Welcome to the Veteran Scalecaller Peak Dungeon Guide! (vSCP)
This walkthrough will mainly focus on doing Scalecaller on Veteran difficulty, you will also learn how to clear the last boss on Hard Mode, regular mode is covered as well.
If you are playing on normal difficulty, everything will be the same only a lot easier, and it’s great practice for Veteran difficulty if you try to follow along with the mechanics of each boss.
This guide is aimed at beginners who are attempting vSCP for the first time, along with experienced players who want a refresher on the mechanics.
Scalecaller Peak is one of the most difficult dungeons in the game, the last boss on hard mode is also significantly more difficult than the regular version, so buckle up! ๐
Table Of Contents
- Dungeon Overview
- Dangerous Trash Monsters
- First Boss: Orzun the Foul-Smelling & Rinaerus the Rancid
- Second Boss: Doylemish Ironheart
- Third Boss: Matriarch Aldis
- Fourth Boss: Plague Concocter Mortieu
- Final Boss: Zaan the Scalecaller
- Final Boss: Hard Mode (HM)
Dungeon Overview
Location
Scalecaller Peak is located in Stormhaven.
Set Drops
- Zaan (Monster helm)
- Curse of Doylemish (Heavy)
- Plague Slinger (Medium)
- Jorvuld’s Guidance (Light)
Suggested Level
Veteran
CP 400+
Hard Mode
CP 600+
Dangerous Trash Monsters
Ogres

Make sure to face them away from the group and maintain aggro (tank). They perform strong heavy attacks. Always prioritize these ogres. They also shoot out poison and AOEs so keep your distance group!
One spot at the beginning of the dungeon will have two ogres, make sure to keep them separated. If they get too close to each other, they will enrage and wipe the group.
Leimenids

When you have Leimenids present, they should be your highest priority! If they are alive for too long, they will stun everybody with a geyser for several seconds.
Skeevers

When a Skeever is killed, it will put a big AOE on its corpse. Anyone stepping into this will start taking poison damage.
If a few Skeevers were stacked, the AOE can take down a squishy player very quickly.
First Boss: Orzun the Foul-Smelling & Rinaerus the Rancid

A group that is too weak for Veteran Scalecaller Peak will already wipe here, so if you can do this first boss, you can most likely do the rest of this dungeon ๐
Overview:
- There will be two bosses present – If they get too close to each other, they start spawning huge poison AOEs, keep them apart!
- The mechanics are extremely important in this fight, don’t attempt skipping them! Make sure you understand what to do.
- The melee ogre should be tanked by the edge of the room, the caster should be held by the tank using ranged taunt.
- Both bosses need to go down roughly around the same time, if one dies before the other, you lose the protection that will save you from their attacks – more on this below.
- Damage dealers should take one boss each and make sure their damage is paced equally. It’s best if a ranged damage dealer takes the middle ogre as it has a big AOE that you need to stay away from.
Tank
You need to maintain aggro on both ogres throughout this fight, they deal too much damage for a squishy player to survive long. Keep the Melee ogre (Orzun) along the edge of the room, feel free to move him around but do NOT pull him in towards the middle. If the ogres get too close to each other they will spawn very bad poison AOEs.

Make sure to face the melee ogre away from the group as he spits out bad poison attacks.
Healer
This fight is pretty standard for you, just follow the tank around and make sure your group members are near you. If people die in this fight, it is most likely not your fault, there are several one-shot mechanics which you can do nothing about.
Damage Dealers
Decide on which ogre to attack for each player. Ideally, a ranged damage dealer will handle the middle boss as mentioned in the overview. You HAVE to maintain equal damage on each boss, if one boss is going down faster than the other, halt damage on the one falling fastest. Help out the other person and make sure the bosses’ health bars even out.
Stay close to the healer and tank.
Mechanics
Ice Spikes
Ice spikes will start moving around on the ground, they will have a yellow ring around them. If you step into one of these, you will become frozen. Do NOT step into these, you will need them in a moment.
The boss will target you with a snow tremor – you will get a warning and a little red projectile tracing the ground will start following you. If this touches you, you will die instantly! The only way to survive this is by jumping into one of the ice spikes and letting them freeze you. Now stay frozen until the red ball hits you. Instead of killing you, it will break you free from your frozen state and you will be unscathed.

