User blog:Linathan/Squad Spotlight & Guide: Vilanciel EX - Balamgram

Welcome to another guide to a Summoner Arc quest, Divine Beast's Prison! This quest involves the fire demon thingy known as Balamgram. This beast was created as a weapon to slay the Divine Wolf, but after realization that the Divine Wolf wasn't so bad after all, there was no longer a need for the demon. Additionally, this demon was too difficult to control and you are tasked to defeat it. Have what it takes? Take some time to read this guide and prepare!

Guide
Overall, the attack patterns are pretty straightforward compared to other quests, especially considering how weak the Summoner is in the alternate dimension as opposed to not being in it. The same applies to Balamgram as his attack pattern is pretty self-explanatory as well. These bosses do carry high amounts of HP so patience is key in these quests.

Attack Patterns

 * Every 5 turns, Balamgram will reduce your units' HP to 1.
 * Here's a pro tip for this one. Just normal attack with all of your units. Don't bother guarding or healing. Do all of that on the next turn.
 * At 75% HP and 40% HP, Balamgram will remove all buffs and buff himself with a lot of buffs.
 * These buffs that Balamgram will provide for himself include the Dark elemental buff, probable Curse to attack, and an Atk buff.
 * Your objective is to deal 5% of its max HP worth of damage to remove those buffs. Don't have a Light elemental buffer? You're in for a tough fight.
 * Light elemental buffs work, so using units like Eclise and Krantz will help immensely.
 * At 15% HP, Balamgram will unleash an ultimate attack.
 * Balamgram will use a 3 combo random attack that hits like a complete truck.
 * If you have a mitigator, you can cross this threshold rather safely as long as you have mitigation active for that turn.
 * If you don't have a mitigator, I would advise using one unit to attack and cross the 15% threshold. Ideally, your Summoner (which should be Water element) would be the best candidate for this.
 * There you have it! Alice's Scythe!

Recommendations
The attack pattern is quite easy to understand, but when it comes to experiencing the boss itself, it can be rather tough, especially if you're not strategizing enough. Here are some recommended units to bring that will help out a major ton. Also, it's highly recommended that you have beaten the Divine Wolf to obtain the Frozen Fang and craft the Lupine Mantle to make things a lot easier.

Water Units Other Units Mitigators Light Elemental Buffers
 * Averus
 * Soleil
 * Farzen
 * Sareas
 * Oulu
 * Piany
 * Layla - elemental null recommended
 * Charla
 * Rinon
 * Astall
 * Eclise
 * Averus
 * Laberd
 * Krantz - elemental null recommended
 * Shera
 * Dolk - elemental null recommended
 * Eclise
 * Krantz - elemental null recommended

As for the Summoner unit, I recommend grinding your summoning arts to roughly Lv9, which is when 5* units unlock 80% of their parameters. Lv25 is the recommended level as well as maxing out your units including Imp stats.

Squad 1: Linathan Clear
Squad= Spheres & Skills= Soleil Eclise LS Spheres Summoner Extra Skills Items= Clear= Just like my doge clear, I didn't even have to use any Revives throughout the entire quest. And, of course, I came into this quest pretty prepared by having a Lv45 summoner at this time.
 * Beiorg's Armor
 * Health Codex
 * Courage Aegis
 * Beiorg's Armor
 * Shining Stone
 * Lupine Mantle
 * Brave Spear's Protection - 10% boost to max HP & restores HP each turn
 * Shining Knight's Armor - 15% boost to Atk, Def, max HP
 * Cure x10
 * Fujin Potion x2
 * Fujin Tonic x3
 * Revive Light x2
 * Crescent Dew x2

I decided to go with double healers for this quest so I can alternate between them with ease. Getting Eclise's status immunity is something to look out for, as I had to refresh it every 3 turns. The HoT buff from the Brave Spear wasn't all too important since Soleil had that covered already. You could use a different weapon like the Great Sword.

I went in with the Twin Pistols since I liked the extra BC I was getting. It also provided some decent extra damage as well. The Great War Axe works just as well too.

Courage Aegis was used, but you should be able to sub that in for another stat-up sphere, like Growth Device, Schism Orb, etc. Damage mitigation spheres with stat boosts are always a blessing.

Squad 2: Soleil & Krantz
Squad= Item Set 1= Item Set 2= This is a sample squad taken from Misasagi's clear of this quest. The video link can be found here.
 * Cure x10
 * Fujin Potion x2
 * Fujin Tonic x3
 * Revive Light x2
 * Holy Water x10
 * Cure x10
 * High Cure x7
 * Fujin Potion x2
 * Fujin Tonic x3
 * Revive Light x2

Krantz is probably the most crucial unit here as he is really the only reliable unit in this setup that can provide the Light elemental buff for the buff-wipe. Not only that, Soleil is used to help with Krantz's BB. One thing that Krantz is definitely in danger of is the Dark elemental buff that Balamgram carries, which means he's going to need to rely on some sort of elemental damage immunity. Growth Device and Virtuous Cape help in this department, particularly because they provide some of the highest stat boosts in the game.

Conclusion
Feels like you're going through some prison hell in this quest. Hah! Cruelty at its best.

Check out my guide on defeating the Divine Wolf, the first EX boss of Vilanciel!

Check out my list of analyses in [http://bravefrontierglobal.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Linathan/Spotlights:_Table_of_Contents! Spotlights: Table of Contents!]