yui

Dev Update #4: Acceptance and Replanning Gee, it's been a while. To put it short, the last game's scale was growing way out of control on a fundamental level, far beyond the scope of what one ADHD-addled casual is capable of turning into an actual game. Plus, the game turned into another "save the world" plot and I think I mentioned somewhere in this thread that I'm tired of those, so it would be counter-intuitive to make one myself. So, I've spent the last couple days thinking about starting over on a smaller scale with the systems highlighted in this blog - the equipment augments, the various magic elements having different effects, etc - and the majority of today actually doing the early stages of work for a yui game 2.0. Since this is effectively a day 1 post, there's not much to talk about, but I do have the advantage of already implementing all that stuff I talked about before. As of typing this, I've accomplished a world map made by hijacking parts of one of the built-in world maps, 8 playable characters built from assets from the trinity resource pack, and a character select at the start of the game since the evolving class mechanic Tove was gonna have in the old game is gone now. Gonna very briefly go over all of that then get back to work. The Map One of the first things I got caught up on was the world map size. This one is a lot smaller than the previous game, and for good reason, since smaller world map means less potential content I can get distracted with. The intent is to have the main story focus mostly if not entirely around one dungeon that you tackle in sets of 10 floors or so, not at all unlike a certain RP I was previously by happy coincidence (this is just a coincidence). I'd like to have character-related questlines as well, but I'm not too worried about that right now. Each of the 8 playable characters are going to start in different places, with their own intros and their own motivations for reaching the top of the tower. Since there's not much in the way of map discussion to offer, let's move on to that. The Party & Character Select One of the greatest struggles I face making an RPG Maker project is using the character generator to create a protagonist that I'm happy with. Being held back by the assets provided to me is one issue, but a more significant one is the artstyle of the portraits the generator uses is... not my favorite. And commissioning art assets for a game I don't even know if or when I'll finish just seems silly. So this time I've opted to just not do that, change up the formula, and use RTP characters for once. I even went to the trouble of digging up the official names & classes for these people, since Kadokawa kindly provides us with that information (and not much else, which means I've got plenty of room to flex that excellent Yui backstory writing). Here's our heroes, in the largest size at which I could conveniently squeeze all eight of them into one picture. In order, with names and classes being almost entirely taken straight from the official website, and some additional info I put in for that character select thing I talked about earlier: Carol - Hero*: "A well-rounded hero whose greatest strength is versatility. Jack of all trades, master of none." Sakura - Ninja: "A clever hero who uses physical and magic attacks to adapt to different enemies. Flexible, but fragile." Avend - Knight*: "An unstoppable hero capable of defending the party. Slow, but can take and deal large amouts of damage." Xun - Monk*: "A powerful hero that can imbue her attacks with elements. Can fend for herself very well, but has no party support." Aran - Rogue**: "An agile hero armed with various debuffs for the enemy. Might struggle with enemies who are immune to his tricks." Merudy - Beastman: "An inhuman hero who becomes more powerful as her HP decreases. Maximising her potential means taking risks." Pupa - Puppet: "An unlikely hero specializing in team support. Low stats, but has numerous unique properties." Mavie - Black Mage: "A destructive hero focused entirely on dealing massive magic damage. Everything else is irrelevant." *The classes for Carol, Avend, and Xun are technically listed as something to the effect of "Protagonist", "Armored Warrior", and "Martial Artist" respectively. I just changed these to something with the same connotations that made more sense. **Aran's class on the website is nothing even resembling Rogue; this is entirely me taking creative liberties. His class on the website is listed as "Arabian Night (Arabian Knight?)", and I don't know how that's supposed to function as a class so I just changed him to something completely different. As I type this post, I think Xun may need a new mechanic to set her apart from the others since elemental imbuement isn't exclusive to her thanks to augments, but this is just me thinking aloud. Currently, the plan is to choose your character at the start of the game, and then have the start of the game be different depending on who you picked, since different characters would turn their attention to the tower for different reasons (not to mention living in different places). As a loose, very WIP example, Mavie wants the treasure at the top of the tower because she can acquire unlimited power with it, while Avend doesn't even care about the treasure and just wants to fight epic monsters on the way up. Also, these larger portraits mean I can pretty things up a bit during character select. Cool, right? However, that's all I've got to show for today's work. May there be more updates to come, preferably sooner rather than later.

