Nyarlathotep's Dungeon: Monado Mandala Week 5

[Nephrite]

"You are starting to annoy me again. Alas, I am still enjoying myself... Let's see what you can do this week."

Team Snowfire and Glen vs. Floor 4
Team Namagomi vs. Floor 1

Team Snowfire's Matches

Floor 5c: Fly Me to the Moon

Battle #21: Luna, Alex, Lucia and Ghaleon (EB/EBC Boss)

Luna: Alex...!
Alex: I will protect you, Luna!
Lucia: Ghaleon, I expect of you...
Ghaleon: Yes, yes... I'm aware.

Battle #22: Zeromus, Fusoya and Golbez

Zeromus: AS LONG AS THERE EXISTS DARKNESS OF THE HEARTS OF MORTALS...
Fusoya: Lunarians...
Golbez: I will defeat you.

Battle #23: Ramirez, Fina and Harle

Ramirez: Sister, do not give up.
Fina: Of course.
Harle: Oui Oui, let uz go forward, non?

Battle #24: Dolan, Kevin and Lugar

Dolan: I don't get any lines. :T
Kevin: Kevin think this fun!
Lugar: HRRR!!

Boss Battle #5: Orgulla and Margulis

Orgulla: I will kill you here.
Margulis: You're fools for facing me!


Team Glen's Matches

Floor 5a: Repeat? (After Midgame)


"Hahah! I have a special treat for you today..."

Battle #21: Guy, Guy, Guy and Guile

Guy: You guys are dead! I didn't lay down to the Sinistrals and I won't lay down to you!
Guy: Um... I guess if we have to do this, let's go.
Guy: Damnit, Luke! You're so stupid!

Battle #22: Kary, Karin, Killey and P3 Ken

Kyra: The power of Espers flow through me...
Kary: HUHUHU FIRE FIEND
Karin: A female soldier? In MY German army?

Battle #23: Alen, Alena and Alex

Alex: With the power of the Dragonmasters at my side, you're all toast!
Alena: For my kingdom!
Alen: Let us do battle.

Battle #24: Sara, Serra, Sarah, Sarah and Saradin

Sara: Light Dragons... protect me!
Serra: BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH I'M A BITCH
Sarah: If master Luc wishes it...
Sarah: SONIIIIC... BOOM!

Boss Battle #5: Nina1, Nina2, Nina3, Nina4 and Nina5

Nina: Let's go, for Windia!
Nina: No, it's Wyndia!
Nina: No no, I'm sure it's Windia...
Nina: ...Either way, we'll get you!


Team Namagomi's Matches

Floor 2b: Assaulting the Castle

"Well, let's see if you can manage to overtake this castle on your journey to me...

Battle #6: FFT Knight, FFT Archer, FF1 Black Wizard and FF1 White Wizard

Knight: They're assaulting the castle! Repel them!
Wizard: Haha... you'll never get past us!

Battle #7: Frog and Crono

Frog: I am sorry, Sir Crono, for dragging thou into such a fight.
Crono: ...!

Battle #8: Kain, FFT Lancer and FF3DS Dragoon

Kain: Dragoons! Let's stop them here!

Battle #9: Gilliam, Oswin and Galleon

Gilliam: You will not pass the royal guard!
Oswin: That's right! You'll have to kill all of us!
Galleon: Let's go, lads!

Boss Battle #2: FF4 DS Cecil and Nina4

Cecil: I'm sorry this had to happen while you were visiting, Princess.
Nina: It is quite all right... let us show them why they should not attack us.



---------------------------------------------



Team Snowfire | Purim, Jessica (Firefly), Garnet, Lyn, Rena
[Floor 5c]
Team Snowfire vs. Luna, Alex, Lucia, Ghaleon (EB/EBC)
Team Snowfire vs. Zeromus (FF4), FuSoYa and Golbez (FF4DS, No plot paralysis)
Team Snowfire vs. Ramirez, Fina and Harle
Team Snowfire vs. Dolan, Kevin and Lugar
*Full Heal
Team Snowfire vs. Orgulla and Margulis (XS2)

Team Glen | Cecilia, Raquel (Firefly), Lilka, Jane
[Floor 5b]
Team Glen vs. Guy(L2), Guy(FE7), Guy (ToTA) and Guile
Team Glen vs. Kary, Killey (S5), Karin and Ken (P3)
Team Glen vs. Alen, Alena and Alex
Team Glen vs. Sara (BoF1), Serra, PC Sarah (S3), Sarah (ShF1) and Saradin
*Full Heal
Team Glen vs. Nina1, Nina2, Nina3, Nina4 and Nina5

Team Namagomi | Geddoe, Rune, Kyra, Selan, FF5 Mime (Elemental Advance)
[Floor 2b]
Team Namagomi vs. FFT Knight, FFT Archer, FF1 Black Wizard, FF1 White Wizard
Team Namagomi vs. Frog and Crono
Team Namagomi vs. Kain, FFT Dragoon and FF3 Dragoon
Team Namagomi vs. Gilliam, Oswin and Galleon
Team Namagomi vs. FF4 DS Cecil and Nina4

Elemental Advance Sealstone: Every attack of the same element used in subsequent order gets a 25% boost. (25%, 50%, 75%, etc.) Both sides may take advantage of the same level of damage, but also break the chain with any other non-same spell. (For example, a lightning chain can be broken with a fire spell or any other elemental spell.) Physical effects and non-elemental magic do not take advantage nor break this chain.

