Dragonsong's Reprise (Ultimate)

Dragonsong's Reprise (Ultimate)

Level

90 (Sync: 90)

Item Level

605* (Sync: 605)

Difficulty

Ultimate

Party size

Full Party
8 man • 2 2 4

Unsyncing

Not Allowed

Time limit

120 minutes

Duty Finder

Raid Finder (Ultimate Raids)

Tomestones

Req. quest

I Wandered Sharlayan as a Minstrel

Location

Medias Res

Region

Coerthas

Patch

6.11

“

“There are no ifs in history, yet man is wont to cast his mind towards the path not walked.” Thus spoke the wandering minstrel, and at his urging, you reflect upon bygone trials with newfound perspective. Your imagination stirred by the man's masterfully woven verse, you dream of an alternate conclusion to the Dragonsong War─one in which a dear comrade is spared his tragic fate...

— In-game description

Dragonsong's Reprise (Ultimate) is a level 90 ultimate raid introduced in patch 6.11 with Endwalker. The raid is also known as DSR or DSU and is based on Main Scenario Quest dungeon and trial bosses from Heavensward.

Unlock and Requirements

• After completing  Asphodelos: The Fourth Circle (Savage), speak with the Wandering Minstrel in Old Sharlayan (X:12.7 Y:14.2) as a level 90 Disciple of War or Magic.
• Dragonsong's Reprise (Ultimate) can only be accessed via the Raid Finder after forming a pre-made party of eight players who have all completed  Asphodelos: The Fourth Circle (Savage).
• Limited jobs not allowed
• Unrestricted Parties not allowed
• If a player logs out or disconnects when combat is initiated, they will be KO'd upon returning to the game.
• Players are expected to have item level 600-605 "best in slot" gear instead of syncing down higher item level gear (with the exception of using a Majestic Manderville Weapon or Mandervillous Weapon)). Best-in-slot sets for each job are provided by The Balance. These consist primarily of Asphodelos Armor / Accessories, Augmented Radiant's Armor / Accessories, and Manalis Armor / Accessories.

Guide

Visual guide by Tessan Twintails

It is important to note that there are multiple ways to handle each mechanic in this fight. Below is simply a recommended strategy, but it is up to players and their groups to determine what works best for them.

All throughout this battle, the arena will be surrounded by a border that will kill any player who touches it. Players should set their waymarks at the cardinals and intercardinals of the map, as they persist through the several changes of the arena. It is recommended that the waymarks are set with corresponding colors on opposite sides of the arena (for instance, “1” can be located at the north, and “A” can be located at the south). Players will want to divide into two light parties, with at least one player acting as a “pivot”, and again into partners, with one tank or healer for every DPS. For phase three, players should determine where they would like to have “one”, “two” and “three” marked players with “Elusive Jump” and “Spineshatter Dive” stand to mitigate confusion and allow for quick adjustments.

Failing mechanics, if not outright killing the player, will inflict a crippling -50% Damage Down debuff that lasts for 3 minutes, making the damage checks harder to pass. If the player does not need to immediately be alive for an upcoming mechanic, it is generally better to kill themselves by walking into the wall and then be revived, as the Weakness debuff is around half the damage loss versus the Damage Down.

The total fight length is around 22 minutes (3 minutes for phase 1, 19 minutes for phases 2-7 post-checkpoint).

Phase 1: Sers Adelphel, Grinnaux, and Charibert

Abilities

• Holiest of Holy: Cast by Adelphel, deals heavy room wide damage, and must be mitigated.
• Empty Dimension: Cast by Grinnaux. Casts a donut AoE with the only safe area within the boss's hitbox.
• Heavensblaze: Cast by Charibert. Hits one player with a small fire AoE dealing high damage that must be shared with additional mitigation.
• Holy Shield Bash: Cast by Adelphel. Tethers to a random player which can be exchanged to other players on contact. Will then charge at the tethered player and use this ability, dealing moderate damage and debuffing with Down for the Count and is followed up immediately by Holy Bladedance.
• Holy Bladedance: A heavy-damage multi-hit tankbuster with a small AoE that requires heavy mitigation or invulnerability cooldowns.
• Hyperdimensional Slash: Grinnaux moves to the center of the arena and randomly targets four players with orange overhead markers. Shortly afterwards, he will fire a line cleave at each marked player, dealing high damage, debuffing with Magic Vulnerability Up, while firing a wide conal shared damage AoE directly behind him that must be shared by the unmarked players, dealing high damage and debuffing with Magic Vulnerability Up as well. The boss will turn and target the four players who were previously unmarked and repeat the attack. Each cleave fired at a player will leave a portal at the edge of the arena where the attack collided. This portal will tether to players if they get too close, dealing massive damage and inflicting Damage Down. If the portals are too close together, they will tether and explode, wiping the party. If they are placed too close to the cardinals of the arena, Adelphel will charge through them later, exploding them and wiping the party.
• Faith Unmoving: Grinnaux will cast this, knocking all players away a good distance and dealing light damage. The knockback can be prevented with anti-knockback abilities.
• Shining Blade / Bright Flare: Adelphel will drop on the edge of the arena at a random cardinal, perform Holiest of Holy, then dash to another cardinal, dropping several orbs that explode in a small AoE. From that new cardinal, he will dash across the arena, continuing to drop orbs. Finally, he will dash to another cardinal with more orbs. The movement pattern is a zig-zag. Orbs that are too close to Hyperdimensional Slash portals will tether and cause the portal to explode, wiping the party. The boss will immediately follow up with Execution.
• Execution: Adelphel targets the highest player in his enmity list, and jumps on them, dealing high damage in a small AoE. Any other players aside from the primary target caught in this will be knocked back and instantly killed.
• Holiest Hallowing: Cast by Adelphel. A massive heal on Grinnaux that needs to be interrupted with   Interject or   Head Graze. This is cast three times in this phase.
• Holy Chain: Players are assigned a symbol and tethered together in pairs, also represented by the Burning Chains debuff, with each member in a pair assigned the same symbol. The chains must be broken by distance. Chains that are not broken in time will inflict massive damage and Damage Down to both tethered players, likely resulting in deaths due to the concurrent Heavensflame.
  • Red Circle: Assigned to two DPS.
  • Green Triangle: Assigned to one DPS and one healer.
  • Purple Square: Assigned to one DPS and one tank.
  • Blue X: Assigned to one tank and one healer.
• Heavensflame: Cast by Charibert. All players are hit by a large fire AoE, dealing high damage and debuffing with Fire Resistance Down II, making overlap lethal.
• Full Dimension: Grinnaux fires a point-blank circular AoE with the safe region past max melee range.
• The Bull's Steel: Grinnaux's enrage. Takes roughly three seconds to cast, restoring Grinnaux to full health and giving him damage up and invincibility buffs.
• Brightblade's Steel: Adelphel's enrage. Takes roughly three seconds to cast, restoring Adelphel to full health and giving him damage up and invincibility buffs.
• Planar Prison: All players are tethered to Grinnaux and pulled into a small circular prison, dealing light damage. All players are inflicted with Planar Imprisonment, which causes the player to instantly die if they attempt to exit the prison.
• Shockwave: Unavoidable constant partywide damage that pulses from Haurchefant, but will stop when he dies.
• Brightwing: Cast by Charibert, cleaves the two closest players near him with small conal AoEs, dealing very high damage and debuffing with Light Resistance Down and Skyblind, which will drop a small invisible AoE at the player's present location when the debuff timer expires after 5 seconds. Shortly after, the AoE will detonate, inflicting lethal damage to anyone hit.
• Pure of Heart: A slow cast spell by Charibert. A partywide attack dealing damage based on how much HP Charibert has. Will wipe the party if Charibert's HP is above ~30%. Otherwise will deal high damage that requires mitigation.

Strategy

The fight will open with Sers Adelphel & Grinnaux as the only targetable bosses. Players should pull both bosses into the center of the arena and focus on keeping Grinnaux and Adelphel at roughly the same level of HP. Adelphel will begin by casting Holiest of Holy, dealing heavy party-wide damage, and Grinnaux will cast Empty Dimension, so players should move into his hitbox. Following this, Adelphel will tether to a random player and begin casting Holy Shield Bash, which the off tank should pick up and turn away from the party. Once the Holy Shield Bash/Blade Dance combo goes off, Charibert will hit all players with Heavensblaze, dealing high damage, which should be mitigated and healed through.

After a certain amount of time, Adelphel will leave the arena and Grinnaux will target four random players with Hyperdimensional Slash. The four marked players should move to the northern end of the arena and space out, making sure not to stand in the cardinals or intercardinals, but somewhere in between to carefully position the portals to where they won't tether or get hit by Adelphel later. The remaining four players should group behind the boss to split the incoming attack and not get overlapped by the frontal cleaves. Once the attack fires, players in the rear will spread out to their nearest markers in the same way the first marked players did, and the attack will fire again. Players should be careful to avoid getting too close to the portals, as they will tether to them, deal massive damage (most likely killing the player), and deal a Damage Down debuff, severely hindering them.

Adelphel will soon return to the arena, landing on a random cardinal of the arena and begin to cast Holiest of Holy, dealing proximity-based damage. Grinnaux will cast Faith Unmoving, knocking players backwards a good distance. Players should use their knockback mitigation skills here and move away from Adelphel. Next, Adelphel will dash across a corner of the arena to the next cardinal, dropping exploding orbs of light where he passes. He will then dash across the arena, then across another corner, in a zig-zag. To avoid this, players should move towards the corner of the cardinal where Adelphel first dashed to in order to avoid the explosions and future dash attacks. Once he stops dashing, the tank that is at the top of his enmity list should move away from the group, as Adelphel immediately follows up with Execute, a tankbuster that deals high damage in an AoE. After these attacks resolve, the portals will fade.

Players should move the bosses back to the center of the arena, and prepare to interrupt Holiest Hallowing, a massive heal for Grinnaux cast by Adelphel. Grinnaux will use a second Faith Unmoving at this point, and Adelphel will try to cast a second Holiest Hallowing, which needs to be interrupted. For this Faith Unmoving, each player will be marked with either a cross, a square, a circle or a triangle based on their role, and tethered to a player with the same symbol. There are several ways to handle this mechanic, and some players can try to pre-position based on their role, but there is plenty of time to adjust positioning as long as they move quickly. Players should move opposite the player with the same marker as them, and get knocked back from each other to break the tether. If the tether doesn't break, take a few steps towards the edge of the arena, then back in towards the center of the arena and spread out around the boss. Failing to break the tether in time will inflict massive damage on both players and Damage Down. Charibert will cast Heavensflame, hitting all players in a small AoE and inflicting Fire Resistance Down II. If players overlap for this attack, they will die.