The room the Exalted found themselves in was one of a long bridge, with two platforms on the sides. One was very high up, and the other was more like three ascending platforms all next to each other. Beneath the bridge - as one would expect of a bridge - was water. According to River's explanation, the objective was to get up onto the platforms and pull the levers. Doing so would make the next part of the trial easier, so getting used to puzzles like this would be useful if one wanted to avoid the "path of most resistance". Already, ideas were forming in the heads of the other girls. "I can make the jump..." “...Sabrina, if you’re confident you can jump to the highest platform, I’m willing to use one of my abilities to attempt a dash towards the first of the layered platforms. Of course, we may die if we fail; but given River’s earlier statement, I doubt that would truly be a problem.” And then, without further prompting, Marshall took off. Abby watched in amazement as the good conductor went for it, launching herself off the bridge... and fantastically not quite making the jump, plummetting into the waters below. The sense of amazement turned into one of worry when Marshall first fell, then to general amusement when she found herself propelled upward and back onto the bridge. Aside from wet clothes and possibly a mild bruise to her ego, it seemed she'd be none the worse for wear for her fall. “...Well, that solves the mystery of what mistake entails. Just hope and pray that your clothes will dry out easier than mine will.” "I'll keep it in mind," Abby smirked. Solve the mystery indeed. Now that the price of failure was confirmed to be seemingly nothing more than some wet clothes, Abby was a lot more confident about the group's chances of getting to those levers eventually. It meant they could just keep throwing shit at the wall until something stuck. "W-We should go over every possibility and angle before just jumping...after all, it sort of didn't work for Marshall here." Gene seemed to have the opposite idea. Analyzing and theorycrafting until a foolproof solution was reached sounded great and all, but there was also no way to know something would work for sure without trying it out first, right? If, for example, Marshall hadn't just gone for the jump, it would still be unclear what happened if one failed to make the jump. Still, she had to admit, he had a pretty solid plan of action. "I can use that Water Wall spell I have and we can use that as a platform to walk across. IF that works, then potentially, we can get one person across to the perpendicular platform there...and then use it to elevate the second person up there to the one Sabrina wants to jump to. It's a long shot, but in theory it could work...I mean, what do we have to lose at this point? We've just learned that if we fall, we land back on the bridge...so just maybe..." "I like it, though that's a lot of strain to put on your water wall, isn't it? If you're confident about it being able to carry other people, how about this?" Pointing to the platforms Marshall had just attempted to reach, Abby said "You use that to give Marshall a better launch point. She almost made it last time, so with a little boost, it should be easy! Meanwhile, on the other side..." Abby moved her hand toward the higher-up platform, "Sabrina's got some really good acrobatics, and I've got on me a spell that can give her a little extra push. If she puts her all into the jump, and I give her that little push just to be safe, she should get up there no problem, plus it saves you a bit of extra work!" "How about it?" Abby asked, smiling in Sabrina's direction. "Sounds fun, right? And even if you fail, you'll just get spit up back here and we can try something else." "It kinda looked like it hurt..." Sabrina muttered. "A-ah! Nothing to fear, the overwhelming power residing within me will be more than enough, there's no chance I could fall as long as I unleash it! You may wish to stand back lest it...overwhelm you as well!" She paused, then looked over at Abby, "Uh, yeah, let's do the thing." "Hell yeah." Abby opted to play along with Sabrina's advice, taking a step back, the Gust spell already charging up in her hand. "Take to the skies whenever you're ready." "When I'm ready, yeah, of course, of course I'm ready, I've never been more ready, ready is my middle name." Sabrina rapidly spoke as she got into position, lined up with the tall platform. "Okay, here...I....go!" Sabrina let loose a burst of wind to launch herself upwards. And upwards she did soar, covering much of the distance herself between the bridge and the high platform. Abby opted for the moment to keep her spell from going off just yet, both to avoid possibly throwing Sabrina off-course, and also so that if she really could make it entirely on her own, she'd be able to prove it. Once Abby saw Sabrina begin to descend though, not quite making the jump, that was when Abby released her Gust, trying to give Sabrina that one last push needed to make it... And finding herself just a bit short of success. Perhaps if Sabrina's arms were longer she'd be able to grab the ledge, but the fact of the matter was it was just ever so slightly out of reach, and Abby watched as Sabrina too fell into the waters below, before being spit back up onto the bridge as Marshall had just moments ago. Abby made sure to offer up a hand for Sabrina to pick herself back up with. It was Abby's plan that saw her take the fall after all, so helping her up was only fair. "Well, shit. We gave it our best shot at least. Back to planning, I guess."

