The Minstrel's Ballad: Hades's Elegy

The Minstrel's Ballad: Hades's Elegy, also called Hades EX, is a high-end duty added in patch 5.1: Vows of Virtue, Deeds of Cruelty. The fight can be unlocked by speaking to the Minstreling Wanderer in the Crystarium ( 7.5, 12.5 ) after completing the main story quest "Shadowbringers".

The minimum ilvl to enter this fight is i450, but can be bypassed with a full party.

Phase I: Hades

Hades's Abilities:

• Ancient Double: Gives Hades the effect of "Double", causing most attacks in this phase to be preformed twice.
• Shadow Spread: Magical damage. Hades will target each party member with a cone AoE that originates from his center, so players must spread out into clock positions. The aoe is locked in after the first hit, so players can move to a safe spot to dodge the second hit.
• Bad Faith: Hades summons a wall of spikes to his sides, attacking 2 of 4 quadrants of the arena. Shortly after, Hades will attack the other 2 quadrants. The area that's being hit first is the one the spikes are facing.
• Ravenous Assault: Tankbuster dealing heavy magical damage, and inflicting a Magic Vulnerability up. Hits twice during Double, so a tank swap is necessary. It is a small circle aoe around the tank, so be careful not to get cleaved.
• Arcane Utterance: Hades will summon a set of orbs or a set of mirrors along the arena. More explained below.
• Broken Faith: Small circle AoEs begin to fall from the sky. When they fall to the ground, they expand and deal significant magic damage, and also inflict a stack of Vulnerability Up.

The fight begins with Hades immediately using Ancient Double, which sets the stage for all of his abilities in this phase, causing them to hit twice. He will immediately follow up with Shadow Spread, so make sure you assign clock positions beforehand, and spread into them. As Hades will hit the same area twice, you can easily dodge the second hit by simply dodging to where the first hit of Shadow Spread hit. Hades will then begin casting Bad Faith, which will hit first where the spikes are facing, and then shortly after attack where the spikes were not facing. Simply move from one safe spot to the other (where the first hit was) and you'll easily dodge this attack. Hades will follow up with Ravenous Assault, also hitting twice, so make sure your tanks are ready to tank swap between the two hits.

Afterwards, Hades will cast Arcane Utterance, which will summon one of two possible objects in the arena: Mirrors, or Orbs.

Orbs are fairly simple. 8 Orbs spawn along the middle and cardinals/intercardinals, except for one spot. When they explode, they deal very heavy magical damage and inflict a stack of Vulnerability Up. In order to dodge, simply find the area where there is no orb, and stand there. That's your safe spot. An example is shown below.

Mirrors are a little more complex, but still fairly simple. 8 Mirrors spawn along the middle and cardinals/intercardinals, except for one spot. They each shoot a laser directly in front of where they're facing, dealing heavy magical damage and inflicting Vulnerability Up. In order to dodge, simply look at where the mirror in the middle of the arena is facing. You can also look at the wall where there is no mirror. The wall opposite to that is the safe spot. An example is shown below.

Hades will then follow up with Broken Faith, summoning a series of circle aoes from the sky that fall toward the arena. In order to more easily dodge these, you can look at the circle outlines on the arena, which are conveniently the exact hitboxes of how big the circles will expand to.

I've highlighted the circle marker you should be looking for to easily dodge the falling circles. You can also use these markers to know the exact safe spots for both Arcane Utterances, too.

Hades will then follow up with another Arcane Utterance, summoning the set of objects that was not summoned beforehand (i.e. if Orbs appeared first, you'll get Mirrors this time). After this resolves, Hades will repeat his rotation until you either push it under 10%, or when he enrages. When Hades is pushed under 10%, he will become untargettable, and you will move into Phase 2.