[074]

Team Namagomi | Geddoe, Rune, Kyra, Selan, FF5 Mime (Elemental Advance)
[Floor 2b]
Team Namagomi vs. FFT Knight, FFT Archer, FF1 Black Wizard, FF1 White Wizard - The only one with actual speed here is the archer.  None of them are really that durable to magic, and Rune and Selan both still have solid to decent damage at this point.  If Archer gets a turn, he's only got an option for a basic physical if he wants to get something off...
Team Namagomi vs. Frog and Crono - Crono's getting a turn, and he's going to be doing some pain.  However, it's doubtful that Frog will ever see one.  It might be worth it to focus fire on Crono first, Telele Frog, and then heal up to full here before splattering him.
Team Namagomi vs. Kain, FFT Dragoon and FF3 Dragoon - This one's tricky.  I can see Kain and the Lancer getting splattered before they move(or Kain getting a jump laughed off)...but the FF3 Dragoon?  Jump means OHKO-level damage from him, and--oh.  Random speed?  Hm.  Might give him average here; I'm highly inclined to disrespect randomized speed in general. 
Team Namagomi vs. Gilliam, Oswin and Galleon - Gilliam and Oswin hate magic.  A lot.  Nuke them, then heal up while spamming Gra and Geddoe physicals against Galleon.  Easy match.
Team Namagomi vs. FF4 DS Cecil and Nina4 - Okay.  This fight is going to be a pain in the ass.  Both have setups that kill any status chances at all, and Nina IS getting Barrier off, without a doubt, thanks to her better-than-Crono speed, so respect really depends on either Rune damage respect, or allowing him the Psycho Wand(Itemcast full-field dispel) at this point, though Rune definitely has the Gi-spells and Seals by now.  This can be taken one of two ways: 

Nina casts Barrier on Cecil--
Everyone focuses fire on Nina, first thing.  Geddoe may have a Lv4 at this point, which he would do well to cast on Nina.  Firestorm(Gifoi+Hewn) might be a viable idea, not for Cecil, but Nina.  Selan does...something.  I think she's got viable magic at this point, or physicals.  Perhaps an IP built up by now that isn't wind-elemental.  Mime is hopefully able to do something that could finish Nina off by then--I'm not sure of how much Nina's WIS factors in, admittedly.  If Nina can get killed before she can act again, then Cecil should be left standing.  Use Psycho-Wand if available, Telele, start slugging.  Gra hits as hard as Wat at this point if Rune and Kyra are out of Hewn, and doesn't really have a definable type, to Rune's and Kyra's benefits, and their resources should be deep enough.  Cecil's healing genuinely blows, so it'll be uphill, but likely winnable.

Nina casts Barrier on herself[Ideal for enemy]--
Hewn does get around Cecil's array of resistances, and Cecil is slow enough that he's likely running into three shots of Hewn before he can act.  Unfortunately, it DOES run into Nina WIS, Barrier, and 25% Wind resist on her end, and it's questionable whether Geddoe can get a solid shot in on her as well.  If Geddoe can get a L3 or L4 spell off to hit her between when Cecil dies and Nina acts, this might be enough (despite the insane reduction) to force a decision of whether to heal herself or revive Cecil.  If she revives Cecil, then she'll get finished off, and then see above--only he doesn't have Barrier.  In the case that she fullheals, it depends on if Rune's got the Psycho-Wand up and Geddoe's got another good spell.  Stripping her defenses may be viable.

EDIT: Actually, by my calculations, Rune's better off, if he has it at this point(Which I'm barely seeing it here), using the Psycho Wand to disrupt Nina's barrier (roughly 1.6x normal -Kyra- Hewn damage after resists--though not factoring in her likely considerable WIS, versus roughly 1.4x off of three Hewns.), and PS4 characters can effectively delay their relative order if necessary--and I think Psycho Wand might be initiative(Or Rune's just that fast around the Zio fight.  Either way).  Factoring in either a potential IP from Selan or a physical (Will be hitting 25% physical reduction, but will neither be hitting her WIS nor Barrier, and Cecil can't set up cover until his turn), and then a L4 from Geddoe being let off after the Mime's Hewn (He's likely got ONE at this point, and S3 chargetimes are...fun.), and we may be seeing the potential for Nina going down from there.  Cecil himself has been taking a beating (Hewn gets by his array of resistances, frustratingly to him), and now he's got the choice of either trying for a slugfest (his healing is nowhere near full, team's guaranteed at least one more Hewn, if not more due to judicious use of combination attacks, and both Rune and Kyra know Gra as well, which can be hyped for pseudo-nontyped damage.  Trying for Raise runs into charge time off of his already poor speed, which is probably enough for most people to get one more turn to wipe him out (or just kill let him waste the spell and kill the 10% HP Nina).  Trying to physical doesn't help Cecil's case that much, as his damage is not impressive at ALL, to the point where Telele is probably wasted on him anyway.

