Reaper Guide for Dragonsong’s Reprise (Ultimate)

Introduction:

Dragonsong’s Reprise (Ultimate) is the first Ultimate released in Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker. This entire encounter is about 22 minutes long and split into seven Phases and one Intermission: The Vault Knights, King Thordan, Nidhogg, The Eyes, Rewind Intermission, King Thordan II, The Great Wyrms, and The Dragon King. This guide will go over the rotational structure for Reaper in this encounter and provide tips for different push-timings, Arcane Circle and pot examples, Opener and give some general ideas for how to execute your burst. This guide assumes that you have a basic understanding of the class and its fundamentals. I would advise activating the following feature in your settings so you have an easier time hitting your first GCD on a boss after there was downtime.

Best in Slot (2.49)

Etro

Your item level will be synced down to 605. This etro link has the Best in Slot gear for DSR at the moment. The Manderville 615 and Amazing Manderville 630 weapons are exactly identical in DSR due to item level sync. Use what you have available. If you do not want to farm the dungeon gear, you can also use the set that was Best in Slot during the Asphodelos raid tier. You can find that gear set in the reaper resources on the balance discord. You can learn more about the GCD tiers in the advanced guide.

Phase One: The Vault Knights

The first Phase starts with a two target fight. We have some AoE skills in our basic single target rotation that affect a second target, but otherwise we will not use any AoE alternative besides one Whorl of Death in the Opener. Use your entire Opener on Ser Adelphel as he will become untargetable right after and this will help to keep both of the knights on even HP later on.

Recommended Opener: Modified Early Shroud Opener

• Pre-pull Soulsow
• Pre-pull Harpe @2s (On Ser Adelphel)
• Whorl of Death > Arcane Circle
• Soul Slice
• Soul Slice
• Plentiful Harvest > Enshroud
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Communio
• Harvest Moon > Gluttony
• Gallows
• Gibbet > Unveiled Gallows
• Gallows
• Shadow of Death (On Ser Grinnaux)

Whorl of Death on two targets and Harvest Moon

The Whorl of Death in the Opener is the ONLY time where it will be a gain in this encounter. Every other Whorl of Death would be a loss here. This is also the only AoE alternative we will use in this encounter. Using Harvest Moon in the Opener will be the most we get out of it for this Phase. Cast one Harpe later after the knockback from Faith Unmoving. Replacing this with Harvest Moon is not a DPS gain.

Rotational tips for Phase One

For Hyperdimensional Slash, you can go out to your position after hitting Infernal Slice. If you are on the second set for Hyperdimensional Slash, go for another combo rotation and go out again after hitting Infernal Slice. Use Arm’s Length for the Faith Unmoving right after and move to the safe spot while doing your melee GCDs. Enter Enshroud on 50 Soul gauge and use Shadow of Death on Ser Adelphel as he becomes targetable again shortly after. This should be the timing where both knights should be in the middle again and you should be able to hit both of them with Communio and Gluttony right afterward. Use Harpe for after the next Faith Unmoving. Build your gauge until you have 50 Shroud again and save your Enshroud and Arcane Circle as it should come back up shortly before they hit their enrage.

Ser Charibert

Use Enshroud right after you have killed both knights. Ser Charibert is just a DPS check so you can do a normal double Shroud sequence here. The order in which you have to go for the protean bait does not matter. You will always be able to execute a normal double Enshroud window.

Feint and Arcane Crest examples

Here are some examples for when to use Feint or Arcane Crest. Feint can only be used twice in total for this Phase.

• Feint either the first Holiest of Holy or the second one, prior to enrage. If you have a second melee, Hyperdimensional Slash is also a candidate for Feint.
• Use Arcane Crest for Heavensblaze in the Opener and again for the Hyperdimensional Slash stack. You can use another Arcane Crest for the Heavensflame after the knockback from Faith Unmoving. Last but not least, you can use Arcane Crest for the Brightwing protean waves from Ser Charibert.

