The Archer Legend is a member of a nomadic tribe in the Nihal Desert region. Despite being a nomadic tribe, the people are careful to never stray too far from the Nihal Plateau to the far north-west of Ariant, a barren rock that has somehow survived the powerful winds that have eroded away almost everything else in the desert. Few know the reason why this tribe is the only tribe that is adamant about remaining close to the plateau. Many of the other nomadic tribes are centralized towards the southern deserts of the Ariant kingdom, where there are far more abundant resources.

Whatever their reason for staying close to the plateau may be, it’s a reason important enough to span multiple generations, ever since the tribe first appeared in the recorded history of the Maple World during the time of the Great War against the Black Magician. It’s even rumored that the Archer Hero within the group of the legendary five heroes was a member of this tribe. This tribe also appears to have a strange affinity for the wind and the element of Lightning, the kind of affinity that has not been observed in any other group of individuals elsewhere in the Maple World.

One day, the Archer’s parents decide to take her on a hunting trip. They acknowledge that she is already quite skilled with the bow and arrow, and is also showing signs of being able to utilize some of the wind and lightning magic that is unique to her tribe. However, she has not yet hunted any game that was capable of fighting back. The hunting trip seems to go quite well at first, with the Archer making use of her unique combat skills. Her parents then decide to have her test her skills against a scorpion. While scorpions are some of the desert’s most dangerous monsters, the one that her parents had found was currently sleeping. They believe that she has a chance of defeating it without taking any injuries.

As she moves towards the scorpion with her parents watching from afar, a sandstorm suddenly blows in. The Archer loses sight of her parents and the scorpion. She eventually wanders too close to the scorpion, which causes it to wake up and attack. She kills the scorpion, but when the sandstorm subsides, her parents are still nowhere to be found. Believing that she is lost, she begins to wander towards the one landmark that she recognizes – the Nihal Plateau.

Upon reaching the plateau, she notices smoke in the distance. She decides to climb up the plateau to get a better view. During her ascent, she notices that the plateau has small markings etched in various areas. Close observation reveals that the markings seem to be organized somehow. Further up, she runs into a number of strange flying monsters, the kind of monsters that she had never heard about in her parents’ and grandma’s stories. She proceeds to shoot them out of the sky. When she reaches the summit, she finds that the smoke is actually her tribe’s camp burning, and she also sees her parents rushing back towards the camp. Now with her regained sense of direction, she too runs back towards the camp.

When she arrives, she runs into fellow members of her tribe who tell her to check on her grandma as everyone else fights off the monsters. The Archer then finds her grandma being held by a mysterious masked figure, with her parents unable to do anything, as the robed figure threatens some type of retaliation if they are to attempt anything. Grandma manages to spit in his face. The assumed to be angry masked figure then summons monsters that take her parents captive as well, and then starts demanding information about the plateau from Grandma.

The Archer decides to intervene, despite knowing that she probably won’t win in a fight against the masked man and his monsters at this point. The masked man and his monsters become distracted by her arrival, which gives Grandma a chance to break free and attack. The masked man is stunned momentarily, but the Archer’s parents are unable to break free from their captors. The masked man teleports to her parents, then he utters something about her parents being good enough for the mission to succeed, and they all disappear.

However, it seems the masked man left something behind. It’s a crumpled piece of paper. Unfurling it reveals a rough sketch of the Maple World. Places like Victoria Island, Ereve, Orbis, Ludibrium, Mu Lung, and the Nihal Plateau are circled. There was also a strange emblem that was wrapped inside the map. Grandma recognizes the emblem as that of the Black Wings, and becomes concerned about what they’ll do to the Archer Legend's parents. The Black Wings are probably after the secret of the plateau, the Seal Stone of the Nihal Desert. The Archer asks what the Seal Stone is, in which Grandma simply replies with a cryptic, “The winds tell me that you’ve already seen it. One day, you’ll gain the power to listen to the wind as well. They warned me that we would be attacked, but we all underestimated the threat…”

With the camp mostly destroyed, Grandma says that she has to remain here in order to watch over the rest of the tribe and the Nihal Plateau. The Archer will have to find her parents mostly alone – ‘mostly’ because Grandma mentions that the winds will accompany the Archer Legend on her journey. Grandma is confident that the Archer will succeed, and directs her to start her search at a nearby port town to the west. That town is where merchants from Victoria Island and Herb Town first arrive to the Nihal Desert before setting out to Magatia and Ariant. Surely someone there knows something about what happened to her parents…

The Storm Shaman is a direct descendant of the legendary Eagle Eye figure that is referenced in the Wind Archer 3rd job skill set. She is the master of wind and lightning. Her unique ability involves transforming her bow into twin blades of lightning for quick melee strikes. As such, she can switch between two stances in order to chain melee and ranged attacks together.

