The Epic of Alexander (Ultimate)

The Epic of Alexander (Ultimate)

Level

80 (Sync: 80)

Item Level

475* (Sync: 475)

Difficulty

Ultimate

Party size

Full Party
8 man • 2 2 4

Unsyncing

Not Allowed

Time limit

120 minutes

Duty Finder

Raid Finder (Ultimate Raids)

Tomestones

 100 

Location

Liminal Space

Patch

5.11

“

The clockwork fortress that manifested itself in the far reaches of snow-swept Dravania did bear an uncanny resemblance to the great steel giant sung of in the legends of the Hotgo, an Auri tribe hailing from far across the sea. Inspired by this tragic tale of a mechanical god who placed his trust in a single mortal soul, the wandering minstrel spreads the proverbial wings of imagination and takes flight, weaving an impassioned ballad of hope and despair profound.

— In-game description

The Epic of Alexander (Ultimate) is a level 80 ultimate raid introduced in patch 5.11 with Shadowbringers. The raid is also known as TEA and is based on the Alexander raid series from Heavensward.

Unlock and Requirements

• After completing  Eden's Gate: Sepulture (Savage), speak with the Wandering Minstrel in Kugane (X:11.6 Y:12.6) as a level 80 Disciple of War or Magic.
• The Epic of Alexander (Ultimate) can only be accessed via the Raid Finder after forming a pre-made party of eight players who have all completed  Eden's Gate: Sepulture (Savage).
• Limited jobs not allowed
• Unrestricted Parties not allowed
• If a player logs out or disconnects when combat is initiated, they will be KO'd upon returning to the game.

Guide

Phase 1: Living Liquid

Mechanics:

• Fluid Strike/Swing: Hard-hitting tankbuster cleave that comes from the Living Liquid or Liquid Hand and debuffs with Water Resistance Down, meaning tanks cannot take Protean Wave without an invulnerability cooldown.
• Cascade: Hard-hitting raid-wide damage that will spawn three Liquid Rages around the arena at random cardinals/intercardinal with one empty cardinal/intercardinal. (They will all spawn on cardinals or all on intercardinals.) The Liquid Rage tornados will each spawn on a large puddle that will inflict Dropsy to any player who steps in it, which will kill them. This damage-over-time effect can be neutralized with tank invulnerabilities and will dissipate when the player leaves the puddle.
• Liquid Hand: The boss will split its current HP and summon this add. While it does not need to be defeated, players must pay attention to its HP in order to handle a mechanic later.
• Hand of Prayer/Parting: Based on where the hand and the boss are, the hand will glow and either form a fist or be an open palm. If the boss is far from the hand, it will be an open palm. If the hand forms a fist, the boss and the hand need to be separated. If the hand is an open palm, the boss and the hand must be brought together. Failing this mechanic will wipe the raid.
• Hand of Pain: This acts as a check that happens periodically. If the boss and the hand's HP are more than 4% different by the end of the cast, the party wipes instantly. Players must keep both the boss and the Hand in check during the entire phase.
• Protean Wave: Conal AoEs that fire from the boss and the Liquid Rages. The Liquid Rages will each use a telegraphed AoE aimed at the nearest player that must be avoided, followed by an untelegraphed AoE that will hit the nearest player. The boss will use telegraphed AoEs aimed at all players that must be avoided, followed by two sets of untelegraphed AoEs that will each hit the four nearest players. When the boss fires waves, it will also fire one directly out in front of where it's facing that isn't telegraphed, so players need to avoid standing directly in front of the boss. Telegraphed Protean Waves will knock any player back and kill them if they are hit. Untelegraphed Protean Waves aimed to the nearest players will inflict Water Resistance Down, which will make another Protean Wave hit lethal until the debuff expires.
• Jagd Dolls: Four Jagd Doll adds will spawn in the middle of the arena slightly off the cardinals. These will tether to the first person who damages them and will pulse a medium-sized circular AoE (Exhaust) occasionally, debuffing with a stacking Luminous Aetheroplasm. Once their HP have been reduced to 25% or less, they must be brought within either the boss's or the Hand's hitbox, causing whoever the add is fed to to cast Reducible Complexity, dealing moderate raid-wide damage. If the adds are killed or fed with too much health, Reducible Complexity will wipe the raid. If players get 2 or more stacks of Luminous Aetheroplasm, they will die.
• Pressurize/Embolus: Orbs will spawn at two of the Rages and move towards both the boss and Hand were at the time they spawned. If they touch a boss or a player they will explode (Outburst) and wipe the raid.
• Sluice: The boss will spawn these telegraphed circular AoEs under the four players that are the furthest away from it.
• Splash: A non-telegraphed attack that blasts the raid with moderate unavoidable damage six times in a row. Mitigate and heal through.
• Drainage: Two random Rages will send out tethers. Tanks need to pick these up and use cooldowns to mitigate the damage that comes out from them.
• Throttle: 6 random players will be debuffed with Throttle, which needs to be dispelled with   Esuna or   The Warden's Paean, otherwise the players will die at the resolution of the debuff.

