Final Fantasy XIII: How to Beat Orphan

This guide will tell you my personal experience on how I beat the final boss of Final Fantasy XIII, Orphan. This may not be the best way, but it did work for me and this may help someone out there.

The characters I chose for this fight were Lightning, Sazh and Vanille because while this combo may not be very damage heavy, it is very versatile.
To the right are the five paradigms I used for the fight. You can have up to six, but I only used five.

Now, the equipment does make the character, but it does bring out their best qualities. My choices:

Lightning:
Ultima Weapon (Upgraded from Lionheart)
Power Glove
General's Belt
Royal Armlet

Sazh:
Procyons
Sorcerer's Mark
Power Glove
Imperial Armlet

Vanille:
Healer's Staff
Sorcerer's Mark
Royal Armlet
Goddess' Favor

Notes:
The Ultima Weapon's quick stagger and the Procyon's stagger maintenance work really well together in insuring more staggers that last longer.
Vanille can go with Belladonna Wand if you prefer better debuffs, but I prefer better cures.

IMPORTANT:
Have at least two Cherub's Crowns and/or Seraph's Crowns, this will be important in preventing death, but do not equip these for the first fight!

Before you even walk through the door at the end of the pretty white hallway, shroud yourself!
Use an ethersol to replenish your TP gauge and fortisol and aegisol to buff up some more.

Default paradigm: Bully

When the fight starts, you will be buffed up like a god, use it to your advantage while it lasts. The first thing you should do use a librascope on Barthandelus so that your automated characters know which moves are the best the use. Stick with Bully until you see a shield with a down arrow icon on the boss. It is important to deprotect him as this will boost your damage through the roof.

Once his defenses are down, switch to Relentless Assault. This should quickly stagger him, and once he is staggered, stick with Relentless assault. Switch to Salvation or Convalescence after he uses T. Laughter/Smile or Ultima, if needed. If you do not need to be healed that badly, use Diversity (if you are buffed up) or use Hero's Charge (so that Sazh can rebuff your team while Vanille heals).

Whenever his defense down effect wears off, switch back to bully to get it back on him and repeat the steps mentioned above.

Quick overview:
Bully - get his defenses down and yours up!
Relentless Assault - take full advantage of being buffed up and enemy's weakened defenses
Diversity - Moderate healing, but do not need buffs
Hero's Charge - Moderate healing AND buffs needed
Convalescence / Salvation - Need healing badly!

Stick with the same paradigms

As soon as the fight starts, hit pause and hit retry. This will bring you into the menu. Here, you will need to change your default paradigm to Salvation or Convalescence, whichever you have. This is where the Cherub/Seraph Crowns come into play. If you have two Seraph Crown's, they each give a 60% resist death (when maxed out), but together only give 84%. Equip these bad boys so that you have a better chance at surviving his Progenial Wrath attack, which can instantly kill you. I've fought him to where he was almost dead, and his P. Wrath move killed me.

Now you are really ready to fight Oprah... I mean Orphan. Immediately, use a librascrope on this giant sword monster. He will open up with Consummate Light/Darkness and then leave you all with 1 hp with his 'Merciless Judgement' move. Good thing you are on Salvation or Convalescence to quickly heal your party up again.

The strategy here is more or less the same you used with Barthandalus, wait until he is debuffed and until you are buffed to mutilate him with Relentless Assault. Use your moderate healing paradigms when necessary and Salvation / Convalescence after his big moves, which include merciless judgement, Deis Irae and Chains of Torment (you will need Esuna for this one). You will be able to tell when he will use merciless judgement, because he uses Consummate Light/Darkness before he does so. However, after a while, he will just use it on surprise! So you have to be quick in shifting paradigms.

Other tips:

If you ever happen to get all bogged with Chains of Torment, meaning all of your characters are poisoned, and are disabled from using both magic and attacks, summon Odin! Because not only does this greatly damage Orphan, once Odin is gone, all of your characters will be absolved of their status ailments.

Use renew if you are close to dying

Have antidotes ready to help rid of poison when he uses Chain of Torment

This fight is really easy, but do not take your time, because you will have a doom timer on your head! There is no way of avoiding this, so just take him down as fast as you can. The key here is to stagger Orphan, that is the only time you can really damage him. The quickest way to do that is to be on Relentless Assault as much as possible. Only use your moderate healing paradigms for healing and to get rid of the slow effect it will cast on you. After a couple staggers, you will be able to take it down in no time!

You beat Orphan! Enjoy the beautiful ending that I will not spoil for you!