Hello everybody once again this is AikawaKazu.
I bring to the community (hopefully) a insightful article regarding 8-Man Raids in Dragon Nest.
I’ve been through the clearing of Sea Dragon Nest, Green Dragon Nest, Desert Dragon Nest & more recently Black Dragon Nest.
Seeing that there’s always players that ask join me or that they cannot find a party I’ll now attempt to write as best as I can my overall experience regarding raids in Dragon Nest.
As usual it will be pretty structured (because I always end off rambling and going off-topic), so here’s the outline:
- General Matters – Public Party vs Fixed Party, Commitment Level, Communication etc
- The Party Members – Roles/Personalities ; Class Compositions etc.
- Schedule and Objectives
General Matters
Public Party vs Fixed Party
Let’s throw it out there.
There’s little or very low chance for an actual public party formed randomly in Channel 1 or via the party finding section that you will be able to clear the actual raid especially when it is released for between anything less than 2 months.
Most world shouts (blue birds) calling for a specific class or member are usually asking for substitutes or at best hope in finding a fixed party member.
The complexity of the raid itself requires intricate levels of communication and understanding of each party member’s role and responsibilities.
Raid boss fights are usually structured such that a mis-informed member have that probability to mess up an entire raid.
In the case of Black Dragon Nest, needless to say starting from Stage 1, such mechanisms are already inherent.
So I’ll stress again, if you want to clear Black Dragon Nest, set in your mind that your currently party will eventually be a fixed party.
There’s nothing wrong with sourcing members in the public or open avenues, but at the end of the day, that “pub” that you have found will have be transformed into a fixed member to increase chances of a successful and enjoyable raid
This will in turn help to transit us to the next point.
Commitment Level
Here’s the thing, there’s so many people that want to clear a raid but more often than not, most of them do not share the same commitment level with the rest of the party members.
Why do you want to clear the raid?
Have you asked yourself this question before joining a raid party?
While there’s nothing wrong with a simple reason like wanting the loots etc. but it usually needs to be more than that
More often than not, teams that clear the raid early on simply want the satisfaction of overcoming the challenge that a raid present to them.
With a very solid reason backing up your purpose of clearing the actual raid itself, your commitment level will definitely be of an acceptable level.
I’ve seen PVP players whom you would never imagine commit to a PVE Nest more so a 8-Man Raid manage to garner the effort to gear their own characters (without direct spoon feeding) because of setting in stone their commitment level and reason for clearing the raid.
On other end, I’ve also seen PVE players whom have questionable commitment levels due to various reasons and expects their party members to be in charge of their gears etc.
The amount of commitment level required for clearing an actual 8-man raid is tremendous.
It requires a lot of compromise within members in terms of allocating time for practice and the runs itself.
If you have an unmotivated member whose commitment levels ain’t there, you will find yourself dragging through the motion and will not have an enjoyable raid.
Commitment level issues should be resolved and confirmed before the formation of the raid party to prevent any form of drama at the end when it comes down to certain players dis-satisfied with how the loots are distributed as they might find a certain individual undeserving of the loots due to their commitment levels.
This brings us to our next point ; Communication
Communication
I personally feel that this is the most important aspect when it comes to an 8-Man raid party.
To put it simply, everything have to talked through from the beginning unless you’re like myself, who is clearing the raid for the sheer satisfaction and believe in your team leader.
I can’t stress enough how important communication is in a raid.
I’m not about shouting to each other via skype, ventrilo or raid call and calling out on mistakes & playing the blame game ; that isn’t communication.
You will be surprised how little communication an actual seasoned raid party has during the actual run.
The secret behind it is the communication BEFORE the actual boss fight or the actual run.
“When are the Beyond Time supposed to be cast (for DPS to know the cues), when is Miracle Relic or any form of defensive buff going to be used, has the destroyer used havoc howl on the boss etc.”
If you haven’t watched our Black Dragon Nest Practice or Normal Clear run video, you can watch it at the end of this article where I’ll embed it.
Basically you will see minimal communication except from the Raid Leader and occasional reminders to boss mechanics.
To achieve this however, you will probably require a fixed party and members with the right commitment levels.
Before you can discuss when about skill, buff and other rotations, members have to do their own homework.
My experience in raids since 40 tells me that members who didn’t even bother to watch videos and read up on guides prior to an actual practice or raid will probably not be around by the time you eventually clear it.
