The Earth crystal is the last one encountered in the story, and some fairly impressive jobs are a reward for making it this far.
Dragoon
This is one of my favorite classes, but it’s unfortunately the worst of this lot. It’s not bad by any means, but the other 3 are potentially game breaking and Dragoon is just good. Dragoons have their signature !Jump ability as their innate command. The user leaves for a turn before coming down on an enemy, this does double damage if the user is equipped with a spear. They also have !Lance, which steals HP and MP from a given target. Finally, they learn Equip Spears. Sadly, a fiesta class can’t take this and !Jump.
- !Jump is very, very useful to avoid damage if you can time it well. It also has the benefit of ignoring row, so you can have a very survivable dragoon still doing the same damage they would in the front.
- !Lance is based on magic, so it’s more useful on Mage classes than it is on Dragoon. It also helps some of these classes (*cough* Summoner *cough*) with their MP issues.
- Crystal dragons near the end of the game have the Dragon Lance as a rare steal, which is stronger than the Sealed Weapon spear (Holy Lance). Even if you don’t have a thief, you can get this one with the Thief’s Knife.
Samurai
The last of the heavy armor classes, Samurai has a lot going for it. Their innate command is !Zeninage, better known as Gil Toss. This damages all enemies by literally throwing money at them. Their innate passive is Shirahadori, which causes them to sometimes evade melee attacks. They also learn !Mineuchi, which I’ve honestly never found a use for. It’s supposed to paralyze enemies, but it doesn’t thanks to a bug. (I believe the bug is fixed in the Mobile version.) Their final command ability is !Iainuki, which attempts to instantly kill all enemies. Samurais also learn Equip Katanas.
- Zeninage does damage based on your level and the enemy’s defense, with a very large multiplier. The cost is based on your level and the number of enemies. Because most of the damage comes from the multiplier, it’s fairly ineffective against high-defense enemies unless you level like Belghast.
- Most katanas have a decent chance to crit, which deals double damage and ignores defense. The Sealed Weapon katana (Masamune) also causes the holder to always act first in battle and casts haste when used as an item. This alone would make Samurai a top-tier class.
- Iainuki has a base success chance of 85%, but will fail against targets immune to instant death (but not undead). Feel free to perform your Odin impression on as many things as possible.
Chemist
The only thing you need to know about chemist is that it can revive the entire party for 0 MP, and that’s not its strongest ability. Chemists have the innate passive of Pharmacology, which doubles the effect of healing items. Their innate command is !Drink, which allows the user to use the drink items for a variety of buffs. The real power in the class in !Mix, which takes two items in your inventory and produces an effect of some kind. Most of these are fairly defensive, but there are some exceptions. There are effects that can’t be duplicated by any other class available to Chemists this way. Their other commands are !Recover, which casts Esuna on the part for free, and !Revive, which casts Raise on the party for free.
- Keep a mix list handy. There are too many effects here to memorize.
- Chemists are unfortunately not at all gifted offensively. Caster-like commands can make them more useful in random battles, should you choose to fight them.
- A lot of the really good mixes require either a Dragon Fang or a Turtle Shell, both of which are only found from enemy drops. Keep an eye out for sources of these.
Dancer
Dancers have low strength, not great agility, and the worst HP in the game, but they’re the fiesta class most likely to do 9999 physical damage, and their unique equipment includes the best defensive item outside of the bonus dungeon. The Dancer innate command is !Dance, which randomly produces one of 4 effects: an attack for x4 damage, hp drain, mp drain, or confusion. Dancers also have !Flirt, which just attempts to confuse an enemy. The final ability dancers learn is Equip Ribbons, which does what it says. Dancers themselves don’t need this ability to use ribbons.
- While !Dance normally has 4 options, some gear removes the charm in favor of an extra chance to attack. The most useful of these is the Rainbow Dress, because the others cover up a gear slot that could have something more useful in it (like a Ribbon). If you have a thief, you can steal a Lamia’s Tiara (which has this effect) in the floating ruins, well before you’re supposed to have access to it and actually before you even have the dancer job available.
