When you reach the final area of Act 1 in Path of Exile, the game will not just simply let you enter the second act right away without bidding farewell with a tough boss fight. Count Geonor is one of the toughest bosses in Act 1, and you will face this boss right at the end of the Mad Wolf of Ogham quest. It can be pretty difficult to figure out the proper way to find the boss in the manor and defeat him. Here is a guide to help you on your journey to complete the Mad Wolf of Ogham questline in Path of Exile 2.
All Objectives For Mad Wolf Of Ogham Quest
The end of Act 1 gives you the quest Mad Wolf of Ogham. It is time to confront the count in the Ogham Manor. To obtain the Mad Wolf of Ogham quest, head over to the Clearfell Encampment and talk to Leitis. You would have freed Leitis on completing the Trail of Corruption quest.
Here is the list of objectives for the Mad Wolf of Ogham quest:
- Enter the Courtyard and Find the Manor
- Search for Count Geonor in the Manor
- Slay the Count of Ogham
- Speak to the Hooded One and Travel East
Enter The Courtyard & Find The Manor
Our first job is to find the Manor Ramparts by traveling through Ogham Village. Since the map is randomly generated, you will have to scour the area to find the spot for the Manor Ramparts.
Once you have found the Manor Ramparts, then your next task is to find the entrance to the Manor. Again the path to finding the manor will be different for each player.
Tip: The only thing you keep in mind when you are moving forward are the checkpoints. When you encounter checkpoints, they act as an indication that you are moving in the proper direction.
Search For Count Geonor In The Manor
The same principles also apply here, soon you enter the manor, your task is to look for an entrance to the arena. The only way to find the arena is by exploring the region.
The area is separated into three levels, on the first level you will encounter an optional boss titled Candlemass, the Living Rite. The second level features the Count’s bedroom and on the last level, you will find the torture chamber.
From the third level; you will find the door to the Arena. This is where we will go toe-to-toe with the count.
How To Defeat Count Geonor In Path Of Exile 2
The Count Geonor counts as the final boss of Act 1 and is compared to the other bosses and optional bosses so far. this will be a tough cookie to crack. Count Geonor has a versatile move set spanning multiple stages. The fight lasts for three phases, in each phase the Geonor amps up the rage, and attacks.
Count Geonor Phase 1
When the count is in his human form, the attacks are still deadly but limited in terms of rage and unpredictability. A simple dodge and walking away will be the best option instead of hitting him on every sight.
Here are some of the attacks and tactics to avoid them.
- Sword Combo– The three-hit sword combo does sting a lot when it lands on you, but you can avoid it by performing a simple dodge.
- Sword Thrust: Geonor will thrust his sword straight ahead, this forward momentum will create a wind slash, so make sure to dodge sideways to not to get hit by the wind slash.
- Sword Charge: Similar to the Thrust attack, but here Geonor charges his sword and then releases it in a straight line. If you get caught, you will be in a whole lot of trouble. Luckily for our amusement, he does say Run Little Rabbit to help us know what is coming.
If you happen to be around Geonor, when he charges his sword forward, he will then swing his sword around your spot. So basically, dodge the thrust attack and then another dodge to avoid the deadly swing.
- Sword Ice Wall: Spawns a circle of ice around the player to trap them. Then Geonor proceeds to slam down his sword in the trap area. When you see ice being formed around you, quickly break them away to get out of the zone.
Phase 1 comes to an end, with a thrust attack but instead of swinging, he slams his sword on the ground creating a small circle of ice. If you step your foot in there, you are going to hit with a slowdown.
Count Geonor Phase 2: Wolf
With the sword left behind, he turns into a wolf. Here the Count will throw new attacks making the fight completely fresh and new.
- Howl: The first thing a wolf does is howl, predictable. The howl will spawn some minions off the ground, take them out quickly to regain health.
- Meteor Slam: During the battle with the wolf, oftentimes the giant wolf will disappear from the battle, create a circle on your location, and hit the circle area with a meteoric slam. But you will get a few seconds window to dodge out of the way of the circle.
- Charge Attack: Geonor will then create two small dark circles on the ground one after the other in a straight line. Here is your clue to dodge out of the way. But make sure to be ready for another dodge quickly after a few seconds, after the wolf does the charge, it comes back with the same ferocity.
At the latter end of this phase, the big bad wolf will do a meteor slam, after you dodge the red circle, the wolf will turn back to the Geonor form. Here you will be dealing with the same pattern of attacks you saw in the first phase. Our objective here is to get the health down to 50% to get to the third phase.
Count Geonor Phase 3: The Putrid Wolf
Once the health bar goes down to 50%, Count Geonor will turn into a Putrid Wolf. While some moves from the previous phase carry over, there are new attacks that are introduced in this section.
Note: The transformation takes a while, here you can think about attacking the count, but none of the attacks will land, as the enemy does get i-frames during the transformation.
- The Ice Trap – The wolf will charge up and release a flurry of snow forward. The size of this AOE attack here covers up everything in front of the wolf. Here the best thing to do is to get out and make your way behind the wolf.
- Fog: The Count will cover the entire area with fog, if you step outside from the safe zone and touch the fog it will start freezing you. Stay in the safe zone and take care of the constantly spawning zombies while at the same time avoiding the ponce attack from the count. This will go on for 30 seconds.
Tip: Listen to the audio cues if you don’t want to get pounced in the fog. The Count will throw out lines every time he is planning to lunge at the small area in the middle of the fog. Once the dialogue ends, prepare for the lunge. Here your entire focus should be to avoid the attacks. This attack goes on for 6 or 7 times. Make sure to listen and dodge, always wait for the dialogue to come to an end, and only then dodge.
- Ice Spear- Make your way to the edges, when you hear “I will take out your heart“. Keeping to the edges of the map will be a perfect way to avoid this attack. The entire map will feel like snow spots on the ground. They might not look much, but after a few seconds, all the spots will spawn hard icicles freezing you if you were unfortunate to be on the spots.
- Ice Beams; Dozens of Ice Beams will spawn on the map from the sky. Getting caught in any one of the beams will result in immediate freezing. But you can see the timing of the beams, as they will point a light on the ground before hitting it, that will be our cue to move out of harm’s way. The beam attack will last four times, always be on the move to avoid the attack without getting caught in it.
- Meteor Slam Swing: Most of the attack pattern of the Meteor Slams stays the same from the second phase but right at the end of the slam, it will launch a 360 swing attack with the sword. So after dodging out of the meteor slam, wait to dodge the sword swing.
Once you bring the health down to 15%, the fight with Count Geonor enters its final phase, and this is where he unleashes all his attacks in addition to:
- Blood Spears: This one follows the same pattern as the Ice Spear attack, but now it is much faster and the damage is devastating instead of freezing you down.
In this last phase, being patient and waiting for your window to attack is the key to victory. Resist the temptation to just rush in, even if the small boss health bar feels enticing to do exactly that.
Return To Clearfell Encampment
Once you have slain Count Geonor, learn the information from the Hooded One and return to Clearfell Encampment. Speak to Renly and Una about the Count’s death. Then talk to the Hooded One to step into the game’s Second act.
Rewards; All rewards are randomized for every player. However, you will unlock the way to the next quest “Earning Passage“.