Raid Wing 4 - Bastion of the Penitent
Introduction
Players will be greeted by Glenna upon entering the wing, and speaking to her will be required to spawn the first boss, although it is possible to delay this. If the squad heads north they will pass through a waterfall that grants players a Special Action Key, Celestial Dash. This skill is a long-range movement and evade skill, and will be very useful in the next encounter.
A platform to the west must be glided to, and hovering above it is the Eye of Janthir. Once Glenna approaches the platform, the boss will spawn. If you delay talking to Glenna, you can start the encounter with everyone on the platform, though this only works the first time.
Cairn the Indomitable
Cairn will aggro on the most distant player and direct all attacks in their direction (even if the player is out of range). As Cairn itself can only move as part of a mechanic, it is advantageous for the tank to remain relatively stationary in order to keep Cairn facing the same direction.
Players will constantly gain stacks of Unseen Burden. This slows movement speed by 1% for each stack, and a player that reached 99 stacks will be temporarily petrified. Dodging and Celestial Dash are not limited by Unseen Burden, so are valuable movement tools.
Cairn will swing its fists twice in the direction of the tank, dealing moderate damage. If the tank is stood far enough away they can avoid taking damage from this attack, and other players should attempt to stand behind Cairn.
As Cairn begins its punch, three rifts will open at random locations near players. Three seconds later these rifts will close and if a player is standing on them they will take a small amount of damage and be teleported towards the edge of the platform. The rifts can be blocked or evaded.
As Cairn punches a second time, a fan of meteors flies out of its left side dealing a small amount of damage and knocking players back. The meteors appear at a distance so staying close to Cairn can avoid them, but it may be simpler to stay on Cairns right-hand side. The meteors are projectiles but will still hit players if they are reflected, so it is important that players do not bring such skills or are very careful with using them. Projectile destruction skills may be useful however.
The pattern of + → → will continue throughout the fight. Complicating the encounter is the Shared Agony mechanic.
Starting at 7:37 on the timer, the furthest player from Cairn (who does not already have ) will be afflicted with . The player gains a red AoE that lasts for 60 seconds and takes 10% of their maximum health as damage every three seconds. This effect can also “chain” to up to three other players within the AoE, dealing 25% max health to the closest person, 50% max health to the person closest to the second player, and 75% max health to the person closest to the third player. All these players must be unique. Downed players neither receive damage from this attack nor does a downed player with deal damage with it. Shared agony is applied every 20 seconds, so up to three players will be affected at any one time.
Strategy
Positioning is key at this encounter. Due to the extreme damage the can deal to nearby players, the affected player will need to stand at a distance from everyone else. As this will put them within range of , it is strongly recommended that the players with attempt position themselves on the right-hand side of Cairn where they will be safe and easier to heal. In order to prevent Cairn from turning around, a single player should tank the boss throughout the whole encounter by always attempting to be the most distant.
As a player with cannot melee Cairn without damaging the rest of the squad, it is advantageous that the job of picking up the mechanic is assigned to players who can perform their role at range. Typically this will be support roles, but it may be necessary to have a healer on the stack if people are taking too much damage. As the mechanic cannot be given to a player who already has it, then four people will need to take an agony at some point. The tank should remain at range throughout the entire encounter, but the remaining three players can return to the stack when they lose as long as they move back out to pick it up again when it is due. It can be helpful for the squad leader to drop markers on the platform to indicate the position of the tank and/or where the players with agony should stand.
It is worth mentioning that has a minimum range of 180 units, meaning that if there are no players outside of this range, no-one will receive it. This can be used to skip the mechanic entirely, but requires everyone to stack perfectly and never be hit by . It will also be difficult to control the direction Cairn is facing so he is very likely to turn and cleave the group with his melee attack. One modification of this approach would be to have a single player with sufficient sustain take an agony and stand far enough away to maintain Cairn’s aggro while everyone else avoids picking up any further agonies.
