Ravagers

Ravagers is the eighth operation in SWTOR and was released in game update 3.0 along with Temple of Sacrifice. It is among the tougher operations even in story mode, primarily due to the Master & Blaster encounter.

The first two encounters, Sparky and Quartermaster Bulo, are fairly easy to most groups in story mode and are even pretty easy in Hard Mode. The DPS checks on both fights are straightforward, with mostly some tank mechanics on both fights and a more rigorous heal check on Bulo to clear.

Chief Engineer Torque is a notable step up in difficulty with lots of AoE-based damage via fire circles. Fortunately, Torque is much easier in 6.0 than in previous patches due to higher DPS making the requirements to repair consoles much more forgiving.

Master & Blaster is the toughest fight in the operation. Even in Story Mode the second phase of the encounter becomes very difficult to clear due to its demanding tank and heal requirements. The fight in Hard Mode is one of the toughest couple of fights in the game in Hard Mode.

The Pirate Captains last boss is fairly easy in comparison to the Master & Blaster fight though with a few punishing mechanics. The fight has two phases, starting with Coratanni & Pearl and continuing in the second phase with Ruugar.

IMPORTANT - The information below is summarized and intended to be an easy quick-reference guide for players who need a quick reminder heading into an operation. As time allows, I intend to add separate pages with detailed boss fight guides for each fight.

New to Operations? Check out this guide from Swtorista to learn the basics about how to join an operations group.

Sparky is a super easy fight in story mode. It has some movement/positioning mechanics for the tank and some adds and some other mechanics that do not need to be followed too closely except in Hard Mode.

The tank can be tossed around a lot if they are not careful. Sparky will alternate between Shoulder Throw (tosses you through the boss) and Body Slam (normal knockback). The tank should then swap between facing Sparky away from the wall and then towards the wall, so that each time they are thrown into the wall. Otherwise, the tank will be thrown around with Sparky leaping after them, making it difficult for melee DPS to keep up.

Sparky starts with a Shield Collar that reduces its damage until it breaks around 90% or so then will take normal damage.

Sparky will also periodically channel Brutalize and pummel the tank. DPS need to break this channel via damage or else the target may be killed.

Sparky will periodically cast Rampage, causing the boss to leap around and target random players with a stun/AoE attack. This will happen several times and is unavoidable, then will return to the tank.

Adds will spawn throughout the fight. They aggro on proximity and will perform a charged leap attack if taunted. DPS/healers should stand together and close to Sparky so the off-tank can easily aggro adds via standing closer to them. If the off-tank uses an AoE taunt on more than 3 or so adds, they need to use a defensive. Either some DPS should be assigned to adds or all DPS should swap to kill adds when they spawn before returning to Sparky.

Once Sparky reaches the execute range below 30% health, all DPS should stay on Sparky and ignore adds as they spawn at an accelerated and unending rate during this final phase.

Bulo is a fairly easy fight that can become very difficult if key positioning and add-related mechanics are not followed closely.

Bulo has a variety of cleave attacks that require the tanks to always face Bulo AWAY from the ops team. Ideally the tanks should face Bulo towards the doors where adds spawn, with the team staying nearest to the walls bordering the docks.

Bulo's most dangerous attack is Scatter Blaster. It deals high conal damage alternating between the top two players in threat. As such, both tanks need to face Bulo away from the group and avoid standing right next to each other. They should also cross-taunt frequently to stay at the top of the threat table and DPS need to threat drop consistently.

A common cause of a wipe is Bulo cleaving the group with Scatter Blaster because a DPS got into the top two in threat. DPS need to make sure they stay behind Bulo at all times.

Another dangerous mechanic is Burst Volley. This blue circle (may appear purple depending on graphics) will follow a player for around 3 seconds then will become fixed on the map. After it drops onto the ground, it deals VERY HIGH damage and will kill a player within a few seconds.

Burst Volley randomly targets a player outside of melee range of Bulo at the time the cast goes out. It usually goes to healers or ranged DPS as a result, though it can go out to a melee DPS if they momentarily got out of melee range (i.e., standing near max melee range to avoid conals). As such, melee should try and stack near Bulo if possible while ranged DPS and healers stay as close to max distance as possible.

