Alexander HTBF

I know entrusted indi stayed through full dispel, I'm not sure if normal indi did. Bubbles we did on VD were indi precision, geo fury, and entrust refresh.

The Indi stays through the full Dispel. We've been doing a bunch on both D and VD so I can verify that.

We ended up stacking the melee on top of each other around 5.2 yalms from Alex, the GEO 6.2 from the melee and the WHM 20 from the GEO. This keeps the melee within Indi range from the GEO and the WHM safe from AoE by targeting Curaga/-na (Yagrush) spells on the GEO.

Abuse Entrust and Random Deal. Indi Precision on the RUN, Indi Fury on a DD and Indi STR bubble on the GEO got us a lot quicker wins. The entrust spells wore off for me with less than 10% HP left on Alex. Another party-boosting Geo bubble can be cast on the group, but it dies every time with the Dispel/MP 0 move, regardless of Deaterialize/Bolster HP/Bagua Charm +2.

As COR, I was only able to keep up Chaos Roll before we got hit with another dispel - trying to get up a second roll generally resulted in losing both of them to dispel and then having to wait on Phantom Roll timer.

Some of these moves seem timed? We always saw full dispel move around 75%, 50%, 30% and 15% every time. He always seemed to cure himself exactly around 10%, bumping back up to 20%.

Neck seems to be the most common drop - six total in our six VD runs (two of them double drops). One shield, one mantle, one rope, no body. GL all!

We have four shields and five bodies but zero necks! D:

Does Stun trigger Gospel of The Lost? One would think that it wouldn't because it's gone by the time Alexander can act again, but depending on how it's programmed that might not matter.

This is the probably one of the most annoying fights in the game if you're a WHM. Godspeed

Fixed

I was in front on one "leg" and our RUN was on the other "leg" or whatever you want to call it, the conal for the petrification was narrow and I was able to still do dmg and not get hit with the petrifcation

Void of Repetance is used after every skillchain performed.
Perfect Defense is used after every five skillchains performed.
Doesn't counterattack if he's busy doing something else or if SC is made by avatars/pets.

So, I'm about 1/50 on seeing the body from Alexander, about evenly split on D vs VD. Am I just unlucky, or does it have an intentionally low drop rate ala Gyve Doublet?

Have been spamming this on Monk/Normal for body a few dozen times and Alex has interesting logic.

You CAN tp this on the sides with no damage reduction and you will miss Divine Spear aoe which is conal. The only place he flat out blocks damage is directly behind it. This radius doesn't shrink as fight goes on, so it's safe for the entire fight. At some point though, you will pull hate from AAEV if you use her.

There is a comment stating that Chi Blast is safe to use, but this is incorrect. Have used Chi Blast (Penance merits) 5 times in different fights, just to test, and he will always respond with Gospel of the Lost (at least on Normal). Might be different on E/VE. However, I did accidentally use Shijin Spiral twice, and he didn't use Gospel/PD. Plague may have missed though.

Alex's full Dispel move (Divine Judgement) is not random, but appears to be based on how many buffs/which buffs you have active. I have never seen him use it in 30+ Normal fights with just a few simple buffs (focus/dodge/protect/trust songs). He uses it more if I have all of my buffs active (Impetus/Focus/Berserk/Mantra/Aggressor/songs/rolls) and im going for straight zerg mode. If I add Hundred Fists to this mix, he will 100% counter immediately with Divine Judgement.

He will sometimes respond to Hundred Fists by using Perfect Defense, under certain conditions (if there are only a few buffs to dispel). I have never gotten the full 1 minute duration from HF without him using either Divine Judgement or Perfect Defense. If I had to guess, his chances of using either increases the stronger/more buffs (attack) you have. I have only ever noticed him use dispel move 1-2 times per fight, always with the above conditions. This might explain why in VD runs, he uses dispel several times, seemingly back to back, as he's responding to the party's buffs/attack shooting right up. I wonder if you skip the COR/BRD and bring GEOs for buff-Indi if you could potentially stop him from using it completely.

I have only been doing VE/E because my gear is still garbo overall, but i can say he basically wont do anything so long as I do not hit him with enfeebs. Its a boring fight but i can just stand in front of him all day till he dies, even using whm/rdm/brd/brd/cor trusts, which gives me about 20 buffs at some point including my own.

