Final Fantasy XII Best Jobs Guide

Where to Begin[edit]

When contemplating your class combinations you should consider the base stats that your characters start off with. When you unlock your second board, any shared tiles that were unlocked on your first board will automatically be unlocked on your new board, regardless of the position on the board.

• Vaan – Daggers 1 / Light Armor 1/ Steal
• Balthier – Guns 1 / Light Armor 2 / Steal / First Aid
• Fran – Bows 1 / Light Armor 2 / White Magick 1 / Black Magick 1/ Steal
• Basch – Swords 2 / Shields 1 / Heavy Armor 1 / Libra
• Ashe – Swords 2 / Shields 1 / Heavy Armor 1 / Accessories 2/ White Magick 1 / Libra
• Penelo – Daggers 1 / Mystic Armor 1 / White Magick 1 / First Aid

Players can play with three characters at a time, so you can think of it as building one big team or two teams. For those new to RPGs there are a few components to a functional party that you should consider while building your team. An effective team typically consists of 3 roles which are pretty self-explanatory; Tank, Healer, and Damage.

• Tanks are on the front line and take the brunt of the damage. They focus on Heavy Armor and defensive buffs.
• Healers typically hang back to focus on keeping the party alive. They focus on Mystic Armors, Staves, and Rods.
• Damage characters want to do as much damage as possible, as fast as they can. Damage characters are the most versatile when building and can vary between a Magick wielder (like a Black Mage) or a Melee Weapon wielder (like a Shikari).

The Best Job for Each Character[edit]

There is no wrong choice when choosing a job for a character. If you refer to the base stats of the character from the chart above, it gives you an idea of what each character is “supposed” to be best at because they already possess skills that are available on that job’s license board. These would be the best starting fit for each character based on their stats. 

• Vaan – Considered the jack of all trades but also has a higher than normal HP. Suggest jobs for him would be the Shikari, Uhlan, Knight, or Foebreaker.
• Balthier – Has a great combo speed. Suggested jobs would be melee ones such as Ulhan, Bushi, or Shikari.
• Fran – She has slightly weaker stats making her safer at a range. Suggested jobs are Archer or Machinist.
• Basch – Another character with high combo speed. Suggested jobs are Bushi, Ulhan, or Monk.
• Ashe – The obvious choice for a mage because of her high MP. Suggested jobs are White Mage, Black Mage, Red Battlemage, or Time Battlemage.
• Penelo – Has a higher MP, and a fast combo speed, especially with ninja swords. Suggested jobs are Black Mage, Shikari, or White Mage

It is really all about your personal play style. A personal favorite class is the Red Battlemage. They can do it all! They have healing magick, attack magick, support magick, strong armor, and melee weapons. They can fit into any team, and pair with any other job well. 

You can choose to go that path or you can choose to spread out your skills. For example, if a character already has White Magick unlocked, I would assign the White Mage class to another character instead of having all of my healing ability on one character. That way most of my characters can be healing together, rather than relying on one character to heal the team. Being able to assign two different jobs makes this quite easy to achieve. You can even assign one obvious job choice, and then a wild card job for the second option to change it up. The possibilities are endless! 

Uhlan (Taurus)[edit]

Uhlan’s are similar to a Dragoon and can double in Tanking and Damage. Uhlans sport heavy armor, while dealing powerful physical attacks with spears. Uhlans have the potential to wield the most powerful weapon in the game, the Zodiac Spear.

• Ideal Role: Damage/Tank
• Available Weapons: Spears
• Available Magicks: Black Magick
• Available Armor: Heavy Armor
• Available Technicks: Achilles, Bonecrusher, Wither, Expose, Charm, Souleater, First Aid, Infuse, Poach, Shades of Black, Revive

Bushi (Aquarius)[edit]

Bushi is a Samurai-style job class that uses light physical attacks using Katanas as their main weapon. They do not have magical abilities but do not let that fool you. Almost half of their license board consists of tiles to increase Magick power and Mystic Armor tiles. To get the full potential from the Bushi license board, it is highly recommended that it is paired with a Magick wielding job.

• Ideal Role: Damage
• Available Weapons: Katana
• Available Magicks: None
• Available Armor: Mystic Armor, Heavy Armor
• Available Technicks: 1000 Needles, Bonecrusher, Soul Eater, Gil Toss, Libra, Infuse, Sight Unseeing, Shades of Black, Stamp

Machinist (Gemini)[edit]

Machinists are a ranged job which primarily uses Light Armor and Guns. Their Light Armor keeps their speed up, but Guns are not particularly powerful weapons in the game. Their main selling point is their expertise in Potion and Remedy Lores which are vital later in the game.

