Okay. With today being the last day, it's time to wrap things up. Triple crown this year! NED got wiped real fast because I accidentally armed myself to the gills. I cheated my way to victory on Omega and Shinryu but hey it's FJF it's the name of the game. Class review time!
Bard was entirely new to me, but was pretty sweet. The regen, stop, and confuse songs were available early in the game and were useful throughout. Requiem was the only move I needed for the pyramid and the deep sea trench. While the stat boosts came in much later, they were big difference makers. Using the songs is a bit weird for stat boosts but still okay. While I agree that the class has a lot of upsides, it wasn't without some disadvantages. Songs themselves are still subject to accuracy and some immunities, so the one turn stop song would miss at times or simply not work at all. The stat boost songs are great but take a while for them to really kick in. If you can't sandbag much, you're in quite a bind. Also they are the wet paper baggiest of all the classes which is saying something. Oh well. One of my new favorite support classes though, big time.
Time mage was also new and they did a bit of everything during my run. Their ability to equip rods and high magic stat helped me breeze through a few bosses. Their buffs are a boon to every fight. Their limited natural offensive options are still enough for them to get by in a pinch. Even stuff like their ability to equip the healstick helped pad my supply of hi potions in a pinch. Still, they never quite did anything better than anyone beyond hasting the whole party, breaking rods, and one instance of Graviga usage. Oh well. Still, a great addition, even if it's more support than straight up damage. Also I hate using the term "broken" for just about anything. With that being said, the quickvenom glitch is broken.
Beastmaster continues to be awesome. They may take time and be frustrating to use at times, but beastmasters serve as the rear guard separating the difference makers from the deal breakers for classes. !Control is insane and great for every last mob fight. !Catching the right monsters opens up new doors everywhere. This class saved my hide time and again from insta-killing Byblos to pumping out nearly 160,000 damage on NED in four quick actions. Their efficiency leaves much to be desired but when they work, they work.
Dancer is good at being fashionaaabluh but that is it. They are front line fighters with no viable offensive options until well into world 3. You need to have the chicken knife and you need to have them in the front row and you need to have them equipped with stuff that boosts Sword Dance chances or they ain't worth squat. Even then, they are worse than mages when it comes to their HP and don't get armor or stamina to compensate. They take up space for nearly the whole game and at their highest value they only get a single twerky, chancey attack that hits the damage cap for a single target. So on top of everything else, even at their very best, they are not fully utilizing the gifts they are given. They are screwed over by the coding in the game itself to prevent them from achieving too little too late. I haven't played with every class, but I am pretty sure at this point that they are my least favorite one.
Next year is a Team 750 run. I have not played through with the simple-yet-potent white mage, black mage, and summoner classes. Blue mage deserves a second shot while red mage would be cosmically broken with any other viable caster. The physical attackers I have not use before are the monk, thief, and dragoon, which I just don't have any interest in using. Geomancer might be given a chance since I've never used them before, but I will pay money not to be saddled with a dancer again.
Team MVPs: Bard, time mage, and BESTmaster. Goddamn I hate dancers.