GW2. A complete guide to the seventh Guild Wars 2 raid wing, The Key of Ahdashim, which includes the bosses Cardinal Adina, Cardinal Sabir, and Qadim the Peerless.
Getting Started
Begin by opening Key of Ahdashim through the raid portal in the Lions Arch Aerodrome.
Gate (First Encounter)
The first encounter is merely an event with no real boss. The raid must escort Glenna and the Key of Ahdashim by collecting key fragments and then protecting her until she can unlock the gate.
Stay together and clear out all the enemies in the capture points around the key fragments then stand in them to make progress. Focus the Champion Branded Djinn while trying to cleave the smaller branded enemies.
After collecting four key fragments from the capture points, the group can split into one large group which will go around and kill the three remaining Champion Branded Djinn while a healer and a DPS stay with Glenna and the Key of Ahdashim to heal them and get any enemies off of her. If all three Branded Djinn are defeated or if Glenna survives five minutes, you succeed and gain access to Ahdashim.
At this point you have two choices of which boss you can fight first. Taking a left will bring you to Cardinal Sabir, the Air Djinn’s arena. Taking a right will bring you to Cardinal Adina, the Earth Djinn’s arena. There is no difference so choose the boss you prefer to do first. Before reaching each boss there will be an easy mini event that will teach you some of the core mechanics of the bosses: Paralyzing Wisps for Sabir, and line of sighting behind Pillars for Adina.
Cardinal Adina (Second/Third Encounter)
Adina is the Earth Djinn encounter. It requires coordination and responsibility from each player to know where they should go when splitting up.
Compositions
Power damage is more effective because the boss phases so often and the Hands die too fast for conditions to ramp up.
Ranged damage can be useful when splitting up for the pillar mechanics.
Projectile Destruction or Reflects are necessary to survive the Hands of Eruption.
- Elementalist Focus
- Revenant Ventari Stance
- Firebrand Tome
Thieves/Daredevils can provide great boon coverage with the stolen skill so that a more aggressive composition can reach the phase transitions faster and reduce pressure as well as remove room for mistakes.
Boon Rip will reduce the amount of might and protection the boss gets.
- Mesmer Sword
- Thief Trickery Trait
Bountiful Theft - Necromancer Scepter
Roles
Tank – Highest toughness decides who tanks the boss. They can stand still and face the boss away from the group, or try to manage pillars with the boss attacks.
Melee – These players should stand as close to the boss as possible to avoid getting the mechanic. Usually DPS players who want the most uptime.
Ranged – These five players should stand slightly at range to bait the mechanic on them. Usually support players who can move away after sharing their buffs or ranged DPS who can still deal damage.
Mechanics
Pillar Phase
Tanking – Toughness will decide who tanks Adina. The rest of the raid should stand behind the boss while the tank aims the bosses attacks in their direction. The tank must block or dodge an attack shown by a frontal cone or it will knock them back into Stalagmites. This attack can also be faced towards a pillar to damage it in the case of uneven player numbers. Be careful when turning the boss.
Stalagmites – These spikes on the ground will spawn in a cone in front of the boss. The tank will want to stand next to or in front of but not on these. These will cut off a section of the platform from easy travel, so most of the raid should position on the other side for more access to the other mechanics. If walked over they explode, dealing heavy damage and removing the platform tiles under it. At phase change they also explode, removing the tiles under them. Keep the stalagmites tightly packed so they don’t impede on the raid’s space. These explode when changing phases, so the tank should move away from them near 75%, 50%, and 25%.
Credit to GilGalad Gaming for the video.Tectonic Upheaval – The five furthest players from Adina besides the tank will be targeted with this mechanic. A small orange circle will appear underneath them and after a few seconds the circle will be placed and a pillar will come out of that location, creating a shockwave nearby. Players that get hit by the exact location of the pillar will die, but only take some damage if the shockwave hits them. If Adina is hit by the shockwave then nearby players will receive Radiant Blindness for 10 seconds. This debuff prevents all attacks from landing for the duration. If players are on adjacent tiles when their locations are set in stone, the pillars will fuse into one. Spread these out preferably in an organized fashion.
