Elder Scrolls Online: Guide To The Black Drake Villa Dungeon

Unlike other MMOs, The Elder Scrolls Online doesn’t shy away from immersing players with the rather deep lore of its franchise, with some of its dungeons and raids containing some of the more niche aspects of its world’s history that not even NPCs nor its popularly-lengthy books contain. Such an example of a lore-diving dungeon in Elder Scrolls Online is the Black Drake Villa Dungeon, named supposedly after former Emperor Durcorach, or the Black Drake.

When players meet quest-giver Eveli Sharp-Arrow, they have to accompany her in a race to find a valuable book tucked deep within the ancient library under the former Emperor’s villa. And unfortunately for players, this dungeon is filled with rather dangerous traps and puzzles. However, just how can players of Elder Scrolls Online prevail against the Black Drake Villa’s threats?

The Black Drake Villa Location

Before players proceed to defeating the horrors that await inside the Black Drake Villa, it may be best to get a rough idea of its location first. This group dungeon is located on the Gold Coast, located just northwest of Kvatch and along Varen’s Wall. Players can only play the Black Drake Villa Dungeon after acquiring the Flames of Ambition DLC.

Upon a arrival, they’ll encounter a scout named Eveli Sharp-Arrow who tasks the player’s help in accompanying her in finding an ancient book hidden within the Villa’s library. Her quest “Burning Secrets” will involve killing its bosses in exchange for gold, one Skill Point, and one Unidentified Black Drake Villa Armaments coffer.

Mobs And Monsters

Various monsters and creatures plague the Black Drake Villa Dungeon in a player’s gameplay of The Elder Scrolls Online. While these creatures appear sporadically throughout the dungeon’s many locales, there’s a general set of monsters that block the player’s path as they progress they way to the dungeon’s many bosses. Here are the minor mobs players should expect:

Ironeye Goblins (Firebrand, Marauder, Ravager, Shaman, Sorcerer): These are standard-fair melee and ranged opponents.
True-Sworn (Cauterizer, Flame Hound, Knight, Reaver, Scout): They are first encountered trying to burn down the Villa and have to be fought in numerous occasions.
Minotaurs: They are heavy-duty creatures that can deal moderate damage when in close range. It’s advisable for players to deal with Minotaurs from afar to avoid their devastating fire AOE attacks.
Burning Specter: These are fiery specters that players can attack from afar but deal moderate damage.
Salamanders (Frigid, Grotto, Blazing): These are elemental salamanders that deal moderate AOE.
Mudcrabs: These are standard-fair mudcrabs.
River Trolls: While they don’t have special attacks, they do come with Frigid Salamanders. They deal moderate damage but their ice AOEs can be particularly debilitating.
Fire Behemoth: These fire elemental creatures deal a lot of damage if not avoided.

Special Condition: Ice Avatar Transformation

Throughout the dungeon, players can step on platforms and activate an Ice Avatar Transformation by having at least 150 Ultimate. This causes the appearance of a unique buff that can upgrade the player’s Elder Scrolls experience for this dungeon by adding ice damage to their skills and even have a shot at interrupting everything with frost damage, including the skills of bosses.

Since Avatar Synergy Plates all exist in boss chambers, players may want to save up their Ultimate to tap into this transformation when fighting them. At its core, this transformation provides these benefits:

Boosted Health, Stamina, Magicka
Boosted movement speed
Immunity to crowd control effects
Whiteout Synergy: This freezes enemies in place while reviving dead allies instantly as well as providing healing
Frostkin Summon: Collecting another Avatar Fragment in this transformation will summon a Frostkin to fight for players for a short duration

Boss 1: Kinras Ironeye

The Minotaur named Kinras Ironeye is the first major boss players will encounter in the Black Drake Villa. He blocks a gate that leads further into the Villa, with the fight taking place in a rather open environment. Thanks to the Avatar Synergy Plate in the room, players can easily tap into the Ice Avatar Transformation to get the upper hand especially with its capability of blocking even Kinras’ unforgiving attacks.