favorite Pizza Tower level?

you won't believe what i found entirely by chance

"Looks like the boydem ain't exactly running tours. I'm all for tearing through this yellow tape," Leo cocked his head toward Sei, "but not if our resident super-hero is gonna tackle me extra fast once I'm in." "Under any other circumstances I'd be on you like drunks on a karaoke bar, but since it is Gareth, and since we've got way bigger issues than some trespassing..." Sei looked the other way. Quite literally, as in she turned away from the taped-off scene before her, looking back at the other onlookers. Leaning up against nearby telephone poles. Checking her phone to see what was happening on social media - much of it related to yesterday's headline, no surprise - and generally making an active effort to not pay any attention to Leo. "This is strictly a one-time thing though, got it? You've got one shot, so don't blow it, and remember that you owe me for not tackling you extra fast." "This is most unbecoming of a guardian," she could hear the voice of her collection of kami urge, as Kess jumped into violent action followed soon by Leo. Normally I'd agree with you, but I'm actually listening a little bit. Just keep an eye on our loose cannons and let me know if Gareth's actually in mortal danger. That's when I'll intervene, if it comes up. "Who do you suppose did that? Do you think the one who compelled Stratford put that there? Scare people, maybe?" "It would certainly be an effective tactic," Kiyoko agreed. "I wish I could get a closer look at it. The Library's mentioned a few psychometry spells, I might be able to find out something about who put it there-" "Figure this shit out, dweebs, I can only fight this asshole for so long before I kick his ass." Kiyoko hadn't paid much mind to the commotion - a glance or two in its direction sure, but in light of everything else, it didn't seem like a big deal - but she did pay attention to that. This red woman really needed to work on her manners. Alas, rude people often stayed rude, so that wasn't going to change anytime soon. For now, the best she could do was take advantage of the opening in security presented to her and the others, and get a good look at that mural. "Oh... OH. Um, Miss Kiyoko, I think we might have a chance now. Would you like to help me get a look at the mural? We'll have to move, and quickly!" "My thoughts exactly. Normally I'd use a spell for this, but it's probably best not to draw much attention." And so, Kiyoko instead ran. Ran toward the mural, so that she could observe it nice and up-close. "Certainly a fine piece of art. I haven't worked out any spells that would teach me more than the human eye can discern, so this is your time to shine! If you need a bit of extra oomph behind your spells though, I'm right here to help."

death by weaponized poker chips and/or dice "I guess this wasn't your lucky day" and then maybe they explode after idk it's an action movie

“...Be on your guard. ...There’s no telling just what kind of surprises await us here.” As the group entered through the door, the first surprise showed itself. The door had shut itself behind the party! Although they were left in total darkness, it didn't last long, before currents of electricity began running across the walls. It had a very sci-fi vibe to it in Abby's opinion, stone walls aside. Further down, the minerals this place was carved out of had changed, from simple stone to agate of various colors. Abby wouldn't have minded taking some for herself, but this place seemed pretty important, and it would probably be a whole process getting some of this stuff out of the walls & floor. Carved into the walls were depictions of humans - regular humans, without the animal features those of this world had - and various animals on the opposite wall. Further down, there was a fork in the hall, another wolf door being down one path. Before the party had much time to think about which way to go, they were greeted by a familiar face from just yesterday. "Welcome, Exalted, to the Shrine of Storm." Once again met with River, a conversation about Pokémon of all things ensued. What are they, and did River count as one? Sabrina seemed to be having trouble with the conversation - rightly so, since it was really cute and came out of nowhere - so Abby reasoned it probably would be best to change the subject before River said something that would kill Sabrina outright. Being down a member this early in the adventure sounded like something to avoid. "Not quite a Pokémon, no," Abby agreed with a shake of her head. "Although, this Shrine of Storm also seems like something you might see in one of our world's games. Or at least, you definitely wouldn't find anything like it in