Blue Mage Raid Guide for Exdeath (O4S)

Taken by curiosity, you activate something called the Savage Initiative at a Garlond Ironworks terminal. Apparently a program to address work-related stress, you are treated to a soothing song composed by a certain minstrel, its lush strains massaging your mind and adding vibrant flourishes to the memories of your trials within the Deltascape...

This is the first fight in the Omega Blue raid series and is generally the easiest of the bunch, but also the most chaotic. Most of the mechanics are pretty simple in a vacuum, but the wacky nature of BLU raiding makes them a little bit difficult to resolve.

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 the standard one tank mimic, two healer mimics, and five DPS mimics. You can replace one healer mimic with another DPS mimic if you are trying to skip Grand Cross Omega, but the solo healer will need to seriously know what they are doing.

• Diamondback and Mighty Guard can be helpful if you don't skip Black Hole.

• Dualcast: Causes Exdeath's next ability to cast twice.
• Blizzard III: Puts ground-targeted AoEs underneath players. If channeled on the black hole during cast (never with Dualcast), it instead will freeze players in place if they are not moving when the cast finishes.
• Thunder III: Small AoE tankbuster that applies a Lightning Vulnerability Up debuff. If channeled on the black hole during cast (never with Dualcast), it instead will be a large point-blank AoE that applies a 30 second Paralysis debuff.
• Fire III: Small AoE with moderate damage on four random party members. If channeled on the black hole during cast (never with Dualcast) it instead will apply Pyretic to the party and deal damage if they take any actions.
• White Hole: Immediately kills anyone below 50% HP, petrifies anyone between 50 and 99% HP. No effect if full HP.
• The Decisive Battle: Heavensfall-like AoE in the center of the arena along with tentacles that deal damage in a circular pattern, as well as a stack marker and flares.
• Holy: Stack damage.
• Flare: Mild AoE damage that increases with proximity to target.
• Vacuum Wave: Mild damage and big knockback, can be avoided with Surecast.
• Black Hole: Spawns a bunch of black holes that kill players on contact. Tethers four players with black holes that slowly move towards them. Also casts Fire III and Holy during this.
• Meteor: Big raidwide AoE.

This phase is overall pretty straightforward and doesn't last that long, but there is still quite a bit going on. For basic preparation steps everyone should be assigned a standard clock position around the arena.

In the beginning, Exdeath will use Dualcast and the three elemental abilities. The first one used is Blizzard III, so simply move out of the way when the circles appear. If you start a Moon Flute opener at the normal time then these will appear when you would normally be using Phantom Flurry. It is still possible to get a full opener off, but it can be easier to start it about 2 GCDs after the countdown hits 0 instead.

The second ability used is Thunder III. Everyone just needs to get away from the tank while the tank uses Diamondback.

The third ability used is Fire III. For this everyone should just spread out, clock positions are an easy way to do this. This hits quite hard and it can hit the same person twice in a row. Mitigating with Addle, Bad Breath, and Gobskin can make this survivable. For even more safety someone (tank recommended) can bring Magic Hammer but it's not strictly necessary.

After Fire III Exdeath will use White Hole, so quickly group up and heal to full to avoid its effect.

The next mechanic to deal with is The Decisive Battle. Find where the last tentacle will spawn and stand on it, and also note which direction the tentacles will be hitting. You will get knocked back from the center and get hit by a Holy stack marker. I recommend having the tank or a healer use a Swiftcast White Wind to heal up after the stack. The knockback can be avoided with Surecast, but I recommend saving that for Vacuum Wave later. Everyone can also bring and put up Mighty Guard for safety, but it's not necessary. After the knockback everyone should start moving in the direction of where the first tentacle hit the ground and keep going to avoid the last tentacle as well as the zombie breath. When the zombie breath goes off, three players will be targeted with Flare and need to spread out from one another. Everyone should try to be on the edge of the arena since Exdeath will return on top of a random person.

When Exdeath returns, he will use another elemental ability but channeled on the black hole. If it's Thunder III, everyone needs to get away. If it's Blizzard III, everyone needs to keep moving. If it's Fire III, everyone needs to do nothing. Next he will use Vacuum Wave, so either move close to him or use Surecast to avoid it. If he doesn't get baited to the edge, then you need to use Surecast or a well-timed J Kick to avoid getting knocked off.

Exdeath will follow up with White Hole again, and then cast Black Hole. During Black Hole, everyone just needs to run around to avoid each other (because of Fire III) while also avoiding touching any black holes. There is a stack marker in the middle of this, and it's usually easiest to just have that person use Diamondback. If that person is also tethered to a black hole they'll probably die. I recommend everyone use Mighty Guard during this phase to reduce the amount of damage taken. Exdeath will finish this phase with another White Hole cast.

