Rhio Aldul
Spawn conditions: Investigating the "Unassuming Diary" within Ul'dah will allow players to enter the battlefield. Players must first have the "Cipher Key" key item, obtained from the quest Memory of Truth
Job: Gambler
HP: 17,000
Elemental Affinity: Changes during fight
Special Abilities:
Aetherial Blood - Whenever Rhio is afflicted by a debuff, she gains this buff for 30 seconds. This adds roughly a 15% chance of inflicting the original debuff to the target of her other abilities or her standard attack. So long as Aetherial Blood is active, further debuffs will not trigger a new buff, nor will any active debuffs trigger it once the buff's duration wears off. In addition, she is immune to the debuff that triggered Aetherial Blood during its duration.
Teleport Shuffle - Rhio teleports to three random party members, hitting each with one of three attacks; her standard melee attack, her standard ranged attack, or a special melee attack that deals slightly higher damage. Hate is preserved, and she will resume attacking the tank after this ability finishes.
Art of Misdirection - Used roughly every two minutes throughout the fight, Art of Misdirection changes Rhio's fighting pattern and abilities. Which of the following takes place is entirely random, and the effects are not cumulative.
Death Sentence - Starting at full and with every 20% of her health lost, Rhio will pick a target for Death Sentence. A counter will appear over the player's head with a number anywhere between 4 and 19. Each time the player moves or takes an action the counter decreases by 1; when it reaches zero Rhio teleports to the player and automatically lowers their HP to 1. There will be a brief period after this during which Rhio will not attack, at which point she will resume her previous pattern.
Passive abilities:
Elemental alignment changes based on the last ability that hit her (when hit with a Fire attack, her affinity changes to Fire)
Susceptible to all debuffs that do not serve as instant-kills (she can be afflicted with Confusion, but it will only serve to trigger Aetherial Blood)
Strategy:
The difficulty in fighting Rhio is almost entirely based upon the randomness of the battle. None of her attacks hit unusually hard, and even Death Sentence can be mitigated by ensuring that the target is healed quickly. The greatest danger is if Death Sentence is used upon the tank.
Rhio will switch back and forth between paired ninja swords and a musket throughout the fight. While using her musket she will generally attempt to move away from the tank whenever possible, and while using her swords she will approach the tank. In both forms she will randomly deal a single attack to a random target not on the top of the hate list, but she will not move to her new target, meaning that only melee DPS needs to fear her random attacks while she uses a melee weapon. Her musket deals slightly less damage than her melee as a result.
Despite her relatively low HP and damage potential, players unprepared to deal with Art of Misdirection will find this fight extremely difficult. Recognizing which effect is taking place and how to counter it are the most important lessons, and knowing her various tricks at a glance is the only way to emerge triumphant. Because she can knock a tank's health down quickly, it's vital that said tank is kept at full health or as close thereof as possible at all times; it's also important that any other players afflicted with Death Sentence are healed back up promptly.
Spawn conditions: Investigating the "Unassuming Diary" within Ul'dah will allow players to enter the battlefield. Players must first have the "Cipher Key" key item, obtained from the quest Memory of Truth
Job: Gambler
HP: 17,000
Elemental Affinity: Changes during fight
Special Abilities:
Aetherial Blood - Whenever Rhio is afflicted by a debuff, she gains this buff for 30 seconds. This adds roughly a 15% chance of inflicting the original debuff to the target of her other abilities or her standard attack. So long as Aetherial Blood is active, further debuffs will not trigger a new buff, nor will any active debuffs trigger it once the buff's duration wears off. In addition, she is immune to the debuff that triggered Aetherial Blood during its duration.
Teleport Shuffle - Rhio teleports to three random party members, hitting each with one of three attacks; her standard melee attack, her standard ranged attack, or a special melee attack that deals slightly higher damage. Hate is preserved, and she will resume attacking the tank after this ability finishes.
Art of Misdirection - Used roughly every two minutes throughout the fight, Art of Misdirection changes Rhio's fighting pattern and abilities. Which of the following takes place is entirely random, and the effects are not cumulative.
- Players other than the highest one on the hate list are stunned. Rhio's weapon stance changes back and forth, but her damage output is greatly decreased and she will not use Teleport Shuffle.
- Rhio switches to her ranged weapon and teleports to a corner of the battlefield. Each of her shots afflicts her target with a slight damage-over-time effect.
- Choking smoke fills the arena, slowing movement speed and lowering accuracy for all players. Rhio's weapon stance does not change.
- If Rhio is using her melee weapons, she may throw her swords at a random player for moderate damage, followed by thirty seconds of using her ranged weapon. She will then teleport to retrieve her swords and repeat the process.
- All players are disarmed, with their weapons tossed to a random spot within the arena. Each player must run to their weapon and pick it up to continue acting.
- Rhio switches to her melee weapons and greatly increases her attack speed.
- A random player becomes charmed and afflicted with both slow and heavy.
- All players have their MP and TP consumption doubled.
- Hate is reset, and Rhio begins attacking random targets.
- All players have their MP and TP consumption halved and Rhio doubles her dodge rate.
Death Sentence - Starting at full and with every 20% of her health lost, Rhio will pick a target for Death Sentence. A counter will appear over the player's head with a number anywhere between 4 and 19. Each time the player moves or takes an action the counter decreases by 1; when it reaches zero Rhio teleports to the player and automatically lowers their HP to 1. There will be a brief period after this during which Rhio will not attack, at which point she will resume her previous pattern.
Passive abilities:
Elemental alignment changes based on the last ability that hit her (when hit with a Fire attack, her affinity changes to Fire)
Susceptible to all debuffs that do not serve as instant-kills (she can be afflicted with Confusion, but it will only serve to trigger Aetherial Blood)
Strategy:
The difficulty in fighting Rhio is almost entirely based upon the randomness of the battle. None of her attacks hit unusually hard, and even Death Sentence can be mitigated by ensuring that the target is healed quickly. The greatest danger is if Death Sentence is used upon the tank.
Rhio will switch back and forth between paired ninja swords and a musket throughout the fight. While using her musket she will generally attempt to move away from the tank whenever possible, and while using her swords she will approach the tank. In both forms she will randomly deal a single attack to a random target not on the top of the hate list, but she will not move to her new target, meaning that only melee DPS needs to fear her random attacks while she uses a melee weapon. Her musket deals slightly less damage than her melee as a result.
Despite her relatively low HP and damage potential, players unprepared to deal with Art of Misdirection will find this fight extremely difficult. Recognizing which effect is taking place and how to counter it are the most important lessons, and knowing her various tricks at a glance is the only way to emerge triumphant. Because she can knock a tank's health down quickly, it's vital that said tank is kept at full health or as close thereof as possible at all times; it's also important that any other players afflicted with Death Sentence are healed back up promptly.
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In-character: Rhio's dossier | Out-of-character: Player profile
In-character: Rhio's dossier | Out-of-character: Player profile