Yes eventually such members with questionable commitment levels will leave or simply be detested by your party members and be forced to leave.
Trust me it is never nice to “ask” someone to leave a party after he/she has been around for multiple practice or runs due to negative reasons ; it doesn’t feel good for anyone
This creates unnecessary drama in the game due to misunderstandings that can be exacerbated further in the game which makes it very very unpleasant for everyone at the end of the day.
TL;DR? Start right so you will end right as well.
Easier said than done right? Well that is indeed very true.
It is impossible for 1-man alone to be able to do all the abovementioned.
This is why we now talk about the Party Members ; Their roles and responsibilities ; Class compositions etc.
Party Members
Personalities/Role
I’m not talking about the DPS, Supporter, Semi-DPS/Support & Healer type of roles here, that will go under our class composition discussion.
Here, more accurately I would say. would be the various personalities within a raid that is important.
- Visionary ; Raid Leader
- Cheerful ; Charismatic (Usually Raid Leader’s Right hand Man)
- Serious ; Focused (Raid Leader’s Left Hand Man
- The rest who just need to know what they are supposed to do and fulfill those expectations of them
I’ve tried to be raid leader twice, once in 40 cap and once in 70 cap which is my initial BDN Party.
I’ve learnt from my 40 cap experience that I’m not a suitable raid leader mainly due to the fact that I’m already too busy with my YouTube & Live Streaming schedules.
I still tried with my initial BDN Party but obviously was unsuccessful to clear BDN before members in our party had to deal with Real Life (NS, studies) etc.
I believe that a Visionary Raid Leader is extremely important because he/she will be the one to be able to put the entire party together.
He/she would have visualized the class composition that will make the 8-man Raid a success and more importantly, be able to source out specific people with the qualities he/she is looking for that specific raid party.
From my experience as a Raid leader for my first BDN party, I’ve learnt that you need to piece together a raid party that has the best chance of success.
Sometimes being a Nice Guy and accommodating certain people that has varying commitment levels compared to the rest of the team or in some cases not providing optimal class composition synergy is not the right decision at the end of the day.
Making tough decisions as Raid Leader is definitely a hurdle that all raid leaders to be have to overcome.
Probably the toughest and hardest role in an entire Raid Party because you need to know not only your own class but every other class and how they synergize together as a whole.
Not tough enough? You have to manage the practice and run schedules of 8 people and finding a compromise within those 8 people whom probably are leading entirely different lifestyles and timezone.
You have to ensure that all your party members have BDN Tickets via organizing running of AONs together (but realize AON is a 6man party, so you need to form 2 AON parties instead of 1) etc.
Most importantly, as a person you need to earn the respect of your party members such that they will follow your lead.
All that cannot be done unless you have completed the above ; displaying that you have ample knowledge about your member’s class and most importantly communication your strategy of clearing the raid with your party members.
My current BDN Clear party raid leader “Firzinator” is one person who have displayed such qualities and I have utmost respect for him.
He has done all the above if not much more not to mention not for 1 team but 2 BDN Teams whom have successfully cleared under his leadership.
For those who are wondering, I’m in role number 4, the easiest of all roles which is “the rest who just need to know what they are supposed to do and fulfill those expectations of them”
Raid Leader will also be the person who will be communicating how loots are distributed across the party members and obviously will have to come up with a fair distribution with the rest of the party members.
This is the person who will look back at all the fail runs and will source out the errors and inform the relevant party members of their mistakes ; expecting that it will be rectified the next time.
This is the person who will take it upon himself in every fail run that it is directly or indirectly is fault at the end.
The amount of pressure and responsibility in this role is tremendous and definitely not easy.
So whenever you decide to rage at your Raid Leader, read the above and think again.
And since it seems to be so difficult to be a Raid Leader, there are 2 supplementary roles to him/her.
Cheerful, Charismatic & Serious and Focused Members ; Right and Left Hand Man for the Raid Leader
There always needs to be a joker within any raid party.
This person will always keep the liveliness of the party despite the mistakes, the wipes and the disastrous runs.
Always remember to end and practice or raid attempt with a positive note.
It is not good for the party overall if the run has ended negatively without any of the questions and mistakes rectified/clarified.