Phase Two: King Thordan

This is the Phase with the most downtime. Reaper suffers the most in this Phase due to us not being able to build our gauges during downtime scenarios. I recommend to hold at the end of this Phase for a somewhat slower kill time if your group is killing him too early as this gives most classes a better Opener for the next Phase. A kill time somewhere between 3:08-3:13 is good enough for this which is during/after Broad Swing 2.

Foreword about push timings and Gluttony:

With faster kill times on the earlier phases, Gluttony can become somewhat of a pain to hold on cooldown. If you used Gluttony somewhere and the Boss dies, keep the Soul Reavers until the next boss becomes targetable. Building your gauge is more important than a Harvest Moon in that scenario. If you are on later Phases already and the boss in a Phase dies while you have one Soul Reaver from Gluttony, try to enter Sanctity of the Ward with > 50 Soul gauge and use Shadow of Death into Gluttony directly after Sanctity of the Ward. This can be done by just doing one Gibbet/Gallows less between Strength of the Ward and Sanctity of the Ward to hold on the >50 Soul gauge.

When to use which Re-Opener after Sanctity of the Ward

• Use the “Burst” Re-Opener if your group needs the damage on Thordan or you do not want to do a 100/100 Re-Opener on Nidhogg. Generally not advised as holding on Thordan until he starts his enrage cast leads to way better Gluttony timings and better Re-Openers on Nidhogg.
• Use the “Deadzoning” Re-Opener if you want to go into Nidhogg with 100/100 or if Thordan would die too fast if you burst.
• Use the “Deadzoning” Re-Opener if your group kills Thordan too fast and wants to kill him slower to get their defensive cooldowns back.

Recommended Opener: Early Shroud Opener

• Shadow of Death > Arcane Circle
• Soul Slice
• Soul Slice
• Plentiful Harvest > Enshroud
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Communio
• Harvest Moon > Gluttony
• Gallows
• Gibbet
• Shadow of Death
• Shadow of Death > Unveiled Gallows
• Gallows

Why the double Shadow of Death at the end?

• Death’s Design would fall off for the very last GCD if we do not refresh it. Thordan is untargetable for around 30 seconds, so he would become targetable with about 24 seconds on Death’s Design. The next Opener will have one Shadow of Death less in it which can be replaced by a stronger GCD. Gallows is our last GCD because it is less likely to get ghosted due to application delay.

Would it not be more DPS to use Soul Slice before Shadow of Death?

• No. It is less DPS and also will not give us another Soul Slice use.

Why do we not use Harpe Pre-pull for Thordan?

• Using Harpe pre-pull will delay our first GCD by a very small amount. This generally is no problem and always a gain. However, the last GCD in our Opener is very tight and using Harpe pre-pull will most likely result in you ghosting your very last GCD. It was very inconsistent for me but you can try it out by yourself to see if you can use Harpe pre-pull without ghosting your last GCD consistently.

Important Notes:

• Be aware that if you have a Dancer in your party, you will most likely not get the 8th stack for Plentiful Harvest from them due to us skipping Harpe in the Opener which means Arcane Circle will come out ~0.5s earllier than usual. This is a 40p loss but adjusting the Rotation around this will be a bigger loss so sadly you have to bite the bullet here.
• If you are playing on a high ping and struggle to use Plentiful Harvest right as it come up as thus clip your GCD due that, you will miss the very last Gibbet or Gallows in this opener which is obivously a big loss. If this is the case for you, swap to the Early Gluttony Opener instead and do the adjustment where you send Arcane Circle right after Shadow of Death so that you will not clip your Plentiful Harvest in the Opener and can safely hit the very last GCD.

Opener after Strength of the Ward

• Soul Slice > Unveiled Gibbet
• Gibbet
• Soul Slice
• Harvest Moon
• Slice
• Waxing slice
• Infernal Slice > Gluttony
• Gallows
• Gibbet
• Shadow of Death
• Slice
• Waxing Slice > Unveiled Gibbet
• Gibbet
• Soul Slice > Unveiled Gallows
• Gallows

What about Enshroud?