Adelphel will cast another Holiest of Holy, while Grinnaux casts either Empty Dimension or Full Dimension. If Empty, players need to move into Grinnaux's hitbox, and if its Full, players need to move to max melee range. These attacks should be mitigated and healed through. Following this, Adelphel will attempt to cast another Holiest Hallowing, which needs to be interrupted. At this point, players need to focus on burning down both bosses as fast as possible, and defeat them both at as close to the same time as possible. If players aren't able to defeat the bosses before the enrage timer, they will both cast their enrage abilities and wipe the party. If players defeat one boss, the other will immediately begin casting their enrage, and the party has around 3 seconds to defeat the remaining boss. Once both bosses are defeated, they leave the arena and reappear with Charibert on the west side of the arena. The untargettable Grinnaux tethers all players to him and pulls them into a Planar Prison, inflicting them with Planar Imprisonment, which will kill players immediately if they leave the prison circle.

At this point, Charibert will begin casting Pure of Heart, which will deal party-wide damage based on how much HP he has when the attack completes casting. He will also cleave the two closest players to him with Brightwing, dealing very high damage debuffing with Light Resistance Down and Skyblind, which will detonate after four seconds. To handle these mechanics, players need to take turns baiting the cleaves away from the party in rotation, with the party moving away from the boss, then moving towards him when the players get cleaved and move out to avoid getting hit by the Skyblind debuff AoE. Players need to burn down Charibert's HP as much as possible before his attack finishes casting. Players will notice Ser Zephirin appear on the east side of the arena and throw his Spear of the Fury at the party, but Haurchefant run into the arena and block the spear, which quickly drains his HP and kills him. This is a reference to a mechanic that players will have to handle later, but do not need to worry about for now. However, when Haurchefant is alive, he will constantly pulse out party-wide damage with Shockwave that should be healed through.

Once Pure of Heart casts and as long as at least one player is alive, the arena will transition. The Limit Break gauge will reset, players will gain access to a third Limit Break bar and a checkpoint, the only one in the encounter. Note that players must attack Thordan for the checkpoint to be registered. Wiping at any point for the remainder of the fight will cause the party to restart from the checkpoint, although resetting the instance will require defeating Phase 1 again to acquire the checkpoint.

Phase 2: King Thordan and His Knights Twelve

Abilities

• Ascalon's Mercy Concealed: Thordan targets all players with a narrow conal AoE that snapshots players' positions when the cast bar finishes and resolves shortly after.
• Ascalon's Might: Tankbuster. Three cleaves that deal heavy damage and require mitigation or an invulnerability skill.
• Strength of the Ward: Thordan summons his Knights Twelve to perform a series of attacks.
  • Spiral Thrust: Sers Ignasse, Vellguine, Paulecrain appear at the edge of the arena at random cardinals or intercardinals and charge across the arena, knocking back and killing anyone hit.
  • Lightning Storm: Thordan targets every player with a medium-sized circle AoE, dealing moderate damage and debuffing with Lightning Resistance Down II, making overlap lethal.
  • Heavy Impact: Ser Guerrique casts a point-blank AoE that slowly pulses outwards in donuts that get larger with each pulse. Being hit will inflict massive damage and Stun in addition to the Damage Down.
  • Conviction: Cast by Ser Hermenost, spawns several towers around the arena in various patterns that must be soaked by one player each when the cast bar fills, or will explode and wipe the party.
  • Skyward Leap: The Ward's Dragoons leap into the air, targeting three players with a blue marker and dropping shortly after, dealing massive damage in a large circular AoE and inflicting both Physical Vulnerability Up and Magic Vulnerability Up.
  • Dimensional Slash: Ser Grinnaux appears and spawns several black AoEs on the floor that slowly expand and eventually resolve. Being hit will inflict massive damage and Heavy in addition to the Damage Down.
  • The Dragon's Rage: Thordan targets a random non-tank player without a blue marker with an untelegraphed split damage AoE.
  • Holy Shield Bash/Holy Bladedance: Sers Adelphel & Janlenoux will each tether a random player without a blue marker, and once the cast finishes, dash to the currently tethered players and use Holy Shield Bash, inflicting Down for the Count to them and anyone too close to them, then follow up with Holy Bladedance, a multi-hit high damage conal tankbuster that requires heavy mitigation. The tethers can be exchanged with other players by contacting the tether. Damage can be mitigated with increased distance from the knights.
• Ancient Quaga: Unavoidable high damage party-wide attack that must be mitigated.
• Heavenly Heel: Tankbuster that debuffs with Slashing Resistance Down. This is followed up by Ascalon's Might, requiring a tank swap or invulnerability cooldown to survive.
• Sanctity of the Ward: Summons the Knights Twelve once again for several more attacks.
  • The Dragon's Gaze: Thordan moves to the edge of the arena and begins casting a gaze attack that deals heavy damage and inflicts Hysteria, causing players to lose control and run about randomly.
  • The Dragon's Glory: An Eye spawns at the edge of the arena and uses an untelegraphed gaze attack at the same time as The Dragon's Gaze that deals heavy damage and inflicts Hysteria, causing players to lose control and run about randomly.
  • Sacred Sever: Ser Zephirin targets two random players with either one or two sword markers, indicating who will be attacked first and second. The attack repeats twice. Will inflict very high damage and Physical Vulnerability Upin a medium-sized AoE that is reduced by distance from Zephirin. The damage should be shared among four players with heavy mitigation.
  • Shining Blade / Bright Flare: Sers Adelphel and Janlenoux appear in the center of the arena, and dash to opposite sides, dropping large orbs that explode in large AoEs. Both players then dash to opposite ends of the arena, dropping orbs once again.
  • Holy Comet: Ser Noudenet will mark two random players based on their role (either two supports, or two DPS) with a red overhead marker and the Prey debuff, and sequentially drop seven meteors on each player shortly afterward. Each meteor drop will deal light raidwide damage. If the meteors land too close to one another, they will explode (Holy Impact) and wipe the party.
  • Hiemal Storm: Ser Haumeric will target four players of the same role (DPS or supports) with an untelegraphed, large circular AoE that leaves behind a large persistent ice puddle. The damage from the initial attack must be split with two players each and will inflict Ice Resistance Down II among all players hit, making overlap lethal. The ice puddles will inflict Frostbite to anyone who steps or lingers in them around a second after they appear, dealing massive damage over time.
  • The Heaven's Stake: Ser Charibert telegraphs four large fire AoEs around the intercardinals of arena, and a massive fire donut that covers the edge of the arena. The four circle AoEs will leave behind fire puddles that will inflict Burns to anyone who steps or lingers in them around a second after they appear, dealing massive damage over time.
  • Faith Unmoving: Ser Grinnaux appears and performs a knockback from the center of the arena, dealing light raidwide damage. The knockback can be prevented by   Surecast or   Arm's Length.
• Ultimate End: An attack that deals massive damage and must be mitigated in order to survive.
• Broad Swing: Thordan faces a random player then does three sequential cleaves, each hitting a third of the arena. Will always cleave either his top right or top left first. Will inflict massive damage, Damage Down, and knock back any players hit.
• Aetheric Burst: Enrage. If players do not defeat Thordan before this attack fires, the party will be wiped. Note that any shields applied to the party will be instantly removed when the cast bar fills, but there is a slight delay until the attack kills players.

Strategy

At the beginning of the phase, players should pull Thordan into the center of the arena to better handle coming mechanics. He will start with Ascalon's Mercy, so the main tank should stand directly in front of him while the rest of the party stands behind to bait the cleaves, then move out of the way just before the cast bar finishes. Following this, Thordan will use Ascalon's Might, a massive three-hit cleave tankbuster with no castbar. The main tank should mitigate this or use an invulnerability skill and healers should be ready. After a few moments he will move to the center of the arena (if not there already) and begin casting Strength of the Ward, summoning the other Knight's Twelve to the arena and becoming intangible after the cast.

For this portion of the phase, players simply need to concern themselves with avoiding mechanics, as no target will be available. After all the knights jump away, the three Dragoon knights, Sers Ignasse, Vellguine, and Paulecrain will appear around the edge of the arena at either the cardinals or intercardinals, then shortly after dash across the arena in a straight line. Players should look for the area where there is no knight behind or in front of them at either edge of the arena to avoid this. At the same time, Thordan will cast Lightning Storm, targeting all players. In order to handle these attacks, players should identify the two safe zones and separate into their light parties. Once in the safe zones, they should spread out in a triangle shape, with three players against the edge of the arena spread apart, and another closer to the center of the arena. Players need to be careful not to get clipped by the Spiral Thrust, as their attacks are quite wide. Players must also space out for the Lightning Storm attack, as the attack deals high damage and debuffs with Lightning Resistance Down II, meaning overlap will kill. At the same time these attacks are happening, Ser Guerrique will charge up and use Heavy Impact, creating four large shockwave earth attacks that slowly move outwards. getting hit by this will deal high damage and debuff with Stun, most likely leading to a death. to avoid this, once the animation for the shockwave starts playing, players can move into that area and safely avoid damage.

Thordan will reappear in the center of the arena again and prepare another Ascalon's Might Concealed. To handle this, players will have to line up to bait the cleaves and move like before. Following this, Ser Grinnaux will appear and begin casting Dimensional Slash, causing several dark portals to spawn on the ground that begin to slowly grow. Sers Adelphel & Janlenoux, the two Paladins will drop in the center of the arena and turn to face a certain direction. This indicates where Thordan will land. The tanks should stand next to these knights to pick up their tethers. Three random players will also receive blue impact markers over their heads, indicating that the three Dragoon knights will soon drop on them using Skyward Leap. Players can identify three safe areas on the edge of the arena where they can stand to take these attacks by looking where the portals on the floor won't reach the edge of the arena, while the remaining three players move to stand at the edge of the arena in front of Thordan. Once the Paladins drop their tethers and the tanks pick them up, they can move to either side of the safe area near Thordan. Once they reach the safe area, Thordan will begin casting The Dragon's Rage, which will require the three players to stack to mitigate damage. The Paladin knights will then rush to the tanks and use the Holy Shield Bash/Holy Bladedance combo. players who are not the tanks should be sure to move out of the area, as this attack can clip anyone who is too close. To handle this attack, the tanks should either use their invulnerability skill or pop their defensive cooldowns. Healers should be ready to top the tanks off.

