The DoA Balanced team in the Stygian Veil... Monsters pummeled by Meteor Shower and Searing Flames and unable to flee because of Deep Freeze.
The grand prize of a 4 area run... 4 Titan Gemstones for every party member.
The DoA Balanced team build is a build designed to conquer all of the Domain of Anguish (DoA). It is a balanced build that relies on the tried and true formula of a warrior tank, elementalists nuking and monks keeping the team alive.
This build can complete all the 4 areas in the Domain of Anguish: City of Torc'qua, Stygian Veil, Ravenheart Gloom and The Foundry of Failed Creations. The same concept build can be used to defeat Mallyx the Unyielding in the Ebony Citadel of Mallyx with modifications to the damage dealers. The specific steps to use the build in each area are discussed below.
Conquering the DoA in sequence is done in the order: City -> Veil -> Gloom -> Foundry. This has the benefit that the chests at the end of each area would increasingly yield more gems. The City chest will yield one Margonite Gemstone for each party member, the Stygian Chest would yield two Stygian Gemstones, the Ravenheart Chest would yield three Torment Gemstones and finally, the Foundry Chest would yield four Titan Gemstones.
Build Concept[ | ]
While there are different tactics for different situations (explained below, in the tactics section), the general outline of how this team works is as follows:
- An Obsidian Flesh tank draws aggro and tries to hold it.
- Three Searing Flames nukers take out the targets.
- A Necromancer-Ranger provides an added punch with Spiteful Spirit and maintains two helpful ranger spirits.
- Two healer monks keep the tank alive and catch any damage that strays towards the elementalists.
- One bonder maintains all bonds on the tank and some bonds on the nukers to prevent massive spikes.
Build Details[ | ]
The Obsidian Flesh Tank[ | ]
The Obsidian Flesh tank can be done in many ways. This includes a Warrior/Elementalist, Elementalist/Mesmer as well as other builds. The warrior provides the safest approach as their typical armor is 115 vs Physical and 95 vs Elemental damage without using a single skill. That being said, any of the other builds can be even more successful with enough skill and experience in the Domain of Anguish. Find other proposed tanking builds in the variants section.
  Warrior / Elementalist
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Attribute Rank |
|---|---|
| Earth Magic | 12 |
| Strength | 12 + 3 + 1 |
| Tactics | 3 + 1 |
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Usage:
- The tank will be heavily bonded. As such he/she will only be receiving partial damage at all times.
- The tank will have Balthazar's Spirit on which will allow for constant casting of all Earth Magic spells.
- When going into a group of foes, it is best not to use Obsidian Flesh or Dolyak Signet as they will slow down your approach. Instead ask for Spell Breaker from a monk.
- When pulling a group of foes, it is actually useful to invoke Obsidian Flesh as you pull foes into the tanking spot as moving slower than computer controlled foes will make them follow you as far as they could as opposed to running at normal speed.
- Use Stoneflesh Aura as often as possible. It will make you take zero damage from nearly all attacks and spells.
- Use Dolyak Signet to buff up your armor when facing foes that deal large amounts of damage such as the Tortureweb Dryders and the Stygian Brutes.
- Use Glyph of Concentration to avoid having any of your spells interrupted. Use Wary Stance to protect the glyph if you expect physical interrupts from attack skills such as Savage Shot from the Spirit Tormentors and Disrupting Throw from the Sanity Tormentors.
- The optional slot can be:
- Ward Against Foes or Grasping Earth when the elementalists start dropping their nukes to snare foes long enough to take them out before aggro breaks.
- Lightbringer's Gaze: To add some offensive punch to this very defensive build and provide an interrupt.
Equipment:
- A sword/axe with +5 Energy and a 20% "of Enchanting" grip. This will give you extra energy and make all the Earth spells last longer on you. Rajazan's Fervor or the Totem Axe make great weapons for this build.
- A Shield with either +30 Health or +45 while Enchanted is optimal. Also, having a secondary set of Earth Magic based wand and Focus item is optimal for energy. It can also be a 15/-1 set to provide an extra energy boost in times of trouble.
- Gladiator's Armor or an armor set fully equipped with Radiant Insignia (for the extra energy) is ideal for this build.
The Searing Flames Nukers[ | ]
The primary damage dealers of this build are two regular Searing Flames nukers and one Freezer:
The Regular Nukers[ | ]
These elementalists take out foes by spamming Searing Flames and with tactical usage of Meteor Shower.
 Elementalist / Monk
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Attribute Rank |
|---|---|
| Energy Storage | 12 + 1 |
| Fire Magic | 12 + 3 + 1 |
| Healing Prayers | 3 |
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Usage:
- Wait until all enemy aggro has settled on the tank.
- Maintain Fire Attunement during a fight.
- If the foes contain casters you need to take out quickly (enemy monks, mesmers, necromancers and/or elementalists) then use Glyph of Sacrifice followed by Meteor Shower. Then proceed to spam Glyph of Lesser Energy, Searing Flames and Glowing Gaze as they become available.
- If the foes are mostly melee foes (like all Titans) then inverse the combo. Spam the first four skills on your bar until foes are at half health, then use Meteor Shower to finish them off. In fact, against pure melee foes (Warriors, Dervishes and Assassins), try not to use Meteor Shower altogether.
- If an ally is killed during battle, use Glyph of Sacrifice and then Resurrection Chant.
- If the tank gets hexed in certain critical situations, then use Convert Hexes.
- It's possible to replace Fire Attunement with Essence Bond maintained on the tank.
- May be good for one (only one needed) of the nukers to replace Convert Hexes or Glyph of Sacrifice with Mark of Rodgort. So for 37 seconds all Searing Flames hits (except first one) will cause damage AND reapply burning at the same time, instead of one SF every 5 seconds doing no damage. Against spell casters, cast Meteor Shower first then Mark of Rodgort. The first and subsequent meteors will apply burning, synergizing with Searing Flames (but remember that meteor shower only has adjacent radius while SF and Mark of Rodgort are "nearby").
Equipment:
- As elementalists have a large pool of energy, the only real upgrade this build really needs is 20% HSR preferably on both the wand and the focus item. This is to speed up the readiness of Meteor Shower. Using a 20% HCT+HSR wand and focus set will also significantly increase the DPS by speeding up the casting and recharge times of Searing Flames (normally 1 + 2 seconds).
- A variety of armor choices make sense:
- An armor set with Radiant Insignia will provide extra energy.
- An armor set with Stalwart Insignia will provide extra protection against any melee aggro that comes your way.
- Tempest Armor would provide extra protection as the elementalist will always have at least 2 enchantments on.
The Searing Flames Freezer[ | ]
This elementalist freezes enemies piled around the tank so that they do not disperse before they are killed.
| Elementalist / Monk
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Attribute Rank |
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| Energy Storage | 12 + 1 |
| Fire Magic | 12 + 3 + 1 |
| Water Magic | 3 |
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Usage:
- Wait until all enemy aggro has settled on the tank.
- Maintain Fire Attunement during a fight.
- If the foes contain casters you need to take out quickly (enemy monks, mesmers, necromancers and/or elementalists) then use Glyph of Sacrifice followed by Meteor Shower. Then proceed to spam Glyph of Lesser Energy, Searing Flames and Glowing Gaze as they become available.
- If the foes are mostly melee foes (like all Titans) then inverse the combo. Spam the first four skills on your bar until foes are at half health, then use Metoer Shower to finish them off. In fact, against pure melee foes (Warriors, Dervishes and Assassins), try not to use Meteor Shower altogether.
- Cast Deep Freeze to hamper enemy movement until they are taken down. If you drop Meteor Shower on foes, Deep Freeze would be ideal immediately afterwards.
- It's possible to replace Fire Attunement with Essence Bond maintained on the tank.
Equipment:
- As elementalists have a large pool of energy, the only real upgrade this build really needs is 20% HSR preferably on both the wand and the focus item. This is to speed up the readiness of Meteor Shower.
- A variety of armor choices make sense:
- An armor set with Radiant Insignia will provide extra energy.
- An armor set with Stalwart Insignia will provide extra protection against any melee aggro that comes your way.
- Tempest Armor would provide extra protection as the elementalist will always have at least 2 enchantments on.
The Spiteful Spirit Spammer[ | ]
This high utility necromancer provides pressure by casting Spiteful Spirit on enemies, maintianing useful spirits up during fights, providing other casters with energy and bringing a pet for the Foundry.
  Necromancer / Ranger
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Attribute Rank |
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| Beast Mastery | 10 |
| Blood Magic | 2 + 1 |
| Curses | 12 + 3 + 1 |
| Soul Reaping | 8 + 1 |
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Usage:
- Lay down Edge of Extinction at the start of every fight in a safe spot that keeps all foes in range.
- Pick your spots... Lay Spiteful Spirit on the foes most likely to trigger it the most. Margonite Anur Vus, Fury Titans, Stygian Horrors and so forth are prime candidates while foes that activate skills slowly like Margonite Anur Tuks or Despair Titans would be poor targets.
- Cover SS with Reckless Haste. It also enhances the triggering of SS.
- Spam Desecrate Enchantments as it becomes available. Enemy Dervishes are the best targets for these.
- Use Blood Ritual on teammates as they need energy.
- Use Symbiosis only in the Stygian Veil when the tank is pulling groups that may contain Stygian Hungers. It is best when laying it down to put it in a spot to the side of where the tank will hold aggro, not behind. This way it will give the tank the furthest possible coverage.
- In the Foundry, kill your pet (by moving around) before the entrance to each chamber, and then resurrect it after the chamber is cleared.
Equipment:
- A Necromancer staff or wand and focus item that provide extra energy as well as halving the spell recharge on Spitefull Spirit are ideal.
- Cabalist's Armor or an armor set fully equipped with Radiant Insignia (for the extra energy) is ideal for this build.
The Healer's Boon Monk[ | ]
| Monk / Necromancer
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Attribute Rank |
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| Divine Favor | 12 + 1 |
| Healing Prayers | 12 + 3 + 1 |
Place spare points in death magic
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Usage:
- Maintain Healer's Boon on at all times during a battle.
- Maintain Essence Bond on the tank.
- Dwayna's Kiss and Ethereal Light are the primary healing skills.
- Use Heal Party to heal the tank at a distance, or when the party is collectively moving and taking damage from Enduring Torment.
- Use Healing Seed on the tank and alternate it with the other monk.
- Use Necrotic Traversal or Consume Corpse to jump outside of rooms as a saftey measure in the Foundry, see the walkthrough below.
Equipment:
- A perfect Insightful Staff of Enchanting with 20/20 HSR and HCT for Healing Prayers is optimal.
- Ascetic's Armor or an armor set fully equipped with Radiant Insignia (for the extra energy) is ideal for this build.
The Spell Breaker Monk[ | ]
| Monk / Any
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Attribute Rank |
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| Divine Favor | 12 + 3 + 1 |
| Healing Prayers | 10 + 1 |
| Protection Prayers | 8 + 1 |
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Usage:
- Maintain Essence Bond on the tank and Blessed Aura on yourself.
- Dwayna's Kiss is the primary healing skill.
- Use Protective Spirit on any party member other than the tank who begins to draw the attention of foes.
- Dismiss Condition is primarily for the Prisoners of the Foundry Breakout quest so that they do not become crippled, however, there is disease, Poison, Bleeding and Deep Wound along the way, so feel free to use it as needed. It is also useful as a moderate heal.
- Cascade Healing Seed on the tank with the other monk.
- Use Spell Breaker on the tank as he goes in to gather aggro. This will allow the tank to move freely without being slowed by Obsidian Flesh. In any fight that includes spell casters that can jeopardize the tank's enchantments (Margonites, Greater Dream Riders, Anguish Titans, ...) make sure to renew Spell Breaker on the tank every time it recharges.
Equipment:
- A perfect Insightful Staff of Enchanting with 20/20 HSR and HCT for Healing Prayers is optimal.
- Ascetic's Armor or an armor set fully equipped with Radiant Insignia (for the extra energy) is ideal for this build.
The Bonder[ | ]
 Monk / Mesmer
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Attribute Rank |
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| Divine Favor | 10 + 3 |
| Inspiration Magic | 10 |
| Protection Prayers | 11 + 3 + 1 |
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Usage:
- Maintain all the bonds above on the tank in order from right (Life Barrier cast first) to left (Vital Blessing cast last).
- Maintain Balthazar's Spirit on yourself as well.
- Maintain Life Barrier on the elementalists and (depending on your skill and how comfortable you are with bonding) everyone else.
- When the party gets to the Prisoners part in the Foundry (see below), you will need to maintain Life Barrier, Life Bond and Vital Blessing on each prisoner as he is being rescued. After the prisoner is taken to safety, you can remove those bonds. Since no fighting takes place during those sequences, you can drop the bonds on the elementalists if you need to.
Equipment:
- A perfect Insightful Staff of Fortitude with +5 Energy while health is above 50% ("Hale and Hearty" inscription) is optimal.
- Ascetic's Armor or an armor set fully equipped with Radiant Insignia (for the extra energy) is ideal for this build.
- Two head pieces, a Defender's head piece with a superior Protection Prayers rune to cast the bonds and then a Prophet's head piece with a superior Divine Favor rune to maintain them.
Tactics[ | ]
This is a detailed area by area walkthrough:
The City[ | ]
During the city, there are no major hurdles to be wary of other than the annoying energy denial setting. The environmental effect Repressive Energy along with the skill set of the Margonites makes it harder than usual to manage one's energy. The bonder may need to drop bonds on one of the damage dealers (usually the necromancer).
Tanking and pulling in the City is straightforward and involves pulling and using corners to pile foes in preparation to nuke them. In general, after the tank has pulled foes to a spot, the elementalists should apply Searing Flames pressure on the closest foes until the Margonite Anur Ki steps up to heal them (they like to use Healing Whisper). As soon as that happens, the elementalists should unload a Meteor Shower or two on the Ki until he dies.
After the city has been cleared, the groups that come with Lord Jadoth can each be pulled to the city gate (with the party hiding inside) and then dispatched (while the tank prevents them from coming in by blocking the door way). If any of the groups that accompany Jadoth (Shaunur the Divine's group, Turep, Maker of Orphans' group or Jadoth's group itself) give the tank trouble while pulling them, an elementalist can aggro them through the wall by casting on them. This usually makes them want to go all the way into the city to get to the elementalist.
The Veil[ | ]
Conquering the Stygian Veil involves four stages:
- Clearing the initial mobs of monsters at the start of the Breaching the Stygian Veil quest.
- Clearing the two hills north and south to defeat the two Stygian Underlords and complete the Breaching quest.
- Killing the four Stygian Lords to complete Brood Wars and cause the Dreadspawn Maw to appear.
- Destroying the Dreadspawn Maw.
The Initial Assault[ | ]
For the first part of Breaching the Stygian Veil, the party should first clear the area south of the Acolyte who gives the quest. There is a small bend there that the tank can use for holding mobs. To use this spot, the party needs to clear any casters or rangers in the patrol moving below in the trench. Then they need to clear out the one patrol of Shadow Army that blocks the path leading to the Whispers Acolyte.
The tank should take the quest and back up till all the mobs reach the Acolyte. Spirits should be laid and then the tank should pull all the mobs (by aggroing using his/her bubble, not a bow). There will be three mobs jumbles up together, whenever you clear a mob, another will come from the same hill that the first mob came from, till you see a mixed group of foes. That will signal that there will be no more mobs coming from that hill. If the party is inexperienced, they may want to pull one group at a time using a bow.
Depending on the type of mobs, the party should react accordingly:
- Groups of Stygian Hungers should be pulled to tank, they will pile themselves around him nicely. Nuke a middle target, freeze them and then finish them off with Searing Flames. Use Spell Breaker or Obsidian Flesh when they are below half health to prevent them from using Grenth's Balance on the tank.
- Groups of Stygian Brutes or Stygian Horrors do not require Spell Breaker. However, the tank should buff himself up with the Dolyak Signet as soon as he/she gets to their spot as their Physical damage can trickle to the bonder.
- Groups of Stygian Golems actually benefit from Symbiosis, but not as much as the tank. They are handled like the Horrors and Brutes.
- Groups of Stygian Fiends are very dangerous. The tank should pull them back using a zig-zag motion till they form a tight ball for the nukers to nuke them. Also, if the tank goes to them in melee range and attacks, they will say on him.
- Mixed groups will usually have one Fiend and then the rest will be melee. The melee foes should be nuked first and should the Fiend go for the party , containing it should not be a problem.
The Two Hills[ | ]
Starting with the southern hill, the technique should be the same. Spirits get laid down, the tank goes in and gathers several enemies, then brings them back within spirit range and tanks them. The only thing to watch out for is that the Stygian Fiends can cripple the tank and the Horrors can knock him/her down with Bull's Strike. The Healer's Boon monk should use Heal Party to aid the tank at a distance. When pulling the Underlord's group with Water Tormentors, the tank should have Spell Breaker coverage.
The northern hill has pop-ups through out the first half of it. As such, the spirits should be laid outside the hill, the tank should go in till a group starts popping up (the tank should stand still till they all come out of the ground, there is usually 6 monsters). The group will be mixed with at least one Stygian Fiend. There are thre more pop-up groups past the first one. A group around each of the Torment Claws that will spawn near the middle of the hill.
Past those Torment Claws, there should be no hidden groups and the tank should proceed like the first hill, gathering groups and bringing them to spirit range until the other Underlord is killed. The spirits should be constantly moved as the party makes its way deeper into the hill.
The Stygian Lords[ | ]
There are ways to skip over barriers and so on to get to the Sytgian Lords. This guide will simply tackle the problem straight on.
The party should choose one of the trenches to clear out, the best candidates would be the second trench to the north or south. Either of those trenches leads to a Stygian Lord, and from there on the party can move in a circle to get to the remaining three. The one to the north leads straight to the monk Lord and offers a quick passage to the Gloom.
Each trench will spawn two melee groups as soon as someone is half-way through it. The two groups will rush towards each other (and kill anyone stuck inside) and then will camp on the opposite end of where they spawned. In addition, some Tormentor demons will spawn up top on one or both sides of the hills sandwiching the trench. To avoid surprises, one party member can simply run into the trench to trigger its spawns and then die half way through. The party can then Rebirth that member from atop one of the two hill overlooking the trench. If dying is such a big deal, one Elementalist can go secondary Assassin and bring Recall and use it to leave the trench before the pop-up groups close in on him/her. Also, if the tank is skilled and familiar with the spawns, he/she can take SB, go into the trench and pop up all the pop-ups then go back and tank them at the start of the trench. Bonder must watch that the tank not lose bonds.
Once the trench's spawns are stationary the tank can tackle them under spirit range and the party can destroy the closer melee group then the further one as well as the spawns on top of the hills. Once the trench is clear, the party can proceed to the Stygian Lord, kill any patrols roaming around him, and destroy him. From that point on, the party will simply circle around to kill the other three lord (see the walkthrough for the quest Brood Wars for their locations).
Note the following:
- The first Stygian Lord to the south is a necromancer, there is a patrol that comes in front of him from the east and another from the west. After clearing the eastern patrol, he can be pulled without the western patrol. He is guarded by Tormentor demons.
- The next one to the east of him is a mesmer. There is a stationary group of Tormentors around him as well as two spawns of Torment Claws.
- The next one to the northeast is an elementalist. There are two patrols on the way to him and then a large pop-up spawn inside the alcove he is found in. The tank should hold them around the entrance to the alcove so they cannot go around him to the rest of the party. Casters should watch out for Chain Lightning and Sandstorm from the Stygian Lord.
- The final boss heading northwest from that spot is a smiting monk. Again he is found in an alcove which he can be pulled out of using a long bow. If anyone steps past the entrance of the alcove, a spawn of Stygian Hungers will appear at the entrance. The party should either pull carefully or trigger them on purpose and take them out first.
The Dreadspawn Maw[ | ]
After the party returns and cashes in the quest Brood Wars, the Dreadspawn Maw will appear immediately behind them. Make sure everyone is out of the center area and safely next to the Acolyte before having ANY party member accept the reward. The Maw will be comprised of six Smothering Tendrils. The objective is to kill all six and their spawns.
For each Tendril, one elementalist should weaken it with Searing Flames and finish him with Meteor Shower, when it is at half health. This elementalist should have Protective Spirit on them by the Spell Breaker monk. Everyone else should move back north where the party originally killed the monsters of the initial assault.
As soon as the Tendril is about to die, the SB monk should leave and join the others. The elementalist should finish off the Tendril and then pull back slowly. As soon as the Tendril dies, numerous Torment Claws will spawn as will as several Stygian creatures. If the Stygian creatures DID see the elementalist, he/she should just pull back slowly and have them kill him/her midway to the party. They should NOT bring them back to the party otherwise the party can wipe after doing so much work. After they kill the elementalist, someone can rebirth him/her and then the tank can pull the spawned groups into spirit range and the party can destroy them.
The party can then proceed to kill all the Torment Claws that spawned (great wanding fun). The same steps should be repeated for each Smothering Tendril.
The Gloom[ | ]
The Ravenheart Gloom is comprised of three quests plus the final fight against The Greater Darkness.
The Stand-off[ | ]
The quest To the Rescue! invovles making a stand against a massive horde of demons in the little nook that the whispers followers will be located. The party can choose to run past the first mobs as well as the wandering patrols outside that little nook. Alternatively, the tank can round them up and bring them to corners and the elementalists can nuke from behind the tank.
Once the group gets to the nook (fighting or running), the tank should find the corner that leads outside the nook and hold aggro there. Everyone else should stay behind the tank and hug the wall so that foes need to go through him/her to get to them. The Spell Breaker monk must have Blessed Aura on in this part as well as a weapon of Enchanting. It is imperative that the monk and the tank be able to chain Spell Breaker and Obsidian Flesh to prevent the tank from being hexed. Currently, the skill Rending Sweep used by the Earth Tormentors is glitched and will strip the tank of ALL enchantments if the tank is hexed.
With careful and timely casting, constantly staying on the closest target and stepping away when foes try to cast on them, the party should be able to survive the onslaught. When the kills start piling up, EoE will kick in and help out a great deal.
The Rift[ | ]
After the Rescue is completed, the next quest, The Rifts Between Us, invovles capturing a portal (a Chaos Rift guarded by two Torment Claws) northeast of that alcove. The party can head to the quest marker and find the ridge south and a little east of the quest marker. This ridge should be used by the tank to provide a corner that he/she can hold monsters behind (the party should be below the ridge not above it).
The tank should pull the roaming patrols around the rift and then the stationary group at the rift (without entering the rift's range). After they are cleared, the elementalists should take out the claws.
Once the area is clear, 4 or 5 party members should go in and capture the rift. As soon as they do, a group of Flesh Tormentors will spawn to the west of them and rush to them. They should stand fast until the rift is closed and the quest updates and then start running back south and below the ridge. Do NOT run above the ridge as a group of Earth Tormentors, who can cripple their foes, will spawn there. The Flesh Tormentors will not follow for long and the group can cash the quest and take the next one.
The next quest is trivial compared to this. The tank can simply walk up to the Deathbringer Company and the elementalists can nuke them and freeze them so they don't scatter. With EoE they should wipe fairly quickly.
The Greater Darkness[ | ]
After the final quest, the Greater Darkness will spawn. The tank should approach with Spell Breaker. This will cause two more of the Darknesses to spawn. The tank should line them up and then the elementalists should take them out. After those three die, a spawn of five more Darknesses will appear. The party should back off and let the tank pile them up into one nice nukable bunch. If they aggroed on some party member in the back, it may be best to simply pull back collectively, break aggro and then send the tank back in anew. After they are piled up and nuked, all five must be killed at the same time, so EoE must be used here.
If the tank had any hexes before they died, this hex needs to be converted or the next spawn of Earth tormentors (30 in total) will destroy the tank. Again, the party should step back and let all the Earth Tormentors settle on the tank (with Buffs, the tank will take 0 damage from them). Once they are piled up, they should be nuked and frozen until EoE takes its course and the whole lot just dies.
The Foundry[ | ]
1st Chamber[ | ]
This is the easiest of the four chambers and should be completed without the party having to use the "Necrotic Traversal then Rebirth" trick. However, just to be safe, the necromancer should have his/her pet die outside the first gate. Everyone should take the quest from Captain Jerzah. As soon as everyone is sufficiently deep enough into the room, the gates will lock and a group of Margonite Anurs will spawn at the end of the room.
The Tank should be covered with Spell Breaker and should go in just as the spawn of Margonites is collapsing so as to form a nice ball for Meteor Shower. Remember not to cast anything on the tank while he/she is in their aggro range until all aggro settles on him/her (i.e. their melee attackers all start attacking). As soon as aggro is set, the elementalists should proceed to nuke with Meteor Shower first. When this group is about to die, make sure to save one last Margonite and pull him back to the gate where party came in, then finish him off there. This should ensure that the next spawn of Titans does not aggro the party, or at least aggro only on the tank. After the last Margonite dies, 3 Rage Titans and 3 Despair Titans will show up.
If those Titans spawn ouside of everyone's aggro, then the tank should take another Spell Breaker and go to them. If they spawn within aggro range of the tank then he/she should use Obsidian Flesh and walk to them (to ensure they do not walk to him/her and see other party members behind). Whenever the tank is setting aggro like this, Heal Party should be the only healing used.
These titans will not spawn more titans, however, because they cannot be knocked down, Meteor Shower acts like Fire Storm making them scatter rather quickly. So, try and stick with Searing Flames as much as possible. Finish off the Rage Titans first as they can wipe out the whole party with Earthquake followed by Churning Earth. If things look grim, the Healer's Boon monk should always have his/her finger on the Necrotic Traversal trigger. However, with experience, this group should be easy to take out with no deaths.
Revive the pet then move it to the door of the next chamber and then let it die.
2nd Chamber[ | ]
This room is nigh impossible to fight in. It is very small and the spawn that appears after the door closes has three Tortureweb Dryders (which can wipe a tightly packed party in 2 spells). The party should hug the left wall and proceed slowly until the spawn appears. As soon as it does, the Spell Breaker monk should throw Spell Breaker followed by Protective Spirit on the Healer's Boon monk and that monk should Necrotic Traversal out of the room and move away from the casting range of the Dryders.
If the spawn did not see them, the party should retreat to the gate quickly, cast Spell Breaker on the tank and have him/her go in and pile aggro on the Margonite monk. If they've been seen, the party should try and take out the Margonite Anur Ki that spawns in this group before wiping as well as any Dryders they can, however, they should also try to die as close as they can to the gate. After the fight is over and all members in the chamber have died, the monk should proceed to rebirth them outside the room leaving the tank.
After the casters have all been resurrected and bonded, one of the elementalists should "Glyph-Sacc Rez" the tank inside the chamber. The tank should come as close as possible to the game and the bonder should careully reapply bonds while the monk heal him/her. The elementalists should be able to nuke the enemy from across the gate and the wall. They should spread apart so that Searing Flames does not damage all of them at the same time.
Sometimes, a foe or two will run off and get stuck on the opposite side of the room. If the party waits for a few minutes, that foe will come back within casting range.
When the chamber is almost cleared, the Spell Breaker monk should cast Spell Breaker on the tank as the second spawn contains a Greater Dream Rider. The second spawn should be cleared in the same manner.
Revive the pet then move it to the door of the next chamber and then let it die.
3rd Chamber[ | ]
This chamber will spawn all its creatures at the same time (there will be no secondary spawn after the first groups are wiped). There will be four patrols roaming the room (all of which come near the gate, but not all the way). A patrol of 4 Misery Titans, a patrol of 4 Anguish Titans, a patrol of 4 Rage Titans and a patrol of 3 Dryders along with one Rider.
The Titans in this room will exhibit the usual Titan behavior of spawning smaller Titans. There are two spawn chains:
The Healer's Boon monk should wait outside the gate using Necrotic Traversal. The Tank can try and pull the Misery titans (easiest to take out) and the party can wipe trying to finish them off. After the party is rebirthed on the outside, the tank can proceed to pull group after group, while the elementalists take them out.
Revive the pet then move it to the door of the next chamber and then let it die.
4th Chamber[ | ]
This chamber will again give the party room to operate. A spawn of Dryders along with a Margonite Anur Ki will spawn at the middle or back of the room. They can be taken out by a frontal assault (tank charge in when they are balled up). Before the last foe dies, the party should pull that foe back to the beginning of the room and finish it off there to be safe. The next spawn will be a large group of Dementia Titans. At this point, the Healer's Boon monks should leave the room to be safe. The party can try and kill them while they are on the tank. If aggro breaks, a wipe + rebirth maybe necessary.
After this group there will be a mixed group with a Margonite Anur Ki, a few Titans and a Dryder. One of the Titans is a special Fury Titan that drops a unique item.
After this room is clear, you can proceed to take the quest reward and the next quest from Tekliss. The pet will no longer be needed.
The Great Hall[ | ]
The name of the game in the Foundry is pulling and aggro control. Because the Foundry is spacious, kiting and breaking aggro if things go bad is quite possible, so there will be no more need for the pet.
As soon as the party goes in, they will see a large Vat to their right with a small gap between it and the wall. That gap will be the focus of all pulling and tanking till that part of the Foundry is cleared. The tank will simply aggro a group and tanks them at the gap so that they are unable to get through the gap and then the nukers can cast on them through the wall.
Past the gap, the party will see 4 large vates in the center of the hall, they should always use those vats for groups that do not pull all the way to the gap. The tank should pull the foes to the vat, the casters should be behind him/her so that the enemies need to go through the tank to get to them and then nuke. The Greater Dream Riders always like to camp on the right side of the tank, as such, if he/she pulls them around a corner where the wall is to the right, they will pile on the tank perfectly.
After all patrols are cleared, the party can attempt to complete the quest. For each prisoner, the bonder will place Life Bond and Life Barrier on that prisoner, and the SB monk will place Spell Breaker on the prisoner and immediately after that, the tank will speak to the prisoner and advance the quest). Then everyone needs to run far away and the prisoner will follow them. If the prisoner is crippled, Dismiss Condition should be used, Heal Party should be used for healing the party as they move. After aggro breaks, everyone should stand still, and the one elementalist (codenamed, the babysitter) should take the prisoner away till the names in the party are all grayed out. This will ensure the prisoner does not follow the party anymore.
The same procedure should be done with the other two prisoners. Captain Valkyss' group should be taken out as they are in the way of future fights. First, the party should run away till the mob stops following. The Captain should be taken away to safety and then the remaining party members should kill off the Dryders and Riders.
After all three prisoners are safe, the tank should advance to the gate to aggro the spawn of The Black Beast of Arrgh. With bonds, the tank should be able to tank him even with 0 attribute points. However, the Beast should first be pulled all the way to where his patrol will follow no more and then fought there so that they do not try and go for party members behind the tank.
After the Beast dies, the quest will be completed and the prisoners will be removed from the party list. The babysitter should cash in the quest to trigger the Fury and come help the party finish off the Black Beast's group. The party can then take on The Fury's group. The tank can keep pulling the Fury's Group back and forth until they find the spot beyond which they will not follow, and then nuke the monks from the side first then the Dryder guardians and the Riders. The Fury is actually less of a threat than those Dryders.
Variants[ | ]
- One of the Searing Flames nukers can be replaced with Necromancers using Feast of Corruption or a Mesmer using Spiritual Pain to spike. It's usually good to have at least two elementalists with Meteor Shower in the team.
- The SS Necro can be replaced with a BiP necro carrying the same spirits if the party has energy issues.
- The tank does not necessarily need to be an Obsidian Flesh warrior. Other tanking builds can be used, as well as non-warrior tanking builds like a continual Shadow Form assassin or an [[Build:D/E Obsidian Dervish|Obsidian Dervish]]. One such variety uses an elementalist as follows:
Elementalist Tank[ | ]
This tank is more fragile in terms of vunerability to enchantment removal. However, they have longer more powerful Earth Magic enchantments as well as infinite energy.
| Elementalist / Mesmer
|
Attribute Rank |
|---|---|
| Earth Magic | 12 + 3 + 1 |
| Energy Storage | 3 + 1 |
| Inspiration Magic | 12 |
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Optional |
Usage:
- Generally keep up Stone Striker + Mantra of Earth at all times except in select situations. They will provide you with infinite energy.
- Before a pull, invoke Stoneflesh Aura to take 0 damage from most attacks and go in with Spell Breaker on.
- While pulling, if met by strong physical damage (such as from the Stygian Brutes), invoke Armor of Earth. because of the lower base armor, the bonder can take significantly more damage through Life Bond than is customary with warrior tanks.
- If anticipating interruption, use Mantra of Resolve.
- If dazed or facing heaving interruption, use Glyph of Concentration while under Mantra of Resolve and then cancel Mantra of Resolve with Mantra of Earth.
- Use Obsidian Flesh when Spell Breaker is about to run out.
- The optional slot can be:
- Ward Against Foes or Grasping Earth when the elementalists start dropping their nukes to snare foes long enough to take them out before aggro breaks.
- Lightbringer's Gaze: To add some offensive punch.
- Sliver Armor: To help block physical interrupts as well as deal out considerable damage.
Equipment:
- A sword/axe with +5 Energy and a 20% "of Enchanting" grip. This will give you extra energy and make all the Earth spells last longer on you. Rajazan's Fervor or the Totem Axe make great weapons for this build.
- A Shield with either +30 Health or +45 while Enchanted helps. However, having an Earth Magic Focus item with 20% chance of halving skill recharge is optimal. It can also be a 15/-1 set to provide an extra energy boost in times of trouble.
- Geomancer's Armor has great synergy with Stone Striker.
Notes[ | ]
- The monsters in the Stygian Veil have a bad habit of following for a very long time. As such, it is important that the bonder remain out of the aggro range of the party and that no one drags any aggro back to the bonder for any reason (kite around, do not run). The bonder will be the safety valve in case anything goes wrong.
- Should the inconceivable happen and the tank dies outside of the range of Resurrect in the Foundry, a work around is for the Healer's Boon monk to use Necrotic Traversal on a nearby corpse, if there is one near the gate, and get the tank. The Dryders' corpses never go away until exploited.