Bismarck X

The Limitless Blue (Extreme)


The Fight


I'd recommend to be at least i155 or higher, with an i170+ weapon, and have at least ~10k HP before attempting this fight.

Phase 1

Bismarck's abilities:

  • : Bismarck will knock into the island, reducing the island's integrity. While the fist hit cannot be blocked, every hit thereafter during phase 1 must be mitigated by the magic field to prevent damage done to the island + remove the stagger effect.

Enemies:

  • : Must be tanked. Spawns in the northern corner of the island during Phase 1. It is stationary.
  • : Must be tanked. Spawns in the southern corner of the island during Phase 1.
  • : Entity proctecting Bismarck's during Phase 1. Can only be harmed while you're on Bismarck's back. Get it down to proceed into Phase 2.

Soon after the fight begins, the and the will spawn. Have your main tank pick up the and drag it to the , as it is a caster and will not move. They don't hit very hard, and don't have very much HP. Burn them down and prepare to activate the magic field for . Wait until you see Bismarck sink under the island before interacting with the generator in the middle of the arena, so it protects you for the hit. After this, dragonkillers at the north and south corners are readied, and must be activated by a party member in order to bring Bismarck next to the Island.

Once Bismarck is brought in range, have all of your party board Bismarck and burn down the as fast as possible. Once you board Bismarck, you get a stacking debuff, that does more damage the higher your stack. You'll probably die if the stack goes higher than 4, so do NOT exceed 3 stacks. Your goal is to down the down before you have to leave Bismarck. You'll be auto-knocked off in about 25 seconds, and should be phasing into Phase 2. If you are not pushing into the second phase on the first board, you probably don't have enough DPS to meet other checks.

Phase 2

Enemies:

  • : One of two adds that spawns at the beginning of phase two. Deals high damage. Will gain Vulnerability Down and Damage Up if tanked close to the Ul'sanwa. Has a cleave, so face it away from the party. Tanks should be cycling cooldowns while the adds are up.
  • : One of two adds that spawns at the beginning of phase two. Deals high damage. Will gain Vulnerability Down and Damage Up if tanked close to the So'sanwa. Has a cleave, so face it away from the party. Tanks should be cycling cooldowns while the adds are up.

As soon as the is destroyed, the party will be knocked off Bismarck and the and will spawn. Both tanks will each take one add and tank it where it spawns, facing away from the middle. All party members (including tanks!) will recieve either a or a debuff shortly after they spawn, and will be recasted 50 seconds after it's first placement. People with want to be standing away from , and people with want to be standing away from the . and also reflect damage done to them significantly by party members with their respective debuffs. A tank swap is necessary if tanks are tanking the add with it's respective debuffs applied to them. After 50 seconds (when the first set of debuffs wears out), the debuff is reapplied. Once again, a tank swap may be necessary, as party members might get a different debuff applied to them. Throughout the phase, you'll see AoE circles and Tornadoes. AoE circles do major damage, and Tornados do small damage but knock you into the air for a few seconds. These continue on for the whole fight.
This add phase is a DPS check. You must kill both adds before Bismarck uses , his ultimate. You have 130 seconds (?) to do so. If your DPS is low, a BRD/MCH LB through the middle of the arena, or a melee LB on one add may be necessary. Mitigate the whole party before this attack, as it deals roughly 6000-7000 damage without any mitigation.

Phase 3

Bismarck's abilities:

  • : Bismarck will knock into the island, reducing the island's integrity. This hit can no longer be blocked with the magic field converter in phase 3.
Enemies:

  • : Must be tanked, and it is stationary. Spawns randomly in the island during Phase 3.
  • : Must be tanked. Spawns randomly in the island next to the during Phase 3.
  • : Hits hard, and must be tanked. Gains damage stacks the longer it is up, and uses Death Blossom (random target AoE) every 15 seconds(ish).
  • : On Bismarck's back during Phase 3. It's HP = Bismarck's vitality. Can only be harmed while you're on Bismarck's back. Get it down to win the fight.

Shortly after Bismark's ultimate, the , , and will spawn. You will no longer have the magic field generator, so spread out from the adds before Bismarck uses and staggers you. Tornadoes and AoE circles continue throughout the fight. I'd recommend killing the first, as it deals the most damage, and the other adds have fairly low HP and don't do much damage. Bubbles also spawn throughout the island. These are top priority, as they'll knock you off the arena. EDIT: Water Vapors are only top priority during the wind and water phases.


Throughout Phase 3, there's a weather mechanic in place. Every time the add spawns, you'll encounter one of these three scenarios:
  • Wind Phase - Can be distinguished by dark yellow clouds and rain. After the bubbles are killed, the whole party must stack in the center of the arena to avoid being knocked off the edge. After the knockoff, they must stack in the middle again to avoid taking damage from Wind Dynamo.
  • Water Phase - Can be distinguished by clear and blueish clouds. A splash of water hits the center of the arena, doing major damage and leaving a vulnerability up debuff on whoever it hits.
  • Thunder Phase - Can be distinguished by purple clouds and thunder. During this phase, there are two thunder attacks that go off. Your party must be spread out, as the thunder attacks are splash damage and will hurt all players near the targeted player. EDIT: During this weather phase, you must not kill the Water Vapors. The first thunder strike targets three people, and does 5-6k damage. The second thunder strike comes moments later, and should kill the water vapors without harm. (Thanks to OnionFC for figuring this out). If the Water Vapors are killed, the second thunder strike targets 2 people for 9-10k damage. Your healers must top everyone off after the first thunder strike and mitigate for the second.

After dealing with the weather mechanic, the dragonkillers will be readied once more. For the first cycle, activate the dragonkillers as soon as they spawn. for all following cycles, activate the dragonkillers as soon as you see the AoE targeting them to maximize time on Bismarck's back. If the dragonkillers are launched too early in the later cycles, you will not have much time on Bismarck's back because of from the previous cycle.

Bismarck will then be pulled back onto the island and you will see it's . This mechanic works identically to Phase 1's . However, the has a lot more HP. Be sure that from the previous cycle has been completely removed before boarding Bismarck once more, Your main tank might have to stay behind if you are not killing adds fast enough. Be wary that Bismarck does not autmoatically knock you off during phase 3. You will have to leave before Bismarck breaks free from the dragonkillers and shakes everyone off. Afterwards, this phase repeats until you kill the . or the Island's integrity reaches zero, the latter serving as an enrage mechanic. This will happen after Bismarck hits the island 5-6 (unconfirmed) times.

If you've killed the , congratulations! You have completed the first of two extreme primals currently in Heavensward. You will be rewarded with a random Expanse weapon and an .


Loot

Weapons:
Items:
  • - Guaranteed drop for all players, use 10 of them to get an Expanse weapon at Idyllshire.
  • - Rare drop, used to craft .
If you have any questions/suggestions, don't hesitate to leave a comment below. This is my first attempt at a guide, so any constructive criticism is also appreciated.

-source