Editor’s Note: The following article discusses in great detail a section of the game “Neverwinter.” It is meant for moderate and hardcore players of the game.
Fangbreaker Island is the third hardest dungeon in the entire game, and the distance between itself and the fourth hardest is not close. Completing this dungeon is a source of pride for “Neverwinter” players everywhere. To beat this dungeon is to say that you’ve developed your character so thoroughly, put in so much time acquiring the exact gear and boons and learned an incredibly tedious amount of information with how you should build your character, that you’ve managed to pool all of that into being one of a select bunch in the game to do it. While endgame players can beat Fangbreaker Island, or as it’s more affectionately known, FBI, without too much problems, players who aren’t endgame might struggle to do so. So, I’ve devised a little guide from my own experiences on how to beat this dungeon. Much like my Castle Never writeup, I’ve condensed the in between boss battle parts with the interest of going as in depth on boss battle tanking as possible.
Things to note for in-between boss battles:
- The beginning of the dungeon, colloquially known as Hamburger Hill, is absolutely going to kick your ass if it’s your first time completing this dungeon. Don’t try to be a hero and tank everything on the mountain, that’s a fantastic way to end up dead in a flash. If you’re new to the map, though it may seem like an absurd idea, taking along a Defender companion to help you Tank the Hill can be life-saving. In particular, I’d recommend the Laughing Skull; the Laughing Skull walls the Frost Giants eternally, being immune to all of their attacks, and can allow you to more comfortably Tank the Orcs and Giant Polar Bears without worrying about your companion dying and letting the Frost Giants subsequently overwhelming you.
- Much like Hamburger Hill, the Trolls in the frost cavern will wreck you if this is your first time in FBI, unless you came with an assortment of elite DPS party members at your side. Once again, don’t try to Tank everything in sight; take it slowly. Take it a few Trolls at a time. Three or Four Trolls are not going to kill you. Twelve or Thirteen Trolls, however, will run through you like a hot knife through butter.
- In the Harshwind Hold, try to sneak past the Orcs and Giants who are fighting each other. Inevitably, you will be noticed and attacked by at least one of the groups, but you can very conceivably emerge out of the Treasury unscathed if you at least make an effort to not gung-ho your way through the entire thing.
Now, for the bosses:
How to Tank Hati the Manticore:
Don’t come into this fight thinking you can just sit in one spot all game and eat hits. Hati doesn’t work that way; he is very fast, will push you backward even if you have your shield up and moves a lot. You have to keep up with him to preserve the Threat you’ve built, and you have to do an adequate job preserving your stamina and managing your Encounter powers. Worth noting is that Hati’s cones that he shoots at you cannot be shielded through, so the only reasonable thing to do is to get out of the way, or you will eat a ton of damage. In addition, if this attack strikes you, you will suffer through a devastating Damage-over-Time that will kill you within several seconds if you did not pack healing options or have a Cleric with the Soothe feat. Of course, you also need to reach the rock on the cliff unless you want to die to the avalanches Hati occasionally summons, when they are summoned. Though this seems straightforward on paper, you can only understand this fight when you put pencil to paper and actually Tank Hati. It’s very fast paced and demands extremely quick decision making. With a good cleric, though, if you use the above tips, you should be fine. At a high enough level, if you take Fighter’s Recovery, this fight becomes a joke. At 11-12K Item level, though, it’s no laughing matter.
How to Tank the Dragon Turtle:
Pretty straightforward, really. Just walk up to it, begin to generate Threat, and put up your shield when it goes to bite at you. You do need to get your shield up when it lunges at you, though, or it can potentially kill you in one hit. Worth noting is that you need to stay in front of the Dragon Turtle’s nose; failure to do so will force it to “slam” the battlefield. Slamming the battlefield applies one stack of Rage. Each stack of Rage accumulated causes the Turtle to do more and more damage. As things are, the Turtle will always slam twice after it leaves to spawn Explosive Runes. This means it will have a minimum of six stacks by the time you defeat it. Six stacks are nothing. Even if your party makes a mistake or two, seven or eight stacks is not the end of the world. At ten, eleven, or twelve stacks, though, the Turtle will begin to just kill everything in one hit, so make sure to position yourself in front of it.
How to Tank Drufi, the Herald of Winter:
By far the most interesting experience you will ever have Tanking a boss. There are two ways you can do this. The most pragmatic way is to simply Tank Drufi; get in her face, generate Threat, and let the DPS loadouts do their thing. You will get caught in Permafrost several times throughout the conflict. There is nothing you can do about this, so be at peace with it; it is predictably the DPS’ job to get you and the others free. The other, more bizarre, way of Tanking this boss comes when you are in a private queue handling this dungeon. This involves exploitation of the game’s glitch. You activate this glitch by entering the boss fight here, and then immediately killing yourself (unless you are responsible for “glitching” the boss). You read that right, and it’s not a joke; you need to select the “Defeat Me” option the game provides you when you are stuck, and then you need to release. If you have not been tasked with glitching the boss, and are instead asked to simply watch as someone else does it, doing this triggers a bizarre glitch that forces Drufi to stand in one place and do absolutely nothing for the entire fight, allowing the DPS to easily kill her. I would be lying if I said I knew how to explain why this is, but it’s Neverwinter’s most well known glitch. Nevertheless, if your party is having trouble defeating Drufi, abusing this glitch is always an option. If you are asked to do the glitch, doing this is simple. Walk in, and select the “Change Character” option. While you’re gone, everyone else will be killing themselves. When you return, engage Drufi and fight her until she summons a blizzard. Then, kill yourself and have the party go back in. Whichever one you do, if you glitch the fight, put any Defender companions away, and DO NOT generate any Threat, or you will ruin the glitch and have to start it over.
Recommended Powers to take throughout Fangbreaker Island:
At-Wills: Cleave, Crushing Surge, Stab
Encounters: Enforced Threat, Knight’s Valor, Into the Fray. You might feel tempted to try Knight’s Challenge, but don’t, except for at Hati (only recommended at an Item Level of 14K+). These things do enough damage as is. If you are timing your use of Enforced Threat correctly, you shouldn’t need KC anyway. However, bringing KC to the Dragon Turtle is a risky, albeit potent option for those who have invested enough into their Stamina.
Dailies: Fighter’s Recovery, Supremacy of Steel. Use Fighter’s Recovery against Hati and liberally as needed against everyone else. If you feel like you’re doing well enough Tanking and want to help your team generate some offense, use Supremacy of Steel. This can be especially useful if your party opts against the glitch against Drufi, as you can cause her lots of problems if you properly time your use of it.