Dragon Quest VII Reimagined - Low Level (Tough Going) Part 10: Setesh the Punisher

Challenge playlist:    • Dragon Quest VII Reimagined - Low Level Ha...   A battle I was anticipating, expecting it to be a major roadblock, which it turned out not to be, despite Setesh the Punisher being quite the menace on my regular playthrough of the game (where I did also opt for Tougher Monsters and Less Damage). Still, he doesn't run out of MP after using a single spell - makes sense considering he doesn't use any offensive magic at all (Sap doesn't count) - and he can be threatening throughout the entire battle. Relying entirely on physical attacks, Setesh the Punisher can have his attacks reduced to a single point of damage by casting Buff on any of our high-defence party members, many of whom benefit from high-end equipment from storyline progress or the Lucky Panel minigame. That's certainly what I choose to do for Auster and Maribel, letting Ruff just run himself with his monster heart auto-restoring his health when below half of maximum HP, saving Maribel some turns not having to renew the status. This generally takes care of the boss's Multistrike attacks as well. Things get interesting when the boss enters his furious phase. His regular attack takes on defence-ignoring properties, inflicting exactly 72 damage. This is the sole reason why the MC is not in his Troubadour class, which grants access to MT healing without having to wait for Priest's let loose skill to activate and offers time to learn more skills protecting from specific elements, as Troubadour's base HP is below the threshold necessary to take a single 72-dmg strike. Martial Artist Ruff is safe, too, but Priest Maribel is not - the Golem Heart lets her survive one fatal strike, which is hopefully at most the one and only time the boss will land a hit on her. Auster utilising the Sailor vocation yet again opens up opportunities to inflict Dazzle once more, which the boss isn't completely immune to. It tends to proc too rarely to be reliable however, and seems to have no effect on the boss missing his defence-ignoring 72-damage chops - he seems to never whiff any of those, and these are the attacks that count. If Auster is under Sailor's let-loose attack boost, he may as well try dazzling the boss, but afterwards going for raw damage with Staff of Sentencing to assist Maribel in doing the same is greatly preferable, and its damage is more competitive than usual with the boss being wind-weak and blocking Ruff's attacks at a consistent rate, especially when in overdrive. If you keep the boyz' HP above 72, this isn't all that bad after all. This is the last major fight before Aishe the dancer joins the party.