Alexander - Burden of the Son (Savage) - A8S / M4S

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

General

"You have delved into the deepest parts of Midas, and its power source lies but a short distance ahead. For the sake of Idyllshire, and Roundrox, you must disable the core before Alexander awakes to wreak havoc on the realm. Your allies stand at the ready-steel yourself to break through the Illuminati's last line of defense."

Minimum required average item level is 205.

This is, by far, the most difficult fight in the game at its time of release. The number of mechanics is greater than any other. The harshness of punishment for mistakes rivals the Arm of the Son. This will take more coordination than you've ever used before, and fighting amongst yourselves will doom you to failure. Be persistent and help each other and you will eventually make it through. As I said, the quantity of mechanics is very high, and a lot of the difficulty in this fight is simply learning what you need to do for each one. There are a lot, so remembering them will take practice.

Videos

ACT Triggers

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

A8S Custom Triggers: Forum Link

ACT Timeline Plugin

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

A8S Timeline: Google Drive Link

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

Accuracy Caps

Physical Frontal = 702-705

Caster = 593-594

Job-Specific Tips

Quick Fight Guide

Phase 1 (Onslaughter)

Total of 4 Megabeams in this phase. He turns to face a random person. Just move aside from where it's facing.

For Perpetual Ray, either tank swap after the first hit, or use Holmgang/Hallowed Ground/Living Dead to eat them.

4 Steam Regulators spawn. Put a DPS in each one. Have about 18s to deal 25300 damage (about of 1400 DPS).

When he does Legislation, the 4 DPS will get debuffs marked with a number 1, 2, 3, or 4. Each player gets a different number of 1-4. Taking any damage will lower the count by 1. You can take damage by either getting hit by a Hydrothermal Missile or running into the tethered balls. Don't get hit by the ball tethered to yourself. All four debuffs must be cleared before phase change. If any player with a debuff dies, it wipes everyone.

Recommend stacking the DPS and tanks and eating the 1st and 3rd Hydrothermal Missile after Legislation goes out. It makes this mechanic significantly easier.

Phase ends when Onslaughter dies and either before 90s or after 107s (phase will not end if you get Onslaughter to 0 HP between 90s and 107s until he finishes 3rd Hydrothermal).

Phase 2 (Robots)

Kill order: kill Blaster -> Brawler to 50% -> Swindler and Vortexer to about 55% -> Kill Brawler -> Push Swindler and Vortexer past 50% (about 5s apart) -> Kill Swindler and Vortexer (less than 5s apart)

Kill Blaster within 45s or you wipe. You need to Silence his Mind Blast when he's around 55% HP

Blaster also spawns a Mirage around 55% that does autoattack and Brute Force. Mirage has to be moved away from Blaster or they go Invulnerable. Mirage disappears when Blaster dies.

Do mechanics from Brawler. They're the same Attachments as A6S, but he won't use Single Drill until he's below 50% HP.

Get Brawler to 50% HP. When it hits 50% it gains a very potent damage resistance buff so stop attacking and switch to Swindler/Vortexer.

During this time, get Swindler and Vortexer to about 55-60% HP but don't push below 50%. There will be 2 Gamma orbs and 2 Beta orbs that slowly move toward Brawler in the center. Handle these like in A6S with one of the tanks popping the two Gamma orbs.

Once all the Gamma and Beta orbs are gone, Brawler takes normal damage again so finish him off.

After Brawler dies, push Swindler below 50% and you'll immediately get hit by Bio-Arithmeticks.

About 5-10s after pushing Swindler, push Vortexer too. You'll immediately get Super Cyclone.

DPS both robots down at the same time with 2 DPS on each. You'll need to put 4 players by each robot to handle Enumeration. Both Swindler and Vortexer must die within 5s of each other or you die because they cast Self-Destruct just like the Oppressors in A1S

Phase 3 (Brute Justice - Round 1)

Have your MT face the boss North. Stack everyone else on the back right where the flank meets rear.

OT needs to split damage from Double Rocket Punch on the MT, but then OT stacks back with everyone else.

When AoE puddles go out, two people will be targeted by Prey. Prey targets need to move away from the group as they dodge the puddles. People without Prey will go from back right of boss to the back of the boss, and then stack on left flank (MT moves into left flank stack too).

About a second after the stacking damage goes out, Brute Justice locks in a Mega Beam direction. The entire North half of the arena above the boss should be safe from Mega Beam. Any Prey targets that can't go North need to be careful and try to dodge Mega Beam while also moving a bit closer to the boss.

During Mega Beam, OT should move as far northwest as possible to bait Super Jump. Once OT has been picked for the Super Jump and it begins casting, OT can move back in a little closer to Brute Justice so that he doesn't jump too far. Careful not to hit anyone else with the Super Jump AoE.

Everyone needs to be very close to boss at this point because he will target a random person and use Apocalyptic Ray, so you must move to his flanks or rear after he faces someone.

Reposition and repeat phase.

Phase 4 (Intermission 1)

Drop Mirages on West wall. Players with no indicator stay directly West and targeted players spread along the wall.

Move to nearest intersection of 4 squares by cardinal West position to stack for Double Buster.

While stacking for Double Buster, look for Chakram positions around the edge of the arena and prepare to dodge. Chakrams always spawn on ONLY two adjacent sides.

As soon as Double Buster goes off, Megabeam position is locked. Move immediately to safe areas to avoid Chakrams.

Move to designated position to drop Ice Missile. Get to your position before height. It's ok to Sprint here even for melee. Our designated poisitions are: OT SW, MCH NW, SMN N, AST NE, SCH E, NIN E-SE, DRG S-SE, MT S. A healer can also go to direct W position if preferred. Stand on a crack between platforms so you can do minor adjustment for Height. Dodge Fire/Ice puddles by moving toward center, not toward a corner.

MT should bait Single Beam South or Southwest.

Stack up for heals before Brute Justice respawns in the middle.

Phase 5 (Brute Justice - Round 2)

Exactly the same as Phase 3, but continues repeating until he hits 0 HP.

Phase 6 (Intermission 2)

Stack up for heals on west wall. Stay stacked while MT and NIN or OT handle Double Drill. NIN is good for this role because they can stack longer to get a Deployment Tactics Adloquium and then Shukuchi out to still make it to position in time for drill. They can also Second Wind and Shade Shift to avoid dying from the Mirages while requiring no additional healing.

MT gets both Hidden Mines immediately after Double Drill, starting with Mine closest to the party on West.

Look for Chakram locations.

Everyone spread out slightly to drop Mirages (tethered Mirages). Recommend dropping these in the path of Chakrams. Should be put around the edges of the arena, preferably south.

Single Drill goes out, which is why players should be mostly on the south half of the arena.

Dodge Megabeam while facing the correct position if tethered by Mirage.

Stack up on the east side of the boss to line of sight the Vortexer that spawns West while also stacking for Enumeration (as much stacking as may be required). Use Onslaughter's legs to break line of sight from Vortexer.

Recommend using tank LB3 for this phase for the sake of progression. Melee LB3 is not necessary to meet the DPS check for the fight if your DPS are good. Note: we had all 240 weapons for this fight on our first clear.

Phase 7 (Winged Justice/Gavel)

Justice assigns debuffs to different players. Each debuff has a corresponding task that must be completed by the time Gavel is cast. Additionally, some players will also be required to take damage to remove a second debuff (just like in phase 1).

Tank with Max HP debuff must have highest HP in the party when Gavel is casted. Also must clear 4 Final Punishment stacks, so get autoattacked by boss at least 4 times.

Tank with Min HP debuff must have lowest HP in the party when Gavel is casted. Also must clear 4 Final Punishment stacks, so get autoattacked by boss at least 3 times. Take the NE tornado just before Gavel.

Healer with Penalty I debuff (blue) must take SE ball and then share NW and NE balls with DPS.

Healer with Penalty II debuff (green) must get hit by NW tornado.

DPS with blue Nisi debuff must kill blue Steam Regulator. After killing Regulator, go north and take nearest ball with Penalty 1 healer.

DPS with red Nisi debuff must kill red Steam Regulator. After killing Regulator, go north and take nearest ball with Penalty 1 healer.

DPS with Penalty III debuff (red) must take one of the south tornados, then wait until after Gavel to share the SW ball with other Penalty III DPS.

Phase 8 (Final Justice)

Final Punch, MT uses Hallowed Ground or Living Dead.

Final Apocalypse, MT should still have HG or LD active and eat this.

Final Beam, MT should still have HG or LD active and eat this.

Long Needle happens again, similar to phase 3 and 5 except this time there is only 1 AoE puddle, so you can stack in the direct back of the boss.

A Hidden Mine will spawn just before Long Needle AoEs. Rotate either left or right to dodge your ground puddle AoEs, whichever direction is away from the Mine. The two players with Prey need to go backward in different directions.

As soon as Long Needle is over, the player with Compressed Water debuff will sacrifice themselves on the Hidden Mine.

As soon as Long Needle is over, Chakrams spawn again. This time, MT will move the boss to a safe spot and everyone needs to get close to the boss, but not inside his hitbox.

One of the tanks will get Enumeration. Both tanks will always go in it, and then put in 0, 1, or 2 healers as required.

Immediately following Enumeration, OT needs to run away from the boss to bait Super Jump.

MT will solo tank Final Punch, Final Apocalypse, and Final Beam again, just using heavy CDs this time.

Phase 9 (J Storm + J Wave)

Be sure to have damage mitigation up when he jumps. J Storm does a lot of damage. If you are using our sac strat then players may need VIT melds to survive this with Weakness (especially casters).

J Wave happens every 5 seconds so you should be able to get off 2 abilities per healer between Waves.

Melee DPS need to alternate Mantra usage.

Mainly, just finish killing Final Justice. Remember to LB again and use potions here. You should get at least LB2, maybe LB3.



Enemy Ability List

Onslaughter

Discharge: Autoattack. Single target on player with highest aggro. Physical

Mega Beam: Linear AoE from boss to randomly-targeted player. Deals significant damage and small knockback if not avoided. Darkness

Hydrothermal Missile: Small AoE on player with highest aggro. Magical (Fire)

Execution: Spawns 2 Steam Regulator A and 2 Steam Regulator B. Also inflicts four players (DPS by default) with either Nisi A or Nisi B debuffs.

Perpetual Ray: Series of 4 single target attacks. The first hit applies Vulnerability Up debuff. Tank swap mechanic. Magical (Unaspected)

Legislation: Applies Final Punishment stacks to four players (DPS by default). Each player with the debuff will receive a different amount of stacks of either 1, 2, 3, or 4. One stack of Final Punishment is removed each time the player receives damage from any source.

Discoid: Spawns 5 Steam Gaskets. They spawn in 5 of 8 possible locations and each will tether to one of the 4 DPS or 1 healer.

