E8S (Shiva)

Overview

This is the second fight in the Eden series and is a colossal step up from Titan. With a clean run the DPS check isn’t too tough thanks to us being able to abuse Revenge Blast. However, this fight is still quite long and requires mechanical consistency above all else.

Video Guide

Party Setup

For this fight I would recommend having one tank mimic, one healer mimic, and six DPS mimics. The damage in this fight is very predictable so solo healing is fine and adding an additional DPS mimic makes it easier for us to skip Icelit Dragonsong. The healer will also be acting as the off-tank in this fight and really won’t have much time to be doing damage themselves, so that actually frees up a lot more spell loadout space for utility spells.

Utility Spells

• Diamondback
• Wild Rage and Revenge Blast on all DPS
• Mighty Guard
• Frog Legs on the off-tank
• Magic Hammer on at least one person
• Exuviation on the healer
• A stun spell such as Faze on one person per add platform (explained below)
• An interrupt spell such as Flying Sardine on one person per add platform (explained below)
• Condensed Libra on the tank. Getting Physical Libra out during Revenge Blast windows adds substantial damage.

Phase 1: Shiva

Shiva opens up with Absolute Zero, a very heavy-hitting raidwide AOE, which should be mitigated with Magic Hammer and Addle. With two 10% mitigations and no Gobskin this will put everyone into Revenge Blast range for when the DPS come out of Waning.

Mirror, Mirror

Shiva will use Mirror, Mirror and spawn three mirrors: one red and two green. The green mirror will repeat whatever attack Shiva does after a short delay and the red mirror will repeat the same attack after a longer delay. The red mirror will be either east or west, while the green mirrors will be north and east or west (opposite the red mirror). For this next bit it is important that Shiva be positioned in the center of the arena and facing north!

She will now cast either Biting Frost, a 270 degree cleave in front, or Driving Frost, a 90 degree cleave behind. If it is Biting Frost, then we will move to the south side of the arena on the same side as the red mirror. If it is Driving Frost, then we will move to the north side of the arena on the opposite side of the red mirror. I remember this as you drive forward, and b as in biting just means backward. Shiva will cleave, then the green mirrors will cleave, then the red mirrors will cleave. Once we’re in our starting safe position we need to wait for the green mirrors to cleave and then run to the opposite side (east/west, but stay north or south). The snapshotting for this is pretty brutal so don’t waste too much time or try to greed as you will be punished.

Diamond Frost

Shortly after the red mirror goes off we will have our first major raid mechanic. Shiva will teleport to the center and begin casting Diamond Frost. Stack in the center and have the tank heal everyone up with White Wind. There is about to be a lot of movement, so this is actually a good time for DPS to use Cold Fog. This is also a good time for the off-tank to use Frog Legs as it allows them to have a substantial lead in threat over everyone else, but also gives plenty of time for the tank to generate a big lead over the off-tank before it becomes important.

Diamond Frost starts with the heavy-hitting raid wide, targets two people with a Freezing debuff that will root them in place, two people with a flare-style AOE, and four people with Frigid Stone, a mild AOE that explodes as a star-shaped AOE after a delay. At the same time there will also be “Shiva circles” (as seen in many other fights) going around the outside. There will also be a Heavenly Strike knockback and Frigid Eruption chaser AOEs afterward. The mechanic has a lot going on visually, but there is some jank that actually makes this a little bit easier for us:

• The same people will always be targeted by the Freezing debuff (assuming no deaths).
• The tank always gets targeted by a flare, but the other flare is random.
• Getting hit by both flares directly is survivable with Mighty Guard.

