Every major update will see a new Extreme Trial for us to dig our teeth into, with the next one coming at 5.25 and tied to the new Relic Quest. When Shadowbringers launched, it was Titania and Innocence whereas we got Hades i n 5.1. For the latest update this week, we are starting our journey to take down the colossal beasts known as Weapons from Final Fantasy VII. A well-timed collaboration considering the remake is less than two moths away. This fight is significantly easier than Hades, and somewhat shorter, spanning between 11-12 minutes. It’s not that significantly shorter, but considering they give you a checkpoint this time around, it should make farming a little better. Here is the guide to taking down the first of, most likely three fights.

SETUP:

• You will need to assign players positions. Melee should be on the cardinal while ranged is on inter-cardinal.
• Similar to something like Eden’s Gate: Sepulture, you will need to assign two groups and potentially a line-up. Generally it should go Melee, Tank, Ranged, Healer. Although really, anything is fine because uptime here isn’t all that important as you’re only a given small window to do damage before getting into line.
• Waymakers should be setup around the arena corresponding to each position.

Use your other defensives when you’re tanking the dragon. I usually tank swap during the chokes only, but all changes on group preference. For when Styrak is down, damage taken reduces a lot, you should still try to mitigate his Thundering Blast since it hurts (sometimes he will do that + a melee attack at the same time). You can Force Shroud it.

Phase 1

Optimized Ultima – This is a simple raid-wide. Mitigate and heal through.

MagitekBit – This can be an annoying attack. Similar to something like the Ultima fight, little machines will be on the outside of the arena targeting random players with line attacks you can easily avoid. You can either try and bait them or go off on your own, but this will affect the next attack.

Helicoclaw – I find a lot of people have trouble with this. Just before you’re targeted the second Magitek Bits, stack just left of where the puddles on the ground intersect. The Magitek Bits will overlap you, but don’t fret. As soon as the first circle explodes (which they will rotate to the clockwise outward), immediately move forward into the center or left of it depending what looks the safest from the Bits. It can be a bit daunting but it’s easy to dodge once you get the hang of it. Ruby will cast this twice. If you do get hit, either by Helicoclaw or Magitek Bits, you will get a vulnerability stack.

Stamp – Tankbuster that should be tank swapped as main tank will receive a damage debuff.

Flexiclaw / Ravensclaw – Get to your assigned positions and get ready for Ruby to stick its claws in the ground. He will cause cracks in the earth going in 8 different directions, 4 long, 4 short. Think of these as fuses. At the end of the fuses, they will explode. So the safe spots will be within melee range on a long crack or the furthest back perpendicularly away from the short crack. After the explosion goes off, Ruby will cast one of two attacks:

• Undermine – Visualized as the cracks glowing red, get off the cracks and go to an open space.
• Liquefaction – Move onto your assigned crack as the rest of the arena will fill with sinking sand that will kill anyone caught in it for an extended period of time.

During all this, each player will be targeted with AOE markers. These will drop puddles that you will need to place either around the open space or on the cracks depending which attack you got (short cracks are a tight fit but you just need to wiggle your way up). If you touch one, it will explode and can cause great damage to you and everyone around. You may also want to enforce the clockwise method where, based on your assigned positions, you will move into one of the quadrants, ensuring only two players are dropping these puddles. Additionally, you can maximize melee uptime for Liquefaction by rotating them clockwise if the cardinal positions receive a long crack.

Ruby Ray – A giant beam that will kill anyone in front of him. It’s a giant and long telegraph, so simply move away. The puddles will still be on the field when he first casts, but since this has a long charge up time, you’ll have enough time to watch them disappear and then move behind it.

Optimized Ultima – This is a simple raid-wide. Mitigate and heal through.

Flexiclaw / Liquefaction – Get to the middle as the outsides of the arena will be turned to sinking sand. Ruby will then dash to the north and prepare his next move. You’re able to get a couple shots on him when he’s in the north, but don’t get greedy.

