The Minstrel's Ballad: Nidhogg's Rage

Important

The North American and European data centers primarily use Party Finder to challenge (Extreme) content. Using Duty Finder to match with random players is not recommended and will be more difficult than pre-forming a party. For an easy completion (that will satisfy any quest requirements) or loot farming, it is recommended that players use Party Finder and form an Unrestricted Party (i.e., with level sync disabled). Players who wish to complete this duty with level sync enabled should also form a pre-made party, which also enables the use of Minimum Item Level and Silence Echo settings for a more authentic challenge compared to a Duty Finder party.

This article is about the level 60 challenge-mode trial. For the story-mode Main Scenario trial, see The Final Steps of Faith. For the Ultimate Raid involving Nidhogg, see Dragonsong's Reprise (Ultimate).

The Minstrel's Ballad: Nidhogg's Rage

Level

60 (Sync: 60)

Item Level

220

Difficulty

Extreme

Party size

Full Party
8 man • 2 2 4

Unsyncing

Allowed

Time limit

60 minutes

Duty Finder

High-end Trials (Heavensward)

Roulette

Mentor

Tomestones

 20 

Req. quest

Nidhogg's Rage

Location

Steps of Faith

Region

Coerthas

Stone, Sky, Sea

Available

Patch

3.3

The Echo

On wipe: +5% (max +25%)

“

Scarcely had Nidhogg fallen on the Steps of Faith, when taverns across Eorzea began to rumble with the rumors of your victory. In one such establishment did you regale a certain story-staved bard with the true details of your accomplishment – a humble account that he soon expanded into a flowery ballad of heroic proportions. Even as the lilting notes fade away, your mind is carried off by recollections of a monstrous foe, writ considerably more terrifying by the wandering minstrel's exaggerated poetry...

— In-game description

The Minstrel's Ballad: Nidhogg's Rage is a level 60 trial introduced in patch 3.3 with Heavensward.

Strategy

Nidhogg

Video Guide

Nidhogg will utilize many different abilities across a total of 6 phases, some of which are dealt in his standard Dragon Form, while others are exclusive to his Human Form later in the battle. Should the battle go on for 11 minutes, Nidhogg will spend 10 seconds to cast a Deafening Bellow that will wipe the entire raid.

Nidhogg's Dragon Form Abilities

• Scarlet Whisper is a magic-based tank-buster with no cast-time that will cleave the main target for high damage.
• Deafening Bellow is an arena-wide attack that deals moderate damage to the entire group.
• Mortal Chorus is an arena-wide AoE that deals moderate damage and knockback. This will only be used during the transition from the add phase (3) to phase 4.
• Bitter Hate is a stacking debuff that will inflict lethal damage on reaching 8 stacks. Due to this, the tank and off-tank will need to rotate in order to wipe their stacks and prevent an instant death.
• Horrid Roar is actually two mechanics with the same name. One will target random players with overhead markers which, after 6 seconds, will hit victims for moderate AoE damage. The other version spawns non-telegraphed AoE puddles beneath random players. After 3 seconds, the puddles will explode, dealing high damage to anyone caught in the blast and inflict Hysteria for 6 seconds. Multiple puddles can be stacked on top of each other for ease of avoidance.
• Cauterize causes Nidhogg to appear at one of the edges of the arena before diving across in straight line, dealing massive damage to any players caught in its wake.
• Hot Tail is a straight AoE attack from one end of the arena to the other that passes through Nidhogg's centre, inflicting moderate damage and a Burns debuff to anyone it hits. To avoid this attack, players must move from underneath Nidhogg and stand at either edge of the arena.
• Hot Wing is the inverse of Hot Tail - an AoE attack that covers the outer-sides of the arena. To avoid this attack, players must be standing underneath Nidhogg.
• Akh Morn is indicated by a stack marker, encouraging players to group up and absorb upcoming damage. Once cast Akh Morn is fully cast, Nidhogg will repeatedly blast players with multistrike AoE for moderate damage, divided evenly amongst those within range of the stack marker.
• Nidhogg will Touchdown after leaving the arena, inflicting light AoE damage to those nearby.

