At the onset of Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, the Binding Coil of Bahamut was a difficult series of raids that was widely considered to be the hardest set of dungeons in the game. However, with the addition of the second Binding Coil, and the echo buff that has been added to the first Coil, it’s not much easier to navigate. In fact, there are several methods to get through the first two Turns with relative ease. Check out our speed run tips for Turn 1 if you haven’t already, as this article covers Turn 2.
Turn 2 consists of four battles against different Allagan Defense Systems (ADS). Your party make-up should determine which route you take as you go through the four ADS battles. Facing the first ADS boss, you can go left or right to reach the second boss, then continue south (down on the map) to get to the third boss, and finally toward the middle to reach the final ADS.
If you go left, the final ADS will be resistant to magic and slashing damage. This means Summoners, Black Mages, Warriors and Paladins will inflict less damage to ADS. If you go right, then final ADS will be resistant to piercing and blunt damage. This means Dragoons, Bards, and Monks will inflict less damage. If you have a party full of Black Mages and Summoners, you should go right, but if your party is made up mostly of Dragoons and Monks, you should go left. Even if you go the wrong way for your party make-up, the final ADS can still be defeated with relative ease, it just takes a little longer.
For best results, you should have at least two jobs that can silence each ADS boss. Bards work best, but Paladins and Monks can also silence if need be. Determine the order in which the two party members will use silence, and alternate every time ADS attempts to use High Voltage. This ability paralyzes all party members and will likely make the fights last a bit longer than they should.
As you move from one ADS to the next, do not engage the next ADS until the stacks on the tank have reset. You won’t have to wait long between fights, but it’s important that you do not engage the next ADS with stacks. The more stacks on the tank (caused by defending against ADS’ attacks), the more damage the tank will be dealt by each attack. It’s common for a tank to get up to eight stacks during a fight, which allows ADS to drain a good 80 percent of the tanks health with a single attack.
Another note to remember is that as soon as you engage the first ADS, you are always considered to be in battle. That means you cannot return to the start of the dungeon upon dying until all members of the party are dead. For this reason, at least one healer or Summoner needs to be alive at all times to raise fallen party members. If no one is left alive that can raise, it’s impossible to revive fallen party members and you’ll have to start over. In the case of a wipe, you always have to start back at the first ADS boss.
When you reach the final ADS boss, most parties opt for the enrage method. To do this method you need at least two healers and a Bard. It’s possible to use this method without a Bard, but you would need three healers in this instance. The easiest way is with two healers and a Bard, preferably with a White Mage in at least one of the healing slots.
As you progress through the dungeon, every minute you’ll see a message saying that ADS is down to a certain number of clicks. When the clicks reach zero, the final boss attacks with a dungeon-wide area of effect (AoE) attack that causes significant damage (usually about 40 percent health is drained with each AoE). You want to wait until 10 seconds before the last click to engage the final boss. This means you generally have about a five minute wait between the third boss and the final boss, but it’s still faster and more reliable than any alternative methods.
The best way to determine when to attack the final boss is to look at the dungeon timer when you get the message for one click, then subtract 50 seconds. For example, if you get the one-click message at 75:20, you should engage the final boss at 74:30. By engaging at this time, you avoid any normal AoE attacks from the boss, including High Voltage, and get right to the enrage mode.
Once the boss enters enrage mode (you’ll see an on-screen message about the program commencing), all party members should stack close to the boss. Any White Mages should cast Medica II and continue to cast it every time it wears. Between Medica II casts, White Mages should be using Medica repeatedly. Do not stop casting Medica and Medica II until the boss is down. Scholars should cast Succor, but you need at least one White Mage for the higher healing potency of Medica. White Mages should also use Shroud of Saints, Divine Seal and Presence of Mind when necessary.
When either healer hits approximately 2,000 MP, the Bard should use Mage’s Ballad, followed immediately by Battle Voice to enhance the potency of the song. This ensures that the healers do not run out of MP during the battle. DPS jobs should use a Limit Break (you’ll have a level 3 Limit Break ready by the final boss battle) at the start of the fight, then a level 1 Limit Break as soon as it becomes available. The final boss should go down shortly after the second Limit Break.
