Part 86: Guns & Gears: Fusilier, Cannoneer, Tinker

Guns & Gears: Fusilier, Cannoneer, Tinker (Job Roundup #9)

Today's job roundup touches on three mechanically-minded jobs, including the new Cannoneer job. (Yes, Tinker is going here and not the Bad Jobs Update because there were too many other worse jobs.)

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Fusilier



Races: Moogle
Locked By: 1 Animist + "Goug Consortium" quest
Unlocks:
- 2 Abilities: Flintlock (+2 Tinker and a quest)

Equipment:
- Weapons: Guns
- Armor: Light Armor

Growths: Middling speed, slightly above-average physical stats.

In my opinion, there are three Moogle jobs that stand out: Moogle Knight, Juggler and Fusilier. These three are the best Moogle has to offer and capture the varied, niche-filling, clan-supporting jobs that Moogles do best. (The mages don't count, they're shared with nu mou.)

Fusiliers use Guns, the only non-unique job to do so, giving them incredible range at the cost of requiring line-of-site. They're yet another "damage and inflict conditions" job, but they balance it out with a great selection of conditions and some damaging attacks. Of particular note are Charmshot, Silenceshot and Stopshot, which inflict their namesake conditions. They also get Concentration, which helps those conditions stick.

Unfortunately, they got hit by the nerf bat between games. Guns are less powerful than before, Concentration no longer guarantees conditions will trigger, and their stat growths aren't as good as they used to be. Still, the Fusiliers can hit every corner of the battlefield, and their abilities ignore line-of-sight. Give them Ultima Charge and watch everything blow up from a nice, safe distance.

Small buff: "Fusilier" is a lot cooler than FFTA's "Gunner".

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Cannoneer



Races: Bangaa
Locked by: 2 Dragoon + "The Bangaa Brotherhood" quest
Unlocks: Nothing

Equipment:
- Weapons: Hand Cannons
- Armor: Light Armor

Growths: Average across the board. Literally.

Cannoneer is what Flintlock could have been if the developers weren't so obsessed with the Prime gimmick. Instead applying a wide variety of buffs like the Flintlocks do, Cannoneers buff up their basic attack. Their abilities increase the radius of their basic attack, allow them to fire multiple shots, and increase the damage or accuracy of the attack. They also have Mortar and Target, which deal heavy damage but require you to sacrifice a turn or prevent you from moving. Rounding out their ability set are Potion Shell and Ether Shell, which restore HP and MP respectively and don't require Prime. Cannoneers are straight-up more useful than Flintlocks.

That said, the have some drawbacks. You're still spending a turn to buff your basic attack, and if the buff isn't significant, you're just wasting time. They all stack, so you can spend a couple turns to use Prime (doubles damage) and Foresight (fires two shots instead of one) to deal 4x damage over 3 turns. Throw in a Buckshot (gives basic attack a 2x2 AoE) and suddenly you can be dealing a ton of damage. The real value is in Ether Shell, which restores 60 MP to the target. It isn't affected by various buffs you have, unfortunately -- Buckshot + Ether Shell would be amazing.

It's a shame about their growths, because Cannoneer is otherwise a great support job.

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Tinker



Races: Moogle
Locked by: 2 Thief
Unlocks:
- 2 Abilities: Juggler, Flintlock (+2 Fusilier and a quest)

Equipment:
- Weapons: CLaws
- Armor: Light Armor

Growths: Great, but average speed.

Tinker is one of the worst jobs in the game, full stop. Oh, sure, those growths are admirable, though speed could use some work. That's honestly their only redeeming factor. Oh, and their P- and R-abilities are pretty solid.

You see, the Tinker active abilities are terrible. They're similar to Illusionist abilities, in that they hit every enemy on the field, except they inflict statuses instead of damage. They can inflict Doom, Sleep, Poison, Blind, or positive effects like Shell+Protect, healing and Haste. And even better, these spells are cheap! 8 MP means you can use them every turn.

Ah, but then you notice the giant, glowing caveat: The spells may target all enemies or all allies. You have a 50/50 chance of hitting your team or the enemy team. It's pure luck, with no way to sway it in your favor. What the hell is the point?

At least it unlocks Juggler. But then again, it also unlocks Flintlock.