Alright, fellow adventurer! You’ve stumbled upon a truly epic quest with Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past (often referred to as the 3DS “reimagined” version), and your inquiry about the best vocations is a wise one. This game’s vocation system is incredibly deep, offering immense customization and strategic depth. Let’s dive into optimizing your party for maximum monster-mashing efficiency and ultimate boss-bashing glory!

### Understanding the Vocation System in DQ7 (3DS)

Before we talk “best,” it’s crucial to understand how vocations work:

* **Mastery:** Characters gain “Vocation Ranks” by winning battles. The more battles you win in a specific vocation, the more skills and spells you learn, and the closer you get to mastering it.
* **Stat Changes:** Each vocation comes with stat modifiers. Some boost strength, others magic, agility, or resilience. These changes are temporary while in the vocation, but learned skills and spells are permanent.
* **Advanced Vocations:** Mastering certain basic vocations unlocks more powerful intermediate and advanced vocations. For example, mastering a Warrior and a Martial Artist unlocks the Gladiator.
* **Hybrid Skills:** Some of the most potent abilities come from mastering multiple vocations, allowing you to combine skills from different trees.
* **Monster Vocations:** Later in the game, you can also unlock monster vocations, which offer unique and often very powerful abilities.

### General Strategy for Vocation Progression

Instead of a single “best” vocation, think about “best paths” and “best combinations” for each character based on their natural aptitudes and your desired party role:

1. **Early Game Focus (Basic Vocations):** Start by mastering the basic vocations that align with your character’s natural stats. Everyone should spend time in vocations that teach essential healing, support, and offensive spells/skills.
2. **Intermediate Game (Unlocking Advanced):** Once you’ve mastered a few basics, aim to unlock intermediate vocations. These offer significant power spikes.
3. **Late Game (Mastering Advanced & Monster):** This is where you refine your builds, master the most powerful human vocations, and potentially delve into monster vocations for ultimate abilities.
4. **The “Jack of All Trades” Trap:** While tempting to try everything, it’s often more efficient to focus on mastering a few core vocations that synergize well, rather than spreading your experience too thin.

### Top-Tier Human Vocations and Paths

Here’s a breakdown of some of the most highly regarded vocations and recommended paths for your heroes, keeping in mind that the 3DS version balances things quite well:

#### 1. The Hero (Main Character)

Your protagonist is incredibly versatile and can excel in almost any role, but often shines as a hybrid attacker/support or a powerful damage dealer.

* **Recommended Path:**
* **Warrior** (for HP/STR boosts and cutting skills) + **Martial Artist** (for agility, criticals, and multi-hit skills) → **Gladiator** (massive physical damage, excellent offensive skills like Falcon Slash and Blade of Ultimate Power).
* From Gladiator, consider branching into:
* **Champion** (master Gladiator + Paladin) for even more raw power and some defensive utility.
* **Hero** (master Champion + Sage/Luminary) – The ultimate vocation, offering incredible stats, access to Omniheal, and powerful unique skills. This is usually your late-game goal.
* **Why this path?** It builds a strong physical foundation, leading to the game’s best physical attacker (Gladiator/Champion) and eventually the all-powerful Hero.

#### 2. Maribel (Mage/Support)

Maribel is your quintessential black mage, excelling in offensive magic and later, powerful healing/support.

* **Recommended Path:**
* **Mage** (essential offensive spells like Frizz, Sizz, Bang) + **Priest** (healing, buffs like Oomph, Midheal, Multiheal) → **Sage** (the ultimate magic user, combining offensive and healing spells, access to Omniheal, Kazap, Kafrizzle).
* From Sage, consider:
* **Luminary** (master Dancer + Troubadour + Gadabout) – While not directly magic-focused, Luminary offers some great support spells and abilities like Hustle Dance (free Multiheal) and can be a good stepping stone for the Hero vocation if you want to diversify.
* **Druid** (master Mage + Shepherd + Sailor) – A fantastic alternative to Sage, offering powerful elemental spells and some unique utility.
* **Why this path?** Maximizes her natural magical aptitude, making her an indispensable damage dealer and eventually a primary healer/buffer.

#### 3. Ruff (Physical Attacker/Scout)

Ruff is naturally agile and strong, making him an excellent physical damage dealer, especially with multi-hit attacks.