our world itself. What sort of place is this anyway?" River, who had been looking at Sabrina curiously, shifted focus over to Abby. “Oh this is, as the name suggests, a place to worship and venerate the god of thunder and lightning, the Aeon Storm. It is, as well, meant to serve as a trial for the Exalted to overcome in order to gain power in their quest.” Pausing and then back tracking the dragon girl said, “oh but technically this is a shrine to worship both Ocean and Storm and as such it’s full title would be the Shrine of Storm and Ocean. However my lady has told me that extraneous details are often excluded in common conversation, and as every shrine is meant to worship Ocean that part of the name was deemed extraneous. If you would prefer I refer to them by their full titles though I could correct myself for future encounters.” "Uh, no, you don't need to include the extra details like that, but thanks." A trial to gain power, huh? Sabrina - slightly misguided though she may have been at times - seemed to have a pretty good handle on this world's workings so far, so this was probably her forte. "Anything we should know about the trial going in?" “The trial will be divided into two parts. Firstly you must unlock this door,” she pointed to the door behind her before gesturing to the hallway to the side, “and to do so you must first find the two levers that do so. A word of note is that they must both be pulled simultaneously for it to work. The second part of the trail will involve combat against my Lady’s servant to see if you are able to wield the power bestowed here.” In the same somewhat chipper expository tone she added, “oh but they will try to mercilessly kill you so do be cognizant of that.”

Machinist (MCH) Role: Ranged DPS Weapon: Gun Machinist is without any room for argument, the youngest job in Final Fantasy XIV's timeline, originating in either the Seventh Umbral Era, or the final years of the Sixth Astral Era. The job, in fact, is so new, that the soul stones used by Machinists have no experience or memories from prior users ingrained into them. This makes Machinist the only job in the game in which the Warrior of Light is the first person to use their soul stone for that job. Machinist as an organized discipline is the passion project of one Stephanivien de Haillenarte, son of one of Ishgard's four noble houses, who dreamed of creating a discipline that anyone could master, be they a well-trained nobleman or a peasant plucked straight out of the Brume. This was meant to serve two goals; bolster Ishgard's ranks in the Dragonsong War with powerful new weaponry, but also ensure the lowborn of Ishgard were able to fend for themselves. With this second ideal in mind, Stephanivien's passions were met with a lot of criticism, particularly from House Dzemael, but the results are hard to deny. Lord Stephanivien has taken cannons and other weapons used since the start of the Dragonsong War, and honed them into handheld firearms that anyone can use and master, further bolstering a Machininst's power with all manner of other trinkets and gadgets. In-game, Machinist is a high-action DPS job that builds up two job gauges - the Heat Gauge and Battery Gauge - aiming to blow their entire load in one massive burst window. The job's loadout is equipped with various tools to help fill these gauges up, as well as three separate buttons that have 600 potency, some of the highest you'll find in a button that requires no building like Reaper's Communio or Paladin's Blade of Valor. Machinist boasts some of the highest personal DPS in the game, but pays this price in the form of raid DPS, having no abilities to buff party damage but compensating with two abilities to reduce the damage taken by the party (Bard and Dancer only have one). While Machinist's relevance in high-end content is... questionable, not all hope is lost for the gun enthusiasts of FFXIV. This particular balance of traits and qualities, plus the relative safety of being a ranged job, does help cement Machinist as one of the most powerful solo jobs in the game, particularly for soloing deep dungeons like Palace of the Dead or the new Eureka Orthos. Ninja (NIN) Role: Melee DPS Weapon: Daggers Unlike most jobs in FFXIV, Ninjas have no real documented history. And unlike Machinist, who shares this unique situation by virtue of being an extremely new job, it can be argued that in the case of Ninja, this is by design. All that's known for sure about the history of these shadowy mercenaries is that the job first came to be in the Hingan islands of the Far East, forged in the fires of bloodshed and eventually finding its way to the neighboring nation of Doma. This was due to a ninja named Sasuke arriving in Doma for a