Citadel Raid (Hard)/Inflamed Sephotep Guide

This page details Thrive's strategy to beat Inflamed Sephotep of the Hard Mode Citadel raid.

The strategy is designed to keep chaos to a minimum, and is as resilient to technical issues as possible, but will result in a long fight of about 20 minutes.

Party Composition

 * 1) Boss Team: Actively damages the boss.
 * 2) * Tank: Paladin, with a degree in stun-locking. Needs Unbending and Plea of Divinity.
 * 3) * Healer: passive Bard. Needs Unbending.
 * 4) * DPS: any two damage classes, preferably Runemages. Need Unbending.
 * 5) Add Team: Not in combat with the boss. Keeps adds from piling up and is in charge of clearing the enemies inside of the Hell portals.
 * 6) * Tank: Paladin. Needs Plea of Divinity.
 * 7) * Healer: Musketeer.
 * 8) * DPS: any 4 damage classes.

Before the Fight

 * Form two groups of five for opening the first portal (Boss Tank, Boss Bard, one Boss DPS, two Add DPS in one group, the rest in the second group). Make sure everyone knows where to go once it is time to open the portal.
 * Check if everyone on the boss team has a weapon with Unbending and Finely Enhanced Healing Potions equipped, as they won't be able to swap equipment during the fight. Make sure their potions will last for the entirety of the battle.
 * One of the players on the add team should have a timer ready and running to call out when the add groups are going to spawn.
 * The add tank and any add shamans can put down their book near the boss as a visual aid, as this is where the add groups will spawn.

Add Team
Move to your fighting positions and get ready for the first group of adds to spawn.

Boss Healer

 * Never use your healing crescendos. They will put you in combat, which will make you a target for zaps, balls and circles.
 * Use your Protection crescendo to clear the affliction DoTs on the tank. If you don't have the decurse ready on time, ask one of the Runemages to use a decurse spell.

Boss DPS

 * Kill your own orbs before they reach you. If they hit you, you die, and the affliction stack it applies means that Unbending won't save you.
 * Dodge circles. While Unbending saves you from dying, a badly timed zap can immediately kill you.
 * Runemages: If the Bard can't charge their decurse in time, you may need to use a Decurse spell.
 * Rangers, Shamans, Scoundrels: Do not use charged shots or stun orbs when the tank needs to stunlock the boss, as the short stun will override their long stuns.

Add Team
Add groups consist of three enemies: two small melees (one normal and one elite), and one ranged pistoler that can slow and poison.

At least one person on the add team should have a timer running, and call out when adds spawn a few seconds before.


 * Being very low to the floor makes the Pistoler miss all his bullets, but the Frost and Poison orbs can still hit.

Add Tank
The Paladin on the add team needs to grab the add groups with a Ground Slam or Taunt Book (empowered if possible) to prevent them from running off towards the boss group.
 * Keep three charges on your hammer, so you can ground slam as soon as they spawn. If you can't get enough pips in time, use your Taunt book.
 * Focus the elite melee enemy. It doesn't matter much if the others get pulled off of you by the DPS, but keep this one on you. If it runs off, try to get it back. Stunlock if your Taunt Book is on cooldown.
 * If you need to get enemies you lost back, make sure you are back in your position when the next groups appears.

Add Healer
If everything goes by plan, the Musketeer won't have much to do.


 * Make sure your bounce heals do not reach the boss team. Healing any of them will put you in combat.
 * Save your Lifewell in case someone on the boss team dies and needs to be revived quickly.
 * Have a Renew on the add tank if possible. If someone needs a large amount of healing, shoot them directly with Cure Wounds.
 * You can practice hoarding adds for opening the second portal during any damage phase.

Add DPS
Your job is to keep the adds from piling up by killing them as quickly as possible.
 * If any enemies run off to the boss team, get them back first.
 * The elite pistoler is the most dangerous enemy. Kill it first.

