Aion 3.5 Chronicles: Tiamat Stronghold

Hey! This guide will serve as a general instance knowledge and boss strategy guide fully fit with any bugs encountered along the way. Tiamat's Stronghold is definitely one of the more challenging instances in the game right now so I figured a nice how-to guide was in order. Let's get started.

H'okay so  let's talk party composition. The group I typically run with is as follows:
1 Sorcerer
1 Gladiator
1 Spiritmaster
1 Templar
1 Chanter
1 Cleric

That setup is one that works quite well as spiritmasters can dispell key buffs off the bosses that simplify the fights considerably. Anyway, I want to talk a little bit about melee dps' role in this instance as it isn't traditional in the sense that up until now there have been no instances that really call players to respec to a more PvE friendly stigma build in a long time. This instance has one boss in particular that absolutely requires maximum dps to be dished out and having ranged dps as opposed to melee seems to make the fights a lot easier. We had no trouble with any boss when running mostly melee dps except that last one. So, I urge caution if you choose to run melee dps in this instance as they will need to spec for maximum dps to ensure the final boss goes smoothly.

Let's talk bosses.



Boss #1: Invincible Shabokan
This guy is quite easy and his rotations are predictable and easily avoided, provided people are quick on their feet. This instance has a lot of bosses that use kind of progressive AoE attacks that will continually deal damage the longer you stay in them. This boss in particular uses a skill called tremor. The tank and all melee dps should be out of the range of this attack whenever he uses it, you just don't need to get hit by it at all. The range is quite small, it's a very visible circle around the boss, so yeah, don't stand in it.

Aside from that he'll just use a skill called Earth Upheaval that is reminiscent of Raksha's Earth Fragments in Raksang. It'll spawn several rock formations under the party's feet, just move away from these to avoid taking some pretty heavy damage. They do explode quickly so be ready to move and be sure to have someone in vent or chat calling out when he uses upheaval.

Once you have a firm grasp of these two skills you can avoid the boss is really just cake. He has one more single target skill that he'll use on random members of the party which isn't a big deal at all. The only other thing to watch out for is at the last 20%~ or so he will pop a buff, it's a little yellow icon (I'll insert the actual name later) which increases his attack power and speed but stops him from using any of his skills. At this point in the fight you just focus dps on the boss to burn it down, shouldn't be much of an issue.

Known Bugs: None

Now, after this boss you enter a large plaza area with three branching paths, which I'll refer to as "Top", "Left", and "Right". You can attempt these in any order you want but for this guide the boss numbering will be as if you went down the left hall, then the right, finishing with the top.

Left Hallway:
Boss #2: Brigade General Chantra
The next boss you encounter is quite easy. The only thing to take note of before starting is that the room is circular and consists of three rings. This boss will do a skill called "Activate Drana Reactor" and sections of the floor with blink red. Do not stand on the red areas. Your group needs to be ready to move between the rings as the fight goes on. Aside from that, this boss is a simple tank n' spank. He will pop the typical attack/speed buff during his last 15% or so.

Boss #3: Brigade General Terath
Before starting this boss you need to position yourselves properly, near one of the two circular panels on either side of the boss. These serve no purpose until the boss does a very obvious room AoE which will kill anyone left inside of it for too long. All ranged dps and healers should be near one of the platforms at all times while the melee fights the boss near-ish the middle of the room. Once the boss teleports she is about to start the room AoE and everyone needs to get on the platform. Just run on top of them and stop moving completely, lest you be thrown off. These circles function as bounce panels that keep you out of the range of the room AoE.

Aside from the room AoE this boss also makes gravity distortions appear around her feet on the floor. These will inflict 3-4k damage per second you stand in them so pay attention to your footing and be ready to move around or back off completely if you're a melee class. Once you understand these two things this boss should be quite easy as the only other skill that is used is a frontal cone AoE (Commander's Strike) that does moderate damage. Just have the tank face her away from any of the melee dps.

Pro tip: While bouncing on the panels you can't use skills but you can use potions, if you need healing.

Right Hallway:
Boss #4: Traitor Kumbanda
This boss can be a bit tricky for a few reasons. First of all, don't stand on the elevator that leads down to him until everyone is ready. Once you go down there you'll begin to be hit with a DoT that will constantly hit the entire party throughout the fight but it starts as soon as you get down there. This boss isn't aggressive but you'll want to start him quickly to offset the DoT damage. Also, do not aggro the boss until the whole party is out of the elevator, as it seals once the boss is pulled, this can trap party members. (If you do trap a party member you can either have them try to jump the rail up at the top of the elevator or reset the boss by running back around the elevator.)

Fighting this guy is fairly simple but you really have to be on guard against a few things. First off, you'll notice you're very slow. This is an effect that can be counteracted by standing in the middle of any of the clocks that will appear around the boss. These clocks speed cast and attack speed significantly. Ranged will need to move around to different clocks throughout the fight, this is especially important for healers. Melee has it a bit easier in this fight as there is always a clock underneath the boss, all melee dps and the tank should be right under the boss. If you want to simplify your life you can have your entire party stand under the boss, the only drawback is that it is a bit hard to see the adds when they spawn. It's best to have a designated add manager who is tab targeting every ~20 seconds.

As mentioned above, this boss also summons adds. They are to be the absolute priority for the group whenever they spawn. Have at least one person on dedicated add duty. I filled this role in my group while on my Assassin, spamming tab while just auto attacking the boss to ensure I jumped on the adds as soon as they spawned. These adds will paralyze the person they have targeted. As you can imagine this is incredibly costly if they target a healer, they are the #1 reason a group would wipe on this boss.

