FFXIV:ARR Ifrit Hard mode battle guide.

By Zero2990 — October 2, 2013
Tags: a-realm-reborn blog gouki-linkshell guide ifrithm walkthrough

A guide to beating the first endgame raid boss, Ifrit 'Hardmode'

For those that follow my twitter, (@ZeroUktG by the way) you may know I finally reached endgame last week and from the get go it gets real!

After you finish the main quest line you will be sent to Vesper Bay to grab your first endgame quest you must head to Camp Drybone and the beast men stronghold to unlock the battle itself.

Ifrit HM was the first endgame fight upon beating the main story quest line. This is an 8 man fight which means there's no room for error, he hits very hard. His abilities are the near the same as Lv20 and the fight is fairly similar but just be aware of your surroundings, Ifrit's moves do follow patterns that are easy avoidable.

Depending on your instance party it's wise to take a PLD for stun support and BLM or SMN for their AoE limit break. Both PLD and WAR are able to tank Ifrit with ease as long as he is positioned with his back to the party.

Incinerate
Front cone attack, should only effect your main tank. Deals minimal damage to all in range. With DPS attacking from behind this should be no problem for a quick heal to your tank.

Eruption. (Stunnable)
This will target a member of your party with an AoE attack, it's easy avoidable but depending on your tank setup have your PLD or WAR keep stun on cool down to interrupt this ability and avoid missing crucial heals and spells from the casters, if you are hit it can deal critical damage. In phase 2 Ifrit will cast multiple Eruptions so don't over do it with the stuns, he will build up resistance.

Vulcan Burst:
A knock back AoE attack that deals around 600 damage, can be avoided by ranged DPS and healers depending on your positioning.

At around 75% he will start casting Radiant Plume.

Radiant Plume:
For now he will only cast 2 versions of this and the order up to 50% hp will always be Outer rim then Middle. For casters and ranged DPS, stay far enough to avoid Vulcan Blast but be aware he will cast radiant plume so interrupt whatever you're casting. Later on he adds one more cast to this ability but I'll go over that in phase 2.

Crimson Cyclone
From the start of the fight around every 10-20% of hp we will warp to the side of the arena then zoom across the map in a line, if anyone is caught by this it will deal critical damage. To avoid this, crowd to the side of Ifrit or At 70% he will add a clone you can stack inbetween and after 50% he will add a third.

Phase 2 Infernal Nail and 50%-0%

Infernal Nail.
Like normal mode Ifrit spawns the Infernal nail at 50% but this time he will place 4 down, it's always important to go over the kill order before the fight, start at the one next to Ifrit and work your way around clockwise, if you have a BLM or SMN have them use the AoE limit break to kill them off quickly.
If you do not have AoE limits then have a Melee DPS limit the first nail, focus attack in the 2nd and 3rd and limit break the last. Have the best geared member always use the limit for maximum damage.

Hellfire.
If the Infernal nails aren't killed by the time limit it's instant K'O and a restart for the fight.

During phase 2 Ifrit uses all above abilities and Incineration twice as much. And adds his 3rd clone to Crimson Cyclone.
Every 30 seconds he will cast his 3 tier Radiant plume, this time after his middle plume all party members should stack up against Ifrit as Radiant Plume will cover the entire arena. The order is always run In/out/stack with around 10 seconds with each cast.