The Dragon's Lair (mission)

Mission Objectives
Gain audience with the prophet Glint.
 * Defeat the Facet of Light.
 * Defeat the Facet of Nature.
 * Defeat the Facet of Chaos.
 * Defeat the Facet of Darkness.
 * Defeat the Facet of Elements.
 * Defeat the Facet of Strength.
 * BONUS Defeat Glint.

Primary
To complete the Dragon's Lair mission, you must talk to Glint at the end of a series of six distinct areas, called "facets", one for each profession. Each of these facets has its own distinct disadvantage. At the end of each, you have to defeat a boss to open a portal to the next facet. Note that every facet boss has an elite skill that can be captured, so you may want to bring two Signets of Capture on this mission. The mission takes some time to do, but it is not very difficult and can be done easily with henchmen.

At the beginning of the mission, you will find yourself in a small crystalline chamber with one Forgotten Gate Keeper. Talk to him to have him open a portal. Proceed to the Facet of Light.

Facet of Light
While you are in this area, all party members will be under the spell Domain of Health Draining and suffer a Health degeneration of &minus;3. This will put your healers under constant stress, so advance carefully and give them time to actually heal. You will encounter solitary Forgotten Sages and pairs of Enchanted Swords and Enchanted Hammers here. Defeat the Facet of Light to open a portal to the Facet of Nature. It's wise to bring Heal Party with you for this Facet. Well of Blood is also helpful, giving the group an occasional chance to pause and rest without losing health.

Tip:  About midway down the ramp right before the ice (where you fight the facet) the degeneration is not active! Try to keep your whole party here to heal up before the big fight.

Facet of Nature
Here, you will be under the influence of Domain of Slow, which will decrease your movement speed. You have to fight your way through trios of Enchanted Bows and pairs of Enchanted Swords and Hammers. Defeat the Facet of Nature to open a portal to the Facet of Chaos

Facet of Chaos
In this area, you will not be under the influence of a permanent effect. Instead, you will have to deal with the fact that the Crystal Spiders you will encounter in large numbers have the skills Shatter Enchantment and Hex Breaker. There are areas that are divided from the main path by clear crystal walls. Behind those walls, pairs of Forgotten Illusionists wait for players to come too close. It is possible to cast spells that don't have a projectile through those walls. Similarly, the area at the end of this facet is divided by many low walls, allowing spellcasting and ranged attacks. Melee fighters will have to run around the obstacles; be careful not to aggro too many enemy groups at once when doing so. Defeat the Facet of Chaos to open a portal to the Facet of Darkness.

Facet of Darkness
Here you will be under the effect of Domain of Energy Draining. Everyone will suffer from Energy Degeneration of &minus;1. In addition, everyone (both players and enemies) will be enchanted with Death Nova. You will encounter Forgotten Cursebearers and Rock-Eater Scarabs. Defeat the Facet of Darkness to open a portal to the Facet of Elements.

Don't kill the Rock-Eater scarabs too fast or death novas could finish you.

Tip: Even if Death Nova is removed via Enchantment removal, it will be reapplied in a few seconds. Use this to your advantage with skills like Shatter Enchantment.

Facet of Elements
Here you will encounter Forgotten Arcanists and Crystal Guardians, powerful Earth Elementalists. Watch the nearby pairs of Arcanists when attacking a group of Guardians; they will often attack you from behind while you are engaged in a fight. There are also areas in this facet where the elements are going crazy; you will be bombarded by Elementalist spells while passing through (Fire Storm, Maelstrom, Eruption or Chain Lightning). These areas are easily recognizable by their glowing circles (similar to Elementalist's Wards). Obviously, you should not stay inside those areas while fighting; leave them as quickly as possible. Defeat the Facet of Elements to open a portal to the Facet of Strength.

Facet of Strength
Every player (but not monsters) will be knocked down every 20 seconds for 3 seconds while in this area. Warrior skills that prevent knockdown (like Dolyak Signet or Balanced Stance) are very useful here. You will have to fight pairs of Enchanted Swords and Hammers. There are also groups of one Enchanted Sword, one Crystal Guardian and three Crystal Spiders; these can usually be avoided. Defeat the Facet of Strength to open a portal to Glint's chamber.

Note: If you skip this cinematic, you will miss an important part of the story. Unlike the six previous cinematics, where all that is seen is the party walking through the portal, this time Glint will explain what is going on, so you may want to watch it.

Tip: The Elementalist skill Ward of Stability helps tremendously here. It is available in Cantha.

Glint's Chamber
When you have arrived in Glint's chamber, you have finished the mission. You can either end it by walking through the portal, which will take you to Droknar's Forge, or try the mission bonus.

Bonus
After you meet Glint, do not go through the portal. Instead, pick up a Dragon Egg. Enraged, Glint will turn hostile. Kill her to complete the bonus. But, be warned, she is by far the hardest single opponent in the game, only matched by Rotscale. However, should you fail, do not worry; she will resurrect you and send you to Droknar's Forge anyway.

Glint's Skills
Glint has a set of very powerful monster skills that you have to deal with:


 * Crystal Haze is a hex that can cause a massive energy shortage. Because this is an AoE hex, your entire party will be affected by Crystal Haze. She likes to cast it at the very beginning of the battle.
 * When Glint's health drops to about 50%, she will cast Crystal Hibernation, which gives her +7 health regeneration and converts all non-physical damage dealt to her into healing for 20 seconds. This skill has a relatively long activation time, so it is susceptible to interrupts. You should try to interrupt it by any means possible.
 * During the fight, Glint will activate her Jagged Crystal Skin. When hit with a physical damage, it will deal 100 damage to nearby foes. This skill can be very devastating, but can easily be overcome by everybody dealing elemental or other non-physical damage. The easiest way to achieve this is Greater Conflagration.
 * Glint may also use Crystal Bonds, so don't rely too heavily on enchantments when fighting her.

Additionally, even though she is not technically a boss, the durations of hexes and conditions inflicted on Glint are halved.

Killing Glint
When assembling a party to take on Glint make sure everyone understands his or her role. At minimum, your party should have the following:


 * At least one interrupter (better two in case one bungles or goes down). This player's job is to interrupt Crystal Hibernation. Doing so is imperative for victory. Mesmers with Cry of Frustration or Signet of Disruption, Rangers with Disrupting Lunge or Distracting Shot are the most obvious choice for this, but other options, like Necromancers with Spinal Shivers or Warriors with Disrupting Chop can work, too. When choosing interrupt skills, be aware that Crystal Hibernation is not a spell. The outstanding skills are the ones which not only interrupt, but also increase the recycle time of that skill.
 * One or more solid tank. This player should position himself right next to Glint, before someone else picks up the dragon egg to trigger the bonus. He or she should maintain her aggro to protect his or her more fragile team members from Glint's vicious attacks. He or she could also bring interrupting skills to help prevent Crystal Haze and carry Wild Blow to easily get rid of Jagged Crystal Skin.
 * One or more hex removers, who get rid of Crystal Haze. Pre-casting Holy Veil on key party members is a good idea, other than that Inspired Hex (or Revealed Hex) works best, since it can be reused immediately as Crystal Haze is a monster skill and won't replace it.

Other helpful roles:


 * A blood necro with Grenth's Balance can do major damage by shedding some hp with sacrifice, then using Grenth's Balance to do the ultimate hp damage. A 55 hp Necro does not work, however, since the damage from Grenth's Balance is limited by the caster's maximum health.
 * Blindness, Weakness and hexes that decrease the target's attack speed or cause the target to miss can be used to reduce Glint's offensive power.
 * Rangers with Burning Arrow (Elite Bow Attack aquired from the Nightfall campaign) do well against Glint; combine with Necromancers using Virulence.

You should of course also bring one healer and/or protection monk. The rest of the party should focus on dealing as much damage as possible. Because of Glint's high level and armor, health-degeneration and armor-ignoring damage works best.

Glint is slow and her ranged attacks have a considerable 'flight' time; run and strafe to avoid getting hit. They tend to take off at least half (~175 or more damage) of a character's max health, regardless of class. Try to keep everyone above 50% health; use self-heals if the party's Monks are busy.

Everybody should bring a Resurrection Signet and use it immediately if a party-member goes down. There is no time for skills like Resurrect in this battle.

Note: This bonus can and has been done with all-hench parties. Consider that Little Thom carries Wild Blow, and that Claude, who loves to spam Blood Ritual, carries Grenth's Balance. Also, with Alesia and Lina, you have a healing and a protection monk. Thus four of the roles described above can be fulfilled. The player, for their part, should supply as much interruption and hex removal as possible. The remaining party slots should be filled with Orion and Reyna for damage-dealing. The last member is a toss-up: Stefan lacks Wild Blow and will likely be annihlated by Jagged Crystal Skin, but he can tank solidly; Dunham might cast Shatter Hex, and he uses Distortion. Glint attacks at range, so Dunham may be just as good for tanking purposes. On the other hand, since all hexes last half as long versus Glint, his usefulness is effectively halved.

Note: Glint likes to stay in one spot; the entire party can sometimes retreat to safety for a rest break before heading back into the fray. The party will regenerate health faster than Glint can naturally, so this can give a slight advantage.

Alternative
You may exploit the AI's reaction to several AoE hits on an enemy causing them to run away. Ignite Arrows constantly pressuring Glint, with additional Ignite hits from Dual Shot and Needling Shot, keeps her constantly running away. This will prevent Glint from dealing much damage with her attacks. However, you will still have to deal with her skills like described above.

Elite Skill Capture
Elite skills in this area:
 * Facet of Light: Shield of Regeneration
 * Facet of Nature: Melandru's Resilience
 * Facet of Chaos: Mantra of Recall
 * Facet of Darkness: Grenth's Balance
 * Facet of Elements: Lightning Surge
 * Facet of Strength: Gladiator's Defense

Additional Notes

 * The players will be in Droknar's Forge at the completion of this mission.
 * The player is advised to bring two Signets of Capture, as there will always be two elite skills that they can capture on their first run through the mission, unless they are playing an Assassin, Ritualist, Paragon or Dervish.
 * Warning: The portals that open when a facet is killed are all very close to the initial position of the facet and have a rather large activation radius. Very often it happens that a player accidentially steps into the portal before the rest of the party can capture the elite skill from the facet. To avoid this it is recommended to lure the facet away from its initial position before attacking it. Also, the Signet of Capture can be activated from a reasonable distance away from the facet's corpse. Be sure to ask your party members if any of them need to capture a skill before approaching the portal.
 * The lair is the exclusive home to Melandru's Resilience and Gladiator's Defense, all the other skills can be found elsewhere (Note: Shield of Regeneration, Grenth's Balance, and Lightning Surge can also be found in Cantha).