DFFOO [JP][Arc 3 Chapter 8 part 1] 1st Shinryu diff with Laguna, Selphie and Y'shtola + Kain friend
11Preface:
I actually got 3 FRs out of free pulls and WoL pulls. I don't have Kain's BT, but I tried him with LD + FR only, he works, the run time is very similar to this run ending at turn 49/55. So yes, you don't need his BT to beat this, but having it just makes it easier and the numbers prettier.
Since this is the first one and it debut with FR weapon, I would not go into detail of the C90 awakened characters this time, but more about the system.
Also, there are a MYRAID of bugs, server crashes that every time you log back in you would find even more notice on new bug discovery. So take a grain of salt of what you are seeing, because they may not be working as intended.
Shinryu Diff (Lv300)
At this difficulty, not just players have the force gauge, enemies do too.
They also have a dedicated page about their force ability.
Force mechanics:
The notable thing is boss force gauge charge faster and faster as they go down HP thresholds: x1.5 - x2 - x3
With 0 or 1 ally that has been "force awakened", you are destined to charge slower than them.
Gauge cycle:
Bosses start to have some field effect when their gauge passes through 40%. This one in particular has a HP poison that increases with the gauge thresholds. capping at 30%.
When it ding at 100%, it will unleash an off-turn force ability that cannot be stopped by CCs. This one has a BRV gain + HP attack that bypasses HP dmg reduction, cannot be dodged and inflict paralysis if target gets below 50% HP afterwards.
Note: Unlike Lufenia orbs, this is not lethal at all. It may hit hard if you leave it unattended, but it is not an instant kill attack. The paralysis can be avoided as well.
After unleashing their force ability, for the duration of force time, they would change their moves. This boss would do a very similar attack to the force ability, but on their active turns and recover from breaks..
They would instant kill anyone that is at critical health.
Combined with their field poison, you can understand this as what the frog robot from the 6 warrior quest beta does.
Once the force time is over, all field effects would be lifted and they go back to their normal self.
Reduction:
You can expect similar reduction as Lufenia+. This one is at 80/80.
There are a few additions though.
1. HP dmg reduction: 50% - 80%
2. Boss BRV / HP dmg cap increases (tbh not too important because you would have been dead most likely)
I am not 100% on this but seemingly they also impose:
a. 80% mBRV cap on BRV gain and
b. 80% limit on holding BRV when BRV consumption reduction is active (Iroha/Locke effect etc)
The ordinary moves of the bosses are not very dangerous. As they are about to hit 100% though, you must heal yourself to counteract the 30% HP poison before taking the force ability. If you hit critical health, you are going to die. (paralyze if under 50%)
There is flexibility to taking care of the force attack as opposed to not letting the orb fall or die in Lufenia stages. Since it is a BRV gain + HP move, Kadaj CA/Raijin LDCA/Arciela LDCA shuts them down. You can even avoid the paralysis simply by deploying Raijin's LDCA or stay above 50%. Do remember that after taking the force attack, you still need to take 3 more hits from them for the HP poison and force time to dissipate.
An summary of the challenges presented by the fight are how to deal with:
1. 55 turn limit with a beefy boss
2. 50% - 80% HP dmg reduction
3. Counteracting direct dmg and HP poison to stay above HP thresholds
I employed the philosophy for dealing with early Lufenia+. If a boss can be delayed, delay as much as possible for the debuffs to stay alive longer. Only this time instead of BRV dmg up, it is HP dmg up needed to fight the reduction.
Laguna is exceptionally good for this, with his LD debuff + BT debuff / aura combined, it counteracts most of the reduction already on its own. It also has the added benefit of off-turn dmg.
Y'shtola is also very good for this: 1. Delay, 2. Heals, 3 HP dmg up aura. Do remember that her EX has a hidden buff for more BRV / HP dmg up for herself as well.
Launches from Selphie and her aura helps alot with the dmg requirement. Her heals are also appreciated, but as I mentioned with my LD Kain situation, she is not required. You can solo heal with Y'shtola.
Regarding Force Weapon:
Consider this as fever time or FFXIII's stagger/break system. You stack HP dmg bonus and then dump big fat dmg while you are in force time for amplified dmg (it also amplifies the caps).
You don't need force awakened characters for the gauge to build. Those with it just build faster. Any passing action would build it.
I must say with just one character that has force weapon, LBing it to 2 is not really worth it. Most likely the fight is over before you can reach a 2nd force time. That may change if you have 3 force awakened characters though, since you build the gauge faster.
More on another video. Too much to discuss.
Also I did not realise this Kain is not at BT+3 lol.