Final Fantasy 5 Party Configuration
 

So, i'm giving Final Fantasy V Advanced a chance here (I've played all FF games, except i never finished any of those before 6). I'm on my way to the Earth Crystal (already have Airship) and this is my party and current build:

Bartz: Lv 25
Main Job: Mystic Knight
Secondary Job: Still not set
Secondary Skill: 2-handed

Lenna: Lv 25
Main Job: Red Mage
Secondary Job: Blue Mage
Secondary Skill: Learning or Blue

Galuf: Lv 25
Main Job: Monk
Secondary Job: Beastmaster
Secondary Skill: Control

Faris: Lv 25
Main Job: Still not set ( Thief or Summoner or Time Mage)
Secondary Job: Still not set
Secondary Skill: Summon

I have everyone with Berserker skill learned (helpful on grinding) and i'm trying to keep Lenna and Faris with all the magic stuff and diversity, and Galuf and Bartz as the Heavy hitters (specially Galuf, thanks to the Counter of the Monk), But i'm willing to try anything and change my configuration...

So, what you guys suggest and what you usually use?

Man, I love this game.

Well, number one, Beastmaster isn't really something you go out of your way to use except to learn the Blue Magics, so I would suggest finding a list of the Blue Magics and making use of Control when you actually need it. Because overall it's pretty lame except for the specific use of Control for learning Blue Magic. However, one of the bonus dungeons (way at the end) requires you to Catch! a monster, so you'll probably want to have that eventually. Seriously, it just seemed like an attempt to make that ability actually get used once in the game, since it's pretty terrible. But that's how it is.

I've always found a good secondary for Monk to be Bard, so you might want to look into that. You'll have to master Sing! but the individual songs are found around the map as opposed to learned so depending on where you are in the game (I think you're far enough), learning all but the 8th song is possible I believe. Have you been playing pianos in all the towns where there are pianos? You have to do that, and there's even a hidden piano later on in a weird town/dungeon thing. But anyway Bard is a good secondary for Monk, I've found, or any fighting class. Also I found Romeo's Ballad was pretty much required for beating bosses like Omega (and the super-forms in the Advanced version), although when you get to that point I'd recommend just looking at a FAQ and following its instructions, although you can usually figure out how to win fairly quickly.

For a Mystic Knight I'd recommend Dual-Wield (Ninja ability), not 2-Handed, because then you have two chances to hit instead of one and you'll technically be causing the same amount of damage. So you may want to level that character in the Ninja class. Also for a Mystic Knight, you should get the Rapid-Fire! ability from the Ranger job.

"rapid fire. It has to be the best physical damager in the game. It allows up to around 79992 damage, normally if the enemy has an elemental weakness, this and spell blade will achieve that amount of damage, big enough to destroy almost any boss in 1 or 2 rounds."

So you'll want to look into that.

For Red Mage, I believe later on that Dualcast! will let you use any spell from any job your character has mastered when you equip it on a Bare/Normal. So you should probably master White Mage or Black Mage or Summon (this is what I always did, couldn't go wrong with a Red Mage/Summoner in my opinion) as well.

"Dualcast 999 Cast any 2: sword, white, black, time, summon
In 1 turn"

So you'll definitely want to make the character you're spending the time mastering Red Mage master at least one of the "full" magic jobs so that when you're making them a Mime with Dualcast! it'll really amount to some awesomeness because you can give them White! and Black! as well, or White! and Summon!, or Red! and Summon!, or whatever, and you'll be able to Dualcast! any spells in those lists. Which mounts for some heavy damage.

Another thing I always liked was Summoner/Time Mage, so that could be a route there. Or Red Mage/Time Mage because I think Dualcasting Meteor was the best attack in the game but I can't remember, it's been a while since I played. Basically you can't go wrong with a Dualcasting mage.

Really the possibilities are endless.

EDIT: Also I can't remember for sure but I think it would make a lot more sense for a Blue Mage to be the one with Control! I think that would streamline things, but I can't remember if that works or not.