The best place to drop Burst Volley is the back wall (facing the docks). Burst Volley in the middle of the room is dangerous. Burst Volley on top of or near Bulo will almost certainly kill one or more players.

Bulo will also periodically cal for Load Lifters than roll up to a randomly targeted player and explode. These are not too dangerous but if players are grouped up they should try and temporarily spread out to avoid concentrated AoE damage.

Bulo may also target a random player with a grenade that leaves a fire AoE on the ground. The fire AoE does not deal damage and the grenade is instant, so don't be confused by this.

The last mechanic from Bulo is Mass Barrage. Bulo targets each player with small blue circles that deal AoE damage, with each player dropping 5 circles in sequence 2 seconds or so at a time. These circles individually deal minimal damage but if stacked all together deal very high AoE damage. Players should kite these circles, though it is strongly recommend to try and stack them x2 to avoid the entire room being covered in blue. The circle duration is only about 6 seconds, so the first circles will disappear before the last circle drops.

The last thing to consider is adds. Sparky will periodically summon adds. They will appear from the set of doors nearest to the player with aggro (not nearest to the boss). From the perspective of a player facing Bulo before pulling, they spawn from the left doors, right doors, and the raised doors behind Bulo.

The adds will aggro to healers and deal heavy damage unless AoE taunted. They are not supposed to be mobile but in 6.0 are buffed and will run to their target. The healer (or off-tank if they AoE taunt) should grab the adds and kite them into the Burst Volley circle to kill them. If Mass Barrage goes out, those circles will kill the adds instantly so players should drop them on the adds.

Torque is a bit of a race against time fight combined with very cramped quarters compared to most operations. The basic premise of the fight is that Torque will try to crash the hovercarrier by destroying the compute consoles, and the team has to either kill him before he does so or repair the consoles to provide more time.

Torque has a tank swap mechanic. He will periodically hit the tank with Disrespectful Kick, an ability that knocks the tank back and applies the Sick of You debuff that causes them to take significantly increased damage from Torque's attacks. Tanks should avoid putting their backs to a wall, so the knockback gives them space and time for a swap. If a tank dies, Torque can be tanked through the debuff with defensives and strong healing or can be kited in a circle to minimize extra damage.

Torque will periodically target the nearest undamaged computer console and destroy it with Wookiee Rage. This destroys the console and applies a team-wide knockback.

To repair a console, a team member can click one of the panels in the back room to summon a Fix-It Droid. The repaid droids are yellow / neutral adds so they CAN BE TARGETED, and have very little health so will die with just one attack. AoE heals can also aggro them.

A variety of mechanics endanger both the team and the repair droids. Shoots Lasers droids spawn periodically and will aggro to the repair droids and try to kill them with a conal attack. Any players can block this attack by standing in the conal, taking the damage instead. DPS should kill Shoots Lasers immediately.

Incendiary Fire Devices will also spawn periodically near Torque's location. These deal very high AoE damage to anyone in their AoE and will kill a repair droid. Ranged DPS should kill them. Alternatively, players with reflect abilities (ones that absorb damage) can use that ability to stand in the fire AoE and kill the devices.

Fire AoE will periodically pop up under 4 players' feet and should immediately be moved out of.

Players will periodically be stunned and require either a cleanse or need to use their stun break ability. The stuns do not deal damage in Story Mode but are dangerous due to the Fire AoEs and Incendiary Fire Device.

In terms of strategy, most groups will only need to repair one or two consoles at most. Teams with strong DPS can usually ignore console repair and just DPS Torque and kill him before he can destroy all four consoles.

Master and Blaster are the toughest boss encounter of the operation for most groups. It consists of three phases and the second phase features a LOT of damage suffered by both tanks and the group. In addition, it has positioning and movement mechanics that are both challenging and fairly punishing for Story Mode difficulty.

The overall fight structure begins with Phase 1, where the team attacks Blaster until it reaches 54%. The fight then transitions to Phase 2 and must deal with Blaster and Master until Master reaches 50%. Phase 3 ends the fight with a soft enrage until each droid reaches 9% (first Master then Blaster). When Blaster reaches 9%, a huge red circle is placed and after a few seconds explodes in a big knockback and as long as someone is left alive the fight is won.

Phase 1 - Blaster (100% -> 54%)

Blaster is a very straightforward boss and features essentially the same mechanics for Phase 1 and Phase 2. He periodically uses a wide conal knockback called Ravager Ultra Scatterblast that knocks the tank and anyone in the conal back around 40m. He also uses a basic single target attack that deals moderate damage and has essentially unlimited range.

Beginning in Phase 1 and continuing through Phase 2, two different positioning mechanics pop up and are a huge pain. The first is Resonant Explosive Probes. This places blue circle on some members of the group (2 in 8m SM, 4 in 16m SM, 6 in 8m HM, 8 in 16m HM). The blue circles explode after some time and deal moderate damage but will detonate early if two players with probes run into each other. This can cause big chain reactions that deal huge damage and kill people.

The second positioning mechanic is Thermite Rocket Mortar. This will cause 5 orange circles to spawn that rapidly grow to cover most of the platform. Players should avoid standing in them and reposition as needed.

The strategy for this phase is to have one tank hold Blaster facing one side of the room. All other players should stay on the other side of the room to avoid the knockback. When Resonant Explosive Probes (blue circles) go out, the group should spread out enough to avoid any bombs overlapping. The group should also move to avoid standing in Thermite Rocket Mortars (orange circles).

When Blaster reaches 54% it will channel "Calling the Boss" and become immune when it completes during the transition.

Phase 2 - Master & Blaster (Master 100% -> 50%, Blaster 50% -> 25%)

In Phase 2, Master comes down. It has a set rotation of abilities. Its basic attack hits very hard and after a half dozen ticks of damage or so it will do Fire Wheel, a large AoE attack as it follows the tank for around 12s. Then comes Overpowered Ion Cutter, a 10s channeled attacks that adds 1 stack of Ion Cutter every 0.5s that increase the damage taken by Overpowered Ion Cutter. Master repeats this cycle again (basic attacks -> fire wheel -> Overpowered Ion Cutter) a second time then begins Rain of Pain.

Rain of Pain is sort of an intermission in Phase 2. Blaster continues attacking the tank with aggro but otherwise the group shouldn't take much damage. Master targets part of the platform with red and the group needs to move out of it or take heavy damage. This repeats twice (3 red patterns in total) then Phase 2 resumes.

Blaster continues its same attacks as in Phase 1 with the knockback. Thermite Rocket Mortar (orange circles) and Resonant Explosive Probes (blue circles) continue to go out in this phase. The Thermite Rocket Mortars have a set rotation in this phase so it usually much easier to manage.

The overall strategy in Phase 2 is to have all ranged DPS on Master and all melee DPS on Blaster. You can put all DPS on Master but the Fire Wheel makes melee DPS take a lot of damage. Blaster can be DPS'd down to around 25% before it shields itself, so at that point all DPS would need to be on Master.

Tanking Master is probably the hardest part of the fight and specifically relating to Overpowered Ion Cutter. A tank cannot take all 20 stacks of Ion Cutter even in Story Mode and must avoid taking more than 10 stacks if at all possible. One way to do this is to have DPS or healers run in front of the Ion Cutter beam, causing them to take stacks for a few seconds and share the load. A Sage / Sorcerer can take all 20 stacks using their invulnerable bubble ability, so long as the tank hides behind them.

A Shadow / Assassin is ideal for tanking Master as they can handle every instance of Overpowered Ion Cutter without any help. They can use Resilience / Shroud at around 8 stacks to avoid taking any damage (or can use a 0-1 stacks with Shroud of a Shadow tactical) to deal with the first channel. For the second, they can use their combat stealth after the channel begins to interrupt it (though make sure to taunt back immediately).

Rain of Pain is fairly straightforward, just avoid the red areas. Players with probes should be extra careful. The Blaster tank will continue to take damage so healers need to continue sticking with them.

Phase 3 - Master & Blaster (Master 50% -> 9%, Blaster -> 9%)

Phase 3 has a short transition where both bosses are shielded and immune for a few seconds then release. Finally, in Phase 3 the mechanics change.

Master alternates between a basic attack and Ion Pulse Wave (a wide lightning conal attack), while Blaster alternates between basic attacks and Ravager Electro-Pulse Nova (AoE stun attack). The ground slowly fills with Thermit Rocket Mortars (orange circles) until either the bosses are dead or the group dies from damage, as eventually the whole platform will be covered in orange.

