Which is your least favourite job class and why?

You all know by now, my least favourite is the Black Mage for its appauling defense and inability to do damage that isn't quickly rendered obsolete by a Fighter's/Thief's/Red Mage's weapon or a Black Belt's fists (the latter costing a hell of a lot less). They're useful for one point in the game when they learn FIR2/Fira as field clearers, again when FIR3/Firaga comes along as an upgrade, then they suck after your melee classes surpass the damage once again, and once your Thief becomes a Ninja (granting it access to Haste, Temper and the mid-level field-clearers) you may as well not revive it next time it dies.

Pick an option, mash "VOTE" and explain away!

I'd have to say White Mage, There were VERY few times when I need a lot of white magic from start of the game till about the middle, and even then, I always bring along a Red Mage, it does the job just fine.

I'm going to say White Mage too.. I've never beaten the game with a white mage in my party.

I've never been a huge fan of thieves, to be honest. Black Mages, Red Mages, BBs, Warriors and White Mages I can all find uses for but I usually find myself unable to find a place for Thieves. They're not unusable really, but I'm just not a fan of them.

Knight > Fighter > Red Wizard > White Wizard > Ninja > Black Wizard > White Mage > Black Mage > Master > Black Belt > Red Mage > Thief

Thieves feel like weaker versions of the Fighters, and that's pretty much what they go for.
The only reasons I use Thieves are for their great Agility and their turning into a Ninja after Class Change.

Never liked the Red Mage. A jack of all trades, master of none. On paper mixing Black and White magic is good, but he doesn't get any high level spells and he is a mage, so even if he can equip good weapons he can't use that well.

I was never was a Thief fan. He's weak, has no defense, and limited selection of weapons, but I'll admit he gets a little better when he transforms into a Ninja

>=o Hey! How does the thief have a runaway lead? Though "runaway" is a fitting term.

The thief is one of my favorites. His upgrade makes him fairly comparable to a fighter, and the guaranteed running away just rocks. Maybe it's because of my playstyle that I love it. Go in, loot the dungeons and gain levels, then when you think you can't go on, run like hell out of there, and repeat until you're strong enough to get through the whole thing. It's a great way to level up, less wasted motion. And did I forget that the thief can cast haste? Yes I did. Well, he can.

But I'm off topic. I chose BB because he can't do anything that the fighter can't do better unless you overlevel. Black mage would be a close second.

If I had to rank(based on NES version)
1) Fighter/Knight- expensive, but worth every penny. Takes damage and deals it like a pro. A single fighter can beat the game faster than some full 4 person parties, due to 4x exp
2) Red mage/wizard- this class gets very little credit. Also very expensive, more so even than fighter due to equipment and magic. It can use some good equipment, and has access to healing and black magic spells. So early on when black magic is useful for quickly killing groups, he can do that. Later when it's typically one or two big monsters a fight, he's useful using melee there.
3)Black Belt/Master- I'll probably get a lot of grief for this one but, when you have the fighter and red mage, the two most expensive classes, he's a great balance as the cheapest class in the game. Also, he's great for storing 4 extra weapons for super effectiveness against certain enemies.
4)Thief/Ninja- While he's basically outclassed by any of the above in terms of usefulness, he becomes quite nice when upgraded. A party of these 4, Knight w/Xcalibur, Red Wizard w/Masamune, Master w/Fists, Ninja w/Katana, was my personal fastest group for taking out Chaos. Also if you like running, he's useful for that, but I never run from fights. And finally, Ninja casting Fast(being that it's the best spell in the game) is quite nice.
5)White Mage/wizard- Magic is so limited in the NES version, that I hated the mages. Red mage was good because he could fight too. White mage was nice because he could heal, and later on I had him using the magic casting weapons like Thor's Hammer. That made him somewhat useful in battle, but a great help when I needed healing. Sadly though, he's completely useless compared to a Red Mage.
6)Black Mage/Wizard- I'll probably get even more grief for this one, but he's just so useless. The horrid defense means 1-2 hits from any good enemy and he's dead. The limited magic means he casts 2-3 spells and then, useless. Later in the game he can also use the magic casting items, but that makes every earlier spell he learned, once again, useless, except Fast. At least the White Mage could heal too. But come Chaos, all he did was cast fast on the fighter, use Nuke once or twice, then sit there doing nothing. At least I could have Red Mage or Ninja cast Fast, and then keep attacking as well.

so there
Fighter
Red Mage
Black Belt
Thief
White Mage
Black Mage

now in the GBA game, that order doesn't work, at all.

