"THE JOB COMPENDIUM" ______ _ _ ______ _ | ____(_) | | | ____| | | | |__ _ _ __ __ _| | | |__ __ _ _ __ | |_ __ _ ___ _ _ | __| | | '_ \ / _` | | | __/ _` | '_ \| __/ _` / __| | | | | | | | | | | (_| | | | | | (_| | | | | || (_| \__ \ |_| | |_| |_|_| |_|\__,_|_| |_| \__,_|_| |_|\__\__,_|___/\__, | __/ | _____ _____ _____ |___/ |_ _|_ _|_ _| | | | | | | | | | | | | _| |_ _| |_ _| |_ |_____|_____|_____| For New and Advanced players alike! .=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-. | Final Fantasy III In-depth Job Analysis | | By: Seferaga & Egervari3 | | Email: ff3_job@yahoo.com | | All rights reserved (C) 2007 | '=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-' Started: 10-6-07 | Release Date: 10-14-07 | Last Update: 10-14-07 Version 0.1 =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= Introduction to the FAQ =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= The idea for this FAQ was created by Egervari3, and little by little, it all came together with the help from a lot of people! The MAIN purpose of this FAQ is to help all NEW players, in an organized and user-friendly style, with any Job questions they may have. It will inform them of which Job is effective for each area of the game, useful strategies when using their favorite Jobs, details of Job Abilities, what to use against those DIFFICULT bosses, and A LOT more! ;) It's also directed to the more ADVANCED players who want to know all the finer points of Jobs, such as: Job mechanics, formulas and stats, etc... If you need to, check the "Credits" and "Copyright" sections at the bottom of the document. Learn something, and ALWAYS have fun! :) =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= Table of Contents =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= Use Ctrl+F to find what you're looking for, and copy/paste the brackets {}. I) Job Introduction: {INT} {INT-1} The Transition Phase {INT-2} Job Level {INT-3} Job Points {INT-4} JP Overflow {INT-5} Mechanics and Formulas {INT-5.1} Attacking {INT-5.2} Melee Proficiency {INT-5.3} Healing Magic {INT-5.4} Offensive Magic {INT-5.5} Status Magic II) Descriptions, Stats, and Abilities: {JOB} {JOB-FR} Freelancer {JOB-WA} Warrior {JOB-MO} Monk {JOB-WM} White Mage {JOB-BM} Black Mage {JOB-RM} Red Mage {JOB-TH} Thief {JOB-RA} Ranger {JOB-KN} Knight {JOB-SC} Scholar {JOB-GE} Geomancer {JOB-VI} Viking {JOB-DR} Dragoon {JOB-DK} Dark Knight {JOB-EV} Evoker {JOB-BA} Bard {JOB-BB} Black Belt {JOB-MA} Magus {JOB-DE} Devout {JOB-SU} Summoner {JOB-SA} Sage {JOB-NI} Ninja {JOB-OK} Onion Knight III) The Effective Jobs: {E} {E-1} Areas {E-1.1} Altar Cave {E-1.2} The Sealed Cave {E-1.3} Dragon's Peak {E-1.4} Nepto Temple {E-1.5} Tower of Owen {E-1.6} The Subterranean Lake {E-1.7} The Molten Cave {E-1.8} Castle Hein {E-1.9} Cave of Tides {E-1.10} Goldor Manor {E-1.11} Saronia Kingdom {E-1.12} Cave of the Circle {E-1.13} The Temple of Time {E-1.14} The Ancient Ruins {E-1.15} The Cave of Shadows {E-1.16} Lake Dohr {E-1.17} Bahamut's Lair {E-1.18} Doga's Grotto {E-1.19} Ancients' Maze {E-1.20} Eureka, The Forbidden Land {E-1.21} The Crystal Tower {E-1.22} The World of Darkness {E-2} Bosses {E-2.1} Land Turtle {E-2.2} Djinn {E-2.3} Nepto Dragon {E-2.4} Giant Rat {E-2.5} Medusa {E-2.6} Gutsco {E-2.7} Salamander {E-2.8} Hein {E-2.9} Kraken {E-2.10} Goldor {E-2.11} Garuda {E-2.12} Odin {E-2.13} Leviathan {E-2.14} Bahamut {E-2.15} Hecatoncheir {E-2.16} Doga & Unei {E-2.17} Titan {E-2.18} Ninja {E-2.19} Amon {E-2.20} Kunoichi {E-2.21} General {E-2.22} Guardian {E-2.23} Scylla {E-2.24} Xande {E-2.25} Cerberus {E-2.26} Two-Headed Dragon {E-2.27} Echidna {E-2.28} Ahriman {E-2.29} Cloud of Darkness {E-2.30} Iron Giant IV) The Ultimate Setups: {ULT} {ULT-0} Introduction {ULT-1} Egervari3 {ULT-2} Seferaga V) Help Wanted!! VI) Version History VII) Credits VIII) Copyright =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= I) Job Introduction: {INT} =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= Jobs are special classes that can be assigned to each party member. When you assign a Job to someone, they will inherit all the different traits and abilities which that Job is based upon. All of FFIII revolves around you changing your Jobs and experimenting with your favorites; All while attempting to exploit the weaknesses of your foes, and allowing you to conquer the ever- growing Darkness! :) The Jobs ~~~~~~~~ .------------------------------------------. |\----------------------------------------/| || || || Wind Crystal Fire Crystal || || ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ || || Warrior Ranger || || Monk Knight || || White Mage Geomancer || .-------------'| Black Mage Scholar |'-------------. |.------------.| Red Mage |.------------.| ||Initial Job:|| Thief ||Secret Job:|| ||~~~~~~~~~~~~|| ||~~~~~~~~~~~~|| || Freelancer || Water Crystal Earth Crystal ||Onion Knight|| |'------------'| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |'------------'| '-------------.| Viking Black Belt |.-------------' || Dragoon Magus || || Dark Knight Devout || || Evoker Summoner || || Bard Sage || || Ninja || || || |/----------------------------------------\| '------------------------------------------' At the beginning of the game, the only Job you will have access to is the Freelancer Job. As you progress further into the game, you will come across the Four Crystals. Each Crystal will grant to you a certain amount of Jobs in which you will then be able to use. By the end of the game, you will have a satisfying selection of 23 unique and well-dressed Jobs! ^_^ =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {INT-1} The Transition Phase | ------------------------------' One of the worst parts about switching between Jobs is the horrible, horrible "Transition Phase". Yes, it needed two. :P Here is an explanation of what this phase is, and does. Let's say you currently have Luneth as a Monk. Then after a while, you decide to swap Jobs and make him a Warrior! Because you changed your Job, this will put you into the transition phase. In this phase, certain defects will veil your character. 1. Stats will be lowered. 2. Performance hindered. Just think of it as you "learning" this new Job. That makes sense right? I mean, you have to use something for a while to become good at it! :P Fortunately, this phase doesn't last very long. When you switch Jobs, the game will let you know how many battles you will need to fight in order to become proficient at the new Job. (meaning normal stats and performance) If you want to know before hand, how long it will take, check the following chart made by OneWittyBritty! It's fantastic! http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/ds/file/924897/50243 =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {INT-2} Job Level | -------------------' Every Job has its own level. The more you train as that Job, the higher the level will become, and the better your character will perform! Here is a list of EVERYTHING that Job Level affects: 1. Number of hits when attacking. 2. Chance of executing a Critical Hit. 3. Physical damage. 4. Black Magic damage. 5. White Magic recovery. 6. Summon damage. 7. Attack Power of bare-handed Monks and Black Belts. 8. It also enhances the special abilities of certain Jobs. What's NOT affected by Job Level? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are a few things that Job Level has NO affect on. 1. Strength, Agility, Vitality, Intellect, and Mind. 2. MP for magic users. 3. Characters' MAX HP. =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {INT-3} Job Points | --------------------' Now, to level up a Job, you must gain Job Points!(JP) And just so you know, you can't actually see JP like you can see Experience. So you kind of have to keep track of how much JP you have, in your head. It's not as bad as it sounds, trust me. :P 100 JP = Job level up! To gain JP you must take any of the following actions in battle: "ATTACK", "GUARD", "ITEM", or that Job's Special Ability. If you are wondering how much JP you gain for each action, look below. I listed the amounts with each of their corresponding Jobs. ------------.------------.-----------. JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ | ------------|------------|-----------| Freelancer | 20 | 20 | Warrior | 20 | 14 | Monk | 20 | 14 | White Mage | 20 | 10 | Black Mage | 20 | 10 | Red Mage | 20 | 12 | Thief | 20 | 18 | Ranger | 20 | 14 | Knight | 20 | 12 | Scholar | 24 | 24 | Geomancer | 20 | 14 | Viking | 20 | 14 | Dragoon | 20 | 16 | Dark Knight | 20 | 14 | Evoker | 20 | 10 | Bard | 20 | 18 | Black Belt | 20 | 14 | Magus | 20 | 10 | Devout | 20 | 10 | Sage | 20 | 10 | Summoner | 20 | 12 | Ninja | 20 | 12 | Onion Knight| 20 | 8 | ------------'------------'-----------' (chart by: Penguin Knight) If you are looking to quickly increase your Job Level, you found the right place! This method is short and simple. To start, switch all your party members to the Jobs you want leveled. Then equip the best equipment you have at that point in the game. Next, head over to Ur Village. Since the monsters are weak and give very little experience, you won't have to worry about dying or leveling up! Before you start fighting, put all your characters in the Back Row. Since all of the enemies around here are so weak, they will do ZERO damage to your party. Now get into A LOT of fights. Using the JP GAIN CHART above, calculate how many turns it will take to reach 100 JP. Just keep taking commands without killing the enemy. The best one for this would be the "Guard" command. If the Job you are using doesn't have this command, then what you will want to do is use a different command, as long as it doesn't kill the enemy or run away from the battle. When you reach 100 JP for each character, finish the battle! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Let's say you are trying to level up your ONION KNIGHT. At Job levels 1-14, you will gain 20 JP for every action you take in battle! 100 / 20 = 5 So to get to 100 JP, you will need to take 5 actions each battle! The best way to do this is "Guard" 4 times, and then use your 5th action to kill off the enemy. If you are Job level 14 or higher, you will get 8 JP for every action you take in battle. 100 / 8 = 12.5 Ok, I know it's impossible to take 12.5 actions, so you must do 13 instead! Use the same strategy and "Guard" 12 times, and then use the 13th action to kill off the enemy! This might take a while. 1 Battle = 1 Job Level It's so easy! Hahaha. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is the easiest/fastest way to level up your Job. However, what you could do is kill off 3 party members and work on 1 character at a time! It does SEEM a lot faster this way, but it's NOT!! You can do this if you want to, but it's actually slower! :( =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {INT-4} JP Overflow | ---------------------' This was tested and proven, that, there is a 99 JP "Overflow" limit. Let me explain how this works. Let's say you have an Onion Knight, Job Level 50. For every action you take, you will get 8 JP. 100 / 8 = 12.5 To level up you will have to take 13 actions. 13 x 8 = 104 If you end the battle at this point, you will have a 4 JP "Overflow". What you could do, however, is keep fighting the battle to get more JP! In every battle, you can get a total of 199 JP. You will obviously level up for reaching 100, but that extra 99 will carry-over to your next battle! With that much "Overflow" JP, you will only need to take 1 action in the next battle, to level up your Job! Nice! All "Overflow" will differ, depending on how many actions you take and how much JP Gain you get for that specific Job. So keep track if you want! That's it! ^_^ =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {INT-5} Mechanics and Formulas | --------------------------------' =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {INT-5.1} Attacking | ---------------------' =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {INT-5.2} Melee Proficiency | -----------------------------' =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {INT-5.3} Healing Magic | -------------------------' (Outside Battle) ---------------- Total Recovery = Root Recovery x MTA Root Recovery = Base x (Mind / 2 + JobLv / 4 + Recipient's Vitality / 8) MTA = 1, if 1 ally targeted. " = 0.8, if 2 allies targeted. " = 0.75, if 3 allies targeted. " = 0.7, if 4 allies targeted. (Inside Battle) --------------- Total Recovery = Root Recovery x MPA x Random No. x MTA Root Recovery = Base x (Mind / 2 + JobLv / 4 + Recipient's Vitality / 8) MPA = 1 = 2, if used on undead. Random No. = number between 0.9 and 1.0. MTA = 1, if 1 ally targeted. " = 0.7, if 2 allies targeted. " = 0.6, if 3 allies targeted. " = 0.5, if 4 allies targeted. ---------.------------. W. Magic:| Base: | ---------|------------| Cure | 10 | Cura | 30 | Curaga | 80 | Curaja | 120 | ---------'------------' ---------.------------. Summon: | Base: | ---------|------------| Heatra | 120 | - Healing Light ---------'------------' MPA = Magical Property Adjustment MTA = Multiple Target Adjustment =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {INT-5.4} Offensive Magic | ---------------------------' Total Damage = Root Damage x MPA x Random No. x MTA Success Rate = (30 + Int - Enemy's Mind)% Root Damage = (Base + JobLv - Enemy's MDef - Enemy's Mind) x Int / 3 MPA = 2, if weak against. " = 0.5, if resistant. Random No. = number between 0.9 and 1.1, if Success Rate IS passed. " = number between 0.5 and 0.6, if Success Rate ISN'T passed. MTA = 1, if 1 enemy targeted. " = 0.6, if 2 enemies targeted. " = 0.5, if 3 enemies targeted. " = 0.4, if 4 enemies targeted. ---------.-----------. W. Magic:| Base: | ---------|-----------| Aero | 40 | Aeroga | 200 | Holy | 300 | ---------'-----------' ---------.-----------. B. Magic:| Base: | ---------|-----------| Fire | 40 | Blizzard | 43 | Thunder | 46 | Poison | 35 | Fira | 85 | Blizzara | 88 | Thundara | 85 | Break | 110 | Blizzaga | 180 | Thundaga | 183 | Firaga | 190 | Bio | 170 | Quake | 140 | Drain | 130 | Flare | 320 | Meteor | 170 | ---------'-----------' ---------.-----------. Summon: | Base: | ---------|-----------| Icen | 190 | - Icy Stare Icen | 220 | - Diamond Dust Spark | 193 | - Thunderstorm Spark | 220 | - Judgment Bolt Heatra | 200 | - Hellfire Heatra | 220 | - Inferno Hyper | 170 | - Clobber Hyper | 175 | - Stomp Hyper | 220 | - Earthen Fury Catastro | 255 | - Slash Leviath | 300 | - Cyclone Leviath | 350 | - Tidal Wave Bahamur | 400 | - Megaflare ---------'-----------' MPA = Magical Property Adjustment MTA = Multiple Target Adjustment =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {INT-5.5} Status Magic | ------------------------' Inflict Rate = Chance + (JobLv / 7 + Int - Enemy's Mind)% ---------.