Spires of Ascension

The mobs and path are pretty straight forward in Spires until you reach the first boss. The mobs are all quite easy and there is only one direction to go. 

Forsworn Mender

• Forsworn Doctrine - interrupt - heal
• Imbue Weapon - self-buff (purge) - makes their next 5 attacks deal extra magic damage; if you don't have a purge, this cast can be stunned
• This can be purged off of the mob and a friendly player can pick it up (make sure it's a tank or melee dps!) and do BIG damage with it

Forsworn Vanguard

• Sweeping Blow - frontal cone (tank) - face away from group
  
  

Forsworn Castigator

• Burden of Knowledge - interrupt (magic dispel) - if you don't kick it the healer can dispel the magic DoT it applies (since there are SO many kicks in this dungeon, this may free someone up for another interrupt somewhere more useful)
• Dark Lash - interrupt (tank hit) - magic damage hit on the tank, not as high priority as most other interrupts but should be gotten with any free interrupts
  
  

Forsworn Goliath

• Rebellious Fist - interrupt - deals a high amount of magic damage to everyone within 30 yards -- can be outranged as a last resort

 

These bosses share a healthpool so stacking them together for cleave will benefit your overall dps and speed. 

Deep Connection - avoidable damage - don't stand in the beam connecting the two bosses as it will apply a stacking DoT -- keep an eye on Azules’ position in relation to Kin-Tara as he moves around a lot

Kin-Tara:

• Overhead Slash - tank hit - physical damage hit
• Dark Lance - interrupt (magic dispel)- try to get as many of these interrupts as possible; it applies a magic DoT to a random party member
• When she goes in the air: Charged Spear  - targets a player and leaves a void zone behind, stay spread apart so only the targeted person is hit

Azules

• Moves around frequently
• Attenuated Barrage - avoidable - fires black missiles out from his location, dodging them is very important as they deal a lot of magic damage. 

Pathing

You have a few options with pathing here based on the route you are following as you can go left or right after the first boss; both paths are similar to each other in appearance but have differences in mob type and count -- for the most part the left path is the easier one based on the mobs and you don't often need more trash percentage than it already gives unless you are skipping a lot earlier or later in the dungeon.

If you go to the right: There are 6 stealthed Forsworn Stealthclaws along the path right after the first boss. See below for the other dangerous Stealthclaw locations. (there are a few more scattered throughout that are alone, but this map shows when they are in packs as that is when they are the most dangerous).

Forsworn Stealthclaw

• Pounce - tank hit - they start in stealth and do a lot of damage + a stun when they initially hit you
  • Be prepared and put physical mitigation up before you run through where they spawn
  • Hitting them first with an AoE ability that does not need to be targeted (or Flare) will cause them to not cast their initial Pounce hit
  • If you run through the stealthed mobs quickly enough with a speed boost (or mounted), you will bring them out of stealth without being in range of their stun
  • You can also let your group wait before engaging combat and use a physical immunity such as Blessing of Protection to gather them up
• Rake - bleed - tank hit with a stacking bleed that can get very dangerous, be ready to kite and have your group slow/displace the mobs for you on higher keys if you have no way of removing it

If you go to the left: The Forsworn Skirmishers can be a pain to gather as they jump away periodically. If your group does not have enough cc and displacement abilities to keep them contained tank them in the following position to keep them grouped together:

Forsworn Skirmisher

• Hurl - uninterruptable cast that deals a moderate amount of physical damage to random targets
• They will periodically jump in a straight line away from the way they are facing. This makes them very prone to pulling other packs before you are ready. To prevent this, utilize line of sight to get them close to a wall and turn them around so their back is to it 

 

Kyrian Covenant Bonus 

Spear of Destiny: Picked up from the corpse of a dead Kyrian (see photos below for reference). It will give you an extra action button that when used, will target an area and stun all enemies and increase their damage taken by 20% for 10 seconds. There is no time limit for use after picking it up so feel free to save it till later in the dungeon. It will not work on bosses but works on all trash mobs even if they are normally not able to be stunned. 

