Final Fantasy XII’s Red Battlemage is the Ivalican evolution of this classic role. The Red Battlemage still uses a sampling of available magics (white, black, time, green, and arcane) but makes itself more unique by using greatswords, maces, and even the occasional piece of heavy armor. At heart, it is indeed still all about the casting life. But it can now take care of itself much better than ever before. In Final Fantasy XII TZA, you can also pair up your Red Battlemage with a secondary job. This means you can connect two jobs together to make them both better. So let’s do just that, and take a look at some of the better job combos that pair best with the Red Battlemage.
3. Red Battlemage + Machinist
Machinists also do a little bit of everything. Healing, buffing, attacking – they’re not too different from Red Mages conceptually. Granted they lack the magical variety, to be sure. But they make up for it with ability. And for that reason, they’re a great pairing for the Red Battlemage. In FFXII, guns only count the attack power of the weapon and its ammunition when calculating damage. This is great for the Red Battlemage because you don’t have to worry about lacking any one stat for reliable numbers. Guns also have the innate advantage of distance, putting the Red Battlemage further away from the dangers of battle. And believe it or not, Machinists come stocked with a few spells that the Red Battlemage doesn’t have. The area-of-effect -aga versions of slow and haste are tremendously useful, and great they’re upgrades to the single-target versions. Your Machinist secondary job also has a lot of licenses that power up items, such as better potions and remedies. And don’t forget the extra swiftness tiles! You’d be surprised how much difference a 20% boost to speed makes. And let’s be honest with ourselves: the idea of a Red Battlemage with a gun is just cool.
2. Red Battlemage + Black Mage
I said before that Red Battlemage is a jack-of-all-trades, and that’s true. But with a Black Mage job behind it, you can lean it way more towards an attacker role. It’ll still be able to heal and buff, but with a much more significant lean towards making the bad guys fall down. Black Mage, of course, comes with the entire stock of black magic. There’s some overlap to what the Red Battlemage already has, but with the additions of the -aga spells it was missing, as well as the powerful Scathe and Flare spells. There’s also Scourge, which is not only a heavy hitter, but also inflicts Sap and Heavy. So that would be the perfect enfeeblement fit for the Red Battlemage/Black Mage combo. And your Red Battlemage gets a lot of magic on its board by default. So the Black Mage just provides even more. If you’re going for a magic-heavy build, this really is the strongest combo. Plus the Black Mage also gives three Channeling tiles, reducing MP cost by a significant 30%. On top of all that, Black Mage can also use ethers to an even better degree. Ardor is an arcane spell that’s exclusive to Red Battlemages. It’s fire elemental damage, and on its own, does a ton of damage. But with a Black Mage secondary, you can equip the Flame Staff and juice it up to another level. Splash some oil on your favorite enemy and the Red-Black Battlemage becomes one of the best sources of damage there is.
1. Red Battlemage + Knight
Just by looking at the name, you can see that the Red Battlemage wants to be more than just a caster. We can help achieve this dream by giving it the Knight as a secondary job. With it, you can create a job that has enough HP and defense to easily be able to stand right up front in any skirmish, while also fulfilling the duties of the Red Mage. And here’s one key point: Knights can wear heavy armor. This offers a huge boost to defense, of course, but also comes with additional hit points. It does take away some of the magical boosts that come with a Red Battlemage’s normal mystical gear, so that’s something to consider. But the sturdiness more than makes up for it. And besides, the Red Battlemage is plenty skilled with magic by itself. Knights also have access to Curaja. So this powerful healing spell very much helps any Red Battlemage stay on top of everybody’s health, be it as the main healer, or as backup. And yes, a Knight Red Battlemage can use Excalibur too. Which is pretty rad.
