**** Certain Status Effects are the key to ultimate power. In particular, Weakness to Magic and Weakness to Fire/Frost/Shock. Combined, you can kill anything that vulnerable to it.

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' boss mobs are notorious for their immunity to crowd control spells like polymorph, shackle, and fear.

** And often using more powerful variations of those spells. One particular boss parodies mages by turning the whole raid into sheep at low mana, and then sitting down to drink (which restores mana). The effect cannot be broken like the regular spell either, and even works on most druid forms, even though they are immune to polymorph. Another boss uses an area fear with such a wide range that only casters and hunters with the right talent to increase their range can avoid getting caught in it.

* ''[[Etrian Odyssey]]'' manages to mostly avoid this trope (see Aversions below), but the Beast class suffers from a severe case of this trope with their Loyalty skill, which makes a Beast take a blow for any other available party member. The problem? Loyalty makes Beasts take damage depending on the Defense-stat of the character they're defending, as opposed to their own Defense <ref> So if your Beast is defending, say, an [[Squishy Wizard|Alchemist]], they'll take more damamge than if they were blocking a [[Stone Wall|Protector]] from the same attack</ref>. This ends up damaging the Beast-class as a whole, as some of the Beast skills require mastery of Loyalty to some degree.

** The [[Whip It Good|Dark Hunters]] can learn a skill named Ecstasy: when maxed out, it has a 100% chance of automatically killing any enemy that is affected by all three kinds of Bind effects (Head, Arms, and Legs). This ''would'' be an aversion, as surprisingly few enemies are resistant to OHKO-moves, except that all four of those skills need to be maxed out to be reliable, and by the time they are, you can just outright kill a monster using the individual skills as opposed to depending on Ecstasy. Fortunately, there's Climax...

** Also in ''Red Alert'', the Soviet Iron Curtain is somewhat useless, as it can only make a single tank or building invincible for a short period of time. Also corrected in Red Alert 2, the Iron Curtain then has the ability to protect up to 9 tanks, flak tracks, or terror drones.

*** The Iron Curtain can protect a valuable building that is in imminent danger of being destroyed, such as a Construction Yard, which can buy you time to kill off the invading force or repair it. Another (more fun) strategy is to send a M.A.D. tank towards an enemy base or attack force, and just as it reaches firing range, use the Iron Curtain to keep it from being prematurely destroyed since it's too slow to reach a target on its own armor. Place it in the prime center of devastation and deploy it - if it's still under the Curtain, it won't actually explode and damage everything until right after the effect fades, giving the enemy no chance to actually counter it.

** This leads to a very rewarding experience if you play the Dominator class. Dominators rely on status ailments to disable foes while dealing decent damage and even get a [[Super Mode]] to make their status effects harder to resist. When properly built, Dominators are the only class that can overcome an Archvillain's status protection by themselves (Controllers can also achieve this feat, but it usually takes 2 or 3 of them).

** ''[[City of Heroes]]'' support effects are very powerful indeed, however, their power is mitigated by the sheer number of opponents you face. It's ludicrously easy to debuff a [[Mook]] into oblivion, then again, your average solo mission pits you against groups of 3 to 10 bad guys at the same time (depending on the faction you're fighting). Numbers are exponentially larger for group endeavors and boss battles. Note also that direct damage is equally over the top - any class (properly built) can pretty much turn a roomfull of Minions into chunky goop in a flash. The real challenge of any mission is always the boss fight, not the slosh through the hordes of faceless goons. Par for the course in a superhero game, innit ?

*** It's much easier to actually mezz a boss in a raid situation, which are only possible in the field. Since all Mezz effects stack, enough Controllers or Dominators (Or Warshades, or Fortunatas, Or...) could hold the Hamidon, if not for very long. (Indeed, prior to it's revamp, this was a ''requirement'' in order to keep the raid from wiping).

* The Death Spell in ''Seiken Densetsu 3'' deals 999 damage (the damage cap) and can be used on bosses, but it only works on enemies that are at a lower level than the caster. The only character class that learns the spell can already OHKO most regular enemies with cheaper elemental spells, and if you're ever at a higher level than a boss, you've probably level grinded enough to not even need the Death Spell.

* ''[[Shining Force]] 2'' gives you the "death" spell, at a late point in the game where most of the enemies you'll be fighting are undead or demons, both immune to that. Of course, it does work perfectly well on the player party.

** Desoul (the aforementioned instant death spell) shows up in the original ''[[Shining Force]]'' as well, and is a fair bit more effective on enemies. Instead, the spell Muddle literally does ''nothing'' in the original game, but in the second is a style of confusion spell that can be at times quite amusing. Not that it's any more accurate than it was before.

* Used in ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' in the form of the "Projection" magecraft, which allows users to create objects out of their own [[Mana]]. However, since it relies on the user's own image of the object, the result is always degraded from the original and disappears eventually. Basically, "if you know everything about the object and its material composition, why not just ''get'' the resources and physically make it?" However, it is also from this "useless" spell that the protagonist [[Field of Blades|gains his powers]].

** Technically, he's cheating {{spoiler|because he's not even using "Projection" magecraft in the first place, as he's actually using an application of a Reality Marble.}}

** Although they do give nice experience even when they miss.

** In Radiant Dawn, the Sleep Staff is a definite aversion: You're given one in an Info Conversation on [[That One Level|Chapter 3-13]]... given the [[Rogue Protagonist|boss of that chapter]] [[Game Breaker|is the strongest unit in the game]], [[Hopeless Boss Fight|and he gets much stronger back up on turn 10]], you pretty much have to take him out, before he kills you horribly, but has a very low RES stat, meaning he can be hit by the staff... it's pretty much your only hope.

* ''[[Mega Man X Command Mission]]'' suffers from this greatly, although spells are relegated to items. None of them will ever work...EVER unless they are attack or healing items.

* ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]'' plays this straight with the silver-magic "Instant Death" spells. Bosses use these (with [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|such high levels of success]]) so often that you must use Aika's magic-nullifying Delta Shield every single turn... which renders all your ''other'' spells useless! You're better off just using items, since they can replicate magic effects, cost no SP to use, bypass the Delta Shield and are [[Money for Nothing|piss-easy to acquire]].

* The online RPG ''[http://www.rinkworks.com/vault Murkon's Refuge]'' has many high-level spells that attempt to paralyze, silence, or even instantly kill entire monster groups. Naturally, the highest dungeon levels are rife with monsters immune to these spells, especially the undead and the ones capable of paralyzing your front-row characters in a single hit. In a semi-subversion, you can actually retrain your characters into Assassins who can deliver similar instant-paralysis hits (without having to use MP!) and even instant-death critical hits (at least on the non-immune monsters). Plus, you can make your own characters immune to paralysis if you boost their armor class enough.

* Mesmers in ''[[Guild Wars]]'' are dangerous in [[PvP]] due to their ability to drain their opponent's energy and disable their skills. In [[Player Versus Environment|PvE]], however, enemies rarely show detrimental effects from energy denial (making such skills typically used for their secondary effects if at all) while powerful bosses are typically immune to skill disabling (as they would be too easily rendered helpless otherwise).

** Hexes still work, though. Actually, they work better in [[Player Versus Environment|PVE]] because the AI is too stupid to stop attacking/casting through them.

** Conditions still work on bosses as well (though some bosses are only affected for half the stated duration). Daze is extremely helpful in Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North, since bosses get a 2x damage bonus.

** The Mirror Buster, which you get from Enker in the DLC, is ''awesome''. Sure it only creates a shield in front of you, but it costs nothing unless something actually hits it, in which case it sends back a powerful energy burst. Besides being great against Joes and Mets (and Punk and Enker himself), it works against things you wouldn't expect, like the Pointan's blocks and the big [[Frickin' Laser Beams]] fired by Sola 0.

*** For the record, the weapon showed up in the original [[Game Boy]] game as well, but there, it was compensated for by only showing up in the final level, and having to reserve it for the Wily Machine, which was weak to it.

** The key word there is ''"nearly".'' You are notably allowed to use magic against at least one boss- [[That One Boss|THAT one boss.]] Bloody Mary.

* In ''Legend of Legaia'', one of the Seru whose powers you can absorb is Nighto, and when used by one of your characters, has the power to either confuse or kill a single enemy. Sounds pretty good, right? Well...the chances of confusion actually working are fairly low (compounded by the fact that confusion, although doing exactly what one would expect in that it causes monsters to attack fellow monsters, tends to last only one turn on stronger beasts, much like other status changes in this game), and the chances of actually killing an opponent are almost nil. But, there's one glorious exception, and that's the ''very'' difficult mid-game boss Berserker, where Nighto's chances of instantly killing Berserker are actually quite good.

** Legaia's fairly bad about this, actually - the majority of your Seru (essentially your magic spells and main means of dealing out huge damage to bosses) will reduce enemy stats or have other such effects at higher levels... but typically kill normal enemies in one hit, and ''of course'' bosses are immune to these effects. And even if someone does bother to fight normal enemies, magic doesn't regenerate and boss fights are generally wars of attrition that involve healing spells ''every turn''... hope you stored a lot of mana poti- I mean mana leaves.

* ''[[Valkyrie Profile]] 2'' often had useful status effects against bosses - paralysis, Frailty (which stopped enemies from healing themselves) and some are even susceptible to ''Stone''.

* ''The Spirit Engine'' has a really vicious one. At first, the Life Drain spell seems really great - it deals the highest damage in the game, doesn't take too long to cast and completly bypasses any protection an enemy may have. And it really IS great for the majority of the game. {{spoiler|And then you come to the final two bosses. Not only are they two the [[That One Boss|worst difficulty spikes]] I've EVER seen, they're also completly immune to this spell. Since you likely sunk all your skill points into this spell, what with it looking like a gamebreaker, you'll be left with at least one useless character.}} Since combats are luck-indepentent in The Spirit Engine, you may have rendered your game unwinnable.

** Fortunately the skill system is set up so that unleveled skills are still ok if used in an appropriate situation, and you can't put more than half your points in one skill (unless you count putting the rest in HP/MP). The shield spells are still useful for the semifinal boss and the final boss's first and third forms. The problem is if you were so foolish as to rely on the spell that completely ignores armor as your main method of beating armor, because the final boss's ''second'' form has obscenely high damage resistance that half the game's attacks can barely dent, and shields are only useful as a backup plan if you fail to stop secondary attack--once. The game throws you a bone with [[The Cavalry]] showing up if you're losing with a strong attack... except there's no real way of protecting the guy and his health will not last through the battle. The author learned his lesson and in the next game the only boss that has damage soak higher than the stronger normal enemies is an optional fight.

* Bombchu in the Gameboy Color ''Zelda'' games. In the N64 games they could ''sometimes'' be useful to hit far-off bomb sites that a normal bomb can't reach, and ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass|Phantom Hourglass]]'' made their use essential, but ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages|The Legend of Zelda Oracle Games]]''? You'll never need them. Ever. They're completely pointless. Worse, you can only get them by completing ALL of one game and at least a significant portion of the other. By the time you get them, you don't need them.

** The Bombchus in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'' are equally useless...What they work best for (hitting far away or otherwise hard to reach targets) could be handled much more easily and quickly by just combining regular bombs with arrows for exploding arrows.

* ''Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships'' contains a particularly egregious example. In one of the most involved and lengthy quests you can eventually gain a special item that allows you to resurrect any of your companions who get killed in combat (and who, given the game's relatively realistic setting, would otherwise be [[Final Death|gone for good]]). Sounds great, except for the fact that raising them makes all items in their inventory disappear, which means that, assuming you can even ''carry'' all that additional weight, you have to loot the corpse first before you resurrect your companion, and afterwards give all the stuff back to the crewman in question, and all that in one of the worst inventory systems ever conceived in a computer game. In short, rather than actually ''use'' the ability it's easier to choose the lesser of two annoyances and simply load a saved game, hoping the bugger won't die this time.

* ''[[Legacy of Kain]]: [[Soul Reaver]]'' has glyph spells. They're only attainable by completing increasingly complicated side-levels (some of which would be nigh-impossible without a strategy guide). Since the bosses are all puzzle-fights (figure out their one weakness, which always involves environmental weapons), the glyphs are useless against them. In addition, the "magic points" necessary to use them are limited and hidden. On top of that, only two of the 6 glyphs could consistently kill normal enemies. The only reasons to actually use them are laziness (they restrain/kill enemies in a large area), gratification for completing the ridiculous puzzles necessary to find them, and because they look cool.

* In ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'', The Sandman was subject to a lot of complaints and balance changes. Eventually, Valve made a drastic change by removing the full stun (except at the maximum range) and replacing it with a "scared" animation that disabled weaponry and reduced movement speed. Due to a bug, however, the 'stunned' players could still fire their weapon. Once that was fixed, however, it became a pretty balanced sidegrade.

* The Scrambler perk in ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2''. In theory, it lets you jam enemy radars, so that they won't know where you and your teammates are. In practice, it tells them exactly how close you are, and they can still read their radar perfectly fine until you're very close. There's also a killstreak reward called the Counter-UAV, which does it much better and with no drawbacks.

* The Cure and Detoxify spells in ''[[Ragnarok Online]]''. The former cures [[Standard Status Effects|Blind, Confusion, and Silence,]] while the latter cures Poison. Both spells are covered under a single, dirt-cheap, Green Potion purchasable at Tool Dealers in almost every town.

* Thrown rocks in ''[[Ancient Domains of Mystery]]'' are an inversion of this: even to low-level player characters, they are usually just a nuisance, while they remain a very useful weapon for player characters of every level. The latter is because missile damage in ADOM is primarily dependent on the fixed damage bonus that grows with experience, with negligible hit dice (1d4 for rocks) from the missile itself.

* Devastatingly averted in [[Jade Empire]]. Not only are the status-affecting "Support Styles" useful all the way up through the game (even on the [[Big Bad]]) but they cost no chi or focus to use, unlike the Magic and Weapon styles. Demons are immune to them, but of the two demon bosses in the entire game, one is a [[Puzzle Boss]] while the other is optional.

** Hell, Storm Dragon is pretty much a [[Game Breaker]]!

** Averted in the final battle, where [[Big Bad|Khrima]] is not immune to {{spoiler|Slow}}.

* Also parodied in [http://rpgworldcomic.com/d/20030528.html this] [[RPG World]] strip.

* Many relatively early [[RPG|RPGs]], like ''Wizardry'' and ''Might & Magic'', were created before this trope came into vogue, and are noticeably lacking it. By inheritance, games modeled after them, like ''[[Etrian Odyssey]]'', also tend to lack it, for the most part.

** In ''Wizardry'', the easiest way to kill Werdna was a critical hit from a Ninja. His escort of Vampire Lords tended to give you more trouble.

* Averted almost entirely in the ''[[Pokémon]]'' series. Most status-changing abilities are usually effective. If they aren't, it's either because it's a One-Hit KO move (Fissure), or it's because the status effect is an unexpected bonus (Ice Beam). Not only that but the "bosses" in Pok&Atilde;©mon are simply leveled-up versions of those you find in the wild, meaning that Confuse Ray will work just as well on the Gym leader's level 50 Alakazam as it did on that level 3 Abra you found in the grass. Provided the Abra don't immediately use 'Teleport' after you attack it, [[Metal Slime|little bastards]].

** Unfortunately, the Stadium sidegames do have a rather awful variant of this, where the odds of it working and wearing off have been altered severely, as have the hit accuracies of everything, and the evasion chance, and the critical hit chance. Worse, [[Finagle's Law|they've been altered both in your opponent's favor and against your own at the same time]]. [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|Opponents can slaughter your team with moves that are supposed have 30% hit chance, and any status effect they hit you with will generally last the max duration or kick in far more than it should]] (or both, in the case of confusion. It can last up to eight turns and has an on-paper one in four chance of causing the Pokemon to attack itself rather than the opponent. Naturally, many of the later opponent Pokemon have a move causing this.) Meanwhile, in the unlikely event your status effect move hits, the effect rarely activates or the Pokemon shakes it off within a turn.

*** Although Feint is still a high priority move, like Quick Attack and the like, moreso, it deals more damage than Quick Attack.

** Due to [[Game Breaking Bug|Game Breaking Bugs]] in the first generation Focus Energy, instead of quadrupling your chance of a [[Critical Hit]], ''quartered'' it.

** There's also a move called "Attract", which sets a status that makes the opponent fail to attack 50% of the time. However, the move only works on Pokemon of the opposite gender, it doesn't work at all on Pokemon with no gender (like Porygon or most legendaries), and is cured by removing the affected Pokemon or the one that used the move from battle. Attract can be useful, but only in combination with with other moves (that also decrease the chance of successfully moving) it stacks with. At least one official match, Venus in Colosseum, uses it to good effect.)

*** Attract becomes [[Game Breaker|entirely the opposite]] in the first two [[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]] games, however, where they just ignored gender completely. As such, [[Everyone Is Bi|it works on every single Pokemon]], including legendaries, and it also prevents them from attacking 100% of the time rather than 50%. This was fixed in the later Mystery Dungeon games, which give Pokemon genders like in the main series.

** Players who do most of their battling either in-game or in casual matches (where the simplest - and often best - strategy is to simply spam super effective attacks) with friends might be surprised to find out that, in the serious competitive [[Metagame]], ''tons'' of attacks that get a passing glance in casual matches are practically ways of life. Moves like [[Standard Status Effects|Thunder Wave and Spore]] go from just being used to catch Pokemon to the preferred method of crippling the opposing team, and fellow status moves Will-O-Wisp and Toxic join them to inflict passive damage on hugely defensive Pokemon (or in the former's case, to effectively neuter physical attackers). [[Status Buff|Swords Dance, Nasty Plot, Dragon Dance, and their ilk]] are the standard for lategame sweeping. Moves like Substitute, Knock Off, Leech Seed, U-Turn, and a host of others that [[Difficult but Awesome|take some practice to learn to use properly]] can ''wreck entire teams'' if played correctly. And then there's entry hazards, one of which (Stealth Rock) is such a ubiquitous and dangerous move that an otherwise fantastic Pokemon can be reduced to a joke if it has a weakness to Rock types.

* In ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'', you'll notice that none of your spells affect status, though there are the requisite [[Status Buff]] spells - ''very'' useful. Instead, the status-changing effects (from the second game on) are equipped to your attacks, similar to Junction. Delay works surprisingly often against bosses, Petrify and Instant Death help a great deal against [[Demonic Spiders]], and even if they don't trigger, you still get your attack and don't use up MP.

* In ''[[The 7th Saga]]'', spells like Vacuum1 and Defense2 are very useful.

** Unless, of course, you try and use them on a boss (which are immune to them ), the three overpowered mooks (Despair, Doom, and Reaper), and any apprentice you're fighting. Yes, that means that every playable character EXCEPT the one(s) in the party is immune to them, and that an ally you recruit will lose said immunity when they join you and regain it when they leave you.

* Averted in ''[[Earthbound]]''. While some enemies are immune to certain ailments, they will always be open to at least one kind. Several bosses can be put to sleep or paralyzed with ease, the sixth "Sanctuary" boss can be killed instantly with PSI Flash, and even the final boss is capable of being frozen or feel strange from the Brainshock spell.

** Case in point {{spoiler|the second Sanctuary boss is vulnerable to Paralysis, making that whole cave a rush to beat him, then taking advantage of the cowardly enemies to level grind Paula}}.

** The useless ''Pray'' spell that more than often cursed your party with a negative ailment? {{spoiler|You need to use it during the final fight with Giygas.}}

* Heavily averted in [[Dragon Age]]: Origins. Many of the status effect spells actually have a reasonable chance of working even on tougher enemies, some have effects which apply even if they are resisted, and many of the difficult fights involve a group of enemies instead of a single untouchable one. There are also several spells which deal good damage in addition to a status effect - the fireball spell, for example, has a chance to knock people over when it explodes.

** Except for Crushing Prison, which will nearly never hold down very tough bosses (orange names), but Force Field will.

** There is one shining example in the form of 'Curse of Mortality', which inflicts minor DoT and prevents healing. Extremely dangerous in enemy hands but useless to the Player since few enemies can heal anyway and it only affects a single target.

*** Though in an interesting twist this spell is absolutely critical to defeating Gaxx'kang the unstoppable bonus boss. Otherwise it is a brutal dawn out brawl in which he heals and you feel pain.

** In the older IMOQ quadrilogy, debuffing pesky enemies with paralyze or sleep becomes pretty much ''the'' most efficient ways to dispatch regular enemies. Particularly the lethal Lich series of mobs which is fast, casts very deadly spells, and can be summarily executed by putting it to Sleep first and then hacking it to bits (due to its low physical def stat).

