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Oathsworn Blade Master Trial - Cleared
By Bakerboy 2025-03-26 21:33:02
Never did Legion sadly since I didn't play those years, but I don't recall any exploits.
Legion was essentially the same strat as early Delve. Rotate BRDs and CORs so all three parties have 6 songs and 6 rolls, have 3xSCH on a stun rotation to prevent all TP moves.
Yo Michelob! Nice to see you old friend! Now sure if you remember me from when we played together on Phoenix!
 Phoenix.Michelob
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By Phoenix.Michelob 2025-03-27 02:36:19
Never did Legion sadly since I didn't play those years, but I don't recall any exploits.
Legion was essentially the same strat as early Delve. Rotate BRDs and CORs so all three parties have 6 songs and 6 rolls, have 3xSCH on a stun rotation to prevent all TP moves.
Yo Michelob! Nice to see you old friend! Now sure if you remember me from when we played together on Phoenix!
I thought your name looked familiar when I saw you posting in here - you were Bakerism on Phoenix, yeah? I came back to the game mid 2022 after an eight and a half year break but I'm still on Phoenix!
By K123 2025-03-27 02:44:44
Were people stun botting TP moves in Delve like Legion or doing it manually though?
Phoenix.Michelob
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By Phoenix.Michelob 2025-03-27 02:52:07
Were people stun botting TP moves in Delve like Legion or doing it manually though?
I did it manually whenever I was on stun duty but I would not be shocked if some people in our group were not. We were one of the first groups to kill the Bee in Delve using melee strat as opposed to ranged. One of the iterations of Volume LS on Phoenix.
By K123 2025-03-27 03:58:12
I mean in Legion like Delve, not the other way around - everyone was botting Delve!
By Bakerboy 2025-03-27 10:32:38
Never did Legion sadly since I didn't play those years, but I don't recall any exploits.
Legion was essentially the same strat as early Delve. Rotate BRDs and CORs so all three parties have 6 songs and 6 rolls, have 3xSCH on a stun rotation to prevent all TP moves.
Yo Michelob! Nice to see you old friend! Now sure if you remember me from when we played together on Phoenix!
I thought your name looked familiar when I saw you posting in here - you were Bakerism on Phoenix, yeah? I came back to the game mid 2022 after an eight and a half year break but I'm still on Phoenix!
Yessir that’s me! When I came back five years ago from a six year break, Phoenix was all JP and the server felt dead so I transferred to Asura. You should transfer too it’s a lot more active here.
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By Asura.Psycosocial 2025-03-27 16:34:41
Team Phoenix!...and Titan *we're old*
By Bakerboy 2025-03-27 17:48:35
Asura.Psycosocial said: »Team Phoenix!...and Titan *we're old*
Hell yeah I remember you from Titan!
By Dodik 2025-03-30 07:01:48
The only players who are going to beat this fight are the actual good players, not the people who think V25s are hard and luck based...
Are these the players good enough to figure out if kiting works or?
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By Ovalidal 2025-03-30 10:37:34
Are these the players good enough to figure out if kiting works or?
I'm not sure if you're keeping up with Xolla's group, but they are pretty hyped about finally clearing this. Between their excitement, the massive multi-part write up, and their history of early clears on difficult mechanics, I would say, yes. They are smart enough to try basic game mechanics...
By Dodik 2025-03-31 05:40:10
By Ovalidal 2025-03-31 09:59:04
Are these the players good enough to figure out if kiting works or? I'm not sure if you're keeping up with Xolla's group, but they are pretty hyped about finally clearing this. Between their excitement, the massive multi-part write up, and their history of early clears on difficult mechanics, I would say, yes. They are smart enough to try basic game mechanics... Whoosh.
The irony in this exchange is so pure, I'm afraid that explaining the reciprocal sarcasm in my initial response would water it down. This is my new favorite exchange lol.
For those who are unaware, kiting August was found early on, to be ineffective at mitigating null field due to the way that particular move worked. Furthermore, the biggest benefit to Xolla's kiting strat was that they found a very strange reaction that Xolla's group themselves call the "gravity hack" (if google translate is to be trusted). While doing it that allowed 3 phases of this encounter to be skipped.
This "gravity hack" required some arbitrary timing, which is why no one found it. It required slightly more set up, and offered more benefits than simply kiting.
