Abandoned by its Dragon Lord long ago, the temple of Zaan the Scalecaller remained empty for centuries, cold and discarded. Now a new cult has taken over the mountain, and their repugnant schemes threaten all of Tamriel.
Scalecaller Peak 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. Scalecaller Peak 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
Need specific info? Click these quick links to go directly to each section.
Scalecaller Peak Location
Scalecaller Peak is located in the northeastern region of Stormhaven. Travel north from the Wind Keep Wayshrine to reach Scalecaller Peak. You can also access Scalecaller Peak specifically by using the Dungeon Finder.
Inside Scalecaller Peak
Scalecaller Peak is a four-level dungeon with five bosses and one quest. The enemies in this dungeon include dire wolves, giants, skeevers, and pestilent arcanists.
Plans of Pestilence
Jorvuld Davaux has requested my aid in helping him journey through a disease infested temple, located within the hazards of Scalecaller Peak.
Completing Plans of Pestilence
You will need to defeat Rinaerus the Rancide, Orzun the Foul-Smelling, Doylemish Ironheart, Matriarch Aldis, Plague Concocter Mortieu, and Zaan the Scalecaller. Speak to Jorvuld Davaux to complete this quest. Completing this quest will reward you with gold, a skill point, and an Unidentified Scalecaller Peak Armament.
Scalecaller Peak Boss Mechanics
Need specific info? Click these quick links to go directly to each section.
Orzun the Foul-Smelling & Rinaerus the Rancid
This boss really sets the tone for the dungeon. There are multiple things going on at once so people have to really focus and watch their feet. One of the major mechanics in this fight will prepare you for one of the hard mode mechanics of the last boss so pay attention! The tank should grab BOTH bosses (one with a ranged taunt and one with a melee taunt). The ranged taunt should be on the middle boss (Rinaerus) and the melee taunt on the melee boss (Orzun). The melee ogre needs to be moved AWAY from the other, they must NOT stay together. If they stay together, their negative AOE circle will overlap and they will get stronger and wipe out the group. Keep the melee away from the caster at all costs.
Heavy Attack – During the fight, Orzun will throw out a nasty heavy attack at whoever has agro (should be the tank) If you are a tank BLOCK IT, if you are not and for some strange reason as a dps or healer he is aiming at YOU, dodge roll it on time (don’t even try to block it he will annihilate you).
Skeeverss – You have seen these already if you have gotten this far. The ranged boss in the middle will call skeevers to the fight. When Rinaerus is channeling he will need to be Interrupted, or else the skeevers will spawn! So yes this mechanic is technically avoidable. These are usually about 3-4 at a time and don’t hit too hard but they should be dispatched quickly. Be careful of your feet because these will lay on the ground while dead and shoot poison from their bodies for a short period of time. If you get hit by even a couple of these they can kill you fast. So the danger here is standing on them when they are dead, not so much when they are alive. The tank can taunt, pin these if they like but there is really no need, AND you run the risk of having too many stacked up negative aoes. So realistically the dps should get these down fast and just stay away from the bodies until the aoe fades.
Snow Tremor – During the fight, there will be many moving ice spikes on the ground. Avoid these else you will be stunned HOWEVER!, there is a mechanic these are required for. There will be a small ice aoe in the form of a fast-moving tiny circle heading towards you in the fight (each player will get this). When it happens you will be prompted with a message saying “Orzun has targeted you with a snow tremor”. When this happens, find one of the moving spike-filled aoes and DELIBERATELY stand in it. You will be stunned, the tremor will hit you and you will be broken free and safe (aoe explodes and goes away). If however, you do NOT stand in the ice at this stage, the aoe will catch you, hit you and kill you.
Ice Pillars – During Rinaerus will channel ice storm at the players for a short period of time and the ground will erupt with ice pillars. You MUST get behind these ice pillars as fast as possible and stay behind them until his attack is over. If you do not get to the pillars fast enough you will be snared to a complete stop and freeze to death. In this phase, you MUST be ready to hide or die.
