The general consensus of these replies seem to be that SAM is a decent job (perhaps even as badass as I think it is as longs as the player knows what they're doing), yet don’t truly fit in in the exp party scheme. Seems like a bit of an inequity to me, I mean, how can a SAM achieve ultimate badass-ary in the end game if no one wants to party with them before that point?

On a slightly different, yet sort of related track, I was always curious about the notion of the 'exp party' in this game in the first place. Before I quit, I played with a group of friends (not yet a LS just because we had all stared about the same time had not yet gotten around to buying a link pearl yet), and I don’t think we ever just fought for the sake of getting exp. Instead, wet set up other goals (one day I might need some crystals for whatever I’m trying to synth, another day some one else might want to try out one of the easier missions/quests and needs some back up, etc) and exp and levels were just a natural consequence of these endeavors.

So, is level grinding (fighting for the sake of exp alone) truly the only way to advance?