FFXIV Dawntrail Guide: AAC Light-heavyweight M3
AAC Light-heavyweight M3 is the third encounter of the first eight-man, normal raid content released with Patch 7.01 of Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail. It’s available at level 100 after finishing the quest Yaana’s Yarn and unlocked by the quest Vile Heat. It can be completed via the duty finder with a minimum ilvl of 685 and rewards Light-heavy Hologear tokens for each gear type (DoW I, DoW II, DoM). These can be turned in to Hhihwi at (x:8.7, y:13.4) in the Nexus Arcade, in Solution Nine.
For the sake of your fellow players, please remember that this is new content (at the time of publication). A little friendly explanation can go a long way. Similarly, don’t be afraid to take advice. You may learn something you didn’t know.
Brute Bomber
Phase 1
- Brutal Impact – Four hits of unavoidable, raid-wide damage.
- Knuckle Sandwich – A tankbuster that must be taken by both tanks, or taken alone with an invulnerability ability.
- Brutal Lariat – The brutely boss will lift one of his arm and charge up an attack that looks like it will cleave through half the arena, but the actual AoE stretches farther across to encompass all of his hit box as well. Getting hit does damage, applies a Sustained Damage DoT, and applies a 45 second long Trauma debuff. If you get hit a second time with Trauma up, you’ll get a Damage Down debuff and an esunable Concussion debuff, which stuns you for six seconds.
- Brutal Lariat
- Murderous Mist – The boss will hit the three quarters of the arena in front of him with an AoE, so move behind him. Getting hit by the AoE applies a Vulnerability stack, and a 20 second Poison DoT that can be esuna’d.
- Barbarous Barrage – Four soak towers will show up, evenly spaced, on the arena floor. Each one only needs one player in it, but will knock that player back relative to the center of their tower. Make sure you aim yourself so that you don’t get thrown into the surrounding flames, or you’ll get a 15 second Burn DoT. Knock-back nullifiers do work on this.
- Fire Spin – The boss will point a conal AoE in a cardinal direction, and either an orange (clockwise), or a blue (counterclockwise) spinning arrow indicator will show which way the conal will turn. He’ll go all the way around the arena once, so follow behind the conal. Or run in front of it if you’re a cool guy.
- Fuses of Fury – The boss will summon eight bombs to the field, half of which will have long fuses, while the other half have short ones. Stand with the long fuses until the short fuses go off, then move into the safe areas left behind.
- Brutal Lariat
- Fuses of Fury
Phase 2
- Doping Draught – I’ll let you enjoy this exchange for yourselves, but in short: the boss gets a little power up.
- Lariat Combo – The boss will execute Brutal Lariat, then turn and do it again. You’ll either have to stay put, or quickly cross the arena.
- Brutal Burn – A stack mechanic.
- Brutal Impact – Six hits of unavoidable, raid-wide damage. This mechanic will always have 6 hits from here on out.
- Lariat Combo
- Infernal Spin* – This incorporates the spinning conal from Fire Spin with waves of outward moving, circular AoEs. There will first be a point-blank circle in the center, then a donut surrounding that, and finally another donut outside that, though the last one really only affects the corners of the room. Move back and forth between the inner circle and its surrounding donut, as you run around the boss.
- As Infernal Spin resolves, four dark red, circular AoEs will show up under random players’ feet, then another four, then another four, for a total of twelve in all three waves.
- Lariat Combo – The boss will start charging this while you’re still dodging dark red AoEs. You may have to really hustle to get to the safe side depending on if and where the red AoEs trap you. I included Lariat Combo in the video above so you can see how fast it is.
- Brutal Burn
- Brutal Impact
- Fuses of Fury + Lariat Combo – You’ll have to dodge bombs on the safe half of Brutal Bomb’s first Lariat charge.
- Brutal Impact
- Knuckle Sandwich
- Barbarous Barrage + Fuses of Fury – Get knocked across the arena hopefully toward a long-fused bomb. You’ll have a brief moment of time to adjust.
- Murderous Mist
- Brutal Burn
- Brutal Impact
- Knuckle Sandwich
- *Repeats from Infernal Spin until defeat.
Congratulations, you’ve completed AAC Light-heavyweight M3!
Special thanks to Myllor, Monte, Castus, Gwyenn, Arthur, Ammora, Kuroki, Agatha, Vegard, Jome, and Niza for running this raid with me for footage!
Make sure to check out the guides for the rest of the AAC Light-heavyweight tier!