-----------. W. Magic:| Chance: | ---------|-----------| Toad | 10% | Mini | 10% | Confuse | 25% | Silence | 40% | Tornado | 40% | ---------'-----------' ---------.-----------. B. Magic:| Chance: | ---------|-----------| Sleep | 25% | Poison | 30% | Blind | 30% | Break | 30% | Shade | 20% | Warp | 20% | Breakga | 10% | Death | 10% | ---------'-----------' ---------.-----------. Summon: | Chance: | ---------|-----------| Icen | 25% | - Mesmerize Spark | 20% | - Mind Blast Catastro | 10% | - Zantetsuken Leviath | 10% | - Demon Eye Bahamur | 10% | - Rend ---------'-----------' =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= II) Descriptions, Stats, and Abilities: {JOB} =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= The purpose of this section is to provide you with detailed Job descriptions that are meant to go above and beyond the manual - giving you top quality and in-depth information that you can't find anywhere else! :) They are written from experience, gleaming with accurate, first-hand advice on how to select your Jobs AND how to use them effectively. If you are UNSURE of what Jobs you should be using, I hope this section will accommodate you in making an informed decision on how to build your party - without worry that you've made the wrong choice. ;) Also included into this section are Job Profiles; Which show JP Gain charts, Stat progression, MP growth, and usable equipment fir each Job. There are also detailed breakdowns of all them fancy-pants Job Abilities. :) =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {JOB-FR} Freelancer | ---------------------' Description: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Freelancer is the first "Job" you get to use, even though you probably don't know you're using a Job at this point if this is your first time playing the game. There's not much to say about the Freelancer. They can use a wide variety of low-level equipment - basically any weapon or armor you will acquire in the first few hours of gameplay up until you are blessed with the powers of the Wind Crystal. Freelancers can cast level 1 White and Black Magic, which let you cast low-level spells to cure your party, as well as cast offensive magic to exploit enemy weaknesses (Fire will most likely be the spell you'll use against the tougher Undead enemies at this point). Once you acquire the jobs from the Wind crystal, you'll immediately want to switch all of your characters over to another Job. I suggest you read all the job descriptions in this FAQ to help you make your decision. As for endgame, the Freelancer obviously doesn't factor in, even though there's some potential. It is possible to use some of the best equipment on the Freelancer, like the Ultima Weapon and Excalibur, which not only give you an amazing attack power, but this will give you a +20 point boost to all your stats. Furthermore, if you use the Wi-Fi connection to unlock their mastery gear, the Celestial Gloves, you will further get another +15 point boost to all of your stats! While this is pretty nifty on paper, the Freelancer's base statistics aren't that amazing to look at. While they have no inherant weaknesses, they also have no inherant strengths either. Even with the Celestial Gloves, because other Jobs have better stats all across the board (Dark Knight, Dragoon, Red Mage, etc.), this one piece of armor still causes the Freelancer to come up short. For example, let's compare the Freelancer to the Red Mage. The Red mage can essentially use the same equipment and receive the same set of stat boosts (minus Celestial Gloves, plus Crimson Vest). Red Mages can also cast level 1-5 for both White and Black Magic, and they have better Vitality, Intelligence and Mind stats to boot (a 33 point different at level 99)! That's not to say Red Mage is the best class in the game, but it is superior to Freelancer in every way (not to mention the character model is hugely nostalgic!). Therefore, I suggest only using the Freelancer until you acquire the jobs from the Wind Crystal - as if you had a choice! :) ---------.--------------------------------------------------------.------------ Profile: | Freelancer | Initial Job ---------'--------------------------------------------------------'------------ -----------------------------------. JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ | ----------|------------|-----------| "Freelancers can use low-level Attack | 20 | 20 | magic, but their base attributes Magic | 20 | 20 | are pretty low." Guard | 20 | 20 | Item | 20 | 20 | ----------'------------'-----------' Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character. JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action. Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow) Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle. Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle. -----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------. Battle # | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: | -----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------| 1 | 5 | 20 | -- | 100 | | -- | 2 | 5 | 20 | -- | 100 | | -- | 3 | 5 | 20 | -- | 100 | | -- | 4 | 5 | 20 | -- | 100 | | -- | 5 | 5 | 20 | -- | 100 | | -- | -----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------' Etc, etc... The Freelancer is one of the easiest Jobs to level up. No matter what your current Job Level is, you will always gain 20 JP, making Overflow potentially non-existant. On average, you must take 5 actions per battle to level up a Freelancer. ------------------------------. .----------------------------------. MP Chart: | | Stats: | ------------------------------| |----------------------------------| LV | L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 | | LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 1 | 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 10 | 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 20 | 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 20 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 30 | 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 30 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 40 | 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 40 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 50 | 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 50 | 29 | 29 | 29 | 29 | 29 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 60 | 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 60 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 34 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 70 | 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 70 | 38 | 38 | 38 | 38 | 38 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 80 | 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 80 | 43 | 43 | 43 | 43 | 43 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 90 | 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 90 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 99 | 50 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 99 | 52 | 52 | 52 | 52 | 52 | ------------------------------' '----------------------------------' NOTE: LV = Character Level NOTE: LV = Character Level ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Weapons to Use ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Knives: Knife, Dagger, Mythril Knife, Spark Dagger, Main Gauche, Poison Dagger. Swords: Golden Sword, Longsword, Wightslayer, Mythril Sword, Tyrfing, Serpent Sword, Salamand Sword, Freezing Blade, Royal Sword, Excalibur, Ultima Weapon. Bows: Bow, Great Bow, Killer Bow. Arrows: Wooden Arrow, Holy Arrow, Iron Arrow. Claws: Bronze Knuckles. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Armor to Equip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Head: Leather Cap, Mythril Helm, Shell Helm, Headband, Ice Helm, Feathered Hat, Scholar Hat, Black Cowl, Chakra Band, Dragon Helm, Diamond Helm, Ribbon, Genji Helm, Crystal Helm. Body: Vest, Rusty Mail, Leather Armor, Mythril Armor, Mage Robe, Shell Armor, Kenpo Gi, Ice Armor, Scholar Robe, Flame Mail, Knight Armor, Black Garb, Reflect Mail, White Robe, Black Robe, Bard Vest, Black Belt Gi, Dragon Mail, Gaia Vest, Demon Mail, Diamond Mail, Genji Armor, Crystal Mail. Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Bracers, Mythril Gloves, Gauntlets, Thief Gloves, Rune Bracers, Power Bracers, Diamond Bracers, Diamond Gloves, Protect Ring, Genji Gloves, Crystal Gloves, Celestial Gloves. Shield: All (excluding Onion Shield) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mastery Item ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Name: Celestial Gloves Def: 40 MDef: 18 Bonus: +15 All Stats -----------.------------------------------------------------------.------------ Abilities: | :Freelancer -----------'------------------------------------------------------------------- =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {JOB-WA} Warrior | ------------------' Description: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Warrior is a decent enough job to start with, mainly aimed at doing damage while also soaking up some hits for the party. The Warrior also gets an ability called Advance that let's him do more damage at the cost of lowering their defense. In the beginning of the game, the Advance skill's effects don't amount to much either way, and like any job ability, it'll make a bigger difference later on, doing up to 2.4x the attack damage of a regular attack while being job level 99. The problem with the job, though, is that you probably won't remain a Warrior long enough to tell or care. Outside of the Advance ability, how does it stack up damage wise? Actually, pretty good. I mean, the whole point of Warriors is to deal damage, and the job doesn't disappoint. The main problem is that while the Warrior gets the job done, there are other jobs that can do it equally well... and "then some" (in case you don't know, I'm pointing to the Red Mage). Red Mages can attack for the same damage, use the same weapons, and wear the same armor until you get to the Fire Crystal, making the Warrior an inferior pick. This is very contradicting to what you might think, especially after playing many Final Fantasy games in the older generation. The old adage that you must have a knight/warrior character in the front position is pretty much thrown out the window based on how FF3 defines its job's statistics and job archetypes. This is especially true when the game forces your beginning party into a few situations where physical attacks are meaningless (due to the constant use of the Mini spell). To make matters worse, every other fighting job in the game outclasses a Warrior at some point, including the Monk within the same tier of jobs. This is mostly due to the fact that the Warrior stat growths are not nearly as high compared to other jobs. This is most notable, even by the time you get the Fire Crystal. Knights and Rangers may take a few job levels to reach the number of hits and damage you'll be accustomed to, but eventually the Warrior won't measure up. Also, the weapons and armor that become available won't be exclusive to the Warrior either. The Royal Sword is the last Sword he can use for example, and that's meant for the Knight in all honesty. Basically, the Warrior doesn't remain competitive for long. With the Monk and Red Mage available, why bother using the Warrior in the first place? That pretty much sums up the Warrior. The job's nearly useless at the beginning, and has no end-game potential whatsoever. The exception to this is unlocking the job's ultimate equipment through job maxing. This gives the Warrior his mastery weapon: The Gigantic Axe, which boosts their strength stat by a whopping +20 and gives them an attack power of 155, free to use another weapon in their off-hand. Still, only the most determined to power level their Warrior to job level 99 will ever enjoy these benefits. I also think the Warrior's stat growths are on the low side compared to a Knight and other top tier classes, making the whole affair to be quite moot. A Knight at job level 30-40 with Excalibur, Ragnorak and/or Ultima Weapon is immediately useful. Why invest so much time into the Warrior when you already have something better with no investment? For the rest of us who don't care about exploiting trophy accomplishments and power-leveling, we can safely skip this one. I recommend that you never take a Warrior through Final Fantasy 3, ever. ---------.-------------------------------------------------------.------------- Profile: | Warrior | Wind Crystal ---------'-------------------------------------------------------'------------- -----------------------------------. JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ | ----------|------------|-----------| "Warriors are weapons experts. Attack | 20 | 14 | Their Advance ability allows Advance | 20 | 14 | them to deal even more Guard | 20 | 14 | damage than normal, but they Item | 20 | 14 | also get hit a lot harder." ----------'------------'-----------' Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character. JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action. Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow) Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle. Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle. -----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------. Battle # | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: | -----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------| 1 | 8 | 14 | -- | 112 | | 12 | 2 | 7 | 14 | 12 | 110 | | 10 | 3 | 7 | 14 | 10 | 108 | | 8 | 4 | 7 | 14 | 8 | 106 | | 6 | 5 | 7 | 14 | 6 | 104 | | 4 | 6 | 7 | 14 | 4 | 102 | | 2 | 7 | 7 | 14 | 2 | 100 | | -- | 8 | 8 | 14 | -- | 112 | | 12 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 12 | 110 | | 10 | 10 | 7 | 14 | 10 | 108 | | 8 | -----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------' Etc, etc... On average, you must take 7-8 actions per battle to level up a Warrior. ----------------------------------. Stats: | ----------------------------------| LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 9 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 20 | 17 | 17 | 16 | 14 | 14 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 30 | 24 | 24 | 22 | 18 | 18 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 40 | 31 | 31 | 28 | 22 | 22 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 50 | 38 | 38 | 34 | 26 | 26 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 60 | 44 | 44 | 40 | 29 | 29 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 70 | 51 | 51 | 46 | 33 | 33 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 80 | 58 | 58 | 52 | 37 | 37 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 90 | 65 | 65 | 58 | 41 | 41 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 99 | 71 | 71 | 63 | 45 | 45 | ----------------------------------' NOTE: LV = Character Level ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Weapons to Use ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Knives: Knife, Dagger, Mythril Knife, Spark Dagger, Main Gauche, Poison Dagger. Swords: Golden Sword, Longsword, Wightslayer, Mythril Sword, Tyrfing, Serpent Sword, Salamand Sword, Freezing Blade, Royal Sword, Excalibur, Ultima Weapon. Bows: Bow, Great Bow, Killer Bow. Arrows: Wooden Arrow, Holy Arrow, Iron Arrow. Axes: All ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Armor to Equip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Head: Leather Cap, Mythril Helm, Shell Helm, Headband, Ice Helm, Feathered Hat, Scholar Hat, Black Cowl, Chakra Band, Dragon Helm, Diamond Helm, Ribbon, Genji Helm, Crystal Helm. Body: Vest, Rusty Mail, Leather Armor, Mythril Armor, Mage Robe, Shell Armor, Kenpo Gi, Ice Armor, Scholar Robe, Flame Mail, Knight Armor, Black Garb, Reflect Mail, White Robe, Black Robe, Bard Vest, Black Belt Gi, Dragon Mail, Gaia Vest, Demon Mail, Diamond Mail, Genji Armor, Crystal Mail. Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Bracers, Mythril Gloves, Gauntlets, Thief Gloves, Rune Bracers, Power Bracers, Diamond Bracers, Diamond Gloves, Protect Ring, Genji Gloves, Crystal Gloves, Celestial Gloves. Shield: All (excluding Onion Shield) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mastery Item ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Name: Gigantic Axe Atk: 155 Bonus: +20 STR -----------.------------------------------------------------------.------------ Abilities: | :Warrior -----------'------------------------------------------------------------------- =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {JOB-MO} Monk | ----------------' Description: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Monk is a variant on a typical fighting Job, essentially giving you higher damage output and more hits per round at the cost of wearing lower-defense armor. An interesting facet with the Monk is that the Job can deal damage with his bare hands, meaning you don't have to find or buy weapons to make the Monk effective. During the beginning of the game, Monks start off weak, but with some Job levels, they really start to come into their own. Typically, before the Fire Crystal, Monks do more damage than any other Job using standard attacks. The Monk also has the Retaliate ability, which allows them to dish out a counter attack on the enemy to deal 2x the damage of a regular attack, provided they get hit. This ability is hit and miss, because if your Monk is not attacked, you miss out on the opportunity to attack that round. If you only had a 2-member party, or had a way to coerce the enemy to attack the Monk, this ability would be even or better. However, given that the chance of being hit is only 25%, and that you don't deal 4x+ damage, I'd say this ability is worthless. I'd suggest sticking to normal attacks. The only exception to this rule is when you are attacked by 3 enemies (doesn't happen until Nepto Temple to the best of my knowledge), or when the boss does 3 attacks per round (this is very rare). In those cases, it's statistically favorable for the enemy to hit your Monk, because there is a 75% chance that your Monk will do 2x the damage. If you were to run this scenario 100 times, you'll end up dealing more damage on average than simply using regular attacks. Also, when fighting the Iron Giant, he will attack 4 times per round. In this case, there is a 100% to do 2x the damage. Using the Retaliate ability in these cases is actually beneficial. Outside of using your bare hands to attack, the Monk can also equip Claw weapons, just like Yang in Final Fantasy IV. However, the main problem with using these claw weapons is that they often lower your attack power, especially at higher levels. Too often, having no weapons equipped will deal more damage than using two claws. Now, I find this rather odd, because the game constantly feeds the player with new and higher attack power claws in almost every dungeon, ending with Hellish Claws in the Ancients' Maze. In fact, I can't think of any other weapon type that is consistently fed to the player throughout the entire game! It's as if the game is toying with you, trying to get you to use them. Outside of exploiting an elemental weakness, I don't see the point. There's even a set of claws called "Faerie Claws" that boost your Intellect and Mind stats. The Monk is supposed to take advantage of this... how?! The Monk has some end-game potential - although it's a hit and miss... just like the Retaliate ability :) The Black Belt Job is available at tier 4, and is the natural replacement for the Monk. The Black Belt has higher stats in Strength, Speed and Vitality, making it highly seductive to switch over. If you don't have the ability to use the Wi-Fi Connection AND if you don't mind Job-leveling to get the max benefit, then you should do so. You may have to build up your Job Levels a little, but the end result will be worth it. However, if you have a Wi-Fi connection and don't mind putting the effort into acquiring the Monk's ultimate equipment, there is some potential to be more effective then the Black Belt, but in a different way than you might expect. This also has the added bonus that you won't have to max out the Job Levels of the Black Belt from square one. In addition to using the Fuma Garb (let's face it, the Master Dogi on the Black Belt is not that big of an upgrade) and the Ribbon to help out with the Monk's glaring Magic Defense problems, the Monk gets access to the Shura Gloves, which gives 45 defense! That's 27 more defense than the Protect Ring! Also, the Magic defense is +1 better too! This gives the Monk quite a bit of an edge over the Black Belt. Since weapons don't matter, the amount of damage you do is only limited by your character's level/Job level. The same can be said for the Black Belt as well, so the Black Belt has an advantage there having higher stats. Still, using all of this gear on your Monk will definitely make him end-game worthy. There's also something to be said about not having to Job-grind all the way back to level 99 as well. Overall, my recommendation is to possibly use this Job over a Red Mage up until you get the Jobs from the Fire Crystal. Then, make a choice if you want to keep him or not. If you want to put the time into making the Monk qualify for endgame, that's up to you. For the rest of us, we can safely upgrade to the Black Belt. ---------.-------------------------------------------------------.------------- Profile: | Monk | Wind Crystal ---------'-------------------------------------------------------'------------- -----------------------------------. JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ | ----------|------------|-----------| "Monks are very resilient melee Attack | 20 | 14 | fighters. Their Retaliate Retaliate| 20 | 14 | ability allows them to Guard | 20 | 14 | counterattack while on the Item | 20 | 14 | defensive." ----------'------------'-----------' Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character. JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action. Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow) Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle. Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle. -----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------. Battle # | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: | -----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------| 1 | 8 | 14 | -- | 112 | | 12 | 2 | 7 | 14 | 12 | 110 | | 10 | 3 | 7 | 14 | 10 | 108 | | 8 | 4 | 7 | 14 | 8 | 106 | | 6 | 5 | 7 | 14 | 6 | 104 | | 4 | 6 | 7 | 14 | 4 | 102 | | 2 | 7 | 7 | 14 | 2 | 100 | | -- | 8 | 8 | 14 | -- | 112 | | 12 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 12 | 110 | | 10 | 10 | 7 | 14 | 10 | 108 | | 8 | -----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------' Etc, etc... On average, you must take 7-8 actions per battle to level up a Monk. ----------------------------------. Stats: | ----------------------------------| LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 10 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 9 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 20 | 20 | 16 | 17 | 12 | 14 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 30 | 28 | 22 | 24 | 15 | 18 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 40 | 36 | 28 | 31 | 19 | 22 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 50 | 45 | 34 | 38 | 22 | 26 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 60 | 53 | 40 | 44 | 25 | 29 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 70 | 61 | 46 | 51 | 29 | 33 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 80 | 69 | 52 | 58 | 32 | 37 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 90 | 78 | 58 | 65 | 35 | 41 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 99 | 85 | 63 | 71 | 38 | 45 | ----------------------------------' NOTE: LV = Character Level ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Weapons to Use ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Claws: All ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Armor to Equip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Head: Leather Cap, Headband, Feathered Hat, Black Cowl, Chakra Band, Ribbon. Body: Vest, Leather Armor, Kenpo Gi, Black Garb, Black Belt Gi, Fuma Garb. Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Gloves, Power Bracers, Diamond Gloves, Protect Ring, Shura Gloves. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mastery Item ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Name: Shura Gloves Def: 45 MDef: 19 Bonus: +20 STR -----------.------------------------------------------------------.------------ Abilities: | :Monk -----------'------------------------------------------------------------------- =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {JOB-WM} White Mage | ---------------------' Description: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The White Mage is your basic healer in Final Fantasy III, and it doesn't deviate much from other White Mage archetypes in the series. I consider the White Mage to be a fairly essential Job, not only at the beginning of the game, but I suggest using one all the way until you get the Jobs from the 4th and Final Crystal. Besides using potions, there are very few ways to heal your characters, as well as heal multiple characters at the same time. For one, the White Mage has the most MP of Cure magic for a long time, and you'll have to use it often, both in and out of battle. In boss battles, Cure magic is even more essential. Expect to cast an all-party Cure spell each and every turn during a boss fight. Some of the bosses use mega-attacks that deal a considerable amount of damage to your entire party. If you don't have a White Mage casting an all-party Cure spell, you might as well reset the game and change Jobs. The White Mage is pretty much the only Job where I wouldn't suggest using a Red Mage instead. Yes, the White Mage has all the problems that the Black Mage has; They have poor armor, they are forced to stay in the back row, and they do pitiful melee damage. All of this is true. However, you REALLY do need all the Cure spells to survive comfortably, at least until a Bard becomes available using a Dream Harp (if you choose to go that route). Using a White Mage also ensures that their Job level will be high throughout the game. Many times you'll barely have enough MP or you'll even run out - you'll wish you had access to Ethers... which by the way, the game doesn't happily oblige you with like other games do in the series. Also, the White Mage's actual magic power is very high. You'll get a lot out of your basic Cure and Cura spells. It's worth noting that a Devout, the natural upgrade to the White Mage Job, heals for half the HP that a White Mage does with the equivalent Cure spell. Go figure. There are a few negative points with the White Mage, and with some of them, there are no ways to compensate. For one, the White Mage doesn't learn the Raise spell (the ability to resurrect characters) until Level 5. This means to resurrect one of your party members, you are forced to rely the very rare item: Phoenix Down. Otherwise, you'll have to go to a Wellspring that revives fallen allies within a town or a specific location - the Inns surely won't do it. If you're deep in a dungeon, this becomes a problem... and an annoyance. I never ran out of Phoenix Downs, but in some very unlucky back-attack situations, I had to use several. Sometimes I just "bit the bullet" and reset the game to my last save. Also, the Level 7 spell Esuna comes far too late in my opinion. You'll have to rely on items to remove those pesky, annoying status effects... like poison, silence or blind. Even when you do get Esuna, you probably won't want to waste MP because Curaja is in the same slot - you do only have 2 MP at level 40 after all. As for the endgame, the White Mage doesn't make the cut, unfortunately. The Devout largely makes the White Mage obsolete, by giving you access to Level 8 spells (like Arise and Holy), as well as boosting the overall MP of your most powerful spells. While the Devout's magic power is surprisingly not as strong, with access to over 20 castings of Curaga and Curaja when you initially switch over, I doubt you'll find this to be an issue. There's also the Sage Job, which has the ability to cast Black Magic and level 8 White Magic spells too, giving you two good options to upgrade your White Mage. Overall, the White Mage is a very good Job for the first half of the game, and even though it's not essential after the Fire Crystal because other Jobs may provide better healing combinations, it's still an effective Job to use. ---------.