Shortly after the fight starts, Cairn will charge up an attack that deals heavy damage, 
Floats players and applies 25 stacks of Unseen Burden. While charging, green circles appear on the ground that protect players from these effects via the Gaze Avoidance buff. Sometimes there will be a number of small white orbs above a green circle. These orbs represent the minimum number of players that must be stood in the green circle for it to provide protection. The Float can be avoided with 
Stability.
will repeat approximately every 30 seconds, though the timing will vary significantly over the course of the fight, likely as a result of health thresholds being passed. The pattern of the green circles depends upon the health percentage:
To avoid players with agony hitting others, it might be worthwhile to send the group to the larger circles when they appear, so that the players with agony can take the smaller circles on their own. At the fight progresses, will sometimes be preceded by one of the following two mechanics.
Cairn will face a direction and jump forward, knocking back anyone in its path. Every jump leaves behind a green circle that will protect from . Above 50% health Cairn will perform five jumps and leave the final green circle in the center of the arena. Below 50% Cairn will perform six jumps and there will not be a green circle in the center. After jumping, Cairn will perform .
Much like the basic attack, the pattern in which Cairn jumps depends upon its health percentage:
Cairn raises its hand and a large arrow will appear pointing towards the edge of the platform. Cairn will form its hand into a sword and slam it down where the arrow was and follow with an anti-clockwise sweep around the platform, knocking back players hit by it. It is possible for players at the starting location of the sweep to be hit twice by the attack, potentially knocking them off the platform and killing them instantly. After the sweep, Cairn will perform .
Once again, the pattern of greens will depend on Cairn’s health percentage as will the starting location of the sweep:
Aside from the very first use of , Cairn will cycle through → → . Reaching 25% health intervals will reset the pattern, so a fast group may never see the or variations.
As moving to the greens below 50% will cause DPS on the boss to drop, some groups may wish to ignore the mechanic after this point by providing Stability to the squad and outhealing the damage. Players with agony may still need to take greens in this strategy, as they are not able to melee the boss anyway. Be aware that this will quickly cause players to reach 99 stacks of Unseen Burden, so it is not recommended for groups that struggle to avoid the mechanic.
Below 25% health, one final attack, Gravity Wave, is added.
Cairn slams its fists into the ground, launching a wave that cascades outwards dealing heavy damage and knocking players back. The attack itself hits in three steps, so it is possible to be knocked from one impact into the next. The attack can be avoided by dodging towards Cairn, and it does not hit close to the boss.
will be added at the end of the normal attack pattern so it will now be → → → .
Once Cairn is defeated, the Eye of Janthir flees and the lethal fog surrounding the platform dissipates, opening the path forward to the west.
Glenna will once again be waiting, and must be talked to to open the way ahead. Progressing forward into Death Row will reveal a blocked entrance. Shovels to unblock it can be found further to the west near the Escape Tunnel, but a player needs to first move close to the blockage for them to appear.
Mursaat Overseer
Players will be presented by a four-by-four “board” with a statue of a Mursaat in the center. The north-most eight tiles are glowing with heat, and deal 3.5k damage every second they are stood on. Along the south edge of the board are three pillars of light marked “Claim”, “Dispel” and “Protect”. Interacting with any of these will provide a Special Action Key that will be used in the encounter. Each can only be picked up once, and once all three are taken the fight begins. A player who accidentally picks up one of the skills will need to /gg to return it to its place.
The skills provide the following abilities:
- Claim – The player with Claim functions as the tank for this encounter, and has the ability to target a tile in order to “claim” it and remove the damaging effect such that players may safely stand on it.
- Dispel – Additional enemies in the fight will be protected by yellow shields that significantly reduce all damage to them. Dispel is a targeted projectile that removes these shields. As a projectile it can be blocked by the Mursaat Overseer or other enemies, so care should be taken to ensure that the player has clear line of sight.
- Protect – Protect drops a small shield at a target location that prevents all forms of damage to non-downed players within it for five seconds. This player functions as a secondary tank.