Nidhogg's Human Form Abilities

• Final Chorus is an arena-wide AoE that, like Mortal Chorus, will only be used during the transition from the add phase (3) to phase 4. During this mechanic, all players will be inflicted with high damage.
• Ala Morn - not to be confused with Akh Morn - is a physical single-target tank-buster that deals massive damage to the main target, encouraging the use of mitigation skills to reduce the impact.
• Drachenlance is also a physical tank-buster that cleaves the main target and those around it for moderate damage.
• High Jump will target either healers or DPS depending on the phase it is used in, indicated by purple markers above their heads. After 5 seconds, marked players will be hit by moderate damage and will leave behind an AoE puddle which will persist for 20 seconds. These puddles will apply bleeding to anyone who walks through them.
• Geirskogul shoots line AoE's from High Jump puddles at random players with infinite range, cutting through the entire arena.
• Soul Tether, like Geirskogul, will be cast from High Jump puddles, connecting interceptable tethers to those who initially dropped the puddle. After 10 seconds, these tethers will explode for major damage, likely killing a Healer or DPS target, thus all of these tethers should be grabbed by one of the tanks.
• Eye of the Tyrant will target a random player with a stacking marker, encouraging players to group up to absorb upcoming damage.
• Bloodrage inflicts unavoidable arena-wide damage to all players during the transition into the very final phase.
• Darkdragon Dive will spawn four pillars in the corner-segments of the arena that need at least one player to be standing within them. After a few seconds, Darkdragon Dive will then hit the player(s) within the pillar for moderate damage. Unlike stack-mark mechanics, pillar damage will not be split between players if more than one is standing within them. In addition, if nobody stands within it at all, all players will be inflicted with massive damage instead. Shortly after connecting, a large flaming puddle will be left behind which will persist for 14 seconds, applying a Burns debuff to anyone who walks through.
• Super Jump places a large marker on a random player for 10 seconds before inflicting an arena-wide AoE at their location, dealing increased damage to all other targets depending on how close each player is to the point of impact. In short, players should move as far away as possible from the chosen target and/or the marked player should move away from the rest of the group.

Phases

Phase 1 (Dragon Phase)

The first phase is a relatively straightforward affair. At first, Nidhogg will essentially be a target dummy, inflicting basic attacks alongside Scarlet Whisper (tank buster) and Deafening Bellow (arena-wide AoE's). Once he has had time to inflict his second Scarlet Whisper and a few additional auto-attacks, he will leap into the air and commence using Horrid Horror (both versions) and Cauterize dives. The first Cauterize will always be cast from either the northern or eastern side of the arena, whereas the second will always be used from the southern or western sides. Nidhogg will then Touchdown and commence the next phase.

Phase 2 (Hot Wing/Hot Tail)

After Touchdown, Nidhogg will randomly select either Hot Wing or Hot Tail and alternate between the two from then onward. They cannot be used at the same time, so there will always be a safe spot, either under Nidhogg's body (Hot Wing) or by his flanks (Hot Tail). In addition to this, Nidhogg will utilize abilities from the previous phase, such as Scarlet Whisper and Deafening Bellow, but in a more randomized fashion. Players will also have to be mindful of Horrid Bellow which will also be used after the first rotation of Tail/Wing, and will be used again if this phase goes on long enough. The overall rotation will continue until Nidhogg has been pushed to just under 80% health.

Phase 3 (Add Phase)

After being pushed below 80% health, Nidhogg will summon three adds, two of which must be tanked, and a third add that cannot be tanked at all. This phase serves as a soft DPS check due to how the adds mechanically function.

• Shadow Brobinyak will spawn on the west of the arena and must be tanked. It utilizes The Serpent's Apple, which is a tank buster that inflicts Physical Vulnerability Up. Bear in mind that three stacks of Physical Vulnerability Up is typically fatal. If this creature isn't slain in a timely fashion, it will repeatedly begin casting Original Sin, a magic-based attack that prevents tank-swapping (seeing as the other tank will be dealing with an add which inflicts Magic Vulnerability Up. As a result, Shadow Brobinyak should be killed first.

• Shadow Falak will spawn on the east side of the arena and must also be tanked. It utilizes Electric Predation, which is a tank buster that inflicts Magic Vulnerability Up. Once again, three stacks of Magic Vulnerability Up is typically fatal, and due to inflicting Magic Vulnerability Up, the chosen tank should avoid tank-swapping to Shadow Brobinyak later on. This add should be killed second.

• Shadow Dragon, the third add, spawns on the north side of the arena and completely ignores enmity (threat), meaning it cannot be tanked. This add will alternate between a Fireball attack (which will always target whoever is furthest away) and a Ripper Claw melee cleave, both of which can be avoided by the group. However, if any of its attacks do connect, the victim(s) will be inflicted with Damage Down, reducing their damage output. Once the Shadow Dragon has been reduced to moderate health (60-65%), it will inflict Vulnerability Up on the entire group using an unavoidable roar. As a result, this add should be ignored until both the Shadow Brobinyak and the Shadow Falak have been slain. Bear in mind that once it has inflicted Vulnerability Up, it is very likely that anyone hit by its telegraphed attacks will receive fatal damage.