Make sure not to grab the one closest to the tank, we don’t want the tank to have to run across the room to get her/his ice spikes.
Big Ice Shards/Pillars
Two big ice shards will spawn somewhere along the edge of the room. Once this happens, you all need to gather up and hide behind them (it doesn’t matter which or how many people are behind one). By behind I mean put the ice shard between you and the ranged Ogre. The ranged ogre in the middle will perform a massive slam, taking down anyone who is not behind an ice shard.

Skeevers

The ranged Ogre will start channeling an interruptable attack, if you don’t interrupt it, Skeevers will start to spawn. Do your best at interrupting this as quickly as possible, having a ranged interrupt (crushing shock) really helps here. Focus on any Skeevers that may spawn and stay out of their nasty AOE they leave behind.
Finishing the bosses at the same time
As mentioned in the overview, the bosses need to go down at the same time. The reason for this is:
The big ice shards that protect you from the caster ogre – are summoned by the melee ogre.
Conversely – the ice spikes on the ground that protect your from the melee ogre’s snow tremor – are summoned by the caster ogre.
So IE, if you get snow tremors chasing you while the caster ogre is dead, you won’t have any ice spikes to protect you. This is why it’s so important that they go down roughly at the same time.
Before you can engage the next boss you will have to clear out some Gargoyles in the boss room. Try to pull them one by one, if you get them all your tank will most likely not be able to stay alive, they perform very strong heavy attacks.
Second Boss: Doylemish Ironheart

The Gargoyle boss can be a pain in the neck, let’s go through each step to try and minimize chaos and panic.
Overview:
- The number one priority is nuking the orbs.
- Free any allies that have been frozen!
- Take down the Wraiths as a second priority.
- Don’t let the orbs get too close to the tank.
Tank
- Hold the boss over by the door where he spawns.
- Try to pull in some Wraiths so they don’t eat up your damage dealers ๐
- You will be hit hard by Doylemish, sustain might be tricky here, make sure you get shards from your healer and heavy attack whenever you can! Watch out for his heavy attacks, they will one-shot you!
- Don’t taunt the orbs!
Healer
We need to keep the orbs away from the tank. What really helps on this fight is if you slot inner fire from the Undaunted skill line and use it to taunt the orbs. You’ll want to pull it away from the tank and let the damage dealers take it down as quickly as possible. Make sure to feed the tank with some synergies, she/he will have trouble with resources on this boss.
Mechanics
Orbs of Stone (Pokeball)

The orbs that look like pokemon balls ๐ They will one by one come down from their pillars and target players with a laser ray. If you are targeted, make sure to move away from the orb. By moving away, you will break the connection between you and the ray. If you stay in the ray for too long, you will become petrified.
If an ally becomes petrified, you have to run to her/him and synergize to break them free! The boss will start channeling a laser attack at anyone who is petrified, Tank, you MUST interrupt this or the boss will take down your party member!
The orbs will spawn based on the boss’ health:
80% – 60% – 40% -20%
Destroying the orbs is priority number one here! All focus should be on the orbs when they are out!

