They really screwed the pooch on Alex savage. A1s is maybe a touch overturned for the first fight but is mostly ok, a2s is right where it should be. But a3s is way way off. I can understand the final fight of a raid tier being like that, so most groups can atleast farm everything up to it. But if you only release 4 fights per raid tier, then that means 50% of your content is unbeatable to the vast portion of your Userbase. I like challenging fights but unless they add more content it's just stupid that there's nothing else to do other than bang your head against that brick wall for weeks.
I disagree with A2S being well-tuned, for the sole reason that most groups run it with a SCH and SCHs cheese the absolute shit out of that fight.
I had the unfortunate experience of having to prog it without a SCH due to not being able to recruit a reliable one (showing up on time is just not a skill most players have, apparently), and the fight was a nightmare. So much in fact, that me and three others left the static over it and I consider it my least favorite fight in any MMORPG ever played. SCHs do 400-600 DPS on this fight which makes the enrage so much more achievable than not having a SCH, especially when your WHM and AST flat-out refuse to DPS (my problem, not the fight's) and your PLD refuses to go DRK (again, my problem).
"Oh b-but Krip, PLD is good for A2S!"
This is
onlytrue if you have a SCH. PLD takes less damage than DRK/WAR, meaning the SCH gets more time to DPS. But, if you don't have a SCH, it's pointless to run PLD because even though WHM/AST
canDPS, they don't have unlimited mana like SCHs do and their DPS just doesn't compare whatsoever to a SCH's.
My group would consistently make it to the final wave and then wipe to enrage because we were like a minute or more on DPS. Our strategy basically revolved around feeding me (MNK) as much TP as possible so I could spam Rockbreaker and we could
hopefullymeet the DPS requirement that way. I was doing 1.2k, our SMN was at like 1.2k-1.3k, our MCH was at like 700-800, and our NIN was inside the Gobwalker for most of the fight, but we actually have our AST in the Gobwalker for the first four waves in order to try to squeeze in some more DPS, and it
stillwasn't enough.
It's not like this is new information, though. From when the expack launched, everyone knew WAR and SCH were OP, we just didn't realize that clearing Alex Savaged depended on having these OP classes in your comp.