-------------------------------------------------------.------------- Profile: | White Mage | Wind Crystal ---------'-------------------------------------------------------'------------- -----------------------------------. JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ | ----------|------------|-----------| "White mages are casters who Attack | 20 | 10 | specialize in restorative magic. Magic | 20 | 10 | They're not physically strong, Guard | 20 | 10 | but their willpower is Item | 20 | 10 | incomparable!" ----------'------------'-----------' Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character. JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action. Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow) Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle. Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle. -----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------. Battle # | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: | -----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------| 1 | 10 | 10 | -- | 100 | | -- | 2 | 10 | 10 | -- | 100 | | -- | 3 | 10 | 10 | -- | 100 | | -- | 4 | 10 | 10 | -- | 100 | | -- | 5 | 10 | 10 | -- | 100 | | -- | -----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------' Etc, etc... On average, you must take 10 actions per battle to level up a White Mage. ------------------------------. .----------------------------------. MP Chart: | | Stats: | ------------------------------| |----------------------------------| LV | L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 | | LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 1 | 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 10 | 13 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 | | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 10 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 20 | 23 7 5 3 0 0 0 0 | | 20 | 15 | 16 | 16 | 14 | 17 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 30 | 33 12 9 7 2 1 0 0 | | 30 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 18 | 24 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 40 | 43 17 12 10 4 3 2 0 | | 40 | 24 | 28 | 28 | 22 | 31 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 50 | 53 22 15 14 7 5 3 0 | | 50 | 29 | 34 | 34 | 26 | 38 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 60 | 63 27 18 18 9 8 5 0 | | 60 | 34 | 40 | 40 | 29 | 44 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 70 | 73 32 21 21 11 10 6 0 | | 70 | 38 | 46 | 46 | 33 | 51 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 80 | 83 37 24 25 14 12 7 0 | | 80 | 43 | 52 | 52 | 37 | 58 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 90 | 93 42 27 29 16 14 9 0 | | 90 | 48 | 58 | 58 | 41 | 65 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 99 | 99 47 29 32 18 16 10 0 | | 99 | 52 | 63 | 63 | 45 | 71 | ------------------------------' '----------------------------------' NOTE: LV = Character Level NOTE: LV = Character Level ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Weapons to Use ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Staves: All (excluding Sage Staff) Rods: Wizard Rod, Fire Rod, Ice Rod, Light Rod. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Armor to Equip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Head: Leather Cap, Feathered Hat, Ribbon. Body: Vest, Leather Armor, Mage Robe, White Robe, Angel Robe. Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Bracers, Rune Bracers, Diamond Bracers, Protect Ring. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mastery Item ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Name: Angel Robe Def: 45 MDef: 45 Bonus: +20 MIND -----------.------------------------------------------------------.------------ Abilities: | :White Mage -----------'------------------------------------------------------------------- =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {JOB-BM} Black Mage | ---------------------' Description: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Black Mage in Final Fantasy 3 is your standard elemental nuker that you can use at the beginning of the game. While you may not use this job very often during the main story, the Black Mage really becomes an asset during boss fights. The best ability on the Black Mage is their ability to cast Black Magic, and out of all the beginning caster jobs, they have the most MP and have much quicker access to the "-ara" spells than Red Mages do, which is a definite perk. During some boss fights, the "-ara" spells are nearly essential. They will deal 3x the damage (or more) compared to your regular fighting jobs. And in a tough boss fight, you really want to get it over with quickly! Elemental spells are the best way to achieve that. While you can use attack items like Zeus' Wrath or Antarctic Wind for similar effects, it's nice to have non-item uses of these spells because finding those items is rare - you cannot purchase them. And truthfully, why not cast Blizzara and Antarctic Wind at the same time? The Black Mage is also useful at eliminating multiple targets, especially those with elemental weaknesses. They provide a great way of getting rid of pesky high-damage enemies, like Bombs, with a simple Blizzard spell. In fact, in the Molten Cave, the Blizzard spell is absolutely essential to survival. The common problem with the Black Mage is their overall lack of usefulness. While they excel very well in a few niche areas, they are just not that effective 95% of the time when you have them. Because they can only wear cloth-type armor, they need to stay in the back row. Otherwise they'll get pummeled into the ground fairly easily. Also, Black Mages don't deal a whole lot of damage with their rods or staffs. They can use a bow and arrows surprisingly, but it's not much better. When you're trying to conserve MP for the boss battle coming up (thus avoiding using MP whenever possible), you can't help but get the feeling that the Black Mage is merely along for the ride until you arrive at the final boss. There's one exception to this, and that's right when you acquire the elemental staffs. At this time, the attacks - even from the back row - surprisingly deal decent damage... as long as you're using the right elemental staff. Keep in mind, the damage is not as much as your Red Mage, Monk or Warrior would deal, and it's still decent. On the plus side, the Black Mage's elemental spells will continue to deal great damage to bosses after the Fire Crystal too, however you will receive more options for dealing elemental damage by that time, such as using a Ranger. After the Water Crystal and beyond, the Black Mage becomes nearly useless. There are just more effective ways to deal damage to multiple enemies, and many of them don't rely on using MP (Geomancer or Souleater). The game also doesn't provide a lot of equipment upgrades for either the Black or White Mage, so the Black Mage won't be very competitive. Also, the Black Mage becomes obsolete when the Summoner, Sage and Magus become available. Without the ability to cast level 8 Spells, as well as only being able to cast a handful of the obviously more powerful spells, the Black Mage isn't a very useful choice in the endgame. Overall, the Black Mage isn't bad at the beginning of the game because of its boss-nuking abilities, however I can't quite shake the feeling that the Red Mage is still overall more useful. My recommendation is to stay away from this job, or use one Black Mage to deal with the story until you beat the Molten Cave. ---------.-------------------------------------------------------.------------- Profile: | Black Mage | Wind Crystal ---------'-------------------------------------------------------'------------- -----------------------------------. JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ | ----------|------------|-----------| "Black mages are casters who Attack | 20 | 10 | specialize in offensive magic. Magic | 20 | 10 | Despite their appearance, they Guard | 20 | 10 | can take a few hits, too." Item | 20 | 10 | ----------'------------'-----------' Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character. JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action. Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow) Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle. Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle. -----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------. Battle # | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: | -----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------| 1 | 10 | 10 | -- | 100 | | -- | 2 | 10 | 10 | -- | 100 | | -- | 3 | 10 | 10 | -- | 100 | | -- | 4 | 10 | 10 | -- | 100 | | -- | 5 | 10 | 10 | -- | 100 | | -- | -----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------' Etc, etc... On average, you must take 10 actions per battle to level up a Black Mage. ------------------------------. .----------------------------------. MP Chart: | | Stats: | ------------------------------| |----------------------------------| LV | L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 | | LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 1 | 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 10 | 13 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 | | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 20 | 23 7 5 3 0 0 0 0 | | 20 | 15 | 16 | 16 | 17 | 14 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 30 | 33 12 9 7 2 1 0 0 | | 30 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 24 | 18 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 40 | 43 17 12 10 4 3 2 0 | | 40 | 24 | 28 | 28 | 31 | 22 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 50 | 53 22 15 14 7 5 3 0 | | 50 | 29 | 34 | 34 | 38 | 26 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 60 | 63 27 18 18 9 8 5 0 | | 60 | 34 | 40 | 40 | 44 | 29 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 70 | 73 32 21 21 11 10 6 0 | | 70 | 38 | 46 | 46 | 51 | 33 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 80 | 83 37 24 25 14 12 7 0 | | 80 | 43 | 52 | 52 | 58 | 37 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 90 | 93 42 27 29 16 14 9 0 | | 90 | 48 | 58 | 58 | 65 | 41 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 99 | 99 47 29 32 18 16 10 0 | | 99 | 52 | 63 | 63 | 71 | 45 | ------------------------------' '----------------------------------' NOTE: LV = Character Level NOTE: LV = Character Level ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Weapons to Use ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Staves: Staff, Fire Staff, Ice Staff, Light Staff. Rods: All (excluding Millenium Rod) Bows: Bow, Great Bow, Killer Bow. Arrows: Wooden Arrow, Holy Arrow, Iron Arrow. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Armor to Equip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Head: Leather Cap, Feathered Hat, Ribbon. Body: Vest, Leather Armor, Mage Robe, Black Robe. Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Bracers, Rune Bracers, Diamond Bracers, Protect Ring. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mastery Item ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Name: Lilith Rod Atk: 110 Bonus: +20 INT Effect: Casts death. -----------.------------------------------------------------------.------------ Abilities: | :Black Mage -----------'------------------------------------------------------------------- =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {JOB-RM} Red Mage | -------------------' Description: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Red Mage is your jack-of-all-trades Job in Final Fantasy III, but unlike other games in the series, it's anything but typical. I, for one, love this Job. In my first play-through, I made the mistake of trying to emulate a classic FF party setup using: Warrior, Monk, White Mage and Black Mage. I did this because I thought it would make a balanced party. It wasn't until after the Vikings' Cove that I switched my Warrior to a Red Mage (I needed more magic power to deal with the enemies in the Nepto Temple due to the Mini status). It was then that I discovered just how useful and powerful this Job could be. The Red Mage is a superior beginning Job, and I thoroughly recommend using it at the beginning of the game up until you acquire the Jobs from the Fire Crystal. The Red Mage can use all the weapons a Warrior can, allowing for the same damage dealt (excluding the Advance skill obviously). It can also use the same armor too, so you won't need to keep them in the back row. Red Mages can also use up to Lv. 5 Black magic for those areas where you need to exploit enemy weaknesses. They can use up to Lv. 5 White Magic as well. This will help with any extra healing you might need in and out of battle. The only real complaint here is that you'll get half of the MP a White or Black Mage would. But the ability to do excellent damage with two Mythril Swords more than makes up for that. Looking at all these benefits the Red Mage brings to the table, I can't help but recommend that you take 2 or 3 Red Mages and 1 White Mage as your beginning party. With this party setup, you'll comfortably breeze through the first quarter of the game. You'll have 3 strong attackers, 3 characters to deal with elemental weaknesses, and 4 characters to cast timely cures when needed, making sure that you'll never need to use Potions or have to worry about not having enough Cure magic. The only reason I recommend taking a White Mage is to raise their Job level for their use after you get the Jobs from the Fire Crystal... because you will likely keep the White Mage around. As for end-game possibilities, the Red Mage can become an extremely powerful Job. It is the only Job that can use the Crimson Vest, Excalibur, and the Ultima Weapon at the same time. This provides a +30 stat boost across the board and makes him quite godly. However, if you are unable to unlock all ultimate equipment by using the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection, or don't want to invest the time, you'll probably retire this Job once you get access to more effective Jobs from the Fire Crystal. The Red Mage just doesn't get the equipment upgrades to remain competitive. Even if you do plan on using the Red Mage during the endgame, it's still recommended that you retire this Job and only pick it up again after you get access to the Legendary Blacksmith. ---------.-------------------------------------------------------.