Strategy
Once all three skills are taken, the statue will become hostile and four Jade Scouts will appear at the edge of each of the four north-most tiles. Mursaat Overseer will move towards the tank (the player with claim), but does not attack or pose any direct threat. Instead, the threat is posed by the Jade Scouts. Once they appear, they will slowly move south, and when they cross on to a safe tile they claim it, causing the effect. The scouts themselves can be killed and they will stop their movement. However, 30 seconds later they will regain all their health and continue their passage across the board. Once a scout reaches the southern side of the board, it transforms into a Jade Soldier and rushes towards the player with Protect. Soldiers can attack, and have an aura that deals damage and pulses 
Slow, 
Torment and 
Poison. Additionally, when they die they explode, dealing heavy damage over a huge area. Finally, each active soldier increases the damage dealt by the ticking aura of the fight by 25%. Killing a soldier will cause it to disappear, and 30 seconds later a new scout will spawn back at the starting location.
Upon death a soldier will turn invulnerable, then throw its arms wide and explode a few seconds later. Players can look for the invulnerability or the animation to safely time a dodge to avoid taking damage.
15 seconds into the fight, faint spikes will appear on a number of tiles. Five seconds later, spikes will launch up from the tile, instantly killing any player stood on the tile. The Protect skill can be used to avoid being killed, but it will not work on downed players. This mechanic repeats with a different pattern every 10 seconds. Crossing a 25% health threshold will reset the timer to 10 seconds.
The spike mechanic will force players to move tiles throughout the encounter to remain safe, and so the tank should be ensure that there are claimed tiles free from spikes. The exact pattern is reliable and depends upon the health of the boss:
The spike patterns limit the possibilities for movement somewhat, and the safest pattern will depend on squad DPS. Because of this. the tank will want to claim tiles frequently to ensure that there is as much available space as possible. They will need to be careful not to claim a tile that a scout or soldier is about to move to, as then the enemy will instantly reclaim it. Little movement will be required for the first 50% of the bosses health, but below that the squad will need to move frequently. It is worth noting that at least one of the central four tiles will be free from spikes for all but one pattern, so it will often be safest to stay near the center and only move into one of the corners at that specific time.
The player with Dispel should keep an eye on the scouts as they move, and be sure to remove the shields as soon as they appear. This is important as killing the scouts will stagger the times at which they turn into soldiers. For this reason long-range cleave can be helpful for ensuring that only one or two soldiers appear at any one time.
As the player with Protect is the target for soldiers, they can position themselves such that the soldiers will not move on to the tile the squad is on (by standing at the edge of the tile, for example). They can also coordinate with the main tank to move the soldiers into the group to be cleaved down once Claim is off cooldown. If two or more soldiers move into the group at the same time, it may be worth using Protect to defend against by waiting until the animation begins and then dropping Protect on the group. If it is not needed in this way then it can be saved to protect people from Spikes instead.
Following the destruction of the Mursaat Overseer, the Eye of Janthir flees once again and players may progress to a locked door. Approaching the door grants the Gift of True Sight that allows a player to search through piles of rubble around Mursaat Overseer’s Arena in order to find four keys (indicated by a small object floating above a player’s head). The locations of the keys are below:
Alternatively, a thief character may simply pick the lock. Opening the door plays a cutscene introducing the next boss.
Samarog
In an open area ahead, Samarog waits for the squad. Once he is engaged, spears will spawn at the entrance, instantly killing anyone outside. Surrounding the arena are a multitude of other spears that will deal heavy damage to any player that stands on them. Samarog has multiple abilities that send players flying, and should a player be knocked into these spears they will instead die instantly.
The first player to approach Samarog will become fixated (indicated by a purple icon above their head) and function as the current tank. Samarog will move towards this player and direct one of his attacks at them.
Samarog uses twice in front of him before slamming both spears down, creating a that launches players hit by it. and deal heavy damage, and Impaling Stab deals extreme damage to anyone standing where the spears hit. The may be evaded or jumped over but cannot be blocked. Both and Impaling stab may be blocked.
Samarog will use this ability twice, followed by .
Samarog will heft a spear before sweeping it twice in a wide arc towards a random player. Anyone caught by either sweep will take heavy damage and be launched a significant distance. The sweeps may be blocked or evaded and stability will prevent the launch.
A large AoE appears at a random location that slowly fills. Once full, a spear slams into the ground dealing heavy damage and spawning either a spear of Aggression or Revulsion. These spears have an AoE surrounding them that pulses heavy damage and applies either 
Taunt or 
Fear, respectively. A spear may be removed by killing it or breaking its defiance bar. A new spear will spawn every 20 seconds.
