TERA Online Darkan Guide

TERA Online Darkan Guide by GarzyWarzy

This was meant to be a short guide that I could just send to people to help them with SCNM. Figured I’d put it here as well.

Sky Cruiser Endeavor – Darkan (last boss)

Darkan is the last boss encounter of the Sky Cruiser Endeavor dungeon and its Hard Mode. He is harder on average compared to most other bosses in the game, and there are a lot of mechanics and patterns to look out for. That being said, Darkan is very straightforward after a few practice runs, and understanding the boss’s skills and attack patterns is helpful for clearing SCNM and absolutely essential for clearing SCHM. This guide is aimed mainly to help me explain it to people who I run through, but I figured I might as well give it to those in the community who may or may not need this resource for themselves or their friends.

Prerequisites:

  • Tank needs gear that allows him to block Darkan’s normal attacks.
  • DPS need Eclipse potions to make the fight smoother and must be able to pass the Minion Phase DPS check.
  • Healer must have Cleanse bound.
  • ALL MEMBERS must be able to iframe properly.

Skill Overview:

This guide is for the demon version of Darkan in SCNM that spawns after you get the first one to 90%. If you wipe on the first version of Darkan, disband party and leave the instance. Darkan will enrage at 25%, making him do more damage, but otherwise the fight will be exactly the same.

Darkan has his standard attacking phase, and special phases. The special phases are extremely simple, and there is really no excuse for botching them after your first few runs. All of his normal attacks stop for the duration of the special phases, and those are really the ones that cause groups to wipe. That being said, if you aren’t able to move out of bright red circles, this boss, and perhaps this game, may not be the right one for you.

Special Phases

Bomb Phase – The boss will spin into the air and a message will appear on your screen saying, “All they are is dust.” This is your queue to run straight away from the boss, as he will deal lethal damage (barring Reaper and Berserker cooldowns) in a 20m circle around him after a few seconds.

NOTE: Don’t go crazy and overshoot running away from the boss. It wastes damage, and can end up killing you if he Annihilates right after.

Dot Phase – The boss will rise into the air and circles will appear around all group members. After 3 seconds, these circles will lock onto the floor, and you should get out of it before a Damage over Time (DoT) appears in the circle. These need to be placed intelligently (as close to the sides as possible) around the platform while running away from where you’re tanking the boss, as bad placement will choke your group’s movement during special phases, or kill you if Flame Wing hits you into them.

NOTE: The circle indicators glitch out a lot, but it’s the same thing every time, just get used to it.

Annihilation Phase – The reason you should be staying close to the boss. This is the same as Fulminar’s Annihilation phase, except with three sections. Avoid the orange sections – if you get hit, expect to die. Do not get locked outside of the cage, or else you will die after the end of Annihilation.

NOTE: A priest can pull someone into the cage.

Minion Phase – Darkan will disappear from the ship and summon a ghostly minion near the center of the ship. This ghost will lock-on to a target and melee attack for 30k per hit. He should be stunned for as long as possible and DPSed down very quickly. If this does not die, the entire party will be killed by Darkan at the end of the phase. If DPS is low, save cooldowns (Brooches, class-specific steroids) for this phase to ensure that you actually live through it.

Those are all of the special phases for the Darkan encounter, and you should understand why I consider them the “easy” phases when you actually fight him on your own. Now, I’ll give an overview of his normal attacks and the patterns that he uses them in.

“Normal” Attacks

Basic Attack – This is Darkan’s basic attack, but PAY ATTENTION TO THE ARMS. If you pay attention to the arm that he attacks with, you will understand the entire fight and barely get hit. I will get into why this is important later.

Empowered Attack – This is Darkan’s basic attack on steroids. His swords will be glowing for two consecutive hits, and these attacks will CLEAVE through the tank. If your tank is losing aggro, this will be one of the primary reasons for your group taking massive damage. The second hit of this attack will apply a burn debuff, which must be cleansed.

NOTE: He can use ONE Empowered Attack as a secondary aggro attack, and it hurts a lot so be ready to dodge.

Backswipe Attack – Darkan will swing his swords backwards and apply a bleed debuff. This is the #1 reason that inexperienced DPS die, and this is why the attack patterns will be important to understand. DPS should be looking for the pattern, and iframing this at all times.

Sideswipe Attack – Darkan will swipe a sword to one side of him very slowly and do a large amount of damage. This has a fairly small hitbox, and DPS generally will not be hit if they are positioned correctly for Flame Wing anyways.

