The Minstrel's Ballad: Hades's Elegy

Level: 80 (Sync: 80)
Item Level: 450
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 (Shadowbringers)
Roulette: Mentor
Tomestones: 20
Req. quest: Minstrel from Another Mother
Location: The Dying Gasp
Region: Norvrandt
S/S/S: Available
Patch: 5.1
The Echo: On wipe: +5% (max +25%)
Links: EDB GT TC

Hearken unto a requiem for a hero fallen. A man who lived a thousand thousand of our lives clinging desperately to faint hope, never shirking his sworn duty to his long-lost brethren. A man who stood proud and did avow his true name on the threshold of the battle that would see him fall to his rival─the light to quench his shadow. Borrowing liberally from the funereal rites of the Night's Blessed, the minstreling wanderer weaves an elegy in that hero's honor─the tragic-yet-triumphant tale of a man and a battle that ne'er shall be forgotten.

— In-game description

The Minstrel's Ballad: Hades's Elegy is a level 80 trial introduced in patch 5.1 with Shadowbringers.

Hades's Elegy Trial Guide by MTQcapture

Hades

Just like normal mode, the encounter with Emet-Selch, true name Hades, takes place within a 20y radius circular arena overlooking the ruins of Amaurot, deep within the Tempest.

Thanks to a small outer railing during the opening phase, players will be incapable of falling over the edge. However, the railing will eventually be destroyed as the fight progresses, meaning players can plummet to their doom if they stray too far.

Every section of this fight has a unique enrage timer, forcing a consistent level of damage output and skill throughout the entire fight.

Phase 1

Phase 1 Abilities
Name	Description
Ancient Double	A buff Hades places on himself for the entirety of Phase 1. Causes all of Hades abilities to be cast twice, with the second cast typically having a unique effect.
Shadow Spread	All players are hit by 30-degree spread cones. Ancient Double then fires a second set of cones in the exact same locations.
Bad Faith	A wall of spikes is created to Hades's left and right, firing a static line AoE in the direction the spikes are pointing. Ancient Double then fires a second set of Line AoEs in the opposite directions. Inflicts Vulnerability Up.
Ravenous Assault	A 5y radius circle AoE tankbuster aimed at the highest enmity player that inflicts Magic Vulnerability Up for 20 seconds. Ancient Double repeats the cast without inflicting debuffs.
Arcane Utterance	Results in one of two attacks that are then detonated by a follow-up cast of Arcane Control. Eight red orbs that explode into 10y radius static circle AoEs after Hades casts Arcane Control. The damage radius of these orbs line up with the circles on the arena's floor. Eight blue squares that large static line AoEs in the direction they are pointing. The safe zone closely matches the triangle markings on the edges of the arena floor.
Broken Faith	Several blue circles slowly descend onto random sections of the arena, exploding into 10y radius static circle AoEs on landing that inflict Vulnerability Up. The damage radius of these blue circles line up with the circles on the arena's floor.

Starting as a DPS check, players must bring Hades to 10% health before 2 minutes and 45 seconds, else he will enrage with Ancient Dark IV and wipe the party.

While most attacks are simple to dodge, players will need to keep an eye out for the Ancient Double duplicate cast.

Shadow Spread can be handled with a clock spot position around Hades for the initial cast. Afterwards, players must rotate to positions inbetween the initial cones to dodge the double cast.
Against Bad Faith, players can stand either next to the spike wall, or to Hades's front/back. Players simply must stand on one of the two safe quadrants first before shifting over to the adjacent quadrant after.
Ravenous Assault requires a tank-swap. The off-tank can cast Provoke during the cast to ensure they are the target of the duplicate cast.
While the eight red orbs of Arcane Utterance can be avoided by simply moving to the empty section of the arena, the eight blue squares require players to move to the edge opposite to the empty zone, as the one misplaced blue square will always be aimed towards it.
Lastly, Broken Faith can simply be dodged through sight and reaction. As they descend very slowly, The party can stay in the center for the majority of the attack, only moving if a blue circle is about to land in the center before moving back again.

Once Hades is brought to 10% health, he will begin a short cutscene before transitioning to Phase 2.

Phase 1 Rotation
Attack	Strategy
Ancient Double	Shadow Spread, Bad Faith, and Ravenous Assault will all be double-cast for the entirety of the phase.
Shadow Spread	Spread out to clock spots, then move inbetween the first set of cones.
Bad Faith	Stand on one of the safe quadrants, then move to an adjacent quadrant after the first strike.
Ravenous Assault	Mitigate and tank-swap during the cast.
Arcane Utterance	Will either be 8 red orbs or 8 blue squares at random. Move to the empty corner against the former, and move to the opposite side from the empty corner for the latter.
Broken Faith	Stay in the center, only moving out if a blue circle is about to land in the center.
Arcane Utterance	Will be the other type of attack not used prior.
Shadow Spread	Handle as before.
Bad Faith	Handle as before.
Ravenous Assault	Mitigate and tank-swap during the cast. The party must push Hades to 10% here to prevent him from enraging.
Ancient Dark IV (Enrage)

Phase 2

Hades will summon a gauntlet of Ascian Shades, each with a unique series of attacks and separate enrage timers.

Shade of Nabriales:

Nabriales's Abilities
Name	Description
Quake III	A 28 second cast that deals a percentage of all player's max HP as damage based on how much health Nabriales has remaining.
Comet	A tank tower with a twin on the opposite side of the arena. Always spawn in sets of 4 that rotate clockwise.
Dark II	A tether attached to every DPS player from the four shades surrounding Nabriales. After 8 seconds, the shades fire a low-damage spread cone at their target that inflicts Magic Vulnerability Up for 3 seconds. The spread cones are fired at the same time the second Comet tower resolves.
Ancient Water III	A Stack marker placed on both healers. Inflicts Magic Vulnerability Up for 2 seconds.
Ancient Darkness	A 5y radius spread circle placed on both tanks. Inflicts Magic Vulnerability Up for 2 seconds.

A DPS check that requires the party to not only reduce Nabriales's HP to below 50% before Quake III completes, but survive the onslaught of Comet towers raining down on the party.

Tanks should split to the north and south, using mitigations to survive the four Comet towers as they rotate clockwise around the arena.

Healers should stay in the center, keeping the tanks alive through the high amount of damage.

DPS must aim their Dark II tethers safely away from the healers in the center, away from other DPS, and away from the second set of towers where the tanks will be.

Once Comets and Dark II has been resolved, the party can focus on dealing as much damage to Nabriales as possible.

Nabriales will finally follow up with Ancient Water III and Ancient Darkness, forcing healers to split into two 3-player stacks while the tanks move safely away.

Should players survive Quake III, Nabriales will disappear and be replaced with another two Ascian shades.

Note: As of patch 6.5, if running undersized/unrestricted, it is unlikely DPS players will be able to soak comets, and not feasible for a single tank to soak them due to the spacing. Bring at least 2 tanks. Additionally, comets that are not soaked do around 200,000 to 300,000 damage. This is not an instant wipe but is difficult to recover from.

Shades of Igeyorhm & Lahabrea:

Igeyorhm & Lahabrea's Abilities
Name	Description
Blizzard / Fire Sphere	Deals unavoidable party-wide damage. Four players are inflicted with Burning Brand and the other four Freezing Brand. The second cast will instead swap the debuffs to their opposite type. Burning Brand prevents the player from damaging Lahabrea and increases damage taken from fire. Freezing Brand prevents the player from damaging Igeyorhm and increases ice damage received. Once either Igeyorhm or Lahabrea is defeated, all players will be cleansed of their brands and free to attack the remaining Ascian.
Blizzard IV / Fire IV	A tankbuster cast by Igeyorhm and Lahabrea respectively.
Dark Flame	Four shades appear, one in each corner of the arena. Each will create a transferable tether to a random player—two blue tethers and two orange tethers. Blue tethers deal ice damage while red tethers deal fire damage. Tethers of matching colors will always be in opposite corners (if one blue tether is NE, the other blue tether will be SW).

Shades of Igeyorhm and Lahabrea will enter the arena and must both be defeated within 70 seconds to prevent them from enraging with Shadow Flare.

Both shades must be tanked on opposite sides of the arena, as the two become buffed with Vulnerability Down if kept in close proximity of each other.

Tanks must avoid using Provoke until Blizzard / Fire Sphere is cast, as there is a chance tanks will have to swap targets immediately. All players should keep an eye on their debuffs to ensure they are attacking the correct Ascian.

The only significant attack to look out for is Dark Flame. To ensure DPS players can focus on defeating the Ascians in time, tanks and supports may want to handle the tethers instead.

Due to how tethers are placed, tanks should always end up between one blue tether and one orange tether no matter which side of the arena they are on. Tanks should grab the closest tether opposite to their debuff type while healers can grab the farthest tether.

Once the tethers have resolved, Igeyorhm and Lahabrea will cast another Blizzard / Fire Sphere, forcing the entire party to swap targets.

After both shades have been defeated, Igeyorhm and Lahabrea will merge into Ascian Prime, much like they did in the The Aetherochemical Research Facility back in Heavensward.

