How to Kill Raid Boss Zaken in Lineage 2 MMORPG : Complete Strategy and Guide

First thing first, let’s get to know some basic points about Zaken.

1. The entry door opens at 0:00am (12:00am) game time (open the map, and you can see the Lineage time). One hour in game time equals to 10 minutes in real life. Keep this in mind, since you will need to calculate the pirate ship door opening time and the time to form the teams.
1.1 There will only be about three minutes (in real life) for party groups to enter.
1.2 The entry is small, players might jam on the entry, therefore, the sponsor will continue need to remind players to move inside (can use the direction key to move, using mouse to move actually will be more easily to jam in the door)
2. Zaken is invincible from 0:00am to 6:00am game time (that will equal to one hour in real life time), therefore, after enter the pirate ship door; all players will need to wait at the hill right behind the door for one hour time.
Question: Why is Zaken invincible from 0:00am to 6:00am game time?
Answer: Zaken is a vampire type of monster; therefore, his HP/MP regenerated rate is very high during night time. This means that the damage you do to him will not faster than his recovery.
3. Zaken will transfer people to other chamber, and he might fly away couple times during the attack and has to be lured back. Therefore, there will need at least one, better more people, who are familiar with the geography inside the pirate ship very well, in order to lure Zaken and rescue people who have been transferred. Look for map and get familiar with the chamber design, however, once you are really inside and running around, it is very difficult to know where you are, since every chamber looks the same, you can use the radar and direction to know where you are and which way leads to different floor.
4. Zaken can upgrade the Soul Crystal into Stage 11 and 12 (I am not sure if this is the correct term to describe it ^^”)

Strategy

Party Formation：The sponsor in my server uses 7 teams, although the job can be done with less people, but he always has 7 teams just to let more people have the chance to join the event.
Team combination

Team One: Rescue and Lure Team. This is the most important team, the mission successful or not is 90% depending on this team.
Responsibility: rescue people who have been transferred by Zaken and lure Zaken to the chamber where all other people are waiting. The Sponsor is better to be in this team, since he will have to monitor the whole situation. If not, has to be someone who is trusted by the Sponsor and knows the geography inside the pirate ship very well, so he can lead the team to rescue people or lure Zaken and not get lost. Remember, if people keep being transferred to other chambers and no one goes to rescue and bring them back, there will be not enough attacking power to kill Zaken and the mission will fail. This team will always be running around the chambers inside the pirate ship busy rescuing and luring Zaken at all time during the whole event.
Team member:
1. Warrior who is specialized with Polearm. The most recommend team leader will be Warlord (the sponsor in my server is), since he has “Provoke” skill, which can draws in monsters towards himself from a large surrounding area. There are many pawns (monsters) inside every chamber, when this team is running around to rescue the people and to lure Zaken, it will encounter a lot of monsters and need to finish them along the way. Therefore, Warlord is the best choice of the team leader. Of course, other class is fine, just remember the key point: This team has to run around and will encounter monsters all the time, even Zaken himself, therefore, needs team members who can kill large number of monsters in very short time and can bear the attack from Zaken when lure him toward the attack waiting chamber.
2. Elven Elder for saving people, for healing the team members
3. Shillien Elder for saving people, for healing the team members
4. Prophet for buffering team members and quickly giving basic buffs to the people who have been rescued along the way.
5. Bladedancer for increasing the spell casting speed and attack power and to help clean the monsters along the way.
6. Any class
7. Any class
8. Any class
9. Any class
In my server, since the sponsor is very familiar with the chamber design and knows his way around and has so used to the whole process, therefore, he does not require much help, he usually only needs the Elven Elder, Shillien Elder, Prophet and Bladedancer to go with him and the rest of the team members can stay in the attack chamber to wait for Zaken.
However, if you are not familiar with the process, you can have the whole team go together and have more warriors (bring Polearm type of weapon), or more healing class in the team.
NOTE: When running around the chambers, it is very easy to get lost. Players in this team have to be highly concentrated running around the chambers, have to follow closely with the leader, who has to know the chamber design VERY WELL like running in his backyard, otherwise, will get lost.
Suggested level:
Warlord, the higher the better, but not over Lv65 (Lv65 is the highest level can go for Zaken event, otherwise, will be cured and become silence or petrify).
The healing class is better to be over Lv56 and below Lv65
Others are up to you, but suggested level is between 52~65.

