EOIII Rantage!

[ueI]

I can't beat the final sea quest boss! For a boss whose solution is supposed to be simple, it kills me every time!

Rely on NPC? NPC sucks.
Rely on binds? They fail.
Rely on defense? I deal no reliable damage.
Rely on offense? I can't take a hit.

Along with , this is the last monster I have yet to kill! I've tried everything except warrior's might. My only success was using an RNG exploit for quest #3. I can only get the boss to half health before I either run out of MP, or it rapes me by
What do I do?

[Kaname]

What are your damage dealers, if I may ask?

[ueI]

Well, my biggest damage dealer is a sword gladiator. It knows blade rave, but I usually stick with bind cut for this boss. I also have an arbalist and star zodiac, but I can't always make room for them on my team. Since I was having so much trouble, I created a buccaneer specifically for this fight, with hanging and pincushion. Except for the buccaneer, who's at level 70, my characters are around level 90. Is 70 too low? Or am I just using the wrong classes?

[Kaname]

The following is a suggestion. There are other ways to handle it, I'm sure.

70 is fine. I'd suggest to use a Windling to cover the status effects, if you don't want to use team 3(easiest by far). A windling can easily cover 2 status effects on their own!

If you use team 3, send your sword gladiator and either a healer/supporter, or, better, your buccaneer with items.
Your gladi will supply damage, your buccaneer will debuff the enemy with Eagle Eye, help with hanging, if needed (if they act before the NPCs and get a headbind on the dragon, the NPC wildling will most likely bind either arm, feet, or in best case both, and if the headbind fails, the NPC will try to apply it twice, making it almost certain that the headbind WILL be applied before supernova) and only rarely use healing items if it's absolutely required (which can happen sometimes)

Then just damage it down. With the defense debuff from the buccaneer, your damage should be high enough to outdamage his healing, and the occasional pincushion should help as well. Using Amrita is not terrible, so bring a few!

My first time against this guy I went with a monk/buccaneer (a healer with hanging and the armor debuff) and a gladiator/arbalist with nine smashes. Worked out pretty well! Using charge, I could outdamage his healing quite well.

[ueI]

Wait, which quest is this? The one with the NPC wildling lets you use 3 characters, but you only mentioned 2. I only need tips for the first two quests of the three.

The problem isn't really that the boss heals itself. The problem is that the game flips some kind of invisible switch halfway through the fight. I'm cruising along, and then suddenly, "alright! the gloves are off! OHKO".

My arbalist and buccaneer really can't survive any hits. If level isn't a problem, it must be equipment. But if my equipment is that bad, how did I get this far?

[Kaname]

[ueI]

Thanks for the tip. The slice amulets worked perfectly. When am I going to learn that Atlus games have cheap ways to win?

Unfortunately, the NPC farmer decides to stop doing anything halfway through the fight. The ninja NPC is even worse because he keeps hogging the 6th slot. I came close to beating the boss with a healing monk and 2 damage dealers, but the 50+ turns the fight would take leaves too many opportunities for error. After repeatedly getting the monster's health to the red and having my head binds randomly miss, I give up. Screw you, sea boss. Goodbye, and may you and your supernova never appear in Etrian Odyssey 4. How's that for a rant?

UPDATE: More than a year later, I finally beat it! I rested my zodiac to teach her meteor and used her along with my gladiator and buccaneer in the 2nd quest. The buccaneer did little damage and was nearly useless apart from the occasional head bind. The wildling NPC was a life saver. I don't expect to ever complete the 1st quest, but I'm thankful for what I've managed to accomplish.

[Kaname]

It's a very understandable rant. NPCs just being jerks is annoying, too. Stupid ninja.

[Cross The Rubicon]

[zamisk]

My recently-retired party was at level 20 today, but tonight I got them all to 28. Between lugging gear, doing dishes, and playing trumpet at my Big Band Dinner Dance tonight I had plenty of time to mindlessly grind on FOES. At 30 I'll continue my exploration of B10.

[Skele Von Mann]

I like being unable to keep my party. Now it's a Y/G, P/N, S/G and in the back is N/P (was about go against Shin or whatever the Deep City route's boss was), and Z/W.

Probably gonna reclass the sub of Ygg to Hoplite, Ninja to Zodiac battery and remove the Zodiac entirely since he doesn't seem to do enough damage, and a couple meteors+charge isn't really worth it for me (though I don't really carry TP healing items so :V for me)

[Emrin]

Emrin got a job recently right and sometimes it requires him to take a stake and impale it into the ground with a hammer. So to make it a bit more fun I decided to play Etrian Odyssey 3 in my head and since I had a hammer I decided to be a Gladiator.

-_-... Nine Smashes is far harder to preform than it sounds. No wonder they miss so much. Hell, the stupid stake was in 1(one) place the entire time and I missed the first few times. Just think how much harder it would be on something that doesn't want to die and instead wants you for lunch.

[zamisk]

The obvious answer is to pick Arbalist as your subclass in real life and invest points into Proper Form.

[Emrin]

Probably wasn't a good idea putting points into Nine Smashes in the first place. And Take... but that's a story for another day. I'm gonna try resetting myself.

[PLA]