Regarding Haukke HM and CbM HM

Just want some confirmation on these. Please only speak from personal experience, do not cite online guides and videos.

Haukke hard mode

First boss: exactly what is the condition for spawning the big skeleton? I've heard stories that if 3 small skeletons die inside the dark circle then a big one spawns. But I've also had a fight where none of the skeletons died in the dark circle yet the big skeleton spawned.

It also doesn't seem like if there's 3 skeletons alive then the big one spawn, because I've had 4 alive at the same time towards the end and the big one didn't spawn.

Last boss: I feel that the boss eats adds if any one of these three conditions is true: (1) if the add dies; (2) if a set time passes; (3) if the boss's HP drops to a certain percentage.

The reason for this is that I've had a very high dps group AoE boss+adds all the time (SMN+BLM) and managed to kill none of the adds. The last add gave us a 8k blood rain and wiped us.

Copperbell hard mode

First boss: it seems the boss set fire to the bridge according to a timer but also according to the adds. Of the three groups of slimes, the boss will set fire to the first part of the bridge once the second group of slimes is pulled. He seems to set fire to the third part of the bridge once the last group of slimes are pulled. Anyone have experience otherwise?

I've always just pulled to the second set of slimes at the beginning. While the boss is busy making a fire, we can AoE down the two groups of slimes and be ready for the bomb. After that, we always have a loooong time we can dps the boss before he light up the second stretch of the bridge.

Second boss: the fire sprites will spawn with some enmity on a random player. Boss has 3 phases. Phase 1 is before getting hit by the first bomb, just a regular tank and spank. Phase 2 he will cast a straight-line room-length AoE at whoever has aggro. Phase 3 he puts down blue fire on the ground. Seems in this fight, after the first bomb, it's best that the tank be doing the bombs and everyone else remain on the other side of the room and take care of sprites.

Last boss: two waves of adds spawn here, first wave is just one giant, the second wave has two. These adds seem to fixate on a party member, and will ignore all enmity. Has anyone successfully tanked these before?

HMHM:

1) No idea, I usually run in a pre-made and our DPS is too high to see it

3) She "eats" the adds either at a timer (slow DPS) or when they're nearly dead (fast DPS); nothing you can do to prevent the AoEs, just minimize them. Add spawns are affected by boss HP

CBMHM:

1) Fire cast is determined by boss HP, but I also think it can be "forced" early by moving too far away from the boss.

2) Adds randomly aggro someone, and should just be killed ASAP. No tank-and-spank before bombs, you can only damage the golem with bombs. Anyone can do bombs, as long as they know when/where to place them.

3) Adds have no aggro meter; just have to kill them ASAP.

Haukke HM:
1. 3 dead skeletons inside the big purple circle. Watch them, they'll all be pulled to the centre, connected by a purple line. Then they'll merge to form a big skeleton.
2. Last boss: I feel that way too. Usually if DPS is too high, adds will die quite quickly, and you might get back to back Blood Rains for the 2nd part.

Copperbell HM:
1. Running too far from the boss prompts him to set parts of the bridge on fire. You can kinda "speed up" the rate he burns the bridge, although I don't know why you would want to.
2. Yes, DPS should handle the fire sprites, and tank should carry bomb. However, seems another way to do it is 1 DPS carries the bomb, and the other picks up adds. Gogmagolem's attacks are kinda random, sometimes he does Skull Bash, sometimes he does Landslide. At the 3rd phase I notice he doesn't use anything other than Earthen Heart.
3. Never tanked the adds before. Usually the melee goes to pick up the adds, and the ranged does the rocks.

Regarding first boss of HM what I've noticed is that if boss is kept inside large purple circle then large skeleton add will spawn, ie: tank needs to move him away if he is close to purple circle.
Not 100% sure of this, however after doing this strategy I've never seen the large Skelton pop, whereas I used to see it quite a bit beforehand

Concerning the first copperbell boss, if your dps is very slow, the boss will also fill the remainder of the bridge with fire for a soft enrage. It can be healed through, but definitely necessitates a quick finish. Something to keep in mind, since it sure caught me by surprise when it first happened.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PArcher

3) She "eats" the adds either at a timer (slow DPS) or when they're nearly dead (fast DPS); nothing you can do to prevent the AoEs, just minimize them. Add spawns are affected by boss HP

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I think this is not exactly right. With high dps who can withhold from the boss, i.e. do not damage the boss at all during adds, the adds will go down to 0 HP. It's where the dps is being applied; the boss does not eat adds faster if the adds are dying faster. So the best scenario is high dps, all on adds, and the adds will be 0 HP, which will minimize the blood rain.

But some DDs insist that the faster adds HP drop, the earlier boss will eat the add. I never have that happen in pure melee groups (i.e. DRG/MNK all focus fire on adds only). Note that I as the tank also always focus fire on adds. I see tanks maintaining damage output on the boss during add stage as counter-productive.

And yes, blood rain is forced damage, can't stun nor silence.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PArcher

2) Adds randomly aggro someone, and should just be killed ASAP. No tank-and-spank before bombs, you can only damage the golem with bombs. Anyone can do bombs, as long as they know when/where to place them.

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Nope. First phase is before the boss is damaged by bombs. And during that phase, the boss can be tanked. Although you're partially right that there's no "spanking" part to it. Just the tanking. The boss only start moving on his set course after the first bomb. As to who to do the bombs, I was referring to the optimum strategy, as you would want both DDs on sprite duty. Having DDs run around moving bombs also mean that during the second phase when the boss has access to the straight line AoE, they may get hit by it if they happen to be in the way.

[QUOTE=juniglee;1837660]Haukke HM:
1. 3 dead skeletons inside the big purple circle. Watch them, they'll all be pulled to the centre, connected by a purple line. Then they'll merge to form a big skeleton.[quote]

Ah! This is the kind of information I was looking for. I'll keep an eye out for them the next time. Thanks!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by juniglee

1. Running too far from the boss prompts him to set parts of the bridge on fire. You can kinda "speed up" the rate he burns the bridge, although I don't know why you would want to.

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I only force the first section because how close the first two groups of slimes are and probably half the group I ran with in the CF will have some ranged DD or the healer accidentally (or maybe they did it on purpose) aggro the second group. So now I always just start the fight by pulling both groups of slimes.

[QUOTE=juniglee;1837660]2. Yes, DPS should handle the fire sprites, and tank should carry bomb. However, seems another way to do it is 1 DPS carries the bomb, and the other picks up adds. Gogmagolem's attacks are kinda random, sometimes he does Skull Bash, sometimes he does Landslide. At the 3rd phase I notice he doesn't use anything other than Earthen Heart.

Yeah in third phase it's just the puddles, supposedly it's to interfere with players setting down bombs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Seryl199

Concerning the first copperbell boss, if your dps is very slow, the boss will also fill the remainder of the bridge with fire for a soft enrage. It can be healed through, but definitely necessitates a quick finish. Something to keep in mind, since it sure caught me by surprise when it first happened.

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Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder. Also I think if we pull the last group of slimes early (I've had over-eager people do that when the set of two giant adds appear) the boss would immediately set fire to the second part of the bridge. Although I've only had that happen once, so I'm not exactly clear on that.

Just a little side note for the last boss of Haukke Manor HM. After Halicarnassus absorbs the Ariman she gets an extremely potent Stonekin effect that wastes a lot of TP. Now the Stonekin effect on the Ariman itself is really weak, pretty negligible (to the point where you don't even notice it's effect) when killing the Ariman in time. But I tried silencing the Stoneskin on the Ariman instead of Dark Mist to check something, and the final boss did not get her usual Stoneskin after the Ariman was absorbed.

After this, I am now firm believer is silencing the Stoneskin the Ariman casts as priority on the last boss. Doesn't change the Ariman at all, but make a big difference on the main boss.

^ interesting about the silence.
Thanks for posting that