Other Bosses

This page provides a list of summary guides and links to detailed boss fight guides for one-boss operations and notable world bosses that have operation-level difficulty.

New to Operations? Check out this guide from Swtorista to learn the basics about how to join an operations group.

The Nightmare Pilgrim (NiM Pilgrim) is a challenging world boss on the planet Voss. While the majority of world bosses can be seen roaming the landscape, the NiM Pilgrim is one of a few that is summoned by clicking on something. Many a codex-seeker has died to this fearsome boss.

The NiM Pilgrim is a two boss encounter that requires at least 12 people and preferably a full 16 person operations group. No more than 16 are allowed. The fight has some challenging mechanics that make it far more difficult than other pre-endgame world bosses, which is why I included a guide on this website.

The objective of the encounter is kill the Dog first then the Nightmare Pilgrim. A different tank should hold the Dog and Nightmare Pilgrim. After 90 seconds, the Dog will use the Enraged Gore ability and 6 seconds later begin to apply Bloodmark debuffs to players. Players with Bloodmark should swap from the Dog to the Nightmare Pilgrim until the debuff expires.

After the Dog is killed, all players should swap to the Nightmare Pilgrim. The Nightmare Pilgrim has a Recharge Shield 15 second channel that reflects damage so DPS should stop attacking while the shield is active. After the Dog is killed the encounter is very straightforward.

The group composition for Nightmare Pilgrim requires at least 12 players and preferably a full 16 person operations group. You cannot have more than 16 players due to the Nightmare Paranoia mechanic, which causes the group to take +200% damage if you have 17 or more players.

The group needs at least 2 tanks and I typically recommend 3 tanks so that 2 tanks can swap in and out on the Dog while another tank holds the Nightmare Pilgrim the entire time.

The group will want at least 3 healers or as many as four. The heal check is not too difficult generally but spike damage can be problematic especially if tanks swaps are delayed at all. I recommend 4 healers to be safe.

The strategy for this fight has the following key points:

1. All DPS focus on the Dog first. The team's overall goal is to eliminate the Dog as quickly as possible since the Bloodmark mechanic is by far the most dangerous and one bad Bloodmark phase can wipe the group. The team should open up immediately with all raid buffs, cooldowns and adrenals to maximize DPS during the first 90 seconds before Bloodmark goes out.

2. Deal with Gore / Damage Vulnerability mechanics. Gore does relatively low base damage but can cause very high spike damage if not managed. The tank on the Dog will build up stacks of Damage Vulnerability that increase the damage taken from Gore by 100% per stack. The team has a few options to deal with these mechanics, which include interrupting Gore, cycling defensive cooldowns, or a tank swap or brief DWT swap.

3. Stop all DPS on Dog when Enraged Gore is cast. Enraged Gore is a brief cast to watch for and leaves a 6 second duration buff on the Dog. As soon as Enrage Gore goes out, the team should stop all DPS. As soon as Enraged Gore expires, 8 Bloodmark debuffs will go out to the team. The team should wait until all 8 debuffs have gone out to ensure no one dies from the reflect damage.

4. Players with Bloodmark swap to the Nightmare Pilgrim. DPS who receive Bloodmark should swap to the Nightmare Pilgrim and avoid the Dog while the debuff is active. If the tank with aggro on the Dog gets Bloodmark, they should swap with a tank without Bloodmark if possible. If all tanks have Bloodmark, cycle defensives and avoid dealing damage to the Dog.

5. Repeat Bloodmark / Swap cycle until Dog dies. Depending on group DPS, you may see multiple waves of Bloodmark. Continue to ensure players allow time for Bloodmark to be applied and then sort targets accordingly.

6. After Dog dies, kill Nightmare Pilgrim. The Pilgrim is much simpler by comparison to the Dog. The only mechanic to watch for is Recharge Shields that causes a powerful reflect. Staying close to the boss will lead to being knocked back prior to the mechanic, which can be helpful to avoid accidentally hitting the reflect.

Dreadtooth is an open world boss found in Section X, the level 50 daily area on Belsavis. Dreadtooth is found walking a large circular path around a section of broken wall in the west-central area of the map.

Dreadtooth is an interesting world boss in that his difficulty and mechanics change depending on how many stacks he has of the Dreadful Resurgence buff. Dreadtooth spawns with 1 stack of Dreadful Resurgence and additional stacks can be added via the use of Dreadful Essence items that are dropped by Dreadtooth after he is defeated.

In addition to dropping Dreadful Essence, Dreadtooth also drops 1-2 Dread Guard's Corrupted Mask items and has a chance to drop the Dwedtoof pet. The Dread Guard's Corrupted Mask is a necessary item for any group attempt at the Dreadful Entity or Hateful Entity (see below).

At 1 stack, Dreadtooth is quite easy and can be killed with a small group. From 2-4 stacks, Dreadtooth is still essentially a tank-and-spank encounter but requires a larger group. Beginning at 5 stacks, it is highly recommended to have a very large group of up to 24 people (the maximum for an operations group) as Dreadtooth gains additional mechanics. The maximum is 10 stacks of Dreadful Resurgence and does not feature additional mechanics but the higher damage and overall health (combined with the enrage timer) makes the fight substantially more difficult. Most players feel that 5/10 stack Dreadtooth is comparable in difficulty and extent of mechanics to an operations boss, which is why I cover it here.

This guide summary addresses mechanics for 5/10 stack Dreadtooth. They key mechanics are as follows:

• • Drouk Hunter: This buff is applied to every player in the group within 60m of Dreadtooth when combat begins. This buff lasts 8 minutes and serves as the enrage timer. Players without Drouk Hunter will be instantly killed by Dreadtooth's attacks.

  • Cleave: Dreadtooth's basic attack is a cleave, so make sure to face him away from the group.

  • Smash: Dreadtooth periodically slams the ground and knocks all players into the air and deals damage.

  • Rock Toss: A ranged attack that deals damage and applies the Bleeding DoT (blue DoT). This DoT should be cleansed as soon as possible as it ticks for very heavy damage at 5+ stacks. At 10 stacks, this attack is usually identified as Ground Spike (Elemental) but functions similarly.

  • Rock Heave: A proximity AoE attack on the tank with aggro. This attack has a red circle below 5 stacks but is instant at 5+ stacks and is unavoidable.

  • Sonic Paralysis: A 5 second channeled attack that stuns the main tank and deals damage. This mechanic begins when Dreadtooth reaches 75% health and happens every 45s afterwards for the remainder of the fight.

  • Exhaustion: A debuff applied to the main tank that increases the damage taken by Dreadtooth's Rock Heave and Cleave attacks by 100%. A tank swap is typically needed to avoid being one shot by Rock Heave.

  • Shriek: Shriek replaces Smash at 50% and is the most damaging mechanic to the group. Shriek is a 6s channeled AoE attack that deals very high AoE damage and occurs every 30s at 5+ stacks. Shriek is followed by Electrified so players must watch its cast time very carefully.

  • Electrified: A buff applied by Shriek that lasts for 10s. This buff causes Dreadtooth to reflect damage back to the attacker and will quickly kill any players who continue attacking during this mechanic.

  • Ground Spike (High Kinetic Damage): Dreadtooth attackes various players with AoE attacks telegraphed by red circles. These deal heavy damage and should be avoided at all costs. At 5 stacks, 2 Ground Spikes go out at a time while 3 go out at a time at 10 stacks.