EDIT: After a bit of consideration, I've realized that a lot of the attacks would probably look very silly with the current bows, not to mention that yet another bow-wielding class would screw up the bow economy pretty badly. In which case, I'd suggest a new weapon type, the 'bladed bow'. Since a lot of the skills imply heavy use of summoned magical energy, the Bladed Bow would probably be a Magic Attack weapon, although the Storm Shaman herself would still have DEX as her primary stat. Also, considering that Archer armor is largely statless, making the Bladed Bow have a secondary INT requirement as opposed to a secondary STR requirement like the other archers would probably work out too, although this part is more for the sake of being even more unique more than anything else.

I've also decided to eliminate her Soul Arrow skill, because only half her skills would ever really need arrows anyways. This class won't use any kind of ammo at all, as it'd make sense for her to have the ability to summon all the arrows she needs from the air.

‘Beginner’ skills:
- Recovery: Same as the Adventurer version.
- Sight Stance: The standard archery mode, used for ranged attacks. At max level, it grants Speed +25, Jump +12, and +40% Critical Hit Rate, as well as increasing the speed cap to 160.
- Strike Stance: The standard 'twin blade' mode, used for melee attacks. At max level, it grants Speed +30, Jump +15, and +30% Critical Hit Rate, as well as increasing the speed cap to 160.

Since her skills will be dependent on which stance she is in, an option to switch between two different keyboard settings should be made available to everyone beforehand. The Archer Legend's keyboard settings will automatically change when the skill button to switch her stance is toggled (and having her use a different setting for each stance would be required, with Strike Stance skills not being compatible with Sight Stance keyboard settings and vice-versa). Everyone else's keyboard settings are fully customizable.

Since the Storm Shaman will be ideally using bows for the rest of the game, I don't see the point of giving the standard melee weapon tutorial to her. The tutorial should simply focus on her strategic use of her stance skills, and also give her a bow at the beginning.

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I have to say, designing her skill set was a massive challenge. There’s not much a new archer class can do that isn’t already covered by the already existing Archer classes. I'd consider her to be a Jack-of-all-trades. The Archer Legend should have the lowest single DPS out of all of the Archer classes in 4th job, but she has a much more versatile skill set and is great at mobbing.

(Some might question the lack of a Puppet-type skill, but considering how many melee and defensive/invincibility frame skills she has, I don’t think she needs that type of skill. Some also might question Forward Current/Back Draft being placed in 1st job, but considering how all of the skills in the later job advancements are designed, I figured that their placement is fine.

For example, I could switch Forward Current with the 2nd job Tri-Bolt, but that would leave her with two single target skills in 1st job and a lack of a single target skill in 2nd job, not to mention that there’s already a lack of a single target Sight Stance skill in 3rd job. Switching it with any other Sight Stance skill would result in having two mob skills in 1st job, or in the case of Storm Prism, have an effect that is so advanced in terms of game mechanics that a 1st job character simply shouldn’t already have access to it.)

First Job:
- Storm Booster: Weapon Speed -2. Duration: 200 seconds.

(Sight Stance skills)
- Forward Current: Launches a 150% lightning damage arrow with a wind current that pushes up to 4 enemies away.
- Back Draft: Fires 150% lightning damage arrow with a vacuuming wind current that draws up to 4 enemies closer.
(Strike Stance skills)
- Wind Slash: Strikes an unlucky enemy four times for 75% damage.
- Rain Dance: Performs a dance that calls lightning to strike up to 5 enemies in front twice for 110% Lightning damage per hit.

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Second Job:
- Storm Mastery: +50% Bow Mastery and +120 Accuracy
- Energy Focus: Passive DEX and INT +30. (Or STR instead of INT)
- Calm Current: 100% of Lightning Damage is converted to Neutral. Duration: 240 seconds.

(Sight Stance skills)
- Thunderstorm: Fires a charged arrow that bursts into a shower of lightning upon impact. Can strike up to 6 enemies for 330% Lightning damage. (This is essentially a Lightning element Inferno/Blizzard without a secondary effect.)
- Tri-Bolt: Shoots three bolts of lightning at a single target for 175% Lightning damage.

