Overview
The switch taunts you. You cannot resist. A satisfying "click" and your moment of weakness has activated a new phase of the Savage Initiative. This time, however, something is different. The broadcast is interrupted by an unexpected transmission─a message from beyond oblivion. A familiar voice guides you in an unfamiliar tone, and arms you with knowledge of impossible simulations. Your evolution is at hand.
Strategy Notes
- Note that unlike Normal mode, players can fall off the edge of the arena to their death, although they can be resurrected after a short delay. In addition, the Omega Jammer Duty Action is unavailable to use in the Savage encounter.
- Due to the colors being random, it is up to the raid to position themselves and quickly mix-and-match the upcoming collisions so that no two same-color fists launch into each other. A simple method of achieving this is to have the group divide into three pairs (excluding the tanks - who will not spawn a fist) and have the three groups form a semi-circle around the boss. Once the fists have spawned, players will be able to identify their color (yellow or blue) and see if their fists are of opposite colors. If so, the pair can remain in place and bait their fists into colliding with each other. If a pair of players have identical colored fists, then one player from that pair can swap with a player from a different pair as needed.
- It won't be long before Omega exit's the arena, leaving behind circular electro-puddles in the center and around the outer edges that will instantly kill anyone standing in them (or walking through them) when it finishes forming, just like normal mode. Once the arena has been augmented, a Level Checker will spawn in the central AoE and begin to cast various Executables.
- The goal is to quickly identify Ferrofluid symbols and ensure that tethered pairs of opposite symbols move to the outer edge of the arena so that they are pulled into Storage Meteors near the arena center. Meanwhile, tethered pairs of same symbols will move close to the central death-zone and wait to be pushed into the Storage Meteors at the far edges of the arena. If successful, all four meteors will be soaked and all eight players will have their Looper debuffs removed. If any meteor goes through, the entire raid will suffer moderate damage and be inflicted with Damage Down.
- NOTE: All players should pay attention to the pattern of Storage Meteors during Executable #1, as the pattern here will determine what the pattern will be in Executable #2.
- The goal is to have the two tethered Chain of Memory players soak the farthest Storage Meteors whilst the rest of the group handle the meteors close to the level checker. Seeing as Chain of Memory is guaranteed to afflict the two farthest players from the Level Checker, it is best to assign this task to two ranged damage dealers so that they can continue to damage the level checker whilst handling the upcoming tether. Simply have both players stand to the far east and west of the arena (forming a straight line through the level checker) so that once Chain of Memory is cast, they will automatically become the targets.
Boss Encounters
Omega
- Atomic Ray - inflicts unavoidable raidwide damage.
- Mustard Bomb - a vicious tankbuster against Omega's primary target that deals damage in a very small area. In savage mode, Mustard Bomb will also apply a short duration Bleed effect (6 seconds).
- Flame Thrower - targets all active players and blasts them with a flaming cone-AoE from the center of Omega's hitbox. After dousing players in flame, Omega will follow-up with a blast of blue flame (Afterburner) in the same shape and direction as the previous flame thrower blast. Players hit by Flame Thrower will receive moderate damage, whereas those hit by Afterburner will suffer far greater damage and a hefty knockback. Everyone will need to bait the initial flame blast (without stacking on other players), then side-step the Afterburner. One easy method of accomplishing this is to have all players form a circle around Omega's hitbox - usually in a cardinal and inter-cardinal fashion - so that once the flames have been fired, the raid can rotate in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction into their safe spot to avoid the Afterburner (follow-up blast).
- Wave Cannon - comes in two variations - Larboard Wave Cannon and Starboard Wave Cannon. Larboard shoots from Omega's left side, while Starboard does the same for its right side. Getting hit will deal very high damage and inflict Vulnerability Up. After using a Wave Cannon attack, Omega will spin around to face the opposite direction and use a second Wave Cannon attack in an attempt to confuse players. It helps to remember that "Larboard" = Left. If it's not larboard, it's to Omega's right. The savage version of wave cannon no longer has a telegraph, though this is of little consequence considering how short the telegraph was in normal mode.
- Peripheral Synthesis #1 - spawns a total of six (small) rocket-punch adds - half of which will be blue and the other half yellow - at the location of all four damage dealers and both healers, tracking their movements. After a brief delay, each fist will launch itself at the current location of the players that spawned them. If two fists of the same color collide with each other as a result, they will explode, dealing massive raidwide damage and afflicting nasty debuffs upon the group. However, if two fists of opposite color collide with each other, they will destroy themselves at no detriment to the group, leaving behind a collectable damage-up buff (Live Wire).
- Executable #1 - inflicts a Looper debuff on all players, the duration of which will always be just below 14 seconds. If a player fails to dispel the Looper debuff for any reason, they will lose control of their character, forcing them to run around aimlessly, possibly walking into fatal danger-zones or being incapable of fulfilling important mechanics. To dispel the Looper debuff, players must successfully soak upcoming meteor mechanics.
- Storage Meteors - creates four large yellow circles within the arena; each circle requiring at least one player to stand inside them before their respective 'meteor' hits the arena. At this point in the battle, two circles will spawn at opposite sides of the central death-zone, while another two will spawn at opposite ends of the far edge of the arena. Players who successfully soak a tower will have their Looper debuff removed, thus the goal is to have a pair of players soak each tower so that Looper debuffs are removed from the whole group. However, Ferrofluid - a push/pull mechanic - will take place at the same time to complicate matters.
- Ferrofluid - tethers pairs of players together and marks everyone with positive & negative symbols, (+) & (-). After a moderate delay, tethered players with opposite symbols (+ & -) will be pulled towards each other. Simultaneously, players with identical symbols (+ & + or - & -) will be pushed away from each other.
- Pattern #1: east & west meteors close to the level-checker + north & south meteors at the outer edge of the arena.
- Pattern #2: east & west meteors at the outer edge of the arena + north & south meteors close to the level-checker.
- Executable #2 - inflicts a new set of Looper debuffs on all members of the raid that must be dispelled in the same manner as before. However, the Looper debuff will have varied durations per player: either 12 seconds, 21 seconds, or 29 seconds. Players with the shortest duration must cleanse their debuffs before those with higher durations.
- Chain of Memory - afflicts the two farthest players from the Level Checker with a special debuff. While the Chain of Memory debuff is active, a visible straight-line AoE will be visible between the two affected players that will persist for the next half-a-minute. If any non-tethered players touch the purple line for any reason, they will succumb to confusion, causing the victim to wander around aimlessly. To make matters worse, the two tethered players will suffer a stackable debuff (Memory Degradation) if they remain close together. If either player acquires six stacks of Memory Degradation, they will become confused.
- Storage Meteors - creates large yellow circles within the arena in a staggered fashion; each circle requiring at least one player to stand inside them before their respective 'meteor' hits the arena. Any player who successfully soaks a tower will have their Looper debuff removed. However, seeing as Looper has been applied to all players with variable durations during this Executable, players with the shortest duration of Looper must soak towers first (or they will succumb to Confusion and likely perish).
- Reset - spawns a point-blank AoE underneath the level checker at various points throughout the tower-soaking process. All non-tethered players will need to move away from the level checker to avoid taking damage.
- If Executable #1 = east & west meteors close to the level-checker + north & south meteors at the outer edge of the arena, then the group should stack to the south of the level checker.
- If Executable #1 = east & west meteors at the outer edge of the arena + north & south meteors close to the level-checker, then the group should stack to the north of the level checker.
- Ballistic Missiles - marks the entire group with AoE circles. Once detonated, all marked players will receive moderate damage and leave behind a persistent puddle of flame at their current location that will debuff players with a fatal Burns debuff if they remain inside for too long. Bear in mind that Ballistic Missiles will detonate after an upcoming Flame Thrower (see below).
- Flame Thrower - targets all active players and blasts them with a flaming cone-AoE from the center of Omega's hitbox, followed by a blast of Afterburner in the same shape and direction as the previous blast. Just like earlier, all players will need to bait the initial flame blast, then side-step the follow-up Afterburner blast, except now, everyone must do this with the Ballistic Missiles (AoE circles) in mind. Simply form a distant circle around Omega just like in the first phase so that everyone can safely side-step the Afterburner with enough space to avoid overlapping Ballistic Missile AoE circles as well. Due to Ballistic Missiles leaving behind flaming puddles, make sure that nobody remains within Omega's hitbox when they detonate.
- Wave Cannon - peppers the raid with more Larboard Wave Cannon and/or Starboard Wave Cannon while the Ballistic Missile flame puddles exist. Remember - Larboard shoots from Omega's left side, while Starboard fires from the right side and Omega will spin 180 degrees after each blast to add more confusion. Assuming the raid has placed flaming puddles (Ballistic Missiles) outside of Omega's hitbox, they can now move into Omega's hitbox and safely react to Starboard or Larboard blasts without fear of walking into the puddles. After successfully dodging all Wave Cannon attacks, the fire puddles from Ballistic Missiles will finally fade, giving the group more freedom.
- Mustard Bomb - the nasty tankbuster from earlier, except now, it is represented by a tether rather than manually cast against the primary target. Despite the minor difference in mechanic, the AoE component and Bleed component remain, so be sure to mitigate Mustard Bomb whenever possible and take the hit away from the group. At the same time, players will also need to deal with Blaster - another tether mechanic (see below).
Duty Information
- Duty Finder: Savage Raids (Stormblood)
- Time Limit: 90 minutes
- Tomestones: 30 poetics
Music
- Main: eScape