Morbol Mount | Blue Mage's Guild Of Eorzea

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Since the start of April, I had been working to meet with a Static twice a week, for two hours each day, in order to clear the requirements to gain a morbol mount. And now, on the eve of 5.45, we finally managed to succeed. Countless deaths and close calls and conflicts could have torn us apart, and some of those who began with us are no longer a part of the group for various reasons, but we never gave up. Even if it’s just a mount, it’s a symbol we did our best and offered up a bit of time for the sake of a goal.

Always forward.

An update to my guide to clearing Bahamut as I work with a new group that only needed this final boss to get their mounts.

TANK POV

The basic strategy remains the same with the exception of using Diamondback to get around needing to dodge the dives from Twintania and Bahamut. Likewise, the increase in HP thanks to Devour being up for nearly a minute is greatly appreciated since it meant I wasn’t left with nearly double digits worth of HP.

It’s been a long time but we’ve never stopped in our efforts to receive the Morbol Mount that is exclusive to Blue Mages, meaning we’ve been pushing past each of the final battles of the ARR and Heavensward Savage Raids. I thought Bahamut was bad, but it turned out that his crown for difficulty was surpassed by the combining mechazord: Brute Justice.

However, despite being killed so many times that I can still see the Double Rocket Punch in my dreams, we managed to prevail and prove ourselves to be “Mightier Than Justice”.

First Successful Attempt 

Second Clear

Footage submitted by:  Alexie

Preparations

For our run, our group had 5 DPS, 2 Healers, and 1 Tank Mimic. Brute Justice has a couple of add phases that are really more difficult due to the number of mechanics going off until roughly the gavel phase, whereupon a single screwup will kill everyone regardless of role. But once you’re past that hurdle it’s a matter of healing and getting him into Sting %. The fact that I died in both runs was… disheartening, but thankfully our group had enough experience to pick up the slack in the Final Phase.

And everyone has to be a lot more aware of their current condition as certain debuffs require them to take on specific roles, such as effectively becoming the Tank during Gavel Phase in order to complete it.  Mechanics are king during the battle and should be respected. Except Intermission 2. We’ve just found out how to skip it by Diamondbacking, which was a great relief because you need everyone alive for Gavel.

Players should also have assigned roles for certain phases, such as Execution, where they will take a corner to handle a Steam Regulator so it doesn’t explode and wipe the party. In the event that one player dies before taking their corner, another should be able to take their place. Being adaptable is essential.

To that end, the following spells are recommended:

Universal:

• Aetherial Mimicry:  For Role Selection of Tank, Healer, and DPS.
• Angel Whisper: Revival w/ long cooldown.
• Blood Drain: MP restoration of 500 MP per use.
• Bristle: 50% potency increase of next spell.
• Devour: HP increase and minor healing.
• Diamondback: Anti-knockback and damage mitigation.
• Final Sting: Physical spell that hits like an LB3.
• Frogs Legs: Gain enmity over the current lead.
• Magic Hammer: MP restoration of 1000 MP + magical damage + magical damage mitigation.
• Mighty Guard: Passive damage mitigation at the cost of DPS potency.
• Moon Flute: 15s increase of damage done by user.
• Off-Guard: 5% increase to all damage target takes.
• Peculiar Light: 5% increase on all magical damage done to the target.
• Primal Abilities: oGCD damage and part of Moon Flute Openers. Huge DPS gain.
• Song of Torment: DoT spell (best used with Bristle).
• Whistle: 80% increase to next Physical Spell (everyone except the Tank).
• White Wind: Group fixed healing spell.

Tank:

• Bad Breath: Damage down + poison.
• The Look: Damage + enmity increase.
• Flying Sardine: Instant Cast. Interrupt.

Healer:

• Condensed Libra: 5% increase to Astral, Umbral, or Physical damage taken by the target
• Exuviation: Group healing spell but has a short range.
• Gobskin: Group shield spell to mitigate damage.
• Pom Cure: Single target healing spell.

DPS:

• Fast Cast Spell: For weaving purposes (see opener below).
• Astral Spell: Fire, Lighting, or Wind spells.
• Physical Spell: Drill Cannons, Abyssal Transfixion, etc.
• Umbral Spell: Water, Ice, or Earth spells.

As for the Moon Flute Opener that Alexie Arboreir recommends the following order (though not mandatory):

Alexie Opener:

–Bristle –Moon Flute –Song of Torment –Magic Hammer (Fast Cast) –Shock Strike + J-Kick –Devour (Fast Cast) –Surpanakha x4 –Sharpened Knife or Sonic Boom (depending on Condensed Libra and Peculiar Light)(Fast Cast) –Glass Dance + (macro’d) Eruption –Sharpened Knife or Sonic Boom (Fast Cast)

Additional Preparations:

• Food: Kukuru Rusk (HQ), Twilight Popoto Salad (HQ), Smoked Chicken (HQ),  Espresso con Panna (HQ)
• Final Sting %: 35% w/ 7 users (if used as part of Moon Flute Opener)

Boss Move Glossary

Onslaughter:

• Seeds of the Sky: AoEs on random characters. Stack to bait and then move.
• Hydrothermal Missile: Tankbuster. Power through it and heal.
• Mega Beam: Targeted Tankbuster on a random player. Dodge or die.
• Execution: Summons 4 Steam Regulators that need to die.

Brawler:

• Single Gun: Line AoE Tankbuster. Diamondback.
• Double Gun: Line AoE. Stack with the party or Diamondback.
• Single Drill: Targeted attack. Does more damage the closer you are. Heal through it.
• Double Drill: Targets closest and furthest targets. Bait, Mighty Guard, and heal through.