------------- Profile: | Red Mage | Wind Crystal ---------'-------------------------------------------------------'------------- -----------------------------------. JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ | ----------|------------|-----------| "Red mages can use both white and Attack | 20 | 12 | black magic, but they cannot use Magic | 20 | 12 | high-level spells from either Guard | 20 | 12 | school." Item | 20 | 12 | ----------'------------'-----------' Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character. JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action. Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow) Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle. Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle. -----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------. Battle # | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: | -----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------| 1 | 9 | 12 | -- | 108 | | 8 | 2 | 8 | 12 | 8 | 104 | | 4 | 3 | 8 | 12 | 4 | 100 | | -- | 4 | 9 | 12 | -- | 108 | | 8 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 8 | 104 | | 4 | 6 | 8 | 12 | 4 | 100 | | -- | 7 | 9 | 12 | -- | 108 | | 8 | 8 | 8 | 12 | 8 | 104 | | 4 | 9 | 8 | 12 | 4 | 100 | | -- | 10 | 9 | 12 | -- | 108 | | 8 | -----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------' Etc, etc... On average, you must take 8-9 actions per battle to level up a Red Mage. ------------------------------. .----------------------------------. MP Chart: | | Stats: | ------------------------------| |----------------------------------| LV | L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 | | LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 1 | 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 10 | 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 20 | 13 5 3 2 0 0 0 0 | | 20 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 16 | 16 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 30 | 17 8 5 4 1 0 0 0 | | 30 | 20 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 22 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 40 | 22 11 8 6 2 0 0 0 | | 40 | 24 | 24 | 28 | 28 | 28 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 50 | 26 15 10 8 4 0 0 0 | | 50 | 29 | 29 | 34 | 34 | 34 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 60 | 31 18 13 10 5 0 0 0 | | 60 | 34 | 34 | 40 | 40 | 40 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 70 | 35 21 15 11 7 0 0 0 | | 70 | 34 | 34 | 40 | 40 | 40 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 80 | 40 25 17 13 8 0 0 0 | | 80 | 43 | 43 | 52 | 52 | 52 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 90 | 45 28 19 15 10 0 0 0 | | 90 | 48 | 48 | 58 | 58 | 58 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 99 | 49 31 21 16 11 0 0 0 | | 99 | 52 | 52 | 63 | 63 | 63 | ------------------------------' '----------------------------------' NOTE: LV = Character Level NOTE: LV = Character Level ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Weapons to Use ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Knives: Knife, Dagger, Mythril Knife, Main Gauche, Poison Dagger. Swords: Golden Sword, Longsword, Wightslayer, Mythril Sword, Tyrfing, Serpent Sword, Salamand Sword, Freezing Blade, Royal Sword, Defender, Break Blade, Excalibur, Ultima Weapon. Staves: All (excluding Elder Staff, Sage Staff) Rods: Mythril Rod, Wizard Rod, Fire Rod, Ice Rod, Light Rod. Bows: Bow, Great Bow, Killer Bow. Arrows: Wooden Arrow, Holy Arrow, Iron Arrow. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Armor to Equip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Head: Leather Cap, Mythril Helm, Shell Helm, Ice Helm, Feathered Hat, Ribbon, Crystal Helm. Body: Vest, Leather Armor, Mythril Armor, Shell Armor, Ice Armor, Flame Mail, Reflect Mail, White Robe, Black Robe, Crimson Vest, Crystal Mail. Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Bracers, Rune Bracers, Diamond Bracers, Protect Ring, Crystal Gloves. Shield: Leather Shield, Mythril Shield, Ice Shield, Aegis Shield, Crystal Shield. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mastery Item ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Name: Crimson Vest Def: 50 MDef: 25 Bonus: +10 All Stats -----------.------------------------------------------------------.------------ Abilities: | :Red Mage -----------'------------------------------------------------------------------- =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {JOB-TH} Thief | ---------------' Description: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ When it comes to Final Fantasy games, I like Thieves. I like them because they can Steal from the enemy party. Thieves to me are a huge investment, and being the completionist that I am who wants to get the best items, weapons and armor possible, Thieves in Final Fantasy are a means to that end, especially in the later installments in the series. However, I forgot FFIII was a remake of an old game where all the Thief could steal was potions and generally things you could buy at the Item Shop. Thus, Steal amounts to a near useless ability. To be fair, the Thief can steal more than stuff found at the Item Shop, such as rare attack items and the most-coveted Elixirs. However, none of these items are what I would call essential or game-breaking, and Elixirs (the most important of them all) can be found by defeating dragons in the later stages of the game. What quality items can the Thief steal? Well, sadly there's only two. The first is called Gungnir, the best lance in the game for the Dragoon Job. This is a very important steal because without spoiling anything, the item is entirely miss-able if you don't steal it at the appropriate time (or you don't get it when it's dropped... which is also very rare so you're better off trying to steal it). The second and final item worth stealing is the Protect Ring. Not only is the opportunity to steal it very rare (it's a random spawn), but the game already provides you with 2 Protect Rings found in chests (which is probably all you'll ever need, honestly). Not only is it bad enough that the Thief can only steal 1 essential item during the entire game, but you need to raise your Job Level to 71 in order to steal it! This requirement alone means that only the most dedicated of players are going to grind their Thief up to level 71 in order to get this item. You need to do a lot of work to make your Thief worthwhile, and it's just to make the Dragoon a top-contender for the end-game! - What I consider a total side-event! This doesn't bode well for the Thief's usefulness in my opinion. Besides stealing, what else does the Thief having going for it? Well, his damage isn't too bad. Early on in the game, your damage will be lower than a Warrior, Monk or Red Mage, but not so much once the game progresses. Also, daggers are plentiful throughout the game. Specialized daggers like the Air Knife can actually deal quite a lot of damage against the right enemies. However, if you're looking for fast damage, you might as well look elsewhere. The Thief actually has an incredibly high speed stat to make up for its weaker damage - actually making it the fastest acting Job in the entire game. This causes the Thief to act first in every battle round. Depending on the situation, if you really need a more predictable battle order, the Thief is your best bet to make that a reality. Many players consider this aspect to be the Job's most defining and greatest asset. However, as a side know, keep in mind depending if you unlocked the Thief's mastery weapon and someone is using Ultima Weapon, you might not act first in the round after all. Lastly, there are a few places where the game pushes you to use a Thief. Although it's not required, a Thief is very useful to have in Goldor Manor and the Temple of Time. These areas have multiple locked doors that the Thief can pick. The game further encourages you to use a Thief by placing powerful Thief-specific items in these places too, so you might as well use a Thief since the equipment is available. However, you don't have to use a Thief to open locked doors; you can buy 20 keys for 2000 Gil, which will be enough to open all the locked doors for the entire game. Undeniably, the Thief has its uses throughout the game, but overall, the Thief is a situational Job at best. It knows where it can excel, and you should use it for those situations only. However at the beginning of the game, avoid using a Thief and opt to use another Job instead (the Red Mage or Monk come to mind). The steals might net you some extra gold, but you probably won't ever be strapped for cash. Also, there are no locks to pick at the beginning of the game either. The first time you will encounter a locked door will be right before the Fire Crystal, which is almost to the half-way point of the game. As for endgame, the Thief doesn't really have much potential either. The Ninja is a much better choice due to their higher strength and better weapon selection. The Ninja also starts every battle first, just like the Thief, despite the Ninja's speed stat being lower. For all intents and purposes, the Thief's high speed stat is overkill. Also, in the last quarter of the game, gold is very easy to come by, making the Steal ability useless too. My conclusion is this: if you enjoy playing a Thief, use the Ninja instead - it's the natural upgrade for this Job. My recommendation is to stay away from the Thief unless either the game calls for it, or you really, REALLY have to acquire the Gungnir lance for your Dragoon. ---------.-------------------------------------------------------.------------- Profile: | Thief | Wind Crystal ---------'-------------------------------------------------------'------------- -----------------------------------. "Thieves are very fast and agile, JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ | and they can swing their weapons ----------|------------|-----------| lightning-fast. They also have Attack | 20 | 18 | the ability to pick locked doors. Steal | 20 | 18 | Their Steal ability allows them Flee | NONE | NONE | to take items from enemies. Also, Item | 20 | 18 | everyone will take less damage ----------'------------'-----------' while escaping if they use Flee." Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character. JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action. Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow) Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle. Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle. -----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------. Battle # | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: | -----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------| 1 | 6 | 18 | -- | 108 | | 8 | 2 | 6 | 18 | 8 | 116 | | 16 | 3 | 5 | 18 | 16 | 106 | | 6 | 4 | 6 | 18 | 6 | 114 | | 14 | 5 | 5 | 18 | 14 | 104 | | 4 | 6 | 6 | 18 | 4 | 112 | | 12 | 7 | 5 | 18 | 12 | 102 | | 2 | 8 | 6 | 18 | 2 | 110 | | 10 | 9 | 5 | 18 | 10 | 100 | | -- | 10 | 6 | 18 | -- | 108 | | 8 | 11 | 6 | 18 | 8 | 116 | | 16 | -----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------' Etc, etc... On average, you must take 6-5 actions per battle to level up a Thief. ----------------------------------. Stats: | ----------------------------------| LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 10 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 9 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 20 | 16 | 20 | 16 | 14 | 12 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 30 | 22 | 30 | 22 | 18 | 15 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 40 | 28 | 40 | 28 | 22 | 19 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 50 | 34 | 50 | 34 | 26 | 22 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 60 | 40 | 60 | 40 | 29 | 25 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 70 | 46 | 70 | 46 | 33 | 29 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 80 | 52 | 80 | 52 | 37 | 32 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 90 | 58 | 90 | 58 | 41 | 35 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 99 | 63 | 99 | 63 | 45 | 38 | ----------------------------------' NOTE: LV = Character Level ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Weapons to Use ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Knives: All Throwing: All (excluding Shuriken) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Armor to Equip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Head: Leather Cap, Mythril Helm, Shell Helm, Ice Helm, Feathered Hat, Black Cowl, Ribbon. Body: Vest, Leather Armor, Mythril Armor, Shell Armor, Ice Armor, Black Garb, Fuma Garb. Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Gloves, Thief Gloves, Power Bracers, Diamond Gloves, Protect Ring. Shield: Leather Shield, Mythril Shield, Ice Shield. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mastery Item ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Name: Gladius Atk: 130 Bonus: +20 AGI -----------.------------------------------------------------------.------------ Abilities: | :Thief -----------'------------------------------------------------------------------- =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {JOB-RA} Ranger | -----------------' Description: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ In many ways, the Ranger plays a lot like a Warrior, but uses a bow instead of a sword. It is believed by many that this job is worthless. This may be true when nearing the final areas of the game, but when you first acquire the Ranger, it's a very useful job. Rangers can use higher defense armor like a Knight, which is pretty useful. And sice their attack is ranged, they can also do FULL damage from the Back Row! Seeing that you take LESS damage from the back row (and are wearing nice armor to boot!), this is a huge advantage during the early stages of the game. Even better though, many enemies at this time are weak against Light damage, so using your Holy Arrows (which can be bought for 10 Gil a piece) will cause considerable amounts of damage. You will also get the Rune Bow shortly after you acquire the Ranger job, which will allow you to simply decimate everything! With a Rune Bow + Holy arrows, you'll deal around 600-700 damage. You can also use the other elemental arrows to exploit those weaknesses too, making this a very good job. The game practically begs to use a Ranger because the game provides all the necessary equipment upgrades to make it worthwhile. I found their Barrage ability to be a mixed bag, which allows you to split the damage of your attack while being able to attack multiple enemies at the same time. Because most enemies require a full attack to destroy them, I can't possibly see how this ability is useful. The best case scenario is that you can use a Ranger to kill much weaker enemies more quickly, but where's the sense in picking a Ranger just for that? Even when you exploit a weakness using Barrage, the damage actually turns out to be the same. This is also true when using Barrage against a single foe. So let me get this straight... I use 4 Arrows, yet it only deals the same damage as one arrow? In all honestly, Barrage is a complete waste of arrows and time to use, regardless who your target is. I would suggest that you avoid using Barrage completely. As for end-game possibilities, the Ranger becomes less useful, mainly because their ultimate Bow and Yoichi arrows have an attack power of 165, which is about 100 points less compared to other jobs dual-weilding better weapons. Furthermore, boomerang-type weapons (such as the Fullmoon Blade) deal considerable more damage without having to refil your arrows. Overall, the Ranger is decent pick when you acquire him, and nothing more. There are a whole slew of superior jobs to choose from after you gain access to the Water crystal. I suggest you replace your Ranger with one of those ASAP. ---------.