job, and being disgusted at the current state of affairs brought about by the current king. After playing a pivotal role in dethroning the tyrant king, Sasuke elected to stay in Doma, creating a new clan - the very first outside of Hingashi - dedicated to protecting the nation and its people. This was generally regarded as treason by the other clans, but it's unclear if anything else ever came of it. The clan was fractured during the Garlean invasion of Doma due to differing political opinions, with some shinobi thinking Garlean rule would be best for Doma's interests, and others very strongly disagreeing. In-game, Ninja is a DPS job with unmatched versatility, owing to the mudra system. Ninja has three unique abilities called Ten, Chi, and Jin, which don't do anything on their own, but can change the effect of a fourth ability - Ninjitsu - based on how many of these mudras you used, and which one was last in the chain. Ninjitsu alone gives Ninja access to powerful single-target and AoE abilities, buffs for haste and damage, and even some limited crowd control! Also baked into Ninja's kit, you can find a party damage buff, some abilities that interact with Ninjitsu, and a shield applied to yourself for 20% of your max health (the largest %health shield in the game!). Executing Ninja's opener and burst window correctly is more demanding than on any other DPS job, and the downtime between these burst phases is incredibly unnoteworthy, but it's definitely a fun job. Sage (SGE) Role: Healer Weapon: Nouliths In the absence of a Synodic Scribe video about Sage, and my own inability to find lore information about the job, this all is going to be purely from memory of doing the Sage questline. Somanoutics is a Sharlayan discipline that combines medicine, aetherology, and sorcery. By using nouliths - a set of four devices - the user gains access to incredible healing and protective abilities. This, as with the other Sharlayan job in the previous post, is a highly-respected art within the nation, born from combining disciplines that don't really have much to do with each other into a cohesive unit. While the nouliths can be used to cause harm, their true specialty is defense. In addition to healing, a Sage is able to create barriers to protect their allies. This job would go on to be adopted by Alphinaud Leveilleur in Endwalker, leaving Y'shtola Rhul as the only Scion of the Seventh Dawn to not have a clear-cut and playable job as of the time of writing this summary. In-game, Sage is one of two "shield healers" alongside Scholar. The bulk of Sage's healing comes from an ability called Kardia, which heals a chosen ally every time you cast a damaging spell. There are a couple of off-global healing abilities as a convenient "oh shit" button, but a lot of Sage's kit doesn't contain flat-out healing, instead emphasizing health regen and damage reduction. These are mostly cast using a unique job resource called Addersgall, of which you gain one every 45 seconds. Additionally, Sage has another resource called Addersting, which can only be gained by having the barriers created with Eukrasian Diagnosis or Eukrasian Prognosis (modified versions of the only global-cooldown heals Sage has) broken by enemies. At present, the only way to spend Adderstings is on a spell called Toxikon, which does the same amount of damage as your standard damage spell Dosis, but has no cast time, making it a useful mobility option.

Tuesday After a very successful bout of dueling from Team Genesis, time passed as it is wont to do, and Tuesday came in short order. Eve greeted the new day with enthusiasm, and unlike a previous instance that she wasn't particularly proud of, she made absolutely certain to show up on time today. At three o'clock, the team meeting started, with Vega giving everyone the down-low on what to do with the team's direction moving forward. “Alright everyone, we are heading into our fourth match! 2 wins and a draw under our belts is pretty solid, should definitely get you guys on more sponsors rad-” “Oh good, I got the right address!” Evelyn watched and listened with mild amusement as an older woman entered the room, instilling a very clear shock in Vega who didn't seem to be expecting such a guest. TUrned out, this lady wasn't just any guest, but Vega's own mother! What a pleasant surprise! "Oh, by the by, you all can call me Maddy. Nice to meetcha!” "Yeah, that definitely makes sense. So you get your signature grin from your mom's side of the family, coach. It's nice to meet ya, Maddy ma'am." "Yes, it's really nice to meet you," Eve reiterated, giving a small bow out of old social habit. "Your daughter's been an outstanding coach so far, though I haven't been with the team as long as the others."

