Early on, levelling up a role gives you new abilities. And all level ups, regardless of role, give you attribute increases (which are somewhat related to the role you chose). But once I stop getting new abilities, what is the difference between being a level 60 Ravager and a level 70 Ravager? Does my level affect the effectiveness of skills, separate from my overall attack/magic attributes? Does it affect the bonus that other party members get based on my chosen role?
The direct benefit of levelling up a role
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I can tell you now there isn't a clear-cut winner for each role. But there are definitely monsters that excel more than others in their roles. Here's a list with some great monsters and why (this is partially taken from the official guide and partially my own experience):
Commandos:
Chichu: Has very high strength stats and the valuable armor breaker and various "feeder" abilities.
Dragoon: According to the guide the most cost effective monster (easy to max out and has some great abilities like Feral Speed 2, ATB charge 2, and Armor Breaker).
Red/Golden Chocobo: Both have excellent potential but it would be wise to infuse them with pack mentality.
Tonberry / Don Tonberry: They are amazing all-around Commandos but Tonberry is probably a bit better seeing as Don Tonberry continually has poison on him.
Twilight Odin: Probably the most lopsided in stat growth and incredibly expensive to max out. However, once you do max him out his stats are almost peerless and he is one of the few monsters capable of a full ATB gauge of six elements.
Ravagers:
Buccaboo: Great early peaker that is recruitable early game and the cheapest source of Gilfinder 2.
Apotamkin: It's an early peaker with fairly high stats and has access to all elemental spells of the first two tiers and all physical strikes as well. Although the monster only has a 2% chance of being recruited.
Blue Chocobo: Is the best choice for an ultimate all-around Ravager. Although you should try to infuse elemental spells that it does not learn naturally and infuse it with useful passives.
Sentinels:
Pulse Knight: As an early game Sentinel it's the best and easy to max out. It also boasts the +25% HP passive which you can later infuse into another Sentinel.
Bunkerbeast: Is a good choice for a long-term investment. It learns Challenge early on and boasts a massive HP pool (8000-ish). The only downside is that he doesn't learn Mediguard but you can infuse that ability.
Silver Chocobo: Offers final stats similar to Bunkerbeast but at a lower cost. It's also the best chocobo to race with in Serendipity.
Saboteurs:
- Black Chocobo, Chelicerata, Necrosis, or Dendrobium. The first three have the improved debuffing passive. Dendrobium is a cheaper alternative and in all other ways just as viable.
Synergists:
Amanojake: Notable only for infusion fodder learning all three of the en- spells which have high damage boosting potential.
Gahongas: Earliest monster you will encounter that has both Bravery and Faith although you might be struggling to maintain its development.
Yakshini: One of the better choices as your main offensive Synergist for a large portion of the game. It's fairly cheap to develop, relatively durable, and built for offense.
Purple Chocobo: Best choice for a level 99 Synergist but given the advantages of narrow specialization you may wish to keep other Synergists as well.
Medics:
Caterchipillar: Only natural bearer of the passive skill Resist Elements +30% and therefore makes for good infusion fodder.
Flanitor: Probably the most accessible source of both Cura and Esunada and learns Improved Cure 2.
Green Chocobo: Best candidate for a level 99 Medic: just be sure you infuse Esuna and Esunada from a Flanitor.
There are two versions of the Coliseum: one to the far left of the Historia Crux and one that appears in line with the main story gates.
Far left Coliseum
This is used for DLC. Periodically, Square-Enix releases an opponent you can face in the Coliseum which allows you to collect their monster crystal. Currently, you can face the following opponents:
- Omega
- Lightning & Amodar
- Nabaat
- Ultros & Typhon
- Gilgamesh
- PuPu
- Snow
- Valfodr
Main story Coliseum
You take a short detour here to collect a fragment as part of the events that occur in Episode 3, Part II. While there, you can collect a number of treasure spheres.
Best Answer
Once you get all the abilities for a role and the relevant expansion bonuses (bonus boosts, in particular), there is no effectiveness increase for role level gains outside of stat increases.
While you get small increases to stats no matter what node you choose, the main benefit to leveling up a role once you get all of its abilities is the bonus to your attributes you get when you level up on a large node:
If you wanted to min-max, you'd only level up your primary roles that correspond to the stats you want to maximize on large nodes, and leave the small nodes for the roles you don't care about. This should wind up providing a mostly-even leveling experience across all roles, mitigating the "nothing left to get" problem you have by focusing on only one role at a time, at least until the late end-game.