Talk:Beasts of the Dark II

Golem first strategy
I'll provide two setups here, because the first one barely worked for me.

No evade setup:
 * Buffer (Yuraisha preferred), equip with Phoenix
 * Magic/provoke tank with Earth/Ice/Dark resistances at 160/150/150%, which includes buffs. Equip with Tetra if you can fit enough earth resistance.
 * Healer, equip with Carbuncle for Barblizzaga. Folka for break resistance is recommended.
 * Loren as breaker, needed to chain. Build as much ATK as possible. Equip with Diabolos.
 * Onion Knight for wind/fire chaining, needs to be enhanced. Equip with Man-Eater+ materia and build for ATK. Equip with Golem for Barstonga.
 * Elly, preferably with Diabolos.

Evade setup:
 * Buffer (Yuraisha preferred), equip with Carbuncle for Barblizzaga.
 * Evade magic/provoke tank with Earth/Ice/Dark resistances at 160/150/150%, which includes buffs. Equip with Phoenix to make the gearing requirements easier.
 * Sara or Jiraiya (enhanced), equip with Tetra and build enough Earth resistance.
 * Loren, same as above.
 * Onion Knight, same as above.
 * Elly, same as above. Since damage output isn't as important, another wind mage will do.

All units should have around 50% natural earth resistance to mitigate the first Magnitude 8, when paired with buffs. Golem probably won't live long enough for the second to matter.

The evade rotation is super easy. Break with Loren, magic guard with the tank, buff earth resistance, buff dark resistance, and cast AoE Mirage. Next turn provoke with the tank. As long as you keep Mirage up, you'll be untouchable for the rest of the fight. Winning happens at your leisure, as long as you don't let Golem live past turn 8.

If not using evade, this will be tougher. The rotation is mostly the same, but you won't have Mirage. A sturdy tank should be able to take Shiva's physical hits, though she may knock out a unit or two on the second turn. You also need to get Golem by turn 5 to avoid Rampage.

Battle

Target Golem first. Once breaks are applied, chain with wind attacks and cap with the mage. This probably won't be immediately fatal, but the second round after Golem's mitigation clears should be. Once Golem is out, Shiva will be simple.

Peck at Shiva to build up esper orbs, casting Phoenix when you get the chance. Keep up ice and dark resistance so Shiva's physical attacks will be the only source of damage. Once you've gotten a second esper ready, you have two options.

If you're using the evasion strategy, Shiva can't hurt you, so attack at your leisure and use Tetra when you're about to finish her off.

If you're not using evasion, you'll need to bring Shiva down from 51 to 0 in one turn. Build up Elly's Thermo Largo stacks and use Paradigm Shift when you're ready to kill. You'll need to perfect chain Loren and Onion Knight for this to work, which I've found tends to be easier the longer you let the battle drag on. Let two of Elly's Thermo Largo casts hit before starting the esper and chain, which should do just enough damage to finish Shiva off. I was using a non-friend Elly, so I suspect one properly equipped would provide a little more breathing room.
 * 107.198.84.225 04:38, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

Used the strategy above using Bart to provide evasion to the whole party and it worked pretty fine... Until she charmed him when under 50% hp. The following turn, she obliterated my party with her AoE phys :/

Watch out for that charm of hers, folks. It's a killer (Pun intended)

--Kasheeas (talk) 15:31, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

Testimonial - Geryth - Featuring Sylvie, Esther, and Shatal
I had a sloppy (but still all missions accomplished) clear but Sylvie and Esther are so OP they allowed me to recover over my mistakes. So with this strategy we're using the famous two Gladiolus trick except I don't have two Gladiolus, so we're using one Gladiolus and one Gladiolus-lite (Shatal) who has the same cover ability. With this strategy we're able to take advantage of the insane 75% damage mitigation their covers get that cover both physical and magical damage. This let's us build our DPS however we want to and we can take any friend unit we desire and it doesn't matter how they are built, because they are completely shielded from all damage.

