Usurper of Frost v3.2
This is version 3.2, that’s based off the Google Doc with three options for Light Rampant.
- Diamond Dust - Colour coded
- Mirror, Mirror
- Light Rampant
- Endless Ice Age (Transition)
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Troubleshooting
The boss opens the fight with Quadruple Slap on the player with most hate (which should be the MT).
Despite the name, this is actually a “two-hit” tankbuster, but the first hit applies a Physical Vulnerability Up debuff that can be Esuna’ed.
The boss then teleports slightly south of center and casts Mirror Image which summons an (untargetable) Oracle’s Reflection before casting Diamond Dust for heavy raid-wide damage.
Diamond Dust - Colour-coded
Diamond Dust resolves itself in a very similar way to Diamond Frost in Eden’s Verse: Refulgence (Savage). We resolve this using the colour-coded markers.
| 1. Take up the spread positions from P1. Two tells begin at the same time:
(In this example, the circles spawn on cardinals.) |  |
| 2. Then, either the tanks/healers or the DPS will be selected to drop AoEs. Each pair (MTD3, STD4, H1D1, H2D2) is responsible for their quadrant
Swap positions within your pair if needed (i.e: Swap if the AoEs spawn on the first white circles.). | |
| Tank/Healers dropping AoEs, Circles on a cardinal | DPS dropping AoEs, Circles on a cardinal |
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| Tank/Healers dropping AoEs, Circles on an intercardinal | DPS dropping AoEs, Circles on an intercardinal |
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| 3. The Axe/Scythe Kick will also fire a cone AoE towards the four closest players.
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| Axe Kick | Scythe Kick |
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| 3. As soon as the Axe/Scythe castbar finishes, immediately move to either dodge the first circles (if Axe Kick), or drop your puddles (if Scythe Kick). (This step happens very quickly.) | |
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| 4.Everyone comes in and stacks together in preparation for a knockback where the first circles were.
The Oracle's Reflection will also teleport to a random cardinal or intercardinal. | |
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| 5. Knockback from the center into where the first circles were. The second circles will also resolve. Wait here for the star AoEs to resolve. | |
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| 6. Star AoEs resolve. Identify whether the Oracle's Reflection is, as this determines how you will move in the next step: Each group needs to move around the arena, dropping four puddles along the way such that they do not drop puddles directly behind, or opposite the boss. | |
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Sunbound Holy - Always Away
The Oracle’s Reflection then casts Sunbound Holy, which targets each healer four times with a 4-man stack AoE that also leaves a puddle behind. Each party needs to drop these puddles and end up either directly behind the boss, or at least 135 degrees away from the boss.
First, let’s address the “cursed” pattern, which is where the boss teleports directly in front of either light party.
| With the "cursed pattern", move as soon as the star AoEs go off. The aim is to not drop the first Akh Morn puddle directly behind the boss (marked in yellow). After that, quickly run clockwise 180 degrees around the arena- you need to drop four puddles and still make it to the other side. When the floor turns to ice, slide so you're in front of the Oracle of Light. |  |
If we do not have a cursed scenario, then we follow the “always rotate away” rule. This is a consistent, 90 degree rotation that ideally goes slower rather than fast (i.e: under-rotating is fine, over-rotating is not).
| If the boss is 90 degrees from a party, both parties rotate away from the boss and end up directly opposite. |  |
| If the boss is 45 degrees from a party, both parties rotate away from the boss and end up 135 degrees away from the boss. The next movement will be slanted. |  |
We need the two parties to be behind or at least 135 degrees away from the Oracle’s Reflection to prepare for the next mechanic.
| 8. The Oracle's Reflection and Usurper of Frost will switch forms:
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| 9. The Oracle's Reflection will now ready either Twin Silence or Twin Stillness.
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| Twin Silence | Twin Stillness |
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| 10. The boss will quickly follow it up with the opposite attack, so slide in/out again as necessary. | |
The Usurper of Frost reappears back in the center of the arena and casts Hallowed Ray on the party (which is a heavy-hitting line stack) before starting the next set of mechanics.
Mirror, Mirror
The Usurper of Frost will be targetable during this mechanic.
Two red mirrors and one blue mirror appear at the edge on any of the eight cardinal/intercardinal positions.
- Blue mirrors copy the Usurper of Frost’s attack, resolving at the same time.
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Red mirrors copy the Usurper of Frost’s attack, but resolves later.
- The two red mirrors always spawn 90 degrees from one another.
| 11. Find the blue mirror.
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| 12. The Usurpur of Front will ready Scythe Kick, which also fires four cone AoEs at the four closest players. This attack will be recorded by all the mirrors, and the blue mirror's copy will resolve together with the boss. Spread out around the boss and the mirror to avoid both Scythe Kick and the cone AoEs.
