Harvest Temple (CM)

Enrage: Expanding Void AoEs. During each Dragon phase, the squad has two minutes before the platform is fully covered.
Required: A subgroup-wide or , low-cooldown boon rip, heavy crowd control

This Strike Mission always takes place at Night.

Introduction

Harvest Temple’s Challenge Mode, without question, is the hardest PvE encounter in Guild Wars 2. However, if every squad member focuses on self-improvement both when tackling the encounter with their group and on their own time, almost every player can become capable enough to take on the Dragonvoid’s most powerful incarnation.

This guide, while aiming to be comprehensive within reason, is targeted at helping out groups aiming to clear Harvest Temple CM for the first time. There are many strategies, build choices, and compositions available to players when squad DPS, communication, and mechanical mastery are advanced enough, but in order to keep the guide as focused as possible, we will leave outlining those strategies to other community websites and resources.

The basic skeleton of the encounter from Normal Mode is still present, with only a single attack from NM being replaced across the entire fight. We assume some familiarity with the encounter’s base mechanics in this guide; if you need a refresher, check out our guide here.

Group and Mindset Prerequisites

A group of ten players new to the encounter can easily take over a month of progression in order to defeat the Dragonvoid; be prepared to spend at least two hours on the fight each day the group is meeting up. The social component of this encounter cannot be understated; if players in the group are at odds with each other from the start, or if players clam up when things go wrong, progression might be doomed before it even begins!

• Voice communication, through apps like Discord, is a hard requirement for progression groups. All players should have microphones and be willing to speak up, even if only rarely.
• Squad leaders should make sure expectations on how seriously progression is being taken are communicated clearly to all players.
  • A half-hearted or very casual approach to progression, more than any other encounter in the game, is not conducive to getting even close to a kill, which can lead to frustration if players’ expectations are not aligned with this approach.
• Individual skill is tested heavily across the entire encounter: most mechanics will either instantly down or defeat any player that fails them, so any single player that is consistently not performing up to snuff cannot ‘hide’ like they may be able to on other encounters.
  • Every player must be vocal about owning up to their mistakes, so that the group’s collective brainpower can come up with solutions and progression can actually occur. This can feel really bad in the moment, but remember that you’re all on the same team at the end of the day!
• A common progression trap is the handling of substitute players, leading to many wasted hours having to constantly rotate players and bring them up to speed. If possible, squad leaders should look for experienced players to fill any empty slots on a given day.
• Once the squad settles on which players are going where, they should do it in the same fashion every pull, especially when substitute players are added to the equation; a large amount of unnecessary tedium and frustration can be avoided if the squad tightens up the first few phases of the encounter as soon as possible!
  • It can be helpful for organization to have a document or spreadsheet for your group outlining which players go where during each phase of the encounter.

Gear Prerequisites

All players in the squad should have, to the best of their abilities, optimal gear for their build. Sub-1% wipes on the final phase of the encounter are not uncommon, especially in progression groups. Gear does matter here!

• Having Ascended gear equipped in all slots is essentially a minimum requirement as (relative to HT CM) it’s not difficult to obtain from most PvE content.
• Equipping stat infusions, for DPS builds in particular, should be a serious consideration in order to maximize one’s effectiveness.
• The Jade Bot Core: Tier 10 grants all classes an extra 235 Vitality; all players should have one equipped on all characters they use on this encounter, along with the effect from an Anvil.
• Almost all builds played on this encounter will benefit greatly from some changes to traits, utility skills, and/or gear from the standard setups suggested on Hardstuck or on other community websites, most importantly Superior Sigil of the Night and Superior Sigil of Bloodlust for DPS builds, with rune changes to match like Superior Rune of the Eagle in order to reach crit cap.

Squad Composition and Builds

As with most instanced PvE encounters, the squad’s two subgroups should have three DPS players, one source, and one source, with one of those boon supports being a healer. Players should be confident with the classes and builds that they’re playing on, and have experience using them on real encounters.

Although most builds that are viable on other encounters will work here, the fight has some unique considerations that make certain builds shine and others falter.

For example, on this encounter, power damage is king:

1. The Dragonvoid’s various incarnations all have decreased Toughness (456 less than the average boss), and therefore take about 21% more power damage,
2. Many phases begin with a group of adds that should be killed quickly, favoring the bursty nature of most power builds,
3. The short ‘timer’ of two minutes per boss and the many mechanical interruptions that lower damage uptime weaken builds with slow damage ramp-up.

With all of these points in mind, we do not recommend condition damage builds for any of the squad’s dedicated DPS players on this encounter. Common choices for DPS classes include Bladesworns, Soulbeasts, Vindicators,  Weavers, and Reapers.

Furthermore, at least two non-support players, almost always Virtuosos, will have to take a Green during many of the boss phases of the fight, so many groups will put these players into a semi-supportive role and have them bring fight-specific utility such as Stealth and portals over their DPS-increasing utility skills.

The strategies in this guide will assume that at least two Virtuosos are present and are bringing portals.

The squad’s healers will be Kiting the Void Pools that are present through many of the encounter’s phases, so they must be able to heal players from afar and have enough Boon Duration to keep key boons active on the group while they are away. Due to these requirements and the incredible utility the build provides for key fight mechanics, Mechanist is by far the most common choice for a healer on this encounter.

The strategies in this guide will assume your squad is running two Heal Alacrity Mechanists, which we will abbreviate from now on as HAM.

Lastly, the boon/DPS hybrids are usually providers. Herald, along with bringing incredible damage for a support, can provide either projectile destruction or with Legendary Centaur Stance and Legendary Dwarf Stance, respectively, so we recommend bringing two along for this encounter.

Dragonvoid Basics

Every Elder Dragon is fought in sequence during this encounter, with the squad being given two minutes to take each out before the platform is covered entirely by the expanding AoE in the center of the arena. This AoE corrupts random boons and makes characters slowly lose their mind to the Void, rendering the fight unwinnable.

In Challenge Mode, many of the Elder Dragons’ attacks have been upgraded in deadliness, but are otherwise similar to their Normal Mode counterparts. Furthermore, like Kaineng Overlook’s Challenge Mode, falling off of the Harvest Temple will instantly kill players.

Mechanics and attacks in a given Dragon phase will always happen in the same order, and at the same time relative to the start of the phase (bugs notwithstanding); this can be helpful to keep in mind when learning to adapt your rotation or utility skills to a phase, and for group leaders when calling out mechanics.

Boss Positioning and Flanking

Every Elder Dragon’s hitbox is positioned in the southernmost portion of the platform and will never move. All of the bosses are classified as objects or structures, and are therefore fully immune to control effects and are not classified as defiant enemies for the purposes of traits like Merciless Hammer.