Here's the FFBE equip link to my exact team equipment. There's a lot going on in this fight, so here's a breakdown of why each team member is built the way they are:
 * 7* Sylvie - Requires 100% ice and dark resist and 60% earth resist. After that she needs HP and DEF to survive an AoE physical attack coming from Golem on turn 5. She needs less SPR than MS Nichol. Lastly she takes Tetra Sylphid for the Kill Shiva with an Esper mission.
 * 7* MS Nichol - Requires 100% ice and dark resist and 60% earth resist. Requires high SPR since he's our healer and also to guarantee he takes the pre-emptive Suspicious Eyes, because his 7* form has innate charm resistance. After that he needs as much DEF as possible to survive an AoE physical attack coming from Golem on turn 5 (I mismanaged my turns and mine died, but Sylvie's full life brought him back no problem). Mine also only had 40% earth resist and when Golem imperiled him he took more earth damage than I was comfortable with, so it would be best to get as close to 60% earth resist as possible.
 * 7* Gladiolus - Requires 100% ice and dark resist and decent earth resist (ideally 60%). He can have a little more leeway with earth resist than MS Nichol. I also gave mine a wind elemental weapon to easily complete the wind damage required for the mission. After that load him with HP and DEF.
 * 6* Shatal - Requires 100% ice and dark resist and decent earth resist (ideally 60%). He can have a little more leeway with earth resist than MS Nichol. After that load him with HP and DEF.
 * 7* Esther - Pure damage, with a fire elemental weapon for the fire mission and to kill Shiva easier. Packing man-eater+ as well as Phoenix for esper summon mission.
 * 7* Friend Esther - Any friend Esther you have that's built with a lot of damage.

So the basic strategy is that Gladio and Shatal cover the Esther's while Sylvie and MS Nichol resist all of Shiva's stuff and eat Golem's AoE attack on turn 5. This fight is complicated and while it's too much to do each team member turn by turn, I'm going to outline each team member's basic job, and then I'll outline some specific turns you need to be prepared for.


 * Sylvie - Keep Break protection up at all times. Keep 100% earth protection up while Golem is alive, and then keep 50% all element resist up when Golem is dead. Remember to cast 50% element resist the turn that Golem dies. Also keep up Physical Damage reduction.
 * MS Nichol - Keep up Fortune Stance, Courageous Stance, and Impregnable up, but the most important is Fortune Stance as that is the team's main source of healing. Use his Evocation Boost skills to help push esper gauge when able.
 * Gladiolus - Keep his cover on one of your Esthers, and use his limit break to take over the provoke role to let an Esther focus more on damage. Just be wary that Esther needs to have provoke active any turn where Shiva is casting Suspicious Eyes since Esther is immune to Chart (turn 5, 11, 17 etc. and when crossing Shiva's thresolds). So if using Gladio to provoke make sure it wears off before those key turns so Esther can take over.
 * Shatal - Keep his cover on one of your Esthers, and use his provoke to let an Esther focus more on damage. Just be wary that Esther needs to have provoke active any turn where Shiva is casting Suspicious Eyes since Esther is immune to Chart (turn 5, 11, 17 etc. and when crossing Shiva's thresolds).
 * Esther 1 - Do DPS things and cast Phoenix as soon as she's able. Provoke on Suspicious Eyes turns.
 * Esther 2 - Do DPS things. Provoke on Suspicious Eyes turns if needed.

So with that general list of things each unit should focus on, here's some specific turns that need attention:
 * Turn 1
 * Esther 1 - One Esther needs to provoke this turn, preferably the one covered by the stronger cover tank. She won't take any damage because of the cover.
 * Esther 2 - ATK and DEF break Golem.
 * Turn 4 setup for Turn 5
 * So on Turn 5 Golem is hitting the party with Rampage, a physical AoE with a 13x modifier. Sylvie and MS Nichol need to eat this if you can't kill Golem before turn 5 (if you have that much damage you will probably miss esper missions)
 * Turn 4 use MS Nichol's Barrier Stance for 40% general mitigation. Make sure Sylvie's 25% physical mitigation is up OR have someone use Cowered Courage for 30% physical damage mitigation if you have it. Also make sure the team has a high DEF buff that will be active during turn 5.
 * On Turn 5, MS Nichol needs to be able to defend. He should survive that Rampage attack with proper setup. I mismanaged my turns and my MS Nichol had to do things and couldn't defend, and he died. My Sylvie took it in stride, and was able to revive MS Nichol for an easy recovery.
 * On Turn 5, have Sylvie use her 70% ATK Break on Golem to maximize your team's survival potential on this turn.
 * Shiva is also going to do another Suspicious Eyes on turn 5. Make sure an Esther has a provoke active on turn 5, because she's immune to Charm. If Gladiolus or Shatal are provoking, they will get charmed, and I learned this fight that a charmed unit will not cover even with a cover buff still active. So if this happens the corresponding Esther is going to get nuked by Shiva's ice and dark magic. In my sloppy run this happened to me but I was able to revive with Sylvie and recover.
 * Turn 9
 * On turn 9 Golem is going to cast Frigid Cavern. This is AoE non-elemental 35x magic damage. The party cannot survive this. Thus, you must kill Golem by turn 9. Well built Esther's should get the job done.
 * Turn 11
 * Just be reminded that another Suspicious Eyes is coming on this turn, and that an Esther needs to be provoking during this turn.

