Final Fantasy XIV: ARR Crystal Tower: Labyrinth Of The Ancients Guide

Undoubtedly, Crystal Tower has been a major excitement for me for the past three weeks, It's one of the encounter of FFXIV that keeps my head from banging my keyboard, IMO it's perfectly balanced but hey even the easiest encounter is easily trolled right? So here's the breakdown of almost everything about Crytstal Tower

1. The Precursors
Before you can enter this 24-man raid instance, you must first open it's precursor quest, available at level 50 after finishing the main storyline quests, talk to NPC Outlandish Man (X21, Y28) in Mor Dhona, after that you'll have to do three fates and fetch-give typical quests until you unlocked it, pretty straightforward.

2. Trash Mobs (Pool)
Welcome to the first raid wing of Crystal Tower, The Labyrinth of The Ancients. When you first entered here with the other 23 clueless people you will see that you'll be divided in teams A, B and C, also you will be greeted by three pack of trash mobs. Pack one has two Valefors and lots of elementals, Team B should grab all the elementals and tank them in the middle paltform, Team A and C should grab these valefors and their tanks should tank them so their tail whip (AOE Cone from behind) and their front AOE cone doesn't hit anyone except the tanks, also make sure you're standing in one of the heightened platform because during the fights the entire area will be flooded with purple substance that will deal you about 200 damage per second, only the platform is safe. Pack 2 has greater Demon that will knockback the tanks and Valar that will slow everyone with their blizzard attacks. Pack 3 has two Diras that has AOE stun and Cursed Eyes that has petrify front AOE cone, just make sure their AOE didn't hit most of the party and healer shouldn't be petrified and you'll be fine, after that it's time for the first boss

3. Bone Dragon

This will be an easy fight if most people knows what to do, if not then it can be a nightmare, Bone Dragon is waiting at a center platform of the pool and should be tanked there away from the party, around the pools are heightened platforms which will play the role in later phase, as usual the pools will be flooded and drained some times, Team B tank should grab bone dragon and immediately tank it away from everyone (a.k.a turned it around) sine Bone Dragon has devastating front AOE cone that will inflict disease, when he reach about 50% he will summon platinals on his platform, these skeletons must be pulled away to the furthest platform from the boss and killed there, also makes sure that you only have one platinal on each platform, DPS should turn to platinals whenever they spawns, but hold DPS until tanks pulled them to the far platforms, after platinals died turn to Bone Dragon and continue DPS it until it died

When Bone Dragon died the platinals will be revived on their death platforms, here's some things that might happened
a. There's a platinal alive when the Bone Dragon died, when this happened it will RUN back to the boss and sacrificed itself, creating a massive AOE wide room that will nearly halved every non tank players, it can't be slowed, it can't be stunned so your only option is to have to kill it quickly
b. Two or more platinal died in the same platform, when they're revived they will RUN back to the boss, AOE things, etc etc, bad
c. The right one: only one platinal died in a platform, as this happens when they're revived they will WALK back to the boss, giving you time to kill them
After all platinal died for good the Bone Dragon will be revived and the cycle continues

After two phase of resurrection the Bone Dragon will not summon platinals, it will instead summon cursed eyes that should be ignored, it's a healer and DPS burn phase as the terror eyes cast AOE petrify, just keep pummeling the dragon until it bites the dust for good

TLDR:
Team A = Pummel Dragon, keep eye for platinals and pulled them to platforms at West and North West,
Team B = One of the Tank grab the dragon and tank it for the entire encounter, the rest should pulled platinals on platform South and South East
Team C = Pummel Dragon, keep eye for platinals and pulled them to platforms at East and North east,  

4. Atomos

Atomos is an interesting mini boss, there will be three of them in separated paths, which means Team A, B, and C has their own boss (and their own drama :P), in the room you'll see Atomos floating on a platform across the room and there is  another platform in the middle of the room, healers and at least two DPS should stand on this platform As soon as the raid entered their rooms, otherwise it will spawn Iron Giant that will insta-kill the team (9999 damage FTW!!), if one team got wiped everyone failed so it's bad. You will need FOUR people on the platform which means two healers and two DPS which can be a bit problematic if you have all melee DPSer, you can tried to switch with other team or just go ahead with it and have the other free DPS take down Atomos

Atomos doesn't need a tank, it doesn't even attack, but the catch is he'll spawn Valefors, Diras, and Greater Demons throughout the fight, and they should be tanked between platforms by the tanks so DPS standing at the platform can kill them without leaving it, if there's only melee DPS on platform tank should be tanking it near the middle platform so they can hit it, careful with their AOE though.

