The Minstrel's Ballad: Thordan's Reign
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.
This article is about the level 60 challenge-mode trial. For the story-mode Main Scenario trial, see The Singularity Reactor. For the Ultimate Raid involving King Thordan, see Dragonsong's Reprise (Ultimate).
The Minstrel's Ballad: Thordan's Reign
- Level
- 60 (Sync: 60)
- Item Level
- 190
- 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 (Heavensward)
- Roulette
- Mentor
- Tomestones
20 - Req. quest
Thordan's Reign- Entrance
- Azys Lla (X:21.4, Y:22.5, Z:8.7)
- Location
- Singularity Reactor
- Region
- Abalathia's Spine
- Stone, Sky, Sea
- Available
- Patch
- 3.1
The Echo- On wipe: +5% (max +25%)
“With his typical flair for embellishment, the wandering minstrel has woven yet another stirring epic─this time from the threads of your Azys Lla confrontation with Archbishop Thordan VII. With the final verse yet ringing in the chambers of your mind, the memories of that titanic struggle arise once more with an almost surreal clarity...
— In-game description
The Minstrel's Ballad: Thordan's Reign is a level 60 trial introduced in patch 3.1 with Heavensward.
Strategy
King Thordan and His Knights Twelve
Before the fight
- Assign tanks to knights in Phase 3 (east/west)
- Assign DPS positions to go to for Skyward Leap (typically North → South → North)
- Assign players the following positions/pattern to spread out to:
Phase 1: Thordan - 100% - 70% or 80 seconds passed.
Abilities:
- Ascalon's Might: A hard-hitting frontal cleave. Only the main tank should stand in front of Thordan.
- Meteorain: A small telegraphed AoE. Deals moderate magic damage if not avoided.
- Ascalon's Mercy: Seven small conal AoEs covering a 180 degree radius. Deals moderate physical damage and knockback if not avoided. Players can stand in-between the cones to avoid.
- The Dragon's Eye: Adds a stack of Light of Ascalon to Thordan, increasing his damage for the rest of the fight.
- The Dragon's Gaze: A room-wide gaze attack originating from Thordan. If gaze is not averted, deals damage and inflicts both
Vulnerability Up and 
Hysteria. - Lightning Storm: Marks every player with a purple arrow, hitting each with a small lightning AoE 3 seconds later. Spread out to avoid hitting others.
- The Dragon's Rage: Stack marker targeting one player. Damage is divided across all players in range of the target.
- Ancient Quaga: Unavoidable magic damage to all players.
- Heavenly Heel: High damage tankbuster. The main tank should use mitigations to reduce this attack's damage.
Tank Thordan in the center facing away from the rest of the party. This first phase is simply an introduction to attacks Thordan himself will use again in the final phase, and are not complex nor difficult to handle. Deal as much damage to Thordan during this phase as possible so that less time is spent in the final phase.
Thordan's HP should be below 75% to be on track to meeting enrage, however, at 70% Thordan will forcefully start Phase 2.
Phase 1 Rotation: Ascalon's Might → Meteorain → Ascalon's Mercy → Ascalon's Might → The Dragon's Eye → The Dragon's Gaze → Ascalon's Might → Lightning Storm → The Dragon's Rage → Ancient Quaga → Ascalon's Might → Heavenly Heel → Ascalon's Might → Phase 2
Phase 2 - Knights of the Round
Thordan plants his sword at the edge of the arena and leaves, summoning his Knights of the Round to fight instead. The outer ring of the arena will now deal 9999 damage per tick to any player standing at the edge.
Phase 2a: Ser Charibert and Ser Hermenost
- Heavensflame: Attaches Burning Chains to pairs of players and places multiple large AoEs under random players over a period of 3 seconds.
- Burning Chains deal repeated magic damage until broken by players distancing themselves from their tethered partner.
- Conviction: Four towers spawn at any of the eight cardinal directions. After 6 seconds, any tower without a player standing inside will explode, dealing magic damage to the entire party and a lengthy
Paralysis debuff.
Have the party stack in the middle of the arena. When the Heavensflames spawn (red circles), have the party spread out to their pre-assigned positions, breaking Holy Chains as they do so. Prioritize breaking chains over moving to position.