Enrage – If you stack the bosses they will enrage and kill the group. Also, if you kill one ogre before the other then the remaining one after a few seconds will enrage and hit MUCH harder (basically capable of wiping the group). So in short, push one boss to low health and then focus on the other. Then try to kill them BOTH eventually at roughly the same time, or close to. Stacking makes them enrage, killing one too early makes the other enrage. Simple!
Doyemish Ironheart
This fight is the PUG killer for sure because this is where people who run away all the time mess everything up! The basic mechanic of aggro in this game is that the tank taunts, and everyone else are fine (excluding mechanics). If YOU as a dps/healer have agro you should NEVER run away from the tank. Bring adds/bosses to the tank and don’t panic! It doesn’t help and just ruins groups. Why is this important in this fight? because you WILL get chased by stuff the tank cannot control and it is now up to YOU to relax, understand the importance of staying close, and NOT panic!
The tank should hold the boss still and face the door. Everyone else (yes healers this means you too) should be as close as possible in a circle around the boss and get ready to take on the mechanics. No matter what happens do NOT start running to Grahtwood!
Heavy Attack – This is extremely straight forward and if the tank has ever done Spindle Clutch II and faced Bloodspawn, this is an obvious mechanic. The boss will do a heavy attack on the tank. Block it or die. If this for any weird reason is on the dps/healer, then dodge roll. Block won’t save you if you are not a tank.
Ice Wraiths – These are low-health adds which will spawn during the fight, these must be killed else lots of nasty ice aoes and knockdowns will happen from them. They are not so difficult to deal with so long as you keep a decent amount of aoe dps down on the ground. The tank can taunt these but generally, it is safer for the tank to keep the focus on the boss. Do NOT run around the room, they will just chase you! Kill them.
Don’t Stand In Stupid! – During the fight there will be large AOE effects on the ground, these are extremely easy to spot, simply move your feet and don’t stand in them. If you do you will take damage and the healer will have to work pretty hard to keep you up. They are not one-shots by any means but they do offer nasty damage over time.
Bleed – The tank will receive bleed damage from the boss which the healer will need to keep on top of to cleanse/heal through.
Ground Pound – The boss will occasionally pound the ground in a small aoe under his feet. Do NOT stand in this.
Lasers – The lasers from the orbs will follow people around a bit, just move your feet and don’t get caught else they will turn you to stone.
Spheres!!! – These floating balls of death will attack the group at a set % of health of the boss. These spawn at 80% 60% 40% and 20%. These MUST be focused. They will pick one player from the group and go straight for them. The target will have a small pulsing aoe under their feet to indicate they are the target. The ball moves slowly but when it reaches them it will turn them to stone.
The trick to this is to keep aoe down where the boss is and stay CLOSE to the boss together. That way when the gets close to the group it takes passive damage at the same time as the boss. BUT as well as aoe damage the group should now FOCUS all single target damage on the ball to kill it.
IF it turns anyone to stone, then you must break them free IMMEDIATELY. If you do not break them free the boss will channel up a one-shot. This CAN be interrupted but he will enrage and get stronger, so the key here is to stay as close as possible to each other while avoiding aoes, and the second someone is turned to stone, break them out with a synergy. After they are turned to stone the ball will pick a different target and so on until it is dead.
NOTE: IF you run away, it will chase you and when you eventually get turned to stone (and let’s face it most people are not capable of actually “kiting” it away and killing it) they will be WAY too far away for the group to go and break them free and they will die before anyone gets there. Then the ball will swap to them and rinse repeat. Stay close together and you can recover faster, as shown in the video. It is much faster paced to stay together, everyone is putting damage down, stuff is tanked, and heals are in one place 😉
Matriarch Aldis (aka VMA Flashback)
This is another pug killer right here. A very simple to understand boss but most underestimate the importance of mechanics and inevitably wipe on repeat. PACE is key in this fight. Overburning will result in a wipe because she has EXTREMELY low health and the mechanics pop up at very regular moments. The boss should be tanked in the middle of the room so that when you are trying to kill adds she is not in the way and you don’t accidentally do additional damage to her while killing adds. The mechanics below will make more sense as to why this is but again remember PACE is key. Do NOT drop ultimates on here at the beginning of the fight and expect to burn it, you WILL die (yes we have done it and so have many but it is really rough)
VMA ICE!! – That’s right, just like the VMA ice round (arena 5) the ice water will KILL you, so STAY out of it!