Players will have roughly 90 seconds to deal with these adds. Assuming they are all slain, the next phase begins.

Phase 4 (Human Form)

The transition to phase 4 begins with Mortal Chorus, dealing moderate arena-wide damage and knockback to all participants, immediately followed by Final Chorus, which will blast the raid with much higher damage after a purely cosmetic animation has completed. If the group failed to defeat the adds in the previous phase quickly enough, Final Chorus will instead wipe the raid, regardless of whether the adds are slain before the animation lands (seeing as they won't despawn if the DPS check was failed).

During this phase, tanks must be wary of Ala Morn (not to be confused with Akh Morn), a physical single-target tank-buster that should be mitigated via defensive skills whenever possible. Soon after, Nidhogg will begin marking players for High Jump, which leaves puddles on the ground that will be used as part of the Geirskogul and Soul Tether mechanics. It is worth noting that one Geirskogul line-AoE will also be spawned from Nidhogg himself, not just the four puddles. It is often best to have the group stack up in the centre after High Jump in order to bait the line-AoE's into one area and avoid unnecessary chaos. This will also make it infinitely easier for your tank to collect Soul Tether's. Be mindful that another two Geirskogul's will be fired shortly after the tethers have exploded.

This overall rotation will continue until the summoning of Nidhogg's Fang and Claw, two adds that are used as part of a new mini-phase. Neither of these adds attack the group directly but must be destroyed before they can successfully cast self-destruct. While these adds are in play, 3 random players will be tethered to each add, forcing them to participate in mechanics specific to that add.

• Nidhogg's Fang (blue) will spawn at 50% health and randomly tether itself to three players, including the main-tank. Whenever these players (marked as Fangbound) take damage from any source, Nidhogg's Fang will heal itself based on that damage. As a result of this, tanks need to organize a tank-swap in order to prevent the main-tank from passively healing the add (seeing as damage from Nidhogg himself adds to the healing). This add can be damaged by normal means and must be nuked as soon as possible, unlike Nidhogg's Claw, which cannot be directly attacked at all.

• Nidhogg's Claw (red) will spawn at full health and become entirely invulnerable to conventional attacks. Once spawned, it will tether itself to three random players (marked as Clawbound). Once tethered, three orbs will spawn within the arena and begin floating towards random players (regardless of tethers). The only means of damaging Nidhogg's Claw is by having Clawbound (red-tether) players take damage, thus they should start by colliding with the flare-orbs before they hit anyone else, as well as stacking up for upcoming Eye of the Tyrant from Nidhogg.

Seeing as blue-tethers heal Nidhogg's Fang and red-tethers damage Nidhogg's Claw, players must pay attention to their mark (if any) and utilize them appropriately. For example, whoever has a red-tether should make every effort to be present for Eye of the Tyrant (stack damage mechanic) and pop the floating orbs whenever possible, whilst everyone with a blue-tether should avoid taking damage any damage at all from any source whenever possible. Once Eye of the Tyrant has been used (and if the adds are still alive), these tethers will be randomly reassigned and the process will continue until the adds are slain (or self-destruct).

Phase 5 (Darkdragon Towers)

This phase begins with both healers being marked by High Jump. Darkdragon Dive towers will also be summoned in each corner of the arena, which requires at least one player to be standing within them or they'll explode for massive raid-wide damage. After this, four more players will be marked for another High Jump. Just like before, victims of any High Jump will once again be attached to a Soul Tether that should be intercepted by tanks, and the puddles left behind by victims of High Jump will fire out Geirskogul line-AoE's across the entire arena. While players are dealing with the aftermath of the previous High Jump mechanics, one player will be marked as the target for a Super Jump. At this point, players will have about ten seconds to avoid any remaining Geirskoguls while moving as far away from the Super Jump victim as possible.

After landing from Super Jump, Nidhogg will rotate between his tank-busters (Drachenlance and Ala Morn) before leaping away before the final phase.

Phase 6 (Heart of the Dragon)

Nidhogg returns once more, acquiring Heart of the Dragon and beginning the phase with Bloodrage - a transitional arena-wide AoE for moderate damage. Now in dragon form once again, Nidhogg will act similarly to his first Dragon Phase, using Horrid Roar and Cauterize combos, except this time there will be only one Cauterize, and Horrid Roar will affect up to 6 players instead of 4. In addition, Nidhogg will incorporate Ahk Morn into the phase which, unlike before, will add an additional attack to the multistrike every time it is used. For example, its first cast in this phase will hit 4 times, then 5 in the next, 6 after that, etc. This will continue stacking up until Nidhogg has been slain (or the raid wipes). Lastly, anyone hit by Nidhogg's attacks will acquire a stack of Bitter Hate, which will be instantly fatal if it reaches 8 stacks, thus tank-swaps will be required throughout.