Four Conviction Towers will spawn at any of the eight cardinal directions. Avoid Heavensflames and stand in a tower. Be careful as a Heavensflame may spawn at a tower location — if so, wait for the Heavensflame to explode before standing in the tower.
If each tower has at least one person standing in it, the mechanic is completed successfully, otherwise the party will be paralyzed (which can be removed).
Phase 2b: Ser Zephirin, Ignasse, Paulecrain, and Vellguine
- Sacred Cross: A 20 second cast that deals damage based on Ser Zephirin's remaining health. Functions as a DPS check — deal as much damage to Ser Zephirin as possible before the cast finishes.
- Spiral Thrust: Three knights stand on the edge of the arena. After 6 seconds, they will charge in a straight line across the center dealing high damage and massive knockback to any players in their path.
Ser Zephirin will spawn in the middle of the arena and start casting Sacred Cross. You will need to bring Ser Zephirin's health to below 50% to survive the attack. This isn't a tight DPS check, so consider saving cooldowns for the next phase.
After Sacred Cross, the Spiral Thrust Knights, Sers Vellguine, Ignasse, and Paulecrain, will spawn outside the arena and prepare to charge down the center. This is easily dodged by standing at the center of each leaf-like decal that outlines the edge of the arena, where the stem would be.
Phase 2c: Ser Janlenoux and Ser Adelphel
- Divine Right: Grants one knight Sword of the Heavens and the other Shield of the Heavens. If these buffs are already active, the knights will instead swap their buffs.
- Sword of the Heavens grants the knight
Damage Up. Tanks should be prepared to use large mitigations for this knight's tankbuster. - Shield of the Heavens grants the knight
Vulnerability Down. DPS should not attack this knight while this buff is active. - If the two knights are too close to each other, they will share the effects of these buffs — gaining both Damage up and Vulnerability down simultaneously. Separate them to opposite ends of the room.
- Sword of the Heavens grants the knight
- Holy Bladedance: A tank-buster that rapidly hits the main enmity target six times. If the knight has Sword of the Heavens, a large mitigation is recommended.
- Heavenly Slash: High damage frontal cleave. Ensure Janlenoux and Adelphel are facing away from the rest of the party.
- Holiest of Holy: Unavoidable magic damage to the entire party.
- Skyward Leap: Three players will be marked by blue circles one-after-another. After 6 seconds, a knight will dive on top of them and deal damage to players relative to their individual distance to the impact point.
Two knights will spawn — Ser Adelphel on the west, and Ser Janlenoux on the east. They will cast Divine Right that will give one of them Sword of the Heavens, and the other Shield of the Heavens. The two knights need to be tanked separately at the edges, or they will tether and share buffs.
All DPS must attack the knight with Sword of the Heavens, as the other will be resistant to damage.
Afterwards, both knights will prepare their first tankbuster: Holy Bladedance. The tank with the Sword of the Heavens knight will need heavy mitigation or an invincibility cooldown, while the tank with the Shield of the Heavens knight can use a lesser mitigation.
After the first Holy Bladedance, three knights will appear in the center and begin casting Skyward Leap. Three DPS will be marked with a blue circle marker one-after-the-other with about two seconds in-between. The first DPS marked should move north and wait for the knight to land before rejoining the group. The second DPS marked moves south for this mechanic, while the third DPS marked moves north again.
During this time, the knights will cast a second Divine Right, swapping their buffs, and then perform Heavenly Slash on the tanks. If DPS is good, it is possible to defeat one knight before this Divine Right cast.
Holiest of Holy (party-wide AoE) follows after this, and then the second Holy Bladedance, so make sure the entire party and tanks are topped up in time.
The knights will continue to use Divine Right, Holy Bladedance, Heavenly Slash, and Holiest of Holy until defeated. Once one knight is defeated, the other will lose their Divine Right buff.
After both knights are defeated, gather the party in the center of the arena for the next phase.
Phase 2d: Ser Grinnaux and Ser Haumeric
- Dimensional Collapse: Places a black AoE underneath every player that will grow over time. Explodes after 6 seconds. Can be simplified by stacking together prior, ensuring all AoEs are placed in the same spot.
