Introduction
This written guide will briefly go over Veteran Bal Sunnar and its three hardmode mechanics available in veteran mode to players along with the location of the secret boss & puzzles in this Scribes of Fate DLC dungeon.
Secret 1: Totem Puzzle
After the third trash pack of monsters, head south to find the first secret area.
The puzzle is simple but can be time consuming. The goal is to use the 4 wheels to line up the totem pole to show the 4 correct symbols. Which wheel turn which totem(s) is random every time you enter the dungeon. Behind the center totem is 3 stacks of smaller totems. Match them up with the center totem. The bottom 2 should match the left totems. The middle 2 should match the middle totems. The top 2 should match the right totems. Image below helps clarify.
Completing this puzzle gives you and your group Strenght of the Ancestors, increasing your weapon and spell damage by 300.
Boss 1: Kovan Giryon
Hardmode health: 8.2 million.
Kovan Giryon is a Dunmer Arcanist. This fight has only 1 mechanic that players need to be concerned about to survive the fight.
Poison Circle: periodically Kovan casts a poison aoe beneath all players feet. This deals heavy damage and will increase in size during the duration. It can't be purged. Stay as close as possible to eachother without overlapping circles. Casting barriers and shields will help a lot if you struggle to survive the mechanic from healing alone.
Strategy:
This boss moves around a lot. He will frequently teleport across the room to summon a straight line of hostile aoes. Make sure sure to stick together, avoid his aoes and don't overlap poison circles when they appear.
At 65% he initiates the first shadow-phase. The boss removes himself from the arena during this time, and spawns adds to attack you. Kill the Primitive Nix Ox to make the boss come back and end the shadow-phase. The Nix Ox itself is very simple to handle, just interrupt its aoe attack. The smaller adds explode when they die, be sure to not stand too close to them as they die.
At 45% he enters the second shadow-phase. This time an Iron Atronach spawns instead of the Nix Ox. It's the same as before, make sure to interrupt its aoe attack, and boss will return once the Iron Atronach is defeated.
At 20% he starts the final shadow-phase. No large add spawns, but the boss returns shortly after while the shadow-phase is still happening, akin to hardmode Lady Thorn from the Castle Thorn dungeon.
At this point the boss will have a lot of unattackable shades of himself in the room that spawn the straight line hostile aoe. Focus down the boss with execute abilities quickly to lower the chance of getting a poison circle mechanic in this final phase.
Secret 2: Mini boss Urvel Drath
4 million health.
To the left of the cave entrance just before Roksa the Warped, you find a path going back outside. You notice it's the same location as the first puzzle area, just in a different time.
This miniboss is very easy. He will occasionally teleport across the room. The Argonian behemoth will follow him and stun the boss for a few seconds. Shortly after 4 enemy aoe circles will appear, following each of you. Just walk away and keep up your attacks on the main boss, and avoid kiting the circles over eachother. Defeating Urvel Drath will give you and your team Ancestral Vitality, increasing your magicka & stamina recovery by 30%.
Boss 2: Roksa the Warped
Hardmode health: 12.9 million.
Roksa the Warped is a large Nix Ox. A couple of mechanics to be aware of in this fight.
Orbs: Throughout the fight the boss will summon 3-4 orbs in the three corners of the arena that drain all party members. The orbs can be instantly destroyed by interrupting their channeled ability. If you fail to do it in time, the person getting drained will be one shot. An easy trick to help with this is for the healer to slot Propelling Shield & crushing shock to give them increased range and be able to easily interrupt all orbs as they spawn, all while standing in the middle of the room.
Dark room: The boss will throughout the fight make the room dark, and summon 1-2 safe areas which you need to immediately run to and stand inside. You can survive going between safe areas for 3-4 seconds until the damage overwhelms and one shots you. Keep in mind that the Orbs mechanic can happen simultaneously as Dark room.
Three beams: After the darkness mechanic ends, the 3 unattackable Nix Oxes in the corners of the arena will fire a beam at whoever last had aggro of the main boss. The tank will need to move to the center of the room and stay alive until the beam phase is over. This is easily outhealed by the healer. The DPS in the meantime need to kite smaller aoes being shot at the ground beneath them. Survive the phase and the boss will return.
Strategy: The fight is quite straightforward. Push the boss to 70% where he initiates the first dark room phase. Stay inside the safe areas and kill the adds to make the boss return. Keep an eye out for orbs and be prepared for the tank to get beamed afterwards.
At 40% this happens again, rinse and repeat.
No unique execute mechanics for this fight. Interrupt orbs, stay in safe zones and block the beams and Roksa the Warped will be defeated.
Secret 3: Laser beams
After leaving the previous boss area, head south once you exit the well. You will once again return to the same area as the previous 2 secrets, again in a different point in time.
The objective for this secret is to make all 4 beams shoot their lasers at the middle totem pole. You can use the darker obsidian rocks to change their direction, which will redirect their beams. The order is random every time, so it will take trial and error. The first beam will always hit the totem.
When done succesfully, you and your team gain Ancestral Resolve, giving you 3000 health & 10% less damage taken.
Boss 3: Matriarch Lladi Telvanni
Lladi is a Dunmer Telvanni mage who utilizes a lot of poisonus attacks.
Mechanics to be aware of:
Conal spew: The boss will shoot a cone of puke towards the tank. If any player other than the tank is hit by the puke, they get infected and will start spewing poison too, damaging allies hit by it. While this is active you can not activate your abilities. If you get hit, turn your character towards a wall and wait and get outhealed until the mechanic is over.
Skeevers: Similar to the Blood Bats in Moongrave Fane last boss hardmode, a Skeever will spawn and target one person with a symbol above their head. If they reach you, they inflict you with a severe debuff which can be deadly. The tank can help a lot and use Chains and Choking Talons/Psijic time stop to keep them in place while the dps bring them down. Always prioritize skeevers!
Choking pestilence: At 70% & 35% the boss moves to the center and becomes immune to damage for 30 seconds. During this the room is filled with poison that also lasts for 30 seconds. During this adds spawn that are also immune to damage. To damage them, activate a unique time stop synergy that spawns after a short while. This synergy will give you around 10 seconds to damage the adds. Be sure to chain and stack all adds together as tightly as possible, then ulti bomb them when you activate the time stop. If you happen to leave some alive after the Choking Pestilence phase is over, don't worry as you will get more chances to kill them as time stop will keep spawning throughout the fight.
Strategy: The hardest hurdle is the Choking pestilence phase. It can easily be overcome by saving all ultimate abilities and moving as a team in a circle around the boss to avoid being bitten by skeevers. Push the main boss to 70%, then ulti bomb the adds after you take the time stop synergy. After the first Choking Pestilence phase is over, Blobs will start spawning. Don't ignore these, as they can be a massive drain on the tank's resources.
Keep going until 35% when the second Choking pestilence phase begins. Rinse and repeat. Afterwards there is no execute mechanic, make sure to keep killing adds until you reach a health threshhold you feel comfortable where you can ignore all adds and finally execute the boss.