AK Starter Guide - for your first trip through

Viable Repose/Sleep targets
Human clerics.
Gargoyles, from statues.
Hound lights (casters; careful).
Smolenkos (Ahriman).

Noteworthy enemies
Dullahan: will buff itself over time for heavy damage. Do not be in front of. Regen early; Cure2 may be needed, particularly for WARs.
Succubus: Doesn't link to other mobs (though others link to the Succubus). Can be pulled separately in each case, though range can be tricky. Uses Void Thunder 3; can LOS by walking through her.

Bosses
#1: Beat on priest to summon main boss. Have Void Thunder 3 interrupted every time; 2.5k damage per cast otherwise. Regen/Cure to beat Mind Melt's AOE dmg. Canker will lay on Disease; Esuna fixes. Adds spawn; watch threat & ground effects. Stay at edges of the room to avoid giant golem attacks after mid-phase. Can LOS boss spells with a pillar, if you're feeling punchy.

Tank can walk through boss to LOS Void Thunder 3. Tank can probably stun every Mind Melt, if they wanted.

Bosses, continued
#2: Demon Wall has no threat table. Stoneskin up, Regen to everybody. Poison on the floor is center first, then edges; so stand on edges, wait for center to fade, and move. Following 2nd poison floor repeat the Wall will Repel; be close to it and be centered, lest ye die going over the sides. Bees happen after 2nd Repel. Big red circles = Paralyze; try not to be there, but don't run into poison to avoid paralysis. If you Medica 2 when you run to center the fight gets easy. If poisoned by the floor, heal first, then Esuna to cure Heavy.

Bosses, continued, continued. (Stupid char limits.)
#3: Watch for Rotten Breath; wait for it to land, then cure Disease with Esuna. Don't pre-cast; you will miss the fix and have to cast twice. Watch for Immenent Catastrophe; drop Regen on tank, and position yourself behind a pillar to LOS the massive glowing ball in room's ceiling (center). Fail and you may die instantly. (Stoneskin can save you, if your hp/det is high enough.) A Gargoyle comes to life after each Catastrophe; pattern is fixed. "Back Right" pillar goes last. After 2nd Gargoyle, you may notice a purple line tag you. If marked, please run away from the raid; when the line goes away you will lay down a purple orb that pulses prox damage. Regen and move back to position. Try not to walk behind the boss; tail swipe triggers and has huge range.

Other notes
The Succubus can cast Void Thunder 3 as well. That should be interrupted, unless your tank enjoys eating big damage.

Duty Finder tanks love to angle Boss 3 so his rear points into the middle of the room. This is bad. The boss has a front cone attack but its range is barely outside melee; tail swipe is nearly half the room. Optimal positioning is next to the back-right pillar, face out to the room, such that his tail points back at the wall. DPS can be on either side of the boss and has the entire depth of the room to drop orbs that way.

Works great, if you have a party that will listen. DF hasn't been kind on folks that take instruction, though.

Good luck!

Notes for demon wall, you can move back onto it as it starts to fade without taking damage, it's best to move early.

Also once the bees are out, stoneskin yourself before the repel. In case the dps aren't on top of things (did this with 2 guildies that weren't on top of things and the stoneskin is the only thing that kept me alive long enough to save people after the repel.

A lot of people need reminder to go to the center, because people seem to think they just need to not face in.

After repel, sprint is useful to get out and to position faster so you can drop medicas as needed.

The floating eyes can also be slept.

You should also be prepared to immediately sleep the single human trash mob in each group which casts void summoning, avoiding that extra add. Optimally the tank/dps would just stun, but often that doesn't occur in less experienced parties.

Pro tips for SCH:

Rouse Fairy for groups of mobs so it can keep up with tanks dmg.
Cleric stance and DoT all of them up.

One mob dies before Rouse wears off, tank is now taking less dmg, fairy can keep up with the lower damage intake, so stay in cleric stance and DPS!

