Lonely Tower

WIP

Introduction

As you start, a short scene between Dagda, Isgarren and Mabon plays out, but there is nothing to stop you from leaving the room and taking the right corridor away from the glowing barrier (don't forget to grab the Mistlock Singularity first). The corridor is covered in Despair AoEs that inflict Agony, five stacks of Torment and minor damage [more at higher tiers?]. They're less threatening than they look so you can just power through and heal later.

In the room at the end, you'll catch a brief glimpse of an old antagonist and be presented with four Astral Purifier Nodes. Each one must be channeled while you complete a button-matching puzzle like those used to unlock [Astral Chests?] in the open world. A total of 10 correct buttons must be pressed in a row to activate each purifier, but as you begin interacting, three [Avatars of Spite] will spawn nearby and move towards you. Around each one is a field that pulses poison, and if they reach the player they will interrupt the channel and force them to start again.

The most obvious solution is to take either one or two at a time, and have the remaining players skill the Avatars as they approach. There is an easier way, however, as both Stability and Stealth will negate the interruption entirely, so with enough of either the group could do all four at once.

Regardless of the approach you choose, once all four are active, the Despair AoEs will disappear and you can return to the starting room - though its much faster just to /GG to reset there.

Back at the start, the barrier will drop and you can head down the left corridor instead. Down this corridor, the Despair AoEs are joined by some familiar-looking Grasping Hands that move towards you and inflict Cripple, Poison, five stacks of Torment and minor damage.

There is a single Astral Purifier Node at the far end that has to be turned off as before. The rubble makes the Avatars of Spite a little more awkward to deal with, but everyone can defend a single person now so it shouldn't be much trouble.

With the air purified, the next barrier drops and you can progress forward. There is another Mistlock Singularity in the next room. Through the blue barrier is the first encounter of the fractal (you can just walk straight through).

Cerus and Deimos

Players familiar with the strike and raid bosses should immediately recognise the mechanics in this encounter, though even in CM both of the bosses are significantly less formidable.

A few seconds after engaging them, each will fixate on the [closest?] target for 20 seconds, following that character. Around five seconds after losing fixation, they will fixate on a new player [closest again? or has to be new?]. If the two bosses are allowed to get too close to one another, they will gain the [something] buff, which increases their outgoing damage by 50%.

Even at t4, their base damage is rather low, so it's not too dangerous to stack them together if the group is strong enough.

As the two bosses' mechanics are practically identical to their original versions but much less dangerous, not too much time will be spent describing their mechanics. Players wishing to know more can see the individual guides for Cerus and Deimos.

Cerus

• Wail of Despair - summons a Despair AoE over each player that hits after five seconds.
• Malicious Intent - Tethers to a [distant?] player and after [???] seconds spawns a [Malicious Shadow] that walks towards Cerus. If it reaches him, it will be absorbed and give Ceus five stacks of [empowered] and some [barrier].
• Cry of Rage - A large AoE that Cerus channels over five seconds and deals heavy damage to players who don't dodge it. Unlike the strike version, this can also be 24px Blocked.

Otherwise, Ceus will perform an [AoE?] Smash attack that deals moderate damage.

Deimos

• Grasping Hands - A series of stationary AoEs that spawn in sets of three underneath the furthest player. The time the hands last for increases with tier, up to 15 seconds at tier 4. This is similar to the Soul Feast mechanic in the raid encounter. If Deimos is allowed to touch these hands, he will absorb them, giving himself the [Devour] buff that [increases his damage by 2% per stack?].
• Rapid Decay - Deimos places an orange AoE under the [closest?] player that becomes a black puddle on the floor lasting for ~28 seconds. Touching this puddle causes it to rapidly expand until it covers a large portion of the room, ticking for a small amount of damage.
• - At [50% health?], Deimos will start using - a cascade of conal AoEs that trigger in a circular pattern from front to back, launching players who get hit backwards. The attack can be blocked or evaded [does stability work here?]

Once they are dead, Dagda will summon a portal taking you to the final area. There is a Mistlock Singularity near where you arrive, and you must defeat a number of kryptis to progress. When the last [Incarnation of Judgment] falls, the final boss will appear.

Eparch

Recommended Sigils: Sigil of Superior Sigil of Force, Sigil of Superior Sigil of Impact

Condition builds should use their standard sigils and enhancements.

Note: This encounter punishes melee builds almost to the point of rendering them unviable. Ranged DPS is strongly recommended.

Recommended Utility: Boon Removal (CM only), Condition cleanse and Crowd Control

Interacting with Captain Thess's body will trigger the final boss - an Unknown Demon. Shortly after appearing, three smaller Aspects of the demon will also appear at the platform edge, but they cannot be targeted or attacked.

Challenge Mode
There are several changes that immediately come into effect in the Challenge Mode of this encounter:

• The Unknown Demon begins the encounter with instead (see Phase 2) and uses it throughout the phase.
• The ability for the boss to steal Quickness and Alacrity from players can significantly alter the timings of this encounter.
• Falling off the platform will result in instant death, making the Fear particularly deadly.
• Players cannot be revived if they are defeated.

- As the fight starts, the Unknown Demon will use its own version of the fear attack you saw earlier but all three Aspects are using it too. This means that you need to move towards the platform edge so you can safely look away. You can use Resistance, Stability or a stunbreak to prevent the Fear, but for each eye you are looking at, you will take 35% of your max health as damage in addition to Blind and three stacks of Torment. occurs every ~50s.

