Futures Rewritten (Ultimate) Guide for Phase 2, Usurper of Frost

Pre-fight Preparations:

1. Assign each person to a modified clock spot, with Melee DPS southwest and southeast, Ranged and Caster DPS northwest and northeast, Healers west and south, and Tanks north and east.
2. Assign light parties made of one Tank, Healer, Melee, and Ranged/Caster DPS each. Assign position priories for each light party. We recommend Group 1 southeast to north, and Group 2 northeast to south.
3. Assign support and DPS pairs made of a Ranged/Caster DPS & Tank and Melee DPS & Healer.
4. The three previous points should be the same as the previous phase for consistency!

Recurring Mechanics:

• The House of Light
  • A light aspected conal AoE cleave that targets the nearest four players to the source of the ability. Must be baited away from other players as it applies a magic vulnerability debuff, which will cause players who take an additional source of damage to instantly die. NOTE! At the end of Light Rampant, this ability will instead target all eight players, instead of only four.
• Banish III
  • A point-blank spread AoE attack on all eight players, or partner stack AoEs on four players. This is dictated by whether she has one orb on top of her head (partner stacks), or four (spreads).

Once spawned, Usurper will do a couple of auto attacks before channeling Quadruple Slap, a tankbuster that will hit the targeted player twice, and apply a physical vulnerability after the first hit. The vulnerability debuff can be removed with Esuna or The Warden's Paean, so it is therefore possible for one tank to take both hits with heavy mitigation.

Diamond Dust is the first major mechanic of the phase, and is a variation of the mechanic with the same name from E8S. This mechanic begins with the boss summoning a clone of herself. The boss will cast Diamond Dust, ending with heavy raid-wide damage, before becoming untargetable and disappearing to begin the mechanic. For ease of discussion, this mechanic will be broken up into a Part 1 and Part 2.

The first bit of this mechanic begins with the summoned clone casting Axe Kick or Scythe Kick while circle AoEs spawn around the room. For a visual of this mechanic, please reference this Raidplan. To resolve this mechanic:

1. Identify where the first circle AoEs spawned.
2. Either all support or all DPS will get an orange marker above their heads, indicating they will be dropping the ice AoEs.
3. If the first circle AoEs spawned on a cardinal direction, the players marked for ice AoEs will be on intercardinals, and the players that are not marked will be on cardinals. If the first circle AoEs spawned on an intercardinal direction, the marked players will be on cardinals, and the unmarked on intercardinals.
4. If the position you need to start on is not your assigned clock spot, swap places with your assigned partner.
   • Players should only ever swap positions with their assigned partner. This means that each individual person will only be going to one of two possible clock positions for this mechanic.
5. The clone will cast Axe Kick, a large point-blank style AoE, or Scythe Kick, a large donut style AoE with a small safe spot at the center of the arena.
6. If the clone casts Axe Kick, which is accompanied by a voice line of "Cleave!":
   1. Marked players go all the way to the wall in their assigned position and wait until their AoE drops before going back to center.
   2. Unmarked players will go slightly outside of the outermost black ring on the arena floor in their assigned positions. These players will bait The House of Light, which will target the four closest players to the center of the room with a cleave AoE that applies a magic vulnerability. If a marked player is hit by this cleave, they will die. Return to the center of the room after baiting the cleave AoE. NOTE! It is recommended for the unmarked players who are baiting their cleaves in the first circle AoEs to use Sprint in order to avoid getting clipped by the circle AoE resolving!
7. If the clone casts Scythe Kick, which is accompanied by a voice line of "Reap!":
   1. Unmarked players will be as close to the middle of the arena as possible while being in their assigned position. These players will bait The House of Light, which will target the four closest players to the center of the room with a cleave AoE that applies a magic vulnerability. If a marked player is hit by this cleave, they will die. Remain in the center of the room after baiting the cleave AoEs.
   2. Marked players will stay close to the center to avoid the Scythe Kick, but be farther from the center of the room than the unmarked players. As soon as the Scythe Kick resolves, marked players will run to the innermost black ring on the arena and drop their ice AoEs at their assigned position before returning to the middle of the room.
8. There will be a knockback from the center of the room. The area where the first circle AoEs spawned are the safe spots for this knockback. Each light party gets knocked to their respective sides, with Group 1 getting knocked to the safe spot that is southwest to north, and Group 2 northeast to south.
9. This concludes Part 1

The second part of this mechanic begins immediately after the knockback from center occurs and each light party gets knocked to their respective sides of the arena. For a visual of this mechanic, please reference this Raidplan. To resolve this mechanic:

