My Opinion on Every Single Job in the game

[Oguzhan]

I have been playing FFV Advance these days (beat it twice this week) and felt like sharing my opinions on every single job since I am bored right now.

Now, keep in mind that pretty much every job in this game has use. There is a reason people can do 4 job fiestas and still be able to beat the game.

Crystal 1:

Freelancer: The end game job. If you grind the other jobs, it becomes the best one in the game. I mainly use this one for physical fighters and the mime for my mages.

Fighter: I mainly use this job for the Gil Turtle fight and that's about it. Good but doesn't have many extra abilities.

Monk: One of my absolute favorite jobs in the entire game. It does so much damage for the first half of the game and the counter ability is extremely useful for breaking certain bosses like the Archeovis. No joke, for early game, I just stick to the monk and absolutely destroy most of the bosses, it is broken.

The White Mage: It is the try and true healing job but I only use it to cast reflect on the red dragon and that one post game dungeon boss so that I can learn Level 3 flare early and circumvent the latter from using doom on itself to fully heal itself. There are much better, other healing arts.

The Black Mage: An absolute power house, the black mage is fantastic throughout the entire game. Provided that you know the elemental weaknesses of the bosses, you can absolutely destroy them just by using the spells but you can also purchase the elemental rods and break them for MASSIVE amounts of damage. Not to mention that the elemental rods are also amazing for late game as the elemental magic might as well be the best offensive magic in the game, with Firaga being a personal favorite of mine. That's not all, on top of being able to dishout damage, the black magic has so much utility when combined with accessories such as the flame shields and the reflect rings. I LOVE using reflect rings to bounce off my Firaga spells for, usually, +6k damage, while also protecting myself from enemy attacks. I used this strat to beat so many bosses, including the super boss Enuo.

The Blue Mage: My absolute favorite class in the game. Getting the spells require you to go out of your way but you would be surprised at just how early you can get some really powerful spells. The Aero spells are super powerful, level 5 doom is an absolute power house, Metal Claw is really good against certain bosses, Aqua Breath is absolutely broken early game, level 3 flare destroys Exdeath, Mighty Guard is good against every boss in the game and White Wind is easily my favorite healing spell in the game. Not only that but you can get the "Blue" command very early on in the game and it is fantastic as a second command. I sometimes put it on my physical fighters just in case I need a quick healing. It ALSO ignores undead and reflect, meaning it synergizes EXTREMELY well with the reflect ring combo and the Bone Mail. I used the black magic + blue magic + reflect ring combo against Enuo and it worked stupendously. Bone mail also protects you against undead and heals you if you get doomed, which is really useful with the right set up.

The Thief: Quality of life the job. Stealing is also extremely useful. No need to say more.

Crystal 2:

Red Mage: Personally, I don't really use this one. It is good and the dualcast ability is absolutely broken but even then, going through all of your spells is a pain when using dual cast. Not to mention, you have to grind it a lot. It can be broken combined with quick and mime, for sure but I don't like it. This is a personal opinion.

Time Mage: Good but I mainly use it for float and return (dragon lances). It has really useful spells but it doesn't fit my play style. By the time I REALLY need haste and float, I get Mighty Guard.

Summoner: It is a really cool job and I absolutely adore Bahamut. I usually end up having one character with the Summon command in late game and it goes really well with Mime. Finding early game summons is really cool since they are boss fights and seeing how Ifrit scares books is nice.

Berserker: I am sure......it is good but I don't like it.

Mystic Knight: REALLY useful, especially when combined with Dual Blade and Rapid Fire. That being said, I mainly use it for Omega.

Mime: It is the end game job that you use mainly for mages or for Mime combos. Not much to say here other than it being broken IF you grind other jobs. I also like how I can mime steal commands :D

Crystal 3:

Beastmaster: Control is AMAZING for the Blue Mage and catch can lead some nice shenanigans. Since the Blue Mage is like my favorite job, this one is right up there just for being an amazing support alone. Control is also great for killing stuff like Mecha Heads and Shield Dragons.

Ranger: Rapid Fire and Aeovis Killer.....that should be enough. It has other uses but these two are the ones I mainly use it for.

Bard: It is an amazing job but I mainly use it for instances in the game. Keep in mind, there are some insane stuff you can do with it. I love this job.

Geomancer: It has really nice passive abilities and Gaia is good against those Air Ship cannons but that is about it for me. Luckily it is really easy to max out so you can use those passive abilities without grinding too much.

