The Striking Tree (Extreme)

Encounter Overview

The Striking Tree (Extreme) is the high-end version of the Ramuh trial from A Realm Reborn. This encounter is built around tight orb management, repeated tank swaps, player rescue mechanics, and an add phase that must be cleared before Ramuh unleashes Judgment Bolt.

Unlike the Hard version, Extreme makes Lightning Orbs the central system of the fight. Tanks need them to survive Ramuh’s tankbuster, tethered players need them to break Rolling Thunder, and the party must still avoid letting too many remain active because they increase the damage of Ramuh’s lightning attacks.

Arena Overview

The encounter takes place in a circular arena with shallow water around the outer edge and a raised dry area near the center. During Thunderstorm, the water becomes electrified, making the outer edge of the arena significantly more dangerous.

Because several mechanics require players to spread, regroup, and move marked targets into predictable positions, clean spacing around the central dry zone is important throughout the fight.

Mechanic Archive

Thunderstorm

Thunderstorm marks random players and sections of the arena with circular AoEs. When the attack resolves it deals moderate damage, leaves behind Lightning Orbs, and electrifies the surrounding water. Anyone standing in the water after the cast takes additional damage from Conductivity.

Thunderstorm also interacts with Chaotic Strike, since its AoE can break the debuff if it hits the affected player.

Lightning Orbs

Lightning Orbs are the core resource mechanic of the encounter. Picking up an orb grants a stack of Electroconductivity. Reaching three stacks changes the effect into Surge Protection, which reduces damage taken from Shock Strike and removes certain debuffs such as Rolling Thunder.

If a player already has Surge Protection, collecting additional orbs instead applies Static Condensation, which reduces healing received. The more orbs left on the field, the more dangerous Ramuh’s attacks become, so the party must manage orb count carefully.

Shock Strike

Ramuh’s untelegraphed tankbuster. Shock Strike targets the player with highest enmity and deals lethal damage unless that player has Surge Protection. This attack ignores tank invulnerability effects, making proper orb preparation mandatory.

Chaotic Strike

Ramuh targets two players with orange crosshair markers: the furthest player from the boss and one additional random player who is not top enmity. After a short delay, these players are afflicted with Chaos. If Chaos is not broken quickly, it becomes Seduced, causing the player to walk toward Ramuh and die to Thunderspark.

Chaos is broken by hitting the affected player with Thunderstorm.

Thunderspark

A point-blank AoE centered on Ramuh. This attack will kill players afflicted by Seduced if they are allowed to walk into it. Standing at maximum melee range can help avoid the blast while remaining close to the boss.

Grey Arbiters

Six Grey Arbiter adds appear during the add phase. They fire line attacks at players and must all be defeated before Judgment Bolt. They also cast Increased Sentence on Ramuh, reducing the time remaining before his ultimate resolves.

Judgment Bolt

Ramuh’s signature ultimate attack. If any Grey Arbiters remain alive when Judgment Bolt resolves, the party will be wiped. If the adds are defeated in time, Judgment Bolt instead deals survivable raidwide damage.

Rolling Thunder

Two players become tethered and afflicted with Causality and Thunderclap. Performing actions while tethered causes damage, and the damage-over-time effect intensifies over time. One of the tethered players must collect three Lightning Orbs to gain Surge Protection and break the tether.

Conductivity

After Thunderstorm resolves, the water around the outer edge of the arena becomes electrified. Players standing in it take damage, making the raised inner ring the safest general position during much of the encounter.

Hard Enrage

At roughly eleven minutes into the fight, Ramuh casts another Judgment Bolt that instantly kills the party. This acts as the encounter’s hard enrage.

Encounter Flow

Phase 1

The opening phase introduces Thunderstorm, Lightning Orbs, Shock Strike, and Chaotic Strike. Tanks must begin rotating Surge Protection for each Shock Strike, while the rest of the party learns to break Chaotic Strike cleanly with Thunderstorm markers.

At 64% HP, Ramuh transitions into the add phase.

Add Phase

Six Grey Arbiters spawn around the edge of the arena. These adds must be defeated before Judgment Bolt resolves. During this phase, Ramuh continues using Thunderstorm and Chaotic Strike, forcing the party to keep handling the core mechanics while moving through the adds.

Phase 2

After the add phase, Ramuh gains Rolling Thunder. Thunderstorm frequency increases, which makes orb management tighter for both the tanks and tethered players. The encounter becomes much more punishing here because the same orb system now has to support tank survival, tether breaks, and overall damage control.

Later in the phase, untargetable adds appear and contribute additional damage pressure while Ramuh continues cycling his established mechanics.

Final Stretch

From this point onward the encounter is a sustained execution check. Ramuh continues repeating Thunderstorm, Shock Strike, Chaotic Strike, and Rolling Thunder until he is defeated or the hard enrage Judgment Bolt resolves.