Shadow Lord (boss)

The Shadow Lord is the final boss and first main antagonist of Final Fantasy XI. He is the target of Mission 5-2 in the Bastok, San d'Oria, and Windurst campaigns, in the shared battlefield known as The Shadow Lord Battle. This battlefield marked the conclusion of nation rank missions until they were expanded upon in Final Fantasy XI: Rise of the Zilart. The Shadow Lord has reawakened twenty years after his defeat in the Crystal War and adventurers have been called forth to stop him.
He is also fought as a mission boss in the Campaign Op Fiat Lux, which is a part of the Final Fantasy XI: Wings of the Goddess expansion.
==Stats==
==Strategy==
===The Shadow Lord Battle (Phase 1)===
Shadow Lord is a fairly straight-forward fight. He does not employ any strong debilitative statuses and strikes with only a moderate number of AoE attacks. He does however employ unique stances in battle.
In this phase, the Shadow Lord uses a variety of physical and magical attacks until 50% HP, when he will become immune to either physical or magical attacks. This is indicated by the stance and behavior he takes.
* When his sword is glowing and he attacks physically, he is immune to physical attacks.
* When he is holding out a glowing fist and attacking only with magic, he is immune to magical attacks.
The Shadow Lord will switch immunity after taking a certain amount of damage, or after approximately 5 minutes. This means that parties need to be able to deal damage from both physical and magical sources, or they will be unable to deal damage to the Shadow Lord before running out of time.
====Special abilities====
*Dark Nova: AoE dark magic damage
*Giga Slash: Conal damage
*Kick Back: Single target damage
*Umbra Smash: Single target damage
===The Shadow Lord Battle (Phase 2)===
In his second phase, the Shadow Lord does not attack with normal attacks and will only use Implosion, but does so incessantly. Because the range of Implosion is rather wide and its damage is considerable, it is necessary to defeat him quickly here before Implosion overwhelms the party. As the battlefield is uncapped and he only has approximately 4000 HP in this form, players with high damage output will be able to defeat him in this phase before taking substantial damage.
====Special abilities====
*Implosion: Wide AoE magic damage
===Fiat Lux===
The Campaign Op Fiat Lux is only unlocked when the Fauregandi and Valdeaunia fronts are both captured by Allied Forces in campaign. Additionally, for a nation to have it unlocked, it must also have captured four outdoor areas in its theater of war. Players wishing to take part must also possess the highest decoration, the Medal of Altana ∮∮∮∮. This makes the Campaign Op considerably hard to access.
Shadow Lord attacks in two stances, one with a single greatsword, and the 2nd when he breaks the sword into two halves and dual-wields them. Each stance comes with its own set of special moves and he is able to switch at will. When switching stances, Shadow Lord gains a 10 second invulnerability.
When dual-wielding swords, Shadow Lord is also able to use Spawn Shadow, which summons copies of himself to aid him in battle. These shadows have very low HP but hit with the same attack power as Shadow Lord himself and also simultaneously use the same moves as Shadow Lord when he uses them. Players need to have a strategy to deal with these shadows in order to survive the battle.
Defeating Shadow Lord causes a treasure chest with rewards to spawn. Of these rewards are unique pieces of equipment exclusive to this battlefield, including equipment which resemble the armor that Shadow Lord wears.
====Special abilities====
The following are used only when wielding greatsword:
*Boon Void: Single target damage, dispel
*Cruel Slash: Targeted AoE damage, amnesia, Bind
*Spell Wall: Absorbs magical damage and restores HP equivalent to the damage taken
*Umbral Orb: AoE magical damage
*Vicious Kick: Single target damage, Paralyze
The following are used only when dual-wielding 2 swords:
*Blighting Blitz: Conal damage, curse
*Cross Smash: Conal damage, defense down
*Soma Wall: Absorbs physical damage and restores HP equivalent to the damage taken
*Spawn Shadow: Spawns 2 shadows of himself to assist him in battle
The following are used below 25% HP:
*Doom Arc: AoE damage, 10s doom counter
*Implosion: AoE damage, Max HP Down, strong Knockback
==Musical themes==
The music that plays during both battlefields is "Awakening". It is also used as the music for Bastok mission battlefield Where Two Paths Converge, Dynamis - Xarcabard, and Bastok nation quest Bonds of Mythril.
==Behind the scenes==
===The Shadow Lord Battle===
This battlefield was introduced in the August 8, 2002 Version Update. The level cap then was 50. As the level cap at the time of this battlefields release was 50, the fight was not only a difficult battle to attempt, but also to reach. This was because monsters in Castle Zvahl were all "Incredibly Tough" at level 50 and the Sneak and Invisible spells had yet to be introduced, meaning that players would have to fight their way from Xarcabard to the Throne Room.
===Fiat Lux===
This battlefield was introduced in the March 23, 2010 Version Update. The level cap then was 75. Due to the decreased popularity of Campaign following the release of Abyssea add-ons, as well as the lack of interest in the Fiat Lux Campaign Op and its loot, Campaign efforts across all servers have not been able to capture the Fauregandi and Valdeaunia Fronts since mid 2010. This means that this Campaign Op is perpetually locked and not accessible by players.
"Fiat Lux" is Latin for "Let There Be Light".
==Gallery==
FFXI Dark Nova.jpg|Dark Nova
Shadow Lord battle.jpg|Shadow Lord changes to his 2nd form
FFXI Implosion.jpg|Implosion
FFXI Cruel Slash.jpg|Cruel Slash
FFXI Soma Wall.jpg|Soma Wall
FFXI Doom Arc.jpg|Doom Arc
Shadow Lord Gear (FFXI).jpg|Nightfall, Nocturnus Mail and Nocturnus Helm respectively
==Related enemies==
*Dynamis Lord
Category:Final Fantasy XI Notorious Monsters
Category:Final bosses