Welcome to the Sanctum Ophidia Guide. Sanctum Ophidia is a beautiful ancient Nedic Temple. But this trial is a tough one and every raid guild loves it, when Sanctum Ophidia is the weekly trial the third time in a row. Unlike the other trials the last boss is the easiest, but the first and second bosses will annoy you like crazy until you get the right mechanics. So hopefully this guide is a little help.
Introduction
Raid: 2 Tanks (1 Main, 1 Off Tank), 2 Healers, 8 DDs
Table of Contents
Location of Sanctum Ophidia
This trial is found in Craglorn, Northside.
Defensive Championpoints
Make sure to check out my article which talks about how to optimize damage mitigation in Trials through red Champion Points. Red Champion Points can mitigate damage by a huge margin, so really make sure to have the correctly set up!
In this trial you will have to deal with a lot of poison damage and also very friendly Overchargers will guide you the way through Sanctum Ophidia. There will be quite a handful of add groups to deal with. So as a raidleader you should announce the following for this trial to your group: 1: Always kill the Overchargers first in add groups. 2: If you have a poison circle underneath you, then you can infect other people with it.
First Adds
Make sure your group is ready, buff food and skills checked and enter Sanctum. As soon as you entered, the timer for your leaderboard score will start. There is a very small and weak add group right at the beginning but don’t you lull yourself in a false sense of security! Follow the stone pad around the cliff and jump into the boss room and you will have to deal with the real first add group.
You can eliminate the first mini mini boss in the middle on the platform. Then you have to activate the two fire bowls besides him. Once they are activated huge groups of adds will spawn and run into the room from three different entrances. Your group should stay in the middle, all together, but not standing on each other’s feet because of splash damage. DKs and the tanks can pull the adds towards your group. Use AoE skills to burn those add waves down. Focus the Archers and the Scaled Court Conjure Adds first. The moment all Court Conjurers are dead, a new addwave will spawn.
Before you eliminated the last add wave, the first boss, Possessed Mantikora will spawn. Make sure you have enough space between your group and him to not accidentally pull. Also beware of pets from your Sorc DDs, if they are too close to Mantikora, the pets will automatically start the fight with him.
First Boss – Possessed Mantikora [HP: 39 Mio.]
Sanctum Ophidia 173761 Score 19:29min by Hodor – All bosses Homestead
Watch this video on YouTube
The Mantikora is a beast and has some very painful mechanics and is not easy for new groups. But do not give up, with the following tips and tricks you should manage to kill him!
The Tank and Off-Tank have to be able to switch roles at any times, I will explain under boss mechanics why. For the Tank it is very important to tank the Mantikora with the face away from the rest of the group. The best position to tank this huge beast is in the middle of the room, facing Mantikora towards where he spawned. So your group can have all the rest of the space to move around if necessary.
The rest of the group stacks behind the Mantikora. One Healer & two Damage Dealers should stand slightly further away from the group, more about that in the Poison Shards Boss mechanics explanation.
Boss Mechanics
The 3 people that are decoys for the spear can stack in the group at the beginning. Spears will only drop after the blackhole spawned.
Bridge Adds
Once you managed to kill Mantikora, you can leave the boss room and take a walk towards a large hall with a bridge in the middle. The first add group is waiting for you before the bridge.
All the following trash groups will have Overchargers, Rockheaver Trolls, Warpriests and smaller Mobs in it. The main tank has to taunt the Trolls and the Warpriest whereas the Off Tank has to deal with the Archers and Overchargers. It is very important to kill Overchargers first, because they will lay a huge lightning’s circle on two random players that deal a ton of damage. Make sure to have a shield like Harness Magicka ready to activate. The players with the lightning have to slightly move out of the group because of splash damage.
The Overchargers will also do some lightning damage, small circles on the ground that will follow one player, make sure to stay out of them and move away from the group, otherwise you will bring the circles into the group (splash damage!). The Trolls will throw a poison AoE on the Main Tank, so make sure to stay away from him, because if you are to close on him, the poison damage will infect you and all players near you. If you are infected with the poison damage, your char will have a green aura and you have a red circle underneath you. It is important to stay away from other players to not infect other player, because this poison damage does a hell lot of damage. Together with other incoming damage from Overchargers or mobs, this can cause you a group wipe.
