DFFOO [JP][Transcendence 9] Vincent LD, Laguna BT, Freya - no tank, buff block and no Vincent BT
13Good thing about starting late in JP is I have absolutely nothing on these two banners, so I stand to gain something. The bad things is when bad luck is in place and even with you showering them with tickets, only 2 LD pops up, not even a Galuf EX. Though I am interested in all 3 other remaining LDs coming up so I am not in a hurry.
The two Lufenia crucibles are not really too much trouble, I will just put a general description and move on to the middle boss.
All 3 bosses have all LETHAL orbs.
Left Gate: Fang LC Sahagin Shaman
Orb: 10
+1: Inflict 2 debuffs in 1 action
+2: 4 debuff present when boss takes a turn
-1: player turn
Completed with two teams actually because party changed for the middle one. The first one was did with Seymour, Fang and Vincent. It is basically debuff spam and Fang dazing everything.
The second one was with Laguna, Selphie and Vincent.
Right Gate: Ciaran LC bears
Orb: 8
+1: character with a 5 stack buff/special effect
+1: Golden framed buff presence when boss turn ends
-1: player turn
-2: boss turns
Team used was Prishe, Freya and Kadaj. The bears ofc have their signature 250% BRV dmg reduction + BRV gain until broken, so Kadaj EX for 0 gravity shave + break, BRV gain block and golden framed debuff. Freya for 5 stacks and Prishe just melt them.
Middle Boss: Angry --Bird-- Hawk
Super beefy duo boss with an intense amount of threshold mechanics.
Orb: 30
+4: Inflict 4 debuffs in 1 action
+2: presence of golden framed debuff when boss turn ends
-1: player turns
-3 x buff: when boss successfully puts on buffs
The boss puts cleanses and puts on 5 buffs at a time (thresholds), meaning the orb would drop 15 suddenly.
Team used for clear: Laguna, Vincent (LD), Freya
Mechanics:
Attacks:
Boss normally cycles between a few things: ST wise: a heavy BRV attack (wing bust), standard HP attack if too much BRV held, Frost kick with speed down. These are not too much of a problem unless it has a shield and BRV dmg up buff.
Target ALL attacks are troublesome HP attacks. Lightning kick has BRV gain and BRV hits. Recast hits very hard with BRV gain and BRV hits. It also give the boss a text based buff "harden", reducing magic/melee BRV dmg and increasing DEF.
Thresholds:
1. Provoke: 1mil BRV dmg shield that reduces 50% HP dmg and BRV regen
2. Stand up straight: Cleanse 5 (framed inclusive) buffs + put on 5 unframed buffs, sometimes
These two happens at a LOT of HP thresholds, sometimes coming at the same time.
89%: Shield + Cleanse
69%: Shield
59%: Cleanse
49%: Shield + Cleanse
29%: Shield + Cleanse
19%: Cleanse
9%: Shield + Clenase
Tips for the shield + recast:
Basically, shielding every 20% interval at a starting point of 10%. Other than the frequent buffs taking off 15 orb count being a problem, the shield's existence means you have to plan your timely BRV shaving or use some kind of extra help to deal with it (such as Prishe BT/LD with doubling BRV hits).
1. Pushing one off the threshold first, then AoE it while targetting the other one that is still taking dmg.
Plan the threshold push before the recast or they will just gain too much BRV and wipe you.
2. Preemptively delete turns with Zidane CA
More turns for shaving prior to shield is formed and the recast is reached. Otherwise it can be a doomed run.
3. Freya Jumps
Freya in the air means less BRV stolen, thus less dmg taken. Most importantly is you don't get broken with the BRV refund from the off-turn attack and ended up charging the recast more/ more dmg because of break bonus.
Tips for the cleanse, buffs and orb:
I tried different iterations with Prishe and Selphie, but it seems the most stable a second debuffer. So I changed to Laguna + Vincent instead of just Vincent.
Basic principle is it is mostly Laguna's S1, Ex, LD and Vincent's S1, S2, LD doing the orb work.
One trick to deal with the extremely frequent cleanse + buff (9%-29%/49%-59%) and orb decrease is just simply summon / BT phase in the middle of those thresholds lol. They still put on the buffs but the orb does not decrease. It is very easy to lose when you try to balance between DPS (beefy boss and 100 turn count), spamming debuff moves to save the orb and not running out of skills. So exploit it and your time becomes much easier.
Also bring some debuff + dispel calls, just in case there is a recast and the BRV dmg buff is not overwritten with debuff spam in time. You may be able to eat a Lightning kick with the buff but if a shield also happens to be up, it is very hard to salvage it.
My Selphie run ended at 10% because I wasn't aware of the last cleanse. Technically it is doable when you pace her LD use. If you put her LD debuff last not long before the threshold cleanse happen and other buffs being renewed, the debuff should stay to the right and safe from being cleansed, thus saving you some LD uses that way. The timing requires attention and bluestack crashing twice burns the last of my patience, so I did not do a clear with her.