Ultimate Final Fantasy Tactics Best Jobs Tier List: The Ivalice Chronicles

Categories: Final Fantasy Tactics

Pick the best job in Final Fantasy Tactics Remaster with our tier list ranked from S to D, with the pros and cons of each job (class), which you should play and why.

In Final Fantasy Tactics, your job (class) is the source of your abilities, stat growth, and overall combat power. Unlike other games, you cannot “respec” or re-roll a character but are allowed to change to different jobs. However, it’s confusing which are good, what abilities are powerful, and how to combine one or more jobs in a party to form an optimal team. This tier list only contains based jobs list and not unique character

In our FFT Remaster Tier List, we explain why various jobs are powerful or not with ideas and combos to use throughout the game. Just because you start with a Chemist and eventually can unlock the Mimic doesn’t mean the later game jobs are more powerful. We hope you walk away from this tier list with a proper understanding of each job and which you should pick based on your playstyle and difficulty setting.

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Introduction to Final Fantasy Tactics

Final Fantasy Tactics is a legendary tactical RPG that stands out for its deep and flexible job system. In this game, every character can be customized through a wide variety of jobs, each offering unique abilities, stat growth, and playstyles. Whether you’re looking to create a team of reliable powerhouses or experiment with creative strategies, understanding the best jobs is key to mastering the game. The tier list in this article will help you navigate the complex world of Final Fantasy Tactics, highlighting which jobs shine in the early, mid, and late game. With the right job choices and combinations, you’ll be able to tackle the toughest battles and enjoy everything this classic fantasy tactics adventure has to offer.

TLDR Jobs (Classes) Tier List – FFT Remaster

What is The Best Job (class) in Final Fantasy Tactics Remaster?

The Arithmetician, Chemist, and Black Mage are the best jobs in Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles. These jobs are absolute must-haves for any optimized team, as their abilities and versatility significantly impact your party’s effectiveness. The Arithmetician is an end-game job that has the power to cast any ability without MP cost. While it takes a very long time to unlock, it has the most power overall and is useful for serious completionist or deep dungeon players wanting to beat the game’s secret final boss.

This tier list focuses on generic units, meaning standard characters that do not have access to unique jobs or specialized abilities. Unique jobs, which are exclusive to certain story characters and offer rare or specialized abilities, are not included here to keep the rankings relevant for the majority of your party composition.

While a starting job, the Chemist too is powerful because it remains useful throughout the game and it can use ranged weapons giving it range and utility for the entire game. Lastly, the Black Mage is a beginning spellcaster, but it has some of the most raw damage due to elemental spellcasting and becomes your dominating damage dealer very early.

The Arithmetician is sometimes criticized for poor stat growth, but its primary skill set is so powerful that it compensates for this weakness and makes the job viable even in late-game scenarios. The primary skill sets of these jobs are a key factor in their high ranking, as they define the core functionality and strategic value each brings to your team.

Below we explain each job (class) in Final Fantasy Tactics Remaster, our rankings, and justifications.

S Tier — Meta-Defining

1. Arithmetician (S Tier)

Nothing matches the raw power of the Calculator (Arithmetician) in FFT Remaster, thus ranking in the best overall job S Tier. The job uses math skills and numbers to cast any spell instantly, but you have to know the spell. The raw power is unmatched, but so is the requirements to unlock the Arithmetician.

For instance, you need to level up multiple jobs that act as stepping stones just to access it. Once accessed, the grind isn’’t over because you need learn massive amount of abilities from previous jobs and the Arithmetician. Moreover, the stat growth is terrible so you don’t want to spend countless levels as a Arithmetician for this release.

You are probably wondering why it’s ranked as the best then? Imagine casting Death on an entire enemy party, instantly, with no MP cost or charge time. Ultra complex, hard to manage, but the best overall job if power is what you seek at end game. Most players, should avoid trying to min-max and get this job unless progressing to end-game Deep Dungeon and achievement hunting.

