AAC Light-heavyweight M1 Savage Raid Guide

Black Cat is the first boss fought in AAC Light-heavyweight (Savage).

AAC Light-heavyweight M1 (Savage) can be unlocked at level 100 after completing the Normal difficulty of the Light-heavyweight raid and talking to Gabbro in Solution Nine (x22.3, y17.1). It requires a minimum item level of 700 to queue, but this requirement can be bypassed when entering with a full party.

By his appropriately timed interjections, Gabbro's attention appears wholly rapt on you as you speak of your hair-raising bout with Black Cat─yet you cannot help but notice his curiously furrowed brow. How liberal does he intend to be with his depiction of the battle─what precisely does he see in his mind's eye? Intrigued by the possibilities, you begin to imagine the deadly clash anew...

If you would prefer to watch a video that covers the fight, take a look at Hope Productions visual guide.

Black Cat is fought on a platform split into sixteen squares. Players can be knocked off the arena, or fall off if one of the squares breaks. Squares break when they are hit twice by certain mechanics: normal squares have no cracks, while squares that are about to break will have cracks on them.

Black Cat's enrage occurs at around 10:05 into the fight and requires at least 125,500 raid DPS.

Begin by assigning clock spots, with supports on cardinals and DPS on intercardinals. Each support will be paired with a DPS for certain mechanics; have supports move clockwise for these. Finally, split the raid into two light parties. Place markers using the following waymarks locations or diagram.

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Phase one has you do battle with Black Cat. This phase will introduce players to mechanics in the fight.

The following mechanics are introduced in phase one.

• Quadruple Crossing: Black Cat hits the four closest players with a conal AoE twice in succession. She then repeats each set of conal AoEs where they originally hit. This deals physical slashing damage and inflicts a slashing vulnerability up debuff. Deals roughly 125,000 damage unmitigated.
• Biscuit Maker: Physical tank buster that hits twice and inflicts a slashing vulnerability up debuff. Deals roughly 250,000 damage unmitigated.
• Nine Lives: The next ability cast by Black Cat will be remembered by the Soulshade.
• One-two Paw: Cleaves one side of Black Cat, and then the other side.
• Soulshade: Summons a sleeping clone of the boss on the arena. It wakes up after a few seconds, and repeats the cast stored by Nine Lives relative to where the clone is facing.
• Double Swipe: Unmarked stack marker on both healers that does roughly 400,000 physical damage split between all players in the stack. Inflicts a physical vulnerability up debuff.
• Quadruple Swipe: Unmarked stack marker on all supports or all dps that does roughly 200,000 physical damage split between both players in the stack. Inflicts a physical vulnerability debuff.
• Leaping Quadruple Crossing: Black Cat jumps to the marked location and does Quadruple Crossing. She faces the same direction as she does before the jump.
• Bloody Scratch: Raidwide physical damage. Deals roughly 115,000 damage to non-healers/casters and 130,000 to healers and casters.

The very first mechanic of the fight is Quadruple Crossing. Start by having one role bait their conal AoEs by standing on their clock spot inside the boss's hitbox, while the other role stands on their clock spot and out of the boss hitbox. After the first role is hit, the two roles will swap positions to where their partner was to bait or dodge the second set of conal AoEs. All players then move to a safe spot while the AoEs repeat where they were baited.

The boss then does Biscuit Maker. Tanks can opt to use invulnerabilies or tank swap during the cast bar.

The boss then begins a short sequence of mechanics which takes a while to go off. She begins by casting Nine Lives, which will store the One-two Paw cast next. Soulshade creates two clones on the arena, which cast the stored One-two Paw after a while at the same time. You'll have to remember which side was originally safe, and use that to figure out the safe spot for both hits. Luckily, they always spawn in the same configuration, but sometimes mirrored or moved.

All you have to do is identify whether it was left or right safe first, go to that safe spot, then move across to the direct opposite side. Black Cat immediately follows this up with either Double Swipe or Quadruple Swipe. If it's Double, stack with your light parties relative to the boss, and if it's Quadruple, stack with your partner in your preassigned position. This Swipe is stored with Nine Lives, so you'll have to remember what it was later.

Black Cat then passes the stored Swipe to a Soulshade. She will cast Leaping Quadruple Crossing: players need to do it as normal, but centered on the new location as the boss will jump there facing the same direction. The role that baits first needs to preposition on the marked spot. The mechanic is largely the same as the first, but after the second repeated conal AoE the Swipe mechanic stored previously will go off. Either stack together with your light party, or stay with your partner on the safe spot.

After a Bloody Scratch, Black Cat will jump to the middle of the arena and begin the first Mouser phase.

In Mouser 1, Black Cat will break the arena. Players are forced to deal with Elevate and Eviscerate without further arena destruction.

The following mechanics are introduced in phase two.

