SWTOR Nature of Progress Story Mode Operation Guide

A complete guide to SWTOR Nature of Progress Operation on Dxun in Story Mode. Learn about every mechanic of every boss encounter and find out the best working strategies to defeat them.

Created for VULKK.com by Elssha

This is a very thorough guide explaining every last detail you need to know about the Operation. Please use the Table of Contents to navigate through the page easier if you are looking for a specific section or a boss encounter. Bosses are labeled with numbers from 1 to 5.

Looking for the Nature of Progress VETERAN MODE Guide?

Jungle

First thing’s first; you can’t do anything if you don’t know how to enter the operation.

For SM, assuming it’s the daily op, you can easily port there directly using the Group Finder.

If it’s not the daily operation, however, or if you are doing anything besides 8m SM (HM/NiM or any 16m) you will have to walk in. The entry for the operation is found on Onderon, where you board a shuttle to the moon of Dxun. The entrance is located a brisk walk from the spawn point in the following locations.

Once in phase, you’ll want to make your way to the northern part of the map, though the path is a bit convoluted, and has several places you can wander off in the wrong direction.

I’ve drawn the most-direct route to the first boss’s location on the area map below.

While the highlighted area is technically all usable space to fight the boss, you will only really hold him near where you pull him for Story Mode.

Making your way there will require clearing flying Flesh Eating Shrieks and crawling Venomous Stalker add packs as you go deeper into the jungle.

1: Pack Leader Red

The first boss you encounter, after clearing the add packs, is Pack Leader Red. This is a fairly simple boss, the main mechanic involves using flowers located around the area to counter the poisonous cloud Red emits.

Boss Details

Red has three abilities of importance in SM:

Hydrochloric Pool
ABILITY TYPE: AoE Debuff 2s Cast; 30m range; cast every 45s
ABILITY DETAILS: Reduces outgoing damage, healing done, and defense By 20%. AoE placed on primary target’s location at the beginning of the cast.
Hydrochloric Pool throws a large, red dome at the end of the channel, centered around where the tank (player with aggro) was when the cast started. It does no damage but lowers your damage output, defense, and healing taken (so don’t stand in it). The tank should bait it away from the group, then move out of it as the cast goes out.

Acidic Jet
ABILITY TYPE: Elemental Conal; 6s Channel; 13m range; cast every 30s
ABILITY DETAILS: Periodically dealing elemental damage to all targets in a forward cone. Ticks every 0.5s
Acidic Jet is a forward-facing cone that does damage to anyone caught in it. The tank should aim it away from the group. Once placed, it will not move for the duration.

Red Venom Cloud
ABILITY TYPE: Internal Damage Stacking debuff
ABILITY DETAILS: Deadly cloud of venom that afflicts all enemies within a 1 kilometer radius
Red Venom Cloud is a raid-wide stacking debuff that Red emits as long as he’s alive. Each stack causes damage. These stacks can be cleansed by popping a flower and standing in the resulting circle. NOTE: These flowers gain a blue glow (like other clickable items in SWtOR) during the fight. The circle also applies a Phosphilapse Corona buff on all players inside it, and prevents players from gaining any stacks for its duration.

NOTE: In SM only, the two cast/channel abilities (pool and jet) CAN be interrupted.

If your team is aiming to prog HM, I highly suggest not interrupting Pool and Jet to get used to positioning and avoiding them. They are not difficult, but they’ll save you having to re-prog them in HM.

If you are doing this in a non-team setting, like a GF pug, it may be a good idea to interrupt both channels and simply hold the boss at the flower to simplify positioning. However, it is also worth noting that the boss does no (other) damage while casting/channeling either ability, therefore interrupting them means the tank will be taking more melee attacks.

Strategy

The simplest strategy for SM is to have one tank that holds Red the whole time. Aim Red away from the group, which should be sitting fairly close to the flower. Interrupt the casts, which will leave only the basic attacks and the Venom Cloud debuff

When the stacks start becoming annoying to the healers (probably around 8-15 stacks, but adjust to what your healers are comfortable with), have someone click the flower and have everyone cleanse, preferably sitting in the flower until it expires to prolong the effect (the circle on the ground goes away).

If you are not interrupting Jet/Pool, time the flower just after a pool cast to avoid dropping the large pool AoE covering the flowers buff.

