Nyarlathotep's Dungeon: Monado Mandala Week 8

[Nephrite]

"Ah, with this you all pass again. Let us continue."

Team Magic, Taishyr and Andrew vs. Floor 1


Team Magic and Taishyr's Matches

Floor 2a: THESE! ARE! BOSSES!!

Battle #6: Milon, Baigan and Kainazzo (FF4 SNES)

Milon: I have returned from death to crush you!
Kainazzo: Oh, that fool? The one who refused to give his kingdom to me...?

Battle #7: Booster

Booster: WELCOME TO MY TOWER!!!

Battle #8: Scarmiglione (FF4 DS)

Scarmiglione: Ha ha ha... I have come back from death yet again...

Battle #9: Kary

Kary: I, the Fiend of Fire shall stop you!

Boss Battle #2: Augus and Nimufu

Augus: Yes! Fight to the death for my god...
Nimufu: Ho ho ho!


Team Andrew'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: FF9 Freya, FFT Lancer and FF3DS Dragoon

Freya: 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 you should not attack us.


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

Team Taishyr | Kyogre, Maya, Garnet, Kyra (MT), FFT Priest
[Floor 2a]
Team Taishyr vs. Milon, Baigan and Kainazzo (FF4 SNES)
Team Taishyr vs. Booster
Team Taishyr vs. Scarmiglione-Z (FF4 DS)
Team Taishyr vs. Kary
Team Taishyr vs. Augus and Nimufu

Team Magic | Blue, Timelord, Lilka, Lucia, FFT Priest
[Floor 2a]
[Blue: Realm (Mastered) Light (Storebought)]
Team Magic vs. Milon, Baigan and Kainazzo (FF4 SNES)
Team Magic vs. Booster
Team Magic vs. Scarmiglione-Z (FF4 DS)
Team Magic vs. Kary
Team Magic vs. Augus and Nimufu

Team Andrew | Yuri1, Yuri2, Chie, Yukiko, Ditto (Love Love)
[Floor 2b]
Team Andrew vs. FFT Knight, FFT Archer, FF1 Black Wizard, FF1 White Wizard
Team Andrew vs. Frog and Crono
Team Andrew vs. FF9 Freya, FFT Lancer and FF3 Dragoon
Team Andrew vs. Gilliam, Oswin and Galleon
Team Andrew vs. FF4 DS Cecil and Nina4

Multitarget - One person on the team's actions all become Multitargetted. However, the damage of regular attacks, the healing of all spells that restore HP or MP, the status rates of status spells or attacks and the effect of buffs or debuffs (rounded down to the nearest half point in the case of Pokemon) is reduced to 50% of the original base chance. (For example, Deadly Fingertips has a max 50% chance of hitting all targets.) This applies even if there is only one opponent left.

Love Love: Damage is increased by 50% against same-sex targets and reduced by 50% against different-sex targets. This applies to both enemies and allies.

[Taishyr]

Team Taishyr | Kyogre, Maya, Garnet, Kyra (MT), FFT Priest
[Floor 2a]
Team Taishyr vs. Milon, Baigan and Kainazzo (FF4 SNES) - I'm gonna drop a lot of the lengthy commentary since I'm not in the mood this week. Kyogre or Kyogre/Maya OHKO someone (Tengu means Maya speed is respectable this floor), remaining two can't mount an offense.
Team Taishyr vs. Booster - Entirely ST and around PCHP. If Kyogre doesn't break him, Kyogre/Maya do. Maya shifts back to Maia persona for this, to lead into the next fight.
Team Taishyr vs. Scarmiglione-Z (FF4 DS) - Okay, not 100% sure on this since my damn browser freaked out on checking Meeple's topic for him. But I think he's around PCHP, so... Kyogre uses Water Pulse. This early on, to PCHP, it should be fairly high damage, if not OHKO. Gas is 50%. If I don't kill and the counter kicks in, Maya immunes with Maia and gets another shot off, the durability drop isn't enough for Scarly to finish the job and Maya gets another turn, Drizzle Water Pulse + 2x Aqua should do the trick no matter your opinions (the worst case scenario I see is it needing Water Pulse+Aqua, but.)
Team Taishyr vs. Kary - This is about where I get revival from Tengu! Shouldn't matter much, she can't OHKO anyone I think and Hold doesn't get her too far. The pummeling from the team adds up. (Also also HYPE CONFUSE HITTING KARY YESIU)
Team Taishyr vs. Augus and Nimufu - Kyogre removes Nimufu from the equation. From there it's two revivers and a massive damage whale of death vs. Augus. He can't kill fast enough.

