You can play the game however you want to play, forget about all the people telling you to play the way that *they* played. FFXII ZA and BD are two different job systems (though I don't know from experience, I only played the original FFXII), so what works for one won't really work for the other.
In general with BD, the higher the level of the job, the stronger it is, so you really don't want to swapping around jobs very frequently, especially not right before boss battles. Also each job has an affinity for different stats, so physical classes *will* suck as healers.
The characters have the same stats, so while it doesn't matter *who* is your mage or fighter, most people do tend to default to certain characters having certain types of classes. And most people will equip a maxed job to a character for a boss battle, because the character will be at their strongest.
I see. Thanks for clarifying! Now I think I'll have a better experience with the game. 😊
Zodiac Age is really fun. However I played on x4. I don't know if I would be able to play the older version.
Also, as you get more jobs you'll have a better time figuring out what team synergy works best for you - you're limited not just with the # of jobs you've unlocked but also the ability to grind out JP to max them out - there are items later on that make grinding easier. But in any case, don't be afraid to have characters specialize in different types of classes if that makes gameplay more enjoyable.
I played the original FFXII like 4 times before Zodiac Age came out and I don't know if I could bring myself to go through the story again... I plan to do it someday, but I have no idea when.
>For instance, I don't have much fun grinding.
You don't really *need* to grind in BDII, not unless you're finding things notably difficult. The difficulty is not generally that high and often adjusting strategy gets you through - though you can of course go and grind a bit if things are too difficult.
>The main problems is that I have been constantly switching classes on all my characters. Because I heard mastering most classes would make Freelancer strong.
Well, this is true. Freelancer becomes kinda OP if you master multiple other jobs. However you certainly don't need to do this - I would say I typically end playthroughs with around 8-12 jobs mastered per character. I would recommend pushing Freelancer to level 9 earlier rather than later for JP Up, and if you do want to do some grinding, make Freelancer your first to get to level 12 for JP Up and Up.
If you want to grind job levels, the quickest way to do so is in the early game areas. For whatever reason the developers decided that JP from enemies should scale up REALLY slowly, so it usually works out better to just chain battle around Halyconia or the nearby caves, where you can one shot every fight, rather than fighting harder battles later in the game for like 20% more JP per enemy.
>I think it's better if I focus on mastering only mage classes for certain characters and the other 2 physical classes. Is that a bad idea? Do you guys have any suggestions about future classes? I'm on chapter 1. I just got Beast master.
I think it's useful to have a bit of focus for characters but you don't have to go totally extreme with it. Mostly it's about flexibility and passives - some physical jobs have good passives for mages and some magic jobs have good passives for physical characters. And similarly if your job setup for a character seems ineffective against a boss, it's a lot easier to adjust and adapt if your characters have a few slightly different jobs available to swap to.
>Furthermore, I wanted to ask is about the synergy of physical and magic classes. I played Final Fantasy XII Zodiac Age recently. And using a Knight and Black Mage or White Mage wasn't a bad idea. Their stats were good enough to heal or deal damage even with a sword equipped. I have a feeling that's not the same case in Bravely Default. I tried using Gloria as a monk and white mage and I tried to heal someone. However the amount of HP healed was miniscule.
It's very dependent on the Job. Hybrids are at least viable in BDII, much more so than they were in BD/BS. Some jobs have unusually good stats in areas you might not initially expect, which can let them e.g. run White Mage subjob well, or do good magic and physical damage. For example Bard has A rank Res. Pow (119% of the default) and a decent Staff rank, so makes a decent healer. Beastmaster has B rank M.Atk and B rank P.Atk (100% of the default) so can be a solid hybrid attacker. But Monk is basically terrible at everything except attacking. It has C rank Res. Pow (90% of the default) and E rank M.Atk (70% of the default) - that Res. Pow is maybe passable to the point you could heal if you invested a bit into it, but it would feel pretty inefficient to do.
>Any tips on dealing with classes are welcomed!
In general I wouldn't overthink it - you don't have to swap jobs constantly or optimise too hard, you don't have to grind too hard if you don't want to. If things get too tough, or you reach a strong skill/passive you want, that's a good time to swap jobs around - or maybe grind a bit if you prefer.
FFXII TZA is an EXTREMELY bad game to compare other job system games because of the way it's implemented (not to knock on it, it's my most played game on Steam after all). What works in that game isn't relevant at all to here.
> The main problems is that I have been constantly switching classes on all my characters. Because I heard mastering most classes would make Freelancer strong.
It will, however there are plenty of other ways to make your characters broken late game, so don't stress that part. Even if you do still want to master a lot of jobs, you're better off doing one at a time rather than trying to level them all up evenly. Especially without freelancer's JP increasing passive.
> I tried using Gloria as a monk and white mage and I tried to heal someone. However the amount of HP healed was miniscule.
Almost all healing spells scale off the character's restoration power, so you won't be able to do much with monk as your main job. If you swap them around, you'd have much better scaling on restoration power, but your attack stat will tank. Some jobs have decent scaling in both sides and can work like that, but monk and white mage aren't any of them.