Seed of the Sky: Five random players will have a ground-targeted AoE centered on them. Deals high damage to any players hit. Darkness

100-Megatonze Shock: Arena-wide AoE damage that deals less damage if further from the pulsing AoE indicator. Physical

Steam Regulator A & Steam Regulator B

Retribution: If a Steam Regulator is not killed within 18 seconds, they will use Retribution and deal massive damage (about 85k). Darkness

Steam Gasket

Explosion: Any player who comes in contact with a Steam Gasket will cause it to cast Explosion which places an AoE puddle on the ground. The puddle will explode after 1s to deal damage to everyone in the puddle. Explosion damage is amplified if multiple players receive damage from it. Damage deals significantly more damage to a player if they were tethered to the Gasket that placed the Explosion puddle. Darkness

Blaster

Attack: Autoattack. Physical

Brute Force: Medium damage single-target attack on player with highest aggro. Unlike in A6S, this does not apply any vulnerability debuff. Physical

Brawler

Attack: Autoattack. Magical (Unaspected)

Magicked Mark: Medium damage single-target attack on player with highest aggro. Unlike in A6S, this does not any vulnerability debuff. Magical (Unaspected)

Attachment: Telegraphs the use of one of four abilities (Single Buster, Double Buster, Rocket Drill, Drill Drive). Single Buster: Telegraphed by a single non-glowing hand. Linear AoE attack on player with highest aggro. Damage cannot be split between players. Magical (Unaspected) Double Buster: Telegraphed by two non-glowing hands. Linear AoE attack on player with highest aggro. Damage can be split between players. Magical (Unaspected) Rocket Drill (Single Drill): Telegraphed by a single glowing hand. Single target attack on random player. Deals less damage at further range from boss. Physical Drill Drive (Double Drill): Telegraphed by two glowing hands. Targets closest and furthest players from boss. Two AoEs hit centered on the two selected players dealing high damage. Other players hit by the AoE will take damage and receive stun status for 10 seconds. Magical (Earth)

Auxilliary Power: Green AoE cenetered on Swindler. Does not deal any damage. Casted periodically and gives a Damage Up stack and a Rehabilitation buff to nearby robots.

Swindler

Attack: Autoattack. Magical (Unaspected)

Magicked Mark: Medium damage single-target attack on player with highest aggro. Unlike in A6S, this does not apply any vulnerability debuff. Magical (Unaspected)

Enumeration: In phase 2, will target 1 random tank. In phase 6 will target 1 random tank and 1 random healer. Allows 5 seconds to stack in the amount of people equal to the number of revolving orbs (2-4). Having less or more than the required amount of players in the ring will deal significant damage to players in the ring (about 38k). Darkness

Height: Players with Low Arithmeticks must be on a high (red) platform when Height is cast. Players with High Arithmeticks must be on a low platform when Height is cast. Being on the wrong platform will trigger the player to be hit with Height Error.

Height Error: Deals 99,990 damage to the player who triggered Height Error. Deals 9,500 arena-wide damage to all players. Applies stacking Damage Down debuff to all players who survive the damage. Physical

Bio-Arithmeticks: Arena-wide AoE damage. Darkness

Auxilliary Power: Green AoE cenetered on Swindler. Does not deal any damage. Casted periodically and gives a Damage Up stack and a Rehabilitation buff to nearby robots.

Allied Arithmeticks: Increases defense when allies are on the field. Unlike in A6S, this defense buff cannot be broken by moving enemies further apart.

Vortexer

Attack: Autoattack. Physical

Brute Force: Medium damage single-target attack on player with highest aggro. Unlike in A6S, this does not apply any vulnerability debuff. Physical

Super Cyclone: Deals medium damage in arena-wide AoE. Inflicts large knockback to all players from the boss's position. Magical (Wind)

Ballistic Missile: Targets four random players and places an AoE puddle. Walking through the puddle will apply Sludge debuff. Physical

Elemental Jammer: Applies a 20s debuff called Compressed Lightning on a random DPS. When the person with Compressed Lightning has their debuff timer hit 0s, the player is hit with an attack called Crashing Thunder.

Crashing Thunder: AoE attack centered on the player who had the Compressed Lightning debuff. Damage is increased for each additional player hit by the AoE. Another player hit by Crashing Thunder will then get the Compressed Lightning debuff. After the debuff is passed to another player, the previous one gets a Lightning Resistance Down debuff. Magical (Lightning)

Punishing Thunder: Deals very high arena-wide damage when the player who has Compressed Lightning dies or if the debuff is not passed onto another player. Magical (Lightning)

Ice Missile: Randomly targets four players. Deals medium damage in AoE centered on the target. Leaves behind a ground AoE that will inflict Frostbite debuff and Heavy debuff if stepped in. The AoEs will grow in size twice. Magical (Ice)

Ultra Flash: Deals massive damage in arena-wide AoE. Damage can be avoided by breaking line-of-sight from Vortexer. Physical

Blaster Mirage (Phase 4)

Attack: Autoattack. Only used in phase 2. Physical

Brute Force: Medium damage single-target attack on player with highest aggro. Unlike in A6S, this does not apply any vulnerability debuff. Only used in phase 2. Physical

Supercharge: Blaster Mirage locks onto the position of a random party member and charges across the arena in their direction. Getting hit by Supercharge will apply Damage Down debuff and high damage. Only used in phase 4. Physical

Mirage: Four random players are marked with an overhead indicator. A Blaster Mirage spawns at the location of each marked player. When a Blaster Mirage sapwns, it lands on top of the player dealing damage called Mirage in a small AoE centered on the targeted player. Only used in phases 4 & 6. Physical

Blinder: If player faces toward the Blaster Mirage tethered to them when it has its arms up, Blinder will deal medium damage to them and apply Damage Down debuff. If the player was facing away, it does not deal damage nor apply any debuff. Only used in phase 6. Darkness

Power Tackle: If player faces away from the Blaster Mirage tethered to them when it is crouching, Power Tackle will deal medium damage to them and apply Damage Down debuff. If the player was facing toward, it does not deal damage nor apply any debuff. Only used in phase 6. Physical

Power Plasma Gamma

Power Plasma: Deals damage in an AoE centered on the position of the Power Plasma Gamma. Triggered when a player comes into contact with a Power Plasma Gamma or when the Power Plasma Gamma comes into contact with Brawler. If it is triggered by Brawler, it will deal massive arena-wide damage. Magical (Unaspected)

Power Plasma Beta

Ultra Power Plasma: Deals arena-wide AoE damage. Triggered when Power Plasma Beta makes contact with Brawler. Magical (Unaspected)

Brute Justice

Attack: Autoattack. Physical

Transform: Deals arena-wide AoE damage and knocks back all players from center of the arena. Darkness

Double Rocket Punch: Very high damage that can be split between two players. Being killed by this attack will give Brute Justice a stack of Damage Up buff. Physical

Flarethrower: Wide front conal AoE. Magical (Fire)

Missile Command: Fires Short Needles, which is arena-wide AoE. Applies 2 hits over 10 seconds in phases 3 and 5. Applies 7 hits over 14 seconds in phase 8. Magical (Unaspected)

Long Needle: Several versions of Long Needle, all of which will deal damage. Magical (Unaspected) Ground-Targeted Long Needle: Four random players will have ground-targeted AoE that gives a 3s telegraph in the form of an AoE indicator. Stacking Long Needle: A random player will be marked with stacking icon. This damage can be split between players. Prey Long Needle: A random player is marked with Prey and will be hit by a Long Needle which counts as a small-radius AoE centered on them.

Super Jump: Chooses furthest player from the boss and jumps to their position. Upon landing, deals wide AoE damage centered on the targeted player. Other players hit by the Super Jump landing will be knocked back and receive a 10s Stun debuff. Physical

Apocalyptic Ray: Wide front conal AoE that applies a stacking Vulnerability Up debuff. Darkness

J Kick: High arena-wide AoE damage. Darkness

Justice: Refills Brute Justice's HP to full.

Verdict: Applies Final Punishment and Final Judgment debuffs to players.

Gavel: Evaluates Final Judgment conditions. If conditions were not met, wipes the group.

Link-Up: Applies a 40s debuff called Compressed Water on a random DPS. When the person with Compressed Water has their debuff timer hit 0s, the player is hit with an attack called Crashing Wave.

Crashing Wave: AoE attack centered on the player who had the Compressed Water debuff. Deals about 180k damage unmitigated. The damage is split between all players hit. At least 5 players are recommended to split this damage, and 8 is preferred. Unlike in A6S, this debuff will not pass to another player. The attack also spawns a Waterspout.

Final Punch: Very high damage that applies Bind+ debuff. Damage can be split between players. Being killed by this attack will give Brute Justice a stack of Damage Up buff. Physical

Final Apocalypse: Wide front conal AoE that applies damage about every second. Targets player with highest aggro. Magical (Unaspected)

Final Beam: Linear AoE that deals damage which can be split between players. Also causes small knockback. Magical (Unaspected)

J Storm: Very high arena-wide AoE damage. Darkness

J Wave: Arena-wide AoE damage that increases in potency each time it is used. Darkness

Waterspout

Drainage: If a player gets too close to Waterspout it will form a tether to that player and deal damage and knockback in an AoE centered on that player. Drainage will not happen until about 3s after Waterspout spawns. Magical (Water)

Severe Contamination: If Waterspout is not destroyed or neutralized within 20 seconds after spawning, it will deal very high arena-wide AoE damage. Magical (Water)

Steam Chakram

Eye of the Chakram: Deals damage to any player hit by Steam Chakram as it dashes across the arena. Physical

Hidden Mine

Hidden Mine: Walking into a Hidden Mine triggers it to explode dealing damage by an attack of the same name. Damage is dealt in an AoE slightly larger than the radius of the Mine itself. Magical (Lightning)

Enemy HP & DPS Requirements

Enemy HP Attack Uptime (seconds) DPS Goal / Required Onslaughter 1,007,200 112 9,896 (Goal) Steam Regulator (Phase 1) 25,280 18 1404 (Required) Blaster 430,240 45 9561 Brawler 344,160 n/a n/a Swindler 344,160 n/a n/a Vortexer 430,240 n/a n/a Brute Justice (Phases 3-5) 1,600,000 n/a n/a Brute Justice (Phases 7-9) 1,820,099 ~200 9353 (Goal) Steam Regulators (Phase 7) 25,280 18 1404 (Required)

Fight Strategy

Phase 1 (Onslaughter)

0 Start

7 Hydrothermal Missile

12 Seed of the Sky

18 Mega Beam

23 Hydrothermal Missile

28 Execution

31 Steam Regulators Spawn

32 Hydrothermal Missile

35 Seed of the Sky

41 Mega Beam

47 Perpetual Ray

49 Retribution (Regulator DPS Check)

55 Hydrothermal Missile

62 Mega Beam

68 Hydrothermal Missile

72 Legislation

80 Steam Gaskets (Balls) Spawn

82 Hydrothermal Missile

87 Seed of the Sky

93 Mega Beam

100 Hydrothermal Missile

101 Perpetual Ray

107 Hydrothermal Missile

112 Boss Should be Dead

Positioning

Recommended positioning for Onslaughter is north. Try to position it so its front half will be between the two northern boxes that spawn around the Steam Regulators. You'll see what I mean after a few attempts. This will allow melee to switch from their Regulators back to Onslaughter without any downtime at all.

▼ Click to View Images ▼

Position Onslaughter here and keep it here until it dies.



Position Onslaughter here and keep it here until it dies.

Steam Regulators

The first few seconds of the fight are pretty self explanatory. When the Steam Regulators spawn, you'll need to start learning shit. This is actually pretty simple though. You have to be in the box (the black/gray box) in order to do any damage to the regulator. Also, only one person can be in each box. Just toss each DPS into a different box.

Each DPS will get a Nisi A or Nisi B. But it doesn't matter which debuff you get, they can go into whichever box they want. Just keep in mind that these buffs come with a DoT so make sure to keep the DPS alive.

Each Regulator has 25280 HP and you have about 18s to kill them all. If you fail to kill a Regulator in time, it will explode and wipe everyone. 25280 HP in 18s = about 1400 DPS. You might want to hold some cooldowns to deal enough damage in time. You'll find that this phase can't be pushed anyway unless you do a WHOLE FUCKING LOT OF DPS, and even then it can be difficult to avoid wiping to other mechanics if you push.

Right after Regulators spawn, there will be a Seed of the Sky, so make sure to position yourself so that your Seed will be baited out of the way, and still leave enough room for you to dodge it. If you're a melee DPS, you can bait the Seed to one side of the Regulator and then move to the other side and still be able to attack. Right after the Seed, Mega Beam will target a random player so try to bait that as well. You can move back to your original position because Seed will be done, and Mega Beam not gone off yet.

Perpetual Ray

Perpetual Ray hits a total of 4 times. The first hit will apply Vulnerability Up debuff, so the idea is to let one tank take the first hit and then tank swap so the other tank can take the next 3 hits, then swap back if you want. Alternatively, you can use one tank to Holmgang / Hallowed Ground / Living Dead all four hits.

Legislation & Discoid

Legislation is a new mechanic. Once casted, it will put a stacking debuff called Final Punishment on four players. If they're all alive, it'll go on the 4 DPS (goes on healer if a DPS is dead). Each DPS will have a different number of stacks for their debuff, either 1, 2, 3, or 4 stacks. You must remove all stacks before the phase is over or you will wipe. One stack will be removed each time the player takes damage, so the player with 4 stacks needs to take damage 4 times.

▼ Click to View Images ▼

All Possible spawn locations of Steam Gaskets



All Possible spawn locations of Steam Gaskets

There will be five Discoid orbs (like the ones in A4S) that spawn around the edges of the arena and tether to the 4 DPS and 1 of the healers. If you run into an orb, it places an AoE puddle on the ground called Explosion that detonates after about 1s. Getting hit by the Explosion from the orb tethered to you will do extra damage. Having multiple players take the same orb will also deal more damage, but it's survivable. There are several ways to handle all this, but I will list out the simplest method below:

2 Hydrothermal Soak Strat

P1+P2+P3+P4 All get hit by 1st Hydrothermal Missile (at 82s)

P3 get an orb

P4 get an orb

HEAL P4 ASAP

P4 get another orb

Pop all the rest of the orbs (doesn't matter who does this, but don't get hit by any Explosions)

P2+P3+P4 take 3rd Hydrothermal Missile (at 107s).

This is just the minimum you can do here. The main thing is to soak up the first Hydrothermal Missile to reduce everyone's debuff count by 1. Then you can use the 3rd Hydrothermal Missile to soak up 1 more stack from each player, but you should treat that one like a failsafe and try to clear them all using the orbs. There is another Hydrothermal Missile during this phase, we call the 2nd Hydrothermal that happens right after Mega Beam. This one is not very safe for DPS to take because your healers have most likely not topped everyone off yet from the first one plus the Explosions they've been taking. However, it exists so if you want to try to work it into a super cheesy strat, you can give it a shot.

At a minimum, you need P3 to take 1 orb and P4 to take 2 orbs. However, after soaking the first Hydro, there will be a remaining total of 6 Final Punishment debuffs but only 5 Discoid orbs to clear them with. This means that unless you double up two people to one of the orbs, there will be at least one person that needs to soak up the 3rd Hydrothermal in order to be fully cleared. After running it 100 times or so, you'll find the shortcuts but just play it safe in the beginning.

Phase Pushing

You don't usually need to worry about pushing phase 1 too fast because even when Onslaughter's HP hits 0, he won't phase change until after 107s. You can push sooner than that, but only if you push before 93s (before Mega Beam); this takes about 12k total DPS so it's very unlikely to happen unless you've got some 245 weapons. After the 93s mark, you're forced to wait through more mechanics until the 107s mark even if you finish off Onslaughter. Use the extra time to clear your Final Punishment stacks correctly and prep a combo for Blaster spawning in the next phase.

Phase 2 (Robots)

Summary for All Robots



0 Blaster & Brawler Spawn

8 Magicked Mark (Brawler)

9 Brute Force (Blaster)

Blaster's rotation resets/changes upon hitting 50% HP.

11 Auxilliary Power (Brawler)

15 Attachment Selected (Brawler)

21 Attachment Used (Brawler)

21 Swindler Spawns

25 Auxilliary Power (Brawler)

29 Magicked Mark (Brawler)

32 Magicked Mark (Brawler)

38 Magicked Mark (Brawler)

41 Auxilliary Power (Brawler)

44 Height (Swindler)

45 Vortexer Spawns

45 Attachment Selected (Brawler)

50 Magicked Mark (Swindler)

51 Attachment Used (Brawler)

55 Auxilliary Power (Brawler)

56 Brute Force (Vortexer)

59 Magicked Mark (Brawler)

Brawler's rotation resets/changes upon hitting 50% HP.

64 Magicked Mark (Swindler)

66 Brute Force (Vortexer)

76 Brute Force (Vortexer)

76 Height (Swindler)

81 Magicked Mark (Swindler)

86 Brute Force (Vortexer)

95 Magicked Mark (Swindler)

96 Brute Force (Vortexer)

106 Brute Force (Vortexer)

108 Height (Swindler)

113 Magicked Mark (Swindler)

116 Brute Force (Vortexer)

126 Brute Force (Vortexer)

127 Magicked Mark (Swindler)

136 Brute Force (Vortexer)

140 Height (Swindler)

Swindler's rotation resets/changes upon hitting 50% HP.

Vortexer's rotation resets/changes upon hitting 50% HP.

Blaster Post-55%:



Starts Casting Mind Blast

Mirage Spawns

0 Mind Blast Interrupted

3 Brute Force (Blaster)

6 Brute Force (Mirage)

11 Brute Force (Blaster)

17 Brute Force (Mirage)

19 Brute Force (Blaster)

27 Brute Force (Blaster)

28 Brute Force (Mirage)

35 Brute Force (Blaster)

39 Brute Force (Mirage)

43 Brute Force (Blaster)

Brawler Post-50%:



0 Hit 50% HP

2 Start Loop

2 Auxilliary Power

5 Attachment Selected

11 Attachment Used

15 Auxilliary Power

20 Magicked Mark

30 Magicked Mark

32 Restart Loop Swindler Post-50%:

0 Hits 0%

3 Bio-arithmeticks

7 Auxilliary Power

10 Magicked Mark

16 Auxilliary Power

24 Height + Enumeration

28 Magicked Mark

31 Auxilliary Power

34 Magicked Mark

37 Auxilliary Power

41 Magicked Mark Vortexer Post-50%:

0 Hit 50% HP

3 Super Cyclone

8 Elemental Jammer

12 Brute Force

16 Ballistic Missile

18 Missile Telegraph

21 Missile Hits

22 Brute Force

30 Crashing Thunder

32 Brute Force

42 Brute Force

46 Ballistic Missile

48 Missile Telegraph

51 Missile Hits

52 Brute Force

52 Crashing Thunder

Robot Spawn Points

Blaster - North, Mirage - Next to Blaster, Brawler - Center, Swindler - East, Vortexer - South.

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Spawn positions of the robots throughout this phase. Blaster north, Brawler center, Swindler east, Vortexer south.



Spawn positions of the robots throughout this phase. Blaster north, Brawler center, Swindler east, Vortexer south.

Robot Mechanics

Each robot will change their set of mechanics after you get them below a certain point. That point is about 55% for Blaster, and 50% for the rest. Here is a list of their mechanics (see Enemy Abilities section for more detail on each ability):

Robot Abilities 100%-0% Extra Abilities 50%-0% Blaster Brute Force (no vulnerability debuff) Mind Blast (at 55%)

Spawns a Mirage that needs to be tanked away from Blaster

Mirage will also use Brute Force Brawler Magicked Mark (no vulnerability debuff)

3 Attachments (busters & double drill)

Auxilliary Power (green AoE buffs nearby enemies w/ damage and HP regen) Gains very potent damage reduction buff until both Betas hit mid and die.

Spawns Power Plasmas - 2 Beta and 2 Gamma.

Adds Rocket Drill to possible Attachments (can use all 4 now). Swindler Height

Magicked Mark (no vulnerability debuff)

Allied Arithmeticks Bio-Arithmeticks (AoE)

Enumeration Vortexer Brute Force (no vulnerability debuff) Super Cyclone (knockback)

Compressed Lightning

Ballistic Missile

Kill Order

Kill Blaster Brawler to 50% Vortexer & Swindler to 60% Kill Brawler Push Swindler below 50% 5s after Swindler pushes, push Vortexer below 50% Kill Swindler & Vortexer same time

Positioning

The phase starts with Brawler spawning in the center, unable to move. At the same time, Blaster will spawn north. You should have Tank 1 (T1) pick up Brawler and get some hits on it to build aggro. Your Tank 2 (T2) should pick up Blaster, and just tank it where it is. Put a healer near mid and ranged DPS or caster on the edge of the arena to the Northeast for double drills.

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Healer 1 positions for close Double Drill, Ranged 2 positions for far Double Drill, T1 builds aggro on Brawler while T2 tanks Blaster.



Healer 1 positions for close Double Drill, Ranged 2 positions for far Double Drill, T1 builds aggro on Brawler while T2 tanks Blaster.

After the Mirage spawns, the tanks need to tank swap Blaster. The MT will continue tanking Blaster north, and will bait single busters out to the NW if necessary. The OT will drag the Mirage over to East side and pick up Swindler.

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Once Blaster is pushed, tank swap and T2 pulls Mirage over to east and picks up Swindler when it spawns.



Once Blaster is pushed, tank swap and T2 pulls Mirage over to east and picks up Swindler when it spawns.

If T1 gets a Single Blaster on them here, he needs to run over to the northwest area so none of the DPS get hit by it. Basically, DPS should be able to give no thought to mechanics here and just focus on their rotations.

Once Blaster is dead, T2 will then need to rotate around to South side to pick up Vortexer when it spawns. As T2 moves around the arena, he needs to be sure not to drag mobs near the center or they will get buffed by Auxilliary Power from Brawler.

All DPS should be killing Brawler. If you get double drill, put the melee on the East and West sides of Brawler. If you get Single Buster, put T1 West of Brawler. There should only be 1 Attachment before Brawler hits 50%.

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After Brawler is dead, DPS should be on Brawler. Use this positioning if you get a Double Drill here.



