Sabin Rene Figaro: Well Don't That Just Beat All...

Sabin Rene Figaro
"Well don't that just beat all..."

BASE STATS

Vigor: 48 / Magic: 24 / Speed: 36 / Stamina: 42

HP: 144 / MP: 0   BatPwr: 64 / Def: 42 / M.Def: 42 / Evade: 18 / M.Evade: 12

EQUIPMENT

Weapons: Claws
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Shield: -
Head: Masks, Hats
Body: Light Armor, Robes, Vests
 

SKILLS (Blitz)

(Note: all Blitzes are untargetable)
Pummel (lv. 1) - physical attack (Vigor); ignores defense, sets Sap
Suplex (lv. 9) - stronger physical attack (Vigor); ignores defense, sets Stop
Aurabolt (lv. 12) - Stamina-based (magical) holy attack; damage halved from back row
Fire Dance (lv. 15) - fire damage (Magic) to all foes
Mantra (lv. 20) - restores HP to Sabin's allies (Stamina and current HP)
Chakra (lv. 25) - restores MP to Sabin's allies (Stamina)
Sonic Boom (lv. 30) - Stamina-based (magical) wind damage to all foes
Bum Rush (???) - strongest physical attack (Vigor); ignores defense

ESPERS

Stray - Stamina+2 -------------  24 MP: revives all fallen allies to 250 ~ 500 HP
Golem - HP+20/Vigor+1 ---  48 MP: blocks physical hits for party (durability = caster's max HP)
Terrato - HP+60 -------------  64 MP: earth damage to all does (Magic)

SPELLS

Quake - Magic
Drain - Magic
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Imp
Sleep
SleepX
Slow
Safe
Float

Sabin Rene Figaro

Hikes halfway across the world, recruits a master samurai, ninja, & wild child with magic to his cause, Suplexes a Train, and survives jumping into waterfalls and fast ocean currents. Why isn't he the main character? What were Terra, Locke, & Celes doing at this time anyways?

Strengths

• He's Sabin
• Easy to use; High damage options are easy to find
• Incredible defense-ignoring damage & elemental control
• Very high HP, Incredible HP espers, Royal Jacket for HP+
• Solid party support; Possesses unique party MP recovery Blitz
• Great status control
• High base stats, Claws give solid stat boosts
• Good physical evade

Weaknesses

• Very low defense, low mg.eva, Average Equipment, cannot equip shields
• AoE is highly limited; Just mid-WoB (Fire Dance) and lategame randoms (SleepX)
• Healing is a little volatile
• Defense-ignoring damage is untargetable & falls off by endgame
• Potentially frail in mid-WoR if HP esper or Royal Jacket aren't obtained swiftly

Less versatile than his brother, but Sabin's raw power and ease of use secures him a spot as one of the best characters in Brave New World. He's almost always a very solid pick for team needing a high damage character.

Builds

Master

The standard Sabin build; just lots of vigor and HP. Some people prefer raw Golem, some like to grab a little Terrato once he becomes available. Remember to use both Blitzes AND elemental claws - Sabin's potential damage is lessened if you ignore his elemental control. This build is awesome all game long, though he's trickier to use in the mid-/late-WoR. It's highly recommended to keep an HP booster equipped at all times.

Monk

Support Sabin, built with oodles of stamina and some / lots of HP. Chakra is the main selling point, followed by Mantra. Very useful if you've got a team of MP users but you're struggling to maintain their MP; because of this, this build is probably easier to use effectively in the lategame, compared to his standard vigor build. Also boasts very beefy regen ticks, an ultra-high (near 100%) counterattack rate, and even some endgame AoE utility with Sonic Boom. Do be aware that Mantra isn't as useful after a big party-wide AoE; though this is counter-acted by his own natural pairing with mages, who usually boast good healing.

