EC: Warlord Kephess (Hard Mode)

[Petrus]

Stats:
Warstrider HP: 459196
Kephess HP: 1045947

---

Differences on Hard Mode:
1. The Trandosian adds spawn much closers together, time wise.
2. Kephess casts "Touch of the Masters" on the tank during the last phase.

Boss Description:
Warlord Kephess is the final boss in the EC Operation. He sits inside a giant walker, and will drop out to fight you towards the end of the fight.

---

Fight Information:
When the fight starts there are three champion mobs called Imperial Siege Droid and a large robot boss called Warstrider Battlewalker. The robot can not be tanked, so the tanks should pick up the three champions and they should be burned down. Alternatively, since the Imperial Siege Droids cast an ability called Calibrating Shot it is ideal to have a DPS with an interrupt on the third Droid, allowing for all 3 to be interrupted. Players should interrupt this ability as it gives a stacking buff on the Droid that increases their damage done, accuracy, and reducing damage taken. As this is happening the Warstrider Battlewalker will fire at places on the ground, doing large amounts of damage. Players need to be heads up and see where it will fire, and move out of it. It should be noted, as of 1.2 going live, the area in which the Warstrider Battlewalker shoots his aoe is now a set pattern.

After the Imperial Siege Droids are dead a single mob will spawn called Baradium Bomber with a large explosion icon over his head. He should be burned down quickly so that he doesn't explode. When he is killed, a player gets that icon over their head. That player should get healed, shielded, and then run over to the Warstrider Battlewalker. That player will automatically start an animation that brings the boss to it's knees. All DPS should then focus on the boss. It's important for dps to blow all of their offensive cooldowns here, including Bloodthirst/Inspiration - players need to kill the walker within three attempts.

Players should be able to bring the boss at least to 70% - 60% in the first damage phase. After about 10 seconds the boss will stand back up, and summon more adds. This time it will be a group of about 6 strong mobs with a shield around them. Players should tank these adds right where the first group spawns. The Trandoshan Warrior is the mob that has the shield, and should be burned first. 3 groups of these adds will spawn, and they should be killed. NOTE: The Shield acts as a damage reflector. Think of it as Fearful from Toth/Zorn but in bubble form. If you hit any add that are inside the shield other than the Trandoshan Warrior, you risk killing yourself almost instantly. The first group should be dead before the second one spawns. As soon as the second (and 3rd) groups are up the OT should attack the warrior, keeping it in place while the other mobs run to the group because of heal aggro. The MT will pick them up here.

After the shielded enemies are all dead, another Baradium Bomber with the icon over his head will spawn, and players will need to repeat the previous steps of killing it and damaging the Warstrider Battlewalker. Once that is complete two new adds will spawn - champion Pulsar Power Droid. All players must stack inside of him. (Within the red hitbox circle under him.) If you do not, he will proceed to randomly railshot anybody, if 1 or more people are not stacked inside. While you are attacking one of them, the other will place a large purple circle under himself doing damage to anybody inside. After a few moments, an emote in red text will appear saying "The Pulsar Droids Are Reversing Their Circuits". This is the indication your raid needs to switch to the other droid. This cycle repeats until both are dead. NOTE: The railshot the droids are firing if someone isn't stacked inside of them hits for 15k+ and could hit anybody, even the stacked people.

Once they are down another Baradium Bomber will spawn, and shortly after Warlord Kephess will drop out of the Warstrider Battlewalker, whether or not it has been defeated. Players should continue to kill the Warstrider Battlwalker while they can, and then focus on Warlord Kephess. Periodically in Warlord Kephess's first phase, he will place large red circles on the ground, and then jump to the red circle doing massive damage. Players should avoid these at all costs. NOTE: As usual, the damage radius is about 150% the size of the reticule. At about 60% Warlord Kephess will pull everyone in and cast Gift of The Masters which is a massive purple AoE much like what the pulsar droids cast before. All raid members need to pop any speed boosts and immediately run to a designated spot. Have marauders/sentinels cast predation/transcendence.

After Kephess casts "Gift of the Masters" he will enter his final stage. Here he will cast purple circles under a tank, which must be placed on the ground away from the raid. Kephess will knock back the tank, and immediately after follow it up by casting "Breath of the Masters". The OT must taunt during this cast, and the MT will have a debuff that places purple circles under his feet. The Knockback also places "Touch of the Masters" on the tank in hardmode, and if the OT hasn't taunted by the time "Breath of the Masters" is finished, the MT will be hit for about 25k. After 10 - 15 seconds of this, Kephess will once again cast a knockback on the tank, and the original tank must taunt back during the "Breath of the Masters" attack. Repeat this until the boss is dead.

