Still ff12 but I got past the shrine of miriam and up to the phon coast. Im going back and picking up optional espers which I had not done before so there are a few I can get.

An update on my builds. So I was using this guys thing that combined having everyone have 3x speed and making sure people could get synergizing equipment. Thing is I really want to use all classes and his did not do that. In addition I noticed he skipped some of the equipment synergizing anyway. There is actually only one thing I had to get rid of from his rules to get all 12 classes and that is having the supposed top 3 weapons seperated between characters so they could be on the filed concurrently. Anyway I decided I could kick that out so my criteria is 3x speed, item synergy, and not combining two magic user types for survivability (mostly hit points).

So my class pair start with the redmage/archer. This is easy as its a well known combo and its about maximizing the red mages capstone big damage spell ardur which is a fire spell. They either have to be paired with black mage which is verboten by my rule or archer for the burning bow and its a highly rated pairing by many people so its a no brainer. The peson to put it on was a bit difficult though. penelo makes the most sense for black mage because most mp and magic power and then fran has the highest vitality so is basically best for time mage. ashe is second with mp and magic power so she makes the most sense min/max wise but darnit. rp wise fran makes so much sense since she starts with a bow and the basic black and white mage spells. Its perfect for her but I went min/max and did ashe.

Next im going to jump to some warriors. The guy whos guide I used says vann is best for the best bushi blade because of his one handed animation. Im assuming that is true. This is were we meet the crux of my difference. I find the knight absolutely has to have the bushi. excalibur needs mystic robes and the knight does not get 3x speed. only one class can bring that to him and that is knight. This puts two of the top three weapons on vann but im fine with that. I mean every class gets a top weapon and I am going to assume I will live with the possible third weapons that might be used which, you know, might more likley be a spell caster or technic. So bushi/knight is my second and goes on vann

Next he similarly says balthier is apparently best with the ninja sword dark blade and im trusting him on that so he becomes the shikashi which has 3x speed and could benefit from mystic armor for the dark blade. Since all my other mages are marked for other individuals he gets white mage and oh boy. I am so happy with this combo. with the mane gouche or whatever you get high evasion and the shikashi gets lots of hp and shields. this makes a great tank for the period evasion is useful. So you essentially get a healer/support/tank all in one which gives you much more options for the other two in tough fights. Later the knight/bushi becomes another sorta option for that when espers help you unlock some white mage spells and a combo below should take over the role and be even better late game.

Ok. So we got 3 of the six and next im going to pair fran’s time mage with something and it already has the 3x speed so can take one of the warrior classes that does not get 3x speed without extra squares. So one thing I noticed with monk was if you can unlock the squares you get the top white mage spells and if your combining mages the white/time mage is the ultimate support/healer. so using monk is practically as good as adding white mage (eventually) but then also you get the monk combat benefits which are substantial. monk is the class that is pretty nice with every class as it has all the combat and hp squares. So now you have a class combo that eventually will be as good an endgame support/healer/tank/warrior as your going to get. I saw another guy talking about how he stumbled across this mix but basically if it was an mmo this would be the class combo I would choose for my character.

ok so we have 4 character and 8 classes used and actually we already said penelo was going to get black mage. At this point there is only one warrior class that gets 3x speed easily and that is the machinist. its not bad. nice having a range alternative for black mage but it sorta necessary as it does not bring a lot of tankiness. mystic robes help darkshot. easy access to steal and poach. probably the most meh of my combos but it works out fine.

ok so we are down to one character and 2 classes. This would make basch a ulan/beserker. Thing is that will only be able to unlock 3x speed when you get ultima. So im eventually going to do this but 3x speed is real important to me so for most of the game my bash is a ulan/bushi.

So I find in early game you don’t need magic much class wise because the girls give you white mage and fran black mage first level spells. I put everyone as their class that gives the 3x speed and make a race for those squares just getting equipment/spells thats I can access as more a priority which continues into the dual boards. Ultimately 4 of the 4 characters can heal/support to greater and lesser extent and everyone is a good warrior and to some extend tank with the squishiest ones having ranged attacks and offensive spells a plenty. The espers get spread out decently to.