Brayflox's Longstep - Final Boss GuideFollow

Greetings if you're reading this, you like many before you and many after you who are kissing the ground in salvation must be on the stumbling block of Brayflox's Longstep. The real challenge comes at the END of the dungeon where you are pitted against a boss that has the ability to wipe your entire party within a matter of literal seconds.This is a full party guide. I made this guide for the people who are about to punch their computer screens, or throw their controller's across the room in sheer frustration. I know how you feel I've been there. It took me a total of 8 tries in 2 instances (4 Wipes each instance) to final nail the trick killing this boss. Mind you I was a healer. So my perspective will differ from yours but I'll be covering the roles of ALL the classes. So let's get started.

The Boss
Aiatar is his name, and spitting poison is his game. He is probably going to be your biggest challenge yet. He is your tanks worse nightmare. He is the dragon you see crash down before you during your fight with the Eft BEFORE him.

Aitar's Attacks
Aiatar has a wide variety of attack which can seriously cripple your party in a matter of seconds if not carefully avoided or have the heat taken out of them by your tank. Also please note all of his attacks are poisonous and cannot be cured with Antidote.

Here's a solid run down of his moves.

Melee - He will use his mouth and claws as a base attack like any other dragon you've seen. However it is more noted that his claw attack generates poison stacks. Going further into detail his attack speed is fast and he does hit VERY hard if your tank isn't geared. But even if they are geared they still need to be very careful when going toe to toe with Aiatar, one wrong move could cost your tank his or her life which will put stress on the rest of the party. His claw attacks as stated before generate poison stacks. What these stacks do is increase the damage received by 20% and can stack up to 4 times before resetting. Which means your tank will be taking a whopping 80% more damage. This is very bad for the healer as it puts more pressure on healing the tank. But moving on.

Ranged - This is Aiatar's bread and butter, his range is what makes him deadly he has range in two forms. One which is the deadliest to any member of your party is his signature weapon skill. Poison Breath it has a straight forward hit box but the cast speed on it is around the 1.0 to 1.5 margin for speed. This attack also increases your poison stack by +1 so if you're at 1 stack you will be at 2 and thus take 20% more damage now on top of the already accumulated 20% from the first time. Also this attack along with any other of Aiatar's poison moves RESETS your poison timer and can linger for a maximum of 42 seconds. This means you will need to wait it out and not get hit or else you will be reset again. His next move is a ranged Poison Blast which will not only damage you but creates a very large AoE pool on the ground. The cast timer on this move is instant and you get no indicator of when it will actually come. He will also spit the blast randomly at one of your party members, keep this in mind of who is at risk at the given moment. Another down side is that this move also will reset the timer for poison and will add another stack.

Area of Effect - Aiatar as mentioned in ranged has a AoE move, which you already know about, it also fits into this category as well. But more notably he has a Body Slam that will push people away from him, this move however does NOT poison you, it is simply made for a knockback. But what is dangerous about it is he can push you into an already sitting poison pool on the ground and thus reset your timer. This move is hard to avoid, but do keep an eye out for it.

Class Roles
When I went to fight Aiatar I rolled with two DPS classes. A Black Mage and a Summoner. These two worked well, but there are other combinations out there that work. However I will be explaining how we won with our DPS and what you can do.

DPS - Your main concern for this fight will be keeping as far away from Aitar (If ranged) or if you're close (Dragoon/Monk) will be keeping the heat on him at all times. You also need to keep a eye out for the poison. If you slip up you'll die in a matter of seconds and your party will be wiped quicker than you can blink. Monk/Dragoons - Pummel him to pieces, using Courel Form works as well as Opo for Monks, for Dragoons you're going to want to try to slowly proc slows on him with Feint. BUT BE CAREFUL not to pull aggro from your tank or else there will be a party wipe and your deaths will be swift. For caster DPS classes, throw your debuffs on him, Bio, Bio 2, Miasma etc and keep them stacked, every bit of damage counts in this fight because it will be a long one. If you're a Summoner I suggest you off-heal just in case the tank is struggling and your main healer is fighting off their own poisons. Ranged DPS I am not sure about, the only thing I could say is if you're a Bard, try to keep the boss pinned down with your binding shot. The less movement this boss has the better.I also have some extra advice for Black Mages.

Black Mage Your biggest ability is field control. Use it. If you see your tank is having trouble cast Blizzard II for a quick Bind and allow them to get out of there. It may be small, but it will help. Also I haven't tested this myself, but you could always try to Sleep him. Albeit him being a boss so you might end up whiffing on the Sleep altogether.

Tank - You're going to need to put your pride aside as the best tank in Guild Wars, World of Warcraft or even Final Fantasy 11. FF XIV will test you guys on this fight and this fight will make or break you as a tank. Your main concern will be the poison. This is your achilles heel in this fight, you MUST try to avoid all forms of poison damage from Aiatar or you will be at risk for a OHKO (1 Hit KO), I've seen it happen to my tank. If you take a full 4 stacks of poison and then get hit by his poison breath you will either A) Die or B) Be nearly dead. (50 to 150 HP left.) Your strategy?

Paladin You have 2 options. You can either kite him around in a half circle, a full circle is not such a good idea because if Aiatar lines you up with your party members you can risk a full party wipe in seconds. You'll need to half moon kite him and make sure to keep his tail facing your party members. Please remember to always keep moving a moving target is harder to hit than a stationary one. I also don't need to tell you to keep your buffs up, because you wouldn't be a Paladin without them. Your second option for this fight is to BE stationary BUT you will be relying on your Shield Bash to knock Aiatar out of his Weaponskill. This is a 50/50 shot and you'll need to be on point with this or else you will die in one shot. No matter how much HP you have. 80% Increased Damage along with the DoT will wipe you out. Period.

Warriors I unfortunately don't have any data to give you guys. If someone would like to post on how a Warrior should do this fight feel free. But I'm guessing it would be the same principle.

Healer - You are the lifeblood of the Tank, you MUST stay on top of your heals this fight or you will die quicker than an ant under a magnifying glass. To begin with, always keep Protect up. Both White Mage an Scholar can use it. So do it. However I rolled Scholar so I'll be going over their tactics. I also played a White Mage in FF XI so I can some what wrap my head around what to do with them.

Scholar - Eos is your friend, keep her near your tank or mid-way between you and your tank. ALWAYS keep up your Cures. You have 2 heals, use them both and if you're 34+ keep up Eye for an Eye and stack it with Adloquium. But do not spam Adlo, because it will eat your MP faster than Cookie Monster can eat cookies. At 100 MP a cast, you will be out of MP before the fight even truly begins. Only use that spell if the tank is in a bind and needs healing. It will give you a brief 1-2 second window to slip a powerful heal in. You also better bring Ether's with you, don't rely on Aetherflow to bail you out of low MP. Yes Aetherflow is helpful but unless your using Energy Drain with it, then you won't have much time. You'll be focused on keeping your tank alive along with Eos. Cast Sustain on EoS and keep her alive, she is there to help you. As for taking damage, you're better off either doing one of the following.

A. Let EoS heal you.
B. Hotbar/Macro EoS's heals and set her to Obey and pop heals when you need to use them on yourself off EoS. For myself, I let her do her own thing and came out fine. This is why I am writing this guide! xD

White Mage - Your a healing catalyst by yourself without the use of a fairy. Your strategy is the same, except you have it easier. Unlike Scholar, you have Esuna. Which can remove the Poison, Scholar gets their "Esuna" at level 40. But provided you took Conjurer to 30....or else why would you be a White Mage? Moving on, your role is the same as Scholar, keep your heals up. You have an AoE heal Medica which is useful, use it! Also if you're 34+ use Stoneskin on the tank, you will save his life more than once.

Now another thing I didn't mention before was about Aiatar's Poison Pools, when he uses his poison AoE's they will generate large pools. You already know the problem with them is to stay out of them, but the real issue is the fact that if Aiatar goes into his own poison pools he will start to regenerate lost health This is also where an Arcanist is handy, you will need to keep Miasma stacked on him in order to blunt those heals! As for your tank, pull him out of those healing pools but keep vigilant of your own surroundings, you may pull him out of one pool but might end up being boxed into a corner and wiped by his breathe.

I hope this guide helps all of you in getting over this boss battle. If anyone has stuff to add, feel free to add it. If any of my info was off, please correct me. I'm still learning this game since I'm from FF XI so I might not know all of the perks you 1.0 Legacy players might. :P Good Luck! Also....you end up getting a piece of cheese after all this.

Wrong thread maybe? XD

I tanked this on WAR today. It's pretty straight forward, with a few little things to remember.

1: His poison is regen for him, so you have to be sure to pull him away from it. It helps if your DD all stay along the walls for this fight.

2: when tanking him, stand right at his chest. His red box is quick, and it's fastest to get out by running through him.

as long as you keep hate, and the DD's keep the poison to the outside, it's pretty easy to keep him from wiping the party.

Also, please don't try to main heal this as an ACN.

The boss is not hard really, only if your tank does not know what to do only makes it hard. I have tanked him severl times, just keep him out of his poison pools, and don't stand still so his moves do not hit you. His poison bomb will take 700if not more hp off the tank, then leads to cure bombing then leads to wipe.

Edited, Sep 7th 2013 8:51pm by wolfjorg

I don't mean to sound elitist or anything but tanking this guy isn't that difficult. I've done this fight probably 10-15 times now (mainly because I enjoy it, but I also know a lot of people are stuck on it). For reference, I've been doing this on GLA/PLD.

I start off with the standard shield toss and flash to get his hate. Throw in a provoke for good measure. Then run up to the wall directly behind him. You want him facing you with your back to the wall.

From here, it's standard tanking fare. The main thing you need to watch out for is his line attack. Don't bother trying to stun it - just dodge it and get out of the way. It's quick and safer to do than relying on the cooldown.

When the dragon starts spitting acid, you sort of have to play it by ear. I typically try to move him along the wall in a clockwise fashion. By the end of the fight though, you may have to run across the entire room depending on where he's spit acid. Bottom line is this: Keep his attention and keep him out of the acid. That's the number one goal and it's the only thing you should worry about.

Hope this helps!

Edited, Sep 8th 2013 3:34am by Zicash