Hell Eternal Nightmare

Hell Eternal is usually the fourth dungeon new Nightmare players will learn, after the Solomon Island dungeons. This dungeon does not require high stats, but has many complicated mechanics, so this guide is fairly long.

It is highly recommended that all players are able to bring the miscellaneous ability Sleight of Hand (SOH) for certain fights.

Note: the first blue barrier in this dungeon does NOT stop trash mobs from following you into a boss arena. Be careful not to aggro early adds unless the whole group is prepared to kill them. The Djinn trash mobs (Infernal Overwatch) will also aggro to the entire party if they see one person.

Archaean Seismocratist

This fight is pretty basic except for a few straightforward mechanics.

Rot Iron
Every 30 seconds, the Archaean Seismocratist casts Rot Iron on the entire party – this is a hinder that will explode and one-shot any player if it’s not cleansed. It appears as glowing green chains. One player will need to bring a full-party cleanse (generally Cleanup or Win-win). Since the cooldown on these abilities is not fast enough to handle every cast, the party will either need two of these cleanses, or one full-party cleanse and every player brings Sleight of Hand. Discuss in advance who will bring what cleanses, and in what order they’ll be used!

Shadow in the Blood
A very dangerous AoE ability with a cast timer, cast at a random team member.

Caldera
Every now and then, the boss will cast this large AoE. Either the tank has to impair it, or everyone needs to dodge it.

Lustrehunter

Fallback
At several points during this fight, the boss will cast Fallback, stun the party, and run away. The boss will then run to a predetermined point and start buffing itself until a party member goes into LOS.

Mephisto’s Reach
The boss then gains a giant green death aura and runs back to the tank. Anyone in melee range takes 8000 damage, and will die instantaneously. The aura wears off after six seconds.

Consequently, it’s common for one DPS-player (the ‘runner’ or ‘rabbit’) to run ahead of the party, lying in wait for the boss. After the boss falls back, the runner then quickly gets LOS to scare the boss, who runs back to the party, waiting far enough away that the death aura will wear off in the meantime.

Occluding Lens
This looks like a blood barrier, but it actually doubles the damage the boss takes. However, it also reflects a portion of the damage back to the players! Watch your HP when this shield is up. More importantly, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PURGE OCCLUDING LENS. If anyone tries to purge this ability, they take 2500 damage. Cleanup can cause the entire group to die. DO NOT PURGE.

Runner:

You want to keep sprint on for this entire boss fight – don’t use any abilities, and possibly even disable double-tap-to-dodge to prevent an active dodge from breaking your sprint.

You will want to have the boss as your active target throughout the fight, so you can tell when he’s casting Fallback, when Mephisto’s Reach is active, and so on. Be sure to click the boss before the actual pull, since you’ll spend most of the fight well out of range.

How this boss will proceed depends upon the group DPS (without your contribution). For mid to high DPS groups, particularly groups with a leech healer, the boss will frequently skip certain spots, or chain-cast Fallback when he hasn’t even gotten back to the tank yet. If the group got past Archaean Seismocratist with only two times Rot Iron snared the party, there’s a good chance this boss will skip.

If the boss is NOT skipping: your job is very easy. When the tank pulls, run past the group and straight through to the second boss spot – the spots are shown below. Get well ahead of where the boss actually buffs himself, so you won’t be caught in Mephisto’s Reach when the boss runs back to the tank. Then go to the next spot, and lie in wait there. Rinse and repeat until the boss dies (don’t forget to backtrack to where the boss is actually killed to get your bullion!)

If the boss IS skipping: your job is more complicated. You’ll want to run well ahead of the group, at least to spot 3. You want to stay well ahead of the boss; whether he’ll keep falling back or return to the tank is very difficult to determine, so you want to be prepared for either case! There’s no such thing as too far ahead in the maze; since you’ve got the boss targeted, you can always check to see when he’s casting Arcane Exposure, which means he’s stopped and buffing. As long as you’re ahead of him, always assume his next move will be to go even deeper into the maze, not to run back to the tank.

If you do fall behind the boss, you’ll need to be careful, as you can easily die to Mephisto’s Reach when the boss passes you on his way back to the tank. If you’ve fallen behind, try to have as much distance between you and the boss as possible when you LOS him, prepare to run (not backtrack!) the instant you do enter his LOS, and above all try to get out of the way – running down a dead end will get you out of the boss’s return path, for example, or running to the far corner of a larger room.

Spot 1
The boss runs here immediately once the fight begins; the tank should engage him here and the runner should always go on to spot 2. If the boss is returning with Mephisto’s Reach from spot 2, back further towards the entrance.

