FF6 - Brave New World

@craud Personally, I saw Shadow as a really good damage dealer who costed a lot to fund. Once you have the money to throw Ninjatos, he becomes one of the fastest damage dealers available. All my characters were around level 30 in Kefka's Tower, and he was dealing about 4K per turn. Strago and Cyan were dealing comparable damage for me (although Strago was dealing it to all enemies), but the difference was that Shadow could take 2-3 turns for every turn of theirs. Before I could pay for him, he was mediocre, but afterwards, I found him to be really good.

As for upgrading Dispatch, if you're on the fence, then I'd say it's not necessary. I found Cyan extremely valuable at that point in the game, and he wasn't lagging behind the others at all. It was only after Dispatch's usefulness began to slow down that I found him falling back a bit.