Blinding Light – Shortly after the creation of the pillars, a bright eye will appear above Adina. After a few seconds the boss will shine a bright light which will give the blinding debuff for 20 seconds. This can only be avoided by looking away from Adina physically by turning your character away or hiding behind a pillar. This attack will also damage the pillars. For each damaged pillar remaining, the boss will gain 20% damage reduction and 20% increased damage. This is important for the next mechanic.
Boulder Barrage – Immediately after the Blinding Light, an orange circle will fill the platform at which point Adina will shoot out one boulder at each player. These boulders can only be avoided the same way that the Blinding Light can, by standing behind a pillar. However, the boulders will also damage a pillar enough that two boulders will destroy the pillar. The Blinding Light will slightly damage it, then one boulder will heavily damage it, then the second will fully destroy the pillar. Three instances of damage are required to fully destroy the pillar.
If there are more than two players behind one pillar, the first two boulders will break the pillar and any more will hit and down players. With 5 pillars and 10 players, two players can fit behind each pillar safely while also removing the pillar buff. Uneven groupings of players will not only cause downs, but leave up excess pillars to buff the boss.
This sequence of mechanics requires decision making and coordination to handle properly:
- Coordinate which five players will bait the Tectonic Upheaval. Have everyone else stand as close to the boss as possible and the five designated to get the mechanic stand slightly away to ensure they get it. They can also place their pillars in the same location.
- Pair players together so they go to the same pillar in the same location every time and there is no confusion where players panic and go to a pillar with too many players behind it.
If one player dies, there will be an odd number of players to a pillar. For 9 players, one of the pillars will not be destroyed because only 9 boulders will be shot at 5 pillars. This will buff the boss unless two of the pillars are fused into one. With only 4 pillars but 9 players, one of the pillars should have 3 players behind it, but it is better to need to revive one downed player than to buff the boss or to blind one player for 20 seconds. If two people die then fusing two pillars together works evenly. With 7 and 6 players alive, fuse two pillars.
Hands Phase
Sand Wall – at 75%, 50%, and 25% health, Adina will go invulnerable and create a Sand Wall that will divide the entire platform. This wall will rotate 360 degrees counter-clockwise, instantly killing any players hit by it. Stay close to Adina, but not too close, to reduce the space you must move to avoid it. Jump and glide over any missing tiles in the platform. Skills that make you invulnerable will let you pass through the wall.
After the full rotation, Adina will terraform the tiles composing the platform. The tiles that glow orange will be recycled, dropping players into the sand.and summon giant rock hands to attack the raid.
Hand of Eruption – These will periodically throw boulders at the raid. If hit, players will be knocked back, potentially off the platform. Use projectile reflect or destruction to protect the squad from these attacks, or watch their animation and dodge the boulders.
Hand of Erosion – These will cause a debuff on the raid every 15 seconds which will increase damage taken by 15% for 1 minute and stacks.
Generally the Hands of Eruption are more dangerous because they can instantly kill players if reflects or stability aren’t there, but if reflects and stability are perfect then the Eruptions can be mitigated entirely. The duration of the debuff from the Hands of Erosion can linger into other phases, making everything pressure your raid harder. The most effective strategy is to take out the Erosion hands first and slot plenty of stability and reflects into the composition to handle knock backs. Adina will continue to assault the raid during the hand phase by lifting platforms and damaging those on them in a clockwise manner starting from the southwest.
During the first hand phase, there are 2 hands at the north side, but during the second and third hand phases there are 2 hands at the north and 2 at the south. The hands are easy to destroy but the squad should still stay together rather than splitting up because they risk getting knocked off. Coordinate where you will start and prioritize Erosion. During the second and third hand phases, the squad should start on the southern Erosion and then make their way north because it avoids Adina’s attack pattern. Once all hands are destroyed, Adina will terraform the platform again and repeat the first phase with the Tectonic Upheavals.
Repeat this pattern with the same exact mechanics but a different platform structure each time. The final 25% of Adina will spawn Hands of Erosion, making the fight eventually pressure you more and more. For that reason it is important to have as many people alive by that point as possible. Either take out the Hands to reduce the pressure, or focus on finishing the boss and ignore them.
