Haukke Manor Hard Mode 1st Boss

[WhaleBiologist]

So, I've had a night of bad attempts on Haukke Manor. Some of which could have been explained by DPS with their darklight weapons - others I just don't understand.

Various guides around the web on this place describe the first boss as being done with ease and is largely a dps race. I do not believe this to be true, as while with low DPS I have seen numerous additional butlers and stewards spawn from the summoning rituals, I have also done fights where no additional mobs spawned at all. Only the ones from the cages.

Can somebody please explain to me how the summoning ritual (I think it's called, the big purple thing) works. Does it spawn mobs even if the boss touches it? I was under the assumption that it only spawned when the butlers touched it. But we've gotten more mobs even when we havn't seen any butlers touch the ritual. It's giving me a headache because I refuse to believe we should just brute force it with 2x relic weapon dps.

[Sinaloa]

In one low-dps group I have seen spawn 4 at a time. In others there were never more than 2, no matter if the party was in the circle the boss or noone. So if there is a mechanic I would think its just a softenrage triggerd by time. If you run into trouble killing the boss fast enough try to ignore adds after there spawn 4+ and let the healer kite them works in many places quite well. Cutters Cry and Sirius comming to my mind.

[Raminax]

From what I've understood, the corpses of the Skeletons never truly disappear and are revived by purple circle the Boss casts. Thus, if two corpses are present inside the purple circle, two skeletons will rise to pester you. Arguably, it's more important to keep the skeletons spread out when they die, but there is also a very real DPS check because new skeletons will keep spawning and getting killed, eventually causing you to run out of room to spread the corpses out.

I can't give you exact numbers on how Stewards spawn, but from my observations, they seem to pop up when five or more skeletons are targeted by the purple circle. Instead of getting five skeletons, you get one mean Steward.

[Displace]

I do believe there is a DPS timer on the skellies. If a certain amount aren't killed and the cycles of spawns reach a certain timer it seems it triggers. One DPS with a ilvl 55 weapon is extremely hard to carry through the first fight (With 2 members having zenith and a third with ilvl 70). 99% of the time the last boss will be impossible to take down in the 4 rounds of charm.

From now on if a DPS has an ilvl 55 I simply tell them that the dynamics of the dungeon doesn't cater to their weapon level and to run ifrit and garuda. I know that from experience and running the timer out 4 times with 4 separate groups to see if it is possible. A carry group doesn't cut it. Yeah we beat it but not the last boss. You just need that extra umph to get the last 5% down within charm time.

It's a true DPS check but all members have to participate (WHM dpsing when they can make it easier).

Now if only SE could put the correct ilevel requirements in the dungeon...

[BlueMage]

Now if only SE could put the correct ilevel requirements in the dungeon...

Yeah, I can't see a group with every member wearing a piece of Lv48 gear in every slot clearing these new dungeons like DF suggests. I was really hoping the iLv pre-reqs would be the lowest you could clear the dungeon, not the lowest you could be carried if everyone else has better gear.

[Worm]

I just don't know that there's such a convoluted DPS check in the first fight. It's really just a question of spreading out the adds and being able to focus on the boss. I had one attempt on it with zero issues and another where I asked the healer and caster to make sure they didn't stand near any dead skeletons (so they didn't bunch up) and it solved all our problems.

I've beat the last boss twice as a "carry" slot and honestly had no real issues unless I had deaths and were going into the last phase with res sickness.

[DragonSlayer45]

4 skeletons in one circle = one steward. The DPS should spread out the kills so they don't all end up in the same place. Sadly, this is easier said than done given the AIs first instinct half the time is to instantly charge for the healer.

Second boss is just annoying. Next.

The last boss is more of a DPS check but I don't think it's totally impossible with a group in green weapons. Everyone will just have to do their share of DPSing the two adds and save the limit for Lady. I've never seen what happens beyond the four rounds, even with an under geared group. All I noticed is that you can't line of sight the bosses magical attack (Void Thunder III/IV) almost all the time while I'm tanking, which is kind of odd since you can do it almost everywhere else.

[Bridgeburner]

I've done this fight as WHM, PLD, and BLM. Easiest system I've found is for the tank to pull the boss to the back wall and everybody else to just fight near him; the main boss has no AOE to speak of.

Tired of skellys running to heals and ruining the day? Make your heal stand in Flash range. Skeletons start running in? Shield lob/Tomahawk, Flash.

Generated a Steward? Pick it up, pop a defensive cooldown. Let DPS burn the thing, then resume the boss. Even the combination of boss + steward doesn't hit hard enough to really shake a Darklight-level tank. As long as you've got your healer close by and you flash those incoming mobs, I think you'll be fine.

[WhaleBiologist]

I've done this fight as WHM, PLD, and BLM. Easiest system I've found is for the tank to pull the boss to the back wall and everybody else to just fight near him; the main boss has no AOE to speak of.

Tired of skellys running to heals and ruining the day? Make your heal stand in Flash range. Skeletons start running in? Shield lob/Tomahawk, Flash.

Generated a Steward? Pick it up, pop a defensive cooldown. Let DPS burn the thing, then resume the boss. Even the combination of boss + steward doesn't hit hard enough to really shake a Darklight-level tank. As long as you've got your healer close by and you flash those incoming mobs, I think you'll be fine.

This probably would work, with a good tank. I've had groups where we just strong-armed it, killing stewards as they spawn, but what did my head in this time around was getting the steward, he'd be given enough time to melee the monk in our group and would then finish him off pretty quickly with the AOE he does.

If the tank was quicker to pick him up, that probably wouldn't happen so I went looking for a way to keep the stewards from spawning in the first place. The tank said he'd tank the adds and DPS should just be on the boss, I took this to mean he wanted us to just burn the boss as fast as possible while he tanked the adds. Nope. He meant he was going to kite the adds and completely ignore the boss, which proceeded to completely annihilate the rest of the group. I don't like explaining that the problem with an encounter is that we have one stupid member, but that was probably the case. I will try and do some experimentation with the skeletons and see whether location of death does determine how many spawn. Thank you for the suggestions everyone.

Last boss doesn't bother me, because you know pretty quick if you can do it or not after one attempt, the 1st boss seems less clear.

[Worm]

Generated a Steward? Pick it up, pop a defensive cooldown. Let DPS burn the thing, then resume the boss. Even the combination of boss + steward doesn't hit hard enough to really shake a Darklight-level tank. As long as you've got your healer close by and you flash those incoming mobs, I think you'll be fine.

I find this funny because people in groups said previously that seeing the Steward pop was a wipe. He does do an AOE but maybe you are just meant to burn him before the AOE. Maybe mechanics are being mistaken as failure of some non-existent DPS check.