Ahead of the group lay a door. An old door, probably a shining example of masterful craftsmanship back in its prime. It was still a lot nicer than most things Abby had seen back in her world, as far as artistry in architecture went, but she wasn't an architect, and this was ultimately still just a door. Carved into its center was the face of a wolf, providing further proof for her original suspicions that this world was largely pagan if she'd still believed such a thing. Which she didn't. "Do we....knock?" "...p-p-probably wouldn't hurt..." Well, if nobody else was going to... "Don't mind if I do," Abby said, taking the initiative ahead of the rest of the group. The womanlet stepped up to the door, and gave it two simple knocks. Being a mere door of stone and not a living being, however, the door did not respond. Nor did a voice come from within, which was what Abby was expecting in the first place. With nothing in the way of an answer, and no doorknobs, indicating that this door was to be pushed open, Abby gave a shrug. "Guess we're going right in." And so, Abby set her hands on the doors, and pushed them open. Greeting her on the other side was a staircase leading down. The interior - much like the doors - was made from stone, and it looked like a decent bit of a walk down. "Alright, I'm a tough girl, so try to stay behind me," Abby said, calling forth her trusty hammer in one hand then starting down the stairs. "Who wants to bet we'll find some sort of cool treasure down here?"

Dark Knight (DRK) Role: Tank Weapon: Greatsword This job dates back a few hundred years, starting in the isolated city-state of Ishgard. The first Dark Knight was, relatively speaking, just a dude, a Temple Knight who managed to gain significant acclaim despite his lowborn status. After straight-up killing an Ishgardian priest in his own home after witnessing "unspeakable acts", he was stripped of his status and banned from the city. But this example would go on to prompt others to follow the path, leading up to the events of FFXIV and the Warrior of Light taking the job. Dark Knights choose greatswords for the pragmatic reason of there not being any real sort of structure or organization among their ranks; it's not uncommon for one Dark Knight to have to face several opponents alone, and the greatsword gives them a reach advantage to help tip the scales back in their favor. In more recent generations, Dark Knights have even begun wielding magic, simply dubbed the dark arts. These arts can do a few neat things like call upon a simulacrum of one's "inner darkness" (i'm not making this shit up), suck the aether out of others, and even cheat death itself in some exceptional cases. In-game, the Dark Knight is a tank job that trades a tank's usual defensive prowess for raw damage. Of note, Dark Knight's opener in high-end content is so incredibly powerful that if you have an ability that only buffs one ally's damage, like Dancer's Standard Finish or Dragoon's Dragon Sight, it's actually better to give those buffs to the Dark Knight than to any other party member (yes, even Black Mage). After this absurdly powerful burst at the start of a fight, Dark Knight boasts sufficient defensive cooldowns to not die in standard dungeons while still doing sufficient damage to not be Paladin. Being squishier than the other tanks in addition to having two targetable mitigations in the form of Oblation and The Blackest Night - the latter of which was the best mitigation in the game before Endwalker's release - makes Dark Knight the perfect off-tank, though in my personal opinion, Dark Knight needs more damage outside of its burst to make up for being weaker than the other tanks on the defensive side of things. Summoner (SMN) Role: Magic DPS Weapon: Grimoire Summoners as we know them in FFXIV date back to the Allagan Empire, making this the oldest job on the game's timeline by leaps and bounds. While Allag was chiefly known for its absurd magitek, which even the nigh-unstoppable Garlean Empire pales in comparison to, the second-most Allagan thing one might think of is binding primals to one's will. Allag chiefly used these entities as power sources, with the elder primal Bahamut being sealed in the artificial moon Dalamud to serve as fuel for Emperor Xande's pact with the Void, for one notorious example. On a smaller scale exists the Summoner, who binds the power and essence of primals to serve their own needs and desires, a technique initially developed as a means to expedite Allag's wars of conquest by turning the primals of other civilizations against them. However, power corrupts, and Summoners who sought to use the power of primals for their own selfish desires began to taint the reputation of the discipline as a whole, eventually ending with the imperial order to exterminate anyone who practiced the art. In-game, Summoners are an unusual caster job, built upon several reworks and 12-year-old spaghetti code. With the 6.0 patch and the release of Endwalker, Summoner received a full overhaul, transforming from a damage-over-time type caster who used two damage effects in conjunction with one of three egis (mini-primals) for