AAC Light-heavyweight M4 (Savage)

See also: AAC Light-heavyweight Tier (Savage) and AAC Light-heavyweight M4

AAC Light-heavyweight M4 (Savage)

Level

100 (Sync: 100)

Item Level

710

Difficulty

Savage

Party size

Full Party
8 man • 2 2 4

Unsyncing

Not Allowed

Time limit

120 minutes

Duty Finder

Raid Finder (Raids)

Tomestones

 30 

Req. quest

Talk to Gabbro after completing The Neoteric Witch

Location

The Thundering

Region

Xak Tural

Stone, Sky, Sea

Available

Patch

7.05

“

Your match against the neoteric witch came to an abrupt end when the former heavyweight fighter decided to flee─but what if she hadn't? Inspired by a muse of your own from Gabbro's words, your thoughts drift back to that imaginary city of her creation once more, where you envision an altogether novel struggle taking place...

— In-game description

AAC Light-heavyweight M4 (Savage) is a level 100 raid introduced in patch 7.05 with Dawntrail. The raid is also known as M4S.

Phases & Abilities

Animated guide by Hector Hectorson

Neoteric Witch: Wicked Thunder

Unlike Endwalker fourth-floor savage fights, this encounter does not have a door boss or checkpoint.

Players may fall off the edge of the arena to their deaths. Failing mechanics will typically inflict a non-stacking -25% Damage Down debuff for 30 seconds.

Strategy

Each player should be assigned a clock position along with light parties. Pairs of players consisting of 1 DPS and 1 support, each with an assigned quadrant, should also be designated.

