Blue Mage Raid Guide for Eden's Promise (E12S)

Following your adventures in the Empty, a crystal has been found that bears distorted memories of your recent encounters. As if facing such nightmarish foes once was not enough, you now have the opportunity to experience these struggles anew, though far more perilous than you remember...

This is the third fight in the Eden Blue raid series and is a respectable challenge. The DPS check is very lenient overall, but the actual mechanics of this fight can be quite challenging.

This guide is written assuming you have all Blue Mage spells, appropriate gear, and know how to play your chosen role.

If you prefer video format, there is a full video guide available below.

For this fight I would recommend having one tank mimic, one or two healer mimics, and five or six DPS mimics. This can be solo healed pretty easily, but it can make things safer overall to have a second healer. The DPS check isn't very tight and although we can skip Lions with very optimized DPS, it's not a very difficult mechanic to get through, anyway.

• Diamondback.
• Mighty Guard.
• Frog Legs and Avail on the off-tank (healer recommended).
• Magic Hammer on tank and healer(s).

• Maleficium: Heavy raidwide AoE damage.
• Junction Shiva: Channels Shiva for following mechanic; it will either be spreads during Primal mechanics or it will be Diamond Dust.
• Junction Titan: Channels Titan for following mechanic; it will either be stacks during Primal mechanics or it will be Earthen Fury.
• Rapturous Reach: Approximately 210 degree cleave on one half of the arena.
• Cast: Channels a Primal to cause different AoE effects depending on which Primal gets channelled (described below).
• Formless Judgment: Heavy hitting tankbuster on the top two threat targets that also applies Vulnerability Up debuffs which normally require a tank swap.
• Diamond Dust: Heavy raidwide AoE that makes the floor slippery, spawns Shiva circles, targets players with stack/spread AoEs, and spawns icicles.
• Earthen Fury: Massive raidwide AoE damage that spawns bomb boulders and applies yellow/orange/blue Titan markers to players.
• Obliteration: Line-stack AoE on a random player.
• Stock: Channels a Primal for a future Release.
• Release: Casts a previously-Stocked Primal.

Promise opens up with Maleficium, which is survivable with a single mitigation. A non-healer Gobskin will put the party into Revenge Blast range, but there's significantly less value for that in this fight than in E8S.

Promise will then use either Junction Shiva or Junction Titan, and it is random which is used. In both of these, and in future mechanics, we will have to handle Primal mechanics:

• Ramuh results in a circle AoE around the boss.
• Leviathan results in the east and west sides of the arena being cleaved, leaving a center vertical line safe.
• Ifrit results in a 150 degree cleave on the north and south halves of the arena, leaving a narrow safe spot in the east and west.
• Garuda results in a pinwheel type AoE that leaves the intercardinals safe.

During the first Junction, Promise will channel two Primals that need to be dodged at the same time. As an example, if Leviathan and Ifrit are channelled together, then the east and west sides of the boss close to the center of the arena will be safe. If Ifrit and Ramuh are channelled together, then the east and west sides of the boss out of the center will be safe.

Regardless of Shiva or Titan being Junctioned, the order of the mechanic is as follows:

1. Rapturous Reach
2. Shiva/Titan Mech
3. Double Primal Mech
4. Shiva/Titan Mech

Junction Shiva is the easiest one to handle. Assign everyone a clock position to spread to, and whenever the Shiva mech is happening they just go to that spot. The AoE hits extremely hard, so mitigation is very valuable here. Dodge the Rapturous Reach by going to the safe side, and once it finishes go to your spread spots. Next look at the Primals being channelled and dodge that mechanic, and then return to your spread spots.

Junction Titan is a little bit spicier. Normally the stacks would target the healers, but for us the targeting is completely random. There are a few ways we can handle this:

• Just do the mechanic normally and split into light parties and hope that you get lucky. This is the easiest to do, but it's also the least consistent. However, since it's the first mechanic in the fight you don't lose much by doing it this way. This is what my first group ended up doing.
• Stack all eight players together with all mitigations, including Mighty Guard. This can be the most consistent, but if any mitigation is missing or people are not fully healed then there will be deaths.
• Stack in four groups of two with Mighty Guard. The only way people die here is if both players in a stack get targeted, but that's quite unlikely.

