Part 77: Jobs 101
Jobs 101A character's job defines their progression: stat growths, abilities and what equipment they can use. The jobs a character can train in are limited by their race; for example, only humes can be Ninjas, but humes, viera and nu mou can all be White Mages. Additionally, most jobs require the character to have learned a number of A-Abilities from other jobs. For example, mastering one Soldier A-Ability allows that character to become a Thief or Archer.
Each job has a set of abilities for characters to learn. These abilities are learned from equipment, using Ability Points earned in battle. Soldiers, for example, can equip Swords, Greatswords, Light armor, Heavy armor and Shields.
Some jobs must be unlocked by completing certain quests. We saw this with the viera's Green Mage job, which was unlocked after successfully completing the "Green Dominion" quest. There's 22 of these quests in the game, and a lot of really cool and powerful jobs are locked behind them.
Finally, a character can equip any abilities that they've mastered, no matter which job they currently are. There are 4 ability slots: Two for A-Ability sets, one R-Ability slot and one P-Ability slot.
Let's say Samuel learns a couple Soldier abilities, then switches to Black Mage. The first A-Ability slot is always filled by the current job, in this case Black Magick. In the second slot, Samuel can equip the Soldier abilities, called "Arts of War." He can then use the Soldier abilities he mastered, even though he's a Black Mage. If he switches back to Soldier without mastering any Black Mage abilities, Samuel won't be able to equip the Black Magick ability set.
The R-Ability and P-Ability slots work the same way. The character can equip any ability that they've mastered. Samuel learned Shieldbearer, and as a Black Mage he could equip that skill in his passive slot and be able to use shields.
Stats
There are 7 stats that change as a character levels up:
- HP - Hit Points. Get these to 0 and you're dead.
- MP - Magick Points. Spend these to use magick abilities.
- Speed - How quickly you get to take your next turn.
- W.ATK - Weapon Attack. How hard you hit with weapons.
- W.DEF - Weapon Defense. Reduces damage taken from weapons.
- M.POW - Magick Power. Increases damage done by spells.
- M.RES - Magick Resistence. Reduces damage taken from spells.
Each job has a base value and a growth value for each stat. When a character is created, they start as a particular job, and character's stats will be equal to the job's base value. For example, Soldier has a base of 88 W.ATK with a +9 growth. At level 1, Samuel had 88 W.ATK, and when he reached level 2, it increased to 97. Growth also has a variance, so it's possible for Samuel to gain between 8 and 10 points in W.ATK when he levels up.
Speed is a little different. Instead of a set growth value, it's a percentage. When the character levels up, they have that percent chance to gain a Speed point. This greatly flattens out that speed difference between characters, but starting as a job with a high base speed is even more important. Soldiers have 50% Speed growth, so Samuel has a 1-in-2 chance to gain a Speed point.
Stat growths vary between 5 - 9 for HP, 1 - 8 for MP, 34% - 99% for Speed (average is around 50-60%), and 5 - 11 for W.ATK, W.DEF, M.POW and M.RES.
One job may have different stat values for characters of different races.
Compare Black Mage across hume, nu mou and moogle:
code:
+--------+------+------+--------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Race | HP | MP | Speed | W.ATK | W.DEF | M.POW | M.RES |
+--------+------+------+--------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Hume | 79/5 | 38/5 | 56/46% | 60/6 | 68/6 | 91/10 | 96/10 |
+--------+------+------+--------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Moogle | 77/5 | 34/6 | 56/46% | 60/6 | 68/6 | 91/10 | 96/10 |
+--------+------+------+--------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Nu Mou | 77/5 | 34/6 | 56/46% | 60/6 | 68/6 | 91/11 | 96/10 |
+--------+------+------+--------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
There are also 4 stats that don't change as a character levels up:
- Move - How many spaces you can move in a turn.
- Jump - How much vertical distance you can cover in one jump.
- Evade - Base evasion rate. Decreases enemies' chance to hit you.
- Resilience - How well you resist status effects.
These are determined only by jobs. Level doesn't matter, race doesn't matter. A level 1 hume Black Mage and a level 99 Soldier will both have 3 Move.
Most jobs have 4 Move, though some have 3. Similarly, most jobs have 3 Jump, though some have 2, a couple have 4, and the Gria jobs have infinite jump because they can fly. Evade varies between 0 (most jobs) and 15, while Resilience is usually between maybe 30 to 50. (I haven't found any guides that actually list Resilience.)
Some jobs also have a "hidden" Unarmed Attack Bonus, granting them an increase to W.ATK when they don't have any weapons equipped. This tends to be low -- 15 for Thieves and 18 for Soldiers, for example -- but Master Monk gets +40, which is better than several of their weapons.