Lunar Threads

Whew. Okay. Hi.

So after playing Lunar: SSH and rekindling my love affair with RPGs I decided to pick up FFXIII (since my roommate got it as a Christmas Gift). Now everything was going smoothly until about oh, I don't know an hour ago when I was continuously raped by a boss 3 consecutive times after battling him for about 15 min each and almost killing him each of those said 3 times. It isn't even funny, this guy isn't even as hard as Borgan. Anyway, I digress, the boss is in Chapter 9 on The Palamecia, the final one, Barthandelus. He's not really killing me, I have a pretty good paradigm tactic except this last time I played against him I got a "Doom Clock" put on me which killed me probably about 20 hits away from killing him. Any advice? Am I going too slow? Was that a spell HE put on me and I just need a spell to get it back off? I'm pretty Saboteur/Synergist heavy which only leaves one main offensive person so it does take me a long time because its not often I can switch to an all offensive paradigm. Anyway...Halp? Anyone have advice? I figure I'd go here first...

I never made it that far, you've done better than me. All I ever did for tough enemies were Ravagers to drive my chain gauge up, stopping to shift if someone needed healing, also having a synergist in the party to reduce magic and physical defense in both. Then just going back to Ravager. When the chain gauge is up there, I switch to a good mix of offense and continue to beat the living crap out of whatever it was until either it stopped moving, needed the chain gauge back up, or I just needed healing.

That's what got me up to Chapter 6 or so in the game.

Try triangle?

Use a Librascope so you don't have to scan multiple times.
Start with RAV/SYN/COM or SAB/SYN/COM to get some good buffs, then RAV/RAV/COM to stagger. If you're party can do it, use MED/MED/COM when low on HP. Really helps to have a SAB as well in case he buffs up.

I personally liked Lighting/Sazh/Vanille, as S/V are the best SYN/SAB respectively, and make decent RAVs as well. Lighting is the best COM at this point, and you'll need that once you stagger the heads and need to lay on the damage. It is a battle of speed, so you'll definiately need Sazh casting haste right at the outset.

Thanks guys! I just tried pressing Triangle and it worked! lol Haha. No really, I finally beat it and now I've got the problem of not really being able to defeat any of the enemies on Pulse. Sigh.

Go after the little munchkin dudes for a while, they're the easiest at this point, and give decent CP. Avoid the wolves for now. :/