THE JACKEL

White mage...I mean come on...he/she/it sucks.

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Originally Posted by Dyslexicon

White mage...I mean come on...he/she/it sucks.

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I must admit a party with a couple of Red Mages in it will usually have enough healing to get by.

WM aren't my least favourite class. That honour goes to Black Mages. I just don't like relying on magic for damage, especially with the paltry charges that BM's get in the original which last for like ten or so battles in a dungeon where you'll have about thirty encounters. At least RM's can start swinging their weapon around when they run out of magic.

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Originally Posted by Omni Legacy

Never liked the Red Mage. A jack of all trades, master of none. On paper mixing Black and White magic is good, but he doesn't get any high level spells and he is a mage, so even if he can equip good weapons he can't use that well.

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Damn. Someone had to say it before me. Well, it's true. A jack of all trades is a master of none. Besides, you still only get three magic slots, but now you have to choose out of six to eight spells, depending on how many he can use. I never used the red mage in Final Fantasy V either.

EDIT: Although I've always wondered why the thief couldn't steal. Why call him a thief, then?

This is kind of a tough question, but I guess it all depends on what version of the game I'm playing.

If I'm playing the original NES version, then jeez man, I want that thief for when I'm dying in those dungeons and haven't been able to save for the past hour. Being able to escape alive = yes, please.

I haven't been able to find much use for them in the DoS version because it's just too easy, you never should really need to run from a fight.

Then on the subject of mages... They're all cool to me, but really, I DO love white mages, and I wouldn't leave home without one. If you have one, you really have no use for potions, and they can cast other cool stuff as well. Maybe I'm just biased because I love white mages in general, even though they can't attack worth crap. I'm still kind of "eeehh" over red mages, because white mages are better with white magic, and black mages are better with, of course, black magic. Sure, red mage can dally in all of that, but a lot of spells they can't learn until later, if they can at all. I've found that I have been tending to use them more as another attacker than a magic caster.

Edit for comment to Ceej:
Now if the thieves COULD steal, they'd be totally kickass. I wonder why they never thought of that? Thieves stealing stuff? Woah.

i felt that the thieves were fairly useless, they can't deal much damage until they're ninjas and even then thier magic is obsolete. i would rather take a monk or black mage, i just think either can deal more damage and help more in a fight

I find thieves completely useless compared to other classes. I mean, I never run away because I know where to be at what level in the game. By the time it learns black magic the magic it learns is useless.

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Originally Posted by theundeadhero

I find thieves completely useless compared to other classes. I mean, I never run away because I know where to be at what level in the game. By the time it learns black magic the magic it learns is useless.

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Eh? FAST is never useless!

It would have to be a Monk. I know they're strong but they have the least variety out of all of the classes.

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Eh? FAST is never useless!

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When you reach Kraken with a Knight, Monk, anything but thief party there's no reason not to kill it in three turns with unfast characters. If one character is a Black Wizard it's even faster. Tiamat isn't much harder, especially if you use the Bane sword. Where exactly do you need fast again? Nowhere!

Now that you mention it, beating the game with one Fighter wasn't hard, just required patience. He didn't have FAST either. Shucks, you win :p

PROTIP: The Bane Sword works on everything, even Chaos. Did you ever see the speedrun?

isnt a thief supposed to be able to steal

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Originally Posted by sir helix

isnt a thief supposed to be able to steal

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Not in the first FF. SE didn't add any specific job abilities till FF III

Black Belt. *mash reply*

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Originally Posted by sir helix

isnt a thief supposed to be able to steal

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Hmmm... That's a good idea. I wonder why no one's brought that up before.

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Originally Posted by The Ceej

Although I've always wondered why the thief couldn't steal. Why call him a thief, then?

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Oh, right.

your point about the thief stealing is horrid. There were no special abilities in this game, just fight, use items, or magic. None of those other special abilities. Thief could move fast, and escape from battle. Notably, this became a skill in later FFs. So technically he had the only skill they could actually give him.

THE JACKEL

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Originally Posted by Evastio

It would have to be a Monk. I know they're strong but they have the least variety out of all of the classes.

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Exactly.