Trial · 12 players · Blackwood (Gloomire) · Blackwood Chapter (2021)
Rockgrove
VetChallengingHMVery hard
Sul-Xan Naga ruins that turn into the Deadlands. Three main bosses, an optional miniboss, and the Ash Titan gauntlet before Xalvakka's tower.
- Hard mode: raise the banner before each main boss (veteran only). Xalvakka's banner is at the end of the bridge to her tower, on the left.
- PC addon: Qcell's Rockgrove Helper shows curse/poison arrows, Bahsei portal timers, eye rotation direction, and 'RUN in X%' for Xalvakka.
Sul-Xan trash
Trash☠ Wipe mechanic
- Sul-Xan Soulweaver (Argonian mage): kill her first. When she shields up she's about to throw a crystal. Dodge-roll about half a second after the shield appears. If it hits you, hold block until she's dead.
- Sul-Xan Reaver (two-hander): the tank dodge-rolls its ground smash (heavy debuff), and everyone gets out of its Earthquake AoE.
Tank
- Stack the packs. Dodge the Reaver's smash.
DPS
- Soulweaver first, then AoE everything else.
Healer
👁 Watch for
- Soulweaver: a female Naga caster. She glows/shields, then throws a crystal projectile.
- Reaver: a big Naga with a two-hander that slams the ground.
- Bloodseekers (archers) leap around to reposition. They're harmless.
↯ Alternatives
- The first courtyard pack can be sneaked past.
More detail & images
Not fully confirmed:
- The dodge timings come from Alcast only.
Basks-In-Snakes
MinibossHow to spawn: Optional. From the entrance, go left through the hostile plants. You can skip him entirely.
☠ Wipe mechanic
- Interrupt 'Taking Aim' (a long bow draw). It one-shots its target.
- At ~50% a swarm of small snakes spawns. Stay grouped and AoE them. Don't scatter.
Tank
- Face both the archer's Arrow Spray cone and the Giant Snake's cleave away from the group. You can split them and kill the snake first, or stack both.
DPS
- Interrupt the snipe. AoE the small snakes.
Healer
- Ground heals for the snake poison DoTs.
👁 Watch for
- A large Naga archer plus a huge snake. Arrow Spray shows a red cone on the tank, and Volley a red circle that's hit several times.
More detail & images
Not fully confirmed:
- The 50% swarm trigger comes from Xynode and Alcast. UESP just says he summons snakes in groups of five.
Oaxiltso
Boss☠ Wipe mechanic
- Poison (Noxious Sludge): if your screen turns orange-brown, run into a corner cleansing pool and come back. One player per pool. A used pool turns green and stays out of action for a while. If you don't cleanse, you drop poison puddles on the group and keep taking more damage until you die.
- Charge: he charges the farthest player. Stay out of the line between them. Deaths usually happen at the start of his path, not at the end.
- Havocrel Annihilator adds: kill each one as soon as it lands, and keep it away from Oaxiltso. If they're close together, both enrage.
Tank
- MT: face him away from the group and block his heavy bite.
- OT: pick up each Annihilator and park it away from the boss. Pull in the frogs.
DPS
- Priority: Annihilator > frogs (Death Hoppers from the pools) > boss. Letting frogs pile up is the #1 reason groups fail here.
Healer
- One healer stands far back as permanent charge bait and dodge-rolls when he arrives.
- HoTs up for his stomp fire waves.
👁 Watch for
- Sludged: orange-brown screen tint plus small green puddles at your feet.
- Pools: glowing pools in the 4 corners. They turn green once used.
- Annihilator incoming: he roars at the sky, fireball circles rain down, then one big filling circle where a sword-wielding Daedra lands.
- Ember Chains pull 2 players to the Annihilator.
↯ Alternatives
- Cleanse only in the 2 pools on the group's side. That way the back healer stays the farthest player, and nobody running to a pool pulls the charge.
- No real DPS check on normal or vet. You can tank the last Annihilator off to the side and burn the boss.
Hard mode · veteran only
Activate: Banner at the chamber entrance.
- Below 50% he charges twice: first the farthest player, then whoever is farthest from his new spot. Put a second healer behind the MT to bait the return charge.
