Raid Wing 2 - Salvation Pass
Introduction
From the entrance head south and the squad will soon encounter Slublings. There will be a lot of these enemies in the upcoming encounter. They have a number of ranged and melee attacks each of which apply a condition and some of the ranged attacks also corrupt boons, so projectile defense will be beneficial. Further down the path are found Evolved Slublings. These function identically to the regular slublings, except that some of their attacks are unblockable and thus cannot be reflected.
Slothasor
After dispatching the Slublings, players will enter a large opening with a toxic-looking floor and a large sloth-like creature slumbering upon it. The floor deals damage and applies 
Poison to anyone stood on it, but it can be blocked and evaded allowing players to safely cross over it for brief periods. Scattered around the arena are many red-colored mushrooms which cause the poison and removing these mushrooms cleanses the poison from the area around them. The removal of these mushrooms to create safe paths through the arena will be the central mechanic of this fight. Note that there is no fixed tank for this encounter
Slubling Strategy
When entering the arena, Slothasor is sleeping and allied to the players. This means that he can be buffed by player abilities so care should be taken. At the edge of the poisoned floor is an Imbued Mushroom. If a player interacts with this mushroom, they eat it and transform into a slubling which begins the encounter. Once this happens, Slothasor will wake up and become hostile to the rest of the group as will the player-controlled slubling (often known as the “friendly slubling”). It is important to note that while transformed, the friendly slubling is immune to Slothasor’s attacks but will be affected by player skills. By the same token, if the friendly slubling dropped any long-lasting skills (such as traps or AoEs) before transforming, those skill will now affect the rest of the squad and any buffs (such as banners) will now affect Slothasor. Throughout the fight care must be taken to not harm the friendly slubling as their role is a crucial one.
As a slubling, the transformed player only has two skills on their bar – the most important is Eat. This skill will perform a biting animation, and if any of the red-colored mushrooms are in front of the friendly slubling when performed it will be removed, clearing a path for the rest of the squad. The second skill will end the slubling transform early, which is useful for when the friendly slubling is satisfied that they have cleared enough space.
After 60 seconds the mushroom will respawn, covering the area in poison once again. Therefore the squad will need to constantly move forward as the fight continues. The friendly slubling transformation only lasts 45 seconds, but every 50 seconds a new Imbued Mushroom will spawn – the second will be along the western wall, the third will be to the south, the fourth will be to the east, and then the pattern cycles between these four positions. After eating the mushroom the player will be nauseated for 3m20s, which prevents the eating of another Imbued Mushroom. Thus a minimum of four players will be required to cover all the mushrooms.
The exact pattern the friendly slubling will want to eat will vary depending on the group but typically the first friendly slubling will eat a path to the second mushroom, then the second friendly slubling will eat a path to the third mushroom and so on. It can be helpful for players to visualize a quadrant defined by a path from the Imbued Mushroom they take, to the center of the arena, to the next Imbued Mushroom. Any mushroom that lies within this quadrant can be safely eaten while allowing the next friendly slubling room to clear a path as well. Below is one example of eating patterns that could be used.
Squad Strategy
While the friendly slubling is clearing a path, the rest of the squad will be engaging Slothasor directly. As soon as a player eats the first Imbued Mushroom, Slothasor will become hostile and a random player will be fixated.
Slothasor focuses on a single target, who becomes the tank for the duration. The fixated player will have a purple diamond above their head, and a message will appear on-screen that identifies the fixated target. The fixation lasts for 30 seconds or until the tank is downed, whereupon it will switch to another character. Eating an Imbued Mushroom or entering stealth will also cause the fixation to be switched.
Slothasor will move towards the fixated player. As the friendly slubling will still be in the process of clearing mushrooms, the squad will need to let Slothasor come to them. Shortly after reaching the group, Slothasor will perform the attack.
Beginning at 6:45 on the timer, Slothasor slams his fists on the ground which causes an AoE to appear under each player every second for three seconds (three AoEs total). Shortly after, anyone standing in these AoEs will take moderate damage and be knocked down for five seconds. This attack repeats approximately every 45 seconds.
If players move around during this attack, the AoEs will cover more ground and be harder to avoid. It is recommended that players try to stand still during this attack and dodge after the third AoE has spawned. This is most important at the start of the fight as space is so limited.
After the ends, the fixated player should begin to move Slothasor along the cleared path. It is recommended that they keep him facing away from the rest of the group due to his strong autoattacks and breath attack:
Approximately every 13 seconds, Slothasor will glow slightly and raise his front legs before belching flame across a large area in front of him. The attack deals moderate damage and applies 
Burning.
