In the northern reaches of Scarlet Gorge, high above the falls lies the location of the nest of the Gnar Queen. A nest of deadly spiders and other disgusting creatures is vile enough, but the Endless Court has conspired to bring corruption and death to these nesting grounds. Holding Queen Vallnara captive, the Endless Court has brought death and decay to the hatchery.

Foul Cascade is a level 30 instance that is located in the northern section of Scarlet Gorge. The only way to access it is to climb the winding ramps to the top through many packs of mobs. This is the earliest level dungeon that is shared in by both the Defiant and Guardians. Each faction has two quests associated with the dungoen, not including the automatic repeating quest.

Foul Cascade is different from any of the preceding, earlier level dungeons. The map is more open and you can go in any direction that you want. The dungeon consists of four bosses, three of which you will need to defeat prior to attempting the fourth. Any standard group configuration works in this instance as long as the tank can maintain decent multiple target aggro.

As you enter the dungeon you’ll see two quest giving NPCs at the entrance and they will differ depending on whether you are Guardian or Defiant. In each case the quest are similar enough that you will be going after the same objectives, but in a different way. There is also a breadcrumb quest for each faction not included in this guide. For reference, each breadcrumb quest gives approximately 50% standard quest experience and offers no item or notoriety rewards. You do not need this breadcrumb quest to obtain any of the quests listed above.

After obtaining the quest it is up to the group to decide in which order to defeat the bosses. You can either head to your right to fight Matron Verosa first, or you can head left to take on Krasimir Barionov. You will need to defeat all three in any case.

As you work your way through the dungeon keep your eye out for Earthen Mounds, easily marked on your map in-game, for the quests Heart of Stone and Gnar Residue. You will need to defeat each mound to complete the quests for both Defiant and Guardian players. The Earthen Mounds spawn adds much like the mounds in Darkening Deeps. At 100% and 50% health the mound will spawn two adds, once the mound is destroyed it will spawn a larger spider for you to do battle with. Make sure your group is prepared before engaging even though the adds are not difficult in any way.

If you are a Defiant player, keep an eye out for the three mobs listed in the quest description above for Corrupted Rituals. Each one of these mobs is located near the altar of each boss. Defeat these trash mobs and you will gain the heart you need to sacrifice to the altar. Make sure you clear one trash pack to the left of the entrance and kill a Mordant Pyromancer for his heart. You will need this for the third boss in this guide.

There are trash packs scattered throughout this zone, some have casters or other ranged attackers. Some are swarms of non-elite mobs. What you do have to watch for are local wandering mobs that are quite large. They hit hard and have more health than your standard trash mob. Keep an eye out for these guys as they will cause problems if you don’t see them coming.

After considering all these you should be on your way to the first boss. For the sake of this guide we will be moving on to Matron Verosa first and work our way counter-clockwise through the zone. Please note, there will be an Earthen Mound on your left prior to reaching Matron Verosa.

Matron Verosa is a council-like fight where she has two friends, Lesch and Gurze. The fight starts off with you engaging Verosa while both Lesch and Gurze will remain immobile. She will simply attack you and somewhere between 80% and 90% health she will gain immunity. At this point Lesch will now move out to attack. One thing to note is that you should not tank Lesch near Matron Verosa as she will attack you if you are within melee range. As soon as Lesch is free, position yourself away from Verosa.

Lesch is an easier fight. She has one ability called Staggering Blitz that will hit people at range. If you have everyone stack up near her, you will easily be able to avoid extra damage. At 50% Lesch will gain immunity and Gurze will become active.

Gurze has an ability called Rending Cleave so the tank will have to turn him away from the rest of the group. He will also gain the buff Endless Rage that will make him hit harder. However this buff does slow him down so the tank will be able to kite him around if you can not survive his melee hits. Once you get him down to 50% both Gurze and Lesch become active and attack you at the same time.