• Mouser: Black Cat begins to mark the arena, and hits each marked panel sequentially. Panels hit twice will be broken, while panels hit once will be cracked. Panels are restored after, leaving a 2 by 4 grid in the middle.
• Copycat: Summons a clone to do mechanics.
• Elevate and Eviscerate: Black Cat's copycat marks four players in one role sequentially.
  1. After a delay, the clone teleports behind where the player is currently facing and knocks them up. This will explode all tiles in the row and column the player is currently on, knocking back other players.
  2. If the clone is hunched down and raises its right arm, the player will be knocked forward one platform's length.
  3. If the clone is standing straight and raises its right arm, the player will stay on the current platform.
  4. The tile the player lands on will be broken if it is already cracked.
  5. This deals around 50,000 physical damage.
• Shockwave: Black Cat knocks all players back from the centre.
• Grimalkin Gale: Marked AoEs on all players that inflicts a magic vulnerability debuff and deals roughly 110,000 magic damage.

While Mouser breaking the arena may create difficulty in remembering the safe spots the first time you see it, there's only two patterns to the mechanic. Additionally, looking in the middle four tiles, two diagonally opposite tiles will always be safe. Players will start on the southwest inner tile, then move to the southeast inner tile after it's hit. If this tile will be hit again, move to the northeast inner tile after that's hit; otherwise, stay on this tile.

Tiles will be restored, creating a 2 by 4 grid on the arena, with four cracked tiles and four normal tiles. Four players of one role will be marked sequentially by Black Cat's Copycat, casting Elevate and Eviscerate on each one. This teleports the clone behind where the player is currently facing and knocks them up, either moving one tile's length forward or staying on the same tile.

While it's intended for players to have to look at Black Cat's copycat to determine where they will stand relative to an uncracked tile, players can always stand in the corner of an uncracked tile and face towards the opposite corner in that tile. They will be knocked the length of the tile and land on the same tile. Keep the boss in the middle, and have the melee and tanks take the inside two tiles while ranged and healers take the outside two tiles.

When a player gets knocked up, the Copycat knocks all players off in the same row and column. Therefore, players will have to move to a safe tile on the inner four tiles. There's not much movement or thinking involved: just go to a tile diagonal of the mark.

After all players of one role gets knocked up once, there will be a Biscuit Maker, so either invuln or tank swap. The arena will start being restored and Black Cat will begin casting Shockwave, a knockback from the middle of the arena. Two opposite quadrants of the arena on the outside will get restored first: have supports get knocked to the north quadrant and DPS get knocked to the south quadrant. Spread for Grimalkin Gale by having the melees and tanks dash in leaving plenty of room on the outside for everyone else.

After Mouser 1, the arena is restored and players will have to remember multiple Soulshape mechanics.

The following mechanics are introduced in phase three.

• Leaping One-two Paw: Black Cat jumps to the marked location and does One-two Paw. She faces the same direction as she does before the jump.
• Tempestuous Tear: Marked line stack marker on both healers. Deals roughly 420,000 magic damage split between players in the stack and inflicts a magic vulnerability debuff..
• Nailchipper: Four players of one role are marked with a prey marker. This will do an unmarked AoE on them dealing roughly 90,000 magic damage and inflicting a magic vulnerability debuff.

Black Cat will begin by casting Nine Lives and Leaping One-two Paw. She will then cast Soulshape to a clone spawning at either the A or C marker, making it remember this cast. Players will need to dodge the One-two Paw, then remember three things: the direction Black Cat leaped in (left or right), the initial safe spot for the cleaves (inside or outside), and where the tethered clone was (A or C). It's a good idea to write this down in chat for the party to remember.

Black Cat will then cast Nine Lives once more, combined with Leaping Quadruple Crossing. She will then cast Soulshape to a clone spawning at either the A or C marker, wherever the previous clone wasn't. The clone will remember this cast and players will need to perform Quadruple Crossing, then remember two things: the direction Black Cat leaped in (left or right) and where the tethered clone was (A or C). Again, write this down to remember.

The tank needs to then drag the boss back to the middle. One of the two clones sleeping on the arena will wake up, and players will need to perform the mechanic remembered by the clone relative to where the clone is facing. After the first clone's mechanics resolves, the second clone's mechanics

If it's Leaping One-two Paw, drag the boss to where the clone will jump to, as Black Cat will cast Tempestuous Tear. Have one light party true north and the other light party true south of the clone. One-two Paw will go off the same time as the stack marker, so dodge as you take damage.

If it's Leaping Quadruple Crossing, drag the boss to where the clone will jump to, as Black Cat will cast Nailchipper. The role without the marker will have to bait first as the AoE is quite large. Keep in mind that the clone is the one doing the conal AoEs, so bait using the lines on the ground and not the boss as the boss may be slightly mispositioned.

The marked four players need to move slightly away from the boss as to not hit anyone else with the AoE. The first baits go off the same time as the first Nailchipper AoEs go off, so the marked players need to be ready to run in to bait the second set of conal AoEs. Another set of prey markers will go out on the role that didn't get them before, so spread out on the safe intercardinal quadrants.

The boss finishes this phase with a Bloody Scratch, then jumps to the middle for the second Mouser phase.

In Mouser 2, Black Cat will break the arena. Players are forced to deal with Elevate and Eviscerate without further arena destruction.

The following mechanics are introduced in phase four.

• Splintering Nails: Black Cat targets a random tank, healer, and DPS that is not being knocked up by Elevate and Eviscerate with a thin conal AoE, dealing roughly 90,000 physical slashing damage and inflicting a slashing vulnerability debuff.
• Overshadow: A stack marker dealing roughly 800,000 magic damage split between players in the stack.

The second Mouser cast will have the same potential patterns as the first, so dodge the same way. In this phase, each Elevate and Eviscerate is accompanied with either a Splintering Nails or an Overshadow. There will always be two of each, but the order of which they come is random. The Copycat will target the four players of the role that wasn't targeted in the first Mouser phase.

For Overshadow, all players should already be stacked in the safe tile. For Splintering Nails, all players need to look at the boss and position in roles relative to the safe square. Have the tanks left, healers in the middle, and DPS on the right. Heal up in between each hit while the players marked with Elevate and Eviscerate run out to their tiles.

The phase ends with Biscuit Maker, Shockwave and Grimalkin Gale just like previously. Unless the tank is a Warrior, tank invulnerabilities will not be up for this tank buster if used previously.

The final phase introduces difficult mechanics that can be skipped with great DPS.

The following mechanics are introduced in phase five.

• Raining Cats: Two tethers appear from the boss. These do a conal AoE, inflicting a long-lasting slashing vulnerability debuff and dealing roughly 140,000 physical slashing damage. At the same time, the closest and furthest two players will get an unmarked stack marker, inflicting a magic vulnerability debuff and dealing roughly 200,000 magic damage split between the stack.
• Predaceous Pounce: Black Cat's copycat leaps around the arena, doing large AoEs and line AoEs between them. Players hit will receive a damage-over-time debuff.

Two difficult mechanics appear in this phase, but this phase can easily be skipped with good DPS and few deaths.

The first is Raining Cats. Players will have to take the tethers in sets, while stacking together with one far group and one close group to bait the stacks. There are multiple ways to split the groups for this: either use the light parties assigned previously, or split the group into tanks/melees and healers/ranged for safety. Either way, the tethers will be taken northeast and northwest, while the stacks are southeast and southwest. Each player needs to take the tether once, so assign an order: we recommend TMRH so the healers can focus on healing until the end.

Have the southeast stack be inside the boss hitbox while the southwest stack goes outside. Players taking the tether will stand on the boss's ring to make sure they aren't targeted for either stack. After each stack, heal up and have the next player take the tether on each side by moving through the boss, while the players who just took the tether move along the outside back to their stack to ensure they don't accidentally take their tether back. After four sets, this mechanic is finished.

Alternatively, if both tank invulns are up the party can opt to use both on two of the tethers. In that case, the order would become MTTT, with the tank taking the second set of tethers normally, and the third and fourth set with their invuln active.

The fight finishes with Copycat into Predaceous Pounce. This is the same mechanic as seen in normal mode, but Black Cat will also cast One-two Paw towards the end. Therefore, players will need to dodge the large AoEs on the safe side of the arena, then move to the other side after the dashes are done. Predaceous Pounce's last AoE happens at the same time as the first cleave.

Black Cat will then jump to the middle of the arena and begin her enrage sequence which is a final Mouser. This will eventually break all tiles on the arena, causing all players to fall to their deaths. Kill the boss before she finishes you off!

Depending on the data centre and strategy used, party finder pugs may use different strategies for the fight. Here are the following differences that may happen.

1. For Quadruple Crossing, the PF should denote which role baits first and the direction the second role rotates. DPS first bait Support CCW is the most commonly seen.
2. For the Quadruple Crossing with Nailchipper during the second Nine Lives, the role without the marker should bait on the intercardinals first no matter what to ensure consistency. This is done True North.
3. For Mouser 2, Splintering Nails is usually done THD as described in the guide, but other orders may exist. The order signifies the role spreads looking at the boss from left to right.
4. For Raining Cats, the tanks may opt to bait the third and fourth stack AoEs by having one tank close and one tank far.

When Black Cat is defeated, a treasure coffer will appear that contains Dark Horse Champion's Accessory Coffers. When opened by a player, these coffers contain an item level 730 Dark Horse accessory for the job the player is currently on. The amount of coffers that appear depend on how many players have already cleared during the weekly lockout. If no players have cleared yet, all four accessory coffers will appear. If one to four players have already cleared, two accessory coffers will appear. If five or more players have already cleared, no treasure coffer will appear.

Players who defeat the encounter for the first time during the weekly reset will also receive an AAC Illustrated: LHW Edition I token. Four of these can be traded in for a Dark Horse accessory of your choosing at an Arcadion gear vendor.