Storyline-wise, Quina is the worst of the eight main playable characters, though he/she can be good comic relief.

Battle-wise, Steiner is the worst of the eight main playable characters. He's a one-trick pony, and by the time you get to the part of the game where you can choose your characters, Zidane, Freya and Amarant will be dealing good enough damage anyway, especially if you've been powering up Thievery and Dragon's Crest.

Quina is definitely not useless in battle, and neither is Eiko - the only thing Garnet has over her is elemental versitality, and Vivi can cover that angle. If your party includes either Vivi or Eiko then the other is a better choice of party member than Garnet.

Exactly. With Vivi. Vivi must be in the party as well as Steiner, and he must be able to cast spells. Steiner is the only character who directly relies on another character to enable him to perform certain techniques. The payoff for this is that he has 13 more support abilities than he would if his Sword Magic techniques were regular action abilities learnt the normal way.

Even so, once you're doing 9999 damage one strong ability is as another. His sword magic ability adds little versitality and other characters are better at dealing damage while being part of a team and providing good recovery and support abilities.

He's a heavy hitter and a good tank, which makes him a good character to use in battle, but that's all he is, so he's the worst.

As for Quina: some useful Blue Magic abilities:
Lv5 Death (mainly for killing Grand Dragons)
Bad Breath (only 40% success, but really messes up the enemy if it works)
Limit Glove (works brilliantly with Phoenix Down or Auto Life)
1000 Needles (cheap, consistent damage - not so useful later on, but nice to have)
Pumpkin Head (Quina's version of Minus Strike)
Night (100% success rate, and insomniac takes care of the fact it's cast on your party members as well)
Twister
Earthquake
Angel's Snack
Frog Drop
White Wind
Magic Hammer
Auto Life

i think it would have to be eiko, i've never used her and never needed her, she died to many times when i was with her.

Beatrix/Marcus/Cinna/Blank are original characters so how can people vote for them when they are like the guest on FFXII (worst game ever check out thread). Worst character Amarant, didn't worry about leveling him up cause he sucked.

Garnet's white magic outshine's Eikos? Let's see...

White magic spells Garnet has but Eiko doesn't.

Scan
Blind
Confuse
Berserk


White magic spells Eiko has but Garnet doesn't.

Regen
Full Life
Dispel
Esuna
Might
Jewel
Holy
Haste

I know which set I'd rather have.

Garnet has more powerful summons, but I usually find that Fenrir and Madeen are enough, especially when Vivi's in the party. As I've implied before, if Vivi is absent, Garnet is probably the better choice.

WHAT?????? QUINA USELESS?
C´MON! SHE'S A BLUE MAGE!

(and Amarant is.........red hippie?)

Quina by far. uhhhh the only plus i had to Quina was i got to name him/her one of my friends name just to piss him off

other than that i thought the other characters all had potential