There are two ways to solve this mechanic: everyone gets knocked back to the same side (with Mighty Guard) or everyone except the tank gets knocked back to one side while the rest of the party gets knocked back the opposite direction (without Mighty Guard). I find it’s generally easiest to just have everyone get knocked back to the same side. Regardless of which strat you do, the mechanic resolves as follows:

1. Cleanse the Freezing debuff with Exuviation.
2. Identify the safe knockback side (wherever the Shiva circles initially appear, either E/W or N/S).
3. Drop baited AOEs on intercardinal markers on the arena’s inner circle (look at the lines on the ground).
4. Make sure everyone gets knocked back to the same side (with Mighty Guard) or have the tank get knocked back to their own side.\
5. Heal up after knockback and flare damage.
6. Dodge ground-targeted AOEs.

Shiva will follow up with Driving Frost or Biting Frost, whichever she didn’t use at the beginning of the fight. The tank should be able to position her such that the party doesn’t really need to think about dodging, but be ready to dodge, anyway. While this is happening, the DPS should cast Wild Rage twice to reduce themselves to 1 HP and then start spamming Revenge Blast. You may need to wait for a server tick to regen some HP before being able to cast the second Wild Rage.

Shiva will then use Double Slap, a two-hit tankbuster that applies a Physical Vulnerability Up debuff. If Diamondback is used just before the cast finishes then it will cover both hits as well as all auto-attacks afterwards. If this is inconsistent for your group, you can also do this with a tank swap or by having the tank cast Avail on someone in Diamondback.

Shortly after, Shiva will cast Shining Armor and stun anyone looking at her when the cast finishes, so simply look away. She follows up with either Axe Kick, a circular AOE, or Scythe Kick a large donut AOE, so dodge accordingly. Shiva will then teleport to the center before beginning one of the most infamous mechanics in all of FFXIV raiding.

Light Rampant

Shiva will cast Light Rampant and deal heavy raidwide damage. This mechanic has a lot of moving parts: chain debuffs (requiring that they maintain a specific distance) on four players, four large orbs (that eventually shrink) that tether to players and move towards them before exploding, and several towers requiring one, two, or four players to be properly soaked. At the same time, each instance of damage from one of the previously mentioned components adds a Lightsteeped debuff stack and upon reaching 5 stacks a player will detonate and completely wipe the raid.

One thing that makes this mechanic slightly easier is that the players who receive the chain debuffs also get targeted by the orbs. One approach to handling this is to have everyone use Mighty Guard and Diamondback and stack in the center. With Angel's Snack ticking and a second Diamondback cast everyone should survive. I’m not a huge fan of this since it requires two Diamondback casts, so my group had a different approach that let us squeeze in a bit more damage, reduce the duration of damage downs after the mechanic, and still live pretty comfortably. There is a raidplan for this mechanic here and this is how it works:

1. Everyone spreads to an initial clock position.
2. Once chains get applied, those players move to one of the intercardinal markers on the inside circle.
3. The remaining four players use their eyes to split into pairs in the north and south, just outside of the inner circle.
4. As soon as the Path of Light cast starts, everyone casts Diamondback.
5. Orbs will pop, chains will break, but everyone should survive.
6. After the second Path of Light cleaves happen, the north and south pairs step into the tower in the center.

By doing it this way, all of the towers get resolved properly so the overall damage is reduced. This means that Diamondback is sufficient mitigation and we don’t even need to use Mighty Guard! There is another method that can be used that involves the chain players moving to positions based on the orbs tethered to them and then backing away once chains disappear to pop their orbs. This strat has the benefit of having no damage downs, but is slightly (though not outrageously so) more difficult to execute. The start of Light Rampant happens to line up with our Moon Flute, but there isn’t enough time to fit everything in and still get Diamondback off. However, you can still use them afterwards without any loss since everything will eventually be back up after the adds phase.