Ninja: Dual Wield and Throw are absolutely broken, not to mention the INSANE speed they have. EASILY one of the best physical classes in the entire game. Never forget that Dual Wield + Rapid Fire is like one of the best combos in the entire game.

Crystal 4

Dragoon: One of the coolest armors in the entire series but I only use it to kill Shinryuu.....sorry Dragoon fans.

Dancer: It is unreliable but the dance command can be really useful with the right equipment but let's face it, we mainly grind this for the "Equip Ribbon" ability.

Samurai: Might actually be the best physical class in the game. Gill Toss is absolutely disgusting throughout the entire game and its other abilities are nothing to scoff at. Honestly, sometimes I make rule to ban this job.

Chemist: It can let you increase your level by 20 (unless I am mistaking), do you have any idea how broken this can be? It is so broken and powerful that I ignore it. That being said, it is a job that literally circumvents level grinding.

ADVANCE JOBS

The Gladiator: A bad ass armor with a potential to do 9999 damage. It is a bit unreliable just like the Dancer but I LOVE this thing so much.

The Oracle and the Gun user or whatever: I don't like these, they have cool sprites but other than their passive EXP and ABP abilities, I never use them. Who knows, they might have some use that I am missing out on.

The Necromancer: You get it for beating Enuo, the post game super boss. It requires you to find enemies and kill them to get its spells at this late in the game. Sure it is cool and bad ass, not to mention has insane synergy with the aforementioned Bone Mail combos (I don't think it can equip it but it basically makes it so as if you are equipping it) but there isn't much point to it. Provided that you ignored them, the only bosses you get to kill with it are Neo Shinryuu and Omega MkII. You can kill Hades with it.... okay. Do the boss rush.....okay but that's it.

Soooo yeah. These are my thoughts on every single job in the game. Everyone has their own favorites and styles, so just because I don't like one doesn't necessarily mean that it sucks. What are your thoughts on jobs? Which ones are your favorites and why? What combos do you use?

[Electric Cupcake]

You don't consider Mime an "advance job?"

[Oguzhan]

Originally posted by Crosseyed Mie:

You don't consider Mime an "advance job?"

Mime was always in the game. Advance jobs mean the jobs that were added in the Advance Version.

[Grakor]

Knight - Turning weapons into two-handers is nice for most of the other heavy armor jobs, and is easier to get than dual wielding. Guard is pretty easy to abuse, but I also mostly only use it for the Gil Turtle.

Monk - Good early game, falls off later until you get the Kaiser Knuckles, at which point it becomes good again. Too many filler abilities by the end, though, we really didn't need three "increase HP" passives. Barehanded can be useful to put on characters that have poor weapon options, though.

White Mage - There are other healing options, but White Magic is something I always want to have ready. For most of the game I tend to abuse the free Healing Staff, so the magic itself is mostly for group healing and status clears. Once you get Holy, it arguably becomes one of the best damage skill-sets too, since Holy can be elemental-boosted while Flare and Bahamut cannot.

Black Mage - Ehh. I almost never use Black Magic unless I'm leveling up the job itself. The problem is, by the time I really need offensive magic I'll already have access to the Mystic Knight and Summoner, both of which have far more utility. I think Osmose is gained a bit too late in this game, too. It can trivialize certain boss encounters, but huge swaths of the game it's playing catch-up to Summon, around the time you can use Titan powered up by Gaia Gear.

Blue Mage - I love Blue Mage. Blue is probably the most versatile command in the game if you take the time to learn everything at the earliest opportunities, and you can do some hilariously abusive boss strategies with it. Goblin Punch is a hilarious way to delete bosses if you manage your levels right, and there's the obvious examples of Death Claw and Level 5 Death. Once you get an Air Knife, things get even better, and wind isn't an element commonly resisted.

Thief - Steal is really good for getting really strong gear long before you should really have it, and the only way to get some of the best gear in the game later. It's a job I almost always have the most people maxed out on because having the Thief's Gloves is great for making the process easier. Vigilance is also something you can really get addicted to having.

Red Mage - Good for the first world. After that it falls off hard, and you'll only use it to get to Doublecast. Or because it is one of the jobs that can hold staves, and you want a Healing Staff or a Judgement Staff on someone, I guess. Really, though, if it wasn't for Doublecast I'd never use this after going to the second world.

