FFXIV Patch 7.3 – The Ageless Necropolis (Extreme) Trial Mechanics Guide

Final Fantasy XIV Patch 7.3 introduces The Ageless Necropolis (Extreme). How to defeat Necron? Whether you’re chasing a first clear, farming for weapons and mounts, or aiming for a flawless performance, understanding every mechanic is key. Luckily, Hector Lectures shared a detailed guide on his YouTube channel, breaking down each phase and sharing strategies to help your party conquer the challenge and claim your rewards. Let’s dive in. For a faster and hassle-free clear, we offer FFXIV boost services for Extreme Trials— saving you time and effort.

Party Setup

Light Party Split: Standard 4–4 split. (All the images below are screenshots from Hector Lectures's video)

Pairs: Tanks with melees; Healers with ranged DPS.

Spread Positions: Tank, melee, melee, tank, range, healer, healer, range (left to right).

Color Quadrants: Each pair is assigned a set of waymarks with matching colors, used later for specific mechanics.

Phase 1

Blue Shockwave

• Heavy tank buster targeting the top enmity holder with a large cleave.
• Main tank drags it to a corner to avoid cleaving others.
• Two hits total — use invulnerability skills or heavy mitigation.

Fear of Death

• Raid-wide AoE (minor damage) → 8 purple puddles spawn.
• Each puddle spawns hands that target the nearest player with a line AoE.
• Players stand at the puddle nearest to their spread position and bait line AoEs away from the group.

Cold Grip

Mid-arena safe zone → then dodge away from the glowing purple side.

Memento Mori

• Necron glows with one light side and one dark side.
  • Dark Side: Fits 2 players.
  • Light Side: Fits 6 players.
• Raid Plan: Tanks go to the dark side, and everyone else goes to the light side.
• Pre-spread and avoid hands.
  • Dark side always has 4 sets of hands → only one safe lane.
  • Light side has more space.
• Boss casts Smite of Gloom — large AoEs on all players. Pre-position to avoid overlap.
• Tanks may have downtime; use short cooldowns to maintain uptime.

Soul Reaping

Four possible safe zones: Out, In, Sides Safe (treated as “out” positioning), and Middle Safe (treated as “in” positioning). Always think in “Out” vs “In” terms. Out includes sides safe, and in includes middle safe.

Soul Reaping Sequence

• First Cast: Observe the safe zone (e.g., sides safe).
  • If followed by Fourfold Blight → Partner pairs.
  • If followed by Twofold Blight → Light party stacks.
• Second Cast: Always the opposite of the first (e.g., middle safe if sides safe was first).
  • Store this for later use — call it in chat.

The End’s Embrace

• Fear of Death → Spread to bait puddles.
• The End’s Embrace: AoE on each player → drops hands.
• Drop AoEs on the first set of hands and bait away.
• Telegraphed attacks from hands — dodge after the markers appear.
• Blue Shockwave tank buster follows — tanks to corners, others to the center.

Note: Stored Soul Reaping mechanic is now used here.

Grand Cross

• Donut AoE → Stack mid → Heavy raid-wide damage.
• Arena shrinks, spinning laser orbs appear (same as normal mode) with a 3-2-1 countdown.

Additional Layer of Mechanics

• Two puddles target random players.
• Four towers appear (all cardinals or all intercardinals).
• Four spread AoEs target either supports or DPS.
• Spinning lasers happen during this.

Execution Plan:

• Stack mid → bait puddles → move to your assigned color intercardinal.
• Ignore lasers initially — just get to the position.
• Towers spawn + spreads appear:
  • Spread players: Spread at color quadrant.
  • Non-spread players: Soak towers.
• Wait for two lasers:
  • First laser: Always hits cardinals.
  • Second laser: Always misses intercardinals.
• After the second laser:
  • Tower players: Move into towers.
  • Spread players: Move to the secondary clock spot.
• Move to a cardinal and wait for three lasers (safe for 3rd–5th hits).
• Roles swap for the second set (spread ↔ tower duty).

