Angel Wing (Final Fantasy VIII)

Angel Wing is Rinoa's second Limit Break in Final Fantasy VIII, acquired as part of the story after boarding the Ragnarok late into the game. Limit Breaks are available randomly when on low health or under the effect of Aura.
When executing Angel Wing, a pair of white wings, similar to the ones knitted on the back of her blue duster, will momentarily emerge from Rinoa's back. Rinoa randomly casts enhanced offensive magic spells present in her inventory without actually expending them, but the player will lose control of her.
==Mechanics==
Activating Angel Wing will have Rinoa enter a "Magic-Berserk" status; the player will lose control of her until the battle's end, or until she is defeated or petrified. If Rinoa is petrified/defeated, the Angel Wing status will be gone when she is revived/cured. During Angel Wing, Rinoa is immune to Berserk, Confuse, and Silence. Since Angel Wing works by granting a status effect, it will fail when Rinoa is Invincible (e.g. from Invincible Moon).
During Angel Wing, Rinoa will automatically cast an offensive spell present in her inventory without actually expending it, important for maintaining the effects of junctioned spells. If there is any valid magic, one of the 32 magic slots will be selected at random. If the selected slot does not contain any magic, or contains magic that would not be cast during Angel Wing, the game will keep selecting the next magic slot (it rolls back around to the beginning from the last slot) until a valid magic is found, which it will then cast. If the player has a lot of empty slots or support magic, the spell after this segment is more likely to be cast.
Double and Triple statuses are not used. Rinoa's magic damage will be five times as powerful as its base damage, even when her Magic stat is already at the maximum 255. The increased damage multiplier will work even with Demi, which, instead of draining the opponent's HP by 25%, can kill the target (up to the damage cap of 9999). If Rinoa has no suitable magic in stock while in the Angel Wing state, she will attack a random enemy. Reaction abilities like Counter can still activate during Angel Wing.
Apart from the five-fold damage boost, spells used via Angel Wing retain their other properties; i.e. they are susceptible to Reflect status and elemental spells will heal enemies if they absorb that element.
===Compatible spells===
==Use==
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After Rinoa gets Angel Wing, she is better off being focused toward high Magic stat even though her prior Combine skills are physical abilities that rely on her Strength stat. The Guardian Forces that have Mag-J natively are Quezacotl, Siren, Diablos, Carbuncle, Leviathan, and Cerberus, but by the time Rinoa gains Angel Wing, Mag-J Scrolls can also be purchased from pet shops to give Mag-J to any GF. The player can then further improve the stat with Mag+% abilities and possibly grind her with Mag Bonus equipped.
If Rinoa is using Angel Wing when in low health, rather than via Aura, she will likely need healing after she enters the state or she is in danger of being KO'd during it. The player can junction Sleeps and Breaks to Rinoa's ST-Def-J to ensure Angel Wing will not be interrupted. To protect Rinoa during Angel Wing, the player can give her Auto-Protect and/or Auto-Shell and/or have her party members support her with healing and buffs.
Angelo skills are not available inside Ragnarok, and so Angel Wing is her only Limit Break for this part of the game, and is likely where the player sees it the first time. Propagators are the only enemies at this time and are vulnerable to most spells from Angel Wing even if the player does not try to tweak their magic stocks in favor of using Angel Wing optimally. To prevent Rinoa from casting unwanted spells, the player can remove them from her inventory.
In the final battles, the final bosses may blow away Rinoa's magic stocks, potentially ruining the player's Angel Wing set up.
==="Meteor Wing"===
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Rinoa can become a devastating character if Meteor is her only offensive spell, though carrying some Ultima for junction does not influence the odds much, especially if placed right behind Meteor in her Magic list with a lot of unsuitable spells or empty spaces before Meteor. Curative and buffing spells, such as Full-life and Triple, are not used during Angel Wing, and can thus be useful for junctions.
With the boost in magic damage and the appropriate magic stats, Rinoa could potentially be doing close to 99,990 damage in one turn (Meteor hits 10 times, potentially for 9,999 each hit). Even with the 5x damage multiplier and capped magic at 255, it is still difficult to force the Meteor spell to exceed 7,500 damage per meteorite strike on harder bosses, such as Omega Weapon. The player can inflict the target with Vit 0 to reduce its Spirit to 0 to deal more damage.
In most cases, executing Angel Wing with Meteor is the stronger alternative to attempting Rinoa's Wishing Star. Considering Combine is somewhat random (Crisis Level is a hidden mechanic), and the pseudo real-time Active Time Battle System, the player not having to manually input commands for Rinoa after Angel Wing is initiated increases her damage-over-time capabilities, especially when equipped with Auto-Haste. Angel Wing with Meteor can be one of the strongest Limit Breaks in the game, rivaling the damage outputs of Squall and Zell, all without player input during it.
"Meteor Wing" is powerful against enemies in Deep Sea Research Center, including Ultima Weapon, and the enemies in the final dungeon, including Omega Weapon.
==Allusion==
Angel is Rinoa's character motif the same way Squall Leonhart is associated with lions. She has a pair of white wings knitted to the back of her duster, and white wings appear on her back in the ending FMV. Rinoa's ultimate weapon is made of white wings and white feathers represent her during the opening and ending cinematics. In juxtaposition, dark feathers are associated with evil sorceresses.
==Notes==
Category:Limit Breaks in Final Fantasy VIII
Category:Status effects in Final Fantasy VIII