Dungeon Guide - Darkside

This will fall in line with the other two guides in that it will outline what's needed, however I feel it's important to say this:

*DISCLAIMER* Darkside is a extremely troll dungeon with many ways to die fairly quickly, if you don't plan to come prepared as suggested, bear in mind you will not get far, you also will probably aggravate the group you're with and mean things might be said, it's your ass.

Supplies

On to matters:
First Room
Simple zerg, kill everything in the room, pay attention to the monsters and their attacks, that information will be useful later. I'd advise against charging in like Leroy on crack unless your team is prepared to back you up, the mobs hit hard and cause bleed.

Second Room
Now things begin to get hard, your fight is against Tiamat, if it's your first time there or any party member's first time, you'll also meet Michael there. Michael is for this fight irrevelent so focus on the matter at hand. Tiamat can swing his spear in a wide arc causing damage and bleed to anyone caught in the swing, he can also summon a Chaos Agares-esque flux which will stun and damage, however it is fairly easy to avoid. Once he takes a certain amount of damage he will cloak and begin to wander the room, usually after he's found he goes into his special move. For the special he will immobilize 3 of the party members and begin to cause heavy bleeding damage. The remaining party member must collect all of the orbs that appear to keep the party alive, movement speed is recommended because the damage is fast and hefty. He will alternate members as well so be ready to move quickly. Near death instead of summoning the orbs he will place reapers on top of everyone's head, as soon as the reapers appear, immediately bombard your teammates as the reapers will have a psuedo-friendly fire on. The objective is to kill the reapers before Tiamat summons them back, if not, he kills whoever still has a reaper when the screen goes dark.

Third Room
Welcome to the 2nd hardest room in Darkside, the fella you see hefting the treetrunk he calls a sword can be either really easy, or murder everyone, this room is where communication and teamwork become paramount. Balias is nigh invincible at the beginning of the battle, he will follow members around and swing his sword in a big arc, it doesn't hit dreadfully hard but can cause stun and sends your ass flying. He also can slam his sword into the ground causing the room to rupture in random explosions, do try not to get fried. The only way to drop his invincibility is to hit him approximately 50 times. You'll know it dropped when he summons a tornado around himself, as soon as the nado pops up, the party needs to normally either run to the bottom left or bottom right of the screen because he is going to summon 4 spirits that need to be caught, 1 per each member or 2 if a member has heavy/plate armor and enough hp. These spirits cause a constant damage that can easily overpower you if not careful, be judicious of your HP. They will also release upon death so the party needs to be ready to recollect the wandering spirit, they will release for no real reason midway through possession as well so unless you have a deathwish, stop fighting and grab them. Once the spirits are caught, open fire with everything you have on Balias. It usually only takes 1-3 cycles of this to kill Balias depending on difficulty. Now that was a normal run, however if you have Michael with you, things are more difficult. Michael attracts the spirits when they are summoned, but he cannot be possessed, that said, the group has to stand on top of Michael to get the spirits, what compounds the issue further is Michael is like this dude's lover or something and likes to stand damn near face to face with Balias with the nado up which hurts a great deal. To counteract this, place your character about a foot off of the nado with michael slightly ahead of you, if you don't know how to measure a foot, do a backstep then step forward once. Job specific wise, if anyone plans to run this on Asura be aware murderous wave DOES go through his invincibility and will not proc the 50 hits, but he has a lot of hp and a murder kill takes a while, for best results, use it when he has 3 or so bars left.

Fourth Room
At this point, you probably hate this dungeon and the bastard who made it, that's completely normal. This room is a bit of a break thankfully, the miniboss here isn't too bad so long as you have decent timing. The double bladed Nubian princess (I forget her name) acts very similar to a rogue, she will warp around and combo people with her blades. For the majority of the battle she will encase herself in a pink cocoon for a period of time after damage is done or dealt. Upon emerging she will have dark orbs over her head and a myriad of invincible foes called fear of death will spawn, the fear of death inflict a curse similar to dead man's grudge except after enough time it will stop you in your tracks, this can be either a good or bad thing depending on class for reasons I'll explain in a minute. The deaths also explode so quick rebound and HP pots is recommended. Now to damage her you have to knock all of the orbs off her head, this is done by hitting her with counters and back attacks. Remember when I mentioned the curse can be a bittersweet ordeal? Well any classes that have a holding multihit attack such as wave wheel, grap awakening, agni, junk spin etc. can use said skill right before freezing and continue to spin. It's a very helpful glitch at masters or kings because it stops her from hitting you after everyone is frozen and deals quite a bit of damage, several bars usually. For this room, AoEs are helpful for countering, hit recovery and guard go a long way as well. Once she is dead, I hope you still have some SBs left.

