How-To Guide: Corsair

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Pirates of the Arrapago Islands - Curse of the Ashu Talif[]

So, ye want to know about the way of the pirate, ’eh? Well, that’s good! Corsairs are extraordinary for almost any party situation. If you find yourself lucky, this is the job for you. Corsairs take luck to a whole new level, and perform intelligent decisions to create really great enhancements for the party. Corsairs get far fewer choices for their buffs than Bard, but they are usually slightly better. It all depends on the situation. Have you ever played the card game “Blackjack”, or “Twenty-One”? Corsair’s abilities are based very much on that basis, but using dice, and having a maximum of 11. This means that you can get anywhere from one to six every time you “hit”, and you bust if you get 12 or over. It’s risky, but way worth it if you feel up to the task. Obviously, the higher you get closer to 11, the more potent your buffs will be. You can also get enormous enhancements simply if there is the job associated with the roll in your current party. You can increase the party’s attack power by 41%, their accuracy by 51, their HMP by 13, and grant them a Refresh effect of 5 MP/tic. These, of course, are the extremes, and are difficult to get, but you can take “Lucky” numbers too, that eliminate the absolute “must” to get to 11. If you do bust, however, everyone in the party loses the roll’s effect, and you actually take a detrimental effect. Don’t bust on Corsair’s Roll!! In general, Corsairs are amazing support-role jobs who take the whole party thing to a new level. Not only are their rolls affected greatly by party members, they can also help enfeebles stick harder and longer, and even give others their job abilities (and even two-hours!) back. Corsair is a very expensive, very luck-based job that when played right can make bad parties good and good parties extraordinary.
Please note: This is only a guide. Please add anything if it is needed, and take away anything that is either untrue or not needed.

Job-Race Combinations[]

Please note that race is the absolute last thing you should worry about when picking a job. Anything said here is seriously exaggerated. A single piece of gear can often make up for a race's negligible lack in a stat. Every race also gets "Race Specific Equipment", or "RSE", that will boost a race's stats to equal, or possibly even surpassing other races.

Hume[]

Hume can play both roles of Corsair impeccably. Providing decent strength and agility for ranged attacks, or MP and mind for White Mage support job possibilities. On top of this, Hume also provides a hefty load of HP and vitality, increasing survivability by a marginal amount. You can equip a wide variety of your RSE to enhance a large number of things, filling in any gaps you find yourself missing.

Elvaan[]

Elvaan Corsairs are really cool looking. These guys possess the highest strength and mind in the game, allowing for some of the greatest damage of all races, while allowing a White Mage support job to bring home the more potent Cures if necessary. Though it can be made up by gear, low agility and MP hinders both categories ever so slightly. Your RSE can put both up past a number of other races, though.

Tarutaru[]

Providing both good ranged accuracy through agility, and large cure-bombs with high MP, Tarutaru also find a place to shine in the category of Corsairs. Since Corsairs don’t pull horrible amounts of hate, their low vitality and HP don’t play much of a problem here. These little guys might want to sub Ninja more than other races, though, just in case.

Mithra[]

Being the dexterous and agile women they are, Mithra don’t like to miss, and they don’t like to get hit. With guns being as powerful per hit as they are, on top of already average strength, and with all of that agility, Mithra get great ranged attacks, and even better weapon skills. Mithra also have relatively decent MP, allowing for versatility in their support jobs. Low vitality means every hit hurts a lot, so make sure you’re properly defended.

Galka[]

Galka bring the hammer down for the pirates. Providing high vitality and HP for when things go wrong, as well as high strength and decent agility, helping their ranged attacks hit harder and more often. A Galka’s low MP can be brought higher than any other race’s with his RSE, proving to make even a White Mage support job very possible.

