Fort Forinthry is under siege! Take a stand against Zemouregal and protect your Fort and the rest of Misthalin in this brand new quest and boss bottle, arriving November 20th.
Confront the undead hordes and face down the combined might of Zemouregal and Vorkath in a deadly final duel!
- Battle Vorkath, Zemouregal and his army of undead minions in a new quest and repeatable boss encounter.
- Earn powerful new rewards like T92 Ranged Armour and a Necromancy Incantation.
- The new boss can be fought with any combat style across three difficulties - Story, Normal and Hard mode. Take him on alone or with a group of up to 10 players!
- Join in the Vorkath Hunt for Shards and earn new Necromancy weapon overrides!
Upon the freezing shores of Ungael, Zemouregal has awoken the ancient dragon Vorkath - now he intends to use this new-found power to wipe your Fort clean off the map. This would allow the full might of his undead armies to crash into the realms of Misthalin and sow chaos!
With the undead pounding at the gates and a menacing shadow looming overhead, it’s time to ready your forces and prepare yourself for an onslaught. First you’ll need to complete the Fort Forinthry storyline up to Ancient Awakening, and have a Necromancy level of 60. Here's the full list of requirements:
- Quests
- New Foundations
- Murder On The Border
- Unwelcome Guests
- Dead and Buried
- Ancient Awakening
- Skills
- 60 Necromancy
- 50 Construction (required for Fort Forinthry Quests)
- 10 Slayer (required for Fort Forinthry Quests
- Other
- T1(+) Grove Cabin (Fort Forinthry)
- T1(+) Botanist's Bench (Fort Forinthry)
Quest and Battle
To get started, begin the Battle of Forinthry quest, which will take you through to the Story Mode version of the boss, unlocking the Normal and Hard versions on completion.
The climactic showdown takes place just outside the walls of Fort Forinthry; hope you built ‘em high and sturdy! You’ll be defending the walls, pushing back the undead hordes and stomping out three places of power which Zemouregal is using to empower Vorkath. You’ll be guided through the entire process of disrupting the power, so make sure you don’t skip the dialogue here. Finally, you’ll take the battle to the Necromancer himself - and his scary new 'pet'.
With Story Mode complete you can challenge the boss again and again, by yourself or in a group. Simply interact with the commemorative statue in your Fort’s Town Hall to go another round!
Want a deeper dive into the particulars of battle? Let's look at the two phases of the encounter: the siege phase and the boss phase.
Siege Phase
This phase sees you facing off against hordes of the undead as they advance on the walls of your Fort. It's not necessarily just a case of smashing through them, though - remember, they’re emerging from three places of power. You can choose to simply cut a path through the undead and head straight to Zemouregal and Vorkath if you like, or you can take some extra time to smash up the two other places of power - this will remove some special attacks from the subsequent boss fight!
In Story Mode you’ll need to smash all the places of power with the help of the Raptor, but in Normal Mode you can choose to skip them for quicker attempts at the boss, or smash one or both optional places of power for an easier boss fight.
Hard Mode skips the siege phase entirely and you’re straight into the boss battle with Vorkath - no new mechanics are added, but you don't have the option to take any away by disrupting the places of power. It's just you versus Zemouregal's full arsenal of attacks!
Ok - once you have pushed back the undead and chosen whether or not to wreck those sites of power, it’s on to the dastardly duo themselves...
Boss Phase
Yep, it's not just the Zemouregal show this time - you'll be going head to scaly head with a gigantic undead dragon too!
Usually this is where we would explain the mechanics of the main showdown in detail, but we're keeping some of the fight a surprise for now. We want those of you who are taking on the boss (or watching others) on launch day to enjoy the experience unspoiled. Then we'll all be optimizing the best strategies for day two...
Because this confrontation is the culmination of the Fort Forinthry seasonal storyline, we've aimed for a fairly approachable experience on Story Mode. The Normal version, meanwhile, is a modular experience that can be tweaked, and Hard is a bit more of a challenge.
Rewards
So, what do you get? Defeating the boss and completing the quest will reward:
- A 30k Necromancy XP Lamp
- 1 Quest point
- 2 Treasure Hunter Keys
- The option to repeat the boss fight via a commemorative statue in your Fort.
Loot Chests
Vorkath won't drop conventional loot piles like other bosses. Instead, completing the Boss fight awards a chest for the relevant difficulty setting: Story, Normal and Hard. Normal and Hard chests can contain any of the rewards listed below, with Hard boasting superior drop rates. Story Mode chests will not give Spikes or the Codex mentioned below, so if you’re aiming to get your hands on that upgraded armour you'll need to push yourself to complete Normal!
You’ll also be able to stack these chests up and open them all together:
If you want optimize your luck bonus it is taken into account when opening the chest. No need to quickly switch a ring as the boss dies!
New Ranged Armour
Defeat the ancient dragon to get your hands on a new Dragonhide - then use it to create brand new Ranged Armour! Better yet, upgrade your new clobber using Spikes from the boss fight to get it to t90. You can even boost it up to t92 using the same materials needed to make Elite Sirenic Armour - that's Ancient Scales, Algarum Thread, Chaotic Spike for the Chest and Praesulic Essence.
- T75 Ranger Set: Undead dragonhide
- T90 Ranger Set: Dracolich
- T92 Ranger Set: Elite Dracolich
The t90 and t92 both come with a powerful set effect!