However your group decides to handle it is up to you, but it will follow the same flow as the Shiva mechanic. Dodge Rapturous Reach, handle the stack, dodge the Primal mechanics, and handle the second stack.

At some point during the Junction mechanic the off-tank should use Frog Legs to be second on threat. Right after the Junction mechanic ends, Promise will use Formless Judgment. To handle this, just have the main tank use Diamondback and the off-tank use Avail on the main tank. The second hit will still deal a considerable amount of damage, so just make sure the main tank gets some heals before the second hit.

The boss will then cast Maleficium again before going into Junction Shiva with Diamond Dust. This mechanic is actually quite complicated and was a huge pain point for groups progging this fight during Shadowbringers. However, we can handle it easily with some Blue Mage ingenuity and ignore every bit of the mechanic except for the icicles at the end, which still require tether stretching and only getting hit by one icicle. The raidplan for this strat, which I call Dingus Dust, can be found here. The steps are:

1. Use Mighty Guard before Diamond Dust cast finishes.
2. Heal to full and apply Gobskin.
3. Slide out to assigned clock spots and Diamondback.
4. Return to the center for healing, avoid the first set of AoE circles.
5. Surecast the knockback.
6. Move to the clock spot opposite the icicle to which you are tethered and move behind the icicle in that position.
7. Return to the center and turn off Mighty Guard

Promise will then use Maleficium again before using Junction Shiva with Earthen Fury. This raidwide requires a lot of mitigation, so use Addle, Magic Hammer, Bad Breath, and Gobskin.

Promise will apply Titan markers from E4S to players that will explode in the same way as in E4S, except they will cause the circles on the ground to explode (instead of the squares from E4S). There will also be bomb boulders that will spawn inside every circle that need to be hit by AoEs in order to be killed so they don't explode. There are three waves of markers that will go out:

1. Four orange, three yellow, one blue.
2. Six orange, two blue.
3. Four orange, two yellow, two blue.

A common strategy in Shadowbringers for this was the "Dwayne strat," named for the Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson being used to show where boulders are. This worked really well since the markers were role-based so there was some level of consistency in how to solve the strat, and the solution to each step was symmetrical so it was easier for people. We don't have the luxury of consistent markers, so it can make some adjustments difficult. My group used a different strat that we called Bingus Boulders which makes some adjustments to the Dwayne strat. Before each set of boulders, players should move towards the center of the arena in their clock positions to make it easier to see who needs to go where. The movements are:

1. Oranges split into two pairs in the west and northwest. Yellows split into the north, northeast, and east. Blue goes south.
2. Oranges split into the west and northwest. As long as there are at least two people in a position it's safe, they don't need to be evenly split. Blues split into northeast and south.
3. Oranges go west. Yellows split into northwest and north. Blues split into south and east.

By having markers of the same color be adjacent to each other it makes adjusting much easier. Generally, oranges can start moving south before they start adjusting, yellow can start moving north before they start adjusting, and blue can start moving south before they start adjusting. My group was trying to do the Dwayne strat originally but we had difficulty adjusting quickly enough if it was required. Once we switched to this strat we had nearly perfect consistency.

After the third set of boulders is finished, Promise will cast Maleficium while spawning a gigantic statue in the background. The boss will start using Cast to channel two Primals which the party needs to dodge. The party needs to move together to share the damage from Obliteration. My group preferred moving south and east to dodge, but south and west works fine. Somewhere in the south should be used regardless, as it makes the movement for the next mechanic easier.

The boss should be pulled to the south side of the arena and be faced directly north or south. The party should split into two vertical light party conga lines on the boss's north and south. The boss will cast Maleficium again and Stock a Primal mechanic to be remembered for later. Next, two random players will be targeted with a stack marker. If there are two stack markers on the same side of the boss, then a swap needs to occur. Whichever stack marker is closest to the boss swaps places with the person closest to the boss on the opposite side, resulting in two four-player stacks. This will spawn two sculptures that will then tether to four players and assign them numbers 1-4. You will not necessarily be tethered to the statue spawned from your stack marker.