After the Black Hole phase, Exdeath will do another Dualcast Thunder III so handle it the same way as before. Next he'll use Meteor and loop the fight starting from The Decisive Battle one more time before enrage.

Exdeath's Final Sting threshold is 67%, since he transitions at 60%. Once he is at 67%, apply Off-guard, then use Moon Flute, any Primal abilities you have, and finish with Whistle and Final Sting. At least one person needs to stay alive during the transition or else you will need to do the phase again. Most groups will be able to Final Sting either just before or after Black Hole.

• Mighty Guard;
• Diamondback on some players to handle Grand Cross Alpha damage when the tank has Allagan Field;
• Revenge Blast;
• Hydro Pull or another AoE spell;
• Frog Legs on an Earth Shaker baiter;
• Avail on main healer and Earth Shaker baiter.

• Almagest: Extremely heavy-hitting bleedwide.
• Aero III: Moderate damage on tank. This is not AoE damage even though it looks like it is.
• Delta Attack: Dualcasted Blizzard III, Fire III, and Thunder III at the same time.
• Grand Cross Alpha: Raidwide damage that applies Hysteria, Allagan Field, Acceleration Bomb, and Off-balance to various targets.
• Terminal Antilight: Raidwide damage that deals massive damage to the closest player.
• White/Black Antilight: Color beams on each half of the arena that kills players if they have the same color debuff as the beam. These debuffs also have shapes (triangle for black, circle for white) that can be used to identify them if a player is colorblind. If someone does not have a color debuff (i.e. they died), they just need to pick a side and stand on it. Standing in the exact middle causes you to get hit by both beams and die.
• Double Attack: Massive tankbuster that causes a knockback and deals more damage based on proximity.
• Emptiness: Spawns three moving circle AoEs that deal damage, apply a damage down, and drain MP.
• Inner/Outer Antilight: Lethal AoE on the center line or both sides of the arena.
• Grand Cross Delta: Raidwide damage that applies Cursed Shriek, Forked Lightning, Death Wave, Acceleration Bomb, Beyond Death, and Off-balance to various targets.
• Earth Shaker: Heavy-hitting cone damage on top two threat targets.
• Vacuum Wave: Big knockback close to the boss.
• Light and Darkness: Applies Holy to one player and Flare to three players with the same effects as in phase 1.
• Meteor: Spawns four orbs that need to be killed before they explode.
• Charybdis: Sets all players' HP to 1.
• Grand Cross Omega: Lots of debuffs, this is functionally like Delta followed by Alpha with some lasers at the same time.

If it seems like there are a lot of abilities in this phase, it's because there are. Most of the mechanics are actually simple in concept, but due to random targeting they become quite chaotic and can spiral out of control quickly. Similar to fights like A8S, everyone will need to know how to do their job correctly in order to make it through this. One thing to note on this fight is that there are absolutely no auto-attacks. The only incoming tank-targeted damage comes from Aero, Double Attack, and Earth Shaker. This means that even if things get messy, it's completely possible to recover a pull. Most of the fight comes down to either skipping Grand Cross Omega or doing it successfully, and even if almost no one survives Omega the fight is still clearable as long as resses are available. All of Neo-Exdeaths "Antilight" attacks will have a "Flood of Naught" castbar, but I'll refer to them using their effect names for clarity. One final thing to remember is that any positions in this fight will always be "boss relative," where the boss is considered "north."

Neo-Exdeath will open up the fight with an Almagest. This absolutely needs to be mitigated with Bad Breath and Addle at minimum. Since the DPS will be in Moon Flute, the tank or healer will need to apply Addle. Almagest is a really good time to use Angel's Snack.

Shortly after Almagest, and around when Phantom Flurry is finishing, Neo-Exdeath will start casting Delta Attack. He will put baited circles under people, hit them with fire, and hit the tank with a tankbuster. To handle this, everyone needs to go to the center of the arena to bait the circles and then move out to their clock position. The tank will need to Diamondback to survive the busters. Since the tank is in Diamondback, the main healer can actually Avail the tank and stay in the center to use AoE heals on the group. I recommend having the tank start just north of the center for this so they don't take excess AoE damage, but it doesn't matter too much. There is still a lot of damage going out here, so we will want the same mitigations as Almagest. Whoever didn't Addle Almagest will need to Addle Delta Attack, and the DPs will be in Waning Nocturne so they cannot do it.

