FFXIV Turn 13: Bahamut Prime Strategy Guide

Turn 13: Bahamut Prime Strategy Guide! EARN your Final Witness title! Enter Heavensward as a KING and not a CHUMP! Let our T13 Guide help YOU!

   SO! You’re finally here! Turn 13 – the final boss of 2.0… Bahamut Prime! Let our turn 13 guide help you get past this unbelievably epic trial! Like Samuel L Jackson always says, “Hold on to yer butts!”. After thirteen turns of struggle – and an endless grind for tomestones… Bahamut Prime stands as your final challenge. Begin your journey into Heavensward as a Final Witness.

Navigation:
Page 1: Pull to 52% (First Divebomb) | Page 2: “Zoo”, Akh Morn

Bahamut Prime: Phase 1

Megaflare: Megaflare is a multi-part skill. Lets see what happens step by step:
1) a random number of people in your party get tagged by Megaflare initial damage. This is AoE (Spread out, don’t hug your partymembers)
2) Those not hit by the initial AoE become “Friends“. Friends are marked by a ring around them.
3) 3 random people get a large circular ground effect under them. This explodes after some time – GTFO (dont put many these in the melee/stack zones)
4) ALL FRIENDS MUST UNITE (stack on top of each other), or else bad things happen. IE, Death.

As a general reminder: Succor > Split > No Hugs > Friends Unite > Medica II > Prepare for a Flame Breath

Flatten: Flatten is the early T13 tank buster. It deals HEAVY damage. Tank must mitigate this, to be safe. Healers must always shield this. To make matters worse, flatten is always followed by FOUR FLAME BREATH in phase 1.

Flame Breath: Massive elemental damage cleave. Happens many, many times during the fight and is something you should get used to ASAP. Your healers shouldn’t “be surprised” by this as you progress with learning the fight.

So here’s what happens: Megaflare > Flamebreath > Flatten > Flamebreath x4. Your MT must be healthy because the Flamebreath before Flatten CAN be lethal if you slacked on regens and got some unlucky hits. Make sure you guys prepare for that first of all. After that first one, the long flatten channel time begins. Stoneskin and Adloquium should be cast on tank. Once flatten completes, precast cures and physics to prepare for the next 4 Flame Breaths. Don’t just spam Cure II and Adlo here… save some mana by adjusting the cure needed depending on how heavy the damage is.

Tanks should ALWAYS spend a mitigation skill here if available.

Earthshaker: Chooses two random people between all DPS and Offtank. After a short delay Bahamut will fire lasers that damage everyone in its path, towards each selected person. Upon each impact, a pool of sludge remains – this happens 3 times. Standing on sludge will WRECK you for 3k a second so it’s not a good idea. Maximize efficiency by having each guy line up the sludge in opposite corners. Healing? This does physical damage. Healing this can easily go sour if you time it incorrectly. Channeling your heal right after the marker disappears is generally a safe timing. The safest rotation would be WHM: Cure II, Cure I, Regen. SCH: Adlo, Physick, Physick. Each healer should choose which “side” they’re going to heal. The afflicted guys, of course, have to travel to opposite sides quickly.

at 75% Gigaflare signals the phase change. This does an extreme amount of damage. Arcanist Virus should be SAVED for this and make sure there is no antibody. Get everyone up to full, Cure 3 if needed. Succor and Soil – hope for the best. Casting Succor at 76% prevents alot of BS. He may cancel his Flatten Combo just to phase – be wary of this combo. Make sure your Scholars Virus finger is fast.

A Note on Gigaflare: Gigaflare has a notoriously late check in our experience. a really late virus doesn’t actually reduce the damage. Same with succor shields… often times Giga goes off with our Galvanize intact. Counter this by pre-empting it more than you’re used to.

Bahamut Prime Phase 1 Rotation:
Megaflare, Flatten Combo, Earthshaker, (Repeat until 75%), Gigaflare -> Phase 2

Rotation Prime Phase 1 Rotation with Flamebreath:
Megaflare, Flamebreath, Flatten, Flamebreath x4, Earthshaker, Flamebreath (Repeat until 75%), Gigaflare -> Phase 2

All of these skills happen in different occasions in the fight. Get used to them ASAP cause you’ll be seeing them for a loooooooong time. On to phase 2: Balls.