Ascian Prime:

Ascian Prime Abilities
Name	Description
Universal Manipulation	Deals extreme party-wide damage and inflicts all players with various debuffs depending on their role. Supports are inflicted with an 8 second Ancient Circle, a 10 second Doom, and a 10 second Cursed Shriek. DPS are inflicted with a 10 second Beyond Death, a 12 second Forked Lightning, and 12 second Off-Balance.
Ancient Circle	A 20y radius donut AoE with a 10y radius safe zone. Deals fatal amounts of damage to any players hit.
Blight	Deals party-wide damage and inflicts all players with Blight for 30 seconds, increasing all damage taken.
Height of Chaos	A high damage tankbuster.
Shadow Flare	Unavoidable party-wide damage.
Megiddo Flame	A line stack targeting both healers. Inflicts Magic Vulnerability Up for 3 seconds.
Ancient Eruption	The two farthest players are targeted by homing AoEs that drop a 5y radius circle AoE three times in succession.

Players will have 100 seconds to not only survive, but defeat Ascian Prime before it enrages with a 10 second cast of Shadow Flare and wipes the party.

Ascian Prime starts with Universal Manipulation, dealing heavy damage to the party and inflicting a series of debuffs that must be swiftly dealt with:

Doom is cleansed after being brought to full HP, requiring healers to immediately heal themselves and the tanks.
Cursed Shriek is a gaze attack emitted from all supports when the debuff expires, inflicting Petrification for 10 seconds if not avoided.
Beyond Death will kill the player on expiration unless they take a single fatal hit from an attack, after which the debuff is cleansed and the player left at 1 HP.
Forked Lightning deals damage to any others in a 10y radius on expiration, forcing DPS to be spread out. Players are not hurt by their own Forked Lightning AoE.
Off-Balance causes afflicted players to be knocked back 10y from the source of any damage taken.

While there are multiple ways to handle this mechanic, the core goal is thus:

Immediately heal the tanks and healers to cure Doom.
Each DPS must be hit with one Ancient Circle to cure Beyond Death, but also not be too close to an edge to prevent being knocked off the arena by Off-Balance.
DPS players must end up away from all other players to prevent deaths to Forked Lightning.

A common, extremely efficient method is to have tanks and healers spread to the north, east, west, and south side of Ascian Prime in the center. Each support player will have a DPS partner that stands just behind them, standing on the AoE of a single Ancient Circle.

This should push all DPS safely towards the edges and out of range of others for Forked Lightning. All players should face towards the outer edges of the arena to prevent being Petrified by the tanks and healers.

Should players survive Universal Manipulation, healers must immediately restore the party's health in preparation for Blight.

The rest of the phase mostly involves heavy outgoing damage that tanks must mitigate and healers must heal through.

The group should split into two light parties for Megiddo Flame, but afterwards there should be no major blockers outside of the DPS's ability to deal enough damage before enrage.

Once Ascian Prime is defeated, Hades will return once again and begin Phase 3.

Phase 3

Hades becomes a massive, unmoving entity on the north side of the arena. As players are unable to reach his back or sides, positional requirements for Melee DPS is nullified.

Phase 3 Abilities
Name	Description
Again the Majestic	Functions identically to Nabriales's Comet towers, creating one in the north and one in the south with more pairs spawning in a clockwise rotation.
Captivity	One random healer is marked by a 10y radius spread circle. All players in this circle at the end of the cast are stunned before being trapped inside an Aetherial Gaol. Players have ~25 seconds to destroy the Gaol before all players trapped inside are killed.
Again the Martyr	Both healers are targeted by stack markers while all DPS are marked by 10y radius spread circles. Always paired with Wail of the Lost, an unmarked radial knockback from the center of the arena that pushes players ~15y. AoEs resolve after the knockback.
Again the Abyssal Celebrant	Hades buffs himself with Triple, making his next attack occur three times in succession.
Bident	Creates a spread of five 30-degree spread cones with four safe zones between, both healers are targeted by line stacks, and two DPS are marked by 10y radius spread circles. Line stacks inflict Magic Vulnerability Up for 1 second, while spread circles hit the target twice for low magic damage—creating a 10y radius puddle with both hits. Cast under the effect of Triple, causing the above to happen three times in quick succession. If a player marked with a spread circle dies, another random player will become the target for the remaining attacks instead.
Dark Seal	Creates three orbs in random locations that grow larger over time, to a maximum size of a 15y radius. Deals high damage to players standing inside.
Shadow Stream	A high damage static line AoE fired straight from Hades's front. Inflicts Vulnerability Up.
Polydegmon's Purgation	A high damage static line AoE covering the arena to Hades's left and right, leaving only the center lane in front of him safe. Inflicts Vulnerability Up.

