Abyss Dungeons are essentially the default Raid-like content of Lost Ark, although, the Argos encounter that was added in the March Update is a sign of more Raid-like content to come in the form of Abyss and Legion Raids. In any case, Abyss Dungeons are four to eight-person content that involves a series of mechanically complex boss fights, broken up by small sections of mob clearing. And, by mechanically complex, it's by far the most involved content in the NA version of Lost Ark.
So, before the newer or more casual players bounce of Abyss Dungeons either from raw difficulty or just toxic teammates, here are some things to know that should make the process of understanding (and enjoying) Abyss Dungeons in Lost Ark a lot easier.
8 Do Your Research
It's a shame that this has to be the case, but players should absolutely look up each and every section of an Abyss Dungeon ahead of time and learn the Boss Mechanics before going in, especially if they're matchmaking on their own. Most, if not all the bosses in these Abyss Dungeons, have multiple mechanics that are almost entirely impossible to learn organically through gameplay. This isn't telling players to memorize all the bosses' attack patterns, just to understand key sections of the fight that usually result in a wipe if done incorrectly. Lost Ark is an active-combat game after all, so split second decision-making really matters.
There are a million different YouTube videos or written guides out there for the Abyss Dungeons in Lost Ark, so take a few minutes and learn them ahead of time. A party of friends can even watch a guide video on Discord together and make the act of learning the Abyss Dungeon itself a group activity! Yes, players can, for the most part, learn through repetitive attempts or by entering solo to see how the boss works, but watching a guide is just the better experience all around. This is especially true when using Matchmaking, as some people can be very unforgiving to those who don't know the mechanics going in, but for the most part the Lost Ark community, so far, seems to be pretty understanding in that regard.
7 Don't Be Stingy With Battle Items
If not knowing the Boss mechanics had a high chance of getting a player flamed in Party/Raid Chat, not using any HP Potions or Battle Items has a ninety-nine percent chance with not skipping cutscenes just barely eeking ahead. For some reason, either a lot of the guides were unclear about when to start using Battle Items or players just didn't pay attention, because there's a real air of "stingy-ness" going around in terms of Battle Item usage.
Honestly, it's not that difficult to craft, buy, or acquire more Battle Items (especially through side quests), whether it's HP Potions or Grenades. And, certain Abyss Dungeon bosses, such as Alaric, have mechanics that basically require specific party members to take a big chunk of damage to do it correctly. So, don't worry too much about HP Potions or Grenades, and use them as needed in the endgame content.
6 Stagger Checks Are A Constant In Raids
For those unaware, a Stagger Check in Lost Ark is when the boss has some shield or starts charging up some big attack and has a yellow bar underneath their character model. This is the Stagger Check. Fail to drain this bar in time as a party, and the boss usually unleashes some sort of full-wipe attack.
Of course, certain classes such as the Gunlancer or Scrapper don't need to worry about this too much, as they have a ton of mid to high-Stagger Skills, but some other Classes absolutely struggle in this aspect. Those using a character in one of those classes should almost always have Whirlwind Grenades on hand, as they make up for that lack of Stagger potential.
5 You're Going To Have To Communicate At Some Point
This next piece of advice is big, and it basically boils down to "communication is important". There are plenty of games or even plenty of aspects of Lost Ark where someone can play entirely on their own without having to talk to anyone and still enjoy the content as designed.
But, Abyss Dungeons (and really any Raid in an MMORPG) needs a lot of communication with other people, especially if there's a party member (or multiple) that doesn't know what's going on.
4 Learn & Understand The Ping System
Additionally, pinging is sort of huge for almost all of the cooperative endgame content in Lost Ark, yet tons of players don't' seem to even know it exists or how it works. For players unaware, it's really easy to ping, just Ctrl+Left Click either on the mini-map or just anywhere on the screen, and it'll place a ping down that the entire party/raid can see and hear.
To give just a few examples of what pings are used for during Raids and Dungeons:
- Bards will ping their healing Awakening ability.
- Allies ping when they're disabled by a petrify, stun, or other crowd control effect.
- Some bosses have wipe attacks that have specifically placed safe zones, so players will group up and ping where those are before going into the fight.
- If there is a Weak Point that needs to be broken, players will ping when it's up to break or when it's vulnerable to being hit.
3 Entry & Gold Limits
Next, let's go over what exactly the entry limit is for Abyss Dungeons as well as the Gold limit. Each Abyss Dungeon has a varying amount of broken-up dungeon "levels", usually two or three, and all of those make up the entire "Abyss Dungeon". Basically, players can only complete each Abyss Dungeon, including all its dungeon "levels" (AKA Demon Beast Canyon and Necromancer's Origin for Ancient Elveria) once a week per character.
Additionally, players can only get the Gold reward portion of each Dungeon "level" up to six times a week per character. Essentially it's there to stop the hyperinflation of Gold in Lost Ark as well as to stop people from just running the Abyss Dungeons on an absurd amount of different characters just to farm Gold.
2 Wipes Are Expected, Its Fine As Long As You Learn
This is probably the hardest thing for fresh-faced level fifty players to get used to, and it's the idea that there is anything that could kill them multiple times. Let's be frank, the story content of Lost Ark from level one to fifty is in no way difficult, even for its length, and players may never have ever even died over the course of the entire narrative. So, when these players hop into Abyss Dungeons and then are instantly wiped of all their health in an instant due to standing in the wrong spot, it can give them a bit of metaphorical whiplash.
So, the tip is really just for players to come to terms with the idea that wiping is a part of Abyss Dungeons, it's going to happen almost every time at least once. Even players that are farming their weekly Abyss Dungeons hundreds of item levels above the recommended can still wipe, as these attacks are programmed to insta-kill, no matter the level.
Don't worry about wiping too much, as long as the players who died early know what they did and figure out or are told how to fix it, there's no need for an obnoxiously early surrender vote.
1 You Can Change Builds, Skills, & Items Mid-Dungeon
And finally, it's surprising how many people are still oblivious to this, but there are plenty of opportunities in an Abyss Dungeon where players can switch their Battle Items or even adjust Skills, Gear, or Tripods. Basically, whenever this ring of golden energy appears that players will assuredly recognize from areas like the Shadowspire after a floor clear or at the start of any Guardian Raid, that's their time to switch things up if needed.
So, if the Raid Party wipes because they can't seem to deplete that Stagger Bar in time, use that golden circle the party respawns in outside the boss arena to access personal storage and throw some Whirlwind Grenades on the Quick Bar.
Lost Ark was released on December 4th, 2019, and is available for PC.