Kadaj
The Masochistic Hardcore Player XP
Towns Folk
so im not sure how many have really heard of this one but i managed to take down gladiator orion in xenoblade 2. while it doesnt seem like the most notorious one in the game, i can definitely confirm its not a very pleasant fight even if its not highlighted across the web as one of the worst in the game. honestly while gladiator orion has some annoying and geneuinely problematic perks, i still feel like orphion ranks above him as worst in the game list goes due to his repetitive aoe spamming and considerably worse damage (especially that meteor shower, good luck surviving this of your dodging arts arent filled when he does it...).
so heres roughly what i did. i did it with mythra and pneuma the first time with auto balancer equipped and i believe i also had omega drive or an affinity extending accessory. the reason for auto balancer is because apparently this boss has a very high bounce rate for melee weapons which would make it almost impossible to build your specials up since a weapon bounce prevents you from canceling auto attacks and as most likely know by this point that is an absolute must in combat. another thing you should do before starting is build your party guage in case of an early faint or to be ready to finish him off ahead of time. gladiator orion seems very dodgy and tends to spam what me and my friend called the 'dodging dance' where hes near impossible to hit without a lv 4 special or chain attack. another problem is he has an incapacitation combo where you get knocked down and then stuck in midair in a single series of hits. also, i advise positioning against the wall here as he may try to knock you back. i did this while farming territorial rotbart as he spams the knockback when enraged (and its pretty annoying...). just avoid the cliffs so if he does this you dont get knocked off and bam, instant game over.
another slightly safer thing is to go with any ether cannon blade and just lurk around the walls unloading arts on him whenever you can and such. i used one of my favorites and mains here on a second fight with him, Kos mos. if you dont have auto balancer then i advise doing an ether cannon attempt so the repeated bouncing doesnt completely screw you over. the reason you can bounce so much on gladiator orion is because of his very high blocking rate. yes, you still do damage but with auto balancer youre not prevented from attack cancelling which is very important in this entire game of you want to build guages reliably. for the accessories its ok if you have less perfect gear, i used an affinity extender again here as well and also a sigma drive as he dropped this after my first fight beating him. this will do wonders on any repeats since even with him spamming dodge arts you still fill the party guage regardless of how you much you miss (though a successful hit is likely more optimal). he also drops some high tier aux cores so if you beat him youre almost certain to get something very good.
for any general setup as far as chain attacks go, you have a couple options. you can save your bars to be safe so if a teammate gets fainted you can save them, or you can attempt to out dps him and then aim for a chain attack overkill (this is likely impossible to do in such a short time span unless you have a very OP ether cannon setup with very rare offensive gear as well...). for most, option 1 is probably thw safest way to go especially with how much his incapacitation series of hits can hurt you (youre probably looking at least half your health gone here... if you have kos mos you can recover with lv 2 special as long as he doesnt decide to do this twice in a row to you.. if he does well cross your fingers and hope you dont die). im someone who is used to dodging gimmicks but the stun locking here is actually very bad. if you have the space for some resist accessories that might help here too even if it isnt perfect. worst comes worst, you can always try playing the healer if you prefer but the above setups compliment my playstyle personally
so heres roughly what i did. i did it with mythra and pneuma the first time with auto balancer equipped and i believe i also had omega drive or an affinity extending accessory. the reason for auto balancer is because apparently this boss has a very high bounce rate for melee weapons which would make it almost impossible to build your specials up since a weapon bounce prevents you from canceling auto attacks and as most likely know by this point that is an absolute must in combat. another thing you should do before starting is build your party guage in case of an early faint or to be ready to finish him off ahead of time. gladiator orion seems very dodgy and tends to spam what me and my friend called the 'dodging dance' where hes near impossible to hit without a lv 4 special or chain attack. another problem is he has an incapacitation combo where you get knocked down and then stuck in midair in a single series of hits. also, i advise positioning against the wall here as he may try to knock you back. i did this while farming territorial rotbart as he spams the knockback when enraged (and its pretty annoying...). just avoid the cliffs so if he does this you dont get knocked off and bam, instant game over.
another slightly safer thing is to go with any ether cannon blade and just lurk around the walls unloading arts on him whenever you can and such. i used one of my favorites and mains here on a second fight with him, Kos mos. if you dont have auto balancer then i advise doing an ether cannon attempt so the repeated bouncing doesnt completely screw you over. the reason you can bounce so much on gladiator orion is because of his very high blocking rate. yes, you still do damage but with auto balancer youre not prevented from attack cancelling which is very important in this entire game of you want to build guages reliably. for the accessories its ok if you have less perfect gear, i used an affinity extender again here as well and also a sigma drive as he dropped this after my first fight beating him. this will do wonders on any repeats since even with him spamming dodge arts you still fill the party guage regardless of how you much you miss (though a successful hit is likely more optimal). he also drops some high tier aux cores so if you beat him youre almost certain to get something very good.
for any general setup as far as chain attacks go, you have a couple options. you can save your bars to be safe so if a teammate gets fainted you can save them, or you can attempt to out dps him and then aim for a chain attack overkill (this is likely impossible to do in such a short time span unless you have a very OP ether cannon setup with very rare offensive gear as well...). for most, option 1 is probably thw safest way to go especially with how much his incapacitation series of hits can hurt you (youre probably looking at least half your health gone here... if you have kos mos you can recover with lv 2 special as long as he doesnt decide to do this twice in a row to you.. if he does well cross your fingers and hope you dont die). im someone who is used to dodging gimmicks but the stun locking here is actually very bad. if you have the space for some resist accessories that might help here too even if it isnt perfect. worst comes worst, you can always try playing the healer if you prefer but the above setups compliment my playstyle personally