Strategy:

To start, pull the boss to the middle and face to the north. The boss will use Fluid Swing and follow with Cascade, spawning the three Liquid Rages Note where these spawn and mitigate the attacks with cooldowns. It is recommended that players top up HP here. The boss will then split its HP and summon the Liquid Hand here. Keeping the boss close to the Hand is a good idea so they can both be AoE'd and damage can be managed easier on both. Keeping them close together will bait Hand of Parting later.

Have the off tank pick up the Hand and separate them once the Hand of attack comes out. Players will need to then position for the Protean Waves. The ranged and healers should bait these so they fire out of the arena. Following this, the Jagd Dolls will spawn. They will spawn in relation to where the Liquid Rages are, so the DPS players who are picking up the Dolls should be sure which one they are picking up. The boss will use Hand of Pain here, so be sure to have the boss and the Hand at roughly the same HP, with no more than a 4% variance. At this time, the Rages will spawn Embolus, which will start to move towards where the Hand and the boss were at the time of spawning. The tanks need to move the boss and the Hand away to make sure they don't touch the orbs. Just before that, the boss and the Hand will use Fluid Strike/Swing, which need to be mitigated. After this the tanks can move the boss and the Hand.

Players can then feed their Jagd Dolls to either the boss or the Hand once their HP is at 25% or lower. Generally, players should figure out an order to feed their Dolls so they don't feed too many at one time and wipe the raid with the resulting Reducible Complexity. It is recommended that the melee players feed their Dolls first so the healers can come in and top players off before the next group of Dolls are fed to the bosses. Players should face the boss north. This sets players up for the next set of Protean Waves, as well as the following Drainage. The first set of Waves will be visible and telegraphed, but the following sets will not be telegraphed. To begin, everyone can bait the first four Waves together, then the ranged players move out to the edge of the inner circle to bait Sluice while the melee players move in close to bait the next set of Waves. The ranged players will then move in to the boss's hitbox to be the closest players to the boss to bait the second set of Waves, while melee players will move to max range to maximize uptime on the boss. While taking these waves, do not stand in front of the boss as it fires a Protean Wave in front of it that can't be baited. The boss will then use Splash and Drainage, so tanks should be ready to grab tethers while the rest of the party moves away from them to avoid the AoE from the attack. Tanks should be sure to mitigate this attack and healers should be ready to top everyone's HP off. The boss will follow up with another Cascade, dealing more heavy damage to the raid, so mitigate this as well.

Keeping the boss faced to the north, The Liquid Rages will use Throttle, so healers need to be ready to   Esuna these away before the debuff finishes its duration. Then, another set of Protean Waves to bait. This time coming from all Rages, the Hand, and the boss itself.

To handle this mechanic, Players will first stack behind the boss while the main tank stays in front of the boss to bait the first waves. DPS players should then move to the edges of the Rages to bait Sluice , while the ranged players should bait the Protean Waves from the Liquid Rages to fire off the edge of the arena, while the remaining players bait the Waves from the boss and the Hand to fire between the intercardinals. The DPS will then move in to the rear of the boss's hitbox to bait a third set of Waves while the tanks and a healer will bait the Rages Protean Waves.

The boss will then use Hand of Prayer/Parting. Following this strategy, the tanks will be separate from each other, so this will result in the Hand forming an open palm. The tanks will have to drag the boss and the Hand back together to resolve the mechanic. The Rages will also use Embolus, so this should help avoid this mechanic as well. Another Hand of Pain here, so make sure the boss and the Hand are within 4% of HP to one another. Finally, the boss will use Splash again and prepare to use a final Cascade as its enrage, which will wipe the party if the boss is not defeated in time.

Note: In practice, most parties will skip the final set of Splashes. Everyone should focus on the boss during the last set of Protean Waves and kill it before it uses the final Hand of Pain, which serves as the "de facto" enrage.

Intermission: Limit Cut

After defeating the Living Liquid, players will enter the Limit Cut mini-phase. Players will handle the mechanic of the same name from A11S while also avoiding rotating explosions around the edge and center of the arena.

Players should group in the middle of the arena. Every player will be marked with dots above their head from 1-8. This indicates what order players are attacked in. Blue dots indicate odd numbered players, while red dots indicate even numbered players. Cruise Chaser will spawn behind a blue numbered player and fire a conal cleave (Alpha Sword), knocking the player in that direction. It will then dash (Super Blassty Charge) in the direction of the even numbered player that is next in sequence. If the player who gets dashed is facing away from the boss, they will receive a huge knockback. This will repeat with each set of numbers (1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8). These hits also debuff with both Physical Vulnerability Up and Magic Vulnerability Up, meaning players can't take more than one hit.

While this is happening, Hawk Blasters will drop large, untelegraphed circular AoEs on the arena. These will drop four sets of two opposite explosions that rotate clockwise around the arena, followed by one in the center. They will then resume rotating around the edge of the arena, followed by a final explosion in the center, for a total of ten explosion sets. Any player hit by these will die.

