Overview
This guide is meant to educatge you on the first seven bosses! Check it out!
Boss Strats Pt. 1
Below you will find each of the map end-bosses for Mytheon for the first seven maps. I will update this with the final seven maps at a later date. I have listed out each of the bosses abilities and how to defeat them. In general, each boss will require you to adjust your battle set and stones in order to face their specific mechanics. Remember that facing gods is always more difficult than the normal map bosses, but all of them can be a challenge, especially when facing them solo.
General Tips:
1) Do not be afraid to change up your battle set to face a specific boss. Each boss can have different mechanics and resistances that will make some of your stones more useful than others.
2) Bring friends. Most of the map bosses are balanced for a party, especially the gods. In past beta tests they have all been soloed, but if you want to face them on an even level, it’s much easier with a group.
3) If you want to solo a boss (especially a god), consider leaving them until you are a few levels higher than they are. New gear and the damage modifiers for out-leveling them can make the difference.
Echidna’s Swamp: Echidna
Echidna is fairly easy to kill even solo, but here’s a list of her abilities in case someone needs them.
Her basic attack is a melee claw attack. It’s pretty easy to heal through, and chances are your companions will soak this damage anyway.
Her second ability is Fetid Earth. She only uses this rarely, but it can be nasty. Fetid Earth creates a puddle on the ground that causes earth damage over time and slows movement speed. Keep away from her and it can be easily avoided.
Breath of Corruption is another AoE ability. It creates a cloud of poison gas that poisons anything in the area, causing poison damage over time for five seconds. This damage occurs even if you run out of the area, so it’s best to just not be there when it happens.
Echidna can summon minions at 90% and 45% health. The first time she will summon three broodlings, the second time two Daughters of Echidna. As with any boss with adds, save at least one AoE stone for these stages.
Temple of Athena: Medusa
Medusa’s primary attack is her bow. On a critical hit, her arrow transforms into a Fanged Viper after it does its damage, adding to the mayhem. You will see a message that says “Medusa’s arrow comes to life!” when this happens.
Her secondary attack is a tail swipe, with hits everything within melee range. The damage is fairly minor, but you likely should try to keep at range if possible anyway.
Medusa can periodically gaze and turn someone to stone. This can happen to avatars or summoned companions (basically, whoever has agro). This doesn’t do any damage; however, if medusa hits the target with an arrow while it is stoned, she will instantly shatter (kill) that target. Fortunately, the shatter does not affect avatars.
Medusa periodically can use Demoralizing Shriek. This reduces the critical hit chance of anyone in range by 25%. Since at this level you generally only have a 5-10% chance to crit, you won’t be critting at all if you are under this effect.
At 50% health, Medusa summons three Metamorphosed Soldiers to help her out. It’s best to save your AoE spells and effects until this stage.
In general, it’s best to tank Medusa with as many companions and structures as possible. Even if she decides to fire arrows at you, it’s better to be out of the way of the tail swipe, shriek and soldiers when they spawn. Focus Medusa with single target spells when possible, saving AoE for the soldier spawn.
War Forge: Hephaestus
Hephaestus is the first god you will face, and he sets the tone for the rest: brutal. When facing any god, it’s best to bring a full group or be several levels above him before trying it. Always try to face gods at an equal or greater level whether you are facing them in a group or not. He is completely immune to fire damage, so bring other elements or base physical damage to the fight.
Hephaestus’ main weapon is his hammer and he uses is to great effect. It’s a single-target ability, so whoever has agro is going to get smacked. A critical hit with the hammer will cause massive damage, and it will instantly dispel any structure it hits. You will know when he crits when you see the screen shake.
Hephaestus can use Forge Flames periodically. This creates an AoE burst of flames around him, causing initial fire damage and a fire DoT afterwards. He can use this every 15 seconds or so; keep out of range or bring gear that has fire resistance.
At 50% health, Hephaestus will summon a forge structure. While this forge is up, Hephaestus is completely immune to damage; all party members must immediately switch targets to the forge.
While it is active, the forge will summon animated weapons periodically to add to the chaos. One person should keep Hephaestus busy while the others burn down the forge and adds.
At 25% health, Hephaestus goes into a rage, granting him a massive damage bonus. He stays enraged for 8 seconds, which is likely longer than the rest of the fight will take. Burn every cooldown and stone you have at this point to take him out before he one-shots everyone.
Stygian Abyss: Cerberus
First rule of Cerberus: stay to the sides or behind Cerberus. Second rule of Cerberus: bring a lot of companion stones. The best way to beat Cerberus is to swarm him.
