Hidden among the churning waves of the Sea of Ghosts, this frigid isle serves as the seat of power for the cruel Icereach Coven. Now, lashing storms swirl around it. Could this be a natural phenomenon, or something more sinister?
All About Mechanics Icereach Guide
Icereach 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. Icereach can be accessed at Level 45. 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
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Icereach Location
Icereach is located in the northeastern region of Wrothgar. Travel northeast from the Two Rivers Wayshrine to reach Icereach. You can also access Icereach specifically by using the Dungeon Finder.
Inside Icereach
Icereach is a two-level dungeon with five bosses and one quest. The enemies in this dungeon include harpies, Icereach Deadeyes, Rift Zombies, and frost atronachs.
The Frozen Isle
The Skald-King dispatched a party of sword-thanes to investigate unnatural storms swirling around Icereach. Alas, a coven of witches killed most of the warriors. I must venture into the aged keep, kill the witches within, and search for survivors.
Completing The Frozen Isle
You will need to defeat Kjard the Tuskscraper, sister Skelga, Stormborn revenant, and the Witches of the Icereach Coven. Speak to Lyris Titanborn to complete this quest. Completing this quest will reward you with gold, a skill point, and an Unidentified Icereach Armaments coffer.
Iecreach Boss Mechanics
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Kjarg the Tuskscraper
This boss is quite very simple but can end in tears very quickly if people don’t pay attention to the boss’s mood change. The tank must keep aggro at ALL times BUT must be ready to move around a lot depending on the mechanics. The dps and healer should always be behind the boss, do NOT stand in front of him.
Heavy Attack – The boss will throw out a long-winded heavy attack which makes a HUGE aoe smash on the ground. The tank simply needs to step out of this or block it. No dps should ever stand in this. This mechanic is also used to your advantage in later mechanics (explained below).
Ice Wind – This mechanic is pretty simple. A spinning wind (very similar to the visual for Hoarfrost in Cloudrest) will follow ONE player for a short period of time. When this happens the play should simply keep moving to avoid it stacking on them. If you stand still and it reaches you, you will take high damage. The target is random and this mechanic will repeat throughout the entire fight.
Swing – This is very easy to see. The boss swings his weapon and in front of him, 5 small fast-moving aoe effects will fly across the floor. Simply don’t stand in them. They don’t do a huge amount of damage but when the boss enrages it can one-shot dps players, so stay out of his face unless you are the tank.
Enrage! – This mechanic is the tank killer. During the fight, the boss will roar and fear players. When this happens the boss will glow red and be enraged. He takes extra damage in this phase but also does extra damage. This is when the tank must kite (move around the room) and maintain a taunt while the boss calms down! Try to keep the boss aggroed 100% of the time while keeping him close to the group’s damage abilities that may be on the ground. Do NOT get hit by the boss, if he hits you, you will most likely die to a one-shot. Only very few tanks can stand up to his attacks. Once he has calmed down, carry on as you were before and hold the boss still.
Ice Atronachs – During the fight, the boss will spawn Ice Atronachs. These are very simple. If you can spot them early, get the tank to stack the boss on them as they are spawning and the boss will cast his heavy attack mechanic. If successful, the ice atronach will be smashed to pieces.
If you were too slow, it will spawn fully and you will have to kill it. They follow the same mechanics as the adds you encountered on the way up to the fight. Kill them as soon as you can, they are your primary focus. If you have lots of damage you can kill them fast, if you have low damage, be sure to buff up with resists and lots of heals because they will go into a phase where they will damage all players rapidly over time.
Again if you can get the giant to smash them you will never have to fight them, but if you don’t you will have to kill them and if you don’t get rid of them within at least 30seconds or so, you will get another and another.
Focus mechanics!
Sister Skelga
This boss is very simple IF people are on the ball and pay attention to the room, and their feet. This can be over in seconds, or take a long time. The choice is yours. The tank should maintain a taunt on her at all times, the group should be fairly spread out behind her, and be sure to repeat this formation as and when she teleports.
Heavy Attack – The boss has some horrible ranged attacks be sure to block these if you see them being aimed at you. The tank should be the only one getting hit by this so if you are a dps or healer and these are coming your way, be sure to dodge roll on time.
Ice – The boss will cast ice on people, you can avoid this but if you get caught in it you will take damage and be immobilized. You must dodge roll to break free from this.
