You enter the instance and run through a short hallway to where Perpetua is watching over you. The raid takes place for the most part in one large area. You will fight 2 waves of adds, before a cutscene introduces the first boss encounter. Overarching mechanics in all boss fights (while Perpetua is big): Giant Perpetua's Eyebeam - Perpetua may point at the bottom left or bottom right of the room before spawning a large Source Beam and moving it across the room. This must be avoided or it will do heavy damage and probably KO in elite. For best practice try not to stand at a beam spawn point (the bottom left/right of the room) at all times during the fight and always have situational awareness of Perpetua and what is happening around you, especially in elite plus. Planet Strike - Perpetua may spawn several meteors on the group - this is indicated by a large pink AOE. Players should move away from this or it will do heavy damage or probably KO in elite. Source Eruption - Perpetua may make the ground light in some areas. This should be avoided as it will spawn a source orbital attack in the area of effect. If players are directly affected by this it will do heavy damage or probably KO in the elite version. (Players usually refer to these as 'cracks' due to the design of the AOE) Consider that in the Elite Plus version that the latter two mechanics, Planet Strike and Source Eruption, are much more widespread and frequent. Everyone in the group should watch their positioning at all times. Boss fights below.
First boss: Source Titans: Kerbak, Jakkec, Theon and Proma Recommended roles for regular: 1 tank, 1 controller, 1 heal, 5 DPS Recommended roles for elite: 2 tanks, 1 controller, 1-2 heals (1 preferably), 3-4 DPS Recommended roles for elite plus: 4 tanks, 1 controller, 1 heal, 2 DPS Note: In Elite Plus it is now possible with more recent gear to run with 3 tanks, 1 controller, 1 heal and 3 DPS, if the damage is sufficient in the group and the tanks are competent enough to stay alive for a bit longer. However 4 tanks may still be preferred for some endgame groups. On PS, Hold Square to lunge On PS, Hold R1 to block A fairly straight forward boss encounter in regular, and somewhat challenging but doable in Elite and Elite Plus. Mechanics: (Remember the overarching Perpetua AOE mechanics are present in this fight) After a time adds will spawn. Be especially careful of the Fearseeker, as this may do a reflect skull ability. Be also careful of the Skullcrasher adds, as they may charge. In elite if they charge a player/s it is probably going to KO a non-tank player/s on impact if not evaded. If these adds aren't defeated then more shouldn't spawn, so as long as players can mind mechanics like charge/reflect then they can just focus on the Source Titan sub bosses. All of the Source Titan bosses may have a chance of individually pointing at a particular player while having a skull icon above their head. They will then fire a Source beam at that player. This should be blocked or evaded or it will do big damage. Other players should also avoid any AOEs left behind by this. Frost Blast - Jakkec/Proma/sometimes Kerbak may do a skull icon above their head before doing a frost cone attack. Players should not be in front of this as it will do big damage, however this can be countered if a player lunges the boss when this occurs. Shamed Ascension - Proma/Kerbak (after losing some health) will look at a player with a skull icon above their head, and after a delay they will fire a light beam at that player, dealing damage and stunning the affected player in the air. When the affected player breaks out of the stun they will do damage to nearby players. This can do moderate damage or more if other players are close by. In Elite Plus this will KO if the player doesn't block - make sure also when you breakout that other players aren't close by (or are blocking) or they will likely take large damage or be KO'd. Eternal Anguish - Proma may do a skull icon while shaking her fist. In elite, players should block when this occurs as it is followed by her Eternal Anguish AOE ability. This can do major damage or can KO players who aren't blocking. There is usually around 3 ticks of damage while this attack occurs, however it is only the initial stomp/tick of damage which should be blocked. Depending on the group's shield rotations/gear it is possible to survive without blocking in regular/elite, however in elite plus this should ALWAYS be blocked by all players. NOTE: Depending on the damage of the group towards Proma it is possible for Proma to do this ability 1-4 times in succession, so prepare accordingly - block the initial stomp and the heal should heal the group where possible. Theon may charge the group on occasion, this is indicated by a skull icon. This does moderate damage and some knock back. He may then stomp the ground. It is best practice to avoid Theon while he charges or does this. Kerbak may also charge the group but less often. Demoralize - Jakkec may spawn a golden AOE field, this does moderate damage over time if players are stood in it. It will also ground and slow movement of players that are stood in it. NOTE: When you defeat a Source Titan sub boss (Kerbak/Jakkec/Theon/Proma) they will have a cog (with a timer) which you have to interact with. If you for some reason don't activate the cog before its timer runs out the sub boss will respawn again at approximately 45% health. Anyone in the group can do this but it is preferred for a controller or second tank to activate the cog while the heal is healing the group and the DPS are burning the next sub boss or any adds that might be of risk to the group. Failing to do this for Proma may jeopardise the Proma's Anguish feat if you are defeating Proma first, so don't forget to do this. Differences in Elite Plus: The group should make it a priority to KO any adds that are going to be of considerable risk to the group ie. any special add like Mentalist, Skullcrusher or Fearseeker. The fight is fairly long so these adds can be troublesome if not dealt with accordingly. Help with lunges if possible for any block break abilities the sub bosses use. Be sure to block skulls aimed at the group as Shamed Ascension will KO a targeted player if they don't block. Be also careful when breaking out that no players are close by. With recent episode gear it may be also be possible to survive a nearby player breaking out of Shamed Ascension by blocking - this may even be the preferred method for endgame groups. Shamed Ascension is most likely to be used by Kerbak or Proma. Avoid Demoralize AOEs spawned by Jakkec, they are very deadly if stood in for any length of time.
