I've been using lightning, vanille, and hope. Two of the most hated chars in my party and i don't know why they're so hated...sentinel is probably my least used class so i have lightning specced a little bit into it, i use hope for synergist/medic/ravager, and vanille for medic/sab/rav, and lightning for rav/commando mostly. I throw in another character here in there for the fights i need a good sentinel in but this party has really worked out for me so far. So guys what have you been using, and what  chapter are you on in gran pulse.

Lightning - Rav / Com / Med
Fang - Com / Syn / Sen
Vanille - Rav / Sab / Med
 
Only problem is that since fang picked up synergist from scratch, her stats are quite far behind the other 2. Trying to grind her up abit doing the missions on gran pulse.

I can kick ass with any setup, did a fight that the game deemed 15mins was the target and it took me 41 seconds. Fail.

Please explain why hope is hated i liked his character more then vanille actually, he's not whiny he's just a kid who doesn't fit in.

" I can kick ass with any setup, did a fight that the game deemed 15mins was the target and it took me 41 seconds. Fail. "

Lightning, Vanille, Fang most of the time. 
 
Sometimes Snow gets put in in place of Fang, or Sazh will get put in.   
Most of the time I am using Rav/Rav/Com, but other favourites include Rav/Com/Med (for when I want to keep pressure on and still heal), Com/Sen/Med (When I just got rocked and need to recover), and Rav/Com/Sab (Probably my favourite combo actually).

Lightning, Snow, and Vanille.  Hope dies too quickly so having him as a medic is not wise unless you beef him up first.
 
Lightning is a combination of COM, RAV, and MED when necessary.  Snow is COM first, when enemy needs to be staggered then switch to RAV, when party needs to be healed switch to SEN.  Vanille is my enemy de-buffer and healer plus Ravager.

Worth noting to read the little blurb about each paradigm as well, they describe the AI actions.  While they are usually obvious (Com/Rav/Med, the Com and Rav hit one target while Med heals, obviously) sometimes they may not be quite as obvious and you can use them specifically for the AI (Com/Com/Rav for instance, the two coms will attack two different targets, and the rav will assist one.  This makes Com/Com/Rav AMAZING for using with pre-emptive strikes.  Your second com will keep other enemies on the verge of stagger while your com/rav combo kill one of them)

Lightning/Sazh/Hope for the most part.  Hope is getting to the point where he'll get offensive buffs as well though.  Might switch Sazh out for vanille once he gets haste.

Lightning/Snow/Hope. For paradigms I mostly roll with: 
  
Com/Sen/Syn (usually only gets use on bosses and tougher mobs)
(default) Com/Com/Rav (like Addfwyn said absolutely needed for pre-emptive strikes since some battles can last less than 10 seconds with it)
Rav/Com/Rav (excellent for building up the stagger meter insanely fast)
Rav/Com/Med (useful when enemies aren't hitting very hard and I want to keep up damage while topping off my parties hp)
Com/Sen/Med ("oh shit" button)
Com/Sen/Rav (For when there is a lot of enemies but they aren't hitting especially hard, can usually self heal through it as Com/Rav picks off stuff.
 
I (obviously) lack a Sab but that will change once I begin "endgame", as for the main story stuff it doesn't get in the way of anything. Though I do change it from time to time if a boss requires a unique combo that helps me. I plan to replace Hope with Sazh when I get his medic skills high enough since he is my favorite character, though I really like Hope now and change is hard.

I use the kid with the spikey hair, the pretty girl, the dude/girl(can't tell really), and the gratuitous 10-13 year old boy that is put in their because the developers are closet pedophiles.

It's amazing to see how many people use different combinations of classes and characters, had no clue it was this diverse...i thought that there was only one obvious choice to switch to when you want to build chain,and then switch back too to keep the chain gauge from dropping. Obviously have been proven wrong.

The official guide says the best party to use is Lightning/Fang/Hope, but when I get there I think I'm going to use Lightning/Snow/Vanille

I use Lightning/Snow/Hope mostly. com/rav/rav to get the combo to drain slowly, rav/rav/rav to stagger, com/com/rav to finish, switching to com/rav/med when necessary, a com/med/syn for bosses and a com/sen/med for overwhelming damage. The star rating seems to not be based on completion time rather than how much dps you've done in that time, so playing risky and offensive is generally the way to go. Three ravs with overwhelm build stagger like it's nothing.

" @Nekrosis:  nerd rage lol, you can't help being fail its ok we will all still love you when your done crying. "

Sazh/Lightning/Snow
 
Sazh is party leader and Lightning is on heals with a Lifesword. Snow usually acts as sentinel.  It's a very agressive set-up.