Wind – Position is KEY. If you stack too much it will be hard to avoid this mechanic. Basically, the boss will have a spreading aoe under her feet and once it pops you will take damage AND she will emit several wind aoes in random directions. If you stand back a bit you can avoid these and get in the gaps to let it pass. If you stack you may take damage from more than one source at a time and die. Be ready for this and pay attention to it.
Fire! – During the fight, one random person on rotation will get a fire effect around them. They must be healed during this and will take small damage from it. However, if this touches other people they will take HIGH damage from it. Keep your distance from other players! You can cleanse this but on this fight, do NOT do this. Be sure to let it run its course as this player plays an important role in the next mechanic.
Stranglers – Ice-covered stranglers will enter the room so keep looking around for these. While they are in ice they cannot be fully damaged and will fire at players with very high damage single target spit attacks. The player covered in fire must run over to these stranglers and basically hug them. Doing so for a couple of seconds will melt the ice and they will be able to be killed. These MUST die else the group will take far too much damage.
Vearough the Shambler
This boss can actually hit pretty hard so you will have to focus on the mechanics at your feet as the tank. Turn the boss away from the group and hold him still do NOT run around the room.
Heavy Attack – This is a simple heavy attack. If you are the tank and this is on you be sure to block it. It will do fire damage as well so be careful not to be low health while blocking. Maintain your resources. It is very similar to that of Grothdar in Vaults of Madness.
Adds – During the fight you will be attacked by many different adds spawning from the runes on the ground. There are wraiths, zombies, and skeletons. Of course, these should be your main focus and you should be sure to kill these and then go back to the boss once they are dealt with. The wraiths must be interrupted and the skeletons have a unique mechanic…They attach a beam to a chosen player and drain their health but will NOT listen to a tank’s taunt. They can be chained/immobilized/stunned but NOT taunted. SO with this in mind, it is obvious that running away does nothing. Try to get these close to the boss so the tank can control them. Running away while these are on you will inevitably kill you.
Fire Whirlwinds – Around the 50% health mark of the boss there will be fast-moving spinning whirlwinds of fire in the room trying to kill your group. High resists and good heal over time can basically negate these but, if your group is built squishy, you do NOT want to get hit by these, so try to avoid them as much as you can. Defensive buffs and ultimates should be utilized here.
Fire POP! – During the fight (mostly on the tank) there will be popping fire effects that make large circles of stupid on the ground. Try to avoid these, they do a lot of damage even for a tank!
Stormborn Revenant
This boss is the pug killer. Many don’t pass this OR fail their no-death achievement on this one because they get sloppy and panic. The boss should be tanked in the middle of the room as much as possible while the group attack in a semi-circle rotation from behind the boss. While this is technically a stack and burn, the damage coming from the boss prevents this unless your group has some serious buff and heal bonuses applied. So be ready to move a lot in your OWN places, not running at each other!
Heavy Attack – This heavy attack must be blocked. It is delayed too and hits before the animation is finished so be sure to hit that block button as SOON as you know it is coming. Don’t miss time it. If you are a dps and this is coming your way, the only way to live is a well-placed dodge roll. Remember it IS delayed so dodge before the animation hits or you will feel like you received a desync.
Lightning Call – During the fight, the boss will constantly call lightning at each player’s feet. They are fast-paced spreading aoe effects that will POP and do lightning damage. If you are fast-moving in a nice circle away from each other you can avoid these, OR you can block them but they do hurt a lot. Too many of these blocking or not will kill you. So move about a fair bit to avoid them but remember do NOT run at each other, else yours and someone else’s will stack up and you BOTH die.
Ice – The boss will cast ice Pillars in the room that do damage and at the same time will immobilize all players with a separate ice effect, you must dodge roll to break out of this or cleanse it.
JUMP! – The boss occasionally jumps in the air, when this happens he will come crashing down. There are faint visuals about where he is going to land and you can move away but to be safe, BLOCK. If he lands on your head and you are not ready for it, he WILL kill you. A tank may stand up to it but a dps will not.
Storm Atronachs – During the fight (usually about 55% and 40%) there are 3x Atronachs that spawn (usually after his jump). These must be killed. They are very low health but they channel lightning at the boss and everyone takes damage over time.
JUMP! – At 40% or less(depending on dps in the group) the boss will channel energy from the sky. During this time players will take damage over time. You can burn the boss or live through the mechanic and he will return to normal mechanics after a few seconds. BUT it depends on your group.
