[Concept] A Selection of 8-Man Dungeons *Long Read!*

*Incoming novel! There is NO tl;dr. If you are not fond of reading, exit this thread!*

Quick note: This is a work in progress. I didn't start making this until around 9:00pm, and was not able to finish it in time.
I thought I'd post it early to get feedback/some exposure, and finish it off tomorrow.

Quick note 2: Each of the dungeons is going to be vastly different.
While the Inferno dungeon is similar to the Labyrinth of the Ancients, with zones being split up, the others will have different setups.
The idea is to have each one of these be completely different, and provide a vastly different experience to the last.
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Hey everyone,

The idea for writing this thread came from me walking home in the rain for 2 hours today.
I was thinking how a Quetzalcoatl/Quezacotl fight would go in FFXIV, as FFVIII was my first Final Fantasy game, and I'd love to fight it.

Eventually, my mind ran wild.
Ramuh is the Primal of lightning, so it wouldn't work as that kind of fight, but he'd be more than suitable as the boss of a dungeon.

Eventually, this turned into an idea of having several 8-man dungeons based off primals/elements.

Why 8-man?
For a couple of reason.
1) I enjoy 8 man content, but Coil does get old.
I thoroughly enjoy Praetorium/Castrum Meridianum (sp?). Praetorium is one of my favourite dungeons in the entire game, despite it being rather simplistic.

A selection of full 8-man dungeons would be a welcome addition to the game.

Why based off Primals/elements?
Hmm.

Well, the main reason I chose this was for Quezacotl/Quetzalcoatl (whichever spelling you use), it just naturally evolved into this concept.
Using the elements/Primal influence gives the opportunity for each dungeon to have an excellent aesthetic and thoroughly unique feel.
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Let's begin with the actual idea.

I have several dungeon ideas, complete with art that could rival Picasso himself.
Obviously, I am not a game designer, so my concepts for boss fights are not up to FFXIV standards, but they were fun to come up with.

Note: I am not an expert of FFXIV lore, so the environments and technology I have in mind may not gel with what we have, so keep that in mind.

I was going to research images of example environments, but I'll just do the layout, and your imagination can do the rest!

Vault of the Inferno *WORK IN PROGRESS*
8-man dungeon based off the element of fire and the Primal Ifrit.
Group Composition
1 Tank
2 Healers
5 DPS

Floor One

http://i61.tinypic.com/eprv9d.png

A relatively short journey to the first boss.

It consists of 3 separate groups of enemies, however, it's not that simple.
This bridge is lined with fire traps that are activated by pressure plates.
Stepping on a plate will cause these fire traps to deal a massive amount of damage to the party.

When fighting these mobs, you have to be very careful as to where you stand. Pulling all the mobs might be quicker, but it carries the risk of being far more likely to stand on a plate.

The mobs are not pushovers, as there are only 5 of them before the 1st boss.

Hellhounds - 4 of these are present on the bridge.
They have 2 attacks
1) A basic swipe that deals damage to their main target
2) Blaze - A frontal column attack that deals a hefty amount of damage.

Flamehound
Kind of like a miniboss.
It also has two attacks.
1) Basic attack - Frontal cleave
2) Scorch - High damage cone of fire, no indicator. Much like the Stone Vigil (hard) final boss, you must look for its body movement to know it's coming.

Boss 1 - Inferno Nail
Same look as the nails from the Ifrit fight, but works differently.

It's not a boss in the traditional sense.

Periodically, Fire Elementals will spawn from one of the 4 corners of the room.
These monsters have access to 4 different spells, and make up the main mechanic of the fight.

Their attacks are as follows:
Fire - Single target fire spell
Fira - Single target fire spell
Firaga - AoE fire spell, fired at a random target
Firaja - Room wide AoE that does massive damage

Only the first 3 will be used with frequency.
Fire Elementals will use Firaja if are left alive for too long. They will also cast Firaja upon death.
Each time players are hit by Firaja, it will give them a stacking debuff that increases their susceptibility to fire spells.

