The Epic of Alexander cleaaaar

[Jake]

Y'all got anymore of those ultimates
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I kinda said multiple times in the past that Ultimate Coil would be my last raid in XIV... then I said Ultima Weapon Ultimate would be my last raid in XIV... NOW I'm saying Alex Ulitmate is my last raid in XIV. For realzies. I think.

Anyway. For those unaware, the Epic of Alexander is an ultimate raid in Final Fantasy XIV that mashes up bosses from the Alexander raid tier that was released in Heavensward. You fight Living Liquid (from the 3rd floor of Alex Gordias), Brute Justice (4th floor of Alex Midas), Cruise Chaser (3rd floor of Alex Creator), and of course Alexander itself (4th floor of Alex Creator) all in a single lengthy battle with no checkpoints and the difficulty ramped up to 12. If that wasn't enough, once you've defeated those guys by themselves they all fuse together - power rangers style - to create Perfect Alexander.

Overall I wasn't as impressed with this raid as I was the previous two ultimates - I actually quit entirely at the start of the year and only reformed a week or so ago - but there are some neat elements to it. The limit cuts are probably the hardest parts (happens multiple times during the fight: people are randomly marked 1-8 and Cruise Chaser cleaves in front of the odd numbers and charges at the following even number in order. So for example, person marked with 1 would get cleaved and then Cruise Chaser would do a huge line AoE towards person marked with 2 and so on. You're usually trying to do this while dodging AoEs and grabbing puddles and if anyone gets hit by two of anything, then they outright die). And I have to mention just how ridiculous the Perfect Alexander fusion cutscene is, haha (11 minutes into the video below)

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Neat little lore tidbit about this fight is that Perfect Alexander in the final phase doesn't have any cast bars or indications relating to the mechanics it's about to send your way. It's only through the Enigma Codex - a buff given to you earlier on in the fight by a cat (Admittedly I've forgotten its significance in the original Alexander raid series) - that you're able to see your future self and how you die, giving you time to correctly complete the mechanic that otherwise would have killed you. Which is why there are clones in the final phase!

Why was I playing as WHM? Because Cure III was actually incredibly useful for once ok

I bought the AST weapon though. Totally looks better in game.
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I think overall we put in maybe 100 hours or so into this one fight. Phew. Big time commitment, though for the most part it was nice and chill. But stuff like that is really dependant on your group and how everyone gets along. Even the best of friends will start to get tense 70 hours into prog, haha. And as a healer I've certainly had my fair share of frustration!

ANYWAY that's my ramble on this fight. If you've cleared or been in there feel free to share your own opinions and stuff!

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[Dionysos]

Congratulations on the clear!

I'm likely never going to do this as I'm not an advanced player, but it is interesting to read about your experiences. The fight looks interesting, though insanely challenging (100 hours preparing for this is not something I would have anticipated).

As for Shanoa (the kitten), it was meant to be a clockwork contraption which sought to manipulate the timeline in order to ensure that Alexander could be beaten. I played this only recently (a few months back) but I'm still hazy on some of the details. Nevertheless, I believe it was Alexander himself who created the clockwork coeurl to carry out this task because Alexander had calculated that its own existence would bleed the world of aether.

 

[Jake]

Ahhh, I had a feeling it was something along those lines. It's just been years!

100 hours probably seems crazy when you see it played out in a video but when you have 8 people and a fight full of random mechanics that can go on anyone - all of which will usually wipe the entire raid if even one person messes them up - then you start to see why it takes a while . For example, in the second phase with Brute Justice and Cruise Chaser, you'll see four coloured icons appear on people's head. These are random debuffs that expire every 30 seconds and need to be passed through the entire encounter so that you end up with the (random) colour that you need. If two people run into each other with these colours - they'll die and it's a wipe. Even if one person dies but passes the colours correctly... it's a wipe. If you collect the wrong colour at the wrong time... it's a wipe. Correct colour 2 seconds too early? You'll wipe. Colour debuff falls off? You guessed it. Wipe. Add in the random stack mechanic (two groups of exactly three random people need to stack [but not touch] otherwise they all die), thunder and water passes that happen alongside the colours on random people every time... and you get the idea, haha. If that wasn't enough, the colours do constant damage throughout the phase and healing isn't a joke (two bosses = two times the damage on tanks).

PHEW. That's barely an overview of that phase - there's a lot more happening behind the scenes that you don't necessarily see - and it's not even the worst phase in the fight. Wormhole in phase 3 is a lot worse!

ramble ramble ramble