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Nightmare (CM)

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To start the Challenge Mode a player who has completed all Nightmare achievements must interact with the Challenge Mote to spawn the Harbinger of Woe who will ask the party whether they want to turn Challenge Mode mode on. If you kill the kraits in the little area below the Mote just like during normal mode, the Challenge Mode won’t get activated.

You should be familiar with the Normal Mode version of this fractal before starting CM.

Commence to the main open area where you’ll engage 3 Champion Assault Knights, once they are killed the first boss will spawn. You might often see groups skipping the first group of mobs while Challenge Mode is being activated by jumping over the force field before it’s disabled. Jump is pretty easy, but beware of a vertical piece of wood near the end of the ramp, you will have to jump around it. 

M.A.M.A.

M.A.M.A follows a four-part phase. Boss will spawn with no vulnerability and a breakbar.

Before MAMA spawns for the first time, you have to defeat three Champion Clockworks. It’s very common for groups to kill them and instantly use /gg and restack all boons at singularity.

M.A.M.A. will spawn with a breakbar and will regenerate it throughout the fight multiple times.

Because the first breakbar lines up with a large AoE CC knockback attack she will be channeling, the group should destroy the break-bar before the animation finishes to interrupt the knockback. If you get hit by the attack and don’t have Aegis, 7 stacks of Burning will be applied.

Every 25%, M.A.M.A. will gain invulnerability and a Champion Clockwork enemy will join the fight. Destroy the Champion in order to deal damage again to M.A.M.A.

The champions that spawn have (among other attacks) 2 large AoE attacks worth noting, both of which involve CC, so Stability and Aegis are extremely useful in this encounter.

At around 33%. M.A.M.A. will spawn a large red pool of AoE damage, this version is extremely painful compared to the normal mode and not one you can simply tank damage in, the Poisoned it applies makes it even harder to overheal. Move out of the AoE as soon as the animation begins to channel.

Some of the attacks the boss will do include:

Cannon barrage

The boss will shoot multiple projectiles at players, indicated with orange AoE’s.

Slam Attack

The boss will channel an angled CC knockback attack and repeat the attack in a clockwise direction. This attack will start on the opposite side boss is facing.

Jump Strike

The boss will target a player and aim to jump on them dealing devastating damage while sending out multiple shockwaves that CC pushback players.

Direct Projectiles

M.A.M.A. shoots a row of orbs at the players. This attack has two variants, a series of red orbs that deal heavy physical damage and a series of green orbs that spawn poison fields. The sequence of attacks can variate but usually, it’s either two sets of red orbs, 1 set of poison orbs then followed by more red orbs. These attacks usually go on repeat when a player is at the range during the Clockwork phase until the players get near M.A.M.A. again causing her to start using the melee range attacks again.


After MAMA is defeated, progress down the hallway and engage and defeat a group of mobs including some Elite Krait that are guarding the 2 capture points on the left and right sides, capture them.

Further down the hallway, there will be 4 Elite Krait and a single Elite Krait in each of the 3 capture points. It is advised to defeat all enemies in this room. Capture the points and progress to the next boss.

Note: There will be un-blockable projectiles shot at party members close to the central capture point. The projectiles shoot once at players taking turns. Completing the side capture points removes this mechanic.

Siax the Corrupted

When interacting with the orb, hallucinations will start spawning and attack. There are two types of hallucinations, Marjory utilizing Necromancer’s Axe attacks and Kasmeer utilizing Mesmer’s Staff attacks. Moments after, the hallucinations will despawn and Siax will arise from the ground.

Usually group triggers the Hallucinations and as soon as boss emerges, everyone /gg to stack boons at singulariry.

After emerging from the ground, the boss starts channeling a devastating attack. A break-bar will spawn which you’ll need to destroy to interrupt this attack. During this attack, he will shoot multiple orbs in four directions that need to be avoided. This attack deals 100% of your health pool meaning that if you fail the breakbar, the barrier can be utilized to prevent losing the mistlock buff or going downstate.

Periodically Vomit Toxin and Hallucination spawns will begin. Siax will channel a slow expanding AoE on a player, if players do not have Aegis or Dodge at the end of the animation, an Elite Hallucination will spawn and tether to the player. Vomit Toxic will be shot at the furthest player away from the boss.

