For every dungeon you encounter during your journey to the level cap, there is a second, more difficult, version for players at level 50. These dungeons are called “Expert” Dungeons. Ten in all, they are divided into two tiers; the first tier is aimed at players who have just recently hit level 50 and the second tier is geared towards those who have spent time in Tier 1 Expert Dungeons.
For the purpose of this guide, Darkening Deeps is considered a Tier 2 Expert Dungeon. General requirements for all Tier 2 dungeons include a Tank with at least 100 Toughness, DPS minded players must have either 100 Hit or Focus, a credible healer and an off-healer. The Tank can be a Warrior, Rogue or Cleric if properly geared, however Cleric Tanks will have the hardest time of all three. Healers will consist of Clerics mostly where your best off healer will be a Chlormancer. This does not mean you will not be able to use a Bard or Justicar as an off-healer or a Chloromancer as a main healer.
All expert dungeons offer new challenges, more bosses and sometimes additional areas to explore. In Darkening Deeps you will find two additional bosses, and a slightly extended dungeon path. This guide will go over each boss fight and what to expect during each encounter.
For a full list of Tier 2 Dungeon Gear please use this link.
Alchemist Braxtepel
Much like normal mode you can do this two different ways. Upon entering the dungeon you can go left up the pathway and clear out all the NPC and alleviate the added pressure of bombs being dropped on you. Or if you want an additional challenge you can head straight down and confront the Alcehmist head on with bombs dropping from over head. It is recommended for groups that are new to the dungeon or undergeared to clear upwards first.
Alchemist Braxtepel is pretty much the same as normal mode. You’ll have to clear out the first two adds first, avoid ground damage effects and clerics will have to purge debuffs from players. Once the adds are done you can confront Braxtepel which is pretty much a tank and spank fight. Just avoid the bad stuff on the ground.
Michael Bringhurst
Again, this fight is quite like normal mode as well. If you’re not familiar on how to spawn this fight, there is an NPC in a cage on the left side of the cave when you enter. Talk to him to trigger the fight.
Once Michael Binghurst turns into a werewolf, the tank will have to slowly bring him back out of the light. When Michael is in the light he will be more powerful and do more damage. He will eventually cast an AOE fear that you won’t be able to avoid and he will run back into the center of the light. You must repeat this cycle until he dies.
Tegenar Deepfang
This fight can be difficult for those either not prepared or without the right specs. The tank must be able to pick up a large amount of adds, AOE specs are quite useful and necessary and you will definitely need a second healer for this fight.
When the fight starts it will be a simple tank and spank. Tegenar will eventually “eye” someone and they will turn into a cocoon. All players must immediately attack the cocoon to free that player. If it happens to the healer, then issues may occur.
Also Tegenar will also summon a bunch of small adds the tank will need to collect. Gather them up on the boss and AOE them down.
The best strategy for this fight is to bring a ton of AOE damage. Everyone should stack up behind the boss so the tank can easily gather the adds and players can AOE them and damage the boss at the same time. If a player is cocooned the AOE damage will help also. Even outside the AOE phases, if your group is melee heavy, then staying close together will save DPS time from having to run across the room.
Glubmuk
This is one of the new fights to the dungeon and it’s pretty easy except for some graphical problems. Glubmuk has two abilities besides cleaves. He summons adds and shoots up a water spout. The water spout does damage and is a ground effect and is quite hard to see which is the problem.
Essentially you need to watch your feet and make sure you’re not standing in anything bad and pick up and take down the adds as they appear. There isn’t much else to worry about.
Council Geldo
This fight is extremely different depending on the order you kill the Council Members. What happens is, as you kill the council members their powers are handed down to the remaining members. The easiest method is to kill the spellcaster, the shaman and then the melee boss. You can do them in different orders for different achievements and is quite entertaining the way the fight changes depending on who dies first.
If you’ve done this on Normal Mode then you are probably already aware of how this fight works. Not much has changed on expert mode mechanics wise.
Scarn
Scarn is probably the most difficult fight in all the Expert Dungeons. He’s a dragon that likes to breath fire on everyone. It consists of two phases: a ground phase and air phase. When he’s on the ground it quite easy. The issue is with that he has a rear and frontal cleave making it extremely difficult on melee characters.
Use range dps and keep Scarn away from the group during the ground phase.
After a certain amount of damage and time, he will life off and begin breathing on the ground. Avoid the fire and keep moving. If you run into someone and you’re on fire you will spread the fire DOT and cause even more destruction. Avoid the ground effects, you must stay spread out, and don’t sit still because if you get hit by a ground effect you will most certainly die if you’re not over geared for the fight. Instant cast heal spells help tremendously during this fight.
That cycle will repeat itself over and over and if you can survive the air phase intact, then you should be able to defeat Scarn.
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