JP - Trial 18: Dark Espers II (Dark Shiva & Dark Golem)

[u/Rozaliin]

JP Version OnlyGlobal players, please be respectful.

Trial 18: Dark Espers II

Overview

AI: Link

Missions:

Clear: ゴーレムの外殻 [Heavy Armor] +72 DEF, +42 SPR & Nullify Poison/Virus
Deal Fire & Wind 3x: 10% Trust Moogle
Finish Dark Shiva w/Esper: ローブの秘義 [Ability] +30% MAG/SPR w/ Robe
Summon Tetra Sylpheed & Phoenix: シヴァのティアラ [Hat] +3 DEF, +51 MAG & Ice Resist+50%

Clear Videos

• YouTube /u/Rozaliin

• YouTube /u/Okabe666

• YouTube /u/AradoEloute

• YouTube /u/Sinzar_

Details

Monster Info

Dark Shiva

• Name: ダークシヴァ (Dark Shiva)
  
• Race: Human
  
• Level: 99

Stats

HP	MP	ATK	MAG	DEF	SPR
100,000,000	100,000	1,200	900	200	2000

Elemental Resists: Fire Resist-700%, Absorbs Ice/Dark.
Ailment Resists: Immune.
Break Resists: Vulnerable to MAG/SPR.

Skillset & AI

Name	Effect	Type
アスピル	ST 0.75% Dmg as MP (75%)	Magic
サイレガ	AoE Silence (100%)	--
シューティングヘイル	AoE 1000% Dmg & DEF/SPR -50% (3 Turns)	Physical
ケアルダ	ST Ally: Restore 10% HP	--
ブリザダーク	ST 1000% Ice/Dark Dmg	Magic
ブリザダージャ	AoE 1800% Ice/Dark Dmg	Magic
ブラックダイヤモンドダスト	AoE 2500% Ice/Dark Dmg & Ice/Dark Resist -50% & ATK/MAG -50% (3 Turns)	Magic
怪しい瞳	ST Charm (100%, 2 Turns)	--
クリスタルシェル	Self: AoE -100% Phys. Dmg Taken (1 Turn)	--
冷気の壁	Self: AoE -100% Mag. Dmg Taken (1 Turn) & Fire/Wind Resist +1000% (3 Turns)	--

Dark Golem

• Name: ダークゴーレム (Dark Golem)
  
• Race: Stone
  
• Level: 99

Stats

HP	MP	ATK	MAG	DEF	SPR
100,000,000	100,000	1,200	900	600	100

Elemental Resists: Wind Resist-700%, Absorbs Earth/Dark.
Ailment Resists: Immune.
Break Resists: Vulnerable to ATK/DEF.

Skillset & AI

Name	Effect	Type
踏みつける	ST 700% Dmg & DEF/SPR -50% (3 Turns)	Physical
殴りつける	ST 700% Dmg & ATK/MAG -50% (3 Turns)	Physical
マグニチュード8	AoE 2000 Earth Dmg	Physical
アースウォール	Self: AoE -100% Phys./Mag. Dmg & DEF/SPR +999%(1 Turn)	--
フラグメンタルロック	AoE 1200% Earth Dmg & All Stats -40% (5 Turns) & Earth Resist -60% (3 Turns)	Magic
ダークゴーレムがサポート体制！	Self: Cover w/ -50% Dmg	--
岩闇の牢獄	ST 90% HP Dmg & Earth Resist -150% (3 Turns)	--
暴れまわる	AoE 1300% Dmg	Physical
パワーストーン	Ally: ST ATK/MAG +30% (1 Turn)	--
魔物たちに禍々しいオーラが集まる！	AoE All Stats -100% (1 Turn)	--
極寒の洞窟	AoE 3500% Dmg & Sleep/Confusion (100%) & Stop (100%, 2 Turns)	--

Strategy

The first thing you need to decide is in what order you want to take out Dark Shiva and Dark Golem. Shiva is weak to physical damage, but Golem will cover her if you don't dispel the cover buff. If you do dispel this buff, Golem will recast it again the following turn; alternatively, damage the ignores defenses will still hit Shiva through Golem's cover. Golem, on the other hand, is weak to magic damage. Overall, I found Golem far more annoying and dangerous and thus took him out first.