Phase II: Shades of the Ascians

Nabriales's Shade

Phase Abilities:

• Quake III: 28s long cast time dealing damage proportional to how much HP Nabriales's Shade has (higher hp = more damage). Serves as an enrage for the phase.
• Comet: Circle aoes that appear from the north and south of the arena, and rotate clockwise. Deals moderate magical damage to players in the circle when the comet lands. If no player is on the circle when the comet lands, hits the raid with lethal magic damage.
• Dark II: Magical conal aoe from the Shadows of the Ancients that appear next to Nabriales's Shade, targetting 4 DPS players with a tether. Inflicts moderate magical damage and  Magical Vulnerability Up.
• Ancient Water III: A stack marker will appear on healers, dealing soakable magic damage to all players in the stack marker and inflicting Magic Vulnerability Up.
• Ancient Darkness: Circle aoe targetted on tanks, dealing small magical damage and inflicting Magic Vulnerability Up.

After a 25 second intermission, Nabriales's Shade will appear in the center of the arena, and summon 4 Shadows of the Ancientsaround him. Nabriales's Shade will begin casting a very slow casting Quake III, serving as an enrage for this phase. Comet circles will appear at the North and South sides of the arena, while each DPS will be tethered by untargettable adds that spawn next to Nabriales. Shortly after, tethered DPS players will be hit with Dark II. Make sure you do NOT hit the tanks with a Dark II tether, or they will get a Magic Vulnerabilty Up, causing them to die to the next Comet puddle. Dark II resolves at the same time as the second comet circle, so avoid aiming your tether the second comet circle at all costs. An easy way to do this is to just always aim your tether toward the first Comet aoe, as shown below. Aiming it toward where the third or fourth Comet will appear is also acceptable, just do not aim toward the second Comet aoe.

As long as you keep aiming your tether to where the first comet spawns, you will never hit the tank. It's acceptable to hit a DPS, but obviously not optimal, so make sure you're a little careful with your aim. It's not required to follow exactly what is shown in the diagram. As long as you make sure you do NOT hit the second comet aoe with your tether, you'll be fine.

After comets resolve, healers will be marked with Ancient Water III stack markers, while tanks will be marked with Ancient Darkness. Have your healers and DPS stack together in pre-assigned groups east and west of Lahabrea, while your tanks move north and south to avoid clipping the players in the stack markers. After this resolves, Nabriales's Shade will finish casting Quake III and deal damage proportional to how much HP he has left, so make sure you get him down as low as possible.

After Quake III resolves, Nabriales's Shade will disappear, and Hades will summon Lahabrea's Shade and Igeyorhm's Shade.

Lahabrea and Igeyorhm's Shades

Shade Abilities:

All of Lahabrea's attacks (except for Fire Sphere) are fire-aspected. All of Igeyorhm's attacks (except for Blizzard Sphere) are ice-aspected.

• Fire Sphere/Blizzard Sphere: Lahabrea and Igeyorhm attack with Annihalation, inflicting moderate raidwide magical damage and inflicting players with either Burning Brand or Freezing Brand. Players with Burning Brand take increased damage from fire-aspected skills and can only attack Igeyorhm. Players with Freezing Brand take increased damage from ice-aspected skills and can only attack Lahabrea.

• Dark Flame/Dark Freeze: Fire and Ice tethers appearing from the 4 intercardinals of the arena. Players with Burning Brand cannot take a red fire tether, while players with Freezing Brand cannot take a blue ice tether. The NW and SE tethers will always be ice tethers, while the NE and SW tethers will always be fire tethers.
• Fire IV/Blizzard IV: Magical tankbuster dealing heavy magical damage.

Lahabrea and Igeyorhm's Shades will spawn near the middle of the arena, and both will be targettable by players until they begin casting Fire Sphere and Blizzard Sphere. Freezing Brand and Burning Brand will be applied to players as explained previously. Make sure players are attacking their required add (Fire attacks Igeyorhm, Ice attacks Lahabrea). Do not provoke to pick up these adds, as you will need it later.

Four untargettable adds will spawn in the intercardinals of the arena, and will tether random players with red Dark Flame or blue Dark Freeze tethers. Players must take the tether that is opposite to their debuff. Tethers actually spawn in set positions (The NW and SE tethers will always be ice tethers, while the NE and SW tethers will always be fire tethers), so there are a few strategies you can come up with here to consistenly deal with this mechanic. I've seen strategies such as tanks tanking the bosses near the southern tethers and eating them with CDs while the healers/ranged take the northern tethers, but you can very easily figure out tethers on the fly. You have a lot of time.