The alternative strategy is better for teams aiming to do hard mode, or to just practice dealing with mechanics. It is still very similar to the above, except. The tank baits the Pool away from the group, and starts moving to a new spot as soon as the cast begins. The boss will not move during the pool cast or the jet channel, so the tank jumps out and away (usually sideways) as soon as the tank sees the Jet channel.

The flower must be timed after a pool drop, so the pool does not cover the flower circle. The boss should also be positioned so that a jet doesn’t hit everyone in the flower. If the timing seems to favor the Jet soon after the pool, you can wait until after Jet instead to give yourself more time to reposition the boss

Both of these strategies easily accommodate a single tank and (depending on the group) can even be done with a single healer, though 6 DPS should be extremely unnecessary (and a second healer will allow for higher stacks before needing to use a flower).

The numbers in the picture point out the first two flowers, and the extent of the pre-add path. The boss is waiting for you at the left end of the path.

As stated previously, in SM your team should be able to just stay near the first flower (basically in the earlier screenshot of Red), and not have to move the boss anywhere. However, it is worth noting red area in the picture (right upper end of the path), where four trees flank the path just past the turn, is the cutoff for where the adds begin to spawn. This is something that you want to avoid happening in SM as well as HM, so if your group does need to use the second flower (a symptom of low DPS or weak healing), do not pass the four thin trees a bit beyond it.

After you beat Red and get the badge, you can now open the facility door on the northern edge of the jungle. Note that the eastern door often lights up as if that was the door you should go to, but that one will not open until after you secure the Control Center.

2a: Lights Out (Breach Cl-004: Part 1)

The next boss in the operation is actually two “bosses” (or, more accurately, “encounters”) that are mostly glorified add packs. In the first encounter, you make your way through the holding pens to the Auxiliary Shield Generator, and secure it. In the second, you leave the Shield generator and retake the Control Center, which then gives you access to the compound itself.

Once inside the room, you will find Stims and Flares.

The Flares will be in a crate on the floor near the north hallway (Blue box on the map), and the Stims will be in vials on a table deeper in the room (Yellow box). Both of these grant temporary abilities.

This room is also the location of the first of the 5 books for the bonus achievement ( first book seen in the picture of the table), but these books have multiple spawns in each of the areas, and won’t be part of this guide.

After you gather the flares and stims, you can click the panel to open the door to the pens and begin the encounter.

Once the encounter starts, your group will face different kinds of Adds, many of which will continue to spawn while you remain in the pens, meaning that you will want to make your way to the Auxiliary Shield Generator room as quickly as possible.

Temporary Ability Details

CI-Neutralizer Flare

This special flare used by the CI-Dark Project’s handlers contains a unique mixture of metallic oxidizers typically reserved for military grade explosives. Although it impractical as a light source due to a flame temperature of 3,400c and extremely short burn time, the light produced produced by these flares is one of the few known deterrents to CI-Dark’s genetically optimized lifeforms. 20s buff in AoE sphere In possession of CI-N Flares; stacking buff that indicates how many flares a person holds

CI-M Synapse Accelerator Serum

Injects a target with a dose of the experimental CZ-M Synapse Accelerator Serum. When used as directed, this serum grants the user increased runspeed and immunity to movement impairing effects, while also halving tiredness. Injecting a second dose while the first is active will over Overclock and Overload the body. X1 = Accelerate Immune to movement impairing effects, knockdowns, and physics. Movement speed increased. Your body suddenly moves effortlessly. Both your mind and the world around you seem so much clearer. 12s buff X2 = Overclock + Overload Overclock: Grants a 100% bonus to Accuracy and Critical Chance, and for Tanking disciplines a 100% bonus to Defense Chance. 12s buff Accuracy and critical chance increased by 100%. Melee and Ranged defense increased by 100%. Immune to movement impairing effects, knockdowns, and physics. Movement speed increased. Your mind and body are heightened to an extent you never knew possible. You think and move with perfect precision through a world in slow motion around you. You also suddenly feel like you’re cooking in an oven. Overload: Reduces maximum health by 25%. Receiving an additional dose while Overloaded is fatal. 30s duration Accuracy and critical chance increased by 100%. Melee and Ranged defense increased by 100%. Immune to movement impairing effects, knockdowns, and physics. Movement speed increased. Your mind and body are heightened to an extent you never knew possible. You think and move with perfect precision through a world in slow motion around you. You also suddenly feel like you’re cooking in an oven.