The general strategy for Dreadtooth at 5-10 stacks is to gather a 24m ops group with extra healers (at least 6) and 3 tanks. The DPS check to kill Dreadtooth within the 8 minute Drouk Hunter duration is challenging but not too difficult provided the group can stay alive. As such, the main goal is to minimize damage taken as it can get very high.

Tanks should position Dreadtooth around 20m from the huge wall with their backs toward it and hold Dreadtooth in place. The off-tank(s) should watch for the main tank to be knocked back after Sonic Paralysis and immediately taunt to take aggro while the first tank has the Exhaustion debuff.

DPS can mostly tunnel on Dreadtooth until he reaches 50% health. Any players with a cleanse should cleanse themselves if they get the Bleeding DoT, as it ticks for a lot of damage and can be difficult to keep cleansed given the longer cleanse time for healers now compared to when Dreadtooth was released.

When Dreadtooth reaches 50 health, the team needs to watch out for Shriek. Ideally, the team should be grouped up for Shriek for easy AoE healing as the AoE damage is very high. Teams must stop DPS at 1-2s left on Shriek to avoid reflecting damage during the 10s Electrified period that follows. This causes a sequence where the team DPS's for 20s right into Shriek, then waits 10s for Electrified, and repeats until Dreadtooth is down.

Players must continue to watch out for red circles and dodge them. If players group up for Shriek, they should spread back out during Electrified due to the proximity based AoE from Rock Toss and Ground Spike.

Toborro's Courtyard is a one boss instanced operation found on Makeb. It can be reached by traveling to the north-most island on Makeb (Archon's Estate for Republic players, Hutt Strongholds for Imperial Players). Inside the instance, the team must defeat the Golden Fury droid (often called the "Golden Bunny" or a similar sobriquet).

The fight is straightforward in Story Mode. The team must balance fighting the Golden Fury along with a repeating group of adds, interspersed with the Golden Fury blasting the lower walkway with a massive laser blast. The key mechanics to consider in Story Mode are the following:

• • Isotope-5 Containers: Destroying a container will apply an Isotope-5 buff that protects the target from Golden Fury's Isotope Release. The tank and only the tank on Golden Fury should kill these and make sure they keep this buff up at all times.

  • Frontal Cleave: Golden Fury's basic attack is a conal and should be faced towards the wall away from other team members.

  • Isotope Release: An attack used on the tank that deals very heavy damage if the tank does not have an Isotope-5 buff.

  • Massive Laser: Periodically the Golden Fury will become invulnerable, turn orange and sound alarms. This denotes the 8s cast timer for Massive Laser, after which the droid will blast the central area of the room with a huge laser blast that will oneshot anyone hit by it. The upper platforms past the stairs are safe.

  • Satellite Strike: An AoE attack targeting a random player. The attack is telegraphed by a purple circle and deals damage over a few seconds. The targeted player should move away from friendly players and Isotope-5 containers (the AoE damage can destroy Isotope-5 containers).

  • Droid Adds: Two droids add are summoned shortly after the Massive Laser attack. They spawn at the opposite end of the lower square from Golden Fury and are just in front of the fountain. Part of the group should be dedicated to destroying the droids immediately, as they deal very heavy damage.

  • Radiation Leak: Triggered when Golden Fury reaches 19%, the droid ceases its Massive Laser mechanic (and stops summoning adds) and deals low periodic AoE damage. Melee DPS can pick up Isotope-5 buffs if desired but the incremental damage in Story Mode is not really noticeable.

The basic strategy for the fight is to have a main tank hold the Golden Fury droid and face it towards the wall and away from the group. The tank should ensure they always have the Isotope-5 buff and refresh it when needed during the Massive Laser mechanic.

DPS should split evenly with one group handling the two droid adds and the rest staying on the boss. Players targeted by the Satellite Strike purple circle should move away from team members and Isotope-5 containers and use a defensive to absorb the damage.

As soon as the Golden Fury starts casting Massive Laser, everyone should immediately move up the stairs to safety.

Xenoanalyst II is the instanced operation boss that is only available during the Relics of the Gree weekly event. During this event, players can access the instance by teleporting up to the Gray Secant. Players require Newcomer reputation standing with the Gree Enclave (reputation currency for Relics of the Gree) to access the Gray Secant. However, players can receive flagship summons to the Gray Secant and access the Xenoanalyst II boss fight fight without all having the required reputation.

Xenoanalyst II ("Xeno") is a straightforward operations boss with only a few mechanics that mostly repeat in a cycle and end with a soft enrage burn phase. The boss begins as a friendly NPC and only changes to an enemy after clicking the glowing blue console in front of the boss.

Xeno begins the fight with a straightforward burn phase with minimal damage. After a short time, it begins a cycle of mechanics until it eventually reaches 20% health and triggers the soft enrage burn phase. These mechanics come in the following order:

• • Problematic Solving Equation: 90s channeled shield around Xeno making it immune to damage. The shield can be broken by clicking the six glowing purple panels around the room (at consoles near each pillar in the interior area). Each player can only click one console. Once the shield drops, this triggers AoE damage from Problematic Energy Eruption. Players can LoS this damage by hiding behind a pillar.

  • Thermal Tolerance: 10s channeled attack that applies a debuff to the tank that increases damage taken. A tank swap is not necessary in Story Mode but burst heals will be necessary to compensate for the higher damage taken.

  • Environmental Awareness: A 30s channeled mechanic by Xeno that projects an energy beam towards a Power Core around the room. Xeno is inactive during this mechanic. The mechanic is designed to force the team to destroy the Power Core during this channel. Most teams can ignore this mechanic and just focus DPS on Xeno. At the end of the 30s channel, Xeno will hit the main tank for very high single target damage if the Power Core is not destroyed.

  • Species Comparison #1: Xeno will summon a wave of adds. The first wave will generally be Akk Dogs though there is a very small chance of Jawas being summoned instead. The Species Comparison summon is immediately followed by Problematic Solving Equation / shield on Xeno.

  • Problematic Solving Equation: Xeno shields itself during the add phase again. The team should defeat the adds then break the shield by clicking panels.

  • Wave #2 (Thermal Tolerance / Environmental Awareness / Species Comparison / Problematic Solving Equation): These mechanics repeat themselves in the same fashion a second time. The second time Species Comparison goes out, 4 Terentateks will spawn and are much more dangerous in terms of single target damage. It is usually advisable for the tank to try and grab their aggro and kite on the move, while DPS burst down one at a time (primarily to avoid DPS pulling aggro on several adds and being killed).

  • Wave #3 (Thermal Tolerance / Environmental Awareness / Species Comparison / Problematic Solving Equation): These mechanics repeat themselves in the same fashion a third time. The third time Species Comparison goes out, 1 Rancor will appear. The Rancor hits very hard and needs to be kited on the move to minimize damage and DPS need to be very careful to watch if they pull aggro. If the team makes it to the Rancor then the enrage timer is a major concern.

When Xeno reaches 20% health, it shields itself and enters the soft enrage burn phase. During this phase, Xeno will continually cast Generate Urgency. This 3 cast ability will target a random player and deal very high single target damage. Tanks should use their taunts to hold aggro as often as possible and cycle through defensive cooldowns. It should be noted that one hit will usually not kill any player, so the major concern is a player getting hit once then another time before healers can heal them up. Some deaths in this phase are possible but if the entire group is alive going into this phase then Xeno should die before it has time to kill everyone.

Eyeless is the instanced operation boss available during the Rakghoul Resurgence weekly event. The instance is accessible through the Rakghoul Tunnels in the bottom right corner of the Infested Pathways area, while the Rakghoul Tunnels themselves are accessible via Solo quick travel or via the planet on which the Rakghoul Resurgence event is taking place, which rotates between Alderaan, Tatooine and Corellia.

