Bubble Trouble: A Geomancer Guide

Youre right
I dont understand

I dont understand what the *** problem with FFXIs Geo implementation is that youre all butthurt for the last two pages over it.

“Its not historically accurate”
How the *** do you implement “historically accurate” within the confines of FFXIs architecture??

Correction, we freely suggested, for fun, some adjustments to geo that would make it closer to Geos in other games.

Somehow this triggered you and got you burtthurt.

there's something about this post i instinctively want to disagree.

You guys know in Japanese that FFXI's Geomancer isn't actually even Geomancer, right?

It's Feng-shui Mage.

This is slightly a troll post, because Geomancy is the Western equivalent, more or less, of Feng-shui which has been known in the past as, "Chinese Geomancy."

In Feng-shui directions and the facing of directions for buildings/mountains/trees/people/monsters/bodies of water etc. all hold a spiritual meaning, and control the ebb and flow of Qi which is like the unseen, interdimensional force or weave that holds the cosmos together. The life force inherent in existence, more or less, or at least in all living things.

The older renditions of Geomancer had it essentially be a nature mage, because gameplay needed to be quick, snappy, and unique for each different job. On a 2-D battlefield, there's no way to incorporate things like facing and cardinal directions. So it was grossly oversimplified to being you can cast a spell that reflects your surroundings.

FFXI gave you the actual whole concept. Do you know what a Luopan actually is? It's an early magnetic compass that orients by South, and they typically have 40 concentric rings upon them divided into a heaven and earth plate. They're used by Feng Shui practitioners to determine the orientation of buildings and their relation to the energy around them. They are divided into 24 directions.

There are 24 types of Geomancy spells in FFXI. These represent all of the directions on a Luopan. You gain the GEO versions of them that you can channel through your Luopan by visiting the locations where the Lifestream courses up with Ergon energy or whatever XI calls it, but these are essentially Qi points, and I guess the idea is that you're casting the spells by knowing the direction from which to draw that energy from.

The goal of Feng Shui is to orient yourself into the perfect position to attain Shu Fu (Harmony (with existence)).

Despite what I said at the start, Feng Shui isn't like "real" Geomancy at all, because Geomancy as it actually is in most other places is more similar to occult divination rituals. Often where people poke dots or make marks in sand or loose soil, and then observe how it changes when picked up and thrown or finding meaning in letting a clump of dirt fall around a fire.

Feng Shui itself was lumped into Geomancy by Christian Missionaries who didn't understand the sophisticated and mathematical approach of it.

TL;DR - Earlier renditions of Feng Shui Mage were the way they were because of graphical and systematic limitations. FFXI's Feng Shui Mage is the intended vision.

It also doesn't translate well to real life to feng shui your room by ringing a bell and running around with a bubble machine

This is a wild speculation. FF Tactics, in my opinion, had the best Geomancer and worked really well with terrain.

I think it's actually the exact opposite of what you are saying. Geomancer in FFXI is limited to a game with a world that was already established and to play with jobs that already existed. That's why geomancer feels generic.

In Tactics, geomancer was created alongside the world design and other classes. It blends in very well.

Actually it's easily observable fact. You're full of it, Godfry.

FFT's Geomancer is actually one of the worst renditions of the job, particularly because they could have done a more accurate rendition of it within FFT's bounds.

Instead, they gave us a truly generic sword and board style unit with some very niche use spell-like abilities. Several of which do not work as their associated land tiles were dummied out of the game. And sadly, most of the terrain it has to work with only triggers the Hell Ivy spell. All of its spells deal nearly identical low damage and have a poor chance at inflicting their associated status ailment, which only sees niche utility.

The main reason you level one is to unlock Ninja, and to get the Attack Up sub trait. Its walk on water/walk on lava skills also only see limited use, as there are only a few maps where water walking is relevant, and only one single map in the whole game where lava walking is relevant.

Not too mention its appearance is like colonial settler tries to blend in with the natives chic. Doofy and overtly sexual, particularly for the pantsless lady variant.

It also doesn't really fit into Ivalice's medieval rediscovered steampunk sort of world. It actually sticks out like a sore thumb, like some sorta hippie class without any backstory.

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FFXI's Geomancer on the other hand is one of the most robustly flavorful jobs we've ever been given. Its AF sets are unique, or are references to the old version of the job from FFV/FFIII. They make it pop, and you always know when you're with a GEO (unless they've lockstyled into like some sorta dillweed outfit).

And FFXI's Geomancer brings back the bell. And the bell is a prominent thing in Feng-Shui, as ringing a bell is believed to clear the environment of negative or stagnant Qi.

