Dro-m'Athra

After entering the second door and moving forward a group of cursed monks, scholars and war-priests (non-elite mobs) will rush and attack before some bigger, elite enemies drop in. These will be repeatedly encountered through the trial in some arena-style fights with several waves of enemies that result in a reward chest.

• Dro-m'Athra Sun-Eater - Ranged casters that do little damage with their simple attacks but have one painful mechanic:
  • Eclipse Field - Targets a random player and drops a large negate field on them which will leave a lingering AoE on the ground. This AoE will damage, slow and silence any players inside it as well as clear that area of your own AoE abilities.
• Dro-m'Athra Dreadstalker - Ranged enemies (archers) that perform two attacks to be aware of:
  • Sinister Shot - A large conal attack focussed on whoever has aggro which has several gaps that can be utilised to avoid the damage.
  • Marked for Death - A random player will be marked and attacked by the archers pet cat/s (Ghostly Sar-m'Athra) which cannot be taunted. The targeted player will have a dark glow rising from them and more cats will spawn in if the player/s are marked for a long time.
• Dro-m'Athra Shadowguard - Melee enemies (sword & shield) that have several attacks but can easily be managed by the tank. Their abilities include:
  • Shadow Slash - A large AoE, spin attack that does a lot of damage to anyone caught inside.
  • Void Rush - Charges to and knocks down a random player if they do not block in time.
  • Lunar Slam - This enemys heavy attack.
• Dro-m'Athra Savage - Melee enemies (two hander) that have a couple of attacks to be aware of:
  • Vicious Cleave - This enemys light attack will cleave anyone in front of him.
  • Shattering Strike - Swings his weapon over his head and slams it into the ground. If the player targeted by this attack does not manage to dodge it then it will inflict them (and any nearby players) with a Shattered debuff (shown as a buff in the log files) which reduces physical resistance.
  • Crescent Swing - This enemys heavy attack does a lot of damage.

Boss One - Zhaj'hassa the Forgotten

A giant Dro-m'Athra wielding a huge two handed weapon and specialising in curses and summon abilities. Group positioning and communication is crucial for this fight.

• Grip of Lorkhaj - Often called the "curse". The boss will target three players with blue orbs which will curse them, causing them to take a small amount of damage, slow them down and turn their screen a blueish colour. This debuffed can be spread to anyone too close to a targeted player on intial impact and can only be removed by standing on an active (lit) cleanse pad around the edge of the room. Failure to remove the debuff will result in death after a short while.
• Dark Aegis - When the boss health reaches 70% and 30% he will shield himself and become invulnerable to damage. The shield can be destroyed and while it is active everyone in the group will continuously take damage, indicated by a spreading AoE under each players feet. If you stand in another players AoE you will take damage from their one as well as your own.
• Thunderous Impact - The boss slams its weapon into the ground on whoever has aggro doing a lot of damage. The "Aftershock" from this attack can hit other players.
• Dark Monolith - The furthest player away will be targeted and a huge pillar will spawn on them, bursting from the ground. When it spawns this AoE around the pillar will damage anyone inside and knock them back if they are not blocking.
• Void Explosion - The boss raises its weapon up above its head and begins channeling. After a short time there is a huge explosion that will kill anyone who is in the boss' line of sight.
• Ghostly Sar-m'Athra - At set intervals, based on the boss' health, cats will be spawned in to attack random players and do a lot of damage compared to those accompanying the Dreadstalkers. They cannot be taunted but can be CC'd.
• Raging Cleave - A frontal, cleave attack which will do damage to anyone in the 180° in front of the boss.
• Strike - The boss' light attack.

Ogres & Arena One

In the next trash pack you encounter you will see some new mobs: Ogres (the Ogre Shaman is particularly nasty). Upon dispatching the Ogres some more Dro-m'Athra will drop in, all of which you have faced previously. Making your way down the slope you will encounter some more Ogres and discover the last new trash mob of the trial: Oger Flesh-Render. A few more Dro-m'Athra will drop in which need to be taken care of before you can head down the slope to an arena-style fight where you will need to face multiple waves of enemies, all of which you have already faced. If the group wipes during this encounter you will need to start from the beginning but completion will reward a chest.