Adds – Ice Wraiths

The boss will summon ice wraiths, if you get too many of these it can start causing problems. Try to clear out as many as possible when you get a chance, this fight will be much more manageable if you can keep the Wraiths to a minimum. But the Orbs should be taken down first!
The Wraiths spawn in a group of five every time the boss reaches the following percentages:
90% – 70% – 50% – 30% – 10%
On your way to the next boss, you will encounter some giants and Leimenids. Make sure damage is focused on the Leimenids FIRST. If they stay alive for too long they will summon geysers that stun everyone for a few seconds, we want to avoid this.
Third Boss: Matriarch Aldis

This boss used to be bugged and was often cheesed at the entrance of the fight, this has since been fixed and we now need to fight this boss properly.
- Getting the Leimenids is priority number one! They need to go down fast!
- Slow damage on the boss is key to this fight unless your group is very strong.
- The tank should keep the boss facing away from the group, it will perform a few AOE attacks.
- Stay out of the icy water, it hurts!
Mechanics
Leimenids

A Leimenid will spawn every 10% of the boss’ health, that’s very very frequent. Make sure not to cause more Leimenids to spawn than you can handle. You HAVE to deal with the Leimenids as they spawn. Keep damage on the boss slow and take them down one by one if this is your first time here.
If a Leimenid stays alive for too long, it will summon a poisonous geyser, this will most likely kill the damage dealers in the group.
The tank should be taunting the Leimenids if possible, but use your range taunt, don’t run around with the boss.
Ice Geysers

If a Leimenid stays alive for too long, it will summon an Ice Geyser. The tank needs to stand on top of this and block to keep ice from flying out from it. This mechanic is very similar to the lava geysers in Bloodroot Forge.
If the Ice Geyser is not blocked by the tank, everyone will be targeted with a poisonous geyser that will stun all players for a few seconds – Your group will very likely wipe if this happens.
Gap Closer (Jump)
If the person who has aggro gets too far from the boss, the boss will leap to its target causing a massive AOE blast. Tank – make sure not to lose aggro on the boss, and don’t start running around taunting Leimenids etc or the boss will jump to you.
Fourth Boss: Plague Concocter Mortieu

The fourth boss in Scalecaller Peak is a bit of a marathon, the boss has 10M health points making this one of the longest fights in the game.
Overview:
- The boss will curse everyone – the guy on the left by the table will be creating antidotes for you. Make sure to kill the creatures he asks for.
- When the guy on the left runs out to collect ingredients the boss will fire an arrow at him, make sure to interrupt the boss when he does this!
- The tank must stand on the active grates to block the poison!
Mechanics
Curse / Disease
Everyone in the group will become cursed, your audio will turn a bit muddy and your screen will be tinted with a color depending on the curse. The only way to cleanse this is to use an antidote the guy you see on the left as you enter the room makes.

The Plague Doctor will rotate between three curses and will always be in the following order:
- Stamina Drain (Tints your screen green) – Antidote ingredient: Imps.
- Health Drain (Tints your screen red) – Antidote ingredient: Stranglers.
- Magicka Drain (Tints your screen blue) – Antidote ingredient: Beetles.
Based on the curse, the antidote guy will ask for ingredients so that he can make an antidote for you. He will start asking for creatures he needs in order to make the antidote based on the curse as seen in the list above.
If you get more than three curse phases, he will start over with the imps and follow the list above again.
It’s important that the damage dealers focus on the creatures the antidote guy calls out for. Once you have killed them, he will run out to collect ingredients. The boss will now start charging up an arrow attack that will stun your alchemist helper. Make sure to interrupt the boss when he is charging up!

Once he has created the antidote, he will throw it on the ground and it will show up as bright greenish circles on the ground, everyone needs to step into these to cleanse the curse/disease. Note, you only need to touch a circle and you will be cleansed, no need to hang around in them.
Poisonous Grates

You will notice green grates on the ground. They will randomly spit out a bunch of poison on all group members, this will deal a ton of damage.
Before a grate starts spitting poison it will light up with an expanding AOE circle. The tank needs to step on the grate about to spit poison and block. Very similar to the lava geysers in Bloodroot Forge. Tank – This will be your main task during this fight, make sure not to miss one as it will wipe the group!
Dragon Knight Add

