AAC Cruiserweight M4 Normal Raid Guide

Howling Blade is the fourth and final boss fought in AAC Cruiserweight.

To unlock AAC Cruiserweight M3, players must complete the quest "The Lone Wolf." Players must have completed AAC Light-heavyweight M4 and the following quest chain. There is a minimum item level restriction of 715 to enter through the duty finder in a matched party.

You have climbed the ranks of the cruiserweight tier to reach the title match, and the stakes could not be higher. With that which gives your lives' purpose on the line, the match between the unenhanced warrior and the Howling Blade has all of Alexandria on the edge of their seats. It is time to see once and for all who will come out on top: the lone wolf, or the undefeated upstart?

Howling Blade is fought on a circular arena with a bleed wall on the outside.

Phase one is fought on a square platforms. Players can fall off to their death.

Howling Blade uses the following mechanics in phase one.

• Extraplanar Pursuit: Raidwide physical damage.
• Great Divide: Shared physical tank buster that hits in a line.
• Wolves' Reign: Spawns clones that charge in a direction, doing an AoE at the edge of the arena as well as in the centre. The boss then jumps to one and does a line AoE, dashing across the arena. Then he does a wide conal AoE towards the middle which knocks back.
• Heavensearth: Stack marker on a healer that deals magical damage.
• Beckon Moonlight: Spawns clones at the cardinals of the arena. These will do half-room cleaves in the order they spawned based on where their sword is glowing.
• Shadowchase: The boss disappears and summons clones. Stand behind a clone to dodge line AoEs.
• Bare Fangs: Summons untargetable Gleaming Fang adds that do a line AoE across the arena in the order they spawned.
• Terrestrial Rage: Spawns repeated earth AoEs on the ground.

• Most of Howling Blade's attacks are animation-based except for Wolves' Reign. Look where the clones are facing and dodge them appropriately.
• For Wolves' Reign, dodge the circle AoEs and then get away from the line AoE. Start moving opposite of him as he will dash across the arena and do a conal. Save gap closers for the dash.
• Stand on the line of the second set of Bare Fangs adds and then dodge into the first set of line AoEs while dodging ground AoEs. Stack together afterwards for another Heavensearth.
• The boss will jump to the north of the arena afterwards, starting the adds phase.

In the adds phase, players have to kill two adds before the Saber Intensity gauge reaches 100. Each tank should pick up one add.

The Wolf of Wind and Wolf of Stone can be placed together and do a few mechanics each.

• Weal of Stone: A line AoE from the Wolf of Stone.
• Growling Wind: Marked AoEs on all players from the Wolf of Wind. Alternatively, a stack marker on a healer.

Stack both adds together and burn them down. Afterwards, the arena will shrink and the boss begins phase two by casting Ravenous Saber dealing physical damage twice to all players.

In phase two, Howling Blade will do his mechanics faster. In addition, Wolf adds will do mechanics paired with his mechanics shown in phase one.

Howling Blade introduces the following mechanics in phase one.

• Terrestrial Titans: Repeatedly summons three towers around the arena. Titanic Pursuit deals light raidwide physical damage, slicing the towers. These fall and deal damage based on how they were sliced, similar to the Slice is Right minigame in the Gold Saucer.
• Tracking Tremors: A multi-hit stack marker on a healer.

• All mechanics are now faster, including Wolves' Reign. Players should move opposite of the first jump location to make it to the second dash location on time. It now also has Weal of Stone right after the conal AoE, so dodge the Wolf line AoEs.
• Towers created by Terrestrial Titans fall towards the lower sliced direction. Note if any towers are falling towards the middle, and avoid the edge if one is falling towards it.
• Shadowchase now has Wolves of Wind casting Roaring Wind, a line AoE. The concept is the same: stand behind them to dodge.
• Beckon Moonlight now has line and ground AoEs after the fourth cleave.
• Afterwards, the fight repeats with mechanics previously seen.

Coffers that appear after defeating Howling Blade will yield tokens that can be traded in for gear. The drops for this fight are listed below.

• 2x Cruiser Holosurcoat;
• 1x Cruiser Hologauntlets;
• 2x Cruiser Holotrousers;
• 1x Cruiser Holosabatons;
• 2x Cruiser Holobrooch.

Upon clearing this fight for the first time each week, players will receive a Cruiser Holosaber. In addition, an extra coffer appears that drops the accessory The Faces We Wear - Groovy Glasses. The Unleashed Orchestrion Roll will appear at a rare rate in this coffer.