Just Starting Out--Looking for Advice

Hi all, I have had FF12 since it first came out but only recently have had time to play (wanted to finish the others I started first). Now that I have started, it amazes me the multitude of possibilities you can configure each character, which leads me to this question. I am looking for advice on how I should "mold" my characters to get the most out of the game? By this, I am looking for specifics, such as what weapon types, magic, technicks, licenses, etc. for each character. I have not gotten very far in the game as of yet (just killed the rogue tomato and waiting to get back inside Rabanastre).

I appreciate everything you say in advance.

PS- I ask because it does not take much for me to get off target and eventually lose interest due to poor skill/equipment choices

Level up all the characters, not just three.

well at the very basic, equip your magic users with mystic armor (getting the licenses for those) and your fighters with light armor if you want more HP or heavy armor if you want higher defence and strength. Other than that, it's really up to you what weapon to use, just use whatevers best for the current situation.

I would also recommend exploring new areas as you go along, so that way you won't have to level grind to catch up or be short on money.

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Originally Posted by Demon Dude

Level up all the characters, not just three.

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Agreed, that way if one group dies, you'll have backup. Just make sure you have one person learn all healing and support magic(White and Green Magic. Perhaps some Time Magic as well), one person nuke(Black Magic), and one person with a long range weapon(Bows, Guns, Crossbows, etc.)so he/she can safely attack from the back. Give your healer and nuker mystic armor so their magic power and magic defense will increase. Also give your healer Rods so he/she can obtain extra MP and staves to your nuker as it also adds extra MP and powers up some elemental magic. As for your other 3 characters, give one of them a shield with either a sword, dagger, or axe and give him/her heavy armor as well so he/she can take hits and learn some white magic as well. The other two give them whatever weapon and armor you want, but I recommend giving one of them light armor so they can have more HP.

I only levelled up 3 characters. Although its handy if your reserve chars can take at least one blow. That way they can chuck a phoenix down. (You can press R1 a few times to select party members outside of your active party)

Focus on getting all of the quickenings for the characters you're using early on. You don't have to use them, but the MP boost you get for it is incredibly useful.

If you use Golden Amulets a lot, at a certain point in the game you'll have so many License Points you'll be able to give your characters just about any magic, weapon and so on. (SPOILER)Filling the licence board for all characters will give you an achievement in the Sky Pirate's Den, so if you're the type to go for such challenges you might consider using them longer than you actually need.

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Originally Posted by KoShiatar

If you use Golden Amulets a lot, at a certain point in the game you'll have so many License Points you'll be able to give your characters just about any magic, weapon and so on. (SPOILER)Filling the licence board for all characters will give you an achievement in the Sky Pirate's Den, so if you're the type to go for such challenges you might consider using them longer than you actually need.

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yeah, and switching up accessories won't have too much impact on your character's growth. Using golden amulets are extremely helpful, honestly I feel the license board could've been bigger or executed in a different manner. Just by keeping up with the hunts you should be able to get all the augments for everyone while still playing the main story.

Also, don't go too far on the license board unless you are sure the character will either use it, or it could be useful.

Don't worry if you don't have the best equipment all the time, it's perfectly okay to go through multiplie dungeons or sections of the story using the same gear. Random armour and weapons will pop out of chests, enemies and come to you as you finish hunts, so don't stress it if Vaan doesn't have a Dragon Shield like all the others or whatever.

Next piece of advice kind of ties into the previous one, but gil is sparse in this game, so don't be throwing your cash around. Invest in skills and magic on the licence board AS YOU NEED THEM. I didn't learn Vox or Stona until the END of the game. I toughed it out with items until Esuna came available.

Learn Quickenings fast. Any extra LP early in the game, I find, is best used to go to the extremities of the board to get three Quickenings for everyone as fast as possible, regardless of whatever licenses you pick up along the way. Aside from having the ultimate trump cards of Quickenings to take out hard bosses/hunts, you'll also benefit from triple MP.

