Top 5 Best Builds You NEED! Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles

Categories: Final Fantasy Tactics

Discover the 5 best builds you should be using in Final Fantasy Tactics Remaster – we go over abilities, how to play them, and what makes them most effective.

In Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, your build consists of your party, abilities, gear, and items. What makes the system unique is, your previously learned abilities from other jobs can be used in reaction, support, or secondary slots. Therefore, you can start to customize and craft a specific build for your playstyle. Whether you’re a lover of physical damage or high powered magic spells, we got you covered! Here are the best 5 builds you should try in FF Tactics!

What are the Top 5 Builds for Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles?

The Ninja, Black Mage, and White Mage are the best jobs and builds in FF Tactics. The Ninja is the ultimate physical damage dealer and when combined with the Monk is a powerhouse. You can heal, revive allies, do ranged damage, and even have area damage as well! The Black Mage is the area (AOE) damage dealer that when combined with Time Mage boost speed of allies and slows time from enemies. Lastly, the White Mage should be considered as the best support job especially when combined with Time Mage.

The 5 top builds for Final Fantasy Tactics Remaster you should be using are:

Ninja + Monk: powerful melee, range, with healing and revive
Black Mage + Time Mage: area damage plus utility makes it great choice
White Mage + Time Mage: healing and manipulating time for ultimate support job
Monk + Squire: best for early and mid game plus grind focus to power level
Chemist + Knight: utility and damage can be used throughout the game

5. Chemist + Knight – The Tactical Hybrid

Below are Chemist + Black Mage build features in FFT Remaster:

Main Job: Chemist (Items)
Secondary Ability: Black Magic (Black Mage)
Reaction: Auto-Potion (Chemist)
Support: Magick Boost
Movement: Treasure Hunter

The Chemist is a starter job but is useful throughout FFT Remaster. You can heal, revive, and eliminate status effects without MP and CT. Therefore, you can influence the battlefield immediately. However, as you progress, the Chemist gets even better with powerful Auto-Potion reaction and the ability to equip Guns as a ranged weapon.

An overlooked combo is using the Chemist with the Knight Arts of War ability set. The Knight Rend abilities like destroying weapons and armor is thought of typically as a melee ability. But, the skill works on any attack, even with a gun! While you won’t be able to equip a gun at level 1 with the Chemist, shortly you start finding them and can equip for massive range. This allows you to not only deal decent damage at range, but destroy targets most valuable and effective armor or weapons.

The gun’s damage scaling is related to PA, but Knight Arts of War abilities do. Therefore, if you plan on using this combo on every turn, you can increase PA for more damage and reliable breaking of items. Since you have instant healing and revives, you don’t need MP or MA other resources allowing you to have max range and survival. Plus this setup works amazing at the end game deep dungeon, Midlight’s Deep 10 floor hardcore dungeon. Nothing like throwing a Phoenix Down at an undead enemy to 100 to zero them!

Chemist + Knight Build Pros:

Access to instant healing via items
Can attack or support depending on situation
No MP needed, or cast times
Destroy weapons or armor every turn

Chemist + Knight Build Cons:

Must play at full range
Limited AOE potential compared to full mages
Healing isn’t as powerful as White Mage at end game

This combination works at the start of the game, and once adapted for later chapters, can work all the way to the completion. While you progress, look to acquire Support and Reaction abilities to compliment your build. But the premise remains, instant healing, rending weapons, and impactful turns EVERY turn.

4. Monk + Squire – The Balanced Frontliner

Below are Monk + Squire build features in FFT Remaster:

Main Job: Monk (Martial Arts)
Secondary Ability: Squire (Mettle / Fundementals)
Reaction: First Strike (Monk)
Support: JP Boost (Squire)
Movement: Movement +2 (Thief)

For the best balanced, simplistic melee damage setup, try the Monk and Squire. Early on, you can level as the Squire to get basic abilities like Movement +1, Counter Tackle, and JP Boost. Soon thereafter, you’ll want to move onto the Knight then the Monk. The Monk gives you access to some of the best abilities in the game, and the stat growth is perfect for a melee damage dealer. Therefore, you can play many Chapters and time as a Monk, slowly progressing your massive amount of abilities and bouncing back to other jobs while grinding.

Once you learn Chakra and Revive, you can pivot back to Squire and learn Focus. This allows you to spam the ability and power grind and never miss JP gains on any turn. You can also off-heal at this point, and if using Ramza in later Chapters, gain even more abilities like Shout. Shout is Ramza specific but a powerful buff, giving you a well rounded build to buff yourself, allies, heal, and deal damage up close or at range. Also, the Monk’s ability set transfers to any melee user allowing healing and revives. Therefore, when you swap to a Thief, you can maintain some AOE, range, healing, and revives allowing you to get that Movement +2 ability without feeling totally useless.

Monk + Squire Build Pros:

Strong damage and self-sustain
Easy to unlock and train early
Excellent stat growth path
Can use basic Squire skills for JP farming

Monk + Squire Build Cons:

Lacks ranged options like Throw
Weak AOE, single target heavy

This combo doesn’t have the end-game flash and shine of the Ninja, but it can be used the entire game. Moreover, it’s best to stay as a Monk for awhile while learning the game. You can heal, revive, and hit hard without the need for constant gear upgrades. But there is a better melee option we share on this list later on.

