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This article is a strategy guide for Solak. Information on mechanics, setups, and tactics is on this page.
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Solak, the Grove Guardian is a level 7000 boss that can be fought in a team of 2 or up to 7. In order to access the duo instance, players must use the "duo" option from Merethiel. The fight has many mechanics, which all teammates should be well-versed in.
The Fight
Equipment
Solak can be poisoned, so it is recommended to use Weapon poison++ and Cinderbane gloves. Players who enter Solak's mind in the final phase can bring Achto armour as a switch to increase the time they can survive inside. A Caroming switch is also highly useful as it will help to draw the aggression of Ererthdor's manifestations quicker.
Because hit chance on Solak is above 100% when using a tier 90 or above weapon, overloads, and prayers, the Runic accuracy aura, Brawler aura, and Sharpshooter auras are of little use. If you cannot use Berserker aura, Reckless aura, and Maniacal aura, others such as Inspiration, Mahjarrat, and Dark Magic should be used instead.
Any combat style can be used as Solak is equally weak to all styles and his low defence will ensure substantial damage can be done. At least one player should use standard magic spells for Vulnerability. However, melee is not recommended for players entering Solak's mind on phase 4 as it will make dealing with the manifestations significantly more difficult.
Overall
Solak uses a melee auto attack on the base tank that splits into ranged auto attacks sent towards the rest of the team. Unlike Nex: Angel of Death and Vorago, Solak's melee attack is single-target and does not have AoE. Solak can use a special type of damage: blight damage, which many of his special attacks deal. It is similar to soft typeless damage in that the only way to reduce/block this source of damage is through defensive abilities, Shield Dome, and other damage reducing methods. Unlike soft typeless damage, however, Resonance can heal from blight damage in full. Becoming damaged by blight applies a blight debuff that increases damage taken by 1% per stack.
Solak can perform deadly blight bursts on random non-tank players at certain points in the fight. This deals blight damage, has AoE properties, and is indicated by a second bar filling up beneath the targeted player's adrenaline bar, so players afflicted with them should move away from other teammates before the bar fills. This does not put blight stacks on the affected target however.
There are soft caps set in place to prevent players from skipping phases. If the team deals too much damage, Solak gains a massive damage reduction buff that is only lifted when the phase has been properly completed.
During the first three phases, players advance by completely emptying the secondary bar. Conversely, for the final phase, the depletion of the secondary bar causes the entire team to be instantly killed.
Players can battle Solak in a team of two, or up to seven. In a team of two, Solak's mechanics change accordingly.
Merethiel assists players throughout the fight as both a supportive combatant and a key figure in certain phases and mechanics.
Phase 1: Initiation
Green spore bomb
Special attack order:
- Green spore bombs and damage bar
- 8 Volatile roots (if Solak above hp cap)
- Root attack
- 2 blight bombs
- Arms attackable
- Legs attackable
- Blight afflicted core
- Repeat from 1 until core depleted
| Duo | 7-man | Effect when reached | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solak | 2,250,000 | 6,000,000 | Stops taking damage, Skips roots |
| Blight afflicted core | 250,000 | 1,000,000 | Ends phase |
Solak begins with 2 autoattacks before yelling "I will replenish the earth with your bones", generating 6 (2 in duo) green spore bombs that land in several random areas of the arena. If a bomb is not stood on, all players receive massive blight damage and are applied 5 blight stacks - to prevent this, players must stand in the green circles on the ground. If any circle does not have a player standing on it in time, everyone takes damage. Once absorbed, a bar will fill and will deal considerable soft typeless damage, which can be reduced.
Solak then spawns eight volatile rootlings around the sides of the arena with 80,000 health each (20,000 in duo). If ignored, they turn into blightbound lashers that deal extremely high and rapid ranged damage, so it is essential to kill them. The timer to convert to lashers is slowed when tagged, so all roots should be tagged even if you can't attack at the moment.
Roots can travel across the map and hit all players to reach you
Two players are then targeted by a root special attack. Solak will yell "The roots below bend to my will!" and a yellow pointer arrow indicating the direction the roots will come from and a popup text box showing the number of ticks left before the attack hits appear. After this reaches 0, large roots burst forth from the ground and travel towards the targeted players, stunning every player caught in their path and dealing up to 2500 blight damage per tick as well as applying 2 blight stacks per hit.
The targeted players should Surge towards the correct location, which is always on the edge of the arena, activate Anticipate, and Bladed Dive away from the roots once their timer reaches 1 tick.
Continue damaging Solak until he begins the Lockdown mechanic by going to the centre of the arena and burying his arms into the ground, at which point he stops attacking. His arms then become attackable, each with 120,000 life points (60,000 in duo). After depleting their health pools, his legs become vulnerable, each with 100,000 life points (50,000 in duo). Both have timer bars which show how much time is left to disable them. If the timer runs out, Solak deals massive blight damage to everyone, summons several blightbound lashers, and resumes attacking players.
