Explosive Conflict

Zorn and Toth are a relatively easy boss encounter, at least in Story Mode.

Earlier in the game's history, the Zorn and Toth encounter in Story Mode included the Surge mechanic where the bosses buffed each other if they were not kept at least 15 meters apart. This mechanic was removed in a previous patch, such that now it is safe to stack the bosses if desired to allow for higher DPS via splash damage and DoT spread.

Mechanics

Zorn has the following mechanics (triggered at/after these boss health levels):

• Spellbound: Zorn has the Spellbound buff that indicates he deals internal/elemental damage and as such primarily uses Force/Tech attacks. This impacts which tank and DPS/healer defensive cooldowns will be effective. Tank mitigation will tend to be less effective against Toth since internal/elemental damage cannot be mitigated through defense or defensive cooldowns affecting defense chance.

• Shriek (80%/40%): An AoE attack that deals damage and applies the Mental Anguish DoT to any players within 25m. The DoT is cleanseable and should be cleansed as quickly as possible as it lasts 30 seconds otherwise. Try to place as many ranged DPS on Zorn to minimize the number of cleanses needed for this mechanic.

• Sonic Paralysis (60%/20%): 14s channeled conal attack on player with aggro. Is accompanied by Ground Shatter mechanic from Toth though the trigger comes from Zorn's health level.

• Baradium Toss (all): Zorn throws a rock at a random player within 25m. Unavoidable damage but can be focused more often on tanks by having most players stay >25m from Zorn.

• Soft Enrage (either <6%): Zorn begins continually spamming Sonic Paralysis.

Toth has the following mechanics (triggered at/after these boss health levels):

• Weaponbound: Toth has the Weaponbound buff that indicates he deals kinetic/energy damage and as such primarily uses Melee/Ranged attacks. This impacts which tank and DPS/healer defensive cooldowns will be effective. Tank mitigation will tend to be more effective against Toth since defense chance applies and thus defensive cooldowns impacting defense will be effective.

• Ground Shatter (Zorn 60%/20%): While Zorn channels Sonic Paralysis, Toth targets random players with rock upheavals denoted by red circles. The attack deals high damage if the player does not move out of the red circles.

• Smash (all): An AoE attack that affects everyone with 25m and deals low damage. This is less dangerous than the Mental Anguish DoT so having melee eat the Smash damage is preferable to minimize the number of players getting the DoT.

• Soft Enrage (either <6%): Toth begins continually spamming Ground Shatter.

Strategy

The general strategy is as follows:

• Keep Zorn & Toth apart and tank on opposite walls if the team wants to practice for higher difficulties, otherwise the bosses can be grouped together.

• Avoid pushing Zorn or Toth below 10% until both are around 10% then push equally.

• Cleanse Mental Anguish DoT when it goes out. Ranged DPS and healers should set up at least 25m from Zorn to avoid getting the DoT in the first place.

• Dodge Red circles from Ground Shatter.

• After Drouks are killed, kill Handler Murdok. He is really easy and all his abilities can be interrupted.

Zorn and Toth are significantly more difficult in Veteran Mode and offer the most challenging initial operations boss fight until Dread Master Bestia in Dread Palace, as the drouk pair are far more challenging than the Writhing Horror in TFB, Dash'roode in S&V or Nefra in DF.

Mechanics

The Zorn and Toth encounter in Veteran Mode includes the following new and revised notable mechanics:

• Surge: Zorn and Toth buff each other by adding stacks of Surging if they are within 15 meters of each other. Each stack of the buff increases damage dealt by 10% and reduces damage taken by 10%. The bosses get an extra stack every 2 seconds they are within 15 meters of each other. Stacks of Surging last for 2 seconds so expire quickly once the bosses are pulled apart.

• Charge/Fearful/Emboldened (Toth 90%/70%/50%/30%/10%): Toth will leap to Zorn shortly after dropping below odd-numbered HP multiples of 10%. When Toth Charges to Zorn, any player within 28 meters of Zorn receives the Fearful debuff for 15 seconds. Fearful increases damage taken by Zorn by 100%. Zorn also receives the Emboldened buff for 15 seconds that causes Zorn to reflect any damage dealt to Zorn by players with the Fearful debuff.

• Shriek/Mental Anguish (Zorn 80%/40%): Zorn's Shriek and Mental Anguish mechanic functions similarly to Story Mode. In Veteran Mode, Mental Anguish also applies the Weakened debuff and adds 1 stack every time it ticks for damage. Each stack of Weakened reduces damage done by 5% and can stack up to 15 times. As such, if a player does not cleanse Mental Anguish then in addition to taking damage they will deal less and less damage over its 30 second duration up to 75% less damage immediately before the debuff and DoT expire.

• Baradium Heave / Berserk (Toth 80%/40%): During this phase, Toth becomes Berserk and deals +100% damage for its duration. At the same time, Zorn targets a random player with Baradium Heave that places a yellow circle underneath a player that follows them for around 12 seconds. After 12 seconds, the circle turns purple and stops following the player while Zorn casts Baradium Heave and throws a boulder at the purple circle. If the Baradium Heave hits Toth by placing the circle under him, it breaks the Berserk channel and the fight resumes.

• Sonic Paralysis (60%/20%): Sonic Paralysis from Zorn stuns the tank and they should use a stun break to get sufficient freedom of movement to dodge Ground Shatter red circles.

• Backhand Smash / Cleave (Toth): Toth has two additional attacks. The Backhand Smash has a knockback and the cleave attack is self explanatory. Tanks should already be positioning Toth near a wall so the knockback should not impact positioning.

• Soft Enrage (<6% health): When either Drouk drops to 5% or below, they begin a soft enrage and begin spamming Ground Shatter (Toth) or Sonic Paralysis (Zorn). This mechanic is the same as in Story Mode but is much more punishing in Veteran Mode.

• Enrage: When either Drouk dies the other will enrage and deal +200% damage (so triple base damage). This mechanic makes it highly desirable to kill both Drouks as close to simultaneously as possible.

Strategy

The key strategic considerations to defeat Zorn & Toth in Veteran Mode include the following:

• Keep Zorn & Toth apart and tank on opposite walls. If the team plans to tank swap on Fearful, the Toth tank should be at least 30 meters from Zorn to ensure they do not get the Fearful debuff.

• If group composition allows, assign melee DPS to Toth and ranged DPS to Zorn. If ranged DPS can set up more than 28 meters away from Zorn, they can avoid getting Fearful and thereby continue attacking Zorn.

• Ranged DPS and Healers should set up 28 meters away or more if possible from Zorn and Toth. This positioning will ensure these players do not take damage from Toth's Smash AoE, get the Fearful debuff, or get the Mental Anguish DoT and Weakened debuff.

• Be prepared for Fearful. There are a couple strategies that can work to deal with Fearful that are discussed further below. The key is to have a plan, make sure everyone understands it, and execute it consistently.

• Cleanse Mental Anguish DoT when it goes out. The DoT lasts a long time and deals steady damage and the Weakened debuff will prolong the fight by reducing group DPS. Any players that can self cleanse should do so. Healers should prioritize players that cannot self cleanse, most notably tanks without a self cleanse available.

• Kite the Baradium Heave circle under Toth. There should be plenty of time for the targeted player to run immediately behind Toth and place the circle underneath him. If the Toth tank gets the circle then move away from the wall slightly to place the circle then back up after it turns purple to kite Toth into it.

• Dodge Red circles from Ground Shatter. The red AoE circle damage is quite high in Veteran Mode and can one shot a player if they are at all low on health. DPS and healer players should not wait to finish a cast and should immediately move out of red.

• Wait for 10% Charge/Fearful before beginning final burn. Depending on group strategy, the final leap at 10% and its Fearful can make the final burn very difficult. Do not forget about this final leap and get everyone organized before pushing into the soft enrage and burn phase.

• Coordinate DPS to push <6% and kill Zorn and Toth. The soft enrage and enrage on death mechanics are much more punishing in Veteran Mode. The team should call out health levels and get both Zorn and Toth below 10% before burning them evenly. If possible try to burn them evenly so one dies while the other is <2%.

• After Drouks are killed, kill Handler Murdok. He is really easy and all his abilities can be interrupted.

Strategy - Burn Priority

There exist a range of strategies to defeat Zorn and Toth. The first general strategic variation relates to the burn order for Zorn and Toth, and whether to burn them evenly or burn one at a time. Both can work so let's discuss them briefly:

• Burn Zorn and Toth evenly. This is the default strategy and my preferred approach given a normal group composition. Since DPS on each boss is normal, Toth will tend to jump very closely to 90%/70%/50%/30%/10% and make predicting Fearful simpler. This strategy is also far less likely to accidentally push a boss sub-5% early. The major downside is that the team will have to deal with Fearful throughout the fight instead of all at once.

• Burn Toth to 9% then Zorn to 9% then burn evenly. This strategy seeks to get all the Fearful mechanics out of the way early but pushing Toth sub-10% before pushing Zorn sub-10% and then killing evenly through soft enrage. This strategy is a good one for less experienced teams since it forces all the Fearful debuffs up front. If the team is going to have issues with the mechanic better to get it out of the way at once and then not worry about it. The focused burn on Toth also makes Fearful less dangerous since DPS will be attacking Toth anyway. The MAJOR downside to this strategy is accidentally pushing Toth sub-5% while Zorn is above 80%. Make sure to stop DPS right at 10% or even slightly early, wait for the last leap and Fearful, see who (if anyone) got Fearful, then have any DPS without Fearful burn Zorn. The Toth tank will likely need to be very careful of their DPS to avoid pushing Toth early. Once the team survives the final leap and Fearful, they should be in the clear.

Strategy - Fearful

Another strategic consideration involves how to handle Fearful from a tank perspective and whether or not to tank swap. If the tanks are swapping, the tanks should also decide whether they (the player tanks) will swap positions and keep Zorn and Toth in the same location, or whether the player tanks will remain in position and use taunts to force Zorn and Toth to swap sides. Any combination of these strategies works fine as long as everyone understands and plans accordingly. Here are a few thoughts on each approach:

• Tank swap on Fearful. The default approach is to tank swap on Fearful. The Toth tank and ops lead should be watching Toth's health and call out when Toth is approaching 90/70/50/30/10% health and when Toth leaps. As soon as the leap occurs, the tanks cross-taunt. The tank initially on Zorn who got Fearful should avoid using any attacking abilities until (1) they are sure they have Toth's aggro; and (2) they are far enough away from Zorn to avoid hitting him with splash damage or AoE attacks.

• NO tank swap on Fearful. This strategy is simpler for DPS to position and avoid movement and range issues but riskier for the tanks. This strategy can work with any tank composition but in my opinion works best with a Shadow or Assassin tank particularly if they take the Shroud of a Shadow tactical. The basic idea here is to watch Toth's health and call out the leap as usual. When Toth leaps, the Zorn tank hits a strong defensive and stops attacking Zorn until Fearful expires. The Zorn tank will take +100% damage from Zorn due to Fearful even if they stop attacking, so a strong defensive is necessary. A Shadow / Assassin tank with Shroud of a Shadow is especially good for this strategy since they can use Resilience / Force Shroud with the duration extension to avoid all damage for half of the 15 second Fearful duration, then can use a weak defensive and healer burst to survive the rest. Other tanks have a harder time but can also deal with it with good defensive use.

• Position swapping. Whether the players or Zorn/Toth swap positions depends entirely on group reference. I personally prefer having the player tanks maintain position and have Zorn/Toth swap positions, since it leads to more consistent positioning for ranged DPS and healers to stay >28 meters from both bosses. That said, either approach is fine.

Tips & Tricks

Here are a couple other tips for Zorn and Toth in Veteran Mode:

• As with all multi-boss fights, I HIGHLY recommend placing the boss you are not attacking on Focus Target so that you can monitor both bosses at the same time. If you have Focus Target Castbar enabled, you will be able to see casts by your target and your focus target. This is mandatory for the ops lead but very helpful for everyone. I recommend healers place Toth as their Focus Target since his health is what determines the timing for Fearful and that is the most important mechanic in the fight.

• Ranged DPS classes that involve rotational placed AoE abilities such as Balance Sage / Madness Sorcerer and Saboteur Gunslinger / Engineering Sniper may have difficulty auto-casting their AoE ability while situated at greater than 28 meter range.

• Melee DPS need to be very careful in this fight if they end up on Zorn at any point. Groups will 3 or more melee DPS will have a difficult time since a melee DPS will get Fearful every time. If so, I suggest that melee DPS player keep an eye on Toth via Focus Target and briefly swap to him as he nears 90/70/50/30/10. This should take the melee DPS player out of range to get Fearful so they can swap back to Zorn after the leap.

• Tanks should keep in mind that Toth primarily uses melee/ranged attacks while Zorn uses force/tech attacks and plan defensive use accordingly.

• The team should coordinate where Zorn and Toth will be positioned to ensure ranged DPS and healers can be at least 28 meters from both bosses at the same time if possible. The fight is fundamentally about dealing with Fearful, balancing DPS and minimizing damage taken. Helping half or so of your group avoid most damage is extremely helpful.

• Healers should prepare for burst damage on the Zorn tank during Fearful (if not swapping) and on the Toth tank during Berserk. Outside mechanic windows that increase damage, the Zorn tank will typically take more damage due to the I/E damage profile.

Zorn and Toth are more difficult in Master Mode as expected, though I feel that the spike in difficulty is not too bad in 8m assuming a reasonable group composition. I have found the damage scaling is extremely punishing in 16m and is far more difficult than in 8m as a result.

Mechanics

The Zorn and Toth encounter in Master Mode includes the following new and revised notable mechanics:

• Baradium Poisoning at start of fight. As soon as the team enters combat everyone receives a Baradium Poisoning DoT. The DoT does not expire and can only be cleansed by using a medpac. Make sure everyone on the team has a medpac and uses it after the DoT is applied. Be careful not to use the medpac before the DoT as that will lead to a death and an early waste of a battle revive.

• Zorn has 15% increased health. In Master Mode the bosses have different health levels. Zorn has approximately 15% more health than Toth. In practice this health difference is mitigated by Toth's 50% DR during Berserk, so he takes less damage during certain phases of the fight but with consistent DPS should reach 10% at around the same time.

• Toth's Smash has a knockback and hits much harder. The knockback is not hugely impactful to players as long as the tank has their back to a wall. The higher Smash damage we found was very punishing to group compositions with only 1 melee DPS, as it seems to be shared amongst all players affected. We found Smash easier to heal through with 2 melee DPS or the Ranged DPS standing closer to the boss, which led to higher average damage taken but less punishing spike damage on non-tanks.

• Mental Anguish DoT ticks very hard. Good coordination by ranged DPS and healers to avoid getting the DoT is necessary. Healers should prioritize cleansing tank(s) first to manage spike damage potential.

• Zorn tank will take more damage. Zorn's internal/elemental damage profile is much more punishing in Master Mode as compared to Toth's kinetic/energy damage attacks. The Toth tank will primarily be vulnerable to spike damage during Berserk but otherwise the top priority will tend to be the Zorn tank.

• Players should coordinate to avoid getting BOTH Mental Anguish and Smash knockback. Given the danger of Fearful, the significant extra damage from Mental Anguish and the loss of uptime from Toth's Smash knockback, players should make sure to position themselves to avoid all of these mechanics if possible but above all else avoid getting all of them. The Toth healer getting Mental Anguish and the knockback is particularly dangerous since it takes them away from healing for at least 2 GCDs to cleanse themselves and move back into range.

• Toth's Ground Shatter is likely to one shot players. The red AoE circles are very dangerous and simply must be avoided in Master Mode.

• Missing Baradium Heave is very dangerous. If the first Baradium Heave misses Toth then a second one will go out immediately. The second one will have far less time before the yellow circle turns purple, so a quick reaction and use of movement speed abilities is crucial. The Toth tank may need to be aggressive in kiting Toth towards the circle as well.

• Boss Soft Enrage is ridiculously dangerous. The +200% damage buff to the surviving boss is extremely dangerous. As bad as the soft enrage is to the team, the team must coordinate to kill the first boss with the second being no higher than 2% and preferably 1%. I recommend the tanks communicate and coordinate killing the bosses such that the tank on the surviving boss has an extremely strong defensive cooldown available to survive the soft enrage boost.

• Handler is immune to interrupts. After Zorn and Toth are defeated, the Handler is immune to interrupts unlike in Story or Veteran Mode. This isn't a huge issue but just watch for AoE attacks and move out of them. The Handler is still trivial but is much less of a joke than in lower difficulties.

Strategy - Summary

The strategic considerations to defeat Zorn & Toth in Master Mode are essentially identical to Veteran Mode, as the changes to mechanics reduce the margin for error and increase the damage taken significantly but do not fundamentally change the fight. Make sure the team understands positioning for Fearful, cleanses on Mental Anguish, how/whether to tank swap on Fearful, burn priority (Toth then Zorn or both evenly), etc.

Tips & Tricks

Here are a couple other tips for Zorn and Toth in Master Mode:

• All melee DPS group composition is extremely punishing in this fight. I generally expect NiM-level players to be flexible and proficient in multiple classes/roles, and as such would require my group comp to have 2 ranged DPS even if people swap. I strongly believe that 2 players playing worse on ranged DPS is still better than playing really well on melee DPS due to the increase in damage taken from Mental Anguish and risk of Fearful.

• Classes with reflect abilities can reflect damage from Baradium Poisoning so can delay using their medpac slightly to deal a little extra damage.

• Healer and DPS classes and particularly ranged DPS need to focus on minimizing damage taken. The DPS check is not particularly punishing on Zorn and Toth even in Master Mode so the main check is not dying and coordinating the push into burn phase. Tanks and melee DPS on Toth will take a lot of damage no matter what, so everyone else needs to do everything they can to avoid damage even at the risk of a little downtime.

• Shadow / Assassin tanks are greatly preferred for Zorn due to how their defensives interact with Fearful. Fearful lasts 15s with the tank taking increased damage from Zorn and reflecting damage from their own attacks. A Shadow / Assassin tank can use Resilience / Force Shroud to mitigate a majority of the damage from Fearful and thus avoid needing a tank swap. The tank will take heavier spike damage on the back end of Fearful once Resilience / Force Shroud expires (the Shroud of a Shadow tactical is amazing for this) but overall is a much safer option than a tank swap if it can be avoided in my opinion.

• Guardian / Juggernaut tanks can reflect damage from Fearful, many of Zorn’s attacks and the initial DoT at the beginning prior to using a medpac to cleanse. Toth’s abilities are melee damage and thus saber reflect will not mitigate damage. Blade Blitz / Mad Dash can be used as a very short cooldown as long as you move into the wall to keep Toth in place. Awe is a great ability to use on Toth to reduce his melee damage especially during his berserk phase to reduce melee damage by 15%.

• Vanguard / Powertech tanks are ideal for tanking Toth due to their higher base mitigation and the effectiveness of Riot Gas / Oil Slick as a defensive on Toth's attack type.

• The team should coordinate where Zorn and Toth will be positioned to ensure ranged DPS and healers can be at least 28 meters from both bosses at the same time if possible. The fight is fundamentally about dealing with Fearful, balancing DPS and minimizing damage taken. Helping half or so of your group avoid most damage is extremely helpful.

• Healers should prepare for burst damage on the Zorn tank during Fearful (if not swapping) and on the Toth tank during Berserk. Outside mechanic windows that increase damage, the Zorn tank will typically take more damage due to the I/E damage profile.

Firebrand & Stormcaller are the second dual-boss encounter in Explosive Conflict and are typically the hardest boss to clear in Story Mode. The basic structure to the fight is that they alternate between offensive systems and defensive systems phases. During offensive systems, most players should be on the tanks dealing damage to them and attempting to burn them down equally. Every 20%, they enter a defensive systems phase where most of the group takes shelter inside shields to avoid massive AoE damage. Moreso than Zorn & Toth, it is important to coordinate DPS to defeat both tanks very closely together.

Mechanics

The key overall fight mechanics are as follows:

• Offensive Systems: The default phase for both Tanks during which they are actively attacking the player and receive normal damage.

• Magnetically Stabilized: A buff applied to any player who is standing on either Firebrand or Stormcaller. This debuff prevents them from being Targeted so long as one player does not have this buff.

• Targeted: A debuff applied to a random player who is on the ground and does not have a Magnetically Stabilized buff. (Note this debuff is applied to 2 players at a time in 16m instances.) The debuff lasts a few seconds and is accompanied by a large yellow light. When the debuff expires, the yellow graphic will become fixed on the ground and be hit with a Charged Burst missile attack a few seconds later.

• Charged Burst: A missile AoE attack that hits the area affected by the Targeted yellow graphic and deals heavy damage over a small AoE.

• Electrical Disturbance: During Offensive Systems, Stormcaller fires a missile at the Targeted player that plants a lightning orb that deals heavy damage over time. Its positioning can be predicted and largely avoided with experience and skill. During Defensive Systems, Stormcaller targets the tank with aggro with 8 electric missiles during the 25s duration of Defensive Systems.

• Defensive Systems: 5s cast ability that triggers the first time either tank reaches 80/60/40/20% health. Defensive Systems lasts 25s and grants very high damage reduction to both Firebrand & Stormcaller. Firebrand channels Mortar Barrage for the entirety of this phase and deals very heavy damage to everyone except the player with aggro on Stormcaller.

• Mortar Barrage: 25s channeled attack by Firebrand during Defensive Systems that deals very high AoE damage to any players not protected by a shield. The tank with aggro on Stormcaller takes reduced damage from this attack.

• Shields: During Defensive Systems, shields will spawn near the tanks that protect the group from Mortar Barrage. All players should huddle in these during Defensive Systems except the Stormcaller tank. Adds spawn in these shields and can be safely AoE'd down in Story Mode.

Strategy

The overall strategy to the fight is as follows:

• Split the team into equal groups with half assigned to each tank.

• One healer should stay on the ground to kite the Electrical Disturbance (lightning bubbles) and Targeted/Charged Burst mechanics. In 16m groups, one healer and a mobile DPS should generally be assigned this duty. Everyone else needs to be on a tank at all times during Offensive Systems. The players on the ground should move out of Electrical Disturbance / lightning bubbles, and when they received the Targeted debuff (yellow graphic) they should keep moving until it stops following them.

• The tank players should stand in front of Firebrand & Stormcaller, while all other players stand on the sides of the tank bosses to avoid cleave damage.

• When Defensive Systems triggers every 20% boss health, the Stormcaller tank should stay out of the shields and kite Electrical Disturbance lightning bubbles. Everyone else huddles into a shield near their assigned tank boss. A Stormcaller healer should make sure to top off the tank kiting lightning attacks whenever possible. As soon as Mortar Barrage ends, everyone gets back up on the tank except the people assigned to stay on the ground.

• Coordinate DPS to make sure both bosses are below 5% health before they are killed.

Firebrand & Stormcaller is a very similar fight in Veteran Mode and retains the same structure with the shift between Offensive Systems on the tanks and Defensive Systems underneath shields. The main differences involve tank mechanics and adding the ability to destroy the shield through AoE damage. A team progging this fight for the first time will primarily tend to struggle with tank mechanics and once those are nailed down should clear this fight relatively quickly.

Similar to Story Mode, the team should divide into half with each group assigned to a tank. A healer or a ranged DPS player should remain on the ground to kite Charged Burst attack and Electrical Disturbance lightning fields. In 16 person groups two players should remain on the ground.

For group composition, if possible include at least one DPS with taunt (Guardian/Juggernaut, Vanguard/Powertech, Shadow/Assassin) should be on the Firebrand team. It is also helpful to put your stronger healer on the Stormcaller side and let the Firebrand healer or a mobile DPS kite on the ground. Any tank alignment can be successful but Shadow/Assassin tanks are particularly effective with Firebrand and Guardian/Juggernauts can add a lot of extra damage if tanking Stormcaller.

Mechanics

The Firebrand and Stormcaller encounter in Veteran Mode includes the following new and revised notable mechanics:

• Double Destruction: Stormcaller will cast Double Destruction midway through each Offensive Systems phase. The attack has 2 charges and operates in a conal attack that affects the first two players closest to the boss along its conal trajectory. The general strategy for this mechanic is to have the tank stand behind 2 DPS/healers. Any player who gets 2 charges (e.g., tank if no one stands in front of them) receives the Double Destruction debuff that stuns them and then instantly kills them. Assuming two players share the attack, each receives 1 charge of Single Destruction that lasts for 15 seconds, deals periodic damage and increases damage taken from Stormcaller by +200%.

• Incinerate Armor: Firebrand will cast this attack shortly after Stormcaller casts Double Destruction. Incinerate Armor applies a debuff that reduces the targets armor to 0 for 15 seconds and increases the damage taken from Firebrand by +100%. In Veteran Mode it is possible for the Firebrand tank to eat this debuff and hold the boss with strong defensive cooldowns. However, it is not recommended to do so in most circumstances. See below for some strategy options.

• Targeted: The targeted debuff operates similarly to Story Mode except that it does not naturally fall off and stop tracking the player. As soon as the debuff is applied, the player must cleanse to drop the targeting reticle on the ground. Failure to do so will result in the player getting hit with a high damage Charged Burst attack.

• Defensive Systems/Shields: The Defensive Systems, Mortar Volley and Shield mechanics operate similarly in Veteran Mode as in Story Mode with two big differences. First, only one shield appears on each side instead of 3 on each side in Story Mode. Second, the shield generator can be damaged by the players and takes very little damage to destroy.

Strategy - Summary

The overall strategy to the fight in Veteran Mode is similar to Story Mode except that the team needs to develop a strategy to handle Double Destruction and Incinerate Armor to avoid the tanks being killed by these mechanics. During Defensive Systems the team needs to be careful to get to the shield safely and should avoid any abilities that have AoE, splash damage or DoT spread to avoid destroying the shield generator. Otherwise the fight proceeds normally as in Story Mode where the team alternates phases and burns the tanks down evenly.

Strategy - Double Destruction and Incinerate Armor

The key strategic considerations to defeat Firebrand and Stormcaller in Veteran Mode involves how to deal with Double Destruction and Incinerate Armor.

Double Destruction is pretty simple where the healer and DPS players standing on Stormcaller on the side should group together, and when Double D goes out the tank runs behind them so they get the debuffs then after the cast immediately runs back in front of the tank so the others avoid taking boss damage with the debuff.

As for Incinerate, there are a few effective strategies depending on group composition, tank class and relative player experience. The overall goal is generally to ensure someone other than the Firebrand tank gets the Incinerate armor debuff. Here are a few options to consider:

• (Shadow/Assassin only) Force Cloak prior to Incinerate. Only Shadow/Assassin tanks can use this strategy. Since Incinerate Armor occurs shortly after Double Destruction, the tank should use Force Cloak right afterwards to drop aggro. Firebrand will swap to one of the DPS on that side and apply Incinerate Armor. The tank needs to taunt before Incinerate Armor finishes its cast to ensure Firebrand swaps back to them immediately.

• DWT on Firebrand taunts after Double Destruction. This strategy is similar to the above except works for all tanks. A DWT (DPS with Taunt) should taunt right after Double Destruction to get aggro on Firebrand and take Incinerate. As before, the Firebrand tank needs to taunt back as Incinerate Armor goes out to keep the DWT alive. DWT classes include Guardian/Juggernaut DPS, Vanguard/Powertech DPS and Shadow/Assassin DPS.

• Stormcaller tank taunts after Double Destruction. This strategy is riskier than the others but is doable with good defensive cooldowns and if the healers know its coming. The Stormcaller tank taunts Firebrand right after Double Destruction and briefly holds both tanks until Incinerate Armor goes out. The Stormcaller tank will still take more damage as a result of having 0 armor for 15 seconds from the debuff, but will take less damage than the Firebrand tank getting the debuff due to the +100% Firebrand damage also caused by the debuff. The Stormcaller tank should save a defensive cooldown for each time they take Incinerate to moderate damage taken.

• Firebrand tank takes Incinerate Armor. This strategy is even riskier but may be necessary for some groups. The Firebrand tank cannot survive the debuff without a strong defensive cooldown and in some cases multiple cooldowns. Shadow/Assassins can handle this more easily than other with Deflection and avoid damage.

Tips & Tricks

Here are a couple other tips for Firebrand and Stormcaller in Veteran Mode:

• Any players with reflects can add a LOT of damage by standing in the Electrical Disturbance with a reflect active. This damage is reduced during Defensive Systems due to the tanks' 95% damage resistance, so the best time to step into one is just after Defensive Systems ends.

• Guardian/Juggernaut tank on Stormcaller can add a lot of reflect damage. Having a Guardian/Juggernaut tank on Stormcaller can add a lot of DPS by using their reflect. While kiting electrical disturbances during Defensive Systems, try to stack the last 4-5 lightning circles in an overlapping fashion. As soon as Defensive Systems ends, pop Saber Reflect and stand in the overlap of the circles. This strategy can add enough DPS to let the tank challenge the DPS for top damage, especially if they are offensive gearing.

• Place your stronger healer on Stormcaller. Stormcaller primarily uses Tech attacks while Firebrand uses Ranged attacks, so the Stormcaller tank will take more damage most of the time. Also, two players on the Stormcaller side will take charges of Single Destruction from Double Destruction and take periodic damage usually leading into Defensive Systems. This makes the healer job on that side much more difficult compared to the Firebrand side, which is why it is usually preferable to have your stronger healer on Stormcaller and have the Firebrand healer kite on the ground.

• Have DPS and healers stand on the inside of each tank. Many groups tend to have DPS and healers stand on the outside edge of their tank. This makes the transition to Defensive Systems a bit easier but prevents any healer from having the entire team in range. If the DPS and healers stand on the inside sides of their tank then both healers should have the entire team in range. This helps healers on each side help the other side if anyone gets low. The only trick is that players need to reposition quickly for the knockback from Defensive Systems.

• Use the minimap to identify the shield positioning. I have found the visual cue for the adds coming down and the shield coming up being a bit slow sometimes to identify its location and get the group positioned for the knockback. I believe a better and more consistent method is to watch your mini-map for the red dot indicating the shield. Use a consistent nomenclature to call out shield locations. My preferred terminology is "[Name of Boss] [Front/Side/Back]" or for example "Fire Front, Storm Back" and so on, though to each their own.

• If damage taken is a problem, have a ranged DPS kite on the ground. Teams progging this fight for the first time may struggle with damage taken. If so, use the above strategy to have non-tanks on the inside of each tank to stay in range of healers and perhaps consider having a ranged DPS kite on the ground so both healers can stand on the tanks and turret heal. Commando/Mercenary and Sage/Sorcerer ranged DPS have good mobility, a self cleanse and do not suffer too much DPS loss from movement. Gunslinger/Snipers are not good options since they lack a cleanse and lose a lot more DPS when having to move consistently.

Firebrand and Stormcaller are more difficult in Master Mode as expected. There is one notable new mechanic added in Master Mode for dealing with shields and adds during Defensive Systems, but otherwise the fight is essentially the same with a few other tweaks. As of the 6.x expansion, the tuning of the fight makes the DPS check extremely difficult to pass using a conventional strategy and the damage taken on the Stormcaller side is very high. Additional coordination is necessary to deal with Double Destruction as well.

Mechanics

The Firebrand and Stormcaller encounter in Master Mode includes the following new and revised notable mechanics:

• DPS check is very difficult. Many groups struggle to destroy the tanks usually a traditional strategy to kill the tanks at the same time. Very high DPS groups can use a traditional strategy or group compositions with lots of reflect defensives may also do so if they can coordinate to use reflects to add DPS. See below for the alternative strategy for groups unable to clear the traditional DPS check (which will be most groups when progging this fight for the first time).

• Bomber add explodes when killed. One Trandoshan add per shield will have a Overcharged Jetpack buff (looks like a red mushroom cloud explosion) and will explode when killed. Killing the add inside the shield will destroy the shield. There are a few strategies to deal with this add: (1) use a push/pull to move them out of the shield and kill safely; (2) get them low on health but wait to kill until just after Defensive Systems ends; or (3) ignore during Defensive Systems and let a ranged DPS burn it down after getting back on the tank. Option #1 is usually optimal if possible to maximize uptime on the bosses given the difficult DPS check.

• Double Destruction DoT lasts longer. In Master Mode the DoT/debuff applied by Double Destruction lasts for 36 seconds instead of 15 seconds. Since Double Destruction has a cooldown of 30 seconds, it means that anytime Double Destruction goes out twice during any phase that the same two players cannot take Double Destruction. At some point in the fight a rotation will be necessary amongst 4 players to rotate who takes Double Destruction.

• Incinerate Armor applies a +100% damage debuff to Firebrand damage. In Story or Veteran Mode it is possible for tanks to eat Incinerate Armor by using a defensive cooldown. In Master Mode it is extremely difficult to do so without cycling through nearly all defensive cooldowns. Shadow/Assassin tanks can most easily handle eating Incinerate Armor using Deflection, though they can also more easily swap using Force Cloak anyway.

• Stormcaller hits very hard in Master Mode. Stormcaller's damage is very high in Master Mode and is particularly dangerous coming out of Defensive Systems when healers are usually moving to get back on the tanks (when tanks may already be low from kiting missiles during the phase). I suggest tanks plan to use a defensive cooldown of some kind coming out of Defensive Systems to bridge the incoming damage while healers get positioned and heal you back up.

• Mortar Barrage will one shot non-tanks. The Mortar Barrage channeled attack during Defensive Systems hits extremely hard in Master Mode and will usually one-shot non-tanks. The Firebrand tank can survive a couple hits at most but should try and avoid. Getting into the shield directly or getting knocked into it immediately is very important. If a mistake happens, Mortar Barrage is a Ranged attack that deals Energy damage so defensive cooldowns that allow you to dodge attacks (Dodge/Evasion, Deflection, Saber Ward, etc.) may allow you to survive the few extra seconds to get safely into the shield.

Strategy - DPS Check

The first strategic consideration to clear Firebrand and Stormcaller in Master Mode is how to clear the DPS check as many groups may struggle to do so without using crystals or using defensive cooldowns in an offensive fashion. The bosses enrage in 6 minutes and 20 seconds, or 380 seconds total. Many groups that are able to clear most NiM DPS checks may struggle to kill both tanks in this time frame.

For context, when my NiM team started progressing on NiM EC we had just cleared NiM TFB. We were able to clear TFB last boss Phase 1 Tentacles frequently with no enraged Slams or at most 1 when we got close to and ultimately got the kill, but were unable to consistently clear this DPS check in NiM EC. Some groups can and do clear it but it requires truly outstanding DPS and/or a group composition that allows free "bonus" DPS.

Here are some examples of how group composition can help with the DPS check:

• Guardian/Juggernaut tanks can add several thousand more DPS over the fight by stacking Electrical Disturbance lightning orbs in an overlapping fashion during Defensive Systems and then stepping into them with Saber Reflect. Make sure to wait to pop Saber Reflect until after Defensive Systems ends so the damage is not mitigated by the bosses' 95% DR!

• Guardian/Juggernaut and Commando/Mercenary DPS can use their reflects to stand in the Electrical Disturbance lightning orbs as well. Other classes with reflects should generally not do so since other reflects generally do not mitigate damage.

• Vanguard/Powertech, Commando/Mercenary, Sentinel/Marauder and Sage/Sorcerer DPS should be prioritized to take Double Destruction as often as possible. These classes can deal additional damage as they take damage from the DoT through the use of defensives and/or utilities.

If you do not have sufficient DPS or a group composition that makes the check easier, an alternative strategy is necessary to clear the fight. The most common strategy is as follows:

1. DPS focus on Firebrand until sub-20%. The goal with this first step is to immediately push Firebrand below 20% to trigger all the Defensive Systems phases. The added mechanic of the exploding add killing the shield, the greater danger of DPS dying to Mortar Barrage by not getting into the shield in time and the sustained high damage on the Stormcaller tank generally make Defensive Systems the toughest phase. Getting those out of the way helps simplify the remainder of the fight, where the only dangerous mechanics are tank-related with Incinerate Armor and Double Destruction.

2. DPS focus on Stormcaller until destroyed. After Firebrand is below 20%, DPS should all swap to Stormcaller until it is down. As will be discussed in a moment, Stormcaller cannot be allowed to enrage as it will one-shot players in sequence. Firebrand's enrage is much more lenient so the overall goal is to kill Stormcaller before the enrage and then deal with Firebrand's enrage. At least 4 players other than the Stormcaller player tank should be positioned on Stormcaller to deal with Double Destruction.

3. When Stormcaller dies / Firebrand enrages, get inside the shield. As Stormcaller dies, Firebrand will immediately cast Defensive Systems. The team needs to identify where the shield is located and move to the shield as quickly as possible. Players previously on Stormcaller (likely the majority of the team) need to move particularly quickly.

4. Kill / deal with adds in shield. Just like every other Defensive Systems, adds will be inside the shield including an exploding add. Teams may either deal with the adds normally (push/pull the exploding add out then kill), or just have a tank taunt the adds and ignore them.

5. DPS Firebrand from inside the shield. Firebrand will have 95% damage resistance for the first 25 seconds of Defensive Systems but will continue to spam Mortar Barrage indefinitely and likely will enrage during this time. However, the shield will remain past the 25 second duration of Firebrand's DR. This means for the first 25 seconds the team will deal very little damage to Firebrand but after the DR buff wears off it can be damaged normally.

6. Kill Firebrand within 60 seconds. The shield generator duration is 60 seconds assuming it is not killed by player AoE attacks or damage from the exploding add. That gives the team 35 seconds of uptime on Firebrand after the Defensive Systems DR buff expires to destroy Firebrand. Melee DPS and tanks can "suicide" in to Firebrand to deal some damage before dying if they lack basic ranged abilities, and if so should utilize defensive cooldowns to get as much uptime as possible.

Strategy - Incinerate Armor

Incinerate Armor functions similarly to Veteran Mode except the +100% debuff addition in Master Mode makes it incredibly difficult for the Firebrand tank to survive if they get the debuff. A tank swap is essential to clear this mechanic in Master Mode, whereas it was suggested but not mandatory in Veteran Mode.

The strategies discussed in Veteran Mode are all applicable here, except that surviving with the debuff is much more difficult. Shadow/Assassin tanks can survive one Incinerate Armor phase with Deflection and Guardian/Juggernaut tanks can survive by bridging Saber Ward, then Saber Reflect, then another defensive cooldown. I am not sure I would want to risk it on a Vanguard/Powertech tank at all even with Emergency Power.

The simplest and easiest solution is to have a DWT in the group to taunt when necessary. The Stormcaller tank can taunt in an emergency but I would strongly advise against it given the lack of armor will escalate an already high level of damage taken on that side of the fight.

If the group lacks a DWT, a Shadow/Assassin tank is ideal for Firebrand since with the Two Cloaks tactical they can stealth out to drop aggro for nearly all Incinerate Armor.

If the group lacks either a DWT or a Shadow/Assassin tank then this mechanic will be very difficult and someone should consider running an alt for this fight.

Strategy - Double Destruction

As noted above, the Single Destruction debuff applied by Double Destruction lasts 36 seconds in Master Mode while Double Destruction only has a 30 second cooldown. Unless the team enters Defensive Systems within 30 seconds after Double Destruction goes out, the team will get a second Double Destruction while 2 players still have the ticking debuff.

Please note that any player who gets two stacks from Double Destruction instantly dies. As such, the team must have a rotation of 4 players to cycle in to take waves of Double Destruction.

In 8 man instances, the team should have 5 players available after considering the Stormcaller tank, Firebrand tank and the healer/DPS kiting on the ground. Even with a melee DPS attacking Firebrand that should leave 4 players to stand on Stormcaller. Please note a ranged DPS assigned to Firebrand can still stand on Stormcaller and attack their target.

The basic premise to this strategy is to have 4 players stand on Stormcaller together. When Double Destruction goes out, the tank hides behind them to avoid getting the debuff then returns to their position right after the cast.

The 2 players who get the debuff should move a bit towards the back of the tank until their debuffs expire. The 2 players who did not get the debuff will then be positioned for the next Double Destruction, and so on. This cycle repeats as often as necessary. The key it to ensure 2 people are ready for Double Destruction with no debuffs at all times, and that no one with the debuff is standing too close to risk getting a second stack.

Bear in mind that ranged DPS assigned to Firebrand will have further to go to their shield so need to have movement abilities ready.

Assuming the team is burning Firebrand to sub-20% first then the team generally should not encounter more than one Double Destruction between Defensive Systems phases. If the team encounters it a second time that likely means DPS is unbalanced or is a bit slow. After Firebrand is sub-20% and the entire team is on Stormcaller they should expect regular Double Destructions until Stormcaller is killed.

An important note for the team is that if Stormcaller is killed during a Double Destruction cast, that may result in the cast instantly finishing rather than being interrupted as one would expect. I have died several times to this phenomenon, so if the team has sufficient awareness I would recommend delaying DPS slightly to kill after Double Destruction finishes.

Strategy - Exploding Adds

As noted above, each shield will have one add with an Overcharged Jetpack buff that will explode on death and potentially destroy the shield. A few strategies can be employed to deal with this add safely are discussed below. In all cases, the key is to avoid destroying the shield. Mortar Barrage ticks just before the channel ends, so even dropping the shield a few seconds early can wipe the group.

• Push/pull the add out of the shield. All classes have a push or pull ability (sometimes both) that can be used to reposition the exploding add out of the group. Classes with pulls can time it to step briefly out of the shield to pull an add out and get back inside before taking damage. Push abilities are safer. The only risk to this strategy involves using knockbacks that deal damage and might destroy the shield. I have found that even conal knockbacks that deal damage will not generally one-shot the generator and can typically be used safely. Once the add is out of the shield, it can be killed safely without risking the shield.

• Kill the add right after Defensive Systems. In this strategy, the team coordinates DPS to burn the exploding add relatively low (sub-20% or maybe a bit lower), then designates one player to kill the add right after the Defensive Systems phase ends. If the add is low enough it should only take one or two abilities that can be used on the move to kill the add while remounting the tanks. The risk to this strategy is accidentally killing the add early.

• Avoid the add. In this strategy, the team avoids the exploding add entirely until after Defensive Systems and designates a ranged DPS to kill the add once they have remounted the tank. This strategy is fine for early pulls while the team is getting the hang of mechanics but I strongly discourage this approach once the team is ready to get a kill since it costs valuable uptime on the tanks when the DPS check is a significant factor for most groups.

I highly recommend the push/pull strategy if the group composition allows for it. Otherwise, I suggest coordinating to burn the add down to low health and kill afterwards. Some mistakes are likely as the team gets experienced at it but with practice it goes smoothly. This is another reason why I suggest pushing through all Defensive Systems phases early, so that if the group makes a mistake you get the wipe done quickly and reset instead of getting to 20% and nearly ready to kill and then wiping to a derp on the shield phase.

Tips & Tricks

Here are a couple other tips for Firebrand and Stormcaller in Master Mode:

• Group compositions that include at least one DWT (DPS with taunt) are very helpful to manage Incinerate Armor, especially if the Firebrand tank is not a Shadow/Assassin tank.

• Shadow/Assassin tanks are amazing for tanking Firebrand with the Two Cloaks tactical as they can Force Cloak to drop aggro prior to most Incinerate Armor casts.

• Guardian/Juggernaut tanks are great for tanking Stormcaller primarily due to their ability to add significant DPS by stacking Electrical Disturbances during Defensive Systems and standing in them with Saber Reflect right after the phase ends. I have regularly tanked Stormcaller in EC NiM and in full mitigation gear can nearly double my total DPS using this strategy.

• Unless the team can beat the DPS check, a group composition must include ranged DPS to clear Firebrand after it enrages.

• Killing Stormcaller during Double Destruction may not interrupt the cast but instead cause it to immediately finish casting. I primarily tanked Stormcaller during my team's progression of NiM EC and died once or twice due to killing Stormcaller during Double Destruction and thus getting both stacks and immediately dying.

• All melee DPS group composition is extremely punishing in this fight. I generally expect NiM-level players to be flexible and proficient in multiple classes/roles, and as such would require my group comp to have 2 ranged DPS even if people swap. I strongly believe that 2 players playing worse on ranged DPS is still better than playing really well on melee DPS due to the increase in damage taken from Mental Anguish and risk of Fearful.

• Healers should be prepared for much higher damage on the Stormcaller tank and should be particularly careful during the transition back onto the tanks after Defensive Systems. The player tank may be a bit low at that point from kiting missiles and is vulnerable to spike damage.

The Colonel Vorgath encounter is usually called simply as the "Minefield" boss. It has two phases. The team must first make their way across a minefield by progressively uncovering and disarming mines, then the team must fight Vorgath himself. Colonel Vorgath himself is largely a pushover, so the overall focus of the encounter is on clearing the minefield.

The minefield is laid out as a grid 4 units wide and 7 units long. The area where the team jumps down is initially safe up to the row of sandbags, though after some time it will begin to periodically be light on fire and kill any players standing in it. Past the sandbags, the minefield is initially invisible and must be uncovered via the Tower directly in front of the entryway into the area.

Minefield Tower

One player will need to ride the lift beside the Tower up into the top area. This player should usually be one of the tanks. Inside, there is a 7x4 grid interface that controls the minefield and a small button to the right of the minefield grid. The bottom of the grid corresponds to the entrance (where the team begins), so the goal is to progress from bottom to top on the minefield grid to enable the team to traverse it safely.

The player running the minefield tower can take the following actions:

• Reveal a mine: Clicking a blank square in the 7x4 grid will uncover it to reveal whether a mine exists. Green means no mine is present and the team can safely advance into this area below. Red means a mine exists and will kill anyone who enters the red area below. There is a short cooldown on this ability after using it before it can be used again.

• Defuse a mine: Clicking a red square in the 7x4 grid will make it defusable for 15s, turning the square yellow during the time. A player with a defusal kit can advance into a yellow square and click on the mine to complete a 5s cast to disarm the mine.

For the team to obtain a mine defusal kit, the player running the minefield tower will also need to summon Demolition Droids. This is accomplished by clicking the small button to the right of the 7x4 grid. Doing so teleports the player down onto the minefield as a hologram, where the player should run towards the group until they uncover a cloaked Demolition Droid. Uncovering it will cause it to unstealth and engage the players down below.

Strategy - Minefield Puzzle

The overall strategy for the player running the minefield Tower is as follows:

• Enter the tower and immediately uncover mines on the bottom row until a green square is revealed. Start with the bottom left and move left to right. The bottom left or middle left should always include a green square.

• Click the small button and uncover a Demolition Droid for the team to engage.

• Kill the add in the tower.

• Uncover mines in the same column as the team's location moving upward from the green square until the Demolition Droid is below 20% health.

• As soon as the Demolition Droid is killed, click the red square above the team's location to turn it yellow and make it defusable. Wait for the player with the defusal kit to disarm the mine and turn the square green.

• (The above step can be repeated for the duration of the defusal kit buff on the player. If the team moves quickly, up to 3 mines can be disarmed per defusal kit.)

• Repeat this cycle, starting with clicking the small button and uncovering a Demolition Droid, until the team clears the Minefield.

Once the team clears the Minefield, wait for someone to destroy the minefield device at the far end. Then, look to the ground and make sure it is clear of fire. If so, jump down and follow the team's path through the minefield to join the team.

Strategy - Traversing the Minefield

The mechanics for the team traversing the minefield are much simpler. It primarily involves knowing which areas are safe to stand in, as follows:

• Green = safe for everyone

• Red = will kill anyone

• Yellow = safe ONLY for a player with a mine defusal kit

The team should progress through the green squares. Any time a Demolition Droid is summoned, all DPS priority should be killing the droid before it enrages. Whomever is closest to the droid when it dies will get a defusal kit (note multiple players receive a kit in 8m but only 1 in 16m due to a bug applying certain HM mechanics in 16m ops instances).

As soon as a Demolition Droid is killed, the player(s) receiving the defusal kit should wait to make sure the mine ahead of them turns yellow. As soon as it does, they should run in and click the mine in the center of the square. This disarms the mine and turns it green. The team should advance and keep disarming mines (up to 3) until the defusal kit expires then a new Demolition Droid should be summoned.

Two other sets of adds exist in the area. Assassin Droids (the slowly walking adds) will explode if they reach the group and should generally be cc'd or knocked back by healers until the Demolition Droid is killed. The other adds can be ignored and killed via AoE / DoT spread.

Two DoTs go out that should be cleansed. The DoT that resembles an explosion takes very high priority to cleanse, while the yellow DoT is much lower priority and can even be ignored and healed through.

Strategy - Colonel Vorgath

Vorgath himself is a pushover and a very straightforward tank and spank. He has a few basic mechanics:

• Turrets: Vorgath periodically summons turrets to attack the group. Either kill the turrets or kill 3 of them and CC the 4th.

• Grenade: Vorgath applies a grenade to a random player that is marked by a red circle and explodes after several seconds. The affected player should move away from the group.

• Drop aggro: Vorgath will periodically drop aggro and should be taunted back by the tank.

Colonel Vorgath is a very similar fight in Veteran Mode with only a few differences. The most important mechanic added in Veteran Mode is the Overload ability employed by the Imperial Demolition Probes, which if not interrupted applies a 360 degree knockback that will usually wipe the group by knocking people into the minefield. A successful team will require an interrupt strategy, good timing by the person running the puzzle and good DPS to clear the check to kill the Demolition Probes before they enrage and to clear the minefield before the turrets enrage.

Similar to Story Mode, the team should assign one player to go into the tower to run the puzzle. This player should nearly always be a tank to ensure maximum DPS on the ground to destroy the Demolition Probe. The overall strategy for running the puzzle is the same as in Story Mode except that only one mine can be disarmed per defusal kit, so you cannot disarm 2-3 mines after each Deolition Probe is destroyed but must do them one at a time.

For group composition, any team can be effective. Interrupts are important so having more melee DPS and particularly more Guardian/Juggernaut and Sentinel/Marauder players are helpful to have more frequent interrupts. However, with 7 players available there should always be sufficient interrupts so there is no need to tweak group composition for this encounter.

Mechanics

The Colonel Vorgath encounter in Veteran Mode includes the following new and revised notable mechanics:

• 1 Mine Defusal Kit per Demolition Probe: In Veteran Mode only one player gets a Mine Defusal Kit after destroying the Imperial Demolitions Probe. (This is also true in Story Mode 16 person but is not intended but an instance of Veteran Mode mechanics "leaking" into Story Mode as sometimes happen in 16 person operations.) The Mine Defusal Kit only lasts for 15 seconds in Veteran Mode as opposed to 45 seconds in Story Mode, so the team needs to move promptly to disarm the mine or risk the Mine Defusal Kit expiring.

• Overload 360-degree knockback: In Veteran Mode the Imperial Demolition Probe has an Overload 1.5 second cast ability that applies a 360 degree knockback to the group. This ability should can be interrupted and should always be interrupted. It is possible to survive the knockback by either putting your back to a wall (i.e., taking the far left path up the mine field) or standing such that the knockback pushes you back down your previous path so you avoid the armed minefield.

• Explosive Probe must be cleansed: The Explosive Probe (red/orange debuff) and the Interrogation Probe (yellow DoT) both go out in Veteran Mode as in Story Mode. The Explosive Probe is much more dangerous in Veteran Mode and must be cleansed to avoid high spike damage. The Interrogation Probe DoT should be cleansed when convenient but is much lower priority.

• Assassin Droids: New adds called Assassin Droids spawn in the minefield in Veteran Mode. These adds walk slowly towards the group and will explode when they reach their target. Groups should ideally utilize knockbacks, cc's, stuns and slows to keep them away from the group until the Demolition Probe is destroyed then destroy the droids. Alternatively, a ranged DPS can be dedicated to burning them down. Another strategy involves the player targeted moving out of the group to take the spike damage with a defensive cooldown.

• Turrets cannot be CC'd: Once the group clears the minefield and engages Colonel Vorgath, the turrets that spawn periodically cannot be CC'd in Veteran Mode. It is possible to LoS the turrets by having tanks and DPS avoid them entirely and having the healers stand as close to the cave exit as possible. This positioning ensures the turrets only target the healers but positions the healers outside the turrets' maximum range so that they do not attack anyone.

• Turret Enrage is much tighter: The turrets enrage in 6 minutes after the fight begins. Since the team can only disarm one mine per Demolition Probe, they must go through 4 or 5 cycles to get through the minefield. If the team gets unlucky and needs to disarm 5 mines, the enrage timer can be tight on many groups. The player running the puzzle needs to be very prompt with moving the team through the minefield to help avoid enrage.

Strategy - Summary

The overall strategy to the fight in Veteran Mode is similar to Story Mode except that the team has additional mechanics to consider while moving through the minefield and will have to spend more time in the minefield dealing with the mechanics. The team needs an interrupt rotation to consistently interrupt Overload, needs to agree on an approach to deal with Assassin droids, properly cleanse the Explosive Probe debuff, and move quickly to disarm mines after each Demolitions Probe is destroyed.

In my experience the biggest barriers to success on this encounter are (1) the Overload interrupt; and (2) running the minefield puzzle fast enough to help the team beat the turret enrage.

Strategy - Overload

Overload is the most common cause of wipes in Colonel Vorgath in Veteran Mode. Overload has a 6 second cooldown and the Demolitions Probe begins using it as soon as it drops below 98% health. The shortest cooldown on player interrupt abilities is 12 seconds for Force Kick / Disruption for Guardian/Juggernaut and Sentinel/Marauder players, with other cooldowns being substantially longer. As such, at a minimum it will take 2-3 players or more to ensure all Overloads are interrupted and more if the team plans to interrupt the cleave attack as well.

Interrupt rotations are common in progression operations but relatively few have as much pressure to avoid any mistakes as the Overload interrupt on Colonel Vorgath in Veteran Mode. The team should work out their interrupt rotation, make sure everyone understands it and then if possible use voice chat to communicate. Players calling out "I have next" or calling out if they used their interrupt early is critical to adapting on the fly to be successful during the fight.

Strategy - Minefield Puzzle

The strategy discussed above in Story Mode continues to be applicable in Veteran Mode. Since the team can only disarm one mine at a time in Veteran Mode, it is critical for the player running the minefield puzzle to avoid wasting any time. Taking actions to unlock the team's progress through the minefield is always of utmost importance.

As soon as the player gets into the tower, they should immediately (1) unlock the front row of mines from left to right until a green square is unlocked; then (2) uncover a Demolitions Probe. They should ignore the add until steps 1 and 2 are completed. They will have plenty of time to DPS the add down while the rest of the team is fighting the Demolitions Probe.

After the player defeats the add in the tower, they should make sure to Focus Target the Demolitions Probe so they can watch its health. As long as the add is above 20% health, try to uncover some mine squares ahead of the team along their current path. Once the add gets below 20%, wait to click on the next red mine in their path and try to click it just as the droid is destroyed.

I suggest that as soon as the player with the Mine Defusal Kit runs in to begin disarming the mine, go ahead and teleport onto the minefield to get ready to summon another Demolitions Probe. Do not uncover the probe until the mine has been successfully disarmed. This may mean just standing as a hologram in place without moving for a few seconds. As soon as the mine is disarmed, move towards the left wall as normal to immediately get the team another Demolitions Probe.

This strategy will avoid wasted time by the team waiting on the player in the tower to get a probe droid and is a huge help to beat the turret enrage timer.

Tips & Tricks

Here are a couple other tips for Firebrand and Stormcaller in Veteran Mode:

• Healers can LoS turrets while fighting Vorgath. If you have your healers stand near the cave entrance at their maximum healing range and instruct tanks and DPS to avoid attacking the turrets, they will aggro to the healers but be unable to attack them due to the range on their attacks. This lets the team ignore turrets during the entire Vorgath fight, which is very helpful and good practice for Master Mode.

• If possible, try to move along the left wall through the minefield. Moving along the left wall is much safer to deal with Overload since the team can put its back to a wall and be safe even if an interrupt is missed.

• The team can reset the puzzle if needed. It is possible for players to leap from the tower out of the minefield area. If the team really wants to ensure a path along the left wall, they can let one player go into the tower and unlock the front left square. If it's green, the rest of the team drops down and moves onto the green square. If it's red, the player in the tower uses a movement ability or gets a friendly pull to exit the minefield, then the team runs back to reset the fight. I recommend learning the interrupt rotation so that it doesn't matter whether you go up the left wall or through the middle, but it is an option.

Colonel Vorgath is a different but not substantially more difficult fight in Master Mode than Veteran Mode. There are a few new and revised mechanics but the primary one is that Overload is now an instant ability that cannot be interrupted but it is now a conal rather than a 360-degree knockback. Assuming the team can move along the left wall, I feel this actually makes the fight easier in Master Mode than in Veteran Mode since there is less pressure on interrupt rotations.

Mechanics

The Colonel Vorgath encounter in Master Mode includes the following new and revised notable mechanics:

• Overload is instant, cannot be interrupted and is a conal knockback. The Imperial Demolitions Probe still uses Overload on a low cooldown but it is instant and thus it cannot be interrupted. Fortunately, it is also now a conal knockback rather than a 360-degree ability as in Veteran Mode. This makes positioning the tank with their back to the left wall critical. DPS and healers can either stand with their backs to the wall or can stand behind the Demolitions Probe.

• Cleave should be interrupted. The Imperial Demolitions Probe continues to use the Cleave 1.5 second cast attack as in Story and Veteran Mode. Unlike in lower difficulties where the Cleave is not very dangerous unless the Demolitions Probe enrages, the Cleave should be interrupted to avoid the damage. Consistent interrupts is especially important if the entire team is putting their backs to the wall as far more than just tanks might get cleaved if an interrupt misses.

• Assassin Droids cannot be CC'd. The team is forced to DPS down the Assassin Droids in Master Mode and cannot use CC's to get more uptime on the Demolitions Probe as in Veteran Mode. Ranged DPS should generally be tasked with burning down the Assassins Droids promptly before they get into the group. This mechanic places additional pressure on the DPS check to burn down the Demolitions Probe before it enrages.

• Mines behind the team turn back to Red. Unlike in Story Mode and Veteran Mode where disarmed mines stay disarmed permanently, in Master Mode once a mine square is disarmed the previously disarmed squares will turn back to red after a short time. The team needs to stack together on the current square and needs to be careful to avoid being knocked backwards along the mine path.

• Orbital Strike targets player with Mine Defusal Kit. The player who receives the Mine Defusal Kit (the player closest to the Demolitions Probe when it is destroyed) will be targeted with an Orbital Strike while disarming the mine. Healers should make sure to keep the player topped off with heals and other players should avoid standing too close to the next mine to avoid splash damage.

• Disarming the Turret Controls is necessary to give the tower tank a path to join the team. Since the team's path through the minefield returns to red over time, the tank in the tower will need to wait for the team to unlock the turret controls to give them a path to join the team. In lower difficulties the tank could frequently jump down early to catch up since the green squares would remain unlocked, but not in Master Mode.

• Healers should LoS turrets. See the strategy discussion in Veteran Mode above about having healers stand near the cave entrance to LoS the turrets while the tanks and DPS ignore them. The DPS check to kill Colonel Vorgath is pretty easy as long as all players are alive, but I view this strategy as a necessary component to plan for as a team in Master Mode. If the team enters the Vorgath phase down any players then all uptime is critical and so being able to ignore turrets is crucial.

• Tanks need to watch for Vorgath to swap targets. Vorgath swaps targets in all difficulties but in Master Mode it matters far more to immediately taunt him back.

• Tanks should be aggressive with cooldowns and swap if necessary. Vorgath does not hit as hard as Kephess in the next fight but he can hit decently hard. I encourage tanks to be aggressive in using cooldowns and swap when out of cooldowns. It is possible to tank Vorgath without defensives but being more aggressive will make the healers' job easier and make it easier for them to add DPS.

Strategy - Overload / Cleave

The Imperial Demolitions Probe is easier to deal with in Master Mode than Veteran Mode in my opinion. As long as the group can proceed along the left wall (which seems to be far more frequent than in Veteran Mode), the tank simply puts their back to the wall and then Overload is a non-issue for everyone else.

The team needs to continue with an interrupt rotation but now the focus is entirely on interrupting Cleave. I found that Cleave hurts even as a tank in Master Mode but missing an interrupt will not generally lead to a one shot, especially since burning defensives in the minefield is not typically a massive issue since Vorgath does not hit that hard and the other tank will have all their defensives up.

The interrupt rotation should work exactly as the Overload interrupt rotation works in Veteran Mode. Call out in advance who is getting the next interrupt, follow the rotation and call out if your interrupt won't be up when it's your turn.

Tips & Tricks

Here are a couple other tips for Colonel Vorgath in Master Mode:

• My team observed a frequent issue where one mine along the "safe path" would remain red. If the team has a Sage/Sorcerer, plan to have them move into position to pull the tower tank if necessary. If the team has a Guardian/Juggernaut tank, consider having them run the tower puzzle since they can Guardian Leap / Intercede to any friendly player in range to skip past the red mine square if it appears.

• The tank in the minefield should be careful when positioning the Imperial Demolitions Probe. Avoid pulling them too far after it spawns as you might risk being knocked back into danger. Anytime I needed to move the Imperial Demolitions Probe more than one square, I would pull it half way then stand against the wall until Overload goes out and then finish moving it.

• The first player in the interrupt order needs to be very reliable and observant since the first Cleave is often the trickiest to interrupt.

Warlord Kephess is a fairly simple fight in Story Mode even though it has a lot of phases.

The basic structure to the fight involves a very length sequence of phases focused around destroying the Warstrider Battlewalker. The team will alternate between battling different waves of adds, then killing a Baradium Bomber to obtain a Baradium Bomb, a random player using the bomb to temporarily bring the Battlewalker down and make it damageable, and DPSing the walker.

After the Battlewalker is destroyed, the team will fight Kephess. Kephess has a few mechanics but is very straightforward in comparison to the earlier phases and is very nearly a straight tank and spank in Story Mode.

Phase 1 - Imperial Siege Droids

This phase involves destroying 3 Imperial Siege Droids arrayed around the Battlewalker. These droids are straightforward to attack. Interrupt their Calibrating Shot cast if possible. The 1.5s cast applied a stacking buff that increases their damage and damage resistance and can lengthen the phase and cause overlap with other mechanics later in the fight depending on group DPS.

The group should be careful to avoid standing in the bombardment attack by the Battlewalker (purple fire). The attack moves in a clockwise direction around the open areas adjacent to the walker.

Phase 1 Transition - Baradium Bomber / Battlewalker

A Baradium Bomber will spawn at a random doorway in the arena. The team must defeat him ASAP. The player who deals the killing blow will obtain a Baradium Bomb. That player should run underneath the Battlewalker to rappel up and plant the bomb on the walker. (Pro tip - if you click on the walker there is a small red circle on the ground that denotes where to run to begin the rappelling sequence.)

The Battlewalker will become damageable for about 20 seconds. All DPS must be focused on damaging the walker during this time. Tanks can leave early to engage the next set of adds.

Phase 2 - Trandoshans

Three waves of Trandoshan adds will spawn at doors around the room beginning 45 seconds after the Baradium Bomber spawns. The first wave appears at the door just to the right of the Battlewalker (from the viewpoint facing the walker), with succeeding waves appearing in a clockwise rotation around the room.

The primary mechanic is that the Trandoshan Warrior (the slightly taller add) has a shield around himself that reflects any damage done to Trandoshans other than himself. As such, the team needs to avoid any AoE attacks and single target burst him down to remove the shield, then use AoEs to clear the remaining adds. Alternatively, it is sometimes possible to pull the Trandoshan Warrior away from the group to make it easier to kill him.

Phase 2 Transition - Baradium Bomber / Battlewalker

Same as Phase 1 Transition. Kill the bomber, player with bomb runs under the walker, DPS the walker for 20 seconds.

Phase 3 - Pulsar Power Droids

This add phase involves destroying 2 Pulsar Power Droids. The droids alternate channeling a huge purple circle that deals AoE damage, so the team will DPS whichever droid does not have a purple circle and swap back and forth until both are destroyed.

The primary mechanic apart from the purple circle is their rail shot attack. It usually only targets player outside melee range. As such, it is HIGHLY recommended that Tanks stand >10m away from the Pulsar droid being attacked while all other players stand within melee range (preferably at 0m to be safe).

Phase 3 Transition - Baradium Bomber / Battlewalker

Similar to Phase 1 Transition. Kill the bomber, player with bomb runs under the walker, DPS the walker for 20 seconds.

If the group DPS is on schedule, the Battlewalker should be killed during this phase. If not, another Baradium Bomber will spawn and the cycle will repeat until the Battlewalker is destroyed or the boss enrages.

Kephess will come down during this transition phase. The tanks should pick up Kephess and kite him but all DPS should remain focused on destroying the Battlewalker.

Phase 4 - Kephess

Kephess is very straightforward in Story Mode. He has only a few mechanics to consider:

• Cleave: Kephess has a highly damaging basic cleave attack. Tanks should consider kiting Kephess to reduce damage taken if healers struggle to keep up, otherwise it is okay to tank in place while facing away from the group. Melee DPS need to ensure they stand behind Kephess at all times.

• Leap: Kephess will periodically leap up into the air. His landing is denoted by a red circle and deals damage to anyone inside it when he lands. Kephess will also aggro-drop when he lands and need to be taunted back. He also gets a damage buff for his next attack to deal extra damage. A tank needs to ensure they taunt him back so a DPS/healer does not get hit.

• Gift of the Masters: Kephess channels this ability at 58% health over 6s. It creates a large purple circle. This mechanic used to deal AoE damage in all difficulties but no longer deals significant damage in Story Mode. It is good practice to run out of it in preparation for Hard Mode but not required.

Warlord Kephess provides a nice step up in difficulty from Story Mode with a few new mechanics and healthy increases in the DPS check and the level of damage taken. The primary new mechanic added are tank mechanics when dealing with Kephess near the end of the fight, which can be tricky for a tank when experiencing them for the first time but with practice are pretty straightforward.

For group composition, any team can be effective. Two tanks are necessary to deal with Kephess after the Battlewalker goes down. Any DPS composition is effective and there are not any particularly notable classes preferred for this fight.

Mechanics

The Warlord Kephess encounter in Veteran Mode includes the following new and revised notable mechanics:

• Saturation Fire (Battlewalker): The Battlewalker's Saturation Fire large purple AoE attack deals much more damage in Veteran Mode and should be avoided if possible, especially in 16 person groups. The damage will not kill a player by itself but can get a player low and lead to unexpected deaths.

• Calibrating Shot (Imperial Siege Droid): In Story Mode each Calibrating Shot cast increases damage and accuracy by 8% per stack until reaching 10 stacks and then receiving Fully Calibrated and getting another 100% damage increase (so 180% total damage increase at that point). In Veteran Mode, each stack of Calibrating Shot increase damage and accuracy by 12% per stack and reduces damage taken by 6% per stack. At 8 stacks the Siege Droid gets the Fully Calibrated 100% damage buff (so 196% damage buff and 48% damage reduction at this point). As such, it is more important for the team to interrupt the Calibrating Shot as often as possible to minimize damage and avoid damage reduction lengthening the phase.

• Baradium Bomber: The add waves have a 45 second timer that begins as a Baradium Bomber spawns and when it expires the next add wave will spawn (i.e., Trandoshan adds the first time then the Pulsar Droids). The team needs the entire 20 seconds to damage the Battlewalker, which leaves 25 seconds to identify the Bomber, defeat him, run the bomb under the Battlewalker, and wait a few seconds for its animation before it becomes vulnerable to damage. The team should coordinate to swap to the Bomber as quickly as possible, burn him down and the player who receives the bomb should use movement abilities to get under the Battlewalker immediately.

• Baradium Explosive Pack (Baradium Bomber): The Baradium Explosive Pack is the buff on the Baradium Bomber that is transferred to the player when kill and allows the player to drop the Battlewalker to make it vulnerable. In Story Mode the buff does not expire. In Veteran Mode the buff lasts 20 seconds on the Baradium Bomber, so the team must defeat the Baradium Bomber in 20 seconds or it will explode and despawn.

• Trandoshan Trenchutter/Warrior Waves: The waves of Trandoshan adds have less downtime between each wave in Veteran Mode. In Story Mode the team gets 35 seconds in between each wave. In Veteran Mode the team only has 20 seconds before another wave spawns. This mechanic places more pressure on the team to defeat each wave quickly without dying to the reflective shield, or else risk getting overwhelmed by adds.

• Portable Reflective Shield (Trandoshan Warrior): The Trandoshan Warrior has a Portable Reflective Shield buff in all difficulties that creates a large shield around itself, which deals damage to any players that attack anyone other than the Trandoshan Warrior. The mechanic for this shield deals a set amount of damage to the player for each tick of damage applied to a Trandoshan Trenchcutter under the shield. In Veteran Mode the shield ticks for 5 times as much damage as in Story Mode (i.e., in Story Mode each tick deals damage for 15% of "standard health", while in Veteran Mode each tick deals damage for 75% of standard health). As such, in Story Mode you can get away with a few accidental ticks of splash damage and survive, but in Veteran Mode more than one accidental tick of reflected damage will kill you. The team needs to be really careful to only use single target attacks on the Warrior or else coordinate to pull all the other adds out of the shield.

• Railshot (Pulsar Power Droid): The rail shot attack by these adds is the same as in Story Mode but hits much harder in Veteran Mode and is extremely dangerous to non-tanks. Healers and DPS need to stand right on top of the Pulsar Droid not emitting the Channeled Pulse purple AoE to avoid the rail shot, while tanks should stand at least 8 meters away from the boss. The mechanic for Railshot's targeting is based on a hidden buff called Defensive Pulse that is applied to any players standing 8m or more from the droid when not using Channeled Pulse. The Defensive Pulse hidden buff when applied applies a 3s taunt that will force the droid to attack them, thus it's possible to be targeted while out of range but actually hit with damage after closing within 8 meters of the boss. It is generally preferable for both tanks to stand out to alternate hits from the rail shot attack to make healing easier, unless one tank plans to use a strong defensive cooldown to mitigate all the damage.

• Warlord Kephess: Kephess hits much harder in Veteran Mode than Story Mode, so healers should be prepared to provide very strong sustained and burst healing on the tank with Kephess' aggro. Tanks should be aggressive when using defensives if they get below half health. All of Kephess' normal attacks are melee attacks so most defensives are effective against them including those that affect defense chance.

• Arcing Slash (Warlord Kephess): Kephess has an Arcing Slash attack that is a cleave attack. It is very dangerous to non-tanks in Veteran Mode so DPS and healers should be careful of their positioning to avoid being cleaved.

• Leap / Empowered / Empowered Slash / Savage Wounding DoT (Warlord Kephess): While above 58% health, Kephess will regularly go through a sequence of attacks that are very dangerous in Veteran Mode and require a tank swap and good positional awareness by all players. Kephess will Leap into the air and land in an area telegraphed by a red circle. When Kephess lands, he receives the Empowered buff (orange background with two crossed swords) and will swap aggro to the player closest to the red circle when Kephess lands. This aggro swap effectively applies a taunt to Kephess as if made by the nearest player.
  The Empowered buff also causes Kephess' first melee attack after landing to be Empowered Slash, which deals significantly more damage, is a cleave that will one-shot non-tanks, knocks the target back and applies the Savage Wounding DoT. Empowered Slash is a Tech attack and the only non-melee attack used by Kephess, so defensive cooldowns that do not work on melee attacks should be used here. The Savage Wounding DoT ticks for pretty high damage, so the usual strategy is to have one tank take both the Empowered Slash and Savage Wounding DoT then tank swap to balance out the damage.

• Gift of the Masters (Warlord Kephess): As in Story Mode, Kephess channels Gift of the Masters for 6 seconds at 58% health in Veteran Mode. Gift of the Masters ticks for much higher damage in Veteran Mode so the team needs to get out of the purple AoE immediately. Breath of the Masters will begin going out immediately after Gift of the Masters finishes channeling.

• Savage Arcing Slash (Warlord Kephess): Kephess uses Savage Arcing Slash immediately before Breath of the Masters. The ability knocks the player back, deals high kinetic damage via a melee attack and applies the Touch of the Masters debuff.

• Touch of the Masters (Warlord Kephess): Debuff placed on tank after knockback by Breath of the Masters. The debuff lasts 16 seconds and will one-shot the player if they take damage from Kephess. Touch of the Masters necessitates a tank swap on Breath of the Masters, as if a swap has not taken place by this point Kephess will kill the tank with the debuff.

• Breath of the Masters (Warlord Kephess): Breath of the Masters is a 1.5 second cast ability by Kephess that applies the debuff of the same name to the affected player. The debuff ticks every 3 seconds and each tick will drop a Void Zone (purple circle) on the ground that deals proximity AoE damage if someone steps into them. Kephess will re-cast Breath of the Masters immediately after the fifth Void Zone is dropped. This mechanic necessitates a tank swap on each cast of Breath of the Masters.

Strategy - Summary

The overall strategy to the fight in Veteran Mode is fairly similar to Story Mode until Gift of the Masters goes out when Kephess reaches 58%, after which Touch of the Masters and Breach of the Masters are new mechanics entirely. Let's discuss the fight by phase:

• Phase 1 - Imperial Siege Droids: Concentrate all DPS on one droid and assign the tanks and healers to help interrupt the other two droids. A Guardian/Juggernaut tank can handle all the interrupts on one droid by themselves if needed. I recommend the burn order be (1) the droid in front of the Battlewalker; (2) the droid to the back left of the Battlewalker (near where the third Trandoshan add wave spawns); then (3) the droid to the right of the Battlewalker (near where the first Trandoshan add wave spawns). This order pretty naturally lets the team avoid damage from Saturation Fire.

• Phase 1 Transition - Baradium Bomber: Pull the bomber in if possible and burn down as quickly as possible. The team has 45 seconds to deal with the bomber, bring down the walker and complete its 20 second burn window. I recommend hitting all raid buffs and offensive cooldowns for this opening burn as soon as the Battlewalker drops down.

• Phase 2 - Trandoshans: Same strategy as in Story Mode, either burn down the Warrior first with single target damage then AoE the Trenchcutters, or coordinate to pull the Warrior away from the other adds. You can use Guardian/Juggernaut and/or Commando/Mercenary reflects to add more AoE inside the shield if you want.

• Phase 2 Transition - Baradium Bomber: Same as Phase 1 Transition.

• Phase 3 - Pulsar Power Droids: Same as Story Mode, stack healers and DPS on the Pulsar Power Droid not channeling Channeled Pulse. I recommend having both tanks stand out >8 meters to kite Rail Shot, though another option is alternate who stands out and use a defensive cooldown. The key is healers and DPS getting to <8 meters as quickly as possible since the Rail Shot really hurts and can one-shot them.

• Phase 3 Transition - Baradium Bomber / Kephess: Same as Phase 1/2 Transition for DPS to deal with the bomber. Tanks should coordinate to pick up Kephess and hold him while the DPS finish the bomber and hopefully the Battlewalker. If the third bomb isn't enough, a fourth and fifth bomber will spawn. Finish the Battlewalker and then get on Kephess.

• Phase 4 - Kephess >58%: Above 58% Kephess is straightforward but he hits very hard. His melee attacks hit very hard and periodically he will leap into the air, land in a red circle, auto-taunt to the nearest player and hit them with Empowered Slash and apply the Savage Wounding DoT. All players should get far away from the red circle immediately except the tank taking Empowered Slash. Tanks should coordinate so one tank takes Empowered Slash and the Savage Wounding DoT then the other tank immediately taunts, so that one tank has the ticking DoT and the other has the boss. Alternate as necessary.

• Phase 4.5 - Kephess <58%: At 58% health Kephess will cast Gift of the Masters, a 5 second big purple AoE that really hurts in Veteran Mode. Everyone should get out of it as quickly as possible. The tank with aggro needs to be healed to full immediately (even if it means leaving others low temporarily) so they are ready to take the Savage Arcing Slash. At that point, the tanks rotate through a cycle where a tank takes Savage Arcing Slash, they tank swap during the Breath of the Masters cast (to avoid the tank getting one shot via the Touch of the Masters debuff), then the original tank drops 5 purple circles away from the group, then comes back to taunt when the second tank takes Savage Arcing Slash. Rinse and repeat until Kephess is dead. Try to drop purple circles away from the group or relocate Kephess if necessary, just be careful of cleaves hitting non-tanks if you do so.

Tips & Tricks

Here are a couple other tips for Warlord Kephess in Veteran Mode:

• Have a Guardian/Juggernaut tank solo interrupt one Imperial Siege Droid. If the proper utilities are taken to reduce cooldown on their leap and enable their leap to reset the cooldown of their interrupt, a Guardian/Juggernaut tank can handle all the interrupts on one Siege Droid. This is more useful in Master Mode but even in Veteran Mode it is good practice and I usually recommend having them interrupt the last droid in the burn order (usually the one to the right of the Battlewalker near where the first Trandoshan adds spawn).

• Stack Imperial Siege Droids. It is possible to pull the left droid and stack it on top of the right droid. A tank should taunt the left droid then hide inside the doorway of the bunker to the right of the Battlewalker. This LoS's the droid and causes it to move towards the tank. Let it get near the right droid then step back out. This will help DPS use splash damage and DoT spread to more quickly burn down the droids and finish Phase 1.

• Pull the Baradium Bomber into the group. Vanguard/Powertech players and Shadow/Assassin tanks have pull abilities that can be used on the bomber to pull him more quickly to the group. As discussed above, quickly defeating the bomber is critical to ensure the full 20 seconds of uptime on the Battlewalker before adds spawn. If the team will pull the bomber you should communicate that to the group, or else you may have angry melee DPS that leap to the bomber only to see him pulled away from them.

• Use stuns if Baradium Bomber's buff is about to expire. If the team may not defeat the Baradium Bomber in time, coordinate chain stuns to delay the explosion and get more time to defeat him and get the bomb.

• Pull the Trenchcutters away from the Warrior. This strategy can be tricky but effective. Have one tank guard the other pre-fight. As soon as the Trandoshan add waves spawn, the unguarded tank should get aggro on the Warrior. Have them run away from the group and have healers spam AoE healing on the team, which should get them aggro on the Trenchcutters. If the tank pulls the Warrior in the opposite direction then the Trenchcutters run themselves out of the shield and into easy AoE range! Rinse and repeat on future waves, though for them its even easier since the group can stay put to make it easier for the Trenchcutters to run out of the shield.

• Use reflect abilities to AoE Trandoshan Trenchcutters. Guardian/Juggernaut and Commando/Mercenary players can use their reflect defensive cooldowns to deal AoE damage to the Trandoshan Trenchutters safely. The damage dealt by the Portable Reflective Shield is done via a Tech attack so the reflects will mitigate the damage for their duration. Be careful to stop AoEs before the reflect ends, though. Classes with reflect abilities that do not mitigate the damage reflected should avoid this strategy as they will one shot themselves.

• Kite Kephess is damage gets difficult to handle. Kephess hits pretty hard in Veteran Mode even just through basic attacks and can be difficult for newer healers to handle. One potential strategy is to kite Kephess with movement abilities to stay ahead of him. Kephess will periodically leap to you and immobilize you for a few seconds, but overall kiting can still be effective to give the healer a few seconds to catch up on healing. LoS and out-ranging your healers or inadvertently cleaving someone is a risk to this approach, so discuss with your healer if they want you to face tank the attacks or if kiting makes more sense.

• Guardian/Juggernaut tanks should use Saber Reflect for Empowered Slash. Kephess only uses melee attacks apart from Empowered Slash and Saber Reflect does not mitigate melee attack damage, so the only effective use of Saber Reflect after the Battlewalker goes down is to mitigate Empowered Slash.

• Shadow/Assassin tanks should use Resilience/Force Shroud for Empowered Slash. Since Kephess primarily only uses melee attacks, Resilience/Force Shroud will only be useful against the damage from Empowered Slash and to mitigate some of the damage from the Savage Wounding DoT.

Warlord Kephess is very difficult in Master Mode. The mechanics for the Siege Droids are no longer a pushover, the Trandoshan add waves are very difficult, and Kephess deals a LOT of damage that is very difficult to manage for many groups. The fight challenges players of all roles to coordinate positioning, damage, maximize uptime and help the group be successful, and thus is a really great last boss for the first Master Mode operation chronologically in SWTOR.

For group composition, any team can be effective. It can be very helpful to have multiple Guardian/Juggernaut and/or Commando/Mercenary players to have reflects to help AoE Trandoshan adds. A Guardian/Juggernaut tank is also helpful to solo interrupt one Siege Droid, though that is by no means a necessity. Any Vanguard/Powertech tanks really benefit from having the Emergency Power set bonus so that they have a low cooldown defensive to mitigate Empowered Slash after each Kephess leap. Any healer composition can be successful though at least one healer should be prepared to focus heavily on high single target sustained healing after Kephess comes down.

Mechanics

The Warlord Kephess encounter in Master Mode includes the following new and revised notable mechanics:

• Saturation Fire (Battlewalker): The Battlewalker's Saturation Fire large purple AoE attack deals VERY heavy damage in Master Mode and must be avoided. The damage taken during this fight can be very high at times and sloppiness with Saturation Fire will lead to unexpected deaths. I recommend every player get used to the movement pattern of Saturation Fire (i.e., it follows a wiper pattern) and/or ask a healer or ranged DPS help track the pattern and warn players if they are a bad position.

• Calibrating Shot (Imperial Siege Droid): In Master Mode, each stack of Calibrating Shot increase damage and accuracy by 12% per stack and reduces damage taken by 12% per stack. The DR buff being twice as high in Veteran Mode means the Siege Droid can reach 96% damage reduction if Calibrating Shot is not interrupted, so consistent interrupts is absolutely critical to get through the phase and avoid players dying to spike damage. See below for strategy on this phase.

• Baradium Bomber: In Master Mode it is more difficult to kill the bomber before its Baradium Explosive Pack expires after 20 seconds. The team should coordinate to pull in if group composition allows or just leap in, but either way the team should push DPS in this phase while also avoiding using cooldowns.

• Baradium Explosive Pack (Baradium Bomber): In Master Mode the buff lasts only 10 seconds after killing the Baradium Bomber, so the team has much less time to get under the Battlewalker to successfully detonate the bomb.

• Battlewalker: The DPS check to destroy the Battlewalker in 3 bombs is very high. Teams should be as aggressive as possible to use raid buffs and cooldowns during each Battlewalker burn phase, but do not be surprised if a 4th bomb is necessary as opposed to Veteran Mode where the DPS check for 3 bombs is relatively easy.

• Trandoshan Trenchutter/Warrior Waves: In Master Mode the team gets 2 Trandoshan Warriors per add wave (so 2 shields) and has the same 20 second delay between each successive add wave. See further below for strategy discussion to deal with the Trandoshan adds. Just as in Veteran Mode, the reflective shield will one-shot players who damage Trenchcutters without an active reflect ability (and one that actually mitigates damage).

• Railshot (Pulsar Power Droid): The rail shot attack by these adds is the same as in Veteran Mode but hits extremely hard in Master Mode. I recommend tanks alternate standing out to take Rail Shot attacks with a defensive cooldown.

• Warlord Kephess: Kephess hits ridiculously hard in Master Mode and many tank/healers teams may struggle to keep up with the damage. Tanks should be aggressive when using defensives if they get below half health. All of Kephess' normal attacks are melee attacks so most defensives are effective against them including those that affect defense chance. I also recommend considering kiting strategies to provide some downtime for healers to catch up with healing.

• Leap / Empowered / Empowered Slash / Savage Wounding DoT (Warlord Kephess): This ability sequence is the same in Master Mode as in Veteran Mode. The damage scaling in Master Mode makes it critical to get an immediate tank swap after Empowered Slash. The Empowered Slash attack and Savage Wounding DoT will together deal far more than a tank's total health over the duration of the attack and DoT, so the tank taking the hit and DoT should use a defensive cooldown that mitigates damage from Tech attacks to survive. See below for tanking strategies to handle Kephess.

• Gift of the Masters (Warlord Kephess): As in Veteran Mode, Kephess channels Gift of the Masters for 6 seconds at 58% health in Master Mode. In Master Mode Kephess adds a wrinkle by pulling the group into the middle as the channel starts. The AoE ticks even harder in Master Mode and the team needs to get out immediately. I recommend healers and DPS save movement abilities and defensive cooldowns for this specific damage phase, as after the Battlewalker goes down they should generally not be taking damage.

• Savage Arcing Slash (Warlord Kephess): Savage Arcing Slash functions the same in Master Mode, but its higher damage plus Kephess' higher normal damage makes the spike from this attack very dangerous.

• Breath of the Masters (Warlord Kephess): Breath of the Masters functions similarly in Master Mode but with an added mechanic. After the tank drops the second Void Zone (purple AoE), they will be pulled in by Kephess. See below for tanking strategy and kiting path to drop Void Zones to plan for this mechanic.

• Nightmare of the Masters (Warlord Kephess): This mechanic is new to Master Mode and applies after Kephess channels Gift of the Masters at 58% health. If 2 players die after this point, Kephess gains the Nightmare of the Masters buff and becomes immune to damage.

Strategy - Summary

The overall strategy to the fight in Master Mode is substantially different than Veteran Mode due to the impact of changes to mechanics for Imperial Siege Droids and the Trandoshan add waves. The much higher damage profile makes handling Kephess very difficult at all health levels. The team will need a coordinated strategy, high DPS, great tanking and very strong sustained healing to successfully clear the fight.

Strategy - Phase 1 - Imperial Siege Droids

Similar to Veteran Mode, concentrate all DPS on one droid and assign the tanks and healers to help interrupt the other two droids. A Guardian/Juggernaut tank should handle all the interrupts on one droid by themselves. I recommend the burn order be (1) the droid in front of the Battlewalker; (2) the droid to the back left of the Battlewalker (near where the third Trandoshan add wave spawns); then (3) the droid to the right of the Battlewalker (near where the first Trandoshan add wave spawns). This order pretty naturally lets the team avoid damage from Saturation Fire.

I strongly recommend LoS'ing the left droid to kite it to the right droid to allow for faster DPS. See tips below for more.

The key difference to this phase in Master Mode is the team absolutely must coordinate to interrupt nearly all casts of Calibrating Shot. Use voice comms and call-outs to coordinate interrupts and watch carefully for Calibrating Shot given its very brief cast time.

Strategy - Phase 2 - Trandoshans

This phase is much more difficult in Master Mode and likely will be the first place progression teams get stuck when clearing the fight the first time. Teams generally will not be able to burn down two Trandoshan Warriors with single target damage and then AoE down the 6 Trandoshan Trenchcutters all within 20 seconds before the next add wave.

Any Guardian/Juggernaut or Commando/Mercenary players should utilize their reflect defensive cooldown to allow AoE DPS for its duration. I recommend trying to use one reflect per add wave for the first two waves and any extra reflects should be used in the first add wave to help burn it down in time.

The normal strategy of pulling out a Trandoshan Warrior is difficult to execute in Master Mode due to the presence of two Warriors per add wave, making it impossible to rely on a single target taunt alone.

When my team cleared this fight the first time and continued to work on the fight for timed and surviving runs, we found a consistent strategy to control movement of the adds. I tanked for the team and would guard my co-tank pre-fight. When each add wave spawned, the Trandoshan Trenchcutters would automatically aggro to me (the tank without a guard).

Our approach for the first add wave was to pop reflects to help in DPS and nuke the adds. The tank without a guard would grab aggro on these adds and stay in place near the bunker. The guarded tank and one healer would peel off from this group early to get positioned for the second wave near their spawn point.

When the second wave spawned, the Trenchcutters would automatically aggro to me (the tank without a guard) and run to me near the bunker. The Warriors would either automatically aggro to the other tank or he could easily grab their aggro with a taunt and a single target attack.

Our DPS would generally stay with me and AoE down the Trenchcutters after they reached me and were out of the shields. While the Trenchcutters were moving towards me, ranged DPS would help burn down the Warriors. During this phase we would have to move a bit away from the bunker to dodge a wave of Saturation Fire but otherwise could stay in place. I would usually hit a strong defensive cooldown like Deflection, Energy Shield or Saber Ward late in this phase, especially if any of the second wave adds were still up when the third wave spawned.

When the third wave spawned, we would repeat the same strategy where the Trenchcutters would run to me and the other tank could easily grab the Warriors. Kill the adds and then push the phase.

Other strategies may work particularly if the group has more reflects, but this worked very consistently for us after we figured out the guard and practiced it a bit.

Strategy - Phase 3 - Pulsar Power Droids

Same as Veteran Mode, stack healers and DPS on the Pulsar Power Droid not channeling Channeled Pulse. In Master Mode my experience was that it worked better to alternate tanks standing out and use defensive cooldowns to deal with Rail Shot. The damage on tanks can be very spiky and if you get lucky with shield rolls it isn't too bad, but two consecutive hits that are not dodged or shielded can nearly kill a tank.

After the Pulsar Power Droids go down, the team will need to kill the Battlewalker. My experience has been that most groups will need a 4th bomber to get the walker down, which is fine but extends the time tanks have to kite Kephess.

Strategy - Phase 4 - Kephess >58%

Kephess above 58% in Master Mode is the same as in Veteran Mode except that he hits really REALLY hard. A tank swap is mandatory after a tank takes Empowered Slash and Savage Wounding and the tank needs to either be at full health or use a defensive cooldown to mitigate the damage, or else this sequence will frequently kill tanks from spike damage.

Shadow/Assassin tanks should use Resilience/Force Shroud to fully mitigate Empowered Slash damage and some of the ticks from Savage Wounding. Guardian/Juggernaut tanks should use Saber Reflect to mitigate Empowered Slash and Focused/Enraged Defense to help heal through the Savage Wounding DoT. Vanguard/Powertech tanks should use Power Yield with Emergency Power to mitigate Empowered Slash.

A key point to remember for Kephess is that apart from Empowered Slash all his attacks are melee attacks. This attack profile allows for a lot of defensive use from the tanks and even other players.

Strategy - Phase 4.5 - Kephess <58%

At 58% health Kephess will cast Gift of the Masters similar to Veteran Mode but will pull the group in to him. The team should save defensive cooldowns and movement abilities to get out of the circle quickly as it deals a LOT of damage.

The tank swap rotation to take Savage Arcing Slash / Touch of the Masters / Breath of the Masters / TANK SWAP is the same as in Veteran Mode. One thing that is different will be the tank gets pulled in to Kephess after dropping the second purple circle. I strongly recommend that as each tank gets Breath of the Masters they move very quickly away from Kephess to drop the first purple circle. When the tank gets pulled in after two circles, they will have a place near Kephess to drop the third and then a few seconds to reposition to drop the fourth and fifth circles.

The team needs to be really careful to avoid deaths sub-58% as if two players die Kephess will get the Nightmare of the Masters buff and be immune to damage. We had two wipes at or below 1% health from this when progging EC in Master Mode the first time, which stinks so be careful.

Tips & Tricks

Here are a couple other tips for Warlord Kephess in Master Mode:

• Have a Guardian/Juggernaut tank solo interrupt one Imperial Siege Droid. If the proper utilities are taken to reduce cooldown on their leap and enable their leap to reset the cooldown of their interrupt, a Guardian/Juggernaut can handle all the interrupts on one Siege Droid. I highly recommend this approach if your team has a Guardian/Juggernaut DPS and/or tank, as Calibrating Shot stacks DR at double the rate as in Veteran Mode.

• Stack Imperial Siege Droids. It is possible to pull the left droid and stack it on top of the right droid. A tank should taunt the left droid then hide inside the doorway of the bunker to the right of the Battlewalker. This LoS's the droid and causes it to move towards the tank. Let it get near the right droid then step back out. This will help DPS use splash damage and DoT spread to more quickly burn down the droids and finish Phase 1. I strongly recommend this strategy in Master Mode due to the greater difficulty of the Siege Droid phase due to the need to coordinate interrupts.

• Pull the Baradium Bomber into the group. Vanguard/Powertech players and Shadow/Assassin tanks have pull abilities that can be used on the bomber to pull him more quickly to the group. As discussed above, quickly defeating the bomber is critical to ensure the full 20 seconds of uptime on the Battlewalker before adds spawn. If the team will pull the bomber you should communicate that to the group, or else you may have angry melee DPS that leap to the bomber only to see him pulled away from them.

• Use stuns if Baradium Bomber's buff is about to expire. If the team may not defeat the Baradium Bomber in time, coordinate chain stuns to delay the explosion and get more time to defeat him and get the bomb.

• Pull the Trenchcutters away from the Warrior. This strategy can be tricky but effective. Have one tank guard the other pre-fight. As soon as the Trandoshan add waves spawn, the unguarded tank should get aggro on the Warrior. Have them run away from the group and have healers spam AoE healing on the team, which should get them aggro on the Trenchcutters. If the tank pulls the Warrior in the opposite direction then the Trenchcutters run themselves out of the shield and into easy AoE range! Rinse and repeat on future waves, though for them its even easier since the group can stay put to make it easier for the Trenchcutters to run out of the shield. Given the increased health of adds and two Warriors in Master Mode, this strategy is almost mandatory.

• Use reflect abilities to AoE Trandoshan Trenchcutters. Guardian/Juggernaut and Commando/Mercenary players can use their reflect defensive cooldowns to deal AoE damage to the Trandoshan Trenchutters safely. The damage dealt by the Portable Reflective Shield is done via a Tech attack so the reflects will mitigate the damage for their duration. Be careful to stop AoEs before the reflect ends, though. Classes with reflect abilities that do not mitigate the damage reflected should avoid this strategy as they will one shot themselves.

• Kite Kephess if damage gets difficult to handle. Kephess hits really really hard in Master Mode even just through basic attacks and can be difficult for healers to handle. My team found success with having tanks kite Kephess. Kephess will periodically leap to you and immobilize you for a few seconds, but overall kiting can still be effective to give the healer a few seconds to catch up on healing especially if you have a stun break to resume kiting. Shadow/Assassin tanks are really good for this with Force Speed's low cooldown and utility to break roots. LoS and out-ranging your healers or inadvertently cleaving someone is a major risk to this approach, so discuss with your healer if they want you to face tank the attacks or if kiting makes more sense.