Commonly referred to as Hades Extreme, The Minstrel’s Ballad: Hades’s Elegy is a little longer than the other Shadowbringers Extreme Trials. It may take you a bit more time to get through all the mechanics of this fight, but they can all be mastered with the right approach. I’ve scoured the available guides to find the easiest to understand explanations, and highlight the best mentors for various learning methods.
If you’re just starting to get into endgame content using the Party Finder, you may find some helpful tips in this article about savage raiding.
Quick Visual Resources
If you’re looking for the quick solution to a particular mechanic, normally I would put a couple images for commonly failed phases. However, the amazing u/GabrielCeleste has made animated slides for each mechanic, so whichever one you’re looking for you can find it in their guide here.
Video Guides
A lot of people make video guides, but some are way too long, and some don’t cover all the important stuff. Here are the best videos I’ve watched. See which one sounds right for you to learn from or send to a friend.
Lycona DaCheeChee – Verbal-only explanations using clips from Bard PoV.
(13:11) (Phase Two @2:56) (Phase Three @7:35) (Phase Four @11:01)
Lycona’s video is on the shorter side which is great if you don’t want to spend half an hour before you even get into the fight. He still covers everything you need to know to clear since he keeps it concise. He starts with marker setup and assigning positions, and uses infographics a couple times for easy explanations.
Strategy Used: In Phase Two all tethers are taken by DPS players. Uncommon in Party Finder.
If you have trouble focusing on audio without a visual to hone in on, you may struggle to keep up with his talking. But if you’re looking for a quick video to get you ready to jump in, then this is perfect.
MTQCapture – Quick commentary and text overlay from various PoV clips.
(11:15) (Phase Two @3:28) (Phase Three @7:31) (Phase Four @9:48)
Mizzteq’s videos all follow a similar format. She’ll talk through the fight one mechanic at a time, with attack names and bullet points overlaid at the bottom of the screen. For this video she uses some nice infographics in each phase to illustrate safe spots.
Strategy Used: In Phase Two tethers are taken by Tanks and Healers.
I recommend Mizzteq’s video if you’re already familiar with her style, or if you don’t want to sit through long-winded explanations. As with most of her guides, you’ll probably need to rewatch or pause the video for specific mechanics of interest since she runs through things quickly.
OneActual– In-depth explanations and reasonings with text overlay.
(21:21) (Phase Two @6:35) (Phase Three @14:34) (Phase Four @18:31)
OneActual spends a bit of time talking in-depth about fight setup including markers and groupings. He discusses the purpose behind markers which may be helpful if you’re looking to learn a fight with a static and can keep your tactics consistent.
Strategy Used: In Phase Two tethers, Tanks take North and DPS take South tethers.
While it’s definitely got some filler chatter in it, this guide also has a lot of extra perspective and offers a more complete understanding of the fight’s mechanics. If you’re just looking for quick prep, you should probably click elsewhere.
Zeke Estheim – Healing guide with commentary over video clips.
(18:37) (Phase Two @4:51) (Phase Three @12:58) (Phase Four @15:36)
I’ve never seen a Healer-specific video for an Extreme Trial before, but it’s a great idea. This has got tons of specific tips that you won’t find in general guide videos, so if you’re struggling as a healer, or maybe just nervous before going in, check out Zeke’s guide.
While it’s not labelled as a general guide, he still walks through the fight in order from a Healer perspective, so players of that role shouldn’t need to watch other videos. He’s got pointers for when you can delay healing and when it’s imperative to heal immediately. He also offers specific options for each of the three Healers to deal with the ‘stack and soak’ strategy for Broken Faith, and timings for things like Astrologian’s Earthly Star.
Text Guides
Seiji Telayo (u/Telayo)’s Text Guide with Illustrations
Telayo provides a text guide in slide format, including a lot of really well done illustrations for various mechanics. Make use of the Phase tabs on the side to jump to the sections you’re interested in.
If you need a text guide you can read at your own pace, this has a conversational writing style and the diagrams add a lot to the explanations.
Gabriel Celeste (u/GabrielCeleste)’s Animated Guide
This animated guide is a fantastic resource for learning how to complete each mechanic safely. For a visual learner such as myself this is a clean, easy way to learn all of the fight’s phases.
There are also pretty thorough explanations of these mechanics, so be sure to use the Presentation view (‘Present’ at the top right) if you’d like to pause a slide to read the text at your leisure.
Syldris (u/Syldris)’s Rotation & Timeline
This is not a guide, but rather a timeline of events with timestamps, as well as colour coded attack names and brief descriptions. While not very useful for first learning how to tackle each mechanic, this is a good tool to plan out your cooldowns if you’re a Tank or a Healer.
It’s also a useful reference to have on the side if you’re still getting used to the fight and don’t remember the order of mechanics. You can easily view the whole timeline at a glance to see what’s coming up next. Keep in mind that some mechanics will probably be skipped due to pushing high enough DPS in earlier phases, which is why the timestamps reset to 0 at the start of each phase.
Macros
You’re bound to encounter different types of macros considering how many mechanics there are in this fight, and how many people have done it at this point. u/laeriie has posted a macro that’s got good uptime positioning at the cost of having multiple positions to remember.
Did you find these resources helpful? What’s your preferred method of learning an Extreme Trial for the first time, or for teaching a group? Let me know below, as there’s a lot of value in clear, easy to understand tools that can help newer players get started with more difficult content.
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