The Vampire Job and indeed Genome skills are, essentially, code for the ‘Blue Mage’ of Final Fantasy lore. It’s a Job or Class that is able to learn enemy skills, typically by being the victim of them, and use them as part of it’s repertoire going forward. Title depending, this system can play host to some of the most powerful skills in a Final-Bravely-Fantasy game. FF7 for example, featured some fantastic abilities as part of its Enemy Skill Materia, the most essential of these being the fantastic Mighty Guard skill. Things aren’t quite as good here in Bravely Default, where the Vampire Job takes up the mantle of learning enemy skills, but it still features a great selection of skills, and it does have access to the best elemental skills possible in the absolute end game. We’re not going to touch the final four spells, mainly because they’re rather self explanatory, but we are going to attempt to put to rights the remainder of their skills to discuss the very best that the Job has to offer.
5. Curse
- Description: Lower target’s P. Atk and P. Def by 25% for 4 turns.
- Location: Magician, Underflow, Chapter 4.
Most players, having spent even the smallest amount of time with Bravely Default, will be astutely aware of just how powerful physical attacks are. In the very early game, multiple normal hits – consecutive normal punches, you might say – are capable of dealing large chunks of damage, especially when used by Jobs that encourage more than one hit at a time. This trend continues into the mid and late game, made manifest by Jobs such as the Ranger and Pirate, and whilst there are plenty of ways to buff these Jobs and increase their damage, you’ll often have to waste their own turn to debuff the opponents physical defence. The best example of this would be the Pirate, which is perfectly capable of using Shell Split, but surely you’d rather they were using bigger skills? With the Curse skill in your pocket, you can free up your physical attackers to do what they do best. It even lasts for 4 rounds, which is a nice bonus.
Advertisement
4. Gastric Juices
- Description: Attack that hits all enemies, deals 100% damage of a normal physical attack and lowers their P. Def by 25% for 3 turns.
- Location: Gastric Worm, Everlast Tower, Chapter 4.
Whilst we do enjoy the reduction in P. Atk offered by Curse, we all know that it’s the reduction in defence that you’re really looking for, so why not opt for a skill that does this to the entire enemy party? We’ll admit that, by the time you get this at least, you probably have quite a few options for taking down entire teams, but Gastric Juices is a great way of ensuring that your Vampire stays relevant whilst also assisting the team. It’s also a great way to spam out Brave turns to quickly end battles. The Job itself is never going to compete with the upper echelons of physical damage thanks to it’s stats, but you’d be surprised how much you can get out of this skill when you get creative. Using Two-Handed for example, and applying P. Atk buffs from the Pirate or Dark Knight.
3. White Wind
- Description: Restores HP to the entire party, equal to the caster’s current HP.
- Location: Aero Lantern, Wind Temple, Chapter 4.
From doling out and lowering opponents health bars, we now turn to a skill that restores your own, tha fan favourite White Wind. This skill, in some form or another, has been in a multitude of Final Fantasy titles, which let’s be honest is exactly what Bravely Default is in all but name. Here it functions much like any other, in that it restores exactly the amount of health that your user has, to the entire party. We’ll admit that it’s uses are rather limited, especially when there are so many other amazing healing options available in the game, but it’s one of those skills that just happens to be there when you need it. This, combined with others on this list, make the Vampire Job feel like a swiss army knife, and having a skill like White Wind available might just make the difference the next time your full healer is incapacitated.
2. Energy Burst
- Description: Attack all enemies for 1.5x damage.
- Location: Chaugmar, Temple of Fire, Chapter 5.
When it comes to actually dealing damage to opponents, it’s worth noting that the Vampire Job isn’t actually that spectacular. Well, outside of the four max level elemental spells learned at the very end game, but those are special cases and rather self explanatory in nature. We noted earlier that it takes the form of a multitool of sorts, managing to adapt to most situations whilst still providing a good amount of support. That said, we’ve included Energy Burst because it essentially deals a good amount of damage whilst being resource free, since it costs BP rather than MP. Being a physical attack in nature, it can also be buffed up by a myriad of support skills, so you have a ready made random battle remover that doesn’t drain your resources, which is critical in some later game scenarios.
Advertisement
1. Lullaby
- Description: Medium probability to inflict Sleep on all enemies.
- Location: Treant, Miasma Forest, Chapter 4.
It’s probably worth noting that this skill – Lullaby – is only here because of another Job, specifically the Arcanist. Without one particular skill from this Job – Twilight, to be precise – then Lullaby would be nothing more than a semi-useful ailment. As it is, Twilight will instantly kill any enemies that are inflicted with the Sleep ailment. Thus the true usefulness of this skill is found. You could, for instance, put both Vampire and Arcanist skills on the same character, and in one round use this combination of skills via the judicial use of brave turns. On a quick character, which you can augment with the Agi statistic, they can go first and completely remove random battles. Jobs like the Conjurer might completely remove random battles in the very late game, but until you reach it, this combination cannot be beaten for mashing your way through encounters.
More Bravely Default…
The Best Skills & How To Use Them | Bravely Default
The Job system in Bravely Default, and indeed any Final Fantasy title, is essentially a ‘carrier’ for differing types of skills and their subsequent customisation. At a very basic level for example, the Thief Job is likely to learn skills that focus on pilfering items, however the Bravely series takes things a step further by…
The Best Jobs For Every Character | Bravely Default
It’s fair to say that Bravely Default’s Job system forms the basis for the series’ success. Having developed and evolved in the Final Fantasy series over the years, it’s here that it can be found in full bloom. By selecting a job for any given character, you’ll gain access to a myriad of fun and…
5 Best Items To Steal | Bravely Default
To steal an item in a JRPG is one of life’s great joys. There is something immensely satisfying about having your thief sneak around undetected, prodding at soft and unknown areas only to return with something tremendously valuable in hand. Paired with the allure of locating something powerful at an early point, it makes for…
Loading…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Categories: Bravely Default