Dancing Mad (Ultimate) Phase 3 Guide

During this phase, Kefka summons the bosses from Deltascape V4.0 (Savage) Phase 1 and Alphascape V1.0 (Savage), Exdeath and Chaos respectively. Kefka himself will become untargetable, but still present and doing mechanics the players will need to resolve.

As soon as Exdeath and Chaos appear, both will cast The Decisive Battle, applying Epic Hero to the four players closest to Chaos, and Fated Hero to the four players closest to Exdeath. These debuffs prevent players from attacking the opposite boss. Due to some Melee uptime concerns during the phase, put both Melee DPS on Chaos, along with Tank 1 and Healer 1.

This is another complex mechanic. It is recommended to use a visual aid to understand what is happening. Please reference this Raidplan for a visual.

At the end of the cast, Chaos will apply several debuffs and spawn elemental crystals around the arena. There will be one red fire triangle, one blue water square, and one green wind diamond. Each player will get either Headwind or Tailwind . One Support and one DPS will get Entropy , and another Support and DPS will get Dynamic Fluid . Either both Entropy debuffs will have a 20s timer while the Dynamic Fluid debuffs have a 45s timer, or vice versa. Each debuff does the following:

• Tailwind : This debuff requires the player to get knocked back while facing the source of the knockback. Facing the wrong direction will result in the knockback being significantly stronger, sending the player off the arena. When cleansed, the green wind crystal will also target the nearest player with a two-person stack.
• Headwind : This debuff requires the player to get knocked back while facing away from the source of the knockback. Facing the wrong direction will result in the knockback being significantly stronger, sending the player off the arena. When cleansed, the green wind crystal will also target the nearest player with a two-person stack.
• Entropy : When the debuff expires, the player will explode with a point-blank AoE. The debuff expiring also causes the red fire crystal to target the closest two players with donut AoEs.
• Dynamic Fluid : When this debuff expires, the player will spawn a donut AoE around them. The debuff expiring also causes the blue water crystal to target the closet two players with point-blank AoEs.

Pay attention to where the elemental crystals spawned. They will always spawn on the intercardinal directions, with fire and water opposite each other, and wind between them opposite an empty section. Identify which debuff has a 45s timer, and which has a 20s timer. The Tank on Exdeath should drag Exdeath to the wall on top of the crystal of the same element as the long debuff. I.e. if Entropy has a 45s timer, the Exdeath Tank will pull him to the fire crystal. The Chaos Tank will move Chaos so that he is between the crystal of the same element as the short debuff and the wind crystal.

Exdeath will cast Thunder III, doing a large point-blank AoE around him. Epic Hero and Fated Hero will fall off when Exdeath starts casting Thunder III, allowing everyone to damage both bosses. At the same time, the 20s debuffs will resolve. Since Chaos is pulled between the water and wind crystals, positioning during this mechanic will be based on looking at Chaos. Supports will position to the left looking at Chaos, while DPS position to the right. In the example of the linked Raidplan, Entropy is the 45s timer, while Dynamic Fluid is the 20s timer.

The Dynamic Fluid debuffs will do a donut AoE around the players that had those debuffs. A moment later, the water crystal will target the two closest players with point-blank AoEs that will knock back anyone who is hit with it. Long debuff players will use this to cleanse their Tailwind or Headwind debuffs. This will cause the wind crystal to spawn two-player stacks, targeted on the two closest players. The players without Dynamic Fluid or Entropy will be responsible for soaking the wind stacks. Because of the way the debuffs spawn, this will be two Supports and two DPS. These players will position around the wind crystal with Supports left and DPS right looking at Chaos. One player from each duo needs to be closer to the crystal to bait it. Be careful that both players in the same duo are not too close or they will bait both stacks and die.

