Lets start off with a short introduction to Thaumaturge~
Do you want to be a Thaumaturge?
No? Good, I wouldn’t want another one in my party anyways. You really don’t need 2 in a party.
Yes? Can you live with only rank 2 and rank 3 attack skills? I went linker so I literally had only 3 attack skills.
First of all, you get ZERO attack skills. Your class icon is green, all your skills are green, and playing it might even turn your face green. It is mainly a support class with some very potent buffs. Second of all, this isn’t a guide. Just an info dump on things you might want to know or have questions on regarding thaumaturge’s skills.
Let me explain my choice of going C3 Thauma. I went C3 because y’all peeps probably too busy trying out other classes. The majority probably won’t go C3 and I don’t feel like waiting for another C3 to pop out if ever, just so I can ask them questions. Plus I rather do all the in-depth testing myself so I can confirm the validity of claims. You only get Swell Brain as a new skill and most people rather test out another class rather than a single buff. Pretty pointless going C3 for a buff and some additional levels on your skills(slight boost and more uptime).
#MAIN BUFF SKILLS
#####aka straight-forward stuff
Literally just increases the stats you see in your stats sheet. Seems to be some misinformation somewhere but this skill does not add any extra hits like Sacrament and Enchant Fire, nor does it add damage to the extra hits. Swell buffs work strictly like Gung Ho.
Attack bonuses at 5/10/15
Keep in mind my attributes are maxed.
Swell Left Arm
68/111/154
+150 with maxed attributes
Final level cost
- Buff has no effect when nothing is equipped in the main hand or the weapon is broken.
- Weakened attack attribute lowers phy/magic attack by 5% per stack capping at 50%. Also there’s something causing 2 stacks to be applied at once with a single hit, not sure what.
- Additional damage attribute works as long as shrink body debuff is on. This additional damage is affected by damage type modifiers and critical hits. It is not the same type of additional damage as Concentrate and Blessing. Might be better worded as “increased damage”.
###Swell Right Arm
68/111
+150 with maxed attributes
Final level cost
- Swiftness attribute works exactly as stated. You get the bonus as long as a shield or dagger isn’t equipped.
Some number analysis on swell buffs
Total possible increased attack with:
1 circle into Thauma = 218
2 circles into Thauma = 261 + 218 = 479 (with dagger equipped), 261 more than C1
3 circles into Thauma = 304 + 261 = 565 (with dagger equipped), 86(231) more than C2
+145 INT if you also max out Swell Brain and attributes, but I’ll get to that later.
As you can see, even 1 circle into Thaumaturge can give you a nice damage boost but at the cost of another class. For me, I lose out on three ranks worth of skills from other classes but you can clearly see the trade-off. (nice stats for physical build also - picture is with full INT)
Now here’s the thing about buffs. If a buff has the same duration as the cooldown, it doesn’t actually have 100% uptime. For some reason or another, the cooldown and buff timers are not synced so usually you will find yourself having to wait a few seconds before you can rebuff.
Going C3 Thauma in this case can let you have 100% uptime on both of your main buffs. Unlike the previous two buffs, Swell Brain has a shorter duration than the cooldown, which, along with the desync difference, means that you will have a much lower uptime on it. Not to mention that it’s much less effective than your swell arm buffs, so it’s more likely that you won’t use it as often.
#THE DEBUFF SKILLS
#####aka decent but mostly unreliable
More levels = more targets = more duration, 2 charges overheat both, can sometimes be resisted.
The debuffs do not stack and will overwrite each other. Does not affect bosses.
Size change is buggy and monsters can get stuck big/small even when the buff runs out. This is only a visual bug and does not affect their stats.
Does not work on companions, summons, zombies, and such. It is a debuff not a buff, it doesn’t work on friendlies. Might work in a pvp setting (on enemy zombies, etc) however, but as you can see further below, a lot of things currently aren’t working.
###Shrink Body
Makes monsters go down a size level. Can be used on the same monster twice if it’s large.
###Swell Body
Makes monsters go up a size level. Will double their base life and heal them for base life. Can be used on the same monster twice if it’s small. Repeated uses will still heal them. Makes monsters drop twice the amount of items that they would have normally dropped.
- Additional damage attribute deals damage equal to 20/40/60 percent of your magic attack when you change their size. It does not increase the damage of your other skills. This damage won’t proc if their size doesn’t change. The current description seems to be an error in translation.
