I need pointers on Barthandelus.

[Zaskull]

I need help Barthandelus (Palamecia Encounter). My team (Light/Hope/Fang) can't survive the devasating magic hits. This is with shell and protect from Hope up. Any tips?

[Shlup]

When he's charging up, if you use Relentless Assault you should be able to disrupt the attack. I'm assuming it's his major attack that you're talking about.

Otherwise just don't forget to have a synergist with you and you should be fine.

[Raistlin]

I actually found him almost boringly easy. I beat him my first time, because unlike some of the wusses who frequent this forum, I took his charging up time as a signal to attack all-out, which apparently significantly detracts from the resulting damage. So just do that, and you should be ok.

[Shlup]

Yeah I thought to do that but didn't for some reason, and instead took that time to brace for impact. Which was a lame choice but my characters' HP was thankfully high enough to pull it off.

[Psychotic]

If it's his Magic that's really hitting you hard, you might want to think about replacing Fang with Vanille, as, chances are, her magic stat is going to be higher and thus she can absorb more punishment. And equip some of the HP boosting bangles to Hope so he can take more of a beating too.

[Yar]

Also, try going into the battle already affected by Aegisol and Fortisol (?) I think those two... They give you haste, protect, etc etc...

Consider using a sentinel when he is attacking. In fact, you could probably take him down with a sentinel, medic and commando. Use those and hit his support pieces until they perish, and then you can concentrate on switching from Relentless Assault and Diversity.

[Zaskull]

I've been using Light(COM)/Hope(RAV)/Fang(SEN) for damage dealing. I will try relentless attacking him before the big magic boom. I will also try replacing Fang with Vanille, but I'll loose my Sentinel. Then again, Sentinels are a pain to heal. I'll try everything out. Thanks guys.

[Rad Bromance]

I used Lightning/Sazh/Hope, started out with COM/SYN/SYN, then once I had haste/protect/shell on everyone switched to Rav/Rav/Rav, then when he was going to do that big stupid attack where all the energy balls rain on you I switched to com/syn (sazh)/med, then when my people were healed fully switched back to rav/rav/rav, then com/com/rav once i staggered him.

I might add however that I used a Fortisol before the battle and that the battle went pretty slow for me (I managed three stars). I also died like five times before winning.

[Prancing Mad]

I was doing fine until he put doom on me. I guess that's a signal that I'm taking too long. Has this happened to anyone else, or am I the only person online who's had this happen. He was at about half health when he hit me with it. I survived a few destrudos by that point. BTW Zaskull, I had buffs up to survive the destrudo and Snow as a sentinel.

Ok back to my problem, why did he do doom on me! I had it in the bag otherwise

[Zaskull]

For some reason, snow for me takes a TON of damage. More than Fang 0.o. I think I have an aerosol or two, I'll try using that stategy that you described Rad Bromance. And hopefully I don't get Doom'd D: that would be the suck.

[Darkwolf090]

I didnt even need a SEN in this fight, I used Snow(COM) Light(RAV) and Vanille(RAV) and then when needed all i did was switch Vanille to Medic and keep everyone else the same, also what you can do is if needed switch to Combat Clinic (SEN+MED+MED) before the attack goes if you really can hit him hard enough, also yes, make sure your buffed helps alot

[Jings]

You could always do a little bit of grinding if it's too difficult right now. I think I stuck with COM RAV RAV and COM RAV MED for most of the fight.

[Zaskull]

First notable attempt:
Killed all of the attachments,
Got him to 75% and he casts Destrudo and I die.

Second:
Died early due to magic bomardment.

-__________________-
This game is going to go the way of X for me. That means getting stuck on a boss and never going back to play it again. I'll go at it again another time I suppose.

[Zaskull]

Ok sorry for double post, but here's the issue I'm having.

-Hope and Sazh buff while I heal some

-Light and Sazh go on offensive while Hope heals (if I feel confident, Hope goes on offensive as well)

-At about when the first piece is going down, our buffs start to wear off (or they are being removed, I have no idea, but they're going away) and we naturally begin to take more damage.

But here's the thing- we can't rebuff because the magic bomardment kills the team too quickly. This is 9 times out of 10, one time I got lucky and was able to get to the last stage of the fight before getting killed by Destrudo. I've been doing SOME grinding and it's been sucessful but doesn't seem to make a difference. I'm losing interest in this game quickly because this boss fight keeps destroying me and I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

[docta fizz]

But here's the thing- we can't rebuff because the magic bomardment kills the team too quickly. This is 9 times out of 10, one time I got lucky and was able to get to the last stage of the fight before getting killed by Destrudo. I've been doing SOME grinding and it's been sucessful but doesn't seem to make a difference. I'm losing interest in this game quickly because this boss fight keeps destroying me and I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Well if you don't have a ridiculous amount invested into your weapons now is a good time to change a little something up.
I have the healing rod on vanille for this fight, it gives you the sythesize abilities of magic wall.

synth spoiler(SPOILER)
Hope - Hawkeye
Sazh - Deneb duelers
Light - Edge carbine
Items to include: Gold bange, diamond bangle, Magicians mark, shaman's mark, rune bracelet, auric amulet and I'm sure there are others

How it works is you use any combination of these as accessories and weapons on a character and you get "magical Wall"

2 item = 5
3 items= 10
4 items= 20
** note your weapon counts as an item **

If you put some of this on your healers it should give them what you need to survive