When entering the instance, there are 4 large groups of Rakghouls around the room. I highly recommend the team moves around the area perimeter to clear out these enemies before engaging Eyeless itself. Be careful when moving to avoid aggroing Eyeless, as it wanders around the middle of the room and can get fairly close to the wall in a few places.

The Eyeless is a very straightforward boss that has a number of mechanics to observe. These are discussed here but I highly recommend players utilize the 'ping pong' method to kite Eyeless and avoid nearly all mechanics, which can be used even in Hard Mode to make the boss trivial in difficulty for nearly any group.

The key mechanics for Eyeless are as follows:

• • Infected Phlegm: Eyeless places green circles on the ground under random players. Anyone who steps into the green circle gets a stack of this debuff. The debuff itself does not deal direct damage unless a player gets too many stacks (10 in Story Mode, 5 in Hard Mode), at which point the player immediately dies. Players should avoid these green circles at all times.

  • Crush: A purple AoE attack centered around the boss that deals very high damage to anyone affected. This mechanic will usually one shot all players in Hard Mode. Players need to get out of the purple circle immediately and jump to make sure the game registers your location accurately prior to the damage triggering.

  • Pound: Eyeless' proximity based AoE attack that primarily damages the tank but may deal some splash damage to nearby melee DPS.

  • Rakghouls: Eyeless will periodically summon Rakghoul adds into the area to attack the group. These adds tend to group up on healers, so DPS should prioritize killing them over the Eyeless when/if they spawn.

Ping Pong Method

The Ping Pong method is great for simplifying the fight and when employed perfectly can avoid ALL of the mechanics outlined above.

The key to this strategy is that Eyeless will only utilize its mechanics when it is not moving. As such, if we can keep the Eyeless moving ALL THE TIME then no green/purple circles or adds will go out. The challenge to this strategy for traditional tanking is that Eyeless walks very fast. A tank could potentially keep Eyeless walking in a big circle around the room, but Eyeless moves quickly enough that it would still use its mechanics though at a reduced rate.

Enter the Ping Pong method...the basic idea is to place two tanks (DWTs can work as a tank in this scenario) at opposite ends of the room and to swap taunts to "ping pong" Eyeless back and forth so that it keeps moving at all times but never actually gets into range to attack anyone. I prefer the left wall as you enter the instance for this kiting, as there are some "plants" that make good visual markers for when to taunt.

There are a few key issues to consider to implement this strategy:

• • DPS need to wait 30s before attacking: Since tanks are doing little or no direct damage to Eyeless outside of ranged attacks (Vanguard/PT can use basic ranged attack, Guardian/Jugg can Saber Throw, etc.) and occasionally some melee attacks while following Eyeless as it runs toward the other tanks, tanks will build aggro much slower than normal. If DPS jump right in then they will very quickly pull aggro and die.

I suggest having DPS wait around 30s or so to give tanks time to ping pong Eyeless at least 3 full rotations (i.e., so each tank has taunted at least 3 times or 6 in total) before engaging. That typically gives tanks enough aggro cushion to avoid losing aggro. Due to the multiplier effect of taunts, the tanks will eventually build such a massive amount of threat that it will become impossible for DPS to pull aggro so the key is giving the tanks enough lead time.

• • Tanks need to stay in taunt range or Eyeless but out of melee range when kiting: When you have aggro, the tank should be running away from Eyeless at full speed to avoid it getting into melee range and attacking (and triggering mechanics). That said, it is important that the tank be back in taunt range when it is their turn to taunt. I usually suggest trying to taunt from around 15-20m range then running full speed away until the other tank taunts, then use a gap closer to get back into melee range and run after Eyeless while it chases the other tank until it's time for you to taunt.

  • Watch out for blue/green circles and adds: Due to the length of the fight it is likely these mechanics will happen a few times, especially green circles. Avoid any circles and kill adds ASAP if they spawn. If the green circles clutter up the kiting path too much, one tank should pivot to move Eyeless through an open area for melee DPS to move while attacking Eyeless.

The Ancient Threat only has one difficult setting as an open world secret boss. Most would evaluate its difficulty as at least Hard Mode level, though with very good tanking and cleanse strategies it can still be cleared with a 24 person group even with a decent number of folks that are relatively inexperienced.

The Ancient Threat has a very involved process for summoning the entity, which is very briefly described below. Once everyone has the necessary buffs, the Ancient Threat can be summoned. It has several key mechanics and requires very high discipline as far as tank aggro and swaps, positional awareness and avoiding cleanses except in very specific circumstances. The fight is not overly complicated but the mechanics are very punishing if not followed exactly, which can be difficult due to the server lag inherent in many 24m open world encounters with lots of graphics and AoE telegraphs.

Preparing for the Ancient Threat

Please note that this summary assumes every player will be getting the buffs to both damage the Ancient Threat and the many buffs required to summon it.

Step 1 - Tatooine Ancient Tome

Every player must locate and click on a small item called the Ancient Tome to receive the corresponding buff. Without this buff players will be unable to damage the Ancient Threat due to its Ancient Defenses buff. The Ancient Tome is located on Tatooine in the Outlaw's Den in or around one of the buildings.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Once the team begins the next series of steps on Yavin IV, they may not change instances, leave Yavin IV or log out. Any of these will result in the loss of the buffs and being unable to summon the Ancient Threat. The only buff that carries over through instance/location changes is the Tatooine Ancient Tome buff.

Step 2 - Yavin IV Sith Spirits

The next step involves the player(s) traveling throughout Yavin IV to locate 4 Sith spirits, for whom clicking on them will provide a unique buff. Clicking on a ghost will briefly stun then knock back affected players. Clicking on all 4 grants that Speaker of the Dead achievement and legacy title. The ghosts and their locations are as follows:

• • Tulak Hord: Inside the Breaking Cave roaming around the entire area. The Breaking Cave is the tunnel system that connects the most eastern-most section of Yavin IV with the middle temple area and also connects the Northern (Imperial) and Southern (Republic) areas.

  • Exar Kun: In the Temple Approach at the far north side amongst the forested area with spider webs. The ghost wanders throughout the forested area.

  • Naga Sadow: In the Temple Ruins on top of the giant temple. Players can stand on the ground directly in front of the ghost and be within range to click the ghost.

  • Marka Ragnos: In the Temple Ruins inside the caves accessible at the south part of the map. The ghost wanders throughout this area.

Step 3 - Yavin IV Sith Talismans

Next, the player(s) will need to find 4 Sith Talismans hidden in the Yavin IV area. Clicking on the Talisman will convert the Spirit buff into a different buff that is needed to summon Ancient Threat. The player(s) must have the Sith Spirit buff prior to clicking the Talisman for this to work.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Only one player should go in at a time to click the Talisman. A player being nearby when someone else clicks a Talisman is likely to remove the Sith Spirit buff and prevent them from converting theirs to the Talisman buff.

The Talismans and their location are as follows:

• • Tulak Hord: Inside a hut in the middle of the Massassi Village. It is located inside a basket just to the right after entering the hut.

  • Exar Kun: In the Southeast corner of the Verdant Swamp (most south-east section of Yavin IV) on top of a huge stone head against the rock wall.

  • Naga Sadow: In the Southeast corner of Prowler's Trail (most north-east section of Yavin IV) inside a waterfall in far bottom-right section of the map.

  • Marka Ragnos: In the Training Grounds on the Northeast corner along the upper ridge relatively close to the Imperial camp.

