Diablo 3 Hero Guide - - Hell Better Get Ready For YOU

If you're like me, you're probably dying from anticapation waiting for Diablo III to be released on Tuesday. Even though it's only days until the game comes out, it seems the closer we get the worse the wait seems. I've been searching for anything Diablo related to tide me over and that's when I stumbled across Zygor's Diablo III Guide.

I already know of these guys from their kick ass Star Wars: The old republic guides which were a lifesaver and totally changed the way I played that game. These new Diablo III guides look to be just as awesome. You get a complete walkthrough of the whole game from Act I to Act IV, guides for all five classes which tell you how to set your spells and make your characters as powerful as can be, how to optimize your followers to maximize damage and healing, and loads more - including a guide for obtaining all the achievements in the game.

You can check out Diablo 3 Hero Guide on the official website HERE

See you in Hell! Talk soon.

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Rift Callings and the Soul System

If you haven't been reading up on Rift: Planes of Telara, then you might not know about the interesting twist on the class system the have in store for us. First things first, classes are called callings and they are divided into four categories; Warrior, Rogue, Cleric and Mage. Each calling can have up to, speculatively, eight different souls. The are the souls of past heroes being reborn into Telara and as you travel through the world you gain access to more diverse and focused souls. Two souls are officially known for the Warrior (Reaver and Champion), two for the Cleric (Inquisitor and Purifier), two for the Mage (Warlock and Elementalist) and three for the Rogue (Ranger, Nightblade and Blade Dancer.



There have been other details that have been spied out from demonstrations at E3. Three more souls for the Rogue calling have been spotted; those being the Bard, the Assassin and the Riftstalker. Though not seen on a game screen, Scott Hartsman did let the word Pyromancer slip from his lips in one video.

So what's so special? You can access multiple souls at the same time.

As you gain higher levels you open up the abilities to access more than one soul at the same time (pictured above). However it's not as simple as having three classes in one, accessing everything at the same time. As you gain levels you gain Soul Points that can be put into each soul tree. These points are finite though and have to be spread across each tree.

Each soul tree has two parts, the tree and it's roots. As you apply points into the soul tree gaining bonuses for that soul, you also unlock root abilities. Presumably, you don't gain abilities as you level, but as you put soul points into each soul tree.



This is what makes Rift so unique and gives the impression of an amazing system that is incredibly flexible and customizable. If you have, for example, fifty points and have access to three trees you now have to choose how far to go into one soul and gain the more powerful abilities while balancing out the other trees to gain abilities there. Perhaps you can put a few points into a Ranger for some bow attacks but put the rest into a heavy dps melee soul.

As heard in this video the possibilities are really endless. Check out 06:08 of the video below. Russ Brown, VP of Development, gives the impression of Rogues that can tank, Mages that can toss out healing and Tanks that can drop some nukes. The balancing of abilities and tree is going to excite every min/max player out there. Do you use one tree fully? Two? Or go with all three?

by Draegan

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Rift Black Garden and Pyro PvP spec (Lvl 19)

Basic PvP Knowledge
I'm going to quickly skim over the basics just to refresh the concepts for everyone and to remind everyone that now is the very best time to set up your keybinds and begin to train your muscle memory. I will presume that everyone knows how to configure their Rift UI and setup appropriate keybinds.

Below I will show and explain my keybinding setup. I urge everyone to bind to what works for them and to put their keybinds in early, even while you only have a few abilities, so that you learn your bindings while leveling.

UI
I have a generic action bar layout that I use across all of my WoW characters, and now Rift characters, as shown in the image below. At this stage I only have a few moves, but I'm expecting my bars to be filled with abilities by the endgame.



Keybinds
For now I have my bindings as follows:
1 : Flame bolt
2 : Fireball
3 : Countdown
4 : Inferno
` : Fire Storm
Z : Thunder Blast
X : Ground of Power
C : Transmogrify
V : Break Free
F : Flame Jet
Shift 1 : Flicker
Shift W : Fire Armor
T : Burning Bonds
G : Cinder Burst
Shift A : Internalize Charge
Shift S : Smouldering Power
Shift D : Detaunt
Shift B : Burning Intellect
F1 : Set Focus
F2 : Soul Recall
Shift E : Heroic Resolve (Racial Ability)

Build
The concept of the soul and class system has amazed me in rift. The sheer amount of possibilities are amazing and after taking just a quick gander over all the trees I’m expecting endgame PvP to be incredibly fast paced and brutal. In the Pyromancer tree alone you have an AOE 2 second Stun, an 8 second snare that can be talented to NOT BREAK ON DAMAGE, not to mention a 20 second cooldown to remove ALL CC on yourself aswell as a talent to reduce CC on yourself by 30%! Each of the other trees also have similar PvP abilities that can make you unstoppable so I spent a lot of platinum on respecs to find this build that works well for me:



7/18/0 Archmage/Pyromancer/Dominator Build

Archmage
Tier 1
Planar Attunement
- For the archmage tree you have two different paths that can be followed. Each of them have game breaking abilities at the end of the trees that can be very rewarding if used correctly. The problem is that by allocating too many points into Archmage you loose any 'functionality' that is provided by any other tree and therefore loose any advantage you otherwise may have gained. In then end i will be looking to take 'Improved Break Free' to give myself a 2 minute 'trinket', but at this stage in time the 15% passive damage bonus was just too good to pass up. If you fell you are dyeing too often or being targeted too much then it may be an idea to go into the other side of the tree with 'Resilient' and take some damage protection

Pyromancer
Tier 1
Ignition
-I feel like this is a no brainer for the initial points. A 20% decreased cast time on your main nuke is extremely helpful for this early stage of PvP. I felt that fiery concentration and improved fireball were not worth the points at such a stage in the game


Tier 2

Improved Smouldering Power
- Another no brainer. Anyone who has tried Pyromancer (or arcane mage) before will no that you can burst through your mana faster than you can say 'LOLDPS' and this talent will offset that. It's essentially the 'evocation' of the Pyromancer tree. The idea is to keep this up at all times (refresh once the 8 stacks wear off) and you will have next to no mana issues, and if used along-side ground of power you're mana should never be an issue for you.