Red: Grouping Up

 * The add group (plus one boss DPS, minus two add DPS) group up where the adds spawn.
 * The boss group (minus one boss DPS, plus two add DPS) group up to the left of the spot where the adds spawn.
 * Boss Bard or Boss Runemage: Decurse the affliction stack on the tank. It might cause the portal not to open, and will kill the tank if they unbend on the circles.
 * Two circles appear on either the boss tank or the boss DPS. That gives the circles a 1/3 chance to both appear on the boss group. In that case, everyone in that group needs to jump out immediately, and try again.
 * If the boss DPS and boss tank stand at a distance from each other, the circles won't be stacked on top of each other as much. There is a possibility that you can survive a single circle, but not both.

Green: Hoarding Adds
During the Damage Phase, the Add Team is going to separate out the non-elite melee enemies, as the elites take too long to kill.

You will collect five non-elites over the course of at least five add spawns. You can keep one or both elites of the last group low and then start to burn all 5-7 of them together.

Add Healer
The Musketeer needs to separate out the non-elites by using the gravity orb.
 * As soon as the first set spawns, bounce the gravity orb off your turret. This will destroy it, and suck only the non-elite away from the elites. The tank will grab the elites.
 * After you already collected at least one enemy, you can bounce your gravity orb off them.
 * If the non-elite runs off after using the gravity orb, you can try to get it back by using healing orbs to build some healing aggro.
 * Shoot the floor to heal yourself. Bouncing your healing orbs can cause you to pull healing aggro on the elites, which will be hard to separate out again.
 * You can out-heal the damage of up to four non-elites. As soon as you get the fifth, your health is going to drop. If the green shield has not appeared yet, wait until you pull more enemies on you.
 * When it is time to open the portal, move towards the add tank so they can grab the five enemies.

Add Tank

 * Wait until the last moment to use the ground slam, to give your healer more time to suck the enemies in with the gravity orb.
 * Should an elite melee enemy run off to the healer, you can try to get it back by hitting it directly (empower your hit). If that doesn't work, you need to kill all the adds and start collecting again. Use your Taunt book to get all of them off of the healer and have your DPS kill them.
 * If an elite melee with a considerable amount of health runs off to the DPS, try to get it back.
 * When it is time to open the portal, the healer is going to move towards you. Grab all the enemies with a Taunt book and lower their health with Ground Slams.
 * Should your healer die, immediately jump in and use your Taunt book to get the adds on you. Call burn immediately to try to open the portal. If it doesn't work, after clearing all adds, have one of the add DPS resurrect the healer by switching to Musketeer and start collecting non-elites again.

Add DPS

 * Do not attack the non-elites on the Musketeer.
 * Like before, focus the pistoler, then kill the elite melee.
 * After the healer grabs the fifth add, keep one or both of the elites at low health.
 * When it is time to open the portal, wait until the tank has all the adds. Lower them evenly. Kill everything quickly as soon as the first one dies.

Boss DPS
You can help with killing the adds to open the portal, but make sure to kill your orbs and dodge the circles.

Blue: Blocking Balls
Both orbs have to hit a person to open the blue portal.

Boss DPS

 * Start to move closer together. Tell the add tank to get ready.
 * After circles drop, immediately group up closely. Do not kill the orbs that spawn.
 * If the tank misses one or both orbs, do not kill the orbs. Let yourself get hit by it and die, you can get revived easily after the portal opens.
 * If you are a Runemage, decurse the affliction stacks on the add tank quickly after they blocked the orbs.

Add Tank

 * When you hear the call, move towards the boss DPS and get ready. It doesn't matter if you still have one or two adds on you.
 * When the boss DPS group up, move in front of them and get ready to use your shield to block both balls.
 * After blocking the orbs, you will have two affliction stacks that can tick you down very quickly. Empower your heal book.
 * You will be in combat after getting hit by the orbs.

Blue: Desynched Orbs
If one or even both orbs go towards the zone origin, one person have to sacrifice themselves to open the portal by logging out and back in. This will place them at the zone origin for a split second, getting hit by the orbs there.
 * It takes a bit for the orbs to reach the zone origin.
 * After the person logs back in, wait until the affliction stacks are gone before reviving them.

Boss Team
The boss team stays in the main room and prevents the orbs from destroying the portal. A single orb will make it explode, so make extra sure you block every single one.

