City of Abominations

City of Abominations

First off some information about City of Abominations. It is held every Wednesday at 8:50 PM server time. When it opens players have 10 minutes to enter, the fee to enter is 100k. There is a limit to how many people can enter, like Dragon Temple, and only level 50+ are able to enter. It is not a PK instance however, and there are four different instances (all of which have identical mobs/rooms). Those instances are Phoenix, Tiger, Dragon, and Tortoise. If you die in the instance you revive in the instance at a random area. If you disconnect, you're kicked out without a refund.

The mobs drop Astral Orbs, which you can trade for prizes. The problem is getting enough orbs. To get enough orbs for the top prize ring you need 400 orbs if your instance wins and 600 orbs if your instance loses (see the Rewards section below for details). All mobs are "?" mobs too so your damage is reduced, and their HP ranges from 1m to 3m. Orbs cannot be traded so if you want the ring you'll have to work together as a squad and have only one person collecting. The downside however, you can't pick your squads since you're randomly thrown into one of the instances. If you can't trust your group then it's best to go random distribute.

The mobs are spawned at 9:00 PM server time. At that time you have exactly 1 hour to start gathering orbs by killing these boss-level mobs. Once that hour ends mobs are unsummoned, even if you're in the middle of a fight with one. When a mob dies it takes approximately 60-90 seconds for it to respawn. One major issue that makes it difficult to gather orbs is that random people run around accidentally luring (sometimes purposefully luring) mobs that are physical immune into your area.

Some minor notes

Some bosses debuff you.
Like Dragon Temple, some skills don't work on mobs (Sharpened Tooth, Amplify Damage, Extreme Poison).
Some bosses have AoE.
Depending on the bosses you fight, you may drain quite a bit of charm (especially without a cleric).
Dark Messengers at each corner repair equipment on their trade list, remember to repair before the event starts.
Astral Orbs, which drop from the bosses when you kill them, cannot be traded. If you want one person in your squad to get all of them, then create the squad using Free drop distribution, instead of Random, and then have that person collect all of the drops.
When the event is finished be sure to turn in your Orbs at the second Dark Messenger that spawns near the first. (One has an option the leave the other has an option to trade Orbs.)

Rewards

When the hour is up you can turn in your Astral Orbs for various rewards at the Dark Messenger that appears. If you're in the winning instance then the costs of most rewards will be 1/3 to 1/2 off.

Item Name	Normal Cost	Winning Cost	Description
☆Seal of Eternal Solitude	600	400	Level 80 ring, +100 to magic & physical attacks, +7-8 Dex & Vit, +3% crit.
Warsoul Tag	6	3	Trade in at Jolly Old Jones for grade 8-10 shards (3-15 Tags for G8 shards, 12-60 G9, & 36-180 G10), Pages of Fate, or Old Book Pages (for Sage/Demon skills). Note: Item cannot be traded.
Badge of Strength	100	50	Worth 2,000 SP; use 10 to make a Sign of Strength.
Badge of Bravery	600	400	Worth 2,000 SP; use 10 to make a Sign of Bravery.
Badge of Courage	100	50	Worth 8,000 SP; use 10 to make a Sign of Courage.
Mysterious Chip	10	10	Can be used at the Mysterious Merchant to make various molds. Note: Item cannot be traded.

The Mysterious Chips are the only item that costs the same regardless of whether your instance wins or not. Also, City of Abominations is the only place where you can get most of those Badges, which are needed to craft some level 90 Rank VI weapons at the Sage Messengers (see here).

Alternately, you can turn in your Astral Orbs using the Quest option at the Dark Messenger, which gets you 3,000 Exp & 1,000 SP normally, or 9,000 Exp & 3,000 SP if you're in the winning instance, for each Astral Orb you turn in this way. Be sure to do this with any leftover Astral Orbs you have before leaving, since any you have with you will vanish when you leave the instance.

Map

The map below is labeled with mobs:

Mobs, their immunities, and the number of orbs they drop:

Mob #	Name	HP	Orbs	Immunities		Mob #	Name	HP	Orbs	Immunities
1	Dread Minion: Bronze	2 mil	21	none		12	Tyrant: Tornada	2.5 mil	24	Physical & Earth
2	Dread Minion: Cenequus	2 mil	21	none		13	Requiem Tower	1.5 mil	15	Physical & Metal
3	Dread Minion: Guarnob	2 mil	21	none		14	Dread Servant: Blade	2.5 mil	24	Physical
4	Dread Minion: Judge	2 mil	21	Physical		15	Dread Servant: Edge	2.5 mil	24	Elemental
5	Dread Minion: Blood	2 mil	21	Physical		16	Dread Lord: Hengchih	3 mil	30	none
6	Dread Minion: Soul	2 mil	21	Physical		17	Death Knight: Dimensic	1 mil	9	Physical
7	Death Knight: Doom	1 mil	9	Physical		18	Death Knight: End	1 mil	9	Physical
8	Death Knight: Naught	1 mil	9	Physical		19	Soul of Thromh the Mighty	1.5 mil	15	none
9	Tyrant: Flamol	2.5 mil	24	Fire		20	Rend Razorjaw's Soul	1.5 mil	15	none
10	Tyrant: Icika	2.5 mil	24	Water		21	Poison Tail Occultist's Soul	1.5 mil	15	none
11 (3)	Ancient Sand Fiend	1 mil	9	Earth

The ideal spot for this event would be at #20. At that spot you can have members lure both Ancient Sand Fiends (the #11s on the West side of the map), the Poison Tail Occultist's Soul (#21), and the Soul of Thromh the Mighty (#19) to Rend Razorjaw's Soul (#20). None of these mobs AoE, all are physical, and all can be damaged by physical damage. So, with proper luring, you could set up a zhen to kill them.

-- Guide and image by Viprae of Sanctuary (source)