• This depends on when your group wants to use their raid buffs on Thordan. Some groups may use them later which would mean you would overcap on gauges and abilities while waiting for the raid buffs. If this happens, use the Enshroud after Gluttony in this Opener and try to end on Soul Slice -> Gibbet/Gallows.

The late Soul Slice and the Gibbet/Gallows:

• Be sure that your last GCDs, before Thordan becomes untargetable again, are Gibbet/Gallows and Soul Slice. Using Gibbet/Gallows this late before Thordan becomes untargetable will help us to not drop our enhanced Gibbet/Gallows buff.

When to use Harvest Moon in this Opener:

• For this Opener it doesn’t really matter when exactly you want to use Harvest Moon as there will not be any party buffs until the next time Thordan becomes untargetable. If you get an Astrologian Card, use it inside that window.

Re-Opener after Sanctity of the Ward: bursting

• Shadow of Death
• Soul Slice > Gluttony
• Gibbet
• Gallows > Enshroud
• Shadow of Death > Arcane Circle
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Harvest Moon > Lemure’s Slice
• Communio
• Plentiful Harvest > Enshroud
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Communio
• Soul Slice > Unveiled Gibbet
• Gibbet
• Soul Slice > Unveiled Gallows
• Gallows

Why do we use Gluttony so early?

• Using Gluttony right after Sanctity of the Ward gives us better times on when Gluttony comes off cooldown again for later Phases.

About the Harvest Moon Placement:

• Thordan gets a debuff with which he gets more damage from all sources. This debuff should apply right when you hit your 4th reaping ability here. Everything after that will hit stronger due to this debuff.

When should I use Arcane Circle?

• Every group has different timings on when they want to use their party buffs. I am only going to show examples in this guide. Clarify with your party when party buffs will come out or else you will misalign them.

Double Communio in raid buffs:

• Sadly we will not be able to hit both Communios under 15 seconds raid buffs without delaying them for too long. Due to the immense downtime in Sanctity of the Ward, we will have to use Soul Slice to not overcap on it and then use Gibbet/Gallows directly after to not drop our Enhanced Gibbet/Gallows buff.

What if Thordan dies before I can get off my entire burst?

• If Thordan dies before you can hit Soul Slice after your second Communio, go for the “Deadzoning Re-Opener” after Sanctity of the Ward.

Re-Opener after Sanctity of the Ward: Deadzoning

• Shadow of Death
• Soul Slice > Gluttony
• Gibbet
• Gallows > Enshroud
• Shadow of Death > Arcane Circle
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Harvest Moon > Lemure’s Slice
• Communio
• Plentiful Harvest
• Soul Slice
• Slice
• Waxing Slice
• Infernal Slice

Why do we use Gluttony so early?

• Using Gluttony right after Sanctity of the Ward gives us better times on when Gluttony comes off cooldown again for later Phases.

About the Harvest Moon Placement:

• Thordan gets a debuff with which he gets more damage from all sources. This debuff should apply right when you hit your 4th reaping ability here. Everything after that will hit stronger due to this debuff.

When should I use Arcane Circle?

• This is very group dependent as every group uses their party buffs at different windows. I am only going to show examples in this guide on where you can weave it. Clarify with your party when party buffs should come out or else you will misalign Arcane Circle.

Rotational tips and more:

• Having a slower kill time in this Phase is almost fundamental to hit Gluttony in later Phases on cooldown. I would suggest killing him everytime after he said the Phrase “This is the power of light?” (start of enrage cast).
• Moments to cast Soulsow for Strength of the Ward are when you go to your safe spot and wait for the expanding AoEs. There is a lot of time to cast Soulsow safely. For Sanctity of the Ward, cast it directly after Thordan becomes untargetable.

Feint and Arcane Crest examples:

• Use Feint either on the Ancient Quaga and then on the Ultimate End later or use Feint on Heavenly Heel, which will also cover the three Ascalon’s Might afterward, and then the first Eye of the Tyrant in the Nidhogg Phase.
• You can use Arcane Crest for these: Lightning Storm, The Dragon’s Rage, Ancient Quaga, Sever, Heaven’s Stake and Ultimate End

Phase Three: Nidhogg Estinien

This Phase is a standard 100% melee uptime fight so there is nothing special about this Phase. It only really matters with how much gauge you enter this Phase. It will not affect your burst later on. When to use your Arcane Circle later depends on when your party wants to use their buffs.

