DFFOO [JP[[Fujin FR Raid] C90 Caius with Gabranth FR
23Caius finally arrived with his C90/FR boards and it is pretty good. Well, it is Caius, so I have to give him 30 FLs.
It is the my initial and only clear because this boss is rather simplistic and I don't want to spend too much time on it. Basically, it is just delay them and win. The biggest obstacle was the dmg reduction when your attacks are not win based as their FG goes up and at times without wind attacks, you get self delayed by 1 turn.
I was gonna insert an EW dungeon track because the boss is, well, wind based. Ultimately I didn't just in case the song name is spoilers to some.
Boss info:
Standard Shinryu reduction
Force Mechanics:
FG:
0-40%: BRV gain after action
60-80%: non-wind dmg reduction (50/90%)
FA: Dragon Tornado (usual break recovery, BRV gain guaranteed AoE HP attack )
FT:
buff:
1.a minimum of 20% mBRV is kept to prevent breaking
2. HP dmg up
weakness: wind-aspected FA
behaviour: no change
They don't do too many special things, but they do come with a threshold field aura at 49% that delays you by 1 turn whenever you take an action during your turns. You can however dispel it with a wind aspected attack that has BRV hits.
They are the same birds from Desch LC but their magical and physical phases back then are not even a problem anymore in this one. The attacks are there but generally speaking they are quite generic.
You can get a wind enchant CA just to dispel and remove the dmg reduction from their FG effect as it approaches 80%+ and when there HP is expected to be pushed below 50%. Quite a simple fight that can be dispatched yet again with breaks and a CA. Using it with Raijin LDCA again allows you to just ignore their FA altogether.
Regarding Caius:
Caius reworks are mainly spread dmg increase on his base skills. The other big change is his LD, which composes of 7 HP dumps that hit like a bus now with big refunds.
He somewhat changed to a more Ex focused character following his C90 awakening, not unlike Noel. His EX now is the second hardest hitting attack. Other than standard power up package, his C85 included a much needed 15% recast speed up. So currently it is more desirable to have EX boosters like Llyud, Selphie, Rem and even the upcoming C90 Aphmau to back him up.
Had I had Enna Kro's LDCA, it would be a good boost to Caius's BT phase dmg now, so I can save LD for the biggest dmg spike instead of using it for free skills when the FR bonus is low. Alas, I don't have her, so that will have to be later when her LC shows up.
Debuff extension:
Another thing is Caius got a debuff update that everything he inflicts now is extended by 2 turns (it was 1 before). So there is even less reason to use S2 unless DOOM falls off. Then again, his C88 also got one extra use with this feature so that may be a better option with the added benefits of boosting your BRV cap.
Caius also features HUGE BRV refund and self battery now. So as you can see prior to the party being wind enchanted and is subjected to the bosses' heavy non-wind attack BRV dmg reductions, Caius can stay afloat with those refunds and deal near full dmg regardless. So he should feel much easier to use in different parties. Though you still need to consider the amount of debuff slots and it is also the reason I didn't try Seifer in this comp instead.
Caius BT with his new found UW weapon permit (mine is only UW+1) plus his HA+ armor and FR enhancements, his HP dmg cap is actually REALLY high on his own. His 3 HP dump S1 dmg is not unlike Gabranth's 4 hits. So it kinda balances the current small amount of HP dumps out on his base skills.
Overall Caius x Gabranth FR is a pretty good combo. When Vayne finally decided to come around and grace us with his C90, or Noel gets a rework, I will put them with Caius together once again.