This time Exdeath will cast Thunder III, but it is a two-hit tankbuster, rather than a large point-blank AoE. The buster targets the player closest to Exdeath. Tanks should either use their invulnerability cooldown such as Superbolide, or be sure to mitigate and tank swap the hits. At this time, Chaos should be pulled to the middle of the room and faced to the north. Shortly after he will cast Latitudinal or Longitudinal Implosion. At the end of the cast, he will do two sets of opposite 90-degree cleaves. Latitudinal will cleave his sides first, then his front and back. Longitudinal will be the opposite, cleaving his front and back first, then his sides. Dodge along an intercardinal direction. Dynamic Fluid and Entropy players will want to dodge toward the long debuff elemental crystal, while the rest of the players will want to dodge toward the wind crystal.

A few seconds after the second cleave from Latitudinal/Longitudinal, the long timer debuffs will go off. Again position so that the Supports are left and the DPS right looking at Chaos. The two players who have the short debuff timers will use the long debuff crystal AoE to cleanse their Tailwind or Headwind debuffs. The remaining four players will again soak the wind duo stacks. In our example, the Entropy debuffs had a 45s timer. This means for the second set of debuffs, the Entropy players will explode with a point blank AoE. A moment later, the fire crystal will target the two closest players with a donut AoE. The two short debuff timer players will get hit by this donut.

This moment of the fight can be pretty hectic, as all of this happens at the same time. This part will be broken down individually by what is happening.

The Exdeath tank should now drag him on top of the wind crystal. Everyone except for the Physical Ranged DPS will stand between Exdeath and Chaos. Instead, the Physical Ranged DPS will run to the wall opposite the wind crystal to bait Chaos. Chaos will pick the farthest target from him and jump to them, landing with a proximity damage AoE. The Physical Ranged DPS is our target for this. As soon as he starts casting Umbra Smash, he has locked in his jump and the Physical Ranged DPS can rejoin the party.

At the same time, Exdeath starts casting Vacuum Wave, which will do a knockback from Exdeath at the end of the cast. Two supports and two DPS will still have a Tailwind or Headwind debuff. This knockback will resolve those debuffs, also triggering the wind crystal to do four two-player stacks. For this, split into role partners within each light party. Tank 1 with Healer 1, Tank 2 with Healer 2, Melee 1 with Ranged 1, and Melee 2 with Ranged 2. Each pair will fan out around Exdeath and the wind crystal. The players who still have Tailwind or Headwind debuffs need to make sure they are facing the correct direction. Players who have already resolved their debuff are free to use Arm's Length or Surecast, but make sure you back up to be with your partner. Make sure one person from each pair are the four closest players to the crystal.

While Exdeath and Chaos are resolving those mechanics, Kefka will begin telegraphing dashes around the room. The dashes will start from any cardinal or intercardinal direction, and then will rotate either clockwise or counterclockwise for each subsequent dash. The two important pieces of information from this are what direction did the first dash come from, and do the dashes rotate clockwise or counterclockwise. Shortly after, each player will be marked with a limit cut number one through eight. The goal will be to start opposite of the direction that Kefka's first telegraph is, and then rotate in the opposite direction that he dashes. In the example of the linked Raidplan, Kefka starts at east (B marker) and rotates counterclockwise. This means that the player marked 1 wants to start west (D marker). Since Kefka's dashes rotate counterclockwise, everyone will want to be clockwise of their respective cardinal or intercardinal a couple steps. Please refer to the Raidplan for a visual of this description.

Immediately following Kefka dashes, Exdeath will cast another Thunder III two-hit tankbuster that needs to be swapped and mitigated or have a Tank invulnerability cooldown used. Remember that the buster goes on the closest player, regardless of aggro.

Chaos and Exdeath will again cast The Decisive Battle, applying Epic Hero to the four players closest to Chaos, and Fated Hero to the four players closest to Exdeath. Split up into the same groups as before. Immediately after, Exdeath will cast yet another Thunder III tankbuster. If the previous two had invulnerability cooldowns used, this one will need to be swapped.

This mechanic is the second and final major mechanic of the phase. A visual of this mechanic is provided in this Raidplan.