Strategy
Start the fight mounted to avoid the initial damage everyone takes. Because the fight does not change much over time, a solid strategy for just a few mechanics will make things much easier. Before the fight begins have two players stand behind each of the pillars and use a raid marker to identify each of the pillars. These two players will return to the mark to hide behind the pillar every Tectonic Upheaval sequence. They don’t need to be exactly, but generally in that location.
Next designate which of those 2 players on each pillar will get the Tectonic Upheaval and identify them with a raid marker. These players will stand slightly back from the boss during the Pillar Phase while the others will stand as close to the boss as possible. This way the same five players will get the Tectonic Upheaval every time, and they can bring those to the same location every time, and the other players will return to the same location every time. This significantly reduces uncertainty and allows players to maximize their efficiency by focusing on their positioning and not decision making.
When the Sand Wall begins, the team should spread out so it is easier to watch the ground and their character without the clutter of other players on top of them. Stand behind the wall rather than in front of it so you have more time to navigate the terrain. Then regroup at the location of the Hand of Erosion. Repeat until Adina is finished.
If players die off, decide to fuse some pillars together or have the tank face the boss towards excess pillars to prevent damaged pillars from buffing the boss. If someone dies, everyone must adapt which complicates things. It is much easier if everyone values their life and survives.
Credit to Vallun for the video.Cardinal Adina Challenge Mode
There are three differences on challenge mode:
- Falling in the sand will instantly kill you.
- During Sand Walls there will be three walls instead of two.
- Pillars will now remove the tile they are under after being destroyed.
Players who get the Tectonic Upheaval mechanic will need to be more mindful of the position of their pillars because they can’t place them in the same place every time. Think of an order where you place them further back at first to give you more space as time goes on. This is also important because when the Sand Wall mechanic occurs those tiles will still be missing until the Hands come out. There will be even less space during the Sand Walls because there are missing tiles.
Because challenge mode is much more punishing, players should focus on surviving much more. Any simple mistakes in positioning can result in death which creates even more complications for the party because they have uneven numbers for the pillar mechanic. Also coordinate a permanent reflect rotation with your composition since any Hands of Eruptions hitting your party may mean being knocked into the sand and dying.
Credit to Vallun for the video.Cardinal Sabir (Second/Third Encounter)
Cardinal Sabir is an easy fight strategically. but players must have good reaction speeds to survive the mechanics.
Compositions
CC is necessary to break the large break bar of the boss. Bring an excess amount and alternate weapons with Paralyzation sigils for the CC skills.
- Guardian Utility
- Thief Pistol Offhand
- Warrior Maces
Projectile Destruction or Reflects will delay the need to handle Paralyzing Wisps.
- Elementalist Focus
- Revenant Ventari Stance
- Firebrand Tome
Mechanics
Tanking – While toughness tanking is possible, it will only direct which way Sabir faces their auto attack. This can add extra pressure, but it is often managed by healers easily and getting hit by the boss is actually important for the next mechanic.
Flash Discharge – When hit by Sabir’s or the Wisp’s auto attacks, you will gain stacks of Violent Currents. This increases the damage you take and damage you deal by 5%, stacking up to five times. When reaching five stacks you will not only take and deal 25% more damage, but you will gain access to a special action key ability.
This ability is an instant cast teleport that will CC for the equivalent of a 5 second stun. This ability is important for breaking the defiance bar, but it can also be used to survive the mechanics by teleporting to safety. You lose the stacks of Violent Currents when using the special action key or when being lifted by a tornado.
Repulsion – At 90%, Sabir will gain a break bar which pulses barrier and pushes players away. To continue dealing damage to Sabir, this massive defiance bar must be broken. Avoid the orange lines and use every CC available to you as well as the special action key.
After breaking the bar, every player will gain an orange circle which will hurt other players when it fills. Spread out and then stand still so others can predict your location and adjust.
Platforms – At 80% and 60%, Sabir will escape to a higher level of platforms. The squad must follow by killing Voltaic Wisps and then using the updrafts they leave to launch to the next platform. Avoid the orange twisters and glide.
Shockwave – After 80% the platform will have tornados moving along it. Normally you want to avoid these, but they can be used to lift you in the air to avoid the shockwave mechanic. When you see the small orange circle expanding from the boss, get to a tornado or use a port ability such as the special action key to port through the shockwave. You cannot dodge or block it.
