Alexander Midas (Savage): We Power Rangers now.

[solracht]

It's tricky because you still have to go around getting hit by your orbs while also killing Blaster fast enough and dealing with other Brawler mechanics. I don't know if it's realistic to get rid of all stacks before Blaster shows up but it might be doable under certain conditions. I've idly wondered if you can use auto-attacks by not having the tank grab hate immediately to help clear stacks in a controlled way but it'll be a matter of playing around with it and seeing how much of a hindrance having the discoid orbs around longer will actually be.

Yeah this is the part I was curious about. I imagine if you have enough DPS then you can still push Blaster without too many issues while clearing orbs. Using Blaster/Brawler autoattacks to clear some of the final stacks actually sounds interesting.

[Kaisha]

Any advice for the 2nd mini boss in A6S (blanking on his name). We are getting past him but usually have unnecessary casualties for his P2. Any help with tank positioning for Tank Buster and All in mechanic and eating the big orbs?

Just curious how other groups handle it

Probably isn't an issue nowadays with everyone having i230 weaps but our MT would just place a ground marker and call out his spot away from any orbs currently up just so the melee don't have to worry about getting jibbed by the excessively wide double-buster aoe.

As mentioned prior with the CC control, the one ball left completely untouched will blow up a tic after Brawler starts his animation for changing his arm, which healers can use as a visual on when to precast their heals. The nerf to it makes healing through that a joke compared to before which needed a lot of shielding and potential spot heals.

Why is this a cheese again? The Final Punishment stacks (as proven later in the fight) are designed to be removed with any source of damage.

I wouldn't know, just heard other groups calling it a cheese method so I just went with the flow since they did give you a whole five balls in that phase to deal with it despite there being other (easier) options.

[EDIT] Jesus christ I am hating the pet place distance limitation in A7S. It's bad enough micro-ing Eos to help with healing certain jails and getting her around in triple-ball phase to assist with the healing burden.

[Taint]

Started on A8S last night. (finally)

Tips we are using:

Stack for Hydrothermic to remove stacks during Legislation. (#1,2,3, 4 does Orbs)

Tank LB3 for the 2nd Intermission

Water melee, into Mine

Hallowed Ground the first Final punch sequence so Healers can DPS.


Any other neat tricks we should know? We only raid 8 hours a week so everything helps!

What kind of HP should we aim for? How are Healers getting their ACC? i240 with VITx3 and 2 i220 with acc?

[ellanelle]

Hmm, iirc we had everyone above 18k for HP on our first clear with non-caster dps closer to 19k-20k on our first clear.

For accuracy on healers that sounds about right, Acc on all left side (think I still had 220 belt with acc melds freeing up some on right side) and then a mixture of 240 and 220 with vit and acc depending on how many 240 pieces we had on left side.

Let me think...

First phase:
-Not too much in the way of tricks, try to avoid using 3 minute cooldowns to push Onslaughter after the second Perpetual Ray -- though it's fine to use bigger cooldowns while getting used to the phase, try to start saving them once you consistently get to adds (and if you have really good dps try not to push right before the mega-beam preceding it, especially on a first clear). Once boss is locked at 1% any dps is wasted so just prep combos / ready everyone up.
-We use Living Dead for the second Perpetual Ray but not needed really, just saves cds for later.

Adds:
-Don't be afraid to use LB1 to push Blaster during very early progression, it's easy to underestimate the dps needed to burn him before Vortexer (especially if you aren't saving 3m cooldowns). Brawler tank can and should help after getting an aggro combo on Brawler (only disengaging for single beam).
-Watch heights. Watch heights. Watch heights. Many height error deaths incoming.
-After Brawler is pushed to 50 try to get Vortexer and Swindler to near-ish 50.
-Stun/heavy one of the alpha orbs to spread out the damage (be aware that depending on the exact nature of the delay you can potentially get alpha orb explosion + double tank buster party split which can catch healers off guard, at this point I usually don't heavy them anymore and just have a tank stun to stagger them).
-Another thing to watch out for as healer is alpha orb explosion lining up with double drill as whoever is baiting will take a lot of damage.
-Apoc can be very useful if timed for the part the Brawler tank is picking up the green tank orbs
-Watch heights. Watch heights. Watch heights.
-Once brawler is dead, brawler tank provokes one of them.
-We push swindler at this point -> aoe heals -> push vortexer.
-Depending on dps which for us has gotten pretty consistent, you might be pushing vortexer during heights which is a BAD IDEA since super cyclone, you can potentially push them with a bad alignment of their respective skills while progressing and have inconsistent push timings, but if you push without too crazy a delay between them other than that needed to heal up, you should be good.
-Do the robot mechanics and kill at same time (should be relatively straight forward).