Burning Bonds
- An EIGHT second snare, nuff said

Improved Burning Bonds
- Makes your snare instant cast, nuff said. (The plan is to eventually spec into unbreakable bonds so that it stops breaking on damage. But for now people will just need to learn to stop breaking CC) Once again I didn’t feel that the points spent in combust were warranted for this early stage of PvP.


Tier 3

Flicker
- WoW's mage Blink has had a facial. The importance of this talent cannot be stressed enough! Besides from propelling you forwards 15 meters to escape melee play styles, this move will break ALL FORMS OF CC ON YOURSELF WHEN USED! And it only has a 20 second cooldown! Anyone who has tried arena in WoW will know the importance of their trinket (Removes all CC on yourself on use, with a 2 minute CD), and Flicker is essentially a trinket on a 20 SECONDS COOLDOWN that helps evade melee at the same time!

Improved Grounding
- Some may question my choice in this talent but i feel that ground of power is a vital part to the lvl 19 play style I am using. The ground gives you a 10% damage buff while standing on it, this in itself is very substantial, and if you’re playing correctly it's a rare time when you are attacked. And when you are attacked you need to merely step off of the ground of power to avoid the increased damage on yourself. With a cast time of just over 1 second and next to no mana, this fellow should be plonked on the ground whenever you set up to annihilate some poor enemy.

Although Fiery Resolve may sound like a great talent (and it is), i decided not to take it at this point as very few players appeared to be using their full CC capabilities, and of the few who did I only needed to cast flicker and escape.


Tier 4

Fire Storm
- An AOE in the Black Garden is an absolute must have if you want your team to win, but i will discuss that later.

With only 18 points available to allocate in this tree at level 19 i felt that the AOE provided by fire storm was much more important than any of the other options.


Dominator

For the final tree I was really tossing up between this and the Chloromancer tree. With Chloromancer the base root move is a debuff that can be applied to the enemy that gives anyone attacking the target with the debuff to receive 100% of the damage they deal back as health. Compared with the base 'Transmogrify' offered by the dominator tree I felt that 15% proc chance was too low for PvP and would train you to rely on RNG, which is not good.

2 Points must be allocated into this tree to unlock the 'Thunderblast', a knockback ability, that when combined with the rest of the CC makes the mage a power house of control.


Tier 1

Mental Discipline
- Both of the choices are not too great at only lvl 19, but using my play style, mana efficiency is not an issue for me and hence I chose this talent.


Playstyle

At level 19 the amount of abilities are limited, but you still have a small variety of control abilities that you can use to turn the tide of the battle.


Typical Rotation
In a perfect world where you could stand still and cast at the enemy without taking any damage yourself your PvP rotation would look something like this:
Plant down a ground of Power - Stand on it
If you expect the target to survive for longer than 8 seconds then cast Countdown on them. Refresh if the target looses the debuff (usually because it has exploded) and you expect the target to last a further 8 or more seconds
Flame Bolt when off cooldown
Fireball until the target's health is beneath 30%
Finish up with InfernoIf you weren't being attacked you could probably chuck in a cinder burst or two against some tough targets - I don’t think there has ever been an occasion where I have been able to cast Cinder Burst, 6 seconds is just a mammoth cast time, and only an idiot player is going to sit there and take it.


Ability Breakdown

Flame Bolt
-Deals a medium amount of damage, instant cast, on an 8 second CD. Very usefull move to get some burst damage on a target. Because it's instant cast it can be cast on the move, this is generally the ability that I use in most situations

Fireball
- This is your primary player nuke. A 2 second cast time is quite hefty in fast paced PvP so before you begin casting this ensure that its going to hit your desired target. So make sure that your target will not run around a corner and LOS you, or interrupt your cast or else you will be wasting valuable GCD cast time. But if you can cast your fireball, then expect some big damage to be taken by your opponent.

Countdown
- This ability is similar to 'Living Bomb' from WoW but without the dot effect. Generally this move doesn’t see much usage from me as my targets usually die within 8 seconds, rendering the ability useless. But there are a few occasions when the heals are just so great that it warrants casting this ability. It's also useful as a fire and forget type move. 2 Opponents? No worries, cast this on one, use some CC, and deal with the other. By the time you swap back this bad boy will be due to tick for a significant amount leaving your now single opponent at a disadvantage.

Inferno
- This is your most powerful move. If it can be cast then you can expect your target to die. Personally I have never seen anyone survive a cast of this (being at the top end of the PvP bracket) so use this whenever you can.

Fire Storm
- This is your primary AOE. It is channeled, and it absolutely smashes through your mana so its extremely important to be standing on your talented ground of power and maintaining your smoldering power stacks or you will OOM within 2-3 casts.