After Brawler is dead, DPS should be on Brawler. Use this positioning if you get a Double Drill here.

Once Brawler hits 50%, DPS need to move to about halfway between mid and south (with melee on Swindler/Vortexer). T1 will need to run around and grab Gamma orbs. During this time, handle Attachments like so:



Single Buster: T1 on West half of the arena.

Double Buster: Everyone move between mid and South to split damage.

Single Drill: Everyone move to edge of the arena.

Double Drill: Healer 2 move to mid, Healer 1 move south-by-southeast on the wall.

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This positioning is not set in stone. There will be some adjustment due to Attachments and Heights. Just stay near platform divider lines. Healers handle the Double Drills.



This positioning is not set in stone. There will be some adjustment due to Attachments and Heights. Just stay near platform divider lines. Healers handle the Double Drills.

When the Beta orbs are gone, Brawler's damage reduction buff will be removed. Ranged DPS and casters should begin killing it immediately, but melee need to wait until the next Attachment before moving in to kill Brawler. T1 can now take aggro on Vortexer, and can continue holding it in South next to Swindler.

When Brawler is dead, T1 should move Vortexer to mid and face it East. Keep Swindler in South on T2. Split your healers and DPS so that you have 4 people near Swindler and 4 people near Vortexer. Super Cyclone will knock you back, so make sure you're positioned to get knocked either south or east (depending on which stack you're in).

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Players stack loosely like this and move in/out for Enumeration.



Players stack loosely like this and move in/out for Enumeration.

When Super Cyclone goes out, T1 needs to move back to mid so that Vortexer doesn't move yet. Only one Enumeration will go on one of the tanks. Stacking priority is as follows: #1 Tank, #2 Healer, #3 Melee/Ranged 1, #4 Melee/Ranged 2.

When Ballistic Missile goes out, Vortexer should be moved to the middle of the East wall and Swindler needs to be moved to the Southeast corner.

Healer 1 should stand between the robots and a bit further west to take Compressed Lightning from whichever DPS has it. The DPS with Compressed Lightning needs to go to the same position as Healer 1 whenever their debuff timer is about to expire.

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Ballistic Missiles don't need to be stacked directly on top of each other, but should at least form a loose line between south and mid. Always dodge the puddles by moving east.





Positioning for the rest of the phase. Pikachu = Compressed Lightning player.



Ballistic Missiles don't need to be stacked directly on top of each other, but should at least form a loose line between south and mid. Always dodge the puddles by moving east.Positioning for the rest of the phase. Pikachu = Compressed Lightning player.

Blaster

Blaster will begin its new abilities around 55%, rather than 50% like the other robots. Remember to Silence the Mind Blast. The Mirage will tether to Blaster a few seconds after spawning unless it is moved far enough away. The tether makes Blaster and Mirage invulnerable, so you need to separate them. Blaster needs to die before Vortexer spawns or everyone gets wiped. Blaster has 431500 HP and you have 45s to kill him, so you'll need a total of 9589 DPS to kill him in time. It's recommended to use potions here for progression. Because of this DPS check, you might also want to hold any cooldowns from your opener that may be longer than 2 minutes.

Brawler

When the phase starts, Brawler will spawn in the middle. It will be unable to move, but will still be able to attack from range. T1 needs to build aggro on it. Make sure to face Single Busters away from everyone. Before 50%, Brawler will not use Single Drill, but will use all the other Attachments so be prepared to position properly for Single Buster, Double Buster, and double drill (Drill Drive). Brawler will also use Auxilliary Power (Swindler had this ability in A6S), which is the green AoE that buffs nearby robots. For this reason, you cannot bring any of the other robots near Brawler.

Once Brawler is under 50% HP, he will get potent damage resistance so don't bother attacking anymore. This will remain in effect until the two Power Plasma Beta orbs hit the middle and explode. Similar to A6S, you need to stagger one of these Betas so they won't explode at the same time. However, you still want them to move fairly quickly because you want to be able to kill Brawler sooner if possible. For this reason, either put Heavy on one orb OR Stun one orb, but not both.

When Brawler's damage resistance buff is gone, ranged DPS should immediately start attacking it again. Melee DPS will need to wait for one more Attachment before moving over to Brawler because if it's a single drill, they're screwed. Double drill could also be a problem if you intend to rely on last minute coordination for it, so just wait until the Attachment is done. You should be able to kill Brawler before the next Attachment goes off.

Swindler

Swindler spawns on the East side and will do Height repeatedly for the rest of the phase. I highly recommend setting up custom triggers in ACT to tell you whether to go high or low, since you'll have more important things to watch out for. When moving Swindler to south, be careful not to move near the middle so it won't get buffed by Auxilliary Power.

At 50% HP, Swindler will immediately use Bio-Arithmeticks (AoE). Under 50% it will use Enumeration. To handle Enumeration, split the pary into two groups with one on Swindler and the other on Vortexer. Because of knockback from Vortexer, we put both melee on Swindler plus one healer and one tank. The other group had tank, healer, the ranged DPS, and caster. Priority for stacking was tank + healer and then the other players would decide whether they wanted to be 3rd or 4th in stack.

Vortexer

About 45 seconds after the phase starts, Vortexer will spawn south. If Blaster is still alive at this time, the party immediately wipes. Vortexer doesn't do much until it is below 50%.

At 50% HP, Vortexer will immediately use Super Cyclone which deals medium-high damage and large knockback. If you position it in mid before pushing to 50% then the knockback is more predictable. Because both Super Cyclone and Bio-Arithmeticks do 10-15k damage each, you can't push Swindler and Vortexer to 50% at the same time. You want to time it so that each one gets pushed about 5s apart. That will ensure that their AoE damage won't wipe the group. Additionally, even if you do live through the initial damage, you will have Enumeration and Height happening at very inconvenient times.

Finally, both Vortexer and Swindler have to be killed within 5 seconds of each other. Once one of them dies, the other will begin casting Self-Destruct just like the Oppressor and Oppressor 0.5 in A1S. When they're both dead, the Ballistic Missile puddles will fade. Everyone should stack up in the middle of the South wall to prepare for next phase.

Alternate Swindler + Vortexer Strategy Starting at the point where you killed Brawler, before Swinder and Vortexer hit 50%, use the same positioning as described before. Keep Swindler south but move Vortexer to the center. Split up your healers and DPS as well so you can handle Enumeration. You should have the melee DPS and one healer near Swindler and ranged DPS and one healer near Vortexer. Pushing Swindler Have all your DPS attack Swindler. The ranged DPS will be standing near Vortexer, but will need to focus damage onto Swindler. Push Swindler past 50%, and get ready to heal Bio-Arithmetics. You will now get Height + Enumeration at the same time, but that's the only mechanic you have to deal with right now. Knock Swindler's HP down to around 10%. Now switch everyone's position over to Vortexer. Pushing Vortexer After you have Swindler at or below 10% HP, the ranged DPS and melee DPS need to swap positions so that melee are now near Vortexer and ranged are now near Swindler. Also, everyone should now focus damage onto Vortexer. When Vortexer hits 50%, it will do Super Cyclone which has a knockback so make sure everyone near Vortexer is positioned on its east side so they all get knocked back to the same spot. Ranged DPS should be stacked near south so they will be knocked back southward. Melee DPS will need to use gap closers to get back to Swindler after the Super Cyclone knockback. Ballistic Missile Handle this just like the other strategy. The puddles don't need to be perfectly stacked, but try to keep them either stacked or in a line from north to south and always dodge them by moving east. Compressed Lightning Using this strategy, you probably won't get Compressed Lightning, but just in case, put your main healer at the intersection of 4 platforms in the southeast of the arena and pass lightning to him. Killing the Robots Burn Vortexer quickly in order to prevent Compressed Lightning. If you have Vortexer relatively low and you see Swindler start casting Height + Enumeration again, you can quickly kill it to prevent the mechanic. Just keep in mind that you'll then need to finish off Vortexer within 5 seconds. If you don't think you can finish Vortexer in time, then just handle the Height + Enumeration like normal. Pros / Cons to this Strategy The good thing about this strategy is that it doesn't take too much coordination between team members. This strategy also makes it easier to handle a 2nd Enumeration if your DPS is low. And, finally, it has a high likelihood of skipping Compressed Lightning entirely. The downside of this strategy is that it may be slower and result in lower DPS. This is because you have to focus your DPS on one target at a time, so even though there are two enemies present, you cannot multi-DoT them or you risk pushing them at the wrong times (either pushing Vortexer while Swindler is still high HP, or killing Swindler before Vortexer is low enough). The inability to multi-DoT is particularly detrimental to BRD, SCH, and SMN damage. Credit Thanks goes to /u/supermarble94 for the idea for this alternate strategy.

Phase 3 (Brute Justice - Round 1)

0 Transform

4 Brute Justice Targetable

13 Flarethrower

18 Double Rocket Punch

23 Prey Applied

23 Missile Command

25 Long Needle (Ground-Targeted 1)

27 Long Needle (Ground-Targeted 2)

27 Flarethrower

28 Long Needle (Prey)

30 Long Needle (Stacking)

33 Mega Beam

38 Super Jump

44 Apocalyptic Ray

53 Flarethrower

59 Double Rocket Punch

61 Flarethrower

65 Missile Command

66 Prey Applied

67 Long Needle (Ground-Targeted 1)

69 Long Needle (Ground-Targeted 2)

69 Flarethrower

70 Long Needle (Prey)

71 Long Needle (Stacking)

74 Mega Beam

79 Super Jump

83 Brute Justice Untargetable

Everyone should be stacked against south wall already to begin this phase. Healers should NOT precast any regens until the MT gets aggro. If you have a NIN in your group, this is not much of a problem if they Shadewalker the tank. Recommend MT keep Brute Justice facing North for this phase.

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Everyone should be stacked up on the wall to start this phase.



Everyone should be stacked up on the wall to start this phase.

Flarethrower

Brute Justice uses Flarethrower which is a wide front conal attack. Only the MT should ever get hit by this. In the first rotation, it hits before Double Rocket Punch and during Long Needles, but in the second rotation it also hits right after Double Rocket Punch too.

Double Rocket Punch

Need both MT and OT to stack up and split this damage. It will split in half between two players. If a 3rd player goes in, the damage is still the same as if it split between two players, but it will apply that amount to the extra person as well, so only use 2 people for this. Immediately afterward, OT needs to go back and stack with the rest of the party on the boss's Southeast side. If anyone dies to Double Rocket Punch, the boss will gain a permanent stack of Damage Up buff. But this should be an extremely rare occurence.

Long Needles

Start by assigning Prey positions to your ranged DPS and healers. You can use the diagram below for reference.

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All ranged DPS and healers should be assigned one of these positions where they will always go if they get Prey.



All ranged DPS and healers should be assigned one of these positions where they will always go if they get Prey.

This is definitely the most difficult part of this phase. Melee definitely have the hardest job here, but their success also depends on the rest of the party stacking properly. I'll go through this step by step for each role (images following).

OT/DPS/Healers No Prey

Everyone stack on the boss's southeast side where the flank meets the rear on its targeting circle. Everyone needs to be stacked as closely together as possible. Recommend marking a player (like OT) and everyone stack under it.

Everyone remains stacked until the first ground-targeted AoE indicator goes out. People without Prey rotate around to the boss's South/Southwest side and stack again (very briefly) until the 2nd puddle drops.

Note: VERY IMPORTANT! You need to move IMMEDIATELY after the 1st puddle drops. Do not try slide casting. Use instant casting only. If you drop your 2nd puddle in the same spot as the 1st, the melee will die if they have Prey.

After the second puddle drops, the players without Prey rotate around to the boss's West side and stack again.

Stay stacked until the stacking Long Needle drops on the group, then rotate to the boss's North side. At this time, OT should also run to the NW corner to bait Super Jump.

Main Tank

Unlike everyone else, MT will continue standing North tanking the boss and not stacking with the party on the SE side.

The MT may only get targeted by one puddle, but it's possible to get two. Try to stay in the same position north of the boss until the 2nd puddles go out, then move immediately to dodge. It might take a couple attempts to get the timing on this right.

Note: MT needs to be North to bait the Flarethrower that goes out during all this mess.

Once that puddle goes out, MT should simply move over to the West side to stack with the party for the stacking Long Needle.

MT will rotate around to North side after splitting the Long Needle damage.

Ranged DPS/Healers with Prey

Everyone stack on the boss's southeast side where the flank meets the rear on its targeting circle. Everyone needs to be stacked as closely together as possible. Recommend marking a player (like OT) and everyone stack under it.

Two players will get Prey. If you get Prey, make note of where you need to go (there should be assigned positions).

Prey position assignments: Healer 1 Southwest, Healer 2 South, Ranged 1 Southeast, Ranged 2 East. (Melee do differently)

Everyone remains stacked until the first ground-targeted AoE indicator goes out. Then people with Prey run to their positions.

Note: VERY IMPORTANT! You need to move IMMEDIATELY after the 1st puddle drops. Do not try slide casting. Use instant casting only. If you drop your 2nd puddle in the same spot as the 1st, the melee will die if they have Prey.

Right after the Prey Long Needles hit, there will be a Mega Beam going out toward a random person. Try side stepping it and do your best to see which way boss is facing. The player assigned to West position simply has to go North.

While dodging Mega Beam, also try to move in a little closer to the boss. If you are further away from the boss than the OT is, you will get Super Jump on you and probably die.

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Everyone starts tightly stacked (except MT).





First ground puddle drops under the party.





Rotate around the back of the boss to dodge first ground puddle.





Second ground puddle drops under the party.





Rotate around to the west side of the boss to dodge the 2nd puddle.





Boss chooses a target for Mega Beam. Odds are high that it will target westward but might also target one of the two Prey players.





North side of the boss should always be a safe zone for dodging Mega Beam.



Everyone starts tightly stacked (except MT).First ground puddle drops under the party.Rotate around the back of the boss to dodge first ground puddle.Second ground puddle drops under the party.Rotate around to the west side of the boss to dodge the 2nd puddle.Boss chooses a target for Mega Beam. Odds are high that it will target westward but might also target one of the two Prey players.North side of the boss should always be a safe zone for dodging Mega Beam.

Melee DPS with Prey

Everyone stack on the boss's southeast side where the flank meets the rear on its targeting circle. Everyone needs to be stacked as closely together as possible. Recommend marking a player (like OT) and everyone stack under it.

Two players will get Prey. If you're a melee and you get Prey there is immediately 1 more thing you need to know: does the other melee DPS have Prey too?

If only 1 melee was targeted by Prey: Drop your first puddle in the stack with everyone else. Rotate around to South/Southwest with everyone else and drop your 2nd puddle with the rest. As soon as 1st puddles disappear, move straight over to the East side where there should be a safe spot. If there was no safe spot, someone else screwed up their puddle placement; yell at group to stack better.

If 2 melee were targeted by Prey: There should be a pre-defined priority between the two DPS as to who will stay near the boss and who must disconnect. If you are the melee who stays on boss, follow the steps listed previously. If you were the melee who has to disconnect then continue with the steps below. Drop your first puddle in the stack with everyone else. Rotate around to South/Southwest with everyone else and drop your 2nd puddle with the rest. As soon as the 2nd puddle is dropped, disconnect from boss and run straight South. As soon as the Long Needle hits you, move East-ish to sidestep a possible Mega Beam directed at you, while also moving in a little closer to the boss.



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If a melee gets Prey, they will stack with the party like normal for the first puddle.





Rotate around the back of the boss to dodge the first puddle.





Drop the 2nd puddle in the same spot as the rest of your party.





You need to move back over to the east to dodge the 2nd puddle so plan your route now because visibility will be difficult in a second.





Wait until the 1st ground puddle disappears then immediately move.





If your party stacked their puddles correctly then you should be fine.





You still need to worry about Mega Beam. Move once the tank's puddles disappear (if he had any).





North side of the boss is always safe from Mega Beam.



If a melee gets Prey, they will stack with the party like normal for the first puddle.Rotate around the back of the boss to dodge the first puddle.Drop the 2nd puddle in the same spot as the rest of your party.You need to move back over to the east to dodge the 2nd puddle so plan your route now because visibility will be difficult in a second.Wait until the 1st ground puddle disappears then immediately move.If your party stacked their puddles correctly then you should be fine.You still need to worry about Mega Beam. Move once the tank's puddles disappear (if he had any).North side of the boss is always safe from Mega Beam.

Super Jump

Will target the player furthest from the boss after Mega Beam. Brute Justice will then physically jump to that person's location and does a moderate-sized AoE centered on the player, not centered on the boss. After the player's position has been locked, they can move back closer to the boss to prevent a very long jump, but they need to be careful not to get too close to other party members. If anyone gets caught in the AoE of the jump's landing then it does some damage, big knockback, and stuns them.

Apocalyptic Ray

Brute Justice will face toward a random party member and cast Apocalyptic Ray. It has a very short time between facing and using the ability so everyone needs to be within melee range and move immediately after it faces a target. It will do a wide front conal AoE the same size as Flarethrower. It channels this ability for several seconds, and will apply a stacking vulnerability debuff repeatedly if someone stands in it. No one should get hit by this, including tanks.

Immediately after Apocalyptic Ray finishes casting, the MT needs to reposition North to bait Flarethrower, which also means no one else should be near North when Apocalyptic Ray finishes. This Flarethrower indicates the phase repeat. You'll have to do everything through once more before the phase ends. This phase is on a timer, and is not based on boss's HP. You'll always go through this phase twice, ending on the 2nd Super Jump.

Phase 4 (Intermission 1)

0 J Kick

9 100-Megatonze Shock

10 Mirages Land

12 Steam Chakrams Spawn

15 Mirages Charge

18 Double Buster

22 Mega Beam

22 Steam Chakrams Charge

29 Ballistic Missile Telegraph

30 Ice Missile + Height

31 Ballistic Missile Hits

35 Mega Beam

37 Single Buster

43 Brute Justice Targetable

It may seem like there is a lot going on in this phase, but it's really not that bad if you just focus on what YOU need to do (don't pay attention to other people's mistakes) and always look ahead one step to where you need to go next. I'll walk you through this step by step. I don't really think it's helpful info, but if anyone dies during this phase, Brute Justice gains a permanent stack of Damage Up buff. He gets one stack each time someone dies during these intermissions. You can still win with only 1 stack, but it's very difficult.

J Kick + 100-Megatonze Shock

This phase starts off with two arena-wide AoE attacks. The J Kick does lots of damage, so make sure everyone is topped off ASAP after that last Super Jump in Phase 3. And put up damage mitigation early! The 100-Megatonze Shock does not do as much damage, and that one is based on distance. Just stack everyone up directly West and the Shock will do very little damage.

Mirage Baiting

Our videos are poor examples of this because we just kinda winged it. More recently, we have created a strategy to handle the Mirage baiting a little better so I'll explain that here.

Everyone begins stacked directly West (because of J Kick & 100-Megatonze Shock).

The two healers should move out to either side of the stack, so slightly north and south of the stack on the west wall. They should be far enough away so that stacking players don't take damage from the healers' Mirages landing.

Everyone else needs to spread out along the wall, but go no further than the healers on either side. Just spread out far enough to see markers on your heads.

Once the 4 markers spawn, spread out further along the wall, staying in the same order you were in when the indicators went out.

If a healer gets an overhead indicator, they stay where they were, just near the stacking group in the middle of the wall. If the healer did not get an indicator, they should move back to stack in the middle of the wall.

This will probably take some practice. The point in keeping the healers in set spots is so that they have a lot of healing to do there so that no one dies from Mirage landings or the attack after that.

One last thing to know about Mirages, the second they start falling from the sky, players who are baiting them need to move toward the middle of the wall because their Mirage can target them, and if they don't move after it lands, it could end up facing directly out toward the center. You don't need to run all the way to the middle of the wall, just one step will do the trick. Just go in that general direction.

The group's stacking point is now going to shift slightly since Mirages should all be charging north and south along the wall. Your stack point is now moving slightly out from the wall between West and center of the arena. There is an intersection of 4 platforms there, go stand on that intersection. Make sur epeople are healed up because you're about to split a Double Buster.

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Everyone stacks up on the west wall for heals and shields from J Kick and 100-Megatonze Shock.





Spread out along the west wall. The particular order is not too important, as long as the healers are on both ends.





Players targeted by Mirages need to go to these positions. If healers got targeted, they should not have to move at all. Everyone else, spread out in the same order you were in when icons went out.





You need to move along the wall before going off to the stack point. This baits the Mirage charges along the wall rather than to your stack point. You'll make a sort of lazy "L" shape.



Everyone stacks up on the west wall for heals and shields from J Kick and 100-Megatonze Shock.Spread out along the west wall. The particular order is not too important, as long as the healers are on both ends.Players targeted by Mirages need to go to these positions. If healers got targeted, they should not have to move at all. Everyone else, spread out in the same order you were in when icons went out.You need to move along the wall before going off to the stack point. This baits the Mirage charges along the wall rather than to your stack point. You'll make a sort of lazy "L" shape.

Steam Chakrams

The Chakrams spawn while you are moving your stack point, just after the Mirages land. The movement part of this is really easy since the new stacking point is not very far away, so while moving you should be focusing on where the Chakrams are spawning.

Chakrams always spawn on two adjacent sides and always 2 Chakrams on each side for a total of 4 Steam Chakrams. This means if there are Chakrams on the North wall, there will be 2 of them there and then there will be another 2 on either the West wall or East wall. Make sure you note the positions of all 4 Chakrams or you risk getting hit by one.

After a few seconds, the Chakrams will dash through the arena in a straight line from where they spawned. If it spawned on the West wall, it will be going straight across from West to East. If it spawned South, it will be going straight across from South to North. You need to look for a safe spot from all 4 Chakrams. It shouldn't be too difficult if you were looking for them as soon as they spawned. Since they always go in a straight line, just imagine them making a grid pattern and find the empty space where it will be safe.