-------------------------------------------------------.------------- Profile: | Ranger | Fire Crystal ---------'-------------------------------------------------------'------------- -----------------------------------. JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ | "Rangers are experts in ranged ----------|------------|-----------| combat. With their bows, they can Attack | 20 | 14 | attack for full damage from even Barrage | 20 | 14 | the back line! Their Barrage Guard | 20 | 14 | ability allows them to unleash Item | 20 | 14 | a hail of projectiles at the enemy!" ----------'------------'-----------' Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character. JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action. Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow) Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle. Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle. -----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------. Battle # | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: | -----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------| 1 | 8 | 14 | -- | 112 | | 12 | 2 | 7 | 14 | 12 | 110 | | 10 | 3 | 7 | 14 | 10 | 108 | | 8 | 4 | 7 | 14 | 8 | 106 | | 6 | 5 | 7 | 14 | 6 | 104 | | 4 | 6 | 7 | 14 | 4 | 102 | | 2 | 7 | 7 | 14 | 2 | 100 | | -- | 8 | 8 | 14 | -- | 112 | | 12 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 12 | 110 | | 10 | 10 | 7 | 14 | 10 | 108 | | 8 | -----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------' Etc, etc... On average, you must take 7-8 actions per battle to level up a Ranger. ----------------------------------. Stats: | ----------------------------------| LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 10 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 9 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 20 | 17 | 20 | 16 | 14 | 14 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 30 | 24 | 28 | 22 | 18 | 18 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 40 | 31 | 36 | 28 | 22 | 22 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 50 | 38 | 45 | 34 | 26 | 26 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 60 | 44 | 53 | 40 | 29 | 29 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 70 | 51 | 61 | 46 | 33 | 33 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 80 | 58 | 69 | 52 | 37 | 37 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 90 | 65 | 78 | 58 | 41 | 41 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 99 | 71 | 85 | 63 | 45 | 45 | ----------------------------------' NOTE: LV = Character Level ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Weapons to Use ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bows: All Arrows: All Throwing: Boomerang, Chakram. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Armor to Equip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Head: Leather Cap, Mythril Helm, Shell Helm, Ice Helm, Feathered Hat, Black Cowl, Ribbon. Body: Vest, Leather Armor, Mythril Armor, Shell Armor, Ice Armor, Flame Mail, Black Garb. Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Gloves, Power Bracers, Diamond Gloves, Protect Ring. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mastery Item ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Name: Artemis Bow Atk: 122 Bonus: +10 STR, +10 AGI -----------.------------------------------------------------------.------------ Abilities: | :Ranger -----------'------------------------------------------------------------------- =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {JOB-KN} Knight | -----------------' Description: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Knight is a very solid job to use in Final Fantasy 3. Warriors should immediately upgrade to a Knight once it's available. The automatic cover ability has saved my butt more than a few times when other characters had low life, which really made me feel like I made a good investment. It's unfortunate the actual Defend ability is garbage because the Knight will do this automatically during battle anyway. So in this way, you lose the ability to have an effective special command. Still, Knights can cast Cure spells, and while they don't heal as much as a White Mage's cure spell, it's nice to have that extra safety net when you are playing between the Fire and Water Crystals. It takes some pressure off the White Mage. I found that in a few parts of the game, my White Mage was low on Cure Magic. Those extra Cures on the Knight were enough so that I didn't have to go to my inventory and use potions. Poisona was also a nice spell to use. I think the Knight loses its appeal when the 3rd tier jobs come in. To me, Viking, Dragoon and Dark Knight are all more interesting. That's not to say the Knight is useless. I guess I consider it on the same tier as these jobs because it's definitely usable from the Fire Crystal onwards until the end of the game. Unlike the Dark Knight, the Knight can wear Crystal armor (very good defense) as well as equip the both Excalibur and Ragnorok found in Eureka. It can also use the Ultima Weapon. This setup makes him a top contender for the endgame. So even though the Knight goes out of fashion for a big chunk of the game, it'll become viable again since some fighting jobs cannot use those weapons. In the Ancient's Maze, the game provides you with Crystal armor and a Break Sword. The game is practically saying, "You really should start using your Knight again... there's big things in store for you." Overall, the Knight is a fairly solid job. They have great stats, do excellent damage, and are a tough mark for enemies to kill. Unlike other final jobs like the Ninja or Black Belt, the Knight is capable of surviving focused magical attacks like Flare. And by equipping the best weapons in the game, he'll also have the highest attack power out of any other job to my knowledge. For these reasons, you just might want to stick with your Knight until the end of the game to make sure his job level will be the highest possible, but you have to be pretty stubborn not to use some of the cooler 3rd tier jobs in the meantime. Overall, I give this job 2 thumbs up. ---------.-------------------------------------------------------.------------- Profile: | Knight | Fire Crystal ---------'-------------------------------------------------------'------------- -----------------------------------. JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ | ----------|------------|-----------| "Knights take pride in their high Attack | 20 | 12 | defense. Their Defend ability Magic | 20 | 12 | allows them to step in and take Defend | 20 | 12 | damage for weakened allies. And Item | 20 | 12 | they can use white magic, too!" ----------'------------'-----------' Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character. JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action. Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow) Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle. Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle. -----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------. Battle # | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: | -----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------| 1 | 9 | 12 | -- | 108 | | 8 | 2 | 8 | 12 | 8 | 104 | | 4 | 3 | 8 | 12 | 4 | 100 | | -- | 4 | 9 | 12 | -- | 108 | | 8 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 8 | 104 | | 4 | 6 | 8 | 12 | 4 | 100 | | -- | 7 | 9 | 12 | -- | 108 | | 8 | 8 | 8 | 12 | 8 | 104 | | 4 | 9 | 8 | 12 | 4 | 100 | | -- | 10 | 9 | 12 | -- | 108 | | 8 | -----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------' Etc, etc... On average, you must take 8-9 actions per battle to level up a Knight. ------------------------------. .----------------------------------. MP Chart: | | Stats: | ------------------------------| |----------------------------------| LV | L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 | | LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 1 | 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 10 | 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 10 | 11 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 10 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 20 | 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 20 | 20 | 14 | 20 | 14 | 15 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 30 | 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 30 | 28 | 18 | 28 | 18 | 20 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 40 | 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 40 | 36 | 22 | 36 | 22 | 24 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 50 | 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 50 | 45 | 26 | 45 | 26 | 29 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 60 | 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 60 | 53 | 29 | 53 | 29 | 34 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 70 | 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 70 | 61 | 33 | 61 | 33 | 38 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 80 | 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 80 | 69 | 37 | 69 | 37 | 43 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 90 | 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 90 | 78 | 41 | 78 | 41 | 48 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 99 | 50 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 99 | 85 | 45 | 85 | 45 | 52 | ------------------------------' '----------------------------------' NOTE: LV = Character Level NOTE: LV = Character Level ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Weapons to Use ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Swords: All (excluding Onion Blade, Onion Sword) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Armor to Equip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Head: Leather Cap, Mythril Helm, Shell Helm, Ice Helm, Feathered Hat, Diamond Helm, Ribbon, Crystal Helm. Body: Vest, Rusty Mail, Leather Armor, Mythril Armor, Shell Armor, Ice Armor, Flame Mail, Knight Armor, Reflect Mail, Diamond Mail, Crystal Mail. Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Gloves, Gauntlets, Power Bracers, Diamond Gloves, Protect Ring, Crystal Gloves. Shield: Leather Shield, Mythril Shield, Ice Shield, Heroic Shield, Diamond Shield, Aegis Shield, Crystal Shield. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mastery Item ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Name: Save The Queen Atk: 140 Bonus: +10 VIT, +10 MIND Effect: Casts reflect. -----------.------------------------------------------------------.------------ Abilities: | :Knight -----------'------------------------------------------------------------------- =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {JOB-SC} Scholar | ------------------' Description: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Scholar is essentially a misfit Job. It's definitely a niche Job, because you can't really plug it into any sort of group like "fighter" or "caster" for example. The Scholar really doesn't stand for anything. The best way to describe a Scholar is that it's a collage of several "interesting" abilities. Lets start with the good points, because there aren't many. The Scholar has a very useful ability called Item Lore. This ability doubles the effect of any item used by the Scholar, whether its attack or support. This means that Hi-Potions will restore 1000 HP instead of 500 HP. Likewise, attack items will deal double damage (or quadruple if the enemy has a weakness to that item's element). Up until you acquire the Jobs from the Fire Crystal, taking advantage of elemental weaknesses this way is a good way to decimate enemy bosses quickly. Secondly, the Scholar has a Study ability that analyzes the enemy and tells you its HP and Weakness while nullifying any positive status effects (like Haste, Protect, etc.). During the Hein Castle incident, a Scholar makes the final battle much easier because their Study ability removes Hein's special protective Barrier, which constantly reactivates and changes his elemental weakness. This makes the Scholar almost essential during this point in the game. Thirdly, the Scholar can make good use of the gear found in Castle Argus. There, you'll find armor and elemental books for the Scholar well before you can even utilize the Job. You can complete your set of equipment by eventually beating the Molten cave. All this early access to equipment is nice, and definitely hints at their necessity later on in the game. These books actually deal okay damage when you first get them, even from the back row, however only initially. That's about all the Scholar's actually good for. Unfortunately, Scholars have the worst Vitality in the game, which means they have the worst HP growth when your character levels up. While I don't imagine anyone would take a Scholar to level 99, if someone uses the Scholar Job and gains a few levels with it, you will notice that this character will PERMANENTLY be behind in their HP growth compared to other characters! Also, vitality impacts the