Barthandelos - Chapter 9

[LidenbokValour]

Hey guys.

As the title mentioned, has anyone beat this yet?

Spoiled so I don't ruin it for the people not that far yet.

Spoiler: show

What was your stratedgy?

I use

Lighting on Commando (To damage the heads that nuke you)
Hope as Medic, just keeping everyone up.
Snow and Sentinel to take the non-aoe spells.

Basically I open up with hope on synergist, buff the party with shell/protect. Then I just proceed to smack the heads.
It all goes fine until he amplifies his magic and as you know proceeds to rape with every aga spell in the game lol

I've figured I am never going to win with that set up and I'm looking for suggestions.

What tactic/team/paradigm combos did you use?

Thanks guys!

[Kurp]

Spoiler: show

I used Sazh, Lightning, and Hope and put Haste on everyone and Bravery on Light. Then, I just pressed the attack with (Rav/Com/Rav, Rav/Com/Medic) and used Hope to heal when needed (often). Once you get a couple faces down it becomes more manageable.

I didn't use Sentinel.

You could use Fortisol for Haste/Bravery before the battle if you want to replace Sazh with someone else like Fang.

[LidenbokValour]

Spoiler: show

Nice, thanks.

As of current I managed to get it to about 40%. Then it used a move called destructo which obliterated me in a few seconds. Had shell/pro up at the time on all characters.

Theres a huge interval between him casting it and the actual ability going off, so its obvious theres something I need to use/cast/do to imitigate the damage.
Any tips on how to survive it?

Edit for coding typo

Figured how to survive it, you need to make him go "argghh" while hes charging destructo with as much damage as possible.

[Abandon]

Spoiler: show

I had lightning spam blitz on the outer parts while snow tanked and Vanille healed. After one head, i went with ravager, commando, healer, and if I wasn't able to stop the big damage attack, switched to medicx2, tank to get everyone healed up... then went back to busting his face up. Finished on first shot.

[Abandon]

Spoiler: show

for those who are at him the second time, ffs, how do I finish him off? I fought it for so long last night that he cast doom on me, which made me ragequit for the night.

[Kurp]

Spoiler: show

I haven't done it a second time, but I'd wager that you should use less Sentinel if you're getting doomed.

[Abandon]

Spoiler: show

I'm only using sentinel to tank most of the damage while i get heals and buffs out since he likes to completely dispel on a regular basis. Really a pain in my ass at this moment.. gonna give him a shot here in a sec.

[Kurp]

You should probably make a new topic, because people like me are going to click on the subsequent spoilers looking for stuff about the chapter 9 boss.

[dejet]

Got the darn thing to 10% called odin out and shit used that move and raped me before I could deal the dmg >.> wtf lol
Had that shit if I did not use odin ; ;

Lol about time. Note to all, odin blows on him.

[Despain]

Meh. Easiest way I found was use Fortisol/Aegisol, go in, kill ALL the heads.

I used Light on RAV and Snow on COM, with Vanille focusing on healing/enfeebs. When he was preparing his Destrudo move, I changed to Aggression, and just went all out on him. You're suppose to freeze him so he doesn't do it, but after you interrupt him once, he will be able to use it, at least in my case.

Best bet is just to have enough HP to survive honestly, and keep everyone healed. Immediately after he uses the move, just change to Combat Clinic and recover.

[vrumpt]

Spoiler: show

killed him earlier, and you are correct at doing something when hes charging destructo. i used lightning/hope/fang, had prot/shell up the entire fight. when you reach the point of him starting to use destructo i started to just zerg him with relentless assault because it was my second attempt and i was getting tired of him.

anyway i found if you do enough damage to him when hes charging he'll make a loud grunt noise and destructo will hit for about half damage at that point. needless to say this helps surviving, but its still worth it to switch immediately to a med/med paradigm and spam heals on lightning in case she gets killed by ruinga which usually follows immediately afterward.

[Maguspk]

I did this earlier pretty easily...

Lightning spamming Blitz, Vanille healing and Sazh Ravager

The trick is, start with Blitz spam, and have Sazh slowly building the % so Lightning does more damage. Once all the heads are down the fight is easy mode. Just keep COM/RAV/MED until he readies Destructo, then switch to full RAV/RAV/RAV and break him, then switch to full damage so COM/RAV/RAV.