Once Golem is dead then Shiva is no threat and you should win no problem. The only caveat is that she must be killed from above 50% because below 50% she casts Shooting Hail which is an AoE physical ability with a 10x modifier. She's immune to ATK breaks so our party cannot survive this. My Esther duo demolished her from 82% - 0% using their LB's so this should not be a problem. Also be warned that if you can't kill her from 80%+ - 0% she casts Suspicious Eyes on thresholds so you'll need an Esther with Provoke active when crossing the threshold. When you kill Shiva don't forget to use Sylvie to cast Tetra Sylphid to close out both Esper missions.

--Geryth Drayfore (talk) 18:21, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

Beasts of the Dark 2
My team

Buffer: Zargabaath (Minimum 30% earth res, rejuvenate+2 needed for reraise)

Healer: Eiko (has innate 50% charm resist, minimum 30% earth res, 1k spr) helps with mirage from fenrir

Breaker: 2B (minimum 30% earth res, as much hp and def as possible, fenrir equipped)

Tank: Beryl (700 spr, ice/dark/earth over 100, rest into as much defence as possible)

Attacker: Zeno (2.4k attack, golem equipped, ribbon equipped, minimum 30 earth res, built as high def as possible)

Friend unit: Zeno or Esther (esther probably better with innate 50% earth res)

Strategy: Zarg does prismatic barrier, then rotates his dualcast rejuvenate on all allies, when dual cast wears off use arcadia's might, and then continue constantly reraising everyone, I dont have LM Fina so I guess this was the only way I could do it. on the turn after 'your enemy seethes with malice', you can use his dispelling strike and reraise on any units that are missing it, 2B not really a priority as she can self reraise. just need to always check who has reraise on and how soon it runs out and time it according to the frigid cavern turn.

Eiko depending on whether she gets charmed or not can remove all effects with her kit, dispels when 2B has breaks ready,probably best not to do this on the first turn, but try to set up buffs before doing so. Her position allows to remove def breaks and whatever on your party. she can reraise the whole party and summon any of the espers. Having fenrir on another character makes it possible to cast from her or from that unit. She can almost instantly fill up the EVO gauge so completing the missions should be easy.

2B breaks on the first turn and builds up her LB all the time to have it possible to break in case she dies and the unlocked skills are lost. when its the turn before the frigid cavern attack she can cast pod recharge to give herself reraise so zargabaath can cast dispel and rejuvenate on someone else. she can also cast fenrir on rampage turns to survive. she can provide lightning imperil if using esther and has avoid attack skill for emergencies.

Beryl was a strange unit but very helpful, for some reason he had less SPR than eiko but was always targeted for charm on the preemptive. he had 700 SPR compared to Eiko's 1k SPR. he is the magic cover and can provoke a great deal of attacks, use everyone's grudge when possible as it counters every attack made at him, and can help build LB crystals very quickly. on the turn before frigid cavern I used his cooldown skill which breaks def and spr for all by 70 and cast reraise on him from zargabaath. he has the option of breaking with his LB if you are on a free turn and have no other options.

Zeno was the main attacker and source of earth buff, this was a trade off for damage but was the only character i could afford to buff from, just remember to cast barstonga every three turns or after a team wipe and you should be all set. use his regular rotation for damage, I avoided most attacks that would hit shiva to make sure that she wasnt brought down past 50% either, this made the battle last longer and a lot of wasted triple casts.

The friend unit was used for purely damage, just try to find a unit with at least 450-500 def to make things easier.

Once Golem is dead its just Shiva, and she will start using physical attacks, Beryl managed to cover all attacks with the odd occasional death but reraise helped alot. at this stage dont chain attacks and slowly get Shiva down to 50% as close as possible. From time to time she will manage to charm beryl but just, heal everyone and and if beryl still has provoke active then you should be fine, if you can manage to cast Zaragbaath's prismatic barrier and have a fully healed party that'd be the best case. remove the charm with Eiko when the cooldown is over. slowly work on unlocking triple cast on attackers and when you hit a threshold; imperil, imbue and build attack stacks with attackers. When you are ready, buff, break, chain and cap with an esper.

I managed to finish 2/3 missions, not the trust moogle one.

Substitutes could be:

Zargabaath for any unit with AOE reraise or dualcast reraise with a long turn lasting effect.

2B for any high breaker, Auron has both wind and fire elements and may be a better choice

Beryl for any magic tank built with those elements

Eiko for a unit who can dispel and cure ailments or whatever, folka with carbuncle for dispel could work, I've tried this a couple times but Eiko almost being able to fill the EVO gauge every turn helps with the missions and fenrir's mirage, AOE raise is very good for those cases where only eiko and beryl survived.

Zeno for whatever units you have available, the ignore def components helped a lot.

Friend dupe with whatever attacker you choose, zeno and esther also work well together

--Melonlord907 (talk) 08:53, 30 May 2019 (UTC)