Spot 2
The boss will always skip this spot if under 200k HP, and never if over 250k HP.

Spot 3

Spot 4
Non-runners should not advance much past this point until the boss is dead; subsequent spots are much closer together.

Spot 5

Spot 6
The minimap doesn’t show what this part of the arena looks like, but it’s essentially a sideways figure-eight, with exits at points 5 and 7.

Spot 7
After this, the boss just moves further down the hallway to the north for every Fallback.

Prime maker

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This fight works a lot like it did in elite – the boss has a reflect shield that can be dropped only by leading it over the pools of water. Once the shield is down, it will start building stacks of a buff called Heat. When Heat gets to 100 stacks, the shield comes back up and the boss needs to be dragged over another pool of water.

Ignore the adds, just stay away from them. Unlike Elite, they do not affect the boss’s Heat stacks, but they still apply Corruption if aggroed.

The party starts with one stack of Lifeburn and gains more as the fight goes on; a DPS player might need to bring Cleanup or Win-win to support the healer.

Furnace Blast
Either have the tank impair or avoid this.

Flagellatrix Superior

This is a long, tedious fight. It can’t really be sped up, thanks to the boss’s shields. At 75%, 50%, and 25% health, she gains a damage reduction shield that absorbs 90% of all incoming damage. This shield lasts a long time, cannot be purged, and cannot be corrupted, you have to simply wait it out.

This fight also requires a DPS to be a ‘runner’. The runner enters before the rest of the group, and does not fight the boss.

All players must be sure they have nothing that heals every member of the party! If the runner receives any healing, they will lose aggro on the Piston Predators. This includes Curing augments (and all epic Support augments), Platoon, Fired Up, and Cold Blooded.

This does NOT include Reap and Sew or Anima Vessel, since these do not actually heal the runner. Group buffs (Deadly Aim, Breaching Shot, etc) and AoE heals with a small area of effect (Win-win, Shelter) are also fine.

Spitelance
The boss will use this dash attack at regular intervals. Anyone in its path is stunned, and if they don’t move out before it finishes casting, it hits for about 12,000 damage, easily one-shotting a tank.

To survive this, the tank must have both Contortionist and Sleight of Hand (or other ways to break the impair) – it’s cast often enough that one will be on cooldown.

Since Contortionist is a passive ability that fires automatically, you might accidentally hit Sleight of Hand at the same time Contortionist works, and have neither ready for the next Spitelance. To prevent this, when Spitelance starts casting, immediately start strafing. If you move, Contortionist fired, and you can move straight out of the way. If you don’t move, hit Sleight of Hand and move out of the way.

Be very careful to keep the boss facing away from the DPS and healer, so they don’t get killed by Spitelance. DPS and healer, in turn, must try to make sure they stay well out of the way.

Runner

You will never attack, just keep sprint on the entire time. You enter first, after the Piston Predator has reached the far corner left of the entrance (and the dog to the right is out of LOS). You must run past each of the three Piston Predators to get aggro on them, then keep running in a large circle or figure-eight to keep them away from the rest of the party while they fight the boss. Be careful – right after they see you the first time, the Piston Predators will do a large AoE attack that is easily avoided, but after that, if they see you again they will one-shot you with a laser.

You’ll be starting off down the path this dog is on, though wait until it turns the next corner:

Hadean Guard: Iscariot, Cassius, Brutus

When one of these three bosses dies, a living one is healed, grows stronger, and gains new abilities. This fight can thus have different kill orders and go very differently. However, the near-universally accepted kill order is Iscariot, then Cassius, then Brutus, commonly abbreviated ICB. Other strategies are not recommended and are beyond the scope of this guide.

Note – this is another fight where you must not purge. Do not use Cleanup. Do not even bring it. All players are strongly encouraged to bring Sleight of Hand.

Phase 1: Iscariot, Cassius, and Brutus

Iscariot has two dangerous attacks she casts constantly, so she must die first.

She will frequently cast Immolation Invocation on a random player other than the tank. Everyone needs to watch their feet – if fire appears at your feet, start running and keep running until it stops. If you stay still, you’ll die. Don’t run into other players or you’ll hurt or kill them too.

Iscariot will also frequently cast Rot Iron (green chains) on a random player. Everyone must have Sleight of Hand ready in case she casts it on them.

Phase 2: Cassius and Brutus

When Iscariot dies, one of the others is healed, buffed, and gains Painwheel Overdrive, a large AoE attack that it will immediately use; dodge this.

Cassius, at this point, is basically like a Lustrehunter that doesn’t run away. She has Occluding Lens, which doubles damage done to her, reflects a small amount of damage done to her, and kills anyone who tries to purge it.

