Five levers that move win rate
Job choice moves a match by a few per cent. These five move it by a lot, and all five are decisions rather than mechanics.
One voice
A shot-caller turns twenty-four players into one instrument. Six people typing six plans is the default way to lose.
One mass
Fight as a single body, never three groups of eight. Combat power scales with the square of numbers, so two groups of twelve lose to one of twenty-four.
Battle High first
It multiplies damage and healing by up to fifty per cent and it converts straight into score on the objective maps. Farm it early on stragglers, protect it late by not dying.
Play your rank
First place gets hunted and charges Limit Break a quarter slower. Second and third charge faster. If you lead, stop taking fair fights; if you trail, force them.
Rotate, do not trickle
Map open, mounts out, rotate on the timer. Trickling back after a wipe is how a lead becomes a rout.
The numbers that decide it
Thresholds, the ovoo payout, node income, Battle High and the square law. Every figure re-verified against the patch notes.
Win thresholds
Every campaign is a threshold, never a kill count. The number on the left is the objective.
Secure node income
Tactical rating per three seconds by key locations held. Four nodes is the breakpoint.
Ovoo payout decay
An ovoo pays for thirty seconds. If the match ends early you keep only the ticks that landed.
Lanchester, square against linear
Aimed fire scales combat power with the square of numbers. Double the side and you quadruple the power.
Job by map affinity
Twenty-one jobs against five maps. Bright cells are where the job is worth playing.
Objective activation clocks
When the objectives actually turn on, read against the match clock: Seize's scripted opening and its two-minute cadence, and Shatter's thirty-second forecast before every ice.
The five maps
Five grounds, five win conditions, and the one thing that wins each of them.
Borderland Ruins
2,400
Nine key locations and the centre Allagan weaponry. Four nodes is the income breakpoint; the value per three seconds climbs from two at one node to twenty-two at nine. Farm the Nodes for a hundred and fifty, and never fight on the teleport pad edges.
Seal Rock
700 data
Four tomeliths activate 30 seconds in, then activation follows extraction: a drained one is replaced about 15 seconds later. Each pays for about two minutes. Win the fight at the tomelith, then channel, because any hit interrupts.
Fields of Glory
1,600 data
Damage to icebound tomeliths is the score, so Battle High is literally currency here. Small ice caps at fifty, large at two hundred, split by damage share. Small ice always activates at 12:30 and 4:30 remaining.
Onsal Hakair
1,400
Ovoos cannot be stolen, only interrupted. It is a race, not a defence. Claim what you can complete, and break the claim the leader needs with a single ranged hit.
Worqor Chirteh
1,400
Every field around a triumph must be held, one player each, and any enemy inside blocks the capture. Snow arrives at about 16:00, auroras at about 9:00, and auroras raise both the ranks and everybody's Limit Break.
The job roster
Five roles, twenty-one jobs, one role action each. The role decides your role action and your damage taken, not your job on the field.
Paladin, Warrior, Dark Knight, Gunbreaker
Rampage, Rampart or Full Swing
Rampage is the pick on almost every tank: eight thousand potency and twenty-five per cent more damage taken on everything nearby.
White Mage, Scholar, Astrologian, Sage
Haelan, Stoneskin II or Diabrosis
Diabrosis is unanimous. Thirty-three per cent less healing received is the only reliable answer to a good healer.
Monk, Dragoon, Ninja, Samurai, Reaper, Viper
Bloodbath, Swift or Smite
Smite ignores Guard and its cooldown resets on every knockout. It is the best cleanup tool in the mode.
Bard, Machinist, Dancer
Dervish, Bravery or Eagle Eye
Bravery gives twenty-five per cent more damage dealt and twenty-five per cent less taken for fifteen seconds on a thirty second cooldown.
Black Mage, Summoner, Red Mage, Pictomancer
Comet, Phantom Dart or Rust
Phantom Dart adds twenty-five per cent damage taken on a fifteen second cooldown. On Shatter it is the ice-breaking button.
Paladin
The highest burst in the game wearing plate. Think of it as a melee, not a tank.
Warrior
The forgiving one. Twenty-second crowd-controlled burst cycle and real self-healing.
Dark Knight
The initiator of the mode. Salt Earth is the best pull in Frontline.
Gunbreaker
The wall that never falls, carrying the highest total-damage Limit Break.
White Mage
The clearest heals and a long-range area stun that decides fights.
Scholar
Damage over time and shields. No burst, so it cannot decide a fight.
Astrologian
The support that pays for itself: thirty per cent more damage for the whole party.
Sage
Not a healer. A twenty-five yalm blink into a pull, with near-melee mitigation.
Monk
Meteor Drive strips defence and locks the target. The best catch tool there is.
Dragoon
The strongest area burst in the mode and unmatched mobility, with no crowd control at all.
Ninja
The finisher. Nothing kills a half-dead target the way this does.
Samurai
Pressure as a job. Any barrier defeats its one-shot, so it waits for you to be careless.
Reaper
Seventy per cent one Limit Break, and playing that Limit Break well is the hard part.
Viper
The current protagonist: top burst, mobility and durability at once, and no crowd control.
Bard
With its role action it out-tanks melee. An advanced job that beginners mistake for simple.
Machinist
The executioner. Kills anything already leaving, and the turret denies objectives.
Dancer
The best Limit Break in the mode, and the only job rated top on all five maps.
Black Mage
Area damage that never stops, and it evaporates the moment its cooldowns are down.
Summoner
Bahamut's range is enormous and the Limit Break is easy. It has no escape skill at all.
Red Mage
Fights in melee on purpose with forty-five per cent damage taken, and silences groups.
Pictomancer
Damage that does not depend on the Limit Break, with a blink and a speed buff.
The kill chain
A kill is five stages. Find the missing stage and you have found why you are losing.
Initiation
Put them where they cannot leave
Salt Earth pull and bind; Primal Rend stun; Plegma pull; Contra Dance.
Amplification
Raise everyone's damage on that target
Rampage plus twenty-five per cent taken; Phantom Dart plus twenty-five; Astrodyne plus thirty for the party.
Denial
Remove the defences that would save them
Full Swing strips Guard; Smite and Eagle Eye ignore it; Diabrosis cuts healing by a third.
Sustain
Keep the dive alive long enough
Self-healing, barriers, Bloodbath stealing life back while you commit.
Finish
Kill them before help arrives
Assassinate, Zantetsuken, Magic Bullet, Sky Shatter, Blade Dance.
The fourteen named plays
Doctrine compressed into named moves. Tap any play to open it.
The call sheet
One caller, two mounted scouts, a main body of fourteen to sixteen, and a floating squad of six to eight that is never committed.
Rules of engagement
One: count before committing. Two: at one and a half times their numbers, engage fully. Three: even numbers, take the objective instead of the fight. Four: fewer, bait and delay toward allies and find a defile. Five: won, stop, remount, take the objective, do not pursue. Six: losing, do not reinforce the wipe, redeploy.
Quick reference
The whole briefing on one screen: the posture by phase, and the numbers worth remembering before the gate opens.
Farm Battle High on stragglers. Take the safe objective. Never commit the reserve.
Hold the interior position. Contest the centre only as a two against the leader.
Leading: accumulate quietly, take no open melee. Behind: force the leader to split.
A knockout is eight, a death is eight. Sixteen points of swing, flat, not scaled by Battle High.
Paid at five, ten and twenty per three seconds across a thirty second window.
Plus ten per cent damage and healing for every twenty points. Changing job resets it to zero.
First place charges a quarter slower, third place a quarter faster.