Gaia and Shiva

This is version 2.0, that uses the vertical spread Darklit Dragonsong strat, and Nukemaru’s strategy for Crystallize Time with 2x 7:1 Akh Morn stacks.

Details may be missing, or subject to change until I have better first-hand experience.

I am pretty sure I want to go with vertical Darklit over horizontal, but am undecided on where to record positions during Crystallize Time.

• Darklit Dragonsong - Vertical spreads
• Akh Morn 1 - 7:1 MT solo
• Crystallize Time - Nukemaru (fast pop, anti-kb, Y-shaped record
• Akh Morn 2 - 7:1 ST solo
• Frequently Asked Questions

The Usurper of Frost will respawn at either North or South, whichever is further from where The Oracle of Darkness was defeated.

Make sure the two tanks have first and second aggro on the Usurper of Frost- her auto-attacks hit the top two players in aggro.

Fragment of Fate

The Usurper of Frost casts Materialization, which spawns the Fragment of Fate North.

Over the course of the phase, the Fragment of Fate will take damage. Assuming no player hits it with an AoE, it will survive with barely any HP.

This means that if it takes any extra damage (e.g: from a player’s AoE, or a poorly aimed Spirit Taker), the phase becomes impossible to clear (although you’ll still be able to get practice in.)

1. Pull the Usurper of Frost to the middle of the arena.
2. Gather in the center. The Usurper of Frost will transform into its dragon form ("Come to me, Hraesvelgr!")
3. When the boss transforms, it baits Akh Rhai AoEs where each player was standing. Since the party was stacked together, simply move out when the boss transforms into your starting positions for Darklit Dragonsong.

The Oracle of Darkness then respawns (everyone should swap over to target her), and should be taken by the ST.

They will shortly begin their first joint mechanic.

Darklit Dragonsong - Vertical spreads

Both bosses will cast Darklit Dragonsong.

• The Usurper of Frost will deal raidwide damage.
• The Oracle of Darkness will apply tethers and Dark Water III debuffs on the party.

4. Line up on the East and West sides, with the tanks/melee towards the south. Two sets of debuffs come out: One tank, one healer, and two DPS each get Refulgent Chain tethers. Two random players get Dark Water III. One player will have both tethers and Water.

To resolve the tethers, we have to make a “bowtie” shape- this is the same as how Light Rampant was solved in Eden’s Verse- Refulgence.

To summarise, the tethered healer will always go North. For everybody else:

• If you are tethered to a healer: Go south.
• If you are tethered, but not to a healer: Go north.

5. This is the best case scenario, where the tethers already make a bowtie. No adjustments are needed- the north-most tether players go to the North tower, and the south-most tether players go to the South tower.
If the tethers make a box, then the DPS players swap positions: Tank/Healers stay the same as if the tethers made the "bowtie": North-most tether: Go to the North-side tower. South-most tether: Go to the South-side tower. DPS swap positions: North-most tether: Go to the South-side tower. South-most tether: Go to the North-side tower.
If the tethers make an hourglass, then everybody rotates clockwise: Tanks and healers go to the North-side tower. DPS go to the South-side tower.

With the tethers sorted out, the next thing we need to do is separate the two Dark Water III debuffs.

6. If the two Dark Water III debuffs are on different sides (North vs. South), then no further adjustments need to be made. If the Dark Water III debuffs are either both North, or both South, then the Water player and their partner swap sides. Do this before the towers resolve. (In this example, since both Water debuffs are in the North group, the non-tether Water (H1) and their partner (MT) switch places.)

We can now continue with the mechanic.

7. The tethered players take the two towers, while the Usurper of Frost readies The Path of Light, which cleaves the four closest players- these should be the four non-tethered players.
8. Move a little bit south, and spread out around both bosses. Do not spread too close to the Fragment of Fate! (the danger zone is marked in dark red.)
9. The Oracle of Darkness targets a random player for Spirit Taker. Ideally, she should not move much.
10. The Usurper of Frost will then use Hallowed Wings, which will cleave either the West or East half of the arena. The Water III debuffs will also resolve roughly at the same time, so stack up on the two intercardinal markers on the safe half of the arena. This will be far enough to not trigger the tethers while also avoiding the Fragment of Fate. The south group can move closer to the south marker to give some extra margin of error if needed.
11. The Oracle of Darkness targets the furthest player for Somber Dance. This is actually a two-hit tankbuster, first targeting the furthest player, then targeting the closest player. However, unlike the Savage version, both hits can be taken by the same player, which we do with tank invulnerability. Some notes though: This cannot be taken by a PLD, as they will need Hallowed Ground for the final phase. This can be taken by a GNB, but they will not have Superbolide available for the first Wings Dark and Light in the final phase. Everybody else gather together underneath where the Oracle of Darkness was to prevent accidentally baiting the Somber Dance.

