Nael Van Darnus (boss)

Nael van Darnus is fought as a boss in Final Fantasy XIV, during the To Kill a Raven Seventh Umbral Era quest. The fight is balanced towards level 50 characters, and is planned to have an even harder version added in a later patch.

Strategy
This fight is relatively simple compared to the primal battles, but Nael is not to be underestimated. He will start the fight using only melee attacks, so the party should use this period to position themselves; a good tanking position is below one of the two platforms floating above the arena, while ranged attackers stay just a bit to the left of their initial position, to avoid Nael's Iron Chariot and Thermionic Beam moves.

After Nael's HP reaches 75%, he will say "Enough of this mummer's farce!", and the proper fight will begin, and he starts using abilities. Ravensbeak is a powerful single target skill that hits for around 2000 damage. Twisting Vice and Chaos Thrust work similarly to their lancer counterparts, including the TP drain effect of Twisting Vice, which can be dangerous. Iron Chariot is an AoE move centered on Nael. If the party is well positioned, all those moves should only hit the tank and melee fighters.

Every once in a while, Nael will teleport to one corner of the arena, target the tank and use his powerful Thermionic Beam move. It hits a straight line him and also creates pillars of light horizontally in front of him, and can hit twice if a player is caught between these two beams, which is likely fatal. Melee fighters should run to where the ranged fighters are positioned to avoid being damaged.

Once again, if properly positioned, only the tank should be hit (it is possible for the tank to avoid it by running towards the ranged group, but this is not advised as he will then need to reposition himself and Nael once again, and the damage can be easily healed).

After this point, the fight is pretty straightforward. Burn down Nael as fast as possible until he reaches 30% HP, as he will shoot a beam of light towards the sky and the following message will appear on the chat log: "Lunar Debris is caught by the elemental field above Rivenroad!". Once this happens, two Black Mages should go up the stairs and defeat the lunar fragments falling down the arena. They have very low life and should be destroyed by a single thunder -> thundara combo. If a lunar fragment touches the ground, it will explode and deal heavy damage to everyone. After both fragments are defeated, the black mages should return to the ground and help defeating Nael.

Two important notes about the fight: The 30 minute time limit does count time spent watching cutscenes. As there's a second fight right after this one, it is recommended that players do a first run watching the cutscenes before and after the fight and then always skip on following attempts (or just watch them inside the inn room), as they take roughly 7 minutes.

Another important aspect to beware is about Nael's teleporting. If a player is on the stairs (not the platform above them, but on the proper stairs) while Nael is teleporting, he will not do his usual Thermionic Beam but instead teleport to the player and use the Fierce Ravensbeak move, which deals 9999 damage. If he ever uses it, he will include it on his regular moveset and use it other times during the battle, making it far harder and possibly killing several players.

Music
The song played during this fight is one of the original songs composed by Nobuo Uematsu. It features heavy use of guitars, a female voice singing small bits of Answers and a howling similar to the only present in final fantasy IX's final battle theme.

Related Enemies

 * Nael Deus Darnus