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Den of Vipers
You return to the ruins of Silith-tar to help the Order recapture that domain's Darklord. It will not be an easy task.
Den of Vipers | |
Heroic level: | None |
Epic level: | 36 (considered Legendary) |
Tier 6 end game raid![]()
| |
Duration: | Long |
Heroic XP: | N/A |
Epic XP: | ♦36,195Normal ♥36,993Hard ♠37,790Elite |
Takes place in: | The Temple of Silith-tar |
Bestowed by: | Garzin Panoplus |
NPC contact: | Garzin Panoplus |
Quest acquired in: | Hall of Heroes |
Patron: | The Free Agents |
Base favor: | 11 |
Purchase: | Free to Play |
Extreme Challenge: | No |
Overview
Garzin Panoplus wants you to travel to the Temple of Silith-tar and confront the Five Fangs.
Flagging
No flagging required.
Spoiler Warning: Spoiler material below this point!
Objectives
- Find the Guardian Expedition
- Parley with Ragmareth
- Take the Lanterns to the Ritual Room
- Use the Lanterns on the Circles to Finish the Summoning
- Protect the Circles from Mist Stalkers
- Bind the Five Fangs to this Realm
- (Optional) Make a Deal with the Balor — no XP
- (Optional) Pick a Fight with the Balor — no XP
- (Optional) Defeat the Balor Ragmareth — Bonus (36.742%): Legendary( ♦13,299 ♥13,592 ♠13,885 )
What to Expect
- A fair amount of forced splitting up, especially on higher difficulties - self-sufficiency is useful, party communication is important.
- Heavy Poison damage from monsters, potentially heavy Evil damage from the environment
Tips and Misc
- The Order of the Guardians has spent months powering up mystical Lanterns to bind the Five Fangs to the domain from which it escaped. A representative of the Order has asked you to venture to Silith-tar to assist in the ritual - but you find nothing but ash, and a very angry Balor, where the forward party were meant to await you.
- Ragmareth has his own fight to pick with the Five Fangs, but while the Darklord stands the Demon may not enter the Temple of Silith-tar. The Emissary of the Dark Powers offers you a deal: complete the ritual for him, and he will finish the Hydra once and for all. This will spare you a difficult fight, but bargains with the Dark Powers tend to come with stings in the tail...
- Choosing either to battle with Ragmareth, or to make a deal with him, will seal the entrance to the clearing, blocking further entry to the raid. Make sure to gather everyone around the Demon - although maybe not too close - before picking.
- If you choose to battle Ragmareth, his own abilities are fairly similar to Zweilanar, including Iron Wing Defense (a defensive buff reduced and eventually deactivated by having up to six players in melee range) and the highly damaging Jump effect. He is rather less prone to spamming Marks of Scorn, however. This said, the fight has its own complication in place of the circle of fire Zweilanar uses - at four points during the fight, Ragmareth summons Demons (a Hezrou and a Glabrezu twice, then two Glabrezu, then two Hezrous and a Glabrezu) to assist him.
- Ragmareth becomes shrouded in shadow and can barely be damaged while the Demons remain on the field, and the Demons likewise are shrouded in shadow and gain a slowly increasing buff to offensive statistics. To attack effectively, you must draw the Demons into the path of Ragmareth's Lightning Whip attack, which removes their shield; Ragmareth can then be beaten down until another set of Demons spawns.
- Backstabbing Shadows will appear around the edges of the arena. These are usually invisible except for short bursts, and may inflict nearby players with the debuff A Touch on the Shoulder, which lasts three seconds and deals heavy damage if the affected character moves.
- Once Ragmareth is dealt with, one way or the other, you must enter the temple and speak to Barston Gelminedes, leader of the Order and the only member of the advance party still alive. The summoning ritual has been ambushed by Mist Stalkers, and it is now up to your party to take on the Darklord.
- Barston hands out special Lanterns attuned to the plane of Silith-tar, which can be used to power up five Ritual Circles used to summon and bind the Darklord. You must use these Lanterns - the ones you may still have left over from Lanterns in the Mists are attuned to the Material Plane and will not function in the Shadowfell.
- To reach the Ritual Room, you must take the Misty Door behind Barston. There are also two Rest Shrines in the corridor before the turning, and, directly across from the Misty Door, the Attunement Altar used to upgrade the raid loot.
- The Misty Door randomly transports you to one of three corridors, each containing a door to the Ritual Room. (You cannot exit a corridor except by this door - teleportation is disabled in the raid, and Dimension Door would lock you out anyway.) You may need to use these corridors repeatedly on higher difficulties to get more Lanterns.
- One corridor contains a large library, with numerous rotating Death's Gazes that deal Evil damage to anything in their cone of vision and patrolling orange orbs that deal Evil damage on contact. There is also a constant gust of wind here, blowing in one of the four cardinal directions, that will push you around if you jump.
- The second corridor contains a couple of large platforms, also with Death's Gazes and the wind effect, but also a few Elite Archers and one short forced jump. The wind can only blow you across the jump or sideways to the right here, so you should be fine as long as you don't make the jump without first checking the wind direction (this is usually displayed visually.)
- The third corridor is a little different - a number of metal plates are suspended above a large mud pool, similar to the jumping section in White Plume Mountain. The Mud deals moderate fire damage, Archers spawn on a few of the plates. and numerous jet traps are placed around to knock you off the metal plates. A large Bone Naga also guards this section, and will fire spells at you as you cross the plates - this must be killed to open the exit. An orange Evil-damage dealing orb also orbits around the lower platforms in the mud.
- On Elite and above, every corridor has a Naga at the end that must be killed to exit.
- Inside the Ritual Room, you must equip the Lanterns (this requires you to use your Cosmetic Off Hand slot) and use them within the glowing circles until every circle contains three Lanterns. This begins the ritual and spawns waves of Humans and Bone Nagas in the room.
- As the ritual continues, Mist Stalkers will slowly spawn around the room. These appear as translucent Yuan-ti shrouded in orbs of mist, and will make a beeline for one of the five Ritual Circles. If an unshrouded Stalker reaches its target circle, for every five seconds it spends there one Lantern is removed from the circle.
- If any circle loses all its Lanterns it becomes corrupted, and starts dealing Evil damage to everyone in the room; furthermore, the ritual stops progressing. To prevent this, you must reveal the Mist Stalker with a Lantern; it then loses its ability to corrupt the circle and becomes a standard monster. (While revealed Stalkers no longer threaten the ritual their offensive stats will scale with time, so eliminating them is probably wise.) You can also use Lanterns within damaged Circles to repair them - three Lanterns in each circle is ideal, but technically you only need one Lantern in each corner for the ritual to progress.
- Lanterns held by players have a limited number of charges - 8 on Normal, 6 on Hard, 5 on Elite. Conserving charges is important on higher difficulties to minimise how many times players need to run back to get more Lanterns. Using a Lantern as a Stalker enters a circle can help with conserving charges, as if the circle contains less than three Lanterns this will add one and reveal the Stalker at the same time.
- If you expend all your lantern's charges (or die, which will destroy the lantern), you must exit the ritual chamber through the Misty Door to obtain another from a Lantern Stockpile, then run through a randomly selected hallway (from the list of three above) to return to the Ritual Chamber. Note that after a time delay, the Archers and Nagas in each room will respawn - it may be wise to travel in a small group rather than going one by one.
- If you get killed in a corridor your Soul Stone will eventually teleport to the Ritual Chamber, although you'll lose your lantern.
- Once the ritual hits 100% completion, the massive Hydra known as the Five Fangs, Darklord of Silith-tar, spawns in the arena. This adds another level of complexity - you still need to protect the ritual circles, but you also need to damage the Hydra enough to sever its heads.
- The Hydra is fond of using Acid and Poison AoE attacks and also progressively debuffs the defensive stats of whichever character currently has its ire - keeping it focused on the tank is essential.
- Once the Five Fangs enters play, players in the ritual room may be beset with a debuff that reduces their visibility to near zero and deals damage over time. Using a Lantern, or standing near another player that does so, removes this effect.
