In Bravely Default, the right team makes all the difference. A boss that once seemed impossible to defeat can be steamrolled with the right lineup. Once you figure out the perfect combinations of jobs and subjobs, you'll feel like you're playing a different game.
Unfortunately, there's no one combination that'll work against every enemy. To succeed, you'll need to understand all 24 of the game's jobs and how they work together. Finding the right lineup normally takes experimentation, but this guide should help to eliminate some of the guesswork.
Physical Attackers
In the early stages of the game, the Monk will be your best friend. It's got high HP, can dish out solid damage, and can get rid of nasty status effects with the Inner Alchemy ability. Later on, you'll probably want to swap your Monk out with a Pirate. The Pirate is able to dish out tons of damage, and its stat lowering attacks are incredibly useful. Combine that with the right equipment, and you'll be mopping the floor with many a baddie.
However, you shouldn't rely on these two jobs alone. Several other physical attackers can be invaluable in the right fight. The Ranger's targeting abilities work beautifully when fighting against a boss in that enemy family. A Valkyrie can avoid devastating attacks with moves like jump, and can attack multiple enemies with ease. The Ninja's high speed and evasion makes it one of the strongest classes in the game.
You should also give some consideration to the Dark Knight. It's extremely dangerous, but if you build a team around it, it can do incredible things.
Support
While some support classes are better as secondary jobs, others are quite potent in their own right. This is particularly true of Spiritmaster, the strongest support class in the game. When you combine it with white magic, you'll be able to protect and heal your team beautifully.
Support classes can also make fantastic tanks. Knights may be slow, but they have tons of HP and can protect your team while dishing out decent damage. The Swordmaster's Free Lunch is incredibly useful, especially during long, drawn out battles. If you have a good understanding of your enemy, it's also a class that can deal a lot of damage.
Some of the most useful support jobs need a little extra effort to work well. This is particularly true for the Salve-Maker, which can only live up to its potential when Norende has been fully restored. Getting all the compounds you need is expensive, but the results are more than worth it. No job can protect your team and exploit enemy weaknesses quite like the Salve-Maker can.
Magic
If you can manage your MP, casters make fantastic damage dealers. Black Mages are more than just a starter class, and they can dish out elemental damage and debuffs with equal ease. Arcanists allow you to take full advantage of status conditions and weaken your enemy while inflicting damage through dark damage.
While you gain access to the Summoner class early on, the high MP cost of summons make it hard to use well until much later in the game. You'll also be waiting on the Conjurer job, which is one of the last classes you'll unlock in the game. Together, the two jobs can get you past some very tough enemies.
If you find magic to be unreliable, you may want to opt for a physical attacker/caster combo. Later in the game, Monk pairs very nicely with a number of casting classes, particularly Time Mage. It's a surprisingly versatile combination that can do more damage than you might think.
Choosing the Right Subjob
Picking the perfect subjob for each class can be extremely difficult. There are tons of fantastic combinations and only four characters to use them on. The Freelancer job, which has access to the invaluable Examine ability, makes things even trickier.
Unless you have a specific combination in mind, you'll want to give the Freelancer subjob to one of your Physical Attackers. They'll be able to take full advantage of the Mimic ability, and won't rely on secondary abilities the way other classes will. When you're finally able to unlock the Freelancer's full potential, you'll be able to pair it with almost anything.
If you're using a Ninja in your party, pair it with a Spell Fencer. It's one of the most popular combos in the game for a reason. It's a great way to exploit enemy weaknesses and land critical hit after critical hit.
When it comes to your healer, you have a number of options. The Spiritmaster/White Mage combo is hard to beat when it comes to keeping your party alive, but a Salve-Maker/White Mage combination can equally potent as long as you're comfortable with compounding.
Free Lunch makes Swordmaster the ultimate subjob for casters, but it's not your only option. Conjurer has a number of abilities that help with MP management, and it pairs nicely with jobs other than Summoner. Any casting class works well as a Conjurer subjob, and abilities like Obliterate can make portions of the late game less tedious.
Don't be afraid to test out unusual combinations. I've had a tremendous amount of success with the Vampire/Dark Knight pairing, and a Performer/Freelancer is an absolute blast to play. Some classes work terribly together, but others are far better than you might think.