Ravensflight – Ruby will do a set of dashes across the arena that can sometimes be a bit tough to read if you’re not paying attention. If he dashes forward and to the right, go to the southwest part of the safe zone. If he dashes forward and left, go to the southeast corner. It’s important to identify the last dash. Ruby Weapon will stop halfway through his dash and extend one of his claws. This signifies a cleave on the entire side of the arena — think Baldesion Arsenal’s Raiden, but some players, such as tanks and mitigated melee can survive the hit, but will put a vulnerability on them. So for example, the last dash is going west and Ruby’s right hand extends; this means that you will need to head south to avoid the last dash (you will need to go the other side of the safe zone first to avoid the first cleave). It requires a little bit of thought, but to get a better grasp of this, simply position yourself so you’re facing where Ruby’s final dash is headed, look left and say “I’m going here if his right claw is extended.” If his left claw is extended, you will know you need to head to the right.

Optimized Ultima – Another raid-wide.

Stamp – Tankbuster that should be tank swapped as main tank will receive a damage debuff.

Ruby Dynamics – Ruby will extend his claws out and swipe at anything that isn’t in his hit box. This is where the parties come into play as two healers are targeted with stack markers. Party 1 will always be on the left side of Ruby while party 2 will be on the right. Mitigate and heal through this.

Cut and Run – Immediately after the two stack markers go off, Ruby will prepare to run forward and deal near arena-wide cleaves. At the same time, each player will be given their own large AOE attack. This is where the lineup might come into play. Just like Ruby Dynamics, party 1 will tightly lineup on the left of the arena while party 2 on the right. You will need to leave a decent gap between the first player and Ruby’s hitbox before he goes on the rampage otherwise they will get nicked and die. After this finishes up, two proximity explosions will be put on the west and east sides of the area, so rush towards Ruby (as you will have a good deal of time before they go off), heal up and mitigate.

Ruby Ray – The same frontal attack. Just get behind him or to the side depending where Ruby is placed.

Optimized Ultima – Another raid-wide.

Flexiclaw / Ravensclaw – Similar to the first Ravensclaw where Ruby creates cracks in the ground, this will do the second of the two attacks. If you got Undermine first, this will be Liquefaction, and vice versa.

Ruby Ray – The third and final frontal attack.

Optimized Ultima – ANOTHER raid-wide.

Flexiclaw / Liquefaction – Unlike the first Flexiclaw Liquefaction combo, it will be the middle that is the hazard zone. Don’t get caught in it.

Ravensflight – Like the first one, Ruby will dash around the arena. This is significantly easier to deal with since you’re on the outside instead of in the middle. With that said, when he stops halfway through and is about to extend his claw, the middle sinking sand will reverse and the initial safe outer zone will turn to death. So just before he stops, head to the center and then go on the non-extended claw side.

At this point, you’ve seen all the mechanics. He will do another set of Ruby Dynamics, Cut and Run, Ruby Ray, Optimized Ultima and Stamp until his enrage. You can trigger his enrage at around 5-8%, so if you’re quick enough you can avoid the second Ravensflight all together if your party is on point.

Phase 2

A familiar face from the original Final Fantasy XIV days, and even the Coil of Bahamut storyline, Nael van Darnus is back and looks even worse for wear. This is arguably a significantly easier portion of the fight only because there are only a handful of mechanics you need to be made aware of, but they can still end the fight at any moment. Fortunately, your death doesn’t mean you’ll have to do the first phase over again as there is a checkpoint. There’s also a deadly outer barrier that will kill you if you touch it.

Meteor Project – This is a raid-wide Nael is preparing for much later on.

Negative Personae – Similar to Omega M/F (Alphascape V4.0) or Hades Extreme, you will be given a red or blue buff. Ruby will call down two adds that you will need to kill opposite of your color. Tanks will need to pick up the correct ones too and drag them as far away from one another as possible. I’m talking to the edge of the arena.

Meteor Stream – An AOE attack; try to avoid overlapping.

Greater Memory – Here both adds will begin to cast one of two different spells with no tell other than their name:

• Iron Chariot – Close up kick that will instantly kill you. Move out.
• Lunar Dynamo – Long ranged attack where the safe zone is in the add’s hitbox.

There are a couple different combinations of these attacks; here are the best solutions:

• Iron Chariot + Iron Chariot – Just move away anywhere.
• Iron Chariot + Lunar Dynamo – For those with Iron Chariot, go north or south of your add, preferably close to the edge, to avoid the long range Lunar Dynamo – it doesn’t fill the entire arena.
• Lunar Dynamo + Lunar Dynamo – Because the adds are positioned furthest away from one another, simply move closest to your tank to avoid the two long ranged attacks.

