The afflictions arn't technically masked, you can predict them to a certain extent really.

I'll certainly have a chat ingame with you to prepare for the duels for guild advancement. Beginning to develop an interest for pvp in lusternia, but I first have some bashing and money gathering to do I believe.

The downside I've not seen mentioned with hexes is how you only have 6 at a time. They've very combo based, and if they manage to mess up your combo you're stuck redrawing it.

With astrology, it's nice at times but inconsistent.

Still, for a nihilist, pox or anorexia is pretty good, the bad thing is they all rely on damage kills, which are tough, but with papaxi are best done by nihilists.. I mean, they've got plenty of passive hindering, so speeded you could surely stick anorexia + damage pretty well, active anorexia and symboling while speeded and having them under omen+demon sensitivity would be tough on them...

Astrology isn't all that bad for midbies. Unfortunately, by the time you get around to using it in serious combat, chances are you won't *be* a midbie.

...still, the masked rays are great against someone with an unfortunate date of birth. If you're lucky, you can give them Aeon and Stupidity (I think... it's been ages since I had my char with Astrology). Couple that with Nihilist abilities, and you're set. Of course, that *does* depend on birthdate.

Whereas with Tarot (and possibly a Web enchant), you can Aeon and keep them down for the count while you do nasty Nihilistic things to them.