* **Recommended Path:**
* **Martial Artist** (agility, criticals, multi-hit skills like Multithrust) + **Thief** (agility, stealing, useful field skills) → **Gladiator** (for raw damage and powerful attack skills).
* From Gladiator, consider:
* **Champion** (master Gladiator + Paladin) – Further enhances his physical prowess.
* **Paladin** (master Warrior + Priest) – If you want him to have some defensive utility and healing capabilities, though Gladiator/Champion is usually preferred for his damage output.
* **Why this path?** Builds on his high agility and strength to make him a consistent and hard-hitting physical attacker. Thief skills are also invaluable for item farming.

#### 4. Aishe (Versatile Physical/Support)

Aishe joins later and has good all-around stats, making her flexible. She can be a secondary attacker, a strong Paladin, or even a Luminary.

* **Recommended Path (Option 1: Paladin/Support):**
* **Warrior** (HP/STR) + **Priest** (healing/buffs) → **Paladin** (excellent defensive skills like Forbearance, powerful healing, and decent attack).
* From Paladin, consider:
* **Champion** (master Gladiator + Paladin) – If you want her to transition into a powerful physical attacker later.
* **Hero** (master Champion + Sage/Luminary) – If you aim for a second Hero in your party.
* **Recommended Path (Option 2: Luminary/Support):**
* **Dancer** (agility, evasion, Hustle Dance) + **Troubadour** (support spells, buffs) → **Luminary** (fantastic group healing with Hustle Dance, good support, decent attack).
* **Why these paths?** Aishe excels in roles that combine offense with defense or support. Paladin makes her a fantastic tank and secondary healer, while Luminary provides invaluable group healing without MP cost.

### Key Skills and Spells to Look For

Regardless of the specific vocation, here are some universally useful skills and spells you’ll want to acquire:

* **Offensive:**
* **Falcon Slash** (Gladiator): Two hits at 75% power each, effectively 150% damage. Incredible!
* **Blade of Ultimate Power** (Gladiator): Massive single-target damage.
* **Multithrust/Multifists** (Martial Artist/Gladiator): Multiple hits on random enemies. Great for groups.
* **Kafrizzle/Kazap** (Sage/Druid): Top-tier single-target and area-of-effect elemental spells.
* **Gigagash/Gigacross** (Hero/Champion): Powerful lightning/holy attacks.
* **Healing & Support:**
* **Multiheal/Omniheal** (Priest/Sage/Hero): Essential group healing. Omniheal fully restores HP!
* **Hustle Dance** (Luminary): Free group healing, equivalent to Multiheal. Invaluable!
* **Oomph** (Priest/Sage): Doubles an ally’s attack power. Crucial for boss fights.
* **Insulatle** (Priest/Sage): Reduces breath damage for the party.
* **Forbearance** (Paladin): Protects allies by taking all single-target attacks for one turn.
* **War Cry** (Warrior): Stuns enemies.
* **Whistle** (Shepherd/Thief): Calls monsters to you for faster grinding.
* **Utility:**
* **Steal/Klepto Clobber** (Thief): For item farming.
* **Padfoot** (Thief): Reduces encounter rate.
* **Zoom/Evac/Safe Passage** (Priest/Sailor/Shepherd): Essential travel spells.

### Monster Vocations: The Ultimate Power-Up (Late Game)

Once you gain access to monster hearts, a whole new world of power opens up. Monster vocations are often *more powerful* than human vocations in terms of raw stats and unique abilities.

* **Key Monster Vocations to Aim For:**
* **Liquid Metal Slime:** Unlocks incredible resilience and evasion, along with powerful spells. Mastering this makes a character almost invincible.
* **Platinum King Jewel:** Similar to Liquid Metal Slime, offering immense defensive stats.
* **Golem:** High HP and strength, good for a tank/physical attacker.
* **Slime:** A surprisingly good early monster vocation for some useful skills.
* **Drakon:** Strong physical attacks and breath attacks.

* **Strategy for Monster Vocations:**
* Don’t rush them. They require rare monster hearts.
* Focus on getting one or two characters into a powerful monster vocation (like Liquid Metal Slime) for ultimate defense or offense.
* Remember that mastering a monster vocation often requires a specific number of hearts, not just battles.

### Humorously Nudging You to More Gaming!

Whew, that was a lot of info, wasn’t it? But that’s the kind of depth Dragon Quest VII offers! Now that you’re armed with this vocational wisdom, you’re practically a master adventurer already.

Speaking of adventures, are you perhaps wondering about the optimal party setup for tackling the post-game content in DQ7, or maybe some legendary equipment locations? Or perhaps you’re curious about the best way to grind vocation ranks without losing your mind? Don’t be shy, GameJinn is always ready to talk more games! What’s your next move, hero?