Boss Mechanics

Fiery Stomp: This mace attack will leave the floor in a fiery state, potentially dealing moderate damage to players who stay there.
Heavy Attack: This is a push-back heavy attack that can be blocked in melee and dodge-rolled in range. Being hit means getting thrown away and knocked down, making this one of the deadlier Heavy Attacks possessed by an Elder Scrolls Online boss.
Fireballs: These are three fireballs that will move from across the boss. This is best avoided if the boss is tanked in the direction opposite the party.
Fire Totem: When Kinras summons a Totem, it can cast Totemic Flame which deals moderate Fire Damage.
Salamander Minion: A salamander will usually appear and attack the players. Also accompanying the salamander are fires from the nearby grates. Its Aura can disable damage coming to friendlies inside it while boosting its allies’ DPS, which means it’s imperative to keep this aura away from the boss.
Shout: When Kinras shouts in the salamander’s presence, it will try to walk towards him and affect it with its aura.
Lava Floor: At around 80% HP, Kinras will slam the ground and force fire to erupt from the ground at random locations. Players can avoid this by running around.
Weapon Throw: At around 75% and 30% HP, Kinras will throw his weapon around the room. At this point, the room can cause extra fire damage to affect players.

Hard Mode Mechanics

Volcano: This melee attack will spawn a small volcano that continuously releases lava unless a strong-enough tank can stand on top of it to take on damage until it lasts.
Geyser Spawn: This geyser will eventually explode and affect a small AOE with high burst damage.
Fire Chains: Kinras can summon chains of fire that will stop a random ally’s movement. This has to be interrupted during the player’s Elder Scrolls Online gameplay. The chains are usually followed by a geyser in that ally’s position.

Strategies

Players need to be on top of their exploration game considering that the Minotaur has quite a lot of AOEs and damaging effects that come from different locations. It’s ideal that the tank ensures Kinras stays in one spot while the rest of the team moves around to avoid his attacks. Some more specific strategies include:

Constantly reposition Kinras: As with other games with tanks, it’s advisable for the team’s tank to keep Kinras facing away from the team at all times. This ensures that his AOEs are directed to the tank’s direction and can be mitigated while not damaging many members of the team.
Keep an eye on grates, ground, weapons: When Kinras summons his Salamanders, fire jets will likely shoot from the side grates. Players should keep an eye on which grates will spawn these jets to avoid them. His ground pound attack may also summon a spike from the floor that can knock players away. Likewise, Kinras in his unarmed state will likely rush for his weapon, so the tank needs to simply follow suit and reposition him once more.
Eliminate Salamander Minions: When Kinras summons his Salamanders, it’s best to eliminate them as soon as possible. After all, once Kinras calls for them, the Salamanders will rush to his side and will buff his damage, making him much deadlier.

Boss 2: Captain Geminus

When players venture much deeper into the Black Drake Villa, they will eventually encounter Captain Geminus in an open arena-style interior room. This archer-type boss will fight with bows and daggers, making her tough to outpace without the necessary preparation. Again, there’s an Avatar Synergy Plate nearby that players can use to tap into the Ice Avatar mode. In this form, they can time a Whiteout that cancels Geminus’s teleport and dagger throw attacks that are usually among her deadliest abilities.

Boss Mechanics

Heavy Attack: This is a sweeping attack that serves as the boss’s Heavy Attack. It’s recommended players dodge or block this attack if possible.
Cyclone Lightning Cone: This AOE unleashes lightning orbs in a cone that deal moderate damage over time to enemies.
Stun Trap: These traps stun the target while dealing moderate damage over time. The traps can be dodged.
Tectonic Attack: This slamming attack will knock down players it hits. She usually does this after teleporting near a player, which gives everyone room to spread out and roll away from the attack.
Shade Summon: Geminus can summon up to four Shades or decoys, which then starts channeling an attack to a player. The target will have a circle that slowly fills up, after which it unleashes a powerful burst attack. The Shades must be defeated for the spell to stop.
Damage Debuff: Geminus can debuff a player that boosts their damage taken.

