DFFOO [JP][En. Campaign MQ Series 2 Part 4] Interceptor
10There are obviously faster and simpler ways, but this is an old stage anyways, so may as well limit myself not to spam echoes and rely on friend DPS this time with older units for a challenge.
I did have some more limitations this time, because there are very few throw weapon units with FR/BT (yes, I don't have Hope FR) and there are practically 2 people with FE only.
Ideally I would have used Kimahri with Shadow and possibly Ace instead of Cissnei, but because of the two points above, it has caused complications. Otherwise, using Shadow is actually much more intuitive than the current one.
There is a very bare minimum amount of HP dmg cap up in this one (only Quina), so it is a very "down-to-earth" run as opposed to the ridiculous numbers we have been so accustomed to.
The weapon types in question this time are spears (sp) and throwable (t) weapons, just to be clear.
Stages:
Chaos | Antlions x2 | 1Sp 2T |
Lufenia | Aranea LC -----Spirial Knights x2 | 2Sp 1T |
Shinryu | Llyud LC ------- Terror Armor x2 | 1Sp 2T |
About the Lufenia stage:
It is worth mentioning that after 80%, the bosses would enter "energy charge", taking reduced dmg and BRV gain themselves. If their turn comes up and they are not broken, they would cleanse all debuffs, remove your buffs and use a powerful attack on you. As a result, make sure they are not recovering from break when they act.
If you use the usual fodder party for the easier stages approach and try to get around it with something like a Raijin debuff, make sure you understand when the use it or they may surprise you.
Quick reminders on the Shinryu stage:
1. The stage is the same but because this is not a normal event fight, but a campaign MQ one, we don't need to concern ourselves with the HP requirement this time. So take as many debuffs as you would like. As long as you don't get hit by an actual HP attack, you can basically ignore that V stack debuff.
2. All attacks can be dodged, including their FA. That's why I wanted to use Kimahri and Shadow here. All of the threshold "attacks" (or event because technically they do not dmg, not even BRV) can be dodged and they don't consume Rydia CA buff stacks. This makes Shadow's counterattack and evasion quite handy for extra DPS.
3. Bosses always start like this: ST - ST - AOE - AOE - (repeat) ST .......
4. You CAN indeed use Yuffie, who has just got her FR/BT to throw the V stack debuff back at the boss. They are not immune to it. However, since the debuff scales off your character's HP when you throw them back, it only does around 7K HP dmg poison to them.
5. Mog is quite good for this stage with his FR as he has guaranteed confusion and auto cleanse.
That's about it. This stage is quite fun. It is kinda gimmicky and not too punishing. It is an early Shinryu, so DPS requirement is not high. You can mess around with old and new characters, see if they allow any new synergy you haven't tried before.
I used Quina mostly because Cissnei's BRV dmg sucks on her own (Shadow simply ignores DEF so he has much less of an issue) and his FR just requires break and frog stacks (hence the early BT phase). I would have used Mog instead had the 2T guaranteed confusion not worked against Shadow.
I might not have tortured the boss enough at the end and used a late Shadow LD than I would like to. There could have been a few more counters, but he got the job done nonetheless.