The Epic of Alexander Ultimate: Alexander Prime Guide

The third phase of the fight has you battle Alexander Prime, while handling Formation (Trio) mechanics while the boss is untargetable against Alexander Prime, Brute Justice, and Cruise Chaser. The DPS check is similar to that of Bahamut Prime, but higher DPS allows you to decrease the burden on healers. It is perfectly passable with deaths, but the phase increases in difficulty the farther you get, and deaths, especially on healers, may snowball into an unrecoverable position for the raid. Each Formation tests coordination and mechanical ability, with defensive buff management being the key to defeating Alexander Prime overall.

This phase is broken into two parts, please reference this Toolbox for Timestop and Inception and this Toolbox for Wormhole and J-Waves for a detailed view of how each mechanic is handled.

• Chastening Heat: A heavy magical tank buster that inflicts a magic vulnerability up debuff.
• Divine Spear: Three magical cleaves on the tank in quick succession. This always follows Chastening Heat, so tanks will have to swap or use an invuln. The second set has a delay between the tank buster and the cleaves, which means all four hits cannot be invulned.
• Mega Holy: A heavy hitting magical raidwide AoE. At least one 10% and shields are necessary for survival, and even then you are cutting it close. Two 10% mitigations and shields are highly recommended.
2.1.

Temporal Stasis Mechanics

• Temporal Stasis: Various debuffs are inflicted onto players. Players must satisfy debuff conditions while taking care of Brute Justice and Cruise Chaser mechanics.
  • One DPS and one Tank/Healer are inflicted with House Arrest. These players must be in close proximity to each other when it resolves or they will die.
  • One DPS and one Tank/Healer are inflicted with Restraining Order. These players must be far apart from each other when it resolves or they will die.
  • One DPS and one Tank/Healer are inflicted with Aggravated Assault. These players cannot take any additional damage or they will die.
  • One DPS and one Tank/Healer will not have any debuff.
• Alpha Sword: Cruise Chaser does a conal AoE (the one from intermission Limit Cut) towards the three closest players. Inflicts Vulnerability.
• Flarethrower: Brute Justice does a large conal AoE towards the two closest players. Inflicts a Fire vulnerability.

• Aetheroplasm: Four random players are tethered to Plasmaspheres. These big green orbs will slowly move towards their player and explode upon contact with another player, dealing decreased damage and becoming smaller the longer they are active. Once exploded, they leave behind a small green puddle that slows all players inside it. If two puddles overlap, they will explode and wipe the party.
• Judgement Crystal: Four random players get an AoE marker over their head. These will drop Judgment Crystals when they resolve. If Judgment Crystals explode, they will deal proximity damage (Tetrashatter). If Judgment Crystals are overlapping each other, are in proximity to Alexander during Inception, or intersect the True Heart, they will explode.
• True Heart: Shanoa will spawn opposite of Alexander Prime during Inception Formation and summon the True Heart add, moving towards Alexander Prime. When the add intersects four Judgment Crystals, it will "awaken," becoming golden, running to Alexander Prime's position for Inception, and grant the Enigma Codex buff which is necessary for the final phase.
• Inception: Alexander Prime will teleport to a random location outside the arena and cast Sacrament, a wide AoE from his cardinals. Where the Golden True Heart moves to is where Alexander Prime will spawn. Inception will also inflict players with various debuffs.
  • One DPS will be inflicted with Shared Sentence. They must stack with the tanks.
  • One DPS and one Tank will be inflicted with Restraining Order.
  • Two DPS will be inflicted with Aggravated Assault.

The debuffs inflicted by Inception will be paramount for handling mechanics at the end of the phase.

There are multiple mechanics appearing from previous phases. For brevity, I will not explain them. Assume they work the same as before. These include Alpha Sword, Flarethrower, and Super Jump.

• Link-Up: Similar to phase 2, this phase summons Chakrams at two cardinals of the arena. They will spawn south and the side closest to Brute Justice. It does not include Compressed Water or Lightning.
• Missile Command: Missile Command now only places two Enumeration stacks on random DPS.
• Incinerating Heat: A stack marker on a random player. Deals extremely heavy damage and requires party mitigation.
• Void of Repentance: Alexander Prime summons two large Void puddles on the eastern and western side of the arena. These must be soaked by one player each, and becomes smaller once soaked. Soaking Repentance deals damage and inflicts a vulnerability, meaning players cannot take a Limit Cut charge and soak at around the same time. It falls off after a few seconds. The void will shrink twice before it disappears. If a Void puddle is not soaked, the raid will wipe.

There are multiple mechanics appearing from previous phases. For brevity, I will not explain them. Assume they work the same as before. These include Limit Cut numbers, Eye of the Chakram, Sacrament, Super Jump, and Apocalyptic Ray.