Akh Morn 1 - 7:1 (MT solo)

The two bosses will then teleport a bit West and East of the center for Akh Morn into Morn Afah.

12. The two bosses target whoever has their hate with a 4-hit Akh Morn (which should be their respective tanks). However, a tank can mitigate this to lower the damage on the party- for this first Akh Morn, we have the MT split off. Done this way, each Akh Morn hit deals roughly 175k damage to the solo tank. Note: The solo tank cannot use their 40% mitigation, as they will need it for Crystallize Time. Use co-tank and targeted healer mitigations to help.

Morn Afah is also a boss HP check, and the two bosses must be within 5% HP of each other, or Morn Afah will be lethal. If they are not within 5% HP, the two bosses will tether together indicating which boss has too much HP.

• White tether: The Usurper of Frost has too much HP.
• Purple tether: The Oracle of Darkness has too much HP.

Crystallize Time - Nukemaru

The bosses will cast Crystallize Time. This is probably the hardest part of the encounter, so hang in there.

• Six hourglasses will spawn.
• The Usurper of Frost will apply a set of debuffs on the players to resolve.
• The Oracle of Darkness will deal raidwide damage and tether to four hourglasses.
  • The North and South hourglasses with yellow tethers.
  • Two of the remaining opposite hourglasses with purple tethers.

[Click to Expand] Crystallize Time debuffs

Two dragon heads spawn North, and circle the arena- one clockwise, one anti-clockwise.

Wyrmclaw Shredded by draconic talons. KO will occur when countdown reaches 0. Wyrmclaw and Wyrmfang randomly split the party into two groups of four. When a player with Wyrmclaw runs into the dragon head, it: Removes the Wyrmclaw debuff. Explodes in a large AoE (12-yalm radius). Leaves behind a small puddle. The dragon head will leave the arena after the second red Wyrmclaw is fed. If two red Wyrmclaw debuffs are not fed to the dragon head by the time it finishes its loop, it explodes and wipes the raid (Joyless Dragonsong).

Wyrmfang Torn by draconic teeth. KO will occur when countdown reaches 0. Wyrmfang and Wyrmclaw randomly split the party into two groups of four. This debuff will kill the player when the timer expires. To cleanse the debuff, stand on a puddle left behind when a dragon head runs into a player with the red Wyrmclaw debuff.

With that out of the way, there are two more debuffs added in addition to all the previously encountered Spell-in-Waiting debuffs.

	Spell-in-Waiting: Dark Aero III When the debuff expires, a large point-blank AoE centered on the player resolves. Any other player hit by this AoE gets knocked across the arena away from the Aero player.
	Spell-in-Waiting: Quietus Three players will have this debuff. Raid-wide damage goes off when this debuff expires (30s).

Four players will get the red Wyrmclaw debuff: Two will also have a Dark Blizzard III Two will also have a Dark Aero III The Blizzard players will stand East and West, between the hourglasses: West: H1 H2 MT ST D1 D2 D3 D4 :East The Aero players will stand South-West and South-East, at the intercardinal mark: South-West: H1 H2 MT ST D1 D2 D3 D4 :South-East

Four players will get the blue Wyrmfang debuff: One will also have Dark Eruption. One will also have Dark Water III. One will also have Dark Blizzard III. One will also have Unholy Darkness. Identify the purple tether. Only the blue player with Dark Eruption goes to the North-side intercardinal mark with the purple tether. Everybody else joins the red Aero player at the South-side intercardinal mark with the purple tether. Keep the red Aero player as the closest player to the edge. (In this example, the purple tether stretches NW to SE, so the Dark Eruption player goes NW, and all other blue players move SE.)

Once all players have taken up their initial positions, we can begin to resolve the sea of mechanics.

