In your adventures growing up from the lowly islands of Ishalgen and plowing through the quests of Altgard in a counter clockwise route, you'll collect many items. But if you're a veteran of any MMO, you're saying to yourself by now, 'Where's the boss? Where are the instances? Where is my incentive to group?' Fortunately that is answered with the Black Claw outpost and village to the east, and the man in charge is the your first real option at farming some high quality loot. For most people, this will be your first time donning something blue, and possibly your first real challenge or death. With that in mind, here's how you tackle Cheiftain Kumbaron, head honcho of the Black Claw!

The Location
In the busy times of launch and beyond, you might miss him entirely if you don't know where to look. The last quest will take you to the Abyss Gate within Zemurru's Grave. Kumbaron will spawn directly across from the gate, within the three pillars at the back-middle of the room (from the entrance. There are two Captains that spawn in front of two of the pillars for reference.

The Party
As for what or who you need to bring? I would say the only two requirements for this boss are a Templar/Gladiator tank and a Cleric healer, preferably at least 22 for the group heal. The area of effect damage will be too much for a Chanter unless the whole group is in the low 20's for level. The former is rather obvious, but you do need someone to handle the fast physical damage that will be happening between skills and hold hate in general. The longer this fight goes, the worse things will get and you'll run the possible risk of respawns getting involved, so a solid hate generating tank is required so the damage classes can run wild.

The Battlefield You'll need to clear out the two Captains first. They're nothing special, just a little more pumped up versions of the Bodyguards you've been fighting in this whole section. If you pull Kumbaron before clearing these two, well, you're going to have a lot more on your hands than you can probably handle without some serious crowd control and perfect execution. We tend to clear a path to the west, closer to the gate. There are a pair of Black Claw patrolling in front of the gate as well, take care of them. With the Captains down, and the patrol by the gate down, it's time to rumble.

The Pull Upon spawning, do not immediately tag him! Verify nothing is coming with him first unless you've got a horde of others looking for his head next to you. Pull with Provoke and try to drag him to the northwest corner of the room, next to the Abyss Gate. This should ensure no interference throughout the fight given no respawns. Crowd controllers should remain aware throughout the fight for any possible interlopers.

The Brawl Kumbaron is the chieftain for a reason, his physical offense is quite potent. A typical templar will take between 300 and 400 from each swing, so heals need to be incoming at all times in case of criticals or special attacks causing burst damage. The chief special attack to watch out for is a fire-based wide area of effect for about 700. This can obliterate any cloth classes that aren't topped off, so keep your health up at all times. If things go to hell, the Cleric needs to get behind the portal and eat a death while someone channels a resurrection stone on him. Everyone should try to rally near him to allow for a prompt and safe recovery.

The Farming Kumbaron's spawn time is about an hour. With the recent launch however, multiple channels exist for us to take advantage of. The ideal way to get the most of it is after a kill, or after getting to the gate with no spawn up, each person of the party goes to a different channel while standing behind the Abyss Gate. From there, you can shift to the left and pivot the camera to see if he is up, or hit tab multiple times to try to target him. Watch the patrol however, it'll likely be up and eat anyone solo alive. Once someone notices a spawn, everyone shifts to the same channel and kills the patrols, captains, and then the Chieftain falls once more.

The Conclusion This will be hotly contested for some time and isn't required at all, but dropping the lord of the Black Claw will net you a level 20 blue from a fairly large pool of items. Multiple kills will be necessary to get the particular item you might be after, but if you have a varied group and no competition, you can load up on nice equipment in a hurry. Considering how much of a power boost you get from blue quality items compared to the white you are likely wearing, this is more than worth your while until you get to the mid 20's. So grab some friends, and good luck grabbing some gear!