Rhyaehar
26 May 2008, 09:50
The Rift
The Rift is a 12 man instance, resetting every week in the maintenance window. It has the usual raid locks, so you have to be careful when getting the raid together with random pick ups (PUGs).
Guide changelog
May 26th, 2008: Changed Balrog section.
July 21st, 2008: Working my way through updating the guide to reflect modified tactics. Edited as far as Narnulubat - Rędwulf
October 1st, 2008: Redid boss section
Items you really should have
Brilliant Edelharn Tokens (+5 hope), 5 per person
Essence of Athelas (health pots)
Celebrant Salve (power pots)
Wound, Fear, Disease pots
Fire/Light Oil for Hunters
Lembas and other food/snacks
Spare weapons and shields
Low damage weapons for Guardians and Champions (get the cheapest one you can)
Repair anvil (if +4 hours)
Pulling NPCs
As always, take care when pulling. It's easy to pull more monsters than you intended, and in The Rift it can be deadly. Some pulls can be done very safely when timed correctly, so watch for right moment to pull (watch the distance of the monsters). Do NOT get ahead of the Raid Leader, unless his specific instructions require you to do so - he knows where he going & what he's doing (allegedly!).
Trash
Troll and Troll-keeper
There are 5 pairs of these in the upper part of the Rift. On Barz & Zurm, the first wave of adds is one pair, which accounts for two of the pairs. The other 3 are free-standing pairs dotted around. One pair is your first encounter inside the Rift entrance; another pair is on top of the platform at the end of the high tunnel into the Giant's cavern; the last comes shortly before Zurm.
Always kill the Troll-keeper first, as the Troll itself cannot be damaged until his master is dead. Further, the Troll-keeper keeps the Troll buffed, which may be what is keeping him immune to damage. The troll attacks people at random with heavy AoE attacks directed at everything in front of him until the keeper is defeated. They must be kept together as distance between the two is directly proportional to the damage the troll deals out. If they're far apart, the troll can easily deal 2500 per hit.
Preferred tactic is to ball up on the Troll-Keeper. This means everyone - Hunters, Minstrels, Loremasters included - should be stood more or less on the Keeper's toes! This stops the troll moving very far to randomly attack a player. Main Tank 1 should tank the Keeper, the overriding factor being to keep him stationary. Main Tank 2 or Off Tank 1 should tank the Troll. Although you can't do the Troll any damage before the Keeper is killed, it does mean you will be generating aggro from the moment he's dead. Hopefully this will stop the Troll from turning on anyone squishy.
Final points are 1) Remember that the Troll is quite capable of sending you flying. On the first two encounters, particularly, this is dangerous. You can end up in the Rift (instadeath) or punched off the high platform (which isn't fatal, but keeps you out of the way until the remainder of the raid can fight their way through to you); 2) Squishy classes should try to manoeuver behind the Troll where possible - he hits in front & can't send you flying from behind.
Hillmen, Hillmen-Slave, Orc Master
Because the Slave & Slave Master are single mobs amongst a group, they need to be kept out of action whilst you deal with the swarm. The Slave heals all mobs for large amounts; the Master puts up a big buff (+300% damage for his allies). Keep them both stunned as far away as possible. If they get in amongst they group, they need to be tanked out of the way again. Stunning them in the middle of the group just means no-one can use AoE. Primary responsibility for moving them falls to the Champions, as they will need to Clobber them to stop their buffs.
Once all the slaves are dead, it doesn't matter which of the two you take first, so long as the other is hors de combat in the meanwhile. The Healer, once activated for slaughter, should be power drained to prevent her healing herself (plus why not? Share the Power! ;) ).
Orc Master and bunch of slaves
Group of 5+ normal level slaves (like the ones in CD) and their EM Master. Immobilise Master, kill slaves, then kill Master.
Ghashfra
There are 4 varieties of Ghashfra orcs, ignoring the Nemesis Butchers who attack the giants at the campfire. I'm ignoring them here, because that's exactly what you'll do when you're down there! Let the giants fight them & run past; don't hang around, because another wave will head up the tunnel after a few minutes. Defenders are Elite Archers - stun them & keep them stunned where possible, but they are not No.1 priority. Elite Fighters & EM Scrappers are melee types & easy enough to deal with (one at a time where Scrappers are concerned).
The nuisances are the EM Summoners. They come with pet Elite Fire-Worms & bows as well. These are No.1 priority for stuns because they keep summoning new worms. Two active Summoners can submerge your party in worms, & if any other Ghashfra are about, you are staring a wipe in the face. Kill worms, kill Summoner, in that order. They are also capable of dishing out non-wipable 30s AoE stuns that can hit at least 3 targets, which causes major problems for the raid. Loremasters keep alert - ensure you are anti-stunned and, as a minimum, keep your Guardians & Champions anti-stunned too. Consider having Dunadan Learning traited to get the 1m anti-stun.
The first time you meet these will be in Fruz's cavern (NB: cavern, not room, which is a smaller sub-area). This fight can be tricky. As you come into the room, immediately turn to the right & mount the fallen wall to its highest point. You will see on the platform 2 sleeping Fighters just to the right of the pillar, & a Summoner with a Worm further back. Do not be fooled by the distance between them - this Summoner is scripted with the Fighters & will be aggroed by attacks on them. There are also 2 patrolling Summoners with Worms. They make a circuit which takes them right along the front of the platform. Take more than a couple of steps forward from where you are & you will be close enough for them to spontaneously aggro. This is a Bad Thing!
Once the patrollers are at a safe distance, stun the Summoner &, if you can, both Fighters. The Worm will race towards you. However, you are stood in an awkward place where visibility is poor & it is easy to slip off the ruined wall. It is better to run to your right immediately, circle the large mass of fallen rock & position yourself in the corner beyond. You now have more safe distance between the raid & the patrols, and can deal with everything in a more controlled fashion. Whoever aggros the stunned Summoner should run into the small forward corner to get out of LoS, in order to draw the Summoner down into melee range.
