The Dancing Plague (Extreme)

This article is about the level 80 challenge-mode trial. For the story-mode Main Scenario trial, see The Dancing Plague.

The Dancing Plague (Extreme)

Level

80 (Sync: 80)

Item Level

430

Difficulty

Extreme

Party size

Full Party
8 man • 2 2 4

Unsyncing

Allowed

Time limit

60 minutes

Duty Finder

High-end Trials (Shadowbringers)

Roulette

Mentor

Tomestones

 15 

Req. quest

Minstrel from Another Mother

Entrance

Il Mheg (X:18.6, Y:16.1, Z:1.1)

Location

The Dancing Plague

Region

Norvrandt

Stone, Sky, Sea

Available

Patch

5.0

The Echo

On wipe: +5% (max +25%)

“

Since the great sundering of the Source, life on the resulting shards was free to grow and evolve independent of outside influence. And yet, perhaps as an indication of a greater plan or a higher purpose, a series of coincidences occurred over the long years and centuries and millennia, resulting in the birth of certain individuals with no particular relation who are nevertheless eerily similar in every respect.

Indeed, the minstreling wanderer has as powerful and vivid an imagination as any soul of the Source, and after listening attentively to your tale of Titania, he has composed a ballad that would move a man with a heart of stone to weep bitterly, and a Warrior of Darkness to walk in her/his memories of a terrible trial, albeit one somewhat enhanced and embellished. As is a minstrel's wont.

— In-game description

The Dancing Plague (Extreme) is a level 80 trial introduced in patch 5.0 with Shadowbringers.

Overview

Video guide by MTQcapture

Lightwarden: Titania

The battle itself consists of 4 phases, each incorporating various different mechanics and overlapped combos. Should your team fail to kill Titania within a set amount of time, Titania will eventually wipe the raid via an unavoidable Bright Sabbath.

Phases & Abilities

Like many trials, Titania EX will first introduce various mechanics that will overlap with others later during the battle. Below is a list of their common abilities, followed by a list of how they happen per phase (in order).

• Bright Sabbath - an unavoidable AoE (used at the very beginning of every pull) which will require group-wide healing.

• Phantom Rune - Titania will ask: "Can you guess which one?", indicating one of two possible mechanics that will spawn at Titania's hitbox. One possible mechanic is a large circular AoE (which players must run away from), while the other is a donut AoE (requiring players to stand within their hitbox). On hearing (or seeing) the above quote, players should pay attention to Titania's casting animation. If they spreads their wings, this indicates the circle-AoE, prompting players to run away as soon as possible. However, if their staff begins spinning around them in a circle motion, players should move close to Titania and be ready to stand within the donut-AoE safe-spot.

NOTE: During Phase 1, Titania will cast Phantom Rune in a particular order (circle, then donut), whereas later phases will involve Titania using them randomly.

• Divination Rune - a vicious conal tank-buster that will be aimed at their primary target and blast across the arena. Tanks should make an effort to turn Titania away from the group while this is being cast. If this isn't possible for any reason, non-tanks should always avoid being directly in front of them whenever possible.

• Chain of Brambles - tethers tanks and healers to random damage-dealers, forcing them to snap the tether by stretching it as far as possible (similar to the tether encountered in The Vault dungeon). This mechanic will be used numerous times throughout the encounter, usually during (or before) specific combos. As a result, the group should pre-plan positions for individual players to run to (such as tanks and healers going North whilst damage-dealers run South).

These mechanics (and various others) will overlap at different intervals throughout the encounter.

Phase 1

Titania will begin the encounter by casting Bright Sabbath (unavoidable AoE damage) followed by Phantom Rune, forcing players to move out of a circle AoE. The second Phantom Rune (later in Phase 1) will involve the donut AoE. All Phantom Runes used after the first phase will then be entirely random.

• Mist Rune will be cast shortly after the above mechanics, forming 8 puddles around the arena (cardinally and diagonally). Due to being an 8-man encounter, it is wise to pre-plan positions for each party member before the battle so that everyone is assigned a specific puddle, preferably with a tank & healer on opposite sides. Players must move to their assigned puddle and stand within it until the animation has complete, as failure to do so will spawn a Spirit of Dew (add) and leave one less puddle for the next mechanic, Flame Rune. Assuming a player has stood within a puddle as the animation has completed, the puddle will remain in the battlefield, providing anyone who stands within it Fire Resistance Up.

• Flame Rune is cast immediately after Mist Rune, summoning an unattackable Spirit of Flame which will target each Healer with a stack-marker. All players hit by the resulting mechanic will suffer Fire Resistance Down II and should split evenly between both marks, as double-stacking two markers will result in typically fatal damage thanks to debuff. It is wise to split the group into 2x4 players and stand within the West & East puddles.

After dealing with Flame Rune, Titania will unleash a Divination Rune on the main-tank, followed closely by Chain of Brambles. Assuming the party successfully deals with them, the battle will transition to phase 2 via Midsummer Night's Dream.

Phase 2

After teleporting the group to a pleasant forest-themed arena, a new wave of mechanical introductions begins.

