INSTANCE GUIDE: Dragon Hidden Den

Miss_menace - Raging Tide

*** DISCLAIMER: I welcome any corrections or improvements to how to approach this new instance. This is just from the information I've gathered from various sources (as well as from experience). I will try to update as suggestions/corrections come in.***

The new Dragon Hidden Den Instance can be completed once a day for various prizes that help upgrade gear or skills. I believe you can enter more than once a day if you want to help, but you will only get the reward once. If everyone knows what they are doing and avoids dying, this is easily a 20-30 minute instance.

You do not need a full squad to enter the instance, but you will need a minimum of six people to complete the first stage. Strongly recommend having a cleric or mystic present for heals. Aps tanks are helpful for killing the first boss rapidly. Plenty of ranged DDs are a must in my opinion.

If you are entering for the first time, I strongly recommend invincibility potions or AD on your genie. If you are wearing a charm, get ready to lose a lot off it on your first few tries. Even a good cleric can't save you from a one-shot kill.

Click here for a video walkthrough.


ENTERING THE INSTANCE
1. Teleport to Cromagnon Village in the SW corner of the map.
2. Go to coords 96 306. This will take you to an area with a "lava hot tub" (take a dip and see haha) and some new NPCs.
3. In the spot where you land, there is a tall rock face. Run towards it and scale the surface until you are automatically teleported in. Click for pic.

The Instance has three tiers representing the three stages to be completed. Each stage is in two parts. You can only see one tier at a time. Completion of each stage takes you to the next tier.




STAGE ONE

You will be automatically dropped onto the highest tier upon entering the instance. Click for pic.

PART ONE: DESTROY THE TOTEMS
There are six totems in the outer circle, representing the 6 elements of damage. These must first be destroyed. Each totem is weak against its own element:

GREEN: wood (weak against wood)
BROWN: earth (weak against earth... etc. u get the picture)
GOLD: metal
BLUE: water
RED: fire
BEIGE?: physical (totem named "Item")

TIPS

1. All classes can do damage to every totem. But if you attack with damage other than the elemental totem of your attack skills, your damage is reduced to about 10% of your full damage.
   
2. The totems do damage to the attacker. However, it is nothing that a little potting or healing skill can't handle.
   
3. If you fight on the floor where the totems are, lava circles will spawn under you which will deal a lot of damage. For mages, its best to get on top of something (just get off the floor) where you are safe. For melee, its best for the cleric to stick with them and BB. Otherwise, just move when they spawn. Click for pic.

PART TWO: ACTIVATE THE MACHINE
Six members need to each climb up the large chains that radiate from the outer platform. You CAN FALL, so climb carefully. At the top will be a small ball of fire (Sealed Roaring Flame). This must be dug at the same time by all six members to release the next stage. Click for pic.

In the centre, an NPC (looks like a large bat) will spawn a quest. This will bring the squad to the next stage. Only the leader will see the quest.Click for pic.

TIPS:

1. You cannot see from the top of the chain if all members are in place. So the one who counts down the dig should ask for a "ready" from each of the six players when they arrive and are ready to dig.
2. If a player by mistake digs too early, it's ok. Just wait for it to respawn, and try again.

STAGE TWO
The squad will be dropped to the next tier of the instance. Where a large monster in firey chains will be in the middle.

PART ONE: CLOSE THE FIRE ORIGINS
From the four corners of the floor, fire spirits will eventually begin to spawn and creep close to the boss in the middle. The squad should distribute themselves to those four corners and kill the fire spirits that come in. Any spirit that reaches the boss will strengthen him for the kill in the next part. Click for pic. One Original Light (http://s19.postimg.org/yrqyhhegz/07originallight.jpg"]Click for pic[/URL] ) will drop from the fire spirits from each of the four sides which must be used to dig the four Fire Origins around the circle. Click for pic.

