A Little Help Here Please (Possible Spoilers)

[GranFran]

Those lizards will always give you a bit of trouble due to the way they are. The best way to deal with them quickly is put haste on and use the en-spell that they weak against as well as debuff them up some. But if I remember right when I ran through on my first time I was never able to get them to stagger before killing them due to having a high stagger limit.

How much have you been using Synergist and Sabeteur? From this point in the game you won't be able to get by without making use of them constantly. Sazh should have Haste at this point so I'd suggest having him in your party. I actually ran with Lightning, Sazh and Fang, but I also made sure to have Sazh learn Cure in the Medic role so that I could have two Medics.

Well, I'm not using Sazh, but Hope.. I've been using Delta Attack and Solidarity almost entirely and, after getting a couple of the creatures killed, switching over to Diversity..

Andi, what were your weapons like when you reached this point? Had you done any upgrading by this time? I mean these Paradigms are getting me by, but it's taking me FOREVER to kill them.. For instance, those 3 Pulsework Gladiators took me 10 minutes, 50 seconds.. Needless to say, I didn't get any stars for that battle..

If I switch Hope out and put in Sazh for Haste, that only leaves Light for healing, but since he is at the top of the Synergist tier I could use all those CP's to set him up in medical.. But that means he won't have any points to spend on the next Synergist tier when it comes time for it to open.. Oh well, I really need to do something to help this poor, sorry group of people along, so I'll make him a healer too.. Thanks hon..

[Andromeda]

I did very little on upgrading my weapons. About all I ended up doing was upgrading Fang weapons into the 20s, but the gains you get won't really mean a lot. You'd be better off upgrading a strength accessory and transforming it.

You won't need to spend too many points on getting Cure. Just stop when you learn Cure and that'll be enough. You should only have to spent about 15k CP on that. Once Sazh learns Cure that'll be enough. Focus on your main three roles in the Crystarium until they are completely finished. The main three roles will give you your largest boosts for loss CP cost, the extra three will never be able to compete with the cost to boost ratio you get out of them.

Just make sure Sazh's Synergist has a lot of the buff spells, especially Haste. Just keep in mind that once you have Haste on the game speeds up a lot. If you're used to selecting all of your stuff yourself then you'll probably find that the meter is full and the character will be waiting on your action. Once you reach Haste auto-battle tends to be a more smart way to play unless you want something very specific and can do it really fast, because you'll loss all of the extra time you're gaining by using Haste. So just keep that in mind, the speed increase can be a little jarring at first.

It is usually best to use a Ravager x2 and Commando pairing for your primary offense Paradigm and then you can change to Commando x2 and Ravager when an enemy is staggered. If you move in Sazh you can actually do Commando x3 which can be very good at killing things fast once they are stagger so you may want to try that out. At the point in the game you're at everyone still only has their 3 roles more or less. So changing one character out for another will make significant changes and open up new possibilities. Experiment is good to find something that suits your style.

[GranFran]

I did very little on upgrading my weapons. About all I ended up doing was upgrading Fang weapons into the 20s, but the gains you get won't really mean a lot. You'd be better off upgrading a strength accessory and transforming it.

You won't need to spend too many points on getting Cure. Just stop when you learn Cure and that'll be enough. You should only have to spent about 15k CP on that. Once Sazh learns Cure that'll be enough. Focus on your main three roles in the Crystarium until they are completely finished. The main three roles will give you your largest boosts for loss CP cost, the extra three will never be able to compete with the cost to boost ratio you get out of them.

Just make sure Sazh's Synergist has a lot of the buff spells, especially Haste. Just keep in mind that once you have Haste on the game speeds up a lot. If you're used to selecting all of your stuff yourself then you'll probably find that the meter is full and the character will be waiting on your action. Once you reach Haste auto-battle tends to be a more smart way to play unless you want something very specific and can do it really fast, because you'll loss all of the extra time you're gaining by using Haste. So just keep that in mind, the speed increase can be a little jarring at first.

