Destrian's New Playthrough Topic

I stayed in Protection as long as I could for buffs, and then I summoned. I killed one Ceratorsaur with Odin out and another in Gestalt. The two Sahagins left were still tough to fight.

I just looted the Steppe so I'm back for a rematch. Then I'll probably go for x2 BK and then Missions 15 and 16.
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CWLSIV

Well, I switch Sazh out for Hope, cut the Summon, and removed all my str/mag accessories. I got two stars. The target time is only 2:24 and I won in 2:52.

Fang tends to AoE, and at least now I have full Ceratosaur enemy info. I'm going to try a Blitz approach.

Yeah, that was a disaster. Sazh has decided that Enthunder is better than Enfire, despite the fact that all of them are weak to Fire while only two of them are weak to Lightning.

I got up to three stars (1:59) using the AoE approach and Odin once Hope and Fang were dead (no finisher).
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CWLSIV

I've got a fairly repeatable Light/Hope/Snow strategy that gets me three stars, but I think I've optimized it as far as it can go. NCU uses Alexander, so that's no help. I'll probably have to try experimenting with immediate summoning to see if I can get a bunch of them in a single Zantetsuken.
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CWLSIV

Finally...

Mission 14: Sahagin & Ceratosaur
Battle Time: 1:48
Battle Rating: Five Stars

Light: Axis Blade + Whistlewind Scarf and Whistlewind Scarf
Sazh: Spica Defenders + Platinum Bangle and Platinum Bangle
Snow: Paladin + Platinum Bangle and Platinum Bangle

Paradigms:
Com/Syn/Sen
Rav/Syn/Sen
Rav/Rav/Com
Rav/Rav/Com
Com/Com/Com
Med/Syn/Sen

This battle is not easy to five star. I switched to my lowest stat party and didn't use any strength or magic boosting accessories to get the target time up over three minutes. The other big change from my original strategy is that I focused on the Sahagins first. This was necessary because I had Enthunder and not Enfire, and they are harder to kill. Normally this would be a bad thing, but I have Odin.

I hung around in Strategic Warfare to start the fight, and I used Blitz on the Sahagins for a couple rounds to build up a bit of a duration. Then I switched to Riot Shield to toss some Thundaras. I had trouble hitting both so I probably would've been better off in Strategic Warfare. I summoned once I had Enthunder and Haste (and Vigilance but whatever). Stick with the first two to chain/build duration for the Sahagins until Odin runs out of Gestalt points (or whatever they're called). Go Gestalt and spam the B move (it seemed best to me since it had great AoE and accuracy. I'm not sure if the Lightning damage gets doubled or not). Finish with Zantetsuken and the Sahagins should be dead. The Ceratosaurs were at half health. From there I just used Relentless Assault and Cerberus to win. Snow already had Enfire for some reason.

Who's got Firaga? That's basically what I ended up doing, but I ignored the Ceratosaurs.
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CWLSIV

No worries. I could probably get them all, but I think it would rely on how they group themselves. I couldn't even hit two enemies with the -ra spells. I'd probably just go full Blitz if I did it again. I could try Fang instead and go with Strike Team into the Summon, but I'm not super concerned. There's no value in figuring it out since if someone were to use a Summon here, they should go with Alexander instead.
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CWLSIV

I learned something new today: Aerora doesn't launch if the enemy is immune to air. I wonder if that's true with immunities in general.

By the way, I'm totally screwed.

I failed to kill the Behemoth King during the transformation as Fang was killed by the other Behemoth King (and not by Hurl, either). Even if she were to have lived, I'm not sure I would've gotten it. I'll try again.
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CWLSIV

I did better this time. I took them down in 7:34. I only buffed Haste in the beginning, which kept my damage output low enough to chain up to 999.9% in Smart Bomb. Plus, it was the only buff to wear off before I got to the damage dealing this way, and it is easy enough to get back on.

I guess this depends on how aggressive the second one is while you deal with the first. I didn't have any problems with it this time.
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CWLSIV

Mission 15: Goblin Chieftain and more Goblins
Battle Time: 3:22
Battle Rating: Five Stars.

