Zalera Undercroft Fight (possible spoilers)
I'm gonna tell you how I beat it because that fight was driving me nuts. I like games but I'm not a gamer with a capital G so don't come at me for that, I'm playing on Squire mode for the story. I'm not a Bloodborne typa person.
Hit Zalera immediately and hard, but you also have to keep your party spread out because he uses aoe Sleep, Slow, Doom, Stop, Disable, and Toad. He's got at least 2,000 HP, when I beat him he had 2,400. This was my party:
Ramza- maxed out squire, mirror armor, using Excalibur, jade amulet to prevent Stone and Stop. Doesn't matter where you put him the game will place him in the front so I put him in the back middle to place others closer for a first strike
Agrias- maxed out holy knight, mirror armor, protect ring to prevent Sleep and Doom, back left corner of first placement, then have her get away from Zalera because his aoe are brutal. when attacking place her at a square where her swordspells take effect but don't take up one of the four direct hit squares because she can hit at a distance. her strongest strike is Cleansing Blade
Orlandeau- sword saint, runeblade, jade armlet to prevent Stone and Stop, put him at the front at the start so that when he's sleeped (always happens) he's closer to Zalera when it wears off, and hits hard
Beowulf- templar, crystal, protect ring to prevent Sleep and Doom using his generic build and also using him as a distraction by getting him close to Zalera and letting him die
Brunhild- maxed out chemist, romandan pistol, angel ring which importantly raises her from the dead after first kill, autopotion to limit damage. this is where the fight changed for me, because she could throw things that removed status effects like toad (Maidens Kiss). also, the AI always targets your chemist/healer first so that means you have more time to do damage because the enemies will focus on the chemist. let her die because when she does you'll get more turns to do damage
Ignore Meliadoul, let her deal with the undead dudes at the back. Hit. Zalera. Fast.
Also, to preserve your sense of hope, add up the amount of damage you're doing on a piece of paper or your phone and do not relax until you've hit Zalera 1,800 times