On the bridge there will also spawn two Overchargers. They will spawn on the right and left side, the right side will spawn first. If possible, kill him asap, before he can strike his lightning circles on two players. If you are finished with the first one, proceed to the next Overcharger. Beware of the holes in the bridge!
Your main tank has to taunt the incoming Trolls and stays away with them from the rest of the group. As soon as your group has killed the Overchargers, your main tank can bring the trolls back to them.
Second Boss – Stonebreaker Troll [HP: 28 Mio.]
Sanctum Ophidia 173761 Score 19:29min by Hodor – All bosses Homestead
Watch this video on YouTube
This boss is, compared what you just had to deal with, pretty easy. Usually there will spawn Overchargers during the fight, which make the whole thing a little bit complicated, but there is a technique to avoid this.
The Main Tank has to run across the bridge, the rest of the group has to stay at the beginning from the bridge, where you came down from the first boss room. The tank then pulls the Troll backwards towards the last quarter of the bridge, where the fight will happen. The position is key, if the Tank pulls the Troll way too much towards the beginning of the bridge, he will reset. If he pulls him not enough towards it, the Overcharger Adds will join the fight. When you found the right position, there are only simple mechanics you have to deal with.
Boss mechanics:
When you killed this big guy, you can deal with all the Overchargers that spawned during the fight and are now waiting for you at the end of the bridge. When they kill the player, they will magically disappear in Nirvana. 1 Death for killing 5 Overchargers is acceptable.
Way to Ozara
During the following hallways and rooms you have to avoid hugging and touching the huge snake pillars, because they will also spread the poison fields you are already used to from the Trolls.
Activate the two levers at the door at the same time to leave the bridge hall behind you. You will have to speed up the stairs and then you are in a room with two doors and two levers on the right and left side. You can either split up your group into two small teams (1 Tank, 1 Healer, 4 DDs), each team enters a room and deals with the following trash groups. Or you can send your Main Tank on the right side, where he tanks all Adds until the group on the left side killed their mobs and can switch to the right side. Just keep in mind, always tank Trolls away from the group and kill Overchargers first.
Once you cleaned the mobs behind the doors, you can switch the levers at the top on each room and proceed with the next trash group (consisting of two Trolls), that is awaiting you after the door at the middle.
There is a wooden walkway in the next room, beware of anyone falling down from it. There are four Trolls at the end of the walkway and there is another add group at the top of the stairs. Make sure you don’t move to fast and deal with each mob group one by one. Of course you can also pull them altogether and nuke them down.
At the next small room there is another group of mobs with Overchargers, Trolls and small mobs. Watch out for the poison strikes from the snake pillars here! When this group is down, you can handle either the right door or the left door first when you switch the lever. Just make sure everyone is ready and everyone enters the same room. You have to repeat this process twice more during the following rooms.
When you run upwards the stairs you will have to deal with another trash group consisting of Trolls, Overchargers and all the other ones you already met. Your healers have a tough job when there are also players with poison fields and lightning fields (huge splash damage). It is important that you use the explained techniques and stack and move together as a group.
When you killed all this, you are ready for the next beautiful lady, Ozara the Lamia.
Third Boss – Ozara Lamia [HP: 31 Mio.]
Sanctum Ophidia 173761 Score 19:29min by Hodor – All bosses Homestead
This boss has some friends that will join the fight and make it a hard knockdown battle. During the fight a Troll, a Overcharger, a War Priest, a Archer and two Skirmishers will spawn regularly. If you kill them during the fight, they will respawn after about 15 seconds. Because of this you have to use one of the following techniques. Option 1
The Main Tank has to tank Ozara and the Overcharger that will spawn at the door on the right side of the room. He will tank them both at the door, where the Overchargers spawns every 15 seconds because he will get nuked in the AoE damage from your group.
The Off Tank has to tank the War Priest, the Troll and the Archer. He will stand at the entrance to the room, with enough space to the rest of the group. He has to make sure that the Archer arrow spray is facing him and not the group. Also the Trolls AoE Posion slams should not bother the rest of the group. This adds will not respawn, because you do not focus damage on them.
Option 2
The main Tank only has to deal with Ozara and he has to Tank her at the door where the Overcharger spawns.
