Rathalos (Extreme) Guide – Final Fantasy XIV

Welcome to my FFXIV Raid Guides!

For today's Extreme Trial, we'll be doing Rathalos from the Monster Hunter crossover.

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Raid Guides List | Sing-Along Lyric Videos | Listen to FFXIV Soundtrack

Mechanics & Rotation

First off, this isn't your ordinary FFXIV trial. Being a feature fight from the crossover, it has Monster Hunter World mechanics integrated into it. Here are a few things to remember:

1.) This is a 4-man fight
2.) Your party is only allowed 3 deaths in the encounter. It will reset on the third death
3.) When killed, 'returning to starting point' will let you rejoin the battle with full stats
4.) Rathalos has no aggro and will target anyone randomly
5.) He also has no rotation and would use a set of skills randomly per phase
6.) Each player is allotted 10 potions that would restore full health when used
7.) In Phase 2, any kind of healing won't work except by using said potions
8.) The mount requires 50 Rathalos+ Scales, meaning you need to kill him 50 times

Note: This guide is still in the works so it'd be great if you would point out mistakes or add new information by commenting down below. Thank you!

PHASE 1

Rathalos will do the following attacks randomly to random players:

Rush - boss will face target directly with its entire body, does a long roar and then proceeds to sprint towards him. Technique here is to watch out for his pose and roar, look where he's gonna go, and make sure you're not in the path of the target

Roar - raid-wide AoE attack. Nothing you can do here but eat the attack

Burning Recoil - he will face target and stare at him for a bit, and then fly up to drop an AoE fireball

Tail Smash +Mangle - he will face target and do simultaneous attacks from the front and back

Tail Swing - he will face target in a way that he won't move his entire body, but move his neck instead. He then will swing his tail (conal AoE attack) to where he's looking at. So if you're at the flanks and see him twist his neck to look at you, either back off or move to the other side of his hitbox to avoid the attack

Fire Breath - this is the easiest attack to avoid- a player will be marked with a red circle and then receive an AoE fireball attack when the casting finishes

All these attacks are random and can happen anytime. They aren't necessarily deadly (each does about half HP), but can kill you if you happen to eat two attacks consecutively. Some of them attacks can push and stun so the likelihood of getting hit twice is high. The technique here is to always look at Rathalos and watch out for the indicators of what attack he's going to do next.

Another good strategy is to always position yourself at his flanks. This way, you'll be able to instantly avoid most of his attacks except for the Tail Swing. You can practically beat this fight with any combination, but bringing a healer is good for enwbies as you can still use healing skills at Phase 1.

ADDS PHASE

At around 83%, a number of neutral 'local wildlife' will join the fight. They will attack Rathalos first, but will turn to you if you gain aggro by attacking them or healing too much. Have a tank (in tank stance with CDs) get them.

Watch out for the following: Steppe Sheeps cast AoE sleep, Steppe Yamas do a powerful straight-line AoE headbutt while the Steppe Coeurl does a huge conal AoE that paralyzes. Avoid their AoEs and kill them while avoiding Rathalos' attacks

INTERMISSION

At around 69%, a Garula will stun Rathalos and you will need to do the following:

1.) 1 tank switches to tank stance, gets the Garula and prepares to use defense cooldowns

2.) 1 DPS or tank to interact with the 'Foothold' and hold Rathalos down via Active Time Maneuver

3.) The rest focus on killing the Garula (or healing if there's a healer and people need it)

4.) If you kill the Garula on time, Rathalos will fly to the north and do an insta-kill AoE attack. Hide behind the Garula's corpse to avoid dying

PHASE 2

The sky will turn crimson red and you will now fight Rathalos while flying in the air. Take note that any healing except for potions will not work from here on out. He will now do a couple of new attacks randomly to random players:

Rush - similar to the first variation, but this time the only indicator is that he'll fly up a bit before quickly diving towards his target. You're gonna need a faster reaction time for this one. Move to the flanks ASAP when you see him fly up

Sweeping Flames - a frontal conal AoE. The indicator is that he will lift his head up high before making a sweeping flame in front of him. Like the others, move to the flanks or go behind him

Mangle - AoE in front of him similar to Sweeping Flames. Go to his flanks or behind him when you see him lift his head

Fire Ball - he will mark a single random player and fire 3 consecutive 'shareable' fireballs at him. Each fireball will also leave a burning puddle that causes damage when stepped on. For a standard party, it's advisable for all to share the damage and use potions whenever needed. For 4-tank parties, one tank can handle all 3 fireballs alone via tank stance and using cooldowns (and a potion when HP is really low)

You will notice that Rathalos' defense is pretty high and you can't damage him much- the technique here is to keep on attacking him to fill up the 'Down Gauge'. When it reaches 100% for the first time, he will get stunned and expose his 'Wyvern's Tail' for you to attack. Killing the tail will deal around 30% of his HP. He'll fly back up so you'll need to fill the gauge again to stun him and do some damage

To summarize Phase 2: (1) avoid his attacks- possible by mostly staying on his flanks, (2) watch out for the shareable fireball AoE, (3) watch out for your HP, (4) keep on DPSing to fill the Down Gauge and (5) do your most devastating DPS rotation when he's down and stunned. After 3 stuns you should be able to kill him

Overall, the fight is relatively easy. It's only difficult to some players because they are used to the mechanics of FFXIV where everything is scripted and attacks are telegraphed before being executed. As the adage goes, practice makes perfect! Even I had some trouble adjusting to the fight at first. But it grows on you pretty quick if you keep on doing it.

That's about it. Good luck farming!