All of the Elder Dragons are coded to be facing directly east, meaning that builds that benefit from flanking (for example due to the sixth bonus from Superior Rune of the Thief) will be considered as such if not in the 45-degree cone on the eastern side of the bosses’ hitboxes.

Wherever possible, the squad should stack on the western side (or at least the center) of each boss, with the notable exception of Primordus due to the slightly lopsided nature of the Lava Slam attack, which only leaves a melee-friendly safe spot on the eastern side of the boss.

Boon Rip

In Challenge Mode, all of the Elder Dragons will spawn with , , and ; these boons will be reapplied every 20 seconds. Removing these boons quickly and consistently is an important facet of progression and the fight in general, as being up for any significant period of time is a gigantic damage loss.

Since the timeline of attacks on each phase is static, players should be on the lookout for any mechanics that can serve as a consistent cue for the boss regaining its boons, avoiding the need to constantly watch the boss’s buff bar during every attempt.

The squad’s Virtuosos will have access to a plethora of boon rip options, most importantly Vicious Expression, but will sometimes be away from the boss when placing portals and dealing with Greens, so make sure to coordinate and check whether other players can bring some boon removal as well, such as Engineers’ Throw Mine.

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Each boss has up to three of the following classic squad-coordination mechanics happen throughout their respective phases.

Once dropped, the damage from the Reds has a short delay before activation, meaning that targeted players will need to wait a tick or two before dodging out. Players always have enough time to get out of these pools with a single dodge, even if , as long as they are moving directly forward and time their dodge correctly.

We recommend that all players in the squad are given a chance (early in progression) to get a feel for the Reds’ dodge timing, so they can adapt if they get one by mistake.

Your HAMs should always be the players Kiting this mechanic, and they should always stack the two AoEs together. Many HAMs will take Elixir S instead of Elixir Gun in order to use its invulnerability to mitigate outside mechanics when placing the Reds.

The optimal positioning of Reds is phase-dependent, but will always be at least a decent distance from the boss. Therefore, the HAMs need to be prepared to adapt their boon application around this mechanic, especially on Zhaitan and Soo-Won, as its application outside of Crisis Zone requires them to be quite close to the squad due to Over Shield‘s radius of 360.

The visual for the Green will indicate whether players are still required (arrows pointing inward) or if enough people are inside (a rotating wisp around the Green), but be careful about leaving too early: these visuals will often disappear slightly before the detonation actually happens! The most consistent way to know when it’s safe to go back to the boss is to listen for the audio cue of the detonation instead.

Lastly, all Greens (besides the first set) in each phase will always be at least partially covered by the central Void AoE, but never fully so. This means that Greens will ‘creep’ toward the edge of the platform as the AoE expands. In the images provided for each phase’s mechanics, we will only show the first Green’s position as a stand-in for all three possible patterns, as they only move a short distance and are always in the same spatial position relative to the other two Greens in their set.

In terms of strategy, the same players should be assigned to the same Greens across all the phases, with the notable exception of Soo-Won, which we detail in that phase’s section. Almost all the Green patterns have one circle close to the boss, and two circles farther away; most groups will assign the two HAMs to the western Green, the two portal Virtuosos to the eastern Green, and the two providers to the close green.

The Standing Together achievement requires that the player stand in five successful Greens over the course of one pull of the encounter. If not assigned to a Green, the easiest ones to enter while keeping up boss DPS are the close greens on Jormag, Zhaitan, and Soo-Won I and II.

Generally speaking, Spreads aren’t too hard to deal with on their own, but they are often placed during or immediately after the most deadly or destabilizing attacks in a given phase, such as during Primordus’s Chomp, making them a much more pressing concern for players. Quick and precise communication is key for dealing with this mechanic.

Strategy-wise, the pure DPS players should avoid getting Spreads wherever possible by standing as close to the edge of the arena as is comfortable. The group can pre-assign the locations the seven affected players will go to for each Spread in order to get this mechanic sorted quickly and efficiently, but should always be prepared to play reactively (and safely) if necessary.

Encounter Tech, Quirks, & Bugs

There are a few unintended aspects of the encounter that have been discovered by players as time has gone on. Some of these make the encounter significantly more manageable and consistent, while some make the fight anything but. Phase-specific quirks will be outlined in their respective section of the guide.

Firstly, the invulnerability from Elixir S is coded differently from most other sources of the effect, such as Distortion, and may not save you from getting hit by some of the attacks and mechanics that are listed as being mitigated by in this guide. Generally speaking, this difference affects the mechanics that instantly defeat players in Challenge Mode.

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Most groups have one of the portal Virtuosos bring Mass Invisibility as it affects all ten players in the squad. The optimal timing for each application is slightly different depending on the phase transition, so the squad will need to experiment with both that and their pre-Stealth positioning.

When defeated, all Dragon minions will explode, similarly to the Last Laugh instability from Fractals of the Mists, which deals high damage and ; players should be careful with their positioning after bursting down the mobs at the start of a phase.

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There are a few weird quirks to the minions’ movement to the squad:

• If a minion’s target has a movement-altering effect like or , or is in a movement-impairing stance like Dragon Trigger or Kneel, it may walk towards the group at that speed! The minions will generally target the player closest to them when they spawn in, but a couple will also target NPCs if they happen to be closer.
  • Healers should cleanse conditions at each phase transition and all players should avoid using any skills before the minions are stacked in order to avoid a sluggish start to a phase.
• Minions, when walking to their target, will generally attempt to path to the front of the character in question.
  • If all the players in the squad face toward the edge of the platform on each phase transition, even broken can sometimes be mitigated as the minions will have to walk into the boss’s hitbox in order to reach the front side of their chosen target.

In addition to the above, a few actions can cause the minions to move erratically or players, namely player AoEs such as Frost Trap connecting with the first minion to make it to the group; pets and Mechs remaining on the field; and player movement while . Players should stand still and recall their pet, stow their weapons, and avoid placing lingering AoEs right before a phase transition occurs.

This guide has safe timings to kill each boss and complete their phase at the very end of their respective section.

Purification I & Orb Basics

Some of the most pernicious changes to the encounter are found in the orb Purification phases, making them some of the most consistent pain points for many groups. Purification I, in particular, is notorious for its ability to punish new groups that learn how to clear it sloppily.

Firstly, essentially every player hit by the AoE attacks that the Hearts send out will be instantly downed. The single exception to this across all Purification phases are the Cracks from the Heart of Kralkatorrik, which deal only moderate damage but also apply a stack of Debilitated for 30 seconds, which reduces outgoing damage by 25% per stack!

In Purification I, you can Dodge these AoEs or run out of them; watch out for any that overlap with the first purification circle as they can be hard to see.

