This boss is a big bad baby who likes to throw his toys out of his pram and jump up and down having tantrums! However, those tantrums HURT! This boss can be dealt with in a rather straight forward manner by sticking to the basics and turning him away from the group, but there are a LOT of “killshot” mechanics if people don’t pay attention and stick to their base game basics.

General rule of thumb is for the tank to turn the boss away from the group, that of course is obvious to most but still must be said because some spend a long time running around the room. Number 1 rule, NEVER spin the boss on the group.

The group need to be positioned LOOSELY behind the boss making sure they are not strictly stacked. While stacking is something you could technically get away with for the majority of the fight, there are some mechanics that will intentionally require you to separate a bit and if you are too late doing that you will die. Pay close attention to the following mechanics below.

Cleave – This is pretty simple but the boss will cast a big cleave attack and swing his weapon at the tank. Do NOT get in front of this if you are a dps or healer type since this will hit anyone in the cone and you will NOT live through it. The tank must block and this is the main reason why the boss should be faced away from the group!

Heavy Attack – This is pretty straight forward and if you got this far in the game you already know what it does. It hurts! The tank should block this or basically take a one shot.

Fiery Grip– If you are too far away from the boss he will chain you in, don’t run away!

Gryphon and Sea Adder – The boss has a couple of pets in the room. To start with you will have one but over time they will consistently spawn. They have jump attacks which have aoe stun/knockdowns but also hit pretty hard. Whenever they jump and slam the group must BLOCK.

These adds will spawn every 60 seconds, so if you do not kill one within 1 minute you will end up with both in the room at the same time and they will enrage themselves and the boss.

The boss can also heal them within a small AOE radius so this can also be problematic. There is no “dps race/check” as such, but of course the mechanics will start stacking if you do not focus. So i highly recommend FOCUSING these adds over the boss when they are present.

One more thing to note, the boss and the adds will occasionally receive an ice shield. You must damage the enemies to break their shields. You have 16 seconds to do this else they will go BOOM! in close quarter aoe and people will take HUGE damage and/.or die.

Again, your main focus should always be on getting rid of these adds.

NOTE: These adds will stop spawning at 50% health and under.

Totems – Throughout the fight the boss will summon totems! There are four different types and each must be killed as soon as possible. They don’t have a huge amount of health but they need to be considered PRIMARY targets for the group.

The way to spot this mechanic is the boss will channel like he is casting a spell and then raise his hand into the air. During this time he will have one of 4 colours glowing in his hand to represent the TYPE of totems he is spawning. Some are easy to manage, others are deadly. Know which ones you have and co-ordinate based on the appropriate totem.

Harpy Totem (blue) – This will constantly channel moving lightning/wind aoes from the totem randomly in different directions. The group should simply move back and fourth to prevent standing in these aoes while destroying the totem.

Gargoyle Totem (Yellow) – This one is pretty simple, the totem will cast rocks at the group. You need to block these or you will be turned to stone. You MUST break free when you are turned to stone else you will stay stunned.

Dragon Totem (red) – Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know what’s coming with this one! You guessed it…FIRE! These things will turn and face players in the group and emit a MASSIVE flame breath. Do NOT get caught in this. Move around it and get out of the path or die. These can sometimes be responsible for MASS insta wipes.

Poison Totem (Green) – This is the pug killer. This ONE simple mechanic and the main reason to NOT stack in this fight, is the difference between winning and losing. Multiple players (not all) will be surrounded by poison. Which will do damage to them every single second…and also will do damage to ANYONE they touch and overlap the negative aoe with. While this poison can be purged, it is usually too late. Kill that totem, stay AWAY from each other and then get back into position. Whether you co-ordinate splitting up when you see this or stay apart all the time anyway, it’s totally up to you but these totems are an aggressive priority and if you don’t kill it, people are going to be restarting this fight over and OVER! Focus!

Jump – When the boss hits 50% health, for the remainder of the fight he will randomly jump at the person with aggro (should always be the tank). Basically when he jumps in the air, BLOCK it for when he lands on you. Don’t stack too hard because others will get in the way!

Lightning – Much like the environmental lightning on the way TO this fight, there will be constant lightning splashes on players in the group when the boss hits 50% and below and for the remainder of the fight. Don’t stack to tightly and be sure that heals are constant, this will hurt a lot if people start stacking too hard and don’t keep up the heals.

HARDMODE – There are some additions/variations to the above mechanics for hard mode.