- Every time the Hydra loses a head (this occurs at 80% health and thereafter at 60%, 40% and 20%), you must then kite it into the correct ritual circle (this circle will turn green when the Head is inside.) Killing a Head in the circle it's bound to while the circle has all three Lanterns active, then using a Lantern on the Head itself, binds the head to the circle, taking it out of the fight. Be warned, though - fail to do this in good time, and the Five Fangs will simply grow a new head and heal 20% of its health!
- The first head must be pulled to the Northwest circle; after that, the next three go to the Northeast, Southeast and Southwest circles respectively.
- Once all four heads are bound in corner circles, you now simply need to kill the Five Fangs within the central circle.
- As each head is slain, the spirit of a sleeping Yuan-ti appears in its place - one of the five rulers of ancient Silith-tar, as detailed in The Curse of the Five Fangs. If you chose to skip the initial fight with Ragmareth, the Balor invades the temple and cuts the transformed Five Fangs down. If, however, you chose to challenge the Dark Powers' minion, something more interesting happens: Ziss, the spirit formed from the slain Hydra, is still awake, and seems to wish to speak to you.
- Astonishingly for a Yuan-ti and, far more pertinently, a Darklord, Ziss appears to feel genuine remorse for the actions that lead to the fall of Silith-tar. Though the Five Fangs once stood on the precipice of ascending to divinity, but a series of destructive wars had damaged their empire to the extent that they no longer had enough sacrifices to complete the ritual. Ziss's sister Meztli had divined an alternative ritual they could perform to ascend the most powerful among them to godhood, but at the cost of the lives of the other four. Meztli, fearing that as a mere diplomat she would never be chosen as the strongest and unwilling to lose her beloved siblings, struck a deal with Ragmareth. The Balor expected that Meztli would use the power he granted her to murder her siblings and take their place as a god, an act that would allow the Mists to claim Silith-tar, but while Meztli did indeed ascend to godhood she instead fused her siblings into her own form, becoming a five-headed Hydra. While the mists still took Silith-tar, the Balor was incensed by this betrayal and swore to destroy Meztli and her siblings alike.
- Though Meztli and her siblings are at peace, the rampage of the Five Fangs across the planes is at an end, and some semblance of hope has been returned to Silith-tar, the discovery of the identity of the Stranger from the legend of the Five Fangs raises only more questions - who was Asptah, the mist-walking stranger that convinced the Five Fangs to enter the mists and become entrapped as minions of the Dark Powers, and what other domains might they turn their attention to next?
Bonus XP
Loot
- Chests: 2
- One end chest
- One bonus end chest for taking out Ragmareth outside the entrance (drops Hydra Scales but no Runes or named items)
NPC end rewards
Standard, no 20th completion reward as Raid Rune system is in place
Named Chest Drop
Last Edited | Item | Type | Enhancements | ML | Bind | Quests |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Empowered Ritual Lantern (Normal) (edit) | Cosmetic shield |
|
1 | Bound to Character on Acquire, Exclusive, Drops on death, Drops on leaving adventure![]() This is an Exclusive item. You may only carry one at a time. This item drops on death or on leaving adventure, No Mail |
Den of Vipers, given by Lantern Stockpiles on Normal |
|
Empowered Ritual Lantern (Hard) (edit) | Cosmetic shield |
|
1 | Bound to Character on Acquire, Exclusive, Drops on death, Drops on leaving adventure![]() This is an Exclusive item. You may only carry one at a time. This item drops on death or on leaving adventure, No Mail |
Den of Vipers, given by Lantern Stockpiles on Hard |
|
Empowered Ritual Lantern (Elite) (edit) | Cosmetic shield |
|
1 | Bound to Character on Acquire, Exclusive, Drops on death, Drops on leaving adventure![]() This is an Exclusive item. You may only carry one at a time. This item drops on death or on leaving adventure, No Mail |
