Guide:Raid Wing 8 - Mount Balrior

This guide provides tips and strategies for the eighth raid in Guild Wars 2. If your group is struggling, the guidelines in Introduction to Raiding might be useful. Check out the glossary page if you're not familiar with a term used in this guide and make sure to run an optimal build from our list of recommended builds for this encounter.

Introduction

The starting area is covered by scattered titanspawn, but they do not need to be killed, so just ride past them up the mountain until you hear yelling.

Glenna has got herself in trouble again and needs rescuing. Defeating the titanspawn here will unlock the base camp checkpoint. The enemies here hit astonishingly hard for trash mobs, so it's recommended to go in as a group.

Once cleared, two paths open to the east and the west, each leading to a boss. Unfortunately, a legendary creature blocks the path in each direction. These bosses serve to introduce some of the mechanics in the upcoming boss, but have to be completed each time (though there is a method to skip most of the Blighted Beast fight).

Legendary Blighted Beast

To the east, is a Legendary Blighted Beast and three Empowering Beasts. As long as the Empowering Beasts live, they will regularly buff the Blighted Beast with Empowered, increasing the damage it deals. As such, it is important to kill them first.

Legendary Sentient Conduit

To the west, the area surrounding this legendary is covered by regular enemies. They do not have to be killed, but they can be a nuisance when fighting the Legendary Sentient Conduit so it may be best to clear them out first. The main mechanics of note in this fight are the purple barriers that trap you and knock you back if you try to cross them. There is also a mechanic that drops several medium-sized AoEs on each player, making it very dangerous to stack - the Decima encounter strongly incentivises splitting the group so making sure the squad has a good number of ranged builds is advisable.

Greer, the Blightbringer

It is extremely beneficial to bring projectile defense to this encounter as it can mitigate a lot of the mechanics, including [some/one] that provides the boss with stacks of Empowered.

Condition cleanse is also very useful as most of the attacks inflict conditions and some can corrupt boons as well.

Setup

Before starting the fight, you should have an idea of how to approach it as there are three targets and moving between them can be quite dangerous.

In the middle is the main boss, Greer. To the south is Reeg, and to the north-west is Gree. Each of these minibosses has half of Greer's moveset, but during the opening phase they will not move. This means they will limit themselves to throwing the occasional ranged attack unless they are engaged in melee. Greer, meanwhile, will move to attack the group if he is not occupied. There are a number of ways this encounter could be approached, but it is recommended to have a player to tank Greer.

The phasing in this encounter is unusual:

• If engaged immediately at the start, both Gree and Reeg will phase at 75% and become untargetable.
• Greer will phase at 65%, then become invulnerable and both Gree and Reeg will reappear in new location.
• To attack Greer again, the minibosses must be phased to 50% - they will not phase at 75% health at this point and they can also move, so if the whole squad moves to attack one, the other will come to you.
• Once both minibosses are phased to 50%, Greer will become vulnerable again, and both minibosses will respawn in their original locations.
• If engaged in this phase, both Gree and Reeg will phase at 25% and become untargetable.
• Greer will phase once more at 35%, becoming invulnerable as Gree and Reeg appear in their second locations.
• In this phase, the minibosses must both be killed and as before they can move.
• The final phase is against Greer alone.

This arena is very large, and all the bosses can use very dangerous attacks - moving haphazardly is therefore very risky and people should stick together to stay safe. As such, it is more efficient from both an offensive and defensive view to minimise running around by engaging Greer first, but the correct approach is alway the one that works for your group. That said, the following approaches are more recommended than others:

1. Everyone head to Greer in the main phases.
2. Try to phase Reeg quickly, then all move to Greer - if Greer stays in their starting location, then Gree's attacks will barely reach the group, making them easy to avoid. Reeg's meanwhile are much longer range and more dangerous, so taking them out quickly can be a safe approach. Optionally, you can have one player tank Greer, but the aggro is easy to lose and the tank is not immune to any mechanics so the job is quite difficult.

The benefit to taking Gree out early is minimal, so it is not recommended to deal with them before the main split phase.

Finally, in the split phases it's worth everyone going to one of the minibosses as the other will join you and they don't pose much threat even together. Of course, if the group does struggle then splitting is still fine. If you engaged Reeg first in the main phase, then starting on Gree in the split is efficient as they will be at higher health.

When the second main phase starts, just repeat the approach you used in the first.

Tanking

Greer can be tanked, but unlike other raid bosses there is no reliable fixation mechanic. Instead, Greer will focus on the closest player in front of him. As there is no clear indicator of what is considered "in front" and some of Greer's attacks cause him to swing, it can be hard to maintain aggro if the rest of the group is not sufficiently behind him, and hard to regain aggro if he starts targeting others.

The most reliable way is to tank inside Greer's hitbox. This allows you to sidestep his auto chain and keeps you relatively close to the rest of the group (as it is most efficient to have a healer be the tank, this makes it easier to provide support). Unfortunately, Greer's hitbox is covered by an that ticks for a small amount of damage and applies Poison. The damage isn't much concern, but the Poison reduces your healing and thus makes it harder to recover when you take more significant damage.