Equipment Choices[]

Weapon[]

Corsairs can effectively equip both daggers and swords with very little difference between the two. With that being said, you should try investing in a high-attack sword until about Lv.28, when you can switch to one or more Archer’s Knives. At this point, you would probably only really use your guns, so the extra ranged accuracy is always welcome. Since Corsair is generally a weak front-line fighter, like I said, go for high damage weapons over those with low delay. Your choice in guns is quite limited, however, since there’s not a whole lot of them to choose from. When you do have choice, go for ones with high ranged accuracy and ranged attack, then look for ones with higher damage over time. If all else fails, stick with high damage guns, since high delay also means less monetary output. Early on, I suggest saving bullets for weapon skills only. Keep this strategy until you switch to the Archer’s Knife at Lv.28, when you can start unloading a large number of shots at a time with much higher accuracy. There are many six-barrelled “Hexaguns”, which are exclusive to Corsair. Pick those up if you can. You won’t regret it. Hexaguns are only worthwhile when you don't have "Quickdraw". After Lv.40, start looking for guns with high damage. This and bullet damage are two factors in Quickdraw's damage.

Armor[]

As you would expect, Corsairs don’t get much in the heavy armor department. You have to rely mostly on cloth, leather, and harness equipment, and leave all the other stuff to Paladins and Dark Knights. I personally suggest using Leaping Boots for the majority of your game, and the Emperor Hairpin if you can. Otherwise, the only really prominent armor sets are the Noct. set and the Jaridah/Akinji sets. Both of these are great. The Noct. set should last you until the Jaridah, and that should last you well beyond even your artifact equipment. Anything that provides enhancements to your ranged attack or accuracy, or your rolls especially, I suggest you get some. After all, what’s a pirate if he consistently misses with his gun? I guess Jack Sparrow.

Walkthrough[]

Advanced Job Quest[]

This quest is quite difficult and tedious, but one of my friends is pretty much capable of doing this with her eyes closed because of how often she’s done it for other people. Your first of many steps is going to J-12 of Whitegate and talking to Ratihb. Watch a cutscene. Make sure this isn’t the cutscene for “The Die is Cast” quest, involving dice rolls. Go to Mafwahb at L-9 and talk to him. Now go to Nashmau, either by ship or otherwise. Take the north exit at H-6 into Caedarva Mire from the town. At this point, make sure you have Sneak and Invisible. Most things aggro to sound, but Lamia aggro to sight. Imps are true sight, so be very careful around them. Saplings, birds, leeches, and traps will not aggro at all. Now, go get a Lamian Fang Key. This can either be found on a number of Lamia or undead-related monsters, or you can get the key by touching the ??? at I-7 Caedarva Mire. If you go as Thief, you can also simply pick the lock with tools. You may also want to have the Puppetmaster quest started for this, just to do one of the parts along the way and save you a short trip. Go to Arrapago Reef at I-6. Follow the right wall to a cave, and note the Iron Gate. Open it with the Lamia Fang Key (only one is needed for a group of people to pass). Follow the left wall this time and open another door (no key required). Keep going onto the ship. The ??? you want to touch is on the ship. Careful, there is a Lamia there, and she will aggro to sight, so when you drop invisible, this is a warning. Watch a cutscene. Now go back to Nashmau. This time, go outside to Caedarva via the west exit. Travel to E-9 to Talacca Cove. Follow the left shore until you find a ???. Touch it and receive a “Forgotten Hexagun”. Travel west from there and check the Rock Slab. Make sure you have at least one free inventory space at this point. Checking the Rock Slab will result in a really awesome cutscene. Congratulations! You can now become a Corsair, and you have your first roll.

Soloing 1 to 10[]

This can be slow, but it is what you make of it. Try buying a decent sword and some good armor for this, but it isn’t all that necessary. Swords are still your best bet in any case, however good it is. At Lv.5, you get your first roll, Corsair’s Roll. What this one does is actually multiplies experience points earned after normal fights. Use it and keep trying to roll a five. If you roll anything more, don’t double-up again. Even if you have a 6, you have a one-in-three chance of getting something way worse than six. Rolls last an incredibly long time, so you won’t have to use it at the start of like every fight. However, it is important that you do use it if it wears off; at the very least just before the end of a fight. Next at Lv.8 you get Ninja Roll. Since you can have two rolls on at once, you might as well throw this one on. This one multiplies your evasion by a small amount, letting you avoid some unwanted hits. Ninja roll has a lucky number of 4, so keep that in mind. I recommend you sub either Warrior or White Mage for these levels. Make habit of grabbing Signet before you go outside. Not only will it make soloing a lot easier through defense and evasion bonuses, but it will also allow you to rest HP without losing TP, and will also earn you conquest points with which to spend on items.

