Nahut

Phase 1 - Nahut 100% - 62%

To begin the fight, a player should click on the Candle to pick it up. Nothing will happen for 10 seconds then “Singularity Startup Generator Initiated” will be announced. Nahut will become visible immediately afterwards to any player within melee range of Nahut and the player holding the Candle.

At this point, the Candle should be used by clicking the LEFT button for Suppression Burst. The Candle’s AoE is quite large and just needs to clip Nahut to suppress the cloak (see above for more details and a screenshot of the AoE).

If the team plans to rotate the Candle, the player should use the MIDDLE button for Pass Candle to pass it to another player. Make sure to select the player in the ops frame to whom you want to pass the candle, which is done in a similar fashion to healing or guarding players via the ops frame. Make sure Nahut is not between you and the player receiving the Candle or else Nahut will intercept it and drop it onto the ground to pick back up.

Please do not click the RIGHT button to drop the Candle. Always USE it, then PASS it.

Around 80-82%, Nahut will leap to the middle and recast Prepare the Field. At this point the mechanics in Phase 1 should be repeated. DPS break the shield to limit the placement of Distortion Mines, the tank kites Nahut around the edge of the inner platform, and so on until around 62% when the encounter pushes to Phase 2.

Phase 2 - Power Couplings 100% - 0%

When Phase 2 begins, a few things will happen all at once:

1. Ops announcement “The Reactor’s Startup Sequence is almost Complete”

2. Gravitic Storm begins in the inner platform, noted by the inner platform being covered in red.

3. Ops announcement “Destroy the Power Couplings before the Sequence Completes”

4. 2 Power Couplings spawn in the Northwest corner of the map along the bridge between outer platforms.

5. Nahut enters stealth.

6. The Northeast and Southeast outer platforms are filled with Electrified Railing.

The group has now transitioned to Phase 2 and needs to move to the outer platform near the Power Couplings as quickly as possible.

Railgun Snipe is an easy mechanic but can feel difficult for less experienced players since it requires coordination during a chaotic transition phase.

As discussed in more detail above regarding the mechanic, Railgun Snipe is a conal attack that is telegraphed by a red line then deals damage to the player and any players or enemies in close proximity to the line of attack. Each person damaged by Railgun Snipe gains 1 stack of Railgun Trauma, which among other things most notably causes any subsequent Railgun Snipe attacks to deal 50% more damage.

Railgun Snipe always targets the player holding the Candle so it is very controllable. There are two primary strategies for dealing with this mechanic:

1. Have the tank hold the Candle during the entire phase. This keeps positioning simple. The tank takes the Candle during Phase 2 (or is immediately passed the candle by whomever has it) and stands behind the generator station away from the group. They will take 6 Railgun Snipes, with the last 2 potentially dealing pretty high damage. A defensive cooldown should be used for the last 2 snipe attacks and healing will be necessary to top them off between snipes.

2. Have multiple players take turns holding the Candle. This can range from a different player taking each Railgun Snipe, 2 tanks each taking 3 attacks before swapping, or many other combinations. DPS and healers can take 2 attacks easily and a 3rd will hurt a lot.

My personal recommendation is with an inexperienced group to have a tank take 3-4 snipes then pass it to any other player to take the last 2. For experienced groups that plan to eventually progress on Gods in Hard Mode, I highly recommend having a rotation of players to take only 1 Railgun Snipe each as that is how the mechanic must be handled in higher difficulties.

The Phase ends when the last platform section closest to the Power Couplings becomes electrified. The team should take little or no damage assuming the Power Couplings are both at 0% health by this point. An ops announcement “Error: Coupling Connection Failure Detected. Suspending Startup” indicates the group passed this phase and moves on to Phase 3 after some chatter between Nahut and Scyva.

Phase 3 - Nahut 62% (72% in HM) - 34% (37% in HM), 5 Rail Turrets 100% - <40%

Phase 3 is often the most confusing phase because it is not really very focused on Nahut but rather on managing adds.

Coming out of Phase 2, there is a brief pause while Nahut (still stealthed) approaches the group. Since Nahut becomes visible in melee range, the group should wait until Nahut appears then immediately use the Candle to suppress the cloak. The phase then properly begins at this point.

In Story Mode, the phase begins with an immediate announcement of “A Wave of Reinforcements Arrives!” and 1 Rail Turret spawns in a semi-random location around the room.

See below for the map/layout of Phase 3 and let’s discuss the various things going on during this semi-confusing phase.

The best way to think about Phase 3 is to divide up the team into 3 groups:

1. The tank(s) holding aggro on Nahut.

2. The DPS/healers staying with Nahut (“boss team”)

3. The DPS/healers dealing Rail Turrets (“turret hunters”)

Let’s discuss each of these in turn and how they should deal with mechanics.

