Ebondrake Citadel Text Guide

[Raizou]

@Shadovvv

 

In your opinion:

 

What is more difficult: Ebondrake Citadell or Desolate Tomb?

[Shadovvv]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.freedomplays.com/blade-soul-ebondrake-citadel-guide/

 

Requirements:

• Must have cleared Sogun's Lament and The Shattered Masts
• Minimum ~550 AP on 6-man, ~600 on 4-man.
• A really big brain.
• The ENTIRE PARTY coordinating. There are no carries for the final boss; everyone must do their part or wipe.
• Phantom Brand Reduction from Python/Asura Bracelet OR Phantom Brand Resistance from Awakened/True Python Bracelet. Each boss periodically gains a 50% damage reflecting debuff for 30 seconds that is reduced/ignored by the Reduction/Resistance from Bracelet, if you don't have the bracelet you are literally killing yourself. NCWest isn't going to give us a shortcut this time like they did for Sogun's Lament.
• 2x Stun.
• 2x Daze.
• 2x Knockdown.
• An Assassin or Summoner. You must have someone with stealth party iframe and these are the only classes who have it.
• All non-Assassin, Summoner, and Warlock with Second Wind Tier 3 Stage 2/3 Knockdown/Daze (Sin/Sum/WL don't have CCs on their Trinket) OR someone with a skill that specifically states Daze resistance (e.g. Destroyer Hongmoon Emberstomp or Hurricane, Blade Dancer Vortex, Warlock Sanctum, Summoner's Evade) OR classes with quick escapes into CC (e.g. Assassin face their back toward Zakhan -> Trinket -> Spinal Tap, Force Master Backstep -> Glacial Beam).

 

Corridor 1:

Short empty corridor. At the end is the first boss, who is being locked down by the Ebondrake Illusionsts. Kill all the aggressive (red) Bonemask adds before killing the passive (yellow) Ebondrake Illusionists that trigger the boss.

 

Boss 1: Bukka

Bonemask brute (closest thing are the Colonels in Soulstone Plains), 12 million HP, 6 minute enrage timer, no self-damaging mechanics. Double CC everything is needed here.

1. Standard Bonemask rotation.
2. Every minute or two he will fart a Dark Chi Circle and has an red area affect accompanying the fart. The circle stays there permanently and if ten of these are on the field = wipe.
3. Every 10% increments he will do the following at random: You need to properly CC, or else he will repeat his attack two more times, without any extra CC windows, and then create an additional two Dark Chi Circles under people. If you successfully CC he will get a debuff that prevents him from using the same ability in succession, although three successful CCs will remove all his debuffs.
   • Neck: He will do a rally call and summon three adds from the entrance, and then a spin2win. Double Stun the spin2win.
   • Shoulders: Does a field-wide area of effect roar, then a spin2win. Double Daze the spin2win.
   • Legs: Charges toward the aggro holder (not blockable), then on hitting the wall does a spin2win. Double Knockdown the spin2win.

 

Corridor 2:

A very short corridor containing just a pair of adds, just jump over them.

 

Boss 2: Magolka

Kaari Lord reskin, 9 million HP, 6 minute enrage timer, no self-damaging mechanics.

1. Standard Kaari Lord rotation.
2. At 90%, 50%, and 10% he will jump to the middle and summon two adds at random positions in the eight circles on the field always on opposite ends, and then give everyone a debuff. Kill the two 300k HP adds immediately to dispel the debuff (boss can be CC'd and grabbed/knocked into the air right after summoning, do it when he slams his staff into the ground for longest duration). Shortly after the boss will do a 5-hit field wide area of effect explosion; the adds become immune at this point and if you still have the debuff you will eat a unescapable lockdown and high damage. Furthermore if either mobs are alive the boss will then absorb them and heal 5% per mob.
   • One add is a Bonemask Elite, who will charge someone and then does a field-wide roar stun. Is CCable at any point.
   • The other add is a Ploggle Elite, who just throws poison projectiles.
3. At 70% and 30% he will spawn an Orb of Corruption.
   1. He then jumps to the furthest person, and then does a field-wide area of effect roar; CC the roar but DO NOT GRAB/AERIAL HIM unless you are sure you can kill him by then. After that he lifts his staff up and charges at the aggro holder; block him. He then repeats this two more times, although he doesn't lift his staff before charging anymore. As you do this the orb will fire roots at random people, so use your root escapes. If you delay this part too much, including grabbing him, he will spawn more orbs and can spawn up to eight.
   2. After the jumps, the boss goes to the middle and the orbs start ping-ponging around the room, while the boss fires projectiles at everyone. Block the orbs (they will trigger Frost Prison on the blocker; everyone has a block skill) or they explode, do high damage across the entire field (can be iframed), and heal the boss by 5% per orbs.

