The Limitless Blue (Extreme)

I'd recommend to be at least i150 or higher, with an i170+ weapon, and have at least ~10k HP before attempting this fight.

Phase 1

Bismarck's abilities:
  • Cetacean Rage: Bismarck will knock into the island, reducing the island's integrity. While the initial 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:
  • Vuk'maii Vundu: Must be tanked. Spawns in the northern corner of the island during Phase 1. Caster.
  • Lan'maii Vundu: Must be tanked. Spawns in the southern corner of the island during Phase 1.
  • Chitin Carapace: Entity proctecting Bismarck's Corona during Phase 1. Can only be harmed while you're on Bismarck's back and suffering from the effect of Whaleback. Get it down to proceed into Phase 2.

Soon after the fight begins, the Vuk'maii Vundu and the Lan'maii Vundu will spawn. Have your main tank pick up the Lan'maii Vundu and drag it to the Vuk'maii Vundu, 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 Cetacean Rage. 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 east and west of the arna are readied, and must be activated by a party member in order to drag Bismarck next to the Island.

Once Bismarck is brought in range, have all of your party board Bismarck and burn down the Chitin Carapaceas fast as possible. Once you board Bismarck, you will begin to suffer from Whaleback, and begin to suffer from stacks of Turbulence, dealing damage depending on the amount of stacks you have. You'll probably die if the stack goes higher than 4, so do NOT exceed 3 stacks. Your goal is to down the Chitin Carapace down before you have to leave Bismarck. You'll be auto-knocked off when the Chitin Carapace is destroyed, and should be phasing into Phase 2. If you are not pushing into the second phase on the first board, you'll be knocked off the arena and die, and you probably don't have enough DPS to meet other checks.

Phase 2

Enemies:
  • So'sanuwa: 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.
  • Ul'sanuwa: 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 Chitin Carapace is destroyed, the party will be knocked off Bismarck and the So'sanuwa and Ul'sanuwa 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 Will of the Wind or a Will of the Water debuff shortly after they spawn, and will be recasted 50 seconds after it's first placement. People with Will of the Wind want to be standing away from So'sanuwa, and people with Will of the Water want to be standing away from the Ul'sanuwa. The So'sanuwa and Ul'sanuwa also reflect damage done to them significantly by party members with their respective debuffs, so each party member must be attacking the enemy of the opposite debuff (Will of the Wind attack the Ul'sanuwa, Will of the Water attack the So'sanuwa). 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. Depending on DPS, you might see a third debuff switch.

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. Casters can stand in the north center or south center of the arena to avoid tornadoes, but can still be targetted by AoE circles.
This add phase is a DPS check. You must kill both adds before Bismarck uses Breach Blast, his ultimate. You have about 130 seconds to do so, or Breach Blast will wipe the raid.. 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:
  • Cetacean Rage: 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:
  • Vuk'maii Vundu: Must be tanked, and it is stationary. Spawns randomly in the island during Phase 3.
  • Lan'maii Vundu: Must be tanked. Spawns randomly in the island next to the Nat'maii Vundu during Phase 3.
  • Nat'maii Vundu: 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).
  • Corona: 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 Vuk'maii Vundu, Lan'maii Vundu, and Nat'maii Vundu will spawn. These adds slowly do damage to the Island's integrity (about 5 damage every couple of seconds), so kill them quick, You will no longer have the magic field generator, so spread out from the adds before Bismarck uses Cetacean Rage and staggers you. Tornadoes and AoE circles continue throughout the fight. I'd recommend killing the Nat'maii Vundu first, as it deals the most damage, and the other adds have fairly low HP and don't do much damage. Vapor Bubbles also spawn throughout the island.

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. The weather icon on the minimap will be displayed as "Showers". Kill the Vapor Bubbles ASAP. 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. The weather icon on the minimap will be displayed as "Rain". Kill the Vapor Bubbles ASAP. Afterwards, a splash of water will hit the center of the arena, doing major damage and leaving a vulnerability up debuff on whoever it hits. The range is deceptively large, so watch out.
  • hunder Phase – Can be distinguished by purple clouds and thunder. The weather icon on the minimap will be displayed as "Thunderstorm". 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 Vapor Bubbles. The first thunder strike targets three people, and does 5-6k damage. The second thunder strike comes moments later, and should kill the Vapor Bubbles without harm. If the Vapor Bubbles are killed, the second thunder strike targets 2 people for 9-10k damage.

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 Turbulence from the previous cycle.

Bismarck will then be pulled back onto the island and you will see it's Corona. This mechanic works identically to Phase 1's Chitin Carapace. However, the Corona has a lot more HP. Be sure that Turbulence 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 automatically 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 Corona, or the Island's integrity reaches zero, the latter serving as an enrage mechanic. This will happen after Bismarck hits the island 4-5 times, depending on how fast you kill adds.

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

Loot

Weapons:
Items:

 

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.

Leave a Reply