 Shiva.Thorny
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By Shiva.Thorny 2025-03-31 10:13:46
There is no 'gravity hack'. Gravity works exactly as intended. Kiting in a circle around the monster to keep it in place is creative, but not novel or cheating. There is some component of the AI that changes if you get out of range during a bow attack, apparently. This could be viewed as an exploit.
You are gaslighting readers to defend your buddies (assuming you're not a sock, which is honestly feeling more and more likely). The reality of the situation is that any group who made any substantial effort to attempt a kiting based strategy would have observed this behavior. Xolla outright said that they learned it early on. August only has so many moves, it is inevitable that they would've ranged him at the correct time once or twice. The only possible conclusion is that Shiraj's group made no substantial efforts to try kiting prior to ruling it out.
For that matter, even without the modified logic, null field is centered on the tank. Kiting in a circle without the exploit would still allow DPS to damage August without losing their buffs; this premise was dismissed by Shiraj out of hand as well.
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By K123 2025-03-31 11:42:35
Sticking a mob behind a wall so it can't hit you is also creative.
 Asura.Shiraj
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By Asura.Shiraj 2025-03-31 12:00:39
For that matter, even without the modified logic, null field is centered on the tank. Kiting in a circle without the exploit would still allow DPS to damage August without losing their buffs; this premise was dismissed by Shiraj out of hand as well. Kiting him in a circle without the exploit works until he summons an add (Which the exploit prevents the summoning of until Gravity wears off). Sure you can sleep August with a RDM, but how do you handle the adds? Xolla's group intentionally need the Naakuals to not spawn until 1%~ or close in order to beat the dps check? So to kite every 10% while dealing with the normal dps check would require a melee setup, right? How do you melee some of those Naakuals? If meleeing them was so simple howcome Xolla's group defaulted to ranged setup on every Naakual instead of Melee (I promise you they had the Accuracy to hit them if they had enough to ranged attack them).
Also there must be some build up to Gravity otherwise why would Xolla's group not kite the final 2 No Quarters and instead choosing to sacrife their tank 2 times? So how could you have kited the whole time if the group that won with kiting couldn't kite the whole time? I get you wanna throw shade and try say "I told you kiting worked" but come on, use some critical thinking skills. This whole thing comes across as a few idiots trying so hard to be right in an "i told you so" moment.
Process:
-Enter BC (RUN/DRK, RDM/WHM, GEO/RDM)
-Pull August to far end of arena
-Cast bolster geo-gravity with widened compass (i set it between august and center to get the most range)
-Stymie gravity II
-Run straight to other side as soon as he starts a bow attack
None of this is surprising; it's not an exploit, it's literally how every monster in the game works. Kiting in a circle around the monster to keep it in place is creative, but not novel or cheating. There is some component of the AI that changes if you get out of range during a bow attack, apparently. This could be viewed as an exploit. Why the switchup? What happened?
I get you wanna throw shade to our group, maybe you have something against some people in it, but the mental gymnastics going around for this is crazy.
I don't even care about the fact they used an exploit to clear, I care the fact some of you are trying to avoid the fact they did it, or be in denial, who knows just to ***on our group claiming we cheated. Double standard is everywhere no need for that ***.
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By K123 2025-03-31 12:04:18
Well you did cheat if rangers used autoRA, etc. Not to open a huge semantic debate but their clear is arguably more legitimate if no addons used even if clearly exploiting the game.
Pre-buffing with other chars being required to clear it is dumb too, it's all bad content design at the end of the day. Nothing has required proper skill and focus alone for years.
Asura.Eiryl
By Asura.Eiryl 2025-03-31 12:06:45
Gravity itself is not an exploit. (It's extremely trashy, but they don't seem to care we do it, so)
How the AI is programmed to respond might be flawed. Then it's an exploit. If they patch it, then we know.
Shiva.Thorny
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By Shiva.Thorny 2025-03-31 12:11:31
Why the switchup? What happened? I went in and tested it using the bow, my impression was that he was not doing anything you'd previously described and I did not have to try more than once to see that behavior. I believed that there was no need to time anything to the ranged attack. You later posted that wasn't the case and claimed you'd tested it two different ways. I took you at face value, and adjusted my view based on the new information.