It is usually best to use a Ravager x2 and Commando pairing for your primary offense Paradigm and then you can change to Commando x2 and Ravager when an enemy is staggered. If you move in Sazh you can actually do Commando x3 which can be very good at killing things fast once they are stagger so you may want to try that out. At the point in the game you're at everyone still only has their 3 roles more or less. So changing one character out for another will make significant changes and open up new possibilities. Experiment is good to find something that suits your style.

Yes, I stopped Sazh at cure, considering the ridiculous cost of going any further.. I have been doing some upgrading on my strength accessories like the Brawler and Warrior, but only until Lv 5 or so.. I have my Paradigms set up the way you describe now so I'm going to go in and try some more.. Keep your fingers crossed for me.. I'll let you know how it turns out.. Thanks so much for your help..

[Andromeda]

The strength accessory will hit their limit at lv 11 if I remember right. So once that happens you can transform them. Being on Gran Pulse you should have enough to upgrade some into Warrior or Warrior beyond which I think is Scarilite (spelling), though I wouldn't spend too many. Just know that Warrior goes from 100 to 180 at cap and then next one Power Glove goes from 200 to 250. So you can get a pretty good boost from that.

With your current party doing Medic x2 and Sentinel should be a good healing paradigm for you and all you'll need. Lightning should have Cura and Cure that will help while Sazh just uses Cure.

[Meteo x -9999HP]

Light, Vannille and Sazh.

I open up with Bully (COM+SAB+SYN) if I know I don't need curing while I'm setting my buffs and dispells up.If I know the enemy I'm going in against is way tough then I'll run Evened Odds (MED+SAB+SYN).
With enemies as tough and capable as they are the buffs and dispells are needed no matter what.
After haste (the first auto-cast) I'll let some more buff be added...but no matter what I always jump to Relentless Assault (COM+RAV+RAV)and juggle that into Aggression (COM+RAV+COM).
For aggressive healing I put on Combat Clinic (MED+MED+SEN).
And with me using Sazh all I had to do was teach him Sentinel and Light Cure and I'm good.

Funny thing is, I thought those last few spots for paradigms would open up on their own...I tried it one day and saw I could assign 6!
GAME OVER!

Hadn't had much of a problem since.

[GranFran]

Light, Vannille and Sazh.

I open up with Bully (COM+SAB+SYN) if I know I don't need curing while I'm setting my buffs and dispells up.If I know the enemy I'm going in against is way tough then I'll run Evened Odds (MED+SAB+SYN).
With enemies as tough and capable as they are the buffs and dispells are needed no matter what.
After haste (the first auto-cast) I'll let some more buff be added...but no matter what I always jump to Relentless Assault (COM+RAV+RAV)and juggle that into Aggression (COM+RAV+COM).
For aggressive healing I put on Combat Clinic (MED+MED+SEN).
And with me using Sazh all I had to do was teach him Sentinel and Light Cure and I'm good.

Funny thing is, I thought those last few spots for paradigms would open up on their own...I tried it one day and saw I could assign 6!
GAME OVER!

Hadn't had much of a problem since.

I do have bully assigned but haven't used it much yet, so will try that and see if it helps, I'll do what Andi said too and up my accessories more.. Right now I just finished mission 3 in the tower and seem to be doing okay.. I use Solidarity to start with, switch to Delta then at last to Relentless Assault.. Combat Clinic is always on my list, it's a life saver for sure.. The only thing is, the way I'm playing now it takes forever to end the battle and I never make any stars from them.. But, at least, I'm still alive..

Thanks for the help, don't go far, good people, I'll probably holler again.. I'm certainly not looking forward to this upcoming fight with Barthandelus.. He whooped my ass a lot of times the first time but it's still a ways off..

[Meteo x -9999HP]

Thanks for the help, don't go far, good people, I'll probably holler again.. I'm certainly not looking forward to this upcoming fight with Barthandelus.. He whooped my ass a lot of times the first time but it's still a ways off..

He's a beeotch.
Just stay one step ahead of him.