User:Quizzical/Dungeon Easy

Catacombs of Kathandrax
Difficulty: ***

It can help to find and kill the flame guardian on the first floor before going down to get the dungeon key, as there are a lot of fire traps in the area.

Becalmed djinn won't attack you unless they are attacked first in spite of appearing red, but once attacked, they will stay hostile. Furthermore, once you kill one, other mobs in that part of the map will wander much farther, which can make it easy to end up fighting several groups at once. If you do accidentally attack a becalmed djinn or hit one with an area attack, try to kill everything else you've aggroed before finishing off the djinn, to delay the arrival of other mobs.

The flame djinn can both deal heavy damage and heal itself greatly with consuming flames, so it helps to be able to interrupt it. Consuming flames is an attack skill, so spell interrupts don't work, but things that interrupt attacks do.

Once you aggro Ilsundur, two giant fireballs start rolling around the room in opposite directions. One stays down low near the lava pit, while the other stays up near the perimeter. The lower one follows a circle of smaller radius, and hence circles the room faster. Touching either fireball means instant death, but this death does not cause death penalty. You can take advantage of this to run away and kill the rest of your party on a fireball if some party members are dead, so that the dead party members will revive when the group respawns and the rest of the group does not take death penalty. You will need to periodically flag your party out of the way of an oncoming fireball, though.

Ilsundur does heavy area damage, both with firebomb and with various traditional fire spells. It can help to have heavy group healing, as well as standard anti-fire measures such as ward against harm. Dazing Ilsundur can mostly shut down the spells, but not firebomb. Knockdowns can help a lot, too. Devona's knockdowns are useful both against Ilsundur and the earlier flame djinn. Beware of Ilsundur's savannah heat when first pulling, as it can kill several party members before you get defensive measures up if you're careless.

Ilsundur also has a fire shield that reflects any damage it takes, so that your party member also takes the same damage. Health degeneration cannot get around this, as Ilsundur is immune to health degeneration. You'll need to deal damage, take the reflected damage, and be able to heal the damage you take.

Rragar's Menagerie
Difficulty: **

Toward the west end of the first floor, be careful as you approach a group of Charr standing at a rez shrine, as a group of oozes will pop up right in front if it, making it easy to get both groups at once.

At the start of the second floor, there are two groups of Charr, either of which will run away as you approach. Don't follow them too aggressively, as they'll try to pull you through various traps. It's best to go west here, not south.

Shortly after getting the boss key on the second floor, there are three groups of Charr with overlapping paths. One spawns at the meeting point of the three groups, while the other two start on opposite sides, walk past the center, and then come back to it and stop. When you get to this part, pull the first group standing there well back, so as to avoid getting hit by the other groups. If you're quick enough, you can pull a second group separately before the second and third groups converge.

Beware of the fleshreaver hounds, as they're rather powerful smiting monks, especially in large groups. Kill the fleshreaver hounds first in any groups that contain them. Also bring adequate hex removal to clear the scourge healing hex that they like to cast.

Cathedral of Flames
Difficulty: *

Most of the mobs in this dungeon are undead, which makes them highly vulnerable to holy damage. There are some Charr, but they're hostile to undead, and mostly get killed by them.

The room with Murakai's Steward has many other mobs that spawn as you approach, as well as many poison dart traps. Take your time in approaching and kill the mobs as they spawn. Once close enough, you can focus fire to kill the boss pretty quickly, then back off out of range of poison traps, heal up, run back in, grab the dungeon key, and run away. Standing in the middle of many poison dart traps to fight for extended periods of time can be dangerous.

Ooze Pit
Difficulty: *

Spread out when fighting the prismatic oozes at the end, and clear the oozes that are released when one of the prismatic oozes is killed before killing another. Note that the oozes released when one boss dies are not linked to anything and can be pulled separately. In particular, if you get overwhelmed (perhaps due to killing two bosses at once), you can easily pull oozes apart when you return.

Darkrime Delves
Difficulty: *

Frostmaw's Burrows
Difficulty: ***

You're joined by four Norn allies throughout this dungeon. While they may die, they resurrect automatically as soon as no other mobs are within aggro range. Your Norn allies do take death penalty, so it helps to keep them alive, but this death penalty is cleared at the start of each new floor. Note that the nearby presence of a level 5 white crab tameable pet will prevent your Norn allies from resurrecting. Wurms do not prevent their resurrection while below ground, so it can help to kill crabs to allow your allies to resurrect essentially during a battle if the wurms all go below ground simultaneously.

The main danger in this dungeon is the wurms. Frost wurms, frost siege wurms, and frostmaw spawns all have Wurm Bile, a dangerous area hex that does tremendous damage over time--800 health if you don't remove it. Frostmaw spawns are bosses, so even this damage is doubled. As such, it is critical to bring copious hex removal. Interrupting the spell can help, too, but you need to be able to remove it when mobs get it off. Mesmer heroes do especially well here, with expel hexes removing multiple hexes in case of cover hexes, hex eater signet providing area hex removal (which is great for clearing an area hex), and inspired hex/revealed hex providing net energy gain with no recharge time when removing monster skills.

If you see a frost wurm that is up from a considerable distance away, then several young frost wurms will usually join it when you approach. The young frost wurms will try to melee, but aren't much of a danger. Kill the frost wurm first.

More dangerous is the numerous areas throughout the dungeon that a frostmaw spawn will attack, as it will usually be joined by 3-4 frost wurms. Kill the frostmaw spawn first, as it isn't much more durable than the other frost wurms, but its double damage on wurm bile can be dangerous, sometimes even killing the party members that are supposed to clear hexes before they have a chance to. Furthermore, while attacking a frostmaw spawn, it's easier to interrupt it, so that any characters hexed by wurm bile will have the normal, non-boss version.

What makes the frostmaw spawn groups particularly dangerous is that they don't appear ahead of time, but can jump you while you're busy fighting another group. They do kick up some dust starting off in the distance as they burrow to you, which gives you a bit of warning. Still, it helps to know where the frostmaw spawns are, so that you can be ready for them and not have them join the battle while you're busy fighting something else.

Along the west edge of the second floor, there are three different areas with three groups of chromatic drakes or frozen elementals. They wander long distances and separate considerably, so they can be pulled apart. You will have to pull them considerably, and your Norn allies running up to them can make this a pain. If you run far enough, the Norn will eventually follow you, even if in combat. Note that both types of mobs here have slowing hexes, so it helps to have a character with hex removal nearby to clear the hexes that the puller will be hit by immediately after aggroing the mobs.

It is critical that you not fight chromatic drakes and frozen elementals at the same time. Frozen elementals will use deep freeze and ice spikes to snare your henchmen and heroes, and then chromatic drakes will drop fire storm on them. Henchmen/hero AI will drop what it is doing (and in particular, stop healing) and try to run out of the way of fire storm, which they likely won't be able to do before dying due to the slowing hexes. This can seemingly randomly wipe a group very quickly.

There is a frostmaw spawn group in the room that juts out to the west near the southwest corner of the second floor. All three of the groups of chromatic drakes and frozen elementals can be cleared before aggroing the frostmaw spawn group if you wait for them to come near the north entrance of the room before pulling.

There is a frostmaw spawn group early on the third floor. Wait for the second group of ice imps, shattered elementals, and whirling wisps to come about as far west as it does on its patrol route, and then pull it further to the west. This lets you clear the group and then take on the frostmaw spawn group by itself.

There are additional frostmaw spawn groups on the third floor on the path to the map, by the central rez shrine, in front of the gate to the final room, and just in front of the stairs to the next floor. The first of these is easily pulled by itself. The second is easy to pull without another large group, though if you rush in, you may get hit by a stormcloud incubus group from behind. The third is easy to pull by itself if you approach from the south rather than the west. The final frostmaw spawn group can be pulled alone in the same manner as the first one on the floor.

The fourth floor introduces large groups of mandragors, with their aggressive condition spamming. Target the dreamroot mandragors first, as their fevered dreams is the most dangerous skill in the group. It helps to have cautery signet for condition removal, though even this is insufficient to keep conditions off your party for long. The mandragor groups aren't that problematic if pulled alone.

There are three frost siege wurms near each other around the middle of the level. They aren't too troublesome so long as you stay out of aggro range. Pull and clear the large groups of mandragors and stormcloud incubi that patrol in that area before going after the frost siege wurms. The icy stalagmites can be ignored until everything else in the area is cleared.

There is another frostmaw spawn group near the end of the fourth floor, where the large group of jotnar is. The jotun group can be pulled without bringing the frostmaw spawn group, but if you run up to the jotnar, the frostmaw spawn group will ambush you during the battle. With so many mobs that take quite a while to wear down, this can be a big problem.

After clearing the three young frost wurms on the fifth floor and the frost wurm larvae that spawn with each, three frost siege wurms will spawn in the center of Frostmaw the Kinslayer's room. Run away from the center of the room, in any direction, and then you can ignore these. Frostmaw the Kinslayer will shortly spawn, together with two frostmaw spawns. Frostmaw the Kinslayer takes a long time to wear down, so kill the frostmaw spawns first. Once they are dead, finishing off Frostmaw the Kinslayer is merely a formality. The frost siege wurms can be easily cleared after this.

This dungeon does naturally lend itself to seemingly random wipes. Unlike most other places, a quick wipe in which you kill nothing before wiping is not a terribly bad omen. Death penalty clears pretty quickly, even in easy mode, and so long as you only pull one group at a time, most particular battles are pretty easy. Furthermore, mobs have virtually no healing whatsoever in this dungeon, so there isn't a risk of stalemating for lack of damage.

Sepulchre of Dragrimmar
Difficulty: *

Spread out when fighting the Fragment of Antiquities, so that its Diamondshard Mist attack won't hit your entire party at once. This makes it easier for healers to keep up.

Raven's Point
Difficulty: **

At the end of the third floor, the destroyers spawn at fixed times, whether you're ready or not. Kill them quickly to avoid getting overwhelmed. As soon as the Plague of Destruction spawns, ignore the other destroyers to kill the boss, as it is corpses to fuel its putrid explosion that makes this boss dangerous. It also helps to bring your own corpse exploits, so as to clear the corpses that you create before the boss spawns.

Vloxen Excavations
Difficulty: **

If you start from Vlox's Falls, rather than Umbral Grotto as the quest pointer suggests, you can skip most of the first floor.

As you approach Taskmaster Durgon on the first floor, wait a bit to approach to let a group that wanders behind him pass by first, and that group won't come back.

Letting Zoldark the Unholy's six minions run amok is dangerous, and Zoldark takes a long, long time to wear down. If you focus on killing minions, Zoldark will slowly kill himself with health sacrifice skills. If you can get most of the minions dead and then chain dazed on Zoldark (to prevent him from resurrecting minions), you can finish him off much more quickly, but this can be hard to do.

Bogroot Growths
Difficulty: **

If there are too many blooming nettles in an area, they can be a pain to wear down. They can't move, so you can probably run past them if you seem to stalemate.

Be careful in the various crossing corridors in the northwestern part of the second floor, as there are many groups that travel long distances there. Pull carefully and pull mobs considerable distances to avoid being overwhelmed. In particular, don't assume that a group that looks like it is out of aggro range will stay out, unless perhaps it is clear off radar range.

Bloodstone Caves
Difficulty: *

Pull the Crystal Ettin away from its spawn point to kill it without being harassed by the other undead that turn hostile. Unlike in the Finding the Bloodstone mission, killing the boss does not make the other undead vanish.

While there are three groups, each with a boss, at the end of the third floor, none of them will chase far, so if multiple groups come, it is easy to run away.

Shards of Orr
Difficulty: ****

Nearly all mobs in this dungeon are undead, so holy damage tears them up pretty well. Martial weapon users can effectively double their damage by bringing heart of holy flame, though martial weapon users may struggle to deal damage with all of the conditions that mobs apply, most notably blindness. Mobs will profusely apply conditions to your party, making very heavy condition removal essential. Smiting monks work especially well here, particularly with ray of judgment, as mobs bunch up very tightly.

When you kill Fendi Nin, Soul of Fendi Nin spawns where Fendi Nin died. The six crewmen spawn where Fendi Nin spawned, however, which doesn't have to be where it died. If you pull Fendi Nin far enough away from its spawn, you can get your 30 seconds to hack away at Soul of Fendi Nin without being harassed by the crewmen. After about 30 seconds, Soul of Fendi Nin despawns and is replaced by a new Fendi Nin that spawns where Soul of Fendi Nin despawned. The next round of crewmen will spawn at this new location, so Fendi Nin should again be pulled away from it. It can help to not have any melee characters that run up to Soul of Fendi Nin and could potentially aggro the crewmen than spawn with it.

Oola's Lab
Difficulty: *

Early on the first floor, the road splits such that you can go up or down, with some thorn beetles on the lower route. Pull the thorn beetles back, as if you run up to them, a group of golems will come along the high route and aggro on you.

At the end of the third floor, you may be able to kill one or more flame guradians without aggroing the TPS Regulator Golem, but if the end boss aggros, drop what you're doing to focus fire on it. Each of the bosses will die quickly, but the TPS Regulator Golem's unstable pulse is dangerous, and contrary to its description, will instantly kill any party members it strikes apart from extreme defensive measures.

Arachni's Haunt
Difficulty: *

Bring some enchantment removal to clear off the shield of absorption cast by the lifeweavers. While you're at it, kill the lifeweavers quickly, as they tend to stand back and heal, which can be quite a nuisance.

Burning each pile of spider eggs will spawn several spiders. The first four in each group of five only spawn low level spiders, so you can clear all four groups of those at once. The fifth spawns higher level spiders and a boss, and should not be burned until the rest of the spiders in the area are dead. Sometimes burning spider eggs doesn't properly summon spiders. This can be fixed by running away and then coming back.

Selvetarm
Difficulty: ****

The Stone Summit have many defensive enchantments. Bringing industrial strength enchantment removal such as shatter storm makes it much easier to spike and kill individual mobs.

Many Stone Summit have rez signets, and some also have permanent resurrection skills. It can help somewhat to disable them with frozen soil, but mobs tend to kill the spirit and then rez, as it is fragile. To get any use out of frozen soil, you'll have to plant it behind your party and then not let any party members stand next to it to attract mobs. In some spots, you can also place it off to the side and out of the way of combat. It also works to just kill mobs repeatedly until you exhaust their rez signets, and then target the mobs with permanent rezzes next so that they can no longer resurrect.

In the area by the dungeon key there are several groups of mobs with overlapping spawn areas. You'll need to pull long distances to try to pull them apart. Sometimes by getting in and out of aggro range, you can get mobs running back and forth and spread out a group a bit, and kill one or two mobs that come to you first before the rest can get there to help out.

After clearing the waves of undead just outside Selvetarm's room, a sizeable group of restless dead spawns with some dangerous lifestealing touch skills. Using "can't touch this" can largely neutralize them and make it pretty easy to kill them one at a time, as shutting down their lifestealing for a bit effectively prevents both their damage and their healing.

There are several groups of two or three undead that wander around in Selvetarm's room, while the Stone Summit are all linked to Selvetarm. Mobs won't chase very far in this room, making it easy to get away if necessary. Try to clear all of the undead before aggroing the boss group, and if you do pull the boss group, run away. You may be able to pull some undead out the door. Clear some on the far east edge of the room by pulling them to the southeast corner. Once you can get there, sent your party down the hill to the northeast corner, as you can pull undead groups to there, but Selvetarm's group won't come that far.

Once the undead groups are all dead, flag your party back slightly to take on Selvetarm's group. If you have frozen soil, plant it in a direction off to the side of the battle--and not in the direction from which you will approach. With the rest of your party flagged back, get in aggro range of Selvetarm and dodge back and forth until you can get Selvetarm to waste feast of corruption, which is easily noticed as the time when your health drops precipitously. This keeps Selvetarm from hitting your entire party at once with this skill, which can be dangerous. After that, you can bring the rest of the party up and fight as normal, tarageting the healer and mob with the permanent rez first.

Fronis Irontoe's Lair
Difficulty: *

Secret Lair of the Snowmen
Difficulty: *

Most mob damage is armor-ignoring spells, so most defensive measures won't work here. Snowmen do tend to group up as if begging to be nuked, though, so area of effect attacks work nicely.

Heart of the Shiverpeaks
Difficulty: **

Flag your party apart when fighting Cyndr, so as not to all get nuked at once by pyroclastic shot.