Storm's Crown Extreme Trial Guide
This guide aims to prepare players for "Storm's Crown (Extreme)" by providing detailed explanations of the fight's mechanics, as well as consistent strategies for the purpose of farming.
Introduction to Storm's Crown Extreme
The void─a world without death, where the strong devour the weak... Upon hearing your tales from that lightless place, the wandering minstrel cannot help but wonder: what if Barbariccia had devoured more of the great wyrm's aether? Having mused thus, the man then calls upon his not inconsiderable dramatic flair to weave a new verse, one which imagines a vastly empowered archfiend. The breezy melody sets your mind adrift upon shadowed winds, where you relive the stormy encounter, now stormier still...
Unlock Requirements
Storm's Crown (Extreme) can be unlocked at level 90 after completing the main scenario quest "The Wind Rises" and talking to the Wandering Minstrel in Old Sharlayan (x12.7, y14.2). It requires a minimum item level of 600 to queue, but this requirement can be bypassed by entering with a full party.
Encounter Guide
Barbariccia has a hard enrage of 11:14, with a raid DPS check of roughly 43.6k DPS.
Storm's Crown 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
Players must be split into two light parties of one tank, one healer, and two DPS each. In addition, all players need clock spots with tanks and healers on cardinals and DPS on intercardinals. Place lettered markers on cardinals and numbered markers on intercardinals.
Phase 1: Barbariccia
Barbariccia's Abilities
- Void Aero IV: Moderate raidwide magic damage.
- Raging Storm: Light raidwide magic damage that occurs when Barbariccia jumps to the middle of the arena. This has no castbar.
- Savage Barbery: Barbariccia will throw her sword towards a cardinal
edge and either raise her sword or lower her sword. There will be a line AoE
or donut AoE, and then a large circular AoE where she threw her sword.
- If Barbariccia raises her sword, it will be a line AoE in front and behind her relative to where she is facing. You can always stand opposite of the sword.
- If Barbariccia lowers her sword, it will be a donut AoE.
- Hair Raid: Barbariccia will tether to her sword and do a mechanic
based on how she is standing.
- If Barbariccia floats in the air, she will grab the sword and do a donut AoE around her.
- If Barbariccia crouches down, she will dash to the sword and cleave the entire arena with a conal AoE - the area at the wall is safe.
- Deadly Twist: Stack markers on both healers.
- Hair Spray: Marked AoEs on all players.
- Void Aero III: A magical tank buster on the current main tank. Inflicts a Wind Vulnerability Up debuff, meaning tanks will have to swap.
- Teasing Tangles: Barbariccia summons four tangle circles at the cardinals of the arena. Two players - one DPS and one support - will be fettered and chained to the tangle. Inside the tangle, the movement speed of players is reduced and leaving the circle will forcibly drag players back in and inflict a DoT.
- Secret Breeze: Barbariccia fires a marked conal AoE towards all cardinals. After this AoE goes off, she will do an unmarked conal AoE on all players that inflicts a physical vulnerability up debuff.
- Hair Flay: Four players, one from each tangle, will receive a large marked circular AoE, which deals moderate magical damage.
- Upbraid: Two players from opposite tangles will receive a two player stack marker, which deals moderate magical damage.
- Curling Iron: Barbariccia begins her transition to the wind phase. Players in her hitbox take damage and are knocked back from Voidstrom. Both hits do light magical damage.
- Catabasis: Barbariccia's ultimate, which does massive raidwide magic damage.
This encounter is split into a wind phase and a normal phase. Barbariccia will alternate between the two. The normal phase is defined by standard FFXIV spread/stack/clock mechanics, while the wind phase introduces frenetic dodging and movement mechanics.
Barbariccia will begin by casting Void Aero IV. She will then jump to the middle of the arena with Raging Storms and cast one version of Savage Barbery. Dodge the mechanics, and then find the sword. She will cast one version of Hair Raid and either Hair Spray or Deadly Twist. Therefore, players will either need to head to the wall or stay inside her hitbox, and spread out after if it was Hair Spray or stack in light parties if it was Deadly Twist.
Barbariccia will then jump back into the middle of the arena with Raging Storm and do the version of Savage Barbery she did not do previously. She will continue with the versions of Hair Raid and the other mechanic of Deadly Twist or Hair Spray that was not done previously. For example, if the first set of mechanics was line AoE, wall, and stack, the second set will be donut AoE, donut AoE, and spread.