The party needs to spread out to see which to which statue they are tethered as well as their number. The statues will then blast the players in ascending order with a line AoE that also applies a Vulnerability Up debuff. When it is a player's turn, they need to move to the north or south of their statue (whichever is away from the party) and point their beam outwards. The party should be stacked on the boss's sides while waiting for their turn. During the first beams, the boss will also be using Rapturous Reach so the party needs to move to whichever side is safe. This also means that numbers 1 and 2 cannot be directly north and south and need to point their beams at a slight angle to still be safe from the Rapturous Reach.

After the second beam has been fired, one of the big statue's hands will start glowing, which indicates where a large knockback will occur after the fourth beam. The fourth beam baiters should use their sprint, and the whole party needs to move to either the southwest or southeast (whichever side is glowing) to safely ride the knockback without getting knocked off the arena. A few seconds after the knockback, the previously-Stocked Primal mechanic will resolve, so just move to wherever is safe. After the Primal mechanic resolves there will be another Maleficium followed by another Formless Judgment which can be handled the same way as the first one.

The next and last "new" mechanic for us to deal with is "Lions". This mechanic has a reputation for being extremely difficult, and it really just comes down to everyone needing to do their parts correctly. In short, there will be four small lions in the intercardinal directions that tether to players and blast them with fire cones and there will be two large lions (one each in the north and south) that blast the closest player with a fire cone and drop a fire puddle. There will be three sets of fire blasts along with combinations of previous mechanics that make this a little bit tricky.

The party needs to split into two conga lines again on either side of the boss to determine who needs to go where. In a traditional party, the tethers will go on either the four supports or the four DPS, meaning the other group just splits into north or south based on light party for baiting. We don't have this luxury, so we use conga lines to figure out who goes where. Once the tethers go out, those players should step to the side to leave four people still in the line-up. From that line-up, the two northernmost players will handle the north big lion (with northernmost player handling baits 1 and 3) and the two southernmost players will handle the south big lion (with southernmost player handling baits 1 and 3).

The strategy you use to resolve the rest of the mechanic doesn't actually matter, so just look at a bunch to figure out what works best for your group. The only thing that is really crucial for us is the initial setup. My group ended up using the Cross Lions strat, but I know some others use "Line Strat" and some others just point the tethers directly outwards (but the timing for this can be misleading). Regardless of which strat is used, the order for the mechanic is:

1. Conga line to figure out sides.
2. Dodge Rapturous Reach.
3. First lion baits.
4. Return to center for heals, Surecast the knockback or ride it to your spot.
5. Second lion baits.
6. Return to center again for heals, then dodge the Stocked Primal mechanic.
7. Third lion baits.
8. Dodge Rapturous Reach.

There is a ton of damage going out throughout this mechanic, so for safety you could use Mighty Guard to reduce the overall damage. This will not save you if any cones overlap, but it will make the damage more manageable overall.

Once this is done, we won't be seeing anything new. It will just be repeats from before:

1. Maleficium
2. Stock
3. Junction Shiva or Titan
4. Cast
5. Shiva or Titan Mech (only once)
6. Maleficium
7. Junction Shiva or Titan (whichever wasn't done before)
8. Release
9. Shiva or Titan Mech (only once)
10. Formless Judgment
11. Maleficium
12. Maleficium (Enrage)

If you end up seeing Junction Titan this far into the fight, I would recommend having everyone just Diamondback the stack to make it extra safe. Everything else can just be handled exactly the same way as before. When the boss dies, at least one person needs to be alive and they also need to not get knocked off from the final cast!

If you prefer video format, there is a full video guide available below.

For this fight I would recommend having one tank mimic, one or two healer mimics, and five or six DPS mimics. This can be solo healed pretty easily, but it can make things safer overall to have a second healer. The DPS check isn't very tight so a second healer can make things a bit safer. With optimized DPS we can skip Advanced Relativity, but that's our easiest mechanic in this phase so we're not gaining too much from that.

