Dryad Overview

Dryad as a boss is very simple: disable or die. Even without blind or debuffs, you are going to be left hurting extremely hard after...any of her skills, really, but especially Bullwhip and Outburst. You also really, really, really do not want Earth Healing to go off, unless you like Dryad restoring about 75% of her HP and then becoming extremely high-damage, tanky, and evasive.

Now, Dryad's power is not without a catch. Her LUC is pretty below average for what you'd expect of a boss at this point (hell, Jaryuu had more LUC than her), and please look at her disable resistances. 50% is her resisting something, and she has no resistance at all to all three types of binds.

Conventional tactics won't get you very far with Dryad, and all of her skills speak for themselves, so let's just get right to party members.

Alexis: Alexis can potentially get really fucked by Black Pollen, whoever's standing next to or behind him is wide open to being hit by Double Flame or Triple Icicle (depending on the position, obviously), and he can do exactly nothing about Bullwhip, but he can make Thunderbolt or Outburst easier to deal with. Defensive supports, though, are generally not the best for Dryad.

Iseria: Given some support from the usual suspects, and Dryad's fire weakness, Iseria can put out the kind of pain you've probably come to expect from her after Hippogriff and Crystal Dragon.

Sasha: I'll just condense stuff here: Adamantine Dragoon's useless, and a Gunpowder Dragoon would basically just spam Bombardment Prep followed by Buster Cannon for the entire fight. If you wanna see Sasha turn into a damage dealer for a fight, knock yourself out.

Cecil:

• General: Please take a second to review Dryad's bind resistances, and then consider what Cecil can do when given extreme bind vulnerabilities.
• Combo Boxer: Please take a second to review Dryad's overall resistances, and then consider what Lead Blow can do now that I'll have the points to max out everything if I retool Cecil a bit.
• Devastating Fistfighter: why would you ever eschew focusing on disables for Dryad

Raven:

• Death-Bringing Reaper: Raven has access to two ailments that Dryad is weak to (paralysis and panic) and one that she's neutral to (poison) with the Death-Bringing spec. Rotating poison -> paralysis -> panic equals three stacks of Black Blade. Great Scythe of Cold Ash unfortunately does not hit Dryad's weakness, but what're you gonna do?
• Death-Warding Reaper: Raven with the Death-Warding spec can do basically what he did for Jaryuu: debuff Dryad a lot, and then break out Scythe of Transience.

Kaelin:

• Master of the Six Ways: Multistrike Fireball is gonna be Kaelin's bread-and-butter for Dryad, but he can also bind Dryad's arms with Windstorm (I guess), and he might finally have the skill points to make good use of Alter. As with anything involving petrification, though, beware of it possibly being a detriment to physical damage dealers!
• Ruler of Fire, Ice, and Lightning: Compressed Explosions is Kaelin's bread-and-butter for this spec. They're more consistent than Multistrike Fireballs but considerably more expensive.

Lanzon:

• Spirit-Summoning Necromancer: Gravestone Binding I guess?
• Spirit-Destroying Necromancer: The Gates of Hell + Equivalent Exchange + Sacrifice, as always, is An Option for Damage.

Gram:

• Falcon-Accompanied Hound: Flying Talon Strike and Sky Dive are all but guaranteed to bind Dryad's head. Besides those, stab attacks from Gram herself can proc Chains from Iseria.
• Dog-Leading Hound: Hunter Shot's got an okay chance of binding Dryad's arms and legs, while Foot Pierce can actually deal fairly good damage. Same thing with Chains, too.

Jana:

• Four Heavens as One Masurao: Honestly, Jana's lack of armor doesn't matter in this fight, since she dies to a stiff breeze anyway. If you want me to show off four katanas in a boss fight, this is basically the best chance you'll get.
• Single Peerless Blade Masurao: Crits. Dryad's susceptibility to disables means it's easy to kill her evasion and guarantee that Helm Divide lands, too.

Mio:

• Heaven's Wrath Shaman: Oracle: Three Runs with Prayer: Blaze can equal pretty big hurt for Dryad, although Mio's INT unfortunately isn't quite high enough (innately, mind you) to bypass the WIS * 2 barrier and not get penalized for it.
• Heaven's Love Shaman: Umm... Okay, no, I don't have anything. Defense really isn't the best strategy for Dryad if the defense isn't "disable her with everything possible."

Dosen: Dosen's healing won't be worth too much here, but he can make Dryad go boom with Explosion on a Cradle.

Magda: Magda can inflict ailments--a big plus with Dryad-- and she can also make Dryad go boom, but even more, with Smoke Bomb.


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