Party Building in Final Fantasy XIII, Part 1: Roles
March 23rd, 2010 by Samodean

On the surface, Final Fantasy XIII seems pretty straightforward. Look a little closer, however, and you’ll see that the party system is full to overflowing with options and strategies. The purpose of this guide is to put some of that into perspective, help those that are confused, or just draw attention to the elements that some may have overlooked.

A small note to start. Each character has three “natural” Roles. Starting in Chapter 10, every character can learn every Role. While those three additional Roles work for some cases, and even excel in a few instances, the amount of grinding required to level those makes the options they represent prohibitive for all but the biggest power gamer. Each node on the first tier costs THOUSANDS of Crystarium Points, on par with the seventh tier of their natural Roles.

COMMANDO

Commandos are the front-line fighters. Excelling in melee combat, they also have a small selection of non-elemental magic attacks for enemies that are resistant to physical attacks. A Commando is a must for every group. They don’t fill the Chain Gauge very quickly, but a Commando slows down the rate at which it decreases. Having a couple of Ravagers will fill up the gauge quickly, but if your attacks slow down for a second, it’ll drop back to empty. Having a single Commando is vital to Stagger a foe. Once it is Staggered, using two Commandos is a great tactic, allowing you to keep the enemy juggled in the air, increasing your damage and preventing them from fighting back.

Lightning and Fang make powerful Commandos, with Snow not far behind. While Sazh CAN be a Commando, he’s much better suited to other Roles.

RAVAGER

Ravagers are the “Black Mages” of FFXIII. They excel in elemental damage, though not necessarily magic damage. Some Ravers have elemental “Strikes” that are physical damage, but with elemental effects. Ravagers fill up an enemy’s Chain Gauge incredibly fast, and multiple Ravagers are key to dealing large amounts of damage.

Lightning, Hope and Vanille all make incredible Ravagers. Snow and Sazh are effective at increasing the Chain Gauge, and worth keeping around just for that, but are somewhat limited in their elemental range.

SENTINEL

Sentinels are tanks, plain and simple. They deal no damage outside of Counterattacks. Many Final Fantasy games have given you ability to create a tank character, but FFXIII is the first core title to do it right. The Sentinel will focus first on drawing the attention of every enemy engaged, then using a Guard or Counter skill, depending on health and damage potential. Interesting note, “Provoke” counts as a status effect for skills such as the Commando’s Faultsiphon.

Fang and Snow both make great Sentinels. Snow has a higher helth pool, so he gets a small advantage.

MEDIC

Healers. It’s all they do, and they do it amazingly for your AI companions. Though, playing the Medic yourself can be a bit sketchy since it takes a bit of time to navigate the menus, precious seconds that can mean the difference between victory and defeat.

Hope and Vanille are both top-tier healers, take whichever fits your team. Lightning is a capable healer, and effective in a pinch, but focus on her other Roles first.

SYNERGIST

Having the right buffs can turn a tough fight into a cakewalk, and that’s what the Synergist is for. Offense, defense and elemental effects are all huge factors in FFXIII‘s battle system. You NEED one on your team, don’t think you’re just going to DPS every enemy down with sheer awesomeness.

Sazh and Hope are your only two natural options. They both end up about the same, the main difference is how you get there. Sazh gains his offensive buffs first, while Hope gains the defensive ones. Sazh is amazing in the mid-game, as he gets Haste pretty early in his progression, but by late-game, Hope has the spell as well, and is more useful to the team overall. This is one of those rare occasions when grinding a secondary Role is great for a character. Vanille misses out on many of the standard buffs, but is the only character that can learn the second-tier versions of some core spells.

SABOTEUR

Much like the Synergist, Saboteur is a Role that is easy to overlook at first. You can even progress through a large amount of the game without using one. Trust me, though, sooner or later, you’ll wish you had one. Forcing a powerful enemy to take longer to attack, or even preventing them from attacking AT ALL is extremely helpful, not to mention cracking a tough defense. Tip: Cast DeShell first until it sticks, it will make your other debuffs easier to land.

Vanille is a phenomenal Saboteur. Her higher Magic stat makes her far more effective than Fang. That said, Fang is more than capable of helping out your group if she’s who you would prefer to use.

Yes, this is all fairly staightforward and simple, and took far too long for me to write for no reason whatsoever. However, all this will be very important for Part 2: Paradigms.

Tags: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XIII, group, Roles