Elvaan: Guide to Job Selection

Job Selection
Elvaan stats excel at many roles that primarily require ample amounts of strength, vitality or hit points. Due to their limited mana pools, players typically find Elvaan challenging in the magical prospects. Elvaan excel at some of the most common jobs in the game as well as some of the more unique fighter jobs. With their special array of stats, Elvaan make amazing Monks and Paladins. As many weapons have strength modifiers, Elvaan make exceptionally powerful fighters. Always keep in mind that race should be your absolute last concern when making your alter-ego, as skill and equipment are far more important.

Feel free to add your own thoughts here as well.

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Bard
Starting Stats

The primary stat of the Bard job is Charisma, in which Elvaan are not lacking. Many of the other stats are beneficial to have, but the most important besides CHR is MP (as the most common sub job for Bard is White Mage). At level 25, a Bard has access to Mage's Ballad, a powerful spell that acts as an AoE Refresh for the party. An Elvaan Bard should probably priorize MP adding equipment over Charisma, but should not shun either stat. Elvaan can make exceptional Bards, but this can be said of any race to try this job.


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Beastmaster
Starting Stats

Elvaan make excellent Beastmasters. The key to being a great Beastmaster is having good CHR, MND, and, if possible, good STR and VIT. Elvaan excel in all four stats, making them excellent Beastmasters. With a White Mage as a subjob Elvaan can't go wrong while soloing, allowing them to buff themselves and shorten their downtime with healing. White Mage also gives a boost to CHR and MND, improving the effectiveness of Reward and Charm. As for an Elvaan Beastmaster in a party; Ninja or Warrior subjobs will make a Beastmaster into an amazing damage dealer, and with the right equipment a decent tank.

The one downfall of an Elvaan Beastmaster is the lack of DEX. Every Elvaan Beastmaster should go for CHR, VIT, and STR but if you can squeeze in some DEX then Elvaan can't go wrong with this job.




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Black Mage
Starting Stats

Elvaan suffer from a lack of the twin stats needed to be a successful Black Mage, MP and INT. Thus, of all the jobs available to an Elvaan, Black Mage is likely the role in which Elvaan are most lacking. To overcome their natural ineptitude, an Elvaan player should invest heavily in any equipment which enhances his low MP pool and enhances his low INT. One of the key components of this is the Elvaan's Racial Specific Equipment, or RSE.

Elvaan should stock up on MP enhancing foods as well, and carefully consider their choice of sub jobs, popular choices including White Mage or Summoner for its MP boosting job traits. Elvaan's low INT means less damage, hence they are less likely to draw enmity from the monster they're engaging.


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Blue Mage
Starting Stats

At this point, people still aren't 100% sure what to consider useful and useless stats in this job yet. What is known, however, is every stat does play a role in the job. An Elvaan's high Strength will more than likely dole out the most damage from "Physical" spells, as their high HP will accommodate for certain spells that use max HP into the damage pool.


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Dark Knight
Starting Stats

Dark Knights seriously benefit from high Strength stat, so Elvaan is a great choice for high spikes of damage over time. As an Elvaan, you won't have any problem keeping the damage per hit sersiously high. On another note, since Souleater 1/10'th of your max HP and pours it directly into damage, an Elvaan's second-highest HP stat really helps deal an enormous amount of damage.

The downsides of course, would be the Elvaan's monsterous lack of Dexterity, MP, and Intelligence stats. DEX obviously for accuracy, and MP and INT for Black Magic spells. INT plays a vital role in a Dark Knight's ability to Magic Burst and the effectiveness and accuracy of their Drain and Absorb line of spells.

Dark Knights have access to sums of black magic, a fact other races capitalize on more capably than the Elvaan. An Elvaan Dark Knight should use this to enhance his abilities with the cruel Drain and Aspir spells, along with the Absorb-Stat spells available to him mid level. A Dark Knight is still a warrior first and his sub job usually reflects this as a Warrior or Thief.


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Corsair
Starting Stats

Think of Corsair as a part Bard, part Ranger without the need of the CHR stat. Essentially, the damage over time with a gun is needed for those Corsairs that choose to take the path of damage dealer moreso than support. The extra Strength stat that Elvaan bring along really helps with damage. As for the support type, the extra MND comes to play with a White Mage support job. Elvaan lack one stat either route they choose. Agility for the damage dealer or MP for the support.


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Dragoon
Starting Stats

Elvaan offers Dragoon, from a melee type damage dealer's point of view, pretty much the same as it offers Dark Knight. An outstanding STR stat will make physical hits hit hard when they hit home... or, 'if' they hit home. Again, an Elvaan's lacking DEX will make it hard to hit continuous blows and create a proper TP buildup. Also, it will hinder the more powerful Weapon Skills such as Penta Thrust since they rely on connecting multiple hits to deal damage.

At level 30, the Job Trait Accuracy Bonus will help improve the hit rate significantly. This doesn't mean, however, an Elvaan Dragoon should should ignore gaining as much DEX and Accuracy through armor and accesories as possible. In the end, the role of a Dragoon in most types is to deal damage and participate in the party's Renkei. The proper subs for this would be Warrior, Thief, and perhaps Samurai, if the Dragoon is required to participate in multiple Renkeis.

