FFXIV Twintania (Turn 5) Guide

How to beat Twintania! Learn all about Death Sentence, Divebombs, Twisters and Dreadknights in this super epic fight!

The infamous boss of the Binding Coils of Bahamut Turn 5: Twintania. The cause of many sleepless nights, and waking nightmares.

“What!? The DPS race doesn’t start once the snakes spawn. It starts the very second you pull Twintania.
That’s the BASAGULERO way.” -Kharas Dorian. FFXIVGuild.

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Twintania Phase 1: Adds (to 85%)

ffxiv-twintania-turn-5-guide-binding-coils-of-bahamut-ads

The fight begins with Twintania surrounded by 3 mini-dragons. The phase ends when Twintanias HP reaches 85%, wether or not the adds remain alive.

Abilities

Plummet – A frontal cleave with a huge cone, and huge damage. Comes around every 10s. *Continues throughout the fight.

Liquid Hell – A fire spit that randomly targets a raid member. It does medium initial damage, and an extremely heavy fire DoT when standing on it afterwards.

DEATH SENTENCE – Arguably one of the key mechanics of Twintania. Surviving Death Sentence is a grim reminder that you have to remain focused to beat T5, on around a 30-35 second cooldown. “DS” must be treated with respect, the earlier your raid drills it into their mind that “Every DS can potentially kill your tank in 1 hit”, the earlier you guys will adjust your strategy to reduce it’s damage. DS is notorious for having auto-attacks weaved into its damage, and have a Plummet come right after (most of the time, the Plummet comes before it). Here are the main Checkpoints

  • Virus – If Twintania isn’t immune – tag her with Virus.
  • Storms Path – Should always be up. If there’s a time it can be down – make sure it isn’t DS!
  • Defensive Cooldowns – Should ONLY be used by the MT on Death Sentences.
  • Stoneskin / Adloquium – A shield definitely helps with the more painful Death Sentences.
  • Sacred Soil – in a pinch, or to use up Aetherflow.

A note on mitigating Death Sentence: Virus and Defensive Cooldowns (from what I’ve noticed) need a time to “settle in” before DS hits. Casting virus extremely close to DS full cast timer will sometimes cause it not to take effect. The same goes for Defensive Cooldowns. It’s better and safer to do these things BEFORE DS. Doing so you can mitigate the hits leading up to it, and right after it, of course catching the huge nuke itself.

Stoneskin can land right before or right after DS hits. Adloquium should be cast before DS, as it loses much of it’s effect after. (But still not bad).

ffxiv-twintania-turn-5-guide-binding-coils-of-bahamut-neurolinkThe completion of this Phase (HP reaches 85%) is marked by her dropping the first “Neurolink“. Your positioning should already be “set” for the next phase by this point. Details discussed below.

 

 

 

Twintania Phase 2: Conflagration / Fireball (to 55%)

Death Sentence gains an additional effect: Infirmity (Reduces healing by a large amount). This additional effect modifies Death Sentence for the entirety of the fight.

Phase Specific Abilities

Fireball – Targets a random raid member (Red Triangle). After a short time, an AoE which does around 16k damage falls on the target. This damage is SHARED between all raid members in the AoE. You need (a safe number) 4 victims to survive fireball consistently.

 

ffxiv-twintania-turn-5-guide-binding-coils-of-bahamut-fireball

Conflagration – Targets a random raid member (Blue circle). After a short time, a “Conflagration” will spawn right on top of the target, rendering the target unable to do ANYTHING. Anyone caught for too long inside this “Conflag” will be “Stunned”. Anyone may enter a Conflagration, to willingly stun themselves (and be immune to all damage while inside).

 

ffxiv-twintania-turn-5-guide-binding-coils-of-bahamut-conflag

Fireball and Conflagration are linked. The more people hit by fireball, the faster the next conflag will be. If the tank has a good amount of HP, he can willingly enter conflags to ease the strain on healers. Death Sentence should ALWAYS be dodged in this way, if possible.

Positioning – There are two popular positioning strategies for this phase. 4×4 and Soak Team.

4×4 – Scholar, Pet, and 2 members on one side. Healer and 3 members on the other side. With MT up front, forming a triangle.

  • Pros: Little movement required, Less coordination required.
  • Cons: More Healing intensive, more heals interrupted.

Soak Team – What we use, OT + Ranged DPS + Pet(or human) at south. This group is known as the Soak Team. Remaining members at either side. MT up front. Fireball target runs to Soak Team. If Soak Team is targetted, Designated “joiner” helps.