The Flares create an AoE that nerfs the damage output of many of the adds, protecting you. They also outright kill the flying adds, though that leaves behind an exploding mini AoE.

The Stims do different things depending on how they are used. A single dose is super Hydraulics, giving you a speed boost and preventing pulls/knockdowns/etc.

Using Two stims turns them into a powerful offensive/defensive cooldown, but a third dose kills. In SM ONLY, the game will not let you use a third (lethal) dose.

Anyone (assuming you were in the room when they got them) will have circles over their heads (and around their feet) along with the flare/stim buff. Flares will be a blue circle, while Stims will look like an orange ring.

Note that these abilities show up elsewhere in the operation as well, with the same (or almost same) function.

Adds Details

There are various adds that you will have to fight as you make your way to the Auxiliary Shield Generator.

The more boss-like Adds are the Warden Droids which prevent opening security doors.

The second most note-worthy adds are the Rampaging Chargers that spawn in a couple locations, followed by the Felshade Reaper and Hunters, as well as Crimson Stalkers and Incendiary Shrieks.

Warden Droids

Rampaging Chargers

Felshade Reapers

Felshade Hunters

Shadow Walkers

Incendiary Shrieks

Impending Burst looks like a yellow circle, which on exploding applies a Corrosive Rain DoT. This DoT can be applied to you, but can also go on Droids or other annoying adds caught in the circle.

Crimson Stalkers

Hydrochloric Pools look like small red domes. Standing in them reduces outgoing damage, healing taken, and defense.

Strategy

The main over-arching strategy for this boss is to keep moving and get through as quickly as possible without getting overwhelmed by adds. In story mode, the adds shouldn’t present too great a problem, so stopping to kill each pack should still be doable. In general though, the faster you finish this boss, the lower your risk of being overwhelmed down the line.

Here you see the path you’ll take through the holding pens (starting from the door on the right, making your way up). From below it gets a little confusing until you get used to it, so take note of the landmarks. Note; in the picture above the two gates the droids keep closed have already been opened.

There are several options on how to divvy up the flares and stims.

• The easiest method is for one or two people to take the flares, while each person grabs a stim for the final run.
• The alternative is to allow each of the DPS to take two stims, giving them a big DPS boost for a short while, though note that the stims can be triple-clicked if done too quickly, killing you instantly.

The Flares should be used anytime a Felshade Reaper is in play. Otherwise, they can be used to mitigate the knockdowns Felshade Hunters do or instantly-kill Shrieks.

I suggest giving each DPS a single stim for the final run, and saving the flares for the Reapers and/or the next encounter (unless you wipe, you get to keep any previous stim/flares from this encounter when you start the next one).

Above, you see the rough spawn points for the first two Chargers and the locations of the two Warden droids, as well as the location where you encounter the Felshade Reapers in what many have dubbed “the Reaper Room”. The previously mentioned ‘final run’ is the path from just beyond the Felshade Reapers to the second Warden droid.

Ignore the darkened area of the map, as that is for the next encounter (part 2).

Lesser adds (Shrieks and Stalkers) spawn throughout the encounter. Stay out of the Stalkers’ purple puddles and the yellow explosions the Shrieks leave behind. Gather the lesser adds on Warden Droids and/or Chargers for efficient killing.

Initial Stretch

The first Charger should be killed with any earlier add packs, facing him against a big tree or wall. He can also be push/pull/kited to the flaming area, killing it quicker. You can also use a flare here to get rid of the shrieks. The charger can be hard stunned as its focused to prevent his Horns attack

The second Charger can be killed where it spawns as well, or it and the minor adds can be brought to the first warden droid for maximal AoE’s.

For even more efficient add management, the Droid can be brought to the entrance and faced out, with a flare popped to kill a wave of shrieks that spawns behind you. The circles the shrieks leave can put a DoT on the droid if they explode while he’s on them, helping you kill it. This requires some finessing by the tank, and the group will need to keep the droid’s channel interrupted.

The warden droid will be tethered to the panel that opens the door, so to continue on, you will have to kill it, first. The Warden Droid’s cast can be interrupted, but you should still keep him pointed away from the group to prevent extra damage to the party.

Reaper Room

In the room beyond this droid, there is a third charger fighting a Fleshade Reaper and two Hunters (Represented on the map with a Reaper). This will also mark the first time you will have to deal with either type of Felshade.