1. Wait in the area you were knocked back into until the ice AoEs the marked players dropped resolve. These will shoot line AoEs in several directions, but if placed correctly, both parties should be safe after the knockback.
2. A white dress clone will spawn somewhere on the arena. If possible, plan to have both groups rotate in such a way that they will not leave puddles behind her.
3. Each party will get four four-player stack AoEs that will each leave a bleed puddle. Try not to leave a puddle behind the white dress clone as only the first and second ones will disappear by the time the clone will be relevant for the safe spot later.
4. Rotate as a group and resolve the four-player stack AoEs. After the fourth, rotate as needed to be directly across from or behind the white dress clone.
5. While rotating, identify where the blue armor clone spawned on the edge of the arena. This clone will be the source of the look away mechanic that will happen shortly after the stacks are finished.
6. Once in position, look away from the blue armor clone and stop moving. The floor will now turn to ice, and moving will cause the player to slide nearly the entire distance of the room. Moving while the floor turns to ice could easily result in a death from sliding into the wall.
7. During the look away mechanic and the floor turning to ice, the clones will have swapped armor. The previously white dress clone is now wearing blue armor, and will soon cast Twin Stillness or Twin Silence.
   • NOTE! The clone will also say a voice line that includes either the word Stillness or Silence.
8. Twin Stillness indicates that she will cleave 270 degrees in front of her, and then 90 degrees behind her.Twin Silence is the opposite, cleaving first 90 degrees behind her, then 270 degrees in front of her. Remember, Stillness is rear safe then front safe, Silence is front safe then rear safe.
9. The party that is not in the initial safe area will need to slide across the room to join the other group, and then slide back to their initial position at the end of the cast. The party that is in the initial safe area will stay until the end of the cast, and then slide across into the second safe area.
10. After the second cleave, the floor will return to normal shortly after, and Diamond Dust is now over.

The boss will reappear in the center of the room and begin casting Hallowed Ray, a very hard hitting line stack AoE. Shortly after this stack, the boss will begin casting Mirror, Mirror.

The boss will summon three mirrors around the edge of the room. Two mirrors will have a red glow around them, and one will have nothing around it. For ease, these mirrors will be referred to as "red" and "blue" mirrors. The blue mirror is called such because the color of the mirror itself is blue. For a visual of this mechanic please reference this Raidplan. To resolve this mechanic:

1. Identify where the blue mirror spawned. Healers and Caster/Ranged DPS will move to this mirror. Tanks and Melee DPS will go opposite of the blue mirror with the boss.
2. The boss will cast Scythe Kick. At the end of the cast, the blue mirror will execute Scythe Kick as well.
3. At the end of the Scythe Kick cast, the boss will also execute The House of Light cleaves on the four closest players. The blue mirror will also execute these cleaves at the same time on the four closest players.
4. Each group will need to spread out so that they do not overlap The House of Light cleaves with each other, but also so that they do not cleave the group opposite them. We recommend positioning so that the Healers and Tanks are on the wall, with the DPS toward the middle of the arena. We also recommend putting the Group 1 players on the left, and the Group 2 players on the right looking from the center of the arena to the wall. This will ensure there is no confusion on who will go where. Please reference the Raidplan for a visual of positions.
5. After the boss and blue mirror execute the mechanics, the red mirrors will begin channeling the same mechanics. Each party moves to the closest red mirror and resolves the mechanics the same as before. Again, have care not to cleave the other party!
6. The boss will cast Banish III, and a halo will appear above her head that either has one orb or four orbs.
   • If she has one orb above her head, it is partner stacks. Since the groups are split into Melee DPS & Tanks and Ranged/Caster DPS & Healers, the respective players from each original light party stack together. I.e. Group 1 Healer and Group 1 Ranged/Caster are together, Group 2 Melee DPS and Group 2 Tank are together, etc.
   • If she has four orbs above her head, everyone spreads out for point-blank spread AoEs.
7. After the Banish III, the boss will return to the center of the arena, and the mechanic is over.

This mechanic is a remix of one of the major mechanics of E8S with the same name. The boss will cast Light Rampant, doing raid-wide damage and going untargetable. Several things will happen at once immediately after the cast. Six players will be tethered together. Six towers will spawn around the room. Two tether players will be marked with golden orbs. And finally, the remaining two non-tether players will have a pink AoE indicator. For a visual of this mechanic, please reference this Raidplan. To resolve this mechanic:

1. All players should be in their clock spots while the boss is casting Light Rampant to make it easy to see who has what and who is tethered to whom.
2. All tethered players will make a hexagon shape. The north and south player will immediately switch positions. The northwest and northeast player will also switch positions. This should make a sort of six pointed star pattern.
3. Two tethered players will have been marked with a golden orb above their heads. If everyone swapped correctly, one orb will be northwest, north, or northeast, and the other will be southwest, south, or southeast.
4. Tethered players will go and take the tower at their respective positions.
5. While tether players are swapping and getting into position for their towers, the two AoE players will go to the east and west. The player closest to each position takes that side. If both players are equidistant, rotate clockwise. Start all the way at the wall.
6. AoE players will drop five bleed puddles each. For the first three puddles, drop them in a straight line toward the center of the room. After the third, rotate 90 degrees to the left looking in toward the center and drop the remaining two in a straight line toward the wall. After the fifth, join the group that will be standing at the north or south. The west player will join the north group, and the east player will join the south group.
7. Tether players will soak the towers that spawned at the beginning of the mechanic. After the third AoE player bleed puddle drops, the towers will resolve. Tether players should then meet up on the north or south of the arena depending on which tower they soaked. Northwest, north, and northeast tower players will all meet north, while southwest, south, and southeast tower players will all meet south.
8. Two sets of three orbs will appear and indicate an AoE explosion. Each group should rotate to the clockwise edge of the first explosion. Tethers are still active at this point and they could break if people rotate the wrong direction.
9. While waiting for the first AoE to explode, the golden orb tether players will each explode as a four-player stack AoE. Shortly after the first set of arena orbs will explode. Walk into the explosion to be safe from the second set of orb explosions. Tethers will expire between sets of orb explosions.
10. Check your debuffs. Every player with two stacks of Light-Steeped will need to resolve the next part.
11. The boss will reappear in the center of the arena, but still be untargetable. A four-player tower will appear under her. Before the tower resolves, she will begin casting Banish III.
12. Players with two stacks of Light-Steeped will soak the four-player tower under the boss.
13. While the tower is being soaked, all players should position into their clock spots.
14. Shortly after the tower resolves, the boss will finish casting Banish III. This resolves exactly the same as it did during Mirror, Mirror. If she has four orbs above her head, everyone spreads in their clock positions. If she has one orb, stack with your assigned partner. This should be your initial Melee & Healer and Ranged/Caster DPS & Tank partners.
15. Immediately after Banish III resolves, the boss will become targetable and begin casting The House of Light. All players should immediately return to their clock positions. Unlike the other times this mechanic has happened, this one targets all eight players with a conal cleave AoE.
16. The House of Light marks the end of Light Rampant.

Usurper of Frost is a 20% HP enrage check. The boss will use a few auto attacks before channeling Absolute Zero. If she has not hit 19.999999% HP by the end of the cast, the party will be instantly killed. If she does pass this threshold before the end of the cast, it will instead be a hard hitting raid-wide damage cast. All players should remain in their clock spots during the cast. Immediately after, the boss will knockback every player and freeze them in place. While frozen, players will take damage over time, so make sure to have shields and healing over time in place beforehand. This marks the beginning of the Intermission Phase.

This is a fairly simple intermission phase in which four Crystals of Light and four Crystals of Darkness spawn around the room. The boss will be frozen inside of an Ice Veil in the center of the room. To resolve this mechanic:

1. Ranged/Caster DPS and Healers will go to the Crystals of Darkness on the intercardinal position. Swap spots with your DPS/Support partner if you did not start on the correct add.
2. Melee DPS and Tanks will go to the Crystals of Light on the cardinal positions. Swap spots with your DPS/Support partner if you did not start on the correct add.
3. Crystals of Darkness will target the nearest player with conal cleave AoEs. Bait them between Crystals of Light and dodge them as they telegraph their AoEs.
4. Crystals of Light will target the nearest player with circle AoEs. They will also tether the closest player. The tethers will drop a lingering bleed damage over time puddle. Bait so that both you and the Crystal of Darkness player have room to dodge the AoEs.
5. Ranged/Caster DPS and Healers target the Crystal of Light one position clockwise from them. Do not target the Crystals of Darkness.
6. Each Crystal destroyed increases the damage taken by the Ice Veil. Destroy all Crystals of Light then damage the Ice Veil to below 50% HP.
7. If the Ice Veil does not reach lower than 50% HP by the end of the cast Endless Ice Age, the party will be instantly killed.

NOTE! Melee LB3 is a valuable prog tool, as it does 20-25% of the Ice Veil's HP in damage. This can be valuable while players get comfortable with the phase, or if there is a death or damage down that would otherwise make the check tight.

NOTE! Keeping all four Crystals of Darkness alive completes a puzzle mechanic that allows the party to progress from Phase 4 to Phase 5. Failure to do so results in an immediate wipe after Phase 4.

If the Ice Veil has been brought below 50% before the end of the cast, congratulations! A transition will play and the party will proceed to Phase 3: The Oracle of Darkness.