The strategy most groups use to deal with the Melters in Purification I is to place most of their DPS players (along with some boon supports) in the southeastern portion, and have them each use a single, low-damage skill that cleaves all five mobs, such as . This is to make sure that all players can get five Bloodlust stacks, as all of the adds in the encounter allow players to gain stacks.

Once the larger group of Melters is dead, DPS players should rotate around and try to kill as many Melters around the platform as possible to build up their stacks, as Melters will spawn in each of the Void AoEs when the Heart is pushed into the white purification circles, as usual. Players should not tunnel vision on building up stacks; fight mechanics and staying alive are always a much higher priority!

Groups aiming for the Voidwalker achievement and title must clear all three Purification phases before any Heart is allowed to reach three stacks of Void Empowerment, however, even if not going for the achievement, clearing these phases in this amount of time consistently is a good benchmark to aim for!

The only change to the pushing physics in Challenge Mode is that the white purification circles do not dampen the Hearts’ momentum as much upon contact; care should be taken to not make the orb go too speedily through a purification circle and into a wall, and counter-pushing must be done more strongly and quickly upon purification. As in Normal Mode, the Heart has a damaging field in its hitbox, so never run inside of it.

• Attacks from pets, illusions, and skills that are not player-activated do not affect the orb’s momentum.
• No matter the type or direction of an attack, player hits will always direct the orb in the opposite direction from the player’s current position.
• Multi-hit abilities, such as Reapers’ Soul Spiral and Virtuosos’ Bladesong Harmony, are particularly potent for increasing the orb’s momentum.

Upon contact with the third purification circle, the Heart will gain a defiance bar; all players are responsible for breaking this bar in all three Purification phases. During Purification I, HAMs should Recall their Mechs the moment the Heart touches the second circle to have access to Crash Down in time, while everyone else should prepare their CC as the Heart reaches the third circle.

As shown in the video above, a common time-saving strategy during Purification I is to have one of the squad’s Virtuosos place a portal at the southern edge of the arena at the start of the encounter before meeting up with the stack, then place the exit right as the Heart’s defiance bar is exposed. This allows the group to immediately start attacking Jormag without having to take a hike across the entire platform first.

Jormag

The first Elder Dragon the squad must face is Jormag. This phase features all three squad-coordination mechanics mentioned above, and its defining feature is the presence of many sources of from both the boss and its minions, the Veteran Void Stormseers.

Stormseers will respawn periodically until the phase is complete, and will pelt the squad’s players with AoEs that on hit; these should be sidestepped when possible. The squad’s ranged DPS players should cleave through the boss’s hitbox to take these out adds as they come.

The pattern of mechanics for Jormag is as follows:

1. Reds, then Breath, then Breath (, central/circular)
   
2. Greens, then Target Laser
3. Spreads and Breath (, linear) simultaneously
4. Frost Meteor

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Boss Attacks

As the HAMs will be taking out the Reds, Debilitated isn’t too big a deal, but can make dodging out of the stacked Reds more challenging. The HAMs should either Dodge preemptively or position themselves between the AoEs and avoid them entirely while moving out.

The Breath during Spreads should never hit players as long as they don’t leave the boss hitbox early or walk too far out with one.

The Target Laser is a similar-looking attack to the Breath of Jormag; when activated, the two closest players to the center of the arena will get a successive string of frosty AoEs at their location. Getting hit by all of these is highly damaging, so if walking back to the boss after Greens, Dodge forward to avoid some of the damage.

This mechanic should only affect the Red Kiters, but everyone should be careful to not slip off the platform!

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Coordination Mechanics

• The Reds spawn quickly after the start of the phase, so the HAMs should be prepared to pick them up. Take them to position 1, then dodge toward the first western Green.
  • For the second set of Reds, the floor will be slippery due to Frost Meteor: don’t slip off the platform when moving to position 2.
  • After both Greens, use Shift Signet after moving forward a few steps to get both you and your Mech back onto the group.
• For the Virtuosos, one should place a Portal Entre on the boss before moving out to the eastern Green each time, then place the exit as the Green is about to resolve. This maximizes their boon rip and DPS uptime.
  • If the squad is using the portal at the end of Purification I, the other Virtuoso should place this portal for the first Green.
• For the two providers, they simply need to walk to the close Green when it spawns.
  • Try to avoid getting fixated by the Target Laser, as you are closest to the group.

Phase Transition

Squads should be killing Jormag during the second Green or, at the latest, the second Spread. If the group isn’t meeting this DPS check, players will need to take a hard look at the numbers and problem-solve: trying to continue with progression and brute-force the fight with DPS any lower than this is not recommended.

If the boss is low on health a few seconds before the second Spread occurs, the squad must delay until the mechanic spawns, then kill and .

Primordus

The brawl with Primordus is where the most wipes happen for almost every group, due to the lethality of his attacks, the somewhat forced proximity to the edge of the platform during much of the phase, and the inclusion of all three squad-coordination mechanics.

Primordus’s minions are the Elite Void Warforged, which spawn all at once and won’t respawn. This group of eight Destroyers will leap on to players and apply , and will also spawn small Void Bursters, which are essentially harmless (and don’t explode) and count as valid targets to gain Bloodlust stacks. The main thing to watch out for with the Warforged is their stacked Last Laugh explosions on death, but besides that the squad should be fine to just cleave them and any remaining Stormseers down (while targeting the boss) once they’ve grouped up after during the phase transition.

The pattern of mechanics for Primordus is as follows, although note that after Jormag dies there is a 20-second grace period before the first Bite:

1. Bite and Spreads simultaneously
2. Reds (during Bite windup)
3. Greens (during Bite magma field)
4. Three Chins in a row

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Boss Attacks

The magma field after the Bite has a lingering hitbox that lasts for about half a second after its visual disappears. Don’t portal or move back to the boss too early!

As seven players will get a Spread indicator when this attack spawns, the squad must coordinate for this attack in order to not bunch up at the edge of the Bite and down to the Spreads.

Any players without a teleport (such as Blink or Shift Signet) should be the ones leading the pack as they walk to the safe zone, while players with teleports should hang back until the moment the Spread explodes, then use their teleport to immediately blink to safety. Other mobility skills, such as Break Step, can be used to get to the safe zone as well, but players should make sure the boss is not targeted so they don’t get sent in the wrong direction!

All players besides the HAMs should also take extra care to stay as far from the center of the arena as is feasible, so they don’t accidentally pick up the Red mechanic in transit.

There is a small safe spot from this attack on the eastern side of the boss’s hitbox that still allows melee classes to attack uninterrupted, and is the preferred spot to stack for most squads during this phase. As mentioned above, this means that players will be unable to flank the boss, but the tradeoff for the higher damage uptime is worth it in most groups. That being said, all players should watch out for animation locks when in the danger zone and should never play riskily when this mechanic is out.

