Even More Ramblings: Chemist

[Areya]

Chemist

Background:  Chemist was one of the last jobs available in Final Fantasy V, and also made a very strong showing in Final Fantasy Tactics.  It also shows up in other places, like Final Fantasy X's Rikku's Mix Overdrive, or the item upgrades in Final Fantasy XII.

Overview:  Spending items (and thus gil) to do mage-type effects is hardly anything new; Rangers, Ninjas, and Corsairs already do it.

However, potions/ethers have always been fairly weak in practicality in FFXI.  They tend to be fairly weak and can only hit the user.  Newer items are better and can hit others but these tend to be special event temporary items like Besieged.

The Chemist remedies both of these (bad pun, I know) at the price of sacrificing money.

Stats
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HP - C
MP - None


STR - D
DEX - C
AGI - B
VIT - C
MND - C
INT - B
CHR - C


Combat Skills
Marksmanship - B-
Throwing - C+
Club - C+
Dagger - C+
Evasion - C-
Parrying - E

Equipment Types
Marksmanship - Elemental Guns, Standard Guns, Hexaguns, Light Crossbows
Throwing - Grenades, Tathlums
Clubs - Maces, Wands, Cudgels
Daggers - Krises, Knives, Daggers, Dirks
Armor - Cloth, Leather, Mystic, Bone

Job Traits
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Lv  5 - Throw Potion I
Lv 10 - Medicine I
Lv 15 - Resist Paralyze
Lv 25 - Medicine II
Lv 40 - Throw Potion II
Lv 45 - Resist Paralyze II
Lv 55 - Medicine III
Lv 65 - Resist Paralyze III

Throw Potion: Allows item use on a party member.  I allows 10' usage, II allows 20'.

Medicine - Increases the HP/MP recovery for Potions, Ethers, and similar items.  I increases the amount by 10%, II by 25%, III by 50%.


Basics of Mix
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Here's the basics:

1) Learn the formula for an item.  These are like scrolls, and have a level requirement to use.

2) Select "Mix" from the JA list and select the item you wish you synthesize.  A window on the side shows the required reagents and the amount remaining of each.

3) Confirm and you will start mixing the item.  This is treated much like casting a spell, except you have a 100% interruption rate if you get hit in any way.  Mixes tend to have lengthy time requirements depending on the item.  However...

4) When the animation is completed, the item is added to a special category of temporary items, shown in Blue.  Thus they do not get used immediately.

5) Select a previously mixed item and use it on the appropriate target.

Another note about these mixed items:  They do not disappear on zone, but will disappear if you Job Change, or after enough time passes.  (Like 1 RL day.)

Hence, a Chemist would be wise to pre-synth some useful items and then stop and replenish his stock after some battles.

Reagents
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These are comparable to ninja tools.  They stack to 99 and are synthed using various crafts.  Here's an example formula:

Healing Balm: 1x Lizard Oil + 1x Purified Water - Restores 30 HP

And the crafts:
Lizard Oil x33 - Water Crystal + 4x Lizard Tail
Purified Water x33 - Light Crystal + 8x Distilled Water

As you can guess, Healing Balm is basically the Chemist equivalent of Cure 1.  And if you look at the ingredients, it's pretty reasonable priced.

Also, instead of having to lug around a bunch of different stacks of reagents, there is a Reagent Case that you can fill with up to 32 different stacks of reagents while in your Mog House, and thus only need one inventory slot.

Reagents are synthed with more than just Alchemy too.  Merrow Scale Powder, Iron Filings, Silver Dust, Spidersilk, Carp Oil...  Nearly every craft can make some reagent.

Certain reagents are not crafted, but are instead only found from certain BCNMs/NMs.  These tend to be used in very powerful formulae.  Dark Matter is a good example of this.


Restorative Formulae
--------------------
Lv 1: Antidote
Remedies Poison.

Lv 3: Healing Balm
Restores 30 HP.

Lv 8: Eye Drops
Remedies Blindness.

Lv 12: Potion
Restores 50 HP.

Lv 15: Echo Drops
Remedies Silence.

Lv 20: Surging Balm
Adds 2 HP/Tick Regen.

Lv 22: Holy Water
Remedies Curse.

Lv 25: Ether
Restores 25 MP.

Lv 28: Phoenix Down
Revives target. (Raise 1)

Lv 30: Hi-Potion
Restores 100 HP.

Lv 38: Hi-Ether
Restores 50 MP.

Lv 39: Gold Needle
Remedies Petrify.

Lv 40: Healing Mist
Restores 100 HP to all allies.

Lv 42: X-Potion
Restores 150 HP.

Lv 45: Cleric's Drink
Removes two status ailments.

Lv 50: Remedy
Removes all the -na status ailments.

Lv 58: Elixir
Restores HP and MP.

Lv 61: Catholicon
Removes all status ailments.

