Who and what weapon?

[neighbortaru]

Is there something bad with using Balthier as my bow user instead of Fran?

not at all. balthier is actually better suited for bows than Fran

[Doombear]

All my chars are right around level 60 (i suck at letting 3 get too far ahead of the others >.>)

Vaan: Deathbringer or Masamune
Balthier: Fomalhaut
Fran: Fomalhaut
Basch: Deathbringer or Masamune
Ashe: Fomalhaut
Penelo: Zodiac Spear or Fomalhaut

[Stilgar]

I saw it on another thread, but I can't find it now... each character has a weapon that they're better with, right? As in more multi-hit attack rounds or more crits. For example, I read that Vaan is best with daggers and 1h katana, Basch with polearms, Balthier with guns, Ashe with 2h katana, Fran with Bows, and Penelo with rods and staves. My characters are all only lvl 16 , so I'm not very far in at all, but so far I've outfitted them all this way, aside from Ashe anyway, she's sword/shield until I find a GKT.

[blister1]

Currently using

Vaan - Deathbringer + Shield
Basche - Deathbringer + Shield
Penelo - Ame-no-someshit (GK) + Healer

Penelo was always rather slow because I outfitted her with mostly mage gear, but with the GK she attacks almost instantly and pops off around 4-5 hit combos rather often.

I plan on switching to Katana/Dagger/Shield for Vaan, Tourensol/Zodiac for Basche, and Masamune for Penelo.

[neighbortaru]

I saw it on another thread, but I can't find it now... each character has a weapon that they're better with, right? As in more multi-hit attack rounds or more crits. For example, I read that Vaan is best with daggers and 1h katana, Basch with polearms, Balthier with guns, Ashe with 2h katana, Fran with Bows, and Penelo with rods and staves. My characters are all only lvl 16 , so I'm not very far in at all, but so far I've outfitted them all this way, aside from Ashe anyway, she's sword/shield until I find a GKT.

do you mean this?

if you guys haven't seen this yet, there's a very interesting guide on gameFAQs that has weapon breakdown/analysis. It is the "Powering-Up Guide" from the list (http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/game/459841.html). You want to look at section 4 at the bottom.

the summary is:
Vaan is ranked best amonst all the weapons (guns and measures, everyone is equal apparently), especially in the later levels.
Ashe is ranked best with maces with Penelo a very close second. She's actually ranked 2nd (3rd in the early levels) with katanas.
Basch ranks very close to Vaan with swords, spears, G swords, crossbows and poles, ranking 1st in the early levels and coming in second in the later levels.
Balthier is fairly consistently ranked 2nd or 3rd with swords, spears, G swords, crossbows, poles, ninja swords, bows and daggers.
Fran is actually pretty poor with all weapons.

My setup is like this:
Vaan -- Dagger/Sword with Shield
Ashe -- Katanna and Bow for ranged
Penelo -- Gun (Mace with Shield if meleeing)
Fran -- Mace with Shield and Gun for ranged
Basch -- Zodiac Spear and Sword with Shield
Balth -- G sword and Bow for ranged

[Kainen]

Something to note on this: Speed stat does not effect attack speed at all. It only effects your damage on speed based weapons.

If you use my strategy for gambits, then the ideal setup would be Vaan w/ Sword & Shield, Ashe w/ Katana (or spear if you got zodiac), and Penelo w/ Rod (for the +magic).

Also note that if you use a character as a true BLM, the elemental staves in FFXII add 50% to that elements damage so staff is by far your best option.

[Neosutra]

Something to note on this: Speed stat does not effect attack speed at all. It only effects your damage on speed based weapons.

If you use my strategy for gambits, then the ideal setup would be Vaan w/ Sword & Shield, Ashe w/ Katana (or spear if you got zodiac), and Penelo w/ Rod (for the +magic).

Also note that if you use a character as a true BLM, the elemental staves in FFXII add 50% to that elements damage so staff is by far your best option.

Why use staves/rods?

My main healer (fran), uses Gktna Masamune. She does damn nice damage and never has to worry about mp because melee damage > magic.

Ya with the +50% staves i can do good damage, but not nearly as much as a hasted Masamune user, and at the cost of mp.

[Kainen]

Something to note on this: Speed stat does not effect attack speed at all. It only effects your damage on speed based weapons.

If you use my strategy for gambits, then the ideal setup would be Vaan w/ Sword & Shield, Ashe w/ Katana (or spear if you got zodiac), and Penelo w/ Rod (for the +magic).

Also note that if you use a character as a true BLM, the elemental staves in FFXII add 50% to that elements damage so staff is by far your best option.

Why use staves/rods?

My main healer (fran), uses Gktna Masamune. She does damn nice damage and never has to worry about mp because melee damage > magic.

Ya with the +50% staves i can do good damage, but not nearly as much as a hasted Masamune user, and at the cost of mp.

You had to read my gambit setup to understand.