• Thunder Rune will create a tether between Titania and a non-tank player, selecting them as the target for repeated AoE blasts which will inflict Lightning Resistance Down II with each hit. Due to repeated resistance-down, taking more than one blast is typically fatal. The group must decide between passing to tether to a new player with each blast (until each individual player has taken a hit), or assigning a tank with an invulnerability cooldown (such as Hallowed Ground, Superbolide, or Holmgang) to absorb 2-3 blasts before swapping it to others players (or another immunity-tank). Due to the slight AoE component, swapping the tether should be done as quick as possible so that the last victim has time to run far enough away before they take a second hit. As a result, the tethered player should move away from the group and stand still, allowing the next player to run to the tether and pick it up as soon as the tethered player has been blasted.

• Fae Light is a triple-cast conal tank buster in quick succession. As a result, tanks may opt to keep their invulnerability cooldowns to absorb Fae Light instead of Thunder Rune. Alternatively, tanks can swap in between casts to share the overall damage. Unlike Divination Rune, Fae Light is a much smaller cone that will not travel across the arena.

• Growth Rune will mark two (usually random) corners of the arena with a multi-directional star-AoE telegraph. After a brief delay, rapidly growing brambles will sprout from the target location and grow in cardinal and diagonal directions, binding any victims caught in their path for their duration and inflicting a nasty damage-over-time. Due to the pattern, Growth Rune will always leave small triangular safe-spots around the arena that players must stand in to avoid being bound or afflicted.

• Chain of Brambles will also be cast at the same time as Growth Rune, forcing players to stretch their tether and break it before the arena is covered in brambles.

• Divination Rune is cast after the above mechanical combo. While no different to previous casts, it will be used after players have attempted to break their tethers and move to the small safe-spots generated by Growth Rune. As a result, the tank must be wary if they are attempting to reposition Titania, as the following Divination Rune will potentially cleave the entire group.

• Frost Rune, much like the Shiva trial, will spawn large, white, outlined circles around the entire arena (starting with a circle in the arena centre). Afterwards, circles will spawn in a clockwise or counter-clockwise motion around the arena-edges and later explode in the order they have spawned in. By standing in the circles that spawned late (or last), players can then move towards the centre once the earlier circles have exploded. All players who fail to avoid this mechanic will be smashed by moderate frost-damage.

• Uplift will drop circular AoE markers on all participants, forcing them to spread around the arena to avoid blasting fellow team-mates with the resulting AoE damage.

• Phantom Rune is the last mechanic of the phase. As mentioned before, this mechanic will create either a circular AoE at Titania that players must retreat from or a donut AoE that players must run into.

Phase 3

Having survived the random Phantom Rune, Titania will become invulnerable and summon three tree-like mini-bosses (Mustardseed, Puck and Peaseblossom), each with their own individual mechanics. Both Puck and Peaseblossom need to be grabbed by an individual tank as soon as they spawn, and all three will be re-summoned into larger and far more powerful versions after they have initially been slain. Throughout the entire add phase, Titania will be charging their power (as indicated by a duty-bar). Should their power reach 100 at any point, the entire raid will be wiped by Being Mortal.

• Puck is capable of Gentle Breeze (line-AoE attack), Pummel (physical tank-buster that applies Blunt Resistance Down), Puck's Breath (a stack marker focused on a random non-tank member of the group), Puck's Caprice (raid-wide AoE), and Puck's Rebuke (a mechanic that will eventually divide the arena into two safe-spots while a large AoE in the arena centre knock players backward. Players must stand as close to the circle as possible, but not within it, as this will result in instant death as soon as it is cast).

• Peaseblossom is capable of Peasebomb (AoE markers over four non-tank members of the group that require spreading out) and Hard Swing (a physical tank-buster).

• Mustardseed is capable of Leafstorm (a conal AoE targetted at random players which contains lined safe-spots within) and Whispering Wind (an enrage mechanic capable of wiping the raid).

Tanks should pick up Puck and Peaseblossom as soon as possible while the Healers and Damage-Dealers slay Mustardseed with all haste, as failure to do so will cause a raid-wipe via Whispering Wind. If successful, Titania will re-summon all three adds in giant form at three sides of the arena (and should be tanked + killed in the exact same order as before).

This time, however, mini-boss mechanics will become larger, more damaging, and more chaotic.

The most noteworthy aspect of this phase is Puck's Rebuke, as this will spawn a circular telegraph in the centre of the arena that will knock players towards (or even over) the edge of the arena, and even kill players outright if they stand within the circular telegraph. Additionally, vines will spawn in two opposite corners of the arena and blast line-AoEs across the arena edges. On top of that, players will also have to deal with Chain of Brambles.

Due to the knockback component of Puck's Rebuke and the risk of falling out of the arena, players must quickly position themselves so that they are knocked away from their tethered partner to break the tether (without being knocked into the vine AoEs), preferably in a similar fashion to how they do it normally (DPS south, Healers & Tanks north). Trying to break the tethers manually will often result in players too far from the circle-telegraph being punted out of the arena and plummeting to their immediate death, or being annihilated by the corner-spawned vines.