Guardian

HP Sabin, built with Terrato - either pure, or with a handful of either Stray or Golem. Almost certainly requires an endgame respec. Sabin's only true tank build, both for himself and for Cover allies. All the HP also greatly strengthens his Golem summons, further strengthening Sabin's role as party guardian. Sabin's high vigor & strong attacks (especially elemental claws) insure that he stills hits hard. Also helps his Mantra, though Mantra is weaker and much more volatile here compared to his stamina build. A few Stray levels can help stabilize Mantra a bit, as well as boosting Chakra, Cover/Counter chances, and Sabin's status evade.

Red Belt

Hybrid Sabin. The build's name comes from Final Fantasy 1's "Black Belt" and "Red Mage" class. Sabin's the "black belt" (martial artist) class from Final Fantasy 1, but this build is more of a hybrid, like Red Mage. Hence the name "Red Belt."

Build Golem levels first, then switch to stamina & HP levels when Mantra, Chakra, and Terrato become available. Like his brother, the hybridization works because the two stats (vigor & stamina) play two different roles for Sabin. This build's damage is honestly quite close to that of the full vigor build. The real catch is the reduced HP. A handful of Terrato levels are indispensable.

This build is about giving vig Sabin more frequent counterattacks alongside some healing (Mantra/Chakra) utility, sacrificing the raw damage/HP from pure Golem + Terrato.

Misc.

• Pay attention to the enemy's elemental weaknesses & defense stats. Sabin's claws have much higher damage potential than his Blitzes. If it's a fight for claws instead of blitzes, consider Berserking Sabin.
• Golem is stupidly powerful, especially paired with Image, and you should abuse this powerful summon.

He only has access to Vigor+1 and Aurabolt/Chakra don't gain a ton from Stamina anyway, Mantra also is more based on his current HP than Stamina. For these reasons a pure Terrato Build is also very viable. Chakra still provides respectable mp, Mantra is INSANE unless Sabin lost a lot of health and Sabins damage is respectable if exploiting a weakness. Terrato also doesn't take much away from his random encounter potential with full powered SleepX Sonic Boom Fire Dance and Quake.

Part of the changes to 1.9 was a bump to Aurabolt's power, which in turn should affect how much stamina helps it out.

While I haven't played it, I figure that a pure Terrato Sabin still falls under the category of "Master" (vig) Sabin. AFAIK, he's still played the same way, just with less vigor and a lot more HP. Which, I'm betting, makes him straight superior to Golem Sabin for the endgame.

Guess I should update the "Master" build to include this. Unless I'm wrong in my analysis of what Terrato Sabin is all about. (@GamingFiend? @Nowea?)

While I don't care for a dedicated Chakra set-up (stam Sabin), I do like the hybrid Golem + Stray. On a hybrid build, I do find extra power on Chakra to be quite nice. It's not a huge amount, no, but when you're talking low numbers like 30 vs. 40, it can be somewhat significant. Also, surprisingly, I didn't have too many problems with hyb Sabin's bulk in the endgame (3-4 Terrato ELs helps). So, I would consider hyb Sabin to also be purely superior to a pure Golem build for the endgame. (Stam Sabin can go cry in a corner).

...OK, now that I really look at Terrato Sabin, yeah, he should be mentioned in the guide. Thing is, where? I could mention him as his own build (20 Terrato), as a variant on support Sabin (15 Terrato / 5 Stray), or as a variant on vig Sabin (10 Golem / 10 Terrato). Kinda leaning towards mentioning him as a variant on support Sabin; so, support Sabin would be either heavy Stray (pure Chakra), or heavy Terrato.

Thoughts, anyone? Especially those like @GamingFiend who have played Terrato Sabin?

19 hours ago, thzfunnymzn said:

...OK, now that I really look at Terrato Sabin, yeah, he should be mentioned in the guide. Thing is, where? I could mention him as his own build (20 Terrato), as a variant on support Sabin (15 Terrato / 5 Stray), or as a variant on vig Sabin (10 Golem / 10 Terrato). Kinda leaning towards mentioning him as a variant on support Sabin; so, support Sabin would be either heavy Stray (pure Chakra), or heavy Terrato.

