Alexander - The Arm of the Father (Savage)

Level: 60 (Sync: 60)
Item Level: 200
Difficulty: Normal

Party size: Full Party
8 man • 2 2 4
Unsyncing: Allowed
Time limit: 90 minutes
Phoenix Down: Not Available
Duty Finder: Savage Raids (Heavensward)
Tomestones: 15
Req. quest: A Song of Steam and Steel
Location: Condensate Demineralizer #9, The Arm of the Father
Region: Dravania
Stone, Sky, Sea: Available
Patch: 3.05
The Echo: Permanent +20%

“

What fun is there in merely restating the facts? Never one to be content with the truth, the wandering minstrel has taken the liberty of retelling the tale of your journey into Alexander with his trademark embellishments. Some may question the value of such entertainment, but none can deny the skill with which he weaves his tapestry of song and verse, immersing you in memory...

— In-game description

Alexander - The Arm of the Father (Savage) is a level 60 raid introduced in patch 3.05 with Heavensward. Also known as A3S, it is the third sector of Alexander: Gordias (Savage).

Strategy

Living Liquid

This boss has four phases that transition purely based on time.

The outside edge of the arena is an electrified pit that when fallen into, inflicts players with a 3 second Stun, 15 second incurable Paralysis, and Electrocution damage until exited. While not immediately lethal, this can prove deadly when combined with other attacks.

Pre-Fight Setup:

Players should assign specific positions around the arena for each player to avoid a mechanic that repeats throughout the fight. Players can use the segments on the floor to assign positions.

Depending on the party's preferred method for dealing with Digititis, it may be helpful to give each tank and healer a DPS partner using Signs.

Two spots opposite to each other on the arena should be marked for where tanks should split the two hands in phase 2-B.

Phase 1

Living liquid starts in Anthropomorph form. The boss should be pulled to and tanked in the center, facing away from the rest of the party.

Phase 1 Abilities
Name	Description
Fluid Swing	Frontal cleave for physical damage. Ensure Living Liquid is always facing away from the party.
Protean Wave	Dodgeable cone AoEs are aimed at six different players, which must be stepped out of. Afterwards, six undodgeable conal AoEs are shot at six random players. The dodgeable waves deal massive knock-back, while the undodgeable waves simply deal damage to players in a line.
Splash	Unavoidable magic damage to the entire party. Always cast three times in rapid succession.
Sluice	Four to six players are marked by blue arrows, then four to six ground AoEs appear under random players. Marked players are hit with AoE damage, then ground AoEs burst. The ground AoE damage hits twice as hard as the marked AoEs.

Phase 1 primarily consists of spreading out to avoid hitting other players with AoEs. This phase lasts approximately 60 seconds.

Phase 1 Rotation
Ability	Strategy
Fluid Swing	Ensure Living Liquid is facing away from the rest of the party at all times. Only the main tank should be in front of the boss.
Protean Wave	Dodge the first set of conal AoEs. The instant the AoEs disappear, move into a spread circle around the boss to prevent two or more players being hit by the next cone AoE.
Fluid Swing
Splash x3	Healers will want to keep the raid healthy with AoE heals.
Fluid Swing
Sluice	Marked players should spread away from others. At the same time, players must run out of any ground AoEs that appear.
Splash x3
Fluid Swing
Phase 2-A Start

Phase 2-A

Living Liquid becomes temporarily invincible, taking on a Chiromorph form.

While Living Liquid should stay in the center, players may want to stack in front of the boss as its cleave attack damage is divided across all in range.

