AAC Light-heavyweight M3 Savage Raid Guide

Brute Bomber is the third boss fought in AAC Light-heavyweight (Savage).

AAC Light-heavyweight M3 (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 710 to queue, but this requirement can be bypassed when entering with a full party.

Gabbro invites you to picture the Brute Bomber in a somehow even more degenerate light─one in which the now uncrowned champion would readily stoop to lower lows to seize victory. Surely, such an engagement would be more explosive than the last...

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

Brute Bomber is fought on a square arena with a fiery death wall. While there are markings on the arena, they are not overtly helpful for most of the mechanics in the fight.

Brute Bomber has an enrage cast at 11:20, but becomes untargetable and invulnerable at 11:11 when he jumps to the top rope and unleashes his enrage, the Special Bombarian Special, knocking all players into the wall. The required raid DPS for this fight is roughly 143,800.

Begin by assigning all players clock spots, with DPS on intercardinals and supports on cardinals. Partner supports with DPS by having the supports rotate. These pairs should all be assigned one quadrant of the arena. These groups form light parties on their side. Finally, players will need to order players within each role from 1 to 4.

The following waymarks are required for the uptime strategy in Fuse or Foe.

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The Brute Bomber encounter has three distinct phases, and is split up into various mechanic sets that players progress through one at a time. Throughout the fight, he will consume his Doping Draught, gaining a stack of Dangerously Doped which increases his damage dealt and enhances certain attacks. His hitbox size also increases. Each mechanic sequence will be explained in their own section, with generic mechanics explained below.

• Brutal Impact: Brute Bomber slams multiple times, dealing roughly 34,000 physical damage to all players. It initially hits four times every cast, and increases by two for every stack of Dangerously Doped.
• Knuckle Sandwich: A shared tank buster on the main tank, dealing roughly 250,000 damage split between two tanks. It initially hits four times every cast, and increases by two for every stack of Dangerously Doped.
• Quadruple Lariat: Brute Bomber raises his arms. If they're on fire, it's a donut AoE, and if they're not on fire it's a point-blank AoE. As the name suggests, he will hit all four players of one role with a conal stack AoE that deals roughly 200,000 physical damage and inflicts a physical vulnerability debuff; this needs to be split between two players.
• Octuple Lariat: The same as Quadruple Lariant, but instead hits all eight players with a conal AoE that deals roughly 100,000 physical damage and inflicts a physical vulnerability debuff.
• Quadraboom Dive: Brute Bomber raises his arms and looks in a direction. If they're on fire, it's a knockback from the edge of the arena, and if they're not on fire he deals proximity damage from the edge of the arena. He follows this up with a circle stack AoE on four players of one role that deals roughly 200,000 physical damage and inflicts a physical vulnerability debuff; this needs to be split between two players.
• Octoboom Dive: The same as Quadraboom Dive, but instead hits all eight players with a circle AoE that deals roughly 100,000 physical damage and inflicts a physical vulnerability debuff.
• Lariat Combo: The same mechanic from normal mode. Brute Bomber raises one fist. He dashes across the arena, cleaving the side of the arena his fist was raised on as well as his entire hitbox in a gigantic AoE. He then repeats this mechanic from the other side.

Before Brute Bomber takes a swig of his doping draught, he'll introduce basic mechanics in the fight.

The following mechanics are introduced in phase one.

• Barbarous Barrage: Three towers spawn on opposite edges of the arena, and one tower spawns in the middle. These towers must be soaked by the number of players indicated and knockback all players relative to where they are standing in the tower.
• Murderous Mist: Brute Bomber faces a direction and does a 270 degree poison cleave. Stand behind him.

The fight begins with four hits of Brutal Impact into a Knuckle Sandwich. The tank with the longest invulnerability cooldown should pull and use it, as there's five total tank busters in the fight. With good timing, tanks can invuln the first, second, fourth, fifth, and share the third.