It's a tough fight that is made more difficult by status immunity (Otherwise, Seals would have eventually made this a total and complete joke), but it's doable.  It really is based around one-rounding Nina with as much offense as possible, since being unable to do so otherwise would've caused some serious problems.

[Taishyr]

Random speed is generally treated as average, yes (FF1 springs to mind).

[SnowFire]

Team Snowfire | Purim, Jessica (Firefly), Garnet, Lyn, Rena
[Floor 5c]
Team Snowfire vs. Luna, Alex, Lucia, Ghaleon (EB/EBC)
Jessica Accelerates, Purim Blaze Walls the team.  That leaves Ghaleon, who has the choice of OHKOing Jessica every turn while someone revives her or of doing MT magic damage which just gets MT healed off.  (Also, Rena casts Anti, especially against the Magic strategy, so it's not like much healing is even needed.)  Doesn't matter too much, leave Lucia alive and paralyzed (use Balloon if re-applying Blaze Wall would kill her), then revive Jessica and heal everyone up.

Team Snowfire vs. Zeromus (FF4), FuSoYa and Golbez (FF4DS, No plot paralysis)
FuSoYa is really slow, Zeromus can't use Flare initially, and Golbez isn't that scary (his HP is still quite bad).  Zeromus charges Big Bang.  Jess Twin Dragon Lashes Golbez (possibly killing him depending on HP respect?).  Lyn doubles FuSoYa.  Golbez does something irrelevant (his damage is awful if MTed, if he Barrier Changes he still isn't surviving very long), so uh I guess he Osmoses Jessica.  Jessica has overkill MP and regenerates MP every round now with a staff, so good luck with that.  Garnet does whatever, Purim hits FuSoYa if Lyn didn't have a Killing Edge critical trigger and kills him, Rena...  casts Anti?  Zeromus can Black Hole it off, but it means his charged Big Bang is really laughable, and if Zeromus is having to waste turns to Black Hole, that's okay by me.  A wimpy Big Bang hits.  (Edit: Writeup originally had Jess using Kaboom, but that's a bad idea due to Z's magic counters.)

Anyway, Zeromus is no durability god, so he's likely going down shortly anyway to Twin Dragon Lashes + Lyn hits.  If you have more Zeromus durability respect, he still needs to get really lucky on his Big Bangs, which can't happen at all while Anti is up (or, if you see Big Bang as physical, Defender).  Wasting turns to Black Hole means that his offense is now really laughable.  MT healing to the rescue again.

Team Snowfire vs. Ramirez, Fina and Harle
Jessica Twin Dragon Lashes Fina out.  Harle arguably gets a turn, but she isn't scary until her second turn with Lunaretic anyway, which she is never going to see.  Harle gets Ballooned / Blaze Walled.

Ramirez is in the same dilemma as Ghaleon: he can ID Jessica every round as she gets revived, or unleash MT magic damage which gets healed off (even before Anti).  That doesn't work.  Once Ramirez is dead, revive & heal everyone up vs. the Paralyzed Harle.

Team Snowfire vs. Dolan, Kevin and Lugar
Okay, as a reminder for those who didn't click the link...  Dolan's the Moon God-Beast.  He's got a fairly scary MT magic attack in Spiral Moon that also lowers max HP by 20% (!!!).  Luckily SD3 stat boosts / debuffs don't stack, so it can't get worse.  Lugar is semi-infamous as an extremely difficult boss, but his damage is all from counters to special attacks and magic.  His regular physical is Zahhak-level.  Basically he exists to spoil MT magic damage like Garnet's summons in this fight.  Kevin's Kevin, and this time he will earn Shion's love he has good damage but is status bait.

So...  several options, notably Accelerate -> Blaze Wall Kevin, or just kill Kevin outright with Twin Dragon Lash + Lyn physical (doubled?).  Purim casts MT Lucid Barrier, which renders the chance of Lugar physicals mattering from "low" to "nil."  Dolan's Spiral Moon is dangerous, sure, but my team is mostly averageish durability (so survives 80% PCHPish damage), and Garnet's pretty magically tanky.  The two under possible threat are Lyn (meh durability in general) and Jessica (thanks to Firefly penalty).  Garnet can save one with Shell, though.  Let's assume Jess gets written off, and Lyn gets Shelled.  Then Rena casts Anti, and now Dolan has really no chance of OHKOing my party with damage, while Lugar struggles against the Lucid Barriers.  MT healing -> Dolan beatdown away, pretty much.

For what it's worth, not that it matters too much, but I definitely don't let Dolan spam Spiral Moon anyway.  He uses it quite rarely (thankfully!), which would make the later rounds of the fight easier.  As backup, I guess he could make an adorable Chibi-Lyn, but Purim's got Remedy and Garnet's got Mini.  So.

*Full Heal
Team Snowfire vs. Orgulla and Margulis (XS2)
Here's the short version.  I'll try and post a longer version later.