Fifth Room
Welcome to the worst room in darkside, this room if you plan to attack, you will die. Don't say you won't, don't kid yourself, this is why you need those SBs. You face off against Michael, a sader/monk hybrid. Despite his petite look, he hits very hard and can end an unprepared run easily. Upon entering the room a large coin will twirl upon your head, either gold or grey, this signifies how the party must position themselves to avoid flash orb damage. If it is gold, stay close to one another, if grey, get some distance between one another. Michael himself has two forms, the 2nd obviously being worse. On normal you can scrape through without a death if the party goes in hard and relentless. Anything above that, bring SBs. Michael summons lightning to strike upon each coin spin and when he changes forms, he can use the bubble shield, ducking upper, exquisite combo, the 45 sader skill and the banhammer. He's very fond of ending a monk combo with said banhammer. Avoid the 45 skill at all costs, it will slow you down, proc multiple times and usually will 1-shot anyone caught in it or near it. Damaging him is straightforward, it's dodging all the bullshit he has to offer when trying to kill him and keeping as many tokens/SBs on hand as possible for Ozma that's hard. When he's dead, clap yourself on the back and prepare for round two of the trollery.

BOSS: OZMA
I'm gonna establish one thing right now, this fight is NOT a zerg, it will take a while, it will troll constantly and it will tax your supplies, do not go in there thinking you'll be on your merry way in 2 minutes, he will shit you out like bad eggnog. Ozma right off the bat is invincible, and don't open with nukes because you have to position. Inside each member should take a corner and alternate if you teleport etc, this is vital. Magic and ranged users also need to be aware of their teammates when they engage Ozma, for reasons I'm about to explain. Ozma employs fairly easy to dodge attacks, he fires a very slow dark fireball that deals high damage but is easy to dodge. He will also summon smoky pillars that can slow and cause confusion and hurt rather bad. His most lethal active attack is a vortex of dark energy he'll send careening to the top of the screen regularly, this attack hits very hard but is easily dodged by watch the floor for glowing. His difficulty comes from his gimmicks, think of the boss fight as a stage production, each member has a role to play. Remember those monsters you had to fight in room 1? This is where that information will come in handy. To begin, Ozma's invincibility stems from the veil of darkness he has around him, when that veil drops, he will be stunned and superarmored for a short period of time, you need to use that time to hit him with everything you got, the veil can be knocked off with multiple attacks, attacks like ghost orb and nen spiral are extremely useful here, anything that can multihit fast and hard. Ozma has a few other tricks up his sleeve however, so it won't be as simple as dodge and shoot:

FRIENDLY FIRE: This is why I said to position earlier, when you and your party tint darkish colors, that means Ozma has activated friendly fire, from that point on until death or cure occurs or enough time has passed, the party can murder each other unintentionally. The first member of the group at this point turns into the bipedal unicorn creature and uses his specific skill to cure each party member of friendly fire, it has a chance to miss and not cure. The monster form has a short period of time to get cures out so when your member changes gather around him or her to reduce time chasing people. The monster forms can also damage Ozma veil or not and drop the veil for other members, be aware you CAN kill your party member in monster form if he sustains too much damage so watch your nukes.

TELEPORTATION: Ozma will invinc frame a second and suddenly you'll find yourself flying all over the place, usually into pillars and other hazards, this isn't lag, Ozma has the ability to teleport you wherever he chooses, for this gimmick, the 2nd party member will transform into the fat creature with saws. In order to stop the teleportation, you have to stand on or near Ozma and use your skill, you'll know the skill was a success because the monster will utter something like "Space has been restored". You generally only need to do this once so this form is a good form to put some damage on Ozma.

BLINDNESS/VIEWSWITCHING: This one is a bitch, and usually the reason groups get slaughtered. Ozma will employ both gimmicks at once on the third cycle, causing blindness to the whole party and then switch their viewpoints to someone else. Viewpoint switching means that your camera will follow another character at random, unless you or they die, the camera will not revert. The only other way to fix this is by using the third monster's skill, the little gremlin like creature with scissorhands will be party member #3, whoever assumes that role must target each individually and use the skill to cure them. The role is probably the most important in ensuring survival because reversed views + friendly fire = death.

VEIL: The final monster doesn't really have a gimmick to deal with, instead the 4th creature, a 2 legged ant thing, focuses on dropping the veil and dealing as much damage as possible. The creature's skill drops the veil instantly, opening Ozma up for some hellstorm. The drawback is that the skill is slow and must connect with Ozma to succeed, this role really only serves to speed the fight up.

Ozma will cycle though the 4 constantly and in order, the only way to beat him therefore is practice and communication. You serve a greater threat to the party then Ozma does, be patient, aim well, don't screw up.

Pics to be added soon.