• Ogre Brute - Smaller mobs that pose no serious threat on their own.
• Ogre Shaman - This mob performs a channeled ability, raising his arm up into the air and firing heals onto himself and other Ogres around (Primal Heal). When the Ogres are healed an AoE will pulse out from under their feet causing a lot of damage to anyone inside.
• Ogre Flesh-Render - These have one key attack (Savage Onslaught) which can cause issues as it knocks down players in a large AoE around him, snares them and applies a bleed. This attack has a build up where the ogre will bend forward slightly then rear up and scream and can be interrupted at any point during this build up. The attack will be continuously repeated once it has started.

Boss Two - The Twins (S'Kinrai & Vashai)

This fight has a very unique mechanic that requires the whole group to pay attention to the mechanics, their surroundings and other players. It can also go very wrong, very quickly if you have some deaths within the group as in order to manage the main mechanics effectively twelve (living) players are required.

S'Kinrai

The "light" or "yellow" boss has melee attacks, shares similar animations and attacks to the Templar class and has three unique skills that you need to be aware of:

• Fearsome Cleave - The bosses light attack will cleave anyone in front of them.
• Lunar Flare - The boss turns to a random player and inflicts them with a strong DoT that can be cleansed.
• Lunar Destruction - A channeled, interruptible beam that is cast on the player with aggro. This player is stunned for the duration of the attack.

Vashai

The "dark" or "blue" boss attacks from melee range, causes a bleed with its attacks and performs a hard hitting heavy attack (Shield Bash) but only has one really troublesome skill:

• Shadow Vortex - The boss summons a large negate fields centred on the player with aggro. This field will damage, slow and clear friendly AoEs in the area.

Both bosses share all of the other attacks and perform them at the same time:

• Holy Aspect - Shortly after the fight begins and shortly after the bosses teleport they will enter a praying animation and inflict debuffs on the closest players to them. Those closest to S'Kinrai will be inflicted with "Lunar Aspect" causing them to glow yellow and those closest to Vashai will be inflicted with "Shadow Aspect" and glow a dark blue. These debuffs have a few notable effects:
  • Any damage you deal to an enemy with the matching colour to yourself will be massively reduced.
  • Moving too close to a player with the opposite colour to yourself will cause you both to die in a wonderful explosion.
  • Immediately after the bosses teleport they will channel an explosion (Lunar/Shadow Tempest) that will one shot any players in the wrong position. You are only protected from this explosion if you position yourself on the side of the room with the boss of the opposite colour to yourself.
• Conversion - The bosses both pray and three players in each group will get converted (whoever has aggro will avoid this mechanic). This conversation changes the targeted players colour so if you were dark/blue then you will become light/yellow. This is indicated by a circle of the upcoming colour under your feet and, if you have combat cues turned on in the settings, some text alerting you that you are being converted.
• Teleport - The bosses will vanish and reappear at the entrance and exit of the room, which side each boss appears is random.
• Lunar/Shadow Tempest - Immediately after the bosses reappear they will channel an attack which will one shot any player that is positioned on their side of the room who has the same colour as them e.g. if you have the dark blue colour (Shadow Aspect) and are on the same side of the room as Vashai when the channel ends the explosion will kill you. After these explosions all players will lose their debuffs and thus lose their colours.
• Final Countdown - When one boss is killed four additional adds will spawn and the boss will pray to channel one final explosion. All players will lose their colours (and protection from the explosion) and will have twenty seconds to kill the remaining boss before the channel ends and wipes the group.
• Adds - Both bosses summon adds that share their own colours and the same damage reduction applies if you attack those with the same colour to yourself. The dark adds (Will of Vashai) are ranged enemies with a hard hitting frontal cone attack which shoots three small AoEs along the floor at the targeted player (Dark Torrent). The light adds (Rage of S'Kinrai) are melee adds that perform the same interruptible, beam attack: Lunar Destruction, which will stun the targeted player. The number of adds that spawn in after each teleport phase increases as the fight goes on; first you will have one of each then one, two, two, three, three, then four until the fight ends. All of these adds can be pulled.

Arena Two

Engaging with the enemies through the next gate will start the next arena. The pace of this one is controlled by the group but a wipe will result in having to restart it. You will have two large cats to deal with intially (mechanics described below) and after this there will only be Dro-m'Athra that you have already encountered which can be handled in the same way (although there are sometimes quite a few to deal with). There is a chain at the top of each of the wooden ramps and pulling each one will spawn in enemies on that side of the room in three waves (they do not need to be pulled at the same time but this can be done if you want to increase the difficulty).

