Dancing Mad (Ultimate) Phase 4 Guide

Kefka will appear in the middle of the arena and become targetable once again. He will begin the fight by casting Kefka Says, the namesake of this phase. This time he will summon Chaos with Neo Exdeath, Exdeath's powered up Phase 2 form from Deltascape V4.0 (Savage). In this phase, Kefka grants his real or fake mechanic ability to the other two bosses as well. Every cast each of the three bosses will do will either have a real or fake indicator like in the first phase of the fight. It is extremely important to remember which casts are real and which are fake, because this changes the way the debuffs applied by the casts are resolved.

If you need a visual for this phase, please reference this Raidplan sourced from NA Party Finder.

The first set of debuffs are applied by Neo Exdeath casting Grand Cross. Shortly after the Grand Cross cast begins, Chaos will start casting either Tsunami or Inferno. While these two casts are happening, Kefka will cast Mystery Magic. This is the same as it was in Phase 1, telegraphing Blizzard and Thunder AoEs, while showing real or fake markers. Dodge the AoEs and pay attention to if Neo Exdeath and Chaos have real or fake casts.

This cast deals hefty raidwide damage and applies several debuffs to the party:

• One Support and one DPS will receive Compressed Water . If the cast was real, this is a stack AoE. If the cast was fake, this is a spread AoE.
• One Support and one DPS will receive Forked Lightning . If the cast was real, this is a spread AoE. If the cast was fake, this is a stack AoE.
• One Support and one DPS will receive Cursed Shriek . If the cast was real, this is a look away centered on the player with the debuff. If the cast was fake, everyone must look at at least one player with this debuff.
• One Support and one DPS will receive Acceleration Bomb with a 50s timer. If the cast was real, this is a stillness mechanic that will explode if the player takes any actions or moves, including auto attacking. If the cast was fake, this is a motion mechanic requiring the player to keep moving when it resolves.
• Another Support and DPS will receive Acceleration Bomb with a more than 1 minute timer.

Pay attention to if the cast was real or fake. It can be helpful to use an echo macro to remind yourself if your debuff is real or fake.

If Chaos casts Tsunami, it deals raidwide damage and applies the Dynamic Fluid debuff to each player. If the cast was real, this debuff will spawn a donut AoE around each player. If it was fake, it will spawn a circle AoE under each player's feet that will explode a couple seconds later instead.

If Chaos casts Inferno, it deals raidwide damage and applies Entropy to each player. If this cast was real, the debuff expiring will spawn a circle AoE under each player's feet that will explode a couple seconds later. If the cast was fake, this will instead be a donut AoE around each player.

Kefka will once again cast another Mystery Magic. Pay attention to which is real or fake and dodge the telegraphs accordingly. Meanwhile, Neo Exdeath will cast another Grand Cross. Chaos starts casting Tsunami or Inferno, casting whichever he did not cast before.

This is another raidwide damage cast. Neo Exdeath will apply the same debuffs as he did from Grand Cross 1. The same player cannot get the same debuff twice. Pay attention to if the debuff you received is real or fake, and use an echo macro to remember if necessary. Now that both sets of debuffs have been applied, look and see if you have the long timer or the short timer Compressed Water , Forked Lightning , or Cursed Shriek within your role. The short timers will resolve first, soon after Grand Cross 3.

Whichever of the two casts Chaos did not do previously, he will cast now.

Kefka casts yet another Mystery Magic, handled the same as before. During the cast, Neo Exdeath will cast the third and final Grand Cross.

This raidwide damage cast applies the final set of debuffs for this phase. This time, Neo Exdeath will apply either Black Wound or White Wound to everyone. Four players will receive Allagan Field , while the other four instead receive Beyond Death . These debuffs do the following things:

• Black Wound : If the cast was real, this debuff will make you take lethal damage if you stand in Black Antilight. If the cast was fake, you will instead take lethal damage if you stand in White Antilight.
• White Wound : If the cast was real, this debuff will make you take lethal damage if you stand in White Antilight. If the cast was fake, you will instead take lethal damage if you stand in Black Antilight.
• Allagan Field : If the cast was real, you will explode, wiping the party, if you take lethal damage. If the cast was fake, you must take lethal damage or you will explode.
• Beyond Death : If the cast was real, you must take lethal damage to cleanse this debuff. If the cast was fake, you must avoid taking lethal damage.

It is now time to resolve each of the debuffs.

Neo Exdeath will teleport to a random cardinal or intercardinal and begin casting Flood of Naught. He will do two half room cleaves. These cleaves overlap a bit in the middle of the room, so be sure to stand to the side a bit to be safe. One side will be Black Antilight, while the other is White Antilight, indicated by the icons he shows on each side. This cast can also be real or fake, swapping which color is actually hitting that side of the arena if it is fake.

Here, we will be resolving all of the debuffs applied by Grand Cross 3. If the Grand Cross 3 cast was real, then the players with Allagan Field cannot take lethal damage, while the players with Beyond Death must take lethal damage.

Players with Allagan Field need to stand on the side with the opposite color of their Wound debuff to avoid lethal damage if the Flood cast is real. Stand in the side telegraphing the same color as your debuff if the Flood cast is fake.

Players with Beyond Death need to stand on the side with the same color as their Wound debuff to take lethal damage if the Flood cast is real. Stand in the opposite color as your debuff if the Flood cast is fake.

This part can be simplified in a way that makes it irrelevant if Grand Cross 3's cast was real or fake:

• If you have Allagan Field , stand in the opposite color of your Wound debuff, or the same color if the Flood cast is fake.
• If you have Beyond Death , stand in the same color as your Wound debuff, or the opposite color if the Flood cast is fake.

Because of the way debuffs are assigned, this will always work as your Wound debuff and Allagan Field or Beyond Death debuffs will either both be real or both be fake. You cannot have one that is real and one that is fake. Here is a quick reference cheat sheet that you can use to remember this. The left side of the arrow represents the debuffs you have, and the right side represents which beam you want to stand in. Stand in the beam without the question mark if the Flood is real, or the beam with the question mark if it is fake.

This is where remembering if your debuffs applied by the first two Grand Cross casts were real or fake come into play. Short Compressed Water , Forked Lightning , and Acceleration Bomb debuffs will expire and resolve now. These will be resolved by having the Supports stack north, and the DPS stack south. The player within each role that has either the real Forked Lightning or the fake Compressed Water debuff will need to spread away from the group. The Support spread will go west, while the DPS spread will go east. While these debuffs are resolving, Kefka will cast Mana Charge, which will remember the next Thrumming Thunder III and Blizzard III Blowout casts. Remember if these casts were real or fake.

Kefka will cast Thrumming Thunder III, which will telegraph the Thunder line AoEs that you've already seen many times before. Remember if this cast was real or fake, as Kefka is recording this one to reuse later. At the same time, short timer Cursed Shriek will resolve. If the short Cursed Shriek debuffs were real, have those players stand behind the party outside of the boss hitbox. Make sure everyone looks away from them. If they were fake instead, have them stand in the center of the hitbox and everyone look at them. Be sure to dodge the Thunder AoE while doing this. Cursed Shriek players should be careful not to look at each other if the debuff is real.

Whichever of the two casts Chaos did second will resolve first. If Dynamic Fluid is the short debuff, have everyone stack under the boss and do not move, there will be a donut AoE around each player. If instead Entropy is the short debuff, have everyone stack under the boss until the debuff expires, then when the debuffs expire run outside of the hitbox as there will be an AoE explosion baited where each player was standing.

Kefka will cast Blizzard III Blowout, which will be the same 90-degree cleaves from before. Pay attention to if this is real or fake, as Kefka is recording it to reuse later. At the same time, long Compressed Water , Forked Lightning , and Acceleration Bomb debuffs will expire and resolve now. Handle this exactly the same way as the previous set, and make sure to dodge the ice AoEs at the same time.

Just before Mana Release casts, the long Cursed Shriek debuff will resolve, have them stand outside the hitbox or under the hitbox as necessary the same as before.

Just after this resolves, Kefka will channel Mana Release, which will do the mechanics that he recorded earlier. However, there is a twist. This cast also has real and fake indicators. When Kefka recorded the mechanic, he also recorded if that one was real or fake. That means for this one he uses the following rules:

• If either the first or the second cast was fake, and the other was real, Mana Release for that element will be fake.
• If both casts were fake, the Mana Release will be real.
• If both casts were real, Mana Release will be real.

As the Mana Release cast, but not the mechanic itself, finishes, the long Dynamic Fluid or Entropy debuffs will expire. Stack under the boss and be ready to dodge out into the safe areas from Mana Release, or stay under the boss and dodge the Mana Release as necessary.

At this point, Kefka must be brought below 25% HP. He will cast Ultima Upsurge, dealing raidwide damage if the HP check was passed, or wiping the party if the HP check was failed. If the check was passed, you will progress onward to Phase 5: Ultima Kefka, which is the final phase of this ultimate.