When spreading, put the tanks/healers at the sides, with the DPS in between.
To avoid getting hit by the Scythe Kick, either be inside the boss's targeting circle or 2 pips away from the cardinal/ intercardinal marker. |  |
| 13. Move the boss to the (nearest) red mirror. (If both red mirrors are equidistant, rotate clockwise.) The healers and ranged will go to the other red mirror. Spread out beside the red mirrors, making sure not to hit the other group with the cone AoEs. |  |
| 14. The boss will then cast Banish III. This will either be a party spread, or pair stacks depending on the number of orbs above the boss's head.
Have the DPS adjust to the tanks and healers. | |
After this, the boss will teleport to the middle and begin another signature mechanic.
Light Rampant
Two players at random will be selected to drop AoE puddles, while the other six will get tethered together (Chains of Everlasting Light).
- After 10 seconds, the Chains of Everlasting Light debuff will turn into Curse of Everlasting Light. From this point on, the raid wipes if the tethers get too short.
- Two connected players will also have a 16 second The Weight of Light debuff. When the timer expires, this explodes with a 4-man stack.
There will also be six stacks of Lightsteeped randomly distributed among the party (although no player can start with more than two stacks).
- Resolving mechanics or getting hit by an AoE increase the stacks of Lightsteeped by one.
- The raid wipes if any player reaches 5 stacks of Lightsteeped.
There are three ways to resolve Light Rampant. In order of my personal preference, they would be:
- 4:4 - East adjust
- MT-anchor ZizieZip
- 4:4 - CW adjust
Option 1 - Light Rampant (4:4 East adjust)
This is my personal preference. The strategy outlined below follows the strategy used in Mana, except for how the puddles are dropped.
| 15. Stand between the markers to make a ring around the boss with tanks and healers North, and DPS South. |  |
| 16. Two players at random will be selected to drop AoE puddles. There will also be six stacks of Lightsteeped randomly distributed among the party (although no player can start with more than two stacks). The other six players will get tethered together. The tether will likely connect to the nearest player, making a connected ring if all goes well. Six towers will also spawn around the arena. |  |
| 17. The two puddle players move far West and East (between the towers) and prepare to drop five puddles, one after the other. |  |
| 18. At the same time, we need to sort out the tethers. Starting from H1 and going clockwise, count up the tethered players. (It will be easier for the DPS to count anti-clockwise from D1 instead.) |  |
| 20. We assign towers based on player positions in the ring:
It is good practice to take the tower at the edge of the arena, to avoid getting accidentally clipped by the two players dropping puddles in the center. |  |
| 21. The two puddle players move straight into the center, before turning to their right, dropping five puddles in total before joining their group NNW and SSE. Try to keep your puddles to the same East/West side to avoid blocking the path back to the center. The tether players wait for their towers to resolve before collapsing with their group. |  |
| 22. Three white orbs will spawn in an equilateral triangle and telegraph an AoE, which you should avoid. The timers on the two The Weight of Light debuffs will also expire, resulting in a 4-man stack. Wait when the stack resolves- the orb AoEs have not yet resolved. |  |
| 23. The tethers will disappear. Move into the first set of orb explosions as another three white orbs will spawn in the previously unoccupied spots and telegraph an AoE. Simply avoid these. A 4-man tower will spawn in the center of the arena. |  |
| 24. The second set of orbs explode. Check how many stacks of Lightsteeped you have. |  |
| 25. We now resolve the 4-man tower in the middle.
Everybody else move to your standard clock positions around the tower. |  |
| 26. The boss will then cast Banish III again. Just like before, this will either be a party spread, or pair stacks depending on the number of orbs above the boss's head.
(In this example, the boss is doing pair stacks.) |  |
| 27. Finally, the boss becomes targetable again and starts casting The House of Light, which cleaves all players and gives a stack of Lightsteeped. Spread out in your standard clock positions to resolve this. |  |
Option 2 - Light Rampant (MT-anchor ZizieZip)
This is a different method to assigning towers, which is equally viable. The party is more spaced out at the start, making it easier to identify the puddle players.
It’s a minor variation of ZizieZip’s original strat, except that instead of counting from the two players with The Weight of Light debuffs (as indicated by the glowing orbs on their head), you count your position from a fixed player (the MT) instead.
