[DFFOO JP][A3Ch5Pt1 Lufenia+] Final test for Cater: vs ST main boss Jegran
4Jegran is probably the tankiest single target boss so far with high HP and high DEF and additional mechanics to reduce your damage when the adds are out after 50%. He is perhaps the best testing ground for Cater since he is a well telegraphed boss which you may want to use Cater against with how her CC works.
Before this test, I tried her against two bosses with different Paine configuration to see if more BRV/HP dmg works better against more BRV gain. I have to say against two identical bosses, abusing the BRV gain with charged BRV attack seems to still edges out a little bit than say relying on EX to deal damage, given that you have to allocate even more resources towards BRV dmg up and HP dmg up to amp up the split damage, nor does her charged HP perform as well as the BRV version since only one 100% splash is done.
To recap on what Jegran does as a boss:
Before 50%, ST/AoE Brv attacks until recast is up, then he AoE HP attack.
After 50%, He does a BRV attack then recast is immediately up, then a very hard hitting ST HP attack that will kind someone without mitigation. He also becomes insanely tanky when adds are alive at this point onward. Unless you have godly AoE dmg and turn manipulation, it is almost pointless to dedicatedly kill them given how fast the recast and resummon happens.
He summons one more add and heals existing adds to full whenever he uses recast. When he gets pushed past HP thresholds, he will not physically get a turn but there will be a text box appearing and that count as he "acted", which pushes the orb up if you have stacked debuffs.
The adds have no defensive stat ups at all. Even with all the buffs Jegran put on after 50%, you can steal BRV from that with no effort.
Abusing Cater's ST Charged BRV attack:
For the most part, before all kinds of BRV gain auras are gone (Y'shtola BT and Serah C88), with Serah's nuclear battery it is almost guaranteed that Cater's BRV attack will hit cap damage with 4 dumps (45K-50K with only HA), which requires far less effort than all her other attacks and this can be done even with Ice imperil being overwritten by something else. She does not even need to hit BRV cap either as witnessed when the boss is around 50%. This should be the most cost effective move that Cater has against a ST boss, even with bare minimum CA debuffs. (postponed Jack's CA given how short its livespan is)
Once Y'shtola's BT was gone and she was hitting 1s when Jegran has the adds out in the last phase, it is time to switch tactics.
Stealing BRV with AoE Charged HP and EX:
Since the adds are skins and bones only, even with hitting the boss for 1s, you can steal enough BRV from these adds to have a decent HP dmg output with split damage. With 2 adds, you get even a higher output percentage. It is as simply as (x+1)/2 vs (2x+1)/3 vs (still need to take overflow and HP damage up into account). Serah also has this, so the two of them came in clutch during the last 7% push. I did mess up one or two ultima arrow with Serah though lol.
CC against telegraphed boss moves:
I stand by what I thought last time, I think I prefer utilizing her DPS more than a clutch CC unit. Before 50%, none of Jegran's moves are lethal and Cater's traps and counters are not that greatest damaging tools either, so I prefer treating them as bonuses unlike say Snow's 4 fold follow-up. It is not crucial to dodge them, unlike the pt 2 bosses who put paralysis onto a party member, so dodge them if I could but I would not go out of my way to lock them for a counter. I would rather use a S2 into an additional charged BRV attack. The AoE is also survivable, but as the timeframe favours the use of a LD, so that does save me the trouble of healing.
In this particular run I got even more aggressive than last time, proactively trying to procure turns for her, using instant S2 and C88 to get an additional charge attack especially when there are 2 Cater turns before the boss.
The last phase should typically be use LD when his recast is up, then it will last till another recast (recast - BRV - recast), getting full use of the freeze instead of needing extra C88 or another LD. That is why I feel Cater is best suited for well telegraphed bosses.