Hello everyone, Ponyo here! This article is part of the “101” series, which gives an overview of each role or class in the game. Please be aware that this is not an extensive how-to guide nor does it provide optimal skill rotations. Instead, this is an introductory orientation to the class with some general hints and tips to get you started.
A Little Lore
The path of the pugilist is one of incessant training aimed at mastering the traditional techniques of hand-to-hand combat. Though pugilists command formidable power when unarmed, they are wont to use metal, leather, and bone weaponry to maximize their destructive potential.
Their preference for fighting at close quarters makes negotiating distances an absolute necessity. Many among them accomplish this by avoiding burdensome armor, allowing for maximum mobility while they move in for the kill.
Pugilist’s Role
See the DPSing 101 guide for an introduction to the DPS role.
Where to Start
The pugilist class can be unlocked in Ul’dah at the Pugilist’s Guild. Hamon will give you your first knuckles, and then you can start gaining skills! At every 5th level, you can go back to Hamon and pick up a new quest that will give you a new skill and new armor and/or weapons.
As You Level
The skills you get as a pugilist may not mean much when you’re leveling in the open-world, but once you are level 16 and can enter dungeons, the mechanics of pugilists become more important.
The pugilist rotation is dictated by three distinct stances: opo-opo, raptor, and coeurl. When you are in one stance, you can only use the skills that are active during that stance. For instance, Bootshine is only available when you are in the opo-opo form. When you use Bootshine, this changes you to the next form, raptor, where you have two skills available, True Strike and Twin Snakes. Twin Snakes increases damage by 5% for 15 seconds, and since your job as pugilist is to deal out lots of damage, it is advisable to keep the Twin Snakes buff up as much as possible. Using either True Strike or Twin Snakes pushes you into the final form, coeurl, where you can use either Snap Punch or Demolish. Demolish places a damage-over-time debuff on the boss, and using either Snap Punch or Demolish moves you back into opo-opo stance.
Cycling through your stances and using your coeurl stance skills, Snap Punch and Demolish, grants a special buff called Greased Lightning that is animated as a swirling green arc around your character. Greased Lightning is very important for pugilists. It increases damage dealt by 10% and attack speed by 5%, which means you can move through your rotation faster. As you level, you will gain the passive ability to stack Greased Lightning. This lets you do even more damage and move even faster. Although Greased Lightning tends to take care of renewing itself as you move through your normal rotation, do be aware of the buff that it gives and how it improves your utility as a pugilist.
In addition of stances, pugilists also gain a lot of bonus damage from positionals. Bootshine, True Strike, and Demolish deal extra potency if you execute the attack from behind an enemy, and Snap Punch and Twin Snakes deal extra potency if you execute them from the enemy’s side.
Haymaker is a single-target attack that can only be used after evading an attack and slows down the enemy. Bascially, if it procs, use it. Featherfoot increases your evasiveness for 10 seconds and can make it easier for Haymaker to proc. Touch of Death deals damage and applies a damage-over-time debuff. Arm of the Destroyer is an AOE attack that can also silence enemies when you are in opo-opo stance.
Pugilists also get several useful buffs. Fists of the Earth is a toggled skill that reduces the damage you take by 10%, so you can turn that on at the beginning of a fight and have a little extra defense. Internal Release increases your critical hit rate by 10% or 15 seconds, and Second Wind instantly restores some of your health, which can literally save your life and buy you some time until the healer is able to get to you.
One last point: Limit Break. This is discussed in more detail in our DPSing 101 guide, but it is worth mentioning again here. Pugilists are physical melee fighters, and their Limit Break skill is a single-target barrage of damage. For this reason, pugilists are often asked to “lb” to finish off a boss quicker, so be sure to go to the Action and Traits menu and put the Limit Break button somewhere on your hotbar where you can easily access it.
Cross-Role Skills
Please see the DPSing 101 guide for more information about cross-role skills.
Acquiring Your Job
At level 30, you can evolve from pugilist to monk. This is like getting a promotion – you become a better DPS, get new skills, new armor, and new weapons. In order to unlock monk, you must be a level 30 pugilist and have completed the pugilist questline. It is no longer necessary to level a sub-class to 15 to unlock your job, as of Stormblood.
And that’s it, an introduction to the pugilist class. Happy DPSing!