His default attack is a three head bite. This does a small AoE of damage in front of him. Staying to the sides or behind will pretty much negate this damage unless you have agro.
His second ability is Petrifying Howl. Again, staying away from him will avoid this entirely.
Companions hit by this will be stunned for 2 seconds. Avatars hit by this will take the stun and additionally be locked out of stone casting for an additional 5 seconds.
Periodically Cerberus can breathe out a fireball ranged attack, which causes fire damage in an area around the target. This is considered a spell, so anything will spell immunity will take no damage (and it will also be blocked or interrupted by stones that block spell casting). This is fire damage, so fire resistance will of course reduce damage.
His final ability is Armor Melt. This ability causes a debuff to anything within a radius around Cerberus. If you are hit by this debuff, you take double damage from all fire damage effects. This will pretty much guarantee that his fireball will destroy you. Just stay away from him to avoid the debuff, or use spells like Cleansing Fire to remove it.
Like Hephaestus, Cerberus will enrage at 25% health. Also like Hephaestus, spend all your cooldowns and stones to burn him down when this occurs.
Colchis: Enyalios
General Enyalios is a fairly straightforward boss that requires timing and tactics switching to defeat. He has a series of buffs and debuffs that he uses to protect himself, so you will need to change your tactics and damage types to match. If you can manage this, it should be an easy fight.
His base attack is with his sword. He can critical hit with the weapon but he has no special procs other than increased damage.
His first buff is Commander’s Shout (the text will say “Enyalios’s Cry encourages his allies!”). While this buff is active, Enyalios and any non-structure mob around him will receive both a damage and critical hit bonus. For this reason it’s critical to clear out any mobs near his spawn position before engaging Enyalios himself. During the fight, just avoid getting agro and let your stones soak the damage. You can also dispel the buff if you have the right stones.
His second buff is his Elemental Reflection (the text will say “Enyalios shields himself from the elements!”). When you see this DO NOT use any element-based stones on him. Any elemental damage will be reflected back at you. Physical-type damage or neutral damage will work fine.
His third buff is similar to Elemental Reflection but worse: Hunger for Battle (the text will say “Enyalios taunts his enemies closer!”). When you see this, halt all PHYSICAL MELEE damage (ranged physical damage is fine). Any melee physical damage that Enyalios takes while under this buff will heal him by quite a bit.
Enyalios can only use Elemental Reflection and Hunger for Battle twice, but can use Commander’s Shout any time it’s off cooldown. As long as you remember to switch out your damage types when the buffs occur, it should be easy to keep the damage going and burn him down.
Artemis’ Grove: Artemis
Artemis is the second god to confront in Mytheon, and she makes Hephaestus look like Echidna. It is STRONGLY recommended that you bring a full group and maybe even out-level her by a level or two. DO NOT try her if you are below her level (20) or you will be very frustrated. As with any boss, clear out the other mobs or structures before you pull her. Some of them are very close to her, so be careful not to accidently agro her and cause a wipe.
Artemis’ primary ability is her bow attack. It is fairly damaging but single target. On a critical hit, the shot will immobilize the target for 5 seconds (only movement is affected).
Her second attack ability is Moonlight Volley. This is a target AoE attack – a volley of moonlight arrows will blanket the area around her agro target. Try not to be near anyone who has agro (companion or avatar). The damage is pretty high, so avoiding it altogether is the best bet.
Her third attack is Triple Shot. She basically fires like an Arrow Volley Tower with three arrow shots. The first one stuns the target for 5 seconds, so you WILL take all three. Not much you can do except heal through it or avoid agro.
Periodically she will apply the Hunter’s Prey debuff on a target (text will say “Artemis marks her prey!”). Anyone with this debuff will take 50% additional damage from all sources. If you get this debuff either lose agro very quickly or dispel it using an appropriate stone. You do not want this effect on you and then take a Triple Shot to the face.
At 90% health and beyond, Artemis can summon a Hunter’s Lure. She can only do this three times. Hunter’s Lures are structures that taunt all companions and structures. After 10 seconds they explode for fairly high damage. Try to keep your stones focused on Artemis (select them, move them away from the lure and then back onto Artemis), and keep your distance from the Lure.
At 50% health, Artemis will use her Thrill of the Hunt ability (text says “Artemis is fueled by the hunt!”). This is a massive defense buff that makes her invulnerable to ranged and melee physical damage from all avatars and companions. In addition, it increases her movement speed and heals her slightly. She can only use this ability once. When this happens, switch to elemental attacks OR structures (structure physical damage is not blocked).