Step 4 - Ancient Threat

Once all the buffs are obtained, the player is ready to summon Ancient Threat. The boss is located in the Training Grounds in the far north forest area among some temple ruins. This area is along an elevated cliff that can only be accessed just north of the training grounds. At the stop of some stairs amidst the ruins is a table with a stack of skulls. One of those skulls should be clickable. Clicking the skull will summon the Ancient Threat boss. Doing so will also grant a 5th Talisman buff and complete the Talisman Collector achievement and grant the Grave Robber legacy title.

Defeating the Ancient Threat will complete the Ancient Threat No More and Master of the Beyond achievements and grant the Ancient Threat and Master of the Beyond legacy titles.

Ancient Threat Boss Fight

The Ancient Threat only has a few mechanics to consider, though these can be quite challenging. Let's briefly discuss each mechanic's effects, then discuss how this combines into an effective strategy.

• • Explosive Force: 2s cooldown ability that deals teamwide moderate damage.

  • Force Silence: 6s cooldown ability to the player with aggro that applies 1 stack of Force Whisper.

  • Force Leech: 10s cooldown ability that deals low damage and applies 1 stack of Force Leech to the 4 players closest to the boss.

  • Force Lightning: 6s cooldown ability that deals light damage to a random player.

  • Force Bolt: 6s cooldown ability that deals moderate damage to random players and typically damages several players at a time but not the entire group.

  • Force Storm: 15s cooldown ability that applies a red AoE on the nearest 8 players to Ancient Threat. After a few seconds, any player inside the red circle takes heavy damage each second.

These mechanics can largely be ignored except for the Red AOE from Force Storm and the debuffs that get applied. These debuffs are as follows:

• • Silenced: A 6s debuff applied to players that prevents the use of all abilities. Silenced is applied anytime Force Whisper is lost by any player within 60m of the player on whom either buff was removed. Note that a cleanse, purge, dying or either debuff simply expiring all count for purposes of applying the Silenced debuff.

  • Force Whisper: A 15s debuff that reduces healing received by 10% per stack.

  • Force Leech: An 60 minute duration debuff that increases AoE damage received by 10%.

Ancient Threat Strategy - Summary

The key to the Ancient Threat encounter is avoiding players getting Silenced. Silenced can potentially affect the entire group. Given the relatively high sustained damage on the tank and high AoE damage to the group, 6s of no healing is incredibly dangerous. Regular Silenced debuffs going out can cause a chain reaction where players are killed, which renews the Silenced debuff, which leads to more player deaths, etc.

The high overview is that the first tank grabs Ancient Threat while DPS do nothing initially. All players should avoid standing in red AoE circles. A tank swap happens at 3-4 stacks of Force Whisper, after which the tank who swaped off the boss runs out to >60m to a predetermined location to get a cleanse and avoid the group getting silenced. After getting cleansed, they run back to be ready for their spot in the tank rotation. This cycle repeats until the boss is defeated.

Ancient Threat Strategy - Tank Mechanics / Silenced

The really really short explanation is to watch the Youtube video linked above. It is from a Tank PoV of a recent guild kill of Ancient Threat that went amazingly smoothly. We only had 2-3 deaths and Silenced was handled very well, with none going out in the group. The only issues were a few times people were positioned too far north and got clipped by the cleanse of the tank with Force Whisper but was not hitting the overall group so wasn't a big issue.

The Silenced debuff is applied whenever a stack of Force Whisper is lost. "Lost" includes using a self-cleanse on yourself, cleansing another player, stealthing out, dying or the debuff falling off after its cooldown expires. This leads to the following key rules to avoid the group being Silenced:

• • Wait to DPS until after the first tank swap: Force Whisper goes out very quickly and it is very dangerous if a DPS pulls aggro and gets a stack of Force Whisper. Even with a tank taunting back, the DPS is left with one stack that will expire quickly and Silence the group. The main tank should open with a triple taunt rotation to maximize aggro, then after the first tank swap the DPS should be fine to engage the boss.

  • A regular tank swap at 3 stacks of Force Whisper: The tank swap needs to happen relatively quickly to keep overall stacks of Force Whisper low enough for manageable healing but high enough to give the tanks time to run out of the group for a cleanse. 3-4 stacks is ideal.

  • As each tank swaps off Ancient Threat, they must move >60m from the group to be cleansed: As soon as the tank swap takes places, the tank who swapped off the boss should run FAR AWAY to be cleansed. Our group prefers to have a healer stand at the far north of the area on the hill to cleanse. Then as long as everyone stays in the main area where Ancient Threat spawns or south of that area they should avoid any Silences.

  • No other cleanses at all within the group: This is super important. No one can cleanse or use an ability the functions as a cleanse, especially the tanks. Shadow/Assassin Resilience/Force Shroud, Guardian/Juggernaut Enure/Endure Pain, etc., need to be avoided at all costs.

  • Tanks should be very clear about communicating tanks swaps: The window to swap and run out for a cleanse is fairly tight, so it's important that tanks communicate in voice comms and clearly call out prior to a swap that one is imminent and then after taunting. Tanks need to avoid having multiple people taunt, as that can lead to a tank getting 1 stack of Force Whisper before the other tank gets aggro, and again can result in Silence going out.

If executed effectively, this should lead to a regular rotation of 3-4 tanks that hold aggro on Ancient Threat, accumulate 3-4 stacks of Force Whisper, swap with another tank, then run >60m away from the group to be cleansed, then come back. As long as the group can avoid being Silenced then the incoming damage is manageable to heal through. Failing to execute this strategy effectively will lead to a very quick wipe due to chain Silences going out.

Ancient Threat Strategy - Other Mechanics

There are some other key strategies for the group to follow to be effective:

• • Avoid red AoEs placed by Force Storm: Force Storm is used every 15 seconds and places red AoE circles under the 8 players closest to Ancient Threat. Between the 3-4 or more tanks and a few melee DPS this should result in red circles being very near the boss but few or none going out to ranged DPS or healers. The red AoE does a lot of damage so people should move out of them immediately.

  • Ranged DPS & Healers should stay grouped up: Assuming that at least 8 players will be near melee range of the boss between tanks, melee DPS and a healer staying close to tanks, it should be safe for Ranged DPS and healers to group up. If any red AoEs go out to this group, avoid grouping up to be safe.

  • Melee DPS need to be very careful with positioning: As noted above, lots of red circles go out. It is more important to avoid damage than maximize DPS so it is fine to have some DPS downtime to avoid standing in red AoEs.

  • Avoid moving Ancient Threat except to move out of Red AoEs: A common misconception for tanks is that they need to continually kite Ancient Threat. This is not true as all abilities have a very long range. Move Ancient Threat to get out of red Force Storm AoE but otherwise minimize boss movement. This should lead to a pattern where Ancient Threat is moved every 15s when a new wave of Force Storm red AoEs go out.

The Colossal Monolith is an instanced solo operations boss located on Ziost. In Story Mode there is no advance preparation required, while in Hard Mode a team must defeat the Worldbreaker Monolith (the non-instanced open world boss) to obtain a necessary buff prior to fighting the Colossal Monolith.

The Monolith encounter is primarily focused on avoiding high group damage. The DPS check is not challenging and tank mechanics are straightforward. Really strong healers make a big difference in this fight but the team must do its part to avoid the group taking very high damage by executing mechanics. The key to most mechanics requires positioning and situational awareness to position the boss correctly out of Rifts, avoid Siphon Energy or Lingering Destruction damage, make sure only one player is hit with Terrible Shout, and lastly to quickly pick up buffs and use them to interrupt the Siphon Energy cast.

