How To: Ant Queen Raid Guide

Arthose · August 23, 2022

Raid Boss Name: Ant Queen
Raid Boss Level: 40 (Passive)
Spawn Location: Ant's Nest (Gludio)
Minions: Yes (Many)
Minion Level: 35-38
Required Quest: None
Required Quest Item: None
Starting NPC Name: None
Starting NPC Location: N/A

Guide:
      Suggested Classes: Tank & 2 Bishops and 6-7 mages (Sorc or SPH) . The only Melee class which stands half a chance would be gladiators spamming AOE skills. Due to the high likelyhood of PvP over AQ, noble chars are > non-noble.
      Suggested Level: 43
      Max Clients per IP: 10 (There is a level cap starting and no transformation, break these rules and you get a free ride back to town)
      Suggested Gear: C-Grade, +6 or higher on all weapons/armor. +++ Jewels not required for PvE, but def for PvP.
      Suggested Route to Boss: Buff up and port from Gludio to Ant's nest (Normal port) and run down into the cave. If you hug the right wall you can't get lost and if the safest route. If you see a giant bridge you are going the right way.

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The only thing more gaping this this entrance is your mom and just as many players have been in it.

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Now that you, and everyone else, are here looking at the boss, it's time to kill it. AQ hits hard, the minions are not overly powerful but are fast and can quickly swarm you. There are 5 types of mobs which I will describe below:

Guard Ant: Regular mob in the boss room, only mob that is agro there. Guessing they have roughly 10X HP and boosted attack/def. Very high aggro range, and are social. Smack one of these and you can expect him and his homies coming. Slow respawn time
Royal Court Ant: Stronger than your regular guard ant. When you see these boys rushing you have your hate aura ready, and the Queen isn't far behind! Slow respawn time.
Nurse Ant: Weak and slow, Heals both Queen Ant and Queen Ant Larva (for about 5% health each heal) with priority being on the larva if it is at 0 HP. As soon as it has some HP, nurses will go back to healing Queen. Almost instant respawn time.
Queen Ant Larva: Doesn't attack, doesn't move, can't die. Nurses prioritize healing the larva over healing the Queen.
Queen Ant: Boss, duh, hits like a mule kicks and just as fast, recommend you bring a tank or you're going to have a bad time.

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My strat? Set mages to 70 follow distance and healers to 120, then time to pull a LEERRRROOOOY JENNNKINS!!!!! Just run right past the guard ants, royal guard ants, nurses, queen, and straight to the Larva like you are Princess Vespa getting married in Space Balls. (REALY dating myself here aren't I?)
Once to the larva, wait for the mages, healers to catch up (This is a good time to remove Zerk and Zerk Dance on your tank for extra P.Def) and then target the larva. Your mages should be set to spam AOE skills as well as their main nuke. Prioritize AOE over single nuke. Done correctly, Larva should be at zero HP, any guard ants that followed you back to the larva should be dead. The queen and all her boys "Should" be coming to greet you. (If not, for sure the nurses will be walking over to heal the larva and as soon as you hit one of them with an AOE everyone will come then.) At this point you will see a very angry and strong queen and like 10 guards rushing which ever poor soul the agro is on. Resist the urge to completely panic and have your Hate Aura skill ready. When they get in range hit hate Aura and UD if your gear is not great. Then focus on attacking the queen only and spam aggression to keep hate on tank. Rez any dead mages quickly. Royal guards should die quickly enough leaving you with a Queen, nurses, and the larva.

The MOST important part of killing the AQ is location, location, location. The below picture demonstrates perfect positioning.

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If you set your mages to 70 range and healers to 120 your mages should be on top of the boss but still within AOE range of the larva. Keeping constant AOE damage to the larva is important so that if the nurses do get a heal off, they heal the larva and NOT the queen. After this, it's pretty much sitting and letting mages do what they do best. Mages should be set to 'glass cannon' mode (Zerk/Zerk Dance) unless you have high +++ Weapons. +6 is really a minimum and obviously you want Acumen on those mage/healer weapons and health on the tank weapon.

Reward: For your time AQ drops a ring. It has a nice boost to crit damage and accuracy largely worn by fighters classes.

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Edited August 23, 2022 by Arthose