Finishing the Phase

• Return mid for puddle dodges (two sets).
• Get to an intercardinal for proximity AoE.
• Heavy mitigation and healing are needed for the Neutron Ring raid-wide that follows.

Adds Phase

After the fight returns to normal, the Adds Phase begins.

• Rising Fear of Death: A bar will fill over time — you must kill all adds before it reaches 100%.
• Small Hands: These spawn and target nearby players with telegraphed line AoEs. You can bait them, but simply killing them quickly is enough.
• Large Adds: Two will spawn during the phase, one at a time.
  • Main Tank: Provoke and face the first large add away from the group.
  • Off Tank: Take the second large add.
  • These large adds cast a line AoE tank buster on the top aggro target — bait away from others.

You will face three waves of small adds in total. Defeat all adds before the bar fills. At the end, a hard-hitting raid-wide occurs — mitigate heavily. The boss becomes untargetable, and the stage disappears, pulling each player into a solo add phase.

Solo Add Phase

Each role faces a different challenge, with a 50-second Doom timer. Kill your add(s) before the timer expires or you die.

Tanks

• One add only.
• Interrupt Spreading Fear with Interject.
• Watch for Choking Grasp (mini tank busters) — mitigate.
• Finish quickly.

DPS

• Two adds to manage.
• Both will cast Choking Grasp (line AoEs) — step out of the telegraph.
• Keep add HP even — one add will randomly begin casting Spreading Fear.
• Kill this one immediately before the cast finishes, then kill the other.

Healers

• One add, but the highest difficulty.
• Early auto-attacks inflict a heavy bleed — self-heal constantly.
• Chilling Fingers applies a Slow — cleanse it.
• Choking Grasp deals heavy damage — heal through it.
• Bleed can persist after killing the add, so continue healing until safe.

Phase 2

Specter of Death

• The boss summons giant hands — spread to a safe lane for Fear of Death.
• The End’s Embrace: AoE on each player → drops a small hand AoE. Avoid placing these near giant hand AoEs. Getting hit by a giant hand sends you back to the solo add phase — avoid at all costs.
• Hands telegraph AoEs — bait away from the group.
• Boss casts Cold Grip → dodge to center, then to the non-glowing purple side.

Relentless Reaping

• Four sequential AoEs, always one of each type, In (donut safe), Middle Safe (treated as “in”), Out, and Sides Safe (treated as “out”).
• Record the order and note it in chat — the boss will spin them randomly, but they resolve in the same sequence.
• Final AoE in the sequence is paired with either:
  • Fourth Season → Partner pairs.
  • Second Season → Light parties.

Example (Pairs Version):

• Dodge in/middle.
• Out → move to sides.
• Stay out/sides.
• In/middle in pairs.

Circle of Lives 1

• Five blue planets appear in fixed positions.
• They glow green before a donut AoE — run toward the glowing planet.
• Pattern:
  • First donut — move in.
  • Second donut — always directly north or south of first.
  • Hands appear before the third donut — delay movement if needed to avoid being clipped.
• Soul Reaping will follow, using the stored mechanic from earlier with a twofold/fourfold blight.

Mass Macabre – Tower Management

• Melees North, Ranged South.
• First towers: 4-person — soak immediately, get a 4s magic vuln debuff.
• Memento Mori casts — ignore light/dark; split Group 1 left, Group 2 right.
• When debuff ends → soak 2-person towers:
  • Tanks + melees in front.
  • Healers + ranged in back.
• Blue Shockwave tank buster:
  • Tanks leave towers and move to corners to handle the hit.
  • Everyone else soaks 3-person towers.
• Swap tower positions between groups; soak again after the debuff ends. Avoid clipping other groups with tank busters.

Repeated Mechanics

After Mass Macabre:

• Cold Grip dodge.
• Relentless Reaping again.
• Fear of Death spread.
• Circle of Lives 2 (four donuts + hand mechanics).
  • Run to the first glowing circle.
  • Dodge hands + donuts in sequence.

Final Sequence

• Memento Mori 6:2 split with Smite of Gloom.
• Entire Grand Cross Phase repeats.
• Final Darkness of Eternity cast — kill the boss before it finishes.