Shiva will cast Mirror, Mirror again followed by Axe Kick or Scythe Kick, whichever wasn’t user earlier and there will be four green mirrors on either the cardinals or intercardinals which will repeat her attack. Everyone should have preassigned clock positions and partners for these mirrors, as we will want two people to move to each mirror later. If she casts Axe Kick, everyone will start on the outside, then move directly to the center, and then to their clock positions. If she casts Scythe Kick, everyone will start in the center, then move out to their mirrors, and then spread towards their clock spots. Shiva will also casat Banish III which is either a spread or a pair stack, but we will treat it like a spread every time since the targeting is random. The indicator for this is the number of orbs above her when she casts: one orb is partners, four orbs is spread. We use Mighty Guard to survive this in case it is a stack, but if you see it is a spread then you can turn off Mighty Guard.

Once this all resolves, Shiva will return to the center and cast Shattered World, which begins the adds phase. Split into east/west light parties and ensure you have both a stun and an interrupt on each side.

Adds Phase/Intermission

During the adds phase, Shiva will spawn four waves of enemies that do the following:

• Earthen Aether will cast Stoneskin on itself and become much more difficult to kill, so this cast should be interrupted. You can technically use Eerie Soundwave to remove this buff if you miss the interrupt, but it’s easier to just do the interrupt correctly than use an entire spellslot on an otherwise ununsed spell.
• Lightning Aether reflects damage back at attackers.
• Aqueous Aether has substantially more health than the other adds but can be stunned and slowed.
• Crystalline Snowflake cannot be attacked, but has a tether to the center that must be intercepted by someone to prevent it dealing heavy raidwide damage. The tether has a small AOE when it goes off and applies a Light Vuln Up debuff.

Adds will spawn on the edge of the platforms and slowly move towards the center. If any adds make it to the center, or a tether is not intercepted, points will be added to the Flood of Light gauge. If this gauge reaches 100 then it is a wipe, and if you make it through the whole phase with the gauge at 0 then there is a small damage buff at the beginning of the next phase. Each side will ultimately have the same waves of adds but in a slightly different order.

The west side adds appear in this order:

1. Aqueous Aether, two Lightning Aethers, and a Crystalline Snowflake.
2. Earthen Aether and Crystalline Snowflake.
3. Aqueous Aether, Earthen Aether, and Crystalline Snowflake.
4. Two Lightning Aethers and Crystalline Snowflake.

The east side adds appear in this order:

1. Aqueous Aether, Earthen Aether, and Crystalline Snowflake.
2. Two Lightning Aethers and Crystalline Snowflake.
3. Aqueous Aether, two Lightning Aethers, and a Crystalline Snowflake.
4. Earthen Aether and Crystalline Snowflake.

Each time a wave spawns, the whole party will be hit by Heart Asunder which deals damage equivalent to 50% of maximum HP, so it’s important to heal up quickly before people start attacking Lightning Aethers. Each player can soak a Crystalline Snowflake once, so an order needs to be established on each side. Cold Fog is extremely strong here since some of the adds can be a bit beefy. Short cooldowns (<60 seconds) can also be used since there is a very long cutscene after the adds phase.

If all the adds have died and the gauge hasn’t reached 100, there will be a long cutscene of Shiva summoning Hraesvelgr before going into the next phase.

Phase 2: Dragon Shiva

Akh Morn/Morn Afah

Throughout this entire phase it is very important that the off-tank (healer) keeps Mighty Guard on at all times, remains second on threat, and that the threat stays consistent the entire time. Unexpected threat swaps can cause immediate wipes during Akh Morns if you’re not careful. If the off-tank used Frog Legs during Diamond Frost then there shouldn’t be any issues, but be mindful of the amount of threat that spells like White Wind can generate. To be extra safe, only the tank should really use White Wind.

Shiva opens up the phase with Akh Morn, which is similar to any other time this ability shows up except it will go on both of the top two threat targets and apply different debuffs to the primary and secondary targets. These debuffs don’t do anything special, but if you get hit by the opposite Akh Morn from the debuff you currently have, you will die. This is why it’s important that threat does not swap unexpectedly. To handle Akh Morn, we just move into light party stacks on the southwest/southeast of the boss (while making sure that the tank and off-tank are in different stacks). Right afterwards she will use Morn Afah, a heavy hitting stack damage AOE. This can either be shared as a group or the main tank can take it solo with Diamondback. If this hit is shared by the party with 2 10% mitigations and nothing else then you will be in Revenge Blast range. My group found it more consistent to just fully heal and mitigate this and then use Wild Rage to put ourselves into Revenge Blast range.