IF you fully understand the basics of this fight, hardmode is not that different but you will have to approach it SLIGHTLY different based on ONE major variable. In the room from the very beginning of the fight, not only will the boss have more health but there will be a Shaman type add in the room. THIS target needs to die. It will channel his hands into the air and bring down meteors to individuals (not all players) in the group. When these are fired, the players affected will need to BLOCK! If you don’t block you will be knocked down and take HUGE damage. If you are a squishy, squishy however, you will basically die to a one shot. Don’t mess this up!

Additionally even when this guy is dead, another will spawn between 40-45 seconds later. Constantly throughout the fight.

Some people like to stack and burn the boss like the non hardmode and ignore the mage while simply blocking when the meteors comes down, but that will take some serious coordination and well timed mechanics.

However, a simple way to deal with them, is to MOVE the boss (as the tank) and place it on TOP of the add when it spawns. Each one has an individual spawn point and the easy way to apply this method is to understand that they will spawn in clockwise locations. So if you are facing the boss right now, the first spawn is on the right of you….then turn clockwise, again next one is on the right, and so on and so forth.

This is demonstrated in the video but the method/strategy you apply is 100% up to you.

TIP: Execute…what should you do? Biggest tip i will ever give you in this game and should be applied on ALL boss fights. “keep doing what you are doing!” Changing stuff, shouting “nuke it bro” or panicking like an idiot throwing shapes like you are going out of fashion, literally CAUSES wipes!
You got this far…you have no reason to change what you are doing. Nothing changes. This simple tip will make the difference between a well paced, practiced, mechanically aware clear, and weeks of stress. #FACT! 

This boss is somewhat simple in application but timing is of the essence. People need to understand how and when mechanics happen. Much like the last fight, this is literally 50/50. Meaning 100-50% is one half of the fight, and then 50-0% is the other half. No massively overwhelming awkward health percentages for mechanics. If you can get the boss from 50% to 40%, you can get it to 0% because at that point nothing changes. Just practice and don’t panic. Panic kills people!

So to keep things simple, be sure that that group is in a semi circle formation behind the boss, NOT fully stacked (tight stacking will kill you, spread out but stay in heals). The boss should be held in the middle turned away from the group at all times.

Heavy attack! – This is very simple. Tank, block it! Not blocking will kill you!

Frigid Fog/ICE! – The boss will aim at a player casting a frost aoe on the ground. This can be avoided. However, if anyone is hit by it they will be stunned/frozen and need to break free. The aoe is small but will stay on the ground for a short period of time. IF ANYONE is standing in this, the boss will receive an unbreakable shield during this time. Be sure NOT to stand in this aoe, else you will make the fight last longer!

Shocking Harpoon/conduit – ONCE every 45 seconds the boss will throw his harpoon at the furthest player and it will stick into the ground creating a lightning conduit that must be killed. Over time players will be individually tethered(one after another)  to this with a lightning chain. The longer it is alive the more damage they will take before inevitably killing them. This is an EXTREME PRIORITY target, this MUST be focused. While the health on it is not particularly high, you are only given a few seconds before the tether starts to nuke people in mass. ALWAYS be ready for this and always kill it regardless of whatever else is going on.

TIP: When people are up at the ballistics, this CAN unfortunately land on them there since they are the furthest away. While luck of the draw is something that people sometimes accept and they don’t mind dancing with RNG…try to co-ordinate with the group and time this so that when each one LANDS, that is when people are safe to go use the ballista. Have a good mental or vocal clock in the group to keep an eye on this. If you can fire two ballistas in 45seconds, so be it, but if you are pushing it for time, get BACK before the next spear. Or else you will die up there! More about ballistas below.

Ballista – Near the fight are several barrels with ballista parts in. There are also 2x ballistas in the room, either side of the fight. Players during the fight will need to collect parts in order to FIX the ballistas to fire ONE arrow and then go and get more parts to repair again. This is something people must be familiar with for the following mechanics.

NOTE: You can pick up parts at the beginning or at any time, and hold on to them until you are ready to run to the ballista and use them. So you can ple-plan this. The way to visually know if you have ballista parts with you is that you/or others will be wearing a BIG back pack! Yes many people can do this at once.