When picking up the flag (fang) in the Black Garden you get a castbar for about 1 or so seconds. This is interruptible, and it just so happens that the ticks from this AOE are about every 1 or so seconds, so when the flag is dropped and both teams swarm to pick it up stick this baby down on the flag and it will prevent the enemy from picking it up (Unless they spec into pushback or whatever - But i have rarely seen anyone pick up the fang while in the AOE at this bracket), this will give your team plenty of time to stroll in and casual collect the flag.

In my experience this is a game winning move. If the opponents do not copy you and your team can grab the flag in time, it sways the fight big time.

Thunder Blast
- This move doesn’t hit for much but it's knockback is invaluable. There are many situational uses for this ability but the main ones that I have noted are: knocking back a single player going for the fang, and knocking back pesky melee or pets that try to hamper your stationary PvP domination. Use it wisely though, I’ve seen a few stupid mages knockback a fang carrier that they have been chasing and putting them out of their own range, or knocking the enemies into the allied fang carrier.

Ground of Power
he ground gives you a 10% damage buff while standing on it, this in itself is very substantial, and if you'r playing correctly it's a rare time when you are attacked. And when you are attacked you need to merely step off of the ground of power to avoid the increased damage on yourself. With a cast time of just over 1 second and next to no mana, this fellow should be plonked on the ground whenever you set up to annihilate some poor enemy.

Generally if you don’t have a ground of power beneath you then you should be: Kiteing a melee, moving into a position to plonk down ground of power, or be under the effects of some form of CC.

Transmogrify
- The Polymorph of Rift. Now I’m not sure if RIft PvP is subject to DR and the 10 second CC cap, but even if it is then this move is still powerful. You can effectively completely lockdown an enemy with this move for up to 10 seconds (30 seconds?). Have two enemies on your hands at once? No worries, lock down one with this and then kill the other. By the time the Trans target is free the other will be dead leaving you to kill this person without extra pressure.

Break Free
- The PvP trinket of Rift. Removes all CC from yourself on a 5 minute CD. If your using flicker correctly then you will rarely need to call upon this ability, but its a useful reserve for when you get CCd multiple times within 20 seconds. This can later be talented to a 2 minute Cooldown similar to WoWs trinkets.

Flame Jet
- A frontal cone AOE. While the damage is limited, the uses are not. The primary use of this ability is to interrupt a group of enemies attempting to pick up the fang in a similar way to 'Fire Storm'.

Flicker
- The cornerstone of the Pyro PvP tree, and the One main reason I ended up choosing Pyro for PvP. As explained earlier: Besides from propelling you forwards 15 meters to escape melee play styles, this move will break ALL FORMS OF CC ON YOURSELF WHEN USED! And it only has a 20 second cooldown! Anyone who has tried arena in WoW will know the importance of their trinket (Removes all CC on yourself on use, with a 2 minute CD), and Flicker is essentially a trinket on a 20 SECONDS COOLDOWN that helps evade melee at the same time!

Fire Armor
-This is your only armor choice at this stage, so re-apply at spawn or when it is removed from you and you should be good. FYI: 5% fire damage increase, 'nuff said

Burning Bonds
- This is an 8 second snare. Anyone familiar with WoW's entangling roots should be a master with this move, just bear in mind that it's on an 8 second cooldown, and before reaching the next tier of the Pyro tree it will break on damage. But its still an extremely useful move. The main purpose is for keeping those pesky melee off you, and preventing fleeing targets from escaping your wrath. "But how do they not escape your wrath if the damage breaks the snare?" I hear you say. Well, 8 seconds is long enough for you to charge up a fireball and put them out of their misery. Or felling really evil? then try out a cinderburst. Just dont try snaring another ranged to keep them away from you, they can still shoot you from where they stand

Cinder Burst
- As explained above Cinder Burst is a heavy hitting move with a 6 second cast. While it wont see much use in the Black Garden due to its incredibly long cast time, it is still useful to keep binded for those rare occasions where you get a perfect 6 second casting window on a target

Internalize Charge
- A 20% damage bonus is extremely powerful in PvP, but because this ability uses charge and not mana it will conflict with your smouldering power usage. There are cases where this will be handy to use, but its up to you to determine when. Getting the perfect mix between maintaining mana yet maintaining this ability is the mark of a true gladiator.

Smouldering Power
- As explained above this move is the main mana regeneration source for the Pyromancer and should be maintained at all times to conservere mana.

Detaunt
- A 50% damage reduction buff for a targeted enemy (breaks on damage dont forget) is incredible. Used in conjunction with Transmogrify, Burning Bonds, Thunder Blast and Flicker, a skilled mage could keep up to 3 enemies controlled (or even 4 for the budding gladiator) and kited on their own.

The Black Garden




Opening

The Black Garden is a small Warfront (Rifts Battlegrounds) with 10 players a side. Both Guardians and Defiants fight each other for control of the flag, ironicaly called the Fang of Regulos.
For those who are unaware, Regulos appears to be the main bad guy of the game, and so holding his fang is like holding a part of the main bad guy. Turns out that Regulos dosnt like people holding his tooth, and so it gives off an increasing amount of damage to the holder until they eventually dieBecause of this mechanic the player holding the fang generally needs an amount of healing to prevent them from dyeing. Eventually the damage will become so high that they die in a single tick and healers become useless. When this happens another player must be nearby ready to pick it up

When attempting to pick up the flag you will be set back by a castbar of about 1 second that will be interrupted upon receiving any damage. It is therefore important to keep enemies going for the flag under pressure and constant damage so that they can not pick up the flag. The AOE tactic detailed above (under Fire Storm) is the generic opener beginning to be implemented by both the Defiants and Guardians in my battlegroup and once it has further developed it will become important to quickly neutralize enemy AOE'ers and at the same time learn how to avoid being killed in the opener while still keeping up the flag AOE protection

The opening strategy detailed above is very successful when used in conjunction with a competent team and I believe that until some nerfs are handed around or the Warfront is altered, this will become the generic Strategy employed by most PUG groups.

