Hints and Tricks for Demon WallFollow

Another day perusing the Official FFXIV Forums? Another point lost on the "faith in humanity" score.

Gonna put my money where my mouth is and make some topics here, that I was planning to make there.

First up is a little guide to help on Demon Wall. Even though AK got nerfed generally as a dungeon, SE didn't seem to tone the wall down any. When trying to take a couple of our newer FC members through AK for their relic quests, we found ourselves struggling on ole' ugly much as we did back in the olden days. I'll cover this from two perspectives: The tank (WAR) and the healer (SCH). The only rule for DDs is to A: Know your damage rotation well. B: Dodge. and C: Unload everything you have on the boss for the whole fight.

I recommend you don't mess with Demon Wall unless you have at least lvl55 gear from WP and a lvl 55 weapon. Ifrit weapons are even better.

From a WARs perspective:

Even though you're the tank, you really need a DPS build for this fight. The best weapon you have available along with STR boosting HQ accessories. PLD will spend most of the fight in Sword Oath, and WARs should begin the fight with Defiance turned off. There's no hate to control from the boss himself anyway - his Murder Hole attack is always randomly targeted. Just make sure you dodge the floor AOEs.

Damage Rotation! A WARs DPS rotations are a little bit different than the norm, but not by much. What I use is this:

Heavy Swing > Maim > Storm's Eye. Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder > Butcher's Block > Brutal Swing > Fracture. Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder > Butcher's Block. Repeat from start.

Brutal Swing doesn't cause any stun effect to the Wall, but its off-the cooldown timer and contributes extra DPS. While the animation runs the GCD will expire and you can flip right into Fracture to keep some buffed DoT damage ticking. Naturally this all follows the Storm's Eye combo and it's debuff on the boss that increases your slashing damage. After the boss uses the FIRST Repel, you should pop Berserk and repeat the combo sequence until the second Repel begins to charge.

As the second Repel starts charging, its time to switch to tank mode. Activate Defiance and blow your cooldown for Infuriate. As soon as the Repel knockback is over, get up in between the boss and your healer. Here come those damnable Gnat adds. Your Pacification from Berserk should be over, so as soon as the Gnats are within range (on their way to the healer no doubt, the bastards!), launch Steel Cyclone to grab the pair. What you do next is dictated by the type of DDs you have in the party. If all are ranged, you're going to run up right under the boss and start popping defensive cooldowns while the others stay out of the Gnat's AOE range.

If the party has a melee, you're going to pull to the rear where the purple goop is. Run into the goo so the Gnats follow you, then run back through them and spin them around, so you're in the very corner of the safe floor and the Gnats are in the goop, as far from the party as possible. In either case, rotate through your defense abilities (Foresight, Convalescence, etc) while dodging the floor AOE. And SPAM both Inner Beast and Brutal Swing on the Gnats as much as you can. They are stunnable, and this will save you a ton of damage. You should get the Storm's Path combo up on both of them to further reduce the beating you'll be taking. The healer should be going into Overdrive mode at this point with AOE Regens (Whispering Dawn / MedicaII) and using their biggest cures on you while you keep the Gnats occupied. If you're about to be taken out, burn your Holmgang skill for 6 seconds of immortality and hope either Lustrates or Benediction are on the way.

If your DDs are doing their jobs, one of them will blow the Limit Break on the boss either right before or right after the third Repel, and the fight will be won.




Edited, Feb 1st 2014 11:18am by DarkswordDX

From a SCH's perspective:

You'll be playing a very strong DD role for the first two thirds of this fight. Cleric Stance is an absolute must. Demon Wall, especially for newer people, is a massive damage race in which even the healer has to participate.

Begin the fight as normal with your standard buffs. Protect/Stonestin/Succor. Turn on Cleric Stance as the tank makes his pull and start the standard Arcanist DoT rotation, mixing in AOE heals and dodging the floor AOE. My first few seconds look like this:

Swiftcast Shadowflare > Bio II > Miasma (dodge) > Bio > Aero (dodge) > Succor > Ruin II > Dodge > Ruin > Ruin II > Energy Drain (dodge) - (REPEL INCOMING!) > Succor > (REPEL!) > Succor > Energy Drain > Energy Drain > Aetherflow.

