Age of Conan: Black Ring Citadel Wing 3 with Screenshots

There is no individual attunement for Black Ring Citadel Wing 3, however, the raid leaders need to have one Ameythst Eye of the Serpent and one Ruby Eye of the Serpent, both of which are taken from the last boss of Wing 1 and Wing 2 of BRC. Completion of Wing 3, and receiving the Hand of Leviathus is required for individual attunement for Thoth Amon’s Stronghold, Tier 3 raiding. The descriptions here are purposefully kept more brief than those of the other BRC Wings and Tier 1 articles.

BLACK RING CITADEL WING 3
Black Ring Citadel (BRC) has 3 wings. Wing 1 is to the right of the “lobby”, Wing 2 to the left, and Wing 3 is straight ahead. The main problem is that BRC Wing 3 and the lobby are the same instance. So if your raid leader has already done Wing 3 for the week, and is taking you through the lobby to either Wing 1 or 2, he will end up locking you out of Wing 3 for the week. Wing 3 begins with a cavern similar to Wing 1 and 2. There are no quests here, so just clear enough of the trash to open a path to the first chamber. Do not forget to kill the trash guarding the large snake statue. Clicking on the statue removes death penalty.

Athyr Bast – Athyr Bast stands in the back of her chamber while her Imp Lord stands in the middle of chamber. She is a basic tank and spank, any tank that can get close to 60% physical mitigation can pretty much tank her for the rest of eternity with heals. Her fight revolves around her Imp Lord.

The Imp Lord – This is another fight similar to Sabazios, where tons of Imp adds are spawned that are meant to be dealt with, in this case by clicking on the purple braziers along the walls, but it just seems easier to ignore them instead. The Imps spawn from the braziers and walk towards the Imp Lord, when they reach the Imp Lord, he places a debuff on the person that has his aggro. If the tank gets too many stacks of the debuff, he’ll die. So the main focus of the fight is to swap aggro and for the tank to move out of the Imp Lord’s platform in the middle of the chamber. He should then get healed up and get rotated back into the tanking and aggro swapping. Tanks must spend minimum time in the platform while swapping aggro. If the tanks do not hold aggro well, the Imp Lord will one-shot someone outside of the platform. Holy Cleansing, heal rotation, unholy magic resistance, all help the tanks survive the Imp Lord’s attention. Good use of Irritate is also vital to keep the aggro swapping steady. The tanks need to keep this up while the DPS team burns down Athyr Bast. She drops Wrists, Helmet and a Simple Relic II.

Athyr Bast herself is so boring, I just decided to take a screenshot of her corpse. Which looks like any other follower of Set.

Entering Leviathus’ chamber will trigger a timer. There is a 3 minute 30 second timer before the boss spawns. In that time, the raid has to deal with two groups of trash mobs inside the chamber.

Agitators, Proctors, Guards, Agents and Supporters - Different raids kill the mobs in different orders, so I cannot say which way is faster or best. Proctors can be stunned and should be kept that way. They spawn Supporters who are minions and can be mass one-shot by minion kill spells, like Shatter. Agents will teleport all over the place but can be rooted. Focus fire on each of the trash and kill the groups as fast as possible and get ready for Leviathus to spawn.

Leviathus - Leviathus is one big ugly slug with arms that sits in a pool of boiling water (do not go in there). There are two altars platforms on either sides of the chamber. Two soldiers should be in charged of using them. They must not ever have attacked Leviathus for the whole fight. Their entire duty is to carry a buff from the altar and dropping it on the raid in front of Leviathus. Leviathus casts a spell called Test of Faith on one of the tanks that are on him, and if the tank does not receive the buff from the altar within 20 seconds, they will die.

The fight involves rotating big heals from the 3 different classes on the whole raid, with the tanks rotating aggro and getting out of range of Leviathus to heal back up. And the two players running the altars not to screw up. This is a tough fight that requires many players in the raid to focus on their status. Leviathus drops Helmet, 2 Weapons and a Jar of 5 Simple Relic II. Killing Leviathus completes a quest that gives the player a Hand of Leviathus that is required for Tier 3 attunment. Thoth Amon’s Stronghold.

