Rank Characters based on In Game Use: Reboot!

[Luther Lansfeld]

Digital Devil Saga 2:
Serph: 8/10
Argilla: 6/10
Gale: 7/10
Roland: 2/10
Cielo: 5/10
Sera: 8/10
Heat: 2/10
Seraph: 9/10.

[Meeplelard]

Just noting that the update is happening tomorrow instead of the usual Saturday; won't get into reasons why.

[074]

Digital Devil Saga 2:
Serph: 8/10.  Customizable stats mean a lot here.
Argilla: 6.5/10.  Solid mage, but she suffers a LOT from the whole "leaves for two of the harder dungeons."  Though I suppose Seraphic Lore helps a bit in the final dungeon.
Gale: 7.5/10.  Generally good offense and defense stats.  The main benefit to me, however, is Pyriphlegethon.  It wrecks endgame like little else, and is probably needed to take out superbosses.
Roland: 3/10.  Your starting skillset does NOT match your stats, and just...bleh.  Also you leave at the end of the powerplant
Cielo: 7/10: Said before--status weakness is not as crippling as DDS1's, lightning resistance doesn't come up too often (though when it does, it's often against bosses), not too bad.  Also once he joins, he stays for the whole game.
Sera: 7/10: Not that she's bad, but her main use is for building up Seraph's stats better.
Heat: Vritra/10.
Seraph: 9/10: No weaknesses, benefits from fusion stats, just...yeah.  Reincarnation isn't as good as the other two unique skills, but I suppose it's okay.

Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories:
Adell: 7.5/10.  Best fist user in the Disgaea series?  Yeah, probably.  Good stats where they count, and he gets some multitarget to balance out the maingame issue with fist skills.  Generally servicable for the majority of the game, though he doesn't like how his skills are largely fire.  Damage bonus against higher-level enemies is wonderful, though.  His ultimate is wonderful damage, nevertheless.
Rozalin: 6.5/10.  Generally well-rounded character?  Ranged attacker out of the box, gets buffs and a pseudomagic attack as well.
Tink: 6/10--and that's admittedly just for the fact that he's generally irreplacable at going through Item World.  Flying covers for a lot here.
Hanako: 2/10.  You...don't really do anything.
Taro: 6.5/10.  Haven't worked with him, but his defensive stats are impressive and he's probably the single most notable tank in the series?
Yukimaru: 6.5/10.  Generally not bad, though late-joining isn't the best.  Good swordsmen are always worth it, though, and you get her for free halfway through.
Etna: 7/10.  Not going to really agree with Meeple here--she's a good bit better at what she does than in Dis1, easily gamebest Axe user, generally better Defense affinity IIRC, and levels can be made up for by a combination of equipment and a few item world runs.  This isn't Fire Emblem, so she's not what I'd call a high-risk project character.  Still, best axe user by far, which is worth a lot.

[Meeplelard]

Digital Devil Saga 2:
   Average   STDEVA
Serph   8.08   0.20
Argilla   6.50   0.45
Gale   6.33   0.88
Roland   2.83   0.41
Cielo   5.58   0.74
Sera   7.58   0.38
Heat   N/A (2.83)   N.A (1.96)
Seraph   8.67   0.52

Standard Deviation of entire eligible cast: 1.95


Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories
   Average   STDEVA
Adell   7.30   0.27
Rozalin   5.90   0.55
Tink   4.80   1.92
Hanako   2.40   0.55
Taro   5.30   0.97
Yukimaru   6.38   2.88
Etna   6.00   0.94

Standard Deviation of whole cast: 1.56


Going with a different kind of game this time...and another Tales game because reasons!

X-Com: Enemy Unknown:
Assault:
Heavy:
Sniper:
Support:
SHIV:

Tales of Vesperia:
Yuri:
Estelle:
Repede:
Karol:
Rita:
Judith:
Raven:


For those who played Enemy Within, feel free to write-in and such if there are differences.

[Excal]

X-Com: Enemy Unknown:
Assault: 8/10 - Pair the best with snipers, and are really good at covering long open fields while still being able to actually deal with any nasty surprises sitting on the other end.

Heavy: 6.5/10 - They start off good, but by the end the Snipers take over their role of being the big damage, and their durability is of less use as well.  However, their missiles or grenade specialties are their redeeming feature, allowing you to hit evasive but weak enemies consistantly, and removing cover when you really need it gone.

Sniper: 9.5/10 - These guys start off weak, but once they get Squad Sight they are just brutal either in focusing fire on something you need dead, or providing oodles of oversight while remaining safely out of range of counter fire.

Support: 7/10 - Can't remember too much about these guys besides smoke grenades and healing specialties.  Do remember them also pairing well with Snipers when you gave them the +3 move ability which you of course give them because it's just so versatile.  Also, making medkits worth using and keeping folks alive is also a hell of a niche.

SHIV: /10 - Never used them, so I couldn't tell you how useful they are.  Maybe my next game I'll give them a try.

While some classes are clearly better than others, it is nice that no class feels useless.

[Random Consonant]

X-Com: Enemy Unknown Within:
Assault: So hey these guys are cool, they get to shoot things after dashing and have stuff like lightning reflexes and rapid fire and can use shotguns and stuff.  8/10
Heavy: Explosive damage isn't a bad niche to have at first, but it never really gets better, and once they're out of that they've got crappy aim and three shots between reloads instead of four, though bullet swarm giving them a bit of extra action economy means it's not as bad as it could be.  As noted they don't feel useless but they do strike me as the weakest class.  5/10. 
Sniper: One level of relative suck and then wtf squadsight.  Even with the nerf it got in EW (can't crit on squadsight shots without headshot) it is still stupid stupid good.  9/10
Support: They move fast, have competent aim, and are the only ones that can use medkits worth a shit.  It is boring but solid at what it does.  7/10.
SHIV: Abstain, never used one.
MEC Trooper: I love the punchymech but I'm not really sure how I feel about them in an objective sense, since their main weapon runs out even faster than the heavy's LMG (...) and they're not really that economical compared to the meatbag you carved up for one.  They're not bad, but I'm not sure they're better than 4th out of 5.  6/10 

[Cmdr_King]

Tales of Vesperia:
Yuri: 7/10.  Standard easy to control, good damage good lock-down Tales main.
Estelle: 7/10.  Primary healer etc.
Repede: 5/10.  I never quite saw how Repede's item niche was useful, and how he handles as the control character seemed like Yuri-but-weaker.  Not really bad though.
Carol: 6/10.  Pretty essential for Estelle's stints in la la land.  Otherwise he's kinda awkward.
Rita: 8/10.  Blahblahblah GETWRECKED
Judith: 4/10.  Judy is incredibly hard for me to play and I suspect she's designed that way intentionally.  She doesn't really have a niche as a non-control character so... yeah.
Raven: 4/10.  I'm not sure what he does that isn't Carol-but-worse mostly.  I guess he's a bit faster about it and has range?  Eh.

[Luther Lansfeld]

X-Com: Enemy Unknown:
Assault: 8/10
Heavy: 3/10
Sniper: 7.5/10
Support:6/10
SHIV: no vote.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Tales of Vesperia
Yuri: 7.5/10 - availability is better than Judy, but otherwise they both fill the damage and lockdown throughout the game well. The AI is better at using Yuri than Judy, so I usually controlled Judy and kept Yuri in the party anyway. It's a good niche.
Repede: 5/10 - a decent fighter but his Item dog tricks aren't as helpful as other Tales games.
Estelle: 6/10 - ToV is weird because it gives you the standard Tales healer (with a little damage though nothing that holds up long term) AND it gives you two quick healers as well. Using One Estelle is worth two Karol/Ravens, but there's some trade offs. Mainly that Estelle isn't contributing much damage if she's the main healer, her spells just take too long, though you do have another slot for a pure fighter. Conversely, taking out Estelle and using both quick healers gives you two fighters that are also really quick about topping off health and never have downtime. She gets an extra point for working well in defensive set ups that have both her and one of the two quick healers.
Rita: 9/10 - Kinda slow start but around Midgame she gets Tidal Wave and trivializes the rest of the game.
Karol: 5/10 - a good quick healer and decent damage dealer, though hard to control. You have to use another healer with him for his healing to make a difference but it's so much quicker than Estelle's. Still kinda slow and that hurts in ToV.
Raven: 5/10 - a faster, less damaging variant of Karol, he's also ranged so less likely to die or miss a big charge swing. Has magic damage as backup but with Rita it's hardly vital. Evens out.
Judith: 7/10 - better than Repede, about on par with Yuri for damage and lockdown. Destroys anything that flies, which is usually reserved for casters and archers so that's a nice niche to have more control over. You generally have to control Judy to get all you can out of her. I usually mained her when I felt that Rita was breaking the game too much. Comes in later than Yuri, so docked half a point for that. Fastest Melee PC is a good niche for dodging boss madness.

