Futures Rewritten (Ultimate)

Overview

Drawing upon his ever-fertile imagination, the wandering minstrel weaves his own interpretation of events surrounding the Flood of Light, the calamity that engulfed nigh the entirety of the First. From the cause of the Flood to the outcome of the struggles that followed, the man's evocative verse conjures up vivid images in your mind's eye─images of an alternate future that may have unfolded for Ryne, the young Oracle of Light...

Strategy Notes

• All throughout this battle, the arena will be surrounded by a border that will kill any player who touches it.
• Failing mechanics or being hit by avoidable AoEs will inflict a crippling -90% Damage Down debuff that lasts for 3 minutes. In addition, taking certain stack mechanics with fewer than the intended number of players will inflict a stack of Mark of Mortality to all players in the stack, which functions and lasts identically to the Damage Down debuff. If any player receives 2 or more stacks, they will die. If a player has both Damage Down and Mark of Mortality, their damage will be reduced by 99%.
• If the player does not need to be immediately alive for a mechanic, they should incapacitate themself by walking into the wall and then be resurrected to remove these debuffs, as the Weakness debuff is only around a 25% damage loss that lasts for half the time.
• The party should assign clock spots, with supports on cardinals and DPS on intercardinals, along with light parties consisting of 1 tank, 1 healers and 2 DPS. Note that the off-tank should be on the east clock spot while the group 2 healer is south. Waymarks can be placed in a standard clock configuration with the 1 waymark northwest. For Phase 1, pairs of players are determined based on waymark color (e.g., the main tank at A will be paired with the ranged DPS at 1). In addition, the party should assign "conga line" positions, e.g. HRMTTMRH.
• The following strategies are directly based on the "LesBin" that is commonly referenced in North American data centers.
• During this phase, a Fragment of Fate crystal containing the memories of Ryne and Gaia will spawn on the north wall of the arena. The crystal will take passive damage from mechanics and end up with very low health. Players must avoid baiting AoE attacks on it, or it will eventually break. The crystal cannot be healed and must be kept intact to progress to the final phase. If alive, it will also emit raidwide AoEs (Edge of Oblivion) at designated times, dealing moderate magical damage.

