AAC Light-heavyweight M1, known to players as M1 or R1, is the first turn of the AAC Light-heavyweight tier of The Arcadion 
Raid in Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail.
Objectives[]
Normal[]
- Defeat Black Cat
Savage[]
- Defeat Black Cat
Story[]
Normal[]
Savage[]
Progression[]
Normal[]
I hope you're ready to be ripped to shreds!
Black Cat
Savage[]
From my lives nine, my soul I split!
Black Cat
The beginning of this Savage fight is exceptional, since it doesn't start with a raidwide attack. Instead, Black cat teleports to the middle and starts with Quadruple Crossing. She targets four closest players two times with Protean waves and then repeats the attacks on the posiotions the players were on twice after. One player can't take two hits in a row due to Slashing Resistance Down it also inflicts. Decide, whether the supports or DPS take the first bait, the other half takes the second. As soon as the cast begins, have the first half of players go inside her hitbox and direct the proteans away from the other half. Then the other half baits the second proteans the same way. It may be easier to direct all the baits to the same direction to minimize movement for the two following waves. Remember, the last two waves don't need to be baited, they shoot to the directions the baited protean waves do.
Black Cat then uses a tankbuster, Biscuit Maker. Unlike in normal mode, that only hit once, on Savage it hits twice, also inflicting Slashing Resistance Down, meaning a Tank can't take both hits without tank invulnerability. Either use it, or have Off-Tank provoke in the middle of the cast to make sure Main Tank is safe from the second hit. Main Tank can retake aggro after.
Next, Black Cat uses Nine Lives, followed by One-Two Paw to cleave both halves of the arena. Be mindful, which side she cleaves first, as it also serves the way to deal with her clones she spawns with Soulshade. After cleaving both halves of the arena, she tethers with the clones, causing them to repeat her previous action, in this case, they repeat the One-Two Paw. Go to the side of the arena, which was safe first, and position yourself next to the clone, so that you are safe from it's first cleave. For example, if left side of the arena was safe first, position yourself to the left, and look at the clones' position to determine, where a safe spot is. It is going to be side, where left sides of both clones will be safe. Once you find it, stand there until Black Cat uses Nine Lives again and the clones first cleaves resolve. Immediately after, walk diagonally to the other side to evade the second cleaves. Black Cat will follow this with either Double Swipe or Quadruple Swipe. Double Swipe is light party stacks, while Quadruple Swipe needs to be taken in pairs. Pair each support with a DPS if Black Cat uses Quadruple Swipe (recommend pairing Tanks with Ranged DPS and Healers with Melee DPS to keep better uptime). Make sure the light party stacks or pairs don't overlap, as these attacks are small AoEs.
At this point, Black Cat uses Soulshade to summon one more clone to mimic the Double/Quadruple Swipe. This is followed by Leaping Quadruple Crossing. This functions like the Quadruple Crossing at the start, with an added twist that she will leap into an indicated position on the left or right side from the middle, and then resolve the Crossing. Position yourself to the location she will leap on and take the baits like before. After these have resolved, the clone will unleash the Double/Quadruple Swipe. Resolve this like before. After this, Black Cat uses Bloody Scratch, a raidwide dealing physical damage.
There's no need to move Black Cat back to the middle as she will leap there soon. Afterwards, she uses Mouser. Each square on the arena will blink red, as she gets ready to shatter them. Only four squares in the two middle square lines, either north-south or east-west in a zigzag-pattern will remain, after she's done. Watch out, which of these squares blink only once; those are the ultimate safe spots.
The arena will be repaired, so that the two square lines in the middle will have four broken squares and four intact squares. Black Cat uses Copycat to summon a solid clone, which will then use Elevate and Eviscerate four times on either all supports or all DPS. Unlike in normal mode, that only hit a player with an uppercut that forced them to find an intact square to land on, the clone has two ways of doing this; either doing the uppercut, or smashing them from above. Look at the clone, to determine which one it uses; if she is bent over, it will be uppercut; if she is hovering in a more straight fashion, it is the smash. However, there's a way to do this without the need to identify, which one the clone uses. Also, these hits don't only affect the targeted player; they also cause +-shaped knockback waves across all squares from the square the targeted player is standing on. To resolve this, do the following:
- The targeted player will get a paw-marker above their head. This player needs to go stand on an intact square. Recommend, that ranged players take the furthest intact squares, and melees the closest from the middle. The targeted player should position themselves into a corner of this square, and look towards the opposite diagonal corner.
- The rest of the party must be on different lines from the targeted player to make sure they don't get hit by the knockback waves. These knockbacks can't be nullified with Arm's Length/Surecast.
- The clone will then hit the targeted player. If the player is positioned correctly, and looking the right direction, it doesn't matter which hit the clone uses. If uppercut, the player will land safely, and if smash, they only get Down for the Count for a few seconds. The square will also get damaged.
- Repeat the previous steps three more times.
Once the clone leaves the area, Black Cat uses another Biscuit Maker. Deal this with tankswaps. Next, you will see more of the arena getting repaired, but two opposite corners will be repaired faster. Find out, which ones, as Black Cat will use Shockwave to knock back everyone from her. This knockback can't be prevented with Arm's Length/Surecast and the knockback is so heavy, it can easily push you out of the arena, if you're not close enough to the boss. And not only that, each player will also get a personal AoE, that will resolve after the knockback. Divide into light parties, and have light party 1 to get knocked to the northern corner, and light party 2 to the southern corner. Then spread out to make sure your AoEs don't overlap and cause KOs.
Next set of mechanics requires memorization. Black Cat uses Nine Lives again to summon two clones, one north and one south from the middle point, and that the clones face towards the middle point. The facing direction is important. Next, Black Cat uses Leaping One-Two Paw; she will leap to the indicated position either left or right from the middle, and then cleave the arena twice, indicated by her glowing claws. Move towards the leaping point and evade the cleaves. Once done, she will then use Soulshade on one of the clones. Pay attention, which one, as that clone will repeat the Leaping One-Two Paw later. Next, Black Cat turns to face towards middle and then use Leaping Quadruple Crossing by leaping again to the indicated point that is left or right from her point of view (north or south). Deal this like with the previous Leaping Quadruple Crossing, but without the Sweeps. Another Soulshade tethers Black Cat to the second clone, and this clone will repeat Leaping Quadruple Crossing later. You will need to memorize, which clone repeats what and also remember the direction Black Cat leaped. The clones will leap towards the same direction according to their point of views. Since the clones face towards middle, the southern clone will leap to the same direction Black Cat did, provided it will be resolved first. The order, which clone is resolved first is random. When Black Cat uses Nine Lives, one of the clones wakes up, and will prepare to do, what Black Cat did before. The clones are resolved like before, but there are two other mechanics Black Cat will also do, that need to be resolved. If the clone that repeats the Leaping One-Two Paw is active, Black Cat uses Tempestuous Tear. This targets both healers with line stacks. Resolve these stacks with light parties and at the same time, evade the clone's cleaves. If the clone that repeats Leaping Quadruple Crossing is active, Black Cat uses Nailchipper. This will target either all supports or all DPS with a marker, that explodes with a small AoE. These AoEs will explode at the same time when the first baits from the clone will happen. In order to survive this, the players that are not targeted by markers will need to bait the clones proteans first. Marked players should also move a bit out from the clone's leaping spot to make sure the AoE doesn't hit anyone else. Switch places as soon as the first bait is done, since the first baiters will need to deal with Nailchipper afterwards.
Another Bloody Scratch comes next, and then the second Mouser. This is mostly like the first one, but two new mechanics will be used while resolving the Elevate and Eviscerate from the Copycat clone. Overshadow is a line stack; have the whole party except the one targeted by the clone stacked on a safe square to resolve this. Splintering Nails targets one Tank, one Healer and one DPS. Make role stacks to resolve these, as you can't get hit by more than one, and also because it is impossible to tell, who the targets will be. Like with Overshadow, a targeted player doesn't join to resolve this. Black Cat uses both of these abilities twice in random order. Once you have resolved these, deal with another Biscuit Maker and Shockwave.
The fight is now near its end. Next mechanic is probably the hardest in the fight: Raining Cats. This mechanic has several things happening all at once. First, Black Cat Targets two players with tethers. This will happen four times. A normal way to do this is to have every player deal with one tether. It will launch a heavy damage protean wave at the target, which inflicts Vulnerability Down, which lasts long enough, that every player can only take one hit from them. However, the tethers aren't the only thing happening here. Black Cat also targets the closest and farthest player from her with AoEs, that must be taken with player stacks. There are several ways to resolve this:
- The normal way is to have every player take one tether. Decide the order, who takes which tether. An easy way is to use role pairs. For example, Tanks take the first, Healers second, Melee DPS third and Ranged DPS fourth. Also, players without the tether will then form two stacks, one that is closest to the boss and the second the farthest. Try toto have three players on both stacks at all times. It may be wiser to have Tanks and Melees close to the boss and Healers and Ranged far from the boss. Players with tethers will need to keep a distance from the boss that is between the stacks in length, so that they don't get hit by the stack hits.
- A common special way to deal with this is called MTTT. In this, Melees take the first tethers, and Tanks will handle the remaining three by using their invulnerabilities. With the invulnerabilities, Tanks can also act as baits for the stacks as well. Have Melees take the first tethers in such a way, that they aren't the farthest or closest, make stacks for that. Next, Tanks take the second tethers, but these need to be taken without the invulnerability, as their 10 second timer is not long enough to deal all three. Activate invulnerability for the third and fourth tethers. At this point, Tanks can also make themselves as the closest and farthest players as well.
After Raining Cats, Black Cat uses Copycat once more, that will do the Predaceous Pounce seen in Normal Mode. Simply look out for the pattern, and find a safe place according to it. Also, look at the boss, as she will also do one more One-Two Paw to cleave both sides. Once this is done, Black Cat uses Mouser for the third time that acts as the enrage: unlike the last two times, this Mouser will shatter the entire arena. If you can't defeat her before the last squares are broken, you will fall to your death and fail.
Musical themes[]
The boss theme that plays in both Normal and Savage is "It's Showtime!", an arrangement of "Give it All".
