Nothing is easy for a Warrior of Light in Final Fantasy XIV. Not only do you have to survive the darkness of the Thirteenth, but there are apparently four Archfiends after you. While you faced Scarmiglione earlier in Patch 6.2 MSQ, this fight puts you up against his windy counterpart, Barbariccia in the level 90 trial, Storm’s Crown. It’ll be a hairy encounter, to say the least.
Barbariccia is a two-phase boss fight that takes place in a circular arena with a hazardous boundary appearing in the second phase. There’s a good amount of AoE-dodging ahead of you and players should be prepared to collect stacks of Vulnerability real quick if they’re not quick on their feet.
Be warned that trial guides naturally contain light spoilers. If you prefer to preserve the surprise of trials for yourself, give Storm’s Crown a try first before referring to a guide. Then, come back here for some help if you have trouble!
How to Defeat Barbariccia – Sword Phase
This phase of the fight is pretty straightforward, with Barbariccia using her massive sword to rush around the battlefield and limit your mobility. The one odd mechanic you have to worry about is Teasing Tangles, which limits your movement and can leave you open to further damage.
- Void Aero IV: This is Barbariccia’s party-wide area-of-effect (AoE) attack. It hits for about half health on non-tanks, so healers be ready.
- Savage Barbery (Version 1): The boss moves to the center of the arena and begins to cast this. Note that this is a two-part attack. In the middle of the cast, a glowing sword marker above her head shows you the direction of her first attack. There will also be an arcing arrow marker pointing to a different spot on the edge of the arena. When the cast finishes, Barbariccia will cast a medium line AoE across the entire arena in the direction of the sword marker, followed immediately by her throwing her sword where the arrow marker ends, causing a large circle AoE. Stand opposite of the arrow marker, while also staying out of the path of the line AoE.
- Hair Raid: This follows Savage Barbery. Barbariccia leaps to where sword landed and does a larger conal AoE through the center of the arena. Run toward her sword as soon as the cast begins and stand behind her or right by her sides to avoid damage.
- Void Aero III: This is the boss’ tankbuster, which has to be shared by both tanks. The tanks should stack and use cooldowns.
- Savage Barbery (Version 2): This works the same as the first version, but the glowing sword marker is now rotating around Barbariccia, rather than going over her head. When the cast finishes, she attacks with a donut AoE; the safe space is under the boss. Watch out for the second attack, marked by her sword on one end of the arena, as it’ll hit around half of the safe zone (another Hair Raid from the sword’s location follows up shortly afterward).
- Teasing Tangles: Barbariccia creates four swirls of hair around the arena; these will drop as circle AoEs. These swirls of hair will tether two party members to them, preventing everyone from moving outside of their circles marked on the arena. If you do, you’ll be pulled back in and get the Sustained Damage debuff. All players are also hit with a movement speed debuff. The boss will follow this with…
- Secret Breeze: A set of conal AoE will radiate from the boss, followed by a second set within the safe spaces made by the first set. When the cast finishes, the boss will attack the first set and then the second. Stand in the second set of AoEs and then move into the safe space left behind by the first set of attacks. Note that your movement speed will still be limited by Teasing Tangles.
- Deadly Twist: A standard party stack marker. Stack up the party to share the damage.
Attacks will repeat until Barbariccia reaches about 60% HP. Around that time, she’ll begin casting…
- Curling Iron: When Barbariccia finishes casting this, she’ll wrap herself in her hair, becoming a beefier opponent. This is the phase transition.
How to Defeat Barbariccia – Curling Iron Phase
With the transition to this phase, Barbariccia ditches her sword to go full pugilist with the power of wind. The border of the arena will now debuff you with Windburn if you touch it. The trick here is a lot of these AoE attacks will be stacked up on each other, which is where the dodge-heavy nature of this fight starts.
- Catabasis: You cannot avoid this arena-wide AoE, which marks the beginning of this phase. Stack up and make everything easy for your healers.
- Brutal Rush: From the center of the arena, Barbariccia will attack with a series of quick line AoEs. After the second line AoE, this will be joined by a large series of curved AoEs in a swirling pattern and a dark red circle AoE directly under the boss. Rapidly avoid all three types of AoE. The boss will throw out clones along the curved AoEs, and these clones will charge back across the arena twice. Finally, she will repeat the curved AoE/point-blank circle AoE combo.
- Impact: From the center of the arena, the boss hits with a single party-wide AoE that also knocks back.
- Dry Blows: A bunch of smaller circle AoEs will appear around the arena at random. Dodge them.
- Tousle: Barbariccia will create a series of small, green cyclones that slowly travel to the edge of the arena. These will deal damage and give you a stack of Vulnerability Up if they hit you.
- Upbraid: The boss creates a series of two nested AoEs, starting with a circle AoE in the center, followed by a donut AoE outside of that. Dodge one, then the other.
- Hair Spray: Barbariccia will mark four party members with circle AoEs. Spread out to avoid stacking damage.
- Boulder Break: A pair of tankbusters on each tank. Spread out and use your cooldowns to mitigate the damage.
- Knuckle Drum: Barbariccia will pound the floor over and over again, doing party-wide damage each time. Be prepared healers, as this could kill anyone who takes too many hits during Brutal Rush.
- Bold Boulder and Trample: One tank will be marked with a Flare marker (Bold Boulder), while the rest will have a line stack marker (Trample). The marked tank should move away from the rest of the group as they stack up to soak the damage. Use your cooldowns, as this hits hard.
- Touchdown: This usually comes during the second phase’s Teasing Tangles. There will be a huge knockback marker from one edge of the arena. You have to move towards the knockback marker, while angling yourself as to not get knocked out of the circle you’re tethered to. The boss will eventually slam into the center of the marker, knocking back the entire party.
All of these attacks will repeat and layer on each in various ways until the end of the fight. If you can hold fast and not take too many stacks of Vulnerability Up, this fight will be yours. She can be tough if you’re not paying attention, but the real difficulty is in the combinations, not the base attacks themselves.
If you’re tackling this trial, then you’ve already dove headfirst into Patch 6.2! It’s a big meaty patch with a whole lot of things to do. If you wanted to dive into the Island Sanctuary, we’ll tell you exactly how to unlock it and some helpful guides on how to progress! Those who are looking to raid might want to take a look at all our Pandaemonium Abyssos guides. Either way, we have a ton of FFXIV content over at the Linkshell!