Much like I have favorites, there are also dungeons that I dread.
I had a hard time choosing between Sastasha Hard and Aurum vale since I dislike them equally. However, for this entry I will probably discuss Aurum Vale.
To gain access to this dungeon, you will need to talk to Nedrick Ironheart in Vesper Bay, Western Thanalan
And to unlock it, you would need to head to Coerthas Central Highlands (x14,y35)
This dungeon can get frustrating for healers both new and experienced, since majority of the mobs and bosses in this dungeon hit like a truck. (either through brunt damage or Damage over time)
Upon entering the Dungeon, you will have to cross a bog filled with patrolling mobs. This can be difficult if you pull too many so it’s always best to have your tank pull them in batches to a corner or back into he cave where you emerged from.
Locksmith
Once through, you will enter the boss room with a giant ochu in the middle. Around him are Morbol fruits that you have to devour throughout the fight. It would be best to assign a morbol fruit to each member to avoid players not being able to eat any.
During the fight, the boss will cast an unavoidable room wide AoE, called Gold Rush, that will keep stacking. This Debuff will periodically deal damage and can be manageable up to 2 stacks. After 2 stacks, it is highly adviseable to consume a morbol fruit to remove the stack. If not, the healer may find it hard to top off the party.
Aside from Gold rush, the boss will also cast an AoE spell on a random player called Gold dust.
As for the tank, you will deal with the boss’ melee skill, hundred lashing that hits like a truck. Blowing your cooldowns for this could be a great help to your healer to lessen the stress on healing.
If you’re lucky enough to have a party who will easily grasp these mechanics, you should be able to clear this with very little difficulty, if not; this fight could cause frustration to all members.
Coin Counter
The next boss in this dungeon is a Giant/Cyclops that packs an arsenal of AoE attacks that could be deadly to anyone in melee range.
This fight isn’t friendly towards newbie tanks so if you’re a healer and you’re familiar with this fight, it would be best to brief your newbie tanks about this boss or you’ll spend your hour dreading why you queued for this dungeon in the first place.
This boss has 3 melee attacks that you would need to lookout for. First of three is the 10-Tonze Swipe. This is a frontal aoe attack that will hit anyone in front of him. If you’re not a tank, you shouldn’t worry about this. The next 2 are 100-Tonze Swipeand 100-Tonze Swing. 100-Tonze Swipe is a frontal cone AoE attack that deals a truckload of damage to anyone it hits while 100-Tonze Swing is a an AoE attack where he swings his club at full 360 and will deal severely large damage to all players standing in melee range.
From experience, these 2 are usually what would kill your tank. Either they’re not aware of what these skills do or they confuse one for the other since they both start with “100.”
To help you differentiate the 2, 100 tonze swipe is cast only when the boss is holding his club with one hand, while 100 Tonze swing is cast with 2 hands holding his club. If this happens, just tell your tank to step through the boss for 100 Tonze Swipe and for 100 Tonze swing, ask the tank and dps to run away from the boss to avoid getting hit. Or if your tank and Dps is alert enough, they can also try to interrupt them.
Aside from these, the boss has 2 other skills called Glower and Eye of the beholder.
Glower will be fired at a random player in the form of a laser. The targeted player will take damage and will have a paralysis debuff .
Eye of the beholder is a larger cone AoE spell that will deal damage and electrocution debuff on anyone it hits. This will happen when the boss faces a random player and you will see the emote "The Coincounter takes a moment to reconsider..."
After this boss, you will encounter some morbol mobs surrounded by morbol fruits. It would be best to lure the morbols away from the fruits and kill the fruits with AoE since these may spawn smaller adds and it will be harder to manage.
Miser's Mistress
If you get hit by bad breath, you’ll be inflicted with Paralysis, Silence, Poison, Blind, Slow, Heavy, HP Penalty, and Determination Down. This is going to be a pain to remove and it will take a bit of time to wear off so be nice to your healer and avoid this.
Miser’s Mistress has the same mechanic as locksmith. He will cast burr burrows similar to locksmith’s Gold rush and you must eat fruits to remove it after 2-3 stacks.
The boss will also cast Hooked burrs on a random player increasing his burr stacks by 1 so party members need to be alert and aware.
The only other thing that the tank should look out for is the AoE Vine probe attack that will deal a moderate amount of damage to all that it hits.
If your team manages to get these mechanics, you should be able to fish the dungeon without issues.
Newbies may take some practice but it should be easy once you get used to the fight.
I’m sure I’m not the only player who dislikes this dungeon out there. I hope that this helps you in getting through the dungeon.