• Devour
• Mighty Guard
• Avail on the off-tank
• Magic Hammer on tank and healer(s)
• Candy Cane on one person

• Hell's Judgment: Sets everyone's HP to 1.
• Shockwave Pulsar: Heavy raidwide AoE damage.
• Spell-in-Waiting: Applies a debuff that resolves a spell when the debuff expires.
• Dark Water III: Stack damage AoE.
• Dark Eruption: AoE damage around the target.
• Dark Aero III: Massive AoE knockback.
• Darkest Dance: Gaia leaps to the furthest target and deals a heavy-hitting AoE tankbuster, then does a knockback from her current position.
• Basic Relativity: Heavy-hitting raidwide AoE that applies two Dark Blizzard III, two Dark Fire III, two Dark Water III, and two Shadoweye debuffs to the party.
• Singular Apocalypse: Starting in the center, causes circles on the ground to explode in a clockwise or counter-clockwise pattern.
• Cataclysm: Boss jumps to one edge of the arena causing large damage in a big AoE.
• Black Halo: Heavy-hitting shared tankbuster.
• Shell Crusher: Stack damage AoE.
• Spirit Crusher: Single-target physical AoE that knocks back secondary targets.
• Dual Apocalypse: The same as Singular Apocalypse, but with two explosions directly opposite each other rotating around the center.
• Somber Dance: AoE tankbuster with Physical Vulnerability Up on the furthest target followed by an AoE tankbuster on the closest target.
• Triple Apocalypse: The same as Dual Apocalypse, but with one extra explosion starting from the center and rotating in a circle.
• Terminal Relativity: Colossal raidwide AoE damage.
• Quietus: Raidwide AoE damage when debuff expires.

At the start of the fight, the boss should be pulled directly to the south. She will open up with Hell's Judgment, so just heal up for the upcoming Shockwave Pulsar. Shockwave Pulsar is survivable without any mitigation, but basic mitigations can make things comfier.

The first mechanic we deal with is Spell-in-Waiting. Gaia will apply Dark Water III to two players and Dark Fire III to everyone that will resolve one after the other, but the order is random. Separate into light parties on each side of the arena. If it's a spread marker first, stay spread out. When the stack markers go out, adjust so that there is only one on each side. If the stack marker happens first then the swap will need to occur before the first debuffs resolve, but if it's a spread first then it can happen after. Debuffs like Addle and Bad Breath can reduce the damage from the debuffs if they're applied when the debuff expires.

Gaia will then use Darkest Dance, so the whole party needs to be closer to the boss than the tank and be cautious of the tankbuster's AoE damage. The tank will need to mitigate this hit with Dragon Force. The parties should be on the boss's southwest and southeast. After the first hit, the tank should join their group for the upcoming knockback. If the party needs to stack, they can just stay grouped up after the knockback. If the party needs to spread, they should separate after the knockback. Having pre-assigned spread positions can be helpful for this.

The boss will cast Shockwave Pulsar again, followed by Basic Relativity which is our first major (and the most difficult) mechanic of this phase. The initial raidwide hits very hard, but it is survivable with Bad Breath, Magic Hammer, Devour, and Addle. We will use these mitigations for every Relativity cast. Gaia will spawn six purple traffic lights and one yellow traffic light around the perimeter of the room. The first thing we need to do is identify where the yellow traffic light is as that will be our "north." She will also apply two Blizzard, two Fire, two Water, and two Shadoweye debuffs. The actual resolution for this mechanic will be essentially the same as with traditional jobs, but as Blue Mages we need to be prepared to handle any debuff. A raidplan for this mechanic can be found here, and the whole process is this:

1. Identify the yellow traffic light as north. Also identify which set of traffic lights has the blue tether, as these will be the last ones that need to be baited.
2. Have the two Blizzard players bait the east and west traffic lights by standing close to them and pointing them off of the arena. This will require quick coordination and calling out who is going where. Everyone else moves to the north half of the arena.
3. The Blizzard or Fire will be the first debuff to resolve, but it's not always the same one. While this first bait is going on, determine if it is "short fire" or "short blizzard." If it is "short fire," the fires will need to spread out from one another and from the group. This spread can also happen in the south side of the room if it makes it easier.
4. Once the first beams have fired, the two Water players should stand on the markers in the "northeast" and "northwest," leaning slightly towards the outside of the marker. The rest of the party should stand on the "north" marker with the two Shadoweye players standing behind them (further from the boss). The water players will bait the next beams and Shadoweye will resolve.
5. The Shadoweye players now need to bait the last beams which will come from the traffic lights that had the blue tethers earlier. This will either be the north or south pair of traffic lights, so again the players will have to signal which side they're taking. If it's the north pair, they will need to move outside of the AoE from the exploding yellow traffic light. These players will also need to use Mighty Guard to survive the upcoming knockback damage, as they will get hit the hardest. At the same time, the whole party moves to the dead center of the arena. If it was a slow fire, the fire players can move out directly east and west, one to each side.
6. Rewind starts happening and players get yanked around before getting knocked back to the south side where they will need to stack for on the Water players. Whichever side you were on for your mechanic (east/west) will be the side that you stack on for Water.

