M4S Guide - AAC Light-Heavyweight M4 Savage (Wicked Thunder)

This is a guide to the fight Arcadion M4S (Wicked Thunder) in the game Final Fantasy XIV. This guide sticks as closely as possible to the Shababin pastebin commonly used in NA PF. At the time of upload, the strats featured should be virtually identical.

00:00 Introduction
01:22 Bewitching Flight
03:05 Widening/Narrowing Witch Hunt
05:14 Electrope Edge 1
06:58 Electrope Edge 2
10:18 Ion Cluster
13:12 Intermission
14:30 Phase 2
17:58 Twilight Sabbath
18:44 Midnight Sabbath
20:21 Chain Lightning
22:35 Sunrise Sabbath
24:51 Uptime Sunrise (AutoCad)
25:28 Sword Quiver
26:15 Special Thanks! (+ Cat)

[HectorHectorson]

Reuploaded due to a small position mixup during intermission in the original version.

TL;DW
It's Shabin. If you raid in NA PF, this should match almost perfectly with what you've been doing. If you raid in EU PF, there are a handful of differences in spread/pair positions that you can probably spot from watching the first minute.

This tier's guides has taken a huge amount of effort, but I hope they have made savage a little more approachable, especially for 1st time raiders.

[QuailCompostie]

Since this has been reuploaded, I'll re-post my comment I left regarding an easier way to read Exas.
EASIER WAY TO READ EXAFLARES -
You don't need to read TWO arrows, only ever ONE. Once you get to your safe spot with your light party on either the left or right of the arena, simply look across the arena to the other side, and find the Exaflare on the edge that is facing OUT of the arena. THIS IS YOUR SAFE LANE.

For an example, if I am LP2, on the right side of the arena, all I need to do is look to the left side of the arena, find the ONE arrow that is pointing out from the arena on the edge, and that will be my safe lane. In Hector's example, this would be lane 3. There is absolutely NO NEED to match two arrows. The single arrow on the opposite edge will ALWAYS correspond to the same direction on your side. After the initial explosions hit, simply move into this safe lane, and you can chill for the rest of the mechanic. Hope this helps!

[crimson_shadow]

Got all the clears on M1-M4S. Definitely appreciate your guides, they helped out so much.

[Yuki_]

I cleared M1S to M4S thanks to your guides. Thanks a lot for the hard work.

[mikeb]

i love you hector you've helped me out with multiple tiers now at this point so i just want to be vocal and tell you i appreciate the effort and i hope you continue to keep making strategy videos in the future man thank you

[BlindArtificer]

Hello Hector. I am the person who originally created the AutoCAD part of the AutoCAD uptime Sunrise strat. I only mention this because I think it is important to mention that the safe spots are on the *dead middle of the edge of the waymark*, and the maximum amount of safety requires you aiming for this specific spot on the marker. You did naturally put the placement of the player icons in this spot (which aligns with the raid plan). However the phrasing "on the edge" of the waymark is not specific enough. This is due to the angle you make with the baited cannon is the most important factor when considering "safety" margins with this strat. Standing too close to either edge messes with this angle and will cause you to hit another player.

Due to the popularity of this strategy I see in PF now, I thought it was necessary to get this information out there.

The point of creating this strat and modelling it in AutoCAD was to give an absolute point of reference to stand in to be safe, while maximizing the amount of "wiggle room". Unfortunately this means that, due to geometry, only the center of the waymark on the outer edge is safe. There is no way to place the markers such that the corner of the waymarks safe. I don't feel that this necessarily warrants a major change to the guide, just wanted to put the information out there, to hopefully prevent frustrations with the strat.

For reference, there is an image now included in the AutoCAD raidplan description that shows the AutoCAD-guaranteed safe spots on the marker. The shapes are odd due to the nature of how the cannons are baited being highly dependent on the angle made between you and the center of the cannon.

If anyone here doesn't want to find that image in the description above, here is the safe spots for the 1 waymark as depicted by my amazing text-art skills. X marks the safe spots.
---- ---- X ----
| |
| |
X 1 waymark |
| |
| |
---- ---- ----

[ThyDoctoh]

Hey bro. Just wanted to say thank you for making these. Seeing where I should be placed and then actually doing it is the exact way I learn. You got me through m1s-m3s in less then two weeks and now I'm here proging m4s. So thank you mate, appreciate the work you put in.

[Avioen]

Used a combination of this guide, a few sims, some tank pov's, and mitigation sheets to help get my clears for this tier, thank you for all your work on these

[lucasmoore]

About to start this one! Hector, your guides have been an immense help for M1S through M3S. This has been my real initial plunge into any of the savage tiers. Having a calm, no-nonsense approach has been a boon. Keep up the great work!

[arbrawlchamp]

First full on-content Savage tier clear thanks to you. You're the best and thank you for all you do for the raiding community.

[phireblast]

i like how electrope edge works somewhat similar to mouser

they really are sisters

[JPXtorsion]

Thanks for another tier Hector! Always appreciate your guides and was seriously going into m4 today. Was looking at shabin but this video to help visualize will help a ton!

[alicemashiba]

thank you for this. this is so much clearer than any other guide I have watched. a very clear "this happens, do this" :3

[SLEEPYDOGINU]

I guess shababin got mass reported "This paste has been deemed potentially harmful. Pastebin took the necessary steps to prevent access on August 30, 2024, 10:54 am CDT. If you feel this is an incorrect assessment, please contact us within 14 days to avoid any permanent loss of content."

[allireni]

Studying your video now. Been able to clear 1-3 with your videos, hoping I can get this fight under my belt

[richiemahon]

Dude thank you SO MUCH for these guides theyre awesome and have really been helping me and my friends get through the tier, 3 weeks down 3 bosses down and starting this fight this week. So thank you again a million times over.

[Scylaxius]

Your video already shows it, but the best way I think to solve witch hunt while thinking the least is, if the baits are far and it’s an out, and near and in (so they match, far/out and near/in) then you’re always baiting away from marker and avoiding baits on markers, and if the baits/aoes are opposite (near/out and far/in) you’re baiting on your markers and avoiding baits away from markers.

You kinda went over it already but figured this might clear some stuff up so people can think a little less.

Match = baits away from marker
Opposite= baits on marker

[gabiu]

Thanks to your guide I was able to clear the fight! Also congrats on the interview to the community team of FFXIV. I’m glad you’re getting the recognition for your hard work. Keep doing great ❤️

[Hoolagun]

First time commenter. Just showing appreciation for how much the guides have helped and enabled players all around the world who dont have statics to troubleshoot.

I cant imagine the time it took to get all of this into such easily digestable content.

Thank you

[Bearpigman]

An easy way to do witch hunt this way which helped me a lot: completely ignore the near/far and only focus on the point blank/donut. If you're support: just go to your baiting spot for your first two regardless on if it's near/far, and then go to your dodging positions for the last two. Dps do the opposite: dodging positions for the first two baiting positions for the last two. With this it doesn't matter whether ranged or melee get picked everyone should still be dodging it safely, provided the ranged baiters take an extra step out and the tanks go center of the waymarks on an out