Dragonsong's Reprise

Dragonsong's Reprise, commonly abbreviated by players as DSR or DSU, is an Ultimate raid introduced in patch 6.11 "Newfound Adventure" of Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker.

Story[]

"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

Progression[]

Unlike the previous ultimates, this one has a 3-minute damage down, which decreases the player's damage dealt by 50%.

The Vault Airship Landing[]

The first phase has 3 bosses, Ser Adelphal (The Paladin), Ser Grinnaux (The Warrior), and Ser Charibert (The Black Mage). Ser Adelphal's auto attack doesn't deal a lot of damage, but his AoE Holiest of Holy deals heavy damage. Ser Grinnaux's auto attacks hit pretty hard, but his roomwide AoE, Faith Unmoving doesn't hit very hard. Ser Charibert is untargetable until the first two bosses are defeated.

The first phase starts by two tanks pulling Ser Adelphel and Ser Grinnaux to the center of the room. Adelphel will cast Holiest of Holy shortly after the pull. He will then say, "Witness me!" and tether to a random player, while Ser Grinnaux will cast Empty Dimension, which is a donut AoE. The designated tank must take the tether and face it away from the party and either use all mitigation, or use a tank invulnerability cooldown. The tank will be stunned while Empty Dimension goes off at the same time, and Adelphel will use Holy Battledance immediately after. At the same time, Ser Charibert will cast Heavensblade, which is a stack AoE and will go off immediately after Holy Battledance finishes its animation.

Several seconds after, Ser Grinnaux will jump to the center and start casting Hyperdimensional Slash, which gives 4 players a marker and target a nonmarked player will a stack cone, while at the same time Ser Adelphel will become untargetable, 4 players must bait their markers in one side of the room, but not bait them directly intercardinal or cardinal, while 4 other people not marked will stack the cone on the opposite side. If two or more holes are too close to each other, they will explode and wipe the party. After the first markers resolve, the second set of markers will be given to 4 players not marked by the first set and the stack cone will target one of the people who resolved their 1st set of markers. Shortly after, Ser Alphedel will jump to a random cardinal direction and he and Ser Grinnaux will cast Holiest of Holy and Faith Unmoving respectively. Faith unmoving is a knockback so it helps to use Arm's Length and Surecast. If any of the holes tether to Ser Adelphel, they will explode and give everyone a damage down if it doesn't kill them. Ser Alphedel will begin to dash 4 times, and Each time he dashes, he leaves several orbs, which explode shortly after an AoE indicator spawns. His first dash will be either clockwise or counterclockwise, across, counterclockwise or clockwise, depending on the first dash (I.E 1st dash Clockwise, 3 dash counterclockwise; 1st dash Counterclockwise, 3rd dash Clockwise), 4th dash back to the cardinal he spawned at. After he finishes dashing, he will jump on the tank who is first aggro with Execution, which either needs to be mitigated or invulned. He will then use Holiest Hallowing, which acts like Paladin's Clemency. Either a tank or physical ranged dps must interrupt the ability before it goes off.

Two tanks must take both bosses to the center. Ser Charibert will then say "Filthy rats! and target everyone with Holy Chains. Each chain has two markers with Playstation symbols. Triangle, Square, Circle, and X. The distance to break the chains depend on how close two players are to each other. To simplify the positioning and breaking the chains, One tank and one healer will be X, one tank and one DPS will be Square, two dps will be circle, and one healer and one DPS will be triangle. There are two different ways to handle it.

1. The X chains should position North and South, Square Northeast and Southwest, Circles East and West, and Triangles Northwest and Southeast. or;
2. The playstation markers can go to the same color as the waymarkers, though the colored waymarkers still need to be opposite of each other.

Ser Grinnaux will start casting Faith unmoving at the same time as the playstation symbol appears. Once positioned, players must be knocked back into their assigned playstation spots, and position themselves so they don't clip other players. Shortly after, Ser Charibert will say, "Begone with you!" and Heavensflame will hit each player. Ser Alphedel will cast Holiest Hallowing again, which must be interrupted. The pattern will be as follows after: Holiest of Holy and Empty/Full Dimension (the latter dimension is a a point blank aoe) > Holiest Hallowing> Holiest of Holy. If at any point one of the bosses is defeated or both are not defeated in time, the other or both will cast The Bull's Steel/Brightblade's Steel, which gives them an invulnerability and damage up buffs and fully heal them, which will follow with their respective roomwide AoEs.

When Ser Alphedel and Ser Grinnaux are defeated at the same time, Ser Charibert will become targetable and pull everyone into the chain spot. If players leave the chains, they will die. During that time the Haurchefaunt vs spear cinematic will play and send shockwaves every second until Haurchefaunt dies. He will have a healing debuff which prevents him from being healed. At the same time two closes player will be hit by cone aoes, which gives them a light resistance down debuff and a puddle debuff, which they must bait while two new players bait the cones. After the puddle debuff expires, the two players must leave that spot, because the puddles explode shortly after the spot they were standing in. The process repeats 4 times, and after the 4th cone aoe bait, Ser Charibert will cast Pure of Heart, and how much damage it deals depends on how much HP he has left. If he has 30% or more remaining, it's a wipe. If he's at 29% or less, then a checkpoint will trigger and transition to King Thordan's Phase.