Friendly Giant
Kill the monsters surrounding the Giant by pulling them away from him. Root the furthest group of guards, stun the Slave Masters, deal with everything in the usual piecemeal fashion, but watch for the grated area, which will give you constant damage. When the room is clear, run to the base of the ramp you use to continue to Barz (opposite side of room you entered from) and let one member run to the giant to start the scripted event. The one who "talked" to him should run back to raid immediately. Don't wait. Simple as that. Do not get involved in the fight. It will take a very long time not least because more waves spawn periodically. You only stop them by killing the bosses.
The Cave where Asmolf is has two exits (both on stairs) to two bosses you must kill - he will open access to the buried city after both bosses are dead.
Barz - Boss 1
Barz is probably the second most difficult boss in The Rift, & can easily wipe you if you're not paying attention to chat, where he says several important things that precede his special attacks.
"No power is stronger than Barz"
When he shouts this, he will pick a target, attempt to stun them (so if you suffer a sudden random stun, you'll know you're the target, however it is resistable), run over to them, hit them once or twice, steal a chunk of their power, and then run back to the person with most aggro.
If you can, when Barz uses this attack run towards him if you know you're the target, so's he can get on with hitting you and getting back to the tank. While it doesn't matter too much as long as you don't run away from Barz, the problem is he occasionally decides to do the following "bone gnaw" special attack immediately after he has run to the target. If he is in the middle of everyone when he does the bone gnaw, it's very possible that 2 or 3 people will be caught by suprise and killed. Death is Another Bad Thing. The tank (incidentally, it's perfectly possible to tank him with a CHM - we've proved it) should not attempt to follow Barz, but remain by the bonfire, which is the best place to keep him.
"I'll gnaw your bones"
This does huge AOE damage, which can be avoided by just running away (Barz will stand in one spot all the time). The AOE range is 10 meters, time to run is about 4 seconds; if you don't get away, you WILL die, tank included! :Y The tank should run to the far cavern wall beyond the bonfire (this is why you tank at the bonfire - any further down the cavern & you won't have space to escape); everyone else should just run!
"I will bring down the caverns on you" (only when Zurm has been killed before Barz)
This is followed by large shadows appearing on the ground. Anyone still in the shadows 3 seconds later will take heavy damage. Again, just get out of the area of effect. As we invariably kill Barz first, you will not normally come across this, but it's worth mentioning in case you ever raid with someone else (traitor! :P ).
The last thing to be said is that you get both audio & chat speech to indicate these impending attacks. The audio is bugged - do not rely on hearing it! Keep your eyes on the chatbox, & pay heed to your mates as well. Cries of "Bones! Bones!" over TS are a fair indication of what's coming! However, don't panic about relaying this or reacting to it. If the only person Barz is anywhere near is the tank, it's pointless running around like headless chickens, especially if there's a wave on the go. Ah yes! Adds...
At several points (when Barz is at about 90K, 70K, & 45K) there will be waves of the usual trash monsters - Troll and Troll-keeper; Hillmen / Hillmen-Slave and Orc-Master; the third is the same as the second. Standard tactics, already described, work fine. Don't get fancy with the Slave & Slave Master - just stun them as soon as they come in. Any Champion should pay particular attention to messages coming from the LM's at this point in time. It is absolutely crucial that the Slave-Master does not get his buff up. Barz doing +300% damage is pretty much insta-death.
If there's the slightest hint the Master may get loose, ignore the Slave (the healing she gives is huge, but it only drags the fight out, it doesn't kill people), get the Master stunned, & if it continues to fail (he's been known to resist at least 4 consecutive attempts!), get him Clobbered until you can try again. Remeber to warn the CHM before another stun comes in, so's he can stop attacking. Bear in mind he won't if the Master goes into his buff animation, which is preceded by the words "I'll put an end to you vermin!" The most important thing is to stop that buff, no matter what. Another stun can come along later.
When the reinforcements are around, it's a good idea to kite Barz through and around bridge structure until they're dealt with. Apart from the fact that you want the adds safely dead before wearing Barz down enough for the next to appear, it also seems to interfere with him triggering his special attacks. He'll say the words, but the attacks themselves will often fail to materialise.
Mitigation
Fire: REMARKABLE.
Light: REMARKABLE.
Other: SUPERIOR.
Zurm - Boss 2
Otherwise known as Dave, Barz's twin is nowhere near as difficult to deal with. Tank Dave, and spank your way through the same waves of adds as arrive to die for Barz, spank Dave. Straightforward enough really. The only things to watch out for are:
Dave is very fond of a knockback attack (it seems to be the equivalent of the "No Power.." special from Barz), so the tank should fight him with his back to a wall. There's a couple of good spots where you can do this, & just spam round your attention grabbing skills (NB: It's probably possible for a CHM to do the tanking here as well).
He has a ranged attack that he focuses on the person with the second highest amount of aggro on him, and once selected, he seems to stay with the same person for the whole fight. The attack stuns whenever it hits (throwing rocks?). The best way of dealing with this is to have the Main tank attack first & use skills immediately; the Off- to auto-attack only, a few seconds later; and everyone else to wait 10 or 15 seconds before doing anything (& that includes healing). The Off- can then start using a few aggro-generating skills, and hopefully by the time Dave starts with this attack the Off- is the guaranteed target. Obviously, both tanks will need to be kept anti-stunned.
There's a rarely seen third special attack that consists of Dave either gobbing or puking on you, depending on how you choose to view it! Either way, it's thoroughly unpleasant & can make a real mess of the raid. There is a simple way of preventing it happening, which is to have an Off-tank whacking him from behind for the whole of the fight. We don't know why, but it seems to stop the projectile vomiting!
