flowing or water?

[MMan9000]

I don't really like the Earth Rune, so I've never used it that much.

On the topic of Water vs. Flowing, in Suikoden I, Flowing was better (since two or three spells were healing spells, and people had crap-loads of magic in that game).

I don't remember much about the rune in Suikoden II, so I can't give any advice there...

I usually had at least one Water Rune user in both III and IV, if not two or three (I had Nei, Chris, and Sasarai all with various rune methods of healing in SIII, if I ever play through it again, I'll switch Yumi from offensive mage to healer.)

In Suikoden IV, both of my main mages (Kate and Wendel) had Water Runes. Kate was the offensive mage, so she didn't really need it. Wendel was my main healer, so she used it nearly every round (not including the rounds where the tree tried to put you to sleep).
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[Camus the Noble]

I tend to like the Flowing Rune more, mostly because of the increase in Kindness Rain spells. However, I rarely use Fog of Deception or Breath of Ice (Suikoden Tactics aside), and I doubt that I have ever in my life used Silent Lake.

Of course, losing those nine Healing Drops is quite a blow, especially in Suikoden I, where they are replaced with the utterly useless Fog of Deception. Then again, the Suikoden I Flowing Rune had not one, but two heal-all spells.

It seems that the best way to go is to give one character the Flowing Rune, and another the Cyclone Rune. Of course, you can't do that in Suikoden IV because you don't have as many Rune slots to throw around... Why did they have to do away with the six-person party?

[Falcon Critical]

My parties have always been largely physical attack based and therefore attack spells were rarely used except lightning/thunder on bosses. This meant I had a LOT of room for healing runes:

Suikoden 1
I had Sylvina with Water and later Rubi in the back row with Flowing, I am largely of the opinion that if one person is in trouble the entire party is in trouble. Therefore I only use party healing spells. If one person took a hammering they get some Mega Medicine after the battle.

Suikoden 2
Flowing all the way, because of the increased number of Kindness Rains, and Mother Ocean's ability to revive - from random freak deaths like Neclords instant death finger beam ( on Warewolf Bob! :O ). Also Kindness Rain was used when Riou was busy doing some other attack.

Suikoden 3
Water was good early on with its full heal on 2 characters, quickly replaced by Sheild which healed the entire party and didn't require people to be in the radius of the spell. Also assisted by the support character healing, Bath was the best!

Suikoden 4
Yet again the same strategy - if one person is in trouble they get medicine after battle, otherwise the entire party gets healed. On my second playthrough I was playing with "Robe of the Dead" ( firefly effect for mages ) and required a lot more spot healing... for the first time ever in my Suikoden playing I had a character in my party using Cyclone full time - Ameria. With less characters in the party Cyclone was a lot better than water since I could heal one person or the entire party while also attacking. Occasionally a boss caught me short of a party healing spell but Mushrooms are a god send ^_^

Suikoden Tactics (Highlight to read)

I only just got Corselia and my first water rune with her, up till now healing has been elemental squares and medicine.

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Mod Edit: Blacked out minor Suikoden Tactics info.
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[Cedric]

Suikoden 1:

I wanted a challenge (along with a damage heavy team) so I just stuck Viktor with a Flowing Rune. Really, he wasn't much use to me because at the time, I didn't even know about the Clone Rune, and I'm not going to replay it just for that. It actually worked out pretty well because people had more spells in Suikoden 1 then 2. I think Viktor had 4 or 5 Kindness Rains available to him. Usually, I wouldn't even need that many rounds to kill bosses because of Valeria, Cleo, and later, Rubi, in support. From there, I would fill out the remainder of the team with Flik and either Kai or Viktor depending on the events.


Suikoden 2:

I just made Riou the healer, plain and simple. I would stick him with the Flowing Rune, so he would heal every turn when necessary. Levels 1 and 3 of the Bright Shield Rune would heal the party, and Level 2 is Kindness Rain, of course. The last rune was the lightning rune *Level 4: Thor Shot*, since the first round is the only free round that Riou can attack without needing to heal.


Suikoden 3:

Water Runes were better than Flowing Runes here until you got access to the True Water Rune which made them all obsolete. But really, I prefer the Shield magicians before acquiring the True Runes. In that sense, Salome was really good for the party's health. St. Joe also held a Water Rune.


Suikoden 4:

Healing Duty went to Paula and her Wind Rune, but soon after, Mizuki took her spot the remainder of the game. I just left her with a Water Rune for the most part since she had good magic to take advantage of "Drops and Rain"


As for tactics, I'm in agreement with Falcon's strategy above.
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[redpanda]

Use either one. The important thing is to pair it with another rune either on the same person or another character. So, a Flowing+Cyclone or MotherEarth+Cyclone. As long as you have a spell that you really like to use towards the level1.

[Flamo Bringer]

I myself prefer water rune better because the level 1 spell is very useful especially if it is equipped on a mage or something along those lines...

but there's an exceptional for Suikoden III as i used flowing rune over water rune because of the last spell against Sarah in the last battle :)

[psylo]

I like water rune better. Healing is the most important part in rpg :) . Mother Ocean? No... attack is the best defense. Attack and attack. Healing only if needed. I dont like status attack. (excuse me, but Mother Ocean make no magic in battle for 3 turns, right?)
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[uwangski]

[SwissStopwatch]

That's true on both accounts, if I remember...