  • Pros: Minimal Healing needed. Saves a ton of mana, much safer.
  • Cons: Much more movement/coordination needed.

ffxiv-twintania-turn-5-guide-binding-coils-of-bahamut-soak

Conflag / Fireball Timers

  • First Conflag (Slow, easy to kill). Will have fireball – target enters conflag.
  • Second Conflag (Fast, DPS hard!).
  • Third Conflag (Slow, easy to kill) Will have fireball – target enters conflag.
  • Fourth Conflag (Fast, DPS hard!).
  •  – This is the ideal time for Twintania to switch Phases.
  • Fifth Conflag (Slow, easy to kill) Will have fireball – target enters conflag.
  • So on, so forth.

Dealing with 2nd and 4th (Fast Conflags)

DPS Use a short cooldown if needed. The MT can also stay outside the Conflag to help kill it. Off-GCD skills should be saved for these specific conflags!

  • Bard – Use Venomous Bite, instead of Windbite. Not both. Save Blootletter procs.
  • Summoner – A tough call… While Bane + Fester is most ideal, this is pretty harsh on Aetherflows. Bane + Ruins is okay.
  • Black Mage – Save firestarters / Thunderclouds for these! Don’t bother using Thunder.
  • Monk / Dragoon – Don’t bother with DoT’s.

The completion of this Phase (HP reaches 55%) is marked by her dropping the second “Neurolink“.

Why Not 3 man Conflags to increase the timer?

“If you don’t have the DPS for 4 man conflags, you shouldn’t even be here”Kimi Ruyifang, FFXIVGuild.

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Binding Coils of Bahamut Turn 2 – ADS Guide & Strategy

All you need to know about deez d*mn ballz… our Coils Turn 2 Guide!

Coils Turn 2 isn’t exactly just one Boss – it’s a series of mini-bosses leading up to the final boss. The stage itself has certain mechanics you should be aware of.

Coils Turn 2 Stage Mechanics

You have a time limit of 12 minutes to complete Turn 2. If the 12 minute mark is reached, and players still remain inside – a pulse doing heavy damage will continually affect players, inevitably causing a wipe.

There are 6 mini-bosses and 1 main boss. Killing a mini-boss does 2 things:

  • REMOVES that mini-bosses unique ability from the main boss.
  • GIVES that mini-bosses unique passive BUFF to the main boss.

Here’s the Turn 2 Map showing the various nodes abilities and buffs:

bcob coils turn 2 map node abilities and buffs ffxiv arr

It’s currently impossible to kill all mini-bosses within the time limit, so you must choose a certain course to follow. While there are many different ways to do Turn 2, these two routes are how we do it. We consider the alternative routes IMPOSSIBLE or HIGHLY IMPRACTICAL. First, we discuss the skills shared across all mini-bosses…

Shared Turn 2 Node skills

ALL NODES share certain abilities, up to the final boss.

Frontal Cleave – no surprise here… However, his basic cleave leaves a really bad…

Stacking debuff – Which increases damage taken. Stacks infinitely and refreshed upon every cleave. Drops after 30 seconds.

High Voltage – Remember from turn 1 ADS? It’s back. But this time a hundred times more fatal if it lands…

Repelling Cannons – Same ability from turn 1 ADS. But tanks with the debuff also take bonus damage!

So as usual, have your melee avoid cleave and cannons, and setup a silence rotation for High Voltage. As for the stacking debuff…

Dealing with the Turn 2 stacking debuff – Tank Swap

bcob turn 2 tank and melee positioning tank swap cleave avoidanceTank positioning is extremely sensitive for Turn 2. Here’s how we position our tanks (and melee dps). Your first goal in positioning should be to minimize or eliminate unnecessary cleaves – since the debuff wont fall off if your tanks get tagged!

Of course, with the shown, the melee dps have zero chance to get cleaved. The tanks also won’t get hit by each others cleave, when it’s not their turn to tank.

There’s many ways to swap… the method that worked for us is to have your current offtank do his enmity combo and WAIT on the last one (Rage of Halone or Butchers Block). Once the main-tank wants to switch (which we signal by jumping), simply Provoke and finish the combo!

 

Best Routes to take in Turn 2

As we mentioned above, the “South Eastern” Route is not really practical to do as of now… so here are the paths we use:

bcob coils turn 2 paths routes ffxiv arr

Route 1: Not Killing ‘Ballast’
Route one is the basic route.

Route 2: Killing ‘Ballast’.
As our gear progressed, we were able to kill an extra node on our way to the last boss. Eliminating ballast makes the final boss a little easier.

Using either of the two routes, you eliminate these abilities from the last boss:

  • Vacuum Wave – An AoE attack that pulls all players closer to ADS.