[Grefter]

X-Com: Enemy Unknown:
Assault: 8/10
Heavy: 3/10
Sniper: 7.5/10
Support:6/10
SHIV: no vote.

True facts.

Stuff that was nearly right.

Corrected facts.

Tales of Vesperia:
Yuri: 7/10.  Standard easy to control, good damage good lock-down Tales main.
Estelle: 7/10.  Primary healer etc.
Repede: 5/10.  I never quite saw how Repede's item niche was useful, and how he handles as the control character seemed like Yuri-but-weaker.  Not really bad though.
Carol: 5/10.  Optional use while Estelle in space.  Controls terrible and is melee so AI is dumb and walks into the fire.
Rita: 8/10.  Blahblahblah GETWRECKED
Judith: 4/10.  Judy is incredibly hard for me to play and I suspect she's designed that way intentionally.  She doesn't really have a niche as a non-control character so... yeah.
Raven: 6/10.  Does things Carol does but is ranged and stands in less fire.  Just flat out better.

[SnowFire]

No Enemy Within.

X-COM has really, really good balance between its classes overall - some of the skill vs. skill options have one option be rather niche, but classwise, it's good.  For 3/4 of the classes, you'll really notice if you're missing them.  I played on Classic, which might make Sniper slightly worse and Support slightly better.  (You can face 5+ enemies on Classic so huge ST damage is less important, and healbotting is unusually relevant.)

Assault: 7/10.  Lightning.  Reflexes.  Invaluable as "the guy/gal you send charging ahead to the next cover position."  Also, Close Combat Specialist later on really eases up on Chryssalid fear.
Heavy: 3/10.  Clear LVP, and even it has its uses!  Early on, double-attacks make them an offensive powerhouse.  They really fade later on as they lose the ability to hit anything that isn't right in front of them with their heavy weapons.  Additionally, the game discourages you from using explosives by rewarding you for getting intact equipment.  Still, even in the lategame, sometimes there's enemy mechs or walls or cover that just needs to die, and Heavies are right at home.  Definitely the only class that's "deploy 1 max if possible" though.
Sniper: 7/10.  Squadsight, it's been said.  The killing spree skill is p. cool too but is super-late.  My score is not quite as high as others because they shine the most in easier situations where only 1-2 aliens are menacing you, and are weakest in "the VIP is trying to escape and 5+ aliens are all firing and blowing up your cover" situations.
Support: 8/10.  Maybe I'm just bitter because the game absolutely refused to send me Supports no matter how many I recruited, but...  a tad generic, but high movement, great healing, and great accuracy.  Less damage off the good accuracy than snipers, sure, but it's more spammable and with lots of random bonuses.  If for some reason you had to run a party of 6 of the same unit type, the ordering would be something like Supports > Assaults > Snipers (PISTOL SNIPERS) > Heavies.
SHIV: ? Didn't use.  Theorycraftwise, they're probably at their best in Ironman play as a safety-valve.  No XP means you shouldn't be using more than 1 ideally, though.

[Dark Holy Elf]

X-Com: Enemy Unknown:
Assault: 7.5/10. I go back and forth on Sniper vs. Assault. Lightning Reflexes is great, the Berserker-murdering is great (can one-round them with Close Combat Specialist or whatever it is), the raw offence/durability is great.
Heavy: 3/10. For an LVP they're pretty cool. OPB grenade is nice certainly. Late they can do attack+stealth. The poor accuracy and lack of pistol backup is frustrating though, and grenades do have some downsides (you really don't want to kill with them).
Sniper: 7.5/10. Some maps really favour Squadshot being badass, and obviously the late spike with Double Tap is amazing.
Support: 6/10. They're mobile and they can heal. Solid if unspecial.
SHIV: Abstain, never used.

[Reiska]

XCOM: Enemy Unknown/Within:

Assault: 7.5/10.  Excellent class with no real weaknesses, but doesn't completely break the game either.  Probably the class I most want two of.
Heavy: 5/10.  Kind of a jeigan class honestly, still comes in handy in the lategame.  I'd never want more than one in most cases, but I miss them badly when they aren't there.
Sniper: 9/10.  Slow start but Squadsight and Double Tap late-game combined with Archangel Armor is absolutely fucking stupid.  The slow start is the only reason they aren't a 10, and why I usually only want one of them in spite of how good they are.
Support: 7/10.  The other class I like having two of, healing is damn useful in a game like this and so is their higher mobility.  Unlike what you'd expect for a healer class, they don't really fail at offense notably either.
SHIV: 0/10.  Practically unusable in Unknown due to being really fucking buggy.  I think Within fixed most of the bugs but they're still not worth the investment IMO.
MEC Trooper: 6/10.  Basically Heavy+.  Usefulness varies a bit based on which class you turned into it, possibly +/- 1 point but I don't recall the precise differences.

EDIT: No scores modified, but I wanted to expand a bit on what I posted hurriedly this morning.  The Heavy class definitely has a sort of jeigan feel to it; in particular, its value goes up notably in higher difficulty settings and in Ironman mode.  In higher difficulty settings, they shine early game as often being the only class of OHKOing problem targets - while rockets are OPB, a well-placed rocket can quickly get you out of a bad situation, getting swarmed in Classic or higher difficulty, etc.  This is most notable on Classic and higher where Frag Grenades won't OHKO Sectoids or Thin Men but rockets will, sometimes you can get into a situation where you NEED a kill to save one of your squaddies from death and your best hit rate on a regular shot is like 40%.

EDIT 2: After some thought, bumped MEC Trooper up to 6/10 instead of 5.5.  It's worth noting that Supports are kind of significantly worse in Enemy Within on paper, since a properly built MEC Trooper can do a lot of what they do equally well while having better pretty much everything else, *and* all your PCs have 2 item slots instead of 1, meaning you can carry more medkits.  So I suppose I should disclaim the scores above with the statement that for the original 4 classes, those scores are based on EU, not EW.  I think for EW specifically I'd drop Support around a point or so because of that.  Playstyle has a big effect on it, though: a defensive player will get a lot more use out of supports, while an aggressive player will get a lot more use out of heavies and MECs.  Both playstyles are valid.

[Meeplelard]

X-Com: Enemy Unknown:
Assault: 6/10.  Solid for getting in there and getting something dead, as well as good for scouting.
Heavy: 4/10.  They're alright but yeah, clear LVP.
Sniper: 8/10.  Thanks to Pistols, their moving penalty isn't as bad as it could be.  Otherwise, they blow stuff up from across the field, sometimes multiple times a turn!
Support: 5/10.  Work for what they are.
SHIV: 2.5/10.  You can use them for extra cover, and with Plasma they can do actual damage and such, but yeah, rarely better than just using an actual human.  To their credit, they do have some minor perks.  One is upgrading to Laser and Plasma upgrades ALL SHIV weapons, so you never have to worry about them being behind as opposed to specific humans, and the psychic immunity is handy in later stages for scouting purposes.  These perks, however, don't come close to offsetting their downsides relative to humans.