100/100 Opener: with combo

• Soulsow before Nidhogg becomes targetable
• Shadow of Death
• Continue combo (skip this if combo neutral) > Enshroud
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Communio > Gluttony
• Gallows
• Gibbet
• Soul Slice > Unveiled Gallows
• Gallows
• Soul Slice > Unveiled Gibbet
• Gibbet
• Shadow of Death
• Continue combo (skip this if combo neutral) > Unveiled Gallows
• Gallows > Enshroud
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Communio

Notes for this Opener:

If we are combo neutral, we start with an Enshroud so we can get rid of our gauges without overcapping anything. After the Enshroud we should use Gluttony to keep it on cooldown. Use Soul Slice as soon as possible without overcapping on Soul gauge or it will overcap on charges. We will be able to use another Enshroud right afterward from all the Shroud gauge we get from the five Gibbet/Gallows we hit. Use this Enshroud and save the one afterward for the burst window.

Double Shroud Window:

Before I go into this, depending on the kill time for Thordan, when your group uses their raid buffs and if you’re combo neutral, you can go for two different burst windows: the single Shadow of Death double Enshroud variant if you are in a combo or the normal double Enshroud window if you are combo neutral.

Burst with Single Shadow of Death double Shroud variant:

• Start with Death’s Design <30s
• Any GCD > Gluttony (best case is Infernal Slice)
• Gibbet
• Gallows > Enshroud
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping
• Shadow of Death > Arcane Circle
• Void Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Communio
• Continue combo/Soul Slice
• Plentiful Harvest > Enshroud
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Communio
• Soul Slice (If >50 Soul skip this) > Unveiled Gibbet
• Gibbet

Rotational tips for this Phase:

• The Opener after bursting on Phase Two is nothing special. Just hold Gluttony on cooldown.
• If your group is not placing the Second in Line towers in max melee range, use Harvest moon for that instead. Otherwise use it if you are baiting the Geirskogul from the Second in Line tower.
• If you’re consistently entering your double Shroud Window after using Slice, you can use Harvest Moon somewhere before to enter your burst combo neutral and go for a normal double Shroud window.
• Try to end this Phase with zero Soul Slice charges.

Feint and Arcane Crest examples:

• Feint either the first or second Eye of the Tyrant. Feinting the tankbuster tethers later might also be a good idea if your tanks need more mitigation there.
• Use Arcane Crest for any of the Final Chorus, any of the Eye of the Tyrant and Darkdragon Dive’s.

Phase Four: The Eyes

This is again a Phase with two targets. This Phase is pretty simple rotation wise. We will not have any AoEs to hit both targets as they are too far away from each other. Our only Skill which would hit both would be Plentiful Harvest, but using raid buffs in this Phase will not be a gain as they will probably die or enrage before you can get your burst off. We will hold Arcane Circle for the Intermission afterwards.

Notes for the Phase:

• If you entered the Phase with an ongoing combo, continue it after Shadow of Death or it will probably expire.
• Use Gluttony on cooldown. If you have a slower kill time, around 97-99 of the duty bar, you can use Gluttony twice in this Phase. If you end the Phase with Soul Reaver, save it for the Intermission and don’t cast Soulsow.
• If you have problems hitting the second Gluttony in this Phase due to the eyes dying too fast, try to enter the Phase with > 50 Soul gauge and instantly use Gluttony while still in the group stack and then do g/g. These will be unbuffed by Shadow of Death but it will still be a gain over losing the Gluttony.
• The Opener is more comfier with no Soul Slice charges but it is not a problem if you enter with one. Best case, you use it before Nidhogg dies and you enter with >50 Soul for Gluttony at the start.
• You can use one Enshroud anytime in this Phase. Save the second one you get for the Intermission.
• You can use Harvest Moon for when you have to go out of melee range to swap your tether out at the beginning.