Everyone else should take care of the waves, when they appear. Instead of kiting Dave around at this time as we do with Barz, the Main- & Off- tanks should simply drop to auto-attack & non-DPS aggro skills, so as not to get Zurm to the next wave too quickly. Killing Barz & Zurm will stop all respawns in the upper caverns, & clear the whole place of any left over mobs, including the area around Asmolf.
Room with 3 Giants and Giant Barter Trade
Killing both bosses will make Asmolf very happy and he'll open the path to city inside The Rift. Race down to the giants at the bonfire below, & take any quests you can quickly. As noted in the Ghashfra section above, there will soon be a clutch of 4 Butchers (& they're Nemesis-level) coming up to assault the giants. The giants don't die, so don't fuss about them. Just gather at the far wall opposite the tunnel entrance by the Conversion Trader, & run past the Butchers once the fight has started. The wave of Butchers is a 6 minute event, timed from the moment the last one in the current wave dies. Bear this in mind if you're late running through the tunnel - if they come through the other way, YOU will be their first target!
You are now down into the Ghashfra area of The Rift, as you may have gathered, & should use the tactics described above to get you to the next boss...
Fruz - Boss 3
Fruz doesn't have a nickname. This isn't because we respect him, as we do the dangerous Barz. It's because he's dull. Dull, dull, dull! Oh, and easy - the easiest boss in the whole place. Having dealt with the platform Ghashfra, run into his room & turn into the corner on your left, without aggravating patrols. Fruz is waiting for you in front of the door you'll eventually leave by once he's dead. When you start the fight, the two open doors to the room will close, so make sure everyone gets in! On the plus side, that means you don't have to worry about patrols.
On your left, as you look at Fruz, is a set of broken stairs. You need to keep Fruz tanked away from here, the best spot being right by his chest. The top of the stairs is the spawn point for waves of 4 orcs who, given half a chance, will jump down & heal Fruz a great deal. Have your LM's & HNT's concentrate on the stairs. You want these orcs, rooted, pinned (Rain of Thorns), mezzed, stunned, Sticky Tarred; stopped any way you can and killed as soon as possible! The more of them get close to Fruz, the more he gets healed.
That apart, Fruz is just a big ugly troll, who hits for big, but not lethal, damage & takes a while to wear down. He has a knockback attack, so the tank should be in the corner facing out into the room, and will periodically randomly attack other party members. He often goes into a slow-mo moonwalking mode when doing this, which is great because it just means he wastes time moving without attacking. Bound to be fixed in Bk 14, though, I should think... When he's dead, the doors you came in by will open, & the one you leave by will unlock. This means you can progress after looting, but it also means you can pull the patrols from outside again, so don't go to sleep!
Mitigation
Common: REMARKABLE.
Fire: GOOD
Light: GOOD.
Other: SUPERIOR.
Killing Fruz does not clear patrols or prevent respawns. The patrol going up to the giants will spawn after a while, so will Summoners with worms.
Zogtark - Boss 4
After Fruz is dead, open that far door and continue to drake area. Standard trash Ghashfra await you at the bottom of the tunnel. If you poke your nose round the end of the ruined wall, you'll see a very large cavern. Zogtark is stood on a large ruined pillar in the middle; there are two Elder Fire Drakes by the doors on the far side, & various other mobs dotted about or patrolling. You need to clear the trash first.
The best way of doing this is to have the whole of the raid go back behind the ruined wall to the bonfire the earlier Ghashfra were clustered round and stay there! Forward comes one LM & the Main-tank. The LM should drop a Sticky Tar just before the break in the wall; the tank can then pull groups one by one until only the drake & two Ghashfra to the extreme left remain. You'll need to go into the cavern to deal with them. Note that when you pull the cluster of 4 worms, you'll get the Ghashfra by them as well. This is where the Sticky Tar proves its worth - take the time to root & stun as many as possible, so that you're only dealing with one at a time.
Under no circumstances WHATSOEVER should anyone approach the Elder Drakes on the far side - triggering these starts the boss fight. So, when you are ready to do so...
Killing Zogtark is a little tricky, but mostly it's a matter of timing. Start by the chest and fight in center area. You can ignore the flying fire drakes (there are 3 of them flying all the time). They inflict a fire debuff when you are under them, but do not otherwise get involved.
The Main Tank and Off Tank should run to the two Elder Fire drakes and start the fight, turning them away from raid. Partly, this is so they don't spew fire at the rest of the raid, partly because they have a fluttering knockback attack - you will want to be knocked back to the wall, not into the raid! The rest of the raid should ignore them completely, apart from the MNS who is on Tank-healing duties, and even he should not damage them. When the fight begins there will be a spawn of worms which you need to deal with first.
The tanks should only auto-attack the drakes, especially the Main-. When the drakes reach about 20K (i.e. have taken @4K damage) they will start to walk to their take-off points, which are approximately where the other drake was standing when you first came in. You don't want this happening too soon. The worms need to be dealt with, & LMs need to get Sticky Tar down to slow the drakes for as long as possible. Once they get into the air, it cuts the damage output of our melee types & they also gob some rather nasty fireballs at people (anything up to 2.5K damage!).
It also important that Main Tank does not use any aggro-generating skills on their drake. The reason for this is that, as soon as the drakes start walking, Zogtark will get off his pile & attack. The moment he does the Main- needs to grab him & drag him well away from the party, otherwise he will periodically heal the drakes. The best place is the far wall from where the chest is i.e. to your right if you're now facing back into the cavern with the exit doors behind you. The rest of the raid, barring the Off-, should now be killing the Main's drake ASAP. If the Main generated too much aggro on their drake, they're now going to be the target for both Zoggie (who can hit for 1.6K+) & the drake, which is going to give the Minstrels a real hard time keeping them alive.
From here it should be fairly straightforward - kill the first drake, kill the second drake, kill Zoggie. The drakes may land (take advantage & melee for all you're worth), they may take off again - just keep thumping them as fast as you can.
