FFXIV Dawntrail: Valigarmanda Extreme Guide
Valigarmanda is the very first Extreme Trial in Final Fantasy XIV’s Dawntrail expansion and can be a challenging fight for players who haven’t cleared them yet. This article will provide a detailed guide on the different phases of Valigarmanda and how you can deal with its many mechanics.
Table of Contents
Phase 1 mechanics
Valigarmanda will begin the fight with the attack “Spikecicle,” which shoots out ice projectiles that curve and leave behind a ball of ice in its wake at the edges of the arena that will eventually explode after a short delay Keep an eye out for the blue lines that come out of the boss before it resolves to help avoid this attack. Players should also go to the side of the arena opposite the first row of AoE markers by the boss. Once it has shot out the first ice projectile, move to the other side of the arena. Then, stand near the bottom corner of the boss’s hitbox arrow to avoid getting hit by the ice explosions.
Valigarmanda will announce certain attacks with text appearing on the screen. We will call these “telegraphs” as the boss will do an animation before unleashing the attack. There are three mechanics to watch out for when this mechanic occurs.
- “A tempestuous wind surrounds Valigarmanda,” with the boss flying in a horizontal pattern. This means that a donut AoE will occur at the center of the arena. DPS and healers must pair up within the safe zone
- “Valigarmanda gathers in strength,” with the boss spinning vertically. This means that he will explode slightly beyond melee range. Everyone must stay back from the boss’ hitbox to avoid the blast.
- “Blinding energies build within Valigarmanda’s wide-open beak.” This means that the boss will make a wide cone AoE blast. Teams must run to the northern corners of the arena to prevent getting hit by the attack.
- “A volcanic eruption is imminent…” This means that one side of the arena will be hit by an AoE. This is marked by the volcanoes on the side of the arena erupting with magma. When you see this message, keep an eye out on the side where the volcano is erupting so you can safely avoid being hit.
Phase 1 Triscourge mechanics
Once the ice projectile mechanics are done, Valigarmanda will inflict everyone with a raid-wide debuff every once in a while. Everyone will receive Calamity’s Bolt and Calamity’s Chill, while the healers also gain their own debuff called Calamity’s Inferno.
- When the Calamity’s Bolt debuff expires, a lightning AoE will explode around the player. If another player overlaps with this AoE, they will be paralyzed. Everyone must spread out to avoid overlaps.
- When Calamity’s Chill expires, players who are standing still will be instantly frozen. This can be counteracted by simply running around when the timer ends.
- When Calamity’s Inferno ends, a lingering fire AoE will be left where the healers are standing, which hits three times. The healers must run to the northern edge of the arena, then slowly move back to the center to take the AoEs away from the rest of the group.
Mountain Fire
Valigarmanda will place a tankbuster marker on the main tank, which places a solid pillar on top of them. After a short delay, the boss will make an AoE fire blast in a cone on the main tank. DPS and healers must stand behind the pillar as cover from the blast, moving to the angle where the boss is facing so that they don’t get hit by the blast. Meanwhile, the main tank must swap with the off-tank after two hits, as this tankbuster will place a Fire Vulnerability stack per hit. This mechanic ends after 6 blasts.
Phase 2 mechanics
This phase is marked by the background and arena resetting to the normal mountainous area at the start and the boss using Ruins Foretold, a raid-wide attack. The boss becomes untargetable and casts Ruinous Power, a wipe mechanic.
First, three spear adds will appear in the arena, which requires the players to split into two teams to try and kill them, as these will charge the boss’s wipe mechanic. Second, two random players from either team will be marked with a stack marker, which can be mitigated by the tank standing the closest to the boss while everyone else stacks on the marked player. Lastly, the boss will shoot out alternating cones of AoEs every few seconds, which the teams must dodge while DPSing the spear adds.
Once Ruinous Power is resolved, Valigarmanda becomes targetable again and casts Tulidisaster, another raid-wide attack that hits thrice in succession. This starts the 3rd phase of the Trial.
