Shiva Extreme Guide

Shiva Extreme has three notable phases and some elements of randomness. Shiva also has four different weapon Forms which determine the kinds of mechanics she will use. These are No Weapon Form, Staff Form, Sword Form and Bow Form. Which Form she uses is somewhat random however she will never use Bow Form in phase 1. Knowing what to do in each Form is more important than knowing the phases, but I will list both. Shiva should be tanked in the centre of the arena except when in Bow Form where she should be tanked at the north edge of the arena.

You should set Focus Target on Shiva so that you can easily see when she switches to a new Form. One other important piece of information is to not touch the arena walls. It will turn you into an ice cube and players will have to free you before it kills you, just like the Titan rocks.


No Weapon Form

The No Weapon Form consists of the time period between Shiva withdrawing a weapon and her drawing her next one. While Shiva does not have a weapon equipped she will use one of two abilities, called Icicle Impact and Dreams of Ice.

Dreams of Ice is nothing to worry about as it is not an immediate threat, however what it does is give Shiva a damage buff each time it is used. This works as a soft enrage because eventually she will gain so many stacks of the damage buff that it is difficult to heal through the mechanics. However you are likely to hit the hard enrage of the second Diamond Dust before this happens. There's no way to get past the second Diamond Dust and it is an instant wipe.

For Icicle Impact you will need to do some preparation for this at the start of the fight. Each party member should be allocated two positions in the arena for where they run during Icicle Impact. The positions should be next to each other and there are four pairs of positions. Players are paired and assigned whether they are standing on the outside (next to the arena wall) or on the inside (closer to the middle). It will be something like this:

W NW Tank OUT, One melee IN
N NE Healer OUT, Healer IN
E SE DPS OUT, DPS IN
S SW DPS OUT, DPS IN

Where you put people is up to you, but it makes the most sense to have the tank and melee in the north end. Having healers in the north also makes sense as they are closer to the tanks. There are two types of Icicle Impact to be aware of; one that comes right before a Staff or Sword Form (1st) and one that comes right before a Bow Form (2nd). Both will be explained. So now that you are prepared, what is Icicle Impact?

1st: In this type Shiva will target AoE impact zones at four locations in the arena, with a second impact coming right after. For the first impact the safe spot is right where you are standing - in the middle. You will have noticed that the icicles fell on either the N, S, E, W or NE, SW, SE, NW parts of the arena. Take note of which locations they fell at as the safe spot for the second Icicle Impact will always be the opposite set of directions. If the centre of the first Icicle Impacts were at N, S, E, W then the safe spot for the next Icicle Impacts will be at NE, SW, SE, NW and vice versa.

During the second impact Shiva will change Form, and if she changes to Staff Form she will use Hailstorm. This mechanic will be explained later but this is why it is super important for everyone to be in the correct positions.

If you do it right it will look something like this:



2nd: This type is used right before Shiva switches to Bow Form and is handled differently to the above. The safe spot is random. She will drop all nine circles from the image above one after the other. Think of it like the Titan circle bombs. Shiva will start in the centre followed by one on the outside. Your first safe spot is next to the first circle that appears on the outside. You should wait there until the first Icicle Impact falls on the centre and then run to the centre. Afterwards prepare for Bow Form (Explained later). This is exactly how you dodged Titan circle bombs, except with Titan the last bomb to drop was the centre and you waited there.


Staff Form

Staff Form is indicated by a staff icon among Shiva's status icons. While under this Form she will perform two main kinds of attacks, called Hailstorm and Absolute Zero. Her normal attacks also have the effect of decreasing the slashing resistance of the tank, meaning they will get hit harder when Shiva is under Sword Form.

Absolute Zero is an unavoidable raid-wide AoE that deals a small amount of damage to everyone. She will use this multiple times while in this Form so it is recommended that everyone be stacked and only move when they need to for Hailstorm.

Hailstorm will target a number of players with a blue ice icon above their heads. This is the first attack that she will use while in Staff Form. When the icon disappears these players and anyone standing next to them are about to receive about 2700 damage from Hailstorm. Since she targets several players at once you need to avoid having people standing next to each other so that blue icons don't overlap and people without an icon don't get hit by it. In the first phase when she uses Hailstorm everyone will receive a blue icon.

Since Hailstorm will almost always arrive during Icicle Impact it is important to use the positioning techniques described earlier.


Sword Form

Sword Form is indicated by a sword icon among Shiva's status icons. While in Sword Form she will perform four mechanics, which are Icebrand, Glacier Bash, Heavenly Strike and Whiteout. She will always start with Icebrand.

