Alexander Midas - The Arm of the Son (Savage) - A7S / M3S

By Shasta Kota of Death and Taxes <DnT> on Gilgamesh

General

"Although you succeeded in destroying the core of Gordias, it seems that was only a temporary measure. The walking fortress has stirred once more, and its left arm now rests on the banks of the Thaliak. The entrance lies open and unguarded, suggesting the goblins inside are as surprised as you. Take advantage of your enemy's unreadiness and face the Illuminati threat once more─hopefully for the last time."

Now that A6S has been nerfed, there are more people than ever now attempting this fight. The good news is that it is not as mechanically complicated as the other fights in this tier. For DPS, it's mostly a dummy fight. Things will start getting complicated toward the end where raid awareness will be the key to success. Keep pushing through and you'll eventually manage to win.

It's important to know that the mechanics in this fight are not quite as set in stone as other fights. Phases 1, 3, and 6 each have two versions where certain mechanics may happen at different times. Fortunately for you, we have all versions of every phase mapped out. It's HIGHLY recommended to use the provided timeline and ACT Timeline plugin for this fight as it will take a lot of the memorization and guesswork out for you.

The boss gains a stack of damage up buff (High Wire) each time a player dies. If a True Heart touches its hitbox it gains 4 stacks. After 2 stacks, the fight is almost un-winnable. Enrage is about 12:30 minutes into the fight.

Note: Please understand that the strategy described here is aimed toward a DRK/WAR composition with 2 healers, 1 caster, 1 ranged, and 2 melee. You may have to make a few small changes in order to handle Uplander Doom and/or jails depending on your party composition.

Videos

ACT Triggers

Use these in addition to the callouts in the Timeline plugin.

A7S Custom Triggers: Forum Link

ACT Timeline Plugin

For more info about this plugin please see this thread: Forum Link

A7S Timeline (Full): Google Drive Link

You can customize it to your desire by removing hashtags where indicated.

Job-Specific Tips

Quick Fight Guide

Intro Phase

Stand in assigned positions to bait the hammers x2

Make sure only 1 person gets hit by Sizzlebeam

Go to assigned positions for Bombs x8

Make sure to heal the Sizzlebeam target after beam hits and after Bombs explode as the DoT may kill them.

Phase 1 (Jail Rotation 1)

The phase version is determined by who gets the first bomb.

1 Bomb will attach to a healer or melee DPS, telegraphing which jails are about to spawn.

If bomb was on healer, first jails will be Green Tether & White Prey jails (healer and tank jails).

If bomb was on melee, you'll have Purple Tether & Red Prey jails (melee and caster jails).

Players who go into jails are as follows: white = tank, green = healer, purple = melee, red = caster. This can be flexible a bit, but this is the way it was intended by the devs.

Try to get a regen on players going into jails (not necessary to regen a NIN though).

If red jail is up, person inside cannot move AT ALL until Padlock is broken. Players outside the jail need to kill the Padlock ASAP.

For green jail, player inside needs to stand on the hole emitting gas. The outline of the hole will glow when you're in the correct position standing on top of it.

When boss casts Zoomdoom (flies up in the air) don't be inside his hitbox or you'll get Max HP reduction debuff.

Kill the doll that spawns, but don't use cooldowns on it. If it's a big doll, stun it when it uses Kugelblitz.

Uplander Doom is the tank buster. It does a series of attacks (4 hits for phase 1). Each attack applies a stack of physical vulnerability. There are a couple ways to handle this: take 0 damage from a hit and don't get the vuln stack (either through Hallowed Ground or healer shields), do a tank swap beforehand and put stacks on OT then swap back, or do a tank swap after the attacks.

Phase 2 (Cats & Hearts)

Phase starts with Uplander Doom. Probably best to eat them and then tank swap so that your MT can be on the Heart to apply his Stun, expecially if you have a PLD.

Shanoa (the cat) will use Undying Affection which spawns a True Heart. Keep the boss away from the Heart. Kill the Heart. Recommend slowing it. Stun lock it 10s after it spawns.

There will be 2 True Hearts in this phase.

Also dodge the giant cannonballs. There are 2 this time.

A Sizzlebeam will go out here and it always targets player on #2 aggro.

The phase ends with Sizzlebeam and Sizzlespark, but the Spark can be skipped based on boss's HP so be ready to move back to the middle ASAP after Beam.

Phase 3 (Jail Rotation 2)

Mostly same as phase 1 but Jail combos are different.

Jail combinations will be either White Tether & Purple Prey or Red Tether & Green Prey.

When red jail is up in this phase, you'll need to disconnect from the big doll early to kill Padlock ASAP then return to the doll.

Phase 4 (Hammertime Dance-off)

Phase begins with Sizzlebeam. Previous phase just ended with two Sizzlesparks so Lightning Resistance x2 will be on. Make sure to shield the Beam target, and make sure they don't have Blood-for-blood on.

Bombs x8 comes out again. This is a good time to LB3.

Right after bombs, move the boss to a nearby corner platform. You'll be walking through spikes with the boss so you can either use a tank CDs, or have OT walk over to the corner first and tank swap. Hate can be fickle though so tank swap like that isn't recommended. If you have a PLD, you might prefer to wait until Uplander Doom starts and then HG and walk to the corner.

Flamethrower is gonna target one of the healers. The healers should stay in the middle platform until they see which one gets targeted.

