DFFOO [JP][Spiritus Shiva][Alt Run] Vivi strat with no Edgar - Doomsday and Ember of Darkness
18Just a quick no Edgar strat with the beloved Vivi instead.
Funny enough in this particular fight, other than the capabilities of inflicting all 3 attack type imperils, you can largely use Vivi just like Edgar with a little bit of BRV dmg/BRV gain help lol.
Key points:
1. Imperils
Without Edgar, the only way to deal with the final aura levels would be to inflict all 3 attack type imperils separately with CAs, unless one of the characters can provide such things:
Hope LDCA - magic
Auron CA - melee
Irvine LDCA - range
Among these, Irvine LDCA is of particular importance.
Due to the fact that there are randomly targeting off-turn petrification at particular HP thresholds, and all CA slots have been used such that Rydia LDCA cannot be used (again, unless one of the characters brought can imperil), without intervention it would be all up to that 20% character evasion from summon board to let you dodge that pesky petrification.
With Irvine LDCA providing a semi-blind debuff, you have a pretty good chance of dodging it. The target here is the one that happens at 60%.
The ones at 30% matter less as they typically delay themselves and summon phase would allow you to push their turns away, such that it is highly unlikely that you would get one shot.
This method is not 100% foul proof as Irvine LDCA is not 100% blind. One way to be rid of this randomness would be to use BT before hitting 60%.
Beware though Auron CA only has 3T and while Vivi is capable of dispelling the aura in his own BT phase, the shield at 20% may halt your momentum for quite a bit when you try to push through with the remained of your FT.
Vivi:
- Ignore DEF
Both Vivi LD (Doomsday) and its follow-up (Embers of Darkness) inheritably ignore defence. That alone already is enticing for dealing with the final phase.
What's more fascinating is since Vivi's follow-up does not occur ON his turn, but rather, after. Therefore you can have 2 windows of pushing a threshold or dealing some dmg after your cmd abilities has pushed a threshold with just one action.
- Dealing with Aura Levels
When you need to lower to aura levels during the final phase, once you get the boss to near 1%, you can just spam Focus (S2) or C88. They are instant turn rate, and followed by Embers of Darkness, ignoring defence and lowering aura levels. In this regard the operation is not unlike spamming Edgar LD.
One thing worth noting is that Vivi's doomsday stacks can reach 5 or above and giving +1 to the aura. At the same time you need Embers to lower the aura levels, so you still need some stacks. The best course of action would be to renew Doomsday during BT (specifically the 3rd last turn before FR), such that the LD stacks would look like this:
end of BT: 6
after 2 uses of FR echo: 4
4 is the magic number, as it does not contribute to any aura levels, but at the same time just enough to obliterate all 4 aura levels if no other characters are involved in the process.
This bit of operating Vivi is quite similar to Cor, where his stacks is an double-edged sword as well.
(Edit: I thought about this afterwards. Maybe Vivi's "stacks" fall under the duration category more than "special effect stacks" if we go by old Lufenia orb conditions fulfilment. Other than Cor, typical stack levels are denoted by roman numerials. Not 100% on this, but I am leaving this section in just in case)
- Not really elementally locked out
The stage itself starts with a 80% BRV dmg reduction on any elements other than ice/water. That barely matters after all the BTs are on. When Sherlotta BT is involved, you can largely ignore this hurdle. Even the extra 90% BRV gain reduction, DEF up + shield is more troublesome than this bit.
You can even see Vivi's Double Fire+ at the end dealing full dmg despite having 1 BRV dmg.
Cid Raines is mostly there to enable launching and cancelling enemy FT. He is also a backup aura destroyer and a turn manipulator.
I goofed a little bit at the end, not realising Cid's Ruinga buff has fallen off. Good thing that Vivi can solo the aura and dmg at the end, so that was not too determinant on the success.
Also ideally the start of FT should have all 3 people and Cid at the end to ensure maximum FR bonus. Sherlotta's turn did not have a perfect set up, so there was a 20% lag throughout Vivi's BT phase. This setup is very achievable, but since the HP threshold locks exist, as long as the milestones are reached, the sequence sort of fixed itself by disregarding the overflow dmg anyways, so I just winged it from there. This goes to show that as annoying and demanding this fight is, there is quite a bit of wiggle room.
I think I have enough fun for this stage for now. Getting to use Vivi was the great motivator for doing this run.