Toxic Blast

Siax will periodically do a frontal tail swipe followed by Toxic Blast attack that spawns 3 poison fields.

This attack can be prevented from ever happening if at least one player will remain in front of him during tail swipe (ideally using Aegis to avoid the damage), if there is no one standing in front, Siax will perform Toxic Blast.

Once at 66%. The boss will gain invulnerability and 4 Veteran enemies will spawn located North, South, East, West. All Veteran enemies must die to make Siax vulnerable again. It’s very common to see players mark minimap before the fight, to pick their Veteran to kill, usually support players pair up on one veteran and each of the remaining dps players takes one.

DPS the boss down to 33% and the same 4 Veteran enemies will spawn again, however, the spawn locations will shift clockwise slightly, assigned players should follow a clockwise pattern meaning West go North, North goes West, and so on. Kill the Veteran mobs and go back to Siax to finish him off.

Ensolyss

Ensolyss is a four-phase boss, engage him by interacting with the orange orb. On challenge mode, the edge of the platform is covered in poison from the beginning of the encounter.

Players usually /gg after Siax to reset their cooldowns, but without triggering Ensolyss first, group will respawn at previous checkpoint, that’s why you will usually see groups starting Ensolyss and instantly resetting.

Right after spawning, Ensolyss will gain a breakbar for a brief moment, experienced groups will aim to break it instantly to gain Exposed debuff before the boss does the shield bubble attack, but the time window is very short.

If CC is missed after a brief moment he will start channeling a powerful AoE attack which requires players to stand inside the shield that spawns during this attack, the attack channels faster than on normal mode.

If you fail the breakbar before the shield, he will regain it after the channeled attack is over.

It’s advised to be on the side or behind Ensolyss during the encounter to avoid his auto-attacks. Most of his attacks are frontal cleave that deal a fair amount of damage and 5 stacks of Bleeding each hit.

Boss will periodically do a slam attack knocking back players and followed by 1-5 (depending on the number of players in the fight) hallucinations spawning with AoEs under them. These AoEs will detonate about a second later.

When Ensolyss begins his hallucination slam attack there are two ways to avoid this:

  • Dodge inwards avoiding the first part of the attack and the shockwave that spawns then dodge again to avoid the hallucination strike that spawns shortly after the first attack.
  • Dodge outwards avoiding the first strike, dodge over the shockwave and continue moving outwards to avoid the hallucination strike.

When Ensolyss begins his charge attack, players must be ready to Dodge to avoid heavy damage and not get knocked into the poisoned edges. Boss will teleport to the furthest player (when he wants to, sometimes he remains on edge wondering about his life). If all players stack near the center, Ensolyss should teleport back just fine and the group can start attacking once again.

At 66%, Ensolyss will gain invulnerability and players will be granted with a bullet hell of red orbs while having to capture 5 capture points. All points must be completed in order to engage Ensolyss again.

Note: If any player dies during the bullet hell phase, as long as the phase is completed by any single player, all players will be resurrected.

Upon completing the bullet hell, Ensolyss will spawn in the middle with a breakbar and channel a powerful attack. Players must break the defiance bar as fast as possible. The channeled attack also shoots multiple projectiles around, similar to Siax the Corrupted and conic AoE knockbacks. If you fail to CC you will get killed, the barrier will not save you from this attack, unlike other detonation mechanics in Fractals.

Past 66%, Ensolyss will gain a new attack ‘Tail Swipe’ which involves the boss doing a two-attack fast knockback attack that can push players into the outer poison field of the platform.

Upon reaching 33%, the same bullet hell will spawn with a new starting pattern. Complete the capture points and engage Ensolyss again. The same powerful AoE attack will also spawn shortly after completing the bullet hell.

At 15%, the boss will teleport north and will cover the majority of the platform in poison while doing a channeled animation. During this phase, Ensolyss is permanently Exposed. Players must be in the middle where a shield will spawn for safety. Mobs will dash across from multiple directions that will knock you out of the shield into the poison. Finish off the boss and complete the fractal.
In case you have damage to do 33% to 15% before breaking the defiance bar, Ensolyss will skip the 4th phase, won’t go to the side or increase the poison area, and will continue with his normal attacks pattern.

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