Helegrod Raid Guide

[Haleabor]

I have put together the following guide for Helegrod based on our experiences to date....this is still a work in progress…certainly for the later bosses, but it should help. The guide is broken down by the Lock numbers and so may not be in the order you do it in (eg most groups go and do Coldbear first).

A couple of minor Raid points first:

Please come equipped with a full set of Hope tokens and poison/fear/morale/power pots…going Raiding without these and expecting to be given them in-instance is lazy and unforgivable

Stay behind the Raid leader at all times unless specifically told otherwise

No looting in combat


Haleabor

[Haleabor]

Getting through the front door: Orc Drummers

After entering the instance head straight on towards the wooden palisade and the first set of mobs. These are 4 Master Elite Orc archers and 1 Elite goblin (who is greened out and can not be attacked). Mezz pull as many of the Orc Archers as possible and then DPS the others one at a time. The Elite Goblin will have run off to get some additional Mobs which include a Troll.

At whatever point the Troll appears the Main Tank should gain agro on this (no-one else target him at all) and take him off to one side, preferably this is to the left either just inside or outside the gate Do Not Kill The Troll he will be the last to die in the fight [edit - if you kill the troll you before the drummers you will get a new wave off mobs including a new troll!!). Along with the troll will be 1 or 2 waves of 5-6 Elite Orcs/Goblins, mezz as many as possible and have Off Tanks pick up as much agro as possible. Everyone else should be on Raid assist Main Target and dps mobs one at a time until they are all gone.

Move quickly inside and past the troll leaving the Main Tank to keep him up near the gate, moving quickly at this point will avoid any further waves of Mobs which stop once you start attacking the Orc Drummers. (note Minstrel for main tank will need to heal as required, probably running between groups)

Ahead and slightly to the left at the bottom of the slope are 4 Orc Drummers. Updated from Book 13 All 4 trolls must now die a roughly the same time. Therefore the best strategy is to mezz 3 trolls and dps on to about 5K health..but stop before he greens out. Switch target on raid assist to another drummer and have the LRM who was targeting him now mezz the one with 5K Health. Keep doing this until all trolls are at 5K and then take down each troll, with all 4 down they should dissappear. Alternative strategy, give each of the 4 fellowhip groups a target and dps each down together, forget about stuns etc. At least 1 group is normally mismatched for Damage (dont forget you are missing a Guardian), so have Hunters cycle through targets occasionally to change targets if required.

Finally go back to the poor lonely Main Tank and just dps the troll until he dies.

Note that this fight is not a lock, the troll/adds/drummers will go after lock 1, however the Orc Archers always respawn.

[Haleabor]

Lock 1: 4 Servants of Agmar

Ahead of you up the stairs is a large metal doorway, head up the stairs but group up several stairs from the top (close enough to go through tactics and mark Mobs) Here you will see 4 Arch-Nemesis who are the 4 Servants and behind (and to either side) are Master Elite Mobs.

Before you start it’s worth marking the 4 Servants so they are easier to find in combat and for LRM targeting.

During the entire fight either stay on the platform or on the front stairs as this will avoid bringing in any other mobs from the side or back

As you enter the area, apart from the 2 x Loremasters and 2 x Tanks (covered below) everyone else should concentrate on the 2 groups of 3 ME mobs at the rear left/right of the platform. Each group consists of 1 x Seer, 1 x Wild Concur and 1 x Blood Vowed Concur. At this point everyone should be inside the doors otherwise this may trigger a reset (as will leaving the doors at any point during the fight)

Take down the Blood Vowed first, followed by the Wild and finally the Seer. Seer cannot be damaged until the other two of her group are dead. Tanks and Loremasters/Burglars not on main duty can control the non targeted mobs as required and keep agro off minstrels. If you have accidentally agroed any other mobs, take these down next before joining together and moving on to the Servants.

Dealing with the Servants.

Grisgart (centre left) cannot be mezzed so the Off Tank should go and take agro on him, as the encounter starts he runs off towards the back left of the platform towards the ME mobs. Continue to tank him until all of the ME mobs are killed, then the main group comes to dps Grisgart first. At 100K Grisgart will green-out and run off, at which point you switch to the next servant.

