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

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Aion 3.0 Chronicles: Elementis Forest & Argent Manor

Warning: This guide contains a ton of Fest-isms and due to this I have decided to give you all a key to decipher my ramblings.
List of known Fest-isms:

Safety Golem = Hetgolem (Things that spawn around Boss #5 of Elementis forest)
Rock O' Doom = Not a real "boss" but gives a loot chest
Yoda Monkey on Crack = Monkey boss (Boss #4 of Elementis forest)
Junkie Golem = Final boss of Elementis Forest who is overdosing on a tree.
Safety Golem Slavemaster = First boss in Argent Manor, utilizes safety golems to heal himself.
Where did my hp go? Final boss of Argent Manor, Zadra Spellweaver, hits like a truck throwing another truck at your face. Doesn't drop anything when "killed"
Where did my hp go? Pt. 2: The Reckoning: Final form of Zadra Spellweaver, is annoying until 25% Hits like a truck throwing another truck at your face and then firing a rocket at your nuts.

Well if you've taken a look around the map at all the new instances you may recognize Elementis Forest as one of the new twelve-man instances. This instance is part of a set, complemented by Argent Manor, similar in fashion to Upper and Lower Udas in the previous zones.

The Forest portion of the instance isn't setup like a dungeon or your typical instance at all. If anything it reminded me of an open zone and even contains some repeatable mob kill quests. There are a total of five bosses in the forest and I'll give a brief description of the strategy involved for defeating each of them. At some point in the near future I'll actually record these bosses and add commentary so stay tuned :D!

Boss #1 Canyonguard: This dude is a giant golem that you run into literally a few steps into the instance. He's a pretty standard tank n' spank boss that spawns some adds every so often that the group must shift priority to. His other noteworthy skill is Canyonguard's Wrath (Rage?) which is an AoE he will cast every two minutes or so, it has a range of 15 meters. Outrange this skill. It does quite a large amount of damage if you get caught in it and he repeat casts it three times before returning to normal.

In regards to the adds: The Canyonguard will spawn these boulders that don't really do anything for about a minute then they "hatch" into elite earth spirit adds. The dormant boulders can be burned down so you don't need to kill the actual adds. I believe there are a total of four or five adds to dps down during the last spawn so it's quite manageable.

Once he dies he turns into a bridge and spawns a chest which, from my two runs, contained Fabled accessories and one Eternal piece of armor (plate shoulders).

Boss #2: This next boss is a little more tricky since you need to have one group handle the invisible adds that constantly spawn at put a shield on the main boss. This can be done by using the plants on the ground that spawn around the boss. These will allow you to see the invisible adds and burn them down (they're really weak). Our group had the gladiators focus on these adds since a few AoE's is all it would take the drop the group of them.

More adds! This stupid horse also blips in and out of existence every phase and summons a literal wave of adds that encircles you. The first three waves are no big deal but towards the end, especially the final wave, things can get bad if you aren't careful. The final wave of adds consists of these jellyfish things that must be either burned down immediately or kited until they de-spawn. IMPORTANT NOTE: Never attack them from the front, they like to do frontal explosion AoE's that do some nasty damage. These adds do de-spawn after a relatively short period of time.

Aside from all the waves of adds this boss is fairly easy and shouldn't give groups much trouble.

Boss #3 ROCK O' DOOM: At the top of a hill your party will encounter a large rock. It has a legendary health bar and is most easy piece of crap the hardest boss in the game. You gently push the giant boulder of death down a hill where it slams into another rock and gives you a chest with some golds, haven't seen an eternal out of this one yet.

I hesitate to call that a boss.

Boss #4 Yoda Monkey on Crack: After carving your way through adorable monkeys wearing leaf hats you'll encounter a large version of the Yoda-monkey pet from Esoterrace. This guy is like a mix of the first two real bosses and will blip out of existence and spawn adds. These are much more manageable than either of the previous bosses though as they don't have much health. This boss does nothing special outside of the adds just focus fire and you'll be fine. Also, mark the main boss so you can tell when he reappears, helpful for your tank since the adds look identical to the boss.

Boss #5 Junkie Golem: IMPORTANT NOTE: There are a bunch of adorable circle golems surrounding the area that the boss is in. These are used in the fight and I strongly suggest burning them all down before starting the fight.

This boss likes to put DoTs on people that can only be cleared by using the corpse of one of the aforementioned adorable circle golems, we'll call them safety golems. The boss will frequently resurrect all the golems and you can just have your gladiators AoE them down without much issue. It is important to keep the boss away from the safety golem pile.

When you get two debuffs on you it is important to cleanse them so your healers don't get overwhelmed. One debuff is manageable and waiting for two keeps the supply of safety golems high.

