FFXII The Zodiac Age

Jobs and Sub-Jobs Guide

In FFXII The Zodiac Age, we get twelve different jobs / classes to choose from for each of our characters. We also get a secondary job later on in the game.

When you first choose a job for a character, keep in mind you are locked into that job for the rest of the game, so choose wisely!

As for choosing a second job, once you unlock a characters second job, every license board grants you an entire second license board. You will not have to switch between license boards as both will be active at all times.

So when you unlock a license on one board, it will unlock the same license on the other board.

Job Combinations and Choices

Thanks to DonkeyPunchJr for the following Job combinations, tips and lists! Keep in mind that while these may be optimal and very powerful, you shouldn't feel forced to use them.

The most fun is when you decide on jobs based on their abilities and in general how much a job interests you for a specific character.

Still, some would like to know which are the most powerful combinations, or just want some suggestions on what their party should consist of. The following lists are for you.

God-tier Combinations

Here are the most powerful job combinations you can have.

Shikari / Foebreaker - Shikari's ninja swords are one of the best weapons to use with Genji Gloves, and Shikari/Breaker is arguably the best way to do so.

This combination gives you 3x swiftness, a decent ranged weapon (hand bomb), all 4 breaks, Genji gear, high strength and HP, and ninja swords.

Shikari / Bushi - Not as strong as Shikari / Foebreaker but has one huge advantage - this is the only combination that allows for Genji Gloves + Yagyu Darkblade (Dark element weapon) + Black Robes (which boost Dark damage by 50%).

In other words, this is THE ultimate Yiazmat killer. You can also easily heal any teammate with dark-absorbing gear by attacking them!

Shikari / White Mage - A nearly invincible healer/tank hybrid. High HP, shields and Main Gauche (a dagger that gives you a whopping 50 evasion) combine with access to all the buff/healing spells to make this the best tank in the game.

Even better, you can use the Drain spell to damage enemies while healing yourself.

Black Mage / Monk - Perhaps the ultimate offensive magic user. Monk upgrades your Black Mage with 3x swiftness, tons of HP, and access to white magick 9-13.

Being able to exploit Holy weakness is a huge advantage, and the best staff (Staff of the Magi) boosts Holy damage by 50%.

This combo also has excellent physical strength, which especially comes in handy earlier in the game before you get all the really good offensive spells.

Black Mage / Red Battlemage - Another contender for the best offensive mage. Red Mages get the most powerful elemental spell in the game: Ardor. Unfortunately they don't get fire-boosing gear to make the best of it.

This combo lets you use the Flame Staff to boost Ardor by 50%. Oil + Ardor + Flame Staff makes for the highest damage move in the game. A good selection of healing and buffs on top of it.

Bushi / Knight - The syngergy here is incredible. Bushi's katanas do damage based on both strength and magic. Bushi has very high magic power, along with the magic-boosting mystic armor, but has just mediocre strength.

Knight has excellent strength and strength-boosting heavy armor, so this combo will greatly increase katana damage. But it gets better.

Knight unlocks a bunch of excellent white magicks, but has lousy magic power. Bushi's magic ability will make those spells far more effective.

What's more, this is the only combo in the game that allows White Robes (50% damage boost for Holy element) + Excalibur (Holy elemental sword) + 3x swiftness, making you the ultimate undead slayer.

Bushi / Monk - Similar to the Bushi / Knight combo, this combines Bushi's high magic power with Monk's strength (highest in the game) to greatly boost katana damage.

Monk can unlock white magick 9-13, which benefit from Bushi's excellent magic power.

White Mage / Machinist - This is a nice upgrade for your healer. Machinist gives you lots of HP, 3x swiftness, eventual access to Hastega, and guns (which do fixed damge regardless of your stats, making them ideal for a weak healer-type character).

Guns give you a way of doing some decent damage during downtime from healing/buffing.

What's more, you can equip Dark Shot + Black Robes to boost their damage by 50% AND heal allies with dark-absorbing gear. Just be sure to set up your gambits so you don't heal any dark-absorbing enemies. If you want to use guns, this is the best combo to do so.