As an interpretation note, check out the last post in the XS2 topic.  Margulis has some HP-limits on his moves; most notably, he can't start making the Acala Seal right away.  In fact, Margulis is basically awful at more than 80% HP - he can't summon shadows (that'd be suicide anyway) or use MT physical damage or that cool stuff.  I'm not even sure he can Rakta, his best move (he doesn't use it too often), but I'm assuming he can for this topic.  Orgulla is mostly as stated, but let me note again that stat buffs / debuffs do NOT carry over between Eryu and Manes.  Quick'd Manes would be damn scary, but that won't happen.

In order to win, Orgulla & Margulis need to kill Jessica, then kill both revivers.  Three things give them fits: They are almost entirely ST (their MT options SUCK), their non-boosted damage is bad, and their good damage is all fire or ice elemental.  In other words, the only way they can make things die consistently is with Orgulla's Pound of Flesh (max the Boost Gague..)...  but she has to be in Manes mode to do this which is comparatively slow, and it only allows Margulis to kill one person at utter worst, basically.  Additionally, I am hosing their attempts to kill Garnet & Rena hardcore - Anti is going to be up the whole fight (halfish magic damage), Insulate (half fire & ice damage), and Lucid Barrier on Garnet & Rena (Orgulla's initial physicals get absorbed).  The need to kill through a constantly reviving Jessica is a big problem, as their damage restarts badly - even if they can kill a low-HP Jess in two actions, they only have 2 actions left to attack someone else.  To get the really insane damages, you need a full Boost gauge ready to go on one character and elemental chaining nonsense, which I'm not going to let them do.

On my side, my team is going to be Accelerated as well, allowing them to keep up.  More to the point, Lyn's best weapon right now is a Killing Edge anyway (this fact Elfboy approved), and Blade Lord Lyn has a nutty critical rate with it.  She's going to have an elemental Sabre on her from Purim as well, so she's going to be unloading great damage on Orgulla and hitting her elemental weakness (fire as Manes, Thunder as Eryu).  Orgulla is tanky, but this puts the battle on a short clock that means that things like recasting buffs don't become an issue.  The clock gets even shorter when other teammates aren't needed for support duty - notably, Garnet can nail Orgulla's elemental weaknesses as well with Ramuh for Eryu and Ifrit for Manes.  These are good damage anyway, and are getting a 50% and 100% boost respectively.  Rena can Growth Lyn, too.

Basically, if Orgulla goes for an Eryu strategy, their damage sucks too much and Orgulla dies before they can naturally build much boost.  If Orgulla goes for a Manes based strategy, Manes is too slow to keep on helping Margulis power out OHKOs, and his attempts to damage Rena or Garnet are hilarious fail.  If Orgulla switches to Manes, Pounds of Flesh, then switches back to Eryu...  the team still has the problem of killing Jessica without using Boost (not going to happen) and then killing Rena & Garnet.  With Lucid Barrier to mess up Orgulla and now unable to cheat the Boost gague back to three, that isn't happening.  (FWIW, this strategy would have been great if Lyn had the Firefly!  Quicked Eryu Orgulla *doubles Lyn* and could easily constantly flatten her.  Which is why Lyn doesn't have the Firefly.)

Long, overthought out version to follow.

[SnowFire]

I seriously overthought this battle because I thought for a good while that Manes could keep Eryu's Quick.  Might as well post the work anyway in case someone else picks the floor, though that makes the fight not nearly as potentially deadly.

Okay, a few "ways for SnowFire to have an easy victory" first:

* If you let bosses get hit by status not in their home-game.  Neither is perfectly status immune, and paralysis doesn't exist in XS2.  If you call that no resistance, then Purim Balloons them; if you give an average of their normal resistance or the like (they resist most statuses by 30-60% or so), then Purim casts MT Blaze Sword.  Now the entire team's physical damage is also offering a chance to paralyze 'em and a simple physical blitz renders 'em helpless.

* If you have high respect for turn-based speed boosting spells.  Most people in the DL seem to have reasonably high turn-based speed respect - I distinctly remember hype for Rika's Saner causing doubles the next round - but Jessica's speed-doubling Accelerate causes the team to hit better than Alena-level speed.  I personally cap max turn-based speed for getting doubles at 120% average, which is fairly low, but if you're the type who thinks Xorn was triple or better turning Ghaleon, then this fight is much much easier as the team likely hits whatever cap you set for turn-based speed.

* SO2 / FF9 equip cheese.  Esto Gaza is definitely Floor 5 legal, and the storebought Black Hood halves both Fire & Ice (and Thunder).  Definitely helps make both Margulis & Orgulla fail at killing her.  Rena...  slightly more questionable, but the Witch's Boots is an IC item that doesn't require the Magical Rasp and it *nulls* Fire.  What's it require?  MOONITE.  Come on, you know that plenty of that dropped from this floor if nothing else!  (You should have plenty by the Fields of X, anyway, which is Floor 5 ish for SO2.)

And for the reverse, the "thing that would cause SnowFire no end of pain":

* Not saying that Medica is once per battle for Eryu, or at least not really spammable.  She uses it quite rarely.  If a nearly-triple-turning-average boss with 4x PCHP can regenerate 3xPCHP a round, uh, yeah, that's Bluelike, Ryu3 can't handle that.  I checked with Nephrite on this one, and he agrees that the "spam Medica" stall strategy isn't legit.

