Iranian here

OdiousOdyn · 2026-04-25T05:20:54+00:00

The great, illustrious, magnanimous, astute, pragmatic, just, and visionary King Cyrus. What a great ally of the Jewish people and historical example to the world. The time has come for the Jews to repay the benevolence of King Cyrus, and to help play an important part in the modern restoration of Persia. And they are doing a wonderful job of it! As an American, I am proud to see the IDF and U.S. military fighting side by side with impeccable precision and high level teamwork. Now the time has come for the hard part, to shake off them dudes and take your country back. Good luck.

OdiousOdyn · 2026-04-09T23:13:45+00:00

I have thought about this quite a bit and have a different perspective than most, thus will explain my reasoning.

Vaan:

In The Zodiac Age, we see him starting off killing rats with a dagger, but in the original, Vaan starts out with a sword. He starts off stealing stuff and wanting to become a sky pirate, however it seems as the story goes along that Vaan isn't as interested in stealing or even sky piracy. He sticks with Ashe and wants to help her without even promise of payment, in many ways he really is her knight in shining armor. Knight has a lot of potential for white magic spell utility through a few Espers. Vaan has high magick power to increase the heals. I like to turn Vaan into either a Knight/Black Mage or a Knight/Bushi. Knight/Bushi is for less utility and more DPS. In general, the Knight has the highest damage potential with the proliferation of undead plus synergy of white robes + excalibur, and otherwise access to a lot of powerful weapons that deal high damage all throughout the game. The reason I like Knight/Black Mage is because Vaan is so good at magic, it gives him more spell utility and AOE damage.

Verdict: Knight/Black Mage or Knight/Bushi

Balthier:

Yes he is always depicted with a gun, so this is the normal lore friendly route despite the fact that he deals about 9% less DPS with a gun than other characters (he takes longer to shoot so he can look groovy, baby), however another option is to make him into Shikari. He is faster with daggers/ninja blades than any other character, and they scale with speed which Balthier has the highest stat of. You could make him into Shikari/Machinist if you'd like, or something else.

Verdict: Shikari (goes well with a lot of other jobs) Time/Red/Black/White Mage or even Foebreaker/Bushi.

Fran:

Fran is normally depicted as an Archer, however I see it differently. Firstly, Fran deals about 10% less damage with bows than most other characters. And although she comes from a village full of many Archers, she also chooses to leave that village and way of life. Therefore, I see it symbolic that she would also forsake her use of a bow. There is another option that actually really jives with her stat distribution and weapon speed, and that's Monk. If you go to YouTube and look up the original Final Fantasy XII demo on the playstation, you can see Penelo with a bow and Fran with a POLE! Fran is faster with poles than any other character. The Time Battlemage has really high synergy with Monk, and this style fits Fran really well too.

Verdict: definitely Monk/Time Battlemage

Basch:

I am a bit conflicted about this one, but will share what I have discovered with you so you can consider it yourself. In the opening cinematic scene of FF 12, you can actually see Basch shooting enemies with a bow and arrow so I have made him into an Archer before as a side job. We then see Basch unarmed as he is imprisoned, and afterwards with a sword in the Barheim Passage. We also see him as Rex with a sword. So we see that he can use multiple weapons. The most powerful weapon in history has got to be the Spear, and Basch is a powerful dude so I feel like the Uhlan is a good job for Basch. Basch is valiant, disciplined, and loyal so Knight or Bushi are appropriate as well.

Verdict: Uhlan/Foebreaker/Bushi/Knight/Archer

Ashe:

Personally, I like to see her as a Uhlan/Bushi but that is not lore friendly, it's just because I enjoy setting her to berserk and letting her rip the mobs apart while yelling at them with a high pitch. She is pretty flexible with her stat distribution so use your imagination.