When Zoggie's dead, loot the chest. You must keep it open all the time - if you know the Barad Gularan chest, then you should know that it can disappear with your valuable loot.
Mitigation
Fire: AVERAGE.
Light: GOOD.
Beleriand: GOOD.
Other: SUPERIOR.
Again, killing Zogtark will not stop patrols and certain groups in his area from respawning. It's pretty annoying, but that is how Turbine think.
Narnulubat - Boss 5
The next area is relatively short & continuous. Everyone should make sure they understand what to do before they start out over the first bridge. The first thing to be said is that you do not hang around on the bridges - you will take rapidly mounting damage from the lava underneath.
There are two sets of monsters to work your way through before reaching Narnie - Ghashfra (no Summoners!); and Fumeroles & Urfons. The Ghashfra are as standard. The Fumeroles are small volcanic vents, immune to Cry attacks, that summon Urfons given the chance. The Urfons themselves (of which there always one or two around in range of the Fumeroles) look like fiery Limrafn (will o' the wisps, in other words).
The tactics are pretty straightforward. To minimize the number of Fumeroles you need to clear, stick to the right hand side on the way through. Fumeroles erupt as you approach their locations on the rocky islands between bridges. They are sometimes a little slow to appear, so do not charge ahead! When they do, beat the hell out of them. This is one place where a Champion is fairly essential - the Fumeroles need to be Clobbered to prevent them summoning more Urfons. Since Urfons have 100% damage reflection, a swarm of these things is pretty dangerous.
Ghashfra will also charge you, normally whilst you're dealing with Fumeroles. Stun the archers & let the melee types come to you. Do NOT chase the Ghashfra. If you can't get the archers in melee range, shoot them from distance. If they're anywhere on the left hand side, approaching them may trigger another Fumerole. If you get this right, you should only need to deal with 3 of the 5 or so Fumeroles in the cavern.
At the end of the room, pause before going down the last bridge & triggering the boss fight. This is the place to sort out hope & make sure everyone knows what comes next. On the main platform, you will see the Everseer (if someone didn't run forward in the last fight & trigger the script early). He has an extra pair of knees, he's ugly, & he's a coward. You won't have to deal with him until you get to the Balrog, as he keeps running away before the fight starts.
Also on the platform is Narnulubat, & 4 Ghashfra Seers, one to each corner. They heal Narnulubat, but are locked in their spots. Finally, there is a nasty purple smear in the middle of the platform. During fight, this becomes a nasty purple hole in the middle of platform. This hole is the destination of the Darklings which will appear from the pile of rubble you can see down to your left on the lower area. There is a similar area on the far side of the platform. Darklings are not particularly swift-moving, but they must not be mezzed or rooted. Attempting either will cause them to teleport to the edge of the platform. If you let them reach the hole, they transform into an elite troll-type monster called a Summoned World-eater - do not let this happen.
Again tactics are pretty straightforward. Until the Seers are dying off, it will be impossible to do any worthwhile damage to Narnie. He also has a fiery aura that will do a fair amount of damage to people in his immediate vicinity. The Main Tank should trigger the fight & drag him down to the far left corner. One minstrel is going to be dedicated to healing him. The combined effects of the fiery aura & his damage output mean that this is one fight where the minstrel is going to be little more than a healbot.
In the meanwhile, the Champion & any other Off Tanks should be working their way round the 4 Seers, killing them one by one. Burglars & Loremasters, with Hunters & Captains as back-up, should deal with the Darklings. To start with, the Darklings appear singly & at a fairly long intervals. A single Burglar should be able to deal with a single Darkling without difficulty, so back-ups can help with killing the Seers. Later on in the fight, when all the Seers are down, the Darklings will appear at much greater frequency. It's worth repaeting, Darklings must not be allowed to reach the centre of the platform, & back-ups should not forget this.
In brief the fight sequence is: Tank Narnie over to the corner, kill the Seers one by one, kill Narnie; all the while taking care of the Darklings before they become Summoned World-eaters.
Killing Narnulubat will not stop Fumaroles & Urfons from re-spawning.
Shadow-Eater - Boss 6 - Stone-Biter
Enter the building through door at Narnubalat place and just keep going and killing until you are at room with fences on right and two guards standing on front of middle door. Kill the guards, get read and by opening the door the boss and his fellow (Stone-Biter) will get ready to be killed.
Kill Shadow-eater first, if you dont do it, several adds will spawn.
After Shadow-Eater is dead, there will be a spawn of few Darklings and two more monsters, kill Darklings before they turn into elites, then kill the other two. Then kill Shadow-Eaters ally, Stone-Biter.
Killing Shadow-Eater will not stop monsters in tunnels before him from respawning.
Thrang - Boss 7
Giant down there is actually not boss and will not be killed, it's poor giant tricked into hostility in part of the fight.
Tank Giant, dedicate one healer to tank. Tank must stay all the time in melee range otherwise Giant starts throwing rocks at random fellowship members (deadly).
Four waves of monsters will spawn from top of the arena like place. Last wave will also introduce Thrang - he will come out of the door with 4 shamans (heavy HoTs) which you have to kill first - best is to separate one from rest and kill it, then proceed.
Thrang is doing AOE damage, so avoid being near him. Use walls/obstacles to have shamans out of sight from each other.
The spawns :
3 Ghashfra Fighters + 2 Ghashfra Defenders 1 Ghashfra Scrapper + 2 Ghashfra Defenders 2 Ghashfra Scrappers 2 summoners (mez one, kill other, beware of worms) Shamans and Thrang, fumeroles, use champion for off-tank shamans one by one
At Thrang fight - he will initially stick himself in middle of stairs. After shamans are dead, he will come down. It's important to know that untanked Thrang will range fire fellowships members (deadly).
Thrang must be kited into volcanoes in bottom of room as it debuffs him.
Thaurlach (The Balrog) - Boss 8
See this topic in our Guides section, thank you Emerald for posting it.
