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The World of Darkness is a level 50 alliance raid inFinal Fantasy 14, and the final raid in the Crystal Tower series. Despite defeating Emperor Xande in the Srycus Tower, his pact with the voidsent is still in effect. A Cloud of Darkness grows in the void atop the Crystal Tower, threatening to be unleashed throughout Eorzea.
Related:Final Fantasy 14: Labyrinth Of The Ancients Guide
Once again, with the help of Cid and the members of NOAH, you must enter the Crystal Tower, this time to defeat the Cloud of Darkness and save the realm. Below, we’ll take a look at every boss you’ll encounter in this raid, their attacks and mechanics, and how to beat them.
Angra Mainyu
The first boss of the World of Darkness is Angra Mainyu. There arefour panels around the arenathat will light up in a clockwise sequence. These will be used tocleanse the Doom debuffthat you may have later in the fight.
Queen Scylla
Between the first and second bosses is a mini-encounter with Queen Scylla. This is different from the Scylla in the Syrcus Tower, and will die much faster. The main thing to watch out for here is theVoid Gatesthat will spawn on either side of the arena. Quickly destroy these toprevent additional enemiesfrom appearing.
After Queen Scylla is defeated, a chest will spawn in the center of the arena. Opening this chest will have a clone of Xande appear. Similarly, this Xande is very different from the one in the previous raid, and can be quickly dispatched. Once again,Void Gateswill appear that need to be destroyed.
Five-Headed Dragon
The second boss of the World of Darkness is the Five-Headed Dragon. TheTank should face the Five-Headed Dragon away from the rest of the party, mainly due to the boss’s attackWhite Breath. This attack deals high damage in a cone to the front of the boss, and thus can be avoided by aiming the boss away from other players.
AoE/Special
The Five-Headed Dragon will repeat these attacks until it is defeated. If your party’s damage is high enough, there is a good chance you will be able to skip some of these mechanics. Watch out for each of its AoEs and keep attacking to make it through this fight with ease.
Atomos
This special encounter seperates the second and third boss fights. Here, you will need tosplit into three groups according to your Alliance letter. Group A goes to the left, Group B to the center, and Group C to the right.
In this fight, you will need to repeatedlykill the Atomos in your arena. You may beknocked off the arenathroughout the fight, but you can get back up to the main deck bystanding on one of the glowing panels. However, a player that is still on the higher floor will need tostand on the corresponding panel to activate the lower one.
There isn’t much to this fight, but be sure to stand on the panel if you are on the higher floor to allow your teammates to get back up.
Cerberus
The third boss of the World of Darkness is Cerberus. TheTank should face the boss away from the rest of the partyto avoid hitting them with Cerberus’s cleave attack, and positional-based Jobs like Monk and Ninja shouldavoid standing behind the boss for too longto avoid taking damage fromTail Blow, a fast conal AoE to the back of the boss.
This boss will require some coordination between each Alliance. Typically, players will follow the acronymABC, or adds, belly, chains, which corresponds to the Alliance letters as well. We will take a deeper look at this later, but first you should understand the mechanics.
Cerberus will periodically summon aGastric Orbthatshrinks down players that stand in its AoE. Then, Cerberus willvomit, creating apurple pool on the ground. Wolfsbane adds will periodically be summoned from this purple pool. These mechanics occur after Cerberus has taken enough damage and becomeunchained.
Essentially,Alliance A members will deal with killing the Wolfsbane adds, whileAlliance B steps into the Gastric Orb to become small. Then, bystanding in the purple liquid, Cerberus will eat them, causing them totravel into his belly. Players that were not shrunken by the Gastric Orb will beimmediately killedif they stand in the purple liquid when Cerberus eats it, so take care.
While inside the belly, players will need totarget and destroy the Stomach Wallsto cause Cerberus to vomit them back up. This will deal massive damage to the boss, and leave him reeling for a few moments. This is whenAlliance C must grab the two chains from the top of the arena, run them to the boss, thenattach them to the fetter pointson either side of the boss. Doing this willre-chain Cerberus, making him more manageable again.
At this point, Cerberus should be close to dying, so pour on the DPS and finish out the fight.
Cloud Of Darkness
The final boss of the World of Darkness is the Cloud of Darkness. This boss is stationary, appearing at the top of the arena and only periodically moving. When the Cloud of Darkness does move, scan the arena quickly to find where she reappears.
After reappearing, the Cloud of Darkness will fire alarge line AoEthat deals high damage, so be sure torun to either side of herto avoid this attack.
Later in the fight,Dark CloudsandDark Stormswill be summoned near the back edge of the arena, then beginmoving slowly toward the boss. At the same time,meteor markerswill appear that players need tostand in to absorb their damage. Work together todestroy the Dark Clouds and Storms; if any of them reach the Cloud of Darkness, it willpower up her next attack.
After all the Clouds and Storms have either been defeated or touched the boss, the Cloud of Darkness will blast the arena, dealingdamage to all party members according to how many clouds touched her. If you successfully destroyed them all, you will be safe from this attack.
After this,three Hypercharged Cloudswill appear around the arena. You mustsplit yourselves evenly between these Clouds, as walls will soon appear around them, trapping players inside, and preventing players from entering until the Cloud is destroyed. Even with three to five members in each Hypercharged Cloud, you should be able to destroy it in time.
At this point, the Cloud of Darkness should almost be defeated. Watch out when she disappears, but otherwise you should make it through this fight safely. With that, the Crystal Tower will be complete.
