Futures Rewritten (Ultimate) Guide for Phase 3, Oracle of Darkness

Pre-fight Preparations:

1. Divide the group into two parties consisting of all supports and all DPS. Assign priority positions for each group. We recommend supports west to northeast, and DPS east to southwest.
2. Assign a flex priority among all supports and all DPS. We recommend Group 1 Tank, Group 2 Tank, Group 1 Healer, Group 2 Healer for supports, and Group 1 Melee, Group 2 Melee, Group 1 Ranged/Caster, Group 2 Ranged/Caster for DPS.

Recurring Mechanics

1. Shockwave Pulsar
   • Raid-wide AoE damage cast.
2. Dark Water III
   • Stack AoE damage that requires at least four players in each stack at penalty of receiving Mark of Mortality if less than four are in the Dark Water III stacks.
3. Mark of Mortality
   • A strong damage down debuff received from incorrectly resolving a mechanic. An example is having fewer than the required number of players in a stack will give this debuff. This debuff also acts as a "Twice-Come-Ruin" debuff, and will instantly kill any player who gets a second stack of it.

Oracle will begin the phase by casting Hell's Judgement, which will bring all players to 1 HP instantly. This is a great time to Melee LB3, as it will shave about 5% off the boss's HP. Afterward, she will teleport to the middle of the arena and begin casting Ultimate Relativity. Heal and mitigate as necessary to survive the Ultimate Relativity raid-wide damage that goes out at the end of the cast.

This mechanic combines concepts from Basic Relativity and Intermediate Relativity from E12S Part 2. At the end of the cast, the party will take raid-wide damage, and be afflicted with several Spell-in-Waiting debuffs. Before discussing how to resolve the mechanic, it is important to understand what each individual Spell-in-Waiting debuff does, as there are seven of them. All Spell-in-Waiting debuffs resolve when their timer expires.

1. Dark Fire III is a large point-blank style AoE centered on the player with the debuff.
2. Dark Water III is a four player stack AoE that will apply Mark of Mortality if fewer than four players are in the stack.
3. Unholy Darkness is a five or more player stack AoE that will apply Mark of Mortality if fewer than five players are in the stack. Having more players in the stack has no negative side effects.
4. Dark Blizzard III is a donut-style AoE centered on the player with the debuff.
5. Dark Eruption is a small point-blank style AoE centered on the player with the debuff.
6. Shadoweye is a look away gaze originating from the player with the debuff. Failing to look away will cause instant death.
7. Return applies a second debuff also called Return and drops a snapshot marker that will "rewind" the player to the location that it snapshot at the end of the second Return duration.

For clarification, anything referencing a "stoplight" is referring to the Delight's Hourglass, which vaguely resemble a stoplight, and have thus been called such by the community. For a visual of this mechanic, please reference this Raidplan. This mechanic walkthrough will be broken into two parts, setting up the mechanic, and resolving the mechanic.

A visual for this section can be found on slides 1-4 of the above linked Raidplan.

1. Assign a conga line made of only support players, assign another made of only DPS players. Have the support conga start toward the north of the center of the arena, and the DPS conga start south of the middle of the arena. These conga positions will be used to quickly determine positions for players responsible for the same set of mechanics.
   • We recommend Group 1 Healer, Group 2 Healer, Group 1 Tank, Group 2 Tank for supports, and Group 1 Ranged/Caster, Group 2 Ranged/Caster, Group 1 Melee, Group 2 Melee for DPS.
2. Assign priority positions based on roles. We recommend support taking west to northeast, and DPS taking east to southwest.
3. After Ultimate Relativity finishes casting, all eight players will be assigned combinations of Spell-in-Waiting debuffs. Seven players will receive Dark Fire III debuffs, and one will receive Dark Blizzard III instead. Pay attention to the timer of your Dark Fire III debuff, as this will determine which mechanic set you are responsible for.
4. Support players will have two players with 30s long Dark Fire III, one player with 20s Dark Fire III, and one player with 10s Dark Fire III. DPS will have one player with 30s Dark Fire III, one with 20s Dark Fire III, and two with 10s Dark Fire III.
   • Since there are only seven Dark Fire III players, and one Dark Blizzard III player, either the supports or the DPS will be missing one of their Dark Fire III players. The player with Dark Blizzard III will fill in for the missing player. Due to the way the combinations of debuffs can spawn, there are only two possible patterns for the Dark Blizzard III player. If the Dark Blizzard III player is a support, they fill in for a 10s Dark Fire III player. If the Dark Blizzards III player is a DPS, they fill in for a 30s Dark Fire III player.
5. At the end of the Ultimate Relativity cast, eight Delight's Hourglasses will spawn in a circle around the middle of the arena, with one on each cardinal and intercardinal direction.
6. The boss will cast Speed, which will tether three Hourglasses with a yellow tether, and two with a purple tether. Three Hourglasses will be untouched. These tethers indicate the order in which the Hourglasses will perform their mechanic. Yellow tethered Hourglasses will go first, followed by the untouched three, followed by remaining two purple tethered Hourglasses.
7. The yellow tethers will always be in a Y-shaped pattern, with an untethered Hourglass between the top of the Y. Consider this untethered Hourglass as relative north for the entirety of the mechanic.
8. Each player is responsible for resolving one Hourglass each, determined by the duration of their Dark Fire III debuff:
   • 30s Dark Fire III players are responsible for yellow tethered Hourglasses.
   • 20s Dark Fire III players are responsible for purple tethered Hourglasses.
   • 10s Dark Fire III players are responsible for untethered Hourglasses.
   • Supports are responsible for west through northeast, and DPS are responsible for east through southwest. This is determined by the role priority positions established earlier.
   • 30s support Dark Fire III players and 10s DPS Dark Fire III players determine who takes which based on the conga lineup.

