The Minstrel's Ballad: Shinryu's Domain

Important

The North American, European, and Oceanian data centers primarily use Party Finder to challenge (Extreme) content. Using Duty Finder to match with random players is not recommended and will be more difficult than pre-forming a party. For an easy completion (that will satisfy any quest requirements) or loot farming, it is recommended that players use Party Finder and form an Unrestricted Party (i.e., with level sync disabled). Players who wish to complete this duty with level sync enabled should also form a pre-made party, which also enables the use of Minimum Item Level and Silence Echo settings for a more authentic challenge compared to a Duty Finder party.

Level: 70 (Sync: 70)
Item Level: 320
Difficulty: Extreme
Party size: Full Party
8 man • 2 2 4
Unsyncing: Allowed
Time limit: 60 minutes
Phoenix Down: Not Available
Duty Finder: High-end Trials (Stormblood)
Roulette: Mentor
Tomestones: 20
Req. quest: Songs in the Key of Kugane
Location: Transparency
Region: Gyr Abania
S/S/S: Available
Patch: 4.1
The Echo: On wipe: +5% (max +25%)

A god born of sorrow and despair. A man who lives only for death. As one they fought the Warrior of Light, and as one they fell. No words could do this titanic encounter justice... unless they come from the wandering minstrel, to whom no event is beyond improvement. As his nimble fingers pluck out the chords, his rich voice carries you to a place above the world, one that is at once familiar and foreign: Shinryu's domain.

— In-game description

The Minstrel's Ballad: Shinryu's Domain is a level 70 trial introduced in patch 4.1 with Stormblood.

Strategy

Primal: Shinryu

Much like normal mode, your battle against Shinryu will involve the presence of a Corrupted Aether Gauge. Once the gauge reaches 100, Shinryu will execute a special attack.

Unlike normal mode, your battle against Shinryu will immediately begin on the chequered platform previously seen in Phase 2. Furthermore, the middle tile can now be destroyed, and should that happen, the raid will suffer an unavoidable wipe.

Lastly, both the main enmity target and the off-tank will suffer continuous auto-attacks from Shinryu, keeping healers on their toes throughout the battle.

Prior to the fight:

Players will want to know and memorize their Burning Chains partner, and potentially come to agreement on which player runs in which direction.

Each tank and healer may want to be assigned a DPS partner for Atomic Ray, but will need to take into account Burning Chains pairs.

The Minstrel's Ballad: Shinryu's Domain - Primal Guide

Phase 1: 100% - 44%

Phase 1 Abilities
Attack Type	Name	Description
Body Part	The Worm's Heart	An attackable piece of Shinryu that regenerates every 70 seconds. When The Worm's Heart is destroyed, Shinryu takes a significant burst of damage. If Shinryu completes a Corrupted Aether attack while The Worm's Heart is still active, the damage of the attack will wipe the party. Each time The Worm's Heart regenerates, it will gain a stack of HP Boost and Rehabilitation.
Body Part	Tail Slap	One player is marked with a spiky green tail marker. After about 9 seconds, the marker disappears and Shinryu will slam its tail on the side closest to where the marker was. The tail will always appear from the east or west side (whichever is closest), hitting the closest two tiles in front of it and knocking nearby players away. If the marker was dropped in the center-north or center-south platforms, the tail will attack from the east or west at random. Uncracked tiles hit by the tail become cracked while cracked tiles are destroyed. If at least one platform remains unbroken under the tail, it will remain for a short period of time and can be attacked by players, dealing high damage to Shinryu if successfully destroyed.
Corrupted Aether	Earthen Fury	Only used at the start of the fight. Deals high unavoidable party-wide damage and destroys the east and west platforms. Three other platforms become cracked.
	Tidal Wave	A spout appears on a random edge of the platform that inflicts high damage and major directional knockback away from the spout to all players. Knockback strength is just short of two tile lengths. Creates five water puddles on random platforms.
	Hellfire	Deals extreme Fire Damage to all players, and inflicts Burns for 20 seconds. Clears all Water Puddles.
	Judgement Bolt	Deals high Lightning Damage to all players and inflicts 1-4 players with Paralysis that can be cleansed with Esuna. Clears all Water Puddles.
	Diamond Dust	Deals high damage to all players, converts the arena into an ice floor, and attaches Burning Chains to both healers. Creates five water puddles on random platforms. Movement slides players slightly farther than the full length of a tile.
	Aerial Blast	A Corrupted Aether attack. Deals three minor radial knockbacks from the center of the arena, then a fourth one that deals higher damage, stronger knockback. DPS players are tethered with Burning Chains prior to the final knockback.
Left Wing	Summon Icicle	Creates three icicles in random spots along the south edge of the arena, which then shoot straight across in a line AoE, dealing high damage, knockback, and Slow for 60 seconds.
Left Wing	Ice Storm	Deals unavoidable party-wide damage.
Right Wing	Levinbolt	Hits all players with unmarked Lightning Damage spread circles and inflicts Electrocution for 9 seconds.
Right Wing	Hypernova	An unmarked Stack marker that deals high Fire Damage.
Standard	Burning Chains	All players are marked with chains, then attached to another player of a matching role via a breakable spread tether. Tethers inflict fire damage and stacks Suppuration repeatedly until broken. Tethers to DPS players will prioritize matching DPS types. Melee DPS be tethered to another Melee DPS if there are two in the party.
	Water Puddle	A non-damaging puddle that grants players Fire Resistance Up and Lightning Resistance Down when stood inside.
	Dragonfist	A black simple circle AoE appears in the center of the arena. Those inside the AoE are inflicted with Down for the Count and a stack of Vulnerability Up.
	Akh Morn	A multi-hit shared tankbuster. Is always combined with Akh Rhai.
	Akh Rhai	Random DPS players have unmoving pillars of flame AoEs placed underneath them that deal repeated bursts of damage while inside.
	Earth Breath	One healer and one DPS are marked with brown spread cone arrows. Shinryu hits both targets with large cones of damage that inflict Sludge for 15 seconds.
	Reiryu	Four purple dragon heads that tether to all DPS and inflicts The Worm's Curse—dealing damage over time and preventing healing, but granting the player a small amount of lifesteal. Reiryu start at 0% health and will disappear once directly healed to 100%. AoE healing has no effect on Reiryu or their targets. If a tethered player dies or too much time passes, Reiryu fly away and attack the party, inflicting damage and a stack of Damage Down to all players for 60 seconds.
	Gyre Charge	Shinryu leaves the arena and re-appears at a random corner in the distance, then dives across dealing high knockback in a massive line AoE. Shinryu then re-appears on the east or west side of the arena.