Conjurers – During the fight every 45 seconds, a Conjurer will appear on the ship in the sea and channel a portal! This portal will open up next to the group and 3 adds will come through. While these adds do need to be killed, the portal can be utilized by one player and they can jump through it to appear on the boat WITH the conjurer. This player will be required to SOLO kill the add while maintaining their own survivability. However, if players want to help them, they can SHOOT the conjurer from the ballistas! The conjurer will take 2 ballista shots to kill OR one shot and some damage from the individual, or simply, just the solo yolo hero. Send your most capable player onto that boat and your problems are solved.

During this however, the adds on the land will need to be dealt with. It is incredibly important that you recognize the enemy types and their mechanics. TWO archers above all will be in the group and if they dodge roll backwards they will start to channel. INTERRUPT them as soon as possible as your priority mechanic in order to prevent them from finishing this channel. If not, they will enrage!

Also be sure to interrupt the Apothecaries because they will heal the boss. Also watch your feet as they cast fire on the ground.

The conjurers will continue to spawn with the adds and the portal until 50% health of the main boss every 45 seconds.

Shamans – Remember the shaman from the first boss hard mode? Well maybe you did the non hardmode…if so this will be new to you. Pay close attention because this is the game changer!

Under 50% there are NO more Conjurers, No more add portals. Instead there will be shamans that spawn on the boat. A total of x3. These will channel into the air and release meteors at members of the group. If a meteor is on you you MUST block, or you will be stunned/knockedown/killed. More shams mean MORE meteors…

So you guessed it, THIS is where the ballista really comes into play. Both ballistas need to be repaired, fire, repaired fire, over and over and over in order to make sure these are always dead. Each shaman will take ONE shot each but they spawn every 45 seconds and you do not want to get overwhelmed by them. If the ballistas are dealt with efficiently, the meteor mechanic will NEVER happen. If not, you will stagger into a barrage of fireballs and all die.

TIP: Remember that the shock spear/harpoon will be fired every 45 seconds as well as the shamans now spawning every 45 seconds. So while pressure does need to be applied to them, you must also be sure not to yolo off up the cliff when the harpoon is coming. Let it land in the group, THEN run. Remember furthest away is the target. Don’t let that be you!

Lightning Twins – At 50% and under the boss will periodically spawn a Lightning twin of himself next to him. He will tether himself to whoever has aggro of the boss, so make sure 100% that the tank has aggro on the boss, else a player in the group is getting aggro and you CANNOT taunt these! While they are alive they do have basic attacks and cause a minor inconvenience however during the fight if they do not die, others will spawn over and over. This can be done regardless of how many you have spawn but if you are struggling, make it easy on yourself and just kill them. If you are constantly killing these you will still SLOWLY kill the boss anyway and there is no dps check for him personally, you can take as long as you like so long as you are maintaining focus on the other surrounding mechanics.

The one major issue these Lightning twins cause on the group is that it has ONE interruptable mechanic. If he channels, you MUST bash/interrupt him, else he will cast an ice/water wave across the floor in the direction he is facing, causing damage and knocking down those hit. AOE interrupt abilities are great in this situation especially if you end up with more than one of them but this ONE mechanic is simple, and deadly. Consistently fail to interrupt? expect to fail! Bring your basic mechanics to this fight! Always interrupt!

From here nothing in the fight changes. So keep doing what you are doing!

HARDMODE – There are some small differences to hardmode. Firstly the boss of course has more health but there are different adds to cover too.

When the adds come through the portal you will ALSO get Bulwarks. These much like the others in the trash pulls follow a simple mechanic. They carry a protection shield. They themselves are not protected but ANYTHING inside of the shield will NOT take damage until the shield is done. So be sure to heavily focus the bulwark as your main target. Others can STILL be interrupted so don’t skip that part of the mechanics but these must die first, OR be taken out of the group while you kill the others. Since you are on a timer however with them spawning every 45 seconds, it makes sense to get rid of them.

Also one more thing to note during the entire fight lightning will strike random players in the group directly with a tiny aoe attached. DON’T STACK too tight!

This boss is SIMPLE…however, he has a TRUCK LOAD of health! He is BIG!!!

The mechanics require some coordination, focus and understanding much like any other fight, but it is an endurance fight basically. Can you go the distance and perform? or will you get fatigued and fail? That is the real test.

So lets’ talk importance of positioning and tactics for the most part..The boss has ZERO frontal aoe/cleave abilities that affect anyone other than the tank. So it is safe to hold the boss in the middle of the room the majority of the time and not a game changer if people accidentally stand near him. However, keep it simple, if you are not a tank…don’t stand in his face anyway.