The first Akh Morn of this phase will be used immediately after he has Touched Down from the previous Cauterize. Once Akh Morn is finished, Nidhogg will immediately begin casting Hot Wing. Once it is nearly cast, however, Horrid Roar puddles will soon be placed beneath multiple players. Ideally, these should be placed at the very edge of Nidhogg's hitbox, giving you enough space to move back to Nidhogg's centre to avoid both Hot Wing and exploding puddles. Alternatively, you could have everyone stack with the main tank for this, though this comes at the risk of people being cleaved by The Scarlet Whisper (tank-buster cleave).

Once complete, you will notice bombs have formed in the corners of the arena. These explode into straight lines from the north, south, east and west sides of the orbs. If hit by the resulting AoE lines, players will receive major damage on top of a Burns debuff. After the bombs have exploded, the corners of the arena will be temporarily safe while more bombs form in the centre of the arena. At the same time, all players will now be marked by Horrid Roar puddles, forcing players to co-ordinate themselves into corners without taking up too much space or having too many people in one corner. Ideally, you should have two players per corner, though you can squeeze in 1-2 more if absolutely necessary.

This chaos will immediately be followed by Akh Morn, encouraging everyone to once again stack up to absorb damage. Bear in mind that Akh Morn will now be inflicting more hits compared to the usual 4. In addition, players shouldn't stick around too long afterwards as they may risk being cleaved by Scarlet Whisper.

Once complete, more bombs will be placed, this time starting in the middle of the arena, followed by a random corner, then the opposite corner. Once again, players will have to deal with Horrid Roar puddles throughout the ensuing explosions. Ideally, the group should begin where the final bomb has spawned (preferably right in the corner to provide more space for puddles, then drop the puddles and move slightly closer to the arena centre to avoid them. Once the central bombs explode, move to the centre of the arena - but be wary - Hot Tail will soon follow. After the final set of corner explosions and Hot Tail, Akh Morn will once again be used. From here, there is a small amount of downtime before the cycle will repeat in a similar fashion.

At this point, you will have until the 11minute mark before Nidhogg will begin casting a very final Deafening Bellow, which takes 10 seconds to cast. If the cast goes off, the raid will wipe.

Loot

See also: Horde Weapons

• Each player will receive 1   Horde Totem per kill. Collect 10 totems to exchange for a weapon or 99 for a   Dark Lanner Whistle at Bertana in Idyllshire (X:5.9 Y:5.2).
•  20 Allagan Tomestone of Poetics
•   Nidhogg Card (Drops at a fixed rate.)

Treasure Coffer

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
Paladin's Horde Arms (IL 235)	Other	N/A	CBlue	1
Horde Axe	Marauder's Arm	235	CBlue	1
Horde Guillotine	Dark Knight's Arm	235	CBlue	1
Horde Spear	Lancer's Arm	235	CBlue	1
Horde Knuckles	Pugilist's Arm	235	CBlue	1
Horde Katana	Samurai's Arm	235	CBlue	1
Horde Daggers	Rogue's Arm	235	CBlue	1
Horde Bow	Archer's Arm	235	CBlue	1
Horde Handgonne	Machinist's Arm	235	CBlue	1
Horde Rod	Two-handed Thaumaturge's Arm	235	CBlue	1
Horde Grimoire	Arcanist's Grimoire	235	CBlue	1
Horde Rapier	Red Mage's Arm	235	CBlue	1
Horde Cane	Two-handed Conjurer's Arm	235	CBlue	1
Horde Codex	Scholar's Arm	235	CBlue	1
Horde Star Globe	Astrologian's Arm	235	CBlue	1
Nidhogg's Scale	Material	N/A	ABasic	1
Horde Weapon Coffer (IL 235)	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Dark Lanner Whistle	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Faded Copy of Revenge of the Horde	Orchestrion Roll	N/A	ABasic	1

Achievements

This duty is associated with the following achievements:

Name	Points	Task	Reward	Patch
Let Me Be Your Hogg	10	Defeat Nidhogg in the Minstrel's Ballad: Nidhogg's Rage.	-	3.3
Mightier than the Horde	5	Complete the Minstrel's Ballad: Nidhogg's Rage with a party of only blue mages, Silence Echo turned on, and Unrestricted Party turned off.	-	5.15

Images

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