ESO High Isle Dreadsail Reef Trial - How To Defeat Sail Ripper

When you've made it beyond the first boss duo in the High Isle Dreadsail Reef Trial, your next challenge will be to take down one of the more dangerous birds in Elder Scrolls Online (ESO). In this case, the bird you're fighting is named the Sail Ripper, and it has plenty of lightning abilities to ward off would-be adventurers.

Compared to the other bosses in the Dreadsail Reef Trial, the Sail Ripper is on the easier side of things. It only makes sense considering how difficult the first boss duo is in comparison. As long as you can keep an eye out on AOE attacks and your group is controlling adds, this fight will be more than manageable. 

How to defeat the Sail Ripper - Dreadsail Reef Trial

Overall, the Sail Ripper fight in the Dreadsail Reef Trial is fairly straightforward and maybe the least amount of trouble for your group, but it depends on how well players can pay attention to status effects. Sail Ripper itself is essentially just a large harpy-type enemy that has been imbued with lightning.

Lightning rods can be found all around the arena, and this is presumably what is damaging you as you make your way to the arena. Around the main boss, there will be a ton of lesser harpy enemies with their own lightning attacks. These need to be taken down as fast as possible. Otherwise, there will be far too much AOE lightning around the arena.

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The boss itself must be held by the tank away from the rest of the group. It's inevitable that the harpy will move around a lot to create space, but the group can readjust themselves. As long as you aren't standing directly in AOE lightning that has been planted on the ground, the healers can also mend through the main boss attacks.

As a last mechanic, the lightning rods can place everlasting lightning effects on a given player. These will continue to do damage over time, and on Veteran difficulty, they will kill you. There will be smaller storm circles floating around the arena with a green zone in the centre. Step inside this to cleanse the lightning, but avoid them if you are clean.

Sail Ripper boss location in the ESO Dreadsail Reef Trial

Getting to the main Sail Ripper boss may be more frustrating than the fight itself. After defeating the elemental duo, you and your group will be tasked with destroying more lightning-based enemies, surviving tempest attacks, and solving lever puzzles.

The lever puzzles are required to open nearly every main door on the way to the bird arena. In each section where levers are found, players will need to pull three different levers at the same time for the doors to open. Coordination is necessary here, but there is some room for error on the pulls.

For more on the game, head over to our section dedicated to Elder Scrolls Online High Isle news, guides, features, and more!

Featured image courtesy of Zenimax Online Studios.