The Fragile Dragons

I know... most of you have already skipped over this because you want nothing to do with this difficult dungeon. It turns out it's not so bad once you get to know it. That's right, I've been spending more time in Arah!

My first experience using the Looking for Group tool was with the (arguably) hardest dungeon in the game. Terrible idea? Probably. Worth it? Definitely. The group decided on path three as we normally would while doing this as a guild. I was one necromancer from Northern Shiverpeaks in a group of Warriors from Ehmry Bay. At least I remembered to buff myself with food and an undead slaying potion.





As you know at the start of the dungeon there are groups of undead roaming around waiting to kill you in the most embarrassing ways. "Oops, I dodged through twelve red circles and tripped over a dead body. Res? Please? Res? Wait - everybody's dead??" The best way to kill these groups is to kite them back to the starting area and wait for them to come to you just around a corner. There you can stay in a small group and melee / range them to death pretty quickly.

Once they're dead and the group has made it to the open doorway - which now closes to reveal yet another mob of undead - players should stack or stay in close proximity so that any area of effect healing can reach everyone equally. This also makes it easier to hit multiple targets and keep from stepping on any of those dreaded body bombs.

The first boss fight can be done one of two ways. Kite the Hunter away from the Crusher and kill him (the Hunter) first. Finish by killing the Crusher. I was introduced to a different way of doing things. If there is enough healing, melee and damage in the group the idea is to fight both the Crusher and Hunter simultaneously. The two should be far enough apart that the attacks of the hunter don't reach the Crusher but not so far the they disengage. Of course the focus should be on the Crusher so that he would die first and avoid resurrecting the hunter. The party may then move on to destroying the hunter relatively easily. The obvious tactics apply to these fights. The duo are dragged back into the first area and fought there. The Crusher is to be dodged away from when he does his big damage attack and the hunter has traps and likes to be mean to any melee person.

After the first boss fight there is a sneaky way of avoiding all mobs in the room where you start your run to the Wraithlord Mage Crusher. If you're able to (I certainly wasn't - I should change my title) you can jump up decayed coral to the top of a small hill and start the run right at the entrance to the next area. This makes it much easier to stay out of combat and keep from dying.



The way to the next boss is the same. There is another area that the champion spider will disengage from: you can run/jump up the side of the rocks across from the boss and stand on a ledge. Running into the small cave-like hole in the wall still works too. Below is a view on the minimap of the location of the newfound place to hide from the spiders. Click the image to get a better sense of where they were situated. Keep in mind I ran into the small hole instead and had just emerged. My party members were ahead slightly and to the right of me.



For the Wraithlord Mage Crusher we were one person short. The person left after failed attempts to run to where we were. That took a good five or ten minutes away from dungeon time. While four manning that boss wasn't unfamiliar to me the way we fought certainly was. Three warriors and a necromancer all stacked one level below the boss to attack him at range. We were protected from those pesky arms and my flesh golem did a bit of tanking. I wasn't knocked down and never noticed any of the red circles. Before the end of the fight an elementalist joined the group and helped to hurry along the fight.

From the Mage Crusher we did the usual dive underwater to get to the next area. Nothing was different with the apes or tossing the light. Though I have to say multiple warriors made for a pretty quick run of that otherwise annoying tunnel.



Usually this is the part where we fight all of the mobs in the room before Giganticus Lupicus. This is probably my most favourite shortcut. We all hugged the left wall and once at the top of the big rock formation we destroyed the Orrian Eye in our way and jumped down. Again we hugged the left wall and once around the corner fought one of the closest undead mobs to us. Afterwards we were already at the two guarding the gate. We stayed in the left corner, out damaged them and the door to Lupicus opened for us. Ooohhh so much easier. Why have we not been doing this?



Giganticus Lupicus died on the first try. The only difference I noticed between our attempts as a guild and this random group were that one person was designated to kill the grub. I believe someone else was helping at times but this left everyone else free to DPS the boss fairly quickly into the second phase. I do notice that one thing is handy during the fight with Lupicus. Since the area is so large and you can remove yourself from combat to heal - you can also swap out any skills. I picked some specifically for the first phase and during the second realized I definitely needed to swap one out for my only truly helpful skill with stability for the third phase. Everyone did well to stay fairly spread out during the second and third phase. We resurrected anybody who needed the help. I noticed most had the resurrect signets/skills handy. My good buddy Lupicus picked on somebody else for a change (thankfully) and didn't stalk me. He ate no grubs. He died quickly. I was really happy!



Now for the next really fun part. No mobs need to be killed between Lupicus and the final boss. There is a ledge that you're able to jump onto (once you exit the boss area). This allows you to skip the undead lurking around the corner of that first wall. The rest is running without dying, getting yourself passed the champion giants and up onto the platform of the final boss.

The final boss fight is the usual. Two players kite mobs around the platform while three others stay in their circles until the ritual is complete. Followed by the death of the Wraithlord.



Congratulations - the undead chicken is cleansed! Wait - still undead, right? We still have work to do.

Oh, did I mention I only used one potion of undead slaying for this dungeon? The whole thing took about 45 minutes.



One more successful run and I will have the Gift of Color. Will it be a guild run to test out different shortcuts? Or will I try my hand with the LFG tool?

Why yes, I do overuse gifs.