Rakuyo's Onmyo Magic Build | nioh Wiki

Rakuyo's Onmyo Magic Guide

Rakuyo's Onmyo Magic Guide

My discussion on how to best utilize the powerful arsenal of Onmyo Magic.

Description

Magic is the favorite Stat of many players, both new and advanced, and for good reason. Being adept at Onmyo Magic grants a lot more options in battle, and the Magic stat can increase the performance of weapons with Change to Attack (Magic) and armor with Change to Defence (Magic) like Onmyo Mage's Joe. Such traits can also be found on Accessories. Two great spells that may be acquired right away are Divination Talisman and Oasis Talisman. Divination Talisman pinpoints nearby enemies on your compass, and also points out treasures and Kodamas, that are otherwise very hard to find. It's also recommended that you pick one elemental weapon buff, like Talisman: Lightning or Talisman: Wind. These talismans add about 10-15% extra elemental damage to your close combat attacks, and allow you to stack an elemental Status Effect. Different enemies have different elemental weaknesses and resists, but the main attraction is the elemental Status Effect. Wind inflicts a powerful attack debuff on enemies, Lightning slows down enemy attacks and movement, Water increases the damage enemies take from physical attacks, Earth increases Ki damage inflicted and Fire causes damage over time. Inflicting an enemy with two elemental effects at once causes the Confusion effect. Confusion greatly drops an enemy's defence and makes the enemy stagger from every attack. This trick can be pulled on every boss in the game, and is the number one strategy for boss killing. Other powerful spells that can acquired right away are Devigorate Talisman, Weakness Talisman, Steel Talisman and Guardian Spirit Talisman. Devigorate Talisman places a powerful attack debuff on an enemy, is more straightforward than stacking Wind damage, and really helps with tough enemies and bosses. Weakness Talisman drops enemy physical defenses, and is more straightforward and more powerful than the Water physical defence debuff. Steel Talisman raises your physical defence in a significant way.

Guardian Spirit Talisman offers a unique spell for every Guardian Spirit you can equip, and can be extremely powerful or really weak depending on which Guardian Spirit you got equipped. The most powerful effect available in the early game is Fuse-Ushi. Fuse-Ushi is capable of knocking down everything but the largest enemies in Nioh. When you knock an enemy down (and this works on bosses as well) you can go for a highly damaging Killing Strike, which is what makes Fuse-Ushi so powerful. Other great Guardian Spirit Talisman Effects come from: Paired Raiken, Narikama Tanuki, Shinka, Atlas Bear, Saoirse, Nekomata, Blue Dragon and Nurarihyon. The weakest Guardian Spirit Talisman Effects come from: Isonade, Hi-Nezumi, Itokuri, Usura-Hicho, Yatagarasu, Izuna and Tengen Kujaku.

Once you get to Novice level you can acquire Carnage Talisman,  Lifeseal Talisman, Extraction Talisman, various elemental Shot spells and various elemental Stop spells. You can also invest in the Inanimate Enchantment passive, the Incantation Mastery passive, and you can acquire more uses for the spells you could get before Novice level. Carnage Talisman is a powerful attack buff that many players use, but unfortunately doesn't stack with Summer Twilight.  Lifeseal Talisman is a Ki recovery debuff that's really handy against Human enemies and Revenants, but not that useful against Yokai. Extraction Talisman is used to trigger Amrita Absorption effects (like those of Fuse-Ushi or Tengen Kujaku), which gets really effective at high levels. The Shot Talismans are mostly helpful against enemies that are weak to elemental damage, like Lesser Umi-bozus or Sentries, but simply don't offer the amount of uses needed to play Nioh as a ranged mage. Elemental Stop Talismans can be really helpful if you know what you're up against. They reduce elemental damage from the specified element by about 50%, which is really handy against bosses like Nue and Umi-Bozu.

At Adept level, you can acquire one of the main attractions of the Onmyo Mage path, and that is Talisman: Sloth. Talisman: Sloth reduces enemy attack and movement speed by about 50%, making it a staple for bosses and other tough enemies. You can also acquire third tier elemental spells, but you'll only get two uses, which means they're not very useful just yet. At Veteran level you can get 3 versions of every Onmyo Magic spell and passive, and you can start making proper use of third tier elemental spells. My favorite third tier elemental spells are Talisman: Gale Shot and Talisman: Thunderstorm Shot. Gale Shot is really good for stacking a Wind debuff on bosses and large enemies, while Thunderstorm Shot is a short range wave that deals heavy armor piercing damage to all enemies in front of you. Once you have the points to spare you can start investing in the various passives that Onmyo Magic offers, like the various elemental Break passives, Pure Mind, Pure Heaven Cursed Earth, Panacea Curefast, Evil Ward and Shikisen Luck Rite. My preferred Mystic Art is Amplification.

A must have for an active Onmyo Mage is an Onmyo Mage Eboshi (headpiece), which dramatically increases your casting speed. This can however cause problems with unlocking Set Bonuses. It's therefore recommended you combine the Eboshi with a Yasakani Magatama (Set Bonus Requirement -1). It's also worth knowing that certain sets provide excellent damage bonuses linked to certain elements. These are: Ii, The Red Demon (Fire), (Water is strangely missing), Daiichi Daiman Daikichi (Wind), Warrior of the West (Lightning), The Heroic Raging Bull (Earth). There are also various Ethereal Grace Set Bonuses that target elemental damage and status effects.

Onmyo Magic Capacity caps at 30 (requires 30 in Magic), but it can be increased to 40 with Incantation Mastery.
Onmyo Magic Capacity can acquire another to a maximum of 51 (with Incantation Mastery), by unlocking Way of the Nioh and leveling Magic to 200.
Onmyo Magic Skill Points are gained from Onmyo Mage Locks (rare item) and by leveling Magic, see Stat Breakpoints for more information.
Onmyo Magic Power is a stat that very slowly increases the damage and duration of spells. It has very little bearing on the overall viability of spells.
"Amulets" are item versions of talismans, which unlike talismans, don't replenish when you pray at a Shrine.
Sometimes amulets have different names like Moment Talisman (Guardian Spirit Amulet) or Travel Amulet (Earthfolding Amulet)

Onmyo Magic I Like

• Devigorate Talisman
• Weakness Talisman
• Lifeseal Talisman
• Talisman: Sloth
• Talisman: Fire
• Talisman: Water
• Talisman: Wind
• Talisman: Lightning
• Talisman: Earth
• Waterstop Talisman
• Windstop Talisman
• Lightningstop Talisman
• Talisman: Explosive Shot
• Talisman: Gale Shot
• Talisman: Thunderstorm Shot
• Guardian Spirit Talisman
• Oasis Talisman
• Steel Talisman
• Carnage Talisman
• Extraction Talisman
• Firebreak (passive)
• Waterbreak (passive)
• Windbreak (passive)
• Lightningbreak (passive)
• Earthbreak (passive)
• Pure Mind (passive)
• Pure Heaven Cursed Earth (passive)
• Panacea Curefast (passive)
• Evil Ward (passive)
• Shikisen Luck Rite (passive)
• Inanimate Enchantment (passive)
• Incantation Mastery (passive)
• Amplification (Mystic Art)

Onmyo Magic I Don't Like

• Purging Talisman
• Sanctity Talisman
• Shockwave Talisman
• Rejuvenation Talisman
• Resistance Talisman
• Hermit Talisman
• Leeching Talisman
• Degeneration Talisman
• Reciprocity Talisman