The first two mechanics introduced are Quadruple Lariat or Octuple Lariat. While later in the fight you have to watch Brute Bomber's hands to know whether it's in or out, this first one will always be a point-blank AoE. Go to clock spots if it's Octuple and partner stacks if it's Quadruple, with supports rotating.

Next is Quadraboom Dive or Octoboom Dive. Again, players have to watch his hands later in the fight to know whether it's a knockback or proximity damage, but this first one is always proximity damage in the direction he is looking. Stand away, then either spread out if it's Octoboom or stack with a partner if it's Quadraboom. For this mechanic, the tanks should stack with melees on their side and ranged should stack with healer for uptime. This is immediately followed by Brutal Impact, so gather up and heal.

The next mechanic is the first Barbarous Barrage. Players will have to stand in a four-person tower, get knocked back into a two-person tower, and then get knocked back into an eight-person tower. The number of orbs rotating around the tower indicate how many players need to be in the tower. Additionally, the towers always spawn in the same configuration, but it can be rotated.

You can split the party in any way, but we recommend having tanks go with melees north or east, and healers go with ranged south or west. This is because Brute Bomber will follow the tank for a few seconds, ensuring uptime for melees. Facing the middle, have the supports be knocked back left and DPS be knocked back right. This ensures there are two players in every two-person tower in the corners. From there, all players need to be knocked back into the center and watch where Brute Bomber jumped to. They need to be knocked back behind him as he is casting Murderous Mist.

He will begin drinking his Doping Draught, gaining a stack of Dangerously Doped.

The first Doping Draught consists of three main mechanics with basic mechanics in between: Chain Deathmatch, Final Fusedown, and Fusefield.

The following mechanics are introduced in phase two.

• Tag Team: Brute Bomber summons two clones at edges of the arena. These will never be opposite of each other, and both will cast Lariat Combo.
• Chain Deathmatch: All players are chained to a Tag Team clone. Only they can see their own chain. Players need to take damage from the clone they are chained to by getting hit by only the first Lariat, which deals reduced damage due to the chain. Failure to do so will result in death when the debuff expires.
• Final Fusedown: Places bombs with long and short fuses on the arena; short ones explode first and long ones explode after. All players also receive a bomb with long and short fuses on their head and they will explode as well. All players in one role will receive a long fuse, and the other role receives a short fuse.
• Fusefield: Brute Bomber creates a fire field in the middle of the arena, instantly killing players who step inside. There are eight fuses attached to the field, with four short fuses and four long fuses. Blowing up a fuse will remove the Bombarian debuff, dealing roughly 100,000 magic damage to all players and inflicting a magic vulnerability debuff.
• Bombarian Flame: Inflicts all players with the Bombarian debuff, with one role having 26s duration and the other having 44s duration. These kill the player if not removed by triggering the fuse.

The phase begins with Quadruple Lariat or Octuple Lariat, and this second one will always be a point-blank AoE. This is followed by Quadraboom Dive or Octoboom Dive, and it's always a knockback from the edge Brute Bomber is facing. Knockback prevention abilities do work on this. Stack or spread based on the name of the ability for both mechanics, then heal up for Brutal Impact and Knuckle Sandwich, keeping in mind that both will hit six times total now.

The first major mechanic in the second phase is the Tag Team Chain Deathmatch. All players are chained to an add and only they can see their chain. The clones will do a Lariat Combo across the arena, and players need to get hit by only the first Lariat of the clone they are chained to. It may be easier to remember that they need to dodge all the Lariats except the one they are chained to the first time. After getting hit, all players need to dodge the second Lariat, and the safe spot is always in the quadrant both clones hit with their Lariat previously as they always raise the same fist twice.

