Final Fantasy XII had a unique system for fighting called the Gambit system. Basically, you control how your fighters react in battle and what they prioritize based on what, where, and how you select. A good Gambit set up can be the difference between an easy run through and one where you are constantly struggling. Here’s what I can give for tips!
Have your White Mage have status ailment and healing gambits at the very top
With Warmage license in the License board, your characters earn mana by attacking. Making it so your White Mage is getting plentiful mana is gong to be a key factor going into the bigger fights. Having your White Mage attack is a sound strategy for ensuring this, but make sure they’re still doing what their job is – healing!
Personally, I have my gambits set up in this hierarchy:
- Charge to get MP only if below 10%
- Cura when characters get below 60% health
- Cure status ailments (starting with the most debilitating first like stone)
- Attack party leaders target
That way, the character that is most needed to be topped up stays at tip top shape throughout the fight!
Select your ‘kill things fast’ character
Your ‘kill things fast’ character is going to have a different gambit system than the rest and you do not want them as your main player. This character will prioritize anything that is low on health and deliver the final blow. Many times this character is also the one that has steal/poach so they become a jack of most trades.
This is the hierarchy I have for this character:
- Enemy = HP critical Poach (I’ll toggle this one on and off based on the loot I’m trying to get and the enemy’s immunity)
- Enemy lowest HP – Attack
- Enemy closest – Attack
This makes it so that no matter what, the character will always focus on finishing off whatever enemy is closest to dying as a main priority
Pick your range warrior
Your ranger can be either by magic or by the range weapons in the game. This range person I always have picking down the enemies who are the highest HP and focusing on flying targets first. They’re also good to have with buffing/debuffing magic as well because of their ability to stay in the back away from the danger.
Here is my hierarchy for this slot:
- Enemy = flying Attack
- Enemy targeting self Attack
- Enemy hp highest Attack
In this set, you’ll notice that I have targeting self above HP highest. This is so that once the health of the monster attacking you dips into the range that the kill things faster character gets involved you can typically switch. Your range is typically a glass cannon, so getting it free to do what it does while taking no damage is key.
You’ll also probably see I don’t put any gambits for the debuffs I mentioned. This is purposeful because of the wide array of immunities. It’s possible for something to be super susceptible to blind, but another fiend it always spawns with is immune to it. Manually doing these is better than having it go at random.
Find your tank and make it stay still.
Your tank is someone who takes all the damage and when the smoke clears laughs at your feeble attempts. They are not the biggest dps nor are they going to have any sort of remarkable gambits for it.
My tank has a set of gambits like follows:
- Self – Bubble
- Self – Lure
- Self – Libra
- Enemy closest – attack
Having bubble and lure auto being enabled on your tank is super important especially for going forward into the unknown where you don’t want to die. Just kinda important here. Also, keeping libra on your tank helps you see any sort of traps so you can lead the mess of enemies now out for your blood away from something that would turn the tide out of your favor.
Two left, what to do?
We’ve covered 4 out of 6 in terms of characters. The last two are kind of users choice. Based on your above decisions you could have a ranger be your magic caster, or you can have a grand master of all things wizardry and have your ranger be an archer. The final two is kind of users choice.
My final two are a grand master of magic and a sabteur. My grand master has almost every spell while my sabteur has almost everything that’s debilitating that can be cast on the enemy. Other’s I’ve played around with are the assassin with incredibly fast speed, but shockingly low health, or the item master who has higher poach, stealing, and all perks for items including more health and better remedies.
The biggest thing is that they fit your style and your play ability. Choosing a hard combination can be the tipper for great success or crushing defeat. If you find you don’t need someone to go around killing things fast, improvise! If you find having your white mage also be your archer is a good medium, adapt! This is all in finding what works for you and what can lead to your success in the game.