TIPS:

1. If your squad intends to distribute the drops from the bosses evenly between members at the end, consider putting your squad on FREE mode so that the runner can simply pick up the original lights and no worry about who got it.
2. Alternatively, whoever gets the original light when it is picked up should go dig an origin.
3. Once in a while a miniboss will also appear. He can be easily killed. Click for pic.

PART TWO: KILL BURIAL INFERNO
As soon as all Fire origins are closed, the boss in the middle will become active and will begin to attack if anyone is nearby. If this is your first time, you will want to consider having everyone get off the platform to prepare for the kill.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BOSS
The boss itself isn't a hard kill and can even be killed with BP + crabs alone. The boss does not identify a tank. It is pure aoe attack, and for lower HP characters, can be quite deadly. Healers beware. He also has two massive aoes that will one-shot anyone in the squad. But don't worry, there's a message that let's you know it's coming. The more people who are killed, the harder the boss will be to control. Once a quota of kills is reached, he will send a massive aoe which will wipe out the squad, and you will have to start the boss again. So everyone needs to be vigilant about their HP, not just the healer!

NOTE: If you die, you will spawn beside two portals. You are able to buff before going in.
Red Portal: get back in the fight.
Blue Portal: leave the instance.

THE FLOATING ORBS
Also, there are three kinds of orbs that spawn as a group on the platform as well as beside it. These are squad buffs to help you survive the kill. Click for pic.

BLUE: similar to cleric's BB. (regeneration aura)
RED: similar to cleric's RB (heaven's wrath)
WHITE: increased channeling

THE SHOUTS
There are two shouts to pay attention to. Both are one-shot kills and must be responded to within 5 seconds or suffer the consequences of death.

Burning Inferno is preparing for a severe blast.
A massive aoe that will one-shot anyone unprotected. someone needs to hit a blue ball to spawn the aura. Anyone inside during the blast will be protected. Click for pic.

Burning Inferno is preparing to grind everything nearby.
A massive local aoe limited to the platform where the boss is located. Anyone not standing on the platform will survive the hit. Sounds easy for ranged huh? Well there's a catch. The boss will reel in all squad members towards himself. You will need to get out of there within the 5 second window. As long as you are off the platform, you will be safe. No need to run as far as timbucktoo. You'll want to get back into the fight as soon as possible. Click for pic.

When the boss dies, it will drop some Dragon Blood Stones which the banker can pick up unless you are running with a random squad.

Buff up and get ready for the next stage. The NPC appears with a quest for the leader again.

TIPS:

1. It's extremely important not to activate the blue orb until the boss is ready to blast everyone. The aura's do not last long enough to protect you constantly, and they do not respawn in time for the next blast. If someone by mistake activates it early, then the squad needs to move to the next closest blue orb.
2. The squad needs to stay together in order to get into the blue aura asap. This is not as easy as it sounds. When the boss reels all the members in, it is easy for the squad to run out in panic and be scattered around the area. Strategize with the squad to ensure everyone's safe. be sure everyone is in range of a aoe heal as well.
3. When you start in a new area with a blue orb, activate the red and white orbs to give immediate attack advantage. Save the blue orb for when it's needed.
4. If you have enough damage among the ranged DDs, the melee's can simply sit this boss kill out and be responsible for activating orbs. However, there are orbs on the platform if they want to form their own mini squad as well that functions in the same way. Having an aps killing the boss will help things go faster. Note that if you fight the boss while standing on the platform, you will get an attack debuff, which makes you attack painfully slow.
5. Because of the constant aoe attacks, a cleric may opt to BB. It will not get interrupted until the part when the squad is reeled in. Until then, it's a life-saver on the stress nerve!

STAGE THREE
The squad will be dropped to the last tier of the instance. Killing the boss in this stage will complete the quest you received when you first entered the instance.

PART ONE: OBTAIN PILLS
On the centre platform will be mobs that look like miniature versions of the missive boss. They are aggro-able, but relatively harmless. AOE players, go to town!! These mobs will drop important pills which will help each member survive the boss kill. Pick up about 10 each.

SOUL CLEANSING PILL: immediately removes any debuffs on you
BEETLE GASBAG: thrusts you high into the air.