Garnet and Kyra both have MT healing (not too useful, but), Kyra's mainly there to help chip in since her charges would still be lowish this floor, Garnet's there to cast Protect and Cure on relevant parties. Priest staff thwacks, Kyogre and Maya clean house in general.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Team Taishyr | Kyogre, Maya, Garnet, Kyra (MT), FFT Priest
[Floor 2a]
Team Taishyr vs. Milon, Baigan and Kainazzo (FF4 SNES) - Kyogre OHKOs Kainazzo and that's the end of the line. The Kainazzo blitzing is due to the fact Drizzle Tidal Wave could be dangerous, but not enough time to get it going here.
Team Taishyr vs. Booster - More OHKOing action. Booster
Team Taishyr vs. Scarmiglione-Z (FF4 DS) - Garnet can just cast Cure on Scarmy until it dies while Maya keeps the others healed. Not too big a deal. Kyra also hits a weakness.
Team Taishyr vs. Kary - OHKO.
Team Taishyr vs. Augus and Nimufu - Nimufu's status sorta fails against Kyra+Kyogre mdef, and Kyogre OHKOs her with ease. Is probably faster as of now too.

Team Magic | Blue, Timelord, Lilka, Lucia, FFT Priest
[Floor 2a]
[Blue: Realm (Mastered) Light (Storebought)]
Team Magic vs. Milon, Baigan and Kainazzo (FF4 SNES) - Um, okay. Let's start with the epic. The -entire team has to bumrush Kainazzo here to kill him... for -nearly two turns-, because if he gets his Tidal Wave going, healing it off will be a pain in the -ass- and will get people killed. With the limited outside of Lilka resources, if she dies, the team is in deep, and the offense is as epic failure as ever, particularly when 3/5s of the party are wasting time healing and the remaining people are TimeLord, from which he'll need every single JP to even get past the halfway point and who will blow his resources dead by the second fight if he decides to spam TimeEclipse and TimeLeap - this team's offense is just too fucking bad. Blue's healing sucks and FFT Priest resources are, of course, in the negatives. I also don't give Blue VermillionSand until floor 3 (you don't learn the spells automatically by mastering the class, and even if you see him getting it somewhere down the floor, he's not getting it in the -first fight-), and even if I did, that'd be a waste of resources. And then, after Kainazzo, Baigan and Milon still exist. And I -must- note that the team fails hardcore against Baigan, because Reflect ruins their shit. They have to kill him with sexy mage physicals, and that's such a waste of time and healing resources (because Milon and Baigan will obviously spread their damage around so Lilka can't deal with it by herself) that I have to salute Magic for trolling so epically with this team. But let's say he passes after about five million years.
Team Magic vs. Booster - Okay, so the problems start here. Booster OHKOs Blue -at full HP- (Blue durability is impressive failure) and goes before the entire team. TimeLeap is worthless when you go last, so this means that Booster makes someone revive Blue (they need that reviver) and the rest of the team uh doesn't do much but get him in range for his limit. At which point Booster OHKOs whoever he wants before dying and they have to waste yet another turn. Doesn't look good for his resources.
Team Magic vs. Scarmiglione-Z (FF4DS) - HAY GUYZ TIMELEAP HYPE ZOMG no. I don't think I see TimeLeap working on innate counter abilities myself (don't require turns, and TimeLeap does not cancel things like SaGa blocking, for an example. Dunno if SaGa has innate counters, but the counters in SaGa I know require taking stances, which take turns. So no dice), which means that, if Magic goes the turn-skipping route, he's in deep regardless of what he does. If he uses his magical offense, Gas is an immediate gg. If he uses his FUCKING AWFUL PHYSICALS, which is pathetically the best route, his party gets gradually slowed to the point where they just die because slowed TL is definitely slower than Scarmy, and TimeLeap is worthless on people faster than him. Priest healing won't work to wear him down with the resources, and Blue/Lilka can't even target enemies with their healing, which means I don't allow them to do it either here (I only allow it under special dungeon conditions like the reversal floor). I honestly don't see how they're handling this at all. If for some reason you see the TimeLeap strategy working, I have to add that, due to resource strains, they are -not- managing to end the floor.
Team Magic vs. Kary - Here, the TimeLeap strategy could even work nicely! ... but fuck, the team would be a wreck after Scarmy Z, given how much time they'd take killing him. TL having the JP to even attempt that is a laughable idea.
Team Magic vs. Augus and Nimufu - And here, even assuming they, say, didn't go through any other fight and are at full health? owate nimufu is faster than everybody lol mt sleep off people with no resistance (and Priest has awful mdef to boot). Augus picks off the leftovers that didn't fall asleep and then just finishes the entire party off because BoF2 Sleep does not run out until someone is hit with physicals. Augus can charge-OHKO anyone in this party, which makes the strategy more or less foolproof. This is a bad joke.

