So I ploughed through the first several hours of my first NT playthrough. Got to Junon. Up till that point, everything had been copacetic. Fights took some thought. Bosses were tougher, but not unreasonably so. I was still feeling a bit overwhelmed, but I was managing.
Then came the boss fight to save Priscilla. I was level 21, decently geared (as much as I could be, I'd barely seen any weapon or armor upgrades; nearly all the armor was offering stat boosts in exchange for non-existent protection, basically turning them into another set of accessories, just with materia sockets). I'd kitted out character with materia befitting their party roles.
So first go, it's with Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith. I give up after 15 minutes of barely holding on while it hits me for 3-500 HP per hit, which nearly one-shots the ladies. Barret had my Barrier materia so I had no defenses. Melee couldn't hit it, and the only attack spells we had were Fire, and 2 Ice, which weren't doing tons of damage.
So, I restart, switch Tifa out for Barret and juggle some spell materia to give everyone something to use. I try the fight again, and it quickly settles into a pattern: Cloud hits it with Bolt, Aerith with Ice, and Barret keeps everyone Shielded and Hasted. Aerith heals as needed, and LBs get fired off regularly. Now the fight isn't anywhere near as tense as the Barrier materia cuts the damage down, and Cloud is also a secondary healer, so between him and Aerith, everyone stays up.
Rinse and repeat for nearly 20 minutes.
Um, what am I doing wrong? Or is every boss fight going to be like this now? Many of the random encounters have hit the point where physical attacks are basically the worst thing I can use, and its all spell-casting, all the time now. Is that normal, too? If there' some blindingly obvious things I'm missing, I'm eager to learn what to do. Right now, as it stands, this mod has gone from entertainingly challenging, to a tedious slog once I cleared the Mythril Mines.