Tarn and Ennead, Void and Ice
We’re feeling rather Ancient this week, and weary of the Ward and Coating swaps in these two expeditions. But the news that we will soon have three mutated expeditions to choose from per week is exciting, and it’s nice to have the newish Verglas weapon skins in M3 Glacial Tarn to collect, and another chance at the Frigid Dawn set.
There are three levels of Mutation, as well as Story mode, for each Expedition.
- M1 requires 650 gear score and is relatively easy, introducing the mechanics of the mutation type at a reduced level of damage.
- M2 is a little harder and requires 675 gear score, with increased scaling and the addition of the Promotion challenges. It is still quite simple to do with an experienced group and is probably the most efficient mode, with improved loot for little effort.
- M3 requires 695+ gear score and optimised perks, gems and buffs. It is considerably more challenging than M2, both with increased scaling and the addition of the mutation Curse as well as the Promotion.
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.
Expedition specific
- Ancient / Human Ward potion
- Ancient / Human coating
- Flame protection amulet
- Slash damage – Hatchet, Axe, Great/Sword
- Strike damage – War Hammer
General buffs
- Honing Stone
- Attribute bonus food
- Topaz gypsum attunement potion
Mutation specific
- Void protection amulet
- Amethyst in armour
- Desert sunrise
- Void Absorption potion
Artifact: Deep Freeze Ice Gauntlet
The Glacial Tarn is a frozen stronghold in the North-eastern corner of Great Cleave. It is connected to the Empyrean Forge and has a nice little deviation into Marius’ chamber. The first part of the expedition is Ancient, then you swap to Human, so in higher mutations you’ll be spending a bit on ward potions and coatings.
Falling stalactites will plague you from the beginning of this dungeon, so look out for the telltale marking on the floor and avoid or dodge through them. Frozen enemies take very little damage unless you have the fire buff on you, so don’t be afraid to stand on the firepits. The buff only lasts less than a minute, so sometimes you may need to go back or forge forward to refresh it.
The first boss in this dungeon is the Ice Troll and he’s a doozy! While he is classified as Ancient, he takes 15% more Thrust and Fire damage, and 20% Lightning damage, so a ranged weapon like Bow or Firestaff could be a good option. This is where you get the artifact, so some groups will stop after this fight. The Troll doesn’t like to stay with the tank and has a number of moves that see him skating around the icy arena. A blue mark above your head means he’s going to charge at you, so get out of the way. He usually does a second charge too, so beware of that. If you see an icy cone on the floor, emanating from him towards to, get ready to dodge! The cone will follow you but you can dodge out of it at the right time. During his tantrums, stalactites fall from the sky and they really hurt. You will be able to see an outline on the ground before they land so you can get out of the way. It’s okay to concentrate on staying alive during this phase and resume attacking when it’s over, if you need to.
The final boss has been buggy from the release of the dungeon, and while some of the bugs have been fixed, others remain. Try not to kill the mages while the bridges are down, in case it bugs the Giant Ice Elemental in the middle and makes our boss fail to enter the death sequence. The fight takes place on four platforms with bridges connecting them. When a red icon appears over the bridges, they are about to be destroyed, so don’t be caught standing on one. You can repair the bridges after a brief delay, by pressing E at the edge of the platform. The Giant Ice Elemental is powered by the mages and can be very annoying. When he crosses his arms, he is about to blow on a platform and make it uninhabitable. The group needs to move to another platform when this happens. If the mages are unprotected by their aura and the bridges are not down, you can kill them for a brief respite but they respawn quickly. If you get a blue symbol above your head, dodge or move to the side – an arrow or ice wave will be heading your way. If a bomb appears, destroy it quickly. When the Giant Ice Elemental has small greenish shields called weak spots up, Ser Loth gets a buff and you will do little damage to him. Nullifying Oblivion can remove the buff, or ranged attacks can destroy the weak spots.
Mutation: Eternal
It’s all purple in the Glacial Tarn this week, with the Eternal mutation transforming the enemies to Void damage, so go with the theme and protect yourself with Amethysts. Paranoia is particularly annoying, with stacks building up as you hit the enemy. When you reach 4 stacks, a purple pool appears at your feet, dealing 40-70% damage. This is easily dodged as an individual, but when the melee are crowded together, you can end up with some big spikes of pain. It might be an opportunity to try a ranged DPS team for a change, with the tank holding aggro and 3 bow users shooting from afar. Creeping enemies Empower their friends when they die and Oblivion enemies use a life leech that heals them when they hit you.
At M1 level, everything is a bit easier, so you will be fine with Opals rather than Amethysts, and may not need to use Ward potions or Coatings.
M2 - Barbaric
At M2, some enemies start being Barbarically buffed. Shattering is annoying for your tank, dealing 40-75% increased stamina damage! It might even be worth stacking more of the stamina perks to keep up. Watch out for those large Enraged enemies, who deal 50% more damage once they get 20 stacks of Fury.
