Boss Fights

BOSSES

Sword Guardian (Secret Boss)

Maligalig

 

Staff Guardian (Secret Boss)

This boss has the same arena type layout as the previous one. A simple square room with a square pad on the floor. Use this deliberate design to your advantage and stand on one corner each as the group.

Heavy Attacks – The boss throw out multiple different attacks and swings including a legit heavy attack. In general these are pretty simple to deal with. The tank should simply BLOCK the attacks when they happen, and hold the boss completely still.

Traps – The boss will at the beginning of the fight places multiple trap AOE sections on the ground. If you are in the correct formation of at least semi stacking on the boss, this FIRST phase of them should not hit you. However if any are of course ON you, find a safe space. Do NOT stand in them.

Meteor Teleport – The boss will cast a meteor type ability and then vanish from one side of the room to the other, removing ALL traps. Shortly after he will cast NEW traps and you will have to shift your group to a new location.

It’s pretty much rinse repeat from here.

S'zarzo the Bulwark

This boss is technically a type of miniboss for the most part but it has some specific mechanics that you WILL need to learn before the next fight, so we will include this one.

Hold the boss completely still and turn it away from the group, you will need to be SURE that it does NOT face the group

Heavy Attack – The boss will Heavy attack the tank, or whoever has aggro with a fast shield swing! Be sure to block this as the tank or dodge it as a DPS/Healer.

Banner – The boss while around half health will throw out a Dragonknight banner. The DPS/healers do NOT want to be standing in this. Also while this does damage for anyone standing in it, it does also buff HIM so as the tank, move him OUT of the negative AOE on the ground to prevent him hitting harder.

Adds – The boss spawn 4 adds at a time in the fight, these need to be controlled and killed. Be careful of the archers as they can fire off interruptible attacks. If the tank grabs them in with chains and can pin them with the boss, these can be made short work of. However, if you are having difficulty managing the multiple targets, you can focus them down first and then fight the boss after.

Popcorn! – The boss goes through phases where he will channel his hand in the direction of the ground, and under each player will be 3 POPS from AOEs that appear under their feet. Do NOT run around the room, do NOT dodge roll. Running around, it will still hit you, and the same for dodge too. If you get hit you will be flung into the air. Instead find a safe space (don’t stack) and simply block the 3 incoming pops until they are gone. Each time this mechanic happens, repeat it.

Sarydil

The boss here is very simple, BUT also very dramatic and there is a LOT of moving around. So stack and burn builds will need to consider getting their running shoes on! The room is big and the boss teleports all over the place!

The tank should maintain a taunt on the boss 100% of the time and try to aim the direction the boss is facing away from the group. Whether that is standing behind the boss, or simply going wide aiming away from people, is up to you, but don’t aim the boss at your friends.

Be SURE that as the tank the FIRST thing you ever cast in this fight is a TAUNT, not a light attack, not another debuffing skill, it MUST be a taunt. Else the boss will attack someone else randomly and potentially one shot them!

Teleport strike – One of the first attacks the boss will do at the beginning is a Teleport Strike, exactly like that of the Nightblade skill. This if not blocked will borderline one shot a DPS/Healer so the tank is responsible for making sure the first thing they ever hit the boss with is a taunt.

Each time the boss re-enters the fight (spoiler she will vanish) she is likely to do this again, so maintaining that taunt is key.

IF you are on the receiving end of it, be sure to block!

Dash Mines – During the entire fight the boss from time to time will Dash across the room from one side to the other in multiple jumps, each time she jumps she will place mines on the floor. DO NOT stand in them! Move your group as a unit to her new location and watch your feet! Carelessness in this scenario can make hard work for the group. The game won’t forgive you for casually walking into stupid  .

Throwing Daggers – When she has reached her destination from the Dash Mines phase, she will continuously channel throwing daggers. This MUST be interrupted as soon as possible in order to stop her doing it.

Backflip Bombs – After the interrupted Throwing daggers the boss will fire off a few light attacks and then do a wicked back flip. Yes it looks pretty but watch your feet. She is throwing bombs around the room. Don’t get caught out.

BIG BOOM! – Shortly after the back flip she will channel a FAST spreading AOE which will EXPLODE when it gets to full size. You can block it or avoid it with a well placed dodge roll.