• Colossal Sar-m'Athra - These behave the in a similar manner to the smaller cats but only have one attack (Deadly Claw) which really is deadly; this will one-shot anyone that gets hit by it. These cats will only attack the player they target (they cannot be CC'd or taunted) indicated by the dark blue beam rising from the players head. After a short while or if the targeted player dies the cats will choose another target and repeat this until they are dead.

Final Hallway

The next door leads to a long, dark hallway which is perfect for an ambush. Stepping forward will initiate the pull and you will have the same Dro-m'Athra you have already faced spawning in at different locations in three waves. Additionally you will have Cursed Monks continously spawning in at the entrance and exit of the hallway, running towards a random player and exploding; dealing moderate damage in an AoE. The mechanics for each of the enemies has already been explained in the first section of this guide along with methods of handling them so I won't repeat that here.

Final Boss - Rakkhat

Rakkhat is a monstrous Grievous Twilight (a beefier version of those seen in Imperial City) with very powerful attacks. During this fight the main tank will need to mitigate a lot of damage and the group will need to tread carefully and coordinate well to avoid killing each other. There is an additional area (often called the "Backyard") through the blue portal-type doorway on the far side of the room which requires a couple of group members to complete a challenge within a time limit at certain points during the fight to avoid a wipe.

Environment/Phases

• Pads - It's hard to miss the large pad in the centre of the room where the boss spawns and the surrounding eight pads. Once the fight starts the pad on the far side of the room will glow gold while all of the others turn blue. As the fight progresses the gold glow will repeatedly move clockwise (at set time intervals) to the next pad and the pad that was gold will turn blue. These colours have two very important mechanics:
  • Gold glow - The first player to step onto a pad that is glowing gold will receive a Lunar Bastion buff that provides huge mitigation and is essential to survive Rakkhats direct attacks. Stepping off the pad will remove the buff and if other players are on the pad they can pick it up instead.
  • Dark blue, cloudy glow - Any player that touches these pads will receive a curse similar to that on the first fight. This curse does not kill you after a set duration, however, but does apply a healing debuff and apply a small DoT. This curse is only removed when the affected player dies or stands on one of the cleanse pads located in the corners of the room (these pads only refresh once the Lunar Phase has been completed, however). Performing an action that afflicts you with a curse while you have a curse already will kill you (e.g. standing on a blue pad or entering the portal doorway).
• Dro-m'Athra Hulk - One of these adds will spawn from the centre pad when Rakkhat activates pads two, four, six and eight. It has two attacks that need to be dealt with:
  • Thunderous Roar - The Hulk lets out a scream that will stun everyone around him and cause moderate damage. This can be interrupted and can be devastating if a player is stunned while dealing with another heavy-hitting mechanic.
  • Thunderous Smash - This attack operates similarly to that of the Savages that you encountered previously. The tank will get debuffed from this attack and have their armor weakened, if they are hit three times in a row by this attack then it will kill them.
• Void Spheres - Small orbs that shoot from the middle pad at random players and deal a lot of damage.
• Backyard/Running - When Rakkhat activates the third, fifth and seventh pads six shadowy figures will rise up from the centre pad. These six figures indicate hidden Void Callers that are present in the Backyard area and they are channeling an attack which will wipe the group if it is not interrupted. To stop this attack players will need to enter the Backyard, expose and kill these Void Callers within a time limit. Each time a Void Caller is killed its corresponding shadowy figure disappears from the main boss room. Its position on the centre pad indicates roughly where it is located in the Backyard; there will be two on the left, two in the middle and two on the right. The runners will obtain a synergy when passing through the portal doorway which can be used to put out the blue fires (when you are standing close to them) found within bowls scattered throughout the Backyard. Once the fire is out at a particular location a Void Caller may be revealed and can then be killed (they only have one health) and this will remove the corresponding shadowy figure in the main boss room. Once all of the Void Callers have been killed in a particular location (left, middle, right) all of the fires within that area will go out indicating that there are no more to find there.
  There are also a change that a rogue-like Dro-m'Athra is revealed which can slow and stun you but also has low health. Blue orbs hover around this area and will do considerable damage when a player touches with them. Passing through the portal door also afflicts players with the curse (the same as touching a blue pad) so they will likely need to cleanse when returning to the main boss room.
• Lunar Phase - If the boss is not pushed into the execute phase (12% health remaining) by the time he reaches the eighth pad the Lunar Phase will start (these days many groups will have enough DPS to never see this phase). Rakkhat will rise up high into the air, all of the pads will glow gold and provide the Lunar Bastion buff to the first player to stand on each one (the middle pad will supply this buff to up to four players). Any player that is not on a pad will get projectiles shot at them from Rakkhat while he is hovering. An elite enemy will spawn on each of the smaller, gold pads and anyone standing on the middle pad will get access to a synergy called Celestial Purge which can be used on an enemy. Using the synergy will channel a beam onto that enemy, dealing damage and appling a debuff that causes them to take a lot more damage. Once this phase ends the fight will start again from the beginning but the boss will not regain any of his health. Any of the elite enemies that are not killed will join the fight and need to be dealt with.

