You and a small group of Final Fantasy XIV players will be facing off against Barnabas during your attempt at The Tower of Babil in Final Fantasy XIV. It’s the first boss of this dungeon, and you’ll need to pay attention to its specific attack rotations and mechanics if you want to survive and make it through to the next stage. Here’s what you need to know about beating Barnabas in The Tower of Babil.
At the beginning of this encounter, Barnabas will punch the engineer to the east of it and knock them off the arena using the Ground and Pound ability. After that, whenever you see Barnabas preparing this wind-up, it will be using it against you and your party members, knocking you back if the ability lands against you.
Following this attack, Barnabas will be using Dynamic Scrapline, a minor AoE attack around it. However, each party member will have a Negative or Positive sign above their head. Barnabas will have a Negative or Positive symbol revolving around it. If you match Barnabas’ symbol, you want to stand close to it, just outside the AoE. But if you are the opposite, you want to stand away from Barnabas outside of the green aura surrounding the arena. Those matching Barnabas will be pushed back, and those opposite Barnabas will be pulled closer to it.
Another attack you want to watch out for is Shocking Force, a focused attack where you’ll have to group on the player with the Line Stack symbol. Group on the party with the symbol, and make sure your healer is ready to heal the damage.
Barnabas will eventually move to the arena’s north side, outside of the green electricity, and will prepare to fire out Dynamic Punch. Like Dynamic Scrapline, each character will have a Negative or Positive Polarity symbol above their head, and the Dynamic Punch AoE line will have a Polarity symbol. If you match the symbol, get close to the Dynamic Punch AoE, but if you are opposite it, get close to the green electricity at the border of the arena.
Barnabas will leave the green electricity border after using this attack and then return to the center of the arena. He used Thundercell after this attack, with conjured four electricity orbs at the northwest, southwest, northeast, and southeast corners of the circle. These orbs release AoE attacks that you’ll need to dodge by standing between two of them. Unfortunately, they do not have a marker to give you any hint of their attack, so standing at the dead center between them is the best option. Barnabas will also use an AoE attack Rolling Scrapline around itself, so you won’t be able to stand near it before these go off.
These are Barnabas’ major attacks that it will rotate through during the encounter in The Tower of Babil. After you defeat Barnabas, you’ll receive a Treasure Coffer with a chance to loot equipment and weapons for your Job from the dungeon.
