A12S (Alexander Prime)

None can deny the wandering minstrel’s inimitable way with words, nor the manner in which his penchant for embellishment and exaggeration has rendered your triumph over the primal Alexander all the more triumphant─and the insurmountable odds over which you did prevail all the more insurmountable. Reach back into your memory and relive your adventure inside the steel giant as it will live on in the hearts and minds of all who hear the tale!

Overview

This is the sixth fight in the Morbol raid series and is one of the more difficult ones. It is a long fight with lots of phases, but each phase on its own is pretty simple.

Video Guide

Party Setup

For this fight I recommend the standard one tank mimic, two healer mimics, and five DPS mimics. It can be solo healed, it just requires some extra coordination during the time gates phase.

Utility Spells

• Diamondback
• Mighty Guard on the add off-tank.
• Stotram on non-healers.
• Hydro Pull or equivalent on healer.

Phase 1: Alexander

The first phase used to be quite difficult, but now we just skip it. All DPS and potentially one healer will do a Moon Flute Opener to push Alexander to the next phase before any actual mechanics happen. If you happen to see Prey markers appear as he is transitioning you can ignore them, since they won’t actually do anything.

The only difficult part of this phase is the tank’s job. The tank should pre-cast Dragon Force, pull the boss, cast White Wind for threat, point Alexander north, and then cast Diamondback once Punishing Heat starts casting. Punishing Heat is a brutal tankbuster hits for about 40k damage unmitigated, but Diamondback makes it comfy. Alexander will also use Divine Spear at this time, which is a conal tankbuster. This hits hard so the non-fluting healer will need to keep the tank healthy. Both Punishing Heat and Divine Spear can be mitigated with things like Bad Breath, Magic Hammer, and Addle.

Phase 2: Adds

The adds phase here has three waves of adds. The first two are kind of freebies while the third set is the one that requires some attention.

The tank should start at the north side of the arena and cast White Wind as soon as the adds become targetable. They will all start chasing the tank, at which point they should just start kiting them in a small circle around the center. At least one of the healers needs to watch the tank closely as they can die pretty quickly if the adds catch the tank. Sprint can be used to reduce damage greatly. While the tank is running around, the party should stand in the exact center of the arena and spam their AOE spell to kill the adds.

Once the first set of adds spawns, one add will spawn just outside the center in each intercardinal direction. These adds spam Almost Holy, a raidwide hit that grants them a damage up buff. If you stand in the center of the arena, your AOE spells like Hydro Pull and Stotram will hit all four. If you get hit by the first four hits completely unmitigated you can end up in Revenge Blast HP range for the next set of adds, but in my experience it’s easier to just hold until they’re nearly dead, use Cold Fog, and then finish them off, which still gives you a nice damage boost on the next set.

The next set of adds is the only one that really requires some care. On the West side there will be a General’s Might and on the east side there will be a General’s Time. These need to be tanked separately since Time will buff Might if they’re too close. Might spams Smash, a physical tankbuster, and Time spams Half-Gravity, a magical tankbuster. Between tankbusters they will auto-attack and grant themselves physical (Might) and magical (Time) damage up buffs. There are 8.3 seconds between each Smash and 9.3 seconds between each Half-Gravity, which means Diamondback can cover two at a time. I recommend having the main tank pick up Time and the off-tank pick up Might. You can use two tanks on Time and trade threat back and forth for each tankbuster, but that consumes a lot of MP, requires Frog Legs, and just takes longer so I don’t recommend it.

The basic flow of this phase is:

• Tanks pick up adds.
• Main tank mitigates first Smash without Diamondback, and future Smashes with Diamondback. Off-tank mitigates all Half-Gravities with Diamondback.
• Party kills Might first then switches to Time; tank picks up Time tanking duties.
• Party kills Time.

The main tank should precast Dragon Force before picking up Might. Once they pick up Might they should refresh Devour, generate a bit of threat, and then cast Chelonian Gate for the opening Smash. For all subsequent Smashes, the tank can use Diamondback to mitigate two in a row. What the tank needs to look for is for Time to spin its hands and apply a damage up buff to itself. When this happens, Diamondback can be hardcasted (no Swiftcast) and it will mitigate two Smashes in a row. Most groups won’t see more Smashes than that, but we still want the main tank to pick up Might because the opening Smash is untelegraphed and hard to deal with without precasting Dragon Force. After the Might is dead, the main tank can pick up Time and handle the rest of its busters so the other person can go back to DPSing.