The most common method to handle this is to have two groups, 1/2, 5/6 and 3/4, 7/8 on opposite sides of the arena running around the arena following the explosions. Players who will handle the mechanics first will stand on the inner ring with lights, while the other set of numbers in that group will stand on the outside ring. The odd numbered players will be in the lead facing forward with the even numbered players standing behind them, facing towards the odd numbered player. Once they have handled their set of mechanics, the groups will switch, moving to the outer ring next to the edge of the arena while the next players move to the inner circle and repeat. Players can use their knockback skills if they want to help minimize risk if they miss an attack.

Phase 2: Brute Justice & Cruise Chaser

This phase requires players to handle both bosses mechanics at the same time, moving correctly and handing debuffs off to the correct players to ensure no one is accidentally killed.

Mechanics:

• J Kick: Massive raid-wide damage immediately following Limit Cut.
• Whirlwind: Moderate raid-wide damage cast by Cruise Chaser.
• Judgment Nisi: Cast by Brute Justice. This inflicts four Final Decree Nisi debuffs, ( α, β, γ, and δ) on either the tanks and healers or the four DPS. These debuffs will inflict minor damage-over-time and will fall off when the timer expires. Contacting another player will cause them to acquire the same color debuff. Players need to pass these debuffs back and forth and satisfy the Verdict condition once the boss finishes its cast of Gavel. If two players with different Nisi colors touch, both players will instantly die (Final Sentence).
• Link-Up: A healer is debuffed with Compressed Water, and a DPS is debuffed with Compressed Lightning. These debuffs last 30 seconds and explode at their resolution.
  • The mechanics of these debuffs are similar to how they worked in the original Alexander fight. Compressed Water should be split among at least three players when it resolves and explodes in a large AoE (Crashing Wave) that deals split damage. This debuff will then pass to a random player. The originally debuffed player will receive a Water Resistance Down II debuff, meaning they cannot be in the next stack, or they will die. Additionally, when the debuff passes, it will drop a Liquid Rage tornado that will knock back any player too close to it and hit them with Drainage, dealing massive damage. The tornado can be frozen to hide behind to avoid Propeller Wind and destroyed by Flarethrower. If a tornado is up for too long, it will explode (Severe Contamination) and wipe the raid.
  • Compressed Lightning is a stack mechanic between two players. If more than two players are stacked, the debuff will inflict full damage to everyone in the stack, likely resulting in deaths. The damage is split in an AoE (Crashing Thunder) when the debuff resolves. Like before, the debuff will pass to the other player and the originally debuffed player will not be able to take the debuff again as they will have Lightning Resistance Down II.
  • If a player with one of the debuffs dies or holds both Compressed debuffs at the same time, they will explode and wipe the raid (Punishing Thunder/Punishing Wave).
  • Steam Chakrams will also spawn randomly around the arena on opposite sides. The Chakrams will target a random player and fire across the arena at them in an untelegraphed line AoE (Eye of the Chakram), knocking back and killing anyone hit.
• Optical Sight: Cast by Cruise Chaser: An invisible circular AoE (Hawk Blaster) will spawn at each player's location, then resolve shortly after, killing anyone hit. Players need to bait these and wait until just after the cast resolves to move.
• Photon: Reduces the HP of all players to 1. Any cast of this afterwards will only affect tanks.
• Spin Crusher: Frontal conal cleave cast by Cruise Chaser that will knock back and kill anyone hit. Has no AoE indicator.
• Missile Command: Cast by Brute Justice. Earth Missile (telegraphed AoE) is dropped on the two furthest players, dropping a puddle under the targets. The boss will then cast Hidden Minefield on the furthest two players as well, which are telegraphed dark green circular AoEs that must be avoided and will leave behind two invisible Hidden Mines. These will need to be disarmed (run over) by a tank with cooldowns, or they will explode (Hidden Mine Shrapnel) and wipe the party. Mines that are being disarmed will explode in a large AoE, so other players should not get too close. The boss will fire an ice Earth Missile on one of the tanks, and cast Enumeration on two random DPS.
  • Enumeration will always require three players to stand in the circle to resolve. If three players aren't in the circle when it resolves, it kills the players that are inside it. Players cannot be inside both circles, or they will die.
  • The second Earth Missile that fires will drop an expanding ice puddle. This needs to be used to freeze the tornado to survive Propeller Wind. Anyone who steps in the puddle will be inflicted with Frostbite and die.
• Verdict: Cast by Brute Justice. Will inflict all players with Final Judgment: Penalty III and one of Final Judgment: Decree Nisi α / β / γ / δ. Each type of Final Judgment: Decree Nisi will be assigned to one random DPS and one random support. This debuff will indicate which Final Decree Nisi debuff they have to be inflicted with by the time Gavel finishes casting or the party will wipe.
• Limit Cut: Cruise Chaser becomes invincible and summons a Plasma Shield. The shield can only be damaged from the front. Players need to destroy this before it disappears or the boss will receive a Damage Up buff and wipe the raid with its next attack.
• Flarethrower: Brute Justice casts an untelegraphed wide conal AoE towards the player closest to it. This can destroy the water tornados.
• Propeller Wind: Cruise Chaser damages and inflicts Confused on players unless they break the Line-of-Sight with a frozen water tornado.
• Gavel: Cast by Brute Justice. Checks if all players have the correct Nisi debuffs. All Nisi and Compressed Water/Lightning debuffs will be removed if the check succeeds. Otherwise, the party will instantly wipe.
• Double Rocket Punch: Brute Justice uses a heavy-hitting tankbuster that needs to be split between both tanks.
• Super Jump: Brute Justice jumps on the player that is the furthest away, knocking back and inflicting Stun on anyone else hit, then face the new furthest player and use Apocalyptic Ray, a massive conal AoE. This will kill any player it hits.
• Final Sentence: Brute Justice hard enrage. The party will wipe if this cast finishes.
• Eternal Darkness: Cruise Chaser hard enrage. The party will wipe if this cast finishes.

Strategy:

Immediately after Limit Cut, the bosses will spawn and use J Kick. This needs to be heavily mitigated and healed through, as the attack deals heavy damage. Once the bosses spawn, pull them together in the center of the arena and stack up to bait the Chakrams that spawn on the edges of the arena. Spread out to avoid the attack, wait to bait Optical Sight, then back in once the AoEs appear. Players can not be overlapped with other players as the boss will then cast Judgment Nisi, and this will cause debuffs to pass incorrectly, wiping the raid. The boss will cast Link-Up soon after this.

At this point, the tanks should split the bosses, one pulling Cruise Chaser and the other taking Brute Justice. It is recommended the bosses are kept closer to each other in order to manage their HP and damage, since they need to be defeated at roughly the same time. If one is defeated too quickly and the other can't be downed in time, the surviving boss will enrage and wipe the raid.

There should be four passes of Nisi during this phase before Gavel. Tanks and healers should have designated partners to pass their debuff to until Verdict is cast and players need specific debuffs. To minimize errors in passing debuffs, non-marked players should move to their partners and pass through their hitbox to take the debuff. This keeps players from accidentally passing the debuff to the wrong player.

The boss will cast Photon at this time. Due to the DoT from Nisi, healers need to cast their shields to prevent deaths. Players will pass their debuffs at this point, then the boss will fire a Spin Crusher at the same time as the debuffs from Link-Up resolve. Players with these debuffs should move to the designated areas to pass their debuffs. A recommended strategy is to pass the Lightning debuff to the tank holding Brute Justice, while the rest of the players move to stand near the Water-debuffed player without touching.

Healers should bait the Earth Missile and mines near the edge of the arena away from the boss, then have the tank targeted by the ice-aspected Earth Missile drop it near the water tornado while the other tank handles the mines with cooldowns. The healers should then move to the DPS marked with Enumeration, then either the tanks or the two remaining DPS should move into the circles. Once all this resolves, players should pass their Nisi debuffs with their partner. The next pass of the Compressed debuffs should happen, generally the first player to receive the Water stack should take the next Lightning stack, as they can't split the Water AoE. The tank holding Cruise Chaser should pull the boss to an edge and face the boss towards the center of the stage for its next attack. Brute Justice will then cast Verdict, assigning debuffs to players.

As this is happening, Cruise Chaser will cast Limit Cut, becoming invincible and summoning a Plasma Shield, which can only be hit from the front. Burn the shield down quickly. While doing this, Brute Justice will cast Flarethrower, which the tank holding this boss will need to direct towards the second spawned water tornado to destroy it. The tank should position themselves into the boss's hitbox to be the 'closest' player to the boss. Immediately after Flarethrower, players should pass their debuffs. The players without Nisi will pickup the debuffs that match their Verdict requirement. The boss will follow this up with Whirlwind, requiring players to mitigate and heal through. Healers should be sure to top off everyone's HP, as the next passing of Compressed debuffs will happen right after this.

After passing the Compressed debuffs, players should move to where the ice block is, while the Cruise Chaser tank moves the boss to the intercardinal of the block. The boss will cast Propeller Wind, and the players need to break the Line of Sight of this attack. Players will also need to swap their debuffs to the correct players one final time before Gavel. A common way to handle this mechanic is to line up behind the ice block based on their color. Generally, people line up in order of Blue, Purple, Orange, Green. Following Gavel, all debuffs will disappear.

The boss will follow up with another Photon that hits only the tanks and needs to be mitigated and healed through, as following that, Brute Justice will use Double Rocket Punch, which both tanks will need to mitigate. After this, the boss will use Super Jump, leaping to the farthest player from it. This player should be a ranged DPS who should begin moving as Double Rocket Punch comes out. After leaping, the boss will cast Apocalyptic Ray, which needs to be dodged, as it will kill whatever it touches.

Cruise Chaser will cast Whirlwind twice, dealing heavy raid-wide damage, so mitigation is key. At this point the bosses both long-cast their enrages. The bosses both need to be defeated before the cast goes off, and roughly at the same time as each other.

