This week's mutation is organically Overgrown.
Well, well, well, it’s been a busy week with lots of talk about Alistair McFarlane’s interest in New World and a great deal of schadenfruede with the news of Ashes of Creation lead cutting and running. The upshot of it all is there are a whole lot of devs just waiting for work in the MMO space and a real lack of decent games for players who prefer this genre. Let’s hope it all ends up with a renewed team and return to development for New World. You can also catch up on dev news from the past month in our Developer Digest new series.
About the mutations, looks like Genesis is the go this week, with nice synergy between the native Nature and the Overgrown mutation. Blooddrinker is up in Starstone again, and Void Darkplate in Barnacles.
Contents
Mutation
- Arboreal – 50% of all enemy damage is Nature.
- Bramble – Attacks cause damage on hit – M1: 20% Nature damage, M2 & M3: 40% Nature damage.
- Compost – Enemies with this title drop a healing circle on death, healing enemies for 3% per second.
- Toxic – Enemies with this title drop a poison spawn that deals Nature damage over time and seeks out the furthest player to cast root on them. M1: 20% Nature DoT, M2 & M3: 40% Nature DoT.
Promotion
- Enraged – Each hit on an enemy generates a stack of Fury. At 20 stacks, the enemy grows 15% larger and does 50% increased damage.
- Shattering – Enemies deal additional stamina damage and apply a bleed on breaking your block. M1: 20% increased stamina damage, 5% bleed, M2 & M3: 75% increased stamina damage, 8% bleed.
Curse
- Blowback – Using abilities builds up to cause a zone of Silence that prevents the use of abilities. When it expires, the zone explodes, dealing 65% Nature damage.
- Truncated – During active periods of Silence, players lose natural mana regen. Standing in the Silence zone grants 25 mana per 0.75 seconds.
Consumables
- Nature Protection Amulet
- Ambers in Armor/Jewelry
- Desert Sunrise
- Nature Absorption Potion
- Powerful Honing Stone
- Attribute bonus food
Gearing up
- M1 – Opals in your armor is fine
- M2 – Add the Nature Protection Amulet
- M3 – Swap most of your Opals for Ambers
- Enchanted Ward – Aim for 4 or 5 pieces with this perk
- For more detailed advice on gear, check out our Gear Guide.
Get out of the Compost
If a Compost mob drops while you are still fighting, the tank should reposition to get the mobs out of the compost healing circle. You can also use the Bile Bomb Heartrune, Plagued Strikes, or other disease to reduce the effectiveness of the healing.
Don't get caught
Toxic poison spawn will chase down the furthest player, so if you’re outside the clump playing range, keep moving. You can easily outmanoeuvre the little fella but watch out if you get caught as it’ll hold you down and DoT you to death. Perks like Relentless Freedom, Berserking Purge, or the 300 Dex milestone perk can help you escape if you get stuck.
M2 - The best defense is a good offense
It’s best to get in first and kill these guys fast. After being hit 20 times, Enraged enemies are going to get bigger and stronger. Your tank will also need to draw on more skills than right-click, with Shattering enemies around. A side-step can help avoid a hit without using precious stamina, if you have the footwork skills for it.
M3 - Strategic Abilities
Silence is incredibly annoying for every class. Tanks can’t taunt, Healers can’t heal, DPS can’t debuff or optimise damage. The excellent thing about Blowback is that you can see the gauge and can set off the silence deliberately, before entering a big fight. If you can’t help setting it off in the middle of a fight, try to stack and then move the group.
Starstone Barrows
Enemy Type: Ancient and Lost
Weaknesses: Ancient: 30% Lightning 20% Strike 15% Void. Lost: 30% Nature 15% Ice 10% Strike
Consumables
- Ancient Ward potion | Lost Ward potion – 10% damage absorption
- Ancient Coating | Lost Coating – 15% bonus damage
- Ancients Combat Trophy | Lost Combat Trophy – 3/4/5% bonus damage x3
- Strike damage – Hammer, Void damage – Void Gauntlet | Nature/Strike/Ice damage – Life Staff, War Hammer, Flail, Ice Gauntlet
- Topaz gem in weapon for Lightning damage* | Amber gem Nature damage*
Faction Missions: Oxboro or faction base in Everfall
Note: *Elemental damage gems in your weapons are simply recommendations based on the elements your enemies are weakest to. Your playstyle may suit non-elemental gems better and you are encouraged to continue using those if so.