Slothasor will not move while performing , so the tank can simply sidestep it or dodge through Slothasor’s hitbox to avoid it.
While engaging Slothasor, players will also need to deal with another mechanic, Volatile Poison, that restricts the free space.
Starting at 6:35 on the timer, and every 25 seconds thereafter, a random player will be afflicted with and gain a special action key to purge the poison. After eight seconds, or when using purge, the poison will be dropped at the player’s location and begin to spread. The poison deals extreme damage and can grow to cover a significant portion of the arena. If the player is downed or eats an Imbued Mushroom, the poison will also be dropped.
If mishandled, this mechanic can easily cause the entire group to wipe and if a is dropped in the wrong location it may require the friendly slubling to eat a different path in order to avoid it. The exact locations the player wishes to drop the poison at will vary depending on the strategy used, but due to the size that it can become it is generally advisable to drop them up against a wall and as far behind the group as is safe.
At 6:30 on the timer, and every 30 seconds afterwards, a group of enemy slublings will spawn. These are the same as the slublings faced on the way to the boss so projectile defense will help a lot. The number of slublings can quickly become overwhelming, so it is important to kill them quickly. This is best achieved either through large-range cleave, or by pulling them onto Slothasor so that they can be killed by melee attacks. Care must be taken when dealing with slublings as they are difficult to distinguish from the friendly slubling.
Every 20% of his health (and once more at 10% health), Slothasor will clear all the conditions on himself, become invulnerable, fall asleep and gain a defiance bar (strength: 4000). Players should break this bar as quickly as possible as there is always the risk of poison catching up with the group. Once broken, Slothasor will wake up and roar, applying a long duration 
Fear to every member of the squad. This fear attack can be countered by blocking, 
Stability, stunbreaks or condition cleanses. Using stability carries that risk that it could be corrupted into fear by any slubling left alive, and condi cleanse would need to be an instant-cast ability so that it can be used while under the effect of fear.
The final mechanic, Spore Release, is introduced once Slothasor reaches 50% health.
Slothasor will hunch forward and shake his entire body, launching spores in all directions that deal damage and apply multiple stacks of 
Torment, Burning and Poison. When hitting players, the attack explodes in a small AoE, which can even hit players who successfully dodged the spores. If a target is invulnerable, the projectiles will be destroyed so it is possible for a target with invulnerability to jump inside Slothasor’s hitbox and negate the attack with correct timing. The attack can also be blocked, but the AoE effect will still trigger. This attack repeats approximately every 45 seconds.
can devastate the squad, so supports should be ready to heal and cleanse conditions afterwards. In addition, all players should be ready to dodge the attack (twice) so further limit the effect.
Once a full loop of the arena has been completed, the first Imbued Mushroom will spawn again and the pattern of the fight repeats. The final 25% of the encounter is especially dangerous as evolved slublings will spawn instead of the regular kind, limiting the effect of projectile defense. As the fight progresses slubling spawns will also become more frequent, spawning every 20 seconds after three minutes and every 15 seconds after five minutes. Additionally, care should be taken after the narcolepsy at 20% because there will be one last one at 10% which may occur too soon for the skills used to defend against the fear attack to be off cooldown.
One Slothasor is dead, players may use the ley rift to access a bonus chest in the Cave Stash and otherwise proceed south via a bouncing mushroom to the cave exit.
Bandit Trio
In the valley below is a fort surrounded by bandits. Before entering the fort, the squad should clear out the bandits in front as this will make one player’s job much easier later on.
On the east side of the fort is a small circular platform with a chevron pattern on and a pile of bombs nearby. If a player interacts with the bomb pile they will gain a Special Action Key. Then aimed at the platform, this skill will launch all players stood on the platform up onto the wall of the fort. It may be worthwhile to take some time to survey the inside of the fort, as crossing the bridge or entering one of the ground-floor gates will begin the encounter.
Strategy
Rather than a boss fight, this encounter functions more like a series of events that the squad will need to deal with. At ground level near the western wall is a cage containing some prisoners – protecting this cage will be the primary goal.
Upon starting this encounter several bandits will spawn and the goal is to kill these bandits while gathering some items from around the area. There are oil kegs, and beehives in the branches that can be attacked to knock them to the floor below. Due to the distribution of these items, it may be beneficial to split into two teams to gather them. These items will provide an advantage over minibosses that spawn during this encounter, so it is best to gather them together near the location these bosses spawn. For beehives this is near the east gate and for oil kegs this is near or on top of the raised area to the north. There are also caged wargs that can be released but these should be saved for later. At the same time as gathering these items, players will want to kill the bandits that have spawned. A common tactic is to aggro as many of them as possible and then group everyone up where they break line of sight, such as in the corner next to east gate. If successful this should cause the bandits to run down towards the players where they can be more efficiently killed.