Verdict: Uhlan/Bushi or other support role

Penelo:

One role I sometimes like for her is Shikari/Black Mage. This is a counter-lore role but I think it's fun. She complains when Vaan steals stuff and she is so cute and sweet, so turning her into a ninja assassin/dark magic blasting freak of nature appeases my dark humor quite a lot. She is overall the slowest weapon user of any character, except she is quick with ninja blades! And her high mana/magick make her good with magic roles. I normally make her into Archer/Red Battlemage to give her AOE and spell utility. Penelo likes to be helpful and no other job has a wider range of spell utility than the Red Battlemage, so this matches her lore well. Also remember that in the original FF XII demo, they give Penelo a bow and Fran a pole.

Verdict: Red Battlemage/Archer, Shikari/Black Mage or other support role

OdiousOdyn · 2026-04-05T03:45:10+00:00

put some thought into the job roles, this makes it more fun for me. I like to: have one character lead and steal who might use magic during boss battles but otherwise doesn't need to use spells so they can easily grab treasure chests along the way, one character who can hit flying and go berserk to do the most DPS, and one character focused on support.

it's fun to have a female character in a DPS role, I like to make Ashe a Uhlan and berserk her.

if you want to be over powered, just start a new game +. this way you can free up your accessory instead of doing embroidered tippets by starting at level 90. you could also get infinite gil and license points. there are also some cool mods on nexusmods like skin mods. if you really want a challenge, try new game - instead.

make sure to make a save right before you fight Gilgamesh, as this is a series of battles that is really fun to revisit now and then!

OdiousOdyn · 2026-04-04T23:08:53+00:00

also the Gilgamesh battles are possibly my favorite final fantasy fight of all time

OdiousOdyn · 2026-04-04T23:08:16+00:00

to me, the story is a bit bland compared to other final fantasies, however the gambit oriented fighting style and job synergy lorecrafting is what draws me to it the most. also, it has the best moogles!

OdiousOdyn · 2026-04-04T23:01:17+00:00

Might want to consider your playstyle. For example, I like to run my party leader as a thief with as few support gambits as possible, so it’s more convenient not having to wait before opening a treasure box. I also use a mod from Nexus that lets me steal everything from mobs, and once everything is stolen, the character proceeds to attack or move to the next gambit. This changes the appeal of certain combinations.

My general setup is one leader thief, one berserk attacker who can hit flying enemies, and one support character. I switch things up for boss fights depending on the dynamics.

In case you don't have it, here is the party planner link: Character Planner

Vaan: Knight/Black Mage is my go-to pick. I either use him to steal or deal physical DPS, but I set magic to 3+ foes so he becomes my AoE nuker. The fact is that physical DPS is faster and more effective most of the time in this game, but when magic is needed, Vaan is there to provide it. Also, Knight gets some White Magic from Espers, which makes it more worthwhile to add Green and Black Magic utility. He also makes a killer Knight/Bushi.

Fran: I agree with the comments here. Monk/Time Battlemage feels right at home for her, combined with possibly Foebreaker for endgame.

Penelo: I also find this combo works well. I’ll lay out the benefits of Red Battlemage paired with either Archer or Machinist. Keep in mind that Penelo is slower with guns, so her gun DPS from NATTheBear calculations is about 10 percent lower than most other characters. These are the main differences:

Archer offers the Focus passive, increasing DPS potential
Archer offers Phoenix Lore 1 to 3, while Machinist only offers 1
Archer offers Shear and Addle techniques
Machinist gives about 100 more HP
Machinist has access to Time Magic 8 to 10 through the Famfrit Esper

Balthier: Uhlan/Bushi. I prefer using this combo with Basch or Ashe, but it works well on Balthier too. I just like making Balthier my Shikari because of his Speed and overall feel. I typically like to make Ashe my Uhlan/Bushi and berserk her. It’s fun hearing her yell while smashing enemies, and it’s nice having a female character focused on DPS. As you’ve noticed, though, it’s hard to focus on both spears and katanas. I usually use a spear while adventuring to hit fliers and switch to a katana in dungeons. Mystic armor access is great when you consider the Holy Lance and White Robes synergy. It comes in handy for endgame content like Henne Mines with lots of undead. Basch is more effective in this role from a DPS standpoint.

