Bravely Default: Poor Life Decisions Edition
So I got to the end of chapter 8. I didn't do the B ending, which in hindsight was a bit of a mistake. Once you've reached this point, you're stuck on the airship and you must beat the next boss before doing anything else. Fortunately the airship includes shops and a dungeon if you need to level, though going elsewhere to get specific enemy steals/drops, stuff only found in specific shops, etc., isn't possible any more. Let's talk boss fights.
Piercer of Boundaries - Larval stage (9 resets before the first victory, 13 resets in total)
She has 70 speed (faster than anyone in my party unless I use Hermes Shoes) and 100 defence (enough to make Dark Nebula not really that great, I tend to use Black Bane instead just because it triggers Adversity more). The relevant skillset I have to deal with:
-Attack: Low-mid 2HKO at base, evadable, generally not an issue.
-Tight Bind: MT stop. The stat topic calls it 50%, but it LIES. Closer to 80% I think. This is hell. There's no way to block Stop with the class set I have, it prevents me from gaining BP or defaulting or doing things that aren't dying. Stop wears off randomly at the end of each turn (1-4 turns, I want to say), and if it wears off immediately you still gain BP that turn, so that's something, but yeah, this can destroy me very, very easily.
-Slaughter: Hugeass 10-random-hit physical which poisons. It's borderline capable of wiping out my entire party if I don't have her attack debuffed and nobody is defaulting, although it really depends where the hits go. Usually if the party is healthy it won't kill me outright, but a beat-up party can easily be taken out by it. The one mercy is it costs an extra BP, so the followup turn is a free one for anyone who survived.
-Poison Punisher: OHKO damage to anyone poisoned. Magical. Defaulting or Before Swine half it to a mid 2HKO.
-Spike Guard: Really bad for my party, she will henceforth counter anything physical with an ITE physical attack which solidly 2HKOs at base (3HKOs if debuffed). Literally everything my party can do is physical, including Minus Strike, so this makes both healing and debuffing her more difficult. After around 5-6 turns after she initiates this she'll lose a turn when it ends.
Her usual AI is to use Tight Bind zero to two times, then Slaughter once or twice, with physical attacks randomly mixed in. Then, Spike Guard, then do the same (although I see Slaughter three times in a row once). Then release, repeat, etc.
Poison Punisher is her "weakness". Why? Because if someone is poisoned, she uses it a lot. As in, it replaces 80% of her turns (except Spike Guard/Release Guard, which happen at the same intervals roughly). This can be abused. Although the attack can't be countered, it can be nulled with Absorb Magic. Thus, my strategy is to leave one (and only one) PC poisoned, who spams Absorb Magic (dark knight ability, initiative magic immuntiy for the round). This fres up the other PCs to do whatever, which includes using an X-Potion every three turns or so to heal the poisoned PC. Other focuses are Defang every three turns when possible, and healing anything from counters and attacks which do slip through. However, this strategy greatly, greatly reduces the chance of seeing Tight Bind more than once in a blue moon, which is huge. It's not foolproof because other attacks do get used sometime, and an Absorb Magic-spamming PC isn't defaulting so bad luck with Slaughter can take them down, and stop means they can't absorb magic and will get poison punished into oblivion next turn.
I end up running two PCs with poison immuinity (including my Monk, my only PC without Dark Arts) and two vulnerable, which increases the chance one gets poisoned. (If two get poisoned, I cure one.) The other two accessories are Hermes Shoes (+20 speed) to have one PC faster than the boss (a second PC runs Slow and Steady so she'll be faster if she defaulted last turn. She defaults a lot, just in case) and a charm-blocker for reasons. I also use the Gale Bow periodically because it's important for injured PCs to go before the boss right after her guard drops to heal up safely, and also for damage-dealing PCs to get the drop on her before she puts her guard back up - a brave-blitz into spike guard ends poorly.
Piercer of Boundaries - Pupal stage (3 resets, so 16 total over both fights)
When the boss is lowered below 15% of her 202,5k HP in the first stage, the fight ends and there's a fresh fight. HP/MP and poison carries over, nothing else does, as per usual for two separate fights. New skillset:
-Flare, various -aga spells, Dark: All of these are MT magic attacks. Flare does borderline 2HKO damage if I'm defaulting, so Iceflame Shields on everyone! They also block Blizzaga. The other attacks are a bit weaker, 3HKO if I'm defaulting and 2HKO otherwise. Still scary!
-Acedia: Literally the worst. Dispel, even gets rid of spellblade (this is bad), makes me weak to all elements. Now the spells do 2HKO if I'm defaulting, OHKO if I don't.
-Luxuria: MT charm, 50% or so. I have two PCs blocking this (one via accessory, one via the Lamia's Tiara from Vampire Castle), so hopefully it only hits at most one other. Can be healed with a faster PC punching them for 1 damage, but still creates problems.
-Irritate: 100% berserk. ST at least. There's no way to get a Berserk blocker, not even a Ribbon works. Remedy it next turn, though like charm this creates problems. Berserked attacks are less dangerous than charmed ones, of course, though they're pretty ineffective because this boss has ridiculous evade.
There's also a basic physical, which I see once in four fights. It's the same as the one from the last fight. Needless to say I don't bother with Defang in this stage.
Anyway, at first I'm a bit despairing of what to do here, since the weakness-boosted offence is just so brutal. MT OHKO every turn! The first three turns aren't TOO bad although not trivial by any means, but on turn 4 and then every 5 (or so. Sometimes it's 6 I think?) turns later we see Acedia followed by three turns of extreme pain.
But... hey, it's all magic! Absorb Magic can null it. Keeps me alive, but not really good enough. And... Before Swine halves it, making it survivable. And mercifully, unlike Poison Punisher, it IS counterable.
So yeah. Three PCs have Bushido for this fight (recall: three have Dark Arts as well; the other two skillsets are a Spellblade and a Martial Arts... but of course, everyone can access Drain spellblade via the Blood Blade). With Drain spellblade and an appropriate setup (Counter Amp, Spellblade Amp, knuckles/bow S rank) they do 7-9k damage on Before Swine counters, fully healing them. Meanwhile anyone not set up to counter can use Absorb Magic. Great!
There are a few problems. The first are the charm and berserk. They mess this defensive strategy up. The statues are sadly not magical and can't be stopped, and if a PC is charmed or berserked while still weak to everything, they're probably dying next turn (not even worth curing). Of course, if the status has worn off, then they can be healed. But yeah, this can punch through my defences.
Secondly, there's BP generation. Spamming stances like this means I have no extra BP for applying drain spellblade, healing if necessary, reviving, etc. The way around this is to default as much as possible when Acedia isn't in effect, especially on the first three turns of the battle. With Iceflame Shields, the status moves, and Acedia itself, it's possible to not suffer much during these turns, although spells which I'm not nulling will need to be healed at some point, using up some of this BP. If everything goes well I maintain BP, rather than lose it, so that's nice at least, and means if I survive an Acedia phase in good shape I can afford to keep using counters/etc. if necessary, though I don't do this if I expect Acedia (i.e. on the fifth turn from the last time it was used).
The final problem is that Acedia removes Drain spellblade. And that she's, generally, faster than I am (in fact, my one faster PC is the one without Bushido). So it's not a simple matter of braving and using Nothing Ventured + Drain spellblade the turn after Acedia: she may attack before I set drain, and while I'll still counter, I lose a lot of health and will need to massively heal next turn. One way around this is to use Absorb Magic + Drain spellblade instead, on the PCs who can; I take no damage while getting things set up. That's okay. But even better is to anticipate Acedia, and use Drain spellblade on that turn; since I'm slower, it'll come right after dispel, and I'll be healthy and ready to go for the turns which come.
Drain + Minus Strike is the best way to heal, but not always practical (if I have the BP, Absorb Magic along with this is very safe indeed). X-Potions can also be used, and I do use them, though they by now restore less than 30% of my HP. Just have to use enough to make halved weakness-hits survivable.
It's rough, and takes several tries as I get the specifics down, but watching a MT magic trigger three nasty counters for 25k+ HP (i.e. 1/8 of her health or so, she also has 202.5k) is pretty great.
Beaten at Level 70-71, used about 30 X-Potions. I also had a Megalixir which I used on many losing runs as a bailout option, but managed to hold it on the winning run. Hardest fight so far? Of course. Might not have been if I'd done the B ending / Dark Aurora already, as I'd have more PCs who would block charm. But the core strategies that let me win (particularly poison abuse) I'd still have had to discover the hard way.
Final dungeon and Dimension's Hasp for more shinies are next.