Seismic Defense: When Geminus reaches 70% and 30% Health, she will go to the center of the field and protect herself by sending various seismic tremors to delay the enemy. Players should avoid these if possible, which is doable courtesy of dodges that apply typical Skyrim mechanics.
Dagger Throw: After Geminus retreats to the center, she will attack the tank first with a thrown dagger followed by more dagger attacks. These can be blocked and avoided by avoiding facing her.
Air Atronarch: During Geminus’s retreat ot the center, she will summon an Air Atronarch to boost her defense.
Flame Hounds: At some point in the game, Geminus may also summon Flame Hounds that deal massive damage to the group. If possible, the team’s tank should taunt these Hounds. If summoned alongside the Atronarch, the Flame Hounds must be eliminated first.

Hard Mode Mechanics

Compared to other bosses, Captain Geminus doesn’t receive any special attacks during her Hard Mode iteration. However, players of this Elder Scrolls Online dungeon should anticipate a massive increase to her Health aside from her overall damage. This means players should stay wary of her aimed attacks and dodge as often as possible.

Strategies

Given the sheer speed of this boss, Geminus can be a tough creature to handle especially with her quick repositioning yet frequency of her AOE attacks. It’s advisable that not only do the tank keep her away from the party at all times but that the team coordinate their resources to attack in between her fastest moves. To be more specific:

Shades become priority: Whenever Geminus summons her shades via her Elder Scrolls ability, these should become the main targets of the rest of the team. Interrupting and destroying them as soon as possible can ensure not a lot of mines are activated, and therefore reduce potential damage.
Use invulnerability to the team’s advantage: While Geminus being invulnerable at some point in the match is a bummer, players can use this to their advantage. Instead of simply waiting out the duration, they can lure the Air Atronach near the shade so the group can dish out AOE damage and destroy them. It’s important to interrupt the lightning attacks of the shades for minimal damage.
Move away from the Dagger Throw: When Geminus retreats to the center and prepares her Dagger Throw, everyone but the tank should move away immediately. Getting struck within the attack’s conical position can one-shot most non-tanks. It’s ideal to keep Geminus facing spots between active shades and summoned hounds. With these creatures also having the tank’s attention, the rest of the team can attack them with AOE more conveniently.

Boss 3: Pyroturge Encratis

Serving as the final boss in the Black Drake Villa Dungeon, players enjoying this part of their Elder Scrolls Online experience may be thrilled to face Pyroturge Encratis as a mage combatant. Given his nature as a boss, it’s expected that even the environment may move to his favor. However, the fact that the second phase of his fight involves a completely different moveset that makes him especially deadly for the unprepared.

Boss Mechanics

Fire Snacks: Encratis will summon fire snakes from his center mass that deals moderate damage to targets.
Fire Salamanders: Encratis will first unleash a fire breath to the tank in front of him before summoning fire salamanders. They will race around the battlefield before exploding to a target. They can’t be targeted, although this is more as a game mechanic and not because they’re rare Elder Scrolls creatures.
Inferno Ring: Encratis will surround himself with a ring of fire that deals damage to nearby opponents. He summons ghosts to attack other opponents for the duration of this ability.
Fire Storm: The mage will set everything but the center of the room on fire. During this attack, Encratis also summons a Fire Behemoth to protect him. Encratis’s location at the center of the room is the only safe zone, meaning players need to rush to his place and attack him alongside the Behemoth to stay alive.
Library Rush: At 65% Health, Encratis destroys the wall behind him and retreats further into the library while hurling fire at players. This stops until he’s attacked once more. His Health reverts to 75% in this phase.
Arena Inferno: Throughout the game, Encratis may engulf the upper area with fire. This forces players to either jump down and wait this out or use the geysers to leap upward and attack both Encratis and his Behemoth.
Fire Spear: Now with a fiery spear, Encratis may attack a target with it. The spear then explodes into a cone of fire that hits everyone behind his target. This attack can be avoided.