Healer not targeted by Flamethrower should stack up with the group. Healer that was targeted should go to an adjacent corner platform.

The 7 players on the corner platform need to stack up on each other for hammers x4. You just have to stay stacked up and run around the platform in a circle. Note: It does not target MT with the AoE so MT does not have to stack.

After a brief pause for Sizzlespark, there will be another 4 Corporal Punishments. Do this the same as the first set.

A Sizzlespark will be cast halfway through the 2nd set of hammers. Make sure everyone gets a heal. AST can do this with Lightstpeed, or any healer could Swiftcast an AoE heal.

The healer that had Flamethrower needs to run through the spikes and rejoin the group stack at the same moment that the 3rd hammer goes down (so start running through spikes before then).

The phase ends with 3 Sizzlesparks, a Beam, and 2 more Sparks. This is just free DPS time.

Phase 5 (Cats & Hearts v2.0)

Phase starts with another Flamethrower. Make sure healers run back to the middle as soon as the spikes go down.

Shanoa (the cat) will use Undying Affection which spawns a True Heart. Keep the boss away from the Heart. Kill the Heart. Recommend slowing it. Stun lock it 10s after it spawns.

Right after the Heart spawns, Uplander Doom is used on MT.

After first Heart, there is a Sizzlebeam on a random DPS.

There will also be 2 True Hearts in this phase.

Also dodge the giant cannonballs. There are 3 this time.

Phase 6 (Jail Rotation 3)

This phase also has 2 versions. The version is determined by the first mechanic: either Bombs x2 or Sizzlebeam.

If first move is Bombs, they will go on a random healer and a random DPS. This will result in the first set of jails being Green Tether & Purple Prey.

If first move is Sizzlebeam, it will target #2 on aggro. This will result in first jails being White Prey & Red Tether.

2 dolls will spawn together this time. Either 2 small dolls or 1 small and 1 big doll. You may have to disconnect from them to kill a Padlock, but after that focus the dolls or they will wipe you if alive too long.

Enrage happens around 147 seconds after this phase begins.



Enemy Ability List

Quickthinx Allthoughts

Corporal Punishment: We call this Hammertime because it's more fun and everyone knows what you're talking about. It's a player-centered ground AoE (goes on random players except MT). Getting hit by it does not do damage, but will give you a stacking Bleeding debuff and zap TP and MP.

Sizzlebeam: Telegraphed by a purple overhead indicator on the targeted player. Shoots linear AoE from boss to the targeted player dealing medium damage and applying a lightning-based DoT Electrocution on all players hit. Usually targets any player but will sometimes only target OT. Electrocution DoT ticks are amplified if you have Blood For Blood on at the time of application, or if you stand in spikes in the arena. Even if you weren't standing in the spikes at the time of application, standing in them at any point while you have the DoT will increase the damage of the DoT ticks.

Sizzlespark: Arena-wide lightning-based AoE. Applies a stackable Lightning Resistance Down debuff to all players. In Savage mode, only ever gets up to 2 stacks.

Bombs: Will drop on top of targeted players and is tethered to them. Spawn position is locked in about 1s before spawning. Each bomb's tether has a maximum range of about 7 yalms and moving further than that will drag the bomb toward the tethered player. Bombs explode about 7s after spawning. Bomb explosion is a small AoE that applies Magic Vulnerability debuff to all players hit. Getting hit by a 2nd bomb with the Magic Vulnerability debuff will result in death.

Zoomdoom: The boss flies up into the air upon casting. Players inside (and slightly outside) of boss hitbox will take light damage (3-4k) and get a Suppuration debuff, lowering Max HP (damage applies after lowering max HP).

Uplander Doom: Regarded as the "tank buster" of the fight. Casts a series of 4-6 attacks (all called Uplander Doom) on the MT. The number of casts depends on the phase (4 in P1, 5 in P2 & P3, 6 in P4-6). It deals about 5k damage per hit unmitigated, and each hit applies a stacking Physical Vulnerability debuff so each subsequent hit deals more damage. Taking 0 damage from one of the hits will prevent it from applying one stack of the debuff.

Flashthoom: AoE Stun and small damage (about 2k) centered on the player marked with Prey debuff during jail phases.

Gobbie Grab: AoE pick up of all players centered around the player marked with Prey during jail phases. Does not deal damage.

Gobbie Lob: Throws all players picked up by Gobbie Grab into a jail. The specific jail thrown into depends on the fight rotation. Does not deal damage.

Flamethrower: Telegraphed by a red overhead indicator on the targeted healer. Shoots a linear AoE from boss to targeted player dealing medium damage (6-7k) to all players hit. Applies a Searing Wind debuff to all players hit. Searing Wind will tick every 3 seconds for a total of 7 ticks dealing very small damage (about 100 damage per tick). Each tick creates an "explosion" in a pretty wide AoE centered around the player with the debuff. Any players hit with the AoE will receive medium damage (about 7k), knockback, and Suppuration debuff.

Panzer Doll (small)

Panzerfaust: Basically just an enhanced autoattack that it uses every few seconds. About 4k per hit.

Self-Destruct: Occurs when doll hasn't been killed after about 35 seconds.

Sturm Doll (big)

Kugelblitz: Casted ability (can be stunned). Causes high arena-wide damage.