Key Mechanics

The key mechanics to consider include the following:

• • Swipe: Monolith's basic single target attack on the tank. No special mechanics.

  • Great Slam: Monolith's basic AoE team wide attack. The attack has a 20s timer, so any attempts at stealth revivals during combat should look for this damage as a trigger to make a rez attempt.

  • Rifts: Purple rifts are scattered throughout the area other than a large open space in the middle. The group should avoid stepping into them as they apply the Rift Touched debuff that reduces healing received by 50% and movement speed by 90%. The tank should avoid letting Monolith stand in the rifts, as doing so applies a Rift Touched buff to Monolith to increase its damage by 10% and damage reduction by 10% (note these increase to 50% for each in Hard Mode).

  • Bite Wounds: Monolith uses this attack every 18-20s and it has a 1.5s cast timer. The attack knocks back the target and applies the Bite Wounds debuff. This debuff lasts 30 seconds, can stack and reduces armor by 10% per stack and deals stacking DoT damage every 2s. If a player reaches 4 stacks of Bite Wounds, they also get the Ouch debuff that reduces damage dealt by 75% and movement speed by 25% (these increase to 90% and 70% in Hard Mode, respectively). This mechanic forces a tank swap, typically at 2-3 stacks.

  • Siphon Energy: Monolith uses this ability every 15s. It places a white circle under each player that will explode in 4s dealing damage and stunning any player caught in it.

  • Lingering Destruction: Every 30s or so a random player will receive the Lingering Destruction orange debuff. This debuff lasts for 20s and causes the player to drop 10 orange circles in succession under their feet over that time (1 circle every 2s). These circles are highly damaging and should be avoided and kited to a wall if possible.

  • Terrible Shout: Every 20s or so Monolith will target a random player with Terrible Shout, which is a 3s cast ability with a very large white conal telegraph centered on the targeted player. When the cast completes, every player caught in the conal telegraph receives the Terrible Shout DoT that deals heavy damage for 10s.

  • Ancient Energy Buffs: Every 70s or so four circles will spawn at fixed locations around the room, along with a raid announcement that "The Monolith has exposed ancient energies of Ziost." These circles will have no color for a few seconds then will settle into either a Red, Green, Yellow or Purple circle. The location of each colored circle will be the same each time this mechanic takes place.

The Ancient Energy buff circles last for 25s and apply a buff to the first player who steps into the circle. Each player can only pick up one buff. The buffs applied are:

• • • • Red / Forceful Ancient Energy: +20% damage dealt, a DPS should pick up

      • Green / Mighty Ancient Energy: -15% damage received, a tank should pick up

      • Yellow / Dominant Ancient Energy: +15 healing done and received, a healer should pick up

      • Purple / Potent Ancient Energy: +10% energy regeneration, a healer or Tech DPS should pick up

Immediately after the circles disappear, Monolith will target a random Rift and begin Breaking the Rift.

• • Breaking the Rift / Destruction of All: After the Ancient Energy buff circles disappear, Monolith will target a random Rift (will be noted as the purple energy will become brighter and more intense) and move towards it. Once it reaches the Rift, it will channel Breaking the Rift for 20s. During this time, a telegraph on the rift will be split into four quadrants with one corresponding to each color (Red, Green, Yellow, Purple). The channel deals heavy AoE damage and can be interrupted by 2 players with buffs running into the corresponding colored quadrant.

If Monolith completes its Breaking the Rift channel, it will be buffed and begin spamming Destruction of All that deals very heavy damage.

Strategy

The overall strategy is relatively simple but requires a fairly high level of positional awareness and coordinated movement for a Story Mode difficulty operation encounter. Dead DPS do not DPS so the name of the game for this fight is avoiding damage. The key strategic goals for the group are as follows:

• • Tank Monolith in the middle of the room. Keeping the Monolith in the middle of the room is important to avoid either the tank or the Monolith standing in a Rift. The Rift Touched debuff is far more dangerous to tanks (-50% healing received) or for Monolith to stand in it (+10% damage / damage resistance) than for DPS or healers. When Bite Wounds knocks the tank back or after Breaking the Rift, they should reposition Monolith. Since the only conal attack is Terrible Shout that is random, there is no particular reason to care about the direction Monolith is facing outside that mechanic.

  • Tank swap at 2-3 stacks of Bite Wounds. The armor reduction applied by Bite Wounds is negligible but the Ouch debuff should be avoided. As such, a second tank or a DWT should taunt at 3 stacks of Bite Wounds.

  • Group should stay relatively close together near the boss for AoE healing. As noted, the only conal attack is Terrible Shout that is randomly targeted so there is no particular reason not to stand near the boss. Standing close also makes it easier to dodge Terrible Shout as being closer to the boss requires less movement to get out of the cleave. It also keeps Siphon Energy circles stacked so much more room is available to dodge them. The only caveat for this strategy is it makes dodging Siphon Energy and the player with Lingering Destruction identifying it and moving away VERY important.

  • Avoid Siphon Energy white AoE circles. Siphon Energy is a simple mechanic but it goes out quite often. Players simply need to move out of the white circle immediately even if it means interrupting a cast.

  • Player targeted by Terrible Shout does NOT move. Terrible Shout is the most dangerous mechanic for most groups. It is super important that only the player targeted gets the Terrible Shout DoT due it dealing very heavy damage. Clipping half or more of the group with Terrible Shout will be impossible to consistently heal through. The key to this mechanic is using Target of Target to identify who is being targeted by the conal, with that person staying still while all others move out of the conal.

  • Player targeted by Lingering Destruction drops circles near the wall. Lingering Destruction is not super dangerous but is easy to lose track of amongst the conals, white circles, colored circles, etc. I suggest the affected player move towards the wall to drop the orange circles where other players will be less likely to inadvertently step into them while avoiding other positional mechanics.

  • The same 4 players should pick up Ancient Energy buffs. As the positioning for colored circles is consistent, the simplest approach is to have the same 4 players get the buffs each time. A DPS should always grab Red, a Tank should get Green, a Healer for Yellow, and then anyone other than a tank can grab Purple. I usually recommend a healer grab Purple as the fight is primarily a heal check so any buff to healing is helpful.

  • Interrupt Breaking the Rift as quickly as possible. This mechanic deals very high AoE damage and should be interrupted quickly. The timing is very predictable as it follows 25s after the colored circles come out. I suggest players with buffs stand relatively close to Monolith during this time (see the comment above about staying close for AoE healing). This means as soon as Monolith picks a Rift to channel, the group will be right with it and can use movement buffs to get there at the same time to break the channel within a few seconds.

The Hive Queen encounter is an instanced boss operation encounter available on Ossus. The operation instance has a number of add encounters on the way to the boss, has 4 Lost Ossan Relics hidden that can be obtained for a hidden achievement, and an unlockable shortcut to the boss.

The Hive Queen is very straightforward in Story Mode and many mechanics can be ignored or healed/DPS'd through as compared to Hard Mode that is much more demanding of group positional awareness.

Key Mechanics

The Hive Queen's mechanics relate to a couple of mechanics specific to her and then a series of adds that spawn during the fight and each have notable abilities/mechanics. They are as follows:

• • Growth Hormone: A 1s cast ability by Hive Queen that is used periodically to refresh the eggs in the room. In Story Mode, this turns 1 egg red and regenerates any destroyed eggs as blue eggs.

