Boneskinner

This article is about the raid encounter. For the boss within the instance, see Boneskinner (legendary). For the champions in Bjora Marches and associated lore, see Champion Boneskinner.

Boneskinner

Levels

80

Type

Raid

Difficulty

Zone

Bjora Marches
(Shiverpeak Mountains)

API

1339, 1351

Loading screen

Image(s)

Click to enlarge.

“

One of Havroun Weibe's shamans, Hallveig, has reported that the Raven Sanctum has recently been taken over by the boneskinner. Raven Shaman Hallveig is looking for volunteers to enter the sanctum and cleanse it of this menace.
or
The fearsome boneskinner has taken over Raven Sanctum. Cleanse it of this menace.

— In-game description

“

The Icebrood have summoned a powerful servant of the Elder Dragon Jormag into the Raven Sanctum—the Boneskinner. Confront this abomination and stop its rampage through the sanctum.

— Raid selection

Boneskinner is the fourth Icebrood Saga raid encounter introduced into the game, taking place in Sanctum Arena.

Getting there

Players must own the Path of Fire expansion to join, be max level (80), and be in a raid-mode (10 player) squad to join.

• Interact with the portal at the  Raven Pass — in Bjora Marches (west of  Jora's Keep Waypoint — ).
• Interact with the portal in Eye of the North ( Eye of the North Waypoint — ).
• Enter the Raid — Combined portal in Lion's Arch Aerodrome ( Aerodrome Waypoint — ).
• Join via the pop-up box when the raid instance is opened.

Objectives

• Speak to the Raven shaman to begin the raid encounter.
• Players in Raid Encounter: x (if public)
• Draw Out the Boneskinner
• Defeat the boneskinner.
  • Boneskinner
    
  • Raid encounter ends in: 10:00
• Raid Encounter complete!
  • Mission closes in 2:00
  • Bonus rewards obtained: x/2

Rewards

• Three Essence chests (once per day)
  • Small Chest of Valor
    • Raid Encounter: Lost Small Chest of Valor (guaranteed) (by mail if not opened in the instance)
  • Medium Chest of Valor
    • Raid Encounter: Lost Medium Chest of Valor (guaranteed) (by mail if not opened in the instance)
  • Large Chest of Valor
    • Raid Encounter: Lost Large Chest of Valor (guaranteed) (by mail if not opened in the instance)
  • The chests have a chance to contain:
    • Ancient Boreal Weapon Skin Container

Quickplay

• Magnetite Shard (5, 10) (guaranteed)
• One bouncy chest (once per week)
  • 5,000 
  • 48,006 

Normal

• Magnetite Shard (10) (guaranteed)
• One bouncy chest (once per week)
  • Misty Cape Scrap (guaranteed) (If Prototype Harmonizing Mist Loom has been purchased.)
  • Piece of Rare Unidentified Gear (guaranteed)
  • Piece of Unidentified Gear (2) (guaranteed)
  • Boneskinner Ritual Vial (9) (guaranteed)
  • Icebrood Saga Raid Encounter Coffer (guaranteed)
  • 2 
  • 10,000  (Karma Rewards are affected by consumable boosters.)
  • 48,006 
  • Possible rare rewards:
    • Blessed Raven Statuette
    • Boneskinner's Totem
    • Essential Oil of Shadows
    • Ice Golem's Maw Box
    • Gilded Reliquary of the Raven

Historical

• Blue Prophet Shard (1-3) (guaranteed)

Walkthrough

This raid encounter is the next progression after players complete Shiverpeaks Pass, Voice of the Fallen and Claw of the Fallen and Fraenir of Jormag encounters, which are collectively referred to by the community as the "IBS EZ3". As with the Whisper of Jormag encounter, this fight is significantly more difficult. These two encounters along with the EZ3 encounters are collectively referred to as the "IBS Fast 5" due to their relatively quick completion speed compared to the Cold War and the Forging Steel encounters.

General

This encounter has a lot more healing pressure and heavily punishes players that get hit by mechanics. It is thus recommended to have at least two dedicated healers and skills that help reposition downed players, such as   "Search and Rescue!".

Players with the Essence of Resilience mastery can attack the nearby pylon to collect orbs to gain the  Power of Resilience effect. This grants players the   Spirit Nova special action key to deal significant damage to the boss and its defiance bar.

An orange-black field encircles the arena shortly after players near the center of the arena. Players standing on the field gain the  Unrelenting Pain effect, which inflicts heavy damage every second.

Boneskinner

Health: 20,979,420

Enrage Timer: 10 minutes

Enrage Effect: Defeats all players

Fixation Mechanic: None

100% – 90%

Six torches surround the arena and are periodically extinguished by the boss. Players can interact with an unlit torch to relight it. The boss begins by extinguishing a torch and uses the following skills:

Skill	Notes
Cascade	Launches cascading rectangular AoEs that rapidly deal medium damage. Players standing near the boss cannot be hit by this attack.
Death Wind	Spews a noxious cloud in a cone that extinguishes torches and inflicts  Knockdown and  Weakness.
Grasp	Raises its right leg and spawns AoEs below all players that persist for a while, inflicting  Torment on the initial hit then pulsing damage and  Weakness. Players should ideally stack together tightly to stack together the AoEs, then move slightly clockwise or counterclockwise to position the next set.
Unnatural Aura	Pulses low damage every three seconds.
Tormenting Aura	Pulses every second if a torch is unlit, with damage increasing per stacks of  Tormenting Aura on players. This starts out as a small, orange-black AoE around the boss that expands for each extinguished torch. At 1-2 torches extinguished, players alternate between 2 and 4 stacks. At 3-4 torches extinguished, players alternate between 3 and 6 stacks. At 5-6 torches extinguished, players alternate between 4 and 8 stacks. This is generally the breaking point and will require at least two dedicated healers to outheal the pulsing damage.

Although the intended strategy is to have designated players relight the extinguished torches, the most common strategy is to have all players stacked together near the boss and outheal the damage with dedicated healers. However, the general process is the same for both strategies aside from how the torches are dealt with.

Players attempting the Hold onto the Light achievement will find it easier with the second strategy. Because the group will allow all torches to be eventually extinguished by the Boneskinner, the wisps will be unable to extinguish them. Players should allow all torches to be extinguished by the boss before reaching 85% health, then continue the fight as normal.

This phase follows a fixed, repeating pattern: Death Wind → Grasp → Cascade → Grasp → Cascade

90% – 75%

At 90% health and about every 35 seconds (can be delayed if other skills are prioritized), it will stand on its hindlegs, unlock its defiance bar, and summon Veteran Aberrant Wisps. Breaking the bar inflicts  Stun and  Exposed to the boss; failing it has no effect. Wisp attacks can be negated with projectile-related skills, such as projectile destruction and reflects.

Players with the  Power of Resilience effect will gain access to the   Spirit Nova special action skill to deal large damage to the bar and enemies. Hitting the wisps will generally unlock this skill, allowing players to massively increase their damage through multiple uses of this skill.

This phase follows a fixed, repeating pattern: Death Wind → Grasp → Cascade → Grasp → Cascade

75% – 0%

At 75% and every 25% health, the boss will use the following skills:

Skill	Notes
Charge → Crushing Cruelty	Charges towards and permanently destroys a torch, then leaps to the center inflicting heavy damage. Players should position away from the targeted torch and evade the leap attack.
Douse in Darkness	Jumps out of the arena and  Pulls all enemies into the center and extinguishes all torches. Leaps back to the center after a delay and deals heavy damage. Players should evade the leap attack.

The timing for these skills may be delayed if other skills are prioritized. The pattern for this phase is less fixed, however the boss will generally alternate between Death Wind and Grasp, and cast Death Wind after leaping.

NPCs

Allies

• Raven Shaman Hallveig

Foes

• Boneskinner
• Veteran Aberrant Wisp

Objects

• Anvil
• Torch (Sanctum Arena)
• Pylon of Resilience

Dialogue

Raven Shaman Hallveig: Thanks for the assistance, Commander. Is your squad ready to go?

If public:

(Advancing will lock your party and prevent any other players from joining the Strike Mission.)

Let's do this.

We're still waiting for more people to show up.

If fewer than 10 players

Raven Shaman Hallveig: Could still use more bodies. You sure you're ready?

(You have fewer players than recommended for this Strike Mission. Choose to go forward anyway, or wait for more help.)

We're ready.

Your party has been locked.

No new players will be able to join the Strike Mission. Work with your party to complete the goal!

We'll wait for more help.

In public instance, if fewer than 5 players

Raven Shaman Hallveig: You'll need more help. Report back with reinforcements.

(At least five players must be in the map to proceed. Wait for more players to join, or enter the squad version from outside.)

I'll check back when help arrives.

Approaching the exit portal

Raven Shaman Hallveig: Do you want to return to Bjora Marches?

Yes.

I want to return to the Eye of the North.

Not right now.

Related achievements

• Whisper in the Dark: Legendary Boneskinner — Kill the boneskinner in the Sanctum Arena. (10)
• Return to Whisper in the Dark: (Bonus) Strike Back: Raven Sanctum — Defeat a legendary creature in the Raven Sanctum. (0)
• Daily Icebrood Saga: Daily Legendary Hunter — Defeat a legendary creature in the Raven Sanctum. (0)
• Shadow in the Ice: Deathless Hunt — Defeat the Boneskinner in the Sanctum Arena without being downed or defeated. (5)
• Shadow in the Ice: Flickering Light — Light 30 torches while fighting the Boneskinner in the Raven Sanctum. (5)
• Shadow in the Ice: Hold onto the Light — Complete the Boneskinner raid encounter without letting any torches be extinguished by wisps. (10)

Version history

Patch	Changes
February 27, 2024	Post-victory achievements will now be rewarded much faster in Icebrood Saga strike missions to prevent the achievements from being missed if a player left the map too quickly after receiving their first rewards.
February 28, 2022	End of Dragons release: Icebrood Saga strike missions now reward Blue Prophet Shards and Blue Prophet Crystals. All Green and Red Prophet Shards and Green and Red Prophet Crystals have been converted to Blue Prophet Shards and Crystals, respectively.
April 27, 2021	Fixed an issue that caused the Eye of the North's prompt for daily strike achievements to be out of sync with the daily strike.
August 11, 2020	Fixed a bug that prevented Boneskinner Ritual Vials from dropping after certain conditions were met. Fixed a bug that awarded 30 Boneskinner Ritual Vials instead of 9 on gold-level completion.
March 17, 2020	Added a universal strike access portal in Eye of the North, from which any of the current Strike Missions can be launched. One strike per day is now promoted as a Priority Strike, with its public version available from the Eye of the North and a daily achievement that rewards the new Prophet Crystal currency. Added Prophet Shards as a reward from all strikes. Prophet Shards and Crystals can be traded with vendors in the Eye of the North for powerful rewards.
January 30, 2020	Damage from the boneskinner has returned to intended levels.
January 29, 2020	Fixed an issue with the Strike Mission timers in Bjora Marches.
December 05, 2019	Fixed a bug that caused players to be kicked out of the Boneskinner Strike Mission at the beginning of the fight. Adjusted the stats and damage of the boneskinner in the Boneskinner Strike Mission to closer match its intended difficulty. Changed how damage is inflicted on the boneskinner's Tormenting Aura mechanic to preserve the integrity of the intended fight mechanics.
November 21, 2019	Fixed an issue that prevented the boneskinner's health from scaling as intended.
November 19, 2019	Boneskinner has been added to the game.

Trivia

• Shrines to Wolverine, as well as several bodies of deceased Vigil members, can be found within the arena.
• Prior to the February 28, 2022 game update, the strike mission rewarded shards depending on the weekly Emissary:
  • Blue Prophet Shard (1-3)
  • Green Prophet Shard (1-3)
  • Red Prophet Shard (1-3)

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Raids