“Just as the sixteen kingdoms were not always one, so too were the faiths of the Khajiit many-fold. In guiding Khajiit along his one true path of the moons, Riddle’Thar hid from us all the others. But if you are wise, you may catch glimpses of where the walkers of old have tread.” — Tsramusa the Exile
Moongrave Fane 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. Moongrave Faen 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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Moongrave Fane Location
The Moongrave Fane is located in the southwestern region of Northern Elsweyr. Travel west from the Scar’s End Wayshrine to reach Moongrave Fane. You can also access Moongave Fane specifically by using the Dungeon Finder.
Inside Moongrave Fane
Moongrave Fane is a four-level dungeon with five bosses and one quest. The enemies in this dungeon include river trolls, coagulants, Hollowfang vampires, and hermonculi.
The Sanguine Successor
Chevalier Renald enlisted my aid in stopping his comrade, Grundwulf, from consuming the blood of a Dragon that he’s trapped inside a ruined Khajiiti temple with the help of the Hollowfang vampire clan.
Completing The Sanguine Successor
You will need to defeat the Risen Ruins, Dro’zakar, Kujo Kethba, Nisaazda, and Grundwulf. Speak to Chevalier Renald to complete this quest. Completing this quest will reward you with gold, a skill point, and an Unidentified Moongrave Fane Armaments coffer.
Moongrave Fane Boss Mechanics
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The Risen Ruins
This is the first pug killer of the dungeon surprisingly. Although it is only the first boss it does teach you some heavy lessons early on, introducing one of the most important mechanics for the whole dungeon as well as reminding you of some familiar mechanics if you ever did Aetherian Archive Or Ruins Of Mazzatun. This boss is quite mobile occasionally and the tank will have to keep it turned away from the boss as much as possible so that its default movement mechanic can be controlled. OR people will just have to watch their feet!
Ground Stomp – The boss will continuously bang on the ground causing aoe damage. The damage is not that high and the tank is only really the one at threat here but keep up damage as and when as dps and make sure the heals stay consistent while this is happening.
Rock Throw/Sit Down – The boss will become immune and every second throw rocks at the group. These rocks are the same as the mechanic in Aetherian Archive and Ruins Of Mazzatun where you basically must BLOCK to avoid being knocked down and taking HUGE damage.
There are two ways to break this. You can either heal like hell and let it run its course. OR you can go over to the yellow pads, synergies them, and then heavy attack the red orbs that come out in the direction of the boss to remove the shield. If done correctly he will stand up again and the fight will continue.
Warning: taking the synergy removes 50% of your health so be sure you are not low health at the time! Taking the synergy AND getting hit with the rock will kill you.
Rock Slide (Choo Choo!) – After standing up the boss will face in the direction he is aggroed towards and basically steam train in a straight line across the room. If you get caught in this you will be run over and killed. Stay out of the path of the boss.
Adds – After and around the invulnerability phases the room will fill up with adds. You should make it your priority to deal with these fast so you do not get overwhelmed by them. Some will require interrupts and some avoiding aoes, but be sure as the tank you stack them up, and as dps and healers you do NOT run around the room in circles. Pace yourself and manage them.
Dro’zakar (VMOL Flashback!)
This boss can go very well or can be a complete mess. It is relatively straightforward for most but coordination during certain phases is very important so that people don’t kill each other. The boss should be tanked and turned AWAY from the group at all times!
Siphon Hemoglobin – Throughout the fight adds will come into the room and expose the Hemoglobin orbs (which you can also do yourself with a synergy). These adds will explode when the orb is exposed as they sacrifice themselves (in the video they were bugged and stuck in the door). When the Orbs are exposed the boss will try to channel from them. You MUST heavy attack the orb and get rid of it. If you do not do it in time the room will explode in massive damage and you will wipe.
Cleave – The boss has a heavy attack and cleave mechanic and you MUST block this as the tank, a dps will die to it so be careful. Do not make the boss face the group at any time because this will cause massive problems trying to find room to resurrect people it kills.
Adds – During the fight lots of basic trash adds will come into the room. The tank should try to stack these on the boss if possible and if your group dps is relatively low you should probably try to focus them over the boss. The ranged targets will require interrupts when they channel so be careful not to get stuck in the aoes they fire if you miss the interrupts.
