For the past few weeks, Rift players have been beating back the Waves of Madness with new daily quests, loot, and unique zone invasions. Now, as the event comes to a close, the doors of the ancient city of Hammerknell are opening, revealing the way to the most difficult raid instance yet. But with great responsibility, come great rewards . As huge fans of great rewards, we want to help you deck your character out in those new armor sets, so we put together this exclusive guide filled with info and strategies to help your give your group a heads-up on the bosses you'll be encountering, and how you can take 'em down with ease.
Part 1: Boss: Murdantix (8.5 million hitpoints)
- Before you even get into the halls of Hammerknell proper, you'll need to get past its guard dog. Murdantix blocks the stairway inside, eager to bite at the faces of the soft and squishy Telarans pouring through its doors. Scared? Don't be. Check out some of the exclusive details we have on this big, bad dog.
Abilities
- Spirit Capture: When an attacker dies he grows more powerful.
- Demonic Blast: A multiple-projectile attack with area-of-effect impacts.
- Demonic Tar: A projectile attack that leaves long lasting damage zones on the ground.
- Ferocious Pound: A large-radius knockback.
- Mangling Crush: A ferocious attack that leaves the target with an armor debuff.
- Summon Tormenters: Murdantix summons minions to fight with him.
Strategies
- Make sure to keep ranged DPS and healers spread apart so they aren't destroyed by Demonic Blast , or else, well, they'll be destroyed by Demonic Blast.
- Demonic Tar will aim for, and land on a player, but it should be easy to deal with as long as players are quick to move out of it. Hey. HEY! Are you Alt-tabbed or just blind? Come on, man! MOVE!
- Ferocious Pound is unavoidable so be sure to have all players topped off before it hits. Though we're pretty sure you're going to try to jump anyway.
- The longer the battle lasts, the more Mangled Crush will hurt you, so prepare to have at least two tanks switching between off-tanking duties.
- The Tormentors should just be off-tanked and ignored if you have the healing to support it. You can clean them up when the big bad dog is dead.
Drops
- Mace: Destroyer of Legends
- Ring: Survivor's Hope
- Ring: Drowned Diamond
- 1h Sword: Savage Beastcarver
- Chain Boots: Treads of Stinking Tar
- Chain Gloves: Salvation's Grip
- Chain Helmet: Gore-Spattered Helm
- Chain Belt: Gore-Drenched Waist
- Cloth Shoulders: Mantle of Ravaged Souls
- Leather Gloves: Cold Dead Handguards
- Leather Waist: Barbed Tongue of the Beast
- Plate Boots: Death's Advance
- Plate Helmet: Slaughter-Forged Faceplate
- Plate Shoulder: Reaper's Heavy Shoulders
- Totem: Rune Vessel Remnant
Part 2: The Three Halls
When you first enter into Hammerknell, there are three sections that need to be cleared: the Halls of Knowledge, Shaping, and Command are all filled with enemies to fight and capped off with bosses to destroy. Here's what you should expect to find.
Halls of Knowledge
Library of the Runemasters
- Boss: Matron Zamira
- Waiting in the middle of the large, circular room is Matron Zimera. She's described by the devs as being "pregnant with a brood of dark spirits", which is not only gross and kind of disturbing, but it tells us that the fight is probably going to be based heavily around waves of minions spawns that need to be controlled/contained while you take her down. The developers also mentioned that she has consumed the souls of many dwarves, though we feel like that might have less gameplay implications.
Mausoleum
- Boss: Sicaron
- Before Hammerknell fell, Sicaron was sealed away to ensure that he didn't escape. But like all attempts to protect oneself from corruption in these sorts of situations, the runebindings containing him fell and the demon of torment broke. Now he spends his time relaxing in the Catacombs, absorbing the corpses of fallen dwarves and growing larger and more powerful as their remains joined with his own. I guess we all need our hobbies.
Halls of Shaping
Mason's Corridor
- Boss: Soulrender Zilas
- It sounds like Soulrender Zilas is going to be one of those fun bosses that throws nonstop minions at the raid party. Why do we think that? Well, we know he's in the middle of releasing bound demons and building an army of Death inside Hammerknell to launch an invasion on the outside world. It's probably safe to assume that when he's under attack, he's not going to ask them to sit on the sidelines while he takes you on solo. Also expect your souls to be rended. Painfully.
Boundless Quarry
- Boss: Grugonim
- Grugonim is a fatty. He didn't even wait for the runebindings to break, he just broke them free himself and started killing dwarves and eating other demons. His non-stop buffet's got him so full of dark, demonic power he's about ready to burst. His hunger may be "insatiable," but we're fairly confident that enough of your mage's fireballs is going to satiate it just fine.
