But since the game requires you to level your party members actively, finding the balance between job diversity and synergy becomes a little difficult. Enter the Red Battlemage – the de facto Final Fantasy jack of all trades. It once again brings a smorgasbord of tools to the table, which not only makes this a job worth building around, but also makes it a fantastic job to help bolster the shortcomings of many other jobs, too. One thing that stands out in particular is its signature weapon, the mace. This weapon scales off of magic damage, so you can make really interesting builds that still pack a punch! If that sounds intriguing enough, here’s a complete ranking of all maces in FF12 to help you decide which ones are worth picking up (and how to get them).
11. Mace
As the first mace of the game, it’s acquirable before you’d really have any use for it. In other words, while it isn’t a starting weapon for any character, you can have it if you want to play Red Battlemage early on. However, the fact that it’s easily substitutable with pretty much any character’s starter weapon leaves this at the bottom of our ranking. How to Get: Find it in a treasure chest on the first trip to the Garamsythe Waterway, or buy it in one of the shops afterwards.
10. Bronze Mace
The Bronze Mace is one of those disappointing weapons that can be replaced quickly after it’s acquired. My suggestion is to skip this in favor of the Bhuj. How to Get: Find it in the Lhusu Mines during the first visit, or buy it from the shop afterwards.
9. Miter
The Miter gets dropped a rank lower than its power because of the timing of acquiring it. While it’s possible to get it as a steal from the Rain Dancer hunt earlier than the shop, the chance is abysmal. And trying to steal from this particular monster is too much of a grind. Its attacks also do water damage, which can be a detriment when trying to fight through the rainy season of Giza Plains, making it even less enticing to try and steal. How to Get: Just buy at Jahara or Mt. Bur Omisace.
8. Bhuj
The Bhuj is a pretty good upgrade from even the Bronze Mace – and will last you a long time. Even if you don’t have the cash for it, you can find the treasure quickly after the first time you see it in a shop. How to Get: Grab it from the shop as you land in the Dalmasca Westersand after the events of Bhujerba, or find it in the chests of the Ogir-Yensa Sandsea – Platform 1, East or South Tanks.
7. Thorned Mace
With the ability to inflict poison at a 15% chance per attack, the Red Battlemage really starts to show its versatility after it gets the Thorned Mace. The attack boost over the previous maces and ease of acquisition easily earn this mace a recommendation from me. How to Get: Find in a treasure chest in the Paramina Rift – Karydine Glacier, or buy at Mt. Bur-Omisace.
6. Doom Mace
I’m not a huge fan of Doom. It might make short work of a single monster if you’re lucky (take that for what it’s worth). But it won’t drop items or award you with experience or license points. So depending on your strategy, this weapon could hamper you in the long run more than it helps. The attack difference compared to the Chaos Mace isn’t that much higher, either. So it’s hard to justify picking it up unless you really don’t want to spend the time looking for the final few non-purchasable maces. It is, however, significantly stronger than the Thorned Mace, so it ends up here in our ranking. How to Get: Buy it at Archades, search chests in the Tchita Uplands- Oliphzak Rise, or alternatively, if you can make it to stage 32 in trial mode, Zalera has a good steal rate.
5. Grand Mace
At the point of obtaining the Grand Mace, the more difficult encounters are going to require more than simple bashing. The Grand Mace has the 2nd highest attack of all the maces, which is great! But that’s really all it offers. How to Get: If you’re really into grinding, you can get it as early as the Cerobbi Steppe – Feddik River through chests. But be warned: it will take a while unless you’re lucky. The only other option is to take on the difficult hunt “Who’s the Strongest!?”
4. Bone of Byblos
The ultimate mace is really just a big stat stick. It has higher evade than a typical mace (though still significantly lower than the Bonebreaker). But with only 100 attack, it gets outshined by most other weapon types. I’d say it’s much more worth going for the Bonebreaker if you’re looking to get some use out of your mace. How to Get: take to the Cerobbi Steppe – Northsward to find this “ultimate” weapon. It can also be acquired in a chest 100% of the time if you’ve discovered how to access Site 5 of Lhusu Mines (hint: it’s through a hunt). Or steal it from the final ultimate mark if you’re feeling frisky.
3. Chaos Mace
The Chaos Mace continues right along in the nice mace power progression and, arguably, confers the most useful status effect of all the maces (barring the Bonebreaker), Confuse, as its on-hit effect. Used correctly, it can serve the same purpose of Doom in rendering an enemy moot – and allowing focus to be put elsewhere. Compared to its predecessor (the Thorned Mace), this is also the single highest power increase between two back-to-back upgrades. How to Get: Buy at the Mosphoran Highwaste, or to save money, look for it in a chest in the Salikawood – Trunkwall Road.
2. Zeus Mace
Here’s a mace to accentuate your decision to make whatever character into a Red Battlemage. The Zeus Mace boosts all Dark type attacks (so Dark, Darkra, and Darkga) which makes it a weapon worth keeping as a booster when dealing with enemies weak to Dark attacks. How to Get: The easiest way is by finishing the hunt “The Child Snatcher” as it’s a guaranteed reward. Alternatively look for it in the Cerobi Steppe – The Terraced Bank.
1. Bonebreaker
This is by far the most unique weapon on this list – but undeniably a pain to get. The Bonebreaker has no real value as a standard melee weapon, which as mentioned, isn’t the worst thing at this point. Reason being you’re likely using Red Battlemage more for magic or a supplement for another class. What it is good for is inflicting the status effects Disease and Sap, which it has a 100% success rate for. Depending on the enemy, this combination can do more damage than any other mace – and has some incredibly niche and powerful uses. For that alone, it has to take the #1 spot. How to Get: Prepare for a long grind. In the same way the Grand Mace requires a potentially massive grind, so too does the Bonebreaker from a neighboring chest in the same area (Cerobbi Steppes – Feddik River). However, this is the only reasonable way to acquire it, since the alternative is killing the super boss.