My point isn't that you could absolutely win by kiting without the change in AI. My point is that someone who had made any real effort to try kiting would have seen the AI change. You could go in once or twice and halfass it without seeing it, but he only has a handful of moves.. you're bound to have him use the bow on pull and end up in that state in only a few attempts. It doesn't require split second timing or some complicated set of conditions; it's relatively easy to reproduce or stumble onto.
Asura.Shiraj
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By Asura.Shiraj 2025-03-31 12:13:35
Well you did cheat if rangers used autoRA, etc. Not to open a huge semantic debate but their clear is arguably more legitimate if no addons used even if clearly exploiting the game.
Pre-buffing with other chars being required to clear it is dumb too, it's all bad content design at the end of the day. Nothing has required proper skill and focus alone for years. I agree if we used Auto RA we shouldn't have the clear, but we didn't use that. I'd estimate this fight with Ranger setup would be substaintially easier with an auto hovershot bot paired with no interruptions. Using that stuff for a "first" clear is account suicide though.
Also Xolla's video shows one of their Corsairs using JaZero sliding around while weaponskilling. (2:07 mark in his video) They aren't Vanilla either. JPs use more addons than half the NA community lmao, they just hide it better. People shouldn't care if addons are used unless it's full blown automation. Everyone's dabbling in them to some degree.
This content was poorly designed yes. I've claimed that since probably week 1 . Ilvl 157 with dispel spam is HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE.
SE: How do we make content hard? Let's add an accuracy requirement around 2200~ for melees then let's add a ton of full dispels. It'll be really fun. I wish prebuffs weren't needed but our group needed many prebuffs and so did Xolla's. It just shows you how out of tune this fight is that you cannot really win without more thna 6 players.
Edit:
My point isn't that you could absolutely win by kiting without the change in AI. My point is that someone who had made any real effort to try kiting would have seen the AI change. You could go in once or twice and halfass it without seeing it, but he only has a handful of moves.. you're bound to have him use the bow on pull and end up in that state in only a few attempts. I agree we should have seen this behaviour, but I don't remember the exact number of attempts made at this outside of over 10 but yeah I never seen this behaviour and that's why I couldn't use this to my own advantage cos damn I would've. I found many bugs/exploits in that fight almost all softlocking the encounter, mobs despawning, August getting stuck in a wall, nothing that actually helped progress the fight.
It doesn't require split second timing or some complicated set of conditions; it's relatively easy to reproduce or stumble onto. Even if you do the steps to replicate the bug it's not guaranteed to work; Xolla's clear video itself shows they needed 2 tries to make it work and even says it could take them up to 50s of trying to reproduce in his own writeup. So stumbling across this randomly without any intention of trying it is super unlikely imo.
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By Bahamut.Celebrindal 2025-03-31 12:19:48
Sticking a mob behind a wall so it can't hit you is also creative.
Seems like a very Just method to me.
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By Dodik 2025-03-31 13:16:40
The irony in this exchange is so pure, I'm afraid that explaining the reciprocal sarcasm in my initial response would water it down. This is my new favorite exchange lol.
That's funny, I was thinking the same thing.
Not that I don't believe your reply was in fact ironic and you saying it's ironic is not a lame attempt at making it seem like you were being ironic all along and not just making stuff up post the fact to make excuses for both yourself and a group you are not a part of.
That's sarcasm, btw. So you don't have to pretend again later.
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By Ovalidal 2025-03-31 13:54:01
There is no 'gravity hack'. Gravity works exactly as intended. Kiting in a circle around the monster to keep it in place is creative, but not novel or cheating. There is some component of the AI that changes if you get out of range during a bow attack, apparently. This could be viewed as an exploit.
I never said gravity wasn't working as intended. If you have an issue with the phrase "gravity hack", take that up with Xolla or the translation department at google.
You are gaslighting readers to defend your buddies (assuming you're not a sock, which is honestly feeling more and more likely). The reality of the situation is that any group who made any substantial effort to attempt a kiting based strategy would have observed this behavior. Xolla outright said that they learned it early on. August only has so many moves, it is inevitable that they would've ranged him at the correct time once or twice. The only possible conclusion is that Shiraj's group made no substantial efforts to try kiting prior to ruling it out.
