Necron's Embrace (Extreme) Trial Guide

Powerful was the onset of fear felt by a people who had long escaped death's mournful memories. And powerful was the entity which that fear begat. And yet, the minstrel muses, how much more powerful still would the primal be were it fed upon the dread of its summoner─a child genius who felt the hand of death close ever tighter upon his shoulder every day of his disease-ravaged life? The horror of that beleaguered heart begins to infect your own as the first chilling notes of the song pour forth from somber lips...

The Minstrel's Ballad: Necron's Embrace can be unlocked at level 100 after completing the main scenario quest "A Terminal Invitation" and talking to the Wandering Minstrel in Tuliyollal. It requires a minimum item level 740 to queue, but this requirement can be bypassed by entering with a full party.

The encounter is split into phases including an add phase in the middle. The arena is on a raised platform where players can fall off.

Begin by assigning two light parties of one tank, one healer, and two DPS each. Assign each light party to an east-west side. Melees will be partnered with tanks and ranged will be partnered with healers. Each player has an assigned position to bait a mechanic, Fear of Death: TMMT in the north and RHHR on the south.

Waymarks can be set up in multiple ways for different mechanics. Set them up in a regular circle in the middle for Grand Cross or place them in spread and stack spots for Relentless Reaping otherwise.

Positions for the fight are shown below for quick reference. Refer back to these if you require a quick reminder during the fight.

You will fight Necron in the first introductory phase.

Necron introduces the following abilities during this phase.

• Blue Shockwave: A magic tank buster on the current main tank that hits twice in a large conal AoE, inflicting a magic vuln debuff. Use invulns or tank swap.
• Fear of Death: Magic raidwide damage. Places eight puddles on the ground. Stepping in puddles gives a vuln stack and deals damage. After a delay, untargetable arm adds spawn and do an untelegraphed line AoE towards the closest player, dealing physical damage and inflicting a brief physical vuln so players can't get hit by more than one.
• Cold Grip: One of Necron's arms starts glowing. He cleaves the sides of the arena, then does a large AoE on the side on the arm with the glow.
• Memento Mori: Necron's sides glow dark and light. He then shoots a line AoE down the middle of the arena, leaving a lingering puddle of darkness. These will spawn hands that do a line AoE in the direction they are facing. The light side will only have one AoE in that direction, while the dark side has four.
• Smite of Gloom: Large AoE markers on all players. Deals magic damage and inflicts a brief magic vuln, meaning they can't overlap.
• Soul Reaping: Necron shows a ring with an AoE indicator. He can show a donut AoE, a point-blank AoE, cleave the sides, or AoE down the middle. This will be stored in a circle with a diamond count indicator and be cast with a Blight mechanic later on.
• Twofold Blight: Casts the AoE indicated by Soul Reaping. This is accompanied with untargeted line AoE stack markers on both healers that needs to be shared.
• Fourfold Blight: Casts the AoE indicated by Soul Reaping. This is accompanied with untargeted line AoE stack markers on four players of one role that needs to be shared.
• The End's Embrace: All players are targeted with a small AoE circle. This will drop an arm puddle from Fear of Death that needs to be baited, though it does a telegraphed line AoE that can be dodged.

• The fight opens with Blue Shockwave, so the MT needs to establish initial aggro and stand on the top left corner. If swapping, the OT provokes during the cast bar and stands in the top right corner. If an invuln is used, there is no need. The rest of the party should stand in the middle.
• For Fear of Death, each player is assigned an add to bait. Since there are two rows of four adds, melees and tanks bait the north four in TMMT and ranged and healers bait the south four in RHHR. Stand just outside the puddle that spawns and bait it towards the outside.
• This is immediately followed by Cold Grip. Note which side is glowing and move towards the other side. Stay close to the middle for the side cleaves and then move out.
• Return to the middle for Memento Mori. The AoEs from Smite of Gloom as well as the line AoEs makes it so that there are six safe spots on the light side and two safe spots on the dark side. For simplicity, have the tanks move to the dark side and everyone else moves to the right side.
• Tanks will stand in the only safe line on their side. On the light side, have melees in the front, healers in the middle, and ranged in the back. Healers may need to adjust where they are standing based on the line AoE formation. Stand on your light party side.
• Return to the middle for Soul Reaping. Remember the safe spot and prepare for either Twofold Blight or Fourfold Blight. The former is a light party stack and the latter is a partner stack. Dodge the line AoE or side cleaves and stack with your partner or in your light party.
• Necron casts another Soul Reaping, but this time you will have to remember the AoE for after a sequence of mechanics. It will use Fear of Death into The End's Embrace. After baiting your arms, you can drop the puddle where the arm puddle spawned and then move out to bait again.
• This is followed by Blue Shockwave, so after baiting all players should go to the middle. Mitigate and swap or invuln.
• From the middle, go to your spots for Twofold Blight or Fourfold Blight.
• Return to the middle and prepare for Grand Cross.