There are three spears in the dungeon:

• 2 are located on the left and right sides of the dungeon after the first boss. It's not worth backtracking to grab the other one as it wastes more time than it gains; plan to only pick up the spear for the side you are using
• There is another one immediately on the right hand side after you land on the 3rd boss' platform (hiding behind a pillar).

My preferred Spear pulls are the pull before the second boss (Ventunax) and a larger pull at the top of the stairs on the third boss' platform (Oryphion) but use them as planned out on your path!

Kyrian Dark-Praetor

• Swift Slice - avoidable - does a long charge in the direction that they are facing, dealing damage to anyone hit by it. The most dangerous part of this ability is that the Dark-Praetor goes quite far with it so it has the potential to pull extra packs if not aimed properly
  • It will only cast this ability when in melee range of its primary threat target, once it leaps out of range it will do a large magic damage attack (Dark Seeker) until the tank is back in range again. Try to drag the other mobs back in melee range of it to reduce incoming tank damage. -- this can kill you within a few hits on fortified keys

 

Forsworn Squad-Leader

• Inspiring Presence - priority target - makes all mobs within 100 yards of them take 75% reduced damage, single target them down first to remove this
  • It can actually be faster and safer to cc the mobs around the Squad Leader and single target it down alone before dealing with the rest of the group.
• Crashing Strike - avoidable - they will periodically jump in the air and rush to a location, leaving behind a void zone where they landed. It is telegraphed very clearly, stay out of it. 

 

Forsworn Champion (copycat of Forsworn Mender)

• Forsworn Doctrine - interrupt - heal
• Infuse Weapon - self buff (purge) - makes their next 5 melee attacks deal extra magic damage; if you don't have a purge, this cast can be stunned
• This can be purged off of the mob and a friendly player can pick it up (ideally your tank or a melee dps) and do BIG damage with it -- see image at the start of the guide

 

Etherdiver

• Insidious Venom - interrupt (magic dispel) - puts a magic DoT on a random party member, should be dispelled when possible by the healer. 
  • Since they are often in groups and have low HP, AoE stuns are especially useful here to stop all of the casts all at once

Necrotic

Etherdivers apply Necrotic stacks VERY quickly so be ready to either remove them or kite with slows early in the pull.

Forsworn Inquisitor

• Internal Strife - interrupt - deals magic damage to 2 random party members and causes them to pulse damage to anyone within 3 yards of them
• Dark Lash - interrupt - magic damage hit on the tank, not as high priority as most other interrupts

 

Her main mechanic during this fight is running to a random party member (preference for ranged) and casting Dark Stride:

• This leaves an extremely dangerous bleed on the player which lasts 15 seconds. 
• Use any bleed removal such as Blessing of Protection, Kyrian Phials, and Dwarf racial abilities to remove this if at all possible as on higher tyrannical keys it is extremely dangerous

• She will also leave behind a Shadowhirl wherever she starts the charge from.
• It will start expelling Dark Bolts which deal heavy magic damage and knock up anyone that hits them
• It goes without saying but it is very important for the party to dodge these Dark Bolts as coupled with the bleed, it can easily one shot a player
• When her energy is depleted she will cast Recharge, making all of the existing Shadowhirls spit out Dark Bolts very quickly for 10 seconds. Ensure you are positioned far away from them to make it easier to dodge. After she is done, the existing Shadowhirls will despawn.

Blinding Flash - frontal cone (avoidable) - stuns/blinds anyone caught in it, can be side stepped

After taking the angel to the next platform, you can optionally skip the Helion by jumping on the braziers and hugging the wall to the left or right of her. You can then continue hugging the edge of the platform and skip the next pack behind her as well, and with a cc skip the pack at the top of the stairs as well. See the images below for more details!

Forsworn Helion

• Menacing Presence - priority target - deals magic damage to the group every 3 seconds while it is alive
• Will periodically jump up and crash into the ground leaving a void zone where it lands.

 

Forsworn Justicar

• Forced Confession - interrupt (magic dispel) - deals heavy magic damage to a random party member along with damaging orbs around their location -- if it is not interrupted it should be dispelled by the healer.

