GamerEscape

Spoiler warning: This guide contains information from the FFXIV Dawntrail Patch 7.1 Echoes of Vana’diel Storyline!!!

Jeuno: The First Walk is the first 24-man raid in Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail. It’s available at level 100 as part of the quest An Otherworldly Encounter. It can be completed via the duty finder.

Encounter 1

2 Goblin Replica, 3 Vanguard’s Slime, & 1 Vanguard’s Pathfinder

• Seismostomp – A circular AoE aimed at a random player by the Goblin Replica. Once the cast finishes, the Replica then jumps to the placed circle, so you have time to move.
• Vanguard Pathfinder – A circular AoE aimed at a random player by the Vanguard Pathfinder.

Prishe of the Distant Chains

Ha, Distant Chains, I get it…

• Banishga – Unavoidable, raid-wide damage. (Also decidedly not a “knuckle sandwich.”)
• Knuckle Sandwich – (Oh, there it is.) Prishe will pick a spot on the arena floor for the center point of her attack, and around that center point, you’ll see three circular outlines: a small, yellow one, a larger, orange one, and an even larger, purple one. Prishe will charge up her attack either one, two, or three times, rotating her fluffy fist in a circle and gathering blue/white energy, while saying, “Wait for it…” each time. If you can’t keep an eye on her for whatever reason and have your sound on, I find it easier to just listen to her verbal cue. The number of charges relates directly to the circle that will be the size of her eventual attack:
  • One charge means her punch will result in a point-blank attack the size of the small, yellow circle.
  • Two charges means the point-blank will be the size of the orange circle.
  • Three means the attack will be size of the largest, purple circle.
  • In all cases, after the initial point-blank goes off, she’ll follow it up immediately with a donut AoE around her chosen charged circle, so step inside the circle quickly.
  • Getting hit by either strike results in a Sustained Damage DoT.

• Knuckle Sandwich – You don’t always get this second Knuckle Sandwich. My guess is that if you have her below 85% (possibly as low at 82%), then you don’t see it.
• Nullifying Dropkick – A shared tank-buster.
• Banish Storm – Two light staves will be summoned to the arena, each with three arrows pulsing off their center points. After a short time, quickly moving, circular AoEs will move away from the stave on the paths the arrows projected outward. Using your geometry brain, figure out the safe locations between these paths and get there.
  • All instances of this attack after this one will have three staves.
• Holy – As Banish Storm is finishing up, Prishe will cast Holy, targeting twelve random players with traveling, circular AoEs that seem just a tad bit larger than what we’re used to. Spread while avoiding the remaining strikes of Banish Storm, as well as your friends!
• Crystalline Thorns – The boss will form a pattern of spikes on the floor of the platform, leaving a set of overlapping squares and two corners free to stand in. You’ll want to be near the boss when these appear, as opposed to off in the corners.
• Auroral Uppercut – Much like Knuckle Sandwich, you’ll see three arrow arcs projected off of you that show your possibly trajectories: yellow is the closest range, orange is the mid-range, and purple is the farthest. Also just like Knuckle Sandwich, you’ll determine which line you’re going to be tossed along based on the number of Prishe’s charge ups.
  • Ignore where ever Prishe herself is, and position yourself near the center of the floor where her hit box is. This is where her attack will knock you back from.
  • Yellow – Stand right next to the center, aiming anywhere inside the overlapping squares, except for at the two corners of spikes that poke into the center. Alternatively, as a ranged character, you can stand near the edge of the spikes, aiming out toward an outside corner.
  • Orange – Stay near the center, aiming yourself toward a cardinal direction. Half of the cardinal direction are safe as-is, the other will require a slight tilt toward the safe corner.
  • Purple – Stay near the center, aiming off-cardinal, more directly at a corner.
  • If you land in the spikes, you’ll be given a Vulnerability Up debuff just before you land so that you take extra damage, you’ll get stunned as you land so that you can’t escape quickly, and you’ll get a Sustained Damage debuff, so that you continue to lose HP if you managed to survive your initial tangle with the thorns. On top of this, you’ll be forced to execute an extremely silly emote.
  • As you might imagine, if you fall off, you die!

