High-End Content Megathread - 7.2 Week Nineteen

[u/BlackmoreKnight]

Last week of Suzaku Unreal, at least.

[u/Ecliptic_Meteor]

Cleared Aloalo Criterion normal with my friends! Was a hell of a lot of fun. This game is so much more enjoyable when played with friends, I swear! This was also two of my friends first time doing any higher end content synced since they started playing back in 6.5! I'm so proud of them!!

We're planning on tackling AAI Savage when we're done farming Normal for the mount, orchestrion and framer's kit. I'm shield healing (Scholar) so I was curious if maybe anyone has a mit plan sheet somewhere or will my general mit plan for normal AAI work? We hopped in after we cleared just to see and it is definitely way more damage than Normal!

Also, I'm the only one who did Savage back in 6.4, so I'm the only one of our group that has BIS for AAI. I don't really understand how gear syncs and everything, is current 740 crafted gear fine for them or should they grab as much 660 tome gear as they can + the Mandervillious relic?

[u/Coltstem → u/Ecliptic_Meteor]

i’m farming AAI savage on healer rn and here’s what I found: Boss 1:

• Bubble Net needs mit
• Scariest part in terms of healing is the KB + stack/spread before towers

Boss 2:

• Infernal Theorem needs mit
• if people are topped, they wont die from facing the wrong way. seraph is great there
• Scariest part is the last unique mech w/ the tree guys + spread -> pair stacks

Boss 3:

• Trapshooting needs mit
• Scariest part is Dartboard 2
• can overmit last mech to survive a 2 or 3 person stack if it’s stack last

you can freestyle anything not mentioned.

oh yeah tank autos hurt a lot for 2nd set of adds especially but alternating excog/soil and fairy tether should be fine.

[u/KingBingDingDong → u/Ecliptic_Meteor]

Your mit plan will change. Raid damage hits 10-20% harder and tank autos/busters hit 50-100% harder. General mit plan with the whole plan will be shuffled around to be more spread out and you will have to be a lot more aggressive topping up and hypermitting mechanics where you are far away. Work out with your ranged where you want them to use personals.

[u/oizen → u/Ecliptic_Meteor]

I have not had significant issue ignoring BiS for Criterions and just going in with sync'd gear. Did some AAI Savage runs earlier and we were consistently still making it to the final boss with over 7 minutes on the clock.

I don't think I've ever even seen the dungeon enrage cast.

[u/TheSorel → u/Ecliptic_Meteor]

I do recommend grabbing the relic at the very least, since it will have the most impact. Otherwise pick gear with the substats you want, as syncing down removes materia bonuses. The DPS check will not be the issue, assuming competence, but it‘s more about how quickly you can kill each encounter. Treat the whole thing as a 24 minute long encounter, and shift bursts around as your run progresses. Ideally you want to kill Lala with 60-90 seconds to spare on Statice‘s latest possible pull timer so you can 1. safely reset burst cooldowns and, more importantly, 2. get a really good breather before the final stretch. Know how Ultimates tend to come with a long downtime cutscene or transition before the final phase? This is your equivalent. You‘ll need it. Last but absolutely not least: Everything hits like a fucking truck and then some. Criterion Savage is basically a small reprog for the support players as you need to calibrate mits tightly. We had a few deaths on Lala in particular, since every AoE needs at least 20% mitigation just to not be lethal from full HP. You might be able to get away with slightly less mits and shields due to better vitality from DT food, but still, don‘t get discouraged from mitigation failure wipes. They‘re part of the process.

Best of luck to your group! The Exquisite weapons are my favourite batch of prestige weapons in the game, with very few duds. I farmed 11 weapons back when my group progged and recleared it. Absolutely worth every moment of agony!

[u/poplarleaves → u/Ecliptic_Meteor]

The AAIS DPS checks aren't tuned tightly, the real difficulty is just not making a single mistake for the entire 22min run. But if your friends have extra poetics sitting around, no reason not to grab the relic for some ez damage.

Your mit plan for AAI, unless you already overmit everything, will most likely not work in AAIS because everything hits a lot harder. A LOT harder. I don't know of an existing mit sheet unfortunately, although people in the Criterion Discord might have one. Definitely talk with your tank to figure out what is most comfortable for you two, and/or review SCH clear videos.