Getting your Burst on!
While following my playstyle works for me, it only gets me so far. After a few runs of this Warfront I realized that both the Northern and Southern shrines house a damage Buff.

This buff gives you a 100% damage increase! This buff lasts for 2 Minutes and appears to be on a 2:30 respawn timer. I highly advise to make the most of these before word gets out about just how overpowered they are. Collect these often and make good use of them and it will be a rare time indeed when you are not on the top of the charts. Each of the shrines has two ways of getting in. The first is a boulder on the ground that allows you to jump the wall. The southern shrines boulder is towards the west, allowing Guardians to access the shrine faster than defiants. The opposite is true for the north shrine. Each of the shrines can also be accessed by running along the pillar-bridge things. It a smart idea to use the pillar bridge to return to the middle of the map so that you are out of melee range initially.

Once under the power of this buff you can generally cast Flame Bolt, Fireball and then follow up with Inferno for a burst of around 1100 Damage in 3 seconds. In the lvl 19 bracket of the Black garden, that's usually someones entire health. Anyone with more health or heals, just chuck in an extra fireball or two.


PvP Pyromancer Black Garden Strategy
My Strategy for the Black Garden is divided into 2 Phases. To begin with I am faced with two choices, head into the middle and use the opener described above to ensure your team begins with the fang. Or head off to a shrine to immediately enter the game with intense burst damage.

Usually I will open with the AOE phase, and then collect the buff after we have the fang. But when the team seems competent or it's a guild run or premade then I will open by heading to the southern shrine.



Once I have collected the buff I will head to the center and help out our fang carrier by destroying anyone who attempts to kill him in ~3 seconds flat. Once the buff wears off and we have a firm grasp on the fang i will head to the northern shrine and repeat like this until we finally win. In the case where the enemies obtain the fang, i devote my efforts to hunting down the enemy fang carrier and killing them. The 3 second Buff Burst combined with the fang damage makes killing the enemy Fang carrier extremely easy, and makes attacking healers first something of the past. For now at least healers do not need to be your primary targets. Once the enemy fang carrier is dead, you can proceed to cast Fire Storm while your allies collect the fang

Author: Jorotyn

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Rift Iron Tomb Walkthrough (Gameplay and Commentary)

The first entry level dungeon in RIFT, Iron tombs is a 3 boss instance and the entrance is north-east of Meridian inside the Freemarch zone. I played as a level 20 Chloromancer Mage, the group consisted of Lvl 30 Cleric, Lvl 18 Rogue, lvl19 Rogue and 21 Warrior.

part 1



Part 2


Part 3

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Rift Deepstrike Mines Dungeon Walkthrough (Full Run)

This is Deepstrike Mines the second dungeon found in the Defiant zone of Stonefield, a level 24-26 Dungeon. The instance is a little challenging at the minimum entry level which is good to see, a nice challenge for a group at the minimum level. Hope you all enjoy.

Part 1

part 2

Part 3

Part 4
This is the last of the 4 part series on Deepstrike mines, it will focus on the last boss the Gatekeeper. Basic strategies on what to lookout for, how to react to the mechanics and what we did to defeat this boss. Hope you all enjoy!



Full Run
Note: FYI - The final boss was a wipe due to my mis-managing of mana, so I stepped down for the higher lvl player can heal and I dps'd. Very mana intensive fight if people other than the tank takes lots of damage

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Rift Foul Cascade Dungeon Walkthrough

Foul Cascade (lvl 30) is the third dungeon in Rift and is a shared dungeon with both Defiants and Guardians, Located in the northern reaches of Scarlet Gorge. Group composition was a lvl 32 Warrior, lvl 35 Rogue, lvl 32 Mage, lvl 30 Cleric and myself a lvl 30 Mage.

part 1

part 2

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Rift Warrior Tanking

If your reading this guide you are of a warrior calling and have at least scrolled through the skill trees to read what abilities do. This guide is the basics of individual spec and individual play. This may not work for everyone. Also this is a work in progress as things change and progress so will the spec change and progress.

My definition of a Tank is a character who holds the attention of all mobs on him, and also takes the least amount of damage than anyone else while doing this.

My definition involves two separate issues; 1 being threat and; 2 being damage mitigation.

My spec is as following



As you can see it involves Paladin//Reaver//Warlord. This provide a good balance between threat and mitigation. It also provides a fairly good amount of AOE threat so as you get geared you can pull larger groups without worrying about threat on all the mobs. It also baselines around 10% to dodge, and 25% to block.

Single target threat is very easy in this build. Aggressive Block(+10% to your block), Empowering Strike(+ armor buff to yourself), and Leader’s Mark(Armor debuff on target). All of these moves buff or debuff your target, add to your threat, and also add attack points. During combat when you block you will also have 3 non global cool down moves you can use. Each has a cool down timer.

Retaliation- 6 second cool down I use this the most and start off with it. By the time you use the other 2 this should be off cool down so you can follow 4 blocks with threat generating instant attacks.
Disarming Counterblow- 30 second cool down with a disarming effect
Paladin’s Reprisal- 60 second cool down with an AOE 5 second stun(this can be very useful if used correctly).