Team Andrew | Yuri1, Yuri2, Chie, Yukiko, Ditto (Love Love)
[Floor 2b]
Team Andrew vs. FFT Knight, FFT Archer, FF1 Black Wizard, FF1 White Wizard
Team Andrew vs. Frog and Crono
Team Andrew vs. FF9 Freya, FFT Lancer and FF3 Dragoon - Honestly don't think Andrew manages to punch past Freya here if she's above average. Chie's still at a bit of a speed slump here, and odds are Yukiko is dead from the first fight to boo. If they make past this battle, they won't be in shape to handle the following fights. Sorry, Andy! I also think Neph should do some housecleaning with this fight, it's deceptively brutal - particularly so for a floor 2 team.
Team Andrew vs. Gilliam, Oswin and Galleon
Team Andrew vs. FF4 DS Cecil and Nina4

[Magic Fanatic]

Team Magic vs. Scarmiglione-Z (FF4DS) - HAY GUYZ TIMELEAP HYPE ZOMG no. I don't think I see TimeLeap working on innate counter abilities myself (don't require turns, and TimeLeap does not cancel things like SaGa blocking, for an example. Dunno if SaGa has innate counters, but the counters in SaGa I know require taking stances, which take turns. So no dice), which means that, if Magic goes the turn-skipping route, he's in deep regardless of what he does. If he uses his magical offense, Gas is an immediate gg. If he uses his FUCKING AWFUL PHYSICALS, which is pathetically the best route, his party gets gradually slowed to the point where they just die because slowed TL is definitely slower than Scarmy, and TimeLeap is worthless on people faster than him. Priest healing won't work to wear him down with the resources, and Blue/Lilka can't even target enemies with their healing, which means I don't allow them to do it either here (I only allow it under special dungeon conditions like the reversal floor). I honestly don't see how they're handling this at all. If for some reason you see the TimeLeap strategy working, I have to add that, due to resource strains, they are -not- managing to end the floor.

Well, if I can keep my characters alive long enough in this fight, I can just rely on Priest for Light healing, wait until Lucia gets a turn with Misty -> Ocean for full-party status immunity (minus Lucia, who should be fine enough on her own status blockers), and then just beat down with magic, right?  That leaves TimeLord's Overdrive in primo condition for the last fight.

EDIT:  Question to note:  do you consider TimeLeap as an Offensive spell?  If not, then Gas never activates!  It's a shame that FFIV has no parallel to TimeLeap so this could be tested, really.

EDIT2:  Also, Booster is not as bad as you're making him out to be, since I can argue that having three revivers means that he has to OHKO the same person over and over again, or I can have Lucia Gale up TimeLord.  That should make him fast enough for a while.

[Clear Tranquil]

Who are your three revivers? >_> Blue ... Lilka ... and FFT Priest? Do all of them definitely have revival by this point? I'm assuming Blue does but I dunno about the others.

Lucia's buffs are fabulous~ (and everyone knows that I of all people will give her credit where credit's due) but while I definitely think they will help your team to an extent in the earlier fights that last fight is still scary. SH blockers don't cover sleep and Lucia is not fast (she's not Gep/Joachim either but yeah) ... it doesn't take much to go before her. I personally allow her a bit of leeway in general when it comes to speed seeing Ana = Lucia due to random variance in game where sometimes Ana will go first but sometimes Lucia will (also because I've had a turn order of other characters/Lucia > enemy > Gep/Joe before - Lucia was fast enough to set up combos with but Gep/Joe weren't) However that's my perogative. On the bright side Lucia *does* have game best magic defence though (base/innate/default) ... ok yeah I'll buy status vs magic defence not scoring a turn one vs Lucia.