 

Corridor 3:

Jump over the measly adds in your way as you head to a spiral staircase. There are five prison cells as you head down the stairs; split your party to kill everything and everyone in the cells to unlock the gate to the final boss.

 

Boss 3: Bale Phantom Zakhan:

38 million HP with self-damaging mechanics, 9 minute enrage, new type of boss. Party Stealther and Second Wind CC are needed here; do not pop your stealth protect and Tab randomly. Also has a marker mechanic. The mechanics are considerably easy to grasp, but there is very little room for error and one wrong move = wipe.

1. His rotation is entirely random, and some are very fast. It helps very much to have a dedicated tank; he's more or less as fast and hard hitting as a Soulstone Plains Unbound Terror, so be very careful and try not to lead him into your teammates.
   • Fast single downward swing. Sometimes he will follow up with two more downward swings, which have near instantaneous speed. Causes knockdown. Eating this three times in a row will cause a massive drop in aggro, similar to some of Profane Jiangshi's attacks, so be very careful if you are the tank. Yellow attack. First swing is CC'able but the remaining two are not.
   • Fast double arc swipe. Causes daze. Yellow attack. CC'able.
   • Curls up and spins like a saw blade, dealing multiple hits. Causes daze. Red attack.
   • Fast wide sweep throwing a crescent energy wave. Causes knockback. Red attack.
   • Drags his blade across the ground and throws a crescent energy wave a long distance in front of him. Causes knockup. Red attack.
   • Teleports away from the aggro holder like Fujin/Sekjin.
   • After 90%: Summons six dark circles on areas around him that explode. Causes knockback. Red attack.
2. At 90%, 70%, 50%, 30%, and 10%, Zakhan will "show his true self", changing his right arm cloak to a monstrous arm.
   1. Zakhan will teleport away from aggro holder, and "is watching someone" and marks the furthest person from him, who gains a red swirl. Everyone needs to huddle up under the boss, and once the marker is confirmed, they need to huddle up as well.
   2. Zakhan fires an area of effect projectile at the marker; EVERYONE EXCEPT THE MARKER MUST STOP ATTACKING SO THE SIN/SUM CAN STEALTH EVERYONE. Assassin has Protection Decoy/Stealth Smokescreen while Summoner has Enhanced Seed Shroud. Marker must immediately break stealth or avoid the projectile themselves.
   3. Zakhan will proceed to fire four projectiles at random people, but ONLY TARGET VISIBLE PEOPLE, which is why an Assassin/Summoner is required; Blade Master's Winged Protector, Blade Dancer's Maelstrom, and Force Master's Frost Sheath DOES NOT DO ANYTHING. Anyone without the marker who eats this will eat 30k~ and get locked down for 10 seconds for very high damage over time and any attack they eat under that state inflicts massive damage (the projectiles are iframable/blockable). The marker is required to facetank all four (does no damage to them) to give the marker the "Demonic Energy" 20% attack power buff; stay next to your group so that the buff gets transferred to your party. The mechanic is failed if the Sin/Sum fails to stealth, the marker didn't leave stealth, or a non-marker left stealth. Once Zakhan lifts his arm up and starts firing the projectiles, he has finished his targeting sequence so everyone can resume attacking. The buff lasts 2 minutes, but deals damage over time and once it runs out you will get locked down for 10 seconds with very high damage over time and massive damage while attacked under such state.
   4. Zakhan then casts "Heaven's Breach": this is the exact same attack as Jinsoyun's World Breaker. If you have the buff you will be rooted in place and won't be affected. If you do not have the buff, and there is no Blade Master to cast Winged Protector or Force Master to cast Frost Sheath before the lift, you will eat 30k damage; you CANNOT iframe the lift and none of the other iframes last long enough to block the damage. The marker will additionally then receive the lockdown debuff after. Even if you miraculously survived, the additional 5 seconds of downtime, for a total of 15 is pretty huge, especially since he does the mechanic five times which means over a minute of downtime if all mechanics are failed.
3. After 90%, while resuming his normal set of attacks, he will periodically cast a new rotation:
   1. Zakhan will head into the middle and cast "Dark Void", a field-wide vacuum and then prepare for a field-wide one-shot area of effect. You cannot iframe the vacuum unless you have a skill that specifically resists Daze (you'll still get pulled anyway, just your character won't be Dazed), so all the non Sin/Sum/WL must use Second Wind CC to interrupt his area of effect OR someone resists the vacuum and then double CCs on their own OR Sin/FM quick Trinket into fast CCs.
   2. Zakhan casts dark exploding circles.
   3. Zakhan grabs the furthest person (not iframable), throw his victim, and steal their buff, making him stronger but eats 3 million damage (8% of his health) when it expires after a minute. The marker and then the Sin/Sum must be the one to be grabbed is that so they don't get locked down after their debuff expires as they need to do the mechanic. The grab is CC'able but don't interrupt it. Blade Master's Winged Protector, Blade Dancer's Maelstrom, and Force Master's Frost Sheath can be cast to negate the grab damage (20k~).
   4. He will repeat this every 40 seconds, whenever his buff reaches 20 seconds. Even if you don't grab after the Dark Void it'll still expire by then.
4. At 50% mechanic, two things will happen:
   • Zakhan casts "Demonic Seal", a purple field surrounding the outer walls. A damage over time effect is applied on the entire battlefield for the remainder of the fight, stacking with the Demonic Energy damage over time as well (if you die from this point on, the Demonic Seal will stop you from doing chi recovery).
   • Zakhan instead marks the two furthest people, but then one of them is a fake marker. At this stage, the fake marker is always the furthest, while the second furthest is the real marker; Zakhan will grab the fake before doing his mechanic. The grab throw is has a splash effect that induces knockback, so don't stand in front of it.
5. At 30% and 10% mechanic, Zakhan will mix up his marking. He will either:
   • Fake mark the furthest and grab them, and real mark the second furthest.
   • Fake mark the second furthest and grab them, and real mark the furthest. Or
   • Real mark the furthest and produce no fake marks and grab no one.

[Shadovvv]

2 hours ago, Raizou said:

@Shadovvv

 

In your opinion:

What is more difficult: Ebondrake Citadell or Desolate Tomb?

Lets see:

1. Jang Gibhu and his wives hit obnoxiously hard, so people have to properly kite the wives away. Bukka is quite telegraphed but you need to be really bad at CCing in order to fail and his summoned adds aren't really that much of a threat.
2. Iron Juggernaunt needs 9 adds dead, while kiting some missiles, lightning pellets, and lasers, and throwing an electrically charged shield. Magolka only has two adds, and you have to be really bad at CCing and blocking to fail his spheres of death.
3. Lord of the Flame has instant death mechanics on individuals, with mixups in his patterns regarding furthest and closest marker, and the moment someone messes up the whole party scrambles to get back on its feet. Zakhan you just simply huddle up and stop attacking, spec Second Wind CC, let the Sin/Sum be the furthest person when necessary, and know your marking role which is always the furthest two people.

I'd say Tomb is harder, as there's more pressure in there than in Citadel.

[Zedonia]

I agree with Shadovvv. As no-stealth class it sounds pretty easy for me. Just dont stay too far that you dont get mark and stop attacking when neccessary. There is not much you can fail here to be honest but we will see that some people will fail and fail again because they just cant stop attacking.