AOE threat is slightly harder but should not be a back breaker. For pulls where CC is not needed simply popPlague Bringer. Use Soul Sickness, Necrotic wounds, Soul Fever, Light’s Decree and then go into your single target rotation until you need to refresh your DOT’s and Light’s Decree.

Let me explain how Light’s Decree works. Basically it puts a debuff on your target that will do damage to anything within 5 yards of that target when you hit it with a single target strike. Although the damage is low this damage does generate a high amount of threat. Light’s Decree has a 12 second cool down so the target you use it on should not be the target everyone is going to kill first. If you know your group is going to kill target X first, place the debuff on target Y and use the AOE threat rotation.

A normal AOE pull looks like this for me, Plague Bringer, Soul Sickness, Necrotic Wounds, Soul Fever, Light’s Decree, Aggressive Block, Empowering Strike, and Leader’s Mark.

The only threat problems I have encountered are Bards using Motif of Regeneration as a constant buff, and when a HOT from the last pull is still on me. So let your Bards know that Motif of Regeneration should be cast after a pull not before it and wait for all old HOT effects to wear off before pulling the next group.

Mitigation is also very important to a tank. You need to be hit for less and to be hit less often. This build has an 23% Magic Damage Mitigation, Physical Damage should be reduced by armor value(55%+ is where you should be on this, remember to add in the 5% Imbued Armor). You parry is a bit low with this build. Depending on gear it should be around 5%, until you really start getting geared out. Dodge will float around 10% depending on gear and if you have used a call ability(this will make sense in the next section). Block will easily be your highest defense stat. You should probably float around a 30-35% block 40%-45%with Aggressive Block Active. More research needs to be done on these values//when do diminishing returns kick in//and what are max values for raid encounters. Also Toughness is a stat that I have yet to play around with, but as I obtain gear with toughness on it; I shall test it.

Last but not least are special skills and abilities that use attack points. As you noticed I do not have anything in a normal rotation that uses attack points. The reason is simple because none of them generate threat and most are situational. I like to keep Spotter’s Order on the target as much as possible, this increases your dodge chance by 3% for 15 seconds and gives a damage boost to your allies on this target.

Reverent Protection is a neat little damage shield that covers your entire party. Although as a tank it does not help you that much. It does give your healer a decent buffer when the party takes a bit of AOE damage. Timing this with a bosses AOE ability will make your healer love you!

Righteous Blow and Scales of Justice are pretty useless, they don’t add threat and they don’t really give you any buffs or debuffs they simply just do damage. This does help out but it puts them low on the priority list. If you have time to use them do it, it wont hurt you if you don’t have time.

Judgment and Concussion and both AOE taunts basically use them when you get a big group and you see a mob pull off you and go for someone else. These both have 1 minute cool downs and they share a 15 second global cool down. So even though its 2 different moves you can only use them every so often.

Intercept is a great skill. It allows you to convert the agro from 1 player to yourself. This will last 6 seconds and it is on a 30 second cool down. For trash I use this on the healer and at the start of my second rotation. For a boss I will use this on either the healer or the person who is putting out the must DPS. I try to use it every 30 seconds during a boss fight. Tostiganator's macro will work wonders here, allowing you to cast this on a raid//party member without switching to them.

#show Intercept
cast @mouseover Intercept

Imposing is also a great skill. The 1 minute cool down makes it not as useable but using it when you can during a boss fight ensures no one will pull threat. During trash I tend to only use it if I know the pull is going to take some time to kill.

Remember this is a work in progress and will be updated as we learn more, the game changes, etc.

by Caziz

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Rift Complete Realm of the Fae Dungeon

Deep in the hedge mazes in northern Silverwood, the realm of Fae Lord Twyl is situated. This dungeon is full of satyrs, treants and faeries. Work your way through this dungeon by fighting your way through the four seasons and meet up with their avatars at the very end. See if you have what it takes to hold court with Lord Twyl.

This dungeon is meant for levels 17-19 and is located in the northern part of Silverwood, the first zone for new Guardian characters. There are three quests associated with this dungeon and two are given inside the zone. As with all dungeons, the first quest is the automatic dungeon quest, the second is given to you by an NPC at the entrance and third is given from an NPC in Sanctum.


Quest Information

• Lords of the Fae Realm
• Quest Giver: Automatic
• Location: Dungeon Entrance
• Objective: Defeat all the boss mobs in Realm of the Fae; Trickseter Maelow, Luggodhan, Battlemaster Atrophinius, Fae Lord Twyl

The lords of the Realm of the Fae keep this stolen land locked in their seasonal grip, preventing Telara from achieving the harmony it once had. Destroy the lords of spring, summer, autumn and winter so that Telara can be made whole.




The Land of Seasons
Quest giver: Nuna Hawkwing
Location: Dungeon Entrance
Objective: Bless the five altars located throughout the dungeon.



This relam is not another dimension, but a part of the land of Telara that has drifted away from the harmony of the Vigil. The godless faeries seek to make their own realm beyond the sight of the gods and dragons. Their freedom is our destruction.

Find the ancient shrines of the gods that the High Elves erected in an earlier age. A the gods have joined together to form the power of the Vigil, so should your blessing energize the ancient shrines and bring the Realm of the Fae back into harmony.

The Crown of Twyl

• Quest Giver: Shyla Starhearth
• Location: Throne Dais in Sanctum (Guardian Only)
• Objective: Burn the Crown of Seasons in the Brazier of Winter’s End

I believe my Prince kneels to the faerie lord only as a means of seizing the Crown of Seasons and the power it gives. If we destroy this artifact we can deal a blow to Greenscale’s minions and prevent Hylas from further succumbing to the sinful pull of the green beast.