The best strategy is to take down Lesch first as she does damage to people at range. However if you have more melee players in your group, Gurze may be the smart choice. In any case, the both have the same abilities as when you fought them separately. Stay closer to the bosses and avoid the cleave and you will defeat them both.

Once Gurze and Lesch are dead, Matron Verosa will now attack you. She has two abilities, Ebon Bolt which is a single target direct damage attack and Death Storm. Death Storm is a targeted AOE spell. It will be cast on a single target, usually the player with the second highest threat, and that will be the center of the AOE damage. There are two ways to either mitigate or avoid damage altogether; either spread out to avoid the AOE blast, or you can line of site (LOS) the spell. Death Storm has a long cast time so you will have the chance to run around a nearby rock and interrupt the spell. This last part of the fight is the easiest, so work together as a group and it should be a win.

The Countess is an annoying fight, though quite easy if you can keep everyone properly healed. She has three abilities that you need to take note of; Shrapnel Blast, a instant cast DD attack, Void Charge, a longer cast time DD attack that can be interrupted and Hail of Bullets. Hail of Bullets is an attack where the Countess will teleport five times targeting random people in your group and attacking them. If all the DPS players in your group have a ranged build, it will help maintain dps throughout this phase.

That’s the whole fight. She will cycle through all of those abilities until you defeat her. Keep everyone healed and it should be an easy win.

The third boss in this instance is probably the hardest next to Matron Verosa. Before engaging Krasimir, he will turn into undead lich looking kind of guy however he will stay immune to damage. Stand back and position yourself as he will now begin to summon waves of undead mobs to attack you.

The First Wave: He will summon five non-elite Animate Corpses. Make sure your tank picks them all up.
The Second Wave: He will then summon three Reconstructed Corpses that are elite.
The Third Wave: He will then summon two Reconstucted Abominations that are also elite, but are more difficult that the Reconstructed Corpses. Krasimir will periodically buff one of them with a buff called Binding of Power that will increase attack speed. You will be able to see this affect since it will cause the mob to grow. The best strategy is to make sure you kill the buffed add first.

Once you have defeated all three waves you will then face Krasimir Barionov himself. Krasimir has three attacks that you have to keep an eye out for. The first is Void Bolt wish is a DD cast spell. The second is Dark Touch with is an targeted AOE DOT that can be dispelled. The DOT is casted on one targeted player and it lasts 15 seconds. Everyone around that person is affected by the same DOT for 10 seconds. The third ability is called Shout of Rage with is a PBAOE (point blank area of effect) knockback.

The boss mechanics themselves aren’t very difficult. If you stay spread out, your healers dispel the DOTS or maintain group healing, and you keep the boss pointed away from the rest of the group you are almost assured success.

In the center of the Death Rift you will be able to see Queen Vallnara trapped inside a death-energy cage. In order to break down the barrier and defeat her you will need to destroy the three death idols surrounding her. Something to note, if you haven’t defeated each of the three bosses in the instance you will not be able to defeat the death idols. Take down each of the three idols, in any order, and the barrier/cage will be taken down and Queen Vallnara will be set free. Do not worry, if you are not close to her, she will not engage you. She will begin wandering around the center of the map.

This is the last boss fight of Foul Cascade and it’s not that difficult. The Queen has three attacks. The first is called Corrosive Bolt which does direct damage and apply a damage DOT to the target. The second attack is called Corrosive Ichor which is a ground based AOE. You will easily notice it as it’s a giant bluish purple circle on the ground. Make sure the tank moves the boss out of the ground effect. The third attack is called Foul Gestation. The Queen will randomly charge a player in your group, stun them, and apply a DOT. Once the DOT runs it’s course it will spawn a Gnar Hatchling.

The fight will consist of the tank moving out of the ground based AOE attacks and picking up the adds from Foul Gestation. There should not be more than two AOE ground effects down at the same time. If you keep everyone up and healthy and everyone remains aware, the fight should go smoothly.