Boss Encounters

Phase 1: Fatebreaker

• Cyclonic Break: The boss will imbue itself with either fire or lightning. All players should go to their clock spots.
• Each player will be hit with a conal AoE that deals physical damage. These AoEs will repeat in the same locations once, then twice more but rotated ~30 degrees each time, essentially creating an alternating pattern of conal AoEs during the final three sets.
• If the boss imbued fire, then all DPS or all supports will be hit with a split damage AoE (Sinsmoke) that deals magical damage and Magic Vulnerability Up. Each player should rotate to stack with their assigned partner.
• If the boss imbued thunder, all players will be with an AoE (Sinsmite) that deals magical damage and Magic Vulnerability Up, requiring the party to fully spread.
• During the stack/spread AoEs, the second set of conal AoEs will go off, requiring the party to dodge them while resolving the stacks/spreads.
• The third set of conal AoEs then go off, requiring them to dodge back into where the first AoEs hit.
• Finally, the fourth set of conal AoEs will go off, requiring the party to dodge back again.
• Powder Mark Trail: A telegraphed tankbuster on the main tank that deals heavy physical damage and inflicts Physical Vulnerability Up and a 16-second Powder Mark Trail debuff. When this debuff expires, the tank will emit a large, untelegraphed tankbuster AoE that deals heavy magical damage (Burn Mark). In addition, the closest player to the tank will also be hit with a similar AoE, requiring the two tanks to be the closest to each other.
• The main tank can heavily mitigate the initial hit and the off-tank must provoke during the cast bar to prevent death to the subsequent auto-attack, or the main tank can use an invulnerability cooldown, which will not require a tank swap. Note that the invulnerability cooldown will not last for the follow-up tankbuster AoE.
• Utopian Sky: The boss will imbue itself with either fire or thunder, then become untargetable and begin a series of mechanics:
• The arena background will be covered in fog, similar to the Prismatic Deception mechanic in Eden's Promise: Anamorphosis (Savage).
• Each player should go to the wall at their clock spot, except the off-tank and group 2 ranged DPS must switch. The off-tank should inch towards the main tank (approximately one border crystal notch in) to ensure that the follow-up proximity tankbuster is baited on them.
• An untargetable clone of the boss (Fatebreaker's Image) will spawn on each cardinal and intercardinal, which only players very close to them can see. Each clone will either raise its weapon up or keep it down. Raised weapon clones will use an untelegraphed line AoE (Blasting Zone) directly through the arena. There will be three of these, leaving two opposite sectors safe.
• Looking at their clone, if it raises its weapon, the player should move towards the center of the arena. If they see the player opposite from them move in, then they will also move in.
• If done correctly, two players will remain at the wall, denoting where the safe areas are. It is common for those players to also jump a few times to signal to others they are in a safe area.
• Each light party must then move to their assigned location, typically sorted by waymark color (e.g. group 1 to red or purple waymarks, group 2 to yellow or blue waymarks).
• If the boss originally imbued with fire during the Utopian Sky cast, then each light party must stack, as both tanks will be hit with a split-damage magical AoE (Sinbound Fire III).
• If the boss originally imbued with thunder during the Utopian Sky cast, then each player must spread in a T-shaped formation within the safe area, as all players will be hit with a magical AoE (Sinbound Thunder III). The outer players can go two border crystals from the middle of the safe area.
• The line AoEs and stacks/spreads will resolve, and the boss will spawn in the middle of the arena and cast another Cyclonic Break, which is resolved as before.
• During this, a Fatebreaker's Image add will appear near north and cast Turn of the Heavens, spawning four orange fire circles (Halo of Flame) and four blue lightning circles (Halo of Levin) at each cardinal and intercardinal. These will each begin casting Brightfire, a circle AoE directly where they are located. The west side will have the same color circles, and the east side will have all of the other color. The add will imbue itself with either fire or lightning, which determines which color circles will emit a larger circle AoE, making that entire side unsafe.