Feint and Arcane Crest examples

• Use Feint for the Steep of Rage cast of the Left Eye.
• Use Arcane Crest for the bleeding damage from Resentment at the beginning and then again at the end for the Steep of Rage.

The Intermission

The Intermission works pretty much the same as in Phase One. You just have to burst Ser Charibert to ~20% to not die to his raid-wide, and then destroy the Spear before it ends its cast. Try to enter this Phase combo neutral and with zero Soul Slice charges. There is a chance that you can hit an additional GCD while you are getting pulled inside the circle by Ser Charibert thanks to the auto-target setting.

Re-Opener: double Shroud

• Cast Soulsow
• Enshroud before Ser Charibert becomes targetable, if you are combo neutral and with zero Soul Slice charges
• Shadow of Death
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping
• Shadow of Death > Arcane Circle
• Void Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Communio
• Plentiful Harvest > Enshroud
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Communio
• Continue combo (if combo neutral skip this)
• Soul Slice (if > 50 Soul skip this) > Gluttony
• Gibbet
• Gallows
• Soul Slice > Unveiled Gibbet
• Gibbet

About Gluttony:

• If you enter this Intermission with Gluttony off cooldown, use it before you are doing your double Shroud window.

If you’re not combo neutral:

• Use your combo while getting pulled by Ser Charibert. Otherwise hit it after your first Shadow of Death and then Enshroud.

About Soul Slice:

• I would advise trying to enter this Intermission with zero Soul Slice charges as it would overcap during the burst. Otherwise use Soul Slice before you’re getting pulled by Ser Charibert. If you cannot get that one out, use Soul Slice after Shadow of Death.

Where to use Harvest Moon:

• I would recommend using this on the spear to still have a somewhat strong GCD to help kill the spear faster.

Feint, Arcane Crest and Bloodbath usage:

• Feint on Ser Charibert at the end of the Pure of Heart cast or some of the Brightwing protean waves.
• Use Arcane Crest for the damage over time from the shockwaves to help your healers out with the regen effect.
• Use Bloodbath for the damage over time from the shockwaves for extra healing.

Phase Five: King Thordan II

Phase Five is the other heavy downtime Phase in this encounter. You should enter this Phase with one Enshroud ready.

Opener: before Wrath of the Heavens

As your kill times on the earlier phases decide how you enter this Phase, I will again give some tips on what to keep track off before Thordan jumps away. If you enter this Phase with 80 Shroud gauge, use an Enshroud before Wrath of the Heavens as you would overcap on gauges. Otherwise, save the Enshroud and be careful not to overcap on your Shroud gauge.

• Start with Shadow of Death as your first GCD and use it anywhere again before he becomes untargetable. Thordan will become targetable again with about five seconds on Death’s Design.
• Use Gluttony as soon as it comes off cooldown. This will probably be about two GCDs before Thordan jumps away for Wrath of the Heavens, but you should be able to hit both Gibbet/Gallows after. If you end this with one or more Soul Reaver Stacks, do not cast Soulsow and instead use the Gibbet/Gallows after Wrath of the Heavens.
• Try to enter Wrath of the Heavens with zero Soul Slice charges.
• Use Harvest Moon anywhere here and recast Soulsow during Wrath of the Heavens.
• Use Enshroud if you entered with about 50 Soul gauge and 70 Shroud gauge.

Re-Opener: after Wrath of the Heavens

• Enshroud before Thordan is targetable (If you entered Wrath of the Heavens with zero Soul Slice charges)
• Void Reaping
• Shadow of Death
• Cross Reaping
• Harvest Moon > Arcane Circle
• Void Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Communio
• Plentiful Harvest > Enshroud
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Communio > Unveiled Gibbet
• Gibbet
• Soul Slice > Gluttony
• Gallows
• Gibbet
• Soul Slice

Notes for this Re-Opener:

• If you enter Wrath of the Heavens with a Soul Slice charge, use it before Enshrouding.
• If you enter Wrath of the Heavens with Gluttony ready, use it before your first Enshroud window, but you probably already lost one use over the fight.
• Here again, try to end with zero Soul Slice charges.
• If you get Gluttony right before Thordan jumps away, use it even if you can only hit one Gibbet/Gallows, otherwise you will lose a use over the fight.