:D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Terius

Pro tips for SCH:

Rouse Fairy for groups of mobs so it can keep up with tanks dmg.
Cleric stance and DoT all of them up.

One mob dies before Rouse wears off, tank is now taking less dmg, fairy can keep up with the lower damage intake, so stay in cleric stance and DPS!

:D

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I would disagree with this.
Not all of it. Using rouse on the fairy is good advice.

But in a dungeon where the tanks health can drop so quickly, I wouldn't use cleric stance.
I'd rather do weaker dots and stronger heals than stronger dots with weaker heals.
Especially if the group takes an aoe hit.

I guess it depends on play style though ^^

Just a note for scholars reading that, at no point should you ever use Stoneskin during a battle. One Aldo will always be superior.

For Demon Wall, one Succor prior to a pushback is sufficient. Follow up with E4E on tank and sacred soil vs. bees if you are with a somewhat weaker group (which I'm assuming you are because it's your first time!).

A better protip for trash clearing:

1) Aldo the tank prior to battle.
2) Enter cleric stance, DoT up the primary target with your 3 strongest DoTs (anymore and the mob dies too fast for ticks to matter).
3) Always cycle Energy Drain during GCD if you have it up.
4) Only DoT up another mob if you are confident the tank gained some aggro on it. You don't want to pull things unless you want to tank things (which is easily done at higher gear levels).
5) Leave cleric stance to heal the tank. There is only a CD when you go into cleric stance, not out of it. This allows you to quickly leave and re-enter Cleric stance to continue DPS'ing.

You can save TP from stunning by simply running behind the mob casting the Void Thunder III too - tell your tanks this ~

Pro-tip for demon wall:

Do not panic. Steadily pump out heals while watching your mana, you don't have to keep everyone at 100%. If people are dodging bad stuff he doesn't have any burst damage.

Your movement pattern should be: side, middle, side, middle, stay, run foward, repeat until dead.

Demon Wall is actually pretty easy as a WHM - you can just forget about being careful with MP and go nuts as it's a DPS race and ignore normal aggro rules. Basically just:
-start at one of the sides, wait for the middle to go purple
-Regen anyone that takes damage
-move in as the purple fades
-back to the side
-back to the middle
-face directly forwards while in the middle and wait for Repel, get back to the side after it hits
-repeat the previous steps
-this time, just before Repel hits, activate Divine Seal, Surecast and Presence of Mind (or even Swiftcast instead of the last two, but I prefer to save it just in case)
-when it hits, sprint to the side of the non-purple area and Medica II->Medica, then Shroud of Saints straight after
-continue to outside->inside->outside->inside->repel->Medica II while Regening everything until it dies.

You'll overheal like crazy doing that, but it doesn't even matter in this fight. You might as well just make sure everyone's topped off to cover for mistakes and let them focus entirely on DPSing.

I use cleric stance and dps until the last knockback. Just b4 knockback, regen everyone, then medica II after knockback followed by shroud. Then you just pray that the dps isn't crap.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Niadissa

Do not use this, this is the very definition of an exploit. I can say with almost a 100% guarantee that this was not something that was intended.

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It can also get you banned.

It also didn't seem to work well. I made it up to the branch, but the first Priest's spells reached me perfectly well, as did the Void Fire ground-targeted AOE. Perhaps I was doing it wrong, but as it stands, I can't recommend tree-climbing.

Dodging beside the tree to LOS Mind Melt is still viable, though. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bridgeburner

but the first Priest's spells reached me perfectly well

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Did the tank just go on vacation or something?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dragonflyseksparade

Did the tank just go on vacation or something?

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I heal a lot of DF groups. Tank quality varies substantially.

Top posts updated with tips from Rapture and Raenryong. (Thanks, you two!) LOS'ing Void Thunder 3 is a simple trick tanks can use to skip eating nearly 2k damage on casts from Boss #1 and the Succubi.