Edgar Roni Figaro: Hail To The King, Baby

Edgar Roni Figaro
Hail to the King, Baby

BASE STATS

Vigor: 36 / Magic: 30 / Speed: 30 / Stamina: 24

HP: 72 / MP: 0   BatPwr: 64 / Def: 42 / M.Def: 24 / Evade: 6 / M.Evade: 6

EQUIPMENT

Weapons: Spears, Swords
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Shield: Heavy Shields, Light Shields, Elemental Guards
Head: Helmets, Hats
Body: Heavy Armor, Medium Armor, Vests
 

SKILLS  (Tools)

AutoCrossbow - physical attack vs. enemy group (Vigor); ignores row, can miss
NoiseBlaster - sets Muddle on a group of foes
Bio Blaster - dark damage (Magic) to a group of foes; sets Poison
Drill - physical attack (Vigor); ignores defense, sets Sap
Flash - non-elemental damage (Magic) to a group of foes; sets Blind
Defibrillator - revives a fallen ally; Magic determines amount of HP restored
Mana Battery - restores MP to an ally (Magic)
Chainsaw - physical attack (Vigor); ignores defense, may instantly kill
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Jump  (replaces Fight) -  Fight (Vigor) + 100% damage (spears) or 50% (other weapons); ignores row

ESPERS

Siren - Magic+1/Speed+1  --------  16 MP: sets Bserk on all foes
Unicorn - HP+30/Stamina+1  ---  24 MP: restores HP to party (Stamina) and lifts most bad statuses
Golem - HP+20/Vigor+1  --------  48 MP: blocks physical hits for party (durability = caster's max HP)
Palidor - Vigor+1/Speed+1  ---  24 MP: party attacks with Jump (Vigor)

SPELLS

Rasp - Magic
Bserk
Slow
SlowX
Safe
Haste
Float
Scan
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Cure 2 - Magic
Remedy - Stamina

King Edgar Roni Figaro

The King, The Chainsaw, The Engineer, One of the Figaro Bros., The Ones Who Uses Main Character Weapons Without Being a Main Character. He and Sabin can break the rules like that.

Strengths

• Incredible Versatility
• Strong throughout the whole game
• Very Tanky; Golem levels, Great Armor Selection, HP+ Spears
• Superb AoE & status control; Lots of status debuffs
• Solid physical damage; defense-ignoring, elemental control, high multiplier, even an AoE physical
• Secondary Healer, has Defibrillator Tool
• Solid party support abilities; Has unique MP recovery Tool
• Has two speed espers
• Unique damage booster, boosting physicals & magics

Weaknesses

• Low stamina, slow growth
• Magical damage limited to AoE
• WoB Spear Selection is weak
• Slow in WoB because of armor, Speed builds slowly

Edgar has few weaknesses, with his only major weakness being his low stamina. He's a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-several, and nearly a master of the rest. Easily a contender for best character in Brave New World, even if he's not as simple to use as his brother. (Still simpler than Gau & Gogo).

Builds

Dragoon

Vigor Edgar, taking an even mix of Golem & Palidor levels. Golem in the WoB, solidifying his HP, and Palidor in the WoR, correcting his slow speed. Don't let the class name fool you: Edgar will easily spend half or more of his time running support or using the Chainsaw. Save Jump for boss fights, unless you don't have Chainsaw yet or unless you just hate a particular random.

This build can easily fit into any party and perform exceptionally well. Just don't forget to give him the Nirvana Band to boost his healing (Cure 2 & Defibrillator) alongside his damage.

Engineer

Siren (magic & speed) levels, with some Unicorn (HP) levels for bulk. Pure support Edgar, possibly a primary healer. He's mostly about abusing his free & powerful revive, though the Mana Battery, boosted Cure 2, and other support skills certainly play a solid role too. Lacks offensive options outside of AoE magical damage, though for how great a support character Edgar is, such damage is still pretty good.

Red Mage

A mix of both vigor & magic levels. Can grab either Golem for some bulk, or Palidor to focus this build around speed ELs. Golem version is honestly more of a variant on the Dragoon build. Unlike other characters, the two stats at play here (vigor & magic) actually play different roles for Edgar, so the hybridization actually works. The hybridization also works because Edgar's so powerful, so moreso than other characters, he can get away with a lack of focus.

Sentinel / Phalanx

Bit of a cute build, honestly. Unicorn (stamina) Edgar, possibly with some speed levels (Palidor or Siren). Main shtick is better chances to defend the party with the "Cover allies" property of spears & ultra bulky Golem summons. Equip all Genji & Nirvana for better Cover chances, absurd physical defense, & for boosting your damage. Equip Palidor for randoms; for boss fights, equip Golem and just apply Haste manually.

