DPM Compilation

Something I had been meaning to do for a while was to test the DPM an Archmage could output in 6-man HT without using their ultimate ability. Essentially functioning as a normal attacker. So we resorted to recruitment channel on Discord hoping someone wouldn't mind giving this a try.


xBowtjuhNL Was kind enough to take me in as he always does when I look for a run somewhere, I swear this guy is hosting like 30 HT runs a week.

Both runs I would dual attack for pre-heads, just like Ramon in an attempt to speed up the run a bit. But ultimately it of course was the powerhouse class that I/L Archmage is that would steal the show...
(This definitely had nothing to do with the amount of weapon cancels!!!! )


The runs itself were a little bit challenging for me as I am not well versed in HT at all, I don't really know any timers, animations or attacks but I did my best to stay on the heads as much as I could and hoping it wasn't magic canceled. This was unironically hard to see at times.

Overall the run went fairly smooth and my I/L performed a bit better than I had expected and also figured out a couple niche tactics such as being able to CL the left head when it ducks as long as you are standing on a certain distance from the head. There actually seems to be room for lots of small optimization, sadly I don't see myself running this often to fully explore it.

HT Main Body DPM 45 (Echo, MW30, SE, Cream Shortcake)



Honestly not tooooo bad huh for an Archmage that isn't using ultimates and therefore not jeopardizing the run with potential early mass sed. With the way CL is coded it makes it impossible for the skill to bounce between HT body parts because it will always go from the bottom center mass and can't reach any bodyparts. The only "Cleave" that is possible is when tail is still up and you are able to hit this while attacking legs or attacking from left/mid head. It will also occasionally bounce to Wyverns if they hover around there which will slightly inflate the DPM depending on your bishop.

Spoiler: Run #1 Bonus pics

Apart from 2nd pre-head we did white some other parts too, I know this isn't too meaningful in terms of performance but it's fun to include for me.

Tail white by cleaving it from the start


Wings whited, this is mainly because it is kind of impossible to attack mid head when right head is canceled for me.


And ultimately, left head!


And last but not least, the drops of which the splits I had forfeited.


Pretty decent haul for them!

Now that we've had some minor practice in we went into run two with full confidence, surely we'd easily break 8m dpm now right??

Well not exactly but we did improve a lot, DPM wise only a small improvement but positioning was a lot better this run and I managed to stay on heads much better on either side and use Knockbacks combined with Teleport to my advantage. I do actually believe that 7m is very much within reach for me if I were to continue practicing this.

HT Main Body DPM 50 (Echo, MW30, SE, HTB, Cream Shortcake)

Spoiler: Run #2 bonus pics

Right head


Left head


Wings



DROPS



I didn't actually white tail this run with the same cleaving tactic so it must have been close the run before.

While this was mostly meant as an experiment and to find out what the potential is for an Archmage in HT that doesn't resort to ulting I did also have a lot of fun running as I/L in this boss. It was an interesting challenge and requires a lot of positioning. I reckon that if you find the right mix between ulting and single target attacks you could actually be a decent addition to some squads without harming the run.

Bonus fun run:
A little while back we did do a fun HT project which used a ton of smoke mules and the purpose was to ultimate throughout the entire run, without specific character set-up this isn't feasible to do but it was definitely enjoyable to see it in practice.

Thanks to beegoratto for taking it upon himself to host that run and everyone who joined given the set up required.

 

What are you keeping your AP for lol