TLDR: Healers and two dps stand in the middle platform, tank grab adds, platform DPS kill adds, free DPS kill Atomos

5. Thanatos

Thanatos fight is a chaos and will put everyone (especially healers) on their toes, there are three magic pot that can be healed and buffed with stoneskin around the room, your job is to keep them alive, Thanatos can only be damaged if you have the 'Astral Alignment' buff granted by the magic pots, Team A should grab Thanatos first and tanked it in a corner of the room, their magic pot will surely give them the buff, after that it will be a random.
Throughout the fight there will be two type of adds: Sandman and Nemesis, Sandman will move slowly (can't be slowed, stunned, or provoked) to the pots and cast bravery on them, leading them to Thanatos (which will destroy it), Nemesis will spawn in great numbers, throwing AOE indiscriminately (also dangerous for the pots), non-buffed people should prioritize sandman and gain attention of the nemesis, leading them away from the pots, buffed people should burn Thanatos, healers must switch between pots and players which can be chaotic

TLDR: Tanks immediately grab Thanatos when buffed, careful when switching target when the buff wears off since the next buffed tank should grab aggro first, DPS when buffed = Thanatos, non buffed = Sandman > Nemesis, Healers = heal everything including the pots

6. Allagan Bomb

There are three Vassagos guarding The Allagan Bomb, The Allagan Bomb itself is invulnerable as long as the Vassago's alive, each team should grab their own vassago and tank it away from the team, throghout the fight there will be Allagan Bombs and Napalms, DPS should kill these immediately as they float slowly to the Allagan Bomb at the center and will explode inflicting room-wide AOE, Vassagos has strong cone physical attacks and they will occasionally cast desolation a randomly targeted AOE Line, they will occasionally filled a part of the platform with lava that force the tank to move and tanked him in a different position, avoid these three and you're done, when Vassagos died turn your attention to Allagan Bomb, kill it before it explodes and wipe you

7. King Behemoth

Meet the PUGbreaker, this is the hardest fight on CT, There are several mechanics that should be paid attention, otherwise, it'll be a wipe

a. There are towers around the outside Arena, throghout the fight you will be hit by constant DOT of electricity, when a tower glow red it adds several damage to your debuff, you can turn this off by simply clicking them, but this will deal you damage, so preferrably tanks should do this
b. Behemoth only needs one tank but there are several random hard-hitting AOE that comes from him, avoid these, the tank is usually is from team B

So when team B grabbed the behemoth and tank it on the corner, facing outside,  team A should be on the center since there will be two of an annoying adds called Puroboros, they spawned in the center and move slowly towards towers, if they arrived they will explode, damaging the tower and put you another stack of debuff, Team C should grab another add called the Iron Giant, tank it and kill it ASAP as it will destroy your only mean of survival, the comet

The comets will fall from the sky, indicated by green icon above a player head, wherever he/she is that's where the comet will be so tread carefully since you don't want it falls near the iron giant that will destroy it, sometimes during the fight the King will shout GGRRAAAAAGHH!!! (or something) as he cast ecliptic meteor (9999 damage again!), this your cue to HIDE BEHIND THE COMET, just put the comet between the behemoth and you, effectively cutting it's line of sight, when the Meteor hits it will destroy the comets and you're back to phase one, mind you at this hiding phase Puroboros will still spawn, and at about 25% there will be several tornadoes on the side of the room that will kill you and destroy the comet if you got near them

TLDR:
Team A = grab Puroboros, kill it before it reach the towers, deactivate red towers
Team B = tank and DPS behemoth
Team C = tank and DPS iron giant, help kills puroboros, deactivate red towers

