Castle Never Strategy Guide: Tal’Gath & Cthylarr

In this multi-part series we are going to talk about mastering the newest dungeon addition: Castle Never. Although it is being stomped by well-geared teams, it can present a challenge to everyone else and there is stuff to pay attention to, especially if you are not running with an almighty Paladin. After dealing with general information about trash mobs in the first post, we look into the first two bosses in this piece.

Tal’Gath the Undying

Tal'Gath
Tal’Gath

The big head known from the original version of Castle Never is the first and most basic boss of the dungeon. It’s pretty much only a big AoE dodge party in which you need to pay attention to three attacks. The first one is a hard-hitting AoE line that splits the room from east to west and needs to be avoided. The other two are from the boss, who can disable players with a roar and kill everyone but a tank with his AoE circles. These circles also apply a debuff to anyone standing in it even if the target does not take an damage. Because of this you should avoid dodging into the area as DPS. The debuff plays a role in the boss’ third attack, which is a laser that does ~20k damage sporadically, but several 100k if debuffed.

Overall I like that the devs continued their approach to train certain mechanics of the last boss in easier content. In Underdark they have done it with the skirmishes, which included the mechanics used in Demogorgon, and in Castle Never you’ll meet most of the boss mechanics of Orcus along the way as well. The one introduced in the Tal’Gath fight is linking/bonding two players that are slowly dragged towards each other for several seconds. If they touch they get thrown in the air and take a significant amount of damage. Affected players should move into opposite direction and avoid contact. The party should also spread properly to be able to react fast enough.

Cthylarr the Illithilich

Cthylarr
Cthylarr

The second boss mainly requires the correct moving pattern from the group. In the cutscene the camera pans to the ceiling and reveals spikes. The room inverts every so often and in case players were standing beneath the spikes, they fall into them. They hit hard and disable characters, making you an easy target for the otherwise not very challenging adds. Those spawn directly next to the player holding the aggro though whenever the room flips, so be prepared to block or dodge.

The spike pattern changes with every room change, so make sure to check the ceiling and position yourself correctly.

With these tip and hints, you should have no problem with the first two bosses of Castle Never and next time we’ll be dealing with Orcus! Make sure to add your own remarks in the comments below or in the corresponding forum thread. Used pictures taken from this blog and I’d also like to thank Sharpedge for contributing to this guide.

j0Shi

j0Shi plays the Neverwinter MMORPG since the open BETA in 2013 and is a regular contributor to the blog and the whole UN:Project. Originally a Guardian Fighter, he has built up ALTs of all classes and plays on BIS/near-BIS level.