Help FFXII: Gigantuar

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bikergamerwriter

Chocobo Breeder
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Hello, back again.

I've done plenty of research and tired plenty of techniques, as well as utilising the guy's weakness to Daze, and the result is always the same. On a good run he will wear down the SEN faster than two MEDs can deal with it. Once the SEN's down it's all over for whoever's left. Other times he won't focus solely on the SEN and attack the other two, either one-shotting us or sticking us with Fog, so healing is disrupted, and defeat comes quicker. Other times he will hit the party leader and immediately end the fight before we've had a chance to do anything.

Utilising his vulnerability to Daze doesn't work either. If it does stick it will only last a few seconds, not long enough to actually do anything.

Basically how can I get off the defence for long enough to start working a conventional stagger or towards a Random Chain? I'm on Chapter 13 and Fang and Snow know Daze. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
 
The only thing that reduces damage from 10000 Needles is SEN damage reduction. Snow can achieve lot of damage reduction by using a Winged Saint (transformed Paladin) along with Mediguard or Steelguard. After Improved Guard II, his total damage reduction will be 80%--as in, 10000 Needles will only do 2000 damage to him.

First problem is, AI Snow will not use Mediguard or Steelguard, so the only way to take advantage of this is to control Snow. Second problem is, you can only use the -guard abilities if you aren't suffering from Pain, and Gigantuar really likes to inflict Pain, so you need to be ready to remove it--frequently.

Daze is useful to buy you time for buffing, but you need to have Fang as the only character taking offensive actions for this to work. Once his immunity to all other debuffs is known, if she sticks Daze (and doesn't remove it right away), she'll stop casting entirely, leaving Gigantuar Dazed for ~60 seconds.

If you need more advice, I can link you to strategies and/or vids.
 
Well after some treasure hunting and working on weapons I got the Winged Saint, and tried what you had taught me. I used Snow, Fang and Sazh, with Winged Saint and Calamity Spear, and some loadout that gave Sazh Random Instant Chain. I also used General's Belts and Pain Dampeners.

Despite this I'm still having significant problems even getting the attack off the ground. Snow uses Libra, while taking a hit. Snow uses Challenge, takes another hit. Then Snow uses Mediguard, but at this stage his health is almost zero so the next hit drops him anyway.

Other times I'll use Libra then go straight to Mediguard, but then Gigantuar hits the other members of the team, and can almost drop them with one shot. Fang's use of Daze doesn't stick most of the time, if she uses it at all.

Also if I try to use an item to revive a teammate or remove Pain or Daze, then I have to abandon my guard, so the next shot or two almost certainly drop me.

I'm rarely ever able to change to an offensive paradigm. Healing paradigms aren't much better because Gigantuar does damage faster than Fang and Sazh can heal it, and neither know Raise yet (Just researched it now).

Do I use different characters? Should I use Lightning or Vanille as a Medic? What about equipment? Do General's Belts work against 10,000 Needles or is it a magical attack?

Thank you very much for any help you can give me, and congratulations to anyone who has done it before completing the game. You must be a tactical genius.
 
I'd recommend a Librascope over Libra, as it's faster. I highly recommend using Hope over Sazh; he's a much better healer and you do need healing to get through the beginning of the fight.

General's Belts do nothing, and neither do Witch's Bracelets. I forget whether 10,000 Needles is physical or magical (or both), but regardless it pierces all non-Sentinel damage reduction. Replace them with more Pain Dampeners or with +HP bangles.

Here are a couple of vids if you want to check them out: http://youtu.be/X8WQi4BPwbM
and: http://youtu.be/IxEoiEoYK44
 
Thanks very much. This should be what I need. I've also tried lowering the game speed to slow so I can react to things faster. I'll get back on how it went.
 
Thanks to these strategies I just defeated Gigantuar again, but so far I haven't achieved anything higher than three stars. However in the first video it took the guy two minutes eighteen to finish him off, and got five stars, but I finished him just now in one minute forty five and got three stars, and I've done it in less before. So what am I doing wrong? Do the use of shrouds make a difference? And what is the target time, and why is it two minutes one for me instead of three minutes twenty four as in the first video?
 
Thanks for all your help. Got the five stars eventually. Now how am I going to get through this Neochu...
 
Oops, my bad. I completely forgot to come back to answer this. Target time, and therefore star ratings, varies based on enemy HP, enemy level, the number of ATB segments your characters have, and the higher of each character's Strength or Magic stat. I'm guessing you had higher Strength and/or Magic stats than the vid, plus possibly 6th ATB segments. Shrouds don't affect target time (aside from making it easier to achieve higher star ratings in many cases). Anyway, glad you figured it out!

For Neochu, I suggest starting with lots of physical damage reduction on a Sentinel. What I've typically seen is: clear out the first wave of Picos, spend time building chain but be careful not to trigger the first Seed Dispersal, set up key buffs + Imperil early in one of Neochu's cycles and kill it before the next Screech, and then clean up the Picos that show up while you're killing him.
 
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