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The Minstrel’s Ballad: Endsinger’s Aria In-Depth Guide
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The Minstrel’s Ballad: Endsinger’s Aria, also called Endsinger EX, is a high-end duty added in patch 6.1: Newfound Adventure. The fight can be unlocked by speaking to the Wandering Minstrel in Old Sharlayan (coords) after completing the main story quest “Endwalker.”

The minimum item level to enter the fight is i580, but can be bypassed with a full party.

Throughout the entire fight, the Endsinger will remain stationary on the north of the arena, and has zero positional requirements. Before the fight begins, pre-assign players into two light parties for Eironeia healer stacks, and tower positions for Katasterismol.

Phase 1: Fatalism

Abilities:

A head will also spawn in the middle of the arena, facing an intercardinal point of the arena, and use Diaeresis, a cleave hitting the entire half of the arena it is facing.

The fight begins with the Endsinger casting Elegia Unforgotten, summoning two stars in opposite intercardinals spinning around the arena, with one of them moving faster than the other, until they eventually collide. The fast star will rotate 270 degrees clockwise across the arena, while the slow star will only move clockwise 90 degrees. A head will also appear in the middle of the arena, facing a random intercardinal. In order to find the safe spot, players must first find the safe spot from the star collision, and then the safe spot from the head. The safe spot will always be in an intercardinal location. The locations that stars collided in during Elegia Unforgotten will always be stored, and the Endsinger will call back these stars in the same positions multiple times whenever she casts Fatalism, a mechanic encountered later in the fight.

The impact spot will always be 90 degrees counterclockwise from the fast star’s initial spawn point, or 90 degrees clockwise from the slow star.

After two sets of Elegia Unforgotten, the Endsinger will use Katasterismol, summoning 8 towers, and immediately follow up with Grip of Despair. As soon as the second set of stars resolves, the party must stack in the middle of the arena before the cast of Grip of Despair is finished, chaining party members together. Once chains appear, the DPS and T/H should run in opposite directions in order to break them. Chains must first be broken BEFORE players move into pre-assigned towers in order to properly resolve this combination of mechanics. While players are in their towers, the Endsinger will use Elenchos, attacking either the sides or the middle of the arena. Players must resolve their towers while dodging Elenchos, standing on either the inner or outer sides of the tower.

The Endsinger will follow up with Telos into Hubris, and then use a third Elegia Unforgotten. This works exactly the same as earlier in the fight, except that immediately after the collision resolves, two healers will be immediately targeted with Eironeia stack markers. Make sure to quickly spread into pre-assigned light parties after resolving the star collision. The Endsinger will then follow up with her first cornerstone mechanic: Fatalism.

While casting Fatalism, the Endsinger will tether herself to 2 intercardinals, which correspond to locations where stars had previously collided during Elegia Unforgotten. These intercardinals will always be opposite each other, and the stars that appear from them will always be of the same type. When the stars appear, one set will separate faster than the other. This set will then collide again (and either exploding or doing a knockback, depending on the type of star), and then it will immediately be followed up by the second set. Fiery Stars will require very quick movement, so be wary. Immediately before the second set of stars collide, the Endsinger will use Elenchos, so make sure to quickly dodge to either the middle or sides of the arena after avoiding the star collision. The Endsinger will then begin casting Twinsong’s Aporrhoia.

Phase 2: Twinsong’s Aporrhoia

Abilities:

The Endsinger will summon 5 heads: One will be in the center of the arena, while the other 4 will spawn in each intercardinal of the arena. The middle head will once again use Diaeresis, cleaving the half of the arena she is facing, while the heads at the intercardinal will alternate between using either Necrotic Fluid, or Wave of Nausea. As heads diagonally across from each other will always use the same ability, the goal is to find the head that is using Wave of Nausea that is not being cleaved by Diaeresis, and stand there to avoid all attacks. This will repeat 3 times, with the middle head rotating 90 degrees clockwise and the intercardinal heads alternating between Necrotic Fluid and Wave of Nausea. This can simply be solved by having the party rotating clockwise 90 degrees, in the same direction as the middle head.

The Endsinger will then use her second cornerstone mechanic, Theological Fatalism, tethering to every head and summoning a set of 1, 2, or 3 rings. The number of rings will cause the head to use the attack that they used that amount of moves before, very much like a rewind. For example, if the middle head cleaved North, then East, and then South; one ring would cause the head to cleave South, 2 rings would cause the head to cleave East, and 3 rings would cause the head to cleave North. This also applies to the heads in intercardinals, where if a head did Necrotic Fluid, then Wave of Nausea, and then Necrotic Fluid again; 1 and 3 rings would mean it uses Necrotic Fluid, and 2 rings would cause the head to use Wave of Nausea.

The goal is to find the safe intercardinal head while dodging the middle head’s cleave. There are plenty of ways to determine this, but this is my personal flow chart:

  1. Remember the safe heads for the last set of Twinsong. Those spots will be the head where you finished, and the head diagonally across from it.
  2. When rings appear, determine where the middle head will cleave, and rule out the two heads she is cleaving. 1 ring means she’ll stay still, 2 rings will have her rotate counter-clockwise 90 degrees, and 3 rings will have her rotate 180 degrees.
  3. Of the remaining 2 heads, look at a safe head you located in step 1. If it has an odd number of rings (1 or 3), that head is safe. If it has an even number of rings, the other head is safe.

