Shunned by the Nords as a place of evil, this mystic forge site was constructed by an unknown Nedic sect that worshiped forgotten dark gods. Now it’s been reopened by the Dreadhorn clan of Reachmen, who are meddling with dangerous forces of great power.
Bloodroot Froge 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. Bloodroot Forge 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.
Bloodroot Forge Location
Bloodroot Forge is located in the southeastern region of Craglorn. Travel southwest from the Elinhir Wayshrine to reach Bloodroot Forge. You can also access Bloodroot Forge specifically by using the Dungeon Finder.
Inside Bloodroot Forge
Bloodroot Forge is a three-level dungeon with six bosses and one quest. The enemies in this dungeon include nirnblooded guar, stone atronachs, dreadhorn harpy, and dreadhorn manhunters.
Blood for Blood
I encountered an escaped captive named Filand who warned me that the Reachmen are kidnapping people to labor at a strange, ancient Forge in this valley. He asked me to help rescue the other prisoners before the Reachmen work them to death, or worse.
Completing Blood for Blood
You will need to defeat Mthgamain, Caillaoife, Stoneheart, Galchobhar, and Earthgore Amalgam. Speak to Filand to complete this quest. Completing this quest will reward you with gold, a skill point, and an Unidentified Bloodroot Forge Armament.
Bloodroot Forge Boss Mechanics
Need specific info? Click these quick links to go directly to each section.
Mathgamain
This boss is about as simple as it gets mechanics-wise but they are VERY punishing if you get it wrong. The tank needs to maintain a taunt at ALL times. The boss and keep it turned away from the group for the entire fight!
Heavy Attack – The boss stands up on his back legs and launches a HUGE hitting cone aoe heavy attack in the direction of whoever has aggro. This should always be the tank. The tank must BLOCK this. If not he/she is dead in one shot, it hits incredibly hard! If for any strange reason, the boss aims at a dps or a healer during this heavy attack they must apply a well-timed dodge roll or they will be killed, a dps/healer CANNOT block this hit, it is way too strong and designed for tanks to mitigate.
Minions – During the fight waves of adds will spawn and must be dealt with. The tank can root the enemies and taunt them in order to control them BUT at the same time must maintain a taunt on the boss and not spin the boss on the group. These adds will spawn at set percentages of the boss’s health (75% 50% and 25%) so over-burning the boss damage-wise, will result in overlapping of the adds and you can get overwhelmed with multiple spawns. These also do heavy attacks so the group must be careful if they get focused (these can be blocked).
If you get overwhelmed with adds do NOT start running away! This will NOT help, let the tank try to control them. Running away will NOT make you lose aggro on anything that is chasing you and they WILL chase you until they die. Don’t PANIC!
This is quite easy to work with. Simply get inside the shield and stack and burn the boss.
Caillaoife
This boss can be a tricky one and requires some solid coordination and quick thinking from the tank! The tank should keep the boss aggroed and face at him/her as much as possible while taunts are able to land (she becomes immune to them during the fight). This is fairly mobile to some extent so people must not panic and must not start running away like a headless chicken. The trick to this fight is add control and focus!
Forrest – During the fight the boss will become Immune and put up a force field of trees around her. As soon as you see her casting to make this force field go up you must leave the area immediately in order to avoid the knockback and knockdown mechanic you will receive for touching the shield. Get OUT! asap! When she is shielded she is immune to all damage and taunts and will select players to hit (more explained below). Once the phase is over, she will teleport to a new location and you can attack her again. This mechanic is rinse repeated throughout the whole fight.
Note: This phase happens at 75% 50% and 30%.
Adds – During the shield phase adds will spawn and the tank must grab them as fast as possible and turn them away from the group! This is when you need as dps to focus the adds not the boss (the boss is immune to all damage and taunts) The bear add, above all, must be focused. If this thing hits a dps/healer with its heavy attack they will die to a one-shot even if they block. The tank must block the attack and others must stay out of it. The bear is almost the same as the previous boss just much less health. Once the adds are down go back to the boss and/or wait for her to leave her shield of trees and teleport to a new location.
Winter’s Grasp – During the shield phase while you are dealing with the adds, the taunt WILL drop off of the boss. This is when she chooses a player at random (usually a dps) to fire nasty fast-moving aoes across the ground. This cold-based aoe deals MASSIVE damage and immobilization. The immobilization part is only really relevant if hitting a tank since a tank would survive it. DPS and/or healers will die to pretty much a one-shot. During this agro phase on her chosen target, she will also fire light attacks at the same target. This player must have heals focused on them and also move OUT of the aoe when it is aimed at them. Try to find a spot where no one else is standing and just simply watch your feet. Standing near others runs the risk of multiple players getting caught by it and inevitably causing a wipe.
Blast – The boss will cast a MASSIVE thin cone aoe in the direction of whoever has aggro during the fight. This is a blast of rocks/nirncrux type damage and will hit fairly hard and knock back/down anyone caught in it. A tank can block it but others must dodge roll it to get out.
Stranglers – During the shield phases, while killing the adds, stranglers will spawn and these MUST be dealt with fast else you will end up filling the room with poison and your group will take HUGE damage (explained before the boss IN the video).
Stoneheart
This boss is actually pretty mobile as fights go with a lot of moving around. The tank needs to keep a taunt on the boss at all times. The group needs to be very aware of their feet in this fight as there is a lot of awkward ground aoe type damage to deal with.
Fire Circle – During the fight each time the boss teleports to a new location, it will cast 3 light attacks at whoever has agro (should be the tank) each light attack will place a circle of fire on the ground and should be avoided! It won’t necessarily one-shot you if you stand in it for a brief moment but the damage is very high if you stand in it for more than a second, so try NOT to stand in these. They will disappear after a short time.
Atronachs – After each full rotation of mechanics the boss raises his hand in the air and lots of red flying projectiles will go from his staff to a random Stone Atronach in the room. THEN he will teleport to a random location. These Atronachs MUST be focused down as soon as possible. If you do not kill them fast enough they will enrage and put nasty circles of nirncrux underneath each player every second over and over doing HIGH damage to anyone caught in them until it is dead. If you keep moving these can be placed on the ground and/or kited (like the Domihaus mechanics) but of course, eventually, they will catch you and kill you. So the Atronach must die in order to defeat this mechanic from wiping your group
Space Invaders!! – The best way I can describe this mechanic is “space invaders!”. Basically, the boss will squat and LOADS of very small fast moving aoes will fly around the floor aiming at the group members over and over until he has finished channeling this effect. Basically, this is where old-school space invader training comes in and you basically just have to wiggle between them and avoid being hit. Simple left right left right movements to avoid them will be just fine. DO NOT sprint around the room because of course you will overlap too many of them and kill people. Relax, wiggle a bit, and then carry on. If these hit you they can take as much as 30-40% health per hit, so be careful!
Root – While the boss is under 25% health he will start rooting the players in vines so their feet are stuck to the ground. If you stay inside this mechanic for the full duration, once it has finished it will burst and you will take HIGH damage. The way to defeat this mechanic is simply to dodge roll to break out of it when you see the effect. So for magicka users above all, do NOT sprint around the room too much, you will need your resources to avoid this mechanic.
Galchobhar
This boss is the pug killer and most players’ worst nightmare! Small fighting area and LOTS of major already taught mechanics, in ONE fight! The tank must NOT drop taunt on this boss under any circumstances if they can help it. Sure the tank should never drop the boss anyway, that is bad practice…but this one will issue wipes SO fast!
Heavy Attack Eruption! – The boss will fire off a heavy attack with a massive swing of his weapon EXACTLY the same as the mechanics from the other Minotaurs in the dungeon, where once the heavy has landed, a tiny aoe will be placed in the floor in the position in which he hit and a volcano eruption type mechanic will rapidly spew from its position. The tank MUST stand on this and plug the hole while holding block!
Swing – The boss (normally after his heavy attack) will swing in frontal aoe at the person with agro and 3 small fire aoes will emit from this attack. Simply step out of these, they are the same size as the space invader aoes and do about the same damage.
Shalks – If you have got this far you SHOULD by now have understood this mechanic, but I will explain it anyway. Throughout the fight, Shalks will spawn and they need to be focused. These Shalks will target an individual with a negative aoe chasing them around until it catches them and then on impact will explode and hit them with terribly aggressive fire damage over time (note most people will never live through this even with big heals). If YOU are the Shalk’s target, you will get a message on your screen and your screen will have flames around the edges. This is when you must RUN away and jump onto one of the platforms in the lava. Once the aoe following your dissolves in the lava you can jump off and come back into the fight. You MUST get rid of this effect, do not try to tank it, you will die. You should have up to 5 of these from start to finish in the fight. Depending on how fast you kill the boss.
Atronachs – Once the boss hits 50% he will wake up the Stone Atronachs in the room, one per phase. These are identical to the ones in the previous boss fight (explained above) and must be killed as soon as possible. Failure to do so will cause them to cast aoes under the feet of each player and you will have to constantly move to avoid them while also placing them on the floor making it very difficult to stand anywhere without dying. These Atronachs MUST be killed asap at all costs.
BIG BOOM! – The boss will pound his weapon into the ground and an ENORMOUS aoe will spread rapidly around the entire platform! This is when every single member must run away and jump onto one of the platforms/rocks surrounding the area. Once the aoe explodes and all the fire is gone you can jump off and come back into the room again, however, some things to note. When the aoe is gone but the fire is still present do NOT jump in, the fire will one-shot you. Also the pads/rocks/platforms…they can only take a certain amount of timed pressure (player standing on them) per pad. SO if one person uses it of course over time it will pop and disappear, BUT if multiple players stand on them, it applies more pressure and they will disappear SOONER! One pad per person or else #RIP! If you do not get to a pad you will die, if you jump back in too soon (fire still present) you will die, and if you get greedy and use more than one person to a pad, you will of course inevitably die in the lava. Focus and coordinate!
Gherig Bullblood
This boss is actually 3 bosses and they MUST be controlled. The tank should keep a taunt on these at all times! The bull will stand where e wants and is quite stubborn so it is safer to taunt him in the face and hold him still. The melee boss will come to the tank if taunted since he is melee and therefore can also be easily stacked on the bull but the healer/ranged boss won’t come to you unless you are out of her range with agro (tank taunting 101, basically get out of their range and they will move to you until they can reach). With this in mind, grab both Bull and melee add with taunts and taunt the ranged too. Run backward to bring the ranged boss in a bit and then run back to HER with the two melee dps for a nice easy stack. This is demonstrated in the video.
Chains – The Minotaur has the same mechanics as some of the ones you have encountered in the dungeon so far but you must pay attention. The boss will pin 2 members of the group with chains and then a spreading aoe will appear under their feet. The boss MUST be interrupted to break the chains and the people pinned (now set free) MUST move out of the aoe. The chains may be released but the aoe will still explode. failure to interrupt or get out of danger once the interrupt is initiated will result in a borderline one-shot!
Heavy Attack – The Minotaur and the melee boss can both heavy attack. These must be blocked by the tank else he/she will be knocked back/down and quite possibly killed!
Burst! – The Melee boss will cast a MASSIVE spreading aoe on the group centered from himself. This must be avoided. If you don’t get out of range of it before it bursts you will take HUGE damage and be stunned if it didn’t already kill you. Which means you would have to break free. Overlapping these mechanics all above and failing to interrupt one target while this stun aoe hits is a catastrophe, focus!
Heal – The ranged Boss (mage) can heal the other two and herself. This should be interrupted as soon as it is spotted.
Elemental Attacks – The mage has many short-duration channel abilities which cause damage to the group in the form of both direct and aoe damage depending on which one she is performing at the time. These can be interrupted. She is probably the easiest boss of the 3 if controlled but she MUST be interrupted. So long as you interrupt her every time you see her casting…Healing and damage dealing for her are almost impossible. So a very simple boss if you are paying attention.
Above all, these 3 need to be killed as fast as possible and stacking is your safest bet. Stack all 3 together, don’t drop taunts, and interrupt the mechanics at ALL costs. Focus down the bull first to get rid of the chain mechanic, get rid of the melee boss afterward since you only then have to deal with heavy attacks and the aoe, and then finally kill the mage. DO NOT sit near the middle of the room as lava pools will spread from the center and kill you (they stun/cc if you are hit with 3 rock hits in a row from the nirncrux/lava).
Earthgore Amalgam
This boss is a LOT simpler than it looks but due to all of the dramatic effects, it can get somewhat chaotic. The tank must NOT drop taunt at ALL costs. You have ONE boss but will end up with 3 targets. Your tank MUST be capable of managing resources, and keeping agro on up to 3 targets at all times! Basically, if you can tank the axes (up to 3) in Aetherian Archive, you are pretty much capable. If not, get more practice. You have ZERO room for error here. Positioning, coordination are key for the group but above all the tank MUST pay attention.
Heavy Attack! – his is as simple as it gets. The boss will fire off a HUGE heavy attack. If the tank is blocking, they will survive, if not they are dead. If this hits a dps/healer player while blocking, they will die anyway. It is a very hard hit, you need the mitigation a tank can bring. So if something goes horribly wrong and the tank ends up dropping the boss, and you as a dps or healer have agro, your only chance is to dodge roll…do NOT run away or start legging it around the room, he will still catch you, you will still die, and someone will have to pick you up because you made a mess of it. Simply DODGE at the right time so the tank can recover.
Lava/Nirncrux Pool! – THIS is possibly the most important mechanic in the fight. The boss will channel with his hand into the ground in the direction of HIS CHOICE and a fire/nirncrux trail will shoot across the floor and emit a pool of lava/nirncrux. This can be close, or it could be far but whatever happens, do NOT touch it and do NOT stay close to it! If you stay close to it you will take damage every second from projectiles spewing from it. 3 hits in a row will fossilize you and you will be stunned while still taking damage and die! Most people will die before that even happens so simply stay the hell away from this stuff!
This can land ANYWHERE so keep your wits about you. Sometimes you can get lucky and it can fire all around the outside of the room, other times it can be close by. The tank needs to be the one to control the boss during this mechanic. If the lava is a long way away, keep tanking the boss where he is. If not and it is too close to you, then be sure to reposition the boss and move together as a group.
Rocks – During the fight rocks will fall from the ceiling, be sure to step out of these or they will issue HIGH damage if you are not a tank.
Rain! – The boss will go Immune during the fight at stages and when he is immune he will cause rocks to rain from the sky. Each player will have rocks aimed directly at them and must move out of the aoes before they land. This is fairly easy to avoid but try to find your own space and not run around like a headless chicken not considering your teammates. If you do this you will end up stacking them and killing your friends. DON’T PANIC! Once the phase is over carry on as normal.
The Split! – This is where things get tricky. The boss has two very simple mechanics…The lava pool and the heavy attack, and these will happen at a steady pace throughout the fight. Rinse repeat right? Well yes and no. This is something that is easily manageable on its own but of course, the famous Mike Finnigan would not make it THAT simple would he?…no.
At 80% the boss will split into two, so a large one and a smaller one. They now both have their own Health bars but they SHARE the overall boss health percentage. This NEW boss can do exactly the same as the last one. So yes, NOW you have 2x heavy attacks to deal with as the tank and a potential 2x lava pool placements! The room is now getting a little, claustrophobic with all the lava filling the room! You should now try to focus on the new boss while still damaging the main one! At 50% OVERALL! a third boss will appear! a much smaller one with less health and yes now the health bar is split across all 3x bosses…And you guessed it, you now have 3x heavy attacks to deal with as the tank and 3x lava pool casts because each boss is an exact duplicate of the other!
NOW here comes the tactic. The longer the bosses are alive the more often they will cast aoes and the more often they will heavy attack..SO you want to close the gap as much as possible and get those additional bosses down as soon as you can so that you don’t have to deal with so many stacking mechanics. SO, SAVE your ultimates. Do not start with a nuke. Use your ultimates when the SECOND boss appears in order to push the 80-50% gap faster. This means that you have 2 bosses on their own for less time so that they do not both together have too much opportunity to overlap heavy attacks and lava pools (the longer they are together the longer the fight and the more the room gets filled).
Pushing for the 3rd boss to appear in the room lessens the time you have to deal with so much going on. This does FORCE all 3 to appear and FORCE you to have now 3 overlapping mechanics, but if done fast enough and efficiently enough you will not have had enough time to yet fill the room with lava, meaning you can now afford the additional casts from the bosses to do their thing since you have more space than taking your time. Kill the small boss first (he will be almost in execute range as he comes out, he has very little health. Meaning the 3rd overlap is now gone, then focus on the middle one and then finally the last man standing should be the first boss you started with.
If you push 2 and 3 to appear fast and then push them to die fast, you can take as long as you like on the last one because only ONE lava mechanic is left. Damage output can of course play a contributing role in this fight to make things easier, BUT tactical damage application (regardless of dps amount in the group) in the way of strategically selecting your targets for the right timing and placing of your ultimates is what makes the fight much smoother.
