Fencer (Tactics Advance)

Uses a rapier for accurate, elegant combat.

Description

Fencer is a job from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance available to viera. The only non-viera Fencer is Ritz Malheur who remains on the job until the second act where she upgrades to the Elementalist job. Eventually joining Clan Nutsy, she reverts to her Fencer job.

The Fencers are the standard wielders of rapiers but they also have an array of tricks up their sleeve; from status ailments to MP damage, Fencers' attacks have the widest range of effects. One should be careful in combat against Fencers, especially ones with Reflex. Fencer becomes available the moment viera are recruited to the clan and serves as the default job for viera companions.

Growth[]

Fencers are the main Attack-oriented basic job of the viera. They have high HP, Attack, Defense, Magic Resistance and Speed, mediocre Magic Power and abysmal MP.

HP	MP	Atk	Def	Mag Pwr	Mag Res	Spd
7.6 B	1.1 D	8.4 B+	8.1 B+	7.6 D+	7.2 B	1.5 B-

Abilities[]

Lunge Tech[]

Fencer command. Use quick, lunging sword attacks.

Description

Skill	Equipment	AP	Power	Range
Swarmstrike	Stinger	100	As Weapon	As Weapon
Swarmstrike	Deals damage and poisons like stinging bees..
Shadowstick	Silver Rapier	200	—	As Weapon
Shadowstick	Attack to hinder movement, reducing target's speed.
Checkmate	Gupti Aga	300	—	As Weapon
Checkmate	Attack capable of ending all life. Dooms target.
Featherblow	Estoc	200	As Weapon	As Weapon
Featherblow	Flurry of attacks. Good hit rate, light damage.
Swallowtail	Djinn Flyssa	300	As Weapon	Self
Swallowtail	Weave like a butterfly, damaging nearby enemies.
Manastrike	Mage Masher	300	As Weapon	As Weapon
Manastrike	Strikes target's will directly, damaging MP.
Piercethrough	Flamberge	200	As Weapon	Line
Piercethrough	Armor-penetrating attack. Also hits unit behind.
Nighthawk	Joyeuse	200	As Weapon	4
Nighthawk	Attack as swift as the hunting hawk.

Reaction[]

Skill	Equipment	Effect	AP
Reflex	Mirage Vest	Predict and avoid a regular attack.	300

Support[]

Skill	Equipment	Effect	AP
Shieldbearer	Bronze Shield Round Shield	Enables shield-wielding, regardless of job.	300

Combo[]

Skill	Equipment	Effect	AP
Lunge Combo	Mythril Rapier	Failproof combo ability for fencers.	100

Overview[]

The basic physical job of the viera, Fencer is comparable to Soldier and Warrior. It has high HP, attack, defense, and speed that is well-suited for front line combat. Unlike Soldiers and Warriors, Fencers have a generous ability set that includes status effects, area damage, and even a ranged attack. As a default job, Fencer and her equipment does not take any time to acquire. Fencer's high speed allows her to outpace most other units and close distances quickly. Since nearly all Fencer abilities have range identical to weapon range, they can fit well with ranged jobs like Snipers and Archers.

Rapiers are not strong weapons and thus other classes with better equipment selections can deal more damage. Fencers have awful MP growth, which will trouble them if they move on to the more advanced classes, like Elementalists or Assassins. They also lack significant support abilities and heavily damaging abilities.

Overall, Fencer is one of the most physical viera jobs along with the Sniper and Assassin. Despite being a basic class, Fencer can hold her own in melee combat and hunt down various enemies with her high speed. Their terrible MP growth hurts them in the long run and narrows their flexibility, but Fencers are still reliable melee fighters.

Enemy Fencers cannot be outpaced easily. Fencers can deal sizable damage to many units, except tanks like Templars and Defenders. Due to their high speed and accurate attacks, it is difficult to escape from Fencers once they are in melee range. Fencers are a threat to mages due to possessing ranged attacks and an MP-damaging ability. However, mages and ranged units also do well against Fencers who still have relatively weak ranged combat. Fencers have relatively high evasion that makes front and side attacks inconsistent, so inflicting ailments like Sleep and Stop can make them easy prey.