13. The yellow-tethered hourglasses (North and South) resolve. The two red Aeros, and all the south-side blue players move into the hourglass AoEs when they resolve (Maelstrom), and stand at the tip of the "flower petal" decal on the floor. The south-side blue players and the red Aero need to stack together closely, with the red Aero closest to the edge of the arena.
14. The dragon heads reach the E/W red Ice players around the same time the debuffs resolve, and explode in an AoE (Longing of the Lost). The blue Eruption moves down slightly (this is to hedge against the nearer red Ice being late.) The red Ice player closest to the blue Eruption moves North to join them. The red Ice player furthest from the blue Eruption moves a little south of the East/West mark. The south-side blue players should get knocked over to the other side of the arena. The two red Aeros step off the flower petal into the south sector. The players getting knocked back by the Aero AoE may want to aim a little towards the East/West instead of directly across to make sure they make it to the upcoming stack in time.
15. The second set of hourglasses explode together with the blue player with Unholy Darkness. All players in the stack move to the North sector when the stack resolves. The two red Aeros move SW and SE after the hourglasses explode to prepare to intercept the dragon heads. The red Ice player that was not in the stack crosses over the E/W flower petal to the North side after the hourglass explodes.
16. The red Aeros intercept the dragon heads. At this point, all the red Wyrmclaw debuffs have been resolved. The red Aero players go back to the South sector after taking their dragon heads. A travelling line telegraph (Tidal Light) appears either along the West or East side of the arena, where the lone red Ice player may be. If the telegraph appears on the same side as the red Ice player, don't panic and just prepare to dodge into it when it goes off. Note which side the telegraph started on (East or West).
17. The third set of hourglasses resolve together with the first line AoE. Depending on where you are, position yourself to dodge into either the first or second line AoE (there will be telegraphs for both). The objective is to end up on the side where the line originated from.
18. Now that all three pairs of hourglasses have resolved, the blue debuff players now go out to the puddles left behind to cleanse their debuff. Each blue player has an assigned puddle to take: Dark Eruption: Take the West puddle. Blizzard III: Take the South-West puddle. Water III: Take the South-East puddle. Unholy Darkness: Take the East puddle.
19. A second line telegraph now appears, this time either North or South. Note which side this telegraph started on (North or South).
20. Position yourselves to dodge the second line AoE. The objective is to end up in the corner where both line AoEs originated from (North-East in this example). At this point, all blue players should have cleansed their debuff.
21. Dodge the second horizontal line AoE.
22. Make a Y-shaped formation near the center of the arena, towards where the second set of line AoEs originated from. MT: Relative top-left ST: Relative top-right Everyone else: Stack near the center Everybody records their position in this formation. A Quietus raid-wide will also go off shortly before everybody's positions are recorded.
23. After recording your position, spread out for Spirit Taker on a random player. Spread out in your regular spread positions, except the MT, who goes to the middle of the arena instead (because of the Fragment of Fate). Prepare heavy mitigation: Tanks: Use your 40% personal mitigation. The party will need at least 3x 10% party mitigations in addition. When the Oracle of Darkness does her Spirit Taker attack, everybody use Arm's Length/Surecast.
24. The rewind resolves, and the Usurper of Frost casts Hallowed Wings from the side where the first line AoE came from. The party gets knocked back half the arena, which is blocked by Arm's Length/Surecast. The first four members hit get a Magic Vulnerability debuff. The first player hit takes the most damage (which should be a tank), with the players at the back taking less damage.
25. The second Hallowed Wings resolves, this time from North or South (wherever the second line AoE came from). The party will get knocked back half the arena.

Akh Morn 2 - 7:1 (ST solo)

The two bosses will reappear around the center of the arena and immediately start another 4-hit Akh Morn into Morn Afah sequence.

26. The two bosses target whoever has their hate with a 4-hit Akh Morn (which should be their respective tanks). This time, we have the ST split off and take it solo.

Remember that two bosses have to be within 5% HP of each other for Morn Afah. If things are looking bad, Morn Afah comes from the Usurper of Frost, so the MT can sacrifice themselves and take it away from the party if needed.

Both bosses will then start casting their respective enrages (Absolute Zero and Memory’s End).

When both bosses are defeated, you will advance to the next arena. If the Fragment of Fate is not around, Eden’s Promise will spawn and wipe the raid. If, on the other hand, the Fragment of Fate is still alive, then the party advances to the final phase.

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Frequently Asked Questions

[Fragment of Fate] Does the Fragment of Fate still spawn if the Crystals of Darkness were destroyed earlier?

