How to Use the Saboteur Role in Final Fantasy XIII

Similar to the job system of Final Fantasy X-2 and Fortnite, the combat system of Final Fantasy XIII assigns roles to each character that can be changed during combat. Apparently borrowing the concept of combat roles popularized by tabletop role-playing games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games, Final Fantasy XIII uses six distinct roles. These six roles are Commando (Com), Ravager (Rav), Sentinel (Sen), Synergist (Syn), Saboteur (Sab), and Medic (Med). For more information on all these roles, you can check out Fortnite shop, if you want to know what’s in the Fortnite item shop then click here. 

The Saboteur role is probably the hardest role to use efficiently. Like the Synergist role, The Saboteur is a supplementary role, rather than heavy damage dealing role. Unlike the Synergist role, a Saboteur can deal with some direct damage. Unlike other damage-dealing roles, though, the Saboteur does not automatically affect enemies with spells. Instead, there is a set percent chance that any Saboteur spell will affect an enemy with the corresponding affliction.

Furthermore, the efficiency of a Saboteur is highly dependent on what status effects an enemy is resistant, immune, or vulnerable to. For example, an enemy that is vulnerable to Slow is a perfect target for a Saboteur, because Slow significantly impairs the damage output of an enemy. On the other hand, an enemy that is immune to everything but Daze is probably not worth using a Saboteur against, because Daze is an inconsistent spell at best.

Unlike the other two supplementary roles, Medic and Synergist, a Saboteur can deal with the damage, and similar to a Commando, the damage dealt by a Saboteur maintains chain gauge well. Saboteur also builds chain gauge slightly better than a Commando. Thus, there are some circumstances where, even when there is only a low chance of hitting with a negative status effect, it is worth using a Saboteur.

For the most part, the AI is optimal when using a Saboteur. The only real exception to this is when an enemy is weak to a specific, short-lasting status ailment. In this situation, the AI will spam that effect rather than try to successfully place other status effects that can affect the enemy. Few enemies in the game fall into this category, though, so Saboteur makes good AI characters as well as good lead characters.

The Saboteur’s ability to deal with moderate damage and maintain chain makes it reasonable to have a Saboteur in the party even when it isn’t entirely necessary. Despite this, the Infiltration paradigm (Sab-Sab-Sab) is rarely ever a good choice to use. In fact, the only situation where it is worth it is against an enemy that is almost unbeatable without a certain status ailment affecting it. In this rare case, Infiltration is a good way to get that status ailment on the enemy quickly.

Better choices for paradigms that include a Saboteur are Assassination (Rav-Sab-Sab), Exploitation (Com-Sab-Sab), and Ruthless (Com-Rav-Sab). All three deal damage while quickly placing negative status effects on the enemy. Assassination is especially good because it takes advantage of the chain maintenance ability of Saboteurs to build a chain while placing status ailments on the enemies.

If a Saboteur is needed for a defensive paradigm, the best option is Attrition (Sab-Sen-Med). This paradigm will defend the Saboteur, while the Saboteur both increases the chain gauge and delivers devastating status effects to the enemy. In fact, this is probably the best paradigm in the game for highlighting the versatility of the Saboteur role.

The major advantage of using a Saboteur is that it can generally fit into any paradigm and a Saboteur is never entirely worthless. The Saboteur role can easily replace a Ravager or a Commando in just about any paradigm and still maintain almost the same level of offensive effectiveness. This allows paradigms to be built around other roles and the Saboteur role to be fit in as more of an afterthought, something which is very useful when only a total of six paradigms can be chosen for any set of characters.

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