Turn 6 Discussion

Text Guide:

Source: http://curiaregis.guildwork.com/forum/threads/5338ab2fc16e4d4758ce5a99-turn-6-guide

Phase 1 ~ 100-70%

During this phase the boss will have access to the following:

Bloody Caress - A frontal cleave which adds a vulnerabilty stack to anyone hit by it. It adds another stack upon each use. Somewhat devastating to anyone who isn't a tank, but if you're topped off you will live if accidentally hit.
Briar - The briar is essentially a fields of thorns on the ground. The spawn places for these are indicated by the appearance of a baby treant or small bulb called a "Dark Matter Bulb". The bulbs can actually be targeted and killed. Killing bulbs that popped in the middle (under the boss) was a key part of our strategy because if the middle was not free then our movement was too restricted. These must be killed as soon as possible. If killed they will leave a patch of thorns that covers a very small area. If left alone, over time these bulbs will expand into into a thorn patch, and slowly grow bigger over time. They always have a maximum size. When the max size is reached the bulb will disappear but the thorns will remain. Stepping into a thorn patch will inflict a strong DOT effect called "Briar" that also slows the player and makes it harder to move out, so keep that in mind. If you wander too far into the thorn patch it will take you longer to get out. The thorn patch serves as a method for avoiding the "Devour" mechanic explained later.
Thorn Whip - This is a tether of thorns that can attach to two or more people, it does moderate DOT damage. The tether is broken by the connected players running away from each other until the tether is severed. The amount of damage one takes is determined by the amount of players they are connected to. The more connections, the higher the damage.
Devour - This mechanic has multiple components. 1) It is always paired with a new set of Thorn Whips, so players need to separate as it begins. 2) The start of this mechanic is signaled by a yellow ball appearing over a player's head, this signifies the target of the next two mechanics. 3) The Boss will then turn and face the signaled target, and attempt to draw them in by sucking in the air facing the target in a moderately wide cone. If you are not standing in the Briar you will be drawn in, even if you are not the intended target but are within the cone of the draw in. If you run away from the direction he is facing you can avoid the draw in without taking unnecessary damage from standing in the Briar. 4) The boss will then attempt to "Devour" the earlier signaled target. This part of the mechanic is more forgiving than the drawn in, but should still be treated with extreme caution. The boss will continue facing the direction from the drawn in mechanic, and stand up on his hand legs and make a small rotation. Anyone who is near the Boss's mouth will get "Devoured", and temporarily disappear, similar to a Conflagration from Twintania. The player will eventually be spat back out, and the boss will gain one stack of a buff that increases her overall damage. These stacks are dangerous, but they are also necessary in a later phase of the fight. Being Devoured also removes the effect "Honey", which is a mechanic in the second phase.
Spit - this move is always used a follow up the the finish of the Devour mechanic. Spit is simply an area wide AoE that does somewhat massive damage. If players in full i90 equipment are not sitting at atleast 2900~ or so HP they will die when it lands, assuming the boss has only two stacks maximum from devour (explained later).

To deal with the mechanics effectively we tanked the boss in the middle of the room, and had every other player stack on her backside. This includes the off tank. Players must be sure to be very close but not so close as to get cleaved. This is also important for AoE healing later on.

The key mechanics that permeate this fight start at the beginning, so this first phase is the most important learning phase. Being able to master positioning for Devour makes or breaks this fight, especially because the damage plus stacks added by mistakenly being eaten stay on for the entire fight and can cause wipes later on.

The way my group dealt with the Devour mechanic was to give the person targeted utter priority. This simply means that when Thorn Whip and the targeting reticle for Devour appear, it is the responsibility of the players who have not been targeted to break the tether and give the targeted player priority of movement. When the Dark Matter Bulbs begin to pop this is an indication that Devour is going to begin shortly. We had our off tank label them 1, 2 and 3 as they appeared so that we would know which ones appeared first and could call out to our raid which one we were going to if targeted. Thorn patches from previous devours also remain on the field, and if you are not standing in a recently placed patch there is a chance it will disappear from under you during the drawn in, causing you to get devoured. Continuing to kill bulbs that spawn under the boss to prevent thorn patches is also a constant mechanic, as mentioned above.

As explained in the move list above, the way a player avoids the draw in part of Devour is to stand in the thorns and receive the DOT "Briar". Once the draw in is complete, you can move out of the thorns immediately. Briar is not needed for the actual eating portion of Devour. However, it is possible for a player to stand in the Briar and still be devoured if they are too close. The actual eating is all about distance and the cone in front of him. As long as you are a safe distance away and not next to him, you can avoid being eaten, even if you are in his line of sight.

When the targeted player calls their location, all other players must make it a priority to move immediately out of the Boss's frontal cone and also sever any Thorn Whip tethers. Sometimes players may get caught in a bad spot and need to stand in the Briar with the targeted player. This is not a big deal as long as the healers know which players are being affected and can heal them appropriately before Spit goes off.

Once the Devour has taken place, it is immediately followed up with Spit. As described above spit is a massive damage arena wide AoE. The tricky part of this is that players need to get out of the Briar immediately so as not to lower their HP to a threshold where spit would kill them. This is more on the healers than anything. Players need to make sure to stack up on the White Mage and Scholar for AoE heals immediately following spit.

The aforementioned mechanics are repeated until the next phase, when the boss reaches HP lower than 70%.

