The High Elves live long lives and have a talent for magic. Sometimes an Altmer’s pursuit of magical power leads to tampering with forbidden knowledge and illicit dealings with evil Daedra. It was to confine such trespassers that the Banished Cells were created.
Banished Cells I is a four-person dungeon in the game The Elder Scrolls Online. The dungeon consists of various rooms and corridors, each with its own challenges and enemies. Banished Cells I can be accessed at Level 10. In this guide, I shall explain the mechanics as well as what you should and shouldn’t do while facing the dungeon’s bosses.
Table of Contents
Need specific info? Click these quick links to go directly to each section.
Banished Cells I Location
Banished Cells I is located in the northern region of Auridon. Travel north from the Firsthold Wayshrine to reach the Banished Cells I and II. You can also access Banished Cells I specifically by using the Dungeon Finder.
Inside Banished Cells I
Banished Cells is a one-level dungeon with five bosses and one quest. The enemies in this dungeon include banekins, scamps, clannfears, and banished soldiers.
Banishing The Banished
The Banished Cells have been overrun by Daedra. They have set free the immortal High Kinlord Rilis, an evil being of great magical power. I have agreed to help Keeper Cirion, the warden of the Banished Cells, deal with this crisis.
Completing Banished the Banished
After defeating High Kinlord Rilis, all four keepers gather with crystals and capture Rilis inside a binding crystal. Speak to Keeper Cirion to complete this quest. You will be rewarded with gold, a skill point, and the Blessing of the Keepers of the Tormentor. This item is part of the Tormentor’s armor set.
Banished Cells I Boss Mechanics
Need specific info? Click these quick links to go directly to each section.
Cell Haunter
Firstly you will have two skeletons to deal with, one with a sword n board and the other with a melee weapon.
Be sure not to heavy attack the sword and board skeleton while he is blocking else he will knock you off balance, and be sure to block the heavy attacks of these particular enemies if you are the unlucky target.
Get your tank to put both enemies on the boss while turning the boss away from the group.
It is key that the boss faces away from the group so that the Ice Tornado spell doesn’t hit them.
The 2 adds/enemies should die to AOE (area of effect) damage while the DPS players focus down the boss.
Magic Missile – The Cell Haunter himself will hit the tank (or whoever has agro) with a barrage of light ice attacks, usually between 2-4 in a row. After this one of two attacks will follow. These can be blocked and don’t hit the tank too hard.
Winter’s Reach – Has a cast time and can be interrupted. If NOT interrupted in time, it will result in him casting a small ice tornado-looking ability in the target’s direction (hence why this must be turned away from the group, the other members can be hit too).
This particular attack hits very hard, can almost one-shot a dps character, and will immobilize the target/s in ice for a few seconds (unless you break out of it).
Health Leech/Drain – Cell Haunter’s main attack and most devastating ability if not managed with blocks/shields/heals can strip a healer/dps player of their entire health bar. The boss with attach a beam of energy to its chosen target (this is random) and will drain its life while healing itself.
This ability is not interruptible and requires the healer to be on point and focus the victim and/or the dps player themselves to shield or heal during this phase. It is only about 3-4 seconds long but the damage ticks are quite large.
Shadowrend
This clannfear-type boss is possibly one of the simplest in this dungeon since he can be held simply in one place without much trouble, the danger is when people start running around the room. There is no need to run. Start with him dead center of the room and your tank should hold him there at all times. He has 3 major mechanics apart from his basic light attacks on the tank.
Shadow Clone – Shadowrend spawns a duplicate in the form of a shadow of itself, it hits for the same damage as the boss but has a tiny amount of health. Kill this as fast as possible so it doesn’t become a problem and stay close or he will jump.
Charge and Devour – IF someone moves away from the boss (roughly more than 10meters+) Shadowrend will launch at a random target, not always the furthest away) and start chewing on his victim causing huge damage. Shadowrend has to be interrupted to stop his attack. The key to this is, do not run, stay in the middle, then he will never do it.
Tail Swipe – This is his strongest hit and easiest to avoid. He will do a 360-degree tail whip and anyone caught inside of the AOE will be hit hard, and knocked down. Two ways to avoid it… Step slightly out of the circle, or block. Either works fine and while blocking the damage is minimal. The key point above all, do not run! Simple.
Angata The Clannfear Handler
The clannfear handler herself is not so much the problem in this fight, the problem is the sheer amount of enemies in the room. You must get your tank to taunt or control as many as possible, especially the ranged mage types.
If they all focus a DPS or healer they will die in a split second. So tank always enters the room first. Pin as many targets on the boss as possible and turn her around away from the group. Burn down any enemies next to the boss with AOE damage and if you have to, focus the ranged targets and pay attention to interrupts.
Summon Clannfear – Every 10 seconds or so she will summon a single Clannfear. They are not hard to kill but act as any other clannfear with nasty light attacks, a jump mechanic and a tail swipe. So please do not run away or it will hunt you down. Kill this as close to the boss as possible. The casting of the clannfear can be interrupted.
AOE Fire – Angata occasionally raises her staff and causes a small round AOE of fire on the ground, this is a very simple mechanic, just don’t stand in it. Move a couple of feet out of it as it lands and you will be fine. This can be interrupted.
The rest of her attacks are mostly light flame attacks and should be manageable so long as the tank has her taunted.
Skeletal Destroyer
This boss is a lot scarier to look at than he is, it is a case of having control of the boss and the enemies in the room.
There are 4x Scamps around the room, after taunting the boss the tank should focus on pulling these in as close to the boss as possible.
If this isn’t possible then taunts are fine but the dps will have to focus them down. Kill them fast, watch their ground fire attacks, and be sure to interrupt them if they are casting.
Once they are down it is pretty smooth, just keep the boss still in the center and have everyone stay AWAY from his face. Again, don’t run away if you have agro.
Summon Skeletons – Every 10 seconds or so he will summon a set of 3x skeletons, they are relatively weak and can be killed with most aoe damage. However, you do want to focus these because if you don’t kill them fast enough they will explode. Once they die, the timer from 10 seconds starts again until the next wave.
Stomp – This is a very obvious aoe circle around his feet where he stomps the ground followed by a quick slap in the direction of his target. Simply stay out of this if you are a dps by taking a couple of steps back. If you are a tank or you get unlucky and caught in it…simply block, no running away!
Cleave – This one is very simple and should only really be affecting the tank, stay behind the boss if you are dps or healer, and occasionally the boss will do a cone-type attack in the form of a Cleave at the direction of the person who he is agroing. As the tank, all you have to do here is block. IF you are unlucky enough to have it attack you and you are NOT a tank, the same applies..do NOT run, just block.
High Kinlord Rilis
The final boss in Banished Cells. He has simple mechanics BUT he hits like a steam train!
The easiest position for tanking him to start with is in the furthest corner of the room, this means the feasts that heal him have further to go and are easier to manage.
His attacks are somewhat random timing wise but there is a window where you must pay close attention to avoid an almost guaranteed one-shot.
The tank should be able to tank him MOSTLY on the spot but be aware if you do move the boss be sure to keep him in any friendly aoe damage so he can continue to loose health. Running around the room will NOT help.
Feasts – Every few seconds a feast (healing orb) will spawn where the boss first started. They will float slowly to him no matter where he is and you must kill these as fast as possible. Do NOT let them reach him else he will heal for massive amounts of health. He has 5 million health to start with on hard mode, make sure he doesn’t heal.
Ghost Fire – This ability is a barrage of nasty ground-based fire aoes. He will raise his sword and place 4 pools on the ground one after another. Simply move out of them and watch your feet. Do not run away from the boss fight as such, just move a couple of feet at a time, or dodge roll to get out of the fire.
Heavy Blow – This is his heavy attack. Simple heavy attack indicator like any enemy in the game for this one (white/yellowy flash from his body) be sure as the tank to BLOCK THIS. If you do not it will hurt a HUGE amount and if a dps gets hit with this without blocking, it is a one-shot guaranteed. It hits INCREDIBLY hard.
If you are a dps and it is coming for you, be sure to block it. If you are max health you will just about survive it, if not, you are dead.
Magic Bolt – This fireball-type ability is possibly his most dangerous mechanic aside from the heavy attack because it is powerful, fast, and very hard to avoid.
After he does his Ghost fire or heavy attack he will RANDOMLY select a player to throw a magic bolt at. If you don’t have solid resists, a damage shield, or enough health in your bar this will almost guarantee a one-shot to a dps or healer. SO you MUST block or dodge roll this mechanic.
The safest way to stay alive is each time you see him raise his sword (Ghost fire Mechanic) OR heavy attack (Heavy Blow mechanic) hold block until you see him do the Magic Bolt (like a fireball).
Be aware however if the Ghost Fire ability has been cast you will still have to step out of the fire while being ready to block.
Avoiding this mechanic is the difference between a wipe and a pass because if people die this is VERY hard to recover from.
Banished Cells I Dungeon Loot
Below is a list of all the loot you can expect to find in Banished Cells I.
On normal the loot is blue and the boss does NOT drop a monster helmet, but on veteran difficulty all of the loot is purple and the final boss DOES drop a special monster helmet.
Note: in dungeons some individual bosses can drop a unique item but generally, the weapons and jewelry (non-named items) come from the last boss. HOWEVER the entire loot table can also drop from trash and chests, so loot everything! Got the gear in the wrong traits? Don’t worry! You can alter the traits by either transmuting or reconstruct the piece with a trait of your choice. For more information see the Introduction to Transmuting and Reconstructing article.
If you are looking for a matching shoulder monster piece, visit the Undaunted Pledge Master Maj al-Ragath at the nearest Undaunted enclave. She sells a 50/50 chance at the shoulder piece as part of the Banished Cells Coffer or it could be in her mystery coffer. You can learn more about the Undaunted in the Undaunted Guide.
- Tormentor
- Jail Breaker
- Sanctuary
- Shadowrend (monster helm from vet instances only)
Banished Cells I Achievements
Banished Cells I Assassin
Defeat Cell Haunter, Shadowrend, Angata the Clannfear Handler, the Skeletal Destroyer, and High Kinlord Rilis in Veteran Banished Cells I, all within twenty minutes. Timer starts when a group member enters the first hallway.
Banished Cells I Conqueror
Defeat Cell Haunter, Shadowrend, Angata the Clannfear Handler, the Skeletal Destroyer, and High Kinlord Rilis in Veteran Banished Cells I.
Banished Cells I Survivor
Defeat Cell Haunter, Shadowrend, Angata the Clannfear Handler, the Skeletal Destroyer, and High Kinlord Rilis in Veteran Banished Cells I, without suffering a group member death.
Banished Cells I Vanquisher
Defeat Shadowrend and High Kinlord Rilis in Banished Cells I.
Soul Splitter
Defeat High Kinlord Rilis in Veteran Banished Cells I, after invoking the Scroll of Glorious Battle.
Veteran Bonebreaker I
Defeat 350 Skeletons in Veteran Banished Cells I.
Veteran Daedra Slayer I
Defeat 100 Daedra in Veteran Banished Cells I.
Banished Cells I Leads
The following antiquity leads can be acquired in the Banished Cells I.
The Nilumin River Pearls is part of the Pearls of Ehlnofey mythic item.
The dig zone for this lead is found in Auridon.
The Ruinblood Coil is part of the Markyn Ring of Majesty mythic item.
The dig zone for this lead is found in the Deadlands.
Final Note
Thank you for taking the time to watch the content and read this guide. Be sure on your travels to remember, although once you get very experienced you may make these dungeons much easier and faster… it starts from the ground up and it’s…