Boss DPS and Healer
Boss DPS and Healer stand near the portal, in the path of the orbs each to block any orbs the tank misses.
 * This is where Unbending is important - taking a critical hit can kill a cloth class from full health.
 * If your Unbending triggered, tell your tank so they know to not let you take more orbs.
 * If you die to an orb, your body will block all orbs from that direction.
 * DPS: Once you are revived, make sure you have a DoT on the boss to get back into combat with him as soon as the shield disappears.
 * If the boss tank died during the fight and the add tank had to step in, you can either switch roles for the rest of the fight or the boss tank can try to gain back aggro on the boss by using the taunt and heal books.

Boss Tank
The tank's job is to block the orbs.
 * You can block two orbs with a single shield by teleporting forward.
 * Have one of your DPS or your healer take an orb if you are getting low. If Unbending triggered, do not have them take any more orbs.
 * You can also have them take the first orb of every line to reduce the pressure on you.
 * Drink healing potions if you need to.
 * If a DPS or the healer dies, you need to revive them with your Plea.

Add Team
The add team is going into the portal and kill the monsters inside. The tank goes in first to see where the enemies are, before signalling the rest of the group to follow.

Before Entering
Kill the remaining adds and group up near the blue wall at the stairs until everyone is ready.
 * Make sure that everyone on the add team and the boss bard is out of combat. Check by removing and re-equipping a piece of gear.
 * If you are stuck in combat and/or can't unequip a piece of gear, try using the "Stuck Combat" button.
 * If "Stuck Combat" does not work or is on cooldown for more than one minute, close the game and restart it.
 * If you had orbs that went to the zone origin: have a dead player log out and log back in a few times until all orbs there are gone. You can tell if there are no more affliction stacks on the dead person.
 * Revive players that died.
 * As most players on the add team should be out of combat, any of them can switch to Musketeer to use their revive. The Runemage's Resurrection spell will not work. Use the add tank's Plea of Divinity, if available, if someone on the boss team died.
 * If one of the boss DPS or the boss bard died, someone from the add team should warm their spot and block stray orbs until they are revived (preferably the add tank).
 * If the boss bard died, someone on the add team needs to switch to Bard and heal passively until they are revived.
 * You can switch classes before going in the portal, or change your equipment loadout.
 * If your potions ran out, drink new ones.
 * The tank can drink a Masked Scent potion or Invisibility Potion for scouting, it will prevent the enemies from immediately attacking them if they are very close to the entrance.
 * If the boss tank has a spare Plea of Divinity, they can give it to the add tank for the more dangerous hells.

General Strategies

 * If the enemies are far away, you have time to setup a little.
 * The Runemages can charge their Triplicity and start attacking at the same time.
 * The Musketeer can charge their Gravity Orb to slow all enemies down.
 * The tank grabs all enemies about halfway, and starts kiting them in a large circle by throwing their hammer, using Ground Slams to get rid of excessive charges, until most of them are dead.
 * If the enemies are close and did not aggro on the tank, wait until they move away before entering the portal.
 * If the enemies are close and aggroed on the tank, the tank needs to immediately run and kite them in a large circle. The rest of the group needs to enter the portal and start attacking the adds immediately.
 * You can save the last enemy until Sephotep is in a favourable position. Tell the boss team when you're ready, and have them tell you when the boss is in the correct position.
 * If someone dies, revive them before exiting the portal. Leash the enemies if necessary, and have someone switch to Musketeer.

Red Portal
One large Octofang and three small Venom Arachnas.
 * This group of enemies shouldn't be too challenging.
 * Focus the Octofang and kill it before it spawns Spiderlings.
 * Kiting is usually not necessary.

Green Portal
A large group of Corrupt Knights.
 * Kill the ranged enemies first.
 * The two elite brutes will most likely be the last ones left. They like to stack together, but you can separate them with a Frost spell or by interrupting only one of them.

Blue Portal
A large group of Necro enemies, Aberrations, and purple Island Wraith. This group is the same as the one in the cave on the Forsaken Isle.
 * Focus the Island Wraith to kill it before it spawns circles.
 * After the purple guy dies, kill the flying enemies.