Artifact: Blooddrinker Ring
Dropped by Greundgul the Regent.
- Ghoul’s Harmony: +25% lifesteal and all healing from lifesteal is increased by 5%. However, you deal -20% base damage, unless the target is diseased, then damage is only reduced by 15%.
- Empty Socket: Attach a gem to add its effect.
- [offense charm] Leeching II: Heal for 3.2-4% of the damage you deal (Does not trigger off persistent damage or DoT effects). [Max Stacks: 5]
- Keen Switch II: On weapon swap, increase crit chance by 7.1-9% for 3s or until the next hit (3s cooldown) [Max Stacks: 1]
- Empty Offense Slot
Strategy and tips
While it has the same name, this is not the Starstone Barrows you entered on your journey growing up in Aeternum so many levels ago. There is a break in the walls of the dungeon and you’ll find yourself in Amrine, fighting Lost, for a period of time. This is a fun dungeon full of nostalgia, twists and tricks. Be careful of the purple beams as they will kill you outright should you wander into one.
When you emerge from the Lost tunnels and return to fighting Ancients, the first reliquary can be used to let the group through both sets of beams to continue fighting, while the torchbearer goes up the stairs to turn the power off. This saves everyone from standing around just waiting.
Remember to carry extra consumables so you can swap wards and coatings in higher level mutations, it can mean the difference between life and death.
Main Damage Type: Strike
Simon Grey has grown up too and is level 70 in mutated expeditions. His attacks are scaled up accordingly and his Overhead Slam can outright kill a low con, under-geared DPS. Apart from that, this is a fairly straightforward fight.
- Overhead Slam: Simon raises both hands over his head and slams down, causing AoE Strike damage. Look for the movement and be ready to dodge.
- Minions: Simon will spawn 3 lost enemies. If you don’t kill them in time, he will suck them in for a life leech.
- Vomit: Simon’s vomit is pretty toxic and will cause a slow as well as reduce incoming healing.
Main Damage Type: Slash
Greundgul is an Ancient construct with a very large sword. Be careful of the backswing when fighting behind her. She’s quite mobile and will push the group around the arena. Make sure you have someone with a ranged attack to stop her when she gets to the jumping phase.
- Throw Bone: Greundgul throws a bone at the furthest player, that spawns skeletal minions. These are only a mild annoyance unless the fight takes long enough to create too many of them. This can be minimised by the group clumping close to the boss, so the bone and adds get destroyed by everyone’s attacks.
- Jumping Phase: After the first time Greundgul’s health reaches almost zero, she will reassemble herself in the centre of the arena and then leap at a random player, sending out a shockwave of damage with each jump. To control where she jumps, the group should all stack on one player. If you can hit her in the eye as she lands, she’ll stop jumping. The jumping phase repeats periodically until she finally dies.
Interesting Loot
- M3 – Simon Grey’s Set – Medium armour with Arcane Harnessing and Health, upgradeable.
- M3 – Stormbound weapon set for skins – Acutely Empowered, Gem slot, Keenly Jagged/Blessed, Weapon Ability Perk.
Garden of Genesis
Enemy Type: Angry Earth
Weaknesses: 30% Fire 20% Slash
Consumables
- Angry Earth Ward potion – 10% damage absorption
- Angry Earth Coating – 15% bonus damage
- Angry Earth Combat Trophy – 3/4/5% bonus damage x3
- Slash/Fire damage – Hatchet, Axe, Great/Sword, Fire Staff
- Ruby gem in weapon for Fire damage*
Faction Missions: Caliburne in Edengrove
Note: *Elemental damage gems in your weapons are simply recommendations based on the elements your enemies are weakest to. Your playstyle may suit non-elemental gems better and you are encouraged to continue using those if so.
Dropped by The Blighted Greenskeeper.
- Thrown Mastery: Thrown Axe projectiles reduce all axe skill cooldowns by 25% and will deal 25% nature damage to a nearby target (5s cooldown).