- Ribbons are headgear that grants immunity to most status effects in addition to a large amount of defense. Don’t ask me how a simple ribbon does this, but it makes Equip ribbons one of the best passives in the game.
- As mentioned, Dancers have the worst HP in the game, and unlike Bards and Red Mages, need to be in the front row to deal good damage. The drain dance helps with this a little bit, but expect your dancer to die a lot.
Thanks for sticking with it this long. The Fiesta starts on Monday; I hope you take part. Remember to tweet proof of your victory to @Aggrochat if you finish!
The purpose of the Ninja is to flip out and kill people. The Ninja command is !Throw, which can fling weapons or certain other items (scrolls and shuriken) at enemies. Their innate passives are Dual-Wield and First Strike. Dual-Wield allows holding a weapon in each hand, and it’s another 1/3 of the game’s traditional power combo (Seriously, they made it 
Beastmaster is a class that varies in power depending on where you are in the game. Their innate command is !Catch/Release, which can catch an enemy at low health and later unleash it in battle for an effect. Their other commands are !Calm, which Stops “magical beasts” (but also Omega in most versions, for some reason) and !Control, which takes control of an enemy. Berserk/Confused enemies can’t be controlled, and physical attacks will break it. Berserkers and Beastmasters aren’t exactly friends. Beastmasters also learn Equip Whips.
Bard is a very strong support class, and I’d actually consider it one of the best. Their innate command is !Sing. There are two types of songs: The first (and more common) type has an effect on either all enemies or all allies. The second causes the user to sing continuously, raising the party’s stats until they either die or take a physical attack. They also learn !Hide, which removes the user from battle until you use Reveal. Bards also learn Equip Harps, which is more useful for passing some speed and magic to another class than for actually equipping harps.
Mystic Knight is one of the more unusual jobs in FF5, and it’s one example of a concept that re-appeared in much less powerful forms later in the series. Mystic Knights use their command, !Spellblade, to charge their swords with spells. Elemental spells multiply your physical damage against targets weak to that element, they don’t do anything otherwise. Status spells will always inflict their status on the enemy as long as you hit them and the target isn’t immune. Statuses that can be inflicted with !Spellblade include poison, sleep, silence, and stone (!). Near the end of the game, Flare just provides a large non-elemental damage boost. Mystic Knights also have Magic Shell as an innate passive, which gives them Shell when in critical condition.
How good it is to get Red Mage depends on if you have any of the four classes 
My love for you is like a truck. Berserkers are very straightforward: they hit things. As long as they’re alive, they’ll swing their weapon or fists at anything in front of them, and there’s not much you can do about it. Their innate passive is Berserk, you can’t control them so they have no command. Mastering Berserker grants Equip Axes. It’s not all bad news: Berserkers have high strength and are immune to confusion, It’s just that sometimes they have a tendency to make things unpredictable.
Geomancer varies in quality depending on where you are in the game. Their command, !Gaia, uses a random ability based on the area you’re in and the user’s level, higher levels generally enable more powerful abilities. Some of these are very powerful (Cave In is basically Meteor), but many of the low-level ones are not. Randomness can also make this a bit frustrating. Geomancers have a pair of innate passives: Light Step avoids damage from ground hazards (spikes, lava), and Find Pits causes you to leap back from collapsing floors. A single Geomancer in the party provides these benefits to the party, so there’s not much point in giving these to other classes. As a side note, Geomancer is the fastest class to master.
In the fiesta, White Mage is all about delayed gratification. It does have healing, but one of the things you may learn during the fiesta is that healing is generally less important than making things dead faster so they stop hitting you. Their innate command is !White, which allows casting of white magic. The only other ability they learn is MP +10% when the job is mastered. White magic includes the healing you’d expect, but also a number of useful buffs and status spells. Protect, Shell, and Blink can help you live a little longer. Confuse and Silence can keep enemies from doing much. Near the end of the game, you get access to Holy, which is the strongest single-target damage spell in the game (when cast with the Sage’s Staff).