[Magic Fanatic]

Who are your three revivers? >_> Blue ... Lilka ... and FFT Priest? Do all of them definitely have revival by this point? I'm assuming Blue does but I dunno about the others.

Blue's comes with Light Magic.
Lilka's is the Crest combination Geo-Muse...  Or is it Muse-Geo?  I dunno, one's Heal, the other's Revive.
FFT Priest can get Life pretty early, as well as a whole slew of other cheap spells, if memory serves me correctly.

EDIT:  It probably doesn't matter, but Lilka could also get her hands on Rise&Shine for that last fight.  I mean, this early in the game, Lilka is pretty crazy on speed herself...  Not to mention that the Sleep from Nimufu is only 50%.  Alternatively, if TimeLord still has his Overdrive left, he petrifies Nimufu (the stat topic says she has absolutely no status resistance), and hits Augus with six shots of TimeEclipse.  Damage AND Speed Busting, right?

[superaielman]

TimeLeap does not cancel things like SaGa blocking, for an example. Dunno if SaGa has innate counters, but the counters in SaGa I know require taking stances, which take turns. So no dice)

There are normal Saga counters that don't take a turn. As far as I remember Time Leap cancels those as well, though that should be tested formally.

[Clear Tranquil]

*nods @ Magic*

Eh I'll hash the rest of this and Andrew's fights out later.

Q - Do you see Lucia as having Grass Oil at this stage? I'm pretty sure she has it myself (Night/Moon Oil = F3/4 to me)

You probably pass due to my generous Lucia interps/respect. Then again you are banking on Lucia respect >_>

[Magic Fanatic]

@Clear Tranquil

I...  Don't know, really.  I'd be all for Night/Moon oils when you say, but I'm not exactly sure on the Grass Oil, myself.  Anyway, for this floor, all I need is some form of Esuna, and the Misty -> Ocean combo for team-wide status immunity.

[Yoshiken]

Team Andrew passes. Love Love is enough for them to hold out here, because Yuri/Yuri/Chie offensive means that no opponent is gonna get a chance to sweep them and kill Yukiko, who can heal up a decent amount at this stage. Ditto transforming Yukiko just adds to that if necessary, but two turns is more than enough for the Yuris to kill off any male opponent which... is most, and Chie can probably take care of the rest with a little support from the Yuris.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Lucia's buffs are fabulous~ (and everyone knows that I of all people will give her credit where credit's due) but while I definitely think they will help your team to an extent in the earlier fights that last fight is still scary. SH blockers don't cover sleep and Lucia is not fast (she's not Gep/Joachim either but yeah) ... it doesn't take much to go before her. I personally allow her a bit of leeway in general when it comes to speed seeing Ana = Lucia due to random variance in game where sometimes Ana will go first but sometimes Lucia will (also because I've had a turn order of other characters/Lucia > enemy > Gep/Joe before - Lucia was fast enough to set up combos with but Gep/Joe weren't) However that's my perogative. On the bright side Lucia *does* have game best magic defence though (base/innate/default) ... ok yeah I'll buy status vs magic defence not scoring a turn one vs Lucia.

I'll need to ask one thing. Aren't Lucia's -fabulous- buffs very heavy on MP? Lucia obviously can't have them target herself outside the Crest spell ones, and if he's banking on them, he's running her out very fast, because he's needing them multiple times per fight - all his fights are very long, and he has no MP restoration methods that don't involve Lucia hype (and given how she can't self-target Aromatherapy, this is quite a sensible concern, not to mention SH buffs only go so far given the bases they're working with). I've also went on the SH defense spread tangent as well, not sure how much credit she deserves there. And if she's awake and the other relevant half (like TL or Blue) isn't, the buffs are doing dogshit. He still needs to kill Nimufu and Augus is unscratched, lovingly raping the non-sleeping leftovers while they scramble for ways to be somewhere else instead of looking at an Eldritch horror in the eye.