Phase 1

• The main tank should pull the boss north, as she will jump to the north edge for the first major mechanic.
• Wrath of Zeus: High magical raid-wide damage, requiring mitigation.
• Bewitching Flight: The boss jumps to the north edge and telegraphs five sprays of purple energy down from her wings, leaving gaps in between. These indicate thin line AoEs with the gaps safe.
  • Four untargetable Gun Battery adds will spawn on the west wall. These will use untelegraphed line AoEs (Electray) in front of them, hitting either the upper or lower half of all tiles. These go off at the same time as Bewitching Flight, resulting in a criss-cross pattern of AoEs.
  • The Bewitching Flight line AoEs will leave behind five purple electricity lines, which do not harm the player when moved over.
  • Either the three inner lines will begin glowing, or the two outer lines, indicating late telegraphed wide line AoEs (Burst) through them.
  • The party should spread to their assigned sides by light party, with tanks and melees closer to the boss and ranged/healers closer to the corners.
  • Meanwhile, four Gun Battery adds will spawn on the east wall, while one more spawns on the north cardinal.
  • The boss will cast Electrifying Witch Hunt, hitting either all DPS or all supports with medium-sized AoEs (Witch Hunt) that deal physical damage and inflict Physical Vulnerability Up for 12s and Forked Lightning for 7s. The boss's attack resolves at the same time as the initial electric line and Gun Battery AoEs.
  • The remaining electric lines will begin glowing and the boss will cast Witch Hunt, a baited AoE attack that is indicated by the diamond markers on her.
    • Pink diamonds touching each other: The four closest players will be hit.
    • Blue diamonds not touching each other: The four furthest players will be hit.
  • Depending on which role was hit during Electrifying Witch Hunt, players will need to resolve the baits to prevent lethal damage from the lingering Physical Vulnerability Up and avoid hitting anyone with Forked Lightning, while dodging the remaining electric line AoEs.
  • For example, if DPS was the role that was hit first and the boss telegraphs far baits, then supports will need to be far to bait the Witch Hunt AoEs, while DPS are close. The party should remain fully spread to prevent overlap.
• Narrowing Witch Hunt or Widening Witch Hunt: The boss uses one of two similar attacks with a long cast. All players should report to modified clock spots for this mechanic, with melees swapping with the healers (so melees on west/east and healers southwest/southeast).
  • Regardless of which one is used, the boss will telegraph four alternating diamond markers, either pink-blue-pink-blue or blue-pink-blue-pink. These function similarly as before, but will instead target two players at a time with baited AoEs.
  • Both attacks consist of alternating untelegraphed point-blank (Lightning Vortex) and donut AoEs (Thundering). The diameter of point-blank AoE is the width of two tiles.
    • If Narrowing Witch Hunt was cast, the donut AoE will be used first, so the safe spots are in-out-in-out
    • If Widening Witch Hunt was cast, the point-blank AoE will be used first, so the safe spots are out-in-out-in.
  • During each donut and point-blank AoE, two different players will need to bait the AoEs indicated from the diamond markers to prevent lethal damage from lingering Physical Vulnerability Ups. Note that these bypass tank invulnerabilities.
  • Typically, tanks will take the first close baits, healers will take the first far baits, melee DPS will take the second close baits, and ranged DPS will take the second far baits. In other words, because the close-far baits always alternate, supports will always take the first and second baits, while DPS take the third and fourth.
  • The diamond markers can be ignored, as they are only two movement patterns per role, depending on whether the cast is Narrowing or Widening.
• Wrath of Zeus
• Electrope Edge: The boss summons four untargetable Electromine adds to each of the four corner tiles. Each tile will also be highlighted with bright blue lines for the upcoming mechanic.
  • Witchgleam: The boss uses four sets of line AoEs. Each set has two AoEs hitting random Electromines. The party should avoid being on the intercardinals to avoid unnecessary damage, although being hit by these does not inflict any debuffs.
  • Two of the adds will be hit two times, while the other two will only be hit once. The pattern of adds hit only once will always be either on the north or south half of the arena, or on diagonally opposite quadrants.
  • The number of times they are hit determines the size of the AoE that the adds will emit later. Adds that are hit once will only detonate their square (Spark), while adds that are hit twice will detonate their entire 2x2 quadrant (Spark II).
  • Symphony Fantastique and Sidewise Spark: The boss will telegraph a half-room cleave hitting either the east or west half using the same telegraph as in normal mode, leaving only one safe quadrant with an add only hit once. In addition, she will either have eight small orbs or four large orbs floating around her, indicating either a full party spread or partner stack.
  • The party must first identify the safe quadrant. Note that the corner tile with the add is unsafe.
  • If the boss has eight small orbs, the party must fully spread in this L-shaped region, as each player will be hit with a medium-sized AoE that inflicts Magic Vulnerability Up (Eight Star).
  • If the boss has four large orbs, the party must stack with their partners in this L-shaped region, as all supports or all DPS will be hit with a large split damage AoE that inflicts Magic Vulnerability Up (Four Star).
• Wicked Jolt: Telegraped magical line AoE tankbuster that inflicts Magic Vulnerability Up and hits twice, requiring either a tank swap and heavy mitigation or an invulnerability cooldown. If using invulnerability, should use it late in the cast bar (around when it reaches the J in Jolt) so it will cover both hits and the follow-up auto-attack that will otherwise be lethal due to the lingering vulnerability.
• Electrope Edge: Each player will receive an Electrical Condenser debuff lasting either 22 (short) or 42 seconds (long). Two DPS and two supports will have one timer length, while the remaining players will have the other length. When the debuff is active, players will have purple cubes around their character.
  • When the debuff expires, the players will emit a square AoE whose size depends on how many lightning attacks they were hit by when they had the debuff. The arena will also be partitioned into a 5x5 grid with blue lines, so the size of the AoE is relative to the new tile size.
    • Hit two times = A 3x3 AoE centered on the square the player is in (Spark II).
    • Hit three times = A 5x5 AoE centered on the square the player is in (Spark III).
    • Hit four or more times = An room-wide AoE that will wipe the party (Unmitigated Explosion).