• Banishga IV – The boss will blanket the platform with evenly spaced orbs of light. Either the outer-most orbs, or the inner-most will explode first, then each layer of orbs moving either inward or outward for a total of four waves. (Aka: Outer-most, In, In, Inner-most, or Inner-most, Out, Out, Outer-most.) The inner-most set of explosions include the center orb.
  • All orbs are positioned a step off of the set before and behind it, so standing directly on an orb outside the line you plan to move to after to explodes ensures that you’re in a safe space. Just make sure you move quickly into the recently exploded line’s safe space to avoid taking damage from the orb you’re standing on.

• Crystalline Thorns
• Auroral Uppercut
• Asuran Fists* – Prishe creates an eight-hit tower stack that all players most soak together.
• Banish Storm – Remember, three staves now.
• Knuckle Sandwich – You’ll have to do this in conjunction with Banish Storm, but the Banish Storm circle AoEs will be mostly toward the edges of the arena by the time you need to make your Knuckle Sandwich circle choice, so don’t stress too much.
• Nullifying Dropkick
• Banishga IV
• Crystalline Thorns – These show up during Banishga IV, so try not to get stuck in the outside corners while dodging light orb explosions.
• Auroral Uppercut – This only show up right as Banishga IV is ending, so you’ll be able to handle it the same as before.
• Holy
• Repeats from Asuran Fists until defeat.

Encounters 2 & 3

2 Death Cap, 2 Bark Spider, 2 Robber Crab, 2 Elder Goobbue, 4 Skimmer, & Aquarius

• Scoop – A wide, conal AoE aimed at a random player by the Goobbue.
• Vanguard Pathfinder – A circular AoE aimed at a random player by the Vanguard Pathfinder.
• Hundred Fists – An interruptible tank-buster by Aquarius.

Fafnir the Forgotten

Is it forgotten, though? This is where we press F, right?

• Dark Matter Blast – Unavoidable, raid-wide damage.
• Offensive Posture – This will be the first or second option of three different moves. You’ll have to watch Fafnir and/or the text prompts in red bands across the center of your screen to determine which one is being executed:
  1. The boss lifts and charges its tail with red energy, and the message “Fafnir raises its tail…” shows up in a red band at the center of your screen. This tail sweep is going to cover 3/4s of the arena, with the only safe area at the quarter directly in front of Fafnir. Getting hit by this applies a Sustained Damage DoT.
  2. Fafnir will fly up into the air, its body charging with that same red energy, eventually crashing back down onto the field. The text prompt here is, “Fafnir makes ready to land…” The resulting point-blank is quite large, and not necessarily centered, so head quickly to a safe edge of the arena.
  3. Fafnir will turn in a random direction, fly up and his mouth will charge with energy. The text prompt reads, “An intense heat radiates from Fafnir’s mouth…” This is, maybe surprisingly, a donut around the outside of the arena. The trick here is that it disappears in a wave in the direction is appeared, this will be important for a later mechanic, so pay attention to where the fire donut originates. While you’re standing in the fire you have a constant Burn DoT, and once you step out of it, it will continue for nine more seconds.
• Offensive Posture
• Offensive Posture
• Offensive Posture
• Baleful Breath – A four-hit, linear stack mechanic for the entire alliance to soak.
• Sharp Spike – An individual tank-buster for each party’s tank.
• Four Darter ads will appear and need to be picked up by off-tanks.
  • Pestilent Sphere – The Darters will hit their targets with a poisoning sphere.
• Hurricane Wing* – A raid-wide attack that hits eight times, the final hit is stronger than the other seven. You’ll then see the message, “Tempestuous winds begin blowing through the aery…” indicating that the hard part of this mechanic is about to begin.
  • Three large tornados will spin all in the same direction, either clockwise or counter-clockwise, around the edge of the clear area. Getting caught by these results in instant death. There will also be three small tornados that move around in a more random fashion.
  • At the same time, either the outside will be ringed in wind, or there will be a point-blank circle of wind in the center. In both cases, there will be arrows indicating that the wind will be moving either in or out at regular intervals in rings of AoE. This includes three donuts and the center, point-blank. The second time the wave of rings start, three players will be targeted with large, traveling, circular AoEs.
  • It seems that the best way to handle this mechanic is to stay toward the middle of the arena, only stepping out during the times that the wind pulses and the AoE rings move. Also consider avoiding the middle if you’re one of the 3 players that gets the large, traveling AoEs for the sakes of your fellow players.
• Horrid Roar (v1) – A small, circular AoE will appear under three players, ala Nidhogg’s Horrid Roar. This and the next three instances of this mechanic happen during the course of Hurricane Wing.
• Horrid Roar
• Horrid Roar
• Horrid Roar