Shinryu's Left Wing casting Summon Icicle in the enmity list. — Upcoming attacks from Shinryu's Wings can be easily seen in the enmity list.

Much of Phase 1 is about dodging AoEs, responding quickly to casts and markers, and attacking Shinryu's body parts whenever possible. The Worm's Heart must be destroyed immediately whenever it appears to prevent the party from wiping.

Throughout the fight, Shinryu's Left and Right wing will cast random spells. Players can anticipate which attack is upcoming by the color of the ring the wing has when charging, or by keeping an eye on the enmity list.

There are two potential platform crack patterns: One with a cracked center and one with an intact center.

Of note, players should aim to place the first Tail Slap on the southeast platform first to leave the northern platforms unbroken for other attacks such as Burning Chains and Earth Breath. If the center is not cracked, the second Tail Slap can be aimed on the center platform, otherwise it should be aimed to the northwest. The third and final Tail Slap can be aimed southwest.

Be wary that players can not walk across diagonals if a northern or southern platform is destroyed. Jumping is required to prevent falling into the void.

Lastly, each Corrupted Aether attack must be handled in a specific way to survive:

Tidal Wave requires players to run to the side closest to the spout, or simply use Arm's Length or Surecast before the end of the cast.
Hellfire and Judgement Bolt are both paired with Summon Icicle. While in both scenarios players will need to dodge the Spikesicles, Hellfire requires players to stand inside a Water Puddle while Judgement Bolt instead requires avoidance of them.
Diamond Dust will always attach a Burning Chain to both healers. Healers should stand next to each other at the northern half of the center platform and immediately slide to opposite corners of the northeast and northwest platforms.
Aerial Blast requires all players to run near the center and aim themselves to be knocked towards a corner. DPS will need to ensure they are knocked to a corner opposite to their Burning Chain partner. Arm's Length and Surecast can resist the knockback entirely.

As The Worm's Heart is on a separate 70 second timer untied to rotation, it is not listed in the Rotation table.

Once Shinryu completes their attack rotation or reaches 44% health, they will start an Active Time Maneuver and begin Phase 2.

