DFFOO [JP][Krile IW] Kain BT+3, Garnet and Auron FLv20 - the first person to ever have 5 LD uses
19As much as I like Intertwined Wills more, it is probably best to get used to calling it "Intersecting Wills" due to the GL official name. Luckily it is still IW.
As expected, IWs and character events are usually easier and less tankier than the main story chapters, summon and dimensions end bosses. It is still a worthy opponent and beefy thought as a Shinryu difficulty boss.
Couldn't get Krile FR, but (got Kain BT lol) may realize her EX, there is a reason for it which will be detailed later. This event does give us a lot more ideas of how Shinryu difficulty and certain characters' FR/FLv works, so do check out the last part of the description.
Reduction reminder:
BRV refund/consumption reduction: limited to 80% of max holding BRV
80% HP/BRV/BRV gain reduction
Seems to be the standard going forward. Will remove this section if it is the same every time in the next few events.
Force mechanics:
Weakness: Thunder aspected Force ability
Force Attack:
Recovers from break, AoE BRV+HP attack, BRV gain, guaranteed hits
FT:
Resist break and limit BRV to at min. 20% mBRV
Force Gauge Effect: (retains until FT is over)
Speed: 1.5 - 2.0 - 2.5
40%: BRV gain after action
60-80%: BRV dmg taken reduction for all non-thunder attacks (30%-50%)
Basic mechanics
Red aura: powering up for Gigaflare: DEF down, locked turns (break included)
The red aura is not gone until gigaflare is used. Gigaflare is a BRV gain + HP attack, so the usual Fran/Kadaj/Arciela CA would help with this if it is the recast version. Do note though, if this Gigaflare is happening during FT, the boss has a min. of 20% mBRV and cannot be broken, thus you would need mitigation / Raijin CA etc to get through the dmg even if you cut down its BRV gain.
Other than Gigaflare, they also use Tidal Wave and Atomic Ray that can hit pretty hard as well if they are targetting ALL.
For ST, if they are not doing a simple BRV/HP, they will do a paralysis inducing attack. From my experience, it always happen after the first ALL attack, so plan accordingly with Raijin CA/Lenna debuff immunity etc.
The boss itself is not awfully complicated, but you do need some kind of mitigation and possibly thunder enchant to avoid extra BRV dmg reduction due to the FG effect.
Also note that since the boss is immune to breaks during FT, your dmg if not treated with Critical buffs would usually result in less dmg output. So I chose to avoid going into FT until their FT is over.
I have done this IW 5 times already. My first few runs was actually with Raijin instead of Garnet because of the paralysis, HP dmg up debuff and you can inflict paralysis back at them while stalling for Kain's off-turn attack. Later I changed to garnet for even more support, and off-turn dmg. It does feel more turn efficient, but Raijin is certainly worth a mention.
What we can learn from Krile's IW:
The reason why Garnet and Raijin (or their CAs) are considered is not just because of the extra BRV reduction penalty, it was because I wanted to test if you can just enchant Kain's FR ability with thunder and stop the enemy force gauge.
The answer is a resounding YES. You can fulfil the thunder aspected force ability requirement without using a naturally thunder based force attack. You can see the friend Kain's FR does not stop it because he did not receive Garnet's enchantment as he came in, but my Kain's did.
So it seems the conditions are not really restrictive, and you can possibly combine certain effects to meet the requirements.
What we can learn from Krile's FR/Force Levels:
1. Extra effects on FR
Unlike Kain's FR ability which strictly is just a battery-launch attack that hits really hard, Krile's FR has an added effect of HP dmg based BRV refund outside of her EX/LD or existing buffs and auras. That means future FR may not just be an attack that initiate FT, but has desirable effect added to characters' kit.
2. FR condition
The 2nd condition on Krile's FR seems to designate to specifically giving ally battery on her own turns (don't have it so I can't test), in contrast to her first and Kain's team-wide conditions. So some character's FR induced FT may not be easy to build as a team.
3. Force level for non-attack moves and Character Roles
The official showcase showed that upon using her S1, the FT HP bonus jumped up by 75%, but only 20% comes from the second condition on her FT. The rest is actually coming from her force level enhancement for S1. She gets +3% force gauge speed and +25% HP bonus in FT when she uses her S1, and another stackable 25% at Lv25. So you can get 50% without her FR just by using her S1 (still effective in ally's FT).
So potentially there could be (support) characters that can be extra helpful even without their FR that is worth FL investment for jump starting the FT HP bonus building by spamming certain non-attack abilities. Might lose some on-turn dmg, but can compensate with off-turn or highly amplified attacks in later turns with built-up bonus.