Spartan Battlegrounds: Nemesis
Nemesis is the next god on the road to Olympus. Nemesis (unlike her avatar merge combo) is a melee fighter with several buffs and add summons. As gods go, she is a fairly straightforward fight as long as you keep up your healing and control your agro.
Her primary attack is with her sword and it hits pretty hard. What you really have to watch out for is her critical hit proc, Execution. This proc will only affect targets that are affected by her Bleed Strike ability (see below). If you have bleed strike and are hit by Execute, it will likely kill you outright. If not, you will be blocked from casting any stones for five seconds, but it immediately removes the Bleed Strike effect. If you are critically hit and are not under the effects of Bleed Strike, then you will just take the usual crit damage.
Bleed Strike, as its name suggests, makes you bleed, taking physical damage over time. The effect can be cleansed by the usual stones and you will want to cleanse it if you have agro so you don’t run the risk of being Executed. The damage per tick isn’t that high at this level, but it lasts for 15 seconds and can become a drain with all the other damage going on. Bleed also increases the effects of Nemesis’ third ability, Vengeful Strikes, if the above wasn’t enough reason to cleanse the debuff.
Vengeful Strikes is basically a whirlwind strike ability that damages all targets in an area around her. Staying out of range will prevent this from damaging you. This ability does double damage to anyone with Bleed Strike active, but will remove the Bleed Strike effect from the target.
Call of Vengeance is a debuff that is applied in an area around Nemesis (the test reads “Nemesis calls for Vengeance!”). The debuff reduces all damage output by 25% and critical hit chance by 20% for 15 seconds. While not devastating, this applies to ALL damage output, so if your group and summoned objects all get hit by it, you might have a problem burning her down before she kills you.
At 75% health Nemesis will summon zombie versions of the Traitorous Swordsmen found in other parts of the Spartan Battlegrounds. The zombies aren’t that dangerous by themselves but there are five of them. Kill them quickly as you don’t want them still on the field when the hounds show up.
At 50% health Nemesis will summon two Hounds of Nemesis. These hounds are stonecasters in their own right, so it is best to burn them down as quickly as possible before the battlefield gets really crowded.
If you can keep the Bleed and Call debuffs from piling up, stay out of the AoEs and handle the adds, this should be a fairly simple straight-up tank and spank. Nemesis has no special resistances, so feel free to unload on her with any damaging stones you have available. Physical damage resistances are especially useful here.
Isle of Oblivion: Hecate
The next god on the checklist of death, Hecate is the master of the elements, and was once the patron goddess of the Elementalist class. As such, your mastery of the elements is key to defeating her. Hecate has a huge list of abilities and stances she switches between periodically.
In order to beat her you must carefully track her stance and switch out companions and structures to minimize damage to your stones and avatars. She will also summon adds with each stance change, so you need to be able to deal with instant mob swarms. Be especially careful of her starting location platform; she will spawn immediately after the last object in her location has been killed, so don’t kill that last tower/mob until you are ready to fight her.
Hecate’s default primary weapon is a staff that does Destruction damage. The spiritual damage aspects of Creation and Destruction are not available to players except in very rare stones, so the only counter to them currently is Avatar Defense pips. Keep agro off of the players to avoid this damage altogether.
Prismatic Healing is an ability that EVERYONE must keep an eye out for (the text will read “Hecate becomes one with the elements!”). While under this effect (which lasts 10 seconds), any elemental damage applied to her will heal her instead. Move or dismiss any companions and structures with elemental damage and concentrate on physical damage.
Suffocating Shadows is a debuff ability that she can use any time during the fight. It causes destruction damage over time to all targets in the area, reduces all of your outgoing damage by 50% and your move speed by 50%. Cleanse this as soon as possible (AoE cleansing structures are recommended).
At 90% health Hecate will summon a group of mixed Air, Frost and Fire Nymphs. Ignore Hecate and the burn down the nymphs. Damaging Hecate at this stage might cause her to switch aspects and spawn more mobs (see below) so be sure to refocus your stones.
At 80% health and each 20% after that, Hecate will take on an elemental aspect (the text will read “Hecate shifts to an X aspect” where X is the element). The order is Water, Air, Earth, Fire.
When she does this a few things happen. First, she will summon a set of 5 elementals of the aspect she takes on. Second, her staff damage will change to the aspect elemental damage type. Fortunately she does not gain any special immunities with the aspects. Keep your elemental damage RPS in mind when you fight the nymphs and summon new structures and companions. While their damage won’t be modified, the damage they take from her attacks will be.