Be warned however during this phase, remaining mines will blow up!

MARKED! – Just like the target alert you had on the first boss, when the bugs are chasing you, ONE player will have a marker on their head and anywhere they go will drop rapidly placed AOE mines on the ground.

The trick to this is to spot it fast, and walk backwards to a SAFE spot until they stop being placed. Literally just walk into a corner or where ever is safe away from your group to place the mines in an unused location, and then come back into the fight again.

If you do not kite these to a safe spot they will become a problem, and if you try to stand STILL, they will stack up and kill you.

Learn this mechanic FAST else it will become a problem. Consider the room, space and your group when placing these.

Adds – There are technically 2 phases of these. The boss will throw a smoke bomb and vanish causing 4 adds to enter the fight. Pull these together and kill them. After they are dead there will be 2 more phases of them. Each time the adds spawn the Marked mechanic will happen to a random player.

The first phase is around 75% health, the second is about 40%. The second phase however will have the Sword and Board Khajiit add, similar to the previous boss S’Zarzo.

Shadows – The boss will vanish and all around the room will be shadows/reflections of her. You will as a team, have to find which one is the real one. They are all channelling so must be interrupted. If not done fast enough, one player will be shot by ALL remaining shadows at once. Split up, interrupt them all until you find the real one and then continue the fight as normal.

Hard Mode: – The difference to hard mode as with most starts with MORE health on the boss and MORE damage applied by her too. So you will have to be careful. However the majority of the mechanics are exactly the same with a couple of twists…

The adds phases are still the same HOWEVER during that phase it will not be ONE person that gets marked per phase, it will be ALL of you. So to help with this situation, when the adds spawn, grab them all together as fast as possible and circle them as a group (standing still of course) when possible.
When the marks come, all walk backwards dropping the mines away from the group, and then come back IN again. That should solidify a great formation for the fight and keep mines at a safe space.

Also there is one more mechanic added to the middle of the fight which persists throughout. Technically this kicks in around the 60% mark but you will have TWO mages enter the fight. One either side of the room.

You have two options, stack the boss on the closest one and gradually kill one with the boss each time it teleports (they will respawn eventually) OR simply track their mechanics and act accordingly when it happens.

Over time they will CONSTANTLY channel big AOEs and damage. The main thing you need to do as a group is interrupt them from doing so as soon as possible.

If you can manage to keep them interrupted promptly throughout the fight you will be fine and they won’t cause much of a problem. If not, you are either going to die, or have to spend more time on THEM to give you breathing space between mechanics.

Either option is fine but bare in mind failing to interrupt and forcing killing them will make the fight longer, so you will have to repeat the fight mechanics a lot more than normal.

TIP: Have someone with a ranged interrupt hang out in the middle of the room, and be on interrupt duty. This can be a game changer but the strategies you apply are really up to you.

Shield Guardian (Secret Boss)

This secret boss is pretty simple, just like the previous ones, hold the boss in the middle of the square and have each member of the group stand on a corner of the square.

That way you can all reach and are in a safe place for the fight and it’s mechanics

Heavy Attacks – The boss throw out multiple small and large swings and heavy attacks. The tank simply needs to block these and maintain a taunt so that the group don’t get hit.

SHIELD! – At around 60-55% health depending on the group’s damage (mechanics can overlap) the boss will channel into a crouch position and have a constant shield protecting him. You CANNOT damage the boss.

In the mean time there are 3 adds in the room all channelling energy into the shield. Kill each of the adds and the shield will break. Resume positions and continue as you where at the beginning of the fight. Simple as that!

If you have high damage you will see this happen once.

If you have lower damage then you will see this mechanic happen again at very low health. If it happens, simply rinse repeat the process.

There is no DPS check for the fight, you just may have to do the mechanic multiple times.

Varallion

This boss very unique. It LOOKS like you have a great wide open space to fight in… you are going to need it! This will get rather dramatic depending on the mode you pick, regular or hardmode.

Regular is not so dangerous but hard mode has a WHOLE new mechanic added to it (more explained below)

Heavy Attack – The boss will Heavy attack the tank, or anyone with aggro at the time. It will one shot someone NOT blocking, but if you do block it, it’s damage is dramatically reduced. SO, block it! The way to spot it is he will wind up a HUGE two handed uppercut much like wrecking blow.

Waves – During the fight there will be 3 casts of WAVES across the room. These are HUGE and you must NOT get caught in them. This will happen through out the whole fight so be ready to change position if necessary to avoid the incoming damage. Do not stand in it and try and block it, simply step OUT of it.

Marked Orb – During the fight ONE player will be MARKED (same symbol as all other marks in the dungeon). When this happens, look around. From the water will be a slow moving orb in the direction of THAT player. You have two options.

You can kill it, which may take some time depending on your group, before it reaches the player. If you fail it will go boom and kill them.

OR you can run up to it holding block deliberately exploding it. The block if you are full health is more than sufficient enough for ANY player to take out the orb and live through. Making the mechanic 10x easier to deal with.

NOTE, if you pop it near the group, they will have to block too of course.

Traps – The boss will cast negative AOE marks on the group. This will be a channelled purple/dark AOE under the feet of individuals.

The way to manage this is to find a SAFE, far away empty space and run to it while receiving heals. After a few seconds this will drop on the ground. Place it, and come back to the fight. This will happen multiple times during the fight so be sure to place it in a location you are unlikely to use so people don’t run over it while it sits there. It does a lot of damage when you stand in it so keep away from them once they are on the ground.

Curse – The boss will occasionally cast a single dot on a player. This doesn’t hit TOO hard but feels like a nasty bled when stacked with other incoming damage/mechanics. You cannot cleanse this so be sure to keep heals up to counter it!

GRYPHONS! – There are THREE Gryphons in the room (technically 4 but 3 that get involved). EACH one has it’s OWN unique mechanics and they spawn in on health percentages in a RANDOM order. They spawn in around 90%, 80% and 50% health of the boss give or take a couple of % depending on the group and overlapping mechanics/damage.

Gryphons should be considered primary targets. They can die WITH the boss and stacked with him too, but be aware, if you push the boss too soon, you could end up with more than one bird at a time. Focus the target and then push to the next in order to simplify the fight and not be overwhelmed.

NOTE: Watch out for a large frontal cone heavy attack from the gryphons, NO ONE but the tank should be standing anywhere near it. Stay away from the teeth!

Gryphon 1: Mafremare – The WIND Gryphon. This hits with basic attacks including a heavy attack and during it’s life will repeat a wind mechanic. Where ever the Gryphon is standing it will cast TWO winds. These will rotate in an area repeatedly until they run out. After a short while this will happen again.

TIP: The winds have such a wide range that if you are melee, you can technically stack up against the Gryphon and completely avoid it, OR stay ranged and completely avoid it. Watch your feet!

Gryphon 2: Ofallo – The BLEED Gryphon is probably one of the easiest. Hold it still and smack it to death. It has basic attacks and heavies like the other but above all has a bleed mechanic. Out heal this and kill the bird as soon as you can, remember try to not over burn the boss before it is dead so you don’t end up with TWO.

Gryphon 3: Illiata – The PUG KILLER LIGHTING BUDGIE!!
THIS bird is the MOST likely to kill your group because one one simple and PUNISHING mechanic. During the fight and lasting around 30seconds with an equal gap after it has gone, the bird will channel a LARGE (30% of the size of the room at least) lightning AOE! This will pick a random player and follow them around the room.

The simple solution is to notice who has it on them and for them to kite it AWAY from the group. But that does not always work out. AVOID it basically, if you have to shift the position of the group, then do so but overall NO ONE should be standing in this.

Every time it spawns, watch your feet, hit the bird and survive. Once it is gone, hit the bird and be ready for another one.

It is a simple rinse repeat mechanic but it makes the fight much more mobile while dealing with the other mechanics.

MOST groups fail because of THIS mechanic. Remember though the Gryphons are random. So you could get this one FIRST, which is lucky. Get it out of the way nice and quick.

Hard Mode:  – The boss is pretty pretty much the same through out, same mechanics, same stuff coming from the budgies and all the good stuff you already understand. However there ARE some additions to consider which dramatically change the fight.

Tether – First of all is the Tether mechanic. Rather than a simple dot on a player (which you will get also occasionally) TWO players will be tethered to each other. This will do damage over time to BOTH players and it will do MORE damage the further away from each other they are. Be sure to stay close and do NOT cut past another player. If someone gets caught in that beam, they are one shot!!! Don’t kill your team!

Waves – The waves phase are the same, 3 sets of waves…SETS of waves! That’s right, instead of one at a time, you get TWO! Find a gap, don’t get caught.

Traps – The traps you are already used to are no longer one at a time, EVERY player will get one per phase.

GRYPHON 4!: Kargaeda – DON’T PANIC!!! Panicking will make your experience in this mechanic SHORT. Most people die here instantly. Take a breath and see what is going on in front of you.

At 30% health the FINAL Gryphon will arrive in the room. This Gryphon is HUGE, has HIGH health and some nasty mechanics. They can be dealt with simply but the problem is you will have all the other mechanics at the same time. Your primary focus for the remainder of the fight is killing that budgie!

When in the room it will fire off similar attacks to the other Gryphons, light attacks heavies, big cone attacks with one major twists. A massive spinning tornado! All other mechanics are present so you really have to pay attention.

The main thing you must watch above all is that the room is now split into quarters. EACH quarter is a safe space but it is spinning, if you stand still you will die, so you will basically have to fight the boss in a circle, constantly moving and trying to avoid the danger spots.

The MAIN boss will be immune for the majority of this so you must kill the bird.

There is NO DPS CHECK so high damage or low damage makes no difference to being able to clear it, you just may have to deal with the mechanic longer. There is no major enrage or anything at low health so 100% health or 10% health, the mechanics are the same.

After the bird is dead, it’s just you and the boss.

The fight can be split up into sections, digest each piece of information stage by stage and put it all together. It’s not as complex as some make it out to be, but it will require CLEAR mechanical knowledge to be able to execute it successfully. Team work is key! No solo yoloers 

Z'baza (Final Secret Boss)

AFTER the final boss IF you have killed all the secret bosses, you can go through a portal together and face the final SECRET BOSS! (note: the dungeon is technically over at the previous boss, this is “extra” ).

This is basically a dungeon Z’maja! Big Sload, with loads of traps and mind blasts. The tank should make sure in ANY situation that the boss is faced AWAY from the group.

If you have completed the regular Veteran version you will of course fight the basic one, if you have done all hard modes you will have the hard mode variant.

Mind Blast – Exactly the same as Z’Maja in Cloudrest, if the boss can SEE players, they will be hit with Mind Blast attacks. NEVER stand in front of the boss unless you are the tank, and as the tank, always turn her AWAY!

Mark Orbs – Throughout the entire fight the boss will spawn orbs that will chase targets with a mark above their head, you can kite these or block next to them and pop them. realistically the less damage you take the better so simply stay away from them.

BIG BOOMS! – During the fight the boss will place very large AOEs on the ground. Avoid these at all costs, especially when the boss teleports from time to time as when the boss appears at the other end of the teleport phase, the bombs will all explode!

Tentacles – Tentacles will spawn around the arena. They have swipe attacks which can be blocked or dodged and at the same time while present they will force aoes to be dropped all over the room aimed at players. You can continue to hit the boss and ignore them for a time if you choose but if you get rid of them, then it becomes easier because the aoes will stop being placed.

I would recommend killing them, they don’t have a huge amount of health.

Portal – When the boss teleports, a portal will be left behind, if you activate it you will be ported TO her. This helps a lot for the tank to get to her quickly if need be.

SHIELD – At around 55% and 25% the boss will teleport to a tentacle and will be encased in a shield. This mechanic you have seen before, it is one of the secret bosses. Kill the tentacle (the enemy giving the shield) and the shield will drop.

Be warned however, during this phase you are inside a LARGE frozen bubble of damage and will need to be healed during your time inside of it.

Hard Mode: – If you have completed all previous secrets AND hard modes, THIS boss will be in hard mode form!

So what’s the difference?

More orbs, more health, more big booms! That’s pretty much it.

Apply the same tactics as above, hit the boss, kill the tentacles, watch your feet, rinse repeat.

The boss will HIT a lot harder but the mechanics are pretty much the same.

This dungeon is very unique, has LOTS to learn and serious attention to your feet and base game mechanics are key, but if you can master it, it is one of the best designed dungeons in the game.

GOOD LUCK!!