Does equippifire skill actually effect true fire rune, etc.?

[ericm]

Do the elemental skills actually effect their corresponding true (fire, water, lightning) users?

[eldrasidar]

yes, the relevant magic skills apply to the appropriate true rune. However, it's worth noting that True Fire, True Water, and True Lightning all have dramatically lower initial casting times than their lower level runes. So for example, casting soaring bolt with a Thunder rune takes a base MOV of 205, but with a True Lightning Rune, Soaring Bolt takes only a base MOV of 95. Basically this would mean that if you have a true rune with no magic skill, you're still casting as if you had about a B rank in that magic.

[ericm]

Interesting. Do you recommend, for example, if Hugo has true fire rune to give him the fire skill and level it all the way? or is this a waste?

[KFCrispy]

yes Hugo can certainly learn Fire magic and even use up equipment to boost the fire magic further and still be a powerful physical attacker. Hugo also has the awesome option of mounting Fubar to deal extreme physical damage and be almost unkillable...

[eldrasidar]

with any rune, it's always worth leveling up the relevant magic skill as much as possible. Since it is possible and not very hard to interrupt spellcasting in this game, it is always good to get your spells off early. Having a high rank in magic skills makes you cast low level spells nearly instantaneously, which makes them essentially uncounterable/avoidable, and will also let you cast higher level spells at a speed that is often faster than anything your opponent can cast. With fire magic rings and a wizard hat it is easy to get Hugo up to S rank in fire magic. An S rank makes you cast in 15% of normal casting time, which is absurdly fast. It also adds 70% damage. It's also worth noting that a single turn consists of 100 MOV so casting a spell at 95 MOV like Soaring Bolt on the True Lightning Rune is barely getting you to cast it in a single turn.

It's also worth noting that all the characters with true runes in this game have a ton of skill slots, so taking a single magic skill has absolutely no detrimental effect to their ability to physically attack or defend.