Self-Destruct: Occurs when doll hasn't been killed after about 20 seconds.

Shanoa (cat)

Undying Affection: Casted by Shanoa. Spawns True Heart at the cat's location.

True Heart

Sprint: Used by True Heart 10 seconds after being spawned.

Jails

I'll start with an explanation of what happens in each jail. Note: Mechanics in the jail are multiplied by the number of people placed inside, so you only want to put in 1 person into each jail.

Jail Intended Role Alt Roles Telegraphs Description Red Caster Healer P1: Melee gets Bomb.

P3: Healer gets Bomb.

P6: OT gets Sizzlebeam. Engine Oil spawns inside.

Engine Oil has a permanent physical damage resistance buff so must be killed by magic damage.

Engine Oil will use Digest about 25s after spawning. This gives it a sort of HP Regen.

Player inside is affected by Pyretic debuff upon entering.

Pyretic debuff will cause damage to the player upon any movement (including turning) or ability casting.

Padlock spawns on the outside of the jail. When Padlock dies, Pyretic debuff is removed from player.

Jail opens when either player inside dies or the Engine Oil dies.

If you plan on putting a healer in this, you probably don't want to do it in phase 3 because you'll have red and green jails up at the same time so both healers may be jailed at the same time. If you put a PLD in the green jail there then it's not a problem though. Purple Melee Tank,

Ranged P1: Melee gets Bomb.

P3: Ranged/Caster gets Bomb.

P6: After Bombs x2. Player inside is affected by Silence debuff upon entering.

Due to Silence, must be handled by a non-caster.

Boomtype Magitek Gobwalker G-VII spawns and immediately Self-Destructs.

Due to Self-Destruct, player inside cannot have Magic Vulnerability debuff from Bomb.

Alarum spawns and simply Auto-Attacks.

Player is also affected by Throttle debuff (lasts 20 seconds). Alarum must be killed before Throttle wears off or player instantly dies.

Jail opens when either player inside dies or the Alarum dies.

If you want to use a tank for purple jails, you probably don't want to do it in phase 3 because there's a white jail up at the same time, which means both tanks will end up in jails at the same time and the boss will kill everyone. White Tank P1: Healer gets Bomb.

P3: Ranged/Caster gets Bomb.

P6: OT gets Sizzlebeam. Player inside is affected by Frostbite debuff upon entering.

Frostbite does damage over time.

Lumbertype Magitek Vangob G-III spawns inside.

Lumbertype Magitek Vangob G-III uses Bomb Spread and Cermet Drill. Can only be survived with high HP and damage mitigation

Jail opens when either player inside dies or the Lumbertype Magitek Vangob G-III dies. Green Healer PLD P1: Healer gets Bomb.

P3: Healer gets Bomb.

P6: After Bombs x2. As soon as player enters, one of four random vents in the floor will emit poisonous gas called Concentrated Poison.

Concentrated Poison is a raid-wide debuff that does damage over time AND reduces healing.

If the player inside the jail stands on top of the vent emitting the gas, it will limit the debuff to only that player.

Because of the healing debuff, you don't want to heal yourself in the jail because it's kind of a waste. We recommend spamming Stoneskin instead, and this is also what makes PLD a viable alternative for green jails.

Boomtype Magitek Gobwalker G-VII spawns and immediately Self-Destructs.

Due to Self-Destruct, player inside cannot have Magic Vulnerability debuff from Bomb.

Jail opens when either player inside dies or after about 20 seconds.

If you choose to put a PLD in the jail, you shouldn't do it in phase 1 because you'll have white jail up at the same time which means both tanks will be in jails and the boss will run around killing everyone.

Fight Strategy

Intro Phase

0 --Start--

8 Hammertime x2

21 Sizzlebeam

31 Sizzlespark

35 Bombs x8

Starting Positions

You can start the fight however you like, but we assume certain positions to make our openers more effective while dealing with Hammertime. We start the pull with bringing the boss to the middle. We have our melees all stack up on the left side of the boss to start, and then rotate around the back of the boss to the right side when the AoEs go out. The timing on this allows our NIN to hit Trick Attack at the normal time in his opener. Simultaneously, the MT pulls the boss to the north more to give more space from the ground AoEs. You can see an example of this in Shasta's video (linked above).

Boss Positioning

Whenever you're in a "jail phase" AKA phases 1, 3, and 6, we always try to tank the boss on the edge of the center platform, not in the direct center. We know some groups like to tank in the center but this really feels like a waste of space and you'll have a higher change of passing Prey accidentally.

Sizzlebeam

The next mechanic is Sizzlebeam. Since the ranged and casters are still in the rear of the arena, make sure you call out the Sizzlebeam target when it goes out so that melee don't get rekt by it. You only want 1 person to get hit by Sizzlebeams.

If someone has Blood for Blood on when Sizzlebeam hits, the DoT will do increased damage to them. Also, if the player is standing on the spikes any time after the DoT is applied, it will increase the damage of the DoT ticks. That player should avoid going into the spikes or healers need to be prepared for fast heals on them.

Bombs x8

You want to try to get into positions (see diagram) before Bombs go out because it's more difficult to get them into good positions after it's tethered to you. The Bombs snapshot your position about 1s before they spawn and will drop on that position, but won't explode for another 7 seconds after that. You cannot be standing on spikes when they explode, and you cannot get hit by more than 1 bomb or you will die.

▼ Click to View Images ▼

Positions for Bombs x8 for the whole fight.



Positions for Bombs x8 for the whole fight.

Whoever got Sizzlebeam at the beginning will need heals as soon as Bombs explode because the DoT from Sizzlebeam might kill them.

Phase 1 (Jail Rotation 1)

::::::::::::: Version 1 :::::::::::::

0 Bomb x1

7 Jails (Green Tether & White Prey)

9 Zoomdoom

10 Big Doll

44 Sizzlespark

57 Uplander Doom

71 Bomb x1

78 Jails (Purple Tether & Red Prey)

80 Zoomdoom

81 Small Doll

119 Sizzlebeam

131 Sizzlespark



::::::::::::: Version 2 :::::::::::::

0 Bomb x1

7 Jails (Purple Tether & Red Prey)

9 Zoomdoom

10 Small Doll

38 Uplander Doom

50 Sizzlebeam

69 Bomb x1

76 Jails (Green Tether & White Prey)

78 Zoomdoom

79 Big Doll

114 Sizzlespark

126 Sizzlespark

Phase Versions

As mentioned before, Phase 1 has two different versions and you can tell which one it's going to be as soon as the Bomb spawns. The Bomb that comes out here will tether to one of the healers or one of the melee DPS.

Bomb on healer: Version 1 with Green (tether) and White (prey) jails.

Bomb on melee: Version 2 with Purple (tether) and Red (prey) jails.

Tether/Prey

As soon as the jails spawn, you'll see a tether coming from one of the jails. That means the other jail is linked to the player with Prey. This should make it easy to remember which jail is tether and which is prey. We recommend passing Prey in the center of the arena. Make sure players are slightly spread out when Jails spawn so you don't pass it unintentionally.

Zoomdoom

Melee and tanks need to back away from boss a little bit when he casts Zoomdoom because it will give you Suppuration debuff (Max HP Down). If you're supposed to get a purple or white jail, that debuff can mean the difference between life and death.

During Jails

It seems like a lot but each player really only needs to remember mechanics for one jail, and your goal is pretty straightforward when you're in there. Just remember, if you get hit by the single bomb, stay away from green and purple jails. The explosion radius of the Self-Destruct from green and purple jails extends a little bit onto the center platform so the player with Magic Vulnerability needs to be careful of explosions.

Healers:

You cannot heal someone after they go inside a jail, so it's highly recommended to regen players before the walls go up.

In addition, a SCH can place their fairy inside a jail before the walls go up to help heal that player. With the red jail, after you kill the Padlock, you can move your fairy in between the little crack in the corner.

Tanks/DPS who are not in a jail:

Make sure not to get stunned or picked up by the boss. Stay away from the player with Prey.

You will need to kill a Doll, either Panzer Doll or Sturm Doll.

The Sturm Doll will cast Kugelblitz which does a lot of damage so someone needs to be designated to stun it (preferably tank).

If there is a red jail up, you need to immediately kill the Padlock ASAP. The faster you kill Padlock, the more time the person inside has to kill the Engine Oil.

If you have aggro on a Doll, do not run onto the spikes. Spikes give you Vulnerability Up and the Doll's autoattacks might kill you. Tank should be getting aggro though.

Uplander Doom

This is the tank buster. It will hit 4 times in succession in this phase (in later phases it does 5-6 hits). Each hit applies Physical Vulnerability debuff. There are 3 ways to deal with this:

Let the MT keep it, take all the Uplander Doom hits, then tank swap. Let the other tank hold aggro until the debuff stacks fall off, and then tank swap back.

Tank swap before Uplander Doom so that the OT takes all the debuff stacks, then swap back.

Taking 0 damage from an Uplander Doom hit will cause it to not apply a vulnerability stack. You can achieve this by using tank defensive cooldowns + shields such as Adloquium. If you have a PLD, you can use Hallowed Ground.

If you use a PLD offtank to Cover the MT during Uplander Doom, then the PLD will take the damage along with the Physical Vulnerability stacks.

Phase Pushing

Phase 1 pushes when the boss gets to 74% HP. However, he will always do a Sizzlespark after Jails so if you got Version 1 of the phase then you won't have skipped any mechanics, but if you had Version 2 then you'll skip the 2nd Sizzlespark. Also, if you push the boss to 74% before the "telegraph" Bomb for the 2nd set of jails (at the 71 / 69 second mark) then you will skip the rest of the phase entirely.

Phase 2 (Cats & Hearts)

0 Uplander Doom

13 True Heart Spawns

25 True Heart Sprints

25 Sizzlespark

35 Flamethrower

43 True Heart Spawns

55 True Heart Sprints

55 Sizzlebeam

64 Sizzlespark

Uplander Doom

Does 5 hits this time. We let our DRK take all 5 hits and then the WAR provokes and takes the boss off the to side of the arena.

Boss Positioning

The giant balls and True Heart are coming out about this time. You want to move the boss to the edge to get it away from the True Heart and the side you go to should be determined by where the balls are. You want to move the boss along the edge of the arena to avoid the balls. This will let your DPS keep attacking the boss without worrying about getting hit by the Weight of the World. Also, never face the boss toward the middle of the arena until you're ready to go back to the center for next phase or else the tank might get hit by a Flamethrower.