The Singularity Reactor[]

Once in the Singularity reactor phase, the player will start back here regardless of when the party wipes in later phases.

The fight starts with King Thordan using two auto-attacks before casting Ascalon's Mercy Concealed, which is a baited cone AoE that will aim at everyone's current position, so everyone should move once the cast bar immediately disappears. King Thordan will use Ascalon's Might, which is a 3x Tank buster, which requires heavy mitigation. He will then jump to the center and cast Strength of the Ward.

Three knights will spawn in one of the three cardinal/intercardinal direction, and start casting Spiral Thrust, which is a line AoE that will reach across the other side. There will always be two safe spots across from each other, and players can sometimes tell where they are by looking at the knight's speech bubble. To simplify on where to go, it's best to have the color of the waymarks placed across from each other. The Warrior will use Heavy Impact, which is an earthshaker that expands every 3 seconds, and he will always spawn in one of the cardinal direction. King Thordan will use Lightning storm which targets all players with an AoE mark. They all happen at the same time. To execute this perfectly, players should find the three knight, go to the safe spots, and spread out as much as possible to avoid the AoEs overlapping each other. After the AoEs go off, players should position themselves specifically to avoid getting clipped by the Heavy Impact, which will stun anyone that gets hit for 6 seconds. Shortly after, King Thordan will use Ascalon's Mercy again, so players in their assigned groups should stack to bait the AoEs in the same spot and move immediately once the cast bar disappears. During that time two paladins will spawn across from each other,

After the bait, King Thordan will jump from the opposite side of the paladins. The dragoon will mark three non-tanks with a blue marker and leave a giant AoE in their current position. The Warrior will cast Dimensional Collapse, which are eight expanding point blank AoE, which will cover the intercardinal and center. Another warrior will cast Conviction, which will spawn six towers, and three will be next to the boss, while the other three will be next to the blue marker spots. If one tower is missed by the time the cast bar is finished, it will explode and wipe the raid. King Thordan will cast The Dragon's Rage, which is a stack AoE that will target non-tanks that were not marked by the dragoon. Two paladins will then spawn two tethers that will target the closest person not marked by the dragoon. They all happen at the same time. To handle this, three makred people should go true East, South, and West of King Thordan, and everyone else go directly to the boss while the tanks bait the tethers near the edge of the AoEs. The tethers will need to either be mitigated fully or invulned. Three people in the stack marker need to communicate which of the three towers they are going to.

After the mechanics are finished King Thordan will jump to the center and cast Ancient Quaga, which is a heavy hitting roomwide AoE damage. After one Auto attack, King Thordan will cast Heavenly Heel, which is a single target tank buster that leaves a 10-second Slash Resistance down debuff on the main tank, followed by Ascalon's Might. It should be either tank swapped during the cast, or invulned. He will then cast Sanctity of the Ward.

King Thordan will spawn in a random cardinal or intercardinal spot, along with the eye, but they will never be on top of each other. One Dark Knight and two paladins will spawn across from each other at the same time. The dark knight will be either clockwise or counterclockwise from one of the paladins Two players will be marked with a 1 and 2 sword during that time, which allows a dark knight to hit them with Sacred Server, which is a proximity based stack marker. During that time Two paladins will face a certain direction and start dashing 4 times. During this time, King Thordan will cast Dragon's Gaze, which will cause anyone looking either the boss or the eye to be given a terror debuff and cause them to move randomly. To handle this the person with one sword will find a safe spot away from the dark, and the person with two swords will find a safe spot near the dark knight. The safe spot will always be clockwise or counterclockwise of the markers, depending on the strategy used and where the Paladins are facing. Players can use the three crystals on the Death Wall for reference. There are two ways of handling this: Dark Knight Relative, and Paladin Relative. Either way, the Dark Knight Markers will need to be mitigated.

• For Dark Knight Relative, the person with two sword will be directly behind the dark knight, and will run towards the dashes. They can either be near or far from the markers the player went to.

• For Paladin Relative, the player will go to the same markers as the paladins, but the safe spots will be away from the dashes.

After the first half of the mechanics resolve, King Thordan will jump to the North, and four Knights will spawn in the Center. One black mage will cast Hiernal Storm, which will target either 4 DPS or two tanks and healers with an Ice Puddle AoE in the current position they're standing in and must be shared. It also leaves an Ice Resistance down debuff so they cannot overlap. Another will cast Heaven's Stake, which is a Fire AoE that will spawn in the cardinal direction. Another one will cast Holy Comet, which will mark either two dps or One or two tank/healer with a prey marker. Once the cast go off, they will leave 7 comets, which will explode if too close. A warrior will spawn 8 towers. To handle this, players should do the following:

• Each player must be assigned which spot they will go to, depending on who gets marked for prey. The group that has been marked for meteors will have the cardinal spots, while those that weren't will go intercardinal.
• They will also need to pay attention to where the towers spawn, either in the outer edges in the area or in the inner.
• Players should prioritize on which outer tower they will soak. Some players tend to prioritize the center first, clockwise 2nd, and Counterclockwise third.

