The Chrysalis is the climax point of the story in Final Fantasy XIV’s Before the Fall patch 2.5. If you’re not to that point in the story, you may not want to continue reading. I won’t actually mention any story spoilers, outside the name of the enemy you have to defeat.
This fight is actually really simple if you manage the mechanics properly. However, it’s a very unforgiving fight. Small mistakes can cause a failed attempt and make this fight seem impossible. There is technically only one enemy in this fight, named Nabriales.
Nabriales:
There are basically only phases to this fight. The third phase isn’t really a phase though.
Phase 1:
This is the primary phase, where you’ll spend most of the fight.
- Spark: A mid level magic attack that is cast on the person with aggro.
- Double/Triple: These are cast randomly during phase one and always followed up by Spark. Double makes Spark hit twice, and Triple three times. There are two ways to deal with this. The first is very iffy, and only seems to work half the time, the second just requires the healers to be quick in responding. So the iffy method is after Double or Triple is cast, during the Spark cast the other tank provokes Nabriales and takes aggro. This is supposed to split the cast and maybe even cancel one of the Sparks. However like I said it only seems to work about half the time. The other method, the tank at the time just pops a cooldown and the healers heal through it.
- End of Days: Nabriales will sometimes teleport to a spot in the room and use a straight-line AoE attack. This is very easy to dodge.
- Dark IV: There are two points in phase one where Nabriales teleports to the center of the room and starts channeling. During this time, two types of orbs will randomly spawn around the room. Players need to absorb these orbs before they reach the center. The trick to doing this safely is alternating which orbs you absorb. If you absorb a red orb it puts a magic vulnerability up debuff on you and deals magic damage. If you absorb a black orb it puts a physical vulnerability up debuff on you and deals physical damage. Tanks can get away with absorbing a few of the same color back to back but nobody else should do so.
- Shadow Sprite: These spawn during the Dark IV cast. While dealing with the orbs you also need to kill these. Shadow Sprites cast Dark II which is a massive conal AoE that deals damage and applies heavy on those hit.
- Quake III: After the second Dark IV Nabriales starts casting Quake III. This is a room-wide AoE that deals moderate damage. Make sure players are topped off after the second Dark IV as he immediately opens with Quake III.
Phase 2:
At around 10-20% Nabriales summons a portal in the middle of the room that pulls everyone in. Before going through, pop all defensive and offensive cooldowns. Inside the duration of all existing buffs and debuffs are multiplied by 10.
- Comets: Basically the room will be bombarded by Comets in this phase, with one giant comet in the middle that is a one-shot if it lands. During this phase both tanks will run around absorbing the comets, with a ranged picking up the ones near the group. This will allow everyone else to focus on killing the DPS check add. If comets aren’t absorbed they will do massive damage to the entire group.
- Aetherial Tear: This always spawns where the first comet lands. You have around 60 seconds to defeat this add before the group wipes. If you succeed you’ll instantly be pushed back into phase three.
Phase 3:
It’s not really a phase, just a finish killing Nabriales section. Nabriales will use all mechanics from phase one except for Dark IV. Just finish the fight and you’re good.
This wraps up my guide on The Chrysalis. Be sure to check out my FFXIV list of guides for more patch 2.5 content coming soon. Comments, questions, thoughts, and concerns can be left in the comments section below.