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Coordination Mechanics

Reds will spawn 3 seconds into the Bite’s windup, while Greens will spawn right before the Reds are dropped on the ground.

• The HAMs should always leave the group a little early in anticipation of the Bite, then hug the central Void AoE until they get the Red.
  • Both Red positions are in between the two spaced-out Greens; once placed, dodge toward the western Green.
    • Don’t kill each other with your Spreads as you swing around the center of the platform.
    • Once the Green has resolved, walk around the central Void AoE until you are able to use Shift Signet as close to the group as possible.
  • During the second bite, the HAMs should leave very early as the central Void AoE’s size makes the trek to position 2 quite an adventure.
  • If any non-support player gets a Red by mistake and can’t make it to the other person before it drops, they should place it in the backup (BU) position as the group will portal back to the boss and therefore won’t have to walk through it.
• Before each Bite, one of the Virtuosos should place a Portal Entre in the safe zone of the Chin attack.
  • After the Bite’s magma field dissipates, place the exit in between the two eastern Greens, then walk to and resolve the easternmost Green before taking the portal back.
  • If any Stormseers are still alive, take them out from afar while waiting in the Green.
• The two providers will take the central Green. As their mobility is likely limited, they should consider leaving earlier than the DPS players on any given Bite.
  • They should take the portal back once the Green is resolved.

Phase Transition

As long as Primordus isn’t killed during certain portions of the second Bite, which requires very high group DPS anyway, there’s no strict timing on when it’s safe to kill to avoid bugs. On death, any active Chin slams will be canceled.

When into the next phase, the group should stack in the center of the boss’s hitbox if possible.

Kralkatorrik

This phase is by far the easiest and is essentially identical to its Normal Mode counterpart, with the Reds being the only coordination mechanic the squad has to contend with.

The phase begins with a wave of six Elite Void Brandbombers; take them out with the strategy as usual. These Siege Devourers will fire out indestructible missiles at the squad from afar if not killed quickly; on hit, these will and players. The squad should avoid these AoEs or Dodge them, and should make sure that players have if any Brandbombers are still alive.

The pattern of attacks for Kralkatorrik, after a 15-second grace period, is as follows:

1. 2x Beam (sides)
2. Meteor
3. 1x Beam (center) and Reds simultaneously
4. Meteor

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Boss Attacks

Players should avoid this attack entirely by standing in the safe zones, while keeping up their damage and staying inside or close to the boss’s hitbox. The fields left behind by the beams have a lingering hitbox for a few moments after their visuals disappear.

Avoiding the from these meteors should be a high priority; the squad’s support players should be providing copious amounts of if one of these is sent the group’s way.

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Coordination Mechanics

As the Reds are the only mechanic to contend with in this phase, as long as they are not placed directly in or around the boss’s hitbox, they can be placed anywhere.

All the players besides the HAMs should make sure they avoid getting the Reds when moving to avoid the central Laser.

Phase Transition

No is necessary on this transition. Going into Purification II, note that the central Void AoE deactivates the moment the Time Caster spawns, even though its visual remains for a few seconds. We outline how the squad should split up for the phase in the next section.

Purification II

This phase can be very chaotic due to the split strategy necessary to push the Heart quickly and the presence of a very impactful random mechanic in the Bees from the Heart of Mordremoth. In addition, due to its Void Repulsion effect, the squad will have to take down the Champion Void Time Caster: if the Heart collides with the Time Caster (which guards the final purification circle), it will be reflected in the direction whence it came.

The extra Melters in this phase will spawn in a 4-1-1 arrangement around the platform when the first purification circle activates: four in the southeast, one in the northeast, and one in the northwest. Void Skullpiercers, which are Mordremoth’s minions, will also continuously spawn during this phase and the next: watch out for their kick, as it can players off the platform!

To deal with the projectile attacks, placing a persistent AoE on the Time Caster that reflects or destroys them will make this phase much more manageable. Soulbeasts, for example, can use Whirling Defense when the projectiles come in to deal high burst damage while protecting the squad. Heralds, of course, can use Protective Solace on the boss as well.

If no projectile destruction is available, avoid standing directly in the Time Caster’s hitbox so as to not get hit by all nine streams from the portals, and Dodge the blast AoEs on reaction, as they explode (for high damage) quite quickly after their telegraph spawns.

For the vortex, note that the telegraph for the attack is biased toward one side of the boss. Players should go on the opposite side of the mini-boss from the telegraph, as it will travel outward in a straight line from that side. If caught in the vortex for more than a tick, Dodge quickly toward the Time Caster to get out of its range and avoid its high damage.

Lastly, the Time Caster will spawn with 25 stacks of in addition to the boons the Elder Dragons normally receive (). It will regain its every 12 seconds, making boon rip a priority even during this phase.

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Heart Attacks

The most effective counterplay for this attack is to react to the direction the Bees are being sent and sidestep out of their path. The smaller group that is responsible for counter-pushing must be prepared to respond very quickly as the area around the first purification circle is very close to the edge, leaving less space to maneuver and less time to react to the Bees overall.

Even though their damage can be actively mitigated, players should always give the Puddles a wide berth due to their slightly odd visuals and their lingering hitbox after dissipating. This attack is a bit of a silent killer during progression, don’t breathe easy during this phase until the entire squad is back together on the boss after the Heart is purified!

The pure DPS players, along with the HAMs and one provider, will move to the Time Caster’s portion of the arena when the phase begins. One Virtuoso should start with this group in order to rip the mini-boss’s boons, then target the Heart while cleaving through the mini-boss in order to start pushing it toward the first purification circle. The mini-boss group’s HAMs can also help push during the first leg of the phase, but should be mainly focused on healing up any players that get hit by the Time Caster.

One Virtuoso and one provider will move to the southeastern portion of the arena at the start of the phase and clear out the Melters when they spawn, including the one that spawns in the northwest. Once the Melters are dispatched, this smaller squad will be responsible for counter-pushing the Heart into the final purification circle.

Once the Heart has sufficient momentum toward the first circle and after the second application of is removed from the Time Caster, the Virtuoso with the boss group should Blink to the counter-push group and help push the orb there as well.

The second set of Melters after the Heart connects with the first purification circle can be mostly ignored, but the two closest to the mini-boss group can be safely taken out during the wait for defiance bar to be unlocked.

The time limit for Voidwalker in this phase is relevant but not oppressively so; players should avoid taking unnecessary damage or getting one-shot for marginal time gains.