The Rift is a 12 man instance, resetting every week in the maintenance window. It has the usual raid locks, so you have to be careful when getting the raid together with random pick ups (PUGs).
Guide changelog
May 26th, 2008: Changed Balrog section.
July 21st, 2008: Working my way through updating the guide to reflect modified tactics. Edited as far as Narnulubat - Rędwulf
October 1st, 2008: Redid boss section
Items you really should have
Brilliant Edelharn Tokens (+5 hope), 5 per person
Essence of Athelas (health pots)
Celebrant Salve (power pots)
Wound, Fear, Disease pots
Fire/Light Oil for Hunters
Lembas and other food/snacks
Spare weapons and shields
Low damage weapons for Guardians and Champions (get the cheapest one you can)
Repair anvil (if +4 hours)
Pulling NPCs
As always, take care when pulling. It's easy to pull more monsters than you intended, and in The Rift it can be deadly. Some pulls can be done very safely when timed correctly, so watch for right moment to pull (watch the distance of the monsters). Do NOT get ahead of the Raid Leader, unless his specific instructions require you to do so - he knows where he going & what he's doing (allegedly!).
Trash
Troll and Troll-keeper
There are 5 pairs of these in the upper part of the Rift. On Barz & Zurm, the first wave of adds is one pair, which accounts for two of the pairs. The other 3 are free-standing pairs dotted around. One pair is your first encounter inside the Rift entrance; another pair is on top of the platform at the end of the high tunnel into the Giant's cavern; the last comes shortly before Zurm.
Always kill the Troll-keeper first, as the Troll itself cannot be damaged until his master is dead. Further, the Troll-keeper keeps the Troll buffed, which may be what is keeping him immune to damage. The troll attacks people at random with heavy AoE attacks directed at everything in front of him until the keeper is defeated. They must be kept together as distance between the two is directly proportional to the damage the troll deals out. If they're far apart, the troll can easily deal 2500 per hit.
Preferred tactic is to ball up on the Troll-Keeper. This means everyone - Hunters, Minstrels, Loremasters included - should be stood more or less on the Keeper's toes! This stops the troll moving very far to randomly attack a player. Main Tank 1 should tank the Keeper, the overriding factor being to keep him stationary. Main Tank 2 or Off Tank 1 should tank the Troll. Although you can't do the Troll any damage before the Keeper is killed, it does mean you will be generating aggro from the moment he's dead. Hopefully this will stop the Troll from turning on anyone squishy.
Final points are 1) Remember that the Troll is quite capable of sending you flying. On the first two encounters, particularly, this is dangerous. You can end up in the Rift (instadeath) or punched off the high platform (which isn't fatal, but keeps you out of the way until the remainder of the raid can fight their way through to you); 2) Squishy classes should try to manoeuver behind the Troll where possible - he hits in front & can't send you flying from behind.
Hillmen, Hillmen-Slave, Orc Master
Because the Slave & Slave Master are single mobs amongst a group, they need to be kept out of action whilst you deal with the swarm. The Slave heals all mobs for large amounts; the Master puts up a big buff (+300% damage for his allies). Keep them both stunned as far away as possible. If they get in amongst they group, they need to be tanked out of the way again. Stunning them in the middle of the group just means no-one can use AoE. Primary responsibility for moving them falls to the Champions, as they will need to Clobber them to stop their buffs.
Once all the slaves are dead, it doesn't matter which of the two you take first, so long as the other is hors de combat in the meanwhile. The Healer, once activated for slaughter, should be power drained to prevent her healing herself (plus why not? Share the Power! ;) ).
Orc Master and bunch of slaves
Group of 5+ normal level slaves (like the ones in CD) and their EM Master. Immobilise Master, kill slaves, then kill Master.
Ghashfra
There are 4 varieties of Ghashfra orcs, ignoring the Nemesis Butchers who attack the giants at the campfire. I'm ignoring them here, because that's exactly what you'll do when you're down there! Let the giants fight them & run past; don't hang around, because another wave will head up the tunnel after a few minutes. Defenders are Elite Archers - stun them & keep them stunned where possible, but they are not No.1 priority. Elite Fighters & EM Scrappers are melee types & easy enough to deal with (one at a time where Scrappers are concerned).
The nuisances are the EM Summoners. They come with pet Elite Fire-Worms & bows as well. These are No.1 priority for stuns because they keep summoning new worms. Two active Summoners can submerge your party in worms, & if any other Ghashfra are about, you are staring a wipe in the face. Kill worms, kill Summoner, in that order. They are also capable of dishing out non-wipable 30s AoE stuns that can hit at least 3 targets, which causes major problems for the raid. Loremasters keep alert - ensure you are anti-stunned and, as a minimum, keep your Guardians & Champions anti-stunned too. Consider having Dunadan Learning traited to get the 1m anti-stun.
The first time you meet these will be in Fruz's cavern (NB: cavern, not room, which is a smaller sub-area). This fight can be tricky. As you come into the room, immediately turn to the right & mount the fallen wall to its highest point. You will see on the platform 2 sleeping Fighters just to the right of the pillar, & a Summoner with a Worm further back. Do not be fooled by the distance between them - this Summoner is scripted with the Fighters & will be aggroed by attacks on them. There are also 2 patrolling Summoners with Worms. They make a circuit which takes them right along the front of the platform. Take more than a couple of steps forward from where you are & you will be close enough for them to spontaneously aggro. This is a Bad Thing!
Once the patrollers are at a safe distance, stun the Summoner &, if you can, both Fighters. The Worm will race towards you. However, you are stood in an awkward place where visibility is poor & it is easy to slip off the ruined wall. It is better to run to your right immediately, circle the large mass of fallen rock & position yourself in the corner beyond. You now have more safe distance between the raid & the patrols, and can deal with everything in a more controlled fashion. Whoever aggros the stunned Summoner should run into the small forward corner to get out of LoS, in order to draw the Summoner down into melee range.