If no (lesser) adds have spawned behind you or are still alive when the door opens, you can skip these by hugging the right wall (path in image below), using no moves while near them and avoiding getting hit by the AoE knockdowns the Reapers do. If any adds spawn or are spawned (and aggroed to you) when the door opens, they will aggro the Reapers as they run past them to get to you.

If you do end up aggroing them, this will be an important place to use flares. I suggest placing the first one to the left (the blue circle on the image above), and continuing until the Reapers are killed (and prioritize killing those as soon as possible). If you had the DPS grab stims, this would be where they pop them.

The Felshade Reapers are the highest damage-dealing adds you’ll encounter here, but are nerf’d significantly by the flare, and they take more damage as well (due to the Blinding Light debuff)… which is also a reason many groups try and skip aggroing them (here and in the next encounter). 

Final Run

After exiting this “reaper room” area, you want to run all the way to the next droid room (the path in the image above). If you gave everyone a single stim, this would be the best time to pop them, keeping you from being knocked down on your way there.

Place the first flare at the entrance to the octagonal room where the second Warden is. This will protect the team from the adds you ran past. Drag the droid into it, then continue to drop more flares as needed while focusing the droid, moving slowing toward the middle of the door. Alternatively, you can hold the droid where it is, focusing it while letting one tank hold the other adds in a flare. I recommend stacking everything.

Aux Shield Generator Shed

As soon as the droid dies, one person should click the panel to open the door, and a designated player (off-tank right after a swap, or a DPS) should run in and click the panels to end the encounter.

Once inside the room at the end of the now-open corridor, the far back wall will have two consoles and a “breaker box” panel that have to be clicked sequentially. Only one will light up at a time as voice lines guide you through it, but the small panel (blue circle) can be a bit hard to notice, especially since you have to click it multiple times.

The order is:

• Far (yellow circle) console
• The center panel (to open it)
• The tubes inside the panel
• The ‘correct’ tube inside the panel
• Finally, the left console (pink circle)

The others should make their way inside the room and hold the beasts there, once the sequence (slowed by the voice lines) is completed, a protocol will kill all remaining adds and the encounter will end.

2b: According to Plan (Breach Cl-004: Part 2)

Then second leg of this glorified add fight starts right where the first left off; by exiting back out of the same room you just fought your way into.

If starting from a lockout (or running back after a wipe), you enter this room the exact same way you did the start of the earlier encounter; at the north-most door from spawn. The panel you click will simply port you into the end room instead of the starter room from the previous encounter.

You will find more Stims and Flares near the door, and all of the adds encountered previously will show up again (as well as a few extra ones).

Temporary Ability Details

CI-Neutralizer Flare

This special flare used by the CI-Dark Project’s handlers contains a unique mixture of metallic oxidizers typically reserved for military grade explosives. Although it impractical as a light source due to a flame temperature of 3,400c and extremely short burn time, the light produced produced by these flares is one of the few known deterrents to CI-Dark’s genetically optimized lifeforms. 20s buff in AoE sphere In possession of CI-N Flares; stacking buff that indicates how many flares a person holds

CI-M Synapse Accelerator Serum

Injects a target with a dose of the experimental CZ-M Synapse Accelerator Serum. When used as directed, this serum grants the user increased runspeed and immunity to movement impairing effects, while also halving tiredness. Injecting a second dose while the first is active will over Overclock and Overload the body. X1 = Accelerate Immune to movement impairing effects, knockdowns, and physics. Movement speed increased. Your body suddenly moves effortlessly. Both your mind and the world around you seem so much clearer. 12s buff X2 = Overclock + Overload Overclock: Grants a 100% bonus to Accuracy and Critical Chance, and for Tanking disciplines a 100% bonus to Defense Chance. 12s buff Accuracy and critical chance increased by 100%. Melee and Ranged defense increased by 100%. Immune to movement impairing effects, knockdowns, and physics. Movement speed increased. Your mind and body are heightened to an extent you never knew possible. You think and move with perfect precision through a world in slow motion around you. You also suddenly feel like you’re cooking in an oven. Overload: Reduces maximum health by 25%. Receiving an additional dose while Overloaded is fatal. 30s duration Accuracy and critical chance increased by 100%. Melee and Ranged defense increased by 100%. Immune to movement impairing effects, knockdowns, and physics. Movement speed increased. Your mind and body are heightened to an extent you never knew possible. You think and move with perfect precision through a world in slow motion around you. You also suddenly feel like you’re cooking in an oven.