Tanking Time can be a little bit trickier, but it follows the same general idea. Instead of being untelegraphed, Half-Gravity has a 3.5 second cast time. Since there are 9.3 seconds between each Half-Gravity, and Diamondback covers 10 seconds, we want our Diamondback cast to finish in the last 0.70 seconds of the Half-Gravity cast. It can take some practice to get the timing down, but once you get used to it it’s very consistent. If we have a 2.20 second GCD (standard gear), that means we have a 1.76 cast time on Diamondback need to start our own cast between 1.04 and 1.74 seconds on the Half-Gravity cast (1.04 + 1.76 = 2.80, 1.74 + 1.76 = 3.50, or the last 0.70 seconds of the cast).

TL;DR: We want to aim for starting our Diamondback cast at about 40% of the way through the Half-Gravity cast bar to cover two casts per Diamondback.

I usually just use cast bar to know when to start, shown below. It’s pretty forgiving once you’re used to it, but it will take some practice.

Once the adds are dead you can just meet up in the middle and wait for the transition. Alexander shows up again and casts Divine Judgment, a massive raidwide hit that requires Diamondback to survive. Once the first textbox disappears (“Executing judgment protocol in 10 seconds…”) or the second textbox appears you can safely cast Diamondback to mitigate the damage.

Phase 3: Time Stops

Alexander will appear in the center and become targetable again. This is a good opportunity for a Moon Flute Opener. However, you will not be able to fit an entire opener into this window since just about 15 seconds after showing up the next mechanic will start and will require everyone to move around. Alexander will apply debuffs to everyone (except one person) and start channeling Temporal Stasis, which will stop time and stop the duration of all buffs and debuffs. The debuffs that were just applied to everyone continue to count down and will resolve while everyone is stuck in place.

The debuffs applied are:

• Shared Sentence: Deals light AOE damage around the player and applies a Magic Vulnerability Up debuff. This kills the target unless the damage is shared with another player.
• House Arrest: Two players will be tethered with green and red tethers. These players must be close to each other or the tether will break, apply a Magic Vulnerability Up debuff to each player, and then they will die to subsequent damage.
• Restraining Order: Two players will be tethered with a blue tether. These players must be far apart from each otehr or the tether will break, apply a Magic Vulnerability Up debuff to each player, and then they will die to subsequent damage.
• Defamation: Deals AOE damage in a massive area (about the size of the arena) and applies a Magic Vulnerability Up debuff.

In short, Defamation players need to spread out to avoid hitting other people, Shared Sentence players need to stack with at least one person that does not also have Shared Sentence, and the tethers need to maintain the correct distance to avoid breaking.

In the first time stop there will be two Shared Sentence debuffs, three Defamation debuffs, one set of tethers, and one person with no debuff. To resolve this, we will send people to the following locations:

• Defamation splits between west, east, and south (markers A, B and C below).
• Shared Sentences will go north and separate from one another (markers 1 and 2 below).
• Tether player(s) go to the Shared Sentence player on the west (marker 1 below). If the tether players have House Arrest, they will both go to the north side. If the tether players have Restraining Order, then one person goes to the north and one person goes to the south.
• No debuff goes to the Shared Sentence player on the east (marker 2 below).

The movement has to happen pretty quickly and there is very little room for error. As soon as debuffs go out, Defamation players should call out where they are going so there is no overlap. Shared Sentence players and the person with no debuff can immediately start moving towards the north side. I recommend having Shared Sentence players jump or mark themselves in some way to indicate that they are a Shared Sentence player to prevent both from going to the same side or confusing the player with no debuff. If the tethered players have House Arrest, they can immediately start heading to the north. If they have Restraining Order, they need to quickly determine who is going north and who is going south and then split accordingly.