True Heart

Shanoa (the cat) will use Undying Affection which spawns the True Heart on her location. She locks in here position as soon as the speech bubble pops up on her head that says "Meow". The True Heart does not have too much HP but you have a time limit for killing it. The True Heart will always move toward the boss, and if it gets to the boss he will consume it for 4 stacks of High Wire which guarantees a wipe. 10 seconds after spawning, the True Heart will use Sprint so you want to try to kill it in those 10s. If you use the Timeline plugin or an ACT trigger, you can have it call out when the 10s mark is about to hit. You want your OT to stun the Heart right at the 9-10 second mark to give your DPS another 5s to kill it. One of your DPS can follow that up with another stun for an extra 1s. Note: the Sprint will apply at 10s whether it's stunned or not, the stun just keeps it in place; the Sprint is not a casted ability that can be interrupted.

Flamethrower

One of the healers will be marked with a red overhead indicator. This healer needs to stand away from the party, we put them in the center of the arena because it's easy to remember. The boss will turn toward the targeted healer and use a linear AoE called Flamethrower. Anyone hit by this AoE will gain the debuff of Searing Wind (and the targeted healer will always get it). This debuff is similar to the one from the old Ifrit extreme fight. It will "explode" every 3s around the person with the debuff for a total of 7 explosions. Anybody else hit by the AoE explosion will take medium damage, knockback, and get Suppuration debuff so that healer needs to stay away from the group. They should be able to position themselves to heal while still not hitting anyone with the AoE.

True Heart + Sizzlebeam

A second True Heart will spawn and do exactly the same as the first one. The spawn position for the second heart might end up being a little far from the boss so keep an eye out for it. During this 2nd Heart, your OT will get targeted by a Sizzlebeam. However, you still want the OT to stay on the Heart to be able to stun it at the right time. You can do this by positioning the OT on one side of the heart and the melee DPS on the other side of the heart. It's not too difficult becuase you'll see a big purple indicator over your OT's head. You might run into a couple bad situations where a Weight of the World will roll over your OT right at the same time. In this kind of situation, just do the best you can. Your OT might have to stun early for example. This is why you always want to try to finish killing the True Heart within 10s because you never know when RNG might try to screw you over.

Phase Pushing

You might get another Sizzlespark here after the True Heart dies depending on the boss's HP. However, if the boss is low enough (64%) then the phase will push right after the 2nd True Heart dies. This means the spikes are going to go back up immediately and someone is going to get a Bomb dropped on them. Your MT needs to be prepared to move the boss back to the middle ASAP after that Sizzlebeam goes out on the OT. You don't want your MT still stuck on the spikes with Vulnerability Up taking autoattacks from the boss.

To recap, the phase will push at 64% but not while a True Heart is alive.

Phase 3 (Jail Rotation 2)

::::::::::::: Version 1 :::::::::::::

0 Bomb x1

6 Jails (Red Tether & Green Prey)

9 Zoomdoom

9 Big Doll

35 Uplander Doom

52 Sizzlespark

60 Sizzlespark

67 Bomb x1

75 Jails (White Tether & Purple Prey)

79 Zoomdoom

79 Small Dolls x2

117 Sizzlebeam



::::::::::::: Version 2 :::::::::::::

0 Bomb x1

8 Jails (White Tether & Purple Prey)

10 Zoomdoom

10 Small Dolls x2

49 Sizzlebeam

57 Sizzlespark

65 Sizzlespark

72 Bomb x1

79 Jails (Red Tether & Green Prey)

81 Zoomdoom

81 Big Doll

109 Uplander Doom



Phase Versions

As mentioned before, Phase 3 has two different versions and you can tell which one it's going to be as soon as the Bomb spawns. The Bomb that comes out here will tether to one of the healers or one of the ranged DPS/caster.

Bomb on healer: Version 1 with Red (tether) and Green (prey) jails.

Bomb on ranged DPS/caster: Version 2 with White (tether) and Purple (prey) jails.

Tether/Prey

Just like in phase 1, you'll see a tether coming from one jail and that means the other jail is Prey. Pass Prey in the center of the arena. Make sure you are far enough away from the boss when he flies off or you'll get Suppuration from Zoomdoom. Remember that the person hit with a Bomb CANNOT go into the jail. They also should not stand near green or purple jails.

Dolls

During the red/green jails you'll have just one big Sturm Doll. Remember to stun its Kugelblitz cast again.

During white/purple jails you'll have two small Panzer Dolls. Make sure you kill both of these dolls before they Self-Destruct. It shouldn't be too hard because you don't have to kill a Padlock while these small dolls are up (like you'll have to do in phase 6).

Uplander Doom

It'll hit 5 times this phase. Depending on the version of this phase that you get, Uplander Doom will either come in between jail sets or at the end of the phase. Handle it however you like. See the phase 1 for the explanation of possible options.

