FF3DS: Beaten! Dark Guardians are still insulting compared to their original selves...except for Ceberus who somehow learned that "suck" was not a good thing and decided to stop training in that stat.
Cloud of Darkness was actually pretty easy this time around. First off, I noticed Ninja could use Genji Shield; given it needs the durability boost, and is going to be using nothing but Throw against the CoD, I figured giving it a Genji Shield and placing it in the Back Row was ideal; this raised its durability dramatically.
Next off, I had 3 White Musks and 7 Chocobo Wrath's, and a JL99 Scholar. Needless to say, there were lots of values above 9000 in that fight, many a time I saw 9999 (which is a lie! Its higher.) Scholar was more or less useless on things not bosses though; can't do crap for randoms. Bosses, ti has Item Casts and due to obscene JLevels, Cura actually is not half bad healing, so works for a secondary healer.
Knight...Ragnarok/Excalibur combo, etc. Also let me not worry about PCs who were in near fatal range, which finally actually started occurring in the final dungeon!
Last PC was a Sage. Why not a Devout? I like a PC who can help end fights faster, and Sage is much better at this than Devout. It has less MP, but in general, 5 Curaja's and 10~ Curaga's is enough. Also, its slow, which is a good thing here, since it means it consistently goes after bosses so I know he'll be healing something (Devout tends to lend itself to unpredictable situations, I found.)
Anyway, strategy against the CoD?
Well, first off, I actually went after the Tentacles this time. I did this cause I remember Particle Beam by itself isn't so much threatening as it is that the entire 4 turns she gets is nasty. If I can get rid of Lightning (for all that the Mages mock it with resistance), that'd help the Fighters a lot. The Bad Breath Tentacle...mostly just gets rid of a potential physical that could be unexpected.
So my first few turns was Refia (Ninja) throwing Shurikens at Left Tentacle, and Arc (Scholar) using White Musks/Chocobo Wrath's on Right Tentacle. Luneth (Knight) was item casting Defender, cause I could use the defensive boost and wondered how much it'd help. Also worth reminding people that Particle Beam is an HP Trigger, something she never uses at full HP, so I know I had time to set up (2 physicals + Lightning isn't too scary, unless she crits the physicals.)
Ingus (Sage) was just casting Curaga/ja every turn, just in case.
Eventually, after Defender was used on every PC, Luneth helped kill the Left Tentacle; at this point, Refia equipped Moonring Blade (and I forgot to put Masamune back on later...oh well, no big deal! Forget if Speed even MATTERS for Throw), and just started physicalling the thing, so I could conserve Shurikens (I probably had enough, but why risk it?) The Right Tentacle falls first, so Arc starts casting Cura and such, while Ingus casts Bahamut in hopes for Aura (not crucial, but it'd help)...first try gets Aura, ok then! Not complaining <_<
Tentacles down, go all out on the main body! Particle Beam is fired!
...highest value I saw was 1150. All my PCs but Arc and Ingus broke 2400 HP, though Ingus was a Sgae, so he was taking less anyway. Basically, Protect made her fail to 2HKO with Particle Beam, and the follow up Physical failed to KO anyone as a result (barring maybe Arc if she criticals.)
At this point? Fight was pretty much all downhill. Refia throws Shuriken, Arc tosses whatever Chocobo Wrath's I have left, Luneth attacks, Ingus casts Curaga/ja, fight ends in about 6 turns after the tentacles die.
Yeah, knowing how that fight works makes it so much easier. I'm also convinced that Summoner is a *BAD* choice for that fight, since if you go the "Kill Tentacles" route, you'll deal damage to the Cloud herself, which might push her into Particle Beam range...which defeats the purpose. Strikes me as a case where the Magus is clearly the better choice, due to ST options (Summoner is probably better in like all other scenarios though! Well, supposedly Magus has good status rates, and things are actually vunlerable if Sage's Shiva/Ramuh are any indication, but shhh!)
Using Scholar was...interesting. Its offense isn't actually as bad as you'd think for a good part of the game due to massive JLevels, often hitting elemental weakness, etc. It is, however, a liability on durability since it requires Front Row to pull wait in randoms. It is excellent on Bosses of course, due to 2x Item effectiveness; tossing Bomb Arms/Arctic Winds kills most bosses as far as...oh...Eureka, probably Xande too, but he's not exactly what we call a "Threat"
Knight...meh, still think other physical classes are better. He's good for the final stretch of the game *IF* you used one consistently, since he really needs those JLevels to get those extra hits in for good offense, as Ragnarok/Excalibur combo is pretty awesome. Cover isn't as useful as it could be since most enemies are good at working around that Near Fatal Range. Also he's Slow.
Worst part is he requires 2 Eureka Weapons to be made good, there by killing the potential use of Dark Knight, Warrior, and Red Mage. If you're using Red Mage that late, its for the advent of a High Magic Defense PC with MPless damage *AND* Healing; Red Mage really needs Excalibur/Break Blade combo to pull that off (no, this doesn't hurt Warrior much; Warrior can use Dual Haken which is almost as good as Break Blade as a supplement, so Ragnarok/Dual Haken still works fine. Drop from Break Blade to Defender is MUCH larger on the otherhand...) Also worth noting all 3 of those PCs can item cast Defender for free Protects, which as I just pointed out, helps immensely against the Cloud of Darkness.
Viking has the same issues as Knight, but I feel Provoke is more practical since it doesn't require PCs in the same range; further more, he gets better armors before Diamond Stuff (Knight Armor is good until...Amur; that's when it starts lagging compared to other stuff; when Viking Armor starts lagging, Viking gets other equip upgrades anyway, so it doesn't care), stronger weapons throughout before Eureka, and can hit elemental weakness for that mid portion where all those Lightning weak enemies exist.
Dragoon...mostly the ability to equip strong, totally unique weapons alone by itself is a merit; Gungnir gotten as early as it is is only a bonus, and Jump has some nice uses when paired with Blood Lance.
Ninja's solid, if a bit worrisome on durability. Less tanky than like all other fighters (barring maybe Thief?), though it pretty much always goes first due to Dagger speed boosts (let alone Masamune), and Throw is good if you need some quick damage on bosses (most notably against the CoD.) Oh, Moonring Blade sucks, mostly cause Lust Dagger is every bit as useful, but trade in "Same damage from Back Row" which is pointless when paired with a melee weapon (like, say, Masamune) for +5 Speed or whatever (this almost insures an extra hit...)
Also is clearly an upgrade of a Thief in like all ways; only advantage Thief has is those massive JLevels and possibly some good Steals. Not...that this is a bad thing, perse; Thief wasn't exactly a bad class once you hit Amur and such.
Other classes I used previous game, so no real comments on them.