    • The target player will take moderate magical damage and be inflicted with Lightning Resistance Down II when their debuff expires. However, anyone who is hit by another player's square AoE will take heavy damage and be inflicted with a stack of Sustained Damage.
  • All players should report to their standard clock spots for Witchgleam. The boss will again use four sets of line AoEs, but these will be aimed at four random players, for a total of 16 hits.
    • Each player must keep count of how many times they were hit.
    • Long players should automatically add one to their hit count.
    • Two short-debuff players will be hit twice, while the others will be hit thrice.
    • Two long-debuff players will be hit once, while the others will be hit twice. However, they should consider themselves to be hit twice and thrice, respectively, due to the long debuff.
  • Lightning Cage: The boss will telegraph multiple one-tile AoEs in a fixed pattern, which may be rotated to any cardinal. One cardinal tile at the edge of the arena will be safe, which is treated as the new north.
    • The short debuffs will expire soon, so the party must spread to certain locations to resolve these debuffs.
    • The long debuff players should go to the safe north tile.
    • The short debuff players hit twice should go to the northwest and northeast tiles directly below the unsafe corner tile, with supports taking northwest and DPS taking northeast.
    • The short debuff players hit thrice should go to the southwest and southeast corner tiles, with supports taking southwest and DPS taking southeast.
  • Sidewise Spark: The boss will indicate a half-room cleave and either a full party spread or pair stacks, similar as before. She will always face north.
    • If spread, players can spread to fixed positions on the safe half of the arena.
    • If pair stacks, each long debuff player (the only ones still with purple cubes around them) will be hit with a large split-damage AoE. To resolve these, both supports hit two times should pair, while the supports hit three times should pair, and similarly for the DPS. The AoEs are relatively large, so the pairs should be careful to avoid overlap.
    • These spread or stack AoEs will always increase the size of the long debuff players' upcoming Spark AoEs, which is why they should add 1 to their Witchgleam hit count.
  • The boss casts Lightning Cage again, which functions similarly as before. This time, the short-debuff players (whose debuffs have expired) should go to the safe north tile, while the long-debuff players resolve their debuffs using the same positions as the short-debuff players during the first Lightning Cage.
• Wicked Bolt: A five-hit stack marker AoE on a random player, dealing heavy magical damage.
• Ion Cluster: All players will receive 3 stacks of either Positron or Negatron. One tank, one healer, and two DPS will all receive the same debuff, while the remaining players will receive the other debuff. The debuff colors will light party assigments in the upcoming mechanic. These debuffs must be fully cleansed in the upcoming mechanic before the timer expires, or the player will die.
• The boss will jump to the north edge and summon a large cannon. The boss will slightly rotate, indicating that the three columns in front of where she is facing will be hit with a five-hit magical AoE (Stampeding Thunder). These hits deal heavy damage so players should immediately move to the safe column, although tanks can survive all five hits. Afterwards, the boss will use an untelegraphed AoE hitting the same three columns, destroying the ground and cause anyone hit to fall to their deaths.
• Electron Stream: The boss will jump to the middle of the remaining column and charge two different colored AoEs from her cannon, one yellow AoE (Positron Stream) hitting either in front or behind her and one blue AoE (Negatron Stream) hitting the other side.
  • Each player must be hit by the opposite AoE color as their debuff to cleanse one stack. Being hit with the same color AoE will instead grant an additional stack, which will eventually result in death.
  • Each AoE deals heavy split magical damage and must be mitigated. In addition, the player closest to the boss on each side will take higher damage, requiring the tanks to be closest to the boss.
  • After each hit, each player will receive additional debuffs, resolving after 5 seconds (blue debuffs or arrows) or 6 seconds (purple circle).
    • Four players—one DPS and one support per light party—will all receive the same debuff, either Spinning Conductor or Roundhouse Conductor. When Spinning Conductor expires, the players will emit a small point-blank AoE (Spinning Current) that deals minor magical damage and inflicts Magic Vulnerability Up, requiring them to spread. When Roundhouse Conductor expires, the players will emit a large donut AoE (Roundhouse Current), which must be positioned to avoid hitting anyone else.
    • Two other players—one per light party—will receive the same debuff, either Proximate Current or Remote Current. When the debuff expires, they will aim at either the closest (Proximate) or furthest (Remote) player with a narrow conal AoE (Axe Current) that deals minor magical damage and inflicts Magic Vulnerability Up.
    • The remaining two players in different light parties will receive Collider Conductor. This debuff must be cleansed by being hit with Axe Current, or the player will emit a room-wide AoE (Collider Current) that deals high damage and inflicts Damage Down. Dying will also instantly detonate the debuff, likely causing a wipe.
  • Treating the boss as the new north on the respective half of the room, the debuffs can be resolved in a straightforward manner. All debuffs are resolved in melee range on the side that player took their recent colored line AoE.
    • Blue debuff players can stand on the circular rivets on the northwest and northeast of the tile, with supports going northwest and DPS going northeast, facing the boss. This will ensure that their AoEs do not hit anyone else.
    • Purple circle players stand directly in the middle of the tile.
    • Arrow debuff players position slightly in front of the player on their side. This will ensure that their conal AoEs are always baited to the Collider players regardless of whether the bait is close or far. If close, it will bait to the player in their light party. If far, it will bait to the player in the other light party.
  • Electron Stream repeats twice, although the AoE colors are randomized (requiring players to either stay on their side or swap) with potentially different follow-up debuff assignments each time, allowing players to cleanse all three stacks of their Ion Cluster debuff.
• Wicked Jolt. If using invulnerability for both tankbusters in phase 1 (a common strategy), the off-tank should provoke the boss before the second tankbuster cast begins. The main tank can provoke back after both tankbusters hit.

