Corrupted spider queen

Corrupted Spiders are giant arachnids which grow in the depths of the Deep Roads, and feed on numerous species of large bats. When the Deep Roads were lost to the darkspawn, they started feeding on genlocks, and their numbers began to grow exponentially. Some moved up to make their lairs in surface forests, but most remain underground, close to their blight-tainted meals which make them larger and fiercer than they have ever been.

Locations
The Corrupted Spider Queen appears near Branka's Journal (Anvil of the Void) in one of the large caves in the North West corner of Ortan Thaig.

The Warden will trigger her appearance by getti´ng near the spot marked with a green dot on the map. Initally, in the same cave Warden will confront two Genlock emmisaries (red dots) backed up by some normal ranking corrupted spiders.

Strategy
When The Warden first engages her, she will shoot a web at the closest party members, trapping them temporarily. She will then ascend into the ceiling and two corrupted spiders will appear. It is strongly recommended that the party use nature resistance potions/abilities, and well as spirit resistance, as the abilities of the Queen and her minions can easily overwhelm your more vulnerable party members. Shortly thereafter, she will return and begin attacking your party with poison spit and webs. If she is engaged in melee combat, she will periodically ascend into the ceiling, bringing more corrupted reinforcements. Engaging her from a distance can prove effective.

Sample Strategy against the Corrupted Spider Queen: set Morrigan and Leliana to ranged, and draw the queen out of the alcove she spawns from into the open area before the Emissary was slain or by the bridge. The spiders she summons can then be slaughtered as they reach you and the Spider queen will remain out of range and behind obstacles as you pick her minions off before confronting her again. My party consisted of the Warden (warrior), Oghren, Morrigan, and Leliana.

note: The Warden wears the Blood Dragon massive armor set, which prevents the summoned spiders from causing him/her mass damage. Oghren's token battle axe has been upgraded to a silverite Greatsword. Morrigan is set merely to cast heals in between healing potions and torch any masses of enemies. Leliana is using ranged/archer default tactics with the ironbark crossbow purchased in Orzammar and explosive bolts (+4fire dmg).

Solo strategy
Attempting to kill Corrupted spider Queen with your main character alone might be quite a challenge. Her overwhelm makes her a dangerous enemy in close combat, and poison spit makes her very dangerous in ranged fight. This is based on a weapon and shield warrior build, with 140+ defense and pretty low damage output.

''Note: Queen poison spit stacks, and she seems to be able to cast it over and over again with no cooldown period. To make things worse, each subsequent spit will reset the duration timer. This results in massive nature damage per second. My character was unable to tank it with 70% nature resistance and constant use of health poultices. It is crucial to close in on her quickly, because few spits will leave you with 40 or more nature damage per second (varies according to resistance).''

Make sure that both genlock emmisaries and their spider minions are dispatched (red dots). You don't want them meddling in your fight with the Queen.

As always when chance of overwhelm is present, activate shield wall instead of shield defense. Trigger her appearance by moving close to the area marked with the green dot. Regardless of the sucess of her web attack, she will escape to the ceiling and two spiders will appear. Engage them in close combat. Few seconds later, the Queen will reappear some distance away from you and use her poison spit. Leave the spiders alone and charge at the Queen, she should not be left at range. Spiders will follow you, but ignore them and keep attacking the Queen. Your character will probably be overwhelmed now. If one of the spiders casts web, and if it is not resisted, it will break overwhelm. Eventually the Queen will escape to the ceiling again. Run away from the green dot area towards the blue dot. Spiders will follow you and you can take care of them there.

After killing spider minions, your character will probably disengage from combat. This is an opportunity to heal and save. Run back towards the green dot, and the Queen will notice you again. Hide behind the rocks in the middle of the cave and let her come to you. When her health drops low enough, she will escape again and summon more spiders. Show yourself to the spiders while she is away and hide again. Kill them off just like previous minions.

After dealing with her spiders the Queen will be alone and you can engage her in relative safety. No matter what she tries on you, as long as you don't allow her to cast consecutive poison spits, you should be all right.

Blood Magic can make this fight very easy, as Blood Wound can disable an arbitrary amount of Corrupted Spiders for a long time and Blood Control allows you to even the odds by overtaking one of the minions. Ideally, you want to do this as a "last resort" option when a vital party member gets overwhelmed.