Black Belt Underpowered?

[HandmadeMonster]

I was under the impression that Black Belts were supposed to be heavy-hitters, but so far mine has been really underwhelming. Are they just not as good as other classes or am I somehow using them wrong?

For example, mine is currently Job Level 63 with 56 strength and 236 attack strength unarmed (currently she has the same attack strength whether's equipped with two of my best claws or unarmed)... she does around 2000-3000 damage to the enemies in the Crystal Tower. But my Job Level 40 Dragoon, with 44 strength and also 236-ish attack strength (armed) is doing 4000-6000+ damage every turn.

Do I need to level a Black Belt up to Level 99 to make them worth anything? (Had I known that, I would have been training her as an Onion Knight or something this entire time...)

[LilG]

I found them to be pretty underpowered at first but the job gets stronger as your level & job level increases, since it's possible to do maximum damage with them.

According to wiki each job lv increases attack by 2 & character level increases attack by 3,so unless you want to grind to max,you're probably better off leveling the Onion Knight.

[HandmadeMonster]

I was just leveling my characters up to take on the final dungeon, so I don't think switching to Onion Knight right now would really benefit me at all. Had I realized earlier, I probably would have been training her in a different class. I just figured a Black Belt would be doing a whole lot more damage than that.

Not that I'm too worried, since my other characters are a max-level Knight with Ultima Weapon and Save the Queen (who moonlights as a Dragoon), a high-level Ninja (with a decent stock of Shurikens) and high-level Devout for healing.

[bvc591]

black belts are great once you get their job level up as they deal high damage to just about anything without needing weapons. they also increase the amount of hp the character gets when they lv up which can be used to get 9999 hp on all characters just swap to black belt before leveling up(you have to do this with each character before each lv up.) before lv 96-98 black belt is the best damage dealer once you hit 96-99 the onion night becomes the best job if you have the equipment(a devout is better at healing and a ninja has better damage with shurikens but those are expensive.)

[Lord Wholesome]

FF3 works entirely on job levels, at those levels then yes they aren't that good. It's also important to note that leveling up while being certain jobs will grant you specific stats. Such as the black belt giving you more HP when you do so.

To provide an example out of my own book regarding job levels: I often start a game with a thief. The thief will often initiate first, sometimes winning battles all by himself. As a result and a few hours later my thief will be miles ahead in job levels compared to others. Resulting in heaps of damage, which gets even better when throwing weapons can be purchased.