One final complication to dodging Steam Chakrams is that you also need to dodge a Mega Beam at the same time, so you CANNOT stay stacked up where you are. Immediately after Double Blaster hits, Mega Beam position locks on, so that line from center to West is not safe. You should be able to move either north or south and you'll be in a safe spot. You can also go directly straight through Onslaughter, but you have to be fast about it. Remember that Mega Beam AoE also includes some of the inside of its hitbox so make sure to go all the way through if you plan on going that way.

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This is just an example of Chakram spawns. While stacked and waiting for Double Buster to hit, look for Chakrams and plan out a route to a safe area.





This is just another example of the many different ways Chakrams can spawn. In a pinch, you can run straight through Onslaughter. Just don't stop inside Onslaughter's hitbox or Mega Beam will still hit you.



This is just an example of Chakram spawns. While stacked and waiting for Double Buster to hit, look for Chakrams and plan out a route to a safe area.This is just another example of the many different ways Chakrams can spawn. In a pinch, you can run straight through Onslaughter. Just don't stop inside Onslaughter's hitbox or Mega Beam will still hit you.

Ballistic Missile + Ice Missile + Height

These three mechanics all happen at the same time. It sounds like a lot, but it's really quite simple. The hardest part is getting to your assigned position in time. Sprint if you have to; even BRD, MCH, and melee can Sprint here because next phase is really short, you should have enough TP for it but even Sprint is not really necessary to make it to your position in time after you've had some practice.

The only required position is MT south. He is there to bait Single Buster. The rest of the party needs to spread out along all edges of the arena. These are the recommended positions:

South: Main Tank

South-by-southeast (on the south wall): Healer 1

East-by-southeast (on the east wall): Caster

East: Off tank

Northeast (on either the north or east wall): Healer 2

North: Ranged (BRD/MCH)

Northwest (on either the north or west wall): Melee 1

West-by-southwest (on the west wall): Melee 2

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Assigned positions for Ballistic / Ice Missiles. You can change this up if you want, but T1 must be south due to Single Buster.



Assigned positions for Ballistic / Ice Missiles. You can change this up if you want, but T1 must be south due to Single Buster.

The idea behind these positions is that you put people on the far wall (the East wall) who don't mind using Sprint. The Main Tank goes South to bait Single Buster. The melee mirror each other in the Northwest and Southwest. And you put at least on healer on the south-by-southeast (on the south wall) near the Main Tank to do some clutch heals in case they got behind in healing (the last thing you need is MT dying to Single Buster).

If you have a NIN, I recommend swapping the NIN and Off Tank positions because NIN can easily get over to the East wall with Shukuchi with time to spare.

Now once you're in your general area, you need to be along one of the walls, and also near the dividing line between platforms. A Height is going to go out so you need to go onto one of the platforms next to your assigned position. There is enough room to have two people on one platform as long as they're as they stay on the very edges of the platform.

If you get Ballistic Missile, once it hits you, run straight. Do not leave your platform or you will die to Height! Wait until Ice Missiles also hit and then you can leave your platform. It's important to run straight to dodge Missiles. If you dodge either left or right (even if you stay on your platform) you may end up getting boxed in by AoEs and then you're screwed. Always dodge Ballistic and Ice Missiles by running straight forward!

As soon as Ice Missiles hit, the Height should be off; the High Arithmeticks and Low Arithmeticks debuff icons remain on your debuff bar a bit longer after Height has gone off, so don't go by when the icons drop off your debuff bar because they're slow.

Mega Beam #2

Right after the Missiles is the easy part. Single Buster finally hits the MT, no big deal there since he's already away from everyone else. Then you have a Mega Beam that is directed toward a random party member. Remember when I said you should dodge all the Missiles by running straight? I hope you do that because now you should start running toward the middle of the arena, zig-zagging around the Mega Beam if it happens to be facing you.

Stack up near the middle again to get ready for next phase. Brute Justice will respawn in the direct middle again and repeat all the same mechanics from Phase 3. Position yourself accordingly: Main Tank just to the north side of center, everyone else stacked up just to the southeast side of center.

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Four random players will get Ballistic Missile, the other four get Ice Missile.





If you get Ballistic, it hits first and you have to move before Height resolves. This means you need to move straight forward without leaving your platform.





Once Ice Missile also hits, you can move wherever in order to dodge Mega Beam. Notice that even though the SE corner was free for H1 at first, now that ice has expanded, they would have been trapped if they dodged Ballistic by moving to the corner instead of forward.



Four random players will get Ballistic Missile, the other four get Ice Missile.If you get Ballistic, it hits first and you have to move before Height resolves. This means you need to move straight forward without leaving your platform.Once Ice Missile also hits, you can move wherever in order to dodge Mega Beam. Notice that even though the SE corner was free for H1 at first, now that ice has expanded, they would have been trapped if they dodged Ballistic by moving to the corner instead of forward.

Phase 5 (Brute Justice - Round 2)

0 Start of Loop

0 Brute Justice Targetable

7 Flarethrower

14 Double Rocket Punch

18 Missile Command

19 Prey Applied

20 Long Needle (Ground-Targeted 1)

22 Long Needle (Ground-Targeted 2)

22 Flarethrower

22 Long Needle (Prey)

23 Long Needle (Stacking)

27 Mega Beam

32 Super Jump

38 Apocalyptic Ray



47 Flarethrower

54 Double Rocket Punch

56 Flarethrower

58 Missile Command

59 Prey Applied

60 Long Needle (Ground-Targeted 1)

62 Long Needle (Ground-Targeted 2)

62 Flarethrower

62 Long Needle (Prey)

63 Long Needle (Stacking)

67 Mega Beam

72 Super Jump

73 Boss Untargetable

77 J Kick

80 Restart Loop

Repeat until 0 HP

This is a complete copy of Phase 3 except that it continues looping until you get Brute Justice down to 0%.

If you've made it this far with 0 deaths, you should know that you are capable of completing this fight. Nothing else in the rest of A8S is any more difficult than what you've done up until now. The next intermission may be just as difficult, but no more so (in my opinion).

I think this is literally the easiest part of any guide I've ever written. Thanks for being lazy, SE. /brofist

Phase 6 (Intermission 2)

0 J Kick

9 100-Megatonze Shock

14 Mines Spawn

15 Drill Drive (Double Drill)

18 Mega Beam

18 Steam Chakrams Spawn

24 Mirages Land

26 Rocket Drill (Single Drill)

28 Mega Beam

28 Steam Chakrams Charge

30 Mirages Attack

37 Enumeration

37 Ultra Flash

47 Brute Justice Targetable

J Kick & Megatonze

Just like in Phase 4, stack up on the West wall and heal/shield up for the heavy AoE damage.

Double Drill

You will need two people to bait the double drill, closest and further player from Brawler. Brawler spawns to the north, about where you tanked Onslaughter in phase 1. After 100-Megatonze Shock hits, the MT needs to run out and stand right on top of Brawler to take the close drill. Then send someone else to the southwest corner to take the far drill. During all this, the other 6 players should not move or they risk getting a Drill on them instead.

The player who goes for the far drill should stand on the divider line between the two squares in the southwest corner because you don't know which one the mines will spawn on and you don't want to get blocked in. The player you choose for this job can really be anyone. We didn't have the OT do it because we decided to use him (and his Defiance healing buff) to do a Deployed Adloquium off him. Then we had our NIN take the far drill because NIN can remain stacked up long enough to get that Deployed Adlo and still make it into position for the Drill due to the use of Shukuchi. NIN can also Second Wind and Shade Shift to survive Mirage damage without needing any heals.

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Double Drill positions for beginning of phase 6. M2 can be swapped with anyone else, but NIN is recommended.



Double Drill positions for beginning of phase 6. M2 can be swapped with anyone else, but NIN is recommended.

Mines

Right after Double Drill, the MT needs to go pop two Hidden Mines, starting with whichever is closest to the party. Healers need to be ready to throw heals on him ASAP so the tank does not have to pause between drill and each mine. Those Hidden Mines needs to be cleared quickly so the rest of the party are free to move for the Chakrams and Mirages.

Mega Beam #1

Just dodge it. This one is easy since 3/4 of the time it will target the west side where most players are stacked.

Single Drill

Everyone should spread out along the edges of the arena, but don't go on the north half of the arena. Brawler will shoot out a Single Drill while this is going on so you want to be on the southern half of the arena to reduce damage taken from it.

Steam Chakrams + Mega Beam + Mirages

Chakrams will spawn here just like in Phase 4. However, this time you'll want to go stand in the path of the Chakrams. You do this because Mega Beam #2 is going to target someone here so you can bait it to a place you DON'T want to be. Once Mega Beam starts casting, move out of the path of the Chakrams.

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This is one of many possible spawn positions for Chakrams. Players with Mirage indicators should bait their Mirages into the path of a Chakram while staying spread from each other.





As soon as Mirages land, look for the direction of Mega Beam and plan a route to dodge it AND Chakrams.





After you're in a safe spot, then face the proper direction for whatever tether you may have



This is one of many possible spawn positions for Chakrams. Players with Mirage indicators should bait their Mirages into the path of a Chakram while staying spread from each other.As soon as Mirages land, look for the direction of Mega Beam and plan a route to dodge it AND Chakrams.After you're in a safe spot, then face the proper direction for whatever tether you may have

While you're positioning to bait Mega Beam, also make sure you're not near anyone else with a Mirage overhead indicator on them. As soon as Mega Beam is locked on, move to a safe spot away from Chakrams then immediately face the correct direction for Mirage tethers. Yes, the Mirages in this phase tether for Blinder or Power Tackle so either look toward it or away from it according to which one you get.

For those who don't remember:

Blinder - Tethered Mirage has its arms raised up. Look away from it.

Power Tackle - Tethered Mirage has its arms behind it and crouches. Look toward it.

Facing the wrong direction for either of these will deal increased damage and give you a Damage Down debuff.

Dangerously Cheesy

You can use tank LB3 to mitigate almost all damage here. If you time it and use tank LB right when Brawler pulls its hand out for Single Drill it will last for Single Drill, Mega Beam, Chakrams, and Mirage landing. Using this method still poses several risks. If you get hit by Chakram or Mega Beam, you will still get the knockback from them, which can mess up your directional facing for Blinder/Power Tackle. Even with tank LB3 you will still get Damage Down if you face the wrong way for Blinder/Power Tackle which you really don't want going into the rest of the fight.

Also, using tank LB3 here means you need to have some badass DPS to meet the DPS check since you basically lose a melee LB3. Melee LB3 with a full party of ilvl 240 players will do about 110k damage (about 6% of winged Brute Justice's HP). The remainder of the fight will take about 185s so you basically need an extra 600 DPS between all party members to make up that lost damage. If anything, just use tank LB3 here to practice progression on the later phases and then switch to melee LB3 once you start hitting enrage.

Ultra Flash

You will need to line-of-sight the Vortexer using Onslaughter's legs. Vortexer spawns between center of the arena and the west wall and casts Ultra Flash. In A6S you had an ice pillar to hide behind to line-of-sight the attack. This is the same concept, except you use any one of Onslaughter's four legs to hide behind. Make sure you are breaking line-of-sight of Vortexer and not the west wall. Also note that Onslaughter will face different directions each attempt (wherever last Mega Beam was) so his legs will not always be in the same spots.