 

Forsworn Warden

• Bless Weapon - self buff (purge) - makes their next 5 attacks deal extra magic damage and heal allies; if you don't have a purge, this cast can be stunned
• This can be purged off of the mob and a friendly player can pick it up (ideally your tank or a melee dps) and do BIG damage with it
• Greater Mending - interrupt - heal

You want to have at least 87.4% mob count before heading up to the last boss (the last 3 Kryian are worth 12.6%)

When you start the fight, everyone in the party should be fairly close together with the exception of:

• Purifying Blast - spread 8 yards out from other party members when targeted 
• Charged Stomp - tank hit - a heavy magic damage hit that will cleave onto anyone else within 8 yards of the tank
  
  • He will only cast this when someone moves into his hitbox, watch timers to see when it is off cooldown and then run into his hitbox a bit to trigger the damage when you are healthy and have some mitigation up. 
  • Using Blessing of Freedom on the tank will immune any damage they will take from this ability

When he begins casting Empyreal Ordnance, everyone should immediately stack together to stack up the Anima Field void zones left behind under each player. 

• Stay out of the void zones as they damage and reduce haste
• Keep the boss out of the Anima Field or it will buff him

 

After a while he will cast Recharge Anima, turning all of the Anima Fields to turn into orbs that start moving towards him. He can do this after 2 or 3 casts of Empyreal Ordnance -- not consistent

• If the orbs reach him he will deal group-wide damage, so the orbs need to be absorbed by players
• If you touch an orb it deals a small amount of magic damage and applies a stacking magic DoT that cannot be dispelled. 
• During this time he is taking 100% increased damage so ideally either the tank or healer should collect as many of the orbs as possible so the dps can focus their damage onto the boss

 

Monk: Zen Meditation after running over a large amount of orbs to mitigate the DoT

Paladin: Spellwarding and Divine Shield are both great options for the orbs since he does not attack while channeling Recharge Anima

Warriors: Can stand next to someone who has Purifying Blast and Spell Reflect the damage back to him for extra dps

Once you fly up to the top of the zone, you’ll have to fight 3 named Kyrian. There is no point in pulling them all together as they full heal when one is killed. Each subsequent Kyrian takes on the powers of the one before it -- to minimize unavoidable damage, the order you should go in is  Lakesis > Astronos > Klotos for the safest time. 

 

Astronos

• Charged Spear - avoidable damage - throws a spear at a random player that leaves behind a void zone and periodically pulses out damage in all 4 directions
  
  

Lakesis

• Oppression - every 3 seconds he applies a stacking debuff to all party members increasing their damage taken
• Diminuendo - frontal cone (avoidable) - face away from group
  
  

Klotos 

• Aura of Intimidation - every 3 seconds he applies a stacking arcane damage DoT to all party members increasing their damage taken
  • Spellwarding prevents application of new stacks

On fortified weeks consider using Bloodlust on the last mob as there is very little benefit to lusting the last boss (as she phases at specific %). 

Credit for trash % from these mobs is a little bit slow to apply due to RP. 

Phase 1: Devos on the Ground

Abyssal Detonation - deadly - looks like a circle outline with a small black orb in the center of it. 4 seconds later it will explode and kill anyone not already in the Archon's Bastion barrier.

Lost Confidence - magic dispel - DoT that leaves a void zone when it drops off -- make sure you drop these away from the barrier. 

Run Through - avoidable damage - charges in a straight line to a random party member and deals heavy physical damage to anyone hit. 

Phase 2: Devos in the Air

5 blue Raw Anima orbs spawn across the platform. Your party should immediately run to grab them (just run over them; you don't need to click them) and return to the center console. When all 5 are returned it unlocks:

• Archon's Spear - have a player click the center console to get a chance to hit Devos with the spear using a targeting reticle.
• If you hit her she will take 10% health as damage and come back down to restart Phase 1
• If you miss, you will need to gather another 5 orbs and try again
• She does move around when she is in the air so if you want to be safe with the spear, wait until she moves and then launch the spear. (you can also be proactive and be watching her movement before the last orbs are deposited to know when her last move was)

Slipstream and Backdraft - create a push back either up or down the platform and will give you a stack of a DoT every 6 seconds so you need to get through this phase as quickly as possible.