DFFOO [JP] XIV team: Alisaie, Papalymo and Y'shtola triggering Laguna BT bomb
11Alisaie has finally got her LD, and it is quite interesting and there are quite a few ways you can use her. I didn't use Ramza this this time to boost her dmg to another level though. Also, she has no arts until Thancred's event comes along.
Similarities and Differences from her old self:
Alisaie is both similar and different to how she was used back when she got her Ex+.
The basic idea is quite the same, 2 versions of basic S1/S2, and one of each (Verstone/Verfire) can proc a free skill (dualcast buff). Using EX can extend dualcast for your skill to be free. All of the above increases the mana guage.
At 5+ mana, HP attack becomes Enchanted Redoublement, which consumes 5 of each mana and turns S1/S2 into Verholy or Verflare.
What we used to do was just following where the free skills led us, then use the upgraded version (verstone/verfire) to proc more free skills, use redoublement to burn mana and continues the cycle. Free skills were a lot more crucial and the difference between verstone/fire vs verholy/flare was not that big.
With her LD introduced and rework, while we can still just press buttons or follow the old ways, there are a few extra considerations we can take if we really want to focus on doing more dmg.
Her rework, other than giving more HP dumps and potencies/overflow, makes it so verholy and verflare gets one more HP dump than the basic/upgraded versions. Enchanted Redoublement is also the second highest dmg move that Alisaie has now, so it would appear that getting more Redoublement and verholy/flare is most important than before.
Also, as skill count are not as tight as it was back in Chaos era, missing a free skill is not as impactful as before.
Her LD other than the generic BRV/HP dmg up, also gives her a self Cait Sith LD effect - increases BRV scaling with her mBRV on every critical hit. It also gives her self-enchant and imperil on use. Her C85 also has self 30% BRV gain up to go with this effect. It also gives her a net gain of 1 turn dualcast buff extension if it is up before using Fleche and Contre Sixte.
This LD effect opens up a lot of different avenues and party compositions that you can use with Alisaie. For one, you can slot her into a BRV gain party, which means like the other XIV characters currently, benefits from Y'shtola's BT. You can also pour mBRV with something like Sazh CA or Ramza BT just so her BRV gain from LD effect would be increased to compensate for the lack of BRV gain aura. Or if you want to, you can plug her into a BRV dmg focused party, take advantage of the imperil and weakness dmg and she can also work. The benefit of having multiple sources of BRV acquisition is you can use her practically everywhere with different focused configuration.
Element lockouts and imperil immunity:
This was a slight issue but it really is not that big of a deal now. On the damage front, even if her element is absorbed and her "rotation" dictates that she should be using that element and you don't want to deviate from that, her Caith Sith BRV gain on crit effect would allow her to deal dmg regardless. The only problem is if the element is on absorb, you may have to look to your turn order to decide if you want to use her non-elemental skills (enchanted by other elements) at her next turn to shave off that absorbed BRV. Obviously if all 4 elements are absorbed (which hardly happens esp given how atypical these 4 elements as a combo is).
I have also tested her in Guy's Lufenia+, which is impervious to elemental imperil, and she performs just fine. Don't want to post that one though because I felt like I have abused Ramza too much lol lately.
Other interactions:
Sazh / Hope / Buff extenders:
Because her dualcast buff can be extended by LD (net gain of 1 turn), Ex and buff extenders, there are quite a few things you can play with her. You can extend her buff to such a point that even Verholy/flare becomes a free skill after using Enchanted Redoublement, or use the free skill on C88.
Sazh also happens to be a very strong support for Alisaie because his has a 100% Crit buff, so Alisaie can always enjoy the BRV gain.
Consecutive turn/Turn rate shenanigans:
The hot and yet-to-be obtained Laguna BT or Exdeath BT are obvious choices for Alisaie to trigger their off-turn dmg. While she really only has consecutive turns when using EX, she pretty much has high turn rate on all of her other moves and she has a speed buff to go with it. So naturally she will also allow anyone that likes others having many turns, such as Papalymo to benefit from her presence.
I think the two things that you would want to provide Alisaie the most are BRV gain or mBRV, because she only has 30% for herself with EX extension II. Her C88/armor gives her VERY high BRV dmg cap already, so there is a lot less issue there. Once you have that and a stable amount of BRV dmg, get a HP dmg cap increaser, she should perform really well.