** The [[Bonus Boss]] Odin. He's got lethal hit-all attacks, and will insta-kill you in 60 seconds. He is not, however, immune to the "Break" petrification-effect. Trying to hit him with the actual "Break" spell won't be very effective, however, due to its inherent low hit-rate. The solution is to use the "[[Magic Knight]]" job, which can enhance a sword with a magical spell, activate "Break Blade", and finish Odin with a [[Single-Stroke Battle|single attack]].

*** The Bio spell at first glance appears to be a typical poison spell. However, even if an enemy cannot be poisoned, Bio is the most powerful spell available for the majority of the game and does about 40% more damage than the second-level elemental spells.

*** Hilariously, L5 Death works on bosses (provided their level is divisible by 5). DarkShock (halves the target's level and does some rounding if necessary) also works as does L2 Old (gives the target a debuff that gradually lowers their level). So with proper timing, almost any boss can be taken out by L5 Death.

*** One of the bosses in the Final Dungeon is a Blue Mage. If you attack him with Exploder, he will use it on his next turn, effectively committing suicide.

** ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' will rarely let you land a status effect on bosses, but features several random encounters that showcase your immobilizing status effects. Most standard enemies that counter your attacks are vulnerable to Stop, Hold, or Edge's Pin -- and many (such as the instant-death-happy Coeurl) will demolish you if you don't.

*** Additionally, Reflect will usually land on bosses -- usually because it's ''their'' strategy, but you can apply it to them yourself. This seems counterintuitive, but it bounces heals and buffs as well as offensive spells. This is in fact the key strategy to defeating Asura, who spams high-level heals on herself and counters hard enough that you ''really'' want them landing on you instead.

*** [[Final Fantasy VI]] also has both magic and random encounters and magic that are more powerful than usual, and one counters the other. Single status effects aren't practical, but AoE spells like slowga, banish or graviga, and the flash tool can be quite useful. In addition, many bosses are vunerable to slow, including the mighty Ultima/Atma Weapon.

*** Several appendages of the final boss are vulnerable to the Death spell, a fact used in at least one [[Self-Imposed Challenge|low-level run]]'s strategy.

** ''Final Fantasy VIII'' averts this trope HARD when played right. Though most bosses will not fall to sudden death, they have at least a small chance of becoming poisoned, confused, etc, and as always, Revive Kills Zombie. But you would still have to do the spell quite a few times and use them from your stocks to get the effect, right? No. Junction 100 of a status spell to your ST-ATK-J (Status-Attack-Junction) and, considering all the physical attacking you'll be doing, you're almost guaranteed to get the effect on the boss.

** ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' in general is an aversion, since only a couple enemies in the game are immune to all status ailments. {{spoiler|Both forms of final boss Orphan are shining examples. The first form, which otherwise treads into [[That One Boss]] / [[Luck-Based Mission]] territory with its ability to instant-KO your leader, can be utterly destroyed with Poison. And in an homage to ''[[Final Fantasy Legend]]''/''[[SaGa]]'', if you can get the final form to stagger, and have Vanille use her full ATB-gauge ability, Death, on it...it ''actually works''.}}

*** In fact, it's probably safe to say that if an enemy's [[Enemy Scan|Libra scan]] says it's "susceptible to [Insert Status Name Here]", it roughtly translates as "if you don't use said status, [[That One Boss|YOU. WILL. DIE.]]"

** The easiest way to defeat ''[[Final Fantasy XIII-2]]'''s [[Bonus Boss]] {{spoiler|Caius}} in the postgame? {{spoiler|Use the series' newest spell Wound for 12 minutes to [[Cherry Tapping|cherry tap]] him down to about 25% of his Max HP, and then just beat him to death.}}

*** Similarly, what is normally [[That One Boss]] in ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'', the {{spoiler|Earth Guardian}}, is a pantywaist if you hit him with Quina's Bad Breath spell. He subverts this trope heavily, being vulnerable to most of Bad Breath's effects, making it much easier to kill him. As the icing on the proverbial cake, said boss can also be eaten.

