Blue Mage Raid Guide for Nael deus Darnus (T9)

At a depth of 6329 yalms, your exhausted yet determined fellowship enters the hulk's operations deck. An impossible scene unfolds before you, the surreal landscape bathed in a crimson glare and holding the promise of epic conflict...

This is the second fight in the Morbol raid series. This fight is a fair bit trickier than T5, but is still very accessible. The final phase can get very chaotic, but thanks to our damage we can skip most of it. The line between phases is a bit blurry because of how much burst damage Blue Mage is capable of, so some phases have been combined for simplicity's sake.

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. The video itself is older, but the strats are unchanged.

For this fight I would recommend having the standard one tank mimic, two healer mimics, and five DPS mimics.

• Missile
• Diamondback
• Mighty Guard
• Sticky Tongue on two people

• Stardust: Targets a random player and drops a meteor on them after a short delay. If two meteors get dropped too close together they will explode and wipe the raid.
• Ravensbeak: Heavy hitting tankbuster that applies Raven Blight, which also deals tankbuster damage when it expires.
• Iron Chariot: Circle AOE with big knockback.
• Lunar Dynamo: Donut AOE.
• Thermionic Beam: Stack damage on randomly targeted player.
• Raven Dive: Jumps to a random player and deals mild damage.
• Dalamud Dive: Jumps to highest enmity target and deals high damage.

The first phase will be extremely short and almost every mechanic will be skipped. If you are targeted with Stardust, bring it out to the edge of the arena. I recommend using northwest, northeast, and south for meteors in general since it aligns well with the center circles (this matters later).

The tank should be ready to mitigate Ravensbeak and Raven Blight. The party should avoid the center of the arena for her Raven Dive and Iron Chariot combo, and then stack in the center to share Thermionic Beam. The tank should not stack with the party since they will be targeted by Dalamud Dive.

Phase 2 begins at 65% health. Nael will jump away. Everyone should put up Mighty Guard and keep it up for the entirety of this phase. Three players will be targeted with green meteors. These players should drop each of these in the three center circles in the arena, with one meteor per circle. Once the marker disappears from their heads, they should run to the edge of the arena since the meteors do proximity-based damage.

When the meteors drop they will spawn three golems: a red golem, a blue golem, and a green golem. The red golem deals AOE damage and puts fire puddles on the ground, the blue golem will pull enemies in and apply a paralyze, and the green golem does big AOE damage, big single target damage, and a tankbuster cleave. These golems will eat nearby meteors and grow larger, and if they get close to each other will eat each other and become gigantic and unable to eat any more meteors. Our goal is to exit this phase with no meteors left and no golems left.

Two people should be assigned to pull the red and blue golems in two different directions with Sticky Tongue. For example, you could have one person always pull the red golem west and one person always pull the blue golem east. Everyone else should immediately kill the green golem with Missile because it is extremely dangerous.

Once the green golem is dead and the red and blue golem have been separated, the players controlling those golems need to bring them to the meteors so that they will eat them. Once there are no meteors left, kill them with Missile.

When the golems are all dead the party should stack up at the south of the arena. Nael will spawn 6 meteors in quick succession on random players. Once the first marker appears, everyone should start running clockwise around the arena. Do not use sprint, do not try to adjust to others, just keep moving. If we did this correctly, then all 6 meteors will drop at a safe distance from each other without blowing up.

Following the meteor drops, there will be another set of three meteors that need to be dropped in the center. The three golems will spawn again and need to be handled the same way as before, only now the red and blue golems each need to eat three meteors each before being killed.

Separate the tank from the party during the phase transition. Nael will cast Megaflare which is survivable with light mitigation, but you can wait to turn off Mighty Guard until after the cast for extra safety. If there are still meteors left up from the golem phase, you can survive some explosions with Diamondback.

• Heavensfall: Big knockback from center of the room.
• Bahamut's Claw: Multi-hit tankbuster.

Nael jumps onto the tank with Dalamud Dive before beginning the Heavensfall phase. Nael will cast Heavensfall which drops a big pillar in the center of the room and causes a big knockback, which can be prevented with Surecast. If the Heavensfall pillar lands on top of you it will instantly kill you, so don't be too close to the center of the arena. Moon Flute openers should be used on Nael at this time, but make sure to weave Surecast in somewhere. There will be yellow triangles on the ground that also need to be avoided. The tank will be hit by Bahamut's Claw, a multi-hit tankbuster, and will need to be healed.

Nael transitions out of this phase at 47% HP which happens very quickly with competent DPS. If it takes a bit to get there, she may spawn a dragon add and apply Garrote Twist to a party member. Kill the dragon with Missile and it will drop a small white circle on the ground. The person afflicted with Garrote Twist should stand in the circle to cleanse the debuff before they die.

• Bahamut's Favor: Applies a damage up buff to Nael.
• Super Nova: Targets three random party members with AOE damage that leaves behind a puddle which applies a fatal bleed if stepped in.
• Divebomb: Targets random player with line AOE with huge knockback, similar to Twintania.

The final phase is the most chaotic phase by a gigantic margin, but a lot of it can be skipped if the DPS is on point. The basic idea in this phase is that there are Ice, Fire, and Lightning dragons. The Ice dragons will hit party members one at a time in a round robin fashion and apply an Ice debuff, while removing Fire debuffs. The Fire dragons will target a random party member (indicated by a red tether) and deal AOE damage around them, applying Fire debuffs to anyone hit, while removing Ice debuffs. The Lightning dragon will target a random party member (indicated by the Thunderstruck debuff), who will deal AOE damage around them and apply a nasty paralysis (but are unaffected themselves). If you ever get hit by Ice while you have an Ice debuff you die, and if you ever get hit by Fire while you have a Fire debuff you die. This is similar to the various Hot/Cold mechanics that have shown up in the game more recently, such as Trinity Avowed in Delubrum Reginae.

The basic idea here is that we need to alternate Fire debuffs in and out of the party so that we don't apply Fire too quickly, and anyone who gets Thunderstruck needs to move away from the party. During this phase, Nael will also use the various dives, tankbusters, Lunar Dynamo, and Iron Chariot from the previous phases. It is a lot to keep track of, so it is easier to see this as a timeline of events and how to resolve them:

1. Bahamut's Favor → Bahamut's Claw
2. Fireball (in)
3. Raven Dive
4. Thunderstruck (far away) + Lunar Dynamo (in)
5. Fireball (shared)
6. Thunderstruck (away)
7. Fireball (in)
8. Thunderstruck (away) + Iron Chariot (out)
9. Super Nova (avoid center)
10. Thermionic Beam (stack center, or Diamondback)
11. Fireball (in)
12. Thunderstruck (away) + Bahamut's Claw
13. Divebombs

The only mechanic not mentioned yet is Divebombs. We can actually cheese this completely with Diamondback. Make sure the tank is away from the group because there is a tankbuster right after this phase. Wait for the Meteor Stream markers to appear over players' heads and then hardcast (no Swiftcast) Diamondback. If you did this correctly, you'll see a bunch of Divebombs, Nael will hit people with Meteor Stream, and everyone will survive. Nael will then repeat mechanics until dead but with a slightly different order, but even groups with low DPS should be able to use Final Sting right after Divebombs.

Nael's Final Sting threshold is 15%. Once she is at 15%, apply Off-guard, then use Moon Flute, any Primal abilities you have, and finish with Whistle and Final Sting. Most groups these days will be able to do a Moon Flute opener after the golem phase, then once Waning Nocturne fades use their Final Sting finishers.