Ion Shield – After 60% Sabir will gain a new type of break bar. Instead of pushing players back and pulsing barrier, this break bar will stack a buff of 3% more damage dealt and 5% less damage taken on Sabir every few seconds. This break bar will be easier to break, but require much more coordination because it regenerates rapidly.
Look at the party window to see how many players have the yellow border around their health bar. This indicates how many players have the special action ability ready. When at least half of the raid has a yellow health bar, the squad leader should call for the CC whether through voice comms or in chat. When called for, everyone should use their special action ability and any other burst CC. If this fails to break the bar, wait until everyone has their special action abilities again then call for another burst CC. The Ion Shield buff disappears from Sabir after the bar is broken, and followed by orange circles which must be spread out.
Death Tornado – At 50% a large tornado will appear and rotate clockwise around the platform. Any player picked up by this tornado will die. The raid must rotate to avoid this while performing all the other mechanics.
Fury of the Storm – Sabir will also create an expanding orange area that will wipe the entire platform when it fills. Seek protection inside the white circles at opposite corners of the platform. Staying far ahead of the tornado will give you plenty of time to take refuge from the storm.
Paralyzing Wisps – every 10% of Sabir’s health after 40%, a smaller platform will spawn to the side along with a Paralyzing Wisp. These occur at 40% west, 30% north, 20% east, 10% south. These wisps will shoot projectiles at the raid, immobilizing them which will make handling the mechanics extremely difficult. There are two ways to handle these:
- Send a survivable DPS with CC to kill the wisps such as a Warrior. Use the special action key to port to and CC them then take the updraft back.
- Design a composition with enough projectile reflect/destruction to completely ignore the wisps.
You don’t need to only choose one of these, and often groups will do a combination of the two. They will clear the first one or two wisps and then stack and use their reflects while burning down the last 20% of the bosess health.
Strategy
Every mechanic that happens usually occurs at a specific health percentage. They happen very linearly and so if you predict the next mechanic and react quickly you can easily handle them. Here is a schedule of the mechanics:
- 90% – Repulsion Break Bar
- 80% – Platforms then Shockwave after returning
- 70% – Repulsion Break Bar
- 60% – Platforms then Shockwave and Ion Shield Break Bar
- 50% – Death Tornado and Fury of the Storm Begin appearing
- 40% – West Wisp platform – All the mechanics have appeared by this point.
Two sets of mechanics alternate for the rest of the encounter, the break bars and the raid wipes. The Repulsion and the Ion Shield break bar mechanics alternate between each other while the Shockwave and Fury of the Storm alternate between each other. - 30% – North Wisp platform
- 20% – East Wisp platform
- 10% – South Wisp platform
Credit to Vallun for the video.Cardinal Sabir Challenge Mode
The differences are very minor on challenge mode and don’t require any different strategies:
- Downed players gain a debuff that makes them more difficult to revive for five seconds. This requires everyone to react to revive allies because standing still for too long while reviving can be fatal on this encounter. If possible, wait until the debuff is off and it is safe to revive.
- The break bars will require more CC, meaning the Ion Shield will require a majority of participation from the raid in the coordinated burst CC.
- Five orange lines will spawn during the Repulsion break bar instead of three.
- Paralyzing Wisps will spawn on the main platform as well. These are much closer to the boss so they can be handled more easily than the smaller platform wisps. CC and burst them down, or use Epidemic from a condition necromancer.
Qadim the Peerless (Fourth Encounter)
Qadim the Peerless tests the coordination and preparation of the raid with an arena that gets more cluttered with fire as the fight progresses. Good planning can leave space for the party to use later on to survive and manage other mechanics.
Compositions
Self buffing is more valuable because the squad will split up to handle anomalies, kite Pylons, and tank the boss away from the group. Because of this splitting nature there is usually only need for enough buffs to provide for the 5 players stacking behind the boss.
Stability, Stun Breaks, and Aegis can prevent being knocked into the fire which will mean instant death.
- Guardian Utility
- Revenant Jalis Stance
CC is vital to the encounter because there are multiple targets that require breaking defiance bars to manage.
