Enhancing my Final Fantasy Tactics grinding experience

[Ingemar]

One final comment about Bards/Dancers--

If you are one of those freaks who absolutely adore grinding (I'm not judging--I AM one), Bards and Dancers are a worthwhile (if short term) investment. Properly hasted and sped up, a Bard/Dancer can rack up zillions of JP per round. The Bard's healing song and the Dancer's damaging dance are both the fastest and the most likely to hit--you just have to keep your party's HP slightly low and one enemy's HP high, otherwise no JP will be gained.

TVTropes even suggests using Bard/Dancer to rack up JP for Calculator.

If you hate grinding, follow Nate's advice.

The 2 Mimes 3 Dancers strategy is pretty silly if you think about it. Although the setup makes it so you can enfeeble and slaugter an entire army without moving from your original spots, with the JP you get from trying to level Mime OR Dancer you can instead invest in a Monk with Dual Wield, a Ninja with Martial Arts, a Knight with Dual Wield, a Summoner with Draw Out, (insert your favorite combo here), and so forth.

[Nate]

Oh yeah, to be sure, Bard/Dancer is a great way to JP grind (although I always just used Haste + Accumulate, mixing in a bit of Ramza's Speed-adding ability).

[Ingemar]

I had a little trouble with Wiegraf, apparently the trick is to abuse Ramza's Squire abilities like there's no tomorrow. On the third try, I killed Velius before his side even had a chance to act.

I'm tempted to dump Rafa and Malak. Even if I could get them to become glorified generics, I already have generics that can run circles around them and stomp their colons (as well as a mastered Agrias). Thoughts?

[Nate]

The solo Ramza/Wiegraf fight leading to Velius really is one of the hardest in the game if you're not prepared for it, and it's hard even if you ARE prepared for it. The biggest trick I've seen came from a LLG, basically Ramza with Hamedo and Blood Sword, with a Chameleon Robe. Wiegraf can't use Holy Sword skills and is forced to attack Ramza physically, with Hamedo cutting him off before he gets a chance (and Blood Sword to heal in the off-chance he gets through).

The Velius fight is a tad bit rougher though.

Anyway, do not not NOT dump Rafa. The reason is simple. The Move-Find Item ability.

The Deep Dungeon has super awesome items to find with Move-Find Item. The way Move-Find Item works is this. There's two treasures. The chance to find the good treasure is 100 - (character's Brave) %. In other words, the lower your character's Brave, the better chance they have of finding an awesome item with Move-Find Item.

Rafa starts out with a 34 Brave (I think) giving you right off a great chance to find good items. Most of your other characters probably have Brave in the 50s-70s, with the high 40s probably being the lowest they'll have. Rafa starts out with a great low Brave for good item finding in the DD, and you'll save time lowering it if you want it even lower.

Malak you can dump no problem though. In fact I pretty much always do when I play.

[Ingemar]

For some strange reason, Wiegraf was using Monk abilities on me (I did indeed use the Chameleon robe trick). I had to run away from him most of the battle because I didn't want to kill him (with Hamedo) before getting properly buffed. But since his Monk attacks were weak (and mine were ridiculously strong) I had no problem.

[Ingemar]

I just got Beowulf. I'm finding it difficult suppress the urge to scream "I! AM! BEOWULF!" every time he does something.

EDIT: Also recently had the pleasure of ending a battle in one turn thanks to Math skill and Holy.

[Nate]

Beowulf is one of the best characters because he's like an Oracle who can equip better stuff, and he is absolutely crucial to doing Deep Dungeon. I always keep him with the special gold shield from the Worker 7 New fight, along with the Defender, and he's nigh-untouchable with those...he's not really meant for physical smacking anyway, so Defender gives him a decent enough offense with a lot of bonuses.

Plus getting him nets you Reis who is super sweet (not when she joins, but later).