(Strike Stance skills)
- Gale Strike: The Shaman dashes ahead to strike up to 4 enemies for 200% lightning damage, followed by a 150% damage twister that pushes them backwards and stuns them for 3 seconds. (This is essentially a stunning Rush/Power Knockback combo.)
- Arc Dance: Charges and swings the lightning blades in an arc, striking up to 6 enemies twice for 160% Lightning damage. (Think Boomerang Step.)

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Third Job:
- Dancing Twister: The Storm Shaman preforms a dance that summons a twister around him/her, granting +20 speed (with the ability to break the 160 speed cap) for 10 seconds. Any physical damage taken while in this state is reflected back at the attacker for 300% of the damage taken.
- Shifting Winds: For the next 10 seconds after switching stances, all attacks have a +10% critical hit rate and +10% critical hit damage increase. Also upgrades Forward Current, Back Draft, and Gale Strike's mob count to 6.
- Storm Albatross: Summons Albatross, the chief wind spirit in the form of a mythical bird that is said to travel the world non-stop. Strikes up to 4 enemies for 250% Lightning damage, and inflicts 100% Lightning Damage over Time for 3 seconds. Also increases HP by +30% when summoned. Duration: 300 seconds.

(Sight Stance skills)
- Cyclone Bolt: Fires an arrow straight ahead with the force of a cyclone, hitting up to 6 enemies for 550% Lightning damage. The arrow will not curve towards enemies out of its path.
- Storm Prism: Fires an arrow with magical chains of wind and lightning trailing behind it, hitting up to 6 enemies for 300% Lightning damage, stunning and keeping them suspended in the air for 3 seconds. (Typical ‘airborne enemies take more damage from subsequent attacks’ deal. This skill has a starting delay long enough to ensure that it won’t be spammed like Upper Stab, not that anyone would want to do that anyways.)

(Strike Stance skills)
- Wind Cutter: Hits an even unluckier enemy 6 times for 125% Lightning damage.
- Twister Strike: Strikes an enemy in front for 450% Lightning damage, and then quickly spins forward or backwards while slashing up to 6 enemies for 300% Lightning damage. (There must be an enemy directly on top of you or in front of you for this skill to work. The enemy that is targeted by the initial attack will also be hit by the second attack. The spin has invincibility frames tied with it, and the direction is determined by which directional button is held down before the second attack, defaulting to backwards if there is no input.)

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Fourth Job:
- Maple Warrior: Obviously.
- Hero's Will: Obviously.
- Mist Cloak: The wind brings in a mist that cloaks party members, extending invincibility duration by +2 seconds. Also allows party members to recieve a +15% damage boost for 3 seconds after evading or blocking an attack. Duration: 300 seconds. (This is a 10 SP skill, meaning no mastery books required.)
- Stance Mastery: Bow Mastery bonus increased to +70%, +30 Weapon Attack, and 75% knockback resistance for both stances. Also increases maximum HP by +1500. Pre-requisite maxed Storm Mastery.
- Bolt Torrent: When cast, all party members will inflict 3% more damage against monsters for 5 seconds. The damage effect stacks on monsters up to 5 times, for a total of 15% damage. Duration: 300 seconds.
- Bladed Tornado: The Shaman summons a tornado of lightning that roars through the battlefield, striking up to 15 enemies 3 times for 500% Lightning damage. There are two different animations and secondary effects depending on the current stance. If used in Sight Stance, enemy buffs are dispelled at a 100% rate (including super defense up and damage reflect). If used in Strike Stance, the entire attack animation has invincibility frames associated with it. Cooldown: 60 seconds (cooldown remains constant at all skill levels, the skill levels only influence the damage and dispel rate).

(Sight Stance skills)
- Surge Stance: The Storm Shaman fires 9 sets of 4 arrows each in 3 second bursts (36 total arrows per burst, 12 arrows per round/second, 4 arrows per set). Arrows from the 1st and 2nd set of each round hit a single target for 200% lightning damage. The last arrow in each round hits for 250% lightning damage and have a piercing effect that hits up to 3 enemies. All 3 sets from the third round/second have a 100% critical hit rate. Movement (except for climbing) is possible while using this skill. Arrows will not curve towards their target. No other skill can be used during the 3 second burst. (Why 3 second bursts? It'll help you keep track of Shifting Winds during boss fights.) Refer to the below diagram.
- Storm's Eye: Charges up wind energy for 1 second in order to launch a whirlwind that rolls along the terrain, striking up to 6 enemies for 330% Lightning damage up to 4 times. (If there's a hill in front of you, it will travel up or down that hill. If it hits a wall, it disappears. If it reaches the end of a platform, it falls off and continues on the platform below, provided that the platform is in reach of the horizontal and vertical range, like stairs.)

