Spotty NoB? Ew, that is a disgusting nickname.
Battle: I always favour high power attack with healing capabilities, so my ideal group would be Zidane, Quina, Steiner and Garnet.
Story: Hmm. Nobody stands out to any huge degree for me. I find Quina to be really fun. I've not got so far as to be able to say what I think of every character's story as I'm still on the second disk and only onto the second continent, and I'm assuming there's a chunk more to go in the game considering the number of places I've not yet visited. I think one of the strengths of this game - at least so far - is that not a single character really annoys me on any level.
If I had to pick favourite overall characters thus far, they would probably be Quina, Steiner and Beatrix.