Knight / Time Battlemage - Time Battlemage gives the slow Knight 3x swiftness, a ranged weapon (Bowguns), and some decent magic power to make the best of his white magick. Plus Time Magick, of course. This combo makes for a great attacker with lots of support abilities.



Other Powerful Combinations

Here are some other great job combos you can use.

Time Battlemage / Monk - Similar to Knight / Time Battlemage. Only reason it's not in the "God-tier" category is because you can only unlock his white magicks once, and Bushi and Black Mage are better contenders for that.

Archer / Red Battlemage - Archer gets the fire-boosting Burning Bow to boost Red Mage's Ardor spell. You also get 3x swiftness and all the item lores.

Overall this isn't as powerful as the Black Mage / Red Mage combo, but it's a good choice if you already have a Black Mage / Monk and you don't want to double up on the Black Mage job.

Uhlan / Time Battlemage - A great heavy attacker/support character similar to Knight / Time Battlemage above, but with no healing abilities.

Knight / Archer - Knight benefits from the 3x swiftness and ranged weapon, Archer benefits from the high strength. Not as good as Knight/Time Battlemage, but decent if you've given Time Battlemage to someone else and you don't want to double up on jobs.

Uhlan / Archer - For the same reason as Knight / Archer.

White Mage / Time Battlemage - The ultimate healer/support character. Great if you want to dedicate one character to full-time healing and buffing.

Bushi / Uhlan - Katana damage benefits from Uhlan's high strength and heavy armor. Uhlan's Holy Lance benefits from access to holy-boosting White Robes.

Bushi / Breaker - Again, katana damage benefits from high strength and heavy armor. Great combination if you want a katana user with all the breaks. You also get hand bombs for hitting flying enemies - a nice benefit for Bushi, whose only ranged attack is Shades of Black (which frankly stinks compared to a proper ranged weapon).

Bushi / Time Battlemage - Upgrade your Samurai (Bushi) with heavy armor, Time Magicks, and a ranged weapon.

Fan Submitted Builds

Shikari / Red Battlemage - Access to all three swiftness, black robes+yagyu darkblade and darkga for both physical and magical dps and access to main gauche and two shield blocks for tanking. Overall a great utility character that can do a lot of things really well.

Uhlan / Machinist gain a lot from each other, they can hit every elemental weakness and Uhlan benefits from the third swiftness and the advanced time magicks for endgame. If people really want balthier to be a machinist, this is one of the best combinations since balthier has the fastest attack speed with spears.

Archer/Foebreaker gain a lot from each other. Archer gives Foebreaker all the item lores except ether and completes the three swiftness. Besides, since Germinas Boots raise both vitality and speed, they make the damage of both their bow and their axes and hammer go up considerably.

Pair a level 99 basch with this combo with germinas boots, mirage vest and grand helm and he will have 99Str, 87Vit and 95Spd which gives fantastic damage output to both bows and hammer. Basch is probably the best for this combination because he's the only character that can attack fast with hammers and axes. Even though Fran has much higher VIT, her damage output will be lower than Basch's.

General Tips

Here are some tips and things to keep in mind when combining jobs to build a party.

Party Suggestions

If you want to use every job once, this is the optimal choice for you:

or

If you would like to have an optimized party, and don't care about using every job:

If you want a very powerful and balanced 3-man team:

or

The following combo is if you want a 3-man team that focuses on extreme physical damage and a lot of healing abilities:

Best Characters for Each Role

Vaan, Basch, and Balthier have the best combo speed with the high-combo weapons (pole, katana, ninja sword), so your two Genji Gloves users will be one of them.

Vaan is pretty much great at everything.

Ashe and Penelo have awesome magic power, so they're ideal for mages.

Fran has pretty lousy stats so she is a good candidate for gun user.

Overall though, the differences aren't that huge. So you can certainly just pick whomever looks coolest with a given weapon.

Note that Bushi = Samurai and Shikari = Hunter

This page will be expanded on over time as we test other jobs and combinations for characters. If you want to submit your own job combo, or suggestions, let us know.


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