Category PvP

As we continue the Tactics PvP Job Series, we will have a look at the viability and the performance of the Orator job as the main role in PvP for competitive use.

PvP Performance Statcard

Orator isn’t looking to be a viable option in most cases in PvP. We will dive more into that, starting with their abilities.

For more information on this job, visit the job link: Orator

Abilities

Orator’s Speechcraft abilities are instant-cast abilities that are chance-based (higher chances with higher MA) and are mostly focused on inflicting status effects and adjusting Bravery and Faith values. Because of this, they are suited to controlling or slowing down the pace of the game. Let’s take a look at some of their abilities:

Intimidate/Enlighten (action) – These abilities reduce the target’s Bravery and Faith by 20 respectively. Reducing Bravery affects most Reaction abilites chance to proc as well as barehanded, katanas, and knight’s swords basic attacks. Reducing Faith lowers the effectiveness of magicks in terms of damage, status chance, and healing.

Stall (action) – This ability reduces the target’s CT to 0. This is good at keeping dangerous units from getting a chance to act. Just to note, there aren’t any immunities against Stall.

Insult (action) – Causes your opponent to lose control of the target by inflicting berserk status. Berserk is best suited against units that have low basic attack damage (dependent on their weapon) since they would use basic attacks the entire time (they are still in favor of the opponent). A berserked unit is harder to cleanse compared to charm since it doesn’t get removed from taking damage.

Mimic Darlavon (action) – Inflicts sleep status in an area. This is Orator’s most disruptive ability, because it is instant cast and can affect stacked groups. Sleep disables a character’s reaction ability, causes them to stop gaining CT, and they cannot evade attacks. Taking any HP damage will wake them up.

Equip Guns (support) – This passive ability enables the use of guns on other jobs. This can be usable for support-themed builds or builds wanting to focus on using magic guns (scaling higher damage with the caster and the target’s Faith).

Stats

Stats as a primary job: HP: 80% | MP: 70% | SP: 100% | PA: 75% | MA: 75%
C-EV: 5 | Move: 3 | Jump: 3

Can equip: Knives, Guns, Hats, Clothing, Robes

Orator does not have any redeeming qualities in any of their stats compared to other jobs. While they have access to guns, they are very limited in viability when it comes to other utilities. Speechcraft is literally better off on any magick-based job as they have higher MA to work with.

Conclusion

Orator is not a competitive option for PvP. Speechcraft is better suited for other jobs and their functionality is mostly tailored for story content with recruiting monsters or poaching them; which serve no purpose in PvP.

As we continue the Tactics PvP Job Series, we will have a look at the viability and the performance of the Samurai job as the main role in PvP for competitive use.

PvP Performance Statcard

Looking at their ratings, Samurai is a fairly decent primary job in PvP. Let’s expand more on that below.

For more information on this job, visit the job link: Samurai

Abilities

Samurai are known for their Iaido ability, drawing the spirit out of each katana in the game and utilizing them for a mixture of support and damaging abilities. Iaido is one of the best, if not arguably the best skillset in the game because of its variety of skills and instant casting. Iaido is even a great ability to add as a secondary to a variety of builds due to the buffs and versatility you can get from it. Each Iaido ability scales with MA and has zero MP cost. There is a downside in that you do need copies of the katana available in your inventory in order to cast the ability, and they have a chance of breaking based on the katana’s Weapon Power per use.

Let’s look at which of their abilities you will commonly see in PvP:

Kiyomori and Masamune (action) – These abilities grant instant protect and shell (kiyomori) and regen and haste (masamune) respectively to allies in a 2-range area. Because these status effects are so vital in PvP, this is the most efficient way to grant these abilities within 1-2 turns versus using White Magicks and Time Magicks which are inheritently slower due to cast time.

Kiku-ichimonji (action) – This 8-tile, line-based magic attack is used for its range and getting picks from a distance. This skill does not damage allies in the area.

Chirijiraden (action) – This 3×3 area magic attack does a ton of damage, but does require you to be up close.

Murasame (action) – This ability provides instant area healing to all allies in the area. Will deal damage to undead allies.

