iPlayDN: Desert Dragon Guide

Author: Chaose5 in MMOSite

Credit to: FREEDOM

The dragon is invincible at the start of the battle and protected by 4 Eyes of Life at the North, South, East and West of the map. The party is required to deactivate these eyes to dispel dragon's invincible barrier.

Each eye has limited attack range and can only attack targets within a quarter circle. (See 4 blue quarters below) The eye will not begin attacking until we attack it. It will not be able to provide you with protection buff during Life Explosion when it has been deactivated. Therefore, it is recommended that you only attack ONE eye at a time - In a clock-wise direction as shown in the figure below.

The Eye of Life is immune to ice stacking.

Eye of Life Skills

Ring of Life (~25s CD): Summon a Ring of Life on a random party member. The marked member will have a glowing sphere above his head. It will not damage the targeted member but will deal damage to other party members who stay inside the ring. (Similar to Poison Ring of Monta in SDN). The Ring of Life will only target nearby members.

Laser Beams: Shoot multiple laser beams in either one of the three directions randomly (See figure below, indicated by orange AOE). You can easily dodge the laser if you stand between these 3 directions (Purple circle) or out of the quarter circle AOE.

Trailing Explosion: The eye glows purple twice and create a purple spot on the ground which trail a party member and explode 3 times. Float if hit. Keep moving to avoid taking damage.

Life Explosion: Dragon will cast this every time one of the eye got destroyed. All party members are required to move to one of the 'functioning' Eye of Life to avoid being damaged.

Desert Dragon Basic Skills
Claw Swipe: The dragon will do claw swipe with its left claw. Very large frontal AOE. Can blocked with Shield Block, but it will clear Shield Block buff. You will not get hit if you stay behind or beside either claw.

Smack: Raise one of its fore arm high and smack on the ground. Can be blocked with Shield Block. The dragon will attack with left or right claw. Having a paladin provoking it at right arm for example, will cause the dragon to use the right arm ONLY to attack. You will not get hit if you stay behind or beside either claw.

Strategy:
Split into 3 teams:
- Team 1: Provoke the dragon, assign a healer to heal the Paladin if he needs it.
- Team 2: Assign 2-3 damage dealer to attack the eye, one at at time. All members should stand apart. Spread out when you see Ring of Life being cast.
- Team 3: Stand outside of the blue quarter circle at the next eye of life and out of the range of the eye. This team should just stay still and do nothing. Don't start attacking the Eye of Life near you for no reason!

During this phase, dragon will attempt to attack the party members with claw swipe and smack only. Paladin should Provoke dragon at 6 o'clock to prevent the dragon from attacking the other party members. Damage dealer go on and deactivate first and second Eye of Life.

Provoke the dragon to face 9 o'clock before starting to attack the 3rd Eye of Life. Inform your Paladin to come back to 6 o'clock before you deactivate the 3rd Eye of Life. Everyone need to pay attention as the dragon will attack you now as Paladin is at the same spot as everyone else.

Paladin should Provoke dragon to face 9 o'clock again after 3rd Life Explosion while the rest hide at 3 o'clock. Damage dealer proceed to deactivate the last Eye of Life.

Dragon Battle Phase 2 (HP x20 - x15.2)

Invincibility of the dragon will be dispelled upon breaking last Eye of Life and the real dragon battle starts. Take note that most skills destroy Priest's relics instantly.

MT should stand slightly to the left while the rest of the party should stand at the right of the map, near dragon's left claw, see figure below. The reason is to force the dragon to use its right claw ONLY to smack. These 2 skills are frequently casted during this phase. By forcing the dragon to use only the right claw, the party will be safe when they are behind/beside left claw.

New Boss Skills in Phase 2

Flying Stomp: Fly up and perform a stomp after 3 seconds. If you see the dragon flies up and the mini map shows that the dragon is still in the middle, expect flying stomp. Can be blocked with Shield Block.

The dragon will beat its wings three times in the air before stomping so jump after you heard the 3rd wing beat sound. Alternatively, you can zoom in your minimap. The red dot will disappear momentarily. Jump right after you see the red dot reappears!

