Doom Gaze

No restrictions. However, Vanish/X-Zone, Vanish/Atom Edge, Vanish/True Edge, Vanish/Cleave and Vanish/Snare all cause the final bit of 'Doom Gaze has died' to not be set (as that's his final 'counter', so to speak), meaning that you won't gain the cutscene at the end. This means no Bahamut Magicite either. What you do get if you use one of those attacks is that Doom Gaze will have gained back all HP and will be still available for you to defeat, so you'll have gained nothing in the end. Other ID attacks won't result in this sad situation, however, so Vanish/Doom and Vanish/Antlion and such (any others I didn't mention to avoid above) are all fine.

You've heard it all over the place... Doom Gaze soaring over the skies of this new world, terrorizing all in its path. An ancient demon who knows no remorse; no satisfactory pack of unlikely heroes could possibly let this continue! Doom Gaze is a relatively simple yet tough opponent, so prepare well.

Doom Gaze will start every battle by using L. 5 Doom; Safety Bits and Memento Rings protect against it if your level is right (or wrong, depending on your interpretation), but it's most likely that you don't have the former and can't use the latter, at least when you first encounter the thing. Doom Gaze may cast an Ice 3 or Doom spell in its the first turn, and may cast Doom or use Aero the second. After every two turns (not counting the initial L. 5 Doom), Doom Gaze has a 66% chance of using Escape to flee the battle. When damaged, it may counter with Battle, as all bosses tend to do.

So Doom Gaze has inherent Safe and Shell status boosts, a weakness to Fire- and Pearl-elemental attacks to consider, the ability to absorb Ice- and Poison-elemental attacks and no status ailment vulnerabilities to exploit. How are we going to take this guy down as effectively as possible?

Breaking Rods have always been powerful, but against Doom Gaze, they're a blessing; since spells executed by breaking Rods gain a barrier-piercing property, you'll be able to break Fire Rods for a barrier-piercing Fire 2 spell and Pearl Rods for a barrier-piercing Pearl spell (the latter is much more powerful). Dragon Horn Jumps with a Pearl Lance are pretty powerful (though the damage inflicted is impaired by the Safe status), but if your Edgar is still working with the Gold Lance, you should stick to Atlas Armlet with Drill/Chain Saw. Bum Rush is also barrier-piercing so that works rather nicely. Setzer's GP Rain surpasses all his other forms of damage output. For other characters: Terra, Celes, and Relm should cast Fire 3, Pearl, Fire 2 (in order of preference), Umaro should not be equipped with a Blizzard Orb as Doom Gaze absorbs Storm; Rage Ring/Atlas Armlet is the way to go.

Never mind Mog's Dances, they're far too weak here; Dragon Horn Pearl Lance Jumps or his strongest spells are the best alternatives for this character. Gau's Io-induced Flare Star will deal 9999 damage with every Flare Star while nullifying the effects of Aero; Gau's Powerdemon Rage will cast Flare, which is decent enough, and with the inherent Undead property, he won't have to fear the Doom spell. Strago should stick to Step Mine (or Grandtrain if he has it), Shadow should throw Pearl Rods or Flame Sabres (Pearl Rods are stronger) or even plain Ninja Stars if you don't have any elemental weapons to abuse, and Gogo is probably best off Raging Io if possible or throwing out Bum Rush attacks (via Mimic, of course). Locke equipped with a Valiant Knife delivers barrier-piercing damage to begin with and Cyan should stick to Atlas Armlet-boosted Dispatch attacks (the only other barrier-piercing attack he has is Quadraslice and we can't wait that long). Note: I know that Flame Shields are even stronger than Pearl Rods. This is only by a small margin though, and Pearl Rods are far easier to acquire in bulk in addition to being less useful in other battles. Expand Full Strategy