Blaster:

• Mind Blast: Party-wide AoE. Inflicts uncleansable Paralysis. Interrupt.
• Mirage: Summons Blaster Mirage add. Needs to be tanked by an additional player and pulled away.

Swindler:

• Heights: Elevation mechanics whereupon players are given a debuff that requires them to either be floating or grounded. Heavy, raid-wide AoE damage on a single failure. If you receive a Red marker, you need to be floating up. If you receive a Purple marker, you need to be on the ground and lower elevation.
• Bio-arthemicks: Heavy raid-wide damage on HP threshold breach. Heal through.

Vortexer:

• Super Cyclone: Heavy AoE damage and pushback. Stack against a wall or Diamondback.

Brute Justice:

• Flarethrower: Wide AoE for heavy damage on Tank. Keep from facing the party.
• Short Needle: Raid-Wide AoE Damage. Heal through it.
• Double Rocket Punch: Double Tankbuster on Tank. Diamondback.
• Seeds of the Sky: Drops highlighted AoEs. Bait and dodge.
• Long Needle: Super heavy AoE damage. Stack or Diamondback.
• Apocalyptic Ray: Conal AoE towards a random player. Get behind or Diamondback in Final Punch combo.
• Super Jump: A diving attack on target furthest from Brute Justice. Heavy-damage. Bait and Mighty Guard.
• J Kick: Raid-wide damage in proximity to the center of the arena. Mighty Guard or heal through it.
• Final Punch: Tank-killer. Off-Tank needed to pull aggro before the hit and then Diamondback the rest.
• Mega Beam: Heavy damage line AoE. Diamondback or dodge.

Walkthrough

Phase 1: Onslaughter

To begin with, during the countdown everyone prepares a Bristle spell to be used in conjunction with Moon Flute in order to enhance the power of Song of Torment, as the potency of the DoT rises in conjunction with the buffs. The Tank, who doesn’t use Moon Flute, applies their spell first to draw the initial aggro and then White Wind (Swiftcast) to gain a massive lead in enmity. Then the Tank uses J Kick to catch the boss in the middle of the room and then turn it around as someone else applies Off-Guard and then follows up with a Peculiar Light so Onslaughter will be more vulnerable to damage. The party, sans the Tank and a single Healer, will stack on the butt to get off their Moon Flute Openers before spreading once the Seed of the Sky goes off to avoid the AoE,  which also has the effect of allowing them to bait the Mega Beam to the south and avoid it while entering Waning Nocturne.

Onslaughter’s health should be low enough that it triggers the Execution phase, whereupon the pre-assigned players will take their corner as Waning Nocturne wears off and attack their Steam Regulator. During this time, it will hit the Tank with another Hydrothermal Missile that needs to be healed, followed by a Mega Beam at a random player. That needs to be dodged because if it hits a Steam Regulator player, it will basically wipe the entire raid, so all players should be aware if they need to move.

The Tank should then apply Condensed Libra before using Diamondback as Perpetual Ray goes off, applying a Vulnerability Up before being followed by consecutive blasts that need to be healed through even with Diamondback. The DPS should use that opportunity to strike down Onslaughter before a final Mega Beam goes off, shifting them over to the next phase.

Phase 2: Brawler, Blaster, Swindler, and Vortexer

Now we get to the fun part, by which I mean where the most wipes will occur. Once Onslaughter gets away, everyone should Bristle as the Tank moves to the north and readies The Look in order to grab aggro on Blaster as soon as it drops down. At the same time, the Off-Tank should pop Mighty Guard and grab Brawler with The Look as well to keep it in the center. Both should then follow with Song of Torment to maintain an aggro lead on their respective enemy as you begin the dance of the four bots and kill at least one of them as quickly as possible since if all four are on the field at once it will be an auto-wipe.

The first to die needs to be Blaster, with you having around 40 seconds to get the job done. Once the Tank grabs aggro, the DPS should inflict up to 65% damage and then switch to single target spells. The reason for this is because upon reaching roughly 61%, Blaster drops a Blaster Mirage, an additional enemy that will trigger upon being hit and gains invulnerability while in close-range to the original one. Switching to single target spells will avoid setting it off  while a third player uses Mighty Guard and then Frogs Legs to grab the mirage, since it shares the same enmity as the original and only that will be high enough

At the same time, Blaster will also be getting ready to cast Mind Blast, which will really mess-up the party. The Tank needs to use Flying Sardine to interrupt the Mind Blast and then pull Blaster over to the eastern corner. That will leave the DPS to burn down Blaster while the third Tank pulls the mirage to the Off-Tank so they can grab aggro on it and keep it away from Blaster .

However, at this point, two major mechanics will happen. The first is that Brawler will be readying either a Double Gun or Single Gun, the former of which needs to be pointed at the party and the latter needing to be soaked with a Diamondback and topped off healing. The second is that Swindler will show up in the eastern side, which the Tank needs to grab using whatever means they can and hold its attention along with Blaster, which will quickly pile on the damage.

At this point, you have until the Heights mechanic resolves to murder Blaster with everything in your arsenal before Vortexer drops and it becomes an instant wipe. That means the Tank needs to pop a Peculiar Light while someone else applies an Off-Guard to Blaster and then go to town on it until it dies. That also shuts down the mirage as well, easing the burden on the Healers as well.

Then the Tank needs to move to the south and grab Vortexer, which I prefer to do by using J Kick. Grab aggro through the use of heavy-damaging spells (no White Wind) and then make sure both Vortexer and Swindler are away from Brawler to avoid giving them an unnecessary buff. The DPS should pelt Swindler until it is around 60% healthy, but hold off on getting serious until Heights resolves again during the initial phase. At this point, Brawler should be in the middle of preparing a Double Drill, Single Gun, or Double Gun, which is going to change how you operate.

