Guide
Turn 2 can be accessed upon completion of the Second Coil of Bahamut Turn 1 and it is more difficult than not just Turn 1 but also Turn 3. Turn 2 of SCoB is also referred to Turn 7 by the players to differentiate between it and Turn 2 of the Binding Coil.
Turn 2 is all about mechanics and battlefield awareness. You need to be aware of what your other party members are doing and what debuffs you may acquire during the fight. A standard party setup of 2 tanks, 2 healers and 4 DPS is recommended for this fight and one of the DPS should be a SMN for kiting duties. BRDs can also take on this role but SMN just seems to be easier. It is advisable to have the healers stand within the inner circle and ranged DPS on the outer circle at opposite sides.
In the first part of the turn you will have to go through an elevator of constantly spawning trash monsters. All of them are weak and should pose no threat. Once cleared you will move on to an arena with ring markings on it where you will fight Melusine
Lots of Mechanics!
Throughout the fight with Melsuine three main mechanics will persist and there is very little room for error. These are explained below.
Voice: Melusine will cast this on three players at once and it will give them a debuff with a timer between 5-10 seconds. Once this timer runs out it will petrify anyone caught within a cone originating in the direction that the player is facing.
Shriek: This debuff will be cast on a single player and also has a timer that when runs out will petrify people, except this time it is circular so it does not matter which way that player is facing.
The third mechanic is that Melusine will keep spawning Renauds – giant type creatures that will one shot kill players if not dealt with quickly. She will stop if there are four on the battlefield but the recommended strategy involves keeping only one.
These three mechanics all work together and you must use this to your advantage in order to win. I mentioned earlier that Shriek will go off in all directions, so you must be thinking how do you avoid that. The key is the Renauds. Using Voice you can petrify them, this keeps them in place and as long as one of these is between you and the player with Shriek you will be safe.
The strategy most groups use is to place a marker at the opposite end of the room from where the main boss is tanked. This will be where the SMN (or BRD) kites to Renauds to. Using Miasma (SMN) or Shadowbind (BRD) they can hold the Renaud in place at that spot. On the next Voice a player should then petrify it. This is typically done by a healer for safety reasons. When the next Renaud is placed it is a good idea to kill one of them, this is because having multiple risks a Voice missing one of them. Renauds hiding behind a petrified Renaud will not get petrified just like a player wouldn’t. When a player or Renaud is petrified taking any damage at all will kill them. This is why BRD kiting is bad – their auto attacks risk killing the Renaud. When a player gets the Shriek debuff they should run behind the petrified Renaud until the timer expires. Other players should run towards the middle so that they are in the safe zone.
This will happen for the entire fight so perfecting these mechanics is a must to win. Another thing that persists throughout the fight are Melusines Fireballs, she will throw a fireball at two random ranged players dealing around 2500 damage. This is AoE so if anyone is stood near the player they will get hit too. If the two players receiving the Fireball are stood near each other they will both get hit twice and if their HP isn’t over 5000 there’s a very high chance they will die.
It’s worth mentioning that a petrified player can still receive Voice and Shriek and this can be very dangerous if they are facing the party. So much so it may be better to have a player stand near them and let the fireball kill them. This is because petrified players can’t move to position their Voice/Shriek.
The rest of the guide talks about what happens in each phase.
Phase 1
Phase 1 lasts until 80% of Melusine’s HP. This phase is pretty much just a training phase for Voice. If you get the debuff and you are a healer then point it towards the marker to petrify the Renaud, otherwise point it towards the nearest edge of the arena.
Phase 2
Phase 2 will begin when an add spawns. There will be three of these but if you kill them quick you will only have to deal with one at a time. The off tank should take them to the edge of the arena and the DPS should burn them down quickly, taking care to avoid any AoEs they use. Standing infront is bad as they have a high damage attack called Tail Slap so the off tank should be careful when moving them to position. In phase 2 Melusine will start using Shriek, even while the adds are up. So deal with it as explained.
Phase 3
Phase 3 will begin at 60% and last until 35%. The phase begins with four weak adds that need to be killed. These adds won’t move but they will deal small amounts of ranged damage to players. They also have a very high damage attack called Arrow Deluge which is very dangerous due to the possibility of being hit by other damage at the same time such as Fireball. The healers need to be quick with this one.
The other thing to be aware of in phase 3 is that the ringed floor will start changing colour. If a ring turns red/black it will start dealing damage over time to anyone stood in it. After a certain amount of time it will explode and kill anyone stood on it. This is easy to deal with – just stand on a different ring, however you should take care as it makes dealing with Shriek a bit more difficult. If you have to avoid Shriek on the outer ring you should get to where the tank is.
Phase 4
Phase 4 also begins with an add, at 35%. This has a lot of HP and the best way to deal with it is to have the off tank take it to the edge and have a melee DPS LB3 it. This will take a massive chunk out of it. The LB3 should be timed just after Petrifaction – a new attack that only happens in phase 4.
Petrifaction will be cast by the add (and later by Melusine) and it will petrify anyone who is looking at the add/Melusine when the cast finishes. You avoid this by simply turning around. This is why you don’t LB the add until after it uses Petrifaction, because the LB will lock you in place and you won’t be able to turn around.
Once the add is dead there are no more adds, it’s just a case of dealing with all of the mechanics that you have learned so far until you win.