After these first attacks, Shiva will use Mirror, Mirror again. This time there will be a blue, green, and red mirror on the north, west, and east. Green will always be north, but blue and red can be on either of east/west. Shiva will then cast Hallowed Wings, which will cleave either her left or right (whichever side has a glowing wing). First we need to dodge both her and the blue mirror, then the green mirror, and then the red mirror (while also avoiding the side that she didn’t cast Hallowed Wings on originally, as she will do it on the other side). An easy way to solve this is to first identify the safe quadrant between her and blue, and then just rotate one quadrant per cast in the direction of the green mirror and then red mirror. Since we take no damage during this mechanic, we can continue casting Revenge Blast.

Wyrm’s Lament

The next mechanic is Wyrm’s Lament, which starts with a moderate raidwide so heal up before. A dragon head will spawn at the north and then begin rotating clockwise or counter-clockwise around the arena. Shiva will use Hallowed Wings to cleave the east or west side of the arena with the dragon head four times in a row. This means she will cleave twice on the side that the dragon head starts on, and then twice on the side that the dragon head finishes on. At the same time, four players will receive a blue debuff and four players will receive a red debuff. If a player’s debuff expires, they die. Red debuffs can be cleansed by touching the dragon head, which deals moderate damage and leaves behind a white circle on the ground. Blue debuffs can be cleansed by standing in the white circle spawned by the red debuffs. Additionally, each debuff will have different durations. An easy way to identify whose turn it is to cleanse is by looking at these timers: if your debuff has 10 seconds or less, you are next in line. To handle this, we stand on the side safe from the cleaves and as soon as the cleave goes off whoever needs to resolve the mechanic moves out to do so. Red players will move in front of the dragon head and blue players will move to the circle left by the previous red player. The first red player can (and should) immediately move to the north to cleanse as soon as the dragon head spawns. After Shiva’s second cleave, the entire party needs to swap sides to remain safe from the next two cleaves.

With no mitigations at all, the red players will be put into Revenge Blast range from cleansing and since the blue players take no damage from cleansing they can accomplish the same thing by using Wild Rage again. At some point everyone will naturally regen health out too high, so you can just heal up to full after that.

As soon as Wyrm’s Lament is finished, move directly to Shiva’s southwest or southeast to make the next dodges really easy. She will make the entire floor slippery so stand absolutely still. She will then use Twin Stillness, which is Biting Frost followed by Driving Frost, or Twin Silence, which is Driving Frost followed by Biting Frost. As soon as the ice disappears you can dodge. Right after she will use Double Slap again and then we have our second Moon Flute window of this phase.

Akh Rhai

After Wyrm’s Lament, the party should stack just south of Shiva for the upcoming Akh Rhai cast. Akh Rhai is a multi-hit AOE on all players that lingers where players were when the cast finished. The tell for when the snapshot locks in is when Hraesvelgr spawns and the wings on the boss spread. As soon as you see the wings spread, run directly through her to the north side to be safe from all the AOEs.

Knockback Mirrors

Our next major mechanic is “knockback mirrors,” which has a lot of specific mitigation and positioning requirements for a traditional party but we mostly avoid the entire mechanic with Diamondback. Shiva will spawn mirrors on the east and west before jumping to either the north or south and casting Hallowed Wings. This wings cast is different since both wings will be glowing, and what it actually does is large damage in front of her with a big knockback. Additionally, it has a kind of weird wild charge-like mechanic where people in front will take more damage (and also receive a vuln). However, we can ignore all of the nuance here. Once she teleports, run behind her. About one second after her Hallowed Wings cast finishes, hardcast (without Swiftcast) Diamondback. If timed correctly, no one should get knocked off the arena and everyone should be alive. Once this is done, heal up to full and then have DPS use Wild Rage to drop down to Revenge Blast range again.

