I gotta admit, it is working better than I expected it to.That formation was my go-to for the rest of the game when I learned it. It's exceedingly effective in almost all situations, which I think I managed to gauge pretty well in fighting everything I could, including the superbosses.
The next thing I did was investigate the Armed Merchant defection I was told about. This quest went extremely well and I wonder if I was actually overleveled for it? I made it to fight Garon in Nuono via Cliff Chevalier, and there was a "boss" fight of some human enemies, like it played the boss music, but the enemies in that fight were the exact same ones as another human group I just fought. I have thought that some of the encounters in quests are fixed groups, so I'm assuming my battle rank was equivalent to whatever this fixed group is set to.
After that, I investigated the Gemstone Mines because all the miners ran away. At the bottom was a spooky magic crystal, and it had an option of smashing it or not. So I smashed it, then there was another option of picking up the fragments or leaving them there. The Emperor makes a... concerning remark about its remaining magic power, so I'm just like... well ok I'll take it, I guess... hopefully it doesn't drain all my LP over time or something!