Thordan will return to the center of the arena and immediately begin casting Ancient Quaga, dealing high party-wide damage, so healers should be ready for this. Following this, Thordan will use Heavenly Heel, a heavy-hitting tankbuster that inflicts the main tank with Slashing Resistance Down. This is immediately followed up by Ascalon's Might, which will kill the tank unless swapped or an invulnerability skill is used. After this, Thordan will return to the center and use Sanctity of the Ward, another series of mechanics. Once all the knights have lept from the center of the arena, the two Paladin knights and Ser Zephirin the Dark Knight will spawn, and a large Eye will appear off the edge of the arena. Thordan will land around the arena's edge as well. Two players will be marked with either one sword or two sword markers. The two Paladins will dash to opposite sides of the arena, then dash on a diagonal to the north and south, dropping Brightorbs both ways. During this, the Dark Knight will use Sacred Sever on the first marked player, then the second, then back to the first, and back to the second. Each hit of Sacred Sever must be split amongst other players to mitigate.

To handle these mechanics, players must quickly identify which direction the knights are facing in relation to the north of the arena. The knights will appear staggered, with one closer to the north of the arena then the other. If the knight closer to the north if facing north, the knights will dash clockwise. Otherwise, they will move counterclockwise. After this, players should move into their light parties, and make sure only one member of each party has a marker. If two players in a light party have a marker, one of them must swap with the other team, as they will not survive two back-to-back attacks. Try to make sure that both parties are balanced at four players, as surviving the attacks at 3 players is very difficult. It helps to have a person in each party who acts as a pivot to the other team should the need to swap arise. Players will also need to watch where the Eye and Thordan spawn, as both will be casting a gaze attack that will inflict Hysteria if hit by it.

Once parties have been corrected, one party will move to behind the Dark Knight, and the other will move opposite. Once the gaze attacks fire, the knight's will begin dashing and the Dark Knight will begin attacking. Players will need to move around the edge of the arena in the same direction as the Paladin knights to avoid the Brightorbs left behind.

Once the knight's attacks have been resolved, the Mage knights will appear, and the next set of mechanics begins. Four large persistent fire puddles will spawn, four players will be targeted for ice puddles, and two will receive Prey markers, indicating they will deal with meteors. Eight towers will also be summoned around the arena, some near the edge and some in the middle of the arena.

To handle these mechanics, players will need to meet up with their partners, with the Prey marked players to the north and south. The ice marked players should be positioned between the fire puddle AoEs without being too close to the edge of the arena, as meteor players will be moving through there soon. Once the puddles are dropped, the pillars will spawn. The players handling meteors will begin moving around the edge of the arena in opposite directions, making sure not to use   Sprint or overlap the meteors, as they will explode if they are too close together. To handle the towers, players should focus on the quadrant of the arena they are in. The players handling the meteors will grab the outer towers, and the other players will grab the outer towers in their quadrant. The other players will check their quadrant, and move to any towers that remain. While moving around players will need to be careful not to touch the puddles, as they deal high damage and debuff with a Resistance Down of their element, and kill on the second touch. The meteors as they land will deal light party-wide damage, so healers may want to raise barriers or top up on healing for this.

A second set of towers will spawn at the edge of the arena at the cardinals and intercardinals. The meteor marked players will grab the towers on the opposite side of the arena from where they started, at the north and south. The other players in their role should take the other cardinal towers to the east and west, with the other roles taking the intercardinals. Ser Grinnaux will appear at this time and begin charging Faith Unmoving, which deals a knockback. Players on the outside of the arena will need to use their knockback mitigation to avoid being sent into the walls, while players in the center of the arena can use this to their advantage to get knocked into their towers hitbox.

Once all the attacks resolve, Thordan will become targetable again and appear to the north of the arena and begin casting Ultimate End. Players will need to inflict damage mitigation on the boss, as well as set up several defensive mitigations and shields to survive the attack, as it deals a massive amount of damage. Healers should be prepared for this. Following this attack, Thordan gains the Discomposed debuff, increasing his damage taken by 30%. He will move into the arena, using two Broad Swings. To avoid these, simply move behind the boss, then after the first swing, move into where the hitbox for that attack was. After two of these, the boss will begin to cast Aetheric Burst as an enrage. Thordan must be defeated before this cast finishes, or the party will be wiped. Upon defeating Thordan, Players should group up and use heavy mitigation, as the phase transition to phase 3 deals high damage. Note that if Thordan is defeated when the animation for his enrage goes off, any shields on the party will be deleted and will need to be immediately re-applied for the transition into the next phase.

Phase 3: Nidhogg

Note that in this phase, the boss cannot be moved, but he will turn to face the highest enmity player if not casting an action, which is important for orienting for some mechanics.

Abilities

• Final Chorus: The boss drops down on the party at the beginning of the phase, dealing massive raid damage that must be mitigated.
• Dive from Grace: Each player is marked with a specific number over their heads, ranging from one to three ( First in Line, Second in Line, Third in Line). Three random players will be marked with 1, two players will be marked with 2, and the remaining three players will be marked with 3. These debuffs indicate what order the Nidhogg Clones will dive on them when the debuff timer expires. Once the cast bar fills, players are then marked with a specific Jump debuff, indicating where a tower will spawn after the Clones dive. The tower will spawn around 3 seconds after the clone dives. Each clone dive will inflict heavy damage, Fire Resistance Down II and Physical Vulnerability Up to the targeted players, in a medium-sized AoE. Players who are caught in others' clone dives will be knocked back and instantly die.
  • Dark High Jump (circle): Dives on the player, and places a tower where they are standing.
  • Dark Elusive Jump (downwards arrow): Dives on the player, and places a tower 10 yalms behind their hitbox based on which direction they are facing.
  • Dark Spineshatter Dive (upwards arrow): Dives on the player, and places a tower 10 yalms in front of their hitbox based on which direction they are facing.
  • These are assigned per number group. At least one, but no more than two number groups will have arrows, while the remaining group(s) will have all circles. A group containing arrows will always contain one of each arrow, with the remaining player (if not group two) given a circle.
• Darkdragon Dive: A Nidhogg Clone drops on a tower that requires one player to soak, or it will explode and wipe the party around 1.5 seconds after the tower appears. The player who is soaking the tower will take light damage and be inflicted with Fire Resistance Down II and Physical Vulnerability Up. If a player with these debuffs soaks a tower, they will die.
  • A later variant will spawn four towers at the intercardinals in melee range of the boss. These require multiple players to soak to prevent them from exploding ~5 seconds after spawning. Towers may require one to four players, as indicated by the number of pillars within the tower circle. The pattern of these is random, but there will always be a total of 8 pillars. If fewer than the required number of players soak a given tower, it will explode and wipe the party.
• Gnash and Lash / Lash and Gnash: The boss will use three sequential attacks: a stack AoE, followed by an attack either within its hitbox, or outside, depending on the name of the cast. Being hit by the latter two attacks will inflict a small amount of damage, knock the player back slightly, and inflict a crippling Damage Down debuff.
  • Eye of the Tyrant: A high-damage stack AoE that randomly targets one person in front of Nidhogg. Should be shared by five players with additional party mitigation to lower damage.
  • Lashing Wheel: A donut AoE that hits the entire arena except for inside the boss's hitbox.
  • Gnashing Wheel: A point-blank circular AoE that hits inside the boss's hitbox, making the outside safe.
  • In other words, Gnash and Lash: stack -> out -> in. Lash and Gnash: stack -> in -> out
• Geirskogul: Line AoEs fired by the Nidhogg Clones that bait to the closest player to the clone once they spawn from Darkdragon Dive tower soaks. The direction of the attack is locked in once the cast bar appears on the enemy list.
• Drachenlance: Nidhogg will turn towards a random player and fire a point-blank conal AoE that deals lethal damage. He will always turn south when he uses this ability the second time.
• Soul Tether: Nidhogg and a random Nidhogg Clone spawned from the last set of Darkdragon Dive towers will each tether a random player. This clone will not use Geirskogul. The tethers can be exchanged to other players on contact. A few seconds after the tethers appear, both will use a heavy-hitting AoE tankbuster on the tethered players. Requires heavy mitigation (70% + and shields) or invulnerability cooldowns to survive.
• Revenge of the Horde: Enrage. The boss must be defeated before this cast completes, or the party will be wiped.

Strategy

Players should group in the center of the arena and pop several mitigations to handle the damage output from Final Chorus. Following this, the main tank should grab the boss and face them away from the party. The boss will perform three auto attacks, which are small cleaves, so other players should stack behind the boss. After this, the boss will begin casting Dive from Grace, and each player will be targeted with a marker ranging from one to three: . These marks indicate which order players will have a Nidhogg Clone dropped on them. Players will carry this debuff through the entire phase. Players will also receive one of three debuffs: High Jump Target (indicated by a debuff with a blue circle), Elusive Jump Target (indicated by a debuff with an arrow that points downwards), and Spineshatter Dive Target (indicated by a debuff with an arrow that points upwards). This indicates where a tower will appear once the attack is completed, and there is no limit to how many of each debuff is given to the party (for instance, each player can receive a High Jump Target debuff, meaning they can stand and face any direction around the boss). Once both debuffs have been given to players, they will need to move to their predetermined locations around the boss and face the specified direction to drop their towers. Players will have roughly nine seconds to adjust their location. Once the clones drop on them, they will need to move out and have a player marked with the Third debuff to take their tower, as the Clone landing on a player inflicts Fire Resistance Down II, and they will die if they try to soak their own tower.

During this, the boss will cast Lash and Gnash, requiring players to move into the boss's hitbox, then out to avoid the attack. This is preceded by an untelegraphed stack attack. To handle these mechanics, the players marked with "one" will move to their locations based on their Jump debuff, while the players marked with "two" and "three" stack in front of the boss to mitigate Dark Spineshatter Dive. Players will then move in, and back out of the boss's hitbox. Following this, the "three" marked players will move into their predetermined locations, both to soak the tower and place their own towers, while the "two" marked players move to their own predetermined locations to prepare to drop their towers.