Icebrand is a frontal cone attack that deals very high damage split between everyone it hits. Your tank will likely die if he tries to take this hit alone so the way to deal with it is for the tank to turn Shiva towards the party and have the group split the damage, before the tank turns it back around. As this attack will come during the Icicle Impact mechanic the group should wait for Icebrand to go off before moving to their safe positions.

Glacier Bash is a frontal cone that deals high damage and stuns anyone it hits. The tank should run through Shiva to dodge it before running back.

Heavenly Strike is an attack that deals a small amount of damage and knocks back all players. It is not a big knockback so providing you are in the middle of the room then you will be fine. The knockback effect can be avoided with Succor.

Whiteout is a donut shaped AoE that hits anyone in it with a lot of damage. Since the group should be stacked behind Shiva in the middle of the room during Sword Form this attack should be easy to dodge as you are already in the correct place.


Bow Form

Bow Form is indicated by a bow icon among Shiva's status icons. Bow Form will always come after a Staff or Sword Form and you should prepare for it by taking Shiva to the north edge of the arena as soon as the 2nd pattern of Icicle Impact has been dealt with. The group should all hurry and stack behind her. While in Bow Form Shiva will do more damage with her normal attacks and she will use the Glass Dance and Avalanche mechanics.

Glass Dance is a 270 degree conal attack that will deal over 10,000 damage to everyone it hits. The only safe spot is right behind Shiva, which is why I said to hurry into position at the start of Bow Form. There is nothing more to this mechanic - it's stand behind or die, including the tank.

Avalanche is a mechanic with a very big knockback effect and it is this reason that Shiva has to be tanked at the north end of the arena. A random player will receive a blue arrow above their head indicating that they are the target of the mechanic. They must stand directly behind Shiva while the rest of the group move to her sides. The player with Avalanche will then be knocked back almost the whole length of the arena. If they are not directly behind her then they will be knocked back into the side wall and be turned into an ice cube. The attack will also knock back anyone else in line with the player with Avalanche, which is why the rest of the group moves to the side.

If the tank gets targeted by Avalanche they must use Tempered Will or Holmgang in order to prevent the knockback. If the ability isn't available then they should take the knockback just like anyone else and then quickly get back to tanking position. BLMs can also prevent the knockback with Manawall.

Immediately after Avalanche the group should move back to the middle of the room to avoid getting hit by AoE damage.


Phases

Phase 1 - 100 - 80%

In Phase 1 Shiva only has access to Staff and Sword Forms. She will use both, and in which order is random so be prepared to deal with the mechanics of either at the start of the fight. The group should stack in the middle and only move out to their assigned positions during Hailstorm and Icicle Impact. Some groups will even stack for Icicle Impact in this phase and deal with the 2000 or so damage with an AoE heal as it will never come at the same time as Hailstorm in phase 1.


Phase 2 - 60 second timer.

Phase 2 is a DPS check and you have 60 seconds in order to complete it otherwise Shiva will wipe the party with Diamond Dust. During this phase Shiva will be in Sword Form and four Ice Soldier adds will appear. These do not hit hard and should be brought into the middle of the room.

AoE damage is best here, so having a BLM or two in your party can really help clear this phase with ease. Additionally Shiva can be attacked during this phase so your AoE attacks will be damaging her as well as killing the adds. You should not need a limit break to kill the adds.

After 60 seconds Shiva will use Diamond Dust. If the adds are dead then it will deal around 3000 damage to everyone in the party, which is manageable with an AoE heal afterwards. Shiva will be around 74-70% HP now depending on how good your DPS is.


Phase 3 - After Diamond Dust

Phase 3 will always begin with Icicle Impact and Shiva switching to Staff Form. Prepare for the Hailstorm mechanic and run to your positions at the right time. After Staff Form will come Bow Form and from this point on it is random between whether she uses Staff Form > Bow Form or Sword Form > Bow Form. This is why knowing how to deal with the Forms is more important than knowing the phases.

There is also one new attack that Shiva uses in phase 3 regardless of which Form she is in. It is called Permafrost and the mechanic covers the entire arena with a slippery surface. You will have the debuff Thin Ice and any forms of movement will send you sliding across the arena uncontrollably. You can attack, just don't move. The risk with the mechanic is that you slide into the arena wall and get turned into an ice cube.

The phase is all about getting the mechanics correct during each of her Forms, while dealing enough DPS to not hit the enrage. A melee LB3 should be used on Shiva towards the end of the fight to help finish her off quickly.