Part 91: Might and Magick: Gladiator, Templar, Spellblade

Might and Magick: Gladiator, Templar, Spellblade (Job Roundup #14)

Most jobs are either physical or magickal, but there's a handful that blur the line. Today we're taking a look at three such jobs.

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Gladiator



Races: Bangaa
Locked by: 2 Warrior
Unlocks:
- 2 Abilities: Defender

Equipment:
- Weapons: Blades
- Armor: Light Armor

Growths: The best W.ATK in the game. Good W.DEF, OK Speed.

12 W.ATK growth. 12. No other job in the game gets 12 growth in any stat. And unlike some other jobs, that growth isn't "balanced" by dumpster-tier Speed! Gladiators share a lot of skills with Fighters and Moogle Knights: Rush, Beatdown, Blitz and so on. They differentiate themselves with their elemental blade attacks: Fire Soul, Thunder Assault and Blizzard Tackle. They also learn Ultima Sword, and if that was still a W.ATK based ability it would be absolutely terrifying.

Gladiator is worth stopping by for a few levels. Those elemental blades give some breadth to the often element-free skill sets of Bangaa, though Dragoon's breath skills might be more useful. And a few levels of +12 W.ATK isn't hurting anyone! Besides your enemies, obviously.

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Templar



Races: Bangaa
Locked by: 2 Bishop
Unlocks: Nothing

Equipment:
- Weapons: Knightswords, Spears
- Armor: Heavy Armor, Robes

Growths: Fantastic physical, average magickal, lowest speed in the game.

To summarise: Bangaa Paladins. Kind of. Or maybe "Defenders with magick"? Templars bring the might of Knightswords with a supportive skill set that makes them a force to be reckoned with. They're great anti-mages, with both Silence and two ways to deplete MP in Rasp and Soul Sphere. They have self-buffs, namely Haste, Discipline (raises Attack) and Astra (prevents debuffs). And they can drag down the enemy to their level and beat them with experience by lowering surrounding units' Speed with Warcry. Finally, if the pain is too much to bear, Lifebreak will deal dark damage equal to the HP you've lost. Rounding out their set is Bonecrusher, which is Counter But Better, and the passive Attack Up.

Templars really suffer from having such low speed. They have some awesome abilities, but so do a lot of other Bangaa jobs -- why cripple your character when you can use Master Monk or Trickster instead? Hell, even Defender has arguably better growths all around than Templar does. A cool and interesting skill set doesn't help you when you get no turns to use it in. A shame, really.

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Spellblade



Races: Viera
Locked By: 2 Red Mage + "To be a Spellblade" quest
Unlocks: Nothing

Equipment:
- Weapons: Swords
- Armor: Light Armor

Growths: Great W.ATK, average everything else.

Spellblade is one of the new Viera jobs. It's a classic deal-damage-with-conditions job, but at least they have a wide variety of statuses to inflict! Oil, Slow, Doom, Immobilize, Disable... Spellblades aren't going to let you down on that front. Their growths, unfortunately, are a little disappointing. Fencers outclass them, with +5% speed, +1 W.ATTK and +3 HP. On the other hand, Spellblades have slightly better defenses. Still, that's not enough to sink the job, especially with such a useful skill set.

But the real reason everyone loves Spellblades is their passive ability, Blood Price. This ability makes spells cost HP instead of MP and boosts their damage. While there are other ways around the new MP system, it's a lot easier to heal HP than restore MP. Spellblades work well as secondaries for Snipers, since their abilities are all weapon-range based -- inflict Doom from across the map! As basically the advanced Fencer job, Spellblades are a solid addition to the already excellent Viera roster.