Final Steps of Faith MSQ: How to Not Die (Spoilers if you didn't look at patch notes)

[Warren Castille]

Phase One: Engage

100%-74%

 

Welcome to die. Nidhogg demonstrates strength right away, walloping your tank as soon as you start the fight. Expect 5k~ melee hits and an 8k~ breath/cleave; Tanks can drop quickly if healers aren't prepared for it. During this phase Nidhogg will deal raid damage with his roar, dealing about 3k~, and the most menacing thing he can do to disrupt DPS (especially casters) is his randomly-selected AoEs. A bluish circle will appear under players at random and then explode a few short seconds later. Dodging these circles is the simplest part of the fight. His other attack you need to be worried about is called Hot Wing, which will deal about 10k~ damage to the entire battlefield EXCEPT for a single line extending from Nidhogg's body. It's a little hard to explain, but the key to not being splattered throughout this entire fight is to stay close to the center/middle and respond accordingly.

 

After a short bit (it's probably timed, but I didn't pay enough attention to a clock to make out how long) Nidhogg will take to the air and become untargetable. He will then pick a lane to Cauterize while also spawning more of the AoE circles.

 

Imagine the entire battlefield is a 3x3 grid, similar to Tic-Tac-Toe or your mini-Cactpots.

V V V

>[ ][ ][ ]

>[ ][ ][ ]

>[ ][ ][ ]

 

Nidhogg will always pick a straight line (North/South, East/West, no diagonals) to burn with Cauterize. Sticking near the middle gives you the most room to dodge, since you'll only ever have to vacate "half" of one section at once.

 

 

After Cauterize, Nidhogg will crash into the middle and deal 4k~ raid damage. This phase will repeat until Nidhogg reaches 74% HP.

 

Phase Two: Wily Capsules

74%~

 

Nidhogg will spawn 3 adds: A dino, an eel and a peiste. The dinosaur has no hate table and will run around cleaving and fireballing just like in Stone Vigil Hard Mode. The eel and the peiste both have heavy hitting cleaves: Eel is magical, Peiste is physical. Tank them accordingly. This phase is really only tough on healers, but all 3 adds need to be down before Nidhogg starts to glow. This is the only DPS check in the encounter until the soft enrage at the end. If you do not kill the adds before he begins to use his special move, it is 40k raid damage and a wipe. You do not have to stand in the circles that appear leading up to the special move, despite it looking like the game telegraphs that. Stack up for easy heals and bubble mitigation.

 

Phase Three: Crimson Dragoon

74%-58%

 

Nidhogg angry. After killing his friends, Nidhogg will take a different form and unleash his party-wipe ability. This deals heavy damage to the raid similar to any other Primal superpower, after which Nidhogg returns to the fight. He gets some new abilities to play with, too. Ala Morn is his tank buster: Expect it to hit between 12k and 16k unmitigated. He's got Drachenlance for a cleave, which deals about 8k. He'll aim a line AoE at a random player which must be avoided, and he'll also target multiple players with purple markers that should be taken to the boundaries of the arena when they land. The first time he uses this unique High Jump ability, he will leave behind shadows at the impact site, and one lucky player will also leave behind a ground-impact AoE similar to the airship crashes from Ultima, Dark Cure IV from Antitower or the Dragon Dive from Thordan.

 

At the same time, those shadows will all then begin using a line AoE towards the center of the room. The line AoE goes off first, and then a second later the ground-impact detonates. If the High Jumps are on the outside of the arena, there should be ample dodging room with time to maneuver to be as far from the impact as you can.

 

After this phase, Nidhogg returns to trying to beat your tank to paste. More cleaves, more Ala Morns including two very close together, and he'll send out two more instances of High Jump. There won't be any shadows left behind this time but he'll target (I think) the entire raid with it, so placement is important if you don't want to be forced to walk through bleed puddles. Just try and get everything near the walls and you'll be okay.

 

Around 58% Nidhogg will jump out of the arena again and deal around 5k~ raid damage with another roar.

 

Phase Four: This Is Going To Hurt

58%-0%

 

Here we are. Nidhogg puts on his Sunday's best and comes to play the end of the song. He'll return to a mix of everything he did in the first phase: Cauterizes and ground AoEs that must be dodged, as well as his fire breath cleave and Hot Wing. He also picks up a new skill, Hot Tail, which is the opposite of Wing: Everywhere is safe except a line directly intersecting Nidhogg's body. Finally, Nidhogg will start to drop a trio of fireballs onto the arena, either in the middle of the floor or in one of the corners. Fireballs can be tricky.

