Palamecia Barthandelus boss fight - Best Equipment?

I'm fighting Barthandelus on the Palamecia, and it's taking forever for me to stagger him or even get any good hits on him. My Crystarium is full on all my characters, so I've been leveling up my equipment a lot. I've been using the Axis Blade (Level 14) with Lightning, Vidofnir (Level 10) with Hope, and Bladed Lance (Level 14) with Fang. My other characters' weapons I haven't touched all that much. I've also been using Bangles to increase my HP. I've been selling the Incentive Chips that enemies drop and buying Sturdy Bones to upgrade my equipment.

Are these the best weapons and accessories to upgrade at this point in the game, or should I buy and focus on upgrading something else? Cus farming for gil takes forever in this game, since enemies don't always drop the loot that I want, and I don't wanna spend all my gil on one weapon only for a better one to pop up later on and have to start leveling my equipment again from scratch.

Well my only playthrough i had lightning starting weapon evolved to the 2nd form with *, Hope's eaglew.e its called at *, and I didnt upgrade fangs till i got her taming rod... so yeah idk upgrade your weapons better? sorry i'm not much help :D. OH! just get it to X3 multiplier with bone stuff. then buy 99 perfect conductors to get it to * almost right away btw. yeah that's what i did >:D

It's fine, I can't expect you to remember the exact weapons you had at this point in the game. But yes, I have been using the Sturdy Bones to get the Exp multiplier.

I recommend that you do not upgrade your weapons until the very end of the game. Your equipment is character specific, and often time if you max a weapon out, there's potentially a better weapon later on in the game.

Focus on leveling your accessories instead. All characters can use them, and they are useful up to the end of the game.

Try using a different party and paradigms. I always use Lightning Fang and Vanille for this fight, because Vanille is a strong white mage and Fang is a good Sentinel.

My party was Lightning/Hope/Fang for this as well, and I didn't have any trouble with him. I think maybe you're focusing too much on weapons/items, instead of on battle tactics. The people that have had problems with that fight tend to be ones who, when Barthandelus is charging up his super attack (I forget the name), stop attacking and start buffing/healing to prepare. However, it's a much better tactic to keep on attacking hard, because the more you hurt him, the less damage the attack will do.

Also, one thing I did with Fang that was very helpful was level up her Ravager ability to learn Fire, so that I could attack with 3x Ravagers to build a quicker stagger.

LJ is right that you shouldn't bother too much with upgrading weapons (unless you're certain that's the weapon you want to stick with after having done your research). You're not going to have the money to do too much with it anyway until the end of chapter 11.

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Originally Posted by Raistlin

My party was Lightning/Hope/Fang for this as well, and I didn't have any trouble with him. I think maybe you're focusing too much on weapons/items, instead of on battle tactics. The people that have had problems with that fight tend to be ones who, when Barthandelus is charging up his super attack (I forget the name), stop attacking and start buffing/healing to prepare. However, it's a much better tactic to keep on attacking hard, because the more you hurt him, the less damage the attack will do.

Also, one thing I did with Fang that was very helpful was level up her Ravager ability to learn Fire, so that I could attack with 3x Ravagers to build a quicker stagger.

LJ is right that you shouldn't bother too much with upgrading weapons (unless you're certain that's the weapon you want to stick with after having done your research). You're not going to have the money to do too much with it anyway until the end of chapter 11.

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Fang doesn't have access to the Ravager role until after this fight, however. It isn't until the start of the next chapter that all roles are unlocked. She's currently stuck with Sentinel, Commando, and Saboteur.

You shouldn't need to upgrade weapons or accessories for this fight. Go in with the Hawkeye for Hope for added Magic, the Axis Blade for Lightning for added speed (it doesn't add a lot, but for chaining, speed is preferable to raw power), and just give Fang any strong weapon.

Paradigm management is key to this fight, and to most of the fights from this point onward. I'll list what I used, along with what roles they take (order for roles is Lightning, Hope, Fang).

Delta Attack - Com/Rav/Sen
Mystic Tower - Rav/Rav/Sen
Relentless Assault - Rav/Rav/Com
Aggression - Com/Rav/Com
Solidarity - Com/Med/Sen
Evened Odds - Med/Syn/Sab

You'll notice that half of these have Sentinels, and this is still an aggressive setup (for a more conservative one, just switch Relentless Assault with Combat Clinic - Med/Med/Sen, and Evened Odds with Protection - Med/Syn/Sen). While Sentinels have been of more harm than good until this point (slowing your attacks without really being needed to survive), you will need to have them a lot as you progress. They offer blanket reduction of all incoming damage, by about 30% at this point in the game to themselves, and I think 5% to the rest of the party. Couple that with Fang's health and Hope's plethora of defensive buffs, and it works much better to keep you alive.

