Etrian Odyssey 4: Berserker King (5 Imperials)

Oh boy. Normally this boss doesn't do a lot, but when your offense is utterly gutted like this, he can be a bit of a doozy. You pretty much have to start the fight running into him from behind unless you want two Bloodbears joining in, basically making the fight nearly impossible. Getting a preemptive also skips him using Binding Voice on the first turn, which incidentally is a version that's a good deal stronger than when he uses that skill normally later in the fight. Berserker King's main mechanic is Berserker Rage. He will charge up a very powerful attack in 3 turns. You need to either disable him (arm binds are one of the best ones to use here) or deal 400 damage in that time before he launches the attack. A normal party can easily pass this DPS check. Unfortunately my Imperials are so slow that they actually only have 2 turns to do this, and they don't have access to skills due to their lack of drive blades! And they can only deal around 320 total damage in that amount of time. So I need to use Double Slash in order to break through that threshold, meaning that I need to be very mindful of how I manage the burst gauge in this fight if I don't want to lose. He's more likely to charge up for Berserker Rage if someone is blinded or arm bound, which can be a boon if your party can pass the DPS check even then, or a nightmare if your offenses are very bad. Fortunately the turn after he uses Berserker Rage, or if you disrupted the attack, he'll always use Counter. Which is essentially a freebie if you know it's coming, so you can use this time to patch up your party or make some other preparations. Aside from that he hits pretty hard and this fight's mainly about managing my party formation smartly so the damage is distributed in a way to minimize the chances of someone dying.