Part 31: Fire Crystal Jobs

Fire Crystal Jobs

Beastmaster



Remember what I said about Blue Mage being only as good as you want to invest in them? Beastmaster is in the same boat.

Being in the same boat that means they bail each other out a lot of the time. Some blue magic requires a beastmaster's finesse to get (or at least get earlier or easier than otherwise). And sometimes a Blue Mage's timely Death Claw spell is the best way to allow for !Capture to succeed.

If you can Bear the trouble of capturing the right foes and releasing them at the right time, they're a solid addition to the team.

Abilities:

!Calm (10 ABP)

Inflicts Stop on some enemies. In all versions but Advance "some" means beasts, which makes sense. In Advance, it's everything but beasts due to a programming error.

!Control (50 ABP)

User attempts to control an enemy. If successful the enemy can no longer act on its own. The beastmaster is able to choose from up to 4 commands for the enemy to execute. A physical attack on the targeted enemy will break the control.

Equip Whips (100 ABP)

User can equip whips, user also gains the Beastmaster's strength and agility stat.

!Catch/Release (300 ABP)

User gains the ability to use the Beastmaster's signature secondary skill to capture and release enemies.

Worth mastering?

I would say so, its cheap to master and while not the most broken means, beastmasters can do significant damage to the final boss with everyone showing off their pets.


Ninja



Ninjas are quick and strong, but relatively frail for a physical class. Ninjas have abilities that are similar to the thief job. Ninjas can equip 2 weapons. Like FF3 Ninjas, they have the ability to throw weapons and other things for big damage.

Abilities:

!Smoke (10 ABP)

Allows for automatic escape like !Flee from thief. The only difference is that !Smoke has an animation associated with it that takes time to resolve, rather than thieves simply noping out of the fight.

!Image (30 ABP)

User applies Blink to themselves.

First Strike (50 ABP)

Grants user the Ninja's passive which increases the rate of preemptive strikes, the counterpoint to Vigilance eliminating back attacks.

!Throw (150 ABP)

Allows user to throw like a ninja.

Dual Wield (450 ABP)

Allows user to equip 2 weapon, grants user the ability and strength bonuses of a Ninja.

Worth mastering?

Oh absolutely. Even ignoring the ridiculous things you can combine Dual Wield or Throw with, Ninjas are a solid job.


Geomancer



Geomancers are an odd class. Ostensibly a mage, yet they are surprisingly durable. !Gaia pulls from a set of actions related to the location of the fight. Depending on the enemies or the terrain this can be anything from a powerful attack to accidentally healing an enemy.

Abilities:

!Gaia (10 ABP)

Allows the use of Geomancers signature ability. However, it does not impart the Geomancer's magic stat. Also despite running on the magic stat it is not magic, it is Hippy Shit.

!Gaia has up to 4 different results depending on the terrain its used on. These results unlock depending on the character's level. Unless you get up over Level 50 you won't see the last results.

I will say one kind thing of the Matrix release; it had them all available regardless of level.

Find Pits (50 ABP)

In previous versions of the game this would allow the Geomancer or someone equipped with this ability to avoid pitfalls by jumping back as they collapsed. In Pixel Remaster the pits are pretriggered.

Light Step (100 ABP)

Provides Geomancer classes ability to negate damage tiles.

Worth mastering?

Its so cheap you may as well.


Fire Crystal, part deux

Ranger



Ranger as you might guess from their Robin Hood costumes are primarily archers. Their secondary command is !Aim which unless you're blinded will delay your turn slightly to provide a 100% accurate physical attack.

Abilties:

!Animals (15 ABP)

Allows user to summon a random animal. Like !Gaia this is tied to user level. Unlike !Gaia it doesn't matter where you are, all animal friends are on the table. And there's a lot of them, 9 in all once you reach level... 60.

!Aim (45 ABP)

Allows user to use !Aim ability

Equip Bows (135 ABP)

Allows any job to use bows

!Rapidfire (405 ABP)
User performs the Attack command 4 times, each attack is half strength but is 100% accurate and ignores defense.

Worth mastering?

Hell yeah. Combine this with Ninja and Mystic Knight and things get stupid.


Bard



Bard is class that lives and dies by its buffs and debuffs. Without their songs they have horrible damage output and excluding the ultimate harp their signature weapon will probably do nothing to most bosses.

In previous versions Bard is OP. In this one they seem to have gotten a slight nerf. Since turn order is not a static value based on agility their best songs seem to get going slower.

Abilities:

!Hide (25 ABP)

The user can remove themselves from the field of battle. Good for dealing with a telegraphed attack if there's no chance of surviving. If all 4 characters are hidden and the fight can be escaped from, it can serve as a makeshift !Scram.

Equip Harps (50 ABP)

Allows user to get the bard's agility and magic stat and equip the Apollo Harp harps.

!Sing (100 ABP)

Allows use of the !Sing command.

Worth Mastering

Its cheap, and !Sing is a good endgame command for bulldozing over fights.