[Guide] The Binding Coil of Bahamut

[Mion]

The Binding Coil of Bahamut (aka CoB) is a level 50 end-game dungeon. I wouldn't call it a raid, since it requires 8 people. If Square Enix's time plans proceeded on smoothly, CoB was supposedly a dungeon to be released alongside the Crystal Tower raid. However, Crystal Tower was deemed as too difficult, and is being delayed till patch 2.1 somewhere during end-November and early-December.

When patch 2.1 is released, CoB will still maintain its place as the hardest end-game dungeon (aside from Extreme mode Primals), and will be far more difficult than the casual raid, the Crystal Tower.

How to unlock:

In order to unlock CoB, it is required for the story quest to be completed up till the defeat of Titan in Hard Mode. On return to the Waking Sands after defeating Titan HM, there would be a new story quest which you have to receive and complete in order for the entrance of CoB to be unlocked.

Some important notes on CoB:

CoB's entrance is just outside Wineport. Do note that all party members has to be present in Wineport before the party can enter CoB. Another note is that a CoB party cannot be formed through the Duty Finder.

CoB is designed as an end-game challenge, and it is impossible to farm CoB for its drops. When a party clears CoB on Turn 1, anyone in the party will be unable to enter Turn 1 again, until the reset on Monday, 11pm (+8 GMT). The party will have to continue on to Turn 2 on wards if they wish to do CoB. This also applies even when one member from this party joins another party.

Therefore, it is possible to bring someone who has not completed eg. Turn 1 into Turn 2 or above, provided that the leader has completed the Turn 1. But it is not possible to enter Turn 1 again, since the leader has already completed it.

Strict Requirements:

For all members of the party, be it DPS/Tank/Healer, Full DL armor+accessories/Full AK armor+accessories and a Relic weapon is required.

Not to mention, the dungeon HAS to be unlocked before entering (YOU DON'T SAY~).

Highly recommended suggestions from most players (+me):

Some people do not follow the following suggestions, but it is highly recommended. Some (if not all) of them are actually requirements in certain parties.

1. Have a microphone and have the whole party join either Skype/any other VOIP. For EsF members, feel free to use Raidcall (Group ID: 3540514) to coordinate CoB runs. The reason why this is important for certain parties is that if anything happens, or if anyone decides to take some action, everyone will be aware. During the CoB fight, the battle will be too intense for you to take your eyes of the enemy and read the chat.

Having a microphone and communicating over a VOIP will definitely be extremely, extremely, extremely x 1000 helpful during Turn 2, where there will be A LOT going on (silencing, switching of tanks, Allagan Rot, announcing of boss attacks, guiding, etc). Unless you're a tank, you would definitely want to at least have the whole party congregate in a VOIP.

2. Read up on CoB, watch videos, or even read this guide (lololol shameless advertising). Take note of the different strategies shown on different sites. One party's strategy might not fit your team, but another might be suitable. So, why not?

3. Plan CoB timings together. This is more on organisation of a team.

4. Of course, determine who is responsible on what role. I will talk more about this in accordance to the different Turns.

[Mion]

The Binding Coil of Bahamut (CoB) Turn One

ADS

The very first enemy you will meet would be the ADS (Allagan Defense System?), a defense system left behind by the Allagans. It would help a lot if there is at least one Monk and one Bard in the team.

After buffing and what not, the Main Tank (MT) aggros the ADS. The moment ADS is aggroed, it will cast a skill, High Voltage. The BRD will have to use Blunt Arrow (Silence) to interrupt this skill. It is impossible to Stun it.

At the same time when the silencing is taking place, the MT will position the ADS such that the MT will be standing either at the right or on the left. If there is any melee DPS in the team along with the Off Tank (OT), they should wait until ADS casts Repelling Cannon, before moving in and attacking ADS.

All ranged characters and healers should stand at either the right or left hand side of the map to prepare for Piercing Lance.

Skill sequence of ADS: High Voltage -> Repelling Cannons (AoE circle around itself) -> Piercing Lance (Line damage) -> High Voltage -> repeat from Repelling Cannons.


The reason why the melee DPS and OT shouldn't rush in at the get go, is that ADS will cast a lightning attack in a cone in front of itself. The MT should be the only one eating this damage. So while the MT stabilises ADS's position, the melee DPS and OT should wait till the first Repelling Cannon is used.