Usually or maybe just sometimes the person that talks alot of smack but ends up dying horribly due to a innocent mistake xD!
Nevertheless, this person helps to make a raid run be overall enjoyable for everyone.
This person will also balance up with the next personality which is the serious and focused party member in the party.
There will be times when things needs to be serious and focus and this person will bring things into perspective.
Achieving objectives in every practice and raid attempt is important to keep things progress and this is what this person will do.
Usually in a raid party where I’m not a leader, I’m usually that serious and focused party member regardless if I fill up this role.
If you still don’t get what I’m trying to say, basically a Raid Party must have a good balance of fun and joy midst all the seriousness.
In the end, the greatest joy will be everyone to clear the raid together, so a combination of all these factors will probably aid you towards that moment.
More importantly though not explicitly mention, these 2 personality/roles types helps out the Raid Leader as well as he will be busy with the abovementioned details for every raid run.
All in all, there can be 1 person that possess 3 persons’ worth of personalities but ultimately he is also human.
So having a myriad of various personalities within a 8-man raid party is often very very common such that you won’t need to search for this specific role or person, they just come naturally.
I’m just pointing out the significance of these people in a party who are usually the important behind the scenes people that people overlook.
Last but not the least we move on to the ” The rest who just need to know what they are supposed to do and fulfill those expectations of them ”
This basically means that the rest of the party members just need to do what they are supposed to do for their class roles etc.
Supposed to do can mean a lot though, but to put it simply, it its pretty much understanding of the 8-Man BDN Raid as a whole.
This pretty much means you don’t get caught as much as possible to mechanics such as stomp, or commit any mistakes that will cause a party wipe mechanic to occur etc.
In other words, do your homework, know what your class does and is meant to do and make sure you go about to fulfilling that expectation.
This brings us to our next point, Class Composition.
Class Composition
Having the visionary leader who is able to envision the team success of clearing the raid, he/she must have also have a class composition in mind.
For those who didn’t know or are in disbelief, the BDN party I cleared with indeed have no Full FD player.
Highest FD in our team was 16% which is probably garnered from set bonuses.
How we managed to achieve the damage that we managed to pull off was mainly due to the right class composition that we had.
We had a Light Elemental focused party where the Moonlord (myself) and the Shooting Star (LoliKeitsu) was using the Lightning Elemental Conversion Jade.
Here is a quick summary of the potential damage increase my team had in our raid setup outside of having Final Damage:
- 2x Damage Increase via General Debuffs (Provoking Slam, Armor Break, Bull’s Eye, Binding Shot etc)
- 2x Damage Increase via Ice Stack (Requires double stack, with Adepts possible to have double with Ice Beam & Icicle Expression)
- Up to 3x Damage Increase via Critical Damage (Most players will hit between 225%-240%, hitting 300% is possible if you sacrifice survivability from Life Vit Jades)
- Up to 1x Damage Increase via Light Attack ATK % (30% Conviction Aura, 24% Blessing of Light, +16% Blessing of Azuna; Total of 70% From Buffs , 32% from Gears)
- 2x Damage Increase via Light resist debuff -100%
With this and our own & other members damage increase passive/active buffs, it is indeed possible to hit the 50x damage increase cap for Pink Damage.
The Team’s Crusader “Firzinator” managed to hit a 48 million Holy Relic Ex during one of our practice runs which was indeed “Pink” damage.
The Line up that we used was:
- Firzinator (Crusader)
- Verdehille (Elestra)
- ZaraLeigh (Majesty)
- LoliKeitsu (Shooting Star)
- Heartzx (Destroyer)
- DiyosENERU (Inquisitor)
- FloatToAFK (Light Fury)
- AikawaKazu (Moonlord)
As you can see from recent skill balancing from the developers, you can see that they are balancing the other classes such that therein exist a class that can give a significant elemental support.
First we had the dark party via Majesties’ Gravity Ascension EX dark resistance debuff.
Recently we had the Light Party via Inquisitor and Crusader skill balancing.
We have also received the changes to Arsonist Fire ATK %+ applying to party members, Elemental Lord Firebird/Phoenix Storm reducing fire resistance, Adept’s Magma Punch EX reducing fire resistance etc.
In other words you can see the class compositions are now significantly important especially in raids since you can bring up to 8 players.