- Set Bonus (1): Per piece worn: Channelling Rapid Fire generates (0.2 Dracolich /0.5 Elite Dracolich) adrenaline every 0.6 seconds.
- Set Bonus (3): Whilst wielding a bow, channelling Rapid Fire for its full duration grants Dracolich infusion for 3 seconds, increasing your chance to Critically Strike with ranged attacks by (20% Dracolich / 40% Elite Dracolich).
- Set Bonus (4): Increase the duration of Dracolich infusion by 1.8 seconds.
- Set Bonus (5): Increase the duration of Dracolich infusion by 1.8 seconds.
Additionally, we'll be adding a new set bonus to the existing Sirenic and Elite Sirenic Armour for crossbow players.
- Set Bonus (2): Whilst wielding a crossbow, attacks have a (6% Sirenic / 12% Elite Sirenic) chance to trigger the effect of enchanted Dragonstone bolts.
- Set Bonus (3): Whilst wielding a crossbow, attacks have a (6% Sirenic / 12% Elite Sirenic) chance to trigger the effect of either enchanted Dragonstone, Onyx or Hydrix bolts.
This should keep both bow use and crossbow use strong, allowing you to focus on the version that suits you instead of there being a clear winner!
Necromancy Nexus
You’ve been asking since the inception of Necromancy for a way to store your Necromancy Runes & Ectoplasm - well, you won’t have to wait much longer. Introducing the Necromancy Nexus! A Nexus is similar to a magic Rune Pouch in that it will store Necromancy Runes and allow you to cast incantations while equipped, but it will also hold a maximum stack of Necromancy Runes.
The Necromancy Nexus currently come in two flavours:
- Deathwarden Nexus which can be crafted using Necromancy materials and will be available to create the moment the game updates.
- Zemouregal's Nexus which is obtained upon defeating the boss 100 times in either Normal or Hard mode.
Zemouregal's Nexus also gives a passive effect - it increases the level of the Bone Shield provided by your Bone Shield Incantations by 15!
New Incantation: Lord of Bones
Vorkath also drops a new tradable Necromancy Incantation Codex. Use it to learn the skill Invoke Lord of Bones! Activating this incantation will empower your Skeletal conjure to tear through your enemies' armour while attacking. This makes your foes more vulnerable to attacks not only from yourself but from your whole team!
Boss Pet: 'Vorki'
After all that huffing and puffing against the mighty dragon, you deserve an adorable new pal. Check him out!
Vorkath Hunt: Guard & Lantern event
Alongside the release of the boss fight, we're trying something different.
Vorkath Hunt: Guard & Lantern will run from November 20th until December 3rd and follows the design of the Golden Party Hat and Cape Hunt Events, where you'll set out to collect 8 shards by completing a variety of tasks.
As with other, similar events, we've made sure the tasks cover a broad spectrum - if you're not usually the PvMing type, you can still pick up these rewards by completing non-boss tasks. Check out the tasklist below to prepare yourself!
Can't make it? The cosmetics will be added to Vorkath's drop table once the event finishes, so you'll always be able to chase them later too. However, these will be rarer drops from the dragon - taking part in the shard hunt is the best way to secure yourself these new cosmetics!
Mr Mordaut Needs Your Help
Mr Mordaut has set the following 12 tasks for shards:
- Kill Vorkath & Zemouregal (infinitely repeatable until all shards have been collected).
- Can be completed during the Battle of Forinthry quest as well as in Story, Normal and Hard mode.
- First shard is given after one kill , subsequent shards require 30 kills.
- Complete the Dead and Buried quest (given on login if complete before event starts).
- Have an active Premier Membership and log in (given on login if active as the event starts).
- Train Gathering skills.
- Train Artisan skills.
- Train Combat skills.
- Train Support skills.
- Players will be guaranteed these shards after three hours of training in each particular skill, but have a high chance to obtain them beforehand.
- Complete steps of the treasure trails.
- Players will be guaranteed this shard after either 90 Easy, 45 Medium, 30 Hard, 23 Elite or 18 Master steps - or a combination of the above, so feel free to do any clues!
- Earning marks of war by defeating repeatable bosses.
- Players will be guaranteed this shard at 2,500 Marks but have a chance to obtain it beforehand.
- Buy for 15m coins or 5k Protean items.
- Complete Wilderness Flash Events.
- Players will be guaranteed this shard at 15 completed events but have a chance to obtain it beforehand.
- Earning RuneScore.
- Players will be guaranteed this shard at 200 Runescore but have a chance to obtain it beforehand.
- If a player has over 31,000 Runescore already they will earn this shard on earning any Runescore.
Rewards
Vorkath Death Guard and Vorkath Lantern Overrides
Buffs
Completing the shard event will also earn you a couple of gameplay buffs!
- Infinite Porters: Provides a guaranteed 'porter' effect (which transports valid items to the Bank when gathered) while the buff is active.
- Passive Regeneration Buff: Your life points, prayer points and summoning points regenerate by 10% every 6 seconds while you're outside of combat.
Buffs can be enabled or disabled by Mr Mordaut (or Mordaut Jr) at Fort Forinthry any time after you have completed the hunt. The buffs are available to use for 14 days once you complete the Hunt - disabling the buff will not stop the 14-day timer that begins once you earn the buffs.