After you’ve used the bright circles to cleanse, the boss will kneel down and an add will come running from the door. Tank – make sure to taunt this add as it has strong heavy attacks. Pull the add over by the boss and drop Ultimates on both of them. Make sure to focus on the add to get rid of it as quickly as possible.
This is it for this fight, now you will just keep rotating through these mechanics until the boss has been defeated. Depending on your DPS, this might take a while, just keep following the mechanics, DON’T MISS ANY GRATES and you will win this fight!
Final Boss: Zaan the Scalecaller

This fight is quite difficult, there are a lot of mechanics that need to be obeyed. Make sure everyone in your group is aware of the mechanics and you should be fine. This boss is not a DPS race, it’s all about being aware of the mechanics.
- The boss has a few smaller AOE attacks, she will direct them at the tank. The rest of the group should always be ready to put some distance to the boss to avoid these attacks, they will one-shot you. Face her AWAY from the group!
- Keep the boss close to the dragon statue, avoiding the big cone AOEs will be a lot easier that way.
- The frozen “statues” are ALWAYS priority number one, make sure they are destroyed asap!
- Everyone needs to step into the blue circle after the frozen statues are destroyed.
Positioning
We want to stay in between the dragon statues’ heads. This due to the cone poison described further down.
Mechanics
Ice Statues and Massive Poison AOE
As soon as the ice statues appear, they will start freezing the air. If they stay up for too long, you will get frozen and wipe. Damage should immediately focus on the statues until they are destroyed.

Once the statues are down, Zaan will drop her shield which looks like a blue ring on the ground. Shortly after the entire ground will fill up with a poison AOE that will one-shot everyone. To survive the poison, you MUST step into the blue circle shield.
After the poison is over, get out of the blue circle as quickly as possible. Zaan will run over to her shield, pick it up and perform a slam, killing anyone who didn’t move out of the circle.
Inferno Hold

The boss will target a random player, lift them up in the air and start shooting fire at that player. The targeted player will be unable to move or do anything during this time. The tank needs to step in between the held player and the boss and block. This will soak up the fire so that it never reaches the targeted player.
If the tank gets targeted, you will all need to take turns stepping in and out of the fire, this will put a huge strain on the healer.
Tip: If the tank is a DK, you can use your Magma Shell when you realize you are being targeted, you’ll have to be quick. If you do this, nobody needs to protect you, the fire will barely touch you.
Fire Waves

A random player will be targeted with a small red circle underneath your feet. Zaan will start shooting out waves of fire at the targeted player. You will need to dance around avoiding this fire as it will drain you very quickly. Make sure not to run towards the rest of your group as you will wipe them if you do. Try to run around the boss going in a direction where your group is NOT positioned.
Cone Poison

After the first Ice Statue phase, the dragon statues will start to perform cone poison attacks. These will one-shot any player and they fire off really quickly so you don’t have a lot of time to step out of it.
Tip: I highly recommend the addon Code’s Combat Alerts for this fight as it will warn you where the cone will come slightly ahead of time.
Positioning is key to surviving the cone, the further away you are from the dragon statue, the wider the cone will be, you HAVE to stay close to the dragon heads if you wish to survive this attack. Also, make sure to stay in between two heads, you don’t want to stand directly in front of one.
Final Boss: Hard Mode (HM)

