Talk:Zadehl Southersands/New Trial of the Guardian

No damage strategy
What you need:
 * Magic tank with 100% earth resist
 * Physical cover/provoke tank with 100% earth resist and 100% evade (Earth Veritas or Warrior of Light)
 * Two wind mages
 * MP battery with Bushido Freeform and some form of healing.

For the first turn, use the magic tank to absorb Fragmental Rock. Dispel, then use the physical tank to it/provoke (in that order. . Keep the magic tank active for thresholds and the final 40%. Repeat after each use of Fragmental Rock. The only damage your team will take is from Bushido, which should only require minimal healing, leaving your mages safe to attack at will. 172.58.91.81 19:59, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

Cheese strategy
What you need:
 * Veritas of the Earth
 * 100% physical evasion build (and a non earth damage weapon)

If you equip Tetra Sylphid, you'll be able to pass all missions in one go. You can hit auto and come back 24 hours later with this strategy. My veritas had 376 ATK and 257 MAG (Ring of the Luci helped with damaging) during this fight and it took me ~1700 turns.

Here's a tip : Close the game from time to time so that it won't run slower and slower while the turns pass by. --Tearsrabies (talk) 07:16, 29 June 2018 (UTC)

Testimonial - Geryth
So I went to my tried and true turtle stance strategy since I don't have an evade tank and I don't have Ayaka/LM Fina reraise spam (this basic setup got me through Shiva, Ramuh, Intangir, Iron Giant, and Tegmine). The goal is to take all of Golem's punishment and sustain through the fight. With every new piece of content, this kind of strategy is getting harder, because I almost couldn't pull it off. This fight took forever and was high stress passed the 40% threshold, so I can't say I recommend this strategy unless you have no other choice (no evade tank like me).

Here's the team:


 * Warrior of Light - He needs 100% earth resistance and ALL the TMR's and trial gear you have. Mine wasn't quite beefy enough to really call his strategy completely safe or consistent. I was able to endure 100+ rounds of Golem's crap, but not without banking on RNG avoiding worst case scenario. Golem's damage variance is freakin huge. He takes something around 8-10 actions each turn and they can be default attacks or Tramples. It's a low chance but if they are all Trample, your tank might not survive. Mine had 9500hp and 650 DEF and was borderline - a bad RNG turn of him low rolling his cover mitigation and Golem high rolling his damage variance and high rolling Trample attacks would result in my WoL getting killed if he wasn't defending. Basically WoL is going to cast Light is With Us and defend, and hope his non-defend turn isn't a bad RNG one.
 * With 100% earth resistance and physical cover you completely ignore Magnitude 8.
 * Veritas of the Earth - Had to fit him with Moogle Plushie and Golem to give him a 3 turn 100% provoke - his innate 2 turn provoke doesn't allow him his necessary 3 turn rotation of Omni Block --> Provoke --> Earthen Ward. Otherwise give him as much HP and DEF as possible because there's a really low chance of WoL not covering him for a hit or two (happened 4 or 5 times in a 107'ish turn fight). Ideally he should survive a Trample and an auto or two.
 * MS Nichol - 130% DEF/SPR and 30% damage mitigation. Absolutely necessary, no way tank Golem without MS Nichol unless you have a fully whaled tank or something. Without a magic tank we're going to eat Fragmental Rock so he needs enough SPR and earth resist to survive it. Mine did fine at 400 SPR, 50% earth resist, and 4.5k HP.
 * Eiko - Can really be any healer here I guess but she had Cowered Courage to add 30% earth resist and give WoL another 30% physical damage mitigation. From 100%-40% she was able to summon Tetra Sylphid to help push damage but after that she could only heal and buff mitigation. She did fine eating Fragmental Rock at 45% earth resistance (95% from gear because of Esper) and 5k hp with 650 SPR.
 * Explorer Aileen - TDH build with about 750 ATK and my 50% ATK breaker. I took her instead of Lila for the 50% ATK break but if I tried this again I'd probably stick with WoL's 45% and roll the RNG game 2/3 turns instead of 1/3 turns because Ex Aileen took me 3 hours and over 100 turns to kill Golem. I thought her DEF ignore abilities would be fine since golem has a decently low 100 DEF but without any killers on her her damage was just not very good (VERY different story for her on Shiva and Ramuh). But since I had tank problems I wanted her 50% ATK break to maximize survivability and to be honest it was really kinda necessary, but holy crap she took forever to get the job done. Also she packed 5.6k HP, 50% earth resistance, 290 SPR, and she still died a couple times on high rolled Fragmental Rock turns inside the 40% threshold where it's cast every 3 turns. So I had to cut her damage even further by having her defend on those turns so she wouldn't die.