At every 10% health interval Samarog will leap upon the current tank, disabling them and becoming immune to both damage and conditions. Samarog will gain a large defiance bar and deal increasing damage over time to the pinned player until he is broken. Due to the immunity to conditions, only CC applied by conditions before will work. Should the pinned player be downed during this attack they will be instantly killed, but they can be healed by the rest of the squad which will significantly increase the time available to break Samarog. Upon being broken, Samarog will fixate on the player furthest from him and they will become the new tank. Defiance Bar: 4500
Strategy
Due to the attack, there will need to be at least two tanks for this encounter, with one moving away from Samarog during in order to pick up the next fixation. Samarog remains stationary during all his attacks, so the tank player can avoid all damage simply by moving into Samarog’s hitbox as the attack starts. This means that the tank player need not have much defense, though due to the frequent breakbars it is recommended that players with lots of CC on a low cooldown not be the tank. Should the fixated player be downed at any time, the fixation will pass to the furthest player away. The tank should be wary of , and move Samarog such that players will not be hit by them, though it can be advantageous to stay close to the spears so that they can be cleaved down.
Throughout the fight, Samarog will cycle through the same attack pattern of using the combo twice, followed by and then repeating. will target a random player, so Samarog will frequently turn around before using this attack. Hence players should constantly ensure that they are behind Samarog, which is easiest to do if they stack within his hitbox. Samarog will sometimes interrupt his attacks to perform , in which case he will progress to the next attack in the sequence.
Split Phase 1 (66%)
Upon reaching 66% health, Samarog will become invulnerable and towards an area beyond the western side of the arena. Players in front of Samarog will take damage and be launched by the charge so they should be sure to get out of the way.
Two enemies will spawn to the north (Rigom) and south (Guldhem) of Samarog’s location, within the arena. Each will fixate on the player furthest from them and move towards those players and attack them. Every 20 seconds this fixation will update to the current most distant targets, and the same will happen if a fixated player is downed.
At the start of the split phase, Rigom, Guldhem and Samarog all have a yellow shield around them. The setup is as follows:
- While Guldhem and Rigom are close to each other, they gain stacks of buffs that increase Guldhem’s damage and Rigom’s health.
- While the shield is active, Guldhem redirects all damage and conditions from himself to Rigom.
- When Rigom dies, he explodes and regains all health. If this explosion hits Samarog, Guldhem’s shield drops and he may be damaged directly.
- Once Guldhem’s reaches 33% health intervals, he reactivates the shield to Rigom.
- Once both Guldhem and Rigom die, Samarog becomes vulnerable again.
In order to progress to the next phase, players should stack close to Samarog’s location (being wary of the spear wall) and allow Rigom to come to them. Once close, knocks or pulls should be used to move Rigom towards Samarog (and away from Guldhem) and use of 
Immobilize is strongly recommended to keep him in place. Once Rigom is close to Samarog, the squad should focus DPS on Guldhem and loop between steps 2-4 until Guldhem dies.
Should Rigom manage to move away from Samarog, the player who is fixated by Guldhem should move away from the rest of the squad to keep them apart. Everyone else should focus on forcing Rigom back towards Samarog, as letting him die elsewhere is a waste of time. If Guldhem is below 33% health then Rigom will no longer explode when he dies, so it is no longer necessary to keep him close to Samarog.
Players should also be aware that Guldhem’s first attack will be , which fires at the most distant player dealing moderate damage and stunning players in an AoE. It is possible to have one player “kite” the first such attack by positioning themselves north of the rest of the squad. This attack will be repeated approximately every 20 seconds. If Guldhem’s fixation does not get downed, then this attack will follow shortly after a new player becomes fixated.
Phase 2
Samarog will begin phase 2 with the combo followed by , and then continue with his normal attack patterns. is also more dangerous:
- Prisoner Sweep – Now applies
Cripple.
Additionally, there is a new mechanic, Inevitable Betrayal, beginning in this phase.