Starting off with another deadly onslaught of attacks, players will have to focus on survival until given time to breath.

Again the Majestic can be handled in the same way as it was against the Nabriales shade, however this will also be paired with Captivity.

The targeted healer should run to the edge away from all other players—meanwhile the one remaining healer will have to focus on keeping the two tanks alive alone. DPS must destroy the Aetherial Gaol as fast as possible before the trapped healer is killed.

Again the Martyr can be handled by using clock spot positions close to the center of the arena. Tanks will have to shift positions to each stack with a different healer, creating two pairs of two.

The primary attack to look out for, however, is the Triple cast Bident.

There are a total of four safe lanes, two closer to the center, and two at the far north directly to Hades's left and right.
- Line stacks should split to the far north lanes, with each having one tank and one unmarked DPS to share the damage with.
- Spread circles should split to the two center safe lanes, starting at the south side opposite to Hades.
While the line stack groups can simply hold position in their assigned lane, the spread circle DPS must slowly move north towards Hades—carefully placing puddles as to leave themselves room to continue moving north after each hit.

Should players survive Bident, the phase will loop continuously with Dark Seal, Shadow Stream, and Polydegmon's Purgation until Hades reaches 30% HP, after which an Active Time Maneuver begins and the fight transitions to its final phase.

Phase 3 Rotation
	Attack	Strategy
Opening	Again the Majestic + Captivity	Tanks should split to the north and south towers and mitigate, rotating clockwise. The targeted healer must run away from the rest of the group. DPS must kill the Aetherial Gaol as fast as possible.
	Again the Martyr	Split into clock spot positions, with tanks shifting over to stack with a different healer. All players should stand close to the center to avoid being knocked off the platform by Wail of the Lost.
	Again the Abyssal Celebrant	Hades buffs himself with Triple. Tanks and healers should begin moving north and splitting to the left and right.
	Bident	Split into two 3-player parties in the northeast and northwest lanes while the two marked DPS occupy different center lanes, carefully dropping puddles across the safe zone.
Loop	Dark Seal	Avoid the growing orbs.
	Shadow Stream + Polydegmon's Purgation	Stand to Hades's side for Shadow Stream and his front for Polydegmon's Purgation. Which cast is used first is random.
	Loop Repeat

Phase 4

Hades transforms one final time to a form exclusive to the extreme-mode difficulty.

Phase 4 Abilities + Rotation
Name	Description
Dark Current	Creates four moving AoEs, two on the east and two on the west, that cross to the opposite sides of the arena. A second set of four is created after the first set completes. Deals high damage and inflicts Damage Down for 30 seconds.
Gigantomachy	Unavoidable party-wide damage.
Quadrastrike	A three-part attack: deals party-wide damage, then creates a tank tower on the east and west side of the arena, and finally deals more party-wide damage while inflicting all players with a painful 30 second incurable Bleeding debuff.

A short final bout against Hades, players have 2 minutes and 25 seconds to defeat him before he completes his enrage cast.

There are no special strategies or tricky mechanics to look out for in this phase. Tanks may want to split to the east and west prior to Quadrastrike to ensure each tower is properly occupied, but the rest of the phase simply involves dodging and keeping the party healthy through constant damage.

There is one specific spot players can stand in to completely avoid Dark Current without needing to move and still remain in melee range of Hades, though the positioning is precise.

Hades will follow a short rotation of Dark Current, Gigantomachy, and Quadrastrike twice before beginning a 25 second enrage cast of Gigantomachy.

Loot

Each player will receive 2 Hades Totem per kill. Collect 10 totems to exchange for a weapon or 99 for a Shadow Gwiber Trumpet at Fathard in Eulmore (X:10.3, Y:11.8).
20 Allagan Tomestone of Poetics
Hades Card (Drops at a fixed rate.)

Treasure Coffer

No item drops found that match the constraints of the query.

Achievements

This duty is associated with the following achievements:

Name	Points	Task	Reward	Patch
Don't Look Back	10	Defeat Hades in the Minstrel's Ballad: Hades's Elegy.	-	5.1
Mightier than the Underworld	5	Complete the Minstrel's Ballad: Hades's Elegy with a party of only blue mages, Silence Echo turned on, and Unrestricted Party turned off.	-	6.45

Music

Section	Theme
Phase 1 and Adds	Shadowbringers
Phases 2-3	Invincible

Gallery

The Minstrel's Ballad: Hades's Elegy

Contents