Events in this encounter happen on a strict timer, so it is important to ensure that one event is dealt with before the next occurs. Some of these events can be dealt with by a single player so it is recommended to assign specific people to these roles.
| Time | Event | Spawn Location |
|---|---|---|
| 6:50 | Berg | East Gate |
| 6:03 | Bandit Saboteur | West Gate |
| 5:05 | Mortars (1) | Outside Fort |
| 4:50 | Zane | South Gate |
| 4:05 | Mortars (1) | Outside Fort |
| 3:30 | Bandit Saboteur | West Gate |
| 3:03 | Mortars (3) | Outside Fort |
| 2:59 | Bandit Saboteur | East Gate |
| 2:47 | Narella | West Gate |
| 2:29 | Bandit Saboteur | West Gate |
| 2:15 | Mortars (2) | Bridges above fort |
| 1:58 | Bandit Saboteur | East Gate |
| 1:28 | Bandit Saboteur | East Gate |
| 0:58 | Bandit Saboteur | East Gate |
Berg
At 6:50 on the timer, Berg will spawn near the east gate. Approximately every nine seconds, he will gain a defiance bar and begin charging an (defiance bar: 2000). The window to break him in is short (less than two and a half seconds), but throwing a beehive at Berg’s feet will temporarily spawn a swarm of bees that deals constant CC (500 per second). As Berg is allergic to bees, this will also cause constant damage and double the time the squad has to break him, effectively making it guaranteed that he will be broken. Further, after being broken Berg will remain inactive for around 15 seconds, significantly increasing the time between his . This effect does not stack so assigning a single player to throw beehives will prevent them being wasted.
In between minibosses like Berg, the squad should try to kill as many bandits as possible, as there will constantly be new groups moving into the fort. In addition to killing bandits, there will be two special types of bandit that need to be dealt with as a matter of importance.
Starting at 6:03 on the timer, a saboteur will enter via one of the gates and move to the prisoner’s cage. These bandits are invisible to players without Nuhoch Stealth Detection. Once at the cage they will gain a defiance bar and attempt to place a bomb that will deal heavy damage to the cage if not interrupted. The bar is small enough for a single player to break, and once broken the saboteur will ignore the cage and attack players.
Defiance Bar: 200
Starting at 5:20 on the timer, a bombardier will spawn and attempt to set up a mortar. If not broken then they will begin to fire into the fort, dealing heavy damage to players and the prisoner’s cage. For the first two spawns, a single bombardier will move to a location near the jump pad east of the fort. On the third spawn, there will be three bombardiers. On the fourth spawn, two bombardiers will appear on the rope bridges above the fort. Inside the fort, near the south gate is a jump pad that can be used to quickly move to all the spawn locations. A single player can deal with all these spawns, but it is important that they be able to CC three times in quick succession for the third spawn.
Defiance Bar: 200
Zane
At 4:50 on the timer, Zane will spawn near the south gate. He will attack players with a triple shot called , where each shot deals more damage and covers a wider area than the one before it. The range on this attack is huge so players should try to get him to aim away from the cage as it can easily be hit. In addition to this attack, he will periodically shadowstep to the furthest player within range which can be troublesome as a player will need to deal with the mortar spawns during this time. Zane takes bonus damage from the caged wargs found around the fort. There are four pairs of them throughout the camp and when released they will target enemies with high stacks of bleed. As players will be focussed on Zane, this should mean that they target him. Due to Zane’s teleport ability, the cages should ideally be opened before he spawns so that he will stay on the main group of players.
Narella
The final miniboss spawns at 2:47 and defeating her will end the encounter. For this reason some groups may opt to ignore mechanics that appear after she spawns, but the ability to do so depends on being able to quickly kill her. Narella is far more dangerous than the other two minibosses – she has a attack that launches patches of fire at the most distant player, and she spawns fire tornadoes that follow random players around, damaging and spinning any player they hit. It may be beneficial to have one player kite the , and players that are targeted by flame tornadoes should move away from the rest of the group.
Narella’s weakness is to the oil kegs. When thrown at her feet they create an oil slick that can be ignited by skills that cause Burning, quickly applying a large number of burning stacks to Narella. This effect does not stack so assigning a single player to throw oil kegs will prevent them being wasted.
It is worth noting that the environmental weapons (beehives, oil kegs, wargs) work on all enemies, not just those that are weak to them. As Narella is the most dangerous miniboss, it may be helpful to save some of these mechanics to help out during this fight:
- Caged Wargs – There is a pair of warg cages near where Narella spawns that is inconvenient to use when fighting Zane. Therefore they can be saved until this point in the encounter instead.