One random, non-tank player gains a large orange AoE around them that begins to fill. At the same time a second random, non-tank player gains a small green AoE that begins to empty at the same rate and both players will get the on-screen message “Choose your allies wisely”. Once the AoEs empty/fill, a large spear slams down on the player with the large AoE dealing extreme damage to all players within it. If both targeted players stand within the small green AoE, then they will be protected from the impact. Barrier and other effects that mitigate damage can also be used to prevent the player from being downed by this attack, but the spear cannot be blocked or evaded. This mechanic repeats every 24 seconds.
If the player with the large AoE does not move away from the group, then it can easily down the entire squad so it is essential that no-one other than the players targeted by the mechanic are within it. As this mechanic can overlap with , it is especially important that the Brutalized player not be caught inside as it will instantly kill them.
Split Phase 2 (33%)
The second split phase progresses exactly as before, but with the additional complication of . This mechanic can easily line up with the fixation change so Guldhem is more likely to run away from the squad, resulting in a slower phase. Guldhem’s attack becomes particularly dangerous as it has the potential to stun players before hits, leaving them unable to avoid it.
Phase 3
At the beginning of phase 3, Samarog demonstrates a new Bludgeon attack.
Samarog raises a spear and slams it down in front of him, dealing extreme damage and knocking down anyone hit by it. This attack may be blocked or evaded.
For phase 3, replaces one of the combos so Samarog now has the attack pattern → combo → .
also becomes more dangerous again:
- Prisoner Sweep – Now stuns in addition to previous effects.
Samarog’s attack patterns become less reliable in the final phase, so he may break from this pattern. Finally, there is one last mechanic, Spear Return.
Samarog pulls all spears in the arena towards him. Arrows on the ground indicate the path they take and players take damage for each spear they are hit by. The spears are projectiles, and so projectile defense may be of use.
The exact trigger for is unclear, though it is probably related to the number of active spears in the arena (and likely bugged).
can coincide with , which can instantly kill the tank. It may be useful to have some projectile defense ready for such an event.
Defeating Samarog opens the way north to the final boss of the wing.
Deimos
On a platform surrounded by lethal fog is a Shackled Prisoner. Players may land on the platform safely, but approaching the prisoner will begin the encounter and kill anyone not on the platform. Players should be wary of the statues at the edge of the arena as they will fear players that get too close.
Unlike many encounters, the boss will not appear at the start. Instead, shortly after the encounter begins, a random player will be targeted by a green AoE and everyone will see an on-screen message indicating that the Eye of Janthir has chosen the player in question. The green AoE will empty of color and when empty everyone within it will be teleported to the Demon’s Realm. This realm is a demonic form of the starting platform and there is a dark figure called Deimos that will target a random player and repeatedly direct a conal attack at them that knocks players a great distance, potentially off the platform and killing them. In this realm the statues are targetable and hold ghostly chains. Killing any of these Demonic bonds returns all players to the starting platform.
At the same time someone is targeted with the teleport, a number of spirits called Greeds spawn at the edge of the platform and walk towards the Shackled Prisoner. Should they reach him, they deal 2% of a player (and Saul’s) maximum health as damage and if he is killed the encounter will fail. In addition to the Greeds, there will be a single spirit called a Pride that deals 25% of maximum health as damage. The Greeds are relatively inconsequential, but it is recommended that at least one player remain on the platform to handle the Prides. A short time after a Pride dies, a new one will spawn at the edge of the platform. This makes it more efficient to slow the Pride down rather than attempting to kill it as quickly as possible. They can be affected by soft CC such as 
Chilled, Cripple or Immobilize, but hard CC will cause them to rush towards the prisoner and so should be avoided.
As it takes time to teleport between realms, it is ideal to kill all the four Demonic Bonds simultaneously by communicating the health of each Bond. Conditions also provide some leeway as they will continue to tick even while players are on the starting platform.
Once all four Demonic Bonds have been destroyed, the prisoner will be freed, return to full health and reveal himself to be Saul D’Alessio. At the same time, Deimos will appear in this realm and the main fight commences.
The player with the highest toughness will be the tank for this encounter. At the start of the encounter, Deimos only uses one attack beyond his autoattacks:
Deimos bring both maces down in front of him, creating a cascade of conal AoEs that trigger in a circular pattern from front to back. It is safest to evade towards the attack in order to prevent being hit by the AoEs that trigger later. Stability does not prevent the knockback but the attack can be blocked, though care must be taken as each AoE represents a separate attack so standing across two AoEs will only block one of them. This attack will be repeated approximately every 17 seconds but can be delayed by other attacks.
