Solak/Strategies

Solak, the Grove Guardian is a level 7000 boss that can be fought in a team of two or up to seven. In order to access the duo instance, players must use the "duo" option from Merethiel.

Overall
Solak uses melee and ranged attacks. Unlike Nex: Angel of Death and Vorago, Solak's melee attack is single-target and does not have spread. However, his attacks will hit all players in the vicinity, much like Yakamaru.

There are hard caps set in place to prevent players from skipping phases. If the team deals too much damage, Solak will gain a massive damage reduction buff which is only lifted when the phase has been properly completed.

In order to progress through the phases, his "secondary" health must be fully depleted.

In a standard group, Solak has 8,000,000 health, while in duo mode he has 3,000,000.

Throughout the fight Merethiel will assist the players.

Phase 1
If you are marked for the root special you will see a spot denoted by arrows on the ground and will have a certain amount of time before the roots come out from your location similar to Nex: AoD's directional smoke. Solak will then become immobilized in the middle of the arena:
 * Start the fight by talking with Merethiel, then speaking to Solak.
 * Each team member stand on a green pad that spawns.
 * An instakill attack will follow:
 * If everyone stands in the middle circle of the arena damage is blocked.
 * Can be blocked with Resonance, Barricade, etc, as well.
 * Volatile rootlings will spawn around the edges of the arena. You must kill these before they become matured rootlings which can deal high damage and eventually transform into blight versions if left alive.
 * You should run to the spot and face the arrow outside of the arena (It will move as you do like a compass).
 * Stand on the spot indicated by the arrow and have the arrow facing away from the arena and it will spread around the edge of the arena where it is easily managed.
 * Anticipate before the roots come out, as being hit will root/stun you, or freedom as you become stunned.
 * As the roots hit, you will be dealt rapid 2-3k hits every half tick or so if you do not move away. They can be surged to avoid.
 * If not dropped correctly, the roots can shoot across the arena and stun and kill your teammates if they aren't expecting it
 * Attack his arms, then his legs.
 * Then, attack the Blight afflicted core. It is the blue bar. The core has 1,000,000 health in a team of 7, and 250,000 health in a duo.
 * Onslaught effective since Solak still immobilized.
 * If damage on the arms and legs is too low, Solak will hit everyone around him for 6k damage (duo), and will spawn 3 Blightbound Lasher minions. Damage of the attack can be lowered or blocked.


 * Repeat until blue bar decreases to 0 (health of blight afflicted core)

Phase 2

 * Five stacks of blight instantly
 * Each stack increases damage received by 1%
 * Stacks can be cleansed by clicking on Merethiel (there's a cooldown)
 * Attack the anima eruptions.
 * Stand in blue square to be launched into air
 * Launch into air, siphon middle thing to damage Solak 3k hits (can be spam clicked)
 * Bombs drop from sky (similar to red bombs in Nex AoD)
 * Nature's blessing "To help free Solak from Merethiel's hold"
 * Everyone needs to be in a shield otherwise they will be dealt massive damage
 * One player can summon one shield through the "Extra Action Button" interface (Can be found on Gameplay HUD settings)
 * One player should only summon a shield at a time so that other team members save their shield for later
 * Someone clicks on Solak to climb up on him
 * Team needs to deal lots of damage otherwise person who climbs will instantly die
 * Solak then becomes a purple tornado
 * Barricade, Intercept team members, etc, just to block all the damage from the bombs. Shield power-up does not work here
 * Roots may spawn again for players
 * Decrease purple bar to 0% to progress next stage
 * Purple bar decreases every time Solak sends out purple bombs

Phase 3

 * Throughout phase 3, Solak will increase his blight bleeds on players which can only be halted by stunning Solak.
 * Merethiel prepares to cast a spell
 * Eight, green circles appear around the arena
 * Solak must be brought to one of the green circles in order to charge it up, which will turn the circle purple.
 * Players must then stand on the purple circle on which Solak will spawn a purple orb on.
 * Once the extra action button is pressed, a player will be sent into a shadow realm and must fight a Manifestation of Erethdor, which must be defeated in order to progress to the next phase.
 * This must be done with different circles as they get used up until the manifestation has been killed.
 * You can also advance to the next phase by making all of the circles turn purple.

Phase 4

 * All players will be sent to the shadow realm. Here, they must stop Solak from being killed by all of the manifestations. If they fail to do so, they will get instakilled.
 * Clicking Solak in the shadow realm can heal him, at the cost of your own HP.
 * The shadow realm manifestations damage Solak exponentially more if they are ignored.
 * Brewing and eating food cannot heal in the shadow realm, but defensive abilities like Barricade can be used.
 * Cade+heal on Solak works.
 * The last stand involves doing a certain amount of damage to Solak, otherwise your team will be instakilled