Tales of Vesperia:
Yuri: 7/10.  Tales Swordsmen, he's good at what he does.  Only this game has more viable human controlled characters, so the "ease of use" fall back isn't as big a deal here.
Estelle: 7.5/10.  Tales Healer, good at what she does!
Repede:  6/10.  He's ok, you can abuse Gale Dog only so much though.
Carol: 4/10.  Kind of meh.  Not awful.
Rita: 8/10.  Actually playable Tales Mage!  And no, Meteor Swarm doesn't make her suddenly amazing, considering how late it is; it helps sure, but most of the game she's not using it and I'm rating her primarily on that.
Judith: 5/10.  Interesting character who can be really good if used properly, but high learning curve makes me go "why not just use Yuri or Rita?"
Raven: 5.5/10.  Sort of a secondary healer and mage hybrid, he's alright, but clearly worse than the primaries at this role.  Would be better if he was more available during the arc you lose Estelle.

[Pyro]

Tales of Vesperia:
Yuri: 7.5/10. Tales Swordsman. Yuri felt more useful than most, and lategame gets the ability to do gratuitous things to bosses.
Estelle: 7.5/10. Tales Healer. Those are always good. There were a few boss fights where Estelle would be the only survivor after a boss did something nasty, and then she'd OL and restore the whole party. Engame she can be practically invincible with the defensive gimmicks.
Repede: 5/10. Not all that good. Item skills are too late to be all that awesome. Gale Dog is kind of an obscure trick late.
Karol:5/10. So dang SLOW. gets points for being an important healer during a certain stretch. Endgame he can be very durable but that's VERY endgame... last fight only.
Rita: 8/10. Her mid-lategame is completely insane. Blahblahblah "everything dies". Before that she's just a Tales Mage though.
Judith: 6/10. Good for the AI to control! Can really lock stuff down in the air.
Raven: 5/10. Useful healer for a stretch. But uh... not being there for a particular stretch prior to that weighs down a LOT on his value. Beyond the backup healing he's just not all that competent.

[MalcolmMasher]

X-Com: Enemy Unknown:
Assault: 7.5/10 The best offense and defense on the team. Pity about the high turnover...
Heavy: 4/10 It's a pity the upgraded rockets are so obscure, Heavies could use a lategame buff.
Sniper: 7/10 When the stars are aligned, they're amazing, but the effort required is non-trivial.
Support: 4.5/10 Exactly what it says on the tin.
SHIV: 2/10 Skill-less Heavies. With benefits (immunity to mind control!) but their main asset is being better filler than rookies.

[Meeplelard]

Tales of Vesperia:
   Average   STDEVA
Yuri   7.20   0.27
Estelle   7.00   0.61
Repede   5.20   0.45
Karol   5.40   1.14
Rita   8.20   0.45
Judith   4.90   0.89
Raven   5.40   1.14

Standard Deviation:  1.27


X-Com: Enemy Unknown:
   Average   STDEVA
Assault   7.44   0.68
Heavy   4.06   1.24
Sniper   8.00   0.94
Support   6.28   1.09
SHIV   N/A (1.5)   N/A (1.32)

Standard Deviation: 1.74


And now to move onto something that was requested.  I purposely held off on this one because I wanted to create some room between the release and this topic.  Also, because DLCon is coming up next week, and I won't be around to update this anyway, and given the game in question is one people would want to talk about, and this would be a dick move to put it up when people are not going to be around, I am extending this session by another week; I feel that should be a fair compromise. IOWs, this session will run until July the 19th.  This also gets me back on track on doing things on Saturday again after consecutive sessions with a day postponement...because THAT IS TOTALLY IMPORTANT NO STOP YOU SMELL WHAT DO MEAN I'M STALLING I'M NOT STALLING YOU'RE STALLING SHUT UP NAPPA!

*ahem*

Bravely Default:
Freelancer:
White Mage:
Monk:
Black Mage,:
Knight:
Thief:
Merchant:
Time Mage:
Spell Fencer:
Ranger:
Summoner:
Valkyrie:
Red Mage:
Performer:
Pirate:
Salve Maker:
Swordmaster:
Ninja:
Arcanist:
Spiritmaster:
Templar:
Dark Knight:
Vampire:
Conjurer:


NOTE: For those who played the Japanese version (and this probably doesn't apply to like anyone but still), this is based off "For the Sequel", not "Flying Fairy" since hte former is equivalent to the western release.

[VySaika]

Bravely Default:
Freelancer: 3/10. Mimic lategame can do some funky setups, but overall not worth much. Also +1 for Scan.
White Mage: 9/10. It is white mage. White magic is good.
Monk: 3/10. Good earlygame whacking shit class, falls off HARD midgame. Apparently has some silly abusive setups for massive damage during Bravely Second, but :whatever:
Black Mage: 5/10. Strong early, useless late. So it goes.
Knight: 9/10. Stomp spam can carry more of the game than it has any right to. And any class that benefits heavily from Two Hands is owing a nod to Knight. Strong class the whole way through.
Thief: 4/10. Uh...GSS has some uses, and it's a solid enough slugging class so long as you don't pretend daggers are any good.
Merchant: 2/10. No.
Time Mage: 3/10. Haste and slow are cool, but never felt needed. Worst mage imo.
Spell Fencer: 7/10. Spell Fencer can do some rude things to bosses, but wants Two Hands or Dual Wield to really make the most of it, giving part of its credit to Knight or Ninja. Fun class, definitely strong, but isn't quite on Knight's level.
Ranger: 5/10. Eh? Not bad, but why bother I suppose.
Summoner: 3/10. Summons have never been so sad.
Valkyrie: 7/10. Crescent Moon is your random mangler for a good chunk of the game, and it does the job well. Valk's not a fantastic class otherwise but it's also not bad at anything.
Red Mage: 6/10. If you play defensively, you can get some good setups going with Red Mage's ability to just randomly get BP. However, it falls off sharply enough lategame that I'm probably rating it too high even at a 6.
Performer: 7/10. Sets up buffs, does awesome stuff....fails to actually DO much of anything on its own but eh, can't have everything.
Pirate: 7/10. Your ST physical mangler with a side of debuffs.
Salve Maker: 8/10. Can do everything except good MT healing, if you're willing to spend the $$$. Also great for setting up assists and big damage for other classes, particularly the ability to set elemental weakness.
Swordmaster: 5/10. I want to like the counter based class, but the game just is not balanced for this kind of strategy. Sad day. Still, a solid slugger and gets bonus points for Free Lunch being part of some hilarious combos.
Ninja: 8/10. Utsusemi or however you spell that Alert clone is amazing. Also good enough at slugging if you give them a different weapon lore, but that's easy. And as always, dual wield type skill has potential for fun times.
Arcanist: /10. I'll be honest, no idea how to rate these guys. I didn't really use one since I wasn't about to devote someone to black magic at that stage in the game. Buffs/Healing/Physicals are the holy trinity of Bravely Default, Arcanisn't doesn't fit into that anywhere.
Spirit Master: 7/10. Needs White to really do its job, but Spirit Master has some great stuff on its own too.
Templar: 4/10. Doesn't really work as part of any big damage setups, which is what you want your physicalers to be doing at this stage in the game. Not bad, but it doesn't tank enough harder than Knight for me to care.
Dark Knight: 9/10. Damage. All the freaking damage. Having to work around the self damaging issues holds it back from a perfect 10, OH WELL. 
Vampire: 7/10. A lot of fun to use, very strong if you ignore the game insisting it's supposed to be a mage class from the weapon ranks, capable of good damage both ST and MT of various elements with status attached and parasitic buffing. Held back by the lateness, the annoyance of the quest to get them, and the amount of effort it takes to get rolling. At least BD is good at telling you what monsters have the blue magic without having to hit an FAQ.
Conjurer: 1/10. Exists I guess. +1 point for streamlining grinding if you want to grind.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Bravely Default:

Freelancer: 3/10. Yeah, lategame funky Mimic setups can be pretty degenerate, but overall they're limited to low-end utility and a rather underwhelming build (B on everything is decent for defensive equips, but unacceptable for weaponry). They're inviable at physicals without Lore skills and their build doesn't lend naturally to magic either.
White Mage: 9/10. I have no idea how the heck are you supposed to beat Bravely Default without at least -one- dedicated healer, and White Mage does the job pretty stellarly. Early on, it even can contribute somewhat to offense against randoms with a Black Magic sub, and its support just becomes more and more valuable as time goes on. Angelic Ward is also a steal of a defensive skill for 1 SP.
Monk: 4/10. Earlygame, it's a decent offensive class and it also provides a few useful niche skills for more physical damage and weirdo utility like ignoring Default in its middle set. But, past that, it's pretty underwhelming. Its most theoretically abusive setup also rams hard into damage caps and I give nothing points for Bravely Second ever.
Black Mage: 6/10. Offensive magic is kinda gimpy in Bravely Default for the long term, but Black Mage is -the- way to go in order to make it overall viable. Earlygame, they pretty much make your damage output soar, getting into a bit of a lull until the -ga spells. In between, though, it also gets Drain and Aspir, which are -oddly- useful even when you get them, and once you land M. Defense Pierce, you have all you need to keep magic competitive forever, especially as MP issues stop mattering entirely. Status is pretty neat early, though when you can actually make it -abusive-, it just stops being relevant entirely. If C5-onwards randoms kept being as dangerous as they were in C1-4, the MT status setups would be pretty beastly.
Knight: 7/10. Over half this score goes to Two Hands alone, which is one of the best skills to slap on a physical build for the whole game given its cost. Past that, the tankiness is interesting late and Stomp is a nice earlygame physical push, but the class really rides its worth on being a fundamental stepping stone for most physical fighter trees you care to envision.
Thief:: 4.5/10. Thief is actually pretty interesting, especially in the midgame. I like Bravely Default steal, for starters, it nets you a lot of useful stuff and it's actually accurate enough to bother with (Brave/Default system also contributes for this). The A proficiency on Bows also makes them serviceable for damage for a while, which is never bad, and the Speed + skills are worth at least grabbing out for equipment economy. They do fall off pretty hard, though, and even when they're useful, that durability just sucks.
Merchant: 2/10. The money-boosting passive is -great-, but the class itself blows. Its skillset ideas just don't pan out for a useful build and they're sketchy both on offense and utility. Being based on spending money when you're in a game as stingy on your resources as BD? Go away.
Time Mage: 5/10. Uh, this class is pretty difficult to rate. Slowing bosses down is -crucial- for keeping them under control, and Haste's also powerful in that regard, but the speed manipulation niche gets stolen from them by better classes later. On the other hand, if you care about making a dedicated mage, you also probably want to build Time Magic, since it has a sweet lategame payoff (Meteor, Magic +30%, possibly one of Hasten or Slow World if you can deal with the BP micromanagement issues) and even early you probably can do worse than slapping Magic +10% on your mage. Its overall worth may not be that powerful, but it has a clear earlygame niche and ranks pretty highly in priority for magic builds worth their salt (in that sense, it works a lot like Black Mage, but BM's dominance is clearly more notable in the early game and its contributions to a longterm build are more important).
Spell Fencer: 7.5/10. Sweet synergy skillset that works with a -ton- of builds, including some of the most abusive setups in the game, saddled with a decent stat and equipment set? That's a fine loadout. I think its setup value ends up being more valuable than Knight's, along with a more versatile stat spread, so it gets half a point over it. You're unlikely to use the class itself by endgame, but you certainly want at least one fighter to carry the class until mastering, and the payoff starts pretty much on join (buffing physicals and allowing them to hit weakness, alongside picking up status options, is pretty damned good). Come to think of it, Spell Fencer -does- have a role in overshadowing Black Mage's niche due to its offensive niche.
Ranger: 5/10. While Ranger has similar issues to Thief (terrible durability, lategame obsolescence as a carrier), both  its usefulness in the gamut of setups BD offers -and- its worth during the midgame go a bit beyond what Thief brings to the table. Bows are quite a potent midgame weapon and their weakness-hitting skillset's very useful for ST damage. Hawkeye and Precision are also pretty relevant for some specific physical setups involving dual-wielding, and those can rack up rather nutsily late, especially with how stingy the game is regarding multiattacks to bypass damage cap woes.
Summoner: 3/10. Just not very practical. The mults on Summons really needed to be higher to justify their cost in the earlygame and, in the lategame, where they're actually affordable, you definitely have better crowd control methods to play with. The awful stat spread also makes the class painful to stay in and its skill loadout borders on useless for an overall magic build, being pretty much made to work within Summon Magic's confines. Bad combo.
Valkyrie: 7/10. Utterly rules the midgame and opens a huge swath of flexibility for physical builds within that range. Crescent Moon's amazing (crowd control that synergizes with Spell Sword? SIGN ME IN) and the class has it as its initial skill, so we're already looking into good stuff right there. Its other options also bring interesting ideas and choices to the table, keeping the class relevant all the way to mastery... when it's entirely obsoleted by the lategame classes. Still, really hard to gloss over the sheer dominance throughout the hardest parts of the game.
Red Mage: 3/10. It's pretty decently versatile in-between C2 and C3, but it starts sucking it up even before C4. Not even getting Curada simply blows chunks.
Performer: 7.5/10. Performing is an -amazing- skillset, bringing together a dearth of badly wanted stat buffs every party ever can use which you can slap as secondaries on any utility build you want. The class itself isn't very good at resources or offense, but it can rock support like healing while you build up its skills. Entirely trivializes Time Magic for a while due to getting MT speed buffing -before- Time Mage does to boot.
Pirate: 8/10. That's a sweet-ass fighter skillset and Axes are a great weapon type to specialize in. P. Attack +20% is great gravy too, and Piracy's a good enough skillset to make its way into the high-end abusive shit you can do lategame. You definitely want -at least- one fighter mastering this class in your party, and pretty much every fighter wants to spend some time in the class for a few of its passives. Durability when the class puts its heels fully on offense needs work, as well as speed, but you can't have it all.
Salve Maker: 8/10. Salve Maker's healing is very potent, covering stuff like revival and MP restoration, and Healing Lore is really good for your dedicated healer. If you're willing to delve into its more arcane item combinations, it can also pull off strong and even -unique- buff setups (offensive options as well, but they're horrendously inefficient resource-wise). The ST emphasis on Compounding is definitely a problem, but Medicine is a good enough skillset to dump into at least one of your party members all the way to the end.
Swordmaster: 5/10. -Another- tricky class to rate. On join, Swordmaster's skillset is difficult to use (you pretty much -need- a second PC to synergize counterstances into offense via retargetting shenanigans) and the class offers rather little as a carrier. Katana make for decent weapons due to the crit rate, at least, but that's not much given the uninteresting surroundings on its stat/passives spread. ON THE OTHER HAND, once you pick up Free Lunch, Swordmaster becomes a prime carrier for a lot of otherwise resource-intensive setups, including high-end Piracy insanity with Amped Strike spam. I'll just say it gets an average score, its use depends fairly heavily on how you want a physical fighter payoff to go and getting to the point where it's actually rewarding to do so can be a somewhat tall mountain to climb.
Ninja: 6/10. Well, here's your Ranger synergy class for lategame setups. Past that... well, Utsusemi is a neat trick and Ninja's speed is quite desirable. Dual-wield and the limit breaking on attack hits also can bring up pretty potent numbers for something that requires no resources, but that's entirely ST-centered. Past that, Ninja also synergizes with Swordmaster and brings some odd reverse-engineered proactive tanking measures, which are all pretty oddball but not bad - which is nice, considering how bad it is at taking hits. Probably the best of the openly frail fighter classes (Pirate isn't precisely fragile, but it's in an odd durability lull).
Arcanist: 2.5/10. Uh status amping and boosting Black Magic just aren't great niches, considering all you need for potent spellcasting is Pierce M. Def and Magic +20%. Status Amp is cool in theory, but you're not really using status against bosses with the egregious status resist they sport and randoms just barely matter by the time Arcanist gets going. Game-best Int could make for a cute carrier, but Arcanist's own skillset has issues and only truly synergizes with Black Magic. And dear god the durability.