Age of Conan: Black Ring Citadel Wing 2 with Screenshots

Attunement for Tier 2 raiding in Age of Conan involved completing the level 80 Destiny Quest, and receiving a quest from Kalanthes and Cha in Kheshetta for a quest for Vistrix’s tooth. FunCom has removed this attunement requirement after the release of Tier 3 raiding.

BLACK RING CITADEL WING 2
Black Ring Citadel (BRC) has 3 wings. Wing 1 is to the right of the “lobby”, Wing 2 to the left, and Wing 3 is straight ahead. Wing 2 begins with a cavern similar to Wing 1. There are no quests here, so just clear enough of the trash to open a path to the first chamber. Do not forget to kill the trash guarding the large snake statue. Clicking on the statue removes death penalty.

Ahazu Zagam – Ahazu Zagam, better known as The Fart Boss looks like The Creature from the Black Lagoon. As his nickname suggest, he farts this poison gas that trails behind him, slowly filling up his chamber. Ahazu Zagam hits hard and it will take a geared and well played tank, and a full suite of healers to keep him alive. The key is to avoid his poison gas, and to kite him around the room in such a concerted way that the rest of the raid has room to kill him before it is all covered in poison gas. Priest of Mitra’s Holy Cleansing spell can help make this boss fight quite easy for a geared raid. The YouTube video below shows how it is done in style. Ahazu Zagam drops Wrists, Shoulders and a Simple Relic II.

Ahazu Verin – Every minute, Ahazu Zagam spawns two adds, miniature versions of itself called Ahazu Verin. They need to be taunted away from the main tank, Cry of Havoc by a Guardian is probably the best way to grab them both. Ahazu Verin hit really hard so they need to be individually tanked and focus fired down.

Black Ring Reanimator – Most of the other trash mobs in Wing 2 are quite standard fare. The only exception is the Reanimators. They need to be focus fired down because they constantly spawn large numbers of regular undead mobs that can kill squishier classes.

Incubus and Succubus – Incubus and Succubus are a pair of lewd demons, whose only interest seem to be in spreading their seeds. They need to be tanked on opposite ends of their chamber. Every so often, they will break aggro and watch towards one and another. If they get to close enough, they will both Enrage and hit like trucks. Both tank groups must fight hard to regain aggro once they start walking off. Our raid usually focuses on Succubus first, killing her before proceeding to Incubus. Both bosses with do a knockback before wandering off towards each other, this knockback also wipes the aggro. On top of that Incubus does an AoE root which can be avoided if the players are alert to the cast bar. Incubus and Succubus drops Belts, Boots and a Simple Relic II.

Rooted, damn it!

Cambions – Adds spawn during this boss fight called Cambions. They can be easily off-tanked, and burn down fast. They are a small distraction for this fight.

Seruah – Seruah begins the fight inside a magical cage in the middle of the chamber. There are four mirrors, one in each corner of the chamber. Out of these mirrors will spawn waves of adds. Starting with large 4 Dust Fiends, and increasing exponentially to 64 small Arctic Beasts. At the start of the fight, the whole raid stays together beside one of the mirrors. A soldier will be at each of the mirrors and will bring the Dust Fiends towards the raid. The raid will burn down each Dust Fiend in turn. While this is happening, the subsequent waves of adds are spawned and must be AoEed down. Soldiers are to keep the adds off the squishies. When the last Dust Fiend dies, the raid must all move to the centre outside Seruah’s magic cage.

Every single member of the raid must clump up on Seruah and be within melee range of her once she comes out of her cage. Anyone further than melee range will cause her to teleport and instant-kill the character. She will knockback characters near the top of her aggro list. She would then follow up with a big hit if the aggro remains on the knocked back character. Cunning Deflection will allow a soldier to survive her big hit. It is a steady fight to swap aggro. Not a hard fight if few or no players died needlessly at the start of the fight. Seruah drops Gloves, Chest and a Simple Relic II.

You may want to drop your particle effects and damage numbers because of the massive number of mobs involved.

Chatha the Commander of Demons – The chamber with Chatha follows straight after Seruah’s. It is a two storey chamber linked by a flight of stairs. The raid should run past the Bottomfeeders on the bottom floor of the chamber to the stairs. Moving too far up the stairs will trigger the boss fight, so raids need to get themselves ready on the stairs first.

