Overview
Dragoons are best known as a character class in the various series of the Final Fantasy games and as the centerpiece of The Legend of Dragoon. They fight in purple armor and use spears or lances. The first Dragoon was Richard Highwind in Final Fantasy II. Other Dragoons who share the Highwind name are Kain and Cid Highwind from IV and VII, as well as Freya Crescent from IX.
Appearances
Final Fantasy XI Online
The player can only become a Dragoon when they level one of the starting jobs to level 30, at that point the player would have to complete a quest in order to use the job. At first, the Dragoon's two hour special was the ability to call a wyvern to aid the Dragoon in battle, but the FFXI community complained about the usefulness of the Dragoon without the wyvern. With this the cast time after your wyvern dies had been lowered to twenty minutes, the new two hour special ability is named "Spirit Surge". This adds your wyvern's strength to your own, as well as adding extra special abilities to the Dragoon's jump attacks.
Dragoons can use the majority of armor and uses the traditional Spear/Lance.
The wyvern itself can use breath attacks or spells. Picking a physical attacking sub-job will make the wyvern use a random elemental breath spell when the player uses a weapon skill. Similarly with a mage job the wyvern can use healing breaths when the Dragoon casts a spell. Weaker versions of both can be used when a hybrid sub-job is chosen
Common sub-jobs used for the partying Dragoon are warrior for good damage over time, plus various attack increases such as Berserk. The other option is Thief at level 30, in which the Dragoon will gain access to the "Sneak Attack" for a guaranteed critical hit or significantly increased weapon skills. Dragoon's are criticized by many at a high level for lacking the abilities that set them apart from other stand out end-game jobs such as 75 Warrior/ 37 Ninja. They can however prove useful in " hate management" using their Super Jump.
Any Dragoon players looking to level on their own will only have to select from White Mage or Red Mage, trying to level with a sub-job other than these two will make soloing significantly harder.
Abilities:
Ability | Level | Cooldown Period | Details |
---|
Spirit Surge | 1 | 120 minutes | As previously mentioned, your wyvern's HP, strength and TP is added to the Dragoon. |
Call Wyvern | 1 | 20 minutes | The wyvern will fight by your side until one of you dies. |
Ancient Circle | 5 | 10 minutes | Increases the entire party's defense against dragons. |
Jump | 10 | 1 minute and 30 seconds | The jump attack is usually as powerful as a normal attack. |
Spirit Link | 25 | 3 minutes | Shares your HP with your wyvern (it's the only way to heal it/him/her). |
High Jump | 35 | 3 minutes | Half a normal attack plus half of your hate disappears . |
Super Jump | 50 | 3 minutes | Erases all hate (animosity) from your character |
Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions
In the original Final Fantasy Tactics, the Dragoon was known as the Lancer because of the infamously poor localization, in the PSP version WOtLs, the job is renamed to its normal name of Dragoon a long with many other regular jobs in the series. In essence the Dragoon function like Knights and wear similar armor but rely on it's abilities to damage enemies from a medium distance rather than being at the front lines like Knights.
For one of your characters to become a Dragoon you must level through one of two specific routes:
Squire level 2 > Archer level 3 > Thief level 4 > Dragoon unlocked
The Dragoon's unique Jump ability becomes a valuable asset in FFTs world of grid-based gameplay. The Jump attack itself takes the Dragoon away from the battlefield until he/she lands on the enemy, unless the targeted enemy has moved to a different square, but until the Dragoon lands it is literally untouchable from all physical and magical attacks. A formula exists for players to work out for whether the Dragoon will hit the enemy or not:
- 50 divided by the Dragoon's speed statistic = the time in clock ticks that the Dragoon will take to land.
- The number of CT points needed to reach 100, divided by the enemy's speed stat = the time in clock ticks that the enemy will need to move.
- If the enemy has 60 CT points, then the CT points needed to reach 100 is 40, for example.
- All answers must rounded up.
If the Dragoon's landing time is less or equal than the enemies movement time then then the enemy will not be able to move in time (unless an enemy Time Mage casts "Haste" on the enemy before your Dragoon lands, but there's no way the Time Mage could cast "Slow" on you once you've already performed the Jump).
Upgrades for the Dragoon mainly involve increasing the Jump's horizontal and vertical distances, 1,100 Dragoon Job Points is needed to jump the maximum 8 tiles horizontally and 1,500 points to jump the 8 vertical tiles.