So despite the difficulty of this fight with this team, there wasn't much going on - it's was really mind-numbingly basic to keep the turtle stance buffs going and Ex Aileen's break active - even under the 40% threshold hardly anything changed except Eiko doing less summons and more healing. Golem did his gambit of default attacks + trample every turn and I held my breath that my WoL could take it all if it all happened to be Trample. Even with full defense pots, 130% DEF buff, 30% all damage mitigation, 30% physical damage mitigation, and 50-70% mitigation from his covers he was unable to live through an all-trample turn if he didn't defend. Now, again, I trucked through 100+ turns of this so it was a really low chance (he only died once and I somehow was able to raise and recover) but it was a chance nonetheless. And also with 100+ turns the small chance of VoE taking some hits is a thing too - he died once as well (again, I was somehow able to recover). 100-40% actually was pretty smooth and I'd say consistent as well. But past 40% he adds Kick Away to his possible actions, which greatly increases the chance for bad RNG getting WoL killed. My WoL was still safe when he could defend but that 1 turn out of 3 where he had to recast Light is With Us made for a lot of scary moments.

If I had to do it again I would probably swap Lila in for Ex Aileen where my Lila could do up to 10% of Golem's health in one turn (I tried her out in a previous team setup with 750 and a wind elemental weapon). That increase the chances of death going from a 50% break to WoL's 45% break (and adding a non-defend turn to WoL) but honestly I think reducing the fight from 107 turns to something like 15-20 turns reduces the sample size for bad RNG to happen. Again, I would not recommend a strategy like this unless you just don't have a choice or you have a physical cover tank with much higher HP and DEF (with 100% earth resist). If my WoL had another 2000'ish HP this probably would have been a perfectly fine, safe, and consistent strategy, but with my current gear I just couldn't get there with the necessary 100% earth resist. I think it's time I try to farm evade gear, an evade tank here would have completely negated the difficulty of this fight.

--Geryth Drayfore (talk) 19:08, 29 June 2018 (UTC)

Testimonial - AuroraRazorclaw
I just got done cheesing this fight with a 100% Evasion build Veritas of Earth, took roughly 8 hours, minimal intervention to summon Tetra Sylpheed from time to time to speed up the fight.

Stats: 403 Attack/270 Magic Equips: Zwill Crossblade (for wind damage/evasion, Gladiator Shield, Emil's Head, Assassin's Vest, Ring of the Lucii x2, True Spirit of Freedom, Spirit of Freedom, Quick Assault, Stone Killer

Total turns: 658

--Aurorarazorclaw (talk)

Cleared it yesterday not really much to the big guy. I dunno if this is bug but a few times Golem landed a hit on full evade Earthlord on my first try and WoL with trample and Magnitude 8 also even with the light is with us Golem hit Sakura and Earthlord in one turn and Tilith in another. In the 40% and 39% threshold golem used fragmental earth followed by Magnitude 8. I'm curious if anyone else had this happen? My team: Full evade Warrior of Light Veritas of Earth for Earthen Ward 100% Earth resist and Tetra Slypheed BS Sakura: Mp Regen and full Quick Final Thunder 990ish Magic with Buff Magic buff and Spr. Broken did 2.6mil damage. Seohiroth with Stone Killer nothing too special just smash things with his face. Tilith: MP regen, healing, buffing and Bushido Freedom to wipe Earth imperil. Friend: Tidus also smashed things with his face.


 * Yeah, Magnitude 8 cannot be evaded and Light is with us is not a 100% cover spell, it's something like 70-ish % chance of covering which means that from time to time, your tank won't jump in front of your team in case of single target physical damages.// --Tearsrabies (talk) 07:10, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

-- dRedwick start

cleared in approx. 20 rounds but w/o the 5 party mission and the tetra slypheed mission

noctis: setup with 100% evade + 100% earth resistance w/ golem esper and moogle plushie

shylt: setup with 100% earth resistance and high amounts of mp (use titan esper or lots of earth resistance materia)

veritas of the earth: setup with as much earth resistance as possible and as much mp as possible (use titan esper or lots of earth resistance materia)

trance terra: setup with as much MAG as possible

tilith: setup with as much mp as possible

friend: trance terra w/ as much MAG as possible

--(noctis)-- use the esper provoke every 3 rounds - golem's provoke is 70% + an additional 30% from the moogle plushie - this will absorb 100% of the physical attacks. use warp strike in between for extra damage and to reduce golem's atk. use comeback to revive tilith when she is murked by golem's magnitude 8 attack.

--(shylt)-- use triteleia wall every 3 rounds to absorb 100% of the magical attacks. this will not work for magnitude 8 so every once in awhile trance terra, tilith, and trance terra friend will die. every once in awhile you will have to use interception to boost stat reduction resistance.

--(veritas of the earth)-- use earthen ward every 3 rounds to boost earth resistance for all allies. the rest of the time simply defend since earthen ward uses up a lot of mp.