EDIT: Also, what does Night Grass do? I'd like to know what kind of skillset you're hyping. EDIT: I'll also add in that status immunity appliance is going to be useless when half your party is already statused in the Nimufu fight before it goes off. MT healing the status just means Nimufu applies it again before any relevant person gets a turn, and you can't do both at the same time when both are apparently tied to the same person. ST status healing in the fight is useless beyond all reason.

EDIT2: Magic, the problem with Booster is that he forces you to waste time and resources. Resources that, in your case, are highly limited outside Lilka, because you have to spend your MP for your actual (terrible) offense and for your TL hype - i.e. -resources you can't afford to waste but will have to-. With your damage, even if you pass Scarmy, you need to blow so much JP between the first three fights with TL that he won't have the resources to do anything else, especially when you're struggling against mighties such as Baigan. TL is not going to be at primo JP condition for anything, TL using only physicals until the last fight -will get you killed before you get there-. For starters, you can't get past the -first fight- without bursting a ton of TL's JP and Lucia MP healing will suck at this point -if you even have it-.

[Bardiche]

Is there even a standard for what to assume for generic (FFT Lancer etc) classes' genders?

Taishyr passes easily enough.

[Nephrite]

Probably male for the PA ones and female for the MA ones.

[Taishyr]

I'd presume what the stat topic uses, in general - female for Priest, male for Monk.

[074]

Night/Grass is listed on the FAQ as low, one-shot MP recovery, presumably to the group.  While it might slightly extend resources, that depends on -LUCIA-, and more importantly, her slow and frail ass surviving long enough to get multiple uses out of it (and I'm doubting that it applies to her own resources, at that--Aromatherapy tends to work like Ricardo's buffs insofar that a lot of them that don't affect her, IIRC).

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

OK's stat topic noted that Aromatherapy doesn't apply to Lucia herself. MP costs on it would be appreciated, though, since I'm kneejerking Lucia's MP at this point would be around one third of her endgame resources (probably generous, given the strange way SH's HP/MP growth curves go, but so it goes). And looking at the costs of the cheapest listed oils, um, that's so not cutting the mark unless it's MT full MP healing, which it doesn't sound it is.

[SnowFire]

Some random thoughts on Team Andrew.  Don't know what Chie and Yukiko have at this point, so will necessarily be a bit vague...

I, personally, let most generics pick their sex, because, well, on my FFT poster on the wall that came with the soundtrack, they show both male & female of everything.  So a mild dungeon edge there, though I can see just calling them neuter instead.  I believe that art from the remakes indicated that FF1 WW was female, though, and BW male.  As for FF3DS, I'd also give free choice...  I suspect Dragoon wants to be female here, and personally I had Refia as my Thief/ Dragoon anyway.

Assuming the first two fights are dealt with...  the third fight looks problematic (FF9 Freya, FFT Lancer and FF3 Dragoon).  Dragoon is fast and gets into the air, targeting... Yukiko, let's say (dunno if she has revival yet, but she surely has healing and is a juicy support character).  Now, Freya & the Yuris are all "ever so slightly faster than average speed."  Assuming that Chie can't OHKO Freya out...  this means that Luna is likely happening and everyone is going craaaaaaaaaazy.  Well, except FF3 Dragoon, she's in the air.  And FFT Lancer can easily immune it.  Shadow Hearts is slightly weird since Berserk exists, it just means something totally different, but regardless there aren't any Berserk blockers, so inclined to let it work on the Yuris.

Now.  Yukiko is below average speed, right?  This means that rather than defending to stop the oncoming Lancer OHKO (much worse than a OHKO thanks to Love-Love if you let the Dragoon pick) she's going on a fan rampage against Lancer & Freya.  Everyone on Team Andrew is berserk, so they're spreading their attacks ineffectively.  Meanwhile, whoever FFT Lancer attacks + early normal fight from FF3 Dragoon round 3 should definitely equal another KO (Chie?), and that's leaving a random Freya attack and another FFT Lancer attack on the table.  Also, FF3DS Dragoon stays on the ground to try and soak up attacks, because Dragoon drains a bunch of HP with her strikes.  And once Freya & FFT Lancer are dead, she can go back to jumping to get at least one last OHKOish blow in.  I can easily see the team wiping here, or forcing the two Yuris to go onward alone (alternately: the Dragoons are male, and they kill two Yuris instead, but then they might get revived later by Yukiko?).  I dunno, I don't think either Yuri got revival super-early?  Could be wrong.