Okay...  initiative.  I've assumed 7.29 AGL as the XS2 average; it's the straight average.  Personally, I'd use something more like 7.6 AGL, because swimsuits rule, for Ziggy & KOS if nothing else.  If you take into account swimsuits, Orgulla and Margulis get relatively slower but do a teensy amount more physical damage.

Eryu Orgulla: 16 AGL / 20 AGL quickened = 2.19 CTB / 2.74 CTB = 46 / 36
Manes Orgulla: 8 AGL = 1.10 CTB = 91
Margulis: 10 AGL / 12.5 AGL quickened = 1.37 CTB / 1.71 CTB = 73 / 58

The last set of numbers is the number of "clock ticks" it takes for them to get a turn assuming hitting CT 100 gives you a turn, like FFT.  So 100 / 1.10 = 91, etc.

Another wrinkle: If Margulis does something like boost Orgulla in after attacking, this moves Orgulla's turn forward to now.  In other words, boosting resets your CT to 0.  Probably not worth it, since that also messes up their elemental chains.

Lyn: 1.29 first turn, 1.00 CTB thanks to FE's system.  Accelerated: 2.38 initiative / 1.20 CTB
Jessica: 1.25 turn-based speed, 1.13 CTB.  Accelerated: 2.50 initiative, 1.20 CTB.
Garnet: 1.09 first turn, 1.00 CTB thanks to FF9's ATB speed.  Accelerated: 2.18 initiative / 1.20 CTB
Purim: 1.00 CTB.  Accelerated: 2.00 initiative / 1.20 CTB.
Rena: .90 CTB?  (Don't quote me on this, made-up number to reflect SO2 mages.  Arguably should have speed bonus round 1 due to not needing to close.  Beats me.)  Accelerated: 1.80 initiative, 1.20 CTB.

Again, I'm capping the "get doubles" CTB effect of high turn-based speed at 120% max, YRMV, just figured I might as well state my assumptions here.  Also I'm prorating the effect of Accelerate, as in "it kicks in immediately, but most of the round has gone by so it doesn't boost you much."

46: Orgulla: Quicken Margulis (Sealed Throne?)
68: Margulis: Rakta Jessica
78: Lyn: Attacks
80: Jessica: Accelerate
86: Garnet: Ramuh (hits Thunder weakness on Orgulla, 150% damage, probably doesn't knock Margulis into his good moves)
90: Purim: Flame Saber Lyn (or MT Flame Sabre if Jess will live to get turns?)
92: Orgulla: Manes Awakens
95: Rena: Anti

If you hold Orgulla to her AI, she opens with Sealed Throne, which while great in-game kinda sucks in the dungeon.  Garnet could offer some buffs or heal Margulis's damage, but why?  If Orgulla goes for an only-Eryu based strategy, she Quicks herself and starts attacking, but that gets beat by Defender / Protect / Lucid Barrier / etc. on Jessica.  Also note that initiatives in the second round are through the roof thanks to Accelerate (though with my interpretation, they're only 120% speed for later turns.)

Rakta is 450ish damage to a 1500 average.  FEAR.  (Or he could unleash the MT Syama for 100 damage, woo.)

126: Margulis: Rakta Jessica.
130ish: Lyn: Attack Orgulla (Flame Sabred, double damage)
130ish: Jessica: Insulate (half damage to Fire & Ice for the team, lasts 8 rounds)
140ish: Garnet: Cura Jessica
150ish: Purim: Lucid Barrier Rena
160ish: Rena: Growth Lyn
184: Margulis: Rakta Jessica.
189: Orgulla: A Pound of Flesh (boost gauge is now 3)

...  this is what happens when I realized Manes wouldn't be keeping that Quick.  Margulis really needs to have his turn just shortly afterward to immediately unleash a horrible Rakta x 2 Boost combo on Jess, then attempt to kill someone else with the remaining 2 boost...  but thanks to that person not being Down yet, and the fact that Jessica has Insulate off, and Rena likely nulls Fire and Garnet certainly halves fire again due to equips....  yeah, that isn't happening.  (And yes, Insulate stacks with native elemental resistance in DQ8, somebody like Angelo would resist Ice by 70% with Insulate up.)

In fact, let's cheat, because Jessica surviving another turn means that Margulis / Orgulla have NO shot in hell (she defends, or TDLs, etc.).  If we slow Margulis down a bit and let him wait, or say he got a free boost in or something...

189: Orgulla: A Pound of Flesh (boost gauge is now 3)
190: Margulis: Rakta Jessica (Down), Rakta Jessica (double damage, dead), Rakta Garnet (down), Shakti / Rakta Garnet (double damage).

..except Garnet *eigths* Rakta damage (Anti / Insulate / native Fire halving), so a OHKO just became a 12% PCHP scratch instead.  (I'm presuming Jess got no benefit from Insulate thanks to Firefly nulling elemental resists.)  Margulis is better off with the physical Shakti here to avoid the Fire hosing, but that's his weakest attack - 160 damage to a 1500 average).  Margulis could have saved those last two Boosts, but since the next Pound of Flesh will max the gauge anyway, not much reason to.  (Also note that had he tried this against Rena, Shakti totally fails it up thanks to Lucid Barrier, and Rena likely nulls Fire completely meaning he's stuck with the much weaker Syama to Down her.)

