If you thought the Thief Job was fast as hell in Bravely Default 2, wait until you take a look at Marla and her Phantom Asterisk. A ruthless, sinister-looking and without any remorse opponent, Marla is one of Holograd’s Generals, ordered by Adam to conquer Savalon. In contrast to Lonsdale and his imperial fleet, clashing head on with Halcyonia, Marla preferred to infiltrate Savalon from the inside with her shadow skills. Disguised as another person, she finally reveals herself and jumps right into a battle.
How to beat Marla the Phantom
Marla completely takes advantage of her Phantom Asterisk, and she is all about fast and lethal attacks and counter-attacks. As you would expect from an assassin-like class, she appears out of the shadows to constantly attack our party members. She also bolsters high speed and evasion, so her turns come up rather fast, and we have an extra chance of missing our hits.
Marla’s moveset
- Dream within a dream: Damages a single target with 3 consecutive attacks.
- Shadowstepper: Inflicts big damage to a single target. Also, counters physical attacks.
- Shroud: Inflicts dark damage to a single target.
While the Thief consists of tricky setups by stealing… everything from a target, the Phantom Job is all about high offense and speedy strikes. Which pretty sums up Marla in a nutshell. Her whole kit consists of ways of doing more damage to you, while also avoid any incoming skills you throw at her.
If you happen to have any Jobs with light skills leveled up, like the Spiritmaster’s Holy, make sure to bring them here since Light and Spears are her weaknesses. As we mentioned above, Marla’s evasion stat is pretty high, so you will notice a lot of your physical attacks missing. Spells on the other hand are not affected by evasion, so they are a sure hit each time. The drawback to this is that your mages will be really frail to her attacks, with their low armor, so it’s going to be a little harder to keep them alive. Therefore, my suggestion would be to bring a Salve-Maker who not only has a great amount of options to heal and deal fixed damage, but has a lot of max weight so you can equip heavier gear, increasing your defenses in the process.
Additionally, Marla is vulnerable to the Paralysis ailment, which hinders her already high speed a lot. The beforementioned Salve-Maker can use his or her Special ability to inflict the specific ailment to her with ease, if you don’t have any other ways. As she is paralyzed, you can proceed with a couple of Braves to cause a huge amount of damage in the process, or even defeating her entirely.
As long as you keep your party healthy and avoid using a lot of physical attacks, which will end up being countered with a very strong move of hers, Marla is an easy target. Take her down and claim the Phantom Asterisk, who not only is a powerhouse on its own, but also has the passive ability Dual Wield, that lets you equip 2 weapons without the second one losing any effectiveness. A must for Thieves and other damage-type Jobs.
Bravely default 2 is exclusively available on the Nintendo Switch.
Published: Mar 4, 2021 01:01 pm