- Movement speed attribute does not work correctly. The movement speed portion of the attribute has no effect but the damage increase/decrease works on enemies. Neither part of the attribute effect works on players in duel. Only swell body’s double life effect works on other players and it doesn’t heal them.
###Reversi
Not a debuff but I needed to fit this somewhere
Flips enemy magic circles - literally. Also flips the graphic if available. Bugged interaction with skills like safety zone. Works on all skills that make some square tile on the ground. Self-confirmed non square tile skills: Zaibas, Fire Pillar, Slow. Doesn’t seem like it uses your own stats when you flip an attack skill like Zaibas or Fire Pillar. Fire Pillar will actually flip and point downwards.
Looks like it also works on bosses’ aura based traps.
#THE “I MADE A THAUMA C3 TO TEST THIS”
#####aka the interesting stuff
###Transpose
Switches your INT and CON. Doesn’t heal you for the difference in life you gain.
Attribute averages your INT and CON so they’re both the same.
- Recasting will not swap your swapped stats. Skill icon oscillates yellow and white while active. (all swordman buffs seem to do this, finestra and guardian doesn’t and neither does the rest of thauma’s buffs)
See below for further tests its own section.
###Swell Brain
Temporary INT buff. Pretty underwhelming compared to your previous buffs. At least it scales burn.
+45 INT at level 5
+another 100 INT with maxed attributes (mines is at 0)
In a nutshell. 
Now here, they’re pretty straight forward. Literally does what it says. Now predict what happens when they get used together. The following was what I thought before iCBT1 even started when reading skill descriptions.
- Transpose switches stats so it probably doesn’t apply to “additional stats” from gear.
- Swell Brain is a temporary buff so it probably doesn’t get affected by transpose.
I found out I was wrong on the first point the moment I hit ThaumaC1. This already hints that my 2nd assumption is also wrong since it modifies literally what shows up on your stats sheet. Turns out, I was right that I was wrong.
buff mechanics start~
DEFENSIVE BUFFS ARE NOT RETAINED AS A PERCENTAGE MODIFIER.* (offensive buffs have their own way in the damage formula) They are given a value based on percentage or some amounts of flat values if not a percentage. For example, you have 100 def. You get an Aspersion 30% buff. The buff icon represents +30 defense, not a +30% defense modifier. What this means is that your buff order of operations matter. Here’s an example showing off a maxed swell right arm’s potency:
There is also another example with evade instead showing the “order of operations” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8q9NYe7moA (not me). Unfortunately if you’re buying aspersion from a buff vendor, this means that you will always be rebuffing AFTER aspersion is applied so the effect is lessened. The only buffs that persist across maps seem to be the same buffs that a pardoner can sell. Zoning will wipe all your buffs and recalculate aspersion’s bonus, so as long as you buy the buff on the same map you’re grinding/farming at, aspersion will snapshot the higher value if you buff before buying it.
Now here’s the funky business with Transpose which works similar to above. As a buff it does not convert anything. All it does is hold numeric changes.
Swell Brain > Transpose
The INT in the 3rd picture went back up to 28 when I recasted Swell Brain.
Transpose > Swell Brain
With a high duration transpose, you can make more use of swell brain’s low duration since you can snapshot that sweet +145 INT onto transpose. You can also use it with tranpose’s equilibrium attribute but it will tank your INT when it runs out which makes the free CON not so free.
Of course as mentioned earlier, transpose will leave you at your low pre-transposed life. This is intentional whether by balance or mechanics as you can see from how buffs work. If you want to be healed, play with a healer. I only soloed except for a few dungeons and if there’s one thing I can say, it’s that a PriestC3 would be the ultimate partner.
This post should be able to answer almost every single question on Thaumaturges that I can think of with the class itself. If you want to know about combinations with other classes, don’t ask me. I wouldn’t know how it’ll work with 100% certainty and don’t want to spread misinformation. Linker has potential with further ranks(7+) as Spiritual Chain and Life Line has much synergy with a C3 Thauma. I’m mostly confident about the information here, but please correct me if I’m mistaken about anything.
#EDIT: ABUSING TRANSPOSE AND STAT RESETS
#####potential pay to win exploit
Testing what transpose as a buff represents
- ^in this case, when transpose runs out, your stats will appear normal as if you had just put all your points into CON.
- Recasting transpose while it is still up does the same thing as canceling the buff and casting it. You will not transpose your transposed stats.
Edit: Too lazy for changelogs.