When Piercing Lance is being casted, the ranged characters and healers should move to either the left or right side of the lane, depending on where they were standing earlier, to avoid the line AoE. After moving and avoiding, there is no need to go back to the previous position. Rinse and repeat for future Piercing Lance as well

This is the part where the Monk will prove as a vital role in this first mini boss stage. When the Monk moves in after Repelling Cannons, he/she should throw Bootshine -> Twin Snakes -> Snap Punch -> ASAP. The maximum would be to throw Snap Punch when ADS is casting Piercing Lance. Do not cast any DoTs/Howling Fist if you are unfamiliar. After Piercing Lance, ADS will cast High Voltage again. The Monk in the team should use Arm of Destroyer to silence this attack.

If Snap Punch is always thrown just before Piercing Lance is being casted or while it's being casted, Opo-Opo Form will last long enough till High Voltage is starting. Too early, and Opo-Opo Form runs out, too late, and the GCD will not be able to make it in time unless you can throw in Perfect Balance.

Simple schematic diagram for MNK skill sequence:

Piercing Lance (Snap Punch) -> High Voltage (Arm of Destroyer) -> Repelling Cannons (Twin Snakes/ True Strike) -> Repeat from Piercing Lance.

Note to non-Monks: Please note that Arm of Destroyer (Silence) cannot be used every time. It requires Opo-Opo Form to be active, which is activated after acquiring one stack of Greased Lightning. Therefore, it would be beneficial if the MT stabilises ADS's position ASAP so that the Monk would not need to run around to avoid being hit and breaking the combo.

After 2 rounds of High Voltage, the OT should stop attacking ADS and move to the back of the map. Aggro the add that spawns behind the map. The add  might move to the centre at first, but it will come back to you shortly after if you have aggroed it properly. DPS should down the add ASAP. If there is a Monk responsible for Silencing throughout the whole fight, he/she should stay on the boss to silence it instead of helping to down the adds.

During the fight, you might have noticed a note at the bottom that says "Charge complete in .... clicks". One click = one minute. It is basically your time limit to down ADS.

Do note that once the add spawns, DPS should allow the OT a few seconds to establish enmity (especially BLMs, who can get aggro easily). Certain adds will also use a lightning skill that hits in a cone, similar to ADS.

One particular add (Attack Node if iirc), will cast a skill, Ballast, after its own Repelling Cannons that is also an AoE around itself. The cast time is however, about one second. It is recommended that DPS stay out of Repelling Cannons until Ballast is casted.

When the nodes are spawned, DPS should try to get hit as little as possible, or none at all. This can reduce the stress on healers who are healing the tanks.

[Mion]

Decided to split ADS and Caudeceus in different posts, or it will be too long :/

After defeating ADS, you would encounter adds along the way. These are trash mobs, just avoid their AoEs and hit them. Healers can try throwing a few Holy(s). Be careful, as some mobs are patrolling.

You would encounter a Dark Stone Golem halfway through. The tank just has to make sure that the Stone Golem doesn't face his party (golem face should be facing the DPSes and Healers), as it will use a 120 degrees cleave attack which should only hit the tank.

About half HP through, it would use an AoE skill, Obliterate, which is similar to Titan's jump. Healers just need to use Medica/AoE heals. If there is a Scholar in the team, try to use Sacred Soil at where the tank is. There would be another Stone Golem just before you meet Caudeceus, the final boss of Turn 1.


Caudeceus

This snake boss might seem like a pain in the ass, but actually there are a lot of ways to defeat it depending on your party make up and your own party's preference. I'm gonna put the strategy that Team 1 used.

Just for info, Team 1 consists of:
2 Paladins (Solid and Rex), 1 Bard (Rave), 1 Monk (me), 1 Dragoon (Einzo), 1 Black Mage (Bruce), 1 Scholar (Xreedom), 1 White Mage (Vix).

The boss map has two highest areas at each side of the map, one near the entrance and one directly at the other side. After the Protect+Stoneskin buffing and what not, Rex, the Off-tank, moves to the highest area that is on the inner side of the map. He doesn't attack and waits there.

Solid, the main tank, will aggro the boss and pull it in and position himself such that he is in between two hexagonal cells. His back faces the boundary of the area (invisible wall).

The other healers and ranged DPSes stands about 2 cells away from the boss to attack/heal. As for the melee DPSes, we entered from the Boss' flank, since it will use a 120 degree head swipe skill which can hit for almost 2k+ damage, and a casted tail whip skill, which is also 120 degrees along its tail. Good reason why melee DPSes shouldn't be in front of behind the boss unless they know what they are doing.