Second boss: Dark Knights (Devastator, Dawnbreaker, The Drowned, The Merciless, Red Death, Murder Machine) In elite 5 of these will spawn in total. Three will be there from the start of the fight and two more will spawn later. Recommended roles for regular: 1 tank, 1 controller, 1 heal, 5 DPS Recommended roles for elite: 2 tanks, 1 controller, 1-2 heals (1 preferably), 3-4 DPS Recommended roles for elite plus: 4 tanks, 1 heal, 1 controller, 2 DPS On PS, Hold R1 to block A mostly straight forward boss fight in the regular version provided players know when to block certain mechanics. Fairly challenging but doable in the elite version. The elite plus version of this boss fight is one of the most difficult boss fights in the entire game. Mechanics: (Remember the overarching Perpetua AOE mechanics are present in this fight) Devastator Breath Attack - Devastator may do a cone AOE attack, this should be avoided - indicated by a red AOE tell. If you are in the area of effect you will take damage over time in all versions of the raid but it shouldn't KO with sufficient heals - even then it is unnecessary damage to take so just avoid it if possible. Spike Wave - Devastator may point at a player while having a skull icon above his head. He will then do his Spike Wave cone attack. This will do heavy damage/KO and knock back if any players in front of him don't block or evade this mechanic. Sometimes if a player is close enough Devastator will point at a player while having a skull icon above his head. Devastator will then jump over and do a stomp attack. This will KO anyone who is directly affected by this attack, so players should move out of the way. (In elite, the tank should keep Devastator far to the other side of the room so this should be unlikely to happen, however in elite plus this may be a more likely occurrence.) In elite plus Devastator may do Spike Wave and/or jump to a player back to back. It is unlikely that he will do 2 Spike Waves back to back or jump to a player twice back to back but in any case prepare accordingly. Dawnbreaker It is best practice to not be in melee range of Dawnbreaker, due to some of his skulls including Mangle or Outrage. These can do heavy damage or KO if the player is too close. Dark Construct Strike - Dawnbreaker may do a skull icon before raising his fist in the air. Orbitals will spawn on all players in range - these should be avoided straight away or they will do heavy damage/KO. The Drowned Spinning Cyclone - The Drowned may do a skull icon before spinning in the air. Does heavy damage at melee range. The Drowned may do a skull icon before activating a Bubble shield that reflects incoming damage from players. Does minor/moderate damage over time back to players. The Drowned (after she has lost some health) will have a skull icon above her head and wait for a short time. Players should block. The Drowned will then do her Call of the Deep attack on all nearby players in range. Any non-tank players that don't block this WILL be KO'd, in all versions. Block for a second or two longer after the animation as sometimes a brief damage over time will occur on nearby players after the animation. The Merciless Do not use a Supply Drop or Orbital Strike on The Merciless (regular or elite) under any circumstances. If you use an Orbital Strike on The Merciless, he will have a skull icon before doing a slam attack. If this isn't blocked any player in the fight will be KO'd from this. The Merciless may do a skull icon before doing a slam cone attack. The tank should ensure that The Merciless isn't facing the rest of the group, and block. The Merciless will do a skull icon, before raising his sword in the air and trying to pull players in. This can be annoying with other AOE mechanics and can lead to tricky RNG situations depending on the timing or positioning of players. - (Sometimes The Merciless will raise his sword in the air and do a mild Chain Lightning attack, which does mild to moderate damage to all players in range and some crowd control.) The Merciless (after he has lost some health) will spawn God Killers, which will follow group members, doing knock back and damage over time (Spinning Cleave). These will appear and disappear from time to time. These should be avoided if possible. These should disappear after The Merciless is defeated. Red Death If you have a red arrow, Red Death will point at you then teleport to you and do moderate melee damage. This should be evaded. If you are melee/midrange, sometimes Red Death will hard stun you and you will need to spam a button to break out. Murder Machine Murder Machine will do a skull icon before shooting projectiles in the direction he is facing (Bolt Barrage). He will then throw several grenades on the floor in front of him (Grenade Launcher). If you are in front of him you should go max range and block. If the grenades hit you they will knock back and do significant damage, perhaps KO in elite. Murder Machine will do a skull icon before sitting down and generating a shield. This should be countered/lunged by a player or it will heal MM and then do significant AOE damage to anyone in range. Try not to give Murder Machine immunity when he does this. Sometimes Murder Machine will do a Cable Smash ability which may do damage and knock back anyone in midrange of that ability. Other mechanics: Rebuked Isolation and Infectious Ire (below) usually occurs some way into the fight. This is usually from