Brute Justice
-Don't do massive AOE heals as soon as he's targetable, no raid damage for a while. There is a caveat that if you pre-cast your aoe heals while the robots are linking up so that the cast finishes right after the knockback/damage you can get them off safely with no aggro but not required since there's a lot of time before raid aoe.
-Find a system that works for baiting preys so they don't go the same way and have a safe spot for megabeam.
-If SCH uses all their fairy buffs right before the short needles start they should all be up for 3rd set of preys.
-For second set of preys if Virus is used right after Apocalyptic Ray (but not much after) it'll also be available for 3rd preys.
-Healers can time a succor/medica after short needles go out but before they need to dodge ground aoes (or can use swiftcast) though for first and second set of preys having a pre-succor on its own is pretty much enough.

First Intermission:
-Lots of groups line out along a wall but we prefer going to a corner and spreading the mirages along the corner in an L shape (2 on each side), party goes to corner.
-After that run out, heal up for split beam, bait megabeam, then we have set positions to just chill around.
-Height resolves after Fire aoe markers go out (if you don't have ice marker over your head, you have fire) but before Ice goes out.
-Give MT a wide berth for single beam.

Brute Justice 2:
-Everything hits harder
-Mitigate preys with everything you can, if using tank lb can safely use a spread adlo here if timed right, covenant/illumination/whispering dawn/med 2 (i have conflicting reports about whether virus mitigates long needle or if it's better for the tank damage)
-Time succor/medica or swiftcast after first short needles (or the spread adlo)
-After long needles resolve try to have assize or indom until you're comfortable with how much HP your mitigation strategy will leave people at.
-No B4B during long needle from what I've heard use it early but not a dps so not 100%.
-Try to push before 4th prey, best time to push during progression is right after the apocalyptic ray in the second rotation since it gives ample time to heal everyone and shields etc.

Second Intermission:
-With tank lb a second or two after mirage indicators appear it's really really trivialized, just make sure to properly LoS Vortexer and know the priority order for the enumerations.

----this is longer than i thought it was going to be and have to head out soon but quickly other things to watch out for:
-Study gavel strategy, very simple once you understand it.
-Topping people off before the J-Kick after Gavel can catch healers off guard first time, specifically the two people that split an orb after.
-Only one set of ground aoes for Prey.
-No need to immediately heal party for a while after last phase long needles as no short needles right after, can dps pretty freely as healer.
-If you're HG the first final punnch sequence you can also swap tanks and Holmgang the final beam on the second (with heavy cooldowns for the punch) -- or save it for J-Wave clutch survival.
-The J-Storm preceding the J-Waves hits pretty damned hard (especially if you have a stack), so if as a tank you see that healers didn't top/shield/bubble in time after the aoe spam don't be afraid to use a tank lb to survive it, better that than half the party dying the first time you get there.

[Kipling]

HP to aim for: As much as possible. Getting extra crit won't save your life if you or one of your healers makes a mistake and does something like doesn't have soil, doesn't have path, or doesn't do deploy in time. HP however, just might. I am a firm believer in melding vit in all 5 slots for progression always.

Healer acc: I have vit in all 5 of my accessories and I still hit ~587 accuracy with food. You just need to probably switch to Grilled Sweetfish if you have full 230/240 accessories and vit melds.

[Kaisha]

It took me 25 ACC4 melds to reach caster accuracy cap with an HQ Grilled Sweetfish. Less if you use ACC5s if you got the mhachi matter or gil to blow to skip on needing as many overmelds which would allow you to use a couple i240 accessories instead for +10 main stat each over the crafted.

But as Kip said, VIT5 or bust on those accessories'.

[Toshi]

A7s question. After cat phase were you have two sparks, beam then group bombs. How did you handle positioning the person who got the beam?

The dot plus bomb is a killer. Our positions for bombs at the start is healers NE, NW. Smn + MCH SE + SW. Melee and tanks just go north, south, east and west in the circle.

We assigned East on the circle for beam. As we're still learning the person who gets beam takes the East position for their bomb and the offtank who is normally there runs to the affected beam player usual bomb spot instead, so the beam person is in range of SCH in NE.

This is our initial bomb positions

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...39df48fdbc.jpg

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

[Taint]

A7s question. After cat phase were you have two sparks, beam then group bombs. How did you handle positioning the person who got the beam?

The dot plus bomb is a killer. Our positions for bombs at the start is healers NE, NW. Smn + MCH SE + SW. Melee and tanks just go north, south, east and west in the circle.

We assigned East on the circle for beam. As we're still learning the person who gets beam takes the East position for their bomb and the offtank who is normally there runs to the affected beam player usual bomb spot instead, so the beam person is in range of SCH in NE.

This is our initial bomb positions

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...39df48fdbc.jpg

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

After the first cat phase? When its Spark, Spark, Beam then bombs?