  • Chain Lightning – A generic arcing nuke that does medium damage.

  • Firestream – An omnidirectional AoE that does massive damage and leaves a huge burning DoT.

  • (If route 2…) Ballast – A massive cone AoE with a small safe-spot behind ADS. Getting hit pushes you back a significant distance.

The abilities remaining on the last boss: Allagan Rot and Gravity Well will be discussed in the final boss section.

Turn 2 Final Boss – ADS

High Voltage -> Piercing Laser -> Repelling Cannons cycle makes a comeback with the turn 2 final boss. You may remember the similar mechanic from T1 ADS. This happens throughout the fight!

He’s just like all of the other nodes until he reaches certain life percents:

at 75% Allagan Rot – The defining mechanic of turn 2. Managing Allagan Rot will determine 90% of your chances at beating turn 2! This will be discussed in the next section.

at 50% Gravity Well – This is a randomly targetted AoE ground effect which applies a 15 second Heavy Debuff. The ground effect lasts for 15 seconds, and is recast 10 seconds after is expires.

at 25% Ballast – if you didn’t kill the node earlier on. Like explained earlier, A massive cone push back with a safe spot behind him.

Limit Break (Melee DPS) should be used anytime under 50% or 25% HP to reduce the time he has more skills active. Healer LB is also a viable choice if things go awry.

Dealing with Allagan Rot

Allagan Rot is a debuff that lasts 15 seconds. If 15 seconds pass and it is not passed to another player, the current victim will explode, and deal AoE damage (unlivable) to the entire raid – resulting in a wipe.

Passing Allagan Rot is as simple as walking to another player. After you’ve passed Allagan Rot, you have an Immunity that lasts 45 seconds. You cannot have Allagan Rot again until Immunity expires.

So what does all this mean!? You need to keep passing Allagan Rot amongst your party until ADS is dead. Failing to do so will result in Allagan Rot blowing up and you guys wiping, like mentioned earlier. This sounds confusing? It is at first, but when you get the hang of it – it’s quite simple. Look at the table below

Sample of Allagan Rot being passed at 5 seconds remaining

(Immunity is italicized, Rot is bold)

Rot Passed at 5sPlayer 1Player 2Player 3Player 4Player 5
Pass 115000
Pass 24515000
Pass 335451500
Pass 4253545150
Pass 51525354515

As you can see, passing rot at 5 seconds remaining will result in pass 6 failing. Immunity on #1 has 15s remaining, and so does Rot on #5. So judging by this chart, the ideal time to pass between 5 people is with 4 or less seconds remaining on Allagan Rot.

We Highly Recommend numbering your party beforehand, and simply follow the numbers wherever rot initially lands, to eliminate all confusion! Here’s a sample…

bcob coils turn 2 allagan rot numbering positioning example ffxiv arr

Passing of rot changes depending on the setup of your DPS:

Rot Passing (2 Melee 2 Ranged): [The DF setup]
Ranged (1) -> Healer (2) -> Ranged (3) -> Healer (4) -> Melee (5) -> Ranged (1) [Repeat]

Quite self-explanatory. If things go “wrong” simply have your extra melee (6) pass from (4) to (1). We always have 4 to 1 as a “Melee Assisted Pass”.

Rot Passing (1 Melee 3 Ranged): [Somewhat easier setup]
Ranged (1) -> Healer (2) -> Ranged (3) -> Healer (4) -> Ranged (5) -> Ranged (1) [Repeat]

Same as the setup above, but have your 3rd ranged “pretend” he’s melee by staying just outside Repelling Cannon Range. He can stay right above (1) in the picture above!

Rot Passing (4 Ranged) [“Stacking Method”]
Ranged (1) -> Healer (2) -> Ranged (3) -> Healer (4) -> Ranged (5) -> Ranged (1) [STACK UP]

While we never do this, If you have an all ranged party you can actually stack up after Ranged (5) gives it to Ranged (1). Rot will, amazingly, pass itself after that. If you do this method make sure you all DODGE IN THE SAME DIRECTION, when getting lasered or gravity welled.

Rot Passing (3 melee 1 Ranged): [“Not so bad!” setup]
Melee (1) -> Healer (2) ->  Melee (3) -> Healer (4) -> Melee (5) -> Melee (1) [Repeat]

This one isn’t so bad as many people think. It’s actually pretty Easy. Once “Melee (5)” goes back to DPS the boss, he will automatically pass it to Melee (1) once (1)’s immunity expired!

