DFFOO [JP] Cid reigns with 10T to himself
40The premise of Cid Raines's FR is unlike some others who are more favourable when solo/duo, you have to have 3 party members for it to have the maximum benefit. Launching with him has the maximum gain in FR%, but since his FR automatically pulls the other two person, and the fact that his BT only lasts for 6 turns (no launch with the BT finisher), it means that there is inevitable loss.
So it follows the logic that to minimize loss, ally turns should be kept to the minimal. The concept revolves around several elements:
Aerial allies:
Since Kain/Freya in the air cannot be pulled, delay themselves, and they have natural follow-up dmg without BRV loss in the air, they are the best candidates to accompany Cid Raines.
If you put both Kain and Freya in the same party and have them in the air at the same time however, Cid cannot use his FR. It simply would not fire. I tried, the pull menu would not have a valid target.
So keep one at your side for Cid to hoard more turns.
Lunafreya buffs and Enemy's help:
Lunafreya's swiftness buff, together with her BT on, would give Cid Raines 4 consecutive turns. Granting heavy hitter to all available members before Cid Raines's turns would also give additional portions of HP dumps in the air.
While swiftness does not stop Raines's ally pulls from taking over his subsequent turns, if the enemy breaks your pulled allies, they will go after the block of all of the consecutive turns.
Here in this run, Sherlotta deliberately spent all of her BRV in launches, so that she would be pushed back when she got broken by the HP threshold off-turn attacks from two bosses.
Notes:
First of all, ignore the Laguna Desperado debuff. Treat it as extra fireworks or just a HP dmg up /DEF down debuff. I forgot the explosion scales with ATK and this stage has a nasty ATK inhibiting field debuff. Only the extra portion of HP dump works for it.
1. Sherlotta was chosen mostly to counteract the ATK down field effect. She is equipped with a Cait Sith LDCA to further improve the BRV gained from each BRV hit.
2. Seymour LDCA and Minwu CA were used to delay/delete all enemy turns so that all FT turns have the full party in the queue before the bosses for participation in launches before BT.
3. Can be done in a normal quest. Just need a friend unit.
Improvements or Alt setups:
1. Ifrit summon and retain the blessing buff so all HP dumps on allies that do not move (or just move once) would retain that increased HP dmg cap buff in the air.
2. Sazh LDCA for additional BRV acquisition, Keiss/Selphie for after launch battery to fill the attacks that could not reach max dmg per HP dump. Also a stage that does not have that crazy ATK down field aura helps lol (I have no FR that can dispel this).
3. Letting the ally other than Kain move once is perfectly fine and it probably does not even matter that much. I already tried this with Ifrit + Tifa besides Raines and Kain on Vaan's IW. Ultima, having one of the highest HP currently, just get one cycled from 90+ to 0 by Raines with ease.
4. I contemplated on double Raines more. It is certainly viable and easier than manipulating enemies to pull off 10T for both Raines under BT for a perfect FR bonus to the end (still, BT turn counts are tight along with friend turn counts). Though the draw back is since the same BT effect cannot stack, this setup would be restricted to strictly only 2 party members being able to buff the overall HP dmg cap.
Tbh I think he can pretty much one cycle most bosses in the game currently.
May do something with Emperor (LD only), Raines, Aranea next, because they are incredibly fun and quite compatible actually.