In the example shown above, the DPS is chained to the north add. They need to be hit by the north add's Lariat while dodging the west add's Lariat. Afterwards, both Lariats hit the quadrant with the 2 marker (southeast), so we know that one is safe. This mechanic sequence is followed by a Quadruple Lariat or Octuple Lariat, and players will finally start having to watch Brute Bomber's hands to identify the donut AoE or point-blank AoE. After a Brutal Impact, the next mechanic sequence begins.

The second major mechanic in the second phase is Final Fusedown. Bombs appear on the arena in the configuration shown above with long fuses and short fuses, though it can be rotated. Players will also receive bombs on their head with long fuses and short fuses, with all players in one role receiving long and the other role receiving short.

The party needs to identify the safe spot for the fuses, which will be the quadrant with three long fuses. There are four safe spots in that quadrant, with an additional safe spot on the opposite edge. The role with short fuses needs to spread in this quadrant, and there are multiple ways to do so. We recommend the following configuration aiming for maximum melees uptime.

The role with the short fuses need to head to their spread spot, as they will explode at the same time as the arena bombs explode. The role with long fuses will stay close to the middle to make going to their next spot easier. As the bombs explode, the next set of bombs will go off and the role with long fuses needs to spread out.

For this set, we recommend the melees and tank disengage slightly if the boss is not pulled through in time. The players who had their fuses just go off will stay in the middle of the arena outside the explosions, and it's imperative for the second set of explosions not to clip them. This is followed by a Quadraboom Dive or an Octoboom Dive, and players now need to watch Brute Bomber's hands to determine whether it's a knockback or proximity.

The third major mechanic of the second phase is Fusefield and Bombarian Flame. Brute Bomber summons a fusefield in the middle of the arena and attaches eight fuses, four short and four long. He also inflicts all players with Bombarian, which is removed by detonating a fuse, but kills the player if allowed to expire. There are two different debuff durations split by role; the role with short debuffs need to detonate the fuses first, and the role with longer debuffs need to detonate the fuses second. Detonate a fuse by moving into it from the inside, as the hitbox is slowly moving towards the middle. In addition, you can detonate a fuse if you already have done so; stay at an already detonated fuse to prevent this from happening.

Each detonation deals high magic damage and inflicts a vulnerability, meaning players need to wait for it to wear off and heal up before detonating the next one. While there are methods to assigning fuses to individual players, the easiest method is for each player in the role to find fuses to detonate. There is plenty of time to move around the circle in the middle to find a fuse and detonate it when it is that player's turn. Use the pre-assigned order to determine who is going first: short debuff 1 to 4 will detonate first, then long debuff 1 to 4.

After this mechanic is over, the boss will do another Knuckle Sandwich. This is the one that should be shared if the tanks have a good invuln plan. Brute Bomber will take another Doping Draught, beginning the third phase.

The second Doping Draught consists of one main mechanic, Fuse or Foe. In addition, upgraded versions of previous mechanics are used.

The following mechanics are introduced in phase three.

• Quadraboom Bombarian Special: Brute Bomber does six hits of roughly 60,000 physical damage each. After the fourth hit, he does a point-blank AoE into a donut AoE. Finally, he knocks back all players from the center dealing roughly 60,000 physical damage, and hits all players of one role with a circle AoE stack that deals roughly 220,000 physical damage split between two players and inflicts a physical vulnerability debuff.
• Octoboom Bombarian Special: The same as Quadraboom Bombarian Special, but instead does a circle AoE on all players that deals roughly 110,000 physical damage and inflicts a physical vulnerability debuff.
• Fuse of Fury: Places bombs with short and long fuses on the arena in the same configuration as Final Fusedown.
• Chain Deathmatch: Now also chains the player to the boss as well as a clone.
• Fuse or Foe: Places bombs on players with short and long fuses, with one role receiving short and the other receiving long.
• Infernal Spin: Brute Bomber faces a direction and does conal AoEs, spinning in the direction indicated. Additionally, large ring AoEs start on opposite intercardinals and fan out.

