The Windward Wilds (Extreme) Trial Guide

The wandering minstrel sings of a lone Guardian, whose obsession with aether would have invited ruin upon the wildlife of Shaaloani. Had the white wanderer─this beast from beyond─never spent its strength facing Serpentlord Ttokrrone, what power might it have brought to bear against you? The minstrel's musings ignite your imagination, drawing you back to that arduous encounter, now more arduous still...

The Windward Wilds (Extreme) can be unlocked in Patch 7.35 after completing the main scenario quest "Dawntrail," the sidequest "The White Wanderer," which is unlocked at Tuliyollal (x13.3, y13.1) through the NPC Dawn Hunt Tracker, and talking to the Wandering Minstrel in Tuliyollal. The duty requires an item level of 740. Players above Level 100 will be level synced to Level 100 when entering.

Guardian Arkveld is fought in a circular arena with a death wall. Like a monster in Monster Hunter, all boss attacks are indicated by its animation and there are no castbars. The boss is omni-directional. In addition, players have ten Mega Potion charges: these heal the player by a large amount and should be used whenever needed. All players have the Well-done, Steak buff, which heals around 5000 HP every 3 seconds.

Throughout the fight there are four mechanic tells that players need to watch out for. They are Roar, Chainblade Blow, Wyvern Ouroblade, and Steeltail Thrust, though Chainblade Blow and Wyvern Ouroblade have a similar animation. Boss tells are shown below.

Begin by splitting the raid into two light parties of one tank, one healer, and two DPS each.

In phase one, you fight Guardian Arkveld.

The following mechanics are introduced in phase one.

• Roar: Guardian Arkveld braces back and prepares to roar, dealing raidwide magic damage.
• Chainblade Blow: The boss raises one of its arms. It smashes down, doing a half-room cleave on that side, then explodes the ground in a large AoE. It will then smash down its other arm. Get to the other side of the boss of the raised arm, and when the indicator resolves, run across to the other side.
• Wyvern's Siegeflight: The boss jumps to the edge of the arena and prepares a charge across, with red or white cracks appearing on the ground. This does a line AoE across the arena. Red cracks indicate cleaves to the sides after the dash (middle is safe), while white cracks indicate another line AoE down the middle (sides are safe). White sparks also have a rolling line AoE.
• White Flash: Stack markers on both healers that need to be shared. Multiple ground AoEs will appear under all players afterwards.
• Dragonspark: Stack markers on both healers that need to be shared.
• Rush: The boss jumps to the edge of the arena and prepares three red line AoE charges across the arena. Charged to locations will explode in expanding ring-shaped AoEs. Walk into one and dodge the incoming rings.
• Wyvern Ouroblade: Guardian Arkveld raises one arm and does a half-room cleave on that side.
• Wild Energy: Targets eight players with an AoE marker that deals magic damage and inflicts a short magic vuln debuff. Spread out. Can target four players of one role, then four players of another role.
• Chainblade Charge: A stack marker on a random healer that must be shared. Deals physical damage.
• Towers: Six towers appear on the arena which must be soaked. Two of these towers are larger and must be soaked by tanks with mitigation. However, three sets of targeted ground AoEs appear beforehand, which must be baited before soaking the towers. Towers leave behind spikes that explode in a large ground AoE when hit by another mechanic.
• Wyvern's Vengeance: Four ground AoEs appear from Arkveld and move towards the outside of the arena.
• Forged Fury: Guardian Arkveld's ultimate ability. Deals massive magic damage and inflicts Guardian Will, a debuff that deals damage over time and increases damage taken for the rest of the fight.

The first part of the fight is nearly identical to the normal difficulty of the fight with a faster pace. Guardian Arkveld opens with Roar into Chainblade Blow. Dodge the first arm smash and then immediately move back across. The boss jumps to an edge in preparation for Wyvern Siegeflight. Accompanying the red sparks will be Dragonspark, and with the white sparks the boss casts White Flash. Players need to split into their light parties to soak with healers on the sides if white and in the middle if red. Have light party 1 with melees up close and light party 2 with ranged in the middle. The other Siegeflight will occur right after.

Next, the boss casts Rush. This is identical to normal mode, so dodge into an AoE and dodge the rings after. The boss jumps to the middle and casts Wild Energy on all eight players as well as raising one arm. This is Wyvern Ouroblade, and players have to spread out on the safe side of the map. Getting hit by both isn't lethal with mitigation, and it's better to get hit by the half-room cleave than to stack AoEs.

Next is a Chainblade Charge followed by a Chainblade Blow. Heal, mitigate, and dodge. The boss jumps to the middle and spawns Towers. Bait three ground AoEs before soaking, with the tanks mitigating the two large ones. Since there are four normal towers and six players, players can double up and still be fine. Proceed to dodge Wyvern's Vengeance exaflares while spreading for Wild Energy, which will target one role and then the other. The exaflares will create AoEs when hitting the tower spikes, so avoid those first.