Yeah, this was a pretty embarrassing mistake on Shiraj's group's part. They may have ruled it out too quickly. Also a pretty big mistake on the part of Zerozero's group, the group that Leaguemili plays with, Pleasure's group, and perhaps Mischief's group, (as they decided to go with a MB set up pretty early on). Even Xolla, the people who knew of this made a mistake on their clear pull, and if they know exactly how to cause this abnormality and still messed up, well, I don’t know what to tell you. By the way, Zerozero’s group has since adopted Xolla’s strategy, and they are still struggling to get to Teodor.
As far as BigT and Shiraj’s group, I’ve never met any of them irl. I only first encountered them and started talking to BigT when I messaged him for the CP clear, and I only started talking to Shiraj after the OB clear. You may find it suspicious that I tend to side with his group and Xolla’s group, but I tend to be less sceptical of groups that are actively working on the encounter/have cleared the encounter than I am people who talk about how hypothetically unproblematic the fight would be for them if they were trying.
By the way, neither group is above skepticism. BigT’s group has been pretty open with what they believe to be an exploit of Teodor’s AI, and the third-party he thinks his team may have been using. Xolla (again, if Google Translate is to be trusted) seems pretty open that August’s freezing reaction is a “gravity hack”. If these factors disqualify any clears for you, that’s perfectly fine.
For that matter, even without the modified logic, null field is centered on the tank. Kiting in a circle without the exploit would still allow DPS to damage August without losing their buffs; this premise was dismissed by Shiraj out of hand as well.
What does this have to do with me and what I said? This looks like a conversation you were having with Shiraj, not me. All I was pointing out was that kiting alone was tried by many groups.
Are these the players good enough to figure out if kiting works or? I'm not sure if you're keeping up with Xolla's group, but they are pretty hyped about finally clearing this. Between their excitement, the massive multi-part write up, and their history of early clears on difficult mechanics, I would say, yes. They are smart enough to try basic game mechanics... Whoosh.
The irony in this exchange is so pure, I'm afraid that explaining the reciprocal sarcasm in my initial response would water it down. This is my new favorite exchange lol.
That's funny, I was thinking the same thing.
Not that I don't believe your reply was in fact ironic and you saying it's ironic is not a lame attempt at making it seem like you were being ironic all along and not just making stuff up post the fact to make excuses for both yourself and a group you are not a part of.
That's sarcasm, btw. So you don't have to pretend again later. Dodik, you're very cool, being able to understand sarcasm without the utter reliance on a "/s" and all...
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By Dodik 2025-03-31 14:07:57
Yeah, it's funny how that works. When you write something, you get to say whether it's sarcastic or not, while you're typing it. As evidenced by me saying it's sarcasm when I wrote it.
Doing it after the fact and pretending it was sarcasm all along.. that's not sarcasm, what is that.. hang on.. it'll come to me.
Oh ***, that's it. It's ***.
Asura.Vyre
Forum Moderator
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By Asura.Vyre 2025-03-31 14:39:01
Play nice children, lest I have you horsewhipped.
Ovali's response to the first bit that you responded to with the very funny whoosh was subtlety, sometimes confused with sarcasm.
By only mentioning that Xolla's group was competent enough to try out basic game mechanics, he implied that Shiraj's group was not.
He just buried the lead a bit too much, ya know?
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By Ovalidal 2025-03-31 14:39:38
Are these the players good enough to figure out if kiting works or?
I'm not sure if you're keeping up with Xolla's group, but they are pretty hyped about finally clearing this. Between their excitement, the massive multi-part write up, and their history of early clears on difficult mechanics, I would say, yes. They are smart enough to try basic game mechanics...
No, you're definitely right, there was no sarcasm here. It was absolutely necessary for me to point out that one of the best groups in the world (a group you weren't even talking about) could do basic combat related things, and then add a grammatically incorrect "..." at the end of my thought. Your cheap shot against the world first group, the same kind of cheap shot I've gone after Eiryl and Kadokawa for throughout this thread, went way over my head. Or as you put it:
Play nice children, lest I have you horsewhipped.
Ovali's response to the first bit that you responded to with the very funny whoosh was subtlety, sometimes confused with sarcasm.
