Need advice for Endless Archive Solo

AnduinTryggva · December 2023

I play solo Archive since a couple of weeks now but I invariably fail at the second arc when reaching the final boss of that act (Tho’ at Replicanum). During the first arc I can handle this boss but as soon as she spawns the tentacle in the second arc I always end up being almost one shotted.
Any advice that you can give me?

(I am a reguard stam dk).

EdjeSwift · December 2023

The tentacles should be avoided while learning, they telegraph their attacks by big circles on the ground. Once you learn the mechanics though, you can start dancing in and out of them and damage the enemies.

Tho'at prime can be pulled out of them so while they're up you just focus on them and the blobs, once they're down, kill the atronach.

Mechanically speaking, if both Tho'at Prime and the Atronach are up you're potentially dealing with 2 eye beams as prime's sword eye beam is still in play and when the giant tentacle seppuku's an eye beam comes from them too. It's in your best interest while learning to take down Tho'at prime first, once they're down, it's just the Atronach and it's just a matter of avoiding tentacles and eye beams and the occasional blob kill. It's just a matter of watching the ground and getting away from any tentacles until you have enough practice to move into them in between their attacks.

tsaescishoeshiner · December 2023

Just to add to the good mechanical advice above, if the tentacle is dealing that much damage, I recommend tanking up. If you get up to 26-30k reistances and 30-35k health, you'll find everything much easier and not even that much slower. A tanky build is practically required by Arc 5/6 and makes the mechanics a lot more forgiving at any Arc.

Easy way to do this is to wear 5 Heavy armor with Reinforced trait, use Major Resolve, and split your attributes halfway between Health and Mag/Stamina (whichever you use).

Some Heavy sets that people use: Ice Furnace, Heartland Conqueror (crafted), Syvarra's Scales (Hew's Bane/traders) or whichever crafted DPS set you like, ie Order's Wrath/Julianos etc.

EdjeSwift · December 2023

I'll counter this with going that tanky is unecessary, it is extremely effective 3.4.1 onward, but while learning it's absolutely dreadful as a learning experience, without good Visions/Verses enemies become a slog even in Act 2. Up until Arc 4 you can get away with just putting point into health and slapping a damage shield onto your bar via a skill or gear set or both. I regularly do Arc 4 solo runs on "pure" DPS with the only shift being switching one of my sets for Hexos for the damage shield so I can be lazy and not spam one.

If you're trying to push deep, go tanky but be ready to possibly be mind-numbingly bored halfway through if you get bad visions, but if you're just trying to get to Arc 3/4, DPS with survivability is a viable build.

spartaxoxo · December 2023

Pay attention to Master Malkhest. If he's fighting the boss, there's nothing you need to care about but doing damage to the boss. If he's fighting a blob, interrupt and kill it. The blobs have a channel attack that put a lot of damage pressure on you, which makes it easier for you to die to other stuff. So they're the priority. If he's fighting a tentacle, toss down some AOE in case a blob is hiding under there but otherwise let him cook. He will handle the tentacle for you and you can just focus on Tho'at

EdjeSwift · December 2023

One more piece of advice for WHEN, not IF, you beat Arc 2 as a DK, slot Purge for Arc 3. Arc 3 is when it starts and Arc 4 is when it REALLY hurts, but Bleeds and other Dots start hurting after Arc 2 and Arc 4 onward can be run killers without purge.

PrinceShroob · December 2023

Also, don't be afraid to use the Mystery Verses if you need a boost! Something like Flame Aura, Fire Orb, Exsanguinate, or Swift Gale will help make short work of Tho'at's first form, allowing you to concentrate on avoiding the tentacles of the second. You should've received a few from Malkhest after completing the introductory quest, and you can buy more for 200 Archival Fortunes in the lobby.

It can be a bit of a Hail Mary play, since you can't use more than one Mystery Verse per stage, but they can be extremely helpful if you have good luck.

Caligamy_ESO · December 2023

I see people I run with hiding from the tentacles and not going near the atronach because of them but if you're timing is right you can be in the red zone of their attacks and take no damage with a well placed dodge roll, big and small tentacles alike. I recommend binding dodge roll to your mouse if it has an extra button, no one should be stopping their movement to double tap directional arrows in combat.

Personally I think the biggest threat in every Tho'at fight is the slimes. They will murder you from great distance if you let them channel their very difficult to see attack at you. You should always be wary of where they're at and stunning them or killing them before they can do their things, because Malkhest is not enough.

ZOS_Hadeostry · December 2023

Greetings,

After further review we have decided to move this thread to a category we think is more appropriate for this topic, as it's asking the community for assistance.

Thank you for your understanding

Necrotech_Master · December 2023

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Pay attention to Master Malkhest. If he's fighting the boss, there's nothing you need to care about but doing damage to the boss. If he's fighting a blob, interrupt and kill it. The blobs have a channel attack that put a lot of damage pressure on you, which makes it easier for you to die to other stuff. So they're the priority. If he's fighting a tentacle, toss down some AOE in case a blob is hiding under there but otherwise let him cook. He will handle the tentacle for you and you can just focus on Tho'at

he is frankly for all intents and purposes useless in that fight, he does 0 dmg and the only useful thing he can do is interrupt a single blob

he keeps at most 1 blob occupied and will bash it, but he wont even do that if hes slapping a tentacle (even more useless)

ive never seen him pull boss aggro either (he will look like hes attacking tho'at or something if no blobs are up, but again he is useless does 0 dmg and doesnt even hold aggro)