AAC Cruiserweight M2, known to players as M6 or R6, is the second turn of the AAC Cruiserweight tier of The Arcadion 
Raid in Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail.
Objectives[]
Normal[]
- Defeat Sugar Riot
Savage[]
- Defeat Sugar Riot
Story[]
Normal[]
Following your triumph over Dancing Green, you now prepare to engage your next opponent, Sugar Riot. A rebellious artist who utilizes the soul of a pudding, she manifests her imaginings with an augmented palette, devastating her foes with beautiful brutality. One can only wonder, in the art of war, will the unstoppable upstart be able to keep up with this visionary?
Duty Finder Description
Savage[]
Your bout against Sugar Riot exposed you to the power of her creativity unleashed. Now you wonder, if she had let her art truly run rampant, what manner of creations might she have revealed?
Duty Finder Description
Progression[]
Normal[]
Savage[]
Phase 1 - Desertscape[]
Shortly after being pulled, Sugar Riot will cast Mousse Mural, a magical raidwide, then follow up with Color Riot tankbusters. Unlike most tankbusters, these are proximity based and will target the nearest and farthest players away from her, and any incorrect positioning may result in deaths. Both the healers and DPS should stack behind her on her hitbox, while both tanks must position themselves close and far from her. Once the tankbusters go off, the tanks will have a Warm Tint (if they took the close tankbuster) or Cool Tint (if they took the far tankbuster) debuff, depending on the color they got hit by, that lasts until the next cast of Color Riot; if a tank takes the same color, they will instantly die. She will cast a Wingmark debuff on all players, which launches players forward in the direction they're facing once it expires, and Color Clash, which are shared stacks dependent on how many times she fires into the air: if she fires two shots, the Color Clash cast for later will be light party stacks on healers; if she fires four shots, the cast will be pair stacks. The boss will also cast Double Style, painting two pictures that will make the entire arena unsafe except for one quadrant. Position yourself towards that quadrant and make sure your character faces that direction, or you may end up launching yourself into the wrong spot or into a wall. Both the Double Style and Color Clash casts will go off shortly after, so position yourself into your stacks based on how many shots she fired.
Return to the boss's position in the middle as she begins casting Sticky Mousse, which will hit two random players in a point-blank AoE around them. They and anyone else caught in those AoEs will be bound to the spot and afflicted with short magic vulnerability up and Mousse Mine debuffs, the latter of which will explode in shared stack damage and will also inflict another magic vulnerability up, so spread out in clock spots and make sure no one else is caught in them. Collapse on the nearest players so your stacks form two groups of light parties, and be careful not to get clipped if the players were near each other. Once Sticky Mousse resolves, the boss will jump north and begin the first cast of Sugarscape, turning the arena into a desert, which will inflict a Sweltering damage over time as long as the desert is active.
For this phase, both healers, one tank, and one DPS will be afflicted by a Heating Up debuff, with the healers receiving long timers and the tank and DPS receiving short ones, and will explode in large Defamation AoEs once it goes off. A random DPS will also receive the Burning Up debuff, which will explode in shared stack damage once the debuff expires. The boss will cast Layer, spawning cacti that explode in one of four patterns. Regardless of where or how they spawn, keep her north and dodge the Spray Pain AoEs from the cacti. Once the last set of cacti explode, the Burning Up player must return to the middle with the rest of the party, while the Heating Up players go to a corner away from everyone else. Sugar Riot will then cast another Sticky Mousse, which is resolved as before. She will do another Layer and spawn quicksand which covers the majority of the arena, as well as cacti that will explode like they did previously. There will be three potential safe spots: one spot will be occupied by a cactus, and the one across it will be the safe spot for the tanks and DPS. The two safe spots will be reserved for the healers to resolve their Defamations each. Shortly after, the quicksand will begin to sink faster and will kill anyone caught in it. The boss will then return to the middle, spawn another quicksand hole covering one half of the arena and cast Pudding Graf: either supports or DPS will be targeted with normal bombs in blue, or winged bombs in purple. The normal bombs must be placed in the quicksand, while the winged bombs must be aimed into the quicksand. Spread out as the bomb drops will also cause a point-blank AoE on all players, then get out of the quicksand if you were in it. The boss will then cast another Mousse Mural raidwide, returning the arena to normal, then another Color Riot tankbusters, and then finally, she will cast Soul Sugar, beginning the adds phase and spawning untargetable pudding adds.
Phase 2 - Adds[]
After the boss spawns pudding adds, she will cast Live Painting, which turns them into entirely new adds. The adds that will spawn in this first wave are a yan, a gimme cat, and two mus. As soon as the gimme cat spawns and shortly before being targetable, it will steal your Limit Break gauge, though a caster Limit Break right before the spawn is possible to hit all the adds, including the gimme cat. One tank must take the yan with the melees assisting in DPS, while the other takes the mus. The yan deals extremely hard-hitting auto-attack damage, while the mus deal standard auto-attack damage. Both sets of adds must not be near each other or the yan will be buffed and potentially snowball into a wipe. The gimme cat will jump around the arena and will be very hard for melees to hit; for this reason the ranged players must focus on it instead. Every six jumps, the gimme cat will land on a random party member's location regardless of aggro rules and cast a telegraphed point blank I Crave Violence AoE which must be avoided at all costs. If anyone gets hit, the gimme cat will debuff their HP and MP in addition to the standard damage down debuff. Each time the gimme cat performs its cast, it gains a stack of Huffy Cat shortly after; if it is allowed to reach three stacks, it will cast a Hangry Hiss enrage and wipe the party once it finishes. Once the yan is dead, feather rays will begin to spawn, tethering to the closest proximity players or whoever hits them first with Water III casts that leave puddles that inflict a Vulnerability Up debuff lasting five seconds. These puddles will also inflict Dropsy DoTs when stood in for too long; ideally a ranged and healer player should take them in pairs and bait them at the outer edges of the arena.