Cross synergy is also possible since you can see that there’s a majesty in our team as well who also benefits from Lighty Fury’s Blessing of Azuna’s 32% Dark Attack increase.
There are many many more elemental resistance debuff related skills not listed that can be utilized as well. (Ethanol, Chemical Grenade etc.)
Since we lost our inquisitor before Dragon Stage, having the luxury of both Dark & Light Elemental Conversion Jade for myself (Moonlord) & the Shooting Star, we also managed to convert to Dark Elemental mid-run.
I will like to emphasize that it is not a must to follow certain class compositions if you don’t want to force your friends or guildmates to change to a class that they wouldn’t want to play.
However as mentioned above, if the commitment levels & communications within the raid members are in line with one another, you won’t be surprised that some players are willing to change jobs for the sake of clearing the nest.
That being said, having the optimal class compositions that bring out and maximizes the effectiveness of the buffs/debuffs and skills of the 8 classes in the raid however is definitely the direction that the developers want players to work towards given the changes they have done recently.
The importance of class compositions helps to overcome multiple tiers of gear requirements and helps the raid team accomplish objectives that they will not be able to pull off alone or with the wrong compositions.
Our do a short summary of what each class in my team provides in a raid setting in general:
- Firzinator (Crusader) – *Provoke (Aggro Control), Light Resistance Debuff, Heals & Damage
- Verdehille (Elestra) – *Ice Stack, Damage, Utility of Freeze in Dragon Phase 1
- ZaraLeigh (Majesty) – *Dark Resistance Debuff, Damage, Utility of Time Stop & GA EX in Dragon Phase 1
- LoliKeitsu (Shooting Star) – *Damage Reduction via Transitional Damage, Mobility Boost (Wax) & Damage
- Heartzx (Destroyer) – *Provoke (Secondary Aggro), Havoc Howl (DMG Reduction from Boss Attacks), Devitalizing Howl (Silence/Removal of Berserk/Enrage Buffs), Highlander
- DiyosENERU (Inquisitor) -*Light Resistance Debuff, Heals & Damage
- FloatToAFK (Light Fury) -*Map-Wide Heals (Miracle etc.), Heals & MP Recovery, Dark/Light ATK % Inc, Damage Increase Debuffs (Sunshine Spark), Mobility Boost (Chakra Tunnel) & Damage
- AikawaKazu (Moonlord) – *Provoking Slam, Magic Damage Increase Debuff (Cyclone Slash), Highlander & Damage
Once you have all these things ironed out you can then move on to the next portion which is setting the schedule and the objectives.
Schedule and Objectives
For my initial BDN Team, we set out various objectives with every run and tried our very best to meet them.
We managed to fulfill most of them until we met with issues where members in the team had to issues to handle etc.
Nevertheless we set to run BDN at least once a week when it was first released.
During your runs try to evaluate the skill and mastery level of your various party members and remind them accordingly during the run whenever mistakes occur.
The most important thing about a 8-man raid that I’ve noticed is clearing all doubts regarding boss mechanics.
More often than not some ego and pride might get in the way of players admitting their mistake or acknowledge a method/way to avoid certain boss mechanics.
When you’re in doubt with regards to a boss mechanic, there’s no need to be shy and ask about it.
This contributes to the party’s trust and confidence with each other whenever there’s a dangerous party wipe mechanic involved.
For eg. Bubble Mechanic that occurs every time Fiery Minotaur loses a HP Bar. Everyone needs to be sure of their position and when to destroy the bubble.
For every stage or run that your team goes through, even if it was a seemingly positive run, always wrap up the run by asking the party if they have any doubts on any mechanics of the bosses.
Sometimes certain mechanics didn’t appear during your run resulting in certain members not experiencing it first hand.
Confidence for overcoming certain mechanics consistently can only be done through practice.
For example, during one of my BDN Practice runs with the team that I cleared with, Firzinator called for the waiting of killing the dragon so that I was able to see and experience mechanic that wasn’t used in our earlier 2 practice runs.
Never take shortcuts when it comes to the exploration and learning phase of the raid experience.
While great gear which in turns provides for quick DPS will help to skip multiple boss mechanics, there will be instances where accidents occur such that you will have less than the optimal number of members to clear the raid.
For the BDN Clear, we lost 1 member during our Stage 5 Ice Golem fight and eventually I died at 8x hp bar of the Dragon fight.