Phase 2-A Abilities
Name	Description
Fluid Strike	A lethal physical-damage frontal cleave. Damage is divided across all players in range. Either the entire party should take this together, or both tanks using mitigations.
Wash Away	Knocks back all players in completely random directions— unrelated to Living Liquid's position. Can be resisted with Arm's Length or Surecast.
Digititis	One tank is Marked for Vulnerability Up, a healer Marked for Healing Down, and a DPS Marked for Damage Down. Once the cast finishes, the marked will be inflicted with their assigned debuffs. Marked players can touch another party member to swap the mark to them. Both players will then be Hard Marked, preventing them from swapping that mark again. Physical Vulnerability Up increases physical damage taken by 50%. Damage Down decreases damage dealt by 30%. Healing Down decreases healing spell potency by 33%.

There are two strategies to handling Digititis:

Tanks give their mark to DPS — DPS give their mark to healers — Healers give their mark to tanks.
Each tank and healer has one DPS partner (player pairs can be marked using Signs). When Digititis starts casting, players can look for and run to their partners.

The first strategy prevents tanks from getting any Damage Down debuffs, but requires more coordination. Players can only swap marks once, so marked players will have to avoid other party members with marks as they may already be Hard Marked.

The second strategy is much simpler and automatic, but tanks may get their damage output reduced multiple times throughout the fight.

Phase 2-A Rotation
Ability	Strategy
Fluid Strike	Either have all party members stack with the main tank to split the damage, or have both tanks stack and use their 20% mitigation ability at the start of the phase.
Wash Away	All players should run to the center, as the knockback direction is completely random and unpredictable. Alternatively, use a knock-back resist ability.
Digititis	Using whatever strategy the raid prefers, the three marked players must swap their debuffs with a player of a different job type.
Fluid Strike	Tanks can use their 30% here to mitigate both Fluid Strikes. Any player inflicted with Physical Vulnerability Up should not join the stack.
Fluid Strike
Wash Away	Run to the center or use a knock-back resist.
Phase 2-B Start

Phase 2-B

Living Liquid splits itself into two smaller versions, one being named Liquid Limb. Liquid Limb will copy the enmity table of Living Liquid, and will need to be provoked by the off-tank immediately.

The health of Living Liquid will be split equally between the two at the start of this phase.

Phase 2-B Abilities
Name	Description
Fluid Strike	No longer a stacking cleave, now instead a cleave that adds a stack of Blunt Resistance Down. Each stack increases damage taken by physical attacks by 12.5%
Hand of Parting	One of the two hands will begin glowing bright blue with its palm open. This ability does increased damage to the party the farther away the two hands are from each other. Failure to bring the hands close enough together in time will inflict the entire party with Atrophy— reducing all attributes by 30% for 30 seconds.
Hand of Prayer	One of the two hands will begin glowing bright blue with its hand closed into a fist. This ability does increased damage to the party the closer the two hands are to each other. Failure to bring the hands far enough away in time will inflict the entire party with Atrophy— reducing all attributes by 30% for 30 seconds.
Equal Concentration	One hand gives ~4.5% of it's current health to the other. Leads into the ability Hand of Pain.
Hand of Pain	Deals magic damage to the entire party increasing based how far apart the two hand's health values are. HP values must be within ~5% of each other to not be lethal.

The off-tank should Provoke the Liquid Limb and take it to the opposite side of the arena.

Both hands should be tanked facing away from the center. Bosses should be held on the dark-brown ring on the arena to give ample time to move them closer or farther away in response to Hand of Parting/Prayer.

Phase 2-B Rotation
Attack	Strategy
Fluid Strike	Face both hands away from the party. Stacks of Blunt Resistance Down will begin building up throughout the phase, increasing damage taken by the tanks.
Hand of Parting/Prayer	Both tanks should keep an eye out for which hand is casting and of what ability. Open Palm means both tanks move to the center, Fist means both tanks move to the edge.
Digititis	Handle as before. As tanks are split across the room, swapping players may need to be aware of which tank is marked and which one is not.
Equal Concentration	Watch the health value of the hands. DPS should target the hand with higher health ASAP. The tank with the lower health hand may want to slow or stop their damage output.
Fluid Strike
Fluid Strike
Fluid Strike
Hand of Pain	As long as the hands are within 5% health of each other, this shouldn't deal significant amounts of damage.
Hand of Parting/Prayer	As before, watch the hands and move to the center or edge accordingly.
Fluid Strike
Phase 3 Start

Phase 3

Living Liquid transforms once again, this time into its Anemomorph form. The boss is Invincible for the entirety of this phase.