Friendly Giant
Kill the monsters surrounding the Giant by pulling them away from him. Root the furthest group of guards, stun the Slave Masters, deal with everything in the usual piecemeal fashion, but watch for the grated area, which will give you constant damage. When the room is clear, run to the base of the ramp you use to continue to Barz (opposite side of room you entered from) and let one member run to the giant to start the scripted event. The one who "talked" to him should run back to raid immediately. Don't wait. Simple as that. Do not get involved in the fight. It will take a very long time not least because more waves spawn periodically. You only stop them by killing the bosses.
The Cave where Asmolf is has two exits (both on stairs) to two bosses you must kill - he will open access to the buried city after both bosses are dead.
Barz - Boss 1
Barz is probably the second most difficult boss in The Rift, & can easily wipe you if you're not paying attention to chat, where he says several important things that precede his special attacks.
"No power is stronger than Barz"
When he shouts this, he will pick a target, attempt to stun them (so if you suffer a sudden random stun, you'll know you're the target, however it is resistable), run over to them, hit them once or twice, steal a chunk of their power, and then run back to the person with most aggro.
If you can, when Barz uses this attack run towards him if you know you're the target, so's he can get on with hitting you and getting back to the tank. While it doesn't matter too much as long as you don't run away from Barz, the problem is he occasionally decides to do the following "bone gnaw" special attack immediately after he has run to the target. If he is in the middle of everyone when he does the bone gnaw, it's very possible that 2 or 3 people will be caught by suprise and killed. Death is Another Bad Thing. The tank (incidentally, it's perfectly possible to tank him with a CHM - we've proved it) should not attempt to follow Barz, but remain by the bonfire, which is the best place to keep him.
"I'll gnaw your bones"
This does huge AOE damage, which can be avoided by just running away (Barz will stand in one spot all the time). The AOE range is 10 meters, time to run is about 4 seconds; if you don't get away, you WILL die, tank included! :Y The tank should run to the far cavern wall beyond the bonfire (this is why you tank at the bonfire - any further down the cavern & you won't have space to escape); everyone else should just run!
"I will bring down the caverns on you" (only when Zurm has been killed before Barz)
This is followed by large shadows appearing on the ground. Anyone still in the shadows 3 seconds later will take heavy damage. Again, just get out of the area of effect. As we invariably kill Barz first, you will not normally come across this, but it's worth mentioning in case you ever raid with someone else (traitor! :P ).
The last thing to be said is that you get both audio & chat speech to indicate these impending attacks. The audio is bugged - do not rely on hearing it! Keep your eyes on the chatbox, & pay heed to your mates as well. Cries of "Bones! Bones!" over TS are a fair indication of what's coming! However, don't panic about relaying this or reacting to it. If the only person Barz is anywhere near is the tank, it's pointless running around like headless chickens, especially if there's a wave on the go. Ah yes! Adds...
At several points (when Barz is at about 90K, 70K, & 45K) there will be waves of the usual trash monsters - Troll and Troll-keeper; Hillmen / Hillmen-Slave and Orc-Master; the third is the same as the second. Standard tactics, already described, work fine. Don't get fancy with the Slave & Slave Master - just stun them as soon as they come in. Any Champion should pay particular attention to messages coming from the LM's at this point in time. It is absolutely crucial that the Slave-Master does not get his buff up. Barz doing +300% damage is pretty much insta-death.
If there's the slightest hint the Master may get loose, ignore the Slave (the healing she gives is huge, but it only drags the fight out, it doesn't kill people), get the Master stunned, & if it continues to fail (he's been known to resist at least 4 consecutive attempts!), get him Clobbered until you can try again. Remeber to warn the CHM before another stun comes in, so's he can stop attacking. Bear in mind he won't if the Master goes into his buff animation, which is preceded by the words "I'll put an end to you vermin!" The most important thing is to stop that buff, no matter what. Another stun can come along later.
When the reinforcements are around, it's a good idea to kite Barz through and around bridge structure until they're dealt with. Apart from the fact that you want the adds safely dead before wearing Barz down enough for the next to appear, it also seems to interfere with him triggering his special attacks. He'll say the words, but the attacks themselves will often fail to materialise.
Mitigation
Fire: REMARKABLE.
Light: REMARKABLE.
Other: SUPERIOR.
Zurm - Boss 2
Otherwise known as Dave, Barz's twin is nowhere near as difficult to deal with. Tank Dave, and spank your way through the same waves of adds as arrive to die for Barz, spank Dave. Straightforward enough really. The only things to watch out for are:
Dave is very fond of a knockback attack (it seems to be the equivalent of the "No Power.." special from Barz), so the tank should fight him with his back to a wall. There's a couple of good spots where you can do this, & just spam round your attention grabbing skills (NB: It's probably possible for a CHM to do the tanking here as well).
He has a ranged attack that he focuses on the person with the second highest amount of aggro on him, and once selected, he seems to stay with the same person for the whole fight. The attack stuns whenever it hits (throwing rocks?). The best way of dealing with this is to have the Main tank attack first & use skills immediately; the Off- to auto-attack only, a few seconds later; and everyone else to wait 10 or 15 seconds before doing anything (& that includes healing). The Off- can then start using a few aggro-generating skills, and hopefully by the time Dave starts with this attack the Off- is the guaranteed target. Obviously, both tanks will need to be kept anti-stunned.
There's a rarely seen third special attack that consists of Dave either gobbing or puking on you, depending on how you choose to view it! Either way, it's thoroughly unpleasant & can make a real mess of the raid. There is a simple way of preventing it happening, which is to have an Off-tank whacking him from behind for the whole of the fight. We don't know why, but it seems to stop the projectile vomiting!