~210: Lyn: Attack Orgulla (Flame Sabred, Growthed, triple damage)
~220: Garnet: Life Jessica
~230: Purim: Lucent Beam Orgulla (Lucid Barrier Garnet if you want to be paranoid)
~240: Rena: Fairy Heal
248: Margulis: Rakta Jessica
280: Orgulla: A Pound of Flesh
~290: Lyn: Attack Orgulla (Flame Sabred, Growthed, triple damage)
~300: Garnet: Cura Jessica
306: Margulis: Being nice and assuming Margulis beats out the unaccelerated revived Jessica.  Repeat the earlier attempt, beat up Jessica and tap Garnet.
~310: Purim: Lucent Beam Orgulla
~320: Rena: Raise Dead Jessica

As a sanity check, Orgulla has now been hit 4 times by Blade Lord Lyn who has a ~35% critical rate with her Killing Edge.  Almost certainly one of those hits was a triple damage critical, and god forbid if it was a Flame Sabred critical.  Growth is roughly a 50% boost as well.  Just on the baseline...  the fire element doubles damage, but the fact that Lyn's attack animation is slashing (unlike Eliwood / Eirika's Rapier poking) means she does take a 25% damage hit.  So..  .75x + 1.5x + 2.25x + 2.25x = 6.75 times Lyn's normal damage, MINIMUM, with the potential to get much much worse on a critical.  Call that 2x PCHP minimum, with a critical potentially taking it to 4x PCHP alone.  But Garnet tossed in an Eryu-weakness-hitting Ramuh (.6 PCHP damage) and Purim two Lucent Beams (~1x PCHP damage), and Orgulla has used Pound of Flesh twice (~.2 PCHP cost each time), so yeah, Orgulla is pretty much dead at this point.  After that, Margulis is god-awful alone in the dungeon.

I warned you this was over thoughtout.

[Nephrite]

What happens if they decide to attack Lyn or Purim instead of Rena and Garnet? You may have thought of this already, naturally, but dying does erase most buffs unless I'm mis-remembering.

EDIT: Perhaps I should say "whoever was not protected with spells," just in case.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Attacking Lyn would lead into problems due to the evade+counter-whoring issues, and Orgulla's strings may count as separate turns. Purim would be fair game, but Garnet can just revive her and I'm not sure Orgulla can kill Purim with a single boost level.

[SnowFire]

Well the entire team got Anti & Insulate.  This is where the fact that nearly all of Margulis's initial skillset being elemental bites him, as he's stuck with SHAKTI (160 damage to a 1500 average) for just a basic physical at full health.  Admittedly, knocking off buffs would be useful...  but I don't think Margulis can even handle that with the constant Jessica reviving.

If Margulis or Orgulla somehow got a turn with Jessica still dead (as it'd be under neo-Firefly), they'd definitely want to kill the buffers if nothing else.  Meaning probably Rena.  Killing Lyn, even ignoring the evade / counters problem, means that Garnet revives, Rena re-casts Anti, and Purim keeps on casting Lucent Beam.  An Anti'd Lyn should still require 3 Margulis turns to kill, and if Orgulla attacks that's fantastic as she's only using Pound of Flesh every other turn then.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Eh, Rena's buffs are mostly worthless outside of maybe Anti. Garnet's buffs are just too short. On the other hand, they're going after the -revivers-, which means Garnet/Rena anyway.

EDIT: Granted, I'm not sure if Rena gets revival at floor 5 (it's one of her issues in the dungeon, -her- revival is pretty darned late. She's similar to Mint in a lot of respects), but if Garnet can immune both Fire and Ice by this point, Orgulla and Margulis... are screwed unless Margie pulls off Acala Seal.

[Dhyerwolf]

* If you have high respect for turn-based speed boosting spells.  Most people in the DL seem to have reasonably high turn-based speed respect - I distinctly remember hype for Rika's Saner causing doubles the next round - but Jessica's speed-doubling Accelerate causes the team to hit better than Alena-level speed.  I personally cap max turn-based speed for getting doubles at 120% average, which is fairly low, but if you're the type who thinks Xorn was triple or better turning Ghaleon, then this fight is much much easier as the team likely hits whatever cap you set for turn-based speed.

Xorn practically triples turns 80% speed anyways (Although might not thanks to some G3 animation stuff). Point is, for the Xorn part, that was because Xorn was so fast. Ghaleon's horrid speed made it more of a quadraturn. Not horribly relevant, but just wanted to post this out!

[Glen Veil]

Team Glen vs. Guy(L2), Guy(FE7), Guy (ToTA) and Guile –  It looks like only ToTA Guy is the only one on the dungeon team that is immune to status, so Jane uses Follow Me, Lilka does whatever, probably either buffs Raquel with Mageweapon or hits ToTA Guy with one of her spells, whichever does more, Cecilia who I see as having access to her Hi-Magic now then laughs and uses Hi-Prison to incapacitate the none ToTA Guy’s and Guile, and Raquel finishes by smiting ToTA Guy.

