The melee DPS jobs of the Bravely Default series are some of the most historically overpowered classes in any JRPG. By chaining attacks through the Brave mechanic, and maximizing your critical hit chance, there are tons of classes that can absolutely dominate any opponent, regardless of their weaknesses or resistances.
Not every one of these classes can crush your opponents easily in Bravely Default 2, as many of the game’s classic roles have been changed to become slightly less dominant than their counterparts. Nonetheless, there are still several of these classes that you’ll find immediate success with, whether it’s your first playthrough or your next attempt on Hard difficulty.
10 Thief
Easily the most underwhelming class of the game has to be the Thief, a dexterous job that specializes in daggers and has several powers to steal from foes. These can range anywhere from random items to BP, but outside of farming random mobs it’s rarely useful to have a Thief by your side.
The few damage moves it has are quite solid, particularly the Godspeed Strike that deals damage based on the user’s high speed stat. Unfortunately, unless you desperately want some high-cost attacks that deal some wind damage, you’re not going to feel satisfied running into a boss with this job on your team.
9 Beastmaster
Beastmaster isn’t inherently bad when it comes to dealing damage, but its gimmick of capturing monsters can often be more effort than it’s worth. Capturing beasts will let you inflict them on others, and having more in your inventory can even raise your offensive stats once you’ve maxed out the job’s levels.
Capturing them can be quite difficult, though, as you need to hit them down to low health first. Moves like Mercy Smash are quite nice against bosses since the inability to kill isn’t a huge downside until the last attack, but you’re better off spending your time leveling up than catching monsters.
8 Monk
Monks are the introductory melee DPS class, and as a result are pretty dull by most standards. The greatest highlights are the Qigong Wave and Pressure Point moves, which strikes through a Default state and can be a huge boon against defensive foes.
Broadly speaking, though, there’s not a whole lot that Monks can do that your other job classes can’t do better. Even its special ability to use your unarmed fists is relatively pointless, since you still won’t get anywhere near as many general stats without something in your hands.
7 Ranger
Rangers are where the game’s melee DPS jobs start to turn around, being significantly more powerful against most foes in the game. You’ll need to level it up quite high to get all the species-based special strikes, but each of these is often capable of killing random enemies in a single hit.
Once you get Humanoid Slayer, this is also a perfect tool for bosses as the mana cost isn’t too high compared to the damage it can deal. If you want to use a bow on a party member, this is the perfect class to choose.
6 Swordmaster
Swordmasters have gotten a huge aesthetic change since the Nintendo 3DS games, now acting as noble heroes more than traditional samurai. Functionally, though, it works quite similar by putting yourself into stances that can counter enemy attacks and improve your standard Attack command.
It also functions as a sort of off-tank, with a few powers that let you draw in your opponent’s moves to allow you to counter them. Nonetheless, it works quite well as a general offensive sword-user if you’re uninterested in the spear and axe classes yet to come.
5 Bravebearer
One of the final classes in the game is the Bravebearer, a required additional side quest you must obtain in order to get the game’s true ending. This is a much more mechanically unique class compared to the rest of the series, being entirely built around spending and manipulating BP in most of its moves.
This makes it exceptionally unique, but it isn’t necessarily more powerful than the strongest DPS classes in the game. It can be used in strange ways to take advantage of your opponents, but for the most part is too complicated to be powerful in the hands of most players.
4 Dragoon
The classic JRPG class Dragoon strives in every way that the Thief suffers in. This classic character job has some immense speed and damage, with some causing you and your allies to jump in the air and avoid attacks for a turn before striking down from above.
It even has some of the Monk-style moves that can penetrate Default defenses, making for an absurd amount of damage regardless of your opponent’s strategies. Simply put, the Dragoon does everything that the less stellar classes do, but with way more efficient stats and wider utility.
3 Phantom
It seems fitting that two of the strongest melee DPS classes are unlocked near the end of the game, as both of them are substantially more powerful than most of your tools early on. Phantom is the first of these, being a more dexterous fighter with a massive critical hit rate and impressive repeatable attacks.
Most players will just want to raise this job for the passive attribute at level eleven, where you can dual wield weapons without losing either weapon’s strength. However, just sticking to this powerfully aggressive class will give you all kinds of tools to defeat opponents quickly and painfully.
2 Hellblade
While not the strongest class in the game, the Hellblade job is absolutely deadly, both in the hands of the game’s main antagonist and even more in yours. This class is extremely similar to the Vampire and Dark Knight classes of the original game, sacrificing your health to deal absurd intervals of damage to your foes.
Even greater is the final passive attribute you unlock with it, which can push your attacks beyond the normal limit of 9999. This opens the door immensely as any DPS class, but the Hellblade job it comes from can make use of this passive even more significantly than most others.
1 Berserker
The final melee DPS job worth mentioning is the absurdly powerful Berserker class, an early job in the game that can immediately deal far more damage than anything else for quite a long while. One of the attacks you get is quite literally a double damage swing of your weapon on a single target, but others like the Level Slash will single-handedly kill most random battle mobs.
This job class has some enrage mechanics where you enter a berserk mode, but it’s hard to justify it compared to the incredible abilities you can use. It’s extremely simple, but that simplicity makes it easy for players of all skill levels to blast through any opponent’s health meter.