Hard Mode Mechanics

More Ghosts: When Encratis surrounds himself with the Inferno Ring, he summons 4 Ghosts instead of the usual pair that accompany him.
Fire Storm: Unlike the original version that disappears after its set duration, some fiery dragon heads will remain spewing out fire. Players should avoid facing these as they deal heavy damage.

Strategies

Given the nature of Encratis as a dungeon boss, players should strategically dish out damage while maintaining a relatively safe distance to avoid AOEs. It’s ideal for everyone except the tank to avoid facing Encratis at all times, and it’s especially important to dodge or avoid his AOEs during the second half of the combat phase. Here are some other tips for players to follow throughout this encounter:

Prioritize AOE in first phase: During the first phase of combat, players will largely face Encratis alone. This should leave a lot of spaces for movement on the parts of players, especially if they lure Encratis to the center of the room. It’s ideal they dish out AOEs against him as often as possible.
Prioritize positioning in second phase: When Encratis initiatives his second phase, it’s ideal for everyone to prioritize positioning first and only attacking when there’s absolutely no room for counter-attacks
Watch out for Salamanders: Various forms of Salamanders may spawn throughout the boss fight. Most of them are relatively weak but annoying in numbers. However, players should watch out for Salamanders that rush to players as they deal moderate damage, and the Burning Salamanders can stack up damage much faster when not dealt with.

Secret Boss 1: Avatar Of Zeal

When players enter the Estate Grounds in their Elder Scrolls gameplay, the Avatar of Zeal is an enemy available for fighting. It’s ideal for players to kill the mob surrounding the estate beforehand in order to ensure there are no interruptions in combat. The Avatar of Zeal is an Indrik - a creature that looks like a purple deer with crystallized parts. As a boss, the Avatar fights more like a mini-boss with minimal mechanics.

Accessing The Boss

In order to access the Avatar of Zeal, players need to first activate four pressure plates throughout the main part of the Villa. They’re largely located near the left and right borders of the main entryway and are not located within Kinras’s domain. Upon activation, the plates will reveal a trapdoor to the far north of the Villa just in front of the north most pressure plate. This trapdoor descends into a cave-like structure where the Zeal waits at the end.

Boss Mechanics

Frost Beam: If player are around the same area, the Avatar will unleash a beam of frost akin to a Skyrim Ice Spear that attacks everything in line of sight. The tank is advised to stay away from the team so the Frost Beam only hits them.
Stun Indrik: The Avatar will unleash spectral Indriks that stun players who make contact with them. These can be dodged.
Ice Aura: The Avatar will deal moderate damage to a target player, who then emits a damaging frost aura that affects nearby allies.
Teleportation: The Avatar can periodically reposition itself to face another player. The tank should be wary of this ability so they can retake the aggro.

Strategies

Compared to other bosses, defeating the Avatar of Zeal is an extremely straightforward endeavor due to its rather transparent mechanics. At its core, it’s ideal for tanks to hold the Avatar of Zeal in position so the rest of the team can secure their AOEs. Whenever the Avatar tries to teleport away, tanks should follow suit to maintain aggression. Given the predictable nature of the Avatar’s attacks, much of them can be blocked and aren’t even extremely damaging.

Echo Of Zeal

Defeating the Avatar of Zeal unlocks a buff called the Echo of Zeal. When equipped, this buff boosts the spell and weapon damage of players by 50, with the acquisition of Avatar Fragments being capable of boosting this up to 350. This attack buff is extremely important not just for the other bosses but also for Hard Mode encounters.