So, the fight starts easy. Wipe out the various little mobs to start the second phase against the main boss. Shouldn't have much trouble, especially since you are stalling out against the second phase, not the first. But it can be a good time to practice Paradigm rotations. Start with Delta Attack, and after about two rounds of combat, switch to Mystic Tower. At this point, the chain gauge is high enough that even without a Commando offering the extra time, the Ravagers can keep it from resetting. Push a target up to the Stagger point with Mystic Tower. If you need to heal, switch to Solidarity. Hope is an awesome healer, and Lightning reclaiming the role of Commando lets her stabilize the Chain Gauge while the healing goes on. Then switch back to Mystic Tower once your party is topped off.

Evened Odds is kind of odd. IIRC, Barthandelus is not really vulnerable to a lot of debuffs, but Saboteur spells do minor damage, and keep the chain gauge going, with a better rate increase than a Commando, and less chain dropping than Ravagers, making them an interesting middle ground. The downside to this Paradigm, especially at this point in the game, is that Lightning just isn't a wonderful healer. Until she gets Cura, after this fight, she is very limited in her healing, and this can be problematical. This is why Protection might be better, since it focuses more of the attacks towards a single target, which is all she can heal effectively. But it will drop your chain gauge fairly quickly.

Anyway, if you manage to achieve a Stagger, you need to take advantage of it, and that is what the two psycho Paradigms are there for. Aggression and Relentless Assault are both helpful, though in this fight, they can be interchangable (hence why Combat Clinic might be preferred to one of them). Ideally, when you stagger a target, you will switch to Relentless Assault to drive up the Chain Gauge even more while Fang takes on the role of Commando to bludgeon the enemy. After it gets a little higher (it builds very rapidly past stagger, and every little bit helps), throw Lightning into the Commando role as well, and she will join in on the fun (the huge downside to multiple Commando Paradigms in most fights is that they never focus on the same target if there is more than one target availible, but they work wonders in fights with only one target, like Barthandelus's second phase).

So, start out with Evened Odds to get Hope's buffs settled in on the party, as Shell and Protect do wonders to reduce damage, and he can even use his Bar-element spells if you wait long enough, which helps in Phase 1, then switch into Delta Attack. You are unlikely to Five Star this battle anyway (honestly, you probably don't even stand a chance of one starring it, the timer on this battle is incredibly short, IMO), so don't worry about speedy attacks with Aggression or Relentless Assault yet, just take things slow and steady. Be willing to switch to Solidarity often, and back to Evened Odds if you need to reapply buffs. The better shape you are in when you enter Phase 2, the better.

In Phase 2, make sure you are up to par, then load in with the usual Delta Attack/Mystic Tower combo. Thanatosian Smile is the only attack likely to hit the whole party, and, as long as you have Fang out as a Sentinel, you shouldn't notice it much. Otherwise, just switch to Solidarity when Fang gets low from Bart's Ruin spam (keep health in the green). When he switches to charging for his super attack, immediately break into Relentless Assault (unless you were somehow lucky enough to Stagger him already, in which case go for Aggression). Build the chain gauge as high as possible, and do as much damage as you can. It reduces the damage of his attack, and, I believe, delays it slightly (you'll notice when this happens because his posture and the effects will switch slightly). Both good things. After it hits, back to Solidarity to repair the damage, then rinse and repeat.




Final bit of personal advice: Don't upgrade equipment, period, until post-endgame. It only makes things harder. With the exception of a couple annoying fights, which are few and far between, you should have little difficulty surviving and being victorious in combat, especially if you go around maxing your Crystarium at every availible point. The main objective once you hit Chapter 11 is to get Five Star ratings on the hunt missions, and that is nearly impossible with upgraded weapons, since every level up shortens the target time considerably. Weapon upgrading is something to do once you have completed everything and just want to mess around with acquiring all the extra loot and goodies. And it is too tedious to be much fun, no matter when you take it on.

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Originally Posted by Skyblade

Fang doesn't have access to the Ravager role until after this fight, however. It isn't until the start of the next chapter that all roles are unlocked. She's currently stuck with Sentinel, Commando, and Saboteur.

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Oops, you can tell I haven't played in a while. But yeah, still do that when you're first able to. :p

I agree with most of Skyblade's battle suggestions. Sentinels were useless for most of the game up until that point, but they become very, very useful.

Equipment isn't important. If you're full on the Crystarium then that is more than sufficient! The most important thing is that you take out those four magic casting things on the sides, and do it very very quickly. You probably noticed that they cast stronger and stronger magic. Once they get to those -aga spells you're pretty much smurfed if you haven't taken out at least three. Don't take time to buff until they're gone. Just COM/RAV/RAV and then RAV/RAV/RAV, occasionally throwing in a medic. Once you've taken those things out, it's much much easier. A sentinel won't be necessary if you're quick enough. I typically use Lightning, Hope, and Vanille for this fight.

Good luck!