Other considerations:

• will be created very close to your location, making it harder to dodge if you're a target, and will likely travel through your position on the way to the stack regardless.
• You will either need to be reliable at dodging , or require a player to quickly run to your location if you're targeted, or for you to run to the stack. Either can mess with tanking.
• hits hard and you won't really be able to get out of the AoE. It is beneficial to keep a dodge available, so being able to block one or both of the two initial stomps will be very helpful. The can be jumped as long as you're not too close to the center of the AoE.
• The first parts of occur at 90 degrees to where you should be, giving you enough warning to avoid the attack without needing to dodge. You may need to move back a bit so there's space to stand.

Greer

Regardless of strategy, as you start the encounter Greer will fire . This attack does have a maximum range, so depending on how spread out the group is it may not target the absolute furthest players.

Blob of Blight

Greer targets the three most distant targets within range and creates a trio of spheres in front of him that track their targets for up to 12 seconds, firing out damaging projectiles in all directions as they move. The three players will have a blue targetting effect on them, and a repeated "clunk" audio cue will play as the spheres are prepared.

The small projectiles deal moderate damage and apply a stack each of Poison and Torment, but they can be destroyed by [projectile defense?]. The spheres themselves deal moderate damage, Launch the player, corrupt five boons, and inflict three stacks each of Poison and Torment. If the sphere hits their target, it will remain in position for five seconds, continuing to fire out projectiles [does projectile defense cease to work?].

While travelling, any player can dodge or [invuln] through a sphere in order to destroy it [does block or invuln work?], but they should be careful not to get hit by other spheres that may be behind it. The sphere cannot be destroyed until it starts moving, so it is unreliable to destroy them where they are created.

This attack will repeat after 120 seconds. Due to typical phase timings, it's likely to be the first attack used in phase 2 as well, though it's often delayed in phase 3 for some reason.

Scattering Sporeblast

Greer fires a at all players in front of him at huge range, dealing moderate damage with each hit. The sheer number of attacks can easily down a group, so [projectile defense] is hugely beneficial

Green can repeat this attack every 17-18 seconds, but he is less likely to do so if there are targets in melee range.

Eruption of Rot

Greer targets two random players with a medium-sized green AoE that empties of color over eight seconds. After this, if there are two or more players (including the target) inside the green, it will deal moderate damage to those players. If not, Greer will gain two stacks of [empowered] and a spawns on the targetted player, launching players and inflicting Bleeding and Poison as well Infectious Rot - a pulsing red AoE that surrounds the player and constantly applies Poison to those inside it. This effect lasts for 20 seconds, but is removed if the player is downed. If that weren't enough, a spawns at the location of the original , lasting for five seconds and ticking a small amount of damage and corrupting boons.

In addition to the horrorshow above, standing in two greens at the same time will instantly down a player, and each of the minibosses can use the attack as well - potentially resulting in four occurring at once. The miniboss version of this attack will target a single player, and players have 10 seconds to stand in the green.

Surprisingly, the can be dodged, mitigating the threat if the player has good enough timing, though it still leaves a behind and Greer still gets [empowered].

In the final phase, this will target three players, but you no longer have to worry about additional uses from the minibosses.

Greer's version has a cooldown of 120 seconds, so like , you're likely to only see it once near the start of each phase. The minibosses' version has a cooldown of 75 seconds.

Sweep the Mold → Rake the Rot → Stomp the Growth

Greer's basic attack chain is a three-part move where he first sweeps his right arm in a cone attack that deals heavy damage, Knockback, and inflicts two stacks each of Bleeding and Poison. The next attack sweeps his left arm in a similar pattern, also dealing heavy damage, Knockback, and inflicting Cripple and two stacks of Poison.

The final attack in the chain is a series of three stomps in a large AoE centred on the "tank". The first two deal heavy damage and two stacks each of Poison and Vulnerability, while the final launches out a that deals heavy damage and corrupts eight boons in addition to inflicting Poison and Vulnerability.

The first two attacks can be dodged or blocked, while the wave can be jumped or dodged.

Greer may occasionally use another attack before .

Enfeebling Miasma

Greer's breathes out poison in a pattern of three massive conal AoEs in front of him. Each hit corrupts four boons as well as inflicting Weakness and six stacks of Poison. A pattern of circular AoEs that apply the same effect linger in the area for 13 seconds.

After the initial attack, there are gaps between the circular AoEs that allow you to move through the cloud safely.

Like many attacks, this has a cooldown of 120 seconds, so you're likely to only see it once per phase.

Cage of Decay

A spread of arrow indicators appear in front of Greer, and almost immediately a slow-moving ripple of thorns travels along the arrows, dealing moderate damage, Knockback, and inflicting a stack each of Bleeding and Poison. The movement is slow enough that a player knocked back into the path can easily be hit again if they don't have a stunbreak. When the ripples reach the end of the arrows, they create a that applies [Plague rot] - a nastier version of Infectious Rot that will additionally apply Infectious Rot to any player that touches your AoE. If you pick up this effect, you will need to stay away from other players until it expires (it lasts 25 seconds). You will get this effect even if you dodge or use invulnerability to avoid the damage and boon corruption.