If it the Single Gun or Double Gun then the Off-Tank will need to Diamondback to survive and take massive damage, which leaves them vulnerable to a raid-wide AoE. Double Drill can be survived as the closest and furthers players will both eat a heavy attack but don’t need to Diamondback. Therefore it’s usually safer for the players to wait for Double Drill and then let the Healers fix them up before pushing.

Once you’re ready and the Tank has ideally positioned Swindler and Vortexer on opposite sides, DPS will pop Moon Flute and blow Swindler to pieces. This will push it past the threshold to where it will do Bio-arithmeticks for a heavy amount of raid-wide damage, but it’s nothing a White Wind from a Healer can’t fix if everyone is at full health and the death of Swindler before it can get a regen from Brawler will make things so much easier.

Next, you need to wear down Brawler and Vortexer, specifically to 10% and 55% respectively, because of how their mechanics work. Once Brawler goes past 50%, it will release Power Plasma orbs along with smaller ones. The small ones need a player to soak them for damage with Mighty Guard active and then be healed, while the larger ones will float to the center and then explode for massive damage once they reach Brawler. If both of the larger Power Plasma orbs hit at the same time, it’s going to do enough damage to overkill the party, so have one player slow one of the orbs down using Reflux or Bad Breath to buy enough time between them to heal after each detonation.  You can also use Magic Hammer or Addle to reduce the damage of the orbs.

After that, keep chipping away at them until they are at the 5% and 60% thresholds and wait for either a Double Drill (followed by a top-off) or a gun. All the players, barring the Off-Tank, should position themselves right against the wall of the arena waiting for the Off-Tank to pop Diamondback in order to soak the damage and then burn down Vortexer. Vortexer will use Super Cyclone, doing damage and a strong pushback, but between Diamondback holding the off-tank in place and everyone else hugging the wall, they won’t be knocked out of healing range.

Once Vortexer is struck down, you’ll have a few seconds to kill Brawler before it can Self-Destruct and cause a wipe. Doing so successfully will cause all four of the robots to reactivate and then get ready to do their transformation scene. That gives you a few seconds to get into a better position.

Ideally, you’ll want Brute Justice to remain in the center of the arena where it initially forms. The Tank should move just north of that position in order to be within range to attack without having it move.  The rest of the party should be on the left or eastern side of where Brute Justice forms and grouped together, far enough away from the Tank so that they don’t get cleaved by any attacks but close enough to receive a White Wind.

Then, as the robots form the limbs and torso of Brute Justice, all players should make sure they are in position, use Mighty Guard to mitigate damage, and use Bristle to prep their next spell. Then, as lightning forms between the connecting joints, all players should pop Surecast to avoid a knockback as they form Brute Justice. Cue the music!

Phase 3: Brute Justice – Initial Form

After Brute Justice touches down onto the ground, the Tank should use White Wind to immediately grab aggro. The DPS should turn off their Mighty Guard, pop an Int potion, and then perform a Moon Flute opener upon the massive mech while Brute Justice runs through a cycle of attacks. It will begin with standard autos that do minimal damage to the Tank, but after a few hits it will follow with a Flarethrower that will do massive damage, followed by a Double Rocket Punch that will kill the Tank if they don’t pop Diamondback in time. Once that happens, Brute Justice will then release Seeds of the Sky upon the entire group, followed by raid-wide Short Needles, two Prey Markers, a Long Needle, another Flarethrower, and a Mega Beam before moving into a Super Jump and then Apocalyptic Ray.

To sort out the above, the DPS will stick to the left side while unleashing their attacks in the Moon Flute opener until they enter into Waning Nocturne roughly around the time that Double Rocket Punch comes out after a Flarethrower on the Tank, who will have Diamondback’d to survive.  During this time the raid-wide damage will come out along with the Seeds of the Sky and other mechanics. Everyone, barring the Tank and the two Prey’d players, will then play “ring around the robot”, which is when they move in a group to the south of the robot and then meet up to the right sharing the stack with the Tank who has just come out of the Diamondback and eaten a second Flarethrower, so they will use a White Wind (Swiftcast) to ensure they have enough health to survive what comes next.

The players will then move to avoid the Mega Beam while the Tank will hug the northwest corner in order to be the furthest away from Brute Justice. That will bait the Super Jump towards the Tank, who will then use J Kick as it snapshots to get right back against Brute Justice, making it so the boss remains in place. Brute Justice will then aim an Apocalyptic Ray towards the party that needs to be avoided before it will repeat its previous cycle.

Take note that the Tank can get either the Long Needle or Prey, which will really leave them vulnerable and they will need a decent heal in order to survive. However, at this point, if your DPS is optimal, you can push Brute Justice into Intermission 2 and the next phase. If not, you’re going to have to either burn it down fast or do Intermission 1, which is unnecessary and likely to cause a wipe.

Phase 4: Intermission 2 & Gavel

Once pushed, Brute Justice will jump into the air and come down with a J Kick, inflicting massive raid-wide damage. Everyone should be topped off from the damage before the rest of the robots show up, whereupon they should pop Mighty Guard and huddle together at the eastern part of the wall while the Tank will move to the north in order to bait one of the Double Drills with another player heading to the southeast corner to do the same. The rest will then bait the Mega Beam and then move out of its range before promptly using Diamondback to allow the Hidden Mines to go off and take little to no damage. That will then be followed with Enumeration and Ultra Flash.