ANOTHER EDIT: Also, mastering classes is important in the long run because they pass innate abilities onto your Freelance/Mime jobs when mastered. For example, if you master Ninja, when your character is a Freelancer, they can equip two weapons without need of threading Dual-Wield into a skill slot, which leaves skill slots open for action abilities. Also, statistics are passed onto Freelancer as well--eventually, Freelancer is the strongest job in the game, and you'll be spending all of your time in it except when mastering abilities.

But of course, you can beat the entire game without mastering a single job (not including the Bonus Dungeons in this version, of course--those require massive planning and grinding and specific strategies, so having jobs mastered is pretty much required--in fact, having all jobs mastered may be required).

ANOTHER ANOTHER EDIT: Also when I said "A Mystic Knight with Dual-Wield and Rapid-Fire" I basically meant a Freelancer with Mystic Knight, Ninja, and Ranger mastered and Sword! and Rapid-Fire! threaded. Otherwise it would be impossible, of course.

The best job in the game is freelancer/bare/jobless.

As you master jobs your freelancer class gets innate passive bonuses, and then you can equip your choice of skills.

What he said. Man, that was a lot shorter than what I said and yet it was basically the same thing. EvilNess is a genius!

So yeah, master stuff, it pays off. I mean, not in real life, since you spend hours doing it and you eventually wither away of old age, but in the game? It pays off.

Anyway, I always liked mastering stuff because I just liked the game so damn much.

EDIT: In a way I recommend beating the game at least once using multiple strategies and skills and changing your job class to suit the situation and area, and not really going out of your way to master abilities.

Then on your second or third playthrough, spend your time turning your party into unstoppable Battlemages who Mime! Dualcasted Bahamut into oblivion when they're not Rapid-Firing! Dual-Wielded Sword!-magicked Excaliburs.

ANOTHER EDIT: Although nothing really does beat the feeling of Mimicking a character who just Dualcasted Bahamut. I mean, that's 4 Bahamuts in a row, two for free. I mean, man. It feels GOOD.

What I like to do is:

Butz: Knight until he gets 2-handed, then Mystic Knight

Lenna: White Mage/Time Mage

Galuf: Summoner/Black Mage

Faris: Archer/Ninja. X-Fight and dual-wield can be pretty deadly.

Usually I throw in some other jobs wherever there's room. Last time I played it I had the Black Mage/Summoner learn White Magic in the final dungeon, too, and I needed it for the final battle. If you can master a Red Mage, do it. It's also good to have some abilities from the Thief (detecting hidden passages), the Blue Mage and the Geomancer (the anti-damage floors one).

Oddly everyone I know around here that played it made Galuf a White Mage/Monk, not quite sure why.

Blue mages. Blue magic has some broken as shit flying around.
Also the gold coin toss of the samurai is brutal and it will help immensely on the final boss if many people know it.
But as others ahve said just master as many classes as possible if you planning to mime it.

Oddly enough you guys seem to downplay Summons more than i thought you would...

i missed Shiva, but i have Ifrit and Ramuh, so i'm going back for it now. Thanks to the Berserk skill i got, griding for Job Points couldn't be easier. I usually hunt those Chimera in the desert, since i can usually kill them pretty easily by now, they are the only encounter in that particular area and they give 3 JP. Galuf Monk with Bersek can punch for 1k per turn, plus counter, not to mention that even my mages can make 300-500 per attack under Berserk. So, mastering jobs shouldn't be hard now.

Also, what about the New jobs on Advanced? Anything particulary good in there?

Haven't played advanced so don't know the new jobs. Apparentely the cannoner brings back the Exdeath cheat so that useful just for hilarity- but only on the second playthrough.

Also summons are pretty useless generally.

The ancient library dungeon where you found ifrit has a few enemies that can teach some useful blue magics, I would recommend at least getting lvl5 death from there.