/mk bind <me>

If all of this is done correctly, a bunch of explosions will happen and everyone will be alive. I do recommend using any mitigations available, at minimum Addle and Gobskin, before the Time Stop actually happens. Since the duration of all buffs/debuffs freezes during Time Stop (but the effects continue), this is a very good opportunity to use Cold Fog and Angel's Snack. Cold Fog probably won’t fit in the first Time Stop due to Waning Nocturne, but it will work well for the second one.

Immediately after players are able to move, Gravitational Anomalies will appear. These are small black and red circles that will expand after a delay and immediately kill anyone inside. They will spawn underneath random players and also in the following pattern:

The relative pattern of the puddles will always be the same (three sets of three puddles in a triangle formation), but the whole configuration can be rotated to any angle around the center of the arena.

While this is happening, Alexander will be channeling Sacrament or Radiant Sacrament. Sacrament will cause Alexander to shoot large rectangular beams from his cardinal positions, and Radiant Sacrament will cause Alexander to create a gigantic donut AOE centered around himself. You need to very carefully dodge the Gravitational Anomalies while also positioning yourself to avoid whichever sacrament Alexander is casting. If you struggle with the positioning, I recommend saving J Kick to deal with the Radiant Sacrament cast and Sprint to deal with the Sacrament cast (each version will happen one time).

Once sacrament is finished, Alexander will cast Mega Holy which is a heavy-hitting raidwide. If you are at full health and don’t mitigate this at all you will be put into range for Revenge Blast. This was very helpful when we were only level 60, but I don’t really recommend this strategy anymore. Mitigate appropriately and then heal up.

After Mega Holy, Alexander will use a Divine Spear → Punishing Heat → Divine Spear combo. The party needs to make sure they’re not in front of Alexander for this, and the tank needs to mitigate appropriately. A well-timed Diamondback can mitigate all three hits but it’s very difficult. If the tank can make sure Devour is up they will be fine for the first hit, but Addle, Bad Breath, Dragon Force, and Chelonian Gate can be helpful as well. Diamondback should be used for the Punishing Heat and Divine Spear that follow.

Once the tankbusters are done, Alexander will start casting Time Stop again. This time there will be only two Defamations but there will also be two sets of tethers. This is handled the same way as before, only the tethers need to split between north and south (if needed) and Shared Sentence players to resolve all debuffs.

Alexander will use Gravitational Anomaly again while using whichever sacrament variant wasn’t used previously, followed by Mega Holy, and then another set of tankbusters. Alexander will then teleport away for a moment before returning to the center to start the next phase.

Phase 4: Time Gates

Four time gates will appear around the arena, one each in the northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast and one add will enter each one. One player can enter each time gate, and the adds inside must all be killed or it is a wipe. The two northern gates are considered “DPS” gates since they don’t hit hard and don’t have a ton of health, the one in the southwest is considered a “tank” gate since it uses Smash repeatedly and requires mitigation, and the one in the southeast is considered a “healer” gate since the add spams Half-Gravity does a huge percentage of health and requires constant healing.

Assign four players to enter the gates (but the main tank should not enter). The DPS players just need to kill their add and then use the jump spots in the room to move to the south spot and help kill the tank and healer adds. The tank should put up Mighty Guard, do a little bit of damage to generate threat, and then Diamondback. Alternatively, the tank gate player can Moon Flute and use some strong spells like Triple Trident (buffed before entering the gate) and Matra Magic to kill it before Smash even happens. The healer should engage their add and then mostly just spam Pom Cure on themselves. If you are running a single healer, I recommend sending a DPS into this gate and having them burst it in the same manner described for the tank gate. Once the players kill the adds they will return to the rest of the party.

The four players on the outside will have slightly more responsibility. Alexander is going to drop four crystals onto players and do some mechanics in between. These crystals need to be dropped between each cardinal and the intercardinal spot clockwise from it. If two crystals are too close or Alexander gets too close to a crystal, the crystal will explode and deal proximity-based damage. The positioning sounds weird and confusing, but this is required to resolve a future mechanic. The positioning for the four crystals around the arena and the spot for a single drop can be shown below.

