Once a thriving source of profit for the merchant Felisa Vendu, she abandoned this old mine after workers revolted. They insisted that voices came to them from the darkness. A low whispered chanting that followed them to their sleep, driving many of them mad. Since then, only fools have entered.
The Cauldron 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. The Cauldron 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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The Cauldron Location
The Cauldron is located in the western region of Deshaan. Travel northwest from the West Narsis Wayshrine to reach The Cauldron. You can also access The Cauldron specifically by using the Dungeon Finder.
Inside The Cauldron
DUNGEON is a one-level dungeon with four bosses, one rescue, and one quest. The enemies in this dungeon include clannfears, scamps, gore blobs, and Dremora Skullguards.
Into the Deep
I arrived at an abandoned mine in Deshaan and found a young Dark Elf named Drathas and a Dremora named Lyranth. Lyranth offered a deal of gold in exchange for assisting in her search for a lockbox she cannot access.
Completing Banished the Banished
You will need to defeat Oxblood the Depraved, Taskmaster Viccia, the Molten Guardian, and Baron Zaudrus. Speak to Lyranth to complete this quest. Completing this quest will reward you with gold, a skill point, and an Unidentified Cauldron Armaments coffer.
The Cauldron Boss Mechanics
Need specific info? Click these quick links to go directly to each section.
Oxblood the Depraved
This is a simple boss but he hits like a truck! Make sure no matter what, the tank does NOT drop the taunt in this fight else a DPS or Healer is going to take a swift backhand to the face and die. The boss realistically should be tanked in the center of the room while turned away from the group. Maintain this position at all times as the tank to make it pretty simple throughout. NO ONE should be standing in front of the boss apart from the tank.
Heavy Attack – The boss will occasionally fire off a massive heavy attack at whoever has aggro. Kind of a slam attack. If this is on the tank, all they need to do is block. If it is on a dps/healer (which it should NOT be) then they will have to dodge roll or die.
FART!! – The boss will fire off 3x light attacks one after the other and then turn his ass on the tank and fart at them with 3 different poison GAS AOEs…I could explain it cleaner and more professionally of course but let’s face it…a farting boss is funny!
But seriously, avoid these circles if you can as they will cause a lot of damage, especially for anyone who is NOT a tank. Mind your feet. They’re pretty slow so not too hard to avoid but you will be punished if you walk into them. A missed opportunity for ZOS to call the effect “Backdraft!”…ok, I’m done now…Don’t stand in Stupid.
Taskmaster Viccia
This boss is Chaotic, but incredibly simple once you nail down the individual mechanics. While it looks like alot is going on, it’s just dramatic, not necessarily complex. Take a breath and have a good look at the room. The tank should hold the boss as still as possible at all times (pending certain mechanics) and the group should literally just pay attention to their feet. DO NOT stack, and do NOT run away. You need to be fairly close for the most part but without putting yourself in danger.
Heavy Attack – This should always be on the tank unless they drop aggro, which is a big no-no! Don’t drop the taunt! If it is on the tank, the tank must simply block, if it is on someone else, they must dodge roll or die.
BIG BOOM!!! – The boss will channel a MASSIVE aoe from where they are standing. Get out of this as soon as possible. As the tank, all you need to do is get to the edge of it and stand THERE…The boss will come to you, and now you have your new position to hold them in. When the boss does it again, resume your previous position. So as the tank you are standing still until the boom, then moving slightly, till the next boom, and move back again.
This will give you VERY simple control over the boss and the movement of it will be limited so the dps can make more use of ground-based abilities since you are not running around the room. While the large aoe is on the ground,. NO ONE should be standing in it as it will do very fast and high damage over time.
Lightning Traps! – The boss will spawn lightning circles on the ground all around the room. These usually land in 4s but can overwhelm the room quickly. You do have a helper NPC (Drathas) in the room getting rid of these in groups throughout the fight BUT you will have to be patient for this to happen. You CAN put on a damage shield and BLOCK and walk into them to remove them but you will still take a lot of damage. The safest way to deal with these is to focus, and just watch your feet. DON’T stand in them.
