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I'm no expert on this game. But I've been playing through it as of late and I've been thinking...

Time mages are useless. The benefits of Haste and Slow are apparent. Quick is cheap, really cheap. But Meteor does crazy damage, but takes forever to cast. The rest of the abilites are fairly ho-hum. Demis? Cost too much for the effect. Float and Reflect? I laugh.

The counterpart for the Time Mage is the Oracle. I am biased mind you, I love the Oracle. He gets the largest pool of mage weapons. (Sticks being the best.) Foxbird, paralyze and petrify are awesome. They can power up thier own effectiveness with Pray Faith, or they can debilitate with Silence Song, Blind, Confusion and the like. Life Drain is cheaper, faster and drains HP, unlike Demi. Some are very situational, their beserk spell (Blind Rage) is pretty pointless, except when you have black mages with rods, they won't do any decent damage with rods. Zombie is only useful if the guy heals himself like crazy.

I can get the usefullness of other mage types. White mages heal, black mages do the elemental damage, Summoners have a whole bag of tricks, mediators are freaking aweseome, Oracles debilitate at will. But the time mage seems a touch useless.

Random point of interest: Wiegraf/Velius is weak against silence!

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Really Random Quote of the Day: "Short of changing human nature, therefore, the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war." - Richard M. Nixon

So if you're done reading this, you know I have nothing to say and you've wasted your time. Thank you come again.

oracle and white mage are arguably the most useless (mage) jobs in the game. while its true that oracles can do nice damage with no fear of triggering cs with the stick weapons, the skill set, while having its uses, isn't anything more than a sometimes entertaining diversion from the usual method of dispatching enemy teams. the skills tend to have rather low success rates, and wasting a turn (and a action skill set) on the off chance that you *might* attach a status effect seems pointless. not to mention i doubt anyone would really consider using status-type spells till later in the game when beowulf and his *much* better status-affecting abilities are available or right around the corner. i do have to say taht paralyse is a *really* useful spell, but i can't imagine wasting a skill slot for it.

white mages are basically garbage after chapter 2. unless you have given your party extremely high faith values, the cure spells; the fact that affinity can really wreck their effectiveness; and the fact that; given that the later and more powerful cures are slow, you can end up healing an enemy unit if you're healing a fighter on the front line all make white magic a subpar choice for healing. regen, of course, is a spell of the gods, but your girl characters can get that for free anyway, and by chapter three, your party should be strong enough to dispatch enemy teams without too much need for healing. protect and shell are nice statuses, but they can miss hard based on affinity/faith, and by the times p2 and s2 are around, you've really probably outgrown their usefulness. i find that a frontliner or two with item or even the auto-potion ability are the best answers to those pernicious story battles with many enemies.

you said it yourself: haste, slow, stop, quick, and even don't move make time magic an invaluable skillset -- i would argue that, besides summon, it is the *best* skillset, even on virtue of those three spells alone, not to mention time mage has short charge (!!!!) and a couple of other skills that are sort of useful (critical quick comes to mind).

Personally, I like using time magic as a secondary skill set for haste, alone. The other spells mentioned are just bonuses to me. Short change is pretty much a must for certain jobs and I'll even admit that I find some use for mp switch and teleport.

The white mage is too slow for my purposes. I'd sooner use chemists as their items are much quicker (and they can use guns...I likes guns ). Later pieces of equipment pretty much kill the white mage's protective spells' usefulness, too.

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Oracles debilitate at will.

Last I remember, the oracle's spells have charge times and less than 100% effectiveness, just like most other spells (not exactly "at will"). At any rate, I generally prefer to "disable" my opponents by killing them outright with lots of damage. If I feel like disabling, I'd sooner use Beowulf or the holy sword skill set (the latter also does a healthy amount of damage to boot).

Time mages all the way !

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Console RPG Cliches

Don't ever, ever let Shotgunnova see you badmouth the Oracle class, Gozaru. LOL

Personally, I think the TIme Mage is useless... but then again, I think all magic in FFT is damn near useless. Why cast and worry about charge times and such, in a game where you have the ability to create living, breathing, amazingly destructive human tanks?

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

Yeah, Time mage job is useless and so White mage job, but I prefer sometimes have a White mage or Time mage in my party for aesthetic reasons. Oracle is a pretty good job, in my opinion.

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"Its no cheating if you don't get caught"

Quote (Hamedo @ 21st December 2005 09:18)

Don't ever, ever let Shotgunnova see you badmouth the Oracle class, Gozaru. LOL

Personally, I think the TIme Mage is useless... but then again, I think all magic in FFT is damn near useless. Why cast and worry about charge times and such, in a game where you have the ability to create living, breathing, amazingly destructive human tanks?

i know he checks the hell out of this forum, too. it might be time for some stealthy ninja tactics.

and i totally agree, most magic in the game is useless (i'd have to give it to summon magic for being the most useful spells in teh game, as a summoner with a decent ma and fa can easily destroy or seriously debilitate entire groups of enemies). physical attacks are simply way more powerful, especially given things like chaos blade, jav2, excal...but haste makes those humans tanks live, breathe, and amazingly destroy at an even *faster* rate. ~2 turns for enemies' one? yes, please.