M3 - Censored
In M3, players are Censored with silence. Using abilities causes a meter to build up and when it is full, silence is cast on each member of the group where they are standing. Abilities cannot be used inside the silence zone and when it expires, it detonates with a massive 65% max health damage. So it’s pretty important to keep an eye on the meter and make sure that silence zones are strategically placed. You can deliberately set off Silence before big fights, and in boss battle arenas you can clump to stack the Silence and reduce the area impacted. While silence is active, natural mana regen is turned off, however you can get 25 mana per 0.75 seconds by standing in the silence. Just don’t be in there when it explodes!
Expedition specific
- Topaz gem Lightning damage (Ancient)
- Sapphire gem Arcane damage (Corrupted)
- Ancient and Corrupted Ward potion
- Ancient and Corrupted Coating
- Strike damage – War Hammer (Ancient)
- Thrust damage – Spear, Rapier, Bow (Corrupted)
- Flame protection and Ruby in armour (BS Ancient)
General buffs
- Honing Stone
- Attribute bonus food
- Topaz gypsum attunement potion
Mutation specific
- Frozen protection amulet
- Aquamarine in armour
- Desert sunrise
Artifact: The Wall Tower Shield
The Ennead has more bosses than any other organisation, with three major boss fights and two bosses in the final battle. This brings us to a total of four big bosses. And don’t forget, you have to defeat the last two twice. This expedition also starts out with Ancient enemies, but with a Brimstone flavour, so if you’re getting toasted, you can consider adding some Fire protection.
The first boss you encounter is Godling Khepri Supernal, a giant scarab beetle. You need to use the architecture of the room to avoid his laser beam, by running around to the other side of the pillar once he starts casting. As long as the group works together, this is a pretty easy fight.
After getting through the twists and turns of the first maze-like section, you will use three Azoth staves to burst a Corruption bubble and encounter a series of Corrupted enemies. This culminates in the second boss fight, with General Crassus. He goes through three phases and summons a lot of adds, so it’s worth having dedicated DPS keeping them under control.
The final boss fight is a doozy. It starts with Anpu, aka Big Guy, who has some nasty elemental attacks, reaching out with ranged spikes and causing an AOE spin, as well as smacking down like a regular brute. The one attack you can control to some degree is his charge, which is usually targeted at the furthest player. If they keep a pillar between Anpu and themselves, he will bonk his head and stop his charge. Make sure you don’t stand in the trail he leaves when he charges, as it does major damage.
Once you knock Anpu over, his little buddy, Heru (aka Small Guy), turns up. He is infinitely more annoying, because he requires the whole team to work together. When he enters his levitation stage in the middle of the arena, four players need to be at each of the floating pillars and use their azoth staves, while suffering massive tick damage. It’s worth drinking a regen pot just before using your staff, to keep the ticks under control. He also stuns and creates damage zones, so be careful.
The real fun starts once Heru goes down, as at this point they both get up and the place becomes chaotic. If you don’t kill them both within 30 seconds of each other, the other one respawns, so one strategy is to get Small Guy down to almost dead, then focus on Big Guy, then when he is almost dead, take them both down. Just careful of Small Guy going into his levitation phase while you’re trying to fight Big Guy, it’s good to have a lot of DPS here to get this fight over and done with.
Mutation: Icebound
Ice, Ice, Baby! Everything slows down in the cold and this mutation is no exception. We start with Icebound, which means all enemies are dealing Ice Damage, so pull out your Aquamarines and Frozen Protection amulet. Most annoying is Shiver, a zone of exclusion that bites anyone who is outside of it, which keeps the group huddled up together. Be careful of enemies with Glacial, as they will drop a crystal that can root you in place. To prevent this, you need to destroy or run away from the crystal, depending on where it is positioned.
At M1 level, everything is a bit easier, so you will be fine with Opals rather than Aquamarines, and may not need to use Ward potions or Coatings.
M2 - Indomitable
When we get to M2, some of the mini-bosses gain Phalanx shields that block projectiles, which is particularly annoying for healers who are trying to speed up their cooldowns or charge up their heals with heavy attacks. If you play ranged DPS, make sure you have a melee weapon in your other slot and be aware that heals might be a bit less powerful. Vampiric also makes an appearance, which can make enemies slower to kill, so your Bile Bomb heartrune might be useful.
M3 - Fiendish
The first of our M3 curses is Weary, which slows down player movement as well as increasing damage taken by 20%. This is on a timer and while you’re meant to be able to delay it by using abilities, it’s been glitchy in game so don’t rely on that.
The other curse is Blood Offering. Using abilities causes a 4.5% Ice DoT, which can stack up to 3 times, however while under the influence of Offering players also get a 25% life leech. So as long as you’re doing damage, this curse has little effect. The main person it impacts is the healer, so they may need to focus on healing themselves. Drinking some Desert Sunrise before you start the expedition should help reduce the effect.