  • Pheromonic Blast: A 4s cast ability by Hive Queen that targets a random player with a very large outer yellow circle and a large (but much smaller) red circle. When the cast ends, players inside the yellow circle take damage and players inside the red circle receive the Toxic Pheromone Coating DoT (ticks every 3s for 15s, can be cleansed). Any eggs hit by the yellow circle are advanced 1 stage and any eggs hit by the red circle are broken and hatch an add. See the Egg Strategy discussion below.

  • Kick Out: Hive Queen punts the tank a long distance and resets aggro.

  • Royal Summons: A 3s cast by Hive Queen that alternates between summoning 2 Royal Guard adds and 2 Caustic Drone adds, beginning with 2 Royal Guards.

  • Rallying Call: A 30s cast ability by Hive Queen that follows Royal Summons each time 2 Royal Guards are spawned. During this time, the Hive Queen is inactive as well as for a short time after Rallying Call while the Hive Queen is then affected by Rallying Call Recovery.

  • Bantling Lacerator: Adds that spawn from Blue eggs. Lacerators deal very little damage and should only be killed via DoT spread abilities as discussed under Strategy.

  • Geonosian Berserkers: Berserkers spawn from Red eggs. They glow red to distinguish them from Lacerators. They use a cleave attack called Reave that places a stackable Reft DoT (ticks every 3s for 18s, is cleansable) that deals very high damage. These adds are very dangerous even in Story Mode.

  • Royal Guards: 2 Royal Guards are spawned every other Royal Summons by the Hive Queen. These adds are quite large and spawn from opposite sides of the platform. Their main abilities are Guarded (buff applied to Hive Queen that reduce damage taken/dealt and movement speed by 50%, with 2 Royal Guards those stack to 100%) and Cleaving Strike. Cleaving Strike is a cleave that is used every 9s that can be used to destroy eggs without hatching adds.

  • Caustic Drones: Caustics spawn every other Royal Summons. They spawn in pairs on one side of the platform and do not move. They attack players with a ranged Caustic Blast attack that placed a Caustic Acid DoT (ticks every 3s for 12s, cannot be cleansed) on the target. The attack is a proximity AoE attack and if it clips an egg it will apply the DoT to the egg and likely destroy it without spawning an add.

  • Enrage: The soft enrage begins @ 4 minutes with Pheromonic Multi Blast that causes multiple big circles to go out at a time. At 6:30 minutes Save the Queen begins to be used that spawns adds in a larger radius. At 7:45 minutes the boss actually enrages via Royal Indignation.

Strategy

The overall strategy to this fight is all about maximizing DPS, as high enough DPS can significantly reduce group damage by killing things quickly. With a strong healer, it is viable to set up an 8-person group with 1 tank, 1 healer and 6 DPS. (Notably, this strategy can also be employed in Hard Mode with great success.)

The key strategic goals for the fight are as follows:

• • Stack on the Hive Queen and use DoT spread to kill Lacerators. This is key and overall the most important element to a successful kill of Hive Queen. It can be really tempting to swap targets to kill the many many adds that spawn. Lacerators deal very little damage and should be largely ignored. They will come to the group near Hive Queen and can be killed via rotational AoE splash damage and DoT spread. Very high DPS on Hive Queen will make this fight be very easy, so it is critical that every DPS be targeting Hive Queen as their main target as much as possible.

  • Tank should retaunt as needed to hold Hive Queen. The Hive Queen's Kick Out ability will punt the tank and reset aggro, so retaunt as needed to hold aggro. A DPS getting aggro on Hive Queen is usually not a big deal for a short time, though.

  • Move the Pheromonic Blast Yellow/Red circle out of the group. The huge yellow circle deals very low damage in Story Mode but the inner red circle applies an annoying DoT, so the player targeted should move out of the group. If possible, try to avoid clipping any red circles to minimize the chance of Berserkers spawning.

  • Ranged DPS should burst down any Berserkers (red adds) that spawn. If a Berserker spawns, ranged DPS should swap target and burst it down. Ignoring a Berserker is dangerous as it will cleave the group and apply a stacking DoT. If no ranged DPS are available, another option is to have one melee DPS leap out to it and kill it. By holding it out of the group they will be the only person getting the DoT stacks and can be periodically cleansed at 4-5 stacks and burst healed through the damage.

  • Swap DPS to kill Royal Guards or Caustic Drones when they spawn after Royal Summons. The Hive Queen receives 100% damage resistance while 2 Royal Guards are alive, so DPS should swap to them and kill them before coming back to the boss. The Caustics should still generally be focused down but is somewhat less critical. If the group has any Shadow/Assassin tanks or any Vanguard/Powertech players, a great strategy is to pull both in near the Hive Queen for convenient AoE splash / DoT spread damage.

  • (Bonus) If possible, kite Royal Guards' Cleaving Strike or Caustic Drones' Caustic Acid to kill red eggs. Berserkers are not super dangerous in Story Mode but eliminating the red eggs is still helpful to allow for higher uptime of DPS on the boss. Each Royal Guard phase the team should be able to destroy a few eggs so try to kite the Guards near red eggs if possible (DWT and tanks can use taunts to force the desired positioning). Kiting Caustic spit is somewhat tougher. One advanced strategy for Caustics is to let healers aggro them for a brief time and kite the Acid spit onto red eggs, then signal DPS to kill them.

  • (If necessary) Stack on Hive Queen during soft enrage and focus DPS on boss while using DoT spread to kill waves of adds. This strategy is not necessary in Story Mode but is helpful and good practice for Hard Mode. Berserkers are dangerous if ignored and take valuable time for DPS to kill via single target damage when they could instead by attacking Hive Queen.

The Dreadful Entity only has one difficult setting and is found within the Terror From Beyond operation in Hard / Veteran Mode. As such, it should be viewed as a challenging Hard / Veteran Mode boss encounter.

The Dreadful Entity requires some advance preparation but is overall a fairly simple boss in terms of mechanics and strategy. The requirements for positioning are very important but otherwise should be easy for an experienced group. The boss' damage profile weights very heavily against melee DPS, so a group with a higher proportion of ranged DPS will find it easier to keep incoming damage as low as possible.

Preparation

Some advance prep is necessary before a group can reach, summon and defeat the Dreadful Entity. The follow steps must be followed:

• • Every team member must obtain a Corrupted Mask. The Corrupted Mask applies a a Dreadful Guard buff to the player. Without this buff, the player will be instantly killed by Dreadful Entity's Dread Touch attack.

  • At least one team member must possess a Dreadful Amulet. The Dreadful Amulet drops from Dreadtooth at 10 stacks and is required to summon Dreadful Entity. Be aware that the item has a 24 hour cooldown timer after being used.

  • The team should defeat the Writhing Horror and Dreadguards in 16m Hard Mode. The kiting path for Dreadful Entity involves backtracking from the bridge near the Dread Guards nearly all the way back towards the Writhing Horror building. As such, it is advisable to clear those bosses to avoid adds. Killing the Dread Guards but not Operator IX is also helpful as the speeder will take you almost directly to the Dreadful Entity cave.

The team will need to farm Dreadtooth to obtain a Corrupted Mask for everyone and at least 1 Dreadful Amulet. The most efficient way to farm masks is to us 2 Dreadful Essence to fight Dreadtooth at 3 stacks, where he usually drops 2 masks at a time and typically gives 2-3 Essences.