Phase 3: Alexander Prime

During this phase, the boss will be untargetable for sections of the fight while players handle mechanics made up of Formations from the bosses from the other phases. The boss will be attacking during these phases, so players will handle these mechanics while also dodging Alexanders' attacks.

Mechanics:

• Chastening Heat: Heavy-hitting tankbuster that debuffs with Magic Vulnerability Up.
• Divine Spear: Three magic-damage cleaves on the main tank. This always comes immediately after Chastening Heat, so a tankswap or an invulnerability skill is required.
• Mega Holy: Massive magic-based raid-wide damage that needs to be heavily mitigated and shielded to survive.

Formation One: Temporal Stasis:

• Players will receive debuffs based on their role:
  • One DPS and one tank or healer are tethered and debuffed with House Arrest. These players must be in close proximity to each other when the debuff resolves or they will both die. When the debuff resolves, it will inflict 1 damage or lethal damage if the tether is too long (Plaint of Surety).
  • One DPS and one tank or healer are tethered and debuffed with Restraining Order. These players must be far apart from each other when the debuff resolves or they will die. When the debuff resolves, it will inflict 1 damage or lethal damage if the tether is not long enough (Plaint of Surety).
  • One DPS and one tank or healer are debuffed with Aggravated Assault. These players cannot take any additional damage or they will both die. When the debuff resolves, it will inflict moderate damage (Plaint of Severity), Magic Vulnerability Up and Physical Vulnerability Up, making additional damage lethal until the debuffs expire.
  • One DPS and one tank or healer will not have a debuff.
• Alpha Sword: Cruise Chaser will fire a conal AoE at the three closest players to it. These players are debuffed with Magic Vulnerability Up and Physical Vulnerability Up.
• Flarethrower: A large conal AoE directed at the two closest players to Brute Justice. Players hit are debuffed with a Fire Resistance Down.

Based on the debuffs players have, players can stand in set positions and handle mechanics without much movement. Each player will be frozen for several seconds with Temporal Displacement when the mechanic resolves. Players can stand near the bosses within their hitbox to bait the attacks, then move out of them so the next group can step in.

Formation Two: Inception:

• Aetheroplasm: Four players will be tethered to Plasmaspheres, large orbs. These orbs will slowly move towards their player, until they reach the tethered player and explode in an AoE, dealing damage (Burst) and dropping a puddle that inflicts Heavy if a player stands in it. If the orbs collide with a different player, they will deal less damage. If two puddles are dropped and overlap, they will explode (Electromagnetic Burst) and wipe the raid.
• Judgment Crystal: Random players will be marked and will drop Judgment Crystals where they are standing. These crystals will explode if they overlap with each other, are near Alexander or are touched by the True Heart summoned by an ad. When they explode, they deal proximity damage (Tetrashatter) based on how close players are to them.
• True Heart: Shanoa, the cat add, will spawn across from Alexander and summons True Heart, an ad that will move towards Alexander. After touching all four Judgment Crystals, the Heart will turn a golden color and move to Alexander's hitbox and buff players with Enigma Codex, a buff required for the final phase.
• Inception: Alexander will teleport around the arena and fire wide AoE Sacraments from its cardinals. Players can watch the True Heart to see where it moves to know where the boss will spawn and move out of the way of its attacks. Players will also receive various debuffs:
  • A DPS will be debuffed with Shared Sentence, which will need to be shared with another player, most likely a tank. The debuff will resolve as a small AoE (Plaint of Solidarity) that will inflict split damage, Magic Vulnerability Up and Physical Vulnerability Up.
  • One DPS and one tank will be debuffed by Restraining Order.
  • Two DPS will be debuffed with Aggravated Assault.
• Mechanics will appear from the previous bosses from the fight that will also need to be avoided: Flarethrower, Alpha Sword, and Super Jump.

The main tank should grab the boss and face it north, using an invulnerability skill to handle Chastening Heat, then the rest of the party should stack in the center and prepare shields for when the boss casts Inception.

Alexander will spawn in either the north or the south of the arena, and Brute Justice will spawn to the west, then both will start running through mechanics. There is time to adjust to where Alexander spawns for these attacks.

Players should stand in the center of the arena. The Plasmaspheres will spawn around the arena and begin tethering to players. The orbs will spawn in random groups, either two in the northwest and southeast, or two in the northeast and southwest. Players that get a tether should move to the north edge of the arena. The untethered players should move to the opposite side of the arena. Players will then be marked for the Judgment Crystals. Once the puddles and crystals are dropped, all the players should move north except the tanks. Healers should make sure everyone is topped off, then Brute Justice will use Flarethrower. After Flarethrowers resolve, players should use the True Heart to build DPS resources for the coming phases.

Alexander will then cast the various debuffs on players. Watch the True Heart to see where Alexander will spawn and move out of the way of the Sacrament that is fired. Based on debuffs, players will need to split up across the arena, with the tanks and the player with Shared Sentence on the west side and the rest of the party to the east. Players with the Restraining Order debuff should run to the edges of the arena to guarantee the debuffs requirement is met.