Team Glen vs. Kary, Killey (S5), Karin and Ken (P3) – This is a rather interesting fight, though the dungeon team really wishes they weren’t attacking right into Raquel’s strengths defensively.  Jane starts off with Follow Me, Lilka quickens Jane, which depending on speed respect lets her double, Cecilia disables Ken with Prison, Raquel then smacks Killey around.  Next turn the girls procede to cripple the dungeon team.
Alternatively if you don’t respect Jane as having over 2x average speed after quick and/or Raquel damage at this point, Raquel can defend after Janes intial Follow Me and just make the fire/physical oriented dungeon team completely tink on her defenses.  I would say most of the threat of this fight lies in Ken, but I’m fairly certain Cecilia can just status him out on her first turn.

Team Glen vs. Alen, Alena and Alex –  They all seem to be vulnerable to status so Alena hits Raquel, Jane uses Follow Me, Lilka heals Raquel, then Cecilia just Hi-Prison’s all of them and laughs.

Team Glen vs. Sara (BoF1), Serra, PC Sarah (S3), Sarah (ShF1) and Saradin – This fight is rather interesting, if S3 Sarah could get a turn I would imagine my team would probably die horribly, though I don’t think that actually happens.  Jane uses Follow Me, Lilka uses Mageweapon on Raquel to make sure she absolutely OHKO’s S3 Sarah, Cecilia then Hi-Prison’s everyone else minus BoF1 Sara.  After that the fight is relatively easy and simple.

*Full Heal
Team Glen vs. Nina1, Nina2, Nina3, Nina4 and Nina5 – I don’t think the Nina’s can do anything to stop Cecilia from getting off a Hi-Reflect thanks to Jane’s Follow Me, which kind of kills the Nina’s offense, and once that happens Lilka can keep Raquel up through their pathetic physicals while Cecilia simply Hypers Raquel a few times to the point that she simply ohko’s all the Nina’s at once with Evil Blossom through their stall games.

[Clear Tranquil]

Hmmm ... I dunno ... Is the Nina's Death reflectable? Need to think on that match.

[dude789]

Namagomi makes it. The last fight is tricky, but they should be able to make it through by using their sealstone effectively. Team Glen makes it also. Jane allows Cecilia and Jane to cripple the other fights before they get a turn. Snowfire falls. Purim runs out of resources. She's very busy during these fights Blaze Walling and doing other things and she doesn't have that much mp until the very end of the game. It doesn't help that I looked up Rena's spell list to find when she learns Anti and learned that Raise Dead was learned way later than I thought it was. 

[SnowFire]

Re resource issues: There's a full heal before the boss fight, so Purim certainly doesn't run out during it.  For the first four fights...  guess boss durability respect affects how much Purim needs to be reapplying paralysis, but the boss shouldn't be surviving THAT long against a 5-person assault.   Lvl. 5ish balloon lasts about 15 seconds I want to say?  If we're using 2 seconds as how long a SoM turn is, that's...  plenty of time.  Once paralysis is up, Purim really doesn't need to be doing anything else in the first four fights; so long as Garnet or Rena keep spamming healing (and they have boatloads of MP) I can't really lose the fight, so Purim can just use physicals if you see resources as an issue.

For reference, Purim's MP is around 45-50 on this floor.  Remedy is 1 MP, Cure Water is 2 MP, Balloon is 2MP, Blaze Wall is 4 MP, Lucid Barrier is 4 MP.  The only really expensive spell is Lucent Beam, which is 8 MP, but I barely even want to use it the first four fights anyway.  The first fight requires maybe 2 shots of MT Paralysis (both Blaze Wall & Balloon work), a single opening MT Blaze Wall is fine for damage in the second fight, let's say two more shots of paralysis for the third fight, and a single shot of Lucid Barrier for the fourth fight, possibly followed by some 1 MP Remedies.  That's....  about 20 MP or so that Purim really wants to use?  Easily within her capacity.

As for Rena having Raise Dead...  I personally see her as getting it this floor, but honestly, I'm not sure it even matters.  It's nice for emergencies to have dual revivers but as best I can tell nobody but Dolan can break past the endlessly reviving Jessica anyway.  And Dolan can't OHKO Garnet, so healing takes the day.

[dude789]

The big problem is the FF4 fight. Fusoya gets taken out fast but, I have decent Zeromus respect, and your team has a lot of trouble causing damage to Golbez. It doesn't help that most of your offense is magical which causes Flare counters from Zeromus. Also, Rena learns Raise Dead at level 60. I was having trouble deciding whether to give her Anti so there's no way I see her as having Raise dead.

[Nephrite]

In response to Glen's team fight against the Nina's, it's important to note that all of Nina1's buffing spells have initiative, so she can just use it to cast Dispel (which nulls out the next spell of any type, as far as I'm aware) on Raquel if Cecilia goes for Hi-Reflect, which causes some... issues, I would say.

Just a thought.

[dude789]

Wouldn't Lilka be able to cast a spell before Cecilia to get rid of dispel?

[Nephrite]

Possibly! I don't know how fast any of them are (before Follow Me, obviously) so I can't really comment. Someone else who feels like thoroughly analyzing that fight can probably give a better idea though.