With these things sorted, we are now ready to resolve the mechanic. A visual of this section can be found on slides 5-12 of the above linked Raidplan.

1. Step 1: First Dark Fire IIIs and Unholy Darkness:
   • Players with 10s Dark Fire III will explode a couple seconds after the boss finishes casting Speed. These players should spread out toward the wall at their assigned Hourglass
   • At the same time, one Unholy Darkness will resolve, requiring the other players to be in the center of the arena. If the Dark Blizzard III player is a support, this will be a six player stack, otherwise it will be five players if the Dark Blizzard III is a DPS.
2. Step 2: Yellow Hourglasses and Short Returns:
   • Players with 30s Dark Fire III, or also the Dark Blizzard III player if it is a DPS, will now bait a rotating laser beam AoE from the yellow tethered Hourglasses. After the first beam hits, move behind the Hourglass again to avoid being hit a second time, and instantly killed.
   • All players have a Spell-in-Waiting: Return timer. The three players with 30s Dark Fire III, and the player with Dark Blizzard III if it is a DPS, will have a 26s Return timer. The remaining five players will have a 16s Return timer. The players with the short Return timer will now need to drop their snapshot to be rewound to later.
   • The 10s Dark Fire III DPS and support players, plus the 20s Dark Fire III support player will all have a Spell-in-Waiting: Dark Eruption debuff, while the 20s Dark Fire III DPS player will instead have Spell-in-Waiting: Dark Water III.
   • The Dark Water III DPS will drop their Return snapshot toward the center of the arena in line with their assigned Hourglass.
   • The Eruption players will drop their rewinds just to the outside of their assigned Hourglass so that their AoE does not hit anyone else after the rewind. NOTE!The 20s Dark Fire III support player must drop their Return slightly to the inside of the arena from their Hourglass or they will be killed by the rotating beam from the purple tether Hourglass!
3. Step 3: Second Dark Fire IIIs and Unholy Darkness:
   • Players with 20s Dark Fire III will now go out to the wall out their respective Hourglasses to explode.
   • At the same time, another Unholy Darkness will resolve. Dark Blizzard III will also resolve. The six non-20s Dark Fire III players will stack in the center of the arena to resolve this.
4. Step 4: Untethered Hourglasses and Long Returns:
   • Players with 10s Dark Fire III, or also the Dark Blizzard III player if it is a support, will now bait a rotating laser beam AoE from the untethered Hourglasses. After the first beam hits, move behind the Hourglass again to avoid being hit a second time, and instantly killed.
   • The three players with the long Return debuff duration will now need to drop their snapshot. Each of these three players is also marked with Spell-in-Waiting: Shadoweye. These players should drop their Returns toward the center of the arena in line with their assigned Hourglasses.
   • The two players with 20s Dark Fire III debuffs will have nothing to do here, and should just hang out toward their assigned purple tether Hourglass.
5. Step 5: Third Dark Fire IIIs and Unholy Darkness:
   • Players with 30s Dark Fire III will go out to the wall at their assigned Hourglass to explode.
   • At the same time, all remaining players will go to the center of the arena for another Unholy Darkness stack. If the Dark Blizzard III player is a DPS, this will be a six player stack, otherwise it will be five players if the Dark Blizzard III is a support.
6. Step 6: Purple Hourglasses and Return
   • 20s Dark Fire III players will now bait the rotating laser AoEs from the purple tethered Hourglasses. Immediately after taking the first hit, these players should step just inside of the arena from their Hourglass and face outward toward the wall.
   • All players should be ready to face outward toward the wall, so that during the Return, they will not be looking at the Shadoweyes in the middle of the arena.
7. Step 7: Return Resolution:
   • All players will now be rewound back to the position where they dropped their Return snapshot. NOTE! Return does not snapshot your character facing when placing the Return snapshot. Be sure to face outwards toward the wall before the rewind to avoid the look away mechanic.
   • Eruption, Shadoweye, and Water will all resolve after the players have been rewound. Assuming everything was handled correctly in the previous steps, there will be three Shadoweye players and the Water player in the stack in the middle of the room, with the remaining four Eruption players spread out so their AoE does not overlap anyone else.
8. Step 8: Shell Crusher
   • The boss will conclude the mechanic with Shell Crusher, a stack AoE targeted on a random player. The entire party should stack together in the middle of the room to resolve this.