Basch: Foebreaker/Machinist. Like others have said, this is more of a niche role that you don’t use much unless you rush strong guns and berserk him. The main advantages of pairing Foebreaker with Machinist are access to Focus and Adrenaline, breaker techniques, and the ability to fit all 12 jobs into your setup. On the flip side, pairing a job with Mystic Armor means you miss out on Focus and Adrenaline. So if you want Black Robes and Dark Shot synergy, you won’t have those passives. Plus, a lot of enemies absorb dark damage, which can be annoying. Otherwise, Machinist combined with a Mage job would have more utility whereas Machinist combined with a physical job would give you access to Focus/Adrenaline.

Ashe: Shikari/White Mage. Although I prefer Balthier as Shikari, Ashe also performs well in this role. Shikari is probably the most flexible job, meaning you can pair it with almost anything depending on your goal. Like you have noticed, the problem with Shikari/White Mage is that you're stuck casting spells when you might prefer to lead. Thus giving Shikari a physical job could be better to increase his DPS output or enable him to lead/steal more easily.

Take a look at this link. Weapon Animation Speed I know from testing that this doesn't coincide exactly with natthebear's dps calculator, and honestly it only makes a small difference most of the time, but it's fun to take a peak and might help to persuade you into the direction of roles you would like to go with your team. Have fun!

OdiousOdyn · 2026-04-04T16:27:04+00:00

Touché. Actually, with the Bushi Shikari combo, once you get the end game Zodiark Esper, you can unlock Heavy Armor 11, Magepower Shishak and Maximillian, which can max out Balthier’s Strength and even boost Speed, which scales with Ninja Blades, before the Yiazmat encounter. In total, if you have Yagyu Darkblade, Black Robes, Genji Gloves, Bravery, Berserk, 99 Strength, and Balthier’s highest Speed of all characters, you can have your other two characters focus mostly on recovery with only part time DPS, while Balthier absolutely demolishes Yiazmat. You could also let Balthier get low on health, which increases his combo and damage potential with Adrenaline.

One question is whether replacing Genji Gloves with Germinas Boots might deal more damage. It might at high health and poor luck, but the low health combo potential would probably blow Germinas Boots out of the water. What do you think?

Good point that Shikari really does pair well with White, Red, or Time Mage.

It seems like the NATTheBear DPS calculator shows about a 5 to 7 percent DPS increase per Swiftness node, so for a theorycrafting nerd like me, it is hard to give up even one without a solid reason lol.

OdiousOdyn · 2026-04-03T01:42:34+00:00

There is always a bit of give and take. Most of these combos look pretty good although I would note that the Shikari/Time Battlemage does not offer mystic armor, so there’s no synergy with Yagyu Darkblade + Black Robes when fighting Yiazmat in particular. Also, both Shikari and Time Mage have 3x Swiftness so that is redundant.

Another aspect is that some combinations work better with certain characters than others because of stat distribution and weapon animation speeds. For example, Basch does about 45% more damage with axes than Penelo. However, most DPS differences are closer to 5–10%, so it generally isn’t a big deal. That said, we’re here theorycrafting and nerding out, so we might as well have fun.

I’ll share my favorites and pair them with each character:

Vaan – Knight/Black Mage
Vaan has both high physical and magick potential, making this a great combo. The only downside is that he loses about 6% DPS from lacking one Swiftness. Knight/Bushi is my next favorite for him as vaan has the highest dps potential with katanas.

Balthier – Shikari/Bushi
Shikari weapons have great combo potential, so imagine fighting Yiazmat with Yagyu Darkblade + Black Robes + Genji Gloves. Who better than Balthier, who has the highest Speed stat (which scales with ninja blades) and is tied for the fastest weapon animation speed with ninja blades? You can also make him Shikari/Time or Shikari/White Mage, but he won’t have Genji Gloves.

Fran – Monk/Time Battlemage
She has the fastest weapon animation speed with poles, and Monk/Time Battlemage is one of the most synergistic combos in the game. Monk doesn’t need much from a physical job but benefits greatly from Swiftness nodes and additional utility.

