Part 8: Job Talk 3 - Gun Mage

Job Talk 3

Gun Mage

HP 9^th MP 5^th STR 5-6^th MAG 3^rd DEF 8^th MDEF 4^th AGI 4-5^th ACC 2^nd EVA 10^th LUCK 9-10^th

Blue Mage in a dumb skirt. It's got decent magical stats and some useful single target abilities. Learning blue magic from the enemy is as gimmicky as ever, and once you're strong enough to survive learning a given spell, you've probably outgrown it. It's useful in either an attacking or healing role, though, which is nice.



displays information about target

Useful if squirrels have chewed through your cable line and you can't get to GameFAQs when you're playing. It's also a good way to pause the game if your Start button stops working.

uses an enemy's skill

I have trouble getting on board with blue magic in this game, mostly because I think it's kind of boring. I can't really see the justification for blue magic spells that ape black magic when black magic does the job with half the fuss. As for the abilities that are more than just a generic attack spell;

1000 Needles: deals 1000 damage
You can't learn it until the end of the game, when you should be doing four-digit damage anyway.
Absorb: steals HP and MP from target
The bread and butter of the Gun Mage. Cheap, you learn it early, and it lets you use your Hunter abilities with wild abandon.
Bad Breath: inflicts poison, silence, darkness, slow, sleep and berserk or confusion on enemies
All of these statuses have been nerfed, so this spell isn't exactly powerful for how much it costs.
Blaster: deals 15/16ths of current HP damage
Won't kill an enemy, and the biggest enemies resist fractional damage.
Mighty Guard: protect and shell on party
All this does is cast two spells at once. Underwhelming compared to the prequel's version.
Seed Cannon: deals 37.5% max HP damage
The same caveats apply as with Blaster.
Stone Breath: petrifies enemies
A useful win button, when it works.
White Wind: recovers 37.5% of max HP and cures poison, silence, darkness, berserk, confuse, and sleep from party
While it doesn't have a multi-healing advantage over White Magic anymore, it's stupidly cheap for what it does, including the most-of-an-Esuna effect.










deals four times normal damage to specified enemy type

These are decent skills if you know when to learn them. The charge time is worth the quadruple multiplier, and the skills are dirt cheap, especially with how much MP the Gun Mage has.

reduces Fiend Hunter charge time by 40%

Upgrades the quad damage skills from decent to staple.

can rotate target models in Scan screen
can scan party members and look up their skirts

Goddammit, X-2. I'm trying to defend you and you're not helping.