 

Keeping with the 3x3 grid idea: Nidhogg will drop a cluster of 3 fireballs either in one corner, or spaced in the center. Fireballs explode into lines of damage that run directly north/south/east/west of their location. They're relatively easy to get out of the way of, but it'll usually cost you some contact time. The bombs in the center means the corners of the room are safe to stand in. Bombs in the corners mean the center is the only safe space.

 

Center bombs:

[ ] [X] [ ]

[X] [o] [X]

[ ] [X] [ ]

 

Corner bombs:

 

[o][X][X]

[X][ ] [ ]

[X][ ] [ ]

 

The most difficult part of this is that Nidhogg will also be dropping those AoE circles from the first phase under you still, but there's an easy trick to this. The AoE circles will explode, and then you've got 2~ seconds until the bombs explode. Solution? Stand near bomb danger zones until the AoE circle goes off, then run to a safe spot. You'll dodge everything.

 

 

Oh, I forgot, Nidhogg has one more itty bitty skill in his arsenal. Akh Morn. Yes, that Akh Morn. Nidhogg will target someone with a giant "Stack Here" arrow and the raid must gather together under it. He'll then blast the entire group four times with a giant beam of light dealing massive damage. Healers, this is entirely on you! People should mitigate what they can, but this one hurts. After Morn, spread back out and resume dodging everything else.

 

Akh Morn is the soft enrage I mentioned earlier: Every time he gets around to using the ability, he'll do one additional blast. It begins at four hits, so damage ramps up very quickly from there. Eventually he'll be doing so much damage you can't really resist it, and since damage is split, as soon as one person dies it just means the next shot does that much extra to everyone. It can get ugly if you've got weakened people in the group.

 

That's it, though. Either you kill the dragon or the dragon kills you. Healers should be careful to watch their MP: This is a heal-intensive fight and if people are taking needless, avoidable damage and needing raises it'll go downhill fast. Tanks should be mindful of where they're pointing cleaves, especially during the Dragoon phase because they'll have to also be dodging jumps, and that can sometimes throw positioning off. DPS should focus on dodging things first and foremost; A full party of 8 going slower during the final phase stands a much better chance of clearing than a reckless party of 5 because someone ate fireballs with Blood for Blood running.

 

Melee LB3 did about 4% of his HP when my group hit him with it. Healer LB can be useful for getting multiple dead up if people are getting hit. Tank LB3 can potentially stop Akh Morn from KOing once people start to die, but Healer LB will generally be more useful for a struggling group.

 

You can expect the fight to last about 12~ minutes, possibly more if you get more Cauterize transitions. I cannot stress enough how useful it is to hang out in the middle section to dodge things. If anything sinks an attempt at this fight, it's people being clipped and killed by avoidable damage. Cauterize WILL KILL YOU if you don't get out of the way. Save meaningful cooldowns for the adds, since there's not much benefit to rushing him to 74%. You're in good shape if you get him below 88% before his first Cauterize.

[Warren Castille]

If anyone was interested in Nidhogg EX's write-up, Yugl over at Blue Gartr compiled all of his notes yesterday morning.

 

You can find that here.

[Kage]

I did this in a half DF pug and half friend picked-me-up group.

 

We had no issues with the DPS check and no matter what anyone tells you after you kill the adds... just stack. If you kill the adds like DPS check demands, you won't die. My group stacked together in a circle during the ultimate and we didn't die.

 

No one had a proper write up I could find except ADDS DPS CHECK!!!!!111

 

After a mishap with the tanks just sorta letting the adds just wipe the group once they appeared, we wiped 2x in the last phase before our clear. (<10%, 2-1%) The pattern for the orbs is really helpful as that is what I believe killed the group most of the time. I didn't think they exploded in more than just a line until essentially oneshots happened.

[Warren Castille]

Yeah, it doesn't help that the fireballs are always spaced to make it so they take up an entire "block" like that, either. It helps to sort of think of them as smaller, unmarked Cauterize columns, but it can get to be a lot of stuff to track while feeling the urgency to keep doing damage. Once I noticed that the AoE bursts always come before the fireball detonations, it became a lot simpler to make it to safety spots.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

In the 5 or so parties it took until I cleared, here's what I found worked best. In all of the groups I was in, we have major issues with DPS dying/not being strong enough.

 

Mark the Northwest corner with A. Northeast with B. Mark the center of the map with C.

 

Have the MT tank Nidhogg between A, B and C if possible.

