Valindra's Tower (VT)

This guide is here to provide all the info you need to prepare dealing with Valindra.

I make the assumption you know your role good enough, so I will only give tips about a few key points, don’t ask me “why using this spell and not this one” if you cannot think for your own…


I have done almost 50 VT runs on this character alone, so while I know what I’m talking about, it is possible to find better strategies out there… maybe.


What you will not find in this post : exploits, exploit-ish tricks, glitches. even though I used to know a few of them. Most are patched, and will only get you banned if you somehow manage to reproduce them and someone screens you and send that to support.

2. VT basic info & Loot table


The dungeon is linear, just like most of NVW content. You simply follow a simple path which consists of a succession of rooms with waves of adds, levers to pull to open the next room's door.

Only particularity is the final boss fight, that requires great coordination and is mechanically a bit different that most "burn the boss, control adds" fights.

Do not queue for it, it is useless and might put you with retards, noobs and unstuffed people. The guild, LFG channel and NVW_Legit channel are where you will find the best parties.

Enemies encountered :

They are mostly stronger lvl 75 versions of dread ring bestiary, composed of :
Thayans knights, Zealots, Hounds, Red Wizards, Mirror images, Gelatinous Cubes, Golems, Wights
They will drop standard r4 enchants, blue items, major potions…

Bosses and loot :

Shatterspine, a construct bone golem, will reward you with :

Seals;
Blue items ;

Valindra drops :

armor piece ;
Seals ;
Shard of Valindra Crown Artifact ;
Blue items ;

Drop rate of artifact is under 1% do don't expect one to drop in your first run. It is very possible you will not see one, ever.

3. Requirements & Team Setup


You must be 5, 1600 IL to enter the dungeon. In reality, 1,8K+ is minimal to survive first boss. 2k+ is recommended to even attempt to try to do final boss (it do not mean you will succeed, even 3k parties can fail if they are stupidly coordinated).

I will do 2 separate run guide :

- for low IL (<1,6k) that will go up to first boss in a slow but secure way.
- for higher geared people with 2k+ IL, where I will detail the Valindra fight.

If you're in-between, just see if your party is good, well-coordinated and wants to do last boss. Giving it a try will teach you the errors to not make, and you will know your limits.
If your party wipes 2 times in a row, they probably won't make it anyways, so say goodbye and do not waste kits and pots. However if you’re 2k IL with similar geared party, and you manage somehow to almost kill her, trying again can be a good idea, if everyone is willing to do better, and pay more attention (small errors can lead to instant wipe in the final fight).

If you suffer lags, have a low end computer that run NVW with less than 15 FPS, no offense but, sorry, pass your way. Being a burden that die every 2 minutes will only get you kicked and lose both your and the other people time.


Optimal team composition :


Unfortunately, NVW logic makes it so that good classes are GWF/CW, and DC for heals, debuff etc.

I recommend for low IL people, having a combo of 1 cleric, 2 CWs, 1 GWFs, 1OP(Tank) however any cleric+cw+DPS will do the job if they know how to play. You will stop at first boss anyway.


For higher IL :

Standard comp with DC :

Cleric for last boss is gold. the buff/debuff is great and exaltation+astral shield+heal combo prevents any death at last boss if the DC is decent at his job.
However it means less DPS to finish Val in the very last phase, and this can be a factor of defeat.

5 DPS :

It has its pro and cons, you'll need 2 CW minimum,1 beefy GWF at least, a OP (tank) is a must.
Rest can be mix of DPS (preferably a mix of CW and GWF, with GWF > CW when you have already 2 CW).
This comp is good because you storm through the adds like nothing, and you have better chance to burst down Valindra at the end.
However, this comp makes you use more pots, and you have to be experienced in bursting hands/claws real quick during last boss fight (see run guide for info), because cleric won't be there to save your butt.

4. Dungeon Run - First boss fight - ~30 to ~45 min


Take your time while progressing troughout the dungeon, do not aggro all the mobs, they hit like a truck and 1 hit can kill you.

Always dodge red if you can, do not take risk.

The dungeon goes like this :

Thayan knights >>> clear them

Advance

More thayan knights >>> clear them

Pull a lever to open the first door.

NOW BE CAREFUL : there will be 2 gelatinous cubes that act a bit like mimics :

They are super tanky, hit like trucks and can literally one-shot you.
Make sure you avoid the first one by sticking to the right wall with your mount (yes you can use them), and try to rush towards the end of a long corridor (door+lever at the end).
Doing so will attract only one cube, the other one will stay in its place. If a party member aggroes it, you're in for a bad time, they have large circular aoe that suck you into them, then if you're not dead, they will digest you till you are.
So dodge, fast, and clean them, fast too. Even a 3k GWF can't 1v1 those ####, they hit harder than Valindra.

