The Lost Vale: Part 3 - Left Wing: Horgulul And Dralel The Whitefire Matron
By: Damihdez
I just noticed that the title of Part 1 says "Preparating". sigh.
Moving on! After getting the Menhir Shard quest from the Everqueen, cross the fallen-log bridge tot he next area. If you have the Bestial Tactic (Harrier's Savagery or better), slot it for a little advantage. The next trash mobs will be spiders, and there a couple things to note about them.
One type is called a Whitefire Broodmother. She will lay an egg that should be destroyed quickly before it spawns adds. Also, there are static eggs nearby that will pop open and spawn a few non-champ mobs. Frankly, I recommend just destroying them on purpose. It makes life easier, and you don't have to spend that much effore on it. If your tanks is chain-pulling, the off tank can easily run off and pick up the egg-spawns without delaying your run at all. Have the DPSers AoE their tails off and it will be fine. Also, it means more XP for the guild, and more cash in your pocket (don't ask my why newborn spiders carry money; popular theories include Elven public-works initiatives).
Keep your eyes open for 5 more Menhir Shards (total of 10).
When you come up to the little valley with all the demons and broken chunks of stone, you may want to pause and slot the Daemonic Tactic if you have it (Aetheric Pandemonium or better). Have your tanks go down and gather up the furies flying around; they are non-champs, so you can get a really big chunk of them on the tank at once. Then AoE the poo out of them and prep for the next boss.
Horgulul is a Fiend of Slaanesh, and she is fairly easy. Where to set up: Right when you get to the bottom of the ramp leading in to this place (probably where you fought the furies), turn towards the other side of the valley. There is a large broken chunk of stone and crystal right up against the mountainside, almost directly opposite from the bottom of the ramp. Get all your casters up as high as possible on the mountainside near that chunk of rock/crystal. Your tanks should be down right in front of the chunk, so the casters want to be slightly off to the side so they can maintain line of sight. The tanks will pull Horgulul right in front to the chunk of rock and stay there.
Horgulul is mostly another tank and spank fight, but she does have an AoE knockback, which is why the tanks want their backs to that chunk of rock (and why the casters want to be far away). At 75%, 50%, and 25% health, Horgulul will spawn some maggots. These are not that significant, but there are a good number of them. My recommendation is just have the off tank watching her health and gather up these little guys as soon as she spawns them. RDPS should also watch her health so they can lay down GTAoE's etc. (With my Bright Wizard, I would hit her with Detonate, Spreading Flames, and then drop Rain of Fire on her about 2% ahead of time). In fact, in case you don't have it, everyone should pause right now and go get the ShowHealthPercent mod (unless you are fanatically anti-mod).
After killing Horgulul, have your Menhir Shard bearer go over and right click on the Shards in their quest inventory by the central pillar. This should cause the Everqueen to reappear and you can move on to the next step of the quest (kill Dralel the Whitefire Matron). Open your quest inventory and place the Torch of Lileath that you just received on you hotbar.
Head into the cave for the next boss. Also, re-slot your Bestial Tactic (this time Harrier's Pelt or better; otherwise don't bother). Have your tank chain-pull the spiders into the large cavern. Okay, let's talk about setup for a second.
Dralel the Whitefire Matron should be directly across from you when you enter the room. You will want to get set up to the RIGHT of the boss. There is a stone pillar there and there's one of those weird light-holes and a ramp there as well. Casters want to wedge themselves by the pillar to take care of knockback.
Once everyone is in position, discuss this next part with your team to make sure everyone is on the right track. If anything goes badly (like both tanks dying, or both healers dying, etc.) someone who can rez or banner-Rally needs to RUN out of the cave. This will reset the boss and avoid a total wipe (and the corresponding long ride back). This is the first boss my team had trouble with, until we got the pattern down.
Here's what happens with the boss: after she's aggroed, a ton of little Whitefire Parasites will begin swarming in. Each one that reaches Dralel the Whitefire Matron enrages her by 5%. Therefore, RDPS has the most important job in this fight: they must kill as many of these tiny spiders as possible. Also, if either of your tanks is a Knight, they should run their bugzapper aura. To help keep the tiny spider infestation under control, the tanks will pull Dralel the Whitefire Matron up the ramp I mentioned earlier so that she's right in front of the weird looking light-hole. This way, all the baby spiders will come at her from behind and RDPS can AoE them into the afterlife (also, they only have like 100 hp). Here's what I did with my Bright Wizard: Ignite, Detonate, Spreading Flames on Dralel the Whitefire Matron, followed immediately by a Rain of Fire placed so that Dralel is right inside the edge of the range (so that the babies have to pass through the maximum area of GTAoE. If they managed that, hopefully they would get hit by a tick of Detonate or Sreading Flames, and barring all else they still had to make it through the Knight's aura. For engineers, I would recommend planting a Flame Turret near the bottom of the ramp.
Things that are bad: Dralel the Whitefire Matron has a room-wide AoE knockback that roots and silences you. This is very unfriendly, but it is also why your Torch of Lileath is on your hotbar. The Torch will remove this debuff BUT Dralel will immediately aggro the FIRST person that uses their Torch. My recommendation is have the tank simply announce in vent that he is using his Torch. Once you hear that, you will be safe to use yours. The knockback is why you want to be wedged by the pillar if you're a caster, and why the tanks have their backs to a wall.
Also, sometimes Dralel the Whitefire Matron does not immediately move when you agro her. Instead she just sits there casting stuff. If this happens, RDPS needs to fill the area right around her with death, but NO ONE except the tanks should be near her. She will tend to agro anyone near her when she's done doing her thing, and if there's not enough AoE to kill the babies, then when she moves she will suck up a ton of them.
Okay, go give it go! Remember, if you lose more than one person and she's not at like 30% health, RUN. You really don't want to have to ride back here after a wipe.
To be continued! Next Episode: Why It's Okay to Kill Pixies and LIKE IT!