Orb mechanics

• Unstable Void/Searing Shadows - A growing AoE will appear under a random players feet. Once the AoE reaches its full size the player will explode, get stunned and send out several small orbs which will damage and stun anyone they touch. The initial explosion will deal a large amount of damage to any other players inside the AoE.
• Tether Orbs - Once pad five activates small blue orbs will hover towards a player, link to them via a blue beam and follow them slowly. The linked player will take continuous damage from the orb as well as anyone else close to it. Moving too far from the orb will break the tether but the orb will remain active; simply targeting another nearby player and tethering to them instead.
• Explosive Orbs - A new, large AoE will start appearing once the boss reaches pad seven that will cause massive damage to anyone caught inside it. It leaves behind an orb which will explode after a short time and deal a lot of damage to anyone close to it.

Rakkhats Attacks

• Dark Barrage - The boss brings his hands together and then turns his palms out towards the player with aggro. This shoots out a barrage of projectiles that hit incredibly hard and will pass through the targeted player hitting anyone else in its trajectory.
• Changing Pads - When the boss jumps up and curls into a ball before moving to the centre of the current pad it indicates that he is going to activate the next. You will see the next pad, in a clockwise direction, glow gold.
• Lunar Smash - With the next pad activated (glowing gold) the boss will perform a powerful ground slam on the current pad which will deactivate it (turn it blue). This will likely kill anyone on the pad but also hit everyone in the group for a fair amount of damage regardless of their position. After this the boss will jump to whoever has aggro.
• Dark Empowerment - The boss turns to the Hulk and starts channeling an ability on him; if it is not interrupted it will empower the Hulk.
• Darkness Falls (Meteors) - When the boss spreads his wings and raises both hands into the air several group members will be targeted with falling projectiles. The player with aggro will always get targeted as well as the four players furthest away from the boss. These are indicated by an AoE around that player and they can be kited, dropping them off and moving out of the AoE before the projectile hits.
• Threshing Wings - The boss will jump and spin slightly with his wings, hover for a second and then slam down onto the ground and attack with his wings. When he lands he will throw back any players that are not blocking.
• Execute - At 12% the boss will move to the large pad in the middle of the room, cease attacking and begin channeling/summoning. During this phase the large pad will lose its colour and no longer apply a curse to players but all outside (smaller) pads will turn blue (become cursed). Shortly after he moves to the middle a blue orb will spawn on pad one (the first pad that turned gold) and link to the boss via a blue beam. This orb increases the boss' resistances but can be destroyed if it is touched by a player. Every few seconds an orb will spawn on a pad in this manner, starting from pad one and moving one pad clockwise each time.

Hardmode

There are a couple of changes when hardmode is activated but it does not drastically change most strategies used in this fight. The significant changes are as follows:

• Curse - There are now no active cleanse pads so players with the curse will not be able to remove it unless they die. The cursed player will now cause damage to any other player they get too close to; his appears as small, blue orbs shooting from the cursed player to another.
• Assassins - Everytime two of the Void Callers are killed during the running/backyard phase an Assassin will now spawn in the main boss room.

Strategies

The main tank should be the first player to stand on the gold pad when it lights up and move to this pad each time it changes. If the main tank moves off of the gold pad and another group member steps onto it then the resistance buff will move to the new player and the tank will get nuked; ideally nobody else will need to touch it if the boss is positioned close enough to the edge where the DDs can reach. Rakkhat will jump to the tank as long as taunt is applied so when starting the fight (and moving to each new pad) the tank can refresh taunt and move early, getting into position at the far side of the new pad. This way it will be easy to position the boss by simply turning him around when he jumps. Rakkhat needs to be turned away from the group to avoid any issues with Dark Barrage and interrupted when he channels Dark empowerment. Dark Barrage hits pretty hard so having a shield can be very helpful here.

