Sphene's Burden (Extreme) Trial Guide

Patch 7.1, released 12 Novemenber, 2024, introduced a new extreme trial called The Minstral's Ballad: Sphene's Burden. This content is more commonly referred to as Sphene Extreme or Sphene EX. This Extreme Trial is a more difficult version of the final Dawntrail MSQ trial. Upon completion, players will receive two Totem Eternal tokens, 10 of which can be exchanged for an Item Level 725 weapon at Uah'shepya in Solution Nine (X:8.7, Y: 13.5). Players also have a small chance to obtain a Queen Eternal Card Triple Triad card.

Each clear will also spawn a reward coffer that is guaranteed to have have one random weapon and one weapon coffer. There is a small chance to receive three other items from the reward coffer. These items are the Eternal Queensguard which is used to craft a barding and a housing item, the Faded Copy of Paved in Solitude which is used to craft an orchestrion roll, and the Wings of Eternity mount. The drop chance of each of these three items is independent, and it is possible for all three to spawn at the same time.

With harp cradled in his arms, the wandering minstrel sings a sorrowful song of a recreated queen. Helpless to defy the purpose she was given, this simulacrum sought to preserve the memories of her subjects by taking the lives of innocents in other reflections. Though she met her end by your hands, had she been further along her ill-fated path by the time of your confrontation, might she have proven unstoppable and gone on to wreak untold death and devastation? Such questions play on your mind as the minstrel's verse bears you away to a world of the imagination, where you once again come face-to-face with the dread entity known as Queen Eternal...

There are a couple things that the party should decide before beginning the fight.

• Assign light parties made of one Tank, one Healer, and Two DPS.
• Assign spread positions following the arc of the boss hitbox (i.e. make a half circle shape).

Recurring Mechanics:

• Virtual Shift: Raid-wide damage cast that stuns the party and knocks them into the air. The arena floor will change while players are knocked into the air.
• Legitimate Force: One hand will glow, then the other, indicating that Sphene will do a half room cleave on each side of the arena in the order that her hands glow.
• World Shatter: Raid-wide damage cast that returns the platform to its starting shape.

This boss constantly does auto attacks to the first and second player on aggro. Both Tanks should keep stance on to ensure that DPS or Healers are not being auto attacked.

The boss will open the fight with Aethertithe. This mechanic will constantly do small AoE damage pulses, while turning the floor of the arena into a grid pattern. One third of the floor will beging to show a distortion in the grid pattern, indicating that it will be targetted with a conal suck in AoE. If a player is caught in this suck in, they will be vacuumed off the platform and die. Immediately after the suck in, each healer will be targeted by a four-player line stack AoE that applies a Magic Vulnerability debuff. The closest player to the boss in each stack also takes increased damage. To resolve this, simply have each light party dodge the suck in AoE and have the tank in each party closer to the boss than the rest of the light party. Ensure the light parties are spread out enough that the beams will not overlap. The boss will do the suck in followed by light party stacks three times.

For a visual of this mechanic, please see slides 2-7 of this Raidplan. Throughout the fight, Sphene will cast Virtual Shift, which does raid-wide AoE damage while stunning and knocking all players into the air while the arena floor changes. The first time this happens, the floor will be changed into an X shape, with a horizontal bar connecting the top and bottom corners of the X. Split into light parties now. Sphene will cast Laws of Wind, which will target each healer with a four-player stack AoE that will leave behind a circular puddle. This puddle will apply a damage-over-time effect that is lethal to anyone who walks through it. In order to resolve the next part of this mechanic, light party 1 must take their stack and place their puddle halfway between the northwest corner and the center of the X. Light party 2 must be directly opposite, being halfway between the southeast corner and the center of the X. This ensures an open pathway from northeast to southwest, while also ensuring that there are no puddles covering the horizontal bar connecting the corners of the arena.

