This time, we tackle the second boss of the Valley of the Spirit, namely Gorseval. You should know that it requires more damage than the Guardian of the Valley. Prepare yourself well!
Preparing for the fight
As with every raid boss, you will need a team that responds to the different mechanics of this one. There is no magic composition but you will need certain pre-requisites:
- Chronomancer, useful for the speed and euphoria granted to the raid. This class can act as a tank if it takes some Toughness jewels.
- Druid, it must be said it is for the moment the best class for the care.
- Berserker, they will be useful for the phases of charged spirits where they can control these so that they do not reach Gorseval.
- Cataclyste / Mechatronics engineer, used for their attacks in area (combos) and the cleaning of the orbs during certain phases.
For this fight, each player will have to have mastery "Ascending Current"otherwise the player will not be able to survive the inter-phases. In addition, it will be necessary assign 3 players with control at charged minds. These are only sensitive to 3 types of controls: freezing, infirmity and immobilization.
Finally, updrafts are limited to 4 for the whole fight. With each use, it disappears. You will therefore have to choose which current to use for each phase. These currents are arranged in the North-West, North-East, South-West and South-East.
Fight against Gorseval
The boss is broken down into 3 distinct phases with two similar interphases. Gorseval enraged after 7 min granting him a 200% damage bonus. The fight begins as soon as someone hires the boss, so wait until everyone is on the platform to save a few precious seconds.
Boss mechanics
Throughout the fight, Gorseval follows the same attack pattern:
Cleave / Channeled Strike -> Zone Attack -> Spirits -> Consumption of worlds -> Cleave / Channeled Strike -> etc.
- Cleave/Frappe
- Zone Attack
- Spirits
- Consumption of the worlds
- orbs
- Prison
Gorseval a two basic attacks : A cleave (cone attack in front of him) and a channeled strike. This alternates attacks as follows:
Cleave -> Hit -> Cleave *2 -> Hit
The cleave is fairly easy to avoid as this attack only hits players in front of Gorseval. To avoid it, players will need to stand behind his back. For the tank, he will have to try as much as possible to put the boss back to the raid.
Concerning channeled strike, Gorseval raise his left arm before this attack. To avoid it, you can either dodge it with the corresponding key or move away from the boss.
For this attack, Gorseval will place in the center of the arena and will get a defiance bar. Of black areas cover the arena: if you stay inside, you will take great damage as well as 25 vulnerability penalties.
During the first phase, being in melee with the boss is "safe" because the first two black zones will be at a distance. You must know that Gorseval also wins retaliation so it will return damage to you until its defiance bar drops to 0.
As soon as the defiance bar is destroyed, 4 monsters will appear (2 types possible). Wrathful Spirits have a spell to rob you of your advantages, while enraged Spirits will inflict infirmity on you. Moreover, if there are no not controlled correctly, they you will attract to them causing you to lose damage.
Typically, the best strategy is to center the monsters at a point thanks to skills like the # 4 of the mesmer's focus or the # 5 of the revenant's ax.
If the monsters don't fall fast enough, Gorseval will gain a bonus per unkilled monster granting it 10% more damage.
La consumption of worlds is the technique "One Shot"de Gorseval. It will channel an attack (represented by a growing circle) that will cover the entire arena. If you are in the arena at this point, you die instantly.
To counter this attack, you will need to destroy the spectral wall that the boss will have erected during this mini-phase. If it is destroyed in time, you will be able to jump in an updraft to return to the arena after the special attack.
This mechanism is present from phase 2.
Des orbs will appear anywhere in the arena and will grow until they are destroyed. Taking care of it is quite simple because you will simply need destroy the orb at its center. However, this task can only be done remotely or when the orb is deactivated because, if you you get hit, you will suffer a curse which will deal periodic damage to you. You can remove this curse by absorbing mini-orbs yellow that appear when destroying a large orb (1 yellow orbs for 5 charges).
This mechanism is present from phase 3.
Periodically, an area will appear under each player's feet : if you stay in this one, you will be taken in a prison. To undo, you will have to use the key special attack (not defined by default). In addition, if you dodge this one by the dodge key, you will have to be careful not to land on an area of another player or else you will be imprisoned.
Warp, Invincibility, or Block skills don't work every time.
Phase 1 (100% - 66%)
You will have to do watch out for charged attacks of the boss to avoid finding your buttocks on the ground and therefore losing damage on Gorseval. After a few attacks, Gorseval teleport to the middle and gain its defiance bar. You will have to destroy it quickly so as not to be affected by the black area which inflicts heavy damage.
As soon as it has fallen to the ground, your group should go towards the 1st current ascending (typically Northwest) and spirits will appear around the boss. They will need to be assembled to inflict damage on Gorseval as well as the spirits. As soon as Gorseval spawns his killing zone (Consumption of Worlds), you will have to destroy the wall in front of the updraft. When this is done and the area comes to an end, you will need to borrow it so as not to die suddenly. If you haven't destroyed all of the Spirits, Gorseval will gain 10% damage per unkilled monster.
Returning to the arena, you'll need to be careful of Gorseval's charged attack and move towards the center to prepare for him to gain his defiance bar. As before, you will have to destroy it as quickly as possible. Yes your DPS is slow, you will have the right to a new appearance of monsters that you will have to kill. Since the number of updrafts is limited, you will need to change phase at this time. If you experience a new "Consume Worlds" and you don't have enough DPS, you may need rethink your group and / or certain class mechanics (change of utility, etc.).
Inter-phase #1
As soon as Gorseval gets his shield, 4 great minds will appear at the 4 cardinal points of the arena. They will advance in the direction of Gorseval. If they hit the boss, he will start his Consume Worlds spell which will result in the death of your party. To avoid this, you will need to assign one person per monster to slow down their movement. These monsters are only sensitive to light checks like for example Frost or infirmity.
During this phase, it is best to focus the whole unassigned group on one mind at a time and turn clockwise to kill all spirits. As soon as all the spirits are dead, Gorseval loses his shield and becomes susceptible to damage.
Phase 2 (66% - 33%) & Interphase #2
This phase is exactly the same as phase 1 but with additional mechanics: the orbs. These orbs will appear anywhere in the arena and will have to be destroyed as quickly as possible by characters from a distance (Cataclysmic, Mechatronician, ...). If you get hit by an orb, you will get a curse dealing heavy damage to you as well as 10% damage reduction. To dispel it, you will need to pick up orange orbs that appear when an orb is destroyed.
To gain some boss damage, you can just target the orbs you need for the next updraft (Northeast). On the other hand, you will have to take care of the remainder during the second inter-phase which will reach 33% of Gorseval's health points.
The inter-phase is much faster than the first. Spirits are faster and you will also have to take care of the orbs that will appear during this phase.
Phase 3 (33% - 0%)
The last phase is the one that asks the most concentration. In addition to the mechanics we have seen previously, you will also have to manage a new mechanic: the prisons. At regular intervals, an orange area will appear under each character of the group. If you stay in it when it expires, you will be imprisoned. If so, use the special attack (shortcut to define) to burst this prison.
The fight remains the same as in the previous phases in all respects. If you are limited in terms of damage, you can try to gain some by not destroying Gorseval's defiance bar right away. On the other hand, your group will have to be grouped into 1 point to heal you against the reprisal that the boss wins during this phase.
Now that you are ready to face Gorseval, the reward is yours for falling!