The basic strategy is to have everyone stack under Blaster for easy AoE healing. Any players with probes should stay out of the group until those probes explode then join the group. The Master tank should hold Master just outside the group and face it away so the Ion Pulse Wave only deals damage to one tank. DPS should focus all attacks on Master until 9% (when Master explodes) then burn Blaster to 9%.

When Blaster reaches 9% a huge red circle will cover most of the platform. Run out of the red circle and either put aim yourself towards the wall or use an ability that provides immunity to physics. After a few seconds the red circle will explode and knock everyone back. Being knocked into the wall is safe but players can be knocked off the ledge and die.

First, an important warning: if anyone brings in a pet or activates a vendor inside the room with Coratanni, the fight likely will reset when trying to take the escape pod to the second phase of the fight.

The fight is broken up into two phases. The first phase involves fighting Coratanni & Pearl, with the second phase fighting Ruugar.

Phase 1 - Coratanni & Pearl

Coratanni and Pearl are a combined fight. It is important to eliminate Cora first, as killing Pearl while Cora is active will lead to Cora becoming invulnerable and wiping the group. Killing Cora first will lead to Pearl enraging but is manageable. Most groups prefer to burn Pearl down to around 25-30% then kill Cora to make the Pearl enrage phase shorter.

Coratanni has a number of mechanics, most of which can be ignored in Story Mode. She has a conal attack that should be faced away from the group. She will periodically leap to Pearl but is otherwise immobile. She casts Ricochet Shot but that can be ignored.

Most notably, she will periodically put a fire DoT on all players. That DoT can be cleansed by clicking a panel that activates blue circles (fire suppression systems) that stepping into will cleanse the DoT.

Pearl also has a conal attack that applies a poison DoT. Pearl frequently stuns her target and channels an attack. She will also periodically become untauntable and attack other players, just taunt back as soon as possible.

It is possible that yellow deck gun telegraphs will appear on the ground. Get out of those immediately or you will be knocked back, stunned and take heavy damage.

Once Coratanni is killed, the group should kill Pearl. It deals heavy damage when enraged but can be tanked via defensives and strong healing. The main concern is to taunt Pearl back immediately after each untauntable phase, as she will quickly kill any non-tank players.

After both are dead, teams can usually use stealth rez or combat rez to get people up who died during the fight. There is not an immediate transition to the second phase so some down time is available. When the group is ready, click the escape pod in the front right corner.

Phase 2 - Ruugar

Ruugar is fairly straightforward but with some heavy hitting and dangerous mechanics, which together make him significantly more difficult. The group needs to kill 4 adds before he appears and needs to burn Ruugar to 9% to win the encounter.

Ruugar applies a Corrosive Dart debuff to the tank with aggro. The debuff causes the player to take more damage from Ruugar's Cull attack (Ruugar is apparently a Virulence Sniper). Tanks should typically swap around 2-3 stacks.

Ruugar also uses a Corrosive Grenade ability on a random player that can put a poison DoT on multiple players. A fire DoT can also go out to various players. Both are cleanseable and should be cleansed quickly.

Ruugar also places mines under the feet of the tank with aggro. The mines are initially yellow and deal no damage. After 5 or so seconds, they turn orange and will explode when the next person walks into them. Ideally, the group should either kite Ruugar away from mines or the off-tank should use a defensive (Resilience / Shroud or Saber Reflect are ideal) to pop multiple mines without taking damage.

Ruugar also will periodically take a member Hostage. While Ruugar's Hostage, the targeted player will take fixed damage for each attack that hits Ruugar and can quickly die. The team needs to identify this mechanic and immediately stop DPS.

Finally, Ruugar will periodically summon mouse droids. The mouse droids will aggro to the player with the lowest health and run to them and explode. That player should move away from the group, move towards one mouse droid so that they do not all blow up at once and hit a defensive. If healers can identify who has the mouse droids, the target will need very heavy healing.

Once Ruugar pushes to 9%, the fight is effectively over. Players can attempt to click the escape pod in the back, but nothing happens even if you can complete the cast first.