Garth Agarwen: Fortress

Garth Agarwen: Fortress
Level:	32
Size:	Fellowship
Cluster:	Shadows of Angmar
Region:	Lone-lands
Area:	Garth Agarwen
Location:	[28.8S, 24.4W]

“Garth Agarwen...The ruins of an ancient fortress of Rhudaur, now overrun by corrupted nature and a vile necromantic power out of Angmar. The most terrible power still remains to be confronted.”

Garth Agarwen: Fortress is a World Instance within Garth Agarwen, in the Lone-lands. ^{[28.8S, 24.4W]}

On the east side of the dais where Temair the Devoted is located is the outer wall and entrance to the fortress. Once a grand fortification of the kingdom of Rhudaur, these ruins now serve as the primary base of operations for the Créoth, a tribe of hill-men in the service of the Red Maid, Naruhel. A vile pact formed with the necromancer, Ivar the Blood-hand, means the dead also stalk the halls and courtyards of the fortress. Deep within, the Spring of the Red Maid awaits, corrupted from the blood spilled in its waters during the war between the North Kingdom and Angmar.

Difficulty Level

This instance is designed for a fellowship around level 32.

It is available in the Instance Finder.

The most difficult of the Garth Agarwen instance trio, Fortress is still relatively simple being one of the first full fellowship instances players will encounter. The layout is more complex, with optional sections, but the main route to final boss is linear and straight-forward. None of the trash mobs utilize abilities that are noteworthy but bosses do incorporate more mechanics of note than anything encountered up to this level.

Estimated completion time is between 20 - 25 minutes.

Landmarks

• Garth Agarwen Gate
• Spring of the Red Maid

Quests

Garth Agarwen: Fortress Entrance

Starting:

• [32] Challenge: Dúnlang - Fellowship
• [32] Challenge: Naruhel - Fellowship
• [32] Optional Objective: Créoth - Fellowship
• [32] Optional Objective: Darkwater - Fellowship
• [32] Optional Objective: Wights - Fellowship

Involving:

• [32] Fell Spirits - Fellowship
• [32] Arthedain's Lost Brethren - Fellowship
• [32] Long Overdue Justice
• [33] The Shattered Past - Fellowship
• [35] Rings of Rhudaur - Fellowship
• [35] Reclaim the Lost Maiden - Fellowship

Mobs

These mobs are encountered within this instance:

Garth Agarwen: Fortress Mobs‎ (21 P)

Instance Overview

• First Boss (Optional): Dúnlang
• Second Boss: Edan & Esyld
• Third Boss (Optional): Raugzdrok
• Fourth Boss: Vatar
• Final Boss: Naruhel

Walk-through and Tactics

Garth Agarwen's Gate

Créoth Wing

The instance begins at the fortress' ramparts where hill-men are honing their combat skills. Clear out the area below the stairs as you wish. To proceed, go up the stairs.

Atop the stairs, your can proceed forward to the Gatehouse or optionally head south into the main Créoth fortifications. At the southernmost end of these hill-men camps, you will encounter the Warlord, Dúnlang, along with Eglain adds, who have succumbed to his will. To complete the challenge you must kill Dúnlang without killing any adds. As the adds will attack the healer, it is best to have the tank maintain aggro, without killing any of them. After a short time Dúnlang enters the combat and has no notable abilities of his own.

Back at the Garth Agarwen Gate, you must defeat the wights, Edan and Esyld, before proceeding. However, clear out all the wights atop the stairs first to avoid any mobs joining in the middle of combat. Esyld is primarily ranged and heals more frequently and should be prioritized over Edan, interrupting his heals when possible.

Reflecting Pool

Proceed through the gate and the gatehouse occupied by hill-men, to the reflecting pool and garden. Raugzdrok patrols around the water of the reflecting pool, but has not particularly noteworthy abilities. Since wights patrol around the pool itself, it is best to bring the fight into the pool. Keep in mind that whirlpool like structures are darkwater. These need to be defeated to complete the optional Darkwater objective.

After defeating Raugzdrok, and the darkwater, you can clear out the area around the pool if you want. Then climb the stairs to the right of the pool at the far ends of the hill. Then head to the stairs on this next level, and keep going up until you reach Vatar within a courtyard.

Vatar will say a speech, and show a vision. Then he will attack. Burn him down. When he is almost dead he will become un-attackable, and crawler adds will spawn. Deal with these via AoE, and he will fully heal. He will continue to spawn crawler adds periodically in his second phase.

Upon defeat, and a gate will open. Carry the engraving in the chest to the right of the gate to the altar in the next room to summon Naruhel.

Spring of the Red Maid

The Spring of the Red Maid

When Naruhel attacks, the Hill-men around her will sacrifice themselves throughout the fight. To complete the challenge, they must not be killed. Their sacrifices will grant Naruhel certain buffs such as immunities, damage reductions, and damage buffs. Her abilities are as follows:

• AoE Knockback with a very long range.
• Randomly sends a player jump up to ~30 feet high before dropping them and giving them falling injuries.
• Casts  Watery Prison on a random player, rooting them and dropping their threat, essentially removing them from the fight
• Casts  Disregarded on a random player causing them to drop threat.
• At 50% health and once more near death she will cast  Increased Defence granting herself a damage immunity for 5 - 10 seconds aside from pre-existing DoTs.
• When she does not have  Increased Defence, she may have  Intangible Power and  Uncommon Fortitude on her, making her attacks stronger and granting her immunity to conjunctions.

If attempting the challenge, ignore the adds, and deal with the boss. Keep all non-melees out of range to avoid the AoE. Otherwise keep note of the other abilities outlined above. Upon defeat, her cleansed form will appear whom you can turn the challenge quest into and the instance is complete.

Don't forget to pour the phial of pure water into her spring before leaving if you are doing the Reclaim the Lost Maiden quest.

Maps

Gallery

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  Hill-men training in the ramparts of the fortress

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  The Créoth Quarter

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  Inside the fortress' gatehouse

• 

  The reflecting pool and garden

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  Long rows of columnns in the garden

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  Gate to Vatar's courtyard

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  Courtyard before the Red Maid's Spring