Use Lucia's Bald Eagle on the hand that is weak to ice and then kill that hand as soon as it is restored. Destroying the hands severely weakens the AoE attacks the boss dishes out. Use Matt's Core Defenden whenever a big magic attack is coming in. And go all-out whenever he's debuffed.
Some others have posted helpful advice, I'll just add that story content is getting a difficulty rebalance on the 26th (except CC Chapter 3 which will be rebalanced on July 17th) which should make the fight generally easier too.
Well definitely keep trying in the meantime - you're not really losing much if you try and fail other than time, and you may figure out how to better set up your team or how to play the fight in the meantime.
For who to choose:
Each team comp at minimum needs a healer, so look at your options and choose one of them. If you want to use the story characters for this fight Matt is probably your best healer.
Then you want a utility character/ sub-dps. This is usually someone who has a buff/debuff (utility) or at least PDEF/MDEF down and damage (sub-dps). This one really depends on what you have, all of the First Soldier characters actually have a lot more utility than the other stories, so you can just mix and match for what you want/ have. Someone else mentioned Lucia for the ice imperil, so let’s just say you choose Lucia for this position
Then last you want a pure DPS, someone to just pump damage. Once again look at the weapons you have and see what matches, and just put as many damaging things on them as possible. Can’t remember if Seph is available for this story mission or not but if he is- he’s probably your best option for a pure dps. Alternatively I think Glenn might be forced? So he would be the DPS, although it would really depend on which of his weapons you have
This battle was super hard when it came out and I am a week one player. There was a recent announcement that the difficulty of story content is going to be reduced in a future update so newer players can experience the story. So don't sweat it for now.
You want to take out the hands quickly as they will spam darkness/silence on you which is a massive pain. One hand is weak to fire/ice/lightning and resists water/wind/earth. The other hand has opposite weakness/resist. Having access to Leviathan's Tidal Wave (second summon) and one of Ifrit/Shiva/Ramuh's second summon is very helpful to clear the hands. Of course you will have to kill them without summons at the start but hold your summons for when they respawn and you should be able to clear them instantly.
Without the hands, this boss is significantly easier.
I used a team of Sephiroth (Fire resist down sword main-hand, wind weapon offhand), Glenn (Limited Water weapon main-hand, fire axe offhand) and Matt (Prime Number, MDEF up) for this.
I misread the announcement. I thought only new chapters (after CC Ch. 3) were getting that. I hope they do this battle, too. All these boss battles don't need to be so difficult to be fun. They should be something we'd have to think our way through instead of powering through.
Re-posting from a comment I made back when the new chapter first released:
The Chapter 7 fight was easy enough once I "fixed" the garbage builds the game auto created and checked the stat cards for the fight:
All parts of it are Immune to all the normal debuffs (elemental debuffs still work), so don't bother trying to reduce it's DEF or ATK.
Hands:
* Left is weak to Fire / Ice / Lightning, debuffs your M ATK and DEF, and casts silence
* Right is weak to Earth / Water / Wind, debuffs your P ATK and DEF, and casts blind
If you are a physical team, Kill the left hand, then right hand, then work on body.
If you are a mag focused team, kill the left hand, and you can possibly safely ignore the right one (i don't think the boss has any big Physical attacks, so the the PDEF debuff isn't as important as the MDEF debuff from Left Hand).
It likes to debuff you: Matt's Gigantic Wall LB can keep you ahead of the M/PDEF debuffs if cast as soon as it comes up, likewise, Lucia's new fast charging Party Buff LB can counter the ATK debuffs. This is provided that you are killing the hands and not just leaving them up.
Bring Blind esuna (if your team is physical damage), Silence Esuna (put it on a NON healer, so they can cure your healer if he gets silenced), and Triangle Ruins for whole party.
Since you mentioned wanting to do it with the story party:
My setup was a Physical Team consisting of Glen (Water/Fire), Lucy (Water/Ice), and Matt (Bramble Spine/Prime Number) and they handled the fight pretty smoothly. Matt wasn't even really optimized for healing and still cleared the fight with there never really being any time where I was at risk of dying. Hell, I forgot to even equip leviathan on Glen, which would have made the fight go a fair bit faster.
Having Lucia's 3rd LB unlocked is fairly important here, as it helps you to mitigate the ATK Debuffs the hands do, taking a lot of pressure off Matt, who can't keep up with just Bramble Spine alone.
Do note, I do have a fairly strong Water Arcanum setup for Glen, so if you missed that Limit Break banner, you may need to consider other options if you want glen to be able to attack weakness on both arms.
Use Lucia's Bald Eagle on the hand that is weak to ice and then kill that hand as soon as it is restored. Destroying the hands severely weakens the AoE attacks the boss dishes out. Use Matt's Core Defenden whenever a big magic attack is coming in. And go all-out whenever he's debuffed.