[Click to Expand] MT-anchor ZizieZip breakdown
| 15. Take up your clock positions. |  |
| 16. Two players at random will be selected to drop AoE puddles. There will also be six stacks of Lightsteeped randomly distributed among the party (although no player can start with more than two stacks). The other six players will get tethered together. The tether will likely connect to the nearest player, making a connected ring if all goes well. Six towers will also spawn around the arena. |  |
| 17. The two puddle players position themselves a little West and East of the center and prepare to drop five puddles, one after the other. |  |
| 18. At the same time, we need to sort out the tethers. Starting from North (where the MT is) and going clockwise, count up the tethered players. (It will be easier for H1, H2, D1, D3 to count anti-clockwise from D3 instead.) We assign towers based on player positions in the ring:
(Think of this as a letter "I", followed by a "Z".) |  |
| 19. When everyone's in position, it should look like this. It is good practice to take the tower at the edge of the arena, to avoid getting accidentally clipped by the two players dropping puddles in the center. |  |
| 20. The two puddle players will rotate clockwise, dropping five puddles in total before joining their group roughly NNW and SSE. The tether players wait for their towers to resolve before collapsing with their group NNW and SSE. Note that the SW and NE towers rotate clockwise, essentially flipping their North/South halves. |  |
| 21. Three white orbs will spawn in an equilateral triangle and telegraph an AoE, which you should avoid. The timers on the two The Weight of Light debuffs will also expire, resulting in a 4-man stack. (You may need to resolve the stack inside the telegraph if needed.) |  |
| 22. The tethers will disappear. Move into the first set of explosions as another three white orbs will spawn in the previously unoccupied spots and telegraph an AoE. Simply avoid these. A 4-man tower will spawn in the center of the arena. |  |
| 23. The second set of orbs explode. Check how many stacks of Lightsteeped you have. |  |
| 24. We now resolve the 4-man tower in the middle.
Everybody else move to your standard clock positions around the tower. | |
| 25. The boss will then cast Banish III again. Just like before, this will either be a party spread, or pair stacks depending on the number of orbs above the boss's head.
(In this example, the boss is doing pair stacks.) | |
| 26. Finally, the boss becomes targetable again and starts casting The House of Light, which cleaves all players and gives a stack of Lightsteeped. Spread out in your standard clock positions to resolve this. | |
Option 3 - Light Rampant (4:4 CW)
This is a slight modification of the strat outlined in the Google Docs, and is my least preferred solution by far- I cannot recommend this strat in good faith.
The only change is to the DPS lineup- we use D1 D2 D3 D4 here, instead of D3 D4 D1 D2.
[Click to Expand] 4:4 CW breakdown
| 15. Stand between the markers to make a ring around the boss with tanks and healers North, and DPS South. |  |
| 16. Two players at random will be selected to drop AoE puddles. There will also be six stacks of Lightsteeped randomly distributed among the party (although no player can start with more than two stacks). The other six players will get tethered together. The tether will likely connect to the nearest player, making a connected ring if all goes well. Six towers will also spawn around the arena. |  |
| 17. The two puddle players move far West and East (between the towers) and prepare to drop five puddles, one after the other. |  |
| 18. At the same time, we need to sort out the tethers. The objective is to have three tethered players in the North, and three tethered players in the South.
If both puddles appear either North or South, we have an imbalance, and the tethered players need to adjust to make it a balanced 3-3. We rotate the party clockwise to do so:
(In this example, there are four tethered DPS (both puddles are on tanks/healers), so D1 rotates clockwise into the tank/healer row.) |  |
| 19. Once we have a hexagon, we can assign towers to the tethered players. On the North side (Note the East/West players swap sides):
And on the South side:
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| 20. When everyone's in position, it should look like this. It is good practice to take the tower at the edge of the arena, to avoid getting accidentally clipped by the two players dropping puddles in the center. |  |
| 21. The two puddle players move straight into the center, before turning to their left, dropping five puddles in total before joining their group NNE and SSW. Try to keep your puddles to the same East/West side to avoid blocking the path back to the center. The tether players wait for their towers to resolve before collapsing with their group. |  |
| 22. Three white orbs will spawn in an equilateral triangle and telegraph an AoE, which you should avoid. The timers on the two The Weight of Light debuffs will also expire, resulting in a 4-man stack. Wait when the stack resolves- the orb AoEs have not yet resolved. |  |
| 23. The tethers will disappear. Move into the first set of orb explosions as another three white orbs will spawn in the previously unoccupied spots and telegraph an AoE. Simply avoid these. A 4-man tower will spawn in the center of the arena. |  |
| 24. The second set of orbs explode. Check how many stacks of Lightsteeped you have. |  |
| 25. We now resolve the 4-man tower in the middle.
Everybody else move to your standard clock positions around the tower. | |
| 26. The boss will then cast Banish III again. Just like before, this will either be a party spread, or pair stacks depending on the number of orbs above the boss's head.
