Alexander HTBF

On D/VD, he uses Perfect Defense every 5 skillchains. On Normal or below, it's not nearly as consistent (probably once every 10 SCs). So spamming SCs will just make the fight longer.

You can summon Selteus last in your trust order, and have Alex facing away from him so he can't get TP from meleeing. The only TP he'll get would be from his Regain trait, which he will use only to close a light skillchain (Revelation) or Rejuvenation (if 2+ people are in yellow). If you're not using a WS he can chain off of, the likelihood of him using Revelation is low and he'll just prioritize Rejuvenation when it's rdy.

Skillchains also triggers Void of Repentance on higher difficulties iirc and that's a nasty -acc

Arciela II can land debuffs like Paralyze/Slow/Addle etc, but Alexander does have a mechanic where he can occasionally heal himself for no reason at all. Same with Perfect Defense, he can just randomly use it apparently.

D+ it starts to just get SUUUUPER slugish. If you're solo, you'll probably get more drops/hour just spamming N because D is so slow.

Got my first VD win today with a body and sacro cord drop.

Setup: MNK, CORx2 BRD/GEO/WHM.

MNK is basically the Tank+DD and spams white damage and spams Victory Smite (do not auto-WS, as Monks can solo SC Victory Smite > Victory Smite and we don't want to SC Alex because it will trigger Gospel of Light/Divine Judgment.

COR/NINs x2: (Chaos/Rogue/Fights/Sam) Spam Savage Blade, use shadows, keep position with Monk, either behind or slightly to the side, as angle of attack matters and will determine if you can damage Alexander or not.

BRD: Casts HM/Victory/Minx2 when it's safe to DD, but when Alex does his 75/50/30/10 TP move that dispels everyone and resets MP to 0 (except food), you'll want to cast Ballad2/3 on Bard/Mages and Paeon5/6 on everyone for about 1-2 minutes until DPS and a fraction of your previous buffs can resume. (CORs put up 1 roll on each during this time, until back to normal).

GEO: Indi-Refresh, Geo-Barrier, Entrust-Fury on Monk

WHM: Poor WHM. Cures, Stonas, Bar Aero/Silence to keep the mages (grouped together, away from Alex) free from petrify/silence

This run took 26 minutes, but should have taken 8-10 minutes less, I had trouble finding the right angle to damage him at 30% and 15% (the angle which he takes damage, gets much smaller over time on VD, as compared to other difficulties); However, I had no trouble getting him to 30-40% in ~10-11 minutes without triggering any of his nonsense. Be wary of Alex's solo Light SCs on your tank/DD (Monk in my case which hit red HP a few times). Slow fight, but this setup is super safe if everyone is paying attention.

Just FYI, I chose this setup because I didn't know what WSes would not create a skillchain, and as luck would have it Savage Blade and Victory Smite do not connect. You can use this exact setup on D and win in ~7-8 minutes, just stay on top of the angle of attack.

I'd love to hear what other folks are trying and what WS combinations you're using to avoid skill chains.

I'd run godhands and use raging fists. It still won't SC with savage blade, and it doesn't sc with itself either. Don't really lose that much damage.

Is that only on VD if you SC? On normal I spam victory with multiple SCs and never have him gospel.

Skillchains don't trigger Divine Judgment. Those happen at random intervals and seem to be responses to the amount of damage you do over a period of time (Or lack there of). Gospels happen every third Divine Judgment. That is what BG states but I have seen it trigger Gospel even on the first Judgment so I always have my team members to be ready for Gospels / Judgment and make the healers / support with mp pools to run out every 5% or so. The lack of skillchains prevent Perfect Defense (on any difficulty) and that's it and the faster you damage Alex and time your Weaponskills with others the more you are rewarded in "less" Divine Judgment / Gospels.

I've gone 0/50 on body drop on VD w/ TH8+; random is random.

Yeah, I thought about this, but I was torn between VS spam (every 6-7 seconds to avoid skillchaining) but with Verethragna, this helps me keep AM3 up almost constantly. I chose to favor keeping AM3 up/white damage on my monk, with plenty of spaced-out victory smites.

Curious better to spam TH12+ on VE or spam E with TH4?

Most likely the second one, but it will also depend on kill speed. Being able to blast through 7 VEs with TH12+ in a row in 5 minutes a pop will probably outdo 15 minute E runs with TH4.

These are totally hypothetical numbers.

Well if we presume with the new TH numbers that VE = ultra rare and one column up per difficulty you would be looking at.

VE 1.15% TH 12
E 1.40% TH4

Not alot in it so factor in the time it takes to proc TH12 over the strait kill on E. You may even find TH9 on VE to be quickest. Obviously you need to take into consideration the time it takes to fill the bag of merits too.

for the non selbina ones id agree its not ultra rare but ive yet to see a single item among VE E N among an exceptional amount of runs its at least super rare at most.

TH9 on normal definitely has a high drop rate. That’s probably what he’s doing to sell.

MNK destroys normal.

Why mnk? He take more damage from blunt?

Low TP Feed, high white damage.

I'm seeing some inconsistencies in this thread with my experience on Normal. I just got hit with Gospel of the Lost after TH proc no other debuffs landed. This was literally 10 seconds into engaging lol. Does TH count as a debuff? Only actions on Alex besides auto attacks were Raging Fists, Evisceration, and TH proc. No trusts.

I also am getting spammed with Divine Judgement on Normal with only indi-regen and Haste 1 as outside buffs. No self buffs. Based on Buuki I should not be getting hit at all from DJ. But in my last 4 fights I was hit 4-5 times a fight with no only regen and haste1. Sometimes not even Pro/Shell as I got tired of reapplying.

Also on my last attempt I got hit by Divine then he spammed GotL > Perfect Defense literally back to back no delay. Since he isn't supposed to us PD unless skillchained and I'm only using RF > Evisc i should not be skillchaining at all so it has to be from 3 GotL which I have no friggin clue how he is using it with no one debuffing. Again, unless TH is a debuff or a counter is considered a debuff? I am lost.

Update: Just got hit with Divine Judgement without ANY buffs on. The only thing DJ dispelled from me was Cureskin. He immedietly followed with GotL. This time only the MNK was engaged so the only thing that I could even remotely consider a possible "debuff" is counter. Unfortunately, I don't think Buuki's prediction is correct with DJ. I also don't think it is time intervals as Buuki never received DJ and I got hit with it 5 seconds into the fight at one point.

Also, I do have Indi-REfresh on my WHM since I am getting spammed with DJ but they aren't engaged and sit about 15-20 away from Alex. It could still affect it though, not sure. I will try to not use indi-refresh and only ballads. If I still get DJ then I'm at a loss.

Not sure what weapons you're using, but keep that in mind too. I was using Apoc for a few of them and finally realized it was the Added Effect: Blind that was causing it, so I switched back to Caladbolg and it was fine.