Blessing that wards against physical attacks, granting Protect to distant units.
The Ivalice Chronicles' description
Protect is a White Magicks ability in Final Fantasy Tactics, learned by the white mage job. It charges a spell that grants the Protect status to units within the effect radius, reducing the damage taken from physical attacks. The action ability must be learned by expending JP earned for the white mage job.
Other abilities that grant Protect include the bard's Nameless Song, the samurai's Kiyomori Iaido, as well Aegis, from Alma Beoulve's cleric and Ovelia Atkascha's princess jobs.
Certain equipment, such as the sortilége and the save the queen, grant the Auto-Protect effect, a permanent buff that will always grant the unit the Protect effect.
The white magick Wall grants both Protect and Shell to a single unit.
Obtained[]
Protect costs 70 JP to be spent on the white mage job. Once the unit has learned it, it is available for other jobs as long as they have the White Magicks or Arithmeticks skillset equipped.
If a unit that knows Protect becomes a crystal, a human unit picking up the crystal may learn Protect without spending JP, as long as said unit has unlocked the white mage job.
Mechanics[]
Precious light, be our armor to protect us! Protect!
Upon casting
A white mage applying protect on themselves.
Protect costs 6 MP with a charge time of 25 speed, with a cross-shaped effect range that can affect up to five units. Magick has a chance to hit (including healing and supportive magicks) based on the caster's faith and the target's faith. Protect's chance of success is based on the following formula:
This means that the higher both the caster and the target's faith stats, the higher the chances of the Protect spell to take effect. Protect, alongside its magick-warding counterpart, Shell, has the highest chance of success of all white magicks.
The Protect status does not directly reduce damage from attacks, but subtracts the attacker's physical attack power by ⅓ in the damage formula. If the attack is done with a weapon that uses magickal attack or speed, then protect instead reduces that stat for the attack. In addition, physical attacks that have stat-dependent success rates will face a penalty such that revised stat = [stat * 2/3] when targeting a Protected unit; consequently, Protect can lower either the success rate or the damage of physical attacks. The status lasts for 32 clock ticks.
Protect can be removed with other abilities, such as the mystic's Harmony or the templar's Dispel.
The unit can still attempt to cast magick even without the required MP, however, it will fail upon activating.
Protect can be reflected, and will be nullified against a unit with zero faith or under the Atheist status; however the status effect will still provide damage-reduction to the unit if they were granted Protect before becoming affected by Atheist, having their faith reduced to zero, or wearing an equipment that grants the Auto-Protect effect. Protect can be cast instantly by the arithmetician job command, Arithmeticks.
When casting magick, the player can choose whether to target the unit or the tile. Targeting the unit will result in the magick being cast directly at the character, meaning that if they move, the spell will still affect them. Targeting the tile will result in the spell only affecting the selected map tile; if there are no units within the spell radius, the cast will fail.
Use[]
Protect's cheap cost and fast charge time makes it reliable, and the damage-reduction effect keeps the buff relevant through the entire game.
The only difference between Protect and Protectja is that Protectja has an increased height of effect, at the expense of increased MP cost, slower cast speed, and lower success chance. Both Protect and Protectja grant the same status effect. Therefore, in most situations, casting Protect is more effective unless units are positioned on tiles with significant height differences.
The samurai's Kiyomori Iaido, however, can outshine the Protect spell, as it is an instant ability that also grants Shell. However, katanas have a chance to break when executing the Iaido, resulting in it being permanently lost, and the user unable to cast it again unless they have more than one Kiyomori in their inventory.
Behind the scenes[]
In the PlayStation version, a white mage casting Protect may chant: "Precious light, be our armor to protect us! Protect!" Spellcasting chants are not used in The War of the Lions version, but return in The Ivalice Chronicles with new localization.