Adhargal (far left) should be mezzed by a Loremaster as you enter the encounter, the loremaster must keep mezzed until Grisgart runs off, at which point the main group dps down to about 70K health at which point Adhargal runs off and you switch to the next servant

Breosel (far right) should be mezzed by a Loremaster as you enter the encounter, the loremaster must keep mezzed until Adhargal runs off, at which point the main group dps down to about 70K health at which point Breosel runs off and you switch to the final servant Ansach

Ansach (centre right) cannot be mezzed so the Main Tank should go and take agro on her, as the encounter starts she runs off towards the back right of the platform towards the ME mobs. Continue to tank her until everything else is dead and then dps her until she dies.

Not much point in putting on Master Looter as I’ve never seen her drop anything

[Haleabor]

Lock 2: Storvagun

Getting to Storvagun!

On leaving the platform (and staring at Thorog for a second!) there is a gateway to the back left with 4 x ME Angarim guarding it. Mezz 3 and take them down one at a time and head off into the snow.

You then have a fairly long climb and fight through a series of Giants and Bears until you eventually come to 3 giants standing facing you, just in front of a stone wall with a gap through it. These are the last giants before the Storvagun encounter and after these you should rest and go through boss tactics.

A couple of points for the various Giant/Bear fights.

Watch out for patrolling Giants/Bear combos and also at least one Ice Drake…getting patrol adds in the fight can be painful.

Most static groups come with 3 x Giants and 1 x Bear, try and mezz the Giants and take the Bear first, followed by each Giant on Main Raid assist target.

Always fight giants with your back to the wall and try and dps from the side to avoid stuns

At one point you will get agro from some Giants up on a hill, ignore them and continue your main fight (1/2 groups) and eventually you will climb up next to them and kill them.

Several times in this part we have suddenly had agro from Giants (probably from below) and get 4/5 Giants…..don’t panic and mezz/root those you can and all stay on Main Raid Assist target and you should be ok.

Storvagun fight

Make sure you have Master Looter on

You will need to pop hope for this fight.

Main Tank should enter through the gap followed at maximum heal distance by their Minstrel. At this point Storvagun (Arch Nemesis) kicks the Servant off the side of the cliff….and then Main Tank can get agro. The minstrel should only start to heal once the tank gets below 25% health to avoid building threat level. The Main Tank should aim to tank Storvagun near the tree next to the nearest “hut” with the tank’s back to the tree.

After 30 secs the rest of the group can enter the area and start to auto attack (only) Storvagun. At this point you should also see a message saying “Storvagun begins to focus all of his attacks on [Main Tank]” Then gradually build up dps, but save power…it doesn’t matter how long this part of the fight takes and it’s fairly straightforward so Hunters (in particular) need to be at almost full power throughout.

At about 100K health remaining Storvagun will green out and do two things. He will go on a rampage for about 2 mins (don’t run away there is no point) and he will summon a load of Snowbeast mobs (10-12).

After the rampage the main tank should try and get back agro on Storvagun and burglars can help on this with provoke if possible.

Hunters and Champions should then dps the hell out of Storvagun as quickly as possible and ignore everything else. (Hunters may use Call of the Wild to lose agro on Snowbeasts temporarily). Burglars should swap between starting FM conjunctions/reveal weakness on Storvagun and riddling Snowbeasts.

Everyone else apart from the Main tank and Minstrels (healing when they can) should be doing whatever they can to control but not kill the Snowbeasts (killing Snowbeasts just adds another wave of them) so this is tanking, mezzing, riddling etc etc and keeping them away from the Minstrels…..if necessary run round like a mad thing and die for a good cause. What matters is killing Storvagun and letting the dps crew do this.

Alternative Strategy if you have 2-3 Champions The Champions draw agro on all the snowbeasts by attacking/enraging them and then do the running round assisted by the off tanks. This frees up more of the group to go in dps mode on Storvagun

If necessary Hunters can Desperate flight after killing Storvagun and them come back to a more controlled fight with the Snowbeasts. Minstrels can feign death or retreat (if dead) and come back with Hunters to Rez.

Storvagun drops Scrap of Storvagun's Armour (on the body) which can be bartered for class Boots and Storvagun’s Emblem which is used to complete a Helegrod quest and has some nice Weapon choices as reward.