First of all, I'm probably one of the most persistently annoying opponents of non-Summon magic in the world also one of the most persistently annoying proponents of low-Faith teams in the world. When you combine annoying charge times, Faith modifiers, and casting costs with the best spells, you get something that is completely outclassed by Draw Out, Holy/Mighty Sword, Magic Sword, and Punch Art.

With an easily obtainable Muramasa katana and a Wizard with, say, 20 MA, I can reliably do 360 damage instantly without any charge times, MP cost, or Faith issues, and also discerning between enemy and ally. If you upgrade that Muramasa to a Chirijiraden that 360 damage becomes 600 damage (this is before zodiac or gender modifiers, mind you). Yummy.

Summon spells remain useful as they have the nifty feature of being able to identify the difference between friend and foe (as Draw Out does) and posess some of the largest damage modifiers and attack areas in the game. Giving Summon Magic as a secondary to Reis as a Dragoner or a generic Wizard (the only good use for Wizards in the game is to give one with Summon Magic or Draw Out as their secondary) or having a Summoner with Item as their secondary (to have an accessible supply of Ether) can give you a potent weapon if you give them Short Charge.

The only serious beef I have with most magic abilities is Faith. I'd rather keep my units low-Faith and be able to resist just about all enemy magic and use magic alternatives like Magic Sword and Draw Out instead of make my party vulnerable to enemy magic.

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

I never really said that Oracle 'own' by any stretch of the imagination. I know very well that summoners rock. I know magic sucks compared to Jump, Punch Art and Draw Out. I know very well (and forgot to mention in the original post) that the Time Mage has some of the best reaction/support/movement abilities.

My argument is that Haste and Slow a good skillset does not make. I'm saying that the Oracle (which is really fun) has a better skillset along with better as a class all together. Every time I find myself using a Time Mage, I never quite get how to use them (Haste, slow then Don't Move? Demis?)

Yin Yang Magic seems to have more uses too. More people are immune to Stop then Sleep or Silence. As I mentioned before, does a Time mage have a way to nearly stop Velius' offensive fury? Oracles can silence him. It also hard to completely bum rush Velius at a decent level, so magic is very helpful.

Outside or Math skill, Item and Summon, there isn't too much reward for going mage when it comes to skills, but I pretty much abandoned magic in my first game, and I got trounced by that berk Balk the 2nd time you fight him.

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The only serious beef I have with most magic abilities is Faith. I'd rather keep my units low-Faith and be able to resist just about all enemy magic and use magic alternatives like Magic Sword and Draw Out instead of make my party vulnerable to enemy magic.

Magic Sword take Faith into account. Magic Sword Blind: Success% = [CastersFaith/100 * TargetsFaith/100 * (MA + 220)] May want to keep Beowulf's faith decent laszlow.

(Formula thanks to Gamefaqs.)

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Really Random Quote of the Day: "Short of changing human nature, therefore, the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war." - Richard M. Nixon

So if you're done reading this, you know I have nothing to say and you've wasted your time. Thank you come again.

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i know he checks the hell out of this forum, too. it might be time for some stealthy ninja tactics.

Never!

I must admit that the Oracle class, as far as mages go, lacks the necessary superlatives that make it a standout among everything. For the main part, it's just a good support class. That doesn't disqualify it from being incredibly useful at many, many intervals, though -- it's not there to rain destruction or be uber-cheap, and it sure doesn't give Beowulf a run for his money, but when you get down to brass tacks, it's does its job well (although the success rate isn't that good -- but why would it be?).

Of course, it was mentioned that magic in the face of pure speed and power is nearly always useless, and I'd agree. Status magic just ensures that anyone's speed and power has a less likely chance to pull off quick victories. I'm fond of it purely because it equates to torturing the enemy, slowing down the battle speed, and just mucking things up for the target.

Just like Beowulf bests Oracle except in the area of effect, Time Mage gets bested because all of its more useful skills can be inherent equips/abilities. Haste, Float, Critical Quick...the other skills are just kind of "there" as filler, which may or may not include the too-slow Meteor. That's not to say that Time Mages skills are poorly done, because getting hit by any gravity-based attacks sucks, but...well, having to cast magic in the face of equipment that gives the traits immediately is just kind of a short end of the stick.

Nothing bad against Time Mages because, with Archers and Summoners, they're probably my most hated enemy units, but they don't really have much going for 'em. Oracles at least have some sweet two-panel, skull-bashing sticks which do give them a bit more roundedness.