Once his legs are disabled, Solak spawns a blight afflicted core. This is the second "bar" of this phase and must be destroyed to advance to the next phase. After about 18 seconds, the core returns to Solak, and he repeats his attack pattern until the core is cleansed.
Phase 2: Corruption
Special attack order:
- Anima eruptions and storm
- Yellow anima bombs
- Nature's Blessing dome 1
- "Crush you like a bug"
- Nature's Blessing dome 2
- Purple Tornado
- Root Arrow targeting base
- Blight bomb
- Nature's Blessing dome 3
- Yellow Anima bombs
- Nature's Blessing dome 1
- Root arrow
- Restart from anima bombs if not at 0% corruption
The second bar now starts at 100%. The next phase begins when it lowers to 0%; special attacks used in this phase gradually reduce the bar and damaging him increases the speed at which it reduces. Solak's special attack pattern in this phase is:
As soon as this phase starts, Solak applies five blight stacks to each player in the arena. If the player already had more than 5 stacks, it will be reduced to 5. To remove the blight stacks, interact with Merethiel, who generates a green circle of light covering a 3x3 area that removes all blight stacks from players in it. Merethiel takes some time to recharge, so do not constantly interact with her to remove stacks.
Four anima eruptions appear in the corners of the arena, powering a blighted anima storm above the arena. While it is active, it will intermittently drop blight blasts that hit all players for 1000-2000 damage and apply a blight stack. This storm must be dispelled: to do so, players must attack and destroy the anima eruptions, which then create a 3x3 blue circle that teleports each player standing in it above the arena and within reach of the anima storm, which then must be rapidly clicked on. A message will be received when the storm has been dispelled. All four anima eruptions must be sealed, even if the storm is already dispelled.
If the player's blight stacks go above 10, they heal the storm instead of damaging it. The players that go up must ensure stacks stay below 10 if going above the arena The damage dealt to the storm is (10 - blight stacks)*1000.
Each player can only siphon from the storm for a short duration before landing in the middle of the arena. Immediately use Reflect and run as players will be damaged and have blight stacks applied from the blight patch underneath the storm. This patch of blight enlarges as the storm remains active and gradually dissipates when the storm has been dispelled. It is recommended to pray melee upon dropping back down as Solak will target a random player when all have returned. If the anima storm is not dispelled after all four eruptions are destroyed, then the intermittent blight explosions continue for the rest of the entire phase
Once this is achieved, Solak shouts "Rip the earth open! Spill the blood of life!", bombarding the area with anima bombs which deal heavy soft typeless damage if struck by one. The bombs slowly rise up from the ground before landing back down, dealing damage in a 3x3 area. Defensive abilities can reduce this damage. standing at the stair case at the north part of the arena avoids most bomb spawns.
As the last bombs begin to drop, a yellow dome appears on the northern side. Click on it to obtain the "Nature's Blessing" ability - this is used against an upcoming attack and can be activated by clicking the "Extra action" button on the player's interface. When Solak yells "The power of the grove in its purest form. Let it rain down upon you", activate "Nature's Blessing" a few seconds after he yells this - a blight barrage will converge on all players and dealing massive damage and applying blight stacks. The shield will protect players under it from most of the blight damage, which otherwise can hit upwards of 8000 damage per hit. It will still be necessary to use defensive abilities such as Reflect, Debilitate or Barricade to reduce the damage further. This attack drains a significant amount of corruption from Solak.
After the barrage, Solak then targets a random player by yelling "I'll crush you like the bug you are". The targeted player should quickly use Anticipation or Freedom as roots will stun them and bring them to Solak who then attempts to slam them with his arm - any player standing near where Solak slammed his arm down takes a heavy melee hit (3000). One player must then climb up Solak's arm and all other players must attack him. If the team fails to deal enough damage in time, the climber is instantly killed. The climber is able to attack Solak while climbing. If successful, the climber will "deal a deadly blow to Solak", draining some corruption from the bar. Solak will then grab them and prepare to hit them with a "crushing blow" after this, which deals a very high melee hit (upwards of 6000 damage). The player should use Devotion or Resonance to block this attack.
After a few auto attacks, Solak uses the blight barrage attack a second time - Nature's Blessing should be used again.
After the second barrage, Solak then surrounds himself with a purple blight tornado animation and spins rapidly, launching heavy hitting blight attacks at every player that deal massive damage. Nature's Blessing does not reduce damage from this attack, so it is recommended to Resonance, Barricade, and Intercept this ability. This also lowers Solak's corruption bar but applies several blight debuffs, so all players should go to Merethiel after the attack ends to cleanse their debuff stacks.