Roles
Pylon Kiters – Three players who can sustain themselves need to activate their special action key to soak the energy and damage from the Pylons so Qadim cannot obtain it. Usually this is done by a Condition Scourge with the 
Parasitic Contagion trait in curses or a Rifle Deadeye with the 
Invigorating Precision trait in critical strikes to survive. They will also want portal abilities such as
and
to catch Energy Orbs.
Tank – Activating the special action key as well as proximity decides who tanks Qadim, and it is one of the higher pressure bosses to survive. Don’t be afraid to run a more selfish tank build since many of the party members get their buffs from Pylons. Positioning the boss to face the mechanics away from the group is important.
Mechanics
Pylons – The fight starts with Qadim invulnerable and with a force field. He gains this while channeling any of the three Pylons. To stop him from channeling a Pylon, the Pylon’s break bar must be depleted and then a player, specifically the kiter, with the special action ability enabled needs to stand in range of it to channel it. Channeling a Pylon gives that player boons but also deals damage to them. If the player channeling the Pylon dies or moves out of range of the Pylon, it will gain a green circle. If no one uses the special action key in range of this in time, Qadim will regain control of the Pylon and it must be broken again.
After all three Pylons are controlled by allied players, Qadim will release an energy wave which will knockback players hit by it. Wait for the orange circle to fill and then dodge inwards or apply aegis/stability. Qadim will reset the Pylons when phasing, so be aware of the knockback every phase change.
Credit to GilGalad Gaming for the video
Flux Disruptor – The special action key in this fight decides who will tank Qadim and who will kite the Pylons. Make sure to activate this before every attempt. When channeling a Pylon, you will gain pulsing Alacrity, Quickness, Might, and Fury. Players can also activate the special action key to link to other players and share their buffs.
Tanking – The closest person to Qadim with the special action key enabled will become the tank. There are two mechanics faced towards the tank. They should stand in two spots at the northwest and northeast of Qadim, in between the Pylon and the Energy Orb spawn, to avoid pressuring the Pylon Kiter, and the rest of the squad should stay south of Qadim.
When the orange road becomes black, move to the other location. When the orange cone appears, prepare to dodge or block the barrage of energy that targets all players caught in the cone.
Lightning – Throughout the entire fight there will be lightning strikes targeted at a player. First they will get a yellow border around their screen indicating that they are targeted. Then a small orange circle will appear beneath them and strike them with lightning for decent damage. Regardless of whether they are hit a larger orange circle will appear afterwards with the same effect, and then an even larger third circle. Players that get this should move out of the group so only they have to dodge it. Do not dodge the first circle, just move away, or you will run out of dodges for the third.
Energy Orbs – Every 5% of Qadim’s health (except 80% and 60% and stopping at 45%) an Energy Orb will drop at three locations in between the three Pylons. Their order is always counter-clockwise. These will deal damage to the raid if they hit the floor, and will deal extreme damage to the raid if an Entropic Distortion or Qadim touches one. To catch the orbs, a player must be in the white circle when it lands, and then move the orb to a Pylon controlled by one of their allies.
Preferably the Pylon Kiters will handle this mechanic using either the Scourge Sand Portal or the Thief Shadowstep. This is convenient because the Kiters already want to be at the Pylons. Designate which direction each Pylon should handle an orb. If the designation is clockwise, then the Kiter at the Arrow 
Pylon will constantly watch to their left to see if the Orb spawns at the Square 
(on the map of raid markers shown below).
The more Energy Orbs that have been transferred to a Pylon, the more players that can benefit from channeling the Pylon. Activating the special action key near the Pylon kiter creates a link between them and will pulse boons on additional players as well as increase damage dealt to Qadim.
Break Bar – Ocassionally Qadim will try to reclaim a Pylon. Break his defiance bar to prevent this.
Energy Circuit – Sparks of energy will travel throughout the arena by the pattern of lines on the ground. Avoid standing on these to prevent taking unnecessary damage.
Lava – at 80% and 60%, Qadim will lift all players and after a few seconds drop a large circle of fire beneath them. Players can still move while lifted, and they should stack together to prevent littering the entire arena with these fires. The best place to stack these are in between the Pylons and the spawn locations of the Energy Orbs. Putting these fires on the Pylon, spread out, or on top of Energy Orb spawns will make mechanics much more difficult to manage later on.
