A Blu-specific Guide To The Savage Fights - Alex Series (part 1)

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Here is my BLU-specific guide to the A4S and A8S fights. A12 will come later, because this is a long guide!

Much like my Coil guide, this will assume that you have all the BLU skills, good level 60 BLU gear for your role (Shire's fine, but if you farm A9S/A10S and Whalaqee stuff, you'll have a much easier time with some pushes), and a knowledge of how BLU as a class functions in each role.

I also am writing this assuming you've done the T-series first, so you have some understanding of "diamondback the busters, white wind spam, etc. etc." - but A4 is a perfectly good first fight! I found it just as easy as T5, in all honesty!

FOR ALL ALEX FIGHTS:

#1 MOST IMPORTANT THING: Unless otherwise noted, respect mechanics! Mechanics will kill you dead! Learn mechanics! Read guides! LEARN MECHANICS! KNOW MECHANICS! There's a ton of videos showing BLU clears, and a lot of text guides and video guides explaining mechanics, so please learn them in any way you know how.

#2: DPS is way, way, WAY more important in the Alex series than the Coils. You will have an much harder time clearing if you can't perform some awesome BLU damage. DPS, learn moon flute openers! Healers, at least one of you, have moon flute opener ready! You'll save a lot of time and heartache having top-tier DPS. If you find yourself running short on DPS, remember the basics of BLU - the Moon Flute opener, bristle->dot and primal weaving.

A4S: I'll be honest, I don't know this fight. I was in a group where 2 people had already cleared it, and one of them was doing callouts, and we cleared in literally only one pull. The most important parts are the following:

Team Setup: 2 healers, 5 DPS, 1 tank.

0: Orbs going to the tank need to be taken, but don't even worry about MGing them. They only do like 10k damage per orb, so just white wind between each.

1: Whoever gets Quarantined, just blow up the embarrasingly weak mobs and get back.

2: Spread for Carnage Zero.

3: Don't worry too much about jagd doll aggro, just get them low (we did around 30%) and feed them ASAP, then blow up the Straz doll. BLU healing is very strong, so feeding high is fine, but kill the doll fast before the MT starts eating vulns!

4: Someone said there's a mechanic that deletes a random players' MP, but we ignored it. Meh.

5: When Nisi is being cast, spread! Just let it fall off - Nisi is dumb. It does hurt quite a bit though, heal this!

6: Sac 3 people for pentacle. The strategy is to get a running start, then throw your body into 2 of them! We sacced 2 healers and 3 DPS, but that's because nobody told me to get a running start, so we had to do some extra sacs. Goes to show how hard the fight actually is, though :P

Overall a very, very easy fight, which BLU skills allow you to cheese very hard.

A8S: What most people are probably here for. Hoo boy, this fight's a doozy - took us about 8 hours from learning it fresh to clear it. And boy have I got some spicy optimizations for you!

Fun Fact: This was the first fight I ever tanked. (Well, OTed anyway.) I've never tanked before - not as BLU, and not as an actual tank. It's really not that hard! (Well, OTing wasn't anyway.)

Team Setup: 2 healers, 4 DPS and 2 Tanks. That's right, this is the only fight in both coils and Alex that requires two tanks. And boy does it.

ROLE ASSIGNMENTS:

  • Corners for Steam Regulators (1 DPS per corner).
  • A DPS or healer to eat Double Drill's second drill.
  • A DPS to bring Blaster's mirage to the OT.
  • Someone for baiting Super Jump.
  • Someone for Super Jump if the person baiting Super Jump has to sacrifice themselves heroically.

Required Skills (beyond normal): Everyone must take Frog Legs, at least until you confirm Gavel setup.

That's it for now - Intermission 1 traditionally has assignments, but for BLU it's a bit different, so I'll explain that in detail when we get there.

Phase 1: Onslaughter

For this, do a 6-man moon flute opening, leaving the MT and one healer free. Have someone throw a libra - MT will have to diamondback a few things. Dodge Mega Beam, dodge missiles. Moon flute will go off just as Regulators spawn. Kill regulators, using Eruption to kill it faster. Watch Mega Beams. MT Diamondbacks Ray. Push. If you find yourself DPSing too fast, just relax until Regulators are dead. If you have trouble pushing before Legislation, seriously analyze what your team's doing wrong and correct whatever's causing such low DPS (rotation, melds, gear, food, in about that order of impact). Overall an easy phase - which is good, you'll be seeing it a lot.

Phase 2: The Boys

This is a long, boring and extremely deadly phase. We played it turbo-safe, though faster optimizations are available.

Blaster lands. MT Look Blaster, and start piling on the damage as a team. Only moon flute if you're certain you can kill it before waning. Kill it as fast as possible! OT tanks Brawler.

