Rage over Sophia

[Pondera]

Sophia is said to be one of the easiest EX Primals.

And I am now officially crying.

[LadyKairi]

Imho Hun, it's not just you. I don't know how you handle the mechs, but I feel your healers should be trying to help out with the mitigation. I main heals, and I can confidently say I have this fight down solid. In my experience, healers should be applying stone skin/noct shield/Aldo (preferably crit/eye for an eye to make their and the tank's lives easier. I've seen lots of dark knights get insta killed by the buster, so I always make them a priority to keep shielded when MTing. Just make sure you use proper CDs and hope healers can assist to keep you alive.

I would say take a break and come back to it with a clear/calm head. It'll be fine deary, just try to relax. You'll get it (:

[ZhaneX]

I think people over-exaggerate how "Easy" they find Sophia. There is a lot that can go wrong when you're fighting her, and I know that I got pretty down with failure, after failure, after failure, after failure, after...you get the idea.

Like you, Sophia's the first time I'm trying to tank something that's brand-new end game. And I also had a lot of trouble getting one-shoted by her tankbuster for a while. Still do every now and again. But as long as your co-tank and heals are on-point, it gets much easier as you pick up on the pattern of its casts. Like she'll usually use it after her triple-hitting raid-wide AoE, I forget what it's called, so it's a good idea to pop your CDs right around the third cast so that there's no time conflict or error.

All that said...I do think that Sophia is easier than the previous couple of trials, Nidhogg and Sephirot, both of which I feel were a lot less forgiving with regards to their mechanics.

[Elim]

I think people over-exaggerate how "Easy" they find Sophia.

I don't.

Honestly think it's the easiest primal yet. It was disappointing. :/ No DPS check. No heal check(hardly any healing). Really, really simple mechanics. Tank busters are just... tank busters. Never lost a tank to one of them.

EDIT

She did sound cool and she is probably one of my favorite looking EX's in the expansion... but that's all the positive things about this fight IMO.

[LunarEmerald]

Sophia is probably the least punishing extreme primal to date. Making mistakes in the fight doesn't kill you unless you fall off.

That said, the fight is mainly on the healers. Bad healers will let people die even with 0 vulnerable stacks during cintamani. Most seem to have trouble with 1-2 and god help you, if you don't take off blood-for-blood during it.

[Sousoulsu]

Glows Green:

-If you are the Main Tank, use a cooldown
-If you are the Off Tank, Provoke her

When Quasar Tethers go out:

-If there are Odd tethers, it is a Mild tilt. Run to the side that does NOT have a blue orb, and stand past the square design on the floor, between the lip and the design.
-If there are Even Tethers, it is a Severe tilt. Run to the side that does NOT have a blue orb, and stand on the VERY EDGE of the platform.

For both of the above, be mindful if Sophia is charging across the platform. Don't be on that half of the platform.

When she casts Thunder 3/2:

-Thunder 3 is a Donut AoE with a safe spot in melee range of her.
-Thunder 2 is a Cone AoE with a safe spot anywhere but in front of her.

Following Thunder 3/2, she will cast Aero, which hits in a circle around her. Do NOT get hit.

During these mechanics, she will tether demiurges. Watch which Demiurges are tethered for Thunder. Whichever ones those are, wait until the Sophia Head spawns on the platform, then move to the Demiurge that will not get hit by that head to avoid the head charge and the Thunder/Aero recasts.

If black/white marks go out:

-Have pre-determined DPS stand on pre-determined tank/healer. Pair each DPS with either a Tank or a Healer and Mark Them Accordingly

If there is one demiurge targeted by Thunder 2, she will cast Quasar. Everybody run to the corner that does not have the thunder 2 demiurge, drop quasars, then run behind the Thunder 2 Demiurge.

______________________________

That is the fight. It is an easy but well-designed fight that is not overly punishing for mistakes.

[Claire_Pendragon]

While I havnt beaten every EX fight in the game, I find fights like Thoradan easy, while I found Sophia the hardest.
I also agree she is the most forgiving primal fight I can think of.
But she tends to have a lot of things that are my weakness, so it took longer than usual for me to get decent at her.

As for the Tank busters, there's no way she is 1 shotting you with a CD up. (unless your CD isnt actual mitigation, like blood bath)

The most likely situation is that you werent topped off in HP before it hit, or your OT didnt voke her/get enough hate before the tank buster goes off. (Sometimes her auto attack goes off w/o any animation at the same time her tank buster goes off, and the only way to stop this, is for the OT to have hate by then. Which I suggest u stop attacking, to make sure they get full hate.)
It's also possible you had a stack of vulnerability on you before the tank buster.

But yeah, always focus on gearing up weapon for threat, and armor for defense, rather than accessories 1st.
Then if u need to, grab some cheap VIT food, as it gives you HP and attack power. (anything thats on farm status, my raid group uses NQ cheap food, but anything new, and still hard for us, THEN we use better food/pots)

As a DRK, if I have vulnerability up, my -20% dmg taken will keep me alive sometimes, but with a virus from the healer, I will survive.
If I'm out of CDs, due to the OT dieing too much, I survive 90% of the time just using foresight. (Though I'll try to get something else with it, like Awareness or something.)

Chances are someone else is messing something up for you to die to the tank buster.

[Balipu]

I only cleared the normal so far (didn't try the EX) but I did it on patch day with a group of all first timers and we did it on first try. Not hard enough.

[Rita1989]

Sophia is not hard as a healer as long as people dodge/ stay on platform you can pretty much CS the whole fight because the boss gives you big warnings before she does damage and as Scholar you can make it so the blowback head does nothing which is the most annoying part in the second phase

[mosaicex]

Sophia IS one of the easiest EX Primal fight, maybe beaten only by Bismarck.

By comparison :
Ravana - expect a wipe people don't know how to deal with Swift liberation and Final liberation
Thordan - expect a wipe if people don't know how to deal with tether , don't know how to deal with Wildcharge etc.
Sephirot - expect to die to purple, green if people don't know how to position. On second phase if at least one orange guy dies then at least ONE green guy will die too, and god forbid if earthshaker target don't know where to run to, and if someone fell off then that's final.
Nidhogg - multiple dps check during the fight (adds, fang and claw), with some deadly mechanics during them too.

Sophia? Sophia has almost no mechanics that required co-operation except for the Sin&Punishment positions, and NO insta party wipe AT ALL. If someone died you can just revive them, over and over. DPS check is also very lenient (group with decent DPS can clear her in 8-9 minutes, enrage timer is 11 WHOLE MINUTES). Cintamani can be dealt with just Medica 2 + Medica (Or any 2 aoe heals, for that matter). Tank buster that can be survived in DPS stance (Holmgang, at least 2 times, Sentinel + Sheltron etc.)