One DD / Off Heal has to take care of the Overcharger. He has to slot Inner Fire from Undaunted Skill Line. And it does not hurt if he has some heal abilities slotted or shields. He will stand by the Off Tank near the entrance to the boss room. As soon as the fight starts he has to taunt the Overcharger. There will spawn a Totem at the entrance from the Shaman Add, he also has to make sure to kill this Totem. If you don’t kill this Totem, you will not be able to pull the adds out of the room, so make sure this Totem is killed asap. When he has the Overcharger in his back and has successfully killed the Totem, he just has to run back through the whole dungeon, always with the Overcharger with him. Make sure to use Inner Fire every 15 seconds, otherwise the Overcharger may go back to the group.
The Off Tank will also run away with his taunted friends. He has to taunt the Archer, the War Priest and the Troll and as soon as the fight started run away with them through the dungeon. Just make sure to taunt them from time to time that they do not lose interest and go back to the main group. Here you can see a picture of Option 1.
Boss mechanics:
Way to the final Boss
After you finished Ozara, the door to the next room will open and Trolls will enter the room. Your Main Tank has to pull the Trolls asap and move them away from the group.
In the next room you will have to deal with the last big Trash group. Beware of the poison fields and kill Overchargers first! Once you dealt with this group, you are ready for the last boss in Sanctum Ophidia. No more Overchargers, huray!
Final Boss – The Serpent [HP: 52 Mio.]
Compared to Ozara or Mantikora, the final boss in SO is easy. This Hardmode is also one of the easiest ones, so if your group is looking to begin clearing Hardmode, this one is a good to start with!
As group leader you have to make sure, every member has a ability slotted, that costs a ton of magicka (why I will explain under boss mechanics). The siege shield or purge from Alliance war are such high cost magicka skills.
Make sure your healers have Nova skill slotted. Also one Templar DD should have it slotted, if the rotation with two healers is not enough. You will only have to heal the main and off Tank and during poison phase the whole group. So if possible you can DPS during the non-poison phase or one heal can completely switch to an Off-Heal-DD.
The Main Tank has to tank the Serpent on the platform in the middle of the room, facing the Serpent towards north, away from the group so that his cleave attacks only hits the Tank. Everyone besides the Off Tank stacks together on the platform behind the Serpent.
The Off Tank has to pull all Adds (Mantikoras and Lamias) on the left side (view from entrance) of the room and keep them busy and away from the rest of the group.
Boss mechanics:
Eso Half My Addons And Lib Are Red Light
You can divide this boss fight into these phases, maybe this will help your group: Poison Phase / Lamia and Totems / Poison Phase / First Mantikora / Poison Phase / Lamia and Totems / Poison Phase / Second Mantikora / Poison Phase / Orbs and everything again from the start.
Final Boss – The Serpent [HARDMODE] [HP: 59,2 Mio.]
Sanctum Ophidia 173761 Score 19:29min by Hodor – All bosses Homestead
Watch this video on YouTube
Besides from the boss mechanics on normal mode in Sanctum Ophidia, there is only one new mechanic you must consider when killing the Serpent on Sanctum Ophidia Hardmode. For activating HM, you have to burn the banners at the middle of the stairs on the left and right side before the boss room. Once you activated Hardmode, this boss will stay Hardmode, it is not possible to “revert” the banners. Remember that when your guild mates want to fire things up!
Boss mechanics:
Congratz on beating Sanctum Ophidia on Hardmode! That was a hell of a trial, ugh.
If you’ve been watching my stream, you know I have been playing PvP in Elder Scrolls Online non-stop (North American Server Thornblade Campaign). It’s a part of the game that I haven’t dedicated enough time to and as part of my things to do prior to patch 1.6, it was time to jump in. I wanted to come out with some posts about what I’ve been learning and number one is being preparing for combat with the right equipment, skills and siege.
Table of Contents
If you’re brand new to Player vs. Player (PvP) in Elder Scrolls Online, you might want to check out Party Pyro’s articles prior to jumping into this. Cyrodiil can be considered a hostile war ground and you should treat it as such. When I was in the military, we did a combat kit check prior to going “outside the wire.” We can implement the same type of practice for Cyrodiil to maximize our success. My basic Combat Kit is listed below with details on how I use this equipment.
It takes Alliance Points (AP) to make AP. When I was brand new to PvP, I often said “screw it I’m not spending my AP to siege keeps.” That is a terrible attitude because one Flaming Oil, one Meatbag or repair kit might be the difference in a 5,000 AP defensive or offensive tick (reward). For more information on how to use these, check out Party Pyro’s Siege Guide, but here’s a list of my general load-out. Keep in mind, this is what I use for a typical two to three hour game play session. You’ll need more or less depending on your allotted game time.
2x Flaming Oil | 800 AP each
Keep Defenses
+ Huge damage on personnel
– Can’t be used on flat surface
These should be setup above a breach location during a siege defense for massive damage when the enemy is breaking through. This can make or break a defense and one person can operator two at a time thus at least two is needed on your combat kit.
2x Dominion Ballista | 1,800 AP each
Eso Half My Addons And Lib Are Red Hair
Keep assault
+ Massive damage on keeps
– High AP cost
I like to double fire these while attacking a keep so setting up two close to each other like oil pots. The faster you get that keep down, the faster you can setup a defense. A good substitute if you don’t have any AP is Dominion Fire Ballista for $450 gold each. About half the damage though it’s nice for those new to PvP without AP.
2x Dominion Meatbag Catapult | 1,200 AP each
Destroying personnel (tons of usage)
+ Get artillery if you don’t want to get into the fray
– Prepare to be targeted
I truly had zero idea how powerful a well placed Meatbag can be. Deploy these early and often in open fields, on defensive (yes they fit inside keeps) any opportunity for massive zerg, drop and pop these. It’s the zerg killer siege weapon.
2X Dominion Stone Trebuchet | 1,800 AP each
Keep assault (inner wall)
+ Range
– Long reload
If you want to flip or take over a keep fast, having Stone Trebuchet on the outer wall while you’re raining down stones on the inner is the pro move. Make sure to grab a couple of these for fast flips where speed is key like an unprotected keep deep in enemy territory.
1x Dominion Battering Ram | 1,800 AP each
Keep assault
+ Massive damage on front door
– Easily countered
Rarely do you see the Battering Ram coming out in Cyrodiil these days but you should consider keeping one in your pack. A couple of tricks is one, you can still cast spells while operating the ram. Just stand on top of it and spam healing. Two, you can still combine this with Dominion Ballista. So don’t just ram the door, get more siege on it.
Keep Wall Masonry Repair Kit 100x | $90 gold or 300 AP
Repairing keeps
+ Great AP after a flip
– Can rack up gold cost
Until recently, after we took control of an enemy keep (flip) I would just stand around waiting for the next thing to do. Now I immediately rush to repair the outer wall first then the inner. Essentially every repair is work 25 AP or so and costing $90 gold each. It’s a decent exchange and plus you help your alliance so bring a ton of these.
Keep Door Woodworker Repair Kit 50x | $90 gold or 200 AP
Repairs doors
+ Easy AP
– Often doors aren’t breached
Bring a few of these in your pack in case the enemy uses a battering ram trick to speed cap a keep. Similar in effect as the Masonry kits, don’t just stand around repair!
Optional – There are some additional options and more complex siege strategies. I honestly don’t know how to implement them effectively yet, so I’m not going to recommend them until I gain a better understanding. Please leave me a comment if you know of some tricks!
Get ready to spend tons of gold for top end PvP consumables. These truly make or break your character’s performance and can change the tide of the battle. Downside it takes a lot of time farming materials or money to continue using these supplies. If you want to be on top, you need to be prepared and this separates the good from the great.
Panacea of Health 100x
Defensive potions called Tri-Pots
Generally $13,000 gold per 100 (stack)
Recipe Bugloss + Columbine + Mountain Flower + Water (Clouded Mist VR 5)
This potion is a PvP equivalent to a intravenous shot of adrenaline. Every 30 seconds or so, I’m chugging these things down in the middle of a zerg to get back all three resources. Potions do no good in your bank or while you’re dead. Use these early and often to get an advantage.
Panacea of Spell Power 50x
Offensive for magicka based builds (weapon one exist too)
Generally $11,000 gold per 100
Recipe Cornflower + Lady’s Smock + Water Hyacinth + Water (Clouded Mist VR 5)
When on the offensive, make sure to switch out to a spell or weapon power potion. Seems like overkill to have some many options, but trust me, the best defensive is a good ol’ Impulse spamming ball of flame. Chugging one of these and push the zerg back screaming “for the Queen” can break the zerg line.
