Part 74: Intermediate Magical Jobs
Job Overview: Intermediate Magical JobsAlchemystic:
Requirements: Wizard (4 abilities)
Unlocks:
3 abilities (Druid*)
*= Other jobs required
Equipment: Staff, Crossbow, Robe, Light Armor.
Mastery Bonus: MP+5, RES+5, SPD+3
The Alchemystic is one of the premier support classes and is all about buffing allies. They can buff all stats except attack, give regen, haste, or a status-negating barrier allies in an AOE, and can also refresh the duration of buffs on a target. Additionally, they get a nice passive that makes it so that applying buffs heals the target, and debuffs also hurt the target. Equipment wise they’re nothing special, and growths are about average in most categories. Overall, a useful class to have around, though I’d much rather keep their abilities in the secondary slot than be in the class itself.
Notable Abilities:
Mystic Shield: A reaction ability where the character uses their MP as a shield for their HP. As long as the user has 1 MP, they’re functionally immune to damage. I don’t necessarily like using it, because I like for my guys to have MP to do things, but it’s always annoying to see on enemies.
Mass Haste: Gives units in a small AOE Haste. It’s a tactics game, and more turns=better. This lets you take more turns, ergo this is great.
Refresh: reset the duration of buffs on anyone in a small AOE. This lets you keep everyone buffed up easily, instead of having to recast each individual buff you can just do this once.
Mass Shield/Aegis/Insight: AOE Def/Res/Magic buffs. Very nice, will let you take less damage and deal more magic damage. The buffs are actually pretty significant, so these can always be useful.
Plague Doctor
Requirements: Mender (4 abilities)
Unlocks:
3 abilities (Warmage*)
4 abilities (SECRET!!!!!!*)
*= Other jobs necessary
Equipment: Mace, Rod, Staff, Robe, Light Armor, Heavy Armor, Shield
Mastery Bonus: HP+5, MND+5, DEF+5
Plague Doctor are another support class, with a mix of healing, status cures and status infliction abilities. They’re a little wonky, in that all of their moves are a bit underpowered compared to other classes, but have extra effects to make up the difference. They have solid all-around growths, with an especially high HP growth, and a wide variety of equipment including heavy armor and shields. This lets them be much bulkier than your typical caster, which works well since many of the job’s abilities are slightly short ranged. They also have a very useful passive (fortitude) that makes the character immune to injuries as well as many common status effects. This is another skillset that I think can work very well as a secondary set, but I lean towards not sticking with the class itself in the long run.
Notable Abilities:
Recovery: a 0.5x AOE heal that also removes most common side effects. It’s really nice when an ally has just been beaten up and has negative status effects (duh), since it’s much more turn efficient to at least partially deal with both at once. A nice note is that it’s only 6 MP, unlike Mass Heal’s 12, so you can spam this AOE.
Mass Slow: Has a 75% chance of inflicting slow in a small AOE. Fewer turns for the enemy=more turns for you, though the 75% chance hurts it a bit. Still, a nice option to have especially if you don’t run the slow counter on Kyrie.
Poison/Poison Burst: inflict damage (0.9x) and either have a 75% chance of poisoning 1 target at a distance, or a 62% chance on every target within a 3x3 square centered on the caster. These are nice for easy damage, and poison is a nice reliable way to weaken an enemy.
Heal Burst: a 1.1x heal in a 2 space cross area around the caster. Combined with smart casting, this has actually been incredibly useful this playthrough. It allows for a lot of healing, and with a cost of 14 MP is still nearly as spammable as the mender’s Mass heal. I didn’t use it that much in my previous playthrough, but I’ve been using it quite a bit this time around.
Fortitude: A passive that makes the character immune to injuries, as well as bleeding, poison, and weakness. I love throwing this on a unit or 2 that I expect to go down. It lets me be a lot more reckless with them, since I can actually just revive them with no penalty. The status immunity is a nice cherry on top and will help keep the unit up and fighting longer.
Druid
Requirements: Mender (3 abilities), Alechemystic (3 abilities), Wizard (5 abilities)
Unlocks:
5 abilities (Sorcerer)
Equipment: Rapier, Rod, Staff, Robe, Light Armor, Shield
Mastery Bonus: MND+5, RES+5, Fire/Water/Earth/Lightning Resist +5
Druids are this game’s red mage. They learn the basic levels of the abilities for all 3 of their component classes, in addition to a few unique spells. Importantly, they also get access to Double Cast as a passive ability, meaning you can slot it onto any class and use 2 spells (though only at 75% power each). Their growths lean offensively, with decent attack and res growths and above average mind and speed growths. They also have a nice equipment selection that allows you to tailor their stats towards whatever role you’d rather they focus on, and shields are always nice to have. I like the class, and its slot efficient to have everything in 1 place, but it’s not necessarily a skillset or class I’d stick with in the long run. Double Cast is great though.
Notable Abilities:
Double Cast: A passive that allows the user to cast 2 spells at 75% power during a single turn. Absolutely incredible, allowing you to hit multiple enemy groups, heal allies, and/or buff. Really boost the versatility of whoever has it, and can lead to silly bursts if you use it with classes like the sorcerer.
Total Shield: A single target buff that gives the target a def and res buff. It’s a nice alternative to the AOE buffs of the alchemystic since it does both buffs in 1 action.
Dispel: An AOE spell that removes all buffs on units in the target area. An alternative to the templar’s cleansing blade, this does no damage but gets rid of everything in an AOE. Nice to have, especially if there are multiple alchemystics buffing the enemy team.