Once everything resolves, Gaia uses Shockwave Pulsar before using Singular Apocalypse. As soon as she starts casting Cataclysm, run directly opposite from where she is facing (consider her "north"). Look at the shiny bit on the ground to determine which of east or west will be used as a safe spot next. Whichever is blowing up first will be the safe side. As soon as Cataclysm finishes, the tank should J Kick in, face her directly east or west, and then Diamondback for the Black Halo hit. Once the center circle explodes, the party needs to stack in the dead center of the arena for Shell Crusher. Immediately after the hit, the party needs to spread on the safe side (from Apocalypse) for Spirit Taker. Both of these hits deal quite a bit of damage, so mitigation is recommended for each as well as healing right after Shell Crusher. Spirit Taker is a physical hit and can be mitigated with Candy Cane. Some groups will use Mighty Guard to mitigate both hits, but it's not necessary if you use your other mitigations. Spirit Crusher is a great opportunity to use Cold Fog.

When Singular Apocalypse is done resolving, Gaia will use Shockwave Pulsar again before going into Intermediate Relativity. The same mitigations from Basic Relativity can be used here. Intermediate Relativity has essentially the same resolution as with traditional jobs, but we need to pay extra attention to the Aero debuffs to make sure we don't have any that are adjacent. There will be three "waves" of debuffs that will all need to be resolved, but the order is not the same every time. The three different waves are:

• Everyone has Dark Eruption, handled by spreading to their clock positions.
• Four people have Dark Aero III, while the others have Dark Blizzard III. Aeros need to go to the outside edge while Blizzards stack in the center.
• Three people will have Flares, one person will have Dark Water III, and the remaining people will have Shadoweye. Flares need to go to the outside edge while everyone else stacks just barely outside of center on their clock spot.

Debuffs will be resolved from right to left, mostly using clock positions to resolve them. We need to make sure that Aeros are not next to one another or they can knock each other off. Have everyone start in the center, and as soon as debuffs go out anyone that has an Aero should take a step towards their clock position to see if any adjusting needs to occur. The Aero can be anywhere in the debuff order, but the players still need to step out to make it clear to see if they need to move further apart when it is their turn to resolve Aero. Debuffs just need to be resolved (by dropping Rewind markers) in the manner listed above, and everything will resolve. Make sure to look away from the center of the arena before the last Rewind occurs so that you do not end up looking at the Shadoweyes in the center. This can be quite a bit of damage, so applying mitigations should be done before everything starts playing out.

After Intermediate Relativity, we have Dual Apocalypse. This is similar to Singular Apocalypse, but there will be two rotating explosions on the outside of the arena. Just like before, move directly opposite where Gaia is facing. Pay attention to where the Apocalypse explosions will be, indicated by the shiny light on the ground. If it will go directly south from center, then rotate to the east after Gaia finishes her jump. After the center explodes, everyone except for the tank needs to run to the center. Whoever brought Avail should use it on the tank before running to the center. After the first explosion, the tank should use Diamondback to mitigate the first hit of Somber Dance. Once this happens, the person using Avail needs to run out to be the closest target to Gaia and to get back into the tether range for Avail (it will reconnect). This person should try to not overlap with the tank if possible, but it's survivable even if they do. Additionally, if the tank has Gobskin up and takes 0 damage from the first Somber Dance hit, they won't even get the Physical Vulnerability Up debuff. The tank will necessarily get a Damage Down debuff from doing it this way, but as a tank that doesn't matter too much, anyway.

