Final Fantasy 14’sDragonsong Reprise Ultimate has many phases, but by phase six, the raid is nearly done. After this phase, which is known as the “double dragon” phase, there is only one more left in this challengingFinal Fantasy 14raid. This phase begins after defeating King Thordan for the second time. There will be two bosses, Nidhogg and Hraesvelgr.
On the positive side of this phase, the dragons do not have as many mechanics. On the downside, their attacks can be incredibly punishing. If some mechanics are not done properly, either boss can enrage and wipe the party. With that in mind, players should make sure tokeep the two bosses at similar health throughout the fight.
Please follow these links to read how to complete the previous phases in the Dragonsong’s Reprise Ultimate Raid:
Wrymsbreath And Mortal Vow
Nidhogg will spawn west and Hraesvelgr will spawn at the east. One great danger ishaving any party member get killed by Hraesvelgr will cause him to enrage. The first attacks will beDread Wrymsbreath from NidhoggandGreat Wrymsbreath from Hraesvelgr. Dread Wrymsbreathtethers three non-tanks for a conal AOEthat is fire-aspected. It will inflict adebuff called “boiling"that can be cleansed by getting hit with an ice attack. Great Wrymsbreath will do the same thing, but the attacks will be ice-aspected and inflict the"freezing” debuffthat can be cleansed with a fire attack.
To live through these attacks, tethered players will want tostack with a player affected by the opposing element. It’s recommended for these players to do this in the south while tanks go north. Tanks will need to worry aboutwhich dragon’s head is glowing. If both glow, the tanks need to stack to endure a hugetankbuster. If one head glows, it will cast a tankbuster on a single tank.
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Next, players will want to spread out in preparation for Nidhogg’sMortal Vowattack, which targets a random player and will inflict any players near them. This attackdeals damage over timeand will explode as a small AOEat the end, andany players hit by the AOE will be inflictedwith Mortal Vow. Players will want to alwayspass this debuff to someone else. If at any point no players have this debuff, or they die with it, Nidhogg will enrage. This is a mechanic that takes a lot of communication, as Mortal Vow will need to be effectively passed from player to player without killing them or ever ending for this whole phase. It’s therefore best to have an order for passing this debuff around agreed before beginning the phase.
Akh Afah, Hallowed Wings, And Cauterize
Both bosses will castAkh Afah, which is going to make astackmarker for alight party. This stack can be lethal if the bosses have different HP. Theattack deals more damage the more their HP difference is. If the difference is at three percent or more, the stack can wipe the light party, which will very likely cause the rest of the raid to wipe.
Once Akh Afah finishes, Hraesvelgr willtarget half of the arena with Hallowed Wings. As this casts, players need to pay attention towhich of his wings are glowing. The side of his body that glows will be the side of the arena he strikes. As he does this, he will also casttankbusterson both tanks. While this happens, Nidhogg will useCauterize. This is a fire-aspected straight-line divebomb thatwill take up half the arena.
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With both dragons targeting a large slice of the arena, there will only be a smallquadrant of safe space for the raid to stack.Tanks will want to stay awayto soak their tankbusters while also avoiding Cauterize and Hallowed Wings as well. After this resolves, it is time topass the Mortal Vow. The raid should make sure that only one player takes it while all others avoid it.
Wroth Flames, Akh Morn, Hot Tail, And Hot Wing
Now, Nidhogg will castWroth Flames. It will targetfour players with Spreading Flamesandtwo players will Entangled Flames debuff. These debuffs will be important later when Nidhogg casts Hot Tail or Hot Wings. Three sets of fireballs will also appear around the room either vertically or horizontally. As this happens,Hraesvelgr will Cauterizewith an ice-aspected divebomb that will cut throughhalf of the arena.
After having targeted players with Wroth Flames, Nidhogg will castAkh Morn. This set of attacks will leavefour puddlesbehind at the impact point thatwill kill any player that stands in it, so players will need to pay attention to the fireballs and where Hreasevelgr is going to Cauterize, because they will want toplace the Akh Morn puddles away from the safe zone. It is also recommended to avoid placing any puddles in the middle of the arena.
Once the attacks go off, players should go to the middle to prepare for Nidhogg casting eitherHot Tail or Hot Wing. The Tail attack is an AOE line down the middle of the arena and the Wing attack cleaves both sides of the arena. With that in mind,the safe zone will either be the sides or the middle. While this happens, though,Wroth Flame debuffs will detonate.
Players with theSpreading Flames debuff will get an AOE around themand the players withEntangled Flames will have a stack marker that requires two players to live. It is recommended that players assign half the arena to Spreading Flames and another half to Entangled Flames. This way, non-debuff players can join the Entangled Flame players without getting hit by Spreading Flames. After this resolves, it will be around the time topass the Mortal Vow.
Same Attacks, Different Combinations
At this point, the raid has seen most of the mechanics of this phase. Now Nidhogg and Hraesvelgr will do the same attacks but with different combinations.Both dragons will cast Akh Afahagain, so everyone should be ready to split into light parties. This will be the last time they do this, so there’s no need to worry about their HP differences from then on. Then, Nidhogg will either castHot Tail or Hot Wingand Hraesvelgr will castHallowed Wings. Players will also need to remember thetankbusterthat goes with Hallowed Wings.
Once those resolve, it’ll be time topass the Mortal Vowdebuff again. Nidhogg will castDread Wyrmsbreathand Hraesvelgr will castGreat Wyrmsbreathwithhead glowslike at the start of the phase. However, this time, these attacks must be resolved differently becauseplayers will want their boiling and freezing debuffs for an upcoming mechanic. Instead of pairing off like last time, players will want to split between fire and ice tethers while tanks are away from everyone tosoak their tankbusters.
If done correctly, there will now be players with the boiling debuff and another half with the freezing debuff. Once this happens, both dragons willCauterize. This is unavoidable, and the reason players will want their debuffs is that they will need tostand in front of the dragon whose element can cleanse their debuff. Ice-aspected players will want to stand in front of Nidhogg, while fire-aspected players will want to stand in front of Hraesvelgr. It’s important that they do not move once the debuff is expiring, asmoving will kill the player. Tanks will not have these debuffs. They need to get right in each boss’s face andcast their invuln ability. This is required, and not casting invuln will kill the tanks.Tanks will still get a damage over time debuff that willneed healing after their invulns run out.
Last Mechanics
After the double Cauterize, the dragons will both castTouchdown. These areproximity damageattacks from where the dragons land, which will be south and middle, so players will want to stack north. Then, all players should move to attack the bosses, except for the two that willpass the Mortal Vow. They need to resolve that and join after it is passed.
At this point,both dragons will be enragingand need to be killed as soon as possible. Once they are both dead, the raid will go to the final phase ofDragonsong’s Reprise Ultimate, which pits players against the Dragon-King Thordan himself.
Final Fantasy 14is available now on PC, PS4, and PS5.
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