TK
The Tendril Killer, abbreviated as TK, is a role in all common DoASC tactics. It is always done by a Me/A, and the build is generally the same across all tactics.
Contents
Role
The TK gets its name from the fact that it's responsible for killing multiple tendrils. The TK also has several other jobs, including soloing the ele lord, and doing off-damage throughout the run. Traditionally, many DoA guilds have trialed new members on TK, because the complexity and independence of the role make it easier to assess the spiker's ability.
Build
 / TK
| |||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FC:12+3 Dom:12+1+3
OQdCAsw0SwJgpTQw0jcZMZnD
| |||||||
Equipment
Guide
Off-damage
Your primary spiking role throughout the run is to do off-damage - this means to kill everything that is not in the main ball with the help of Edge of Extinction. You need to understand what it means to do off-damage in each spike and how much EoE will help you. As TK your job is not just to bring everything below 90%, but to make sure everything dies at the same time, and this means acting in different ways depending on the size of the main ball. For example, on 6-0 the main ball is huge, so anything below 90% will instantly die to EoE, but during 360 this is not the case - EoE will do a big chunk of damage but leave them at ~30/40 % health, so extra damage is required.
- During 360 hit all the off-damage hard, only stop casting on them if the other spikers are terrible and off-damage is at 50% while main ball is still alive, in which case swap to main ball. Pro-tip: target and call the left fiend on 6th wave, use PI on it, and use your other spells on the other fiends.
- During all spikes where you are not sure what is going to be off-damage such as city or gloom, try to select something in the back or in the hardest part to target, then when the ball settles you can quickly evaluate if your decision was good and easily select a close, left or right target if it was not.
- Note that ESurge deals enough damage to bring most foes below 90%. Unnatural is not enough for some targets (particularly martial profession enemies), so if ESurge is unavailable, you typically need some more damage than just one Unnatural.
- If you won't be able to hit all the off damage, ping a target and ask the IAU (in 3-3, Empathy) to hit it for you.
Veil
After 360
In 3-3 Tactics, go to the derv lord hill after 360. The TT runs in, grabbing aggro, and pulls the mobs back towards 360. The lord will break on its own. You run in, ideally without aggroing any of the other mobs. Pull the lord with a long/flatbow, as it is running towards you cast PI. Run back to the Backfire and use your skills to kill the lord. After the lord is dead, wait until the tank has pulled the mobs away, and run past, back to 360.
In other tactics, simply follow the main team to ranger lord and kill it.
Next proceed down the trench to clover.
Elementalist Lord Solo
Video guide: https://youtu.be/WUW53eEECuc?t=7m46s
Equip a longbow or flatbow, stand in point 1, move a bit along the wall towards point 2, attack the lord with your bow. While the lord is moving towards you swap back to your 40/40 set. As soon as the lord is in casting range, use PI, followed by all your damaging skills, with mistrust last. Do NOT use Mistrust until he used his Sandstorm. Use Finish Him when he’s below 50% and recall out after he dies.
If you fail at pulling the Lord and you pop extra mobs you can do one of multiple things. Choose one way and stick to it; trying to do multiple things at once will make you fail all of them.
- Pop a stone so Sandstorm does more damage with Pain Inverter on the Lord. Do this only if 1 or 2 things pops.
- Walk sideways to pull the Lord out of his pit, then Recall out. Do this if you have no stone or a lot of mobs spawn. Doing this results in the Lord staying where you broke him, but the mobs that popped end up running back to their initial point. You can then Recall the emo again and kill the Lord without additional aggro. Keep in mind this only works on your first attempt. As soon they are settled after you Recalled out, the popups won't glitch back to their spawning point any more.
- Cast Pain Inverter on the Lord and Recall out while he's casting Sandstorm, then stand on the Emo and/or pop a stone (you'll need to get the stone killed before tendrils). Doing this will correctly will guarantee the kill since Sandstorm will be created on the Emo and PI will trigger on two targets, but requires good reflexes for Recalling out at the right time.
Killing Tendrils
After Ele Lord, the TK goes and gets ready for Tendrils. Make sure you have Recall on the emo and prot bond. Stand between your two tendrils (in 6-0, the two nearest the NPCs; in 3-3, the two to the southwest). Before the quest reward is taken, cast Arcane Echo. As the Tendrils appear, immediately cast PI on each of them, and then use Energy Surge on one and Unnatural signet on the other. Try to kill the back one first to make the pull easier for your tank. Use "Finish Him" or auto attack if needed. After both your tendrils are dead, Recall out to the emo and get ready to perform the off-damage.
During 6-0 spike your job is to bring all the Stygian Fiends below 90%. Left side fiends should arrive earlier, so target and call a fiend in the right side, then target a fiend in the left side to hit that first. Once everything is below 90%, help the team finish the enemies. In 3-3 you should only need to hit one set of fiends on each spike, but you'll need to do a bit more damage than just getting them below 90%.
6-0 video guide: https://youtu.be/WUW53eEECuc?t=9m23s.
In 3-3, after spiking the first group, Recall the emo again and go to the other side and do the same as before to kill two more tendrils.
Gloom
In Gloom, after Cave is completed, use Recall on the IAU (Empathy in 3-3), run towards the TT, wait for him to cast Recall on you, then cancel your Recall to slingshot the TT forward.
Foundry
As with other mesmer roles, use Mistrust a lot. When dealing with unballed dryders, co-ordinate with the monk and IAU to PI them. In room 2, it's your job to pop a Ghastly Summoning Stone as soon as you get into the room. If you have Summoning Sickness, inform the team on the way to Foundry, so another mesmer can pop it.
When transitioning from Foundry to City, you provide the MT a recall target to get them to city faster. To do this, after taking chest, place a recall on one of the mesmers and wait in the corridor between the areas for the MT to recall you. When you see them start casting, dismiss your recall to bring the MT to the entrance of city.
The tank will have just dismissed recall on the Emo to exit Foundry, they will need 10 seconds in the corridor for recall to come back up due to the skill disable caused by dismissing Recall. This will also give you time to give the Emo an EE target to get them to City faster as well.
City
Do off-damage, focus Manks on the wall, do off-damage, don't miss off-damage, oh and do off-damage.
