Octopath Traveler 2 has a very strong system for jobs that lets you mix and match skills.
Octopath Traveler 2 is an RPG in the style of the early Final Fantasies and Dragon Quests. It has a strong job system that lets you try out different combinations of different classes. In the game, each character has their own class, but you can also find licenses for them as you travel around the world.
Some of these jobs are more useful than others, but none of them are really “bad.” You should think about the skills it gives you, how well it helps you find and then take advantage of weaknesses in battle, and how many support skills you can unlock with it.
Thief
The best parts of the Thief job are being able to steal items from enemies and being able to use swords and daggers. Stealing items from enemies is very useful when fighting tougher enemies or bosses who have valuable items.
It also has a Darkness attack, which isn’t very useful unless you use the job on a mage like Osvald. HP Thief is the best thing the Thief has going for it. Self-sustain with two Dagger strikes is great, but mostly only when you’re fighting enemies that are weak to Daggers.
Conjurer
The tower of Ku is one of the hardest things to do in Octopath Traveler 2 to get to Conjurer. This is a series of very hard bosses, and the fight with the Conjurer is the last one. She’s a tough one. Compared to that, the Conjurer job itself isn’t all that great.
The main draws are the elemental blessing abilities, which give your party’s physical attacks an extra element. You can easily target enemy weaknesses with these, but by the end of the game, you have better ways to Break enemies reliably.
Apothecary
Castti is a fine character, but it’s where she shines that shows where Apothecary falls short. Castti’s ability to make potions that heal or hurt doesn’t transfer with the rest of the Apothecary skillset, so it’s much less useful for other characters.
Still, it has some very useful Axe attacks. Sweeping Axe is a rare skill that hits the whole enemy party, and powerful single-target healing is a useful tool both in and out of battle.
Hunter
Like Apothecary, Hunter is at its best when used by Ochette, whose monsters make up for the lack of skills in the class. Hunter, like the Apothecary, has a great Axe attack called “Cleaving Smash.” This attack gives Hunter a buff and hits pretty hard.
Precise Shot, a very useful attack that hits multiple times, makes Hunter more useful than the jobs that came before it. You can spread these shots out over the whole enemy party, and bows are a common weakness, so you can imagine how good this attack is. With Precise Shot, you can control whole battles.
Armsmaster
You might think it would be great to have a job that lets you use every weapon in the game. Well, it is. Sixfold Strike lets you find all of an enemy’s weapon weaknesses for just 30 SP, and it also does a good amount of damage.
The problem with Armsmaster is that you have to find and equip certain weapons in order to use its more powerful abilities. These weapons are strong, but you can find much stronger ones. This makes Armsmaster a bit boring, since you either have the best gear or you can use your skills but do less damage. It seems like a bad deal.
Merchant
The power and usefulness of Merchant‘s skills vary a lot. Arrow of Fortune and Ember aren’t very good on their own and only work in certain situations. Collect, on the other hand, has been severely nerfed compared to how it worked in the last game.
But the good skills are really good. Donate BP is one of the most important keys to controlling battles in the game. It lets you set up great bursts of damage or utility that take little time to set up. Hired Help also gives you access to some very powerful attacks, especially if you can pay for the most expensive mercenaries. Lastly, Sidestep is a very useful defensive ability, especially when used with something like Agnea’s Latent Ability to spread it around.
Inventor
Inventing is a strange job. Like Armsmaster, you have to do some extra work to unlock its abilities, which are all about crazy inventions. You have two very useful Breaker skills in Changeable Catapult and Elemental Bomb Bottle. Springy Boots is a very powerful turn-manipulator.
But where Inventor really shines is in its support skills. Upgraded Accessories makes some good pieces of equipment even better, and Fruits of Labor is one of the best defensive skills in the game because it boosts your defenses based on how many skills you’ve learned. At the end of the game, this is very helpful.
Cleric
There’s not much more to say about why Cleric is a great skill. Healing is very helpful, especially when it helps everyone in the group. Light damage is rare, and this job can be used against one or more targets. Sacred Shield is a great defense move, and it’s even better when it’s boosted.
Simply put, a group with a Cleric won’t be complaining. It has a good balance of offense and defense, and the Mystical Staff skill is a very powerful Breaker skill that also restores SP, which is very helpful in a pinch.
Dancer
Dancer has some of the best utility moves in the game, mostly because of Lion Dance and Peacock Strut. Stat buffs give big boosts in this game, and having easy access to them is the best way to take advantage of your burst windows in battle.
Add to this that Dancer gives you access to Wind attacks, which are incredibly rare in Octopath Traveler 2, and you have a very useful job even before you think about the Break power of Ruinous Kick, the turn manipulation of Stimulate, or the game-breaking potential of Bewildering Grace.
Warrior
When it comes down to it, all you have to do to win a battle in Octopath Traveler 2 is reduce your enemies’ HP to 0. This is one of the reasons why Warrior is a great class: it has the potential to do a lot of damage.
Brand’s Thunder, one of the Warrior’s skills, is one of the most damaging in the game. Aggressive Slash, Incite, and Vengeful Blade all work together to make it a very powerful job for breaking enemies. If you add “Abide,” you really can’t go wrong.
Scholar
Scholar isn’t very useful, but it makes up for that by being great at what it does. Most enemies in 8 Ball Pool game are weak to either Fire, Lightning, or Ice. This makes Scholar a very reliable job to use, whether with Osvald or someone else.
Scholar not only has damage spells, which can be made much stronger with Advanced Magic and Alephan’s Wisdom, but also a very useful skill called “Analyze.” This takes the guesswork out of looking for weaknesses and also tells you how much health your target has.
Arcanist
Arcanist is the best of the four secret jobs because it is the most secret. Not only can it use Light and Darkness attacks on the whole party, which would normally require Soulstones, but these attacks also heal the party’s HP or SP at the same time. They are expensive, but they are worth using.
When you add the Arcanist’s utility options to this, you have a set that anyone can use. It’s a great trait to be able to spread status effects with only one turn of setup. This works well with a lot of other jobs, and the fact that it has so many skills that let you change status effects lets you make game-changing combos.