- Each Annihilator turns a pool into lava (Magma Sludge targets the farthest pool that isn't currently poisoned). By the 4th Annihilator you can run out of pools. Plan which pools you use, or keep the 4th Annihilator alive off to the side.
- More health, and the meteors hit harder.
More detail & images
Sludge hits 2 players about every 35s, and players near the pools are more likely targets. The charge comes about every 40–45s.
Annihilators drop at about 90 / 75 / 50 / 25%. Their heavy attack (Sunburst) must be dodged by the OT. Their Cinder Cleave is a long fire cone on a random player, and their meteors target 2 players (block them).
Flame-Herald Bahsei
Boss☠ Wipe mechanic
- Curse: if you glow dark blue, walk to the edge, away from everyone, before it ends (fixed 8s). It releases 2 swirls that curve counter-clockwise; anyone they touch gets cursed, and it can chain-wipe the group. Never run toward people while cursed. Dodge swirls headed your way.
- Her cone (Sickle Strike): the tank keeps her facing away. The 3 dark tornadoes curse whoever they hit.
- Prime Meteor (~25–30%): a meteor lands and becomes a targetable orb. Everyone kills it within 10s or the group wipes.
Tank
- MT: Bahsei in the middle, facing away from the group. Block her heavy overhead.
- OT: drag each Flesh Abomination to the arena edge (just inside the lava) so its permanent poison pool lands there. Put each pool next to the last one to keep the center clear.
DPS
- 90–60%: kill each Flesh Abomination after the OT parks it at the edge.
- Below 55%: Prime Meteor > Fire Behemoth > Burning Specters > boss.
- Interrupt Skull Salvo (she raises her sword and fires blue skulls).
- Don't over-push: an Abomination spawns at every 5% from 90 to 60%.
Healer
- Two players (usually the healers) stand a bit behind the group to bait Cursed Ground. It targets the 2 farthest players, so step off the lich crystals before they explode.
👁 Watch for
- Cursed: a dark-blue swirling aura on your character.
- Swirls: dark whirlwinds roaming and curving across the floor.
- Prime Meteor: a glowing, burning orb on the ground.
- Fire Behemoths come out of the portal (NE) and explode when they die, so step back.
- Dagon's Wrath: walls of fire sweep in from the lava edge with no telegraph.
↯ Alternatives
- No real boss DPS check. Pace it so adds don't overlap.
- Some groups stack the Fire Behemoths on the boss for cleave.
Hard mode · veteran only
Activate: Banner before the fight.
- Creeping Eye portal: an eye appears in the center and projects a 90° cone where Bahsei is facing. It rotates clockwise or counter-clockwise (random each time), slowly at first, then faster. Stay out of the cone. Everyone outside walks around the room ahead of or behind it, and the tank follows beside it.
- Exactly 3 players go into the portal. With more than 3, everyone inside dies. Run 2 portal teams of 3 that alternate, because players coming out can't re-enter for 2 minutes.
- Inside: kill the wraiths (each kill costs you 50% of your max health; dodge the one-shot chasing AoEs). Then all 3 stand on the 3 spots and use the Creeping Eye interaction at the same time. One player upstairs uses the 4th spot to close the portal.
- Keep Abomination pools out of the cone's walking path.
- Many groups stop DPS on the boss while the portal is up.
More detail & images
From 55% on, the Abominations stop and are replaced by Fire Behemoths, Burning Specters, Dagon's Wrath fire walls and Meteor Swarm. The curse gets stronger each time it jumps to someone, and curse handling causes most wipes. Forgotten Archers spawn from runes; interrupt their channels.
Flame-Herald Bahsei (Bone Goliath form) · view on UESP ↗ Prime Meteor: kill within 10s · view on UESP ↗ Xanmeer Pinnacle arena · view on UESP ↗
Not fully confirmed:
- HM cone: sources disagree on whether it one-shoots you or pulls you into the portal. Treat it as deadly either way.
- Meteor timing: ~25% per Alcast and Xynode, 30% per UESP.
- Curse duration: 8s per Alcast, Xynode and Fextralife; UESP lists 10s.
