III. PHASE 1 - 100% HEALTH - MOVE SET i. PHASE 1 - ROTATION
IV. PHASE 2 - 70% HEALTH - MOVE SET i. PHASE 2 - ROTATION
V. PHASE 3 - 40% HEALTH - MOVE SET i. PHASE 3 - ROTATION a. TACTIC 1 - BURN b. TACTIC 2 - FEED THE SLUGS
VI - Phase 3 Positioning Graph
VII. TL;DR ALL PHASES ROTATION VIII. FIGHT BREAKDOWN PER JOB i. TL;DR FOR TANK ii. TL;DR FOR HEALER iii. TL;DR FOR DPS
IX. End and Kill Videos
I. Introduction
There have been a few kill videos uploaded from T6, a bunch of streams, and quite some discussion regarding mechanics, but no proper guide had been written for this fight as a whole. I am therefore writing this to have a complete analysis of the fight, its mechanics as a whole, to prepare my static and to share for all interested in downing Turn 6 and evil Rafflesia.
II. Phase 1 and 2 Positioning Graph
To start, here is the positioning I recommend for most of the fight until the last phase : I will begin by an exhaustive explanation of the move set, and the mechanics to deal with each spell. I am also providing a “role breakdown” for Tanks, Healers and DPS at the bottom of the page should you wish to simply view a simpler version of your own job.
III. PHASE 1 - 100% HEALTH - MOVE SET
Let us first go over the basic move-set for the entirety of the fight, and how to deal with each mechanic.
The first spell Rafflesia will cast every 15 to 30 seconds is Bloody Caress, this is a frontal AoE that the tank has to take, inflicting a “vulnerability up” debuff. This is very much like EX Titan’s table flip, or Ifrit’s fire breath. To deal with this mechanic have the tanks swap at every 2 or 3 stacks. The best way to do this is to have the other tank run in and grab hate while standing where the other tank currently is in between two BC’s, to avoid any movement of the boss. This is a constant mechanic throughout the first 2 phases.
Next spell is Thorn Whip. This spell tethers people together with a visible link, and all those affected will be taking damage over time, ticking for about 300-500 damage.Those tethered need to move away from each other enough to break the link. As the fight gets longer Thorn Whip will target more and more people at once, starting at 2 and ending at 5 or 6 (at least I haven’t ever seen more than that).
The next technique is called Briary Growth. This technique spawns 3 Dark Matter Bulbs at 3 random locations indicated on the map. These bulbs grow into vines on the ground which deal damage and slow all inside. These areas grow slowly over time until they cover about a sixth of the arena. Standing in these can be used to avoid the pull from the next spell Floral Trap. Tanking the boss in the center allows for everyone to stick close enough to the boss to never get touched by any sprout from the outer ring. Should a Dark Matter Bulb spawn under the boss, it needs to be focused down and killed instantly before it can grow and block the center.
Floral Trap, Devour and Spit are a combination spell. Shortly after every second Thorn Whip, the boss will place a yellow sign over the head of a single player. He will then proceed to pull everyone near that player to melee range (being in a “ground trap” from Briary Growth will render you immune to the pull, but the best way to avoid this is simply to stand in front of the boss right as he casts this as he should not cast BC during these skills, and the targeted person is behind), and then cast Devour. Devour will “eat” anyone in melee range of the area which he grabbed previously with Floral Trap. Devoured people are stuck inside his stomach for a few seconds, when he will cast Spit. Spit is a raid-wide instant AoE that hits for about 2k2 damage on average. Any Devoured individual will be spit out during this spell. Being Devoured has 2 additional effects : it removes the debuff from Viscid Emission (also commonly referred to as Honey glazing”) and adds a damage buff to the boss.
These are the basic mechanics that have to be dealt with for Phase 1 and 2, until 40%.
i. PHASE 1 - ROTATION
Phase 1 begins as soon as you pull. The rotation of spells is simple and repetitive. On top of these spells Rafflesia will be periodically casting Bloody Caress, so don’t forget to tank swap. Thorn Whip - Briary Growth - Thorn Whip - Floral Trap/Devour - Spit - REPEAT. The phase switch which happens at 70% should happen some time during the second repetition of this rotation. If it hasn’t, expect a third rotation, but at that point your groups dps will probably be lacking overall to deal with the requirements of the later stages.
IV. PHASE 2 - 70% HEALTH - MOVE SET
Phase 2 has the same spells as Phase 1 in the same order, but sees the addition of 2 new mechanics. The first happens immediately at 70% and signals the phase switch. It is a spell called Blighted Bouquet. What this spell does is, if anyone is casting anything, moving, attacking, or doing any action as the cast ends, they will be killed instantly. The best way to deal with this is to stop any action at around half cast time, to be sure nothing happens.
