Everkeep (Extreme) Trial Guide
This guide aims to prepare players for "Everkeep (Extreme)" by providing detailed explanations of the fight's mechanics, as well as consistent strategies for the purpose of farming.
Introduction to Everkeep (Extreme)
In his blind pursuit to surpass his father, the Resilient Son lost his way, and set foot upon a path that distanced him from friends, comrades, and loved ones. At the end was naught but a twisted throne, before which Zoraal Ja consumed the souls of his own people in a bid to fulfill his hollow ambitions. Was it the pride of a king that consumed his heart in these final moments, or was his conscience weighed down by all he had done? The sorrowful notes of the wandering minstrel's song weave a thread of tragedy through the tale of the First Promise, and your heart grows heavier with each mournful chord. Memories of the encounter soon come flooding back, visions of a harrowing battle playing once again in your mind's eye.
Unlock Requirements
Everkeep (Extreme) can be unlocked at level 100 after completing the main scenario quest "Dawntrail" and talking to the Wandering Minstrel in Tuliyollal. It requires a minimum item level of 690 to queue, but this requirement can be bypassed by entering with a full party.
Encounter Guide
Zoraal Ja Extreme Video Resources
If you would prefer to watch a video that covers the fight, take a look at Hope Productions visual guide.
Raid Preparation
Begin by assigning each DPS a support partner, matching tanks with melee DPS and healers with ranged DPS. All players should be assigned a square near their clock position, though as there are sixteen squares and eight players this does not have to be too strict.
Phase One: Zoraal Ja
Players will begin by fighting Zoraal Ja in the normal area. The wall does not instantly kill players, but inflict a bleed debuff that does light damage. After Dawn of an Age, the platform changes to one square platform with four identical platforms surrounding it. Once the arena changes, players can fall off. The platform has sixteen squares, and certain AoEs only hit one specific square.
Zoraal Ja's Abilities
Zoraal Ja uses the following mechanics in this phase.
- Half Full: Zoraal Ja cleaves the half of the arena where his sword is glowing.
- Actualize: Moderate raid-wide magical damage.
- Multidirectional Divide: X-shaped line AoEs that spawn lines on the ground. These will erupt into large line AoEs.
- Backward Half: Zoraal Ja cleaves the entire arena except for the back quadrant where his sword is not glowing.
- Forward Half: Zoraal Ja cleaves the entire arena except for the front quadrant where his sword is glowing.
- Regicidal Rage: Two tethers appear on random players. These need to be taken by the tanks and it deals heavy AoE damage.
- Dawn of an Age: Massive raid-wide damage that changes the arena.
- Vollok: Summons swords on the surrounding platforms, which do an AoE on the square it's on.
- Sync: Connects the swords on the surrounding platforms to the main one with small blue lines. Swords on the surrounding platforms that are connected hit the main platform in the same pattern they spawned on the other platform.
- Greater Gateway: Spawns lines connecting the two platforms. Swords
that create a line AoE on the surrounding platforms will travel through these
lines. There are three types of lines:
- Red fire lines will expand the sword AoE to cover three rows or columns instead of one.
- Green wind lines will knockback players one row from where they hit.
- Blue lines have no special interaction.
- Blade Warp: Summons swords that do a line AoE on the surrounding platforms.
- Forged Track: The summoned swords travel down the platform, moving rows or columns once they interact with a line from Greater Gateway.
- Chasm of Vollok: All players receive a yellow marker on top of their head: this will drop a sword AoE on the square they are standing on after a short delay and inflict a magic vulnerability up debuff.
Zoraal Ja Phase One Strategy
The boss begins with Actualize, a raid-wide. He'll jump to the middle to the arena afterwards and cast Multidirectional Divide. Dodge these line AoEs first, then watch for the next mechanic, which will be either Half. If it's Backward Half, go behind him and on the side where his sword isn't glowing. If it's Forward Half, go in front of him and on the side where his sword is glowing. You'll also have to dodge the AoEs from Multidirectional Divide: just find a spot where the space between the lines is large.
He'll repeat Multidirectional Divide, except this time instead of a cleave there will be Regicidal Rage. The party should stack behind the boss so the tanks can pick up the tethers easily. Mitigate the tethers and run to a safe spot for the line AoEs, with the tanks away from the party and each other. Mitigate and heal for Dawn of an Age as the arena changes.
Zoraal Ja will cast Vollok, summoning swords onto the arena, then Sync. Sync will always connect two platforms to the main one, so identify squares on both of them that are not being hit by any swords. He then casts Half Full, cleaving half the arena: make sure to be on the safe side of the cleave and a platform with no swords connected.
Zoraal Ja then casts Greater Gateway, Blade Warp, and Forged Track. There will always be two swords on the platforms with blue lines and one sword on the platform with red and green lines. Identify where the swords going through the blue lines are and avoid those rows, then determine if the other sword is going through a red line or a green line.
The red line will expand the AoE, so there will be two safe spots on the platform. The green line knocks players back from that line, so avoid the column and use knockback immunity. Immediately after dodging the swords from the gateways, spread to your assigned square for Chasm of Vollok. Mitigate this as right after Zoraal Ja will cast Actualize, returning the arena to normal.
Phase Two: Zoraal Ja
In phase two, you fight Zoraal Ja with new abilities.
Zoraal Ja's Abilities
Zoraal Ja gains new attacks during this phase.
- Projection of Triumph: Sixteen sword icons spawn on the ground. Two rows of donut markers and prey markers will spawn and travel across the arena. When the rows reach the sword icons, they will explode in a donut AoE and a circle AoE respectively.
- Projection of Turmoil: All players are inflicted with the Projection debuff. A row of stack markers will spawn north and travel south on the arena. When a player with the Projection debuff touches this line, they will trigger a stack explosion that deals moderate magic damage and inflict a magic vulnerability debuff.
- Bitter Whirlwind: An AoE magical tank buster on the main tank that hits three times and inflicts magic vulnerability each time. The offtank needs to swap for the second hit, and the main tank needs to take it back for the third. Alternatively, one tank can choose to invuln all three hits.
- Drum of Vollok: A two-player stack on DPS or supports. Players who are in the stack but not the target will get knocked up in the direction they stand relative to the targeted player. This deals heavy magical damage.
- Aero III: Summons a tornado on both platforms that will knock players up to the other platform. This inflicts a wind resistance down debuff.
- Duty's Edge: A multi-hit stack marker that deals massive magic damage and hits four times. Each hit deals increasing damage.
- Burning Chains: Chains supports to DPS. Run away from the other player to break the tether.
Zoraal Ja Phase Two Strategy
The phase begins with Projection of Triumph, a fairly difficult mechanic to visualize. Two rows of donut markers and prey markers will travel across the arena, and when they hit a sword icon, they will do their respective mechanics. Players need to avoid getting hit by these AoEs while they dodge around.
After the second row of markers goes off once, Zoraal Ja will begin casting Backward Half or Forward Half. Players will have to dodge the AoE from the marker while moving into position for the cleave, then move into the cleave. Immediately after, dodge the next set of marker AoEs as Zoraal Ja begins casting Actualize. If many players were hit, it's important to mitigate this raid-wide to ensure no one else dies.
Next, Zoraal Ja will cast Projection of Turmoil. Players will need to get rid of their Projection debuffs one by one as the line moves across the arena. To do this, the party needs to stack north. One player will move into the moving line while the rest of the party is near them. After the party's vuln expires, the next player will run into the line, with the entire party moving south to ensure the line doesn't move into the party. After this, the tank will receive Bitter Whirlwind, so mitigate and swap or invuln it.
Afterwards, return to the middle of the arena and mitigate Dawn of an Age. This time, players will interact with two separate platforms. Drum of Vollok is cast, and the role that isn't targeted needs to position themselves to get knocked back to a new platform that spawns either northwest or northeast.
Voraal Ja will begin casting Vollok, summoning one large sword on each platform. He then casts Sync and Chasm of Vollok. As the large sword takes up four squares each and there are two of them, there will be eight squares left for players to stand on. On each platform, have the melee stand on the closest platforms to Voraal Ja and the ranged stand behind them, ensuring that players are not in identical squares to each other relative to the other platform.
Aero III is cast, placing a tornado on the back of the platform. Zoraal Ja then begins casting either Backward Half or Forward Half. This will strike the front row of squares and the side he's slashing, so make sure to stand behind the line. Players on the opposite platform need to step inside the tornado to get knocked back to the correct platform. Stack up and mitigate Duty's Edge.
Zoraal Ja will then cast Burning Chain. The role that did not move with the tornado for the previous mechanic has to use the tornado to move to the opposite platform. All players will need to run away from each other slightly to ensure the tether is broken. Return closer to the middle and heal up for Actualize, which returns players back to the normal platform.
Phase Three: Zoraal Ja
Zoraal Ja mostly repeats mechanics with a slightly different twist in the final phase.
Zoraal Ja's Abilities
Zoraal Ja gains one new ability in the final phase, though it's one that appears in normal mode.
- Half Circuit: Zoraal Ja does Half Full with additional blades. If they spawn inside his hitbox, it will be a point-blank AoE. If they spawn outside, it will be a donut AoE.
Zoraal Ja Phase Three Strategy
Zoraal Ja casts Projection of Triumph, except this time players have to deal with Half Circuit in the middle. Dodge the third explosion, then move to the safe spot for the cleave, then dodge the fourth explosion. After the markers all resolve, he will cast Regicidal Rage, so the tanks need to pick up the tethers, move away from the party and each other, and mitigate.
He will then cast Projection of Turmoil again. This time, he casts Half Full three times during the mechanic: twice in the middle and one at the very south of the arena. Players have to dodge the swords while dealing with the Projection debuff stacks. If you opt to cheese this, make sure to dodge the half room cleaves while running away from the line. Again, this is followed by Bitter Whirlwind, so either swap or invuln it.
Zoraal Ja will cast Dawn of an Age again, changing the arena to that of phase one. He will then cast Vollok and Sync just like phase one, except this time afterwards is a Chasm of Vollok. Dodge the swords, then move to your assigned square. He follows this up with Duty's Edge so mitigate appropriately. This is followed by the same Greater Gateway, Blade Warp, and Forged Track combination along with Vollok.
The final part of the fight is a repeat of the first. The arena returns to normal with Actualize, then Zoraal Ja will do a final Multidirectional Divide into Backward Half or Forward Half combo. Afterwards, the boss will begin to enrage with an Actualize that wipes the party. Kill the boss before he kills you!
Party Finder Strategies
Rewards
When Zoraal Ja is defeated, the treasure coffer will contain four random Resilient accessories. In addition, there is a chance for the Resilient Armor and Faded Copy of Seeking Purpose to appear. Finally, there is a rare chance for the mount, Wings of Resolve to appear.
In addition, all party members will receive one Resilient Totem, five of which can be exchanged for any Resilient accessory.
Changelog
- 05 Jul. 2024: Guide updated to change Projection of Turmoil strat, as devs have indicated they are fixing the mechanic.
- 01 Jul. 2024: Guide updated.
- 28 Jun. 2024: Page added.
More FFXIV Content
This guide has been written by Lyra an accomplished raider in FFXIV and has written raid guides for the game for the past five years. You can follow him on Twitter and he streams raids on Twitch.
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