The mobs continue to respawn even while the boss is there, and will even attack members during the boss. So if you run out of pills, you can always get more.
Click for pic.

TIPS:

1. Consider placing the two pills on your skill bar so you can quickly use them when needed.
2. The pills stay in your inventory even after you leave the instance. Unfortunately, the pills only stack to 10, so getting a whole load of them with a full bag is not wise. You want room for your drops and for your reward after as well.
3. Use the Beetle gasbag to jump and hit coins in the air for a very powerful attack buff (double damage)! There are two types of coins. The brighter gold will give you a double attack buff that stays with you as long as you are alive in the instance. The duller silver coins will seal you. If you pan your camera above you can see that the gold coins are always in the centre of a ring of the silver coins.
4. One way of obtaining the gold coin buff is to point your camera straight up in the air until it won't go anymore and then use your directional keys to move until a gold coin is right in the middle of your name above your head. Click for pic.

PART TWO: KILL YELLING TO THE SKY
The boss is located outside of the tier. This means he cannot be attacked at melee range if you are standing on the ground in front of him. There is a platform where melee's can reach him. He is also difficult to see whole on the screen which I think is purposely done to make escape from his special attacks more difficult.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BOSS
As mentioned, the boss is best killed at range. So make sure there are enough strong ranged attackers to get the job done. Also, it has that nasty buff that reduces damage from normal attacks. So using skills is most effective. However having strong melee people in your squad will be essential. The boss has three distinct characteristics that everyone in the squad needs to respond to:

1. Spawns an add on the floor which quickly regenerates the bosses HP.
2. Two special attacks, both preceded by a warning on screen.
3. Places a buff on the squad that amps damage (icon looks like a yellow and black nuclear sign). Then he sends a DoT debuff on random members in the squad. Use your soul cleansing pill to remove these buffs instantaneously. Click for pic.
4. Spawns groups of mobs that attack single members. BMs, sins, or seekers are very helpful to assist with these mobs. They die easily, but also do a lot of damage when they are all hitting the same person.
5. There is also a fourth characteristic but very minor and nothing you can do about it. The boss has an aoe knockback skill but seldom appears.

THE ADD:
The little add is named Chen Yen and shows up just in front of the boss on the floor. This add, if not killed fast, will go aps, and then heal the boss back to full HP. I believe it is elemental immune as well. Someone tried to time it and can approximate about 2 minutes to kill it before it goes aps and heals the boss. Still looking for confirmation of this. Click for pic.

THE SHOUTS
There are two different shouts to pay attention to. Both are one-shot kills and must be responded to within 5 seconds or suffer the consequences of death.

Yelling To The Sky's right hand becomes hot rapidly or
Yelling To The Sky's left hand becomes quite broiling or
The boss has two giant fists on each side of him. The warnings tell you which fist will be coming down hard. It is a one-shot kill area aoe. Simply move out of the way, click an immunity apoc that you may have, or use the Beetle Gasbag you picked up to jump high out of reach from his aoe. Time it right!

Blazing is rolling in Yelling To The Sky's throat!
This warning means the boss is about to spew a giant area of lava in front of him that will give you only a second or two to live. Again, JUST MOVE! Or you can use the Beetle Gasbag to jump high into the ground and land in a safe spot. If you happen to land in the lava again, you may lose a lot of HP (hopefully you have enough left to survive) and simple jump again and give it another try. You will have to wait for the lava to disappear before you begin attacking again (unless someone knows a safe place to stand in order to attack).Click for pic.

When the boss dies, a chest spawns in the middle of the floor (where the mobs used to be). Simple dig it and it will drop more Dragon Blood Stones like from the previous boss. There is also a rare chance of a flyer dropping. The stats and race are random. Click for pic.

SECRET ROOM:
If you complete the instance within around 45 minutes, a black dragon appears in the sky. I guess this is the dragon's hidden den? ;D Use the gasbag to jump up to him and you will be teleported directly to his secret den where you can dig for an ecstasy card. You can choose to drop the coin for 100K each, or otherwise, first person to hit it is the winner. Click for pic.