By only mentioning that Xolla's group was competent enough to try out basic game mechanics, he implied that Shiraj's group was not.
He just buried the lead a bit too much, ya know?
Edit: Oops, posted the same time you did. Will do though.
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By Dodik 2025-03-31 14:52:41
Yeah, no, I got that, thanks.
And if one is prepared to make statements like " only good players can clear X", they should also be prepared for some, shall we say, feedback.
With love, of course. All hearts and stuff.
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By Asura.Dexprozius 2025-03-31 16:41:02
With Saveth gone, this has become the most toxic thread on the site.
Party Comp: RNG/DRG (ML50), RNG/DRG (ML45), COR/NIN (ML50), BRD/SCH (ML50), GEO/WHM (ML50), RUN/BLU (ML47)
General Encounter Notes:
All buffs carry in. Geomancy debuff potency is nerfed by 50% on August, but is full potency on all adds. There is no WS wall. There is no prime weapon damage bonus (nor a non-prime penalty).
The encounter starts with August (level 157) by himself. Every 10%, August summons a random Naakual add starting at 90%, all the way down to 40% for a total of all 6 Naakuals. At 30%, he summons Teodor as the final add.
While a Naakual is alive, August has extremely strong DT and regen (something to the tune of -99% DT, and 1% HP regen every 15ish seconds). August does not have this DT/regen when Teodor is alive.
All adds (including Teodor) spawn in with an aura and there is no known way to proc these auras. The auras give the adds approximately -25% DT, along with other effects that are mostly consistent with other versions of these NMs (i.e., the Bee's aura gives it a blink effect, the Lion's aura is a 20' paralyze aura, etc.). Teodor's aura is unique to this encounter and I'll discuss that later. The auras wear off over time. The aura on the first add lasts 3.5 minutes, and each subsequent adds' aura lasts 30 seconds longer - so the 2nd add has a 4-minute aura, the 3rd add has a 4.5-minute aura, etc., with the final add (Teodor) having a 6.5-minute aura.
In addition to having a longer aura duration, each subsequent add spawns in at 1 higher level than the previous add. The first add is level 150, 2nd add is level 151, etc., with the final add (Teodor) being level 156. The level of the add influences the potency of the aura. With the Naakual spawn order being random, this creates a layer of RNG as there are certain adds that you hope will spawn early (i.e., the Bee).
Buffs
Pre-buffs before entering, many of which were from outside characters included the following: x8 Soul Voice songs (honor, prelude x2, minuet 5+4, aria, STR etude, AGI etude). x4 crooked rolls (SAM, Chaos, Misers, Tacticians). Flurry 2 on the COR/RNGs. Full SCH buffs - regen, embrava, baraero/barparalyze, adloquium, Minuo, phalanx, aquaveil. WHM for pro/shell/auspice/boost-STR. The main BRD's SV was reset using outside CORs before entering, or it was reduced to sub-10minutes with multiple Cutting Cards.
Main songs throughout the encounter: honor, prelude x2, minuet 5+4. Dirge fulltime on the GEO as the GEO does the majority of the healing and can pull hate later into it if they're not being given dirge.
Main rolls: crooked Chaos / SAM.
GEO bubbles varied by mob - see below.
August
Frailty/fury/entrust STR with SV songs up. Without SV songs, swap fury to precision. Last Stand.
Similar TP moves as the Sinister Reign version has, ramped up of course. The same applies to all of the adds and their previous versions.
Null Field is one of his notable TP moves, as it's an AoE 1-3 buff dispel, and is one of several reasons why a melee setup on this encounter is probably not viable.
He also has access to AoE terror and conal amnesia. Most of his AoE moves are 10' radius centered on his target.
Each time an add dies, August uses Daybreak, which visually gives him wings along with a damage boost. Daybreak also begins the countdown for No Quarter. The countdown lasts exactly as long as the previous add was alive. For example, if it takes 4min20sec to kill the Tree add, then once the Tree dies, August uses Daybreak which begins a 4min20sec countdown until No Quarter.
No Quarter is a 15' split damage conal move. Following an add death, to prepare for No Quarter, the tank turns August toward the group while the group moves within 13'-14'. The tank gets as close to August as possible in this position to help ensure that the 10' radius moves (which are centered on the tank) do not hit the rest of the party. You can then just plant in this position until No Quarter goes off. There may be times where damage needs to be stopped if No Quarter hasn't happened before the next add is about to spawn. No Quarter going off while an add is out should be avoided.
