Encounter: Warlord Kephess

Recommended Group Composition

• 2x Tanks
• 2x Healers
• 4x DPS

Notable Mechanics

• There are four phases, with a burn phase in between each phase.
• Boss is in a giant robot, immune and does damage to anyone underneath him until he is blown up with a bomb that is dropped from an add spawn.
• The bombs initiate a burn phase, which is top priority.
• While alive, the robot will consistently fire purple lasers at regions of the room – This hurts, don’t stand in it.
• When the boss jumps out of his robot in the last phase, he will drop AoE on the ground – avoid it.
• Gift of the Masters – Warlord Kephess will do a large purple circle AoE – run out of it.
• Breath of the Masters – After this goes off, OT should taunt. MT will begin dropping purple circles underneath him. This lasts until 4x purple circles have dropped.

Normal Strategy

• This fight has 4x phases and a burn phase.
• While the robot is alive, he will be targeting regions of the room and shooting purple lasers at that region. Don’t stand in this, as it hurts. Having a ranged DPS keep an eye on it and calling it out is optimal.
• Phase 1 – Kill the 3 champion mobs.
• Burn Phase – Burn the bombardier as quickly as possible (bomb icon over his head)
• He has a debuff timer until he explodes – You must kill him before this ends. Stun him within the last couple seconds to extend the explosion a bit if necessary.
• Once he is dead, a random person will gain a debuff that is displayed by that same bomb icon over their head. Top that person off, pop a shield on them and they should immediately run under the boss.
• They will automatically ascend up the robot and plant the bomb. Keep in mind, they are taking damage when under the boss – healers do not let them die.
• The bomb explodes, the robot drops to its knees and is vulnerable for about 10 seconds. Burn the hell out of it, healers included – all cooldowns. This is a phase you will repeat 3 times and burning the robot is your top priority, much like the Soa burn phase.
• Phase 2 – Adds will spawn with a shield around them.
• Single target burn the “Warrior” add – This is the one providing the shield.
• Once dead, AoE the remaining adds.
• This will happen a few times, just rinse, repeat. Once completed, another burn phase.
• Burn Phase – Repeat burn phase.
• Phase 3 – Two champion Pulse Droids will spawn at separate sides of the room.
• One at a time, they will have a very large purple circle around them. Don’t stand in this, and continue attacking the one that does NOT have the circle.
• Alternate DPS’ing the one that doesn’t have the circle and both will eventually die.
• While alive, each robot is attacking the operation and everyone will need to be topped off, as they hurt – Stacking will potentially help out the healers.
• The one without the purple circle will also each Rail Shot a random player outside of a 10-15m* range. This means that the entire group should stack on top of the droid while DPS’ing.
• When the red warning appears that the droids are changing polarity, the group should switch. Tanks should leap and no one should use speed boost (this can create unexpected Rail Shots).
• Once they’re both dead, Warlord Kephess will jump out of his robot and another Bombardier will spawn. Tank should pick the boss, but all DPS should be on the Bombardier for another burn phase.
• Burn Phase – Ignore the boss while the robot is alive and vulnerable – keep DPS’ing the robot.
• Phase 4 – After the last burn phase, the robot should be dead.
• The boss will randomly jump up into the air and throw down a red circle – avoid it.
• At about 60%, he will pull everyone in and cast “Gift of the Masters”, a very large AoE, displayed by a giant purple circle (much like the pulse droids) – Blow defensive/speed cooldowns and run out of it immediately.
• Kephess will do a knockback on the tank, then cast “Breath of the Masters”. The other tank should taunt immediately when he begins casting this.
• The main tank will shortly begin spawning small purple circles on him. He should run around the perimeter of the room, as to avoid having them dropped on the operation, until all 4 purple circles have spawned. Tanks should always stay in range of the boss to taunt on-demand.

Hard Mode Strategy

• Burn Phase – Stunning the bombers does not prolong them from exploding.
• Phase 2 – Single target and burn the Warrior add. If you AoE while the shield is up, it will reflect damage.
• Phase 4 – When Kephess casts “Breath of the Masters” on a tank, they will drop 5 purple circles instead of 4.
• Phase 4 – Tanks really need to be on their toes about being in position and taunting immediately when “Breath of the Masters” is being casted. It’s only about a 1.5s cast, so they’ll need to be quick. Failure to do so will result in a 1-shot.

Nightmare Mode Strategy

• Coming Soon.

5-second Recap

• Phase 1 – Kill adds.
• Burn phase – Kill Bombardier > person with bomb icon runs under giant robot > burn boss.
• Phase 2 – Kill warrior first, AoE remaining adds. Repeat a few times.
• Burn phase
• Phase 3 – Attack the pulse droid with no purple circle around him. Don’t stand in the purple, stack on the droid you’re attacking. Tank dip out a bit before the transition to eat the rail shot, then re-stack on group.
• Burn phase
• Kill Warlord Kephess – don’t stand in red or purple circles. Tank swap on “Breath of the Masters” – affected tank run around perimeter of the room to drop circles.

Items noted with * have still yet to be 100% confirmed as accurate.