Mordremoth

Although it is probably the most infamous part of the encounter, Mordremoth’s phase is similar to Kralkatorrik in that there are very few interruptions to damage uptime. Once players get familiar with the phase and when its safe to deal damage and burst down the boss, playing very safe and waiting until just the right moment to kill the Jungle Dragon will always be the correct strategy for progression groups.

Mordremoth’s minions are the Void Skullpiercers; during Purification II and this phase, one of these snipers will spawn every fifteen seconds. These mobs will normally pelt the squad from afar, but up close they will Kick players instead, which is a . In order to deal with the Skullpiercers effectively, they should always be taken out when they walk anywhere near the group; they have a tiny health pool and will melt if a DPS player so much as breathes on them.

The pattern of mechanics for Mordremoth, after a 20-second grace period, is as follows:

1. Reds
2. Spit (the moment the Reds drop)
3. Spreads, then 3x Shock Waves (the Spreads will explode after the first Shock Wave passes)

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Boss Attacks

For most of the group, standing in the regular stack spot on the west side of the boss’s hitbox will be enough to avoid this attack entirely.

The HAMs will be placing their Reds in the small safe zones in between four of the AoEs toward the back of the arena. They should be on the lookout for Void Skullpiercers and avoid getting kicked into one of the projectiles.

Each wave can (and should) be avoided entirely by jumping or using high-leaping skills over them; will prevent the deadly but the affected player will still take full damage and the debuffs mentioned above.

For this move, the boon supports must coordinate in order to give as much to the squad as is feasible, both for the waves and the off chance a Void Skullpiercer ends up near any players. No amount is an excuse to fail at jumping the waves, but if a player needs to be revived, or if a player gets a random ping spike, or if any of a million things go wrong, having this lifeline is invaluable to avoid a wipe.

There are very few builds that can upkeep for the full duration of this attack with a single skill.

• The HAMs can give a single, but long-lasting, stack of with Crisis Zone; they should save this skill for the Shock Waves whenever possible.
  • As Crisis Zone applies its boons around the Mech, the HAMs will not get from it (nor the rest of the squad) unless they use Shift Signet to get back to the group after placing the Reds.
  • Incidentally, getting into the habit of saving Crisis Zone instead of using it on cooldown will also pay dividends when it comes to muscle memory for Zhaitan.
• Heralds have the Road, which duration-wise covers all three shock waves, but its AoE will not cover all ten players in the squad the entire time due to the Spread.

This attack’s deadliness over three waves, the fact that it occurs quite late into the encounter, and its relative lack of randomness makes it the bane of progression groups; there have been groups that have disbanded because of this mechanic alone.

Even with our recommendations for access during the Shock Waves in mind, we’re not going to sugarcoat it: if you want to clear HT CM, do not cut players any slack if they consistently fail this mechanic.

If all ten players in the squad do not have the consistency to deal with this attack on most pulls past the initial progression of Mordremoth’s phase, it is imperative that the leader has players practice as much as is required on Harvest Temple’s Normal Mode to build up that muscle, as in terms of its speed and the jump timings required, the Shock Wave is identical between the Normal and Challenge Modes of the encounter. The time spent on practice will be more than made up for by the amount of time saved not wiping to this headache-inducing mechanic.

If the group tries to tough it out with regards to this and other similar mechanics, it is almost inevitable that frustration and resentment will start to build up among the players in the squad as a quarter or more of the runs that even make it to Mordremoth get thrown away to one of the most consistent attacks in the fight.

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Coordination Mechanics

Reds will spawn before the Spit begins, and will be dropped as the first few Spit projectiles are sent out.

• The Red placements in the image may seem a little random, but in the actual fight, they will be very obvious as they are the same as the telegraphed safe zones for the Spit projectiles.
  • The goal with these placements is to give the entire squad as much space as possible for each set of Spreads, while making the movement back to the squad for the HAMs reasonable.
• After any Shock Waves, the HAMs have until Mordremoth’s head returns to its resting position before the Reds will spawn again.

Phase Transition

This is the second-most-important phase transition in the encounter, and must be handled with a lot of care.

Firstly, Mordremoth should NOT be killed during the startup for or during the Shock Wave attack.

• When the boss is killed, his head will jump high into the sky before falling off the platform; the visuals of the Shock Waves will travel with him. However, at least one wave will still be active on the platform even though it is “invisible” as the boss plays out its dying animation, likely blindsiding and killing many players.
• The squad can bring the boss to a very low health percentage before the final set of Shock Waves, then stop attacking entirely in order to create an opportunity to burst him down immediately after the attack concludes.
  • To play extra safe, the squad can wait until the final set of Reds spawn, then kill the boss in order to guarantee no mechanics will carry over into Zhaitan’s phase.

Once the boss is just about dead, the group should stack directly in the center of the hitbox, up, then prepare to unleash a massive burst of both CC and damage on the three Champion Void Giants.

Zhaitan

Zhaitan is altogether one of the tougher Elder Dragons to take down, due to a combination of highly damaging attacks, myriad sources of crowd control on the squad, and the presence of all three squad coordination mechanics.

The pattern of attacks for this phase, after a 10-second grace period, is as follows, although note that the boss does not become vulnerable until the first set of Greens detonate:

1. Greens
2. Spit and Zhaitan’s Reaches spawn simultaneously (on Green detonation)
3. Reds
4. Scream, then Spreads
5. Zhaitan’s Reaches despawn (during Spreads)

• The first attack they will use once they walk to the group is Death Scream—a large AoE that applies and .
  • Players should always evade this attack if in its range, even if only to avoid getting .
  • will work to mitigate this attack’s .
  • Interrupting the Giants as they cast this skill will not disable its visual telegraph; players should not waste their defensive options on the first instance of this attack as the Giants’ defiance bars will almost always be broken before it goes off.
• The Giants’ Stomp has no AoE indicator but is still extremely important to react to visually, as it deals high damage and players if not mitigated.
• They can sometimes vomit up Rotting Bile—a green, slimy AoE attack similar to the Pool of Undeath from Purification II. This goop should be avoided entirely with movement, as it will apply and deal high ticking damage to any players caught inside it.

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Boss Attacks

Zhaitan has an attack in the middle of its pattern—Ground Slam—that only affects a very small portion of the platform far from the boss and seemingly does nothing besides damage and a . During the encounter’s initial release window, some speculated that this attack held the key to disabling or mitigating the Scream, but if by some small chance it is, no one has solved the puzzle to this day. The HAMs should avoid placing Reds on the far western edge of the platform because of this enigma of a mechanic.

The order of the Reaches’ attacks are mostly consistent: they will begin with Ground Slam soon after they spawn, then Thrash when the Reds spawn, and lastly they will combo Thrash into Ground Slam when the Scream occurs. Phase weirdness, as with all things HT CM, can make their spawn behavior a little erratic, but even in the worst case all their attacks can be reacted to with a Dodge if needed.