Tips for the Meteors after Death of the Heavens

• Use Shadow of Death on your initial meteor. For the rest, just hit them without Death’s Design.
• I would suggest to save 50 Shroud gauge so you can use one Enshroud on the Meteors, especially if you are still progging the fight. Otherwise you can safe it if your group has no problem there.
• You can hit three Meteors at once with Grim Reaping and Lemure’s Scythe if you stand on the outer tiles of the inner Ring. A Picture for reference:

Feint and Arcane Crest examples:

• Feint both of the Ancient Quaga or both of the Heavenly Heel which would also cover the three Ascalons Might. You may have to use Feint a bit before the Heavenly Heel cast starts so you can get it back before the next one happens.
• Use Arcane Crest for the Spiral Pierce if you get the tether, Skyward Leap if you get the blue marker, Ascalons Mercy Revealed, Liquid hells if you get the baits, Lightning Storm if you get the thunder debuff, Ancient Quaga and for the Heavensblaze after the knockback.

Phase Six: The Great Wyrms:

For this Phase we will fight both again, Nidhogg and Hraesvelgr. This is a 100% uptime, two target fight, and both dragons are omnidirectional. Plentiful Harvest will be the only Skill with which you can hit both targets at once. Changing the target in this fight might be a bit unfortunate for Reaper as you will have to apply your Death’s Design on the target first. Beforehand: Whorl of Death will NOT be a gain on this Phase. Use Shadow of Death to apply Death’s Design. Enter this Phase with > 50 Shroud gauge and, if you can, combo neutral and with no Soul Slice charges.

Re-Opener:

• Cast Soulsow, Enshroud as soon as the battleground changes.
• Shadow of Death
• Void Reaping
• Shadow of Death
• Cross Reaping > Arcane Circle
• Void Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Communio
• combo GCD/Soul Slice
• Plentiful Harvest > Enshroud
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Communio
• Soul Slice (if > 50 Soul skip this) > Gluttony
• Gibbet
• Gallows

Notes for this Re-Opener:

• You can go out for Wyrmsbreath after hitting your combo GCD/Soul Slice and use Plentiful Harvest while being on your spot. If you have to adjust to one of the back spots, you can use any extra GCD after the combo GCD/Soul Slice and then go out to use Plentiful Harvest on your spot.
• The best case for Reaper is to attack Hraesvelgr at the beginning so you do not have to use another Shadow of Death on Hraesvelgr after Nidhogg jumps away. Of course this depends on how your group wants to handle the opener on the dragons for this Phase.

Rotational notes:

• For the first Hallowed Wings if this is the pattern where you have to go out of melee range, you can use your odd minute Enshroud here and go out after your 4th Reaping to cast Communio after going out. An example video for that can be found further below.
• If you get the pattern in Wroth Flames where you have to go out of melee range, you can use Hell’s Ingress/Egress to teleport to the stack spot and use your Enhanced Harpe that you gain + Harvest Moon.
• If your group wants to use their raid buffs after Touchdown, I would advise to use the second Enshroud you get in this Phase as soon as you get it. Reason is that you probably won’t get off an Enshroud, Gluttony and Plentiful Harvest before the dragons die.
• Arcane Circle will come back up during Wyrmsbreath 2. If your group wants to use their raid buffs during that window, do a single Enshroud in this window and keep building gauge afterwards to be able to enter with 100/100 into Phase 7.

Touchdown:

• If you have a Ninja or Scholar in the group, I would advise to focus down one of the dragons to get the most value out of Mug and Chain Strategem.
• The most important thing here is to hit Gluttony and Plentiful Harvest before both of them die.
• End with zero Soul Slice charges.