After tethers resolve, Lahabrea and Igeyorhm's Shades will once again cast Fire Sphere and Blizzard Sphere, swapping everyone's debuffs. This means that ALL players will be swapping targets, and tanks must swap adds to make sure they do not die. Make sure your tanks provoke each other's add after the cast, and quickly run toward the other add. If done properly, the adds should barely move from their positions. The shades will then follow up with Fire IV and Blizzard IV, which are heavy magical tankbusters. After a short while, the adds will cast Shadow Flare, serving as an enrage, so make sure both adds are dead before then. When one of the shades die, all debuffs are removed, so all players are free to attack the second shade, and there is no need for both of them to die at the same time.

When both shades are defeated, they will disappear, and Hades will summon Ascian Prime's Shade.

Ascian Prime's Shade

Shade Abilities:

• Universal Manipulation: Players are afflicted with a wide variety of debuffs. More explained below.
• Blight: Heavy magical raidwide damage that also inflicts players with a DoT, also named Blight.
• Height of Chaos: Tankbuster dealing heavy magical damage. It is a small circle aoe around the tank, so be careful not to get cleaved.
• Megiddo Flame: Two healers are marked with line stack markers. Deals heavy soakable magical damage, and inflicts a Magic Vulnerability Up.
• Shadow Flare: Moderate magical raidwide damage.
• Ancient Eruption: 3 Circle AoEs targetting a random player. Simply run them out of the middle, away from the party.

Ascian Prime's Shade begins by casting Universal Manipulation, a mechanic that looks daunting at first, but is actually fairly simple. Tanks and healers will always be inflicted with the following debuffs:

• Doom: When the debuff expires, affected players will be killed instantly. Must be cleansed by healing players to 100% HP.
• Ancient Circle: Large donut aoe with the affected player at it's center. Deals lethal damage to any player who stands in it.
• Cursed Shriek: When this debuff expires, all players who are looking at the affected player will be petrified.

DPS will always be inflicted with the following debuffs:

• Knock-Off: Players inflicted with this debuff will be knocked back by any damage source.
• Beyond Death: When the debuff expires, affected players will be killed instantly. Must be cleansed by suffering from lethal damage. Acts as a shield to survive lethal damage only once.
• Forked Lightning: When this debuff expires, will deal damage to all players in a small circle around the affected player, but not the affected player themselves.

There's two main ways I'm going to outline how to do this mechanic. These aren't the only ways, but what I've found to be the most succesful:

DPS Out

Make sure to heal healers and tanks to full to cleanse Doom, and position yourself as shown in the diagram below. These positions should be assigned beforehand. Make sure DPS are only standing in one Ancient Circle aoe in order to cleanse Beyond Death. After DPS are knocked back, all players should look away from the middle and wait until Cursed Shriek resolves. DPS should be cautious to move back into melee range to make sure they do not hit any other players with Forked Lightning. With that, Universal Manipulation is resolved.

Not exactly to scale, but this diagram shows the general idea. Make sure DPS are standing behind Tanks/Healers, and that DPS are standing in only one Ancient Circle aoe.

Healer Back

Make sure to heal healers and tanks to full to cleanse Doom, and position yourself as shown in the diagram below. These positions should be assigned beforehand. Make sure DPS are only standing in one Ancient Circle aoe, the one that's being placed by the sole healer at the back of the room, in order to cleanse Beyond Death. After DPS are knocked back, DPS should look north, the tanks should look east and west depending on where they're standing (away from the middle), the healer in the middle should look north, the healer in the back should look south, and wait until Cursed Shriek resolves. DPS should be cautious to move back into melee range to make sure they do not hit any other players with Forked Lightning. With that, Universal Manipulation is resolved.

Not exactly to scale, but this diagram shows the general idea. Have a pre-assigned healer move to the back while all other tanks and healers move toward the middle being clearly separated into left, middle, and right to make Cursed Shriek easy. DPS should spread along the Cursed Circle that's being placed by the healer in the back.