 

Phase 1 - Angry Dragon and Big AOEs

Keep the party around C if possible. When mechanics happen, dodge the eyes/circles and prepare for either the "run to the middle line" or to run out of the big aoe. Like Warren said in his, it's easiest to run out from the middle, which cuts out about half the aoe.

 

Phase 2 - Adds

This is where most of the groups I was in struggled. We had consistently weak DPS and couldn't kill the adds fast enough. What I found worked best (assuming you have either a caster or a ranged DPS so that get an AOE Limit Break) was to have the party down the Shadow Dragon first. That's the one with random aggro. Then, MT would take another add and run to A. OT would take the last add and run to B. Keep them in A and B and faced away from the party until the Shadow Dragon is dead. Pray to your gods you have at least one LB bar. Once the Shadow Dragon is dead, move the tanks together. I typically told B to run to A to keep it simple. (Or we'd meet halfway). Regardless, once the last two adds were stacked, LB them. Don't wait for a second bar if it's not super close. Have everyone focus on one mob (mark 'em if needed) and then the other after Limit Break. If the healers are good, ask them to DoT or Cleric Stance if they can squeeze it in. Have the OT switch to an offensive stance to help kill off the MT's add.

 

With any luck, you'll get them down before Nidhogg decides to wipe the party. STACK UP.

 

Phase 3 - It's basically Ravana?

This was the easist phase in all the groups I was in. For the most part, it plays like Ravana story mode. Have the MT not die while people hit him as hard as possible. When the circle markers appear, run them into the corners or edges, giving people plenty of room to dodge the lines. Be ready for a second set of circles if unlucky. The phase will basically repeat. When Nidhogg starts getting really mad, he'll jump and you'll enter the last phase.

 

Phase 4 - DON'T FUCKING LEAVE THE STACK

The title basically says it all.

 

This phase is basically the first one with 3 new moves.

1) Annoying fireballs. Don't touch them

2) tail-whip Heat tail or whatever. It's the opposite of the heat wing. Don't be in the middle line after the eye/circle things.

3) Akh Morn (suffering). If the whole party doesn't stack on this, YOU. WILL. WIPE. For some reason, people freak out when they see the big "EVERYONE STACK ON THIS PERSON" marker and try to run away. Kindly advise the party to just run to C when this happens. It's marked and they should be able to find it easily enough. DON'T. MOVE. You can still attack Nidhog while your healers use every AOE Heal/Spell they ave to keep the party alive. Cure 3 is your friend if you're a WHM. Don't bother with Medica or Medica 2 due to cast time. Have your BRDs or MCHs do their mana thing.

 

Nidhogg will then continue everything he's done this phase over and over. As long as people remember to stack up and dodge when needed, it's really not that bad.

 

Phase 5 - There is no Phase 5

You did it! Enjoy the cutscene or watching people flip their shit because they killed the big dragon.

[Steel Wolf]

I haven't gotten past the first phase yet as the DPS check has been found to be a PUG Achilles heel. Hopefully I can do the other things.

 

Thanks for the guide, Ser!

[Warren Castille]

Tanking this fight is actually fairly simple! The main tank is only targeted with a small handful of the extra mechanics and the OT is an extra DPS for everything but the adds phase. Really, this fight is won or lost on your group's ability to not get hit by stuff they can dodge. That's part of what made yesterday so frustrating for me; It's one thing to die to overwhelming mechanics, but "a circle appeared under you, move away from it" isn't a raid mechanic.

 

If we're playing with Pessimism engaged, if your group is wiping prior to adds repeatedly it doesn't bode well. It reminded me a lot of Titan Hard Mode on release (and later, Titan EX) where your fight was over before even reaching the Heart.

 

I hope this helps people pass the encounter, though! It's a really neat fight, and fun when you're not wiping to dumb stuff.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

Tanking this fight is actually fairly simple! The main tank is only targeted with a small handful of the extra mechanics and the OT is an extra DPS for everything but the adds phase. Really, this fight is won or lost on your group's ability to not get hit by stuff they can dodge. That's part of what made yesterday so frustrating for me; It's one thing to die to overwhelming mechanics, but "a circle appeared under you, move away from it" isn't a raid mechanic.

 

If we're playing with Pessimism engaged, if your group is wiping prior to adds repeatedly it doesn't bode well. It reminded me a lot of Titan Hard Mode on release (and later, Titan EX) where your fight was over before even reaching the Heart.