I usually like to start at the northernmost position and work clockwise from there, but any order is fine as long as the crystals end up in the correct positions in the end. Whoever gets targeted by the crystal, indicated by a red marker overhead, needs to bring the crystal out to the spot immediately. After the first crystal drop, someone will be targeted by a stack AOE. I recommend having this player just Diamondback. After the second crystal, Alexander will use Sacrament or Radiant Sacrament, so just dodge accordingly. After the third crystal Alexander will use Punishing Heat, so the tank will need to mitigate appropriately. Diamondback works but should be casted early because the crystals can target the tank, and if the fourth crystal targets them they will need to be able to move out. Dragon Force and Chelonian Gate combined provides sufficient mitigation to survive as well and can work better here.

The time gate players will usually return around the time of the third or fourth crystal, but they will not be targeted by the remaining crystals.

If all of this was done correctly, then the crystals should be in the locations shown in the image above. About 15 seconds after the fourth crystal drops Alexander will start casting Inception and then disappear. The party should return to the center of the arena and get ready for the next mechanic.

Phase 5: Inception

Alexander will reappear at a random cardinal or intercardinal position and cast Sacrament (the version where he shoots beams). Since every cardinal or intercardinal position is adjacent to a crystal, this will trigger Tetrashatter which causes a crystal to explode with proximity-based damage. Quickly identify which crystal is exploding and then move away from it to reduce its damage and to the relative east and west of it to avoid the Sacrament beams. It doesn’t matter if he’s spawning on the cardinal or intercardinal adjacent to the crystal, this movement will be safe every time. The image below shows Alexander spawning in either the north or northeast spot and triggering Tetrashatter on the northernmost crystal.

Alexander will cast Radiant Sacrament immediately after, so the party needs to get underneath him quickly. Just like before, J Kick or Sprint can be helpful here. Alexander follows up with a Divine Spear → Punishing Heat combo, so stay away from tank while the tank Diamondbacks.

Once the tankbusters are done, Alexander will use Gravitational Anomaly and Incinerating Heat, a stack damage AOE. Stay out of the center of the arena, and then move into the center of the arena once the Gravitational Anomaly puddles appear. The center is always safe as long as we don’t bait puddles there.

After Incinerating Heat resolves, Alexander will start casting Inception again. This time he will also apply Time Stop debuffs to people. There will be one Shared Sentence, one Defamation, and then three random pairs of tethers. The safe spots from Alexander will be the same as before (away from crystal, relative east/west) but this time we need the Shared Sentence to go relative west and the Defamation to go relative east. Anyone with House Arrest (red/green tethers) should go to the west, and any Restraining Order tethers (blue) will need to split east and west. The tethers also disappear after a few seconds, so there is only a brief period to figure out who is going where if you had Restraining Order tethers. This is the hardest mechanic in the fight for us, and this is what it should look like for resolving the debuffs:

Phase 6: Summon Alexander

When Alexander gets summoned there will be two Void of Repentance pools that will spawn. These apply a Magic Vulnerability Up debuff and shrink each time they’re soaked, and explode if they’re not soaked properly. The way we handle this is by assigning two players (usually main tank and off-tank) to stand in the puddle, wait a few seconds, and then cast Diamondback. These players will still require heals since the damage is extremely high. There is about an 11 second gap between the puddles appearing and the first hit, and then an 8 second gap between the first hit and the third hit. You can safely wait for the first hit and then use Diamondback to mitigate the two follow-up hits.

After the puddles are soaked, there will be another Incinerating Heat that needs to be shared. The players who soaked the puddle can not stack, though, because they will have a Magic Vulnerability Up debuff still. Alexander will then cast Holy Bleed which is a massive raidwide AOE, followed by Holy Scourge tankbusters (indicated by red circles overhead) which need to be Diamondbacked, and Chastening Heat which is a tankbuster that applies a Physical Vulnerability Up debuff. If your group has gotten to this point it is likely a wipe. The phase will repeat with the addition of Communion, which is a chaser-style AOE that leaves behind puddles, before going into hard enrage.

Final Sting

Alexander Prime’s Final Sting threshold is roughly 10%. Once he is at 10%, apply Off-guard, use Moon Flute, any Primal abilities you have, then finish with Whistle and Final Sting. Most groups will be able to sting before Inception 2, which makes the fight dramatically easier. Groups with really strong DPS can even skip Inception 1.