Dragonsong's Reprise Ultimate (DSR) Guide for Alternate Timeline 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 the second Thordan encounter.
Phase 5: Dark Thordan
Pre-fight preparation:
- For this Phase, Thordan will be buffed by Light of Ascalon, causing him to deal more damage with his attacks.
- Tanks beware: Thordan's auto attacks cleave in this phase as well.
Dark Thordan Toolbox Resource
For all of this phase, please reference these Toolboxes for a detailed view of how the mechanic is handled.
Dark Thordan Strategy
Our second encounter with Thordan, this phase is set up very similarly to the first phase where you fought him. Downtime trio-type mechanics separated by a short burst window. The main thing to keep in mind is Thordan should not be killed during this phase. Upon dropping below 3% health, Thordan will drop to his knees and beg for mercy. You need to spare him to progress to the end of the fight. By killing him, you will be able to see the next phase, but once both dragons die the raid will wipe.
Thordan will also cast a self buff on himself. Even though his attacks are the same from phase 2, they deal approximately 20% more damage than before. Mitigate appropriately.
Wrath of the Heavens
- Prior to this mechanic, Thordan will auto attack the tank twice. Reminder: These cleave.
- Thordan will now leave the arena and two knights alongside the dragon Vedrfolnir will appear on any cardinal of the arena. Treat this cardinal as relative north.
- The two knights will tether two random players. Have these players move directly opposite of the knights, two floor tiles south of the relative southeast/southwest.
- A single player will be marked with a blue overhead marker, the same blue marker as in Strength of the Ward during Phase 2. Have this player move northwest, two floor tiles to the south along the wall.
- The rest of the players will move east and spread out in a line along the wall of the arena. The northeastern-most player should be no closer to the northeast than two floor tiles away to prevent getting clipped by the dash that the knights will do.
- A slight moment after the knights dive through the arena, twisters will appear below every player. Make sure to move into the arena as the dives go off to dodge these. This occurs at the end of the cast "Twisting Dive" in the Enmity List.
- A warrior and a mage will appear on either relative north or relative south.
- Two random players will now be given a Lightning debuff. Call out whether you will take the left or right safe spot for the next part of the mechanic.
- A random player that is not marked for the knight dives or defamation will be given a green overhead dive marker. Have this player move against the wall where the Black Mage Knight appeared a moment ago.
- Stay spread and wait for Ascalon's Mercy Revealed to go off. This is a physical cleave that targets every player and gives a physical vulnerability debuff. Getting hit by two is lethal, so make sure you are appropriately spread.
- A random player that received no lightning debuff or overhead dive marker marker will be given Liquid Heaven baits. Keep moving, dropping five puddles of fire behind you while keeping the area around the Warrior clear of AoEs. This will be the safe spot for the party to go soon. Ensure you are underneath the Warrior Knight after the final puddle drops.
- A random player who received the knight dives, blue marker, or green dive marker, but who does not have the lightning debuff, will be given Pyre baits. Keep moving, dropping four puddles of Pyre behind you while keeping the safe spot clear of AoE. Ensure you are underneath the Warrior Knight after the final puddle drops.
- The Warrior Knight will finally do a donut AoE around him. Ensure everyone is underneath him to avoid this. Have the Lightning debuffed players stand on the outer sides, while all the other players stand on the inner side of the donut safe spot.
- After Wrath of the Heavens is finished, Thordan will appear and cast Heavenly Heel and Ascalon's Might. These are the same tank busters you encountered in Phase 2, though they do a bit more damage in this phase.
- Shortly after the tank buster, Thordan will begin channeling "Death of the Heavens" before leaving the arena again, starting the mechanic.
Death of the Heavens
- A Warrior Knight will appear on the inner circle of the arena. Treat this Warrior as your new relative north.
- Quickly line up in eight man "conga line" horizontal from east to west.
- Four players are given Doom, while four players are given no debuff. You can resolve this by doing the following:
- Have the outer doom marked players move to east and west, just on the outer edge of the middle grey ring of the arena.
- Have the outer non-doom players move to the wall east and west.
- Have the inner doom marked players move to the northeast and northwest intercardinals. Stand a single floor tile towards relative north.
- Have the inner non-doom players move to the southeast and southwest intercardinals. Stand a single floor tile towards relative south.
- A dragon and two knights will now dash through the arena. As soon as this dash goes off, move to dodge twisters spawning underneath you. This again occurs at the end of the "Twisting Dive" cast in the Enmity List.
- Make your way to the middle of the arena while dodging an expanding Earth Donut AoE from the Warrior.
- Spread out loosely around the Warrior and prepare for PlayStation markers.
- These PlayStation markers need to go to very specific places as the players
that did not have doom during the previous part of the mechanic dropped cleansing
puddles for the dooms. Resolve the mechanic by having all Dooms plant relative to their starting position.
East and west Doom players will always bait the "O" marker by simply
being the two furthest players apart before the markers appear above players' heads. The northeast and northwest
Dooms will take their respective sides on the southern half of the arena. I.e. the northwest doom will plant to get knocked back to the southwest.
- Because only Doom players can get O, only non-Doom players can get X, and one Doom and one non-Doom will get Square and Triangle each, this means that O's will get knocked back to the east and west, X's will get knocked to the north and south, and Squares and Triangles will get knocked to the intercardinals. Remember that the non-Doom Square and Triangle player must double check where their shape partner is, and position to get knocked opposite of them.
- Just before the knockback, Thordan and another eye will cast Dragon's Gaze from outside of the arena. Ensure you are looking away from both as you get knocked back.
- Get knocked towards the edge of the arena. Have the Doom marked players move to pickup the cleansing puddles dropped earlier by the non-Doom players. Stay spread for the Heavensflame AoE.
- Eight meteors will spawn around the arena. Kill these before they explode. It is recommended to kill three of these using a Caster or Ranged Limit Break. Aside from that, prioritize killing the meteor next to the spot where you go knocked back to. It is possible to hit four meteors with Limit Break, but the positioning is rather precise. It is also easier to achieve with ranged Limit Break than it is with the caster variant.
- Thordan will reappear, casting another Ancient Quaga raidwide and another set of tankbusters before going into his enrage cast. Once Thordan drops below 3% HP, he will stumble and fall to the ground. Players must avoid killing Thordan here, otherwise it is impossible to progress into the final phase of the fight after finishing the next phase.
Changelog
- 04 Jun. 2022: Guide added.
- 25 May 2024: Guide updated with current community strategies.
Phase Guides for Dragonsong's Reprise
Torael Valdis, or Tor for short, is an experienced raider in FFXIV who has been playing the game since the tail end of the Heavensward expansion. His experience includes multiple Week 1 Savage Tier kills as well as completion of each Ultimate Raid in the patch they were released. You can find him in The Balance Discord where he currently is active as a melee DPS mentor. He also occasionally streams early prog on his Twitch.
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