After, she will cast Void Aero IV into Void Aero III - the OT needs to provoke at this point. She will jump to the middle with Raging Storms and cast Teasing Tangles, fettering all players and chaining them to a tangle. One player in each tangle will get Hair Flay and the other will get no mechanic or Upbraid. Have the player with the stack go right, the unmarked player go left, and the players with giant AoEs back off on the other side of Secret Breeze. After all these mechanics resolve, spread from each other to dodge the unmarked conal AoE portion of Secret Breeze.
Heal up for another Void Aero IV, as well as Curling Iron and the transition to phase 2 after Barbariccia uses her ultimate ability, Catabasis.
Phase Two: Wind Phase
Barbariccia has the following new abilities in this phase:
- Brutal Rush: Barbariccia marks four players in one role with a thin tether. She will jump to each player, dealing light damage, and do a line AoE immediately afterwards towards them.
- Winding Gale: Curved line AoEs that collide in the centre. This is followed by line AoEs from the outside that go across the arena.
- Boulder Break: A magical tank buster on the current main tank that has to be shared with the other tank.
- Brittle Boulder: All players are marked with a rock. After the rock disappears, they will drop a large AoE on their position, followed by an AoE marker on them.
- Tornado Chain: Three sets of ring AoEs will spawn from the middle.
- Knuckle Drum: A multi-hit raid buster that deals ten instances of light raidwide magical damage into one hit of moderate raidwide magical damage.
- Blow Away: Baited small ground circle AoEs on all players. Move together to dodge.
- Bold Boulder: Proximity tank busters on both tanks.
- Impact: A knockback from the middle of the room. Standing in the middle will instantly kill players.
- Trample: A physical stack marker on a random healer. She will jump to the marked player.
- Blustery Ruler: A circular AoE in the centre. Tornados appear in the centre and from this and fan out. Getting hit by one will knock the player up and inflict a vuln stack.
- Dry Blows: Small ground AoEs that appear randomly on the arena.
- Iron Out: Barbariccia begins her transition to the normal phase. Players in her hitbox take damage and are knocked back from Voidstrom. Both hits do light magical damage.
During the wind phase, the outside of the arena will be engulfed in a storm, inflicting a windburn DoT to players who step in it. This phase is very fast-paced and players should ensure they are doing mechanics correctly and not taking avoidable damage.
The phase starts with Brutal Rush on supports. Players can head to their clock spot close to the boss and then move away once Barbariccia dashes to them. Afterwards, dodge Winding Gale. The OT should head north to stack with the MT for Boulder Break before these AoEs go off. All players should then head to the middle to bait Brittle Boulder, and then head to their clock spots to spread for the AoE portion. Stay out to dodge Tornado Chain, and DPS will rotate to stack with a support for Upbraid as they move in to dodge the final ring AoE.
Barbariccia then casts Brutal Rush on DPS. Again, stay at clock spots near the boss and dodge after you get dashed to. All players should then stack north behind the boss as she will face south and begin to cast Knuckle Drum. Heal and mitigate through this, as immediately after she will cast Blow Away and Brutal Rush on supports. All players must move clockwise sequentially to dodge both types of AoEs. Stop at the edge of the AoE to ensure no AoEs are baited too far.
Barbariccia will then cast a combination of Trample, Impact, and Bold Boulder. The tanks will go back north with their proximity markers, while the party stays south. Get knocked back inside the arena (or use knockback prevention) and stack together to share the damage. Barbariccia will then cast Brutal Rush on DPS, but as players are stacked everyone must be keenly aware of dodging the line AoE. She will then cast Teasing Tangles, fettering all players to tangles again.
This tangle phase is simple, but requires clean dodging. Barbariccia will cast Blustery Ruler, Dry Blows, and Tornado Chain, meaning players will have to dodge the tornados coming from the centre, ground AoEs that appear randomly in their circle, and the ring AoEs while not leaving their circle. At the end, four players are targeted for Upbraid: this is simply resolved by having one player always go left and one player always go right. She will cast Secret Breeze as well, so players need to spread after taking the stack.
The phase ends with Knuckle Drum after the tangles are removed and Iron Out. Return to the middle of the arena to heal and mitigate.