Everyone else should take care of the waves, when they appear. Instead of kiting Dave around at this time as we do with Barz, the Main- & Off- tanks should simply drop to auto-attack & non-DPS aggro skills, so as not to get Zurm to the next wave too quickly. Killing Barz & Zurm will stop all respawns in the upper caverns, & clear the whole place of any left over mobs, including the area around Asmolf.
Room with 3 Giants and Giant Barter Trade
Killing both bosses will make Asmolf very happy and he'll open the path to city inside The Rift. Race down to the giants at the bonfire below, & take any quests you can quickly. As noted in the Ghashfra section above, there will soon be a clutch of 4 Butchers (& they're Nemesis-level) coming up to assault the giants. The giants don't die, so don't fuss about them. Just gather at the far wall opposite the tunnel entrance by the Conversion Trader, & run past the Butchers once the fight has started. The wave of Butchers is a 6 minute event, timed from the moment the last one in the current wave dies. Bear this in mind if you're late running through the tunnel - if they come through the other way, YOU will be their first target!
You are now down into the Ghashfra area of The Rift, as you may have gathered, & should use the tactics described above to get you to the next boss...
Fruz - Boss 3
Fruz doesn't have a nickname. This isn't because we respect him, as we do the dangerous Barz. It's because he's dull. Dull, dull, dull! Oh, and easy - the easiest boss in the whole place. Having dealt with the platform Ghashfra, run into his room & turn into the corner on your left, without aggravating patrols. Fruz is waiting for you in front of the door you'll eventually leave by once he's dead. When you start the fight, the two open doors to the room will close, so make sure everyone gets in! On the plus side, that means you don't have to worry about patrols.
On your left, as you look at Fruz, is a set of broken stairs. You need to keep Fruz tanked away from here, the best spot being right by his chest. The top of the stairs is the spawn point for waves of 4 orcs who, given half a chance, will jump down & heal Fruz a great deal. Have your LM's & HNT's concentrate on the stairs. You want these orcs, rooted, pinned (Rain of Thorns), mezzed, stunned, Sticky Tarred; stopped any way you can and killed as soon as possible! The more of them get close to Fruz, the more he gets healed.
That apart, Fruz is just a big ugly troll, who hits for big, but not lethal, damage & takes a while to wear down. He has a knockback attack, so the tank should be in the corner facing out into the room, and will periodically randomly attack other party members. He often goes into a slow-mo moonwalking mode when doing this, which is great because it just means he wastes time moving without attacking. Bound to be fixed in Bk 14, though, I should think... When he's dead, the doors you came in by will open, & the one you leave by will unlock. This means you can progress after looting, but it also means you can pull the patrols from outside again, so don't go to sleep!
Mitigation
Common: REMARKABLE.
Fire: GOOD
Light: GOOD.
Other: SUPERIOR.
Killing Fruz does not clear patrols or prevent respawns. The patrol going up to the giants will spawn after a while, so will Summoners with worms.
Zogtark - Boss 4
After Fruz is dead, open that far door and continue to drake area. Standard trash Ghashfra await you at the bottom of the tunnel. If you poke your nose round the end of the ruined wall, you'll see a very large cavern. Zogtark is stood on a large ruined pillar in the middle; there are two Elder Fire Drakes by the doors on the far side, & various other mobs dotted about or patrolling. You need to clear the trash first.
The best way of doing this is to have the whole of the raid go back behind the ruined wall to the bonfire the earlier Ghashfra were clustered round and stay there! Forward comes one LM & the Main-tank. The LM should drop a Sticky Tar just before the break in the wall; the tank can then pull groups one by one until only the drake & two Ghashfra to the extreme left remain. You'll need to go into the cavern to deal with them. Note that when you pull the cluster of 4 worms, you'll get the Ghashfra by them as well. This is where the Sticky Tar proves its worth - take the time to root & stun as many as possible, so that you're only dealing with one at a time.
Under no circumstances WHATSOEVER should anyone approach the Elder Drakes on the far side - triggering these starts the boss fight. So, when you are ready to do so...
Killing Zogtark is a little tricky, but mostly it's a matter of timing. Start by the chest and fight in center area. You can ignore the flying fire drakes (there are 3 of them flying all the time). They inflict a fire debuff when you are under them, but do not otherwise get involved.
The Main Tank and Off Tank should run to the two Elder Fire drakes and start the fight, turning them away from raid. Partly, this is so they don't spew fire at the rest of the raid, partly because they have a fluttering knockback attack - you will want to be knocked back to the wall, not into the raid! The rest of the raid should ignore them completely, apart from the MNS who is on Tank-healing duties, and even he should not damage them. When the fight begins there will be a spawn of worms which you need to deal with first.
The tanks should only auto-attack the drakes, especially the Main-. When the drakes reach about 20K (i.e. have taken @4K damage) they will start to walk to their take-off points, which are approximately where the other drake was standing when you first came in. You don't want this happening too soon. The worms need to be dealt with, & LMs need to get Sticky Tar down to slow the drakes for as long as possible. Once they get into the air, it cuts the damage output of our melee types & they also gob some rather nasty fireballs at people (anything up to 2.5K damage!).
It also important that Main Tank does not use any aggro-generating skills on their drake. The reason for this is that, as soon as the drakes start walking, Zogtark will get off his pile & attack. The moment he does the Main- needs to grab him & drag him well away from the party, otherwise he will periodically heal the drakes. The best place is the far wall from where the chest is i.e. to your right if you're now facing back into the cavern with the exit doors behind you. The rest of the raid, barring the Off-, should now be killing the Main's drake ASAP. If the Main generated too much aggro on their drake, they're now going to be the target for both Zoggie (who can hit for 1.6K+) & the drake, which is going to give the Minstrels a real hard time keeping them alive.
From here it should be fairly straightforward - kill the first drake, kill the second drake, kill Zoggie. The drakes may land (take advantage & melee for all you're worth), they may take off again - just keep thumping them as fast as you can.
