Battle in the Big Keep
- See also: Battle on the Big Bridge
Battle in the Big Keep
- Level
- 50 (Sync: 50)
- Item Level
- 90
- Difficulty
- Normal
- Party size
- Full Party
8 man • 2
2 
4 
- Unsyncing
- Allowed
- Time limit
- 60 minutes
- Roulette
- Trials
- Tomestones
15 - Req. quest
Her Last Vow- Patch
- 2.5
“How many realms has he traversed, and how many rivals has he felled? Gilgamesh journeys ever onward in his unending quest for the strongest of swords. But the road is long and lonesome, and a painted rooster─loyal and noble as the bird may be─can bring a man only so much comfort in the darkest and most trying of times. So it was that Gilgamesh turned to the heavens, pleading to be reunited with a long-lost companion. Be it by fortune or fate, his prayers were heard, and the stage for the final confrontation is set. To the victor goes the Treaty-Blade!
— In-game description
Battle in the Big Keep is a level 50 trial introduced in patch 2.5.
General Information
Battle in the Big Keep is a level 50 trial that pits the players against Gilgamesh (Hard). It is part of 
Her Last Vow of the patch 2.5 Hildibrand questline. The battle requires a full party of 8 players with average item level of at least 90.
Reward: 15
Unlock
- Quest: Her Last Vow
- Quest-giver Location: Julyan - Ul'dah - Steps of Thal (x12,y11)
- Prerequisites: Truths Untold
Strategy
Phase 1: Gilgamesh and Enkidu
Don't bother hitting Gilgamesh, as Enkidu will heal him.
Gilgamesh will occasionally jump into the middle of the arena and perform an AoE knockback. Shields (stoneskin, succor) block the effect if they reduce the damage to 0. SMN & SCH should take care to re-place their pets if they get knocked to the edge of the arena.
Enkidu's cone telegraph inflicts a -30% damage/heals debuff if it hits.
[Unknown ability] inflicts slow+heavy on x players. These should be cleansed. Healers first. I found it affected two players most times and occasionally affected three.
Two pairs of players will get a link between them. Running towards the linked player cancels it. This is what causes minimum until cancelled.
If you get a target/crosshair marker, run away from other players so Enkidu's missile hits only you. It deals 3.5K+ damage.
3-4 players will get turned into chickens periodically. They can't use abilities and have reduced HP while chicken'd.
Whirlwinds will appear periodically, and explode for extreme (4K+) raid-wide AoE damage after a while. To prevent this, a chicken must jump into the whirlwind. A non-chicken can also do this in a pinch but they'll take ~4K damage.
Phase 2: Gilgamesh
When Gilgamesh says he feels like dancing, he'll hit the tank with a series of powerful strikes (E: actually a cleave attack). These should be shielded & healed through. The tank can also move out of the way of the attack to avoid the attack completely.
Gilgamesh will chain a single player. This player cannot be targeted (ie. healed) and suffers a DoT. All DPS must destroy the chain ASAP. E: The closer the chained player is to Gilgamesh, the less damage the chain takes.
Gilgamesh summons four dragon heads around the edges of the arena. These deal telegraphed AoE damage like Ultima's magitek bits, and should be killed. Gilgamesh will jump to a random(?) player then charge back to the tank, damaging anyone he collides with.
Gilgamesh causes telegraphed AoE ice damage in a chess-board pattern. Stand in the darker ie. non-telegraph squares to avoid the damage. He follows this with the same ability but the safe areas switch so you have to dodge again.
Gilgamesh summons Lighting orbs near the center of the arena that deal AoE damage after a short delay. Move to the outer area of the arena to avoid it. He then summons them around the edge, so run back to the center.
Gilgamesh jumps to the middle of the arena and causes telegraphed AoE damage all over the arena with narrow safe areas.
The dragon heads will fly up to the ceiling, and return to strike individual players for heavy damage. I don't know if this can be avoided eg. by killing the heads faster. It happened, lots of people were at ~1.5K health, me and the other SCH went physick-crazy.
Loot
Lore
How many realms has he traversed, and how many rivals has he felled? Gilgamesh journeys ever onward in his unending quest for the strongest of swords. But the road is long and lonesome, and a painted rooster─loyal and noble as the bird may be─can bring a man only so much comfort in the darkest and most trying of times. So it was that Gilgamesh turned to the heavens, pleading to be reunited with a long-lost companion. Be it by fortune or fate, his prayers were heard, and the stage for the final confrontation is set. To the victor goes the Treaty-Blade!