- Hiemal Storm: Marks five players with an icy AoE. After 3 seconds, it will explode and leave a patch of frost on the ground. These patches will inflict
Frostbite. Avoid standing too close to others, and move out of the patch afterwards. - Spiral Pierce: The three players not marked by Hiemal Storm will be tethered by the three knights in the center. They will charge at their tethered target, dealing moderate physical damage to them and anyone in-between.
- Faith Unmoving: A knockback originating from Ser Grinnaux. Stand close to him and aim yourself to not get knocked backwards into a patch of frost.
Stack at the center of the arena to ensure all Dimensional Collapse AoEs are in the same spot. Once the circles appear, spread to your pre-assigned positions. Three players will be tethered by Spiral Pierce, while the other five will be marked for Hiemal Storm (shiva circles). As you move to your position, take note of where the tethered players are.
After Spiral Pierce and Hiemal Storm, immediately move towards the center for the knockback. Orient yourself so that you will not be knocked back into any of the frost circles that should be placed on the outside (i.e: move to where the tethers were).
Healers should remove any Frostbite debuffs from any afflicted party members.
Phase 2e: Ser Noudenet and Ser Guerrique
- Holy Meteor: Four random players will be marked. Four comets will drop on these players, dealing minor damage in a small AoE around them. Do not stand near these players. This attack will happen twice.
- Heavy Impact: Ser Guerrique slams the ground, creating an expanding four-stage shockwave AoE in a ~270 degree cone. Either stand behind this cone or use careful timing to dodge between the shockwaves.
Eight Comet Circles will spawn along the eight cardinal directions, and one Meteor Circle in the center. The party can survive one Comet Circle touching the floor, but not two. If DPS is struggling, assigning one comet circle to ignore is a possibility. Once all Comet Circles are removed, all players must immediately focus on the Meteor Circle or else it will wipe the party. A Limit Break can be used if time is running out.
Some players will be marked for Holy Meteor, which will do light damage in an area around them. As a result, avoid stacking two players together.
Ser Hermenost will spawn in the center of the arena and perform Heavy Impact — concentric red rings that will damage and stun any player hit by them. These should be avoided by either moving to the safe sector, or by crossing rings as the inner ring explodes.
Phase 2f: Ultimate End
After the Meteor Circle is destroyed, King Thordan will reappear.
- The Light of Ascalon: Deals minor unavoidable party damage and minor knockback.
- Ultimate End: Deals high unavoidable party damage that increases with each player death that occurred in Phase 2.
Thordan will cast The Light of Ascalon seven times, summoning his Knights of the Round. This does minor knockback, so don't stand at the very edge of the arena. Healers should shield the raid after this to prepare for Ultimate End.
The fight will then entire its final phase.
Phase 3: Thordan and the Knights of the Round
Thordan will use all attacks from prior phases, along with a couple new ones and some changes to existing ones. Mini-phases will be split via casts of The Dragon's Eye.
- The Dragon's Eye: Now places a giant Eye of Nidhogg in the background of the arena. Always starts on the north side, but subsequent casts will move it to a random location.
- The Dragon's Gaze/Glory: Now players must avoid looking at both Thordan and Nidhogg's eye in the background of the arena. Simplified by tanking Thordan near the edge closest to Nidhogg's eye.
Tank Thordan north, with the MT standing at 11 o'clock, and the party stacked together at 1 o'clock. Thordan will cast The Dragon's Eye, creating an image of Nidhogg's Eye outside the north side of the arena.
Phase 3a: Knights of the Round 1
- Holy Shield Bash: One healer will be marked with a green marker. This player will be
Down for the Count and given two stacks of 
Magic Vulnerability Up. - Spear of the Fury: Ser Zephirin throws their spear at the downed healer, dealing magic damage divided across all players between, but increased damage to the first player hit. Inflicts
Infirmity for 15 seconds.
- Functions similarly to Wild Charge. All DPS and healers should stand between Ser Zephirin and the downed healer, while the off-tank stands closer to Zephirin to take the first hit.
