A Time for Heroes

This article is about a primary quest. This name is also used for a Zaishen mission.

A Time for Heroes
Section	Primary Dwarf Quests
Campaign	Eye of the North
Given by	High Priest Alkar in Central Transfer Chamber (Depths of Tyria)
Part of	Against the Destroyers
Preceded by	Destruction's Depths
Type	Primary quest

Find and defeat the Great Destroyer to halt the Destroyers' attacks on the Dwarven forces.

Quest information

Objectives

• Defeat the Great Destroyer.

Reward

• Dwarf reputation points
  • First time: 5,000 (7,500 in hard mode)
  • On repeat: 100 (150 in hard mode)
• 2,500 Experience

Walkthrough

To defeat the Great Destroyer, first learn its skills:

The Great Destroyer skills	Description
Call of Destruction	Summons a group of Destroyers.
Enraged Blast	When interrupted, emits a blast of Energy that knocks down all foes within earshot and deals 115 damage.
Flame Jet (Hard mode only)	A jet of lava shoots out to target foe dealing 600 damage. If that foe is under the effects of an enchantment, the damage is halved.
Lava Blast	Lava surges upward, knocking down all foes standing in lava and dealing 75 damage.
Lava Ground	Creates a giant blast that melts earth into lava.
Lava Wave	Sends out a wave of lava that deals 100 fire damage to all Burning foes. While submerged in lava, the Great Destroyer gains 10 Health regeneration and is immune to all damage. Lava Wave ends after 12 seconds or if all other Destroyers are destroyed.
Searing Breath	Breathes a cone of fire that hits foes for 80 fire damage and 40 more fire damage for each enchantment on them. All Destroyers in the affected area are healed for 80 Health.

A successful method to complete this quest is to stay on the shore while killing the three Destroyer of Lives in the three pools nearby the entrance, then have everyone move back to the shore. Wait there until the Great Destroyer uses Lava Ground enough to dry the lava pool where the furthest Destroyer of Lives was (a player will need to move to the closest pool to trigger the Great Destroyer's skills). Once the pool dries have everyone run up to the pool and fight there.

• Searing Breath can deal major damage to low-armor rating party members. To prevent this, have a member with higher armor rating engage the Great Destroyer and turn him so he is facing away from the rest of the party. This way only one member is affected by this skill.
• Should you choose to bring interrupts, be careful in when they are used due to Enraged Blast's effects. Call of Destruction and Lava Ground may be the only two skills worth interrupting due to the damage you can suffer by not doing so. Despite Enraged Blast's quick cast time, it is actually interruptable too, but interrupting Enraged Blast will result in another Enraged Blast being activated.

Aggravate the Great Destroyer so he will attack your party on this plate. If it uses Lava Wave turn your attention temporarily to other Destroyers until it rises back up. Continue until the Great Destroyer is defeated.

Skill recommendations

• Destroyer of Lives and the Great Destroyer's Lava Wave and Searing Breath inflict fire damage, so consider bringing skills that protect against fire damage or elemental damage
• Your party will be in lava that inflicts Burning throughout the quest. Consider bringing Frigid Armor, Extinguish, and/or Breath of the Great Dwarf.
• Bring party heals, such as Motivation skills and Breath of the Great Dwarf (which also removes burning from the party).
• Having skills to prevent knock downs (e.g. Ward of Stability or Fleeting Stability) may be useful to prevent knock downs from Lava Blast and Enraged Blast at inopportune moments.
• Alkar's Alchemical Acid is useful against all the foes in this mission.
• Life stealing by touch rangers (and others) will bypass Lava Wave.
• Pain Inverter can cause the Great Destroyer to lose half or more health in one shot. Interrupting the Great Destroyer provokes it to use Enraged Blast, causing massive damage to your party. However, if Pain Inverter is effectively used, it will do massive damage to itself.
• All of the Great Destroyer skills are untyped skills, so only skills that interrupt actions or skills will interrupt its skills and trigger Enraged Blast.
  • A hero with skills that only interrupt spells can be useful against the Destroyer spellcasters and prevent the hero from interrupting the Great Destroyer and triggering Enraged Blast.
• Confusing Images and Migraine can cause the Great Destroyer to activate skills slower, which will lower the Great Destroyer's damage per second and make it easier to continuously interrupt Enraged Blast.
• When fighting the Great Destroyer, speed can be important due to the fairly constant damage and health degeneration.
• Lava Ground will eventually make the entire area unsafe to stand in; interrupt this if you are able.
• Disabling (or even simply interrupting) Lava Wave can prevent the Great Destroyer from healing itself.
• See http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:Any/A_ATFH_Runner for a heroway with bonds.
• 55 Monks are extremely effective here as long as no Destroyer of Deeds spawn as they will cause mass interruption.

NPCs

Foes

Destroyers

• 28 (30) Destroyer of Bones
• 28 (30) Destroyer of Flesh
• 28 (30) Destroyer of Sinew
• 28 (30) Destroyer of Deeds
• 28 (30) Destroyer of Hope
• 28 (30) Destroyer of Thoughts
• 28 (30) Destroyer of Lives

Boss-like foes

Destroyer

• 31 (31) The Great Destroyer

Dialogue

Initial dialogue

"In every age there are heroes and villains, victors and vanquisher, saviors and destroyers. You stand today at a precipice between the past and the future, facing a choice with effects that will ripple throughout time. Become the stuff of legends, or one of history's forgotten. May the future hold a world where your exploits this day are told as an inspirational tale of courage, persistence and hope. Go now. Meet the Great Destroyer, and may the gods smile on us all."

Intermediate dialogue

High Priest Alkar

"Long have I studied the Tome of Rubicon and the lore of the Great Destroyer. Never did I expect to see the Great Destroyer surface in my lifetime."

Continue: We plan to strike the Great Destroyer head on.

"Without the power of the Great Dwarf, your attack has little chance of success. However, given the size of your party, you may be able to slip through. Will you continue with this plan?"

Accept: The Great Destroyer must be stopped. There is no other way.

Decline: I should reconsider my options.

First time using Lava Ground

Party member: "Everyone, keep to the hardened lava or you'll burn to death!"

First time using Lava Wave

Party member: "We can't hurt him while he is defensive. Kill his minions!"

First time interrupted

Party member: "Interrupts enrage him! Use them wisely."

Notes

• On completion of Destruction's Depths for the first time on a character, A Time for Heroes will be added to your Quest Log automatically.
• After completing this quest, your party will be taken to Epilogue.
• This quest (and all primary repeatable Eye of the North quests) may also be obtained from the Scrying Pool in the Hall of Monuments after completing it once.

Anomaly.The lava in this mission does not cause the Crippled condition.

Bug. While A Time for Heroes is in your quest log, you will keep receiving an announcement each time you go the Central Transfer Chamber, "Quest Added: A Time For Heroes". This continues until you complete the quest.

---

Eye of the North primary repeatable quests and missions
Asura arc: Finding the Bloodstone and The Elusive Golemancer » Genius Operated Living Enchanted Manifestation
Ebon Vanguard arc: Against the Charr » Warband of Brothers » Assault on the Stronghold
Norn arc: Curse of the Nornbear » Blood Washes Blood and A Gate Too Far
Deldrimor arc: Destruction's Depths » A Time for Heroes
Challenge: Glint's Challenge