2. Chemist (S Tier)

From beginning to end, the Chemist is an amazing job and thus we rank it S Tier in Final Fantasy Tactics Remaster. What makes the Chemist so strong is the ability to use items which have instant cast for healing and restoring MP. Using one-time use items like potions means, you don’t have to use MP or have a long cast time battle skills to heal allies or remove status effects. Moreover, you can throw these items taking advantage of built-in range. The abilities scale effectively as well, meaning Auto-Potion reaction is great for the entire game and you learn more advanced potions as you level up.

The weaknesses of the Chemist job is lower damage dealing. However, you can use knives and magic guns later on, giving you 100% accuracy and massive range. This is why Archers are so weak, the Chemist can match their range and dwarf their utility making them extremely strong at the start or throughout the game.

The Chemist’s support skill is a key part of their team utility, allowing them to heal, cure status effects, and provide tactical advantages from a distance. If you’re going to play a Chemist, you’ll want to learn Black Magic or Time Magic abilities to supplement your support skills as well as improve your movement abilities and reaction abilities. This will give you a diverse ability set and help throughout the game, but you can technically stick to the Chemist as your main job throughout.

Check out our other Chemist Guides: All Chemist Abilities / Chemist Build Guide / Best Chemist Abilities RANKED

3. Black Mage (S Tier)

The Black Mage has the most raw magic attack damage in the game, making them rank S Tier on our list. Black Mages can be unlocked early in FFT and have a massive spellbook. You start off with elemental damage and want a wide variety of spells in case enemies have resistances or immunity. As you progress, you can then learn Flare which is a non-elemental single target damage, rounding out your spellbook. You can then pair Arcane Strength support ability and dramatically increase your overall damage, outpacing Summoners. Attack Boost is also a valuable support skill for maximizing your damage output, making it a strong option for Black Mages who want to deal even more damage.

The major drawbacks to the Black Mage are their low survivability. You will need to pick your spots and keep max range when possible to avoid being hit. Another downside is your spells have “friendly fire.” So, if you place on an enemy and they move close to a friendly, you could possibly nuke both!

The simpliest build for the Black Mage is using Chemist for a while at the start to learn most of the powerful abilities including potions, auto-potion, and ether. Then move to Black Mage while retaining your healing ability from the Chemist abilities in your secondary skills.

Check out our other Black Mage Guides: All Black Mage Abilities / Black Mage Build Guide / Best Black Mage Abilities RANKED!

4. Monk (S Tier)

Unmatched utility as a physical damage dealer, the Monk ranks S Tier in Final Fantasy Tactics Remaster. With the Monk, you have everything built in to your ability set: area damage, range, healing, status effect removal, and one of the best reaction abilities. This makes you a self-sustaining powerhouse with massive attack power via martial arts on the battlefield that can even revive allies. If that weren’t enough, you can heal other players and restore their MP! If you have multiple Monks and a Chemist, you won’t need any dedicated Healer like a White Mage, making them the best physical DPS in the game from mid game to endgame!

The major weakness to the Monk is their AOE has to be in a line. You won’t be able to wipe out groups of enemies unless funneled into a row. But you can blast anything on the battlefield especially at end-game!

The best combination for the Monk is learning Dual Wield from the Ninja. You can then use your fist twice, essentially two-shotting almost anything with the right gear. Ramza specifically excels with this setup and it can be used throughout mid to late game, making it one of the best playstyles in FFT.

Check out our other Monk Guides: All Monk Abilities / Monk Build Guide / Best Monk Abilities RANKED

5. Ninja (S Tier)

The Ninja is the fastest melee damage dealer with great speed, range, and dual wield coming in at S Tier. Plus, Ninjas possess excellent movement and jump height making their mobility second to none for physical damage dealers. The Ninja job can throw weapons and items, adding elemental effects or AOE and one of the best support abilities, Dual Wield. This allows any class to use two weapons, usually two swords, to essentially attack twice. Innate dual wield makes the Ninja highly versatile in both offense and equipment options, letting you use Equip Swords support ability and dual wield high damage weapons.