The Flares create an AoE that nerfs the damage output of many of the adds, protecting you. They also outright kill the flying adds, though that leaves behind an exploding mini AoE.

The Stims do different things depending on how they are used. A single dose is super Hydraulics, giving you a speed boost and preventing pulls/knockdowns/etc. Using Two stims turns them into a powerful offensive/defensive cooldown, but a third dose kills.

Using Two stims turns them into a powerful offensive/defensive cooldown, but a third dose kills. In SM ONLY, the game will not let you use a third (lethal) dose.

Note that these abilities show up elsewhere in the operation as well, with the same (or almost same) function.

Adds Details

There are various adds that you will have to fight as you make your way to the Auxiliary Shield Generator.

The more boss-like Adds are the Warden Droids which prevent opening security doors.

The second most note-worthy adds are the Rampaging Chargers that spawn in a couple locations, followed by the Felshade Reaper and Hunters, as well as Shadow Walkers, Crimson Stalkers and Incendiary Shrieks.

Warden Enforcer Droids

Lake Crabs

Abilities:

Rampaging Chargers

Felshade Reapers

Felshade Hunters

Shadow Walkers

Incendiary Shrieks

Impending Burst looks like a yellow circle, which on exploding applies a Corrosive Rain DoT. This DoT can be applied to you, but can also go on Droids or other annoying adds caught in the circle.

Crimson Stalkers

Hydrochloric Pools look like small red domes. Standing in them reduces outgoing damage, healing taken, and defense.

Strategy

The main over-arching strategy for this boss remains to keep moving and stay together. The encounter is far less punishing than it is in HM, but (most) of the strategies do not change much.

Now, you must also juggle moving quickly with hiding from the deadly lightning zaps created by the rooftop coils.

Before I begin explaining, know that there is a way to skip most of what follows in this guide; in SM ONLY, a stealther can make the run alone all the way into the Control Room, and the others will be ported in (instead of dying instantly, as they do in HM/NiM)… skipping most of this guide.

Again, this is SM Only, and something best left for GF/pug runs or groups not looking to venture into harder versions of this content. Otherwise, this run will be harder to do without having learned it in SM and add needless time to future prog. If you use this strat, you will be left with lots of Flares, Stims, and downtime for the other 7 people as the stealther runs past the bulk of the fight.

Have everyone but the stealther wait in the first room, away from the door (to not aggro any adds). The stealther will have to make their way through the Lake Enclosure and into the Control room alone (see lake enclosure picture, if needed), and close the door

For the actual fighting, skip down alllll the way to the last couple images in this guide; specifically the Security Control Center Map in this guide, which has 3 purple arrows coming down from the top, and two Droid icons at the bottom. There, you will find the explanation for the last (for you, only) part of the fight.

Now, onto the real strat!

There are 6 Flares and 8 Stims on the left side of the door of the room you start in (finished the last encounter in). Two people should grab the Flares (the split will depend on your group; I prefer 2:4) and drop them in specific spots depending on strategy. Each player should pick up a stim to protect them from getting pulled by the last Lake Crab.

• After you have the stims and flares sorted, stack in the right-most corner of the door and have one person click the panel to open it.
• If the group has any speed buffs, you will want to use them right before the door opens (predation, etc.) so that you can run through the hallway and into the octagonal room.

The Octagon

The Octagon has three (open) entrances. The image above shows a detail of the path (white) you will want to take into the Octagon and out into the lake enclosure, as well as the previous path you took on the previous boss (fading yellow) and the spawn location of extra lesser adds (purple).

You will see a group of Stalkers at the mouth of the hallway, with a Bull further down. A Felshade Reaper will spawn at the mouth of the hallway and attack the Bull.

You will want to hug the right wall of the hallway, trying not to aggro the Reaper as you run past. The Stalkers will follow. From experience, these almost always aggro on the first pull, as they spawn sooner. You can either pull and /stuck it (losing any extra Flares/Stims retained from the previous encounter), or plan to wait in the Octagon for them to kill the bull before fighting them. Either way, you will want to run along the right wall to pass it and the bull (which they will be fighting and eat unless you hit/taunt them).