Feint and Arcane Crest examples:

• I would advise using Feint for either one of the Hallowed Plume tankbusters, if your tank needs help with them, or for the Akh Morn during Wroth Flames as these hit pretty hard and every mitigation here would help.
• Use Arcane Crest pretty much on cooldown. For Wyrmsbreath 1, Akh Afah, Akh Morn or the Stack/Spread, Wyrmsbreath 2 or Touchdown.

For the example video for the melee downtime Hallowed Plume 1 pattern, click here!

Phase Seven: The Dragon King

The final Phase in this whole encounter. This is a 100% uptime Phase where you may have to go out of melee range for one GCD for Exaflare’s Edge, depending on which strat you do. You may enter this Phase with between 80-100 Shroud gauge and depending on this you may have to adjust some abilities in the following Opener. If you entered this Phase with more than 80 Shroud Gauge you can use Enshroud twice and then save the third one for your two minute burst, similar to Phase Three.

Opener:

• Shadow of Death
• Soul Slice (Skip this if > 50 Soul gauge) > Unveiled Gibbet
• Gibbet (skip this if you would overcap on shroud gauge) > Enshroud
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Communio > Gluttony
• Gibbet
• Gallows
• Soul Slice > Unveiled Gibbet
• Gibbet

###Notes for this Opener:

• If you Enshroud right after Shadow of Death then your Communio will line up right at the end of the Exaflare’s Edge cast which is not a good or safe time to cast Communio. I would then advise to use Shadow of Death again so it happens after the first Exaflares dropped.
• If you enter this Phase with less than 50 Soul gauge you can start with a Soul Slice after Shadow of Death
• You can use Gluttony before you Enshroud if you entered this Phase with under 80 Shroud Gauge. Otherwise use it after Enshroud.
• It is possible to not drop your enhanced Gibbet/Gallows buff during the transition if one of your last two GCDs at the end of Phase Six were Gibbet/Gallows. One of your first two GCDs in Phase Seven have to be Gibbet/Gallow for that. It is not worth it if you would overcap on Shroud gauge by doing this.

Two Minute burst:

Most groups probably want to delay their raid buffs to after the first Gigaflare’s Edge’s first hit goes off so it will better realign with 60 second cooldowns. It does not matter where you used Gluttony in the opener. I would advise to push it back to after your 2nd Communio in the double Enshroud window. Use Shadow of Death again before Gigaflare so you enter it with > 30 seconds on Death’s Design. Enshroud when your Death’s Design hits 33 seconds and go for a Harvest Moon Double Enshroud variant. If you already used Harvest Moon before then go for a standard double Enshroud window.

Harvest Moon Double Enshroud:

• Enshroud after the next GCD as soon as Death’s Design hits 33 seconds
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping
• Shadow of Death > Pot
• Void Reaping > Arcane Circle
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Harvest moon > Lemure’s Slice
• Communio
• Plentiful Harvest > Enshroud
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Void Reaping
• Cross Reaping > Lemure’s Slice
• Communio
• Continue combo > Gluttony (skip if combo neutral)
• Gibbet
• Gallows
• Soul Slice > Unveiled Gibbet
• Gibbet

What if you are the melee who has to LB?

This is totally fine and not a problem at all for us if done at the correct timings. If you want to use an LB3 with an LB1 later on then you can just use the LB3 during the first Akh Morn’s Edge and then use the LB1 at the end before Morn Afah’s Edge. If you only want to use the LB3 at the end to hold it for safety, then use it after the last Akh Morn’s Edge.

Feint, Arcane Crest and Bloodbath examples:

• You can get two uses of Feint in this Phase. To get the maximum uses out I would advise to either use it on the first Akh Morn’s Edge and the second Gigaflare’s Edge or on the first Gigaflare’s Edge and the third Akh Morn’s Edge.
• Use Arcane Crest pretty much on cooldown. Your healers will thank you for using it during every Akh Morn’s Edge and Gigaflare’s Edge. And of course for every Trinity Auto Attack.
• Use Bloodbath for the first and third Akh Morn’s Edge to make it easier for your healers.