As a Ninja, you possess this innately, thus you can use Equip Swords support ability and dual wield high damage weapons.

However, the Ninja is squishy with lower survivability. Since your speed is high with the Ninja, you can charge into battle and kill one enemy quickly only to have every spellcaster and range damage dealer target you on turn one. Therefore, you have to pick your spots and play at range until you can take out the most damage producing enemy unit.

The best way to play the Ninja is with the Monk base class so you have healing and survivability combined for a powerful unit. You can also use the Thief and steal items at end-game, which is the only way to get the best gear in the game.

Check out our other Ninja Guides: All Ninja Abilities / Ninja Build Guide

A Tier — Consistently Excellent

6. White Mage (A Tier)

The White Mage is your typical healer and support job that excels and helping allies ranking A tier in Final Fantasy Tactics. Early in the game, the White Mage is one of the best mage classes since you have limited ways to heal. Your white magic is powerful and you even cast spells like Holy which is powerful offensive spell and is great against undead.

The major downside to the White Mage is, other jobs like the Monk can survive independently of a pocket healer. Moreover, if you have a Chemist with Throw Items, you can instantly heal without MP or cast time. Therefore, the power fades in the later part of the game but are a staple early on.

The best pairing for the White Mage is the Time Mage because they have a different kind of support spell kit. With Haste and Slow, Time Mages manipulate time, thus always buffing or debuffing the enemy is helpful throughout the game creating the ultimate combo of support magic jobs.

Check out our other White Mage Guides: All White Mage Abilities / White Mage Build Guide / Best White Mage Abilities RANKED!

7. Summoner (A Tier)

If you love huge area damage, the Summoner is your job ranking A Tier. You gain a lot of summoning spells which are massive AOE damage and even healing! Some of the summons are non-elemental, which can be helpful in certain fights, with the all-time classic Bahamut remaining a fan favorite. The Summoner also can heal and create a barrier with spells like Golem and Carbuncle.

Summoner spells have the advantage of being able to ignore elevation, allowing you to hit targets regardless of terrain or obstacles. However, Summoners do have some negatives like huge MP cost and cast time. You are vulnerable while waiting for your spell to fire off and unless you have specific MP gear, you’re likely to get two to three spells before running out of MP. However, Summoners don’t have friendly fire which is nice, so you can cast a AOE spell and not risk hurting a friendly unit.

The best build combo with the Summoner is using Time Mage for some additional buffs and make sure to equip Swiftness which decreases cast time. If it weren’t for MP cost and long charge time, Summoner would rank higher on our FFT Remaster Tier List.

Check out our other Summoner Guides: All Summoner Abilities / Summoner Build Guide / Best Summoner Abilities RANKED!

8. Time Mage (A Tier)

The Time Mage is a powerful spellcaster that manipulates time and it’s ranked A tier for it’s buffs and debuffs. The main reason to use Time Mage is Haste and Slow. This either speeds up your unit(s) or slows down enemies. You can even immobilize enemies which is super useful when targeting a melee only job.

However, the downside of the Time Mage is that you won’t have much to offer outside of these buffs and debuffs. You gain Meteor, which is a massive AOE damage spell, but the Black Mage can do this better than the Time Mage. Make sure to learn Swiftness and Teleport from the Time Mage as they are some of the most powerful abilities in the game.

You’ll want to play either as an offensive or defensive secondary job. Black Mage for offense or White Mage for defense makes a strong Time Mage build, depending on your party’s needs.

Check out our other Time Mage Guides: All Time Mage Abilities / Time Mage Build Guide / Best Time Mage Abilities Ranked!