• Offensive Posture
• Baleful Breath
• Absolute Terror or Winged Terror
  • Absolute Terror – A wide linear AoE that shoots straight across the arena from Fafnir’s position on the wall. Move to the sides. This is very much like Nighogg’s Hot Tail.
  • Winged Terror – Move to the centerline along the path Fafnir is facing to avoid the two cleaves along that sides that Fafnir’s wings create, ala Nidhogg’s Hot Wing.
• Seven Darters will spawn. Get ’em!
  • Pestilent Sphere
• Absolute Terror/Winged Terror
• Dark Matter Blast
• Horrid Roar (v2) – Eight random players will be targeted with the ground circles this time. This will happen two more time during the course of the next mechanic, meaning this cast does three waves of eight AoEs each.
• Offensive Posture – Remember that you’ll be dodging Horrid Roars.
• Offensive Posture – Dodging!
• Sharp Spike
• Likely repeats from Hurricane Wing.

Encounter 4

4 Groundskeepers, & 2 Sprinklers

• Mysterious Light – A gaze mechanic that requires you to look away from the Sprinkler, or you’ll be Blinded. The Blind lasts 14 seconds and is esunable. This is so XI…
• Isle Drop – A circular AoE aimed at a random player by the Groundskeepers.

Encounter 5

3 Flamingos, & Despot

• Scrapline Storm – Despot will do a huge, circular draw-in, followed by a small point-blank AoE attack. You don’t have to make it all the way out of the draw-in to avoid the AoE, but you do have to make it about half-way out. You can also just use your knock-back nullifier. After the point-blank, he’ll do a donut attack as well, so move in.
• Isle Drop – A circular AoE aimed at a random player by Despot.
• Panzerfaust – An interruptible tank-buster by Despot.
• Wing Cutter – A wide, short conal aimed at a random player by the Flamingo.

Ark Angel MR, EV, HM, GK, & TT

That’s right, BJJ, five of ’em.

Phase 1

• The Decisive Battle – Immediately, EV and HM will disappear, leaving only MR, GK, and TT. Each of the remaining three will tether to all members of a party, giving you a debuff that only lets you attack the one of them. It seems like Party A will always tether to MR, Party B to GK, and Party C to TT. If you missed your tether and you happen to forget that match up, can you simply check your debuffs for red “a,” a yellow “b,” or a blue “y” and attack the mob with that same symbol over their head.
• Cloud Splitter (MR) – Each tank will get a tank-buster with an attached, decently-sized circular AoE.
• Meikyo Shisui (GK) – GK will lay a weave of ice linears on the ground with small safe squares at even intervals. At the same time, an orb will appear as an origin point for a gaze mechanic. Avoid the first ice weave, then the second that appears right after the first goes off, all while facing away from the orb. Naturally, the new safe squares are in the same spots that the linears were overlapping. If you’re caught by the gaze mechanic, you’ll be petrified, but it can be esuna’d.
  • At another point on the field GK will have placed a small, pink circle. As the gaze mechanic goes off, the circle will quickly start to grow, so stay away from it as best you can while you dodge the previous mechanics, or just run from it even more quickly once it starts to grow.
  • Once the pink circle reaches its full size, it will explode, then shrink back down to its original size and become a donut AoE instead of a point-blank. Run into the small circle of safety ASAP. You’ll be able to find it by the giant, pink flower petals circling it.
  • While the pink circle is shrinks, six conals will radiate out from the point where the gaze mechanic went off. Using the cones of safety between these, make your way quickly to the pink circle. These conals trigger not long after they appear, so if they appear under your feet, move off of them as soon as you can.
  • This all happens fairly fast, especially the pink circle in conjunction with the six conals, so sprint if you need to, use the safe spaces efficiently, and use any dashes you might have to hurry yourself along.

