PvP Patch v5 Focused: Jobs

In this article, we review job changes that will impact both Campaign and Multiplayer modes, including adding innate abilities for every unique in the Tactics League roster to empower their primary job if they previously did not have one.

Changes to Uniques

With version 5, any prior unique character in the Tactics League roster that did not have an innate ability on their primary job will have one added. Additionally, select unique characters in the Campaign also received innate abilities to improve them. This affects the following characters:

  • Ramza (Heretic, Ch. 2 – 4) – Monkey Grip
  • Meliadoul (Divine Knight) – Pierce
  • Beowulf (Templar) – Tactical Shift
  • Luso (Game Hunter) – Beastmaster
  • Construct 8 (Automaton) – Replaced Ignore Weather (which is unusable) with Fly (enabling his jet pack! :p)
  • Orran (Astrologer) – Arcane Defense
  • Orlandeau (Sword Saint) – Swordplay abilities are usable with Katanas, Ninja Blades, and Swords-types
  • Byblos (Byblos) – Arcane Defense, Defense Boost, Dexterity, and Soulbind. Removed Fire Weakness. Immune: Vampire, Curse, Doom

Alongside these innate ability changes, there were a few action ability-related changes for select special characters, such as:

  • Ramza’s and Byblos’s (newly added) Maim now have a 35% chance to Remove: Protect, Shell, Haste, Reraise, and Regen instead, up from 19%.
  • Because Earthsplitter was moved to Blue Magicks, Luso’s Earthsplitter has now been replaced with Choco Meteor, using [MA * 15]. Note that because he has Beastmaster innately, he can slot Blue Magicks and still use a different Support ability, unlike other characters.
  • Ramza and Luso’s Ultima is now 3 ticks instead of 4, allowing for faster cast times; expect to see more Ultima being cast 👀.
  • Though this was mentioned in the Abilities article, Meliadoul now has Crush Shield as well to give her more targeted options to check against. Mustadio’s Disassemble does damage in addition to reducing the target’s Power and Magick by 2.
  • Valmafra’s Gravity has been replaced with a reworked Manaburn, which now does damage equal to your current MP (the original version was your target’s MP), and spending your current MP as a cost afterward.
  • As mentioned in the Uniques, New and Familiar article, Balthier’s Plunder abilities have been replaced by Thief’s Steal variants (as they were ultimately redundant), and any successful Steal now deals unarmed damage to the victim as well. Balthier no longer has Safeguard like he did in the original game.
  • Orran’s Astrology skillset, which only housed Celestial Stasis, has been replaced with the original Arithmeticks skillset, supporting only CT and Height parameters, as well as now being Reflectable and Silence-able, and being able to arithmetick:
    • [White Magicks] Cure
    • [Black Magicks] Fire, Thunder, Blizzard, Scathe
    • [Time Magicks] Gravity, Reflect
    • [Mystic Arts] Umbra
  • To tone down Orlandeau’s capabilities, and not just be a “better version” of Agrias/Delita and Meliadoul, his Swordplay skillset now only includes:
    • [Holy Sword] Judgment Blade, Cleansing Strike, Hallowed Bolt
    • [Unyielding Strike] Crush Helm, Crush Accessory
    • [Fell Sword/Darkness] Sanguine Sword, Infernal Strike

Changes to Generics

There are several adjustments to select generic jobs as well going into version 5, mostly to improve their stats, especially all caster job’s base Power which was too little to try to do any hybrid-based skillsets effectively. Let’s dive more into what changes to expect during the beta:

  • Generic Caster Job HP, MP, and PA multiplier adjustments – The general bulk of casters have gone up slightly and their MP has been reduced slightly to compensate for it. These changes are to improve their base HP for stuff like HP Boost and reaching certain HP thresholds, while not interfering with their MP pool drastically so they can still build into MP for Manafont/Mana Shield or the Cherche accessory. The following changes shown are from a generic male going from v4 to v5:
    • White Mage – 228 HP ➡ 256 HP / 121 MP ➡ 111 MP / 11 PA ➡ 13 PA
    • Black Mage – 213 HP ➡ 242 HP / 121 MP ➡ 111 MP / 10 PA ➡ 12 PA
    • Time Mage – 213 HP ➡ 242 HP / 121 MP ➡ 111 MP / 6 PA ➡ 11 PA
    • Summoner – 228 HP ➡ 256 HP / 172 MP ➡ 151 MP / 7 PA ➡ 12 PA
    • Mystic – 242 HP ➡ 256 HP / 111 MP ➡ 106 MP / 10 PA ➡ 13 PA
    • Sage – 256 HP ➡ 285 HP / 121 MP ➡ 111 MP / 13 PA ➡ 14 PA
  • White Mage: Flails were added as equipment based on past community requests and to match various other Final Fantasy titles that White Mage can utilize them innately.
  • Knight: Knights received some minor changes that mostly affect unique characters as part of efforts to tone down their scaling. Note that because their innate, HP Boost, was increased from 20 to 25% the base HP multiplier reduction is lesser in scale:
    • Generic Knights are approximately 11 HP less bulky, Unique Knights’ HP loss is variable in scale but is approximately 10% less.
    • Unique Knights have had their Power decreased by no more than 2.
    • Unique Knights have had their Magick decreased by no more than 2.
  • Thief: The Thief job received some buffs to improve their damage potential alongside buffs to Knives. We will go over Knives more in a future Equipment article.
    • Thieves are approximately 14 HP bulkier.
    • Thieves had an increase in Power by 1.
    • A very small 1% Speed multiplier reduction was applied that does not affect any generic or unique character other than Balthier (this is part of efforts to ensure Balthier’s Speed on Thief or Ninja (which is also 1% less Speed) doesn’t exceed 14 Speed by base).
  • Dragoon: With Dragoon getting a new skillset and with the Jump stat being a factor into the Jump ability, Dragoons received the following changes:
    • Dragoon had a decrease in Power by approximately 1 for generics and at most 2 for uniques.
    • Dragoon had an increase in Magick by 2 to improve their ability to build into their Breath attacks.
  • Ninja: To improve the viability and versatility of Ninja, they received the following adjustments, including one major change to the job’s equipment:
    • Re-added Knives as weapons.
    • Ninjas are approximately 28 HP bulkier.
    • Added Innate: Waterwalking as this movement ability has rare utility in PvP and because it is a part of their job progression.
  • Samurai: To ensure female Samurai can utilize Iaido competitively the following changes were made including an added movement innately for flavor:
    • Increased Power by 1, only affecting female Samurai (starting 16 Power, 15 Magick).
    • Added Innate: Swim as this movement ability has rare utility in PvP and because it is a part of their job progression.
  • Bard and Dancer: Both these jobs received a slight increase in Power or Magick to improve their hybridization potential:
    • Bard – Increased Power by 1.
    • Dancer – Increased Magick by 1.
  • Mime: With Mimes having a usable command in Blue Magicks on their turn, some balancing was needed to adjust their ability to use abilities on their turn and still mimic. Additionally, their job requirements in the campaign were lowered so you can experience them faster albeit you will still need to learn select monster abilities on hit to use them:
    • Decreased Power and Magick by 1.
    • Decreased Move from 5 to 4.
    • Decreased their Class Evasion from 25 to 10%.
    • Set the requirements of Squire, Chemist, Summoner, Thief, Orator, Geomancer, and Dragoon from variable levels to Level 3 on each job.
  • Dark Knight: These changes only affect the job requirements due to itemization restrictions in the campaign (they cannot equip Knight’s Swords like they could originally and their Fell Swords are gated behind multiplayer):
    • No longer requires 20+ confirmed kills.
    • Now unlocks after reaching Lv. 5 Black Mage and Lv. 5 Samurai.
      Thank you to Xjamxx for the hack needed to make this work!
  • Onion Knight: Since the base version is very inferior even if you unlock it early, some overall bulk and strength were increased to make them better than what they were in the original game:
    • Set the HP, MP, PA, and MA multipliers to 100%.
    • Increased Move and Jump from 3/3 to 5/4 to match the mastered version and improve their mobility.

Conclusion

With all unique characters having an innate ability on their main job, new and improved abilities, and stat and job adjustments to generic jobs, version 5’s goal is to make it possible to play in almost any way possible to your heart’s desire. The public beta begins on March 18th!

by Tactics League Article, PvE, PvP