Phase 2: Usurper of Frost

• Quadruple Slap: A telegraphed tankbuster on the highest enmity player dealing massive physical damage and inflicting a 14-second Physical Vulnerability Up that can be cleansed for esuna. This attack repeats with the same effect. One way to resolve this is for the target tank to heavily mitigate and a healer or bard to cleanse the debuff after each hit. However, for convenience, it is common to take both hits with an invulnerability cooldown, which does not require the debuffs to be cleansed.
• Mirror Image: The boss summons an untargetable Oracle's Reflection clone of herself, which will be in her light form.
• Diamond Dust: Heavy raid-wide magical damage, requiring mitigation. The boss will become untargetable and begin a series of mechanics:
• Two icicle circle AoE telegraphs (Icicle Impact) will initially spawn opposite each other, on random cardinals or intercardinals.
• Four additional AoE telegraphs will appear adjacent to the initial spawns, followed by two final telegraphs in the remaining empty areas, which will be 90 degrees from the initial spawns.
• Meanwhile, the Oracle's Reflection will use either Axe Kick or Scythe Kick, which will be indicated by a voice line in addition to the cast in the enmity list.
• Axe Kick is a large point-blank AoE that will leave the outside of the arena safe. Its range is denoted by the outer blue circle. The add will say "Cleave!".
• Scythe Kick is a large donut AoE that will leave the middle of the arena safe. The safe spot is within the length of the four-pointed star in the middle. The add will say "Reap!".
• During the circle or donut AoE, the clone will also aim a narrow, untelegraphed conal AoE (The House of Light) at the four closest players, which deals magical damage and inflicts Magic Vulnerability Up.
• Regardless of which attack the boss uses, four players (all DPS or all supports) will be targeted with a spread AoE marker (Frigid Stone) that deals magical damage and inflicts Magic Vulnerability Up. These resolve approximately 2 seconds after the kick and conal AoEs, and will leave behind a "starburst" AoE telegraph that consists of four overlapping line AoEs (Frigid Needle).
• During this sequence, the icicle circle AoEs will begin resolving, and the boss will spawn in the middle and use Heavenly Strike, an untelegraphed radial knockback. This can be prevented with knockback immunities.
• To solve the first part of this mechanic, each player should first report to their clock position.
• Players should first take note of the boss's voice line to determine whether it is an in or out dodge.
• If the icicle circles first spawned on cardinals, then the House of Light conal AoEs must be aimed at the cardinals, and the pink spread AoEs must be dropped on intercardinals.
• If the icicle circles spawned on intercardinals, then the House of Light conal AoEs must be aimed at the intercardinals, and the pink spread AoEs must be dropped on cardinals.
• Because the mechanic is role-based, each player will either stay on their original clock position or swap to their color-matched waymark position, depending on whether they are marked and where the icicle circles initially spawned.
• If the add uses Scythe Kick, the entire party must be in the middle of the arena to avoid the donut AoE, with the non-marked players closer towards the center to bait the conal AoEs. After the kick goes off, the marked players must quickly run out and drop their AoEs on the inner blue ring of the arena, then run back in to dodge the icicle circles.
• If the add uses Axe Kick, the entire party must be past the outer blue ring of the arena to avoid the point-blank AoE, with the non-marked players closer towards it to bait the conal AoEs. They must observe the cast in the enmity list and run in immediately when it fills to avoid the icicle circles. Waiting for the Axe Kick animation will cause them to be hit by the icicles. Meanwhile, the marked players will go to to the wall and wait until their AoE markers disappear, then run back to the middle of the arena. Using Sprint is highly recommended.
• When the party is back to the middle, they should be knocked back to one of two opposite safe spots based on their light party assignments, with group 1 taking the red or purple waymarks, and group 2 taking the blue or yellow waymarks. The safe spots will be in the same locations as the first set of icicle circles that appeared. Alternatively, players can also preposition in the safe spots and use knockback immunity.
• The Oracle's Reflection will then re-appear on a random cardinal or intercardinal towards the center.