Valkurm 10-20[]

Corsairs right away become massive assets to their parties. Even at Lv.10, you can both increase everyone’s experience gained by 20%, and simultaneously increase their evasion, even moreso if there is a Ninja in the party. At Lv.11, you get one of your better rolls. If you static with a Ranger (like I did), you can easily increase the entire party’s accuracy by over 45. That is a LOT OF ACCURACY. Keep it on at all times. At this point, you’ll probably want to keep both Corsair’s and Hunter’s Roll up. Come Lv.14, you get another incredibly useful roll. Also try staticking with a Dark Knight, because using both Hunter’s and Chaos roll both at lucky numbers will increase the entire party’s accuracy by 45 and attack by 35%. Keep both of these rolls active, no matter what is in your party. Unless, of course, your Ninja needs the extra evasion, but give it to him on the side. Since Phantom Roll has the mere recast of only one minute, you can quickly give the party Corsair’s Roll just before the end of a big fight to multiply experience points. Don’t bother doing this for really quick fights. Sub White Mage in here. All other subs are pretty pointless, including Ranger, and especially Ninja.

Mid-levels 20-40[]

You get Healer’s Roll immediately at Lv.20, so now you have some separation between the mages and the melee fighters. Continue using Chaos and Hunter’s until at least Lv.37, and use Healer’s (and maybe Ninja’s if you want) on the mages. At Lv.37, you get Samurai Roll. This is where your party setup starts to take more of a place. Whatever your party currently has, is what you should use. Since Samurai, Ranger, and Dark Knight are all damage-dealers, chances are you won’t have all three, so just use the ones that match your party members; if only one or none are present, use the appropriate ones for the situation. At Lv.24, you are open to the support job Ninja. If you party with a Ninja, you may want to sub this just in case, but otherwise, stick with White Mage. At Lv.30, you should sub Ranger at all times. Make sure you equip all of the Ranger-sub-based items like the shield, earring, back piece, and especially the belt. Lv.40 also brings around an incredibly useful roll; Evoker’s Roll. This one will allow you to finally give your party a potent Refresh effect. Your average, lucky number will be 3 MP/tic. Lv.40 is also when you get a very useful job ability called Quick Draw. This is Corsair’s answer to both Sleep and Dispel. Use its one-minute timer wisely.

Your AF Weapon[]

The Trump Gun is a brilliant weapon. It’s an amazing little Hexagun that provides you with both +2 to agility and +2 to ranged accuracy. It’s also got a very well-balanced damage and delay. Personally, I would suggest you use this gun for a long time. From a quick glance at the Marksmanship page, I can’t see a better gun for Corsair until the Shark Gun at Lv.60, or the Hexagun at Lv.65.
To get this amazing gun, you must first be Lv.40+ and beat the quest “Equipped for All Occasions”. Let’s take a look at that. Step one is to head all the way back to Arrapago Reef (check the Advanced Job Quest section if you can’t remember how), and check the ??? again, as your Lv.40+ Corsair. In the cutscene that will ensue, you will be asked a list of three places. Choose “Maze of Shakhrami” (the only correct choice). Now, get a Lv.75 friend (or yourself, if you have a job Lv.75 already) and head down to Shakhrami. Go down to K-9 on the second map and examine the Iron Door. Defeat the skeleton NM named Lost Soul. Lost Soul will spam Blood Saber repeatedly once he gets low on HP. Finish him quickly. Go back to the ??? again in Arrapago Reef, examine it, then finally go to the Shararat Teahouse in Whitegate and speak with Ratihb. Congratulations! You have your awesomesauce Trump Gun!

Mid-High Levels 40-60[]

Now you have your amazing artifact weapon and most of your best rolls. At Lv.43, however, you get another unbelievably amazing roll: Rogue’s Roll. Use this one if there’s a Thief in your party. Seriously. The frequency of critical hits will astound you. You also get the ever-useful Fighter’s Roll at Lv.49. That one increases a Warrior’s double attack rate, and gives it to people who don’t normally have it. If there’s a Warrior in the party, everyone will double attack every 3-4 hits. It’s also amazing! Lv.50 is a new job ability. Random Deal. This is a very hit-or-miss ability that you shouldn’t fall back on, but can be really nice. It restores a random job ability on a random party member. Basically, if all else fails, use your two-hour, but if that either doesn’t work, or isn’t there, use Random Deal. You get your last "useful" roll at Lv.58, your Wizard’s Roll. Use this in place of Healer’s Roll on Black Mages if there are any in the party. It will increase their damage by a lot. Unfortunately, now you have all of your good stuff, and by Lv.60, you should have all of your artifact equipment as well.

