This boss is a pain in the rear end but hopefully this guide will help you. The danger in this fight is when people “overburn” mechanics, stack up too much and/or don’t co-ordinate together. You need to time your abilities and ultimates etc vs the mechanics. It’s not a burn fest. The tank should hold the boss pretty much where she starts, and turn it away from the group. Do NOT drop the boss’s taunt!
Put it on a leash! – There are two wolf pets in this fight, one red one and one grey one. They are attached to the wall via a dog lead/chain. The chain is a set length however and they SHARE it. So if the tank taunts both, they will only both reach the middle at most, but if you pull ONE, the other has a shorter leash. So the trick to this is to have the tank taunt one (the grey one) and then leave the red one alone for the group to focus. These both have the same mechanics so need to be paid attention too.
The dps should ALWAYS focus the red wolf on the left whenever it is active. Two things to note however. if the wolf tries to “leap” you MUST dodge roll or take a one shot. Also if it tries to heavy attack you must dodge roll BACKWARDS. Do not stack else several will get caught by it but if you dodge different directions, it will follow you and spin and kill you and/or others anyway. Once the red wolf is dead, go meet the tank and kill the remaining wolf. They will cower into the corner for a duration and revisit the fight again later.
These are PRIORITY targets. Red one first, grey one second, do NOT leave these alive no matter what!
WARNING!: At 20% health of the boss, BOTH wolves will be OFF their leash, kill them asap!
Heavy attack – The boss will heavy attack the tank. This needs to be blocked else it is a one shot pretty much. If it is on a member of the group it must be dodge rolled or die, but this should ALWAYS be on the tank, unless your tank drops the taunt (which they should NOT).
Bleed – The tank will be hit with some NASTY bleeds from the boss so the healer MUST be on point at keeping up heals or you will wipe fast. Heavy heals are key!
Fire – This is pretty easy to spot. Vykosa will cause a small aoe fire blast to hit the ground. This is shown by her raising her staff in the air. Simply don’t stand in it and wait for it to pass. Standing in it will go HIGH damage overtime to whoever is in it.
Fear Totem – The boss will place a medium sized circular aoe on the ground with a totem in the middle. This will FEAR players and to get out of it you MUST break free. Preserve your stamina and don’t stand in the aoe! If this lands on the tank, they may want to reposition the boss to the left or the right so they don’t stand in it on purpose for too long.
Pounce – Much like the middle boss of the dungeon she will pounce on the tank or whoever has agro. When this happens she MUST be interrupted else the person pinned will be chewed on and killed! PAY ATTENTION to interrupt mechanics at all costs!
Stranglers – You have seen these in the dungeon already, you should know how they work. However, at 70% the room is SURROUNDED by Stranglers. Keep dots near the tank at all times so that these die. They will get up again of course but they do have very low health and can be put into a “sit down” state very easily. This will prevent unnecessary stunning. In the mean time as dps and healers, keep away form the edges of the room as much as you can and if you DO end up there. Keep your dots up to avoid the Stranglers overwhelming you.
The PACK! – This is an extremely important mechanic! At set health % the boss will spawn 2 adds and then shortly after another 2-3! These CAN and WILL overlap!
The werewolves you have seen throughout the entire dungeons…you know the ones that one shot you? THEY are coming in large numbers!.
90% you will get 2x wolves
85% you will get 3x!
70% 2x wolves
65% 2x wolves
50% (see below for warden mechanic) 2x wolves
46-45% 2x wolves
30% 2x wolves
25% 2x wolves
The trick to these is to focus and even save up your ultimates for these phases. You can literally slow down on the damage and build ultimate per phase. But remember they are were wolves so you WILL get ulti back for killing them with the fighters guild passives.
One more VERY important trick is CC. Your tank can pin them while taunting them (which btw is incredibly challenging with so many targets and so much damage incoming) BUT what you can do as a group is have plenty of “time stop” abilities available as demonstrated in the video to control them.
These wolves take TOP priority! If they heavy attack leep you MUST dodgeroll as a dps or healer or die (also demonstrated in the video).
Wardens – This is an extremely tricky stage now. Not only do you have the mechanics you have had already but at 50% you get wardens in the fight. So to go with the werewolf pack you ALSO have to deal with these. Just like the middle boss in the dungeon, wardens are now PRIMARY!
This is where you want to change your positioning as the group. Instead of letting all the wolves come to the tank and throwing down ultimates and time stops (cc) you will want to run to the warden who spawns near the entrance and focus him down. They have the same mechanics as the previous fight containing wardens (lightning splashes, aoes on the ground and enrage type mechanics where they do mroe damage) so you should already be familiar with these. They MUST die, and yes even before the wolves! Get rid of them at all costs.
They spawn two at a time at set health check points. These spawn at 50%, 46/45%, 30% and 25% and a final 1x at about 21-20%. These MUST be focused at all times. Watch your feet and do NOT stack up.
Archivist Ernarde! – HE IS BACK!!
At 30% the ghost of the previous boss will enter the room with his mechanics in tact! He will cast his channeling heavy attack which makes a spreading aoe, just like in the last fight. Do not stack, move to a safe spot and wait for it to clear so you don’t overlap it and kill your friends.
Above all, the “Rune Roulette” is not IN THE ROOM! Every minute or so he will start choosing a rune. When he has chosen one, all 4 of you MUST fine ONE rune each matching his choice and stand in it or die!
TIP: be careful not to try and run near or through him (he is the purple guy in the middle of the room) he has a large hitbox and as shown in the video you can get stuck on him and end up dead by not making it to a rune in time.
Finally:
Remember all of these mechanics and put them into practice IN order and you will be fine but you will need to fully understand them.
Just relax and pay attention and work together as a team, yolo players will NOT get this done.
It is not a burn fest, you CAN pace this fight. Under 20% health once the wolves are all gone, wardens are dead and the two dogs are gone, the only thing you have left is the boss.
RELAX, execute panic kills people all the time, it isn’t dead until it is dead. FOCUS mechanics and good luck!