Phase Transition

• The boss will return to the center of the arena and face south. For this next mechanic, players should go to their assigned intercardinals using boss relative positioning, with tanks and ranged DPS northwest/northeast, and melee DPS and healers southwest/southeast. Each melee should partner with a ranged job. Players should fully spread in these positions.
• Electrope Transplant: The boss begins transforming and the arena transitions. Eight conal AoE telegraphs (Fulminous Field) will appear on each cardinal and intercardinal, leaving gaps in between to dodge. Afterwards untelegraphed conal AoEs will appear in the previous safe spots, requiring players to dodge into the center of the previously unsafe lanes. There will be seven sets of conal AoEs in total.
• During the fifth set of cones, either all DPS or all supports will be hit with an untelegraphed medium-sized circle AoE (Conduction Point) that deals magical damage and inflicts Lightning Resistance Down II. If they are not already positioned, their quadrant partner who was not hit should move in front of them.
• The four hit players will be targeted with Forked Fissures, an untelegraphed line AoE dealing magical damage that will kill them due to the vulnerability unless if their partner is in front of them. These AoEs should be taken on the intercardinals.
• There will be a final set of untelegraphed conal AoEs immediately afterwards.
• This sequence repeats, requiring players to dodge seven more sets of conal AoEs while resolving the line AoE blocks.
• The entire party should stack in front of the boss at the south of the arena.
• The boss will use four successive instant raid-wide hits dealing heavy damage and requiring mitigation: Soulshock (magical), then two hits of Impact (physical), and finally Cannonbolt (physical), knocking the party up and back. If they are positioned correctly, they will land on the south platform.

Phase 2

• After a few seconds of downtime, the boss will become targetable.
• Cross Tail Switch: Nine hits of catastrophic magical raid-wide damage. Using a   level 3 tank limit break is highly recommended, although some additional healing and light mitigation even with a limit break are needed. To cover most of the hits, it should be used when the cast reaches "S" in "Switch".

Loot

•  30 Allagan Tomestone of Heliometry
• 1   AAC Illustrated: LHW Edition IV (Guaranteed; limit one per week)

Treasure Coffer

One random Dark Horse Champion's Weapon will appear.

