Your Opinion: 2hr AbilityFollow

I’ve played in a few parties when after the mob dies, someone states they used their 2hr ability. I don’t know if it’s because I’m at a distance that I didn’t notice it or something else. Regardless, after reading a few of the threads covering job abilities brought a question to mind. In any given party, who should use their 2hr ability first? Last? Second to first/last? This is of course assuming the party, or most of it, can only survive if some uses theirs. I am not asking “who should die first?” But since I haven’t played anything other than mages (RARI! Get yer **** in gear and become a SMN!) I don’t know what a WAR can do verse a DRK verse PLD verse DRG vs. NIN vs. SAM vs. and so on. If I am a party leader, who should I ask to use their 2hr first?

(IMO: WHM’s benediction should be last.)

It all depends. If most of the party is dying and the whm has very little or no MP s/he should use benediction and either run if the group does not have a paladin or rest to regain MP. After / before bene, the paladin should use invincibility to nullify the hate created by bene. Everyone else's 2hr is basically to cause damage. Blm manafont is useful to finish a mob quickly as is monks 100 fist etc. It all depends on the moment I think.

Two-hour Abilities are:

Warrior: Mighty Strikes -- Every hit landed becomes a critical. A useful ability, but not insanely powerful, for you can still miss swings. Typically used in semi-emergency situations where the additional damage may save someone, themselves included.

Monk: Hundred Fists -- Greatly lowers the delay between attacks. This ability can turn a Monk into a whirlwind of death. Used again, in emergencies where you've bit off a bit more than you can chew, and need to kill an enemy fast.

Thief: Perfect Dodge -- This ability makes all melee attacks miss. It also does not draw much, if any, aggression from the monster. It's used to save the Thief's life, or in conjunction with Sneak Attack and usually Flee to lead a monster away from the party.

Red Mage: Chainspell -- This is one of the less understood, and until later on in the game, less useful abilities. What it does is reduce the delay required between casting spells to essentially nothing, meaning you can fire off a whole bunch of spells in a very short amount of time. Not very useful as an emergency measure, because you still consume MP. However, at 40+ with Convert and Refresh, it becomes a quite powerful tactical 2-hour.

Black Mage: Manafont -- This ability reduces the MP cost of all spells to zero. It essentially allows the Black Mage to use their most powerful nuke series for a while after mana has run out. Spells still take time to cast, and you can still be silenced, or paralyzed. Still effective as a tool for making an enemy hurt bad. Real bad.

White Mage: Benediction -- The big rescue. Fully heals the party for however much they need. It's place in activation depends on the situation. (Well, heck, all of the abilities' use depends on situation)

Dark Knight: Blood Weapon -- Every hit Drains HP from the enemy. If the DRK has gained agro, and the PLD or WAR can't get it back, this can keep them alive sometimes.

Paladin: Invincible -- All attacks do 0 damage for the duration. This ability also generates a Massive amount of Enmity (hate).

Ninja: Mijin Gakure -- Much like the Bomb monster's Self-destruct, this sacrifices the life of the Ninja to do a large amount of single-shot damage to the enemy. If the Ninja has hate and is about to die anyway, this lets them go out with a bang. Quite often used for a free ride back to the home point, since XP is not lost.

Summoner: Astral Flow -- Unlocks the ultimate abilities of your Summons. Reduces avatar perpetuation cost to zero.

Ranger: Eagle Eye -- Let's you unleash a hyper-charged ranged attack, kind of like an extremely powerful Weapon Skill.

Samurai: Meikyo Shisui -- This ability has recently been changed, which makes it even more powerful. What it does is automatically fill the Samurai's TP bar to 300%, and reduces the cost of each WS to 100%, while executing it at 300% equivalent. This makes Samurai the only job in the game capable of performing a one-person Skillchain.

Bard: Soul Voice -- Doubles the efficacy of all of the Bard's songs. Variety of uses.

Dragoon: Call Wyvern -- This ability isn't used as an emergency measure at all; but to bring out the Dragoon's faithful wyvern friend.

You're going to have to get familiar with them in order to know which would be best to activate first. Every situation is different.

Edited, Tue Jan 27 16:09:51 2004 by Arctyc

You forgot the Beastmaster 2Hr. :\

Incidentally, watching a RDM Chainspell Raise is rather hilarious.