Helwyr is Seren's general in The Heart.
Getting There
Helwyr is located in the southeast area of The Heart. To enter his chamber, the player must get 40 Serenist kill count (20 if the player has unlocked the 50% kill count reduction perk, requiring 4,500 Reputation), and have 80 Magic. Players can easily get kill count by visiting nodes that Serenist groups are attacking or simply kill the ones inside the fortress area.
Alternatively, one can use the Grouping system or Boss portal in the Max Guild to teleport immediately outside the lobby area.
Recommended Equipment
If using melee to fight Helwyr, the use of a halberd-type weapon is strongly recommended as it will easily kill the assisting Cywir alphas that he summons throughout the fight.
Combat
Helwyr only uses melee attacks which hit up to 1200, unlike the other generals which have multiple combat styles at their disposal. He has several abilities he will use during the fight:
- "Nature, lend me your aid!" - Players should note that Helwyr's chamber is littered with mushrooms which align in a 5x5 area. When Helwyr does this, three of the mushrooms will be enlarged and puff out green gas. Players caught in the gas will be dealt with rapid hits of up to 250 every tick and if the player stands too long in them, will be bound for several seconds. Multiple gas clouds from nearby mushrooms can and will stack on each other for extremely fast damage. In addition, players in the gas clouds cannot run while in their vicinity. The mushrooms last reasonably long, only reverting to normal several ticks after Helwyr uses this attack again. It is highly recommended to use Anticipation if expecting to be bound in the gas.
- "YOU. WILL. BLEED!" - Helwyr stands upright and cleaves the area in front of him in a cone radius. Players caught in the clawed area will be hit for up to 3000 damage and start taking a bleed of 50 (or adds 50 if the player is bleeding from previous bleed attacks). This can be easily avoided by running far enough from him in any direction out of the frontal radius, especially underneath him or to either side. Alternatively, you may equip a shield and use resonance to heal off the damage.
- "You cannot escape me. Aaaargh!" - Helwyr leaps over to a nearby player and starts clawing frenzy. This will deal rapid melee damage of up to 1800 every two ticks and bleed the player for 50 (or adds 50 if the player is bleeding from previous bleed attacks). He stays on one spot for the duration of the attack, but any player adjacent to him will receive both the melee and bleed damage. Devotion in combination with Protect from melee is highly recommended to block his melee damage, if not running or surging to get away from him. If these options are not available due to cooldown or the presence of green gas, Debilitate and/or Reflect can help to reduce the damage significantly.
- Howl - Helwyr howls, summoning two Cywir Alphas. They only have 3,000 life points and deal little damage but should still be killed to prevent them from sniping resonance heals from Helwyr's bleed attack. An efficient way to kill them is to use area-of-effect abilities that can damage both Helwyr and the Alphas simultaneously.
- Bleeds - Unlike the other generals in The Heart, Helwyr's claw and frenzy attacks can inflict bleeds on the player. The bleed starts off at a base of 50 every 2 ticks, and the more bleeds a player takes (melee damage attacks from claw/frenzy), another 50 is added, up to a cap of 250. This damage can be mitigated with abilities like Anticipation and Debilitate. Using Freedom will immediately remove the bleed and it is recommended to use this immediately after the "You cannot escape me. Aaaargh!" attack ends. Bleeds last for 30 seconds, but will be prolonged if the player is hit by his claw or frenzy attacks while being bled.
Helwyr follows the set attack pattern:
- "Nature, lend me your aid!" (Grows gas-puffing mushrooms)
- Does 2 auto-attacks
- "You. Will. BLEED!" cleave attack
- Does 2 auto-attacks
- "You cannot escape me. Aaaargh!" spinning attack
- Does 2 auto-attacks
- Spawns Cywir Alphas
- Does 2 auto-attacks
- Repeats above sequence
Note: Some auto-attacks may be skipped if the player is at a distance from Helwyr. This can cause Helwyr to skip to the next special attack sooner than expected.
As soon as Helwyr spawns, be prepared to use Surge or Escape, as he will immediately grow three random mushrooms in the chamber, including those under the player at the entrance. Surge and Escape allow the player to get out of the gas clouds fast, especially if the player is near the centre of the mushroom.
The most reliable way to fight Helwyr is with melee with a halberd-like weapon, such as the Noxious scythe or Dragon Rider lance. This is because of the use of Hurricane and Quake will get rid of the summoned alphas; although magic and ranged can do this with Corruption Blast and Corruption Shot respectively, the position of the wolves from Helwyr may prevent it from bouncing onto them, and will usually be unable to kill them outright.
Start off the kill by attacking Helwyr, getting out of the way of any active mushrooms. Continue attacking him until he performs his cleave attack; simply run out of the way to avoid taking damage. If you are low on health, this cleave attack can be resonanced (make sure there are no wolves and/or a bleed is on you, or they may snipe it); the cleave attack will always hit (and hit hard).
After three more attacks, Helwyr will use his frenzy attack; this can be easily mitigated with Debilitate (after which you move away from him) or Devotion to fully block his damage while attacking him. Use Freedom after his frenzy attack ends to clear off the bleed he placed on you.
Continue attacking him until he summons wolves; kill them (preferably with AoE abilities that also damage Helwyr), then focus on Helwyr again. When he grows the mushrooms again, move out of them (Surge/Escape can be used if they are not scattered randomly) and continue attacking him. He will repeat the same pattern until death.
DO NOT KEEP RUNNING AWAY from Helwyr; like Vindicta (who also uses melee for the majority of the fight), Helwyr will skip auto-attacks and immediately go straight to abilities if he cannot reach his target.