- Beehives – As the beehives CC any enemies that stand on them, any remaining ones may be thrown at the cage. These will break any saboteurs that spawn while they are active and enable players to focus on Narella instead of the cage.
After Narella is defeated the remaining bandits flee, and players may use the jump pad at the north end of the fortress to access some updrafts leading further north.
On top of a cliff, the path continues north past numerous bandits who must be defeated in order for the final boss to spawn. Inside the Temple of Salvation at the end of this path is Matthias. Players may enter the temple, but getting to close to the boss will start the fight and kill anyone outside.
Matthias Gabrel
Surrounding the room in the Temple of Salvation are four fountains. These will be key to dealing with one of the mechanics later in the fight. During this fight there will be two forms of soft-tanking: First, Matthias will move towards and direct his basic attacks at the player furthest from him. Many mechanics in this encounter force players away from the group, so Matthias will constantly be in motion and it is recommended that players try to move him back towards the center of the arena whenever they get the chance. The second soft-tanking form is related to the Blood Shield mechanic.
Matthias will summon a bloodstone shield that renders him immune to damage and gives him 18 stacks of Blood Shield. Shortly after, the first player that entered the Temple of Salvation (regardless of who begins the fight) will be marked with a small target icon and Matthias will fire a stream of at them. This attack deals high damage, and reflecting the attack once it starts removes stacks of Blood Shield from Matthias, making him vulnerable again. If all 18 stacks are not removed then he will remain immune to damage until he repeats the attack (after approximately 15 seconds). This attack will also repeat approximately 30 seconds after the previous Blood Shield was removed (40 seconds in the final phase).
If this mechanic is not dealt with correctly, it can lead to long periods where Matthias cannot be damaged. As such it is common for at least one player to be designated the role of reflecting this attack, or backing up if the first player fails. Note that the reflect skill chosen will need to have a short enough cooldown to be available for every attack.
As the projectiles need to be reflected back to Matthias, it is essential that players not use any skills that destroy projectiles whilst this attack is happening.
As long as they remain alive, the player that was targeted by this attack will be the target for all subsequent . In addition, this player will be the target of a second attack:
Matthias spins his staff around and launches a ball of energy at the player who was targeted by the . This attack deals heavy damage and will hit all players in its path, so the targeted player may wish to move away from the rest of the squad. This attack will be repeated approximately every 15 seconds, but only during the first and last phases.
As you can control who the target of and is, it may be best if it is taken by a player who is confident in dodging and/or not playing a support role.
Strategy
Throughout the fight, players will be targeted by .
Starting at 9:55 on the timer and every 30 seconds thereafter, a random player will get corrupted. This places a small green skull above the player and creates an AoE around the player that ticks heavy damage to anyone inside, including the player. It also tints the players screen and plays an audio cue. The only way to remove this effect is for the player to move to one of the four fountains surrounding the arena. Entering the fountain removes the but taints the fountain, rendering it unusable for 90 seconds and causing it to deal damage to any player stood on it. Players that do not have the Forsaken Thicket Waters mastery will be stunned when reaching the fountain.
As the mechanic puts a lot of pressure on the afflicted player, healers will likely need to pay special attention to them while they take it to the fountain (and afterwards if they do not have the mastery). To speed up the removal of this mechanic it is common for squads to try to use fountains in a clock-wise or anti-clockwise fashion. If players note where the preceding was taken, then they know that the next fountain along will be clear.
10 seconds after the first occurs, a Matthias will attempt to sacrifice a random player.
Starting at 9:45 on the timer and every 45 seconds thereafter, Matthias will target a random player to be sacrificed. Players with cannot be sacrificed. An on-screen message will identify the target and shortly afterwards they will be teleported to the middle of the arena, turn hostile, and gain a defiance bar. They will be unable to act, and if the defiance bar is not broken within 10 seconds then the player will be killed. The affected player is hostile to the rest of the squad and so can be killed if they are dealt enough damage, so players should be sure to only use CC skills and no others. To help them survive, they take reduced power damage, and their health is set at 100,000 which means that effects such as barrier that scale off maximum health will scale accordingly. Defiance Bar: 2500
Players should be wary the first time the sacrifice occurs, as coinciding with this Matthias will perform another attack:
At the same time as the first Blood Sacrifice, Matthias will leap in the air and fire shards of rage in all directions. They deal moderate damage, but can players can be hit by many at once. For each shard that hits a player they will gain a stack of Blood Fueled that increases damage by 10% for 20 seconds. These shards are projectiles, so they may be destroyed by appropriate skills. Reflecting the attack will provide the damage buff to Matthias instead.
