Advice for Akylios progression?

[Boromir]

Dodging waves is the key to victory

[mdnitesky]

Great thread, thanks for the awesome ideas

[CreepyD]

As our main 51 Chloro, the biggest advice I can give is to make sure someone calls out when the apostle is weakened on P2 - That Chloro should have a macro to immediately switch to it since you get double damage, and thus double heals.

Nobody dies when I'm able to target a weakened apostle unless we have incredibly bad luck and people get insta killed.

We often used to lose a tank in the transition from P2 -> P3 - again a chloro can put synth on said tank and hit the weakened Apostle - that tank should be unkillable with 5-6k heals per second.

[Sebb]

Great thread, thanks for the awesome ideas

Ya this was a great thread. +1 to the OP. We managed to get close to P3 in our first week.

[The Witchking]

Well I'm glad this thread has helped more guilds than my own. I'm honestly surprised that it's taken this long for a discussion to pop up, but it seems like most guilds are at the same progression levels.

Big thanks to the Voodoo guys for being so helpful, it's nice to know you're willing to help out the community so openly. Excellent work with your website and stellar responses on the official forums. I'm sure I speak for hundreds of guilds when I say that we couldn't have done it without you.

[Pooshonmyshoos]

This is a fight with multiple individual assignments, individual movement/awareness, but overall you are working together. It is expertly designed to test every single person's abilities as a raider.

Phase 1:

Until your DPS is solid, keep apostles away from the group until a deepclaw is almost dead, then pull it in so it is near the deepclaw when it dies. This removes a buff on the apostle that allows OTHER trash near it to take less damage AND gives it a debuff that makes the apostle take twice as much damage. This fight is similar, however, to Alsbeth in that the timers are built around the boss, NOT around how many trash you kill, so if you focus on killing trash, you're not progressing the fight. Work on getting Jornaru to 50% by about 2.5 minutes in, and you'll have two sets of trash to deal with. Get them debuffed properly and they won't be that much of an issue.

Two things in this wave will wipe you: First, waves, obviously. Have a designated person watching timers that is calling waves 5 seconds before they hit and then when they hit. If you feel the need to call a side here too, do it fast as well. But keep in mind that everyone that needs to dodge waves must be aware that it is THEIR responsibility to dodge waves, and must be ready with or without the call. If you can't learn to dodge waves in P1, you'll never be able to do so in P4 when they are much harder. Second, not interrupting apostles "Tidal Storm." Ugh, the amount of times we wiped due to Tidal Storm. For the Apostle that is out of the raid, the tank on him (we used a rogue for this when we still pulled them out) is responsible for interrupting. Make a hotkey! Once the apostle is pulled in, this responsibility is given to a warrior in melee. Rinse and repeat for second apostle. The hardest time to keep up interrupts is when you have trash still up during transitions between platforms as they will absolutely cast mid run while you're trying to press spacebar and w at the same time. Assign back up ranged interrupters for this with MARKED apostles!

I think getting through phase 1 was harder than almost anything else in the fight. Once you can regularly get to phase 2, you should realize this is a big accomplishment.

Phase 2:

Again, timers on this phase are based around killing of lashers and stingers, NOT trash, so keep the focus on them. You will get an Apostle + 2 Deepclaws around the time the first and third lashers are dying. Pull apostle out, mark one deepclaw and when that deepclaw is low health, have the apostle tank pull it out. DO NOT KILL this deepclaw until the second apostle is with it. Then, burn down marked deepclaw to debuff both apostles, and then bring all the trash together.

Watch agro on lashers - they can one-shot melee folks instantly if you lose agro as tank and will do cleaving spray if the person they have agro on isn't in range. This can be interrupted via STUN (tempest mirror FTW - give it to all of your warrior dps).

Orbs can be rough here - make sure to have a marked person in melee that you stack on for everything that is not an idiot. And have a person designated to call "ORB on name" each time. You have a TON of time in P2 to get to the group before the orb hits. Do not stand around waiting for it when you could be dpsing a lasher or you will fall behind. Get to the lasher fast and let the orb hit there. Work on moving together as a group (think Grug, but a bit faster shuffling).

Honestly, phase 2 is easiest of all phases. If you can master P1, P2 should come fairly quickly. Make sure to interrupt apostles during platform transition!

Phase 3:

Good news, no more new adds. You will still likely have some up from P2, so keep them interrupted and just pull them to lashers and cleave them down. Akylios will likely show up while you are still killing a lasher until you get the hang of it a bit. This is fine, but be prepared for a breath while you are either still on the lasher or when you are running to Akylios. Again, you're going to want a designated person calling breaths that can reliably determine which direction it is going and fast. This person needs to be at ranged (we use same person as those who call orbs). One hint - if he is going to breathe left or right, he will lift a tentacle on that side. Watch for it and you'll be able to identify it quicker. If the breath is MID, you can still be hit on the left or right. Just get to max melee range on his side. Call out people by name that are getting hit by tick after tick of wave. Getting hit by breath puts a short debuff on you that makes you take more damage. This WILL kill people with mind control, so be careful!