Your Artifact Armor[]

If anything, the Corsair's Attire Set looks absolutely gorgeous. It’s actually a very amazing set of equipment. Your first pieces are your legs at Lv.52. These are the only ones that are slightly shadowed by the Jaridah Peti Set. They provide a dandy HP boost as well as some intelligence and a large enmity-down. If you find yourself getting hate, use these. If you find yourself missing a lot, use the Jaridah. Your hand pieces at Lv.54 provide a dandy boost to dexterity and mind, and a relatively useless Parrying Skill buff to help your only A+ skill. However, one might prefer Noct. Gloves +1 in this case to those three generally useless increases. Next are your boots at Lv.56. The Corsair’s Bottes also provide HP, but this time some strength, agility, and ranged accuracy, making them actually very good. Your body piece is next. At Lv.58, it provides a beautiful +8 ranged accuracy, and some further dexterity and agility. It also looks really cool. Finally, your Lv.60 piece is your head piece. The Corsair’s Tricorne provides its wearer with HP, strength, and another +8 to ranged accuracy. If that’s not enough, it also enhances the accuracy of Quick Draw, helping even more for those sticky situations.

High Levels 60-75[]

The final fifteen includes a final two Phantom Rolls for Corsair: Dancer's and Scholar's Roll. Dancer's Roll is great for heavy downtime, and Scholar's Roll is great for all mages as a replacement for either Healer's or Wizard's rolls. Dancer's Roll adds a Regen effect of 14 HP/tic with a lucky, and Scholar's will enhance the activation rate of Conserve MP. The latter is best used in parties where the mages never rest, especially if a Scholar is actually present. Now you have all of your rolls, all of your job abilities, and even all of your artifact equipment. These last fifteen go down smooth and smarmy, and nothing really changes at this point. Hopefully you’ve mastered the strategic use of rolls and how to use them in general, as well as how to help the party stick buffs and land your own enfeebles. Now you can go out there and do all the stuff you need to do for better equipment and whatnot.

End-Game[]

(Please add information about Dynamis, Limbus, Salvage, merit parties, etc.)
For Dynamis: Replace the BLM parties’ Bards with a Corsairs. Wizard’s Roll and Evoker’s Roll makes them more versatile than a Bard since Bard requires both songs to reach the full effect. This also frees them to do their own damage on mobs.

Support Jobs[]

Ranger[]

Your number-one support job. Throughout your gameplay, Ranger will always be one of the best choices for a support job, but this is especially so after Lv.30. Not only does Ranger provide Accuracy Bonus (which also increases Ranged Accuracy by +10 or +22, depending on your level), it also allows access of a number of super-useful job abilities like Sharpshot and Barrage. These two alone can actually allow you to deal a fair amount of damage. The best part about Ranger, though, is the equipment you can use when subbing it. The Beater’s Aspis gives +2 evasion. The Beater’s Earring, providing +3 ranged accuracy. The Beater’s Mantle, making Rapid Shot activate slightly more frequently, which is super useful for how slow guns are. And finally, the Gun Belt, giving you a ridiculous +5 to Marksmanship skill. All of these bonuses are active only if you’re subbing Ranger.

Ninja[]

A lesser alternative to a Ranger support job. All it really provides is Dual Wield and Utsusemi. Dual Wield partially makes up for the lack of Accuracy Bonus from Ranger by allowing you to equip two weapons (although the Accuracy boosts from dual wield still fall behind Ranger's inherit Accuracy Bonus). With that said, Ninja is a good support job when the party setup doesn’t look too promising, and as a result, have things go out of hand. Another situation where it’s good is when you’re pulling- especially chainpulling like what Bards do in merit parties. It also provides Tonko & Monomi, which lets you use sneak/invisible with less spending than Oils/Powders. But if this is the only reason you’re subbing Ninja, White Mage’s spells are even less expensive than that (free).