After the tornado, Solak targets the dps with a deadly blight bomb and the base tank with a root arrow. The root arrow is signalled by Solak pounding the ground and yelling "Frail creatures! It's time to die!". A few seconds after this roots will sprout up at the base tank's position forming an arrow shape. All other players should stand away from the tank, who can avoid the attack with Surge or simply by running away from where they stood. In a team of 7, three random non-tank player are targeted with a blight bomb that will explode for area of effect damage. it is affected by defensive abilities once the three bombs have exploded on a line of roots similar to the ones from phase 1 will form between the three targeted people binding them. for this reason the three targeted players should move away from the main group stand apart and resonance or reflect the bomb and anticipate or freedom the root bind.
Solak then uses a third blight barrage that must be reduced by the natures blessing dome if his corruption bar has not been emptied by this point.
Then more anima bombs another blight barrage and a root arrow.
If Solak's corruption bar has still not been emptied at this point, the rotation restarts at the anima bomb special attack ("Rip the earth open! Spill the blood of life!"). Once the bar is empty, the next phase begins.
Phase 3: Manifestation
Special attack order:
- Stunning Blight bomb and Blight bleed
- Open mind
- Repeat until all green circles converted or Erethdor is killed
| Duo | 7-man | Effect when reached | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solak | 300,000 | 800,000 | Stops taking damage |
| Erethdor | 250,000 | 500,000 | Ends phase early, won't attack in P4, weakens manifestations |
Once Solak's energy from the previous phase is completely empty, phase 3 will begin. Merethiel casts a spell, generating eight green circles around the arena. Solak must be led to these circles to charge them and remove the corruption. During this time, he will intermittently shout "Give me the life you so tightly cling to!", stunning all players briefly and applying a blight bleed that quickly increases in damage and applies blight stacks. The bleed can be stopped by stunning Solak; a message similar to Yakamaru's appears when someone stuns him. Occasionally, blight bombs which deal around 2000 damage will fall upon the green circles and have a fairly wide aoe, so players should watch out for these. He also uses the deadly blight attack on non tank players, which can be healed off of with Resonance. This attack will come before the blight bleed, so Anticipation should be used when the bar is halfway full before using Resonance.
When a circle has been filled with corruption, Merethiel can send players into Solak's mind to battle Erethdor, who can use Ranged abilities. The player can enter and exit Solak's mind at any time by using the Extra Action button. The player cannot battle Erethdor for too long, as they will be expelled from his mind after a short duration. Food does not heal the player while inside Solak's mind, so players who need to heal must leave Solak's mind first. If this manifestation of Erethdor is defeated, the next phase automatically begins. Otherwise, all eight circles will need to be filled with corruption.
Lower Solak's health to the minimum before phasing; this makes the next phase significantly easier. If not already using a steel titan, players should dismiss their current familiar and summon it for the final phase.
Phase 4: Erethdor's Last Stand
Solak becomes conflicted due to Erethdor's waning hold over him and stops attacking players - however, he can still charge up a powerful attack that deals massive blight damage. The second health bar now has 100,000 life points - this is the health of Solak's conscience and if it decreases to 0, all players are instantly killed. A sign of life will revive the player, but they will be instantly killed again shortly after unless Solak's body is defeated.
In his mind, multiple Manifestations of Erethdor will spawn and attempt to regain control over Solak by attempting to destroy his conscience. They spawn one at a time for every 15,000 hp Solak's body loses and attack his conscience with blight damage that hits harder the longer they remain alive and can quickly destroy Solak's conscience if left alone. If Erethdor was defeated in the previous phase, his manifestations will deal less damage. One player must enter Solak's mind with the extra action button and draw their aggression away from Solak's conscience while using Protect/Deflect Magic and Reflect, Devotion, and Barricade to reduce/block the damage they deal. Solak's conscience can be healed by rapidly clicking on it, which heals 1500 per click while damaging the player for the same amount. Barricade will block this damage however, so healing should only be done while under its effects. Like in the previous phase, food cannot heal while in Solak's mind, so if players need to heal, they must leave his mind before doing so.
In duos, the manifestations can be safely killed - however, in a group, killing them is unfeasible, as doing so will cause them to appear in the real world and attack players there. For this reason, it is better to simply tank the manifestations in a group.
While one player is in Solak's mind drawing their attention, those in the physical world must quickly damage Solak's body. Intermittently Solak will shout "THIS ENDS NOW.", putting a deadly blight on all players and charging up a second blight attack that can hit for very high damage depending on whether or not a player is in his mind. It is strongly recommended to use the vulnerability spell and one's best dps rotation as well as Onslaught and steel titanswhile using portents of restoration, Soul Split, phoenix necklaces, , and the lunar spell Disruption Shield to fend off the blight attacks.
The battle will end once the team successfully reduces Solak's health to 0 in the physical world. From there they may claim their rewards directly from Solak or from Merethiel outside the arena.