If any are near the boss’s hitbox, they should be cleaved down; their health is quite low.

This mechanic mainly affects the players that are doing Greens, but the first Spit of the phase can make finishing off the Giants tricky, so all players should play carefully if necessary.

For some more phase weirdness, be aware that oftentimes the boss is unable to cast this attack on the platform for an entire pull, giving the squad much more breathing room over the course of the phase.

This attack is a contender for the most oppressive attack in the entire encounter; it represents (in combination with the Spread immediately afterward) the ultimate test of your supports’ capabilities and will take a lot of practice to get right without downstates. The most common strategy for dealing with it leverages almost all of the utility HAMs bring to the encounter:

• In order for the entire squad to survive the damage spike (assuming your DPS players have worst-case survivability due to profession), players will require both and some at the bare minimum, but any damage mitigation (Rite of the Great Dwarf or are other examples) available will help out here!
  • Before going out with the Reds, the HAMs should use both shield skills while near the squad to activate Over Shield, then cast Barrier Burst while moving away.
• In order to mitigate the , a must be used the moment after the attack goes off. will also nullify the effects of the , but anomalously makes it impossible to remove said Fear with a until the boon expires, so we don’t recommend relying on it in progression groups.
  • The HAMs must break the habit of spamming Crisis Zone on cooldown simply to give during this phase and instead save it for this exact moment.
    • Once the Reds are placed, the HAMs should move forward (or use Energizing Slam) until they are able to Shift Signet directly into the center of the stack, then use Crisis Zone once the Scream goes off.
• The entire squad is put under the effects of Infirmity after the attack goes off, so in order to heal the group effectively before the Spreads go off, the that also comes with the attack must be cleansed first.

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Coordination Mechanics

The two far Greens are in a somewhat tricky pattern during Zhaitan’s phase, and since the squad will have to deal with three sets of them, portals are even more essential here than in the previous phases to make it to the last two sets.

• Before the first set of Greens spawns, one of the Virtuosos should place a Portal Entre in between (and a little north of) the two far Greens.
  • Time your Portal Exeunt for the exact moment the next set of Greens spawn (which will be after the Spreads), but if unsure, placing it earlier is better as walking to the Greens from the portal can take a deceptively long time.
  • The other Virtuoso should place their Portal Entre after the second set of Greens and follow the same timing when placing the exit.
• The HAMs will be moving off and on the boss often, so make sure your Mech is actually positioned properly to give players boons even when you’re off-stack.
  • Reds spawn about 8 seconds after the Greens detonate, but don’t tunnel-vision on the boss. For the first set of Reds, as the central AoE’s radius is small, we recommend that the HAMs just stick by the center.
    • Watch out for the attacks from the Reaches near the center of the arena.
  • The Reds should be placed so that it’s possible to reach the group with Shift Signet in time for the Scream, while avoiding the Ground Slam AoE on the western edge of the platform. Many possible placements are viable here.
• For the two providers, they simply need to walk to the close Green when it spawns.

Phase Transition

If the squad is not able to kill Zhaitan immediately after the third set of Greens detonate, bring him to the brink of death then kill him right after the Reds spawn. Don’t wait too long, or the squad will have to deal with the Scream and Spreads for a final time!

No is needed for this transition, and as with the transition into Purification II, the central Void AoE’s hitbox deactivates the moment the Saltspray Dragon spawns.

Purification III

The final Purification phase is not quite as chaotic as Purification II, but requires something from every member of the squad to complete in a timely fashion. In this phase, the mini-boss blocks the path to the first purification circle and therefore the squad must take it out as quickly as possible in order to progress; burst damage is king!

The extra Melters in this phase will spawn in a 2-2-2 arrangement when the first purification circle activates: two close together on the first purification circle in the southeast, one each in the north and northeast, and one each in the west and southwest.

The Saltspray Dragon’s attacks are actually quite powerful damage-wise and apply a variety of debilitating conditions and crowd control, but are all very telegraphed and should be sidestepped or dodged on reaction. The biggest ones to watch out for are Rolling Flames, a fireball that splits whenever it hits the ground; Frozen Fury, a segmented cone of ice that and players; and Hydro Burst, a series of small whirlpools in a snaking pattern that deal hefty damage and can chain players into a swift downstate.

Like the Time Caster, the Saltspray Dragon will spawn with 25 stacks of in addition to the usual boons, and will periodically regain some of these until its defiance is broken.

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Heart Attacks

While the Saltspray Dragon is still on the field, players can stand in between it and the Heart as no jet will be sent in that direction, but two of the jets will always be sent out in the two directions (namely, northwest and directly south) your squad’s pushers will be positioned in over the course of the phase.

There are two strategies to handle this attack while pushing effectively:

1. Using projectile mitigation (especially Protective Solace) in order to negate this attack entirely.
2. Having the pushers split up between the two sides of the problematic jets while attacking the orb. As hit counts between the different members of the squad aren’t going to be equal, note that there will be some deviation from the perfect path when doing this method, so adjust each side’s pushing power through voice communication if needed.

The two Virtuosos and at least one of the squad’s supports should carefully circle around the Heart once the mini-boss’s HP gets low and start pushing it toward the first purification circle while also clearing out some of the Melters. Once the Heart hits the first circle, the whole squad should help push it into the final purification circle (making sure they are out of the path of the water jet that is shot directly south of the orb) and be prepared to instantly break the Heart’s defiance bar.

As mentioned above, a Herald using Protective Solace trivializes this phase, but any projectile mitigation (such as Barrier Signet) will help avoid deaths and wipes to Corrupted Waters.

This is the toughest phase to get consistently fast enough for Voidwalker: it’s late into the fight and the phase’s speed is entirely dependent on the squad’s burst damage profile. Practice makes perfect, and remember that there’s a free toy model in the Normal Mode version of the phase. It can give the squad some early reps to get basic coordination and communication for pushing under wraps while being much faster to reset than the lengthy runback to Purification III in CM.

Soo-Won I (100%-50%)

In Challenge Mode, Soo-Won’s two phases are transformed into the most lethal in the encounter, at least going by the sheer amount of attacks and mechanics that can outright kill players and cause a wipe. As many players are going to be off and on the boss over the course of both boss phases, it may be difficult for a single player to call out stuff to watch out for at all times; a secondary caller in Discord may help for this final stretch of the encounter!

Instead of a singular type of minion, Soo-Won will continually spawn many varieties of smaller Void mobs around the platform, some of which are familiar faces from previous phases of the encounter. As usual, these mobs will explode on death: players should make sure to avoid these explosions!

