Persona 3 - Low Level Part 23: World Balance & Fierce Cyclops

Channel:

MoogleBoss

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Published on June 20, 2014 4:12:33 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NGq0DRY5NM

Game:

Persona 3 (2006)

Duration: 11:15

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13

Challenge playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSv8zSDR9c28XzFFSOOfN_E02Ybp1SK5

The last Tartarus block continues, this time with one of the challenge's highlight - World Balance has been the toughest enemy faced in the run thus far.

Now let's have a look why World Balance is so hard again. All physical attacks are resisted, meaning Vorpal Blade spam isn't very effective. It's got magic of all four elements, single and multi target, almighty spells and also instadeath magic. Doesn't sound so bad yet?

The biggest quirk is that putting up a magic mirror (the usual method of dealing with non-absorbed magic in this run) causes the boss to use nothing but Megido-type spells, which obviously have damage potential too disastrous for this type of run, even with attack down on the boss.

Now, I did consider putting up a magic mirror anyway. Why? The boss loves to penetrate the party's weaknesses, granting it an extra attack, so I thought if dodgetanking would be my way to survive this fight then I might as well ensure I only have to dodge one single spell per turn. However, this plan wasn't anywhere as successful as it is on paper.

Even though I have a 99 mag Taraka with Megidolaon and Bufudyne with maximum ice buff, the resisted Vorpal Blade is still a valid option due to its knockdown chance, as it enables me to crit and get a second strike and possibly even dizzy the boss - this is especially valuable as I can take a breath for one extra turn and maybe actually not die. Sadly, this is also rather rare.

In terms of Akihiko debuffs, speed is top priority, then defence - most of our damage is inflicted by using up patiently farmed Megido Gems anyway. It's pretty much a waste of time to even bother reducing the boss's attack, I found.

The boss's attack pattern seems to change as its HP goes down, with it developing a fondness of instadeath spells (surprisingly accurate ones too - just look at my Homunculus stack deplete rapidly) and then aiming at party members' weaknesses with special accuracy during the moribund phase.

I needed a ton of attempts just to record this victory and when I succeeded (see this video) for the first time, my PSP got bricked so I had to restart all over again and I couldn't win the next many battles either. I ended up going for a knockdown strat with an opening casting of Revolution, which was very luck-reliant, but then again, um, this victory is even moreso.

I sure hope Nyx isn't many times more luck-reliant than this dood!

I also included the fourth and penultimate Tartarus boss fight against the Fierce Cyclops trio. These folks use physical attacks that they resist (sans Primal Force), and Mazionga which they nullify, so mirrors of both kinds are in order. It helps to restore Attack Mirrors immediately, because a Vorpal Blade followed by another Vorpal Blade is a bit too much fun for our frail party.

Since they deal pretty okay damage to themselves, I open by reducing their defence and then focus on Taraka casting Megidolaon while the rest maintain the mirror protection and use Megido Gems for 150 dmg per action.

It's an easy one after World Balance that's for sure! The next (and last) is also a nasty one, though.

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