Before we do, let’s talk about the Candle briefly. Nahut will continue to stealth during Phase 3 except for the Candle holder and any players within melee range.

The strategy for dealing Nahut can vary from team to team, but I recommend either having a rotation amongst the DPS and healers to use the Candle or having a tank hold it the entire time. I recommend this because Nahut is moving a lot during this phase and it can be easy to accidentally lose the Candle by passing it through Nahut between a tank and a non-tank.

Both strategies work and have their benefits. Having the tank hold the Candle ensures they can always see Nahut therefore can be confident of keeping Nahut’s aggro, and it provides an easy reference for players where Nahut is based on simply knowing the tank’s location. Having non-tanks rotate the Candle is nice because it keeps Nahut visible to everyone all the time but does add some complexity. I do not suggest having a non-tank player hold the Candle the whole time because then Nahut can get lost. I personally prefer to have a Candle rotation with an experienced group but with an inexperienced group I let the tank hold it the entire time and use it whenever they can.

For DPS and healers staying with Nahut, they have the simplest job. Keep DPSing Nahut and healing damage while taking care to always stay behind Nahut and out of the Mass Distortion puddles. Nahut will gain the Energy Barrier buff and becomes immune to damage at 34% in Story Mode. At this point if Rail Turrets are still active then all DPS should spread out to help push turrets and get to Phase 4.

Phase 4 - Nahut 34% - 0%

Phase 4 is the final burn phase of the Nahut encounter. Nahut does not have a traditional enrage timer like many bosses, so instead the soft enrage results from the team running out of safe places to stand and taking steadily increasing group-wide damage until healers can no longer keep up.

When 5 Rail Turrets are pulled into the Singularity in Phase 3, the team gets a “The Singularity has become Critically Unstable” ops announcement to indicate Phase 4 is beginning. Nahut will continue to attack the tank with aggro but no other mechanics will take place for 25 seconds, giving any players spread out from dealing with turrets the time needed to rejoin the group.

After 25 seconds, the Electrified Floor mechanic will return from Phase 2. In Phase 4, after the 25 second grace period, every 12 seconds the platform under Nahut will become electrified.

Nahut gains the Overwhelming Distortion debuff in Phase 4 that disables stealth, so the Candle is no longer relevant in Phase 4 in Story Mode.

The key to this phase is good kiting of Nahut by the tank. The layout below divides each platform into 4 sections that correspond to how they become electrified during the phase. Not that each platform is divided in half, then each half is further divided in line with each generator station on the platform.

The ideal kiting by the tank is to pull Nahut to the edge of the current platform section where Nahut is standing in it but the tank and melee DPS are either just on the edge or even perhaps standing just outside it. Then when the platform fills with lightning, it takes merely a moment for the group to move out of lightning and avoid damage.

For tanks unfamiliar with this kiting, I suggest instead pulling Nahut to each of the exterior supports (the diagonal supports extending from the outer platform up to the ceiling). These are roughly in the middle of each platform section and so are less ideal to avoid damage, but are safer to avoid risking skipping a platform by accident by pulling Nahut too far by mistake.

Another strategy that can be helpful for kiting through the slow effect applied to players during this phase is to have the tanks swap each time a platform becomes electrified. The off tank moves ahead to the next kiting position and taunts as soon as the floor becomes electrified. This lets the tank and melee DPS focus on moving and reduces the risk of Nahut cleaving the group as everyone runs in the same direction.

Further complicating this phase, the Gravitic Storm (red AoE) will expand during this phase and take up more and more of the outer platform. Standing inside it will cause steadily ticking damage and the group will run out of room around the same time that the 12th platform section becomes electrified.

This phase is functionally a DPS check that should be fairly easy in Story Mode provided the entire group is alive, does not skip any platforms by pulling Nahut too fast and people avoid the electrified floor as much as possible.

The Candle mechanics and its use in each phase has been discussed at some length above, but I thought a brief refresher and recap might be helpful given the Candle’s importance to the Nahut encounter.

The Candle’s abilities are as follows (from left to right on the temporary ability bar):

• Suppression Burst: 0.5s cast with a huge AoE effect. If it clips Nahut then it suppresses Nahut’s stealth in Phase 1 and Phase 3 for 16 seconds. The ability has a 40 second cooldown and applies to the player who used the Candle not to the Candle itself.

• Pass Candle: Passes the Candle to the player selected in the ops frame. If Nahut is standing in between the Candle holder and the player to whom it is being passed, Nahut will intercept the Candle for a short time and drop it on the ground when resuming stealth.

• Drop Candle: Ability that drops the Candle leaving a circle on the ground similar to the beginning of the encounter. A player running through the circle picks up the Candle again.

The Candle is only used during Phases 1 and 3 but is relevant in Phase 2 as it determines who Nahut targets with Railgun Snipe.

