Job Training Part 5: The Earth Crystal Jobs

The Earth crystal is the last one encountered in the story, and some fairly impressive jobs are a reward for making it this far.

DrgSamChmDnc

Dragoon

DRGThis is one of my favorite classes, but it’s unfortunately the worst of this lot. It’s not bad by any means, but the other 3 are potentially game breaking and Dragoon is just good. Dragoons have their signature !Jump ability as their innate command. The user leaves for a turn before coming down on an enemy, this does double damage if the user is equipped with a spear. They also have !Lance, which steals HP and MP from a given target. Finally, they learn Equip Spears. Sadly, a fiesta class can’t take this and !Jump.

  • !Jump is very, very useful to avoid damage if you can time it well. It also has the benefit of ignoring row, so you can have a very survivable dragoon still doing the same damage they would in the front.
  • !Lance is based on magic, so it’s more useful on Mage classes than it is on Dragoon. It also helps some of these classes (*cough* Summoner *cough*) with their MP issues.
  • Crystal dragons near the end of the game have the Dragon Lance as a rare steal, which is stronger than the Sealed Weapon spear (Holy Lance). Even if you don’t have a thief, you can get this one with the Thief’s Knife.

Samurai

SAMThe last of the heavy armor classes, Samurai has a lot going for it. Their innate command is !Zeninage, better known as Gil Toss. This damages all enemies by literally throwing money at them. Their innate passive is Shirahadori, which causes them to sometimes evade melee attacks. They also learn !Mineuchi, which I’ve honestly never found a use for. It’s supposed to paralyze enemies, but it doesn’t thanks to a bug. (I believe the bug is fixed in the Mobile version.) Their final command ability is !Iainuki, which attempts to instantly kill all enemies. Samurais also learn Equip Katanas.

  • Zeninage does damage based on your level and the enemy’s defense, with a very large multiplier. The cost is based on your level and the number of enemies. Because most of the damage comes from the multiplier, it’s fairly ineffective against high-defense enemies unless you level like Belghast.
  • Most katanas have a decent chance to crit, which deals double damage and ignores defense. The Sealed Weapon katana (Masamune) also causes the holder to always act first in battle and casts haste when used as an item. This alone would make Samurai a top-tier class.
  • Iainuki has a base success chance of 85%, but will fail against targets immune to instant death (but not undead). Feel free to perform your Odin impression on as many things as possible.

Chemist

CHMThe only thing you need to know about chemist is that it can revive the entire party for 0 MP, and that’s not its strongest ability. Chemists have the innate passive of Pharmacology, which doubles the effect of healing items. Their innate command is !Drink, which allows the user to use the drink items for a variety of buffs. The real power in the class in !Mix, which takes two items in your inventory and produces an effect of some kind. Most of these are fairly defensive, but there are some exceptions. There are effects that can’t be duplicated by any other class available to Chemists this way. Their other commands are !Recover, which casts Esuna on the part for free, and !Revive, which casts Raise on the party for free.

  • Keep a mix list handy. There are too many effects here to memorize.
  • Chemists are unfortunately not at all gifted offensively. Caster-like commands can make them more useful in random battles, should you choose to fight them.
  • A lot of the really good mixes require either a Dragon Fang or a Turtle Shell, both of which are only found from enemy drops. Keep an eye out for sources of these.

Dancer

DNCDancers have low strength, not great agility, and the worst HP in the game, but they’re the fiesta class most likely to do 9999 physical damage, and their unique equipment includes the best defensive item outside of the bonus dungeon. The Dancer innate command is !Dance, which randomly produces one of 4 effects: an attack for x4 damage, hp drain, mp drain, or confusion. Dancers also have !Flirt, which just attempts to confuse an enemy. The final ability dancers learn is Equip Ribbons, which does what it says. Dancers themselves don’t need this ability to use ribbons.

  • While !Dance normally has 4 options, some gear removes the charm in favor of an extra chance to attack. The most useful of these is the Rainbow Dress, because the others cover up a gear slot that could have something more useful in it (like a Ribbon). If you have a thief, you can steal a Lamia’s Tiara (which has this effect) in the floating ruins, well before you’re supposed to have access to it and actually before you even have the dancer job available.
  • Ribbons are headgear that grants immunity to most status effects in addition to a large amount of defense. Don’t ask me how a simple ribbon does this, but it makes Equip ribbons one of the best passives in the game.
  • As mentioned, Dancers have the worst HP in the game, and unlike Bards and Red Mages, need to be in the front row to deal good damage. The drain dance helps with this a little bit, but expect your dancer to die a lot.

job line

Thanks for sticking with it this long. The Fiesta starts on Monday; I hope you take part. Remember to tweet proof of your victory to @Aggrochat if you finish!

2 thoughts on “Job Training Part 5: The Earth Crystal Jobs”

  1. Well done series of posts! I love reading about and playing various FF5 variants and challenges. I’m hoping to complete 20 Fiesta runs this year, and I hope to see/hear more of your updates!

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