TIPS:

1. If you have a psy who can aoe purify, this is a great time to use it when the squad has been amped.
2. Even though it doesn't require a full squad of 10 to activate the instance, you will find it hard to kill this boss without full strength of damage. Between killing the add, killing the mobs which continue to attack you after the boss spawns, and killing the boss itself, you'll find its a lot of responsibility for a small squad, or a squad with too many melee characters (less sins, more mages is better).
3. Apparently Chen Yen (the miniboss that heals the big boss) can be lured away by a barb and killed so that you can get away from the boss's lava attack.
4. I am told that there is a small platform of some sort near the boss where a ranged character can stand to attack away from the aoes. However, the boss may knock you back and into the lava below... so you will need to be ready to use your beetle gasbag pills and holy path to get back on the platform before you die.
5. The attack buff from the coins are very effective. In fact, some would say essential. Everyone in the squad should attempt to get the buff. It will make your life a little easier. Do this before you start the boss.
6. Melees (or all toons for that matter) can stand on the platform just below the boss to attack him. I found that if you stand just behind him and as close to the edge of the platform as possible, its is quite safe. If everyone gets on the platform with a couple of clerics, you can have the two clerics take turns BBing, and the seeker/BM constantly aoe to ensure you get all the spawning mobs and draw aggro from chen yen. The sin or some physical aps needs to take care of chen yen and so should make sure they have the attack buff from the coins before you start attacking the boss from here. BM's HF is also very effective here. Click for pic.
7. everyone should have at least 10-20 purifying pills on them when you start the boss. Spam this skill. It makes the difference between dying slow and dying fast.

YOU HAVE NOW COMPLETED THE DRAGON HIDDEN DEN! If you have chosen to do a banked run, let the leader distribute the Dragon Blood Stone drops from the two bosses. I believe these are used to create R8R armor from T2 gear.

To exit the instance there is a glowing red teleport circle at the edge of the platform. (there's one on each tier actually). Go through it and you will spawn in the location where you go when you die, and simply exit out the blue door. JUMPING OFF THE EDGE IS NOT A GOOD IDEA (unless you want to die) b:shocked

Speak to the NPC outside to hand in your quest. You will be given a choice of six rewards:
10 Dragon Blood Stones
1 Dragon Jade Stone (Character Bound)
4 Old Book Pages
4 Pages of Fate
80 Ultimate Substances
1 Knight Order: Gives 800 Reputation
(thanks phmn)

Hope this helps. Have fun all! b:bye



YouTube Resources:
My Video Walkthrough (HD): http://youtu.be/fZjexec3vZY
Leviathan Faction run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GGcd16xg_tc#t=360 (thanks Eamane!)
Vicious Faction run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDqbEcKhnNA (thanks LightingAP)
Russian Server Run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf8AP7fNhV8
Assassin Solo Run: http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1632131
From Barb Perspective: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8YpO0Ku8MM&feature=youtu.be

Other Resources:
http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1631121
http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1632001
http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=19920161&postcount=34
http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=19925831&postcount=4

Asterelle - Sanctuary_1381265973

Ehh it's probably of interest to a large number of people atm so General Discussion is fine for a few days. As more people become aware of what to do a mod can move it to a more appropriate forum.

On the third boss I found a pretty cheesy strat that made the fight much easier. If you stand on the pillar behind him he won't be able to hit you with most of his attacks. He does occasionally knock you off the pillar but you can recover by using the beetle pill to gain some altitude and holy pathing to steer back onto to pillar.

You should also mention the floating coins in that room you can reach with a jump pill that give you attack buffs.

There's also some kind of hidden room that gives you an ecstasy card that I'm not sure how to get to it. http://www.pwdatabase.com/pwi/quest/29979 I'm guessing you get there by going to 415,3 but I haven't tried yet.