White Mage[]

As I just finished saying, sneak and invisible are free for White Mage. This is the support job used for those who want to add a little bit more “support” into their support-role Corsair job. It allows the Corsair to fire off a few Cures and other spells like Poisona to help the main healer out a smidge. It can also help for survivability, adding spells like Blink, Stoneskin, and even Reraise. However, you shouldn’t sub this too far into the game in party scenarios. Ranger is probably your best bet in almost any situation post-30.

Bard[]

A support job you don’t see very often. Corsair/Bard has a little bit of everything. This is more of an alternative to White Mage, in that it adds more of a support-role to yourself. You won’t be allowed to use two songs at a time, but you can still give your party members another +1 to Refresh or a little bit of attack power or something. If you’re increasing their attack by a percentage, why not increase the base attack that the percentage affects?

Warrior[]

If you don't have White Mage, Bard, Ranger or Ninja leveled this can last you for a while. Bear in mind though, even if you lack Utsusemi at Lv.24, you really want Dual Wield for those Archer's Knives (which, again are at Lv. 28). A good melee support job if you plan on heading down that route. Although you lose those curing/enfeebles or ranged accuracy, it gives you a little more weapon damage for say, Valkurm Dunes. Not wise to use this over Lv.30 though, so be careful.

Overview of Job Abilities, Traits, and Spells[]

Your Two-Hour Ability[]

Wild Card is one of the handiest job abilities in the game. Though it’s luck-based like the rolls, it’s great no matter what your die lands on. If you roll a 1, Wild Card will instantaneously restore about half of your party’s used job abilities to a 00:00 counter; this does not include two-hour abilities, mind you. If you roll a 2, Wild Card will restore all job abilities, excluding two-hours. Rolling a 3 will similarly restore a couple abilities, but will also give everyone in the immediate area a full 100% TP. Rolling a 4 results in a full JA restoration (except two-hours) and a 300% TP increase. A 5 will yield in an instant restoration of most party member’s job abilities including two-hours and restore everyone’s MP by 50%. Finally, rolling the wicked number 6 will result in every single party member’s job ability and two-hour restored and a full 100% of MP restored. Obviously, you’ll want to roll a 6, but any one can do. Often times, people call upon friends with the Corsair job to refill their two-hours in case of a failed BCNM or to do a second Promyvion run of the day, or something like that. Just make sure you position yourself in the vicinity for everyone to receive the buff. Oh, and just one thing… Wild Card will not restore another Corsair’s two-hour ability. Sorry, guys.

Job Abilities[]

Phantom Roll is your pride and joy. This is your answer to Bard’s songs. Once you acquire this ability at Lv.5, you can begin using your dice in an effort to greatly enhance aspects of your party. You can only use this ability once every minute, but since each Roll lasts five whole minutes, you can easily keep a cycle of four or five Rolls going on at once. Just remember that each party member (including yourself) can only be given two rolls at once by one Corsair. When Phantom Roll is activated, you are given the chance to Double-Up, increasing your Roll’s potency. Each Roll/Double-Up will give you a number between one and six. The highest number you can get is 11. Rolling a 12 or higher will result in a Bust. Busts remove the effect that was busted upon for all party members, and will actually give you a negative effect! Busting on Corsair’s Roll is a real pain in the butt. Since Phantom Roll is a job ability as opposed to a spell, Silence won’t do anything to prevent you from performing your job, and you also won’t get aggroed from magic-aggro monsters. On the other hand, Amnesia and JA-aggro monsters provide a much bigger threat.
Double-Up works alongside Phantom Roll. You also get this ability at Lv.5 with Phantom Roll. Basically, what it does is allows you to increase your previously-used Roll’s effect by rolling another die. Double-Up is the only way you can Bust (see Phantom Roll). This ability can be used any time after Phantom Roll, as long as it’s within a forty-five second period.
Quick Draw is a job ability that adds a whole new flavour to Corsair. With this job ability, you basically use a special elemental card to fire-off elemental “magical” shots that can do a number of different things. All eight elemental Quick Draws will help any previously-induced enfeeble stick on the target. Quick Draw’s effect will both extend the duration and increase the effect of the debuff, as long as it’s within the same element (such as using the Earth-elemental QD with Slow in effect). A larger use of Quick Draw is with both light and dark elements. Light Shot will land an additional effect of Sleep on the monster. The effect, if unresisted, will last the whole one-minute recast, allowing you to continuously sleep one monster if things go wrong. Dark Shot, on the other hand, has an additional effect to Dispel a buff on the target. These are both great answers to Bard’s effects, though slightly less accurate and has a longer recast. Oh yeah, this ability is acquired at level 40.
Random Deal is a really neat ability that can randomly restore a random party member’s random job ability. Yes, this ability is quite random, but it’s really useful. It has a high chance of restoring an ability that needs it, but may occasionally try to restore an ability that hasn’t been used. That is to say, this twenty-minute cool-down ability can fail. The most unfortunate thing about Random Deal is that, unlike your two-hour, it won’t restore other peoples’ two-hour abilities.
Snake Eye is one of two meritable job abilities for Corsair. This one is really neat, and especially useful if the meritable trait “Winning Streak” is also active, as it lets you roll a 1 on your next roll, guaranteed! This ability is super-useful for when you roll a 10 and want that one more, or you’re one less than getting a lucky roll. With a fifteen minute recast timer, it’s not bad, but fully merited, it can be used every five minutes. The reason I say having Winning Streak fully merited is because having a full 0:06:40 duration on an 11-roll would be amazing.
Fold is the second of two meritable job abilities for Corsair. It’s amazing for any Corsair who really likes to live on the edge and busts more than the average Corsair. Fold will completely eliminate your previous Roll off of your list, even if it’s a bust. It starts at fifteen minutes but can be brought down to five with full merits. This means that if you get an unlucky roll or you bust on something you really didn’t want to bust on, you can easily remove it and start over. I suggest meriting something else if you don’t Double-Up if you have 6 or higher (like me), but if you do like the thrill, this ability is for you!