Challenge Mode only: Getting hit by Kanaxai's will apply Extreme Vulnerability. This will cause you to be killed instantly if you are also hit by one of the Aspect's s.

Rending Storm - As you return from the , a random player is targeted by a small AoE as the Demon throws a spinning axe in their direction. This creates a ticking damage AoE that lasts for 30 seconds, ticking for a small amount of damage and applying five stacks of Bleeding per tick. This attack repeats every ~30s, and an additional player will be targeted each time after the first occurence within a phase. Players in the path of the axe when it is thrown can also be hit even if they aren't in the AoE.

Challenge Mode only: All other Rending Storm AoEs apply a stack of Exposed to you with each tick. Your own AoE can be identified by a thicker "targeted" indicator around the storm (similar to that applied by scouts in WvW).

Otherwise, the Unknown Demon will use basic attacks that inflict Bleeding and Torment. The Aspects have their own basic ranged attacks that are unthreatening, but every 30 seconds or so they will launch an AoE attack called Harrowshot that applies Agony and a condition depending on the aspect that fired it.

Challenge Mode only: Being hit by this attack will cause the Unknown Demon to steal all of a player's boons.

Gathering Shadows - Every 10% health, the Demon gains a defiance bar and attempts to summon another Aspect onto the platform. Breaking it will Stun the Demon and leave it Exposed for five seconds, but give it a stack of Dread Defiance - a buff that makes the next Stun duration shorter and the defiance bar larger (technically it reduces the strength of incoming CC). If you fail to break the bar, an additional smaller demon is summoned on the platform, and the next time the defiance bar appears it will resume from the strength it was at. Breaking the bar will slightly increase the cooldown of his other mechanics.

Note: It is possible that additional Aspects summoned in this way are able to use Phantasmagoria (see Split Phase 1).

Other mechanics will not happen until after the defiance bar finishes, and appears to take priority over Rending Storm. This means that depending on your group's DPS these mechanics might "queue", resulting in them happening less frequently.

Split Phase 1

At 66% health, the Demon goes invulnerable and reveals its true identity: Kanaxai! It teleports to the middle of the platform and prepares . Players will be targeted by each of the smaller demons with a beam attack called Phantasmagoria. This applies an effect to the player (indicated on their buff bar) that reduces outgoing and incoming damage. Shortly after, the Aspect will relocate to one of five smaller platforms surrounding the main one, providing you with two Grappling Hook charges as well as leaving behind a glowing blue orb with a bag icon inside that provides more. Then, the ghostly figure of Captain Thess appears in the middle of the platform and fires a beam of light towards the platform the Aspect retreated to. There is also see a red crossed sword icon on the minimap indicating the location. Only the affected player can see the Aspect, the ghostly figure, or the crossed swords icon.

The player should use their special action key to switch to their Survey Gear, grapple across to the small platform, and kill the demon (they have very low health). The Unknown Demon's attack will be canceled if all Aspects are killed, otherwise everyone takes heavy damage and Agony for each remaining Aspect.

Challenge Mode only: Failing to kill all aspects will cause an instant wipe.

Notes

• In some cases, people will be able to see others' Aspects and attack them. If they kill someone else's Aspect, then the targeted player will be unable to remove Phantasmagoria, so this is not recommended.
• If you are slow, the next phase can start before you get back to the platform. The bouncing mushroom will land you directly in the middle of the arena, which can make it impossible to avoid . You may be better off waiting on the platform until it is over (you will eventually be teleported back).

Phase 2

Now the fight resumes with another attack, but this time there are four Aspects on the platform.

Challenge Mode only: From Phase 2, rather than remain on the platform, Kanaxai will teleport to one of the outer platforms and use from there - this reduces the directions that are safe to look in, but looking east will always be safe.

- Immediately after ends, all players will be targeted by a large AoE and a Roman numeral, as at First Mate Dolus. Each attack will hit eight times, each dealing 6.25% of the player's max health (for 50% total). These attacks cannot be avoided by invulnerability or dodging, but they can be blocked.

has the same cooldown as , so one will typically follow the other, but they can become desynced over time.

Challenge Mode only: Getting hit more than once by an AoE other than your own will kill you (preventable by invulnerability or damage inversion).

Kanaxai's version of this attack is far more dangerous than Dolus's, so players should be particularly wary of the final vortex when the boss returns to its starting location.

Challenge Mode only: Between 50-10%, Kanaxai will use Gathering Shadows at 5% intervals instead of 10%.

Split Phase 2

This Split Phase is identical to the first, except that there are now four Aspects to deal with.

Phase 3

In addition to there being five Aspects on the platform, they are now able to use Phantasmagoria. One player will be targeted every 40 seconds, and the effect will end automatically if it is not dealt with within 30 seconds (with the Aspect returning to the platform).

In addition to the effects of the debuff, the Aspect being on a platform will make significantly more dangerous (facing east will remain safe). An Aspect that is in the middle of applying Phantasmagoria will not gain the eye over their head and so is safe to look at.

It seems that Phantasmagoria will not overlap with certain mechanics, which means a fast team may end up not getting this attack at all in the final phase. Per the earlier note, it may also be that only Aspects summoned by failing to break Gathering Shadows are able to use this attack.

Challenge Mode only: In this last phase, is combined with . Shortly after teleportation, Kanaxai will fear any player looking at him. To prevent your character automatically turning during this attack, you can stand facing out of the platform and take a series of small steps towards the edge until the attack is complete.