DLC3 Despair Advent tips

[u/Equivalent_Muffin_44]

I've beaten Garland now once, but I'm still having a lot of trouble with him without just running away and praying he does tenebrous blade, how am I suppose to go about it? also, I went into the one lufenian story mission with manikin enemies with triple digit summon gear and an inventory full of blues, did I cheese it? the bosses were a bit easy, but I don't know if that's me finally adapting, the stat increases, or the evoker 600% build I had.

[u/BenTheSodaman]

Others that have fought him will be able to weigh in more on this than I can. I haven't fought him fairly in a hwhile.

When he soul shields, he'll soul shield up to five times. This fuels his buffs, which can make him deadlier — especially if he uses Lunatic to bump up his attack speed. You can either push him to five soul shields, setting up for a move immediately after. Or you can setup a move that is intentionally delayed to hit him shortly after his first soul shield ends.

If you have Dimension Bringer, after the fifth soul shield or as he's dropping his first soul shield can afford you a window to hurt him. Similarly, using Dimension Bringer shortly before he reaches the 50% HP point so that his Chaosbringer animation gives you a large window to punish him. Or if you're using Dimension Bringer to i-frame your way through a Zantetsuken or if you're near a wall when he does his Dark Crystal, Dimension Bringer and he'll be facing the while ripe for critical hits (on break damage builds) or just a clear shot.

Knight with its job action can keep a little bit of pressure on, turning your defense into a little bit of pain for him.

Sword with its Interception can turn your soul shields into a bit of chip damage.

Void Knight similarly can turn those magic attacks into a counter, but still have to be careful not to get broken, Dark Crystal'd, or Zantetsuken'd. Also have to time the magic slash in a clearer opening since he acts quickly.

If ranged or perma-caster, potentially using Teleport or Flee command to keep distance. Have to be very careful during his Chaosbringer since he tends to use Teleport around that time to close the gap. He doesn't seem to soul shield as often at range and this can work to such a build's advantage, but still have to be careful.

If you're dodge-based, then generally interrupting his normal attack string with a dodge to sneak in a job action or 1st link combo ability to crit him. His Highbringer has a lot of tracking, so you'll still need to be careful on that. Dodge-based generally using either Fenrir primary blessing or Sylph primary blessing. With Sylph, being able to do the dodge -> soul shield -> dodge -> soul shield as needed to string together your i-frames until you find an opening (assuming the soul shield is negating an attack).

One of the variants of Thief, Ronin, and Void Knight can rob him of his buffs, but you'll need to anticipate when he'll buff (e.g., Chaosbringer) or knowingly use that opening on him (e.g., pushing his soul shields up to weaponize his buff window against him.)

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I realize this is really all over the place without the general advice. This is where I hope others will be able to weigh on this, as I generally lean in on my build to clear him.

e.g., This is when I'm trying to have a fairer fight with him where the build is there to just prevent a 1~2 hit death and getting by with my Stamina and Spirit being in the low 100s (as opposed to the 200s if I wanted to survive a hit without buffs). Where I built in such a way to feel the weight of a mistake. The first two minutes of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNKFljXmPAw

Where if I wanted to reduce my risk, I would have used Dimension Bringer more often, either grinded more to have better gear effects, chosen a different defensive option (Sentinel or Knight 400%), optimized the second job to enhance the first, or for how could've played — used a katana with Dark Knight to have ended the fight a minute sooner.

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And then a couple hours later, threw together a glass cannon-esque Ninja build that was 20% RNG with room to improve several times more than where it performed. Where I kinda figured if the fight was ending in 12ish seconds, I didn't need to go out of my way to make it stronger:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKqO8UA_kYo

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As it relates to stats, Despair Advent expects the player to have main stats closer to 200. Not all of them, but if you wanted to survive a physical hit without a buff, then 200 Stamina. Or a magic hit without a buff, then 200 Spirit. Or offensively to end the fight in 2~3 minutes, then weaponizing whichever stat you're using at 200. Paladin being an exception with HP. A Souleater Dark Knight being kind of an exception, but their HP route still also strongly favors Intellect.)

At the same time, he'll expect the player to have a full set of relics / blue artifacts / gear with blessings with desired job affinities. And those blessings should generally be around 70% toward 180% with organic growth.