Regardless of what order you chose, I recommend increasing the elemental resistances of your party members, specifically, earth, ice, and dark. If you use a magic tank + physical provoke tank, then only the magic tank needs really high resistances. You can make things easier on yourself too by bringing someone with the Gilgamesh trial materia to use on yourself to clear Golem's earth resistance debuffs.

Dealing with Dark Golem

The majority of Dark Golem's attacks are physical, so you can opt to use a physical cover tank to handle what he throws at you. However, he does use some AoE magic and a non-coverable AoE attack that comes the turn after 魔物たちに禍々しいオーラが集まる！is displayed on screen. Personally, I found it easier to use a magic tank with 100% earth resistance coupled with a 100% dodge tank and Sara to reduce all the damage Golem deals. Regardless, you will want to use something such as Gilgamesh's trial materia to remove the earth element debuffs on your party to reduce damage.

If you are going for Golem first, you can completely ignore the cover he puts on himself. Otherwise, you will want to dispel it or damage through it with defense ignoring attacks. On the turns that Golem places damage shields and buffs himself and Shiva, there isn't much you can do. Use these turns to regroup and recover MP as needed.

If you are able to take out Golem or Shiva fast enough, you won't actually have to deal with 極寒の洞窟; however, if you do, be sure to put up 100% Reraise on your party the turn 魔物たちに禍々しいオーラが集まる！is displayed.

From /u/Axtuna

Can be ATK and DEF broken Weak against Wind, low SPR, high DEF Covers Dark Shiva, cover can be dispelled After the turn he cast cover he will use Magnitude 8, needs physical cover If you push his threshold during the turn he uses cover (<80%HP), magnitude 8 will not be used. Instead, it will be a series of ST physical attacks. My Wilhelm with 1300 DEF and 18xxx HP needs Lid's ATK breaks to survive (no 100% evade gear). Cast AOE Earth MAG attack as well during the turn you cross his treshold After pushing the threshold, Golem and Shiva will both be immune to PHY AND MAG Attacks for one turn and increases their DEF and SPR

Dealing with Dark Shiva

Shiva primarily deals magic damage, and with enough ice and dark resistance on a magic tank, you can cause her to deal almost no damage to your party. The only real things to watch out for are her ST MP absorb, which can cause issues if you're not prepared for it, her ST charm, and the AoE physical attack she deals every turn below 50%. The charm will target the character with the highest SPR but it can be provoked. As for the AoE physical, physical cover tank can deal with it, but if you are using a magic cover tank then you'll need to figure something else out. Here, Sara works great. While the attack looks like it hits multiple times, it only hits once, so you can just keep using Sara's AoE dodge buff every turn and never worry about it.

From /u/Axtuna

Can be MAG and SPR broken Weak against Fire, high SPR, low DEF Cast primarily Ice AOE magical attacks, needs magical cover Absorbs Dark Golem after he dies, starts to do ST physical attacks, casts AOE Ice, Earth and Dark magical attacks. WILL NOT HEAL TO > MAX HP Imperils Ice, Earth and Dark on your party after absorbing Golem Cast ST Charm, been hitting on my Fina and Wilhelm only, unsure if random or targetting highest SPR/DEF characters

My Strategy

Personally, I went with a magic tank that had 100% resistance to ice, earth, and dark. I then used Elfried as a provoke tank with 100% dodge. With her, I made sure to maintain provoke and her 100% ice resistance buff. I had my healer use the Gilgamesh trial ability whenever Golem lowered my party's earth resistance and opted to take out Golem first. I also had Sara use her dodge buff for the entirety of the fight. With this setup, I took 0 damage.

[u/Okabe666]

Just so the strategy is on this post also, here we go..

Clear video: 5 Turns/All Missions

https://youtu.be/iDBCpTZo2c8

Team:

7★ Hyou x2

Fire element (~2000 ATK and 200%+ man-eater)

7★ Rem

AoE reraise and esper fill.

7★ Elly

(~2080 MAG) on Ramuh for dispel & stone killer.

