Urgoz's Warren (mission)

Urgoz's Warren is an Elite Mission accessed from the Kurzick capital House zu Heltzer. The area is the home of Urgoz, a forest guardian spirit that has become corrupted and threatens humans in the Echovald Forest. The objective of the mission is to destroy him.

Mission Objective

 * Kill Urgoz.

Access to the Mission

 * To enter Urgoz's Warren for the first time, a player must belong to the alliance that owns House zu Heltzer. If a player is not a member of that alliance, they have to be ferried there by a player belonging to it.
 * If the player has been inside the Warren once, then they can return to it, by joining others who are already there through their Guild Hall. This is how it works:
 * Player A is inside Urgoz's Warren (Location). He uses the Guild Window to travel to his Guild's hall.
 * All other party members must have been in the Warren (the town, not necessarily the mission) before.
 * All those players meet player A in his Guild's hall. (Those who are not guild members must have at least guest status.)
 * Player A forms the party.
 * Player A opens his/her Guild Window and presses the Return button that appears instead of the Guild Hall button.
 * Everyone will be teleported to the Warren town.

General Area Description

 * Most of the Warren has the same look and feel of most of the areas in the Echovald Forest.
 * Party size is 12.
 * A party wipe out returns the party to the Warren town.
 * Because of the large aggro that takes place in many situations, AoE skills are a great plus in this area. This includes offensive and defensive skills. Offensively, skills (and character builds) that are aimed at damaging multiple foes (Meteor Shower, Spiteful Spirit, ..., etc.) will be very effective. Likewise, defensively, group protection spells (like Aegis and Wards) and healing (like Heal Party) pay great dividends, especially since the party size is 12.
 * Sweeping is an absolute must, especially for a party that is new to the Warren. Monsters popping out of no where is the name of the game in this area.
 * This area has a lot of surprises, patience is key.
 * Most areas will have a negative Environmental effect that is placed in effect by a Twisted Bark tree creature. Eliminating them will make the area much easier.
 * Each area will have a locked gate at the end. Most of the time such a gate will only be opened by slaying the Guardian Serpent in front of it.
 * A necromancer with a sacrifice skill combined with another party member with Rebirth or a necromancer with a teleportation skill (like Necrotic Traversal or Consume Corpse) is necessary to get past a certain area in the Warren right now. (This is -not- a bug, however.)
 * Actually an assassin can shadow step to the enemie and access the high ground to open the gate (without rebirth or corpse) easily.

Area 1 (Weakness)
After you spawn, immediatly back up to the doors behind you. Once back have one person sweep ahead to the end of the narrow corridor. Two groups of Hopping Vampires and Thought Stealers will spawn. The first one (just 4) in front of doors, the second one (eight) where everyone spawned in. The Thought Stealers drain all of their victim's energy as they die and the Vampires drain all of a player's life as they die. Dodge the vampires at all cost.

Pull the ones at the spawn point (having traps waiting for them to ensure they don't suicide and kill anyone), once they are all dead pull the second group.

Past that spawn will be a clearing with the Twisted Bark in the middle and swarms of Dredge running arround. While camping in the corridor, continue to pull single groups and dispatch them. Once only the tree in the main area is left kill it to disable the Weakness effect.

Proceed forward to the stairs. Pull the Dredge group in the center and kill it. Have one person walk just inside the door so the groups to the right and left come toward the Guardian Serpent. Pull the groups and then kill the guardian to open the door to the next area. Be mindful that if your party strays into the right or left corridors there will be a big spawn of Greater Blood Drinkers. Only go there if there is a chest and with careful sweeping.

Area 2 (Life Drain)
In this area all party members will be afflicted -15 health degeneration until the Twisted Bark is killed. Stay outside of the area effect and send in one person to pull the Dredge. The puller may need a monk to be with him to keep him alive as he pulls the Dredge groups. When the area is clear of Dredge regenerate health and energy then take out the Bark.

The room where the Bark was is filled with Greater Blood Drinker pop-ups. No less than 5 or 6 groups of 4 each. Sweep carefully and slowly, then head down the right tunel (a spawn there too) to eliminate the Guardian Serpent.

Area 3 (The Bridge)
This area has no negative environmental effect. Pull and eliminate the large groups of Brooding Thorns and Burning Brushes. After that you will see the bridge ahead with a swarm of Dredge on it. The safest way to tackle them is to actually have all party members run underneath the bridge (the Dredge damage dealers are rangers who need line of sight). Have everyone in group continue to use offensive spells until all the Dredge are dead.

Once they are dead use the portal to warp onto the bridge and hit the locks to open the next gate. If the portal doesn't work have a character sacrifice themselves (Veratas Sacrifice works good for this) and have a monk stand underneath the lowest part of the bridge and use Rebirth. The dead person will resurrect on the bridge and can unlock the door (there is a lock on wither side of the gate) then use the teleporter to return to the party. Another possibility is for a necromancer to bring a teleport spell to get up without dieing.

Area 4 (Fire Flower Corridor)
This area is composed of a dark tunnel with a long winding bridge surrounded on both sides by Fire Flowers (they will appear in yellow text). As soon as someone begins to cross the bridge the Flowers act as turrets shooting arrows that cause minor damage, but also inflict burning and crippled. At two points on the bridge Thorn Wolves will spawn (they are powerful assassins).

At the end of the bridge, a spawn of Hopping Vampires and Thought Stealers will be waiting (with a similar invisible spawn waiting at the start of the bridge for those who try to run away). Trapping before they spawn will help slow them down.

Area 5 (Exhaustion)
Unlike other effects, the exhaustion will only be in the area of the Bark and not through-out the whole area. This area will start out with a clearing. This clearing is filled with several Thorn Wolf pop-ups. Carefully sweep and clear it. At the end of the clearing will be two possible routes, each having a vine gate that opens and shuts periodically. The one on the left leads to the Twisted Bark of this area. The Bark will be in a clearing with Brooding Thorns in the back but once again with lots of Wolves hidden. Paying attention to pulling foes outside the exhaustion radius, clear the area and kill the Bark.

After clearing that area, head left (or back through the other vine gate). Go over a bridge, into another chamber with vine gates (and Thorn Wolf spawns). From that chamber, head right (downwards), until you get to a thin Bridge with a Guardian Serpent at the end. Be Careful: Do not head for the Guardian Serpent right away.

If more than three party members at a time cross the bridge, a multitude of high-level Wardens will spawn. Several Groups, each 8-10 strong.

Instead, send three players to take out the Guardian. Even after doing that, do not cross right away, see the description of the next area.

Area 6 (Energy Draining)
While in this area, all party members will have -4 energy regeneration. This means that most classes will have zero energy regeneration while some (like Warriors) will even suffer energy loss.

If only three people cross the bridge, they can proceed inside (the area will be empty) and find and kill the Twisted Bark. This will eliminate the energy degeneration and make matters easier. After this, they need to eliminate the Guardian Serpent to open the way to the next area. They must then cross the bridge past the guardian and wait on the other side.

The party then should proceed in groups of three (making sure that each group fully cross the bridge before starting the next one) and continue on.

Area 7 (Exhaustion and Weakness)
The next area will not have the negative effects right away, this will allow the party to draw the large groups of Brooding Thorns and Burning Brushes away from the negative effect area to tackle them. After they are dispatched, the way will be clear to the Guardian Serpent, however, it would be foolish to proceed because the Exhaustion effect will last into the final area where Urgoz is located.

There will be two Twisted Barks, one on the left and one on the right. The one on the left is (atop a small hill) is the one responsible for the Exhaustion effect. The way to this Twisted Bark is guarded by two large groups of Maddened Wardens and then the Bark itself is guarded by a large group of Brushes and Thorns.

The party may try to lure it to them by attacking the Brushes from beneath and forcing to the Bark to come closer to heal them. However, the Brushes may run back and around to try and get to the party (they don't make it all the way around).

If the party relies on melee damage of warriors/assassins, then they will also need to take out the weakness Bark.