Shortly after Shell Crusher, the boss will cast Shockwave Pulsar, a raid-wide AoE. Depending on when you last used a potion, this is a great time to use another one as there is a buff window here.

After Shockwave Pulsar, the boss will target the tank with aggro with a tank-stack AoE. This can be taken solo with heavy mitigation, or shared by both tanks.

Shortly after the Black Halo tankbuster, the boss will cast Spell-in-Waiting Refrain, before casting Dark Water III. This will put a Spell-in-Waiting: Dark Water III on six players. For a visual of this mechanic please reference this Raidplan. To resolve this mechanic:

1. Split the group into two light parties consisting of only supports, and only DPS. Have each group spread out into a square pattern on the east and west of the boss. Ensure Melee DPS and Tanks are toward the inside so they can keep uptime, as the boss is still targetable throughout the mechanic.
2. Assign a flex priority for each party. We recommend the following: For support, Group 2 Tank, Group 1 Tank, Group 2 Healer, Group 1 Healer. For DPS, Group 2 Melee, Group 1 Melee, Group 2 Ranged, Group 1 Ranged. These numbers are based on the original light parties 1 and 2 that were made before the first phase.
3. Look at your debuff and the debuffs of each player in your party. Each party needs one of each of the following players: no debuff, 10s Water, 29s Water, and 38s Water. There are three possibilities:
   • A double is defined as a pair with the same debuffs in the same party. This includes if two people both have no debuff, they are considered a pair.
   • Each party has one of each player needed: no flex needed.
   • Each party has one set of doubles: the higher priority in each pair flexes to the other side. Two people total flex.
   • Each party has two sets of doubles: the higher priority in each pair flexes to the other side. Four people total flex.
4. Each party stacks together after the flex is made for the first Water stack. If the parties do not have four player each, the party with fewer than four players will receive Mark of Mortality.
5. Immediately after the first Water, spread out as the boss will cast Spirit Taker, which will target a random player with a slam AoE. If a non-targetted player is too close, they will be flung into the wall and die.
6. Two Apocalypse lights will start in the center and move to ward opposite cardinal or intercardinal directions during Spirit Taker. Pay attention to where they started and if they rotate clockwise or counterclockwise.
7. The safe area from the first and second Apocalypse explosions is one "pie slice" opposite of the direction the Apocalypse lights started rotating. Please reference the Raidplan for a visual of this.
8. Spread out within this pie slice. The boss will cast Dark Eruption, which will target all eight players with a small spread AoE.
9. Eruption will hit as the second Apocalypse explosions happen. Immediately after, move into the middle of the arena to be safe from the third set of explosions.
10. Ensure the party splits into the four-player water stacks including the flexes from before prior the fifth explosion.
11. Immediately after the water stacks, a Tank will bait Darkest Dance, which does high damage in an AoE around the target. This must be baited at the wall because it will be followed up with a strong knockback. The safe area for the tank to bait this during the sixth Apocalypse explosions is 90 degrees from the original starting point of the Apocalypse lights. For example, if the starting lights are at northwest and southeast, the safe areas are at northeast and southwest.
12. After the boss jumps to the tank, the party splits into their Water stacks, including the flexes again. The party that started on the west will go toward the left, the party that started on the east will go toward the right, looking from the center of the room to the boss. Ensure that you are not far enough to the side that you get knocked off the arena.
13. After the knockback, Melee DPS and Tanks can gap close back to the boss, then go to max melee distance. Ranged/Caster DPS and Healers walk back toward the boss to meet the Melee DPS and Tanks. The final Water stacks will go off shortly after the knockback.

The boss will cast another Shockwave Pulsar before casting Memory's End.

Similar to Phase 2, the enrage for Oracle of Darkness is a 20% HP check. The boss must reach below 20% or Memory's End will instantly kill the party. If the boss HP does hit below 20% HP, Memory's End will do raid-wide damage instead, and the boss will disappear. Congratulations, you've reached Phase 4: The Duo Phase! The Usurper of Frost will spawn at the north or south of the arena, whichever is farthest from where the Oracle of Darkness was defeated. If she was defeated directly on the east or west, you can listen for a voice line from Ryne that will either come from the north or south. Whichever direction this comes from is where Usurper will spawn.