Bravely Default 2 Jobs
Not much rhyme or reason here, just going off memory here.
Freelancer: 6.5/10. The statline ain't too hot and the weapon ranks are um not great either (C across the board isn't as bad as it'd be in BD1, but still kinda bad). THIS SAID, you can actually bypass this during the earlygame with one of Monk's low-leve passives (more about this on their entry) and the utility on the skillset, both on passives and actual skills, has niche uses (mainly related to farming, so not sure how much it really weighs on me, since I hardly did any farming, though it also plays into status builds pre-Phantom, and THAT is actually big, since status hard-breaks BD2). Body Slam as a first capstone skill is also a good carry, but I'm not sure if it's running a subjob just for it good. Post C4, the class gets a kick in the nuts, where Late Bloomer actually ramps up its stats something fierce and Freelancer becomes the first class to have its level caps lifted (also the only one given to you for free) and Mimic easily works its way into a billionfold of broken setups (it's a lot more wieldy than BD1 Mimic, which was made very awkward due to classic turn-based mechanics). The weapon affinities remain a problem forever, though, and rule of thumb you're not getting the skills to fix this without delving into asterisk portal fights. Does this mess work out to above average? I suppose, and I frankly may be underselling this job anyway. This is going to be a recurring theme, by the way: there are MANY ways to snap BD2 in half and many of them require similar amounts of effort while achieving satisfying, impressive-looking results in a wide variety of ways.
Black Mage: 3/10. Magic has issues in BD2, and Black Mage honestly has the absolute least to offer for magical setups. S in Staves is nice early and black magic is decent damage in the prologue, but even mid-C1 it starts showing its issues (very expensive and multitargetting it dampens its power -real- hard, so brave-bombing gets PROBLEMATIC). The MP regen passives in the early game do help with this a lot, but the biggest problem is that they're still not really that great at damage -anyway-, and the class is otherwise a dead zone for mage builds. You'll probably master this before other mage classes show up (mainly because BD2 really BLITZES your job growth in practice), but man, this class really has nothing to offer outside its low-end jagen mage stopgap. Not quite the worst class in the game, but it certainly makes a case.
White Mage: 8/10. The class got hit with a nerf bat from BD1 and it's still really, really good. Having a healer, while not as borderline mandatory as it was in BD1, is still obscenely good and Angelic Ward is a great class passive as usual. The defensive buffs are less potent and it has no offense at all (they yanked Aero and Holy from it), but it honestly doesn't hurt the class in practice much. Healing items being more accessible and more affordable lowers its value a bit, but it's still the best class for action economy in healing and, as a subjob, it now gets much more flexible synergies with tanking classes and whatnot. Simple, but very effective.
Vanguard: 7/10. The first dedicated physical class, it tries to dabble in a bunch of things between damage, utility and tanking, doing all of them competently enough but not being standout in any of them. Neo Cross Slash is very functional and actually pretty impressive for a while, though it being a capstone skill means you're spending most of your time in the class using its weaker counterpart. Debuffs being nerfed from BD1 also hurts it a bit, but it's still fine. Reaching job level 12 is a big benchmark, though, since its second specialty is -really- powerful, especially later in the game, and it can work as a substitute for setups like dualwielding or two-hands to save slots. Specializing in Axes is kind of a bummer, though the job's okay enough at spears and swords to work with anyway.
Monk: 4.5/10. It's very much a Jagen job: pretty good physical stats and early damage skills at a glance, Bare-handed Brawler is a great passive in the earlygame (since it lets you ignore the weapon slot and still deal competent damage, at times even better than armed fighters, while not having to worry nearly as much about equipment weight on the armor slots. It's a nice setup for flexibility until early C2!), there's some extra damage synergy and utility running in those skills... but they don't last nearly as long as a carry. Unarmed combat starts having pretty serious issues in the midgame (with both weapon power and accuracy becoming more of a factor) and the skills themselves don't keep up with their mults either. Monk's weapon affinities also have some problems (Only A being STAVES kinda hurts, since most rods have poor physical stats, emphasizing, obviously, magic or restoration). Good enough to carry into mastery when you get it, but unlikely to see any use later outside some very specific setups (most of which are frankly pretty whatever, I feel the magic threshold for offensive stats in the lategame hovers around the 490s-500s and there are many, MANY ways to achieve this with less caveats than Monk needs).