XBIG TIP: If you can draw a line between YOU and the BOSS and there is a lightning aoe between you…MOVE! If the path is clear you are safe, if not you are in trouble (see below).
Chain Pull – The boss randomly (usually the furthest away player which is why you should NOT be running to Grahtwood!) PULL a player to their feet. This can be annoying but not life-threatening UNLESS you have a lightning ground aoe between you and the boss directly.
As mentioned as a tip above, if you can draw a line between you and the boss, and nothing is in the way, all you need do when you get pulled is break free. However, if there is an aoe between you, there is a high chance you will be the target and the boss will drag you through it and kill you in transit. Positioning is key.
Mages Wrath!? – IF you are too far away the boss will channel at the ranged player. This can be interrupted and MUST be done as soon as possible. If you fail he will cast a lightning strike/mages wrath type attack which can and will cause a huge amount of damage, usually a one-shot to a dps/healer player.
Adds – The boss will Spawn adds in 3 phases, around 75% 50%, and 25% (give or take current mechanics and dps of the group). This is simple. Kill them as a priority. There are a specific amount of adds and phases and when they are dead, it will just be YOU and the BOSS. Don’t make things difficult and ignore these. Kill them as your priority targets and then go back to the boss again.
They have low health but the majority are ranged so you may need to interrupt some of them to stop them from channeling also watch out for arc-type AOE skills (arrow spray) from the archers. After the last wave, relax, there will be NO more adds.
Molten Guardian
Simple boss with CLEAR mechanics which looks really scary and makes everyone panic! IN a nutshell, this boss is a pussy cat so long as the tank maintains a taunt. IF a dps/healer is hit by the boss, they are pretty much dead, but if the tank maintains aggro, it’s literally all about your feet. The tank should hold aggro at all times and be ready to move when mechanics change. No dps or healer should ever stand in the boss’s face directly.
Heavy Attack – Very simple, the boss will wind up a large heavy attack with a slight frontal cleave. The tank should block this.
Teleport – During the fight the boss will teleport to a new location. When this happens he will spawn two small adds very similar to itself. These should be your priority targets at all times. They don’t have a huge amount of health but they do have their own unique mechanics and LOVE to focus on people who are not a tank if they are not taunted. The tank should grab these (they don’t move by the way) and the group should kill them before returning back to the boss.
NOTE: 25% health and under the boss will teleport VERY often meaning you can get overwhelmed with adds if you are not careful. be sure to ALWAYS kill the adds.
Lava Spit – The boss will spit into the air making it pretty much RAIN lava/fireballs. These will land on the ground and burn on the spot. Don’t stand in them, they do fire damage. Pretty simple. Don’t panic and run around the room, just look at what you are doing.
BIG BOOM! – The boss occasionally will cast a HUGE aoe that spreads to almost half the room. You have 3 options here. Get out of it, block it, or JUST before it goes boom…dodge roll it. It’s really obvious and really easy to avoid so long as you don’t panic. If you fail however as a dps/healer, you are dead. As the tank, it’s a BIG hit and knockdown. Don’t mess it up!
DEBUFFED!! – This one is massively overlooked. The boss will fire off light attacks, like fireballs, and the adds will do this too. They do hit dps/healers quite hard but they have another side effect. EACH successfully placed fireball on a player, will cause them to have a debuff on them. Each fireball will add a stack to the debuff and restart the timer (look at the end of your base game debuff timers it is always on the far right). While this is on you ALL fire damage you take is stronger, and the more stacks, the worse it gets! These fireballs can be dodged to avoid the debuff entirely OR blocked. So if you are the tank, be sure to block it, as a dps/healer if you see it coming, now you know what to do to avoid it.
