Part 32: Earth Crystal Jobs

Earth Crystal Jobs

Dragoon



Let's get this one out of the way. Dragoon is made to be a dodge tank compared to the Knight's regular tankiness. Their signature move is !Jump, which removes them from the field for a turn and they return to do extra damage. This leaves everyone else on the field to take the hit meant for them. In slightly kinder words: Dragoon is only as good as the best ability you can give them.

Abilities:

!Jump (50 ABP)

Allows user to jump like a Dragoon. So if an enemy telegraphs a full party attack I guess everyone can jump to avoid it. Just good luck timing it.

!Lancet (150 ABP)

Honestly the only ability I'd say is worth it in Dragoon, and even then that's a tall ask. Lancet drains some HP and MP from the target and refills the user. Absolutely useless for a Dragoon themselves but if a mage has nothing better to do with their free ability slot it can keep them topped off in the heat of battle.

Equip Lances (400 ABP)

User can equip lances in another job, also gives the Dragoon's strength stat.

Worth mastering?

No, there are very few lances in the game and rarely is there one that's better than sword. If you want stats there's better jobs available to get them.


Dancer



Dancers are glass cannons. They have terrible stamina so their health is awful. On the plus side they have access to the Ribbon and all the stat boosts and status immunities that come with it. !Dance also can make dancer one of the earliest jobs able to hit the damage cap.

Abilities:

!Flirt (25 ABP)

Inflicts charm, not to be confused with... confuse. Charm is just a fancy stun. It has its use(s?).

!Dance (50 ABP)

Gives user the !Dance command, which randomly executes one of four dances:
Tempting Tango: Confuses target
Jitterbug: Drains HP from target
Mystery Waltz: Drains MP from target
Sword Dance: Deals a physical attack 4x stronger than normal.

Obviously Sword Dance being a 25% result minimizes the impact of that 4x multiplier, but there's ways to improve it.

Equip Ribbon (325 ABP)

Allows any job to equip ribbons (and other dancer exclusive equipment)

Worth mastering?

For fiesta rules, definitely nice to give other characters the ability to equip a good piece of equipment. In casual play? Nah, because Freelancer can equip them just fine without taking up the ability slot.


Samurai



While Dragoon attempts to be a dodge tank, Samurai succeeds. In fact Samurai is probably the most interesting of the melee classes in the game. Samurai has an innate ability to block a physical attacks 25% of the time. There's so much more it may as well be just done in the ability section.

Abilities:

!Mineuchi (10 ABP)

I need to see if this is actually fixed in this version myself. It is supposed to be a physical attack that can also paralyze. Previous releases this doesn't work. However it is a physical attack that does not break sleep or confuse which is honestly a better thing to use. Pity it takes up a whole ability slot.

!Zeninage (30 ABP)

Allows any job to use the Samurai's signature ability. User chucks a pile of gil at the enemy. The attack can be incredibly damaging, but it will be extremely costly. It also is extremely sensitive to enemy defense so an enemy with pretty good defenses will just have your pennies bounce off harmlessly.

Shirahadori (60 ABP)

Allows user to have the Samurai's passive evade boost. Probably better known as Blade Grasp.

Equip Katanas (180 ABP)

Allows any job to use katanas, gives user the Samurai's strength stat.

!Iainuki (540)

Command attempts to instantly kill the enemy party. Compare to FFVII Flash from the Slash All materia or Odin.

Worth mastering?

This one is another one hard to justify but it can work. Iainuki can do a lot of work. At the very least Zeninage and Shirahadori are extremely good skills to have if you want to stop there.


Chemist



Chemist is broken. There isn't much to say beyond that.

Abilities:

Pharmacology (15 ABP)

User gets the chemist's passive ability to double the recovery rate for items (100 HP potions, 80 MP ethers, etc).

!Mix (30 ABP)

User can combine 2 items with hilarious results.

!Drink (45 ABP)

Allows any job to use chemist's !Drink command, which allows the user to consume a special consumable for a self targeted buff.

!Recover (135 ABP)

Allows user to heal the whole party of negative statuses.

!Revive (405 ABP)

Allows user to revive all allies.

Worth Mastering?

Not really. Chemist stats aren't high enough to justify passing on to the Freelancer, and there are very few instances where !Mix wouldn't solve the problem that leads to you needing !Revive. In a low level game !Revive has more utility but for casual play !Mix should be all you need.