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.

To Access this mission, see the Elite Mission article.

Mission Objective

 * Kill Urgoz.

General Area Description

 * Most of the Warren have 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. Direct questioning of the designer of Urgoz's Warren confirms this is intentional.)

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 (Locked Gate)
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 either 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 dying.

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

Instead, send all but one player 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.

The area past the bridge will be empty, but the party cannot all go in at some point. If at least one stays behind, the area will remain empty until those that went in can 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.

Those that were left behind can proceed to rejoin their group but only after it has been communicated to them that the first group has made it past the second bridge.

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) 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.

Area 8 (No effect)
This area has no effect, but the effect from the previous area carries over into it. It is comprised of a small rectangular room filled with Maddened Wardens, Burning Brushes and Brooding Thorns.

''Note: Currently, the Burning Brush and Brooding Thorns are bugged and will not move. Brooding Thorns will attack and try to heal and lay traps, while Burning Brush will cast its AoE spells if players run next to it. Attack them with ranged weapons and spells to dispatch them easily.''

The room has 4 distinct groups of Wardens. Observing their motions should help the puller recognize when and which Wardens to pull. Using traps and careful pulling, each group can be taken out easily. Casters should watch out for the Maddened Earth Warden's Churning Earth.

After dispatching the Wardens and any Brushes/Thorns in the way, kill the Guardian Serpent to advance.

Area 9 (No effect)
This small area is constricted to one room with a scenic waterfall and a few Greater Blood Drinkers and a group of Thorn Wolves. However, the room is filled to the brim with hidden groups of Thorn Wolves and Greater Blood Drinkers.

Warning: Make sure that your entire party does not enter the chamber, because the gates will shut as soon as your whole party is in the room and many of the hidden groups will spawn to crush the party.

Carefully sweep and pull back group after group. These popup groups will continue to spawn for a very long time. It is not safe for your party to enter the chamber until you see the door open at the other end, at which point only a few popup groups will remain.

Urgoz's Chamber (Life Drain/Energy Drain)

 * If the party did not kill the Twisted Bark in Area 6 there will be a energy -4 effect inside Urgoz's inner sanctum.

Before entering Urgoz's inner sanctum there is one Twisted Bark that maintains Life Drain effect. There is no hidden monster guarding it; the party can just quickly rush in and finish it.

There are three entrances into this chamber each guarded by a Guardian Serpent. Urgoz will begin to talk to the party telling them that their arrival was foretold and that their defeat is certain.

If the party takes the path straight to Urgoz, they will come across a bridge and then engage a group of Bruning Brushes and Brooding Thorns. Dispatching them should be a walk in the park compared with what the party has been through.

Once inside Urgoz's inner sanctum, the party will see Urgoz flanked by two Greater Serpents. These two Serpants will not heal Urgoz but eachother. It is common just ignoring them and directly deal damage to Urgoz.

The battle offers the following challenges to the party:
 * He will spam (literally) the special attack Forest's Binding, which puts the hex Binding Chains on whoever he attacks. This will severely slow party members and make them unable to attack. This greatly inhibits warriors, rangers and assassins.
 * Urgoz has great range on his attacks that can strike anyone in the radius of a radar compass around him.
 * Explosive Growths will sprout around every player in Urgoz's radar range even 4-5 seconds. The longer the player stays in a spot, the more the number of growths spawning. These creatures will explode after 9-10 seconds of sprouting and cause 300+ damage to anyone adjacent to them (the damage decreases as players move further away from them). Players must keep moving consistently. Basically doing two actions in a row (casting two spells, attacking then casting) will ensure the player is surrounded by 2-3 growths.
 * The water around Urgoz is Defiled Water that makes conditions last longer on party members.
 * The combination of Binding Chains and the Explosive Growths is very dangerous. However, if the player keep moving at 10% speed they can barely walk out of the explosive radius.
 * Hex removal is very useful in countering it, but it will be taking place all the time.
 * The right side of the room when facing Urgoz from the entrance has the same effect as a past room, minus four energy degeneration, it is advisable that if possible to stay out of this affect for obvious reasons (only when the party did not kill the Twisted Bark in Area 6).

Generally helpful strategies against the Greater Serpents and Urgoz include consistent, heavy degeneration in hit-and-run style.

Another well tested strategy is to place Edge of Extinction (eoe) and have players run around causing as many of the explosive growths as possible to spawn, as Urgoz is the same type as the explosive growths he will take damage every time one dies(make sure it is close enough to urgoz that he is in Edge of Extinction's range). One good place is just to the left of entering the room by the left serpent's door(make sure it is dead first)and place it there where is it safe. You also have a few fire elementalist casting nuker type spells while moving in between. Between the damage from Edge of Extinction and the nuker's spell Urgoz should drop like a rock. If you do not plan to use this Edge of Extinction plan the almost only way to defeat the Guardian Serpents is to hex both with Spinal Shivers and in any way possible apply cold damage when they are using Jamei's Gaze or healing touch to interrupt them. Once one of the Serpents is dead a Spinal Shivers on the other Serpent with all pressure on it should make it fold like ice confronted with a flame thrower.