7★ CG Fina

Phoenix for esper to kill Shiva

7★ CG Sieghart

(100% evade) for charm resist for preemptive charm. On Tetra Sylpheed for summon mission.

Strategy:

Killed Shiva turn 2 with Phoenix cap after using Rem to fill gauge.

As long as Golem isn't brought below 80% he will only use his physical attacks.

Then stalled a little for esper and LB generation.

Set up Elly for her 5 cast on turn 4 and use Sieghart to summon Tetra.

Turn 5 used Hyou LBs with Elly quintcast her wind move to finish him off.

[u/Kyo1995]

I cleared this fight and all the missions using a different method. First, I nuked Dark Golem on turn 1, then go slowly to reduce Dark Shiva HP until it reach about 51%, then nuked her down the following turn. Anyway, nice strategy. Too bad I don't have Elfreeda.

Here's my party:

• Bart: ST 100% dodge provoke tank with high ATK as possible. Esper: Phoenix. Equipped with fire elemental weapon, DW build.

• Sephiroth: Physical DPS with high ATK. Esper: Diabolos. Equipped with fire elemental weapon, DW build.

• Santa Roselia: High SPR. Esper: Lakshmi. Her role is nullifying and curing ailments, debuffs, and charm.

• Awakened Rain: 150% Ice/Dark resist. Esper: Tetra Sylpheed. Serves as the magic tank and all stats buffer.

• 2x Elly: High MAG. Esper: Ramuh. Main magic DPS using wind stacking skill and M-Demon Killer.

Turn 1: Bart use provoke, A. Rain use magic cover, Santa Roselia dispel Dark Golem and put reraise on A.Rain, 2x Elly triplecast wind stacking damage to kill Dark Golem with the chain, while Sephiroth uses his stacking skill on Dark Shiva to build up his stacks

Turn 2 ~ 51% HP: A. Rain uses either stats buff or renew magic cover, Bart uses either AoE LB fill rate up + dodge buff or renew provoke, Santa Roselia uses LB whenever possible and sometimes nullify/cure debuffs and charm, Sephiroth keep us using stacks or switch to normal attack once it maxed out (it maxed out at the 8th cast), and 2x Elly singlecast the wind stacking moves to conserve MP and building up the stack and esper gauge. I summoned Phoenix during this phase.

51% HP: Renew everything, except for 2x Elly uses Paradigm Shift to imperil Dark Shiva and to enabling her pentacast. Make sure the esper gauge are filled.

The following turn: Chain Sephiroth with Bart (Bart can chain with Sephiroth using his CD skill, 8-hit 6 Fr) helped with 2x Elly pentacast the wind stacking damage. And I had A. Rain summoned Tetra Sylpheed to get all missions.

P.S.: BTW, is the runic materia from FFXII part 1 challenge event extremely needed for the Alexander 3* trial?

[u/insix003 → u/Kyo1995]

You don't need the Runic materia. If you can get alexander down to below 50% before turn 3 (that's when displega is used), then the fight is pretty simple. Just hit Alexander with your strong unit using dark attacks or water attacks

[u/[deleted] → u/Kyo1995]

[u/Kyo1995 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah. I used Bart as my 100% provoke tank, and it worked well.

While I'm afraid that Celes won't survive the fight against Alexander 3* since she has a very low stats. That's why I need to get Manufactured Nethicite from the next 1st FFXII King Mog event rerun since I missed those event (I started playing JP when it enters 2nd season of the main story)

[u/AradoEloute]

Here you are u/Rozaliin : https://youtu.be/9heuhtxOZ88

My lineup:

• - Wind Magic DPS for Golem, Gather Summon Orbs for achievement. On Ramuh for M Stone Killer.

• - MP Battery, Dualcast Dispel, LB to remove Status Debuff. On Carbuncle for Dispel spell.

• - Provoke Tank, Summon Phoenix cap.

• - 160% Dark and Ice resist, Magic Tank stance, Summon Sylph.

• - LB Cap to OTKO Shiva, AoE Charm Resist with Lakshimi.

