DFFOO [JP][Theme run] An Assembly of Blue Mages
23A final one for Quina focused teams. This time featuring blue mages across different entries of the series. Since both Kimahri and Strago have something quite desirable tied to their EXs, they are chosen to enjoy a run with Quina's high tide.
No Quistis this time because she is quite capable of getting her EX up on her own already. Otherwise it would be quite a fitting collection of blue mages from 8-10.
A little bit of context about this stage:
These Krakens are from Kuja's IW, fitting for a fellow IX cast member I suppose.
The main gimmick is unless you enchant your characters, they simply resist every type of dmg. On top of that, they counter any elemental BRV dmg that is other than Holy aspected and it would inflict blindness as well. Unless you have debuff immunity, you don't want to get hit by those.
One last major thing is they revive each other if one is left alive after a single attack is used on them. You would have to kill them both at the same time otherwise they just keep respawning.
For these reasons, Kimahri's true blind is helpful to avoid the counters, bosses' on turn attacks and the blindness debuff.
All Strago's attack are 100% AOE, so it is very effective for maintaining a semblance of balanced dmg considering the respawn mechanic, even though there are launches and some ST attacks involved.
The fellow blue mages
Kimahri is still stuck in his C90 form. So his dmg is lacking in this era. Though his EX debuff "True Blind" still offers quite of convenience and safety on bosses that do not have a guaranteed hit attack.
Strago's EX is simply a nuke. 8 HP hits may seem only decent in this day and age, but the fact that his FR gives 50% HP dmg cap up and his natural cap is at 144K makes him still very powerful when you can spam his EX.
Coincidentally Strago's FR partner is Kimahri, so he really is quite involved in this team.
High Tide and Selphie buff
Normally, both Strago and Kimahri can get their EXs back up after 2 skill uses after the first EX is launched. Kimahri in paritcular, has been able to get his recast up immediately using the HP++ (instant turn rate) after a LD use. If you are in a FT, however, that would be using 3T just to fire his EX again.
If you have both high tide on Quina and Aura on every party members, both Kimahri and Strago can attain 1 skill 1 Ex. Strago is a bit trickier, as he sometimes misses a tiny bit of recast to get to full. I took off one of his "buff and get small speed up" passive in this run, and it seemed to work perfectly fine. So before the Bahamut moment, he and Kimahri used this method to get a faster EX cycle.
Finally just to reiterate on a slight potential problem/downside due to using Selphie. Selphie puts on a few framed buffs on to allies and Aura lasts much less than Wall. So it is rather unlikely that you would be able to get rid of Wall before Aura falls off. Unless you choose to either not use Wall (alternatively, its CA) or reapply Aura as it falls off.
These buffs take up buff slots. In this run, it potentially causes problems for Strago. He needed to let the Aura buff go before entering summon phase, such that the Baahmut EX recast buff can be applied on the slot that is just previously occupied by Aura. It may seem a little detail, but without putting care into this, you may be stranded with a Strago without EX at a critical DPS moment and costs you an effective FT and potentially a run.