• Summon Alexander: Alexander Prime summons Brute Justice and Cruise Chaser to protect him and use their final anime moves while he charges up his final anime move, Divine Judgment. If Alexander Prime is allowed to finish the cast, it will wipe the raid, otherwise, it will do an extremely heavy hit that requires Tank Limit Break 3 to survive.
• J Storm: Brute Justice crashes onto the arena, dealing heavy damage.
• Eternal Darkness: Cruise Chaser will enrage if he is not killed before this finishes.
• J Wave: Brute Justice deals heavy AoE damage to the party. He gains a damage up stack each time he casts this, creating a looming damage enrage unless he is killed in time.

This mechanic is extremely easy to solve. Players will have static positions based on their debuffs, with one caveat: Brute Justice and Cruise Chaser may be flipped at times. However, this means there are always two formats to this formation.

There are other ways to solve this mechanic, but what I propose is the easiest and safest solution by a large margin. It is very easy to remember and has no far movement. Set positions are on the first slide of this Toolbox. In the event Brute Justice and Cruise Chaser are flipped, simply flip the positions of all players as well.

As DPS are always paired with a healer/tank, it is possible to have Tanks/Healers always North (West for Restraining Order) and DPS South (East for Restraining Order).

What ends up happening is that Brute Justice will Flarethrower the House Arrest players, while Cruise Chaser will Alpha Sword the two unmarked players and one of the Restraining Order players. The unmarked players should be inside the hitbox, as close to the middle as possible, while the House Arrest Player stands on the banana-shaped design on the floor to ensure the tether requirement is satisfied consistently.

Inception Formation is the most dance-like of the formations. It is extremely easy to execute once all players understand the mechanics, but there will be plenty of wipes along the way.

The tank who is using their invuln first should pick up Alexander. Invuln the tank busters and heal as necessary. Players should stack in the middle for shields after Inception Formation casts. The party wants shields now or instant heals later for the high damage that will occur.

You need to discern where Alexander Prime and Brute Justice spawn. Alexander Prime will either spawn North or South, and Brute Justice spawns West. However, whichever direction Alexander is becomes North, so adjust as necessary.

Players should loosely spread around the middle. You have plenty of time to discern what mechanic you have and get into position, but it is truly random. This means that there is no easy way out, and you have to have raid awareness. Balls spawn either 2x NW + 2x SE or 2x NE + 2x SW. Either way, players who are tethered should stand near the north side of the arena.

The other four players should make their way to the south side of the arena in a box formation. No AoE should overlap, and both the left and right players should be equidistant from the center. The players more north should take care to not overlap their AoEs with the south players. If Crystals are overlapped, it will result in a raid wipe.

Once the crystals are set and balls explode, all players except the two tanks should head north. Healers need to heal the party up. Afterwards, Brute Justice will Flarethrower the three closest targets. You want the party stacked North on the Brute Justice side, one tank extremely close on the south, and one tank close in the middle. Once all three Flarethrowers are done, feel free to build DPS gauges on the True Heart. Healers should top the party during this time.

For a reference point, use slide 2 and 3 of the Toolbox.

At this point, players will receive debuffs. Where the True Heart runs off to is where Alexander will spawn and cast Sacrament. Players will move left or right depending on their debuff. Shared Sentence DPS and the tanks will go right facing the True Heart and everyone else will go left. Go all the way to the wall to ensure Restraining Order and Shared Sentence are done correctly.

After, all players should prepare for Alpha Sword. Cruise Chaser will spawn in the middle of the arena and cast Alpha Sword thrice on the three closest players. Brute Justice (west) will cast Super Jump on the farthest player (preferably east). Everything will inflict magic vulnerability except for Restraining Order. Since tanks are in the Shared Sentence, they are unable to bait Alpha Sword as well, but they are able to bait Super Jump.

Therefore, the three players that bait Alpha Sword should be the Restraining Order DPS and both healers. To make it easy, Brute should be designated north. The DPS will go north, and healers will go west and east. These three players should be as close as possible. The tank with a free active mitigation skill should take the Super Jump, it is up to your group who does. They should go far south, towards the true east side of the arena. The rest of the players should stand south of Cruise Chaser relative to Brute Justice, but no one should be closer than any of the baiters, while maintaining a safe distance from the Super Jump.

For a reference point, use slide 4 and 5 of the Toolbox.

Perhaps the hardest mechanic introduced to the game to date, Wormhole Formation has your group perform the Limit Cut numbers mechanic, while baiting Super Jump, dodging Chakrams, Sacrament, and Apocalyptic Ray, while soaking Communion puddles. It is the pure definition of mechanic vomit, is very nuanced in movement, and requires understanding of the mechanic by all eight players.

Expect your group to get walled by Wormhole Formation for a long time until you can expect a single clear, and expect inconsistency for dozens of prog hours. This mechanic will truly test raid patience.

Wormhole Formation is the apex of difficulty in the entire fight. Much like Titan Gaols, Ultimate Suppression, Tenstrike Trio, and Grand Octet, this is an extreme mechanical check that was difficult to solve. However, most would agree that the primary difficulty lies within solving it. With countless strategies already being out, your group can pick and choose between the strategy with the safest execution.

