Criterion Dungeon Guide for Gladiator of Sil'dih
Welcome to our guide to Criterion Dungeons in Final Fantasy XIV. This page in particular outlines the mechanics for the boss encounter, Gladiator of Sil'dih on both Normal and Savage modes.
Boss Encounter: Gladiator of Sil'dih
The second boss you will face is the Gladiator of Sil'dih. You have likely faced this boss before in the Varient Dungeon prior to unlocking Criterion. Let's dive into the mechanics.
The boss starts off by using Flash of Steel, a heavy hitting raid-wide, followed by Spectre of Might twice.
Spectre of Might
Two adds spawn on the North-West and North-East corner. Pay close attention to them. Over the course of a short duration, they will pulse with a flash of light.
Count these flashes for each, then look at the ground. Each add will dash to a line on the floor depending on the amount of flashes they had. One flash is the first line from them, two flashes is the second line, and three flashes is the third line.
After they dash to the line, they will do a 180 degree wide cleave in-front of them, followed by a delayed 180 degree cone behind them. Since both adds are doing this, you will only have a 90 degree wide safe-spot behind the furthest add. Stand here, wait for the cleave and walk to the other side of the add. This mechanic is repeated afterwards, except the adds start South-East and South-West now.
The Gladiator then casts Sculptor's Passion, a simple line soak on a random player. Gladiator follows this up with Might Smite, a tank buster which cleaves around the tank. Be sure to spread away from the tank. This leads us into the next full mechanic, Curse of the Fallen.
Curse of the Fallen
Everyone will be given a debuff that looks like a small purple ball. Two people will be given special debuffs. One thats a large blue ball, and one thats a red cross.
The small purple ball will explode in a small AoE underneath all players. Be spread out when this debuff expires. The large blue ball will place a pulsating AoE underneath the affected player once it expires. Steer clear of other players as this goes off and move out of the AoE as soon as possible. The red cross is a stack marker. Stack up with the two players who had no special debuff to share the damage.
As this happens, the boss will cast Ring of Might. He will start pulsing like the adds from Spectre of Might. At the end of the cast, he will do an AoE underneath him. The size corresponds to the amount of pulse he had. One pulse means the AoE reaches to the first circle on the ground, two pulse means the AoE reaches to the second circle on the ground, three pulses means the AoE reaches to the third circle on the ground.
Once this AoE goes off, the boss will do a donut AoE around them who's safespot is the same size as the previous AoE. Simply walk into the first AoE as it goes off.
Now to resolve the debuffs:
- Have the person with the large blue ball debuff go North to resolve their debuffs.
- The rest of the party goes South. Take notice if the spread debuff or the stack debuff expires first.
- If it's stack first, stack up and spread out as you walk into the donut AoE safe-spot.
- If it's spread first, loosely spread out along the counted circle and stack up as you run into the donut AoE safespot.
The boss will continue and cast another Flash of Steel raid-wide. They will then go into their next mechanic, Hateful Visage.
Hateful and Accursed Visage
Eight pots spawn inside the arena. After the boss casts Wrath of Ruin, they will start charging up a laser each, four gold and four silver.
For the first part of this mechanic, have the melee go North-West, the tank North-East, the healer South-West and the ranged South-East. Find the square where no lasers are being shot at in your quadrant and get ready to dodge a checkers style AoE at the same time.
While you dodge this, the boss casts Nothing Beside Remains, which at the end of the cast does a big AoE on all players. This is why it's important to be in your own quadrant, spread out.
Before continueing with the second part of this mechanic, the boss will use another Flash of Steel raid-wide AoE. The boss now casts Accursed Visage. Placing eight pots again but also giving each player two debuffs:
- One player gets two gold debuffs.
- One player gets two silver debuffs.
- Two players get one gold debuff and one silver debuff each.
If these debuffs aren't cleansed by the end of their duration, you will die. To cleanse them, simply get hit by a laser of the opposite colour. Gold needs to get hit by silver, and silver by gold. Find a spot anywhere in the arena where these two colours overlap and dodge your checkers pattern there. The boss will once again cast Nothing Beside Remains.
It is possible that the two players who have a single debuff of both colours end up on the same tile. This is no reason to panic though, simple spread out after the first checkers AoE goes off to not overlap your spread AoEs from the boss' cast.
The clip below showcases two players sharing a single tile safe-spot.
The boss will end the mechanic by casting another Flash of Steel raid-wide AoE.
Finally the boss casts Curse of the Monument. His last unique mechanic.
Curse of the Monument
Both supports and both DPS will be chained to each other. Stay stacked under the boss as the chain gets applied. As the cast ends, AoE puddles appear underneath the boss and in a circle pattern around the room. Dodge into the last AoE that appears and then move into the first or second as it goes off.
To break the chains, have the tank and melee dodge North and the healer and ranged dodge South. Rotate clockwise to compensate for any variations in the way the AoEs spawn.
As you run back into the boss you might notice you have two debuffs. One shows you a number, either one or two, and another shows you a large purple ball with a timer. The large purple ball explodes in a big AoE around you when it expires, the countdown of the debuff is different for players. Two players will have a shorter countdown and two players will have a longer countdown. The number debuff indicates which one you are.
At the same time, two soaking towers spawn on the boss' cardinals. Have the players with the 2 marker soak the first sets of towers while the players with the 1 marker move out all the way to the edge on the cardinals without towers to detonate their debuff. As the first towers are soaked and the first debuffs explode, two new towers spawn. Have the 2 marker players move out to the edge now and the 1 marker players move in to soak the towers.
The boss will now use another Flash of Steel raid-wide AoE. Lastly he will do another set of Spectre of Might, which works the exact same way as the first time we've seen it.
Changelog
- 26 Oct. 2022: Guide added.
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Juliacare has been playing FFXIV since Heavensward focusing solely on casters, until Shadowbringers when they decided to add physical ranged into their line up. Since then they have been aiding in theorycrafting for physical ranged and Summoner, becoming a Machinist Mentor in The Balance Discord and uploading video job guides to their Youtube Channel.
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