Verdant Brink was released with Heart of Thorns (HoT) content. Compared to all of the previous maps we were exposed to, this map along with the others from HoT kicked up the 3D chess game. Want to know more about this area and it's meta? Let's get started!
First and foremost, I HIGHLY recommend to get a mount of some type.
Preferably one that can scale vertically. Trust me, it will make your
visit way easier. It wouldn't hurt to unlock the basics of the glider
either because sometimes you'll find yourself falling through the canopy, to
your death. If a mount won't work, at least get some points dumped
into gliding.
This map has 3 phases: day, dusk/night, and night. During the day phase, you work on getting each zone "secured". Once dusk/night hits, you will need to head to a main waypoint and build up the defenses there. To do this, you will have to fight waves of Mordremoth enemies while holding the perimeter. In between these phases, you will have the ability to seek out Pact Supplies in the area which can upgrade that outpost (can upgrade during the fight too). Getting an outpost to at least tier 3 helps the defense phases significantly, but not required. As long as one outpost is held, the bosses will be accessible. There are a total of 5 bosses that happen. In general, the order goes as such:
- Matriarch Wyvern - Pact Encampment Waypoint [&BAgIAAA=]
- Patriarch Wyvern - Shrouded Ruins Waypoint [&BAEIAAA=]
- Frogs - Jaka Itzel Waypoint [&BOAHAAA=]
- Axemaster - Faren's Flyer Waypoint [&BO8HAAA=]
- Triad - Mellaggan's Valor Waypoint [&BNUHAAA=]
One of the important things to point out for this map and it's meta: try to get all of the events done in each "zone". In total, there are 5 zones, shown in the map here.
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Zones are color-coded: green, red, purple, white, and blue |
When you successfully progress the map events, you increase the amount of rally points accessible per zone. Each zone can have up to 4 rally points, totaling in 20 injection points for the fight up top. The more rally points held, the higher in tier progress the map will be.
Noble Crash Site
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Located in the southwestern part of the map |
This is located in the southwestern area of the map, with the main waypoint
at Faren's Flyer Waypoint [&BO8HAAA=]. After a few runs of this, the best outpost rally point is the one
at the top of the spire (vertically up from the waypoint). The meta
for the pre-nightly phase goes as such:
- Clear hostiles from the nobles' crash site
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Extricate stranded nobles from vine chambers and escort them to safety
(total of 9)
- Aid the servants as they construct a camp
- Escort rescued nobles to the Pact crash site
- Defend the Pact encampment against hylek attacks
- Salvage scrap from the crashed Pact airship for Bongo to reinforce the outpost
- Help Faren train to be a swordsmaster
- Escort the nobles to the highland ruins
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Defeat the wyvern so the Pact helicopter can land (NOTE: this last step
can end up being in a vicious cycle so don't get stuck in this loop)
Honestly, if you start from the beginning, it all flows from one to the next. If you're joining somewhere in the midst of this meta chain, everything is near the main waypoint. Just look around for the notification of a nearby event or head to the orange areas on the map.
Pale Reaver Rally Site
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| Located in the southeastern part of the map |
This is located in the southeastern area of the map, with the main waypoint
at Shipwreck Peak Waypoint [&BN4HAAA=]. Head southwest towards one of the potential rally points.
This is where the meta for the pre-nightly phase starts and proceeds as
such:
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Destroy the Mordrem breachers to cut off enemy reinforcements (total of
5)
- Plant explosives from the crashed choppers on the colossal vine's weak points
- Escort Laranthir and Skybreaker into the ruins
- Keep enemies away from Skybreaker while she plants explosives
- Escort Laranthir and Skybreaker through the ruins
- Destroy the colossal vine
It is worth running this particular meta all the way through (or mostly) because once night falls, the Shrouded Ruins Waypoint [&BAEIAAA=] will have a chopper right there. This means faster return to the fight in case you die. With that said, it is ideal to defend this particular rally point outpost out of all the potentials for this region.
Jaka Itzel Site
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| Located in the northeastern part of the map |
This is located in the northeastern area of the map, with the main waypoint being Jaka Itzel Waypoint [&BOAHAAA=]. Be careful on navigating the bridges because you will fall off. Overall this outpost feels the slowest to complete fully. The pre-nightly phase goes as such:
- Defeat the Mordrem invaders to clear the village
- Fill the Itzel villagers' food baskets with insect larvae
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Help Itzel Hunters defeat creatures. Keep Itzel Hunters alive (this
happens twice in a row)
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Douse the fires to save the village (look for the fires in the red
circles)
- Stop sun zealots from indoctrinating the Itzel
- Defeat the hylek zealots and their converts
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Steal the wyvern's eggs (TIP: go to the platform on the south side of the
Lore Seeker Utogi NPC. The wyverns are not as annoying as the north side -
aka don't go to the platform with the Hero Point).
- Use collected eggs to sabotage the hostile Zintl camp
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Slay the Wyvern!
As long as the main outpost at Jaka Itzel Waypoint survives, you should be fine. This particular main outpost will be just south of the waypoint listed, across the gap. Luckily, the waypoint doesn't get contested during the night phase.