Team Two: Knight Team. Just like any other Raid Boss fighting event, we will need Knight to hold Zaken’s attention by using “Aggressive” skill all the time. However, Zaken will transfer people and fly away during attack; we will need more than one Knight in the team. The best suggested number will be three knights.
Responsibility: Main task is to hold Zaken during attack, however, sometimes will need to go receive Zaken from the Rescue and Lure Team (especially when the Rescue and Lure Team has accident …might be wiped out by Zaken…). Therefore, better has one Knight who is also familiar with the chamber design and knows his way around. The Knights will take turn to hold Zaken. When one is using the “Aggressive” skill on Zaken, the other two have to stand by and ready to take over if the first Knight has been transferred or been killed by Zaken.
Team member:
1. Knight number 1
2. Knight number 2
3. Knight number 3
4. Prophet for buffering team members
5. Shillien Elder for supplying MP to Knights and healing team members
6. Elven Elder for supplying MP to Knights and keeping them alive
7. Elven Elder for supplying MP to Knights and keeping them alive
8. Bishop for keeping the Knights alive
9. Swordsinger for singing the Song of Earth to increases the P. Def. of the Knights. In the worst case, if all knights have been transferred by Zaken, the Swordsinger can be used as Knight to temporary hold Zaken (let’s hope this will not happen >”<)
Of course the team member combination can be modified, as long as the Knights are safe and can do their job of holding/receiving Zaken will be fine.
Suggested level:
Knights, the higher, the better, but not over Lv65, otherwise will suffer over level curse and petrify (although Zaken is Lv60, other small monsters are lower level).
Healing class, at least Lv56, because the MP usage is high, they will need to use the MP potion and the skill Invocation to keep MP amount. Moreover, in order to economize the use of MP, it is suggested to use Major Heal all the time. Of course, do not over Lv65, otherwise will become silence.
Swordsinger (if you don’t want one is fine), at least need to have Song of Earth, and again, not over Lv65.

Team Three: MP Supply Team. In order to keep the attack power significant, the Sorcerer/Archer Teams should have enough MP. Therefore, MP Supply Team is born.
Responsibility: Supply MP for Sorcerer/Archer Teams. We can add on one special duty: keep the monsters alive during waiting period.
What is keeping monsters alive during waiting period means? Like states in the beginning, Zaken is invincible from 0:00am to 6:00am game time (that will equal to one hour in real life time), therefore, after all teams enter the pirate ship, everyone will need to wait in the slope right behind the entrance for one hour real life time. However, you will find that there are couple monsters (2~6) might be in the slope almost every time, and those monsters will attack party members. NO ONE should attack those monsters during 0:00am to 6:00am game time, because if you do so, the invincible Zaken will come right away, and you will be wiped out by him (game over). Therefore, we can have one Knight in the MP Supply Team to hold those monsters for one hour time, just keep using the “Aggressive” skill on them and hold them alive (this poor Knight and the healing class team member will be busy during the whole hour while others are relaxing and chatting).
Of course you can use the Knight Team to do this job, but in our server, we usually have one knight in MP Supply Team to do this.
Team member:
1. Knight
2. Prophet for buffering team members
3. Shillien Elder or Elven Elder for supplying MP
4. Shillien Elder or Elven Elder for supplying MP
5. Shillien Elder or Elven Elder for supplying MP
6. Shillien Elder or Elven Elder for supplying MP
7. Shillien Elder or Elven Elder for supplying MP
8. Shillien Elder or Elven Elder for supplying MP
9. Shillien Elder or Elven Elder for supplying MP
Of course the team member combination can be modified, as long as there is enough MP supply for the Sorcerer/Archer Teams. You might also consider adding an Elemental Summoner in the team, since he/she can call a unicorn (which one I forget) whose skill can increase MP regenerated rate and reduce the MP usage amount for skill.
Suggested level:
Since the MP usage is very high, the higher level the better. Suggested level for this team will be Lv62~Lv65.
NOTE: If the Knight Team has MP shortage, the Bishop and the Knights can get MP supply from the MP Supply Team when Zaken fly away.

