What's the best way to deal with Turn 4's final phases?

[Sleigh]

I've successfully completed Turn 4 multiple times, but as I've moved to different groups, it seems like certain strategies won't work depending on the group composition and gear level.

It seems like the bread and butter method of dealing with T4 is:
1. Kill the second set of bugs so the Dreadnaught doesn't get any stacks
2. Kill the Knight and Soldier who drop down with the second Dreadnaught
3. Hurt the Dreadnaught
4. After the final adds spawn, stop attacking the second Dreadnaught and kill the Rook that appears with the final set of adds
5. Finish off the initial Dreadnaught
6. Kill all enemies besides the final Dreadnaught
7. Kill the final Dreadnaught while healing through enrage timer

I've successfully used this strategy. However, it seems like there are some issues with this method: You can't always get a group that can kill all the bugs, the bugs in the final phase can accidentally be given to the first Dreadnaught, you have to deal with the enrage timer with this method, the AoE phase is a large TP/MP/non-GCD drain, and it's a large strain on the MT. In no way are these problems definitive or can't be avoided, but those are problems I've seen.

I've successfully used a variation of the strategy, which has its ups but definite downs.

1. When the second set of bugs spawn, only kill the Rooks, and everyone else does nothing to conserve all resources.
2. Dreadnaught spawns with full stacks, Hallowed Ground is used by MT, OT kites adds near entrance, Dreadnaught is burned down first and foremost.
3. Shortly after, final adds spawn, OT uses Hallowed Ground, everyone kills Rook.
4. Adds are burned down as quickly as possible, in the order they dropped.
5. Kill final Dreadnaught

This strategy seems strange, but its benefits over the more standard strategy are less of an AoE DPS requirement, in general a low gear requirement on all members except the OT kiting the adds, the final bugs are much less of a liability since the only Dreadnaught to eat them will be at full health, and you avoid the enrage timer for some reason using this method. The drawback to this method is placing the entire raid's survival on the OT, who needs to be competitively geared and work hard to hold threat from healers with all adds and survive. This strategy seems more all-in, which leads me to love it when it works but want to abandon it quickly if it doesn't.

I've toyed with other variations, such as instead of the kill order being Knight/Soldier > Rook > 2nd Dreadnaught > Knight/Soldier > 3rd Dreadnaught, it being Knight OR Soldier > Dreadnaught > Rook > 3 Adds left > 3rd Dreadnaught, which spreads the strain to both MT and OT (whereas strategy 1 has most strain on the MT, strategy 2 an extremely large strain on the OT).

Anyway, as this turn is effectively on farm, what do you feel is the best way to deal with it? Assume a party of BLM/SMN/BRD/MNK rather than something like BLM/BLM/BRD/BRD or something.

[MieyCyruuuus]

Phrase 4 - aoe kill everything
phrase 5, group focus dreadnaught 1, OT takes knight + soilder. first dreadnaught should be dead or near dead before phrase 6
phrase 6 - LB rook, feed 2 spiders to final dreadnaught,OT takes 2 soilders and 2 knights and pop all cooldowns, and kill all 4. then kill the last dreadnaught

We have never seen a emergency override. heres a video from my POV

http://www.twitch.tv/mileythegreatest/c/3194513

[Zdenka]

1. When the second set of bugs spawn, only kill the Rooks, and everyone else does nothing to conserve all resources.
2. Dreadnaught spawns with full stacks, Hallowed Ground is used by MT, OT kites adds near entrance, Dreadnaught is burned down first and foremost.
3. Shortly after, final adds spawn, OT uses Hallowed Ground, everyone kills Rook.
4. Adds are burned down as quickly as possible, in the order they dropped.
5. Kill final Dreadnaught

This is what we do, but with 2 small changes:

Wave 4 after killing the 2 rooks, you kill 1 bug so the DK has 3 stacks. In wave 5 you have your melee DPS (DRG or MNK) LB1 the Knight that drops, and get it down to ~30% before swapping to DK. The BRD uses its DoT's on the knight along with the OT's DPS to kill it before wave 6. Everyone pops every cooldown (inc Mega Stat pots) for the W5 DK and it will die before W6 spawns, so all that remains is a soldier (whom is at 50% or less, depending on groups DPS). Kill that soldier while everything is picked up, kill Rook, then new Knight/Soldier, then DK. You don't reach the enrage.

[Lygas]

Phrase 4 - aoe kill everything
phrase 5, group focus dreadnaught 1, OT takes knight + soilder. first dreadnaught should be dead or near dead before phrase 6
phrase 6 - LB rook, feed 2 spiders to final dreadnaught,OT takes 2 soilders and 2 knights and pop all cooldowns, and kill all 4. then kill the last dreadnaught

We have never seen a emergency override. heres a video from my POV

http://www.twitch.tv/mileythegreatest/c/3194513

Your group makeup is identical to my FC's. Do you perhaps have access to any dps parses? I'd love to see how we compare to your group, because we definitely aren't killing as quickly as you are. I, personally, am more interested in the monk's dps, as I feel I'm not doing the most I can (average about 200).

[MieyCyruuuus]

Your group makeup is identical to my FC's. Do you perhaps have access to any dps parses? I'd love to see how we compare to your group, because we definitely aren't killing as quickly as you are. I, personally, am more interested in the monk's dps, as I feel I'm not doing the most I can (average about 200).

I can ask him to parse on a dummy for you later today, but Scarlet definitely pulls some sick dps.

[Lygas]

I can ask him to parse on a dummy for you later today, but Scarlet definitely pulls some sick dps.

That would be nice, but ask him to parse your next turn 4, as that's where my curiosity ultimately lies. If you don't mind.

Edit: I should probably clarify I'm averaging 200 dps in turn 4 using the FFXIV-APP parser.

[MieyCyruuuus]

I'll parse next week's run then

[TirionCrey]

Our strategy is as follows.

1. AoE Burn Bugs
2. Kill off Knight/Soldier of MT first, then OT. Usually they are about to die when DN spawns, if not already dead
3. Feed all bugs to DN. Finish him off before W4 spawns. If not dead he is at 10-15%-ish.
4. Group kills off the 2 Spinner Rooks. OT kites all Bugs. After Rooks are down we ignore the Bugs and feed them to the 2nd DN.
5. Group goes all out on DN. While OT straight tanks the Knight/Soldier
6. 2nd DN is dead before last DN spawns. Group kills off the Rook then focuses on the first Knight/Soldier from the last wave. OT grabs the other Knight/Soldier. Uses HG and straight tanks. When HG is down he starts kiting(MT then uses HG) all of them til at least 1 is down. Then straight tank and finish them off. When all Knights/Soldiers are down everyone focuses on the last DN. Win

On this weeks reset one of our DPS DCed in the middle of the 2nd DN and we still got T4 down with only 2-3 AoE hits of the "Enrage".

[neoreturn]

if you can kill all bugs in wave4, the fight will be much easier later. If you had issue to kill all bugs your group may need a better BLM. I found BLM is the key. Some Blm DPS is real bad and some of them are real good. Check Blm acc. If you don't have BLM in group, then you need a master OT and healer. Some good brd who know kitting solder/knight. Or some smn who know use pet to tank the rook.

[MieyCyruuuus]

dps from this week
SMR 282
Monk 244
BLM 230
BRD 191
PLD 103
PLD 100
WHM 50
SCH 39