Sky Pirate (Tactics)

Sky Pirate is a special job in Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions. It is Balthier's default and exclusive job that focuses on guns. It costs 6,600 JP to master. It is an enhanced combination of the Thief and Machinist jobs, with the Plunder abilities having a higher rate of stealing compared to Steal, while also boasting from superior stats and more equipment options.
== Stats ==
Prerequisite	Weapons 	Helmet 	Armor 	Equip Shields?
None 	Guns, Swords, Polearms, Knight Swords, Knives, Crossbows, Bows	Helmets, Hats	Armor, Clothes, Robes	Yes
Move Rate	Jump Rate	Speed	Physical Evasion Rate	Base Attack	Base Magic	Base HP	Base MP
4 	4 	8 	25% 	High 	Low 	High 	Low
== Abilities ==
=== Innate abilities ===
* Safeguard
=== Piracy ===
Plunder abilities generally have a 10% greater chance of success than normal Steal abilities.
The success rate for Plunder Heart is as follows:
:Magick Attack + PWR
The success rate for all other abilities is as follows:
:Speed + PWR
Amount stolen for Plunder Gil is equal to Speed * Level.
Amount of EXP stolen for Plunder EXP is equal to Speed + 15.
Name	Range 	Effect 	Speed 	JP Needed
 	Depends on equipped weapon 	0 	Now 	200
 	Inflict damage to the legs, preventing movement.Effect: Immobilize. 	Inflict damage to the legs, preventing movement.Effect: Immobilize. 	Inflict damage to the legs, preventing movement.Effect: Immobilize. 	Inflict damage to the legs, preventing movement.Effect: Immobilize.
 	Depends on equipped weapon 	0 	Now 	300
 	Inflict damage to the arms, preventing weapon use and spell casting.Effect: Disable. 	Inflict damage to the arms, preventing weapon use and spell casting.Effect: Disable. 	Inflict damage to the arms, preventing weapon use and spell casting.Effect: Disable. 	Inflict damage to the arms, preventing weapon use and spell casting.Effect: Disable.
 	Depends on equipped weapon 	0 	Now 	200
 	Petrify the cursed beings known as the undead.Effect: Stone. 	Petrify the cursed beings known as the undead.Effect: Stone. 	Petrify the cursed beings known as the undead.Effect: Stone. 	Petrify the cursed beings known as the undead.Effect: Stone.
 	Depends on equipped weapon 	1 	Now 	1200
 	Unleash 4 attacks with the emphasis on speed. Each strike inflicts half the usual damage.	Unleash 4 attacks with the emphasis on speed. Each strike inflicts half the usual damage.	Unleash 4 attacks with the emphasis on speed. Each strike inflicts half the usual damage.	Unleash 4 attacks with the emphasis on speed. Each strike inflicts half the usual damage.
 	1 	1 	Now 	0
 	Pilfer gil from the target. 	Pilfer gil from the target. 	Pilfer gil from the target. 	Pilfer gil from the target.
 	3 	1 	Now 	250
 	Capture the target's heart, enthralling them. 	Capture the target's heart, enthralling them. 	Capture the target's heart, enthralling them. 	Capture the target's heart, enthralling them.
 	1 	1 	Now 	450
 	Purloin the target's equipped helmet. 	Purloin the target's equipped helmet. 	Purloin the target's equipped helmet. 	Purloin the target's equipped helmet.
 	1 	1 	Now 	550
 	Purloin the target's equipped armor. 	Purloin the target's equipped armor. 	Purloin the target's equipped armor. 	Purloin the target's equipped armor.
 	1 	1 	Now 	450
 	Purloin the target's equipped shield. 	Purloin the target's equipped shield. 	Purloin the target's equipped shield. 	Purloin the target's equipped shield.
 	1 	1 	Now 	750
 	Purloin the target's equipped weapon. 	Purloin the target's equipped weapon. 	Purloin the target's equipped weapon. 	Purloin the target's equipped weapon.