Since the Candle has a 40 second cooldown but only applies to Nahut for 16 seconds, it takes a minimum of 3 players in Story Mode to keep Nahut visible at all times. If Nahut enters stealth, it is still visible in Story Mode to the Candle holder and any player within melee range of Nahut.

The best strategies are either to have the tank hold the Candle at all times or to have a rotation of non-tank players.

If the tank is holding the candle the entire time then Nahut will be stealthed to some players some of the time, but the tank should always see Nahut and be able to taunt and the rest of the group should be able to mark Nahut’s position by the tank’s position.

If a rotation is using the Candle that is optimal since Nahut will always be visible (making the ranged DPS’s jobs easier) but can get messy if the rotation is messed up and Nahut stealths. In this approach it is critical that a player immediately pass the Candle after using it, so that if Nahut stealths the player with the Candle will always be able to immediately use it to reveal Nahut.

Phase 1 - Nahut 100% - 71%

Phase 1 in Hard Mode works quite differently from Story Mode due to (1) the much larger size of Mass Distortion puddles; and (2) the Rending Cloud DoT applied to anyone inside Nahut’s Reflect Shield. These two mechanics prevent the team from holding Nahut in the middle as in Story Mode.

The tanks will need to move Nahut around the inner room to position themselves to drop Mass Distortion. In Hard Mode, Energized Slice hits really hard so moving Nahut around is important to avoid cleaving the group as well.

I recommend a kiting path per the above graphic. The basic idea is for tanks to kite Nahut directly through the middle of the short fire vents, which avoids the Distortion Mines altogether. Distortion Mines are extremely dangerous for non-tanks since the Snared Prey debuff in Hard Mode prevents tanks from taunting Nahut back for 6 seconds so I highly recommend avoiding them.

From an ordering perspective, the two tanks should pull Nahut NW and SE on the map initially. The first tank pulls Nahut all the way to the edge of the platform to drop Mass Distortion. They should be standing just inside the barrier and right next to a generator. As soon as Mass Distortion is cast by Nahut, the other tank taunts Nahut and pulls the boss across the room to the far side. The first tank waits to drop Mass Distortion and then moves across the room to grab Nahut when Mass Distortion is cast on the other tank.

This strategy essentially ping-pongs Nahut on a straight line back and forth across the room. As long as DPS stay on a similar line with Nahut, they should not clip any mines. The pathing also makes it easy for DPS to drop stacks of Rending Cloud as they can step back into the inner middle circle for a few seconds.

Most teams should push Nahut to the mid-phase reset after the fourth Mass Distortion leaves 2 blue AoE puddles in each position.

After Nahut’s shield is broken, the tank should pivot 90 degrees and move Nahut along the NE and SW paths to similarly ping-pong Nahut across the room to drop Mass Distortion.

Below are a few screenshots of the positioning I recommend to drop Mass Distortion.

Healers can stay in the inner circle the entire fight for the most part and avoid many stacks of Rending Cloud. DPS must follow Nahut to stay inside the Reflect Shield and step out as needed to cleanse Rending Cloud stacks. Be careful not to stand in fire!

The initial path is important for this phase since the first Mass Distortion puddles will disappear by the time the team pushes to Phase 2. Making sure the first puddles are dropped at NW will make it easier for the group to run to NW to reach the Power Couplings.

Phase 2 - Power Couplings 100% - 0%

Phase 2 is essentially the same as Story Mode except for the much stricter requirements for dealing with Railgun Snipe. The Railgun Trauma debuff applied in Hard Mode is far more dangerous as it increases damage taken from Railgun Snipe by 300% while also reducing the players maximum health by 30% and healing received by 30%.

For the rest of the phase, tanks should use taunts to maintain aggro on the adds while all players attack the Power Couplings. The DPS check to pass this phase is slightly more difficult than in Story Mode but still quite easy for most groups.

Phase 3 - Nahut 71% - 37%, 5 Rail Turrets 100% - <40%

Phase 3 has a few important differences. The first relates to the tanking path which is more important due to Mass Distortion’s greater size and the greater danger of Nahut’s Energized Slice cleave. The second relates to the strategy to deal with Rail Turrets.

The kiting path for Nahut is a little tough to explain and much easier to show, but here goes. The good news is that this kiting is super easy with just a little practice, even if it's tough to explain.

Hopefully that makes some sense. The idea is that the tanks take turns dropping Mass Distortion. This is very beneficial to quickly reposition Nahut to minimize the time anyone may be cleaved, helps spread out defensive cooldowns and should always result in the same tank getting pulled to drop Mass Distortion.

Here is a quick video of how this tanking pattern should work from the PoV of Tank 1 in the above description.