Channel Fire – This mechanic is the pug killer because complacent players REFUSE to interrupt things assuming they are too good to apply a basic skill because “someone else should do it”…don’t be that person. Basically, the boss will put his hand to the ground and channel CONSTANTLY making each player take fire damage per second. This mechanic hits very hard, people should NOT stack, and someone should interrupt the boss as soon as possible to stop this.
ADVANCED: IF you are an extremely advanced group and you have prepared for this and agreed to do so, you can IGNORE everything I just noted above. Instead, spread out, do NOT interrupt it, and make sure your healer is in the mood to carry the hell out of you!
IF and only IF, your group has enough mitigation and heals combined and you can maintain that throughout the channel…as a group you can actually spread out a bit (not stacking) and out heal the channel! This means the DPS gets around 30 seconds of raw BURN on the boss.
At execute this is a game changer if you can do it because instead of him jumping around the room, you go for the burn. It doesn’t matter if you have 10k dps or 100k dps, so long as you can out heal it, this method can be taken advantage of. Again this is advanced and I would highly recommend you don’t do this unless your group is prepared for it or else you are going to wipe.
Rescue Lyranth – SAVE HER!
This boss is kind of an arena rather than a raw BOSS. Feels like multiple waves of Add pulls. However, this is more punishing than most add pulls. The prison has a health bar, and if you die, that health bar gets reset. Start again!
The trick to this is, to pick up the oil/poison/fuel synergy. Walk over to a conduit-type structure, and then run straight to the middle. This will draw a line that will be ignited once the lightning strikes BREAKING the conduit and spawning a group of enemies. Repeat this until all conduits are blown up and the fight is over.
You get 10 seconds with the fuel so you can blow up the conduits one at a time, two at a time, and if you are REALLY sneaky you can get x3!! BUT, there is a price. EACH one, is ONE add pull. If you pull more than one, you face multiple at the same time. This is literally down to your group to decide how to approach this.
It is tricky to explain the full mechanics since this is not a boss but big waves of enemies but I will note the priority targets that will cause you a problem.
Bone Colossus – Low health, BIG hits! This should be killed as soon as possible else you will have to deal with his fire mechanics. If he starts to stretch out his arms and scream he will place meteors all around the room and you must keep moving to avoid them. This is the same as the colossus that spawns in one of the last rounds of maelstrom arena if you are not killing the channeling Dremora. So not a totally new enemy. Kill him fast, or watch your feet. Either way, there is no dps check for him, just risk if you don’t pay attention.
Ogrims – These as small but they can be annoying. While they do not pose a huge threat damage-wise, they do channel beating their chest and knock people over, these need to be interrupted else people will get stunned while getting hit by other stuff.
MEGA JEFF! (Daedroth) – Massive lizard with flaming breath. Simple, kill it, but keep it facing AWAY from the group at all times as the tank. If he breathes fire on the group, they are quite literally, toast!
Nigel! (Titan) – Big and scary with not too much else. This target does cast ground aoes and punchy heavy attacks at the tank but really he isn’t too much of a problem in comparison to some of the others. Keep him turned away from the group at all times as the tank, dps stay behind him, and of course, watch your feet.
Xyvkin Archers!!! – THESE are your priority target at ALL times. No matter what else is in the room, you MUST kill these. The Daedra may look scary but the archers are the problem. they will hit the tank with shots that have damage over time on them and the ticks are insane. I’m almost convinced they are health % based because they hit THAT hard. Over all other targets, be sure to kill these first, or you’ll have a dead tank in no time.
NOTE: Tank needs to taunt these asap else the dps/healers will be targeted. They cannot be chained so you may have to show off a bit positioning-wise!
Storm Atronachs – With each wave, storm atronachs will come into the fight. These are technically bombers. They have low health and they explode. basically, when they go boom, get away from them.
Baron Zaudrus (Valkyn PANTS)
The final boss is tricky, chaotic, and scary as hell to look a. BUT surprisingly his mechanics are not actually THAT complicated. Just a little fiddly when all of them are firing at once. Spread out, do NOT stack ever, and pay attention to your feet!