Shirahadori (reaction) – This ability reduces the hit rate of certain physical attacks and abilities, decreasing it further with higher Bravery. This ability can only proc against the first attack if the enemy is dual wielding. Shirahadori is technically not a form of evasion and stacks with other sources of evasion.

Stats

Stats as a primary job: HP: 75% | MP: 90% | SP: 100% | PA: 128% | MA: 90%
C-EV: 20 | Move: 3 | Jump: 3

Can equip: Katanas, Helmets, Armor, Robes

Based on their stats, Samurai has excellent PA, but their MA is lacking, especially when their skillset revolves around MA. Still, they can utilize Iaido just like other jobs, but if you are looking at optimizing damage, Black Mage and Time Mage are best with their high base MA stats. Ninja is a great option to utilize support Iaido abilities because of their base high Speed. Samurais do have access to both armor and robes, so they have versatility with adding to their bulk or stacking into damage with a variety of robes that increase MA further.

Conclusion

Samurai as the main job is a solid choice, especially as a physical-based damage dealer. They aren’t the best choice to utilize their own skillset sadly, but the nature of Iaido enables it to be usable on practically any job due to the diverse range of abilities it offers.

Today, we released an update that fixes a few bugs and addressed inventory counts in the SLOT 4/Starter save file. Read the changelog below for more information.

To download official version 2.2.1 save data, go here:
https://mega.nz/file/h4dSFLbZ#LzMaLdoC2hMGc4K2HMY0LlkfF4QYEk3UbnC4wQGXElc

Ramza

• Rollback his Chapter 2/3 sprite to Chapter 4 as it was disabling Shout and Ultima abilities when switching off his Squire job. The sprite is tied to his skillset so he needed to be swapped back in order to have access to his full abilities.
  
  Note: He will still use his Chapter 2/3 sprite in Generics and Uniques Premade since he is played as is without job switching.

Alicia (Female Generic)

• Fixed a previous issue where she had higher Physical Attack than the rest of the generic roster in Starter. She is now no longer stronger than the rest.

Inventory

• Reduced Materia Blade from 3 to 2 since Cloud had one slotted (originally making the inventory count a total of 4).

Looking at making your first Competitive Starter team? Already have one but looking for tips to improve it? This article covers the abilities that are battle-tested and should be considered when theory-crafting your next PvP squad. We will break each section by ability type and you can jump to each one using the table of contents below. Now, let’s get right to it.

YouTube video/audio version of this guide: https://youtu.be/l6QvfMG0KU4

Action Abilities

Iaido

● Kiyomori – For Protect and Shell; 33% damage reduction from physical and magical attacks.
● Masamune – For Regen and Haste; healing-over-time at the end of each of your turns and faster turns to act more frequently.
● Chirijiraden – Strong melee area magic damage.
● Kiku-ichimonji – Strong line-based magic damage up to 8 tiles away.

Darkness

● Sanguine Sword – HP sustainability and damage while in melee range.
● Unholy Sacrifice – Considered a “bomb,” deals a ton of damage in melee but the caster also takes a ton of damage in return; good against tight formations.

Summon

● Golem – Covers all allies with a damage shield equal to the caster’s max HP that absorbs damage from basic attacks, Throw, Jump, and Aim.
● Zodiark – Though it has a long cast time, it can be used as a “walking bomb” on an ally for later turns, dealing massive magic damage to all enemies in the area.

Martial Arts

● Shockwave – Line-based earth physical damage up to 8 tiles away.
● Aurablast – Ranged single-target physical damage.
● Revive – Instant resurrection of a fallen ally. Both the caster and the target need to be on the same height.
● Chakra – Instant area healing that also restores MP. Can also be used in conjunction with Mana Shield.

Throw

● Instant ranged damage that is based on the caster’s Speed and the Power of the weapon being thrown. Useful for high damage with tossing end-game weapons, like Chaos Blade or Excalibur.

Jump

● Deals delayed damage to a single target. Handy at pre-emptively avoiding incoming damage and effects since the character is “out of play.” Jump scales best when equipped with a polearm.

Reaction Abilities

● Mana Shield (Time Mage) – Bravery% chance to absorb incoming damage to your MP instead of HP. Very good at sustaining hard-hitting moves as long as you have at least 1 MP left.

