2021 First Timers Guide: World of Darkness

World of Darkness is the third raid in the Crystal Tower Alliance Raid series from A Realm Reborn. This is my favourite of the three, but it’s also the one that sees the most wipes in Duty Finder even with level sync because of the high damage, debuffs, and a couple of mechanics that cause instant death.

For newer players keen to pull their weight, many guides they read or watch will have a ton of information rendered irrelevant due to experienced players safely ignoring specific fight tactics or skipping past boss phases with their high DPS.

My goal with this series of guides is to give you the information most relevant to how the content is played currently, and tips to help you still contribute meaningfully to the raid’s success. For each section, a couple of notes will tell you everything you need to know about playing the encounter as your chosen role. Below these I’ll put any other notes on the fight.

Dungeon Mobs – ‘Clear the Eye’

– Three massive puddles will spawn that deal damage over time.

Tank

– Pull the enemies towards the front of the arena where you entered to avoid the large pool AoEs that spawn.

– Be ready to interrupt Ram’s Voice or Dragon’s Voice with Interject.

– After the Garm mobs are dead, more enemies will spawn around the arena. Grab aggro of a pack and bring them to the center. The Two-Headed Dragon has a cleave so face it away from the party.

Healer

– Stay far from the Garms to avoid being frozen by Ram’s Voice. Paralysis debuffs from Dragon’s Voice can be cleansed with Esuna.

DPS

– Interrupt Ram’s Voice and Dragon’s Voice with Head Graze. If you’re Melee, prioritize stunning any mob casting Ram’s Voice with Leg Sweep.

Boss Fight – Angra Mainyu

– Look away from the boss when Mortal Gaze finishes casting to avoid the Doom debuff. Cleanse the Doom debuff by running over the glowing circles on the arena floor.

– When Double Vision is cast, the red and white parts of the floor afflict you with different stacking debuffs. Next time it is cast, stand on the other colour and receive the other debuff.

– When red or purple tethers appear during Level 100 Flare or Level 150 Doom, move out of the tethered circle.

– Destroy Final Hourglass adds when they spawn around the edge of the arena. If things are going well, the second set of Hourglass adds can often be ignored if the boss is already low HP (~15%).

Tank

– Main Tank holds the boss in the center, facing the boss north. Be sure to look away during Mortal Gaze because If you need to move to go cleanse doom you may cleave the party with the boss’s untelegraphed frontal line AoE.

– Offtanks should be ready to take the main tank’s position if they go down. Keep the boss facing north to avoid cleaving everyone.

– After the Final Hourglasses are killed offtanks should grab the two Daewa adds that spawn.

Healer

– The Main Tank will take significant damage from the untelegraphed line AoE targeted at them.

– Watch the party list for Doom debuffs that aren’t being cleansed so you’re ready to raise players ASAP.

DPS

– Destroy the Hourglass adds when they spawn, and then the Daewa adds after that.

– The Daewa adds’ Paralyze can be interrupted with Head Graze, and Eyes on Me can be stunned with Leg Sweep to avoid raidwide damage.

I’ve loaded into many an in-progress run of World of Darkness because people left after an Angra Mainyu wipe or two. This is the hardest boss fight you’ll have encountered in Alliance Raids so far, and it catches new players off guard especially after the snoozefest that was Syrcus Tower.

Dungeon Mobs – ‘Clear the Nape’

– Destroy the gates that spawn on either side of the arena.

Tank

– Interrupt the Scylla or Xande Clone with Interject when they cast Ancient Flare or Ancient Quaga.

– If the gates are not destroyed, adds will spawn. Pick them up and group them for AoE damage.

Healer

– Watch the Main Tank’s health and help destroy the gates.

DPS

– A Ranged DPS can use any level Limit Break to hit all three gates on one side. A Caster DPS can hit two gates with LB1 or all three with LB2.

– Scylla and Xande can be interrupted with Head Graze or Leg Sweep to stop their Ancient Flare or Ancient Quaga casts.

Boss Fight – Five-headed Dragon

– The purple marker is a stack mechanic so group with others.

– The orange marker is a giant AoE so run to the edge away from the party.

– The red tethers apply damage and a stacking debuff. Pass the tether by standing on top of another player.

– AoE the dragon heads when they spawn.

– Ice puddles will spread, so move away from them to avoid being frozen and damaged.

Tank

– Main Tank pulls the boss up north so the rest of the group has plenty of room to move around the arena for mechanics.

