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The Drowned City of Skalla is a level 70 dungeon in Final Fantasy 14: Stormblood. Originally added in patch 4.1, this new main story dungeon tasks you with exploring the ruins of Skalla deep under the salt lakes of the Lochs.
After diving under the salt lakes, you will enter the ruins of Skalla. You, Alphinaud, and Arenvald are to race to the depths of the dungeon in search of the treasure that is rumored to be hidden there. Luckily for you, they won't have access to this guide. Let's take a look at each boss you'll encounter in the Drowned City of Skalla, their attacks and mechanics, and how to beat them.
How To Unlock The Drowned City of Skalla
The Drowned City of Skalla is unlocked through the following main story quest.
- Accept the Main Scenario Quest 'The Mad King's Trove'
- NPC Location: Alphinaud - The Lochs (X:32.0, Y:33.0)
Dungeon Walkthrough
The layout of this dungeon allows for some pretty big pulls, but remember to only ever pull as much as both the Tank and Healer are comfortable with. The enemies later in the dungeon have high damage AoE attacks, which you should keep in mind when pulling big groups of trash mobs together.
In the first segment of this dungeon, you will encounter Larva walls that block the path. After the monsters before them have been defeated, Salt Swallow Larva will erupt from the walls, joining the fight. The Tank should be ready to pick these enemies up when they appear.
After the first boss, you will come across the Stone Phoebad enemies, who will use the attack Landsurge. This attack deals high damage in a line to the front of the Stone Phoebad; move away from the front of this enemy to avoid taking high damage. Keep this in mind when pulling these enemies together.
In the area after the second boss, you will need to step over the glowing purple glyphs to transform into a flying monster that can float over the gaps in the path. Be sure to get across the gap before your transformation runs out, or else you'll find yourself falling to your death.
Kelpie
The first boss of the Drowned City of Skalla is Kelpie. At the beginning of this fight, Kelpie will turn the edges of the arena into water puddles, which will inflict the Dropsy debuff and deal damage. Throughout the fight, you will need to avoid entering the edge of the arena.
- Torpedo: Deals damage to the Tank. Use defensive cooldowns as necessary.
- Rising Seas: Deals damage to all party members. Use AoE healing to recover.
- Hydro Pull/Push: Kelpie will jump to one side of the arena and begin charging either Hydro Pull or Hydro Push. As their names would suggest, you will need to be prepared to be either pulled or pushed across the arena, relative to Kelpie's position. Move accordingly to ensure you aren't pushed or pulled into the edge of the arena.
- Bloody Puddle: Targets players with a circular AoE that will drop a water puddle on their location. The water puddles will persist on the field for a while, and will inflict the Dropsy debuff to players who enter them, slowing movement speed and dealing damage.
- After the puddles drop, the affected players will be tethered to water orbs that will follow them around the arena for a short time. Run around the arena, making sure the water orbs don't catch up to you or hit any other players while you avoid entering the water puddles.
Kelpie will repeat these attacks until it is defeated. As the fight progresses, these attacks will begin to overlap. During Hydro Push and Pull, Bloody Puddles will be present on the arena, forcing you to move accordingly to avoid being pushed into the puddles.
The Old One
The second boss of Skalla is The Old One, whose attacks and mechanics are detailed below.
- Mystic Light: Targets a random player and casts a large frontal cone AoE in their direction. Quickly move outside the area to avoid.
- Mystic Flame: Targets players with AoE circles. Move outside the AoE indicator to avoid getting hit.
- Subservients: The Old One will spawn these adds around the arena and begin to cast Order to Detonate. Destroy them quickly before the boss finishes casting this attack, which will force the adds to explode, dealing damage to all party members according to how many Subservients are still alive.
- Shifting Light: After the first time the Subservients are summoned, The Old One will additionally cast Shifting Light, causing all party members to turn into Spriggans. As a Spriggan, you will only have access to one ability, Shatterstone. Using this while near a Subservient will destroy it. You will need to work with your party and destroy all the adds before the boss finishes casting Order to Detonate.
- Additionally, keep in mind that the Subservients will slowly rotate around the arena. You'll need to time Shatterstone accordingly so that the add runs into the blast.
The Old One will repeat these attacks until it is defeated. As the fight progresses, the amount of Subservient adds that are summoned will increase. Keep in mind that you can use the ability multiple times in a row, so don't be afraid to rapidly press it to destroy the adds.
Hrodric Poisontongue
The final boss of the Drowned City of Skalla is Hrodric Poisontongue. This boss has a few untelegraphed attacks that you'll need to be mindful of. Hrodric's attack patterns and mechanics are outlined below.
- Rusting Claw: Hrodric will raise his right arm before swiping to his front, dealing high damage and inflicting a stacking vulnerability up debuff. This attack is not telegraphed, so watch the boss's arms carefully.
- Tail Drive: Similar to Rusting Claw, Hrodric will raise his tail before swiping it to his back, dealing high damage and inflicting vulnerablity up. This attack is also not telegraphed.
- The Spin: Hrodric will crouch down and begin casting a proximity AoE attack that deals more damage the closer you are to the boss. Run away from Hrodric to reduce damage taken.
- Ring of Chaos: Targets a random player with a large ring AoE marker. The affected player should move near the center of the arena and stand still while the rest of the party moves inside the ring to avoid taking damage.
- Eye of the Fire: A fast gaze attack that will cause Confusion, forcing you to attack your party members. Look away from the boss when the glowing red eye appears to avoid getting Confused.
- Cross of Chaos: Targets a random party member with a cross AoE marker. Similar to Ring of Chaos, the affected player should stand still to avoid moving this AoE on top of other players while they move to dodge it.
- Circle of Chaos: Targets a random party member with an AoE marker. Spread out to avoid overlapping this with your party members.
- Words of Woe: Hrodric will turn towards a random player and fire a line AoE attack to his front. Move away from the front of the boss to avoid this attack.
Hrodric will repeat these attacks until he is defeated. As the fight progresses, he will use multiple of these attacks at the same time, forcing you to dodge multiple AoEs at once. Watch your positioning as you take down this boss and complete the Drowned City of Skalla.
