Been wandering the Shadowlands and finding scraps of Blueprints? Unpolluted crystals? Subdued flows of Novictum perhaps? Been wondering what they all do? Well, its all to do with a new feature introduced with the Shadowlands Expansion that is know as 'Pocket Bosses' This allows you to create an 'on demand' boss mob encounter for you and your friends to take on.

So how do you do it?

Well first you have to collect all the parts that are required. These have a chance of dropping off any outdoors mob in the Shadowlands, and as usual the named or mini boss mobs drop them a lot more frequently, so lets look at exactly what you need:

• Completed Blueprint Pattern for the relevant Boss
• Crystal Filled with the Source
• Subdued Flow of Novictum

Completed Blueprint Pattern

Alas the blueprints for each boss are torn into four sections, Aban, Bhottar, Chi and Dom. These four parts need to be constructed into the completed pattern, but in which order? This is actually quite easy to figure out, look at the names, look at the letter they start with. That's right, its a simple case of combing A(ban) + B(hottar) + C(hi) + D(om). This process requires 6 x QL in Nano programming to accomplish - so it's not something to be taken lightly in any way. You are going to need 600+ NP to summon a boss over level 100! It's a fairly steep requirement.

Subdued Flow of Novictum

The Subdued Novictum is lootable from various outdoor mobs though spirit mobs seem to drop it most often. It's also unique so you can only have one at a time. As with any tradeskill process you'll need your flow to be within 15% of the QL of the boss you are trying to make.

You can also get a subdued flow by refining various other forms of novictum. The Novictum comes in varying quality levels, with different names for each quality level band:

• Disturbed Sequence of Novictum: QL 1 - 89
• Provoked Bond of Novictum: QL90 - 129
• Enraged Pith of Novictum: QL130 - 159
• Vicious Novictum Continuity: QL 160 - 189
• Furious Novictum Nexus: QL190 - 219
• Cataclysmic Birth of Novictum: QL220 - 300

To do the conversion to subdued Novictum you need an Ancient Novictum Refiner. This can be bought from the Yuttos Tools vendors, although they do not seem to carry it every time, so you might need to check through a few vendors to find one. It is also a rare drop from a spirit mob called 'The Lady' in Nascense.

Crystal Filled with the Source

There are two ways to get one of these, but one of them isn't currently working. The raw stage of the crystal is called an Unpolluted Crystal and can either be looted off mobs or summoned by an MP. This is where the bug comes in. To get your crystal filled you need to take it to a control tower and 'charge' it. The problem at the moment is that the looted variety won't work on Rubi-Ka control towers and since land control isn't activated in the Shadowlands you have to have an MP summon a crystal for you for this stage to work.

Take the crystal and target the control tower. Then right click the crystal and it will become your Crystal filled with the source.

Ok, all the needed parts in place how do you make the final crystal, lets take a look:

The final part require 4 x QL in Quantum Forcefield Technology to complete, not as harsh as the NP requirements on the blueprint. Ok, now you have your final crystal how do you summon the boss itself?

Shadowlands Incarnators

You will have seen these around the Shadowlands - large glowing blue spiral type affairs. If you approach it you will notice that it is possible to target the base of the Incarnators. Target the Incarnator and then right click the completed crystal to summon the boss. *WARNING* doing this saps the person who does the summoning of all of their hit points! So have friends on hand to aggro the boss immediately!!

So where do you find these Incarnators?

There are two in Elysium for lower level bosses, one in the center of Southern Elysium close to the beach where you enter from Nascense. The next one can be found in Northern Elysium in Monopolis. In Scheol there are two in Upper Scheol, one each just east and west of the main mountain range in the center of the zone.

So where do I find the pattern pieces?

The best mobs in terms of drop rate are the mini bosses scattered around the Shadowlands zones. These can sometimes be hard to find, but basically if you see a group of mobs, and see one mob with a slightly different name, or a unique name in amongst them its probably a mini boss and will have a decent chance of dropping a pattern piece.

The various factioned mobs for redeemed and unredeemed mobs also drop pattern parts.

So what are the bosses like?

The bosses have a lot of HP for their level, much more then a Rubi-Ka mission boss and rather then having auras like their Rubi-Ka counterparts they have some nasty nano skills. Most (if not all of them) constantly run an AOE debuff and an AOE DoT and can also fire off some nasty init debuffs on occassion

Symbiants

So what is the reward for killing these boss mobs? Well, as it happens the rewards can be very nice, and profitable if nothing else. Pocket Bosses are the only means of getting symbiants above level 25 or so (low level symbiants drop off boss mobs in Nascense).

Symbiants are special Shadowlands implants that provide a wider spread of bonuses then standard implants and can make quite a difference to your characters. The key is finding out which boss drops which symbiant.

Conclusion