Other Dragoon abilities involve:
Ability Category | Ability | Job Points to buy | Details |
---|
Reaction Abilitiy | Dragonheart | 600 | This ability casts Reraise on the Dragoon upon being attacking physically by an enemy. |
Support Abilitiy | Equip Polearms | 400 | You can equip Polearms regardless of what job the specific character is. |
Movement Ability | Ignore Elevation | 700 | Dragoons can jump any tile no matter the height with this ability. |
The Legend of Dragoon
The Legend of Dragoon game made by Sony has a different spin on Dragoons. In the Legend of Dragoon universe, humans aren't capable of using magic on their own without items. No mages exist. Another race who were able to use magic were the Winglies. 10,000 years prior to the game's events, the original Dragoons (who were all human) fought on behalf of their race, winning freedom for all humans. Now in the events of the game, a new set of Dragoons, of different species (but mainly humans) are brought together to save the world.
To become a Dragoon you must have the spirit stone of a dragon, which is cut out of a defeated Dragon's being. The spirit selects its own dragoon, it will not allow those unworthy to use its power. The Dragoons in this game are separated by elements, fire, water, wind, earth, light, dark, thunder and non-elemental. The Dragoon can use powerful elemental spells based on its affinity. Unlike traditional Dragoons their weapons are upgraded versions of the weapons they carry with them normally, ranging from swords to giant axes to bow and arrows. These Dragoons can also fly.
Dragons who each characters' Dragoon power is based off in the game and their respective Dragoons:
Red eyed Dragon (Fire): Zieg (Ancient Dragoon) - Dart (Player) - Zieg (Enemy Boss)
The fire Dragoon uses medium attacking magic. His spells are a mixture of targeting single enemies or multiple enemies. Those with an affinity for fire are usually well balanced but lean slightly to physical attacks. Medium speed. Broadsword.
Jade Dragon (Wind): Syuveil (Ancient Dragoon) - Graham (Enemy Boss) - Lavitz (Player) - King Albert (Player).
The wind Dragoon uses weak attacking magic, plus one defensive magic that halves all damage taken by the party for three turns. His spells are a mixture of targeting single enemies or multiple enemies. Those with an affinity for wind excel at physical attacks and are weak at using and defending against magic. Slow speed. Spear/Lance.
Dark Dragon (Dark): Rose (Player)
The dark Dragoon uses medium attacking magic. Her spells are a mixture of targeting single enemies or multiple enemies. Rose's spells are similar to that of a Dark Knight from Final Fantasy games, with spells ranging from normal attacks to draining enemies HP for the party to an instant death attacks. Those with an affinity for darkness are usually well balanced but lean slightly to magic attacks. Medium speed. Rapier Sword.
White Silver Dragon (Light): Shirley (Ancient Dragoon) Shana (Player) - Miranda (Player)
The light Dragoon uses strong healing magic, plus one light based attacking magic and one draining magic that works like the Dark Dragoon's but is ten times more effective. She is as close to a white mage as you will get. Those with an affinity for light excel at magical attacks and are weak at using and defending against physical attacks. Fast speed. Bow and Arrow.
Golden Dragon (Earth): Belzac (Ancient Dragoon) - Kongol (Player)
The earth Dragoon uses the weakest attacking magic, they are all spells that attack multiple enemies. Those with an affinity for earth excel at physical attacks above all else but are the weakest at using and defending against magic. Slowest. Giant Axe.
Violet Dragon (Thunder): Kanzas (Ancient Dragoon) - Emperor Doel (Enemy Boss) - Haschel (Player)
The thunder Dragoon uses medium attacking magic, all spells are targeted at single enemies. Those with an affinity for thunder are usually well balanced but lean slightly to physical attacks. Fast speed. Hand to hand combat based on Rouge school teachings.
Blue Sea Dragon (Water): Damia (Ancient Dragoon) - Lenus (Enemy Boss) - Meru (Player)
The water Dragoon uses strong attacking magic, plus one medium healing spell. Her spells are a mixture of targeting single enemies or multiple enemies. Those with an affinity for water excel at magical attacks and are weak at using (hidden potential) and defending against physical attacks. Fastest. Hammer.
Divine Dragon (Non-elemental): Dart
As is the Divine Dragon the king of dragons, the Divine Dragon Dragoon is the king of Dragoons. Dart can use the Divine Dragon Cannon (the ultimate single target attack) and the Divine Dragon ball (rivals Light Dragoon's drain in power and targets all enemies, but it is simply an attacking magic, no HP restoring included). It takes Dart's abilities as an all-rounder and increases them all by five times. Same medium speed. Great Broadsword.
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