Boss Killing Formation

A Boss Killing formation means you will play manual. To handle bosses in auto battle you must be already 20 levels above the boss level or über geared. To play manual and be effective, you need a good set of mercenaries, and that is what this post is all about.

If you don't want the details, rush to the end to see the resume and the videos.

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Actually, there are 2 mercenaries that are mandatory in any good boss killing formation: Pirate and Warlord.

Pirate delay the action of the boss, maybe not on the first hit but, after 2-3 hits the boss surely will give you one turn of break. Also, while there are other monsters around him and you continuously hit him with pirate, he will never activate because each turn pirate drains her AP and he becomes with less AP than the monsters in his party. That is what I call the "pirate trick".

Warlord is the all-in-one seal. Is the only mercenary that can seal any boss. That makes him a must have for bosses. With his seal, you gain one more turn after each period of skill cooldown from boss.
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The highly recommended, but optional, mercenaries: Champion and Spartan.

Champion is an optional mercenary, but he makes a big difference on the time you spend killing a boss. He has basically two major functions on your boss killing team: (i) debuff the physical attack of the boss or monsters around with Weapon Rend and (ii) debuff the physical defense of the boss with Shield Bash, making him a lot faster to kill.

Spartan is the 3rd mercenary everyone who fight a boss should have. His War Cry stops the annoying physical multi-hits of bosses, making you suffer less and play less on the defensive side. Weapon Rend and War Cry have complementary debuff status, but, if you need to choose between Champion or Spartan, take Spartan.
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The situational sealing mercenaries: Elementalist, Exorcist, Punisher, Minstrel, and maybe Hwarang.

Elementalist is a melee sealer. Her Freezing Atmosphere seals any melee monster.

Exorcist is a staff sealer and also a staff debuffer, his Mana Seal stop any staff monster from casting and also, it can debuff staff monsters with Seal Staff.

Punisher seals bow monsters with his Broken Arrows spell. As far as I know, Bow bosses are the most common ranged type boss. Most of them you should seal, and some you should not.

Minstrel seals power saw monsters with his Seal Power Saw skill. All the power saw bosses are in the [field]Silent Detroit[/field] area and most of them use nasty AoE spells. So, worth to level her to seal those nasty bosses completely, including Livid Frank Reade (level 199) which now becomes a potential prey, but has no loot and experience is a shame.

Hwarang seals instrument monsters with his Seal Instrument skill. There is only one instrument boss (Guardian of the East) and it is the one in the Hwarang/Bulguksa quest line, so you should not worry much about him.
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The mana deplete: Exorcist and Witch.

Exorcist uses Mana Burn and Witch uses Mana Drain to drain mana from monsters and deal damage. Some bosses have "low" magic defense and mana points, meaning you can drain their mana pretty fast and get free of the nasty AoEs. Even a boss with High or Very High magic defense and mana points can be drained, but it would take a lot more time, and then it is better to simple use physical to kill him as soon as possible.
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The magic shields: Empress and Monk.

Empress uses Empress' Blessing and Monk uses Holy Guard to protect a row from magic damage. There are 2 specific cases where you should use this mercenaries: (i) When the boss has high or very high magic points and you are unable to deplete his mana fast you can shield most or entire team or (ii) the boss need to cast the magic on the first row, so shield first row constantly to avoid his AoE.

If you bring one or more Monks to the formation you should bring Exorcist as well, as Monk is too lousy to keep up with all the work.
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The optional debuffers: Princess, Prophet, Cannoneer and Champion.

Princess can debuff the attack of ranged monsters, specially the attack of cannon and gun bosses, which are not many in Atlantica.

Prophet can debuff the attack of melee monsters, specially melee bosses, which are plenty. The most common type of bosses are sword and axe with around 87 bosses each, then spear with around 50 bosses, and for last power saw with around 5 bosses. Some of those bosses are TBS bosses, in which you will not take your prophet.

Cannoneer’s Smoke Bomb is the cheap version of Champion’s Weapon Rend. Anyway, it is an effective mercenary to make monsters and boss miss the physical hits. Also, can be casted at once in the entire party.

Champion’s Weapon Rend is the best complement to Spartan’s War Cry to debuff a boss or a group of mobs. While War Cry decreases chances of multi-hits by a lot, Weapon Rend decreases chance of critical hits and lowers accuracy by 50% more than Cannoneer does.
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The buffers: Prophet and Princess.

Prophet’s Concentrate and Princess' Order heal and adds accuracy to melee and ranged mercenaries respectively. If you formation has more than 3 of each type you should bring the respective buffer.
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IN RESUME:

You should always bring to a boss fight: Pirate, Warlord and Spartan.

They are optional, but highly recommended: Champion, Cannoneer and Prophet.

Depending on the type of the boss we can also use the following mercenaries: Axe: Elementalist. Bow: Punisher and Princess. Cannon: Princess. Gun: Princess. Instrument: Hwarang and Princess. Power Saw: Elementalist and Minstrel. Spear: Elementalist. Staff: Exorcist. Sword: Elementalist.

If the boss has low magic defense: Witch and Exorcist.

If the boss has high magic defense or spell only is casted in first row: Empress and/or 1-3 Monks, and Exorcist.

Plan ahead and you will have less trouble. Also, remember to bring a good amount of resurrection, heal and awakening scrolls to use case all else fails.
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Bellow, one example of a boss farming in auto battle. This scheme can be used to quickly increase your JP value.

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Now, one example of a boss farming in manual. Selected mercenaries: Pirate, Warlord, Spartan, Elementalist, Prophet and Cannoneer. Additional mercenaries: Sword Main with Shield Bash, Northern Viking and Oracle.

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This post was based on in game info available at patch: 314XX

Enjoy your time here :D

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