● Shirahadori (Samurai) – Decreases the chance of being hit by incoming types of damage (like Throw, Jump, Attack, Guns, Bows) by reducing the hit rate of those types of attacks. Higher Bravery will further reduce the chance of being hit.

● Reflexes (Ninja) – Doubles the character’s physical and magical evasion rates at all times. Works best in tandem with shields like Escutcheon “II” to evade the front and sides or when equipped with cloaks as they provide the best evasive coverage regardless of side.

● Soulbind (Arithmetician) – Bravery% chance after taking HP damage to restore HP equal to half the damage taken and return that amount as damage to the attacking character. A good option for bulky and defensive characters and can be used to punish ranged abilities such as Kiku-ichimonji and Shockwave.

● Dragonheart (Dragoon) – Though there are sources to get the reraise status (White Magicks or Ovelia’s Aegis), being able to have an option to get it from taking physical damage is also a boon especially when most damage you will see is likely to be physical-type. Being able to revive in the mid-to-late game can be crucial to making a comeback. This ability is also Bravery% chance.

Support Abilities

● Arcane Defense/Defense Boost – Great magic or physical damage mitigation by 33% respectively that stacks with Protect and Shell. Also good options for when you predict your opponent is stacking heavy into things like Iaido (use Arcane Defense) or Darkness/Throw (use Defense Boost).

● Arcane Strength/Attack Boost/Vehemence – Arcane Strength (for magic) and Attack Boost (for physical) are great options, especially when stacking damage potential. Vehemence is risky as it causes you to take 50% more damage, but it also increases your damage dealt by 50%, sacrificing sustain for power.

● Dual Wield – Being able to have two one-handed weapons equipped for stat stacking or optimization can be pretty important when min-maxing builds. This is also a handy option with Arts of War since each ability has two chances to rent gear or reduce stats instead of one.

● Swiftness – This ability is very important when focused on using magicks or Summon, as this reduces the Spell Speed of those abilities in half, rounded up. Since Starter is primarily about speedy plays and magicks are naturally slower, Swiftness is crucial for magicks to compete against instant cast abilities.

Movement Abilities

● Manafont – Being able to restore MP from simply moving at least 1 tile can be potent when also combining this ability with Mana Shield.

● Move +2/Jump +2 – Traversing the map quickly is king, so having more options is always a plus. Move +2 in most cases should always be your go-to for movement.

● Teleport – A bit more of a niche ability, Teleport enables the unit to be able to traverse anywhere on the map, with the chance of it failing by 10% per tile past their normal Move stat. This can be handy in risky plays with things like Chirijiraden or Unholy Sacrifice or even immediately placing a Summon “bomb” into the enemy stack quickly before it goes off.

As we continue the PvP Job Series, we focus on the viability of the Dragoon job in a competitive PvP environment.

PvP Performance Statcard

Judging the ratings, Dragoon is a great choice for any PvP team. Let’s look at the reasoning behind that more below.

For more information on this job, visit the job link: Dragoon

Abilities

Dragoon’s Jump enables it to remove itself out of play for a few turns and strike from above delivering high damage especially if equipped with a polearm. Jumping also has the benefits of taking the character out of play which in turn helps avoid incoming damage or cast-time abilities from landing. The more Speed a character has, the less time it takes Jump to land. Haste and Swiftness do not make Jump land faster. Since Jump’s skillset is basically learning further horizontal and vertical coverage we won’t go over that, but we will instead talk about some tidbits regarding Jump and other abilities Dragoons have access to:

Jump (action command) – Here are some important traits of this ability:
– Jump is considered physical damage and does not inherit the weapon’s element.
– Calculates using [PA x WeaponPower] for all weapons (does not interact with guns) and has a 1.5x modifier in addition when equipped with a polearm.
– You cannot be targeted by attacks or abilities while mid-jump, and status effects’ timers are paused while mid-jump.
– Jump does not work when on a map with a ceiling.
– It cannot be evaded, but can be canceled with Shirahadori.
– Jump does not benefit from Attack Boost, Brawler, and Vehemence.

Dragonheart (reaction) – Bravery% chance when taking physical damage to gain the reraise status, allowing your KO’ed character to return with some HP once their CT gauge reaches 100. This ability is good for mid-to-late gameplay as this can be useful for making a comeback.