Phase 1 Rotation
Attack	Strategy
Earthen Fury	Players have 10 seconds to destroy The Worm's Heart before the Corrupted Aether gauge reaches maximum. Do not stand on the east or west platforms.
Burning Chains	Targets all players. Separate to opposite corners of the platform.
Tidal Wave	Either run towards the spout or use a knockback resist skill.
Tail Slap	Marks a random healer, who should run and place it on the southeast platform.
Left Wing Attack	Will either be Summon Icicle or Ice Storm at random.
Right Wing Attack	Will either be Levinbolt or Hypernova at random.
Dragonfist	Move out of the AoE in the center. The Worm's Heart will regenerate around this point.
Left Wing Attack	--
Akh Morn + Akh Rhai	Tanks should stack together and mitigate. DPS must spread out away from the party and be prepared to move if the Akh Rhai appears underneath them.
Summon Icicle + Hellfire / Judgement Bolt	Position to dodge the Spikesicles while either inside a puddle for Hellfire, or outside a puddle for Judgement Bolt.
Tail Slap	Marks a random DPS, who should either place it in the center (if not cracked) or the northwest platform.
Levinbolt	All players should spread out.
Left Wing Attack	The Worm's Heart will regenerate around this time.
Burning Chains	Targets only tanks and healers, who should run to opposite corners of the platform.
Earth Breath	After breaking Burning Chains, run back to the center for safety while the marked move to northwest and northeast.
Akh Morn + Akh Rhai	Handle as before. Two DPS players will be targeted by Akh Rhai this time.
Left Wing Attack	--
Diamond Dust	Both healers should stand on the north half of the center platform. The instant the ground freezes, both slide to opposite corners of the north platforms to break the Burning Chains.
Reiryu	Tethers to all four DPS. Quickly heal the dragon heads while DPS continue attacking to stay alive through lifesteal.
Tail Slap	Marks the off-tank, who should place this on the southwest platform. The Worms Heart will likely regenerate sometime after this attack.
Left Wing Attack	--
Akh Morn + Akh Rhai	Handle as before.
Aerial Blast	Run towards the center in preparation for the knockbacks. DPS players should attempt to be knocked to the opposite corner of their tether partner. Knockback Resistance can be used.
Earth Breath	Handle as before.
Left Wing Attack	--
Gyre Charge	Look for which corner Shinryu moves to and run far into the corner of a platform to the left or right of Shinryu's charge.
Right Wing Attack	The Worm's Heart will likely regenerate around this time.
Akh Morn + Akh Rhai	--
Right Wing Attack	--
Tidal Wave	Be aware that most platforms are broken at this point. A knockback resistance ability is strongly recommended.
Phase 2 Start

Transition

Just like normal mode, all players will be bound before an Active Time Maneuver takes place. All successful players will be launched to a new platform while players that failed are killed and sent to the second platform.

A proximity AoE is placed in the center of the platform that will then uppercut players away from its epicenter. Players must position themselves to be flung onto the blue platform to the north (where any dead allies will be waiting).

Three waves of two types of enemies will spawn:

Ginryu, a small dragon that casts a large simple line AoE called Blazing Trail.
Hakkinryu, a larger dragon that casts a tankbuster called Death Sentence.

Meanwhile Shinryu will begin charging Protostar, giving players 100 seconds to deal with the waves of enemies before the cast completes and wipes the party.

Wave 1 creates five proximity AoEs which become four Ginryu and one Hakkinryu.
Wave 2 begins 10 seconds later, dropping another five proximity AoEs that become three Ginryu and two Hakkinryu.
Wave 3 begins 15 seconds later, marking five random players with large spread circles that become proximity AoEs, then hatch into five Ginryu.
- If two proximity AoEs are placed too close to each other (indicated by the size of the spread circles), they will explode and wipe the party.

Once all enemies are killed, Shinryu will stop charging and fire their incomplete Protostar at the party, dealing high damage to all players.

Finally, Shinryu uses Tail Spit, creating an epicentral knockback marker in the center of the platform.

After the tail lands on the platform, players have roughly 20 seconds to run across Shinryu's tail while dodging Aetherial Ray line AoEs, which will Stun players for 2 seconds if hit.

Once players are above the southern platform, it is safe to jump off Shinryu's tail and begin Phase 2.

Phase 2: 44% - 24%

Phase 2 Abilities
Name	Description
Doom Puddle	A permanent puddle underneath Shinryu that inflicts a 10 second Doom while inside. The debuff is cleansed upon exiting the puddle.
Tera Slash	A tankbuster that inflicts Physical Vulnerability Up for 25 seconds.
Atomic Ray	Targets every single DPS with a Stack marker that inflicts Magic Vulnerability Up. Always combined with Burning Chains. Players that survive a stack solo are inflicted with Vulnerability Up.
Ice Storm	Now a green light attack that inflicts unmoving players with Deep Freeze for 12 seconds. Always paired with either Hypernova or Levinbolt.
Levinbolt	Now deals higher damage and inflicts Vulnerability Up, but targets where all players were standing at the end of the cast rather than their current position.
Hypernova	Deals extreme damage to players not afflicted with Deep Freeze.
Benighting Breath	A massive simple cone AoE that deals high damage and inflicts Infirmity for 60 seconds.
Wormwail	A donut AoE with its safe-zone being underneath Shinryu, and is slightly smaller than the Doom Puddle. Deals high damage and inflicts Infirmity for 60 seconds.