(Strike Stance skills)
- Wind Dancer: Upgrades the Arc Dance and Wind Cutter skills. Arc Dance’s range is increased along with its Lightning damage being upgraded to 290%, and Wind Cutter's range is increased along with its damage being increased to 210% damage per hit. Also passively increases the Physical and Magic Avoid of the Storm Shaman by 30%. (Pre-requisites maxed Arc Dance and Wind Cutter. This skill is also a 10 SP skill, meaning no mastery books required.)
- Thundering Step: The Shaman literally becomes a thunderbolt, striking through 6 enemies for 1000% Lightning damage with a 100% chance to stun. This attack deals more damage as it strikes through more enemies. (This is essentially a melee version of Pierce and a mob version of Assaulter. It has a range extending about halfway across the screen, and there must be monsters in front for this skill to be used. If there’s nothing at the end point that the player can stand on, or the attack range extends into a wall, then the attack will just hit straight ahead, without the player moving and without any invincibility frames.) Cooldown: 5 seconds.

SURGE STANCE DIAGRAM: This is what happens each time you use the skill.
- 1st second arrows: 3 arrows of 200% damage, then 1 arrow inflicting 250% damage with a piercing effect. Repeat three times for 12 total arrows.
- 2nd second arrows: 3 arrows of 200% damage, then 1 arrow inflicting 250% damage with a piercing effect. Repeat three times for 12 total arrows.
- 3rd second arrows: 3 arrows of 200% damage, then 1 arrow inflicting 250% damage with a piercing effect. Repeat three times for 12 total arrows. All arrows have a 100% critical hit rate.

Let's say there was an island below the Temple of Time, inhabited by people that worship the Time Goddess. Every year, there is a festival held in her honor.

The Thief Legend is initially an ordinary citizen of the island that is asked to help with setting up the current year's festivities. He gets a lot of comments about his decision to train in the arts of the Thief, particularly in the rare arts of the Chakram thanks to a book left that the elder claims was left behind by a wandering thief ages ago. Most members of his family, including his younger brother and his older sister, tend to end up becoming Mages and Archers instead due to being attuned to the element of fire.

While running an errand, he notes that there's a lot of ice washing up on the island lately. He then finds a strange bag along the beach. He opens it to find a stone not unlike those found in the Temple of Time. Just then, a strange monster, definitely not from the island, attacks him. However... The stone seems to react, weakening it by slowing it down - and as with all Thieves, being faster is an advantage, so he manages to dispatch it quite easily. Afterwards, he finishes up his errand and tells his family what happened. His brother mentions that he talked to a kind traveler earlier, some sort of archer that said that she was chasing someone that could only be summed up as 'very, very bad'. His sister suggests going to see the Priest during the festival to find out exactly what the stone is.

During the festival, he speaks to the Priest in the town chapel, who seems absolutely shocked upon seeing the stone. The thief has no idea why, because it looks almost like any other stone from the Temple of Time. He even suggests that it might have fallen from the Temple somehow. The Priest stammers something about melted icebergs from Rien. The thief then remembers what the stone did during the attack, and mentions it to the Priest. Just then, the thief's sister enters the chapel and runs up to the Priest, saying that she and her younger brother were attacked in the outskirts of the town. She says that the attacker was looking for a stone, the one that her eldest brother has, and that the kind traveler that her younger brother mentioned earlier chased off the attacker.

The three then hear some yelling from the guards, yelling for someone outside to halt. The guards are tossed aside like nothing, and a shadowy figure enters. The Priest tells the thief and his sister to hide while he deals with this outsider himself. The Priest also gets tossed aside like nothing - but at least he bought time for the kind traveler to enter. The thief overhears some of the following conversation - something about the attacker being a member of the Black Wings, the kind traveler being a descendant of a legendary archer, and something about the Black Wings member wanting the stone that he found.

The stone then seems to react, showing the thief a vision of a girl wielding a dagger and a shield. She is accompanied by four companions, fighting against a mysterious robed figure. Just as his vision fades away, a fight breaks out in the chapel, and the Archer wipes the floor with the Black Wings member.

After a brief conversation with the Archer, everything gets cleaned up and the festival ends. After telling the Priest about the vision that he just received, the thief is advised to go travel the world, become stronger, and prevent the stone that he holds from falling into the wrong hands. He wonders if the thief finding the stone is part of some divine plan by the Time Goddess. Could the thief already be attuned to the powers of the stone, and manipulate time? Did that stone even belong to that fabled hero..?

