Stage 29: Red, Fraught, and Blue

Video Guide

Note

This guide assumes that you have read the Basics & Spell Recommendations page and have the baseline spells recommended there.

  • Wind filler spell, such as Sonic Boom.
  • Lightning filler spell, such as Electrogenesis. Reflux can be decent for slowing the hands in Act 2.
  • Shock Strike or any other high-damage/Primal spells you have access to.

Required Spells

  • Diamondback
  • Exuviation

Act 1

This fight is generally considered to be the most difficult for people. It has a lot of mechanics to keep track of and starts to approach the difficulty of an Extreme trial. It will take some practice, but it’s very doable with some patience.

In Act 1 we need to defeat Shikigami of the Pyre. It opens up with Fluid Swing, which has a huge knockback, which we interrupt with Flying Sardine. Next it well use Sea of Flames which is the same as Ifrit’s Eruption mechanic, so just keep moving. Shikigami will then cast Pyretic which will deal a ton of damage to us if we take any action while the debuff is active. It follows up with Fire II right underneath us but do not move until after Pyretic wears off. Once the debuff wears off, move out of the AOE.

Shikigami follows this up with Pillar of Flame, which is the same as Ifrit’s Radiant Plume, which we dodge by moving in and out as needed. Next Shikigami will use Rush which is an unavoidable hit that does more damage the closer we are, so move as far away from the boss as you can while avoiding the electric ring on the edge of the arena.

After Rush, Shikigami casts Flare Star which is a proximity AOE in the center of the arena, so stand at the edge of the arena. Three fire tornadoes will spawn and there will be one side of the arena with no tornado. Move to the side with no tornado and get ready to start dodging a bunch of AOEs. The tornadoes will start targeting you with line AOEs so sidestep as needed to avoid them. While this is happening, Shikigami will start casting Fluid Swing again so make sure to interrupt it.

After the Fluid Swing cast Shikigami will cast Pillar of Flame and Rush again. Make sure to return to the center after dealing with Rush, because Shikigami will then cast Pillar of Flame but this time there will only be a very small safe space on the edge of the arena. The fight loops from this point forward.

Tip

None of the ground AOEs like Pillar of Flame will kill you in one hit. If you are struggling to find safe spots quickly, you can just stand still and take damage as long as you only get hit by one AOE. You can heal yourself up afterwards.

Act 2

With Fire down, now we have to deal with Water! Shikigami of the Undertow is our target this time and he’s got some very different mechanics. Shikigami opens up with Protean Wave which is just a cone we can sidestep, followed by an unavoidable cone hit. It will then cast Throttle, which is essentially a Doom debuff, so cleanse it with Exuviation. Shikigami will then cast Ferrofluid, which applies a charge to itself and us. If we have the same charge, we will be repelled and there will be a donut AOE on the edge of the arena, so we want to be near the center of the arena. If we have different charges, we will be pulled in and there will be a point-blank AOE in the center of the arena, so we want to be near the edge of the arena.

Shikigami casts Fluid Ball next, which is just a sequence of ground-targeted AOEs. Keep moving and you should avoid all of the damage. Next it will cast Watery Grasp, which is where most people struggle with this fight. It spawns a Left Hand which will burn your MP and a Right Hand which will knock you back with Fluid Swing. These need to be killed as quickly as possible while maintaining a safe distance. Using Bristle to buff a Lightning spell followed by Shock Strike can kill one of them almost immediately. The other one can just be kited around; Reflux can be helpful for this. Shikigami will cast Fluid Swing while you deal with the hands, so make sure to interrupt it with Flying Sardine.

Tip

You can make it easier to interrupt Shikigami by setting it as your focus target and then using a macro to cast Flying Sardine on your focus target: 

/blueaction "Flying Sardine"
Doing it this way means you don't need to change your target from the hands in order to interrupt the cast.

After all of this is done, Shikigami will cast Big Splash which is four big hits for about half of our health. Use Diamondback to survive this. Next it will use Cascade, which is basically the same as Flare Star from Act 1 but with water tornadoes. The water tornadoes will use Protean Wave instead of line AOEs, so the dodging is slightly different. Shikigami will cast Fluid Swing again, so interrupt it with Flying Sardine. Shikigami will also use Protean Wave at this time followed by Fluid Ball, so dodge the same as before. At this point the fight will loop starting from the first Fluid Swing and Throttle, but luckily no more hands will spawn.