Black Mages cast the spells that make people fall down. They remain good at this throughout the entire game, but they see large power spikes whenever they get a new spell level (especially the -aga spells). Their innate command is !Black, and they have no innate passive. Their spell list includes 3 levels of Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder spells, along with Drain, Bio, and Flare to round out the damage dealing. They also have a few status spells (Sleep, Poison, Toad) and two ways to cause instant death (Death and Break). Mastering Black Mage earns you MP +30%. I suspect any non-mage job would get more MP from equipping !Black.
Time Mages illustrate that no matter what you’re doing, it’s always better to be able to do it faster. Their command is !Time, which allows casting of Time Magic. Mastering Time Mage grants Equip Rods, which also includes staves. Time Magic is mostly supportive, with a few damage spells thrown in. Haste and Slow are some of the most powerful spells in the game. The Gravity spells mostly don’t work on bosses, but can cripple random encounters. They can do passable damage eventually with Comet, and great damage at endgame with Meteor. Probably their best spell is Quick, which stops time and allows the caster to take 2 actions immediately.
Summoner has a lot of power and utility, but it’s locked up in sidequests. Their command ability is !Summon, which does what you’d expect. Mastering the job gets you !Call, which will use a random summon you’ve learned for no MP cost. The primary effect of most summons is damage, but there are some utility ones: Golem protects the party from physical damage, and Carbuncle casts reflect on all party members. Phoenix does a bit of damage, but also resurrects a party member with full HP and MP. The endgame dragons do quite a lot of damage, but Leviathan lags behind because there’s no way to boost the water element with items.
Master of hitting things with swords, the Knight also has good defense. This is the only fiesta class that can equip Knightswords, which are the strongest weapons near the end of the game. Their innate command, !Guard reduces all physical damage the Knight takes to 0 for a turn. They also have the innate passive Cover, which causes them to take single-target physical attacks directed at low-health teammates. Their most notable other ability is Two-Handed, which allows you to hold a variety of weapons (swords, katanas, axes, and hammers) in two hands, which means you can’t use a shield but attack for roughly double damage. They also have the Equip abilities for shields, armor, and swords, which can be a nice boost for other classes.
In the fiesta, Monk is most notable for tearing the early game to shreds, but falling behind as you get awesome weapons late in the game (unless you level a lot more than is usually necessary). Their innate command, !Kick, is the only one in the game that can’t be given to other jobs. It makes a physical attack on all enemies (ignoring row if you’re playing the mobile version). They have the innate passive of Counter, which causes them to sometimes attack enemies that hit them with physical attacks. Monks can also learn other commands: !Chakra gives a small heal that also cures poison and blind, and !Focus causes the character to charge for a turn before striking for double damage. Finishing off the class gives you a set of HP+ abilities, finishing with HP +30%. Monks already have a lot of HP, but this can be a big help to classes that have unfortunate HP situations, like Bard, Dancer, and Red Mage.
Thief isn’t the strongest class in the game, but it does have a lot going for it. Their most notable feature is their innate command, !Steal, which does what you’d expect. It’s useful for healing items, money-making, and access to a variety of equipment that’s difficult or impossible to get otherwise. They have multiple innate passives: Sprint speeds up movement, Vigilance entirely prevents back attacks, and Find Passages shows hidden passages. Their other learned commands are !Mug, which steals along with an attack, and !Flee, which will instantly run from any battle where you could run normally. Sadly there’s not much here for other classes, as you get the full benefits of all of the thief’s passives with a single thief in the party. The only exception is Artful Dodger, which can grant the thief’s agility (which is the highest in the game) to whoever you equip it on.
Blue Magic is one of the best all-around toolboxes in the game, with the obvious downside of having to learn your abilities from enemies. Their innate command is !Blue, which allows casting any blue magic learned by the party. Their innate passive is Learning. As long as a character with Learning is affected by a Blue Magic spell, it will be learned when you win the battle (the character in question does not need to be alive). The other blue magic abilities are !Check, which shows enemy HP, and !Scan, which also shows level, weaknesses, and any status effects. Notable Blue magic spells include the Aero series (damage spells), Vampire (hp absorb based on caster’s missing health), White Wind (party heal based on caster’s current health), Death Claw (reduces an enemy to single-digit HP and causes paralysis), and Level 5 Death (kills all enemies with a level divisible by 5). This is one of my favorite classes in the game.