You will want to stay within the safety of the Octagon unless you are ready to run into the Lake Enclosure, which is protected by Electrified Coils – more on these later. For now, note that anything outside the Octagon’s right door will hurt you periodically(in SM it takes a few hits to kill; later difficulties are harsher).

From this point on, there are a couple of different Strategies groups can do on this boss, with various variations. I will go over these as they come, numbering alternatives.

1. If you plan on trying to skip the Reaper your group will have to move quickly, and /stuck the first pull.
   • Note, this forfeits any unused Flares/Stims from the previous boss fight
   • Running quickly, the coils should power down right as you reach the right door, allowing you to continue directly through
2. If you are planning to kill the Reaper, you let it fight the bull in the hall as the group gathers in the lower middle of the Octagon above it. Once the bull is dead, hold the Reaper in a Flare, and depending on your DPS it may take 2 to kill it.
   • If it is still alive after two, it’s best to use DCD’s instead of a third Flare.
   • By the time the Reaper is dead, a wave of Shrieks should have spawned and gotten caught (killed) in the second Flare.
   • When the Reaper dies, move onto the lake enclosure as soon as the coils power down.
3. Some groups also chose to kill the Reaper inside the hallway where you first encounter it, and in SM, this may expedite things as things generally die faster (vs harder modes).
   • A Flare needs to be dropped spanning the narrower area of the hallway (aka, where there are containers against the left wall) to make it easier to keep all the adds in the Flare(s)
   • This method allows DPS to start hitting things right away (instead of waiting for the Reaper to kill the Bull, but also means the Bull will likewise have to be killed and tanked)

Lake Enclosure

Once you leave the Octagon (where the white path leads), you will move into the Lake Enclosure. This is a large, open area with roof-top Electrified Coils that will do lots of damage to anyone caught out in the open.

These coils are located on the roof of the far building, across from where you enter the Lake enclosure.

These coils will power down periodically, their status indicated by System Messages as well as a visual change; they surge with purple electricity when on (as seen in the image above); when they are off, they look black (detail in lower right corner of the image)

The Lake Enclosure has a series of large rocks scattered around it (a few visible in the previous image; and numbered in the one directly above). Additional adds (Felshade Hunters, most notably) will come from the breach in the fence on the left of the image (that area is likewise where the last of the 5 books is located). 

This is also where you will first encounter Lake Crabs that have an affinity to pull players out into the open. They come out of the lake, roughly at the two small (filled-in) green arrows, with a third spawning at the rightmost (hollow) one.

The numbered rocks provide cover from the Coils, and your group should stack against them to not get zapped (roughly where the numbers are located). There are several patterns groups use, with the quickest (single stop) method drawn on the map. Note that in SM you get more Flares and Adds die faster, so you can be far more liberal with keeping Flares up.

If you enter this with Stalkers coming behind you, you will want a tank to bait their red circles so that they don’t drop on the rock the group is hiding behind.

1. The fastest way to transverse the room, and the only viable one if you plan to skip killing the Reaper, is to run directly to rock 3 to wait out the power-up cycle, then sprint all the way into the hallway as soon as they power down (otherwise the Reaper catches up and becomes a BIG issue)
   • If done properly, this method out-runs most adds, leaving you to deal with just the first Crab as the main issue while at the rock
   • A Flare should be dropped there to protect the group, moved further left (on the image) if Shrieks had spawned behind you, such that the group still has an area to stand outside the yellow circles they drop.
   • AS SOON as the coils go down, players need to pop any speed boosts and run, regardless of what adds (even the Crab) are still up at the rock.
2. Alternatively, many groups split this path into two stops; the first at rock 2 and the second at rock 4 (or 5)
   •  This strategy takes a bit longer and forces the group to deal with more adds than the first, but it allows the group to kill the adds before moving on, which is safer/easier
   • Flares should be used on Crabs, and a tank might want to bait the first crab to rock 2 to prevent both crabs from assaulting the group at rock 4/5
   • Using this strategy, Felshade Hunters will catch up to the group at rock 2 and need to be controlled.
3. Other strategies exist, including ones that stop three times using rocks 1,3 and 5, (and even 6, which is the unmarked rock between 5 and the top yellow arrow), however (IMHO) the longer you stay in this Enclosure, the messier things become… and these strategies unravel later on. This is more viable in SM than in HM, but I’d strongly suggest using a 2-rock strat. These also use up more Flares, which will become scarce later on (especially in HM), and may cause group wipes in the very last phase (something progging groups won’t notice at first, so be wary of using too many Flares here)

Regardless of which strategy your group picks, every player will need to pop a Stim when the Crab at the right-most area of the lake spawns (green hollow arrow).

