Nobu is a rockstar. I gave him too many levels with +spirit nethercite because I thought that would be better, so he lags behind for me, but you are 100% on.
As for Jasmin, Combat Sash and Prowess Band take care of hit, so you can use that third slot for Hero ring or whatever. You can use the head and body to get more Def/Spirit and evasion. She still gets wrecked on heavy magic bosses, but you get the Minerva Bustier, or put the right resistance ring and she's good.
Nobumasa has become absolutely insane in my run. Right now he’s sitting at 1100 ATK and 450+ SPR while using the katana that cuts Luck by 50% (painful, but worth it). Once he casts his self‑boost, every single stat jumps by a huge margin, and he basically turns into a hybrid monster—top‑tier burst damage and a reliable emergency healer. (heals a lot more than vahn)
With my current crit build (~30% crit, though it feels higher), he usually crits 2 out of 3 hits thanks to the Genji Glove giving him triple attacks. His crits land in the 18k–20k range, and the consistency is wild. He’s easily one of the best burst characters in the game and doubles as a backup healer when things get messy. He usually goes first too. (fastest char in the game)
I’m trying to refine Jasmine’s setup too. Does anyone know where the Prowess Band drops and what stats it gives? I was hoping she’d eventually get an upgraded version of the Combat Sash—something like a “Master’s Sash"—especially since she doesn’t get any ancient‑type weapons at all.
My current Jasmine build:
- Behemoth Mask (the Spirit penalty hurts… badly)
- Minerva Bustier
- Power Sash
- Bone Belt (+35% STR)
- Hero Ring (+15 to all stats)
This puts her at 1100 ATK, ~260 DEF, and 170+ SPR.
Since she’s basically the female Sabin of the game, I’m wondering: Do you guys also invest in her magic stats? Her arts scale off both ATK and MAG, right? Or whichever stat is higher?
If you build Nobumasa and Jasmine like that and there is also good old Oalstan, Vahn will have no place left in the party. lol
In my last run, I always wonder when Vahn will catch up with Jasmine/Sieg and boom, an OP spear come maxing his Vigor.
Imagine if Nobu and Jasmine were at 2000 vigor as well.
*My apologies for my last deleted post. I forget to go to the water shrine before looking for Chocobo.
For Ami, I’m using the Coliseum reward staff, which gives 1000+ Magic boost. With it, her Maelstrom hits for around 20k damage, while that blue scythe-like spell can hit for 30k+ if both strikes connect—though landing both hits consistently is pretty unlikely. Thinking of switching her for Vera, since Nobu is my backup healer as well. Are you using the same staff for your blackmage build too?
I put that staff on my black mage with his meteor.
I used Ami as a boss stealer with mimic staff and HP buffer with big guard.
I noticed that big guard can be used to buff max HP multiple times. So, I used repeated big guard trick to bump the team hp to 9000+ to fight those Elite marks and any boss that I was under-leveled. At least she's a more useful Thief than Laka in any boss fight.
I think I don't have that blue scythe-like spell you mentioned. :/
For Nobumasa, thanks to you, I'll try Nobumasa's Genji glove build and Jasmine's Sniper sight this time. Vahn can sit around doing nothing.
I use Nobumasa as a healer all the time. lol my bad. Well, the spell is cheap and heal a lot! ...until it was not enough later. At the end, I replace him with the Red mage.
For Jasmine, I loved her. But her pummel was unreliable at times (I didn't think about the Sniper sight). She was replaced by Sieg's Flurry. Then, Sieg was replaced by Vahn after I got his cheat spear and the urge to use our protagonist a bit at the end. lol
Jasmine’s final setup has been such a joy to use. I’m running:
- Behemoth Headpiece
- Nirvana Bustier (I love the elemental nullification, especially since her Spirit isn’t great)
- War Monk Juzu (double Vigor is amazing on her)
- Power Sash
- Relic Band (from the Relic NPC in camp)
With this build, she’s sitting at 31.5% crit and 1150+ Vigor, and she just goes off. Her Pummel hits crit 3 out of 5 times, and each crit lands for around 9k. She never misses, she never slows down — she just tears through everything with style. Honestly, she’s become one of the most fun characters to use.
Nobu continues to impress in every fight. His healing scales beautifully with high Spirit, and those endgame ninja swords give him a ton of it.
- Without his self‑buff, he heals for 3500–4000+ consistently.
- With the buff active (lasts 4 rounds), his heals jump to 6000+, and his crits land around 18k per hit, he crits 2 out of 3 a lot of the times....
He’s such a satisfying hybrid—massive burst damage when you need it and clutch emergency healing when things get rough. He’s become one of my favorite endgame characters.
I think we need to get an ancient spell book in the late game. I cannot remember that book's name.
Take that book to an ancient library. That one house with 2 bridges close by.
The only one guy inside will ask you to choose only one spell between Meteo and Ultima for Oalston.
Meteo is a single target fire spell. With 2,000 Magic, it constantly deals 50k-60k to any bosses. Imagine hitting one weak to fire. lol
Ultima is an AoE non-elemental spell.
In my last save file, I got 19 before beating the game. :/ And I deleted that save file during the confusion of the gysahl green. lol
In my current game, I got 6 of them at the Nideen village where Leonardo asks us to retrieve Pandemonium from Gilgamesh.
Going forward, I will take note of where I found each one of them. It won't be quick as my job is quite demanding these days. ^^"