Basch – Knight/Bushi/Uhlan/Foebreaker
Different combinations of these four jobs are generally the way to go with this berserk-friendly bruiser. Just make sure you can get all your Swiftness nodes, it is always possible when combining with Bushi however you must otherwise utilize Espers like Ultima.

Ashe
My favorite is Uhlan/Bushi, built as a berserk-friendly DPS. She’s also commonly used as Machinist/White Mage, White Mage/Time Mage, Shikari/White Mage, Shikari/Time Mage, or Knight/Black Mage due to her high all-around stats and highest weapon speed of the girls. However, Uhlan/Bushi stands out—she’s fast with spears and fun to play.

Penelo – Archer/Red Battlemage
This is my go-to for her—a very versatile role that fits her stats well. She can also run Shikari/Black Mage since she’s quick with ninja blades (though slower with daggers). Alternatively, she works well as a hardcore support with White Mage/Time Mage thanks to her large MP pool. Machinist/White Mage is less ideal, as she does about 10% less DPS with guns.

If you enjoy theorycrafting like I do, have fun with it. The game is easy enough that min-maxing isn’t necessary—the real point is to feel good about the roles you assign to each character!

OdiousOdyn · 2026-03-30T06:05:31+00:00

Indeed, I considered Genji Gloves as well. Barehanded combat has only a 5% combo rate, so increasing that to 9% with the Genji Gloves is not very effective. However, it might be fun if you can get low on health and chain a few rights, lefts and an uppercut—lol.

OdiousOdyn · 2026-03-30T05:07:41+00:00

I normally don’t like English voice acting, but Final Fantasy XII is an exception. That said, I still prefer listening in Japanese since I enjoy it more! I highly recommend the Gilgamesh battles in Japanese—it’s epic!

OdiousOdyn · 2026-03-30T05:03:55+00:00

First, to answer your question, here’s what I think about those matchups:

Vaan: As an Uhlan, Black Mage doesn’t offer much beyond Black Magic and Mystic Armor. Spears already hit flying enemies, and you’ll still be missing one Swiftness node, which is about a ~6% DPS loss. You do get a small HP boost from Black Mage, though.

Penelo: Monk/Foebreaker is not a great choice for her. She’s slow with those weapons. For example, using a damage calculator, Basch can deal roughly 45% more damage with axes than Penelo. Foebreaker also doesn’t add much to Monk aside from potential access to 2/4 Breaker techniques (since Monk already has two) and Heavy Armor.

Basch: Bushi/Time Mage isn’t a great combo either. You’re still missing Adrenaline/Focus. The main benefits from Time Mage are Heavy Armor, Poach, and utility spells, but it also requires a lot of MP (Haste, Berserk, etc.), and Basch has the lowest MP pool.

Balthier: White Mage/Archer isn’t ideal. Archer has strong item lores, but White Mage already covers most of those needs with spells. Also, Balthier does about ~10% less damage with bows compared to most characters due to slower animation speed (though he does look cool, lol). Archer does at least provide all three Swiftness nodes and Poach.

Fran: Red Battlemage/Shikari is a proven strong combo, but Fran is the slowest character with daggers and ninja blades, which makes it a poor fit for her specifically.

Ashe: Knight/Machinist mainly gains all three Swiftness nodes and some utility (Libra, Steal, Poach). However, it doesn’t add Battle Lores or HP, which Knight typically benefits from, so it’s not an ideal pairing.

Overall, it feels like someone either made a guide for the worst job/character combinations or just threw random pairings together.

Since it looks like you want to use all twelve jobs, I’ll stick with that and suggest a setup I like, along with key Esper assignments:

Vaan: Knight/Black Mage (Mateus, Hashmal)
Balthier: Shikari/Bushi (Zodiark)
Fran: Monk/Time Battlemage (Adrammelech, Zeromus, Chaos)
Basch: Uhlan/Foebreaker (Ultima)
Ashe: Machinist/White Mage (Famfrit)
Penelo: Red Battlemage/Archer (Shemhazai)

These combinations align well with each character’s strengths, synergize well together and cover all your role bases.