You will fight Necron in the second phase.

Phase two introduces the Grand Cross mechanic, which shrinks the size of the arena and forces players to navigate AoEs.

• Grand Cross: Heavy magical raidwide damage. Turns the arena into a circle platform in the middle.
• Grand Cross AoEs: Two sets of AoEs are baited on four players. Stack in the middle and fan out to dodge.
• Grand Cross Lasers: Two sets of rotating lasers spawn. The first always hits cardinals and the second hits near intercardinals but directly on the edge is safe.
• Shock Towers: Two sets of four towers. One set spawns on cardinals and the other set spawns on intercardinals. Four players of one role also receives AoE markers that inflict a magic vuln, so the other role needs to soak the towers. This will alternate.
• Grand Cross Proximity: Two proximity AoEs down the cardinals. Stand on an intercardinal edge.
• Neutron Star: Heavy raidwide magic damage. Returns the arena to normal.

• The Grand Cross phase is relatively short but happens multiple times throughout the fight.
• All players will have assigned colour buddies. Stack in the middle and wait for the baited AoEs, then fan out towards your intercardinal.
• Wait at the intercardinal until both sets of lasers go off. Afterwards, the player without the marked AoEs needs to go inside the tower and the player with the marked AoE goes out. Since towers always spawn on cardinals or intercardinals, one player will have to move in the pair.
• This repeats once more, with the towers and marked AoEs spawning in the opposite configuration. Again, wait on the intercardinal edge until the lasers resolve and then solve the mechanic.
• After the second set, immediately stack in the middle to bait the ground AoEs. This is to ensure the intercardinal edges are safe for the proximity damage. Stack up and heal for Neutron Star and get ready for adds phase.

The adds phase is split into two parts. In the first half, players kill adds while dodging AoEs. In the second half, players are sent to the abyss and have to deal with a role-based add mechanic.

In the first half of adds phase, there will be four waves of three Icy Hands adds that spawn, as well as two Beckoning Hands that spawn on the second and third wave, one each. Icy Hands cast a ground line AoE, Choking Grasp, while Beckoning Hands cast Muted Struggle, a line AoE tank buster on the current target. This does not do too much damage but should be pointed away from the party.

Afterwards, stack up for Darkness of Eternity, Necron's ultimate. Necron is targetable as soon as the adds are all dead, so mitigate and heal up. The boss becomes untargetable when the damage goes off.

In the second half of the adds phase, each player is sent to their own individual abyss with a ticking 50 second Doom debuff. Adds will spawn which block the way out. Once the adds are defeated, jump up the platforms and reach the light to return back to the arena. Each role has to deal with their own unique adds.

• Tanks are sent to a platform with one Icy Hands add. It will cast Spreading Fear which must be interrupted, then continue to cast Choking Grasp, a physical tank buster until it is dead.
• Healers are sent to a platform with one Icy Hands add. It inflicts a potent Bleed DoT to itself and the healer with Necrotic Pulse, inflicts a cleansable slow with Chilling Grasp, and then repeats Choking Grasp which does targeted physical damage until it is defeated.
• DPS are sent to a platform with two Icy Hands adds. These must be damaged together as one of the two will cast an enrage, Spreading Fear. Kill the add that is about to enrage and then focus down the other add.

After the adds phase, return to the original platform and get ready for the final phase, which has three difficult mechanic sequences.

In phase four, you fight Necron again. There are three mechanic sequences that players need to learn.

Necron introduces the following abilities during this phase.