Mosz - Heavens Tear

Miss_menace - Raging Tide wrote: »

is there someone else with a guide too?

yes, and heres a hint, theres thee of them- yes all 3 posts have full guides in them- one a video tutorial, all 3 on the first page of general discussion, should be easy to find..

yours is very nicely organized though, even if missing a few things as mentioned by Astrelle

Mosz - Heavens Tear

anyways after a few days this instance is easy- down to under 20 minutes a run with half+ randoms, was trying to farm it some to see the aero gear item drop and an untamed one finally did, but augment devices are rare and i think the news post said if you get one you get a flier anyway if you send in a ticket

Miss_menace - Raging Tide

Mosz - Heavens Tear wrote: »

you didnt even update/fix the numerous errors from the last post

Sorry ive been away last 10 days on the vacation from hell... still recovering (came off the plane on a wheelchair and out of emergency 5 hours later on crutches... and that's not even the worst of it.)

About the posting... this is what happened.

Im a newbie guide maker... its my first attempt. I went ahead and posted it in General Discussion. Then someone responded that it was in the wrong forum and to post it in Dungeons and Tactics. So I did.

I went back to delete the one in General Discussion only to find... that i dont think its possible to delete. So I tried to upkeep two of them hoping that one would eventually be removed.

Day of my vacation, moderators pulled out this guide from General Discussion and put it in Dungeons and Tactics while my other one was still there. So now there's too floating around. I have to go dig through suggested changes now and change them on TWO posts. Vacation had no internet... and when i did have an opportunity i was either throwing up or pretty much konked out on the bed.

I'll send in a ticket now and have them remove one. It's silly to have both there i agree.

opkossy

Just toss one of us a PM. No need for a ticket. b:cute


As for the bickering... again, PM a mod so we can handle it instead of derailing a thread. Sure there's a few of us but we're still human and can miss things. I've cleaned up the unrelated nonsense and don't want to see it popping back up.

Miss_menace - Raging Tide

OPKossy wrote: »

Just toss one of us a PM. No need for a ticket. b:cute

Just in case anyone doubted my nabness at forum posting, there it is! haha. Thanks for the quick response. I appreciate it. I'm rifling through all the new posts about this instance that popped up when i was on vacation to see if any updates are warranted. I'll try to do a HQ video playthrough sometime this weekend so i can update the blurry pics.

Man - Raging Tide

Meelees can stand right underneath boss and kill him, i'm not sure what the drawback to all standing right below boss is, i think you rarely get hit with lava, and aoes hit both the boss and the flame splirit Chen Yen.

after the cave is done ~ one person can get to the secret room by jumping into a black dragon that spawns and flys around. For the dragon to spawn you have to complete instance in a certain time ~ or achieve requirements that i don't know about! Sometimes it will spawn ,other times not.

jamesmcd

I have a g16 psy with just over 5.7k hp unbuffed.

At the boss Burial Inferno almost every time he shouts -burning inferno is preparing for a severe blast- I am one shot even when I am in the protection aura.

Is the damage he does depend on the number of people unprotected?
Is there some delay between hitting the blue ball and the aura being effective?
Do I have to use Psychic Will or ironguard or AD here every time I want to survive?

Miss_menace - Raging Tide

Okay so I finally got around to recording one of our daily runs in the Dragon Hidden Den. Pictures should be a lot more clear (except for the first one... i forgot to start the recording! haha)

Also I added my own video walkthrough which I hope will prove to be helpful. Sometimes the very first run with super OPs is not necessarily the way it is eventually done.

There's also updates on how to kill the last boss (since many squads quit here out of frustration), as well as information about the secret room with the ecstasy card. There's also a link to a flyer that dropped for us. Not that impressive, but the flyer drop is random.

I'll keep tweaking it as I have a chance! b:pleased

XDeliciousx - Morai

Heya!

I also made video guide with some new tips and tricks we discovered lately but also old ones for people who didnt do HDD yet.

This is how Revision do it every day with 2-3 squads (~20 min runs):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZjexec3vZY&feature=youtu.be

This video is from cleric's perspective.