Phase 2 ~ 70-40%

During this phase the boss will have access to the following NEW mechanics:

Blighted Bouquet - This move is used shortly after the boss is pushed lower than 70%. It is a move with a relatively long cast time that will instantly kill any player who continues to perform actions until it is finished casting. This also includes movement of any kind. In my experience as a player with a good connection and no lag, I can finish casting most things if they are at least halfway done when the move starts casting and still not be killed. However, all melee and tanks should disengage to ensure survival for this. She uses no other moves during the cast of this, but will continue to auto attack the main tank.
Honey - This move is signaled by a player receiving something fired at them which does low damage and applies a debuff called "Honey". The boss will turn and face her target, but she will turn back immediately and there is no threat of cleave while this move is being fired. A "Dark Matter Hornet" will then pop shortly after the effect is received and attack the player with the Honey debuff. The Hornets do not hit hard and are not much of a threat. However, the Boss will cast Blighted Bouquet while the Hornet is up in an attempt to bait you to move or perform actions and thus one shot you. The bees must be killed as soon as possible.

During this phase the boss will still have access to the following existing mechanics:

Bloody Caress
Briar
Thorn Whip
Devour
Spit

We treated this phase as somewhat of a DPS race. This is due to the fact that if the Honey debuff is not removed it will affect the amount of Hornet adds that will spawn in the final phase. To deal with this, the players afflicted with Honey need to purposely let themselves be Devoured as it removes the Honey. She will gain damage plus stacks, but if done right and damaged at a proper pace it will only result in two stacks, which is still very manageable.

The key here is to continue following Devour mechanics, killing bees, and avoid being one shot by Blighted Bouquette. Keep stacks to two, but three is still possible if healers are on their game.

The tricky part of this phase is to stop her from applying a third stack of Honey. When we reached around 45%~ or so we stopped damage on the boss and waited for the second stack of Honey. Once it was removed with the devour and the Hornet killed, we pushed her past 40% to avoid a third stack and start the new phase.

Phase 3 ~ 40- 0%

During this phase the boss will have access to the following NEW mechanics:

Leafstorm - This is simply an area wide AoE that does around 2.2k+ to a healer (with the boss having two buff stacks).
Acid Rain - This move is used shortly after Leafstorm, and is signaled by the appearance of three "Dark Matter Slugs" that will always spawn underneath the boss. The slugs have around 6k~ HP and do not do much damage. Shortly after the slugs pop Acid Rain will begin casting, and it is a circle AoE on three targeted players. If a player is hit by more than one circle it is massive damage and most likely death. When the Acid Raid lands, it will leave an "Acidic Honey" in its place. This is a slime. The slimes will not move and will not attack unless attacked, in which case they will always one shot the player that attacked them unless it was a tank. If the player lives it will apply a vulnerability stack to the player who attacked it. When the slimes appear they will place a debuff on all players which I believe is also called "Acidic Honey" or something similar (need name confirmation). This debuff starts at 1 and counts up to 10. It counts up every 10 seconds. If it hits 10, players take around 5k+ damage, meaning only the tanks survive. In total you have 100 seconds before this debuff kills you.
Rotten Stench - This move is a laser in a straight line in the direction of the target. The target is indicated by a blue target reticle that appears above a players head. The laser actually fires once a significant amount of time has passed, so you have adequate time to prepare for it.
Acid Ooze - This is a move that seems to only be used by slugs who have powered up by eating an Acidic Honey. It appears to be single target but it does massive damage if one slug has eaten all three Honeys (targeting confirmation needed).
Swarm - An unseen "Swarm" attacks the main tanks 5 times in a row at once. This is a huge damage and requires a large cool down such as sentinel or vengeance to survive. It does not appear to be cast by boss herself so I am unsure if this can be mitigated with virus and etc.

During this phase the boss will still have access to the following existing mechanics:

Thorn Whip

During this phase the boss will LOSE access to the following previous mechanics:

Bloody Caress
Briar
Devour
Spit
Blighted Bouquet
Honey

She will always start this phase by using Leafstorm, and Leafstorm will continue to be used randomly throughout the rest of the fight. Acid Rain follows shortly after, with the slugs popping just before Acid Rain. We had everyone aside from the main tank stack in the back of the room to make Acid Rain easier to avoid but also ensure they were in a place far away from where the slugs would be tanked (explained below).

Rotten Stench, the laser, will continue be fired until death. The best way to mitigate damage from rotten stench is to stack players around the target to reduce overall damage. If a single player is hit by Rotten Stench it will do upward of 3k+ damage unless they are a tank.

Thornwhips also contiune to happen randomly, with up to 5 players being affected.

Swarm appears to be used randomly, but not often.

The key to this phase is to avoid the countdown given by the Acidic Honeys, and this can only be done by forcing the Dark Matter Slugs to eat all three Acidic Honeys, and then killing all slugs who have eaten the Honeys. Slugs, unlike the Hornets, can be forced to aggro a tank. However, once the slug reaches 50% HP it will make a beeline for an Acidic Honey. If the tank holding the slugs tanks them at the opposite end of the arena from where the Acidic Honeys are clustered, then they will have the most travel time available.

Our strategy was this: Kill slugs one and two before they reached the honeys, and force the third to eat all 3. The slugs will gain HP and attack power for every slime they consume, which makes Acid Ooze incredibly powerful and gives them a lot of HP. We brought the final slug to 50% and then let it eat all 3 honeys. Once this was done, we had our MNK Limit Break 2 the slug. It brought it to around 45% and we killed it from there. This slug must die immediately before it can destroy someone with Acid Ooze combined with other ongoing mechanics.

Once the slug and honeys are eliminated, continue to DPS the boss. She will eventually respawn both the Slugs and slimes, but this time you can just have the off tank round them up and kite while the DPS continues to kill the boss. Do this until you win.

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