After dropping the puddles from the stack AoE, everyone should stack together in the middle of the X to prepare for the next part of the mechanic. Each player will have been randomly assigned a green or orange debuff. When the debuff expires, each player will be pushed in the direction the debuff indicates. Sphene will cast Legitimate Force, indicating that she will perform two half room cleaves. Which side she cleaves first is shown by which of her hands glows first. During the Legitimate Force cast, each DPS player will be tethered to a Tank or Healer player. These tethers need to be broken by distance, and the farther apart the players start, the more distance is needed to break the tether. This is why all players should stack in the middle of the arena. As soon as the tethers have formed, DPS players run to the northeast, and support players run to the southwest. This will ensure that all tethers break easily. As soon as the tethers are broken, dodge to the half of the arena on the same side as Sphene's hand that glowed second. As soon as the half room cleave goes off, dodge into it to avoid the second half room cleave. At this point, the orange and green debuffs will be a couple seconds from expiring. Run to the appropriate east or west corner based on which direction your debuff will push you. Sprint is advised here as the timing can be fairly tight. TIP: There will be a small green orb floating beside each player. This orb is the source of the push from the debuff, making it very easy to see which direction you need to go to be safe. If the orb is on your left, you will be pushed right, and vice versa.

The boss will now cast World Shatter, dealing raid-wide damage and returning the arena to its original shape.

After casting World Shatter, and the arena returns to the original shape, Sphene will cast Prosecution of War, a two-hit tankbuster that will applie a vulnerability debuff, killing the Tank if they do not use an invulnerability cooldown. The second tank must provoke during the cast bar to prevent the first tank from dying.

Immediately following the tankbuster, Sphene will cast Divide and Conquer, which will target each player with a line AoE cleave. The cleave also applies a Magic Vulnerability debuff, meaning that each player must be spread out as taking two hits will kill them. Additionally, players should fan out around the boss hitbox, leaving enough room between each player to dodge between where the cleaves were, as after each player getting cleaved, the spot they took their cleaves will be cleaved again all at once. We recomment having Tanks, Melee, Healers, and Ranged DPS starting at the wall and going toward the middle of the room. Light party one will be on the west side of the room, and light party two on the east. For a visual of this mechanic, please see slides 8-9 of this Raidplan.

Next, the boss will cast Royal Domain, dealing raid-wide damage. She will then immediately cast Virtual Shift again, this time transforming the arena into two rectangular platforms. Finally, the boss will cast Laws of Earth, which begins the phase. For a visual of this mechanic, please see slides 10-19 of this Raidplan.

Each platform will have a glowing well that will either make the player float or return to the ground when walked on. Each player needs to step onto the well so that they are floating, and then go toward the middle of the arena between the platforms. If you do not float before doing this, you will fall to your death.

Sphene will now cast another Legitimate Force double room cleave. This works exactly as it did the first time. Dodge into the first cleave, and then quickly go to your assigned light party platform. Assign a rectangle-shaped position for each light party. These positions will now be used to soak the four towers on each platform. These positions are typically support players on the inside of the platforms with DPS players on the outside. Tanks and Melee players are on the north side, with Healer and Ranged DPS players on the south. Players must step into the gravity well again stop floating or else they will not be able to take the tower. This is very quick, and sprint is strongly recommended!

The boss will cast Gravitational Empire, this will mark two players with a tether and prey icon, and two players with large circular AoEs. There will always be one tether and one AoE in each light party, with the remaining two people on each platform having nothing. The players with nothing will soak the two towers that will spawn on each platform. These players will again need to make sure they are not floating, or else they will not be able to soak the towers. The players with the AoE circles will need to float again, and then run to the east and west walls, whichever is closest to their starting side. The tether players will also float, and should go to the north wall, standing at the northeast and northwest corners of the arena to avoid cleaving the party with large conal AoEs.

Next, all players should float. Each player will be marked with a green meteor icon above their heads, and if they are above one of the platforms, there will be an orange AoE under them. This indicates that they will drop a meteor on their current position when the green marker disappears. Four meteors must be placed on each platform to resolve the upcoming mechanic. If two meteors are placed to close together, they will explode causing the party to wipe. Likewise, if a meteor is not destroyed by the boss's upcoming mechanic, it will explode, also causing a wipe. There are two sets of meteors that will drop, and the boss will only destroy four total meteors on each platform. This means that the second set of meteors must be dropped off of the platform, causing it to fall into the void and disappear. To resolve this, drop the first set of meteors in each corner of the platforms. The meteors in the back corners will need to be dropped slightly in front of the corners so that there is room for the party to hide behind later. Once the first set is dropped, immediately move off of the platforms to drop the rest of the meteors into the void.

