The Cloud of Darkness (Chaotic)

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Level: 100 (Sync: 100)
Item Level: 710 (Sync: 735)
Difficulty: Chaotic

Party size: Alliance
24 man • 6 6 12
Unsyncing: Not Allowed
Time limit: 90 minutes
Phoenix Down: Not Available
Duty Finder: Raid Finder (Chaotic Alliance Raids)
Tomestones: 20
Req. quest: How the West Was Sung
Location: Sphere of Naught
Region: ???
Stone, Sky, Sea: Available
Patch: 7.15

“

Strumming wistful chords upon his harp, the wandering minstrel sings a ballad of a dread voidsent queen who sought to engulf all in Darkness as part of an unholy pact with Emperor Xande. Thanks to your comrades' valiant sacrifice, you succeeded in vanquishing the being in her Lightless domain...but what might have happened had there been none at your side in whom flowed the royal blood of Allag? Could you have withstood the might of a further empowered Cloud of Darkness? Such possibilities play on your mind as the minstrel's evocative verse brings his wild imaginings to vivid life...

— In-game description

The Cloud of Darkness (Chaotic) is a level 100 chaotic alliance raid introduced in patch 7.15 with Dawntrail.

Phases & Abilities

Stygian Sovereign: The Cloud of Darkness

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Reason: Will finish later

Guide by Mr. Happy

The boss opens with two different attacks before the first phase proper

Blade of Darkness (two variations depending on boss animation):
- Both arms in front of boss: point blank AoE
- One arm raised: Donut AoE on the non-raised arm

After two of the above, the boss will cast:

Deluge of Darkness: Raidwide damage and Bleeding
- Changes the arena and marks the start of Phase 1

Phase 1

The boss will begin inflicting stacking Lightning Resistance Down to the main tank with it's auto attacks, necessitating tank swaps periodically.
Grim Embrace: Tethers twelve players and inflicts Deadly Embrace causing a large line AoE on debuff expiration which if it hits will give a stack of Damage Down and a 5-second cleansable Doom.
- The line AoE will come either from the player's face or their back depending on the boss' animation. If the boss is pulling the crystal towards her, the line will come from the player's rear. If she is pushing the crystal, it'll be the player's front.

While Grim Embrace is resolving, several cloudlets will appear along the edges of the arena and do four sets of line AoEs that will need to be dodged.
At the same time, the boss will be casting one of three spells:

Death IV: a draw-in to the center of the platform, followed by a point-blank AoE that inflicts Doom on any player hit. Followed by a donut AoE on the same position.
Aero IV: Powerful knockback AoE at the center of the platform
Flare: Spread markers on one player from each alliance. Maximum distance and party mitigation recommended. After the spread markers, each alliance will get two light party stack markers which should not be overlapped as doing so will be lethal.

Both Death IV and Aero IV can be mitigated with Arm's Length or Surecast though they should probably be saved for later.

Blade of Darkness as above
Endeath IV: Alters the next Blade of Darkness to be immediately followed by Death IV. The boss says "Death abide in my breast" as a telegraph
Enaero IV: Alters the next Blade of Darkness to be immediately followed by Aero IV. The boss says "Wind abide in my breast" as a telegraph

The boss will then do one of the two following patterns

Break IV: The boss summons two eyes along the arena's edges and casts a gaze attack that inflicts Petrification on any player looking towards the boss or either of the eyes. This means only one edge of the arena is safe.

Rapid-sequence Particle Beam: Targets each alliance with an unmarked stack AoE that is an 8-player soak and hits four times. It also deals significantly more damage to the first two players it hits, so tanks should be out front. Party mitigation recommended.

Once all the mechanics finish resolving the boss will initiate Phase 2 with a

Deluge of Darkness: Raidwide damage and Bleeding

Phase 2

The inner ring tiles can only support one player at a time or they disappear immediately and the players fall to their deaths. Additionally, the tiles will only support a single player for around 43 seconds and periodically have to be vacated to refresh this hidden timer.

Dark Dominion: Changes the outer ring to a death zone and inflicts heavy Bleeding on all players
Particle Concentration: Three stack tower on the outer platforms. Inner ring players have a two stack tower and a single stack tower.
Ghastly Gloom: Donut or Cross AoE

Stygian Shadow

Third Art of Darkness: Is one of either: two half-platform AoEs, a line AoE spread, or pair partners, depending on boss animation. One upper tentacle lit is the half-platform, both lit is line spread, and pair partners is if the boss' body lights up.
Curse of Darkness: Several different timed debuffs that shoot conal AoEs from the player when they expire, inflicting a damage-over-time on any players hit.
Evil Seed:

Atomos
These tether and inflict heavy damage-over-time to a player and, if ignored, will eventually begin healing the boss. Ranged kill these as they spawn.

Loot

See also: Clouddark Armor

2 Clouddark Demimateria I (guaranteed)
1 Clouddark Demimateria II (guaranteed)

Treasure Coffer

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
Clouddark Head Gear Coffer (IL 730)	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Clouddark Chest Gear Coffer (IL 730)	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Clouddark Hand Gear Coffer (IL 730)	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Clouddark Leg Gear Coffer (IL 730)	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Clouddark Foot Gear Coffer (IL 730)	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Shroud of Darkness	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Dais of Darkness	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Wisp of Darkness	Minion	N/A	ABasic	1
Modern Aesthetics - A Half Times Two	Other	N/A	ABasic	1

Two non-duplicate equipment coffers are guaranteed to appear, while the other items are rare drops.

Each party in the alliance will receive its own treasure coffer. Players cannot roll on items in a treasure coffer belonging to another party.

By speaking with Uah'shepya in Solution Nine (X:8.7 Y:13.5), players can exchange obtained demimateria for rewards, including all gear, both mounts and the hairstyle. The minion is only available as a drop.

There are no weekly restrictions on loot. In addition, there are two additional loot bonuses:

First Time Duty Bonus: Additional tokens will be rewarded in proportion to the number of alliance members new to the duty. Specifically, each player will receive an additional 2 Clouddark Demimateria II per first-time clear. If all 24 players clear for the first time, each player would receive 49 Clouddark Demimateria II.
Limited Time Bonus: A randomly occurring reward bonus that persists for several hours. Entering the duty during this period will give improved drop rates for the rare drops and a chance of additional tokens upon completion. Randomly chosen players in each party will receive additional Clouddark Demimateria I. A total of 8 extra Demimateria I will be distributed per party. It is possible for the same player to receive multiple additional demimateria.

Achievements

This duty is associated with the following achievements:

Name	Points	Task	Reward	Patch
Cloud Strife	5	Defeat the Cloud of Darkness in the Cloud of Darkness (Chaotic).	-	7.15

Music

Section	Theme
Main	Hunger

Images

Raid Images

Gear Images

Notes

Even though pre-made parties can enter the raid with a minimum of 12 players, as of patch 7.15, it is not possible to complete it with this number of players due to having insufficient headcount for the Particle Condensation (towers) mechanics. It has yet to be established what the minimum number of players needed to complete the raid is.

External Links

The Cloud of Darkness (Chaotic)

Contents