Immediately after Theological Fatalism begins to resolve, the Endsinger will target both healers with Eironeia, and use Elenchos. The party must immediately split to pre-assigned light parties while also dodging Elenchos, resulting in having both stacks be in the front and back in either the side of the arena, or the middle. The Endsinger will then use Hubris once more, and move into casting Despair Unforgotten.

Phase 3: Despair Unforgotten

Abilities:

The Endsinger will summon a set of 3 waves of debuffs, in a random order. All of these mechanics can be easily solved by pre-assigning players 8 clock spots across the arena. The possible waves are as follows:

Echoes of Befoulment of all players: Simply have all players move to their pre-assigned clock positions, and make sure not to stack with each other.

        DPS players afflicted with Echoes of the Future, Tanks and Healers afflicted with Echoes of Nausea and Echoes of Benevolence. Players who are inflicted with Nausea and Benevolence must stack in the direct center of the arena, while players with Future must run to the far edge of the arena.

        Tanks and Healer players afflicted with Echoes of the Future, DPS afflicted with Echoes of Nausea and Echoes of Benevolence. Players who are inflicted with Nausea and Benevolence must stack in the direct center of the arena, while players with Future must run to the far edge of the arena. After the second wave, the Endsinger will use Elenchos. Quickly determine whether the middle or side of the arena is safe, as this must be immediately dodged after the second wave of Despair Unforgotten resolves.

After these 3 waves resolve, The Endsinger will once again use Theological Fatalism, except this time, she will target players and place rings on them. These rings work exactly the same way as the ones on heads in the previous phase, where the number of rings players are targeted with will indicate how many mechanics backwards they will resolve. For example, if a player is marked with Flare->Circle AoE->Donut, one ring would indicate an upcoming donut AoE, 2 rings would indicate an upcoming circle AoE around them, and 3 rings would indicate an upcoming flare. In order to resolve this, simply move to the location in which you resolved the mechanic previously, in your assigned clock position. For example, flares and circle AoEs will go to the edge of the arena, while donut/stack AoEs will go to the direct center of the arena. Because of the low damage of this phase, you can have two flares in the exact same location with light mitigation, so the locations are incredibly lenient.

The Endsinger will immediately follow up with Telomania, dealing massive raidwide damage and inflicting a Bleed on all players, which must be mitigated accordingly. The Endsinger will then use her last major mechanic, Endsong’s Aporrhoia.

Phase 4: Endsong

Abilities:

The Endsinger will summon 6 heads: 3 on the east side, and 3 on the west side. She will then cast Endsong, summoning 4 rings that slowly move from herself to the spawned heads. For the first set of Endsongs, she will always hit once side with 3 rings, and the other side with 1 ring, making it relatively easy to avoid. Afterwards, find the safe heads by finding heads that do not have any rings moving slowly towards them. Because of the size of these AoEs, make sure players are far in the edge of the arena, next to a safe head.

After the last Endsong resolves, the Endsinger will immediately use Elenchos, so quickly avoid it. The Endsinger will then follow up with using Telos, followed up by Hubris. At this point, the party has seen all of the mechanics of the fight.

Phase 5: Double Fatalism

The Endsinger will use a final Elegeia Unforgotten, placing a set of stars on the final intercardinal position, and immediately follow up with Eironia on both healers, so quickly spread out into pre-assigned parties after resolving the large AoE/knockback.

The Ensinger will then use a combination of two Fatalisms. She will cast Fatalism, summon two stars of the same type in opposite intercardinals, and as soon as the second set of stars resolves, she will use Fatalism again, targeting the remaining intercardinals with the opposite type of star. The locations and types of stars will be the ones she had previously saved during phase 1, but are very easily reactable to do without remembering. Simply dodge this identically as in phase 1, except quickly resolving the third and fourth set of stars immediately after the second resolves. The last two sets of stars resolve deceptively quickly, especially if the first two sets of stars are Azure Stars. If you get Azure Stars first, make sure to use the knockback to your advantage, and be pushed to a location closer to a cardinal in order to more easily dodge the upcoming Fiery Stars.

As the last set of stars resolve, the Endsinger will summon 8 Katasterismol towers, in an identical formation as in phase 1. Make sure to first resolve Fatalism stars, and then move into assigned tower positions. She will not use Grip of Despair, so there is no need to worry about tethers. These towers will resolve with the Endsinger using Elenchos, exactly the same as in phase 1.

After this, the Endsinger will continue repeating mechanics seen previously in this order, with slight differences: Telomania into Twinsong’s Aporrhoia, followed up by Eironeia stacks and Elenchos, exactly as done previously in phase 2. The Endsinger will then use Hubris, followed up by Endsong’s Aporrhoia, and also use Elenchos immediately afterwards, identically to phase 4. The Endsinger will then use Telos, followed up by immediately using a Double Fatalism combo. She will then use Telos, and prepare her enrage attack, Ultimate Fate. At roughly 11:25 into the fight, she will cast Fatalism once more, except this time it will summon a colossal purple star above the arena, and send it toward the party, instantly wiping the raid.

If you’ve defeated the Endsinger, congratulations! You will be rewarded with a random i595 Bluefeather weapon, a Bluefeather Weapon Coffer, and 2 Ultimatum Tokens. 10 Ultimatum tokens can be exchanged in Radz-At-Han for a Bluefeather weapon of your choice. There is also a chance of receiving a “Faded Copy of The Final Day” orchestrion roll material, as well as a mount drop.

Clear video: The Minstrel's Ballad: Endsinger's Aria - DRG PoV

~clees (if i said anything stupid, or you just want to give feedback, contact me @cleeeees on twitter / clees#0093 on discord)

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