" rav/rav/rav to stagger "

I'm using Lightning/Sazh/Vanille for the majority of fights, starting out with com/syn/med untill buffs are up followed by com/rav/med followed by com/rav/rav after I've staggered whatever I'm fighting, I've also got Vanille specced out as a sab, so I'll change Lightning to the med when I need debuffs up.
 
I've not tried using a sen yet, I'm not sure how much this is hurting me but I've managed to just scrape through most of the harder fights without one so far. I find I often have to keep a med in the paradigm or I'm in danger of getting 2 shot, I'm likely playing it wrong though!

I'll work on it, it's something I wanted to do for the longest time but I couldn't ever get it to work well enough. Hopefully I will be able to in the future.

I looked like a  geisha last night
 

" @Phaseshift said:

" @Nekrosis:  nerd rage lol, you can't help being fail its ok we will all still love you when your done crying. "

He's sort of right, though, the only fights that are estimated to take that long are Eidolon fights and majorly hard bosses which you can't beat in under a minute just because they have so much HP.  Not that it really matters or anything, just thought I'd mention that. "

Recently switched my party makeup to Light/Fang/Hope, Comm/comm/rav, combat clinic, rav/com/rav, and a few others that i don't use as much except maybe comm/sab/syn...suggestions would be helpful considering i'm on chapter 13 and it's kind of hard:P

i use fang, light, and hope
fang for her eidolon and saboteur and sommando
light for commando and ravager sometimes
hope for ravager and synergist, even though he has little bit health
why do people hate hope, hes cool?

I've been experimenting around a lot with different party makeups. I think Sazh will probably be the character I keep around the most, because with the speed of battles, Haste is incredibly useful. So far my favorite party has been Lightning/Sazh/Vanille, but I'm trying to mix it up some. Vanille seems like the best debuffer, especially with Belladonna Wand equipped. Fang is also pretty useful since she has some good debuffing (especially Slow) and can be a Sentinel and Commando.
 
I don't think I could ever stick to just one party, because each character seems to have their uses.

Sazh/Hope/Fang

I got bored and switched to lightning/hope/fang

Then again lightning/hope/vanille for bosses that only do aoe attacks.

I had Fang, Shaz and Vanille.  I control Fang because of Bahamut.

Starting a battle: Fang was a COM, Shaz was a SYN and Vanille was a SAB, so Fang ruined the enemies with Blitz and Ruinga whilst Shaz and Vanille made it easier for me to ruin the enemies. By the end of some battles Fang was getting 30k - 50k hits (on staggered enemies). I didn't have to change paradigms and every battle lasted less than a minute. This may not work for boss battles, but at this moment in time I am grinding so it doesn't really matter. Also if healing is needed, I have a SEN / MED / MED paradigm.
 
I then changed my team because Fang had more strength than Shaz's strength and magic put together, and now I have Fang, Lightning and Vanille. But with Lightning's lack of buffing skills I may have too bring back Shaz until Lightning's SYN class is good enough.

Right now for me, I'm using Snow/Vanille/Hope.  Snow's massive health pool makes me feel a little safer about letting him be the party leader, and I have to have 2 good medics, and I have to have a good saboteur and synergist.  I suppose Fang or Lightning could maybe work as the leader though, and maybe when I get to the next Crystarium stage, there will be enough skills in off spec trees to use someone else.  (Or Hope will learn Haste, and Vanille will learn Slow, and then I'm good either way)
 
Current Paradigms:
Default: Ruthless Com/Sab/Rav - Good way to start a simple battle.  After Vanille stops casting debuffs, switch to one of the other offensive sets, unless I need something else.
Tri-Disaster Rav/Rav/Rav - Fills up the combo gauge in a hurry.  Doesn't matter that Snow's bad at magic, because he has the elemental strikes.
Relentless Assault Com/Rav/Rav - Everyone has to have this.
Discretion  Com/Med/Med - I usually just hit this in quick bursts to pick up healing.  Not Sen/Med/Med because I need to keep the chain gauge up while I do this.
Bully  Com/Sab/Syn - Usually start here for long/boss fights.
Protection  Sen/Med/Syn - In case of emergency.  Gets used in boss fights to turtle and then turn the tables.  Usually lose my chain while doing this though.
 
If I had some more room, I'd want to throw in a Sen/Med/Med, and a Com/Rav/Syn.  But you only get 6.  :(

" I thought Hope was a great character, actually.  Anyway, my most used party is Lightning, Fang and Hope, though I do play around with different setups often. "