Part 89: Physical Might: Fighter, Parivir, Master Monk

Physical Might: Fighter, Parivir, Master Monk (Job Roundup #12)

In a world where dog-wizards can shred the laws of physics and rabbit-women have the power of god-like beings at their fingertips, it's not easy for simple sword-swingers to stand out. Today we look at three great melee fighters and see if they can stack up to their magical allies.

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Fighter



Races: Hume
Locked by: 3 Soldier + "To Be a Fighter" quest
Unlocks:
- 3 Abilities: Parivir

Equipment:
- Weapons: Blades
- Armor: Light armor

Growths: Excellent weapon attack, good defense. Below-average Speed.

Fighter is a really solid job, thanks to their weapon attack growth (10 per level!) and two particular skills: Air Render and Aurablast. Air Render is a ranged attack, and Aurablast is ranged AoE. On a melee unit whose other jobs are also melee-focused, these skills are golden.

Otherwise, well... The other abilities are OK. Air Blast is a wind-element Dragoon-like attack, and the Bonecrusher is guaranteed to do more damage than you would take. The others are fairly basic, "do damage with some side effect" sort of deals, like pushing an enemy back. Basically, Fighter is there as a stepping stone to Parivir and to give Paladins and Ninjas a couple ranged abilities. Excellent as a secondary ability set, but a little boring otherwise.

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Parivir



Races: Hume
Locked by: 3 Fighter (and "The Eastwatch" quest)
Unlocks: Nothing

Equipment:
- Weapons: Katanas
- Armor: Light armor

Growths: Best weapon attack growth. OK speed, average everything else.

Paravis is the new physical Hume job, and it focuses on elemental sword attacks that inflict conditions. They only get four of these attacks, for fire, ice, lightning and dark. The ice attack, Hoarfrost Blade, is the most popular because it inflicts Slow. Parivirs can also use Wind Slash, a wind-element ranged attack. Interestingly, they also get Unburden Soul, a support ability that sacrifices the Parivir and restores the HP and status of all allies.

Since all these abilities cost no MP and deal at least as much damage as a regular attack, they're worth using if you aren't dual-wielding. And you have a very good reason not to Dual Wield: the Black Mage Geomancy passive ability! Suddenly, all of your elemental sword attacks are dealing significantly more damage because you're nullifying enemy elemental resistances. With Geomancy, Parivir deals some of the highest single-target damage in the game.

I like Parivir. They're a bit one-note, since they only have four attacks and one is significantly better than the other. But dealing several hundred damage per turn for free is excellent! Since their abilities require swords, you can use Parivir as a secondary ability set for Paladin or Ninja, too. Another way to look at this job is that Parivir cuts away all the filler skills and has only exactly what it needs.

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Master Monk



Races: Bangaa
Locked by: 2 Warrior + 2 White Monk + "Banbangaa!" quest
Unlocks:
- 2 Abilities: Trickster

Equipment:
- Weapons: Poles
- Armor: Light Armor

Growths: Top-tier W.ATK, excellent speed, solid everything else.

White Monk is so awesome they decided to make a new job that's White Monk but even more awesome. 2nd highest Bangaa Speed growth (by a large margin), highest W.ATK (after Gladiator, of course), respectable magick growths -- Master Monk is an example of how rewarding advanced jobs should be. And it doesn't stop there! Master Monk has a good selection of A-abilities, like Pummel (two attacks for the price of one), Holy Strike (deals holy damage), and Cross Counter (deals massive damage and negates the reaction of enemies with Counter-type reaction abilities). Their true gift is the Unscarred passive ability, which gives bonuses to all W.ATK, W.DEF, M.POW and M.RES while the unit has full health.

One of the best parts of Master Monk is their hidden "unarmed attack bonus" trait. Most jobs only get +15 - +20 when unarmed, but Master Monks get a full +40 W.ATK. For reference, pole damage caps out at +49, barring one legendary pole that has +58. It's an interesting feature that definitely doesn't lead to any slightly broken builds. Master Monk is one of the better new jobs, if not the best. It's a solid improvement over White Monk and serves any Bangaa well.