 

I hope this helps people pass the encounter, though! It's a really neat fight, and fun when you're not wiping to dumb stuff.

 

Adds phase is definitely most difficult. It actually expects people to sorta coordinate, which is scary.

 

In my failed runs, we typically had about 6-7 attempts before timing out. About 4-5 of those would wiping on the add phase because people either died before and DPS would be too low, or people managed to survive, but their DPS was still too low. Hall of Novice should really get updated for more content. Or there should be raid-tier Guildhests or something to help teach intermediate dodging and fancy mechanics.

[Warren Castille]

I'm not even sure if "intermediate" is the term for what you need to do in first two phases. The circle AoE is a redux of the move from Halatali Hard Mode, the Cauterize is a redux of the same ability from Stone Vigil MSQ. Notably, Stone Vigil had you also dodging targeted AoE/leftover puddles during those phases.

 

The only difference here is that instead of taking damage for not dodging, you just die. It's discouraging to think that there are really that many people who just eat dungeon projectiles because they're non-lethal rather than learning to play the game. The hardest part of this encounter is, for my money, the High Jumps and Geirskogul lines followed by the Dragon Dive. It's a lot that happens very quickly and that ticking impact designation can panic people.

 

Still, I watched more than my share of people run into intersecting beams and die during that part, so...

 

dodge, dip, duck, dive and dodge.

[Aaron]

SE will probably wound up nerfing this.

[Kage]

Adds phase isn't that hard nor do I think coordination is really needed unless the healers and the tanks are fucking it up. It was simply easy to have the tanks separate the adds to their own sides of the map. DPS wail on the dragon who is STONE VIGIL!!!!111111!!!!1111 So no one should be getting hurt by that and then focusing one add (easy, a tank marks it) and then kills the other. Not even much movement involved for a monk. I mean, I went in with reliable drg and smn and 2 tanks. DPS check wasn't the issue.

 

Fucking orbs >.> Which I learned in my clear attempt "oh I can just bait this shit and then dodge... derp"

 

I only queued once and we did run to just under 30min left on the timer. Since our clear was the 4th attempt. Still... I am surprised but not by the issues with dps. The only hard one is the moving Stone Vigil dragon cause it moves but it... isn't??? And the others are just... no mechanics when you hit them either so I'm not sure why people are having issues >.>;

[Kellach Woods]

message to Party Finder DPS, you LITERALLY HAVE A CLASS IN NOT STANDING IN SHIT. WHY ARE YOU STANDING IN SHIT? WHY IS IT THAT I KNOW THE FIRST MECHANIC HAPPENED BECAUSE THE BRD IS CURRENTLY BUSY FURIOUSLY HUMPING THE GROUND LIKE IT WAS THE SECOND COMING OF HYDAELYN.

 

I actually like this instance.

 

I just do not like my fellow player.

[Dat Oni]

I'm not even sure if "intermediate" is the term for what you need to do in first two phases. The circle AoE is a redux of the move from Halatali Hard Mode, the Cauterize is a redux of the same ability from Stone Vigil MSQ. Notably, Stone Vigil had you also dodging targeted AoE/leftover puddles during those phases.

 

The only difference here is that instead of taking damage for not dodging, you just die. It's discouraging to think that there are really that many people who just eat dungeon projectiles because they're non-lethal rather than learning to play the game. 

 

Ignorance is the mere lack of knowledge. Stupidity, on the other hand, is the willful rejection of it and these people have had all kinds of knowledge dumped on their laps, in dungeons, trials, raids, and FATEs over the course of multiple patches and an expansion.

[Caspar]

It wasn't all that hard, but I arranged with some ex-static folks, so that's easy for me to say. Bring on EX!

[Kellach Woods]

It wasn't all that hard, but I arranged with some ex-static folks, so that's easy for me to say. Bring on EX!

 

It's really not that hard.

 

Like, follow these steps.

 

- HIT SHIT HARD.

- DON'T STAND IN STUFF.

 

and it's a clear.

 

Unfortunately, both steps 1 and 2 are often ignored.

[Gegenji]

I got this for my Trial today after being lucky enough to avoid getting it for a while now. Had queued as SMN, and had a delightful time with another SMN who apparently forgot that the one dragon type's heavily telegraphed claw attack can be avoided. And whined when it one-shot him while he stood there channeling a spell. ... Summoning his pet after he got killed from getting caught in the serpent one's electro-cleave, I think.

 

Made me feel sad when someone asked us SMNs to help with rezzes (which I was), and the immediate response from someone else was "if they can stay alive." :<