[DFFOO JP][Arc 3 Ch 6 pt 2] LD only team: Cid Leila Paine (Left) initial clear
12Was going to skip because I have 3 dodgers already, but I still have some tickets so tried my luck and got her. She is much more defensive oriented than I thought her to be.
Boss details:
Non-lethal Orb: +8/10 character evading attacks
Orb going off results in an attack that delay all characters by 3 turns, and cleanse all existing debuffs on Emperor, so beware if the team operates on debuff CAs.
Orb will reappear immediately if the party is alive.
Reduction: 80/80 (Brv dmg: Brv gain), possibly the first time
Threshold mechanics:
49%, 69%: Emp will get an instant turn, with 2 extra turns of no action delay
29% : Emp would use curse, putting multiple stat down framed debuffs on all characters (can be dodged)
Recast: The meteor would delay all characters by 1 turn
Other attacks:
Flare: Dispel all buffs including framed ones
Blood rod: Heals Emp according to BRV attack
Other than Meteor and Curse, all of Emp's attacks are ST. If you have one person that can dodge his attacks, that should manage most of the fight for you (esp. Flare because it dispels).
The challenge of this fight mostly revolves around his instant turn + 2 free turns and orb/recast. If you have prepared multiple turns of dodging in advance, generally he is not really that dangerous even if he get 3 turns. That said if he gets an attack off and accumulates BRV, there is not much you can do but eat the attack while he keeps going. Another danger would be if he happens to get the recast off while those free turns are going, he will further delay you, and the orb may go off and delay even more. Individually his attacks are not really lethal, it is the consecutive delays that make him so.
This run uses Leila to dodge most of the attacks, and call other party members to the front to get in between his instant turns, so you will see multiple turns behind the party after a certain point. Leila also has 30% accuracy down on her EX, so while it is not a 100% evade for the party, she gives them a higher chance of dodging the AoE curse debuffs.
Regarding Leila:
Defensive support:
As mentioned before, she is more of a defensive support with turn manipulation, evasion assist than an offensive one. While her personal damage is not bad, in the case of this fight with 80/80 reduction, you definitely would hire another person to boost damage and not going into the fight with Leila as sole support. While she does have mild ATK, mBRV, overflow with 20% HP damage and 30% BRV damage up as party wide buff, it is not quite enough, especially when there are still a lot of Lv.80 characters that are not particularly self-sufficient.
Buff Management:
S2 Built-in aura lock:
Her S2 is the one that gives her the overhead with the lock aura, NOT LD. It only lasts for 6 turns, so do pay attention to buff management. It has been stated that if an external lock debuff is on when she is in the party, her lock takes the highest priority. Obviously AoE attacks still hit every one, so other dodging characters can still be used with her.
LD: (12 turns)
Her LD is the one that push everyone to the front whenever she dodges an attack, heal the party and give them one free turn with ATK based BRV battery. The buff comes with party wide HP/BRV dmg up and overflow. On top of that, she seems to make the party have dmg refund after their attacks, something akin to Rosa's LD. It does a lot of things all at once, so it is another buff not to be neglected.
S1: gives generic ATK/mBRV buff. Mostly used as a filler.
EX:
The only attack that is not split damage but one with a final splash. This charges quite fast and is the only way she can inflict a framed debuff that includes thunder resist down, accuracy down and BRV dmg dealt down. Remember to use the EX again for the imperil if the boss likes to cleanse alot.
C88:
Basically Hope's protect all with 20% party-wide BRV cap increase.
Longevity:
Her buff longevity for both the dodge and her packed LD buff is very good, at 48 turns. Non-turn hoggers these days probably won't run out of buffs and reach 48 personal turns, but it is worth a mention.
Problems:
While Cid + Leila can get you many extra turns before emperor acts to get the most out of the debuff CAs, their turn manipulation act very similar to each other that while they push the party in front, their next turn would go to the far back if a swap does happen. Therefore if there is a particularly desirable turn order you would like to maintain, it gets messier to do so with 2 of them doing it constantly and sometimes the extra turns may go overboard and trigger the orb.
Also she may have a lot of opportunity to offer battery to the party, she does not offer any kind of BRV gain support. Not in C88, not in EX extension, not even her armor has the support for herself. Paine is there solely to offer 60% BRV dmg up and 40% BRV gain up, she is not doing dmg.
Treat her as an assist character with defensive support, and you will have a good time with her.