• Meteor (TT) – There will be a message center-screen in the red bar that reads, “Ark Angel TT begins incanting…” and TT will audible say, “You shall be consumed by the cowardice that binds you…” For those not targeting TT for damage, or paying attention to the enemy list, both of these are good indicators for when TT begins to cast his spell, which must be interrupted. Meteor is an instant death for all players.
  • Regardless of which Ark Angel you’re assigned to, everyone with the ability may interrupt this spell.
• Havoc Spiral (MR) – MR will dash to the center of the arena and project out three conals AoEs, as well as either an orange, clockwise turning arrow indicator, or a blue, counterclockwise one. When the cast finishes, the conals will spin in the direction of the turning arrows.
• Spiral Finish (MR) – Her next move is to knock everyone back from the center. Make sure that you stay fairly close to the middle while avoiding Havoc Spiral, as the knock-back pushes you a fair distance if you don’t nullify it.
• Dragonfall (GK) – GK will tether to a healer from each party and target them with a party stack marker. Don’t stack all three of these together, they must be soaked as individual parties. Yes, it needs to be said.
• Guillotine (TT) – TT will move close to the edge of the arena to start this charge. The swipe covers the 2/3s of the floor in front of him, so move behind him. He slashes four times before the attack ends, so make sure not to move back into it too quickly.

Phase 2

Once they’ve finished their initial onslaught, MR, GK, and TT disappear, and EV and HM take their place.

• Dominion Slash (EV) – Unavoidable, raid-wide damage cast by EV. This also summons five orbs that result in five puddles of light on the ground. Players that touch them get tossed up into the air and take some damage. Watch out for the orb that appears near the center!
• Utsusemi (HM) – HM summons four (four?!) clones that tether to four random players. All four clones charge up Mighty Strikes and chase down the person they’re tethered to. If they catch you once Mighty Strikes finishes charging, they’ll one-shot you with their charged attack. They don’t move quickly, so they’re not hard to outrun, but do not stop until they disappear. Also be sure to avoid the puddles left by Dominion Slash. Getting tossed up by one of those is a sure-fire way to get Mighty STRUCK.
• Cross Reaver (HM) – HM Prime slashes the arena itself, creating a cross slash in the center which turns into a decently wide cross-shaped AoE. Those with Utsusemi clones chasing after them should note that even after the initial cross shows up, they should keep running. You’ll be able to stop before the AoE indicator shows up.
• Holy (EV) – Unavoidable, raid-wide damage cast once again by EV.
• Mijin Gakure (HM) – Ark Angel HM will start trying to blow himself up. If he finishes his cast, he’ll blow you up, too! The goal here is to interrupt him, but you can’t do that until you take out EV’s Ark Shield.
• Rampage (MR) – MR returns to the field and lays out four linear AoEs on the floor, foreshadowing four corresponding dashes, then tops them off with a large circular AoE. If you can, avoid all five danger zones, but you can also stand in a spot to avoid the four lines, then plan your escape path from the circle after a line or two disappears.
  • Note that the party previously tethered to her is no longer bound to only damaging her. This is true for TT and GK, too.
• Guillotine (TT) – TT returns to the field.
• Meikyo Shisui (GK) – GK returns.
• Cross Reaver (HM)
• Meteor (TT)
• Arrogance Incarnate (EV) – A five-hit stack mechanic for the entire alliance.
• Cloud Splitter (MR)
• Rampage (MR)
• Guillotine (TT)
• Mighty Strikes (HM)
• Havoc Spiral (MR)
• Spiral Finish (MR)
• The pattern here isn’t definite.