Phase 3 is about learning to run from breaths and stacking properly for mind control and orbs. You will have sets of lashers to kill after every third breath. Hopefully you will get Akylios to 55% by about the third submerge. Keep in mind that Akylios takes about 7% damage per set of adds during submerge. If it is timed to push him past 55% while he is submerged (say he goes down at 59%), Jornaru WILL spawn while Akylios is submerged so have your designated tank ready to grab him.

Phase 4 is a cluster**** because of waves, but honestly if you have gotten this far, there's only two new pieces to deal with. Waves are a nightmare for those poor clerics. Do not freak out on people that die to waves. Work with them to figure out how to better understand how to dodge them. We have our wave caller giving warnings starting at 15 seconds, and then a countdown at 5 seconds. We have two people watching sides so that the direction is called instantly. If your lasher tank has to move, be ready to interrupt cleaving spray (use those Tempest Mirrors). Also give your warriors healing vials for the raid! This will help you when all your clerics are running around like crazy.

The other issue is orbs. Orbs always go to someone in range of Jornaru, so it will never drop one at his feet. Your timer is much shorter here, but there is still plenty of time to book it to Jornaru straight underneath the orb if you move fast. If not, you can try hooking around or just go die off by yourself instead of taking several people with you or silencing all the casters.

Jornaru will never use an orb while Akylios is submerged starting in phase 4, but as soon as Akylios goes under, expect an immediate orb. Be prepared to meet halfway to the lasher to take it if needed.

As raid leader, your job is to keep people motivated and focused. Praise them when they do well, work with those that need help. Do not immediately discount someone as bad if they die to multiple waves or miss a jump between platforms. This will take a very dedicated raid force to do. Hopefully your folks have it in them, and you should definitely keep them on task.

Lastly, keep vent clear! Only the designated people and maybe tanks should be talking. No random ****, there's far too much to deal with as it is. Think of Sicaron - you've got hex, purge rotation and idol placement all going on at the same time. Whatever method worked best here for you (we use 3 separate people controlling each function via voice chat) will likely translate well to assigning duties on Akylios.

Holy ****, this was way more than I was going to post initially but I just kept typing. I know a lot of it is probably general knowledge, but hopefully there's some things in there that will help you. This fight is awesome, and as someone said DO NOT GIVE UP! You will wipe SO MANY TIMES in phase 1 that you will be sick of it. But it is definitely doable, I promise! We wiped 184 times before we killed him, with a wipe at Akylios 1%, Jornaru dead the same night we finally did it.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

I applaud you.

We spend two nights so far on Aik and have gotten almost P3. Once we "Master" phase 1, we should easily get to P3.
Also another note for P1. We bring out a Apostole, almost kill a deepclaw, and bring it it. We AoE until 2nd set of adds come, then when Jornaru is around 60% We ST him until 50. Then we clean up all adds during transition. Dont forget to use flaring power after the first wave. Hope that helps for OP.

It is beyond me how Voodoo just aoed them all. SC/ELE was too OP I guess. :P

And that Wipe @ 1% Has to suck major balls.

[Pooshonmyshoos]

As our main 51 Chloro, the biggest advice I can give is to make sure someone calls out when the apostle is weakened on P2 - That Chloro should have a macro to immediately switch to it since you get double damage, and thus double heals.

Nobody dies when I'm able to target a weakened apostle unless we have incredibly bad luck and people get insta killed.

We often used to lose a tank in the transition from P2 -> P3 - again a chloro can put synth on said tank and hit the weakened Apostle - that tank should be unkillable with 5-6k heals per second.

Ya know, I never even though of this, great ****ing idea man! Will Definitely use this from now on.

Oh and too OP. King Boss Mods has a 5 Second PREWARNING warning for the waves.... Invaluable... You should never ever have to call out waves... ever.. Except the side.

[Quietmode]

It is beyond me how Voodoo just aoed them all. SC/ELE was too OP I guess. :P

And that Wipe @ 1% Has to suck major balls.

We don't really aoe anymore. We focused on only getting 2 spawns, so the first set is really low by the time jornaru hits 50% and then during the transition we can aoe/single target down the rest.

This last week we squeezed it down to 1 add spawn so it was pure single target burn on jornaru.

But ya on our original kill we had:
Sc/ele aoe
Warrior natural cleaves
Sab was still the go-to spec (MM got buffed the next day after our first kill) so we had their aoe
and we had like no clerics so that was a bonus =p

So most specs did aoe in their normal single target rotations

[Sebb]

We don't really aoe anymore. We focused on only getting 2 spawns, so the first set is really low by the time jornaru hits 50% and then during the transition we can aoe/single target down the rest.

This last week we squeezed it down to 1 add spawn so it was pure single target burn on jornaru.

But ya on our original kill we had:
Sc/ele aoe
Warrior natural cleaves
Sab was still the go-to spec (MM got buffed the next day after our first kill) so we had their aoe
and we had like no clerics so that was a bonus =p

So most specs did aoe in their normal single target rotations

^^^ As a raid leader I'm looking forward to see what BD changes can do for aoe/st combos. I suspect I'm not the only one that missed having sabdancer in his raid.