The one important skill this boss uses is Overload. When he uses this it puts a 20 second buff on him that makes him hit for 6-8k per hit. The tank and probably DPS need to back off when he does this skill. Kiting is not needed as the skill will make the boss stop moving completely, just sit back and let the buff run out before continuing the killing.

That concludes the Elementis Forest portion of the guide. Onto the fun part.

Argent Manor: This is a lot harder than the forest portion of the instance and the bosses are much less forgiving.

Boss #1 Safety Golem Slavemaster: This boss is a dick. Not only because he yells at the safety golems but because they heal him and buff him if you don't murder them first. This boss is surrounded by five safety golems that he will call over at random to heal and buff him. These MUST be killed before this happens. If more than two reach him he will likely wipe your group. We discovered that, while these golems are invincible until called, they can be hit through their shield by DoTs and any delayed activation skill (Lava Tsunami, Delayed Blast etc.). This is a good way to get a start on the dps before they're actually called in. It is advised to have at least 10 people for this fight. We did it with nine on our first run but the dps was a close call.

Once all of his adds have been called he's a very easy fight and you just tank n' spank him down.

Boss #2 This wall is stupid: After defeating the first boss head down the stairs into the room with a big wall and some elemental transformation things. Basically all you do for this "boss" is transform into the elemental spirit that can do damage to the wall. It will shift what it is vulnerable to every 30 seconds or so. Aside from that, there is nothing to this fight, it doesn't even hit you back.

Boss #3 Safety Golem Roller Disco: This guy is actually just another big robo-golem and does a couple of annoying things that don't really do anything at all. First off, as my name for this boss implies, he summons two safety golems to roll around him in a circle. Presumably to make himself look cool. These golems take no damage and appear to do absolutely nothing. The only real skill of importance to pay attention to is the ranged reflect he puts up. To remedy this all you need to do is make sure everyone is within seven meters of the boss. Then you just dps him down.

Also, avoid the jelly on the floor it appears to drain mana and debuff you. He does something to the main tank at some point that would essentially insta-kill him so watch for that and make sure someone is ready to alt-tank.

Boss #4 Where did your hp go?: This is actually just phase one of the final boss. He is a bastard. There is no freaking strategy for this boss. The only thing you can do is pray your clerics/chanters can put out the heals to keep your templar up through this guy's ludicrous amounts of damage. We had a level 58 templar in full stormwing gear in full tank spec do this fight and he was still barely living through some of this guy's attacks.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Similar to the first manor boss this dude has three crystals he summons one at a time starting from the far right, then middle, then left. When these crystals become vulnerable EVERYONE needs to burn them. If one happens to cast a buff on the boss he will begin one-shotting everyone.

This boss also loves randomly targeting people and pulling them towards him while doing about 7k damage. Depending on how many healers you have (We had two clerics and a chanter) they may be too busy spamming every heal possible on the tank so be ready to pot back up.

Once you get him to around 25-30% he will run away. No loot will be given. It's okay to be mad.

Boss #5 Where did your hp go? Pt. 2: The Reckoning: So this jerkbag decides to get even stronger now. The first phase of this fight is the hardest. You have to deal with his linear AoE's that do massive damage so stay spread out, healers and ranged on the right, melee dps on the left, have the tank stick to the wall with the boss facing away from the group.

The boss now has several new AoEs and still loves to pull people randomly to him. He also spawns fire on the floor that damages you so mind your surroundings. We had our tank die about 35% in and continued the fight by having whoever had aggro kite around the circular room. This worked well since the boss likes to stop and AoE a lot, giving the group time to recover. Then we worked our way through the aggro list until the templar had it back.

At about 25% he enters his final phase and calls a stupid golem to start shooting lasers at the group. AVOID THE RED DOT! Thankfully this part of the fight is the easiest. Zadra will frequently stop and just float in the middle of the room, allowing you to focus dps on him. Aside from that, he is exactly the same as before. You can have your group kite him around until he stops in the middle to simplify the fight further.

Extra Notes: Most (if not all) bosses have an enrage timer so mind your dps and try to limit the length of these boss fights so you don't wipe from enrage. Also, for anyone curious about our party setup for these two runs we had:
Fest - 60 - Assassin
Hikosejuro - 57/58 - Gladiator
Iamthelaw - 60 - Gladiator
Arkadies - 58/59 - Cleric
Etherea - 58/59 - Cleric
Bennyhinn - 58/59 - Chanter
Vengefulone - 58/59 - Templar
Zenji 58/59 - Ranger
Spankmi - 57/58 - Sorceror
Vikarious (2nd Run) 60 - Sorceror
Congratulations, you've completed Elementis/Argent!

I'll try to add videos next time I run this with Void :D!

Thanks for reading!

-Fest (Tiamat - 60 Assassin)

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