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
Dark Horse Champion's Weapon Coffer (IL 735)	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Paladin's Dark Horse Champion's Arms (IL 735)	Other	N/A	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Labrys	Marauder's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Greatsword	Dark Knight's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Gunblade	Gunbreaker's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Spear	Lancer's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's War Scythe	Reaper's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Jamadhars	Pugilist's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Samurai Blade	Samurai's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Knives	Rogue's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Twinfangs	Viper's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Longbow	Archer's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Musketoon	Machinist's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Tathlums	Dancer's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Rod	Two-handed Thaumaturge's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Index	Arcanist's Grimoire	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Foil	Red Mage's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Round Brush	Pictomancer's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Cane	Two-handed Conjurer's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Codex	Scholar's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Astrometer	Astrologian's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Dark Horse Champion's Milpreves	Sage's Arm	735	CBlue	1
Black Kitten	Minion	N/A	ABasic	1
A Risky Bet Orchestrion Roll	Orchestrion Roll	N/A	ABasic	1
Monowheel S1 Identification Key	Other	N/A	ABasic	1

Achievements

This duty is associated with the following achievements:

Name	Points	Task	Reward	Patch
Savage Someone Your Own Size I	5	Complete AAC Light-heavyweight Tier (Savage).	-	7.05
Savage Someone Your Own Size II	10	Complete AAC Light-heavyweight Tier (Savage) 5 times.	-	7.05
Savage Someone Your Own Size III	20	Complete AAC Light-heavyweight Tier (Savage) 10 times.	-	7.05

Dialogue

All NPC lines are voice acted. Does not include conditional lines from Metem.

Wicked Thunder: This is nothing personal, but I must have your soul! (upon pull)

Metem: Wicked Thunder has returned to the ring!

Wicked Thunder: If one needs wings, one need simply make them! (Bewitching Flight)

Metem: She's grown wings! How wickedly divine! (Bewitching Flight)

Wicked Thunder: There is no limit to electrope's potential. (Electrope Edge)

Metem: She's gathering aether...but to what end!? (first Witchgleam)

Wicked Thunder: How's this!? (second Witchgleam)

Wicked Thunder: Take this! (Wicked Bolt)

Wicked Thunder: Electrope has many uses. Watch and learn! (spawns cannon)

Metem: Oooh, look at that massive cannon! Her skills are as sharp as ever! (Stampeding Thunder)

Wicked Thunder: I'll erase you! (Electron Stream)

Wicked Thunder: No... I cannot die here... (phase transition)

Wicked Thunder: I have no choice but to surrender to electrope... (Electrope Transplant)

Wicked Thunder: Aaarrrgh!

Metem: Wicked Thunder is discharging vast amounts of aether!

Wicked Thunder: I will not fail...

Metem: Egads! Something is growing from her body!

Wicked Thunder: My body will hold... It must!

Wicked Thunder: Aaah... aaah!

Wicked Thunder: Now our battle truly begins! (phase 2 targetable)

Metem: She's taken electrope into her body and unleashed a new feral soul!

Wicked Thunder: Hyaaah! (Cross Tail Switch)

Wicked Thunder: Electrope converts even the aether of my flesh! (Aetherial Conversion)

Metem: She's using electrope to convert her body's aether! (Tail Thrust)

Wicked Thunder: How do you like this!? (Twilight Sabbath)

Wicked Thunder: My flames return all to ash! (Flame Slash)

Wicked Thunder: Rain, my blade, and drown my foes in cuts! (Raining Swords)

Wicked Thunder: You cannot outrun lightning! (Chain Lightning)

Wicked Thunder: Dance, my blade, and carve my enemy's flesh! (first Sword Quiver)

Metem: A battle so electrifying I dare not blink! (second Sword Quiver)

Wicked Thunder: No quarter! (third Sword Quiver)

Wicked Thunder: It's over! I will have your soul! (Wicked Thunder enrage)

Images

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External Links

• Pastebin containing strategies - Shabadadu (NA data centers)
• Common party finder strategies for M4S - North America
• Phase 1 raidplan - OQ5 (EU data centers)
• Phase 2 raidplan - Q-Go (EU data centers)

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Raids

Duties