---

Strategies:
Positioning in this fight is key in some phases.During the Trandoshan Warrior phases, position your raid where the first set of these adds spawn, to avoid the Warstrider Battlewalkers ground aoe. Positioning is also critical during the Pulsar Droid phase, if even one person isn't stacked, you risk a random member getting hit by the railshot. In the final phase, the tanks should be trying to place the purple circles around the outside along the walls, and the tank that's tanking the boss needs to position himself to get knocked into a wall, so he doesn't get knocked out range of the off tank or the healers.

---

Tips:
- Tip1 - You can stun the Bombardiers right before their buff expires that causes them to explode - this delays the explosion.

---

Videos:
8m Melee Perspective:


8m Healer Perspective:

---

[iakona]

Video of our kill tonight of Warlord Kephess on 8-man hard mode:
http://www.twitch.tv/iakonaswtor/b/315250280




Raid comp: 1 Sentinel, 1 Sage healer, 1 Scoundrel healer, 1 Shadow tank in DPS gear, 1 Vanguard tank, 2 Commando DPS, 1 Gunslinger

[asagohan]

Another video from the perspective of a Gunnery Commando for Saints of the Old Republic from Helm of Graush

[Petrus]

Hardmode Boss Guide is updated, and should be completely accurate. Please let me know if anything was missed, or if anyone has a better way of doing something.

[Rakunvar]

Whats with the Empowered debuff he gets after the red circle? We had a few attempts it was perma-on him. And others where it dropped after one hit like it says. A bug or a problem on our end? Have video of it as well.

[Pwncakes]

You do not need to run out of his 50% giant purple reticle (unless this has been fixed). You just need everyone to be behind him and only the tank to be in front. After this he will knockback the MT and need to be picked up by the OT. At this time your MT will be kiting the purple reticles along the wall (debuff looks like force scream).

[Petrus]

(04-24-2012 05:02 PM)Pwncakes Wrote:  You do not need to run out of his 50% giant purple reticle (unless this has been fixed). You just need everyone to be behind him and only the tank to be in front. After this he will knockback the MT and need to be picked up by the OT. At this time your MT will be kiting the purple reticles along the wall (debuff looks like force scream).

The purple circle hits for 3k every .5 seconds, no matter where you are in it. It also comes at 60%.

[Pwncakes]

(04-24-2012 10:59 PM)Petrus Wrote:  

(04-24-2012 05:02 PM)Pwncakes Wrote:  You do not need to run out of his 50% giant purple reticle (unless this has been fixed). You just need everyone to be behind him and only the tank to be in front. After this he will knockback the MT and need to be picked up by the OT. At this time your MT will be kiting the purple reticles along the wall (debuff looks like force scream).

The purple circle hits for 3k every .5 seconds, no matter where you are in it. It also comes at 60%.

Will have to go look at 16m video again but the raid never took any dmg during this mechanic. Condemned also does it this way but I believe they took all their vids down as well. Will see if members were streaming/fraps and post a video.

*EDIT* Found Condmened vid until I can upload ours:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX5hJSR5y...re=related

As you can see it's either just a different mechanic from 8 /16 (which is what im thinking) or its broken.

[Petrus]

(04-24-2012 11:20 PM)Pwncakes Wrote:  Will have to go look at 16m video again but the raid never took any dmg during this mechanic. Condemned also does it this way but I believe they took all their vids down as well. Will see if members were streaming/fraps and post a video.

Condemned was doing 16m as well, correct? There are a plethora of mechanics in 16m that don't work right and make fights considerably easier/different. (And a few in reverse as well, such as Vorgath, that make them harder.)

Anyways, I can guarantee on 8m that if you're in the circle, you take damage. When he pulls you in we have people all around him and the first couple tries we just had people run to the edge (and many people were behind where he was facing.) Everyone still took damage.

[Pwncakes]

I'll talk to a couple people I know at Austin and see what's going on then I'll post what they send me back.

So couple scenarios regarding this mechanic:


Could be a different mechanic and they're saving the dmg tick for NiM?
Could be broken? (most plausible imo)
Could be a totally different mechanic? (doubtful)