 

Bahamut Prime: Phase 2 Balls

Adds (Shadow Of Meracydia): Hard hitting, each add should be virused (pref BLM or WHM). Two sources of Virus can tag all 3 dragons (You’ll be seeing 3 of these before phasing btw). These adds should be dragged all the way across from Bahamut, otherwise a tether forms between them and gives DEF+ and DMG+ to both of ’em. Do not want. These guys spawn around 1 minute apart from each other. Rouse and Divine Seal line up perfectly with this so keep it in mind.

Before we go any further, you WANT to use up your limit break sometime during this phase. Melee LB on bahamut is recommended. Use your judgment on this one. The idea is to wipe your LB bar sometime in the middle of P2. Melee LB1 or 2, either or – the reason is you need LB3 for Last Bastion later on, and don’t wanna waste excess LB. Using Eye for an Eye on Bahamut when each add spawns is a good practice, too.

Flare Star: spawns 1-3 “balls” that have to be picked up by raidmemers. These balls are tethered to somewhen upon spawning, and will slowly travel towards them. After a short period of time the balls rush. They can spawn randomly in sets of 1,2,3 or 4 – but will always total to 7 per total rotation. Each ball gives a stack of STACKNAME, increasing damage dealt by a skill later on – Bahamuts Rage. Taking 3 balls is pretty much lethal for a non-tank. 2 balls is still risky – and extra attention will be needed to survive Bahamuts Rage. (more on this later)

Megaflare upgrade – Tower: Each Megaflare now comes with a tower. This tower spawns on a random raidmember before friends explode. The tower must be absorbed by somebody, taking moderate damage. If you fail to do so, massive AoE damage and partywide Bleeding debuff WILL CAUSE A WIPE. Note that you have to stay in the tower until you HEAR the explosion and SEE the visual effect. Just standing there as it disappears won’t cut it – better safe than sorry. It is unadvisable for friends to absorb towers – this can be fatal depending on composition and HP. (TIP) Healers shielding themselves before mega can have massive value. If healer is a friend, and tower spawns under you – you might have to move out and cancel your own cast (which is integral at this point). If you’re shielded, you can safely survive Friends + Tower combo – and fire your heal off.

Bahamuts Rage: This skills damage goes up for each Flare Star ball you ate. 1 is pretty standard, and you shouldn’t really worry about it. TWO is pretty heavy. BLM Apocatastasis is the best way to ensure someone with a 2-stack lives. Otherwise, full HP and shields would be good. Sacred Soil is some value here, since it happens right after megaflare. The main reason Rage is lethal is because your party will likely be damaged from the previous Megaflare. Stacking up for Cure III is the most value you’re gonna get from MP (ratio wise)

Think of this phase as 3 rotations. Each rotation will have an add, 7 total flarestar balls (3 times cast), megaflare and rage! Just survive this rotation thrice and you’re good!

at 52% Gigaflare signals the phase change. Mitigate it the same way as P1 Giga. Virus is essential, full HP, Succor/Shield. If it’s your first time past this phase – you will wipe to divebombs in about 10 seconds. There is a sucky way to phase which you should avoid. Having him phase with the combination of “Mega, Rage, Giga” is extremely painful. DPS harder to avoid this – Potions, Melee LB, etc…

Bahamut Prime Phase 2 Rotation:
Add, Flare Star, Flare Star, Flatten, Flare Star, Megaflare, Bahamuts Rage (Repeat until 52%), Gigaflare -> Phase 3

Bahamut Prime Phase 2 Rotation (With Flamebreath):
Add, Flare Star, Flame Breath, Flare Star, Flatten, Flame Breath, Flare Star, Megaflare, Flame Breath, Bahamuts Rage (Repeat until 52%), Gigaflare -> Phase 3

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Navigation:
Page 1: Pull to 52% (First Divebomb) | Page 2: “Zoo”, Akh Morn

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