The Dreadful Amulet is only dropped by Dreadtooth at 10 stacks. The Amulet has a 24 hour cooldown timer after being used, so for safety's sake it is advisable either to farm multiple Amulets or to obtain an Amulet immediately before fighting Dreadful Entity. The Amulet drop from Dreadtooth has a 2 hour bind timer, so during this time a player can summon Dreadful Entity, then after either a kill or a wipe that player can trade the Amulet to another player and can re-summon Dreadful Entity. This strategy is highly suggested as advance preparation for fighting Hateful Entity to farm Dreadful Orbs that drop from Dreadful Entity.

The summoning point for the Dreadful Entity is in a cave just prior to reaching the Dread Guards. The quickest way to reach it is to load into Asation, take the speeder that drops you just in front of the jump down to the Dread Guards, then go backwards over the bridge.

The person with the Dreadful Amulet will need to enter the cave and a healer or two (preferably a Sage/Sorcerer due to their pull ability) should be below the bridge, but everyone else will want to wait in the open area on the North side of the bridge to begin the fight.

Key Mechanics

Dreadful Entity only has a few mechanics to consider that result in a simple strategy, albeit one that is very punishing to mistakes:

• • Ancient Slumber: Reduces damage taken by 10% per stack. Dreadful Entity begins with 8 stacks of Ancient Slumber (+80% DR).

  • Ancient Wrath: Increases damage dealt by 5% per stack. Dreadful Entity begins with 0 stacks but can add up to 15 stacks (+75% damage).

  • Dreadful Awakening: 2s cast ability used every 30s. Dreadful Awakening reduces stacks of Ancient Slumber by 1 and increases stacks of Ancient Wrath by 1. This causes Dreadful Entity to take and deal more damage as the fight goes on.

  • Lingering Shock: 30s stackable debuff that increases damage taken from Shock by 2% per stack up to a maximum of 20 stacks / 40% extra damage.

  • Dreadful Pulse: 15s cooldown AoE knockback, applies 1 stack of Pulse Guard each time it is used.

  • Dread Touch: Massive single target knockback, instantly kills affected player if not wearing a Corrupted Mask. Dread touch tends to go out around every 10-12s.

  • Dread Touched: Debuff applied after getting targeted by Dread Touch, prevents player from being targeted by Dread Touch for its 2:40 minute duration.

  • Dreadful Void: AoE pulsing lightning damage. A Dreadful Void is dropped approximately every 10s.

  • Pulse Guard: Reduces the damage from Dreadful Void by 5% per stack up to a maximum of 10 stacks / 50%. Applied by Dreadful Pulse.

  • Shock: Dreadful Entity's single target basic attack on the player with aggro.

Strategy

The overall goal for fighting Dreadful Entity is very simple: do not stand in lightning or get knocked back into lightning. Teams that can do this effectively should have minimal difficulty in defeating Dreadful Entity, but mistakes in positioning can rapidly devolve into a group wipe without solid coordination and communication.

The key elements to a successful strategy are as follows:

• • Do not fight Dreadful Entity under the bridge. The water area to the east as one exits the cave and goes around to the enclosed area is dangerous. Players getting punted by Dread Touch into the lake will likely die. For this reason, I recommend having a player summon the boss then use a combination of Sage/Sorc pulls and movement abilities to immediately run around the corner. All players other than the summoner, Sage/Sorc puller(s) and 1 healer should stay in the courtyard area just past the codex entry. No one should attack Dreadful Entity until the tank has aggro and has the boss positioned as desired.

  • Tank swap around 5-6 stacks of Lingering Shock. It is possible to solo tank Dreadful Entity but it will involve taking significantly higher damage once one reaches 20 stacks of Lingering Shock. Shadow/Assassin tanks can use defensive cooldowns with good timing to solo tank and let stacks drop off. For example, using a tactical to extend Resilience/Force Shroud and using it just before a new stack is applied can (with good luck) enable one to skip a debuff application and cause the debuff to expire. However, it is much simpler to have two tanks and swap round 5-6 stacks to keep overall damage as low as possible.

  • Do not stand in Dreadful Voids. This is obvious but needs to be said. Standing in Dreadful Voids is by far the most common cause of death. Tanks need to immediately move the boss when it drops a Void. Melee DPS need to be standing on the side away from current Voids as close to max melee range as possible to minimize/avoid damage from Voids.

  • Be VERY careful about Dreadful Voids during the first 2.5 minutes. The Dreadful Entity fight is usually a 9-10 minute fight. In the early goings of the fight the group can take very high damage from Dreadful Voids. Once players reach 8-10 stacks of Pulse Guard, it is a bit safer due to the 50% DR buff. Early on in the fight Melee DPS need to be super careful to not die. It is also worth noting that due to the boss' stacks of Ancient Slumber the boss takes far less damage early on anyway, so that the trade-off isn't that big to overall time to kill regardless.

  • Kite Dreadful Entity against a wall and in one steady direction back towards the entrance. Tanks should kite Dreadful Entity along the outer wall of the courtyard below the bridge, in a counter clockwise direction beginning from the wall near the codex entry. I prefer to avoid the stairs and kite along the wall in front of the stairs leading up to the bridge. Work your way back to the stairs leading North back towards the elevated level with various add encounters and heading back towards the caves. Most groups will kill Dreadful Entity in the open area near the caves.

  • Always be AHEAD of the boss. All players at ALL TIMES should be positioned so that they will not be killed by either Dread Touth (massive single target knockback) or Dreadful Pulse (moderate AoE knockback). NEVER STAND WITH YOUR BACK TO A DREADFUL VOID / LIGHTNING PUDDLE. Both knockbacks stun your briefly, which will kill you if you land in lightning. You should always stand ahead of the tanks' kiting path, so that the worst that happens when you get knocked back is you land out of range and have to run back.

The Hateful Entity only has one difficult setting and is found within the Scum & Villainy operation in Nightmare / Master Mode. As such, it should be viewed as an exceptionally challenging Nightmare / Master Mode boss encounter. Defeating Hateful Entity grants the Eternal Warrior title and drops several Crest of the Masters armor pieces (i.e., head armor pieces that are essentially replicas of the Dread Master masks).

Preparation

Some advance prep is necessary before a group can reach, summon and defeat the Hateful Entity. The follow steps must be followed:

• • Every team member must obtain a Corrupted Mask. The Corrupted Mask applies a a Dreadful Guard buff to the player. Without this buff, the player will be instantly killed by Dreadful Entity's Dread Touch attack. These masks drop from defeating Dreadtooth, the Section X daily area open world boss.

  • At least one team member must possess a Dreadful Orb. The Dreadful Orb drops from Dreadful Entity ,the secret boss in Hard/Veteran Mode Terror From Beyond. Summoning Dreadful Entity itself requires a Dreadful Amulet that is obtained by defeating Dreadtooth with 10 stacks.

  • The team should defeat at least Dash'roode and Titan 6 in Nightmare/Master Mode Scum & Villainy. The Hateful Entity is located inside Nightmare/Master Mode Scum & Villainy in the alcove atop the stairs in the cave path in between Titan 6 and Thrasher, so clearing Dash'roode and Titan 6 is mandatory. I suggest getting a full clear of Nightmare/Master Mode S&V if possible, as any wipes of Hateful Entity will cause players to respawn at random locations throughout the map, including right in the middle of mobs or in aggro range of remaining bosses.

So, simply reaching Hateful Entity requires (1) a 16 person team farming 16 masks from Dreadtooth; (2) killing Dreadtooth at least once with 10 stacks to obtain a Dreadful Amulet; (3) clearing the first two bosses of TFB in Hard/Veteran Mode; (4) defeating Dreadful Entity at least once to obtain a Dreadful Orb; and (5) clearing the first two bosses of S&V in Nightmare/Master Mode.

