PTS News: More achieves added for Realm of Twisted Dreams

The Public Test Shard (“PTS”) Client has just gotten a new update. Besides the ability to use the command “/wardrobe #” to now select what wardrobe set you wish to equip (for use in conjunction with your /loadequip # and /set # macro), they have also completed the new dungeon “Realm of Twisted Dreams” achievements.

There is a new Title awarded for completing the “Night Terrors” achievement,  called “The Night Walker”. It’s a suffix so it would be something along the lines of “Grim Marko, The Night Walker”.

The achievements for instanced content always hints at some of the mechanics in that instance.

Just a recap – The Realm of Twisted Dreams is a refurbished, Level 60 Expert version of old Level 50 Expert dungeon The Realm of the Fae. Simon has mentioned that it is Atrophinius’ nightmare and is the first pre-cursor-type content prior to the Plane of Water 3.0 Content.

Image of achievements below:

There are only achieves for 4 bosses compared to Realm of the Fae’s (RotF’s) 6 bosses. However, Vladd (one of the designers) did mention on the forums that any dungeon revamps would be in line with Storm Legion’s dungeon, not the old dungeons. I.e., if these revamped dungeons are to make it into the Level 60 Random Expert Dungeon Queue list, they need to ‘last’ about the same time as the other Level 60 Expert Dungeons.

Below is an analysis of the achievements and my guesses/predictions of what they hint at:

Maelow’s Breakup
This is an obvious one to defeat the boss “Swindler Maelow”. This is opposed to the Realm of the Fae (“RotF”)’s “Trickster Maelow”. Trickster Maelow was a boss fight with 2 adds (Lifeward Celoah and Lifeward Brae) whom supported the boss Trickster Maelow.

Chill Out
Kill Frozen Terror. This seems to be the 60s version of Chillblains Winterfrost from RotF in the Winter area of the old 50s dungeon.

Twisted Twyll
Kill Twisted Lord Twyll. This would be the nightmare version of Fae Lord Twyll from RotF.

Disattached Fae
You are to defeat Swindler Maelow without him obtaining more than 6 stacks of Reckless Fury. If this boss still has two adds, my guess is that you’ll have to kill the adds at the same time similar to a lot of ‘twin’-based fights in Rift. My guess is that he’ll gain a dps boost, Reckless Fury, if his adds are 5-10% apart in hp at any time (similar to the twins in Frozen Tempest, and the twins in the chronicle Queen’s Gambit).

Waltz in the Park
Defeat Swindler Maelow while not taking any damage from Poisonous Pollen, Flash Bomb, Nightmare Ring, and Ricochet Axe.
Poisonous Pollen sounds like a green circular AoE you have to dodge or else a Damage Over Time (“dot”) or ticking damage may apply.
Flash Bomb sounds like Infiltrator Johlen’s “Blinding Bomb” mechanic in the old Level 50 Tier 1 raid Greenscale’s Blight. You will most likely need to ‘look away’ from this bomb or else you’ll get stunned/feared/confused.
Nightmare Ring sounds like an anti-melee AoE mechanic, or an expanding ring-based attack.
Ricochet Axe sounds like your typical whirling weapon that moves around the room. It’s probably similar to Chekaroth’s Stormblades and General Grim’s Reaper’s Touch in Exodus of the Storm Queen.

Ascended A La Carte
Defeat Twisted Greenscale without kicking a Roasted Luggo. Twisted Greenscale sounds like the nightmare version of Luggodhan, especially since “Roasted Luggo” sounds similar to Luggodhan. Kicking a roasted mob sounds like the Ashora daily that involves kicking cockatrices into bonfires to roast them. My guess is that Luggos will become roasted and Greenscale will go after them to eat for a power-up buff or something similar. Your job is to kick them away so he doesn’t get to them.

Hungry, Hungry Greenscale
Defeat Twisted Greenscale. As above, sounds like it will replace Luggodhan from RotF as the second boss.

Short Order Cook
Defeat Twisted Greenscale without ever allowing him to become Ravenous. So this relates back to the above “Ascended A La Carte” achieve. Chances are you won’t be able to achieve both achieves in one run. My guess is that he’ll become Ravenous (which means super-dooper hungry) if he doesn’t get to eat any Roasted Luggo. This will involve you successfully kicking away all the Roasted Luggos (if there are more than one), and thus you won’t be able to complete “Ascended A La Carte” at the same time. Deny him food for a while and he should become Ravenous providing either a buff or debuff to him, failing this achieve.

Survive the Night
Defeated Twisted Lord Twyll without anyone dying. Self-explanatory.

The Perfect Dish
Become Roasted, Seasoned and Tenderized by Twisted Greenscale without dying. Seems to be debuffs he casts on people. Sounds like an interesting mechanic. Wonder if this also means that perhaps he won’t stay on the tank and like Psychophage Primakov in Tower of the Shattered, he might temporarily aim for those with the above debuffs.

The Cold Shoulder
Defeat Frozen Terror without any Bonfires being destroyed by Thermal Dissipation. So it seems you need to keep Bonfires up/protected to perhaps stay alive. Imagine it like a ‘sister’ mechanic to  the Unyielding Warmth orbs on Checkaroth in Exodus of the Storm Queen – perhaps staying too long out of the protective ‘warmth’ AoE of the Bonfires will cause you to gain stacks of Freezing that will eventually Freeze you, taking a huge chunk of damage (that will kill you without a shield) once the stacks reach a certain number.

Made It Rain
Defeat Frozen Terror without anyone being hit by Frozen Rain. Either this is an AoE ability, or perhaps it is connected to the Bonfires in the previous achieve “The Cold Shoulder”. Lose a Bonfire and you might get hit by Frozen Rain. Could also be a moving AoE attack.

Night Terrors
Defeat Twisted Lord Twyll without any member of the group awakening from a nightmare. Now this sounds interesting. ‘Without’ awakening from a nightmare? Very interesting indeed. My initial thought is that over time party members at random will fall asleep and have a ‘nightmare’ that decreases their hp over time. You can ‘wake them up’ somehow, perhaps by dpsing them until they ‘wake’, but to get this achieve you must leave them alone. It could be that the nightmare makes them ‘mind controlled’.

Another possibility is that everyone is living a nightmare at some point during the encounter and you wake from this nightmare when the ‘enemies/adds’ in your own nightmare are defeated. So to get this achieve, the tank will have to tank all adds without them dying (so nobody wakes).

Rapid Assault: Realm of Twisted Dreams
Defeat all bosses within 35min of start. Self-explanatory.

Conclusion

Some interesting mechanics and looks like it’s four bosses. Looking forward to the fights and what they will drop. And here’s to hoping the next PTS update will have the new Patch 2.4 chronicles!