Part 84: Unusual Magicks: Bishop, Time Mage, Alchemist

Unusual Magicks: Bishop, Time Mage, Alchemist (Job Roundup #7)

Some mages aren't like the others. Bishop, Time Mage and Alchemist are all a little bit different from your regular Black and White mages: Odd powers, unusual elements, and rare conditions.

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Bishop



Races: Bangaa
Locked by: 2 White Monk
Unlocks:
- 2 Abilities: Templar

Equipment:
- Weapons: Staves
- Armor: Robes, Light Armor

Growths: Great magickal, low speed, terrible physical.

Bishop is a bit of an odd duck: it's the magickal Bangaa job. Even the job they unlock, Templar, is less magickal than they. They have a good selection of spells though! Holy, Water and Aero are the Bishop's trifecta of damage spells, giving them access to elements other mages wish they had. They also get Break, which is one of two skills in the game that inflicts Petrify. Rounding out their utility is Pilfer (steals loot from the target), Barrier (Protect + Shell buffs), Dispell (removes buffs) and Cura. They even get a couple awesome non-A-abilities: Counter Magick, which unfortunately costs MP, and Half MP.

Unfortunately, Bishops aren't really that great. A big part of it is their growths. The new Trickster job completely outclasses them in every way, with over twice the speed, more M.POW and better W.DEF at the cost of some MP and M.RES growth. Their spells a bit weak, too, though slinging around Petrify is pretty awesome. Still, they've got a great skill set, and you can't say they're boring!

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Time Mage



Races: Nu Mou, Moogle
Locked by: 5 Black Mage
Unlocks:
- Moogle: Nothing
- Nu Mou:
-- 1 Ability: Scholar (+1 Sage and a quest)
-- 2 Abilities: Arcanist (and a quest)

Equipment:
- Weapons: Rods
- Armor: Robes, Light Armor

Growths: Top-tier magick growth, average speed, bad physical.

A timeless job, Time Mage has appeared in several Final Fantasy games. The general theme is manipulating time with spells like Haste, Slow and Stop. They actually got a bit of a buff in FFTA2 thanks to a couple new skills. Undo, as the name suggests, undoes the last change to a target's HP and MP. Completely negate a heal, or refund the cost of an expensive spell!

It's important to note that Time Mages have no direct-damage spells. (They had a couple in FFTA that reduced the target's HP by 25% and 50%, but those were moved to other jobs.) They are purely a utility job, but they are the best utility job. The benefits of Haste and Slow are obvious, and Stopped enemies can't dodge attacks. Time Mages and the Bangaa Templar are the only reliable sources of Haste in the game. I pretty much always have one active in my clan. Plus, 50% speed and +10 M.POW and M.RES growths make them the best Nu Mou leveling job after Alchemist. (50% speed is great for Nu Mou.)

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Alchemist



Races: Nu Mou
Locked By: 2 Illusionist
Unlocks: Nothing

Equipment:
- Weapon: Maces
- Armor: Light Armor

Growths: Top-tier M.POW and M.RES, great speed, average everything else.

Alchemist is the complement to the Sage job, in that it got the rest of the Black Mage spell list plus a few nice extras. They've got a bit of an item focus, as befits the name. They're the only job that always has the Items command available, letting them have 3 ability sets equipped. Two of their passive are Maintenance (prevent equipment from being broken or stolen) and Item Lore (improve the effect of items), and their signature ability is Transmute, which turns weakened enemies into items. That's... a bit gruesome.

They round out their spell list with some utility (Astra prevents one bad status effect, Rasp deals damage to MP) and some damage (Toad and Poison inflict their namesake conditions, wile the awesomely-named Flare and Protometeor deal heavy damage). Alchemist is the support to Sage's offense. They make a great leveling job for any Nu Mou, since they have high base stats and high growths in Speed and M.POW.

P R O T O M E T E O R