 	1 	1 	Now 	600
 	Purloin the target's equipped accessory. 	Purloin the target's equipped accessory. 	Purloin the target's equipped accessory. 	Purloin the target's equipped accessory.
 	1 	1 	Now 	350
 	Filch experience points from the target. 	Filch experience points from the target. 	Filch experience points from the target. 	Filch experience points from the target.
=== Reaction abilities ===
Name	Description 	Trigger 	JP Needed
 	Counterattack with a tackle.	Physical Attack	180
=== Support abilities ===
Name	Description 	JP Needed
 	Equip axes, regardless of job. 	170
 	Adds an ability to all monsters in neighboring tiles with an elevation difference of 3h or less.	200
 	Defend oneself against an attack. Adds the Defend command. 	50
 	Increase the amount of JP earned in battle. 	250
=== Movement abilities ===
Name	Description 	JP Needed
 	Increase Move by 1.	200
== Gameplay ==
The Sky Pirate is a powerful and versatile special job that combines traits from Machinist and Thief, focused on dealing physical damage with a wide variety of weapons, being able to steal from opponents, and capable to crippling the movement and actions of its foes. Its high stats and equipment options makes it a force to be reckoned with. Its Leg Shot and Arm Shot can easily change the tide of battle, and enable other jobs deal more damage; Dragoons, in particular, can easily hit foes affected by Leg Shot. Seal Evil can be used alongside the Mystic's Corruption spell by turning enemies into undead and petrifying them. Balthier is the only playable Sky Pirate (should the player recruit him in The War of the Lions).
Thanks to its versatility, the Sky Pirate can be played as virtually any kind of physical attacker, melee or ranged, as it can equip guns, swords, knives, polearms, bows, and crossbows (likely as homage to Final Fantasy XII, where Balthier originates from where player characters can equip any weapon). The Sky Pirate is the only non-Knight job (other than Ramza's Squire and Luso's Game Hunter) capable of equipping Knight Swords; the Sky Pirate can deal the most damage in the game by equipping the Chaos Blade and using its Barrage ability, easily dealing over 2000 damage with 100% accuracy. Barrage also helps weapon debuffs trigger more often since it is 4 attacks.
To get the most of the Machinist and Thief abilities from the Sky Pirate, improving its speed is key, since all its abilities' success rate depend on Balthier's Speed stat. The Archer's Concentration will improve Plunder rates, the Knight Sword Excalibur lets the player to try again while having a faster turn due to Haste (and Plunder again without needing to get hit from Adrenaline Rush, though Haste does not improve plunder rates since Speed is not directly boosted). 
Alternatively, Reequip can help with this strategy for a faster or safer (protection from debuffs, using the best properties of specific shields or equipping what was plundered though innate safeguard already protects from replacing broken/stolen equipment) following turn when needing close range, but the needed equipment must be unequipped first. It uses the action for the turn without gaining JP, and it would replace other support abilities. 
Certain equipment (Balthier starts with a Mirage Vest that boosts Speed) and Tailwind (from Ramza's Squire or Luso's Game Hunter) can also raise Speed. In addition, the Sky Pirate naturally has the highest Speed growth, vastly superior to any other job. This means that the player can invest in other attributes, such as raw attack power, which also helps with Counter as Balthier starts with the Monk unlocked (unlike other special characters outside guests), though guns do fixed damage (or random and Faith-based for elemental guns).
The Sky Pirate has second highest physical evasion after Ninja, and tied with Agrias's Holy Knight. By equipping it with high evasion shields, cloaks, and the Shirahadori reaction ability from the Samurai, the Sky Pirate becomes difficult hard to hit.
== Other appearances ==
=== Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade ===
;Legend Cards
FFAB Seal Evil - Balthier Legend SR.png|Seal Evil (SR).
FFAB Seal Evil - Balthier Legend SR+.png|Seal Evil (SR+).
== Gallery ==
FFT Arm Aim.png|Arm Shot.
FFT Seal Evil.png|Seal Evil.
== Etymology ==
Category:Jobs in Final Fantasy Tactics