Octopath Traveler II: All Jobs RANKED!
Octopath Traveler II not only has fun and unique characters, but also fun and unique jobs! They are found at guilds or dungeons around the world, and each of them is more unique than the last. Without further ado, RPG Ranked presents.... Octopath Traveler II: All Jobs RANKED!
12. Dancer - C Tier
At first, I was overjoyed about the changes made to the Dancer—I thought it was going to be a better job than it was in the first game! How wrong I was, jumping to such lofty conclusions. I thought with the Ruinous Kick and Dagger Dance abilities, the Dancer was going to be an awesome support-attack hybrid character! Though Dancer works very well as a base class for Agnea due to Dance Session and her EX Skills, this job is almost entirely outclassed by other jobs or characters. There are much better ways to deal damage and break enemies than the Dagger Dance and Ruinous Kick abilities, and without an AoE magic spell like in the first game, the Dancer loses a lot of its utility. Sweeping Gale is Fine, but the only truly good Wind Magic spell in this entire game is stuck on Agnea anyway, so might as well just use her if you want a dancer. And the buffs? The things that literally define the job? They are all arguably outclassed by the fantastic variety of items that can be prepared with Ochette’s Talent. The two times I used this job were 1) trying it out for the first time and 2) during the Galdera fight on Ochette so she could use Sealticge’s Seduction on Temenos to make Prayer for Plenty AoE since Agnea was in the other party. That sentence was quite the mouthful, my deepest apologies. Overall, though this job is viable enough to not be in D or F Tier, there isn’t really a point of using this job—just stick with Agnea instead of using this job.
11. Conjurer - C Tier
This job took the Runelord job, threw it a blender, and watched it blend out into a not-so-beautiful oblivion. Gone are the six elements, replaced by only four. Gone is Transfer Rune, which has now been given to the much better Arcanist job in the form of Seal of Diffusion. Gone is the need for extra elemental breaking, as Ochette’s Provoke Beasts, Hikari’s Learned Skills, and Temenos’s Latent power trivialize breaking enemies. And what do we get instead? Trashy abilities like Rite of Sun, which is iffy at best even for random encounters; BP Boost, a mediocre ability from the first game that they so brilliantly decided to make a Divine Skill for some forsaken reason; Prayer for Rain, the middling SP-restoring ability, and Dance of Immunity, a powerful yet very situational ability (that technically works with Agnea’s Divine Skill). Though the Conjure abilities can be nice for adding a little bit of extra damage, the damage is truly not good enough to be worth equipping this job for, and without an awesome Divine like Balogar’s Blade, they really just did this job dirty. I still did find this job more useful than the Dancer though, if only for the Dance of Immunity and Conjure Gusts abilities, as well as the awesome support skills. If you are dead-set on using this class for some reason, Ochette, Castti, and Hikari are all great picks, as they don’t really even need a secondary job class to be overpowered anyway. Overall, this is a very mediocre class as a whole.
10. Apothecary - B Tier
This is in B Tier almost solely for its amazing Divine Skill, Dohter's Charity. This is fantastic, as it allows you to use powerful items like lychees, pomegranates, jams, and meats on the entire party! However, in every other way, this job is even worse than in the first game. The axe attacks? Weaker. Ice magic? Weaker. Healing and reviving? More efficient, but much less effective. Poisoning? Worse—it can only last two turns. It’s all worse. But there is no denying the situational overpoweredness of Dohter’s Charity and Rehabilitate, so overall, the Apothecary is still worth using.
9. Hunter - B Tier
How the great Hunter class has fallen. Though I genuinely do like Precise Shot and Leghold Trap, they are outclassed by Learned Skills and Windy Refrain/omnicasted Springy Boots. In addition, Mercy Strike is worthless, the axe attack is quite decent but never dominant, and Abating Orb is good but situational. The Hunter’s Divine Skill is also quite strong—much better than the first game! However, overall, with huge nerfs to the job as a whole, though it is good, it is much weaker than the rest of the jobs on this list.
8. Thief - B Tier
With two debuffing skills, Surprise Attack, and HP Thief this class has a lot of stuff going for it—especially during the early game. But with many Latent Powers and Talents that can debuff better, Surprise Attack being quickly outclassed, and HP Thief later being outclassed by the much stronger Foreign Assassin Hired Help ability, it just isn’t quite as good as many other jobs. Also, without the Steal SP and Share SP combo from the first game, and with Aeber’s Reckoning simply being less necessary than in the first game? Like the last few jobs, it is mediocre at best, and doesn’t offer anything quite good enough to be ranked any higher on the list.
7. Warrior - A Tier
With Incite and the absolutely fantastic Vengeful Blade ability, the Warrior is so much better than it was in the original game. This combination is broken against multi-hit attacks, and if you apply Sidestep? You’ll deal damage without taking any damage! And use Vengeful Blade with Seal of Diffusion? You’ll dish out thousands of extra damage for almost no effort! In addition, the Warrior also can dish out some huge early game damage with Enervating Blade, as well as break enemies well with Aggressive Slash! However, during the latter half of the game, the Warrior isn’t quite as powerful as many other setups you can utilize like Learned Skills or Concoct-related strategies, so overall, the Warrior is very good, but outclassed.
