Just got to Gran Pulse, having lots of trouble

[IrkenLurker]

I'm really trying to like this game but some of the battles are just too ridiculous unless you play exactly how they designed you to play.

This game seems to be so backwards in RPG mechanics. In most good RPGs you can control your party and tell them the most efficient thing to do. At the same time, in most good RPGs you have a lot of freedom in how to play the game. Melee-heavy, magic-heavy, buff-heavy, defensively, etc.

But it seems like in this game, the game developers must've wanted to make something completely different. It honestly seems like they wanted you to play exactly how they want you to play, instead of how you want to play. The game throws attacks at you that you can only survive if you have a sentinel in the party at that time. The game's AI for medics uses single cura spells when they could be using 4 cure spells on the leader to save from the game over screen. The game's AI who have magic-heavy stats and melee-heavy stats use a combination of both instead of just the ones that deal 2x if not more damage because of their higher stat. You can't play this game like an RPG, you have to play it like walking down a hallway.

I'm literally forced to use certain paradigm combinations rather than experiment with them. Every time I get into a battle it feels like if I don't play greedily aggressive then I miss out on a high rating and good drops. Yet if I play aggressive then I get taken down by tougher enemies and by switching to medic or dropping a potion even for five seconds, my rating plummets. It's like a joke. I get AoE damage when the enemy is attacking my sentinel, yet I can't just tell the AI to move the eff away from the sentinel. Typically, in a good RPG, your difficulty is determined by a combination of your tactics, your level, your equipment, etc. But in this game it's all just about paradigm combinations which are pretty much confining you to play specifically how they want, instead of how you want.

[Odinsknight101]

Is it the behemoths?

[IrkenLurker]

Almost everything in the archylte steppe seems to take down my leader pretty quickly right now. I'm trying to use sazh because he has the offensive and haste buffs, but the game doesn't seem to take kindly to that and throws very strong attacks that you'd need some defensive buffs, a sentinel, or be debuffing the enemies to survive.

[IrkenLurker]

I'm also trying to get Lightning to learn some sentinel abilities because it looks like at this point in this game she opens up to it and has the evade abilities that the other 2 sentinel characters don't seem to have. But then I'm only left with the 3rd character to use medic commands to heal her and she takes far more damage than other sentinels so I'm just screwed pretty much. I guess I'll just switch to a more consistent party like Fang, Lightning, Hope and only focus on maxing the starting classes for them or whatevers typically suggested.

[Mikasa Ackerman]

i asume this is your first time playing Final Fantasy 13 ? if yes , i would recommend only using 2 Characters for the leader : Snow and Fang , if you get hit by a strong attack , quickly switch to a tank + healer paradigm to survive it , also , avoid all things that look deadly ( behemoths , Tortoises , cactuars etc)

i would recommend trying to level up on wolves and maybe flans , do some missions ( easy ones) and try to avoid optional roles as long as possible , they cost alot to level up

once you get to Taejin's Tower make your way to the 5th Floor and stay there for a while , theres a Mission ( the 24th Mission) it gives 6k Gil and 6k CP ( 12k CP with growth Egg) and the mission is very easy

besides sacrifice and adamantoise farming its one of the best farming Spots in the game , not 100% sure if you have to complete the Tower first or not

and if you are too under leveled to get past Hecatoncheir i would recommend doing some easy Missions in the Archylte Steppe and the small sub area

but i agree , its bad how the other characters always love standing near tanks thats why my Leader always is a Tank so i dont die because of dumb ai

[Odinsknight101]

hmm, things in the archylte steppe can be very strong when you first visit it. Stil fights on gran pulse seem to give alot more CP then usual. You don't have worry about the star system. Higher stars do mean a higher chance at drops but the drops are mostly insiggnifcant since you can buy them dirt cheap.

I would reccomend not investing in the optional trees and mainly stick to their reguler 3. It costs way too much and scales high quickly with tiny benifits. If you happen to run into those dragon things, they can be tough, even more so when there are jellytons are about. It's not nice when they cram you many debuffs. My advice, just avoid the dragons if you can, the reward isn't really worth it. Latter on you'll find some goblins, they can be good for farming exp. if I recall correctly.

I'd also reccomend using health bangles and equipping a docters code. combine that with potions and you're good to go as far as healing goes.

Also for strong singuler foes like behemoths, it maybe usefull to have a SAB/RAV/RAV combo and you being the sabtour, manually casting debuffs. It really helps stablize the chain guage, while not doing much damge, to then surprise them with full on commando powa!

Hope this helped.

[ChildishGambit]

thats were your party comes in bad if u want to go safe use fang lighting and snow snow get him feymark wep op magic and fast cast buffs do the misson that gives u the 999,999 acc and if u want to farm in grand pulse go to the giant thing and spam death but get haste first

[tiornys]

On the one hand, if you're taking on enemies well above your development level (a lot of enemies on the Archylte Steppe are above your level when you first arrive), then you do indeed need to adopt more defensive measures to survive. On the other hand, unless you are massively underdeveloped, you do have a variety of options for how you might go about doing that.

I can guarantee that you have the ability to approach battles with multiple strategies. It's not a matter of figuring out some "one true way" that the devs "intended"; it's a matter of finding one of several good balances between sufficient defense to survive and efficient offense for victory.

You only mention equipment in reference to other games. Have you considered upgrading and equipping damage reduction equipment to help with your survival?

[IrkenLurker]

Well it's just so aggravating that I find myself having to worry constantly on the overworld so that I don't get forced into an encounter I can't put up a fight in. I'm using all offensive equipment. I've been upgrading the accessories to maximize offensive strength and magic. But of course at this point in the game, as I said, the behemoth kings, the imp-looking bird summons, the horde of wolves, they all seem to more or less take down my leader far too quickly to leave me any room for anything besides playing defensively. I know I'll just have to use a better defensive party at the moment like you're saying, Snow and Fang as leader, maybe even Hope to cast defensive buffs or something similar. It's just so absurd to have to run from nearly every encounter because I get 2-shotted by the monsters. I'll try again later with a different party, right now it's too aggravated to think about being one-shotted by a king behemoth that charges after me and is hard to avoid being where I'm at in the game.

[tiornys]

If you insist on keeping your current equipment setup, then yes, you'll want to switch to a very defensive party. I think you'd be much better served by equipping some defensive accessories. You might still want to tweak your party, but I bet you'd be surprised how much of a difference it can make to have, say, 20% physical damage reduction or Auto-Protect on everyone.