Plug the Ice – The boss will channel and a small ice spike will start to appear on the floor, the tank must stand on this and plug the hole or the group will take HUGE damage.
Fear – The boss occasionally fears the entire group making you run in a random direction (yes sometimes into the ice) If this happens, simply break free and carry on as you were.
Leminids – The Leminids aka Lemonades are the key problem to this fight. IF you get overwhelmed with these you are all going to die. The boss has extremely low health for a boss fight such as this so as i said above pace is key! The reason for this is because these Leminids spawn every “10%”! That’s right EVERY 10% you will get an add and HAVE to deal with it. At 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% you will get one of these spawn randomly in the room and the dps must switch their focus from the boss, to the add and fast. If the adds are not killed in time geysers will spawn. DPS/healers generally will not survive them unless they are full health and already standing in heals. So it pays to keep some heals down at all times for the group even if they are not taking damage just in case.
IF you overburn the boss you will get of course MULTIPLE Leminids and this will be hell! The light attacks from them will overwhelm the group and the geysers will be TOO much to deal with. What helps with these is if the tank can put a ranged taunt on them while staying IN the middle! Do not move the boss!
Stomp – The boss will occasionally create a massive stomp-like spreading aoe which you MUST avoid. The tank can block it but the group must move backward and get out of it or pretty much take a one-shot unless full of resists and damage shields.
JUMP! – This is why the tank should hold the boss still and not run around melee taunting Leminids. Always range taunt them and hold your ground. Whoever has agro (yes this applies to the tank dropping taunt) the boss will JUMP to them if they are far away. This means if the tank runs off to taunt something, the boss will jump on their head to catch them. This creates a massive quake attack in AOE from the location of the boss’s target. You want to avoid making this mechanic happen because it is VERY likely you will make it land on the group’s head.
Plague Concocter Mortieu
This boss is quite possibly one of the coolest boss fights to date. A very fun and active fight with some unique mechanics. The tank should hold the boss in the MIDDLE of the room. There are many things the tank must focus in here (explained below) and be positioned in the middle of the room makes maneuverability much easier and there is less chance of taking TOO long to get to certain locations. If the tank is too slow, people will die! The group should stay behind the boss in a semi-circle while fighting him unless of course dealing with other mechanics.
Poison Grills – This is the reason I tell the tank to stand in the middle of the room at all times. The ground is full of grills. Each one has the potential to cause poison to fire from it at the group causing HUGE damage over a very short period of time. The tank must get to the active grill as soon as possible, sit on it, and hold block to take the damage off the group. Every time the tank successfully protects the group by blocking the hole, the tank should get BACK into the middle of the room ready to block the next one.
A lot of tanks make the mistake of standing where they last were (so they block one and stay there even though it has gone)…this can create a problem. If for example the tank is at the farthest corner of the room and a new one spawns WAY at the other side of the room, he/she is NEVER going to make it and the group will die. Focusing on hugging the middle and always getting back into position makes each run shorter, and less dangerous for the group.
Arrow Spray – The boss will cast a cone aoe in the form of arrow spray, pretty much the same as the bow ability players have in the bow skill line. This is VERY easy to avoid. He will choose any target he likes, simply don’t stand in it. If you are hit you will take poison damage over time and die fast!