** The various modes of {{spoiler|[[Final Fantasy X|Seymour]]}} tend to be just as immune to status effects as any of the other bosses. However, most of {{spoiler|his forms}} (first, second, and third fights) are trivialized by using Yuna's Nul-spells carefully (since Scan tells you what order he spams elemental spells), abusing Reflect (which {{spoiler|he}} doesn't dispel in a fight until the third fight, and then only every fourth turn), and Lulu's Bio spell--poison is incredibly effective in this game, taking out a fourth of the target's maximum HP (unless the 1/4th of the target's HP is ''still'' more than [[Cap|9999]]) if they can be affected by poison at all. Other than that, just keep whacking away like you would with any normal enemy.

*** Also, poisoning the "pet" in fight 3 is an easy way to get the boss to kill itself.

** Likewise, very few of XII's Marks are immune to all status effects. Usually, you can find one that cripples an otherwise massively powerful mark (exampe: use Berserk on the Mindflayer).

** Vexen can even inflict freezing with his melee combos.

** Stop is one way to kill Black Mushrooms in the first ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' game. A very effective way at that.

** At higher levels in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', Gravity becomes a very useful attack, especially against [[Elite Mooks]] like the Behemoth. Continually cating Gravity on his horn will deplete his health far faster then keyblade combos will, at least when he still has high HP. Also, during the [[No-Gear Level]] sequence, Gravity is the only damage-dealing spell that still does useful damage, since it's percentage based, and not based on Sora's Magic stat.

*** By the time you've got Magnega, there isn't a single basic enemy that will honestly last more than 5 seconds against you if you use it right. And it actually affects {{spoiler|Sephiroth}} ''and'' {{spoiler|Xemnas}}. Magnega = Broken.

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]] Birth By Sleep'' inverts this trope vis-a-vis status effects so hard it may be subverting it. Status effects on any of your three heroes make for a rare, mildly annoying experience. Meanwhile, the myriad status spells available to the player from very, very early on in all three modes will utterly devastate the vast majority of [[Mook|Mooks]], turning, say, a quartet of the toughest the game has to offer into helpless punching bags. And while lots of the bosses have some form of [[Contractual Boss Immunity]], few of them are immune to ''everything''. {{spoiler|Vanitas}} getting you down? Magnet or Zero Gravity. Braig being a [[Jerkass]]? Burn him up, poison him, or just put him to sleep. Zack making you frown? Freeze him solid. Hook causing problems? Give him a whole host of them, he's only immune to ''three''. In short: Having trouble with ''Birth By Sleep''? There's a status for that.

* Most bosses in ''[[Touhou Project|Labyrinth of Touhou]]'' are pretty vulnerable to debuffs and status effects (though some are immune and some are more vulnerable than others). A good thing, as you really NEED those debuffs and statuses to stand a chance at winning most of the time... Also, random encounters on later floors can be difficult enough that it's imperative to have a fast character paralyze them before they can act so slower attackers can dismantle them without worrying about getting hit.

* [[Sands of Destruction]], although it tends to go in and out of this trope. Buffs are ''highly'' useful. One of the best abilities in the game, though? Naja's Cleansing Cry...because when the enemies buff ''themselves'', they can get to be ''VERY'' annoying and wipe out an unbuffed party while dodging ''everything'' that gets thrown at them. Debuffs? Meh...you can just wipe 'em out.

* Averted in ''[[Nethack]]''; once you've learned "Finger of Death", that's all the offensive magic you'll ever need.

** Provided, of course, you have reflection. If you don't, and happen to run across something that DOES, it's [[Yet Another Stupid Death]].

* [[The Last Remnant]] easily averts this trope by simply having all status spells and items deal damage as well. There are few magic spells that don't cause some type of status ailment, in addition to causing damage. The staus ailments themselves are quite useful: poison does a decent amount of damage, while sealing an enemy's mystic and combat arts greatly reduces their offensive capabilities.

* [[Vampires Dawn]]: In both games, using the Suck Blood ability (which has no costs and also refills part of your blood pool for further magics) causes a Bleed status effect that damages enemy health every turn in a percental value...and it lasts the entire fight. It also affects nearly every enemy, except for those that logically do not have blood, golems and such. Of which there are not many anyway. Needless to say, using Suck Blood on a tougher boss in the first turn is a VERY useful way to kill them quickly.