The knockback is particularly dangerous to players close to the edge of the platform as it can easily knock them off, killing them instantly.
Roles
New attacks and mechanics will be added throughout the fight, but there are three roles that need to be considered immediately.
- Tank – The tank will need to be able to survive or avoid Deimos’ attacks.
- Rapid Decay Kiter – The closest non-tank player to Deimos will have a mechanic spawn on them that needs to be kept away from the group. As this role can conflict with another mechanic in this fight, this kiter will need some way to block attacks. This can be from the kiter themselves or could be provided by the tank (e.g. via
Aegis).
- Soul Feast Kiter – The player furthest from Deimos will constantly be targeted by a mechanic that spawns dangerous AoEs underneath them. This role requires very specific builds that have a large number of heals and blocks. This role is colloquially known as the “hand kiter” and while any class can do it, herald is perhaps the most common. For an overview of this mechanic and some recommended builds, see our guide.
Should at any point there be two or fewer players on the platform, these mechanics can spawn on the same players. With two players on the platform, both kiter mechanic will spawn on the same player. If there is only a single player on the platform, then that player will take all three roles.
An additional factor to consider is that due to the danger posed by the mechanic, it may be worthwhile having a backup tank with toughness between that of the main tank and kiter. The tank and kiter should coordinate their movements to ensure that the kiter is always the most distant player.
Strategy
Throughout the fight, Saul will be fighting alongside the squad. In addition to his basic attacks on Deimos, he provides a number of valuable buffs and effects.
Shortly after Deimos appears, Saul will throw out a Banner of the Unseen towards the most distant player. This banner heals nearby players for 5% of their maximum health every second, and lasts for 20 seconds. This banner will almost always be targeted at the Kiter, and can be of great use to them. Saul will cast this skill every 30 seconds.
At the same time, Saul will cast Unnatural Signet on Saul which doubles the damage taken by Deimos for 10 seconds. This is a massive damage buff so it is advisable for power classes to delay their burst until they see it. Saul will cast this skill every 60 seconds, but this may not line up conveniently so only the first instance is guaranteed to be worth delaying skills for.
- Tank – The tank should face Deimos away from the rest of the group, but does not need to take any particular actions yet.
- Rapid Decay Kiter – No actions are required yet.
- Soul Feast Kiter – As soon as Deimos spawns, the kiter should move to the edge of the platform. will soon trigger at the kiter’s location, causing a grasping hand to appear. Every second for five seconds a new hand will spawn, followed by a five second gap and then another set of five hands. Confident kiters will stack these in groups of five, but the kiter should move as often as necessary in order to survive. These hands will remain in place until later in the fight so the more they are stacked the more space will be available. Should Deimos ever move over these hands he will consume them, gaining a damage buff called
Devour that increases all outgoing damage by 2% per stack. These stacks are only removed in the final phase, so it is very important to avoid letting hands touch the boss.
Once Deimos reaches 90% health, he will begin swinging his maces as he charges up a devastating attack. As this happens, Saul will summon a protective ward in the center of the platform and give every player a speed boost called Form Up and Advance! He also shouts “Stand in the ward! Quickly!” Players have approximately five seconds before hits, and will instantly down anyone hit by it. Invulnerability will not protect players, nor can the attack be evaded. However, it can be blocked and effects such as that prevent players being downed will work. Players who were not in the ward will receive a debuff called Weak Minded that ticks once a second for 10 seconds, dealing 7% of the player’s maximum health as damage. This attack occurs every 35-40 seconds.
is the reason that the kiters will need to have some form of block or life-saving skill. It is important that neither mechanic spawns on the stack, so they will need to be able to survive without Saul’s ward. The kiter in particular will need a channeled block to avoid it being wasted on .
