The Sunken Temple of Qarn Hard Mode is an end-game dungeon added during patch 2.4. It requires an item level of 80 or above to enter and rewards players with ilevel 90 equipment. The dungeon is found within the Southern Thanalan area and is accessible upon completion of The Sunken Temple of Qarn normal mode and the quest “The Ultimate Weapon”. You can then take on the quest “The Wrath of Qarn”, which is given by Hugubert in Mor Dhona (X:22, Y:8).
Boss Guide
The Sunken Temple of Qarn Hard Mode contains three bosses, called Damaged Adjudicator, Sabotender Emperatriz and Vicegerent To The Warden. Below is a guide for each of them.
Damaged Adjudicator
Unlike the first boss in the other two 2.4 dungeons, this one is not a walk over. There is a mechanic that will kill you if you don’t understand how it works, but it is not that difficult to understand. The boss is a golen with three limbs attached to it, and you must destroy the right one in order to damage the boss. This then spawns three weak spider adds. The correct limb to attack is the one that glows red after the boss stands up. Once you repeat this process three times the boss has no limbs and you can kill it directly.
Throughout the fight you have to deal with two main mechanics, which are Shifting Sands and Orbs.
Shifting Sands will target a random player and begin a whirlpool animation around them. This will slowly consume the player if they remain in place and eventually kill them if they do not run out. It’s that easy, just run out of the whirlpool as soon as you see it on you.
Orbs: The mechanic begins with an arrow marker above a random player’s head. After some time it will disappear and the player will leave behind a pulsating ball that deals around 800 damage per pulse to anyone in range. The player should move to the edge of the room with their arrow. This mechanic is pretty much identical to the mechanic you encountered in the final boss of Amdapor Keep.
Sabotender Emperatriz
Sabotender Emperatriz is the second boss of The Sunken Temple of Qarn and is a cactuar. He will summon more cactuars throughout the fight, some large and some small. This fight is all about add management and target prioritisation and a lack of focus can cause a wipe from 100,000 needles. Ouch.
The best thing to do at the start of the fight is to set focus target on the boss. This is because it will begin casting 100,000 needles while adds are up. In order to avoid a wipe you must damage the boss enough so that the casting is interrupted. This means switching target, and the focus target lets you know when to switch.
The first two waves of adds will be weak, but on the third wave a Sabotender Campeador will spawn. This is a larger cactuar than the other adds and has a bit more HP. It will always attack the healer but its damage isn’t high so it’s not a problem.
On the fourth wave of adds you will have to deal with a Sabotender Guardia. This cactuar becomes your target priority because it will buff the boss and make it extremely difficult to interrupt 100,000 needles when the boss next tries to use it. Once dead you can kill the other smaller cactuars.
AoE attacks on the adds are fine, but do be aware that Sabotender Guardia is a more important target in that fourth wave and single target DPS on that may be required first since single target DPS is higher than AoE.
The smaller adds will use other variations of the needles attack, such as 3000 and 5000 needles but this is nothing to worry about as they are ground targets that you can run out of. Damage from cactuar needle attacks is also shared between the number of people it hits.
Vicegerent To The Warden
This is a fun fight and it is actually easier than the previous fight. The biggest risk is being turned into a mummy. This isn’t lethal and is fun to watch, but it’s not what your aim should be!
The mummy mechanic works like this. Players will receive Curse of the Mummy stacks and when this reaches four you will lose control of your character and run into a sarcophagus. Shortly after you will run out towards the opposite corner of the room. Once you arrive you will be back in control.
So where do these stacks come from? For the duration of the fight lines of mummies will run from one side of the room to the other. You can’t fight these but getting touched by one of them will apply a Curse of the Mummy stack to you. Players who have been turned into mummies will also apply a stack to other players if touched.
The key to the fight is being aware of your surroundings. Be sure to keep rotating your camera to see where the next wave of mummies is going to run from and then run to a safe spot. The mummies always run in a straight line so once you know the start point you can work out the safe spot.
Another way to get a stack of Curse of the Mummy is to be hit by Vicegerent To The Warden’s Light of Anathema attack. This is a straight line attack pointed at a random player. It should be dodged by running out of it.
The final way to get stacks of Curse of the Mummy is via his tether attack. This will apply a stack roughly every three seconds to the targeted player until they reach four and turn into a mummy. This attack must be stunned to prevent the player reaching four.
Apart from these mechanics avoid standing in front of the boss as he does cleave.