Shadow Lord

Buddy, are you ok? You’ve lost some weight.

Phase 1

• Giga Slash – Two phantom sword swing paths will circle the Shadow Lord, showing where he will eventually swing his *actual* sword. In this first phase, this only has two strikes, one to one side, and then one to the opposite. The first of these slashes takes up 2/3s of the arena, while the second takes up 3/4s, but sticking to the direct left and right will keep you in safe zones as long as you’re on the correct side.
  • This can be the most annoying mechanic to follow later on in the fight when you’re watching for other things. Get used to observing these phantom slashes early.
  • Getting hit by these slashes applies a Sustained Damage bleed debuff.
• Umbra Smash – The boss will project four evenly spaced linear AoEs off himself from the center of the arena in a random sequence. When each of these fires off, it will split into two smaller linears that move quickly away from their originator in opposite directions. Each of the four cardinal linears will split in this same way and will cross slightly into the other AoE’s spaces, so keep an eye on that while dodging. If you stay toward the middle, this doesn’t require much movement.

• Giga Slash
• Flames of Hatred – Unavoidable, raid-wide damage.
• Implosion – This is a point-blank AoE slightly larger than the boss’ hitbox, but it’s paired with a half-room cleave. To determine which side of the room he’ll strike, observe the orbs of darkness in his palms. The side with the larger orb is the one getting cleaved. The point-blank AoE indicator shows up significantly before the cleave one does and the cleave indicator does not give enough time for you to get out of it. It’s best just to watch the Shadow Lord’s hands.

Phase 2

• Cthonic Fury – The floor will be covered in an AoE pattern that leaves four sizeable circles with thin paths connecting them as the only areas that are safe to stand in. Once the cast for this finishes, the floor explodes and does unavoidable, raid-wide damage.
• “Hatred spills forth from the Shadow Lord’s dark sigils…” (v1) – This center-screen message will appear and 1 of 4 patterns will form around the circular safe zones, or the boss’ hit box:
  1. If all circles have round symbols (like that on the Shadow Lord’s dais) with fiery lines pointing inward, then move outside of them into the thin paths between.
  2. If all circle have fiery lines pointing outward, get inside the circles. Note that the circle indicators for this version are smaller than the previous example. Make sure to stand inside those smaller marks.
  3. If the hit box square has fiery lines pointing in, stand outside it.
  4. If the hit box square has fiery lines pointing out, stand inside it.

• Dark Nebula (v1) – The boss will place a linear knockback along one of the thin paths between the circles. Position yourself so that this will push you back from the circle it’s cutting through, along a thin path, into another circle.
• Implosion – Handle this just like the previous version, while navigating through the odd floor pattern.
• “Hatred spills forth from the Shadow Lord’s dark sigils…” (v2) – This second version combines a square and a circle pattern for four possible patterns:
  1. Circle lines in, square lines in – Stand on the outer side of the thin paths.
  2. Circle lines in, square lines out – Stand on the inner side of the thin paths.
  3. Circle lines out, square lines in – Stand in the outer 3/4s of the circles.
  4. Circle lines out, square lines out – Stand in the in 1/4 of the circles.

• Echoes of Agony – A five-hit stack mechanic for the whole alliance.
• Cthonic Fury – As before, this is unavoidable, raid-wide damage, but this time it removes the connected circle pattern from the floor.

