Soa

Detailed Strategy

The key points above cover nearly all the relevant points. Here is a detailed layout of mechanics and strategy on a floor by floor basis.

Top Floor (Soa 100% -> 74%)

Soa will be shielded briefly when the fight begins. When the shield drops, the team DPS's him down to 75% at which point he shields himself and begins the transition platforming phase. During the fight on the top floor, he will deal damage to the tank and will periodically hit pylons around the room with lightning to cause them to create large green AoE puddles. Team members should immediately move outside the AoE puddle. Sometimes the puddle is not visible on everyone's computer, so call out if you see someone who is not moving.

As soon as Soa drops below 75% and hits 74%, he shields himself and prepares to drop the platforms. Team members should anticipate the shield and move quickly back to the location where the team dropped down (West on the game map). See the layout chart above for the Top floor, but note that the layout positions the entrance at the bottom of the graphic.

Platforming to Middle Floor

See the Platforming Map layout above for the platforming path. The team will make a series of jumps down to platforms working their way down to the middle circular platform. The time allowed for the platforming is fairly generous, so move quickly but do not rush so quickly that you risk falling off a platform.

After the first jump and midway down the platforming path, there will be pauses where the team must wait for more platforms to drop down. These are noted as "Pause" on the map above. As the team will be taking damage from most jumps between platforms, the Pause locations should be used for healers to heal the team up to avoid deaths due to fall damage.

One player should be destroying the pylons on each platform (one per platform) as the team moves down to remove Soa's stacks of Power Orb. Only one player should be doing so, otherwise Soa is likely to bug and prevent Power Orbs from being removed.

Middle Floor (74% -> 29%)

After Soa finishes destroying the floating platforms, the middle floor phase will begin. Soa continues to be immobile during this phase but adds several additional mechanics. See the above layout for the Middle Floor mechanics. These mechanics and their strategies are listed below:

• Power Orb Detonation: Soa will cast this 3s ability once per stack of Power Orb remaining from the platforming phase, with a short 9s break in between casts. These deal heavy damage to every team member. One cast of this ability is manageable as Soa himself deals low damage in this phase so healers should not have difficulty healing everyone back up. Multiple casts can become very challenging due to insufficient time to heal between casts. Teams should coordinate use of defensive abilities and especially group AoE defensive abilities like Gunslinger / Sniper group shields and Sonic Rebounder. I generally recommend letting the first Power Orb Detonation go off normally, then use either Rebounder or any other combination of group defensive abilities to mitigate the second cast. This strategy can enable the team to survive up to three Power Orb Detonations reliably. Four or five stacks is extremely difficult to heal through even in Story Mode, and in Hard Mode will generally lead to a wipe unless you have multiple Vanguard / Powertech players and can stagger Sonic Rebounder use on the second and fourth casts to provide enough downtime for healers to recover from the AoE damage. If using the Rebounder strategy, it is very important that the group stay together so everyone receives the Sonic Rebounder reflect buff.

• Mind Trap: Mind Trap will go out regularly and trap a random player inside the Mind Trap. Someone should call out the Mind Trap and all DPS should immediately move to destroy it and free the trapped player. If the group only has one tank and that player gets sucked in, the DPS that gets aggro should be prepared to pop a defensive ability while healers may need to burst heal more until the tank is freed.

• Ball Lightning: Ball Lightning will go out regularly and target a number of random players as outlined in the mechanics above (varies based on size/difficulty). The targeted players need to move out of the group, hit a defensive, and run into the Ball Lightning. The explosion is AoE-based and does minimal single target damage, so is only dangerous if pulled into the group.

• Force Cyclone: Force Cyclone goes out least often and targets a random player, who is then bounced around the room for a period of time and then deposited on the raised platform opposite where the group finished the platforming phase. No damage should accompany this mechanic. The affected player should resume the fight when they land and steadily move to reposition themselves for the next platforming phase (i.e., move to the other side of the room).

Soa pushes to the next platforming phase at 29%. I STRONGLY recommend that players who are not at the starting point for the platforming phase should stop DPS at 30% and begin moving early. This includes tank(s), melee DPS, any players on the far side of the room due to Force Cyclone, and any players who are spread out due to taking Ball Lightning or moving into range of a Mind Trap.

Platforming to Bottom Floor

The second platforming phase is essentially identical to the first platforming phase. The only distinction is that it is more likely that the group will be spread out around the room due to more mechanics on the middle floor. The first priority is to get to any part of the outer platform ring, as there should be enough time for players to run around the outer ring to get to a safe jumping point.

Players on the far side of the room can jump down on the East side of the game map (North on the map above). They will take a lot of fall damage but should not die. They can then move South (to their left) to drop down to the inner platform on the South side of the game map (East on the map above) to meet up with the team.

