Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age: Defeating Yiazmat

YIAZMAT:
Yiazmat is the ULTIMATE Super Boss in Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age. This Guide will cover good/best Character Set Ups and a viable Strategy to defeat Yiazmat, the ULTIMATE ENEMY!! In the ORIGINAL FFXII this fight could take HOURS and HOURS to beat. In the Zodiac Age he has been significantly nerfed and the Battle could take about half an hour, maybe a little longer, maybe less. Still Yiazmat has of 50 MILLION HP!! In order to face Yiazmat you first have to have completed Pharos and every other Hunt in the Game and also have defeated the Hell Wyrm. The Clan Provisioner is Montblanc the Moogle in Clan Centurio so once you Accept the Hunt he will give you the details right away. You can find Yiazmat at Ridorana Cataract in the Coliseum.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
I would recommend all your Characters be AT LEAST above Level 70, but optimally should be higher. Your Levels simply cannot be, “TOO HIGH,” for this fight, even if Level 99. Make sure your fully stocked up on Items for this fight. Phoenix Downs, all kinds of Potions and Ethers, and Bacchus Wines are good. Chronos Tears are also needed because Yiazmat’s Magickal Attack, Cyclone, causes STOP Status. Also he can cause PETRIFY Status, so you’ll need Gold Needles. Also SAP, so, Remedies. I recommend that you get and Equip a RIBBON (makes your Character Immune to Status Effects, like STOP, PETRIFY and SAP) on AT LEAST one of your Characters, your Support Character, like your White Mage, if you can manage it. You’ll also need AT LEAST one Genji Glove. Two if you can manage it. As for Weapons you should have Yagu Darkblade and/or Masamune or Khumba. You may also want Burning Bow. You should have the best kinds of Armors you can get in the Game, at least really good ones, if not the best. As for Magicks you’ll want Curaga/Curaja, Rise/Arise, Haste/Hastega, Berzerk, Bubble, Decoy, Protectga, Shellga, Dispel/Dispellga, Bravery, Stona, and Regen. You may also want Darkga, Oil and Ardor. And you DEFINITELY NEED the Technicks Wither, Expose, Addle and Shear.

SET UP:
Yiazmat is a Holy Elemental Enemy. Which means you can’t use the Holy Spell or Holy Elemental Weapons like Excalibur or Holy Rod, they will actually HEAL him. As such he takes more Damage from Dark Elemental Spells and Weapons. A Shikari paired with Bushi with Yagu Darkblade, (Dark Elemental Ninja Sword,) Black Robes, (Boosts Dark Elemental Damage by 50%,) and the Genji Gloves (Boosts Combo Rate) Equipped would be your best Attacker in this fight (Balthier makes the best Shikari.) Alternatively, a Bushi paired with Uhlan or Knight (for Strength Boosting Battle Lores and Heavy Armor,) with Masamune or Khumba (if Bushi/Knight you can use a Shield with Khumba,) Grand Helm (or your best Heavy Helm,) Lordly Robes (or your best Mystic Armor) and the Genji Gloves would be another great Damage Dealer in this fight (Vaan makes the best Bushi.) Or you can use both to make this fight even easier but that means you will only have one Support Character. Also, a Time Battlemage to cast Haste/Hastega, Berzerk (or use Bacchus Wine,) Bubble, and Decoy on your main Attacker(s) would be really good. A White Mage (or Red Battlemage) can also cast Bubble and Decoy. A White Mage can also cast Bravery (increases Physical Attack Power by 30%) on your main Attacker(s,) which is really good also be sure to use Protectga and Shellga. Also the White Mage can cast Dispel/Dispellga to remove the STOP Status Yiazmat’s Magickal Attack causes, but a WARNING, it will also Dispel all your BUFFS, so using Chronos Tears is the better option. The White Mage can also Cast Stona to remove the PETRIFY Status, but you probably want to conserve MP, so, Gold Needles. The White Mage can also Heal the SAP Status with Regen (which is always a good idea as well) but if not then Remedies. If your using two Physical Attackers then your best Support Character would be a White Mage but you can swap them for your Time Battlemage to cast Haste/Hastega and Berzerk on your Attackers when you need to then swap the White Mage back in (if your using a White Mage/Time Battlemage then obviously you won’t need to swap.) Also a Red Battlemage with Black Robes Equipped using Darkga would be, shall I say, ok. An Archer paired with Red Battlemage with Burning Bow (increases Fire Elemental Damage by 50%) using Oil (increases Fire Damage another 30%) and Ardor would also be, OK. The Technicks Wither (reduces the Enemies Physical Attack Power,) Expose (reduces the Enemies Physical Defense,) Addle (reduces the Enemies Magickal Attack Power,) and Shear (reduces the Enemies Magickal Defense) are really good in the fight as well, (they STACK and last the entire Battle,) and the Foebreaker is the only Job that can learn all four of them. Monk can also learn Wither and Expose (so can Uhlan but only through Esper Licenses.) Archer can learn Addle and Shear (so can Time Battlemage but only though Esper Licenses.)