- If any player dies to this attack, Ser Zephirin will wipe the entire party.
Thordan will cast Knights of the Round, summoning Adelphel and Janlenoux, who will mark a healer for Holy Shield Bash. That player should move to the outer edge of the arena, while the rest of the party arranges themselves so the OT is closest to the center of the arena and the affected healer is on the outside.
Ser Zephirin will then spawn in the middle of the arena and begin casting Spear of Fury to kill the healer. The OT should stand between Zephirin and the healer and use heavy mitigations. The DPS and other healer must stand between the OT and the Healer.
As Spear of Fury happens, Thordan will also Heavenly Heel the MT. Healers must quickly top up the MT, and have the whole party turn around to dodge Dragon's Gaze/Glory. Infirmity will wear off afterwards, so heal up the party quickly in preparation for Ancient Quagga.
Phase 3a Rotation: The Dragon's Eye → Knights of the Round → Ascalon's Might → Holy Shield Bash → Spear of Fury + Heavenly Heel → The Dragon's Gaze/Glory → Ancient Quaga → The Dragon's Eye
Phase 3b: Knights of the Round 2
Thordan casts Dragon's Eye, and the MT will need to move Thordan to the eye's new location. Face Thordan towards the Eye.
Thordan will once again cast Knights of the Round. Sers Guerrique, Hermenost, and Ser Grinnaux will spawn and begin the next series of mechanics.
Four Conviction towers will spawn across the center of the arena, perpendicular to the two knights. Just like in Phase 2a, each tower needs at least one person standing in it to avoid party-wide damage and paralysis.
At the same time, Thordan will cast The Dragon's Gaze/Glory and Guerrique casts Heavy Impact in an attempt to move players off the towers. Players must both look away from Thordan and the eyes and at the same time dodge the AoEs while staying inside the towers. Heavy Impact will always split across the halfway point of the tower, so it's players can always dodge without leaving the tower itself.
The Dragon's Gaze check happens when the first Heavy Impact ring explodes, while the Conviction Tower check happens as the second Heavy Impact ring explodes.
To help spread players out, you may want to agree on a plan (e.g: melee take the inner two towers, ranged take the outer two, tanks and healers try to fill in).
After Conviction Towers, Grinnaux spawns Dimensional Collapse circles at each player's location. Thordan then prepares to cast Dragon's Rage, but Grinnaux will also be preparing a knockback, Faith Unmoving. Players should stack in the middle to both manage the stack marker and avoid hitting the edges.
Afterwards, have the MT split away from the group to avoid cleaving anyone with Thordan's Ascalon's Might.
Phase 3b Rotation: The Dragon's Eye → Knights of the Round → Conviction + Heavy Impact + The Dragon's Gaze/Glory → Dimensional Collapse → The Dragon's Rage + Faith Unmoving → Ascalon's Might → The Dragon's Eye
Phase 3c: Knights of the Round 3
Ignore The Dragon's Eye Thordan casts during this phase, as there is no Dragon's Gaze. He will then follow it up with his third Knights of the Round.
Thordan will cast Lightning Storm, and then Ser Vellguine, Ignasse, and Paulecrain will be summoned. After Lightning Storm hits, quickly heal up the party.
- Ser Ignasse marks a player (not the MT) for Skyward Leap.
- Ser Paulecrain will remain at the center and tether to another player for Spiral Pierce.
- Ser Vellguine will be outside the arena preparing Spiral Thrust.
- Thordan will cast The Dragons Rage.
Thordan should be on the edge of the arena, out of the Spiral Thrust knight's path. The player marked for Skyward Leap should move opposite the party to reduce the damage the party takes from Skyward Leap, while the tethered player must avoid both the party and the Spiral Thrust knight, while ideally being away from the Skyward Leap player.
A simple way to position would be to have the MT bring Thordan about 45 degrees from the Spiral Thrust knight. Then, the Skyward Leap player moves opposite, while the tethered player moves 90 degrees from the party in either direction.
After Dragon's Rage hits, heal the tank in preparation for Heavenly Heel and Ascalon's Might.
