Final Fantasy XIV Crowd Control & Movement Mechanics Guide

Final Fantasy XIV uses a lot of visual effects for mechanics. As the expansions have been released, they’ve been attempting to standardize and make important mechanics more obvious.

In my Final Fantasy XIV Mechanics Guides, I outline most of the mechanics that are repeated at least a few times. There are tips on how to handle them, if applicable, and examples of where you’ll see them. I include boss names, but any boss encounters with MSQ spoilers are grayed out and can be revealed by clicking on them.

There is overlap in the various types of mechanics but I've sorted them how I believe most players will come to identify and understand them. This guide is dedicated to crowd control and movement mechanics that restrict your ability to do your job or perform other mechanics. They dictate where you must stand, move, or face.

Gaze/Shriek

A famous mechanic, Gaze, puts a purple eye on an enemy. Your character must be facing away from the target when the attack finishes or you’ll be inflicted by a deadly or incapacitating debuff and possibly take damage. You do not have to be facing the complete opposite direction, i.e. 180°, but the target should be at least ~90° in your peripheral. Your camera can also be facing the target if you need to watch for other mechanics or see when the Gaze animation resolves. 

If the Gaze is accompanied by a standard orange AoE, you only have to look away if you are standing in the tell. There is no additional effect or damage from standing in the AoE, aside from losing DPS uptime by needing to turn away.

There is a rarer subset of the Gaze mechanic known as Shriek in which the eye is placed on a player. That player won’t be affected, but everyone else simply needs to turn away from their ally instead of the boss. To make it easier, the player with the eye should run toward the outside of the arena behind the boss. This will ensure other players don’t have to adjust needlessly.

Examples:

• The Antitower, Calcabrina
• Eden’s Gate: Descent (E2N+S), Voidwalker

Finally, there is an extremely rare case called the stack Shriek. This combines a stack marker and Shriek on the same player. To complete this successfully, you need to run into the circle but face away from your friend, like they kinda pissed you off but you still want to save their life.

Examples:

• Deltascape V4.0 (Savage) (O4S), Exdeath
• Dun Scaith, Diabolos Hollow

Imprisonment/Bind

Popularly known as gaol/jail, imprisonment mechanics prevent one or more players from moving, using skills, and/or participating in the fight. There are various animations to watch out for. Sometimes they’re trapped in a rock or bubble, there might be chains binding their character, they could be floating, or they might just be frozen in place.

If applicable, other players should target the object entrapping their ally and destroy it as fast as possible. Rarely the trapped player might be able to or need to help break themselves out—this is considered a ‘bind’ instead of true incapacitation. In some cases, an additional mechanic is involved or needed to free them. Aside from the obvious benefit of allowing your teammate to participate in the fight again, imprisonment mechanics generally inflict ticking damage the longer the player is trapped, give them multiple debuffs, and do lethal damage if they aren’t released in time.

Examples:

• The Navel, Titan
• The Aery, Nidhogg
• The Weeping City of Mhach, Calofisteri
• Holminster Switch, Philia

Examples where the player(s) can/need to help break themselves out:

• Brayflox’s Longstop, Hellbender
• The Void Ark, Cetus
• Shisui of the Violet Tides, Amikiri

 Examples where an additional mechanic is involved:

• The Striking Tree, Ramuh (must be struck by a lightning circle)
• The Pool of Tribute, Susano (plays a game of cups with your ally)
• Alexander – The Arm of the Son (A7N+S), Quickthinx Allthoughts (resolution depends on the trapped player’s job)

Knockback

There are a lot of variable and inconsistent knockback tells and animations, but a specific one is a pulsing blue and black circle. You’ll want to position yourself on the outside of the circle in the direction where you have plenty of room to be pushed safely. If you’re standing inside the circle, you’ll take heavy damage and possibly die, and if you’re standing on the wrong side of it, wave to your friends as you’re punted from the platform or into some dangerous or deadly AoE.

Examples:

• Containment Bay S1T7, Sephirot
• The Wreath of Snakes, Seiryu
• The Heroes’ Gauntlet, Spectral Berserker

Chains/Tethers

Strap in, friends, because this one’s a doozy. The premise is simple, a tether will connect two things (that word was carefully chosen) together. The appearance varies—it could be a standard tether, chains, vines, or extend along the ground, and it could be connecting enemies, players, orbs, or objects. Because the meaning varies a lot based on these factors, let’s do a deep dive into the various types.

Player to Player

This type of tether has several possibilities.

First, you might need to run away from your chained partner to break the tether. You’ll both take ticking damage the longer the tether persists. The distance required to break it is based on the distance traveled after the chains appear. You cannot immediately break a tether by being out of range of your partner when the mechanic occurs. This means it is often more beneficial to be close to your partner when the tether is created.

Second, you cannot break the tether, and the ticking damage is increased based on the distance from your partner. You need to minimize time spent apart or together to execute other mechanics or perform your rotation.

Third, you’ll both be incapacitated and someone else has to run through the tether to break it.

Finally, neither of you will take any damage until the tether wears off naturally. 

The parties that get the tether tend to be predictable, e.g. DPS to tanks and healers or the main tank to the closest player, etc. Because of this, in more hardcore content, you might be expected to be in a particular place when the tether(s) connect.