The tank must keep him turned away from the group at all times (avoid frontal cleaves) and maintain stamina in order to dodge/break/run if need be.
The boss is slow with his attacks but because so much is going on it feels faster than it is. Above all, do NOT panic. Clear your head of any panic and get a clear view of what’s going on and this will be a quick and easy clear. Don’t do that? you will be here a LONG time. Focus is key here. If you solo, you die.
Heavy Attack – The boss’s heavy attack at the tank, and this has some serious range on it too despite being a melee hit. Block it or die. If for ANY reason this is on a DPS/Healer, you must dodge roll.
Lightning – The boss will cleave in the direction of the tank with a big swing. When this happens ANYONE caught in the cone will take damage and receive an AOE attached to them which will channel lighting damage over time. DO NOT STACK!!! If you don’t get caught by the cleave you won’t get the effect, if you DO get caught and you stack with someone else, THEIR dot and YOUR dot will stack and you will die rapidly. Stop hugging your friends they don’t like it while you are carrying a charge!
This is why the tank should keep this boss turned away from the group at all times. If you are careful you can actually make it so NO one but the tank, ever gets this. And technically the tank can avoid it too by dodge rolling, but it is incredibly fast and quite frankly just adds more mess to the fight. Suck it up, don’t stack.
Fire Geysers – From 60% and under the boss will start spawning Fire Geysers under the player’s feet. You need to avoid these as much as possible. Sometimes it is tricky so don’t panic if you do get caught but your healers need to be on point. If you have a good healer you can outlive the damage over time fire effect you get from it. if not you are pretty much dead. So avoid at all costs of course, but be sure the healer is awake just in case. This will happen for the rest of the fight!
Quake! (Hard Mode Only) – The boss will cause a large eruption effect on the ground much like that from the Dragonknight skill lines. This will do damage over time and cause a large snare (slow movement effect). Generally, this is on the tank so be sure to just get out of it when you can. Don’t hang around in here too long, especially during the fire vents/walls else you will get caught out. The intention is to slow you down, don’t let it.
Flame Vents/Fire Walls – During the fight, the boss will put his weapon into the ground and turn on the Flame vents. Basically, this is a HUGE firewall that you cannot pass. It will go around the room anti-clockwise or clockwise, whatever it is doing NOW it will be different next time (it rotates back and forth). This is simple…don’t get caught. If it touches you, you die!
Mid way through the fight you will end up with 2 walls, and then at very low health (25% and under) you will end up with FOUR walls making the room split into quarters. Don’t panic. Just stay away from the walls and you will be fine. It’s the same mechanic, just a tighter space. The tank at this point needs to be VERY careful. HUG the middle of the room since it is the shortest distance and rotate away from the fire while maintaining aggro on the boss.
NOTE: During this time he will STILL heavy attack and cleave so watch your blocks!
ROCKS & ADDS! (Most Important Mechanic) – The boss will slam the ground and rocks will come out of the ground. These will get in the way if the firewall is coming and you can find yourself stuck and dead…but above all, they have another effect to them.
EACH rock contains a single add! This could be a scamp, a watcher, or a JEFF! and all their mechanics come with it. Jeff will cast ground aoes and fire breaths, scamps will shoot fire, etc. You MUST no matter what, ALWAYS focus the adds above the boss in order of priority.
The boss has ZERO dps check, you can fight him all day if you like, but you MUST kill those adds. How do the adds spawn? Simple…if you blow up the rocks in their current state, or the wall kills them…they will spawn. However, there is a PLUS side to this. There will be a ghost khajiit in the room and it will have a synergy around it for you to take. IF you take this, you will glow for around 5 seconds.
All damage you do in THIS state will be VERY high against the adds, meaning you can clear the room of them quickly. However, there is more. If you LIGHT attack or HEAVY attack ANY of the rocks while in this state. You will instantly kill them, and instead of an enemy coming out, a blue flame atronach will come out to help you!!!