Bard: 8/10. Statline and affinities ain't too hot (sketchy offensive, best weapon being bows at a B, somewhat fragile... at least they're fast), but Singing is a great skillset whose utility changes considerably as the game goes on. Early on, singing has a mostly defensive bent, since the damage buffs take a while to show up and raw damage reduction matters more at the earlier parts of the game. Late, when those offensive buffs stack multiplicatively with stat buffs and can be piled up up to over triple damage from base, um yeah, they become staples of many blitzing setups, even working well with lower-level/speedrunning strats. Some status and even crowd control damage utility complete the package, and the turn parcelling skill is also a nice capstone. There's some worth in running the job as a main even though it's not a great carrier too, since its specialty passives are quite solid for its buffs and the class' special move is pretty good.
Beastmaster: 9/10. Frankly has a very legit argument for best class in the game. Until C5, Beastmaster just does everything you want before any class you get before it and often even better than classes you get after as long as you don't neglect capturing monsters (you don't even need to care much about WHICH monster as long as they're at roughly your power level because the monster abilities are scaled off higher than PC abilities as a rule of thumb). Oh, and the class has a passive that gives you a chance of automatically capturing enemies you kill. And it has one of the best passives in the game (Spearhead, which gives you initiative as long as you have a spear equipped and aren't ambushed by enemies. Oh, this also works on bosses and you have pretty much absolute control over whether you get ambushed or not). And it also has great passives for bursting power. And it has a decent statline. As for weaponry... A in Spears and Bows is not quite the dream, but an A on the best weapon type in the game (partly because of Spearhead!) and one of the best weapon types in the early-midgame certainly doesn't hurt. Its specialty 2 is also bananas, giving you stat bonuses based on how many monsters you have captured. Even if you stop capturing monsters period by the end of C4, if you were running the auto-capture skill, your Beastmaster will have bonkers stats. And when you think the class starts falling off (monsters don't get to cap break damage and their side utility falls off), you get the L13-15 skills, which have a fantastic DPS skill in Muzzling Maelstrom and Nature's Blessing - oh, and they still have all the stats. The only problem I can say the class has is that it initially looks a bit unfriendly and it doesn't start off game-breaking. Still, really damned good class that leads you into many possible ways to power for your physical builds to boot.
Thief: Godspeed Strike/10 7/10. Thief's in a weirdass place: the class isn't super enticing to stay in outside of speed (best weapon affinity is an A in Daggers, which is pretty whatever, durability is shoddy, attack isn't all that great) and its skillset isn't very good besides one skill. HOWEVER, that ONE skill just happens to be pretty much the strongest single-target physical move for about 80% of the game. Godspeed Strike is bananas, having a super high mult that scales ridiculously off speed (it may be affected by ATK as well, certainly seems to not scale off too poorly off bad speed) and repeating itself after a short delay. And Thief, along with Phantom, also happens to be the game's fastest job. Godspeed Strike is so good it actually merits running Thievery just for that - or even running the class just for that. It has some use for farming setups as well, but I frankly don't care much about that (and hell, stealing sucks -ass- without dedicated twinking)? This is just mainly a check of how good you see Godspeed Strike being, and I think this is fair enough as a balance.
Berserker: 7/10. On the one hand, Savagery is the best randomslaying skillset in the game (Crescent Moon and Level Slash control crowds like nothing else can in terms of resource economy for your physical fighters) with a few decent tools for bosses as well (defense debuffs, both Double Damage and Amped Strike). On the other hand, the class is not super fun to stay in (very slow, specializing in axes kinda sucks because the weapon is both very heavy and kinda inaccurate) and its passives, outside of Bloody-Minded (which I do -not- like because boosting Aim feels more effective and less costly than having all of your physical damage cost you 25% mHP a pop), do not work well without Savagery itself. This said, I kept both my fighters running Savagery all the way to the very endgame when dealing with grunts, that efficiency is just unparalled. Guess somewhere around the area of Godspeed Strike works.
