Tainted Skavag — guide

In short

Tainted Skavag is the hard-mode boss of the Spider's Den and the game's main source of accessories. You farm her for high-rank accessories with the right substats, plus silver and event points.

The fight is decided by the brood: spiderlings are both your damage into the boss and her healing plus permanent ATK growth. Whoever stops clearing the swarm first loses.

Mechanics

• Ebbing Web — an AoE hit on the whole team. It deals roughly 15% more damage to champions under Poison, so poison-heavy comps work against you.
• Torpor — a second AoE that cuts turn meter; on a champion whose turn meter is already empty it applies an unresistable 1-turn Sleep. Around a four-turn cooldown.
• Tainted Brood — 6 spiderlings at the start of the round, 2 more at the start of each of your champions' turns, 4 at the end of her turn, never more than 10 alive. At the start of her turn she eats everything left: heals about 3% of her MAX HP and gains a permanent +10% ATK for each one.
• Foul Constitution — immune to Heal Reduction, Decrease Damage, HP Burn and turn-meter reduction. HP Burn ticking on a spiderling heals her, while every spiderling that dies takes about 3% of her MAX HP with it.
• Tainted Immunity — immune to Stun, Freeze, Sleep, Provoke, Block Active Skills, Block Passive Skills, Fear, True Fear, Petrification, HP Swap, HP Balance and cooldown increase.
• Awakened Weakness — your champions' awakening levels change how much damage she deals to them.
• Almighty Force — MAX HP-scaling damage is capped at 10% of her MAX HP per hit.

What your team needs

• Real AoE damage — you must kill 8–10 spiderlings every round; those deaths are your main damage source.
• Decrease DEF and Weaken on the boss to open a burst window.
• Decrease ATK, Increase DEF, shields — her ATK stacks permanently, so an unmitigated team folds around round 3–4.
• A cleanser — Sleep cannot be resisted. Flat heals and shields beat Lifesteal here.
• Stats: SPD 200–250+ on everyone, ACC 250+ on debuffers (300+ on the deepest hard stages, it depends on the stage), 40–50k HP or 3000+ DEF on supports.
• Dead slots: Heal Reduction, Decrease Damage, HP Burn, turn-meter control, Block Revive.

Teams

• Budget: Elhain, Coldheart, Stag Knight, Doompriest, Melga Steelgirdle — Elhain's AoE wipes the brood, Coldheart adds single-target burst, Stag Knight brings Decrease DEF and Decrease ATK, Doompriest cleanses Sleep, Melga shields and revives.
• Mid-game: Madame Serris, Royal Guard, Husk, Uugo, Doompriest — two AoE nukers keep the swarm dead every round, Serris strips buffs and lands debuffs, Uugo and Doompriest cover healing and cleanse.
• Endgame: Cardiel, Mithrala Lifebane, Prince Kymar, Acrizia, Gnut — Kymar resets the AoE nukes, Acrizia and Gnut land 10% MAX HP chunks, Mithrala and Cardiel keep cleanse, shields and revives up.

Common mistakes

• Bringing the classic HP Burn plan: she is immune to it, and burn ticking on spiderlings heals her.
• Poison comps (Kael, Akemtum) — Ebbing Web hits poisoned champions about 15% harder.
• Wasting slots on Heal Reduction, Decrease Damage, turn-meter control or Block Revive, and skipping a cleanser entirely.
• Leaving spiderlings alive until her turn: she eats them, heals and snowballs into unkillable ATK.

Tips

• On auto, put your AoE skill first in priority so the brood dies before her turn.
• Sets: Speed plus Accuracy or Perception on debuffers, Relentless on the AoE nuker, Stun on an AoE champion to steal turns from spiderlings, Immortal and Stoneskin on supports.
• Lifesteal and damage-based healing are cut to about 35% — don't build survival on them, use direct heals, shields and Increase DEF.
• Push awakening levels: the higher they are, the less damage your champion takes.
• Speed beats raw bulk: the loop of clear the brood, then hit the boss has to repeat every round.