Magnakilro's Guide to Glory of the Delver

[Magnakilro]

Been a while since I've done one of these (not since Sanctum of Domination in Shadowlands!) so...now's a good random time to throw one of these up!

With no Glory of the Hero cheev in this expansion (only Glory of the Raider), we find ourselves with a new 'Glory of' achievement to fill in the void, covering the new seasonal endgame content for people that play casually, even solo!

Delves are a big new thing and are quite fun imo, so adding a mount to it definitely sweetened the deal!

And a cool mount it is, as we get the creepy-crawly 'Ivory Goliathus' mount, which as of writing is the only Stagshell beetle mount in the game. Let's get right into it, shall we?

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War Within Delves: Tier 8: You must do a Tier 8 delve without running out of lives.

This one is automatic as doing this is required for the majority of cheevs in this meta anyway. You must do a Tier 8 delve without running out of lives. In order to do a Tier 8 delve, you must complete a Tier 7 with lives remaining.....that requires tier 6 with lives...and so on and so forth.

Note if you are seeking gear, Tier 8 is the highest you need gear wise anyway, even granting you roic raid level gear in the Great Vault.

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Delve Loremaster: War Within: Complete every variation of every delve in War Within, excluding Zekvir's Lair.

This can be done on any difficulty. There are 12 delves, each with multiple 'variations' that dictate what mission you'll be undertaking while you are in there. These change daily. Each delve, with the exception of Underkeep, has 3 variations you must do, with Underkeep having 4. That means you must do a total of 37 delves for this achievement alone.

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Leave No Treasure Unfound: Find all of the Sturdy Chests in War Within's delves.

This can be done on any difficulty. Sturdy Chests are one-time lootable treasure chests hidden throughout delves. Each one has like 3 to 5 to find, delve dependent. Just search every nook and cranny, and even sometimes needing you to climb on some scenery at times, or dive underwater. For the most part, any delve variant will allow you to get all the chests within, but there are two that deserve special mention: Underkeep and Spiral Weave. Spiral Weave has one chest that requires you to have the Grappling Hook available, which is only available in one specific variation (the one that mentions Weaver). In Underkeep, your path through the delve itself changes based on variation. One opens the western path only, one opens the eastern path only, one sends you straight down the middle, and the last opens the entire delve at once. There is one chest each on the west path AND east path.

Finding all of the chests also gives you the 'Seeker of Loot' title.

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Brann Development: Get Brann to level 25.

Brann Bronzebeard is your companion during season 1 of TWW delves. He levels as you do delve stuff, increasing his power/healing! Simple enough for the most part...just delve a bunch and you good! BUT there is one note: Once Brann hits lvl 15, he will ONLY gain exp from BOUNTIFUL delves! Keep this in mind!

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Sporesweeper: Complete a tier 8 or higher Fungarian delve without taking damage from a Sporebit.

Fungal Folly and Mycomancer Cavern are the Fungarian delves.

Within a Fungareian delve, you'll find Sporebits floating around. These Sporebits will detonate after a few seconds if killed or if they detect you moving while in their radius. Just don't get hit by the explosion for the whole run. Brann and pets do not fail this for you.

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I TAKE Candle!: Complete a tier 8 or higher Kobold delve without your protection running out.

Kobold delves are Kriegval's Rest and Waterworks.

In both of these, there is a dungeon-wide effect that does damage over time if you aren't protected. At the beginning of the run, you'll find a candle (KR) or an air-purifying totem (WW). While carrying it, you are immune to the constant zone-wide DoT...BUT the item loses power (shown as stacks of a buff in the UI) as you move. You can find more as you go through the delve, completely refilling your stacks if you reach them, or allowing you to pick up a new one if your first was snuffed out. You must complete one of these delves without ever running out of stacks.

Note that there's one variation of Waterworks where you must use an extra action button to reactivate the other totems in the delve to get your stack refills

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Just Keep Swimming: Complete a tier 8 or higher Kobyss delve without running out of air.

Kobyss delves are Sinkhole and Tak-rethan Abyss.

In a Kobyss delve, the entire thing is completely submerged underwater (you don't swim, you stay grounded as normal) and have to deal with the good ol' Breath Meter the entire time. At tier 8, your breath depletes pretty fast so you need to be alert at all times. Throughout the delve, there are air bubbles you can use to refill your breath AND get a bit of a speed boost. ALSO if Brann sets up a campfire, the area around it is a permanent air pocket. Use these to keep the breath meter from EVER going empty!

Certain Kobyss delve variations have fake air bubbles that are actually poison, defiled looking bubbles disguised as safe ones. If you see a green glow under an air bubble vent, it is fake.

There is a Tak-rethan variation where you must save Niffen. This one removes like all of the natural air bubbles in the delve, but gives you an action button to make an air bubble on the spot.

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Daystormer: Complete a tier 8 or higher Order of Night delve without causing an air strike.

There is only 1 fully dedicated Order of Night delve: Nightfall Sanctum, however Skittering Breach has one variation that turns it into an Order of Night one.