I spammed on MNK as well. Just skip the tank on Normal, he won't kill you. Bring some Panacea to dispel multiple buffs.

To answer the question about body drop rate, have seen 3 bodies in 20 Normal runs so the droprate isn't awful.

Lucky duck. I'm over 40~ solo normals (I'm not mad, easy rema stones). Hoping for it before the update tonight

Edit: missed the part about perfect defense being used after 5sc. That explains why he always uses it during my hf, since I'm spamming smite.

I was about 120+ V/VD for Shield.

Thats the only drop I haven't seen.

I've seen more shields than bodies.

From soloing Alexander D I can say that he definitely does counterattack with Void/PD against pets making Skillchains. At least when it comes to Automatons.

Also, if Alexander is more likely to use Divine Judgment to punish heavy buffs, maybe the trick is to fight him basically buffless in order to avoid the MP wipe? Might be the reason why SE said this fight would be slightly different from what we're used to and it would explain why Alex's damage is so low (aside from being a "defensive" Avatar).

Shield/gorget from Normal. Have gotten everything except body.
I'm in agreement with Aerix's comment as far as fighting him with less buffs. It seems out the norm for our current meta, but probably overall faster if you fight him like onych and limit skillchains (high DPS jobs, resolution/Savage spam?).

Thats why I swapped from DRK to MNK for this fight. Less TP feed, excellent hybrid options and holding TP barely effects DPS. I just AM3 then hold TP to 1800ish.

What gear/attachment setup do you recommend for this on Pup? Is it the same as the lilith or the caitsith setup? Thanks

Did a weeks run and got all the gear.

Started on BLU Normal but got tired of waiting for 25 mins kills with no drops, TH4.

Switched to THF Very Easy with 3/5 Malig (TH Gloves and Boots) +D Ring DT. Was annoyed at Warp Ring cooldown due to less than 10 mins kills. Switched to Easy to up the drop rate and lengthen the fight to more than 10 mins.

More than a few fights ended with TH14 but didn’t do many tricks, just TA Rudra at start and then spam Evisceration and use Feint when up. Selh’teus is pretty important for mp restoration to the mages.

First piece didn’t drop until 4th day, then was getting 1-2 pieces per day. Final piece dropped on 7th day. Was doing 14-21 fights a day while CPing on low job points jobs, using 1 full capacity ring before warp.

Thanks for updating. Most people let these threads die or assume no one still needs updated info so I appreciate it.

i'm almost sure at this point the more people in party = more chances to see drops, i didnt notice this on odin cause nobody i know was doing low difficulty solo but alex and lilith drops are way easier to see when full pt vs 1 guy.

Agree, i want to try duoing E Alex now.

I did ~400 Lilith. First 100+ were solo E and I got 4/5 Malignance and everything else beside feet. Next 300 was 4boxed and I got 4/5 on 2 chars and 3/5 on 4th char. Got everything else on all chars too. First feet I got after ~400 runs total (350 E and 50 VE total including first 100E solo). I never noticed better drop rate with 4 chars vs 1 char.

The Drop Rate difference between VE and VD is massive for stuff like Odin.
I think there's also a a pretty big step between D TH3 and VD TH8+.
I've done over 30 D Odin runs with TH3 and saw a single item drop.
Done some VD TH8+ Odin runs and all had at least 1 drop, many had double drop.

The same thing seem to apply to Caith Sith BC. I have a smaller sample, but it seems to confirm that model/drop rate.


Lilith BC seems to have a somewhat slightly higher drop rate on VE and E compared to Odin, Alexander and Caith Sith.
But I can't comment on the D and VD as I've never beaten Lilith on those difficulties.
I've seen multiple N runs (with Spitewarden!) drop zero items even with TH8+ though.


Edit:
Alexander is the only one where I've seen a Double Drop with TH4 on a difficulty that's not VD.
It was either N or D, I can't remember, I was with LS friends.
Happened only once, I was surprised because I thought double drop was VD exclusive.

Safe to SC at Easy?

I had no issues spamming lights on N with trusts.