Cruise Chaser will then spawn in the center of the arena and begin casting Alpha Sword, hitting the players closest to it. This attack, as well as the debuffs, will inflict players with Magic Vulnerability Up. Since tanks are in the Shared Sentence debuff as well, they can not be the ones to handle Alpha Sword. Both healers and one of the Restraining Order DPS will have to bait these. Since they are baiting the Alpha Swords, tanks can handle Super Jump. Tanks can move away from Brute Force while the other players move in to Cruise Chaser and bait the attack.

Formation Three: Wormhole:

This phase re-introduces even more mechanics from previous phases that must be handled several at a time, such as Limit Cut, Super Jump and Apocalyptic Ray. Accurate player movement and baiting the correct attacks is essential here, and a mistake will most likely cause a wipe.

• Link-Up: Two Chakrams will spawn at opposite sides of the arena.
• Missile Command: Two random DPS will be marked for Enumeration.
• Incinerating Heat: A random player will be marked for a stack mechanic. This attack needs to be shielded and mitigated to handle.
• Void of Repentance: Two large puddles spawn and need to be soaked by one player each, dealing light damage (Repentance) and debuffing with Vulnerability Up and Magic Vulnerability Up. These puddles must be soaked three times, shrinking in size with each soak, and will explode (Confession) and wipe the raid if not soaked in time.

Alexander will open this mini-phase with another Chastening Heat and Divine Spear. This time however, the boss will delay the Spears, requiring a tank swap after the first ability. From here, several abilities will fire in rapid succession. Players should start in the center of the arena to bait Chakrams and set up shields and Regens. Once players are assigned their numbers, they should split to either side of the arena, evens to one side and odds to the opposite. Standing at the intercardinals to the north and south, and at the cardinal south will ensure players don't end up in Void puddles when they spawn. Once the Chakrams fire, players can adjust their position for Limit Cut. Odds should face outwards from the arena, and evens should face their odd partner. Pop knockback skills to guarantee nobody gets knocked out of position. After the first hit of Limit Cut, players marked with 7 and 8 can move to the east and west, and 5 and 6 can soak the first stack of the Void puddles. This way when Apocalyptic Ray fires, no one will get hit by it. This move cuts across the stage, so players need to be careful to avoid it. Brute Justice will then use Super Jump on either 3 or 4, depending on what player is furthest away. After the jump, the boss will turn around and fire Apocalyptic Ray and the puddles will resolve their first soak. Cruise Chaser will then attack 5 and 6. These players should move slightly up along the edge of the arena to bait their Limit Cut. 7 and 8 can move to where 5 and 6 previously were, and 1 and 2 can move into the puddles to soak the next hit, finally 5 and 6 should move out of range of the effects of the final Limit Cut. Once all these resolve, players should group in the center and get ready to mitigate and heal through Incinerating Heat.

After this, the DPS will be marked for Enumeration, they should separate slightly and players should stand in the circles in the correct amounts. Following this, Alexander will fire Mega Holy twice, dealing more hard-hitting damage. A lot of healing and mitigation is happening here, so tanks and healers need to be ready.

Formation Four: Summon Alexander:

This formation requires heavy mitigation and healing, as well as a DPS check to beat the enrage. Alexander Prime will summon a massive Alexander and will begin to cast Divine Judgment. If this cast finishes, the party will wipe. The bosses will begin using repeating attacks to wipe the party as well.

• J Storm: Brute Justice slams the arena, dealing heavy raid-wide damage.
• J Wave: Brute Justice fires this every few seconds dealing increasingly heavy raid-wide damage and buffing itself with a stack of Damage Up each time it is cast.
• Eternal Darkness: Cruise Chaser's enrage skill. Players need to defeat it before this cast goes off, or the party will wipe. Healers need to focus on mitigation and healing for this phase, as the damage will begin increasing rapidly in both output and amount. Tanks should be using abilities that increase healing output and shields while mitigating boss damage output with moves like Reprisal.

The party should defeat Cruise Chaser as its enrage will cast first, then Brute Justice to stop the increasing damage from J Waves. Once both are defeated, Alexander Prime will no longer be invulnerable, so the party should finish it off before the enrage cast finishes.