[Haleabor]

Lock 3: Coldbear (yawn)

Most people (if they can be bothered) go and kill Coldbear first, as to get to him you head right, down the snowy slope, before you even get to the main Helegrod gate. There will be a number of Bears to kill on the way, provided that you stick on Main Raid Assist target and don’t agro too many at once this should be very simple. Eventually you will come to a large open expanse with a cave entrance at the back and several bear cubs.

Start agroing and killing the cubs and Coldbear (Nemesis) will come out. The only things to say about this fight are a) apart from the Main Tank everyone else should try and damage Coldbear from the rear…he has slightly less damage reduction at the rear (for some reason) and b) there will be adds of Bears and Cubs. Deal with these adds as you see fit, normally by getting a Loremaster and a couple of dps to break off and mezz/kill them.

Allegedly Coldbear sometimes drops a really nice Teal two handed Axe….all I’ve ever seen are some hides and other trash!

[Haleabor]

Lock 4: Grisgart / The Drake Lair

From the main platform head North East up the steps and through the door.

Getting to Grisgart

Don’t go near the eggs. If you approach them they spawn 4 x Hatchlings this is OK if you mean to do it, but an accidental pull can prove fatal…..(Drake Hatchlings are a quest item…but we are not here for them, you will kill about 25% of the requirement naturally on each run so you need to be patient like you do on all other Helegrod quests)

Enter and start clearing drakes, worm and hatchlings…staying away from the eggs. General tactics to try and mezz the Drake(s) and take down Hatchlings followed by worms and then Drake(s).

Shortly you will arrive at a large room with a ramp in the middle and areas either side (leading to other ramps with gates at the top) Clear the two lower rooms (Drakes left and Worms right...use root on worms)and then clear the top room (as well as the visible Drake in the centre there are 4 Hatchlings that will also agro with him). In this room at the top of the ramp are 2 levers.…don’t pull them yet.

Choose one group and have the Hunter for that group stand on the platform by the left hand lever. The rest of his fellowship must stay on the top platform. All others move to the south gate (now to the right as you head down the ramp.

Have the Hunter next to the left lever pull it and then stand still (eg remain there) as this will stop any adds coming, this will open the South Gate.

Main group will run through the gate into the room and dps the Drake there. After this fight the main Group will now see a lever in their room the choose another Hunter should get ready to pull this stand still, which opens the North Gate and the rest of the group runs to the North gate. The second Hunter pulls the lever and stands still again the Main group runs in and dps the next Drake and then pull the lever.

The main gates should open and all groups can then proceed through.

Keep away from the eggs….don’t cut corners

More general mobs to clear until you come to a room with ME Drakes down a Ramp. Have the Main Tank go and carefully agro one drake at a time and bring them back to the ramp. If this is not possible then do not enter the room more than half way. If necessary you will have to Range the Drakes and take the fire breath damage. Repeat until all the Drakes are dead, you can ignore the worms in the rear and far corners if you wish, and then proceed with extreme caution.

At the bottom of the far ramp are two Concur Scouts…if these are agroed they will run off and bring back a load of nasty mob adds.

A loremaster with either a loremaster or burglar back up (on each scout) need to move forward and do a co-ordinated stun. The Scouts have a strong chance of resistance so back-ups need to be on the ball to retry.

If Stuns are successful then move forward and dps each Scout in turn…they only have about 9K morale. Move up the stairs and there are a dozen Angarim, either take these out one side at a time, or if you are confident in your group, have then run directly through the middle as this will not agro the Angmarim.

If stuns are unsuccessful then your main priority are still the Scouts as (even with a wipe) if you kill them they do not respawn. The adds will comprise of some ME drakes who do large AOE attacks and some priests who do some minor healing on the drakes. Put Main and OFF tank on the ME drakes until the Scout is down and then switch to the ME drakes one at a time. Once Scouts are taken off Mezz the Loremasters/Burglars can stun any of the other mobs not taking agro. Finally take down the priests.

Move on to the boss area clearing any further mobs until you arrive at Grisgart

Grisgart fight

No need to pop hope tokens.

With Grisgart are 2 x Worms and 2 x Drakes. It is absolutely essential that the Drakes and Worms are mezzed and kept mezzed during the fight as they cause massive damage and cannot be harmed until Grisgart is dead. So have Loremasters stun with one person on back up…

Everyone else on Grisgart and dps him to death. At this stage 2 x ME ghosts will spawn. Kill them one at a time, then kill the Worms always following Main Raid assist target. After this move on to the Drakes and kill one at a time.