Equip Polearms (support) – This ability isn’t for Dragoons since they already can equip polearms, but rather for other jobs that can utilize Jump and for maximum damage.

Stats

Stats as a primary job: HP: 120% | MP: 50% | SP: 100% | PA: 120% | MA: 50%
C-EV: 10 | Move: 3 | Jump: 4

Can equip: Polearms, Shields, Helmets, Armor, Robes

Dragoons are known for their fairly good HP bulk and Physical Attack. They can also innately equip shields to further increase their survivability and polearms have a range of 2 so they can avoid certain reaction abilities like Counter or First Strike depending. Their access to robes also makes Lordly Robe a possible option depending on how you are building them. Because of their bulky HP, they are a niche option for using the Summon, Golem since that is more effective with higher HP, albeit they have very little MP to work with. Though Jump is good damage on Dragoon, Thiefs and Ninjas can utilize it better due to their innately higher Speed as well as any other job that has inherently high Physical Attack.

Conclusion

Dragoons are a solid choice for PvP. They are fairly resilient and are a good choice at tanking damage, just like Knight. Because polearms give a damage bonus to Jump, they will always have solid damage and the ability to be an annoyance with dodging incoming attacks. Their 120% PA gives them a multitude of options from other physical damage skillsets.

As we continue going through each generic job in Final Fantasy Tactics, we will cover the competitive viability of the Ninja job as the main role in PvP.

PvP Performance Statcard

Based on the ratings, Ninja is one of the top-tier jobs for PvP. Let’s focus on more of why that is the case below.

For more information on this job, visit the job link: Ninja

Abilities

Ninja’s Throw ability allows you to propel weapons, shurikens, and bombs from a distance for instant damage. The item thrown is consumed from your inventory so you do want to make sure you have a decent quantity at the ready. Throw’s damage scales up with the weapon’s Power and your character’s Speed which is fitting with Ninja’s innately high Speed which we will cover in the Stats section. Since there are multiple properties with Throw we will cover them first before going over abilities:

● Is considered a physical attack (can be mitigated via Protect and Defense Boost).
● Throw’s element becomes the thrown weapon’s element (if any).
● The range is based on your Move stat.
● Throw cannot be reflected but can be evaded, stopped via Shirahadori, or caught via Sticky Fingers.
● Throw does not benefit from Attack Boost or Vehemence.
● Weapons only obtainable in multiplayer modes can never be thrown.

Now with that being said, let’s look at their job abilities:

Throw (action, high weapon power) – Throw, coupled with weapons with high power such as Chaos Blade or Chirijiraden, can deal quite a bit of damage instantly.

Reflexes (reaction) – This always-on reaction ability doubles all of your physical and magic evasion rates. This paired with cloaks enables you to be quite evasive even from behind, a specific issue with using shields.

Dual-Wield (support) – This passive enables you to equip two one-handed weapons, allowing you to strike twice with a basic attack as well as providing an extra slot for weapons that have stat bonuses. This also gives you a second chance at rending via Arts of War. Ninjas innately have this ability.

Stats

Stats as a primary job: HP: 70% | MP: 50% | SP: 120% | PA: 122% | MA: 75%
C-EV: 30 | Move: 4 | Jump: 4

Can equip: Knives, Ninja Blades, Flails, Hats, Clothing

Ninjas are the fastest generic job with their 120% Speed (tied only to Mime), have an excellent starting Move and Jump of 4 and 30% evasion, and fairly high Physical Attack. Because of their Speed, they are also good options for opening plays with support Iaido skills, like Kiyomori (protect and shell) to quickly get vital buffs out to the party. On the downside, they aren’t bulky and are not keen on magicks, but their versatility is what makes them such an enticing primary job in PvP.

Conclusion

Ninja is easily one of the top PvP job options because of their ability to make fast plays happen quickly, which in formats like Starter, is very vital towards success. They synergize very well with other physical skillsets and Throw is an all-round good ability even as a secondary for instant damage. Their innate Dual-Wield opens up a variety of different stat optimizations. Ultimately, Ninjas are a great asset for any team.