character's defense too (an area where Scholars are already troubled in due to weak armor), which means Scholars are limited to being placed in the back row. What does that mean? Their rather weak physical attacks become even worse! Sure, the books have elements which can exploit elemental weaknesses... and when you first acquire them, they are actually somewhat effective. But when the enemies become more difficult, ask yourself this: "Does weakness exploiting really make a huge difference?" Because we're talking about the Scholar, the answer is NO! The Scholar has the ability to cast Black Magic at Level 1-3. However, due to his insanely low MP curve, you'll only have access to Level 1 spells for a majority of the time. You will only start gaining access to level 2 Black Magic spells when your character level reaches mid 30's - That's around the time most people reach the Temple of Time! How well do you think the basic Thunder spell fairs in this crazy-difficult dungeon? NOT GOOD! During the endgame, level 1-3 Black Magic is even more useless. Not even Magi or Sages use it! Also, the Study ability further minimizes their usefulness, because shortly after the Hein Castle incident, you will be able to find/purchase the Libra White Magic spell, making the Study ability obsolete. Lastly, while Item Lore is decent, it also loses effectiveness in the endgame. Elixirs being the best support item in the game, giving a character 100% HP and MP. How is using Item Lore going to improve 100%? Exactly - it can't! Also, given that powerful spells become readily available later on in the game, the Scholar's Item Lore ability becomes obsolete entirely. Even an improved Arctic Wind won't be enough to compensate for the sheer power of the Geomancer or Black Mage at this point by the time the Water Crystal roles around. Essentially, the Scholar is only good for the Hein's Castle segment of the storyline, just so you can eliminate Hein's Elemental Barrier. However, later on in the game in Eureka, there is a similar boss to Hein called Anon, and neither Study or Libra are required to defeat him - he's a real pushover despite being much tougher compared to Hein. Overall, The Scholar is highly situational and quirky Job. It simply doesn't make the cut for endgame... or even after Hein's Castle for that matter. Take my advice: Use it for Hein's Castle... and never use it again! ---------.-------------------------------------------------------.------------- Profile: | Scholar | Fire Crystal ---------'-------------------------------------------------------'------------- -----------------------------------. "Scholars can examine enemies and JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ | spot their weak points. They can ----------|------------|-----------| also enhance the effects of the Attack | 24 | 24 | items they use. They can dispel magic Magic | 24 | 24 | effects from enemies they've studied. Study | 24 | 24 | Surprisingly enough, these bookworms Item | 24 | 24 | can also use magic!" ----------'------------'-----------' Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character. JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action. Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow) Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle. Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle. -----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------. Battle # | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: | -----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------| 1 | 5 | 24 | -- | 120 | | 20 | 2 | 4 | 24 | 20 | 116 | | 16 | 3 | 4 | 24 | 16 | 112 | | 12 | 4 | 4 | 24 | 12 | 108 | | 8 | 5 | 4 | 24 | 8 | 104 | | 4 | 6 | 4 | 24 | 4 | 100 | | -- | 7 | 5 | 24 | -- | 120 | | 20 | 8 | 4 | 24 | 20 | 116 | | 16 | 9 | 4 | 24 | 16 | 112 | | 12 | 10 | 4 | 24 | 12 | 108 | | 8 | -----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------' Etc, etc... Scholars are by far the easiest Job to level up. Every action you take, no matter what Job Level, you will always gain 24 JP. On average, you must take 4-5 actions per battle to level up a Scholar. ------------------------------. .----------------------------------. MP Chart: | | Stats: | ------------------------------| |----------------------------------| LV | L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 | | LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 1 | 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 10 | 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 9 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 20 | 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 20 | 16 | 17 | 12 | 20 | 14 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 30 | 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | | 30 | 22 | 24 | 15 | 30 | 18 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 40 | 20 7 3 0 0 0 0 0 | | 40 | 28 | 31 | 19 | 40 | 22 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 50 | 25 10 5 0 0 0 0 0 | | 50 | 34 | 38 | 22 | 50 | 26 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 60 | 29 13 7 0 0 0 0 0 | | 60 | 40 | 44 | 25 | 60 | 29 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 70 | 34 17 9 0 0 0 0 0 | | 70 | 46 | 51 | 29 | 70 | 33 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 80 | 39 20 12 0 0 0 0 0 | | 80 | 52 | 58 | 32 | 80 | 37 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 90 | 44 23 14 0 0 0 0 0 | | 90 | 58 | 65 | 35 | 90 | 41 | ----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 99 | 48 26 15 0 0 0 0 0 | | 99 | 63 | 71 | 38 | 99 | 45 | ------------------------------' '----------------------------------' NOTE: LV = Character Level NOTE: LV = Character Level ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Weapons to Use ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Books: All ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Armor to Equip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Head: Leather Cap, Feathered Hat, Scholar Hat, Ribbon. Body: Vest, Leather Armor, Mage Robe, Scholar Robe, White Robe. Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Bracers, Rune Bracers, Diamond Bracers, Protect Ring. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mastery Item ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Name: Omnitome Atk: 130 Bonus: +10 INT, +5 MIND -----------.------------------------------------------------------.------------ Abilities: | :Scholar -----------'------------------------------------------------------------------- =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {JOB-GE} Geomancer | --------------------' Description: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ bells are very powerful when you aquire them, but don't measure up to other end-game weapons. Still, probably will use terrain attacks instead. ---------.-------------------------------------------------------.------------- Profile: | Geomancer | Fire Crystal ---------'-------------------------------------------------------'------------- -----------------------------------. JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ | "Geomancers harness the power of ----------|------------|-----------| nature itself, manifested in their Attack | 20 | 14 | different terrain attacks. Their Terrain | 20 | 14 | damage potential rises Guard | 20 | 14 | exponentially by job level." Item | 20 | 14 | ----------'------------'-----------' Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character. JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action. Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow) Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle. Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle. -----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------. Battle # | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: | -----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------| 1 | 8 | 14 | -- | 112 | | 12 | 2 | 7 | 14 | 12 | 110 | | 10 | 3 | 7 | 14 | 10 | 108 | | 8 | 4 | 7 | 14 | 8 | 106 | | 6 | 5 | 7 | 14 | 6 | 104 | | 4 | 6 | 7 | 14 | 4 | 102 | | 2 | 7 | 7 | 14 | 2 | 100 | | -- | 8 | 8 | 14 | -- | 112 | | 12 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 12 | 110 | | 10 | 10 | 7 | 14 | 10 | 108 | | 8 | -----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------' Etc, etc... On average, you must take 7-8 actions per battle to level up a Geomancer. ----------------------------------. Stats: | ----------------------------------| LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 20 | 15 | 17 | 15 | 17 | 15 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 30 | 20 | 24 | 20 | 24 | 20 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 40 | 24 | 31 | 24 | 31 | 24 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 50 | 29 | 38 | 29 | 38 | 29 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 60 | 34 | 44 | 34 | 44 | 34 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 70 | 38 | 51 | 38 | 51 | 38 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 80 | 43 | 58 | 43 | 58 | 43 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 90 | 48 | 65 | 48 | 65 | 48 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 99 | 52 | 71 | 52 | 71 | 52 | ----------------------------------' NOTE: LV = Character Level ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Weapons to Use ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bells: All ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Armor to Equip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Head: Leather Cap, Feathered Hat, Ribbon. Body: Vest, Leather Armor, Mage Robe, Black Robe, Gaia Vest. Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Bracers, Rune Bracers, Diamond Bracers, Protect Ring. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Geomancer Card ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Name: Blessed Bell Atk: 130 Bonus: +10 AGI, +10 INT, +10 MIND -----------.------------------------------------------------------.------------ Abilities: | :Geomancer -----------'------------------------------------------------------------------- =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {JOB-VI} Viking | -----------------' Description: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Viking is an interesting job, in that it's a very different role from a warrior-type job. Firstly, they use Hammers and Axes as their main weapons, but even further, they are geared towards defense rather than dealing damage, like the Knight, Dark Knight and Dragoon. Firstly, the Viking shouldn't be called upon if you just want to deal damage. While the Viking has a very high strength stat, Hammer and Axe-type weapons are designed to have lower hits per round, which obviously means lower damage when its all said and done. When you first acquire the Viking after the 3rd crystal, his performance is rather disappointing compared to other jobs. He just doesn't deal out very decent damage. Secondly, the Viking agility stat is among the worst out of all the jobs. This is essentially the trade off for having such a high strength, despite his damage becoming curved due to his weapon types. Unfortunately, the causes the Viking to act last in battle whenever he attacks, further minimizing his use. Let it be said, it is far better to have a weaker defensive character attack first rather than having a high-defensive character act last. This makes jobs like the Ninja come out on top. Thirdly, the Viking has the Provoke ability, which causes one enemy of the enemy party to target the Viking. However, initially this ability isn't very reliable - it requires many job levels to work successfully. Also, Provoke won't stop the OTHER enemies from attacking your other characters. So if you're facing 2 or 3 enemies at a time, you can still expect to take some damage. When compared to Souleater, Throw or Jump, this ability isn't nearly as useful. Lastly, the Viking has a moderate Intelligence stat, and a low Mind stat, which causes him to fall to heavy magic, especially anything focused. Admittedly, many jobs have this problem - Black Belt being slightly worse, and Ninja being slightly better. Still, with all the other problems the Viking has, this is just one more to add to the list. Because of these issues, the Viking is perhaps one of the more situational jobs in the game, ranking near Ranger and Scholar in terms of niche usefulness. The Viking is fairly useful when fighting enemies under water, because his Hammer weapons all possess the Lightning element attribute. This is substantial as there are a lot of water levels and water enemies after you acquire the 3rd crystal. What about endgame? Firstly, outside of the Wi-Fi connection, the best weapons you can weild are the Blessed Hammer and Dual Haken, and they only combine for 242 attack power... which is considerably lower compared to other jobs (namely, Knight, Ninja and Dragoon for example). Adding the fact that they hit far less often and that the Viking will attack near the end of the battle round, I can't recommend the Viking as a top damage-dealer. This role is better suited to Knights, Dragoons, Dark Knights, Ninjas, etc. Having said that, the Viking is a true superstar when facing massive boss battles where the boss has powerful physical attacks. Simply have your Viking equip a full set of Crystal Armor and give him two shields: The Crystal Shield and the Aegis Shield. Then, place the Viking in the back row and have them use their Provoke ability over and over. This diverts all the damage from the boss towards your Viking, which allows your healer to focus all of their healing efforts on the Viking. Since the healer is only responsible for one character, they can use lower level and more plentiful healing spells like Cura, or even a healing staff like the Elder Staff. If necessary, use the Protect spell, Turtle Shell or the Bard's Protect on the Viking, to make him the ultimate meat shield. Using this method is a fantastic way to beat tough bosses when you are underleveled (ie Cloud of Darkness and Iron Giant). It is one of the MOST effective ways to CONTROL the flow of a big battle - you are basically exerting mind-control over the enemy, nearly dictating what the boss does. The entire battle becomes predictable and stable at that point. It's also been said that this combo's well with the Warrior, as the Warrior can use their Advance ability to deal 2.4x the damage at job level 99. However, Most people won't level a Warrior to level 99, making this combo moot for many players. Even then, I still can't help but notice that two characters doing incredibly damage on their own is more useful if you were going to use Provoke just for that. Overall, I'd say the Viking is a situational class, being usable during the 3rd crystal only. It's also not entirely necessary to use a Viking either, since a Dragoon with Wind/Thunder lances will accomplish much the same thing. With his rather low magic defense and the fact that he acts near the end in battle, it's hard to recommend a Viking for the endgame, or to use one at all over other classes. However, if you want to exploit the Provoke ability against tough bosses and design an end-game party around this ability, then go for it. The choice is ultimately yours. As a stand-alone character though, the Viking really doesn't make the cut. ---------.