Chaos will cast Earthquake, dropping everyone to 1 HP and afflicting everyone with a series of debuffs that will need to be resolved. An earth elemental crystal will also spawn somewhere on the arena. Everyone gets Primordial Crust , which requires the player to take lethal damage to cleanse. Failure to cleanse before the end of the timer results in immediate death. Three players will receive First In Line , three will receive Second In Line , and two will receive Third In Line debuffs. These debuffs indicate how long each player has to cleanse their Primordial Crust , with First In Line being the shortest and Third In Line being the longest. Two players will also receive Accretion , which reduces healing received and is removed by being healed to full HP. Cleansing any Accretion or Primordial Crust triggers a raidwide damage AoE from the earth crystal that applies Earth Resistance Down for 4s. Be careful not to resolve two at once, or it is an immediate party wipe.

Line up in a conga line. For our example we will be using H1, H2, T1, T2, M1, M2, R1, R2 as our conga priority. Once debuffs are assigned, pay attention only to the other players who share the same number debuff as you. We will use left to right as our priority. For example, if H2, T1, and R2 all had Second In Line , then H2 would have first priority, T1 second priority, and R2 third priority. This will come into play later, but is very important to keep in mind. It may be helpful to make echo macros to remember which you are.

Accretion has a fairly short timer, about 13s, so it needs to be resolved first by fully healing the players afflicted. If a player with First In Line also has this debuff, prioritize healing them to full first. Wait for the Earth Resistance Down debuff to fall off before healing the second player to full.

While dealing with the Accretion debuffs, Kefka will become giant and teleport somewhere around the arena. Shortly after, he will raise either his left or right hand, and then do three large circle AoEs on that half of the arena, effectively making the side that he raises his hand unsafe. After the three hits, he will smash the middle of the arena with a smaller circle AoE. This final middle hit will send out conal shock waves that do different things depending on which hand he raised. If he raised his left hand, there will be three conal stack AoEs that will target one player from each role. If he raised his right hand instead, it will be a single conal AoE that is a party stack. For the left hand role cleaves, consider Kefka as relative north. Put the Tanks relative northwest, the Healers relative west, and the DPS relative southwest. For the right hand party stack, make sure everyone is together. Remember that for either set, the middle of the arena will be unsafe, so be sure to be at least max melee distance from the bosses.

Exdeath will cast Black Hole, summoning eleven black holes around the arena. Be careful not to touch the black holes or they will inflict damage down. The black holes will spawn tethers that shoot a line AoE at the player with the tether, afflicting them with one stack of Unbecoming . By itself, this debuff does nothing and is only there to tell you that getting two stacks will turn the debuff into Meanest Existence . Meanest Existence will inflict lethal damage if a third black hole tether is taken. However, players need to take a third hit because of their Primordial Crust debuff, which is cleansed by taking lethal damage. This means that all players will need to take three black hole tethers each. Each time the black holes spawn a tether will be referred to as a set.

At most there will be three tethers active per set. We need a priority system to determine who takes which tether to avoid confusion. The simplest way to do this is to assign each person a priority within their X in Line number. We will consider Giant Kefka as relative north for this. The first player in the priority for their number will take the first black hole clockwise of Kefka. The second player will take the second tether clockwise of Kefka. The final player will take the third tether clockwise of Kefka, or first counterclockwise if you would prefer to think of it that way.

For the first set, only one tether spawns. A player with First In Line will take this tether, using the earlier stated priority to know which player this will be. Point the tether away from the party so that the line AoE does not hit anyone else. Exdeath's Tank should pull him off to the side slightly because he will cast another Thunder III tankbuster after the second set resolves. Immediately after the first beam fires, the second set's tethers will spawn. This time there will be two. Again use the priority to determine who takes what. Because each player needs to take three beams, the first player on the priority will also take one of the tethers from this set, and the second player on the priority will take the other tether. Once the second set resolves, Tanks need to mitigate and swap the tankbuster as necessary, or use an invulnerability cooldown if available.

The black holes will disappear for for now. Giant Kefka will teleport to a new position on the arena. This new position is the new relative north. Chaos will turn to a random player and begin casting Damning Edict. At the end of the cast, he will do a 180-degree cleave in the direction he is facing. Giant Kefka will again raise his right or left hand, repeating the three-AoE hits followed by the center AoE with the cone AoEs. This is resolved the same as before. Be sure to dodge behind Chaos until he does his cleave. Black holes will reappear shortly after this for set 3, 4, and 5.

