DFFOO [JP][Arc 3 Chapter 7-1][Alt Run] Thancred Edition w/ Arciela and Papalymo
15Probably last one for this fight and it is a bit scuffed because apparently the Noctis BT friend is not really at BT+ lol. Coincidentally this run with Thancred is the fastest of all three that I uploaded despite this setback.
Somehow Papalymo is just very compatible with all of the XIV cast, especially Alisaie and Thancred. Since Thancred is not synergy, I brought him along to see how he is. Suffice to say when poison is applied, he can do really well in terms of BRV dmg with just Arciela's bare minimum party buffs and no other debuff CAs (barring Paine normal CA near the end).
The main strat is still to snipe the boss and ignore all adds as fast as possible. The core fight design is to use Thancred to gain polyglot stacks for Papalymo while he chains all kinds of attacks. Since both of them have 5 stacks or more, the orb is a non-issue for turn hoarding at any given point in the fight. So go nuts, keep going until Thancred actually needs another turn.
A part of the fight is to save Papalymo's polyglot to initiate a mini burst phase to get through the HP thresholds while the respective CAs and Arciela debuffs are in place (S2 and LD). Lenna's CA also has to be pre-placed before Papalymo or Thancred push through, else having the debuff on by the kamikaze would waste a lot of time.
My original intention was to let Noctis take over Arciela's place and with the BRV dmg up from the BT, I can trigger his BT+ follow-up with both Papalymo and Thancred's continuous turns, but obviously the minor setback threw me off a bit. Otherwise it would have been a really great one.
The difficult of this fight is mainly at the start of it. There are 6 debuffs from the 3 of them and Arciela's S2 debuff is not framed. So with certain turn order the moves that Arciela must use needs to be adjusted in regards to when the real Kefka decides to put frame buffs on and push off her debuff. Also Thancred's poison could be pushed off early on so occasionally his BRV dmg falls off temporarily. Once the real Kefka is stuck by a failed HP attack later on and unable to buff for a while, all debuffs should be more steadily in place.
I also did a successful Zack run with Thancred, Lenna and another with Garland due to their 5 stacks buffs, but oddly this LD team performs just fine without a BT member in the main party. There are a lot of characters with 5 stack mechanics so try them out.
Heads up though, the ones that count down like Zidane's does not seem to work for this orb.