Spirit Master: 9/10. Makes White Magic even better, cheaper and more efficient while adding up an amazing support skillset and great passives off overall superior stats to White Mage. This class is simply -nuts-
Templar: 4.5/10. Uh I don't really like the class itself much. Holy Arts is a good skillset, but the class' stats don't really make good use of it for its offensive potential (mainly the crap speed does it in, but its strength just isn't that great either). It does have the Mind to make for a decently competent tank healer, since Templars are durable as fuck, but the MP speaks against it in return. It's like all its good points clash straight against its issues, making it a somewhat haphazard build in and out of itself. You're likely to pick up bits and pieces of its set anyway if you're trying to make a tank build anywhere, at least (Armor Lore is -great- for slapping on your healer later in the game, for instance), so it's not really a lost cause.
Dark Knight: 9/10. Oh. Oh dear. Holy -crap-, this is a lot of damage - versatile damage at that - for rather little downside. You can start setting up Dark Knight for pure evil pretty much as soon as you get the class, and it just grows more ridiculous as its skills build. Jesus christ, Dark Nebula. Jesus CHRIST, Rage. Holy fucking God, Drain Sword + Dark Arts in general. Not to mention they build -fast- because you're getting the class at C5. Dark Knight is the capstone for your physical builds overall and steamrolls the endgame like it was nothing. Being able to pull off upwards of 80k damage in a single turn (even having to deal with the Brave/Default manipulation necessary for this much offense) is just nuts.
Vampire: 5.5/10. I really can't bring myself to give this class a below average score upon reflection after analyzing the overall package. Vampire's skillset is -amazing-, with a ridiculously versatile collection of skills that are boosted by -attack- rather than magic (so, you can seriously slap the set into a fighter and go to town). The stat spread's also good and even the weaponry could be worse. But it's so difficult to really -use- the class. If you don't jump through hoops to get the class in C4, you'll be unable to catch a few of its money skills (particularly Fireball) until the very endgame, and picking up the skills themselves is a pain in the ass. Since there's a degree of overlap on what niches Vampire covers to boot, you may well just not bother and stick with simpler, yet friendlier setups. Very tricky class in the boiling of eggs.
Conjurer: 1.5/10. The design team badly overshot the worth of this package on reflection. Straight As on weaponry and unimpressive speed do -not- make for a good dual-stat carrier. The skill load on Conjurer itself is problematic to boot (were they afraid to kill Performer's niche post-mastery? Self-only buffs are a -horrible- idea for a lategame class' primary skillset), with a bunch of nudges that would be really great if they showed up about three chapters earlier than they do but are just pointless gravy by endgame. It does streamline grinding a bunch, but that's pretty much its sole actual use in practice. God damn it.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Freelancer: 3.5/10. I will give Freelancer two things: Examine is terrific for knowing where to brave-blitz, and Mimic is a nice skill. But c'mon job you need a bit more than that.
White Mage: 8.5/10. They're not strictly essential. Toss healing-boosting passives on someone with Red and you'll be doing okay maybe... but yeah there's all that game before you get Red AND White is just better at this job.
Monk: 3/10. I guess they uh hit things or something early... they also struggle to be better than Freelancer early since you get the Ise-no-kami. That's not really a great sign.
Black Mage,: 5/10. I dunno. They're good early, then fall off pretty hard. Still they can be okay late with some builds I didn't explore, so I can't be too hard on them, and they did do the classic impressive FF mage thing in the prologue and through parts of chapter 1.
Knight: 7/10. Two Hands, Stomp, can do some mean physical tanking later. Solid job.
Thief: 3.5/10. They're there. Godspeed Strike seems pretty cool. Speed-boosting passives are cool. Not too impressed with Steal though, or their offence otherwise.
Merchant: 2/10. More Money is nice but how nice depends on playstyle, the rest of their package is pretty blah. I guess Low Leverage is good if you have more patience for the class than me.
Time Mage: 5.5/10. Haste/Slow so good for a while, then chapter 3 comes along and ruins their niche. At the same time, I've heard great things about Meteor later and Auto-Life also strikes me as nice, so sure, this score works.
Spell Fencer: 7/10. Allows you to do more cost-efficient elemental damage than black mages, stacks wonderfully with other physical builds, from elemental/status Crescent Moons to Drain Dark Knight.
Ranger: 4/10. Well they're better than Monk or Thief on offence I guess but still why bother. If you can break 9999 with Two Swords setups you'll want them but past that not too impressive.
Summoner: 3/10. Not... horrible at random sweeping, once you get ways to restore MP. Until then, though, yuck. And still not great at that job.
Valkyrie: 7/10. The third of the solid physical jobs which get this rank, Crescent Moon is pretty much the best thing for dealing with randoms in chapters 2 through 4. Nothing too impressive otherwise although Spirit Barrier can help you through a couple crystal guardian fights and hey full-party Jump is kinda evil if you want to roll that way. Horribly outclassed later but so good until then.
Red Mage: 2/10. Too late, too late. I felt my investing there was wasted, better to use white and black separately. They have a couple useful passives at least, but so does Merchant, so the same score works.
Performer: 8/10. Performer buffs do a lot to turn battles in your favour, and their passives connected to them are better than you'd think, too. I'll give them the edge over Pirate because (a) you get their crucial skills earlier and (b) they're more effective in fights against more than one boss. Oh yeah and drawing aggro is nice sometimes. EDIT: And somehow I forgot about their turn-granting ability which is amazing. Being able to parcel out extra turns to your healer, spiritmaster, or main damage dealer as needed is amazing.
Pirate: 7/10. The offensive debuffs, as well as Slow, are wonderful (though not quite unique to them, as Vampire exists later). Axe Lore is also good considering how BD kinda forgot that skills ignore accuracy making axes a bit OP.
Salve Maker: 5.5/10. A good way to restore MP and they provide full revival long before white mage. Also the first (albeit inferior) ridiculous healing-boosting passive. I'm not impressed with their offence though, which requires both a certain playstyle and far too much spare gil given how the brave system works, and being only the #4 defensive skillset (at best) means there's only so high they can go.
Swordmaster: 5/10. Seems like you can do some things with them by drawing fire and countering. I'd like to experiment with that more on a replay.
Ninja: 6/10. Utsusemi is great, two swords has uses although it's less broken than in some games. Not really an amazing class but still the best light-armour fighter job.
Arcanist: 4/10. This is mostly a guess. Status Amp lets you wreck bosses apparently, but otherwise they aren't appealing at all.
Spirit Master: 8.5/10. Blocks status, blocks elements. The latter being incredibly important due to some of the hardest fights in the game assigning you an elemental weakness, and Spiritmaster's answer is strictly better than, say, using Dispel four times in a row, for a variety of reasons. Oh yeah and they have one of the two amazing WM-boosting passives. Good stats too. Doing the lategame without them feels like an option only for those who hate themselves.
Templar: 4.5/10. Rampart is a solid skill. Kind of a mixed bag otherwise, I used them more than Knight because I assumed they'd be better but I was kinda mistaken there.
Dark Knight: 9.5/10. Everything about their offence is silly. 4x MT for 1 BP is nuts and needing Dark Shields or Spiritmaster to mitigate that doesn't make it less nuts. Or you can just settle for 1.5x MT for 1 BP. Or one of the few ways to easily break 9999 per BP. The HP cost is a downside but so easy to work around thanks to the Brave system, Drain spellblade, etc. Oh yeah and their stats are fine and they get a passive which strengthens dark. Dark resistance barely exists after you get it, so yeah whatever.
Vampire: 5.5/10. Rise from the Dead is pretty amazing, they have the debuff parade also seen on Pirate, and their skillset would be ridiciulous if Dark Knight didn't exist (they'd be the premier random-basher). Since Dark Knight does exist that huge sidequest chain kinda counts against the class notably to me. They're very close to being a ridiculous class - make the unlock requirements less steep, remove Dark Knight, and holy hell you have a good-stat job which is useful in every situation. As is, though... a more moderate score works.
Conjurer: 1.5/10. Sooo take what I said about Vampire except this job wouldn't be good without the accession time anyway, just "okay". Yeah they make MP less of an issue, as if Salve-Maker didn't do that three chapters ago and money hadn't started piling up lategame to make ethers less of an issue. Their skillset sucks and I have no place for a carrier with a worthless skillset, I really wanted eight useful skillsets in lategame BD hard mode. Not devoid of worth, but close.