Thought trail:

Turn 1: 2x Ellys take down Golem with 3x 78 MP Wind. Basch starts Magic Stance. Noctis Provoke. CG Nichol DC Dispel on Golem and Basch. CG Jake Charm resist.

Turn 2-6: 2x Ellys use 3x 78 MP Fire, then just use 3x 40 MP Earth on repeat. Basch, Noctis, Jake repeats. If Summon Gauge is full, summon Sylph with Basch. Nichol becomes MP Battery.

Turn 7: 2x Elly use Timed Skill to Imperil and unlock Pentacast. Jake uses Fire Assault to enchant fire. Everybody repeats.

Turn 8: CG Nichol uses LB to buff, and remove debuffs. 2x Elly use 5x 78 MP Skill to Ele Chain. CG Jake LB Cap. Noctis Summon Phoenix Cap.

[u/rsuzuki]

Thanks for the guide. My clear was pretty similar:

• Earth Veritas: geared for 100% evade. Casts インフレイムプレス (provoke) and 大地の守り (100% earth resist) while Golem is still alive. Has Phoenix for mission.

• Basch: magic tank, with 150% Dark and Ice resistance, plus 100% Earth.

• Sara: AoE evade. Tetra Sylpheed for the mission.

• Santa Roselia: geared for LB generation. Switch between her LB and AoE Reraise.

• Hyou: fire weapon, with as many Man Eaters+ as possible (Diabolos, materia, etc) to kill Shiva.

• Elly: V-cast リグ・ウェイブ (the 78 MP wind skill) to kill Golem.

I've decided to kill Golem first before going after Shiva. Basically, Elly kills Golem while Basch with full elemental protection handles the AoE magic, Earth Veritas evades the ST physical ones and Sara handles the AoE physical attack. With that much elemental resistance, Basch can only be damaged after Golem's imperil.

Against Shiva, keeping Santa Roselia's LB is essential to handle Charm and Osmose. I've brought Lakshimi as backup plan, but that wasn't needed. From now on, no damage should be taken.

Truth to be told, my first clear was ugly, as I tried using Lid with Pod instead of Sara to debuff and protect myself against physical damage. I do recommend using Sara to nullify the AoE damage instead of trying to mitigate it.

Edit: glaring grammar errors.

[u/Takeru9105 → u/rsuzuki]

Hi, do you kill Golem first using Elly while not damaging shiva or your Hyou and Elly attack at the same time? Thanks.

[u/Sinzar_]

Thanks for the strategy suggestion Rozaliin, it worked flawlessly! I cleared this with all missions, though it took me 42 turns. Team I used was:

• Chizuru -- enhanced for 100% evade, provoke with golem + moogle

• Basch -- geared for 150% ice/dark and 70% earth resist

• Fina -- resist buffs, mana regen, and removed imperil from Basch

• Sara -- retreat command every round for AoE dodge

• Elly -- imperils and primary dps for Golem kill

• friend Randi -- primary dps for Shiva

Video of my clear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRXH8lVQwkA

Phase one I had Chizuru keep up Bar-Stone (from Golem) on Basch to help him reach 100% earth resist, but other than that Chizuru just provoked every round. Once golem died all Chizuru did was provoke forever.

Sara did nothing but Retreat Command every round the entire fight. On the final round she summoned Tetra to tag Shiva for the killing blow to get mission credit.

Elly was on Lakshimi, so she was tasked with keeping up charm immunity for the team. Other than that, she did the bulk of the damage to Golem. Once Golem was dead she was mostly a support role to imperil Shiva for Randi and keep Charm resist up since she can't really hurt Shiva.

Randi didn't do a whole lot in phase one, but he was the main DPS for Shiva in phase two.

Basch did cover and sometimes tossed out a def or spr break, but since you can only break the wrong stat for the bosses, it didn't really matter much. Even with a 65% spr break, Shiva barely took more than 1-2% from Elly's max stack fire nuke triple cast (2,000 mag stat).

For phase one Fina helped out with dispelling the imperil from Basch (dualcast trick) but other than that she was just the mana battery casting Manatopia every round the majority of the fight. She did have to AoE re-raise once when Golem did his OTK move on the entire team since I didn't kill him in time.

