Originally Posted by
Inb4whales
->SlickFenix
This post will take quite a chunk of your time so grab a coffee and some snacks first.
First of all, I found myself questioning why you don't have a single Legendary Heroic Soul (>.>).
But that's besides the point. Personally to me, because I don't know your playstyle, what you're struggling with and the fact that we don't have the same stats, it's hard for anyone reading your posts to judge the situation that you're in. If you can somehow record a video of yourself playing it, that'd be great, but that would be too much of a hassle for you to record and upload so let's just get to the point.
What I personally can do is provide info on how I would play the Expert mode with what you have though.
Before we begin let us talk about the strategy on how to beat Medusa effectively first because I believe this will help you with your future fights as well.
Based on my experience so far, there are two types of bosses.
The first type is where you want the boss to be in it's normal mode for as long as possible while you want to get it out of it's rage mode as fast as possible (Eg: Jormun and Typhon) simply because their Overdrive during rage is simply waaaay stronger and destructive than it's normal overdrive.
The second type is when the boss's Rage Overdrive is actually more tolerable and preferable usually because they deal single target damage (or at the very least it doesn't hit your entire team with it) and thus as odd as this may sound, you'd prefer that they stay in their rage mode compared to their normal mode. Some bosses that falls into this category would be Garuda (deals really strong but only single target damage during rage OD), Pheonix (buffs herself with lifesteal instead of huge defense during rage) and of course Medusa as well.
Now you might be asking why in the hell would you want Medusa who can potentially one hit snake bite kill during Rage OD up to three targets to keep her in her rage mode. Two reasons:
1. No matter how many debuff cleansers/nullifiers you have, you will end up being in a HUGE trouble if you're made to cleanse both the petrify and the poison from her OD. The main thing you want to cleanse is petrify, but the game will ALWAYS cleanse whichever debuff is placed first meaning any petrify placed after the poison can screw you up royally if you're not careful. The rage OD however does not have any debuff giving you much more breathing room to cleanse debuffs.
2. The rage OD can only hit up to 3 targets. Now here's the thing about this OD. It deals double damage (maybe even more) to petrified targets and can potentially one shot almost any petrified character with one bite. Meaning it's your top priority to make sure your team is petrify free at this point. However, if you're petrify free, good news, it barely deals enough damage to chunk 1/3 of your himes with each bite.
So here is my question to you, if you have a full burst gauge by the time you reach Medusa, can you burst her immediately into rage mode?
Does your heroic soul have a light weapon equipped (this is a must)? Even if you don't have any SR or greater light weapon, you should definitely at least have the Light Glaive obtained from Jormun event, meaning you can put it on either Beowulf (or if possible farm Gilgamesh and put it on her).
If you answered yes, to the two questions, brilliant we should be able to move on. Playing defensively on Medusa with heals and defense buffs is not a reliable option because you're just begging to be petrified.
Let's start with the team formation strategy first because as a certain someone once said:
Character Setup N1
IF you have a decently leveled up light staff
Eidolon setup-
When the battle begins, FOCUS on the snake Medulsina because it will try to petrify your team once every 2 turns.
If you have sneak attack, debuff all 3 mobs at the start, and throw all your attack abilities onto Medulsiana. If your Phoenix support is a friend's Eidolon and is available for use at the beginning, save it for Turn 2 because it could help negate some debuff from Stheno while dealing damage to Medulsiana before it uses the petrify.
If you're going with the Beowulf setup, all 5 of them should be able to throw one ability each onto Medulsiana. (Don't forget sneak attack debuff!)
This should take down Medulsiana before any petrify can be used.
Starting from now, there are two options. It is the question of "Can you take down Stheno before she uses her 3 orb OD?".
(A) If you can consistently kill both Medulsiana and Stheno before Turn 4, I highly recommend putting up Amon's Devil's kiss (debuff shield) before you even attack in Turn 1.
(B) If not, put the shield up only AFTER Stheno has used her poison because you want to make sure that you have a shield ready as well as another shield that is already off cooldown by the time you reach Medusa. Remember you don't want to take any chances with her petrify.
In situation B where your damage is lower than A, you'd also want to prolong the fight once Stheno is taken down by simply using normal attacks without using any buffing or abilities. This provides you with plenty of time to build up your burst gauge and fully prepare all your cooldowns by the time your reach Medusa.
Now that you have reached Medusa, you hopefully have a full burst gauge and Amon's shield on your entire team. Heals should be used whenever necessary.
TURN 1-Use sneak attack debuff, Dike's armour debuff, Typhon for damage buff and use full burst. Hopefully this puts her straight into rage mode.
TURN 2-Use Jormun, Beowulf's Grendel killer, all the other Kamihime's damage abilities and IF Medusa used petrify Turn 1, reapply Devil's kiss shield from Amon in case of a 2nd round of debuff. Remember you do NOT want any of your petrified himes to be bitten with Rage OD. If you're using Beo setup with Bryn in the rear, you can also use Valkyrie assault.
TURN 3-Use Sephiroth (DEF buff for Rage OD), attack normally.
TURN 4-Use friend's Phoenix (Your next line of debuff defense to greatly reduce chance of being petrified) and attack.
TURN 5-Hopefully by around this turn, Medusa is stunned. Attack normally <-(Depending on how high your damage is you can use Dragon buster on next turn or the turn after that because using it early will deal alot of damage to Medusa making her quickly get out of Stun faster.)
TURN 6 and later- Throw as many attack abilities as you can. It is tempting to wait for a full burst but unless you have it ready during Stun, don't attempt to wait for a full burst because petrify can royally screw up that full burst combination. Use it whenever there is 2 or more characters that can burst or if said character with full burst is about to die (in which case might as well use it before the reserve comes in to replace).
Use Indra's affliction cleanser as well if your team is being petrified stun lock and one of your himes died at this point because Indra will definitely not be in petrified status when she first come onto the set.
The Cassiopeia setup is a safer setup that provides you with much more breathing room if you can burst Medusa in rage mode immediately. This works even better if you equip Maiden's prayer onto her so that her and Indra can take turns cleansing any petrify that Amon's shield can no longer protect. But since there is always the possibility that BOTH characters can get petrified, it is often not as reliable as Amon's shield.