Weapon's Refrain Ultimate: Ifrit Guide

Ifrit is the second Primal you will face in this encounter and this fight can be split into two phases. The first phase consists of mechanics dealing with Infernal Nails, spikes summoned by Ifrit used to give him Woken status. The second phase requires dealing with Woken mechanics and dash mechanics.

• Radiant Plume: Large red circles will appear in the arena, in different configurations, which will then explode in a pillar of flames after four seconds. Standing on these circles when they explode will result in lethal magic damage.
• Crimson Cyclone: Ifrit will jump outside the arena and will begin to charge up for three seconds. Afterwards, he will dash across the arena in a straight line, dealing lethal magic damage to all players hit. When Woken, this charge leaves behind an afterburn in the shape of a cross 45 degrees off from the Woken charge dealing lethal magic damage to all players hit.
• Hellfire: Raid buster dealing massive magical damage to all players.
• Vulcan Burst: AoE covering a large radius around Ifrit dealing small magical damage (approximately 5-5.5k damage) but a very large knockback. When shielded so that the attack does 0 damage the knockback does not apply. In order to consistently shield Vulcan Burst, make sure to pair up an AoE shielding ability with at least one healing or mitigation cooldown. Arm's Length and Surecast can also be used to prevent the knockback.
• Incinerate: Tankbuster dealing heavy fire-aspected darkness damage to its target, and inflicting a Fire Resistance Down II debuff.
• Infernal Fetters: A random DPS and the player second in enmity (usually a tank) will be tethered together, both being applied with an Infernal Fetters debuff, reducing damage done and inflicting a menial DoT. Moving far from each other will increase its stacks. The more stacks inflicted, the more severe the damage down and dot applied.
• Inferno Howl: Ifrit turns around and faces a healer and inflicts Searing Wind on them for 18 seconds. Healers with this debuff will periodically explode with an AoE similar to Vulcan Burst, but dealing significantly more damage. Searing Wind will still explode even if the player who has the buff is incapacitated. When  Woken, Searing Wind has a 30 second duration.
• Eruption: Red markers appear under players which will explode after 2.5s dealing lethal magical damage. These are baited by the furthest two players from Ifrit.
• Flaming Crush: Ifrit will target a random DPS with a red triangle marker over their head. Ifrit will then aim a fireball at that person and hit them with a split AoE that must be shared. When Woken, Flaming Crush inflicts Accursed Flame, a heavy DoT, on all players hit, with the duration of the DoT decreasing the more players hit. A six-player stack will result in only a three second duration, but a player taking it alone will have a duration greater than a minute. This DoT persists through death, so damage will continue even after a battle raise. On six people, the fireball will notdo any extra damage from the DoT.

For the entirety of the phase, please reference this Toolbox for a detailed view of how each mechanic is handled.

After Garuda is defeated, Ifrit will appear at random cardinal, and begin charging across the arena via Crimson Cyclone. At the same time, the entirety of the arena will be covered in Radiant Plumes, leaving only one of two possible safe spots at the perpendicular cardinals of the arena, as shown in the following diagram. Stack in the middle of the arena, look for the safe spot as soon as the plumes appear, and sprint to it. 

Only one of the two marked spots in the diagram will be safe. Make sure where you are running is safe before you sprint there, as if you double back you will likely die to Radiant Plumes.

Ifrit will land and begin casting Hellfire, following up immediately with a Vulcan Burst. Make sure this is shielded to avoid being knocked into the wall. Ifrit does not share an enmity table with Garuda so your tanks need to grab enmity as soon as possible. Ifrit will then follow up with three Incinerates which can either all be taken by a single tank with invulnerability CDs, or a tank swap in between each cleave (i.e. tank A gets hit by first cleave, tank B provokes and gets hit by the second, and tank A provokes back and gets hit by the third). After a short pause, Ifrit will then summon four Infernal Nails.

While the positions of Infernal Nails is random, they will always spawn in the same formation of two close nails and two far nails, as shown in the following diagram. When an Infernal Nail is destroyed it will explode for raid wide damage in the form of Infernal Surge, dealing moderate magic damage and inflicting a 1s stacking Vulnerability Up, preventing players from destroying multiple at the same time. When an Eruption puddle hits a nail the nail will grow in size gaining a stacking Vulnerability Down (~10% damage down per stack) and Damage Up buff. When a nail with two of these stacking buffs explode, not only will the Infernal Surge result in doing more damage, but Ifrit will also gain a stack of Aetherically Charged. In order to give Ifrit the Woken status all four nails must be destroyed when they have been hit with two Eruptions, thus having two stacks of Damage up and Vulnerability Down. The order that Infernal Nails are destroyed will determine the order of Ifrit's Crimson Cyclone charges in a later phase (i.e. the first Crimson Cyclone comes from the same location as the first nail that was killed).

Keep in mind nails will not always be in this exact position so you may have to rotate in order to make your position match this diagram.