After that you will enter a room where you have to clean portals that spawns demons, good to focus the same portal so it does not spawn too many demons.
There are 2 red wizards, kill them fast too, their large red line spells are easy to dodge, but if you fail, you're dead.
Once you killed the first 2 portals, 2 will spawn on top of the stairs. you have to kill them too.
Once you cleaned the mobs, another lever to pull and you can advance.

You will now see 2 red wizards standing. When you come towards them, be careful, as a lot of thayan hounds will spawn and their jump attack is deadly if they manage to combo someone. The CWs have to control them.
Once they die, another wave will appear, kill and keep on going.

Next some thayan knights and red wizard. Simple fight.

After that be careful, as you will see a red wizard alone. Send the tanky character first, as a large wave of Imps will spawn a focus the nearest person, resulting in a quick death if they can't take many hits. CW cast oppressive force to stun+kill them.
Once the imps are dead a mix of thayan knights and 2 Metal contruct golems will spawn right on top of you. Be sure to avoid their deadly aoe stun, it will probabaly instantly kill you, and if it does not, the rest of the mobs will have plenty of time to exterminate you during the stun.

When you’re finished here, enter next room, and face 10+ mirrors images and a red wizard. Either send the tank/gwf first, or be sure to have you cw cast a singularity to suck them all and quickly kill them. The images attacks hits for 50k+ if you're not tanky, and there are losts of them.
Once they are all dead, another wizard+images combo will spawn, the wizard hides behind an illusion wall on the left side of the front wall. push him into the main room so everyone kill him with the mirrors, ore kill mirrors then go for the wizard behind the false wall.

Once you finished him, activate the lever (right behind where the wizard spawned) to open the doors.
You will encounter some knights there, kill them then proceed to go to first boss room, Shatterspine (you have to go through another false "rock" that covers a caverns on the left part), get ready and click the orb.

Once everyone is in the boss room you may fight shatterspine.

The fight consists of simply burning Shatterspine while controlling adds, so debuff him, burst him, kite or kill adds, whatever works for your party.
Shatterspine behaves just like a bone golem, but bigger, he uses a large circular aoe from time to time, easy to dodge.

You may want to have the adds drawn away from the boss, because it's easier for low geared player to just focus the boss.
As you lower its hp, he will spawn more and more knights. take care of them and keep going on.

Only thing after that is a room full of golem, hounds, wizards, and a rimefire golem on top of that. that's right, valindra is the next step after this room. it's that short.

5 Valindra fight;

If you are reading this, it means probably you already know the dungeon, but for some reason, you fail at last boss.

Or, you want some advice on how to do the whole thing better and faster.

But before you actually reach the final room, let’s make a quick recap of how you can speed up the dungeon.

Basically, when you are high geared, it means you can take some laziest attitude. For example, I am sitting at a good 3.5k IL and it's common in 2.5k+ parties to use mount, run around and aggro all the knights located in the first part of the dungeon, and kill them all at once with 2 singularities + DPS. It's riskier, but faster. Like 10 time faster.

For the rest of the dungeon, 3k+ ppl will just have CW pile all the mobs in on place, and proceed to exterminate them. The mobs still hit hard, and since they are more than 30 of them, you can get yourself in a bad situation very quickly. So pay even more attention to them, do the perfects spell timings, and everything is fine.

For Shatterspine boss, have your GWF tank it while CW cast singularity on top of him, nuke both boss and adds at the same time.

Once he's dead, clean the next room fast, and proceed to enter Valindra's tower.


Fighting Valindra

Party coordination :

Buff yourself with pots, tymora’s coin, whatever. Turn on your speakers, raise the volume because you'll need to hear specific Valindra sentences to better react. Choose single target, high damage encounters, at-wills and dailies.
More importantly, select a "quarter", let me explain :

The room is circular, and let's say you watch it from above, you divide it in 4 quarters, similar to a clock.

The quarters are in order : 12-3, 3-6, 6-9 and 9-12.

6 is the door from where you entered, 12 is across the room, on the other side.

First thing to do is to choose a position. Valindra will spawn caskets which in turn can spawn an elite wight. If you don't kill the casket by pressing f on it, the wight will spawn, and destroy your ass. More wights spawning = more asses kicked. Better prevent that.

Those caskets are spawned on the edges of the room, in a circular pattern, 1 casket in each quarter, then 2, then 3, and then, a lot, as the fight is going on.