Phase 3 Abilities
Name	Strategy
Gear Lubricant	Small slimes that slowly move from the center to the electrified pool. If allowed to reach the edge, explodes for party-wide damage, inflicts Electrocution, and grants Living Liquid a stack of Damage Up. On death, explodes for minimal party-wide damage.
Piston Lubricant	Larger versions of the Gear Lubricant. Will deal twice the damage Gear Lubricants do if allowed to reach the electricity, as well as the usual Electrocution to players and Damage Up to the boss. On death, explodes for slight party-wide damage. When Piston Lubricants reach the outer edge of the dark-brown ring, they will attempt to cast an interruptible spell, Mucilage. This spell grants the Piston Lubricant Sprint.
Ferrofluid	Players are randomly given a Positive Charge or Negative Charge, then tethered to one other charged player. When the cast finishes, players are pushed or pulled like magnets would be: Tethered players with the same charge will be pushed away from each other. They should move close together to avoid being pushed into the outer pool afterwards. Tethered players with opposite charges will be pulled towards each other. These players need to move to opposite edges of the arena— if pulled too close together both get inflicted with Atrophy.
Drainage	Two random players will be tethered. These tethers can be intercepted by players running through them. After 6 seconds, the two tethered players will take very high magic damage in an AoE.

Living Liquid will create a large pool of water around itself in the center of the arena that must be avoided. Standing in this pool will inflict the player with Dropsy, dealing damage over time.

This phase is instead split into six waves of enemies that must be killed before they can reach the electrified pool on the outside edge of the arena.

During this time, Living Liquid will be casting multiple abilities, as well as frequent casts of Contamination and Severe Contamination, which does magic damage to random players or the entire party.

Phase 3 Rotation
Waves	Enemies	Attacks	Strategies
Wave 1	Piston Lubricant x2	None	Simply burn down the Piston Lubricants immediately. Healers be ready for regular AoE healing.
Wave 2	Gear Lubricant x3	Drainage	Both tanks should grab the two tethers as soon as possible and keep away from the other players after. Healers should be prepared to heal the tanks immediately after. Tanks may want to stay close to the center to prevent other players from running into the tether.
Wave 3	Piston Lubricant x1 Gear Lubricant x2	Ferrofluid	Four players will be marked with random charges and tethered into two pairs. Identify your partner's charge and compare it to yours. If your charge matches, run towards the center with your partner with the AoE pool to your immediate left or right— aiming to be knocked directly backwards by your partner. If your charges are opposites, run to the farthest edge of the arena opposite of your partner— but ensure the tornado is not directly between you two.
Wave 4	Gear Lubricant x4	Drainage	Same as wave two but with one extra Gear Lubricant.
Wave 5	Gear Lubricant x3	Ferrofluid	Same as Wave 3 but without a Piston Lubricant.
Wave 6	Piston Lubricant x4	None	Kill all Piston Lubricants as fast as possible. Tanks and ranged DPS will want to keep an eye out for Piston Lubricants casting Mucilage and interrupt it.
Phase 4 Start

Phase 4

Living Liquid finally transforms back into its Anthropomorph form, now combining all its prior attacks into one last assault.

This final phase is a loop of several mechanics, or a pairing of mechanics requiring players to move quickly and carefully in order to resolve them properly.