Brute Bomber begins the final phase with Quadraboom or Octoboom Bombarian Special. All players need to go to their quadrant and heavily mitigate the next six hits, healing in between. After the fourth hit, move out for a point-blank AoE, and immediately move in for a donut AoE. Finally, Brute Bomber knocks back all players from the centre: make sure not to stand in the centre and get knocked back into a corner. If it's Quadraboom, stack and if it's Octoboom, spread with melees dashing in and ranged staying out.

The first major mechanic of the third phase is an upgraded Tag Team Chain Deathmatch. Brute Bomber casts Fuse of Fury, creating short and long fused bombs on the arena. Players have to dodge these while keeping track of which add they are tethered to and they are always tethered to the boss as well. After dodging both sets of bomb explosions, the boss begins casting Murderous Mist and the clones start casting Lariat Combo. Players need to get hit by their chained add as well as the 270 degree cone from the boss. Afterwards, dodge into the safe spot for the returning Lariats, which work the same way as the first one.

This is followed by a Quadraboom Dive or Octoboom Dive into Brutal Impact and Knuckle Sandwich. With the second stack of Dangerously Doped, these will hit eight times in total, so good mitigation and healing is required.

The second major mechanic of the third phase is Fuse or Foe. The boss places short fuses on one role and long fuses on the other. He will then face a cardinal direction and begin casting Infernal Spin. Start behind his spin and rotate along with it until the first donut AoE is gone. Immediately move across the middle to the other side to dodge the final conal AoE, though there is a tiny pixel safe spot if you choose to stay.

There are multiple ways to solve the fuse explosions, but the most consistent way is using the markers and rearranging positions for uptime. Have the tanks and melee DPS on cardinals and healers and ranged on intercardinals. Essentially, have the healers and melees switch spots. For the first set of explosions, use the ground lines and have everyone spread out to their marker, as it goes off quite fast. All players in one role will explode, but everyone is spread from each other.

Afterwards, the final set of rings appear and the second set of explosions will go off. Six players will go inside if their marker is safe, while two ranged or healers will be outside on opposite sides. Stay spread until the explosion happens, then gather together to real clock spots as there will be a Quadruple or Octuple Lariat. This is followed by Brutal Impact, so more mitigation is required here.

The third major mechanic of the third phase is an upgraded Barbarous Barrage. The mechanic itself hasn't changed, so spread into melees and ranged and go to your assigned four-person towers. Get knocked back into two-person towers, and then into the middle. The boss will jump to the edge of the arena and start casting Lariat Combo: watch which fist he has raised, and get knocked back to the other side in a corner. If you get knocked back directly to the opposite side, you will get knocked back into the fire and instantly die. Remember to dodge the returning Lariat, dodging to the other side or staying where you got knocked back to.

Finally, Brute Bomber casts the last Knuckle Sandwich of the fight, which should be invulned. He will do a final Doping Draught and begin the enrage sequence, Special Bombarian Special. Mitigate these hits and kill this boss before he slams the party into the wall!

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 Barbarous Barrage, tank/melee and ranged/healer split is most common. Check the tower priority in your party: tank/melee generally goes north or west, while ranged/healer goes south or east.
2. There are multiple different Fusefield priorities, with assigned spots for each based on a rotation priority. Check which one your party is using prior to pulling.
3. For the first Bombarian Special, normal clock spots are generally used instead of modified ones. If this is the case, the tank and the melee partnered together will have to spread when dashing in. This is also the case for the ranged partnered with the healer, but they have more room to work with.

When Brute Bomber is defeated, a treasure coffer will appear that contains Dark Horse Champion's Chest and Leg Coffers. When opened by a player, these coffers contain an item level 730 Dark Horse equips 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, both coffers will appear, as well as a Surgelight Twine and Surgelight Solvent. If one to four players have already cleared, one random coffers will appear and a random upgrade item. 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 III token. Six of these can be traded in for a Dark Horse Chest or Leg gear of your choosing at an Arcadion gear vendor.