Sand Pit: The dragon curls its body upward slightly and beats its wing repeatedly with body surrounded by golden sand. Summon a sandpit at a random location which will suck players into it. The ground will be darkened before the pit appears. It is quite similar to the Sandpit Hell of the Sand Worm, but with much stronger suction. Sandpit will stay on the field for awhile before disappearing; can be dangerous if it is combo-ed with other skills.

Tail Spikes: Lower its body slightly, place both fore arms further in front and raise its tail high up. Shoots 4 waves of tail spikes toward all targets. Induce a debuff which prevent HP healing and reduces attack & defense. There will be marking on the floor before the impact of the tail spike. Simply move away to evade.

Golden Wave Spike: Golden waves radiates from frontal or hind legs of the dragon and golden sand spiraling around its legs. After 0.5sec, dragon raises both its frontal or hind legs and stomps. The stomp will float you if you are standing within the golden waves AOE. It will also generate protruding ground spikes beneath all targets and float them. Very fast casting animation. If you are floated by the stomp, use Aerial Evasion to avoid being hit again by the protruding spikes. Can be blocked with Shield Block.

The skill can only be evaded if you are right in front of the dragon (head) or at the hind legs when he is casting it in front. Unless you have shield block or invincible skill, it is almost impossible to evade this skill if you are standing at the left/right claw.

Flame Prison: Raise its glowing right arm and smacks the ground, followed by its left arm. Large tower like structures are formed in front of the dragon to trap any members in the front quarter of the map. (See green AOE in figure below) After that, red markings appear in trapped area randomly which explode shortly, deal huge and inflict burn status, 30k per tick.

If you are trapped in the prison, you can evade the flame markings easily by standing at the edge of the map and move to the gap between the markings. If you manage to stay outside of the prison, it is a good time to deal damage.

Charged Tail Swipe: The dragon will turn his head to the right, right before using this. The tail will glow red and move from the right side of dragon (See Red AOE and Arrow 1) all the way to the left side (see Blue AOE and Arrow 2). Very large AOE and high damage. Inflict debuff which prevent HP healing, reduced attack & defense (duration 40sec). Tail Swipe is the reason why it is not a good idea to stand at the rear end of the dragon. (Unlike other dragon battles)

The best spot for the party to stand is dragon's left claw (See orange circle below). When the party see the tail moves to its right side (Sign for an imminent Tail Swipe), immediately move left to avoid the 2nd hit (Blue AOE).

When you see dragon raises its glowing right claw, move right instead. You will end up outside of Flame Prison if done correctly.

Dive: Fly up and dive linearly across the field. The dive direction is not the same as the direction of his head before it flies, it is approximately 30 degree anti-clockwise from its original facing direction. Anyway, move slightly away from its left claw will do.

The casting motion is similar to Flying Stomp. However it can be easily differentiated by looking at the mini map: If the dragon stays at the middle after flying up, it is Flying Stomp. Otherwise, it is Dive.

Sand Breath: Start after 18.2x HP. The dragon will raise its head momentarily, you can see sand sprinkles from its mouth. Fan-shaped frontal AOE. Just steer clear of the front quarter of the dragon to avoid this. Standing near the front claws is safe and a great spot to deal damage during this skill.

Meteor Shower: Start after 18.2x HP. The dragon takes a few steps back and run forward before taking flight, circling the outer edge of the field before summoning meteor. The skill is quite similar to the Ice Rain of Sea Dragon. Keep running to avoid the meteor. The ground will be marked before the meteor impact. Inflict cannot heal / damage & defense reduction debuff upon hit.

You might want to assign a run route for your party members so that they don't run into each other.

Eye of Life Activation: Cast at HP x18.2 and x15.2, marking the the end of this phase. The party need to click all 4 Eyes of Life within 15 seconds. Send quick runners to deactivate the eyes. If the 4 eyes were not deactivated in time, it will cause party wipe.

Unlike the other two dragons, Desert Dragon battle does not guarantee the head is facing a specific direction all the while. It then become hard to assign who to press which Eye of Life if you assign the role according to the absolute position of the eye on the map. We propose an effective strategy for that purpose.

