4 min read · Feb 26, 2020
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This boss will roast your team over the flames if you accidentally miss or ignore the fight mechanics in veteran mode.
The Keeper of the Kiln is the second boss in Unhallowed Grave, an Elder Scrolls Online dungeon released in February 2020. At release, many players struggled with the rising flame mechanics. While it is possible to survive the flames with enough heals and shields, it’s far easier to follow the intended mechanics of this dungeon.
When you enter the dungeon, you’ll see sigils on the ground. Now look up. There should be a left, center, and right alcove with a grappling hook point.
Assign each DPS and the healer to one of the grappling points. The tank will need to stay on the ground to keep the boss taunted. Begin the fight and damage the boss. When the Keeper of the Kiln loses around 10%-20% of his health (depending on your DPS), you will see a message that says “Flames are rising in the vents!”
At this point, the Keeper gains a damage shield. You must stop 99% of the DPS on the boss. (It’s okay if the tank does a bit of damage while taunting.)
The damage shield is extremely easy to overlook, and extremely easy to blow past if your DPS are each doing 20k+. In the screenshot above, the shield appears as the tiniest sliver of purple next to the red health bar.
Once the Keeper gains the shield, the DPS and healer should grapple up to their assigned alcoves. There will be a sigil in only one of the three alcoves. Whoever finds the sigil must activate it.
Be careful; archers will also appear in the alcoves and they may lay down AoE damage on top of the sigil. As long as you have stopped 99% of the DPS on the boss, you can wait out the AoE before activating the sigil. If you miss your chance or get pulled to the ground, you have a few seconds to grapple back up and activate the sigil before the flame phase.
You take fall damage when you jump back to the ground. If you have strong shields and heals, you can ignore the damage and jump down anyway. If you are dying to fall damage, try to stand on the edge of the alcove and let the boss pull you down. Though you won’t get to choose where you land, you should not take damage from the boss pull ability.
After you activate the alcove sigil, a circle will appear around one of the sigils on the ground. The tank must drag the boss into the circle. Break through the damage shield while the Keeper is inside the circle. Done properly, he will kneel with his sword, stab the ground, and end the flame phase.
Once the flame mechanic ends, some of the statues around the arena will spring to life and attack. When the adds are active, focus the adds first. Then, when the “Flames” text pops up on the screen again, stop your DPS, go to your alcoves, and find the sigil. After the second flames phase, the remaining statues will spring to life.
Since the mechanics are based on the boss’s health, and the adds come in two waves, it is strongly recommended you deal with adds first. Have your tank drag the Keeper away from the other adds if necessary. Otherwise, you run the risk of being overwhelmed with adds (or unable to see the sigils through the crowd of every active statue, plus the Keeper, plus flames).
Despite the amount of flames, this fight is not a burnfest. It is also not a DPS check. Rather, it is about the timing of the phases.
You may be doing too much DPS.
The damage shield is easy to miss and easy to break through. If you break the shield before activating the sigil, then the Keeper will not kneel and you will have to survive a full flames phase or likely die trying. Keep an eye on the boss’s health and stop your AoEs in advance of the flames phase. This will buy you a few additional seconds to complete the sigil phase.
You may not be doing enough DPS.
Any boss in an ESO dungeon will be hard to kill if you are not properly geared for the fight. This guide assumes that each DPS is pulling at least 20k. If your group DPS is around 20k, you will struggle with sustain. If you are below CP300 and not geared for dungeons, you will struggle to stay alive. Many of the enemies in the new dungeons hit hard and fast, so your healer should prioritize big, bursty heals over smaller AoE HoTs.
One of your group members may not be checking their alcove.
One bad DPS can ruin the entire fight by refusing to grapple, failing to activate the sigil, and breaking the damage shield while the rest of the party is looking around for sigils. Check that your group knows the mechanics before starting the fight; it is quite easy for experienced dungeon-runners to overshoot the mark.