Secret Boss 2: Avatar Of Vigor

The Avatar of Vigor is the second optional boss players can encounter in the Black Drake Villa, this time taking the form of a floating maiden of frost. Her nature as a magic user makes her extremely dangerous at first glance, but can become rather easy to deal with as soon as players understand how to keep the rest of the party away from danger.

Accessing The Boss

As with the other Avatars, the Avatar of Vigor is accessible only after completing a puzzle. Upon defeating Kinras Ironeye and entering the Grand Archive, players will see a room with four statues. Of these four, two of them will have glowing orbs called Guardian Orbs. Players need to find the remaining orbs for the other eyes.

Players need to split into teams of two and proceed to the stairs on each side, giving them access to rooms with the same layout. Two players should pull the lever on each room simultaneously to unlock an upstairs area with book cases. Near these cases are pressure plates, which should be stepped on simultaneously to get their respective Guardian Orbs. Upon returning to the first room, players should put the Guardian Orbs in the empty bowls to open a path in the room’s center, leading them to a cave that has a monolith at the end that triggers the boss encounter.

Boss Mechanics

Heavy Attack: This is a straightforward heavy attack that can deal heavy damage, although this is something players used to Skyrim’s combat can easily dodge.
Geyser Eruption: The Avatar can spawn 3 Geysers that erupt after a few seconds. This deals moderate damage to players nearby, but can be avoided through sidestepping.

Strategies

Similar to the Avatar of Zeal, the Avatar of Vigor can be defeated by the same tanking mechanics. Tanks should keep the Avatar of Vigor facing them and away from allies as much as possible so they can focus on dealing AOE damage as often as possible. The rest of the team should take note whenever the Avatar summons Geysers as they can be annoying to deal with even if they’re avoidable via dodging. Keeping one’s distance and avoiding damage as often as possible can make this boss fight more convenient for players.

Echo Of Vigor

Defeating the Avatar of Vigor unlocks a special aura called the Echo of Vigor. Players who have this equipped will get a 200 point boost in Stamina and Magicka Recovery, which is extremely useful when fighting bosses especially from the perspective of skill rotations. Acquiring Avatar Fragments can boost this buff up to 500 points.

Secret Boss 3: Avatar Of Fortitude

Although resembling the typical Frost Atronarch, the Avatar of Fortitude feels like a more upgraded reskin with its darker look and red highlights. Unlike the other bosses, the Avatar of Fortitude prefers going in melee and overwhelming enemies with harsh attacks. Players should ideally focus on getting the Avatar’s attention elsewhere and stop its attacks with the Ice Transformation, which should leave it available for powerful AOE attacks.

Accessing The Boss

Again like the other Avatars, the Avatar of Fortitude is only accessible in the Black Drake Villa Dungeon via an Elder Scrolls puzzle. Players can start looking for the Avatar just before the fight with Captain Geminus, specifically within the chamber before her arena. This room should have two statues and a locked gate opposite it, where to the front often locked gate are two levers and pressure plates. Pulling the levers simultaneously unlocks the gate, which then leads to two staircases leading to different balconies.

These balconies will have small locked rooms containing orbs, with gates having pressure plates nearby. Standing on these pressure plates will trigger nearby statues, with control pads available for other players to use. Players should use the statues to go to the pressure plates near the first gate, which should then unlock the small rooms with orbs. After acquiring these orbs, players should go to the bookcases and place the orbs there, which should then unlock a secret pathway that leads to the boss.

Boss Mechanics

Heavy Attack: This is a straightforward heavy attack that can be blocked for damage mitigation.
Projectiles: These are projectiles that aim to attack the whole party. They should be dodged or blocked, as these stack up to high damage numbers.

Strategies

Unlike the other Avatars in this Elder Scrolls Online dungeon, the Avatar of Fortitude is a rather straightforward opponent to face given its hard melee setup. Tanks are still advised to keep the Avatar on their toes via damage mitigation and threat generation, with the rest of the team taking it out from afar via their respective damaging rotations. It’s important for tanks and the rest of the team to keep their damage mitigation and sustains up throughout this duration, as the Avatar still hits hard when up close. Its projectiles also home in on the entire party, meaning players need to time their attacks and dodges when tackling these homing icicles.

