One shot mechanics in Normal Raids

[Frizze]

These raids still aren't even a week old, and even though I don't think I can explain that mechanic in very few words, it's still fun to try.

Let me try. "Stand where the birds are opposite your debuff, and the portals behind and to your side are different." I got it down to 18 words, and a fairly simple explanation.

OP: This is all you need to do. Check for opposite birds first to get in the right column, then check for opposite portals to get in the right row. "Opposite bird + opposite portals" also works as an explanation, though one that itself might need to be explained to some people. But it really is that easy.

[Gemina]

Let me try. "Stand where the birds are opposite your debuff, and the portals behind and to your side are different." I got it down to 18 words, and a fairly simple explanation.

Not to sound rude, but this doesn't help much. You basically just told a player how to handle the umbral/astral debuffs and that the portals to the back and sides function differently. Trying to dumb down the mechanic isn't doing a service to anyone, nor does it pay it the respect it deserves. It really is an interesting mechanic to toss into normal mode, and luckily as others have pointed out, there's no enrage otherwise this fight would be even more troublesome for casual players.

I've seen the mechanic explained in many different ways. All of which I am sure are valid, but what it is, is players figuring out their own way to position themselves properly during this phase. It's not difficult to explain the basics of the mechanics: pay attention to your debuff and get hit by the birds of the opposite color. The back portals are the receivers, and the birds will come out of the side portals. That's it. That is the mechanic. What makes the brain start spinning is the mechanic tricks you into thinking you have to pay attention to two things at once. The side of the brain that perceives and processes colors and the side that uses logic are different. People who don't actively practice this are going to have trouble with this mechanic until they allow themselves to split it up.

The best way for me to explain it to myself is first stand in the path of the birds opposite your debuff, and then shut off all thinking pertaining to this part. You're in the safe spot, now leave it be. The next is to pay attention to which portal the birds I am not getting hit by go into. This is the portal that is safe for me to stand in front of. Thinking about my debuff switching is actually what was giving me trouble, because it made me think about more than I needed to. The key for me was the part I italicized, but in order for me to grasp that, I first had to fully understand how the umbral/astral debuffs and how the portals worked.

[tdb]

Light/Dark will kill you instantly.

It really does not. It deals like 90% damage to a decently geared non-tank character if you stand in the wrong spot. So if you're already missing some health or your gear is not so good, you will die. But it's not a true one-shot.

[WK74648]

It really does not. It deals like 90% damage to a decently geared non-tank character if you stand in the wrong spot. So if you're already missing some health or your gear is not so good, you will die. But it's not a true one-shot.

I hear this alot but I have yet to see it happen in the groups i'm in. I watch MTQCaptures videos on this one again here. https://youtu.be/0LWBk7HH2dU

At 2:35 she starts explaining the mechanic. At one point in the video she says "To avoid death." Shortly after she says it, the 2nd wave of light and dark goes off. The monk gets hit at full HP (91k) and dies instantly. Again at 4:19 the mechanic I'm referring hits one of the tanks who has max health at 142k. Dies instantly. What am I missing here?

[tdb]

I hear this alot but I have yet to see it happen in the groups i'm in. I watch MTQCaptures videos on this one again here. https://youtu.be/0LWBk7HH2dU

At 2:35 she starts explaining the mechanic. At one point in the video she says "To avoid death." Shortly after she says it, the 2nd wave of light and dark goes off. The monk gets hit at full HP (91k) and dies instantly. Again at 4:19 the mechanic I'm referring hits one of the tanks who has max health at 142k. Dies instantly. What am I missing here?

I found another video where I could see some damage numbers and it does indeed seem to deal unsurvivable amounts of damage if you stand in the wrong color. I was maybe thinking of the damage amount of the mechanic where there's only white swarms. So fair enough, let's call it a one-shot.

Still, it allows plentiful time for you to maneuver yourself into position. I'll refer to the instructions Iscah gave on the first page:

Unless there are extra complexities I haven't noticed yet (having only cleared it tonight), figuring out where to stand for the portals + dark/light is a two-step process.

1. Portals appear - pick a square either side of the centre; it doesn't matter which for now. Make sure the portal behind you and to the side are different colours.

2. Dark/light beams appear - are you on the right side? If not, move diagonally to another square on the other side of the centre line.

The key element is to have different-coloured portals to your side and back.

I checked the timings from a youtube video, and you have 10 seconds to do step 1, then a further 8 seconds to do step 2. That's a total of 18 seconds from the beginning of the mechanic until it goes off. You don't even need to worry about your DPS on normal mode - you can stop doing anything else and take your time to position yourself correctly.

[Jei_Sumisu]

This isn't even a hard fight. I'm legit confused at what's difficult. Look at where the first sin eater goes. Stand on opposite portal. If it goes through red first, stand on blue and vise versa. If you're doing colored part, then all you need to do is see where umbral/astral is going to go by seeing where your designated sin eater is going. Wherever it goes, you stand on opposite. It's very straightforward.

[StriderShinryu]

Not really sure what happened if someone was getting one shot there. I just did the fight on SAM and was hit while cleanly surviving. Maybe if you get hit by multiple streams in a short time frame or something (but then that's not a one shot either *shrug*).

Either way, I loved the fight and actually look forward to doing it again, unlike Ramuh and Ifruda. It's the sort of fight that feels like you're just scraping by right now but will end up feeling absolutely masterful once you know it. Just a super solid and fun fight that I found to be one of the best I've come across in the game in a very long time. Totally hit that "harder than a Normal trial but easier than Savage" difficulty level (for scrubs like me at least).

[Gemina]

From my experience, it's not a true one-shot mechanic, but it definitely hurts. I think if peeps are at max HP and taking a one hit KO, they likely got healed to full after getting a vuln^ stack. I can't recall if I've seen tanks getting one shotted by it. Doubtful since I think the attack hits for around 70k. Peeps just get confused about which portal is safe to stand in front of. Especially when everything is stacked and you also have to worry about the umbral/astral switch, which seem to be what gets most players.

[SnowVix]

It was killing our tanks in one hit so I'm not sure how you were surviving it.


As for the thread... more challenge outside of savage/extreme is welcome by me. There isn't enough content that is between the difficulty of 24-man raids and Extremes.

Considering I took one on Samurai at a ~460 item level, and survived without Third Eye, I'm gonna say your tanks weren't on full health, or took two wrong hits during portals.