Bottom Floor (29% -> 0%)

Absorption Field, Final Hurl, Recovering, Mind Trap, Ball Lightning

This phase begins after Soa finishes destroying the last platform. Similar to the middle floor, Soa will chain cast Power Orb Detonation for every stack of Power Orb remaining from the platforming phase. Soa will also continue to cast Mind Trap and Ball Lightning on the group. Force Cyclone no longer is used on the bottom floor.

The additional mechanic on the bottom floor is Soa's Absorption Field. This shield makes Soa immune to all damage and has an unlimited duration. The only way to temporarily interrupt the shield is via Soa's Final Hurl ability. Final Hurl involves Soa summoning a pyramid-shaped object from the alcoves around the room and dropping it onto the platform. Soa should be kited into the AoE effect of the pyramid when it drops, which breaks Soa's shield for 12s while he has the Recovering debuff. Afterwards, his shield comes back up until the next time he is hit by a dropping pyramid.

The layout for this floor is in the Bottom Floor graphic above and consists of a cycle of the tank kiting Soa underneath a pyramid while it is floating above the platform, it hitting Soa and breaking his shield for 12s, the team DPS'ing Soa for 12s, then the shield coming back up and repeating until Soa is defeated.

In Story Mode the kiting is very straightforward as a blue AoE graphic denotes where the pyramid will fall, making it easy to pull Soa into it while the tank stands outside to avoid damage. In Hard Mode there is no graphic but the Pyramid's shadow (with appropriate graphics settings) can be used to position Soa similarly.

Soa enrages during the 5th Recovering phase (assuming he is hit with the falling pyramid each time). Soa can be handled during enrage if necessary. He deals significantly more damage, but a tank can kite him (keeping him moving constantly) and using defensives to survive through several more pyramid cycles. The biggest concern during enrage is the falling pyramid does way more damage and usually one-shots any player hit by it.

As noted above, Mind Trap and Ball Lightning continue to go out during this phase. They are both secondary to DPSing Soa during the Recovering phase when he is vulnerable. If possible, free any players in Mind Traps immediately but temporarily ignore it if Mind Trap happens right as Soa is stunned, as the team should DPS Soa first then destroy the Mind Trap after Soa stands back up and reactivates his shield. Similarly, DPS should not sacrifice uptime on Soa during his vulnerable phase in order to take Ball Lightning. They should try to avoid standing in the group and use a defensive while continuing to DPS Soa.

Tanks only come into prominence on this fight on the bottom floor. During the top and middle floors, they should maintain aggro on Soa but otherwise simply have to follow team mechanics for Ball Lightning. Tanks with aggro on Soa should generally stay on him and not swap to DPSing Mind Traps unless there are a lot of deaths on the team.

On the bottom floor, the main tank should kite Soa into range of the Final Hurl Pyramid AoE. In Story Mode there is a clear blue AoE graphic indicating where to position Soa. See the bottom floor graphic above, ideally the tank should position Soa inside the graphic while keeping themselves out of it to avoid damage. In Hard Mode there is only a shadow for the Pyramid, so make sure to enable shadows and/or use voice comms or tactical markers to quickly get Soa into position.

Tanking Soa during enrage is doable with good healing and use of defensive cooldowns. Be warned however that the Final Hurl will one shot players during enrage, so positioning Soa accurately is even more important then!

Healers have no role-specific mechanics to follow in the Soa encounter. They should follow all team mechanics (platforming, Mind Trap, Ball Lightning, etc.) and focus on healing. Healers should generally call out in ops chat and/or voice comms if they get pulled into a Mind Trap.

Even in Hard Mode the damage taken by the group is usually relatively low. Mechanics that deal higher damage are Ball Lightning (especially if detonating in a group) and any players hit by Final Hurl on the bottom floor when the Pyramid falls.

On the bottom floor, Healers should add as much DPS as possible during the Recovering phase on Soa when he is vulnerable. The only incoming damage while Soa is stunned comes from Ball Lightning, so if none are up at that time then adding DPS is safe even if some players are at a low level of health.

DPS should follow all team mechanics and maintain DPS on Soa whenever possible. Any time Mind Traps spawn they should take top priority, especially if a tank or healer is pulled in. DPS targeted by Mind Traps should make sure to step out for Ball Lightning. Any DPS with a taunt should be prepared to grab Soa's aggro on the bottom floor to kite him if the main tank is pulled into a Mind Trap or dies.

A DPS player should normally be the one assigned to destroy Pylons during the platforming phases. No other DPS should be attacking Pylons to avoid bugging the mechanic.

On all levels of difficulty, a DPS with Taunt (DWT) can "tank" Soa by kiting him around prior to enrage. The player will take much heavier damage but can be healed through. This option is only viable after enrage with the use of defensive cooldowns.