Team Four: Sorcerer and Soul Crystal Upgrade Team. Fighting against Zaken can have some benefits, this is one of them.
I am not sure how your market system works, but in our server, the Soul Crystal is rare things. If successful, it should be able to upgrade 9 Soul Crystals each time the Zaken is killed. The sponsor usually will prepare five Stage 10 Soul Crystals, mix color, can exchange them from the “Boutique Shop” using D and C crystal. These five Stage 10 Soul Crystals will be upgraded to Stage 11 and open for bidding along with other items dropping form Zaken in the end of the event. The cost of purchasing the Stage 10 Crystals will be deducted from the total amount of bidding value. The other four spaces will be opened to public for upgrading Stage 11 Soul Crystal into Stage 12. Of course, there will be service fee to pay, and this fee will be adding to the total amount of the bidding value and equally share to all members who fight the Zaken.
The method we use is to post a message inside the game message board and state a time for people to post upgrade requests (by the way, people who post upgrade request should have Stage 11 Soul Crystal on hand) . Of course many people will post their requests for upgrading the Stage 11 Soul Crystal, and the first four people whose posting time is closer, but not earlier, to the stated time will get the chance. For example, if the message states that 10:20pm is the time, the first four people who post their requests after 10:20pm will get the chance. People who post before 10:20pm will not qualify. The time is based on the message board time (because everyone’s watch might be a bit different in time). Of course you can have other ways, maybe your parties are all from the same clan and the Soul Crystals are for your own people. Maybe you want to open bidding for all of them, it really all up to you and depend on the situation in your server.
Responsibility: Attack Zaken and Upgrade Soul Crystals. In order to be sure the upgrade will successful, no one other than this team should carry Soul Crystal. Moreover, all members in this team have to have the “Enhance Your Weapon” Quest on going. When the Zaken’s HP amount is closer to the end (about to be killed), all other teams will need to stop attacking Zaken, only this team (the mission team) should continue attacking till Zaken is killed.
Team member:
1. Prophet for buffering team members
2. Shillien Elder for supplying MP, buffering, and healing.
3. Elven Elder for supplying MP, buffering, and healing.
4. Bladedancer for increasing the spell casting speed and magic attack power
5. Sorcerer.
6. Sorcerer
7. Sorcerer
8. Sorcerer
9. Sorcerer
Any race of Sorcerer is OK, but usually the Dark element magic will cause less damage to Zaken, since he is vampire type of monster.
When Zaken fly away, the Sorcerers can get MP supply from the MP Supply Team.
Of course the team member combination can be modified. You might add an Elemental Summoner in the team.
Suggested level:
Suggested level for this team will be Lv56~Lv65.

Team Five: Sorcerer/Archer Team.
Responsibility: Attack Zaken. When the Zaken’s HP amount is closer to the end (about to be killed), all members should stop attacking Zaken, only the Upgrading Soul Crystals team should continue attacking till Zaken is killed.
Team member:
1. Prophet for buffering team members
2. Shillien Elder for supplying MP, buffering, and healing.
3. Elven Elder for supplying MP, buffering, and healing.
4. Bladedancer for increasing the spell casting speed and magic attack power
5. Sorcerer/Archer
6. Sorcerer/Archer
7. Sorcerer/Archer
8. Sorcerer/Archer
9. Sorcerer/Archer
Any race of Sorcerer/Archer is OK, but usually the Dark element magic will cause less damage to Zaken, since he is vampire type of monster.
When Zaken fly away, the Sorcerers/Archers can get MP supply from the MP Supply Team.
Team member combination can be modified, mixing Sorcerer and Archer. You might add an Elemental Summoner / Warlock in the team.
Suggested level:
Suggested level for this team will be Lv56~Lv65.

Team Six: Sorcerer/Archer Team.
Responsibility: Attack Zaken. When the Zaken’s HP amount is closer to the end (about to be killed), all members should stop attacking Zaken, only the Upgrading Soul Crystals team should continue attacking till Zaken is killed.
Team member:
1. Prophet for buffering team members
2. Shillien Elder for supplying MP, buffering, and healing.
3. Elven Elder for supplying MP, buffering, and healing.
4. Bladedancer for increasing the spell casting speed and magic attack power
5. Sorcerer/Archer
6. Sorcerer/Archer
7. Sorcerer/Archer
8. Sorcerer/Archer
9. Sorcerer/Archer
Any race of Sorcerer/Archer is OK, but usually the Dark element magic will cause less damage to Zaken, since he is vampire type of monster.
When Zaken fly away, the Sorcerers/Archers can get MP supply from the MP Supply Team.
Team member combination can be modified, mixing Sorcerer and Archer, even some other class. That way, you can let more people joint the event.
Suggested level:
Suggested level for this team will be Lv56~Lv65.

Team Seven: Warrior Team.
Responsibility: Killing monsters that are reborn in the attack chamber or monsters that follow the Rescue and Lure Team back. The monsters will keep reborn inside the chamber, and sometimes, when the Rescue and Lure Team passing by or lure Zaken back, there will be monsters follow behind them. This team is mainly responsible for killing those monsters in order to keep the attack force safe (the P.Def for those classes is lower). Of course, they can attack Zaken when there are no monsters around. Again, when the Zaken’s HP amount is closer to the end (about to be killed), all members should stop attacking Zaken, only the Upgrading Soul Crystals team should continue attacking till Zaken is killed.
Team member:
1. Prophet for buffering team members
2. Shillien Elder for healing.
3. Elven Elder for healing.
4. Warrior of any kind
5. Warrior of any kind
6. Warrior of any kind
7. Warrior of any kind
8. Warrior of any kind
9. Warrior of any kind
This team is reserve for Warriors (since Sorcerer/Archer has taken up three teams already).
Suggested level:
Suggested level for this team will be Lv56~Lv65.

