Despite its name, Descent is all about you rising above the Eden’s Gate raid in a glorious display of martial might. Although there’s a very real danger of getting knocked off the side of the arena… Welcome to the second phase of the Eden raid in Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringers, where we fight Voidwalker, Antithesis Manifest! This won’t be quite as bad as the first phase of Eden’s Gate, Resurrection, but it will still test your patience with some very unique mechanics. That’s why we’ve created this Eden raid guide to Descent in FF14. Let’s take a look!
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Doomvoid Guillotine – Descent: FF14 Eden Raid Guide
This battle doesn’t begin with anything too special. The boss will simply open up with Doomvoid Guillotine. This is a somewhat large area of effect attack that fires in a line directly in front of the boss, and aimed at the main tank. Although it will fire backwards as well as forwards.
As such, whichever tank has enmity should face Voidwalker away from the rest of the group at all times. The party will still have to move, too, but it’s good to be consistent and predictable. You should also step out of the way. In case that wasn’t clear…
Nyx – Descent: FF14 Eden Raid Guide
Next the boss will summon an army of creatures called Nyx. These are slow-moving, invulnerable adds that douse players with heavy healing damage and healing debuffs. They’re hard to miss, though, so just… step out of the way! But bear in mind that four of the Nyx adds will eventually respawn in a cross-shaped pattern around Voidwalker. After which point they will move toward into the boss and be absorbed.
Doomvoid Slicer – Descent: FF14 Eden Raid Guide
Next is Doomvoid Slicer. This is an AoE attack that deals damage and debuffs to anyone not standing in its only safe area. Said safe zone is right under and next to the boss, so players should run towards it whenever the attack begins. Gap-closing moves are great here! Although you might want to save them for a future phase… We’ll get to that in a second. Incidentally, after Doomvoid Slicer is also when those four Nyx adds return to the boss.
Shadowflame – Descent: FF14 Eden Raid Guide
Now the boss will typically use Shadowflame. This is a unique sort of tankbuster that you will see repeated throughout the Eden raid in FF14. Like all tankbusters, it does massive damage to the main tank — the one the boss is currently targeting. But Shadowflame also hits the off tank, whether they are targeted or not. Healers need to be ready to mend both players as quickly as possible.
Dark Fire III – Descent: FF14 Eden Raid Guide
At this point, several players will be targeted for Dark Fire III. This is your classic “everybody scatter” attack that marks four players with circular damage markers. These four should get as far away from each other and their unaffected allies as possible. That way they don’t spread and stack damage unnecessarily!
Unholy Darkness – Descent: FF14 Eden Raid Guide
Unholy Darkness, by contrast, is your classic “stack up” attack. One player will be marked with four arrows pointing inward. This is everybody’s cue to get as close to that person as possible. The resulting group hug will share and divide the damage between everyone, saving the targeted player from a grisly death. That’s just the power of friendship for you.
Spell-in-Waiting – Descent: FF14 Eden Raid Guide
At this point, you’ve seen a lot of what this Eden raid boss can throw at you. The real trick is contending with this next ability: Spell-in-Waiting. From now on, each time the boss uses this spell, its next attack will come with a hefty time delay before it actually triggers.
For instance, Dark Fire III will still do what it usually does; players will be marked with hefty damage circles. But the damage won’t actually trigger when it’s supposed to! Instead, the markers will fade away and be replaced by a fancy clock symbol above each player’s head. After another short delay, this will gain a visible, five-second timer that looks vaguely like the face of a die. Five dots means you have five seconds until the offending spell will trigger. Four dots means you have four seconds… And so on.
One important note is that it’s perfectly safe to keep attacking normally while the timer is building! You just need to be in your proper position when the countdown reaches zero. Melee DPS players should especially take note of this, as standing super far away during a time dilated Dark Fire III will cause a massive drop in outgoing damage. The same goes for Unholy Darkness. You just need to stack up with your friends before the five-second timer bottoms out!
Entropy – Descent: FF14 Eden Raid Guide
Sooner or later you will also be hit with Entropy. Like a lot of moves this Eden boss throws out, it’s nothing special on its own. It’s simply an unavoidable AoE attack that will damage the entire party. Healers and tanks should know how to deal with this already. If not, though, just remember to shield and heal yourself and allies when possible.
Hand of Erebos – Descent: FF14 Eden Raid Guide
This attack is telegraphed in several key ways. The message “The Hand of Erebos manifests” will appear on-screen, the battlefield will become covered in arrows pointing in a single direction, and a huge goddamn hand will appear. You want to run towards said hand (the opposite direction than where the arrows are pointing). Failure to do so will get you pushed off the edge of the map to your doom. This is a massive knockback, for the record, so stand as close as you safely can to the correct side of the field. Otherwise use Arm’s Length to negate the push altogether.
Punishing Ray – Descent: FF14 Eden Raid Guide
Here’s a tricky move without much preamble. Periodically throughout this fight, Voidwalker will summon multiple black spots on the ground. These basically work like meteor markers — in that at least one player must stand inside each marker to negate group-wide AoE damage.
Any player that does stand inside the circle will take slow bleed damage for the duration, but it’s pretty negligible. The alternative is that much bigger hit to the party, in addition to a one-minute debuff. So take one for the team! Of course, that might not always be easy when the boss stacks Punishing Ray with other abilities (such as the Hand of Erebos). For this reason, it might make sense to save gap-closing skills and Arm’s Length for whenever the black spots appear. That way you can leap back to the evil puddles, or stand in place and ensure the damage gets blocked.
Shadoweye – Descent: FF14 Eden Raid Guide
The last real move in this leg of the Eden raid is Shadoweye. When cast, this will mark a target player with the “look away” symbol: an evil, glowing eyeball. You must turn your player character away from the deadly gaze before it fires. Otherwise you’ll temporarily turn to stone.
Shadoweye can be tricky to avoid for several reasons. For one, it’s not in the same spot as most gaze attacks. It targets a random player instead of radiating from the boss itself, which means it can theoretically fire from anywhere in the arena. It’s hard to see for that very same reason. The boss itself might block your line of sight on whoever is hit with the Shadoweye marker. Then there’s Spell-in-Waiting. That’s right! Shadoweye can also be affected by the time dilation.
We can offer a couple of tips, though. If you find yourself targeted, try to position yourself behind the party. That way the majority can keep bopping the boss while you scurry away. Only the main tank will be in danger of being petrified. Next, keep an eye (pun intended) on those clock markers. The Spell-in-Waiting icons always show the same symbol as the spell… in waiting, up until the five-second timer starts. So unmarked players usually have a good way to keep track of the many delayed abilities coming their way!
Overall, this is far from the worst phase of the Eden raid in FF14. The petrifaction and delays just make it a bit of a slog. It might also look like Voidwalker is overlapping tons of attacks at once, while it’s really just delaying them with Spell-in-Waiting. It’s key to know which attacks you actually need to avoid — and when. Otherwise you’ll be stuck here all day!
In the meantime, though, thanks for reading our Eden raid guide to Descent in FF14. Be sure to check the rest of our Shadowbringers coverage on the site. And take care!
