Guild Wars 2

I’m a Dry Top commander, and commanding Dry Top means fighting Mordrem. Unfortunately, I have trouble fighting Mordrem solo, and I usually get my kitten kicked.

What is the most optimal class and setup for killing Mordrem?

This discussion should be very relevant to the upcoming living world, where we will be seeing even more Mordrem.

I’m doing ok with a celestial d/d ele — but it seems my conditions work the best out of all my skill options (i.e. I do best by keeping burn + bleeds up on the target).

It’s not easy though, and I’m often forced into water for healz and some condi clear.

Overall I like it as it’s not face-roll easy. GW2 needs challenging content and this meets that criteria imho.

What kind of Mordrem specifically are giving you trouble?

For the typical trash mobs, a thief with off-hand pistol can just stand in his blind field and auto-attack everything to death.. That will deal with the wolves that can give other classes some trouble. You can keep sword/dagger as your off-hand set to strip Retaliation from those wolves as well, if you tend to kill yourself on that.

For the thresher enemies, it depends on the type. For the one that darts in a straight line, leaving the field of Torment behind it, ranged weapons and stuns will help. For the other type that tends to stand still, it’s more a matter of recognition than class choice. The second type of thresher has two different attacks, one where it sends vines into the ground to hit everyone that’s outside of melee range, and another one where it swoops around to create a lifedraining field that hits all enemies in melee range. If you’re being hit by the vines, it means you’re too far away from it. If you see the lifedraining field, it means to move away from it. Alternating between melee and ranged attacks as needed will let you kill it without taking any damage at all. Continuing to melee inside the lifedrain field, or continuing to range when it’s got the vines out, will both lead to your quick demise, particularly if it’s a veteran or champion.

There is a champion version of that Mordrem in the Iron Marches, so if that’s the specific creature type you’re struggling with, seeking out that champion is a great way to practice fighting it. There’s a couple of achievements to earn from that fight too.

I think every classes can kill them. Knowing what they do and what you can do makes them easier.

I think the most annoying are the Vile Thrasher since they move around a lot and take no damage from the front when rotating. They also take more damage from the back, but they leave that death trail of goo in their back which makes it harder if you don’t have range. As a mesmer I usually use my staff against them. I tried GS and scepter, but I find staff more effective. And it gives me a use for my staff heh. Make sure you don’t stand in their trail and dodge to the side out of their way when they roll toward you.

Husk have lot of armor and condition melt them down really quickly. I usually switch to staff against them as mesmer. Make sure you evade their root attack if they are paired with another mordrem such as vile thrasher.

Wolves do more damage when flanking, so always try to face them. They get retaliation when they howl which returns some of the damage you’re doing to yourself. It’s usually not really a problem if they howl late, but better remove condition or interrupt them if they are still high HP and/or are with other mordrem.

Mordrem Leeching thrasher will devastate you if you are far from them but are pretty much inoffensive in melee. They do a red pool of leechinglife around them sometime. You can dodge out easily then run back in melee when its gone. The distance of the pool isn’t enough to trigger their poisonous vine.

Tendrils are really straight forward. I don’t know if it works like this all the time but during the tendril events in dry top you have to clear the smallest one before you can kill the big one. Otherwise the big one will just heal itself about 1/4 of its life instead of dying. I didn’t fight them often so I don’t know much about them.

I do pretty good with my SB/LB Wolf/Arctic Wolf Ranger. Like Juno’s ele, he’s geared with Celestial.

I think that’s actually the ticket, to be honest. Mordrem are made to hit you with everything. Sometimes, you need to do direct damage, sometimes you need to do conditions, and sometimes you need to be able to survive some hits. If you’re not at a good balance, some kind of them will wreck your kitty-poo.

The pet can really help, though. Just make sure you’re using ones that can take a few good hits.

Another thing to watch out for is the wolves. They get that flanking bonus and can really tear you up if you’re fighting a group of mordrem. They also buff themselves with a pretty potent retaliation that can chew you up if you use any channeling or pulsing attacks.

Luckily they’re usually (usually, not always) just minion level enemies with low amounts of health.

I actually prioritze stomping out wolves when I see them just because of how fast they can burn you if you let ’em run rampant.

You can solo the Mordrem event @ Vine Bridge WP with a GS zerker guardian, just don’t pull the thrashers and use your blinds.

Any profession is fine for fighting mordrem. Choose weapons and utility skills that give a good balance of control and damage (some condition damage is helpful for the husks, but they can be killed with direct damage as well, it’s just slow).

Learn the mechanics of each type of mob. Take them out seperately when possible, they buff each other in proximity. Don’t zerg the mordrem events, mob upscaling really hurts with the leechers.

Interrupt the leechers when they have vines out and when they rise into the air and spin to start channeling the melee range aoe. Try to avoid pulling more than one of these. The arbor event can be cleared by killing respawns at the top edge rather than venturing down into the valley where multiple leechers can aggro, they heal each other with stolen health, 2 or more spread out with leeching vines can wipe a group fast.

Anything below champion can be stunlocked or chain blinded. Thrashers are least susceptible to blind spam due to their movement and multi-hit attacks, but they can be stunned during some parts of the animation or kited at max range using terrain. Boon stripping helps against wolves or anything they happen to howl near, simply stunning them or blinding them works as well.