Assuming the team successfully slay all three re-summoned adds before Titania reaches 100 power, the final phase begins after raid-wide damage relative to Titania's power-bar.

Phase 4

The final phase involves various mechanical combos that players will now be very familiar with. Bear in mind that players must still kill Titania before they enrage, as this will result in a final Bright Sabbath that will destroy the entire group and reset the battle.

Mechanics and combos (in order) include:

• Mist Rune & Phantom Rune.
• Flame Rune & Growth Rune.
• Phantom Rune (Random).
• Bright Sabbath.
• Fae Light.
• Frost Rune.
• Uplift.
• Bright Sabbath.
• Thunder Rune.
• Growth Rune & Chain of Brambles
• Phantom Rune (Random).
• Bright Sabbath.
• Divination Rune.
• Bright Sabbath (Enrage).

Unsynced Farming Guide

This strategy aims to skip the later half of the fight, defeating Titania before the conclusion of Phase 2. The phase guides above are still relevant for properly mitigating mechanics.

1. Tank should begin by running straight through her center, grab aggro, then keep Titania in the center of the room, facing North.
2. Party's goal during Phase 1 should reduce Titania's health to no less than 25-20%. Once it reaches this point, hold or slow all party DPS to prevent the third phase from triggering.
   1. BEFORE Water Rune begins, avoid reducing her health below 40%. Most parties won't have this issue.
   2. At 25% it's still okay to keep using auto-attack while waiting for Phase 2 to begin.
   3. At 20%, completely HALT all DPS.
   4. This will avoid triggering Phase 3 entirely, during which Titania cannot be killed.
3. When Water Rune begins:
   1. Let Tank and Melee classes have priority on the inner puddles.
   2. Ranged DPS should prioritize the outer puddles.
   3. Remember that you must have one person on each puddle to avoid the spawn of ads.
4. Preparing for Fire Rune:
   1. Party should split into two stacks, each with a minimum of two people.
   2. Stacks should OPPOSE each other within the four puddles; if one stack chooses EAST, the other should take WEST. if one takes NORTH, the other should take SOUTH, etcetera.
5. When Titania begins changing the scene into Phase 2, everyone should get ready to move. People will begin to die rapidly if this is done incorrectly.
   1. Tank should prioritize getting the tether to target them and then immediately drawing it away from the other party members to avoid collateral damage.
   2. Healer should prioritize keeping the Tank alive. Wait for the voice line cue "This should tingle a bit" before resuming DPS to finish off the fight.
   3. DPS can focus damage to finish off the fight as soon as the voice line fires.

Additional notes about the Tether:

• If the Tether targets a non-tank, the targeted player should stack with the Tank until the Tether focuses on them instead.
• Marking the Tank ahead of time can be a helpful time-saver.
• It can be helpful to have the Tank stay put while the targeted player comes to them.
• Having the Tank jump up and down has been observed to make successful transfer of the Tether more likely.

Loot

See also: Titania Weapons

• Each player will receive 1   King Totem per kill. Collect 10 totems to exchange for a weapon or 99 for a   Fae Gwiber Trumpet at Fathard in Eulmore (X:10.3 Y:11.8).
•  15 Allagan Tomestone of Poetics
•   Titania Card (Drops at a fixed rate.)

Treasure Coffer

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
The King's Paladin Arms (IL 450)	Other	N/A	CBlue	1
The King's Axe	Marauder's Arm	450	CBlue	1
The King's Guillotine	Dark Knight's Arm	450	CBlue	1
The King's Manatrigger	Gunbreaker's Arm	450	CBlue	1
The King's Spear	Lancer's Arm	450	CBlue	1
The King's Claws	Pugilist's Arm	450	CBlue	1
The King's Katana	Samurai's Arm	450	CBlue	1
The King's Cleavers	Rogue's Arm	450	CBlue	1
The King's Longbow	Archer's Arm	450	CBlue	1
The King's Handgonne	Machinist's Arm	450	CBlue	1
The King's Tathlums	Dancer's Arm	450	CBlue	1
The King's Rod	Two-handed Thaumaturge's Arm	450	CBlue	1
The King's Grimoire	Arcanist's Grimoire	450	CBlue	1
The King's Rapier	Red Mage's Arm	450	CBlue	1
The King's Cane	Two-handed Conjurer's Arm	450	CBlue	1
The King's Codex	Scholar's Arm	450	CBlue	1
The King's Star Globe	Astrologian's Arm	450	CBlue	1
Dancing Wing	Material	N/A	ABasic	1
Titania Weapon Coffer (IL 450)	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Fae Gwiber Trumpet	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Faded Copy of What Angel Wakes Me	Orchestrion Roll	N/A	ABasic	1

Achievements

This duty is associated with the following achievements:

Name	Points	Task	Reward	Patch
Ill Met by Moonlight	10	Defeat Titania in the Dancing Plague (Extreme).	-	5.0
Mightier than the Monarch	5	Complete the Dancing Plague (Extreme) with a party of only blue mages, Silence Echo turned on, and Unrestricted Party turned off.	-	6.45

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