Gambler: 2/10. eeeeeeew spending money to do stuff go away. While BD2's in-game economy is kinda wild, it's not so wild as to warrant a class that can make you drop money down the drain like Gambler does. To make matters worse, its first passive is complete bullshit, randomly yanking out money, XP or JP from the person in the job. The skillset itself has potential on paper, but everything being tied to either money spending or prohibitive BP costs just makes me toss the class away. It even has shoddy stats and affinities to boot! Raise it solely for its money-boosting and drop-boosting passives and run away otherwise. I actually thought as whether this was worse than Black Mage and listing all the ways I don't like it just made me go "... yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaah, fuck off".
Red Mage: 6.5/10. Offensive magic has issues in BD, but honestly Red Mage goes a loooooooooooong way to make it viable, though it's not the only venue to power mages have. The main problem with Red Mage is having awkward weapon affinities (A in Swords for your best is kinda awkward for a mage, though the game does have quite a few high-magic attack swords... at least B in staves means they're not actually TANKING magic stats by running them) and not actually very good at that magic stat itself, but they have considerably better weight allowance than most mages (it actually lets them run bows somewhat well, and bows have really high offensive stats in general to compensate being two-handed and super heavy) and decent speed, which helps make up for it. The skillset mixing up status options attached to damage (which can be emphasized further by mix-matching other elements from different mage classes and leans naturally into status builds - Red Mage even has no-strings attached access to some of the most powerful status procs in Sleep and Stop) and single-target healing isn't bad either and both its equippable passives are really good - in fact, Magic Critical is pretty key for your magic damage builds, since crit rate can be tweaked in so many ways. Revenge, on the other hand, just makes a great filler slot at worst and can create inane deathtanking bravebuilders at best. Then, it also hands you the first L4 spell you'll likely get in the game two full chapters you'll even dream of getting the second one and its second specialty doubles all the damage and magic-based buffing or healing your mage does for free. Pretty neat class and works well as the starting point for any advanced mage build. I'd rate Red Mage higher if I actually thought BD2 magic was better than it is (though it can actually be where the ultimate damage comes from, but it's pretty shenanigansy).
Ranger: 6.5/10. Iunno, this class feels like it should be so much worse to stay in than it is. Outside speed (which is good) and accuracy (which is -insane-), its statline is pure trash. Shoddy STR, bad durability, those really don't make for a compelling base carrier. THIS SAID, Ranger has some really powerful equippable passives (Counter-Savvy is nearly indispensable to have at least on your fighters, hard-neuters so many enemy counters so hard it ain't even funny. It's actually worth delving into the class with your MAGE CLASSES to pick it up if you're so inclined), good specialties and having an S in bows is hilarious in the early to midgame, since bows have such stacked base stats on both ends to the point you could actually make a RANGER a credible mage for a while. Thanks to all these piling up, along with good base crit, suddenly Ranger actually deals way more damage than you'd think it should and really clocks things up before the endgame. The accuracy also helps a lot, because enemies in BD2 have actual evade and missing moves in a brave-chain HURTS. Once you reach lategame, though, I feel like you just get a lot more options to do huge damage and Ranger stops standing out. I may be mistaken, though, bows still have insane bases by endgame and Ranger is the only class that gets S rank to put them to max potential... but the skillset being very one-dimensional and scaling kinda poorly into the endgame/aftergame hurts that... though they're one of the only classes to have straight access to paralysis, so they can have uses for status builds (albeit kinda edge case in practice, their stats do not lend well to status procs at base). On the other hand, dominating chapters 2 to 4 is really worth an accolade, that feels like the time where the game has the most bite to it (and some of the hardest maingame bosses are there!). Also, half a point for possibly underselling its lategame potential.
