Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns content

Dragon's Stand

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Disambig icon.png This article is about the open world zone. For the achievement category, see Dragon's Stand (achievements). For the story instance, see Dragon's Stand (Heart of Thorns).

Dragon's Stand

11Waypoint (map icon).png 24Point of interest (map icon).png 7Hero point.png 7Vista (map icon).png

Dragon's Stand map.jpg
Map of Dragon's Stand

Levels
80
Type
Zone
Region
Heart of Maguuma
Connects to
Tangled Depths (NE)
Pets
Electric Wyvern
Tiger
API
1041

Dragon's Stand loading screen.jpg
Loading screen

Dragon's Stand is an explorable zone in the Heart of Maguuma region, located to the south of Tangled Depths. It is the deepest part of the Heart of Maguuma, where the Pact have set up a base on the outskirts, ready to engage in a zone-wide push into the Dragon's Domain. They face heavy resistance from swarms of Mordrem, elite Commanders, and the Mouth of Mordremoth, the Elder Dragon's physical form.

This entire map is dedicated to its meta event, which starts every 2 hours. Some of the areas as well as hero and mastery points are locked until the meta event has progressed to a certain stage. Players that wish to participate in the meta event, and/or completely discover all of this map, are advised to enter the map a few minutes before the meta event starts and check for groups in LFG. Several areas of the map are completely closed to players and only open by progressing the meta event.

Events and Noxious Pods in the Dragon's Stand are the primary methods of acquisition for Leystone armor and Crystalline Ore.

Getting there[edit]

  • From Tangled Depths: through one of the zone portals, either south of the Dragon's Passage near Waypoint (map icon).png Dragon's Passage Waypoint or south of the Ley-Line Confluence. The latter portal is only available for a period of time after successful completion of the Chak Gerent meta event.

Map completion[edit]

Locations[edit]

Upon entering the Dragon's Stand, characters automatically discover all the Waypoints in the area. Most of them remain contested until the meta event has reached that stage.

Area Effective
level
Area objectives
Broken Altar 80
Waypoint (map icon).png Northern Forward Camp Waypoint
Point of interest (map icon).png Second Northern Checkpoint
Bitter Harvest (area) 80
Central Barbed Gate 80
Waypoint (map icon).png Central Advance Camp Waypoint
Point of interest (map icon).png Mordrem Vineyard
Point of interest (map icon).png Third Central Checkpoint
Hero point.png Mushroom Grotto
Vista (map icon).png Central Barbed Gate Vista
Central Blighting Tower 80
Waypoint (map icon).png Dragon's Domain Central Waypoint
Point of interest (map icon).png Central Blighting Tower
Hero point.png Blademaster Diarmid's Pod
Chak Nest 80
Point of interest (map icon).png Chak Den
Dragon's Domain 80
Point of interest (map icon).png Mordremoth's Vantage
Point of interest (map icon).png Serenity's Cove
Hero point.png Dragon Overlook
Vista (map icon).png Dragon's Domain Vista
Dragon's Stand (Heart of Thorns) 80
Exhumed Delve 80
Waypoint (map icon).png Southern Forward Camp Waypoint
Waypoint (map icon).png Southern Advance Camp Waypoint
Point of interest (map icon).png Rata Novan Remnants
Point of interest (map icon).png Second Southern Checkpoint
Point of interest (map icon).png Third Southern Checkpoint
Hero point.png Spider Nest
Vista (map icon).png Exhumed Delve Vista
Northern Barbed Gate 80
Waypoint (map icon).png Northern Advance Camp Waypoint
Point of interest (map icon).png Third Northern Checkpoint
Vista (map icon).png Northern Barbed Gate Vista
Northern Blighting Tower 80
Waypoint (map icon).png Dragon's Domain Northern Waypoint
Point of interest (map icon).png Northern Blighting Tower
Hero point.png Stavemaster Adryn's Pod
Pact Base Camp 80
Waypoint (map icon).png Pact Base Camp Southern Waypoint
Prismatic Postpile 80
Point of interest (map icon).png First Southern Checkpoint
Point of interest (map icon).png Ruined Glory
Rooted Copse 80
Point of interest (map icon).png The Inverse Pit
Hero point.png Exalted Pylon
Vista (map icon).png Rooted Copse Vista
Southern Barbed Gate 80
Point of interest (map icon).png Ley Line Boneyard
Point of interest (map icon).png Ley Line Overlook
Vista (map icon).png Southern Barbed Gate Vista
Southern Blighting Tower 80
Waypoint (map icon).png Dragon's Domain Southern Waypoint
Point of interest (map icon).png Southern Blighting Tower
Hero point.png Axemaster Hareth's Pod
Toadstool Mire 80
Point of interest (map icon).png Blighted Bog
Point of interest (map icon).png First Central Checkpoint
Vigilant Precipice 80
Waypoint (map icon).png Pact Base Camp Waypoint
Point of interest (map icon).png First Northern Checkpoint
Point of interest (map icon).png Pact Base Camp
Wyvern Scar 80
Waypoint (map icon).png Central Forward Camp Waypoint
Point of interest (map icon).png Second Central Checkpoint
Point of interest (map icon).png Wyvern Nest
Vista (map icon).png Wyvern Scar Vista

Interactive map[edit]

Events[edit]

Previous 2 hoursNext 2 hours
00:00 UTC

Advancing on the Blighting Towers[edit]

Orientation

There is a map-wide meta event involving killing Mordremoth's commanders and pushing the Mordrem back into his territory. If the meta event is not completed within the 2 hour time limit, Mordremoth blasts the entire map, killing and pushing everyone back to the Pact Base Camp on the north-east edge of the map, while also wiping all progress made by the events across its domain. Destroying all three Blighting Towers results in the timer being paused, allowing the final battle to take place without the pressure of a timer.

