Welcome to the last battle of the three main Primals. By now you have defeated both Garuda and Titan Extreme Mode. While Ifrit is the last of the main trio of Primals, most would agree that Titan is the hardest of the set. By that testimony, you shouldn’t have too much of an issue beating Ifrit once you’ve cleared Titan.
Like the other Extreme Mode Primal battles, the basics of the Ifrit fight are very similar to those of the Hard Mode variant. If you have not already familiarized yourself with our Hard Mode strategy, check out that article to get a basic understanding of Ifrit’s attacks.
The recommended party format is fairly standard for Ifrit Extreme. You’ll need two tanks, two healers, and four damage dealing (DPS) jobs. Ideally you want to have at least one White Mage for Medica, Medica II, and Regen, and at least one melee DPS for their Limit Break. Black Mages don’t have as much difficulty with this battle as they do against Extreme Mode Titan, but there’s still a bit of movement that will be required, which may cut into their damage output.
Phase One
When the fight begins, the main tank should move Ifrit to a northern position so that the boss is facing away from the rest of the party. All other party members should stack behind Ifrit, similar to the Titan Extreme Mode battle. Shortly after the onset of the battle, Ifrit selects one of the healers and uses a special debuff on him or her. This causes an area of effect (AoE) attack to pulse outward from the healer, damaging any party members in close proximity. To avoid this, the selected healer should move to a spot away from the rest of the party. Typically this is the far west side of the arena. Ifrit will target the other healer about 30 seconds later, at which point the healers should switch positions. This continues throughout the fight.
Another important note is that Ifrit now places a stacking debuff on the main tank. This lowers the tank’s health and causes him or her to take more damage. When the main tank reaches three stacks, the off tank should use Provoke to take the hate. This tank swap should continue throughout the battle.
The battle begins with a series of three Eruptions (there are always three Eruptions targeted at three random players each time this attack is used). With all party members except the main tank stacked behind Ifrit, the best strategy is to run south, then east or west depending on where the healer is positioned. You want to move away from the healer, so if the healer is off to the west, the rest of the party should run south, then east. Keep in mind, Eruptions cannot be stunned like they can in Hard Mode, so you will be forced to dodge them.
After the Eruptions, four nails spawn in a circle around the center of the arena. This isn’t quite the same as the nails during Hard Mode. Instead of using a Black Mage or Summoner Limit Break, you should take down the nails individually. Each time a nail is destroy, it causes arena-wide damage and a debuff that increases damage to the entire party for a few seconds. Because of this, you need to take them down one at a time in order. Most parties take them out clockwise, one at a time. During this time, a single Eruption is targeted at the off-tank. Make sure the off-tank is away from the party to avoid slowing down DPS on the nails.
When the nails are destroyed, or if you take too long to destroy the nails, Ifrit uses Hellfire on the entire party. So long as the nails are down before he uses Hellfire, no one at full health should die. However, if you take too long to kill the nails, the entire party will wipe. Hellfire marks the end of the phase.
Phase Two
The second phase begins with Plumes. However, this time the Plumes cover a very large portion of the arena. The only safe spots are in the northeast or southwest corners. Following the Plumes Ifrit jumps into the air for Crimson Cyclone. This time there are four Ifrit clones during the attack, and the attack has a much wider range, so you have to be careful about how close you are to each Ifrit.
The clones dash in a clockwise rotation. Start to the side of the first Ifrit, and run along the edge of the arena after each Ifrit dashes. Keep in mind, one of the healers will still have the debuff, which means they need to start on the opposite side to dodge Crimson Cyclone so that they do not interfere with the rest of the party.
After another set of Eruptions, more nails spawn. This time there are eight total nails, but they should be taken care of just like the previous set of nails, with the off-tank staying away due to the Eruption that appears under him. In addition, a tether will appear between the off-tank (or whoever is second on the hate list) and a random DPS. These two party members need to stay close together or they’ll be hit with a decent amount of damage. The farther apart they are, the more damage gets dished out. If the tanks need to swap at this time, the DPS should follow the off-tank over to Ifrit and stand behind the boss until the tether disappears.
The nail portion once again concludes with Hellfire, which marks the end of the phase.
Phase Three
Phase three is identical to phase two except that there are now 13 nails instead of 8. In addition, the nail that spawns in the center is much larger than the other nails. Take down this nail last and make sure the party is not afflicted with the debuff when it happens. This special nail causes severe damage to the entire party when it’s destroyed, so healers need to be ready with AoE cure spells. At this point Ifrit should be near death, but either way he repeats this phase continuously until he dies, except that no further nails will spawn.
Published: Apr 29, 2014 08:04 pm