Of these mobs, there is a new and unique threat in the Veteran Void Abominations, which have two AoE moves that can players off the platform; these enemies must always be called out and dispatched as quickly as possible whenever they spawn, and if one makes it close to any player, watch out and be ready to sidestep or dodge!

The Abomination’s cone attack hits from a further distance away than its telegraph implies, so be extra careful with this move.

The respawning adds during the final three phases of the encounter do have one benefit for the squad: players can rally off of them while downstate! This is especially useful while pushing the Void Amalgamate as multiple downstates, for once, do not mean the group necessarily has to wipe.

The pattern of attacks for Soo-Won, after a 15-second grace period, is as follows:

1. Reds and Greens simultaneously
2. Tsunami Slam (while previous mechanics are winding up)
3. Swipe and Spreads simultaneously (after all previous mechanics resolve)
4. Reds (at the beginning of the Tail Slam animation)
5. Tail Slam (the moment the Reds drop)
6. Void Beam

Compared to the previous boss phases, the quantity of Reds forced onto the group is much higher during Soo-Won’s phases; furthermore, from Soo-Won I on, Reds will not despawn until the encounter is completed or the squad wipes. It is imperative that players avoid unnecessary damage while on the boss as these two facts taken together mean that the HAMs are going to be away from the boss almost permanently during the final showdown.

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Boss Attacks

The final attack in the boss’s cycle, Void Beam, has Soo-Won belch Void energy across the southern half of the platform. In terms of danger to the group, it is an almost irrelevant attack outside of phase timing shenanigans; if players are positioned properly, it will never come close to hitting them. The exception to this is the lingering field that is left behind as the next set of Greens spawn in, which may do some moderate damage to the Virtuosos or HAMs during the final phase of the encounter.

As the shock wave passes over all three of the Greens in a staggered manner, each group of players taking a Green will have to dodge at different timings in order to make it inside in time while not getting . Furthermore, one of the orbs flung out by the Slam will hit the farthest green completely about halfway through the first set of Greens, making things even more complicated.

Overcoming this mechanical overlap is one of the most important things to practice and get down quickly if a player is taking the middle or far Greens in one of the boss phases; watching other players’ POVs on YouTube or elsewhere can be extremely helpful in this regard.

The HAMs will still have to deal this wave even as they hang out at the back of the arena during Soo-Won I. As it generally reaches the Kiters as the Reds have just dropped, a double dodge forward will work to avoid danger; Elixir S can also be used to mitigate the wave (but the Red will still need to be dodged!).

For both of the shock waves during this phase, the actual hitbox is front-loaded even though the wave’s visual seemingly covers a very large area, the timing for jumping or dodging is likely slightly earlier than you might think (especially going by the muscle memory gained from Mordremoth’s phase). Practice evading this move in Normal Mode in order to avoid getting psyched out!

The Swipe’s actual hitbox extends very slightly past the visually-telegraphed edge along the center of the arena, so be extremely careful if near that edge. The no-go zone should be treated as the empty space between the Swipe’s arc and the arrows, and conveniently, standing on the tail end of the arrows will allow players to completely avoid the bouncing orbs as well, making for an easy visual cue for a safe spot against this attack.

This attack has a built in safe zone (that is thankfully not bugged) on the edge of the arena that can fit two players with Spreads safely. Players without a Spread AoE in this small safe zone should shimmy their way away from the Swipe while avoiding the overlap between two Spread AoEs.

For any players in the squad with easy access to or Distortion, baiting the Spread by standing slightly closer to the center of the arena and then standing inside the Swipe’s telegraph is extremely important to make space for your squadmates!

Lastly, any Mechanists in your squad must recall their Mechs before this attack goes off, or they will be killed and will go on full cooldown!

As long the HAMs are already moving into position for the second set of Reds as Soo-Won begins lowering her stance, the tail slam itself will not be a concern for any player. As usual, the Kiters should either perform a well-timed dodge forward in order to avoid both the shock wave and the Red’s damage, or use Elixir S in order to nullify the shock wave and make the dodge timing more lenient for the Red.

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Coordination Mechanics

During Soo-Won I, the HAMs cannot take any Greens due to the overlap with the Reds; at least two DPS players will have to step up and take one instead!

• The Virtuosos should be placing their Portal Entre on the corner of the northeastern large square pattern for the first Green. The exits should be placed on reaction the instant the Greens spawn in.
  • The second Portal Entre should be placed on the eastern side of the arena, on the intersection between the cross pattern and the largest central ring on the platform.
  • One of the Virtuosos should place their entrance once the Heart’s defiance is broken at the end of Purification III. Any successive entrances should be placed after the Swipe and Spread are concluded.
• To deal with the shock wave during Greens:
  • For the closest Green, which all of the DPS players can (and should) safely take during Soo-Won I, simply jump over the wave and walk in.
  • For the middle Green (taken by the providers), take the portal, Dodge toward the boss and through the wave when it passes fully over your Green, then hang inside.
  • For the far Green (taken by the Virtuosos), dodge towards the front side of the Green the moment the shock wave’s visual ‘touches’ the Green. Make sure you avoid walking into the central Void AoE after your dodge.

• For the Reds during Soo-Won I, the rule of thumb for the HAMs is to place them counterclockwise from northeast to northwest as close to the plaform’s edge as is comfortable.
  • In general, you shouldn’t be taking the portals during Soo-Won I, so make sure you walk out early in order to grab the Reds and be able to place them on the northern edge in time.
  • You will have to handle the shock wave mechanic each time alongside dodging the two Reds’ tick of damage, either by timing a perfect dodge, double dodging, or using Elixir S. Learn the timing early in progression to avoid panic on later pulls.
  • There are two segments of downtime during each cycle: one immediately following the Spread, then a slighty longer one after the Tail Slam. Fit your biggest bursts of boons (and healing after the Spread) during these segments if possible.

Phase Transition

Although there’s no or other exotic strategies needed going into the final orb phase, this phase transition is still very important.

The squad must avoid phasing the boss in the intervals before either attack that spawns shock waves: the Paw and Tail Slams. This is because of an extremely nasty animation cancel that will cause the Greens to spawn out of sync and more quickly during the final phase of the fight! These no-go zones correspond with the downtime mentioned just above for the HAMs.

As long as you let the shock waves actually start to radiate outward for both attacks, you can safely kill the boss afterwards.

Any Greens that are active at the beginning of the final orb phase will not be canceled and will have to be resolved by the squad successfully.

Void Amalgamate

This phase, although it requires good coordination from the squad, is not as hard as it seems at a first glance. This is due to the fact that there is no enrage timer or similar mechanics to force the squad to progress the phase quickly; if any downstates or other destabilization occur, the squad can take the time to get back on their feet before continuing to take down the orb. Additionally, as mentioned above, players can rally off of any of the smaller mobs that continually respawn during the phase. The Abominations in particular still remain a large threat in this phase, so be on the lookout for any that spawn and quickly take them out.

