Final Fantasy X-2 : What Dressspheres are good and what are Bad

[Zeema Khatun]

it seems like theres a lot more bad ones then good ones
was wondering about which ones i should flat out avoid

[MorningLightMountain]

I don't think there are any that are actually bad as such just ones which are very heavily outclassed by others.

[Zeema Khatun]

Originally posted by MorningLightMountain:

I don't think there are any that are actually bad as such just ones which are very heavily outclassed by others.

i found Songstress to be useless after awhile so many enemies were just immune

[Tinvai]

Good: Dark Knight - Alchemist - Lady Luck - Psychic - Mascot
Bad: Songstress - Trainer - Gunner

My list is only relevant for you, if you want to play the game on the easiest way + the least grindy; These dress spheres are not only "good", they are pretty much "overpowered".
The "bad" once are also not totally useless, they are just way more situational than the above.
So if you'd like to have a challenge, this certainly does not help (:

[MorningLightMountain]

Originally posted by Zeema:

Originally posted by MorningLightMountain:

I don't think there are any that are actually bad as such just ones which are very heavily outclassed by others.

i found Songstress to be useless after awhile so many enemies were just immune

Except the buffs in it are very useful. Songstress is actually a very useful dress sphere. Trainer and Berzerker are ones which are outclassed by other dress spheres.

[Karifean]

The only dresspheres I was never too fond of are Festivalist and Trainer. Also Gun Mage if you don't know where to get Blue Bullet skills.

FTR, the Songstress' Matador's Song is stupidly good as it allows you to completely dodge pretty much all physical attacks for 90% of the game.

White Mage gets outclassed by Alchemist as soon as you get the latter up until the postgame. Eventually Alchemist isn't going to cut it anymore (its stats are pretty horrendous) but that's still far, far off.

With the rest, feel free to go nuts. Some dresspheres require a bit of creativity to use effectively, like if you happen to get the Heady Perfume accessory, equip it on a Gunner and you can spam Scattershot or -burst all the time, wrecking encounters like it's nothing.

[Xifanie]

Mascot is just really OP, as I'm sure you've heard.

If you bother learning blue magic, Gun Mage can be extremely useful; Bad breath, Mighty Guard, Absorb (to name a few)... even if you don't, if you can use quadruple damage abilities against a specific specifies, that really really hurts as well.

Dark Knight is great; people are all over Darkness, but even Charon can be really useful. I was low level and had so much trouble just surviving a boss after learning a blue magic, and I was just like: "♥♥♥♥ it. Charon time". Bam -8000 HP out of its 14000 max.

I have very mixed feelings about Songstress. If you really need a songstress to buff your party, they're really hard to keep alive. And if anyone dies? Good bye buffs. If you don't need a Songstress to buff your party, you might be better off just attacking? I can understand people liking them, but their usefulness is very situational. And I really don't like the whole "dance a whole turn to inflict a status that lasts one turn". Worthless. And I have to say Matador's song is good because it's 10 evasion levels for all your party in a single use. All the others only grant one level for their respective stat I'm pretty sure.

Alchemist, I think, is overrated. There are a few good mixes, yes, but nearly all of them just become junk halfway through the game. It also takes a very long time to get over 2000HP to make 2x restoration Mega-Potions useful.

Festivalist is IMO the least balanced dressphere. Very OP early on (good chances of 3rd tier spells), but after 1-2 hours of gameplay... it's ok, and beyond that it just becomes more and more worthless.

Gunner is just... bad.

I feel pretty meh about all the other dresspheres. They have their good and their bad.
But hey, you be the judge.

[OnlyOffensive]

Yea the songstress is pretty questionable, while buffs are good, there is no point of them on standart fights, and more challenging fights usually dont have time to cast them and keep low hp dress like that to survive. I like to use it sometimes, it is pretty boring but effect songs and some buffs can soft some medium fights.

I like Psychic ds it has really good stats alot of defence and solid damage, black/white mages are doing that what you expect them do, Dark knight is really strong, samurai and even berserker can be fun and there are couple strong creatures where you can utilize them.

Gun mage is good but you need to google how to get blue bullets, all good ones usually one time only or ridiciosly hidden, pretty fun ds tho.

[Scheneighnay]

Black mage and Gun mage own the early game, but I would have to say the best are the Dark Knight, Alchemist, and Berserker.