The Priest tells the thief to start at Victoria Island. The thief’s brother and sister comment on their jealousy of him being able to leave the island and explore. Right before the thief boards the boat to Lith Harbor, he gets another vision, this time with the same girl from before seemingly attempting to speak to him – but he doesn’t yet know if the vision is real, and if responding would even do anything. Regardless, the girl instructs him to go to Kerning City and look for the leader of the Thieves of Victoria Island.

(Notice how there's a stairway into the Temple itself? Perhaps there's another stairway down to the island itself. The island would have a boat that goes to Lith Harbor and a flight that goes to Orbis. Obviously there would be a high level quest to gain access to the Temple of Time through the island entrance, preventing low level characters, particularly those of the Thief Legend, from entering the Temple of Time too early.)

The Time Keeper does not use any currently existing weapons, mainly due to how both claws, daggers, and kataras are extremely pricey already. This is the only case in which I'd believe that a new weapon type is absolutely mandatory. Instead, he uses dual chakrams, which are considered two-handed weapons despite appearing to be dual weld, and have a damage formula that occupies a middle ground between claws and daggers. The chakram's basic attack is a melee attack with the same range as daggers, but there are skills that allow him to throw his chakrams, usually behaving as if they are boomerangs. This class is geared towards STR and LUK.

'Beginner' Skills:
- Recovery: Exactly the same as the Adventurer version.
- Nimble Feet: Exactly the same as the Adventurer version.
- March of Time: HP and MP +20%. Starts off with 1 point already granted, and upgrades after every job advancement, 4% per skill level.
- Journal Entry: Records the HP, MP, casted buffs (including remaining duration, excluding this skill and 3rd job Acceleration), and current status afflictions of all party members (except death). This is used with the 3rd job skill 'Previous Chapter'. Duration: 600 seconds. (This is obtained after the 3rd job advancement.)
- Extension: For the next 60 seconds, all buff skills used by the party will have their buff duration doubled. Cooldown: 600 seconds. (This is obtained after the 4th job advancement.)

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The high amount of cooldown skills means designing this class could either be a major success in terms of game mechanics, and/or a massive disaster in terms of balance. Ideally, he would have the lowest DPS out of all of the Thief classes - but his support should make him quite valuable to any bossing party. The idea for this class originally started with the Journal Entry and Previous Chapter skills - everything else came afterwards.

First Job:
- Flame Booster: Claw Attack speed -2. Duration: 200 seconds.
- Quick Stride: Either the flow of time around you is slowing down, or you're speeding up. Either way works. Speed +30 and Jump +20 for 180 seconds.
- Three o' clock: Does a counter-clockwise spin 3 times that inflicts 6 total hits of 50% damage on a single enemy within melee range.
- Slow Burn: All attacks have a 50% chance to slow the enemy by -30 as well as inflicting an additional 30% Fire Damage over Time for 5 seconds. Duration: 200 seconds.
- Chakram Toss: Throws the two Chakrams ahead to inflict 2 hits of 110% damage.

Second Job:
- Flame Mastery: Chakram Mastery +50%, Accuracy +120.
- Rapid Training: Passive STR and LUK +30.
- Bladed Wheel: The Time Keeper throws both Chakrams ahead, inflicting 2 hits of 125% damage and then returning to inflict 2 more hits of 75% damage.
- Next Chapter: The Time Keeper opens a time portal that instantly sends him a fair distance away from where he once stood. (Essentially Teleport, except it can be used in mid-air and only works in a horizontal direction.)
- Cool Midnight: Fire Damage is converted to Neutral. Duration: 200 seconds.
- Burning Barrier: Surrounds the party in a barrier of flames that lash out at attackers for 500% of the damage taken. (The effect stacks with skills like Power Guard, but this skill has a fire element property built into it - monsters weak to fire will take more reflect damage, and so on.) Duration: 200 seconds.
- Distortion: Summons a Chakram with a powerful gravitational field and throws it ahead, forcefully pulling up to 6 nearby mobile monsters within a radius of 350 towards wherever it lands and stunning them for 3 seconds.