------------------------------------------------------.-------------- Profile: | Viking | Water Crystal ---------'------------------------------------------------------'-------------- -----------------------------------. JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ | ----------|------------|-----------| "Vikings have the ability to lure Attack | 20 | 14 | enemies into attacking them instead Provoke | 20 | 14 | of other members of the party, Guard | 20 | 14 | but it's gonna hurt!" Item | 20 | 14 | ----------'------------'-----------' Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character. JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action. Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow) Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle. Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle. -----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------. Battle # | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: | -----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------| 1 | 8 | 14 | -- | 112 | | 12 | 2 | 7 | 14 | 12 | 110 | | 10 | 3 | 7 | 14 | 10 | 108 | | 8 | 4 | 7 | 14 | 8 | 106 | | 6 | 5 | 7 | 14 | 6 | 104 | | 4 | 6 | 7 | 14 | 4 | 102 | | 2 | 7 | 7 | 14 | 2 | 100 | | -- | 8 | 8 | 14 | -- | 112 | | 12 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 12 | 110 | | 10 | 10 | 7 | 14 | 10 | 108 | | 8 | -----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------' Etc, etc... On average, you must take 7-8 actions per battle to level up a Viking. ----------------------------------. Stats: | ----------------------------------| LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 10 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 10 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 20 | 20 | 14 | 17 | 14 | 15 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 30 | 30 | 18 | 24 | 18 | 20 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 40 | 40 | 22 | 31 | 22 | 24 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 50 | 50 | 26 | 38 | 26 | 29 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 60 | 60 | 29 | 44 | 29 | 34 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 70 | 70 | 33 | 51 | 33 | 38 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 80 | 80 | 37 | 58 | 37 | 43 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 90 | 90 | 41 | 65 | 41 | 48 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 99 | 99 | 45 | 71 | 45 | 52 | ----------------------------------' NOTE: LV = Character Level ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Weapons to Use ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hammers: All Axes: All (except Gigantic Axe) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Armor to Equip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Head: Leather Cap, Mythril Helm, Shell Helm, Ice Helm, Feathered Hat, Viking Helm, Diamond Helm, Ribbon, Crystal Helm. Body: Vest, Rusty Mail, Leather Armor, Mythril Armor, Shell Armor, Ice Armor, Flame Mail, Reflect Mail, Viking Mail, Demon Mail, Diamond Mail, Crystal Mail. Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Gloves, Gauntlets, Power Bracers, Diamond Gloves, Protect Ring, Crystal Gloves. Shield: Leather Shield, Mythril Shield, Ice Shield, Demon Shield, Diamond Shield, Aegis Shield, Crystal Shield. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mastery Item ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Name: Mighty Hammer Atk: 145 Bonus: +20 VIT Effect: Deals lightning damage. -----------.------------------------------------------------------.------------ Abilities: | :Viking -----------'------------------------------------------------------------------- =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {JOB-DR} Dragoon | ------------------' Description: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Dragoon is very much like a Knight, however it relies on a Lance rather than a Sword. The Dragoon can also Jump in the air to land devastating attacks on foes instead of covering other party members. Besides that, the character model for this job is one of the best in the game ;) The Dragoon has grown to be one of my favorite jobs, but during early playtesting, it didn't start that way. I always liked this job when it was introduced in Final Fantasy 4, but when I first tried them out in this game, I was not all that impressed. The damage seemed comparable to the other jobs... yet the Jump ability had some issues with it. Firstly, the Jump ability takes 2 entire battle rounds. The damage finally comes at the very end of the second battle round. So in the meantime, if you haven't killed the enemies yet, you'll be hit by enemy attacks. Whereas two standard attacks from the Dragoon might have killed the enemies sooner, thus lessoning the damage you would have taken. Secondly, this ability increases the chance that your low durability party members will be hit by the enemy party since enemies can't target your Dragoon while he's in the air. So lets say you have a Bard, White Mage, Geomancer, etc. in your party? Well, you can kiss them good-bye in a tough spot. Thirdly, the damage is typically 1.5 times the normal damage, and sometimes a little less. To me, if this ability is going to take 2 entire turns to execute, I expect some kind of reward for the sacrifice of not being able to attack for a turn as well as acting last in a battle. This ultimately renders the Jump ability useless in most situations, because normal attacks will do more damage in comparison. This means in most situations, with comparable weapons (especially when the time you can choose this job)... the Dragoon is basically a Knight without the cover and cure abilities. Also, spears are few and far between for a long part of the game... while swords are plentiful and increase in power over time. That Thunder Spear doesn't go a long way. Now, that's not to say this job is garbage - that's far from the truth. For one, the Jump ability is EXTREMELY useful against flying enemies, especially flying bosses. The damage seems to get doubled against these, and since the attack is 1.5x that of a normal attack, the Jump will actually do TRIPLE damage. Now that's more like it! For example, against Garuda, a flying boss that has ~10,000 hit points, if you had an entire party of Dragoons using the Jump ability, you could end the battle in 2 turns: First turn Jump, next turn dead... as each Jump does around 3000-4000 damage. If you were to use standard attacks at 700-900 damage each, it would be very difficult to survive this battle long enough to kill him, since his attacks are extremely powerful. The answer to quickly beating him is using the Dragoon's Jump ability, preferably using 3 Dragoons and 1 White Mage. Also, lances (and their elemental properties) seem to do very well against some specific enemies, almost to a point of decimating them with 4000 to 9999 damage. These numbers look insanely high compared to the damage your other fighting jobs will be doing. I think some enemies are just weaker to lances, or possibly the wind/thunder elements typically found on the beginning lances (like in the Temple of Time), which makes Dragoons a very worthwhile investment if you know which enemies to target. This leads me to my next point. While Dragoons are not the best job when they first become available, it's worth using a Dragoon when you can purchase two Wind Lances in Saronia Kingdom, and acquire all of the Dragon Gear in Dragon Spire Tower, also found in Southeastern Saronia. From that point on, Dragoons seem to excel much better than Knights could ever hope to. Even further, Dragoons get weapon upgrades that are sickening, and they pace very well with the enemies you'll be up against. These include Heavy Lance, Blood Lance, Dragon Lance and Holy Lance. I know from experience that 2 Blood Lances refill around 800-1100 life per attack, which is far better than the Blood Sword. If you have a level 71 Thief, you can also steal Gungnir, which is the best Dragoon lance in the entire game without a Wi-Fi connection, and it essentially removes any doubt that the Dragoon can be used for endgame. Also, to top things off, Dragoons can wear Crystal armor! And if you're so inclined to put in the time with the mastery weapon from the Wi-Fi Connection, you can aquire the Magic Lance! With both Magic Lance and Gungnir equipped, you have 285 attack power with an +30 strength and +10 agility modifer, which is better than what most classes can achieve. Overall, the Dragoon is an extremely effective job, whether you're using the Jump ability on flying enemies, or are just attacking normally. Even without the Gungnir lance, this job isn't a terrible choice for the endgame. With the Gungnir, it's a no-brainer (at least I would hope you use decide to use the Dragoon in your final party if you went through all that trouble getting it!) ---------.------------------------------------------------------.-------------- Profile: | Dragoon | Water Crystal ---------'------------------------------------------------------'-------------- -----------------------------------. JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ | ----------|------------|-----------| "Dragoons are polearm experts. Their Attack | 20 | 16 | Jump ability allows them the deal Jump | 20 | 16 | massive damage while being Guard | 20 | 16 | impervious to enemy attacks." Item | 20 | 16 | ----------'------------'-----------' Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character. JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action. Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow) Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle. Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle. -----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------. Battle # | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: | -----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------| 1 | 7 | 16 | -- | 112 | | 12 | 2 | 6 | 16 | 12 | 108 | | 8 | 3 | 6 | 16 | 8 | 104 | | 4 | 4 | 6 | 16 | 4 | 100 | | -- | 5 | 7 | 16 | -- | 112 | | 12 | 6 | 6 | 16 | 12 | 108 | | 8 | 7 | 6 | 16 | 8 | 104 | | 4 | 8 | 6 | 16 | 4 | 100 | | -- | 9 | 7 | 16 | -- | 112 | | 12 | 10 | 6 | 16 | 12 | 108 | | 8 | -----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------' Etc, etc... On average, you must take 6-7 actions per battle to level up a Dragoon. ----------------------------------. Stats: | ----------------------------------| LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 20 | 17 | 17 | 15 | 15 | 15 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 30 | 24 | 24 | 20 | 20 | 20 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 40 | 31 | 31 | 24 | 24 | 24 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 50 | 38 | 38 | 29 | 29 | 29 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 60 | 44 | 44 | 34 | 34 | 34 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 70 | 51 | 51 | 38 | 38 | 38 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 80 | 58 | 58 | 43 | 43 | 43 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 90 | 65 | 65 | 48 | 48 | 48 | ----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 99 | 71 | 71 | 52 | 52 | 52 | ----------------------------------' NOTE: LV = Character Level ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Weapons to Use ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Spears: All ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Armor to Equip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Head: Leather Cap, Mythril Helm, Shell Helm, Ice Helm, Feathered Hat, Dragon Helm, Diamond Helm, Ribbon, Crystal Helm. Body: Vest, Rusty Mail, Leather Armor, Mythril Armor, Shell Armor, Ice Armor, Flame Mail, Reflect Mail, Dragon Mail, Demon Mail, Diamond Mail, Crystal Mail. Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Gloves, Gauntlets, Power Bracers, Diamond Gloves, Protect Ring, Crystal Gloves. Shield: Leather Shield, Mythril Shield, Ice Shield, Demon Shield, Diamond Shield, Aegis Shield, Crystal Shield. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mastery Item ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Name: Magic Lance Atk: 145 Bonus: +20 STR -----------.------------------------------------------------------.------------ Abilities: | :Viking -----------'------------------------------------------------------------------- =-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*= {JOB-DK} Dark Knight | ----------------------' Description: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Dark Knight is another fighting Job, like the Dragoon, Viking or Knight. However, this Job plays a little differently than those. The big advantage to using a Dark Knight is for its Souleater ability, which damages the entire enemy party. Even better, the damage is comparable (if not a little more sometimes) to what your regular attack would be. Essentially, it's like doubling or even tripling your damage in a single round! Also, you can deal this damage from the back row! Holy Mackinaw! Of course, there's a drawback... you lose 10% of your current health (Note, that's not your maximum health). So, you can't kill yourself using this ability directly, but you can put yourself in the yellow. In my experience, the lower the health is, the less damage you will do with the Souleater ability. To compensate for this (which I found really exciting!), you can use the Blood Sword to refill your life when you're not using the Souleater ability! Admittedly, my early experiences with this combo were not very good. I found it difficult to keep my Dark Knight alive or healthy while using Souleater and then trying to replenish my life with the Blood Sword. This is