8. Acheron

Acheron is the last boss and also a disappointment since he's the easiest boss in CT, but although his mechanic are so easy it also can be wiped. At first as usual Tank B should grab it and face it away, he has several line, cornered, and cone AOE, nothing unavoidable, their damage is also can be shrugged off if your healer's good, throghout the fight he'll summon Iron Claws that will grab one of your team member (usually healer or ranged DPS), drained their HPs and stunned them, this must be killed ASAP

After some damage Acheron will walk into the center of the arena and cast Ancient Flare, another insta-kill move, there are three patforms on the East, West and South corner of the arena, Team A should grab West, B = South, and C = East, when at least one person in the platform it will put up a shield that contains the Ancient Flare, after that an iron giant and occasionally an Iron Claw will spawn on the platforms, kill them ASAP as you need to move back to the arena and the platform will be drowned in lava

After that it's practically rinse and repeat, there are several unavoidable skill on last phase like Demi that will cut everyone's health in half and quake that will deal heavy earth damage but nothing that will taxed your healer, just burn him and enjoy the cutscene

Congratulations, you've beaten the Crystal Tower....well....not, it's only one area =))

Image courtesy of: USGamer
Their own guide:

Being Saleh: Why this thing even here?

So I just found out that a private ISP has a more interesting offer on a monthly fee, but apparently they're not even covered my city? There's like twenty different cable provider out there but nothing touched my city, So what's their ad running up and down in some corner of my town? Why they're even there? I was wondered they have some kind of ISP mafia in here in this town (Spoiler: Yes there are)

In Final Fantasy XIV you got attribute points for leveling up, you can spent it on every major attribute (STR, VIT, etc), anything you like, the question is: How viable are they? If I'm as a tank can spent every attribute on INT (spell power for mages) why can I do that? It's not a question of what would I do, the choice is there, even the 'wrong' ones, if I can be scolded by my group for spending my 30 points on MND (healing spell power) why the game gave me a choice to do that, and if the attribute points are not viable, why it was even there? And there's also abilities you can import from another class, like cure from conjurer can be exported to my Paladin, but it didn't scale up, because apparently there are Cure 2 and Cure 3 (which can't be imported) so a 40 HP cure against 1200 minimum physical damage from an enemy is ridiculuous, if I can slot this thing in my ability slot, why this thing even here? I'm a paladin, I should be able to self heal in some amount, also why the hell there are ROLES if I can spend 50 points STR on my pally, and still won't be able to outdamage DPSer, yes because I'm a tank, good answer, thank you, so, why do I need INT again?

On some other game however it was meant to be a trap, in an F2P MMO called Perfect World (yes, from that Perfect World company) you can spend your attribute points wrongly because of the unclear description of each attribute, it will make your character so underpowered that you must reset it, and in order to reset it you must buy an item on their cash shop, well since it's an f2p game, what do you expect? Even in Guild Wars 2 they can avoid this by retuning their double stat skill trees over and over again

Of course it's a different thing from Final fantasy XIV, but still i have a feeling that the dev tested me, 'oh okay you spent everything on your vit, you're cool, the one that spent eveything in MND are fails'... what? Yes it was me daydreaming but still why the wrong ones is even there? It was another matter with rotation, there's a clear instruction of that. You see: WOW takes 7 years to keep class on their tracks by eliminating rolling need on a gear that wasn't meant for the class, segregating the attributes by labeling it: "this stat is not useful for your class", reducing the weapon types so now hunters can't wield everything (monks can :P), why can't Final Fantasy XIV just... you know... being better than it by eliminating the bonus numbers and giving us something more... I don't know, innovative? Awesome? I really want some cool talent tree though that can suited my tanking style (which is bottom rock).

