Dadaluma might need nerfs

He's an obnoxious boss in pretty unfun way in that he's just a check on how many Phoenix Downs you bring into Zozo with you, and whether you have some means to constantly re-apply slow and sap. I'm not sure if he just has a gigantic meat wall of base hp, but I had Cyan churning out 1100-1200 damage Dispatches constantly and it still felt like the fight took somewhere over 5 minutes to complete. To be fair, I completely forgot that Empowerer sets Sap, so that one was on me.

It's also kind of annoying that he has two different ways to one-shot characters, and to the best of my knowledge there's no way to set Protect this early. Throwing spoons is moderately funny the first time he does it, but every time after it just heralds that you're about to burn another Phoenix Down. My team for Zozo was Celes, Locke, Edgar, and Cyan, so possibly there was some other method.

Spoons are a Phoenix Down check for sure (unless Gau is raging Conjurer for Rerise), but the jumps aren't a guaranteed KO. Use the hang time before he lands to turtle up (dpad right in combat menu to Defend), and most characters at expected level will survive if they have a good chunk of HP left.

6 minutes ago, SirNewtonFig said:

Spoons are a Phoenix Down check for sure (unless Gau is raging Conjurer for Rerise), but the jumps aren't a guaranteed KO. Use the hang time before he lands to turtle up (dpad right in combat menu to Defend), and most characters at expected level will survive if they have a good chunk of HP left.

I tried that but it didn't seem to work, so I just assumed jump pierced defense or something. To be fair, the first time that happened I had Celes defend _just_ before he landed on her, so maybe it was just bad luck on my part and he hit just before the game registered she defended.

Yeah, the defend action gets queued like any other action, it does take a moment to take effect.

I found slow to be the big winner here. You neeeeeeed to keep on it and sap. Sabins pummel sets sap. Use the time he’s in the air to heal or to refresh any buffs.

7 hours ago, SirNewtonFig said:

Yeah, the defend action gets queued like any other action, it does take a moment to take effect.

Yeah, I gotcha. After that incident he jumped at characters who didn't have turns up to have a chance to defend, and I just got tilted from there.

The only thing I take exception to is your topic title - it's all fine and good to come for advice and/or vent, but it's another thing to jump on the "this needs to be nerfed because I'm having trouble" train straight away. That has to do with everyone playing the mod, not just you, so the claimant's onus is far greater there.

Aside from that, the standard fare for boss fights works here, as always: maintain debuffs, keep HPs high, be reactionary - as in if you expect his turn is about to come up, don't get greedy and queue an attack in case he jumps or kills someone because then you'll get in trouble recovering, and when he jumps heal & defend depending on the situation. 

4 hours ago, Hapanpappa said:

Aside from that, the standard fare for boss fights works here, as always: maintain debuffs, keep HPs high, be reactionary - as in if you expect his turn is about to come up, don't get greedy and queue an attack in case he jumps or kills someone because then you'll get in trouble recovering, and when he jumps heal & defend depending on the situation. 

Yeah, Big D really is the first boss fight that forces you to play more cautiously, and the lessons you learn here will serve you through the rest of the game. I think this is why so many people struggle with him initially. He's that prof you get in the second semester of first year that acts like a gate for all the students coasting on their high school knowledge, forcing them to really learn how to learn or drop out.

6 hours ago, Hapanpappa said:

The only thing I take exception to is your topic title - it's all fine and good to come for advice and/or vent, but it's another thing to jump on the "this needs to be nerfed because I'm having trouble" train straight away. That has to do with everyone playing the mod, not just you, so the claimant's onus is far greater there.

Aside from that, the standard fare for boss fights works here, as always: maintain debuffs, keep HPs high, be reactionary - as in if you expect his turn is about to come up, don't get greedy and queue an attack in case he jumps or kills someone because then you'll get in trouble recovering, and when he jumps heal & defend depending on the situation. 

I did say "might" :3

I didn't have trouble with him, but he is what I would called the "wake up" boss and the first serious one, there is one way to cheese him however if you have Edgar, you can confuse with Noiseblaster an ennemy formation of 4 ennemies in Zozo, I don't remember the name of ennemies, but when confuse they cast Vanish on you, Vanish your all team, and enter the fight.

Dadaluma has only 1 attack that bypass Vanish which is Schockwave, all the other one will be missing on Vanished character, which make the fight a lot easier, Gau has also a Rage that allow him to cast Vanish. Sap and Slow are also very helpful.

As for damage you have obviously Cyan with Dispatch, Sabin with Poison Claws also work and Locke with Butterflies are Boomerangs can work.

I am pretty sure D has an opener in the next version to negate the vanish cheese strat, just as a heads up.

D was brutal - it took more wipes than I care to admit.  I did figure out that a few characters COULD live through a super jump and tried to time heals accordingly.  I spammed Noiseblaster any time there were minions but they didn't contribute much to damage - but it did keep the damage away from my team.  

I do wish I had thought about using the .def option... that would have helped