Second Job
-I’ve put this off for a while because I’m nervous about the choice. But you know what? Fuck that. I’ll look through the jobs, see which one boosts the others as best I can, and choose. Won’t be perfect or min/maxed, but that’s not what this is about.
-My main goal is to supplement jobs with key non-adjacent tiles from other jobs. I first check there.
-I created a table of the non-adjacent licenses from each job. Deleted most of it cause it was just scribbles, but here’s an example of what was in it:
Shikari Vaan
-Shades of Black
-White Magick 12 (Protectga, Shellga)
-Yagyu Darkblade & Mesa
-435 HP
-Guns 5, 6
Not including stuff I care less about, like Phoenix Lore (30/50) or Gil Toss.
-I don’t want to commit too much before I really understand how this works. So I’ll start with a synch point I definitely want. Specifically, I want Time Mage Penelo to be able to access Addle and Shear.
Addle is available in Foebreaker. Shear is available in Archer. Let’s do one of those for Penelo and see how it goes. What other synch points do they have?
Foebreaker: Addle/Shear, 230 HP, 270 HP, Battle Lore 70,
Archer: Shear/Addle, 230 HP, 270 HP, White Magick 4
Leaning towards Archer, since I’d rather access White Magick 4 than two Battle Lore licenses.
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Test Time!
-I tested this (after saving) by giving Penelo access to Archer.
-Wait. Wait wait wait. She DOESN’T have to pick between Archer and Time Battlemage! ALL LICENSES ARE ALWAYS ACTIVE HOLY SHIT THIS ADDS SOOOO MUCH FLEXIBILITY!
-Okay. So this leaves one more question that I don’t quite understand. What’s the point of the single non-adjacent tiles?
Take this example:
Here, I’ve already activated the upper Swiftness license from the Shikari job. It’s connected to another license off the main board, and now I can access the lower Swiftness license.
But what about this:
There no longer seems to be any point at all to getting the White Magick 4 license on Board A. Like, all it would do it light it up on Board B, without any benefit.
I even tested the HP licenses to see if they were additive. Like, if I got a +70 HP tile on Board A that activated a +70 HP tile on Board B, I wanted to see if that doubled the bonus. No luck though. It just counted once.
I’ve turned it over and over, and have to conclude that there’s simply something I’m missing. I don’t get it, it doesn’t make sense, so I’m going to ignore it for now.
[Later edit: I learned that the espers you choose form bridges to these. I had already made my job choices at this point, so it didn’t impact this choice, but wanted to be upfront about that.]
This simplifies the choice greatly. I’m going to choose based on giving myself more flexibility, and trying to access new linked and non-adjacent tiles.
-To my surprise, there aren’t many non-adjacent linked things I care about.
-Knight Fran has a couple (390 HP, Revive, Excalipur as one trio; Battle Lore 70, Telekinesis as another pair). I want Excalipur access even though there’s a great chance it’s from some superboss I’ll never kill. Telekinesis too.
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Final Choice
-There are tons and tons of possibilities. Given that I don’t know what’s coming, I feel both hamstrung and free to pick. I’m going to err on the side of armor diversity too. I also want to try as many classes as possible, so erring on the side of going with unused jobs.
*an hour later*
AAARGH I’M SO INDECISIVE! Do I go for a wide spread? Concentration? Single or multiple armor types? I have no frigging idea. I’ve gone back and forth and back and forth.
-Fuck it. Let’s just do this. Going to take my best guess on a couple of things, including just what sounds cool together.
Penelo: Time Battlemage and Archer (access to shear/addle, more ranged weapons).
Ashe: Black Mage and Red Battlemage (some white magick & arcane magick)
Basch: White Mage and Uhlan (some black magick)
Fran: Knight and Foebreaker (access to Excalipur, both 1h and 2h options).
Balthier: Machinist and Monk (range + melee options)
Vaan: Shikari and Bushi (uhhh…. Idk. It was what was left lol.)
-Yaaaaaay it’s done! I have my second jobs.
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Dalmasca Estersand - North of the River
-I tried exploring the area north of the river, but the wolves are level 26. I’m just 22.
-Never mind. I have two jobs. I can do anything. I take them out.
-I really want to progress on this quest from Dantro’s Wife to cure the person, so I push on. It’s tough since everything here is like 4-5 levels above me.
-Some Wild Saurians (the t-rexes) block my way. I don’t try to fight them – I just run lol.
-YESSSS!! I made it to the next zone and got the valeblossom dew for the quest. I had to knock over a rock and find the item underneath it.
I love the look of Archer!Penelo with her Loxley Bow taking out a bird.
I’ve been trying to use one of the oddest weapons I’ve seen thus far. Basch has a staff that does little damage but gives Regen on hit.
I can’t figure out a way to make him spread this via gambit, so I just every once in a while make him bop the party one-by-one.
-Pushed on to see how far I could go. The next area is the Mosphoran Highwastes. I even take down one of the level 33 wolves roaming the area before I leave. (I know I shouldn’t be here.)
-Cool, Humbabas are enemies here!
-You know what? I’m feeling a rush of second-job-adrenaline. I take down one of those t-rex Wild Saurians. I got this.
-I turn in the Valeblossom Dew to Dantro’s Wife.
Nothing happens now, but she says the person she’s been healing has been cured. They’re resting. I’ll come back later.
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Next time: I keep hearing about a huge wyrm in the Westersand, so I’ll check that out, then move onto the Rain-filled Giza Plains.