NOTE: The “Rain” Mechanic will still take place regardless of how many bosses are alive BUT it will randomly happen from ONE of them, not all 3.
Learn the mechanics and above all understand them, best of luck!!
Bloodroot Forge Dungeon Loot
Below is a list of all the loot you can expect to find in Bloodroot Forge.
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 main 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 Urgarlag Chief-Bane at the nearest Undaunted enclave. She sells a 50/50 chance at the shoulder piece as part of the Horns of the Reach Coffer or it could be in her mystery coffer. You can learn more about the Undaunted in the Undaunted Guide.
- Blooddrinker
- Flame Blossom
- Hargraven’s Garden
- Earthgore (monster helm from vet only)
Bloodroot Forge Achievements
Artisan of Pain
Personally use both the Stonefire Crucible and the Flameslake Cauldron to defeat the Earthgore Amalgam in Veteran Bloodroot Forge.
Blood, Sweat, and Fire
Use the Stonefire Crucible to stun five targets and the Flameslake Cauldron to cool five lava pools within Bloodroot Forge.
Bloodroot Style Master
Learn every chapter in the Bloodforge style book, occasionally found as rewards for completing the Bloodroot Forge dungeon.
Bloodroot Forge Challenger
Complete the listed achievements for Veteran Bloodroot Forge.
Bloodroot Forge Conqueror
Defeat Mathgamain, Caillaoife, Stoneheart, Galchobhar, Gherig Bullblood and his attendants, and the Earthgore Amalgam in Veteran Bloodroot Forge.
Bloodroot Forge Vanquisher
Defeat Mathgamain, Caillaoife, Stoneheart, Galchobhar, Gherig Bullblood and his attendants, and the Earthgore Amalgam in Bloodroot Forge.
Boulder Bounder
Defeat Galchobhar without any group members being affected by his Scorched Earth and Flames of Galchobhar attacks in Veteran Bloodroot Forge.
Cooling Your Heels
Defeat Mathgamain, Caillaoife, Stoneheart, Galchobhar, Gherig Bullblood and his attendants, and the Earthgore Amalgam without taking damage from the Molten Nirncrux flowing through Veteran Bloodroot Forge.
Hand Wrought Victory
Defeat the Earthgore Amalgam in Veteran Bloodroot Forge without any member of your group activating the Stonefire Crucible or Flameslake Cauldron.
Horns of the Reach Delver
Complete Veteran Falkreath Hold and Veteran Bloodroot Forge.
Horns of the Reach Explorer
Enter either Falkreath Hold or Bloodroot Forge for the first time.
Hot Pursuit
Complete Veteran Bloodroot Forge without any member of your group ever being struck by a Lava Ball spit by a Fire Shalk.
Magma Masher
Use Galchobhar’s Mantle Breaker attack to dissipate a Lava Ball fired by a Fire Shalk while in Veteran Bloodroot Forge.
Parched Earth
Defeat Mathgamain, Caillaoife, Stoneheart, Galchobhar, Gherig Bullblood and his attendants, and the Earthgore Amalgam in Veteran Bloodroot Forge, without suffering a group member death.
Right to the Root of the Problem
Defeat Mathgamain, Caillaoife, Stoneheart, Galchobhar, Gherig Bullblood and his attendants, and the Earthgore Amalgam in Veteran Bloodroot Forge within twenty minutes of starting the dungeon. Timer starts when players pass the first Dreadhorn campsite.
Shalk Shaker
Defeat Galchobhar without anyone in your group killing a Fire Shalk during your battle with him in Veteran Bloodroot Forge.
Tempered Tantrum
Defeat the Earthgore Amalgam in Veteran Bloodroot Forge after invoking the Scroll of Glorious Battle.
Veteran Dreadhorn Warrior Slayer
Defeat 300 Dreadhorn Blade-Bearers, Manhunters, and Clanslayers in Veteran Bloodroot Forge.
Veteran Firehide Slayer
Defeat 50 Dreadhorn Firehides in Veteran Bloodroot Forge.
Wildlife Sanctuary
Defeat Caillaoife without allowing any Nirnblooded creatures to remain within her Nature’s Preservation barrier for more than three seconds while in Veteran Bloodroot Forge.
Bloodroot Forge Leads
There are currently no leads located in Bloodroot Forge.
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…
