This week's mutation is inescapably Icebound.
It’s the last of the weekly mutations and quite fitting that all three expeditions are among the most prolific, according to my most used tags list. As of tonight’s patch, mutations go into daily rotation, as promised in the QoL Roadmap.
Good news for people levelling alts or coming back to enjoy the game in it’s last year – Forge is mutated again so you have another chance to pick up Inferno. Apart from that, it’s a fond farewell to the mutation rotation series – we made it!
Contents
Mutation
- Frozen – 50% of all enemy damage is Ice.
- Rime – Attacks cause a slow on hit – M1: Heavy and Special attacks, M2 & M3: All attacks.
- Glacial – Enemies with this title drop an ice crystal that slows and roots players.
- Shiver – Enemies with this title inflict Biting Cold on players who are not near them
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
- Unstable – After dodging, players receive a stack of Ice damage over time dealing 1.5% max health every second for 10 seconds.
- Overcharged – If Unstable expires with 3 active stacks, it drops a 3m zone that lasts 15 seconds and applies 10% max health Ice damage per second. Entering the zone will consume all stacks of Unstable and deal 30% max HP damage.
Consumables
- Frozen Protection Amulet
- Aquamarines in Armor/Jewelry
- Desert Sunrise
- Honing Stone
- Attribute Bonus Food
Gearing up
- M1 – Opals in your armor is fine
- M2 – Add the Frozen Protection Amulet
- M3 – Swap most of your Opals for Aquamarines
- Enchanted Ward – Aim for 4 or 5 pieces with this perk
- For more detailed advice on gear, check out our Gear Guide.
Avoid Ice Crystals
Glacial enemies will drop an ice crystal on death, that can root you in place. You have a couple of seconds to move out of the crystal’s radius before it snares you, so be aware of the glacial tag and ready to move. The crystals can be destroyed, but this takes extra time. Perks like Relentless Freedom, Berserking Purge, or the 300 Dex milestone perk can help get you out of a tight spot.
Huddle up in the cold
Shiver enemies will hurt anyone outside their frosty radius, so working as a close melee group works best with these. If your group is having trouble with enemy AOE damage or the backswing on their attacks, the healer can place a Sacred Ground for ranged players to stand in.
Combat slows with speed
To make up for the slows applied by Rime, you can use speedy perks to get the group running faster. Speed of Light, the final Beacon upgrade, is one option, or the Quick Shower upgrade on Ice Gauntlet’s Ice Shower gives a short speed boost. You can also apply your own personal hastes if you are using a weapon that has them.
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 - Don't Poop on the Group
While fully geared and optimised groups can power through multiple Overcharged pools of pain, civilised dodgers might prefer to drop their load in a corner away from others. The other option is to use your dodges carefully and never allow the full three stacks to build up.
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.
Empyrean Forge
Enemy Type: Human
Weaknesses: 15% Slash
Consumables
- Human Ward potion – 10% damage absorption
- Human Coating – 15% bonus damage
- Human Combat Trophy – 3/4/5% bonus damage x3
- Slash damage – Sword, Greatsword, Hatchet, Great Axe
Faction Missions: Warden’s Rise in Great Cleave
Dropped by Ifrit.
- Lava Tip: Heavy melee attacks on both weapons cause 10% burning for 6s (Max 3 stacks). Hitting with a melee ability will consume the burn inflicted targets dealing 80% of the remaining damage immediately.
- Empty Skill Slot
- Trenchant Strikes II: Heavy melee attacks deal +12-15% damage.
- Distained Infliction II: Potency of outgoing DoTs are increased by 12-15%. Hitting a target inflicted by your DoTs will extend the duration of them by 3.9% (1.5s Cooldown) [Max Stacks: 1]
- Empty Offense Slot
Dropped by Commander Marius.
- Inner Power: This staff has adjusted attributes scaling. It now has dual scaling with both strength and intelligence. +15% damage when you hit a target within 15m. (Works on both weapons)
- Empty Socket: Attach a gem to add its effect.