Phase 3: Brutus Alone

When Cassius dies, Brutus fully heals and grows stronger, and gains deadly new abilities.

Body Hammer
Periodically Brutus will start casting Body Hammer. Everyone must pay attention to this, and immediately run up to the boss. He will then attempt to dash attack to kill a random player other than the tank. If all party members are close enough, this will instead do nothing.

You must be very close to cancel Body Hammer – not just within melee range, but actually overlapping him as much as possible, ‘hugging’ the boss.

As soon as Body Hammer finishes, DPS and healer must back away to a safe distance, since Brutus has other attacks that are dangerous to anyone nearby.

Mephisto’s Reach
When Brutus starts casting this, everyone needs to get away, and the tank needs to start kiting him around the edge of the arena.

This ability is the same as Lustrehunter’s – a large glowing green death aura, that hits anyone in melee range for 8000 dps. The tank will frantically run away from Brutus, and everyone else must stay out of the way (following well behind Brutus might be safest).

Brutus will also continue to cast Drink Deep, which is now extremely strong, and the AoE circle Painwheel Overdrive, which is also strong but easy to dodge.

Eblis, dominus inferni in profondis

Eblis is one of the most mechanically complicated fights in the game. However, almost all of his abilities are used by other bosses in this dungeon, and once these mechanics are mastered, he is a pushover, with no high stat requirements.

A brief overview of abilities to bring along, before specific mechanics:

All – Sleight of Hand; NO PURGING.

Occluding Lens
Eblis casts Occluding Lens more frequently as his health drops. As always, DO NOT PURGE HIM. Everyone must mind their health to ensure they don’t kill themselves with reflected damage, and the healer should prepare for group heals.

Rot Iron
Eblis will also periodically cast green chains on a random party member. Everyone must have Sleight of Hand ready.

Solar Collapse
Every so often, Eblis will start casting a massive AoE, and he or Wicker will shout something. When this happens, the entire group must flee to the opposite side of the arena – this AoE doesn’t only hit the marked area, but also summons red crosshairs of Firmament Barrage, just like Machine Tyrant. However, these dissipate quickly and won’t make it across the arena.

Drink Deep
An extremely powerful single target attack.

Dark Rush
Eblis will try to use this dash attack against the tank whenever possible. It does high damage to anyone who gets in its path, after a short delay. However, if the tank has their back to a wall and Eblis is right next to them, it will do nothing, so the tank should have their back to a wall at all times. This ability still might be used when the group is fleeing from Solar Collapse, so DPS and the healer should not get between the tank and Eblis, just in case.

These are the most common places to tank Eblis to prevent Dark Rush, switching between them every Solar Collapse:

Consummate
Eblis shouts a threat and starts channeling an attack against a random player, who is stunned for the duration of the channel. It does progressively more damage until leaving them with 1 HP. Eblis is then stunned for a significant time.

If Occluding Lens is active and the consummated player has an affliction (or Fire in the Hole) running on Eblis, they might instantly die from the reflected damage when at 1 HP. Players with Blood Offering active on themselves might also die instantly after reaching 1 HP. Healing the player who is being consummated will not stop the process, but can make it take longer for the player to reach 1 HP, allowing afflicts to expire.

Cast Out (Bubble Phase)

At certain HP thresholds, Eblis will teleport to the center of the arena and cast Cast Out, which pulls in all the players to an alternate bubble phase. This will usually happen 2-3 times, but very high DPS groups might skip one or all of them.

When doing this at high HP, his health bar will be replaced by a different, much smaller one which appears full; when it is brought down to 1 HP, Eblis ends the phase, and returns to the HP total he had before it began.

If Eblis uses Cast Out and his HP bar is NOT replaced, then the phase will last until he is truly killed. He uses more abilities than usual in this final bubble phase, burn him down quickly!

Eblis will continue to cast Drink Deep and Occluding Lens during this phase.

During Cast Out, there are many AoEs to avoid. Unlike in the Elite version of this dungeon, the edge of the circle is dangerous, and statues around the edge will kill you if you get close to them. Stay close to Eblis, moving around to stay out of the moving floor AoEs and Eblis’s Vanquish side-column attacks.

Painwheel Overdrive
During the bubble phase Eblis can cast a large circular AoE called Painwheel Overdrive. You should not rely on doging this one because running too far from Eblis will result in death by statues and the circular AoEs. Everyone should remain close to Eblis.

Keep going until you defeat Eblis. Remember, if his HP bar is NOT replaced with a different one, then the phase will last until he is truly killed.