Echo Of Fortitude

Securing the defeat of the Avatar of Fortitude will secure the Echo of the same name. The Echo of Fortitude buff will provide players with a 500 point boost to maximum Health. This might seem minimal, but Avatar Fragments can boost this buff to add as much as a 3500 Health increase. This buff can be extremely helpful when facing the other bosses, especially on Hard Mode where they get a massive health boost.

Secret Boss 4: Sentinel Aksalaz

As the secret final boss in the dungeon, Sentinel Aksalaz is a rather terrifying opponent to face. Unlike the other Avatars, Aksalaz appears as a warrior clad in blue armor and wielding a large axe. Players only have five shots at defeating this boss, lest it just disappears and the dungeon ends normally. In this scenario, players need to reset the dungeon and fulfill all summoning conditions again to fight this boss.

Accessing The Boss

The final secret boss of the dungeon is rather easy to access, provided all Elder Scrolls players participating in the Black Drake Villa Dungeon have fulfilled certain requirements. For instance, all main bosses and other secret bosses must be defeated beforehand. Moreover, each party member should have at least 30 Avatar Fragments each for a total of 120 Fragments. When these conditions are met, the Avatar Artefact in the final boss chamber should have bowls beside it. Each player must place 30 Avatar Fragments on every bowl on the side. Once this is fulfilled, Sentinel Aksalaz spawns in the middle of the arena.

Boss Mechanics

Summon Avatar: At specific Health, the Sentinel will summon the previous Avatars at half Health. These occur every 85% (Zeal), 60% (Vigor), and 35% (Fortitude). They come with all their base abilities, meaning players need to deal with their abilities on top of the Sentinel’s.
Heavy Axe Attack: This is a straightforward heavy melee attack. It does a lot of damage, so players should block this.
Icicle Slash: The Sentinel slashes forward and then sends three icicles in a cone position. This can be dodged.
Homing Icicles: Another variation of the icicle attack, the Sentinel summons icicles with his axe that follow players until they stop. Players should only stop moving by the time the icicles expire or they will deal a lot of damage.
Frostkin: The Sentinel will summon Frostkin that serve as backup, with this attack making his toolkit similar to other Elder Scrolls World Bosses.
Frost Nova: The Sentinel will teleport to the center of the room before summoning tornadoes that move around the ring. He then summons a powerful nova to trap players in this deadly storm. Players should go to locations between the outer ring and the tornadoes to stay safe.
Execution Phase: At 25%, the Sentinel will shrink the area based on the health he loses. The outer edges of the arena will be covered with a damaging ice storm, while the grates will begin firing ice towards players.

Hard Mode

Ice Meteor: One player becomes the target of the Ice Meteor, symbolized by the large circle around them. This player should move away from the group to avoid hitting everyone else. More players will be targeted the longer the fight happens, until all players are targeted by meteors.
Frostbite: This is a damage-over-time that can deal a lot of damage should players get hit by the Icicle Slash and/or the Homing Icicles.

Strategies

Despite its size, Sentinel Aksalaz hits for moderate to heavy damage, meaning all players should have some means of sustainability or damage mitigation. Due to this damage threat, tanks must capture the Sentinel’s attention at all times in order to sponge the most damage while the rest of the team tries to take it out. Whenever the Sentinem summons its Frostkins, these should be the priority as their numbers can overwhelm players pretty quickly. Thankfully, the Sentinel isn’t programmed to check the DPS of players with the Frostkins active, meaning players can kill the Frostkins with heavy attacks and not steal the Sentinel’s attention from the tank. During the Ice Meteor phase, players should try finding a secure place and never overlap with other players as this could take them out quickly.

The Necrom Chapter of The Elder Scrolls Online is slated for a June 5, 2023 release.

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