Mage Tank Questions

Hello,
Are these skills worth it?
Decoy Shot
Ether barrier - what is it's time and does it affect casting ?
Long range

Also does anyone have combos they use to reliably deal damage as a mage tank?

Are there any skills you would always recommend as I'm just gathering more knowledge and trying to make the best mage tank I can.

(I do understand mage tanks have mixed opinions however I have been fairly good at it but just want more reliable attack options or skills)

 

In my opinion decoy benefits when you have ampr, so if you have ampr you could get it i suppose
Ether barrier makes you immune to flinch during casting, but the duration is only 5 seconds so practically its useless, since u will only need it for finale but 5 seconds isnt enough,
Long range doesnt affect finale, but it will increase every other skill, but you will be tanking so consistently staying at more than 8m away from the boss is impossible

The most reliable source of dmg for mage tanks might come from Magic:Burst,
Spam impact>storm(smite)>javelin(cons)/finale(smite) for some dmg and proration for party,
And something like holyfist>impact(cons) >burst(smite) >finale(smite) for dealing dmg

 

That's great thank you ^^ surely the no cast flinch may make it if you have high cspd?

 

I got this off of amino, about Ether Barrier

Casts a barrier over the party to prevent flinching.
Support Skill (Party Buffer)
MP Cost: 300MP
Limitations: No Limit
Cast Time: 4 seconds (Affected by CSPD)
Duration: 5 seconds
Effect: Increases FLINCH resistance of the party while lowering the MATK stat.
Amount of FLINCH resist: 50 + 5*Lvl %
Amount of MATK reduction: - (8 - 0.3*Lvl) %
NOTES:
-- The FLINCH resistance applies for both MAGIC FLINCH and regular FLINCH but in case of regular FLINCH it will not stack with ailment resistance % stat additively

Cspd does seem affect it, it would be useful with Burst, but im still not 100% supportive of eher barrier

 

Decoy: Its range isn't affected by Power Wave, so probably no.
Ether Barrier: Garbage.
Long Range: Doesn't boost the damage of placed skills (which is dominant in the magic skill tree) like Finale, Storm, and Wall, pretty sure most of the skills there are placed IIRC. So no.

 

if your main weapon is not a Magic Device, then it's not worth it.

4 second cast, like Blast. but since it's a buff skill, you can't cut it with Chain Cast. 1k cspd minimum required.
the effect lasts only 5 seconds, so you have to combo it immediately before your atk.

only Javelin, Blast, Burst and Power Wave are affected by this.

Magic Arrows -> Guardian (save) -> other skills with a total mp cost of 6.
i raised my atk with STR and inflicted continious damage with Guard Strike.
when you have aggro you usually won't be able to cast spells, so only instant magic like Javelin and Impact can be used. and Burst i guess.