At this point, the boss begins to cast Forged Fury and begins the second phase.

Phase two adds extra damage and effects to certain mechanics, as well as new mechanics on top.

The following mechanics are introduced or modified in phase two.

• Clamorous Chase: Numbered "Limit Cut" markers from 1 to 8 appear on all players. The boss will do a proximity dash to each player in sequence, turn around, and cleave towards the side of its forward arm.
• Chainblade Blow: Now strikes three times.
• Chainblade Charge: Now also creates a large AoE under the impact point.
• Wyvern's Weal: The boss jumps to the edge of the arena, then marks a player and casts a rotating AoE laser towards them which goes about 90 degrees. This laser explodes Tower spikes, so it should be baited on the side with the larger tank tower spike.
• Steeltail Thrust: The boss winds up, then knockbacks players behind it dealing damage and stunning them briefly.
• Wrathful Rattle: Spawns line AoEs vertically and horizontally across the arena. These will continue spawning in the direction indicated, and at the edge of the arena will continue to come back in. Otherwise known as "Exalines" from other fights.

The boss begins with a Roar into the key mechanic of the fight, Clamorous Chase. All players are numbered 1 to 8, and the boss begins to wind-up a charge and swipe. The charge must go a certain distance or the player will die, and after the charge, Guardian Arkveld will cleave towards the side with its forward arm, which can be either its left or right. In the example below, it is charging a right cleave.

To do this mechanic, each player must be sufficient distance away from the previous charged player and all cleaves must be baited outside the arena to ensure no players are hit. Guardian Arkveld will cleave with the same arm each time, and players need to be around 90 degrees apart at the edge. To solve this mechanic, players should stand at the cardinal edges of the arena in order, with numbers 5 to 8 replacing 1 to 4 after they've been dashed to. The direction and order are determined by the cleaving arm: if it's the right arm, players go clockwise or right facing the boss, and if it's the left arm, players go counter-clockwise or left facing the boss. Each player stands 90 degrees away from each other and moves in after dashed to in order to dodge the cleave.

To simplify things, even numbers always go to the same spots: 2 and 6 will go south, and 4 and 8 will go north. 1 and 5 have the hardest job as they are making sure the boss dashes in the correct direction to not cleave everyone, and 3 and 7 fill in the last space directly opposite of 1 and 5.

Next is a Tower sequence followed by Wyvern's Weal. The marked player needs to start on the side closer to the tank tower spike and the rest of the party will stay on the opposite side. Once the laser appears the baiting players need to immediately head towards the rest of the party to dodge the laser and the exploding spikes. This will happen three times in sequence. The second instance will be accompanied with either White Flash though without ground AoEs, and the third instance will have Wild Energy on all players. All players should move together for the second and third.

The boss then casts Wrathful Wrattle. Dodge the line AoEs, and mitigate through them if necessary. Remember to use a Mega Potion if you're taking more hits than you intended. This continues until the boss jumps to the edge of the arena and begins casting Rush, though there is one final hit at the edge. This is followed by Wild Energy on all eight players as well as Wyvern Ouroblade. The boss then casts Steeltail Thrust, so get in front. After this is a Chainblade Blow.

Next is another Tower sequence. However, this time there is no Wild Energy. Instead, the Wyvern's Radiance comes from the edge of the arena similar to the final phase in the Unending Coil of Bahamut. It may be easier to dodge at the wall like that fight and mitigate a spike explosion if nearby. Otherwise, dodge the moving AoEs away from the large tank spikes. A Chainblade Charge happens after all the AoEs are gone, followed by another Chainblade Blow.

Finally, the boss does a final Wyvern Siegeflight set. This is the exact same as the beginning of the fight. This is followed by a Chainblade Blow afterwards at the edge, a Rush, and a Wild Energy accompanied with Wyvern Ouroblade and Steeltail Thrust. One final Chainblade Blow leads to Guardian Arkveld casting enrage, which finishes at 11:10. Defeat the boss before then!

Completion of this duty rewards 25 Allagan Tomestones of Heliometry and 14 Allagan Tomestones of Mathematics. Upon completion of the duty, all players will receive a Veldian weapon coffer that can be used to obtain an item level 745 weapon for the job the player is currently on as well as two Guardian Arkveld Certificates. These tokens are used to purchase the mount as well as upgrade Veldian Weapons. In addition, 4 Guardian scales may be carved from Guardian Arkveld's hide, which can be exchanged for a variety of weapons and items in Tuliyollal. Finally, there is a rare chance for the Felyne Support Team Cart Horn mount to drop.