9. Samurai (A Tier)

The strength of the Samurai is it’s ability to be a melee physical damage dealer with range and magical effects; therefore ranking it as A tier in FF Tactics Remaster. The job uses Katanas to summon spirits that give various buffs, damage, and debuffs in a radius around them. However, these Katanas can break, causing you to use all your gil to support this playstyle or running out and missing a critical ability.

Another weird downside to the Samurai is it’s ability damage scaling. It wants to use magical attack stat for damage yet plays as a physical damage dealer. You can use this in combination with the Black Mage for huge damage, but ultimately it gets complex and dips into two stat pools for damage vs. just one simple playstyle.

Make sure to learn the reaction skill Shiradori, also known as Blade Grasp, which is one of the best defensive abilities in the game. Blade Grasp provides superior evasion against weapon attacks, making Samurai much harder to hit and greatly increasing their survivability.

B Tier — Strong With Support

10. Knight (B Tier)

The Knight is the melee tank in Final Fantasy Tactics and due to its survival we rank it B Tier. You gain access to heavy armor, shields, and swords and the parry reaction is helpful to avoiding incoming damage. The Knight also can break weapons with Rend, thus stripping an enemy of nearly all their power by targeting enemy equipment, which provides a significant strategic advantage in battles.

However, the Knight’s power fades quickly as only a couple of their abilities are useful. In comparison to the Monk, the Knight has less movement, cannot heal itself, no range, and not much else. This is why it’s best to use as a stepping stone to more powerful physical damage dealers or when you need survivability in a battle.

Check out our other Knight Guides: All Knight Abilities / Best Knight Abilities Ranked / Knight Build Guide

11. Mystic (B Tier)

The Mystic is a ranged spellcaster designed at debuffing the enemy and thus ranks B Tier. The main reason it ranks lower is, sure it’s helpful to deuff enemies, but killing them outright with a Black Mage or Monk is just better. You can paralyze, blind, poison, and drain foes giving you good utility. The Mystic can even do some decent damage in melee combat as well.

However, the overall utility of debuffs fades when a Summoner, Black Mage, or Samurai can wipe out an entire group in one turn, rather than making them go blind.

12. Dragoon / Lancer (B Tier)

The Dragoon is a fun and effective job with jump and long range spears ranking B tier in FFT Remaster. You gain access to the Jump ability, which allows your character to ignore elevation and reach distant targets regardless of terrain. However, Jump has a long charge time, meaning your character disappears for a while before landing on a given tile. This makes timing the landing very hard to do, depending on the turn order, and often the damage just goes to waste.

Dragoons also have good range and act like a Knight with spears and shields. Overall though, it’s too risky to waste an entire turn to have the enemy move and miss. The Monk, Knight, and Ninja can all outright blast an enemy vs. a tricky timing mechanic, thus we rank Dragoons lower on this list.

13. Geomancer (B Tier)

The Geomancer is a blend of magical damage and melee damage dealer; this hybrid approach is hard to master, thus ranking them as B Tier on this list. Geomancers stand on specific ground, which allows them to cast status-based spells. You have long range, no charge time, but lower damage, and you’re ground type dependent. Similar to the Dragoon, it’s big risk and okay reward when you can simply play a Monk or Black Mage and blast enemies without having to worry.

While a solid job, it’s just not as fun or effective to constantly move towards a specific terrain type in order to do something effective.

Check out our other Geomancer Guides: All Geomancer Abilities / Geomancer Build Guide

14. Dancer (B Tier)

The Dancer job is an endgame debuff class, which incrementally debuffs over time, thus ranking them B Tier. Similar to other debuff jobs on this list, they are nice and niche but not meta-dominating. With gradually lowering speed or PA or enemies, sure it’s nice, but you can just kill them outright with other jobs. Moreover, the Dancer is annoying to unlock, requiring a complex path, only to realize the class is weaker than a Chemist, which you can play from the start of the game!

