We’re approaching level 50 in FFXIV, and before we talk about end-game bosses and hard modes I thought I would briefly talk about some of the boss fights we’ve done so far. These won’t be comprehensive guides, but you’ll get an idea of each fight’s mechanics.
Ifrit
Ifrit is the Primal of Fire and Fury. As you’d expect, there’s going to be some fire you want to try and avoid. Throughout the fight he’ll use something called Eruption. As far as I can tell, this is just something you have to heal through as it will likely take an average player to half health. A decent healer can pop off a heal and be fine. Ifrit will occasionally breath fire on the tank, so you’ll want to make sure only the tank is standing in front.
Around half health, Ifrit there will be a spear looking thing in the center of the room called “infernal nail”. You will want to focus all DPS on this immediately and burn it down as fast as possible. If it’s not killed quick enough, Ifrit will 1 shot the entire group.
After the infernal nail is down, the fight is pretty simple. You’ll only have to avoid one more mechanic, and that’s the radiant plumes. They will be smouldering looking circles on the floor. Move out of them the second they appear and you’ll be just fine.
Overall, this fight is very simple, and it teaches players the basic mechanics while only requiring a tiny bit of a DPS check.
Titan
Titan is the colossal Earth Primal. His hulking mass gives many players a hard time, but I find him to actually be quite easy. The trick really is to make sure your group is appropriately geared with items their level, and that you know how to move.
Throughout the fight Titan will jump up into the air then slam back to the ground dealing a ton of damage. To avoid the brunt of this attack, you want to move to the edge of the red circle filling 99% of the platform. However, do not step outside of the red circle. I know you will want to, but you’ll end up falling off the ledge when it breaks off. Your healer will then want to AOE heal everyone back up, so group up quickly and return to DPSing.s
Titan will also send out a straight line attack at a random player. Move. Move fast. Don’t even hesitate for a second. If you’re caught in this hit you’ll be knocked off the platform and killed instantly. This is how most groups wipe. You’ll also want to move out of the rippling quakes on the floor.
Lastly, like Ifrit, Titan has an insta-kill mechanic. When his heart appears, DPS it fast. I recommend saving a 2 bar limit break for this portion of the fight. THat’s it. Titan is really that simply.
Garuda
I hate this witch. Garuda is the Primal of Wind, and she likes to show it. In the Garuda fight there are 4 stone pillars that you will need to utilize. Throughout the fight, Garuda will take to a side of the arena (alternates) and spew out a gust of wind or something that will instantly kill you. Hide behind a rock, and you’re fine.
Tanks (and dps) need to be aware of her hard hitting cone-shaped frontal attack. Please, move out of it. A tank will almost die from it, and it eats up a healer’s mana faster than anything else.
One of the easiest to avoid mechanics is when she nukes someone. Anyone around that player will also be hit, so simply spread out and the healer only needs to heal one person. Throughout the fight there will also be little add-like things that DPS should focus on. These adds kill the pillars you have to hide behind, so if you let them live too long you’ll be dead very soon.
Phase 2 she will destroy all of the rocks and shrink the playing field. Avoid the bad stuff and don’t cluster up — remember, she will still use that AoE nuke and your healer will probably be crying right now trying to figure out how he’s going to keep you all alive.
More to Come…
That’s all for now! I’m loving the boss fights in FFXIV. Even the dungeon bosses have really great mechanics. They’re just enough to provide players with a challenge, but not to the point where I feel like all I’m doing is dancing to the mechanics of a fight like WoW raids.
You know, I hated the beta.
But so many people are loving it that you and others have talked me into jumping in. The problem is that they still wont sell me the game. I am not about to get a physical copy, I want to download it, but they still have not opened it up again.
The sad thing is, by the time they open up sales, I will have probably moved on from caring.
@Tumorseal: I am exactly the same way. I didn’t have chance to play the beta but I played the first one and then when this one came out I was like I will wait and see some gameplay and such. It sounds and looks amazing and I want to play it, but even after almost a month, square still has no re-opened digital sales. It’s almost like they completely forgot about it.
I hope they open it up for you guys to buy soon. I’m not sure why they still have the shop closed. The population has really settled in.
I really wanted to buy it after all the positive reviews and impressions. Square said they might start up digital sales again if this weekend goes well. Gta 5 comes out this tuesday so I think they lost their window of opportunity with me at least. If gta doesn’t live up to the hype (like the dismal 4) I’ll probable give ff a shot.
As a white mage Garuda was pretty stressful, at least with <45 pugs.
Most attempts I was out of mana by the time she goes in that 'closed in' phase.
I love healing in this game,
Plus, pop cleric stance and spam those Holy.
mucho fun 😛
” I’m not sure why they still have the shop closed.”
Most US servers still have character creation restrictions most times anyone from the US would be playing. I’m not going to roll on a new server populated with tourists (yes, I’m a tourist myself, but I do come back to these things more than once if they’re good) and then be forced to pay them to transfer off.
Have you been running this content with the general public or just your friends? I’m seeing very frightening things on Reddit to the effect that groups only want players who are overgeared and expect players to skip through story cutscenes that happen in the dungeons (in fairness, a terrible design).
I can only talk about group content until the mid-30ies (because that’s what I’ve reached so far, being spread thin between trying out different classes and high workload that eats into my gaming time), but I’ve not had any problems with that so far. I’ve had my share of subpar groups, but only one that outright failed.
I’ve not seen any berating for gear (even though gear is very easy to come by in this game: either from seals that you get, for example, through fates; or quite cheap on the auction house, which has almost all the gear you could wish for). I’ve seen people rush in front of the tank in dungeons, every now and then (thankfully, not too often), but nobody ever rushed people into skipping cutscenes. Which is a good thing, because I’d probably tell them where to stuff that attitude. Because you only see the long version of the cutscenes once (on your first run), I can’t imagine them being an issue at the level cap, either.
@Green Armadillo: Everyone I know was able to make characters weeks ago. I’m pretty sure the restrictions have eased up considerably. The only problems I’ve had with groups are bad players in general, but that’s every MMO.