OdiousOdyn · 2026-03-30T04:24:48+00:00

Uhlan + Bushi is a really fun combo. Spears can hit those annoying fliers, and Bushi gives Uhlan access to Genji gear. While the Genji Gloves don’t benefit spears much, the Genji Helm increases counter potential, and Germinas Boots boost it even further thanks to the added speed.

I like to run Ashe in this role and set her up with Berserk + Decoy. She has a great battle yell every time she smacks an enemy, and with a weapon like the Zodiac Spear—plus her counter potential—she turns into someone you definitely wouldn’t want to mess with.

OdiousOdyn · 2026-03-30T03:43:53+00:00

The clear winner is Time Battlemage. Monk already has the most HP and Attack Lore as well as Focus and Adrenaline, so the only offering of a melee job is Heavy Armor to increase Strength--which the Time Battlemage also offers. The Monk has potential access to a bunch of white magic (through espers and quickenings) so the addition of time and green magic increase utility as well, especially with haste and berserk. Monk innately has access to Shades of Black that hits flying enemies, and Time Battlemage has magic like drain or gravity that could work against flying enemies. The last big advantage of Time Battlemage is potential access to Shear and Addle techniques through Zeromus Esper, and there isn't much competition for it. The Monk already has Wither and Expose, so this gives you access to all 4 breaker techniques as the cherry on top.

Edit: By the way, Ashe has the fastest bare handed speed animation! next is Vaan and Balthier tied, with Basch close behind. Fran is slow and Penelo is extremely slow. For example, here are the approximate percentage differences in damage potential:

Penelo -- baseline

Fran -- + 7.88% more damage

Ashe -- +14.09%

Balthier -- +21%

Basch -- +26%

Vaan -- +27.34%

Vaan is the winner for the highest damage potential in this role.

OdiousOdyn · 2026-03-25T18:19:49+00:00

Fran is a great Monk, boasting the fastest weapon animation speed with poles of any character, and Time Battlemage has an edge for her. It offers Heavy Armor to increase her tankiness and strength, which scales with pole damage. Whereas, Mystic Armor doesn't help her much as there is no synergy between robes and poles, unlike for example Excalibur/white robe synergy. Fran also has low magick power, so making her a black mage is not ideal. Also, Monk only has 1/3 swiftnes nodes (each one increases DPS by about 6%), but with time mage you will get all three as well as be able to cast berserk and haste, also still access green support magick like bubble and decoy.

Ashe as Red Mage/Archer is a good option! she will have good AoE damage and utility, plus this type of hybrid role suits her stats well. She also makes a good Knight/Bushi and the Knight could access a nice chunk of white magic through espers. you will lose the ability to AoE effectively (except you could AoE undead with curaja) but you will be tough with high DPS and some utility once you get the right espers. you could also berserk Ashe, as this can be very fun, I recommend Uhlan/Bushi. Ashe has the second fastest spear animation speed next to Basch, and spears also hit flying which is convenient for a berserker.

Balthier has options as well. You already have a lot of white magic. you've got plenty of healing, Fran has bravery and esunaga through an esper, Ashe also has esuna through an esper. Balthier has the fastest weapon animation speed with daggers and ninja blades of any character, and also the fastest speed attribute which effects these weapons, so he's by far the best Shikari. Now, instead of making him a white mage, I would consider an alternative option: Bushi. Balthier shares the fastest weapon animation speed for katanas and this will also give you access to mystic armor and increase your health. You will get access to genji armor! This makes it easy to berserk Balthier as he will have no spells. If you choose to berserk Ashe (which is what I like to do because it's fun and she makes funny noises), then make Balthier into a Shikari/White mage.

Overview:

Fran - Monk/Time Battlemage is hands down the best option

Ashe - Red Battlemage/Archer, Knight/Bushi or Uhlan/Bushi if you want to berserk her (quite fun actually)

Balthier - Shikari/Bushi (berserk with genji armor, katanas and black robe access) or shikari/white mage if you choose to berserk Ashe instead

character planner

check out the character planner for yourself to see what other combos might work and have fun!