[SnowFire]

Played on Hard mode.  Still haven't finished, but still fairly confident (super-late C7).

Freelancer: 3/10.  Okay, the good: is an authentically real option on Caldisla & early C1 thanks to Ise-no-Kami, Examine & Divining Rod are useful and quick.  Later on, Poison Immunity is strangely one of the best immunities (giving up an accessory to block status is painful, Victoria / Qada / Ominas exist) and I guess JP up is okay for grinding (if you already dunked 10 JLs into Freelancer).  For very lategame, you can do degenerate crap with Mimic & BP-costing abilities if that's your ball of wax (it isn't mine) and can get good base stats if you grind an absolute ton (but if you grind a lot you don't need the base stats since your level will be high?).  The bad: the stats & damage post Ancheim means you should never ever use this unless grinding up for those useful skills.  Sigh, would be 1.5/10 if not for the skills.

White Mage: 9/10.  Utterly essential.  MP a bit of an issue, and they're quite constrained in Armor choice (Agnes sucked at WM for awhile, and I eventually figured out it was the Star Corset or whatever that Praline dropped not having the Mind boost), but MT healing is  invaluable, and they occasionally hit air/holy weakness for okay damage.  Angelic Ward is pretty rad too.  Finally, while MDef doesn't come up as often as you'd think in BD, there do exist magic-heavy enemies (V&V!) and hey look great MDef + MDef skills if it's a mage boss or something.

Monk: 4/10  Very erratic.  Falls off hard in C1, then gets badass staves in C3 + Acrobatics to Crescent Moon everything with, then falls off again.  HP+10% is cheap and randomly handy especially vs. Qada/Profiteur, and P. Atk +10% is another cheap slot-filler.  Still…  not really a fan of 'em post C4.

Black Mage: 7/10 ?  For C0-C4: Most enemies have an elemental weakness, and a decent number of bosses do too (crystal guardians, Heinkel, Barbarossa, Victor, Braev), and those that don't have a weakness can be given one by Withering Ripple.  So a good start.  However, MP becomes a serious problem fast once the L3 & L5 -aras and -agas hit, especially if you're blowing the enemies up on turn 1 with quadra actions.  Very dependent on either encounter-adjustment to no-encounters on your boss run, or else having a Salve-Maker pal to top up their MP.  Also, L5/L6 Black Magic is depressingly late - it wasn't until near the end of C4 I had L5.  HOWEVER.  If you want an attack mage, levelling BM is basically required, as it features the mighty Pierce M. Defense skill.  This skill single-handedly changes C5-C8 mages from "does the same or worse damage than fighters at the cost of MP" to having excellent damage again.  That said, Black Magic does kind of pale compared to Time Magic late, but does have the virtue of being ST for the team-fights and having Aspir to reload MP latefight without need for a Salve-Maker or blowing precious Elixirs. 

Knight: 8/10.  Very solid earlygame thanks to MPless 4x Stomp & good defense, picks up Two Hands which is great.  Falls off a bit for awhile.  Then gets the Two Shields ability, which is insanely busted and awesome with Chivalry or Holy Arts.  The P. Def +10/30 up skills are quite useful as well when making your ubertank who shrugs off all physical-typed damage, which is a lot.

Thief: 5/10.  Very fast, can Life Thief like a pro with a bow, and does more damage than Monk anyway in C1/C2.  Also powers up Salve-Maker with steals if you care (I don't).  Godspeed Strike is more a DL thing, in-game you can be setting up buffs & debuffs such that vanilla damage does better, but is okay if you don't have that for some reason.  Anyway, falls off lategame where not equipping a shield = quick ticket to the afterlife, and Life Thief is less reliable than Utsusemi for light-armor not-dying purposes.

Merchant: 2/10.  More Money grinding and that's it.  I guess if you refuse to turn off encounters in C5-C8 you'll have enough spare cash to actually use Commerce in C8?

Time Mage: 8/10.  Black Mage trading elemental variety for more damage.  I don't really care about Haste/Slow, but Gaia Gear Quaga wrecks dudes in C3, and is respectable in C4/C5.  Late C5+ they get the mighty Meteor which is an easy 9999 damage with Pierce M. Def stolen from BM, notably better than Dark (multihits & Pierce M. Def synergize well).  Meteor doesn't even require equipping Gaia Gear, too.  Has some cheap status for randoms if you care like BM (Stop) and Time Slip was nice for scarier random ambushes in C2-C3.  Warning: If the off-class Pierce M. Def didn't exist, lategame TM usability would collapse, so make of that what you will.

Spell Fencer: 6/10.  Pretty great for C1-C4 - MP-efficient random busting, hits all the boss elemental weakness, etc.  No particularly compelling passive skills, though, and falls off a bit in C4-C8 where it's competing with the likes of Pirate & Vampire.

Ranger: 6/10.  Hits All The Weaknesses, decent speed, Targeting for bosses that use Default.  Lategame gets super physicals off that skill.  Lategame bow use denies a Shield which is a tad YOLO though.

Summoner: 4/10?  Very hard to rate.  Summoner made tough randoms who were extremely likely to generate wipes for my underleveled team in C3-C4 doable, a feat not accomplishable by any other class at the time.  Flip side, if you do the mass-Summoning Brave surge for 3 battles you're out of MP.  And if you turn off encounters to save MP, why do you care about the MT-focus of Summoner anyway?  Anyway, they have the best & safest skillset for random-grinding, especially near an inn, so there's always that.

Valkyrie: 4/10.  Crescent Moon is good.  Everything else is averageish at best.  If you're fighting through a ton of C3 randoms and then facing a boss they're a weaker Summoner that drains MP less, I suppose. 

Red Mage: 5/10?  They're pretty good in C3 if you train 'em up, and they're acceptable in C4 and beyond as carriers for another magic skillset off their good speed & defensive stats - MT Cura healing is sorta okay for awhile, Dispel is randomly handy, and then set Time Magic or Black Magic for real offense.  Skills pretty neat too, the "get BP when statused" is quite helpful & cheap for some bosses.  That said, you'll eventually hit the point where their skillset is almost worthless outside of Dispel & Raise, which is unfortunate.

Performer: 7/10.  Solid MT buffs.  Especially before Pierce M. Def arrives and physical damage is the best in late C3 + C4, Love Power seriously speeds up bosses, and I've Got Your Back has its place too.  MP is a bit of an issue when Singing is used by non-Performers, and C7+ fights put you under so much pressure that it can be hard to get the turns to use the buffs if you slap Singing on your healer, but it's still doable.

Pirate: 8/10.  Amazing, obsoletes many other fighty classes.  Defang & Skull Bash are both fantastic, P. Def & Speed debuffing have their place too, and axes + Axe Lore are great, especially if you grab a Fox Tail.  Even good for random-grinding-near-inn thanks to Double Damage. 

Salve Maker: 5/10.  I don't care about the class at all or any of the passives but Medication is a decent skill to set as a secondary strictly for Compounding.  I only know two mixes: Quarter Elixir & Resurrection, but those are two pretty good ones to have - they let you unload MP with impunity, and Arise from WM is insanely-MP expensive, so sometimes having ST full-resurrection MPless is handy.  If you're hardcore enough to fight the boss after actually fighting randoms, Medication pretty handy for in-dungeon MP restoration, too.