BATTLE STRATEGY:
Start the Battle by Casting your Debuffs, Wither, Expose, Addle and Shear. First Wither and Addle to lower his Damage Output, then Expose and Shear to lower his Defenses. I recommended using two DEBUFFERS in the beginning of this fight. One to be casting Wither and after Expose and the other to be casting Addle and then after Shear. If your only doing Physical Damage then you only need Expose, if your only doing Magickal Damage then you’ll only need Shear, if you doing both then obviously you need both. Keep Casting them on him as they STACK. Keep Casting them until they start Missing all the time, that means his Stats CANNOT be lowered any further. At which point you can the swap out your DEBUFFER(s) for your Main Attacker(s.) All of Yiazmat’s Physical Attacks have a chance to cause INSTANT DEATH and theres NOTHING you can do about that, so your Characters will be getting killed while your doing this, but of course you have Rise/Arise Gambits and/or Phoenix Down Gambits so you’ll be ok. After Yiazmats Stats a lowered completely, then your gonna want to start with your BUFFS on your main Physical Attacker(s,) Haste/Hastega, Berzerk, Bravery, Bubble and Decoy. If your going the Magick Route then Haste/Hastega, Bubble and Faith (NOT Decoy!! Your Mage(s) will DIE.) Then you can just start whacking away doing MASSIVE DAMAGE, especially if your using the Shikari and/or Bushi builds I described above. Now you can pretty much just Speed up the Battle to 4X Speed at this point to make the Battle go much faster. If your using two Berzerked Physical Attackers and your other Support Character gets hit with INSTANT DEATH, swap one of your Berzerked Characters (Berzerked Characters can ALWAYS be swapped, even though they are constantly Attacking) for another Character to Raise/Arise or Pheonix Down and Heal your Support Character then you can just swap them out again. Keep it up until he gets to 50% HP, then his Defenses will Increase Dramatically and your Attacks will be doing much less Damage. Theres nothing you can do about that so just keep whittling down his HP as best as you can. You will also start using his Deathstrike Ability which will INSTANT KILL a Character. Nothing you can do about that either except keep using Rise/Arise or Phoenix Downs. Keep at it and eventually Yiazmat will use his Growing Threat Ability that DOUBLES his Level, fortunately that will not have a big effect on you because you DEBUFFED his Stats completely at the start of the Battle with Wither, Expose, Addle and Shear, right… RIGHT?? If you find you are struggling you can try to use your Summons or better yet your Quickenings, but don’t expect them to finish him off completely at this point. It is NOT recommended to use Renew in this fight, at least not when Yiazmat gets low on HP because then he likes to cast Reflect on your Party and if you cast Renew on a Party Member with Reflect Active it will bounce off and restore ALL of Yiazmat’s HP, which would be a TOTAL BUMMER!! When he does Cast Reflect on you you should Dispel it as quickly as possible so that your Healing Magicks will not restore any of his HP. Keep it up and he will eventually go down, and that, as they say, is that. I hope you found this Guide to be helpful. Thanks for reading.