The Ordnance Corps Site
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| Located in the northwestern part of the map |
This main outpost is located at Mellaggan's Valor Waypoint [&BNUHAAA=], located in the northwestern part of the map. These pre-nightly
meta steps can be a bit tricky to deal with, but mostly they flow right
into the next step:
- Clear hostiles from the Ordnance Corps outpost
- Defend Tactician Pitto as she builds a defensive tower
- Defend Tactician Quickweld as he builds a defensive tower
- Defend Tactician Devonnah as she builds a defensive tower
- Defend the Corps cavern outpost
- Defend Baroosh and secure the Ordnance Corps crash site
- Defend the Ordnance Corps airship
- Defend the Pact tower (will repeat until nightfall)
- Salvage damaged armaments to build bombs
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Plant bombs to destroy the Blighting Tree
From running this a few times, I can honestly say DO NOT AFK HERE. You might think that the waypoint zone is safe, but it isn't. If you absolutely need to afk here, get on a Skyscale and climb up into the air. There's a lot of activity here once the outpost is fully completed. As long as the main rally point is kept, you can use it for fast traveling to the canopy.
Pact Encampment Site
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| Located in the middle of the map |
This is the big focal point of this map, smack dab in the middle.
Pact Encampment Waypoint [&BAgIAAA=]
is usually held due to this being the location for the Wyvern Matriarch
fight. For these pre-nightly meta events, everything focuses around
this waypoint:
- Clear the Pact Camp of Mordrem
- Escort the chief engineer to safety
- Escort the master-at-arms to safety
- Escort the ship's doctor to safety
- Encourage the Pact Encampment defenders to pick a leader (it doesn't matter who is picked)
- Safeguard survivors attempting to reach the Pact Encampment
- Help calibrate the Mordrem early warning system
- Recover cannon components from the wreckage
- Rescue the captive sylvari from vigilantes
- Question sylvari refugees and determine where their loyalties lie
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Destroy tendril and their source
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I have rarely found a map or a time where this outpost isn't
secured. As long as someone is here keeping the rally point safe,
the chopper will appear. It would be best for you to know where the
choppers are in this area JUST in case the one right below the waypoint
isn't available. If, however, there are no available choppers BUT
you want to get to the matriarch fight, head to the patriarch chopper
location. Once you get up to the top, jump off the northwest corner
and head downwards. You'll see the platform there. Check the
map provided in the legendary and champion boss section down below.
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- Usually aiming for tier 4 or higher is ideal due to the rewards given, but that doesn't always happen. As long as outposts are held, you'll have access to the boss fights up top. In order to get to tier 4 or more, a coordinated map is needed.
Legendary and Champion Boss Fights
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Red = triad | Blue = Axemaster | Pink = Matriarch | Green = Frogs |
Purple = Patriarch |
Needless to say, this map still gains some sort of popularity to those who park an alt character on the Wyvern Matriarch platform and destroy the boss before others can manage to get up there. My best advice is to head to the Pact Encampment Waypoint [&BAgIAAA=] as soon as the map says the choppers are arriving or shortly before. This way, you'll have time to find an open chopper to clamber up and fight this boss. Keep an eye out for the ground effects.
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Legendary Wyvern Matriarch |
For the Wyvern Patriarch, this fight tends to take a little longer to do. You can find this legendary fight at Shrouded Ruins Waypoint [&BAEIAAA=] or one of the outposts in area. At 75%, 50%, and 25% health, the wyvern becomes invulnerable and takes off. He soon comes back and sets the entire platform on fire. There will be a shield that needs to be broken, in which you fall/glide down, pick up an egg, go back up, and drop it on him. Eventually the shield breaks and you can safely land on the platform, allowing you to dish out some pain. Do not get on your mount if you have an egg. You HAVE to be on a glider in order to drop the egg on the patriarch.
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Legendary Wyvern Patriarch |
There are 2 giant frogs that need their butts kicked. To gain access to these 2 champions, head to Jaka Itzel Waypoint [&BOAHAAA=] chopper and head upwards once up top. To fight them, I usually aim for the bigger one due to the abilities it has. At some point, whichever one is being attacked the most will pop out for healing a little bit. While it does that, focus your attention to the other frog. Luckily you don't have to defeat both within a time period of each other.
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Champion Frogs |
The Axemaster has a few smokescales in tow. Head to Faren's Flyer Waypoint [&BO8HAAA=] and go straight up the spire. This champion drops pretty fast when a handful of players show up, so be semi quick to get there. He tends to move around so be careful when going after him or else you might fall off.
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Champion Axemaster |
The triad consists of 3 champions that kind of stick together on a small platform. Head to Mellaggan's Valor Waypoint [&BNUHAAA=] and go up. Just like the frogs, you don't have to kill them within a certain time limit of each other. Once you kill the last one, a legendary will show up. Try not to get out of the circle on the platform (you'll know what I'm talking about when you get there). If you do, it is REALLY hard to get back inside the area due to a barrier that pushes you away.
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Champion Triad |
Happy hunting!