- [offense charm] Keenly Empowered II: Gain 10-13% Empower for 5s on critical hit (10s cooldown). [Max Stacks: 1]
- [offense charm] Vicious II: +2.4-3% critical damage. [Max Stacks: 5]
- Empty Offense Slot
Strategy and tips
The main thing you should know about the Empyrean Forge is that you need to have your music turned on. The soundtrack for this expedition is so perfectly tuned to the environment that it would be a crime to miss it. The Forge is also the first expedition to drop two artifacts, one from each boss.
As you might guess from the name, Empyrean Forge is full of Fire damage, so it might be worth slotting your extra resistances in Fire. As well as the human Varangians, there are a few Lost enemies, but not enough to justify changing up consumables. Common pitfalls include falling in lava and getting crushed by giant pistons, so watch your step.
There is a puzzle to solve in the first section of the expedition and near the end. If you only stand on the trigger plate once, the code will be the same for both versions of the puzzle. This means you can make the second puzzle room much easier. Take the upper path and preload the sequence except for the last turn. Then send someone down to stand on the plate, and do the final rotation. This will stop the ghost spawns and make the Blunderbuss Mini Boss fight much easier.
Main Damage Type: Fire
Ifrit was originally going to be Lost but was then changed to Human due to feedback from the player community. He has unique weaknesses – 30% Arcane and 20% Ice so a weapon with a Sapphire in it, or an Ice Gauntlet may be helpful here.
The first time you fight Ifrit the myriad fire attacks feel chaotic but once you get to know them, the mechanics of this fight are predictable and easy to manage. Ifrit does not move from the centre of the arena, except to bend forward and bop someone if they get aggro from a distance.
Positioning is important in this fight, and no-one should be at the far edges of the room, so they don’t get caught in the Flamethrower. The tank should stand to one side of Ifrit, allowing the party to see the SE wall so they know when Fire Discs are emerging.
- Fire Discs: multiple discs of fire shoot out from the SE end of the arena. You can dodge these or even lie down beneath them if you’re nimble.
- Fire Balls: a large yellow sigil will appear on the floor at your feet indicating the imminent arrival of a fireball from the sky so that you can move out of the way. The impact will leave a crater of lava that does fire damage if you stand in it.
- Slam: a cross of fire will appear on the floor beneath Ifrit, indicating that he is about to slam four ways. Just stand on the diagonal to avoid it.
- Flamethrower: Fire walk with me. Ifrit will extend 2 beams of flame that extend to the edges of the room, in front and behind and then rotate anti-clockwise. You need to follow the flamethrower’s rotation to avoid being hit by it. The further away from the centre you are, the faster you have to run, so it’s important to be closer to the middle of the arena. This will be repeated and then followed by a double flamethrower, with 4 beams extending in a cross. By this time, the floor will most likely be covered in lava pools. While you should avoid as much fire as you can, if you have the choice between the flamethrower and a lava pool, walk in lava.
Main Damage Type: Fire
This is another trial by fire and you should swap into a Flame Protection amulet before stepping into the arena. First of all, make sure you touch the respawn crystal just outside the door, as this fight can go south quite easily and you don’t want to have to do the long run of shame.
The arena is quite small and has three raised platforms, with short corridors extending from the main central space at the lower level. You will need to keep moving but remain aware of the different spaces and how you can use them to your advantage. The fight goes more smoothly if you have a tank who will maintain a position instead of chasing Marius around, but either way, everyone needs to keep on their toes during this fight.
- Bungie Boss: periodically, Marius will spin away from the tank toward a DPS and then spin back. This is a dance move and not loss of aggro, so there is no need to freak out. Just dodge, whether you are the target or not, as he will spit firey sparks during the spin that cause a Fire DoT.
- Execute: Marius will do a large melee smack down with his Greataxe. You can’t block this but you can just step to the side and avoid it. Melee DPS need to be careful of their positioning.