The reason why Rex is on standby at the highest cell, is to wait for the cells to light up. When these cells light up, whoever standing on the lighted cell will spawn one Dark Slime. So two people standing on the cell = 2 slimes. These slimes, when eaten by the boss, will recover the boss HP based on the slimes' HP. Also, it would remove a stack of Iron Scales on the boss, which gives the boss a damage boost (very painful).

When the cell lights up, Rex will jump down from the cell onto one of the lighted cells (he should be the only one doing that), and spawn a slime. Rave will be in charge of hitting the slime to the lowest HP possible to minimise the amount the Boss heals when it consumes the slime. DO NOT KILL THE SLIME.

One thing to note about the slime is that you have to be in the same cell as it, if you are the one luring. If you are too far, it will explode and kill most of the DPS.

When Rex is ready to feed the slime to the boss, Einzo will deliberately go behind the boss to induce the boss' tail whip attack. When the animation of the whip is in progress, Rex will run in from the flank of the boss (somewhere near to the tail too, since he wouldn't get damage), to the other cell. After the boss eats the slime, he retreats by going to the cell directly behind the boss and up to the highest cell again.


Ignore the IGNs in there. I took this pic coz I needed a map.

The cells will light up again for a few times until the Boss splits. For Team 1, we are able to finish DPSing the boss after the 2nd spawn of Slimes. For teams who have not done turn 1 before, be prepared to wipe a lot, since you have to tweak and know how much damage you need to do.

About 65% of boss HP left, it would split. However, before that, the off-tank should be on standby to prepare to aggro the copy. The original 65% will now split to 32.5% each for each split. If there is any Iron Scales, the stack would split as well. When the split happens, STOP ALL DPS AND HEALING. Allow the tanks to establish enmity first.

This part is slightly different. Rex (the OT) will pull the boss to the other side of the map so that it doesn't merge itself, and he will tank it there. At this time, Xreedom will concentrate healing on Rex, and Vix will concentrate on Solid. Because of this, it is vital that DPS don't get hit, so that full healing power can be on the tanks. The DPS will hit the original boss (the one that the MT, Solid, is tanking), until it is about 5% HP.

The boss will still use Iron Scales. If the party is on any VOIP, the tanks can report the number of stacks of Iron Scales on the boss that they are tanking.

When it reaches 5% HP, all the DPS will concentrate on the OT's, Rex, Boss copy. Healers should continue healing. When needed, Rave would cast Mage's Ballad. When the boss reaches 5% HP, LB2 should be up. One melee DPS (either Einzo or me), will LB2 on Solid's boss, and throw a few more hits if about 1% HP is left. At this point in time, all the other DPS should still concentrate on Rex's copy.

When the original is dead, the copy should almost be dead in 10 hits or less. The melee DPS that LBed can stroll over and finish the copy.



Throughout the split phase, there is no need to spawn any slimes. If in any case, the cells where Solid is standing at lights up, he can easily shift to the cell at the right or left since he's standing on the cell's edge. When the cell lights up, the melee DPS should run to safety and let the MT stabilise the new position, before moving in again. Don't wanna risk getting a head swipe from the Boss.

Again, in any case when the MT/OT dies when the Boss is also about to die, it will merge again. If the tank is tough enough, it is possible to finish up. There should also be no need to insta-revive the dead MT/OT. Instant cast should be used to heal the remaining tank instead, since the Iron Scale stack will increase up to about 8 stacks, and it can kill if not healed in time.

-End of Turn 1-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTYuUXlIWow

Team One (Team Pigu) CoB Turn 1

[Mion]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQMXTRFEPXU

Team One (Team Pigu) Binding Coil of Bahamut Turn 2

[Mion]

Reserved for Turn 4

[Mion]

Reserved for Turn 5

[Mion]

Bump. New video added for both Turn 1 and 2. Quality may not be the best, but it is view-able. Turn 3 is just AoE-ing a whole group of mobs (WHMs can join in and Holy the crap out of monsters), so if the video is uploaded, it is just for laughs hahaha

And also, both videos are from a MNK's perspective, soooo the Silencing bulk is in Turn 1.

[Pusheen]

Hello Mion ~

[Mion]

Hello Mion ~

Hello Pusheen!!