Thief (75%)
Once Deimos reaches 75% health the Eye of Janthir will target a random player other than the tank or kiter. This player will gain the green AoE and teleport nearby players back to the Demon’s Realm shortly after. All players other than the tank and the kiter should take this teleport. Be aware that it is still possible for the tank or kiter to be teleported if they are within the AoE. It is also important to note that players are invulnerable while teleporting, so it may be safest to ignore mechanics in order to ensure that the correct players are teleported. As the teleport can coincide with it may be advisable not to dodge the attack, so that all players are knocked together rather than trust everyone to dodge in the same direction.
Within the Demon’s Realm player’s will gain stacks of an effect called every three seconds that deals damage per stack every second, and there is now a dark version of Saul called “Thief”. Aside from basic attacks the Thief will regularly gain a defiance bar (strength: 300), and if not broken will steal all boons from the squad. Once the Thief is reduced to 50% health everyone will be returned to the main platform, including the Thief. Players will need to ensure that the Thief is regularly broken and killed as quickly as possible. If the squad stacks on Deimos then the Thief should follow them and be killed by cleave while attacking Deimos, but it may be necessary to target the Thief directly if it is not killed quickly enough.
Be aware that the Thief and all later versions of Saul will aggro on the entity with the highest precision, which can even include pets! Knowing who will be targeted by the Thief will make him easier to control.
When the players return to the platform, the stacks of will all begin to move towards Deimos. They still deal damage so it is crucial that they be avoided, but after five seconds they will despawn (the hands will buff Deimos if they reach him). This is the only way that the hands can be removed from the platform, so if DPS is low then there will be more hands active.
Starting when Deimos reaches 75% health, small Demonic Tears indicated by a white circle will open on the platform that shoot nearby players. The attacks deal moderate damage, and the tear can be closed by a player standing in the white circle. This gives them the Tear Instability debuff which prevents them from closing another tear for 60 seconds. Players with this debuff will also see a green skull icon above their head (but they cannot see it on other players). A new tear is created every 15 seconds, and they can also be created in the Demon’s Realm. It is recommended that players avoid closing tears in the Demon’s Realm as it is important that the main platform remains clear in order to lessen pressure on the tank and kiters.
Players on the three key roles may wish to avoid closing tears themselves in order to have the option to pick up tears when the rest of the squad are in the Demon’s Realm.
Starting when Deimos reaches 60% health, an orange AoE spawns on the closest non-tank player to Deimos. Three seconds later a black puddle forms at that location. Any player that steps into the puddle will take damage and cause it to expand greatly. Players that evade the damage will also avoid expanding the puddle. A new puddle spawns every 15 seconds, and they last for 30 seconds before despawning.
As can easily expand into more people, who then cause it to expand further, the puddle can very quickly cover a huge area on the platform and usually cause a wipe. To avoid this, there are broadly two strategies:
- The group can stack together, and move location every time a puddle spawns. This will require coordination with the kiter as they will need to ensure that they remain the most distant player, and ideally keep out of range of . This strategy keeps the group close to puddles, which is risky as a single player can quickly cause a failure. The exact movement pattern can vary a lot depending on how far the group wants to be from puddles and how much space is required for the kiter.
- The group can stack at range. In this strategy, the tank and kiter move away from the group as the mechanic is about to begin. Everyone else stays in the center and relies on ranged damage. This strategy is much slower than the melee approach, and requires more skill of the tank and kiter, but is less risky for the group as a whole. If following this strategy it is necessary for the dark versions of Saul to be targeted directly.
- Tank – If following strategy one, the tank need not do much more than move the tank between locations as soon as they seen a puddle spawn. They can use Saul’s ward to avoid the and can rely on support from the rest of the group for the majority of the encounter. Strategy 2 will require being much closer to the edge, and so being hit by could be lethal. To deal with this the tank can ensure that Deimos is between them and the platform edge when this attack occurs so that if they are hit they will be knocked towards the center of the platform rather than off it. Being close to the edge also makes it difficult to reach Saul’s ward in time and so they will need to be able to block (or have it provided by the kiter).
- Rapid Decay Kiter – For both strategies, the kiter will not be able to rely on Saul’s ward to protect them from and so they must be able to block the attack themselves (or have block provided by the tank), though they may use the ward if a puddle has just spawned. For strategy 2, the kiter and tank will spend most of the fight apart from the rest of the group and so it may be necessary for the kiter to be a healer.