Like many attacks, this has a cooldown of 120 seconds, so you're likely to only see it once per phase.

The final two attacks used by Greer are less common to see, as they require Greer not to have a valid target for other attacks. So in practise you may not see them from Greer, but the minibosses may use them.

Ripples of Rot

If Greer can't "see" someone in front of him, he will jump to the closest player, sending out a wave of thorns in all directions similar to . As the thorns reach the outer limit of the AoE, a ring of thorn barriers will be created that block projectiles and prevent movement. Attempting to pass through the barriers will deal moderate damage and inflict a stack each of Bleeding and Poison.

As Greer starts facing the entrance to the arena, he will prefer to walk into melee rather than using , though it may be a consideration when finishing the split phases.

The second attack will be aimed at distant players, but it seems to be low priority so in all likelihood Greer will have closed to melee range before it would use it

Rain of Spores

Greer will thrust his hands into the earth, Launching any players at the impact point. He then targets the three most distant players and hurls a cascade of spores at them, covering the ground in between with AoEs that deal moderate damage and inflict three stacks each of Confusion and Poison.

Although each AoE is not too dangerous, the sheer number of them can make this attack devastating if there isn't projectile defense.

Rot the World

At 80% health, Greer will become invulnerable, gain a defiance bar (strength: 6000) and start channelling , which constantly fires out AoEs dealing moderate damage until he's broken.

Although the skill tooltip suggests a penalty for failing to break the bar, players have over 30 seconds to do so, making failure very unlikely (if indeed it can be failed).

Upon being broken, Greer loses 10 stacks of [empowered] and becomes Exposed for 10 seconds, and two fly off from Greer, dealing moderate damage on impact and spawning two [empowering beasts].

This attack is repeated at 50% and 20%, each time spawning one additional Empowering Beast.

Given that the Empowering Beasts are slow to apply [empowered], it is worth continuing to focus on Greer until Exposed disappears.

Gree & Reeg

The two minibosses each have a selection of Greer's attacks, though typically less powerful versions. They also both have an ability called where they fire a medium-sized orb at Greer, granting him two stacks of [empowered] if it hits. These orbs will Knockback players they hit, but they can be blocked, making projectile defense even more essential. [do regular blocks also work?]. The minibosses will fire an orb every ~15 seconds, and both fire at the same time.

As a reminder, both minibosses will use . Their version has a cooldown of 75 seconds and only targets one player, but is otherwise the same.

Their other abilities are as follows:

Gree

During the main phases, Gree will use - this version has a cooldown of 75 seconds. If you fight Greer in his starting location, this attack can just about reach the group, and when combined with Greer's own version, can shut down a lot of the safe space.

During the split phases, Gree will use around every 35-45 seconds. It also uses the → → chain, though the final attack does not create the corrupting wave.

It can also use , but in this case it will target distant players instead and can be used even if Gree can see targets.

Reeg

During the main phases, Reeg will use . Unlike Gree's , this attack can easily reach the group if you fight Greer in his starting location.

During the split phases, Reeg will use and . Interestingly, Reeg will use at the start of the phase even when it is so far from the group that the spheres despawn before they reach their targets, effectively skipping the mechanic if you start the split phase on Gree.

Reeg can use the → → chain, but seems to do so very rarely and will often interrupt itself.

If you choose to focus on one of the minibosses first, they will become invulnerable and stop attacking when they reach 75% health.

Split Phase 1 (65%)

At 65% health, Greer will become untargetable and throw up a shield that protects him from further damage. Players will be Launched away if they are too close. Shortly after, Gree and Reeg will relocate - Gree to the northeast of the arena, and Reeg to the southwest. These positions are the same in both split phases so you can start moving immediately to where they will eventually spawn. Both minibosses will use extra attacks in the split phase - see the previous section for details.

While you could split into two teams to take the minibosses on at the same time, they will both move into melee range and stack close together, allowing for some cleave damage. For this reason it is recommended to focus on one of them and let the other walk in.

If you phased one of the minibosses earlier, then target the other as their health will not reset and the time it takes for them to close the gap will help balance them. Otherwise, you can pick whichever you prefer.

Starting on Gree is probably safer due to removing the threat of Reeg's and Gree's attacks being more disruptive making it beneficial to take it out first.

Meanwhile, starting on Reeg may be slightly faster as Gree closes the gap quickly and will jump directly to the group whereas Reeg likes to stand nearby and fire projectiles, so starting on Reeg will stack the minibosses better for better cleaving.

When a miniboss reaches 50% health they will disappear, and when both are gone, a new main phase will start.