Job Traits[]

Resist Paralyze is a Lv.5 trait for Corsair. It’s great. Though you won’t always (read: will almost never) fully resist the effects of Paralyze, this trait will largely reduce the duration of the effect. Since job abilities like your Phantom Rolls can be paralyze-stalled, you don’t want to waste them.
Rapid Shot is great for any gun-wielders, including and especially Corsair. This trait will often lower the time waiting for your gun to load between using the ranged function and actually firing the shot. It can even occasionally completely eliminate the enormous delay of your attacks.
Winning Streak is one of two meritable job traits. What this does is directly influences the duration of your Phantom Rolls. Each merit (total of three) will increase your duration by 20 seconds, up to a total of one minute, forty seconds to add to the default 5. That’s pretty much it. This trait definitely does have its uses, especially if you’re A) lucky, or B) have merited Snake Eye too.
Loaded Deck is the second of two meritable job traits. Meriting this will actually increase the likelihood of your Random Deal performing its job correctly. I suggest if you merit this, you also have your Random Deal recast lowered dramatically as well. Each merit reduces the chance of failure by 10%. It’s up to you just how useful the ability, and ultimately this trait is for you to merit. It’s a good idea to throw at least one upgrade into this trait, because it will guarantee Random Deal to not fail as long as there are at least 2 abilities to regenerate. The failure reduction is only for when there’s only 1 job ability recharging in your party.

Phantom Rolls[]