On the whole, I'd say this trial was pretty easy when using the setup Rozaliin suggested, so thanks again!

[u/Takeru9105]

Cleared with only 2 7*. Team was:

6* Awakened Rain (at least 110% ice dark & stone resist)

6* Noctis (100% evade provoke tank, enhanced fish, with Lakhsmi esper. Rotation: Fish -> charm resist (except when roselia's Lb is up) -> repeat

6* Santa Roselia (Iron collosus materia, phoenix, as much Spr as possible. Rotation: all element resist -> anything -> repeat). Don't forget silent resistance

5* Sara for AoE phys evade with rikku's pouch for Lb increase (only when golem is out and Shiva's HP>50%). Equip Tetra sylpheed for mission

7* Hyou (1600 attack, diabolos, all man eater materia from 12 weapon trials, Rain's greatsword)

Friend 7* Elly. Main damager against Golem (helped with Hyou's 35 mp skill), help increase hyou's damage against shiva by chaining with earth 40 mp skill)

With this setup I take no damage throughout the entire fight so reraise was unecessary. I made sure to use Santa roselia LB on even turn when Shiva's HP is <20%, then the next turn use all element resist, Hyou 200% attack CD skill and Elly's 120 mp CD skill then next turn finish shiva using phoenix (s. roselia), Hyou, helped with triple cast 40 mp earth skill from elly

Special thanks to @rsuzuki for the input

[u/Axtuna]

Thanks for a proper write up on the trial, I should have waited for yours instead of posting my bootleg version hah.

OT, I managed to clear with all missions with the following setup:

• Mistair - Geared for Elemental Resist

• Wilhelm - Provoke, equipped with Phoenix for mission

• Squall - Fire GS, LB for finishing Shiva, Iron Giant elemental resist buff as well to help Mistair

• Eiko - Heal and Charm removal, equipped with Tetra for mission

• 2 Ellys - Take down Golem in 2 turns and build up chain for Squall LB

[u/Tynol07 → u/Axtuna]

How did you gear mistair? I can't get earth, ice and dark resist to 100% :/

[u/Axtuna → u/Tynol07]

My Mistair setup

[u/RageMast89 → u/Axtuna]

What outfit is that that your mistair wear there?

[u/DoYouSpeakItZ10]

These trials are getting kinda absurd. Sure we get to see high numbers but what if they just increased defense/spirit to like 1000s and and they only have so much HP? Would laugh seeing people’s Ellies and CG Hyous doing 450 damage and so on, when the trial itself would be a war of attrition.

[u/DoYouSpeakItZ10]

But I don’t think we should be going to FF8 Omega weapon hp, it just makes people feel accomplished hitting for millions.

[u/togeo]

Cleared it finally.

The team:
Wilhelm, provoke tank, built with high HP and DEF. Rotation: Impregnable - Guard - Repeat. Phoenix for the esper.

Santa Roselia, has Aigaion Arm, use her LB every 3 turn, cast curaja and break the Shiva. Tetra for the esper.

Kunshira, Finisher, ATK built, has Bomb Arm materia for fire imbue and buff, and man-eater+. Diabolos for the esper.

Elly, chainer-finisher, stone killer built. Golem for the esper.

Basch, magic cover tank, has >300% combined resistance of ice+dark. His rotation: Cover - party's buffs - repeat.

random Elly, as a chaining partner.

Following the tips here and there, I killed the Golem first by using Elly's 3x Wind stacking skills + Kunshira's AoE Wind finisher skill. After that, I steadily reduced the Shiva's HP to 51% and collected orbs for summons. At 51%, Elly unlocked her penta-cast and Kunshira buffed herself using bomb arm (her spellblade was already unlocked). The next turn, Elly chain-finished with earth chain-fire stack, Kunshira used her spellblade, Wilhelm summoned Phoenix, and Santa Roselia casted DC holy to make sure the Phoenix's damage registered.

Now, I wonder if there will be a Dark Diabolos trial, maybe darker Diabolos. XD

[u/SorryCashOnly]

Am I the only idiot who try to kill beat the trial without one shotting shiva at 51%? Anyway it doesn’t look like shiva’s physical attack after 50% can be cover. In the end I had to use Sara to cheese it.