- Volcanos: (or Pimples, as we call them) – Eruptions of fire will emerge from the floor throughout the arena, particularly under the feet of players. Move to avoid a nasty Fire DoT.
- Floor is Lava: Marius will go to the centre of the room the first time this happens, and raise his flaming axe slowly into the air. The lower section of the floor will fill with lava, leaving only the three platforms as safe zones. With enough fire resistance, this is not too much of a problem.
- Magmaballs: At around 50% health, Marius will start dropping his large, hot balls. This will start on the SE platform (to the right of the entrance) and continue to each platform in an anti-clockwise rotation. A large fire ring will appear on the floor to show you a ball is about to drop, then it will roll to the opposite wall. Each corner of the short corridors, just outside the ball drop radius, is a safe zone where the balls cannot hit you. At about 25% health, 2 balls will drop at once, so be very careful about where you are standing.
Interesting Loot
- M3 – Fire Lord’s Set – Heavy armour with Fire Harnessing and Enchanted Ward, upgradeable.
- M3 – Molten weapon set for skins – Acutely Empowered, Gem Slot, Desperate Empower/Savior, Weapon Ability Perk, Random perk.
- Powerful Beasts of Burden Bangle – Mount charm – Enables mounting when 30% overencumbered
The Ennead
Enemy Type: Ancient and Corrupted
Weaknesses: Ancient: 30% Lightning 20% Strike 15% Void. Corrupted: 30% Arcane 20% Thrust 15% Nature
Consumables
- Ancient Ward potion | Corrupted Ward potion – 10% damage absorption
- Ancient Coating | Corrupted Coating – 15% bonus damage
- Ancients Combat Trophy | Corrupted Combat Trophy – 3/4/5% bonus damage x3
- Strike damage – Hammer, Void damage – Void Gauntlet | Thrust damage – Spear, Rapier, Bow, Musket, Blunderbuss
- Topaz gem in weapon for Lightning damage* | Sapphire gem Arcane damage*
Faction Missions: New Corsica Town, Wikala Al-Wahaha, and Taberna Mercatus in Brimstone Sands
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 Heru.
- Shield Wall: Shield Wall: Gain 5% base damage reduction You cannot dodge and stamina regen rate is reduced by 10%, but have 33% more stamina. (While active or sheathed)
- Chromatic Ward: You take 13% less damage from all elemental sources, and have +10% elemental armor.
- Sturdy II: Receive 7.9-10% less Stamina damage while blocking. [Max Stacks: Unlimited]
- Keenly Fortified II: Gain 15% Fortify for 5s on critical hit (7s cooldown). [Max Stacks: 1]
- Empty Defense Slot
Strategy and tips
The Ennead is a bit of a maze and there are many different ways you can go and still reach your final destination. The fastest way is to take the first left in the passageway after the first room, kill all the beetles, then hug the wall on the right, fight the two sphinx and then proceed up to the mini-boss guarding the door. This does skip a lot of mini-bosses though, so if you’re wanting to complete faction missions or collect Azoth Crystal items from M2+ then you’ll have to go the long way.
Beware the Horus Guardians, as they teleport backwards away from the fight. Try to position them so they have a wall behind them and cannot get too far away. Some of the mini-bosses have attacks that do high damage, including Shai in the first room. If you are dying to this, consider taking your Con up to 100. On top of the mutation elemental damage, many of the attacks here are Fire or Void, so if you need somewhere to put your resistance over the 50% cap, these are good choices.
After the first boss, the enemies become Corrupted instead of Ancient. In M2 and M3, you may consider rebuffing at this point or even changing weapons. After the second boss, we return to Ancient for the final section.
Main Damage Type: Fire
This giant beetle is the first boss you will face. When you first enter the arena, there is a chance Khepri will charge, so be ready for it. As well as the physical attacks, Khepri emits a Solar Blast that does Fire damage. Watch out when the beetle launches into the air, because it is going to land with a slam. This gives you plenty of time to prepare a dodge. In the early part of the fight, it will do one slam but as the fight progresses, it will do two and then three, which is harder to dodge successfully.
