DFFOO [JP] Paine's variable position in 6WQ ft This is Thancred granting haste stacks
23This is 6WQ area 3 (The Celes BT one) in case anyone is wondering.
A little bit of context and recap about this stage:
1. Boss aura until dispelled by hitting force weakness
This boss has a stupidly massive ATK/IBRV down aura. Since Aerith's healing scales off of ATK, until the aura is dispelled charging the white materia means excruciating pain. The only thing you get out of spamming her S1 is force charging and a minor heal.
2. Bosses threshold
The right boss's threshold attack is stated with an asterisk that it WILL always get set off outside of summon/BT phase. So HP silence does not stop that*.
*Though this case is clearly stated, as far as I have tried, there are inconsistencies as to what Paine's HP silence can stop. Sometimes it can stop counters or even boss FA. Sometimes it cannot (e.g. Ultimecia's FA in Act 3 Ch 9 pt 1 and the counters from the knight boss in 6WQ Area 4). I am not sure why or if it is a bug.
The left boss has an instant kill at certain threshold. Push through threshold tier and it will just fire off a normal attack.
3. Bosses have increasingly more BRV gain as they go down.
Principles of approach:
This is mostly to play around with Paine's variable position that is made possible with a 6WQ swap with a bit of haste stack granting/consuming logistics.
Obviously you can just force charge to 100% and go all out with all the echoes and be done with it. The game is easy enough for us to play with various strats. So for a 6WQ I find it more appropriate to play it differently as to how you would do a normal quest.
Let's start with the less focal memebers.
Rem:
Her job is to swap position quickly. By putting herself behind the client, you can swap two people in right after another.
Gladio:
Just for reducing dmg during the initial guaranteed boss FT and filling the spot. You can put someone that starts with a lot of debuffs in his place, such that Paine's debuff stacks has a huge head start (just like I started with Serah on the left) to apply a decent amount of HP dmg dealt reduction to survive.
Thancred
Oddly enough, Thancred's BRV++/Trick attack/C88 string of combo flows very naturally with Paine's haste stacks increment. So I tried to use him on the right side to grant every one IX stacks before dumping everything in FT.
Paine's haste stacks is consumed whenever the character is at above 3 stacks on a "normal turn, and the subsequent turn does not offer a stack as well.
Not many people like Thancred and probably don't care, but here is how it goes:
If you have stored 5 Ninki already:
Ninki: V - - III - - V - III - - III
Trick: 5 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 5 - 1
Chain: Trick - BRV- C88 - Skill - BRV - C88 - Trick - Skill ......
Stacks: I - I - II - III - I - I - II - III
Keep looping between BRV/trick/C88. Use skill or LD when Haste is at 3, since those are not instant turn rate moves and they grant trick stacks/ninki back. Trick attack can wait if haste is at 3. For any missing trick stacks or haste stacks, use a C88.
Break the chain when you are ready or every one has IX haste stacks. (Also broke the chain to swap Serah and Aerith)
Note:
The person granting stacks does not have to be Thancred. I was just intrigued by the synchronised rhythm. You can use this with other people like Aerith while charging FG for example. Though in this stage, turn hogging with Aerith accomplishes very little outside of FG charging and she has an active role during FT. Thancred has thus, took the role.
IX stacks
Once Serah has dispelled the aura by hitting weakness with an ice enchant, at IX stacks Aerith can use an attack and an instant turn rate move, use all of the FR echo and high dmg moves while using up all of her turns and haste stacks. This cannot be done inside her BT phase, as you cannot use Echo and you can only use EX/LD once.
Serah gets 2T at a time to get her BT stacks to full quickly without having to wait for another round on queue.
Since everyone turn hogs now, the left boss would never get a turn to do its instant kill move.
Final position: Paine on the right
Paine is on the right for several reasons:
(1) BRV/HP dmg dealt down on bosses
- such that when Aerith's BT fell off, the party took minimal dmg and Aerith's white materia would not fall off due to half HP
(2) HP dmg taken up (+BT effect)
- Paine's LD (50%) (left stacks)/BT (20%) both have this function. Since Aerith's Holy scales off of HP dmg (and taken) up and the healing stored in white materia, Serah + Aerith + Paine made the attack stronger.
(3) Maximum HP poison
Paine's BT has a HP poison that scales off of ATK. On the right, it has the highest scaling at 1500%. Once the ATK down aura is dispelled, with Aerith and Serah providing ATK as well, the HP poison, though does not get amplified by FR%, can still do a substantial amount of field turn dmg.