In an OoN delve, you'll see purple circles all over the place. They can move, they can expand and contract...or move AND expand/contract together! If you step into one, an air strike is called down...adding swirlies you must avoid. You must NEVER trigger this. Simple as that!

In one variation of Nightfall Sanctum, you are given a flare that allows you to move the purple circles out of your way. Abuse this!

NOTE FOR NIGHTFALL SANCTUM! The delve does not count as 'complete' until you use the Parachute after defeating the boss. Don't forget this!

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Spider Senses: Complete a Tier 8 Nerubian delve without stepping in a web OR without damaging a nerubian egg.

Nerubian delves are Earthcrawl Mines, Dread Pit, one version of Skittering Breach, Spiral Weave, and Underkeep.

Nerubian delves have two main hazards: Webs on the ground (which can also be spawned by certain mobs.), and eggs. Stepping in a web spawns a nerubian ambush. Touching an egg or directly attacking it will make it burst and turn into webs (eggs are immune to AoE unless directly targetted). You must avoid stepping in webs if webs are the main hazard, and avoid detonating eggs if eggs are the hazard!

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Nemesis: Defeat Zekvir in Zekvir's Lair before the next delve season.

I feel like this shouldn't be here due to the limitted timeframe for completing it but...its here so...until its changed, we gotta do it!

You must travel to Zekvir's lair and kill the big man himself.

Zekvir's Lair is the bonus 13th delve of season 1 War Within. It only contains Zekvir and nothing else. It is the 'final boss' delve this season, and is quite challenging! Zekvir has 2 difficulties: ? mode and ?? mode. ? mode is unlocked by completing any Tier 8 delve with lives remaining. ?? is unlocked by clearing a tier 10 delve with lives left.

? mode is the 'easy' mode and is the minimum needed to complete this achievement.

?? mode is the 'hard' mode, the REAL fight.

On ? mode, Zekvir has nearly 90mill hp when solo, so expect a long fight. He hits HARD and has some mechanics that need to be paid attention to:

Claw Smash: Frontal Cone that does IMMENSE damage. Radius is wider than warning visual. As a Hunter, this ability mostly ignores Aspect of the Turtle.

Angler's Web: Frontal Cone that pulls you to him and does damage.

Horrendous Roar: AoE fear. Stay out of the circle around him to avoid it.

Enfeebling Spittle: Interruptible cast that leaves a 20 second high damage DoT that also slows you. Note that the DoT is a magic effect AND a snare effect.

Call Web Terror: Summons a web cocoon. After a cast time, hatches into a Web Terror add that casts an interruptible AoE stun. This is the single most important thing in the entire fight. Kill this ASAP, preferably BEFORE it hatches! The spider that comes out retains damage done to the cocoon but has like twice the hp so...yeah.

Talking as a BM hunter ilvl 599 with a lvl 27 Healer Brann, this fight was ROUGH. Even with the talents to give your pet a damage reduction via Misdirect and the talent to buff Mend Pet healing, AND a Clefthoof pet (Blood of the Rhino healing buff), Zekvir was TRUCKING my pet...even with constant mends, there were times where he would one-tap my pet from full to like 20% instantly. Things that help though are that Disengage removes the DoT (cuz its a Snare), and Brann's potions heal your pet too.

SAVE YOUR DPS CD'S FOR THE COCOONS. They are far more important than dps'ing the boss.

Good luck!

And just to add for those curious (do note that THIS IS NOT NEEDED FOR THE BEETLE MOUNT):

On ?? mode, Zekvir has like 195mill hp solo, and many of his abilities do FAR more damage and are cast faster. The cocoons have a lot more hp as well. He also gets a new ability:

Regenerating Carapace: Interruptible cast that restores 10% of his hp if not stoppedd.

At 60%, he enters phase 2, going through a transition sequence that makes him mostly immune to damage till he fully transitions. In p2, the following changes take place:

Horrendous Roar is now Infinite Horror: If you fail to escape it, you are feared PERMANENTLY

Regenerating Carapace becomes Blood-Infused Carapace: Zekvir now heals for 25% if not stopped.

He also gets 2 new moves in p2:

Unending Spines: Spikes come out of swirlies on the ground. Dodge them.

Void Portals: Sets up 4 portals. Walking in one pops you out of another.

Mount-wise, clearing ?? mode solo unlocks the Void skin for the Delver's Dirigible mount.

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Enjoy your beetle!

[Magnakilro]

I will also add for ?- mode zekvir that I do not presently have any set bonuses. No real food buffs either other than brann setting up a campfire after I Feign'ed out of a failed attempt. No enchants or gems either....just me, my 599 ilvl, a lvl 27 healer Brann equipped with the Porcelain Arrow and Amorphous thing as his curios....and a big beautiful clefthoof. It took MANY tries but I WAS able to do it. I feel; DPS Brann could be possible too, especially with his ability to insta-kill low hp mobs sometimes, but I felt having the potions to help heal my pet was more ideal.