- Soul Feast Kiter – Not much changes for the strategy, though if Deimos is tanked too close they may be within range of . Ideally this would not be the case though, as if Deimos is that close it is possible that when the hands are pulled to Deimos, they could reach him before they despawn.
Gambler (50%)
When Deimos reaches 50% health, the Eye of Janthir will target a random player once again, and teleport them to the Demon’s Realm along with all other players inside the AoE. This time they will face a dark version of Saul called the “Gambler”. The Gambler will periodically disappear and four versions of the gambler will appear around the center. Three of them will be wielding Prisoner’s Treasured Boughs but one will have a Staff of Matthias. Killing this one will cause the Gambler to reappear. While the four versions are active, they will all direct attacks towards the center of the platform, making it very dangerous to stand there. As before, once the Gambler is reduced to 50% health everyone including the Gambler will return to the main platform. Be aware that if the four versions are active during , the players in the ward will be taking a lot of damage from all the attacks. As before, when the players return to the main platform the hands from will be recalled to Deimos.
Once Deimos reaches 40% health, Greeds and Prides will begin to appear once again. They will march towards Saul and explode if they reach him, dealing damage. Should Saul die the encounter will fail, but now players are able to heal Saul. As before, the Greeds do not pose much threat but the Prides do. It is essential that Prides are killed before they reach Saul, and should that happen healers should ensure that they keep him alive. As at the start of the encounter, it may be wiser to slow down the Prides rather than kill them immediately as their spawns are random and if one is killed the next one might spawn very close to Saul.
If running strategy 2 the tank and kiter will be under more pressure at this point. The Greeds and Prides add an additional source of damage, and aside from the damage their explosive deaths can waste your blocks before hits. Further, the kiter will need to pay attention to Saul as they are best positioned to keep him healed up.
Drunkard (25%)
When Deimos reaches 25% health, the Eye of Janthir will target a player for teleportation once more. Players will face a dark version of Saul called the Drunkard. Similar to the Thief, the Drunkard will regularly gain a defiance bar (strength:300) and if he is not broken he will teleport players about the platform. This attack is relatively inconsequential in the Demon’s Realm, but once he is taken to 50% and returns to the main platform this attack can easily teleport players into puddles causing a wipe. If possible, the squad should deliberately fail to break the Drunkard when he is close to 50% because this will put the teleport attack on a longer cooldown for when he is on the main platform.
Even if the squad is intending to kill the Drunkard via cleave by dragging him onto Deimos, it might be worth having at least one player with high CC target him directly to ensure he is always broken.
Phase 2 (10%)
When Deimos reaches 10% health, he will become invulnerable and begin to taunt Saul. All mechanics will cease to occur so the entire squad can stack up and maintain health and boons. It is recommended that players stop picking up tears at this point, because Deimos will soon drag all players and Saul to the Demon’s Realm. It is likely there will be multiple tears open there, so it is best if there are as many people who can close them as possible.
Soon after arriving in the Demon’s Realm, Deimos’ true form will appear towering over the platform. There is no longer any tank, and Deimos will no longer use or . and will still occur though, so these roles must still be covered though it is common for the tank to take over the kiting role at this point.
Deimos will begin to slam his fists down on the platform, causing moderate damage and knocking players a considerable distance. This knockback can land players in or even cause them to take aggro temporarily, so it is important to avoid. Deimos will first slam one fist, then the other, before slamming both fists down in the center. He will then pause for a period before repeating the pattern. The left and right fist slams only cover their respective half of the platform, so can be totally avoided by simply moving to the opposite side of the platform. The double fist slam covers the whole platform however, and so should be avoided with evades, blocks or stability. The timing on the fist attacks are somewhat unintuitive (they generally hit before it looks like they should), so practice may necessary to avoid them reliably.
Once Deimos is killed, he falls away from the platform and everyone is teleported back to the main platform to enjoy a cutscene.
It should be noted that there are a wide variety of ways to handle this encounter, from different tanking patterns and locations, to tank swaps, to “sacrificing” a player at the 25% teleport. This guide does not cover those strategies as they are not as common as those described, but it may be worth knowing they exist.
Thanks to Linus, who made the Cairn and Mursaat Overseer images for the Guild Wars 2 Wiki.
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