A4 Normal help

[Rinion]

I'm doing my relic for my AST and I've gotten to A4 normal (I've only just unlocked it). I've watched some guides (multiple times) and I've tried it a few times. But the group I'm in always wipes between 50-75% (this is in DF btw, I don't have a static). I was wondering if there are any tips you can offer for healing (or with AST more specifically) this floor. I believe I'm i180.

[TitaniaYaerem]

What was it that was causing the wipes? That way we can narrow down if you truly need tweaks aside from what you may already be doing.

[Lelila38]

For first phase (while your group is killing first leg) keep an eye on the OT too, he will be eating orbs, dealing quite a bit of dmg to him. Make sure one of the tanks stuns the leg, when it is giving off steam. It's a party-wide aoe that can get annoying to constantly heal through and can easily be avoided.

During Doll phase try to avoid aoe-healing too much, as you will be pulling hate from the dolls. They put stacks on you, if you get 3 you will blow up and probably die. Dps should grab those and keep them away from you, still they are dps and can't hold hate against massive aoe heals so well, so try to make it easier on them by not doing that

Last phase (after second leg is down and group is dpsing the body) a debuff will be placed on both healers. Handling this is crucial to surviving the fight. Heal yourself up as necessary and avoid getting too close to the other group members, as the debuff will be passed on to others on touch. Specifically watch out for this when dodging aoe. After the debuff falls off, you will have a few seconds before it is reapplied to you. I usually use this time to go into the middle and pop an aoe heal for the group (medica2 usually since I'm playing WHM but I'm sure the AST has something similar).

[DarkmoonVael]

We would need a bit more info to help here.

Are people handling triple tether correctly? > person with them stands still, 2 people walk in the way of 2 of them.

Discoid orbs been handled? > people running to set them off rather than waiting for to hit the person with discoid mark.

Nisi being handled? > Healers stand away from each other, healing themselves and party as needed. Dont pass nisi to anyone, dont stand on other healer, otherwise thats 2 dead healers.

Melee dps standing away from MT in final phase? > otherwise kaboom goes the melee dps.

Although you say 50-75% wipes which i think puts you in final phase, are dolls being handled correctly > dps pick one up each, healer can solo one if needed. If left on one person, person goes kaboom.

This is just off the top of my head and is not all inclusive. Your problems could be some, all or non of these.

More info please .

[Rinion]

Thanks for the tips, guys. Unfortunately, I don't really know what's causing the wipes, all of a sudden 2 or 3 people die and then the rest of us with them soon after. Also, I didn't know the debuffs got passed on by touch, so I wasn't doing any aoe healing while I had the hammer debuff (which obviously doesn't help the situation).

[LegoTechnic]

The hammer debuff sounds like nisi, so I'll assume 3rd phase. Nisi spreads if someone touches you with it and is an incremental dot, meaning it does a lot of damage initially and then ticks down doing less and less damage until it drops off. Furthermore if someone with red nisi touches someone with blue nisi, then they both die immediately.

Nisi is always applied on the two healers in normal unless one of the healers is dead, in which case it goes to a random. One healer should stand in the back left and the other in the back right, and they should more or less be immobile unless they are very careful. You can be sort of center-ish if you're concerned about AoE healing, just try not to move much so others can avoid you. You can still move to cancel carnage lasers or eat orbs, but make sure no one else is running toward where you're headed so you don't touch them. If you absolutely need to, you can mark the two healers so even the derpiest of DPS will know where you are.

As a healer you can still eat orbs if inclined, but be careful. In the 3rd phase there is a mild tank-buster that strikes while orbs are out, and if both healers drop everything to eat yellow candies the tank can go splat.

Also be aware of Carnage Zero in phase 3 (random lasers), which will randomly target 3-4 people and hit them with localized AoE attacks. If players are too close together this will cause a splash attack, and if they were both targets they'll probably die (or come close), so make sure people are spread out decently for it. It happens periodically throughout phase 3 even while other mechanics occur.

[Kabzy]

Easiest solution, just spend 10 minutes on the Party Finder and make a farm group. It'll be so much more efficient and you should get 4-5 minute runs. When you actively seek out people who are farming this content, they are more likely to be competent and so your job will also become much easier. As a healer who did spam A4, you simply just need to throw out an AoE Regen during the dolls phase and last, and keep regens on the solo tank, and each healer when they get the debuff on the last phase. Generally the two healers will also take the orbs as they can handle it by just healing themselves.

If you want even more fun, you can try solo healing it. It's definitely possible providing everyone can play their jobs properly. Only difference here would be you'd probably not eat orbs and the DPS would need to be aware of the debuff on the last phase.

Oh and it may be obvious but make sure you mark yourself and your other healer with the 'target to avoid' symbols for the last phase.

[TitaniaYaerem]

I don't think he wanted to do a full on farm group especially if he was new to the fight, so he probably tried DF first so he could test the waters and probably see the fight first hand. Most farm parties won't be receptive to bonus a majority of the time and every A4 farm I've seen, they usually solo heal. If 2 members went down suddenly then they were probably on top of each other when a Carnage Zero went out (I think thats the ability its been a while but its a target AoE and you can't dodge it so you want people to be spread out a bit). You'll also wanna be loosely spread for Judgement Nisi(hammer debuff) so that you don't pass it around and make healing harder. Helpful tip: 'Focus Target' Manipulator so you can keep up with which abilities he's casting.

[CyrilLucifer]

Just a fun little note, on AST, if you have Noct sect on you can basically eat all the balls by yourself with your instant shields, saving the rest of the party quite a bit of damage. It's really quite satisfying.

[Rinion]

Thanks again for all the tips guys! =D I've completed it a couple of times now. The first time, only me and one tank were left at the very end (although that was for the last 2 seconds) =/ And the other time, everything went pretty well ^.^