– Offtanks can stand in poison puddles and soak damage to prevent adds from spawning.

Healer

– Watch out for players with the Suppuration debuff from the fire tethers.

– You can stand in poison puddles to prevent adds from spawning. Heal yourself through the poison damage.

– If the fight goes on long enough, Heat Wave will apply the Pyretic debuff and damage players that take actions, so heal through this.

DPS

– Kill Prominence and Poison Slime adds quickly.

– If the Toxic Slime spawns and is not killed, it will silence the whole raid. Bards can use The Warden’s Paean (pre-emptively or reactively) to dispel one of the Healers so they can help recover the group.

Dungeon Mobs – ‘Clear the Jaws’

– Split up into Alliance groups A, B, and C.

– The Atomos will mark one player to be consumed. Move away from that player so you don’t get sucked in by the cone AoE as well.

– Move into the center or use Arm’s Length/Surecast for the knockback from Shockwave.

– Step on the glowing pads to activate the jump pads for other Alliances, allowing them back onto their platform.

Tank

– Pick up the add that spawns and face it away from the party.

Healer

– The player holding aggro may change if the Tank gets knocked off the platform, so pay close attention to health bars.

DPS

– The Atomos will be revived a number of times, which takes a moment each time it is killed. Damage applied while it’s at 0.1% HP is wasted, so be smart about your resource usage and make sure it’s being put towards effective damage.

Boss Fight – Cerberus

– Watch out for an untelegraphed frontal cleave on the main tank as well as a fast conal attack behind the boss, Tail Blow.

– The first player to get a marker will drop a Gastric Juice add and the second player will drop a purple puddle of goop from which Wolfsbane adds spawn. Place these off to the sides behind the boss.

– To enter the boss’s belly, first stand in the AoE cast by the Gastric Juice add to shrink down in size. Then move to the purple goop on the floor and the boss will walk over and eat you.

– Most groups have Alliance B handle the belly mechanic, but usually there will be new players or people not paying attention and DPS from other Alliances need to go in and help.

– After the belly mechanic is over two players need to bring the chains from the far north corners and attach them to each of the boss’s sides by clicking on the sparkly ‘Open Fetter’ interaction.

Tank

– Main tank should avoid spinning the boss unpredictably because of the front and rear cone attacks. Move the boss away from the Gastric Juice add and purple goop to give melee DPS more room.

– An offtank should pick up the Wolfsbane adds that spawn, and fight them to the side of the boss.

– If both those things are handled, the other offtank can enter the belly and hold aggro of the Unknown adds that spawn in there.

Healer

– Pay attention to the main tank; the boss will apply vulnerability debuffs and they’ll take more damage.

– Several attacks in this fight apply bleed damage or vulnerability debuffs.

– Be ready to handle the chains mechanic if necessary.

DPS

– Wolfsbane adds can be stunned with Leg Sweep.

– Ranged players can preposition to handle the chain mechanic most easily.

This is definitely one of the more complicated bosses for new players, so do your best and for Tanks especially you should ask your party what to focus on if you’re unsure.

Boss Fight – Cloud of Darkness

– If you get the marker during Feint Particle Beam, run FAR away because the AoE will follow behind you.

– When the boss becomes untargetable get away from the middle of the arena. When it reappears it will fire a large line AoE through the center.

– Meteor/tower markers will spawn. One player needs to be in each one to prevent raidwide damage. You have to stand in the center of the marker.

– Kill cloud adds before they reach the boss. Standing between the cloud and the boss will slow the cloud’s movement speed.

– After the cloud adds, move inside one of the three cages with Hypercharged Cloud adds so you can destroy them.

Tank

– Main tank should space out defensive cooldowns to mitigate the boss’s autoattacks. Avoid standing in meteor/tower markers so you don’t take extra damage.

– Offtanks should be ready to take aggro if the Main Tank goes down. The autoattacks will kill a DPS quickly.

Healer

– Pay attention to the Main Tank; Autoattacks from the boss deal high, steady damage.

– Help cover meteor towers that are far from the boss and kill cloud adds.

DPS

– Ranged players should cover meteor towers that are far from the boss and kill cloud adds.

– Melee players should cover meteor towers near the boss and generally ignore cloud adds unless the ranged players aren’t killing them quickly enough.

Often you can kill this last boss before the final set of meteor towers, but I always recommend ranged players be ready to handle them just in case.

Hopefully your first run went well, and if anything caught you by surprise you’ll be ready next time!