Other than her summons, Hecate has no AoE attacks. Watching your elemental damage and dealing with adds are the primary concerns. As long as you can keep the DPS constant and remember to switch damage types as needed, it should be a fairly easy fight.
Tartarus: The Titans
Tartarus brings you face to face with three of the captured titans who were imprisoned after Zeus took over as king of the gods. This fight is almost impossible to solo unless you are REALLY good at micromanaging your companions, and even then it is unlikely, primarily because of their unique mechanic. If you do want to attempt soloing this fight, I would suggest gaining level 30 and good gear first. It should be noted that all of the titans are water-based creatures, so stack earth damage for this fight.
The barrier to soloing is that each of the titans: Briareus the Vigorous, Cottus the Furious and Gyges the Gargantuan, have a unique aura effect that stacks. In order to prevent these auras from making your life very difficult, you need to keep the three titans away from each other. Separately, each titan is fairly easy to deal with. Stacked up, they will make short work of most stones and avatars. Assign a player to each titan and pull them as far apart as possible in the large circular chamber. Their auras cannot be dispelled or interrupted so pulling them apart is the only way to get through this.
Briareus’ aura is the Aura of the Vigorous. This aura grants Briareus and all allies near him (this includes the titans and any friendly mobs in the area but not structures) an instant bonus of 2000 max health and a constant health regeneration effect. Your players with the highest DPS output should handle Briareus.
Briareus’ main attack is a range ice bolt wand that hits for water damage. It is actually fairly light damage for this level range. Briareus also has an ability called “Cold Day in Hades” which is a targeted AoE debuff. All objects in the area are frozen solid for 8 seconds. Companions hit by any damage while frozen will instantly shatter and die (players cannot be shattered).
Cottus’ aura is the Aura of the Furious. This aura grants Cottus and all allies a 40% increase in damage output and a 40% increased chance to critical hit. Again, having this stacking with the other titans is BAD. Put your player with the best defensive ability in charge of Cottus.
Cottus’ main attack is with his melee weapon for water damage and it hits harder than the other two titans. His special attack is Furious Strike, which is a water-based whirlwind attack that damages everything in a radius around him for crazy damage. Stacking earth stones and water resistance will mitigate this, but it’s best to let companions tank Cottus if possible.
Gyges’ aura is “Aura of the Gargantuan”. This aura is defensive – it reduces damage by 30% for himself and all allies around him. His primary attack is an AoE burst around him of water damage. The damage is average – higher than Briareus, lower than Cottus. Put the two remaining players on Gyges – the additional DPS will be needed to burn through his damage reduction. Players on Gyges need to be aware of his special ability and be able to halt damage where appropriate.
Gyges’ special ability is Gargantuan Defense. This is a buff he adds to himself that lasts for 10 seconds. While this buff is active, ALL incoming damage is reflected back at the attacker. You will know he does this when you see the words “Gyges takes a defensive stance!” When this happens, halt as much damage as possible. If you are using taunting companions or structures its fine to leave them up as long as you are aware that they will be taking additional damage.
All that said, each individual titan is not that hard a fight. It’s only if you let them bunch of that you will have problems. If you are using one of your team as floating DPS, it is suggested to kill Cottus first, then Gyges and Briareus last. The healing of Briareus’ aura is not sufficient to really be an issue unless stacked with everything else.
Shattered Isle: Poseidon
Poseidon is the first of the brothers that make up the three most powerful gods (the others being Hades and Zeus). As should be obvious, Poseidon is a water-based mob so bring plenty of earth-based stones. However, Poseidon is also the god of earthquakes, so at times a more neutral damage type will be warranted. As with any god fight, soloing will be tricky. Since Poseidon is level 30, you can really out-level him, so only good stones, good gear and good skills will prevail.
Poseidon’s main attack is with his trident that does physical melee damage. He has a critical hit proc which causes a bleeding puncture wound (damage over time) and immobilizes the target (movement is blocked but you can still attack and cast stones). The immobilize effect can be cleansed.
Poseidon has two abilities he can use throughout the fight. The first is Earth Shatter (remember, god of earthquakes!) Earth Shatter does earth damage in an AoE and stuns all targets for 5 seconds. Any structures caught in the area are instantly dispelled. This means that companion-based taunts are a better way to go for this fight, though structures that have quick time-outs with effects can be effective. In addition, Earth Shatter has no effect on flying companions.
His second constant ability is Oceanic Wake. This one does a huge amount of water damage in an area around Poseidon. You do NOT want to be hit by this, as it will do a third to half of your health in damage (depending on gear and class).