Being Saleh Dual Wield: A Game for XX

My mic is still busted and I'm too lazy to get a new one on the nearest (next door) audio store, so instead I'm just sitting on my linkshell's Teamspeak channel and become a mute (interspersed with broken voices from my internal, unreliable microphone), but last night there's an interesting chat with my friends there, one of them said: that in just a few patches, the only ones progressing into the next tier of PVE is just the eight of them, in term of progressing means they're decked in fully melded AF2/Allagan, have a few 50s in like every class, and blasted Binding Coil of Bahamut up until Twintania, and also: Defeating the Garuda Extreme Mode (and for some of them: Extreme Titan)

The statement could become a delicious debate of Casual vs Hardcore, or Old Guard vs New Guard, Noob vs Elitists, and some more of it, but I'll try not to get there since it's been debated from like the dawn of men, instead I'm going to talk about the root of all of it: Life (yes, like I have one) :D

The Group

My Ilvl is 61, which means I'm decked in my class quest armor with a little Darklight tier sprinkled here and there, and since I'm not online every night I only have like two hundred mythology token (after making my zenith shield), last week was like the busiest week of my life and I've just returned a few days ago, exhausted, and only want to sleep until two days afterwards, I'll get back to it later but for now If I'm (and no I am not) a main tank in a dedicated eight man group there will be consequences: Either I'm replaced by someone else (and if I got into extended hiatus: not needed anymore) or they won't progress since they waited for me. Was it a lose - lose situation? It depends on how you and everyone in your group take a look at the game and how fast you and everyone else want to progress, which also means when everyone feels good together they will stick, thus brought us to the next one

I want in and I want out

Most of the endgame instance in Final Fantasy XIV are eight man locked, you can substract a few, like one tank, or one healer, or just threee DPS, but unfortunately, you can't add anyone. The recent Nightmare Tower content from Guild Wars 2 brought in 'the more the merrier' stuff to a big instance,but they failed to implement it into a permanent content and since GW2 is not progression based the rewards were felt inadequate due to sheer difficulty of the tower since it's all a 'chance' (chance of precursor, chance of acended, and so on)

World of Warcraft however planned to push their flexible raid content further on the next expansion, creating more choices on progression and terms of endgame content, flex raid will scale the mobs on a raid based on the player numbers (5-10) and they reapproached holy trinity in a different way: the all-in-one armor eliminating the grinding for offspec, when you change role your armor also changed stat, it makes roles on raids extremely flexible, the plan sounds viable but it hasn't here yet.

So what happened when you picked a new member for the guild/FC which has some quality of raiding and he/she wants in? Of course in a locked group it means he/she are either rejected, or must find seven more people, or just plain running a 'mandatory' runs where he/she replaced one of the core group members. And when some of the core members wants out because of things happened you have to find new ones, recruiting, otherwise: you won't progress.

Life in a cup of coffee

The Old Guard vs New Guard debacle rotated around the demonic circle of how the new members can't keep up with the old members in terms of grouping endgame content so when old one leaves and new ones comes, both will struggle to adapt, especially when endgame content takes up much skills from the player, and when no new ones comes or both sides are failing to comprehend each other it will break the group eventually often creating bad taste afterwards and also some drama.

I understand one thing: Life happened, sooner or later life can either take us away from gaming and it can also brought us back, even when you dedicated your life to gaming sometimes something will happened to you (ex: Youtube), why? Simple: You're connected with people, in real and in gaming, the former will definitely did something to you (and if you said I'm wrong tell that to your government tax and electric service), the latter CAN'T happened unless the former happened. People come and go, and in gaming they will effect something if they're in your dedicated group, especially if they're a game jumper (like me). I once wrote something on my old blog (it's deleted now since Multiply shuts down and I'm again too lazy to back it up) that a guild/community is like a coffee shop, I have my preferred flavor, everyone has one too of course, sometimes we ordered the same one, sometimes we hang out and chat together, sometimes there's a little friction, sometimes there are indifference, sometimes new people came, sometimes old people left without saying anything, but in the end of the day I had a good coffee, good chat, and good experience as I walk home

What I want to say is: you can't limit on an MMO, people come and go so it's your cue to do something or not to do something about it, there are no wrong answer, because eventually you can't force people to stay, you can force them to leave though, it's easier =)), or change yourself a game, or a playstyle, or role play, whatever, however the dynamic life of an MMO is always the things that attracts me to it, even when there are repeated events here and there, it's so dynamic that you can't focus to game content alone, you will be forced to dealt with happenings if you want to progress in a group content, some games eliminated it with LFG/LFR tools and left the social aspect to a guild, you can choose to be in it or just solo your progress all the way, it's up to you, it's all there, but however you choose it you will still be dealing with people, human beings, so remember to always say hello :)