Dragon’s Stand Meta Event

The Mouth of Mordremoth a Guild Wars 2 dragon world boss

Learn how to do the GW2 Dragon’s Stand meta event, including the different phases of the fight, winning strategies, and how to avoid missing good loot.

Dragon’s Stand (often abbreviated “DS”) is a map unlocked with the Heart of Thorns expansion pack. This map hosts a map-wide meta event which runs on a two-hour cycle.

REQUIREMENTS: At minimum, you will need to have Gliding unlocked, with Updraft Use.

Getting There

There are three ways to get to Dragon’s Stand:

  • Tangled Depths: From the portal south of Dragon’s Passage, in the lower left-hand corner of Tangled Depths. This is available at any time.
  • Tangled Depths: From the portal south of the Ley-Line Confluence waypoint after the Chak Gerent meta event finishes. After the wall explodes, loot all the chests and then continue through the portal to Dragon’s Stand.
  • Anywhere: If you have a Teleport to Friend, join a squad in Tangled Depths and then teleport to the squad’s commander.

Timing

The Dragon’s Stand meta runs on a two-hour timer. Check the timer here on the Guild Wars 2 wiki.

Maps fill up quickly. The best strategy to get a good map is:

  1. 15 minutes before the meta begins, look for a squad in LFG.
  2. Join the squad, and travel to the map.
  3. At the end of the old meta cycle, the map will close, and every player on the map will be killed.
  4. Go to the nearby Pact Base Camp waypoint, and immediately switch to the commander’s map.

Overview

The map has three lanes: north, south, and mid. In the first 5-10 minutes of the meta, players will be sorting out which tag will be taking which lane. We recommend that beginning players go either north or mid.

Meta phases:

  • Phase 1: Everyone moves down their lanes to the gates that block off the first chamber.
  • Phase 2: Most of the group runs laps around the perimeter of the chamber, while a small group fights a boss in the center.
  • Phase 3: Everyone reunites in the third zone, to stand on a bunch of floating islands and kill the Mouth of Mordremoth.

There is no particular class which is recommended for the Dragon’s Stand meta. All classes are useful. Bring whichever class you are most comfortable playing.

Phase 1: Lanes

Choose a lane, and join the squad. Being in a squad lets your commander organize the group, balance the number of players they have in each lane, and will help you get revived if you are downed.

This phase is straightforward:

  • Follow the commander.
  • Don’t get too far ahead of the NPCs which are being escorted.
  • Participate in the various events as they appear.

Loot Note: Noxious Pods will appear along the way, particularly around waypoints when they become un-contested. You can open these pods with machetes. If you run out of machetes, you can buy more from the merchant at the main Pact Base Camp waypoint.

This phase ends when all three lanes reach the gates to the first chamber (Blighting Tower). If your lane reaches its gate early, you will have to hang around until the other lanes catch up. Don’t go AFK while you wait. Various waves of Mordrem will attack while you are waiting.

Near the end of this phase, the commander will likely ask for 10 players to join the “boss group” in a separate sub-group of the squad. Newcomers to Dragon’s Stand should probably remain with the rest of the squad (the “zerg”) instead.

Phase 2: Blighting Towers

This phase is often called “NASCAR,” because most of your time will be spent running in circles.

Newcomers to Dragon’s Stand should stick with the zerg. Three rules for players in the zerg for this phase:

  1. Stay with the commander.
  2. Kill the Veteran Mordrem Preservers before they revive the pods.
  3. If you die, waypoint and run back. Don’t wait for a rez, and don’t try to rez others. It’s a waste of time.

When you enter the Blighting Tower chamber, three Ley Line Harvesting pods will be preent. The zerg’s job is to kill the Veteran Mordrem Preserver which supports the pods, then move on to the next. The boss group will stay behind to finish destroying the pods.

Blighting Tower Boss

Each Blighting Tower chamber has a main boss in the center. If you are in the zerg, do not attack the boss. Keep running, and leave the boss for the boss group.

To prevent antagonizing the boss (“drawing aggro”):

  • Rangers: Put your pet on passive.
  • Necros: Don’t use minions.
  • All other classes: Do not use Rock Dogs, Flame Elementals, etc.

The boss group’s goal is to “pull” the boss onto the central bridge, away from the outer ring, and away from the zerg. If you attack the boss, it will mess this up and potentially wipe the entire zerg.

Just Keep Running

Your job now is to run laps around the chamber with the zerg, killing the Veteran Mordrem Preservers before they can respawn the pods, while the boss group attacks the boss in the center. Most commanders will target the Veteran Mordrem Preservers, sometimes before they appear.

This process can be exhausting. Have patience, keep running, and stick with the commander. If you die, waypoint back. Stand outside the door and wait for the commander to circle around to you – don’t try to run around the chamber to catch the zerg.

If things go particularly badly, your commander may call for a reset. Exit the chamber, and wait outside the doors with your squad. Regroup, take a breath, and start again.

This phase ends when all three lanes kill their respective bosses.

Phase 3: The Mouth of Mordremoth Event

Note: This phase is a separate instance. If you get disconnected or leave the map, you will not be able to re-enter. You also cannot join a squad in this phase already in process.

Loot Note: Be sure to at least hit Mordremoth a few times, in order to get credit. If you idle at a waypoint for the entire fight, you will not get credit for the event, and will not be able to get the final loot.

You will now enter a large chamber with floating islands. Use the updrafts or (if you have them unlocked) Ley Lines or a Griffon to get to the island of your choice. Try to spread out so that each island has the same number of players.

During this phase, the Mouth of Mordremoth (a flying snake-like dragon) will be flying around trying to destroy the islands. Mordremoth will periodically come in close enough to be attacked.

Meanwhile, bosses will appear on various islands. Wyverns will make passes across the islands, laying down lines of acid. Pods will occasionally spawn on the islands, and have to be destroyed.

Attacking the Mouth of Mordremoth

Be aware of your CC skills. These include:

  • Daze
  • Float
  • Knockback
  • Knockdown
  • Launch
  • Pull
  • Sink
  • Stun
  • Fear
  • Taunt

When the Mouth of Mordremoth levels his head with the island, he will start taking bites. Do not use CC until his third bite. On the third bite, use any applicable CC skills you have.

This timing will stun Mordremoth, so that players can attack him for a much longer burn.

Trivia: The voice of the Mouth of Mordremoth is provided by Nolan North. North also provides the voice of the male human player character and Palawa Joko. North is a famous and prolific voice actor, and also known as the voice of Nathan Drake (Uncharted), David (The Last of Us), Desmond Miles (Assassin’s Creed), and many many more.

The Finale

After the Mouth of Mordremoth is killed, you will see a brief cutscene. Then it’s time to go get that loot.

Trivia: In the initial design of this event, players would chase the Mouth of Mordremoth onto the tree, and continue the fight there. Let’s all be grateful they decided to trim that phase of the fight.

Follow the updrafts and the arrows on the map to the loot tree. Be sure to gather loot from the big statue at the far end of the clearing.

Loot Note: Now is a good time to visit the waypoints on the other lanes of the map, to harvest all the Noxious Pods. You will have received some machetes as part of the final loot. You can also purchase more from the vendor at the main waypoint.

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