Announcement: Monster Arena, New Job and App Cycles

[melodiesmods]

Hello dear players, three important things in this announcement. Firstly, the Monster Arena officially opens today. It is still devoid of monsters, but starting next month side-quests relating to the arena will be posted in the monthly information post, with prizes ranging from Gils to new Jobs. Secondly, the old man in charge of the arena sent a letter to all the Heroes of Light, with a Crystal in it. This new Job is pretty different from those so far, so be careful if you chose to equip your character with it. Lastly, we have modified our rules regarding Application Cycles: nothing drastic, but from now on Melodies of Life will work on a bi-monthly basis. Furthermore, it is now possible to app a 5th and 6th character under special conditions.


1/ Monster Arena
During the quest to find the Moogle with the Black Mage hat, an old man in Esdham charged one of the Heroes of Light with the duty to get back an item this very Moogle had stolen from him. And the item was returned to him! As a result of this, the old man is able to re-open his arena, and he does so next to Aqures Ixen! The Monster Arena is a place where monsters can be fought-- So long as they have been captured before.

The location page has been updated and there is also a new page dedicated to the monster arena, here. There are currently no monsters to be fought nor are there any side-quests, but these will come next month. The old man also sent a letter to the Heroes of Light, but there is no saying whether he will reply or not to them if ever they chose to reply. Most importantly though, there is a Job included in this letter...

2/ New Job

BEASTMASTER Beastmasters wield whips and have decent physical strength, but their real might come from their pets. Heroes of Light equipped with this Job can do more than train a monster: they can magically store up to two monsters and two of their own companion animals. And eventually, they can even bestow powers upon their assigned Moogles and unlock their sealed potential, meaning Beastmasters may have up to a total of five allies. Never call your Moogle a pet though! They would take offense at it. Strengths: Although their physical might is decent, Beastmasters have no particular stat decreases or increases. They have the ability to summon a pet to their side in battle: it's to say a monster, a companion animal or their assigned Moogle. Only one can be summoned at a time and individually, their skillset is limited. Knowing which one to summon for a specific situation is the key to victory. Weaknesses: Pets are limited as they have to be classed in either an offensive or support role; they cannot have skills from both classes at once. Characters using this Job are to take a backseat, leaving most of the action to the pet. Skills: Monsters can use their unique enemy skill listed under the Blue Mage Job, as well as any attacks that is theirs (refer to the Final Fantasy wiki if you are unfamiliar with them). Unlike monsters, moogles and companion animals do not have to be magically stored away. However, only one of the Beastmaster's five allies can have powers at a given time, so even if the Moogle stands at their side, he or she won't have any powers if the Beastmaster is already using a monster or an animal. Chocobos can count as animals. Animals and Moogles can learn four different skills: they start off with one, get their second one after two months, their third one after four months and their final one after six months. The beastmaster will have to pick which skill they will learn from the lists below. Once done, there is no changing the skills. Furthermore, animals and moogles have to be classed in either an Offensive or Support role: they cannot get offensive skills if they are classed as support, and vice versa. The exception to that is if your animal regains a skill or power they had in their homeworld. Lastly, Moogles will learn three additional skills unique to their species, regardless of their class, meaning they can have a maximum of seven skills.

Initial	Capture	Captures defeated monsters.
One Month	Whip Lore	Doubles effectiveness of attacks against monsters.
Three Months	Moogle Master	Bestows powers onto your assigned Moogle.
Six Months	Reward	Heals your summoned pet (mid).
Nine Months	Bestial Assault	Summons all pets at once for a very brief but massive assault.
One Year	Loyalty	Is automatically revived by one of the pets if killed (once a day).

Support Skills (Animals/Moogles)

Initial	Cura	Heals mid wounds (on self or an ally).
Initial	Protect	Improves an ally's resistance to physical attacks.
Initial	Shell	Improves an ally's resistance to magical attacks.
Initial	Reflect	Casts a shield on an ally reflecting magical attacks.
Initial	Haste	Improves an ally's speed and dexterity.
Initial	Guardian	Takes damage for the beastmaster. May counterattack (33%).
Initial	Sic	Attacks an enemy (weak).
Initial	Real Power #1	Unlocks one of the powers the animal had back home.
Initial	Real Power #2	Unlocks one of the powers the animal had back home.

Offensive Skills (Animals/Moogles)

Initial	Fira	Fire attack spell (mid).
Initial	Blizzara	Ice attack spell (mid).
Initial	Watera	Water attack spell (mid).
Initial	Thundara	Thunder attack spell (mid).
Initial	Disaster	Attacks all enemies (mid).
Initial	Assault	Physically attacks the enemy (strong).
Initial	Life Drain	Drains energy from an enemy to recover health (low).
Initial	Real Power #1	Unlocks one of the powers the animal had back home.
Initial	Real Power #2	Unlocks one of the powers the animal had back home.

Moogle Exclusive Skills

Initial	Mog Bomb	Delivers an explosive package to the enemies (mid damages).
Nine Months	Kupo Health	Regenerates health progressively with Kupo Nuts.
Two Years	Meteor	The ultimate black magic. Inflicts extreme damages to all enemies.

As you can see, Beastmaster is a very special Job. Characters do learn new skills every month, but so do their pets. They can have up to two monsters magically stored away (they ought to capture these monsters first), two companion animals and after three months, their own assigned Moogle! Each pet can learn up to four skills, one every two months. Most importantly, animals who had powers back home can get back two of them: be reasonable, nothing game breaking is allowed, but if for example you want your pokemon to remember Double Kick, you can do it!

If you want to know where to go to capture monsters, please go here. All characters who received the old man's letter will automatically get this Job with a three months bonus, meaning they can start giving a skill to their moogle right away if they pick the new Job now. They can switch to this Job by asking their Moogles, or they can discard it. Beastmaster is now available as a default Job for newcomers.


3/ Applications
As you know, there will be no application round next month, applications will open on February 22nd. More than that, applications will now be on a bi-monthly basis permanently. It is to say after February/March's app round, the next one will be in May, then July, September, November, etc. Bi-monthly application rounds will fit the current pace of the game better and will help with events, as sometimes they do tend to overlap with application cycles.

Furthermore, it is now possible to app a 5th character and even a 6th character. There is however a rule for this: you have to provide double activity check with all of your characters during the activity check preceding the app round, if you want to app a fifth character. Likewise, if you want to app a sixth character, you ought to provide double activity check with all of your characters before being able to do so.

Thank you for your time! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here.