At 50%, Mirage drops. Everyone stop using AOE skills. Have a DPS pull Mirage west away from Blaster (using Frog Legs -> a damage skill, position carefully to only Frog Legs Mirage), take Blaster itself east. OT, healers, get ready for Brawler mechanic. Do not diamondback this. Mitigate it heavily - My OT rotation was 3 looks, bad breath, devour, hammer, weave an addle in there. Single laser, take it solo. Double laser, stack with the party towards the NE corner. Double drill, drill bait must be the furthest away and eat it solo.

After the Brawler mechanic, Mirage baiter and OT should frog's legs and then Look the mirage. The DPS can go kill Brawler. If you're very fast about it, the OT can Frog -> Look -> IMMEDIATELY DIAMONDBACK to save some healer gcds for damage. If you're late diamondbacking, just don't do it and eat autos. It's fine.

Team kills Brawler and Swindler spawns. Swindler will do heights - Height Error ignores Diamondback. Do the mechanic.

OT, just diamondback every Brawler mechanic now. Single laser, double laser, double drill, even single drill - just DB pre-emptively and solo tank and blood drain after it. Play it safe.

The rest of the team, get Swindler to 55, wait for a mechanic (so that you don't have double drill hitting a DPS at the same time as Bioarithmeticks), then burst Swindler.

Next, Brawler to 10%. At 50%, OT DB for a mechanic - this always happens even if he just did a mechanic. it takes long enough that you don't have to worry about when you push Brawler past 50% - the OT will always have time to DB. Have assigned DPS grab orbs after the Brawler mechanic if the same person is both orbs and drill. Don't worry about slowing one orb specifically - just Bad Breath both and throw a hammer on Brawler when the orbs get close. That's right - mitigating the plasma orbs (even including Addle) reduces their damage on impact!

Get Brawler to 10%, and Vortexer to 55%. Wait for a Brawler mechanic - literally AFK or just libra fish. If it's not Double Drills, just start bursting after the mechanic starts, and OT should DB. If it is drills, start bursting as the drill hits, and a healer should pom the drill bait. If timed right, the OT can DB both the knockback AOE and the Brawler mechanic. Burst Vortexer and Brawler to finish the phase. Feel free to moon flute, there's a lot of downtime, but don't use all your primals! Stick to the low-CD ones.

Phase 3: Justice Appears!

When Justice forms, Mighty Guard up, ready your bristles and surecast when you see blue lightning. The moment you take damage, drop your MGs (except for MT) and DPSes start Moon Fluting. Throw all your damage. MT, tank flamethrower normally and DB the double rocket punch. Everyone else, do Sky Seed (2 preys run, rest stack rotate around the back of BJ), and top everyone off. Dodge Mega Beam, and OT should run south to bait Super Jump. Dodge behind BJ for Apocalyptic Ray, then make BJ super jump roughly to where he started, and do it all again. It's a pretty simple phase - just make sure not to kill other people with inconsistent or slow movement, don't stack with the prey marker, and DB all the big busters as the MT!

After 2 Super Jumps, Brute Justice will start Intermission One. Our team had a very specific, very specialized plan for Intermission one that made it very simple. We called it the D.O.N.T. strategy.

Phase 4: Intermission 1!

Strategy: DON'T.

Yeah, I lied. we skipped intermission 1. Screw that phase.

Phase 3 Part 2: A Brutal Transition

So to explain further - one healer can take care of everyone during BJ's rotation, so we had 6 moon flute openers (DPSes, OT and one healer), and we just absolutely decimated Brute Justice. We were able to consistently get him to 0 hp as the second Sky Seed was starting, which allowed us to just MG up and run east. Make sure the MT throws up a good libra, two people get down off-guard and peculiar light, and you have all your burst ready. Burst it, and run around with wanings. Once you group for Apocalyptic Ray, your dots will be coming off, and everyone can start going again. MT Refresh Libra, throw another off-guard and peculiar light, re-throw your bristle dots and get ready for transition. At about 4-5%, start tossing Addle, Magic Hammer, Bad Breath, Devours and the like out. It is mandatory you mitigate this. You want the mitigation to last long enough for the J-Kick, since it can be tricky to get Mighty Guard up in time. MG the moment you see BJ's HP hit 0.

Phase 5: The Phase Where We BLU the mechanics

Everyone goes to the east wall and heals up, MT goes north and baits that mechanic. After MT baits that mechanic, MT and OT take a hidden mine, and everyone dodges Mega Beam. Next, when you see the purple markers appear, EVERYONE DIAMONDBACK. Chakrams fly by, bots fire magilaserblastercannons, some bombs explode, everything generally goes crazy, and everyone AFKs during it.

After you come out of Diamondback, break line of sight with the bot in the West - and you can do Enumerations if you want, or just Diamondback them. If you're Diamondbacking them, get in position and swiftcast DB - it's faster than it seems! Our clear run actually had one guy just slide up to a 2-enum, while the 3-enum took the debuffs.

Phase 6: The Final Judgment! Gavel Strike!

The first time we made it to Gavel, we survived the cast. Sure, we died right after, but only because we didn't know orbs fly off hilariously if you don't get it immediately. It is not that hard.