Once you have the adds under control and keep yourselves on clocks this fight is fairly straight forward. At the last little portion of the boss' (10-15%) he will pop that little yellow attack buff like the rest of the bosses and the clocks will stop spawning and you just have to dps him down as best you can.

Pro Tip: The adds can be silenced! If you have a ranger or sorcerer in your group have them start off by silencing the add to ensure nobody is paralyzed. (Stuns work too!)

Boss #5: Laksyaka
This is probably the boss people have the hardest time with but it doesn't need to be! That being said, this is a strange fight and you'll need to come prepared to deal with a change of pace. This entire fight is tanked not by the templar, but rather whomever gets turned into a skeleton by the giant eyeball at the far end of the room, opposite the stairs. When turned into a skeleton the player will be given access to two skills, a taunt and an AoE lifesteal that works on the adds the Laksyaka will spawn.

As a skeleton it will be that player's express purpose to taunt the boss and run him around in circles while your group works on DPSing him down. In addition to kiting and  taunting the skeleton player must kill the adds as they spawn to prevent them from hindering the party. To do this all the skeleton has to do is use their second skill while near the adds, you do not need them targeted for the lifesteal to work and it instantly kills them. Use it several times to be sure the adds all die.

Once your group has the hang of these concepts this boss is cake. However, there are a few things to take note of. First, you need to be ready to switch roles on the fly if you happen to get turned into a skeleton, it happens fast and can be costly if someone doesn't keep aggro on the boss. Second, you can determine who starts as a skeleton by having your party wait on the stairs while the actual tank and your intended skeleton go in. The non-tank should end up as a skeleton.

Known Bugs: If two people are skeletons and both use their taunts there will be a small gap in the aggro hold and the boss will go attack someone else. If you have two skeletons make sure they are aware of each other so one can go after adds while the other taunts the boss.

Boss #6 Anuhart
This boss is a pain if you aren't running with a spiritmaster simply because he gets that nice little yellow attack/attack speed buff the other bosses get, except he gets it three times. More on that crap in a moment. The fight leading up to those buffs being put on is fairly easy but there are a few things to watch out for.

First off, if you're running any melee dps aside from your tank you need to make sure they're aware that they can't stand in Anuhart's 360 AoE. It is easy to figure out when it's coming since he says something ("I WILL CRUSH YOU ALL!") before he does it so listen for that. If you don't play with game sound turned on you can predict it by watching his AoE rotations. He'll do a frontal AoE called "Wave of Pain" three times before using his circular AoE, so be sure to count them for your tank and melee.

Once he starts doing the 360 AoE he'll be shielded and will reflect and close range damage so all melee MUST be outside of this range (roughly 10 meters). Ranged can still attack but they will do no damage. Just before 50% Anuhart will buff himself for the first time and his attack power and speed will increase. This isn't a huge deal if you've got a decent tank and healers but if you're running an SM then have them strip the buff off. He does this again before 25% and one last time at around 15%. If you are not running a spiritmaster you need to save all major cooldowns for this last 15%, your tank will likely need iron skin and the chanter should be pop aetheric field if needed. It is a race at this point and if the tank dies then the party is likely to follow.

Lastly, there is one last AoE he does that hits the whole party which involves him stabbing his sword into the ground and causing other swords to shoot up underneath everyone's feet. Don't worry too much about it but make sure the cleric is group healing everyone back up to full.

Known Bugs: Anuhart WILL drop aggro and reset if your tank doesn't run back in before his 360 AoE ends. It's okay for the templar to reflect himself a bit to make sure he doesn't bug and drop aggro.

Boss #7 Tahabata
This should be the last boss you run into as he will demand most of your big cooldowns. Do not start this fight if you're waiting for important 10 minute cooldowns such as Iron skin, Emperean Providence, and Aetheric Field, you will likely need them. Also, be sure to pop fire resist scrolls if you have them, Tahabata loves his fire.

Tahabata is not a hard boss until his last phase at about 15%. The fight will involve the room getting smaller and smaller as he loses health so be sure to tank him right in the middle of the room. There are a few things to watch out for during this fight. First off, he'll use a room-wide fire AoE every 25% or so that needs to be healed through, it cannot  be avoided but isn't too hard to keep the party alive through.

Aside from that, Tahabata will often teleport around randomly and use a skill called Piercing Strike which is a medium damage AoE but he uses it twice in a row so be mindful and move away from him if he teleports to you. In addition to this Tahabata will also spawn tornadoes around the room that will put players in aether's hold and damage them a fair bit, be sure to move away from these tornadoes as they spawn. He also puts a DoT on people randomly that looks like a tornado but it can be removed with a healing potion or a dispell.

Now, once you get him to about 50% have your chanter pop WoW in preparation for the only dangerous part of this fight. Once you see the boss switch phases for the last time the room will become covered in fire and the entire party will begin taking fairly heavy AoE damage. This can't be avoided so if your templar has it, pop Emp. Providence at this point. Chanters should also pop elemental screen and word of quickness at this point to improve DPS and healing capabilities. Once Providence is over chanters can follow up with aetheric field if you need more time with the boss. It is at this last phase that dps needs to pop their DP skills and pump as much dps into the boss as possible to ensure a smooth finish.

The last thing to do in the instance is porting into the last room through the central area of the instance. This last room contains six AP chests and one gold chest which can contain one of the new mounts if you're lucky.

Congratulations! You've finished Tiamat's Stronghold! If you have anymore questions feel free to drop a comment.

-Fest