Phase 4 Abilities
Name	Description
Fluid Swing	Now inflicts a stack of Blunt Resistance Down. Tank swaps are recommended after 4 stacks.
Cascade	Deals high magic damage to the entire party, then summons three puddles around the arena that inflict Dropsy if stood inside. After the third cast, the three puddles will then contain tornados that will cast Protean Wave, Drainage, Liquid Gaol, and Embolus. The tornado version of Protean Wave simply fires a single dodgeable AoE cone at a player, but will still limit everyone's movement space.
Summon Limb	A healer is marked by a green arrow. A few seconds later, they are stunned (in an AoE) and grabbed by a Liquid Limb. This Liquid Limb will slowly carry the healer towards the closest edge and into the electrified pool. If not killed in time, it will drop the healer into the pool— then attack and kill the main tank. The Liquid Limb is vulnerable to Stun and Heavy. Players should use any debuffs at their disposal to slow it as much as possible. The pools of water will heal the Liquid Limb if it moves through them. It is extremely important that the targeted healer moves to a position where the Limb will not move through a puddle.
Liquid Gaol	A random player is inflicted with Throttle. This acts like Doom— if Esuna is not used within 15 seconds, the player will instantly die.
Embolus	A small blue bubble slowly moves from one of the three tornados towards Living Liquid's current location. If this bubble comes into contact with any player or the boss, it will burst for moderate party-wide damage and grant Living Liquid a stack of Damage Up.

Players will have much less area to move around in during this phase, but will still have to spread out and position correctly for Protean Wave and Ferrofluid.

The boss should be kept in the center as much as possible to make Protean Wave easier to dodge and spread out for, but will have to be moved away on occasion for certain mechanics.

Phase 4 Rotation
Attack	Strategy
Cascade	Prepare to use large AoE heals. Using damage reduction debuffs on Living Liquid helps.
Ferrofluid	Players will now have to aim themselves to not get pulled through or pushed into the puddles around the edges of the arena. Position carefully.
Splash x3
Fluid Swing
Sluice + Protean Wave	Try to move directly away from the boss for Sluice to leave the area free of AoEs for the followup Protean Wave.
Fluid Swing
Splash x3
Fluid Swing
Sluice + Digititis	Two DPS will now be Marked for Damage Down, along with one tank and one healer. Adjust your preferred strategy accordingly.
Cascade	Large heals will need to be prepared. Tanks should swap here.
Summon Limb	The marked healer should move closer to an edge that does not have a water puddle in front of it. Once the Limb appears, players should use their stun abilities while rDPS use Leg Graze to give as much extra time to kill it as possible.
Splash x3	One healer will be kidnapped during this, so the other remaining healer will have to manage the task alone until the other is freed.
Fluid Swing
Fluid Swing
Splash x3
Digititis	Handle as before.
Fluid Swing
Splash x3
Fluid Swing
Cascade	Large heals and a tank swap required. This will summon three tornados which will being casting additional abilities.
Fluid Swing
Tornado Protean + Drainage	One tornado creates a single Drainage tether while another aims a Protean Wave AoE on the ground. The off-tank must take the tether while the rest move out of the AoE.
Tornado Protean + Ferrofluid	Position for the Ferrofluid while avoiding the Protean Wave AoE on the ground.
Fluid Swing
Liquid Gaol x2	Healers need to be ready to Esuna or else the targeted players will die.
Embolus	All players should move out of the way of the bubble. The tank should drag Living Liquid to the side of the tornado that fired the bubble
Tornado Protean + Drainage + Sluice	The off-tank should aim to grab the tether while the other players spread out for Sluice.
Embolus	The tank should move Living Liquid back to the center to avoid the bubble.
Fluid Swing	Tank swap.
Repeat from Start

At this point, the party must kill the boss before it enrages.

Loot

Treasure Coffer 1

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
Gordian Leg Gear Coffer (IL 210)	Other	N/A	ABasic	1

Treasure Coffer 2

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
Gordian Head Gear Coffer (IL 210)	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Gordian Hand Gear Coffer (IL 210)	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Gordian Foot Gear Coffer (IL 210)	Other	N/A	ABasic	1

Music

Section	Theme
Main	Locus

Alexander - The Arm of the Father (Savage)

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