Corsair's Roll (Lucky:5, Unlucky:9) is your first roll at Lv.5. This one multiplies experience points earned at the end of casual fights. The “optimal job” for this one is quite obviously Corsair, which means that unless you’re using Corsair as a support job, you’ll get the full effects of this ability. The lucky number will give you +20% exp, and rolling an 11 will give +24% exp. Careful though, as busting will lower exp gain by -6%.
Ninja Roll (Lucky:4, Unlucky:8) is your second roll, which you get at Lv.8. The optimal job is Ninja. What this Roll does is increases the chances to evade attacks, that is to say, your evasion. This is really good for when you have Ninjas in the party, not just because it’s the optimal job, but because Ninjas require a lot of evasion. It’s really difficult to judge just how high it increases your evasion, so there are no definite, confirmed numbers for how much evasion is given. It is confirmed that it’s a percentage instead of a direct amount.
Hunter's Roll (Lucky:4, Unlucky:8) is your third, and one of your most useful Rolls. Best of all, it’s earned at Lv.11. The optimal job is Ranger, which is unfortunate because there are a lot of other damage-dealers out there, so the chance of having a Ranger in your party is pretty slim (that’s why I say you should static with one). Hunter’s Roll will give you a direct addition to both accuracy and ranged accuracy. And the addition is very, very, very large. With a Ranger, the accuracy boost is a whopping +45, and an 11 roll is +51. Even without a Ranger in the party, though, the boost is quite large.
Chaos Roll (Lucky:4, Unlucky:8) is the fourth, and another one of your most important Rolls. Chaos Roll increases everyone’s attack power by a large percentage. The optimal job is Dark Knight, but even if you can’t find one, that’s not a big deal. A lucky number will increase your attack by 25% (35% with DRK), and an 11 will increase your attack by 31% (41% with DRK). This ability is learned at Lv.14; just in time to fight off those pesky Crabs and their sickeningly high defense in Valkurm Dunes.
Magus's Roll (Lucky:2, Unlucky:6) is learned at Lv.17, and is one of your first “useless” Rolls. Its optimal job is Blue Mage, and it increases your magic defense by a small amount. Really, you can have only two Rolls active, so you’d be far better off using something else, but if a monster is just slugging your party down with hordes of magical attacks, it’s a good idea to use, namely against Ninja monsters that use Mijin Gakure or Summoner monsters that use Astral Flow.
Healer’s Roll (Lucky:3, Unlucky:7) brings back the glory of your Rolls by being another super-useful one. This Lv.20 Roll is your first of two amazing Rolls for your mages. This is a really interesting roll in that it increases your HMP (MP recovered while healing). The optimal job is White Mage, making it even more useful since there’s usually a White Mage in parties. With no White Mage, you’re looking at +10 and +12 for lucky and 11 rolls respectively. With a White Mage, you can get +13 and +15 HMP for lucky and 11 rolls respectively. The best part is that it can stack with Evoker’s Roll to give your mages a lot of MP regeneration.
Puppet Roll (Lucky:4, Unlucky:8) is another sore thumb sticking out in the line of Corsair greatness. Acquired at Lv.23, Puppet Roll will enhance the pet accuracy for party members within the area. Now, if anyone gave my party’s pet more accuracy instead of me, I’d be a little ticked, but if someone actually wants it, give it to them on the side. The optimal job is obviously Puppetmaster, which is probably the only job who might actually want this roll anyway.
Choral Roll (Lucky:2, Unlucky:6) is yet another relatively useless spell. This one’s got its uses, but is still pretty shallow in terms of usefulness, especially compared to other possibilities. Choral Roll lowers interruption rates of spellcasting by a marginal amount. Fitting, since Bard is the optimal job, and its spells can’t be interrupted. This would be most useful for a Ninja, used off on the side. Give both the Ninja and the mages this until Lv.40 when you get Evoker’s Roll, meaning that you get a nice 14 levels out of it since it’s acquired at Lv.26.
Monk’s Roll (Lucky:3, Unlucky:7) is another roll that has a very, very situational use. The optimal job is obviously Monk, and it can be used at Lv.31. Monk’s Roll improves “Subtle Blow”, which is otherwise a trait that lowers the TP gained from monsters as your party wails on them. Without a Monk, the lucky will decrease TP gain by 24%, and an 11 will decrease by 36%. With a Monk, however, the lucky will decrease TP gained by your target by 35%, or up to 47% with an 11. This Roll can be useful on monsters who have incredibly powerful abilities that you just don’t want them to use. And since the majority of TP monsters get is from assaulting players, it’s pretty prominent.
Beast Roll (Lucky:4, Unlucky:8) increases your party members’ pets attack power. Again, this one would only really be useful for something like a Puppetmaster, which sucks because Beast Roll’s optimal job is Beastmaster. This Roll can be used at Lv.34, but you’ll probably never use it.