Enumeration is a stacking mechanic that has the same number of players group together to match the number of orbs floating inside of the circle. This mechanic can be ignored if the people who receive the stack marker use Diamondback. However, the problem is that it is done in conjunction with Ultra Flash, whereupon Vortexer releases a very bright light that will kill anyone caught within it across the arena, regardless of Diamondback. To avoid an instant death, all players will need to move so that Onslaughter’s legs are between them and Vortexer to hide in the shadows it creates, while those who get Enumeration will need to use Diamondback (Swiftcast) once in the appropriate position to avoid dying, as that will give Brute Justice a damage buff.

With that Intermission 2 will end and Brute Justice will reform in its final form. During this time everyone will put away their weapons and stack beneath it while it casts Verdict, which will assign every player two specific debuffs: Final Judgement & Final Punishment.

Final Punishment is rather simple to understand. The players are given a stack of this specific debuff and need them to be removed by taking damage from any source, whether the boss or the J-Storms or the orbs on the field. However, removing them wantonly will fail the mechanic because some players will need the debuff to fulfill Final Judgement.

Final Judgement is a debuff that requires those who have it to possess a certain amount of debuffs upon them by the time the Gavel cast completes, or it will be an instant wipe. The conditions are as follows:

• Final Judgement: Min HP: Player must have minimum HP when the Gavel cast completes.
• Final Judgement: Max HP: Player must have maximum HP when the Gavel cast completes.
• Final Judgement: Penalty I: Player will need to have only one debuff when the Gavel cast completes.
• Final Judgement: Penalty II: Player will need to have two debuffs when the Gavel cast completes.
• Final Judgement: Penalty III: Player will need to have three debuffs when the Gavel cast completes.
• Final Judgement: Nisi: Player will need to attack the assigned Steam Regulator and defeat it.

As Final Judgement counts as a debuff, all players essentially have this specific debuff. The other two additional debuffs are Final Punishment, which is completely removed once all the stacks are erased from taking damage, and Final Flight, which is given by stepping into a J-Storm. To meet the requirements for it, handle it in this specific order:

Step 1: All players but Min HP, Max HP, and Penalty I drop Mighty Guard. Max HP will use Frogs Legs and White Wind to pull aggro. Nisi players will need to go to their matching Steam Regulators and attack them. Min HP and Penalty I players will approach the southwest orb. Penalty II and both Penalty III players will approach their respective J-Storms in the southwest, southeast, and northwest corners of the room.

Step 2: Min HP and Penalty I eat the southwest orb and get healed before both run towards the northwest orb. Nisi Players will defeat their Steam Regulator and the one on the west side will join Penalty I and Min HP in moving to the northwest orb. Penalty II and III players will eat their J-Storms and gain the “Final Flight” debuff. Max HP will continue to Tank the boss and using White Wind.

Step 3: Min HP, Penalty I, and West Nisi players will eat the northwest orb. Penalty II & Penalty III can return to attacking the boss. East Nisi player will wait outside of the northeast orb. Max HP continues to Tank the boss and using White Wind.

Step 4: Min HP, Penalty I, and East Nisi player will eat the northeast orb. West Nisi player can join Penalty II & Penalty III in attacking the boss (make sure that you take off Mighty Guard). Max HP continues to Tank the boss and using White Wind.

Step 5: All players can remove Mighty Guard and can continue to DPS the boss until Gavel begins casting. However, once it begins casting, Min HP will need to run to the remaining J-Storm and soak it in the middle of the cast to drop their HP to minimum. At the same time, Max HP will need to use Devour to increase their HP to maximum.

Step 6: After Gavel finishes casting, Penalty III players will need to run to the remaining southeast orb and then take the damage to knock off their debuff, otherwise the mechanic will fail. Healers can now heal the rest of the party to full.

Keep in mind that Max HP will need to use Frogs Legs and White Wind to immediately pull aggro from the Tank to avoid them losing stacks of Final Judgement from the auto-attacks if they are a Penalty III player. For this reason, everyone should stack beneath Brute Justice while Verdict is casting but no one attacks it until Max HP has grabbed aggro.. Likewise, no one barring Max HP should use the Devour spell due to the increase in HP it causes. And finally, no one should click off any debuff of any kind until the mechanic clears.

To make things a little easier, here’s a visualization of every mech as carried out:

Anyway, once that has resolved, you’re basically in the final phase.

Phase 4: Brute Justice – Final Form

In this final phase, the Tank will need to reassert their dominance on Brute Justice with Frogs Legs and White Wind to solidify their aggro lead. In this current state, Brute Justice’s mechanics have changed rather noticeably as, after opening with a J Kick that will need to be healed, it will now perform a new attack called Link Up, which will give one player a Compressed Water debuff, and then use Final Punch, which will first hit the Tank with a Double Rocket Punch that will break Diamondback and bind the player into place. It is then followed by an Apocalyptic Ray barrage and a Mega Beam, effectively gunning down the Tank and then reducing their corpse to ashes just to be sure.

To remedy this, once the cast for Final Punch has begun, the Off-Tank will use Frogs Legs in order to pull aggro away from the Tank so that after the punch and bind, it will instead shoot towards the Off-Tank that can use Diamondback instead. That will allow them to take the Mega Beam alone and survive until the Tank can then use Frogs Legs or White Wind to reassert their lead.

Then will come out the mechanics from before, Flarethrower, Seeds of the Sky, Long Needle, two Preys, and a new one in the form of a Hidden Mine. The Seeds of the Sky need to be avoided and the two Prey’d players need to get away from everyone else as well. But for the person who has the stack marker for Long Needle, they will eat it alone by using Diamondback. As for the Hidden Mine, the player who has the Compressed Water debuff must throw their bodies onto the mine once it “activates” and effectively weaken the explosion so only they die and not everyone else.