C Tier — Situational Picks

15. Archer (C Tier)

The Archer is your first range job and its helpful early on when you can’t reach targets but quickly fades in power; therefore we rank it C tier on this list. Archers main ability is Aim, which “charges” up a physical damage attack and hits harder the longer you wait. If you get high height and long range, you can do decent damage with the Archer. However, you have to Aim and gamble on one mechanic for all your damage. To improve the reliability of your attacks, equipping the concentration support ability can significantly boost your hit rates, especially against evasive enemies. Outside of that, the Archer has almost nothing of utility to offer and you’ll question why you’re not playing something else.

Check out our other Archer Guides: All Archer Abilities / Best Archer Abilities Ranked / Archer Build Guide

16. Thief (C Tier)

The Thief comes in at C Tier mainly because it’s a niche item collecting job, but it does have Move +2 which is helpful. Thieves steal items, and in FF Tactics, you can only obtain certain items from stealing in boss fights. Stealing also allows you to directly impact enemy equipment, weakening opponents by removing or neutralizing their gear for a strategic advantage. Thus, if you truly want the most powerful items, you need a Thief. However, you don’t have to “main” the job, just learn a few abilities and move on.

Ideally, you want a thief in your party or as a secondary job on a Ninja just so steal items. Steal Hearts can also be helpful to confuse enemies, but outside of this avoid the job unless you need it to reach another.

Check out our other Thief Guides: All Thief Abilities / Best Thief Abilities Ranked / Thief Build Guide

17. Mediator (C Tier)

The Mediator is a class that tries to talk with odd and strange status effects, therefore ranking it at C Tier on this list. The main upside of the job is the ability to use Guns, therefore you have great range and good damage. But, your abilities are odd, with low probability of hitting, and you end up just shooting a gun repeadly. Chemist can do that and they have much more utility and better stat growth, so it’s a job to avoid.

18. Squire (C Tier)

The Squire job is helpful at the start of the game but quickly becomes weak as you progress, thus a C tier class. The main thing you want to acquire is JP Boost which helps power level any job along with Move +1 which is helpful early. If you’re playing as Ramza, the Squire gets more abilities and better stat growth so it’s not as bad for the main protagonist to use.

However, any other unit, just learn the basic abilities especially Focus and JP Boost which are super helpful to power level. Then move on quickly to better options and more powerful jobs (the Monk).

Check out our other Squire Guides: All Squire Abilities / Best Squire Abilities Ranked / Squire Build Guide

D Tier — Rarely Optimal

19. Bard (D Tier)

In most games, end-game hard to achieve jobs or classes are usually powerful, but not the Bard in FFT Remaster! We rank it D tier because it applies weak and inferior healing and buffs using Singing. This is a truly odd and useless job with terrible stat growth, zero fun gameplay mechanics, and punishing to unlock. The only good thing from the job is Move +3, otherwise avoid!

20. Mime / Mimic (D Tier)

The Mime is another useless job ranking D Tier because it only can copy abilities without consuming MP. While this sounds great, it cannot replicate special skills from powerful characters like Orlandu. Therefore, it’s almost ENTIRELY turn based dependent and dreadfully hard to pull off. And if that weren’t bad enough, its one of the hardest jobs to unlock and annoying to fuss with the timing of the previous ability.

FFT Remaster Job Tier List FAQ

Is the Summoner really not S Tier?

While the Summoner is powerful, the longer cast times give it problems. The way to counter this is using the support ability Swiftness, but dropping your overall power making the Black Mage on par or even more powerful for pure raw damage.

Are Unique characters factored in?

This list focuses on generic jobs. Unique often act like “S-tier with a built-in kit,” which can skew results; we note synergies where important.

Can I clear the game on C/D tiers?

Yes. The Remastered Final Fantasy Tactics has different difficulties, making it easier for non optimal parites to complete the game.

Changelog and Updates

v1.0 — Initial remaster tier list template published.

More Final Fantasy Tactics Remaster Builds

Check the Best Beginner Builds for FFT or builds for each job listed below: