The Dragon's Lair

Having completed the trials for Ascension, you must now seek out the ancient dragon, Glint. She will tell you how to strike back at the White Mantle as well as tell you who their masters really are.

Objectives
Gain audience with the prophet Glint.
 * Defeat the Facet of Light.
 * Defeat the Facet of Nature.
 * Defeat the Facet of Chaos.
 * Defeat the Facet of Darkness.
 * Defeat the Facet of Elements.
 * Defeat the Facet of Strength.
 * Bonus Defeat Glint.

Walkthrough
To reach Glint, you must pass through six chambers, each representing one of the core professions. Four of these rooms have a global environmental effect to hinder players from reaching the Facet at the opposite end of the chamber. Each Facet represents one profession, and when defeated opens a portal to the next chamber. The order of the chambers is always the same. The portal to the first Facet's chamber is opened after a player talks with the Forgotten Gate Keeper.

SPECIAL NOTE: Each gate has a brief cutscene that shows your party being teleported. Most people skip these, but be warned: the last cutscene, after the Facet of Strength, also contains your conversation with Glint! If you wish to see this conversation do NOT skip the final teleportation cutscene.

Facet of Light
While in this room, all players suffer from Domain of Health Draining, causing -3 health degeneration. As a result healers must be constantly active, and group-healing spells such as Heal Party are useful to help combat the effect. Luckily, the foes you face in this room are not difficult. As with the desert missions, Forgotten Sages should be the priority target. You'll also fight Enchanted Sword and Hammer pairs. Typically, players follow the western edge of the room, sometimes avoiding a few foes. Try to kill off the groups before engaging the Facet of Light boss. It uses Shield of Regeneration and Guardian as its primary defense. An enchantment removal or simple overwhelming DPS should drop it fast, opening the next room.

Facet of Nature
The health degeneration effect is now replaced with Domain of Slow, causing all players to move slower. In this room, you'll fight numerous Enchanted Bows, many of which start up on ledges. However, a long/flatbow shot usually will cause them to run around to lower ground. Again, it is common for players to hug the left wall when going through this room to attempt to avoid a group or two. The Facet of Nature uses Melandru's Resilience, so either avoid using weak hexes/conditions or have a player prepared with a stance removing skill.

Facet of Chaos
This room has no global effect. Instead, you'll fight swarms of Crystal Spiders, with Forgotten Illusionists backing them up. The spiders spam Shatter Enchantment and Hex Breaker, so it's usually best to avoid using hexes and enchantments with them around. Some of the Illusionists hide behind solid crystal walls that do not hinder their indirect spells, but which shield them from melee and projectile assault. As such, a few strong indirect spells of your own are useful here, but be sure to watch out for their Chaos Storm. The back of the room is a twisted path to the Facet of Chaos. Pairs of Illusionists will cast across the low walls of the path, but projectile attacks can reach them.

Facet of Darkness
Players suffer from Domain of Energy Draining, resulting in -1 energy degeneration in this room. Also, allies and foes alike are kept under a low powered Death Nova that deals 26 damage and poisons for 15 seconds. The Rock-Eater Scarabs like to use Frenzy, and die easily because of it. If many die at once, the damage from the Death Novas can add up quickly. Also, Forgotten Cursebearers will use the corpses to heal, but they shouldn't pose much of a threat. Thanks to the constant Death Nova, weapons and armor with a bonus while enchanted will be nice here, and minion armies can make this room very quick. Enchantment removal skills, such as Shatter Enchantment, are guaranteed to find a target, while skills that are affected or require an enchantment will benefit from the extra enchantment. The Facet of Darkness in the back is quite easy. Dismiss Condition is also especially useful here for removing the poison acquired from Death Nova, while providing extra healing to cover what health was lost thanks to the Death Nova enchantment.

Facet of Elements
While there are no global effects in this room, you'll run across unavoidable wards that are under the effects of the Domain of Elements, which causes common elementalist AoE spells (Eruption, Fire Storm, Maelstrom and Chain Lightning) to players in them. Try not to stand in them while fighting. Crystal Guardians guard the halls here and carry a nasty Shock/Aftershock combo. Luckily, they rarely use the combo in the correct sequence. Forgotten Arcanists will often be in side rooms, intercepting players in the main corridor as they pass by. Defeat the Facet of Elements at the back to proceed to the last Facet.

Facet of Strength
The global effect here is that every 20 seconds or so, all players are knocked down for 3 seconds. This proves very annoying, although skills such as "I Am Unstoppable!", Ward of Stability, Balanced Stance and Dolyak Signet will prevent the knock down. Mostly, you'll fight Sword/Hammer pairs, although you may run into a group with a Crystal Spider and Crystal Guardian in it as well. Kill the Guardians first, as Aftershock is much more likely to deal its extra damage while the healers are helpless on the ground. Defeat the Facet of Strength to finally meet Glint.

Bonus
The bonus to this mission is unique in that even if the entire party dies while attempting the bonus, they will still receive credit for the mission and continue to Droknar's Forge. So unless you are striving for the Survivor title, there is little reason not to try. To begin the bonus, do not enter the portal opened during Glint's cinematic. Instead, pick up one of the Dragon Eggs in her lair. She will turn hostile towards the party. Defeat her for the bonus.

Since Glint is friendly until the eggs are touched, traps and spirits can be placed for heavy damage as soon as she turns against the party.

Glint has a unique assortment of skills. She usually begins the battle by casting Crystal Haze, a nasty hex that will leave all spellcasters with exhaustion unless they are careful. Revealed Hex/Inspired Hex are great at removing it, as with all monster skill hexes, they are not replaced and recharge instantly. Spellcasters should try to spread out before the start of battle, allowing some to avoid the hex. Beware if using henchmen and heroes, as they may easily cast themselves dry of energy if left to their own devices - for those with heroes, it is suggested to set the spellcaster heroes to passive and turn off healer heroes' skills for the duration of the hexes.

Glint hits hard, and she will use Jagged Crystal Skin to cause massive damage to melee attackers; however, this skill is a stance, so bring a stance removing skill. Also, since it only triggers on physical damage, using elemental weapons, converting to holy damage (using Judge's Insight or Heart of Holy Flame) or under Greater Conflagration will negate its effects.

She also will use Crystal Bonds, but this should not be too problematic as long as your party doesn't rely on enchantments too much. Self-targeting enchantments such as those used by dervishes are not affected, so it primarily inhibits protection monks.

Half way during the battle, she will use Crystal Hibernation, granting health regeneration and a Reversal of Fortune effect against non-physical damage. It is difficult to kill her under this, but it has a long, five-second activation, leaving it wide open for interrupts. Just be sure your interrupt can target non-spell skills.

If you are using heroes or henchmen, it may be recommended to avoid melee attackers as much as possible, since they are hard to control and tend to go down very fast under the effects of Jagged Crystal Skin. Focusing on ranged attacks against Glint will put less stress on your healers, and with careful pulling it is not difficult to make your way to the lair with only one Warrior or Dervish. Flag the non-melee members of your party away from the dragon to avoid the damage of her stance.

A good strategy to beat Glint is to spawn many minions with Aura of the Lich, and cast Pain Inverter just before she casts Jagged Crystal Skin. She will be dead in moments. With 10 minions and 100+ damage per time she is hit by a minion times ten hits, she takes 1,000 damage after each round of attacks. Try 20 minions and a high Asura Title Track.

If short on heroes or interruption skills, the henchmen Stefan has effective interrupts that can shutdown Glint.

Skill recommendations

 * Bring a mix of skills. Regenerative enchantments may help in the Facet of Light's room, but it will be detrimental in the Facet of Chaos's room and unreliable if fighting Glint.
 * Very few foes leave corpses, so it is not recommended to rely on them; however, Well of Blood can prove useful with the occasional corpse.
 * If fighting Glint, make sure someone at least has an interrupt to prevent Crystal Hibernation. This will make the battle much easier. Keep in mind it is not a spell; interrupts or shutdowns such as Power Leak or Guilt will not work. Cry of Frustration and Cry of Pain are good choices for a mesmer. Leech Signet can be used effectively by any hero primary build if given a mesmer secondary.
 * An often overlooked tactic would be a Necromancer who has a high attribute in Curses bring Spinal Shivers, along with a weapon that deals cold damage. Any cold damage weapon would do.  With Spinal Shivers causing any cold damage to turn into an interrupt, the "human reflex" is taken out of the equation, and the natural attack of the Necromancer, though not as big and beefy, would be a constant interrupt for Crystal Hibernation
 * If fighting Glint, bringing Distracting Blow and a stance removing skill can make short work of her when combined with good tanking. A stance removing skill also comes in handy when fighting the ranger and warrior facets as well.
 * Signet of Capture is common, as the Facets are the only place in Tyria to capture four of the elite skills available (Melandru's Resilience is also used by a titan boss during The Titan Source; Mantra of Recall is also used by Featherclaw in Snake Dance); however, all but Gladiator's Defense, Melandru's Resilience, and Mantra of Recall are core skills and can be found in other campaigns &mdash; and even these three can be found in certain situations in Eye of the North.
 * It is recommended to bring Spirit Bond to ward off most of the damage done by Glint, if you do the bonus.
 * A good use of Grenth's Balance can deal massive damage to Glint; however, since this skill is most effective when the user is low on health, this method is somewhat dangerous.
 * Spoil Victor is very effective against Glint and can quickly take her down to the same amount of health as a player.
 * Wastrel's Worry is also very effective against Glint at high levels of Domination Magic because hexes expire twice as fast, leading to a very high damage rate.
 * Pain Inverter is also very effective for not only taking down Glint because of the high-hitting attacks she does, but also helps against the Crystal Guardians from their AoE damage, especially with a high or max Asuran rank.

Allies
Forgotten Humans
 * 20 Forgotten Gate Keeper
 * 5 (20) Ascalonian Soldiers (dead)

Foes
Constructs
 * 20 (26) Enchanted Hammer
 * 20 (26) Enchanted Sword
 * 20 (26) Enchanted Bow

Dragon
 * 31 (31) Glint

Elementals
 * 20 (26) Crystal Spider
 * 22 (26) Crystal Guardian

Forgotten
 * 20 (26) Forgotten Sage
 * 20 (26) Forgotten Cursebearer
 * 20 (26) Forgotten Illusionist
 * 20 (26) Forgotten Arcanist

Scarabs
 * 20 (26) Rock-Eater Scarab

Bosses
Facets
 * 26 (30) Facet of Strength &rarr; Gladiator's Defense
 * 26 (30) Facet of Nature &rarr; Melandru's Resilience
 * 26 (30) Facet of Light &rarr; Shield of Regeneration
 * 26 (30) Facet of Darkness &rarr; Grenth's Balance
 * 26 (30) Facet of Chaos &rarr; Mantra of Recall
 * 26 (30) Facet of Elements &rarr; Lightning Surge

Initial dialogue

 * Forgotten Gate Keeper: "Glint does not often accept visitors. If you wish to meet her, you must make your way through the defenses of her lair."
 * Forgotten Gate Keeper: "Defeat the six facets of the great dragon prophet, and you shall be granted an audience. Step through this portal to begin the journey."

Intermediate cinematic

 * Glint: "It was almost eight hundred years ago when I foresaw the Flameseeker Prophecies."
 * Glint: "You have Ascended and awakened the gift of True Sight that lay dormant within you."
 * Glint: "The moment has finally come. You are the Chosen I have been waiting for."
 * Glint: "While you've been in the desert, the rest of the world has changed. Let me show you."
 * Glint: "As you know, those who you once called friends have become enemies."
 * Glint: "Their souls are darkened by a deep secret."
 * Glint: "The Unseen gods they speak of are nothing more than a terrible and fearful race of spellcasters known as the Mursaat."
 * Glint: "As I have foreseen, the Mursaat will meet their demise at the hands of the Chosen. Their stranglehold on the lands of Kryta and beyond will be broken."
 * Glint: "For years the Mursaat and their human disciples have hunted down the Chosen, murdering them to prevent the prophecies from coming to pass."
 * Glint: "But you have slipped through their fingers, and your friends now pay the price."
 * Glint: "The one called Markis betrays them as he betrayed you, and if you do not hurry to their aid, none will survive."
 * Glint: "Many have already been taken captive."
 * Glint: "Their souls will be reaped upon one of the five Bloodstones, just as the Chosen you witnessed being slaughtered in the Maguuma Jungle."
 * Glint: "If this happens, no magic on this world or any other will bring them back."
 * Glint: "Of the future, this you must know: You story does not end in the mountains."
 * Glint: "Your true destiny will lead you to the west, to the Ring of Fire."
 * Glint: "Seek the flame, for within it lies the power to destroy both good and evil."
 * Glint: "This portal will take you to the Shiverpeak Mountains."
 * Glint: "I know you must have questions, but there are some things you must know and others that you must discover upon your journey."
 * Glint: "Go now. Save your friends. They will not last through the night."

End cinematic
This cinematic only plays if you fail the bonus objective.
 * Glint: "Your story does not end with you dead on the floor of my lair."
 * Glint: "You have a destiny to fulfill."
 * Glint: "It would be a shame if the end of the human race came about simply because you do not know when you are overmatched."
 * Glint: "Now away with you."

Trivia

 * Glint's lair is said by the Forgotten Gate Keeper to be located within a single grain of sand in the vast Crystal Desert. "You could search for a million lifetimes and then a million more and still never find her."