In this strategy, the absolute position of the dragon is irrelevant. Only need to consider the RELATIVE position of the dragon head with respect to the Eye of Life. There will only be 2 possible cases:

If head (Arrowhead) is pointing directly on any Eye of Life: Straight Case

2 persons are assigned to each eye (Marked by star). It is recommended that the ones with fast running speed (Either Acrobat or Warrior) are assigned to the tail position.

If head is pointing somewhere in between any two Eyes of Life: In-Between Case

Take note that the relative position of each party member is almost the same in both cases.

In other words, each person is only required to check a 1/8 pie area relative to the dragon's body (NOT absolute position on mini map).

Dragon Battle Phase 3 (HP x15.2 - x11.2)

The battle is totally changed after HP x15.2. Dragon flies up after Eye of Life activation and submerges into the sand shortly after. A message stating that 'The dragon starts its assault' will appear on the screen.

New Boss Skills at Phase 3
Tracing Tornado Pit: A random party member will be marked with a Black Marking. A Tracing Pit will appear at the north edge (12 o'clock) of the map and start chasing the marked member. Tornadoes are spawned along the trail of the moving pit while it chases the marked target.

Summon Boss: After the tracing pit appears, the dragon will summon Dragon Follower Bahama (Scorpion) and Dragon Guardian Sphira (Manticore). Both mini-bosses can be disabled with Time Stop, Slow, Wax, Relic of Bind, Freeze etc.
•Scorpion: Claw Swipe, Tail Swipe, Poison Sting. Will create poison pool on floor.
•Manticore: Has berserk status. Claw Swipe, Tail Swipe. High Damage. Each hit 300k-400k.

Basic Strategy:
Everyone gather at 1 o'clock of the minimap and wait for Black Marking to mark a member. Slightly spread out so that the marking can be seen clearly. Once the marked member is identified, start running along the edge in clockwise manner while the other 7 members should head toward middle of the map.

Assign 1-2 disablers to deal with Manticore (Ideally Force User or Elestra). DO NOT let Manticore start attacking or risk having casualties as a simple swipe will deal 300-400k damage. If you feel you cannot chain disable it OR your disabler is the marked member, cast a Miracle Relic or Devastating Howl on Manticore. Alternatively, you can also ask your Paladin to Provoke Manticore to 11 o'clock (Only does so when your main disabler, Force User is the runner)

MT provoke the Scorpion and make sure it is facing outside so that there won't be any poison pool in the middle of the map. The others should focus on attacking Scorpion. DO NOT KILL IT! Deal damage to the Scorpion until it has only ~10% hp left and wait for the message of Manticore explosion. Be wary of summons killing it accidentally! Use normal attack to grind the HP slowly.

Marked runner should stay at 10-11 o'clock for a brief moment and make sure that tracing pit no longer follow you before going to the middle. Everyone gather near Scorpion and kill it within 5 seconds once you see Manticore explosion system message.

Scorpion generates a barrier which protect anyone inside from taking damage from Manticore explosion, however the barrier only last 5 seconds, which is why you shouldn't kill it before the timer starts!

After surviving the explosion, dragon's tail will emerge near the party. Deal as much damage to the tail as much as possible! The tail submerges again after ~10 seconds, move to 1 o'clock and repeat the whole process till dragon's HP down to x10.

Dragon Battle Phase 4 (HP x11.2 - x9.2)

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Stop attacking as soon as dragon's HP down to x10, no use damaging further as the dragon will recover its HP back to x10 fully, god knows why! Head toward 6 o'clock and dragon will emerge shortly. Basic dragon skills from Phase 2 will still be casted, in addition of some new skills:

New Boss Skills at Phase 4
Sand Bind (~ 55sec CD): Cast from HP x11.2 to end. Raise its glowing right claw, smash the ground, tracking sand trails will bind random members and anyone who is nearby. After that, dragon will charge up for 10 seconds before unleashing Sand Breath. Unbound members should save sand bound ones with high super armor break skills immediately. Quickly move to the either claws to avoid the Sand Breath after that. *Gravity Ball comes in handy yet again!*

Unlike bind skills in previous dragon's nest, Sand Bind deals a fixed damage of approximately 500k+ after the Sand Breath is unleashed. If a bound member is not in the AOE of the Sand Breath, one can actually survive the Sand Bind if he has >500k hp. A-rank Hot Sand Source is useful here as it give 35% chance of immunity against Sand Bind.