Phase 3

• Nightfall – Not really a mechanic, so much as a phase change. Enjoy the theatrics?
• Tera Slash – This is uncast, but is mentioned in a series of center-screen prompts that act as your count-down for this unavoidable, raid-wide damage.
• Giga Slash: Nightfall – With its fancy upgrade, this will now do three strikes. The first two will still be 2/3s of the arena to either the left or right, then 3/4s to the opposite, but the final slash will either be a cleave in front or behind the boss that covers slightly more than half arena.
• Shadow Spawn – The Shadow Lord will spawn two clones (Lordly Shadows. Womp.)
• Giga Slash: Nightfall
• Lordly Shadow Giga Slash – This first clone will start projecting his phantom slashes while you’re still dodging the actual Shadow Lord’s strikes, so the indicators can be very easy to miss. The enemy list will show you when he starts his charge up, though, so spare a moment to observe at least one of the slashes. As this is only the regular version of Giga Slash, its either left/right or right/left, so if you happen to notice that the second slash is left, for example, then you know that the first is right.
• Implosion – This starts up while you’re dodging the clones, so make sure to glance at the Shadow Lord’s hands for that half-room cleave indicator.
• Lordly Shadow Implosion – And finally, this begins while you’re dealing with the Shadow Lord’s Implosion, so make sure you have a look at the clone’s hands. The orb that tells you the which of the clone’s sides is dangerous grows large right after the cleave for the previous Implosion goes off.

• Unbridled Rage – All tanks will be targeted with linear tank-busters. Non-tanks should avoid the line of space between the tanks and the boss and behind the tanks.
• Nine players will be targeted with traveling, circular AoEs. Spread out and avoid.
• Echoes of Agony – This has seven hits this time.
• Binding Sigil – Three different patterns of red/pink sigils about the size of the Shadow Lord’s hitbox will appear in sequence, then almost immediately disappear again. All three patterns will show up before any of them explode and you won’t see them again until they’re exploding. You must remember the safe spaces left by each pattern and move to them before they go off. It’s easiest to try and find at a safe space that at least 2 of the patterns share so that you don’t have to move as often. If you’re hit by a sigil, you’ll be bound in place, like the name suggests. If another sigil hits you while you’re stuck, you’re probably dead.
• Damning Strikes – Three stack towers will appear. Split into groups, likely by party, to soak them. A well-prepared tank can take one of these alone.

Phase 4

• Cthonic Fury
• Dark Nebula (v2) – The boss will again place a linear knock-back along one of the thin paths between the circles, but he will then place one along all three other paths, in either a clockwise or counterclockwise pattern. Position yourself so that you’ll get pushed from the first knockback toward the second one, from the second, to the third, and finally from the third to the last. You’ll likely need to take a half-step over the indicator lines to make sure you continue being pushed in the right direction.
  • Don’t get faked out by the visual of the knock-back lines spanning two circles. Only go to the one that ensures you’ll be knocked in the direction of the next knock-back line. After you find this first set, the rest happen naturally in the same direction as long as you take that little half-step.

• Giga Slash: Nightfall – He’ll start this cast while you’re being knocked about by Dark Nebula (v2). Thankfully, he positions himself in the circle you’ll end up in if you do the mechanic correctly, so look at the circle behind where you started and make sure to note the pattern of his slashes.
• “Hatred spills forth from the Shadow Lord’s dark sigils…” (v2)
• Nine players will be targeted with traveling, circular AoEs.
• Cthonic Fury

Phase 5

• Shadow Spawn – The Shadow Lord will spawn two clones
• Umbra Smash
• Lordly Shadow Umbra Smash x2 – Both of the clones will shoot a linear AoE across the diameter of the arena floor, resulting in a cross shape. Both of the linears will split like the four in the Shadow Lord’s Umbra Smash and move out to the sides of their respective originators.
  • This set is actually even easier to handle than the first version. After the cross shape of linears explodes, simply step into the center.
• Giga Slash: Nightfall – If you handle the previous mechanic as suggested, you’ll already be nicely centered to observe the phantom sword strikes.
• Doom Arc – Unavoidable, raid-wide damage that also applies a 25-second Bleeding debuff.
• Giga Slash: Nightfall
• Shadow Spawn
• Giga Slash: Nightfall
• Lordly Shadow Giga Slash
• Implosion
• Lordly Shadow Implosion
• Unbridled Rage
• Echoes of Agony
• Binding Sigil
• Damning Strikes

Phases 4 & 5 likely repeat until defeat.

The last two mechanics in Phase 5 are assumptions based on the pattern from Phase 3.

Now you’ve got all the info you need to complete Jeuno: The First Walk!

Special thanks to Monte, Castus, Nyl, Sven, Jome, Vegard, and Hostile for running this raid with me for footage!