While there is no “character tier list” for SINoALICE, there is a little more depth to the game’s systems than picking your favourite character and running with it. In this case, it is a weapon grid, two words that surely strike fear into the hearts of seasoned Granblue players.
Characters have pretty similar builds and bonuses, with the difference being the characters and the weapon that comes with the job/class. Bonuses are also roughly similar, once again differing with type of class. Getting more types of a character will add more bonuses to them, as well as the weapon types that fit the class. For classes that have a specific weapon bonus, you would then want to fill their grid with that weapon type to have them be stronger.
Thus, the most important thing will be checking the bonuses that comes with a class. As an example, Sin Classes will have bonuses for the element they are attuned to, while reducing the power of weapons that are not the same element. Likewise, Half-Nightmare classes have weapon specialty bonuses/demerits, once they arrive to the global server.
Weapon rarity ranks go from A > S > SS > L. A to SS rarity weapons are obtainable from gacha, with SS weapons able to be upgraded into L using materials. If you see the empty Spade icon, then the weapon can be upgraded into a higher rarity. The Diamonds indicate how many times it’s been merged (limit breaking). You can start out with the A weapons since they’re easier to obtain and work on maxing out the Colosseum skills.
Classes like Clerics are good to level up to obtain defense bonuses. Sorcerers and Minstrels provide more attack focused bonuses. Always level up any classes you have to obtain said bonuses and stats. Classes will have bonuses that apply to the class in general, and the specific character for which you have the class for. Naturally, using another character will have you lose the character specific bonuses, but so long you have the class bonuses they’ll do fine.
A-rank weapons can start being fodder once you start merging up S-rank weapons, until you have a full grid of SS-rank weapons. Events will be the easiest way to obtain fodder, but don’t start out right away with SS-rank weapons in your grid, the familiar gradual grind…
While there are paid classes, they are considered more cosmetic, as the ones you can save up normally to get are entirely viable for the game.
In any case, good luck with your journey through the Library, and let the terror wash over you…