Ash Titan
MinibossHow to spawn: Mandatory gauntlet on the Deadlands path to the tower, with Havocrel Torchcasters, Barbarians and Butchers.
☠ Wipe mechanic
- Havocrel Torchcaster: kill it first. It summons a Prime Meteor that one-shots the group unless it's killed fast.
- Fire circles that follow you: walk them out of the group, behind you. Get out of the static circles.
Tank
- Face the Titan away. Its wing swipe cone knocks you back and can't be broken free from.
- Block the big heavy. Pull the Havocrels onto the Titan.
DPS
- Priority: Torchcaster > meteor > everything else. Interrupt Fire Blast, or it leaves a fire patch.
Healer
- Heavy healing. Guides call this 'a wipe fest'. Block the fire waves.
👁 Watch for
- Ash Titan: a winged, dragon-like Daedric titan. Molten Rain: it rears up and lots of red circles appear, some following players. Wing Gust: it crouches with wings raised, then launches players.
- Torchcaster: a robed Havocrel mage that drops a glowing meteor orb.
- Barbarian: dual-wielding, it teleports around slashing people, so block. Butcher: two-hander whose stomp sends out a fire wave; dodge it.
More detail & images
Xalvakka
Final boss☠ Wipe mechanic
- RUN at 70% and 40%: she flees upstairs and lava floods the floor (instant death). Everyone sprints up the spiral stairs right away. The stair flame jets go through shields, so heal on the move.
- Kill the Wraiths before they reach her. Each one that arrives strengthens her shield, and too many make it unbreakable.
- Blob synergy: killing a wraith next to you gives you a blue-mist debuff. Use the synergy outside the group. It drops a blob that slows, damages, then explodes, and blobs merge into bigger ones.
- Floor 3 has a big hole in the middle. Don't fall in.
Tank
- MT: hold her in the middle and block her claw combo. No frontal cleave, so facing matters less. She teleports around.
- OT (floor 2+): pick up the Havocrel Goliath and Iron Atronachs. When the Goliath raises its weapon (Firestorm), most of the arena fills with fire. Stand in the safe ring right around the Goliath, or at the very edge.
DPS
- Priority: Wraiths > Iron Atronach & Flame Watchers > Goliath > boss.
- Split (floor 2+): she becomes 3 copies. Get into melee range of each: a fake turns see-through orange, so break the real one's shield. Keep hitting a fake that has turned to stone and it erupts on the whole group.
Healer
- Steady HoTs: fire waves, room-wide burn during the split, and the stair run.
- Creeping Manifold: unavoidable fire rings on several players.
👁 Watch for
- Xalvakka: a giant snake-bodied, multi-armed Harvester.
- Wraiths: pale spectral figures drifting inward from the edges.
- Debuff: blue mist around a player. Blob: a blue-green glob on the floor.
- Split: 3 identical Xalvakkas, with the whole floor on fire except a small patch around each copy.
- Run phase: lava visibly rising, stairs lined with flame spouts.
↯ Alternatives
- Phases are based on health, so you can clear adds first.
- Dead players reappear at the top of the stairs. Rez them there, but watch for meteors targeting the doorway.
Hard mode · veteran only
Activate: Banner at the end of the bridge to her tower, on the left.
- The lava timer runs on every floor. It's a DPS check. From the 70% run on, each floor has about 210s before lava takes it. Split phases eat into that time.
- Rough check (8 DPS): about 47k each on floor 2 and 57k each on floor 3.
- Wraiths and Goliaths have double health.
More detail & images
Floor 1 runs 100→70%, floor 2 70→40%, floor 3 40→0%. Every earlier mechanic carries over to the next floor. Deadstar shows 3 large red circles in sequence, and on floor 3 they bounce. Xynode singles out Flame Watchers and Iron Atronachs as the dangerous adds.
Xalvakka · view on UESP ↗ Havocrel Goliath: stand close during Firestorm · view on UESP ↗ Tower of the Five Crimes · view on UESP ↗
Not fully confirmed:
- HM: only Xynode describes it in detail (Alcast and UESP have no HM section). The DPS numbers are estimates.
- Goliath timing: UESP says a portal opens if you push her too slowly; Fextralife says Goliaths just appear periodically on floor 2+.