The summoning point for the Hateful Entity is in the cave path in between Titan 6 and Thrasher. In the large cave area midway through the path, a long partly broken stairway leads up to a small room with more adds. The Hateful Entity spawns in that room.

The person with the Dreadful Orb will need to enter the room and use the Orb. Doing so will spawn a Hateful Presence that channels Consuming Hatred for 15s. After the channel concludes, the Hateful Presence will despawn and the Hateful Entity will appear.

Key Mechanics

Hateful Entity has very similar mechanics to Dreadful Entity with 2 new and very dangerous mechanics. Also, the more confined space in the caves makes the overall encounter much more difficult due to greatly limited range of safe places to stand. Hateful Entity also has a hard enrage timer at 8 minutes that will auto-wipe the group if not killed by that time.

The key mechanics for Hateful Entity are as follows below. It is important to note that most of these mechanics are very similar to Dreadful Entity except for Death Mark and Grapple.

• • Enrage: Hateful Entity enrages in 8 minutes, which corresponds to how long it takes to reach 15 stacks of Ancient Wrath.

  • Death Mark: 2s cast ability used every 60s beginning 30s after Hateful is spawned. Death Mark applies a debuff to 8 random players similar to Death Mark in HM or NiM Dread Palace, where the debuff kills the player if it expires without being cleansed. The debuffs consist of 2 each of the following:

    • • Imminent Death (Skull icon): 5s duration

      • Approaching Death (Body icon): 7s duration

      • Looming Death (Head icon): 10s duration

      • Expected Death (Mummy icon): 13s duration

  • Hateful Awakening: 3s cast ability used every 30s. Hateful Awakening reduces stacks of Ancient Slumber by 1 and increases stacks of Ancient Wrath by 1. This causes Hateful Entity to take and deal more damage as the fight goes on.

  • Ancient Slumber: Reduces damage taken by 10% per stack. Hateful Entity begins with 8 stacks of Ancient Slumber (+80% DR).

  • Ancient Wrath: Increases damage dealt by 5% per stack. Hateful Entity begins with 0 stacks but can add up to 15 stacks (+75% damage). Hateful Entity also enrages at 15 stacks / 8 minutes.

  • Dread Touch: Instant ability used every 10-12s. Massive single target knockback, instantly kills affected player if not wearing a Corrupted Mask.

  • Dread Touched: Debuff applied after getting targeted by Dread Touch, prevents player from being targeted by Dread Touch for its 2:40 minute duration.

  • Hate Pulse: 15s cooldown AoE knockback, applies 1 stack of Pulse Guard each time it is used.

  • Hateful Void: Instant ability used every 10s that drops a red lightning puddle that ticks for very high AoE damage.

  • Grapple: Instant ability used every 20s. The grapple pulls in 8 players to the Hateful Entity's location.

  • Lingering Shock: 30s stackable debuff that increases damage taken from Shock by 2% per stack up to a maximum of 20 stacks / 40% extra damage.

  • Shock: Instant basic attack ability used on the player with aggro.

Strategy

The strategy for Hateful Entity is very similar to Dreadful Entity with a few key exceptions. Please see the strategy discussion for Dreadful Entity as nearly all those mechanics are similar. Below are the strategic elements are that are different or unique to the Hateful Entity encounter:

• • Engage potato graphics. The graphics can be difficult on many computers for some reason and the dark lighting can make identifying positioning excessively difficult. As such, I recommend turning on very low graphics settings to improve visibility.

  • Solo tank Hateful Entity if possible. Since the DPS check can be very challenging for Hateful Entity, it is preferable to solo tank if possible. Skilled tanks can use defensive cooldowns just before a new stack of Lingering Shock is applied to avoid gaining a new stack until the accumulated stacks fall off. Regardless, it is generally preferable to just heal through the damage since it isn't that high as compared to the AoE damage and the kiting requirements are so tight that tank swaps are generally not practical.

  • Bring as many classes with self-cleanses as possible. Death Mark goes out to 8 players at a time. The Classic Encounter buff is applicable for this fight so cleanses have a reduced cooldown, but coordinating cleanses can be very difficult while keeping up very heavy healing. If at all possible, try to ensure nearly everyone can cleanse themselves each time Death Mark goes out. This strategy requires keeping the number of Vanguard/Powertechs and Gunslinger/Snipers to a relative minimum - these classes are fine to bring as they offer great DPS and utility (Sonic Rebounder and the Slinger/Sniper shield are amazing group defensive abilities) but don't bring too many.

  • Cleanse priority / rotation is critical to ensure no deaths to Death Mark. This differs from team to team, but make sure everyone understands how to provide cleanses to players that need them if they cannot self cleanse. A strict requirement of classes that can self cleanse is that they should do so.

  • The tank must pull Hateful Entity INTO the group after every other Hateful Void. This is the most complicated aspect of Hateful Entity kiting. A Hateful Void goes out every 10s and a Grapple happens every 20s but these are staggered. The Grapple pulls 8 random players to the Hateful Entity's location exactly midway between every other Hateful Void. If the group gets players pulled into the Hateful Void most will die. Thus, the pattern should go Hateful Void -> +10s Hateful Void -> (kite into group for pull) -> +5s Grapple pull-in -> (kite back to near Void -> +5s Hateful Void -> +10s Hateful Void -> repeat kiting

  • All players should generally stand beside Hateful Entity perpendicular to kiting path with backs to a wall. This positioning informs how everyone other than the tank should position themselves and the overall kiting pattern for Hateful Entity other than Grapple. The Grapple typically pulls players to Hateful Entity but due to elevation changes in the tunnels players can be tossed past Hateful if they are higher than Hateful when Grapple is used. As such, standing to the side of Hateful ensures you are never thrown into a Hateful Void. By putting your backs to a wall at all times, this similarly ensures that Hateful Pulse (AoE knockback) and Dread Touch (single target knockback) have minimal effect and cause minimal downtime on DPS or healing.

  • The kiting path is VERY complicated and difficult. Due to the Grapple, Hateful Pulse and Dread Touth mechanics and the very tight tunnels and enrage DPS check, kiting is far more difficult and specific than Dreadful Entity. This is easier to see visually via a map (which will be provided when the detailed guide is prepared) but here is a brief summary of the overall kiting that allows for sufficient space to kite Hateful Entity through its entire enrage timer:

    • • Hold Hateful Entity in the small room for 1 Void in the back corner of the small room and another in the front opposite corner.

      • Kite Hateful down the stairs for around 3 Voids.

      • Drop 1 Void while moving to the back South wall (will be to your left going DOWN the stairs)

      • Kite Hateful along the back South to drop 3-4 Voids

      • (Here is the tricky part) Immediately after the 3rd or 4th Void, run all the way down the tunnel towards the Sarlacc pit and reposition Hateful at the end of that tunnel. Then kite Hateful back down the tunnel back towards the cavern where you were previously. This is done so that you can utilize the tunnel to drop Voids but players don't risk walking into them. If done well, you should be able to drop 6-7 Voids coming back up the tunnel and back in the cavern.

      • Kite Hateful along the bottom of the stairs while DPS/healers put their backs to the North wall. You should be able to drop 4-5 Voids until you reach the East wall.

      • Kite Hateful North up the tunnel back towards the Titan 6 encounter area (the gate is closed). You should be able to drop 13-14 Voids until you reach the gate. Around the time you reach the gate Hateful Entity should be at 14 stacks of Ancient Wrath and nearly to enrage.