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[KMFDM_Kid2000]

Well, a balanced Final Fantasy party is always important. Some of the games allow your "Heavy Hitters" to use magic as well as hard hitting attacks. But one must always remember, you'll not get far without balancing in some magic users. True that, USUALLY, their normal attacks suck, but there's no better joy than to fry an entire enemy party with a well placed fire 3 spell. Normally, an enemy party of 5 creatures would take at least 5 tedious rounds of attack. With a well developed mage, you'll end it before they can even blink...

White mages are also very useful, in that their healing powers are vital if you intend on surviving, and not going broke buying potions & healing items. Inns are few & far between, as are dungeon save points, which you'd still need something of a tent to use at anyway...

Never underestimate the importance of a well balanced party, it could mean the difference between your survival or death in any given Final Fantasy situation...

[IcyMourdor]

Actually, I prefer to have more mages than i do tanks. Magic is always helpful to have and it is very easy to restore.

The balanced party is nice to have. A party of Cloud, Barret, and Cid is nice to have for physical, but all don't have the Magic and Spirit that Vincent or Aeris have.

[Sword 4 Hire]

I actually prefer heavy hitters who'll take out one or more enemies with a single attack. There's nothing more gratifying to me than to watch my leveled up Auron slice through enemies with ease. Sure spells can probably do the job quicker but then you have to worry about MP and wasting time healing your characters in the process of a boss battle. I don't know if my character selections are the best but they've seemed to work for me thus far...

[Frozen]

I actually love both. As S4H said, nothing so gratyfing as to see Auron kill those losers just with one single swing of his gigantic sword...... but then again is so badass to do the same thing to the whole party with either Yuna or Lulu.....

But no one defeats Cloud when equipped the Slash-all materia. 9999 damage to all enemies with one single hit. Plus the evade materia and the counter attack materia, linked as well to the guard materia: there were some battles that I did not even touch a button as the enemies would attack so fast, but then Cloud would guard his friends, evade the enemi's attack, counter attack, and finish them all without letting me input any commands

[happy_doughnut]

Yeah, having a balanced team is good. However, I prefer having heavy hitters, too. In most FF's ( with the exception of 8 ) you use MP. If you run out of MP and are only left with the magicians... you're gonna die, buddy. Since mages also have a tendency to have a very low HP... well, they're only useful when healthy.

I dunno, I don't rely on magic much. I just rather level up and swipe 'em with the swords or gun . I just find it easier, faster, and better.

So, yeah. Mages are good for the back row... mainly as healers. Other than that, I can manage.