Light: Axis Blade + Platinum Bangle and Whistlewind Scarf
Vanille: Belladonna Wand + Platinum Bangle and Platinum Bangle
Fang: Pandoran Spear + Sorcerer's Mark and Shaman's Mark

Paradigms:
Rav/Sab/Sab
Rav/Sab/Sab
Rav/Sab/Com
Rav/Med/Com
Rav/Med/Com
Med/Med/Sen

This is a familiar setup, but the actual mission was much harder than Mission 13. I did get a preemptive strike since the Goblins don't pay attention. Basically, spend as much time in Assassination as you can. The girls couldn't stick Pain on any of them for me. Stay in the paradigm until you are going to lose, and the Summon Odin. Keep using Fira-Blizzara to try and chain some of them. I actually killed one at this point. Go Gestalt at the last second. I spammed Razor Gale (and even took one out), but I'm not sure that's the best one. I didn't really play around with it. Two more were killed by Zantetsuken. When the girls came back, I worked on debuffing some more and used Diversity to kill/heal. I focused on the one with Bravery if Vanille was being slow about dispelling it. The fight isn't very hard at this point. Goblin Chieftain never really does anything, and when he's alone you can load him up with debuffs.
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CWLSIV

I guess that's okay. Lightning was doing a lot of damage when Odin was out. I just got to Mission 16. It looks like Mission 14 except there are more enemies with higher HP, stronger resistances, and they call allies. I definitely need more TP.
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CWLSIV

It'll probably go something like that. I'm not sure if I want to start Sen though. Odin should bunch them up just fine. I think I might rather go Strike Team, Assassination, or Devastation.
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CWLSIV

Mission 16: Sahagin & Ceratoraptor
Battle Time: 2:25
Battle Rating: Five Stars.

Lightning: Axis Blade + Platinum Bangle and Whistlewind Scarf
Vanille: Belladonna Wand + Platinum Bangle and Platinum Bangle
Fang: Pandoran Spear + Mythril Bangle + Platinum Bangle

Paradigms:
Com/Sab/Sab
Com/Sab/Sab
Rav/Sab/Sab
Rav/Med/Com
Rav/Rav/Com
Med/Med/Sen

I did get a preemptive strike here. The strategy will probably work without one considering how much of a complete domination the Gestalt was.

In Exploitation, have Light stick to Blitz to build up a chain on the enemies and disrupt the Ceratoraptors. Fang and Vanille will be doing whatever they do. Try to stay in Exploitation as long as you possibly can. When you are going to die, summon Odin. Stick with the Blitz plan. The enemies should group around Odin so try to work your way into the middle of them. When he is about to run out of Gestalt Point/HP, use Gestalt. Spam Thunderfall and watch the screen fill with numbers while the enemies are tossed around like rag dolls. You'll stagger many of them, and the Zantetsuken finisher will kill a great deal of them. I was left with just a practically dead Ceratosaur and a half dead Ceratoraptor. Switch to Assassination to throw on some debuffs and then kill the remaining enemies with Relentless Assault.
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CWLSIV

It was absurd. Comical, even.

I think it is about time for a status report. I have not yet entered Mah'habara yet. To the best of my knowledge, I have beaten everything currently available to me except for the following:

x2 Navidon & x3 Rangda
Ochu & friends
Adamanchelid (twice)
Gigantuar
Adamantortoise
Adamantoise

My game clock is 80:31:34. For reference, my pre-Alexander save is at 51:20:14. FF Master would be pleased.

I'm going for the Navidons next. Do you think Ochu is a possibility? I'm not going to try Gigantuar or the giant turtles.
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CWLSIV

Well, we can cross the Navidons off the list. I used Odin to take out the Rangdas and then Fang and I very slowly debuffed/killed the Navidons while Snow guarded.
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CWLSIV

I can survive a good 5-10 seconds against an Adamanchelid with full defensive accessories. I think I'm going to have to use Odin as soon as Hope gets the third Protect up.
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CWLSIV