Downside is that Edgar's slow without either good ST/AoE damage or stronger healing, with still one of the worst Cover chances amongst the whole cast. Zantetsuken can help provide some counterattacks and speed (use Hero Ring for Cover), or maybe you can two-hand a spear with Black Belt prior to Zantetsuken. Could also try an Aegis Shield, since Edgar probably has enough HP to ignore Genji and Force.

Misc.

• NoiseBlaster + BioBlaster/Flash is a stupidly good combo, especially in the early game. Please abuse it.
• Equip the Nirvana Band, regardless of build. The only other character who has any reason to equip it is Kirin Cyan, and he lacks the raw diversity the Edgar gains from the band. Optimally, keep Kirin Cyan on a different team from Edgar.
• Elemental Blade Jumping is solid all game long, even into the final dungeon. Jump with these in the WoB, and never sell them.
• Gungnir is less powerful than Longinus, but it's HP boost is HUGE - big enough that Edgar can scorn the lack of a shield.
• Certain X-Mages can burn MP too fast for even the Mana Battery to keep up if you get careless. So don't get careless.
• Golem is stupidly powerful, especially paired with Image, and you should abuse this powerful summon.

Is Unicorn Edgar really viable?

1.9 will change things up a lot for him since there will be a renewed focus on his ability to tank. Give a pure Unicorn build the Gungnir and a Shield and watch him go all SPARTAAAAAAAA on shit.

With 1.9's new (& useful, finally) Cover, Unicorn Edgar now boasts something unique over other Edgar builds. Whether or not it's really a great build in the grand scheme of things is questionable (Edgar's stamina is low), but I think it's a mechanically unique enough style to be worth mentioning. If anything else, it's better than relying on really weird Omega damage formulas as a unique gimmick, like some old stamina builds used to.

BTB seems to like going all-in with Edgar's defenses with spear & shield. I'm guessing that two-handing a spear, assuming you equip a counterattack relic (Black Belt), is more worthwhile in the end. Especially once you get Gungnir, with it's ridiculous HP+50%.

Last I played Edgar, it was with a fairly standard 10 Golem 10 Palidor, and it put in the work. This time I'm at 10 Siren > 5 Unicorn > 5 Siren, and what this guy can do with elemental swords (Jump all day erry day) and Tools is truly remarkable. It's going to be hard to go back to Spears for the Cover build next game.

Updated for 2.0

Physical Edgar gets slightly buffed all around, with an increase in his Base BatPwr along with an increase to all three of his physical damage tools to the tune of ~20 BatPwr apiece. He also gains Rasp (while losing Mute) as another use for his magic stat. While a Siren build should be able to fully drain most enemies in a single blow, Golem/Dragoon Edgar will probably need to team up with Celes to get much use out of it otherwise.

A few other changes have affected Edgar on the magical side of things: lower enemy magic defense in the early game has necessitated that the already borderline-OP Bio Blaster be pushed back to the Zozo era, and the fact that blind is now universally effective has warranted a slight power nerf to the Flash. Edgar is also probably the character most affected by the cover and row targeting changes in 2.0 due to his love of spears often forcing him into the position of bodyguard.

Edgar is such a beast with no ELs at all, but I think he truly shines as a Dragoon with maybe 10/10/5 Palidor/Golem/Unicorn. i only add in Unicorn because I appreciate the status resistance and bulk it provides, but I don't think it is strictly necessary.

Except for maybe a small portion of the middle game prior to getting the Dragon Helm, I think it is superior to any magic/support build because he doesn't lose much magic-based tool damage by neglecting Siren. And I think using him as a pure support is a waste. He just seems to perform better as a hard hitting dragoon with the option to cast support spells vice a support character with the option for moderate AOE damage.

I tend to also prefer his vigor build. Palidor and Nirvana can boost his magic-based utility up to par, and he gains good ST damage and nice tankiness from Golem and a spear equip.

Huh - I found the opposite to be true in my game.  I tended to use Edgar as support (mana regen, res, etc.) and dragoon secondary.  Don't get me wrong - I like the dragoon jumping all day long but for the party comps I tended to go with - Edgar was very valuable with the support he offers (especially with Golem).  His general survivability also meant that he was dependable. 

I used to think little of dragooning until I hopped in for the multitap game and I was in control of Edgar doing more damage to Kefka than anyone else on the team.

On 7/20/2021 at 3:53 AM, BTB said:

I used to think little of dragooning until I hopped in for the multitap game and I was in control of Edgar doing more damage to Kefka than anyone else on the team.

Probably my fault that you thought so little of it?