Shieldmaster: 5/10? This one's difficult to rate. On the one hand, Shieldmaster is obscenely, -obscenely- tanky and has quite a few proactive tanking tools at their disposal. On the other hand, it has absolutely miserable offense and also has problems turning enemy offense into straight damage as well. The speed is also a huge problem until late, especially when a huge part of the durability comes from equipping crazy heavy armor. Once Shieldmaster reaches mastery and can dedicate some of its passives to fix those speed problems to a degree, it actually comes together and can pair with other classes for some hilarious anti-damage and anti-BP combos, but the offense and non-tanking utility will always be a problem (also, offense is usually easier to twink for and really goes completely ballistic by the time you'd feel comfortable using mastered classes without worrying about some degree of JP spillover). Can pair somewhat with White Magic for a near-immortal healer, but I feel another class does the carrier tank job better.
Pictomancer: 7/10? I like this class. Decent magic stats, acceptable physical stats, fast, more potent debuffs than its Vanguard/Berserker counterparts and has them all stacked together, alongside having Daub and a special that applies it at perfect accuracy to all enemies along with an omnidebuff. Not very good for randoms, but it's quite a neat package for bosses and Pictomancer also pairs well with a bunch of other mixed setups. Sub-Job BP Saver is also a great ability that should be learned by anyone running Savagery or other BP-hungry setups (and those are pretty common!) in the midgame. The game-worst durability and shoddy weapon ranks are rather problematic, but their BIS being spears and rods works as a silver lining. Also pairs really well with Bard and their passives.
Salve-Maker: 8.5/10? I wanted to give it a 9/10 at first for Compounding being easily the easiest carrier for BD2's status hard-breaking builds, but that probably overrates the class. This said... well, the class statline doesn't have much offensive punch and its stats overall are pretty middling. Compounding is the very first skill on the skillset and it's probably the best thing by far in its set, so, outside of running Phantom/Salve-Maker, you actually don't get much out of it in terms of varied builds. THIS SAID, however, Compounding is just bonkers good, giving you really insane sustainability options for dirt cheap. Everything you'd actually want from the class in terms of healing and status is storebought and the fundamentals are very cheap to maintain as well. And, of course, the synergy between this and Phantom is just degenerate in more ways than one (like infinite MT Elixir spamming for the cost of 40 MP a pop. Like, seriously, what the freaking hell). On the other hand, Compounding isn't as potentially versatile as it was in BD1: you use it for resource control, healing and status. Granted, this is... probably enough.
Dragoon: 7/10? Iunno, the skillset itself kinda unimpressive, though somewhat versatile (has crowd control, Jump for its dedicated DPS, some element damage, MP draining... it just they don't have much -punch- off a cursory glance), but the class got stats (fast, high strength, decent durability - though that mdef base is oof, the HP and defense aren't bad). Good passives for crowd control as well, stuff like Full Force pairs well with both mages and skillsets like Savagery. Upon mastery, getting a free Dual Wield as long as you're equipping spears/swords (AKA the best physical weapon types in the game) and having respective S and A on those proficiencies also kinda slaps - and that is likely to be your earliest access to Dual Wield-like passives ever, along with always, always being an option if you're looking to save passive slots running off a capable statline. I also may be underselling Draconics to boot, you can do some SHENANIGANS with Jump parties from what I've seen on Youtube. Granted, there are just so, so many ways to power in BD2...
Spiritmaster: 8/10. The classic Spiritmaster/White Magic combo from BD1 doesn't function quite the same here, though it's still very good. Spiritmaster, though, just functions very unlike BD1's counterpart to begin with. Mainly, its idea is passively keeping your party up with wisps that can heal or revive or heal status or restore MP or, post-mastery, actually all of those at once just hovering around passively. The healing itself isn't SUPER potent, which means you probably want White Magic paired with it before mastery. This said, post-mastery and particularly post-JL cap breaks, the class becomes hilariously broken with wisps that passively restore BP and cast reraise. Oh, and Spiritmaster's passive also has a partial status immunity+guts-like effect that keeps you alive as long as your HP is 20% or above while wisps are around. So, you can play with many, many party-wide immortality setups with this class, though the dispel wisps can be a problem with a lot of offense-geared setups. Not one of my preferred anchors, but people like Snowfire will certainly sing praises to heaven regarding this class, since it enables low-offense, high-sustainability builds in a hilarious manner.
Swordmaster: 7/10? Comparing this and Dragoon, there are some pretty striking similarities: the skillset bases aren't great - Swordmaster in particular has bad options for the first six levels or so and, until getting built up, the basic physical builds are just not any good. On the other hand, Fluid Stance pairs very well with Shieldmaster's tanking game, allowing for ridiculous BP-draining combos, and Swordmaster gains some pretty good single-targetting builds. And there are always the stats: Swordmaster has very high attack and good speed, along with that S in Swords and Two Hands is one of the big equipment passives you will look for when weighing lategame offense builds. Mastery, though, really brings the class together - in particular, it's the only class that can access sub-jobs' specialty passives for no skill slot cost, and the only way to get the SECOND specialties without Bravebearer, which makes it quite a potent carrier, especially with Phantom's Dual Wield. It does feel less flexible than Dragoon until mastery, though, but then Two Hands is a really good passive to pass around. Same overall score works.
Oracle: 6.5/10. So, Oracle. This class is -painful- to stay in before mastery: awful stats, crap weapon affinities, the full monty. However, Divination is a great skillset that synergizes amazingly with its excellent first specialty passive (especially once you land Triple and Triplara) and can outright delete a surprising amount of fights with its elemental manipulation gimmick. Said gimmick also factors into a lot of offensive setups you can do and obviously gels amazingly with other mage setups. Once you master the class, its second passive turns Oracle into quite an interesting carrier, since it gives the stats and weapon affinities of your subclass to the main job, effectively erasing Oracle's big downfall and actually making it possibly an omnicarrier as well while lugging around Divination's kickass skillset, viable for both physical and magical builds. This said, the pre-mastery drudge is just too hard to ignore, so I figure it can't really go above the 6.5 mark, especially considering you're dealing with a bad mage class in C3 - AKA the worst time in the game to be a mage.
Phantom: 9/10. Oh boy, remember how Dark Knight in BD1 completely warped game balance by itself because it was just so BUSTED? Yeah, Phantom does something similar to BD2, but in a more layered manner. The class itself is kind of a double-edged sword - great offensive stats (Thief-level speed, has an S rank in daggers at a point where daggers start actually having power, actually good ATK), junky durability, trashy skillset outside the self-buff (which, in fairness, is actually good and works well for all kinds of offensive builds, but gets outshone soon after you get it!)... but then, you look at Phantom's passives. For starters, all three of Phantom's equippable passives are excellent: Critical Amp is amazing in a game where crit rate can be tweaked as high as BD2's, and it can be worked in both physical and magical setups (also working well with Phantom's kickass specialty 1, which raises crit rate of any attack hitting weakness by 50%). Rewarding Results is kinda niche in the sense it needs a status build to work, but in a game where status SMASHES its battles to hell, it's certainly kickass to get another turn every time you land a status! Then, there's Dual Wield: this or Two Hands is how you bust open BD2's ATK/MAG scores to play into the insanity that is its lategame/aftergame, and Dual Wield offers you a lot more flexibility in equipment tweaking than Two Hands does. Any offensive build worth its salt in BD2 should have a way to access Dual Wield or Two Hands, and obviously this is super big. However, it doesn't stop there: Oracle's mastery specialty, Results Guaranteed, completely breaks the game open, making any chance-based passive or attack have a guaranteed chance to work at an extra cost of 40 MP per proc. Landing debilitating status on the final boss? Sure, fam. Always proccing Revenge for ten billion BP surplus? Why not. Having Salve-Maker's passive where sometimes it doesn't spend the item ALWAYS WORK so you can spam items forever and ever? Of course! All you need to worry about is the MP upkeep, and in a game where MP flows in as freely as BD2 past the C2 mark, that's quite frankly trivial. Oracle makes pretty much one of the most dominating carrier jobs in the game for that alone and also gives incredible passives that work their way in most of the game's advanced builds. Only real problem with the class is having such a trashy base skillset and not doing much in-job for non-status mage builds (though those still want Critical Amp and Dual Wield anyway), but that hardly keeps it from being obscenely broken. It's obviously not as exciting before mastery, but frankly the stats and buffing do keep the bases afloat very well until its overwhelming power sets in.
Arcanist: 4.5/10. Oof. So, Arcanist has cast-best MAG, S in staves and high-powered elemental spells of many varieties, along with an equippable passive that regens MP and another one that raises magic damage by 20% (at the caveat of higher MP cost). Sounds good, right? Weeeeeeell... it has some PROBLEMS. First, its first passive makes multitarget damage not suffer unfocusing penalties, but also makes the user a target of the spells. Second, its multitarget spells also target the party. Third, its mastery passive improves magical damage once again, but gives all spells a chance to target your party in addition to enemies. Oof. I get the design with this class' high risk-high reward tenets, but it's frankly quite annoying to set up for. You need to either have party members dedicated to mitigating the self-damage (like an elementally immune Shieldmaster or an Oracle to manipulate elements) or to equip your entire party, including your Arcanist, to immune/absorb the damage you're going to use. This is -workable-, but it's a lot of work and you have much, much easier ways to deal huge damage even with magic to make the class worth it. The statline outside its magic is also shit, that durability speed/combo is uguu. The passives are valuable, at least, and if you find the drawbacks worth the trouble, you can actually make some surprisingly fun things with this, like a party that gets healed by Arcanist's AoE damage. In spite of how awkward the class is, I'm actually willing to experiment further with its stuff in another playthrough, which does say something about BD2's overall job design.
Bastion: 5.5/10? The skillset doesn't impress me, tbh: Rampart/Vallation (immunes the next physical or magical attack for the entire party) and, depending on builds, Sanctuary feel like the only actually potent abilities in that set. This said, the passives aren't bad at all and, most importantly, I -really- like Bastion as a carrier: good durability stats across the board, high weight allowance and excellent weapon affinities (S in Spears! A in Swords and Staves!) and even acceptable offensive stats on that statline make for a really good base to house a supporter or healer who can build BP pretty well. Only problem is Bastion speed is pretty dang bad, but can't win 'em all. Not a whole lot besides that, but that's frankly good enough sometimes.
Hellblade: 7/10. They nerfed the Dark Knight equivalent to hell and back from BD1 and it was actually warranted, of course... but I think that, skillset-wise, they went a bit too far? The attack skills on Hellblade have elemental variety, but are otherwise not worth using (the base mults are just too low even after factoring in the delayed add-ons (though there are actual upsides to using those moves with their second specialty passive, it's interesting). The speed being bad is also a problem. The class has it real good on passives and carrier perks, though: Deal With The Devil's downside is pretty hefty, but the HP -and- MP regen are actually pretty good, especially on caster classes. To boot, Hellblade has great ATK AND MAG bases and runs off S in Swords, A in Staves and -also- A in shields, so they can equip well for offensive builds no matter what (I frankly was shocked at how good staff-wielding Hellblade was at casting magic, even). And, to that respect, Death Throes is actually a great skill for offensive builds across the board and is worth putting up with the rest of the skillset as a main carrier, since it gives you an easily accessible, easy to use omni-stat boost for setting up huge damage burst. Finally, Surpassing Power is one of the most important passives for post-C4 damage builds for pretty self-explanatory reasons: you WANT to break the damage cap on most offensive builds worth their salt (not all, though: Swordmaster damage builds, for instance, rely a lot more on huge amount of hits that struggle to break cap). So, yeah, there's a lot to work with here, even though the bases need some work. It's actually a nice class to stay in if you run it as a build carrier, regardless - heck, there's a non-negligible argument for Hellblade to be the best carrier class for straight offensive mage builds, even, that MAG and A in Staves+Death Throes off actual weight allowance cap and defensive stats are quite a sell.
Bravebearer: 8/10. So, this job is absolutely bonkers. Has all the stats (and I mean ALL the stats), a good, interesting skillset based on advanced BP manipulation, absolutely incredible passives (only job to get a S Rank passive pre-cap unlocks! Allows picking subjob second specialties!) and even the B rank on all weapons across the board isn't much of a big deal. There's only one problem, though: eeew, super late game class. This said, this thing unlocks so much power while being so desirable to stay in that I have to grade it very highly. Ultimately the best carrier in the game, Bravebearer is everything BD1 Conjurer wishes it was.