It is recommend that party member should gather at the left claw when this skill is cast. This will facilitate the saving of bound members and lengthen the DPS window while dragon is charging up for Sand Breath. HOWEVER, make sure the party is spread out as there's a small possibility for Sand Bind to bind all 8 members, leaving no one to save bound members!

Blinding Flash: A warning message shows on screen before it casts this. You are required to turn away from the dragon within 2 seconds or get blinded (White screen). Clears all buffs and silenced for 5 seconds.

Bind Stomp (~70sec CD): Start from HP x9.2 to end. Raise two of its front legs and stomp. All party members will be trapped by Sand Prison and a 40 seconds debuff which negate HP healing, reduced attack and defense will be applied. All buffs will be cleared. Subsequently, the dragon will follow up with a Flying Stomp.

Break loose from the Sand Prison by tapping left and right rapidly, it cannot be cured with Relieve or Curing Relic. Being invincible or air-borne will not help at all and you will still be trapped by the Sand Prison. You are required to break loose from the Sand Prison ASAP and jump to avoid the imminent Flying Stomp. Paladin's Elemental Aura helps speeding up the breaking loose process.

The timing for jumping can be judged by looking at the debuff: Jump when the debuff duration hit 36. Alternatively, you can also do the same as Flying Stomp. Zoom in your minimap and jump as soon as you see the red dot appears on minimap.

Dragon will go berserk after stomping down, doubling its attack.

Eye of Life Activation (~90sec CD): Cast from HP x9.2 to HP x5. Activate Eye of Life and become invincible. Send members to de-activate them within 15 seconds. There won't be anymore Eye of Life as soon as dragon's HP enter 5x.

Dragon Battle Phase 5 (HP x6.2 - ByeBye)

New Boss Skills at Phase 5
Rotating Sand Breath (CD > 90sec): Dragon will start casting this at 6.2x. The CD of this skill might be delayed far beyond its CD.

Take note that the direction / orientation given in the description below are based on the assumption that the dragon is facing 6 o'clock direction initially before this skill. However, the whole skill description need to be adjusted accordingly based on the initial direction of the dragon.

First the dragon will roar and soar to the sky in a spiral manner. The dragon then flies to the south edge of the map (facing north). After that, tornadoes will be spawned on the field. Each tornado has a dark circle at its base. The dragon unleashes its sand breath towards its frontal area on the map (Red dashed AOE in the figure below).

After a few seconds, the tornadoes start moving anti-clockwise. Meanwhile, the dragon flies clockwise and maintain the sand breath, sweeping the field like the hand of a clock. From the initial 12 o'clock position, the sand breath AOE moves clockwise 450 degree (1.25 rounds of a circle) and eventually stops at 3 o'clock of the map. After that, the dragon will fly to the middle of the map and unleash a final burst of Sand Breath. The skill ends as the dragon lands subsequently.

Basic Strategy
To evade this devastating skill, the party should move quickly clockwise to the 5 o'clock position when the dragon flies up (Star position, see figure below, right beside the initial AOE of Rotating Breath). As the breath starts to rotate, the whole party continues to moves clockwise until the breath stops. When the dragon finishes the rotation, move towards the outer edge of the map immediately to avoid being blasted by the final burst of Sand Breath.

A few important points when you are moving:
• Must sheathe weapon and run if you don't have Spirit Boost. Otherwise, you need to run at the innermost circle. The flying speed of the dragon is roughly 3 times of your speed.
• Do not follow the edge of the map since it is too far and you will never make it in time.
• Do not get too near to the middle of the map since you might get hit by the Sand Breath.
• Moving carefully in a zigzag manner to avoid the dark circle of the moving tornado. The tornado deals very little damage but it will knock you back. Guardian Force ensures that you will not get knocked down when the moving tornado hit you. However, if you have weapon sheathed, your weapon will be drawn out and that will waste some time.
• Do not move too fast and run into the AOE of the tornado in front.
• Invincibility (divine avatar, invincible potion etc) prevents the tornado from hitting you at all, but you can still be killed by the breath.