Intermission: Ice Veil

• The party will be knocked back and frozen with Deep Freeze, while a short cutscene plays similar to the ending sequence of Eden's Verse: Refulgence. Ryne will be trapped in an Ice Veil, while Gaia will appear and attempt to free her.
• Once players are unfrozen, four Crystals of Light will appear at the outside on the cardinals, while four Crystals of Darkness will appear towards the center on the intercardinals.
• The goal of this short intermission is to defeat the Ice Veil before it finishes casting Endless Ice Age, which will wipe the party. The Ice Veil will be invincible until the four Crystals of Light are destroyed.
• Melees and tanks should be each assigned a Crystal of Light to focus. Ranged and healers will each stand by one Crystal of Darkness and assist their melee/tank color partner with destroying their crystal.
• The Crystals of Darkness will continually use Sinbound Blizzard III, aiming a red conal AoE telegraph at the nearest player. These must be baited by ranged players to avoid hitting other players, the Crystals of Light, or the Ice Veil. If they hit the other enemies, they will gain a significant Vulnerability Down that will effectively make them unkillable in time.
• The Crystals of Light will spawn red circle AoE telegraphs (Hiemal Storm) underneath the closest player to them, which should be their assigned melee. These also should be baited away from other players.
• The Crystals of Light will also each tether the closest player, targeting them with an AoE (Hiemal Ray) that inflicts magical damage and leaves behind a light puddle that inflicts a lethal bleeding. These should be baited at the outside of the arena. Ideally, the crystals should be defeated before they are allowed to use this attack.
• Once their assigned Crystal of Light has been destroyed, players should assist with defeating the other light crystals.
• When all Crystals of Light have been destroyed, Gaia will say "My power surges!" and the Ice Veil will lose its invincibility (but still have Vulnerability Down), allowing the party to destroy it. Ranged players must continue baiting Sinbound Blizzard III during this sequence.
• If a conal AoE accidentally hit the Ice Veil, its Vulnerability Down will be made significantly more potent, but this will not be indicated on its status effect bar.
• If the Ice Veil receives the buffed Vulnerability Down, then DPS limit breaks will do no damage to it.
• The Crystals of Darkness have low HP and must be kept alive in order to progress to the final phase of this encounter, so players should be careful with cleaving AoE attacks. If they are all kept alive, Gaia will use an attack that will remove 50% of the Ice Veil's HP towards the end of its enrage cast, meaning that the party will only need to take care of the other half. If any are destroyed, Gaia will not use her attack. Conversely, the party must fully reduce its health to progress past this mechanic. If all of the crystals are destroyed, the Ice Veil will also lose its Vulnerability Down buff.
• During early progression, some groups may opt to use a level 3 magical ranged DPS limit break to destroy all of the dark crystals and significantly damage the light crystals for the sole purpose of practicing the next phase.
• As there is no mandatory limit break check until the final phase of the fight, it is acceptable to use a level 3 melee DPS limit break to help dispatch the Ice Veil if damage is lacking.
• If the Ice Veil is defeated in time, another short cutscene will play in which the Usurper of Frost corrupts Gaia and causes her to transform into the Oracle of Darkness. During of this, she will release a magical raid-wide attack (Junction) that should be lightly mitigated.
• If the Crystals of Darkness were all kept alive, an Eternal Ice Fragment will appear, which will automatically be collected by Ryne. If any of them were destroyed, the ice fragment will shatter and disappear, but the party can still progress to the next phase.

Phase 3: Oracle of Darkness

• Hell's Judgment: Reduces all players' current HP to 1, requiring healing. (If their Well Fed (food) or other max HP-boosting buffs fell off during the cast, this attack will kill them.)
• Ultimate Relativity: Heavy raid-wide magical damage, requiring mitigation. Note that the damage is split between how many players are currently alive. Assigns debuffs to players and begins a sequence of mechanics:
• Debuffs (each resolve when their timer expires):
• Spell-in-Waiting: Dark Fire III: A large AoE centered on the player that deals magical damage and inflicts a one-second Magic Vulnerability Up and 12-second Fire Resistance Down II.
• Spell-in-Waiting: Dark Blizzard III: A donut AoE centered on the player that will kill anyone hit.
• Spell-in-Waiting: Unholy Darkness: A medium-sized split damage AoE centered on the player that deals magical damage, inflicts a one-second Magic Vulnerability Up, and must be shared by five players to prevent Mark of Mortality.
• Spell-in-Waiting: Return: The player will drop a Rewind icon where they were standing, while this debuff turns into Return. When it expires, the player will be briefly stunned and be forcibly moved back to the location they dropped the Rewind.
• Spell-in-Waiting: Dark Eruption: A medium-sized AoE centered on the player that deals magical damage and inflicts a one-second Magic Vulnerability Up.
• Spell-in-Waiting: Shadoweye: A 360 degree gaze attack centered on the player that will inflict an uncleansable doom to anyone who is looking at them when it resolves.
• Spell-in-Waiting: Dark Water III: A medium-sized split damage AoE centered on the player that deals magical damage, inflicts a one-second Magic Vulnerability Up, and must be shared by four players to prevent Mark of Mortality.
• Assignments (3-4 debuffs per player):
• One player: A 21-second Blizzard
• If this debuff was on a support, one DPS will receive a 31-second ("long") Fire
• If this debuff was on a DPS, one support will receive an 11-second ("short") Fire
• Two players (one support and one DPS): A 21-second ("medium") Fire
• Two supports: A 31-second ("long") Fire
• Two DPS: An 11-second ("short") Fire
• Three players (always the long Fire players and Blizzard DPS): A 26-second Rewind that will turn into a 14-second Return.
• The remaining five players will receive a 16-second Rewind that will turn into a 24-second Return. This will cause all of the Returns to resolve at once.
• Three players who do not have long Fire or do not have Blizzard as a DPS: A 11, 21, or 31-second Unholy Darkness, one timer per player