Techniks: Steal, Libra, Charge. Disregard the rest. Techniks are BEYOND useless in this game. Preach for Numerology or Horology all you want, I think it's not worth the effort or the LP. On that note...

Steal often. Pick up Thief's Cuffs as early as you can (Mt. Bur-Omisace, I believe) and steal like nuts. You're pretty much doubling your loot, and therefore doubling your gil if you make a habit of stealing a lot.

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Originally Posted by Mo-Nercy

Don't worry if you don't have the best equipment all the time, it's perfectly okay to go through multiplie dungeons or sections of the story using the same gear. Random armour and weapons will pop out of chests, enemies and come to you as you finish hunts, so don't stress it if Vaan doesn't have a Dragon Shield like all the others or whatever.

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I am not sure if I agree with this. In my playthrough of the game, equipment seemed to be more important than experience, level, or abilities when it came to controlling the amount of damage that my characters took. I would recommend not updating gear at every single opportunity in the game, but you definitely want to keep it an extremely high priority and go no longer than a dungeon or two before updating equipment if you feel that you are having a harder time than you were before.

I like the brawler licence. It rocks. Certainly helps to keep more gil, since you don't have to constantly buy new weapons.

This advice so far is great and I will definitely use a lot of it, but what did you all use when you went through the game (ie. who did you end up giving the zodiak spear to, etc?)

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Originally Posted by Roogle

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Originally Posted by Mo-Nercy

Don't worry if you don't have the best equipment all the time, it's perfectly okay to go through multiplie dungeons or sections of the story using the same gear. Random armour and weapons will pop out of chests, enemies and come to you as you finish hunts, so don't stress it if Vaan doesn't have a Dragon Shield like all the others or whatever.

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I am not sure if I agree with this. In my playthrough of the game, equipment seemed to be more important than experience, level, or abilities when it came to controlling the amount of damage that my characters took. I would recommend not updating gear at every single opportunity in the game, but you definitely want to keep it an extremely high priority and go no longer than a dungeon or two before updating equipment if you feel that you are having a harder time than you were before.

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Maybe I was exaggerating slightly in that I made it seem that I simply moved through the game and all the equipment I needed fell into my possession. What I did quite often was if I noticed one particular enemy was dropping a particular armour/weapon that seemed useful, I'd take some time to chain them and try and get some more.


I'd recommend giving Zodiac Spear to Vaan or Basch as it's damage relies solely on your strength stat.

The weapons are all very unique and have certain advantages and weaknesses. Guns ignore defense. Bombs, Axes, and Hammers all do random damage (anywhere from 100 to 9999). Katana's and Poles multi hit. Ninja weapons are Dark element... ect...

Find the weapon that fits your play style, but don't be afraid to experiment. Despite what No-Mercy feels, there are some good Techs in the game beside Steal, Libra, and Charge. Experiment and have fun.

I think the best thing you can do, is try to go into the game with an idea of how you want each character to be. One of the few problems with XII is that the Liscence board makes it easy to make clones of everyone except for slight stat differences, especially since most people I talk to who play stick to what works and never alter. Decide now who should be your thief, or warrior, or white mage. The game allows you to recreate most of the standard job classes in the series so have fun with them.

Do the Mark Hunts. If you really want to see why the ADB system and Gambits are amazing, do the Mark Hunts as soon as they appear and stay consistent. They are all like mini-boss fights and many require complex strategies to take down. They also reward you with damn good equipment so they are easily worth it. ;)

Explore and talk to everyone... Half the game is just exploring Ivalice. If you just stick to the story and ignore the clan hunts and make beelines to where you need to go next, you will seriously miss 50% of the game. Its also one of the few games where I really felt the NPC were relevant. You will actually pick up so much more info of the characters and story by talking to the people who live in this world. Just remember to stop and look around every once in awhile. :cool:

who did you use in your main party?

