The Ebony Citadel of Mallyx (mission)

For information on the citadel itself, see The Ebony Citadel of Mallyx (Building).

The Ebony Citadel of Mallyx is the final part of the Elite Mission of the Nightfall campaign.

The mission forms the final fight in the quest "Mallyx the Unyielding". Having finished steps 1-6 of that quest is a requirement to be able to start the mission. In turn, finishing the mission is, at the same time, the last objective required to complete the quest.

Objectives

 * Protect High Priest Zhellix while he performs the opening ritual on the Ebony Citadel.
 * Defeat Mallyx the Unyielding.

Rewards
After defeating Mallyx, Primeval Armor Remnants will appear in party members' inventories, in addition, an unlocked Citadel Chest spawns, holding one of Mallyx's unique items for each party member.

Furthermore, finishing the mission allows players to complete the Mallyx the Unyielding quest, and to claim the rewards for that as well.

Defending Zhellix
The first step of the mission is to protect Zhellix while he performs the opening ritual. Seventeen (17) groups of monsters either spawn or arrive at the area of the priest:
 * Margonites
 * Titans
 * Torment creatures
 * Stygian Veil creatures.

The waves come in the following order (pay close attention to when each group spawns as some groups will spawn on the death of certain foes and not others):
 * 1) From the south and west: 1 Margonite Anur Ki, 1 Margonite Anur Su, 1 Margonite Anur Kaya, 1 Margonite Anur Tuk, 1 Margonite Anur Vu and 1 Margonite Anur Rund.
 * 2) From the east: Shortly after (and regardless of whether any were killed) 1 Misery Titan, 2 Fury Titans, 1 Tortureweb Dryder and 1 Greater Dream Rider.
 * 3) From the west: As soon as all original members of group 2 die (Titan spawns do not count, group 1 does not matter). 2 Anguish Titans and 1 Tortureweb Dryder.
 * 4) From the west: As soon as original members of group 3 die. 1 Heart Tormentor, 1 Mind Tormentor, 1 Water Tormentor, 1 Soul Tormentor and 1 Flesh Tormentor
 * 5) From the south: As soon as original members of group 4 die (spawns from Call to the Torment do not count). 1 Mind Tormentor, 1 Earth Tormentor, 1 Flesh Tormentor, 1 Sanity Tormentor and 1 Spirit Tormentor
 * 6) Center (just south of priest): As soon as original members of group 5 die. 1 Stygian Fiend, 1 Stygian Brute, 1 Stygian Horror, 1 Stygian Hunger, 1 Stygian Golem
 * 7) Center (just south of priest): As soon as group 6 dies. 1 Stygian Fiend, 1 Stygian Brute, 1 Stygian Golem, 1 Stygian Hunger, 1 Stygian Golem
 * 8) From the south: As soon as group 7 dies. 5 Greater Dream Riders.
 * 9) From the west: As soon as group 7 dies (they spawn at the same time as group 8). 2 Tortureweb Dryders, 1 Rage Titan, 1 Despair Titan.
 * 10) From the south: As soon as group 8 dies (even if group 9 did not). 1 Heart Tormentor, 1 Soul Tormentor, 1 Margonite Anur Vu, 1 Margonite Anur Tuk, 1 Flesh Tormentor
 * 11) Center: As soon as group 10 dies. 1 Heart Tormentor, 1 Water Tormentor, 1 Stygian Horror, 1 Stygian Brute, 1 Stygian Golem
 * 12) Center (just south of priest): As soon as group 11 dies. 6 Dementia Titans.
 * 13) From the east: As soon as group 12 dies. 2 Misery Titans, 2 Anguish Titans.
 * 14) From the South: As soon as original members of group 13 die. 1 Margonite Anur Ki, 1 Margonite Anur Ruk, 1 Margonite Anur Su, 1 Margonite Anur Tuk, 1 Margonite Anur Vu
 * 15) Center (slightly west): As soon as group 14 dies. 2 Rage Titans, 2 Despair Titans, 2 Dementia Titans (these Titans do NOT spawn other Titans).
 * 16) Center (slightly east): As soon as group 15 dies. 5 Stygian Fiends.
 * 17) From the west: As soon as group 16 dies. 1 Heart Tormentor, 1 Mind Tormentor, 1 Flesh Tormentor, 1 Water Tormentor, 1 Soul Tormentor.
 * 18) Final mobs, from all three directions after group 17 dies: Misery Titan, Greater Dream Rider and Tortureweb Dryder, Heart Tormentor, Flesh Tormentor, Water Tormentor and Spirit Tormentor from the south. Margonite Anur Ki, Margonite anur Ruk, Margonite Anur Rund, Margonite Anur Su, Margonite Anur Tuk, Margonite Anur Vu from the west.

After the original members of group 17 are killed, the door to Mallyx's citadel opens and the priest will be removed as an ally from the party list. As soon as any party members steps past the door, a short cut-scene is played and then the party is transfered in whole inside the Citadel and the door is closed behind them.

Mallyx will be standing on a pedestal and will be non hostile, as will be four spirits. As soon as any party member comes close enough to Mallyx (about 1.5 times the aggro radius), Mallyx will give a short speech then turn hostile and attack.

Moving the Priest:

A technique that makes fending off the groups much easier is to pull the priest away from the spot where he is performing the ritual (which is the end point for all incoming waves). This can be achieved by having the priest chase a foe down to the gate of the citadel, and then killing that foe. The priest will remain in that spot and will not try to return to his original spot.

The best candidate for this is one of the two Fury Titans that come as part of group 2. Since they are original members of the group, the following spawns will not trigger until they die. And because they are the smallest titans, they will not spawn any more after their death. Therefore, the party should leave one Fury Titan alive, bring him close to the priest such that the priest starts attacking him and then have his target slowly back up all the way to the Citadel door and wait for the priest to catch up. If done correctly, protecting the priest will not be a factor in defeating these monsters.

Defeating Mallyx
Four "Soul" spirits reside behind Mallyx which are responsible for the 4 environmental effects in the room, known from the four sections of the Gate of Anguish explorable area:
 * 1) Repressive Energy: lose 2 energy for each attack or use of a skill
 * 2) Enduring Torment: lose 10 health for every second of movement
 * 3) Shroud of Darkness: all attacks have a 50% chance to miss
 * 4) Demonic Miasma: take 50 damage for every block, or dodge

Killing each spirit removes the respective environmental effect. When taking out the spirits the following tactics are useful:
 * Unnatural Signet and Spiritual Pain should activate their instant-recharge effects against the spirits, and can easily eliminate them quickly. Gaze of Fury works well against spirits but is only useful for this part of the mission.
 * Consume Soul is another viable option, but remember that this is elite and largely useless once the spirits are gone.
 * Demonic Miasma is a blessing compared to Mallyx's ordinary attacks, and should be removed last.
 * If your party contains a Paragon, consider using "Fall Back!" to counteract the effects of Enduring Torment until it goes down.
 * Do remember, however, that Mallyx easily recreates these spirits through the use of Unyielding Anguish, so be prepared to deal with them throughout the entire fight.

Mallyx himself uses a few particularly nasty monster skills, spoiling the "classic" party setup with tanks in the frontline and ranged attackers, spellcasters and healers in the backline:
 * 1) Summoning Shadows is used to bring all foes to him. He will use this skill basically whenever he please: if you are under attack, don't bother running, he'll just activate it and bring everyone else to him.
 * 2) Shadow Smash is used to deal massive damage to any foes near to him, and (if they survived the smash) to move them away from him. If this happens, party members need to kite to re-establish aggro on the desired party tank.
 * 3) Consume Torment purges all hexes and conditions and converts them into a strong source of healing. Don't bother to trying to disable it with Diversion or similar skills, as it will still only take 7 seconds to recharge.
 * 4) Banish Enchantment strips all enchantments from a foe and on top of that disables one skill (unless it has already been disabled) for every party member for every enchantment removed. Especially the second effect is devastating for the party, so the use of any kind of enchantments against Mallyx should generally be avoided. Bonding is suicide even more so than trying to fight Mallyx normally is.
 * 5) Wild Smash ends stances and disables them. It also knocks the target down.
 * Because of these two skills, the party should try and use bonuses that cannot be removed or exploited, such as Spirit effects, Weapon Spells, Wards, Wells, Shouts, etc., or plain skills.

If Mallyx isn't hard enough to beat, groups of demons spawn as reinforcement when Mallyx's health drops below certain thresholds:
 * at 80% a group of 4 random "Anur" Margonites
 * at 50% a group of 4 random Torment Demons creatures.

Tips on fighting Mallyx:


 * Mallyx has heavy armor (80 AL), and can shrug off ordinarily devastating blows with ease. Because of this, Air Magic spells and other armor-penetrating skills are particularly effective against him (Air spells do 100% damage against him).  Even more effective are spells that ignore armor entirely as are some elementalist skills such as Obsidian Flame and necromancer skills like Shadow Strike.
 * Ritualists are perhaps the best class built to deal with Mallyx, as they do not rely on enchantments. He has no way to deal with Spirits or Weapon Spells, making these useful for defeating him. Displacement and Shelter are very potent in containing Mallyx on his own.  Of course, he'll be more than happy to squish spirits in one hit, especially with Summoning Shadows, so don't rely too heavily on them.
 * Paragons, with their unremovable Chants and Shouts, can be just as helpful. The most useful skills are probably Angelic Protection, which reduces Mallyx's 500-damage hits to much more manageable levels; and Defensive Anthem, which helps block his attacks.
 * Be aware that Mallyx's skills cannot be disabled for longer than their stated recharge, even through skills such as Diversion.

Notes:
 * Mallyx's aggro range is huge. He will start rushing creatures from far away.
 * If Mallyx runs off, the party should examine his movement. If he is restlessly moving around, this means he will be back in a few minutes. If he is still, this means he has lost aggro. Again, re-aggroing him can be done from quite a distance.

NPCs

 * High Priest Zhellix
 * Spirit of Truth (spawns after Mallyx has been killed)

Monsters
Anguished Souls (Spirits) Demons Phantoms
 * 10 Listless Soul
 * 10 Tormented Soul
 * 10 Demonic Soul
 * 10 Shrouded Soul
 * 30 Mallyx the Unyielding
 * Dryders
 * Tortureweb Dryder
 * Margonites
 * 28 Margonite Anur Vu
 * 28 Margonite Anur Tuk
 * 28 Margonite Anur Ki
 * 28 Margonite Anur Kaya
 * 28 Margonite Anur Su
 * 28 Margonite Anur Rund
 * 28 Margonite Anur Ruk
 * Stygians
 * 28 Stygian Brute
 * 28 Stygian Horror
 * 28 Stygian Fiend
 * 28 Stygian Hunger
 * 28 Stygian Golem
 * Titans
 * 28 Misery Titan
 * 28 Despair Titan
 * 28 Anguish Titan
 * 28 Rage Titan
 * 28 Fury Titan
 * 28 Dementia Titan
 * Torment creatures
 * 28 Flesh Tormentor
 * 28 Spirit Tormentor
 * 28 Heart Tormentor
 * 28 Soul Tormentor
 * 28 Mind Tormentor
 * 28 Water Tormentor
 * 28 Sanity Tormentor
 * 28 Earth Tormentor
 * 28 Greater Dream Rider

Bosses and Skills
None

Follow-up
The mission is repeatable, but only in combination with the quest "Mallyx the Unyielding." Having finished the mission switches the status of the quest to "completed", and Zhellix will not perform the opening ritual any more, so the mission becomes inaccessible. In order to gain access to the Citadel again, players must claim the quest reward and do the entire quest again, including beating the four Lords of Anguish.