After the bosses are defeated, players will need to group up and use the level 3 tank Limit Break once the massive Alexander's countdown reaches 3 seconds. Players should use their shields and mitigations as well, as the Limit Break alone is not enough to survive the damage for casters. After that, a cutscene ensues in which all three bosses combine and upgrade themselves into the final boss: Perfect Alexander

Phase 4: Perfect Alexander

Mechanics:

When the phase opens, the boss will cast The Final Word, causing players will receive debuffs from the boss that will move players when they resolve:

• Three players will receive Final Word: Contact Prohibition, which is denoted by a yellow icon with an arrow. Upon the timer expiring, this debuff will become Contact Prohibition Ordained. Players with this debuff will move towards players with Contact Regulation Ordained. If these players end up colliding, they will die (Divine Retribution).
• One player will receive Final Word: Contact Regulation, denoted with an orange starburst icon. Upon the timer expiring, this debuff will become Contact Regulation Ordained.
• Three players will receive Final Word: Escape Prohibition and is denoted with a blue and white icon with an arrow. Upon the timer expiring, this debuff will become Escape Prohibition Ordained. These players will move away from the player with Escape Detection Ordained. If they touch that player or move too far away from them, they will die (Divine Retribution).
• One player will receive Final Word: Escape Detection, denoted by a purple icon. Upon the timer expiring, this debuff will become Escape Detection Ordained.
• Note that if anyone with Contact Regulation or Escape Detection dies, all of their "followers" (i.e. players with Contact Prohibition or Escape Prohibition, respectively) will also die (Divine Retribution).
• Ordained Motion: Players must be constantly moving at the time of the cast, or they will die. This is denoted by a white sword marker.
• Ordained Stillness: Players must be perfectly still at the time of the cast, including not auto-attacking. This is denoted by a black sword.
• Optical Sight: Players will either all be marked with Individual Reprobation and need to spread out to avoid AoEs, or Collective Reprobation and two random players will be marked with stack markers and should separate slightly to avoid overlapping. Note that taking the stack solo will cause the marked player to explode (Faithlessness) and wipe the raid.
• Ordained Capital Punishment: A heavy-hitting triple hit magic-based tankbuster that needs to be split with the off tank.
• Ordained Punishment: A heavy magic-based tankbuster that debuffs with Physical Vulnerability Up. Since the boss's auto-attacks are physical, a tankswap is required. This attack always follows Capital Punishment.
• Almighty Judgment: The boss shows the locations of AoEs briefly, which players need to remember and dodge. These AoEs will fire at the start of Irresistible Grace's cast bar.
• Irresistible Grace: A random player is marked for stacking. This should be mitigated, as it deals heavy magic-based damage.
• Fate Projection: Creates clones of all party members and shows what mechanics they will do when Fate Calibration finishes casting. Players will be able to identify their clone by the arrow that points to them. Players will only be able to see their clone if they have the Enigma Codex buff from Phase 3 and are alive at the start of this mechanic.
• Fate Calibration α: A series of mechanics will be shown while the cast bar fills. Ordained Motion/Stillness will be first, based on the sword that appears over the clone, followed by a mechanic based on role type:
  • A gear will appear around three clones, denoting Aggravated Assault.
  • One clone will have stacking gears appear on it, denoting Shared Sentence.
  • One clone will have a circle pulsing from it, denoting Defamation. This player will need to move to the opposite side of the arena from the rest of the party.
  • One clone will receive no debuffs.
• Ordained Motion/Stillness will appear for the third mechanic, denoted again by the color of the sword over the clone’s head.
• The fourth mechanic will spawn three Alexander clones and each will fire a Sacrament with one not firing. This clone indicates a safe zone directly in front of it.
• Fate Calibration β: Similar to the previous Fate Calibration, this phase will show what mechanics will be coming after the cast bar fills:
• The debuffs Contact Regulation Ordained / Contact Prohibition Ordained used in The Final Word will be applied to players. Their clones will receive a bright light over their heads. The clone receiving Contact Regulation Ordained will not move after the light appears, while those receiving Contact Prohibition Ordained will move. Players marked with Contact Prohibition will also receive additional debuffs that will be visually indicated on the clone:
  • One player receives Restraining Order (blue tether).
  • One player receives House Arrest (red and green tether).
  • One player receives Shared Sentence (stack gear).
• Players with dark markers over their heads will receive Escape Detection Ordained / Escape Prohibition Ordained. The clone receiving Escape Detection Ordained will not move after the light appears, while those receiving Escape Prohibition Ordained will move. The players with Escape Prohibition will also receive additional debuffs that will be visually indicated on the clone:
  • One player will be marked with Restraining Order.
  • One player will be marked with House Arrest.
  • One player will not receive any additional debuffs.
• The second mechanic is three J Jumps, which are large AoEs from three clones that inflict Physical Vulnerability Up. These will be baited by the Purple marked player, the Blue debuffed player with Restraining Order, and the Blue debuffed player with no additional debuffs.
• The third mechanic is Optical Sight: Individual/Collective Reprobation. The north clone will fire either two large orbs (light party stacks, one targeting a dark player and the other targeting a light player) or eight small orbs (full party spread) to indicate which attack is coming out.
• The fourth mechanic is Radiant Sacrament, a donut AoE. Players will need to move directly in front of the clone to avoid this attack.

Strategy:

The main tank should grab enmity on the boss again. The boss will auto-attack a few times, then cast Final Word. To handle this mechanic, the player with Contact Regulation should move to the opposite side of the arena away from the group, the players with Contact Prohibition should stand in a row in front of players with Escape Prohibition, while the player with Escape Detection should stand behind them. Ordained Motion/Stillness will fire, and players will have to handle accordingly. The debuffs will take effect, and players should be move correctly without any deaths. Immediately after this, the opposite Ordained attack will come out.