Phase 4 (Hammertime Dance-off)

0 Sizzlespark

8 Sizzlespark

21 Sizzlebeam

25 Bombs x8

54 Sizzlespark

62 Sizzlespark

69 Uplander Doom

87 Flamethrower

93 Hammertime x4

104 Sizzlespark

107 Hammertime x4

114 Sizzlespark

120 Sizzlespark

126 Sizzlespark

142 Sizzlebeam

150 Sizzlespark

156 Sizzlespark

Double Sizzlespark / Sizzlebeam

Starting off the phase, Sizzlespark will happen twice in a row, applying 2 stacks of Lightning Resist Down. The following Sizzlebeam will hit a random DPS very hard. This is the only time in the fight that this is guaranteed to have a Sizzlebeam with 2 Lightning Resistance Down stack (can also happen in phase 6 depending on phase version but always targets a tank there). Treat this like a tank buster on your targeted DPS. Use some combinations of Adloquium, Sacred Soil, Fey Covenent, Virus and even Deployment Tactics Adloquium / Succor with extra aetherflow stacks for Lustrate. DPS, try NOT to use Blood for Blood here or at least click it off if you get targeted or you are almost certainly going to die to the Beam DoT + Bomb.

This only applies to the first set of Sparks x2 + Beam. After the Hammers are all done, you can see you'll have more Sizzlesparks and a Sizzlebeam, but this does not apply to that set. There is enough time there that the Lightning Resistance debuff will fall off before the Beam hits.

Bombs x8

Once Sizzlebeam goes out there will be an 8 Bomb spread. We positioned our healers to have range on the DPS suffering from the sizzlebeam DoT for extra healing but otherwise handle this just like the first one in phase 1. This is also a great time to use melee LB3. Remember that you can LB3 from much further than melee range, so you can back up to your Bomb bait position and then LB there. This will minimize the DPS loss.

Sizzlespark x2

After bombs our MT immediately drags the boss to the NW corner. He uses Living Dead since he risks dying to autoattacks with Vulnerability Up from the spikes. This gives our DPS extended time to pop all their CDs and DPS the boss. Potions should be just coming off CD here as well. Heal through AoE damage.

6 Stack Uplander Doom / Flamethrower

OT provokes to take 6 stack Uplander Doom and healers move to North side of the center platform for Flamethrower. Targeted healer will move to NE platform.

Hammertime x4 / Sizzlespark x3

Everyone stacks on the DPS except the MT (see diagram below for positioning) then moves in a circle clockwise around the platform as Hammers drop. You could go counterclockwise too, but we think clockwise is easier. Remember to stop momentarily in each corner for the next AoE to drop on the ground, keep them stacked up. After the first 4 Hammers, remain stacked because another 4 are coming after a Sizzlespark. During the 5th-8th Hammer, a Sizzlespark happens as people are moving clockwise. The healer on the other platform should watch their Searing Wind debuff timer and Sprint back to the group immediately after the Sizzlespark damage goes out being careful not to drop their hammer circle on the group if they are targeted. The healer will need to be stacked with the group to help top off the raid for the second and third Sizzlespark during this mechanic set.

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Go to a pre-determined corner and place the party, tank, and boss as indicated.



Go to a pre-determined corner and place the party, tank, and boss as indicated.

Sizzlebeam

The DPS targeted with Sizzlebeam should move against the wall. Sizzlespark stacks will be gone so heavy mitigation is not needed.

Sizzlespark x2

Two more Sizzlesparks then you will have pushed into the next phase.

Phase 5 (Cats & Hearts v2.0)

0 Flamethrower

7 True Heart Spawns

11 Uplander Doom

19 True Heart Sprints

25 Sizzlebeam

34 Flamethrower

37 True Heart Spawns

47 Sizzlespark

49 True Heart Sprints

55 Sizzlespark

63 Sizzlespark

Flamethrower

To deal with this Flamethrower the targeted healer moves to the center platform and starts dodging those annoying balls away from the raid while healing himself. If you are Scholar, make sure you move your fairy closer to the center or she will disappear due to range.

Uplander Doom

This one gives your tank 6 stacks so we chose to have our OT take the boss then the MT take it back after 6 stacks are applied. We rotate the boss clockwise around the edge of the arena dodging balls and dealing with the True Heart.

Sizzlebeam

Targets a random DPS. If your tank is moving the boss along the edge of the arena like we do, he should be leaving a bit of space between the boss and the wall. The targeted DPS can then bait the Beam toward the wall with no risk of hitting anyone else.

Your second healer (the one without Searing Wind) should have time to move back into the group and Succor before Sizzlebeam.

A third ball spawns and everyone needs to just dodge all those little shits. Your MT can move the boss to positions that will make it safer for DPS to dodge balls while DPSing.

Flamethrower/True Heart/3x Sizzlesparks

There is another, final Flamethrower here. The targeted healer moves back to the center and focuses on healing himself, allowing the other healer to deal with the first 2 of the 3 Sizzlesparks by AoE healing.

Kill the True Heart. This one may spawn closer to the center of the arena, so your healer with Searing Wind needs to back away from it so melee DPS don't get hit by Searing Wind while killing the Heart.

After Searing Wind falls off, that healer can stack back with the group and help top off HP for the third Sizzlespark which will hit really hard. I suggest dropping Sacred Soil and screaming loudly at everyone to get underneath it while praying balls don't roll right over everyone. We also Virus this AoE damage set.