There is an old ritual, of life and death and mirrored thrones. We may save Silverwood, Telara and the fae realms. Won’t you enter Twyl’s domain?


Realm of the Fae: Travel through the Four Seasons



Realm of the Fae is a medium size instance that is heavy on the trash mobs however many are avoidable if you are careful. Being a low level dungeon you can bring pretty much any group configuration you can get. Rogue or Cleric tanks are just as good as Warriors much like Mages are just as good as Clerics for healing. Each roll has been successfully completed by many classes.

As soon as you enter you’ll see the quest NPC Nuna Hawking just on the shores of the pond. She will give you the quest “The Land of Seasons“, which is the quest that asks you to bless five different altars. Checking your map you’ll be able to see where all five locations are. You’ll be able to find the first shrine just behind Nuna if you are facing her. Don’t forget to bless it now so you don’t have to come back at the end.

One finished you can head into the dungeon to the first pull. All the mobs are quite easy and don’t require any strategies. Many trash group contain a ranged caster, so either charge the caster, CC it, or pull it with LOS. Make your way through the spring section of the map and you’ll reach your first boss soon.



Trickster Maelow

Trickster Maelow is a simple fight, essentially tank and spank. He comes with two guardians, Lifewards Brae and Celoah, that have to die before you focus on Trickster Maelow. Each guardian has a special buff that they give to the boss, Brae’s is called “Fae Shielding” which gives a 90% damage reduction and Celoah’s is called Spirited Strikes which increases the damage of Maelow by 30. The order really doesn’t matter as the fight is not that difficult, but if you do run into trouble, killing Celoah first might make it easier on the tank.

Trickster Maelow himself has two special attacks that you have to watch out for. The first is Wild Kick which is a stun and the second is Cottontail, which polymorphs the target (randomly chosen, though usually higher on the threat table) into a Rabbit. Casters will have to pay attention to dispel this effect if it happens to be cast on the healer.



After defeating Trickster Maelow, you can continue. As you leave the area the boss the second altar is to your right. Make sure you pick it up. Continue up the hill and into the second section of the dungeon, the summer. This is where the trash gets troublesome. You can potentially skip a lot of the trash if you’re careful, but if you want to play it safe, and gain more experience, clear everything. There are many places, especially around the curves in the road, where there are many wandering groups that will creating very large pulls.

When you’re about two thirds of your way through this section you’ll come across a group of three huts as you are facing south. The hut on your right will contain the third altar you will need for your quest. Pick it up now.

At the end of this section you will reach the second boss.


Luggodham












This boss is extremely easy, just don’t stand in the fire or in this case the slime. Keep an eye out for “Luggodhan’s Slime” as it s a ground based AOE attack that slows you down as well. He targets random people throughout the fight, including the tank, so keep your eye out for it. Just move out of the way, stay within the healer’s radius and you should come out of this fight easily.



After defeating Luggodham you will move on through autumn. This is where the trash is really tricky. It is a densely packed area full of Satyr’s. There are spellcasters who like to nuke you with fireballs so kill these guys first. There are packs of non-elite bug mobs, and there are wandering mobs that will certainly add on to different pulls. Usually staying to the right and hugging the boundary will give you the best route through with the least amount of trash.



When you are nearly through to the end, you will see a small hedgerow section (see map above) to your right which contains the fourth altar. Grab it and head on towards the next boss.


Battlemaster Atrophinius












Battlemaster Atrophinius is another short fight that doesn’t have many tricks to it. Atrophinius has two adds that will harass you, but don’t really affect the battle too much. He also has two abilities, a frontal cleave called “Mighty Cleave” and a charge and knockback called “Drunken Rage“. The Battlemaster will charge random people throughout the fight and knock them back a good distance. The tank should position himself against a rock so that he can keep aggro if he happens to get charged.



Keep everyone healed, and control the boss and you should win easily. The two adds will disappear once the boss is defeated so you can ignore them through the fight.



After the boss is down, you’ll continue onward through winter. This section has one of the better graphical effects in the game so far. If you have an older computer you might turn down your effects because they can slow down your performance. This area contains two types of mobs, swirling vortexes and large treants. You can run around some, but you’ll have to kill a few.

As soon as you enter the snowy area, make sure you head up the slope on your right for the fifth and final altar (see map above).

Work your way through quickly and you’ll see a narrow bridge to the final boss encounter.



Fae Lord Twyl











This boss encounter contains three events before facing Twyl. You will first have to defeat the Avatar of Autumn, then Summer and finally Spring. After each Avatar you will drop out of combat for a small period of time allowing you to drink if you need to.



Each of the avatars of their own mechanics. The first Avatar you will face is the Avatar of Autumn. He has one ability that dazes a random player. This ability is called “Haze of Wine” and it can be interrupted. The effect is short lived so don’t worry if you can’t time it properly. Focus on your healing and you’ll be able to get through it.

After you defeat the Avatar of Autumn you will face the Avatar of Summer. This fight benefits from AOE abilities. When you damage the avatar enough he splits into two, who each split into two again, and those splits split again. Each iteration has less hitpoints that the one before and they don’t his as hard. Kill your way through and don’t worry if you aggro as non-tanks will not get one shot.

The third Avatar you will face is the Avatar of Spring. It is a large treant that has the ability to summon adds. It will summon a swarm of Nectar Seakers. These are non Elite mobs that you can down quickly. Most of the time you can get the Avatar down before he spawns his third group.