STEP 0: Have this image open on another monitor. You literally get enough time to look at your buff, pull up the image, go "hmm, yup, that's my buff, so this is what I do", do your thing and still live. Gavel is slow, so don't panic! Just stay calm and meet your criteria.

1: MAKE SURE EVERYONE IS ALIVE. Gavel just kills you if you're 7/8 when Verdict casts.

2: Get some damage in while Verdict casts! Drop MG when Final Justice drops, get libra/offguard/light up, and start throwing some DPS! Safe Roles to Moon Flute with: 1, 2, 3, Nisi A, Nisi B - but flute very early! You need to MG after Gavel, or you will likely die.

3: Heal the shit out of everyone! If you didn't do a tornado, toss out some white winds during movements. Nisis and whoever is tanking BJ are especially at risk of death - especially if the MT is min HP! STOP HEALING WHEN GAVEL STARTS. You do not want to accidentally heal the Min HP player. Healers focus on single targeting the max HP if the MT is the max HP player.

4: Do YOUR mechanic! Anyone can get any mechanic, which can cause some funky interactions if you're not careful!

Nisi A and B: Find your steam regulator, kill it and get to your top orb and wait for Penalty I.

Penalty I: Touch 3 orbs, healing between each one. SW, NW, NE in that order. Make sure to touch north orbs with your partner. You don't have to be simultaneous, just be quick. They do about 15k unmitigated, so be healthy or MG it.

Penalty II: Touch NE tornado, do damage.

Penalty III: Touch tornado, do damage, and AFTER Gavel casts, both of you touch SE orb quickly!

Min HP: FROG LEGS -> DAMAGE BJ. Take 3 (or 4) auto-attacks. Now, what you do next is a bit tricky. If you're the MT, ask the OT to take it from you first. Otherwise, just wait for Gavel to start casting, and jump in the NW tornado mid-cast.

Max HP: Nobody Devour. If you accidentally do, click off the buff. Max HP will Devour as Gavel is casting. This guarantees they are the highest HP, as long as everyone has eaten similar-vit food. (kukuru rusks are delicious).

If Gavel resolves, the two III's take an orb, and you aren't Final Sentence'd, you did Gavel correctly! Mighty Guard and Mitigate for Final J-Kick. It does about 27k unmitigated, so MG up and get those damage downs in! Party stack south, MT north, OT west.

Notes about Instancing: Any time you do Gavel, you get a random mechanic - but so long as you are in the same instance with the same party, you will get only two possible mechanics. I had III and Orange Nisi one instance, and Orange and Blue Nisi another instance. Once you know your two mechanics, you know if it's safe to dump Frog Legs, and will have an easier time doing your mechanic quickly and efficiently. But the moment you exit and re-enter, it shuffles which mechanics you can get!

Phase 7: Final Justice: How Many Phases Does This Goddamn Fight Have Edition

MGs off except MT or OT. Get damage in. MT Diamondbacks Final Punch. The moment the Final Punch cast bar appears, OT uses Frog Legs. OT should cast The Look, then the moment Ray locks in pointing West, run through the boss and swiftcast Diamondback on the other side. You want to Diamondback ludicrously early so you have time to dodge Sky Seed puddles and stack if you get the stack marker. Rest of the party should rotate 90 degrees to do sky seed and the stack marker, dodging the Mine if it's in the way.

There will be a Hidden Mine. After the stack marker, everyone except Compressed Water away from it. When it explodes it hits a bigger area than it looks! Compressed water player should die to the mine. It can be anyone, so have a plan! Our plan looked like this:

MT SAC: OT takes BJ, assigned 3rd jumper takes Super Jump.
OT SAC: Assigned 3rd jumper takes Super Jump.
Anyone else: Standard Procedure.

If you don't die to the mine, just sting yourself out of existence.

OT, or baiter, after you do stack marker, run far away for Super Jump. We did South.

Next, EVERYONE DIAMONDBACK for Chakrams + Enumeration + Mega Beam. Who does mechanics at this point? We're BLUs!

After this is Super Jump into Flarethrower - everyone away from the MT. MT should tank it normally.

Next, start from the top - Final Punch north by MT, then OT takes Final Apoc and Final Beam. Mitigate here. Throw out an addle, bad breath and hammer for the final J-storm transition.

Phase 8: Victory Road

If all 8 of you are alive for this, you win unless you make a hilarious, colossal fuckup. Have everyone stack. MT, throw damage and spam out Bad Breaths and libras and Blood Drains and whatever damage you can fit in. Healers, spam Exuviation. DPS, just DPS, but stagger Hammers and Addles as best you can. If FJ is under like 70%, you can win - especially if you skipped Intermission 1, you have roughly 2 minutes to kill him (though you'll die to Waves way before then). Final Sting chart says you can 7-sting at 30%, but we killed it with 5 stings at 30% just because lolcrits. Healers can sting too - MT switch to WW to keep everyone alive, while everyone else stings. YOU WIN!

A12 coming later, this post is already insanely long. Let me know if you have any questions!

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