Phase 2

As the phase starts, Greer becomes vulnerable once more, and Gree and Reeg respawn at the same locations they were in at the start of the fight. It is generally recommended to follow the same strategy you used in phase one, but be aware of which way Greer is facing, as he may use if there is no-one in sight.

As Greer's big attacks all have a cooldown of 120 seconds, you'll likely only see each of them once in Phase 1, and a group that is slow enough to see them more than once is very unlikely to be able to kill the boss before it enrages. In addition, a group would have to be very fast for Phase 1 and Split Phase 1 to be finished in under 120 seconds. This means most groups will start Phase 2 will all of Greer's cooldowns available once more, and he will likely perform a similar sequence of attacks as in Phase 1.

In other words, expect him to immediately use .

Otherwise, Phase 2 plays out very similarly to Phase 1 with the exception that at 50% health, Greer will use , and this time it spawns three [empowering beasts] when broken.

If attacking the Minibosses, they will disappear at 25% health.

Split Phase 2 (35%)

This split phase is functionally identical to the first split phase except you will be killing both minibosses.

Phase 3

Both minibosses are now dead, so this final phase is actually the easiest, with the only changes being that now targets three people and four [empowering beasts] will spawn after at 20% health. Unless you're playing it very safe, you can probably ignore the beasts as they won't have much time to buff the boss before it dies.

Decima, the Stormsinger

While not strictly necessary, many groups split the squad into a melee and a ranged group at this encounter. This is because later phases feature a mechanic that targets the five most distant players while simultaneously making it harder to deal with another mechanic, meaning you want the same five players to be consistently targeted. Decima also has an attack that instantly downs players inside her hitbox, making it risky to have one group stand inside her while the other group can still be at max melee range.

As such, the most reliable method is to have one group that can perform well outside of melee range.

The mechanics in this fight often interact with each other, so it's valuable to understand every part even if it's not directly relevant to your role.

Kiting

In addition, throughout the fight the most distant player will be targeted by:

Fluxlance

Starting 12 seconds into the fight, Decima targets the most distant player with a - an orange arrow indicator tracks the player, and after five seconds it will fire and deal moderate damage to anyone along the line of the indicator. If a player is stood behind one of the conduits around the arena, it will absorb the attack, but charge the conduit.

At this attack begins, Decima will consume her stacks of 24px Peal of Harmony, and charge the nearest uncharged conduits to the kiter for each stack. She starts the encounter with five stacks, and gains an additional stack for every 5% of health lost.

She will also consumer her stacks of 24px Peal of Discord, with one of the closest players to her getting a medium-sized AoE called that detonates for moderate damage after five seconds. Players with this mechanic should spread out to avoid hitting players multiple times, but be aware that it will charge a conduit if hit by the AoE so this is more important to avoid. Decima gains five stacks for every 10% health lost, which means that depending on your DPS, you can end up with all ten players getting the AoE. The damage from this attack can be dodged, allowing this mechanic to be ignored if the group is confident.

These effects only occur when there is an orange . This is every occurence in later phases, but only every other in Phase 1.

If a player is hit, they will also gain an effect called 24px Galvanic Sensitivity which significantly increases the damage you take from (green AoEs).

Every other time this attack occurs, the arrow indicator will instead be bright red. This will instantly kill any player it hits, so the only way for the targeted player to survive is to hide behind a conduit.

This attack occurs every ~17 seconds.

It is extremely useful for the kiter to have some kind of teleport skill, as this can ensure they are always able to get behind a conduit for the red arrow even if s block your path.

With a low enough cooldown, this can also be used on the orange arrow to take it away from the group.

Conduits

As each phase starts the arena becomes covered by a pattern of conduits. These take the form of three rings of six conduits each and while the pattern is fixed, each phase randomizes its rotation. This doesn't affect playstyle much, but means that fixed markers cannot be relied on.

As the fight starts, three s spawn between conduits on the innermost ring. The area directly between the checkpoint and the boss will be clear and the fences appear between alternate pairs of conduits. These fences block movement and deal a moderate amount of damage to anyone that hits them.

20 seconds into the first phase, the fences will swap to cover the current gaps. If the kiter does not move, they may benefit from making sure they're in front of the conduits so they are not cut off from the squad.

In phase 2, the fences will form curved lines between three conduits, each inner conduit connecting to the closest conduit anti-clockwise in the middle ring, then from this conduit to the closest anti-clockwise in the outer ring.

Approximately 20 seconds after the first fences appear, three more will appear between alternating pairs of the inner ring. Which pairs connect is random. After approximately 20 seconds they will disappear again, but the original fences will remain.

In phase 3, fences will connect all adjacent conduits in the inner ring, enclosing the group. This is in addition to the fence pattern from the start of phase 2.

Approximately 15 seconds after these fences appear appear, alternating fences on the inner ring will disappear, while new ones appear connecting alternating pairs of conduits in the outer ring. Both of these pairs are random.

In all phases, the fences will switch back and forth between the two patterns - after the pattern is selected, it will not change within a phase.

Every time a conduit is charged, it will gain a red damaging AoE called . The more times it is charged, the larger the AoE [and the more damage it deals?].