Now, it’s possible for the Tank to get the Compressed Water debuff, meaning they will have to throw themselves on the Hidden Mine. That presents a problem in that you’ll now have to have someone fill in as the Tank and manage the Final Punch mechanic. While you can survive with Devour and Mighty Guard up, you actually need to die, or else it will be a wipe. So in an emergency be prepared to use Final Sting.

After that, you’ll notice that Steel Chakrams and Enumerations have appeared on the field and around players. Everyone will immediately use Mighty Guard to mitigate the upcoming damage. Then they will need to use Diamondback between the moment the Steel Chakrams appear and, at latest, when the Enumeration circles appear to avoid dealing with the mechanics. Brute Justice will then follow up that with a Mega Beam and then Super Jump onto whoever is the furthest away. Once that is out of the way, Brute Justice will drop Short Needles for raid-wide damage multiple times while doing another Final Punch combo on the Tank/Off-Tank.

Then we will skip to the final mechanic of the raid, whereupon Brute Justice turns into a flaming beyblade and spin in place while releasing damage that needs to be healed through as everyone continues to press on the damage until it hits around 40%. At this point, fish for a Physical Attunement Condensed Libra and use the Moon Flute Opener to burn down its health before finishing with a Whistle + Final Sting combination.

Final Word

From a Tank perspective, this fight is long. Onslaughter is relatively simple, but past that phase you have to do a lot of micromanaging as if you do too much damage you’ll risk pushing a mechanic too early, if you do too little damage you run into an instant-kill or increase the chances of dying, and if you screw up at certain points there is no recovering and the last 10 minutes consist of only broken gear and broken dreams.

This clear was done before the 5.4 patch added some nice buffs such as Devour basically being up for a minute and Mighty Guard not having as severe a penalty, but the core of it still remains one of steel and focus. There’s just too many ways to die if you don’t do things perfectly, like Bahamut’s final phase but stretched out over several minutes,.

As far as I’m concerned, if you cleared this you deserve the mount but there’s still one more to go before then.

See you next, Alexander.

In order to receive the Morbol Mount exclusive to Blue Mages, you need to be able to go through each of the final battles of the ARR and Heavensward Savage Raids. The most difficult one is also the final one and the key to unlocking the Blue Unchained achievement, the Dreadwyrm itself: Bahamut.

However, even in the wake of the embodiment of the Seventh Umbral Calamity, it is possible to prevail and prove yourself to be “Mightier Than The Dreadwyrm”.

First Successful Attempt 

Alternate Point of View

Footage submitted by: Synthcia Taelin

Preparations

For our run, our group had 5 DPS, 2 Healers, and 1 Tank Mimic. Bahamut has a relatively simple cycle of attacks that can easily be predicted, with the understanding that if anyone dies during the final phase outside of Final Sting % it will likely be a wipe. The final phase in particular is especially heavy on the MP usage, so Blood Drain is an essential spell along with Mighty Guard and Diamondback since its the only way to survive several of the attacks due to how squishy Blue Mages happen to be.

The key factor to the battle is that mitigation is essential and needs to be kept up for as much time as possible. Due to the fact that Diamondback will be used frequently by the Tank, at least one DPS should be relegated to carrying the Bad Breath spell so it can be applied even while they are incapacitated. Magic Hammer should also be kept on-hand to deal with the magical-based attacks.

To that end, the following spells are recommended:

Universal:

• Aetherial Mimicry:  For Role Selection of Tank, Healer, and DPS.
• Angel Whisper: Revival w/ long cooldown.
• Blood Drain: MP restoration of 500 MP per use.
• Bristle: 50% potency increase of next spell.
• Devour: HP increase and minor healing.
• Diamondback: Anti-knockback and damage mitigation.
• Final Sting: Physical spell that hits like an LB3.
• Level 5 Death: For killing the spawning adds.
• Magic Hammer: MP restoration of 1000 MP + magical damage + magical damage mitigation.
• Mighty Guard: Passive damage mitigation at the cost of DPS potency.
• Missile: For killing the spawning adds.
• Moon Flute: 15s increase of damage done by user.
• Off-Guard: 5% increase to all damage target takes.
• Peculiar Light: 5% increase on all magical damage done to the target.
• Primal Abilities: oGCD damage and part of Moon Flute Openers. Huge DPS gain.
• Song of Torment: DoT spell (best used with Bristle).
• Whistle: 80% increase to next Physical Spell (everyone except the Tank).
• White Wind: Group fixed healing spell.

Tank:

• Bad Breath: Damage down + poison.
• The Look: Damage + enmity increase.

Healer:

• Condensed Libra: 5% increase to Astral, Umbral, or Physical damage taken by the target
• Exuviation: Group healing spell but has a short range.
• Gobskin: Group shield spell to mitigate damage.
• Pom Cure: Single target healing spell.

DPS:

• Fast Cast Spell: For weaving purposes (see opener below).
• Astral Spell: Fire, Lighting, or Wind spells.
• Physical Spell: Drill Cannons, Abyssal Transfixion, etc.
• Umbral Spell: Water, Ice, or Earth spells.
• Bad Breath: Damage down + poison  (in the event that the Tank is unable to use it).