Lv 64: Vitalizing Balm
Restores 250 HP.

Lv 68: Soothing Mist
Removes one status ailment from all allies.

Lv 69: Mana Drop
Restores 100 MP.

Lv 70: Phoenix Pinion
Revives target.  (Raise 2)

Lv 71: Restore Powder
Restores 300 HP to all allies.

Lv 72: Vile Elixir
Restores HP and MP.

Lv 73: Surging Mist
Adds 10 HP/Tick Regen to all allies.


Enhancing Formulae
------------------
Lv 34: Lunar Curtain
Reduces physical damage dealt to target by 10%.

Lv 37: Astral Curtain
Reduces magical damage dealt to target by 10%.

Lv 44: Hermes Drink
Increases movement speed of target.

Lv 55: Warding Drink
Increases resistance to status changes.

Lv 56: Wizard's Drink
Increases Magic Attack for target.

Lv 57: Gnostic's Drink
Decreases Enmity for target.

Lv 58: Assassin's Drink
Increases Magic Accuracy for target.

Lv 59: Fighter's Drink
Increases Accuracy of target.

Lv 61: Mighty Drink
Increases Max HP of target by 500.

Lv 62: Wise Drink
Increases Max MP of target by 500.

Lv 66: Bacchus's Wine
Adds 5% Haste and 5% Double Attack to target.

Lv 71: Dragon Power
Target ignores level penalties.

Lv 75: Revitalizer
Resets job ability and spell timers for target.

Offensive Formuale
------------------
Lv 12: Combustion
Deals fire elemental damage to target.

Lv 18: Arctic Force
Deals ice elemental damage to target.

Lv 19: Venom Blast
Deals water elemental damage.  Additional effect: poison.

Lv 20: Webbing
Deals earth elemental damage.  Additional effect: slow.

Lv 24: Charger
Deals lightning elemental damage to target.

Lv 28: Dark Blast
Deals dark elemental damage. Additional effect: Blind.

Lv 32: Lamia's Kiss
Drains HP from the target.

Lv 34: Lilith's Kiss
Drains MP from the target.

Lv 39: Bio Blast
Deals dark elemental damage. Additional effect: Bio.

Lv 44: Wildfire
Deals fire elemental damage to target.

Lv 45: Boreal Force
Deals ice elemental damage to target.

Lv 46: Electrovolt
Deals lightning elemental damage to target.

Lv 52: Echidna's Kiss
Drains TP from the target.

Lv 66: Atomic Blast
Deals fire elemental damage to all targets in range.  Additonal effect: plague.

Lv 67: Cryonic Surge
Deals ice elemental damage to all targets in range.  Additional effect: paraylsis.

Lv 68: Thunderclap
Deals thunder elemental damage to all targets in range.  Additional effect: stun.

Lv 69: Hurricane
Deals wind elemental damage to all targets in range.  Additional effect: Defense down.

Lv 71: Disaster
Deals (minor) dark elemental damage to all targets in range. Additional effect: Blind, Poison, Silence, Bind, Paralyze, Gravity, Plague, Petrify.

Lv 74: Dark Energy
Deals 999 points of damage to target.

Lv 75: Shockwave Pulsar
Deals 999 points of damage to all targets within area of effect.

As you can imagine, some of the nicer effects require rarer and more expensive ingredients.

Chem Grenades
-------------
These are synthed special throwing weapons for Chemists. They use throwing skill but cannot "miss" so much as being resisted in both damage and status effect.

Lv 15 - Flash Grenade
Deals damage and inflicts Blind and Flash.

Lv 25 - Silence Grenade
Deals damage and inflicts Silence.

Lv 30 - Frag Grenade
Deals damage divided evenly among targets in range.

Lv 35 - Ooze Grenade
Deals water elemental damage and inflicts Bind and Gravity.

Lv 40 - Patho Grenade
Deals dark elemental damage and inflicts Poison and Plague.

Lv 55 - Riot Grenade
Deals dark elemental damage and inflicts Terror.

Lv 70 - Rebel Grenade
Deals damage that ignores defense to target.

Elemental Guns
--------------
Similar to the special shots of the Corsair, Chemists have access to special guns that take elemental cartridges.  These cartridges are synthed.  These guns do not use normal ammo.

Job Abilities
-------------
Lv 20 - Battlesynth
Recast: 5 minutes

Your next Mix cannot be interrupted by attacks or damage.  Stun/sleep will still interrupt however.

Two Hour
--------
Lv 1 - Brilliance
Duration: 2 minutes

Effect of Battlesynth on every Mix.  Mixes finish nearly instantly.  Item activation time is halved.

Artifact Gear
-------------
Prototype Elemgun - lv 41
DMG2 Delay450
Uses elemental cartridges
INT+2

Researcher's Cap - lv 58
DEF18 HP+12 MND+3
Healing Formulae Potency +10%
Ranged Accuracy +5

Researcher's Tunic - lv 56
DEF42 HP+20 INT+3
Enhancing Formula Duration +10%

Researcher's Gloves - lv 60
DEF15 HP+10 DEX+5
Throwing Skill +20
Enhances "Throw Potion" (+5')

Researcher's Slacks - lv 54
DEF28 HP+15 STR+4
Offensive Formulae Potency +10%
Ranged Accuracy +5

Researcher's Shoes
DEF20 HP+13 AGI+3
Enmity -5


Analysis
--------
Pros:
No need for MP
Powerful effects
No real need to rest

Cons:
VERY very spendy to use the best items
Low accuracy

Subjob options:  If using normal guns or crossbows, /RNG.
Any mage subjob works well too.


If I get really bored I might go in and write in all the actual formulas...  Maybe add some more stuff too.  Feedback welcome!

[Zerila]

Very interesting. I see a huge potential to create markets for crafters and farmers of all levels. If SE takes the time and care to balance the reagents properly, anyone could make money off of this.

Only those with a decent supply of gil would even get started on this job, though. It looks so much more expensive than Ninjutsu. Well, not really on a per-spell basis so much as the fact that this is all the Chemist does.

One thing that might be interesting is if Chemists had an "elemental weapon" Enhancing Formulae that could target other players... you know, give your Paladin a flaming sword for a short duration. Also, status effect spikes might be interesting... hit a Chemist, and get hit with an evasion down powder, or something

[Areya]

Very interesting. I see a huge potential to create markets for crafters and farmers of all levels. If SE takes the time and care to balance the reagents properly, anyone could make money off of this.

That's the idea.  Obviously the reagents for the crazier moves (Revitalizer, Shockwave Pulsar, Bacchus's Wine, Dragon Power come to mind) would be more expensive since frankly, the moves are pretty darn powerful.  These would be stuff like Dragon Essence and Dark Matter and the like.  Obviously you wouldn't use this kind of stuff in a normal party, you'd save it for special occasions, kind of like how you only use Icarus Wings.

Speaking of which...

Lv 72 - Daedalus Wing
Adds 100 tp to target.

Sure, why not?

Only those with a decent supply of gil would even get started on this job, though. It looks so much more expensive than Ninjutsu. Well, not really on a per-spell basis so much as the fact that this is all the Chemist does.

It's not really much different from Ranger in that regard, when you think about it.  If you stick to basic formulae like the potion/ether lines, and maybe some of the smaller buffs/offensive moves, it wouldn't be horrible.

As for the grenades and elemguns, those are completely optional kind of like Corsairs shooting bullets.  Nothing really stops the Chemist from just stabbing away with a dagger or using, for example, normal crossbow bolts (Even specialty ones like Acid Bolts wouldn't be completely unreasonable.)

Oh, and another thing to note is the viability of /CHM.  Obviously having random ppl with Ether access to throw at your mages is useful, not to mention Phoenix Downs..
No MP effects are awesome.

[Ryudei]

Sounds like a lot of fun but is definitely overpowered.  Can play as Healer (WHM), Nuker (BLM), Support (BRD, COR), Refresh (RDM) and by extension SCH.  Moves like Disaster have always been limited to particularly powerful monsters and in the hands of a PC would be incredibly powerful.  Full access to revitalizers would be near game breaking, considering as a COR's -2 hour- ability it's still only a 25% chance to reset.  I know its cost is supposed to balance out its strength but it still seems awfully strong.  I'd definitely play it though, is the AF hawt?

[Areya]

Sounds like a lot of fun but is definitely overpowered.  Can play as Healer (WHM), Nuker (BLM), Support (BRD, COR), Refresh (RDM) and by extension SCH.

Flexible, yes.  But let's not kid ourselves.  They don't have the sheer cure power of a WHM, they won't nuke nearly as efficiently as a BLM, they can't boost attack/accuracy/etc. like a Bard, and they can't really mass buff like a SCH.  The main selling point is being able to access a variety of strong and useful abilities without the need of mp (and therefore resting), instead sacrificing gil.

Moves like Disaster have always been limited to particularly powerful monsters and in the hands of a PC would be incredibly powerful. 

Reality check here:  Most HNM are going to resist most if not all of those status ailments, ya know?  lol

...is the AF hawt?

I can't really decide whether to base it on the FFT Chemist garb or a variant of the FFV Chemist garb.  I'm sure they'd make it look good on a Mithra no matter what

[Ryudei]

Haha, Breakga alone in the hands of a PC is still incredibly strong, regardless of what you're targeting.  Not to mention the Blind, Poison, Silence, Bind, Paralyze, Gravity, and Plague XD

But hey these are for fun and I'm probably being over critical ><

[Areya]

It's called discussing, hehe.

Why they haven't given PCs a Break spell yet is beyond me, honestly.  We all know it wouldn't last that long and important stuff would be immune.