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The Broodmother has five different skills, and like party members has conditions for Combat Tactics;
- Gas
- HP < 25% ~100% chance.
- Ranged Spit
- Target between short and medium range ~25% chance.
- Target between medium and long range ~25% chance.
- Scream
- HP < 25% ~0% chance.
- HP < 50% ~0% chance.
- Sweep
- Target at front flank ~100% chance.
- Vomit
- Surrounded by at least 2 enemies ~15% chance.
Surrounded by at least 3 enemies ~25% chance.
Surrounded by at least 4 enemies ~50% chance.
The broodmother guarding the Anvil of the Void is a dangerous opponent, despite her immobility. She has the following known attacks and abilities:
- Spit: The broodmother expectorates a vile toxin, which splashes a moderate area around its target for high nature damage. Spit requires line of sight.
- Broodmother Tentacles: The broodmother has four Elite tentacles, which protrude from the ground. Each tentacle can make melee attacks for moderate damage. The tentacles can retreat back into the ground and emerge anywhere that is coated in the broodmother's ooze. The tentacles have high health, and maneuver themselves to avoid Area of Effect attacks by surrounding a character so that AoE damage abilities must hit that character as well as the tentacles.
- Summon Darkspawn: The broodmother is able to summon a raiding party of darkspawn at least once during the encounter. This group consists of several genlock rogues and archers, Hurlocks and Shrieks.
- Crush: The broodmother will lift a character into the air if that character is standing directly in front of her. She will crush them and most likely kill them with this attack.
The battle area has three critical terrain features. First, all exits from the room are blocked by additional tentacles, making retreat impossible and trapping any Ranger pets called before the pre-battle cut scene. Second, the broodmother's ooze covers the floor. The tentacles can only emerge from ooze-covered areas. Third, on either side of the broodmother are two stone paths which lead up and behind her. She cannot be attacked directly from these paths, but she also cannot attack anyone standing there, and her tentacles cannot emerge from there.
Strategy One- Stronghold
One easy strategy for this fight involves the use of large-area damage spells such as Tempest, Blizzard, or (in a pinch) Fireball. Stand on one of the stone paths and cast these spells down. The darkspawn will have to come up the path to attack the party, who will be beyond the reach of the broodmother's spit and tentacles. Though time-consuming, this is a safe and easy way to win a very difficult battle.
WARNING: This does NOT work, the Broodmother's spit can still reach you, even from the very back of the stone paths. Make sure you have plenty of health poultices or that your Mage can heal.
Strategy Two- Flank 'em
Another strategy is to keep your player controlled character to the right or left of the broodmother's body. This will ensure that she cannot lift the character into the air but will give direct access to the broodmother herself rather than a focus on one of the tentacles. You should also make sure that all of your active party members have one of their tactics changed to allow them to heal themselves should their health drop below 50%. Make sure you have a lot of health potions available for this battle.
Strategy Three- Firing Squad
And another strategy is to position all your group members on stone platforms, where tentacles can't reach them and switch everyone to ranged weapons. Make some distance between characters so that spit won't splash them and put your tank on the closest platform to the Broodmother, so that he'd be a desired target. For this purpose, Shale is an excellent choice. Put Large Natural Crystals on her so she has extra resistance against the Broodmother's spit attack. Also use Stone Roar as frequently as the cooldown will allow to keep the big monster's attention on Shale and away from your other ranged attackers (in fact Shale doesn't need to do any fighting at all -- her job is just to distract). Once this is done, focus on Broodmother, while keeping an eye on group's health and throwing a heal or two when needed (or use poultices). If your mage or mages have any AOE spells, feel free to hammer the Broodmother again and again because you don't have to worry about friendly fire since no melee fighter is close to her. Carefully manage your mana or just use potions. When the darkspawns come do NOT leave the platforms and instead control/focus them down one by one. Once they're dead, continue to damage Broodmother. Rinse and repeat until she drops dead.
Strategy Four- Buffing
If you have Shale in your party and another member capable of acting as tank (Alistair, The Warden), an alternative is to use Shale's Stone Aura ability (best if Shale has all aura talents including Supernatural Resilience) to provide an excellent party buff. Shale's aura will reach all parts of the Broodmother's main chamber. All other party members can focus on damaging the tentacles, darkspawn, and the Broodmother herself, though Shale will need the occasional heal thrown her way. Shale's aura is also effective if the party has a mage but is low on lyrium potions.
Phase One: To start, place Shale in the middle of the main chamber, and activate Stone Aura. Have high-damage party members focus on burning down each of the four tentacles. When the tentacles reach 70-80% of their health, they will disappear until phase two, allowing a clear path to the Broodmother. Melee attackers should use items or potions for nature resistance, and spread out as they attack, to minimize the Broodmother's special abilities.
Phase Two: When the Broodmother's health drops below a certain threshold (around 60%), she will probably call darkspawn to aid her, and resummon her tentacles. The party should burn these "adds" quickly, as they will most likely target Shale, but because of Shale's aura, the party will be able to remain in the main chamber with the Broodmother, even during this phase. The tentacles will disappear again once the next damage threshold has been reached, once more leaving the Broodmother vulnerable.
Depending on difficulty and party DPS, it is likely that phase two will be repeated, but again, assuming there are enough heals or heal potions to go around, quickly killing the tentacles and rounding up the darkspawn should not be too difficult with Shale's aura.
Strategy Five- Banzai!
Have all you heavy hitters in the party and a mage that at least has heal, (Morrigan with Heal works best) then basically charge the Broodmother, with the mage giving support and ranged fire, and kill it before it kills you. If the broodmother tries to crush one of your party members, a force shield seems to free your party member (and putting the broodmother temporarily out of the fight). Having a Rogue capable of summoning a Great Bear or Poisonous Spider is helpful for this tactic as like Shale and Dog, summoned animals are not targeted by the crush attack. Ensure you are controlling any ranged assault characters such as the mage or they will likely be targeting the tentacles and not the Broodmother herself. It may be helpful to simply ensure that a tactic is in place to ensure all characters attack the enemy which is the target of the controlled character.