Overview
Fresh from your victory over the grotesque Catastrophe, you set your sights upon the next battle. Your foe is a being named Halicarnassus, an antagonist from a classical novel, wherein she rules as the Queen of Dimension Castle. Yet be it born of fact or fiction, the struggle ahead promises to be very real.
Strategy Notes
- Being hit by avoidable mechanics will inflict a stack of Vulnerability Up.
- Players who complete the maze quickly enough will be rewarded with Damage Up and Haste buffs. Players who do not make it out in time will be instantly killed by a meteor landing in the desert room.
- With sufficient DPS, the boss should die very shortly into this phase or even before the desert tile escape, so most Duty Finder parties are unlikely to see new mechanics from this point.
Boss Encounters
Halicarnassus
- Ribbit: An untelegraphed wide frontal conal AoE attack that turns players into frogs for several seconds, preventing them from attacking. Casts this almost first thing into the fight. Watch for when she turns and get behind her. She will aim this at a random direction.
- Spellblade Thunder III: Telegraphed line AoE aimed at a random player. Inflicts Paralysis if hit.
- Spellblade Holy: Marks up people with spread markers or stack markers or both. Spread/stack appropriately. Unmarked players should stack.
- Spellblade Blizzard III: Circular AoE that inflicts Deep Freeze, get out. Medium range. Immediately followed with Spellblade Fire III.
- Spellblade Fire III: Telegraphed donut AoE. Center (in her hitbox) and the outside is safe. Large radius. Inflicts Burns if hit.
- Place Dark Token: Spawns four untargetable Soul Reaper adds at the intercardinals. Each will use a telegraphed point-blank AoE (Cross Reaper), leaving the middle and edges safe. During this long cast, the boss will cast The Queen's Waltz, placing narrow conal AoE telegraphs (Sword Dance) at each player's location. Being hit by these will knock back.
- The Playing Field: Turns the four center tiles into Role Icons (Blue shield, Green Cross, Red Sword x2). Each player should stand in a tile matching their role. Failing to do so once The Game finishes casting will result in high damage, Vulnerablity Up, and Damage Down.
- The Playing Field: Now changes the tiles to a rocky appearance, with four diagonal tiles being blue. The effects of The Queen's Waltz will differ during this phase.
- The Queen's Waltz: All non-blue tiles will be hit with a damaging AoE (Earthly Dance) that will damage and knock up players. Stand on a blue tile to be safe.
- Place Token: Spawns a Great Dragon at the corner, which should immediately be picked up by a tank and faced away from the rest of the party, because it will use Frost Breath, an untelegraphed frontal cleave dealing significant damage.
- Mindjack: Forward March / Right March / Left March / About Face: Gives each player an arrow debuff that will turn into Forced March, causing them to walk the given direction relative to where they are facing. Immediately followed by The Queen's Waltz, so players should attempt to march so they remain along the line of blue tiles.
- Place Dark Token: Now spawns six untargetable Soul Reaper adds: four on the corners, and two in the middle in a diagonal pattern. These will use telegraphed AoEs as before, leaving two opposite sections safe. In addition, each player will be given a spread marker (Holy Edge). Spread out within the safe regions.
- Aetherial Tear: The boss becomes untargetable and summons an Aetherial Tear, forcing all players into a new desert area consisting of a grid of 7x7 tiles. A few tiles will be solid ground with exits at certain directions, while the rest of the tiles will be directional sand tiles that will forcibly move players in the direction of the current. Use these to navigate to the purple portal at the opposite edge of the map and return to the original arena.
- The Playing Field: Similar to the first usage, but now paired with a Ribbit. Anyone who is hit by Ribbit should avoid standing in a role tile.
- Mindjack + Spellblade Holy: All players will be given the same directional Forced March, while one is marked with stack marker. Attempt to move in unison so that everyone remains stacked.
- Place Dark Token: Now spawns multiple untargetable Soul Reapers at the edge of the arena, each in front of a row or column. These will use a telegraphed line AoE in front of them (Gusting Gouge), leaving one tile safe.
- The Playing Field: Now turns the four middle tiles into frog panels. Players must be hit by Ribbit and turn into frogs in order to satisfy these tiles.
- Dimensional Wave: Raid-wide damage.
- The Queen's Waltz + Spellblade Holy: Conal AoEs + spread/stack
Duty Information
- Duty Finder: Normal Raids (Stormblood)
- Roulette: normal raid
- Time Limit: 90 minutes
- Tomestones: 10 Poetics
Music
- Main: Omega Squared