Den of Vipers, given by Lantern Stockpiles on Elite and Reaper |
|
Acera, the Dissolution of All (edit) | Great Sword |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Conduct, the Bolt of Rage (edit) | Quarterstaff |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Trifalny, Gauntlet of Grace (edit) | Gloves |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
The Hydra's Heart (edit) | Trinket |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Iceshard, the Bitter Bite (edit) | Great Axe |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Rocard, Champion's Cuffs (edit) | Bracers |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Acrida, the Caustic Arbalest (edit) | Great Crossbow |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Lash, the Arbalest of Arcs (edit) | Repeating Heavy Crossbow |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Audion, the Shattering Way (edit) | Warhammer |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Clank, the Echo of Despair (edit) | Battle Axe |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Clatter, the Blunted Edge (edit) | Battle Axe |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Kinesis, the Hidden Force (edit) | Handwrap |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Soniar, the Echo of Pain (edit) | Warhammer |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Wither, the Venomous Voice (edit) | Sickle |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Waste, the Weak's End (edit) | Sickle |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Amplin, the Channeling Bolt (edit) | Quarterstaff |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Arctica, the Mystic Cold (edit) | Great Axe |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Caustica, the Volley of Pain (edit) | Great Crossbow |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Erosion, the Crumbling Arcana (edit) | Great Sword |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Collision, the Unstoppable Arcana (edit) | Handwrap |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Statica, the Concentrated Charge (edit) | Repeating Heavy Crossbow |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
|
Syne, the Way of the Melody (edit) | Goggles |
|
33 | Bound to Character on Acquire![]() |
Den of Vipers, end chest |
Based on [[Category:Den of Vipers loot]] ( t • e • h )
Monsters
Name ( picture ) | CR | Type | Race |
---|---|---|---|
A Fang of Five ( view • edit ) | ●♦41Epic Normal ●♥45Epic Hard | Animal | Hydra |
Ancient Silith Bone Naga ( view • edit ) | ●♦39Epic Normal ●♥43Epic Hard ●♠49Epic Elite | Undead | Naga |
Backstabbing Shadow ( view • edit ) | ●♦36Epic Normal ●♥40Epic Hard ●♠45Epic Elite | Undead | Shadow |
Cunning Shadow Demon ( view • edit ) | ●♦39Epic Normal ●♥43Epic Hard ●♠49Epic Elite | Evil Outsider | Demon |
Death's Gaze ( view • edit ) | ●♦36Epic Normal ●♥40Epic Hard ●♠45Epic Elite | Construct | Animated Object |
Mighty Shadow Demon ( view • edit ) | ●♦39Epic Normal ●♥43Epic Hard ●♠49Epic Elite | Evil Outsider | Demon |
Ragmareth ( view • edit ) | ●♦39Epic Normal ●♥43Epic Hard ●♠49Epic Elite | Evil Outsider | Demon |
Silith Divine Abomination ( view • edit ) | ●♦39Epic Normal ●♥43Epic Hard ●♠49Epic Elite | Monstrous Humanoid | Yuan-ti |
Silith Huntmaster Abomination ( view • edit ) | ●♦39Epic Normal ●♥43Epic Hard ●♠49Epic Elite | Monstrous Humanoid | Yuan-ti |
Silith Magus Abomination ( view • edit ) | ●♦39Epic Normal ●♥43Epic Hard ●♠49Epic Elite | Monstrous Humanoid | Yuan-ti |
Silith-tar Elite Archer ( view • edit ) | ●♦36Epic Normal ●♥40Epic Hard ●♠45Epic Elite | Humanoid | Human |
Silith-tar Elite Mage ( view • edit ) | ●♦36Epic Normal ●♥40Epic Hard ●♠45Epic Elite | Humanoid | Human |
Silith-tar Elite Scout ( view • edit ) | ●♦36Epic Normal ●♥40Epic Hard ●♠45Epic Elite | Humanoid | Human |
Silith-tar Elite Warrior ( view • edit ) | ●♦36Epic Normal ●♥40Epic Hard ●♠45Epic Elite | Humanoid | Human |
The Five Fangs ( view • edit ) | ●♦41Epic Normal ●♥45Epic Hard | Animal | Hydra |