The Ebony Citadel of Mallyx (mission)



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.

Primeval Armor Remnants can be used to upgrade the visual appearance of hero armor to the hero version of the "Primeval Armor" look. (Note that the hero version looks different from the player version.) This upgrade is available for all heroes.

Furthermore, finishing the mission allows players to complete the Mallyx 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:
 * 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 previous group die (Titan spawns do not count)... 2 Anguish Titans and 1 Tortureweb Dryder.
 * 4) From the west: As soon as original members of previous group 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 previous group 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 previous group die. 1 Stygian Fiend, 1 Stygian Brute, 1 Stygian Horror, 1 Stygian Hunger, ...
 * 7) Center (just south of priest): As soon as original members of previous group die. 1 Stygian Fiend, 1 Stygian Brute, 1 Stygian Golem, 1 Stygian Hunger, ...
 * 8) ... (fill in missing groups)
 * 9) Center (just south of priest): As soon as original members of previous group die. 8 Dementia Titans.
 * 10) ... (fill in missing groups)
 * 11) From the South: As soon as original members of previous group die. 1 Margonite Anur Ki, 1 Margonite Anur Ruk, 1 Margonite Anur Su, 1 Margonite Anur Tuk, 1 Margonite Anur Vu
 * 12) From the west: As soon as original members of previous group die. 2 Rage Titans, 2 Despair Titans, 2 Dementia Titans (these Titans do NOT spawn other Titans).
 * 13) Final group, from all three directions: ...

After all of these are killed, the door to Mallyx's room opens. 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.

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.

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. However, he will only use this skill when he gets down to about 33% health and it has a high adrenaline requirement. If the party makes it a habit to drain his adrenaline (with something like Sympathetic Visage on his present target), then this can be controlled.
 * 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. This skill can be Diverted however. In fact, as Diversion is, itself, a hex, it will cause him to try and use this skill and lose it for a significant amount of time. Also, Wastrel's Worry deals armor-ignoring damage and triggers quicker on Mallyx.
 * 4) Banish Enchantment strips all enchantments from a foe and on top of that disables one skill 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.
 * 5) Wild Smash ends stances and disables them.
 * Becauses 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.
 * at 30% health he will invoke Summoning Shadows. He will only invoke it then and he will invoke it every time his health goes above 30% then drops below it.

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.
 * Disabling Mallyx's skills with skills like Blackout.

Alternate Method
The most common method to defeating Mallyx presently is to avoid fighting him altogether. This method relies on using party members who do straight damage (no conditions or hexes) and utilizes a corpse outside the gate to teleport one party member outisde once Mallyx attacks. This party member then resurrects everyone except a puller outside and then the party pulls Mallyx to the gate and fights him there. The following are the basics of the build (allowing for modifications to defeat the earlier mobs):
 * A few Elementalists with Water Magic spells. These can be replace with Blood Magic spikers.
 * One Necromancer with Necrotic Traversal or Consume Corpse along with Rebirth. This necromancer must also have a self-sacrifice skill such as Blood is Power or Blood Ritual. It is extremely useful if this necromancer can bring Signet of Judgment.
 * One party member with Animate Flesh Golem (this is usually not the Necromancer as the Golem should be as low in level as possible, the Air elementalists make a good candidate as they can spike without an elite).
 * One party member with Resurrect and another with Rebirth.
 * Preferably, one party member with Shelter and Displacement.

After the party overcomes the mobs assaulting the priest, the necromancer kills himself and then the party member with Animate Flesh Golem makes a golem out of his corpse. As soon as the Golem dies, the party enters the gate to close it and then step forward to aggro Mallyx. As soon as Mallyx is aggroed, the Necromancer jumps out to the corpse of the Golem using a corpse travel skill and the rest of the party tries to die as close as possible to the gate.

The necromancer should then start Rebirthing people through the gate to his/her side except the puller. The puller should be resurrected with Resurrection Chant (or if that puller's corspe was kicked by Mallyx's attacks) then Resurrect. It is wise to keep one party member dead at the door in case the puller gets killed too far away from the door for Resurrect to work. In which case, the dead member is resurrected, and he/she can rebirth the puller from where Mallyx kicked their corpse.

Once the party is set the puller should bring Mallyx to the gate. As soon as Mallyx approach the gate he will try to go for a target. Everyone should stand a few steps away from the door and stand pefectly still. Mallyx cannot hit anyone unless they are standing right in front of the gate. People have a tendency to start running around when they see him coming, but he will be literally quite harmless.

If done correctly, Mallyx should keep grinding at the gate trying to get to some party member. If no one runs around, he will stay there. The party should begin spiking him (Signet of Sorrow works wonders with a dead party member next to Mallyx, 79 damage per second). The spawns he calls forth at 80% and 50% health will be far from the gate and should pose no threat. Should they ever become an issue, they can be pulled and killed two at a time.

Once Mallyx's health drops below 50%, the player with Shelter and Displacement needs to keep them up constantly. At some point, Mallyx might invoke Summoning Shadows if his adrenaline builds up from all the damage, and if that happens, those two spirits will guarantee he cannot wipe out party members. Should he use that skill though, everyone will be pulled to the gate (those inside will remain inside and those outside will remain outside). Therefore, those outside, should just take one step away from the door so as not to be hit and at the same time not lose Mallyx's aggro and cause him to run back when he is so low in health.

Notes:
 * Mallyx's aggro range is huge. He will start rushing creatures from far away.
 * If Mallyx run off, the party should examine his movement... If he is restless 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.
 * Sometimes it takes leaving in 2 or 3 people inside the gate to get him to stay at the gate and not just run off after he kills the puller.

NPCs

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

Monsters
Demons Anguished Souls (Spirits)
 * 30 Mallyx the Unyielding
 * "Anur" Margonites
 * 10 Listless Soul
 * 10 Tormented Soul
 * 10 Demonic Soul
 * 10 Shrouded Soul

Titans

Stygians

Torment creatures

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.