At 75% health, Poseidon will cast Equestrian Storm (Poseidon is also the god of horses for some reason) which summons three Coraline Stallions to the field. These are relatively easy to kill but players should switch DPS to the stallions and refrain from damaging Poseidon too much to prevent stacking summons from his next ability.
At 50% health Poseidon will a swarm of 10 Barnacled Crabs and one King Sentinel crab. Throw out all of your AoEs to burn these down quickly then resume DPS on Poseidon. Again, you want to make sure all of the adds are dead before Poseidon hits 25% health because…
At 25% health, Poseidon casts Elemental Tide, which summons five Sea Elementals. At this point, AoE that hits both elementals and Poseidon is fine.
As long as you can heal through Poseidon’s AoEs and can burn down the adds, a group should be able to handle Poseidon easily enough.
Dominion of Hades: Hades and Persephone
The second of the ruling god brothers, Hades is paired with his wife Persephone. This is a tricky fight; the best way to do it is to make sure both of them die at roughly the same time. Otherwise you run the risk of them performing truly evil acts when they realize you’ve killed their spouse. This is the final instance for soloable content (at least in theory). As with the titans in Tartarus, soloing this fight is tricky due to the mechanics, but it has been done. As with the titans, you will need to keep Hades and Persephone as far apart as possible because they have symbiotic abilities. Persephone will heal Hades if he is in range, and Hades will gain buffs if you damage Persephone too much.
Persephone’s main weapon is her ability to throw bolts of pure creation energy (the second of the spiritual damage types first encountered with Hecate). As with destruction damage, it can only be mitigated by avatar defense points or some very rare stones.
In addition to her ranged weapon, Persephone is also surrounded by an aura of creation energy.
This will cause constant damage over time to anything around her. This effect is magnified for undead targets, which take 5x the damage and have their damage reduced while in the aura. For this reason, undead companions are a bad choice for this fight. This also comes into play when combined with one of Hades’ abilities (see below).
Periodically Persephone can cast Fallow Earth as a targeted AoE spell. All avatars caught in Fallow Earth lose the ability to cast stones for 8 seconds. Additionally, all structures caught in the effect will be instantly dispelled.
When Persephone is reduced to 50% health, it greatly irritates Hades, granting him the Rage of Hades buff. This grants Hades a 50% boost to his damage and a 20% boost to his critical hit chance. This buff cannot be dispelled, so you may want to switch DPS to Hades before you get Persephone to this point.
When Persephone reaches 20% health she will get desperate, creating a damage shield around herself (the text reads “Persephone surrounds herself in life energy!”) This buff lasts until she dies. All incoming damage of any type will inflict creation damage back on the attacker, as well as draining 10 mana per attack. At this stage use companions and structures to burn her down, do not use your own weapons, abilities or spell stones.
Hades is the true powerhouse of the pair. His main attack is his giant two handed sword which does destruction damage to balance Persephone’s creation. On a critical hit, his sword creates an AoE burst of destruction damage around the target. This is a lot of damage in general, but anything that is undead will be obliterated.
Hades’ next ability is soul consumption. This ability inflicts a damage-over-time that drains mana instead of health. This effect lasts for 30 seconds and absolutely can and should be cleansed as soon as possible.
Remember all those abilities Hades has to destroy undead? His next ability is called Wrath of Hades (the text will read “Hades calls forth the chill of undeath!”) This ability does only minor damage, but for the next 10 seconds, the target is considered undead for all spell effects. Hades’ critical hit proc and Soul Consumption can one-shot the target if they are tagged with this debuff. It should be cleansed as soon as possible.
At 50% Hades calls forth his faithful hound to fight at his side. You know him as the boss from the Stygian Abyss – Cerberus. Cerberus has all the same abilities as his previous incarnation, but updated to level 30 power level. In addition, he gains the passive ability “Humanoid Killer – High” which means he does double damage to all humanoid companions. Keep a tank on Hades and burn down Cerberus as fast as possible. If possible, keep him as far away from Hades and Persephone, since she will heal Cerberus too if she gets close enough.
At 20% health, Hades casts “Hades’ Last Stand”. This buff grants him 30% increased damage but he will take 20% increased damage as well.
It is suggested that you bring both Hades and Persephone to about 25% at the same time before killing either of them. Once you have them at that level, burn Hades down as quickly as possible before switching to Persephone. Make sure to keep them apart at all times and try to keep enough space so they don’t overlap AoE attacks. When Cerberus spawns, pull him to a third location out of range from the two gods.