various situations, to a more straightforward caster with a newfound focus on instant-cast spells, with the almost-complete freedom of movement granting them mobility Black Mage and Red Mage wish they had. In short, your rotation consists of a 60-second loop of entering a burst phase comprised entirely of instant-cast spells, followed by three "mini phases"; one each for Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda. Titan Phase is entirely instant-cast, Garuda is mostly instant-cast, and Ifrit is two spells that you'll need to hard-cast plus (a couple instant spells at level 90). The order you use them in doesn't matter, so pick the one that's best at that time; try not to use Ifrit if you're gonna have to do some running around, for example. Black Mage (BLM) Role: Magic DPS Weapon: Rod Black magic is the most powerful known school of magic on Hydaelyn, dating back to the Fifth Astral Era, making it also one of the oldest schools of magic. It was chiefly used by the people of Mhach, where its practitioners were given the title "Black Mage" out of both respect and fear of the power they commanded. In addition to devastating spells of fire and ice, the first Black Mages were also able to summon and command the twisted denizens of the Void. This power ultimately led to Mhach's ruin, however, as for unknown reasons, they sparked the War of the Magi with neighboring nations Nym and fellow superpower nation Amdapor. While Nym was easily wiped out by a plague Mhachi mages had unleashed by sneaking in a voidsent, the Black Mages of Mhach and their opposing number, Amdapor's White Mages, overused the aether of the land around them in the war, causing the Sixth Umbral Calamity and wiping out all three cities in a great flood. Following this, both black and white magic were deemed forbidden arts. This all was about 1500 years prior to the start of FFXIV. In-game, Black Mage boasts the highest personal DPS of any job in the game, with the tradeoff intended to be paying the price in movement. Casters need to cast, and unlike Summoner who mostly deals in instant-cast spells or Red Mage who goes halfsies by making every other spell instant, Black Mage is meant to hardcast everything, and stay still while doing so lest their cast be interrupted. I say meant to because despite this, there are valid rotations for the job that allow the player to constantly be on the move, which is a good way to sum up the sheer complexity Black Mage can potentially bring to a dedicated player. On a surface level the job's quite straightforward, but the room for optimization is absurd, and the rewards in damage equally so. Reaching the level cap is just the start for those who choose to take the black pill. Astrologian (AST) Role: Healer Weapon: Planisphere There are two major schools of astrology on Hydaelyn, one each coming from Sharlayan and Ishgard. While Sharlayan astrology is committed to reading the stars as a whole to predict and thus change the future itself, Ishgardian astrology - a shootoff of Sharlayan's own - is minmaxed very specifically on the Dragonstar, a singular star in the sky through which stargazers can roughly predict when, where, and how intensely the Dravanian hordes will strike next in Ishgard's 1000-year-long war with dragonkind. The Warrior of Light practices the former of the two, which originated in the Sixth Astral Era, perhaps owing in part to the fact that Ishgardian astrology doesn't implement astromancy, the Astrologian's signature art of drawing aether from the heavens themselves as opposed to their own bodies like Monks, or from the world around them like Black Mages. With the powers of the stars, planets, and fate itself at their fingertips, what was once considered to by a hoax of a profession is now a highly-respected school of magic in Sharlayan. So much so that many Sharlayans believe other nations shouldn't be allowed to obtain the art of astromancy at all! In-game, Astrologian is a healer that excels in enabling the damage of everyone around them. Like Scholar, Astrologian has a damage buff for the entire party they can use every two minutes (White Mage and Sage don't have this), but unlike Scholar, Astrologian can also give smaller damage buffs to individual players through the use of one of six tarot cards. The Balance, Spear, and Arrow buff melee jobs, while the Ewer, Spire, and Bole buff ranged players and casters. Astrologian also boasts a wealth of off-global heals, with its only competition in the field being Sage, making it easier to continually cast damage spells outside of very dire circumstances or to refresh your regen spell on the tank. That said, due to the cards mechanic, their seals, and some weird abilities like Synastry and Macrocosmos, Astrologian is also the most complex healer job. It's been stated the development team intends to rework Astrologian (along with Dragoon) in a future patch, but we've yet to hear any further word on this.

it's been some time, and in that time, endwalker has brought sage and reaper to FF14 and i've done every job's questline so i better understand what it actually means to take on a given job. so let's do this thing again.