Phase 4: Usurper of Frost and Oracle of Darkness

• The Usurper of Frost will spawn either north or south (depending on which is further away from Gaia) and become targetable.
• She will auto-attack her top two highest enmity targets during this phase, so both tanks must be highest and second highest in enmity.
• Materialization: Summons the Fragment of Fate.
• The main tank should move the boss to the middle immediately after this cast.
• The Usurper of Frost will transform into her Hraesvelgr form from Eden's Verse: Refulgence (Savage). Similar to the original encounter, this will come with baited persistent AoEs (Akh Rhai) on each player's current location.
• All players should stack, then move away once her wings sprout to avoid the AoEs. Players should move to assigned quadrants, with healers northwest, tanks northeast, ranged DPS southwest, and melee DPS southeast.
• The Oracle of Darkness will become targetable. The off-tank should take highest enmity on her, while the main tank has top enmity on the Usurper of Frost. The rest of the party should switch to attacking the Oracle of Darkness to help balance both boss's HP, which will become relevant later.
• The Fragment of Fate will emit an Edge of Oblivion raidwide AoE.
• If any of the Dark Crystals during the intermission were destroyed, this raidwide will instead be called Depths of Oblivion.
• Darklit Dragonsong: Heavy raid-wide magical damage, requiring mitigation. Assigns debuffs to players and begins a sequence of mechanics, while both bosses remain targetable. Even though both bosses cast this action, the damage originates from the Usurper of Frost, so targeted mitigation (e.g., Addle) should be applied to her.
• All players receive 3 stacks of Lightsteeped, which functions as before.
• One tank, one healer, and two random DPS will be tethered together and given a 7-second Refulgent Chain debuff. When it expires, the tethers will activate and the debuff will turn into a 14-second Refulgent Fate. This functions similarly to the Curse of Everlasting Light tethers from Phase 2, but the tethers will now break if they become too short or too long, which will wipe the raid.
• One tethered player and one non-tethered player will each be given an 18-second Spell-in-Waiting: Dark Water III. These players will be indicated with stack markers during the cast of Darklit Dragonsong, before the chain debuffs are assigned after the cast finishes.
• Two towers will appear in melee range, one north and one south. Each tower must be taken by two players, which will give 1 stack of Lightsteeped.
• The Usurper of Frost will cast The Path of Light, hitting the four closest players to her with a medium-size conal AoE that inflicts Magic Vulnerability Up and gives 1 stack of Lightsteeped.
• Shortly after the towers and cleaves resolve, the Oracle of Darkness will jump to one random player with Spirit Taker.
• The Usurper of Frost will use Hallowed Wings, a half-room cleave indicated by which of her wings is glowing. This resolves at the same time as the Dark Water stacks.
• Finally, the Oracle of Darkness will use Somber Dance, jumping to the furthest player from her and hitting them with a heavy-hitting physical AoE tankbuster that inflicts Physical Vulnerability Up. She will then jump to the closest player (which may be the same player) and use another similar tankbuster AoE.
• To solve, the party should line up horizontally (north and south) near their assigned quadrants until all debuffs appear. The tethered players will need to take the towers, while the non-tethered players bait the conal AoEs from the middle of the room.
• There are three possible patterns of initial tethers spawns:

Phase 5: Pandora

• Fulgent Blade: High physical raid-wide damage, requiring mitigation.
• Will also spawn several six intersecting lines on the ground centered on a semi-random location.
• These lines are divided into three sets. Each set has two intersecting lines at a 45 degree angle.
• One set of lines will begin glowing, either the most clockwise or most counterclockwise set, followed by the others in a clockwise or counterclockwise pattern.
• The lines will cascade outwards as light or dark-aspected line AoEs (The Path of Light / The Path of Darkness), in the order they started glowing. The initial AoEs from each set will have a late telegraph, while the remaining ones are untelegraphed. Players who are hit by these AoEs will take high damage and receive either Light Resistance Down II or Dark Resistance Down II, depending on the element of the AoE they were hit with.
• To solve, the party must first identify the first set of lines to glow and determine whether they glow clockwise or counterclockwise.
• Stand near the middle of the region surrounded by all the lines but leaning away from the first set.
• Wait for two pulses of the first set of the AoEs, then move into the "diamond" formed by their intersection in the second set. Specifically:
• If the lines glow clockwise, go near the left tip of the diamond (facing the edge of the arena closest to where they originated from).
• If the lines glow counterclockwise, go near the right tip of the diamond.
• Wait for two pulses of the second set of AoEs, then repeat this dodge pattern.
• Wait for two pulses of the third set of AoEs, then go to anywhere in the diamond.
• Shortly after the second set begins resolving, the boss will begin casting Akh Morn, targeting a random player on her left with a light-aspected AoE and a random player on her right with a dark-aspected AoE. Both AoEs inflict high split damage, requiring mitigation, and should be split by four players each. These do not inflict Mark of Mortality if taken by fewer than four people. Anyone with a light/dark vulnerability debuff from being hit by the line AoEs will die if they are hit by the stack AoE of the same element as their debuff.
• After moving into the third diamond, group 1 should begin moving left and group 2 should move right (facing the boss) to resolve Akh Morn. Players can use the targeting ring "nipple" to guide, as the AoEs are boss relative. While the boss will roughly face the party if the main tank dodges with the group, one light party may need to run further and should be mindful of any lingering line AoEs.
• Paradise Regained: The boss will sequentially spawn three towers, each of which must be soaked by two people.
• The towers will be 120 degrees from each other and be true northwest, northeast, and south, although the spawn order is random.
• Towers that are soaked will inflict minor magical damage (Explosion) and a 7-second Magic Vulnerability Up, making another tower soak by the same player lethal. Towers are not fully soaked will explode for high damage and Damage Down (Unmitigated Explosion).
• At the same time as the towers start spawning, the boss will cast Wings Dark and Light. Either her dark or light wing will begin glowing, followed by the other.
• If her dark wing starts glowing first, she will face the highest enmity player and use a large physical tankbuster cleave, hitting her entire right side and a 45 degree region from her north on her left side. At the same time, she will hit the closest player that is not the highest enmity player with a medium-sized magical tankbuster AoE. This player will be tethered with a purple tether. This is immediately followed by her light-aspected tankbusters.
• If her light wing starts glowing first, she will face the highest enmity player and use a large physical tankbuster cleave, hitting her entire left side and a 45 degree region from her north on her right side. At the same time, she will hit the furthest player that is not the highest enmity player with a medium-sized magical tankbuster AoE. This player will be tethered with a white tether. This is immediately followed by her dark-aspected tankbusters.

Duty Information

• Duty Finder: Raid Finder (Ultimate Raids)
• Time Limit: 120 minutes
• Tomestones: 30 mnemonics

Achievements

• Alternative Destiny

Music

• Phase 1: Fatebreaker: The Legendary Beast
• Phase 2: Usurper of Frost: Footsteps in the Snow
• Intermission: Ice Veil: A Sundering of Light
• Phase 3: Oracle of Darkness: The Extreme
• Phase 4: Usurper of Frost and Oracle of Darkness: Promises to Keep
• Phase 5: Pandora: Return to Oblivion (Scions & Sinners: Band)