So…no AOE and stay away from the eggs that surround the boss area fight. If you do accidentally get Hatchling adds then take Hunters off and dps them quickly.

[Haleabor]

Lock 5: Zaudru

Poison pots required

The entrance to the spider lair is NE of the main platform round to the right (below and right of the Drake stairs)

Getting to Zaudru

Fairly simple although it’s easy to get lost in all the tunnels.

Try to stay grouped fairly well together at all times, this particularly applies to Hunters and Minstrels…sometimes you will get adds or spawns from the rear and they will pick off squishy classes in a matter of seconds.

On each group of spiders take out the smaller mobs first while the Tanks take the Elite Spiders and Queens. Where possible mezz the queens away from the fighting area and use massive AOE on all spiders.

There are a few Angarim in here and try to stun Silk-Spinners as preference away from the group.

Watch out for "holes"/small caves as this is where Hatchlings spawn. There are a couple of areas where you see a lone Queen and you will get 6-10 Elite Lurkers added as soon as you start the fight. In addition in at at least one cavern you will get adds from the rear during the Queen fight.

When you get to the top right hand area and go through the tunnel you will see Breosel ahead. As soon as you approach her you will get 6-8 Elite Spider adds. Breosel can be mezzed so do so if you can. Kill the spiders and then attack Breosel. She will run away at about 50% life. You can have fun trying to kill her if you like. It is possible, just don't go too far down the tunnel and agro the next set of Queens. (ps she comes back to life in her Zaudru position regardless!!!)

Eventually you will get to a large room with ice floor which is the boss room with Breosel ahead.

Breosel fight

Stand in a very tight group with squishy types on the inside :) and pop hope, keep one champion near the back to deal with the Hatchling adds from the rear and Loremasters near the front to mezz Silkspinners.

The fight starts by pulling and killing 2 x Elite Blood Sworn Concur and the first of 4 mob waves.

Each wave consists of Master Elite Silk Spinner x (1,2,3,4), Elite Spiders x (2,4,6,8) and normal Spiderlings x (6,12,18,24)

In each of these waves try to mezz the Silk Spinners (as many as possible) before they get to the likely AOE area of your huddle. This way you can use AOE attacks on the spiders and keep the Spinners out of the way.

Regardless the order of killing should be Spiderlings, Elite Spiders, Silk Spinners. As soon as the last Silk Spinner is dead then the next wave of adds will come, so if you can stun the last silk spinner before killing it there is a chance to regen a bit.

During this stage Hunters should watch out for poison and cure, although at this stage it’s not instant death poison.

After the last Silk Spinner in the 4th wave is dead Zaudru will come out to play

The first thing that will happen is that Zaudru will kill Breosel.

Staying in your tight group (but at the front) your Main Tank should then gain agro on Zaudru, after 30 secs start auto attack and then build dps.

OK…simple stuff first…Zaudru will have wave after wave of spider adds. These will start with 2 waves of Normal Spiders and then alternate between Elite Spiders (about 8) and Normal Spiders. Each time a wave of adds comes they must be killed, it is recommended that if possible Hunters stay on Zaudru and poison watch, so Champions AOE attack and everyone else take down the spiders…then back on Zaudru. The only exception to this is when Zaudru is down to less than 20K health in which case just ignore the adds and all dps Zaudru to death.

It is likely that you will be AOE rooted during the fight (another reason for all staying together).

Hard stuff….Zaudru has an instant kill (BK14 update and group wipe) poison effect. It looks like a yellow eye on your debuff bar. The best way to see this is to select in Options: Social Options; View only Dispellable effects (in fact I recommend this for Raiding anyway)

As multiple people will be affected at once, Hunters cannot cure everyone. You must use a Poison (Milthistle) pot on yourself as soon as you see the eye. You only have 15 seconds to spot and remove the poison effect or you….and at least 5 other people around you….will die instantly. If your pot does not remove the eye the Hunters will try and remove it for you. In case this fails you should be running away from the group while this happens...if you die...die alone :)

Finally, do not stun Zaudru and try not to get under it either…..