Phase 3 mechanics
The boss will now cast either Triscourge (Ice) or Triscourge (Lightning), each with a slightly different variation of the debuffs given. We will first start with Triscourge (Ice).
Triscourge (Ice) mechanics
- The Calamity’s Bolt mechanic is still the same as Phase 1 Triscourge.
- Healers will receive the Calamity’s Embers debuff, which requires teams to split and stack to spread the damage, so two DPS players for each healer in the group.
- Tanks will receive the Calamity’s Bite debuff, which is a gigantic frost AoE attack that erupts from the two tanks. To prevent hitting the entire team, both tanks must run to the northern corners of the arena and tank the AoE alone.
Next, the boss will follow up with an attack with the text, “A rumbling avalanche approaches from the southeast.” This starts with a rectangular AoE that hits diagonal to the arena, then either the donut AoE, melee AoE, or the conal blast, and finally, 6 markers on the ground that explode in 8 directions.
Many players have trouble with the 6 markers, so the best tip to know where the safe zone is located is to first stay away from the area with 3 ground AoEs on the side. Second, head north of the arena and stand in between the 3 ground AoEs where the lines do not intersect.
Calamity’s Bolt will then occur, scatter the entire team to avoid the mechanic. Next, the Spikecicle mechanic will occur again, so dodge accordingly. Then, the boss will do one of the “telegraph” attacks and follow up with the same 6 ground AoE markers mechanic mentioned earlier. After that, another Avalanche mechanic will occur.
After those are resolved, the boss casts Freezing Dust, which requires players to keep moving to avoid getting frozen in place. The phase ends with one more Calamity’s Bolt debuff and a Disaster Zone raid-wide to signal the end.
Triscourge (Lightning) mechanics
In this phase of the fight, the arena will change in layout. The areas highlighted in green will cause the player standing on it to levitate off the ground, while the unlit area will keep players on the ground. This is important as this will help you avoid certain boss mechanics.
Once again, the boss will cast Triscourge and give out a different set of debuffs.
- All players will receive Calamity’s Fulgur, which works like Calamity’s Bolt but requires affected players to stay on the ground.
- All players will receive Calamity’s Frost, which requires players to be levitating to avoid lethal damage.
- Healers will receive Calamity’s Flame, which is also a stack mechanic.
Next, the boss will cast Hail of Feathers, which is a sequence of AoEs that deal less damage the further away the player is from the impact point. Everyone must stay on the edges of the arena and move according to the order of the AoEs marked. These impact points will spawn feather adds that explode after a short duration. Everyone must go to the first feather that spawns and DPS it quickly to create a safe zone from the blasts.
The boss follows up with one of the telegraph attacks but will leave behind an AoE on the locations of each player after the mechanic resolves, so just immediately run away as soon as the telegraph attack ends.
The boss will then cast Thunderous Breath, which places a bunch of portals on each row of the arena. Players should stand on a levitation platform on the row without a portal on it, as the portals will launch a beam attack on the affected row.
After Thunderous Breath, players will deal with one more Calamity mechanic and a telegraphed attack after. The phase ends with a Disaster Zone raid-wide.
Phase 3 mechanics
Once both Triscourge (Ice) and Triscourge (Lightning) mechanics end, this will start Phase 3 of the fight. Now the boss will have a new mechanic called Ruinfall, which is a knockback attack with AoEs at the back of the arena while a shared tankbuster AoE appears in the center of the arena. The tankbuster will resolve first, so both tanks must stack on the AoE and pop cooldowns as necessary. All other players must either position themselves in the northern edge of the arena while staying away from the back AoEs or use a knockback-resist skill to avoid the mechanic altogether.
The boss will then cast Wrath Unfurled, a raid-wide attack that also buffs the boss’ damage. Valigarmanda will then follow up with a Mountain Fire mechanic, so tanks must do a swap and stay in cover. Make sure to DPS the boss fast enough in this phase, as Valigarmanda will start its wipe timer with Tullidisaster. By this point, you should reach the end of this Extreme Trial.