Rot Passing (4 melee): [“Extreme” mode]
We won’t be discussing this method. It’s possible, but ultimately unlikely that it’s going to happen to many people. The hassle isn’t worth it. Although it could make a pretty interesting video… (idea…)

Turn 2 Positioning Guide

And finally, our suggested positioning during the final encounter:

bcob turn 2 group positioning guide diagram ffxiv arr

ADS (Turn 2) Loot List

TankHealerCasterMNKDRGBRD
Weapon------
Off-Hand------
Head-Allagan Circlet of Healing---Allagan Visor of Aiming
Body--Allagan Tunic of Casting---
Hands--Allagan Gloves of CastingAllagan Gauntlets of StrikingAllagan Gloves of Maiming-
WaistAllagan Plate Belt-----
LegsHeavy Allagan Cuisses-----
Boots-Allagan Boots of HealingAllagan Boots of Casting---
Neck-Allagan Choker of Healing--Allagan Choker of Maiming
EarringsAllagan Earrings of Fending--Allagan Earrings of Striking-Allagan Earrings of Aiming
Bracelets--Allagan Bracelets of Casting---
RingAllagan Ring of Fending-----

Well, I guess that’s it! If you think we missed any tips, or anything you’d like to chime in on – let us know in the comments!

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FFXIV Caduceus Strategy Guide (Coils Turn 1)

Turn this fight from an epic mess of confusion into a breeze. Our guide to Caduceus – Binding Coils of Bahamut Turn 1 boss!

Ah, if you thought Titan Hard Mode was difficult, this guy will “WELCOME” you to coils! While the mechanics of Caduceus are very simple – positioning and overall strategy are the key to defeating him!

Caduceus Video Guide

Abilities

First, let’s discuss the abilities you’re going to see from caduceus. Note that he does not gain or lose abilities throughout the fight.

Basic Attack – Caduceus’ Basic attack is a (seemingly) 180 degree frontal cone. Only the tanks should ever be hit by this.
Hood Swing – Extreme Damage Frontal Cone.
Whip Back – (aka Tail Swipe) Exactly as it sounds. A devastating back facing cone AoE.
Acid Slime Spit – Spits at random raid member and leaves a green floor effect that does DoT and Heavy.

The next three mechanics are the “core” to Caduceus’ fight.

Steelscales – Buff that increases damage but can be “cleaned” by feeding him a Dark Matter Slime. Feeding Caduceus a slime will heal him depending on the percent life remaining on the slime.

Glowing Floor Tiles Spawns Dark Matter Slime (From here on referred to as “Slime”) on whoever is standing on one at the end of the glow duration.

Dark Matter SlimesWill explode if they are too far from whoever spawned them. Instantly killing anyone in a huge AoE. They pack a surprising punch, and can be a problem when the spawner gets hit by a random acid spit.

General Strategy

Caduceus’s fight revolves around managing stacks of Steel Scales. He gains a stack roughly every 45 seconds. To remove stacks you must “feed” Caduceus a slime by first spawning one (Standing on a glowing tile), then bringing it near him. As mentioned above Caduceus heals himself whenever he eats a slime, so make sure the slime is at the smallest possible health before feeding it to him.

“These platforms seem random!? How can we predict which tiles glow?
Relax – we have an image for that.

ffxiv caduceus platforms tiles patterns

The colors represent the possible platforms that will light up at any given time. There are four possible patterns. Which pattern spawns between the four is completely random, and the same pattern may appear twice in a row.

Slime Feeding Tips

Caduceus frontal cone is HUGE. It can and will destroy you if you pass anywhere near his front. Approach him from the center as much as possible. Keep in mind Tailswipe exists, so the closer you are to his center, the better. While it seems safe to pass behind him, if you get slowed into a tailswipe, you’re going to regret it.

 

Caduceus Pre-fight Preparation

Organize yourselves into two teams of 1 Tank, 1 Healer and 2 DPS.

What position do you guys use!? We will discuss that at the bottom of the guide. There are many possible positions, each with their pro’s and con’s.

Caduceus Phase 1 (Pre-Split) Phase

Caduceus hits hard. There’s no way around that. It only gets worse for each stack he gains. So you must succeed at spawning and feeding each time the platforms light up. Each time you miss it, it means you have to get two slimes on the next glowing tiles. That can get messy quick, especially post-split phase.

Your primary goal in Phase 1 is to make sure Caduceus has no Stacks of Steel Scales shortly before he reaches 66% HP (when he splits in two)

How can you ensure that!? Our strategy here is to make him split shortly after the second slime. Save DPS cooldowns for after the second slime and melt him to 66% before he gains another stack. (At our current gear level it can be done after the first. So if your group lacks DPS, try to make him split after the third slime!)

Help! Our DPS is too fast/slow and he splits with a stack of Steel Scales! STOP DPS if you think he will split while he has stack. I’m not kidding. Stand and do nothing if you have to.

