DFFOO [JP][Long time no see] If you move, I will hit you back with fire/cards/fists and kicks
34As I was investigating the hierarchy of taunt buffs and conducting further tests on Rubi, I thought why not throw some older characters into the mix. So another "long time no see" episode has been born.
This is a run on the Kuja IW stage where bosses respawn after a turn if bosses are not killed at the same time. Well it is Eight we are talking about, so expect the runtime to be a little bit longer for all the counters. Also, since both of Ace and Eight do not have FE on my JP acc, it takes a bit longer to charge FG.
Honestly, I don't think I have ever intentionally pulled Eight's LD on both versions, and I don't think I have used him since the beginning of Lufenia. If I did something silly, then I am sorry lol.
He is actually still very helpful especially with his double layered counters. They are from different sets of skills, so it counts twice for Rubi's FR. He also counters if he evades failed off-turn debuff attempts and boss counters individually. He contributes to a large portion of the FR% and dmg in this run.
His BRV dmg is surprisingly competent despite having no UW due to sharing the same type with Rubi.
Ace has been a come-and-go partner with numerous off-turn dmg FR before. His BT effect is no longer as outstanding as before, but his mechanic is still very solid and sound. Having individual trap triggers on both allies or enemies' turns that scales with the number of enemies surely make Ace still quite relevant to this day, despite being practically untouched since his C90.
Weirdly a lot of type-0 characters seem to work well with Rubi. You can sub Eight with Machina, Ace with SIce using Lulu CA/Neon.
This boss does not even have that much turn by themselves. Through countering their counters however, they were destroyed before Rubi could even use his FR(e).
The start of Rubi FR was a bit flawed, as Kraken B was still above 90% and would not counter Rubi. So there was a bit of FR% lost.
All in all, they are still quite competent if you find the right boss and off-turn FR for them.
The Hierarchy of Taunts:
As to why Eight can still be used with Rubicante FR, here are some reminders and new findings on the relationship between different types of cover/taunt buffs/debuffs.
As far as I can remembered and tested, there are roughly 3 levels of taunt buffs/debuffs. Representing the priorities, from top to bottom:
1. Cover buffs (Auron/Galuf/Gladio)
2. Taunt all buffs (Rubicante/Leila)
3. Lock debuffs (Edge/WoL/Basch etc.)
General Principle:
(A) Buffs with higher priority would override the ones on the lower levels. For example, in the case of WoL/Rubicante/Gladio in the same party, enemies would always target Rubicante and Gladio would always cover him if a ST attack is used.
Whatever lock debuff your other characters have, alongside Rubicante and Leila they will never be targeted.
In this run, Rubicante gets all of the ST attacks. AOE simply affects everyone, so both Rubi and Eight would counter as usual.
(B) Enemy counters are not affected by the typical targeting system (character portrait on the boss). Level 1/2 characters cannot get the boss off of the subject of boss counter. However, cover tanks (level 3) would always get in front of a countered character.
(C) Rubicante vs Leila (Special):
As far as I remembered, Rubi is the second character that has a taunt all buff. So this is a new interaction that needs to be investigated.
This one is rather special. They can actually wrestle enemy focus off of the other character. The way of achieving this is to use whatever skill that provides the taunt all buff (S1/EX for Rubicante; S2 for Leila's overhead). Using those skills would immediately turn the boss targeting to the said character.
This is for pure academic purposes/curiosity or if there is another character that has a similar buff mechanic later down the line. As Leila's debuff make the enemy miss occasionally and that would sabotage Rubicante's counter opportunities. There is very little reason why you would put the two together.
Conclusion:
1. Cover tanks are persistent saints. They will protect you from ST attacks even if you don't want to, regardless of the attack being a normal targeting one or a counter.
2. Rubicante and Leila can redirect targets from one and other using their respective "taunt all" buff skills.
3. Lock debuff characters get override by literally everything else in this category.
4. In the case of AOE or even exclusively AOEing bosses, all these matter very little as they can all coexist and carry out their counters normally.
Special note to using WoL FR x Rubi. The shield part works perfectly fine, as the condition only requires a shield to be hit. So it can be done on any party members. Potentially you can enjoy both 50% HP dmg cap up from WoL's FR and Rubi's BT while Rubi draws fire.
The only downside is WoL would lose 20% on his active turns as he is not hitting anyone that is targeting him. Thus this combo is situationally good.
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