Optical Sight is next, and players should be ready to mitigate this damage and move according to whichever markers come out.

Fate Calibration αwill begin casting, and players will need to watch their clones to know what mechanics are coming and how to handle them once the cast resolves and move to safe spots in front of and across from the Alexander Clone that didn't fire a Sacrament. The player marked with Defamation will stand in the safe zone in front of the clone. In the other safe zone, the Aggravated Assault player will stand on one side of the safe zone, the Shared Sentence and non-debuffed player will stack on the other side of the safe zone.

The boss will become untargetable, and players can begin following the mechanics presented previously. Be sure not to accidentally clip players with mechanics in your safe zone. Be sure not to move until the clones all fire their Sacrament.

Following this sequence, the boss will begin using Ordained Capital Punishment and Ordained Punishment. Handle the first attack with an invincibility, then tankswap after all three hits of Ordained Capital Punishment have fired. Use cooldowns to mitigate the second attack.

The boss will then begin the cast bar for Fate Calibration β. Players will need to watch to see which debuffs they will be assigned. Players should also be on the lookout for the safe zone for the Radiant Sacrament and where to move for Optical Sight. At around 30% the debuffs for Final Word will show on the clones. Players will stand on the west edge or the north edge at the cardinals based on their debuffs and the tethers for the additional debuffs:

• The player with the purple debuff will stand behind every other player.
• The player with the orange debuff will stand at the north cardinal of the arena.
• Players with the yellow debuff will stand in front of the purple debuffed players, closer to the north to move in that direction at the debuffs resolution.
• The blue debuff players with House Arrest; will stack with the yellow players.
• The blue debuff players with Restraining Order will stand in front of the purple debuffed player, closer to the south to get moved to the north.
• The blue debuff player with no extra debuffs will stand directly in front of the purple player to end up moving straight to the east. Players will move into the safe zones and stay there until Shared Sentence and Super Jump both resolve.

Players will then handle Optical Sight stacking or spreading accordingly. After this, players will move to the safe zone for Radiant Sacrament. The boss will follow up with another series of tankbusters, then move into Almighty Judgment and Irresistible Grace.

Pull the boss to the center of the arena. The boss cast Almighty Judgment and will show three sets of AoEs here that players need to memorize. Players will need to dodge each set of AoEs correctly, as getting hit by one will almost certainly cause a wipe. Following these AoEs, the boss will cast Irresistible Grace. The party will have to stack and heavily mitigate the attack. After this, the tank can turn the boss to the north and the party should move behind the boss. The boss will use another Capital Punishment set which need to be mitigated and tankswapped. Healers should fill the tanks health after this. Another set of Almighty Judgment and Irresistible Grace to be handled the exact same way as before, then the boss will move to the center of the arena and begin to cast its enrage, Temporal Prison.

A space will light up and cages will begin dropping onto the platform to the northeast of the boss and continue doing so at the cardinals and intercardinals moving clockwise. Players should move to these positions with the healers taking the first two cages, the tanks taking the next two, and finally the DPS. Anyone with damage-over-time (DoT) abilities should refresh their DoTs on the boss before they are caged, as they will be incapacitated with Temporal Displacement and unable to attack. A few seconds after all players are caged, the fight will reset to the beginning, so the party must defeat the boss before this happens. Missing a cage will cause the fight to instantly reset.

Reward

• 1   Colossus Totem
• Epic of Alexander Adventurer Plate

When originally released, you could receive only one reward item per week for completing duties in The Epic of Alexander (Ultimate). This restriction was removed in Patch 5.2

The reward can be exchanged with Bertana in Idyllshire (X:5.8 Y:5.2) for Ultimate Alexander Weapons.

Completion of this duty will unlock a new Adventurer Plate design.

Achievements

The following achievements are associated with this duty:

Name	Points	Task	Reward	Patch
When I Ruled the World	10	Defeat Perfect Alexander in the Epic of Alexander (Ultimate).	The Perfect Legend	5.11

World First

The world first clear was from Thoughts per Second on November 19, 2019. However, it was revealed that they were using a third party tool to automatically replace waymarks during combat, in violation of the Terms of Service. This was addressed by producer/director YoshiP in the Producer Letter Live (PLL) following the release of TEA. Subsequently, the ability to replace waymarks in PvE combat was removed in patch 5.2.

Images

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Trivia

• On June 30, 2022, the encounter was cleared without the Enigma Codex buff. This clear relied on a forced movement bug that was resolved in patch 6.1, so the methods used to clear without the buff are no longer functional.

External Links

Aether/NA Party Finder Strategies (commonly referred to as "oldbin")

• Phase 1: Living Liquid
• Limit Cut
• Phase 2: Brute Justice and Cruise Chaser
• Phase 3: Alexander Prime
  • Temporal Stasis and Inception Formation
  • Wormhole Formation
• Phase 4: Perfect Alexander
• Mitigation spreadsheet
• Role positions

References

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Raids

Duties