Generally for the rest of the group, make a nice wide spread out circle! Do NOT stack in this fight for the majority. It will cause problems. Plenty of space while standing in range of whatever abilities you are using,  and in the heals will make a big difference in this fight. It is designed (no frontal aoe) to make you THINK you can stack and burn. Wrong. Distance is key, find a spot and plant your feet (more on that later).

Claw – The boss will hit the tank with a 20second damage over time ability. This will get stronger and stronger per tick. However, he will cast this a lot, and will actually cancel out the old one with a new one so the tank will rarely get the full effect of it so long as they maintain aggro. So pretty simple to out heal if focused. If this hits a dps or healer however, those final ticks will literally one tick BOOM and kill you. You cannot cleanse it!

Lieutenant Njordal – Around 95% (very early on) this add/miniboss will spawn. The main tank should hold the main boss away from the group. The off tank should grab this and back against a wall. FULL focus damage on this boss from the whole group! Literally circle him like you did the boss, nicely spread out and treat this as your current boss fight until he is dead.

He does have 4 major mechanics and they are simple to understand

Cleave – The boss will cleave with his two hander in the direction of the tank. This DOES have a  conal aoe attached to it so make sure no one else stands in it! This also has a 20second dot applied to anyone hit by it which cannot be purged.

Summoning – The boss will stab his sword into the ground and constantly summon red skeletal fists from the ground ( like the monster set and mechanic from unhallowed Grave). Three of these will burst at once and then constant channels of this will happen over and over until he stops and takes his sword out of the ground. All people need to do is move their feet and avoid the BURST damage that comes from them in small aoe.

Teleport Strike – This is exactly the same as the last boss in Spindleclutch II. The boss will jump from one player to the other hitting them with direct damage. If he teleports to you, BLOCK it. Simple.

Grip! – You will be punished for moving too far away from him! If you do, he will chain you in with an undodgeable unbreakable stun. Watch your feet!

Once the miniboss is dead, go back to the main boss in the middle of the room and resume your original formation/positions.

Lightning pop! – During the fight the boss will target 3 players at once with a shock ability, this is an aoe pulsing shock that WILL hurt other players, so you must NOT stack and must NOT overlap them if you can help it. After 3 seconds they will burst and the players with lightning on them will take shock damage. Anyone caught in these aoes will ALSO take damage, resulting in wipes if people are stupid and panic. Relax, spread out, don’t kill each other. You can position wide so you never need to move, or simply step back a bit so you don’t hit people with it.

NOTE: You cannot block the damage from this but you can apply damage shields to help mitigate some of it as well as resistance and damage mitigation skills/bonuses/cps.

DAISY CHAIN!!! – At 90% health and 80% health the boss will charge up channeling lightning from the sky and every single player will take damage per second. There are 4 conduit/lights in the room (north south east west). Whichever one is currently active, all players need to run to and make a straight line between the conduit and the boss. FAST!! Creating this co-ordinated Daisy Chain will send a shock all the way down the light and POP on the boss. This must be done 4 times so that all conduits explode. Once completed you can resume positions as usual.

NOTE: The boss takes MUCH less damage during this time and also you should have your healers play heavy heals during this phase to cover up for any slack while drawing that line (yes some people can mess this up so always come prepared!).

Every body want’s to be a cat! – At 70% we have what i like to call the Aristocats mechanic! This is where you basically smash through the floor (much like the piano scene in the movie, see video  ). When you land on the next floor you will be greeted bye one of EACH of the Vampire lords/knights and have to kill them all before the boss joins you.

The 3 enemy types you HAVE seen before now however they do all have their own mechanics.

Crimson Knight – This is the BIG one, he can enrage and grow to the size of the boss. When he does this his swipes hit VERY hard, no one should be standing in front of this guy but the tank and you need some BIG heals!

Bitter Knight – This add can imprison a player. You need to attack the prison and break them free before they explode and die. If you are not sure what to look for or are generally overwhelmed by many things going on at once, put subtitles on! It will tell you when a player is imprisoned.

Blood Knight – This boss will cast a large blood cross shape on the floor. When this happens be sure to BLOCK it! You can shield and you can block but you cannot dodge it! Damage taken from this will apply a 7 second damage overtime to the players and will get stronger per tick. Be sure the healers are awake and on point!

NOTE: Each add killed will grant their power to the other knights, so try to kill them all at the same time to prevent duplicated mechanics.

Also note for the remainder of the fight the BOSS now absorbs these mechanics. So a shade of the knights will appear periodically with a random mechanic of each. However, while there is no Knight to empower anymore, instead, the BOSS will get it! Making him hit very hard and grow HUGE!

Break prisons, watch feet, big heals!

Hemorrhage and Blood orb – During the fight the boss will cast red blood visual type debuffs on each player for 30seconds. During this time try NOT to move. Every step you take will cause HUGE damage. Moving players will DIE! So only move if you really really must, and only if it is a VERY short distance. Big heals will be required here.

During this time a BIG red blood blob will appear. Anyone caught under this will take damage. It is blockable but you do NOT want to be anywhere near this if you can help it. The aoe from it is very small range wise but avoid it all the same.

Coagulants – During the above phase coagulants will spawn and move slowly to the middle of the room towards the Blood orb! Each one that makes it to the orb will empower it. After the Above phase is over the orb will burst and do damage to all players based on how many coagulants made it to the middle. Be sure you have PLENTY of heals and damage mitigation in case your damage is not high enough to get rid of a lot of them during the phase.

Once it explodes are LARGE coagulant will spawn and must be killed but CAN be taunted. Be aware of it’s frontal cleave, no dps or healer should be standing near it.

Aristocats part II? – The above mechanics will be rinse repeat for as long as it takes until you hit 35%, THEN the floor will break again down to the final area! FUN! Now the final mechanics come in.

The blood mechanics no longer happen down here, nor does the lightning. Instead he is FULL empower mode. He will heal up to 40% health and now it is basically stack and burn with massive heals. BUT there is of course ONE more major mechanic to consider aside from the fact the boss’s swipe/heavy attacks hit harder. You now have to deal with prisoners and torturers.

Victims and Torturers – During the fight downstairs (every 50seconds) the boss will release the mist above your head and around the area and there will be a 2 victims and 2 torturers.

The boss will have orbs directing you to where to go, so follow these and act fast. Basically you are looking for an enemy to kill. You can split up onto small groups to go and kill two torturers and then come back again but MUST understand how this works.

The adds have 1mil health each so the DPS check is very very low. You have 30seconds to kill them.

IF you kill both Torturers, the victims will help you in the fight. If you FAIL, then they will jump into the fight and cast HARD hitting two hander attacks. Meaning you must now kill these and they are buffed vs their upstairs version. The choice is yours but i would recommend killing this nice and quick upstairs and make the fight easier for yourself.

SMASH!!!!!!!!!! – Position is everything, KEEP that boss near the middle of the room. If he is anywhere near the stairs, he will SMASH them and the room will come crushing down effectively on everyone. It is a GROUP wipe. You must keep him in the main pit/area.

Execute – Since you know all of the above mechanics you are of course basically in execute mode now. Keep doing what you are doing, KEEP following the mechanics, and it doesn’t matter HOW long this takes. However, there is ONE major thing you MUST be aware of. The boss is now constantly pulsing aoe damage at the group, and it hits VERY hard! You must be sure that the group has huge heals for the rest of the fight. Keep up those damage mitigation bonuses and keep up those heals.

NOTE: It is aoe damage so aoe damage mitigation skills, bonuses and CPs DO apply!

HARDMODE! – There are not many MAJOR differences in hardmode but there is already a lot going on so adding more spice can be tricky, but the changes are important!

Grasp/Skeletal fists – The miniboss now casts the Skeletal fist/grasp mechanic with 6 skeletal fists instead of 3.

Lightning – The main lightning aoe damage mechanic is now on 6 people not 3.

Heavy/Swipe Attack – At the last phase the boss’s cross swipe/heavy attack places a blood orb which should be avoided. it has a small aoe to it and will stay in the room for the rest of the fight.

DEATH SEEKERS! (Resurrection mechanic) –  If you are at the top floor or the second floor and you resurrect another player, you will be dragged down to the lowest level and have to find your way out via a portal so you can rejoin the fight! If you are attacked by any enemies down there you MUST dodge roll their attacks, but above all get back quick. If anything down there hits you, you are dead!

On hard mode the boss and the miniboss have a MASSIVE amount more health, but generally the mechanics exeluding the additional above ones, are EXACTLY the same. You would be surprised how a couple of small differences can make that much of an impact, but it can. So practice practice.

There are technically no DPS checks in this fight and even the Prisoners section is really low. It’s just LONG. So get stuck in people, and GOOD LUCK!