Part 20: Job Analysis: Time Mage
Another support class, the Time Mage has several buffs and debuffs as well as some unusual attack spells.
Stat Changes
Strength: -5
Agility: +2
Stamina: -3
Magic: -24
Typical mage stats, the Time Mage, interestingly enough, is the fastest pure mage class. The Red Mage is faster, but that's a hybrid.
Innate Skills
Time Magic: The Time Mage can cast any spell listed under Time Magic.
Learned Skills
Time Magic 1: Allows any job to cast Speed, Slow, and Regen.
AP Required: 10
Time Magic 2: Allows any job to cast Mute, Haste, and Float.
AP Required: 20
Time Magic 3: Allows any job to cast Gravity, Stop, and Teleport.
AP Required: 30
Time Magic 4: Allows any job to cast Comet, Slowga, and Return.
AP Required: 50
Time Magic 5: Allows any job to cast Graviga, Hastega, and Old.
AP Required: 70
Time Magic 6: Allows any job to cast Banish, Meteor, and Quick.
AP Required: 100
Equip Rods: Allows any Job to equip Rods.
AP Required: 250
Total AP to Master:530
Time Magic
Speed: Increases the ATB speed for all characters.
MP Required: 1
Slow: Inflicts the Slow status effect on an enemy.
MP Required: 3
Regen: Grants the Regen status.
MP Required: 3
Mute: Prevents casting magic. (This spell is bugged, it's supposed to hit everyone and stop casting, but it only hits the party)
MP Required: 3
Haste: Grants the Haste status to an ally.
MP Required: 5
Float: Grants the Float status to an ally.
MP Required: 10
Gravity:Halves the enemy's HP.
MP Required: 9
Stop: Inflicts the Stop status on an enemy.
MP Required: 8
Teleport: When used in battle, will automatically flee the fight. When used in a dungeon, will instantly warp to the World Map.
MP Required: 15
Comet: Inflicts semi-random non-elemental damage.
MP Required: 7
Slowga: Inflicts the Slow status on all enemies.
MP Required: 9
Return: Restarts the battle.
MP Required: 1
Graviga:Reduces the enemy's HP to 1/8th it's value.
MP Required: 18
Hastega: Grants all allies the Haste status.
MP Required: 15
Old: Inflicts the Old status on an enemy.
MP Required: 2
Banish: Removes the enemy from the battle.
MP Required: 20
Meteor: Does large amounts of semi-random non elemental damage to four random targets.
MP Required: 42
Quick: Allows the caster to perform two actions back to back without any time passing.
MP Required: 77
Normal Play Analysis
Time Mage has the honor of having the two best spells in the game. Quick and Hastega. These spells are so good because they let you do more. With Haste on your turn comes up faster so you hit the enemy more. Quick, on the other hand, laughs at silly concepts like "turns" and just lets you do any two things right then.
Low Level Play Analysis
Time Mage manages to stay awesome. Agility is not effected by level, so Haste will always be useful. And its support spells are cheap, which means it's easy to cast them without worry. Of note is Comet and Meteor. These spells are some of the few attacks that do not take the casters level into account So they'll always be good. With a Gold Hairpin using them is reasonable, at least. Quick, while awesome, is the second most expensive spell in the game (With a good reason). Even with a Gold Hairpin it costs a ton of MP. I'll get one shot of it before I run out. This means that combining Quick with Dualcast isn't really feasible.