Dark Knight is just solid all-around, and can gain immunities to the most common status ailments
The alchemist can get infinite mega potions. Enough said.
Berserker abilities (like dark knights) aren't particularly useful, but once you get "evade and counter", a lot of enemies become a breeze.

When you fight Paragon and he oversouls, he'll only use physical attacks, so 3 berserkers with evade and counter will be an auto-win without taking a scratch.

Of course, the psychic also has a whole array of extremely OP abilities. Probably why it never made it to the western release.

[Scheneighnay]

On a side note: what's even the point of "potshot" on gunners when cheap shot and trigger happy both put out more damage?

I also don't understand why things like "demi" and "quarter pounder" even exist when 95% of enemies are either immune to it, or so weak that there's no point in using them.

[Sigred]

Originally posted by Scheneighnay:

I also don't understand why things like "demi" and "quarter pounder" even exist when 95% of enemies are either immune to it, or so weak that there's no point in using them.

No kidding... there's little point in any status-inflicting abilities. There are a few rare exceptions like a certain boss that can, oddly, be ejected.

[Nezkeys]

Im on chapter 1 and was just doing non hotspots before going to besaid. Im already level 20 on all lol. tbh my fave setup is...

Yuna Festivalist
Rikku Thief (helios guard protect cast at start of battle)
Paine Festivalist



They have good all round stats and abilities and also the best costumes so far. Yuna can use aoe elemental attacks. Paine can apply single target statuses that stick the whole battle it seems. Initially I liked the songstress for the aoe statuses on enemies but they dont stick. They also dont attack at all and in random battles i appear to be overlevelled now as everything is dying in 1 hit so i just need an attacker haha. I couldnt get into gunner, gun mage (despite its quadruple damage it has low health and still doesnt really do that much more damage than festivalist. Mages in general use fae too much mp in random battles this has always been a pet peeve of mine in rpgs. Warriors assault might be something i end up using for random battles tho lol. Thief gives me firstrike and flee which was useful when enemies were a challenge and i needed to bail. I like stealing and getting more drops. Hopefully the alchemist class can live up to the godlike chemist rikku was with mixes

Again im only chapter 1 so things may change

[Scheneighnay]

Originally posted by Nezkeys:

Im on chapter 1 and was just doing non hotspots before going to besaid. Im already level 20 on all lol. tbh my fave setup is...

Yuna Festivalist
Rikku Thief (helios guard protect cast at start of battle)
Paine Festivalist



They have good all round stats and abilities and also the best costumes so far. Yuna can use aoe elemental attacks. Paine can apply single target statuses that stick the whole battle it seems. Initially I liked the songstress for the aoe statuses on enemies but they dont stick. They also dont attack at all and in random battles i appear to be overlevelled now as everything is dying in 1 hit so i just need an attacker haha. I couldnt get into gunner, gun mage (despite its quadruple damage it has low health and still doesnt really do that much more damage than festivalist. Mages in general use fae too much mp in random battles this has always been a pet peeve of mine in rpgs. Warriors assault might be something i end up using for random battles tho lol. Thief gives me firstrike and flee which was useful when enemies were a challenge and i needed to bail. I like stealing and getting more drops. Hopefully the alchemist class can live up to the godlike chemist rikku was with mixes

Again im only chapter 1 so things may change

My above post still stands on what's OP later.

Before catnip was nerfed for the international version, gunners used to be able to use it to cheese every boss with the exception of the superboss once you got it.
Of course once you beat the boss you need to in order to get catnip, there isn't much for optional bosses left, unless you just want to godmode through ng+

[Hinnyuu]

If you want to use the "fixed" Cat Nip, a critical HP Thief does an okay job with it. It's not as good as options like decked-out fiend teams, but it's still pretty decent DPS overall thanks to the relatively good AGI and double attack.

[Scheneighnay]

Originally posted by Hinnyuu:

If you want to use the "fixed" Cat Nip, a critical HP Thief does an okay job with it. It's not as good as options like decked-out fiend teams, but it's still pretty decent DPS overall thanks to the relatively good AGI and double attack.

But where's the novelty of spamming trigger-happy with nothing but 9999s?

[Hinnyuu]

Originally posted by Scheneighnay:

But where's the novelty of spamming trigger-happy with nothing but 9999s?

That novelty gets old real quick :P

It was stupidly broken, for obvious reasons; but then again X-2 has its issues at endgame that made people resort to Cat Nip in the first place.

Not that x3 Impale is any more exciting, but at least it's harder to get...