Armored Nacrasena Introduction
Armored Nacrasena is the first Raid Level 5 Guardian and you need to be at least 1302 Item Level to enter this Guardian Raid. This Guardian drops Tier 3 Accessories, Upgrade Materials and Ability Stones as well as rare drops including Runes, Engraving Books and Cards. It takes 10% more damage from Earth Element skills.
This Guardian has attack patterns similar to the Raid Level 2 Guardian Nacrasena. He also moves and changes his position frequently, making the fight against Nacrasena especially difficult for classes with longer skill animations. Once you get used to the attack patterns and animations, the difficulty drops significantly.
Armored Nacrasena is the first Guardian with 2 separate armor break mechanics. You must first destroy its armor and then you are able to destroy its tail on a followup stagger. Because of this, having a decent amount of Stagger affix related Combat Items or skills makes this fight way easier.
Disclaimer: In this guide, we will only focus on the important core mechanics and attacks of the hard mode bosses. The normal mode has similar but simpler mechanics compared to the hard mode.
This Guardian guide assumes you know the basics of a Guardian Raid. Check out the General Guardian Raid Guide to learn more.
Special Interactions & Patterns
Counterable Attack
Counter Attack is possible during the charge attack pattern. At the start of this attack animation, the Guardian glows blue. The player has a short window to cast a skill with a Counter Attack affix while standing in front of the Guardian. If you manage to pull this off fast enough, the Guardian's attack will be interrupted and staggered for a few seconds. This gives you and your team a short window to use buffs and deal additional damage.
Armored Nacarsena can perform this attack up to 2 times in a row. The indicator for this is, if the Guardian lifts his claws into the air at the end of the first charge attack.
Electric Charge
The Guardian gets into a protective stance for a few seconds to charge up, taking decreased damage. You have to use skills and Combat Items with Stagger Damage affix to interrupt the charge attempt. If you are successful, the Guardian will be exposed for a few seconds to your attacks.
The charging progress can be seen, by paying closer attention to the tail of Armored Nacrasena. The current travels from the tip of the tail down to the body. Once it reaches the body, it adds 1 charge. Once the 3rd current reaches the body, Nacrasena will be fully charged and its patterns will be powered up.
Be aware, the Guardian will continually attempt to charge up, even if you successfully interrupt him during a previous stagger check. Once the Guardian succeeds and manages to reach 3 charges, he unleashes a devastating attack around him, which can potentially one shot players. Successfully staggering the Guardian doesn't reduce the obtained charges. So make sure to run away before the 3rd current reaches the body.
Tail Break & Cut
Once you incapacitate Nacrasena by depleting the hidden Stagger bar, the Weak Point is exposed. Do this by using skills and Combat Items with a Stagger Damage affix. During the exposed state, you have a short time frame to destroy the tail's protective layer by using skills and Combat Items with Weak Point affix. Depending on the party composition and Combat Items used, it might take 2 or more attempts to cut the tail.
Be aware that Countering the charge attack doesn't expose the weak spot. It is also important to not fight the Guardian too close to a wall. If you Stagger Nacrasena too close to a wall, you might not be able to hit the Weak Spot on the tail properly.
General Patterns
Lightning Barrage
The Guardian bangs the ground with its claws and buries its tail into the ground before summoning multiple small lightning strikes around it. The lightning strikes deal low damage and knock up the player on hit, you can get hit by multiple lightning strikes successively, so be careful. The safest option is to run away from the Guardian or standing close to one of his hind legs, but with quick reaction time you can stay in the fight and doge the strikes as well.
After succeeding the 3rd Electric Charge, small electric fields placed around the Guardian remain for a few seconds. On contact, the player is shocked for a few seconds.
Dig and Summon
After burying into the ground, Armored Nacrasena summons small scorpions around him. After a short delay, the Guardian reappears on the same spot. But before he reappears, make sure to kill all the summoned scorpions. Do this by grouping up a few meters away from the dig location to force the small scorpions to group up. This will help to kill all scorpions with just a few skills.
If the summoned scorpions survive for more than 10 seconds, they are surrounded by a lightning field, which deals damage to nearby players.
Jump
Nacrasena crosses and lifts its claws before jumping. On impact, it deals medium damage to nearby players and knocks them up. This attack can be performed up to two times in a row by the Guardian and paralyzes on hit after the Electric Charge power up.
Decomposing Breath
The Guardian performs 2 short breath attacks in front of it, often multiple times in a row. The hitbox of the AoE is small, and the damage is low, but this attack also drains your mana and energy.
The mana/energy drain effect often leads to a huge DPS drop and should be avoided at all costs.
Lightning Strike
Nacrasena summons on a random player a thunder strikes. This thunder strike deals massive damage and can one shot. Make sure to dodge away as soon as you see the telegraph.
Lightning Zap
The Guardian charges its stinger with electric power and discharges it twice towards a player. On hit the player takes damage and gets paralyzed for a few seconds. To avoid getting hit, you should run clockwise or counterclockwise around the boss. If you want to prevent your teammates from getting hit by the attack, you can change your direction as soon as the first lightning zap hits the ground.
Gameplay Video
Credits
Written by Perciculum
Reviewed by Yaen
