Silence

[Aristes]

I was considering the kits of the jobs and it just dawned on me that none of the mages have access to a silence ability. I believe this is mostly due to gameplay considerations namely giving the physical characters a unique CC advantage due to mages having access to bind and sleep.

However, I also believe that there may be some lore inspiration attached to this, perhaps mages don't practice the art of silenceing for fear of advancing that art could have negative impacts on all forms of magic including their own? War between mages is not uncommon in 14, the war of the magi is just one example so it seems that such a potent defensive tool would be a standard part of any mages arsenal. I'm not certain but I found it interesting to think about and thought I would share in case anyone else found it so.

Edit: Upon reflection I find that I was wrong, Selene does in fact have access to a silence, however, my original statement still stands as it is not directly utilized by a scholar but instead is used as a command to the fairy. Perhaps giving some validity to my claims?

[Nalien]

Scholar has Silence; Silent Dawn, on Selene. Probably why Nym was able to hold their own against Mhach and Amdapor.

[Aristes]

Very observant, I made this realization slightly before you posted lol, but given the nature of the fairy, differing from a carbuncle in that it originates from the scholar soul stone, in addition to what I posted in my edit, I find that it just serves as more evidence that arcanists are not educated in the knowledge of silence and while I don't remember exactly, it has been a while since I did the original set of scholar lore, the fairy is an autonomous creature that exists independent of the scholar and has it's own set of knowledge, therefore leading me to believe that perhaps even scholars were not adept at silencing but their fairies were if that makes any sense?

[Anonymoose]

Thaumaturge had Silence back in 1.0, before everything got shuffled around. I imagine that it's a function over form thing, as far as lore is concerned (as in, if there is lore, it was made to fit the mechanics rather than the other way around). Casters and healers have cast times and must be constantly casting, whereas stuns and silences are reflexive. A tank or DPS that has instant abilities and works around the global cooldown is much more likely to actually get it off in time and doesn't need to interrupt a hard-hitting spell or, worse, a heal to do so.

[Aristes]

From a gameplay consideration perspective that makes perfect sense so I suppose best case scenario is if there was lore it would fit around the mechanic which I can't fault the devs for. As a side note I'd like to point out Warriors also do not have a silence and have what some would consider the worst kit for dealing with magic damage, not that they are unable to do it, just that it isn't quiet as potent as a paladin's (Sentinel vs Vengeance and Inner beast requiring a lot more know-how than ramparts set it and forget it) and nowhere near as good as dark knight. So with warriors they're obviously meant to be a more physically attuned job made to do battle with physical enemies rather than magical ones and their unique skill set reflects this including the lack of a silence. I just thought that was a bit interesting, doesn't offer much to the points I made before but fun to think about.

[Kaiser-Ace]

Dragoon has no silence and, if I remember correctly, the Lowest Magic Defence in the game.

Which makes me question the Lore aspect of us being Dragon Slayers but gameplay wise Dragon Breath attacks are magic dammage. You'd think being a millinia old organization specifically devoted to killing Dragons would be better equipped to deal with Dragon Breath.

[Waliel]

Squenix raised the DRG MDEF somewhere during ARR to be the same as other physical DPS. They still retain the slightly higher DEF compared to others.