Guide to Aphrodite’s Tendrils

Aphrodite II is a boss in Darkmoor’s Graveyard instance. You will need a stone Skeleton Key to enter her lair. She can be accessed without doing any of the fights in The Graveyard. Just walk to the left when you’re inside the Graveyard, and follow the wall until you find the locked gate.

Life, Death & Myth Tendrils

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You’ll actually be fighting Aphrodite’s Tendrils, and they come in three flavors. Death (Boss), Life (Boss), and Myth (Elite Mob). The tendrils that spawn are random. In some instances there was one of each, and other instances only two variants spawned. Most of the time you will end up fighting against Life and Death tendrils.

This fight is actually pretty simple, as long as you understand the cheats:

Hiss

Aphrodite will pollinate you at the beginning of every turn, unless you hit one of the tendrils… reminds me of a certain Elephant. This is a shadow DoT attack that does around 400 damage up front and around 300 per turn for three turns to all players. Additionally, this attack leaves a Virulent Plague, Infection, and Black Mantle on all players.

To stop this from happening, simply hit one or more of the tendrils every round. They will “hiss” when attacked, and the cheat won’t happen next turn. Hitting multiple times in one round does not stop the cheat for multiple rounds. You must hit at least one tendril every round.

DoT Spells

If you cast a DoT spell on any tendril, it will respond according to its school. Life will cast Mass Triage, Myth will cast Shift, and Death will use Deer Knight.

Blades and Damage Bubbles

When a player casts a blade (or a damage bubble), the tendril directly across from them will cast two cheats. One cheat triggers immediately, and another triggers at the end of the turn. These cheats, again, are different for each school.

• Life will cast Forest Lord immediately, then Guidance at the end of the round.
• Death will cast Scarecrow immediately, then an (item) Feint with 75%/20% values at the end of the round.
• Myth will cast Earthquake immediately, then Stun at the end of the round.

Just so it’s clear, the tendril opposite you will cheat. You don’t want to blade if you’re across from a Myth tendril.

Tendril Strategy

Strategy for this fight is pretty straightforward. You can trap freely, so one or two players on the team should focus on Feinting one or more of the tendrils while everyone takes turns wanding a single, un-trapped tendril. Assuming your “hammer” is in the fourth position, you should be able to double or triple feint the last tendril on the turn they cast a big AoE and drop them all at once.

Alternatively, a team with a bunch of AoE attacks could probably make short work of these guys with everyone taking turns buffing and hitting also. Ideally, you will have a team spamming AoE hits such as Meteor and Sandstorm with an active aura and a good healer backing them up.

Either way, as long as you work around the cheats, this is a relatively easy fight with some great drops.

 

Aphrodite’s Loot

Do note that any socketed jewels you can see on the gear below, don’t necessarily drop from Aphrodite.

Did you get some cool loot?
Let us know in the comments!

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