When two people with meteors star moving clockwise and another set of towers will spawn. After 5 meteors have been dropped, the warrior will start casting, so anyone on the outside must use knockback immunity to not get knocked back into the wall and die. The towers will go off immediately after.

There are a couple things to note about the towers:

1. The number of towers that can spawn in the outside are 5 or 6, and in the inside, 2 or 3, which means that one or two directions can have two towers maximum on the outside. Meaning that even if one group isn't picked for meteors, they will still have to go outside
2. There are a total of 16 patterns for the tower placements, but players shouldn't worry too much about that. However, it is possible two meteor towers in the north and south will have bad placements, so they should try to stutter step (moving clockwise while making the character stutter left and right at the same time), make a zigzag pattern, and stop every 1–1.5 second after each placement to make more room without meteors exploding.

King Thordan will become targetable again and cast Ultimate End, which must be mitigated enough. He will then get a debuff which makes him take more damage. He will swing wildly and move slightly south at first. then will start casting Broad Swing twice, which will hit three sides of King Thordan. The first being left or right, second hit opposite, and the third behind. He will then cast Aetheric Burst, which is an enrage if not killed in time. After King Thordan dies, the phase will then start the heavy AoE damage transition to Nidhogg.

The Final Steps of Faith[]

Return to the Vault[]

The Chairbert phase is the same as the first phase, except this time you have an LB3. Wait until Haurchefaunt spawns and use Tank LB3 after. It will not only lessen the damage Haurchefaunt takes, but it will also weaken the healing debuff on him, which will allow healers to heal him. Handle the mechanics the same way and keep Haurchefaunt alive. He must be at least 66% or more to survive the Pure of Heart damage. After that, players must destroy the spear before the cast bar goes off, or the fight will repeat to Phase 2. If players do successfully save Haurchefaunt, the fight will transition to phase 5.

Tharl Oom Khash[]

Return to The Final Steps of Faith[]

Shattered Remembrance[]

Enemies[]

• Ser Adelphel, Ser Grinnaux, Ser Charibert
  • Ser Zephirim
  • Spear of the Fury

• King Thordan
  • Ser Guerrique
  • Ser Adelphel
  • Ser Grinnaux
  • Ser Charibert
  • Ser Zephirin
  • Ser Vellguine
  • Ser Paulecrain
  • Ser Ignasse
  • Ser Hermenost
  • Ser Noudenet
  • Ser Haumeric
  • Ser Janlenoux

• Nidhogg
  • Left Eye
  • Right Eye

• King Thordan
  • Ser Guerrique
  • Ser Adelphel
  • Ser Grinnaux
  • Ser Charibert
  • Ser Zephirin
  • Ser Vellguine
  • Ser Paulecrain
  • Ser Ignasse
  • Ser Hermenost
  • Ser Noudenet
  • Ser Haumeric
  • Ser Janlenoux
  • Vedrfolnir
  • Vidofnir
  • Darkscale
  • Meteor Circle

• Nidhogg, Hraesvelgr

• Dragon-king Thordan

Loot[]

• Dragonsong Token

Achievements[]

• As Suits a Hero: Complete Dragonsong's Reprise (Ultimate)

Musical themes[]

The majority of the music used during the fight covers previous battle, location, and event themes from the Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward expansion: The Vault Knights are fought to "The Heavens' Ward", King Thordan in the Singularity Reactor is fought to "Heroes", Nidhogg in his Estinien form is fought to "Freefall", Nidhogg's eyes are fought to "Contention", and "Primogenitor" plays during Nidhogg's dragon form appearance if the party does not defeat the eyes in time. "Hallowed Halls" plays during the "rewind" intermission to save Haurchefant. In the second half of the fight, King Thordan in Tharl Oom Khash is fought to "Heavensward", Nidhogg and Hraesvelgr are fought to "Dragonsong", and Dragon-king Thordan is fought to the Eorzean Symphony orchestral concert version of "Revenge Twofold".

Behind the scenes[]

Dragonsong's Reprise (Ultimate) was originally developed for Patch 5.55 of Shadowbringers. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on development, it was ultimately delayed to Patch 6.11.^[1]

The release of Patch 6.11 and Dragonsong's Reprise (Ultimate) raised concerns from players about the use of third-party tools and the potential for game server emulation. On May 9, 2022, a statement from the producer and director Naoki Yoshida was released on the Lodestone addressing the topics.^[2][3]

Citations[]