Axkva Min

Requires:
 * The Nightsister Headdress Pre Quest

Axkva Min is the Heroic Encounter that was added in Chapter 7 to replace the previous Axkva Min, who, prior to Chapter 7, only spawned once per server reset. The pre-quest to receive the key to the Axkva Min Heroic Encounter (The Nightsister Key of Exile) is the longest of the other Heroics at this time, and slightly more difficult as well. The Heroic Encounter itself is not difficult with the right group and the right tactics, but finding both of these is sometimes the biggest issue. A good team is generally composed of 2-3 Jedi, one Medic, and a good mix of other DPS classes. If possible, vary the professions so that each player's debuffs will stack -- they're VERY important. Once you have this done, run or fight your way to the bottom of the cave outside the Nightsister Stronghold POI on Dathomir, where the entrance to the Heroic is. As soon as you load in, you will have started the Heroic Encounter and your 1-hour Lockout Timer will begin.

Reminder: During Phases 1-4, do NOT go back into the tunnel during combat. The Eternal Warden guards the tunnel and will pretty much incapacitate you instantly if you go back in. Then, when you stand back up, he will incap you again, which means death. Try to stay away from the tunnel whenever possible during combat. If someone dies and needs to re-enter, let them know after a phase has ended so that they can safely come back in. For Entertainer buffs for this Heroic, Energy resistance is not necessary as all the NPCs deal kinetic damage. Save the five buff points for something else. Also, players who die can clone and come back in if the Medic has died or is unable to rez immediately. Be sure to have a camp with a shuttle beacon near the entrance to the cave for convenience.

Phase 1: Nandina and Gorvo
Before you begin, make sure that everyone is buffed and ready to go. The key to success in this phase is to have one Jedi tank Nandina on the left side of the room while everyone else pulls Gorvo to the right side, and keeps him there. If Gorvo gets close to Nandina, she will heal him and you risk pulling Nandina off the Jedi.

Keep Gorvo debuffed and he should go down. After Gorvo, everyone can turn their focus onto Nandina and kill her.

Phase 2: Lelli Hi
Lelli Hi is not too difficult. The biggest things to avoid here are the mines she drops. These are pretty easy to see, so make sure you watch where you're walking. Lelli Hi cloaks quite often which will break target lock. A way to counter-act this is to create a macro that spams the "/target lelli" command, and loops itself. The mines that she drops explode in clouds of purple smoke which, if you enter them, will cause all your special attacks to go on a 15-second cooldown. Keep up the DPS and debuff her whenever possible to bring her down.

Phase 3: Kimaru
Kimaru is one of the most difficult phases of this Heroic Encounter. Not only does she cause fire rings to spawn that don't ever despawn until she dies, she also has a Force Shock ability that totally dominates her opponents. It may help to enable the 'show all object names' option from the 'Options' menu as this will make the Force Storms and Fire Rings Kimaru creates more obvious and easier to avoid. These fields spawn when players stand still so it helps to keep all group members moving at all times during the fight as the fields cause significant damage on contact.

Fortunately for you, both of these monstrous attacks are avoidable. The key to this phase is to keep moving, but WATCH YOUR STEP. There are two things to look out for here -- the circles of fire on the ground, and the purple lightning that circles around the room. If you can avoid both, you will avoid most of the major damage during this fight. Ranged professions should lock and toggle auto-fire in order to concentrate pretty much solely on running. Melee profs just make sure you don't get led into a fire ring and be sure to avoid the purple lightning if you see it closing on you.

Phase 4: Suin Chalo
Many people overestimate the difficulty of this phase. Suin Chalo spawns minions who are only vulnerable to certain element types. The bright side to this is that each minion has extremely low health and just about each hit you get on them will be a critical. Add to that the fact that Suin Chalo doesn't have much health herself and this phase is a cake walk.

Any players who do NOT have acid, electric, heat, or cold damage weapons should continue to focus ONLY on Suin Chalo herself. Unlike Nandina and Gorvo, Suin Chalo still takes full damage even when her minions are spawned. In no particular order, the minions and their respective vulnerabilities are:
 * Ekomal - Acid Damage
 * Doum - Electricity Damage
 * Oxvul - Heat Damage
 * Hur'dem - Cold Damage

Commandos easily have Heat covered. Electricity is not hard to do, either. Acid can be applied from several weapons (Nym's Slugthrower Carbine comes to mind), and Cold may require a Jedi or a Smuggler. The C-M Reaper Sniper Rifle that can be bought with 500 Commendations in Restuss also does Cold damage.

As Suin takes damage she will periodically spawn these minions which must be taken down or distracted before they get to your medic(s).

Phase 5: Axkva Min
After a brief discussion between The Eternal Warden and Axkva Min, Axkva will kill the Warden. This means that you can go back into the tunnel if you like (although that might not be a good idea). Also be aware that there is no downtime for this instance except when Axkva is talking to the Warden. After that is done, she will charge at your group whether you have drawn her aggro or not.

Axkva Min periodically traps players in Banishment Crystals that deal a good chunk of damage every second. The key to this phase is to destroy the crystals. Banishment Crystals take priority over just about everything else. A player trapped inside a crystal for more than 5 or 6 seconds is practically doomed to death. Axkva Min herself generally does not hit that hard, but has an Area of Effect attack that will seriously floor you. If you try to get smart and have everyone camp inside the tunnel -- which seems like a good idea at first because then AoEs will hit Axkva as well as the Banishment crystals -- eventually Axkva will catch on and kill you.

Same plan as usual, keep moving and debuff Axkva whenever possible. Keep an eye out for crystals and attack them as soon as you see them spawn. Jedi should try to trade aggro if possible, because tanking Axkva Min for too long is difficult. Also note that even if you somehow manage to "bug" out of your banishment crystal, it will continue to deal damage to you even though you are not inside it.

Axkva Min is known to drop any of the following loot:
 * ~150,000 credits
 * Nightsister Carnage Beret Schematic
 * Elegant Combatant's Ring
 * Juyo Saberstaff Schematic
 * Nightsister Energy Lance Schematic

Heading sign on the Chamber of Banishment says the following in Aurebesh:

Axkva Min Entombed for crimes against her sisters