Missing Something? (Larelle's Love Quest)

[AsmodeusUltima]

This quest is listed at level 32. I am at level 45-46 and the boss is just destroying me. Seven minions, constant group heals and group damage, and Larelle seems mostly useless since they're almost all immune to dark and psy damage. Is there some trick I am missing?

Party is Hero as Phantom Knight, Healbot, Larelle, and Gargen.

[Nayhes]

The boss is weak to physical and necrotic damage. Beating the boss with your party setup at your level is feasible without any big problem.

Use Hero as a tank. Use Felix to buff the party's magical defense, buff Larelle and heal. Use Larelle and Gargan as your main damage dealers. Larelle must focus on the boss and Gargan can use some turns to subdue the undead. Last remark: if you let one minion alive, the boss won't respawn them as often.

[AsmodeusUltima]

Thanks for the advice!

Huh. That is exactly what I did. Just tried again and lost again. I feel like this boss is seriously overtuned for it being so tough thirteen levels past the recommended. Problem is action economy: sometimes the boss herself is casting three spells per round (almost all mass) plus an attack per minion and ten enemy actions becomes overwhelming pretty fast. The wights having guardian (and three of them much more than Gargan can keep stunned) means it is difficult to damage the boss consistently, and the fact that she heals her entire team for 600+ every round means that a single round not damaging her just expounds that problem. The other minions keep staggering Healbot (even with Improved Attract up my squishies keep getting pounded to the point that Healbot cannot keep up) so that his healing sometimes comes too late. And of course when I finally kill four of the minions and things start to seem manageable she just brings them all back at full. Just... yikes. I can't imagine doing this at 32.

The game has been pretty easy up until this fight and now I find myself tearing my hair out. Thinking I might retreat and come back with Meline instead of Gargan to see if she can mass blast the undead away quickly enough to ease things up. Even if that does work, a fight that requires special tactics/specific characters thirteen levels past is probably in need of a few tweaks...

EDIT: Tried one more time with current team and finally pulled it off, albeit using a resurrection potion when Gargan went down (because Healbot was staggered). Don't know if the developers scan these forums, but I would suggest just remove the stagger ability from the Walking Dead minions and it would feel much more balanced. It would still be a long, slogging fight, but at least it would not feel like a death sentence to a party member every time the healer gets staggered. Anyway, I know this all sounds nitpicky, but I have put a hundred hours into this game over the last couple weeks and am absolutely having fun!

[Nayhes]

To be honest, I have already beaten the boss in hard mode while at recommended level. It was tough, but manageable (even if I didn't use your setup).

In general in the game, failing consistently against an obstacle means another setup is needed. Yeon is far better than Felix for this fight for example (she has Rally).

[2095conash]

Don't know if the developers scan these forums, but I would suggest just remove the stagger ability from the Walking Dead minions and it would feel much more balanced.

We do keep an eye on the forums and the feedback is appreciated. There's been a few changes to various abilities and mechanics that have come in after this quest was added which definitely has me considering if I may need to give this fight in particular a good once over (for example the 'intended' way to do this fight is that you're supposed to try to kill the minions of one type while leaving the minions of the other type but use Larelle's magic to debuff them into a non-threat, though various changes to how AoEs work as a whole may have left this strategy not sustainable), so suggestions like this are very much appreciated. Stagger has gotten a general buff to it since this quest was introduced (it was meant to be a buff to Therese to give her a more active roll in managing enemy momentum) so I may have overlooked how it'd impact fights like this one. That said, since various players like Nayhes have managed to beat this boss among others without too much trouble I will admit that I am a bit hesitant to implement any quick fixes on the fight, so it may not receive any substantial reworks for awhile I am afraid.

[AsmodeusUltima]

Wow, thanks for the responses!

Not sure what's wrong with me then, because I'm definitely not a newbie to JRPGs, having been playing them since FF1 on the NES. I've definitely faced harder foes in games before too; maybe what got me was the sudden HUGE spike in difficulty. The only other time this game was challenging was when a new enemy type unlocked for the daily quests. Nayhes, was this recently that you beat her on Hard? As in the current patch? That could mean the difference, not sure. And yeah, I certainly understand that certain party comps will be better in different situations. The thing that flabbergasted me was it being so tough when I was seriously overleveled (it took me LONG time to convince myself to stop clearing out every repeatable dungeon every single day). If a fight that requires very specific tactics and is very hard to brute force by overleveling is what was intended, then hey, it's a feature! If not, may need some tuning. Definitely a gentler difficulty curve might be in order either way!