Phase 6 (Jail Rotation 3)

::::::::::::: Version 1 :::::::::::::

0 Bombs x2

7 Jails (Green Tether & Purple Prey)

9 Small Doll

10 Zoomdoom

18 Big Doll

36 Uplander Doom

55 Sizzlespark

66 Sizzlebeam

70 Jails (Red Tether & White Prey)

72 Zoomdoom

72 Small Dolls x2

100 Sizzlespark

107 Sizzlebeam

115 Sizzlespark

122 Sizzlespark

129 Sizzlespark

148 Enrage



::::::::::::: Version 2 :::::::::::::

0 Sizzlebeam

4 Jails (Red Tether & White Prey)

6 Zoomdoom

7 Small Dolls x2

34 Sizzlespark

42 Sizzlebeam

50 Sizzlespark

57 Sizzlespark

64 Sizzlespark

69 Bombs x2

75 Jails (Green Tether & Purple Prey)

77 Zoomdoom

77 Small Doll

86 Big Doll

104 Uplander Doom

121 Sizzlespark

128 Sizzlespark

147 Enrage

Phase Versions

Just like phases 1 and 3, phase 6 has two different versions and you can tell which one it's going to be as soon as the first mechanic goes off. This time it'll either be Bomb x2 or a Sizzlebeam on OT.

Bombs x2 on healer and melee: Version 1 starting with Green tether & Purple prey.

Sizzlebeam on OT: Version 2 starting with Red tether & White prey.

Hard Sizzlebeam

If this phase starts with Sizzlebeam on the OT, it'll be hitting him when he has 2 stacks of the Lightning Resistance Down debuff. The tanks also might be tank swapping here, which means that even though he was OT when he got the Beam, he'll then be the MT and tanking the boss too. This will mean you need LOTS of heals on this guy. However, if the phase starts with Bomb x2 then you won't run into this problem later.

Tether/Prey

Just like in phase 1, you'll see a tether coming from one jail and that means the other jail is Prey. Pass Prey in the center of the arena. Make sure you are far enough away from the boss when he flies off or you'll get Suppuration from Zoomdoom. Remember that the person hit with a Bomb CANNOT go into the jail. They also should not stand near green or purple jails.

Dolls

During the green/purple jails you'll have one big Sturm Doll and one small Panzer Doll. Remember to stun its Kugelblitz cast. You shouldn't have any problem killing these two dolls in time.

During red/white jails you'll have two small Panzer Dolls. Make sure you kill both of these dolls before they Self-Destruct. This is the only difficult set of dolls to handle because you will have to kill a Padlock here too. Put up a DoT or two on the doll and then kill the Padlock, and then get back on the doll. USE COOLDOWNS HERE. If you don't kill the Panzer dolls in time, you will wipe and you just wasted a shit ton of time on that attempt.

Uplander Doom

It'll hit 6 times this phase. Depending on the version of this phase that you get, Uplander Doom will either come in between jail sets or at the end of the fight. Handle it however you like. See the phase 1 for the explanation of possible options.

Phase Pushing

If you pushed earlier phases, but then slowed down on DPS for some reason (maybe some deaths or...idk, afk or disconnect) then you might see more mechanics in this phase. The fight always enrages around 12:30 mins so you'll only see it if you go past this time AND had some significant phase pushes earlier in the fight. These additional mechanics include another Sizzlespark, Sizzlebeam, and Bombs x8. There may be more, but 99% of players (maybe more) will never see this, so don't worry about it much.

TL;DR

Voluntarily go to prison, fight your way out.

Get electrocuted A LOT.

Take laser shots like a man.

Pretend like you're Bomberman / Link.

Kill the heart of a cat repeatedly (strangely only has 4 lives instead of 9...or maybe we'll see Shanoa again next tier).

Hammertime on a dime.

Don't touch balls...

AND THAT'S IT! I know it sounds like a lot, but most of the difficulty of the fight is in its RNG. However, if you use ACT triggers and the Timeline plugin, you can predict quite a lot of it and minimize the RNG down to just the Weight of the Worlds. Knowing the telegraphs for jails is a huge benefit too. Make sure you understand the patterns for these telegraphs.

You guys can do it. This fight is 40% memorization of the strat, 40% persistence, and 20% communication (dealing with RNG). Don't break down and start making each other feel bad. Placing blame is alright, as long as you're also giving tips and advice for improvement. Don't destroy your teamwork over this fight, it's not worth it; you can destroy the group during A8S progression, we'll all understand lol.

Job-Specific Tips

NIN Tips by Shasta Kota

Tell your team to change their pulling strat so you can get Trick Attack in at a normal time. I also had to modify my opener slightly to achieve this because double weaving IR & Kassatsu and throwing up a potion sometimes made it impossible to get TA in time. You might not have that problem, idk.

Memorize the exact places where you will get the Bomb x8 mechanic in phase 1 so you can pre-position yourself to have it drop in the correct spot so you don't have to waste time running around to move it to the right spot.

Depending on your gear, you may need to save cooldowns for purple jails (or make your BRD, MCH, and/or WAR handle purple jails). You only need 2 good CDs like B4B and DWaD. Don't save any more than that or it's just overkill.

If you go into a purple jail, immediately start with Shade Shift and Keen Flurry because you'll have a second before the Alarum spawns. This will allow you to keep up Blood for Blood even and not die even with Suppuration debuff. You don't want to get too low on HP because you might get targeted with Sizzlebeam right afterward and if your healers are slow or out of range then you might die.

In the purple jail, remember to start with Dancing Edge before using any oGCDs. Keep using DE instead of AE or AC unless you need to AC to refresh Huton duration. DE does the most out of the 3 when attacking from the front.