Swordmaster: 3/10.  You can set up goofy counter-strats with the aggro-raising accessory, but if we're going down that road, I'd rather use Ninja's Transience instead, honestly.  The Ninja can do relevant other things like Default if they aren't targeted and Utsusemi hangs around, while the SM is forced to spam their reactions.  The SM strategy gets real chancy in the C7 onward teamfights, too, where there's tons of mixed damage from multiple targets meaning that the odds of just wasting your turn and dying soar.  Super lategame, you can do some dumb things with the Freelancer/Swordmaster Prayer/Squeaky Wheel/Mimic/Slow World combo but lalala don't care.
Saving grace is using katanas, which have probably the best ultimate in the game in +150% Speed as long as the music plays.  I never bothered with TM/Performer speed buffs because they don't last long enough and fall off on death, but katana ults can potentially last a nice long time with chaining and don't care about death.  Oh and do a bunch of damage for free too, that's nice.  Of course DK uses Katanas too...

Ninja: 6/10.  Utsusemi potentially cheeses some boss fights and covers for the atrocious durability, and dual-Assassin Dagger attacks is funny vs. randoms for awhile, and the speed is obviously good.  Still, not overly impressed with the class itself, even if Ninjutsu is a solid secondary to slap on someone else.  EDIT: And Kairai is sadly good, if boring.

Arcanist: 3/10.  All the BP-related abilities are too "fair" and affect both sides.  All the BM-improving passives are worse than Pierce M. Def which already eats 3 slots, although Save BM MP is good for the other 2 slots.  Oh and their durability is comparable to wet cardboard.  Sacrifice is a good buff at least, and Absorb M. Damage is sometimes useful?  Don't really care about Status Amp, if I desperately want to status out bosses I'll use debuffing specials.

Spiritmaster: 8/10.  Holy One allows you to get away with Curada for your healer saving a bunch of MP, the stats are pretty decent, and the skillset is quite useful vs. some of the nastiest bosses in the game - Alternis, the 6 Dragons, refights of Victoria, Finale Bugzilla.  A silly MP-BP trick if you're running Mimic and/or Compounding, too.

Templar: 7/10.  Champion tank like Knight.  Giant Slayer quite decent damage against bosses, too (1.5), and Radiant Blast smashes up Defaulting bosses (at great MP cost).  Also being the slowest class in the game can weirdly be a benefit, as there are some things you explicitly want to go last, like Phoenix Down revival or Desperation.  Later on turns into a Desperation machine, especially with two-shields from Knight.  Armor Lore is handy for other classes.  EDIT: Oh yeah, Default Guard is completely awesome as well.

Dark Knight: 8.5/10.  If you want to do Dark Nebula spam it's greedy in that it requires you to trade-down to Dark Shields, which require stealing to have enough of them early, and then encourages you to lamely have your entire attack force be Dark Knights.  And Dark Nebula is kinda late in the skill chain.  And it's possible to have hilarious failure after weakening your own team if the initiative goes the wrong way.  And despite being great damage, it's still usually worse than 9999 damage Meteors.  But really I'm just making excuses for the manifest strengths everyone else already mentioned: DK damage chews through everything with MT and obsoletes the damage-focused physical classes if you want, leaving only the debuff niche of Pirate & Vamp and the tanking niche of Knight & Templar.

Vampire: 7/10.  They're a late-gained elemental Pirate variant that chews through MP faster, but I'm not really convinced that they're better than Pirate, at least not without some hard-to-get Genomes (Fireball, White Wind).  Even if they were exactly as good as Pirate, the extra work in acquiring the Genomes would count a bit against 'em, and the elemental damage is a bit less amazing lategame.  Light Armor use is also unfortunate.  That said, if you care, they do mock randoms forever with Battle Thirst, or even Praline's summoned goons.
Note: I don't particularly hold the long sidequest to access Vamps & Conjurers against them, since you're getting plot & new enemies to keep things interesting; it's not like the Veldt where you fight enemies you've already seen for no reward.

Conjurer: 2/10.  Ew self-only buffs.  They should have risked slightly obsoleting Performer and/or Summoner by either attaching damage to 'em, or else making them MT and MP-expensive.  Theoretically has worth as a carrier off good speed & stats, but Spiritmaster & Vampire do the same thing for a mage carrier and fighter carrier respectively, and they have skillsets worth a damn.  Evades a 1/10 because if you're grinding in a place not near an inn Conjurer passive is great (and the Fire Temple has among the best gold per encounter in the game), and Steady MP Recovery might have value for long boss fights, and Save SM MP is good if you're running a Summoner.  Marginal, but it's something vaguely relevant, and I usually save 1/10 for "totally useless and/or active liability."  (EDIT: And damnit it seems teh summons have rare use after all, mostly just Hresvelger.)  LVP.

[superaielman]

Bravely Default:

Freelancer: 4/10. Examine justifies this, I think.

White Mage: 8/10. No offense but you need healing very badly in this game.

Monk: 4/10. Good early and late, but so bad for 80% of the game.

Black Mage: 4/10. Good early yeah.

Knight: 8/10. Stomp will carry you through on randoms till Dark Knight and they get other awesome things like two hands.

Thief: 5/10. They can use Bows well which is kind of a big deal (bows are good early on) and they get a nice move in godspeed strike. Fall off later but so it goes.

Merchant: 1/10. Bad stats and a largely useless looking skillset. Money was tight in BD, but not tight enough to justify using a really bad class just for cash.

Time Mage: NA, didn't really use much. Buffing outside of Performer sucked.

Spell Fencer: 6.5/10. Solid but not amazing.They do mesh well with Dark Knight.

Ranger:  4/10. Awesome when bows are strong early, then kind of fall off.

Summoner: 2/10. Yuck.

Valkyrie: 3/10. Found the class to be really unremarkable.

Red Mage: 3/10. Don't like an all around buld in this game.

Performer: 7/10. Useful skills, class is a wasteland stat wise.

Pirate: 7.5/10. Axes destroy the universe, they have debuffing.

Salve Maker: Didn't use.

Swordmaster: 2/10. Barely used. I'm sure the counterstance stuff has value but I thought the class build was pretty shit. They're like the fifth best fighter class? Yuck.

Ninja: 5/10? Yeah, didn't find them to be that remarkable in this game.

Arcanist: 2/10. Awful.

Spiritmaster: 9/10. Makes White Magic broken, also the defensive game which is very useful for late bosses.

Templar: 4/10. Very badly overshadowed by Pirate and later Dark Knight.

Dark Knight: 10/10. They obsolete almost every damage class in the game to an insane degree.

Vampire: 1/10. Requires a long ass fucking side quest for a massively inferior to Dark Knight class. Fuck off.

Conjurer: 0/10. See Vampire but with much more hate.

[interrobangbang]

