Gamer Corner Guides

Though she lacks Vanille's Death Ability, Fang is perhaps the most effective Saboteur in the game, though her one glaring weakness, an inability to inflict Poison, is a problem against many of the toughest foes in the game. She also lacks the defense-lowering multi-target debuffs (Deprotega, Deshellga, Imperilga), but as a general rule you're only attacking one target at a time anyway, so this is not a big deal.

Like Sazh, Hope is one of two Characters that can inflict every Status Ailment in the game. However, Hope exclusively gets multi-target versions of these debuffs (as well as the standard Dispel). This makes Hope an effective Saboteur against groups, but since his Abilities cost three times as many ATB segments, he's a liability when you're only looking to debuff a single target (which is usually the case). He can't even use two debuffs in a round without the Nue.

As a secondary Role, it's not surprising that Lightning has a rather limited set of Saboteur Abilities. She lacks any way to inflict Slow, Curse, Daze, Fog, or Pain, and also lacks Dispel, which can be a problem against some foes. However, she does get both the single- and multiple-target forms of Deprotect, Deshell, Imperil, and Poison, making her quite good at lowering defenses of single enemies or entire groups.

Sazh is a very effective Saboteur, gaining access to every single-target debuff in the game. In fact, he's one of only two Characters that can inflict every possible status ailment (the other being Hope). Because he relies on single-target debuffs, he's not very effective against groups, but then, Saboteurs are generally most important against singular, powerful enemies anyway.

Snow's Saboteur is the complement to Lightning's, as he lacks the defense-lowering debuffs Deprotect, Deshell, Poison, and Imperil, but has full access to single- and multi-target versions of Slow, Curse, Daze, Fog, and Pain. Also like Lightning, he lacks access to Dispel. If you're fighting an enemy with powerful offensive abilities, Snow can be very effective, but he won't help you deal much damage against them.

Vanille is a very effective Saboteur with a variety of Abilities, though she is more concentrated on defense-lowering debuffs. She cannot inflict Slow, Curse, or Daze, and also lacks Fogga and Painga, but has single- and multi-target versions of every other Saboteur Ability. Beyond that, she has Death, a unique Ability that either just kills a target or deals a large amount of damage to them. Since very few non-boss enemies are actually immune to Death, you can get cheap, fast kills against a number of difficult foes (up to and including Adamantoises) with it.