Fire! – The boss will cast a small spreading aoe on the floor. When this happens move away from it ready to watch your feet. Once it pops it will emit 4 lines of fire in different directions along the floor. Simply move to one side so it passes you and don’t stand in it. If you get hit you will take HIGH fire damage over time.
Take Aim – The boss will try to snipe a member of the group with a HUGE single target hard-hitting ability. This needs to be interrupted as soon as possible to prevent a potential one-shot to a dps/healer.
Making the Potion – This is all about the adds and they must be killed in ORDER! Jorvuld requires parts of creatures for his potions. He will call out which pieces he needs during the fight so it helps if you have subtitles on. Focus on the boss at ALL times, unless he asks for specific pieces. Firstly you will need to kill Imps, then the second phase you will have to kill Stranglers and in the 3rd phase you will have to kill Beetles. In each phase, the room will be full of poison and your healers will simply have to keep you alive while you focus on the boss and the required adds. Once he has all the pieces he needs he will throw a potion into the room. The boss at this stage will be stunned and there will be a POSITIVE aoe in the room. Stand in this together asap and you will be granted with a HUGE bonus and cleansed of the poison.
The bonuses you can receive are Increased damage and recovery and also increased damage and ultimate regen speed. During this phase, you want to burn the boss to hell and back as your damage output is almost doubled!
Guard – While the boss is pinned by the potion from Jorvuld a guard will run into the fight. He has fairly high health for an add and hits with one-shot heavy attacks if not block. As soon as the tank spots this, he should be pulled to the boss and stacked with him. If the dps focus you can kill this add rapidly with your damage increase buff before it runs out. Failing that, focus on him first before continuing with the boss.
Zaan the Scalecaller
This boss requires your FULL attention as a group and you MUST work together, or else this is not going to happen. The tank needs to focus on holding the boss and turning her away from the group at all times, NO SPINNING! and also when the adds are in the room you must, of course, taunt them and hold them still too. Each member must know exactly what they are doing, understand each phase and be ready for them. Soloers and heroes will cause nothing but failure in this fight. Work together! Formation wise I make a very clear demonstration in the video about how you should stand. Stand in line with the gap between the middle dragon and the right dragon in a STRAIGHT line. This will prepare you for ALL mechanics I am about to explain!
Leminid and Atronach – There are two adds with lowish health, a Lemonid and a Frost Atronach. These must die BUT be careful. Once the Atronach dies it will drop the ICE mechanic (moving spikes) from the first boss. DO NOT stand in it. And once the Leminid dies, she will drop a poison geyser…do NOT stand in this! If you stand in either of these they will stun you and you will take this effect out of the room. YOU NEED THIS! While killing the adds be sure that they are stacked on the boss (use ultimates on the adds always) and keep the heals heavy. The main problem with this hard mode as far as incoming damage is concerned is the amount of aoe dot damage. So hots are essential. Anything that hits directly is a one-shot so spamming breath of life is a waste of time, and generally too late.
SO again to recap, stack the adds, use ultimates if you have them, and when they die, AVOID the aoe they drop and stay in your formation. The ice will move around so watch your feet. These adds spawn EVERY time Zaan runs for her shield (coming up later).
Laser – The laser will move around the room all of the time. This just like the ice and the geyser must be avoided. When caught in it you will turn to stone. Now this one DOES re-spawn unlike the two above but you want to avoid this at all costs UNTIL later.
Dawnbreaker/Heavy Attack – The boss Dawnbreaker/heavy attack the person with aggro (should be the tank) This will not only hit with direct damage but ALSO hit in a small aoe too. If you are not a tank, do NOT stand in this, and if you are, make sure you are BLOCKING and not running away. It is delayed animation wise and it WILL catch you.
Fire Breath – The boss will pick a target and aim at them with a constant recasting wave of flames like a breath. Each HIT must be avoided. I have seen many people run around and panic while killing the rest of the group. THIS is a very important reason first of all for the straight-line formation. If the flames are on you, take a WIDE circle (run) to the left. Quite literally move in ONE large circle from the group to your left, and back to your group again. THIS will allow it to be OFF the group, it won’t catch you and by the time the last tick hits, you will be back in your original position. If you are caught out with this one however and the above tactic is not an option, simply stay back as far as possible and weave in and out of the flames until they are gone.
