AAC Cruiserweight M4, known to players as M8 or R8, is the fourth and final turn of the AAC Cruiserweight tier of The Arcadion 
Raid series in Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail.
Objectives[]
Normal[]
- Defeat the Howling Blade
Savage[]
- Defeat the Howling Blade
Story[]
Normal[]
You have climbed the ranks of the cruiserweight tier to reach the title match, and the stakes could not be higher. With that which gives your lives' purpose on the line, the match between the unenhanced warrior and the Howling Blade has all of Alexandria on the edge of their seats. It is time to see once and for all who will come out on top: the lone wolf, or the undefeated upstart?
Duty Finder Description
Savage[]
Gabbro's words have sparked your imagination, inspiring you to envision your title match against the Howling Blade in new ways. Had he brought the full might of Fenrir to bear, the lone wolf's formidable strength would have reached greater heights still. How might you have fared if the battle continued to rage on...?
Duty Finder Description
Progression[]
Normal[]
Savage[]
This encounter reverts to the "door boss" structure seen in most final floor Savage raids, with a key difference being the fight has no recorded checkpoint. In contrast to Savage raids without checkpoints, players will need to reduce the boss's HP to zero before moving on to the second phase of the fight.
Phase 1[]
Shortly after being pulled, the boss will cast Extraplanar Pursuit, a moderate physical raidwide that must be healed and mitigated. The boss will then jump to the middle and cast either Windfang or Stonefang. If Windfang was cast, the party must partner up in melee range to take shared Proteans; if it was Stonefang, then the party must spread out by the wall and take a Protean each. In either case, the party must also avoid the drones line cleaving the cardinals or intercardinals. Following this, the boss will cast either Eminent Reign or Revolutionary Reign. The boss will jump to one of three point-blank AoEs, then dash to the other end of the arena. If he casted Eminent Reign, the boss will perform a cone cleave in front of him, as well as shared damage Proteans on the healers, requiring light party stacks minus the tanks, who should take their Protean cleaves alone behind him. If he casted Revolutionary Reign, the boss will perform a cleave that covers over half the arena, requiring light parties to stack to the left and right of his first jump and tanks further out against the wall instead. The boss will follow up with another Extraplanar Pursuit raidwide, then jump to the middle to cast Millennial Decay, which begins with magic raidwide damage.
The boss will begin by casting a knockback from the center, which can be mitigated with Arm's Length and Surecast. He will also target melees and tanks or ranged and healer players with an AoE around them that inflicts a Magic Vulnerability Up debuff. At the same time, green wolf heads will appear on the outside of the arena in a clockwise or counterclockwise pattern and cast line cleaves through the middle. Regardless of which players get the AoE first, use your knockback immunity. Rotate around the arena and the next set of players will get targeted with AoEs; if any player was hit with an AoE when they were not supposed to take it, they will die from the vulnerability debuff. Once the wolf heads resolve, the boss will cast another knockback, with green wolf heads and towers appearing in the cardinals or intercardinals. If you were tethered to a wolf head, stand on the opposite end of it close to the boss so that you stretch your tether and get knocked back behind another wolf head. If you do not have a tether, you are required to take a tower by getting knocked back into it. Once the mechanics are resolved, the boss will target a player with Tracking Tremors, an eight-hit shared damage AoE. When all eight hits resolve, the boss will cast another Extraplanar Pursuit then follow with Great Divide, a tank shared damage line AoE.
The boss will then cast Terrestrial Titans, spawning the towers previously seen in Normal mode, requiring players to get out of their spawns or they will be sent flying. Unlike Normal mode, the towers are much larger and there are only two. The boss will then cast a Titanic Pursuit raidwide, working exactly like his normal raidwides but with the added effect of cutting the towers through the center in half. He will also spawn his drones that will cleave either in a cross-shaped pattern or an X-shape. All sides except for one will be safe, and cross drones will hit the potential safe spots. Run to the side with the X-shaped drones and does not have part of a tower falling on it, wait for both the towers and the drones to resolve, and the boss will cast the variant of Wolves' Reign that he did not cast at the beginning of the fight. Once the mechanic resolves, the boss will jump to the north shortly after, his hitbox will briefly become omni-directional, and he will cast Tactical Pack, beginning the adds phase.