With lesser members now available for the rest of the dragon raid, it will have resulted in a longer clear time which meant more instances of boss mechanics to occur until the boss is dead.
Without confidence which helps maintain the consistency of dodging boss mechanics such as stomps, side breaths and more, it wouldn’t have been possible for the remaining 6 members to finish the raid.
Even coming from DDN HC runs, there are moments where raid members become complacent and get killed by boss mechanics leaving 3-4 members left.
However, due to the confidence and familiarity that the rest of the members have with the raid, it is still cleared successfully eventually.
As a DN player who is aiming to clear 8-man raids, you need to have 2 basic objectives for yourself:
- Understand and recognize all Boss Mechanics in all Stages
- Have zero doubt, be able to overcome them with confidence
For eg. After Chaos Time mechanic in Dragon Stage, know that the 100% dodging of the stomp is by jumping immediately after the orange flash that appears on your screen.
When you’re in doubt it is highly likely that you will panic and thus cause inconsistencies which results in your death. So don’t have any doubts! It is very important not to have any!
If every raid member in the team is able to achieve this 2 objectives, you will realize that raid runs are actually pretty simple.
However achieving the above 2 objectives will highly dependent on your practice runs.
Schedules should thus include objectives guided by these 2 mentioned above.
For example (Assuming a 1 Run per week schedule):
- 6 October – Baseline Objectives: Party must go through all Stage 1 Rhino and Stage 3 Fiery Minotaur Boss Mechanics
- 12 October – Baseline Objectives: No Deaths in Stage 1-3, Stage 4 Phase 1-3 Exploration ; Go through Punisher Boss Mechanics for All Phases
- 18 October – Baseline Objectives: No Deaths in Stage 1-4, Stage 5 Ice Golem Exploration ; All Boss Mechanics
- 24 October – Baseline Objectives: Firm up Strategy for Stage 1-5, Dragon Phase 1 & 2 Exploration ; All Phase 2 Mechanics
- 30 October – Baseline Objectives: Stage 1-5 Easy Mode, Dragon Phase 3 – 5 Exploration ; All Phase 3-5 Mechanics
- 6 November – Black Dragon Nest Practice Mode Full Run x2 – Clear any other doubts
- 7 November – Black Dragon Nest Practice Mode Full Run x2 – Adjust accordingly any possible strategies and changes
- 8 November – Black Dragon Nest Normal Run Attempt & Clear
If not you will fall to this endless cycle that (I’ve personally experienced) will mean the same objectives not being fulfilled for each run.
Progress with each run/practice is very important for all members to feel that things are going right for the raid so make sure there’s some form of progress for every run/practice that you have scheduled for.
For my current party that eventually cleared, I joined them when they were already done ironing out Stage 1-5 strategy and practice.
With practice up to Stage 4 in BDN Normal, and some experience in Stage 5 via BDN Memoria Part II, I managed to catch up eventually.
In the end, I joined them immediately in the BDN Practice Mode Full runs.
We did 2 days and up to 4 BDN Practice Mode Full runs where I cleared all my doubts regarding the mechanics in the Dragon Phases itself as well as getting good practice for Stage 4 & 5.
Even though our first 3 Normal Run Attempts were unsuccessful, for myself my deaths were caused by circumstances that I couldn’t control (game crashes at wrong timing etc.).
And finally the next day when we attempted our 4th Normal Run, even with 1 member down before Dragon Phase itself, we still managed to clear it eventually.
I feel that all the abovementioned in this post pretty much summed up how I felt contributed to the success (also my failure in my initial team) for clearing the BDN Raid.
I hope this post has aided you in further understanding the intricacies when it comes down to finishing a 8-Man Raid in Dragon Nest.
All the best if you’re attempting to clear BDN and good luck
With this I end off with the actual run for my team.
Regards,
AikawaKazu
P.S Ultimately, after reading through what I’ve written, this is more like a journal/log of how I felt about what contributes to the success of a 8-Man Raid completion in Dragon Nest, so I hope it is still useful in one way or another.
I’ll be writing a guide similar to the PVP Basics and Fundamentals where I would include GIFs of all boss mechanics and skills as much as possible.
I would say what is discussed above pretty much applies to raids that are 8 or more in other MMORPGs since I do indeed have experience in those 10,20, 30 & 40 man raids back in the days.
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