Materialization will always spawn a Fragment of Fate, regardless of whether the Crystals of Darkness were destroyed. However, if the Crystals of Darkness are destroyed, the memory will be changed and the name of the raidwide that it periodically casts is named Depths of Oblivion instead of Edge of Oblivion. They both do the same amount of damage.

[Fragment of Fate] Can you heal the Fragment of Fate?

No, the Fragment of Fate comes with an Incurable debuff that nullifies HP restoration. Oddly enough, Adloquium/Eukrasian Diagnosis still applies a shield, but the shield only blocks 1HP worth of damage which won't make a difference.

[Darklit Dragonsong] Who should we debuff to reduce incoming damage?

Although both bosses cast Darklit Dragonsong, damage originates from the Usurper of Frost. (You can think of it as the Oracle of Darkness is the one that applies all the debuffs on the party, although it's actually the environment that does so.)

[Darklit Dragonsong] Are the tethers here different from Light Rampant?

Yes, they are. The debuffs at Light Rampant were: Chains of Everlasting Light → Curse of Everlasting Light While the debuffs here are: Refulgent Chain → Refulgent Fate The important distinction is that while the Curse of Everlasting Light tethers break if they're too short, the Refulgent Fate tethers break if they're too short or too long.

[Darklit Dragonsong] Why vertical spreads (groups E/W) instead of horizontal (groups N/S)?

There are a number of problems with lining up horizontally North/South, which are solved by lining up vertically instead. The Oracle of Darkness spawns south. However, if the tanks are North, then the ST has to step out of formation in order to maintain aggro for the upcoming Akh Morn, potentially confusing the rest of the party. The Oracle of Darkness also spawns a significant amount of time after the Usurper of Frost, and their HP needs to be equalised before the first Morn Afah. However, with the tanks North, they are unable to help without breaking formation. Lining the DPS up horizontally also means that the two non-tethered DPS could be D1+D2, or D3+D4. In such an event, either D2 or D3 would have to cross over to the other side of the boss, which isn't ideal.

[Darklit Dragonsong] Why do we rotate instead of just swapping the tank and the North-most DPS?

With the two bosses in the way, it's quite annoying to look at the other side- rotating means that all adjustments are contained to your side of the bosses. Rotating also allows both DPS to rotate into the Oracle of Darkness in the event of an hourglass, which is an advantage because the Oracle of Darkness will have higher HP at the time, so it's better to have DPS on her instead of a tank. Not having players cross over to the other side also means that it's easier for the non-tether Water player to adjust.

[Darklit Dragonsong] How close or far can you get before the tethers snap?

The tethers break if they are shorter than around 8 yalms, or longer than around 26 yalms.

[Akh Morn/Morn Afah] Do these ignore invulnerabilities?

Yes, they do- in particular, they deal damage through all invulnerabilities, including tank invulns and the "raise" invuln.

[Crystallize Time] Who should we debuff to reduce incoming damage?

Although both bosses cast Crystallize Time, damage originates from the Oracle of Darkness. (You can think of it as the Usurper of Frost is the one that applies all the debuffs on the party, although it's actually the environment that does so.)

[Crystallize Time] Why do the anti-knockback strat instead of just doing it normally?

Using Arm's Length/Surecast to mitigate the knockback from the first Hallowed Wings allows the party to record their positions closer to the center. This accomplishes two things: It gives more time for the blue Wyrmfang players to pick up their puddles, because they don't have to travel as far to join the party to record. It lets the party spread use their standard clock positions for Spirit Taker (because they recorded near the center).

[Crystallize Time (Hallowed Wings)] Just how does this mechanic work?

As mentioned, the first player hit takes the most damage, and that damage goes down the further down the line you go. More specifically, the base damage numbers are approximately: 1st player: ~160k damage 2nd player: ~70k damage 3rd player: ~55k damage 4th player: ~55k damage 5th player: ~40k damage 6th player: ~15k damage 7th player: ~10k damage 8th player: ~10k damage In addition, the first four players hit also get a Magic Vulnerability Up debuff. This debuff increases the damage taken to 400%, which means that the fifth player hit with vuln (400% x ~40k damage) takes roughly the same damage as the first player without (~160k damage). Note that these are base values, so multiply them roughly by 0.64 for tanks, and 0.94 for casters/healers. (Thanks to syl for the analysis!)

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Troubleshooting

[Crystallize Time] What is Joyless Dragonsong?

This is a raid wipe and the failure condition for letting the dragon heads leave the arena (one of the red Wyrmclaw players did not cleanse their debuff).