Once all the Avatars are defeated you will face off against Fae Lord Twyl. He has only one ability which roots and freezes you in place. Other than that he just attacks the tank. What you will have to watch out for is a little green light, called Fae Tempest, that moves around in random patterns on the ground. It will cause damage if it runs into you. So keep your eyes on the ground and those that are frozen might get hit as well.



The fight contain a little chaos and is the longest by far in the dungeon, but if you don’t screw-up by falling off the cliff, you should easily be able to complete the event.



Once you are finished a portal will open up at the tip of the platform allowing you to exit the zone but before you leave, make sue you burn the crown for the objective of “The Crown of Seasons” on the altar right before the portal.

by Draegan

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Rift Complete Deepstrike Mines Dungeon

As it corrupts the mines, the Endless Court fouls the very land of Stonefield, and it must be scourged from Deepstrike Mines if the honest folk of Granite Falls are to survive. The sourcestone in Deepstrike could provide endless fuel for technomagical machines, so any loyal Defiant should fight to reclaim the mines. For all their hideous magic, the Endless Court had best hope they never breach the buried gates. The titans within epitomize the power of earth, waiting in the deeps to shatter the works of living and undead alike.

Deepstrike Mines is made for players of levels 24 through 26 and is located in the western half of Stonefield near Granite Falls. There are many quests associated with this dungeon; except for the automatic quest, all quests are for Defiant players only.

Quest Information

Deep Threats
Quest Giver: Automatic
Location: Dungeon Entrance
Objective: Defeat all four bosses of Deepstrike Mines; Overseer Markus, Gregori Krezlav, Bonehew the Thunderer, Gatekeeper Kaleida



Subvert the attempts of the Endless Court to mine sourcestone from Deepstrike by eliminating all of their lieutenants.



Gregori’s Revelation
Quest giver: Torin Fergal
Location: Granite Falls
Objective: Read Gregori’s Log in Deepstrike Mines

Word around town is that miners found a titan-sized door in Deepstrike Mines, and that fiddling with it caused the dead to rise. Well, Gregori Krezlav was the manager on duty at the time. He never made it out, but his journal may shed some light on what happened.



Slaughtering The Butchers
Quest giver: Emily Fergal
Location: Granite Falls
Objective: Kill Baneful Decapitators 0/4

Though treacherous, Deepstrike Mines still draws the bold and the desperate. Hulking skeletons guard the mines, cutting down anyone prospecting for rich sourcestone veins. If you have the courage, venture there and slay the Baneful Decapitators.



The Foreman’s Disgrace
Quest giver: Torin Fergal
Location: Granite Falls
Objective: Kill Overseer Markus

Overseer Markus leads the undead miners of Deepstrike in their perpetual toil. The few who have braved the mines tell stories of a ghastly Markus flailing his risen laborers as they delve without end. Putting his soul to rest may release the other dead as well.

The Saga of the Endless: Endless Digging
Quest giver: Emily Fergal
Location: Granite Falls
Objective: Find Kaspar inside of the Deepstrike Mines. Kaspar is at in the immediate entrance of Deepstrike Mines

The Endless Court have control of the Deepstrike Mines. Whatever Alsbeth’s great plot is, she needs a lot of sourcestone to do it. The longer they hold it, the closer she gets to her goal.



We must stop her. Kaspar and I will accompany you.

Stolen Source
Quest giver: Kaspar
Location: Dungeon Entrance
Objective: Collect unrefined Source Fragments. These items drop from miners throughout Deepstrike Mines.

We need to get back the sourcestone that the Endless Court has stolen from this mine! Well, all right, they didn’t exactly steal it, since it was their miners that did the work. But they sort of ‘stole’ the mine in the first place, and therefore anything they take from it is also stolen.

What do I know? I’m the good guy, no the logician. All I know is we need to take it back.

Reclaiming What’s Ours
Quest giver: Asha Catari
Location: Dungeon Entrance
Objective: Disable the Eth Device. This device is located on the bottom floor of the dungeon.

Alsbeth used me to place an Eth Device here that opened a death rift, unleashing all the death energy on this place. She fooled us, all of us, into coming here so that she could take Port Scion. I want to get that device disabled, and one day, I will hopefully be able to smash it against her face.




Deepstrike Mines: Don’t Look Down

Deepstrike Mines is a compact dungeon that offers an amazing ratio of trash to bosses. There are four bosses in this dungeon all offering unique and sometimes difficult fights. All calling rolls have been used in this dungeon, rogue tanks, mage healers etc, so you don’t have to be extremely picky with who you bring to this dungeon.



If you’re a Guardian you won’t have any preparation to do; just enter the dungeon and you will get the automatic quest. If you’re a Defiant, there are a quite a selection of quests for you to gain. If you’ve done the prerequisites there are a few to gain in Granite Falls, and a few inside the Dungeon Entrance. Slaughtering the Butchers asks you to kill four Baneful Decapitators, the first one is right in front of you as you enter the dungeon. Another quest, Stolen Source, asks you to collect ten Source Fragments which you can gain from killing miner trash mobs. The rest of the quests will be explained during the guide, two ask you to interact with items found throughout the dungeon, and the last asks you to kill a boss mob.

When you’re ready you can begin pulling trash. After heading over a rope bridge and to your right and a long a ledge, you will see the first boss, Overseer Markus.



Overseer Markus


Markus splits into three parts.