Two to four players should stack these fires together to one side of each Pylon. These can be designated at the start of the encounter by who helps to CC each Pylon for their kiter. There are two ways to go about this simply:
- The 80% fires placed to the left or clockwise of the Pylons and the 60% fires arranged in a diagonal pattern closer to Qadim but not covering the spawn location of the Energy Orbs.
- The 80% fires placed to the left or clockwise of the Pylons and the 60% fires placed to the right or counter-clockwise of the Pylons.
Fires are bad, but fires can also be good because they can be used to handle the Entropic Distortion mechanic. The maps below show the two different philosophies for fire placements. An even more aggressive strategy would combine the two arrangements below with 2 players per location and less at the northern Pylon since it is destroyed first.
Entropic Distortion – At 75%, these anomalies will spawn every 40 seconds at the locations the Energy Orbs spawn. They walk slowly towards a Pylon and try to recapture. If channeling for long enough, they will deal massive damage to the raid. Entropic Distortions cannot be damaged unless it is during the short duration that their defiance bar is broken (400 total CC value required). Rather than investing a lot of burst damage into these, they can be killed with the fires placed around the room. With fires in the right place between the Energy Orb spawns and the Pylons, the anomalies will walk through the fire. Their defiance bar should be broken when they walk on top of the stacked fires and they will die with no damage investment.
At 40% of Qadim’s health the Entropic Distortions will start spawning more quickly at every 30 seconds and if no Pylons are nearby they will instead head to Qadim to channel him. With a diagonal pattern of fires, the anomalies after 40% will be handled much more efficiently. Essentially place the 60% fires in between Qadim and the Energy Orb spawns, but not covering the area where the Energy Orbs spawn. This covers the paths of anomalies that spawn and head towards a Pylon or towards Qadim and you just need to CC them when they step in the fire. If fire positioning goes poorly, put some damage into them when CCing.
Caustic Chaos – Beginning at 60%, Qadim will point an arrow at one player and after a delay shoot three missiles at the target which will deal extreme damage. The player targeted by this should move away from the group a decent amount so that they are the only one in the missile’s path. The missile can be avoided by dodging or blocking, but since there are three missiles you may run out of resources. The missile can also be jumped over if you jump as soon as Qadim smashes the ground.
Pylon Destruction – Qadim will charge at and destroy one of the Pylons: the north Pylon at 40%, the southwest at 30%, and the southeast at 20%. The kiter supposed to channel that Pylon no longer needs to do that job, and they should dodge away or Qadim will down them in fire. Once Qadim destroys the Pylon a large shockwave will be sent out that can knock players into fires. Dodge or apply aegis/stability to avoid the shockwave.
For each Pylon Qadim destroys, he will gain the ability to tether to a player seen by a red lightning jumping between them. These tethers will reduce damage that Qadim takes as well as spread to nearby allies so players should not split up so much or they can link the tether to others. Instead, players with these bad tethers should stack together away from the rest of the party to prevent the sub-tethers from spreading further. For each tether spread, Qadim will stack more and more of the buff.
At 20% all Pylons will be destroyed and the special action key ability is disabled for everyone. Tanking is now decided by the first person to go into Qadim’s range and will remain on that player until they leave and the closest player will be targeted next. Let the tank go in first. Qadim will spawn up to three tethers on players, which can then sub-tether to three other players. They should separate from the rest of the group. This last 20% can take a while if Anomalies are not handled efficiently or if the tethers are not split from the group.
Strategy
Coordination before the fight will increase success rate greatly. The three pylon kiters will each go to a Pylon and have a designated direction to collect orbs from, usually clockwise. Two to three players will each start the fight with each Kiter to CC the Pylons and stack their fires with them.
Placing fires down in the right places is the most important mechanic because this will affect the rest of the encounter. Use any of the fire arrangements listed above and then designate a DPS or two with plenty of CC such as a Warrior to go around to CC and burst the anomalies when there is no fire in their path. Otherwise the Pylon kiters can slot in CC or a Druid can easily use their Celestial Avatar 3 and pet CC to break them from range.
The fight is relatively low pressure for anyone that isn’t the tank, but there are key moments that are extremely dangerous, specifically when the knock backs occur as Pylons reset at 80%, 60%, 40%, 30%, and 20%. When these phase changes occur, position in a way that you won’t be knocked into fire or dodge/block/stability. Here is a schedule of the mechanics:
- 95% – First Energy Orb spawns, kiters watch to know where the counter-clockwise ordering starts.
- 90% – Energy Orb spawn
- 85% – Energy Orb spawn
- 80% – First Fire placement, recapture Pylons afterwards
- 75% – Anomalies begin spawning for the rest of the encounter, Energy Orb spawn
- 70% – Energy Orb spawn
- 75% – Energy Orb spawn
- 60% Second Fire placement, watch for Caustic Chaos
- 55% – Energy Orb spawn
- 50% – Energy Orb spawn
- 45% – Energy Orb spawn
- 40% Qadim destroys the north Pylon
- 30% Qadim destroys the southwest Pylon
- 20% Qadim destroys the southeast Pylon
Qadim the Peerless Challenge Mode
The differences on Challenge Mode are as follows:
- Three Death Tornados will circle the outer perimeter of the arena, killing any who touch it. Be careful not to get hit by any knockbacks by dodging the mechanic after the Pylons reset or giving out plenty of stability/aegis.
- Anyone hit by the Lightning mechanic will leave behind a trail of fire which can be extremely dangerous since they stack up fast and persist the entire fight. Be much more aware of who gets the Lightning and get it out of the group and save your dodges to avoid it. If you do get hit by Lightning, run in a straight line towards the outside to create a thin line of fire rather than a circle.
- At 40%, 30%, and 20% Qadim will still destroy the Pylons but there will also be a raid wipe. The only way to survive is by getting into the small white circle at the south area of the map where the Energy Orb would spawn. Share stability to each other inside the safe zone during this time because Qadim’s knockback will occur right before the wipe happens.
- Every time a Pylon is destroyed, one player will be held above the arena to watch a massive meteor hurdle towards the raid. If the rest of the squad collects five golden orbs that spawn after this, the one player can use their special action key to stop the meteor. The final time this happens at 20%, wait until the shockwave to collect the orbs or the special action key which is shared with the Flux Disruptor will be disabled.
Tank PoV:
Credit to Vallun for the video.Achievements
Terrain Tamed – 10AP
Defeat Cardinal Adina.
Conserve the Land – 5AP
Defeat Cardinal Adina without detonating any Stalagmites. Have your tank stand as close to Adina as possible and use blocks and stability to avoid Adina’s knockback.
Rock Solid – 15AP
Defeat Cardinal Adina in challenge mode.
Charged Winds – 5AP
Defeat Cardinal Sabir without being hit by a voltaic wisp’s Electrospark skill. Use reflects and send someone else to clear out the wisps when they spawn. Position furthest from the wisp so their attacks hit others before you.
Quell the Storm – 15AP
Defeat Cardinal Sabir in challenge mode.
Pool Party – 1AP
“/Dance” in the Well of Ahdashim while at least four others are also in it. This is in Qadim’s room. You do not need to defeat Qadim to complete this.
Power Trip – 10AP
Defeat Qadim the Peerless
Power Surge – 5AP
Defeat Qadim the Peerless without allowing any Entropic Distortion to charge at a pylon. Have a few players designated to CC the anomalies in the fire, and have burst damage when a fire is not in their path. Play safe during the last phases and spend more resources to focus the anomalies.
Mad with Power – 15AP
Defeat Qadim the Peerless in challenge mode.
Scholar of Ahdashim – 2AP
Read all of the books inside the Key of Ahdashim.
1. Next to some bookshelves in the Leystone Axis.
2. Behind a planter in a corridor between the Leystone Axis and the Basalt Arena.
3/4. On a ledge above the Basalt Arena next to a brazier.
5. Up a large staircase in the Fractured Conservatory.
6. In the planters at the southwest end of the Fractured Conservatory.
Passport to Ahdashim – 25AP – title: 
Everlasting Ally of Ahdashim
Complete all other achievements above. You will also receive a as a novelty chair to sit in. It floats and looks dignified.
Secret Agent – 0AP – Hidden
Find the skritt spy in an instance that Qadim has been defeated in.
Acknowledgment
Special thanks to Vallun for writing up the initial draft of this guide and helping on the process. Check out his Youtube Channel for more of his content.