2095conash, always great to see developers active in the forums! I certainly did not expect any sort of "quick fix", just one voice among many giving my honest opinion. Definitely suggest giving it a try and seeing if the difficulty is currently at the level you intended, cause yeah, sounds like a couple small changes might have butterflied. Thanks for the great game!

[Nayhes]

Wow, thanks for the responses!
Nayhes, was this recently that you beat her on Hard?

It was before the stagger buff I think. But the strategy I proposed shouldn't change that much. On the old wiki (which doesn't exist anymore), I remember there was a boss page I contributed a lot on. It would be good to have a new one (when I get some time, I'm ready to do contribute again). Sluagh doesn't require a unique setup, but can get really hard without some good strategic ingredients.

[2095conash]

Huh, I thought that we managed to get everything in the move, but looks like I can't find the boss page... I'll try seeing if anyone has a copy of that or might know where the information might be if it's still on the new wiki in some way.

Edit: So I talked with Romeo, he's actually still got the strategy that you put down back from the old Wiki, however he had to take the Bosses page down back then because it was getting to be massively slowed down on the old wiki due to how they had things setup. He's been meaning to get it onto the new wiki for awhile but has had a lot going on so hasn't been able to port it all over yet.

[Omegon]

I usually just spam chain lightning on the minions and focus the boss with singel target attacks. dunno if that helps but i can beat it like that on hard mode around level req

[ThatDerp1]

It also helps to bring someone who can remove cover, be it through status effects (like knockdown from raina) or Unity Force skills (raina, therese, brownyn). I personally suggest therese, as she has healing moves, is an excellent tank, has radiant moves when they aren't buffed against those, and can improve the defense of the team so that instead of getting nearly completely torn down at the end of each turn you're able to facetank after two buffs.

[Dreagos]

Drop healbot and Gargan. (Seriously, Gargan is virtually useless. Like a weaker version of the hero.) Replace with Meline and Kyrie. Kyrie will OBLITERATE everything at that level. They are weak to acid, so acid will do extra damage. And her burning blizzard spell will seriously mess them up. Revelation will also wreck their day. Meline also doubles as a healer in a pinch. The main character is best off using items or using razor falling rain and eliminating the mana of the main baddy. healbot at least has the advantage of being able to learn every prayer and spell which makes him useful. But since he doesn't get an ultimate spell, his usefulness dwindles very quickly when compared to kyrie, meline or larelle. You are definitely correct in saying larelle is horribly mismatched in this fight. Instead, teach her chain lightning and have her use that. Or equip her with a dragon orb and have her use slime wave.

If you INSIST on your current party makeup:
Equip both larelle and healbot with dragon orbs (you get tons of them from the daily quests in your bedroom and they are very good) and have them blast out slime wave. Use Gargan to use items to keep people alive and healthy (potions. Lots of potions). Then your hero uses razor falling rain to deal physical damage to everyone. Use combat items too. The sattelite is a good one to unleash on this fight. Flesh to goo does not work unfortunately on the boss. Using scrolls with gargan might be a good idea as well. (Seriously, Gargan is so bad.)

[RomeoPapa]

Sounds like you haven't discovered Gargan's true potential yet, he is really good

[Dreagos]

Oh, I know all about his buff from the witch. But his "spells" kinda suck. Unless I am missing some moves he can get which expand his options, his magic power is too low to be of use. Meanwhile, the magic power of the girls I mentioned are overpowering. By the level the OP mentioned, those girls will LITERALLY kill everything before they can ever deal damage. Gargan can't even compare. With the magic buff, he is basically a lower end version of 2 other party members never doing anything that any other party member can do well enough to make him worth taking. The numbers he puts out just can't compete with literally ANY other party member. Even his sister is better than him... and that is INCLUDING his upgrade.