3. White Mage + Time Mage – The Support Specialist

Below are White Mage + Time Mage build features in FFT Remaster:

Main Job: White Mage (White Magicks)
Secondary Ability: Time Magicks (Time Mage)
Reaction: Auto-Potion (Chemist)
Support: Swiftspell (Time Mage)
Movement: Teleport (Time Mage)

While the White Mage is mainly known for healing, having the Holy spell also gives it some offensive firepower. Moreover, you can pair the White Mage healing capabilities with the Time Mage who buffs allies specifically with spells like Haste. Typically, you buff on turn one, then heal or deal damage on turn two throughout. Once you access Swiftspell from the Time Mage, your White Mage spells fire off almost instantly, giving you revive speed like a Chemist but with the unit coming back at much higher HP.

Moreover, the White Mage and Time Mage combo has some advance spells like Meteor which deals massive AOE damage. Therefore, you can cast Holy on single target, and Meteor when you need AOE and retain all the support and healing from these two jobs. It’s almost mandatory to have this type of setup on your team due to the healing, reviving at range, and damage on demand.

White Mage + Time Mage Build Pros:

Top-tier healing and support abilities
Can manipulate turn order with Haste and Slow
Swiftspell reduces recovery delays
Invaluable for long story fights

White Mage + Time Mage Build Cons:

Low damage output
Dependent on team for protection
Takes awhile to unlock high JP spells

It’s always helpful to have a pure healing and support character. While they aren’t as flashy or killing blow heavy as a Black Mage, it’s great when you need to revive or buff a character. Therefore, you should try this combo in your party if you haven’t already.

2. Black Mage + Time Mage – The AOE Nuker

Below are Black Mage + Time Mage build features in FFT Remaster:

Main Job: Black Mage (Black Magicks)
Secondary Ability: Time Magicks (Time Mage)
Reaction: Auto-Potion (Chemist)
Support: Magick Boost (Black Mage)
Movement: Teleport (Time Mage)

The classic spellcaster combo combines the massive damage of the Black Mage with the utility of the Time Mage. Start battles by casting Haste or Slow, then follow up with an elemental attack like Firaja to wipe out grouped enemies. The combo is made even better with the Swiftspell Support ability from the Time Mage lowering cast times. You can get near instant nukes so you never miss a key clump of enemies. However, if you want the most damage pure round, pickup Magick Boost from the Black Mage.

As you progress into late game, the Time Mage spells start to be even more powerful. You gain access to Meteor for another AOE damage spell, Quick to instantly take a turn, or Reflect to protect against fellow spellcasters. If you spend enough time on the Time Mage you gain access to the best movement spell, Teleport. While it can fail, you can gamble and travel long distances to safety or in the heat of battle and wipe a team before they take a turn. Huge area damage, but it can hit friendly targets so be careful!

Black Mage + Time Mage Build Pros:

Huge AOE damage potential
Haste, Slow, and Stop add massive control
Short Charge cuts casting time in half
Great for grind and story maps

Black Mage + Time Mage Build Cons:

Fragile and vulnerable to physical attacks
High MP costs require Ether support

For pure magical devastation, nothing beats this combo. The Black/Time Mage build clears encounters fast and stays relevant throughout the game. Perfect for players who love dominating with area control and raw damage. Plus, in the end-game Deep Dungeon, this combo rocks, wiping floor after floor when enemies clump into positions.

1. Ninja + Monk – The Ultimate Physical Destroyer

Below are Ninja + Monk build features in FFT Remaster:

Main Job: Ninja (Throw)
Secondary Ability: Martial Arts (Monk)
Reaction: First Strike (Monk)
Support: Attack Boost (Geomancer)
Movement: Movement +2 (Thief)

The best build overall to try is the Ninja and Monk combo as you progress to end-game jobs. The Ninja has massive speed and built in dual wield. Meaning, you swing twice and you can equip two weapons. You can equip Dual Wield in your support ability slot and use the Monk as primary or any melee damage dealer. However, staying as a Ninja with your primary job allows you to almost always go first, gain massive movement per turn, and throw many objects at enemies clear across the battlefield.

The reason you pair the Monk’s Martial Arts as a secondary ability set is, the skill set is vast and wide. You have a heal, revive, cleanse negative effect, single target, and AOE with shockwave in a line. Basically, you get all the Monk’s utility, while having a turn will killer that can throw excessive weapons or Shuriken. Plus playing as a Monk or a Ninja boost your stats properly while Monks favor HP and PA, Ninjas focus on Speed. Nothing beats going first on turn one and nuking a boss before they can attack!

Pros:

Exceptional Speed and PA growth
Dual Wield + Martial Arts = insane damage output
Can self-heal and remove status effects
Great mobility and flexibility

Cons:

Low durability against magic
Requires JP investment in two advanced jobs

If you want a build that can one-shot enemies and still shrug off most ailments, the Ninja/Monk combo delivers unmatched offensive versatility. It’s one of the best endgame builds for Ramza or any physical DPS unit. Check it out with our Ramza build below!