Luckily there are no “if you don’t do this you die” enrage mechanics to the channel itself, you can outlast it, but if you are in a group where the damage is low, you should buff up and have heavy heals. Use your ultimates at this phase for whichever side of the fence you are on. High damage can nuke it (if they can stay alive), low damage needs to stay alive and can just pace it. MOST people wipe here because they get greedy. Save those ultimates for THIS phase.
Mother Ciannait (aka Momma C)
This boss is actually pretty simple BUT it is very tricky for people who panic. So relax and understand each boss. All of the mechanics of the hard mode have already been taught to you along the way. You just have to do them again, with more stuff in the room! The tank MUST maintain a taunt on the active boss at the time, or else this will end fast and people will start taking heavy attack one-shots.
The basics to the boss are that there are 4 of them. they will be covered in damage shields but ONE will be exposed. It starts from left to right going clockwise, boss 1, to 4. each time one is 0 health it will cover itself in a damage shield and the next will be vulnerable. This happens for ONE lap. Then after number 4 is finished, each phase of them will randomly be able to be attacked. Keep your eyes peeled! Each witch that goes to 0 health will take 10% off the overall health bar of the encounter!
Shields! – Every time a witch hits 0% health, they will shield up and all 4 of them will channel damage over time at the group. Each boss must be interrupted to stop this. So split up and hit one each, and then get back to the mechanics.
Lightning – During the fight, you will have the lightning from the sky mechanic where you must watch your feet in order to avoid it. This is the same as the Icereach Warrior mechanic you encountered. Do not stack, do not run into each other.
Wind – This is the same wind mechanic you saw in the first boss fight with the giant. Simply keep away from it and don’t run at the group with it until it fades.
Fire! – This is the fire mechanic from the second boss where you must melt the ice of the stranglers! This can be cleansed but MUST be used to melt the stranglers.
TIP: This fire mechanic is only “useful” to us when the second witch is exposed. If she is in shields, then no stranglers will spawn, so you are free to cleanse it.
Skeletons – These spawn throughout the fight and are the same as the ones you encountered in the third boss fight with the flesh atronach. They will NOT stop chasing the player until they are dead. Kill them fast and above all, don’t run away! Bring them to the fight/tank and then relax and get rid of them. They can’t be taunted, so running will just kill you.
Gohalla, Witch 1 (hardmode) – This boss spawns the giant you fought as the first boss. He has much less health but the same mechanics. While this is alive you are going to have issues with him enraging, the tank having to kite him, and all the other mechanics he has. Simply focus on this target and THEN kill the witch. The witch will do heavy attacks so be sure she is taunted. Once she is 0Health she will be shielded and the next witch will be exposed so she can recover.
Hiti, Witch 2 (hardmode) – This witch follows the same rules as the second boss you encountered. She spawns ice stranglers which you must deal with and melt the ice+kill them before they nuke the group. These can hit very hard, deal with them asap. Once the witch is defeated the next will be exposed.
Bani, Witch 3 (hardmode) – This witch has the adds mechanic from the third boss you encountered. Wraths, zombies, and skeletons will spawn and they MUST be killed. Focus all of the adds before killing the witch each time they spawn to eliminate potential overlapping mechanics from over-nuking. Once the witch hits 0 health she will shield and the next one will be exposed.
Maefyn, Witch 4 (hardmode) – This witch has the same mechanics as the boss number 4 you encountered before here. You will have to fight the Ice Warrior. Be sure to kill him and his adds before killing the witch to prevent overlapping mechanics. The ice warrior has the same mechanics as the boss version where he will of course jump and land on people’s heads.
TIP: Each of the above mechanics must be understood and followed and once you know how each witch works it becomes a lot easier to manage when the switches start getting random after the first lap.
Execute – at 20% the main boss will be in the middle of the room channeling some huge aoe damage being powered up by each witch around the room (like the atronachs did to the Icereach warrior).
This is where you should save your ultimates for. You will need to keep your survival and your damage up and keep going until it is dead. During this phase, you will have fire, lightning, and ice mechanics. NON-hardmode does NOT have the previous boss mechanics and adds. It is nowhere near as stressful. This will take practice so best of luck!
Icereach Dungeon Loot
Below is a list of all the loot you can expect to find in Icereach.
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 Harrowstorm Coffer or it could be in her mystery coffer. You can learn more about the Undaunted in the Undaunted Guide.