During the adds phase, a Wolf of Stone and a Wolf of Wind adds will spawn on the east and west of the arena, respectively. All players will be tethered to one of the heads and gain a Stonepack or Windpack debuff, requiring them to go to the add opposite from where they are tethered, as they cannot damage the Wolf of Stone or the Wolf of Wind, respectively. Additionally, a large, persistent AoE will spawn in the entire center of the arena and instantly kills players that attempt to traverse through once the adds become targetable. The adds will begin the phase by casting Howling Havoc, a heavy magic raidwide that must be mitigated, after which all the non-tank players will gain an Earthborne End or Windborne End debuffs. These debuffs can have one of three timers, and must be cleansed by crossing through the untargetable Font of Earth Aether and Font of Wind Aether adds, respectively; if these debuffs are allowed to expire, they will explode and wipe the raid. The adds can also rotate in a clockwise or counter-clockwise orientation.
The adds will begin by casting Pack Predation conal tankbusters on the tanks, as well as conal AoEs on one player each. These inflict a magic vulnerability up for two seconds, and must aimed away from other players. Once the vulnerability falls off, the first Stoneborne End-debuffed player must cleanse through the Font of Earth Aether add, and doing so cause a light Stone Surge magic raidwide that will give them the Windpack debuff, a four-second magic vulnerability to all players, and reducing the Wolf of Wind's HP by 25%. Once the debuff falls off, the short Windborne End-debuffed player must take their debuff through the Font of Wind Aether add to set off Wind Surge, which does the same thing to the Wolf of Stone, before the next Pack Predation casts start. These must be repeated two more times. Once all players have cleansed their debuffs, the Font adds will disappear and the Wolf adds must be taken back to the boss before they cast Forlorn Stone and Forlorn Wind enrages and wipe the party. Additionally, if any adds were killed before a required cleanse goes off, the respective Font add will explode, causing raidwide damage without the magic vulnerability, and damage the other add. Once both Wolf adds are killed, the boss will become targetable and cast a Ravenous Saber high-damage physical raidwide hitting five times.
Phase 2[]
No matter what becomes of my body...defeat is not an option!
Howling Blade
Following the cutscene transition, the party will end up in a new arena divided into five circular platforms connected by teleporters. Using these teleporters allows for travel between them, but will also inflict the Immobile Suit debuff on use, preventing players from using them for two seconds. Due to how the game registers hit detection, it may take a second or two for players to teleport. Additionally, players will be affected by the Terrestrial Chains debuff that disables their ability to jump, necessitating use of the teleporters to traverse the platforms.
The party's Limit Gauge will be retained from the previous phase and the boss will be targetable immediately with an omni-directional hitbox. As soon as the phase begins, the off-tank must immediately turn on their tank stance if they haven't, as the boss will target both tanks for auto-attacks and tankbusters. Start by going to your light party stacks on the southwest and southeast platforms for Quake III stacks targeting the platforms. The boss will then cast Ultraviolent Ray targeting either two or three players from each group with blue markers. If your side has two markers, then whoever has them should go north, while unmarked players stay. If your side has three, then one player will go north, the second will stay with the unmarked player, and the third will go to the south platform. Additionally, five drones will appear on the outside of the arena and cast a Gleaming Beam line cleave through them, requiring a dodge as well. The boss will then cast Twinbite tankbusters covering an entire platform, requiring everyone except the tanks to go to the south platform, while the tanks themselves remain on the southwest and southeast and heavily mitigate their tankbusters. The boss will then cast Hero's Blow, showing which side of the arena he will cleave. His drones will also point their lasers in towards him, signifying that his hitbox is safe, or out of the arena, requiring players to stand on the back half of the platforms. Dodge the sword and the Gleaming Barrage from the drones and the boss will cast a second Ultraviolent Ray, which is resolved as before, then follow with another Quake III cast that requires light parties to return to the southwest and southeast platforms. Once this is done, return to the south platform.
The boss will then cast Mooncleaver, which will target a random player and destroy the platform they are on. Since everyone is on the south platform, he will target that. Move immediately as the cast begins, with the party going to the northeast platform and the tanks going to the southwest and southeast. One tank and one non-tank player will get a marker for Elemental Purge each, and the tank with the highest enmity will get targeted with a Patience of Wind debuff, ensuring that the Elemental Purge marker is lethal unless a tank invulnerability is used. If this happens, the off-tank should immediately Provoke. Both the debuffed tank and the rest of the party must be on adjacent platforms to resolve Elemental Purge while also dodging a 200-degree cleave on his left or right. Once the cleave and debuffs resolve, the boss will spawn Prowling Gale towers that must be taken in pairs. Once the towers resolve, the boss will cast Rise of the Howling Wind, overcharging the teleporters and increasing the Immobile Suit length to seven seconds.