For the next set of towers, as mentioned prior, the "two" players will move to their predetermined location to drop their towers, and the "three" players will move to their predetermined locations based on their Jump marker and face the correct location. The "three" marked players will also need to face outwards away from the boss immediately following the Nidhogg Clones attack, as they will mimic the player. Once they begin casting Geirskogul, they will lock in place and begin firing their line AoEs. These need to be pointed outwards so players can avoid them, as getting hit will result in a death.

While the Geirskogul casts are resolving, the boss will begin casting another Gnash/Lash combo in either order, so players will need to determine the correct movement for the attack. "2" marked players will have their Nidhogg Clones drop on them, then will have to move in to stack with other players to mitigate another Dark Spineshatter Dive, then two of the "one" marked players will soak the "two" players towers, facing outwards to bait the Nidhogg Clones once again, and moving into the boss's hitbox as needed. Finally, the "two" players and the "one" player who didn't previously take a tower will handle the "three" marked players towers and bait the Nidhogg Clones a final time.

After the towers resolve, the boss will turn towards a random player and begin casting Drachenlance, a point-blank conal cleave. Simply move behind the boss once this attack goes off. Another two auto-attacks will come out, and the boss will spawn four groups of tower puddles at the intercardinals of the arena, with varying numbers of towers within. The total number of towers spawned will always equal eight, and at least one will appear in each puddle, however, each puddle can have up to four towers within.

To handle the new towers, players should have the healers and ranged DPS move to each intercardinal, and have the tanks and melee DPS adjust in order to handle this mechanic. Players will need to be communicative with where they are moving, as the towers will drop Nidhogg Clones fairly quickly. Once the towers are soaked the clones will need to be baited by anyone in the circle other than the tanks, who will need to move out and gather the tethers from both the boss and one of the Nidhogg Clones. After a short while, both the boss and the clone will use Soul Tether, an untelegraphed tankbuster that hits in a small AoE. This attack deals massive damage, and will kill anyone else hit by it, and will only be survivable if the tank uses their mitigation or an invulnerability skill. Healers should be ready to heal the tanks following this.

Following this, the boss will use a few more auto-attacks and another Drachenlance, and then will begin slow casting Revenge of the Horde, the boss's enrage. Players will need to defeat the boss before this attack fires or they will be wiped. Some parties may initially find it necessary to use a Melee Limit Break to defeat the boss before it enrages. While this is an option when still progressing on this phase and the next one, using a Limit Break at this point in the fight will prevent further progress at a later phase, so players must eventually be able to defeat Nidhogg without relying on a Limit Break in order to complete the encounter.

Following the boss being defeated, players will need to stack once again to receive a buff to help deal with the Eyes in the intermission.

Phase 4: The Eyes of Nidhogg

Both Eyes are stationary enemies that cannot be moved and have omnidirectional hitboxes. The Right Eye (blue) will always spawn west at 50% maximum HP and the Left Eye (red) will always spawn east at 100% HP.

Abilities

• Soul of Friendship: Haurchefant's spirit will tether a random player and cause a medium-sized AoE to appear from them. All players in the AoE will receive a buff that allows them to damage the Right Eye. The buff is lost on death.
• Soul of Devotion: Ysayle's spirit will tether Alphinaud and cause a medium-sized AoE to appear from him. All players in the AoE will receive a buff that allows them to damage the Left Eye. The buff is lost on death.
• Resentment: Party-wide damage that inflicts a Bleed debuff that lasts six seconds.
• Hatebound: Each eye will tether four random players with one of two different colored chains (red or blue). Players with opposite colored chains can exchange by standing on each other, but will inflict them with a three second debuff ( Bound and Determined) that prevents further chain exchange until it expires.
  • Clawbound (red): Damage taken will result in damage to the Left Eye.
  • Fangbound (blue): Damage taken will result in healing to the Right Eye.
• Flare Nova: Two large yellow orbs will spawn, one next to each eye, which will grow in size four times before exploding and wiping the party. Must be soaked by two players at once, inflicting more damage as the orb grows. Will inflict Fire Resistance Down II.
• Flare Star: Four small blue orbs will spawn, two next to each eye, which will grow in size four times before exploding and wiping the party. Must be soaked by one player each, inflicting more damage after the orb grows. Will inflict Fire Resistance Down II.
• Mirage Dive: Cast by both eyes. Two random players with Clawbound will be hit with a medium-sized AoE that inflicts heavy damage and Piercing Resistance Down, making an additional hit from Mirage Dive lethal until the debuff expires. Will repeat three times. Players who are not the primary target of a Mirage Dive will be knocked back and instantly die, if caught in one.
• Steep in Rage: Heavy party-wide damage cast from both eyes and requires mitigation. Will kill players if both eyes cast this at once, requiring the Right Eye to be defeated before this cast finishes.
• Revenge of the Horde: Enrage. If both eyes are not defeated before Nidhogg's Influence reaches 100, Nidhogg will appear in his dragon form and cast this ability, wiping the party.

Strategy

When the phase begins, players should group up around Alphinaud, as Haurchefant and Ysayle will appear, targeting a random player and Alphinaud to each drop a buff, Soul of Friendship, and Soul of Devotion. Each buff will allow a player to inflict damage on a specific eye. Players need to obtain both buffs, and need to be careful not to die, as they will not be able to deal damage for the remainder of the fight, even if they are revived. Once players receive their buffs, they should break into their light parties, with each tank taking an eye. Players will need to spread out around the eyes. Estinien will pulse out Resentment, dealing party-wide damage that also inflicts a Bleed damage over time for a few seconds. Healers should be ready for this. Both eyes will cast Hatebound, tethering four random players to each eye. These tethers can be exchanged by players passing over one another, with a brief three second cooldown before chains can be exchanged again. Players with the blue chain will heal the Right Eye when they receive damage, while players with the red chain will deal damage to the Left Eye when they receive damage. In order to meet the damage check for this phase, players with the blue chain must avoid taking damage when possible, while players with the red chain must take non-lethal damage when possible.

For the first mechanic, two large yellow orbs will spawn at either side of the arena next to the eyes, and four smaller blue orbs, one to the north and south of each eye. each orb will expand four times, exploding on the fourth growth. The yellow orbs must be soaked by two players before they explode and kill the party. The blue orbs function in the same manner. To handle these orbs, two players with red tethers must soak the yellow orbs on their third growth, before they explode, dealing heavy damage to both themselves and the Left Eye. One way to handle this is to have the tanks and melee DPS players take the red chains and soak each orb. If one of these players doesn't have the correct tether, they will need to swap tethers. The best way to do this is to have players with the incorrect tether move to the center of the arena (stacking on Estinien) so they are all able to swap. Players who need to swap should stay still once they are on Estinien and not "wiggle" until their debuff swaps, because the swaps are not always immediate. Healers and ranged DPS will take the blue tethers and position themselves at the north and south of their respective eyes, in line with the blue orbs. Once the tanks and melee DPS soak the yellow orbs in pairs, they will move to where they healer and ranged DPS are to pass their tether, then move directly under the eye. The healers and ranged DPS will each take their blue orbs.

Following this, the eyes will both cast Mirage Dive, dropping a mid-sized circle AoE on two random players with a red tether, dealing heavy damage and inflicting a Piercing Resistance Down, meaning that being hit by a second Dive will kill them. Players hit by the AoE will also die, so proper spacing is required. This mechanic will repeat three times. To handle this, all players should move towards the Right Eye, as the Left Eye will be taking damage with each Mirage Dive. The healers and ranged DPS, who have red tethers, will surround the Right Eye, standing max melee range at the intercardinals of it. The tanks and melee DPS, who have blue tethers, should stack directly on the eye. When the first two players are hit with Dives, the two tanks will take the tethers of the players hit, with one tank scanning from northeast going clockwise to find the player they need to swap with, and the other tank scanning from northwest going counterclockwise. To make sure the tethers are passed correctly, the players moving out from the eye will move to the red tethered players' position. When the swaps resolve, the players who swapped to blue will move back to stack with the Right Eye. When the next set of players are hit, the melee DPS will take those tethers, and finally the two players (the "flex players") who were first hit will take the final set of tethers. The flex players should communicate who will take which tether, or have a priority system set up beforehand, as there is not enough time for one player to correct themselves if both flex players attempt to go to the same player to swap. After the fourth set of dives, the mechanic is finished.

Immediately after, both eyes will begin casting Steep in Rage, a heavy-hitting party-wide AoE. If both casts go off at once, the party will be wiped. Players will need to finish off the Right Eye (blue) before the cast is finished, mitigate the damage from the remaining eye's cast, then immediately focus on the Left Eye (red). Healers should be ready to heal the party. Once the other eye casts Steep in Rage, the Right Eye will resurrect with minimal HP because players with blue chains took damage, so a ranged DPS can focus on taking it out. Both eyes will need to be defeated before the Nidhogg's Influence reaches 100, or the party will be wiped out. Similar to the previous phase, a Limit Break must not be used to help clear this phase, as it will prevent further progress in the encounter. If both eyes are defeated in time, a short cutscene will play and transition into the next phase.

Intermission: Alternate History Vault

Abilities

• Planar Prison: All players are tethered to Grinnaux and pulled into a small circular prison, dealing light damage. All players are inflicted with Planar Imprisonment, which causes the player to instantly die if they attempt to exit the prison.
• Shockwave: Unavoidable constant partywide damage that pulses from Haurchefant, and will stop if he dies.
• Brightwing: Cast by Charibert, cleaves the two closest players near him with small conal AoEs, dealing very high damage and debuffing with Light Resistance Down and Skyblind, which will drop a small invisible AoE at the player's present location when the debuff timer expires after 5 seconds. Shortly after, the AoE will detonate, inflicting lethal damage to anyone hit.
• Pure of Heart: A slow cast spell by Charibert. A partywide attack dealing damage based on how much HP Charibert has. Will wipe the party if Charibert's HP is above ~30%. Will otherwise inflict high damage that requires mitigation. Haurchefant, if alive, will also be damaged heavily by this attack.
• Pierce: Enrage. The Spear of the Fury will kill Haurchefant once this cast resolves, looping the party back to Phase 2.

