Rune Fencer

Rune Fencer is one of the jobs released in the Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin expansion.
Rune Fencer is the third "tank"-type job, and the first job to specialize in the use of the greatsword. Rune Fencers are intended to use their damage-dealing capabilities to help draw the foe's attention and use their spells and special job abilities to mitigate magic damage.
Rune Fencer's magical attacks and defenses have a strong elemental aspect, determined by which runes they are "harboring" at the time. Built-up harbored runes provide elemental attack and defense, and furthermore can be expended for various effects.
==Becoming a Rune Fencer==
The quest to become a Rune Fencer is undertaken at Eastern Adoulin. The player must speak with Octavien to begin the quest "Children of the Rune". They then must acquire a Yahse wildflower petal to draw the runes on their body, and repeatedly attempt to use the rune enhancement until they succeed.
==Abilities==
===Job Abilities===
Level	Name 	Level	Name
1 	Elemental Sforzo 	5 	Flabra
5 	Gelus 	5 	Ignis
5 	Lux 	5 	Sulpor
5 	Tellus 	5 	Tenebrae
5 	Unda 	10 	Vallation
20 	Swordplay 	25 	Lunge
40 	Pflug 	50 	Valiance
60 	Embolden 	70 	Gambit
85 	Liement 	95 	One For All
96 	Odyllic Subterfuge	 	
===Job traits===
Level	Name 	Level	Name
5 	Tenacity 	10 	Magic Defense Bonus
15 	Inquartata 	35 	Auto Regen
40 	Tactical Parry	65 	Auto Regen II
95 	Auto Regen III	 	
===Spell list===
{|class="article-table FFXI" style="text-align:center" width="100%"	
Level	Spell
4 	Barstone
6 	Barsleep
8 	Barwater
9 	Barpoison
10 	Shell
11 	Barparalyze
12 	Baraero
15 	Aquaveil
16 	Barfire
17 	Barblind
20 	Barblizzard
20 	Protect
22 	Barsilence
===Skill ratings===
{|class="half-width article-table FFXI" style="text-align:center"	 	 	 	
Combat Skill	Rank	Caps by Level	Caps by Level	Caps by Level
Combat Skill	Rank	1 	49 	99
Greatsword 	A+ 	6 	150 	424
Sword 	A- 	6 	150 	417
Greataxe 	B 	5 	144 	398
Axe 	B- 	5 	144 	388
Club 	C- 	5 	139 	368
Parrying 	A+ 	6 	150 	424
Evasion 	B+ 	5 	144 	404
==Gameplay==
===Strength===
*Rune Fencer is a more capable "magic swordsman"-type than Red Mage, whose archetype it somewhat overlaps with.
*It is a greatsword specialist. Greatswords are very powerful weapons with an extremely powerful merit weapon skill, Resolution. It can effectively double as both tank and DD with proper gear and support.
*Rune Fencer has a number of abilities to support its party, such as granting a temporary immunity to magic and weakening an enemy's magic defense, strengthening all damaging spells cast by your party on the target. The latter is much used in today's endgame in mage parties.
*It has the highest Parrying skill. This, plus the Inquartata trait and the Battuta job ability, help to mitigate lots of damage. Although parrying is less reliable when compared to shield blocking, its activation rate is a fixed value (unlike shield block which is based on player's and enemy's levels) and it fully absorbs all damage instead of partially. In fact, against extremely high-level foes Rune Fencer is more physically resistant than Paladin.
*Rune Fencer's base magic evasion is the highest in the game, making it very resistant to enfeebling magics and effects. Its job abilities, traits and gifts push this even further.
*Rune Fencer isn't dependent on legendary-type equipment to have a place in today's endgame. Paladin, on other hand, is required to have at least an Aegis (Relic shield).
*It is the tank job of choice of some of the best endgame linkshells.
*At first, most of Rune Fencer's magic defense capabilities are effectively limited to a single element at a time. While many magic-using monsters focus on a single element, there are also many that do not. However, acquiring Job Points dramatically increase its general magic defenses, making Rune Fencer much more powerful against all sorts of magic damage regardless of the runes harbored.
===Weaknesses===
*Rune Fencers can only use light armor, cannot equip shields and its gear selection is much narrower than Paladin's. Although it doesn't need legendary-type gear to be useful, it's somewhat hard for a new player to get basic equipment.
*Rune Fencer is usually overlooked by the average player in its defining role since it needs an above-average skill level to be played properly. Rune Fencer's playstyle is more demanding when compared to Paladin's and leaves way less room for errors.
==Subjobs==
===Blue Mage===
Blue Mage sub is the best defensive sub job. Players can access the potent Cocoon spell which buffs defense by 50% in addition to a bevy of enmity generating spells (including AoE) and niche traits such as Resist Sleep and some basic Killer effects. Use it on anything if expecting to take a lot of physical damage and shadows will either be a waste of time or ineffective.
===Ninja===
Ninja is the second best option for tanking. If the player is fighting something with a lot of powerful single target attacks, consider subbing Ninja. Rune Fencer can cap both the recast and casting time reduction on Utsusemi fairly effortlessly, allowing one to basically chaincast shadows as necessary.
===Warrior===
While Warrior is not the best for Rune Fencer, it has its uses. Defender doesn't come close to Cocoon or Utsusemi and Provoke is better on Paladin because it has some nice enmity manipulating abilities. However, since Provoke isn't affected by Silence and Defender can't be overwritten by Defense Down, Warrior sub can be used on fights when both effects are issues. On the DD side, Berserk, Warcry, Aggressor and Double Attack don't overcome the benefits of Smite and Last Resort for damage dealing purposes, but they can be useful nevertheless.
===Dark Knight===
Due to the recent addition and buffs to Smite, subbing Dark Knight has never been a better choice. In addition to a staggering passive bonus of 14.8% attack, players also gain access to Last Resort, Weapon Bash, and a new powerful hate accruing spell on Stun. Poisonga is also a nice tool for AoE pulling.
===Samurai===
Samurai is a sort of Hybrid subjob. It won't always be worth more damage to sub Samurai over Dark Knight (unless planning on capping attack, in which case Samurai is the best choice), however Samurai sub offers some extra utility that Dark Knight sub cannot. Seigan and Third Eye make a great emergency defense combo, and Zanshin is nice if one happens to fall under the hit rate cap.
===White Mage===
The spells that the player gains access to—most notably status removal, cures, and Haste—make White Mage a very strong candidate for when the player is solo or in a very low man situation. Being able to heal, remove a bad status ailment, and cast haste more than makes up for the loss of offensive power by switching from Samurai when battling a powerful enemy.
==Other appearances==
===Final Fantasy Trading Card Game===
RuneFencer XI TCG.png|Trading card.
RuneFencer2 XI TCG.png|Trading card.
==Gallery==
Elvaan F Rune Fencer.png|Official promotional art of a female Elvaan Rune Fencer in artifact gear.
Elvaan M Rune Fencer.png|Concept artwork of a male Elvaan Rune Fencer.
Hume F Rune Fencer.png|Concept artwork of a female Hume Rune Fencer.
Job22-RUN (FFXI).png|Render of a female Hume Rune Fencer wearing full artifact armor.
Rune Fencer Great Sword.png|Concept artwork of the Epeolatry and Aettir Greatswords.
==Etymology==
==Trivia==
*Rune Fencer's job name in Japanese is almost the same as the name of the traditional Mystic Knight job .
*Rune Fencer's design concept was derived both from suggestions made for other jobs over the years as well as the Mystic Knight from other games.
Category:Jobs in Final Fantasy XI