Blood Puddle – Blood Puddle is much like the one in Spindleclutch II. The boss will transform into a puddle on the ground and follow the person who last had aggro (should be the tank) simply stand still and block this. the damage the puddle does will heal the boss, and while blocking the damage he can do is much less hence the healing being not so strong. This only lasts a few seconds but be careful as he usually comes out of it with a heavy attack.
Shield – This is just like the shield on the first boss in Maw Of Lorkhaj, at 90%,60%, and 30% health, he will raise his hands and a shield will be spinning around him. The only way to remove it is to kill it. During this phase, the group will take damage every tick getting more aggressive until it peaks then will continuously do damage to each player. Each player has their own aoe and you must NOT overlap else they will, of course, do damage to more than one player at a time (each has their own, overlap increases damage, pretty simple). The trick to this is to simply circle the boss formation-wise, while the healer keeps healing and the group does as much damage as possible. Once the shield is removed, the fight continues as normal.
NOTE: This shield has a health amount, your dps doesn’t have to be HIGH but if you are going to take a long time, your healer will need to work hard to keep you up. So the faster the better (video of me killing it with a tank! lol ).
Kujo Kethba (Catbat)
Welcome to the biggest pug killer fight in the dungeon. This boss is really made to look a lot more complex than it actually is. Good discipline really fixes all the problems that are common for pugs here. Tank tanks, dps does damage, and healer heals! Sounds simple enough? You would think…
The tank should turn the boss away from the group facing the stairs and NEVER turn him around. Always face away from the group. The dps should claim the left side and right side (one each) as theirs while the healer claims the middle formation wise for the eruptions. Decide who is going where before you pull the boss.
Eruptions – The boss will slam the ground and ALL damage he takes will reflect and hit the group and he will also be immune. This phase lasts 20 seconds. This happens at 90% 70% 50% and 30% but also if you are slow with the damage he will just do it every 30 seconds. While this is happening geysers will open up and lava will fly out of them hitting the group repeatedly until 20 seconds is over or everyone is dead.
The way to STOP this happening is to make your dps players, left and right, attack the blocks to cover up the lava spurts. Once they are covered the gargoyle will be no longer immune! During this phase, the healer should focus PURELY on keeping the dps alive while they are doing their job. Pretty simple but SO easy to mess up. Focus.
Adds – The boss spawns a HUGE amount of adds in the room, these root, channel abilities, have lots of aoe, and every side of nasty you can imagine in an add pull. This happens each phase that he is causing the eruptions. The tank should pull these as close to the boss as possible and CC them while the group is managing the geysers. Once they have successfully passed that phase, the group should focus fully on the adds else the overlap of mechanics will flood the room with way too many to manage.
Heavy Attack – The simplest mechanic in the game for a tank to put into practice…This heavy attack requires you to BLOCK. If you do not block you will take huge damage. A dps however will have to dodge roll else it will kill them.
Cleave – The boss will occasionally hit with cleave-like attacks and the group MUST NOT be in the boss’s face. This is for the tank to suck up. If dps/healers get hit this will most likely kill them. The group needs to stay behind the boss at all times.
Nisaazda
This Boss can be simple but also a bit messy in pugs. There are many mechanics that should already be familiar if you have gotten this far but it is very important that you pay attention to them. Also, it is a very mobile fight. The tank should TRY to stack the melee on top of the ranged boss to keep things simple and damage can be then distributed to both bosses evenly, but if this is not possible just be sure that you have BOTH taunted at all times just in case. Above all, if you had to choose a target individually. FOCUS Nisaazda as much as possible. Once she is down it is pretty easy.
Fus Do DAH! – Grundwulf will shout Fus Ro DAH! and shout in a straight line doing huge damage to anyone caught inside of it. This is very easy to see. Simply don’t stand in it but if you get caught, be sure to block.
Heavy Attack – Grundwulf will heavy attack whoever has aggro (should be the tank) Block this attack or you will die. If you are a dps or healer however you need to dodge roll it on time as you will not survive blocking it.
Teleport – Nisaazda does NOT stand still. She will teleport from one side of the room to the other, and keep track of her at all times. Usually, after a teleport, mechanics follow because you are so far away!
Channeled Attacks – Nisaazda will cast channeled attacks that will fire rapid shots at the group which MUST be interrupted.
Ghosts – hosts should be taunted by the tank and they can ONLY be killed if someone hits them with a red Hemoglobin Orb. They are invulnerable if they are not debuffed by the red orb.