DPS and healers staying with Nahut should focus on maintaining the Candle rotation and avoiding Nahut’s cleave but should otherwise have a relatively smooth Phase 2. Nahut will shield at 37%, at which point if the group has not yet pushed it may be necessary for another DPS to break off to help with pushing turrets.

Players handling Rail Turrets have quite a bit more on their hands in Hard Mode. The Rail Turrets are much more dangerous and far trickier to kill in Hard Mode. Just like in Story Mode, the team needs to get 5 Rail Turrets sucked into the singularity to push to Phase 4.

Rail Turrets appear each tim

Let’s briefly recap how the Rail Turrets work in Hard Mode. Rail Turrets begin with a Resilience Shield that makes them immune to crowd control, stuns and Gravity Pulse. When a Rail Turret drops below 40%, that buff is replaced with Resilience Shield (Inactive) that indicates they are vulnerable to these abilities. Rail Turrets are only vulnerable to Gravity Pulse while under the effects of a stun or CC ability.

The key to getting them pulled in is to stun them during Gravity Pulse. The best time to do this is right after the Gravity Pulse white circle telegraph. CC abilities can also be used, but be very careful to make sure the Rail Turrets have sufficiently low health that the CC-related healing does not take them back above 40% to become immune to Gravity Pulse. Also be very careful not to kill them!

Rail Turrets also get more dangerous the longer they are active on the map. They target the player with aggro with Rail Shot initially every 9 seconds. The attack can initially be LoS’d and targets healers, which is partly why the kiting discussed above suggests healers stay near the generator stations to LoS most of the possible Rail Turret spawn points.

Regardless of whether the target takes damage, each successful cast of Rail Shot adds 1 stack of Powering Up that increases damage by 10% and decreases cast time by 20%. When a Rail Turret reaches 10 stacks of Powering Up they gain Fully Charged that converts the Rail Shot into Railgun Snipe that applies Railgun Trauma just like in Phase 2 (target takes +300% damage, -30% max health, -30% healing received). The DPS must deal with Rail Turrets before they “enrage” by becoming Fully Charged or they will start two-shotting players.

As such, it is important for DPS dealing with Rail Turrets to interrupt as many casts as possible to reduce the damage done by successful casts and buy more time before they get Fully Charged.

Below is an example video clip of handling Rail Turrets.

Phase 4 - Nahut 37% - 0%

The burn phase or Phase 4 is essentially the same as Story Mode. Nahut has higher overall health and begins the phase no lower than 37% (versus 34% in Story Mode), so the overall DPS check to kill Nahut before the team runs out of room is somewhat tighter but not overly difficult with a full team.

The main area of focus in Hard Mode is minimizing damage to the group from the electrified floor. It hurts for much higher damage in Hard Mode and combined with Nahut’s very high single target burst potential on the Tank (and occasional cleave on the melee DPS), poor kiting can make the phase very difficult to heal.

Tanks should pull Nahut to the edge of each platform segment while being careful not to pull Nahut too far. Good positioning can enable the entire team to avoid any electrified floor damage.

I strongly suggest having tanks alternate their kiting to pull Nahut to the edge of one segment, then when it becomes electrified have the other tank taunt ahead of the group to pull Nahut to the next position. This enables a rapid repositioning of the group and reduces the risk of the group being cleaved or being too slow to get into position due to the slow debuff applied to players during this phase.

Here is a quick reminder of the platform segments and tanking path from Story Mode, which as stated above is the same as in Story Mode but precision in positioning is far more important.

Please see the above discussion of the Candle strategy for Story Mode. There is essentially no difference in the mechanics for Hard Mode regarding the Candle except for the following:

• Nahut’s stealth is effective on ALL players, unlike in Story Mode where Nahut is visible to players in melee range.

• Nahut’s stealth is NOT disabled during Phase 4, so a Candle rotation is necessary in all 4 phases of the encounter.

I highly suggest having 2 DPS and 2 healers in an 8 person operation group handle the Candle rotation. It avoids the risk of Nahut intercepting a Candle pass from a tank to a non-tank. Here is a quick screenshot of how we assigned roles in a prog group running Nahut in Hard Mode.

I have found the simplest way to keep track of when to use the Candle is by watching Nahut’s buff bar for the Suppression Burst buff. See above for the ability icon but it is the same as the Suppression Burst ability on your temporary ability bar. There are only a few buffs so it is fairly easy to watch via target or Focus Target. When it looks like the ability is a few seconds from expiring, use the Candle’s Suppression Burst ability then immediately pass the Candle to the next player in the Candle rotation.

Since the Suppression Burst buff lasts for 16 seconds per use and the cooldown on its use by a player is 40 seconds, then over a 4 player rotation there are potentially 24 seconds of cushion. As such, it is far better to use the Candle a few seconds earlier than trying to wait until the last possible moment.