Returning to the Eye of the North story arc, Benjeth successfully completed the Destruction’s Depths dungeon. Now it was time for the final battle! With the Disc of Chaos and its legion of destroyers defeated, the Asurans were able to reclaim their Central Transfer Chamber. It is learned that the destroyers operate as a collective so while the Deldrimor dwarves fend off the destroyer armies, Benjeth will lead a strike team to eliminate the Great Destroyer himself!
High Priest Alkar guards the Asuran gate that leads to the chamber of the Great Destroyer. First, some reconnaissance. We gated into the hot, magma-filled chamber and sneaked near enough to see what we’d be up against to create a battle plan. The Great Destroyer is level 31! Right away that implies plenty of armor and health, so I’ll need to come up with a way to lower his maximum health. Several destroyer guards in the chamber as well, though hopefully placed so that we can take them one at a time. The chamber itself is a lava pit with only a few areas of encrusted magma to stand on, so we’ll likely be dealing with burning environmental damage. If I’m correct and burning is a continuous damage effect, individual condition removal skills would deplete the monks’ energy too quickly and leave none for healing. So I decided to rely on party heals instead and attempt to out-heal all the damage we’d be taking.
I decided to leave Benjeth’s build alone for the most part; he’d handle a little protection and normal individual healing. The exception being I brought the Asuran skill Pain Inverter, a hex which, at Benjeth’s current rank of 5, reflects 108% of the damage a mob deals right back onto it, ignoring the mobs armor too. I also brought the Deldrimor skill Breath of the Great Dwarf which removes burning on the whole party as well as providing a party-wide heal. Not bad having a single skill that both heals and removes the burning condition on the entire group for a cost of only 10 energy. I brought along Ogden and Dunkoro (Hero monks) and gave them each Holy Haste, an enchant to make their Healing Prayers spell cast 50% faster, and Light of Deliverance, an elite party heal. These would serve as their bread and butter for keeping the group alive with fast group heals, though I also gave them some single-target heals as well, to help Benjeth while their LoD refreshed. To handle the Great Destroyer, I chose Koss because I already had him configured as a warrior specializing in axe mastery, which tends to have a good selection of skills that cause a Deep Wound, lowering the maximum health of the target. I gave Koss every Deep Wound-ing, heavy damage axe attack I could find, along with an interrupt. All that was left was hiring four henchmen to complete the group. My choices were: Herta, hoping her melee and elemental wards would provide some additional protection from the destroyers and burning. Eve to keep the monks’ energy up and her elite health degeneration hex. I was concerned about the Great Destroyer’s armor, and health degeneration bypasses armor. Aidan for heavy ranged dps without interrupts. Some alliance-mates suggested keeping interrupts to a minimum so where I’d usually hire Zho, I thought better of it for this fight. Finally, reliable Mhenlo for more healing prayers.
With Benjeth’s strike team assembled and prepared for battle, High Priest Alkar once again sent us through the gate into the Great Destroyer’s lava chamber. From the placement of his destroyer guards, it appeared we may only need to fight a few in order to clear a path to the Great Destroyer. However, I was concerned that, being a boss he may be able to summon help (true) and also that he may kite us into his guard’s aggro radius (also true), which Guild Wars mobs love to do. So rather than taking the easy path then having it come back and bite us later, I decided to clear all the guards in the chamber. For the most part, this was trivial with Koss’ Deep Wounds and Eve’s health degen and four monks keeping everyone going. A few times the Great Destroyer would summon more destroyers, as well as hitting us with an AoE knockdown, but I kept the group at a distance from him. In short order the guards were down and we turned our eyes to the Great Destroyer. I put a protective enchant on Koss, who shouted an armor buff then charged in and engaged the Great Destroyer, immediately causing a Deep Wound, which Koss unrelentingly maintained for the duration of the encounter. I quickly discovered why my alliance-mates were suggesting not to interrupt the Great Destroyer too much: every interrupt causes a massive AoE damage spike. If I’d brought Zho along, or a mesmer, even with four monks I may have been challenged to keep the group alive. Between Koss’ Deep Wound condition, Eve’s health degen, dps from the group and reflective damage from Benjeth’s Pain Inverter hex, the fight was over all too quickly, and we were to a cut scene (which ends in a bit of a GW2 hint: the awakening of the ancient dragon Primordus) then whisked off to the Battledepths for a celebration!
For his end-game reward, Benjeth chose Droknar’s Healing Staff! Not only is it very nice-looking, but it’s a perfect version of the healing staff I’d put together for Benjeth; one which not only gives half casting time and half skill refresh, but which also gives the maximum bonus to enchant duration! Benjeth’s usual skill selection relies mostly on enchants so this unique staff will complement the build tremendously.
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Nice work on completing EotN. I told you the last few missions go quickly
Good choice on the healing staff as well. You’ll be able to use that in PvP if you ever feel up for it.
I like the Asuran armour, but you need the hot glasses to complete the set
I’m still a little wary of putting shades on a male character. Wands, too. Both seem to look very nice on the females but males with the specs or wands look a bit effeminate.
And thanks! Destruction’s Depths took a few runs to get that final rush of destroyers down but the final mission went quickly. Almost anti-climatically so. Hmm…