DFFOO [JP][Thancred Raid Lufenia+][Alt Run] Return of the Void and Paradigm Shift
28It has been some time since Exdeath and Serah show their faces. As interesting as this boss is, this would probably be the last alt run.
Exdeath may be the last BT unit before Lufenia+ but he definitely still has his worth to this day. The most dated thing about him to this day is actually just his HP dumps. In comparison to other traditional units he needs far less for his niche to function. As his mechanics bypass all sorts of BRV dmg/Def/BRV cap etc, all he realistically needs is ATK (which is what he scales off of) and some BRV gain. I didn't even use extreme BRV gains and BT units, it is just Serah and Rem providing the ATK and BRV gain and he is back to his self again.
At HA+3 Exdeath is actually the only one unit that has that highest HP cap. As I am a poor person, so he is not even close to max here. So with a bit of HP cap increase his HP dumps are actually not bad even in today's standard.
On top of that Exdeath's niche is his HP poisons. Compared to Yda, Exdeath has 3 layers. 2 of which activates on enemy's turn and the one on his BT activates whenever an action from either side is taken. So it is highly abusable and adds up a lot to his "outdated" HP dumps. In this fight bosses actively jump turns to get consecutive turns even to kill themselves faster.
There are two more things that make Exdeath really good in this fight. His LD debuff sucks the boss BRV to 0 and unable to deal HP dmg. He also has stacking ATK down from armor and different debuffs, further reducing risks.
Serah on the other hand takes advantage of the multitude of debuffs for her LD to take effect. She also has 2 sets of poison for the orb. The extra BRV regen + Rem's battery also makes Exdeath not completely relying on his own battery. Her C88 also gives 10% BRV gain for the party and overflow, so it is really nice for Rem and Exdeath. By stacking her LD buff and Rem's evenly distributed LD buff, the team has relatively no trouble dealing dmg.
Again, I forgot to bring debuff evasion, so I lost a bit of time when the paralysis hits. Not really in danger but it costs turns to wait to out. Good thing it only happened twice. This and waiting for the layers of BRV + HP poison to take effect each turn is the main reason why this run takes a bit longer.
I think Exdeath will be really powerful whenever his BT+ drops. Adds some extra ATK, maybe increase the scaling a bit and gives him inherit BRV gain (which should be pretty standard EX extension II) would make him quite ridiculous already with all those off-turn HP poison.