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The Onslaughter legs will block line of sight of Vortexer's Ultra Flash. Make sure to be in these safe zones (green on diagram, there is no AoE indicator in-game).





Each individual leg creates its own safe zone. You can see R1 here will still be safe but M1 will get hit.



The Onslaughter legs will block line of sight of Vortexer's Ultra Flash. Make sure to be in these safe zones (green on diagram, there is no AoE indicator in-game).Each individual leg creates its own safe zone. You can see R1 here will still be safe but M1 will get hit.

Enumeration

Two Enumeration stacks happen here as well. These ones are exactly like A6S. You'll get one Enumeration on a tank and the other on a healer. Use the same assignments for these as you did in A6S. Our stacking assignments are: (Tank 1, Tank 2, Melee 1, Melee 2) & (Healer 1, Healer 2, Ranged 1, Ranged 2). Remember that you need to also be behind Onslaughter's legs because Enumeration and Ultra Flash resolve at the same time.

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Tank's Enumeration should always be more northward, and healer Enumeration should be southward.



Tank's Enumeration should always be more northward, and healer Enumeration should be southward.

Phase 7 (Winged Justice/Gavel)

0 Brute Justice Targetable

5 Justice

6 Brute Justice's HP Restored

12 Verdict

14 Steam Regulators Spawn

14 Final Punishment & Final Judgment Debuffs Apply

17 Autoattack

20 Autoattack

23 Autoattack

26 Autoattack

29 Autoattack

32 Autoattack

32 Retribution (Steam Regulator DPS Check)

35 Autoattack

38 Autoattack

44 Gavel

53 Brute Justice Untargetable

Justice

Brute Justice will cast Justice which restores its HP to full and then some, about 200k more HP than before. It's your lucky day, you get to kill him all over again just to satisfy your homicidal rage at this fight.

Verdict

Everyone will be assigned two debuffs: Final Judgment and Final Punishment.

Final Punishment is the old mechanic from phase 1 where taking damage will remove stacks of the debuff from you. However, instead of being random, the number of stacks you get is very predictable in this phase. You also have other damage sources to remove your stacks this time. Everyone will get Final Punishment here too, instead of just the DPS.

Final Judgment is a new mechanic. It will give each player a special version of the Final Judgment debuff. Each debuff has a special condition that must be met at the time Gavel is casted. The good news is that the Final Judgment debuff you get will dictate what actions you need to take to the point where you don't even have to give a thought to Final Punishment (unless you're a tank). The general way these debuffs work is as follows:

The Penalty I, II, and III conditions require you to have that many debuffs by the time Gavel casts. These debuffs include Final Judgment itself, Final Punishment, and Final Flight. Final Flight is given when you go into a tornado; it basically does nothing because although the description says it increases damage dealt by J Storm, it wears off long before J Storm is used.

I'll take the hard work of theorycrafting strategies out of the equation for you and just tell you what each role should do:

Take aggro 1st and use autoattacks to remove debuff stacks.

As Gavel is casting, go get NE tornado.

Stay on boss.

Take aggro 2nd after other tank has 1 or 0 Final Punishment stacks left.

Use autoattacks to remove your Final Punishment stacks.

Healers need to top you off right before Gavel.

Get SW orb.

Get north 2 orbs with the DPS. You may have to wait for them to finish killing Regulators.

Keep Max HP tank topped off for Gavel.

Get NW tornado.

Keep Max HP tank topped off for Gavel.

Kill blue Regulator.

After Regulator is dead, get closest North-side orb AT THE SAME TIME as the healer. Let the healer trigger the Explosion.

Get back on the boss.

Kill red Regulator.

After Regulator is dead, get closest North-side orb AT THE SAME TIME as the healer. Let the healer trigger the Explosion.

Get back on the boss.

Each DPS with this debuff should get one of the South tornados.

Both go back on boss until Gavel begins casting.

Immediately after Gavel is done casting, both go share the final South orb Explosion.

Important to note is how the healers handle the tanks' Final Judgment condition. The tank with Max HP debuff needs to have higher HP than anyone else in the party when Gavel finishes casting. The tank with Min HP debuff needs to have the lowest HP. This is based on actual HP values, not percentage of their max HP. So when the Min HP tank gets hit by his tornado, DO NOT HEAL HIM until after Gavel. Similarly, keep the Max HP tank healed and shielded as full as possible until Gavel is done.

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Once debuffs go out, players with these debuffs need to go to these positions. Note that the blue/red Regulators will not always spawn on the same sides so use your eyes.





As soon as possible, Penalty III DPS's should have taken the SW and SE tornados, Penalty I healer should take SE orb and move between the northern orbs, and Penalty II healer should take NW tornado.





Around the time the first Regulator is dead is about when you tank swap.





Nisi DPS need to wait for healer to pop the orb. Use voice chat to call out when you're ready.





Nisi DPS need to wait for healer to pop the orb. Use voice chat to call out when you're ready.





Right as Gavel begins casting, Min HP tank needs to take the NE tornado.





After Gavel is finished casting, the Penalty III DPS's need to get the last SW orb ASAP.



Once debuffs go out, players with these debuffs need to go to these positions. Note that the blue/red Regulators will not always spawn on the same sides so use your eyes.As soon as possible, Penalty III DPS's should have taken the SW and SE tornados, Penalty I healer should take SE orb and move between the northern orbs, and Penalty II healer should take NW tornado.Around the time the first Regulator is dead is about when you tank swap.Nisi DPS need to wait for healer to pop the orb. Use voice chat to call out when you're ready.Nisi DPS need to wait for healer to pop the orb. Use voice chat to call out when you're ready.Right as Gavel begins casting, Min HP tank needs to take the NE tornado.After Gavel is finished casting, the Penalty III DPS's need to get the last SW orb ASAP.

Other things to know:

The two DPS with red and blue debuffs will have Nisi damage over time ticking on them so give them heals.

The two DPS with Judgement Penalty III debuffs will get hit by tornados and go down to very low HP. They will need some healing too to make sure that the Min HP tank is lower than them, and they'll also need to have enough HP to take the last orb after Gavel.

The healer with Penalty I who is sharing the two northern orbs with DPS needs to be on their toes and ready to pop those orbs ASAP so the melee DPS aren't sitting around with their thumbs up their asses. You need their DPS on Brute Justice.

CREDIT to Solitude for this Final Judgment strategy.

Everyone should stack back up around the boss here and heal/shield up because you're about to get a J Kick to start off the next phase.

Phase 8 (Final Justice)

0 J Kick

1 Brute Justice Targetable

4 Link-up

7 Compressed Water Applies

17 Final Punch

18 Final Apocalypse

24 Final Beam

26 Prey Applied

28 Missile Command

28 Hidden Mine Spawns

30 Long Needle (Ground-Targeted) Telegraph

33 Long Needle (Prey) Hits

33 Flarethrower

34 Long Needle (Ground-Targeted) Hits

34 Long Needle (Stacking) Hits

35 Chakrams Spawn

41 Enumeration Start

46 Chakrams Charge

47 Enumeration End

47 Crashing Wave

51 Mega Beam

57 Super Jump

64 Flarethrower

70 Missile Command

76 Final Punch

77 Final Apocalypse

84 Final Beam

90 Brute Justice Untargetable

The hardest part in this phase is the Compressed Water + Enumeration, but we use the sacrifice method so Compressed Water is not an issue. That basically makes this phase faceroll-easy compared to some of the previous phases.

Final Punch + Final Apocalypse + Final Beam

We may as well go cheesy all the way on this fight. If you time it right, you can eat Final Punch, Final Apocalypse, and Final Beam all with Living Dead or Hallowed Ground up. Use your OP buff right at the end of the Final Punch cast bar.

If you think it ain't easy bein' cheesy, here's how you're really supposed to handle these "Final" abilities. Final Punch may sound like Double Rocket Punch but doesn't share much in common. Final Punch should only be taken by 1 tank. It does around 40k damage without mitigation so get up your tank stance and a cooldown or two. If a tank dies to Final Punch, Brute Justice gets a Damage Up stack. Being hit by Final Punch will also apply Bind+. Because of the Bind, your OT needs to stand at 90° from the MT and tank swap during the Final Punch cast bar. This will bait Final Apocalypse to the side so the MT doesn't get rekt. Finally, the OT (now with aggro) needs to stack up with the party to split damage of Final Beam. Unlike Mega Beam, Final Beam damage splits between all players hit.

It's also possible for a DRK to solo tank all 3 of these hits without using Living Dead by popping Dark Dance (try to get Reprisal), Foresight, Shadowskin, Shadowwall, and Dark Arts Dark Mind. A PLD may also be able to do it if they get some support like Apocatastasis from BLM.

As you can see, just using LD or HG there can remove a lot of unnecessary work. Even better, being a lazy DPS is the best job in this fight :)

Hidden Mine

One Hidden Mine will spawn here. It will always spawn in one of four places near the middle. Remember that the explosion radius is larger than the initial AoE indicator so stay at least half a platform away from it when you pop it. See the diagram below.

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These are the 4 possible Hidden Mine spawn position for this phase. Only one mine will spawn.



These are the 4 possible Hidden Mine spawn position for this phase. Only one mine will spawn.

Long Needles

The Long Needles in this phase are slightly different than the ones in phases 3 and 5. This time, there is only one set of ground-targeted Long Needles. Everyone except MT should stand directly behind the boss to bait the ground-targeted Long Needle. While stacked, a Hidden Mine will spawn near the middle of the arena next to the boss. When the ground-targeted AoEs go out, everyone without Prey will dodge to the side of Brute Justice away from the Mine. The 2 players with Prey will go backward, and away from each other.

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Party stacks up behind the boss as well as possible (without hitting mine of course).





Everyone should plan their routes now for dodging the ground puddle. Party without Prey rotates around to the east of the boss, Prey targets go southeast and southwest away from each other. MT should go northeast a bit and still face boss away from party for Flarethrower.





Move along planned routes.



Party stacks up behind the boss as well as possible (without hitting mine of course).Everyone should plan their routes now for dodging the ground puddle. Party without Prey rotates around to the east of the boss, Prey targets go southeast and southwest away from each other. MT should go northeast a bit and still face boss away from party for Flarethrower.Move along planned routes.

Link-up / Compressed Water

When Brute Justice uses Link-up it will put the Compressed Water debuff on a random DPS. There are different things you need to do based on whether or not you choose to use the sacrifice method, so I will list the pros and cons of it and then explain how to do each method.

Pros/Cons to the Sac Strat

Pros No healing required for soaking Hidden Mine.

No healing cooldowns required for soaking Crashing Wave damage.

One less person to risk getting hit by Steam Chakrams

Easier positioning/coordination for Super Jump + Flamethrower (because no water spout). Cons The player who gets Compressed Water and they are sacrificed, so you lose their damage while they're dead and then lose some damage due to weakness debuff.

DPS players all need more HP to survive Phase 8 & 9 mechanics with weakness. Recommend 18.5k HP for casters and 19.5k for other DPS.

