Still *some* dying (and one wipe on the 2nd run, but once the mitigator goes down, the rest will follow) but the new group is definitely more stable. With my other group I got two 2-stars and one 1-star....with the new group I've gotten two 2-stars and one 3-star, which is a nice (and convincing!) step up. (especially since I've gotten the only 3 star I've seen from anyone in any of my runs today, which speaks volumes)
Somehow it still *feels* like I kill a lot slower, but the star-ratings are speaking louder than my eyes. I blame it on the Hadaron effect, not seeing the one body-party I have targeted getting blasted by UBB levels of damage every turn, but rather spreading the damage out a lot better and surviving better = nicer overall damage, even if my eyes say it isn't.
Kafka was dying a bit and feeling squishy, but I only had a Malice Jewel and a Sol Creator on her at first.....I replaced those with the Prized Light and Cosmic Dust, and she feels pretty solid now.
Aaron is my weakest link (and also my mitigator which isn't a great combination) but I'm not too sure what I'd change with his spheres, I still want the Sacred Crystal on him for +10 BC a turn. Besides that one I have the Gizmo-whatsit from FG1 (+30% all stats, +BC when hit.....not the pinnicle of survival spheres, but has mitigator written all over it, particularly when the mitigator gets hit with a BB Drain.) I'll keep tweaking spheres here and there, but otherwise things are noticeably improved over my usual raid group already.
Anyway, much improved, thanks man....group is working out quite nicely!