To survive Firaja, players must DPS these Elementals down to ~5-10% hp and bring it to the Nail in the center.
After a certain amount of damage is dealt to the Inferno Nail, it will cast a medium sized AoE that will deal damage to players and 'consume' damaged Fire Elementals.

When an Elemental is consumed, all nearby players will receive the NulBlaze buff, which will protect them from the Firaja spell that is cast upon Elemental death.

Each Elemental consumed will deal damage to the Inferno nail.

Floor Two

http://i62.tinypic.com/am89xi.png

Ok, this one is a little trickier.
This floor requires teamwork, and for the party to split up. Bear with me on this one.

Let me go over the mechanics, then I'll explain them in depth.
1 player goes to the middle platform
2 players go on the Shield Activators
4 players go down the stairs, 2 for each flight
1 player stays back for heals

1) Middle platform
One player will need to traverse the middle platform to make their way to the Elevator Console.
It will take a total of 1 minute for the console to complete activation after clicking it.
Adds will spawn and target players on the Shield Activators.
The player on the middle path needs to pick these up ASAP and hold them until the Elevator is ready.

2) Shield Activators
Each of these 'consoles' will activate a shield that will protect the middle platform on one side from the volley of arrows coming from the Fire Archers.

These archers will notch their arrows when they are about to fire, this is when the player must activate their console.
If the console is not activated, these arrows will deal massive damage to the target in the center.

It might be one side of arrows at a time, or all 8 archers could fire at once.

3) Stairs
This is where the fun stuff is.
2 players will need to go down each flight of stairs, which will traverse a lower path and will eventually lead to the top floor where the Fire archers are situated.

The job of these players is to take out these Archers.

These players traverse the lower path, killing any trash in the way, and eventually appear up top to kill the Fire Archers.

4) Remaining player
This player is here to assist the player on the middle path with healing/buffing.

It's up to the group as to which jobs go on which path, but in my mind it would be
Middle path - Tank
Stairs - 4 DPS
Shield 1 - Healer
Shield 2 - DPS
Assist character - Healer

Floor 3

http://i57.tinypic.com/2hz23p1.png

Boss 2 - Centipede of the Inferno
This has some mechanics, so I'll need to break it down a bit.

The boss
This boss has several attacks.

1) frontal cleave - Its basic damage attack, hits everything in a cone.
2) Singe - Fire breath that deals light damage, but applies a heavy DoT
3) Fire Spit - Targets a random party member and fires an AoE at them, deals heavy damage.
4) Inferno* - Column attack that deals heavy damage

The Arena
You will notice the 3 lava pools on the outside of the arena.
These are filled with lava, but are shut off by gates.

The only way to open these gates is to direct the boss' 'Inferno' attack (column) at a gate.
This will open it, allowing lava to flow out.

You may notice the rings that make up the arena. The lava will flow in these areas, eventually engulfing the boss.
The more gates that are open, the faster the lava flow.

Gates will close after a set period of time.
Players will need to pay attention to which gates are open/closed, and must also move around a lot.

The boss will be rotated to face particular gates, players must keep this in mind as to avoid attacks and keep their rotations active.

Adds
Adds will spawn from the lava and target a player.
These do not follow aggro tables, and will instead fixate on a single player.
These deal light damage, but will place a stacking debuff on their target that increases the amount of damage they take, stacks an infinite number of times

Now, you may think that you should just open all 3 gates and get it over with.
This has its disadvantages.
The quicker the lava flow, the higher the frequency the adds will spawn at, and can quickly overwhelm you.


Ordeal of the Storm *COMING SOON*
8-man dungeon based off the power of lightning and the Primal Ramuh.
Group Composition
2 Tanks
2 Healers
4 DPS

Blight of the Vortex *COMING SOON*
8-man dungeon based off the element of air and the Primal Garuda.
Group Composition
2 Tanks
2 Healers
4 DPS

Trial of the Earth *COMING SOON*
8-man dungeon based off the element of earth and the Primal Titan.
Group Composition
1 Tank
2 Healers
5 DPS