Part 83: Ultima Power: Hunter, Sage, Assassin

Ultima Power: Hunter, Sage, Assassin (Job Roundup #6)

Today's job roundup focuses on three of the jobs that can wield Ultima, the ultimate magick.

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Hunter



Races: Hume, Gria
Locked By:
- 2 Archer [Hume only]
- Nothing [Gria only]
Unlocks:
Gria:
- 1 Ability: Ravager, Raptor, Geomancer
Hume: None

Equipment:
- Weapons: Knives, Greatbows
- Armor: Light Armor

Growths: OK speed, average everything else.

Hunter's central theme is hunting monsters. A lot of their abilities have extra effects against or only work on monsters. For example, Counter Force inflicts Addle, but only to monsters, while Sidewinder deals double damage to monsters. They have some other interesting abilities, such as Hunting, a weak attack that gives extra loot if the target is killed. Hunter is the Hume and Gria Ultima job, the first we've seen so far.

The Ultima abilities -- such as the Hunter's Ultima Shot -- are magick attacks with very simple descriptions: "Heavy damage." They are the highest-damage attacks in the game, and with a 32 MP cost, they are worth it. Te range of Ultima is based on the unit's equipped weapon. Thanks to the huge range of Greatbows, Hunters can dispense Ultima Shots from across the battlefield. Too bad it's a magick attack and they have terrible growths -- better give them some levels in Black Mage to get that M.POW up.

Outside of Ultima Shot, Hunters are a small step up from Archers. Sonic Boom is another version of Aurablast for those who don't want to go Fighter, which is nice for some characters. Their monster slaying abilities are hardly useless, thanks to the sheer number of monsters in the game. But there's a lot of other interesting jobs in the game, and Hunter is just a bit boring.

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Sage



Races: Nu Mou
Locked By: 2 White Mage + 1 Beast Master
Unlocks:
- 1 Ability: Scholar

Equipment:
- Weapon: Maces
- Armor: Light Armor, Robes, Shields

Growths: Above-average M.POW, average everything else.

As I mentioned in a previous roundup, the Black Mage job had all of its non-fire/blizzard/thunder spells removed. All the damaging ones (and Blind) ended up here in Sage, one of my favorite jobs. Sage is a bit of an advanced magick job, since its spells tend to be pretty expensive. But with spells with names like "Scathe", "Esunaga", "Bio", "Giga Flare" and "Ultima Blow", what do you expect? Seriously, that's three different spells with the words "heavy damage" in their description. They also bring water- and wind-element damage to the table, along with a great source of poison. Esunaga is a step up from Esuna (of course) and will remove every negative status effect from the target.

The only bad thing about the job is the stat growths, and even then those are only a little behind Alchemist and Time Mage. Their speed (48%) isn't that bad for a nu mou. I really like Sage, and any nu mou in my clan will end up as one sooner or later. It's best used as a secondary ability for an Alchemist or Time Mage though. They may be able to deliver the most potent Ultimas thanks to their M.POW growth, but you usually don't want a squishy mage in melee range of the enemy.

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Assassin



Races: Viera
Locked by: 2 Elementalist + 1 Sniper + "Veis, Assassin" quest
Unlocks: Nothing

Equipment:
- Weapons: Greatbows, Katanas
- Armor: Light Armor

Growths: Top-tier speed, good W.ATK, average everything else.

Assassins were the most broken job in FFTA, and pretty much the cause of every single nerf. (Even including the MP one, despite not being mages.) They got a guaranteed 2 points of speed with a 50% chance of a third per level up, when most jobs were lucky to get 1. Both Katanas and Greatbows had great W.ATK bonuses, and their 4 Move + 4 Jump gave Assassins complete control of the battlefield. Their condition-heavy skill set left a trail of sleeping, doomed, stopped and petrified enemies in their wake. To top it all off, they had Ultima Masher. Assassins were feared, and rightly so.

In FFTA2, Assassins are merely awesome. Their skill set is largely untouched, though actually inflicting conditions is a little more difficult. Honestly, it's a little ridiculous; no job needs Sleep (+ Doom) and Stop and Slow and Petrify and an instant KO and Ultima. And 96% speed growth, beating every other job besides Chocobo Knight. You can pretty much give them any secondary ability set and they'll do fine. The recommended ones are Red Mage and White Mage, so you can heal yourself after using Blood Price'd Ultima Masher.

Assassins are scary.