Strategy

This intermission phase plays out almost exactly the same as the final part of phase one; Charibert will begin casting Pure of Heart and cleaving the two closest players with Brightwing. Players will need to handle this attack as before, moving in to bait the attack, then moving to the edge of the circle to handle the AoEs that explode following the resolution of the debuff Skyblind. Players will need to reduce Charibert's HP as much as possible to mitigate how much damage the party takes from Pure of Heart, up to 24%. The difference this time is that players should have access to Limit Break Level Three, assuming it was not used earlier in the battle. When Haurchefant shows up to block the Spear of the Fury, a tank must use their third level Limit break to ensure he survives. He will take significantly reduced damage as long as the buff is up. He will also be healable, and must be kept alive. If Haurchefant is kept alive, he will pulse out Shockwave raid damage for the duration of the Planar Prison sequence, making healing more challenging than the final part of phase one. The party should distribute mitigations appropriately. Haurchefant must be near full health once Pure of Heart casts because it will also deal significant damage to him. Afterwards, the Planar Prison will dissipate, and players must move to Haurchefant and quickly destroy the Spear of the Fury. The Spear will begin casting Pierce, which will kill Haurchefant if it completes casting, sending players back to phase 2, where they will wipe. Once the spear has been broken, the battle will continue after another short cutscene, transitioning to another arena.

Phase 5: Dark King Thordan

Abilities

• Incarnation: Revives the three Dragons around the arena.
• The Dragon's Eye: Thordan casts this, increasing his damage output with Light of Ascalon.
• Wrath of the Heavens: Thordan calls upon his Knights and the Dragons to perform a series of mechanics.
  • Twisting Dive: Vedrfolnir will land at a cardinal somewhere around the edge of the arena, then charge across to the other side after a short cast, knocking back and killing anyone in his path. Following this, each player will drop a small Twister where they were standing. If players come into contact with this, it will explode, instantly killing them and knocking nearby players into the edge of the arena, also killing them.
  • Spiral Pierce: Two random players will be tethered to, and the Knights will dash to them after a short while, dealing high proximity damage in a line AoE and inflicting Magic Vulnerability Up.
  • Chain Lightning: Two players will be hit by this attack, debuffing them with Thunderstruck. When the debuff resolves, it will deal lightning damage in a small AoE around the afflicted player, and any other player hit by this will take massive damage and receive a Paralysis debuff in addition to Damage Down.
  • Skyward Leap: A player will receive a blue marker over their head, and shortly after will have a large AoE drop on them, dealing high damage and inflicting both Magic Vulnerability Up and a very short Physical Vulnerability Up.
  • Cauterize (with marker): A player will receive a green divebomb marker over their head, indicating where Vidofnir and Darkscale will dive to when the marker disappears. When the cast resolves, Vidofnir and Darkscale will divebomb to this position, knocking back and killing any who are hit by them.
  • Ascalon's Mercy Revealed: Each player will be hit with a conal AoE from Thordan in the middle that deals damage and debuffs with Physical Vulnerability Up, making overlap lethal.
  • Liquid Heaven: A random player that was not targeted for Skyward Leap or Spiral Pierce will be targeted by Vedrfolnir, who will spit five fireballs at the player, with each spit dealing moderate damage and dropping a large persistent fire puddle. The fire puddles will inflict Burns to anyone who steps or lingers in them around a second after they appear, killing them shortly after. Any player with Magic Vulnerability Up who is hit by the fireball spits will die. If the original target for this attack dies, Vedrfolinir will randomly target other players with each subsequent fireball.
  • Altar Flare: Charibert will target a player who will begin dropping large fire AoEs under them, totaling up to four. The AoEs will soon erupt, killing any who are within. If the original target for this attack dies, Charibert will randomly target other players with each subsequent AoE.
  • Empty Dimension: Grinnaux will cast a donut AoE that covers the entire arena, with the only safe zone within his hitbox.
• Ancient Quaga: Unavoidable high damage party-wide AoE. Heal through and heavily mitigate.
• Heavenly Heel: Delivers an attack that deals high damage and a Slashing Resistance Down debuff, followed by three heavy-hitting tankbuster cleaves known as Ascalon's Might.
• Death of the Heavens: Thordan summons his Knights and the Dragons once again to perform another series of attacks.
  • Doom: Four random players will be inflicted with a twenty five second Doom, which will kill them if the debuff expires. These players will have a dark red aura around them when the debuff is active, for easy visual identification. The debuff can be removed by stepping into a small white puddle which is left behind by each Wings of Salvation medium-sized white AoE.
  • Spear of the Fury: Zephirin will throw a spear in a line AoE through the center of the arena. Anyone hit will take massive damage and be inflicted with HP Recovery Down.
  • Cauterize (without marker): Darkscale will charge through the center of the arena in a line AoE from his starting position, knocking back and killing anyone hit.
  • Heavy Impact: Gerrique will cast this, with the attack starting as a point-blank earthquake AoE that will expand into donut AoEs that gradually grow wider. Being hit will inflict massive damage and Stun in addition to the Damage Down.
  • Lightning Storm: Thordan targets all players with a small AoE for medium damage and inflicts Lightning Resistance Down, making overlapping lethal.
  • Wings of Salvation: Cast by Vidofnir. The four players who are not afflicted with Doom will be targeted with medium-sized white circle AoEs that will soon resolve and kill anyone inside. The large puddles will leave behind smaller puddles that will cleanse Doom for anyone who steps inside, which will consume the puddles. They can still be consumed by players who step in them without Doom.
  • Holy Chain: Players are assigned a symbol and tethered together in pairs, also represented by the Burning Chains debuff, with each member in a pair assigned the same symbol. The chains must be broken by distance. Chains that are not broken in time will inflict massive damage and Damage Down to both tethered players.
    • Red Circle: Assigned to the two farthest players from the center with Doom.
    • Green Triangle: Assigned to one player with Doom and one player without Doom.
    • Purple Square: Assigned to one player with Doom and one player without Doom.
    • Blue X: Assigned to two players without Doom.
  • Faith Unmoving: Players are knocked back towards the edge of the arena from the middle.
  • The Dragon's Gaze: Thordan casts a gaze ability, inflicting heavy damage and debuffing with Hysteria and Damage Down if players are looking at him when the cast resolves.
  • The Dragon's Glory: A large Dragon's Eye spawns on the edge of the arena and uses an untelegraphed gaze ability at the same time as The Dragon's Gaze, inflicting heavy damage and debuffing with Hysteria and Damage Down if players are looking at it when the cast resolves.
  • Heavensflame: Charibert hits all players with a large fire AoE that deals high damage and inflicts a brief Fire Resistance Down II, making an overlap lethal. Requires some mitigation.
  • Holy Meteor: Eight meteor circles spawn around the arena, one on each cardinal and intercardinal, indicating where a meteor will fall. They must be destroyed or they will wipe the party.
• Aetheric Burst: Enrage. Thordan must be reduced to less than three percent HP before this cast finishes or the party will wipe.

Strategy

Thordan will appear at the center of the arena and immediately cast Incarnation, resurrecting and taking control of the three Dragons in the arena. Following this, Thordan will cast The Dragon's Eye and buff himself. He will then use two auto-attacks that should be mitigated as they deal high damage. Following this, he will cast Wrath of the Heavens, summoning his Knights Twelve and the Dragons. For the following mechanics, players need only worry about correctly dodging the various attacks as the boss will not be targetable.

To start, Vedrfolnir will spawn at the edge of the arena and begin casting Twisting Dives, two of the knights will tether to two random players, a singular player will receive a blue marker over their head, indicating a knight will drop an AoE on them, and two random players will be hit by Chain Lightning. Once Twisting Dives completes, the Dragon will charge across the arena at the same time as the Knights move to the player they are tethered to. Shortly after the charge, each player will have a Twister spawn underneath them, as their location was snapshotted just before Vedrfolnir charged. Another player will then receive a green marker over their head, indicating they will be attacked by Vidofnir, and Thordan will use Ascalon's Mercy Revealed. A player will be targeted by Darkscale for Liquid Heaven, while another player will be targeted for Altar Flare. Thordan will use Ascalon's Mercy Revealed, and Grinnaux will begin casting Empty Dimension. Darkscale will begin firing five fireballs, the player targeted for Altar Flare will begin dropping puddles, and the two Dragons will begin casting Cauterize. Finally Empty Dimension will fire in a large donut AoE. The mechanic will finish with Thordan casting Ancient Quaga for a roomwide AoE.

To handle these mechanics, players must first identify where Vedrfolnir has landed and treat this as "relative north", then clear a space on the other side of the arena for its charge. Tethered players will move to the opposite side of the arena to the Kight they are tethered to, while the player with the blue marker moves to the "relative west" of the Dragon. The remaining players will move to the "relative east" edge of the arena to avoid the wide lines these attacks have. The Chain Lightning, Defamation, Twisting Dive and Spiral Pierce will all fire around the same time. Once the Dive has resolved, players should move immediately from where they are standing to avoid the Twister that spawns there. The player with the green Divebomb should move towards Charibert the mage knight and drop this at the edge of the arena. Every player will then spread out at the edge of the arena to handle Ascalon's Mercy Revealed, then wait for both the AoEs from Altar Flare and the Liquid Heaven fireballs to begin appearing. The player who begins dropping Altar Flare AoEs will move clockwise around the edge of the arena, and the player who is hit by Liquid Heaven will begin doing so as well. All other players will move towards Grinnaux and position themselves either near Thordan if they are not debuffed with Thunderstruck, or towards the edge of the arena and spread out if they are. Players can use the dark runic circles on the floor of the arena to determine how close or how far to stand. Once Empty Dimension fires, players can group up for healing and mitigation to deal with Ancient Quaga. At this point, Thordan will become targetable once again.

The boss will use an auto-attack, then cast Heavenly Heel, dealing heavy damage and debuffing the tank with Slashing Resistance Down. He will then follow up with Ascalon's Might, forcing a tankswap to avoid taking lethal damage. This will then lead into Death of the Heavens.