Once Delta Attack has resolved, Neo-Exdeath will start casting Grand Cross Alpha. This is the first of the Grand Cross abilities and it is the easiest. Every Grand Cross ability is actually an arena-wide stack, meaning that if people are dead it will hit harder on the people alive. On top of this, it will reset everyone's threat to zero so the tank should use a White Wind not only to heal up but also to generate threat again. Various debuffs will be applied with the following effects:

• Hysteria: Applied to everyone, makes people run in a random direction.
• Allagan Field: Damage taken with this debuff will hit the entire raid after the debuff wears off.
• Acceleration Bomb: Deals damage and applies debuffs if actions are taken when the debuff expires.
• Off-balance: Damage taken causes massive knockback from the source of the damage.
• Light/Dark Wound: Color debuff, takes lethal damage from the specified color.

Everyone will get a Wound and Acceleration Bomb, three people will receive Allagan Field, and the remaining five people will receive Off-balance. After Hysteria resolves, Neo-Exdeath will teleport to a random side of the arena and start casting Flood of Naught. We want the Allagan Field players to plant in the middle of the arena to reduce the damage from this. The person closest to the boss will take a lot of damage. If the tank does not have Allagan Field they can just stand in front and be fine. If the tank does not have Allagan Field, someone will need to Diamondback to survive. Everyone else will stand between that person and the Allagan Field players, but they need to make sure they're close enough to the boss such that the Off-balance knockback does not knock them off the arena.

After the knockback, everyone needs to stand still until Acceleration Bomb wears off. Once it does, move to the side of Neo-Exdeath that has the opposite color of your debuff. This is a good time to use Cold Fog.

If everything was done correctly, everyone should still be alive. There is a toolbox that shows the full sequence of events.

Once Grand Cross Alpha resolves, Neo-Exdeath will use Double Attack on the primary target. The tank should just move to the center of the arena and use Diamondback and everyone should move away. The AoE is quite large, and the hit will knock the tank out of Diamondback so they need to be somewhat close to the boss still.

After Double Attack we will see our first Emptiness cast. There will be three circles that show up in the arena: one in the center and two on the outside, all with arrows indicating the direction in which they will move. Find a spot that is safe from these and move to it. I usually like to move right in front of the boss and adjust if needed. Once the Emptiness starts moving, he will begin casting Inner/Outer Antilight, so move to the center line or the outside edges to stay safe while still avoiding Emptiness. This mechanic is quite tricky in certain patterns, so if someone in your group is good at identifying this quickly I recommend having them call it out.

The next mechanic we have to deal with is Grand Cross Delta. The same generic notes about Alpha apply here, but this time we have some new debuffs:

• Cursed Shriek: Deals damage and petrifies players looking in the debuff's direction when the timer ends.
• Forked Lightning: AoE around the player when the timer ends.
• Death Wave: Stack marker.
• Beyond Death: Immediately kills the player when the timer ends unless they took lethal damage before it ended.

One person will receive Death Wave and Cursed Shriek, one person will receive Forked Lightning and Cursed Shriek, one person will receive Forked Lightning and Beyond Death, and everyone else will receive Off-balance and either Beyond Death or Acceleration Bomb. The basic idea here is that Forked Lightning needs to be away from everyone, Cursed Shriek needs to be behind the group (so that looking away is easy), Death Wave needs to be taken solo with Mighty Guard, and everyone with Beyond Death needs to fail the color beams to "die."

If you have the Death Wave debuff, put up Mighty Guard and stand somewhere in the west. If you have Forked Lightning and Cursed Shriek, stand somewhere near the center of the arena. If you have Forked Lightning but no Cursed Shriek, stand somewhere not near anyone else. If you have Off-balance, move right underneath the boss. When everything ticks off, the Death Wave person should survive and no one should get hit by the Shrieks or Lightnings. Acceleration Bomb people need to make sure they don't do anything when the timer wears off. Once the first effects wear off, anyone with Beyond Death needs to fail the color beams and everyone else needs to do it correctly. It's important to remember that if you have Off-balance you want to be close to the boss so the knockback does not push you off the arena. As with Alpha, there is a toolbox for this mechanic for reference.

Once all of this has resolved, Neo-Exdeath will use Almagest so mitigate appropriately. He will then use Aero III, and whoever is baiting the second Earth Shaker will want to use Frog Legs during this cast bar. Right after Aero III, Neo-Exdeath will use Earth Shaker on the top two targets. The easiest way to handle this is to have the tank Diamondback and the other baiter use Avail on them. Another way to handle it is to have the baiter Diamondback away from where the tank is. Regardless of how you are handling it, make sure to point the cones away from the party.