After Universal Manipulation is resolved, the rest of this phase is fairly starighforward. Ascian Prime's Shade will begin channeling Blight, dealing heavy damage to the party and inflicting them with a DoT. It will follow up with a Height of Chaos, a fairly simple tankbuster. Do not stand near the tank, as it does cleave. The Shade will follow up with Megido Flame, so make sure you spread to your pre-assigned groups on the left and right sides of the boss. It will then continue by using Shadow Flare, and Ancient Eruption, a second Shadow Flare and finally enrage with one final Shadow Flare, serving as an enrage. Make sure it dies before then.

When the Ascian Prime's Shade is defeated, it will disappear, and you will move into phase 3 after a 50 second long transition.

Phase III: Again, Hades

Phase 3 consists of 4 different mechanical dances that quickly follow one after the other. Hades will be staionary at the north of the arena, and will have no positional requirements.

Again the Majestic

Abilities:

• Comet: Circle aoes that appear from the north and south of the arena, and rotate clockwise. Deals moderate magical damage to players in the circle when the comet lands. If no player is on the circle when the comet lands, hits the raid with lethal magic damage.
• Captivity: A random healer is targetted with a circle AoE around them, and will be stunned and jailed in an Aetherial Gaol.

Hades begins by using Again the Majestic, summoning Comet puddles exactly like in the Nabriales's Shade phase earlier in the fight, while also marking a healer with Captivity, a large circle AoE that captures the marked player and any other players inside the AoE. Make sure that your tanks are taking the Comet puddles north and south, and have your marked healer move East or West, while the rest of the party stays in the middle of the arena. A large Aetherial Gaol will appear in the middle of the arena, which has to be DPSed down in order to destroy it. When the Gaol is destroyed, you will begin the second mechanical dance.

Again the Martyr

Abilities:

• Wail of the Lost: Knockback originating from the middle of the arena. CANNOT BE SURECASTED/ARM'S LENGTHED.
• Dark Freeze: Circle AoEs targetting all 4 DPS, dealing moderate magical damage.
• Dark Flame: Stack marker targetting 2 healers, must be soaked with at least one other person.  Deals moderate magical damage to 2 people.

Hades will begin casting Again the Martyr, marking all DPS with Dark Freeze, and the healers with Dark Flame. Shortly afterwards, Hades will begin to cast Wail of the Lost, so you'll have to pre-position yourself in the middle of the arena and get knocked into the safe spots. I'd recommend pre-assigning corners for your DPS to spread to, as well as positions for the healer/tank soak. In order to make positioning easy, place a square marker (1 or 2) in the middle of the arena, and spread around it, using its corners and sides. Your knockbacks should look similar to the diagram below.

Using a square marker in the middle of the arena makes positioning for this really easy, so I'd highly recommend using square marker technology.

When knockbacks and damage resolves, Hades will begin casting Again the Abyssal Celebrant, gaining Triple.

Again the Abyssal Celebrant

Abilities:

• Bident: Hades will use Megiddo Flame, Shadow Spread and Nether Blast 3 times in succession.
• Shadow Spread: Not targetted like in Phase 1. 5 static cones that originate from the middle of Hades's hitbox, and will continually pulse out. You can dodge all of them by staying in the safe spots in between.
• Megiddo Flame: Two healers are marked with line stack markers. Deals heavy soakable magical damage, and inflicts a Magic Vulnerability Up. Because of Bident, hits 3 times.
• Nether Blast: Purple circle aoe marker targetting the two furthest DPS from the boss. Leave behind puddles as they resolve. Because of Bident, hits 3 times.

Make sure the DPS who will be baiting Nether Blast are standing the furthest away from the boss before the Again the Abyssal Celebrant cast resolves. Using the Safe spots from Shadow Spread to position yourself, DPS with Nether Blast AoEs should be positioned in the large safe spot closer to the middle of the arena, while all other players should be split into pre-assigned groups in the smaller safe spots at the easternmost and westernmost safe spots, as shown in the diagram below, in order to soak Megiddo Flame. As it inflicts Magical Vulnerability Up, make sure to not hit players who are placing Nether Blast with Megiddo Flame.