I used everyone actually. Vaan was my thief/ninja, Balthier was my gunner/warrior, Basch was a Paladin later turned Samurai, Penelo was my white/green mage, Fran was my archer/Arcane mage, and Lady Ashe was my Black/Time mage. I split the summons evening among the characters.

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

I used everyone actually. Vaan was my thief/ninja, Balthier was my gunner/warrior, Basch was a Paladin later turned Samurai, Penelo was my white/green mage, Fran was my archer/Arcane mage, and Lady Ashe was my Black/Time mage. I split the summons evening among the characters.

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You didnt give all your Summons to one character? That's what I did. Penelo was my Summoner/White Mage.

I think i have my weapon selection down, except for one. I am trying to choose between ninja swords and katanas. which would you prefer? To me, they are both two handers with a greater chance to land combos than the other weapons.

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Originally Posted by MedctnStn

I think i have my weapon selection down, except for one. I am trying to choose between ninja swords and katanas. which would you prefer? To me, they are both two handers with a greater chance to land combos than the other weapons.

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Ninja Swords have better evade, Charge Time, combo bonus and are easier to get on the lisence board.
Katanas are stronger, don't have the Dark element to hinder it, come earlier in the game and have slightly better range.

I prefer Ninja Swords, but by the time you get them, most enemies are immune, if not absorb darkness, so Katanas are the best option...plus you can get them very early(After you defeat Belias i think)

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Originally Posted by MedctnStn

who did you use in your main party?

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I suggest using all six characters at various points in the game, simultaneously.

I do not want you to think too hard about what your characters can specialize in. I liked to pretend that Final Fantasy XII had a job system similar to Final Fantasy IV, so I restricted my characters to using specific types of weaponry and armor. I allowed Vaan, Ashe, and Basch to use heavy armor; I allowed Balthier and Fran to use light armor; I allowed Penelo to use mystic armor. I gave all of the Espers in the game to Ashe.

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Originally Posted by Mo-Nercy

Maybe I was exaggerating slightly in that I made it seem that I simply moved through the game and all the equipment I needed fell into my possession. What I did quite often was if I noticed one particular enemy was dropping a particular armour/weapon that seemed useful, I'd take some time to chain them and try and get some more.


I'd recommend giving Zodiac Spear to Vaan or Basch as it's damage relies solely on your strength stat.

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I think that equipment found from monsters was, typically, better than what was bought in stores, so you were likely not always needing to purchase new equipment from the store.

Here's a bit of advice when considering what weapons to use: Don't let the attack power of guns put you off them. I recently started again (I'm at the Mosphoran Highwaste) and yesterday my Balthier was equipped with a gun that had like 14 attack power, before swapping it for a bowgun that had like 41/42 or something. With that bowgun he was doing 400-500 damage. But today I bought a gun that had significantly less attack power (around 24 I think), however it was doing damage between 900 and 1100, depending on the monster. Y'see guns ignore an enemy's defence stat. Just as poles do damage based on an enemy's magic defence rather than physical defence.

Another thing is party structures. I recommend having a tank - someone who has high HP/defence, the lure status (inflicted by "Decoy" magic), to make sure all attcks are directed towards them, and then the protect status for extra defence. This would usually be best as the party leader. Then a second character to be a damage dealer - the only gambits this character should have are attacks and get others to cast haste and berserk on them. Finally you should have a spellcaster to handle healing. It's ideal for this character to have a long range weapon or one that increases magic power. Usually I have my tank cast support magic and some back-up healing too.

One last thing I'll add is that you should concentrate a lot on the augments section on the lisence board (directly under the magic section), because it has HP, strength and MP cost upgrades among other useful upgrades, and is neatly right beside the white magic too. To speed this process up you should purchase 6 Gold Amulets from one of the merchants as soon as you reach Mt. Bur-Omisace and keep them equipped all the time (they double your lisence points earned after battle).

That should be the basic everything lol.

do not sell unique or difficult to obtain items(like great serpent's skin, serpentarious, empyreal soul gemsteel and high arcana) you will need the last four to obtain at the bazaar the tournesol.