Dragonsong's Reprise Ultimate (DSR) Guide for Dragonking Thordan
This page contains detailed information and strategy about the high-end Duty "Dragonsong's Reprise (Ultimate)", commonly abbreviated as DSR, specifically for the portion of the fight dealing with Dragonking Thordan.
Phase 7: The Dragon King
Pre-fight preparation:
- Assign two parties, containing a healer and two DPS each, to either left or right.
- Assign an auto attack soaking order between the DPS and Healers. We decided to do Melees first, Ranged second, and Healers third.
Recurring mechanic:
- Throughout the phase, Thordan's sword will glow either red (fire) or blue (ice). If it glows red, he will do an AoE underneath him, making the area inside of his inbox unsafe. If it glows blue, he will do a donut AoE around him, making the area outside of his hitbox unsafe. This in / out movement happens at the start of every major mechanic in this phase, so be mindful of the sword glow.
Dragon-king Thordan Toolbox Resource
For the entirety of the phase, please reference this Toolbox for a detailed view of how each mechanic is handled.
Dragon-king Thordan Strategy
Regardless of your expectation of this phase, it is not as easy as it seems. The DPS check is relatively tight, and the mitigation required to survive must be planned out if you hope to make progress against this final boss. Pick a healing plan that compliments your group's strengths and the jobs they play.
Exaflares
This mechanic will happen three times prior to enrage.
- Have the main tank face Thordan hard south.
- Prior to this mechanic, Thordan's sword will glow red or blue. If it is blue, stand inside his hitbox. If it is red, stand slightly out of his hitbox before moving to dodge the Exaflares.
- Stack up behind Thordan to resolve Exaflares. There's two ways to do this which will be outlined below.
- Static Exaflare Dodge: Regardless of pattern, find the Exaflare that spawns directly behind Thordan and always dodge like this:
- Single Movement Dodge: Rather than finding the Exaflare behind Thordan, you will look for the Exaflare that will not be intersected by the other two
Exaflares on the field. The only movement required for this dodge is to move into the direct center of the Exaflare, it will be safe
for the remainder of the mechanic. An example set up for Exaflares can be found below:
- Static Exaflare Dodge: Regardless of pattern, find the Exaflare that spawns directly behind Thordan and always dodge like this:
If you've decided to do the static Exaflare dodge, keeping the boss pointed directly South is more important as you can use the arena as a way of tracking where the center of the Exaflare is. Keep in mind, this is not necessary, you can also use the Exaflare indicator before they go off. At the epicenter of the Exaflare indicator is a very bright dot, use this for identifying the pixel perfect center of the safe spot.
This raid plan's step 1 through 5 is an example of the Exaflare dodge being done.
Trinity
Thordan will hit both tanks and the closest person to him for an auto attack. The main threat is given a Darkness debuff, the second in threat is given a Light debuff, and the closest person to Thordan will be given a Physical Vulnerability. Tank swap between every mechanic to swap which debuff the tanks are given. The closest person will be swapped in and out based on the pre-assigned order - simply run under the boss when it is your turn to soak and run back out after you get hit. Taking another auto attack while having the Physical Vulnerability Up debuff will result in death. Thordan will auto attack twice between each mechanic.
Akh Morn
This mechanic will happen three times prior to enrage.
- Thordan will spawn towers around him, one on his tail and one on each of his sides. The tail tower deals more damage and must be taken by either one or both tanks. The towers at his sides may either be taken by a solo tank or a group of three non-tank players.
- During this mechanic Thordan's sword will glow red or blue. If it is blue, stand inside his hitbox.
If it is red, stand slightly out before moving in to soak your Akh Morn.
- After the in or out, try to edge closer under Thordan's hitbox to make healing easier.
- Prepare for another round of Trinity auto attacks.
As mentioned above, there's multiple ways of taking to Akh Morn towers:
- Split the party into 3/3/2, which puts both tanks in in the tail tower and splits the other towers with the remainder of party members with one healer and two dps in each group.
- Have a tank use an invuln on the tail tower and soak it solo, while the other tank takes one of the side towers by themself and mitigates the damage, and the rest of the party (all six) take the remaining tower.
You will not be able to perform a 6/1/1 on every Akh Morn in this phase by using invulns, and it is not suggested you attempt to do this strat without an invuln ready. The perks to doing this set up is the ability to hold mitigation for the Gigaflare mechanics that come before and after the second Akh Morn. Since the six stack tower is taking half as much damage due to the amount of people in it, and the tanks will not require any extra mitigation, it makes the mechanic much safer in general and requires less resources.
It should be noted that this can only be done if one of the tanks is able to mitigate the Cauterize at the end of Phase 6 without using their invuln. Take extra care if your plan is to have Paladin invuln the Akh Morn, as the cooldown on Hallowed Ground will not be back if you've decided to use it on the final tank buster in Phase 5. The latest Paladin may use their invuln is the first tank buster in Phase 5 and have it be back by the second Akh Morn in Phase 7.
Gigaflare
This mechanic will happen two times before enrage.
Three gigaflares will spawn around Thordan in a triangle formation. Take notice of the order that they spawn in.
- Position the party to be opposite of the first Gigaflare and wait for it to explode.
- Prior to the first Gigaflare explosion Thordan's sword will glow red or blue. If it is blue,
stand inside his hitbox. If it is red, stand slightly out on the opposite side of the Gigaflare.
- Move the party to be opposite of the second Gigaflare and wait for it to explode.
- Move the party to be opposite of the last Gigaflare and wait for it to explode.
- Prepare for another round of Trinity auto attacks.
This raid plan's step 6 through 8 is an example of the Gigaflare dodge being done.
In regards to Gigaflare, the proximity of the falloff damage is about 21 yalms. While dodging out of his hitbox for red may be simple, the safe spot created by blue is extremely small. The image below shows an accurate distance where the Gigaflare damage is lethal, so ensure you are standing in the sliver of safe spot created if you need to dodge inwards.
The mechanics from here on out will repeat in the following order:
- Exaflares
- Two Trinity auto attacks
- Akh Morn
- Two Trinity auto attacks
- Gigaflares
- Two trinity auto attacks
- Exaflares
- Two Trinity auto attacks
- Akh Morn
- Two auto attacks
- Morn Afah(Enrage)
Simply continue to rotate the auto attacks and execute the mechanics.
Congratulations on clearing Dragonsong's Reprise (Ultimate)
Changelog
- 04 Jun. 2022: Guide added.
Phase Guides for Dragonsong's Reprise
Juliacare has been playing FFXIV since Heavensward focusing solely on casters, until Shadowbringers when they decided to add physical ranged into their line up. Since then they have been aiding in theorycrafting for physical ranged and Summoner, becoming a Machinist Mentor in The Balance Discord and uploading video job guides to their Youtube Channel.
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