- Empty Socket: Attach a gem to add its effect.
- [skill charm] Empowering Rending Throw II: Ranged Hatchet attacks deal +35-40% damage against Rending Throw targets.
- Sundering Stacks II: Once every 0.5s, attacks inflicts a stack of 3.2-4% Rend, each stack lasting 6s. (Max 5 stacks) [Max Stacks: 1]
- Empty Offense Slot
Strategy and tips
This Garden is full of snares and Blight, so this is one time you might choose to use Powerful Incense over Desert Sunrise. Genesis is the shortest expedition and lots of players are used to speed-running it, so expect to have to keep up with your group. There’s a lot of skipping, and the boss in the secret room is rarely killed. Right at the start, you will need to collect some Concentrated Blight to unlock the first door. You can find this down the first staircase to the left, just be careful of the patrolling archer.
Main Damage Type: Strike
This fight is the most difficult in the expedition. There are two main methods of killing him, “All In” and “4 and 1“.
The Caretaker spawns in a large boggy room, all alone. He’ll jump around a bit and will slap out a long tendril at the furthest player, so be careful if you’re playing range. When you get his health down to about 70%, he’ll move to the centre of the room and start putting up a wall of thorns. This is where the group has to decide whether to stay inside the wall with him, or to go outside and deal with the adds that spawn.
All In
The All In method is a DPS check. Everyone enters the ring with the Caretaker and does as much damage as they can. A Genesis Cap mushroom will spawn – you need to destroy the first one to avoid a wipe. The person who kills the Genesis Cap will receive an Empower buff. After, he’ll start diving under the floor and emerging periodically to attack. You can just avoid the lunge by watching and moving. After 7 lunges, the Caretaker will stand up and you can fight him again. Sometimes the walls will go down and let in the adds at this point, so you have to kill him very quickly. If the group can’t kill him fast enough and ends up dying to the adds, you may need to try the 4 and 1 method.
4 and 1
This method involves sending one player (usually the tank) inside the thorn wall, while the rest remain outside. The tank needs to play defensively and also destroy the Genesis Cap mushroom when it spawns. Outside the wall, there will be three lots of adds spawn, the first one on the side near the entrance. A point will light up, indicating where the spawn is going to occur. The outside group need to kill each spawn of adds as quickly as they can, then move clockwise around the wall to fight the next group. After a period of time, the walls will come down, allowing the tank to help with any remaining enemies. The Caretaker will go into the wall phase again, this time everyone should go in and do the All In method as outlined above.
Main Damage Type: Nature and Strike
The Greenskeeper is a snake-like boss, with poison to boot. The main attacks are Strike damage, but you should be able to avoid those. The AOE poison and ranged attacks are Nature damage and it’s more likely you might be hit by these. This is a relatively easy fight, as long as you know what to expect.
- Poison Pools – if you see a stream of poison headed your way, run to the edge of the arena. A large pool of poison is about to appear at your feet, so you need to get it as far from the group as you can. Also try to avoid dropping it on boulders if possible.
- Scream – if you’re playing ranged, the Greenskeeper may send out a scream wave at you. This can be dodged.
- Projectile – she also throws three quick projectiles, which can also be dodged
- Boulder – an outline of a circle will appear on the floor at the feet of a player, just before a boulder drops. You can easily move out of the way in time if you see it. These boulders are used later, so it’s important there is room around the back. Make sure you’re not fighting at the edge of the arena, especially if you are ranged.
- Burrow – the Greenskeeper will tunnel under the ground and come up under a player. If you get hit, it does a large amount of Strike damage. It will keep tunnelling to the furthest player, so to shorten this section, the group can stand together in a Sacred Ground and block.
- The Floor is Poison – later in the fight, the floor will be covered in a wavy poison. If there is no boulder between you and the Greenskeeper, you’ll be instantly killed. Everyone should hide behind a boulder, unless you have Defy Death, in which case you can live through it.
Interesting Loot
- M3 – Blighted Growth’s Set – Light armour with Nature Harnessing and Shirking Fortification, upgradeable.