Every single rock can have a friendly add spawn from it so long as someone is constantly taking those synergies and constantly freeing them from the rocks! You can get to a point where you have so much help from the Flame atronachs that you never see a bad add in the room, making it a very simple fight with just you and the boss.
ROCKS & ADDS (Hard Mode) – Exactly the same mechanic! However, instead of around 2-3 rocks per phase, you can end up with 5-6. YES, that means two things.
1) more bad adds if you don’t pay attention
or
2) an abundance of friendly adds to make your life so much easier!
TIP: This KEY mechanic makes the difference between winning and losing, it can dramatically change the tide of your completion. Pick up the synergy, kill the rocks while in this state, and get the NPCs to do the work for you. Watch your feet, and above all, relax. Panic is intended to mess this fight up, don’t do it.
GOOD LUCK!!!!
The Cauldron Dungeon Loot
Below is a list of all the loot you can expect to find in The Cauldron.
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 Flames of Ambition Coffer or it could be in her mystery coffer. You can learn more about the Undaunted in the Undaunted Guide.
- Dagon’s Dominion
- Foolkiller’s Ward
- Unleashed Ritualist
- Baron Zaudrus (monster helm from vet only)
The Cauldron Achievements
Can’t Catch Me!
Defeat Taskmaster Viccia without triggering a single trap in Veteran Cauldron.
Cultist Slayer
Defeat 200 Cultists in Veteran Cauldron.
Curtain of Fire
During the fight against the Molten Guardian, allow 20 ticks of Magmatic Eruption to fire consecutively without interruption in Veteran Cauldron.
Daedric Demolitionist
Destroy 100 Molten Pillars using Lyranth’s Cold-Flame Infusion synergy as a group in the Cauldron.
Flames of Ambition Delver
Complete both Black Drake Villa and the Cauldron in Veteran.
Flames of Ambition Explorer
Enter either Black Drake Villa or the Cauldron for the first time.
Flames of Ambition Scout
Complete both Black Drake Villa and the Cauldron in Normal.
Glob Security
Defeat Oxblood the Depraved without killing any of the Gore Globs during the fight in Veteran Cauldron. Oxblood must not use Deviant Consumption to consume one of the Gore Globs.
Hold It Together
Defeat Baron Zaudrus without suffering a group member death via Ash Vent Disintegration in Veteran Cauldron.
Hot-Footed
Defeat all encounters in addition to Oxblood the Depraved, Taskmaster Viccia, the Molten Guardian; free Lyranth; and defeat Baron Zaudrus within 35 minutes of entering Veteran Cauldron. Your timer starts when you engage the first group of enemies.
Master of Messes
Free Lyranth after using three or less Daedric Catalyst Fluids in Veteran Cauldron.
Relentless Justice
Defeat all encounters in addition to Oxblood the Depraved, Taskmaster Viccia, the Molten Guardian; free Lyranth; and defeat Baron Zaudrus in Veteran Cauldron without suffering a group member death.
Schemes Disrupted
Defeat Baron Zaudrus after raising the challenge banner in Veteran Cauldron.
Subterranean Smasher
Defeat Baron Zaudrus after raising the challenge banner in Veteran Cauldron.
The Cauldron Challenger
Complete the listed achievements for Veteran Cauldron.
- The Cauldron Conqueror
- Schemes Disrupted
- Relentless Justice
- Hot-Footed
The Cauldron Conquerer
Defeat 100 Daedra in Veteran Banished Cells I.
Waking Flame Style Master
Defeat 100 Daedra in Veteran Banished Cells I.
Watcher Slayer
Defeat 30 Watchers in Veteran Cauldron.
The Cauldron Leads
Thre are currently no leads located in The Cauldron.
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…
“ALL ABOUT MECHANICS!“
BIT of a flex…YES i did Solo The Cauldron on Veteran Difficulty
No it was no easy but if i can do it on my OWN, YOU can do it as a group!