[Quietmode]

^^^ As a raid leader I'm looking forward to see what BD changes can do for aoe/st combos. I suspect I'm not the only one that missed having sabdancer in his raid.

As a cleric tank, i severely missed having sabs in the raid incriminate was the only chance i had

[Everyone]

Concerning waves:

These tend to get healers more than anyone due to healers having some little guy in their head telling them "People are DYING for god's sake, HEAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLL THEEEEEEMMMMM!!!". This can cause people to lose focus on the waves and try to do too many things at the same time, causing them to screw up on waves.
What helped for me and others: choose your weapon - what is your "I win!"-button? Considering during progress I often was Senticar my "I win!"-button was DoL. Whenever waves came, I would stop whatever it was that I was doing and focus completely on the waves while mashing my DoL-key. Stop looking at bars, stopworrying about others in the raid, stop worrying about every other mechanic - focus on the waves! Spamming your "I win!"-button without thought is easily managable at the same time.

This is somewhat reassuring. Last night was my guild's first attempt at akylios and while we did pretty well for a first try, it was REALLY frustrating watching clerics die so often to tidal waves. I'm one of the cleric healers myself, and while a couple of us were pretty good at dodging, and only ate it once or twice, a couple were consistently eating every single wave that came their way (it's a terrible feeling when, as you're successfully moving out of the way, you rotate your camera and see a team-mate just standing there, and know that it means the attempt is about to wipe). Hopefully with a bit more practice they'll be able to override that 'must heal' brain tingle with 'dodge waves THEN heal!'

[Quietmode]

This is somewhat reassuring. Last night was my guild's first attempt at akylios and while we did pretty well for a first try, it was REALLY frustrating watching clerics die so often to tidal waves. I'm one of the cleric healers myself, and while a couple of us were pretty good at dodging, and only ate it once or twice, a couple were consistently eating every single wave that came their way (it's a terrible feeling when, as you're successfully moving out of the way, you rotate your camera and see a team-mate just standing there, and know that it means the attempt is about to wipe). Hopefully with a bit more practice they'll be able to override that 'must heal' brain tingle with 'dodge waves THEN heal!'

The best tip i can give for dodging waves is to not move to where you think the hole will be and wait for it. We have people run through the hole so they can be absolutely sure they will get through it. The waves dont go perpindicular along the platform like you would think

[Jayko]

This is somewhat reassuring. Last night was my guild's first attempt at akylios and while we did pretty well for a first try, it was REALLY frustrating watching clerics die so often to tidal waves. I'm one of the cleric healers myself, and while a couple of us were pretty good at dodging, and only ate it once or twice, a couple were consistently eating every single wave that came their way (it's a terrible feeling when, as you're successfully moving out of the way, you rotate your camera and see a team-mate just standing there, and know that it means the attempt is about to wipe). Hopefully with a bit more practice they'll be able to override that 'must heal' brain tingle with 'dodge waves THEN heal!'

Fact of the matter is that people that die to lack of heals are rezzable. People that get swept off the platform aren't. There should be enough people capable of raid healing for it not to be an issue to briefly stop healing to fix position. There are many instants in the game. Individual raid members can help this more than they know by using heroic healing philters as well when they're taking a good bit of damage.

This is a very intense fight as far as the amount of stimuli/information coming in. Most of learning to dodge the waves is learning to block out what simply isn't relevant and prioritizing what is. One person needs to be calling wave spawn timer and one or two should be calling what side when they spawn. It's fine if it's the same as the timer but it's just important to keep the audio input consistent. 15 people yelling waves left is not as effective as the same voice doing it every time.

Although the breath is more forgiving than the waves, I'd say it's also pretty important to make sure your raid members get a feel for where the borders are and where they need to move. It's easier to stand in the same spot in the middle every time than constantly be changing your position and have to guess at where the borders are. The more familiar your individual raid members get with a piece of geography that they can consistently occupy the easier they will find it to deal with the various mechanics going off simultaneously.

The best tip i can give for dodging waves is to not move to where you think the hole will be and wait for it. We have people run through the hole so they can be absolutely sure they will get through it. The waves dont go perpindicular along the platform like you would think

Also ^^^^^. Do not just look at them, think you're in the gap, and stand there. Run through the hole and then go back to what you're doing. Don't stand on the edge looking down and thinking you know where they'll hit the platform either. They normally don't hit the platform exactly where you think they'll be from their appearance on the water.

[Ehmcee]

Don't give up, that's the best advice. And don't let 19 poeple clog up your vent, mumble etc. Chill the f out and be ready to wipe, and wipe, and wipe, and wipe, and wipe............

[Quietmode]

Don't give up, that's the best advice. And don't let 19 poeple clog up your vent, mumble etc.

This too. We have different people call different things, especially since multiple things happen at once. Someone for the breath, someone for Mind Controls, someone for Wave incoming and wave direction, someone for orb.