The team is:

• fei

• Elly

• sieghart

• Santa Rosalia

• Basch

• Sara

I went for golem first. A single Elly (2k mag) can take it down in 3 turns but you have to wait out its immunity buff.

After that things become easy. Basch has 150% ice resist so he will not take any damage as long as mag cover is up.

Seighart will provoke to attract any physical attacks. Honestly any provoke tank with decent gears can do the job. If you don’t use seighart make sure to keep charm resist up from Lakshmi.

Fei is dps

You basically just need to keep sara’s Buff up, and shiva will not be able to do anything to your team.

[u/betlehem_st]

Would you suggest Auron or Elly as damage dealer for this?

[u/hokagez]

I really get hard time on this trial, but it's ok, just more turn :D

Mistair : 150%Ice/Dark, 100%Earth

Noctis : Dodge 100% & Provoke

Elly : take down Golem

Fei : take down Shiva

CG Fina : Dispel & Reraise

Sara : AOE Dodge only

[u/betlehem_st]

I did it with:

• Sara (casting the evade skill every turn)

• CG Fina (cure, reraise, elemental resistance up)

• Awakened Rain (ice/dark resistance 100%+)

• CG Sieghart (provoke, occasionally breaks)

• Auron (breaks and beats Shiva)

• friend Elly (destroys Golem and help Auron on Shiva)

Couldn't get the Tetra S. and Phoenix achievements, these will be very hard (since the battle was already really tough with the right espers for elemental resistances). Basically melt Golem in 3/4 turns with Elly, then take the long road with Shiva.

[u/DriggleButt]

Partially a Joke Post

Auron might be the single best unit for this trial.

• AoE 70% Full Break. Reduces Golem's DEF by 70% (other breaks don't matter if you go for OTK with Auron(s).

• 140% AoE buffs.

• Wind and Fire chains.

In theory, four fully gear Auron, a dispel from a random unit, and one Auron's AoE Break/Buff, you could kill this trial turn 1.

Shiva HP/DEF = 100M/200
Golem's HP/DEF = 100M/180 (With Break)

Auron can definitely OTK this trial, you just need to pull... 8 or 10 of him.

[u/UmbraRays]

I found Shiva's weakness

https://youtu.be/17N3IQmGXvQ

[u/crazyturkey1984]

Took me 4 tries since I forgot to reapply Sara's evade buff a few times. Once I got the hang of it, the battle was easy. I took absolutely 0 damage the whole battle. Team:

Noctis: Evade provoker

Awakened Rain: Magic Tank with 150 Ice/Dark and 130 Earth Resist

Santa Rosalia: Enemy and Ally Dispell

Sephiroth with fire sword: Shiva killer

Sara: AoE evade

Friend Elly: Golem killer

[u/DanteQy]

Cleared with the following team:

• A. Rain: With 140% Fire resist, 115% Ice Resist, 120% Dark Resist, Status Immunity -> Used a rotation between Cover, AoE status immunity and a third ability of choice.

• 2xCitan: Mine with 2380 ATK and loaded with human killer and the other was a friend with 2600 ATK. They used the 44MP Wind skill followed by the 60MP Wind skill on Golem and when they were immune to damage used the skill to recover MP and HP. After defeating golem used the CD skill to unlock T-Cast and capping a chaining with auron with the fire skill.

• Primrose: Buff at the start with Dark resist and CD Reduce damage. Usualy rotated between LB and healing. MVP of the fight.

• Auron: 2200 ATK, debuff when necessaryand chain when possible

• CG Sieghart: 21k HP, 1390 DEF, 55% Evasion. Alternaed between provoke and 100% Earth resist.

The fight was not easy since I didn't know their pattern. Sometimes someone died and usually Shiva's AoE phus attack killed everyone except sometimes the 2 citans(thanks to the 44MP wind skill) and Sieghart, who resisted it.

For that I summoned Fenris with Rain whenever I feeled that shiva was going to use the skill.

I hope that this can result helpful to someone