Examples with resolution method in parentheses:

• The Vault, Ser Charibert (1) 
• The Singularity Reactor and The Minstrel’s Ballad: Thordan’s Reign, King Thordan (1)
• Eden’s Promise: Umbra (Savage) (E9S), Cloud of Darkness (1)
• The Bowl of Embers (Extreme), Ifrit (2, stay close)
• Containment Bay Z1T9 (Extreme), Zurvan (2, stay close)
• Eden’s Promise: Litany (Savage) (E10S), Shadowkeeper (2, stay apart, then close)
• The Void Ark, Irminsul (3)
• Deltascape V1.0 (O1N+S), Alte Roite (4)

Player to Enemy/Object

The possibilities here are about as numerous as if two players are tethered together:

• You can break the tether by running away.
• You can pass it off to another player or object, or other players can intercept the tether.
• Adds will follow you or aim their attacks in your direction. Sometimes you will be incapacitated, take extreme damage, or be killed if the add reaches you or is allowed to perform an attack.

Examples:

• The World of Darkness, Five-headed Dragon
• The Aery, Rangda
• The Sirensong Sea, The Governor
• Hells’ Kier, Suzaku

Player to Orb

If you’re tethered to an orb, it will follow you around and you want to avoid being hit by it if possible. If you can’t avoid it, try to get hit at a better time (e.g. finish a burst window) or in a more ideal place (e.g. where AoE heals will hit you or away from other players). To lose the orb, you have to wait for it to disappear, bring it to a location, or maneuver so an enemy is hit by it instead.

Examples:

• Cutter’s Cry, Chimera
• Syrcus Tower, Scylla and Amon
• Thok ast Thok, Ravana
• Alexander – The Burden of the Son (A8N+S), Brute Justice

Enemy to Enemy/Object

Tethers that connect two enemies together indicate you do not want these enemies to be near one another. Separate them if possible, or, if they ignore aggro, kill them before they reach one another or complete their casts.

Examples:

• Labyrinth of the Ancients, Allagan Bomb
• Castrum Fluminus and The Minstrel's Ballad: Tsukuyomi's Pain, Tsukuyomi

Tethers that connect an enemy to an object can similarly mean you don’t want the enemy to reach the object. They might try to destroy the object, hindering or disabling you from completing a future mechanic, or they might be powered up by it. Alternatively, players might be able to intercept these tethers, protecting the object or preventing the boss from benefiting from it. 

If the object or enemy is not destructible at all or in time, this indicates that the boss is choosing certain objects for an upcoming mechanic. In that case, you’ll want to pay attention and either move away from/behind the chosen objects or react accordingly.

Examples:

• Labyrinth of the Ancients, Thanatos
• Dohn Mheg, Griaule
• Eden’s Promise: Litany (E10N+S), Shadowkeeper
• Eden’s Promise: Eternity (E12N+S), Eden’s Promise

Proximity Tether

Proximity tethers have arrows pointing toward the enemy and player, indicating you should be as far from the enemy as possible when the mechanic resolves. The tether might change color at a certain point, meaning you’re at the minimum safe distance where you’ll take the least damage possible. They might also be accompanied by a tracking line AoE.

Examples:

• Alexander – The Breath of the Creator (A10N+S), Lamebrix Strikebocks
• Bardam’s Mettle, Garula
• The Qitana Ravel, Eros
• Sigmascape V2.0 (O6N+S), Chadarnook

Beneficial Tethers

But wait, we’re not done quite yet! Not all tethers are something to be feared. There exist some beneficial tethers created by player actions. These can be interrupted or broken if you run too far away from them, which would make your well-intentioned buddy sad. Here’s a list so you know when to hug your friend and when to run from them like they’re the latest victim of the zombie apocalypse.

is a scholar ability that directs their fairy to use on you. The fairy will channel healing over time on you as long as you remain within 15 yalms. It’s a green tether that also gives you a pale yellow-gold, green, and blue aura. It’s their way of saying they’re sorry the boss hates you in particular, but also, it’s their fairy’s problem now. (It’s also their way of saying they wish their fairy had better AI in terms of who it chooses to passively heal.)

is a paladin ability that redirects all damage you take to them for 12 seconds as long as you’re within 10 yalms. This might mean they think you’re incompetent and are going to stand in bad or miss a mechanic, but hey, it’s still nicer than the alternative which is letting you eat dirt. It’s a green tether composed of interlocking hexagons.

Icy Floor

For this mechanic, the floor of the arena will be frozen over, creating a slick, icy blue surface. If players move while this is active, they will slide uncontrollably until reaching a barrier, falling from the platform, or for a certain distance.

Avoid moving as much as possible while the floor is active. Many times, it will be beneficial to or you will need to pre-position yourself to avoid other mechanics before ice coats the arena.

Examples:

• The Akh Afah Amphitheatre, Shiva
• The Great Gubal Library, The Demon Tome
• The Royal Menagerie and The Minstrel’s Ballad: Shinryu’s Domain, Shinryu
• Alphascape V2.0 (O10N+S), Midgardsormr

Forced March

This mechanic will force you to move in a direction relative to your character’s orientation for a certain distance. This occurs in fights where you can fall off a platform, there are AoE fields you can run through, or you’ll end up in a bad spot for a mechanic that occurs afterward. Ensure you’re facing the appropriate direction depending on which way you’ll be running when the cast finishes (forward, backward, left, or right, indicated by one of the effects below and likely the skill name) and give yourself adequate space to move.

Examples:

• The Sirensong Sea, Lorelei
• Hells’ Kier, Suzaku
• Deltascape V3.0 (O3N+S), Halicarnassus
• The Tower at Paradigm’s Breach, Red Girl