Periodically, a solar beam will be targeted at each player. In most cases, you should be able to just fight through this, with good heals. For M3, you may want to use one of the pillars in the room to hide behind, which will stop the beam from damaging you.
Main Damage Type: Void
The General is Corrupted, so most of the elemental attacks in this fight are Void, including the corrosion blobs on the floor. There are a couple of Fire attacks, from the Archer phase, so try to stay out of those. General Crassus takes three different forms in this fight, each with their own signature moves.
Legionnaire Phase
This is the opening form, where General Crassus uses a spear. He begins flanked by two Signifiers and some trash mobs. It’s always good to clear Signifiers first, as they have a large area of effect Rend debuff. Watch out for the Phantoms – a row of ghostly soldiers that can hit hard. If this phase takes too long, additional enemies will spawn from a plate at each end of the arena. This is too far for the tank to taunt both of them, so DPS will need to manage these mobs and kill them or bring them to the clump.
Sagittarii Phase
At about 70% health, Crassus will return to the centre of the arena and his weapon will transform into a bow. He’ll also summon 4 allies around him. The bow attacks do fire damage, so make sure you keep moving around. Adds will continue to spawn on the plates and need to be kept under control or the healer won’t be able to heal.
Signifier Phase
In the final phase, at about 40% health, Crassus transforms into a Signifier with a staff. Two cyclops are spawned at the same time. Rather than fight these, DPS should move on to the boss and allow the tank to kite the Cyclops around the arena. It’s important to kill Crassus as fast as you can to finish the fight.
Main Damage Type: Fire
So, you’ve probably already noticed that Ennead has an extra boss fight, and to top that off, the final battle is with not one but two bosses. First we fight Anpu and then Heru, but when Heru dies the first time, they both rise up and we have to fight them together. The final deaths need to be within 10 seconds of one another, or else they will both respawn. So when one gets down to 1-2 bars of health, change your target to the other one.
Anpu
The big guy is Anpu and he spawns at the back left corner of the arena. On entering, the whole team should run up and fight fairly close to the pillar he spawns near. The tank should keep him on the far side of the pillar, and the furthest player needs to keep the pillar between them and Anpu, so that when he charges the pillar blocks him.
- Fire circle – when Anpu lifts his leg, he will spin fire around himself. Step back until this is over.
- Fire charge – Anpu will charge at the furthest player. Use a pillar to block him. He will leave a trail of fire which causes a fire DoT, so it’s best to reduce this by making him hit the closest pillar rather than charging across the arena.
- Cleave – Anpu will slam the ground and cause a line of seismic damage to head toward a player.
- Bolt – Apnu will throw two fast projectiles at a ranged player. These can be dodged if you’re quick.
Heru
Once Anpu is killed the first time, Heru will spawn near the glyph at the back of the arena. At this point, players need to be prepared to move toward the four pillars in the arena, so a ranged weapon can be useful.
- Judgement of the Gods – you will get a beam on you that causes a stun – make sure you’re not standing in fire when it takes effect.
- Divine Doom – a beam of light targets each player, causing fire damage. Just move out of it.
- Sun Beam – circles of fire move around the arena, be careful not to stand in them.
- Pillars – Heru will teleport to the middle of the room and hover in the air. Each pillar will start glowing and need to be disabled via interacting with it. While there are any pillars that haven’t been disabled, a wave of damage will periodically sweep the room. There is enough time to disable a pillar before the wave, if you start as soon as its available, otherwise you will need to dodge the wave or heal through it. Group coordination is key here and it’s best to assign pillars before the fight begins.
Interesting Loot
- M3 – Sun Lord’s Set – Light armour with Grit Ward and Refreshing, upgradeable.
- M3 – The Pharaoh’s weapon set for skins – Acutely Empowered, Gem Slot, Keen/Desperate Prayer, Weapon Ability Perk, Random Perk.
- Powerful Solum Mount Charm – +14% dash speed when off-road