Freelancer: 2/10. horrific except for ass-end lategame combos which basically only use one skill from it and the effect can be duplicated by other combos.
White Mage: 9/10. Lacks offense to get it to 10/10 but is one of the major lynchpins of the game. #2 class.
Monk: 3.5/10. Does pretty solid early but past that, idgaf
Black Mage: 4.5/10. Can be lategame viable but requires a large amount of focus and more combos reward phys tricks than mag tricks.
Knight: 7.5/10. 2.5 of this is from Two Hands alone. The class is competent but not stellar beyond that.
Thief: 5/10. Good game for stealing, decent offensive utility early but fades fast thanks to Ranger punting its offensive role out.
Merchant: 2/10. All two points for More Money.
Time Mage: 7/10. Queen of the offensive and status mages, and its passives are kinda neat to gamebreaking when used right
Spell Fencer: 5/10. I never wound up fully sold on these, despite Sleep Sword being an earlygame mainstay on my low-offense team.
Ranger: 7.5/10. One of the two major offense classes for me, actually. Hawkeye is glorious for Pirates, it's a great ST buster, bows are awesome for early offense... this carried me through a lot of the game in some form or another.
Summoner: 2/10. I don't respect its MT clearing...
Valkyrie: 7.5/10. Because this exists. Spears being the other excellent weapon, this class also does excellent early. Ranger/(Pirate or Thief) and Valkyrie/Knight were the two major melee bruisers I had for most of the game.
Red Mage: 1.5/10. I... can't bring myself to give this class any real credit outside of a goofy poison for BP technique, which relies on a late-end passive. The skillset by midgame has less utility than Freelancer.
Performer: 7/10. Your go-to for MT buffing. Obsoletes basically any other stat buff class.
Pirate: 7.5/10. Great skillset, good weapon choices if a bit reliant on Ranger to buoy them.
Salve Maker: 8.5/10. Worse WM but with excellent, if tedious, offense. WM definitely wins due to being better at the vital role, but Salve Maker is my #4 class in the game, I think.
Swordmaster: 3/10. Low respect for the class due to needing to combo heavily into it for relatively low output.
Ninja: 6/10. Utsusemi spoils a fair amount of the game, and at absolute endgame it gets fun setups... but 90% of its functional time in game is just for Utsusemi and nothing else.
Arcanist: 4/10. Basically BM with half a point docked for being late to the party
Spiritmaster: 9.5/10. Spiritmaster is one of the sanest ways to tell a great deal of the game to go bend itself over a pole. It is WM's counterpart, but unlike WM it has no competition for its role - it is the sanest way to do almost anything in its bag of tricks. AND it buffs WM. Yeah.
Templar: 4/10. Rampart could be really neat but uh Spiritmaster. Still, it's #3 of the ways to do the dragons...
Dark Knight: 9/10. It comes late but it carries its weight easily with its brutal damage - and Rage is simply one of the best ways to make things cry the game possesses, especially when comboed correctly. (Spell Fencer doesn't get a bonus from enabling this class since you can pick up Drain Blade from an item...)
Vampire: 7/10. This class could honestly, for me, compete with Dark Knight in raw utility thanks to Fireball and stat drains and less setup-reliant MT offense....... but while I don't hold the Castle against Vampire, I do hold the Dragon Copy Festival against the class. This being said, I ran this class on three people as soon as I got it and didn't regret it one damn bit. It is what Conjurer and Freelancer were hoping to be because it realizes that the game is all about physical offense and acts as a jack of all trades off that.
Conjurer: 3/10 and all three points of this are solely for the "nuke randoms get EXP/gold" skill.

[Luther Lansfeld]

I played Hard Mode.

Bravely Default:
Freelancer: 2/10. Scan isn't really useful enough to justify the garbage otherwise. A small amount of credit for the early Ise-no-Kami stuff.
White Mage: 9.5/10. Best class in the game in my opinion, and made the game playable on Hard Mode. There is no point in the game that they were not vital.
Monk: 3/10. Crap after the first chapter. Can also uses Staves to combo with Valkyrie I guess, which elevates them above Freelancer.
Black Mage: 4/10. Similar to Monk but takes a while longer to fall into the infinite void of shittiness. Pierce MDEF makes them decent late?
Knight: 8/10. Two Hands is fucking amazing and Stomp is cool. Sounds like they get good late as well.
Thief: 2.5/10. Has some advantages over Monk but is quite fragile. The drain gets bad pretty damn fast, too.
Merchant: 3/10. Big pimpin' spending Gs
Time Mage: 6/10. Weird class, but in HM the speed manipulation is definitely quite useful, particularly when you'd prefer your other classes such as Pirate doing other things.
Spell Fencer: 8/10. Combos so well with Valkyrie (sleep everyone, elemental the shit out of everyone) and later is just great for a high damage class. DK has Drain to fuel its power with HP, and the other classes can smack the shit out of things with elements.
Ranger: 4/10. Really needed a human weakness. Bows are decent but make your defense shithouse.
Summoner: 3.5/10. Obsoleted so hard by Valk/Spell Fencer combo. Way too costly. Occasionally useful in all points of the game for annoying enemy blitzing, though, if you hate your MP that much.
Valkyrie: 7.5/10. Great midgame, falls off later.
Red Mage: 3.5/10. Mostly points for their cool passives and the versatility can be kinda useful in Chapter 3? They can run physicals okay as well then. They join too late though.
Performer: 8.5/10. turn shift + MT defense buffing + MT attack buffing + MT speed buffing = who gives a shit about their stats
Pirate: 8/10. Axes are just silly lategame, and their debuffs are 100% acc and can really cripple enemies. HM probably makes them better.
Salve Maker: 7/10. MP healing for godlike. Sounds like they get some neat damage options too that I didn't get.
Swordmaster: 3.5/10. Depressingly underwhelming, although I guess you could set up some Cover strats. Never got it going in practice though.
Ninja: 6/10. Utsusemi + counter dodge + the RM BP ability = silly as fuck. Offense is a little lacking though, weirdly.
Arcanist: 3/10. Sounds like you can use them for status hax if you get them going, but blah to their skillset and stats.
Spiritmaster: 9/10. Essential for lategame.
Templar: 5/10. Rampart was a pretty big part of my strategies lategame. Otherwise blah. Lowish damage and their defense adding ability is less cool than Knight's.
Dark Knight: 9.5/10. Boring degenerate overpowered class.
Vampire: 6/10. Is straight up worse than DK and joins at best a dungeon before DK but is neat anyway.
Conjurer: 1/10. What the fuck?

[Grefter]

Bravely Default:
Freelancer: 2/10. Scan isn't really useful enough to justify the garbage otherwise. A small amount of credit for the early Ise-no-Kami stuff.
White Mage: 9.5/10. Best class in the game in my opinion, and made the game playable on Hard Mode. There is no point in the game that they were not vital.
Monk: 3/10. Crap after the first chapter. Can also uses Staves to combo with Valkyrie I guess, which elevates them above Freelancer.
Black Mage: 4/10. Similar to Monk but takes a while longer to fall into the infinite void of shittiness. Pierce MDEF makes them decent late?
Knight: 8/10. Two Hands is fucking amazing and Stomp is cool. Sounds like they get good late as well.
Thief: 2.5/10. Has some advantages over Monk but is quite fragile. The drain gets bad pretty damn fast, too.
Merchant: 3/10. Big pimpin' spending Gs
Time Mage: 6/10. Weird class, but in HM the speed manipulation is definitely quite useful, particularly when you'd prefer your other classes such as Pirate doing other things.
Spell Fencer: 8/10. Combos so well with Valkyrie (sleep everyone, elemental the shit out of everyone) and later is just great for a high damage class. DK has Drain to fuel its power with HP, and the other classes can smack the shit out of things with elements.
Ranger: 4/10. Really needed a human weakness. Bows are decent but make your defense shithouse.
Summoner: 3.5/10. Obsoleted so hard by Valk/Spell Fencer combo. Way too costly. Occasionally useful in all points of the game for annoying enemy blitzing, though, if you hate your MP that much.
Valkyrie: 7.5/10. Great midgame, falls off later.
Red Mage: 3.5/10. Mostly points for their cool passives and the versatility can be kinda useful in Chapter 3? They can run physicals okay as well then. They join too late though.
Performer: 8.5/10. turn shift + MT defense buffing + MT attack buffing + MT speed buffing = who gives a shit about their stats
Pirate: 8/10. Axes are just silly lategame, and their debuffs are 100% acc and can really cripple enemies. HM probably makes them better.
Salve Maker: 7/10. MP healing for godlike. Sounds like they get some neat damage options too that I didn't get.
Swordmaster: 3.5/10. Depressingly underwhelming, although I guess you could set up some Cover strats. Never got it going in practice though.
Ninja: 6/10. Utsusemi + counter dodge + the RM BP ability = silly as fuck. Offense is a little lacking though, weirdly.
Arcanist: 3/10. Sounds like you can use them for status hax if you get them going, but blah to their skillset and stats.
Spiritmaster: 9/10. Essential for lategame.
Templar: 5/10. Rampart was a pretty big part of my strategies lategame. Otherwise blah. Lowish damage and their defense adding ability is less cool than Knight's.
Dark Knight: 9.5/10. Boring degenerate overpowered class.
Vampire: 6/10. Is straight up worse than DK and joins at best a dungeon before DK but is neat anyway.
Conjurer: 1/10. What the fuck?

Was waiting for this.  Accurate.