For Death of the Heavens, players need to locate the warrior Guerrique and treat him once again as "relative north". Four random players will be afflicted with Doom, these players will move towards the "relative north" of the arena, while the other players will move to the "relative south. Vedrfolnir will appear on the edge again and begin casting Twisting Dive again. Players will need to spread out near the waymarkers (but slightly off of them) to avoid the incoming attacks. Thordan will cast Lightning Storm, dropping an AoE on each player that will kill if overlapped due to the Lightning Resistance Down II, Vidofnir will cast Wings of Salvation, dropping white puddles under non-Doomed players, Darkscale will charge across the arena with Cauterize, and the first AoE of Heavy Impact will come out. Once the second AoE fires, players should move from their current position to avoid the Twisters that spawn, and move towards the center of the arena to avoid the third AoE from Heavy Impact. At this point, a Dragon's Eye will spawn somewhere on the edge of the arena and begin casting The Dragon's Glory while Thordan casts the Dragon's Gaze. Players need to identify where both of these attacks are coming from so as to not accidentally face them. When players are tethered together, Doom inflicted players should line themselves up with the white puddles left at the edge of the arena, with the player of the corresponding symbol on the opposite side. When the attack fires, players must be sure to move back if nessesary to cleanse their Doom debuff if the attack does not push them all the way. At the same time, Charibert will cast Heavensflame, dealing heavy fire damage in an AoE around each player. This debuffs with Fire Resistance Down II, so if players overlap they will die. If a player is dead when this attack goes off, a random player will be hit twice, also resulting in a death. At the same time, both gaze attacks will fire, so players must be sure to not be facing either attack before they are knocked back as they lose control for two seconds. Finally, Noudenet will summon eight Meteor Cirlces that must be destroyed immediately. The meteors fall quite quickly so this acts as a sort of soft DPS check. Once all the circles have been destroyed, Thordan will return and use another Ancient Quaga to signifiy the end of the mechanic. Heal and mitigate to handle this, and prepare for another auto attack and Heavenly Heel/Ascalon's Might combo. Following this, Thordan will begin casting Aetheric Burst, his enrage. He must be reduced to two percent HP before this finishes or he will wipe the party. When Thordan drops Ascalon and falls to one knee begging for mercy, players must stop attacking, for if he is killed here, the party will not be able to proceed to the final phase of the encounter. Once he moves away, the next phase will begin.

Phase 6: Nidhogg and Hraesvelgr

Both bosses have omnidirectional hitboxes and cannot be freely moved by players. For most of this phase, Nidhogg will be at the west arena wall and Hraesvelgr will be at the east wall.

Abilities

• Wyrmsclaw: High damage auto-attack used by both Dragons.
• Wyrmsbreath: Each non-tank player will be tethered to either Nidhogg or Hraesvelgr, who will aim a conal AoE at them, while the tanks will be struck with one of two possible kinds of tankbusters based on whether one or both Dragon's mouths are glowing. Tethers must be of a sufficient length, as indicated visually, to prevent lethal damage.
  • Dread Wyrmsbreath: Nidhogg tethers to three random non-tank players and fires a conal AoE (Fire Breath) at them. This deals high fire damage and debuffs with Fire Resistance Down II and Boiling, which resolves into a Pyretic debuff that deals massive damage upon movement. Boiling will not be inflicted by being hit with Ice Breath at the same time and can be removed by being hit by a later Cauterize from Hraesvelgr.
  • Great Wyrmsbreath: Hraesvelgr tethers to the other three random non-tank players and fires a conal AoE (Ice Breath) at them. This deals high ice damage and debuffs with Ice Resistance Down II and Freezing, which will resolve into Deep Freeze, immobilizing a player for thirty seconds. Freezing will not be inflicted by being hit with Fire Breath at the same time and can be removed by being hit by a later Cauterize from Nidhogg.
  • Staggering Breath: AoE Tankbuster. Used when either Dragon's mouths are glowing during their Wyrmsbreath attack. The Dragon with the glowing mouth will use a conal AoE (Dark Breath for Nidhogg, Holy Breath for Hraesvelgr) through the middle of the arena, while the Dragon with the non-glowing mouth will hit their target with a large circular tankbuster AoE (Staggering Breath). Anyone aside from the primary target caught in this will be knocked back and killed.
  • Dark Orb/Holy Orb: Split tankbuster. When both Dragons' mouths are glowing, they will each fire an orb that must be split by both tanks, as each orb targets a single tank and explodes in a small AoE, inflicting damage and debuffing with either Sustained Light Damage or Sustained Dark Damage, which will both inflict massive damage over time, and can only be nullified by the other orb.
  • Swirling Blizzard: A large telegraphed donut AoE from Hraesvelgr that compresses the safe region for the Wyrmsbreath mechanics to be a circular area. Getting hit by this will deal lethal damage.
• Vows: Two conditions that must be upheld during the entirety of the phase. Failure to do so will cause one of the bosses to enrage and deal significantly more damage while taking significantly less damage, most likely resulting in a wipe.
  • Mortal Vow: Nidhogg targets a random DPS with a small AoE and deals light damage while applying this debuff, significantly lowering their healing potency and inflicting moderate damage over time. Any additional players hit are debuffed with Suppuration, decreasing their maximum HP by 50% and increasing their damage taken. After thirty four seconds the debuff will resolve and deal damage in a small AoE, passing the debuff to one other player within the AoE. Any additional players hit will also be debuffed with Suppuration. If the debuff is not passed to another player, it will cause Nidhogg to enrage. Once the debuff is passed on, the original player who carried the debuff will be inflicted with Mortal Atonement, preventing them from receiving the debuff for two minutes (effectively the remainder of the phase unless if they were the first one targeted with Mortal Vow).
  • Solemn Vow: If a player dies to any of Hraesvelgr's attacks, he will enrage.
• Akh Afah: Each Dragon targets a healer with a stack AoE that deals high damage and debuffs with Magic Vulnerability Up, meaning that overlap will wipe the party. The Dragons will also tether to one another at the beginning of the cast if there is a difference of more than three percent HP, with a purple tether if Nidhogg has more HP and a white tether if Hraesvelgr has more HP. If the Dragons are tethered by the end of the cast, the stack AoE from the higher HP boss will inflict lethal damage.
• Hallowed Wings: One of Hraesvelgr's wings will glow, indicating that the entire half of the arena on that side will be hit by a large AoE that deals lethal damage. This resolves at the same time as Hallowed Plume.
  • Hallowed Plume: Depending on whether Hrasevelgr's head is raised or lowered, he will target the two farthest or closest players respectively. These players will be hit with large circular AoE tankbusters.
• Wroth Flames: Three sets of three orbs will spawn, the first set in the center, then one set at a corner, followed by the final set in the opposite corner. These orbs will erupt in a cross (Flame Burst) that reaches across the entire arena set by set, and inflict moderate damage and Damage Down to anyone caught in the AoE. Four random players will also be debuffed with Spreading Flames, two others will be debuffed with Entangled Flames, and the remaining two players will not receive a debuff.
  • Spreading Flames: Four players will be inflicted with this debuff, expiring after twenty four seconds, then detonate in a small AoE that does no damage to the target player and inflicts Fire Resistance Down II. However, getting caught in another player's AoE will inflict lethal damage and a moderate knockback. If the afflicted player dies with this debuff before it expires, it will detonate immediately and most likely wipe the party.
  • Entangled Flames: Two players will be inflicted with this debuff, expiring after twenty four seconds (Entangled Pyre) and requires a stack of two total players, dealing moderate magic damage and inflicting Fire Resistance Down II. If players are not stacked when the debuff expires, the debuffed player will explode, inflicting heavy raid damage (killing anyone with Fire Resistance Down II) and Damage Down on everyone. If the afflicted player dies with this debuff before it expires, it will detonate immediately and most likely wipe the party.
  • Akh Morn: Nidhogg will target a random player for a set of four stack AoEs that deal high damage, requiring heavy mitigation, and drop persistent puddles. If players step in these, they will be debuffed with a lethal Bleed that will shortly kill them.
• Hot Wing/Hot Tail: Nidhogg will fire either a line AoE through the center of the arena or the top and bottom thirds of the arena, dealing lethal damage to anyone hit.
• Cauterize: One or both of the Dragons will charge across their side of the arena with a breath attack, dealing high damage and inflicting either Burns for Nidhogg or Frostbite for Hraesvelgr, inflicting high damage over time. If players are inflicted with the opposite elemental debuff (Freezing or Boiling), the attack will deal non-lethal damage, the debuff will be removed, and the damage over time debuff will not be applied. The first player hit will take significantly more damage, requiring either a tank invulnerability or heavy mitigation to survive.
• Touchdown: Nidhogg lands in the center of the arena and Hraesvelgr lands on the south wall of the arena, dealing moderate proximity damage.
• Revenge of the Horde: Enrage. Both Dragons cast this. If both Dragons are not defeated before the cast finishes, the party will wipe.
• Resentment: Party-wide damage from the untargetable Eyes of Nidhogg that inflicts a Bleed debuff.
• Shockwave: Party-wide damage from Thordan that inflicts a Bleed debuff.

Strategy

Nidhogg will appear alongside Hraesvelgr, who will have two status effects: Neurolink, which is cosmetic and has no gameplay functionality, and Solemn Vow, which will cause him to enrage if he kills any player with an attack. When the phase begins, both Dragons will use an auto-attack, then begin casting their respective breath attacks, each tethering to three random non-tank players. Players will need to move away from the Dragon they are tethered to until the tether changes from purple to orange/white. The tanks will both move to the northern half of the arena to hold enmity. They will also be watching to see if one or both of the Dragon’s jaws glow. If one is glowing and the other isn't, the glowing mouth will fire a conal AoE through the center of the arena, while the non-glowing mouth will target their respective tank with Staggering Breath, a tankbuster. If both mouths are glowing, the tanks will need to come together to soak both Light Orb and Dark Orb to neutralize both of the Sustained damage debuffs. At the same time, tethered players will need to stack with a player of the opposite tether to neutralize the elemental debuff received. Two sets of players can move to the south of the arena with one set moving to the north, or all three sets to the south, as long as groups are properly spaced out to avoid overlap.

Following this, a random DPS will be inflicted with Mortal Vow with a small AoE. The debuff must be passed four times during the fight in roughly thirty second intervals, which occur after most major mechanics. Players need to determine who the debuff will be passed to and in what order, such as melee DPS to ranged DPS and back to melee. The debuff should never be passed to a healer because it inhibits healing output. Players need to spread when Mortal Vow is first applied, as anyone who is too close to to the target for the AoE will be inflicted with Suppuration, decreasing their maximum HP by 50% and increasing their damage taken, which is essentially a death sentence.

Following this, players will split into their light parties as the Dragons begin casting Akh Afah. If the Dragons tether to each other, players need to be sure to bring them within three percent HP of each other, or this attack will wipe the party. Based on the color of the tether, players can easily tell which Dragon has the higher HP (white for Hraesvelgr, purple for Nidhogg). These attacks should be mitigated as they deal high damage. Players can stack directly to the north and south of the center of the arena.

