DFFOO [JP][New Year Campaign MQ Series 3 Part 5] It's Astos, but no BT phase because of too much DPS
16Not the most optimal play ever, but it works just fine. Find a Aerith that is ... simply lost, so there are two Aeriths.
Sometimes having too much DPS causes problems. Hellhouse have some wicked threshold mechanics that you need to manage. It is easier this time because there are less to worry about. That doesn't mean hyper DPS strategy need no adaptation.
NYC Mission Quest Series 3 Part 5
Game Series involved: 3/7/11/SoP (O), Dominant Serie: 7
Chaos | Act 3 Chapter 1part 1 | 3/7/11
Lufenia | ? | 7/11/SoP
Shinryu | Act 4 Chapter 1 part 1 | 3/7/SoP
Hellhouse was actually challenging a few months back. It still has annoying mechanics but there are a few fundamental differences:
1. There are no turn requirements (unless you really struggle to hit the score)
This used to be a bottleneck for people because the boss has accelerated FR charging and the cancelling weakness can only be achieved by Aerith or Minwu FR. It lasts for 20T and it ALMOST disables all kinds of HP dmg that you can do to it. (You can still overcome it with a LOT of HP dmg up though, so not impossible) It had a tight turn count so it was a problem.
This time, if you are willing, you can casually wait it out if you can withstand its attacks.
2. There are no HP dmg requirements
This means you don't have to care about the boss's threshold HP gravity attacks. They will never kill you and you will not fail the perfect due to this event. As such healing is not compulsory to cover the HP loss.
What troublesome things are still there?
1. High dmg output
This boss hurts. It has multiple mechanics that can up both BRV/HP dmg. Moreover, it starts to have multiple follow-ups after a certain point of the FG.
Those includes HP attacks and will most likely kill you.
In turn you can use Zack for his BRV shield (FR for party) and mitigation to tackle this. The golden framed buff from Aerith BT has a 100% HP dmg resist (multiplicative) that can prevent dmg as well. I guess you can choose to use paralysis to disable the boss's on turn attacks as well with Cloud.
2. 2 lives and thresholds
It transforms and get a renewed life bar after reaching 20% HP. Everything is dispelled and it puts on a buff that further reduces HP dmg dealt to it at 70/40% in its 2nd life. It also puts nasty debuffs onto your characters. If you go blindly into a BT phase without knowing this, you mostly will get stuck due to this.
DPS control is needed. It is possible to deplete more than 70% with Astos, but how to get close to 70% is something you need to think about. If you are already in Astos BT phase, most likely you will get it lower to 70% or not enough to one shot with the next move. Maybe you can do it with a Leo friend (idk, i did not bother to try). I chose to play it safe.
Having Aerith putting her debuff onto the boss is the easiest and most convenient way to deal this. She needs to act after the boss gets its 2nd life, because all debuffs have been removed. Using dispeller CAs work as well, but you need to get the timing right because it has 2 thresholds that put on that buff.
If you don't have Aerith FR/BT, remember you can bring a friend in mission quest with 0 penalty. Aerith friend should not be the hardest thing to find.
Otherwise stack a ton of HP dmg up to counteract that FT effect is the way to go (or as mentioned, wait it out).
I made a mistake of not using the Hope CA to extend Astos' EX buff and not launching during brothers summon to get his Dark Matter to a higher level. Also two Aerith means less HP dmg up for him. He would have one shot the boss from above 70%, but it really wasn't a big deal because I played safe this time.
OK's LD would have been of great help if Astos BT was used. CoD was the only other 3 character that I have "built", but even then there is no BT. So I may as well use OK for his ability of giving free skills and swapping turns.