As for the Moon Flute Opener that Alexie Arboreir recommends the following order (though not mandatory):

Alexie Opener:

–Bristle –Moon Flute –Song of Torment –Magic Hammer (Fast Cast) –Shock Strike + J-Kick –Devour (Fast Cast) –Surpanakha x4 –Sharpened Knife or Sonic Boom (depending on Condensed Libra and Peculiar Light)(Fast Cast) –Glass Dance + (macro’d) Eruption –Sharpened Knife or Sonic Boom (Fast Cast)

Additional Preparations:

• Food: Kukuru Rusk (HQ)
• Final Sting %: 9% w/ 7 users (provided no one Crits or DH)

Boss Move Glossary

• Flatten: Tank-buster that has Bahamut try to crush you underfoot. Will kill the Tank if not in Diamondback.
• Flare Breath: Heavy damaging conical attack with a long horizontal range that will shave off massive amounts of health on the Tank. Will kill others if caught in the radius.
• Megaflare: Series of attacks that will hit numerous characters. Ground AoE on one set of players, AoE splash circles on another set, and finally marking rings on a final set that needs to be shared. Getting hit by more than one can be fatal. In later stages, it will add towers that must be soaked.
• Earthshaker: Targets two players with markers. Will damage anyone in a direct line and inflicts Heavy, which drastically slows movement. Combined with the fact that it drops a puddle that causes massive damage from Sludge, it can very quickly kill players caught in it.
• Flare Stars: Creates a number of orbs that will tether and fly into players. Gives Suffocated Will debuff. Causes increased damage taken during Rage of Bahamut.
• Rage of Bahamut: Raid-wide damage. Increases based on number of stacks from Flare Stars.
• Divebombs: A diving attack from Bahamut and Twintania. Heavy-damage and Knockback.
• Akh Morn: Extremely powerful Tank-buster. Will increase the number of times hit each time used. Must be in Diamondback to survive.
• Tempest Wing: A green tether links to a player and will cause a massive twister to drop onto them and deal high damage to the target. If they are too close to anyone else, it will stun them, push them back, and give them a heavy DoT.
• Gigaflare: Heavy hitting attack during phase transition and in the final phase. Will likely kill everyone if not heavily mitigated.
• Teraflare: Final phase transitional attack.

Walkthrough

Phase 1: 100% to 75%

To begin with, during the countdown everyone prepares a Bristle spell to be used in conjunction with Moon Flute in order to enhance the power of Song of Torment, as the potency of the DoT rises in conjunction with the buffs. The Tank, who doesn’t use Moon Flute, applies their spell first to draw the initial aggro and then White Wind (Swiftcast) to gain a massive lead in enmity. Then the Tank follows up with a Peculiar Light so the boss will gain Magic Vulnerability before dragging it to the southernmost point to avoid having the impending Flare Breath cleave the party.

Then there will be Megaflare. Any marked players will need to move to share that damage while avoiding the ground AoEs and splash AoEs. To create a safe place, mark a spot (we chose right behind Bahamut) and only have people meet up there if they have the diamond-markers. Note that even the Tank can be targeted by the mechanics and will have to be ready to react.

Then will be another Flare Breath, followed by a Flatten. As noted previously, Bad Breath is essential for mitigation and should be applied to avoid instant death as the combination of an auto-attack and Flare Breath will leave the Tank near-death even mitigated. The moment that the cast bar for Flatten pops up, the Tank must then go into Diamondback to avoid death from the Tank-buster and a triple round of Flare Breaths.

Then there will be Earthshakers. The targeted players need to put on Mighty Guard and move to areas next to the Tank. Once they are hit, they will then spread out to drop the puddles along the edges while the healers (or DPS if healers are marked) use White Wind to keep them topped off.

The cycle will repeat until Bahamut reaches 75% and casts Gigaflare. This will potentially wipe the group unless Conked (from Magic Hammer) Damage Down (from Bad Breath), and Addle are applied.

Phase 2: 75% –  52%

By pushing Bahamut into this phase, the players will have to deal with the spawning Shadows of Meracydia, Flare Stars, and Rage of Bahamut, on top of Flatten, Megaflare, and Flare Breath.

Flatten remains the same as in the previous phase and must be mitigated with Diamondback. However, the Flare Breath that follows now only attacks a single time rather than three times in a row. Another change is that Megaflare in this phase will also spawn a tower that will need to be soaked or it’ll do massive damage and debuff everyone.

The Shadows of Meracydia are adds that spawn in first after Gigaflare and then every time Rage of Bahamut is used. They need to be killed as soon as possible, given they empower and are empowered by Bahamut. Fortunately, they are vulnerable to Instant Death and there’s no reason for everyone not to carry Missile. Unless you get unlucky, in which case someone should also have Level 5 Death.

Flare Stars calls forth a number of orbs that will tether onto players and, if not soaked by another player, will give said player a stack of Suffocated Will. This debuff increases the power of Rage of Bahamut, which is a heavy-hitting raid-wide AoE attack. The more stacks of the debuff you have, the more damage you’ll take.

Ideally, no one would get more than one stack to keep the damage from Rage of Bahamut manageable. But the general rule is that if you receive two stacks you’ll need to use Mighty Guard to survive. If you get three stacks you’ll have no choice but to use Diamondback or else the damage will kill you.

The cycle will continue until Bahamut gets pushed into the next phase, which will be proceeded by another Gigaflare that will have to be weakened via Conked, Addle, and Damage Down.

Phase 3

After the Gigaflare goes off, everyone turns off Mighty Guard and everyone gets into the center while waiting for Bahamut and Twintania to appear for divebombs. While getting hit by one is manageable damage-wise, chances are you’ll be knocked into the wall and then instantly killed. Therefore the strategy is to locate Bahamut when the first marker appears and then run when the second one appears to get out of his way along with Twintania. If you feel that you won’t be able to avoid both hits, Surecast will prevent the knockback and Diamondback can prevent both it and the damage. However, Megaflare will follow and if a diamond-marked player is bubbled then they will most likely be killed due to being unable to share it by the time it drops.

Then there will be a prolonged period where adds are summoned. Once more, everything is weak to Instant Death. The only real threat is the Blood of Meracydia add, due to the fact it can swap between nullifying magic damage and physical damage, which is bad when your entire party consists of magic-users.

Missile down the adds, but if the need for MP is an issue then mark a Gust of Meracydia add to be ignored and use Blood Drain on it until everyone is topped off. Then kill it before Divebombs repeats itself.