Got him to split without stacks? Good. Now on to arguably the most difficult part about Caduceus, the split phase.

Caduceus Split Phase (P1 – P2 Transition)

While not technically a phase, most wipes will come from “Messy splits”.

Your ONLY GOAL in the next 5-10 seconds in this phase is to reposition the clone a fair distance away from the original. What could go wrong? Well….

Basically you want to maximize the chances that your off-tank picks up and settles into his new position. Everyone can do their part during this phase.

Melee DPS – Disengage the boss for a few seconds. Don’t worry about lost DPS. Caduceus frontal cleave is insane, and will sometimes do it (or worse, Hoodswing / Whip Back) while splitting. It doesn’t happen always, but it’s best not to take chances. “But I’m losing DPS if i stop for a bit! I LIVE FOR THE PARSER!”. You do zero DPS when you’re dead, son. “He tailswiped while splitting! That Doesn’t always happen!!!” You can’t say we didn’t warn you.

Healers – Do not apply HoT (Regen, Whispering Dawn, Medica 2) shortly before splitting. Virus helps, too. Make sure Stoneskin is up on the off-tank BEFORE the split.

Main Tank – Use a damage mitigation skill during this time. If healers heal you too much while this phase is ongoing, they will pull aggro.

Off Tank – Yep, the most stressful part of the fight for you. If you’re in a PUG you’re going to get blamed alot. Smack the clone with your best aggro generating skill and make him stick until you settle into your designated spot. Provoke, Tomahawk/Shield Lob are your friends here.

Caduceus Phase 2 (Post-split)

Both copies of Caduceus retain all the abilities from the Phase 1 (Pre-split). The clone hit exactly as hard as the original one. Hooray! And did I mention slime spawning and feeding continues in this phase, only this time doubled? Great! Also expect to see two to three times more random acid spitting!

Your primary goal in this phase is to DPS both of them as equally as possible.

The only new mechanic is that when both copies of Caduceus are brought near each other, or when one dies, the fight progresses into the Final Phase.

Caduceus Final Phase (Two possibilities)

Caduceus will enter the final phase if one of these two things happen:

  • They are moved too close to each other.
  • One clone dies.

Scenario 1 (Unfavorable): Aggro messes up and one Caduceus moves towards the original one, they combine. This will likely result in a Wipe

Scenario 2 (Emergency): You guys were Soooo clooose, but one of your tanks die, and Caduceus found his buddy. They combine (Total life equals sum of both HP)

  • Scenario 2 still sucks, but it’s an “emergency plan” that happens more often than you think! We got our first kill on Caduceus in this circumstance. If this happens, you have to kill him quickly! This would be a good time to use DPS Limit Break. You have a limited time to kill him, as at any time he combines he will gain stacks extremely quickly, eventually one shotting your tank – and you.

Scenario 3 (Ideal) : One clone dies while the other is below 5%. All dps move to the remaining clone and kill him. You have a short grace period here before he starts going crazy with gaining stacks. Again, another good time to use DPS Limit Break, as there wont be any other chance to.

How to position in Caduceus

We haven’t really checked other guides, but we get alot of messages asking for this because of the extremely confusing (or vague) positioning mentioned in other places. Here’s our strategy…

coils bcob turn 1 caduceus positioning ffxiv arr

We ignore the South of the map completely, forcusing our entire group in the north.

Pros of our positioning Strategy:
– Healers can heal all members easily, and effectively assist each other.
– AoE heals reach everyone.
– All members have access to all pattern types.

Cons of our positioning Strategy:
– Our tight position makes acid spit a problem. It can get out of hand easily.
– More prone to AoE Damage.
– Little to no room for unnecessary movement.

Caduceus (Turn 1) Loot List

TankHealerCasterMNKDRGBRD
Weapon------
Off-HandAllagan Round Shield-----
Head--Allagan Circlet of Casting---
BodyHeavy Allagan Armor---Allagan Cuirass of Maiming-
Hands-Allagan Gloves of Healing---Allagan Gauntlets of Aiming
Waist----Allagan Tassets of Maiming-
Legs---Allagan Trousers of StrikingAllagan Trouseres of Maiming-
BootsHeavy Allagan Flanchard-----
NeckAllagan Choker of Fending-----
Earrings-Allagan Earrings of Healing--Allagan Earrings of Maiming-
Bracelets---Allagan Bracelets of Striking-Allagan Bracelets of Aiming
Ring--Allagan Ring of CastingAllagan Ring of Striking--

Well, that was long! It’s still missing some parts, but hopefully we can complete it soon!

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