Temple of War: Ares
Temple of War: Ares
Ares is the god of war, and as such you won’t just be fighting Ares, you will be fighting his army. Ares lies in the center of his huge arena, and leaving the arena will reset the encounter, so be careful where you run. There are two stair cases inside the arena; each of these has two spawn locations at the top that will spawn health and mana orbs. These spawn on a timer, so be sure you need them before you pick them up. There are no health or mana shrines in this instance, so the orbs are your only recovery method outside of what you bring with you.
In order to fight Ares, you should get familiar with the layout of the battle. Ares begins in the center and is surrounded by four powerful Arrow Volley Towers: The Bombardier Tower, the Icebound Tower, the Impaling Tower and the Savage Tower. Each of these towers has a unique damage ability and also exudes an aura which buffs Ares (and only Ares). While the towers are up, Ares enjoys a tremendous amount of power. The basic idea is to keep Ares occupied while destroying the towers to remove his protection. Of course, it’s never that easy. Each time a tower is destroyed, Ares will summon a group of mobs. In addition, the arena is small enough that all four of the towers can generally hit you at once unless you stick to the extreme sides of the fight area. I’ll cover the four towers first before going into Ares himself.
Bombardier Tower:
This tower causes AoE fire damage with each shot. The damage is fairly minimal but it will leave a fire DoT on the target when it hits. The tower’s aura grants Ares 75% resistance to fire, earth and air damage and increased move speed.
When the tower dies, it will spawn a horde of minotaurs:
• 3 Bloodhorn Warlords – Melee Physical , Stonecaster, can cast Demolishing Earthquake and Meteor Storm.
• 3 Bloodhorn Sentinels – Melee Physical, on crit will roar and stun enemies around it.
• 3 Bloodhorn Berserkers – Melee Physical, Causes bleeding DoT if it crits
• 3 Bloodhorn Commanders – Ranged Earth, has aura that increases crit chance and move speed of all allies around it.
Suggested kill order: Warlord, Sentinel, Commander, Berserker (assuming you don’t AoE them down).
Icebound Tower:
This tower causes single-target water damage. On a critical hit the tower will slow the target’s movement speed by 75%. The tower’s aura grants Ares 75% resistance to Water, Creation and Destruction damage. When the tower dies, it will spawn a horde of frost creatures:
• 3 Fleshrippers – Melee Physical, flying beast, air-type, no special abilities.
• 3 Icebound Champions – Melee Physical, water-type, Stonecaster; can cast Spiritual Armor, Ice Missile Barrage and Hail Storm.
• 3 Icebound Maenads – Physical Melee, water-type; on crit causes a burst of additional water damage.
• 3 Icebound Gorgons – Ranged water damage, on crit freezes target in place for 5 seconds.
Suggested kill order: Champion, Gorgon, Maenad, Fleshripper.
Impaling Tower:
This tower causes single target ranged physical damage. It has no critical hit proc and is the least damaging tower of the four. It’s aura makes up for it: it grants Ares 75% resistance to all ranged physical damage and gives him a damage shield – any time Ares is hit by melee he causes damage back to the attacker. This damage shield stacks with his innate one. When the tower dies, it will spawn a horde of warrior slaves:
• 3 Frenzied War Dogs – Melee physical beast-type; the dogs are immune to taunt.
• 3 Enslaved Champions – Melee physical stonecaster; can cast Enrage, War Cry, Giant Growth and Flame Lick.
• 3 Enslaved Gladiators – Melee physical defender. No special abilities.
• 3 Enslaved Bowmen – Ranged physical. No special abilities.
Suggested kill order: Champion, War Dog, Gladiator, Bowman.
Savage Tower:
This tower causes single-target earth damage. On a crit it stuns the target for 5 seconds. Again, the damage is fairly weak, but the aura is strong: it grants Ares 75% resistance to all melee physical damage and heals him for 100 health every 5 seconds. When the tower dies it will spawn a horde of centaurs:
• 3 Savage Champions – Melee Physical stonecaster; can cast Crushing Winds and Blinding Flash. No special attack abilities.
• 4 Savage Chargers – Melee physical humanoid. On crit the hit casts a fireball on the target that damages an area and puts a fire DoT on all targets.
• 2 Savage Wardrummers – Defender humanoid-type. Has no damaging ability but his drums create an aura that boosts all allies crit probability by 15% and heals allies over time.
Suggested kill order: Wardrummers, Champions, Chargers.