When Dual Apocalypse is finished resolving, Gaia will do another Shell Crusher and Spirit Taker combo. Stack in the center, and after the initial hit everyone can move out to their clock positions. The boss will then cast another Shockwave Pulsar followed by Advanced Relativity. The same mitigations can be used as before, but I recommend having everyone put up Mighty Guard since the boss will be untargetable during this mechanic anyway.

Advanced Relativity looks like it has a ton of moving pieces, but it's actually the most straightforward and rigid of the three relativities. A full raidplan can be found here, but here are all the steps:

1. Form a vertical conga line in the center of the arena.
2. As soon as debuffs go out, have the players with two Aero debuffs step to the left and the two players with Shadoweye debuffs step to the right. This will leave us with two Aeros on the left, four Fires in the center, and two Shadoweyes on the right.
3. Once separated, determine north/south light parties: northernmost Aero, two northernmost Fires, and northernmost Shadoweye are "north" while everyone else is south.
4. Identify the two traffic lights tethered together with a yellow tether. These traffic lights will indicate north and south. The traffic lights spawn in northwest, north, northeast, southwest, south, southeast, so there is never any conflict of which is north and which is south (since there is no east/west pairing).
5. Once identified, move to the north and south. Double Aero should be at the outer edge while the others should be stacked just inward from there.
6. After the first Rewind drops, Shadoweye moves clockwise to just before the line on the ground to the next circle, while everyone else moves counter-clockwise to just before the line on the ground to the next circle.
7. After the second Rewind drops, Shadoweye and Aero step just barely over the line into the next circle. The Fires then run to the east/west line and spread out with one person at the edge and one person closer to the center (but not crossing lines into the center circles). Once in this position, everyone should look directly away from the center of the arena to avoid Shadoweye once the Rewinds start happening.
8. After the Rewinds, the party will get knocked back by Aero before having to stack for Water. Just stack up after the knockback and share the Water damage.

I recommend looking at the raidplan to more clearly see what the movements actually look like. It can be a bit difficult to fully grasp what the lines on the floor are, but after seeing it a couple of times it becomes really straightforward.

After Advanced Relativity, Gaia uses Shockwave Pulsar again followed by Triple Apocalypse. This is probably the trickiest of the three Apocalypse mechanics, but it's very consistent once you see how it's done. Quickly identify where the central explosion and one of the outer explosions will meet on the outside edge. As soon as you do that, move to that location and just outside of the center circle. The tank should move to the outside edge in that direction and mitigate the upcoming Darkest Dance with Dragon Force. After the center explosion, the party needs to move back towards the center of the arena to avoid the Darkest Dance damage, and then on to the markers on either side of where the shiny bits previously met. The party should try to be on the outer part of the markers (relative to where the shiny bits met), but still behind Gaia. The tank should join the group at this spot. Gaia will knock everyone back, and if done correctly no one will get knocked off the platform and no one will get hit by the Apocalypse in the back of the room. If you're quick to identify safe spots, one side of the room will be safer for knockback to avoid the Apocalypse hits (it will be the side the "single" apocalypse is coming from), but both sides have safe spots.

Once Triple Apocalypse resolves there will be another Shockwave Pulsar, followed by a Black Halo which needs to be pointed away from the party and mitigated with Diamondback. The very last thing we will see is Terminal Relativity which is essentially the soft enrage. The Terminal Relativity cast is survivable with the previous Relativity mitigations, but I recommend just putting on Mighty Guard and keeping it on for the entire soft enrage sequence. During the soft enrage, Gaia will apply Quietus debuffs to everyone that explode and deal raidwide damage. She will cast three Shockwave Pulsars that also give her a Damage Up debuff. After the third Shockwave Pulsar she will cast Memory's End which is the hard enrage. This is your last opportunity to take off Mighty Guard and then use Moon Flute and everything else you have to finish her off.

Most groups will kill either immediately before or after Triple Apocalypse. Terminal Relativity is easily skippable, but even a messy run (like my first clear) has plenty of damage to kill the boss even if you leave Mighty Guard on for the entire soft enrage sequence.

Gaia's Final Sting threshold is about 5%. Once she is at 5%, apply Off-guard, then use Moon Flute, any Primal abilities you have, and finish with Whistle and Final Sting.