Best strategy is to have 4 party members, each one located in a specific quarter. So before fighting her, you say "3-6" if you want to be in this quarter. You will have to manage the eggs/caskets there, so it’s a good idea to stay near that area if you are ranged. GWF can just run quickly when needed.

The fifth party member has no quarter, he is "floating". It means his job is to help other ppl destroying caskets when needed (eg. you see on dude got grabbed while casket spawns ; quickly help him destroy his caskets). It’s usually a GWF (runs fast) or DC (mobile heal bot).


Valindra's attacks are :

- a spell that hit all party member for medium damage every now and then
CW HR and DC should all stand in Astral shield to regen more to counter the harass.

- another circular spell she casts at target location which will deal little damage at first then alot of damage as you stay on it, and finally removes your action points
Dodge this one asap, you need to stay alive, AND have always the maximum of action points possible.

- a melee range spell that make her target choke and she throws him away, it can deal a big amount damage and you know she will cast it when she says "you are pitiful".
She does that to the nearest targets she has, so ranged ppl want to stay away from her at all time (but not too much, so if you get grabbed, your team can help faster).

- from time to time, she will summon "Eggs" or "caskets". Those are similar than the ones Jawbone summons in death forge. When she does that she will say "rise my minions" (she also uses "unhallowed" word variant). They spawn Elite wights that will make the run a nightmare if there is more than 2.
Prevent them from spawning by pressing f on the caskets (attacking them is useless), and let you char destroys it, then go for the next egg.

- sometimes she will summon a hand/claw from the ground that will grab a player, dealing him damage over time until he is dead (or resurrect with soulforged).
The hand must be bursted as quickly as possible to free the disabled party member., use dailies.

- when she is around 75% hp she will stand in middle and say "how dare you". She will be invicible and will spawn unkillable ghosts that follow you, draining your stamina and hp if you stand near them. AND, she will use a big aoe composed of large red lines that one shot you if you stand on them. She will use these lines a few times, casting and then the fight will return to its normal state. She will do that again around 25 % hp, spawning more ghosts and more lines.
You can dodge the Spell when standing in red if you time it right. This is useful if you're being chased by too many ghosts with no other escape available.

Now that you know what’s you’re up against, let’s fight her.

Tanks should keep aggro at all times, use corresponding taunts encounters to ensure that. Consider using threatening rush, mighty leap to raise mobility (for hands/eggs kill).

CWs want to use single targets spells only, providing maximum debuffing. If you’re thaum use CoI, Tabbed RoE, chill strike. Consider using shield (blue = 50% dmg reduction on first hit, purple = 80%) this is a huge thing when you get grabbed.
If you are a renegade switch CoI for Entangle (one HV stack to target, one for you) .
You want to have Ice knife slotted along with oppressive force. Ice knife is kept to burst hands while oppressive force will be extremely useful to gain precious seconds of DPS in last phase.

DC : anointed champion > divine oracle. Astral shield’s a must, hallowed ground too. Exaltation comes in handy when used in divine mode on a grabbed guy. Pay attention for hands, always be reactive so the person won’t die if the rest of the team takes time to burst the hand.

TR will have to use ITC to prevent being choked to death, consider using deft strike to quickly teleport towards caskets and hands/claw to do the job even faster. Flurry+Lurker assault only when she does not move so much, otherwise it's wasted DPS.

HR : never played this class, and I don’t know if I even played with one during a VT run…

GF/OP : you tank job on val.

First part of the fight : 100%-75% hp

Just burn her quickly, cast dailies as you wish, she will not spawn eggs nor hands for now.


At 75 % hp she does her spawn ghosts, big red lines combo thing

You want to run clockwise, so the ghosts will not be a problem as they go in the same direction. IMPORTANT : I see too many people that won’t walk on red AFTER the spell has been casted, well don’t be like them. The red stays a bit even when she casted the spell, you can walk on it once the spell has stopped, so do it to avoid ghosts.

IMPORTANT : you can time the moment she casts the spell. I mean, with experience, you can dodge it while being in the red zone. It’s good to know if you’re in a bad position (3+ ghosts on your ass with nowhere to go but red).

If anyone dies (like dead, having to wait at campfire), just wipe, you can’t expect to win 4 vs her. Eye of lathander may be a good artifact for DC, to revive ppl from distance when you cannot walk on red to help them.

When you see her HP bar back, it means she’s done with spamming red line and ghosts will disappear. Now the real fight begins.


75%-25%

She will use her spawn caskets, hands/claw, and choke spells from now on.

Be prepared to go to your quarter to kill eggs/caskets and be prepared to burst hands.