Status magic might not seem important, but it's annoying to get hit with. Getting your entire party sleeped is not at all fun.

Also, Silent Lake was a lifesaver in Suikoden 4, if you were trying to build up characters by training with Reinhold. After all, in the last round, there certainly are people packing powerful group damage spells like Earthquake and Explosion to pretty much decimate you. Even people that weren't that good at magic could inconvenience you with something like that, so it was often easier to just change to a slugfest you could easily win.

I don't really like the Flowing Rune much, since you've probably screwed up if you even need Mother Ocean. The extra kindness rain is nice, but you should have enough with just the Water Rune. Flowing does Combo well with Cyclone, which has Equivalent of Kindness Drops (well, not in all Suikodens. I remember at least in 3 that Kindness Drops fully healed a pair, where Healing Wind healed a single person for a limited amount), good all-damage magic for slots 2-3-4, with 4 also doubling as a group heal that you could use once or twice. Pretty good stuff.

[fuji]

I always like Water over Flowing for my main healers, however I want Flowing on my secondary healers.

In Suikoden V, I had always liked having Kyle or Miakis with a Flowing rune over a Water rune because as a secondary healer, they would only use their water rune when the main healer couldn't handle the workload. Usually when that happens, I need to heal the whole party, so that is where the Flowing rune becomes my preferred rune. The extra Kindness Rain is a life saver. As SwissStopwatch said, Flowing does allow magic combos and that is a nice little bonus (in some games).

Overall, I'll take Water over Flowing in most cases, except on secondary healers, or battle mage characters.
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[Fudozukushi]

I myself just stick Water and Flowing on one character and make them the dedicated healer. Nine full heals, sixteen party heals, and two-three revive spells makes it extremely easy to beat most foes. I prefer having more shots of Healing Rain over a single target heal in battles, since if you have two heavily wounded guys and one healer and an enemy with only party attacks it can get a tad annoying.

Suikoden I: Since you could only have one rune slot that makes my above setting impossible to use, but I don't even remember ever even finding a Flowing Rune so I just stuck a Water Rune on someone or healed with Medicines.

Suikoden II: With Bright Shield it was kinda not needed to have as dedicated a healer except for someone with a revive spell. Until she was removed I just slapped a Water unto Nanami even though her Magic stat is terrible and had her back-up. Otherwise Bright Shield could handle the whole load by itself.

Suikoden III: Bleh since Sasari came with a Flowing and I didn't want to play this game I just kept him with it and let him main heal since True Earth is worthless in any hard (aka the only) boss battle that Sasari is allowed in.

Suikoden IV: Ted came with Flowing so I threw a Water Rune on him as well, at least I think I did. Since there was the stupid revive item it made Mother Ocean worthless most of the time.

Suikoden V: I always did the Water:Flowing combo for my main healer who was Bernadette. Since there was the Dawn/Twilight Heal and Dawn had a level 3 that was the same as Mother Ocean it was less useful then I'd though it would be. But I still prefered having the bearers use their normal co-op attack instead of the Dawn/Twilight unite and had Bernadette heal.
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[Falcon Critical]

I almost invariably prefer Flowing to Water. In battle if I need to heal its because the enemy pulled out some big offensive spell or there are people dying. Either way by the time you get a flowing rune you have so many casts of kindness rain that there's no point in having single target healing. Unless you have a firefly rune, healing the whole party in combat is the way to go, if someone takes a kicking on their own, medicine them up after battle.

I dont like pure mages, I always put these runes on balanced characters like the heroes.

In Suikoden 1 I used Flowing on Rubi, like I said healing the whole party is what I'll be needing in combat. I'd also use dragon incense on Pahn since he could cast it during his 'unbalanced' rounds.

In Suikoden 2 I used Flowing on Karen. There wasn't such a great need since the hero himself could do entire party healing with a chance at berserk... that's just awesome, and I'd cast it first round in boss battles even before I take damage for the added effect. Having a backup healer meant that Riou could go offensive or do a unite without taking away my healer.

In Suikoden 3 I discarded Flowing for Shield. Flowing annoyed me no end with its limited AOE kindness rain, Shield healed everyone for not much less so that's what I did. Water was actually better than flowing here since Kindness Drops would heal 2 characters, but like always I rarely needed spot heals.

In Suikoden 4 I used Flowing on Wendel. I also used Cyclone and liked it for the first time in the series on Ameria. For once the multi-purposeness of the cyclone's spells was what sold me... but still Flowing for the main healing.

In Suikoden 5 once again I went Flowing on Urda. Its essential for me to have healing runes on someone that can just sit there and heal in boss battles if required, but pumps out some damage in normal encounters, nothing annoys me more than a mage that just sits there twiddling their thumbs, and I'm a big fan of fighting with "Auto".

I always have legions of medicine/mega medicine floating around in my party. In fact I never buy any and normally end up throwing some away when my inventory gets full. I dislike the Resurrection rune, and dont bother with it. Mother Ocean I have used on occasion but my characters rarely die.

In terms of the Mother Earth rune argument I'll say something. I didn't use it in 1 or 3 or 4, however I loved it in Suiko 2 on Karen, Canopy Defense makes boss spells a breeze and Earthquake is great damage for the a level 3 spell.
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