Time Mage- I don't use it too much early. Hastega is really good later, though, and Meteor is an okay-ish damage spell end-game. Return is useful for some stealing strats, and Time Mage can use staves, which is nice. Good for support, but has a few too many gimmicky abilities for common use.

Summoner - One of the best nukers for a good while, and comes with a surprising amount of utility for that fact. Golem and Carbuncle are great when you finally get them, and at the very early game you can use Sylphs for some decent damage and healing. Catoblepas even has some shining moments. Probably my favorite of the main "caster" jobs, after Blue Mage.

Berserker - This job is a lot better in this version compared to the original, since it got sped up a bit and is much less likely to randomly target back-row enemies. These guys are pretty useful at certain points since axes can cut through high defense, and if you manage to get/steal a good axe (Death Sickle early, for example) they can actually be really good damage, especially when using axes two-handed. And being effectively immune to confusion is useful at points, too.

Mystic Knight - Spellblade is absurd. Nothing new there. Sadly Mystic Knight itself kind of falls off a bit later, as they don't have the best weapon options without the ability to wield knight-swords. Spellblade is worth staying for, though.

Beastmaster - Control is great for learning Blue Magic and trivializing certain strong enemies. Catch is actually absurdly strong if you know what's worth grabbing, and can make for some very easy bosses.

Ranger - Rapid Fire is obviously good. Animals is actually situationally useful as a supplementary skill for mages: it's one of the early forms of group-healing that doesn't cost MP, you just have to be lucky to get Nightingales periodically. I find that as a Ranger itself, damage is fairly bad compared to a lot of other jobs, which feels off.

Bard - Bard has no right to be as good as it is. Being able to casually Stop or Confuse the entire enemy line makes random encounters a breeze, and that's before Requiem starts straight up deleting undead enemies. Sing is a good back-up skill set for mages, and Bard itself is very fast to master.

Geomancer - Gaia is theoretically useful in the same way that Sing and Animals is, as a back-up for mages. I don't often get as good of results from it, though, so mostly I use Sing/Animals and use Geomancer mostly for its passives. Usefulness tends to vary based on where you are.

Ninja - Throw is Throw, you can trivialize a lot of the game with it if you want to. Dual Wield is really good, obviously, and more versatile than the Knight's Double Handed. They become really absurd damage dealers for the last half of the second world and much of the third if you take time to farm some Twin Lances from Bal Castle.

Dragoon - The problem here is that Jump and lances need each other to be relevant. Dragoon itself is largely fine, but it doesn't give any abilities that you really want to give to other jobs. Lance is an okay secondary ability to give mages, but you want MP management Animals, Sing, and Gaia all give more interesting options.

Dancer - Dancer with the Chicken Knife and Rainbow Dress will delete enemies. A bit random, but probably one of the easiest ways to wreck enemies in the third world until you settle in to Freelancer/Mime setups. Seriously, Dance is really good as an early way to hit the damage cap. I love this job, personally.

Samurai - Zeninage is broken, and I make it a point not to use it. The other abilities, though, make a pretty decent physical fighter. I find I don't give Samurai abilities to other jobs very often, though. Iainuki and Mineuchi have their niche uses, I just don't find I have the room to assign them often.

Chemist - Much like with Zeninage, I tend to ignore Mix. It's unquestionably a very strong job, I just don't like using it. Remedy and Revive are a bit pointless.

Gladiator - Finisher is basically an alternative to Dance as a way to randomly reach the damage cap. Pretty good job all around, and I like it is one of the few jobs that has a good variety of weapons they can use.

Cannoneer - Kind of whatever. Much like Chemist I don't really care for this job much, as I'm not a fan of the particular style. Also like Chemist, there is no question that they can be absurdly strong, though.

Oracle - Interesting from the perspective of being yet another way to give mages a skill set that doesn't use MP, and a rare form of healing that isn't tied to MP or items. Requires a bit of finesse, though, and sometimes you don't have the luxury to wait around for timers to hit 0 before you need that healing.

Necromancer - I don't understand the design logic of having a job that's gained so late that there's nothing left to use it on. Seriously, if you gained this at the same time you picked up the other "Advance" jobs, it'd probably be my favorite. It's got a cool gimmick you have to work around. It's just a shame it's basically pointless.

Freelancer/Mime - End-game jobs I don't usually make use of. By the time you have everything else maxed out nothing is a challenge anymore.