Shinryu's list of attacks shorten considerably, but become more dangerous.

The first attack to look out for is Atomic Ray. All players are tethered with Burning Chains to their usual partner, but then all DPS are marked with stack markers. Two stack markers can not be brought together due to the Magic Vulnerability Up they inflict. Players should group together prior to shorten the Burning Chains, then split and divide into stack marker pairs afterwards.

Lastly, Ice Storm will always be paired with Hypernova or Levinbolt and requires different handling depending on which is being cast.

With Hypernova, all players should stack and hold still to intentionally be frozen. The ice will counter the damage of Hypernova and at the same time be cleansed by the fire.
With Levinbolt, players will need to not only keep moving to avoid Deep Freeze, but to ensure that the Levinbolt strike does not hit them. Players should also stay away from each other to avoid potentially striking others with their delayed bolts of lightning.

At 24% or after two full rotations, Shinryu will begin their final attack.

Phase 2 Rotation
Attack	Strategy
Tera Slash	Mitigate and tank swap.
Atomic Ray + Burning Chains	Pair up tether partners, then break the tethers and pair up for each stack marker.
Ice Storm + Hypernova / Levinbolt	Keep moving if Levinbolt is being cast, or stack together and stay still if Hypernova is being cast.
Benighting Breath / Wormwail	Dodge the related AoE. If Wormwail, wait a few seconds before entering the Doom Puddle.
Tera Slash	Tank swap.
Reiryu	Heal the dragon heads before players are killed or they fly away.
Loop Repeat

Enrage Phase:

Shinryu will start a 70 second cast of Tidal Wave that will knock all players off the platform if Shinryu is not defeated in time. At the same time, Shinryu's Left Wing and Right Wing will be casting Hellfire and Judgement Bolt with a 35 second cast time.

On the left and right of Shinryu are two jump pads that will boost players onto Shinryu's back, enabling Shinryu's Left Wing and Right Wing to be attacked directly. Destroying the wings will not only stop their respective cast, but remove ~9% of Shinryu's health per wing.

Once both wings are destroyed, players will have jump off Shinryu's back and take out whatever remains of their health bar manually.

Loot

Each player will receive 1 Shinryu Totem per kill. Collect 10 totems to exchange for a weapon or 99 for a Legendary Kamuy Fife at Eschina in Rhalgr's Reach (X:13.8 Y:11.8).
20 Allagan Tomestone of Poetics
Shinryu Card (Drops at a fixed rate.)

Treasure Coffer

Name	Type	Item Level	Rarity	Quantity
Shinryu's Paladin Arms (IL 335)	Other	N/A	CBlue	1
Shinryu's War Axe	Marauder's Arm	335	CBlue	1
Shinryu's Greatsword	Dark Knight's Arm	335	CBlue	1
Shinryu's Gunblade	Gunbreaker's Arm	335	CBlue	1
Shinryu's Lance	Lancer's Arm	335	CBlue	1
Shinryu's Claws	Pugilist's Arm	335	CBlue	1
Shinryu's Katana	Samurai's Arm	335	CBlue	1
Shinryu's Daggers	Rogue's Arm	335	CBlue	1
Shinryu's Greatbow	Archer's Arm	335	CBlue	1
Shinryu's Revolver	Machinist's Arm	335	CBlue	1
Shinryu's Chakrams	Dancer's Arm	335	CBlue	1
Shinryu's Rod	Two-handed Thaumaturge's Arm	335	CBlue	1
Shinryu's Grimoire	Arcanist's Grimoire	335	CBlue	1
Shinryu's Rapier	Red Mage's Arm	335	CBlue	1
Shinryu's Cane	Two-handed Conjurer's Arm	335	CBlue	1
Shinryu's Codex	Scholar's Arm	335	CBlue	1
Shinryu's Ephemeris	Astrologian's Arm	335	CBlue	1
Shinryu's Scale	Material	N/A	ABasic	1
Shinryu Weapon Coffer (IL 335)	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Legendary Kamuy Fife	Other	N/A	ABasic	1
Faded Copy of The Worm's Tail	Other	N/A	ABasic	1

Achievements

This duty is associated with the following achievements:

Name	Points	Task	Reward	Patch
How to Slay Your Dragon 2	10	Defeat Shinryu in the Minstrel's Ballad: Shinryu's Domain.	-	4.1
Mightier than the Worm	5	Complete the Minstrel's Ballad: Shinryu's Domain with a party of only blue mages, Silence Echo turned on, and Unrestricted Party turned off.	-	5.45

Music

Section	Theme
Phase 1	The Worm's Head
Phase 2	The Worm's Tail

Images

The Minstrel's Ballad: Shinryu's Domain

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