Once the Akh Afah resolves, Nidhogg will leave to either the north or south edge of the arena on either the east or west side. Shortly after, he will charge across that half of the arena with Cauterize, killing any who are hit. At the same time one of Hraesvelgr's wings will begin to glow, indicating a cleave on that entire side of the arena with Hallowed Wings. This will leave a single quadrant of the arena as a safe zone. Hraesvelgr will also either raise or lower his head, indicating who he will target for Hallowed Plume, a tankbuster. If his head is raised, he will target the furthest two players, and if it is lowered, he will target the two closest players. Tanks will need to adjust to bait the tankbusters, and space out to avoid overlap. Once these attacks resolve, players will need to hand off the Mortal Vow debuff. It is recommended that they move to the center of the arena, while the rest of the party is away from the center, to avoid passing to the incorrect player. It is critical that that only the two players passing the debuff are next to each other with no other players nearby, as any additional player that is hit by the debuff expiration AoE will be inflicted with Suppuration.

The next mechanic players will have to handle is Wroth Flames/Akh Morn and the following debuffs. Three orbs will spawn in the center of the arena, followed by another set in one of the four corners, and finally in the corner opposite of that, creating a diagonal line. Players will then be debuffed with Spreading Flames, Entangled Flames, or no debuff at all. When the orbs begin exploding, Hraesvelgr will use Cauterize across a random side of the arena. Akh Morns will also appear under the players, who need to remain stacked to handle these, then be ready to move out of them as they inflict a heavy Bleed debuff that will most likely kill the player inflicted. To best handle Akh Morn at the same time as the fire orbs, players should move across the edge of the safe area and cut towards the center of the arena where the first set of orbs spawned.

Following the resolution of the Akh Morns and the fire orbs, the Dragons will land back in their respective locations and Nidhogg will use either Hot Wing or Hot Tail and the debuffs will resolve. Players with Entangled Flames and their partners should stack near Nidhogg, while the other players with Spreading Flames spread out to avoid overlap. Players will need to adjust according to either Hot Wing or Hot Tail, then pass the Mortal Vow debuff for a second time.

The Dragons will cast another Akh Afah, and can be handled the same way as before. This is the last time players will need to worry about keeping both Dragons' HP balanced for the rest of the phase. Following this, Hraesvelgr will use Hallowed Wings and Hallowed Plume on one side of the arena while Nidhogg uses the opposite Hot Tail or Hot Wing. Players will need to adjust to handle where the tanks need to stand in order to bait the plumes while also avoiding the other AoEs.

Players will then be tethered to either Dragon again, however they will need to keep their debuffs for the next mechanic. Players tethered to Hraesvelgr should spread out to the north and players tethered to Nidhogg should spread to the south, with tanks resolving their mechanics. Once the tethers resolve, both Dragons will move to the north edge of the arena and prepare a Cauterize. Players will need to line up in the hitbox of the opposite Dragon they were tethered to with a tank at the front of each line, as each tank will not have a debuff to neutralize and will take full damage from the attack. To handle this, the tanks should use their invulnerability skills, with healers keeping them topped off to handle the debuff damage. If a player is debuffed with Pyretic they need to remain still until the debuff falls off.

Once the debuffs are resolved, players will need to move to a corner to avoid the proximity damage from Nidhogg touching down in the center of the arena. Immediately following this, players will need to pass Mortal Vow for the final time. Following Touchdown, both Dragons will begin casting Revenge of the Horde, and must be defeated before the cast finishes. Once both Dragons are defeated, the untargetable Eyes of Nidhogg will appear and cast Resentment, dealing raid damage and inflicting bleed. If Thordan was spared, he will reappear and absorb the Eyes of Nidhogg and Hraesvelgr's, transforming into Dragon-king Thordan. During this sequence, he will use Shockwave once, dealing raid damage and also inflicting bleed. At the end of the sequence, he will use Alternative End, dealing massive damage that must be heavily mitigated. To ensure players do not use mitigation too early, they should time their mitigation after the bleed effect from Shockwave wears off. Afterwards, the arena will transition and the final phase will begin. If Thordan was not spared, the fight will essentially loop back to the Eyes of Nidhogg phase but the party will not have access to Soul of Friendship or Soul of Devotion, making the eyes unkillable and ensuring a wipe.

Phase 7: Dragon-king Thordan

Note that in this phase, the boss cannot be moved, but he will turn to face the highest enmity player if not casting an action, which is important for orienting for some mechanics.

Abilities

• Alternative End: Occurs during the transition from the previous phase, dealing massive raid damage that must be mitigated.
• Trinity: Thordan auto-attacks three players between each mechanic as small AoEs, the first and second in the enmity list, and the closest player, inflicting various debuffs based on their order in that list. Trinity always occurs twice between each Edge mechanic.
  • Highest Enmity: Inflicted with a stacking Dark Resistance Down, increasing the damage from the next Trinity of this type.
  • Second Highest: Inflicted with a stacking Light Resistance Down, increasing the damage from the next Trinity of this type.
  • Closest: Inflicted with stacking Light Resistance Down, Dark Resistance Down and Physical Vulnerability Up, making another hit from Trinity lethal until the Physical Vulnerability Up expires.
    • This requires the party to cycle through baiting the attacks to avoid deaths. The tanks should swap every two auto-attacks, and the recommended order is for two acting melee DPS to bait the closest attacks, then the acting ranged DPS, and finally the healers, before repeating the cycle. This will give enough time for the debuffs to fall off the first player who baited them.
• Edge Attacks: Thordan will use various attacks mixed with In/Out mechanics, determined by what element Thordan's swords are infused with. If the swords are covered in ice (Ice of Ascalon), players need to move into the boss's hitbox to dodge a donut AoE, and out if the swords are covered with fire (Flames of Ascalon), to dodge a point-blank AoE.
  • Exaflare's Edge: Three tri-directional circle AoEs spawn around the boss, and fire a series of moving circle AoEs in the direction of the arrows. Any player hit by these will die.
  • Akh Morn's Edge: Thordan spawns three towers that need to be soaked by multiple players: two red towers should have three players each, while the blue tower should have both tanks. Each tower will hit players within multiple times dealing heavy stack damage that requires mitigation, starting at five and increasing by one with each cast (up to seven). If a tower does not have any people, it will explode and the party will wipe.
  • Gigaflare's Edge: Thordan spawns three proximity AoEs in sequence that will explode in order, killing any player who is too close and inflicting a large amount of party-wide damage otherwise, requiring mitigation.
  • For each of these attacks, the three AoEs/towers will spawn always relative to where the boss is facing: one behind, one northeast, and one northwest.
• Morn Afah's Edge: Enrage. Three yellow towers will spawn around the boss and must be soaked by one player each or the party will instantly wipe. Any player within the towers will die upon the cast finishing. The towers must continue to be soaked until all players are dead and the party is wiped or the boss is defeated.

Strategy

Though this phase is relatively simple in terms of its mechanics, it requires players to handle high damage output and evade reactionary mechanics. To open the phase, players must group together and heavily mitigate the damage from the stage transition, which also inflicts a heavy Bleed. once the boss is targetable, players will need to handle the first set of Trinity attacks, then the in/out mechanic for Exaflare's Edge. Each cast of this ability can be handled the same way, by moving to either side of the southern Exaflare, then move in to where its hitbox previously was once it fires. Following this, players will move further south to where the two diamond patterns on the floor meet to avoid the remaining flares, then move in to prepare for the next set of Trinities.

Next, players will handle Akh Morn's Edge, moving to have the correct amount/role of players in their respective towers. The in/out mechanic will take place, then the circles will fire five times. Mitigate the Akh Morn hits, and be careful not to leave the AoEs before the attack finishes, or everyone will take a massive party-wide hit. Once again, players will move to handle the incoming Trinity.

For Gigaflare's Edge, players must simply identify the order and location that the proximity markers drop in, and move around the arena, never moving more than max melee range to the center of the arena. This mechanic requires mitigation and healing as well. To handle, players must move in or out of the boss's hitbox, and then be prepared to move out as soon as that portion of the attack resolves. Following this attack's resolution, players must handle Trinity again.

These mechanics will repeat three times, and then the boss will enrage, casting Morn Afah's Edge. For this attack, each tower must be soaked by one player, killing them when the cast resolves. If a player is not in each tower, the party will wipe when the cast finishes. Players will need to push hard to meet this DPS check if the boss's HP is still high. These circles will continue to spawn until either players are unable to mitigate the circles, or the boss is defeated. After the first two tower sets, the remaining two alive players should not soak the towers, and instead let them explode, as this buys an additional second to damage the boss.

Reward

• 1   Dragonsong Totem
• Dragonsong's Reprise Adventurer Plate

When originally released, you could receive only one reward item per week for completing Dragonsong's Reprise (Ultimate). This restriction was removed in Patch 6.2.

The reward can be exchanged with Nesvaaz in Radz-at-Han (X:10.6 Y:10.0) for Ultimate Weapons of the Heavens.

Completion of this duty will unlock a new Adventurer Plate design.

Achievements

This duty is associated with the following achievements:

Name	Points	Task	Reward	Patch
As Suits a Hero	10	Complete Dragonsong's Reprise (Ultimate).	The Heavens' Legend	6.11

World First

The World's First clear was by the static Neverland on 5/2/2022. After the use of third party tools (including user interface modifications and text-to-speech callouts) in violation of the ToS was confirmed by the community, producer/director YoshiP issued a statement.

Dialogue

Phase 1:

Ser Grinnaux: I'll cut you to pieces! (upon pull, voice acted)

Ser Adelphel: The power! It fills me! (casting first Holiest of Holy)

Ser Adelphel: Witness me! (Empty Dimension)

Ser Grinnaux: How was that? (Holy Bladedance)

Ser Grinnaux: Down with you! (first Hyperdimensional Slash lasers, voice acted)

Ser Grinnaux: Ahahahahahahaha! (second Hyperdimensional Slash lasers, voice acted)

Ser Grinnaux: Hahaha! (after Hyperdimensional Slash)

Ser Adelphel: Let us see how you handle this! (Shining Blade)

Ser Charibert: Filthy rats! (before Burning Chains, voice acted)

Ser Charibert: Begone with you! (Heavensflame, voice acted)

Ser Grinnaux: This ends here! (Planar Prison, voice acted)

Ser Charibert: And now the final curtain! (Planar Prison, voice acted)

Haurchefant: Look out! (blocking Spear of the Fury)

Ser Zephirin: Fall! (throwing Spear of the Fury)

Phase 2:

Wandering Minstrel: In pursuit of the archbishop, the Warrior of Light journeyed to Azys Lla, where s/he confronted a primal born of the power of the Eye: King Thordan and his knights twelve. (transition)

King Thordan: Your feeble light shall fade before my brilliance! (upon pull)

---

During Phases 2 and 5, Thordan will occasionally say the following when being damaged. These lines are voice acted.

King Thordan: What?

King Thordan: Gah!

King Thordan: grunts

---

King Thordan: My knights! To arms! (Strength of the Ward)

King Thordan: The power is mine! (Strength of the Ward cast finishes, voice acted)

Ser Vellguine? (yellow double ponytail): Scamper all you will. My lance will find you... (Spiral Dive)

Ser Ignasse? (red double ponytail): Charge! (Spiral Dive)

Ser Paulecrain? (white single ponytail): Ser Vellguine! On your mark! (Spiral Dive)

Ser Guerrique: Yah! (Heavy Impact)

Ser Janlenoux: Ever and always, Brother! (Holy Bladedance)

Ser Adelphel: With me, Ser Janlenoux! (Holy Bladedance)

Ser Grinnaux: Gahahaha! (Dimensional Collapse)

Ser Hermenost: Surging aether, become searing light! (Conviction)

King Thordan: My knights! To arms! (Sanctity of the Ward)

King Thordan: The glory is mine! (Sanctity of the Ward cast finishes, voice acted)

King Thordan: O Ascalon! Drink deep of the power of slumbering gods! (start of Fire/Ice)

Ser Charibert: I shall turn you into ash! (Heavens' Stake)

King Thordan: To me, my knights! (before Ultimate End, voice acted)

King Thordan: I shall bury you and your beliefs! (Ultimate End, voice acted)

King Thordan: Y-You survived my divine reckoning!? Impossible! (after Ultimate End)

King Thordan: This is the power of light? No... if I must fall, then so shall you! (Aetheric Burst, first sentence is voice acted)

King Thordan: Impossible! (defeat, voice acted)

Phase 3:

Wandering Minstrel: Though s/he emerged victorious, his/her comrade's body was claimed to Nidhogg, who brought his unbridled rage to bear against Ishgard. (transition)

Nidhogg: Thy final verse is sung! (Final Chorus)

Dragonspeak transcription: Ahm in ??? fhail! (voice acted)

Nidhogg: Thou hast survived my song... Curse thee and thine eye, Hraesvelgr! (after Final Chorus)

Nidhogg: All will perish! (Dive from Grace)

Dragonspeak transcription: ??? (voice acted)

Phase 4:

Alphinaud: Estinien! (entering the field)

Estinien: I would ask one last favor of you, Warrior of Light... (response)

Estinien: Finish me... (spirits of Haurchefant and Ysayle appear)

Estinien: Now, while I have the beat subdued! (Eyes of Nidhogg appear as targets)

Estinien: Graaaaaarrrghhh! (Resentment)

Nidhogg: At long last, this flesh belongeth to me! And now, wicked mortals-my dirge shall usher you unto your doom! (Enrage)

Nidhogg: Undone by mortal will. Whither now...? (defeat)

Intermission:

Wandering Minstrel: Thus did one song draw to a close. But here and now, this minstrell shall perform another-a song of imagination transcending... (returning to the Vault)

Ser Grinnaux: This ends here! (Planar Prison, voice acted)

Ser Charibert: And now the final curtain! (Planar Prison, voice acted)

Haurchefant: Look out! (blocking Spear of the Fury)

Ser Zephirin: Fall! (throwing Spear of the Fury)

Haurchefant: You... you are unharmed? Thank goodness... (after being saved from Spear of the Fury)

Wandering Minstrel: 'Tis said that there are no ifs in history, yet man is wont to dream. Let us dream, then, of a future where a dear comrage lived... (beginning of the Alternate Dragonsong War)

Phase 5

King Thordan: Vile dragons! My reign begins with your end! (Incarnation)

King Thordan: My reign begins! (Incarnation, voice acted)

Vidofnir: In the name of King Thordan... (being tempered)

Darkscale: What is thy bidding? (being tempered)

Verdfolnir: Glory be to the Fury... (being tempered)

King Thordan: To me, my loyal servants! (Wrath of the Heavens)

King Thordan: The power is mine! (Wrath of the Heavens cast finishes, voice acted)

Ser Ignasse? (red double ponytail): You are mine! (Spiral Pierce)

Ser Vellguine? (yellow double ponytail): None shall escape! (Spiral Pierce)

Ser Charibert: I will turn you into ash! (Altar Pyre)

Ser Grinnaux: Blood and steel! (Empty Dimension)

King Thordan: Tell me, Warrior of Light. How do you propose to end this conflict? (after casting Ancient Quaga)

King Thordan: To me, my loyal servants! (Death of the Heavens)

King Thordan: The power is mine! (Death of the Heavens cast finishes, voice acted)

Ser Guerrique: Yah! (Heavy Impact)

Ser Zephirin: You defy the only rightful god! (Spear of the Fury)

Ser Charibert: Filthy rats! (preparing Heavensflame)

Ser Grinnaux: Begone, pests! (Faith Unmoving)

Ser Noudenet: Heavens rain death upon you! (Holy Meteor)

King Thordan: If you believe that eliminating me will undo a thousand years of strife and suffering, then you are a fool. (Heavenly Heel)

King Thordan: I yield... Have mercy, I beg you... (upon being brought below 3% health)

King Thordan: Hmph, your compassion will be the end of you... (if spared)

Phase 6

Wandering Minstrel: A single life can alter the course of history... Enslaved by an ancient relic, the great why Hraesvelgr descended upon Ishgard at his vengeful brother's side. (introduction)

Nidhogg: Wriggling maggots! I shall grind you to paste in my jaws! (first appearance)

Dragonspeak transcription: Mykh errn! (voice acted)

Hraesvelgr: I swore to Shiva-swore that I would not take the lives of men... Stop me, I prithee! (Akh Afah)

Hraesvelgr: I thank thee, Servant of Hydaelyn... Now I may go to be with my beloved...

Alphinaud: Estinien! (entering the field)

Estinien: Graaaaaarrrghhh! (Resentment)

King Thordan: Hahahaha! By the power of mine enemy's eyes, I am become a god eternal! (entering the field)

Alphinaud: Will there never be peace between man and dragon...? (King Thordan absorbs the eyes of Nidhogg and Hraesvelgr)

Alphinaud: We must see Estinien to safety! (running to Estinien)

Phase 7

Wandering Minstrel: Thus did a dreadful new divinity arise-one endowed with the nigh-irrepressible life force of two great wyrms... (introduction)

Dragon-king Thordan: O Ascalon! Purge the tainted with the light of sorrow immeasurable! (Exaflare's Edge)

Dragon-king Thordan: O Ascalon! Consign the wicked with the light of rancor unquenchable! (Akh Morn's Edge)

Dragon-king Thordan: O Ascalon! Scorch the earth with the light of regret unfathomable! (Gigaflare's Edge)

Dragon-king Thordan: Your time is come! Eyes of mine enemy, bring oblivion unto the unbelievers! (Morn Afah's Edge)

Ending Cutscene

Wandering Minstrel: So ends an alternate chapter in their tale. What lessons, dear listener, might we derive from this Dragonsong reimagined? Be it that of man or dragon, all life is precious, and the loss of loved ones shall ever darken the hearts of those left behind. Yet death is not the end of what was wrought. The memories forged, the affection shared, the hope inherited... Such things grant us the strength to walk unto the morrow, and there is no greater proof of this than the Warrior of Light's journey. From the fantastical works of a wandering minstrel. Heavensward: A Reimagining

Images

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Trivia

• On June 16, 2022, the encounter was cleared using only one healer and five DPS instead of the usual two healers and four DPS.

External Links

Aether/NA Party Finder Strategies

• Phase 1: The Vault Knights
  • Playstation knockback:
    

• • Planar Prison: "HMRT EWEW"
    • First, the healers take the protean cleaves south, then go east to drop their puddles.
    • Second, melee DPS take their protean cleaves south, then go west to drop their puddles.
    • Third, ranged DPS take their protean cleaves south, then go east to drop their puddles.
    • Finally, tanks take their protean cleaves south, then go west to drop their puddles.

• Phase 2: King Thordan
  • Strength of the Ward
    • Please note that the toolbox is inaccurate for waymarks and group priorities.
    • Waymarks: Placed on cardinals and intercardinals, but starting from north going clockwise, the order is ABCD1234, not A1B2C3D4
    • Group priorities: G1 NW CCW (Numbers); G2 N CW (Letters)
  • Sanctity of the Ward Part 1: Dashes
    • G1 away from dark knight
    • G2 towards dark knight
    • Role swap for sword markers
  • Sanctity of the Ward Part 2: Meteors and Towers

• Phase 3: Nidhogg
  • Up arrow debuff stands east
  • Down arrow debuff stands west
  • Arrow priority overrides initial positions

• Phase 4: Eyes
  • Melees and tanks will walk to ranged players to pass, after popping yellow orb.

• Phase 5: Dark King Thordan
  • Wrath of the Heavens
  • Death of the Heavens
  • Earthquake dodges for DotH

• Phase 6: Nidhogg and Hraesvelgr
  • Group 1 initially attacks Nidhogg and stacks north for Akh Afah. Group 2 initially attacks Hraesvelgr and stacks south for Akh Afah.
  • Mortal Vow pass order: XTTMR
  • NOTE: Party Finder groups in North America and Europe expect the use of an "automarker" (AM, "Allagan Melon") third party tool to simplify the Wroth Flames mechanic. There are Terms of Service-friendly ways of resolving this mechanic (e.g., self-marking macros), although such use is extremely rare in Party Finder and more suitable in a static environment.
  • Wyrmsbreath 2 in the toolbox is outdated as "Static WB2" is now the preferred strategy.

• Phase 7: Dragon-king Thordan
  • Please note that Party Finder uses the "611" strategy for Akh Morn's Edge, which is not reflected in the toolbox.
  • Akh Morn 1: Group 1 northwest red tower, group 2 northeast red tower, tanks south blue tower
  • Akh Morn 2/3: Party northwest red tower, invulning tank south blue tower, non-invulning tank northeast red tower

• Mitigation spreadsheet
• Downloadable offline simulator for phase 3, 5, and 6

References

---

Raids

Duties