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It's gonna be a glorious day
I feel my luck can change

Quote (Kylerocks @ 21st December 2005 14:56)

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The only serious beef I have with most magic abilities is Faith. I'd rather keep my units low-Faith and be able to resist just about all enemy magic and use magic alternatives like Magic Sword and Draw Out instead of make my party vulnerable to enemy magic.

Magic Sword take Faith into account. Magic Sword Blind: Success% = [CastersFaith/100 * TargetsFaith/100 * (MA + 220)] May want to keep Beowulf's faith decent laszlow.

(Formula thanks to Gamefaqs.)

Touche (ajoutez un accent aigu). I typically keep characters' Faith in the 30s or 40s, and that typically gives me a Success% of at least 50%, so it works for me. Might not be a bad idea to pump up Beowulf's Faith a bit - the only good-Faith characers I ever keep are usually Reis and one generic Summoner.

What really matters is that Draw Out, which I often have two users of on the field at one time, isn't affected by Faith, and thus my main means of healing and support magic and personal favorite means of dealing straight-up damage is unaffected. My mathematical example still stands.

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

The truth is in Final Fantasy Tactics the best teams are all ninjas or whatever. It's really hard to stop fast, high damage killing machines. But part of the fun of the game is being tactical and using the other job classes. Time Mages and Oracles are great at letting you devise other means to win a battle besides brutal slaughter. It's these classes, I'd argue, that make the game really fun.

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"That Light has bestowed upon me the greatest black magic!"

My take on the Time Mages is that they're useful earlier, and then slowly lack versatility and power later on.

On the early stage, when no equipment (or Draw Out) giving Haste is available, they're damn useful. Adding to that the ability to stop a unit from reaching you via Don't Move (who has a really nice success % and a vertical tolerance really appreciable), and you have a unit that, if kept alive and with moderate MP (easy to do with a Monk or a Chemist), will guarantee success on every battle. Slow can be useful when trying to level up, but it's not as useful as the aforementioned two abilities.

Teleport is one of my favourite Move ability, because it can save your mage easily by rendering him unattainable on some maps. If you're lucky, it can also catch that damn life crystal that you can't get to in time before the Behemoth with only 12 HP left can reach it and go back to its original 897. Teleport is also easier to get than Ignore Height, which can come in handy in maps with high vertical differences.

Short Charge is also a must for standard mages (I'm putting aside the Wizard+Math Skill combo on purpose).

On the comparison with the Oracle, the Time Mage simply loses though. Two-Panel range attack (with very decent damage, since it's based of MA), direct damage spell with a good speed, the ability to restore MPs on his own and a variety of ways to cripple the enemy far outmatch the Time Mage's usefulness. Oracle even have Defense Up, for crying out loud.

The Time Mage is great for Teleport, Short Charge, maybe or maybe not Critical Quick, and some of the Time Magic abilities such as Reflect, Quick, Demi/Demi2,and Meteor with Short Charge as extra abilities for mage characters, but as previously mentioned, not that good as pure character classes.

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"Thought I was dead, eh? Not until I fulfill my dream!"
Seifer Almasy


"The most important part of the story is the ending."
Secret Window


"Peace is but a shadow of death."
Kuja

Maybe i can be OT [sry, it's my fist message here ] but i think that the best magician class is the Calculator...
You lose:
-One day to have the class
-One week to have ALL THE SKILLS
-One second to make a cool MassiveStop [oops... Ramza was stopped too... nevermind ]
-Ehm... a hour to have the AT
Btw nothing's better than "oooh they killed my Orlandu... MassiveRaise2... NO! Not the enemy monk... noo! "

Menion

I think Mr. Thou has pretty much summed my (more educated) opinion. Haste, Slow and Don't move rock. But later, when you get duped Excalibers and a slew of debilitating weapons (Blind Knife, Ancient Sword, Mage Mashers, Sleep swords and the like) some of Time Mage and Oracle spells get useless. Draw out iself can almost completely replace Time, Oracles and White mages.

Early in the game there's the Knight's Breaks to help level up, but Time mage's spells work en masse for better %.

The Time mage comes into play in the begining, with the magic spells Mr. Thou mentined. Also, late in the game, when you start to 'twink' your characters and mages out with Short Charge, Teleport and whatever other non-skillset abilites you'd like.

Conclusion: Time mages have uses, but kinda get screwed in the middle only to have a psuedo-revival in the end. Also Sticks>any other mage weapon. Draw out>any type of magic. Last thing, Oracle's bada** hat>Time Mage's hat. That's my conclusions in a nutshell.

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Really Random Quote of the Day: "Short of changing human nature, therefore, the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war." - Richard M. Nixon

So if you're done reading this, you know I have nothing to say and you've wasted your time. Thank you come again.