• Ideal Role: Damage
• Available Weapons: Guns, Measures, Hand-bombs
• Available Magicks: Time Magick, Green Magick
• Available Armor: Light Armor
• Available Technicks: Achilles, Charm, Gil Toss, Horology, Libra, Numerology, Steal, Poach, Stamp, Traveler

Shikari (Pisces)[edit]

Shikari is a hunter type job that is the quickest of all the job classes making them perfect for a Damage role in the party. Although they have a variety of weapon skills they specialize in daggers and ninja swords.

• Ideal Role: Damage
• Available Weapons: Daggers, Ninja Swords, Guns
• Available Magicks: White Magicks
• Available Armor: Shields, Light Armor. 
• Available Technicks: 1000 Needles, Bonecrusher, First Aid, Gil Toss, Libra, Shades of Black, Stamp, Traveler, Telekinesis 

White Mage (Aries)[edit]

A Healer job that also deals and an impressive amount of Holy damage. White Mage’s weapons of choice are rods and usually wear mystic armor. They also have access to Green Magicks. 

• Ideal Role: Healer
• Available Weapons: Rods, Greatswords, Daggers
• Available Magicks: White Magick, Green Magick
• Available Armor: Mystic Armor
• Available Technicks: Achilles, Charge, Soul Eater, Libra, Numerology, Stamp

Red Battlemage (Cancer)[edit]

Red Battlemage’s have the largest selection of Magic to choose from and are the only class that can use Arcane Magick. Their weapons are mostly maces paired with shields. They are the most versatile of the jobs having decent Healing Magicks, Support Magicks, and Damage Magicks to mix into the battle. Very useful class to have in the Trials. 

• Ideal Role: Damage
• Available Weapons: Maces, Greatswords
• Available Magicks: Black Magick, Arcane Magick, White Magic, Time Magick, Green Magick
• Available Armor: Mystic Armor, Heavy Armor, Shields
• Available Technicks: Charge, Souleater, Steal

Monk (Virgo)[edit]

Monk’s have powerful physical attacks with excellent health and evasion. They are meant to fight with poles or unarmed, but we wouldn’t recommend fighting unarmed later into the game. They are great for Damage roles, also has the potential to make a useful Tank.

• Ideal Role: Damage/Tank
• Available Weapons: Poles, Unarmed
• Available Magicks: White Magick
• Available Armor: Light Armor
• Available Technicks: Achilles, Bonecrusher, Wither, Expose, Souleater, First Aid, Libra, Numerology, Shades of Black, Revive, Sight Unseeing, Traveler

Foebreaker (Scorpio)[edit]

Foebreakers make amazing Tanks. They specialize in Heavy Armor, Shields, Axes, and Hammers. Their license board is packed with tiles to increase strength in battle.

• Ideal Role: Tank/Damage
• Available Weapons: Axes, Hammers, Hand-bombs
• Available Magicks: None
• Available Armor: Shields, Heavy Armor
• Available Technicks: Wither, Expose, Shear, Addle, Horology, Infuse, Shades of Black, Sight Unseeing, Traveler

Archer (Sagittarius)[edit]

Archers fit perfectly into Damage roles and are primarily equipped with Bows and Light Armor. They are great at keeping their distance while dealing damage to enemies on the ground and the air.

• Ideal Role: Damage
• Available Weapons: Bows
• Available Magicks: White Magick
• Available Armor: Light Armor, Heavy Armor
• Available Technicks: 1000 Needles, Achilles, Shear, Addle, Charm, First Aid, Gil Toss, Libra, MP-HP, Poach, Shades of Black, Revive, Steal Traveler

Knight (Leo)[edit]

Knights are perfect for taking damage with their Heavy Armor as well as dealing it. They have the ability to equip one handed sword and shields, or two handed swords.

• Ideal Role: Tank/Damage
• Available Weapons: Swords, Greatswords
• Available Magicks: White Magicks
• Available Armor: Sheilds, Heavy Armor
• Available Technicks: Souleaster, FIrst Aid, Infuse, Revive, Sight Unseeing, Telekinesis

Time Battlemage (Libra)[edit]

A mage that can hold their own, while still dealing a hefty amount of damage. They primarily use Time Magick, Crossbows, and heavy armor.

• Ideal Role: Damage
• Available Weapons: Crossbows, Swords
• Available Magicks: Time Magick, Green Magick, White Magick
• Available Armor: Heavy Armor
• Available Technicks: Shear, Addle, Charge, Horology, Numerology, Poach, Stamp

Black Mage (Capricorn)[edit]

The mage that definitely deals the most damage utilizing Black Magick. Definitely, a must have addition to your team, especially in Trial Mode. Their attacks do a tremendous amount of AOE damage.

• Ideal Role: Damage
• Available Weapons: Staves, Hand-bombs
• Available Magicks: Black Magick, Green Magic
• Available Armor: Mystic Armor, Heavy Armor
• Available Technicks: Charge, Charm, Poach, Steal, Telekinesis