Citadel Raid (Hard)/Inflamed Sephotep Guide

Angry Sephotep.

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 deaths and technical issues as possible, but will result in a long fight of about 20 minutes.

If you are the raid leader, you are going to need to know all of this. Otherwise, you can just read the parts that apply to you.

Party Composition

Boss Team: Actively damages the boss.
- Tank: Paladin. Needs Unbending, Plea of Divinity and a degree in stun-locking.
- Healer: passive Bard. Needs Unbending.
- DPS: any two damage classes, preferably Runemages. Need Unbending.
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.
- Tank: Paladin. Needs Plea of Divinity.
- Healer: Musketeer.
- 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. You can either use Potâto's Boss Timer (PCVR only) or a 20 second looping timer.
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.

Start of the Fight

Start of combat.

Boss Team

Boss DPS

The boss DPS starts in the far-right corner of the room. After a count down, both DPS start attacking the boss at the same time.

Two Runemages: One mage starts with Triplicity, the other one slows the boss with Frost 3 to get more time to damage the boss before the real fight starts.
After the first set of circles appear, jump out and move to your positions quickly.

Non-mages can start in their normal positions.

Boss Healer

You can use your Super to make the most out of the triplicity burst damage. It will be back in time for opening the green phase portal.

Boss Tank

The boss tank grabs the boss about ⅔ of the way to the DPS with a Taunt book (use Empower, Taunt, and then hit with all you have).

Add Team

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

Damage Phases

Fighting positions of every player.

Scott barding up close and personal with Pherosis.

Boss Team

Boss Tank

For the full strategy and a lot of tips and tricks, watch Pherosis's video guide.

Dodge your circles.
Orbs will never target you as long as both your DPS are alive. If one of them dies, orbs will start to target you. Kite in a large oval until your dead DPS got revived and is in combat again.
You are tanking alone, and will need to clear your anti-heal stacks on your own.
- After a tankbuster, when you have full pips, use 5-6 to stun-lock the boss. This should give you enough time for your anti-heal stacks to clear.
- If you don't have two runemages as your DPS, call out when you are stun-locking, so they know when to not use their charged shots and stun orbs.
- If you fail to clear your anti-heal stacks, kite the boss in a large oval. The boss will become faster, but it can give you enough time to clear your stacks.
Once the shield appears, you can empower your heal book to keep aggro.

Boss Healer

Never use your healing crescendos. They will put you in combat with the boss, 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 missed notes and don't have the decurse ready on time, ask one of the Runemages to use a decurse spell.
- Activate the crescendo as soon as the boss finishes his tankbuster animation.
Hit the notes with both mallets to charge your Protection crescendo faster.
If the tank needs to kite, you may need to follow them around a little bit for your heals and decurses to reach.
Save your Super for opening the green phase portal. After that, you can use your Super freely.

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.
- Do not jump forwards after killing an orb. Their hitbox is still active for a short period of time after killing them.
- When an orb appears at the same time as the red circle, dodge the circle first and then kill the orb.
Dodge circles. While Unbending saves you from dying to a circle, a badly timed zap can immediately kill you.
- Runemages: You can jump forwards to keep your spells in line, and go back to your position as soon as the circles disappear. This way, you can more easily hit the purple orbs when they spawn, but make sure you don't jump into the still-active hitbox of a dead orb.
- Rangers: You can jump to the side to keep your distance to the boss.
Runemages: If the Bard can't charge their decurse in time, you may need to use a Decurse spell on the tank.
Runemages: If you play Rotation, try to refresh the Affliction after dodging a circle and moving back into place.
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.
Runemages, Scoundrels: A slow on the boss helps the tank out when kiting.

Add Team

Add groups consist of three enemies: two small melees (one normal and one elite), and one ranged elite 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.
- The timer will be off after teleporting back in the main area after clearing a hell portal. The person calling out the spawns needs to watch the timer closely to know what time the adds will now spawn at.
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 (empower if possible) or Taunt Book 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.

Avoid healing anyone from the boss team, as this will put you in combat with the boss.
- Try to shoot anyone needing a heal directly.
- If you need to bounce a heal, do it on your turret or on an add near you.
- Never bounce a heal on the adds on the add tank, as the bounce heals can reach the add DPS.
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.
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.

Opening the Portals

Red: Grouping Up

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 any Runemage in the group: 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.
After getting hit by the circles, you will be in combat (with the circles), but "Stuck Combat" can fix this.

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 over 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.

Boss Healer

Use your Super to help the others with killing the adds more quickly.

Blue: Blocking Orbs

The Add Tank moves in to block the orbs.

Both orbs have to hit a person to open the blue portal.

Red circles spawn every 10 seconds, orbs appear every 15 seconds. Call group up before a point in the boss's rotation that spawns circles on the same time as orbs appear, and tell the add tank a bit in advance.

Boss DPS

When the blue shield appears, move closer together. Tell the add tank to get ready. Wait for the call.
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 the blue shield appears, 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, but this can be fixed with "Stuck Combat".

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.

Hell Phases

The tank moves around to block orbs from all directions.

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 Bard

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.
Call out where Sephotep teleports to. This not only helps when the boss lags behind or visually appears to be in the wrong spot, but also tells the add team when to kill the last enemy.
- The best position for him to be in is near the left wall of the arena (the right position, as viewed from the portal). This way, Sephotep is not going to walk over the spot where the adds are going to spawn.
Bard: You can build your super by using your Protection crescendo (still no healing crescendos!).

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. This works well after getting hit by the circles to open the first portal.
- If "Stuck Combat" does not work, close the game and restart it. This usually happens if you hit the boss on accident.
- 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 possible, if someone on the boss team died. Save the Add Healer's revive for emergencies later.
- 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 set up.
- 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 has to enter the portal and start attacking the adds immediately.
You can save the last enemy until Sephotep is in a favourable position. Notify the boss team when you're ready, and listen to the calls of the boss team.
If someone dies, revive them before exiting the portal. If possible, don't use the revive of the add Musky - Leash the enemies if necessary, and have someone switch to Musketeer or use the add tank's Plea.
Notify the boss team when the last add dies.
Immediately resume your position after teleporting back to the main area. Adds can spawn any second, and any timer used will be off.
- If the boss is in a bad position when exiting the portal, he might run over the spot where adds spawn. Make sure to not hit the boss, wait until he is in position again and pick up the adds after.

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.
Tank: Keep in mind that the Venom Arachnas inflict a Slow effect, and you won't be as fast for a few seconds after teleporting back into the main area. You might want to use your hammer teleport to get back to your position faster.

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.

Tips and Tricks

The blue portal group is the same as the group in the Forsaken Isle cave. You can go there to practice.
The boss tank can practice stun-locking on Napur. Napur's hitbox is smaller and he hits faster than Sephotep, so if you can clear your anti-heal stacks on Napur consistently, you are going to be okay on Sephotep.
We do callouts in two different languages - callouts that only matter for the boss side are in Dutch, callouts for the entire group are in English. This helps prevent deaths caused by confusion.
During portal phase, the boss does not leash even if no one is in combat with it, until after the portal is either destroyed or cleared. Attempts like this can be saved if the tank gets in combat with the boss by hitting it with a direct hit (only taunt book is not enough) before the portal is cleared.

Further Resources

Pherosis's Boss Tank Video Guide

Orbus Community Resources