Time Battlemage

Battlemages who wield crossbows and bend time to their will.

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age description

Time Battlemage is a License Board in the Zodiac versions of Final Fantasy XII. It is represented by the zodiac sign of Libra. Time Battlemage specializes in using Time Magicks and crossbows.

The job has access to 135 licenses, which require 7,681 LP to unlock, as well as up to 12 additional licenses through summon licenses costing 810 LP, and 1 additional license costing 50 LP through Quickening licenses.

Profile[]

Time Battlemage is a magick class, primarily using Time Magicks. It uses the ranged crossbow as its main weapon, and equips heavy armor. It can switch to several types of swords for a more physical focus and can use all Green Magick spells and has access to numerous augments.

Its main weapons are severely impacted by certain weather conditions and it has few offensive and recovery spells, as well as low HP.

In The Zodiac Age version, the player can use two license boards for each party member.

Pairing Time Battlemage with Archer makes for a purely ranged physical attacker. The Archer gains Strength from the Time Battlemage's heavy armor while the Time Battlemage gains extra HP from the Archer's light armor. Being able to switch from arrows to bolts adds flavor to this pairing with increased options for elemental damage and status-infliction. Archer also grants easy access to the Shear Technick and the White Magicks Cura and Raise without Espers, whereas Time Battlemage grants Time and Green Magicks to the Archer, specifically Oil, which can be used with the Archer's Burning Bow+Fiery Arrows and any Fire-elemental spells from Shades of Black. Bows tend to be an upgrade to the Time Battlemage's native crossbow later into the game. This pairing also provides augments that are not found on Time Battlemage nor the Archer License Board. Unlocking the Infuse Technick with the Zodiark or Ultima Esper can be used with Time Battlemage Charge Technick to lock the character in an infinite Critical HP state to deal high physical damage with the Adrenaline augment if the player equips a Steel Gorget accessory, and it also unlocks Swords 9 (or 7 & 8) with the 1000 Needles Technick. Being in critical state with Steel Gorget equipped for Adrenaline and using the Time Magick spells Haste with Berserk is where this job pairing shines in late game.

Another viable combination to use with Time Battlemage for a party member who does not mind being locked into only equipping heavy armor is the Knight, as the Time Battlemage's three Swiftness licenses benefit the slow Knight and its magick power makes better use of the Knight's White Magick that can be unlocked with Espers, making for a strong attacker that still has many support abilities. Because this combination cannot equip mystic armor by doing so the Knight cannot then use the Holy-elemental greatsword Excalibur with the Mystic Armor White Robes combination to elevate Holy damage.

Pairing Time Battlemage with Monk grants some similar benefits to the Knight pairing, most notable the Monk's White Magick, and can gain more with Esper picks. However, the Monk would have to forego access to Genji Gloves, which especially improves poles' combo rate.

Time Battlemage can also pair well with Uhlan or Shikari, creating another strong physical attacker with three Swiftness licenses and solid support abilities, though without the White Magick of the Knight or Monk.

Coupling Time Battlemage with Black Mage results in an efficient magic blaster and support unit whose Black Magick-use regenerates MP through the Warmage augment, leaving plenty of MP to cast the Time Magick buffs as needed. The access to mystic armor and extra Magick Lores from the Black Mage will improve the Time Magick enemy debuff spells' rate of success. The Time Battlemage–Black Mage pairing also has a surprisingly solid number of hit points due to the two jobs bypassing each other's Esper unlocks for HP licenses—only 30 HP less than a single-job Knight without Exodus.

Pairing Time Battlemage with White Mage creates a support character who can use both mystic and heavy armor and short-range and long-range weapons. However, having different characters concentrate on healing and buffing can work better for some of the harder battles, as a single character may struggle to do both due to inefficient MP-regeneration, gambit overload, and simply having to cast a spell every turn. Combining Time Battlemage with Bushi also allows the character to wear either mystic or heavy armor to suit their situation, and use crossbows or a katana for both short- and long-range fighting.

Mages in general have low health and high magick and consequently, combinations of Time Battlemage with other mages may be a trade-off between casting efficacy and survivability. Time Battlemage with White Mage, for example, has about half the health of most other combinations. The exception to this is Time Battlemage with Black Mage.

Souleater and Bonecrusher give a controllable means of lowering one's HP, and thus synergize particularly well with Time Battlemage's Balance. Souleater can be bought for the Bushi, Knight, Monk, Red Battlemage, Uhlan, and White Mage job classes. Bonecrusher is used by five job classes: Bushi, Machinist, Monk, Shikari, and Uhlan. However, Uhlan and Shikari must first acquire the license for Hashmal. Souleater and Bonecrusher are still powerful effects on their own. Monk in particular is a good candidate to pair with the Time Battlemage; along with Uhlan, it can use both Technicks, and along with Bushi, has the best HP bonuses available.

License Board[]