Aethyr Elemental: Empyrea Skeleton Key Boss Guide

The Aethyr Elemental is a new gold skeleton key boss in Empyrea part 2. Wizards can journey to the Northeast Aeroplains and cross the bridge to arrive at the entrance to this skeleton key boss room. Prepare for cheats in this challenging end-game battle!

Aethyr Elemental

This boss is located inside a skeleton key room in the Northeast Aeroplains in Empyrea. It requires a gold skeleton key to open. After you enter the Northeast Aeroplains from the Southwest Aeroplains, cross the bridge and you'll find this dungeon. You'll enter or team up with your desired group, then one person will use a key to open the door to the boss.

For more general information on skeleton keys, check out the Wizard101 Skeleton Key Guide. Also check out all of Wizard101's skeleton key bosses.

Battle Guide

This battle has three parts or "waves" of enemies. All of these waves happen right after one another, so the next boss(es) will be summon and you will not start a new fight. If everyone flees or dies at any stage, you will have to start the battle completely from the beginning with Wave 1.

Wave 1: One Boss

You'll fight the following boss first:

• Aethyr Elemental; Rank 18 Ice & Shadow Boss; 40,000 health

Battle notes: This boss does impressive damage and can cast a series of spells that stun enemies, so beware. Check out the cheats listed below. Beware that this boss has a 55% version of Legion Shield (universal shield to all friends).

Cheats:

• You're late! If you arrive late to the battle (round 3 or later), the boss will use a shadow version of Lord of Winter, which will remove all of your pips.
• If a damage over time spell is used, the boss will immediately cast Triage and remove it.
• If a heal over time spell is used, the boss will immediately cast Snow Drift and steal it. If the spell affects all teammates, the boss will steal the heals from all teammates. This includes pet heals like Life Bat from the "Batusi" pet talent.
• If a blade is used, the boss will cast Mass Enfeeble and remove all blades from all allies. You can avoid this cheat with Aegis, but a second blade would cause removal of the first.
• If a Feint is used, the boss will cast Double Cleanse Ward and remove the two most recent traps. You can avoid this cheat with Indemnity (in which case the boss will remove the protection then the most recent trap cast before the Feint). 

Wave 2: Two Bosses

After you defeat wave 1, wave 2 begins immediately:

• Aethyr Elemental; Rank 18 Ice & Shadow Boss; 20,000 health

• Aethyr Elemental; Rank 18 Ice & Shadow Boss; 20,000 health

Battle notes: This set of bosses has the same power level and spell arsenal as the first, but is now gaining twice the pips and using double the spells! Beware that each boss can cast a 55% version Legion Shield (universal shield to all friends).

Cheats:

• You're late! If you arrive late to the battle (round 3 or later), each boss will use a shadow version of Lord of Winter, which will remove all of your pips.
• If a damage over time spell is used, either boss will immediately cast Triage and remove it.
• If a heal over time spell is used, either boss will immediately cast Snow Drift and steal it. If the spell affects all teammates, the boss will steal the heals from all teammates. This includes pet heals like Life Bat from the "Batusi" pet talent.
• Blades are allowed from this wave onward.
• If a Feint is used, the boss will cast Double Cleanse Ward and remove the two most recent traps. You can avoid this cheat with Indemnity (in which case the boss will remove the protection then the most recent trap cast before the Feint). 

Wave 3: Four Bosses

After you defeat waves 1 and 2, wave 3 begins immediately. Please note: Waves 2 and 3 can intermix. Each 20,000 health enemy splits into two, so if you defeat them one at a time, you may have one 20,000 health enemy and two 10,000 health enemies.

• Aethyr Elemental; Rank 18 Ice & Shadow Boss; 10,000 health

• Aethyr Elemental; Rank 18 Ice & Shadow Boss; 10,000 health

• Aethyr Elemental; Rank 18 Ice & Shadow Boss; 10,000 health

• Aethyr Elemental; Rank 18 Ice & Shadow Boss; 10,000 health

Battle notes: Now you have four times the bosses! This can make killing them easier with an AoE, but they're also dealing more damage. Beware that each boss can cast a 55% version Legion Shield (universal shield to all friends). Also, the stun spells start to add up here and could result in losing one or more rounds.

Cheats:

• You're late! If you arrive late to the battle (round 3 or later), each boss will use a shadow version of Lord of Winter, which will remove all of your pips. It will be difficult to survive four of these attacks.
• If a damage over time spell is used, any boss will immediately cast Triage and remove it.
• If a heal over time spell is used, any boss will immediately cast Snow Drift and steal it. If the spell affects all teammates, the boss will steal the heals from all teammates. This includes pet heals like Life Bat from the "Batusi" pet talent.
• Blades are allowed on this wave.
• If a Feint is used, the boss will cast Double Cleanse Ward and remove the two most recent traps. You can avoid this cheat with Indemnity (in which case the boss will remove the protection then the most recent trap cast before the Feint). 

General Strategy

These bosses hit hard, and you'll need a good healer or tank. Two is actually okay. If you can survive indefinitely, you'll likely be able to complete the battle. This is especially important given that fleeing and returning is painful and nearly impossible in the final wave. Pack Reshuffles, as they not only ensure that you'll have enough spells for the entire battle, but it also lets you discard blades and irrelevant cards early on if necessary and get them back for later waves. You can also use multiple hammers given how often this boss uses school and Tower shields.

Plan for the tougher waves. Use your time during the first wave to prepare for the later waves, where stuns will be common (you can be chain stunned in some cases) and attacks will be plentiful. You should also attempt to kill bosses in large chunks, as leaving them with low health has caused the "split" to occur prematurely and you'll end up with extra elementals to fight. It is unknown whether or not this is a bug.

Drops

As players continue to farm this boss, I'll update this article with drops. One that has already been found is the Aethyr Cloud mount! Check it out below.

Potential Rewards:
Mount: Aethyr Cloud

Gold: 829-?
Pet Snacks: Satyr Chow
Furniture: Kalamar Chair
Reagents: Astral Shard, Sunstone, Ectoplasm
Treasure Cards: Elemental Blade, Dragonblade
Gear: Immutable Zanadu Pendent

Recent Boss Comparison

I was really interested to see what the power level on this boss would look like after some past disasters that have simply been too difficult. The Storm Titan isn't bad with a well-coordinated group, but that's reserved for wizards with social media accounts or access to fansites, which not everyone has. I discuss the plethora of problems with recent end-world bosses in a recent post. I also feel that the most recent top-level skeleton key boss, Corporal Tenni'syn, falls into the category of being difficult enough that it's not very fun. This is as opposed to Mimic, which is a battle which is challenging but a lot of fun.

Although I've only run this boss a handful of times, my initial impression is that this is a more balanced fight. Let's be clear, it's not easy. You need to deal a total of 120,000 damage (the equivalent of beating the Storm Titan except you can't do it in one hit), plus you have to deal with different stages of enemies and some tough cheats. I do think this boss hits a little too hard. It should be more of an endurance game - a bit of a marathon, like Omen Stribog - instead of a race to kill each other, like Corporal Tenni'syn, which is a far less interactive battle. Otherwise, the concept is cool and the battle is doable.

What do you think of the Aethyr Elemental fight?

Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral!