Welcome to the fourth dungeon in Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringers! Malikah’s Well continues the expansion’s trend — laid out by Dohn Mheg and Holminster Switch — of a simple layout with complex bosses. So don’t worry too much about the trash mobs in between. After finishing Qitana Ravel, you should be well kitted out enough for tanks to survive big pulls. Although you still need to be ready when you do get to those bosses! That’s why we’ve put together this dungeon guide to Malikah’s Well in FF14.
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The first thing to know about Malikah’s Well is actually more about Shadowbringers itself. The new expansion introduced myriad changes to Jobs, quests, and more. One of the biggest such changes was an overall increase in damage from group content. Basically, dungeon and raid enemies do comparatively more damage than they did before Shadowbringers. The idea is to make tanks and healers more active than ever — focusing on the signature aspects of their given roles. DPS players, meanwhile, need to work quickly to reduce incoming damage from trash mobs.
You should notice this pretty quickly. Malikah’s Well gets you into the action immediately with plenty of trash mobs. And the normal enemies (particularly those in groups of three or greater) hit hard. Be ready with those cooldown abilities!
Greater Armadillo – Malikah’s Well Dungeon Guide
Stone Flail is your run of the mill “tankbuster.” It deals significant single-target damage to whoever the Greater Armadillo is targeting — preferably the tank. Make sure you shield and heal through it when possible. The Blackest Night is especially useful here for Dark Knight players, with its heavy shield and low cooldown.
Rockfall simply summons a bunch of stones that will fall from the ceiling and into the arena. They’re telegraphed with orange area of effect markers that you should be very familiar with by now. Simply move out of the way to avoid any unnecessary damage!
Head Toss targets a random player with a “stack up” marker. You can tell who is affected by looking for the four glowing arrows pointing at a particular party member. Allies should stand near this person to share and divide the damage. Otherwise, the target will likely die.
Immediately after Head Toss, the Greater Armadillo will cast Right Round to retrieve its discarded projectile. This deals un-telegraphed AoE damage in a circle immediately surrounding the boss. Any player that gets hit with Right Round will also fly to the edges of the arena. The damage isn’t too bad, but the knockback will interrupt spells and might put you in the path of another Rockfall. Stay away from the boss right after it casts Head Toss.
Flail Toss deals proximity damage that radiates out from the center of the arena. Whenever you see purple rings spread out from the middle of the combat area, move as far away — toward the walls of the room — to reduce the damage. Just be ready to run! The Greater Armadillo will telegraph a donut-shaped AoE around the walls of the room, as well as summon more Rockfall markers. Players run to the center of the room and avoid falling rocks immediately after the boss lands in the center of the room.
Pack Armadillos are the only other things to watch out for during this boss fight. These are very weak additional enemies that can be picked up by the off tank. DPS players can and should burn them down immediately. After that’s done, just continue fighting Greater Armadillo the same way you have up to this point. When that’s done, it’s time to reach the second boss of Malikah’s Well: Amphibious Talos.
Amphibious Talos – Malikah’s Well Dungeon Guide
Efface is the second tankbuster. Deal with it the same way as always: with cooldowns, heals, and shields!
Wellbore is a very large, circular AoE attack that appears around the boss. Thankfully it also has a very long windup time. Players simply need to move toward the edges of the arena to avoid it. Once the animation plays, melee classes can use gap closing skills like Plunge to get back into the action.
Closing the gap will also make it easier to avoid four water pillars that appear around the Amphibious Talos in a cross-shaped pattern. These always trigger immediately after Wellbore. They’re not hard to dodge on their own (just avoid the orange AoE markers). However, the boss will also follow this attack with a move called High Pressure. High Pressure blasts all players away from the boss — possibly through the water pillars. Position yourself between the spouts in order to avoid taking extra damage when you get pushed back.
Lastly, the Amphibious Talos will cast Swift Spill. You can tell it’s coming thanks to the rotating ring of arrows that appears around the boss. This indicates which direction the Talos will turn in a 360 degree arc. The idea is to stay behind the boss, as it will repeatedly spew hot water in front of it while turning.
After one complete rotation, both the hot water blasts and the pillars will cease! The Amphibious Talos will then repeat the attacks you’ve seen up to this point until it is dead. When that happens, you’ll fight some more trash mobs before reaching the final boss of Malikah’s Well: Lightwarden Storge.
Lightwarden Storge – Malikah’s Well Dungeon Guide
Intestinal Crank deals unavoidable party-wide damage. Healers should be prepared to use their own AoE shields and heals to compensate. Tanks can use cooldowns to mitigate it, as well, but attacks like these are more to keep you on your toes than anything. It’s better to save big abilities for harder attacks.
Heretic’s Fork creates a square-bottomed pyramid out of energy around the boss. Shortly thereafter, beams of damaging light will fire out of all four sides of the pyramid. Players should position themselves on the corners of the shape — next to the glowing white orbs — to avoid the incoming damage and debuffs.
Breaking Wheel is a room-wide AoE attack similar to Intestinal Crank. However, you can see a subtle ring of mist underneath Storge. Gather together inside this circle to avoid the damage and another vulnerability debuff.
Crystal Nail summons four circular AoE attacks as giant feathers fall from the sky. Stand out of the way so as not to take damage. But remember where these feathers are placed for the next phase of the fight! With the Crystal Nail feathers in place, Storge will next use either Heretic’s Fork or Breaking Wheel. Avoid these just like you did before.
Censure will follow whichever of the two attacks the boss just used. This indicates that the Crystal Nail feathers will copy the boss’s previous attack (either Heretic’s Fork or Breaking Wheel) one after another. This occurs four times total in a clockwise pattern, from feather to feather. Just stand inside the rings of mist or avoid the cross-shaped blasts as necessary.
After each feather casts its spell, it will promptly disappear. Once all four of the feathers are gone, Lightwarden Storge will cap things off by casting the exact same spell one last time. Then it’s back to the usual patterns. Storge will repeat everything you’ve seen up to this point until it meets an untimely end.
And that’s it! You’ve now seen everything in our dungeon guide to Malikah’s Well in FF14. Thanks for taking the time to read it. Here’s hoping it will help you blow through this ore-riddled dungeon. You’re also just over halfway done with the Shadowbringers story campaign at this point. So good luck and keep at it! Finally, be sure to check out our full list of FF14: Shadowbringers coverage in our mega guide.