The off tank will need to grab the Dro m'Athra Hulk when it spawn and quickly position in close to the boss so that it is easily targetable for the DDs (if you have high group damage it will die in AoE but if not then you will want your group to tab target it and kill it fast). After two heavy attacks from the Hulk the off tank should call for the main tank to taunt the add to avoid getting one shot by the third attack. Once the main tank has dealt with one heavy attack the off tank can take it back. The Hulks channled attack should be interrupted to avoid stunning the group. Any other adds that spawn can be pulled in and/or taunted but the off tank should never step onto the gold pad.

The group can either stack up behind the boss and kite the required mechanics or soft stack (spread out a little) and heal through the damage while holding their positions. If you choose to stack then whoever gets Unstable Void should move away from the group (preferably towards a wall) until the explosion hits, break free and move back into position. Three group members should also be designated as kiters for the meteors (one running on the outside of the pads clockwise, another anti-clockwise and a third running around the central pad) so that they are split up and not dropped on the group, this is usually the healers and one ranged DD. The tether orbs should be slowly kited out of the group by the targeted player until they disappear and everyone should get away from the larger, explosive orbs. If you choose to soft stack then each player needs their own little space around the boss and holds that position (quickly getting back into that position each time the pad changes). The meteors and tether orbs can be healed through (blocking as required) as long as people are not too close together (stacking multiple meteors). Unstable Void will not kill the person with it but anyone next to the affected player should step out of the AoE until the explosion has happened (everyone else be ready to break free quickly after, especially the tanks). You will still need to move away from the explosive orbs toward the later stages of the fight. Regardless of which approach you take everyone in the group will need to block when the boss does his Thrashing Wings attack to avoid getting thrown back (potentially onto a cursed pad).

In execute one player at a time will need to destroy an orb as it appears by simply dodge rolling through it. It really helps to designate a pad to each player before you start the fight so these are picked up quickly and execute is dealt with promptly. Ideally the tanks and healers will take the first four orbs as this will ensure the maximum damage is kept on the boss. If you are learning the fight, however, you may wish to assign each DD a pad for both Lunar Phase and execute to avoid confusion.

Backyard Runners

You should organise two (or three if you struggle) DDs to setup for running before the fight starts; they should equip a self heal and preferably a speed boost. Before the fight begins you can enter the backyard and co-ordinate which DD will run where. As soon as pads three, five and seven light up the nominated DDs will need to enter the backyard, use the synergy (Eyes of Jode) next to the lit bowls and kill any Void Callers that appear. It's helpful to plan a route with jumps across the gaps to speed things up and kill any Assassins that appear as they can root and slow you. Once all of the Void Callers in a particular area (left, right and middle) have been killed, all bowls in that area will lose their flame (someone in the main boss room can periodically call out how many Void Callers are left to find in each area by looking at the shadowy figures on the centre pad). After the running has been completed the runners can use the cleanse pads (located in the corner of the main boss room) to remove the curse and then return to the group. There are only four pads and they do not reset but any players with the curse will be cleansed once Lunar Phase finishes.

Lunar Phase

If you are new to the fight or damage is quite low in the group then you will need to prepare for Lunar Phase; if the boss does a full lap of the pads before reaching 12% health then this phase will start. Each DD should be assigned an outer pad and when Lunar Phase starts they will go and stand on this pad (all pads will glow gold and provide a resistance buff to the player who stands on it). The tanks and healers should all stay on the large, central pad but each face a different direction and use the synergy provided to debuff the adds that spawn on the outer pads. The DDs will focus their damage on the debuffed adds until they have all been killed or Lunar Phase ends, the boss reappears and the fight carries on as before starting again from pad one (any remaining adds will join the fight and need to be killed quickly).

Hardmode

As there are no cleanse pads available on Hardmode there will need to be multiple groups of runners organised for each phase. Upon returning from running these players should be aware of their positioning as getting to close to others will cause them damage. The off tank will also have more smaller adds to try to grab during the running phase. An easy (but cheesy) way of handling the curse is to use only two runners throughout the fight but have them run into the centre pad upon returning to the main boss room to die (one by one). They can then resurrect each other and remove the curse before running again (this is obviously not how the fight was designed but is a way around the mechanic if you so choose).