Flame Beam – This will select ONE player and hold them in the air draining their health rapidly with a flaming beam! This looks exactly the same as the Zaan monster helmet effect. If someone is caught in this they will continuously take damage until the effect is over or they die. When this happens, someone must get IN the way of the beam and block to take some of the damage. The tank can literally just stand in it and block, BUT if the tank is the target, then the dps, healer may want to quickly take 1 dodge roll through it just to take the edge off for a quick tick. No longer than a split second as a squishy though because you will die.
Ice Statues – Every time the boss reaches a 20% checkpoint (she will finish her current mechanic so you can over burn) at 80% 60% 40% AND 20% she will be invulnerable and spawn 3 ice statues in the room. Keep an eye on the floor to see the ice trail aiming at where she is summoning them from. This is “focus or die”. Basically, all 3 statues MUST be killed as fast as possible. While they are alive the group will take HUGE ice damage over time. This is where the healer must focus on as much heal over time to counter the huge damage over time. Spamming breath of life will leave someone dead. Focus on what you are doing here and protect the group. Also as a healer, if you have barrier, this can help.
Once the ice statues are down Zaan will drop her shield, all 3 dragon statues will breathe poison and coat the ENTIRE room! You have VERY limited time to react and this goes into the next mechanic below!
Save Yourselves!! – The 3 mechanics above I have mentioned to avoid? The laser beam, the geyser, and the ice on the ground? Well, technically there are now x4! The shield Zaan dropped is the remaining 4th mechanic. As soon as the ice phase is over and all adds are dead, to survive the poison you must ALL be protected.
On the regular normal/vet mode everyone can just hug Zaan’s shield and be safe…but NOT here! Every player must be assigned a mechanic. So, have one person stand in ice, one person stand in laser beam, one person stand in the geyser and one person stand in Zaan’s shield and take the synergy!
If each person successfully got into a mechanic on their own, in time for the poison to fire, everyone will survive. If one person fails, or if the mechanics were taken BEFORE this phase and they have nowhere to go. They are dead. One shot!
My Shield! – The boss screams “MY SHIELD”, when this happens NO ONE must be standing in her shield. She will run to it to protect herself and pick it back up off the floor. After she has it back the fight repeats itself (with a twist explained below). She must be put with the adds and stacked while the group burns down the adds in their original “straight line” formation. Rinse and repeat this process EVERY 20%. Basically, it is the same fight over and over and over until she is dead, but now we have poison in the room after the first successful shield phase.
Poison Breath – If you have successfully survived the first phase of ice, stuns, poison, shield, etc. You will or SHOULD be back in your formation killing adds and watching for mechanics…But, Now the statues are awake!
This is the main reason above all for the straight line. One dragon statue at random every few seconds will create a large triangle breath aoe on the ground and ANYONE caught in it is dead. Blocking or dodge rolling makes no difference you are dead.
Hence the straight line. The line is to be between one of TWO possible poison locations. As soon as you see it, either step right or step left, TOGETHER. Doing this will make sure that you stay in formation, everything is controlled and you don’t take one-shots. If anyone decides they think they know better and starts running around the room or going too far out of formation, they run a MASSIVE risk of dying.
Focus and stay in formation.
SO, key points.
Kill adds with ultimates, don’t pick up aoes, and stay in a straight line.
Every 20% health, kill 3 statues, get IN your assigned aoes and survive the aoe poison.
When Zaan goes to get her shield, get ready to get back into position (straight line) to drop ultimates on the adds and rinse and repeat.
A straight line is key for the poison and the flame breath so focus.
Best of luck to you all and have fun!!
Scalecaller Peak Dungeon Loot
Below is a list of all the loot you can expect to find in Scalecaller Peak.