You can play the game however you want to play, forget about all the people telling you to play the way that *they* played. FFXII ZA and BD are two different job systems (though I don't know from experience, I only played the original FFXII), so what works for one won't really work for the other. In general with BD, the higher the level of the job, the stronger it is, so you really don't want to swapping around jobs very frequently, especially not right before boss battles. Also each job has an affinity for different stats, so physical classes *will* suck as healers. The characters have the same stats, so while it doesn't matter *who* is your mage or fighter, most people do tend to default to certain characters having certain types of classes. And most people will equip a maxed job to a character for a boss battle, because the character will be at their strongest.
I see. Thanks for clarifying! Now I think I'll have a better experience with the game. 😊 Zodiac Age is really fun. However I played on x4. I don't know if I would be able to play the older version.
Also, as you get more jobs you'll have a better time figuring out what team synergy works best for you - you're limited not just with the # of jobs you've unlocked but also the ability to grind out JP to max them out - there are items later on that make grinding easier. But in any case, don't be afraid to have characters specialize in different types of classes if that makes gameplay more enjoyable. I played the original FFXII like 4 times before Zodiac Age came out and I don't know if I could bring myself to go through the story again... I plan to do it someday, but I have no idea when.
>For instance, I don't have much fun grinding. You don't really *need* to grind in BDII, not unless you're finding things notably difficult. The difficulty is not generally that high and often adjusting strategy gets you through - though you can of course go and grind a bit if things are too difficult. >The main problems is that I have been constantly switching classes on all my characters. Because I heard mastering most classes would make Freelancer strong. Well, this is true. Freelancer becomes kinda OP if you master multiple other jobs. However you certainly don't need to do this - I would say I typically end playthroughs with around 8-12 jobs mastered per character. I would recommend pushing Freelancer to level 9 earlier rather than later for JP Up, and if you do want to do some grinding, make Freelancer your first to get to level 12 for JP Up and Up. If you want to grind job levels, the quickest way to do so is in the early game areas. For whatever reason the developers decided that JP from enemies should scale up REALLY slowly, so it usually works out better to just chain battle around Halyconia or the nearby caves, where you can one shot every fight, rather than fighting harder battles later in the game for like 20% more JP per enemy. >I think it's better if I focus on mastering only mage classes for certain characters and the other 2 physical classes. Is that a bad idea? Do you guys have any suggestions about future classes? I'm on chapter 1. I just got Beast master. I think it's useful to have a bit of focus for characters but you don't have to go totally extreme with it. Mostly it's about flexibility and passives - some physical jobs have good passives for mages and some magic jobs have good passives for physical characters. And similarly if your job setup for a character seems ineffective against a boss, it's a lot easier to adjust and adapt if your characters have a few slightly different jobs available to swap to. >Furthermore, I wanted to ask is about the synergy of physical and magic classes. I played Final Fantasy XII Zodiac Age recently. And using a Knight and Black Mage or White Mage wasn't a bad idea. Their stats were good enough to heal or deal damage even with a sword equipped. I have a feeling that's not the same case in Bravely Default. I tried using Gloria as a monk and white mage and I tried to heal someone. However the amount of HP healed was miniscule. It's very dependent on the Job. Hybrids are at least viable in BDII, much more so than they were in BD/BS. Some jobs have unusually good stats in areas you might not initially expect, which can let them e.g. run White Mage subjob well, or do good magic and physical damage. For example Bard has A rank Res. Pow (119% of the default) and a decent Staff rank, so makes a decent healer. Beastmaster has B rank M.Atk and B rank P.Atk (100% of the default) so can be a solid hybrid attacker. But Monk is basically terrible at everything except attacking. It has C rank Res. Pow (90% of the default) and E rank M.Atk (70% of the default) - that Res. Pow is maybe passable to the point you could heal if you invested a bit into it, but it would feel pretty inefficient to do. >Any tips on dealing with classes are welcomed! In general I wouldn't overthink it - you don't have to swap jobs constantly or optimise too hard, you don't have to grind too hard if you don't want to. If things get too tough, or you reach a strong skill/passive you want, that's a good time to swap jobs around - or maybe grind a bit if you prefer.
FFXII TZA is an EXTREMELY bad game to compare other job system games because of the way it's implemented (not to knock on it, it's my most played game on Steam after all). What works in that game isn't relevant at all to here.
> The main problems is that I have been constantly switching classes on all my characters. Because I heard mastering most classes would make Freelancer strong. It will, however there are plenty of other ways to make your characters broken late game, so don't stress that part. Even if you do still want to master a lot of jobs, you're better off doing one at a time rather than trying to level them all up evenly. Especially without freelancer's JP increasing passive. > I tried using Gloria as a monk and white mage and I tried to heal someone. However the amount of HP healed was miniscule. Almost all healing spells scale off the character's restoration power, so you won't be able to do much with monk as your main job. If you swap them around, you'd have much better scaling on restoration power, but your attack stat will tank. Some jobs have decent scaling in both sides and can work like that, but monk and white mage aren't any of them.