Part 94: Magick Power: Summoner, Illusionist, Seer
Magick Power: Summoner, Illusionist, Seer (Job Roundup #17)Today's job roundup looks at three of the strongest magick users in FFTA2. These jobs have the highest potential for trivializing fights and ripping the game to pieces. Really, who doesn't want to control the fundamental forces of the elements?
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Summoner
Races: Viera
Locked by: 2 Elementalist
Unlocks: Nothing
Equipment:
- Weapons: Staves
- Armor: Robes, Light Armor
Growths: Top-tier M.POW, good M.RES, below-average physical and speed.
Viera have a reputation as game-breakingly powerful characters, and Summoner is one of the reasons why. Yet another classic Final Fantasy job, Summoners call upon the powers of Espers, elemental spirits like Ramuh, Shiva and Maduin. While most magick abilities cover up to a 2x2 (5-tile) area, Summons cover a 3x3 (12-tile) area. If you aren't hitting at least 3 characters per cast, you aren't trying hard enough. Summoners can deal fire, thunder, ice and holy damage, which isn't as much as other jobs, though they also get regen, reflect, cure + esuna and a mass revive. At 16-24 MP, these are expensive spells, but they get Half MP as their passive ability to balance it out.
So besides incredibly powerful spells with huge AoE and some of the best (if straightforward) utility in the game, what else do Summoners bring to the table? Well, remember Red Mage and Double Cast? And also remember Spellblade and Blood Price? And further, recall that elemental-absorbing gear exists? Summoners are absurdly powerful, and I love them. For some reason, the only nerf they got hit by was the new MP system, and then the developers give them so many ways to get around it.
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Illusionist
Races: Hume, Nu Mou
Locked by: 2 White Mage and 4 Black Mage
Unlocks:
- 2 Abilities: Alchemist [Nu Mou only]
Equipment:
- Weapons: Rods
- Armor: Robes, Light Armor
Growths: Great magick growth, second-worst speed growth in the game.
Illusionist is, well, it's not terrible. They get spells of every element except Dark, target every enemy on the battlefield, and have good magick growths to back it up. They're balanced by absurdly high spell cost, somewhat low spell damage, and that awful, disgusting, horrible speed growth. I think the balance is a little bit against them, honestly.
Still, with the right supports, they can do a lot of work! Illusionists can learn Half MP, which makes their high spell cost slightly more manageable. Haste goes a long way towards making their speed usable. And it's not like hitting every enemy on the field in one go is bad! It's a niche that no other class fills quite as well.
And hell, Nu Mou are slow enough already that Illusionist only looks a little bad.
Now, if only they could learn Blood Price...
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Seer
Races: Hume
Locked by: 4 White Mage (and "The Cat's Meow" quest)
Unlocks: Nothing
Equipment:
- Weapons: Tomes
- Armor: Robes, Light Armor
Growths: Top-tier M.DEF, great M.POW, horrid speed.
Seer is the new magickal hume job and offers a blend of white and black magick -- a hume Red Mage, if you will. They learn the second-tier Black and White Mage spells like Fira, Cura and Raise. They have two unique abilities: Recharge, which restores some MP, and their signature ability Magick Frenzy.
Magick Frenzy is easily one of the most fun and broken new abilities in FFTA2. It works like so: Pick an elemental magick ability, cast it on an enemy, then teleport to that enemy and hit it with a melee attack. Any spell will do, as long as it has an element and costs MP. Illusions? Check. Ninja veils? Check. Blue Magick? Che-- Well, only Quake, actually. And other abilities, like Paladin's Saint Cross and Holy Blade, don't work despite meeting the conditions.
In my opinion, Seer is a great example of a hume job. Having white and black magick makes it versatile, able to heal, purify and raise with one hand while decimating enemies with the other. Magick Frenzy is