Final Fantasy 14' s Dragonsong Reprise Ultimate Raid is a journey meant for the patient. By phase five, the raid will have already fought off Thordan, his knights, possessed Estinien, and the eyes of Nidhogg. However, Final Fantasy 14' s Dragonsong Repise Ultimate still has more phases, and this one is known as the "Dark Thordan" phase.
Before even fighting Thordan again, though, players will have a rewind that will take them back to the Pure of Heart Phase from all the way back in the initial phase against Ser Charibert. It will be handled the same as before, but with a couple of new mechanics added. Players must not only survive the rewind phase but also make sure Haurchefant remains alive as well. Be careful, as wiping in the rewind or Dark Thordan phase will put players back in phase two of this challenging raid.
Please follow these links to read how to complete the previous phases in the Dragonsong's Reprise Ultimate Raid:
- Final Fantasy 14: How To Beat Phase One Of The Dragonsong's Reprise Ultimate Raid
- Final Fantasy 14: How To Beat Phase Two Of The Dragonsong's Reprise Ultimate Raid
- Final Fantasy 14: How To Beat Phase Three Of The Dragonsong's Reprise Ultimate Raid
- Final Fantasy 14: How To Beat Phase Four Of The Dragonsong's Reprise Ultimate Raid
The Rewind Time Phase
Once the eyes of Nidhogg are dealt with, players will go to the Pure of Heart Phase against Ser Charibert. Handle it as it was handled in phase one while attending to some new mechanics. A limit break must be done by a tank. The limit break must happen when Haurchefant says "Look out!" Players can prepare for this happening when Haurchefant spawns at the southern end of the arena.
Haurchefant needs healing throughout this entire phase, as he will be taking damage by Shockwave with the players. DPS will need to work very hard to make sure Ser Charibert's health is at 20 percent or lower before Pure of Heart goes off, as Haurchefant cannot survive the attack if Charibert's health is any higher.
After Pure of Heart casts, Haurchefant and the players are not out of the woods quite yet. A Spear of the Fury will become targetable, and it will begin casting an attack called Pierce. This is basically an enrage attack for the rewind, as the spear needs to be dealt with before it finishes casting because if the attack goes off, it will immediately kill Haurchefant. If they survive, though, players get to move to round two of King Thordan.
Thordan's Wrath Of The Heavens
King Thordan will be the main target now. Like last time, his auto attacks will all be cleaves. Two mechanics that will happen in this phase are very complex. The first of them is the Wrath of the Heavens. The reason for its complexity is that the attack has a lot happening at once. The first piece of information to handle is that two players will be tethered to knights in the north and one will get a blue target marker. Players should all group in the middle until it is deciphered who is marked with tethers and the blue marker.
The tethered players should move to the opposite end of the arena of their knights. The tethers will cut through the arena, dividing it into two sections. The blue-marked player will want to be on one side of the divide and the rest of the players will go opposite. The players who are not marked will want to stay spread out to prepare for future mechanics. Between the two northern knights, Vedrfolnir will have appeared and cast Twisting Dive.
The blue-marked player will endure a large AOE and Vedrfolnir's Twisting Dive cast will finish and leave behind a twister and two knights (a mage and warrior) will appear. Thordan will reappear in the middle of the arena. He will cast Ascalon's Mercy Revealed, which is a protean wave towards all players. This is the mechanic that players must be spread out for because players will die if the attack overlaps at all.
Around this time, a player will be marked for a divebomb. This player needs to stay away from other raid members, and they should stand at the wall behind the mage knight that appeared after the Twisting Dive. As this happens, two other raid members will be marked for a Thunderstruck debuff (which will come into play later).
Two players will then be marked for Liquid Hells and Altar Flare, which are AOE baits. Both of these mechanics are treated similarly. The players have to make sure they do not drop these AOEs on top of the warrior knight. The warrior knight will be casting Empty Dimension (which is a donut AOE) and players will want to bait all AOEs away from him. Anyone that does not have an AOE should go towards the warrior.
Now is the time for the Thunderstruck players to do mechanics. They need to stay outside the group but close enough to the warrior to avoid his Empty Dimension donut AOE attack. Once the players who were marked for Liquid Hell and Altar Flare finish baiting AOEs, they can join the group.
Death Of The Heavens
Next is the Death of the Heavens, which is another multitude of mechanics happening at once. First, there will be a cast of Ancient Quaga, then a Heavenly Heel tank swap, and also Ascalon's Might tank buster which will hit three times as a cleave. Then comes Death of the Heavens, which can be dealt with in a variety of ways. Positioning will be very specific and strict, making this the hardest part of the Dark Thordan Phase.
The group will want to quickly decipher which four players are targeted for Doom. These Dooms will give players a timer that will kill them at the end if they do not cleanse themselves in a Wings of Salvation puddle. The four players not targeted by Doom will get to drop the Wings of Salvation puddles, but the drops are delayed, so the timing will be very close to when Doom goes off.
While this happens, there will be a Twisting Dive cast again by Verdrfolnir and Spear of the Fury by Ser Zephir that will cut through the arena. There will also be a Heavy Impact cast by Ser Geurrique, Cauterize by Darkscale, and Lightning Storm by Thordan. All these attacks will make the safe zones basically be between North and Northeast and Northwest, East and West, and between South and Southeast and Southwest. The attacks will cut from North to South, Northeast to Southwest, and Northwest to Southeast.
It is recommended that players without Doom should go against the East and West wall and in the safe areas towards the Southeast and Southwest. Players with doom should be inner East and West and in the Northwest and Northeast areas. After the dashes through the arena by enemies, players need to move inwards in order to dodge twisters and Heavy Impact.
Next, another set of attacks will come. It will be Dragon's Gaze, Heavensflame, Playstation Chains, Faith Unmoving, and then Holy Meteor. Playstation Chains should be familiar due to previous phases. Players will want to position themselves around the warrior knight to get knocked back and break their chains. Adjust in order for Doom players to land in the Wings of Salvation puddles. Then prepare to look away from Dragon's Gaze. Players should all be knocked back in a spread-out fashion so that Heavensflame will not overlap.
Eight meteors will then spawn around the arena. DPS needs to take care of these. Some parties use ranged Limit Break two to take care of these. After the meteors are dealt with, there will be an Ancient Quaga, Heavenly Heel tank swap, Ascalon's Might tank buster (hits three times again), and then enrage with an Aetheric Burst.
Get the boss to below two percent health and then stop attacking him. Do not kill him or else the party will wipe in the next phase. Thordan will kneel and say he yields. If this is done, congrats, the party has made it to the next phase. Prepare for facing Nidhogg and Hraesvelgr next and after them is the final phase against Dragon King Thordan.
Final Fantasy 14 is available now on PC, PS4, and PS5.