Negative Affect – Ruby will then give two players tethers that have a colored head at the end of it. Simply position yourself near the tank (after another Meteor Stream) and the boss will absorb it.

Ruby Claw – Right as the adds are absorbing the heads, the tanks will be hit with five devastating hits they will need to mitigate through. Melee DPS, it also might be a good idea to cast Feint to help your tank out.

Change of Heart – The two adds will change their color, so tank swap and everyone switch focus.

Meteor Stream – Another AOE attack.

Greater Memory – Once again, one of two attacks will go off; position yourself accordingly.

Negative Aura – The adds should be dead during this, but if they’re not, be cautious that Ruby will cast a gaze attack that will cause hysteria and make you run to the edge of the arena. Healers, prepare your Rescue ability.

After this, if the adds aren’t dead, they will cast Ruby Claw again. Finally, Dalamud comes down and will cause a good amount of damage.

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Meteor Project#2 / Meteor Mine – This is different from the first Project as everyone will receive a meteor marker. Similar to say, Turn 4 of The Second Coil of Bahamut (T9), you will need to drop these on the outside of arena. Each player will get a number above their heads to identify the order they are dropped in — it will take roughly five seconds before the meteors drop, so melee DPS will be able to get a couple GCDs in before going to the edge — don’t get greedy. There are two methods to completing this:

• Clock Positions – Maybe the easier of the two to comprehend, especially for newer players. Your assigned positions for phase 1 will be where you drop them, with the player who has the 8 above their head moving their marker out slightly closer to the boss (you will need to get behind it, so it can’t be right on the edge). You can say in chat where it’s located, or simply look for the meteor that’s slightly closer to Ruby.
• Corresponding Numbers – This will require a little bit of thought, but it’s much easier to identify the 8th marker because it will always be the same position. When you get the number over your head, you head to the waymarker with that number. So 1-4 will go to their spots, whereas 5-8 will go to A, B, C and D markers, respectively. D will always be the meteor that needs to come a little bit closer to Ruby Weapon.

As soon as you drop your meteor proximity marker, immediately head to the middle, mitigate damage as these rocks drop and do a large amount of damage, and look out for the 8th spot.

Magitek Meteor – Ruby will call down a giant raid-wide that will kill anyone in it. You will need to position yourself behind the 8th meteor to do so, but first one important mechanic.

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Screech – Ruby will cast a knockback. Conveniently, you can get knocked back behind the 8th meteor by position yourself close to boss (within its hitbox) and in its direction. Alternatively, you can hit your Arms Length or Surecast and run over there. If you’re too far out, you will be knocked into the deadly wall.

Immediately get to the middle as the meteors will begin to explode, including the one you’re all hiding behind.

Mark II Magitek Comet – The final major mechanic of this fight. There will be two comets moving around the arena, similar to the final boss in the Orbonne Monastery alliance raid. The two tanks will need to grab these. These will do continuous damage to the tank, so it’s important that healers are focusing on their tanks, and DPS are destroying these comets as fast as possible. It’s advised that tanks use a good deal of their cooldowns or even their invulnerability skill during this stage — Paladins have a distinct advantage here with Hallowed Ground.

Bradamante – At the same time you’re destroying these comets, Ruby will mark two players. This will shoot a directional attack towards them. It doesn’t do a lot of damage, but makes you susceptible to magical damage. Do not, under any circumstances, clip the tanks during this, otherwise they will have a harder time defending against the comets. If the tank dies before the comet is destroyed, it will do a massive amount of damage and most likely will wipe the party.

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Meteor Project – This is essentially the enrage, but it wont go off for awhile. Instead Ruby will continuously hit the party with Outrage (a raid-wide) and Meteor Stream. Simply mitigate and heal through as you burn the boss from, maximum 45% health remaining. That’s the highest I’ve seen and we just killed him as the enrage was going off. Ideally you should be at around 25%, though.

How Much Dmg Should Tanks Mitigate In Raid 1

And that’s it! This seems like a lot, but it’s really not. There’s a lot of repeating mechanics that you need to be made aware of, but once you’ve got it down you can farm it pretty well. The DPS check during phase 1 is forgiving as there’s a lot of wiggle room for deaths, but don’t get too relaxed. In the end, you will get a lovely Ruby weapon, a potential shard for crafting the barding set or Ruby bust, and of course the lovely Dragon mount which has the low drop rate, which you see below. Happy farming!