Right after Earth Shaker is Vacuum Wave, so just move away from the boss. He will follow this up with another Emptiness that leads into Light and Darkness. Everyone should try to start right underneath the boss when Emptiness starts, and when the Holy and Flare markers go out resolve them. The Flares should move away from the party, while everyone else stays stacked together. "Flares away, everyone stay" is my mnemonic for remembering this. Neo-Exdeath will then use another Inner/Outer Antilight so dodge accordingly.

Neo-Exdeath will now cast Meteor and spawn four orbs that need to be killed, similar to any other type of orb that looks similar. If you stand in the middle and cast your AoE spell you'll hit all four and make quick work of them. During this he will teleport somewhere and use color beams, so resolve appropriately.

Once the color beam is resolved Neo-Exdeath will use Charybdis to set everyone's HP to 1, and then use Double Attack. This is a good opportunity to use Revenge Blast for awhile, but the tank still needs to be healed. After Double Attack there is another Almagest, so mitigate appropriately and have the tank heal the party back to full with a White Wind before the cast finishes.

Neo-Exdeath will now use another Vacuum Wave, Aero III, and Emptiness. As the Emptiness circles start moving he will use Grand Cross Alpha again, so get to the center as soon as it is safe. Grand Cross Alpha is handled the same way as before.

After Grand Cross Alpha there is another Delta Attack. This one is tricky because he finishes with an Inner/Outer Antilight, so the tank needs to time their Diamondback such that they can move to dodge it afterwards. The timing for this is about 4 GCDs after the color beams. If people are using Cold Fog on the color beams, you can hardcast Diamondback when there is 6 seconds left on their Cold Fog buffs. Aside from this timing nuance, Delta Attack is handled exactly the same as the beginning of the fight, but then we need to dodge the Inner/Outer Antilight after.

Grand Cross Omega is the next big mechanic and it's the last new mechanic. There aren't any new debuffs here, but there are a ton of debuffs applied. The way I think about this mechanic is "Delta with three consecutive beams followed by Alpha." There is a ton going on during this and the boss isn't targetable, so it can be helpful to have everyone use Mighty Guard for extra safety. That being said, if anyone does happen to die it can make things go wrong very quickly. Anyway, the debuff assignments are:

• Hysteria on everyone.
• Death Wave, Acceleration Bomb, and Allagan Field on one person.
• Cursed Shriek, Off-balance, and Beyond Death on two people.
• Forked Lightning, Acceleration Bomb, and Allagan Field on two people.
• Forked Lightning, Acceleration Bomb, and Beyond Death on one person.
• Off-balance, Acceleration Bomb, and Beyond Death on two people.

The first step after Hysteria wears off is to have everyone without a Forked Lightning go underneath where Neo-Exdeath was when the cast finished. The Death Wave person should be right at the edge of the arena, while everyone sharing the stack should be inwards from that to get knocked back. Even easier, you can have the Death Wave person take it solo like in Delta and the others go opposite of Neo-Exdeath. The one downside to this way is that it will make Allagan Field hit harder later, but if everyone has Mighty Guard on and is healed up it should be fine. The Forked Lightning people should spread out along the east/west center line. Death Wave and Forked Lightning will go off first, and at the same time Neo-Exdeath will teleport to the south side and start using a beam.

Handle the beam correctly while keeping Off-balance in mind. Then he will teleport to the east and use another beam, which should again be handled correctly. Then he will teleport to the south and use a third beam. On this one, players with Beyond Death should "die" to resolve their debuff. They can resolve it on any of the beams, but the actual order of the beams is random. It could be colors or it could be in/out for each step. If you "die" on an early beam and then there's a color beam right after, you will die for real so it is easiest to do it on the third beam.

After the beams resolve, the Acceleration Bombs and Cursed Shrieks will resolve. Everyone should stand completely still and look away from each other. Finally, he will cast Terminal Antilight which we will handle the same way as in Alpha. There is a toolbox for this mechanic as well.

After Grand Cross Omega it's just repeating mechanics until enrage which happens a full 6 minutes later. Even if only a couple of people survive, as long as you have resses available you can stabilize and still clear. If it's a messy cleanup situation, I recommend everyone just keep Mighty Guard on until things are stable.

Neo-Exdeaths's Final Sting threshold is about 7%. Once he is at 7%, apply Off-guard, then use Moon Flute, any Primal abilities you have, and finish with Whistle and Final Sting. Most groups will be able to Final Sting just before or after Grand Cross Omega.