So yeah.  Pretty broad outlines, but it seems like Chie will need to do something awesome on her turn.  Or maybe the Yuris hustle it out and finish off Freya before Luna lands.  Some food for thought, at least.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

You're entirely right in that Freya is -dangerous- there. Luna is going to get the team in terrible shape for the next match even if they outslug the lancers in a straight-up slugfest (and that's a shakey proposition, particularly because a berserked FF3 Dragoon has very nasty damage that is also parasitic running off his -basic physicals-). I'm mulling that out, and Team Andy needs to put Freya down before she gets a turn or he's screwed.

[Yoshiken]

Hm, I see the FF3ers as male due to seeing it as FF3o.
A~and Chie's magic is pretty damn competent at this time, and Love Love boosts all damage, not just physical. So yeah, I think Freya will fall without getting a turn, Yukiko won't die because I see the Dragoon as male, and Ditto can then transform her. The fight's a cinch from there.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

The problem is Freya also counts with FF9 elemental cheese. Freya halves just about every relevant element (including Fire and Ice) with her default equipment setup. Chie is going physical there, and so are the Yuris, because they're not killing her with magic. ALTERNATIVELY, if the Yuris can 2HKO Freya's MP, they're somewhat safe, but I have no idea how viable that is.

[Yoshiken]

Hmm. Forgot about that. I know I mathed this one out earlier and saw Freya falling without getting an attack in, but.. eh, maybe that's just due to my interps.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

It's worth mulling, regardless, since Chie with Skull Cracker should still deal something like 65%-70% PC HP due to Love Love and it could land Confusion on Freya as well. I'm mainly trying to figure out if the Yuris are enough to finish her off.

[Taishyr]

Should be, is my gut? They shouldn't be below 33% damage at this point, and half that's 16%, which should be enough? Unless Freya durability was a lot shinier than I remember.

[Magic Fanatic]

EDIT: I'll also add in that status immunity appliance is going to be useless when half your party is already statused in the Nimufu fight before it goes off. MT healing the status just means Nimufu applies it again before any relevant person gets a turn, and you can't do both at the same time when both are apparently tied to the same person. ST status healing in the fight is useless beyond all reason.

Rise&Shine is not only MT Sleep recovery from Lilka, but immunity to sleep for the rest of the battle...  At least, that's now I remember it working.  Besides, I only need the Misty -> Ocean for the Scabby Z fight, not the Augus/Nimufu one.  Not to mention...  Even though it's WA2 MGR, I remember Lilka taking a substantial amount less than either Ashley or Brad, so I could hype her has having a better chance of not being put to sleep?

Besides, Overdrive.  When do you see it used?

EDIT:  Also, does Wall get full-MT stuff?  I could also argue that since TimeEclipse is classed as Unblockable, it pierces Reflect.  Also, Blue and TimeLord having 5 or more spells equipped means that spells cost 1 less JP to cast, making their staying power MUCH higher.

EDIT2:  The spells I think Lilka needs for this floor are Heal, Flame, Revive, Rise&Shine, Spark, Quick, and possibly Dispel and either Air Screen or Protect.  Having 7 or 8 spells is very feasible by this point, I think.

[SnowFire]

Freya's got around 110% PCHP.  Her Magic Defense is awful, but she's got the cheaty element resists...   but not to Holy?  Dunno if Yuri1 deserves a Holy Fusion yet - it's the hardest one to get early IIRC - but if you see Yuri2 as getting a turn on Freya, there's that as an option.  Or an element she didn't block, not sure she can easily grab the full set of the other 5 SH elements.

According to the stat topic, Freya's normal defense reduces incoming damage by 75% (EDIT: Yeah, I meant "to 75%).  It also claims that she has a weapon which reduces Ice damage by half, but the Item FAQ on GameFAQs doesn't say this?  Assuming that Ice Lance does indeed halve ice, Freya's sitting pretty.  If it doesn't, she has to drop 13 points of defense to grab an Ice Halving Helmet which gives her only average defense.  Probably still enough to stop a KO by Chie, at least, but might be problematic with the Yuris thrown in?  And since their speed is functionally tied, I can certainly see saying "LOL FF9 speed" and tiebreaking in the Yuris favor.