When Zoggie's dead, loot the chest. You must keep it open all the time - if you know the Barad Gularan chest, then you should know that it can disappear with your valuable loot.
Mitigation
Fire: AVERAGE.
Light: GOOD.
Beleriand: GOOD.
Other: SUPERIOR.
Again, killing Zogtark will not stop patrols and certain groups in his area from respawning. It's pretty annoying, but that is how Turbine think.
Narnulubat - Boss 5
The next area is relatively short & continuous. Everyone should make sure they understand what to do before they start out over the first bridge. The first thing to be said is that you do not hang around on the bridges - you will take rapidly mounting damage from the lava underneath.
There are two sets of monsters to work your way through before reaching Narnie - Ghashfra (no Summoners!); and Fumeroles & Urfons. The Ghashfra are as standard. The Fumeroles are small volcanic vents, immune to Cry attacks, that summon Urfons given the chance. The Urfons themselves (of which there always one or two around in range of the Fumeroles) look like fiery Limrafn (will o' the wisps, in other words).
The tactics are pretty straightforward. To minimize the number of Fumeroles you need to clear, stick to the right hand side on the way through. Fumeroles erupt as you approach their locations on the rocky islands between bridges. They are sometimes a little slow to appear, so do not charge ahead! When they do, beat the hell out of them. This is one place where a Champion is fairly essential - the Fumeroles need to be Clobbered to prevent them summoning more Urfons. Since Urfons have 100% damage reflection, a swarm of these things is pretty dangerous.
Ghashfra will also charge you, normally whilst you're dealing with Fumeroles. Stun the archers & let the melee types come to you. Do NOT chase the Ghashfra. If you can't get the archers in melee range, shoot them from distance. If they're anywhere on the left hand side, approaching them may trigger another Fumerole. If you get this right, you should only need to deal with 3 of the 5 or so Fumeroles in the cavern.
At the end of the room, pause before going down the last bridge & triggering the boss fight. This is the place to sort out hope & make sure everyone knows what comes next. On the main platform, you will see the Everseer (if someone didn't run forward in the last fight & trigger the script early). He has an extra pair of knees, he's ugly, & he's a coward. You won't have to deal with him until you get to the Balrog, as he keeps running away before the fight starts.
Also on the platform is Narnulubat, & 4 Ghashfra Seers, one to each corner. They heal Narnulubat, but are locked in their spots. Finally, there is a nasty purple smear in the middle of the platform. During fight, this becomes a nasty purple hole in the middle of platform. This hole is the destination of the Darklings which will appear from the pile of rubble you can see down to your left on the lower area. There is a similar area on the far side of the platform. Darklings are not particularly swift-moving, but they must not be mezzed or rooted. Attempting either will cause them to teleport to the edge of the platform. If you let them reach the hole, they transform into an elite troll-type monster called a Summoned World-eater - do not let this happen.
Again tactics are pretty straightforward. Until the Seers are dying off, it will be impossible to do any worthwhile damage to Narnie. He also has a fiery aura that will do a fair amount of damage to people in his immediate vicinity. The Main Tank should trigger the fight & drag him down to the far left corner. One minstrel is going to be dedicated to healing him. The combined effects of the fiery aura & his damage output mean that this is one fight where the minstrel is going to be little more than a healbot.
In the meanwhile, the Champion & any other Off Tanks should be working their way round the 4 Seers, killing them one by one. Burglars & Loremasters, with Hunters & Captains as back-up, should deal with the Darklings. To start with, the Darklings appear singly & at a fairly long intervals. A single Burglar should be able to deal with a single Darkling without difficulty, so back-ups can help with killing the Seers. Later on in the fight, when all the Seers are down, the Darklings will appear at much greater frequency. It's worth repaeting, Darklings must not be allowed to reach the centre of the platform, & back-ups should not forget this.
In brief the fight sequence is: Tank Narnie over to the corner, kill the Seers one by one, kill Narnie; all the while taking care of the Darklings before they become Summoned World-eaters.
Killing Narnulubat will not stop Fumaroles & Urfons from re-spawning.
Shadow-Eater - Boss 6 - Stone-Biter
Enter the building through door at Narnubalat place and just keep going and killing until you are at room with fences on right and two guards standing on front of middle door. Kill the guards, get read and by opening the door the boss and his fellow (Stone-Biter) will get ready to be killed.
Kill Shadow-eater first, if you dont do it, several adds will spawn.
After Shadow-Eater is dead, there will be a spawn of few Darklings and two more monsters, kill Darklings before they turn into elites, then kill the other two. Then kill Shadow-Eaters ally, Stone-Biter.
Killing Shadow-Eater will not stop monsters in tunnels before him from respawning.
Thrang - Boss 7
Giant down there is actually not boss and will not be killed, it's poor giant tricked into hostility in part of the fight.
Tank Giant, dedicate one healer to tank. Tank must stay all the time in melee range otherwise Giant starts throwing rocks at random fellowship members (deadly).
Four waves of monsters will spawn from top of the arena like place. Last wave will also introduce Thrang - he will come out of the door with 4 shamans (heavy HoTs) which you have to kill first - best is to separate one from rest and kill it, then proceed.
Thrang is doing AOE damage, so avoid being near him. Use walls/obstacles to have shamans out of sight from each other.
The spawns :
3 Ghashfra Fighters + 2 Ghashfra Defenders 1 Ghashfra Scrapper + 2 Ghashfra Defenders 2 Ghashfra Scrappers 2 summoners (mez one, kill other, beware of worms) Shamans and Thrang, fumeroles, use champion for off-tank shamans one by one
At Thrang fight - he will initially stick himself in middle of stairs. After shamans are dead, he will come down. It's important to know that untanked Thrang will range fire fellowships members (deadly).
Thrang must be kited into volcanoes in bottom of room as it debuffs him.
Thaurlach (The Balrog) - Boss 8
See this topic in our Guides section, thank you Emerald for posting it.