Vaan (Sword/Shield, Heavy Armor)
Ally: Phoenix Down
Fran: Esuna
Self MP<10%: Charge
Foe Lowest HP: Attack

Penolo (Katana, Mage Armor)
Ally: Phoenix Down
Ally HP<60%: Curaja
Fran: Esuna
Self MP<10%: Charge
Foe Lowest HP: Attack

Fran (Rod, Mage Armor)
Ally: Phoenix Down
Ally: Esunaga
Vaan: Decoy
Self MP<10%: Charge
Ally: Haste
Ally: Bubble
Vaan: Protectga
Vaan: Shellga
Penelo: Faith
Vaan: Bravery
Self: Faith
Foe Lowest HP: Flare


If I woulda known the stats of the characters while I was playing I woulda moved Ashe to main healer and Penelo to buffer. Magic effects buffs and cures significantly. It's not just for nukes. With high magic power you notice a significant difference in things like Decoy accuracy and bravery.

With this setup, I play fran as leader and keep her out of AoE range so she can esunaga easily. Vaan really never stops attacking. Penelo is only healer so you're not wasting actions by overlapping cures (since curaja w/ faith and mage gear is going to do 9999 before you're even level 50). And same as you, the main healer is attacking. I only use nuke on Fran to keep her out of range so she can esunaga.

This is by far the most efficient/effective setup short of berserking which is dangerous.

[DeadLegend]

Fran is actually pretty poor with all weapons.

which is fucking ridiculous considering in promo info she is touted as "A Viera warrior, Master of All Weapons" and she's the only char who wears armor, albeit a bikini.

[Kainen]

Fran is actually pretty poor with all weapons.

which is fucking ridiculous considering in promo info she is touted as "A Viera warrior, Master of All Weapons" and she's the only char who wears armor, albeit a bikini.

Fran sux. I used her cause hotness... but wish I woulda used Ashe instead.

[neighbortaru]

Fran is actually pretty poor with all weapons.

which is fucking ridiculous considering in promo info she is touted as "A Viera warrior, Master of All Weapons" and she's the only char who wears armor, albeit a bikini.

so much for marketing communicating with designers huh

[DeadLegend]

Fran is actually pretty poor with all weapons.

which is fucking ridiculous considering in promo info she is touted as "A Viera warrior, Master of All Weapons" and she's the only char who wears armor, albeit a bikini.

Fran sux. I used her cause hotness... but wish I woulda used Ashe instead.

I use them both. lol

[Stilgar]

do you mean this?

if you guys haven't seen this yet, there's a very interesting guide on gameFAQs that has weapon breakdown/analysis. It is the "Powering-Up Guide" from the list (http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/game/459841.html). You want to look at section 4 at the bottom.

the summary is:
Vaan is ranked best amonst all the weapons (guns and measures, everyone is equal apparently), especially in the later levels.
Ashe is ranked best with maces with Penelo a very close second. She's actually ranked 2nd (3rd in the early levels) with katanas.
Basch ranks very close to Vaan with swords, spears, G swords, crossbows and poles, ranking 1st in the early levels and coming in second in the later levels.
Balthier is fairly consistently ranked 2nd or 3rd with swords, spears, G swords, crossbows, poles, ninja swords, bows and daggers.
Fran is actually pretty poor with all weapons.

My setup is like this:
Vaan -- Dagger/Sword with Shield
Ashe -- Katanna and Bow for ranged
Penelo -- Gun (Mace with Shield if meleeing)
Fran -- Mace with Shield and Gun for ranged
Basch -- Zodiac Spear and Sword with Shield
Balth -- G sword and Bow for ranged

Thanks, that's the kind of info I was looking for. wtf @ Vaan having the best stats overall? He's a little punk kid... Basch should own him at least in physical areas...

[Khamsin]

Fran is actually pretty poor with all weapons.

which is fucking ridiculous considering in promo info she is touted as "A Viera warrior, Master of All Weapons" and she's the only char who wears armor, albeit a bikini.

Perhaps its because her stats are lower than everyone elses, and her "highest" stats are best geared toward weapons like Bows and Daggers. Not much STR, but she'll make the most of her SPD with those weapons. Not that her SPD is exceptionally high, either, but at least with the speed stat, everyone is on more or less equal grounds and there isn't quite so high a disparity as with, say, STR or MAG. And Bows and Daggers don't seem to be the best damaging weapon types in the game, from what I can tell.

[Kainen]

If you use cat-ear hood you can get damn good damage out of speed based weapons. Each one has its place. Ninja Katana for outright damage, Dagger for using Shield, Bow for ranged attack.

However bubble belt owns too much to not use.

[DeadLegend]

That has vit+ too which is good for hammer/axe right?

I tried a ninja katana once and I couldn't understand why it counted as a 2h wep when I was only using 1 blade >_> didn't try buying another and putting it in my off hand though lol