Drag Ifrit in-between the closer nails as shown in the diagram. Very shortly after summoning nails Ifrit will target a random healer with Infernal Howl. Have this healer run to the back of the room, as close to the wall opposite Ifrit as possible. Ifrit will then use Infernal Tethers, tethering the off-tank and a random DPS together, and begin casting Eruptions on the two furthest players from Ifrit. Make sure that at least two Eruptions hit every nail, in order to successfully wake Ifrit. Bait Eruptions like shown below:

Not 100% to scale, but make sure that your first two eruptions hit the first nail on your side, and the last two eruptions hit the second nail on your side. Also on this diagram is the recommended kill order for nails. To be safe, it is possible for the last eruption baits being placed near the middle to hit both nails, just in case one side misses their nail.

Kill the nails in the order shown above (it would look like a Z) in order for Crimson Cyclones to be easily dodged later in the phase. Make sure you remember the location of the last nail you killed, as this will be where you begin the second set of Crimson Cyclones.

When all Infernal Nails are defeated, Ifrit will jump to the center of the arena and use another Hellfire, followed by using Infernal Howl on a random healer and placing baited Eruptions under two players. As Ifrit is Woken, the Searing Wind debuff will have a longer duration, so be wary.

After Eruptions resolve, Ifrit clones will dash along the arena through the cardinals. In order to deal with this have your current tank pull Ifrit toward the north-east edge of the arena as soon as Hellfire resolves. Have two pre-assigned (preferably ranged) players stand near the back of the arena, ready to bait Eruptions along the wall toward the intercardinal edge of the arena, clockwise of the party. The goal is for these players to end in the same place as the party, already in a safe spot to dodge eruptions. Your healer with Searing Wind should move towards the intercardinal edge of the arena, counter-clockwise of the party, as soon as possible. This movement should mimic Toolbox slides #16 - #19.

Your Eruptions should be baited at a cardinal ~135 degrees clockwise from the party stack point. Bait all four Eruptions along the wall before stacking. At the same time, make sure your Searing Wind Healer moves into position.

Have your Eruption baits stack with the rest of the party, Ifrit doesn't cleave here, so make sure to stack standing in front of him.

As soon as this movement is over, Ifrit will use Infernal Howl once more on the other healer. For a short while, you will have two Searing Winds in the arena, so be wary. I would recommend having this healer move to one of the two free intercardinals. While both Searing Winds are out, Ifrit will mark a random DPS with Flaming Crush. Make sure everyone (aside from the healers) is stacked for this fireball. A targeted Deployment Tactics Adloquium or Cure III works wonders. One of your Searing Winds should wear off here.

Immediately after Flaming Crush Ifrit will jump and spawn 3 other clones of himself along the arena in a formation identical to the nails earlier in this phase. One of these charges will be a Woken Ifrit with a blue aura. This Ifrit will leave behind an afterburn 3 seconds after he charges. If the Woken Ifrit charges from cardinal to cardinal, the Afterburner will consist of 2 line AoEs that hit across the intercardinals. If the Woken Ifrit charges from intercardinal to intercardinal the Afterburner will hit across the cardinals. The goal is essentially to dodge charges in a way where you end up in either a cardinal or intercardinal point depending on where the Woken Ifrit is.

The group should start at the position of the fourth Crimson Cyclone, except for your Searing Wind healer, who should be opposite this location. If the Infernal Nails were killed in the Z order shown previously, the charges will essentially be dodged if you just run into where charges resolve, in a counter-clockwise direction. If either the first or third Ifrit is the Woken one, you will dodge into the second Ifrit's dash, essentially rotating 90 degrees counterclockwise. If either the second or fourth Ifrit is the Woken one you will stop between those, essentially rotating 45 degrees counter-clockwise. Your Searing Wind healer will be doing the same dodge, albeit from the opposite location of the party, standing opposite the fourth Crimson Cyclone.

Safe spots are interchangable. The Woken ifrit appears at a random position, so be wary of it. You will start on and opposite the 4th ifrit no matter which Ifrit is woken.

If Ifrit 1 or 3 (intercardinal Ifrit, assuming 4 is north) are woken, dodge only one intercardinal counter-clockwise, as shown here, and stop.

If dodged correctly, you will automatically dodge the second, third and fourth charge, and the afterburn.

If Ifrit 2 or 4 (cardinal Ifrit, assuming 4 is north) are woken, dodge two intercardinals counter-clockwise, as shown here, and stop.

If dodged correctly, you will automatically dodge the third and fourth charge, and the afterburn.

Ifrit will then land in the middle of the arena and begin using three Incinerates on the tank. Deal with these the same way as earlier in the phase. Shortly after the tankbusters, Eruption will begin targeting the furthest two people exactly like previously. Ifrit will then use another Flaming Crush (all 8 players can stack for this one), enraging soon after. At 2:45, after Ifrit is engaged, he will become untargetable and use a lethal Hellfire, serving as an enrage.

After defeating Ifrit when he is Woken, a light puddle will appear where he is defeated. Make sure to wait before picking up this puddle, as Titan will land on the ground with Geocrush very shortly after Ifrit is defeated, likely killing any player that is not right at the wall. Make sure your pre-assigned healer, caster, or melee picks up this puddle after Geocrush resolves.