KIRIN BAHBEE
OK, so the first thing I found out is that a Hoplite is nearly useless because Kirin always moves first, which means your guards don't do jack, which means I swapped a Wildling in because random paralysis is cool and she was the best person not in the active party. The party thus facing the wild beast:
Yuu, Gladiator/Shogun, Swords, no real damage skill (would up using lv1 Break during the fight... at least with Charge) ~lv31.
Tris, Arbalist/Gladiator, Phys damage build (Cloudbuster maxed, one point in Charge, working for Double Action) ~lv37.
Mad Cow, immortal meatshield, bringer of unreliable paralysis, incapable of scratching anything.
Mato, Zodiac/Arbalist, Elemental damage / weakness hitter build with some Ice emphasis (one point in Prophecy) ~lv35
Phoenix, Monk/Princess, actually more Princess than Monk, Protect Order abuser ~lv37
Mononoke, Wildling/Farmer, doesn't really have anything beyond Cow and Beast Soul, ~lv25
So, yeah. I'm kind of underleveled here as far as I can tell. Small primer on Kirin: Kirin drops an AoE every single damn turn. Sometimes, later in the battle, it uses Imperial Pride instead, which is even worse.
The fact that every turn is an AoE (a solid damage AoE to boot), and that Kirin ALWAYS moves first makes it difficult to resurrect people. You can't bodyguard them either. (Unless my Bodyguard wasn't leveled enough for that, or my Hoplite had too low agility.) You will need some kind of ability to weather the storm. My ability of choice here was Protect Order. I've got it at like Level 5, but because it's on the Monk, with maxed Form Qi, you have 110-ish heal every turn for three turns, for 9 TP. It's evil.
The first gimmick you'll notice is that it uses the Fire-Elemental Retribution the first turn and then on every turn divisible by five. The damage depends on how much health Kirin has left: Mostly full, and it's a breather. About half, it's as good as everything else Kirin throws around, a quarter or less and it will fucking murder your party. Other than that, it has three physical AoEs that each have a chance of binding a limb, a volt damage AoE that's feeble on its own, but also consumes any binds on the target and deals massive damage for each bind consumed. One bind means any squishy is dead. Two binds mean anyone else is dead. Three binds is ridiculous overkill.
Finally, Imperial Pride, which will start appearing at half health left and can really ruin your day. It's a counter type skill - Kirin braces itself, and if anyone attacks it, it binds all limbs of the target, or at least two. This can make Kirin a bit of a luck-based mission - I had enough luck that it would mainly use the skill in the turns my front line was Charging up. But if it decides to drop it in a turn you go crazy, and then calls Lightning, HAVE FUN. One reason why I recommend Aegis Barrier for this fight. (The anti-element party tactic skill thing.)
Okay, so what do you need to persist against Kirin?
- Solid offense. I mean, that's a no-brainer, but Kirin doesn't have any magic weaknesses (volt immunity, instead), so you'll want to rely on physical. I had a Front Mortar Arbalist, a bunch of attack buffs and Charge as well as backup damage Gladiator + Zodiac, so that point was kind of covered.
- Some way of consistent healing. You can use the Monk's Party Heal for this, but that's expensive and you should be prepared to bring a mana battery or at least a few Amritas. Monk/Princess specced into Protect Order is even greater. You spend two turns maintaining your Protect Orders, then go out and perhaps drop an Attack Order or prolong the existing Orders or emergency Unbind/Resurrect. The main disadvantage here is that if a person dies (Divine Lightning is the chief offender), the orders are gone and it's difficult to bring them back. High level nectars or a high level Resurrect will help here.
- Unbinding items/skills. Binds are a focus of the boss, a party wide Unbind can really really help. A few Theriaca As also, if your Monk gets their head bound or is busy. Shoguns have their buff thing but it probably doesn't really help here. Also, consider giving an Arm Guard to your frontliners or a Head Guard to your healer. My chief worry was my Healer getting sniped by head bind + Divine Lightning.
- Some way of negating Retribution further into the boss battle. It's fire damage, so you have Fire Prophecy, Fire Mist and Aegis Barrier, to name a few. Of course, with Fire Prophecy you should be golden (if you don't get outprioritized. I didn't test). Also, Gladiators, Hoplites and Princesses tend to survive nearly every Retribution anyway... not that it helps much, the boss battle is a big damn slippery slope thing. One death can spell your doom.
- Mana restoring. I needed to use a bunch of Amritas to win, and nearly lost the second time I challenged without the Hoplite because I ran out of TP while Kirin was very low. Might not be as relevant if your party is stronger.
- Head Bind shuts down basically everything scary Kirin has, but it's a chore to apply.
Well, that's it. First battle I lost with only the Gladiator remaining and Kirin at perhaps 200 life left, I was angry.
Second went a little more swimmingly but still had some tense moments near the end, when your party breaks down because of Retribution. Bring some Fire Mists, they rock here! Consumables, ho!
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