Chatha begins the fight as a normal human boss. He can be tanked and spanked for the first half a minute before he teleports away. He teleports to random places on the top storey of the chamber once every minute. He also spawns a Sartorus and 3 Utamons every time he teleports. The 2nd storey of the chamber contains pit traps that are invisible from the top. Players who walk over the pit traps will fall down to the 1st storey.

Sartorus and Utamons – While the Utamons are near the Sartorus, they get a buff that allows them to deal massive reflective damage. They can kill a tank in a matter of seconds while the buff is up. The main strategy for the first phase of the Chatha fight is to have a seperate Sartorus and Utamon tank/DPS groups on opposite sides of the 2nd storey, by the stairs and by the far wall. Once seperated from the Sartorus, and their buff allowed to run out, the Utamons can be burned down easily. Repeat this for every single group of spawns.

Chatha the Giant Centaur Horn Headed Monster with Scorpion Tails – When Chatha drops to 60%, he will stop teleporting and spawning Sartorus and Utamons. He will mutate into a giant centaur horn headed monster with scorpion tails. He hits like a truck in this form and has several special attacks. A PBAoE knockback, and a frontal cone stun followed by a big hit. Avoid the latter and position yourself so that the former does not knock you into one of the pit traps. If you did not lose many or any players during the first phase, then its a game of aggro swapping, watching his cast bar, and a DPS race to down him in his second phase. Chatha drops Chest, two Weapons and a Jar of 5 Simple Relic II. Chatha also drops a Ruby Eye of the Serpent which, together with the Ameythst Eye of the Serpent is required to open Wing 3 of BRC.

A screenshot of an EU guild downing Chatha. I need to get one of my own.

Age of Conan: Black Ring Citadel Wing 1 with Screenshots

Attunement for Tier 2 raiding in Age of Conan involved completing the level 80 Destiny Quest, and receiving a quest from Kalanthes and Cha in Kheshetta for a quest for Vistrix’s tooth. FunCom has removed this attunement requirement after the release of Tier 3 raiding. With the opening of Tier 3 raiding, I will now share Tier 2 raiding strategies with everyone.

BLACK RING CITADEL WING 1
Black Ring Citadel (BRC) has 3 wings. Wing 1 is to the right of the “lobby”, Wing 2 to the left, and Wing 3 is straight ahead. Upon entering Wing 1, raiders should pick up a quest from a box to the right of the cavern entrance. They have to clear out the groups of mobs around each of the cauldrons of blood in the cavern and click on the tiny little ladle on top. Completion of this quest will give caster characters a new spell, Shatter Stone. This spell is critical to the completion of the first boss, Excorant the Gargoyle Master. The cauldrons are defended by a group of trash mobs, some elites, some not. Most are easily manageable and not worth mentioning. Do not forget to kill the trash guarding the large snake statue. Clicking on the statue removes death penalty.

Black Ring Guards - I make a special note about the Black Ring Guards because they hit like a freight train. Under-geared tanks will truly struggle with these guys. Early raiders may need to kite the Guards around, or rotate aggro on them.

Excorant the Gargoyle Master – The raid will enter the first chamber of Wing 1 and see Excorant minding his own business next to a vat of molten lava. In the room are 6 gargoyle statues, and a bunch of broken gargoyles and moulds for making them. Excorant appears human in his first phase. He can be easily tanked and does not hit particularly hard. He has, however, a few tricks in his bag.

The first is that he can turn players into stone. Players first detect this because they get a debuff and move really slowly. Players who are stoned should try to move until they are all together in a bunch.

Every minute or so, Excorant awakens a pair of Gargoyles. There are 6 Gargoyles in total and he awakens them in order from the front of the room (where Excorant was standing at the start of the fight), to the back. These Gargoyles must be tanked and killed before the next pair awakes. Having too many Gargoyles up will wipe the raid. Everytime a Gargoyle dies, it drops a pile of sand on the floor. Casters with the Shatter Stone spell can pick up the sand and cast a cone effect on players who are turned to stone. The sand is on a timer when picked up and will run out in 15 seconds if not used.

So the first phase involve tanking the boss, grouping up the stoned people, tanking and heavy DPS on the Gargoyles, unstoning the stoned, and finally getting Excorant phase 1 down to 0% health.

Once Excorant’s health drops to zero, he falls to the floor and a gush of blood appears, in a couple of seconds, he turns into his second form, a large Gargoyle. In this form, Excorant periodically does an AoE fear and wipes aggro, so after the AoE fear, give tanks time to pick up aggro again. Otherwise, this phase is just tank and spank. Excorant drops Gloves, Belts and a Simple Relic II.

After the fight, a door opens and the players are allowed into another chamber with a corpse of a monster on a table, there is no boss fight here, just some trash. The trash up to the room with Yaremka is quite straight forward with the following exceptions.

Black Ring Cabalist - Do not use any form of Crowd Control (CC) on the Cabalist except for Stuns. Other forms of CC will cause the Cabalist to use an AoE Fear.

Black Ring Sorcerors - Tank multiple Sorcerors away from each other. Their overlapping AoE damage will kill players in seconds. They also do a root, which makes them irritating mobs.

Yaremka the Soul Eater – One of the few big bosses in BRC. Yaremka is a large horned demon in a room full of electrical contraptions. There are orbs suspended from the ceilings, and other orbs along the alcoves in the sides of the room. These orbs are all critical to the boss fight.

The raid needs to assign some low-DPS classes to the clickable orbs in the alcoves. There are 4 orbs on each side, a total of 8 orbs. Raids can assign 4 players to “orb duty”. There should be a leader for the orb team, he will call for the clicking of the orbs.

Yaremka is a tank and spank with a few exceptions. He puts quite a strong Damage over Time (DoT) spell on the 2nd person on the aggro table. So have two soldiers tank Yaremka so the 2nd on aggro eats the DoT. Keep the two tanks healed at all times. Every minute, Yaremka will Enrage and expand in size. The role of the orb team is to click the orb before he or after he Enrages to Pacify him.

The tanks must bring Yaremka to one side of the room between the suspended orbs and their lightning bolts, the orb team needs to be at the clickable orbs on the same side. The orb team will click on the orbs in synchronised timing and Pacify Yaremka. Then the tanks must bring Yaremka to the other side of the room, the orb team must run to the other set of clickable orbs and repeat the clicking. The clickable orbs have a 1 minute cooldown, so the raid has to move from one side of the room to the other every 30 seconds.

Once the raid get the Pacify down pat, this fight is really easy. Voice chat like Ventrilo is necessary for this fight. Again, undergeared raiders will struggle tanking his DoT. Yaremka drops Legs, Boots and a Simple Relic II.

After killing Yaremka, the raid would face some tougher trash mobs on their way to Sabazios. Most are standard tank and spanks with the following exception. Way back in the day, this clickable orbs were buggy and did not show their status properly. Raids used to kite Yaremka around the room and spend 20+ minutes with this fight. This is a case of the exploit being harder to execute than the intended fight strategy.

Black Ring Templars – These guys are immuned to any additional magical effects from skills and abilities. So they take quite a while to kill. Otherwise, they behave like Black Ring Guards, i.e. hitting like trucks.

Sabazios the Insane – This is an insanely easy fight, so much so that it is considered free loot. Sabazios is basically a tank and spank. There are four giant snake statues in the room that many snake adds will issue forth from. The intended boss fight is for the raid to destroy the giant snake statues before the snakes pick off the squishies and wipe the raid. However, it is not hard for higher armoured classes to ring fence the squishies in a corner of the room so that Sabazios because a simple tank, spank and AoE DPS race. Ah the joys of collision detection. Sabazios drops Legs, Shoulders, Weapons and a Simple Relic II.

So that is Wing 1 of the Black Ring Citadel. It is an easy wing if you have a few seasoned raiders to carry the rest through. Some trash mobs drop Shards of the Exiled God which are crafting materials for two weapons, Quill of the Ibis (one handed edge) and Feather of the Ibis (two handed edge), during the Leviathus boss fight in BRC Wing 3. Sabazios also drops an Amethyst Eye of the Serpent, together with another Eye from Wing 2, is required to open Wing 3. Only the raid leader needs to have both eyes.