If a conduit receives three charges, all players will become Exposed, and Decima will gain five stacks each of 24px Peal of Discord and 24px Peal of Harmony. [do these buffs actually do anything in NM?]

At various points in the fight, each charged conduit will release a green that slowly moves towards the boss. Each spark that reaches Decima gives her a stack of Template:Charge, which increases the damage of 24px Thrumming Precense and . If she reaches 10 stacks, it will cause a raid wipe.

To prevent a spark reaching Decima, players must stand in the green AoE, which will cause it to stop moving and both it and the players will take damage. After ~4.5 seconds, the spark will disappear. More people standing in the AoE will cause it to disappear faster, and a player can stand in multiple sparks at once (taking damage from each one). The damage from standing in a spark is low unless the player has 24px Galvanic Sensitivity, in which case it's enough to down a player in seconds.

For each charge a conduit has, it will release a larger spark. These larger sparks require more players to stand in them (indicated by the number of small triangles appearing above each spark), but do not seem to take notably longer to disappear. This could make it efficient for the kiter to charge conduits to two stacks each in order to reduce the total number of sparks, but in later phases the larger greens can cause issues for the ranged players as they are harder to avoid. It's also important to avoid ever letting a conduit reach three stacks.

Strategy

Decima surrounds herself with 24px Thrumming Presence as the fight starts, indicated by a faint red outline. This deals a small amount of damage every second, but more importantly it applies 24px Harmonic Sensitivity to players inside the AoE which causes them to take additional heavy damage if they get hit by .

Getting hit by removes 24px Harmonic Sensitivity and applies 24px Galvanic Sensitivity for 30 seconds. Notably, this debuff prevents you receiving 24px Harmonic Sensitivity, so kiting players can stand inside the 24px Thrumming Presence with minimal drawbacks after the first of each phase.

Shortly after, Decima performs → - a series of stomp attacks followed by a cascading series of cone attacks surrounding her. The first two stomps cover half of her hitbox each, so can be sidestepped if you're quick enough. All attacks deal heavy damage and the last hit applies Cripple, but there's a long gap afterwards before she attacks again, so players shouldn't need to worry too much about avoiding them.

12 seconds into the phase, the most distant player is targeted by . Players in the group should be careful not to stand in the arrow as it will deal a lot of damage and essentially make them unable to deal with another mechanic later.

Immediately after, the pattern will change.

Seismic Crash and Earthrend

Approximately two seconds after hits, Decima attack, creating an orange AoE directly underneath her that instantly downs anyone inside it [or is it just a lot of damage? - what mitigates it?]

There are two different attacks, both with the same orange AoE. The order she uses them in is random, but they will always be used one after the other.

(shown above) causes a series of ring AoEs to appear around the boss she she jumps in the air, hitting players for heavy damage and knocking them back as she slams down.

causes her to spin in place, while covering the outer part of the arena with bright orange AoEs. Getting hit by these will deal heavy damage and knock players towards Decima.

The knockback distance in either case is significant, making it likely the player will bounce into a , taking even more damage as they bounce off. For in particular, there is a risk of knocked players being targeted by if they don't move back quickly enough.

Players don't really have any reason to be in the outer AoE of , so the main risk of this attack is getting knocked into it by .

It is very useful for group Aegis or Stability to be provided for , and/or for players to dodge the knockback if they lack trust.

Coinciding with (regardless of which attack was used first), a set of will be released (see the Conduits section).

Immediately after the second attack, occurs again, this time the red version.

Decima will now repeat her attack pattern from the start of the phase.

Split Phase 1 (75%)

When Decima reaches 75% health, she will become immune to damage (though not clear her conditions), and lose all stacks of 24px Peal of Discord and 24px Peal of Harmony. Players will also lose their 24px Harmonic Sensitivity and 24px Galvanic Sensitivity.

Decima's defiance bar (strength: 8000) will unlock, and all charged conduits will start releasing a stream of sparks. As before, she will gain a stack of Template:Charge for each that reaches her, but it will also cause the defiance bar to instantly refill.

When the bar is broken, there will be a few more seconds where sparks are still active, then Decima will detonate all charged pylons, dealing low damage to all players for each one with , followed by a final hit of moderate damage from .

Phase 2

As Phase 2 starts, Decima will lose all stacks of Template:Charge and become Exposed and Stunned for 10 seconds. Assuming you have a ranged group, these players should move away as soon as the Exposed and Stunned disappear, as the boss will shortly regain 24px Thrumming Presence.

The major difference in Phase 2 is that when happens, the next four furthest players will also be targeted by . This is functionally the same effect, but is only ever the orange version, while the kiter still alternates between orange and red.

Additionally, a swirl of wind will briefly appear that pushes all players anti-clockwise. This deals no damage, but makes positioning trickier. The push effect can be avoided with Stability.

