FFXIV Shadowbringers Guide: Malikah’s Well

11 Jul 2019
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Malikah’s Well is the fourth dungeon introduced in the Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Main Scenario Quests. It’s available at level 77 after completing the quest A Fresh Start. It can be completed via the duty finder or with the new Trust System.

For the sake of your fellow players, please remember that this is new content (at the time of this publication). Many factors may contribute to a player’s efficiency, or lack there of, in running this dungeon, including gear that might be lacking, or job structures that might be new or different. Never be afraid to take a dungeon at your own pace, but for the purposes of this guide, we’re going to be speaking terms of multiple group pulls.

Encounters 1 & 2

1 Well Armadillo, 4 Royal Bladebearer, & 1 Royal Cupbearer

The only mechanic of note here is:

  • Earthshatter – Wide, linear AoE.

Upon defeat, the door beyond opens.

Encounters 3, 4, & 5

3 Well Armadillo, 3 Well Lizard, & 1 Royal Cupbearer

Rinse, repeat, and proceed through the next opened door.

Greater Armadillo

Passed a zone line you’ll find the first boss of the dungeon.

  • Stone Flail – The boss jumps and slams into the ground, bringing down two waves of boulders from the ceiling, indicated with ground AoE circles.
  • Head Toss – A stack marker appears on a random player indicating where the boss is going to toss the spike ball from his tail. You’ll want to place the stack marker close to the boss to limit the radius on the next attack. Random ground AoEs also show up from the Morningstar spiek ball landing.
  • Right Round – There will be a small tether of light between the Morningstar and the boss and this is the radius of the 180° swing of Right Round. Don’t be between the Morningstar and the Greater Armadillo to avoid the damage and a knock-back.
  • Flail Smash – A proximity AoE marker shows up in the center of the arena, which the Greater Armadillo then jumps to. Its jump causes minor, unavoidable AoE damage, a donut ground AoE to appear around the outside of the arena and several random AoEs to appear inside the circle of safety in the center.
  • Two Pack Armadillos spawn in.
    • Deep Draught – If allowed to finish this cast, the Pack Armadillos will give themselves a damage up buff.
  • This entire pattern repeats until death.

Encounter 6

1 Royal Custard, 2 Well Huldu

The Huldu here will use Self-destruct, but not die from it. After this pack is defeated, the door beyond will open.

Encounters 7, 8, & 9

2 Well Phoebad, 2 Well Huldu, 1 Royal Cupbearer, 2 Royal Custard

This pull has some heavy hitters, so you may want to split it up depending on your group. Mob mechanics not yet mentioned are as follows:

  • Boulder Toss – Small circular AoE centered on the player with hate from the Well Phoebad.

The track spanning the chasm collapses, clearing your way to the next boss encounter.

Amphibious Talos

If you didn’t catch on from the name of this boss, surely its unique attire gave away that this encounter is going to involve some water.

  • Efface* – Tank Buster.
  • Wellbore – The boss returns to the center of the room, creating a large circular AoE which goes off when he drills into the ground. His drilling creates 4 more, slightly smaller, circular AoEs spaced evenly around the edge of the platform that erupt in pillars of water. Touching these pillars causes a dropsy bleed which can be removed with esuna, and a debuff called Soaking Wet which makes the player move slowly and cannot be removed.
  • High Pressure – A knock-back. Avoid being knocked through the erupting water.
  • Swift Spill – Still in the center of the arena, the boss will spin either clockwise or counter-clockwise depending on the arrow indicator that appears. As he spins, he will fire off blasts of water that knock players backward and cause vuln’ stacks.
  • Efface
  • *This pattern repeats from Efface to Efface, so you’ll have two back-to-back from now on.

Encounter 10 & 11

2 Forgiven Grudges, 1 Forgiven Bribery, 2 Forgiven Vainglory

The only attack of note here is from the Forgiven Grudge mobs:

  • Realm Shaker – Large, circular AoE.

Blinding Light, though cast and named, seems to be the Vainglory’s normal attack. After defeating these, the wall blocking the way will crumble.

Encounters 12 & 13

5 Forgiven Indecency

This pack is split naturally into 2 sets (of 2 and 3 mobs respectively) that have collapsed in pieces on the ground and must charge up to Rebuild themselves. This gives the party a chance to DPS them into oblivion before they officially spawn. You can take them one encounter at a time, probably only killing 1 mob per set, or you can have your DPS focus one mob of the first set down while the tank (or healer) goes to activate the second set. With all of the mobs fully spawned, you can AoE the whole set as one for a little expedience.

  • Acclaim – Wide, conal AoE centered on a random player.

A pipe falls into place, spanning a gap in the crystals and opening your path to the final encounter.

Storge

This Lightwarden’s fight is very straightforward, but can quickly go awry with the stacking vulnerability that getting hit with almost every attack causes coupled with hard hitting AoE.

  • Intestinal Crank – Unavoidable, arena-wide AoE.
  • Heretic’s Fork – Wide laser beams will shoot from the flat sides of this box of triangles. Avoid cardinal directions. Getting hit by the laser causes vuln’ stacks.
  • Breaking Wheel – A circle will form under the boss. This is a circle of safety, the rest of the arena will be sprayed in lasers. Getting hit by Breaking Wheel causes a vuln’ stack. Note that the boss’ feathers are arranged.
  • Crystal Nail* – Four feathered “Nails” will embed themselves in the ground around Storge.
  • Heretic’s Fork or Breaking Wheel – The boss changes its form here depending on which attack it’s using, but the change isn’t fast enough to warrant watching for it over just observing which attack it chooses.
  • Censure – The boss will copy its previous attack to each of its Nails in sequence.
    • If Breaking Wheel (x5) – Move from Nail to Nail and then to the center to avoid the donut AoE.
    • If Heretic’s Fork (x5) – The player must move from nail to nail, dodging a Heretic’s Fork at each Nail, and then a final one from the center. Alternatively, since the first Heretics’ Fork always begins at center bottom, you can stand in the center west square, move into the center bottom square when the first Heretic’s Fork goes off, and then stand in the southwest square for the remainder of the attacks.
  • Intestinal Crank (x3)
  • *Repeats from Crystal Nail until defeat.

Congratulations, you’ve completed Malikah’s Well!

Check out the guide for the next dungeon: Mt. Gulg.