FFT's has no bell, at all, and is more or less, "Random *** go!" And by random I mean Hell Ivy.

Proceeds to provide zero facts and 2 books worth of speculations.

Your previous post you provide the essence of the contradiction to the current post. If feng shui is about orienting oneself with the environment, cardinal directions, and Qi flow (as the post describes), FFXI’s Geomancer falls short:

• No Directional Mechanics: The luopan doesn’t use directional orientation (north/south), despite feng shui’s reliance on the direction compass.

• 
  No Environmental Harmony: Spells and luopan effects ignore terrain, weather, or landscape features, unlike feng shui’s emphasis on environmental alignment.
  

• 
  Simplified Placement: Luopan placement is tactical but not philosophical - it’s about AoE coverage, not harmonizing with Qi or achieving “Shu Fu” (harmony, as your post claims).
  

In FFT, unlike FF11, is not random bs. It's a step in the Qi direction where the environment is indeed used harbor power. FXI’s Geomancer doesn’t take the environment into account. Unlike earlier Final Fantasy games (e.g., FFIII, FFV, FFT), where Geomancer abilities explicitly changed based on terrain (Sinkhole on sand in FFT or Wind Slash in forests in FFV), FFXI’s Geomancer spells function the same regardless of the surroundings.



This is your giveaway. You either suck at the game or never played it. Geomancers will destroy the mob before they get close, and absolutely obliterate them once they get near. Geomancers don't need mp (BECAUSE THEY DRAW STRENGTH FROM ENVIRONMENT, RIGHT? RIGHT?) spells are instant and the AoE doesn't hit the caster. I hope you understand why this is important.

You don't know what words mean. I'm starting to suspect that you have a mental handicap.

Cardinal Chant literally relates to the direction the Geomancer faces in order to buff casting damage with a different effect for each direction.

FFXI's Geomancer is about positioning your buffing bubbles which goes into an idea in Feng-shui about its relation to Taoist principles with Yin-Yang "force fields." or auras. I gave you cliff notes facts, and you're trying to assert that they are all that there is. It doesn't adhere to strict Feng-shui ideals because it's a game, go figure.

Shu Fu is harmony with existence. There's a distinction from merely being environment. It's like altering/rebuffing your fate. It's why it's giving buffs and debuffs. It's like playing to how COR gives buff through Lady Luck. You don't have the mental capacity to understand the concept, and it's glaringly obvious.

No, FFTs only structure is Tile = Geomancy you can cast. That's it. And you have no control over that. And as I already said, older versions of Geomancer relied on that, because of system limitations. They couldn't have Geomancer do something different, because there wasn't a way(or want) for them to make it do something different.

I've likely played FFT more than you. Geomancy isn't strong in FFT. Nobody talks about FFT and thinks, "Oh and then I made a BLM take Geomancy, and they were a god!" It's all about Calculator and other, more interesting and better made jobs. You don't walk up to the Wiegraf 1v1 and one shot him with Geomancy. Ain't happening. Now a Geomancer with atk up and dual wield from Ninja hitting him in the back with swords, sure, but that's not supposed to be the highlight of the class (and Monk does that better anyway).

Anyway, I'm done engaging with you. Feel free to continue to disagree, but the facts aren't with you.

I like to give the benefit of the doubt to people. But now that you have proven that you don't know anything about Geomancer, or Feng Shui, allow me to educate you why you are completely wrong:

Feng shui is inherently tied to the environment: practitioners *** terrain, water flow, and landforms to channel Qi. The luopan is used to evaluate how a location’s geography influences energy.

Cardinal Chant ignores the environment completely. The trait’s effects depend solely on the relative position of the caster and target (e.g., target north of caster), not on the battlefield’s terrain, weather, or zone features (casting in a forest vs. a desert). For example, casting a fire spell with Cardinal Chant in a watery zone like La Theine Plateau yields the same north-based Magic Attack bonus as in a fiery zone like Ifrit’s Cauldron, with no environmental consideration.

I think you might be confusing Feng Shui with Kama Sutra. In Kama Sutra, your position relative to the target you are screwing actually matters.


This demonstrates how absolutely blunt you are. A job not being able to one-shoot Wiegraf is not at all relevant to the discussion since that's not how the job is supposed to work. The game is called Final Fantasy Tactics. Maybe not meant for you.

An IT guy I used to work with had a zen garden on his desk. Couldn't tell ya the number of times I took the little rake and drew *** or wrote swears in the sand.