Continue working your way around the arena while eliminating the adds until a jabberwock, a second pair of mus, and a second gimme cat spawn and with the former tethering a healer, who must run all the way to the southeast edge of the arena. The jabberwock will immobilize the healer with Manxome Windersnatch, requiring the main tank and the melees to single target it before it reaches the healer and instantly kills them with Slayous Snicker-snack. Once targetable, they can be stunned with Low Blow (and Shield Bash, if there is a Paladin in the party) to delay its advance before then. Sugar Riot will cast Ready Ore Not, a magic raidwide signifying the mus' enrage with Ore-rigato shortly after; they must be killed before they go off or they will inflict heavy stacking damage over time; while this is survivable, it is not ideal to heal and mitigate through them.
By now a third gimme cat, a second jabberwock, a new pair of yans, and a new pair of feather rays should spawn. The second healer should run all the way to the opposite end of the jabberwock and it must be dealt with as usual. The yans must be taken by the tank currently not dealing with the mus; a tank invulnerability may very likely be needed due to both yans being tanked at once. Deal with the feather rays and bait their tethers like before, then handle the gimme cat before it enrages and the remaining feather ray to free up the other ranged player. Sugar Riot will cast another Ready Ore Not raidwide, followed by the mus casting Ore-rigato if they haven't been killed yet. The boss will cast Single Style, spawning arrows in the north and east sides of the arena. find the open safe spots and dodge the arrows while killing the yans before she casts another Color Riot. Once all adds are killed, the water puddles disappear and the Limit Break gauge will refill back to level 3. Be sure to take the tankbusters as normal before she casts another Mousse Mural raidwide; if there are any adds left alive then the raidwide will serve as her enrage. She will move north and do a second Sugarscape cast, turning the arena into a riverscape.
Phase 3 - Riverscape[]
Riverscape starts with Double Style: arrows will spawn to the edges in two possible patterns, as a cast of Taste of Thunder or Taste of Fire. These are like in normal mode without indicators. With Thunder the party needs to spread on the islands or bridges. With Fire, Healers will be targeted with light party stacks that must be taken in the water. Find safe places according to the arrows and deal with Thunder and Fire according to them.
Sugar Riot brings thunderstorm alive with Layer. The water will become muddy and inflict a Dropsy DoT on anyone who stands in it, and lightning AoE's will start spawning all around and the massive thundercloud also appears. Before evading everything, thunder will crack on the screen, which causes lightning to strike on the location every player were standing at that moment after few seconds. Move out from this after the flash and find safety from the bridge, which is directly opposite from the thundercloud. For the most part this goes like in normal mode, but as an added twist, each player will get a marker above them, two at a time four times, which targets them with a bolt, that causes an AoE which electrifies the island they are standing on. These players will need to walk to islands, where the thundercloud isn't moving into to deal with the bolts. No other players can be on the islands, they will need to find safety on the bridges opposite from the thundercloud. Once all four sets of players have dealt with their thunderstorm AoEs, Sugar Riot will cast Pudding Party, a five-hit, stacked magic damage AoE on a random player. Return to the boss and stack and mitigate throughout. After the thunderstorm is over, she should be pulled to the south island before she casts another Layer, turning the arena volcanic and replacing the muddy water with lava, which destroys the bridges and will kill anyone that attempts to run through it.
The boss will cast Mousse Drip on the ranged or healer players, requiring them to stack with their partner. This will also leave puddles and will hit up to four times. At the same time, eight towers will spawn on the islands, requiring the ranged and healers to stack away from them. The boss will also cast proximity-based Moussacre Protean cones on the melees and tanks, then will cast a baited Taste of Thunder; just like at the beginning of the Riverscape phase, bait these out of the towers, then move into them once you see the thunder crack on your screen. The boss will also spawn a second set of towers, then another Wingmark on all players. Four towers on one of the ranged islands can spawn, requiring all groups to rotate and aim for the next island across, or they can all spawn on the melee island, requiring the tanks to drag them to the very southeast corner and placing themselves close to the wall so they and the melees can remain on the island, as well as the ranged and healers getting launched there. Regardless of how the towers spawn, the boss will cast another Taste of Thunder, so wait for the thunder crack before going into your tower. The boss will then cast another Mousse Mural and then revert back to the arena at the very beginning of the fight.
By now this is mainly repeated mechanics: a Sticky Mousse spread, then light party stacks, another Color Riot tankbuster, another Wingmark and Color Clash cast like in the beginning of the fight, only she will not center herself and will move to the main tank's location. The boss will cast another Double Style and the stacks will resolve shortly after, followed by an Artistic Anarchy enrage, wiping the raid if she is not beaten in time.
Musical themes[]
"Back to the Drawing Board" plays in the Normal and Savage versions of the encounter.
Behind the scenes[]
The adds in the Savage version of the fight are based on the so-called "friendly monsters" introduced in Final Fantasy IX. They share the same characteristics of these monsters and they include a Mu, a Yan, a Feather Ray and a Jabberwock. The Gimme Cat is also a monster from Final Fantasy IX, but unlike the others, it is not a friendly monster, but instead a deceiver.