[sade3437]

I used pretty much the same strat keeping haste up on all 3. Blitz the outer heads, after those are down hit the main head 4-8 times as com lightening then go full on rav rav rav should break it pretty fast. Then back to com rav rav. Switch to com rav med when needed plus doctor code potions.

[Kirin]

Just finished this myself after 9 tries. Only faced doom once...makes me think its simply a battle time length issue when he throws it out because after the first 8 times i went a LOT faster and never saw it.

Lightning: Highest Magical Power gunblade, Gold Bangle, Magicians Mark
Hope: Highest Magical Power rang, Tungsten Bangle, +20 magic accessory
Fang: Default Spear, Tungsten Bangle, +50 strength accessory

Fortison and Aegisol are almost necessary, cause you need to push through the 4 side parts and get close 50% on the body with a stagger before he does his first Destructo. If you time it right, you can switch off Diversity right before he goes into the attack and turn on Relentless Assault until he moans twice, and you should get a second stagger off just as he finished. Back to Diversity (since you didnt take much damage), finish that stagger and reapply protect as its prolly worn off by now.

Heres where i kept getting reamed. I didnt give myself enough time to reapply protect before the second Destructo. Gotta make sure its up, and instead of trying to cause damage simply try to survive through it. After that, heal up, push to another stagger as quickly as diversity or as safely as relentless assault will allow, and he should be at around 10% right as you start this last push. Fight came down to timing and realizing NOT to take that second Destructo through damage, but just eat it and recover.

Hell of a fight though. Loving the difficulty.

[Kiarax]

Just did this fight. Fucking awesome battle, ran it with Lightning, Fang and Sazh. Started off with COM COM SYN and took down the heads whilst buffs were being cast, then just tore the crap out of him with RAV COM RAV to build chain and COM COM RAV to damage him once he staggered. MED SEN RAV for heals on occasion. Managed to get a whopping 0 stars (6:20 target time? Really? Took me 9:27) but it wasn't too bad difficulty wise. Healing yourself is so much more fun than letting the AI do it and spamming Attack. Loving this party setup.

[Correction]

Just finished this myself after 9 tries. Only faced doom once...makes me think its simply a battle time length issue when he throws it out because after the first 8 times i went a LOT faster and never saw it.

The cutoff is 20 minutes, then he Dooms your party leader.

[Akiyama]

I did this in about 8:20ish.. had Sazh bravery/haste and what not, and just raped face with Blitz with Fang/Lightning.

[KuroTsuki]

Finally 5-star'd this dude(Ch.9 version) last night after like 8 tries >.< lol. Used Lightning/Hope/Sazh. Started with COM/RAV/SYN just for Haste, then I went into my COM/RAV/RAV+RAV/RAV/RAV switching. As you can see, I was having trouble beating him in time for 5 stars, so I came on here and tried the Blitz thing people recommended, and it actually made me kill him slower lol.

Anyways, if you're just trying to beat him, and don't care about your stars, I found Lightning/Hope/Vanille to be a pretty safe party. Start on the faces of course and use the COM/RAV/RAV+RAV/RAV/RAV switching thing for fast chain bonuses. Switch into COM/RAV/MED if one of your members are in low-yellow or lower, and COM/MED/MED if more than 1 is in yellow or lower. I was only able to 3 star it this way, but it was very safe and was never in any real danger. I also wasn't using any type of def/mag def+ items/buffs, so you can equip str and mag+ items all you want.

[Maguspk]

Just did this fight. Fucking awesome battle, ran it with Lightning, Fang and Sazh. Started off with COM COM SYN and took down the heads whilst buffs were being cast, then just tore the crap out of him with RAV COM RAV to build chain and COM COM RAV to damage him once he staggered. MED SEN RAV for heals on occasion. Managed to get a whopping 0 stars (6:20 target time? Really? Took me 9:27) but it wasn't too bad difficulty wise. Healing yourself is so much more fun than letting the AI do it and spamming Attack. Loving this party setup.

Gotta do RAV/RAV/RAV after you hit it once with a COM. Takes too long to stagger him otherwise and you end up having to heal and wait for the break.

[Kiarax]

Fang didn't have Ravager. Probably would have been better using Snow rather than her, but oh well.