DC should be ready to cast exaltation+astral shield combo if he sees a low life getting grabbed. (By the way, never be under 3/4 hp in this fight, always uses pots when you can, they’re cheap, kits are not as cheap).

Never use your burst daily on her, save it for the hands.

If one wight (more would mean your party is bad and you will probably wipe) manages to spawn, focus him and kill him so he won’t be a nuisance. UNLESS, valindra is close to 25% hp, then just keep attacking her, when she does her red lines spell, the wight will get killed by it.

THE PRIORITY ORDER GOES AS FOLLOWS :

1. hand grabbed a person that suffer revive sickness, and has soulforged off /no soulforged : this guy is gonna die if you don’t help him, so do it and fast, if he dies you will all die in the end.

2. caskets, always go for them in your area first, if you’re finished and see a teammate has a hard time with his eggs, go ahead and kill one for him ONLY IF YOU’RE DONE WITH YOURS. Floating member should always try to kill nearest egg. If you see some dude killing your egg, don’t waste time and go for another, even if he made an error, typing during fight to remind him will probably get you killed…

3. hand grabbed a revivable person / guy has soulforged. While helping him is super important, caskets are top priority, so all should throw their dailies at hand, if it takes too much time, just kill the guy’s eggs, help him after.
By the way, DC can keep him alive for enough time to save him after killing caskets.

Valindra is a bitch : she will uses some pain in the ass combos that can make your fight a nightmare.

For instance : hand + purple circular zone = dead man in 3 seconds, and melee characters cannot kill the hand because of the zone…Pay attention to this.

Another one is : spawn egg and hand on you right when you try to kill an egg. Call for help, so someone notices you (they normally should by themselves) and kill your egg+deliver you. It can be devastating if no one realizes what is happening. If the wight spawn, he will attacks you first, 2 hits and you’re dead. Then the team has to revive you+fight the wight.

Sometimes Val acts weirds and choke+hand combo someone leading to instant death. This is rare but annoying. That’s why CW, HR and DC should stay a bit away from her.


25%

Same as 75 % version but more red lines, more ghosts., for longer. Critical phase, no one must die else you will have lost a lot of time for nothing. Remember you can walk in red after the spell has been casted. And you can dodge it while being in red. Be careful though, and don’t play it smart, you might end up regretting it.


25%-0

If you are 5 still alive and manage to reach this point without much hassle then you may actually win…Or not.

First thing is, now the next spawn eggs/caskets will spawn not 1 or 2 eggs, but 3 in each zone.
And the one after…I do not even know, 4 or 5 ? Well, more than you can destroy anyways.

There are 2 viable strategies :

Easiest is kill minimum 2 eggs, 3 if you have enough time. Then burst the #### out of Valindra until she’s dead. Ignore the second giant spawn of eggs/caskets and burst her.

OR : when she spawns the first wave, you do not touch the eggs and begin to burn her super fast (5 DPS required).

If she is not dead (or near death) by the time the second wave of wight spawns, say good bye because you’re not going to live for much longer.


Actually, it is possible to handle the wights in a good way. And that’s were CW and DC shine :

Everyone should go near valindra (not so much so you don’t get choked if you’re ranged) , and hit her and only her.

CW ice knife her (if you have enough AP), when your AP is refilled, the second wave of wight may be there very soon, if not already.

CWs HAVE TO USE OPPRESSIVE FORCE one after another, to make maximum use of the aoe daze (singularity is a very bad idea, long cast time = risk, lesser damage, only offer a “safe dps time” as long as the wights are sucked in, this means they can attack before being sucked in, especially with their rush/jump…)
Always cast OP right on the feet of Val, it will not only pushed wights away while dazing them, but also damage valindra. Every bit of DPS counts in this moment.
So, when the wights are beginning to gather near you, make sure you dodge their rush attacks.

TR should use ITC and (fast switch smoke bomb right when Valindra reappeared after 25% phase, it's gonna help with wights).

If DC can throw them away, he does it when they are attacking GWFs.

If someone get grabbed, either kill hand uber really super-fast, or abandon him and DPS.

If you see 1 party member waiting to be revived, check Val health, it’s not worth to revive him if she is less than 1 bar and a half.

If more than 2 need to be revived before second caskets wave, revive them pls, you will not do enough dps to kill her anyways.

Using all these control power (smoke bomb, oppressive force…) one after another will maximize your time to DPS her.

Well, that's it, you should have killed her now. Loot your seals, collect chest if it's DD time or you have a key. Congrats you just finished Valindra tower, now proceed to farm it as you wish.

This guide is made by STORMHEART, Thank you for tips