This is about it for party formation; you can always have more teams if there are many more people who want to joint the event, or fewer teams if you think the attack force is powerful enough to kill Zaken.

Assembling

The parties can start to form up about 30~40 minutes before the Pirate Ship entry open up. You can roughly set the time at 8:00pm game time to start forming the parties (since the entry opens at 0:00am).
Time Line (game time)
8:00pm
Team leader opens up the team formation room, and start to look for party members (in my server, the room open up for 3 seconds will be full @@”)
9:00pm
All teams should be formed up, and each team’s Prophet should finish buffering (don’t forget the “Kiss of Eva”, since there is swimming requirement along the way). Now all people can start enter the Devil’s Isle and advance toward the Pirate Ship.
I am not going to describe in detailed the route, I will assume that you know this part already. If you really don’t know, you will need to find time to go there and get familiar with the route. It is also a good idea to through gold coins (or other items) one piece a time on the floor to mark up the route, so if people fall behind, they can follow the gold coin track and will not get lost.
11:00pm
Before 11:00pm, all parties should be in the Deck of the Pirate Ship safely and await for entry.
0:00am
Start entering the Pirate Ship Entry.
The Knight that is going to hold the monsters in the waiting period should go in first.
Remembered that the entry is very small and the opening time is short, when you pass the entrance, keep going, do not stop otherwise you will block the way and other people will not be able to come in. If you get jam, use the direction keys in the keyboard to move forward.
After entering, find a spot in the slop and sit down to wait for the dawn (6:00am). This waiting period will last one good hour of real life time, so you can relax and chatting or even get some snake to eat. However, remember one thing, if you get disconnected, you will only have 10 minutes time to log-in to the game. If you log-in after 10 minutes, you will find yourself back to the town and cannot get in till next entry open time (that will be 4 hours later in real life time). Actually, after passing the jumping point (into water), people who disconnected for more than 10 minutes will find himself/herself back in Town.

Everyone sitting and wait
Waiting and Waiting

Usually there will be monsters in the slope/hallway. Ask the Knight to hold the monsters and allow them to live for a hour (real life time) like describe in team formation.

Knight holding monsters
Keeping monsters alive

NO ONE should attack the monsters during 0:00am~6:00am. If you attack the monsters, Zaken will come right away, and this is what will happen
Total Wipe Out

The sponsor might want to pre-edit some broadcasting macros, to keep remind all players not to attack monsters while entering the pirate ship. Make sure the Knight goes in first. Telling people use the direction keys to move if he/she get jam. Trust me, even if you already tell people before hand, there will always be someone who forgets about it.
5:50am
buffering time.
6:00am
The long waiting has done, and you are ready to attack Zaken.

Attacking stage

Actually the strategy is simple, the Rescue and Lure Zaken team go lure the Zaken back, The Knight team hold the Zaken, and others attack while the MP Supply Team keep refueling the MP.
So, can I finish it at this point?
NO?? Why?? Don’t you know that it is really difficult to describe the motion in words?
Alright, alright, I will try to continue.