Preparation

There are three lanes (north, middle and south), each with their own chain of events leading the Pact towards one of three Blighting Towers. The Pact must gather equipment and allied forces along the way, while destroying Mordrem Spitfires and claiming their locations as forward encampments. At the start of the meta event, and after taking each one of the forward camps, 2 events will occur per lane. By quickly clearing these events, the push can be much faster. Noxious Pods will also spawn at each base claimed, with additional pods spawned for each of the bonus events successfully cleared.

After claiming the first Spitfire in a lane, that lane's respective Legendary Mordrem Commander will spawn near their Gate to the Blighted Towers, and begin slowly marching towards the Pact convoy. These Legendary enemies will delay the escort and preparatory events alike, so engaging them in battle before they disrupt the push is crucial. These will respawn periodically.

The Blighting Towers

All three lanes must reach the gates to begin the tower phase.

When the gates open, each lane will enter a room with a boss in the center. The boss is invincible unless all three Ley Line Harvesting pods are destroyed. After all pods are destroyed, the Veteran Mordrem Preservers which keep spawning around the room (90 seconds after the last one was defeated) need to be taken out continuously. If they are allowed to reach the center, they will heal the pods or spawn them. If a pod spawns, the boss becomes invincible again. If the boss is already defeated when a pod spawns, it is revived. All three Legendary Commanders must be dead simultaneously for map events to continue.

The usual tactic for this part of the meta event is to use two commanders and groups on each tower, one commander squad with 10 members, and the other commander squad with the rest. The larger squad runs continuously around the tower destroying the pods and defeating the three preservers (as they respawn), while the smaller squad engages the Legendary Mordrem Commander in the center. Speed Boost Mushrooms and Adrenal Mushrooms are available in the center area, greatly boosting the boss' defeat if used well.

Northern Assault
Central Assault
Southern Assault

Dragon's Stand (meta event)[edit]

After defeating the three commanders, the timer is stopped, and the Dragon's Domain becomes available to enter. The Updraft Use mastery is required to navigate this area; any further Gliding masteries will help the process. In particular, Ley Line Gliding makes navigation much easier as the islands are directly connected by these channels.

Soon afterwards, the Mouth of Mordremoth attacks. To achieve success, groups must split their numbers across each island. The Mouth or a section of its body will attack islands at random and expose itself to attacks. Using control effects when the breakbar is active is recommended as this will prevent Mordremoth from eating the island (if this happens, anticipate having to glide away). Soon after passing a 25% health mark, Mordremoth's commanders will appear on three of the islands, two of them (Diarmid and Hareth's islands) will be wrapped around by Mordremoth's body and if they are not killed within a timer, those two islands will be destroyed; Adryn gives buffs to the two other commanders, requiring his death as well.

The primary source of damage in this fight comes from the mortar shells, which can be taken from a fallen Pact chopper that spawns periodically. The majority of the characters present should collect these mortars and make their way to the Mouth of Mordremoth's head. A smaller group should attack the head directly, using control skills at a slow pace. This will keep the head from destroying the island, and buy as much time as possible for the mortars to arrive. After the initial mortar shell phase, a Legendary Mordrem Wyvern arrives to attack islands with its Flame Trail attack, leaving line AoEs across the island which deal a large amount of damage, Burning.png Burning, and Crippled.png Crippled.

After these two simultaneous events, the following event cycle repeats until groups either succeed or fail the Dragon's Stand (80) meta event:

  • Return to beginning of cycle
Explore newly opened areas

Upon defeating the Mouth of Mordremoth, a cinematic will play showing its death - after which one can glide into the updrafts to the reward chest atop the tree, where one can also find a Crystalline Ore Collector vendor.

After the Mouth of Mordremoth is defeated, special areas on the map will be opened containing Noxious Pods that are opened using Machetes. There are multiple "secret sections" like this that are open only on mapwide victory. Red arrows on the map will hint at where the secret passage to these "hidden" sections containing the pods are (the only source for Crystalline Ore in the game apart from personal story rewards). During this period, Rangers can find and charm 2 pets available only on this map, the Juvenile Tiger and Juvenile Electric Wyvern. The Juvenile Tiger can also be found in Draconis Mons, at Mariner Landing.

Pets[edit]

Juvenile Electric Wyvern
Juvenile Tiger

Related achievements[edit]

Primary article: Dragon's Stand (achievements)

Notes[edit]

Trivia[edit]