shortly after the last Dark Knight spawns (second additional boss) onwards. Rebuked Isolation will occur first and then Infectious Ire after. Rebuked Isolation: One player will receive a green stack marker. As many players as possible should group up on this player to mitigate incoming damage, while minding other mechanics. If few or no players stack this will cause a group wipe. Infectious Ire: One player will receive a red proximity marker. This player should go away from the group or it will do significant damage or KO nearby players. (In Elite Plus this affects most or all players in the group) Considerations/Differences for Elite Plus: Destroyer adds will spawn when a Dark Knight sub boss gets to low health. These will need to be countered or they will do large raid wide damage to the group (Atomic Boom). Atomic Boom may also heal nearby adds or Dark Knight sub bosses. For more information, please see the SWE+ Advanced Walkthrough thread. I will post these at a later time.
Third boss: One Who Laughs Recommended role setup (for regular/elite): 1 Tank 1 Heal 1 Controller 5 DPS (some groups may consider 2 heals but 1 is preferred as you will need to damage and KO adds fast). (For Elite Plus): 2 Tank 1-2 Heal 1 Controller 3-4 DPS (Some groups may consider 3 tanks for the add phases instead of a second heal, some groups may be fine with a solo heal and 2 tanks) A relatively straight forward fight in both regular and elite versions. In Elite Plus somewhat trickier. Mechanics: (Remember the overarching Perpetua AOE mechanics are present in this fight) Dark Impale - One Who Laughs may target a player with a white AOE that may hard stun them until they breakout. This does mild to moderate damage over time. If other players are nearby they will also receive this hard stun. Contagious Laughter - One Who Laughs may infect a player with a laughing gas which does some damage and stun. If they are nearby to other players they will also take some damage and be stunned as well. Irrational Dread - One Who Laughs may give players a purple AOE attack, which does damage over time. If other players are close by, the AOE may stun and move players for a time. The stuns may interfere with player's rotations if they don't spread out. As the fight continues, Dark Tentacles will spawn. It is best practice to avoid going near these while minding other mechanics, as if you are caught by a tentacle you will take damage over time until either the group focuses damage on the tentacle to free you, or you are knocked out. NOTE: When the Dark Tentacles spawn, there will be a dark animation tell on where they are going to spawn. Players should stand away from these or if the Dark Tentacle spawns on a player that player will be knocked back and take large damage - most likely a KO in the elite versions. Chain Pull - One Who Laughs will pull all group members to him and hard stun them. Be mindful of breakout timings as this can do damage to nearby players - if too many players breakout at the same time this may lead to KOs especially with other mechanics ongoing. One Who Laughs will then punch the ground, doing mild/moderate damage to nearby players and some knock back. At approximately 60%/30% of One Who Laugh's health, One Who Laughs will disappear for a time. Dark AOE pools will spawn, which do damage over time if players are stood on them. These pools spawn adds (Dark Minions) which the tank should aggro and group up. They should be defeated by the DPS as soon as possible while minding the AOE mechanics - they do a lot of damage to the tank if they aren't KO'd quickly. Some of the Dark Minions may use a minor reflect ability. Differences/Considerations in Elite Plus: There are more tentacles to deal with, and as such try to KO the tentacles. One Who Laughs may sometimes teleport and do a pull attack. There will be a tell beforehand where he does a dance and laughs hysterically, so this should be called out and players should block. The pull attack may lead to messy situations with the overarching AOE mechanics or tentacles or both if not blocked. This can also make reviving players tricky in some cases. Callous Anger: There is a tank swap mechanic, so at least 2 tanks are highly recommended. The One Who Laughs will do a shout emote on one tank (Tank A) and give that tank a red aura. This tank should mitigate any form of incoming damage, and the other tank (Tank B) should aggro One Who Laughs during this time. Later One Who Laughs may do another shout emote at Tank B and then Tank A (with the red aura gone) can aggro One Who Laughs. If a tank takes a lot of damage while having the red aura he may get KO'd and this may lead to a messy situation. Callous Anger may also do raidwide damage to the group when it progresses into further stages. NOTE: This boss encounter is not solo tankable at the current time in elite plus. If one tank continues to get a red aura and is the only tank who has the aggro of One Who Laughs, it may lead to a group wipe. It is imperative that at least 2 tanks continue to swap aggro of One Who Laughs. Stunning Force: One Who Laughs will look at a player, slowly raising his hands with a wave motion, and that player will receive a white aura and white arrow. The affected player will be stunned. When that player breaks out they will do a raidwide AOE attack on the group dealing some damage. If players aren't immune or blocking when this breakout occurs they will be knocked back.