Stealth Detection
Utility for preventing gankers (AKA Critborn the stream sniper)
Generally $4,000 gold per 100
Recipe Cornflower + Wormwood + Water (any can be used, same effect)
If you’re like me and stream PvP, you will inevitable acquire a “fan club,” also known as stream snipers. Yes people will watch your stream just to find where you and attempt to kill you at inopportune times. Put them on the defensive with some stealth detect potions (Critborn I’m talking about you).
Food
Attributes buff (provisioning craft)
Generally $10,000 gold per 100
Recipe – Honey Comb, Pinguis, Salt, Garlic, Pepper
I highly recommend tri-stat food for PvP. You need massive amounts of stamina regardless if you’re a magicka based build. One extra dodge roll, one extra burst of sprinting and one CC break might make or break a fight. Generally, I like 3,000 health, 2,500 main stat (magicka or stamina depending on your build) and 1,500 off stat.
Soul Gems
For resurrecting allies
Generally $10,000 gold per 100
Buy from vendors or found
Don’t be the derp who yolo’s in and dies right away (me). If you are, hopefully your friendly alliance brings some Soul Gems. Remember, no Forward Camps so everyone needs to pitch in on resurrections.
Disguise
You look like an awesome Nord
Only thing that shows is your shoulder and or head
Found from drunken soldier under a bridge near Fort Amol in Eastmarch (EP faction)
I can’t stress enough how important it is to wear a disguises. Yes, showing off your Over Powered (OP) min maxed legendary gear is great for your ego, but fighting an enemy with no idea of your build is better. Take every advantage you can get and find a unique outfit that fits your character. Some others are a Goblin and Skeleton costume though I hate the sounds so I don’t use them.
Impenetrable Gear
Craftable gear
Requires Diamond armor trait
Recommend 4-6 pieces of gear with this
Don’t go into Cyrodiil expecting to light the world on fire with no impenetrable (impen) gear on. This increases your resistance to critical hits. You should really try a mix of crafted and drop sets to take advantage of this trait. Yes you’ll be missing 5 to 10 health or magicka here and there, but you’ll be saved from 2k Snipes to the face.
Two-Piece Undaunted
Full Undaunted guide here
Best I’ve found is Blood Spawn’s Guise
Try a 2 (head shoulders)/5 (armor)/3 (jewelry) setup with a Master Weapon
Ultimate is the name of the game in ESO Patch 1.5. That might all change in 1.6, but for right now, you can’t go wrong with using a proc piece like the one above. That can be found in Spindleclutch the first boss. Great place to practice your PvE DPS and get one of the best sets in the game.
For my full list of addons and setup, check out my YouTube video here. Corel draw x7 key generator. Below are two addons I can’t live without in PvP.
Greymind Quick Slot Bar by bsrealm here
The main problem with ESO’s default UI setup is the inability to quickly swapping in and out consumables or equipment. Thank you bsrealm for making this addon helping us quickly swappping between potions, siege, anything that can go in your quickslots.
It’s very customizable, but what I like is setting keybinds for the six most common quickslot items: defensive potion, offensive potion, stealth detect, food, Dominion Ballista, and Masonry Repair Kit. I use a Razor mouse and I set these as 7,8,9, 0, -, = though the possibilities are near endless. You can tailor this to your style and or game-play and use this outside of Cyrodiil as well. Now when that key flips over, bang with one key stroke you’re repairing.
Kill Counter by mikethecoder4 here
A great man once told me, “you only get what you measure.” Yes another cliche I know, but it makes sense. By default, ESO doesn’t really have any means to judge your performance. Another amazing community addon is Kill Counter by mikethecoder4. I downloaded this on my editing computer so it’s all zeros, however, it will record a running total for your entire PvP history. So, it’s a great way to judge if you’re improving daily, monthly or by campaign.
The key numbers I pay attention to are kills/deaths (K/D), killing blows (KP) and AP gained. Though these are pretty obvious let me explain.
Now I got everything setup it’s time to do my final checks.
I can’t stress enough how much I’m enjoying PvP. I’m learning a lot more every day thanks to a lot of friendly and helpful community members. Whether you’re blue, yellow, or red, get in there and enjoy this. Nothing like ESO Cyrodiil, truly. Time to go for Emperor soon in 2015.
Leave a CommentComments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |