Guild Wars 2

The LS event Defeat the Mordrem champion in Iron Marches is an incredibly badly designed event. It is, quite seriously, MUCH easier to do solo than in a group. And it is a group event.
My experience with the mechanics of the boss are as such: After a long, obivous windup, the thrasher hits the ground and sends vines after things in the attack’s very large radius, much like Leeching Thrashers will. Unlike Leeching Thrashers, however, the vines cannot be avoided by moving, as the time between the vine appearing and it hitting you isn’t enough for you to move out of the way. They must be dodged or blocked.
The vine attack continues for a long time, OR until it is evaded. The problem is this: It will continue, against ALL affected targets, until ALL of them have in some way prevented it from hitting them. As such, the more people there are, the more likely there is someone who does not know how it works, which causes everyone else to continue getting hit. Worse still, it targets pets, and likely minions, illusions, spirit weapons, elementals, etc. that CANNOT DODGE, or in other words, Ranger CANNOT win against the boss due to its pet, unless maybe they intentionally get the pet killed?

The mechanic of the attack continuing until you avoid it is fine, but as it stands, where one person messing up breaks it for everyone, and pets mess it up regardless of what you do, it is broken.

Until it is changed, my advice: solo it, don’t play ranger (you lose automatically), and don’t play mesmer using any illusions at all (make sure to get rid of deceptive evasion too).

The vine attack can be avoided by moving into melee range of the boss. It doesn’t hit there. I think it’s shaped like a doughnut.

I did decently against the Mordrem champ as a ranger, but melee was definitely far more preferable than ranged: no vines to deal with and Lightning Reflexes was enough to clear the poison field it drops, though the sword 2 skill also worked in a pinch (when I’m not knocked by random worgs, that is).

Nokaru is right. To avoid the vine attack, move to within melee range of the boss. The vines do not attack there. If you know what to do, it’s actually very possible to solo this boss.

1. When you see the boss fly up into the air, he’s about to use his vine attack. Move into melee range and wait for him to land. He then spends a good 5 or 6 seconds using his vine attack, leaving you free to melee the sap out of him while he’s effectively helpless.

2. Once he uproots himself, he will almost certainly either use his poison attack, or a knockback attack. (Sometimes both.) Dodge backwards early to avoid both and wait for the poison field to dissipate. (Feel free to drink the nectar if you’re poisoned or if you need the achievement.) If you have a ranged weapon, you can also swap to that and continue attacking while you wait.

3. The boss has no other ranged attacks, so at some point, he will once again try to use his vine attack if you’re not in melee range. Return to Step 1 and repeat.

Basically, this boss is very similar in mechanics to Warden 4 of the Marionette fight. You have to alternate between melee and ranged attacks depending on whichever attack the boss is using at the time.

Zaxares.5419:

Nokaru is right. To avoid the vine attack, move to within melee range of the boss. The vines do not attack there. If you know what to do, it’s actually very possible to solo this boss.

1. When you see the boss fly up into the air, he’s about to use his vine attack. Move into melee range and wait for him to land. He then spends a good 5 or 6 seconds using his vine attack, leaving you free to melee the sap out of him while he’s effectively helpless.

2. Once he uproots himself, he will almost certainly either use his poison attack, or a knockback attack. (Sometimes both.) Dodge backwards early to avoid both and wait for the poison field to dissipate. (Feel free to drink the nectar if you’re poisoned or if you need the achievement.) If you have a ranged weapon, you can also swap to that and continue attacking while you wait.

3. The boss has no other ranged attacks, so at some point, he will once again try to use his vine attack if you’re not in melee range. Return to Step 1 and repeat.

Basically, this boss is very similar in mechanics to Warden 4 of the Marionette fight. You have to alternate between melee and ranged attacks depending on whichever attack the boss is using at the time.

Someone sticky this post it has the tactic realyy well explained

Huh, had no idea it didn’t hit in melee range. I just figured that it hit everything around it until the channel finished or was interrupted.

Well obviously I should’ve tried getting close before ranting heh.
Still, soloing it at range is still quite doable since it gives up on the vine attack if everyone avoids it, which is weird.
I guess the question then is why does it give up immediately if you avoid it?

gimmethegepgun.1284:

I guess the question then is why does it give up immediately if you avoid it?

It seems to cancel it early if this spell fails to hit any target twice in a row. This gives it the opportunity to cast its melee poison spell on players who are close by it. In the open world, the odds of this creature hitting nothing twice in a row are slim, so we almost always see these creatures channel it to full duration. (Unless its interrupted)

Anyways I don’t blame you or anyone for not understanding the vine spell; the way it works isn’t conveyed at all. There is no way to figure out there’s a safe spot in melee range of it except from trial and error. (And word of mouth) It seems to be shaped like a huge doughnut.

Nokaru.7831:

gimmethegepgun.1284:

I guess the question then is why does it give up immediately if you avoid it?

It seems to cancel it early if this spell fails to hit any target twice in a row. This gives it the opportunity to cast its melee poison spell on players who are close by it. In the open world, the odds of this creature hitting nothing twice in a row are slim, so we almost always see these creatures channel it to full duration. (Unless its interrupted)

Actually, it only needs to miss once. Dodging as soon as it hits the ground will make the first vine miss and then it will give up, unless it hit something else.

Nokaru.7831:

Anyways I don’t blame you or anyone for not understanding the vine spell; the way it works isn’t conveyed at all. There is no way to figure out there’s a safe spot in melee range of it except from trial and error. (And word of mouth) It seems to be shaped like a huge doughnut.

I suppose some people would know from encountering Leeching Thrashers that it’s a doughnut, but I think more are probably like me, who figured out that the vines from Leechers will miss you if you’re moving. Except they won’t on this guy.

Yeah, the tricky bit about this boss is that the AoE effect is not telegraphed on the ground like other AoE attacks, so players don’t really know where are the safe spots. It does indeed look like a donut shape, where the area immediately around the boss is safe, but a wide radius beyond that is dangerous.

I also forgot to mention in my initial post that you can interrupt the boss to end his vine attack early, but the fact that he’s a Champion means that Defiant makes this hard to pull off solo, and his vine attack period is actually the best time for you to burn him down, so you paradoxically DON’T want him to stop early.