Third Job:
- Previous Chapter: Resets the party's status to a state recorded by the Journal Entry. This consumes the Journal Entry buff when used. Cooldown: 240 seconds.
- Intermediate Throwing Mastery: Weapon Attack bonus is increased to +22 and Critical Rate bonus is increased to +45%. (Pre-requisite: Beginning Throwing Mastery maxed)
- Acceleration: For the next 60 seconds, all party buffs and attacks used with a cooldown timer will have their cooldown durations reduced by 50% (excluding itself and Previous Chapter). All skills except Previous Chapter that are already in cooldown when this skill is used will have their cooldowns reduced by 50%. Cooldown: 300 seconds.
- Reflex: Creates a force field that slows down incoming attacks, allowing for extra time for evasive action to be taken, increasing the party's physical and magic Avoid stat by 50% along with an additional 15% chance (working like Shadow Shifter and stacking with such skills) for enemy attacks to miss you. Duration: 120 seconds. Cooldown: 240 seconds.
- Burning Noon: Throws the two chakrams up, then spins them like the hands of a clock in a clockwise motion 3 times, inflicting 6 hits of 80% fire damage. (Essentially a fire-elemental Arrow Rain)
- Six o' Clock: Does a counter-clockwise spin 6 times that inflicts 12 total hits of 80% fire damage on a single enemy within melee range.
- Future Sight: Before using Next Chapter, the Time Keeper quickly throws both chakrams ahead, catching them right as he exits the Next Chapter time portal. All monsters between the original point and the end teleportation point take 2 hits of 175% fire damage. The distance traveled when Next Chapter is used in mid-air is also increased by 100%. This is a toggled skill. (Unlike Teleport Mastery, this skill only works on monsters that are between the original location and the end location.)

Fourth Job:
- Maple Warrior: Obviously.
- Hero's Will: Obviously.
- Master of Time: Chakram mastery bonus increased to 70%, HP is increased by +15%, and Six o' Clock's damage is increased to 100%, along with its range being extended and its mob count upgraded to hit up to 3 monsters.
- Crystal Reflection: Summons an animated crystal statue of the Time Keeper. The statue remains at its summoned location, but it will copy the Time Keeper's attacks (except for Scrivener, Inverse Flow, and End of Time) at 60% attack power, regardless of where the Time Keeper is. Duration: 90 seconds.
- Scrivener: Throws a copy of the Time Stone at a monster that records all damage that the monster takes for 5 seconds. At the end of the 5 seconds, it explodes, inflicting 100% of that damage yet again. Cooldown: 40 seconds. (Cooldown remains constant at all levels, skill levels influence the precentage of damage recorded. Also a 10 SP skill, meaning no mastery books required.)
- Flash Fire: Calls out the party’s inner flame, allowing all party members' attacks to have an additional +75% Fire Damage over Time effect for 5 seconds. The effect will stack and change elements accordingly with skills that already have Damage over Time effects built in. Duration: 120 seconds. Cooldown: 180 seconds.
- Still Obsidian: Places a dark copy of the Time Stone, attached to a summoned chakram. It spins in place after being thrown, sucking out the flow of time from nearby monsters, inflicting 4 hits of 300% fire damage, as well as inflicting an additional 200% fire damage per second for 5 seconds while rendering the monsters unable to move or attack. (The freeze effect is different from the actual Ice Freeze status effect, so it'd work on bosses.) Cooldown: 30 seconds. (Also a 10 SP skill, meaning no mastery books required)
- Spinning Time: The Time Keeper sends the chakrams flying in opposite directions, then spins to retract the chakrams, dragging up to 6 monsters that are caught to the front of the Time Keeper, inflicting 4 hits of 160% damage with a 100% chance to stun. (Think Monster Magnet but in both directions. This skill has invincibility frames associated with it, because monsters caught behind the Time Keeper will slide past him to the front.)
- Searing Stone: Summons a flaming stone chakram and spins it directly ahead (about 1/3rd across the screen). When it reaches the furthest distance that it can travel, it spins in place for 3 seconds before returning to the Time Keeper (if the Time Keeper is within the skill's range) or disappearing. The Time Keeper can move and use other skills after the initial throw. This attack inflicts 140% damage per hit on up to 6 enemies, but the amount of hits depend on where the enemies are in relation to the Time Keeper when this attack is launched. Refer to the below diagram. Only one Searing Stone can be out on the field at a time.
- End of Time: Summons a magical grandfather clock, with the clock being a chakram, that stops the flow of time for up to 15 enemies. The chakram/clock then spins wildly before disappearing, summoning a storm of flames that inflict 5 hits of 400% fire damage. Cooldown: 30 seconds. (This attack is guaranteed to force all affected monsters into knockback during the entire attack animation, regardless of their knockback value.)

SEARING STONE RANGE/NUMBER OF HITS DIAGRAM:
Time Keeper ----> Initial throwing path [2 hits] -------> Spins in place [10 hits], then disintergrates or
Time Keeper <---- Return path if TK is still within range [2 hits] <-------------------------------------

As it turns out, Searing Stone's furthest horizontal range happens to be the same as Distortion's landing point (hint, hint). If you still have a hard time picturing how this attack works, just think of the YoYo battlechip from the Megaman Battle Network series. I hope the term 'YoYo' by itself should give you a good enough picture.

The Pirate is initially part of a different expedition in the same future as that of the destroyed Henesys and the corrupted Cygnus Knights. The expedition was sent by Kyrin to find the truth behind the World Tree, especially if it was already controlled by the Black Wings or not, this time hopefully being more careful than Cygnus was.

Just as the expedition nears the area where Cygnus was last recorded to be in perfectly good health, the expedition gets ambushed by the Black Wings. It is soon clear that the expedition is outmatched, with everyone fleeing for their lives. The Black Wings' attack quickly forces the expedition to scatter in different directions, with the Brawler Pirate Legend fleeing with the Gunslinger navigator, who exclaims that with their current direction, they'll soon enter unknown territory.

The Pirate trips on something, which then glows. The two pick it up and observe that it's a strange seed - and the seed suddenly releases magic on the two and disappears. The Pirate Legend notes that his arms are covered in strange vine-like green runes that seem to be bursting with life, while the navigator's arms are covered in gray runes, which makes his arms appear as if they are rotting. As the two try to figure out what the hell just happened, they forget that they were running from the Black Wings in the first place, until a member of the Black Wings catches up with them and prepares to strike a knockout blow on them. A strange energy then ripples across the landscape, and it washes over them all.

When the Pirate wakes up, he finds himself in what appears to be a different land. He quickly finds the navigator, although there's no trace of that Black Wings member at the moment. Upon seeing the first local monster (which the Pirate Legend doesn't recognize at all), the navigator forms a theory on what might have happened to them - but they would have to proceed further in order to verify it. The two proceed, running into more monsters that the Pirate still doesn't recognize, and that's when the navigator mentions that these monsters were extinct in their time, meaning that they were most likely thrown into the past. Of course, they don't know how or why. Either way, the navigator also mentions that if his theory is correct, there should be a town nearby, one that also didn't exist in their time - and the theory proves to be completely correct, as they enter Edelstein. The navigator is worried, wondering which time period they were thrown into.

While asking around and observing the townspeople, they quickly learn that the town is swarming with Black Wings members, as the navigator feared - although luckily, it seems the Black Wings haven't yet found any fellow members that could have come from their time. They figure that the safest place for them to go to would be Victoria Island, back with Kyrin, assuming that her crew had already returned to Victoria Island in this time. As they ask around for someone that can fly them to Victoria Island, they find the Black Wings member from before staggering about the place. They fight, with the fight being noticed by a number of people - with the Resistance members quickly taking the two Pirates into their hideout, before the Black Wings arrive to see a beat-up member of their own that they don't recognize.

The Life Guardian, being a future Pirate, initially borrows a few modified techniques from the Pirates of the past. However, that’s not to say that his abilities are a completely improved mesh of both classes. I’ve tried to make him as unique as possible – essentially a defensive support variant of the past Buccaneers. Ideally, he should have lower damage in comparison to all other melee classes. He is very self-reliant, considering the amount of HP restoring skills that he gets in later job advancements, but he will be able to provide great support in parties if necessary. Notice that he has no offensive party skills – all of his party skills are defensive, with the majority involving healing in different ways.

He does not have any invincibility frames (except for Spinning Kick, which is primarily to move him into position for Stone Body use) and does not have the freedom that Buccaneers have with their transformations. When he reaches 3rd job, he instead relies on a very defensive toggled transformation skill that pins him to the ground, relying on the way some of his attack skills work to move around while transformed, and also relying on his defenses to tank attacks and destroy everything that comes within attacking range.

(Perhaps I'm making too many support classes.)

First Job:
- Knuckler Booster: Weapon Speed -2. Duration: 200 seconds.
- Protective Shell: The mind calls forth a protective barrier, much like that of a seed encasing the life within, increasing Weapon Defense by 300. Duration: 200 seconds.
- Sudden Strike: Quickly lunges towards a nearby monster in front to deliver a 235% Damage strike. (This is essentially a single target Rush.)
- Tumbleweed: The historians of the future constantly debate over whether or not this ramming 3 target 2-hit 100% damage roll is any more advantageous than just standing still and using Backflip Kick like the Pirates used to do in the past.
- Fast March: Passive +20 Speed.

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Second Job:
- Body Mastery: 50% Knuckler Mastery, +120 Accuracy
- Adaptation: Reverses the effects of physical status effects (Slow, Weaken, Blind, and Poison). The Guardian must be affected by the status effects in question prior to using this skill. (Note: When this skill is used, Slow increases your speed to max, Weaken increases your jump to max, Blind increases your accuracy by +50%, and Poison heals you for 1% of your total HP per second.) Duration: 60 seconds.
- Spinning Kick: Launches an aerial kick that spins through 6 monsters, inflicting 300% damage.
- Counter Uppercut: When attacked, the Guardian instantly retaliates with a 200% damage punch to the jaw. If they somehow don't have a jaw, then a punch to the stomach should work just fine. (Think Power Guard, except this is only triggered against melee attacks and runs off of your damage range, rather than the amount of damage you take.) Duration: 200 seconds.
- Radiance: 100% of all damage is converted to Holy. Duration: 200 seconds.
- Finesse: Passive +5 Jump along with +10% HP.

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Third Job:
- Whipping Spin: Executes a stationary spinning kick that pulls up to 6 nearby monsters towards you, inflicting 425% damage.
- Stone Body: The Guardian has learned how to harness the power of the ancient protector of the World Tree, being granted a +30% Critical Hit Rate bonus, a 30% reduction in damage taken, and 100% knockback resistance. Regular movement is not possible as long as this skill is active (with the exception of automatic movement from skills like Sudden Strike and Grapple Vine). This skill cannot be used in mid-air or when climbing ropes. Toggle the skill on or off.
- Grapple Vine: Sends out chain-like vines that wrap around the nearest enemy and propels the Guardian towards it, inflicting 2 hits of 350% damage with 100% stun rate.
- Tremor: Stomps on the ground with great force, causing roots to shoot up and attack up to 6 monsters around you for 3 hits of 145% damage. This can only be used in Stone Body mode.
- Splintering Impact: Strikes a single target with a 650% damage punch, reducing its defense by 10% (flat rate) for 20 seconds.
- Renewal: Refreshes all active skill buffs among party members by up to 60 seconds. Cooldown: 180 seconds.
- Forest Guardian: Summons one of the guardians of the World Tree, who remains still while pelting up to 4 monsters straight ahead with 250% damage seeds. 5% of the damage it inflicts restores your HP, up to a maximum of 10% HP restored at a time. (Think something that looks similar to the Tree Rods present in Elin Forest. Its attacks only travel in a straight line.) Duration: 300 seconds.

Fourth Job:
- Maple Warrior: Obviously.
- Hero’s Will: Obviously.
- Stone Protector: The Guardian is on the way to fully mastering the Stone Body transformation, increasing Weapon and Magic Defense by +20% along with upgrading the reduction in damage taken when Stone Body is active to 50%.
- Bullet Punch: Launches a continuous flurry of punches that inflict 230% damage. Think melee version of Hurricane. (This might sound broken, but considering its short range... You pretty much have to use this while in Stone Body mode and against an enemy that is already pinned. It’s also only about 5 punches per second.)
- Boulder Toss: The Guardian uses mental energy to rip a huge boulder from the ground and flings it straight ahead, striking up to 6 enemies for 625% damage. If this attack comes into contact with an obstacle such as a wall, it will bounce back towards the Guardian, inflicting a second hit of 300% damage.
- Tree of Life: Summons a golden tree that generates a single fruit every 10 seconds. The fruit restores 100% HP and MP, with the effect activating upon pickup. (The healing effect bypasses Zombify – it will actually rid you of any status effects as well.) The tree lingers for 90 seconds. Cooldown: 240 seconds. (Party members can pick the fruit up immediately. Everyone else has to wait the usual few seconds.)
- Earth Breaker: Charges up for 1 second to release an earth-shaking punch on the ground below, inflicting 1100% damage on up to 6 monsters in front and stunning them for 4 seconds. This skill is only available in Stone Body mode.
- Energy Shift: Recycles expended energy, allowing the party to convert expended MP to restore HP at a rate of 1 MP to 10 HP. Duration: 90 seconds. Cooldown: 240 seconds. (In hindsight, this could make rapid attacking skills really broken, but...)
- Mind Shell: Grants the party a 15% chance to heal 30% HP instead of taking damage when hit by enemy magic attacks. This also blocks enemy attempts to dispel buffs and drop HP and MP to 1 at a 100% rate. Duration: 90 seconds. Cooldown: 240 seconds.
- Nature’s Wrath: Summons a silver maple tree that lets loose bright razor sharp leaves, inflicting 3 hits of 500% Holy damage on up to 15 monsters. 3% of the damage inflicted restores party members’ HP and MP. Cooldown: 30 seconds.