[DFFOO JP][Cait Sith Lufenia+] Raw Cait Sith, Ashe and Vayne with no brv gain aura
4Wasn't going to pull Cait Sith, but his mechanic looks fun and appeared after 20 tickets, so here he is.
Another Lufenia+ with crazy defence gain after 80% HP threshold. The unfortunate circumstances is that new account has no Agrias and I couldn't find a Y'shtola friend and I got sick of using Bartz BT+ friend, so here is poor raw Cait with no additional brv gain auras (one of the reason why I keep using Y'shtola), may get him and Y'sh in a non-synergy fight later, feels like they would be capping though.
Honestly reminds me of the month of Chaos debut when 90% characters are pretty much hitting 1s and you try to battery your way through the low brv output.
Principle Strat: no additional add spawn with paralysis before HP thresholds
Starting phase:
(Some footage was cut because Brv reduction got to Bluestacks frames)
Call someone like Gabranth/Exdeath/Caius that appear with debuffing the enemy so main Boss gets sapped and renew the orb. Kill the adds but mind your brv and turn order before the final blow, if all of your units before boss turn get broken and pushed behind B, or the last member before B gets the killing blow, boss acts immediately and resummon the adds.
80%-100%:
Get paralysis off before the 79% threshold, be mindful of call debuffs rinsing it off, or boss takes a turn and consumed it. This is kind of a DPS phase to race against the orb, esp. with Ashe because she can only paralyse with EX, which takes like 3 of her turns to get it even with LD. Vayne is there to keep breaking and maintaining the orb, if the struggle is real, consider Quistis delay call or let boss take the turn to refresh the orb. Not the hardest considering you can do the most damage to boss B here.
60%-79%:
Orb is only gone in this period so pretty much the free setup phase that you pop your C65, calling again to debuff boss etc. If you have a Bartz / Y'shtola BT+, I believe it is not a bad idea bursting before entering the last phase that needs paralysis after 59%.
40%-59% and to the finishing line:
The last phase that boss will gain an instant turn at 39% HP (and renew the orb if sap is still there), pretty much the 80%-100% phase but once the paralysis is applied and it is not getting pushed off and properly setup, it is time to throw all the burst and summon and finish the boss.
Difficulty of this team:
1. No Brv gain aura
It hurts Cait Sith's mechanic, but he pretty much carries the last portion of the fight regardless, esp, when you have 2 dps with crazy amount of follow-ups.
2. Vayne and Ashe
They compliment but work against each other in this particular fight. Ashe helps with imperial, enchant and more importantly, giving turns and recharging EXs: Ashe for paralysis; Vayne for regaining 3 stacks to continue breaking the boss with continuous turn to maintain the orb.
They work against each other in the sense that Vayne's DPT was really high and kept going, the boss was about the hit the HP threshold when Ashe is still finding her turns to use her Ex for paralysis. So balancing between these two arch-nemesis is crucial (and kinda poetic).
3. Too many debuffs/buffs
I tried this with various comps, even with odd units like Beatrix (just saying, she was doing really good with her off-turn dmg and battery) but in the end there were too many debuffs and buffs that push things off like Ashe's paralysis. I had a smooth run at 40% and then Ashe pushed her own paralysis off because there were 7 other framed debuffs and that run unfortunately died because of one oversight.
Thoughts on improvements and regrets:
1. Had to use Odin and Quistis LD call early to manage orb vs turns. Otherwise the additional brv gain from her LD call would help a lot, esp. when it is slapped on Cait Sith who basically sit there as an aura bot while Vayne does his thing.
2. No Agrias / Y'shtola
Agrias is perfect for this: brv gain and pretty much on-demand paralysis. Using Ashe is like a poor man's choice as she is my only unit with paralysis on this baby account.
3. Calls
Again, a new account syndrome that is not a whole lot of choices for debuff calls, I imagine a lot more further optimization is possible when my GL account arrives at this point.
-TLDR-
All in all, Cait Sith has an interesting mechanic that can be utilized with plentiful of units that has a lot of hits. With future reworks adding more brv hits to units, his value would probably keep rising. He does not replace Setzer in that you do not actually hit the brv caps, but you do HP damage, so you still need to be mindful of breaking enemies. Brv gain reduction hurts, he can pull his own weight and is a nice addition to tackling Lufenia+ crazy def mechanic.