6. Inventor - S Tier
This is perhaps the weirdest job in the game. Instead of using SP, it utilizes turns and recrafting of inventions. If this job just used SP, it’d be too broken though, so I am not complaining. This class has so many good abilities… especially if you use Agnea as an Inventor! Though I usually use Inventor Castti (apparently I just have a feud with Agnea, I don’t understand), the things that Inventor Agnea can do are rather insane. Making the whole team go first with Springy Boots, breaking every enemy multiple times with Elemental Bomb Bottle, fully healing the whole party with Arkar’s Coil, or guaranteeing Critical hits on every enemy with Critical Scope? This job is absolutely broken. But even without All Together Now, single-target Critical Scope alone would be enough to skyrocket this job to S Tier. Being able to guarantee critical hits is a better damage buff than anything the Dancer can give! Overall, with insane abilities like Critical Scope, Elemental Bomb Bottle, and Arkar’s Coil, the Inventor is one of the best support jobs in Octopath Traveler II.
5. Scholar - S Tier
Without there being a Sorcerer job to completely outclass the Scholar, this job can finally get its due diligence. With the Elemental Barrage ability and Temenos’s Latent Power, the Scholar is even better at breaking than the first game—and does more damage too! Though the Scholar requires a bit more setup than the first game with either Advanced Magic or Alephan’s Wisdom, it also allows for a more balanced job, as well as allows the magic spells of the Cleric and Arcanist to be buffed… buffing spells like Heavenly Shine or Prayer for Plenty is absolutely insane! Using Prayer for Plenty with Alephan’s Wisdom and Sealticge’s Seduction? Brings back the glory days of Saving Grace in the first game! On top of all that, with Analyze and Stroke of Genius, the Scholar cannot only deal huge damage, but also support the team! Overall, with huge damage and elemental prowess, as well as buffing and awesome synergy with Temenos, this job is amazing.
4. Cleric - S Tier
I found myself utilizing the Cleric more as a defensive buffer in this game instead of a healer—kind of like how I would use Blue Dragon’s Barrier Magic Shadow Class. With Prayer to the Flame and Sacred Shield, Cleric is a fantastic buffing character, especially when used with Agnea. Revive is still fantastic as ever and Heal Wounds still lets you heal, but I ended up buffing my defense a lot more than healing this time around—very different from how I used the Cleric class in the first game. Sacred Shield is incredible, especially for low health Hikari strategies! The Cleric also has access to two powerful Light abilities, as well as my favorite Divine Skill in the game! My only problems holding the Cleric back a bit are 1) Hikari’s Divine Protection and Arcansit Partitio can buff better and 2) to heal and revive well with the Cleric, you need to use the Scholar’s Advanced Magic or Alephan’s Wisdom abilities. These two flaws make Castti or Temenos much better at healing than using this job as a secondary class, but since buffing is the name of the game with the Cleric, and can give you extra turns with its Divine Skill? It is one of the best jobs in the game.
3. Merchant - S Tier
Yet again in third place, Merchant is easily one of the best job classes in Octopath Traveler II. With insane versatility and strength coming from Hired Help and Sidestep, as well as the insanity of Donate BP? It’s just as good as in the first, if not better due to the revamped Hired Help ability! If you have tons of money to spare? Get multiple licenses from the Merchant guild, put everybody on Merchant, and spam Hired Help abilities like Beastling, Veteran Soldier, or Foreign Assassin. You’ll thank me later. Overall, with three of the most overpowered abilities in the game, as well as being one of the most versatile jobs, this is easily a job deserving of the top of S Tier.
2. Armsmaster - S+ Tier
With access to every weapon in the game and insanely powerful physical attacks, this is easily the strongest class in the game in terms of damage. Sixfold Strike, Lionheart’s Axe: On The Hunt, and Warlord’s Spear: Giant Swing are all exceptional at dealing damage, and both Sixfold Strike and Dancer’s Blade: Mischievous step are both awesome at breaking enemies! Though the Spiritlord’s Staff: Deliverance and Hunter’s Bow: Flurry of Arrows abilities are situational at best, I literally don’t care because the other abilities are so strong. This job is not only amazing at dishing out damage (especially with the Battle-Tested Blade and the Giant’s Club), but is fantastic at breaking enemies due to being able to equip every weapon. Putting this job on Throne or Ochette can help them be more on par with Hikari, but Agnea and Osvald can also do well with this job! Agnea allows you to break tons of enemies and deal tons of damage to all enemies with her Latent Power, and Osvald allows you to equip eight different elemental-attack buffing weapons (as well as make Spiritlord’s Staff slightly less stupid to use). Overall, with access to all eight weapons and the best damage of any secondary job class, I think armsmaster is my second favorite job in Octopath Traveler II. Still has got nothing on Hikari’s Learned Skills though…
1. Arcanist - S+ Tier
Though the Inventor and Cleric are both fantastic support characters, Arcanist is the best healer, support character, and mage in the game. Give this job to Osvald, and you can dish out insane light and dark damage while restoring HP and SP… and having access to almost every element in the game! Or give it to Throne and restore all your HP and SP in one turn by using your Latent Power to consecutively cast Malice and Blessing! Or give it to Hikari and extend Vengeful Blade to every party member, pulverizing bosses who abuse physical damage and easily breaking them in just a couple turns. Or best of all, give this job to Partitio and single-handedly become the best character in the game with Seal of Diffusion + Sidestep/Rest, as well as awesome abilities like Seal of Immortality, Seal of Inversion, and Reflective Barrier… all of which can be full-boosted by his Latent Power! Or use Seal of Eternity on Seal of Diffusion and make it so Partitio can use overpowered tactics every single turn of the battle! There are so many fantastic things you can do with this job, and it is easily my favorite support job in the game, as well as my favorite job in general.