Which order you take out the towers will depend on your group composition. The Bombadier and Icebound towers will generally prevent Elementalist and Eidolons from doing much to Ares, while the Impaling and Savage towers will render most Warcasters powerless. A suggested order would be Impaling and Savage first, then move your warcaster(s) to Ares and have the others take out the Bombadier and Icebound towers (in that order). However, feel free to act as you see fit to be as efficient as you can with the groups of adds. It is highly recommended not to take out more than one tower at a time; be methodical and destroy a tower, then its adds, then move to the next. Try to tank Ares as far away from the tower you are targeting as possible so that he doesn’t get buffs from the adds in addition to the tower auras.
Temple of War: Ares Pt.2
Facing Ares:
As with the other gods, Ares has a lot of abilities in addition to all the buffs from the tower auras. He has an innate fire damage shield that will hit anyone who enters melee combat with him, so it is best to use ranged and taunting structures when possible unless you have high fire resistance.
Ares attacks with his sword and he hits hard. If he crits, he does an AoE burst of damage around the target. This is bad enough, but if the target is under the effect of the Ares’ Glory effect (see below), the AoE radius and damage are increased.
At 95% health, Ares will begin using three abilities. The first is Glory of Battle (text will read “Ares invites you to share the glory of battle!”). This is an AoE buff that grants EVERYONE near Ares (himself, companions and players) a 50% boost to melee physical damage for 10 seconds. This ability is good and bad. It increases your damage all around, but it also increases damage for any enemy in the area. And if you are influenced by this buff when he crits you with his sword attack, you will get destroyed. Use it at your discretion.
The second ability is Crippling Presence (text will read “Ares’ mere presence cripples you!”). This is a point-blank AoE attack that initially stuns all targets for 5 seconds and slows your movement by 50% for 15 seconds. This has a fairly small AoE, so staying away from him should avoid it altogether (just be sure to keep the tank healed if you are using one).
The third of the initial abilities is Spear of Destruction. Ares will lob a spear at one of your structures that will instantly destroy it. While annoying, this is the least dangerous of his abilities since it can ONLY hit structures.
At 75%, Ares gains a new ability: Crippling Spear. This spear is used on players only, so whoever currently has Ares’ agro will likely eat it. The spear does initial damage and causes a bleeding wound that does physical damage over time. In addition, it slows movement speed by 75% for 8 seconds. The DoT and the Slow can be cleansed, but if it’s the tank being hit it may not be worth it since the DoT is light damage and he likely isn’t moving much anyway.
Also at 75%, Ares hits his first berserk stage. You will know it happens when you see “Ares is just warming up!” This only happens once, but it stacks with all of his other buffs and it cannot be dispelled. Ares gains 25% damage boost to all abilities while this is active. In addition, it performs a one-time cleanse on him, clearing off any effects you might have cast on him. This buff lasts until his death.
At 50% Ares gains his second berserk stage, Rage of War. You will know it happens when you see “Ares rages in fury!” This effect is identical to his “warming up” buff and cleanse, and stacks – so he will now have a 50% damage boost.
At 25%…you guessed it…Ares gains his third and final berserk stage, Bloodlust. It is identical to the first two buffs and cleanse, and brings his damage boost up to a 75% bonus.
And it gets worse! Also at 25% chance, Ares casts Warrior’s Challenge. This single-use ability destroys all companions in the arena (structures are not affected) and blocks all further stonecasting of any type for 10 seconds. During this time, you will need to use your own weapons and abilities (in addition to whatever structures you had on the field at the time) all while facing a triple-buffed Ares. If you didn’t clear out the towers and mobs before this occurs, you will likely wipe. Note that cleansing consumables WILL clear this effect, but those are very rare.
So the “simple” plan is this – try to keep Ares occupied but damage him as little as possible while the towers and mobs are up. Once the adds are cleared, DPS Ares as quickly as possible sticking mostly to elemental and ranged types where possible. Save your damaging structures until just before he hits 25% health so that you can have some extra DPS for those 10 seconds where stones are locked out. If you have a high physical resist warcaster handy, have him tank in melee range to absorb the spears and melee hits – you will likely need someone on healing watch for him.
As a final note, Ares can drop the parts of one of the god armor sets and a set of god weapons. These are items that are only available from Ares and Zeus. Note that each of these gods drops different pieces of different sets, so you will have to destroy both of them, likely multiple times, to get all of the pieces for the set you want. There are two sets and two weapons for each class (both armor sets for a class are identical with only the look being different).
Mount Olympus: Zeus (and family)
Mount Olympus is even more solo-unfriendly than the Temple of War, primarily because all of the sub-bosses come in groups. The four winds and Hesperides encounters contain multiple mobs that are very difficult to fight alone without some amazing stone skills. It’s been done, but not easily.