Samurai Roll (Lucky:2, Unlucky:6) is amazing. It’s a breath of fresh air after the last four rolls. Once you get this Roll at Lv.37, you can start increasing the TP gain for all of your party members. The TP gain is huge, especially on either a lucky or an 11. However, the low lucky of 2 makes this incredibly difficult to hit. Even so, a Samurai in the party will enhance this Roll further, to a wicked +42% TP gain with a lucky, and up to +50% TP gain with an 11. Yes, every hit, you get a hit and a half worth of TP with an 11 roll. Use this if there’s a Samurai in the party, otherwise, go with more situational rolls.
Evoker’s Roll (Lucky:5, Unlucky:9) is your second super-useful mage Roll. This is acquired at Lv.40 and is your brutal answer to Bard’s Ballad and Red Mage’s Refresh. Evoker’s Roll will gradually restore the targets’ MP over time. The lucky with no Summoner in the party is the same as Refresh or Ballad I and II together. If you hit an 11, you get 4. With a Summoner in the party, however, a lucky will merit 4 MP/tic, and an 11 will give 5 MP/tic, far surpassing the other two jobs. What’s more is Evoker’s Roll can stack with Healer’s Roll, unlike Bard’s Ballad I and II, which have to be combined to equal just this one Roll. Use this on your mages the second you get it.
Rogue’s Roll (Lucky:5, Unlucky:9) is a fan favourite. Once acquired at Lv.43, you can enhance the party’s rate of critical hits by a relatively large amount. Since critical hits can deal upwards of twice the damage of a normal hit, Rogue’s Roll is an almost must for your party. Unless your party has a Thief, it’s generally best to avoid it, but if there is one in your party, a lucky will merit +18% critical hit rate, and an 11 will merit +24% critical hit rate.
Warlock’s Roll (Lucky:4, Unlucky:8) enhances party members’ magical accuracy. This is less useful than most, but can be great in dire situations where Sleep and other high-powered spells need to hit with all of their might. This Roll is acquired at Lv.46, and the optimal job is Red Mage.
Fighter’s Roll (Lucky:5, Unlucky:9) is great, with or without a Warrior in the party. Though with a Warrior it’s really amazing. This Roll gives every party member Double Attack and enhances it for anyone who already has it. With a Warrior in the party, a lucky produces an 18% chance to Double Attack, and an 11 produces a 24% chance to Double Attack (this is added to the already 10% chance to anyone who already has it). Since Double Attack is just like attacking twice, this easily replaces even Samurai Roll, and possibly even Chaos Roll. Use this especially if there is a Warrior or a ton of damage-dealers (or both!) in the party.
Drachen Roll (Lucky:3, Unlucky:7) steps the Corsair awesomeness fever down a notch again by increasing the magic attack power of all of your party members’ pets spells. Really, who wants their wyvern or automaton to have slightly enhanced magic accuracy and attack when you can personally have something like Attack+41% or Double Attack+24%. Anyway, if you do use it, Dragoon is the optimal job, and it’s acquired at Lv.52. On a side note this roll is a very good choice for Corsair's in Summoner parties when fighting/kiting HNM's.
Gallant’s Roll (Lucky:3, Unlucky:7) is Paladin’s optimal Roll. Gallant’s Roll will take some of the damage taken by anyone in the party and shove it right back in the monster’s face with a non-elemental Blaze Spikes-like effect. Gallant’s Roll is fitting, since any tank in the party who will ever take damage would be a Paladin, and this just works with it. You may want to hit your Paladin with this on the side, mind you, but it really isn’t worth the extra time spent using this roll. You’d be far better off just hitting him up with some extra attacks or even Evoker’s Roll. Either way, it’s acquired at Lv.55.
Wizard’s Roll (Lucky:5, Unlucky:9) is acquired at Lv.58. It’s great if there’s a Black Mage in the party, and not just because of the optimal job feature. Wizard’s Roll will increase the damage dealt by magical spells by a relatively high percentage. Replace Healer’s Roll with this one for your Black Mages, since it will increase the damage dealt by a wicked 13% on lucky, or 16% on an 11.
Dancer's Roll (Lucky:3, Unlucky:7) finally gives Corsair an answer to Bard's Paeon song, providing an area-effect Regen that will give 14 HP/tic with a lucky roll. This roll would be far better if Phantom Roll didn't have such a long re-cast time. Really, the only time it's all that useful is when there's huge downtime. Dancer's Roll is usable at Lv.61.
Scholar's Roll (Lucky:2, Unlucky:6) gives an area-effect Conserve MP buff. Acquired at Lv.64, Scholar's Roll will often times really help the mages save on MP. This roll is super-useful in chaining parties like merit parties where no one ever rests. This provides all mage-type characters (namely Red Mages) with a chance to save hundreds of MP on spells, increasing the overall longevity of everyone's MP.