From the mage-type sub job point of view, Elvaan offers a very interesting mix. For those subbing White Mage to his or her Dragoon, they will find the high MND stat of an Elvaan to enhance already mediocre Cures and Enfeebling magic. Low MP may pose a problem, and the dedicated Healing-oriented Dragoon will want to enchance his low stock of mana with accesories for drawn-out battles.

In the end, no matter what your orientation, the Elvaan race has the potential to offer the best Dragoons. A lot of time, dedication, and expensive gear is required to cover their shortcomings and maximize their capability


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Monk
Starting Stats

Elvaan make almost the perfect Monks in the game. They have very high Strength, which is extremely useful for damage over time, outstanding Mind, which has an enormous effect on their Chi Blast job ability, and a load of Vitality second only to Galka, which affects Chakra directly. The one only stat that these Monks lack is Dexterity, which can be made up easily through Accuracy+ gear or simply adding DEX with armor or food.




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Ninja
Starting Stats

Elvaan offers Ninja, a lot versatility and one of the best tank besides Paladin. Their AGI with a mix of VIT & STR make this the perfect tank for surviability and as always the lack of DEX for this race makes it more noticeable. Even though this job has the best AGI your main focus will still be DEX and some AGI from armor with a big emphasis on evasion and also while in party, depending the party members you can use elemental for debuff also knows as the roulette for further information refer to Ninja in the jobs section; as a  it can be pass as tank/DD/kiter duties, to keep aggro besides using provoke use ninjutsu to also keep hate, remember this job is gil efficient just like Ranger; as Thief armor-wise concentration on AGI, also recomended to use dagger as a main weapon, and as Red Mage mainly the support duties will be for enfeebling & enhancing magic.


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Paladin
Starting Stats

Paladin is a job that can be played by every race very equally, but they're just played differently than one another. As an Elvaan, you have a lot of HP and VIT for damage mitigation, and STR and MND for enmity. They don't have the best MP pool in the game, but it's not the worst either. This means that they can keep cumulative hate while also taking minimal damage. These stats are more important than any other you'll need anyway. Especially since Paladins now have Auto Refresh at level 35.




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Puppetmaster
Starting Stats

Job description goes here.


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Ranger
Starting Stats

Elvaan can make fairly powerful Rangers with a careful selection of equipment and sub jobs. Pre-20, an Elvaan Ranger should sub Warrior or Thief in order to assist with damage dealing by melee. Once 20, a Ranger can sub job Ninja to assist his accuracy and damage using Dual Wield. The job traits Ninja provide are very useful for pulling as well.

Elvaan should take care to obtain their RSE, and any equipment that enhances their AGI and ranged attack power and accuracy. Salad type foods are said to raise Agility.


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Red Mage
Starting Stats

Red Mage is a job that asks for a lot of three stats: MP, Intelligence, and Mind. These Red Mages can solo better than most others because of high Strength output, but their lack of both INT and MP can be harsh. Their amazingly high MND makes up for it, though. All White Magic debuffs are affected by MND, so it's a good idea to have this stat as well as work on the other two. Strongly advised to get your RSE as soon as possible when using this job/race combination to make the best of it.


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Samurai
Starting Stats

Elvaan boost the STR of the Samurai class, giving strong hits and their Weapon Skills a nice crunch on impact. Anything that overcomes accuracy and Elvaan DEX deficiency should be sought after.


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Summoner
Starting Stats

Elvaan gets above average boost of INT and MND with some moderate MP which pretty much gets more emphasis based upon which sub duties you will be looking, as White Mage for either main healing or back-up; as Black Mage most likely for nuking; as a rare mix with bard for support and/or debuffer to use avatar of the same elemental; the MP will change considerable depending on the sub job and the armor will have also a big impact based on the sub jobs.


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Thief
Starting Stats

Elvaan Thieves have fun with more damage over time than they do with pulling and Sneak Attack Trick Attack since they have such a high Strength rating, very low Dexterity and Agility. DEX and AGI affect Sneak Attack and Trick Attack directly. However, there is a lot of DEX and AGI gear out there for an Elvaan to work with, so with a high overall Strength stat, Elvaan make par with the Thief job.




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Warrior
Starting Stats

Elvaan are one of the most Warrior inclined races (and if the statistic are accurate, they make up the most number of Warriors in Vana'Diel). Warrior is an extremely popular sub job for its damage dealing and tanking capabilities.

Statistically, there is little an Elvaan could ask for as a Warrior. INT and MP mean nothing to them, though Elvaan MND helps in reducing spell damage. VIT, HP, STR and DEX are the daily fare of the Warrior, but with slightly lacking DEX, an Elvaan should eye for anything to increase his accuracy.


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White Mage
Starting Stats

The shame of the Elvaan race is that they have high VIT and HP (important when enmity is drawn) and very high MND, all useful stats for this healing class. However, they lack the most essential ingredient, MP. Thus, Elvaan miss out on becoming the most powerful White Mages early in the game. An Elvaan White Mage should seek to enhance their MP by any means necessary.
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Credit for the Starting Stats goes to !
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