 
Actually, the strategy is really just like that. Lure Zaken back, hold him, attack him, he transfer people out and fly away, go lure him again, hold him, attack him, he transfer people out and fly away again, lure him, hold him, attack him….just repeat the process till Zaken is killed.
Sounds easy right? However, it is easy to say than done.
The structure of the Pirate Ship is not that complicate, however, all the chambers look the same, when you are running around, you will get confuse very easy and lost sense about where you are.
To tell the truth, even though I have jointed the event for many times and almost all the time I am in the Rescue and Lure Zaken team, I still cannot find my way inside the Pirate Ship. Trying to trail after the team leader (he is also the Sponsor) is difficult enough (when you running around, you will find yourself get jam very easily, and once you get jam, quickly use the direction keys on the keyboard to move), I never know where I was during the time. Of course, I do learn a little bit by now, for example, I know that after entering the first chamber, go straight to North will find the connection hallway to the second floor.
Moreover, don’t forget that you will encounter monsters along the way, which will increase the difficulty of remembering where you are.
When the time reach 6:00am, kill those monsters that have been hold by the Knight for the past one hour, and all players start to enter the first chamber that connect with the waiting hallway. When everyone is in place, the MP Supply Team should stay in a corner of the chamber (it is safer), and the Warriors kill those monsters inside the chamber, and everyone just wait for the Zaken.
The Rescue and Lure Team can now go to find Zaken. Since you have no way to know where he is, you will need to find it out. Search the first floor and see if he is around. You can have the whole team to go together. Remember that there are monsters in every chamber, so after you run through some chambers, remember to stop and finish those monsters that follow you. Then, go to other chambers to search again. If you don’t clean those monsters once a while, when you encounter the Zaken and try to turn back to lure Zaken back, you might find yourself trap and surround by all monsters. With the Zaken and all those monsters attacking you, you might not be able to safely lure the Zaken back to the attack waiting chamber. So, remember to clean the monsters along the way.
If you are lucky, you might find Zaken in the first floor (if not, just continue to search the second, the third floor till you find him) and just lure him back to the waiting chamber, and the Knight should be ready to receive the Zaken. Once the Knight has received the Zaken, use “Aggressive” skill to hold him, and other teams can start to attack. Remember that the monsters will keep reborn in the waiting chamber as well; the Warriors teams have to remember to kill them in order to keep the Sorcerer, the Archer, and the healing class safe.
During the attack, Zaken will transfer people to other chamber, if you find yourself being transfered, stay inside the chamber and do not running around. The person who has been transferred might find himself inside another chamber and there are monsters around. Do not run around to escape from those monsters, because you will fail most of the time. So just accept the fate and let those monsters kill you (if you are strong enough, you might be able to finish those monsters).
All players who joint this event in our server all understand one thing: It is not difficult to level up in the Lv56~65 stages, therefore, even if we get killed during the Zaken event, it is really not a big deal, it is very easy to level back up afterward. Therefore, players always follow the rule not to run around when they are being transferred, even if that means the monsters will do their thing with you.
You might want to ask why the person who has been transferred cannot run around to escape form the monsters. This is because all the chambers have monsters inside, if you running around, you will just attract more monsters and die more quickly. Moreover, all the monsters you have attracted will surround your dead body, which will increase the difficulty and cause more danger for the Rescue and Lure Team to approach and to save you.
While the main attacking teams are firing up all power to kill Zaken, the Rescue and Lure Team should be on call. When they receive the message that someone has been transfer, the Rescue and Lure Zaken Team should go find the person.
Now, the real question comes.

How can the Rescue and Lure Zaken Team knows where that person being transfer to?

Use the coordinates to locate the place. People who have been transferred by Zaken should type the command /location (I am not sure what you need to type in the USA version of Lineage II), and it will display the coordinates where you are right now. The coordinates will display three numbers, for example, 5614, 1565, -3496.
Tell the Rescue and Lure Zaken team leader the third number (you should use the private channel to inform the leader).
Remember that the third number of the coordinates indicate which floor the person is located.
1st F: -34xx
2nd F: -32xx
3rd F: -29xx
Once the Rescue and Lure Zaken Team leader get the message, he/she should lead the team to go to the target floor to rescue the person. Of course, you will be running through chambers again and remember to kill monster along the way to rescue people.
During your rescue mission, the other teams is still attacking Zaken at the same time, however, the Zaken might fly away, and them you will need to search the Zaken and lure him back to the attack chamber again.
You might find it very difficult in the beginning. In my server, the Sponsor has try out many times, in the very first beginning, always failed and be wiped out by Zaken. After several try, he gets more familiar and by the end, he has come out with this strategy. This strategy is based on a lot of failure try and player’s sacrifice (time and level). Of course, from those failure try, the Sponsor has learned and get so used with the Pirate Ship, that is why he can lead us to kill Zaken very fast and easy. We can kill Zaken in less than half hour (of course not including the assembling and waiting period).
In the whole event, the most difficult part will be the Rescue and Luring. The Rescue and Lure Zaken team hold the key to the victory. Of course all teams are important, but they can simply wait in one chamber for attacking Zaken, only the Rescue and Lure Zaken team needs to running around.
Sometime, especially when you are new to the strategy, it is very easy to get wipe out by Zaken (maybe not all the teams, but the Rescue and Lure Zaken Team). You might need to try several times to get familiar with the whole process.
Use the radar on the upper right hand corner and the map to know your way.
Maps for your reference

First Floor of the Pirate Ship
Second Floor of the Pirate Ship
Third Floor of the Pirate Ship

Original Guide posted by puppy33 at http://www.l2guru.com. You can view the original thread here.