As usual, the diagram is not exactly to scale. The 3 players who are not baiting Nether Blast will be hit by 3 Megiddo Flames, so make sure that some healing is going out.

After the third hit of each mechanic, Hades will immediately begin casting Dark Seal.

Dark Seal

Abilities:

• Dark Seal: 3 Orbs spawn in the middle of the arena in one of two formations, shown below. These orbs will slowly expand until they cover roughly 1/4th of the arena.

Both configurations are mirrors of each other. I'd recommend always staying near the side with only one orb, to more easily dodge upcoming mechanics.

• Polydegmon's Purgation: Hades will shoot lasers toward the left and right edges of the arena, leaving only a line in the center of the arena going from north to south safe.
• Shadow Stream: Hades will shoot lasers toward the center of the arena, leaving a safe spot in the east and west sides of the arena.

After summoning Dark Seal, hades will use either Polydegmon's Purgation or Shadow Stream. Depending on which is being cast, players will either have to dodge toward the side or toward the middle. Hades will then follow up by using the other move (i.e. if he started with Polydegmon's Purgation, he'll follow up with Shadow Stream). Hades will repeat this phase twice.

After a short wait, he will become untargettable and cast Titaonmanchy, serving as an enrage. In order to push to the next phase, Hades must be brought under 30%, at which he will cast Life In Captivity, moving into the final phase.

Phase IV: Light Beyond Darkness

Life in Captivity servers as both a phase transition and an Active Time Maneuver, in which you have 5 seconds to mash every possibly key on your keyboard, or press an on-screen button a series of times in order to free yourself from Hades's bind.

Hades's Abilities:

• Dark Current: Spawns a series of AoE circles dealing nearly lethal damage to all players standing inside, and inflicting Damage Down. Spawn from the east and west sides of the arena. 
• Gigantomanchy: Raidwide dealing heavy magical damage.
• Quadrastrike: 4 part attack that consists the following:
  • 2 moderate magical raidwide attacks
  • summoning a set of 2 towers, which tanks must stand inside, or they will explode and wipe the raid
  • a heavy raidwide attack that also inflicts Bleed

This phase is fairly straightforward. Hades will begin with Dark Currents, which will spawn on both sides of the arena. The configuration is shown in the animated diagram below.

The configuration could possibly start mirrored, but the logic should stay the same.

In order to easily dodge this attack, I'd recommend stacking near the east or west wall, and move into where the Dark Current explosions appear on the wall, after they resolve. If done correctly, you'll move into the first Dark Current explosion after it resolves, and then move back to your initial position after the second Dark Current explosions resolve.

Hades will then follow up with heavy raidwide damage, consisting of Gigantomanchy, quickly followed up by Quadrastrike. Make sure to push out heavy healing, and have each tank move into a pre-assigned tower. After towers resolve, Hades will use his final hit of Quadrastrike, dealing a VERY heavy raidwide, and inflicting Bleed.  The phase will then repeat once. Be wary that the upcoming Dark Current will occur while everyone has a bleed, so any hits will very likely be lethal.

Once Hades finishes his second rotation, he will begin casting a very slow Gigantomanchy, serving as an enrage. Hades must be killed before this cast resolves.

If you've defeated Hades, congratulations! You'll be rewarded with a random Hades weapon, and 2 Hades Totems, of which 10 can be exchanged in Eulmore for an i465 Hades weapon of your choice. You also have a chance of recieving a random item as shown below, if you're lucky.

Loot

Weapons

• Misos and Eulabeia
• Thumosis
• Eleos
• Odune
• Menis
• Zelos
• Aischune
• Phthonos
• Deima
• Ekplexis
• Zelotupia
• Oknos
• Epikairekakia
• Agonia
• Kelesis
• Enochlesis
• Himeros

Items

• Hades Totem (guaranteed 2 per kill)
• Faded Copy of Invincible (uncommon)
• Hades's Auracite (rare)
• Shadow Gwiber Trumpet (very rare)

If you have any questions, thoughts, or concerns, please do not hesitate to leave a comment below.