Scalecaller Peak on Hard Mode is a lot harder than the regular veteran version. It will take many many tries to clear this on Hard Mode. Just keep trying, eventually you “get the flow” and things feel a lot less chaotic because you know what to expect.
We will only discuss the additional elements of Hard Mode in this section, make sure you understand the base mechanics of the regular version first.
To activate Hard Mode in Scalecaller Peak, read Zaan’s scroll located to the right of the door you entered through. You will see it glowing on the ledge just to your right.
Overview – Differences from the regular fight:
- You will have 3 Ice Statues instead of 2.
- Only one person can use the blue circle shield when the ground fills up with poison.
- You will have a Leimenid and a Frost Atronach present. (They will respawn every time the massive poison AOE phase is over).
Mechanics
Leimenid and Frost Atronach
At the start of the fight, not only do you face Zaan, but you also have a Leimenid and Frost Atronach to deal with.
All damage should first be focused on the Leimenid, keep your distance from it, it emits a very dangerous freezing aura. Make sure to take care of it as quickly as possible, Ultimates can be used here.
Next we want to focus on the Frost Atronach, after that we can start damaging the boss.
The Leimenid will leave a geyser behind when it goes down, do NOT touch this, yet, we will need it later. The same goes for the Frost Atronach, it will leave Ice Spikes with a yellow ring, just like on the first boss. Don’t touch this either, these will shield us from the poison later.
Massive Poison AOE
On Hard Mode, only one person can use the blue shield we all use in the regular version, in order to use it, you have to synergize with it.
We will also need to use some additional aids to protect ourselves from the poison. The following things will shield you from the poison:
- Blue shield as seen in the regular fight (you need to synergize with it on HM).
- Geyser left by the Leimenid.
- Ice Spikes from the Frost Atronach.
- Laser beam from the Orb of Stone.
Only one person can use each thing, so the group needs to decide in advance which protection each player will use.
If any of these protections are used before it’s time to shield from the poison, it will be consumed and won’t be available when you need it, so take care to avoid getting hit.
Except for the laser from the Stone Orb (pokeball), this will come back in a short time if someone gets petrified.
Once you’ve taken down the Ice Statues, it’s time for everyone to grab their protection (just walk right into them), make sure you don’t break free from any of them, you need to let the poison hit you while you are frozen, petrified or caught in the geyser. The player who grabbed the blue shield just needs to synergize and then wait for the poison.

The Chaos
These are the only things different from the regular version, but it’s enough to cause massive chaos and confusion. Avoiding all the protection things before it’s time to use them while dodging the cone AOE from the dragon heads is insane. You need to do this enough until it becomes second nature to avoid all the hazards, it doesn’t take one try ๐
Make sure everyone understands what to do, then keep trying. It took us three nights in a row to beat this the first time. You just have to keep going until everyone is in a good flow and knows exactly what to do.
Things that make a big difference
Let’s go over a few things that can really turn the tide on this fight:
- Everyone is alive – This one is a bit obvious, but trying to resurrect a player when you have all these hazards chasing you is insanely tricky. It makes this fight so much easier if everyone can manage to stay alive.
- Keeping Zaan in a good spot – Keeping Zaan in the right spot, as seen on the map in the regular section, makes a huge difference as it will be a lot easier to avoid the cone poison AOEs.
- Struggling with Ice Statues – The ice statues need to go down very quickly or everyone will be frozen and wipe. The healer can use their healing Ultimate when the statues show up which will give you an additional few seconds the destroy them.
- Repetition – Doing this many times really helps as you get accustomed to all the different things on your screen. Things feel less and less chaotic the more you do this fight.
Video
Below is a video of us clearing Zaan on HM, take a look and see the different mechanics. It was a bit of a messy clear on our end but I think it’s helpful to see just how chaotic the fight is and how you can work around the worst bits.
Hopefully this Scalecaller Peak guide was helpful! I try to make as clear guides as possible so that all ESO players can enjoy the best and most difficult content in the game ๐
If you are struggling, don’t hesitate to drop a comment, or message me in game if I’m online (@pontypants NA-PC), I will do my best to help you out ๐
Thanks for reading this guide!
Hey, somebody there who finished the hard mode of Scalecaller Peak? Our Group died two times quite in the end and we dont know how this happened. I dont find something on guides online. We got the boss down to 20%, finished the “last” frost-giant phase and then, once on 14% life, once on 11% another group of frost-giants suddenly appeared and killed us. On every guide we looked its written that they come with 20% damage made. But why in the end? There is nothing written about an enrage phase or something like this. Does someone know the reason for that so we can prepare?