User:Noellia/Testing Page

Angry Sephotep.

This page details the strategy commonly used to beat Inflamed Sephotep of the Hard Mode Citadel raid.

This strategy differs greatly from the one used for normal mode, and while it makes it possible to recover from mistakes, it results in a fight about 20 minutes long.

Party Composition

Boss Team: Actively damages the boss.
- Tank: Paladin. Needs to be able to stun-lock the boss consistently.
- Healer: passive Bard. Needs Cure Wounds, Gentle Healing and Protection instruments.
- DPS: any two damage classes. Shamans can't use stun totem.
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.
- 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.
A timer is useful on the add side to anticipate the spawning of the add groups. You can either use Potâto's Boss Timer (PCVR only) or a 20 second looping timer. Keep in mind that the spawn timer for the adds is paused during portal phases, and any external timer used won't show the accurate spawn time after normal combat resumes.

Start of the Fight

Normal

The tank starts the fight by directly hitting the boss with a few charges, then hammer-teleports out and moves the boss to the correct spot.

Head Start

Start of combat.

You can use this method if you have at least one, better two mages on the boss side.

The mages start in a corner, and begin the fight (using Triplicity for more damage).
The bard can use their super for an additional damage boost.
The boss tank takes aggro shortly before the boss reaches the DPS.
Everyone stays next to the boss until the first circles appear. Jump out and move to your positions quickly, then kill the purple orb.

Damage Phases

Fighting positions of every player.

Scott barding up close and personal with Pherosis.

During damage phases, only the boss team is in combat with the boss, while the bard heals and decurses them passively (and never enters combat). The rest of the party, the add team, kills the minions that spawn once every 20 seconds.

Boss

The boss team will have to deal with the following mechanics:

Circles: Every 10 seconds, circles will appear on two people that are currently in combat with the boss.
- These circles have to be dodged, getting hit by one will deal enough damage to kill you.
Orbs: Every 15 seconds, two purple orbs appear near the boss's head that target two players that are in combat with the boss, except the main aggro holder. On impact, they deal enough damage to kill a player, and also apply a powerful DoT. These orbs can be destroyed by dealing damage to them.
- If less than three people are in combat with the boss, the orbs also target the main aggro holder.
- The hitbox of the orbs can be active for a few moments even after they are destroyed. Be careful when teleporting out of your circle.
- It is sometimes possible to decurse the DoT after surviving an orb due to Unbending before the first damage tick.
Projectile: A fast, non-dodgeable projectile that targets a random person in combat with the boss, and deals a medium amount of damage on hit.
Tankbuster: A powerful melee attack indicated by a wide backhand swing with the staff. Also applies a DoT that can be decursed.
- The DoT needs to be decursed by the bard using their Protection crescendo.
Anti-Heal: Every normal melee attack as well as the Tankbuster attack applies an anti-heal stack that reduces incoming healing by 10%, and stacks up to 10 times.
- The tank has to stun-lock the boss (using 5-6 charges) to prevent him from attacking and refreshing the stacks, until the debuff wears off. Do this after every or at least every second tankbuster attack.
- While the tank is stun-locking, the DPS cannot use any attacks that stun/interrupt. Communicate.

Tips, Tricks and Notes

If the tank can't clear their anti-heal stacks in time, kiting the boss for a bit can give you enough time.
If a boss DPS dies, the purple orbs will start to target the tank. Kiting the boss in a large oval prevents the tank from getting hit, and buys time for the DPS to get revived.
For the full boss tank strategy for Thrive's method, watch Pherosis's video guide.
A Runemage can also decurse the tankbuster DoT if the bard's crescendo isn't charged in time.

Minions

The add team focuses on killing the minion groups. The add tank takes aggro on the enemies as soon as they spawn to prevent them from running off to the boss team, and the DPS kills them quickly before the next set spawns.

Minion groups spawn every 20 seconds, and always consist of these three enemies:

Melee: Usually not a threat.
Melee, Elite: Hits hard.
- The add tank should focus on keeping this enemy focused on them, and if it runs off, should try to get it back quickly.
Pistoler, Elite: Hits very hard, projectiles are hard to dodge, can slow and poison.
- The add DPS should focus on killing this enemy first, as its bullets deal significant damage to the add tank.

Tips, Tricks and Notes

Have your highest DPS players in this group.
Being very low to the floor makes the Pistoler miss all his bullets, but the Frost and Poison orbs can still hit.
The Musketeer needs to be careful with bouncing their heals, as they could enter combat by healing someone on the boss team.

Opening the Portals

Red: Grouping Up

To open the red phase portal, exactly half of the party has to get hit by only one red circle each.

Each group quickly gathers at their respective pre-determined spot. The groups are:
1. Boss Tank, one boss DPS, the Bard, and two add DPS.
2. The second boss DPS, the rest of the add group.

After opening the portals, using the "Stuck Combat" button will get the add group and bard fully out of combat again.

RNGsus Take the Wheel

Grouping up.

With this method, you group up with the boss tank and one boss DPS next to each other and hope for the ⅔ chance that not both circles appear on the same group.

Should both circles appear on the same group, quickly jump out (as getting hit by both circles means certain death) to try again on the next circles.

Sheikah Method

This method requires a lot more communication and a quick reaction time, but it is a sure-fire way to open the portal every time.

(WIP, need to ask Sloth about this)

Green: Hoarding Adds

To open the green phase portal, five hostile entities need to be killed in less than five seconds. This includes minions, but also purple orbs from the boss.

A Musketeer can separate out the non-elite melee minion by bouncing their Gravity Orb on their turret or on already collected minions as soon as the adds spawn, and save them over the span of several spawn phases to collect several fast-to-kill enemies.
- The add tank needs to time their ground slam for immediately after the Musketeer used their Orb. Using the attack too early will result in the non-elite running back to the tank.
- Elites on the Musketeer are very dangerous. If you cannot separate/kill the elite, give all minions back to the tank and start over.
- A fully-geared Musketeer can only outheal the damage of four non-elites.
- When it is time to open the portal, the add tank takes aggro on the saved minions.
The elite minions can be used to open the portal too, but their health needs to be lowered to kill them fast enough.
Call the burn when the purple orbs spawn for two basically free kills.
The Bard can use their super to help kill the minions faster.

Tips and Tricks

Should you lack DPS to kill the minions in time, the boss DPS can help with killing the adds.

Blue: Blocking Orbs

Both orbs have to hit a person (not necessarily different people) to open the blue portal.

Classic Method

The Add Tank moves in to block the orbs.

With this method, the add tank uses their shield in front of the boss DPS to block both orbs at the same time.

At a point in the boss's rotation that spawns circles on the same time as orbs appear, group up after the boss DPS jumps out of the circles.
Decurse the DoTs on the add tank after blocking.
The add tank will be in combat after this, use "Stuck Combat" to fix that.

Suicide Method

Both boss DPS let the orbs hit them, and get revived later before the add team enters the portal.

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.

Portal Phases

The boss team stays in the main area, protecting the portal, while the add team clears the adds inside.

Main Area

The tank moves around to block orbs from all directions.

The boss team stays in the main room and prevents the orbs from destroying the portal. A single orb to the portal will make it explode, killing everyone.

The boss tank moves around in front of the portal, blocking all the orbs before they reach the portal.
Boss DPS and Healer stand near the portal, in the path of the orbs each to block any orbs the tank misses.
If a boss DPS was out of combat or dead before the portal opened, they need to make sure to have a DoT on the boss so the orbs don't target the tank when the portal closes.

Tips and Tricks

Cloth classes will die if they get critically hit by an orb. If they don't have Unbending, don't let them get hit at all.
Leather classes can safely take one orb, even if it crits.
Dead players can block orbs too.

Portals

Before entering the portal, take a breather and revive anyone that died. People that entered combat with the boss on accident have time to re-log now.

You can send a scout into the portal to see where the enemy group is, and signal the rest of the group when it is safe to enter. A Potion of Masked Scent or Invisibility Potion is useful to reduce the aggro range, should the enemies be close to the entrance.
The tank will need to kite the enemies at least from the second portal onwards.

Tips and Tricks

The Musketeer's Gravity Orb can slow the entire enemy group greatly, allowing Mages to deal more damage with Triplicity before the tank takes aggro.
You can delay killing the last enemy until the boss in the main area is in a favourable position to resume combat after exiting the portal. The center position is not a good spot for the boss to be in, due to the proximity to the minion spawn location.
Focus problem enemies to kill them before they become a problem, for example the Octofang in the red portal and the purple demon in the blue portal.

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.
Finely Enhanced Healing Potions are useful especially on the boss team.

Further Resources

Pherosis's Boss Tank Video Guide