Yggdreant (Tree)
If Tree spawns within the first 3 adds, Malaise + Acumen, otherwise Malaise + Focus. With the increasing levels of later adds, we found that there was a tipping point where resists become too much of a problem to not run focus.
Light Threnody. x2 lux + x1 Tenebrae Rayke + Gambit. Storms from the BRD/SCH. Trueflight from the RNG's, Leaden from the COR.
Cannopierce hurts real bad with the tank solo soaking it (along with perhaps a luopan). x3 Flabra Vallation/Valiance.
Constant Timber AoE doom spam (the removeable kind, smile).
Cehuetzi (Lion)
Similar to Tree, if Lion spawns within the first 3 adds, Malaise + Acumen, otherwise Malaise + Focus.
Fire Threnody, x3 Ignis Rayke + Gambit. Firestorm. Hot Shot from the RNGs and COR. Wildfire is an option for the COR if accuracy becomes a problem (i.e., if Lion is a later add and SV songs are not up).
The paralyze aura is quite brutal and depending on RNG, may really debilitate your tank's ability to spike hate on him. Tank can make a judgment call here to use Sforzo if enmity generation isn't going well. Losing hate on Lion, even if only for a moment before a jump gets used, can be run-ending due to his AoE full dispel.
Gabbrath (Dino) / Waktza (Bird)
Similar approach for both of these - Frailty/Fury. Last Stand.
Damage dealt is physical here, so the RNGs should coordinate a Super Jump around 50%, otherwise hate will likely be pulled before these adds die. Try to time the Super Jump right after a TP move as both of these have access to dispels (Static Prison from the Bird and Volcanic Stasis from the Dino).
Dino is particularly threatening to the tank (especially if he spawns later in the add order). We like entrusting an indi-wilt on the tank for Dino.
Rockfin (Shark)
Indi-wilt, Geo-frailty, entrust Barrier. Last Stand.
I haven't said it until now, but other than Shark, Bee, and while waiting for August's No Quarters, you should be fighting everything from 20'+.
Fight Shark inside the donut of Marine Mayhem (so everyone within 5' of him). If you try fighting him outside the donut, you will very likely have wipes to the wombo-combo of Protolithic Puncture (hate reset) on tank, followed by Marine Mayhem on the backline, which he can use at range while he's in transit from the tank to the backline, instantly killing everyone. A big downside of fighting him inside the donut is that everyone is now in range of August's Null Field. Since you're not shooting August during this time, he should only get off 3-4 TP moves while you're killing Shark and you either hope that none of those TP moves are Null Field, or at a minimum hope that neither of your rangers lose a song if a Null Field is used. Another layer of RNG.
Spread out around him within the donut - he's got conal moves. With frequent hate resets, we found the Wilt to be extremely important in preventing deaths. Panacea off debuffs. His autos are AoE and the BRD/SCH has a limited number of AoE heals, so the damage pressure gets a bit real here. Spreading out Valiance, One For All, Liement, and Odyllic are important resources for making it through. An early Shark spawn while Regen/Embrava are still up is dreamy, but he's doable without that.
Bztavian (Bee)
Bolster geo-frailty, indi-wilt, entrust fade. Last Stand.
Bee is THE most difficult of the Naakuals.
With constant hate resets, we found it best to fight him with everyone in melee range except the tank, who should keep August away to limit the chances of a Null Field hitting the group. Spread out around him since he also has conals.
Zombie, weakness, stun, and a potent paralyze on his TP moves make him really dangerous. The tank is not even attempting to hold hate here, so it's the backline eating all of these things. RNGs should save their Super/High Jumps for a bad Zombie. If they get paralyzed or stunned along with Zombie, the run may just be over.
I mentioned that the auras are more potent the higher level the add is (the later it spawns in the RNG order). Where this matters the most is with the Bee. His blink aura very noticeably has higher chances of absorbing hits the higher level he is. Having an early Bee spawn with pre-buffs and a shorter duration aura is extremely desirable.