Always Shukuchi back to the boss after jail, especially if you're targeted with Sizzlebeam to ensure that you're in range for heals. If you do have Sizzlebeam make sure you're not using Shukuchi in a position where another teammate will get hit by it.

In phase 3, start on Sturm Doll with a Mutilate because you'll need to leave the Doll to kill the Padlock. Same with Panzer Doll in phase 6.

At the end of phase 3, wait until bombs are about to come out. Pre-position yourself to be in the correct spot for the Bomb to drop on you and start using LB3. This will minimize your DPS loss there.

Save your potion until after LB3 when you're in the corner before the merry-go-round bullshit. You should have all your CDs up around then, and your MCH/BRD should be doing their thing too.

Always use B4B at least 20s before a Sizzlebeam or after a Sizzlebeam; you do not want it to be up and get hit by the Beam. The first Beam during the "Intro" at the beginning of the fight is an exception. Just tell your healers to git gud and don't let you die there.

Use Kiss of the Viper for this fight because you shouldn't need to be doing any stunning. If use Kiss of the Wasp, make sure not to stun any True Hearts because you'll ruin the timing due to the diminishing returns effect. Any 2nd stuns that may be required after your tank's stun should be done by another melee DPS. MNK's stun is 4s long, and DRG's is 3s, both longer than your 2s stun (and all will be halved due to DR).

Make sure to keep Goad up on your melees. You'll need to figure out when they prefer to get it, but it seems they'll always want one Goad during phase 4. Some will also want one during phase 2-3 and 6.

Don't blow cooldowns on the dolls in phase 1 because even if you kill them faster, you'll be left with nothing else to attack until the boss returns from dropping someone in a jail so save the extra DPS for the boss.

If your tanks do a tank swap for Uplander Doom, remember to throw up DE because your WAR might not be able to keep it up due to aggro issues. You'll also need to put it up in the times where white jails are up (if your WAR goes in those).

During the phase 4 Hammertime, keep track of the way the boss is facing so you still get positional bonuses. You may have to just spam DE or AC a lot, but he will stop rotating when he casts Sizzlesparks so be aware of that.

SCH Tips by Viva Diva

Managing jails:

You can place your fairy inside jails with people before they lock. I only needed to do this for the red jail. The green jail give a healing received down debuff to the person inside so I kept my fairy placed in the center in hopes she wouldn't follow me. However, because this game is inconsistent in its own rules she always got brought in with my Prey jails but never the tether.



The person inside jails can receive AoE heals but don't be shit and stack next to a tower on the spikes as the add inside blows up (because the healer outside the jail will have the Magic Vulnerability debuff). Don't go stand on the closest part of the inner platform to the jail either for the same reason. Especially don't do this when both the other healer and summoner are in jails and a tank buster is coming.

Merry-go-round:

I called for E4E on the MT just before Flamethrower since your other healer will be solo healing a bit. I also dropped WD as Flamethrower went out since it lined up pretty well with the next phase of the fight. Start running back with two seconds on your debuff as first Sizzlespark finishes. To pad your healing make sure you misplace your AoE so you give people the bleed (lols don't really do that).



I know you're panicking here but do not blow your load in CDs. I use Virus but I'll save the rest of them.

For the heart phase I start popping all my fairy CDs to prep for the three stack Sizzlespark. Sacred Soil is suggested for the third AoE. I Virus during the first cast, or have my Summoner do it if I'm not in range. Both healers should be able to help heal through the third AoE if they are paying attention to the debuff timer.

The final jail set my Summoner needs my fairy in the red jail with him. There is a Sizzlespark when he's inside and she makes things a lot more comfortable as far as him not dying to it.

AST Tip by Koomi Ishi

The timing on the prey/tether allows you to get fresh regens up on both players if you aren't targeted. You regen the tether target right as the boss stuns the prey, then regen the prey target. This is really useful for your sch going into healer jail and the tank jail.

PLD Tips by Sir Taint

Note: This player is not in DnT, and this does not directly relate to the strategy laid out in this guide since the guide is aimed toward a DRK/WAR composition.

We only tank swap once and that is to position him for merry go round. It really simplified the learning curve for my group. PLD/WAR comp.

Uplander Doom CD order is:

HG, no stacks Sent+Awareness the 2nd, then Rampart Shield oath + minors, Stacks aren't a big deal since he spends the next part casting sizzlebeam and sparks. WAR takes uplander while I get in position for merry-go-round. use HG again (2nd cat phase) Sent+Awareness once stacks are on pop everything else.

You can see CD and oath usage on FFlogs: http://www.fflogs.com/rankings/character/70686/latest/#boss=28

Loot

There are 2 chests if no one in the group has cleared for the week. They contain either a head, hands, legs, or feet piece. Every player will also get a Midan Manifesto - Page 3 (limit 1 per player per week). The Manifesto can be used to purchase additional gear or other items that you can normally get from chests in this fight. The chests will also contain one Illuminati Deep Gobdip to upgrade an ilvl 230 Lore weapon to ilvl 240 and one Illuminati Taut Gobtwine to upgrade a Lore left-side gear to ilvl 240 (except waist/weapon).

NOTE: You may notice some Head, Hands, and Feet pieces missing here. That's because they drop in A6S. Thanks, Reddit, for the crowdsourcing.

Head

Hands

Legs

Feet