After both sets of meteors have dropped, all players must immediately run to the gravity wells on their respective light party platforms, and return to the ground before hiding behind a meteor as a group. The boss will now cast Weighty Blow randomly targeting one player on each platform, and shoot an energy pulse at them. The pulse will happen four times and will target a random player each time. The party must hide behind the meteors, as the hit is lethal. If the party is hiding behind a meteor, it will instead destroy the meteor. Each light party should start at the front left corner of their playforms, and rotate clockwise after each meteor is broken.

The boss will now cast World Shatter again, dealing raid-wide damage and returning the platform to its original shape, ending the Earth phase.

After the arena returns to its original shape, the boss will cast another Prosecution of War tankbuster. This must be swapped or invulned, the same as before.

Next, the boss will cast Coronation, marking each player with a prey marker and summoning two horizontal lasers and two vertical lasers. Only one laser will originate from each wall, and each laser will only have two players tethered to it. To resolve this mechanic, the players tethered to the north spawning laser will take the northwest corner and the middle of the north wall. The players tethered to the east laser will take the northeast corner and the middle of the east wall. The players tethered to the south laser will take the southeast corner and the middle of the south wall. And finally, the players tethered to the west laser will take the southwest corner and the middle of the west wall. Ensure that the tethers are not crossed. Each player will also be targeted with a very large AoE circle, which is lethal if two players are overlapped. For a visual of these positions, please see slide 20 of this Raidplan.

Immediately after Coronation resolves, all players should run to the northwest corner for Absolute Authority. This cast will put a silver debuff on all eight players, and all supports or all DPS will get a flare debuff. One support or DPS will get a stack AoE. If the DPS have the flares, a support will get the stack AoE and vice versa. At the end of the cast, random players will be targeted by a large circle AoE bait. This random bait will happen four times. All players should stack together at the northwest, then move along the north wall each time the puddles drop. After four baits, the party should end up in the northwest corner. At this point, all players should just stack together and use moderate party mitigation. The flares do very low damage and the stack does negligible damage with eight players in it. Soon after the flares and stack resolve, each player will have a red arrow appear above their head, requiring them to stack with at least one other player. This is automatically resolved by the party being stacked together. Finally, there will be a knockback from north to south. This can be ignored by using Arm's Length or Surecast after the red arrow debuffs resolve. For a visual of this mechanic, please see slides 1-4 of this Raidplan.

Sphene will now cast Virtual Shift again, this time changing the arena into two long rectangles with a shorter and thinner rectangle in the middle. She will immediately cast Laws of Ice, which will put a timer above everyone's head. This timer will expire at the end of the cast bar, freezing everyone in place who is not moving. Frozen players will take damage-over-time and be unable to perform the upcoming mechanic. All players should ensure they are moving at the end of the cast to avoid being frozen. Laws of Ice will also summon two ice bridges connecting each outer platform to the inner platform (two on each side, totaling four). These bridges can only support one player at a time crossing them, or they will break and the players on them will fall to their deaths. To resolve the upcoming mechanics, all players must ensure that only one player at a time crosses. For a visual of this mechanic, please see slides 5-18 of this Raidplan.

Eight icicles will spawn around the room in two sets of four, four along the south, two along the west, and two along the east. The east and west icicles are part of the same set, with the south icicles being the other set. Each set will tether to one role group when they spawn. These tethers must be stretched to avoid being knocked back, whill will result in immediate death. A player tethered to a icicle on the west half of the arena (including from the south group, there will be two west of the midline of the arena) will want to run to the east platform, and players tethered to the icicles on the east half of the arena will want to run to the west platform. As each ice bridge can only support one player crossing at a time, bridge assignments will be based on which icicle each player is tethered to. For the south set of icicles, players tethered to the outermost two crystals will take the northern ice bridges, ensuring they run to the platform farthest from their icicle. For the east and west set of icicles, players tethered to the northernmost icicles will take the northern bridges, and players tethered to the southernmost icicles will take the southern bridges, again ensuring they run to the platforms farthest from their icicles. Stretch the tethers and ensure you are not standing directly in front of an icicle, as it will fire a lethal line AoE if you are in front of it.

After the icicles resolve, Sphene will cast another Legitimate Force, which is resolved exactly as before. Players should cross back to the middle platform using the same bridge they used initially. The role that went out second will cross back to the middle first, followed by the role that went out first. Dodge the half-room cleaves and get ready to move again as Sphene will cast another Laws of Ice, which will do the same freeze effect as before. If any ice bridge was broken due to too many players standing on it at once, it will be repaired now.

Next, there will be a line stack AoE, and two tethers will spawn. Melee DPS should preposition toward the front of the group to take the tethers as soon as they spawn, then run to the front of the outer platforms on their respective sides as soon as the tethers are grabbed. These tethers will do a large circle AoE that will apply Ice Vulnerability, making it impossible for one person to take more than one hit of the tethers without using an invulnerability cooldown, such as Superbolide. There are four sets of tether AoEs and line stack AoEs. The line stack AoE is placed on the player closest to the boss after the initial one, so a player with the tether will always get the next stack. The common party finder strategy for this mechanic is to have the melee DPS take the first set of tethers, then the tanks take the second set. Because of the proximity bait of the line stack AoE, a tank will be targeted for the third set. Here, both tanks should use their invulnerability cooldown, around the fifth pulse of the third line stack AoE. This will allow them to take the third and fourth tethers without dying, with the added bonus that a line stack will always be on one of them for the third and fourth set, meaning the party does not have to take that damage as well.

At this point, if the boss is not at 0.1% HP, she will repeat mechanics that have already been seen until her hard coded enrage timer. She will cast Prosecution of War, Royal Domain, Legitimate Force, and finally, another Royal Domain before casting Authority Eternal. If she is not at 0.1% HP by the end of Authority Eternal, the DPS check for phase 1 has not been met and the party will wipe. If she is at 0.1% before any of these mechanics, she will skip straight to Authority Eternal, which will deal moderate raid-wide damage.

If the DPS check was met for Phase 1, the boss HP will refill, and the visuals of the arena will change a bit, starting Phase 2. This phase is much shorter and only consists of a few mechanics.

On the east and west side of the arena, the boss will summon the platforms previously seen during the Wind, Earth, and Ice Virtual Shift phases. The aether in the background will also be rotating upwards or downwards on each side (one will be up, one down). Identify which of the platform patterns the aether is rotating downward behind, as this will be the pattern the floor changes to at the end of the cast. Outlines on the floor will glow green, yellow, and blue in the shape of their respective elemental floor, showing the players where the new floor will be. Stand within the bounds of the outline that matches the platform pattern where the aether is rotating downward, as at the end of the cast, all players will be knocked into the air and the arena floor replaced with the new pattern. If a player is not standing within the bounds of the correct outline, they will fall to their death when the floor changes.

At the same time, all players will get targeted with a small circle spread AoE. This AoE deals moderate damage and applies a Magic Vulnerability, becoming lethal if two players are overlapping. To avoid overlap, split into light parties and position toward the appropriate east and west side of the outlines. Tanks should be farthest north, followed by Melee DPS, then Healers, and Ranged DPS at the farthest south. Healers beware!: the cast of Radical Shift is heavy hitting raid-wide. The AoE circles on everyone resolve within a couple seconds after the cast finishes, dealing a significant amount of damage that will be lethal without proper mitigation and shields.

Immediately after the spread AoEs resolve, Sphene will begin casting another Radical Shift, resolved exactly as before. The boss will follow this up with a World Shatter, returning the platform to its original shape once again.

Sphene will now cast Dimensional Distortion, spawning Exaflare-like AoEs at the north of the arena. The party should position just to the east/west of the first AoE to telegraph, then step into it after it has gone off. Follow the AoE to the middle of the arena. The boss will now cast Tyranny's Grasp, covering the north half of the arena with electricity, and spawning two tankbuster towers. Each Tank must use appropriate mitigation, as the towers do a fair amount of damage. Immediately following the Tank towers, Sphene will begin bashing her head into the ground eight times. Each time will result in a raid-wide damage pulse. Immediately following the eighth hit, the boss will cast Royal Banishment, which will do eight hits of a line stack AoE. Healers beware!: there is a lot of damage going out here between the slams and the line stacks.

The boss will now repeat mechanics until she enrages. She will cast Radical Shift twice, followed by another World Shatter, followed by her enrage cast Preservation. If she is defeated before the end of this cast, then congratulations! You have now completed The Minstrals Ballad: Sphene's Burden. You will be rewarded with the above mentioned loot, as well as the achievement Long Lived the Queen.