What are the best jobs? Also...

[Rowan]

Would like to know what are the best jobs are and what are these "master jobs" I hear about? Something to do with mastering all the jobs? If thats the case, then that would take ages I assume. I have just passed the section of the story where the fire crystal breaks.

[Michael Swayne]

Mastering a job really depends on the job. Some jobs have more abilities to learn, some have less. The magic classes tend to take a little longer in my opinion (Black, White, Summoner, Red, Time) because there are so many abilities.

But the rewards for mastering a job are great. To have Strength and Stamina of the Knight, Monk, Berserker; Magic of a Summoner/Mage, and the Agility of a Thief or Ninja is enough of a reward for me.

I don't know about any "master jobs", just that you can master each job. Granted, I haven't mastered every single job yet. Just about half of them.

[Rowan]

So what you are saying is that if I master a Knight job, ill learn something that allows me to use all of my knight abilities as a ninja? I dont quite understand...

[Michael Swayne]

You know that once you learn an ability like the Knight's "Guard", you can apply it to the other jobs as well. There are also abilities like the Knight's "Two-Handed" that doubles the damage when equipped with a sword, katana, or axe.

When you master a job, like the Knight; the stats of the Knight (mainly Strength and Stamina) are also the new stats of the Freelancer and Mime Jobs. You notice how the Freelancer is generally weaker than the actual jobs, right? Mastering a Job puts the Job's stats as the Freelancer's stats.

I hope I didn't confuse you even more.

[loaf]

Mastered jobs benefits with the Freelancer and Mime job. With Freelancer you can put 2 abilities onto your character. So you can customize it. With the Mime job, it's not like your typical mimic who does the last thing done. (It does but there is more).

instead of 2 abilities like in the Freelancer. Mime lets you put all 4 of your own. So like me my menu looked like this in a battle.

Mime
Charge

what i had in the menu was.

Mime
Charge
2handed
Equip Katana

[Rocky]

the best jobs kinda depend on what part of the game you are at. Some jobs like white mage are pretty much useful throughout the entire game, other jobs like Bard, are only really needed at one point in the game and are very niche the rest of the time.

Each boss has it's own trick on how to down it quickly, so even if you don't have jobs mastered, you'll still be ok as long as you figure out how to win. The game is pretty non-linear in that way as far as battle format goes.

Some basic gamebreaking tricks? Master Ninja and Hunter as soon as you get them on one person. Hunter learns an ability that lets you hit 4 times, and Ninja lets you use 2 weapons, so you can hit an enemy 8 times in one turn.

Another magical one, is mastering Red Mage (takes a long time) and any other Magic class, then using the Freelancer job. Red Mage's doublecast normally lets you use 2 magic spells up to level 3 (I think), but if you are on freelancer and have Time Mage mastered, for instance, that means you can cast any level of Time Mage spells twice in succession.

[Rowan]

So basically the mastered (final) ability learned is usually the best and the one that is used with freelancer (allows you to equip 2 different abilities as opposed to just the 1) although Im still wondering about the stats.

How are the stats applied? Say you master the knight, does the knights main stats stay with you for any job class you choose to be? what if you master every job, do you end up with some insane stats?

[Michael Swayne]

Not necessarily. The abilities are your own preference. Sometimes the abilities are mainly equipping abilities (i.e. Last ability learned for the Knight allows you to equip Swords for any job IF you set the ability). The stats are mainly in regards to Freelancer and Mime.

At the beginning of the game, Bartz is a Freelancer. As a Freelancer, his stats are 28 (Strength), 25 (Agility), 27 (Stamina), and 25 (Magic). If you choose to make him a Knight, his stats become 51 (Strength), 26 (Agility), 47 (Stamina), and 11 (Magic). Once you master the Knight Job for Bartz, his stats as a Freelancer become 51 (Strength), 26 (Agility), 47 (Stamina), and 25 (Magic). Notice how only the stats that are higher as a Knight remain higher as a Freelancer that has mastered Knight.

As you master more Jobs, the stats as a Freelancer and Mime will increase to the Mastered Jobs levels. However, they won't keep adding. If you master the Knight, and then master the Monk; your Strength will not be super-high, just whichever it was highest as (Knight OR Monk).