Thoughts, anyone? Especially those like @GamingFiend who have played Terrato Sabin?

In my personal opinion I'd go with it's own build, because Stray Sabin probably wants some Terrato levels anyway because of the synergy with the regen ticks and Golem Summons. Terrato is designed to maximize Golem summons while maintain a lot of Stamina's benefits (high regen ticks due to extremely high natural HP, and massive Mantra Heals). It also maximizes his survivability in the front row, and because Sabin doesn't have a shield and generally lower defense equipment, having the massive HP is really helpful, because he will take 1,000+ damage from powerful boss hits. Because his Vigor is quite high naturally, he can still hit very hard too! Focusing exclusively on Golem levels will lead to higher damage but I feel Sabin's damage will never be as high as the top damage dealers so it's better to focus on his tanking and support potential in general.

1 hour ago, GamingFiend said:

In my personal opinion I'd go with it's own build, because Stray Sabin probably wants some Terrato levels anyway because of the synergy with the regen ticks and Golem Summons.

This is actually why I was thinking that maybe they're the same build. Both Terrati & Stray lead to a more tanky / support oriented Sabin. (In theory. In practice, Stray Sabin lacks bulk, which also hurts its damage potential, seeing as its less safe to be in the front row.) Mishrak even prefers a 10 Stray / 10 Terrato set-up for support Sabin.

In some of my character guides, I consolidated various different builds into one archetype: like with Support Celes encompassing Crusader, Siren, and Shiva. Then again, I don't think I was perfectly consistent with that, was I?

Whelp, took your advice GamingFiend. Terrato Sabin is now his own build.

Updated for 2.0

Sabin is seeing a LOT of changes here, most obviously that Aurabolt is learned much earlier now, pushing back Fire Dance and Mantra and reverting him to the classic "vanilla" Blitz order. Since Sabin's stamina-boosting esper doesn't also raise his HP like Cyan's does, he wants the offensive benefits sooner rather than later, and for the first half of the game Stam-WOW Sabin will hit just as hard on average as Slap-Chop Sabin does with Suplex. However, Sabin was initially designed as a high-strength character who likes his physical options regardless of build, and the changes to Aurabolt now push that: it no longer ignores defense as his physical blitzes do and it no longer ignores row so that he will never be in a position where his physical blitzes are doing half damage to Aurabolt's full damage. He does eventually pick up a ranged stamina attack with Sonic Boom, but it's more of a sweeper than a viable single-target damage option.

Perhaps most importantly for Stam-WOW Sabin, the Mantra formula has been greatly improved to favor stamina over HP growth, and is now on par with other "big" healing attacks (on a stamina build, at least - it's serviceable on a vigor build, but noticeably weaker). Vigor Sabin, on the other hand, sees something of a nerf in that Suplex no longer sets Slow since he has regained access to the spell (Suplex setting slow was nice, but confusing to most players who didn't know what it was doing and OP to veteran players who did). On the positive side of things, however, his endgame claws are stronger (namely the Stormfang), and he gets earlier access to both the Spirit Claw (now for sale by the travelling merchant - and necessary to slow the Phantom Train) and Poison Claw (now for sale at Nikeah). 

The changes to Sabin's spell list are fairly uninteresting because he's, well, Sabin. He loses Mute (which he wasn't supposed to have in the first place - Stray having it was a bug) in favor of Sleep and loses Bserk to get back Slow. While this is an overall reduction in his status coverage, it's worth noting that he retains control over three very debilitating statuses - Imp, Stop (now on Suplex), and Sleep - that are relatively uncommon on other characters.

Updated to reflect 2.0 changes. 'dem 2.0 regen ticks!

I am still campaigning for a Rolling Suplex ultimate (maybe on Skull Helmet?) that lets Sabin suplex twice in a row followed by a 360 pile driver!