G10 Editing

I have Novice rank on my Human too, but I brought a Royal Alchemist along. You sure you didn't do that? And besides which, if you want to debate it, I can send you the video I happen to make while I was doing G10 final. The second time I tried Life Drain with Novice rank, it's really clear that even though it finished before the music box's effect ended, the stealing process didn't happen. I had to rank it up to F, and then it worked like a charm that time.

I am an elf, novice rank Life Drain, but didn't bring a Royal Alchemist. I can guarantee you it is possible. A video would be nice. If you do not believe me, try again yourself, I did it twice with novice rank elves alone. One of which wasn't an alchemist.

Here, look at this image as proof. http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/9208/proofdb.png I have Sword of Gods achievement and only rank Novice Life Drain. As we all know, you can never de-rank skill back down to novice, only to as far as F.

The picture looks alright, though I'm still doubtful about the Royal Alchemist. Don't take that personally though, that's a matter of not being able to confirm. Anyways, I'll try to have the video uploaded, probably to YouTube unless you got another suggestion.

I'm an Royal Alchemist and I can confirm that it doesn't matter who does the life draining or the rank it will usually work. Course there are just times that it just won't work for no apparent reason then work the next time.

Okay, got the video uploaded. (Sorry for the bad quality, I put the fragments together with Windows Movie Maker, probably a mistake. If you want better quality I'll upload the fragments individually.) The first time I tried the music box is 2:08, the second time is 3:30, the rank up happened at 3:54, and the third and successful attempt at Life Drain occured on 4:58. And as you can see for me it was only successful after the Rank F upgrade. It's by no means irrefutable proof, but it looks like the darn likeliest possibility. At the very least there's another factor here that someone's missing. I thought it might be the music box, the second attempt I might have played it too late, but the first attempt I seem to have played it and used Life Drain in time, so probably not. At the very least I think we'll need some more testing on this.
Twili, can you confirm that you've watched people who definitely has Rank Novice use Life Drain successfully on the Doppleganger? That's what we're arguing about here.

Okay, I watched that video at your specified locations. The first attempt failed because you used life drain too late after using Elatha's Music Box. The second attempt failed because your were too wounded to have your HP completely restored during rank novice's duration. This could've been fixed by using HP potions then hitting Doppelganger with a really weak attack that would take out 1 of your HP. The third attempt worked because your HP was completely restored and you had enough time.

The first attempt did look like it was used too late, but I watched it carefully and there is an instant where the Doppelganger is still holding its head after the *knockback* part of Life Drain.
But where the heck does it say I had to have my HP fully restored on the Life Drain? It makes sense, I watched my own third attempt and the cutscene triggered right after my HP was filled, but if it's true that's vital information that should be put on the page.

Oh yes, I thought that information was already on there. I'll add it now. But the Doppelganger holding his head for some micro interval is apart of the animation, that is irrelevant. I'm sorry to tell you this, but you wasted 3 AP on that boss battle. =P

The information we have now says Life Drain must finish before the Doppelganger recovers, and I'd think that if the animation is still playing it's still in the "recovering" phase. But other than that, yeah sure.
I hope you don't mind if I add to your information. I don't think you can argue this tidbit isn't legit, and I do so like to leave my mark.

Very well, go ahead.