As with Temple of War, there are no healing or mana shrines available on the map. Near the checkpoint are two health orb spawners that are on a timer. Note that the gods of Olympus DO NOT LEASH, so if your group is down to one man, do NOT run back to the rest of your group dragging gods behind you. Have the grace to die with the rest so you can regroup refreshed. This does mean, however, that in a pinch you can leave the fight area, grab the orbs and run back to the fight (assuming your party can survive your absence). Health and mana conservation are keys to the fight here – bring every consumable and stone you have to keep your health and mana topped off.
The Olympus fight is staged in three tiers (literally three platforms you climb to reach Zeus’ throne). On each tier, you will fight the gods you faced before in other maps, but at their full Olympian (level 34) strength. All of the abilities the gods use are exactly the same as their previous versions, just magnified in damage – the same strats should work and some fights are actually easier since they are missing their companion mobs (see below). Each tier will spawn once you complete the previous one so you don’t have to worry about agroing multiple tiers of gods at once. However, there are other mobs on the stairs which could potentially get involved without careful pulling.
The first platform contains Hephaestus along with a Golden Automaton and an Olympian Eagle. Hephaestus is identical to his War Forge version with the level increase, so defeat him as you did before.
The stairs split up the left and right sides of the first tier to reach the second. There are Golden Automatons on the left side and Olympian Eagles on the right that should be cleared before reaching the second set of gods – the sibling team of Ares and Artemis. Ares is pretty much identical to his Temple of War presence (though thankfully missing his towers and mob spawns) and Artemis is a higher level version of her Grove version. As before, follow the original strats to defeat these two. If you think your team can handle it, split your team into pairs and fight both gods at once at the bottom of the stairs up to the top tier.
Once the siblings have been dealt with, the third tier activates. Clear out the Golden Automatons on the stairs, hopefully without agroing the brothers up top: Poseidon and Hades. You must face these two gods together. Poseidon is the same; the only change to Hades is that instead of Cerberus he will summon the three Furies from his Dominion map. Be prepared: when both Poseidon and Hades die, Zeus will immediately spawn from his throne, along with two Storm Tower structures. Again, if your team can handle it, pull the brothers down to tier two, one god on either side. This will prevent their abilities from stacking up and causing a lot of pain. In addition, it will keep you out of Zeus’ agro range when he spawns, giving you a breather before facing the king.
The two storm towers are a nuisance and should be destroyed as soon as possible; they fire bolts of electricity and also slow movement speed by 75%, making avoiding Zeus an issue.
Zeus is aligned to the air element, so fire stones will do increased damage to him. Using air stones is pointless, so plan accordingly. His primary weapon is his staff, which does physical melee damage. However, its crit proc is to be avoided – in addition to the damage, it reduces all air resistance by 50%, which means that his abilities will hit even more like a truck than they already do.
His second (and obvious) attack ability is Lightning Bolt, a single-target ranged air attack. It has no special effects but hits hard, and will come close to killing you if you have the crit proc debuff on you.
Zeus can periodically buff himself with Olympian Supremacy (text says “Zeus exerts his supremacy!”) This buff reduces all incoming damage for him by 50% for 20 seconds. This is not cleansable so you just have to burn through it.
His next ability is Thunderstrike, a ranged target AoE effect. The target object and all objects surrounding the target take a whole lot of air damage. Any structures or companions in the area of effect are instantly dismissed. Obviously the devs are AC/DC fans – the text reads: “You’ve been…THUNDERSTRUCK!”
Olympian Storm is another target-AoE ranged ability. This one causes both health and mana damage over time for 5 seconds. It is cleansable, so unless you want your mana supply to be zero for 5 seconds, it should be cleansed immediately (suggest using an AoE cleansing structure or spell, but Thunderstrike might make the structures unreliable). Text reads “Zeus has summoned an Olympian Storm!”
At 25% Zeus can begin using Defense of the Aegis (text reads “Zeus is shielded by the Aegis.”) This buff makes Zeus completely immune to all elemental damage for 10 seconds. Physical damage as well as the rare spiritual damage types (Creation/Destruction) will still damage him. Hopefully, however, Zeus will only have time to use this once before you finish him off.
Zeus is basically a damage machine. He doesn’t really have any tricky abilities (relying on his lesser gods to protect him). If you stack fire stones and air resist, you should be able to take him out – GETTING to him is likely more dangerous than killing him. His two protection buffs are annoying, but being smart and reserving your mana until the buffs wear off will see you through.
And that’s it! Good luck collecting stones and the armor of the gods, and have fun!