Darkening Deeps is a approximately 24-27 instanced dungeon situated in The Guardian zone of Gloamwood. It is part of the story arc that started in Silverwood and continued in Gloamwood. The various goblin clans have been active recently in the woods, even challenging Prince Hylas in Silverwood, and many are concerned with the source of their new found power. Worshiping Maelforge the Wanton, Dragon of Fire, goblins threaten the safety of all Telara. Rumors of the Council of Gedlo assembling have been discovered, it is now time to attack before all hope is lost.
Before entering the Darkening Deeps, it is pretty important to get the quests. There are 3 quests in Darkening Deeps, one you have to get in Gloamwood and two you get inside the instance itself.
Quest Giver (Top)
Egg Objective (Below)
The Toxic Source
Quest Giver: Paladin Oakheart
Location: Gloamwood, next to the Porticulum Master
Objective 1: Find the Missing Crusaders
You will find them upon entering the entrance (picture below), on the left and you will get another quest.
Objective 2: Discover the Geldo Council’s Secret
You will find the Egg of Maelforge for this at the every end of the instance, after defeating the Council.
The Gedlo priests worship Maelforge the Wanton, Dragon of Fire. They’ve grown increasingly powerful, and we need to know how.
I sent soldiers into the Darkening Deeps, but they never returned. Take a team of comrades into that pit of a city and discover what is going on.
Quest Giver
Dragon Worship
Quest Giver: Crusader Bertrand
Location: Inside Darkening Deeps at the entrance
Objective: Destroy the Idols of Maelforge
The goblins have been performing profane rites around these idols of Maelforge throughout the Darkening Deeps. Most of my squad were captured and used as sacrafice. The Gedlo conclave is preparing for something; something big, something that will wake the power of Maelforge.
I think that if you destroy their idols they have placed around the city that will disrupt their ritual.
Automatic Dungeon Quest
Quest Giver: This quest is automatically given to you every time you start the instance.
Objective: Defeat every boss in the dungeon.
The Geldo conclave and their servants have created all manner of evils to visit on all the people of Gloamwood and the world. The council, their servants, and the monsters that they have created must be destroyed if Gloamwood is ever to find peace.
Darkening Deeps: The Descent
Wildmage (Above), Bombarding You (Below)
Darkening Deeps is a pretty large instance which offers an early choice on how to clear the first part of the instance. Ultimately, you need to go down to kill the first boss Alchemist Braxtepel, however if you go down directly, the Wildmages in the upper levels will bombard you. Also if you need to complete the Dragon Worship quest, you have to clear upwards to get access to the two first idols. Generally, you’ll want to clear upward even though it adds a lot of trash, because it’s safer and someone will probably need the quest.
Alchemist Braxtepel, Mursh and Squersh
Boss Bombard
As you can see while getting ready for the fight, Alchemist Braxtepel is protected from all damage by Chemical Ward. The first phase of the fight is relatively simple, you have to kill the two adds, Mursh and Squersh, while Alchemist Braxtepel sometimes throw fireballs on your group which use the same effect as bombard. Because Bombard is actually a projectile, it’s recommended to tank the two adds a bit away from the Alchemist Braxtepel himself, for example near the stairs you came down from, which will give you more time to react when you’re getting Bombarded. Once the two adds are dead or after a certain amount of time (usually after the 4th bombard), whichever comes first, phase2 starts and Alchemist Braxtepel will become active. He will stop bombarding but instead will attack people like normal, become vulnerable to damage, and will use Flame Cleave(frontal AE) and Hot Tar on random people which is a strong dot that needs to be healed while keeping the tank up.
After defeating the first boss, you will proceed deeper in the dungeons. You will have to be wary on the next few pulls, as they are stealthing mobs that will link with Crushers or with nearby enemies. Also when you get to the last pull in the room, make sure to wait for the Crusher to walk away from those two packs unless you want to pull all seven at the same time, which is quite a risky move. Now you have arrived at the next boss room, make sure to be prepared before you speak to the NPC. This room is divided into two “parts”, the middle being illuminated while the rest is in the shadows as usual. Make sure to notice those areas as they are important for the upcoming boss fight.
Michael Bringhurst
This boss can be quite hard until you figure his gimmick, but even after you do figure it, he might still be hard especially if your tank doesn’t have a charge type move. To initiate the fight, talk to, he will walk to the middle of the room, then become a werewolf. Now the main trick to this fight is as long as the werewolf stands in the light, he gains a stacking buff that increases its damage. You have to get him out of the light as soon as possible. However he also has a second mechanic which makes it hard to pull him out of the light, he will only move if someone is in melee range. What that means is you DO NOT want your tank pulling him with a ranged attack, he needs to run up there and slap the werewolf in the face before running him back out of the light. This is very important because if no one is in melee range of the boss when he is in the light, he will start howling, which will inflict massive damage on your whole group. He will keep howling until someone with aggro gets in melee range.
Find the Boss in this cage (Left), The NPC transforms into the boss. (Right)
On top of these mechanics, every ~33%, he will also fear your whole group, dispel all the debuffs he has on him and run back to the center of the room under the moonlight. During this time, he will only gain the buff but not howl, until the fear is over. Once the fear is over however, he will start howling right away and the tank has to run back in the middle asap, and then run him back out. This is where having a charge is very helpful, since it lets you charge right on top of the boss at the end of the fear. Alternatively if available, you can use a Fear Ward spell on the tank or a Greater Essence of Earth (hard to get if you’re not Defiant until later levels however as the only lower level Earth Rifts are in Stonefield). Also as a healing tip, usually while the group is going to take massive howling damage after the end fear, it’s better to focus on topping the tank off and casting any damage reduction/HoT you have because once the tank grabs the boss again, he will take HUGE hits, while the group won’t take any more damage until the next fear. Keep healing the tank until the Lunar buffs are gone then top the group before the next fear.
Deepfang Burrows
After defeating Michael Bringhurst, one of the prisoners kindly open the door leading further in the dungeon. You will come into a room that has Deepfang Burrows. Make sure to not get close to them. Line of sight pull the spider casters that is standing next to the burrows(or silence/pull), then ranged DPS down the burrow. At 50%, they spawn an add that needs to be picked, but again, do not run close to the burrow. If you do, a very large amount of small spiders will start to spawn. While not terribly dangerous, they add a lot of unnecessary trash, and if you don’t have good AE they might overwhelm you. Also make sure to pull the goblin patrols once the first burrow is cleared, getting adds can be messy especially if someone steps close to a burrow. After 3 burrows, you will reach the next boss.
Tegenar Deepfang
Tegenar Deepfang
The spider can be one of the toughest fight in the instance if you don’t have the right group setup, and different roles can be very useful to beat it. First, she needs to be turned away from the group at all times. She uses Poisonous Spray that is a frontal DoT. This DoT also reduces defenses by a large amount and has to be dispelled from the tank as soon as possible. The spider will also cast Cocoon on a random member of the group besides the tank. This has a cast time and can be LOS’d (line of sight), it is recommended for the healer to stand near the stalagmytes in the room and when she casts it to move behind them for a second to make sure he doesn’t get cocooned. Cocoon will stun for 1minute, and the only way to remove it is for other people in the group to attack the cocoon that is around the person affected. This has to be done asap by DPS, the tank should not be moving due to frontal and will never be affected, and the healer should try to avoid it.
Cocoon
At 50%, the spider will stop casting Cocoon, however she will now spawn 6 deepfang Skitterers in the room. These small spiders need to be dealt with because they do a reasonable amount of damage, and it is advised that the tank tries to pick a few up, but not all of them(maybe one or two with a ranged taunt), while the DPS dispatch them with AEs. This is where healing gets tough due to having to dispel the tank, keep the tank up, and keep the DPS up. Alternatively, the tank can pick all of them up, and use defensive cooldowns to survive while the DPS burn the boss down. The boss keep spawning Skitterers so you cannot take your time either, else you will be overrun.
Once vanquished, you will only need to clear a few water elementals until you get to the last boss. Warning however, these water elementals are very tough and should be single pulled. They also patrol in quite a large area, so having someone with CC will be very helpful in case you get more than one.
Council Geldo
The Council is a boss made up of three mobs, Incinerator Gerbik, Warlord Swedge and High Shaman Nuggo. Each of these mobs posses their own abilities, defeating one of them will give the remaining ones more abilities depending on the one you killed, so the order you kill them in is important. Here is a quick list of their abilities.
Shaman: Cast Unholy Regeneration, a HoT on any member of the council under 70% life which has no cooldown, can be purged but generally should be DPSed through using healing reduction debuffs since it will be reapplied almost immediately. Can also cast an absorb shield which has a long cooldown, this can be purged to make killing faster. Upon killing one other member, gains Searing Flame, a channeling fire damage spell that does pretty large amount of damage, cannot be interupted. Upon killing the two other members, gain Wildflame Bolt, a frontal AE fire damage spell.
Warlord: Basic melee attacker, can use Mighty Cleave a frontal AE. On one of the other members dying, gains Staggering Blitz, a charge that will stun for a second, will not charge people that are very close to him, will also gain Bloodied Axe which will apply a dot on the target and also heal him for a certain amount, purgable, medium cooldown. On the death of both the other members, he also gain Enraged Flamebolt, a fire AE damage spell.
Incinerator: Spellcaster who uses Fireball and Arc of Flames, a frontal type of spell, he needs to be tanked facing away from the rest of the group. On the death of a member of the council, he will gain Crimson Pyre which will create a patch of fire on the ground for about 30secs that needs to be avoided and Fiery Bonds, a curse that will apply a fire dot. After the other 2 members are dead, he will also gain Staggering Charge.
The easiest strat to deal with the council is to first kill the Shaman because he’s a healer. Use all cooldowns you can, and all healing reductions debuffs you can, to drop him as fast as possible. Meanwhile, the tank needs to be tanking all 3 members while making sure the Incinerator and Warlord are facing away from the raid. This might be hard so the DPS and healer have to make sure they adjust their positions accordingly. Once dead, the Incinerator will start spawning Crimson Pyre on the ground so people have to move out of it, and the Warlord will start charging random people. It is pretty important that at least one of the DPS stay out of melee range(or max melee range) so the Warlord does not charge the healer over and over. At this point eliminating the Incinerator comes first, while the Warlord is more annoying, he heals and has more hp making it harder to kill him quickly, and killing him also gives charge to the Incinerator not making the fight any easier. On the other hand, killing the Incinerator lets everyone stand in melee range of the Warlord to nullify charges, making the fight a lot easier.
Upon killing the last boss you will have to click the treasure chest for your rewards. You will also autocomplete the dungeon quest, and clicking the egg in the center of the room will finish the quest The Toxic Source.
Drop List: If you find item drops not on this list please email a screenshot to Draegan@RiftJunkies.com
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