As you want as few players affected by 24px Galvanic Sensitivity as possible, it's beneficial to have the same five players (including the kiter) always be the furthest away, with the kiter being a little further still. It can be beneficial to ensure these players are outside 24px Thrumming Presence in order to avoid 24px Harmonic Sensitivity, but after the first this will no longer matter as long as those players stay further away than the melee group.

As with the kiter, it is beneficial to avoid having the arrows intersect with any pylons. In this phase, each of the targeted players is hit in turn which makes it relatively easy to stack as a single group and outheal the incoming damage. This minimises the chances of charging a pylon, and gives the melee group fewers arrows to avoid.

Additional s will appear between pylons as / begin, and this can have the effect of cutting the kiter off from the rest of the group

As before, sparks will start to emerge from charged conduits as Decima uses , but as only half the group is able to safely stand in the , the melee group needs to be more active while the ranged group needs to make sure to avoid them.

Split Phase 2 (40%)

The second split phase occurs at 40% health, and is exactly the same as the first one.

Phase 3

For long sections of the final phase, the area around Decima will be completely enclosed by s.

One final mechanic is added in this phase. When the kiter is the target of an orange , there will be an additional green .

This green arrow targets the "most opposite" uncharged conduit to the kiter, and if no-one stands in it it will fully charge the conduit, with all the negative consequences that entails. However, as long as at least one player is inside it will merely provide a single charge to the targeted conduit. If three players stand inside, it will not charge the conduit at all. The damage from this is also shared between all the players inside.

As coincides with (assuming Decima has stacks of 24px Peal of Discord), there is a potential danger of having players stack in the arrow with the Chorus - the timing required to spread for the AoE then get back into the green arrow is very tight (less than 1.5s), so it may be easier to only have three players inside the arrow, or just have people dodge the (without leaving the arrow). Additional safety can be provided with [barrier] or even a preemptive [resurrect skill].

Note that the green fluxlance does not apply 24px Galvanic Sensitivity, nor has its damage boosted by 24px Harmonic Sensitivity.

As occurs opposite the kiter's location, and new conduits get charged near the kiter's location. The melee group may need to quickly run from one side of the boss to the other in order to stand in s, then run back in time for the next .

There are a lot of different approaches that could work here. The kiter could position themselves opposite to the rest of the group, so that appears next to the stack. This will charge conduits on the opposite side to the stack, and when the next happens (without the green arrow), the melee group can move away from the to collect greens. The drawback to this is that it is convenient for the kiter to be a support, and this would take them away from their own subgroup and could lead to lower boon/healing uptime.

Another approach could be to have the group rotate, so that the kiter can remain stacked, but the is moved out of the way of the melee group collecting sparks. The drawback here is that it requires coordinate movement, plus the more the kiter moves, the more spread out the s will be (this also applies to the previous approach).

The group could also simply position themselves on opposite sides. This would ensure that greens always come from the same locations, but requires the melee group to keep running about and having to avoid the - leading to lower DPS uptime and the increased possibility of missing mechanics.

Whichever approach is used, the playbook of this phase is as follows:

1. s appear and Decima uses → .
2. Wind blows, Kiter and ranged players get orange ; melee players get and have to stand in .
3. pattern changes and Decima uses and .
4. Ranged players get while kiter gets red ; melee players need to move to collect s.
5. Repeat.

With both Decima and Greer dead, the path to Ura is open. Regardless of which boss is killed second, a path behind the arena becomes accessible that leads to the final encounter. There are some titanspawn along the way, but they can be ignored.

Ura, the Steamshrieker

At the top of the mountain, Ura hides. The checkpoint doesn't update until the fight starts, but doing so will also teleport all players into the arena.

Multiple mechanics in this encounter apply a unique debuff called 24px Sulfuric Acid, which can be removed with [condi cleanse], significantly reducing the damage pressure. This debuff deals a small amount of damage every second, and if it remains on a player they gain a stack of Exposed every five seconds, lasting for 30 seconds. [do stacks actually have an effect?]

Ura's defiance bar unlocks at 5% health intervals, both allowing for extra damage via Exposed, and also interrupting her attacks. Not only that, but it removed stacks of a buff she is constantly building up called 24px Rising Pressure that increases her outgoing damage and reduces her incoming damage by 5% for each stack.

Finally, Stability is very nice for supports to bring as there are a number of mechanics that CC you.

Bloodstone Shards

There are two small bloodstone shards on the floor, and Ura will appear once they have both been picked up. The players that do so each gain a Special Action Key (SAK) called dispel that negates a couple of mechanics during the fight. Using this ability causes the shard to drop onto the group at the player's location, and they gain a debuff called 24px Bloodstone Saturation for 45 seconds. If a player with this debuff picks up a shard again before it expires, they will start taking 20% of their max health as damage every second. This debuff can stack.

If a shard is left on the ground for three seconds, it will start pulsing a bright red AoE (the red AoE has no effect, it is merely to indicate the position of the shard), and all players will take 10% of their health as damage every three seconds. Therefore all players should understand how shards are used, and try to pick them up whenever they don't have 24px Bloodstone Saturation.