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 Scalecaller Coffer or it could be in her mystery coffer. You can learn more about the Undaunted in the Undaunted Guide.
- Curse of Doylemish
- Jorvuld’s Guidance
- Plague Slinger
- Zaan (monster helm from vet only)
Builds That Use Scalecaller Peak Gear
Scalecaller Peak Achievements
Breaker of Spells
Defeat Zaan the Scalecaller after reading Zaan’s Ritual Scroll in Veteran Scalecaller Peak.
Daedric Deflector
Defeat Zaan the Scalecaller without taking damage from her Pestilent Breath attack and without using the same avoidance method twice after reading Zaan’s Ritual Scroll in Veteran Scalecaller Peak.
Doctor’s Orders
Defeat Plague Concocter Mortieu in Veteran Scalecaller Peak with four living group members all suffering from two of Mortieu’s infections simultaneously.
Dragon Bones Delver
Complete Veteran Fang Lair and Veteran Scalecaller Peak.
Dragon Bones Explorer
Enter either Fang Lair or Scalecaller Peak for the first time.
Mountain God
Defeat all encounters in addition to Rinaerus the Rancid and Orzun the Foul-Smelling, Doylemish Ironheart, Matriarch Aldis, Plague Concocter Mortieu, and Zaan the Scalecaller after reading Zaan’s Ritual Scroll in Veteran Scalecaller Peak in under 30 minutes without dying.
On Top
Defeat all encounters in addition to Rinaerus the Rancid and Orzun the Foul-Smelling, Doylemish Ironheart, Matriarch Aldis, Plague Concocter Mortieu, and Zaan the Scalecaller in Veteran Scalecaller Peak, without suffering a group member death.
Peak Performance
Defeat all encounters in addition to Rinaerus the Rancid and Orzun the Foul-Smelling, Doylemish Ironheart, Matriarch Aldis, Plague Concocter Mortieu, and Zaan the Scalecaller in Veteran Scalecaller Peak in under 30 minutes. Timer starts when players engage the first group of Scalecaller creatures.
Pustulent Problems
Defeat Rinaerus the Rancid and Orzun the Foul-Smelling, Doylemish Ironheart, Matriarch Aldis, Plague Concocter Mortieu, and Zaan the Scalecaller without a single group member taking damage from a Skeever’s Pestilent Pus in Veteran Scalecaller Peak.
Scalecaller Peak Challenger
Complete the listed achievements for Veteran Scalecaller Peak.
Scalecaller Peak Conqueror
Defeat Rinaerus the Rancid and Orzun the Foul-Smelling, Doylemish Ironheart, Matriarch Aldis, Plague Concocter Mortieu, and Zaan the Scalecaller in Veteran Scalecaller Peak.
Scaleclaler Peak Vanquisher
Defeat Rinaerus the Rancid and Orzun the Foul-Smelling, Doylemish Ironheart, Matriarch Aldis, Plague Concocter Mortieu, and Zaan the Scalecaller in Scalecaller Peak.
Scalecaller Style Master
Learn every chapter in the Scalecaller style book, occasionally found as rewards for completing the Scalecaller Peak dungeon.
Stony Situation
Defeat Doylemish Ironheart in Veteran Scalecaller Peak without a single group member becoming Petrified by Stony Gaze.
Tremor Trouble
Defeat Orzun the Foul-Smelling and Rinaerus the Rancid in Veteran Scalecaller Peak without a single group member being killed by a Terrorizing Tremor.
Veteran Cultist Slayer
Defeat 120 Cultists in Veteran Scalecaller Peak.
Veteran Ogre Slayer
Defeat 50 Ogres in Veteran Scalecaller Peak.
Watch Your Step
Defeat Matriarch Aldis without any member of your group taking damage from the water that surrounds her during the fight in Veteran Scalecaller Peak.
Scalecaller Peak Leads
There are currently no leads located in Scalecaller Peak.
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…