- M3 – Mossbourne weapon set for skins – Acutely Empowered, Gem Slot, Mortal Power/Blessed, Weapon Ability Perk, Random Perk.
Barnacles and Black Powder
Enemy Type: Lost
Weaknesses: 30% Nature 15% Ice 10% Strike
Consumables
- Lost Ward potion (Angry Earth Ward for Nereid) – 10% damage absorption
- Lost Coating (Angry Earth for Nereid) – 15% bonus damage
- Lost Combat Trophy (Angry Earth for Nereid) – 3/4/5% bonus damage x3
- Nature/Strike/Ice damage – Life Staff, War Hammer, Flail, Ice Gauntlet
- Amber gem in weapon for Nature damage*
Faction Missions: Spyglass Ridge in Cutlass Keys
Note: *Elemental damage gems in your weapons are simply recommendations based on the elements your enemies are weakest to. Your playstyle may suit non-elemental gems better and you are encouraged to continue using those if so.
Dropped by Nereid.
- Dark Reinforced: Your armor is increased by 20%. However, its equip weight is increased by 10%, and you take 8% increase block damage.
- Empty Socket: Attach a gem to add its effect.
- [defense charm] Enchanted Ward II: 1.6-2% reduced damage taken from light and heavy attacks. [Max Stacks: 5]
- [defense charm] Physical Aversion: Receive 2.8-3.6% less damage from ranged, physical attacks. [Max Stacks: 5]
- Empty Defense Slot
Strategy and tips
This is a very pirate-y expedition, with lots of explosions and gunshots. Watch out for bombers – you can root them and run, or if you’re clever you can lead them to their friends and use them as a weapon. To beat the mutation timer, players generally tend to skip past mobs and group them up. Be aware of ghosts and try to kill them rather than skipping, since they cast spells that slow you down.
Main Damage Type: Fire
The Admiral is a huge pirate with interesting feet and some really big balls. The fight seems deceptively simple at first, with everyone beating on him. He throws explosives, and if you see a red circle on the floor, you’re going to take some fire damage.
At about 75% health, he jumps up onto the ship at the back of the arena so you can’t hit him. He’ll usually spawn a group of minions at the same time. The Admiral throws down kegs and cannon balls, and lines of fire appear on the floor. The kegs drop a radius of black powder which causes a Fire DoT. You can pick up the cannon balls, load them into the two cannons at the side of the arena and use them to shoot Admiral Blackpower. After three shots, he will come back to the fight.
This happens again at 50% life and about 25%, with more fire lines each time, which you can just dodge through. At the end of the fight, after you pick up your bag, Admiral Blackpowder has one last explosive surprise.
Main Damage Type: Nature
Nereid is an interesting boss. First of all, she is Angry Earth, not Lost, so you’ll want to change your wards and coatings. She also has different Weaknesses to either regular Angry Earth or Lost – 30% Ice, 20% Strike.
Her attacks do a range of physical damage types, and she uses a Lightning spear, but the most troublesome part of this fight is the wind, which does Nature damage and pushes you around. So we recommend using some Nature protection to help out if you get stuck, and just avoiding the rest.
Nereid will fight in the centre of the arena and periodically spin along the cross pattern on the floor. It’s usually safest to stand on a diagonal, but be ready to move if she comes your way. There is a predictable pattern to her movement that you can learn. When Nereid moves to the centre of the arena and raises her staff, stand back and make sure you are on the diagonal. Gusts of wind will shoot out along the lines of the cross.
It’s possible to play this fight as ranged, from the edge of the room, as long as you keep an eye out for the tornados that circle the arena. Toward the end, there is a lot of wind and lightning (it’s very very frightening), so be careful of your positioning.
Interesting Loot
- M3 – Siren’s Set – Medium armour with Health and Elemental Aversion, upgradeable.
- M3 – Admiral’s Set – Light armour with Ice Harnessing and Elemental Aversion, upgradeable.
- M3 – Pirated weapon set for skins – Acutely Empowered, Gem slot, Rogue/Keen Speed/Desperate Prayer, Weapon Ability Perk.
- Powerful Hasty Talisman – mount charm – Provides the Haste status effect when force dismounted through combat.