Phase Three: Regular Phase
Barbariccia has the following new abilities in this phase:
- Entanglement: Barbariccia will tether one DPS to one support each. These tethers are the same as Teasing Tangles - players cannot leave the circle or they will be forcibly dragged to each other. Players can easily see who they are tethered to with the mark on their head: a purple square, blue cross, green triangle, or red circle.
Barbariccia jumps to the middle of the arena after the transition with Ragin Storm. She will cast Entanglement, tethering each DPS to one support. Players are dragged to each other, and have to stay together. She will then cast Secret Breeze. Players will have to stay inside their circle while spreading for the conal AoE.
She will then cast one version of Savage Barbery into Hair Raid and either Hair Spray or Deadly Twist. This is followed by Void Aero IV into Void Aero III. She then goes back to the centre with Raging Storm and casts another Entanglement.
For this version, two sets of tethered players will instead receive Upbraid. To solve this, have the unmarked tethered players move into the marked tethered players, and spread out inside the circle so that one player from each tether set is inside each Upbraid stack. After this, she will do the Savage Barbery into Hair Raid and Hair Spray / Deadly Twist combo that was not done previously.
After a Void Aero IV and Raging Storm, she will transition to the second wind phase with Curling Iron.
Phase Four: Wind Phase
Barbariccia gains no new abilities during the second wind phase.
The phase starts off with Brutal Rush on supports. This is followed by Knuckle Drum - all players need to head north and stack there to mitigate, heal, and prepare for the next mechanic. Barbariccia will cast Blow Away, and again players need to bait these AoEs while moving clockwise. After four sets of AoEs, all players will be marked with Brittle Boulder, and must bait these in the middle then head to their clock spots for the AoEs. She will cast Brutal Rush on DPS as these AoEs are going out.
Barbariccia will then cast a combination of Tornado Chain, Impact, and Hair Spray. Players need to head to their clock spots, dodge the ring AoEs, and then stand close to not get knocked back into the wall or use knockback prevention. She then casts Brutal Rush on supports, followed by Blustery Ruler and Dry Blows. Players will have to dodge the tornadoes and do Tornado Chain while dodging the AoEs. However, this time it will be accompanied with Boulder Break, then Winding Gale.
The mechanics will continue, with another Winding Gale into Tornado Chain. This is followed with Bold Boulder on the tanks and Trample on a random healer. Again, have the party go south and the tanks go north. Note that there is no knockback during this set. Finally, there is a Knuckle Drum and Iron Out that ends the phase.
Phase Five: Normal Phase
All mechanics in this phase have been seen previously.
The final phase of the fight is a quick repeat of the previous normal phase before enrage happens at 11:14. She will cast Entanglement and Secret Breeze, so head to the intercardinal and spread after the first conal AoE goes off. This is followed by a random Savage Barbery, Hair Raid, Deadly Twist or Hair Spray, Void Aero IV, Raging Storm, and then finally a 9 second long enrage cast, Maelstrom. DPS the boss down before she kills you!
Party Finder Strategies
- True North and Boss Relative indicate the positions for spreads for Hair Spray. True North has the party move to their assigned spot relative to north every time, while boss relative has players move to their assigned clock spot relative to where the boss is facing.
- Enumeration 1/3 refers to Upbraid. Players who have Upbraid or no mechanic during Teasing Tangles will go closer to the 1 and 3 marker on the arena, while players with Hair Flay will go closer to the 2 and 4 marker.
- Mario Kart N refers to Blow Away into Trample + Impact + Bold Boulder. The party will start north to bait the AoEs, and then move clockwise sequentially. They will end up south, where the group will stack.
- DPS CW refers to Upbraid after Winding Gale and Brittle Boulder. DPS will move clockwise to stack with their Upbraid partner.
- Playstation colours refers to Entanglement. Players will go with their partner at the intercardinal that matches their colour, and then spread after for Secret Breeze.
Rewards
When Barbariccia is defeated, it will drop one random item level 615 Windswept weapon and one Windswept Weapon Coffer (IL 615). Rarely, it will drop Pearl of Winds, Faded Copy of Battle with the Four Fiends (Buried Memory), Barbariccia Card, and/or a Lynx of Imperious Wind Flute.
In addition, all party members will receive two of Windswept Archfiend Totem, ten of which can be exchanged for any item level 615 Windswept weapon from Nesvaaz in Radz-at-Han (x10.6, y10.0).
Changelog
- 23 Aug. 2022: Guide added.
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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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