In general, Double/Triple shot should be saved for every add. The adds dying as quickly as possible is one of the win conditions of the encounter - the regen August has while an add is out is very potent, so more damage output on the adds effectively does double duty. With Bee, these cooldowns, along with Overkill, felt particularly important in helping with the blink effect from the aura.
Teodor
Teodor's dark aura gives him Dread Spikes and provides his auto attacks with an en-doom effect. This doom is seemingly un-removeable. He rotates through several auto attacks, one of which is a 25' ranged attack that is also AoE, and everyone hit by it receives the doom. His aura also applies Avoidance Down to anyone in range, so parrying/blocking in hopes of avoiding the en-doom is off the table.
It's worth mentioning that Teodor could not be slept - we've tried both light (with NiTro) and dark sleeps. It's also quite difficult to even get to Teodor and when you do get to him 45min+ into a pull, you have exactly 30 seconds to test/try things before your tank dies from doom and everyone else dies very quickly thereafter. Hence why the encounter took so long to clear.
But I'm digressing - so yeah, a 25' ranged un-removeable AoE doom. Not really sure if the devs fully thought this one through or how they expected players were going to deal with him, but here is how we navigated it.
The approach involves a zombie/death rotation between the BRD, GEO, and COR. The tank holds August on one side of the arena (the entrance platform), and the BRD/GEO/COR take turns tagging Teodor and dying on the opposite side of the arena. Teodor does not spawn with shared hate on August, which is one detail that makes this possible. Another detail that makes this possible is the fact that you have control over where Teodor will spawn in the arena. He spawns exactly where the 6th Naakual was killed. If he always spawned on August, it would be very difficult/inconsistent for someone in the zombie group to tag him before he hits the tank with his first en-doomed auto attack. For this reason, we kill the 6th add near the Teodor corner in the image below, then drag August to the opposite side before pushing him to 30%.
When the next player up in the zombie cycle dies, Teodor will (somewhat) slowly leash back to the center of the arena (green arrow) as he no longer has anyone on his enmity list. An important note is that while he is leashing back to the center, he will not sight/sound aggro. Upon reaching his reset spot (which is pretty much directly in the center of the arena), he links to August and full sprints toward the tank. With a 3-man zombie rotation, it's possible to perpetually prevent him from crossing that threshold. To facilitate the re-raising, the BRD/GEO/COR loaded up on Scapegoats, items that give reraise and, importantly, are instant-use items that have no animation/spell/ability lockout after using them.
Dropping the BRD/GEO/COR from the party to do this zombie juggling may or may not be necessary, but it does offer extra wiggle room. As mentioned, some of Teodor's auto attacks are AoE, and if the zombie gamers are not in the same party, then they will not hit each other with those AoE's, allowing them all to zombie near each other in the furthest possible corner without worrying about perfect positioning.
Tank heals himself while this is all going on. Continue the zombie rotation for 6.5mins until his aura wears off, then allow him to reset to the center, link to August, and attack the tank. Killing Teodor is straightforward once the aura is off. Frailty/fury, Last Stand. GEO/WHM keeps banish 2/1 on cooldown because he's undead and why not.
To provide a rough DPS benchmark to be aiming for: Teodor needs to spawn with approximately 17mins left on the instance timer to allow for this.
Final Phase
Unlike the other adds, Teodor doesn't give August DT, but once August gets to 1%, he will take 0 damage if Teodor is still alive. Once Teodor dies, August uses Daybreak and restores his HP to 30%. Therefore even though you're able to, it's pointless for the RNGs to damage August while the BRD/GEO/COR zombie juggle Teodor. The RNGs can basically AFK while the juggling is going on.
After he restores to 30%, you're in the final zerg phase. August will keep his wings out for the remainder of the fight. He will use No Quarter at 20% and again at 10%. The end.
Some subjective thoughts/opinions in closing: the difficulty of this encounter is incredibly high as it currently stands. Miles ahead of Crystal Paradise in terms of the damage output required and party survivability. SE has "nerfed" this fight once already with an evasion tweak, but we found that adjustment to be barely noticeable. The solution we had to come up with for dealing with Teodor is obviously quite janky, and is surely not the intended way. It's possible that the adds' auras can be proc'ed, and if a method for that is ever discovered, the difficulty would be eased substantially.
Good luck to those who pursue this!
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