Drodda of Icereach - felt useless as a tank (first time tanking this dungeon vet / hardmode)

Left4Daud · May 2018

Hello!

I've run veteran Direfrost plenty of times and never noticed trouble as a healer in the fight, or as a damage dealer. Well, I've been playing on a tank for the first time and I felt totally useless in this fight! The boss seemed immune to taunts and would just fire spells randomly at everyone but me. I'm aware of the mechanics of this fight, or so I thought. Break free immediately if you are being siphoned, watch out for the bosses teleporting blast AOE, and burn down the adds as you go. Simple, right?

Well this was my first time on this fight from a tanks perspective and I felt absolutely useless! The groups DPS wasn't the best so the fight was a bit of a slog but I honesty felt like I would have been better doing anything BUT tanking this boss. Maybe swapping out for some DPS skills or additional healing support, I'm not sure. I felt like I couldn't do much as a tank in that fight to make my groups life easier. I had DDs that were panicking when they got targeted for spells and started running around like headless chickens, you know how that works sometimes. The most I could do was chain and taunt the adds as they spawned and put them on the boss so they could be AOE'd down. But that really felt like the extent of my utility as a tank in the fight. Basically useless.

Experienced tanks out there, what do you think about this fight? As a first timer tanking this dungeon the final boss made me feel like the role of tank was near worthless in that fight. Do you just deal with it, or switch out your set up specifically for this fight?

Sellistrix is another culprit of weird tank mechanics but that's a topic for another pledge day.

Drodda of Icereach, what gives?

VaranisArano · May 2018

Drodda is immune to taunts. I just swap to a more DPS-oriented rotation.

Sellestrix, on the other hand, sheds taunt by way of the game applying a second taunt, which means she can enter taunt immunity if the tank retaunts her too quickly.

Left4Daud · May 2018

@VaranisArano

I figured she had to be taunt immune, which was a bit frustrating. Is she the only boss like that? Weird that there would be a boss that straight up invalidates the tank role. The fight wasn’t that bad, a little long, but it just wasn’t fun to tank.

Anyway, do you know the timing on the Sellistrix taunt shedding? Do you have to let your own taunt fall off for like a second? Never got a clear answer on that.

VaranisArano · May 2018

No, she's not the only boss. The engine guardian, Grobull, Quintus in Volenfell (reportedly, I can't confirm), and the red phase deemed centurions, and the Planar Inhibitor (the pinion controls aggro) are the ones I know.

There was a more detailed post about Sellestrix, I'll try to find it.
Found it! https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/4382645/#Comment_4382645

Left4Daud · May 2018

Thanks for the link! I knew about some of the bosses you listed invalidating the taunt mechanic but I guess I never experienced it as the tank. Just gives it a new perspective for me which is always a good thing.

I think what startled me the most, at least during that Drodda fight, was that I couldn’t do as much as you usually can (as a tank) to help my group. You can only do so much, and in a PUG setting that leaves you at the mercy of perhaps more variables than usual.

Also, my heart goes out to all the hard working tanks out there that got chewed out and yelled at for “bad tanking” during one of these odd “tauntless” bosses. I know at least for me, until I saw it from that side it wasn’t something I really noticed or considered.

montjie · May 2018

How I tank that fight is by guarding the weakest link of the group, keeping maim up on the boss, and just buff the groupmembers (powerful assault, horn, brutality, whatever)

SirCritical · May 2018

This is one of the fights where tanks go DPS.

exiars10 · May 2018

SirCritical wrote: »

This is one of the fights where tanks go DPS.

In pre-made groups or if you have DPS gear at all. Otherwise -->

montjie wrote: »

How I tank that fight is by guarding the weakest link of the group, keeping maim up on the boss, and just buff the groupmembers (powerful assault, horn, brutality, whatever)

Drummerx04 · May 2018

Left4Daud wrote: »

Hello!

I've run veteran Direfrost plenty of times and never noticed trouble as a healer in the fight, or as a damage dealer. Well, I've been playing on a tank for the first time and I felt totally useless in this fight! The boss seemed immune to taunts and would just fire spells randomly at everyone but me. I'm aware of the mechanics of this fight, or so I thought. Break free immediately if you are being siphoned, watch out for the bosses teleporting blast AOE, and burn down the adds as you go. Simple, right?

Well this was my first time on this fight from a tanks perspective and I felt absolutely useless! The groups DPS wasn't the best so the fight was a bit of a slog but I honesty felt like I would have been better doing anything BUT tanking this boss. Maybe swapping out for some DPS skills or additional healing support, I'm not sure. I felt like I couldn't do much as a tank in that fight to make my groups life easier. I had DDs that were panicking when they got targeted for spells and started running around like headless chickens, you know how that works sometimes. The most I could do was chain and taunt the adds as they spawned and put them on the boss so they could be AOE'd down. But that really felt like the extent of my utility as a tank in the fight. Basically useless.

Experienced tanks out there, what do you think about this fight? As a first timer tanking this dungeon the final boss made me feel like the role of tank was near worthless in that fight. Do you just deal with it, or switch out your set up specifically for this fight?

Sellistrix is another culprit of weird tank mechanics but that's a topic for another pledge day.

Drodda of Icereach, what gives?

Sellistrix is actually pretty sneaky as there are two semi hidden mechanics that drive that fight.

If Sellistrix steps onto land, she gets a 300k ish damage shield which refreshes every 30 seconds or so. She does not get this shield while in the water.
If a group member steps outside of melee range, she aggros onto that member (via a hidden taunt apparently)

Using this information and the "safe area" to the left of the boss spawn location, you can tank the boss such that she is standing in the water, while the tank is on land with the dps and healer in melee range to the side of the boss also on land.

If the entire group positions correctly, the boss becomes a 6 million health group target dummy and never sheds aggro or moves.

Katahdin · June 2018

With direfrost, since Drodda doesn't taunt, I've taunted her adds when they pop up with Sheild and sword on one bar, the switch to a dps weapon on the other bar to contribute better against her

With Sellistrix, I try to keep her in the water as much as possible while I stand on land.