M1S - Black Cat In-Depth Guide

Quadruple Crossing

Same Bait Strategy

Bait all proteans on intercardinals – DPS first, supports second.

Partner stacks on cardinals in their safe spots – light party stacks on East/West.

  • Supports rotate counterclockwise to where the DPS took their protean.
  • DPS rotate clockwise to the safe spot after baiting.

This strategy will be used for ALL Quadruple Crossings throughout the fight.

Double One-Two Paw

Left Safe First: Stand to the left of the intercardinal clone, then move to the right of the cardinal clone.

Right Safe First: Stand to the right of the cardinal clone, then move to the left of the intercardinal clone.

Light party and partner stacks are resolved in the same positions as during the Quadruple Crossing.

Leaping Quadruple Crossing

Resolved in the same way as the first Quadruple Crossing. The only difference is how you determine "north." NA Party Finder mostly performs this mechanic facing True North.

Boss-relative positioning is not widely used. If using boss-relative, treat the direction the boss is facing as north.

Mouser 1

Platform Dodges

During the first part of Mouser, all 16 tiles in the arena will be hit at least once; 12 of them will be hit twice and break, leaving a zig-zag pattern of 4 remaining tiles from north to south or west to east. To dodge all of the hits, start on either of the two inner tiles next to the first one hit. Watch to see if the tile that is hit first gets hit a second time.

  • If it gets hit only once, move into it after the first hit.
  • If it gets hit twice, move into it after the first hit, then back into the other tile once the other is hit.

Notably, the southeast (SE) inner tile is always hit before the southwest (SW) inner tile. The zig-zag pattern will always be through the center two columns or rows.

Knock-ups and Knock-downs

The next part of the mechanic will either knock up (sending the player forward) or knock down (keeping the player in the same spot but unable to move or attack) all support roles or DPS. The paw marker will indicate who is getting knocked up or down. Unlike in Normal mode, the clone will always teleport directly behind the affected player's facing direction rather than dash from its current location.

  • Left arm glowing + reeling back = Knock-down
  • Right arm glowing + lunging forward = Knock-up

The player getting knocked up or knocked down will perform the mechanic on their current tile, regardless of the version.

  • If knocked up, stand in one corner of the safe tile and look toward the opposite corner.
  • If knocked down, you can stand anywhere in your safe tile.

When a player is hit, an AoE attack is triggered in a "+" (plus) shape pattern from that player, which will knock off anyone standing in it. This AoE will affect all tiles directly adjacent to the hit player's position in all cardinal directions. Players who are not marked can safely stand on a tile diagonal from the marked player.

Shockwave and Spreads

After Mouser finishes, we will have another tank buster. Handle this either with a tank swap or tank immunity. Following the tank buster, the arena will start to reform and knockback telegraph will spawn on the ground. This Knockback cannot be resisted, gap closers can be used to negate when timed correctly. As the knockback is about to release, all players will be marked with AoEs.

To handle this we have G1 prioritize North and G2 prioritize south. You will want to get knockbacked into the corner of the arena that is respawning quicker than it's neighbor. Tanks and Melees will gap close/jump back to the boss, all supports will spread BR left, and all dps will spread BR right to resolve the spreads.

Clones

The initial Leaping One-Two and Leaping Quadruple Crossing are resolved in the same way as before. Note the following:

  • Clone positions and their associated mechanics.
  • Jump directions and the order of safe sides. Use True North as the reference.

Pay attention to which clone is tethered after the first two mechanics are resolved. The clone tethered to a mechanic will begin performing that specific mechanic.

Quadruple Crossing / Nail Chipper Clone

This is resolved in the same way as the "same baits" strategy, with the only difference being which role starts first.

  • Roles without markers bait first; roles with markers bait second. Avoid standing near marked players.
  • Players who were unmarked will receive markers after their baits.
  • Marked players need to stay away from other marked players until their mechanics are resolved. They can stand near unmarked players.

Boss-relative positioning is not commonly used. If using boss-relative, treat the direction the boss is facing as North.

Leaping One-Two Clone

This is resolved similarly to the "same baits" strategy, with the addition of light party stacks.

  • As the room-wide cleaves occur, light party stacks will form on two players.
  • Light Party 1 should position to the north of the boss, and Light Party 2 to the south, using True North as the reference.

Boss-relative positioning is not commonly used. If using boss-relative, treat the direction the boss is facing as North.

Mouser 2

Mouser 2 is resolved in the same way as Mouser 1, but with an additional mechanic. The role that was not marked during Mouser 1 will be marked for Mouser 2.

During each knock-up or knock-down, there will be two instances of either a 7-player party stack or a protean bait, for a total of four events. The order of these events is random.

Protean spreads are boss-relative, from left to right: Tank - Healer - DPS.

Following Mouser 2 we will have the same as Mouser 1 Tankbuster - > Shockwave -> AoEs on all players. Resolve in the same fashion as before. Tanks will need to hold invulns for this buster.

Raining Cats

Two tethers spawn from the boss. These tethers are heavy-hitting cleaves that apply a vulnerability-up debuff to the tethered player. Additionally, two proximity-based stacks will target the closest and furthest players.

To resolve this mechanic, NA Party Finder uses the DiaStarvy MTTT Raidplan.

Stacks

Tanks will always be responsible for taking the close stacks throughout the entire mechanic. They should stack together north of the boss, within the boss's hitbox for the first set of tethers. The rest of the party will stack at max melee range south of the boss.

Tethers

First Tethers:

  • Melees take the first tethers to the west and east. Group 1 goes west, and Group 2 goes east.
  • Make sure to stand at the edge of the boss's hitbox.

Second Tethers:

  • Tanks take the second tethers. These should be mitigated by the tanks.
  • Tanks should position themselves east and west, remaining close to the boss.
  • Melees join the stack south.

Third and Fourth Tethers:

  • The third and fourth tethers will be handled using invulnerability skills by the tanks, with everyone remaining in their positions.

Predaceous Pounce

Telegraphed AoEs and dashes will appear in the arena from a clone. Additionally, the boss will perform a left or right cleave as the clone dashes around the arena. Players should avoid the AoEs and dashes while keeping an eye on the boss's cleave pattern.

This mechanic is generally skipped. It won't be seen unless there are a lot of deaths and low DPS.

Enrage

The boss casts another Mouser, which will destroy the entire platform, resulting in a party wipe.