We keep all our original positions. The only target out of the healers range for us is our BRD, if he gets beam we sent the fairy to his corner, give him a shield and regen. I also play PLD for the clutch Clemency.

You have 2 DPS with the potential of being out of range MCH and SMN, so healers will have to be twice as diligent.

If I was your raid leader I'd swap your positions. That is one of the tricky healing spots of the fight and the beam is always on a DPS. Put your SMN where the DRG is, WAR on a north corner, MCH on the other north corner (preferably the merry go round corner), DRG where the WAR is. Now 3/4 of your DPS are in healer range, and you know if MCH get the beam you need some shield/regen and a positioned fairy.

http://beast40.com/FFXIV/bomb2.jpg

[solracht]

As far as bomb spots go, in my group the SCH is in range of the DRG and NIN. If the MCH gets targeted the DRG swaps with them, if the SMN gets targeted the NIN swaps with them. Link

Make sure you're stacking enough mitigation, you should have a lot of skills available for this part (path, int down, virus, disable, rend mind, eye, fairy buffs, etc.). Just use everything you need to feel comfortable even if it feels like overkill. Assuming you reduced the beam+DOT damage to survivable levels, the SCH should be able to keep the affected player alive through bombs easily.

[Rocl]

Be sure to give that beam a sick name like "Mama Beam" because the DPS will clamor for Mama Healer's loving Embrace. Nothing beats going from a bunch of people shouting MEOW to MAMA.

[Kiarax]

A7s question. After cat phase were you have two sparks, beam then group bombs. How did you handle positioning the person who got the beam?

The dot plus bomb is a killer. Our positions for bombs at the start is healers NE, NW. Smn + MCH SE + SW. Melee and tanks just go north, south, east and west in the circle.

We assigned East on the circle for beam. As we're still learning the person who gets beam takes the East position for their bomb and the offtank who is normally there runs to the affected beam player usual bomb spot instead, so the beam person is in range of SCH in NE.

This is our initial bomb positions

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...39df48fdbc.jpg

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

Put your healers on the south platforms and ranged north so they can always hit the boss even if the boss is a little further north on the platform during bombs. Healers can then heal any of the DPS on the platform if they have beam. If one of the ranged gets the sizzlebeam call it out and have them swap positions with the OT (so ranged would be on the center platform and the OT would be on that persons corner platform), that way no matter who gets it they're in range of being healed. We put the OT south on the platform too so in those situations they'd be in range of both healers rather than just one of them too. If you ever have the person with beam dot out of heal range there's a good chance they'll get fucked without a lot of gear or Second Wind available, no reason to ever risk it.

[Toshi]

Thanks for the help guys

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[haroldsaxon]

For AS6, how long does it take for the padlock on the caster cage to die? Do people use cooldowns on it?

[Kiarax]

Shouldn't take more than 10 seconds at the most, usually less though. Popping CDs for it is a waste.

[Toshi]

For AS6, how long does it take for the padlock on the caster cage to die? Do people use cooldowns on it?

Nope. No CDs. By the time I'm at the end of a combo it's dead. It's only an issue if the dps start tunneling the jag doll and forget to kill the lock first.

[Kaisha]

Padlock I can only get two castbars off (sometimes three) on before it dies typically with two melee + two healers on it.

For A8S, after you safely transition both Swindler/Vortexer under 50%, the only raid damage from there just comes from Vortexer's eventual use of cyclone again right? Trying to clean up my use of AoE heals as a SCH and instead focusing adlo on whoever needs to trade thunder, as well as prep/top-off the tanks.

[Dein]

Vortexer doesn't use Super Cyclone again afaik because even if he could he should be dead long before it could ever happen. The only other damage going out after both Swindler and Vortexer go below 50% is the lightning debuff until they both die unless someone fucks up height or clips a sludge pool.

[Kipling]

No he should only ever use it once, he just uses it when he pushes past 50%.

[Detzu]

Just a question, is there any reason to take a caster over a MCH even with a comp like DRG MNK BRD MCH?

[Kiarax]

If you were doing 4 physical optimally you'd take a NIN instead of the BRD, but there's no reason you can't make that comp work either. DPS checks this tier aren't tight at all so even though it's not optimal you shouldn't ever struggle. A5, 6 and 8 will all be straightforward (though BLM and SMN bring some nice raid utility with Apoc/Supervirus, but it isn't a necessity in any fight). A7 you'll have to do some weird strategies to deal with caster jails. There's multiple ways to deal with it (healer with accuracy melds can do them easily enough, or you can send in a DPS and have them LB the slime), just gotta figure out which one your group will be most comfortable doing. The methods of dealing with it in A7 will make a pretty notable hit on your raid DPS, but if your group is solid you shouldn't have to worry about seeing enrage, especially if people have been keeping up with gear since the patch came out.