Blood Circle – During the fight, a MASSIVE red circle of blood will be cast into the room. Stay out of this at all costs and keep the BOSS out of it. If you touch it you will take huge damage, and if the boss touches it they will DEAL large damage (enrage).
Gargoyle – Nisaazda will try to do a completely different type of channeling which cannot be interrupted by the regular “interrupt” type movements/abilities. Instead, you MUST hit her with the red Hemoglobin orb and stop her from doing it. If you do not, you will make her spawn a rather large gargoyle. If this happens the tank must taunt it fast and you need to focus it down. If this runs lose it will melt through players!
TIP: Keep the bosses close, stay on interrupts, hit the red orb often, and kill Nisaazda fast so the fight gets much less complicated sooner.
Grundwulf
You finally made it to the final boss and think you are here to fight a dragon? NOPE!
You are here to fight someone who is KILLING one, siphoning power from a dragon has made Grundwulf MUCH stronger! This Hard mode is not as bad as it first looks on the surface but will take a bit of practice to understand what is going on.
The tank should taunt the boss and keep him as central as possible to keep things simple. ALWAYS face the boss away from the group. The mechanics are pretty much rinse and repeat but they do get a lot heavier when health goes lower. So focus is key. The healer should stay close to the tank but behind the boss (depending on mechanics) and the dps will need to decide who is going to get the Hemoglobin orb and when. Everyone trying to do the same job will mess it up.
Fus Ro Dah – The boss will shout Fus Ro Dah! in a straight line. Anyone caught by this not blocking (apart from the tank) is dead. so do NOT stand in this (known bug: sometimes it hits people anyway, make it a habit to block even if you are OUT of it). Once the shout is over 3 circles will be on the ground and a ghost will come out of each one. These are immune to damage and the tank should position them all on the boss.
NOTE: These can be made vulnerable by hitting the Hemoglobin orb, BUT hold back for now).
Giant Bat!!! (Hard Mode) – The boss will cast at a player aiming his hand at their feet and a small aoe notification will spawn under a random player (not the tank). Whoever has this needs to run NOW! However, do not panic. A giant bat will spawn and one-shot you but if you simply run in a circle around the tank (without getting too close to the boss) the bat will just follow you round and round.
We stay close to the tank so that the bat is close to the ghosts (the bat is also immune). Now that you have the ghosts AND the bat in the room, send one player to go and hit the Hemoglobin synergy and heavy attack the orb! If done correctly, the bat and all of the ghosts will be vulnerable, the bat will die instantly and the ghosts will start to take damage from anything already running.
Hoarvor! – When you heavy attack the red Hemoglobin orb, a hoarvor will spawn and follow a player debuffing/cursing them with a horrible effect that will look like an empty health bar with a damage shield on it. You must now heal to FULL to remove it, or die. much like in Cloudrest. Stay out of the hoarvar’s face and kill it asap. The trick, of course, is to let it run into the group while you have damage running on the boss and it can die to passive damage but I would suggest focusing it. This is your priority target ANY time you hit that red orb!
Shackle – To start with ONE player will be chosen at random and a spike will appear out of the ground with a red chain attached to the chosen player. This shackles them to it and consistently causes them to take damage while spawning a coagulant (small add). The player affected must get to the spike as fast as possible. While not inside the circle around the spike you cannot be healed! Stay with the spike until it is gone and you are no longer shackled.
During the fight, these will become more of a problem where coordination and attention being paid are both important. The longer the fight (or less health the boss has) the more of these will spawn, first one then 2 then 3 then eventually 4. At low health there will be ONE shackle mechanic for EACH player, resulting in all 4 of you having to get to your locations fast AND having 4x coagulants. So it is key you get to your locations and also key you regroup back in the middle and kill the coagulants.
Fire Circles – The boss will cast multiple circles of fire under players so be careful not to run around too much, the more you run the more scattered these will be. These don’t do MASSIVE damage, but you want to try to find gaps in these if you can.
Dragon Fire – The boss will hide behind the block in the middle of the room and the dragon will try to breathe in his face. when this happens, get OUT of the fire and attack the block to move it out of the way (I would recommend a heavy attack as you can only hit it ONCE). If you fail these mechanics the fire will spread the damage throughout the room and you will all die.
Block Throw – The boss will throw the block in the air to reposition it, if it lands on you, you are dead so be careful to watch for where it lands.