The next bit of the fight involves “lookaway mirrors.” It’s a fairly long mechanic but we shouldn’t be taking any damage, so we’re safe to keep blasting. Shiva casts Mirror, Mirror yet again and spawns two blue, red, and green mirrors. She will cast Shining Armor like before which requires us to look away from her as well as away from the blue mirrors, then green mirrors, then red mirrors. The easiest way to handle this is to immediately pull her next to one of the blue mirrors. Once Shining Armor starts being cast, look directly east/west (with the blue mirror as north) to look away from her and the mirrors. Next, move just behind Shiva and look straight out to where the blue mirror was previously to dodge the green mirrors. She will then start casting Holy which will either be one large proximity AOE in the center or several proximity AOEs on the perimeter of the arena. As with Banish III before, the tell is actually above her head for which thing she will be doing. One large orb means it will be in the center, while four small orbs means they will be on the perimeter. If it’s a big orb, stay towards the outside and continue looking outwards. If it’s four small orbs, move to the center and look away from both red mirrors. Regardless of which it is, you need to heal up before this happens. This is a good opportunity for Cold Fog as it will also allow us to move more freely for the next mechanic. Shiva will use either Embittered Dance, which is Scythe Kick followed by Axe Kick, or Spiteful Dance, which is Axe Kick followed by Scythe Kick. Either one can be avoided by just going to max casting range to avoid both hits.

After the dance attack, Shiva will use Akh Rhai again. However, this time there will also be a red mirror. This will be handled exactly the same way as before: start south and move north when you see the wings spread. Afterwards, stack north and look at the mirror’s cast bar in the target list. Once the cast bar finishes, run back through her to Akh Morn stack locations. There will not be any time after the Morn Afah for Revenge Blast, so just fully mitigate and heal up and also execute a Moon Flute opener. It’s important that we’re not in Waning for the next mechanic so make sure you can execute your opener while moving throughout this bit!

Icelit Dragonsong

Icelit Dragonsong is the last major mechanic of the fight, but it is pretty comfortably skippable if your DPS is on point. In general, I think it is easier to optimize damage than it is to actually execute Icelit Dragonsong, but the mechanic isn’t too bad overall. You can find a raidplan here, but the full list of steps is here:

1. Assign light parties to two opposite intercardinal directions, and within each light party divide players into left/right pairs. Each person will also need a clock spread position (you can re-use the ones from before).
2. Stack in the center and put up Mighty Guard.
3. Cleanse Freezing with Exuviation immediately, then apply Angel's Snack and all available mitigations.
4. Move to your light party’s side just inside Shiva’s hitbox and use Diamondback.
5. After the knockback, move to your assigned left/right side and use Swiftcast and Diamondback.
6. Once Diamondback ends, gap close with J Kick and move to your spread position.

The timing for this mechanic is pretty tight, but if done correctly then everyone should survive. Shiva will then spawn a red mirror at the north half of the arena, make the whole arena slippery. The ice will go away and she will cast Akh Rhai while making the arena slippery again. Pull her north before all of this, and as soon as the Akh Rhai cast finishes slide directly south to avoid the hits.

The very last mechanic before enrage is Wyrm’s Lament 2, but for our purposes this is the hard enrage. This is essentially the same as Wyrm’s Lament 1, but there are two dragon heads and Akh Morn and Morn Afah between some of the dragon head mechanics. There is a ton of adjusting involved and it really requires deep understanding of the mechanic to properly handle it. It is genuinely much easier to just skip this mechanic, so that should really be the goal for the group.

Final Sting

Shiva’s Final Sting threshold is roughly 7%. Once she is at 7%, apply Off-guard, use Moon Flute, any Primal abilities you have, then finish with Whistle and Final Sting.