For the third set, all three First In Line players will be taking tethers using the above priority. This is the final set for the first First In Line player. The earth crystal will pulse with raidwide damage and an Earth Resistance Down debuff after this set. From here, every set will include an earth AoE pulse. Each player will follow the above priority for which tether they are responsible for grabbing.

For the forth set, the first Second In Line player will be stepping in since the first First In Line player is finished with their soaks. Because the first player in each number group is responsible for the first tether clockwise from Kefka, there is no conflict and the priority system continues.

For the fifth set, the second Second In Line player and the second First In Line players swap, as the second First In Line player is finished with their soaks. Continue with the same priority system and remember that there is a raidwide damage pulse with each set. Black holes will again disappear for a little bit.

Chaos will turn to face a random player and again cast Damning Edict. At the same time, Kefka will teleport to a random place on the arena. He will then cleave the middle third of the arena in front of him. Dodge the Edict cleave, then dodge Kefka's cleave. Exdeath will do yet another Thunder III tankbuster. Tanks handle this the same as they have before.

The black holes will reappear once again for the sixth, seventh, and eighth sets. The sixth set will be handled by all three Second In Line players, after which the first player will be finished with their debuff. The seventh and eighth sets are handled the same as all of the other sets to now, with the first Second In Line player being replaced by the first Third In Line player for the seventh set, and the second Second In Line player being replaced by the second Third In Line player for the eighth set.

Chaos needs to be faced to an intercardinal. He will cast Latitudinal/Longitudinal Implosion again, dodged the same way as previously. At the same time, Kefka will teleport to another random spot around the arena. Pay attention to which hand he raises. Dodge the cleaves from Chaos, then dodge Kefka and resolve the cone AoEs.

Black holes will once again reappear for the final two sets of tethers. This time, for the ninth set, only two tethers will spawn. Both of the remaining Third In Line players will take these. Kefka will once again teleport before the final set. He will again cleave the middle third of the arena in front of him. The final Third In Line player must be especially weary of this, as the tenth and final set of black hole tethers, a single tether this time, will resolve at the same time as the cleave happens. This player will need to dodge the cleave and make sure to aim the beam away from the party.

Kefka will climb onto the arena, so use his last position as relative north. Have the supports stack up toward the north and the DPS stack up toward the south. Exdeath will cast Blizzard III, which will spawn AoE baits under each player. Every player will dodge to the relative intercardinal directions based on their light party. Healer 1 and Tank 1 will dodge to the relative northwest, Healer 2 and Tank 2 to the relative northeast, Melee 1 and Ranged 1 to the relative southwest, and Melee 2 and Ranged 2 to the relative southeast. Another puddle will drop. From here, where you dodge depends on if your role got a stack marker or not. Chaos will cast Knock Down, which will target either the Supports or the DPS with a 4-player stack. Kefka will also be casting Stamp-a-Mole which will spawn four two-player towers.

The role that got the stack marker will all run back under the bosses to soak the stack. Meanwhile the other role will be responsible for two of the towers that will spawn. These towers spawn east and west, relative to where Kefka was before climbing onto the arena. Light Party 1 will be responsible for the relative west tower, and Light Party 2 will be responsible for the relative east tower. Immediately after, another stack marker will spawn on the opposite role. Those that took the towers will run under the boss, while those that were in the stack will now take the tower dictated by their light party. Exdeath will cast another Blizzard III, but this time it is a motion check, freezing anyone not moving in place. At the same time, Chaos will cast Big Bang, hitting the place where the stack AoEs happened with another AoE. Be sure to dodge out of the middle of the arena to avoid these.

You can find a visual of this final sequence in this Raidplan.

Shortly after the towers and stacks are finished, both bosses will channel their enrages. Epic Hero and Fated Hero fall off after one boss has been killed, allowing everyone to damage the remaining boss. If both bosses have been defeated by this point, you will progress to Phase 4: Kefka Says.