Dire-Maw Adds – These adds spawn at health percentages and should be dealt with as fast as possible, I would recommend saving ultimates for these. The tank must taunt them asap and turn them away from the group. They spawn at around 70% 50%, 30%, 20%, 10%.
TIPS: Keep the ghosts invulnerable until the bat comes out and red orb them all at once together. Always bring the hoarvors and coagulants into the group. And save ultimates for the adds. There is NO execute mechanic, no enrage just rinse repeat. Clean focus and coordination will get the job done.
GOOD LUCK!!
Moongrave Fane Dungeon Loot
Below is a list of all the loot you can expect to find in Moongrave Fane.
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 Scalebreaker Coffer or it could be in her mystery coffer. You can learn more about the Undaunted in the Undaunted Guide.
- Dro’Zakar’s Claws
- Hollowfang Thirst
- Renald’s Resolve
- Grundwulf (monster helm from vet only)
Moongrave Fane Achievements
Blood Rush
Defeat all encounters in addition to the Risen Ruins, Dro’zakar, the Kujo Kethba, Nisaazda, and Grundwulf within 30 minutes of entering Veteran Moongrave Fane. Your timer starts when players engage the first group of enemies.
Blood Striker
Hit 150 enemies with Hemo Helots within Moongrave Fane.
Bloodless Kill
Defeat the Risen Ruins without creating a Hemo Helot using the Sangiin Sacrifice Synergy in Veteran Moongrave Fane.
Bloody Kll
Defeat Dro’zakar after smashing a Hemo Helot that he is consuming in Moongrave Fane.
Cubed
Defeat the Kujo Kethba and block three geysers within three seconds of each other in Veteran Moongrave Fane.
Defanged the Devourer
Defeat all encounters in addition to the Risen Ruins, Dro’zakar, the Kujo Kethba, Nisaazda, and Grundwulf after using the Sangiin Hemo Helot in Veteran Moongrave Fane in under 30 minutes without suffering a group member death.
Drop the Block
After using the Sangiin Hemo Helot, squash Ravenous Hoarvors with the Sliding Stone in Veteran Moongrave Fane.
Drunk On Power
Defeat Grundwulf after using the Sangiin Hemo Helot in Veteran Moongrave Fane.
Escape the Grave
Defeat all encounters in addition to the Risen Ruins, Dro’zakar, the Kujo Kethba, Nisaazda, and Grundwulf in Veteran Moongrave Fane without suffering a group member death.
Failed Transfusion
Defeat Nisaazda and Grundwulf without letting Nisaazda use her Blood Ties ability to equalize their health in Veteran Moongrave Fane.
Holowfang Clan Slayer
Defeat 200 Hollowfang clan vampires in Veteran Moongrave Fane. Hollowfang Dire-Maws and Bloodpanthers do not give credit for this achievement.
Hollowfang Dire-Maw Slayer
Defeat 25 Hollowfang Dire-Maws in Veteran Moongrave Fane.
Moongrave Fane Challenger
Complete the listed achievements for Veteran Moongrave Fane.
Moongrave Fane Conqueror
Defeat the Risen Ruins, Dro’zakar, the Kujo Kethba, Nisaazda, and Grundwulf in Veteran Moongrave Fane.
Moongrave Fane Vanquisher
Defeat the Risen Ruins, Dro’zakar, the Kujo Kethba, Nisaazda, and Grundwulf in Moongrave Fane.
Moongrave Style Master
Learn every chapter in the Moongrave style book, found in the Moongrave Fane dungeon.
Quench the Thirst
Land a killing blow on a Sangiin’s Thirst using a Hemo Helot in Veteran Moongrave Fane.
Scalebreaker Delver
Complete both Moongrave Fane and Lair of Maarselok in Veteran.
Scalebreaker Explorer
Enter either Moongrave Fane or Lair of Maarselok for the first time.
Scalebreaker Scout
Complete both Lair of Maarselok and Moongrave Fane in Normal.
Shared Experience
Defeat Grundwulf with each member of the group moving the Sliding Stone no more than once in Veteran Moongrave Fane.
Moongrave Fane Leads
The following antiquity leads can be acquired in the Moongrave Fane.
The Dov-rha Sabaton Poleyn is part of the Dov-Rha Sabatons mythic item.
The dig zone for this lead is found in High Isle and Amenos.
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…