- Bani’s Torment
- Hiti’s Hearth
- Titanborn Strength
- Mother Ciannait (monster helm from vet only)
Icereach Achievements
A Dish Served Cold
Defeat Drodda of Icereach in Veteran Direfrost Keep, after invoking the Scroll of Glorious Battle.
An Open Invocation
Defeat Vearogh the Shambler without killing any Rift Wraiths in Veteran Icereach.
Cold-Blooded Killer
Defeat the Icereach Coven after burning their sacred wicker totem in Veteran Icereach.
Companion of Lyris Titanborn
Assist Lyris Titanborn in investigating the threat posed by the Icereach Coven.
Direfrost Keep Assassin
Defeat Teethnasher the Frostbound, the Guardian of the Flame, Drodda’s Apprentice, Drodda’s Dreadlord, Iceheart, and Drodda of Icereach in Veteran Direfrost Keep within twenty minutes of starting the dungeon. Timer starts when any player enters the first bear-filled cavern.
Direfrost Keep Conqueror
Complete Veteran Direfrost Keep by defeating Teethnasher the Frostbound, the Guardian of the Flame, Drodda’s Apprentice, Drodda’s Dreadlord, Iceheart, and Drodda of Icereach.
Direfrost Keep Survivor
Defeat Teethnasher the Frostbound, the Guardian of the Flame, Drodda’s Apprentice, Drodda’s Dreadlord, Iceheart, and Drodda of Icereach in Veteran Direfrost Keep, without suffering a group member death.
Direfrost Keep Vanquisher
Defeat the Guardian of the Flame, the Empowered Frost Atronach, and Drodda of Icereach at Direfrost Keep.
Eye of the Storm
Defeat the Icereach Coven with one member of the group afflicted by all the witches’ signature spells in Veteran Icereach.
Frost Atronach Slayer
Defeat 45 Frost Atronachs in Veteran Icereach.
Frozen Finish
Defeat Kjarg the Tuskscraper with at least three fully-formed Frost Atronachs alive in Veteran Icereach.
Harrowstorm Delver
Complete both Icereach and Unhallowed Grave in Veteran.
Harrowstorm Explorer
Enter either Icereach or Unhallowed Grave for the first time.
Harrowstorm Scout
Complete both Icereach and Unhallowed Grave in Normal.
Hex-Proof
Defeat all encounters in addition to Kjarg the Tuskscraper, Sister Skelga, Vearogh the Shambler, the Stormborn Revenant, and the Icereach Coven in Veteran Icereach without suffering a group member death.
Icereach Challenger
Complete the listed achievements for Veteran Icereach.
Icereach Conqueror
Defeat Kjarg the Tuskscraper, Sister Skelga, Vearogh the Shambler, the Stormborn Revenant, and the Icereach Coven in Veteran Icereach.
Icereach Coven Style Master
Learn every chapter in the Icereach Coven style book, occasionally found as rewards for completing the Icereach dungeon.
Icereach Vanquisher
Defeat Kjarg the Tuskscraper, Sister Skelga, Vearogh the Shambler, the Stormborn Revenant, and the Icereach Coven in Icereach.
Lightning Strikes Thrice
While fighting the Stormborn Revenant in Veteran Icereach, defeat three Storm Atronachs, letting no more than three seconds pass between each kill.
No Rest for the Wicked
Defeat all encounters in addition to Kjarg the Tuskscraper, Sister Skelga, Vearogh the Shambler, the Stormborn Revenant, and the Icereach Coven after burning the witches’ wicker totem in Veteran Icereach within 30 minutes without suffering a group member death.
Prodigious Pacification
When fighting the Icereach Coven on Hard Mode in Veteran Icereach, let Gohlla’s Giant deliver the final blow to each sister while in their enraged state.
Reachman Slayer
Defeat 200 Reachman warriors in Veteran Icereach.
Spit Take
Defeat Sister Skelga without allowing the Stranglers ice spit projectiles to hit any player in Veteran Icereach.
Swift Silencer
Prevent the Icereach Coven from successfully channeling the Storm Surge by interrupting all four sisters within five seconds of the spell beginning.
Thane’s Haste
Defeat Kjarg the Tuskscraper, Sister Skelga, Vearogh the Shambler, The Stormborn Revenant, and the Icereach Coven within 30 minutes of entering Veteran Icereach. Your timer starts when you engage the first group of enemies.
Icereach Leads
There are currently no leads located in Icereach.
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…