To avoid accidentally reflecting the and buffing Matthias, it is recommended that players avoid using skills or traits that provide reflects other than those required for the Blood Shield mechanic. The projectiles all originate from the center of Matthias, so a single source of projectile defense will prevent all the if placed directly underneath him.
Throughout the fight, the arena will phase through different weather effects. Each of the first three phases brings with it a weather effect, an environmental effect, and a unique mechanic. Each phase periodically inflicts a condition, so healing skills that remove conditions are recommended.
Phase 1 – Ice
- Weather Effect: Snowstorm – Reduces movement speed, and inflicts
Chilled and moderate damage on players every 10 seconds.
- Environmental Effect: Icy Patches – Every 5 seconds an icy patch will appear on the ground that will knock down players that walk over it. These patches can be removed by hitting them with Burning.
- Unique Mechanic: Oppressive Gaze
The Icy Patches can cause problems if they spawn in between players with and the fountains, so they should be cleared as frequently as possible. Many classes are capable of cleaving these patches without having to take focus off the boss, and a ranger’s is particularly effective as it makes all players in the raid regularly apply Burning.
Phase 2 – Fire (80%)
- Weather Effect: Heat Wave – Inflicts three stacks of Burning on players every 10 seconds. In addition, if players stand still for too long they will take damage.
- Environmental Effect: Fire Tornadoes – Two fire tornadoes will roam the arena, and any player that touches them will be tossed around and receive damage for as long as they remain in the tornado.
- Unique Mechanic: Unstable Blood Magic
Every 10 seconds during the Fire and Abomination phases, a random player will receive Unstable Blood Magic. This attack is superficially similar to the mechanic, though the player will have a large green skull icon above their head and will receive a Special Action Key. Using this skill clears the Unstable Blood Magic and drops a Well of the Profane at the player’s location – a medium-sized AoE that deals heavy damage to any player stood in it and lasts for 90 seconds.
Because of the duration of each , care should be taken where they are placed. The most obvious location is at the edge of the arena, but players must be sure not to place them on top of the fountains that remove . If they are placed as close to each other as possible then more space will be kept clear.
Phase 3 – Storm (60%)
- Weather Effect: Downpour – Inflicts five stacks of Poison and moderate damage on players every three seconds. In addition, moving increases stacks of a debuff that will knock players down for three seconds if it reaches 10 stacks.
- Environmental Effect: Storm Cloud – A large storm cloud rotates clockwise around the arena that deals heavy damage and increases stacks of the downpour debuff when stood in it.
- Unique Mechanic: Zealous Benediction
Every 20 seconds, five random players (10 in the final phase) will gain an AoE that slowly fills. When full, damages the player and any other players within the AoE will be downed.
During this phase players should attempt to move as little as possible, but this is made difficult due to the storm cloud and . Should a player reach 10 stacks of the downpour debuff it will change to one called Unbalanced. Any further movement will knock the player down, but the debuff will be removed after a few seconds if they remain still. Player should attempt to keep track of how many stacks they are at and remain stationary when they gain the Unbalanced debuff. The knockdown can also be mitigated by blocks and invulnerability, or ignored with stability. Condition cleanse is especially important in this phase, as the poison will reduce the amount of healing on the squad.
Phase 4 – Abomination (40%)
When reaching 40%, Matthias will become consumed by the bloodstone magic and transform into an abomination. As this happens, every player will receive the mechanic and be feared as Matthias transforms.
During this phase Matthias will cycle through each of the preceding phases every 30 seconds, along with their weather and environmental effects. He will also use all the unique mechanics throughout, and the phase opens with him using all three in quick succession. After , he will use followed by .
The mechanics can be dealt with the same way as before, but most are more dangerous now:
- Oppressive Gaze – Deals more damage, and has a new animation.
- Blood Sacrifice – This attack no longer occurs.
- Fire Tornadoes – There are now four fire tornadoes.
- Storm Cloud – There are now two storm clouds.
- Zealous Benediction – This attack now affects every player that is not currently affected by another mechanic.
Finally, there is one last mechanic, Surrender, that is added in this phase.
Starting 15 seconds into the final phase, an invulnerable spirit will spawn at a random location at the edge of the arena, and run in a straight line through the center of the arena to the opposite wall where they will despawn. 15 seconds later another spirit will spawn and repeat this action. There will then be a gap of 30 seconds and the pattern repeats. When Matthias reaches 20% health a spirit will spawn every 15 seconds. The spirit is surrounded by a small AoE that deals extreme damage to any player inside. The damage can be blocked but not evaded.
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