Howdy pardner, haven’t seen you around for some time now. Seeing as you showed up – reckon, you’ve heard about the latest news. Word on the street is that the new guns are in town. Calling ’emsleves “Reaper” and “Sage”. Pfff, buncha posers, especially that one with the scythe, if you ask me. It’d be one thing if they were somewhat decent common folks, but from what I’ve seen – I’ll tell you what, these guys are gonna stir up this pot o’ fool’s gold. You’re gonna ask “How do I know that”, and that’s simple – I had a good old chit-chat with them boys. Well, without further ado and bad Spaghetti Western prologues, here’s your starting guide and introduction to Final Fantasy 14 new classes.
Reaper
Thaaat’s more like it. So, you might be wondering, what’s this fellow’s deal – walking around with his giant scythe and hood like he’s the Grim Reaper. Basically – he’s just a very angsty agronomist, a true comrade of socialism, ready to take on the Devil that is a free market with means of production in one hand, and his schizophrenia’s manifestation in the other one. Yes, he has a revenant-like creature to help him dish out some serious damage and not only that. People call it Voidsent Avatar, I prefer Ghost of Communism.
Lore-wise – they were once Garlean farmers (yes, I wasn’t joking about that “means of production” part) that fled after being continuously attacked by magick users. After leaving their homeland, some of them junctioned Voidsent onto themselves like it’s Final Fantasy 8, and now they are motivated to cultivate some beans for the mass-produced cans of whoop-ass. You can find their starting quest in Ul’Dah at Steps of Nald. The quest itself is called “The Killer Instinct”, and is given out by the Flustered Attendant. Starting level for the job is 70. The funny thing about Reaper is that he shares his equipment with none other than Dragoon’s class. So, if you have Maiming (armour sets) and Slaying (accessories) gear – you’re golden. From what has been seen – the job itself doesn’t have much utility (term used for skills that buff or help party members directly) and/or oGCDs (off-Global CoolDowns – skills that have their own timers that are not affected with the OGD skill timer), is less positional-heavy (positionals are the skills that require your character to attack from a specific side of the enemy – flank or rear). But Reapers still have a surprise of their own, and it is called Soul Gauge and Death’s Design. The former acts as akin to the Dragoon gauge, letting you use certain skills when you accumulate enough Soul Points that in turn get you the Soul Reaver effect (straight-up Legacy of Kain vibes here, especially with the name), which lets you use even more skills. Moreover, Reaper class also has some disengage and gap-closing skills (skills that help you move away from the danger or get up in the face of your enemy instantly). Overall, the job feels very “in-the-flow”, because of how smooth the transition in the rotation goes. People are still figuring out the optimal rotation, but be warned – it can change in the 6.05 patch already. That’s it for the Reaper starting tips analysis.
Sage
Next, we have the wildest class I’ve personally seen in this game – Sages. Located in Limsa Lominsa, these guys are straight-up Star Trek, but fantasy (TM). Their lore expands on what we know about Sharlayan, saying that they are one of the noblest representatives of their ranks, wielding aether magicks and kicking ass with their… Floaty… laser guns that are called nouliths. Like seriously – this is just some sci-fi stuff. And at the same time – this is a HEALER. Yes, those flying annihilators can HEAL you. Probably via pinpoint incineration of your virus cells or something. But moreover – this class can also SHIELD you. Seeing the shape that Scholar class is in nowadays – those guys are probably going to lose even more mains to the Sage boys. So, where and how can you find them? The starting quest is located in Limsa Lominsa Lower Deck with an NPC called Sharlayan Maiden waiting patiently for your arrival.
The quest itself is for 70 lvl and is called “Sage’s Path”. The gear that you should get for them is under the “Healing” category. What differentiates Sages from other classes is that they are… Kinda all over the place with their toolkit. They can cast single-target barriers, heal allies via attacking mobs (again – no, it’s not a “Green DPS” joke, they literally do that), and really feel like a mix of White Mage’s and Scholar’s skills with some additional dps attached to them.
From what I can tell and from what people have said – it feels either really easy and downright “auto-pilotic” or really weird to play, but hope is that this is going to change to more positive feedback as the dev team is going to add and remake Sage’s skillset during future patches. For example – skills called Eukrasian Diagnosis and Eukrasian Prognosis are set up by a self-buff called Eukrasia. What they do is that both of those skills are healing skills. But they are also shielding skills. ED gives a stronger single-target healing effect but builds a smaller barrier. EP does it vice versa – heals less, is AoE, and gives a huge shield. Healing abilities of those skills are… Not that impressive, to be honest. But stack it up with Kardia skill (Sage’s way of trading – they take mob’s HP and give it to their team members, which happens passively, literally a heal-stance) and add some barriers – and it is a very damage-mitigation-heavy job. And if we’re touching upon their gauges, then you can see two of them – Eukrasia and Addersgall gauges. The first one you’re already familiar with – helps you start up a few skills. Addersgall, though, is reminiscent of the Soul Gauge from previously discussed Reaper – once it’s filled to a certain point, you can use actions like Druochole and Kerachole, and the gauge is either with time (20 seconds per point) or it is filled when ED barrier is fully nullified via Addersting trait.
Final thoughts
To wrap this up, I should say that new jobs look aesthetically pleasing, feel mostly easy to play as, and navigate through their toolkits, but they still have a long way to go through future changes, unfortunately, or not. Personally, I feel that Reaper job had more polish to it than Sage, but then again – never let a Monk main try healing things, the best he can do is give you a massage and the worst thing he can do is leave you in the infirmary after that. Anyways, looking forward to our next meeting, lads and lasses. Ta-ta~