Flame Wing – This is the most important of his normal attacks. He will use this attack very often, and is the biggest reason that newer parties will wipe on average. He will slam his sword onto the ground on one side of him, and he will blast the entire OPPOSITE side of him and push them away, while applying a flame debuff. All party members must be aware of when he is doing this, or else it’ll cause a lot of grief for the healer. The AoE for Flame Wing is extremely large, and you should exercise caution no matter where you are on the ship.

Example: If Darkan slams his RIGHT sword, and it is glowing and he stops, he is about to shoot the Flame Wing on his LEFT side. If Darkan slams his LEFT sword, and it’s glowing and he stops, he is about to shoot the Flame Wing on his RIGHT side. Iframe or avoid it as if your life depended on it, because it does.

Sword Throw – Secondary aggro skill. Darkan will turn away from the tank and throw a sword at a random target. It will do initial damage and create a huge AoE DoT field that everyone must get out of. It does almost 20k per tick, and ticks more than twice per second. You do the math. If you see him turn away from the tank, it is almost always this attack or Empowered Attack, so you should be iframing to the side either way.

Charge Attack – Very straightforward. He will glow and then charge at the person he has aggro on. If the tank blocks the attack, he will not move past them. Don’t be right on top of him when he uses it and you’ll be fine.

Dodge This! – Not so much of an attack and more of an indicator. He will say, “Dodge this!” and immediately start a Flame Wing.

Now that his attacks are covered, I will go into his attack patterns. All of these normal attacks are used in very specific patterns for the most part, so if all members of the party are paying attention to these, then no one should ever take damage.

Attack Patterns

Normal (left hand) → Normal → Normal → Empowered Normal → Flame Wing

If you see him start with a normal attack with his LEFT arm, that means he will continue to the end of this pattern. This is what I consider to be the “free DPS” pattern, so capitalize on the fact that this pattern is so long and predictable as much as you can.

Normal (right hand) → Normal → Backswipe → Empowered

If you see him start with a normal attack with his RIGHT hand, that means he will do one more normal, then use his Backswipe attack, and then Empowered on the tank. Make sure you iframe the Backswipe if you are in range.

Empowered → Empowered → Backswipe → Backswipe → Charge

Pretty straightforward. Dodge the Backswipes if you’re DPS, because it hurts like hell. He will charge once, and if he is far from the party, he will charge again to get back in range.

Dodge This! → Flame Wing

A fast Flame Wing. Just pay attention and avoiding this should be a breeze.

He can weave secondary aggro attacks in between these patterns (Empowered and Sword Throw), so the healer and DPS should be cognizant of that.

The Fight

If you’ve read this far, the fight will be extremely easy if you have the reaction speed to dodge his attacks, and the gear required (Ambit +12 preferred for tanks, +12 weapon and gloves for DPS). There’s really not much more to the fight itself after adapting to these attack patterns. You may notice that I mention attack patterns a lot – pay attention to the attack patterns.

The boss should be tanked in the center of the ship to give the group ample room to maneuver around during his special phases. Everyone should understand his attack patterns, and the tank should be able to block/avoid basically all of his attacks, since he is extremely predictable. He will go into Minion Phase twice in the fight, and enrage at 25% HP. Avoid his attacks, and he will die.

Happy gear hunting!

Tips & Tricks

  • If you’re running lancer get him to enrage the boss right away, same with 2nd boss of the dungeon. They stay enraged, their attacks don’t increase in speed or damage and you do more damage. (thanks to: Ranqer)
  • Stay alive. Other than Minion Phase, he has no actual wipe mechanics. You cannot run back into this boss like you can for BRHM bosses, so STAY ALIVE.
  • Dot Phase will put you in combat, if you are trying to switch crystals or charm during the fight.
  • Flame Wing is really, really big. If you are ressing someone, charming, or doing anything far from the boss, you still need to pay attention.
  • You can attack Darkan during Annihilation Phase. If the outer circle is lit first, the center will never be hit second.
  • Focused Niveots will not actually do anything until he enrages at 25%. unless the Lancer uses Infuriate. If you want to maximize DPS, you can switch into it before he enrages. HOWEVER, do not prioritize this over staying alive.
  • Dying will distract your healer, and goes against staying alive. Your healer will be occupied trying to keep everyone cleansed and topped off, and on top of that, they’ll have to res your dumb ass while watching for secondary aggro and Flame Wing. Do yourself and your group a favor, and STAY ALIVE.
  • Use consumables. This applies for other dungeons as well, but you’re doing the current content in the game. Make sure your scrolls, nostrums, and Eclipse Potions (unless you’re a tank) are up at all times, and preferably have some HP/Mana/Warding Scrolls on hand to help your run out.

This concludes my guide for Darkan in SCNM. Please let me know if you notice anything wrong – any comments, questions, and concerns will be appreciated. Hopefully this helps some people out.

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