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
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