[Random Consonant]

Kneejerking that Snowfire passes.  Concerning the FF4 fight... Golbez is only hard to kill if you allow him his PLOT Barrier Change, which I certainly don't, which means he can only play elemental spoiler if Purim hits him with Lucent Beam  (which she has no reason to do, considering that it's probably not the MP cost at this point), and his HP isn't great, so no.  Zeromus isn't all that scary, either  I definitely see the team as having Anti by this point (Lv54 sounds about right for the first two Fields).  Rasie Dead is... argueable.  I'd say that you probably get it during the last Field, but, again, it's iffy.  Seems to be the only potential troublespot since the XS2 duo are apparently having their damage mocked.

Namagomi passes.  The Cecil/Nina fight is ugly, but his team should be able to manage.

[Bardiche]

Would Hi-Reflect reflect MT magic?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

If it was reflectable, sure. There's a fairly vast array of magic Reflect doesn't cover in WA1, but it being MT or not isn't the criteria it uses for that.

[Glen Veil]

To answer some questions, Lilka is faster then Cecilia, so she would be able to use up Nina1's Dispel before Cecilia casts Hi-Reflect.

Wild Arms reflect reflects any hostile magic but lets friendly magic through, multitarget spells do get reflected back.  Wild Arms reflect is also generally godly in that it reflects dispel spells back at the caster instead of being removed.  Not that it matters here since Nina1's Dispel prevents buffs instead of removes them.  But it might be good to know for future reference.

If someone sees the item cast Death breaking through reflect, Lilka can simply counter that by stealing Tims Thanatos X by mysticing a Holy Grail(Grants protection from instant death for the entire party)

Worst case scenario is Raquel gets killed by item cast instant death because Thanatos X doesn't stick to her thanks to Nina1's Dispel, but this requires alot of interpretation in the Nina's favor, like giving Nina1's Dispel initiative over Jane's Follow Me initiative.

Cecilia and Lilka may not have the best physical durability, but I highly doubt the Nina's can muster up a physical offense good enough to 1 round either of them, especially when they can just heal and buff.

[Bardiche]

Wild ARMs ACF is spoiling me, so I'll have to ask another question. Did WA1's Reflect and Hi-Reflect dispel upon reflecting one hit, or do they do more?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I think they last longer than one hit. I do feel the need to point out that Cecilia probably has her Magic Parasol by now, though.

[SnowFire]

dude, re Golbez: Well, I can't say for sure as I haven't played FF4DS, but the stat topic indicates his HP is "really bad."  Even if he has a free Barrier Change...  Purim has ANALYZER and Garnet has SCAN to find his weakness.  (Fear.)  Or more seriously, just beat him up physically.  My team can still easily kill FuSoYa and heal off Big Bang (and even pre-emptively heal Golbez's apparently bad MT damage, if the stat topic values are the ST strength).  Meanwhile, Twin Dragon Lash is 3 MP.  I seriously doubt that Golbez can survive two TDLs even with good defense if his HP is some shade of bad, and if he can then throw in Lyn damage round 2.  Even if he somehow did, his 5HKOish damage is still not changing the fight...  especially with Anti up.

That said, good point about Zeromus's magic counters, forgot about that.  So Kaboom first is a bad plan.  Luckily it's not necessary at all, and Jess just gets to work on whipping Golbez instead.  Once it's just Zeromus...  well, if you allow Anti, he has to spend most of his turns Black Holing, and I presume that Shaking the Heavens means he *has* to Big Bang next, meaning Rena can mess up some of those Big Bangs by intermediate castings of Anti.  And I've got a reasonably scary physical offense if I need it - TDL should be cranking out like 70% PCHP damage or so?  2 hits of that + 2 Lyn hits, along with the fact that Rena or Purim can finish the job with a spell if it'd kill Zeromus...  Zeromus isn't getting much chance to get lucky on Big Bang.  Meanwhile, Purim's MP isn't being taxed at all, she's mostly hanging out, physicalling Zeromus, and casting the occasional Cure Water, though I suppose without Jess's Kaboom, she might Blaze Wall FuSoYa to finish the job on turn 1 if Lyn's double didn't....  though on second thought, a physical would also probably finish FuSoYa off at that point, so that might not even be necessary.

For what it's worth, I'd see Anti as quite cleanly legal at this point.  I'm absolutely sure I had that even in the nature preserve thingy before the fields.  And by the end of the Fields, I had Star Flare & Raise Dead and all that good stuff thanks to the huge XP there, but I can see a YRMV there.

As for Team Glen...  willing to agree that he passes the first four fights at least.  The Ninas fight is a world-class headache, will wait to see if anyone can figure out how exactly that fight proceeds.  Do agree that the Ninas need a plan to win, though, as waiting too long lets Lilka go nuts with stat boosters that likely can't be dispelled?  Suspect Glen wins, but not sure yet.  (As for Parasol hype, when is it they give you the clue to figure out the password to get it?  I think that's Floor 5 and might make things easier, but I forget.  I know you can technically grab it nigh-immediately but that's only on a replay / you asked a friend.)