Trouble with Abaddon's Gate

I'm having trouble killing Abaddon. I'm currently trying to beat him on my Dervish a second time (first time was around Nightfall's prime). My heroes are constantly dying to hexes and general damage during the fight. Can anyone suggest some builds or tips to try out?

This mission is not so hard... if you made it so far using the same heroes i assume their builds are ok. I play this mission like most missions (just too lazy to switch heroes):

* me (all professions), all using pain inverter and wearing my lightbringer title (for the blessing)
* 3 discord heroes (my own variations)
* 1 sos/channeling/resto rt
* 1 panic mesmer
* 1 ranger/warrior (2nd prof)
* 1 healer

This should be a really lousy team setup as there are 3 groups of 2 non-fleshy Graven Monoliths, some occasional Torment Claws and Abaddon himself, but yet the fight is done in max 5-6 mins on HM.

IMO the key is the location where you fight... and maybe your playstyle as you are playing a melee class (use your hero flags if needed).

The area is a big 8 on it side... i always start in the middle, close enough to lure the 2 first two groups 1 by 1... then i go forward and kill the third group. After the 3rd group Abaddon becomes temporarly vunerable and you can start doing him some damage (a well timed pain inverter speeds things up a LOT). When Abaddon is not vunerable anymore go back to the startpoint and repeat this cycle (total 3 or 4 times, depending on how well you timed your pain inverter).

Reading wiki may help too...

I generally run round the right hand side, then to the left hand mob, then to abaddon for 10 seconds of bashing him, then run back to the middle at the top, rinse and repeat.

after he goes away run to the side and kill the monoliths there--up the center is where he 'shoots' right after he goes away, you and your heroes wont take as much damage by running to one of the sides at that time.
I usually run with an sos rit, aotl mm (yes it recharges quickly), have rez sigs on heroes instead of monk rez (sigs recharge too), I usually bring some more damage dealers like an ele and hexes from a mesmer (who can also interupt the monoliths) and a monk...the other three change though I tend to bring a paragon and an interupt ranger on occasion.

The key to winning this imo is to distrupt and kill the tormented claws ASAP otherwise theyll wipe your party.

Some other bits of advice...

Be on the lookout for Torment Claws. They tend to pop up randomly and often at the worst time. As soon as you see them pop up MOVE AWAY. If you are soloing the get ready to flag your party away quickly. There's usually a lag between the time they pop up and when they attack. While they aren't usually a problem normally to deal with between the monoliths conjure phantasm debilitating you and abbadon hitting you its easy to wipe with a hit from a torment claw. Tackle the Claw when you are ready...interrupt it and wail on it.

Also the key is to stay alive and to be able to remove hexes and conditions (dazed especially can really put a damper on things). Party wide healing also is preferable over single player protections. 3 part members minimal should be invested in these roles. Unyielding Aura and Healers Boon are good elites to take for monks. A paragon with the right hex and condition removal skills also would be useful.

Do not stand around watching and waiting. Always engage/re-engage either right or left, not down the middle. Be on the lookout for the note that Abbadon is vulnerable and be ready to attack him immediately. Then as soon as you aren't longer able to damage him (you'll see a blurb letting you know that is) MOVE AWAY back towards one of the hands. If you are in bad shape move further away if possible, otherwise get ready to repeat beating the monoliths who will respawn then attacking abbadon again when the opening comes.

If you are an Ele, cast your big damage spell immediately before his knockdown attacks start. Avoid Meteor Swarm as the long casting time will make this pretty much uncastable most of the time. Firestorm is good spell as it does a lot of total damage. Since Abbadon doesn't move the damage over time isn't a drawback...just remember cast it first as soon as you are able to damage him. For a mes, take at least chaos storm. 40/40 sets would help a lot here for casters for obvious reasons.

For melee characters, damage, damage, damage is one option, the other is builds to keep yourself alive while your casters do the damage. Avatar forms could be a problem as far as trying to cast it succesfully when dazed but might be worth it (Balthazar which I'm guessing is probably what you have for added longevity is ok, but either dwaynna for party wide healing or melandru for party wide condition removal might be better)..

I also find EVAS a good skill to use...but that may just be me. Snowstorm (the deldrimor skill) is also good as, obviously, is Lightbringers Gaze. I don't usually use Pain Inverter but if that works than great. Any armor ignoring or direct damage helps since abbadon has high armor but don't bother if it has a high casting time or real long recharge.

As with many bosses, abbadon uses monster skills, not spells so be careful about skills you take that are dependent on spells...as far as expectations go so you aren't left in a "WTF didn't that spell work!" moment.

Loos one hereo and take sogolon with you, problem with most hexes are now gone if I remember correctly.
A wastrels mesmer can hurt abadon pretty well.

I'm still not having any luck. I just want to kill him so that I can finish off my primeval set. Is there anyone that could run me through really quickly with their set of heroes?

If you are on now I will help you...check your pm ...