In “Neverwinter”, I main a Guardian Fighter. I’ve put several months into this character, so I have a lot of experience with it. Most dungeons on this game are fairly straightforward to tank, and typically involve simply holding down a room and getting everything’s attention while your DPS pals go to work removing these enemies. There are a few dungeons that are not so straightforward, with Castle Never being one of them.
To provide some background info, Tanks are really important on dungeons in general, but a good Tank has never been more important for a party to have than on Castle Never. The aggro and pure devastation mobs of enemies and bosses bring would easily overwhelm a party without a Tank, or one with an inexperienced Tank. I cannot correct the former, but I plan to cover the latter in this article. With the interest of keeping this article short enough, I will only briefly list non-boss battle tips, so I may go full detail on how to tank the dungeon’s three bosses.
Notes for covering non boss battle aspects of this dungeon:
- After defeating Tal’Gath the Undying, you will come upon a hallway full of zombies, with a Rift at the end. Run past the first mob after Marking a few of them, come upon the second mob, Mark those zombies, and get to work Tanking. Keep an incredibly sharp eye on the Rift; the last thing to spawn out of it will be a Balor which demands your immediate attention. When it spawns, immediately run right towards it and get its attention.
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Like everyone else, don’t forget to run off to the side of the room, repeatedly jumping up and down, when you reach the “Navigate the darkness” part of the dungeon after defeating Cythlarr the Illithilich. This is done to provide you with the greatest chance of not waking up the nearby zombies.
- As a Guardian Fighter, you can run through the green Orbs that you have to navigate your way past to reach Orcus. While this can damage you significantly, if you put up your shield and time it with the Orbs’ beam, you will minimize the impact significantly if your shield is facing the Orb. Remember to have your shield up, or these Orbs might end up killing you.
How to Tank Tal’Gath the Undying:
All of Tal’Gath’s attacks are Area of Effect, so you need to make sure you are not standing next to any Party members or companions, or they will get hit. Because you are generating so much Threat, you will pretty much always be attached to someone via the Soulgreen Tal’Gath uses. If you remember the cutscene you saw shortly before entering Castle Never, you will know that you need to avoid touching the player you’re connected to, so it’s important to identify the player you’re connected to, so that you may alert them to this and allow them the ability to flee the scene. If your back gets attached and you touch the player you’re connected to, you will get killed in one hit. It is important to monitor the area the rest of the party is standing in to defend against this. Overall, this is a fairly easy boss to Tank, so you should have minimal issue.
How to Tank Cythlarr the Illithilich:
Cythlarr is quite a bit harder to Tank, arguably even harder to Tank than Orcus. There are multiple things you need to keep track of. The first is you need to be careful to act when Cythlarr is about to turn the Castle upside down, if you’re going to land in the spikes. By simply standing still and doing nothing, the damage these spikes do is decreased significantly. However, even moving a single muscle can potentially result in these spikes killing you in one hit, so be cautious whenever you make a move, as there is sometimes no warning before Cythlarr turns the Castle upside down. Keep an eye out for the Illusion of Pain circles; these are often spawned behind you, and do enough damage to push you within ranges for the aforementioned spikes to kill you. If you have Fighter’s Recovery, use it liberally so that the aggro Cythlarr summons does not get the chance to overwhelm you.
How to Tank Orcus:
This boss battle is exactly why parties need a Tank so badly. Orcus hits like a truck and eats hits for days. It’s going to take a fully cohesive team to take him down. As such, there are a few things you need to know about this fight. First, preserve your stamina. At various points throughout the fight, Orcus will let out a massive roar, raising his hands in the air. While he is roaring, it is compulsory to put your shield up; he will follow up his roar by swinging his wand in the air, casting powerful necromantic magic that deals massive amounts of damage if you put your shield down. Other than that, you have to be mindful of what he’s going to do to follow up this attack; he will either summon green Orbs that you need to be wary of, he will disappear to spawn the Death sphere, or he will summon Rifts to draw power from. In the case of the former one, try to dance and weave your way away from these Orbs, as the damage they deal combined with Orcus’ attacks can easily overwhelm you. In the case of the Death sphere, you are admittedly a pretty large liability during this aspect of the fight. Try to do your best, helping someone else to kill a zombie. Keep an eye on the Death Sphere charge, and immediately put your shield up if it gets close to full; you can get killed in one hit if you do not. Be prepared to revive your inevitably dying teammates if this happens, as you’ll likely be the last one standing. Finally, in the case of the latter, you cannot do anything other than continue to stay on Orcus. Do not even think about entering the Rifts yourself, or you’ll get the rest of your team killed when Orcus turns against one of them. That job falls upon the DPS.
Recommended Powers to bring with you for this dungeon:
At Wills: Cleave, Crushing Surge, and Stab. (Cleave can potentially be replaced by Tide of Iron for the Orcus fight, depending on who your DPS is)
Dailies: Fighter’s Recovery, Indomitable Strength inbetween boss fights, Supremacy of Steel for when fighting bosses
Encounter Powers: Enforced Threat inbetween boss fights, Knight’s Challenge during boss fights (only if your Knight’s Challenge is equal or greater rank than your Enforced Threat, otherwise bring ET instead), Into the Fray, Knight’s Valor