Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles offers space for an incredible amount of player expression, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some definitive best character builds.
The job system in Final Fantasy Tactics is deep, giving players lots of ways to create powerful units. No single job can do it all, but there are many avenues for players to eventually build characters that can weather any storm. Whether it’s making a heavily armored Ninja, a magically inclined Samurai, or a Black Mage with a crossbow, there are loads of possibilities.
This can be loads of fun and players are ultimately best served by experimenting, but it’s still good to know what the absolute best builds are. Here are some of the best options, both for generic NPCs and some of the unique heroes of Final Fantasy Tactics.
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Best Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles builds
Final Fantasy Tactics offers characters a broad range of abilities that are unique to specific jobs. No individual job ends up being wildly overpowered, but combining abilities from multiple jobs can result in some downright absurd combinations.
Black Mage-Arithmetician
- Job: Black Mage
- Action ability: Arithmeticks
- Reaction ability: Magick Counter
- Support ability: Magick Boost
- Movement ability: Teleport
Arithmetician is a unique class in Final Fantasy Tactics, as it inherently draws upon the abilities of other classes. Rather than casting spells on a specific tile or unit, Arithmeticians target spells based on their level, experience, the height of the tile they’re standing on, or whatever else. This allows them to potentially target every enemy or ally on the map, assuming they can find the exact right combination of numbers.
The job is kept balanced by having a very slow speed and relatively weak offensive potential. The thing is that players can ultimately just take those skills to a different class that moves faster and hits harder. The Black Mage is best for this and it ultimately lets them blow up any enemy, anywhere on the map. The fact that this also still offers access to the late-game spells Firaja, Thundaja, and Blizzaja, which aren’t available to the Arithmetician, is just gravy.
Monk-Ninja
- Job: Monk
- Action ability: Items
- Reaction ability: Shirahadori
- Support ability: Dual Wield
- Movement ability: Move +2
When they have an attack-boosting accessory like the Power Gauntlets or Brigand’s Gloves, Monks deal impressively high damage. Combine that with the versatility of the Martial Arts ability set and it’s a great class at every part of the game. Fleshing out the build to cover for the Monk’s shortcomings, however, makes it potentially one of the best jobs in all of Final Fantasy Tactics.
The Ninja’s Dual Wield support ability lets the Monk punch twice with each basic attack, a massive damage upgrade. Items as the secondary action ability helps Monks support allies when they’re on different elevations. Finally, Shirahadori is just an excellent reaction ability. Alternatively, players can opt for an offense-focused reaction ability like Counter instead.
Chemist-Knight
- Job: Chemist
- Action ability: Arts of War
- Reaction ability: Auto-Potion
- Support ability: Magick Boost
- Movement ability: Move +2
It might seem strange to have a combination of two early-game classes here, but this is an extremely potent combination at high levels.
While players might initially think that the Knight’s Arts of War abilities are a close-range skill, they’re not. Their range is actually determined by the range of the user’s weapon. That means when a gunslinging Chemist has the Arts of War abilities, they’re able to break equipment and debuff enemies from across the map.
Using Magick Boost as the support ability might stand out, but it buffs the magic guns. If players want to use a different pistol, they can swap in the Geomancer’s Attack Boost ability instead.
Summoner-Time Mage
- Job: Summoner
- Action ability: Items
- Reaction ability: Mana Shield
- Support ability: Swiftspell
- Movement ability: Teleport
Summoners have the highest DPS potential of any mage due to the large AOE of summons. That’s balanced by the fact that they’re squishy, immobile, and are very slow to activate high-level summons like Golem and Bahamut. A run as a Time Mage can help with all that.
Mana Shield, Teleport, and Swiftspell help with all those problems, respectively. Mana Shield cuts incoming damage by sacrificing MP, Swiftspell helps units cast spells faster, and Teleport greatly increases the unit’s mobility. Summoning and Mana Shield both require large mana pools, which makes Items the preferred secondary action ability. Ethers and Elixirs are ultimately the most efficient way to replenish MP. If players are running a different character with Throw Items, White Magicks could be swapped in instead.
Teleport is a tough ability get given its whopping 3,000 JP cost. While it’s very good, players are going to have to farm for a very long time to get it. In the meantime, there are plenty of alternatives that are effective, including ones as simple as Move +1.
Best character-specific builds
The best builds for the special characters of Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles typically complement their unique action abilities. Characters ranging from Agrias to Marach have special jobs that can’t be used by standard NPCs. In most cases for these characters, the best option is to finalize their kit with abilities that complement those skills.
Best Ramza build
The best build for Ramza varies based on what stage of the game players are in. In the first two chapters, there isn’t really a singular best build beyond keeping his Mettle skills as the secondary action abilities. Focus, Tailwind, and Steel are all very good for casually grinding experience. Steel is particularly important as it’s the best and most reliable way to raise the Bravery stat for party members, Ramza included.
In the late game, here is the best Ramza build:
- Job: Gallant Knight
- Action ability: Arithmeticks
- Reaction ability: Mana Shield
- Support ability: Magick Boost
- Movement ability: Manafont
As discussed, Arithmeticks is an extremely powerful secondary action ability for classes that have respectable magic damage. Ramza’s unique Squire class, which is redubbed Gallant Knight later in the game, isn’t the best in terms of magical damage, but giving him equipment that boosts his magical damage helps him fix this. This combined with his ability to equip knight swords, particularly Excalibur, and use Ultima makes him an interesting and powerful dual threat. The content cut from FFT: The War of the Lions does hurt both Ramza’s viability as a physical damage dealer, but players can go for a straightforward build if they so desire.
Best Mustadio build
- Job: Knight
- Action ability: Aimed Shot
- Reaction ability: Shirahadori
- Support ability: Equip Gun
- Movement ability: Move +3
The combination of Knight and Chemist is powerful, but Mustadio has his own wrinkle to this. The ability to break equipment and lower enemies’ stats from long distances is wildly powerful, but Mustadio’s ability to do this while also having the option to disable enemy units makes him a CC monster. The cherry on top is that he can also equip heavy armor as a Knight, making him significantly more tanky.
This build will require some grinding as Equip Gun is an Orator class ability, so he will have to make significant progress in the opposite direction of his endgame job. Still, the results are worth it.
Best Agrias build
Agrias can be built in two different directions. Her permutation of the Holy Knight job has the capacity for dealing either physical or magical damage.
The most natural build for Agrias is physical damage. She has both AOE and ranged damaged options with her Holy Sword abilities that make her naturally powerful, and has access to knight swords that offer both damage and buffs. Players can boost that even further with this build:
- Job: Holy Knight
- Action ability: Items
- Reaction ability: Strength Surge
- Support ability: Dual Wield
- Movement ability: Movement +2
The major advantage Agrias has over Ramza in all versions of Final Fantasy Tactics is access to the Dancer job. This gives her access to Dance abilities as well as their reaction and support abilities. Strength Surge ups attack power each time they take damage while Dual Wield lets her use a pair of knight swords for both damage and buff purposes. Though her damage is high, it can be made overwhelming if she takes a few hits.
For those who want to take Agrias in a magic damage direction, here’s the best build she has in Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles-
- Job: Holy Knight
- Action ability: Arithmeticks
- Reaction ability: Mana Shield
- Support ability: Magick Boost
- Movement ability: Manafont
Similar to Ramza, Agrias needs the right equipment to make this build work. Thankfully, there are multiple pieces of armor available exclusively to women that make this easier between ribbons and perfumes. Agrias doesn’t have access to a special spell like Ramza does, but this is still a very powerful build.
