3. Party Composition: Buffs, Debuffs, and Balance
The only two important roles that the party requires are:
- A cleric who is also a priest (having revive makes the run much easier)
- Another player who is tanky enough to withstand the swipe attacks that Skiaclipse does
- When Skiaclipse swipes 4 times in front of him, he must hit someone or else he gains a stack which increases his overall damage, speed, etc
- When Skiaclipse gets 20 stacks, he goes into berserk mode which is a party wipe
This raid has been incredibly power crept since Episode 12 so most parties can complete a run before the stacks even become a problem and generally just have so much DPS that many mechanics happen all at once.
It also used to be an absolute requirement for the party to have a cleric who is both a priest and an oracle (in order to use counterspell to break the tornadoes that he spawns), however, it’s not longer necessary. An explanation will be given under “Skiaclipse Attack Pattern: Tornadoes”
Notes and Tips
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Minimally, a party just needs to have a healer and two competent DPS so that they can break each other out of the bone prison — the last two spots can be filled with anyone really
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If your party has a lot of DPS but not enough survivability, consider running a wizard to take advantage of Magic Shield: Protect Party, one of the best party damage mitigation skills in the game (just be sure to refresh it) or running multiple healers to alternate Revive, however, it’s not ideal since you are also sacrificing DPS
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If your party has enough survivability but not enough DPS, consider running an Oracle (Divine Might, Death Sentence, and Prophecy: Increase Damage), a Dievdirbys (Statue of Goddess Laima), a Miko (Omikuji and Kagura - only beneficial if your party is more magic attack orientated), a Pied Piper (Lied des Weltbaum)
— These are just some of the examples I could think of, there are plenty of ways to balance your party’s DPS and survivability for a quick and successful run!