Sacrifice Method The MT needs to move the boss away from the Hidden Mine so no one gets hit by it. The player with Compressed Water needs to go hit that Mine ASAP after Long Needles. Steam Chakrams That's right, Steam Chakrams are back again! This one is not so hard though, all the work is on the MT here. Your Main Tank needs to look for a safe spot and pull the boss right into it. Everyone else should be able to group up real close to the boss without getting hit by any Chakrams. Once in position, one of the healers needs to raise that dead DPS (and do it quickly). Enumeration One of the tanks will get Enumeration on them, which will require between 2-4 players to stack into the ring. Since a random DPS will be dead, you shouldn't count on any of them to go into the stack, so just use your tanks as #1 and #2, then your healers as #3 and #4 (they'll have to decide which one of them is #3 and which is #4). The enumeration stack pile should go directly beneath the boss, inside its hitbox. Super Jump Right after Enumeration is completed, the OT needs to run away from everyone so Super Jump will be baited on him. Try to position near the middle of the arena so you'll have everyone in position for the next phase transition. Flarethrower Right after Super Jump will be a Flarethrower, so MT needs to face the boss away from everyone. Skip down past the legit strat to see rest of the phase

Legit Method The MT needs to move the boss away from the Hidden Mine so no one gets hit by it. The OT needs to go hit that Mine ASAP after Long Needles. Steam Chakrams That's right, Steam Chakrams are back again! This one is not so hard though, all the work is on the MT here. Your Main Tank needs to look for a safe spot and pull the boss right into it. Everyone else should be able to group up real close to the boss without getting hit by any Chakrams. Enumeration + Crashing Wave One of the tanks will get Enumeration on them, which will require between 2-4 players to stack into the ring. The tank who gets Enumeration on them will obviously be #1. The #2 player for the Enumeration stack will be the person with the Compressed Water debuff. Your #3 player for stacking will be the other tank, and #4 can be whomever (just pick someone). The enumeration stack pile should go directly beneath the boss, inside its hitbox. Everyone else needs to be as close as possible to the Enumeration ring without being inside of it. The Crashing Wave AoE radius is just barely larger than the Enumeration ring and you need everyone to split the damage from Crashing Wave. Super Jump Right after Enumeration is completed, the OT needs to run away from everyone so Super Jump will be baited on him. Try to position on the far side of the arena's center but not all the way to the edge. Everyone needs to follow the OT to get away from the water spout but don't get hit by the Super Jump. Flarethrower The MT needs to also move away from the water spout, but face Brute Justice back toward it. Flarethrower comes out right after the Super Jump and you need it to hit the water spout in order to destroy it. If you don't destroy the water spout with Flarethrower, it will wipe you.

Another "Final" Trio

You'll get another Final Punch, Final Apocalypse, and Final Beam so read what I wrote earlier about how to handle these.

Short Needles

These AoEs go on for quite a while, more than twice as long as previous phases. Make sure to put out those AoE heals and don't tunnel heal the tanks. As soon as Short Needles stop casting, put up your mitigation fields and top everyone up because J Storm is about to wreck you.

Phase 9 (J Storm + J Wave)

0 J Storm

1 Brute Justice Targetable

6 J Wave

11 J Wave

16 J Wave

J Wave repeats every 5s until death comes to you or Brute Justice.

Burn, Baby, Burn

Don't feel discouraged if you go into this phase with Brute Justice still at 35% or so, it's still doable. This phase is all about buffing heals, mitigating damage, and DPSing.

J Storm and J Wave are both considered darkness damage. This means physical and magical damage mitigation will not work. You can use ground-targeted damage mitigation and also abilities that increase healing, but that's it. You'll want your melee DPS to rotate Mantra (yes, even the shitty 5% Mantra). J Wave increases in damage each time it's used, and acts as a soft enrage for the fight, so save your heavy mitigation cooldowns for the later J Waves.

Recommend popping B4B at the beginning of this phase if you have it up. Don't use it too late into the phase or you'll get one shotted by J Wave. And remember to use your potions and melee Limit Break!

TL;DR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_sY2rjxq6M

WAR Tips by Mahida Turgana

Phase 1 - Onslaughter

First phase only has one worrisome mechanic, Perpetual Ray. For the first Perpetual Ray, let the initial hit land on Tank_A and Tank_B will eat the remaining hits. Both tanks should use a heavy CD for this mechanic. The second Perpetual Ray can be completely eaten by Holmgang, Living Dead, Hallowed Ground, preference on Holmgang since the warrior has very limited points to use it on. You must hit your CD here at the last quarter second or so of the Perpetual Ray cast, otherwise the follow up Hydrothermal missile at the end will kill you. This may take a few attempts to get comfortable with the server lag / timing. This strategy also requires your group to be pushing phase by that point.

I would recommend going into Phase 2 with a 4 or 5 stack of Wrath built up since it is very likely you'll be sitting at 0% for some time while the boss finishes its rotation.

Phase 2 - Robots

When Blaster is nearing 50% stop ALL ATTACKS, even auto attacks. If your OT needs to eat the Single Buster, he will only be able to provoke and maybe put in 1 ranged attack. It is imperative you do not pull hate back. When your OT provokes, immediately go to Swindler's spawn point with a threat ability built up. Lead into Swindler either with IB or a threat attack, use Brutal Swing here too. Be very mindful of your initial threat here, and coordinate with your healers as to what feels right. If a double buster just went off as Swindler spawns, they may be pumping out a lot of AOE heals, thus generating a ton of threat.

Next you will be picking up Vortexer. Nothing special there.

If you are working towards you first clear, I would recommend keeping up Path on both Swindler and Vortexer. When your healers are more comfortable or you need to push DPS with the phase you can switch to Eye. If you're feeling more adventurous you can switch to Deliverance. Use Vengeance just before the first Beta is going to hit center, you should be able to time an IB right around there as well.

Phase 3 - Brute Justice Part 1

For the second Double Rocket Punch have your MT move in closer towards the middle of the boss' hit box so you can get back behind the hitbox after the punch is done. You want to do this because the Flarethrower that follows the Double Rocket Punch comes very shortly after.

Phase 4 - Intermission 1

Nothing Special

Phase 5 - Brute Justice Part 2

Repeat Phase 3 - Should only get 1 Double Rocket Punch before phase pushes unless DPS is bad (or dead).

Phase 6 - Intermission 2

Nothing Special

Phase 7 - Gavel Phase

If you are the high HP tank at the end of Gavel, feel free to use Thrill / Equilibrium to top off.

Phase 8 - Final Phase

Nothing too special here. If you go with our strategy, where the MT eats all the final punches solo and uses Living Dead (Or Hallowed Ground / Holmgang), put Path up when the mine spawns for Long Needles. After the Super Jump, you will want to keep up Path and Eye since the MT will be using conventional CDs and the raid will be taking Long Needle damage.

Side Note

If anyone wants a break down by GCD for this fight using our strat, you're more than welcome to message me although you can also find this in my FFLogs. I did not go too verbose with such details as it can vary from player to player

AST Tips by Koomi Ishi

Long Needles

For Prey you have time to put regens up on the long needle Prey targets while running to the soak spot, then you can swiftcast aoe heal when you get to the stack point on the 2nd and 3rd long needles.

Synastry Usage

My synastry spots:

P1 - First Perpetual Ray

P2 - When solo healing the 3x robots (Blaster, Brawler, Swindler) + Mirage

P2 - Right after Power Plasma orbs as it comes off cd to solo heal the 3x robots (Brawler, Swindler, Vortexer)

P3 - First Double Rocket Punch

P6 - Second intermission to top the tank off for Hidden Mines

P8 - First Final Punch combo to remove Living Dead off the DRK

P9 - About 5 waves into the J Waves

Lightspeed Usage

My Lightspeed spots (I could probably find some other spots to use this like during gavel but I'm mostly putting regens on people as I move):

P2 - During Power Plasma Beta hitting

P4 - First intermission after mirages land

P9 - About 5 waves into the J Waves

Cards

I was also holding cards for certain portions of the fight since some of the fight can be stuck at 0% while other boss abilities to resolve.

I have a starting card on pull then try to get an expanded arrow or balance for the start of the robot phase (phase 2) since there's a pretty heavy dps check there.

I also hold cards after that since we were having issues with pushing swindler/vortexer too early. Instead, I'd try to get an expanded arrow or balance for the start of Brute Justice in phase 3.

If you can consistently push phase 5 before 2nd double rocket punch, you can hold cards until the start of winged justice (phase 7).

If you can't push the 2nd Double Rocket Punch consistently, just throw cards on your DPS, then in winged justice phase (phase 7) I use cards as I get them since you're now on a timer to kill Brute Justice before you wipe to soft enrage.

Also fuck this fight on AST go WHM.

SCH Tips by Viva Diva

This fight is a little strange. There are a lot of points in the fight where dps needs to be pushed and parts where dps needs to be held.

Phase 1

I use Eos the whole fight. Her mitigation and AoE HoTs were too useful not to. Phase 1 can't be pushed before stacks are cleared and you will always get the buster unless you can clear stacks and push dps before Mega Beam (which we couldn't do consistently so decided not to try). Because of this, I found Selene unecessary for the duration of the fight. I allowed my co-healer to solo heal this phase. I would adlo the WAR for the last Perpetual Ray and virus since 1/20 pulls the server latency would resolve holmgang late and he'd die to the first hit of Perpetual Ray. It's pretty easy to just prevent that possibility since the boss sits at 0hp at this point anyway. I would also spread adlo on the dps with Deployment Tactics before discoid would cast then abuse our AST by making him solo heal orb damage. I do this mostly so I could take no responsibility for any healing-related wipes here and he could get the black mark against him on our wipes spreadsheet instead of me if someone died. #prostrats

Phase 2 - robots

I would bait the outer double drill here and allow my AST to solo heal until Brawler died. I would pot here since potting phase 1 was pretty useless since we weren't pushing phase and it helped ease the dps check. What fairy cds I used were based on which drill was going out. Rouse + WD for the double buster and I would throw a single adlo on our DRK for single buster. Double drill I ignored. I did ask my SMN to virus the first attachment and it helped tremendously in allowing our AST to solo heal this robot.

As soon as Blaster died I would DoT up Brawler and Swindler. I would NOT touch Vortexer since it frequently got pushed too fast. I would Fey Illumination until the end of the orbs. I'd use Fey Cov and virus the second beta orb. I found I needed aetherflow stacks to lustrate our DRK as he picked up green orbs so I avoided using Sacred Soil. I would indom the second beta orb damage since it was often followed up by double drill or double buster and the raid needed to be topped off asap. I would help stabilize the tanks and go back to dpsing until the robots were pushed.

Once the robots got pushed I would indom and succor the raid for the pushback damage and switch to clerics to dps Vortexer.

Phase 3 - Brute Justice

First J Kick I Sacred Soil and spread adlo then get dots up on Brute Justice. Fey Cov was coming off cd here so I would use it since it's up again for the third set of needles. WD helps here as well. As we run to dodge I would position myself to move back into the raid (if I was Prey target) and indom quickly to heal up the split aoe long needle damage before the final 