The second is called Viscid Emission, usually referred to as “Honey glazing” or simply “Honey”. This spell targets a single individual and places a Honey debuff on him. When that player is hit by this spell, a Dark Matter Hornet (or Bee) will appear and attack that player. This bee does not respond to any aggro, and needs to be focused down and killed instantly at pop. That player needs to let itself be Devoured to get rid of the Honey debuff. It is imperative they do so BEFORE the phase switch, or else bees will continuously spawn during Phase 3, without being able to lose the debuff.
i. PHASE 2 - ROTATION
Starting at 70% with Blighted Bouquet, the rotation of Phase 2 is once more repetitive. Briary Growth - Thorn Whip - FT/Devour - Spit - Honey - Thorn Whip - Blighted Bouquet - Briary Growth - Thorn Whip - FT/Devour - Spit - Thorn Whip - Blighted Bouquet-REPEAT As you can see BlightedB is always preceeded by a Thorn Whip, so breaking the tethers must be done very fast. Also, every 2nd BlightedB (counting the phase switch one) will have a bee during it. DO NOT DPS THE BEE during BlightedB as this will constitute an action and you will be killed. Remember to focus target Rafflesia to see when to stop acting. Repeat this rotation until 40%. Again, this should happen during the second repetition.
V. PHASE 3 - 40% HEALTH - MOVE SET
Phase 3 sees the loss of some spells. Blighted Bouquet disappears, Honey as well, FT/Devour and Spit too, and Briary Growth as well as Bloody Caress. This marks the end of necessary tank swaps. The tank is also usually held in a different position than before, the graph can be found at the end of this part. However there are a number of new spells in Phase 3, 1 of them is simply present at the phase switch and the others part of the regular rotation. Phase 3 opens at 40% with Leafstorm. This is a raid-wide AoE that deals approximately 2k damage, and marks the passing to Phase 3. As this ends 3 Dark Matter Slugs will spawn. These can be tanked by your OT or killed instantly by a caster LB2. This is immediately followed by Acid Rain. It is best to think of Acid Rain as Titan’s Plumes : they spawn around 3 people for about the same size. Therefore the simplest way to avoid these is to ensure everyone is stacked behind the boss at phase switch, and moves out of the AoE when the marker appears. The center of these AoE’s will also spawn 3 Acidic Honeys. These adds do nothing, they stand where they landed, and attack no one. They periodically cast a debuff called Acid Cloud, which applies to everyone and stacks. For every stack you have of Acid Cloud, the next time the next stack is applied it will deal increased damage to you. 10 stacks can deal up to 6k5 damage. You may either ignore them and burn the boss (strat 1) or feed the slugs the adds and then kill the slugs (strat 2).
The next new spell present you will notice is Swarm. This spell places 4 stacks of a debuff on your MT, which will then proceed to disappear, every time hitting him for around 1k damage. This is some kind of a “warning, huge damage spike inc”. So deal with it appropriately with stoneskin/adloq and some cooldowns and all should be fine.
The last spell is Rotten Stench. This spell is cast during the effect of Thorn Whip. It will do a linear AoE towards a player, about as large as Moogle Mog’s line AoE. The damage from this spell is split in between targets. The way to deal with this is having everyone break their links from Thorn Whip by moving forward and backward from each other rather than sideways, to ensure they all stay in a line and split the damage from Rotten Stench.
Once the second adds have spawned, the rest of the phase starts with the regular rotation. Seeing as the common tactic it seems is to ignore the adds and any possible mechanic they have and burn the boss down before 10 stacks of Acid Cloud, this is the strategy I will be presenting until I have had the occasion to play around with the adds with my own static and notice their intended effects.
i. PHASE 3 - ROTATION
There are two common tactics to deal with the new mechanics from Phase 3. The first is simpler but requires very high dps. The second is more active, but relieves the stress on dps by a lot, and is the intended way to clear the boss.
a. TACTIC 1 - BURN
The first tactic, common for now, is simply making all adds spawn (the 3 Slugs after Leafstorm and the 3 Acidic Honeys) and to ignore them. That is, either Caster LB2 at the end of Leafstorm to kill the slugs instantly, or have your OT hold them on the side of the boss for the rest of the fight. After that, simply follow this rotation until you either kill the boss or die from Acid Cloud stacks. Opens with Leafstorm - Acid Rain - Thorn Whip - Swarm - Thorn Whip - Rotten Stench - Swarm - REPEAT. Rafflesia also regularly performs Leafstorm, but in this tactic it deals fairly low damage and has no extra effect, therefore it can be ignored. As you can see, this last rotation is far from complex, but is a severe dps check. You need to burn the boss down from 40% to 0% before 10 stacks of Acid Cloud. You have about 2 minutes at best.
b. TACTIC 2 - FEED THE SLUGS
The second tactic relieves dps by quite a lot. The way to do it is simple. When the slugs and acidic honeys have spawned, you dps a single slug down to low health while tanking it near the honeys. If you have properly stacked during Acid Rain, and all the Honeys are on top of each other, the slug will feed itself on the 3 Acidic Honeys at once. It then turns into a “Super Slug” (much like a buffed Dreadnought on T4) which must be killed asap. A common way to do this is melee LB2 the Super Slug to bring it low very fast. Basically, you feed the slug, kill its super version, and then focus the boss. He will complete a full rotation as follows, and then resummon slugs and honeys, until he dies.