Strategy

As soon as the second shard is picked up, Ura will appear a short distance away (the location is always the same, so the rest of the group can position themselves ahead of time). Players that stand in her hitbox will take a small amount of damage and Burning from her Scalding Aura.

Throughout the encounter, Ura will randomly emit , dealing a small amount of damage and applying a stack of 24px Sulfuric Acid. While there is a visual for this, it is small and the effect is not severe enough to try avoiding, it just emphasises the importance of having regular condition cleanse.

Starting 10 seconds into the fight, and every 12 seconds thereafter, a Toxic Geyser will spawn. These geysers spawn in a fixed pattern moving approximately from the north-eastern end of the arena towards the center. These geysers tick Poison on anyone inside the AoE. The Poison deals practically no damage, but the healing reduction can still be dangerous.

More significantly, if Ura stands inside the AoE of one of the Toxic Geysers, she will gain Resolution, Protection and 25 stacks of Might every second.

The geysers can be targeted directly and killed, and they also have a defiance bar (strength: 800) that will remove the geyser if broken.

Pressure Blast

As soon as the fight starts, two random players that aren't holding shards will be targeted by a medium orange AoE an gain a pinkish screen border effect. After five seconds, everyone inside the AoE will be suspended in bubbles and slowly rise into the air while stunned, taking heavy damage every two seconds [I assume this can't be stun-broken?].

To escape, a player with a shard needs to drop it underneath the bubbles players. Players with shards are immune to the effect and can go and stand on the targeted players preemptively. The two targeted players should stack on top of each other outside of the main stack. It may be useful for the group to say where to move ahead of time (e.g. to the left of the stack) to aid coordination.

When trapped in bubbles, there will be a white AoE on the ground underneath the players' original location(s). There are some effects that can end up moving the players however, so the shard should be dropped underneath the bubbled players, not necessarily where the white AoE is.

Ura can use this attack every 20 seconds, but other attacks may take priority leading to it being delayed.

Shortly after, Ura targets the most distant player and s herself forwards a fixed distance, indicated by an arrow, dealing moderate damage to players in the path and very heavy damage to any player in her landing zone.

Depending on the damage of the group, this can cause problems as Toxic Geysers get closer so it may be worth having a player deliberately stand further away in order to bait Ura towards a safer location.

Ura repeats this movement approximately every 20 seconds, but only in Phase 1.

Slam

Ura's basic attack is a series of slams, the first two dealing moderate damage, and the third a conal attack dealing heavy damage and knocking players [down/back?].

Phase 2 (80%)

Residual Impact

At 80% Health, every player receives a medium-sized AoE beneath them and they float up into the air. After five seconds, they will drop to the floor, leaving a behind. This highly damaging field will persist for the rest of the fight. This attack will repeat when Qadim reaches 60% health.

Qadim will reclaim the pylons during this mechanic, knocking any players around himself or the pylons back and dealing moderate damage with (though this is largely irrelevant as players should be moving away to deal with ). The pylons will need to be broken once more to continue.

After this, Qadim will use once more. With the presence of this attack is much more of a threat so players other than the tank and pylon kiters should stack up to share stability.

Following this, the phase will continue much like the first did.

When Qadim reaches 75% health, an Entropic Distortion will spawn in one of the circular patterns between the pylons (the same locations the appear). These distortions will then walk towards the nearest player-controlled pylon, or Qadim if there is no nearby pylon. If they reach the pylon, they will “steal” the tether from the pylon kiter and begin attacking nearby players with , dealing heavy damage. Additionally, the Distortion will gain a stack of Flare-Up every two seconds, and if they reach 10 stacks the Distortion will explode, hitting nearby players with . 40 seconds after an Entropic Distortion has spawned, a new one will spawn one position clockwise from the previous Distortion. Because Distortions and spawn at the same locations, it is possible that the two may coincide. In this event it is essential that the player stand in the AoE before the Distortion spawns. If the player is not present and the Distortion is allowed to touch the energy orb, it will instantly gain 10 stacks of Flare-Up and explode.

When they spawn, the Distortion is Incorporeal and cannot be harmed until its defiance bar (strength: 400) is broken. The Distortions have a reasonable amount of health, but they will actually take damage from . For this reason, it is very useful for players to drop this AoE on the path the Distortion will take. Two stacked on top of one another will be sufficient to kill the Distortion provided it is broken within the AoE.

The image below shows the paths that the Distortions will walk (assuming pylons are under control).

There are a total of 20 AoEs that will be dropped throughout the encounter (provided all players remain alive). This is sufficient to cover all paths the Distortions will take with two each. If taking this method it will be useful to assign people to specific locations. Care should be taken with the placement of as space will need to be left for the players to move. In particular, the area that the anomalies spawn must be left clear so that orbs can be safely collected from these locations. Players should also try to leave as much room near the pylon free as possible – Sand Swell for example has quite a short range so there must be enough space for both portal locations to be safe. If in doubt, players should drop their AoEs as close to the edge of the arena as possible in order to retain the most playable space.

