EX or assist, EX or assist...oh, I can't decide. Why not both?
Equipment:
Death Blade (lvl 100, Final Strike 1/4)
Reaper's Shield (lvl 1, Final Strike 1/4)
Helmet of the Dead (lvl 1, Final Strike 1/4)
Death Armor (lvl 1, Final Strike 1/4)
Final Strike:
EX Absorption & Range Boost
Assist Charge & Duration Boost
Accessories:
Tenacious Attacker
Hyper Ring
Muscle Belt
Sniper Eye
Battle Hammer
HP = 100%
Large Gap in HP
Pre-Guard
Opp. HP Over 10,000
Level Gap 30
Summon: Zalera, the Death Seraph
I have been told that Gabranth can just jump to the top of the stage and use EX Charge freely before spamming Innocence on Feral Chaos from above. While that may work, that sounded boring, so I wanted to find a way to fight mostly on the ground (especially since ground EX Charge is much faster). Lo and behold, while exploring the Labyrinth I found just what I was looking for.
This was more of a test than a show of my prowess, as I don't think I'm that good with Gabranth. In fact, I'm so not used to using him that I even forgot about the Bravery Regen ability until after the match! However, I just completed the Final Strike equipment set today, and have been dying to try it out. It might be the only legitimate thing in this game that boosts both EX and Assist (unless you count First to Victory). As it turns out, the effects are HUGE. I felt like I was playing the first Dissidia game, with the way my EX gauge was building. The equipment set alone gave me the feeling of a full EX accessory setup. I could go from empty to full EX gauge with just 7 Circle of Judgments, without ever using EX Charge at all! It normally takes 13-14 attacks even with Gabranth's Highway Star equipped. With the Final Strike set, EX force absorption felt almost doubled, and the range was enough to absorb everything produced by my attack without even moving.
The full Final Strike equipment set is your reward for making it to the very end of the Labyrinth. The shield, helm, and armor can all be found at the end of the Cloister of Beginnings, but the sword is located on floor 100, just beyond a Feral Chaos boss fight. While its effects are enormously powerful, it does come with a heavy drawback. The sword has stats befitting of a level 100 weapon, but the other pieces all have level 1 stats. In other words, you're a total glass cannon. Prepare to be broken by almost any attack if you have this equipped. Of course, if you've been paying attention to my comments under my videos, you'd know that's just my style. By the way, I equipped Zalera, the Death Seraph as my summon for the very real possibility that Feral Chaos would get 9999 brave from beating on me (he does several thousand brv damage per attack due to my armor).
I chose Tenacious Attacker over Close to You for this fight because I didn't intend to get hit that often. Close to You lets you absorb EX both when attacking or being hit, but Tenacious Attacker only does the former. Since I'm usually the one doing the attacking, it was almost just as good anyway. What's important, though, is that Tenacious Attacker does NOT have any drawback for your assist meter, which puts it above Close to You in my eyes.
As I said, this was more of a test run, and I'm not that great with Gabranth, so I didn't really care about getting hit by Via Dolorosa. At least I wasn't in EX mode when it happened (lousy Feral Chaos's exclusive full EX/Assist drain accessory). Besides, it's Via Dolorosa. Even the best Dissidia players in the world will fall prey to that move, as the DDFF tournament held these past few days showed us all.
It may not have been the right choice to use EXP to Assist over EXP to EX, but that's just a testament to how much I love assists. And by the way, Gilgamesh will always draw either the Excalibur or Excalipoor for his assist attack, with a 50% chance of each. That makes his assist both the strongest and weakest in the game.
I guess Yuna is up next, no? Maybe I'll use her to test out another one of the equipment sets I found in the Labyrinth.