As with the Hearts in the Purification phases, the Void Amalgamate gains momentum when hit by players’ attacks, will send out an shock wave that instantly kills players if it collides with the edges of of the platform and also has a highly-damaging ticking AoE inside its hitbox. However, in this phase the goal is to outright defeat the Void Amalgamate, so many more attacks will be needed over the course of the phase to take it out, increasing the chances of sending it into the wall dramatically.

As is common on this encounter, the Normal Mode version of this phase is essentially identical. The squad should practice there if they are struggling with any part of this phase!

As is typical of the End of Dragons Strike Missions, players that have the ability to move and attack are at a significant advantage; this attack is a good example of this design as strafing counterclockwise around the orb is the simplest way to avoid damage.

Although we highly recommend that one of your Heralds uses Protective Solace, it is still important for the squad to practice handling the Amalgamate without these tools in order to cover their bases in case of emergency. Players should always be ready to react with a dodge very quickly whenever a source of projectile mitigation winds down; giving the Amalgamate some space will help with this.

A player in each subgroup should Call Target on the orb as otherwise it can visually flicker in and out of the arena due to a culling bug. One subgroup should position themselves on one side of the orb, while the other goes to the opposite side.

The easiest ways to separate where each player should go are either going by whether they’re in the commander’s subgroup or not and following their respective herd, or going by predefined squad markers for each subgroup.

Once all players are in position, both sides should start attacking the orb and be watching it closely. Once it starts to gain momentum toward one of the two directions, the players that are on the side that is pushing it in that direction should stow their weapons or turn their character around to stop attacking completely.

The other subgroup can then lightly counter-push the orb for a few seconds before the first group gets back attacking. Although there’s no rush to complete the phase, players in the first subgroup should avoid being too sluggish on restarting their offensive after stowing their weapons as getting back on the attack more quickly will neutralize the counter-push momentum before it gets out of control. A good cue to start attacking again is when the orb’s momentum is visually zero, i.e., it looks stationary.

All of that being said, voice communication is quite important here. Players should follow their commander’s instructions closely and shouldn’t try and be a hero, as that can make things even more chaotic.

If the orb has any gained any sort of significant distance toward the wall during a given attempt, there’s been a failure in coordination that should be corrected for the next pull.

Phase Transition

The phase should end at the marker in the image above. This means that when the Amalgamate is beginning to get low on health (less than 15% HP or so), the squad should start sending the orb slowly toward the marker rather than keeping up the ping-pong.

Once the orb is about to die, all players should avoid use any stealth-breaking abilities, stack on the marked location (we recommend putting a permanent squad marker here), then once the phase concludes and the two Champions spawn in, up.

One of the Virtuosos should put a Portal Entre on the boss before the Amalgamate is defeated, for use when the Goliath is defeated to squeeze out a little more damage uptime.

Soo-Won II (50%-0%)

In Challenge Mode, the final phase of the encounter is transformed into all-out chaos with two major changes: Soo-Won’s health is no longer reduced to 33% after dispelling the Void Amalgamate (making for a pretty tight DPS check), and a Champion Void Goliath is spawned at the start of the phase alongside the Obliterator. These two mini-bosses are easily the most difficult adds to deal with across the entire encounter and must be focused down relentlessly by the squad’s players until they’re both taken out. As the mini-bosses have access to copious amounts of crowd control, well-timed from the squad’s supports is essential to make it to the finish line, along with clear and concise communication from the commander whenever the adds begin an action.

If both mini-bosses are defeated in a reasonable amount of time, this phase becomes almost identical to the first Soo-Won phase; don’t panic, follow the protocols you’ve practiced for many pulls, and take the Dragonvoid down!

Around the time the Goliath dies, the Greens and Reds will spawn in again:

• Pure DPS players, especially those playing melee builds, should make sure at least the Goliath is dead before moving back to Soo-Won.
• After giving all of their boons to the squad once is broken, the HAMs should walk toward the center of the platform in order to pick up the Reds.
• The Virtuosos, making sure they don’t pick up the Reds, should also walk to their Green for this first set; one of them can place a Portal Entre in the usual spot from Soo-Won I once the Green resolves to make the second set easier.

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Mini-Boss Attacks

Analogously to the Giants’ Death Scream at the beginning of Zhaitan’s phase, interrupting the Goliath while it’s mid-attack will not disable the attack’s visual telegraph; players should not waste their defensive options on the first instance of this attack as the mini-boss’s defiance bar will invariably be broken.

This attack is the reason why the Goliath needs to be dispatched quickly: if it uses this move on the boss, the pull is likely over! As such, the strategy in this phase for the most part assumes that the Goliath dies while only ever having used this attack once, which it will do immediately after it recovers from its defiance being broken.

If the mini-boss is not killed in time and a player is in range after the Jump, the Goliath will do a melee Slam with its sword that similarly and , but only hits once. Dodge or avoid this if it occurs.

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Fast reactions are needed for the Obliterator, either for dodging or granting to squadmates as it will cycle between many attacks that on hit. All standard mitigation ( ) will work against these attacks, although the shock wave will go through damage-conversion skills like Defiant Stance.

Entities such as the myriad turrets from Supply Crate can distract the Obliterator and keep it off the group for a long while after it finishes charging in any direction away from the boss. Only use this as a backup, however, as killing the Obliterator will always be the most sure-fire win condition.

The shock wave’s hitbox will linger and continue traveling outward for a while after its visual disappears, so players at range must be extremely wary whenever this attack is used.

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Coordination Mechanics

Besides the above, the only other change in this phase is which players are going to which Green. The timings for jumping or dodging into each are the same as the first phase.

As this is the final phase, as long as any Reds that are placed do not cover up the next Green in the cycle, they can be placed quite greedily. This means that the HAMs will now be taking the far Green (as there a convenient Red placement while inside) while the Virtuosos take the middle Green. The providers (and any DPS players still looking to earn the Standing Together achievement) should go to the close Green.

The same portal placement for the second set of Greens can be used, however the first set will not have a convenient portal, so the HAMs and Virtuosos will have to walk to their Greens at the start of the phase after doing some damage to the mini-bosses. The Virtuosos make sure they avoid getting the Reds!

The HAMs should, each time after dodging through the shock wave for the far Green, place the Red as close to the central Void AoE as possible while avoiding the boon corrupt. If placed properly, you will never block off the next far Green in the cycle with this new set of Reds.

For the Reds during the Tail Slam, the HAMs should continue placing them in the northern and western portions of the arena while avoiding being in the path of the tail.