After getting through the Petrification slog that is Sea of Indolence and bashing their heads against the Wipe mechanics of Tranquil Karkosa, Lost Ark players have finally arrived at Alaric’s Sanctuary!RELATED: MMORPGs That Went Extinct Before Their TimeThough sadly enough, it doesn’t get any easier. In fact, the final level of this Item Level 960 Minimum Abyssal Dungeon is hands down the most difficult and mechanically complex of the three. With that in mind, let’s go over all the intricate systems players will need to know to get through the final Tier 2 Abyssal Dungeon in Lost Ark with ease.

First Section: Defeat The Attacking Deep Sea Creatures

The first section of Alaric’s Sanctuary is one of the more tedious sections in the whole Abyssal Dungeon. First off, there’s a checkpoint the party has to wait at before separating into two different groups.

Then, there’s a long mob-clearing section with lots of jumps, waiting for the other party to catch up, or interacting with a Turtle Shell (where’d the Turtle go?). And finally, there’s the long walk up to the different gates for each party that takes them to the separate arenas for Belloc or Sarahiel. It’s nice that this isn’t just another repurposed Main Story Quest Dungeon, and that there’s even a chain of Side Quests tied to clearing it, but that doesn’t make these sections any more enjoyable.

Second Section: Nightmare Incarnate Belloc & Witch Of Enchantment Sarahiel

This is the first “Duo” Boss since the days of the Phantom Legion Rook and Bishop back in the Hall of the Twisted Warlord, but Sarahiel and Belloc are much more complex. Essentially, there are three important mechanics to memorize for this fight, the Separate Arenas, the Golden Cloud, and Sarahiel’s Infection system.

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Regular Attacks

Belloc is absolutely more of a pain to fight than Sarahiel, but both of them have a decent number of regular attacks, such as:

Third Section: Defeat The Ocean Guardian

The second mob-clearing section of Alaric’s Sanctuary plays out a lot like the first, with a lot of incrementally summon Mobs, a few large octopus tentacles, and some elites. But, the last portion of it is slightly different, as players go up against the Ocean Guardian, who has a health bar like a Boss would, but isn’t really considered one by the community as a whole. That said, just so players know what to look out for, the Ocean Guardian has a variety of moves such as:

A lot of attacks where she charges through self-made ocean currents, moving around the arena. Some generic horizontal swipes and/or slashes. A spin attack followed by some water orb projectiles sent in every direction before getting pulled back into her.

And that’s about it, honestly. The only reason this mini-boss could take some time is that players will have to chase her since she moves around the arena way too much.

Fourth Section: Alaric’s Wrath

Up next is the fight against Alaric’s Wrath, AKA Alaric’s Water Elemental. This gigantic body of water is a nice change of pace as it takes the entirety of the arena and players move around it, with left and right spinning the camera. Alaric’s Wrath really only has one mechanic to worry about at all, and one that players should just know the basics of how it works. The most important mechanic is of course its Pillar Destruction system, with the Freezing Debuff being a steady introduction to the slew of freezing attacks the real Alaric uses.

Regular Attacks

Alaric’s Wrath is a gigantic opponent, so there are plenty of areas in the arena to avoid it’s much-too-obvious attacks:

Alaric’s Wrath typically triggers this system for every four or so HP Bars lost. When activated, all players get a red Aura around their feet. Seven of the eight players get a large red circle that damages and knocks up anyone who enters its range, while one player gets a Red Arrow over their head and a smaller more compressed aura around their feet. The Red Arrow player is the lynchpin of this mechanic. As soon as they can tell they’re the Red Arrow player, they need to run and stand on top of one of the four Pillars in the arena ASAP. Shortly after, Alaric’s Wrath will attack that player, dealing a sizable chunk of damage to them but also destroying the Pillar they were standing in. Once this is done, Alaric’s Wrath is Staggered for a good amount of time before continuing the fight.

The only thing players need to be careful of during the four times (maximum) this mechanic occurs is to stay out of the Red Arrow player’s way. Typically, the rest of the players with larger red circles immediately move to the outer edges of the arena between the pillars, leaving enough walking room within the inner edge of the circle for the Red Arrow to traverse freely. Even if two larger aura players have to overlap and hurt each other so that the Red Arrow makes it to the Pillar, it’s more than worth it. As the Pillars get destroyed, the party needs to all make sure and focus on the side of Alaric’s Wrath facing the remaining Pillars so that when it’s triggered again, they can get to their positions as quickly as possible.

Fifth & Final Section: Alaric

Finally, players have made it to the final Tier 2 Abyssal Dungeon Boss, Alaric. This Poseidon-like Guardian has a lot of lore connections and is one of the most complicated Abyss Dungeon Bosses to date (though not the most complicated overall). It has two different Wipe Mechanics, one with safe zones, and one from a Stagger Check. Additionally, it also has Freezing Orbs, Freeze Debuffs, an Orb Destruction section of its Stagger Check that bears some similarities to Kyzra from the Road of Lament, and all of its standard attacks on top of everything else.

Regular Attacks

As if the slew of different party Wiping mechanics and Status Effects weren’t enough, Alaric also has a pretty large set of regular attacks as well that players should know about:

They need to drain Alaric’s Stagger Bar as quickly as possible. It’s a tougher one, so save all those Stagger Skills in advance. As soon as the Stagger Bar is empty, the party needs to run around outside the icy Aura and break all the Golden Orbs moving slowly toward the center. For every Orb that touches the icy Aura, more of the screen is obscured with the blood effects. If the blood effects just about reach the center of the screen, it’s most likely a Wipe.

Parties tend to use the same general area they were assigned for their safe zone for the Up Arrow Wipe Attack as their “zone” for clearing out Golden Orbs, and it usually works pretty well. One thing to note though, is that there are two different types of Golden Orbs, ones that are entirely Gold, and slightly larger ones that have a white “Core”:

Full Gold Orbs: Break in a couple hits and move faster than the White Core Orbs. White Core Orbs: Don’t break at all, but rather they have their own invisible Stagger Bars that make them sink into the ground once depleted. Sleep Bombs can be used as a substitute if they’re too difficult to Stagger.

While this isn’t all of Alaric’s kit (as it’s hard to see and even understand a lot of its basic attacks), these are the most commonly used attacks it tends to unleash.

Recommended Battle Items & Engravings

As this is the final Tier 2 Abyssal Dungeon, it only makes sense that it’s also one of the ones that has a lot of viable Consumables to use as well, right? Good thing too, as Smilegate has finally incentivized Battle Item usage with their Battle Pass missions. In any case, here are the recommended choices:

HP Potions are (hopefully) an obvious choice. This is also another one we’d recommend using Elemental HP Potions on, as they heal more and can be used seven times instead of the usual five. Whirlwind Grenades for Alaric’s Stagger Check. Panacea or Sacred Charms for the Freeze Debuffs Alaric and Alaric’s Wrath both use. Time Stop Potions to tank the attack Alaric’s Wrath does to break the pillar without worry. Dark Grenades are sort of always a “helpful to bring” Consumable past this point of Lost Ark’s endgame content. And of course, as always, players should have many of the Skill Point Potions already collected and their Raid Class Setup equipped with regard to their Gear, Faceted Ability Stone, Engravings, and Accessories.

Lost Ark is currently available on PC.

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