Help What weapons should I give which character?!

[SecularInsani T]

Okay, so I'm about 12 hours into FFXII and one aspect of the gameplay is starting to cause me grief.
In every final fantasy game that I've played so far(all of 'em except XI) the weapons and armor that are equippable for a character are dictated by the class that a character belongs to. In XII, however, any character is free to equip any weapon they want.
My instinct as a veteran old-school RPG gamer is to buy every character the strongest equipment available(which at this point is a hand-axe), but Gil is limited and my team feels very unbalanced.

My question is this: How should I organize my team and distribute my equipment so that I end up with the power and balance that I am looking for?

 

[moogling]

I wouldn't give them all hand axes. With the axes, sometimes they deal around 100 damage, and then with another hit they can cause around 1,000. It's all very random and frustrating. So even though they have a high attack power, they're not really the best weapon.

For me, I have Balthier and Ashe using swords, Penelo and Basch using katanas or ninja swords, and Fran using a pole. Not using Vaan. It's working very well for me.

You should really just try things out and not use the Optimize option for anything but armor and shields. I went out for training and switched out weapons every once in a while and figured out what worked best for who.

That's one of the reasons I love this game though, it's not set in stone what people can and can't do. Also, once you buy a spell and purchase the license for it, you're all set. So, all the characters should be able to have the same magicks.

Oh, and by the way, about being short on gil. I usually go out and try to get a battle chain of monsters or beat some tough enemies to get rare or lots of loot. Defeating marks also has its perks, you usually get some gil and sometimes the petitioner gives you things to sell.

 

[GameGeeks]

The best spot for making money early on is the area in the mines with nothing but skeletons, the mines where you get the man made magicite, you can get a rather large chain and the bones sell for a nice price too.

 

[mattbgamer]

What I like to do is have at least 2 characters who wield ranged weapons. I kept Balthier with his gun and I have Penelo with a bow. Also it is smart to have those said two ranged characters with the most magic (farther away means they wont get attacked as much, thus can spend time using magic). And I have at least one other character who is a main magic user. The rest of my character either have Katana's or swords. I find it works really good and I haven't have any problems yet (I am currently in the Paramina Rift and all my characters are lvl 30). I hope you take mine and the other peoples advice because what they said I also agree with.

I hope I helped and have fun.

 

[CassinoChips]

I rotate all six characters through. Usually I have Basch with axes and great swords, Vaan with swords, Fran with bows, Ashe with staves and maces... I think..., Penelo with polearms and ninja swords, and Balthier with guns and handbombs. Usually I try to have 2 brawlers and one ranged attacker, with the ranged attacker being a white mage, as well as one of the two brawlers. Vaan is my time mage, Penelo is my black mage, as is Ashe, and Fran is also a green mage.

Now that I'm at a higher level and I have boatloads of licence points to spare, everybody's a white/time mage.

I love axes, tbph. I think the high range damage it deals outweighs the low range, especially if you combo a string of high range attacks.

 

[bequiaboit]

I would give the axes to characters with mediocre melee stats (which should be either Balthier or Ashe) and the power-houses (Basch or Vaan) greatswords or swords and shields or spears.
The axes and hammers can be a pain in the (behind) when they are equipped to tanks : they deal damage randomly, possibly 1 damage at level 70, and it's a waste of STR stat.