While there are countless ways to execute this mechanic, this guide uses the following Toolbox:

• PUG Wormhole

Wormhole Formation makes players perform the Limit Cut numbers mechanic while soaking Void of Repentance, while almost the entire arena is cut off by Apocalyptic Ray, Sacrament, and two Chakrams that fire once.

Players should all loose spread in the middle to prepare for Wormhole Formation. Shields and an AoE regen should go out. Players wait in the middle and face Alexander Prime until their numbers go out, then go to their respective sides. 3/4 will go to the north intercardinal on their side, while 1/2, 5/6, and 7/8 go south. 1/2 will go to the south intercardinal on their side and wait for Limit Cut. 5/6 and 7/8 will stand just under the cardinal until Chakrams resolve (Chakrams should go through the middle). The players at intercardinals should be standing on the red dot at the intercardinals. This is especially important for the Brute Justice jump target, but also ensures players are out of any Void of Repentance puddles.

When the cleaves start, Brute Justice will jump to the furthest player (3 or 4), turn around, and start casting Apocalyptic Ray. It is imperative that the player he is jumping to stands in the middle of the red dot, then moves south towards the wall in order to ensure they are not hit by Apocalyptic Ray. They should also be using anti-knockback around this time.

The Void of Repentance puddles will soak as the previous charge gets cleaved as well. So when 3 gets cleaved, the first puddle which 5 and 6 should be soaking will resolve. This makes 5 and 6 relatively easier, as they should always be soaking, pressing anti-knockback when they soak, and getting ready for their cleave.

As soon as 5 and 6 soak, they should run along the wall to go and bait Limit Cut. The reason for this is that not hugging the wall might put them in the path of Apocalyptic Ray. When 5 and 6 move out of their puddle, 7 and 8 can replace them and 1 and 2 can come back to the cardinal any time in preparation for their soak. 7 and 8 do need to squeeze into the puddle as Apocalyptic Ray is still going on. As soon as the puddle goes off, 7 and 8 should use their anti-knockbacks and head towards the southern intercardinal to bait Limit Cut. 1 and 2 should replace them in the puddle, and 5 and 6 should quickly move back to the cardinal to ensure they are not cleaved by the final Limit Cut. Once the final puddle is soaked, all players should start moving to the middle except 7 and 8 (who are still doing Limit Cut) to prepare for Incinerating Heat.

You will need a lot of instant heals and mitigation for Incinerating Heat. I recommend a Swiftcast AoE Shield, topping everything with oGCD/instant heals. Everyone should stack in the middle for Incinerating Heat. As soon as the ability goes off, players should separate to see which DPS have the Enumeration. These DPS should separate into a left stack and a right stack. Tanks will always stack with one group (tanks go right) and healers will always stack with the other group (healers go left), making this mechanic extremely easy to execute. You should assign your DPS with a linear order to make this mechanic easier.

Enumeration will go off after Alexander Prime becomes targetable. He will cast Mega Holy twice dealing massive raidwide damage. It requires two 10% mitigation and shields, with three 10%s and shielding necessary to be actually safe. However, keep in mind you cannot burn that much mitigation on Incinerating Heat and Mega Holy, as the next phase comprises a massive heal check that will completely deplete all healer and mitigation resources. We use Succor, Shake it Off, and Divine Veil for Incinerating Heat while being topped off, and Succor, Soil, Reprisal, and Addle for both casts of Mega Holy. Keep in mind one Addle, Feint, and Reprisal can cover both Mega Holy casts if timed right.

Summon Alexander is the final check of the phase. It comprises multiple mitigation checks, a heal check, and finally a complete phase enrage check. This puts a high strain on healer MP and group coordination, as mitigation is the key to surviving the high damage output from Brute Justice’s J Waves.

If everyone has stayed alive, the DPS check itself should be easy, however, the higher the burst DPS during the Summon Alexander phase on Cruise Chaser and Brute Justice, the lower the healing requirement. You should base mitigation around how many damage up stacks Brute Justice has.

More mitigation may be required if DPS is lower, and mitigation can be pushed back if DPS is higher. You should be aiming to kill Brute Justice anywhere from 9 or 11 stacks. Beyond 12 stacks, there is a good chance your healers will not be able to keep up.

All players should stack on Cruise Chaser’s right flank before J Storm, while healers let regens + oGCD heals top the raid for the first few J Wave hits. After the damage gets more intense, healers will spam GCD AoE heals until the bosses die. Multi-dot is extremely strong here, and players can cleave both bosses with certain abilities if they stand inside Cruise Chaser’s hitbox facing Brute Justice. However, they may miss heals if so and should make sure to heal themselves.

After Divine Judgment casts and you have killed Alexander Prime, the tank needs to Tank Limit Break 3 when the countdown is around three seconds. Shields and regens can be prepopped in order to have a higher HP value going into the final phase, as Perfect Alexander is targetable almost immediately.

If you are on track to an easy Alexander Prime kill, it is imperative to hold cooldowns and build gauges for final phase, as the DPS check is extremely difficult than anything else in the encounter so far. It is no victory lap, and every bit of DPS is needed to squeeze out a kill.