(In this example, the boss is doing pair stacks.) | |
| 27. Finally, the boss becomes targetable again and starts casting The House of Light, which cleaves all players and gives a stack of Lightsteeped. Spread out in your standard clock positions to resolve this. | |
A few seconds later, the boss will start to cast Absolute Zero. This will serve as the hard enrage, unless the boss is brought under 20.0% HP.
If the DPS check is met, Absolute Zero will be a raid-wide and a knockback instead, so stay near the middle.
Endless Ice Age
This is the mini “transition” phase.
| 28. Pre-position for Absolute Zero's knockback. Note the spread positions here are different. |  |
| 29. Four Crystals of Light and four Crystals of Darkness appear as shown in the diagram. The objective is to destroy the Ice Veil in the middle that's casting Endless Ice Age without destroying the four Crystals of Darkness. However, while the Ice Veil is targetable, it is immune to damage while there is a Crystal of Light on the arena. The healers/ranged DPS should help their tank/melee partner destroy the Crystal of Light in their sector first. |  |
| 30. The tanks and melee DPS manage the Crystals of Light:
The healers and ranged DPS manage the Crystals of Darkness:
To avoid hitting other players, have everyone bait their first set of AoEs skewed clockwise (to the left, facing in), and alterate between left and right. |  |
| 31. Bait the second set of AoEs skewed anti-clockwise (to the right, facing in). |  |
| 32. On the third set of telegraphed AoEs, the Crystals of Light will tether to the nearest player. |  |
| 33. On the fourth set of telegraphed AoEs, the tethered players will start dropping puddles that stay on the arena. Stepping into these puddles will inflict a lethal Bleed on you. |  |
| 34. Bait these puddles around the Crystal. Note that even after the Crystals of Light have been destroyed, the Crystals of Darkness are still on the arena, and the cone AoEs still need to be properly baited. |  |
Once the four Crystals of Light have been destroyed, all party members should destroy the Ice Veil.
If all four Crystals of Darkness are still alive, Gaia will gain enough power (“My power surges!) to deal 50.0% damage to the Ice Veil just before Endless Ice Age resolves. As a result, the damage check is to get the Ice Veil below 50.0% HP.
Frequently Asked Questions
[Light Rampant] What prevents both stacks from being on the same side?
| The two stacks are always tethered together. Because connected players alternate between North and South, this results in one stack North, and one stack South. |
[Light Rampant] Why do I dislike 4:4 CW adjust so much?
| In short, 4:4 CW makes 4-6 players adjust for something that can be resolved with just one player adjusting (always). Consider D2's position in the example on the right. With the 4:4 East adjust strat, the tower that D2 goes to is fully determined just by looking West along their row (i.e: D1). D2 sees there is no puddle on D1, therefore they are the second player in their row, and are therefore taking the North tower. This is not true for 4:4 CW adjust, as both puddles could be on the tanks/healers, meaning D2 is now the first player in their row (after D1 rotates up), and they go to the South-West tower instead. Essentially, 4:4 CW adds an extra layer (rotating 4-6 players) onto something that can just be resolved by having the East-most player adjust instead (only one player adjusts). I simply cannot recommend 4:4 CW adjust in good faith. |  |
[Light Rampant (4:4 East adjust)] Why do we flip the DPS instead of the tanks/healers?
| Believe it or not, this isn't done just to be different. There are a couple reasons why.
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[Light Rampant (4:4 East adjust)] Why do the "L" puddles turn right instead of left?
| Believe it or not, this isn't done just to be different. There are a couple reasons why.
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[Crystals] What happens if you destroy all the Dark Crystals?
| Nothing immediate happens, and you can still progress through the fight. However, the Fragment of Fate in P4 only spawns if the Dark Crystals are still alive. Without the Fragment of Fate, you can still progress through to the end of P4, but you will get the "bad ending" where Eden's Promise spawns and wipes the raid. Additionally, if a Dark Crystal is destroyed, the Ice Veil becomes invulnerable until all the Dark Crystals are destroyed, leading either to an enrage, or the bad ending. |
Troubleshooting
[General] We can't meet the DPS check during the Crystals phase!
| The crystals phase can be made significantly easier if you hold damage, and kill Fatebreaker towards the end of his enrage cast. This will synchronise your 2-minute burst with the start of the crystals phase, which should get you past the DPS check. (You should also use your second pots as soon as you can in the crystals phase for them to be back up in P4.) |
[Diamond Dust] Any tips for aiming my slide on a controller during Twin Silence/Stillness?
| For context, this is a problem specific to playing on a controller. Keyboards don't have this problem because pressing "W" moves your character perfectly forward. On a controller, pushing the analogue stick forward will not be perfect, so that slight deviation may be enough to get you killed. Something that might help would be to set up a macro like so: /automove on /automove off This will make your character take one tiny step directly forward where your camera is facing. |
Changelog
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| Past versions: |