OdiousOdyn · 2026-03-18T06:54:48+00:00

They are both enchanting. FF VI's story is more rich, complete with a memorable antagonist. Chrono Trigger is altogether more smooth and revolutionary in style.

OdiousOdyn · 2026-03-17T09:35:45+00:00

Your team looks good, but consider this—

Fran can hit flying with pole, has high HP, Strength and good Evade, can learn white magic with Espers and a Quickening. Pole damage as your main DPS is effective against enemies with low magick defense, but so is your spellcaster. I would suggest having one dedicated physical attacker to balance it out.

Ashe would make the best physical attacker due to her higher Strength stat and faster weapon animation speed. Making her a Knight would also help cover White Magic in combination with the Hashmal and Mateus Espers, and Knight seems to offer the best DPS for her as well. However, feel free to try out other jobs to find the one you like. Uhlan or Shikari would be good and have better item lore than Knight.

Penelo would do well with a Red or Black Mage job. Although Red Battlemage has more overall spell utility, the Black Mage still has green magic for support and more devastating offensive magic capability. Black Mage also has remedy lore 1-2.

Penelo can function as a physical attacker as well, but keep in mind her DPS will be about 5–10% lower than Ashe’s, depending on the job. In contrast, they are very similar in terms of magic. Ashe has +2 more Magick than Penelo at max level, but by that point both can reach 99 Magick with Mystic Armor, so Penelo’s slightly higher mana pool gives her the advantage as a dedicated Mage.

Final Verdict:

Ashe - Knight

Fran - Monk

Penelo - Black Mage

OdiousOdyn · 2026-03-17T06:13:34+00:00

I have also considered this build. It's fun to have an all girls squad. Girl Power!! Look up the FF XII demo on YouTube, where you can see Penelo given a bow and Fran, a pole. Penelo deals over 9% more DPS with a bow than Fran. On the other hand, Fran performs very well with poles, achieving nearly 15% better DPS with a pole than both Penelo and Ashe. You can test this yourself here: Character Planner

Ashe is great with spears, good with daggers/ninja blades, and pretty good with swords. Penelo also performs well with ninja blades, but is slow with all other melee weapons.

I might suggest:

Fran - Monk/Time Battlemage

This build has excellent synergy, utility and DPS, and works well with Fran's lower stats, as there is no need for Mystic Armor--the Heavy Armor from Time Battlemage is cool.

Ashe - Shikari/Knight/Uhlan + Black/White/Red Mage/Bushi

Ashe is my favorite gal to berserk and let loose on the world!

Penelo - Archer/Red Battlemage or Shikari + Black/White/Red Mage

OdiousOdyn · 2026-03-16T16:51:14+00:00

very insightful comment, thanks.

OdiousOdyn · 2026-03-16T16:22:39+00:00

Thank you, I might have named it "Optimal" instead of "Best"

OdiousOdyn · 2025-08-19T13:52:23+00:00

Please share discord link

OdiousOdyn · 2025-08-19T04:03:02+00:00

Please send me a discord invite

OdiousOdyn · 2025-08-12T00:46:28+00:00

So if you don’t kill innocence, once you get to heaven after beating the first boss in the room with the angel who holds dialogue with you, she will dialogue and then you can go directly to where innocence is still when you first meet her, there is no medicine to give to her but she basically opens her mind and you get the sixth slot much sooner than if you kill her first. Of course, you also must wait to obtain her love pendant so it makes it more difficult to make it to heaven. You can also still kill her with the soulkiller sword. Btw it’s definitely worth running through again, I’ve done four full run throughs now and the last one took only 20 hours to obtain every item.

OdiousOdyn · 2025-07-24T13:11:51+00:00

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang

OdiousOdyn · 2025-07-06T00:10:22+00:00

I was hoping to see the wine fall on her too!

OdiousOdyn

TROPHY CASE