Zaudru drops a Helegrod Quest item Zaudru's Crimson Mandible which gives Teal Jewelry and Zaudru's Stinger which can be Bartered for class Gloves

[Haleabor]

Lock 6: Thorog

Essential to bring with you, Hope Pots and Fear (Conhuith) pots and 2 x Burglars!

Minstrels should also equip trait to be able to cast Hopeful Heart on the platform

Show dispellable effects only.

Loremasters should remove pets as the danger of them getting the “eye” is worse than any benefit they may bring.

Preparing for the fight

Kill all of the hillmen in the area and this should include the 4 x priestesses on the very top platform (carry on round and up from the Drake Lair entrance) as they assist in healing Thorog if left alive.

Now is a good time to take you time running through the tactics and doing trial runs for moving to different parts of the arena and also “eye” tests.

Setting up Fellowship Groups and their tasks

Group A should contain the burglars and 1 x LM, GRD and Minstrel

Group B should contain all the Hunters

Groups C & D just try and maintain balance in each and fit in anyone else into spaces in Groups A and B (normally putting extra Guardians alone as they last longer without group heals)

Roles and positions

Burglars
Probably have the most important job and the most boring :roll:

The burglars should be positioned on the very top platform that Thorog flies to. When he flies up here to heal during the fight the Burglars should start fellowship skill (with a named skill eg YY{Y} or RR{R}). This interupt stops Throrog healing and the aim should be to stop him healing more than about 20K

In addition to this the Burglars can help out the Hunters with any drake hatchlings (or god forbid...spiders) that make it up onto the platform.

Hunters
DPS Thorog.... The trick here is careful use of agro at the start of each phase to reduce the risk of Thorogs ranged attack shadow ball (instant death). However having said this it should be possible to fire off 1 x Heartseeker during each landed phase of the fight.

Hunters also need to target drake hatchlings when they appear, breaking off from Thorog to dispatch them quickly. When Thorog is on the platform healing the Hunters can try and kill spider adds if in range (apart from the queen)

Group A (LM,GRD,MNS)
Group A is responsible for managing the spiders during the fight. The Loremaster should stun the sipder queen and keep her stunned for the entire fight (boring sorry). The Guardian needs to keep agro on all the spider adds while the Minstrel provides healing. The Guardian may kill spiders if able. The Minstrel should keep an eye on the Hatchling Guardian (see below) and heal as required.

Champions
Champions..apart from dps...should also clobber Thorog when he starts to raise up onto his back legs as this interupts him. His raising up will cause additional damage and also certainly a hope wipe.

Minstrels
Need to ensure that Hopeful Heart is always on the platform (normally close to where the main tank is) and you need to set a rota to ensure this happens. Each minstel keeping an eye on their HH cooldown to advise when the next placemen is needed.

Tanks
Main tank needs to try and keep Thorog facing the main gate area if possible. Second tank should stand at the bottom of the drake stairs and pick up Hatchlings when they come out (letting them go if they decide to run up to the Hunters)

All other classes
Main function should be dps and support rolls eg buffs etc etc


Drugoth Fight

Group on the main platform for Hope, then Burglars go to the very top platform (where Thorog flies to) and Hunters go to the same area but on the edge overlooking the fight area.

Rest of the group gather together near the edge of the platofrm under the Hunters.

Use each of the pedestals next to the tomb and the Drugoth will jump out and starts telling you how you are going to die horribly. Drugoth should be tanked near the edge of the platform nearest the Hunters(eg in range)

Drugoth is a Nemesis with about 130K morale and should simply be tanked and dps until he gets to about 40K

At about 40K he summons some adds (Angarim/Ghosts) from the direction of the Storvagun entrance. Off Tanks should pick these up. Then in preference ignore the others unless they are agroing Minstrels, in which case switch dps to quickly kill it. After Drugoth “dies” at around 3K morale all the remaining adds will go green and run off anyway.

There is a brief moment of non combat again while Drugoth spouts a load of nonsense and will then run off, so use this time to eat food and buff or regen etc etc. and rez anyone stupid enough to die during the Drugoth fight (pop hope again for these people and then slap them).

Start positions for thorog fight

First Minstrel should quickly lay down Hopeful Heart and then follow main group. Main Tank on the platform to agro Thorog. All others apart from Group A should hide in one of the corner areas to break line of sight with Thorog as this minimises the risk of Hope wipe initially. Group A should be over near the spider entrance/corner of Hunter platform. Hunters should minimise dps until main tank has good agro level.