[Raizou]

Ah, thanks to you guys, maybe i will try this dungeon. I have not tried DT, too much fear ._.

[Zedonia]

7 minutes ago, Raizou said:

I have not tried DT, too much fear ._.

No need for that. Even if your group really wipes over and over you just "wasted" time, not more. Many people know how to do it and not all F8 groups ask for achievement. Just go in with a little info how it might work and it will be fine.

[Raizou]

1 hour ago, Zedonia said:

Just go in with a little info how it might work and it will be fine.

Here comes the another problem: AP. People search for 650+ (and i have just 560...). I can make a group asking for 550+, but the Players will look at my stats/AP/SS etc. and leave immediatly. The only solution is to find a good/active clan in my server.

[KlausFlouride]

1 hour ago, Zedonia said:

No need for that. Even if your group really wipes over and over you just "wasted" time, not more. Many people know how to do it and not all F8 groups ask for achievement. Just go in with a little info how it might work and it will be fine.

I think you and I see different things in F8: I have never seen a party, for DT, that doesn't ask for a min of 10 runs. I myself haven't been there because my ping is utter shit, so getting me to do any CCing(I dread the DC days when Nexus is on there), on my Sin, is virtually impossible.

[Zedonia]

Many groups ask for it, yes, but not even all groups really check it. Sometimes I join 30+ groups and no one links the ach or asks for it. Then people play like it is their second run or so. Asking for the ach is useless. I dont look much for tomb anymore because I have everything from there and do it only every some days for the daily but I also see groups asking without ach. Yes, below 600 it might be almost impossible to find a group in F8 but maybe together with a friend who has 600+ it might work because some well geared people dont give much about ap because they know 550 is more than enough for 6 man. A clan will be the best, thats right, but dont give up.

[Shadovvv]

Updated guide to reflect NA launch.

On 9/30/2016 at 9:09 PM, Raizou said:

@Shadovvv

In your opinion:

What is more difficult: Ebondrake Citadell or Desolate Tomb?

On 9/30/2016 at 11:05 PM, Zedonia said:

I agree with Shadovvv. As no-stealth class it sounds pretty easy for me. Just dont stay too far that you dont get mark and stop attacking when neccessary. There is not much you can fail here to be honest but we will see that some people will fail and fail again because they just cant stop attacking.

First and second bosses in Ebondrake Citadel are laughably easy, but the final boss is mentally exhausting and he hits like a speeding truck like SSP Terror and one small mistake = wipe. But, like Zedonia said, the only things you have to worry about is grouping up, stop attacking, do Second Wind Daze, and not CC the buff transfer to the boss grab, so I still stand that it's easier than Tomb.

[Auron1992]

I can't understand this dungeon guys.
Every other dungeon had this simple rule: "every party with every combination can make it"
For example you can do desolate even without grab even if it's trickier.
This dungeon, instead, cannot be done without a SIN or a SUM. I simply can't undertand this, pls tell me there is some other way to clear this dungeon other than relying on the stealth mechanics.

 

(Pls refrain from saying things like: we need a fm for the yeti)

[Shadovvv]

4 minutes ago, Auron1992 said:

I can't understand this dungeon guys.
Every other dungeon had this simple rule: "every party with every combination can make it"
For example you can do desolate even without grab even if it's trickier.
This dungeon, instead, cannot be done without a SIN or a SUM. I simply can't undertand this, pls tell me there is some other way to clear this dungeon other than relying on the stealth mechanics.

(Pls refrain from saying things like: we need a fm for the yeti)

If your whole team can eliminate 38 million HP in under 9 minutes without the buff from mechanics, but then the boss constantly teleports left and right and you're forced to eat Heaven Breach for 5 seconds and those chew away on the enrage timer. Otherwise you have no hope of clearing the dungeon.

[Susumimi]

On 9/30/2016 at 3:12 AM, Shadovvv said:

Requirements:

• Minimum ~550 AP on 6-man, ~600 on 4-man.

I haven't found a single party message in x-server looking for below 700AP, on launch day. Just thought I'd bring this up. Mostly they're 700+ or 750+. Obviously you seem to know what you're talking about, but I find it pretty funny to see an expert (you) saying only 550 is needed which is a huge difference. You can barely find a Yeti 4 party at 550, most look for 600/650.

Oh and of course, half of them are looking for "exp only". So basically, people are looking for players who ran this 20 times already, despite only coming into existence a few hours ago. I'm guessing they expect everyone to have played in the Korean/Chinese servers.

The awesome and entertaining logic of elitism.

[Zedonia]

AP requirements in F8 are a pain. I'm sure you can do it with 550 in 6man. You dont even need a high gear group for the time achievent so beating it within time shouldnt be a problem. Problems I saw there until now never were ap, only the mechanics. If you have to tell a sin HM 11 almost 700 ap which decoy he has to use and he cant even that, you know ap doesnt matter at all...

[JoannaRamira]

Shadow could you also post which sin party stealth tree to use ? It seems we have confusion in that matters.

[Shadovvv]

2 hours ago, Susumimi said:

I haven't found a single party message in x-server looking for below 700AP, on launch day. Just thought I'd bring this up. Mostly they're 700+ or 750+. Obviously you seem to know what you're talking about, but I find it pretty funny to see an expert (you) saying only 550 is needed which is a huge difference. You can barely find a Yeti 4 party at 550, most look for 600/650.

Oh and of course, half of them are looking for "exp only". So basically, people are looking for players who ran this 20 times already, despite only coming into existence a few hours ago. I'm guessing they expect everyone to have played in the Korean/Chinese servers.

The awesome and entertaining logic of elitism.

NA/EU F8 AP requirements are just elitist cancer. But there are stories that Desolate Tomb is doable in the lower end requirements, maybe even in less gear and some people with broken weapons. Citadel has more or less the same amount of HP and level of mechanics.

[Holybread]

I'm a sum and make my own of only 600+ and I tutor all mechs... and 7 out 8 we finish... the first 1st and only fail is my fault since I can't get down the timing of the stealth and people are cursing cause I'm the only sum... then the 2nd run people are super nice and explain... and we got it down... 3rd to last run... easy pissy.. but no ring lol...

[Argentina]

13 hours ago, Holybread said:

I'm a sum and make my own of only 600+ and I tutor all mechs... and 7 out 8 we finish... the first 1st and only fail is my fault since I can't get down the timing of the stealth and people are cursing cause I'm the only sum... then the 2nd run people are super nice and explain... and we got it down... 3rd to last run... easy pissy.. but no ring lol...

I can't time the invisibility well, sometimes I get it to work but not all of the times. Can you explain me how to do it?

[Holybread]

if you see him raising his hands with the black orb don't hit 4 too soon hit it when it's pass halfway up then hit 4,, as soon as you see the yelow aoe ring infornt of you hit f.. you got lot's of time before you hit f... so don't hit f as soon as you press 4... 

[Argentina]

1 hour ago, Holybread said:

if you see him raising his hands with the black orb don't hit 4 too soon hit it when it's pass halfway up then hit 4,, as soon as you see the yelow aoe ring infornt of you hit f.. you got lot's of time before you hit f... so don't hit f as soon as you press 4... 

Thank you! 

[Shadovvv]

9 hours ago, Argentina said:

I can't time the invisibility well, sometimes I get it to work but not all of the times. Can you explain me how to do it?

He'll make a grunt about a second before he fires the stealth bomb. Then cast your Decoy/Dandelion a bit after the grunt; try to time it as close as you can so that your counter is going off as he is firing the bomb. Then press 2/F to casts Protection/Enhanced.

[Argentina]

On 7/10/2016 at 8:42 PM, Shadovvv said:

He'll make a grunt about a second before he fires the stealth bomb. Then cast your Decoy/Dandelion a bit after the grunt; try to time it as close as you can so that your counter is going off as he is firing the bomb. Then press 2/F to casts Protection/Enhanced.

Thank you! I didn't really pay attention to that grunt before. It's really helpful.