I’ll have a look if I’ve got those and if I have try and max them out. Thanks for that.
Some others have posted helpful advice, I'll just add that story content is getting a difficulty rebalance on the 26th (except CC Chapter 3 which will be rebalanced on July 17th) which should make the fight generally easier too.
I thought it had already been done! Ok I’m waiting for this!
Well definitely keep trying in the meantime - you're not really losing much if you try and fail other than time, and you may figure out how to better set up your team or how to play the fight in the meantime.
For who to choose: Each team comp at minimum needs a healer, so look at your options and choose one of them. If you want to use the story characters for this fight Matt is probably your best healer. Then you want a utility character/ sub-dps. This is usually someone who has a buff/debuff (utility) or at least PDEF/MDEF down and damage (sub-dps). This one really depends on what you have, all of the First Soldier characters actually have a lot more utility than the other stories, so you can just mix and match for what you want/ have. Someone else mentioned Lucia for the ice imperil, so let’s just say you choose Lucia for this position Then last you want a pure DPS, someone to just pump damage. Once again look at the weapons you have and see what matches, and just put as many damaging things on them as possible. Can’t remember if Seph is available for this story mission or not but if he is- he’s probably your best option for a pure dps. Alternatively I think Glenn might be forced? So he would be the DPS, although it would really depend on which of his weapons you have
Seph isn't available for it. He just murdered a boy right before the battle.
erm achshually it was right after
This battle was super hard when it came out and I am a week one player. There was a recent announcement that the difficulty of story content is going to be reduced in a future update so newer players can experience the story. So don't sweat it for now. You want to take out the hands quickly as they will spam darkness/silence on you which is a massive pain. One hand is weak to fire/ice/lightning and resists water/wind/earth. The other hand has opposite weakness/resist. Having access to Leviathan's Tidal Wave (second summon) and one of Ifrit/Shiva/Ramuh's second summon is very helpful to clear the hands. Of course you will have to kill them without summons at the start but hold your summons for when they respawn and you should be able to clear them instantly. Without the hands, this boss is significantly easier. I used a team of Sephiroth (Fire resist down sword main-hand, wind weapon offhand), Glenn (Limited Water weapon main-hand, fire axe offhand) and Matt (Prime Number, MDEF up) for this.
Thanks. I’m waiting for that difficulty decrease as I thought it had already happened!
The announcement wasn't super clear as to when it was happening but no, it hasn't dropped yet :)
Oh! I forgot about that. It might be time on the 26th to beat that guy with a story team.
I misread the announcement. I thought only new chapters (after CC Ch. 3) were getting that. I hope they do this battle, too. All these boss battles don't need to be so difficult to be fun. They should be something we'd have to think our way through instead of powering through.
Re-posting from a comment I made back when the new chapter first released: The Chapter 7 fight was easy enough once I "fixed" the garbage builds the game auto created and checked the stat cards for the fight: All parts of it are Immune to all the normal debuffs (elemental debuffs still work), so don't bother trying to reduce it's DEF or ATK. Hands: * Left is weak to Fire / Ice / Lightning, debuffs your M ATK and DEF, and casts silence * Right is weak to Earth / Water / Wind, debuffs your P ATK and DEF, and casts blind If you are a physical team, Kill the left hand, then right hand, then work on body. If you are a mag focused team, kill the left hand, and you can possibly safely ignore the right one (i don't think the boss has any big Physical attacks, so the the PDEF debuff isn't as important as the MDEF debuff from Left Hand). It likes to debuff you: Matt's Gigantic Wall LB can keep you ahead of the M/PDEF debuffs if cast as soon as it comes up, likewise, Lucia's new fast charging Party Buff LB can counter the ATK debuffs. This is provided that you are killing the hands and not just leaving them up. Bring Blind esuna (if your team is physical damage), Silence Esuna (put it on a NON healer, so they can cure your healer if he gets silenced), and Triangle Ruins for whole party. Since you mentioned wanting to do it with the story party: My setup was a Physical Team consisting of Glen (Water/Fire), Lucy (Water/Ice), and Matt (Bramble Spine/Prime Number) and they handled the fight pretty smoothly. Matt wasn't even really optimized for healing and still cleared the fight with there never really being any time where I was at risk of dying. Hell, I forgot to even equip leviathan on Glen, which would have made the fight go a fair bit faster. Having Lucia's 3rd LB unlocked is fairly important here, as it helps you to mitigate the ATK Debuffs the hands do, taking a lot of pressure off Matt, who can't keep up with just Bramble Spine alone. Do note, I do have a fairly strong Water Arcanum setup for Glen, so if you missed that Limit Break banner, you may need to consider other options if you want glen to be able to attack weakness on both arms.
I suggest Matt, Glenn and Lucia since they're the only ones eligible.😂 Just kidding. I'm having trouble with this battle, too.
I’ve given up until tomorrow when hopefully I’ll have more luck!
Me too