• Specter of Death: Summons specters at the left and right edges of the arena. These will do a line AoE across, creating a safe spot in one row. Getting hit by this AoE sends the player back to the abyss in the adds phase, so avoid getting hit. If hit, immediately die to return to the boss fight so that healers can raise you for the next mechanic.
• Relentless Reaping: Stores four unique Soul Reaping mechanics in a row, each indicated by a circle with some amount of diamonds inside.
• Crop Rotation: Rotates the diamonds storing Reaping mechanics.
• The Fourth Season: Goes through all four Reaping mechanics in order, followed by Fourfold Blight at the end.
• The Second Season: Goes through all four Reaping mechanics in order, followed by Twofold Blight at the end.
• Circle of Lives: Spawns five planets, with four at intercardinal edges and one in the centre. These will expand and contract when they are about to go off, and they do a donut AoE.
• Mass Macabre: Spawns portals on the ground which must be occupied by the indicated number of circles on the portal to be removed. Removing a portal inflicts a 5 second magic vuln debuff and deals light magic damage. There are two sets of four-person portals, four sets of three-person portals, and four sets of two-person portals.

• The phase begins with Specter of Death into The End's Embrace. Find the safe row and line up in your Fear of Death spread positions in that row. These line AoEs should be baited away from the middle, as the boss then casts Cold Grip, so move to the side away from the glowing arm.
• Relentless Reaping is the first major mechanic players need to learn. The boss shows four Soul Reaping mechanics to dodge that are stored in diamonds. These are arranged in a circle, then rotated by Crop Rotation. The mechanics go off at the end of the Season cast, starting with the bottom one and going clockwise.
• Players need to remember the mechanics in order: the safe spots are in, out, middle, and sides. It is a good idea to have someone type them down in order: so 1 out, 2 in, 3 middle, and 4 sides for example in party chat. Then, once the circles are rotated, players can identify the safe spots via the number in chat.
• Dodge all four mechanics. The boss casts a light party line stack if it's The Second Season and partner line stack if it's The Fourth Season at the same time as the last mechanic, so stack with your partner or light party.
• The next mechanic is Circle of Lives. Watch the planets to see where the donut AoEs starts. The party will move from planet to planet in sequence.
• The boss also casts Specter of Death, spawning one line AoE that goes off after the second donut AoE and before the third. If the line AoE covers the third donut AoE, players need to wait until it goes off before going in. Again, if grabbed, die immediately so the healers can raise you for the next mechanic.
• Towards the end of the mechanic, the boss will cast Soul Reaping and either Twofold Blight or Fourfold Blight. Watch for the mechanic and stack with your partner or light party.
• Next is the third and final mechanic sequence, Mass Macabre. Preposition such that tanks and melee DPS are in the north middle portal and healers and ranged DPS are in the south middle portal as the castbar finishes. Players will then have to spread to their light party sides for Memento Mori.
• The light parties then split into pairs, with the tanks and melees getting the north two-person portal and the healer and ranged getting the south two-person portal. Wait until the magic vuln goes off before going inside the portal, and make sure to be on the safe half of the portal as Memento Mori line AoEs are being cast.
• Next, Necron casts Blue Shockwave. This prevents tanks from getting any more portals and restricts the area, so the three-person portals are done by non-tanks on each side. The side with the tank who currently has aggro which should be the west side will start at the back which is safe from the conal tankbuster. The other side starts at the front. Again, wait until the magic vuln is gone before resolving the portal.
• Finally, players will take the last portals still active, safe from the tank buster. The west group moves to the front and the east group moves to the back.
• The rest of the mechanics in the fight are repeats with small variations. The victory lap starts with another Relentless Reaping sequence. Do the mechanic exactly the same as the first one.
• The boss then casts Fear of Death immediately after, so heal up and get into position to bait the adds.
• The next Circle of Lives and Specter of Death is somewhat different. Four planets spawn on intercardinals near the middle. The line AoEs from Specter of Death will continually cover half of the safe area in the second and fourth donut AoEs, so make sure to be in that safe half.
• This is followed by the Memento Mori into Smite of Gloom sequence from the first phase.
• The Grand Cross phase then repeats before the boss enrages. Defeat Necron before it defeats you!

Amendments to the guide above based on popular strategies used in party finder will be used here.

• For Mass Macabre, certain groups will do uptime. This involves both melee DPS going east and both ranged DPS going west after the initial split. One melee has to take the back two-person portal, but then the east side takes the north two three-person portals and the west side with the three ranged players will take the south two three-person portals.

When Necron is defeated, the treasure coffer will contain Ageless Weapon Coffer, as well as one random item level 755 Ageless weapon. In addition, there is a chance for the Shattered Arc to appear. Finally, there is a rare chance for the mount, Wings of Death to appear.

In addition, all party members will receive two of Ageless Totem, ten of which can be exchanged for any Ageless weapon.