DFFOO [GL][Shadow CPU Raid] Just Shadow being a silicon grinder
3Back to Lv80 LD Shadow we go. Feels weird tackling CPU doing different things than the recent fight in Edge IW on JP.
No twins used because easy things don't need to be even more braindead lol.
Boss itself is not hard at all. The gist is that:
Left CPU heals ( and batteries), puts on buffs and only HP attack you if it has a lot of BRV.
Right CPU spams ALL BRV attack that puts 3 framed debuffs onto you, one of which is ATK down. It only HP attaks you if it has a lot of BRV.
Main CPU spams ST HP attack. If both adds die though, it will cleanse itself and after following through with its current attack, it will use an ALL attack to dispel your party.
As long as you keep the adds' BRV in check, you can lock the boss to Shadow and do whatever.
How to Shadow:
Since Shadow has a lot of ignore defence attacks, the most things he needs are just BRV/HP dmg up.
Shadow also benefits from additional BRV caps from BT+ effects (and later C88s) because his follow-up currently does not have a lot of BRV hits and there are generally not a lot of HP dmg up CAs.
Lock:
Shadow may only have 2 turn lock on BRV++, but you actually don't need Zack's CA here. You can put something like Gabranth CA instead to sap the other two CPUs so that all they would do is BRV attack. Lock the main boss since it is the one that spams HP attack.
One thing to bear in mind is that you don't need to lock down the enemy every single turn. Only when they target someone else and when they are doing ST attacks.
Proactively use LD:
You definitely don't need 4 uses to finish a fight. Outside of naturally refreshing the buff, just actively use it when opportunity presents itself for more consecutive turn attacks to exploit something like Cait Sith / Kura LDCA (or in the near future, Sazh LDCA). You can also use it to refresh your BRV++ lock, there is not much need to save it.
High turn rate moves:
Use S1/S2 to get ahead of enemies or certain allies. If you can hop in between targets' turns and get a dodge, you get more consecutive turns overall. More free turns, more dmg. More turns before allies' buff falling off also means more dmg.
If you have played Shadow long enough, you should have a feeling when he would likely jump forward and plan ahead.
You need not use the EX all the time. Also if you know Interceptor is about to go away and your LD stacks are falling off, LD also refreshes his duration.
No need to press C65 in free turns all the time:
You have 3 uses of C65 (Spoiler: 4 when he gets to C90). You can use both free turns to DPS or manage your interceptor buff. If your LD buff is about to fall off, ignore C65 and just DPS, then refresh LD debuff with more free turns. There you may press C65 for free again. If you use it outside of free turns, just remember to leave at least 1 for later free uses.
When he gets to C90, his C65 (88) will have a bigger impact since he gets more BRV cap from it.
Shadow takes a bit of brain power to use but he is really good and even better when C90 hits. I already know how much use I got out of him, so I already HA+3 his HA on GL, which is something I never get to do on JP.
Alternate runs with diff characters:
I checked my old JP run and it was horrible. Not sure why I didn't just do this instead. I had fun experimenting more this time.
Garnet:
Did a lot of Garnet trials, if you prefer not to double BT+, just replace Y'shtola with Garnet. The difference is about 2 turn count and 1 more minute to your run, and you get to see Shadow triggering all kinds of traps from Ace and Garnet with free consecutive turns. You would likely run into the situation of "too much AoE, adds dying before the boss" instead of "too much dmg from Shadow, boss dying before the adds". In which case, you can summon/use a BT+ friend to kill it before it dispels you.
Vayne:
Vayne + Shadow is pretty good with ample amount of break recoveries when Shadow is spamming free turns, so his BT+ would trigger. You can make good use of these two while Ace is frozen with buffs and Kura LDCA and deal massive dmg that way. It is more of a timing and opportunistic approach using two consecutive turn characters.
Cor:
Cor himself is pretty good for this stage because of reaper's gale and multiple enemy turns with potential targetting ALL attack spams from the right CPU.
Cor + Shadow is also very potent that the consecutive turns, lock and counters would power up his LD stacks even faster than with Vayne. The drawback is you would need to keep an eye more on the buff duration and using HP dmg taken up CAs for Cor, since it is a 3 target fight and his preemptive strikes are split attacks.
Yuna:
Yuna + Ace BT would push Shadow through the 500K mark per turn easy. Though you would have to cleanse the debuffs from the right CPU, as it also spams it and don't expect Yuna to deal great dmg until Kura LDCA is in effect.