You will see Overseer Markus on a platform ahead of you. There are two trash mobs to your right so if you haven’t aggro’d them yet, do so. On the platform you will see four other mobs with the boss. They will all come in a single pull. Take out the adds first, they don’t have many hit points, then concentrate on the boss.

Markus the Overseer is a pretty easy boss fight with simple mechanics. The only ability you have to watch out for is “Elemental Cleave” which, as you can guess, is a frontal cone AOE. When Markus gets down to 50% he then splits into three mobs that you have to kill. Once they are taken out the original Markus comes back at 50% and you get to finish him up.



Once the Markus is down you will continue straight onto the rope bridge. Once over to the next platform, turn left and continue over the next bridge. On the next platform you will want to head up to the top and once there you will then reach Gregori Krezlav, the second boss.


Gregori Krezlav



Baneful Delver

Gregori Krezlav will cause some groups problems if they are not properly prepared for the fight’s mechanics. Gregori himself casts two spells, Life Rend and another that summons a Baneful Delver. The fight is almost all magical damage, so if you have buffs that give resistances use them.



The fight will start off with Gregori standing there by himself. Once you engage him he will begin is sequence. After a short time he will then summon three risen channelers. Gregori will gain a buff that makes him immune to all damage. To remove this buff you will have to kill the three channelers while Gregori is still attacking you. Once they are down you will then have to focus back on Gregori. The tank does not have to taunt at all during these phases. Usually, Gregori will summon a Baneful Delver shortly after the channelers go down so the tank can focus on that add while the rest of the group takes down the channelers. Both mobs are not very difficult so there really isn’t anything to worry about. This fight is more about mechanics than dps and tanking. As long as the healers are doing their job, the fight should go smoothly.



Once you have finished with the boss there is a small cave behind him. In the cave you will find several bats and one Baneful Decapitator. Be careful, there are hidden mobs inside that will crawl out of the ground, so clear slowly. At the back of the cave you will find the logbook for Gregori’s Revelation.

After, it’s just a quick jump across two bridges to the next boss mob.



Bonehew the Thunderer

Bonehew the Thunderer is a movement type of fight. He has three abilities that either cause disorientation or knockbacks. The first attack is called Earth Shaker where Bonehew will smash the ground and those in range around him will become disoriented and not be able to use abilities for a few seconds, because of this, healers should always stay at range. The second ability is called Crust Crusher which is a frontal cone AOE knockback and because of this and melee fighters should stay behind Bonehew and the tank should stay with his back against the sides of the platform.

At certain intervals, Bonehew will run to the far side of the platform to cast Seismic Smash. This ability will cause a large rupture across the length of the platform and hit and knockback anyone that gets caught. The only way to avoid this is to clear out to the sides. There is plenty of time to get set, so don’t panic; just be aware of the fight. The damage is not heavy so if a healer does get hit, it will not cause a wipe.

If you can maintain your tank’s health through all of that, the boss should be down without any issues.



Once Bonehew is down you will have to make your way to the bottom of the dungeon. The easiest and fastest way is to go back the way you came. Once you get to the previous platform, across the bridge, you will notice that the spiral ledge to your right is broken off. You can jump across this and work your way down. Once you get to what you judge is a safe distance you can jump all the way down without dieing from fall damage.



Eth Device
On the bottom of the mine you will notice that there are bats scattered about as well as other miner mobs. These miners drop extra source fragments for Stolen Source if you still need them. Be careful however, there are hidden mobs that will spring out of the ground and attack you.

Once you are safely down and your immediate area is secured you will want to head to the western edge of the bottom section where the final boss is. However before you head that way, keep an eye out for the Eth Device.

Once finished you are now ready for the final boss.



Gatekeeper Kaleida

When you walk into the final room you will see a few miners stationed around the doors. You will see one on either ramp to the left and right, you will also see four directly in front of you leading up to the “titan sized” doorway. The immediate two can be pulled without pulling the two in the back. Once all the mobs are cleared and you approach the last two miners, the Gatekeeper will appear.



The Gatekeeper appears.
This fight is quite difficult as there is quite a bit of AOE damage. The boss himself has four different attacks. The first attack is a direct damage spell called Death Tremor. The second one is a disorient called Clobber Rock which prevents you from using any of your abilities. There is another instant cast ability called Fire Cleave which is a frontal fire base cleave, so tanks position yourself appropriately. Kaleida also casts a ranged AOE damage spell called Fir***ast. This has a long cast time, so for those with interrupt abilities keep your eyes peeled since this spell causes a lot of damage.



Here is the tricky part, Kaleida also summons two types of crystals, fire and earth. Each crystal does something different. The fire crystal pulses aoe damage and also explodes causing AOE damage after a short period of time. The earth crystal heals the Gatekeeper. There are several different ways you can go about this fight. You can tank the boss and the crystals all in the same place and dps down the boss and only retargeting the Earth Crystals as they appear and ignore the Fire Crystals if you think you can out heal the fight. Else you will have to have the tank move the boss away from the Earth Crystal to prevent healing while the DPS destroy it and also do the same thing for the Fire Crystals as well.

Make sure you realize that when you move the boss around he does a lot of AOE damage. Everyone must be aware and not stand in front of the boss and avoid the cleaves and stay away from whomever he targets for the Fir***ast AOE spell if he gets it off without being interrupted.



This can turn into a long fight if you can not coordinate taking down the crystals, especially the Earth Crystal allowing the boss to heal himself. However, once you manage the sequence it will take no time at all. Once Gatekeeper Kaleida goes down you will have beaten the fourth boss and Deepstrike Mines will be complete.

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