For this, you want to place the boss just like in the previous graph. You may place the Acid Rain plumes wherever you like, just make sure that they are all stacked on top of each other. Usually, when the second set of adds spawn, the OT just grabs the Slugs, and you ignore them and finish burning the boss down to 0.
VI - Phase 3 Positioning Graph
The positioning for the boss should be changed by dragging the boss towards the edge, to allow for a maximum amount of space to break the link by running behind him during Thorn Whip, while staying packed in a line to deal with Rotten Stench. Something like this
Phase 1, you grab the boss, hold it in the center. Every 2 or 3 stacks of vulnerability up debuff, you swap with the other tank. OT always helps dps with their target while waiting to swap back (most of the time that is the boss anyway). Phase 2, same as P1, except be careful for Blighted Bouquet : it will OS you if you are doing any action! When OT, help dps the Bees and/or Bulbs that might have spawned under the boss. Phase 3, MT brings the boss to the edge. OT stacks with everyone and gets ready to grab the Slugs, or if you are going to LB2 them, switches to full DPS mode until the end of the fight. For Tactic 1, just dps the boss as much as possible. For Tactic 2, OT make sure you keep the low health Slugs near the Honeys, and then use your CD’s to survive the Super Slug. It’s then your job to finish off the other 2 Slugs before the next full rotation. Make sure to stay behind the boss at all times to soak up damage from Rotten Stench, and remember that at the end of the rotation he will cast a second Leafstorm and Acid Rain! So get ready for those next slugs.
ii. TL;DR FOR HEALER
Phase 1, you basically have to make sure the current MT doesn’t die. If you are linked by Thorn Whip to anyone, move to break it. Remember to move in front of the boss after every 2nd Thorn Whip to avoid Floral Trap and Devour! Devour is always followed by Spit, which will deal high damage to everyone, make sure everyone is topped off, preferably with a Succor shield up. Phase 2, same as P1 for most mechanics. Be careful of Blighted Bouquet, it will OS you if you do any action! This happens every second Thorn Whip. You can now be targeted by Honey, remember to let yourself be Devoured if that is the case. Remember to heal the one who is Honey Glazed, as these adds don’t have hate. Deal with all previous mechanics in the same way as before. Get everyone topped off with a Succor shield right before P3 to survive Leafstorm! Phase 3, remember to stack with everyone for the Acid Rain at the start of the phase. if you do Tactic 1, you will basically need to keep on breaking chains, stay behind the boss to soak up damage from Rotten Stench, and keep the tank up. Be wary of Swarm, it will place a few second timer on your MT before he takes a very high amount of damage, you want ot top him off before that happens and bring him back up right after it. If you can, help to DPS sometimes, as this is a very intense DPS check. For Tactic 2, do the same for swarm, chains and Rotten Stench, but make sure to keep the OT alive as he will be taking a lot of damage from the Super Slug while it is alive. Also, at the end of the rotation, expect another Leafstorm and Acid Rain, so stack up and heal!
iii. TL;DR FOR DPS
Phase 1, if you are linked by Thorn Whip, move to break it. Remember to move in front of the boss after every 2nd Thorn Whip to avoid Floral Trap and Devour! Should a Bulb spawn under the boss, focus it and burn it as fast as possible. Treat it like short conflags from T5, destroy them instantly. Phase 2, same as P1 for most mechanics. Be careful of Blighted Bouquet, it will OS you if you do any action! This happens every second Thorn Whip. You can now be targeted by Honey, remember to let yourself be Devoured if that is the case. Whenever a Bee spawns, focus it down and kill it instantly. Remember not to do any action during Blighted Bouquet while a Bee is alive! Just let it hit you/your ally until the spell is over. Phase 3, remember to stack with everyone for Acid Rain. For Tactic 1, burn all your cooldowns the instant P3 starts and dish out as much dps as possible in the 2 minutes you have to down him. Remember to break chains by staying behind him to soak up damage from Rotten Stench! For Tactic 2, you will want to dps down a single Slug (don’t kill it though), and then burn it as soon as it becomes a Super Slug. (Probably Melee LB2 it). After that, switch to boss and deal with Chains and Rotten Stench as required. Stack again at the end of the rotation for Acid Rain. Ignore the adds the second time, burn the boss while dealing with regular mechanics and gg!
IX. End and Kill Videos
Thank you for taking the time to read this guide. Here are the 3 kill videos I have based most of my tactics on, watching all 3 after having read this should give you a clear understanding of the fight, and speed you up on your way to clearing the opening Turn of the Second Coil of Bahamut! See you on Turn 7 everyone.
Alastiir Shel’thar from Ragnarok
- T6 clear Scholar PoV (especially good to see a good P3 management)
- T6 to 5% WHM PoV. (Good to see some mistakes on last phase, the dps requirements, a good P1/P2 management. Battle Log for spell names.)
- T6 clear Monk PoV. (Shows how to do Tactic 2 for P3 very well!)
Chai Latte replied
578 weeks ago