If killing the Entropic Distortions with it may be necessary to assign one or two players with ranged CC to breaking them, as the pylon kiters may not have any CC available.

Poisoned Power

When Qadim reaches 70% health, he will sometimes attempt to steal control of a pylon after using . He will gain a defiance bar and corrupt the Kinetic Abundance of the targeted pylon into , causing it to apply Vulnerability, Torment, Slow and Weakness instead of boons in addition to reducing the kiter’s damage. If the defiance bar is not broken within 10 seconds, he will gain control of the pylon and it must be broken and reclaimed before Qadim can be damaged.

Phase 3 (60%)

Once Qadim reaches 60% health, repeats and the pylons must be broken and reclaimed as before.

Caustic Chaos

Beginning once the Pylons have been reclaimed in phase 3, Qadim will target and track a random player with a large arrow indicator. After a few seconds, Qadim slams his fist down, launching a shockwave along the floor directly at the targeted player. The attack can be jumped over, and a target with invulnerability can absorb it if they stand in the way. If the attack hits, it deals heavy damage to all players near the target and applies a stack of Chaos Corrosion. Qadim will then repeat the attack twice more at the same target, but will apply Quickness to himself which can cause the timing to vary somewhat.

Being hit once by is survivable, but the debuff it applies makes any additional hits extremely damaging. In order to impact the fewest people, it might be worth the targeted player moving away from the group, and all other players staying away from the arrow indicator.

Otherwise, the phase continues much as the previous two did, with Qadim using the following attack pattern after the first :

x3 → (sometimes) → or

The pattern then repeats.

Phase 4 (40%)

When Qadim reaches 40% health, he will use an attack called Battering Blitz where he rushes directly at the north pylon, dealing heavy damage and knocking down any player in his path. Once he reaches the pylon he consumes it, leaving behind a large that functions similarly to . The northern pylon kiter should be sure to get out of the way, and can move to join the stack as this attack occurs. After consuming the pylon, Qadim will use from the pylon’s location, and the squad should handle it the same way as before.

Following this, Qadim teleports back to the center of the arena and reclaims the pylons, knocking players near them back with . Players can simply stand outside the AoEs to avoid this.

Once more, the pylons must be broken and reclaimed.

Qadim will resume the attack pattern from phase 3 where he left off, but having consumed the pylon makes him more dangerous: by consuming the orbs attached to the pylon, the Sapping Surge debuff applied to the tank can now tether through up to three players within range, applying the debuff to them as well. This will only affect players with active flux disruptors, so players should either deactivate their SAKs or ensure that the tank is far enough away from the group that no-one can be tethered to. Qadim’s continued draining of magical energy has also caused Ahdashim’s defenses to drop, allowing the brandstorm to penetrate and causing random players to frequently be targeted by small AoEs that deal heavy damage from should they hit. Finally, is now constantly active except for when Qadim is in the process of consuming a pylon.

From now on, Entropic Distortions will spawn every 30 seconds, instead of 40.

Phase 5 (30%)

Once Qadim reaches 30% he will repeat Battering Blitz and consume the south-west pylon. The phase continues identically to Phase 4, but now Qadim is able to attack a second primary tether to a player, which can also tether through up to three other players. As before, players should either deactivate their SAKs or have the tethered player move away from the rest of the group.

After consuming the second pylon, Qadim will gain Aegis and Resolution every six seconds, so having boon removal is highly advantageous.

Phase 6 (20%)

Much as before, once Qadim reaches 20% he will use Battering Blitz towards the final pylon. As there are no more pylons remaining, there is nothing to protect Qadim and so the fight will resume immediately (though be wary of ).

Following , Qadim will knock nearby players back and lock their SAKs, forcing everyone’s flux disruptor on. He can now tether to three primary targets, and there is no way to prevent them from tethering through additional players if they are close enough, so it is recommended that these players stack apart from the rest of the group to limit the effect of Sapping Surge. These two additional players should ideally be supports who can perform their role at range, or pylon kiters, as they should have sufficient sustain to survive. The targeting for the primary tethers functions much the same as the tank fixation, so players who do not wish to be targeted should move away from the boss until a new target is selected.

Qadim will now gain Might, Fury, Quickness, Alacrity, Aegis, Resolution every six seconds, though the exact time the boons are applied can vary, likely as a result of players becoming tethered to Qadim at different times.

Qadim will continue using the same attack pattern as the previous three phases, though due to the lack of pylons he cannot attempt . As three players will have Sapping Surge and Qadim will no longer have any stacks of Erratic Energy, this phase will be significantly slower than previous phases.

Note: Qadim's use of , and is inconsistent. This means he may occasionally use these mechanics at times other than those described in the guide, or may cancel attacks part-way through (beyond the normal cancellation of skills due to phase transitions). Whether they are bugged or the exact usage is misunderstood is unknown.

Thanks to Linus, who made the Sabir, Adina and Qadim images for the Guild Wars 2 Wiki.