After you've recovered some MP and topped everyone off, reapply the DoTs and get ready for the ugly. As the second Repel charges, you have time for a Ruin > Ruin II > Energy Drain combo, and then TURN OFF CLERIC STANCE! Hit Rouse on Eos after Cleric Stance is down. REPEL!

As you're running back up from the knockback, you want to do two things. First is to hit your button for Fey Illumination and then Whispering Dawn. This will get the party recovering and has a pleasant side effect of drawing the Gnat's initial aggro to Eos instead of to you. Secondly you want to make use of your Fey buffed heals. Swiftcast Succor and then cast it again immediately. The party should now be at full HP, the Gnats tried to head for Eos when the tank snapped them up, and you're back to dodging the floor AOEs. Make sure to keep yourself away from the tank, but keep him locked as your main target. Hit him with Eye for an Eye and spam Adlo > Physick > Adlo > Physick on him as he takes his government-mandated butt-whoopin', and pop off a Succor for the rest of the party any chance you get. It can be beneficial to put Eos on Sic now instead of the usual Obey+Steady so she will keep blowing Whispering Dawn on cooldown. You need all the help you can get and you're going to run through MP like dragon diamonds through a tin horn.

By the end of most of my fights with weaker parties I'm dancing a jig of Dodge > Succor > Dodge > Lustrate the tank > Dodge > Energy Drain > (Pray my MP holds out). Your mileage may vary, as no two healers play exactly alike.

I watched lots of videos and I got repelled my first time on the Demon Wall...then my second time...needless to say it was embarrassing.

I only have two strategies: do the fight as much as you can, and have a plan for the bees. You can generally tell how your DPS is going to be as you're running through the dungeon.

If DPS is low, LB a bee and then focus on the other, then the wall. If its high, the wall should be close to dead and a LB will finish it off.

As a MNK I use my "side rotation" exclusively (to keep the DMG buffs up,) and I'll throw a couple of buffed DoTs in there as well. I also try to "straddle" the void zones so that way I'm not running around too much just strafing a bit.

For repel I'm just facing the wall as straight as possible, then in shoulder tackle back to the wall and do it all over again.

Its a fun fight and for the most part, people are geared well enough now that it (personally) doesn't seem to be an issue anymore.

It depends on the strength of the tanks and the quickness of the DPS as to whether I can DPS too much. But Aero is a great instant spell and on a DPS check fight like this, every tick counts.

I also have cross classed Virus and I make sure to use it at the start before the floor starts turning disco, since the DPS can focus on the wall at that point.

Edited, Feb 2nd 2014 12:42am by Catwho

Every time I have run it which aint much the dps have no issue on the wall.. My fist run I dc'ed right in the middle of the fight. Logged back in they were past the wall and still going, they never even knew I dropped.

One thing about whm doing damage in high level dungeons is you better make sure you dont pull hate, you do you can wipe the party. Also it is easy to miss a heal or get behind when doing damage, another thing you dont want to do... You can also run out of mp. There are times you may need to do damage as a whm but be careful..

Edited, Feb 3rd 2014 9:45am by Nashred

When the repel is coming, always face as forward as possible. The knockback will occur opposite the direction you are facing, not relative to the boss. Face to the right? You are going off the left side.

Tank should hold the bees on the left side, dps and healer shoudl stick on the right side to avoid the aoe.

Also, I'm still just a 40 warrior, but having played it as a paladin and a blm and smn, and knowing enough about warrior to know it is awesomly OP, I can see that starting and staying in defiance mode would be beneficial because you can (Heavy Swing > Maim > Storm's Path) x5, then pop Berserk and use Inner Beast on it for massive DPS. Then, when bees spawn, use Foresight (for 20% def), Bloodbath (for 25% dmg coversion to HP) then Steel Cyclone to grab the bees to the left, then position yourself and Overpower the suckers into oblivion (you can hit both bees and the tank here if you position carefully), while popping a cross classed Second Wind and Thrill of Battle for a hp boost. You will get a lot of hp back from doing this and offset the damage you take, making the healer's job easier.

If you are in defiance mode, you dont need the Skull Sunder > Butcher's Block > Brutal Swing rotation because those only serve to get you emnity (the Maim combo will do a lot more damage in Definace mode), and as you said "There's no hate to control from the boss himself anyway".

Just my observations, and since I haven't played the battle as warrior, I could be way off. That is just how I envision my strategy.