--(trance terra)-- use magical activation, chaos wave, and chaos wave enhanced. this is going to be the main way to kill golem. if your friend is also trance terra then do the same thing with her as well.

--(tilith)-- use affectionate aura to boost stat reduction resistance, goddess's revelation to revive your allies that are occasionally murked by golem's magnitude 8, and prism heal to restore mp for all of your allies (this will be essential).

basically noctis and shylt will absorb all of the damage as long as you keep up with the 3 round rotations for noctis, shylt, and veritas of the earth. magnitude 8 will murk both trance terras and tilith occasionally, but you can revive tilith with noctis and then use tilith to revive both trance terras and manage to chip away almost 10 hp per round that they are both able to use chaos wave enhanced.

after you win and receive the 3 star golem, re-adjust your lineup by getting rid of shylt and making all of your units 100% earth resistance (noctis will need to be 100% evasion and 100% earth resistance). his setup is below. the 2nd time around i used noctis, veritas of the earth, two trance terras, and kefka... but you can use anyone with high mag damage. noctis is needed to absorb all of the physical damage, and all of your party needs 100% earth resistance so that they aren't damaged by magic attacks (but veritas of the earth is needed because his earthen ward will restore their earth resistance when golem reduces it by 100%). i was able to complete the other missions with less than 50 rounds.

the ideal setup would obviously be to have all of your units 100% earth resistance, a unit with 100% evasion and 100% provoke, veritas of the earth with his earthen ward, and as many mages with wind mag attacks and as much mp as possible.

noctis setup for 100% evasion and 100% earth resistance (keep in mind that noctis has an innate 20% evasion):

3-star golem-- board setup with 20% earth resistance boost and 70% provoke

r.hand-- zwill crossblade (5% evasion + wind elemental atk)

l.hand-- moogle plushie (%30 provoke)

head-- raven beret (5% evasion)

body-- assassin's vest (10% evasion)

acc.1-- protec grappler g3 (25% evasion)

acc.2-- twenty-sided die (20% evasion)

abil.1-- true spirit of freedom (15% evasion)

abil.2-- earth resistance +20% (20% earth resistance duh!)

abil.3-- hydaelyn guard (10% earth resistance)

abil.4-- loyal warrior (30% atk w/ boost critical hit rate)

Just realized Barbariccia is meant for this trial.... she has innate 50% earth resistance and hella elemental wind attacks. Good luck!

dRedwick end -
 * Nothing to special but you do know that Veritas of the Earth absorb earth damages? So if you get him more earth res, he will regen less cause he will mitigate incoming earth "damages"... :/ --Tearsrabies (talk) 07:10, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

--

Evade tank win ~kinda easy win finally!! by FalconX

> Party: main tank = Fohlen w/ +2 ability awakened (wind choco rider) + zwill crossblade dgr +yellow balloon+moogle plushie + 20sided dice + evasion abilitys x3. Chow -bushido freedom (earth resist +155), Barbariccia x2 (mag920+), Veritas of earth. friend: Reagan (MVP)

round1: chow magic cover, Fohlen = aggavate +2 or sonic blast +2 (wont cancel out chows cover), Barbariccia x2 double tornadoes to start dmg. Veritas of earth = earthen ward.

> ok strategy to make this sorta easy.. this goes in rotation not to bad once know what to expect & have your choco rider maxed shadows. Boss will do magic AoE on 4th round or after each threshold, keep chows cover up after get below 60%hp. Only need bushido freedom on 2nd round after does debuffs on party, keep VoEarth omni block on 2nd round+ & earthen ward when need. Fohlen keeps his aggravate +2 /provoke on boss. Its iffy if gonna hit, I got lucky & he didnt get a hit in till last 5%hp, but seeing a boss that can hit for 15k hp on your shadow tank weee lol.

When boss has resist up rounds, I would put barbariccia x2 mag/spr+ 4shadows ability on both. Reagan is super useful here, he would do his mp refill move to help mp fill, buffs on party move when down, & he is the full break on boss when down.

> Barbariccia x2 will chain tornadoes x2 to get hp down. I had one use mp/hp refill & other use imperal on off rounds. Having fohlens speedster + imperal at the end chains were hitting for 125k+ per hit... probably like 25%hp dmg plus. Have fun!! --Gogamer2018 (talk) 07:13, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

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Just beat New Trial. I always prefer to alpha strike when possible, party of Lotus Mage Fina, Reagan, Elly(Xenogears), Dark Fina, Barbariccia and friends Barbariccia (I didn't care about the missions). Started with LM Fina's auto rez on everyone, Reagan buffing everyone, Elly, triple ether: Anemo Wave, and Dark Fina + Barbariccia x2 all casting Double Black Magic: Tornado. Elly, Dark Fina, Barbariccia were at 1300+ Mag, with the other Barbariccia at 600+ Mag. Single turn kill. -- Thozmp