Phase 3c Rotation: The Dragon's Eye → Knights of the Round → Lightning Storm → The Dragon's Rage + Spiral Knights → Heavenly Heel → Ascalon's Might → The Dragon's Eye
Phase 3d: Knights of the Round 4
Thordan will cast The Dragon's Eye — move him to the eye's new location. All players (other than the main tank) should stack behind Thordan.
Shortly after, Knights of the Round is cast again and three knights, Ser Charibert, Ser Haumeric, and Ser Noudenet are summoned.
The party will be inflicted with Burning Chains. Spread out to your pre-assigned locations relative to the main tank (treat the main tank as north). Once again, prioritize breaking Burning Chains.
The party members will naturally avoid Dragon's Gaze as they spread out to break Holy Chains, other than the main tank who will need to move sideways to help break their chain.
As chains are getting broken, four players are marked by Hiemal Storm and four Holy Meteor, all while Thordan casts Ascalon's Mercy — dodge Ascalon's Mercy while spreading out and placing Hiemal Storm along the edges of the arena.
Quickly heal up the party to prepare for Ancient Quaga → Heavenly Heel → Ancient Quaga, bearing in mind that Thordan's damage is significantly stronger now because of accumulated Light of Ascalon stacks.
Phase 3d Rotation: The Dragon's Eye → Knights of the Round → Ascalon's Might → The Dragons Gaze/Glory + Heavensflame + Holy Meteor + Heimal Storm → Ascalon's Mercy → Ancient Quaga → Heavenly Heel → Ancient Quaga → The Dragon's Eye
Phase 3e: Knights of the Round 5
At the final Knights of the Round, two to three knights will spawn at a time (starting with Adelphel and Janlenoux) and begin casting heavy raidwide damage, putting healers on high alert.
The last knight to appear is Ser Zephirin, who will begin to cast Sacred Cross again. This time, however, he will be tethered to Thordan, making him invulnerable until Sacred Cross is finished. Zephirin has significantly more health, so an DPS LB3 should be used on Zephirin if it was not already used on Thordan.
After Sacred Cross, prepare for Heavenly Heel → Ascalon's Might. Finally, Thordan will use Ascalon's Might several times in a row before slowly casting Ancient Quaga. This is Thordan's enrage, which will wipe the party if not killed before the cast finishes.
Phase 3e Rotation: The Dragon's Eye → Knights of the Round → Ascalon's Might → Holiest of Holy → Heavensward Leap x3 → Sacred Cross → The Dragon's Gaze/Glory → Ancient Quaga → Heavenly Heel → Ascalon's Might x6 → Enrage
Loot
- Each player will receive
1 Heavens' Ward Helm Fragment per kill. Collect 10 totems to exchange for a weapon or 99 for a 
Round Lanner Whistle at Bertana in Idyllshire (X:5.9 Y:5.2). - 20 Allagan Tomestone of Poetics
Archbishop Thordan VII Card (Drops at a fixed rate.)
Treasure Coffer
Achievements
This duty is associated with the following achievements:
| Name | Points | Task | Reward | Patch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The King and Die
|
10 | Defeat King Thordan in the Minstrel's Ballad: Thordan's Reign. |  Myth Breaker
|
3.1 |
 Mightier than the Round
|
5 | Complete the Minstrel's Ballad: Thordan's Reign with a party of only blue mages, Silence Echo turned on, and Unrestricted Party turned off. | Masked of the Round
|
5.15 |
Music
| Section | Theme |
|---|---|
| Earlier Phases | Heroes Never Die |
| Final Phase |  Heroes
|
Images
Weapon Images
Trial Images
Notes
- It is not possible to skip the lengthy adds phases even when running this trial unsynced, as Thordan's HP will lock to 0.1% in the first phase.
Historical
- The
Katana of the Heavens and 
Rapier of the Heavens were added to the drop table in patch 4.0 to correspond with the release of the samurai and red mage jobs in Stormblood. - The
Gunblade of the Heavens, 
War Quoits of the Heavens, 
Sickle of the Heavens, and 
Milpreves of the Heavens were added to the drop table in patch 6.1. These are new weapon models for jobs added since patch 5.0. These models are used for Ultimate Weapons of the Heavens which were added in patch 6.11.