After the second Divebombs, Twintania will be one of the adds called forth under the name of the Storm of Meracydia. Shoot her with Missile to drop the Flare Dampener field that will be needed to survive and then continue as you did during the previous Add phase until the final Divebomb happens.

You will then have 10 seconds until Teraflare comes out. To survive this, you will have no choice but to stand in the Flare Dampener field while also using Diamondback. The best strategy is to pop Lucid Dreaming at 5 seconds and then immediately cast Diamondback.

Then we enter the final phase.

Phase 4

In this final phase, Bahamut will begin casting Akh Morn, which will utterly kill the Tank and everyone else unless it is soaked with a Diamondback. After this, there will be another Megaflare. However, Bahamut will also tether to players to use Tempest Wing after the Megaflare. To avoid dealing with this headache, everyone will Diamondback during the Megaflare, which also takes care of the Tempest Wing that will follow if timed right.

Then there will be Earthshakers, with the two targets also being selected for another round of Tempest Wing. The two players will need to move out against the edges to drop the puddles and avoid hitting anyone else. If they die in the middle of the Earthshakers, the tether will go to another player and can easily cause a wipe, so heals will be very important.

Every two or so rotations, Bahamut will use Gigaflare before Akh Morn. Mitigate the Gigaflare using Addle, Conked, and Damage Down while leaving the Tank to slow cast Diamondback as Akh Morn is being cast. That will leave them protected while giving ample time for DPS to work on burning Bahamut down.

The cycle will repeat until death, so DPS should get ready once Bahamut hits 9% and then enters Final Sting territory. The most optimal time to do so would be while the Tank is protected against Akh Morn, giving enough time to go in with a Moon Flute Opener. If you get lucky, you won’t even need everyone to sting to take down Bahamut Prime.

Final Word

From a Tank perspective, this fight was unnerving. Bahamut has a pattern, but he hits very hard. There have been times when my health dropped to the single digits even with food, BiS gear, and Devour up. The fact that the Tank isn’t excluded from some of the mechanics like Tempest Wing during the Megaflares in the final phase only compound that as between the auto-attacks and Flarebreath, one unlucky crit or a mistimed heal or Diamondback will result in your death.

You will be challenged, but if you prevail you’ll be able to look proud.

In order to receive the Morbol Mount exclusive to Blue Mages, you need to be able to go through each of the final battles of the ARR and Heavensward Savage Raids. One of the more difficult ones happens to be Nael, but we’ve come up with a strategy that makes it possible to burn straight through this boss and prove yourself to be “Mightier Than The Raven”.

First Successful Attempt 

Alternate Point of View

Footage submitted by: Alexie Arboreir

Preparations

For our run, our group had 5 DPS, 2 Healers, and 1 Tank Mimic. The ideal was that using enough DPS with the Moon Flute Opener, we could push through the phases relatively quickly so long as the Tank properly timed their Diamondback usage to handle the Tankbusters and the group quickly handled the meteors through strategically arranging them to fall in specific spots. There were some close calls due to mishaps on my end, but the strategy was largely solid enough that it served well as you can see in the videos.

To that end, the following spells are recommended:

Universal:

• Aetherial Mimicry:  Role selection
• Angel Whisper: Revival
• Bristle: 50% potency increase of next spell
• Devour: HP increase and minor heal
• Diamondback: Anti-knockback and damage mitigation
• Final Sting: Physical spell that hits like an LB3
• Level 5 Death: For killing the Super Dalamud Spawn
• Magic Hammer: MP restoration + damage
• Mighty Guard: Damage mitigation
• Missile: For killing Dalamud Spawns
• Moon Flute: 15s additional damage
• Primal Abilities: oGCD damage and part of Moon Flute Openers
• Song of Torment: DoT spell (best used with Bristle)
• Sticky Tongue: Positioning Dalamud Spawns
• Whistle: 80% increase to next Physical Spell (everyone except the Tank)
• White Wind: Group fixed healing spell

Tank:

• Bad Breath: Damage down + poison
• Blood Drain: MP restoration
• Condensed Libra: 5% increase to Astral, Umbral, or Physical damage taken by target
• The Look: Damage + enmity increase
• Peculiar Light: 5% increase on magical damage to boss.

Healer:

• Exuviation: Group healing spell
• Gobskin: Group shield and healing spell
• Off-Guard: 5% increases to damage target takes
• Pom Cure: Single target healing spell

DPS:

• Fast Cast Spell: For weaving purposes (see opener below)
• Astral Spell: Fire, Lighting, or Wind
• Physical Spell: Drill Cannons, Abyssal Transfixion, etc.
• Umbral Spell: Water, Ice, or Earth

As for the Moon Flute Opener that Alexie Arboreir recommends the following order (though not mandatory):

Alexie Opener:

–Bristle –Moon Flute –Song of Torment –Magic Hammer (Fast Cast) –Shock Strike + J-Kick –Devour (Fast Cast) –Surpanakha x4 –Sharpened Knife or Sonic Boom (depending on Condensed Libra and Peculiar Light)(Fast Cast) –Glass Dance + (macro’d) Eruption –Sharpened Knife or Sonic Boom (Fast Cast)

Additional Preparations:

• Food: Kukuru Rusk (HQ)
• Final Sting %: 14% w/ 7 users

Boss Move Glossary

• Ravensbeak: Tank buster that places an explosive debuff (Raven’s Blight) that will detonate 12s later. Will kill the tank if not in Diamondback.
• Stardust: The boss places a red or yellow marker on a player that she intends to drop a meteor onto someone with. If any meteors are within 8 yalms of each other, they’ll explode and kill everyone.
• Iron Chariot: The boss drops down on a randomly selected player other than the Tank and proceeds to cast an AoE around the area.
• Thermiotic Beam: A beam attack that hammers a  marked player. You’ll need to stack for it.
• Dalamud Dive: A diving attack onto the Tank. Will hurt a lot.
• Lunar Dynamo: Donut attack that will heal Nael for every person it hits. Think Dragon’s Voice. Stack in or be at max distance away.
• Meteor Stream: Dragons swoop in to hit some players.
• Golem Meteors (Dalamud Spawns): Drops meteors that will turn into Dalamud Spawns. They eat meteors to remove them, but if they eat too many or get too close they’ll merge into a super big one. All are vulnerable to instant death.
• Heavensfall: Drops a big pillar in the middle of the field and will knock everyone not braced with Surecast or Diamondback away.
• Megaflare: Group-wide damage. Mighty Guard and heal.
• Bahamut’s Favor: Buff followed by a Tankbuster rapid slash. Diamondback the moment you see the cast.
• Firescorched/Icebitten: Fire and Ice tethers. One person gets fire with a splash-zone, everyone else gets ice. You’ll get hit by the opposite element by getting close together when it comes and cleanse the opposite one. Getting hit by two of the same ones in a row is a kill.
• Thunder: Someone gets the lightning debuff. Get away from everyone else before it goes off or everyone gets paralyzed and it can’t be cleansed.
• Supernova: Gravity puddles. Makes it harder to move. Bait it away.
• Divebomb: Rushed by dragons, an impact will knock the players into the walls and kill them. Diamondback.

Walkthrough

Phase 1:

To begin with, during the countdown everyone prepares a Bristle spell to be used in conjunction with Moon Flute in order to enhance the power of Song of Torment, as the potency of the DoT rises in conjunction with the buffs. The Tank, who doesn’t use Moon Flute, applies their spell first to draw the initial aggro and then J Kick to keep the boss in place, followed by The Look (Swiftcast) as well as other spells such as Bad Breath for mitigation and the Primal Abilities to build enough enmity to hold aggro as they face the boss away.

The rest of the DPS will then use J Kick to close the gap and unload a flurry of fast-cast spells, such as Sharpened Knife, Devour, Magic Hammer, and so on, while weaving in oGCD spells between them like Eruption, Shock Strike, and Glass Dance. Surpanakha should probably be used upfront to get the most out of the Moon Flute, but if everyone does well enough you can push her into around 75% in a single go.

While the rest are waiting for the cooldown to wear off, the Tank needs to be on the look out for Ravensbeak, which they can handle by hard-casting Diamondback after Stardust. It’ll leave the Tank with the Raven’s Blight affliction while Nael jumps to a targeted player for Iron Chariot, but give them enough time to cast a single GCD to take both the explosion as the blight wears off and the return stab.

After that point, you should done enough damage to avoid Lunar Dynamo and Meteor Stream, pushing right into Phase 2.

Phase 2:

By pushing Nael fast enough you’ll get the first set of Dalamud Spawns, Meteors being dropped, and then the Dalamud Spawns following.

For the spawns, the three who got the marker for the spawns take a space on the center circles and then move away once they fade, letting them spawn there to be dealt with easily since they aren’t immune to instant death spells. Then we would meet back up in the center for the Healer to reapply Gobskin to soak a good deal of the damage from when the meteors began to fall. For positioning, our party used the outer edge of the arena with everyone spreading out at specific points so that if one got the marker they could just run clockwise once the marker faded away and let the meteor drop there.

Once the second set of Dalamud Spawns appeared, we’ll have someone for each of them use Sticky Tongue to pull them to a meteor in order to force to eat it. Then we’d kill them with Missile, saving Level 5 Death for if the Super Golem was created. Since the Green Golem hits the hardest, the Main Tank always pulls that one and uses a Primal Ability to maintain aggro before feeding it a meteor and then killing it or using Diamondback to avoid the Tankbuster while two others pull and aggro the others using a Primal Ability with Mighty Guard on.

Once that was done, everyone other than the Tank would move to one position and put on Mighty Guard as they waited for the Megaflare while the Tank uses White Wind to ensure aggro as we enter Phase 3.

Phase 3:

After the Megaflare goes off, everyone turns off Mighty Guard and waits for Nael to dive onto the Tank before using Surecast to avoid the follow-up knockback from Heavensfall. They would then use another Moon Flute Opener to inflict enough damage to skip the add summoning while the Tank waited for Bahamut’s Favor to start casting and then use Diamondback to weather the Tankbuster.

Next are the ice and fire mechanics. After Nael descends upon one player, everyone moves in so that they can get to safety and avoid Lunar Dynamo while also setting off the tethers. One of the players would also have the thunder tether, which can cause an AoE Paralysis, so once that’s done, that player would need to pop Sprint and then get as far away from the group as possible to avoid a potential wipe.

Everyone then moves out and spreads to bait the gravity puddles and then slowly moves in to the “1” position for fire and ice and the Thermiotic Beam, with the Tank needing to use Diamondback as there will be an unprompted Tankbuster.

Then we enter the final phase.

Phase 4:

In this final phase, Nael will begin Meteor Streams and Divebombs that will kill the players by knocking them into the walls. To get around this, everyone stops casting once the green marker appears and the begin hard-casting Diamondback once the white markers appear. Doing so will allow one cast to last the entire two attacks.

Once that’s out of the way, Nael can easily be brought to stinging percentage through the use of Moon Flute Openers a final time. She’ll use Bahamut’s Favor a final time as well, so the Tank will need to have enough time and MP for a final Diamondback. So long as the party is outputting enough DPS, you’ll be able to kill her quickly.

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