Last boss: Perpetua Recommended role setup (for regular/elite): 1 Tank 1 Heal 1 Controller 5 DPS. (Some groups may consider 2 healers or 2 tanks but this isn't necessary, however in elite plus 2 tanks is recommended) A straightforward and somewhat interesting fight if players know where to stand, when to block and to KO Source Titans during add phases, otherwise can be long and potentially tricky. Probably the easiest fight of the raid in the Elite Plus version besides one tricky mechanic. On PS, Hold R1 to block On PS, Hold L1 to target lock Mechanics: (The overarching Perpetua AOE mechanics are present during the add phases/Giant Perpetua phases. During small Perpetua phases they are not there.) Small Perpetua phase (3 in total) Perpetua's Infinite Source Beam: Perpetua may point at a player while having a skull icon above her head. The player will receive a white arrow followed by a Source Beam attack. This player MUST block (regular or elite) for the duration of the Source Beam animation or they will do huge damage to the other group members and most likely cause a group wipe. - Tip: Target lock Perpetua even during the soul phase so you can keep an eye on her when she does this ability (Also if you are stood in the area of effect and get hit by this beam and you aren't blocking you can also wipe the group, so try to stay away from the affected player if possible) Perpetua will shield, mitigating damage done to her. She will then transform 3 players and those players will lose their abilities. Those 3 players will have a yellow/orange/red marker above their head respectively, and will then need to interact with 2 souls (3 souls in elite) of the same colour marker in order to regain their abilities again. Dwarf Planet Strike - During the latter two small Perpetua phases, Perpetua will spawn small red orbital AOEs on all group members several times in succession (2-6 times). These should be avoided or they will do large damage and most likely KO (especially in elite) a non-tank player. Giant Perpetua phase (2 in total at approximately 60%/30% health) KO 5 Source Titans as soon as possible and collect their rubble to progress the phase. NOTE: Some of these Source Titans may spawn the Demoralize AOE mechanic that Jakkec uses in the first boss encounter. Players should evade these as well as other AOE mechanics. If players stand in the Demoralize AOE they will take moderate damage over time and be grounded, so try to stay out of it if possible. Be careful of Fearseeker adds or Skullcrusher adds. You can KO Apex Predator adds however more will spawn in their place. There will also be a Source Scorch AOE which will move through the map. This does damage over time if players stand in it. Considerations/Differences for Elite Plus: During the soul phase Perpetua has a shield. In the Elite Plus version this is a reflection mechanic - and extremely deadly for the entire time it is active if anyone does damage to Perpetua while the shield is active. This includes Robot Sidekick, pets, henchmen, combat allies, Grimorum Verum, Quislet, Strategist Card proc, etc. ANY damage being done to Perpetua that is in some way from a player in a group will do large damage to the whole group via the reflection from her shield and will most likely cause a group wipe. As such do not use any pets/henchmen/combat ally etc. and be vigilant with artifact procs especially if you are a Might DPS and especially if you use any damage over time abilities. The Infectious Ire proximity marker mechanic from the second boss encounter returns in this fight, and again affects most or all players in the group. Dead Planet: Every so often during the small Perpetua phases, small coloured planet orbs will spawn which players will need to interact with before their timer runs out. If players fail to interact with these in time they may cause debuff mechanics to occur for the group. For example, a heal debuff will mean healing out for the group from the heal will be significantly less for a short time. When activating a coloured orb, that player will get debuffed themselves, rather than a raidwide debuff.
(Reserved) Soon I will give this thread some TLC and fix up some of the paragraphs so it looks more presentable and easy to read. I will also put the Advanced Walkthrough and scenarios in a separate thread.
Updated with improved structure/layout. Hopefully should be easier for viewers to read. If anyone has any feedback for anything I missed regarding second boss, I will add any notes to a reserved post as the second boss post is full. I will update again when I have the Advanced Walkthrough thread up. Advanced Walkthrough for second boss in the Elite Plus version here: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/dc...raid-elite-plus-second-boss-encounter.325806/