The boss will then cast Twofold Tempest, spawning a tether on a random player. The tether must be resolved clockwise or counter-clockwise; as the south platform is destroyed, they must start on the southwest or southeast platforms, and if the tether spawns on the northwest or northeast, they must be taken to those platforms, respectively. Players must run all the way to the back of their platforms with their partners, as they will spawn a green orb that expands and covers a large portion of it. Additionally, touching the orb is fatal. At the same time, the boss will cast baited line AoEs once the tethers resolve. Both the tethers and the line AoEs are shared damage and will inflict a Magic Vulnerability Up debuff, so they must not be taken in short amount of time between hits. The line AoEs must start on the northeast platform (if the tether started southwest) or the northwest platform (if the tether starts southeast) and must be taken in the opposing clock rotation. Once all the orbs and AoEs have been resolved, the south platform will be restored, and the teleporters will return to normal.
Everyone must return to the south platform as the boss prepares a cast of Champion's Circuit. The boss will cast a set of five AoEs that will rotate in a clockwise or counter-clockwise pattern. The AoEs can be a combination of a large line cleave through the middle, a donut AoE in the middle, his hitbox being safe, or an AoE in melee range. Additionally, his drones will perform Gleaming Beam casts with each of his cleaves. Players will need to identify the safe spots, usually by memorizing them or by looking for the incoming AoE on the platform next to them. Once Champion's Circuit resolves, players must return to their light party platforms for Quake III, then Ultraviolent Ray, and then another Twinbite tankbusters.
Shortly after the tankbusters resolve, the boss will begin to cast Rise of the Hunter's Blade, which also increases the Immobile Suit debuff to seven seconds. Before the cast starts, the healers must plant on the south platforms, the DPS should go southeast, and the tanks northwest with everyone lightly spreading. The boss will cast Lone Wolf's Lament, spawning Lament of the Close (green) or Lament of the Distant (blue) tethers on players. If a DPS has a green tether on a healer, they must go to the south platform with the healers; if their partner was a tank, they must meet up at the northeast platform. If a DPS has a blue tether on a healer, they must move to the northeast platform as well; if it was a tank, they must stay on the southeast platform and the tank must go to the southwest. Shortly after getting into positions, the boss will then cast Prowling Gale towers; three of the platforms except for the northwest and northeast ones will be static, with the southwest, south, and southeast platforms having one, three, and one-person towers, respectively. A two-person tower may spawn on the northeast, requiring the green tethered tank and DPS to stay, and the northwest platform must be taken by the blue tethered DPS player. The inverse can also happen, with the green tethered tank and DPS moving northwest and the blue tethered DPS staying. This is followed by the boss turning to a random platform and casting a second Hero's Blow and Gleaming Barrage combo and, as the teleporters still have a longer cooldown, they will only allow for one teleport during the mechanic. Check the flank arrows on his hitbox, then check if his sword will cleave that side, then move away from that half of the arena to a safe platform, but don't forget to dodge the Gleaming Barrage as well. The tanks must then position themselves on the northwest platform with the DPS who were also north for Lone Wolf's Lament, and the healers must return to the south platform with the south DPS for another Ultraviolent Ray cast. As there is no way to do your usual pre-positions, this is the best way to do it. Line up once again, with supports on the outer sides and the DPS on the inner sides, then dodge the Gleaming Beams from the drones. Immediately return to the south platform once the mechanic resolves.
By this point, the boss will soft enrage and begin a baited Howling Eight tower on a random player which takes up the entirety of a platform, just like Mooncleaver at the beginning of the phase. This will hit eight times, with the first four hits hitting at a slower pace, before next four hits pick up rapidly, followed by the boss casting Mooncleaver on the platform and destroying it. After he destroys a platform, the boss will gain a stack of Damage Up. Use light mitigations for the first one, then move to the second platform going clockwise and bait the next Howling Eight there, but this time it can be taken by a tank with invulnerability, and everyone else can move to the third platform. On the third set of Howling Eight, the tanks must use heavy mitigations together (referred to as kitchen sinking) before moving to the fourth platform, where the other tank can use their invulnerability to soak the tower alone. The party must then take the fifth and last tower together by expending all their personal and party mitigations. If they survive, the boss will cast a slow Starcleaver enrage, destroying the sole remaining platform and wiping the party if he is not defeated in time.
Musical themes[]
"Unleashed" plays in the Normal and Savage versions of the encounter. In Savage, the theme that plays during the second phase is "Peerless", an arrangement of "Unleashed".