Then Thorog flies down….

Thorog Fight
Thorog (biggest badass in the game and over 300K Morale) will come down right in the center of the platform, and he can't move from that spot. He will spin around there and you can face him any direction you want (normally towards the main gate)but you can't pull him away from his spot.

Main Tank picks up agro on Thorog and others gradually build dps, Hunters on the shelf need to be particularly careful on this due to the Deadly Shadow Ball attack (see below). Only the main tank should be on the platform when he lands, if the rest hide in one of the corners to break line of sight you should avoid an early hope wipe.

After a few minutes 2x Drakelings will spawn from the entrance to Grisgart's area, these should be picked up at range by the Hunters on the shelf and killed quickly. These Drakelings will spawn throughout the fight and each time need to be dealt with. Hunters getting hit by fireballs can use LOS to hide out of the way in order to avoid dying and regen some/use pots, however use of the Hatchling Guardian should minimise this.

Most raids will do between 90,000 and 110,000 points of damage to Thorog when his status bar turns green and he flies up to his perch where the Hunters and Burglars are. At this stage the Burglars need to spam conjunction him in order to interrupt his healing. He will still heal but the aim is to keep this to 10-20K. The conjunction must be a named damage one eg RR or YY.

As Thorog flies off it is vital that the main group should deal with any spider/Hatchling adds if possible (not queen) from the safety of their starting position so that when Thorog re-lands the Main Tank is the only one on the platform.

Shortly after Thorog flies away, a wave of spider adds will come from the area near the entrance to the spider wing. Group A deals with them.

Thorog will then go green again and fly back down to the platform. The Main Tank should be on the platform first and gain agro again. The Minstrels should be taking it in turns to ensure Hopeful Heart is down and Captains should also ensure they have a banner in the centre of the platform.

Note on hope strips. Sometimes players will get hope strips, if this happens then leave the area of the Hopeful Heart and then return, and you will regain some hope.

Note on debuffs, if anyone gets 3 debuffs (ignoring the eye for a second) then Throrog will go a bit crazy at them, so use pots and Captians fear removal to keep debuffs limited, normally this happens to the main tank.

Rinse and Repeat until Thorog dies :)

Note on Thorog’s Attacks

The Deadly Eyeball - this is a fear based debuff that you have 5 seconds to remove and get yourself away from everyone else. If you do not see it and move away you will explode and wipe everyone else around you.

The trick to this is that if someone shouts “eye [playername]” you turn and run off the platform toward one of the corner recesses. On the way you should pop a Fear token pot…on the way…not first…your priority is to get out of the way of everyone else so you don’t group wipe. Captains can also remove fear…it’s up to you how you manage this regarding captain spamming fear removal and use of pots.

Shadow Breath – Each time Thorog lands, you'll see him turn toward someone and start breathing "fire". His "fire" is actually a Shadow Breath attack, and it can hit you as many as 3 times for about 1,000 points of raw morale damage. This can be fairly easily interrupted by Champions using Clobber as soon as he looks like he is going to rear up

Deadly Shadow Ball – A ranged attack that is intant kill, best way to avoid this is to ensure that Tank has full agro at all times (mainly applies to Hunters on the Shelf).

Wing Flap and Tail Swipe - Two AoE attacks for about 1,000 damage

Thorog loot

Thorog drops 3 Barter items for class Armour. These are Thorog's Horn (Leggings) Thorog's Claw (Helm) and Thorog's Fang (Chest). He drops a taxidermist items Thorog's skull as a trophy.

Finally he drops Mirdanant which is a legendary item drop used for a Helegrod quest . Trading this in (at Gonediad at Spire of Meeting in Rivendell). First you get a nice teal pocket item (scale, bone shard or tooth) and in addition to a lovely cut scene you also get a +3 3 hour un-wipeable hope buff (like the Glorfindel/Balrog one). So try and save handing this quest in until you go again!!

[Haleabor]

Updated Drummers section on first fight from Book 13 update.

No changes were noticed to Servants, Storvagun or Grisgart fights post update

Haleabor

[Haleabor]

Updated with all knowledge from Book 14 etc and with succesful tactics for Thorog fight.

Hal

[Haleabor]

Amended the text after the change of Forum sites and took out a few erroneous entries.

Hal