• You need to be sure you are targeting yourself (healers, especially!) before you use your stim, otherwise the player you’re targeting will get it instead of you!
• This will prevent them from being pulled into the lake or knocked down by any Hunters that catch up to the group.
• Other speed boosts should be used before (if running from rock 3 or rock 5), and after the Stims to make the final rush as quickly as possible.
• The Stims act on the player, or whatever friendly the player is targeting, which is especially important for healers to watch out for; otherwise, they may Stim someone else and not have a Stim for themselves.
• If one player ‘accidentally’ took multiple Stims, this is also a way to fix the situation, though it may prove tricky.
• Some abilities (like Hydraulics/Hold the Line) will protect players from getting pulled back, but should only be used instead of a Stim in an emergency situation

Note that the force-field in the distance (of both images) will not be up – this is something that you engage once you enter the room beyond the breached hallway (yellow arrow at the top), inside which you will make a sharp left turn and continue on to the Security Center (more on this later).

As you run, more adds, including extra Crabs, Chargers and Hunters will try and catch you. Stuns/knockbacks and other crowd-control measures may prove helpful, especially in the actual hallway.

At the end of it (top left in the image above), just past the doorway, there will be a terminal you click to close the door.

For HM, you will want to time this so that everyone gets in before the channel finishes, but no (or as few as possible) adds do.

In SM, you can click this as soon as the first person enters and the others will be teleported inside (ergo the cheese strat mentioned at the very beginning).

You want to especially avoid getting any Crabs into the room, and preferrably no Chargers either.  

Security Control Center

The small room (right outcrop on the map) has no function and can be ignored. On the right side of its entrance (bottom right corner of the map) is the terminal you will have to click to end the encounter. Between that terminal and the droids is a table with extra Stims and Flares (yellow ring on the map; detail image below); you want to have your DPS and/or tanks pick these up.

Soon after the door is shut, the shields will fail and several waves of adds will enter through the doors on the north side of the map (purple arrow paths), continuing until you can activate the terminal and activate the force-field.

The first wave will include some Felshade Hunters and Crimson Stalkers, the latter of which a Tank or DPS should bait so that their red puddles drop away from the group.

Adds should be held against the crate between the left two entrances (blue circle on the map; which also shows the approximate Flare position).

Or, alternatively, everything can be brought to the door between the droids if you’re cleaving everything down together (strat 1 below).

These are also the two entrances the Stalkers will come through.

The second wave will consist of 4 Shadow Walkers, which need a Flare to mitigate.

After this second wave, the Enforcer Droids will power-up. Shortly after, a third wave will spawn, with a Felshade Reaper and more Hunters.

There are several ways groups deal with these adds:

1. The Simplest method is to constantly Flare while stacking everything together.
   • Several DPS each pick up 2 extra Stims while the Tanks take all the Flares.
   • One of the tanks or a DPS goes out and baits the Stalkers
   • The tanks swap AoE taunts on the first two waves of adds, holding them on the droids from the get-go (with the tank against the lower door on the map (between the two droid icons).
   • A DPS or tank baits the Stalkers to drop their red puddles away from the group, about where the blue circle is on the map. Note that a taunt is not necessary for this and should not be wasted (if a tank is baiting), just hit them while others hold off, and wait away from the group until the puddles drop before running in
   • First Flare should drop as the second wave spawns to counter the Shadow Walkers, with DPS focusing the Felshade Hunters, and Flares should be kept up for the duration of the encounter from then on to stop the add cleaves and harder attacks.
   • When the Droids power-up, a tank simply holds them while cycling cooldowns and the tanks swapping as AoE taunts come off cooldown and DCD’s fall off.
   • DPS should be focusing on the Reaper first, then Warden Droids to click the terminal as soon as possible.
2. A more coordinated method, that will be easier to work with in HM, involve a tank using the Reaper to devastate the droids for everyone.
   • One tank takes 2 Stims, the others going to DPS in sets of two
   • A tank or DPS should still bait the Stalkers, as above. Two DPS can go and bait them in the individual alcoves, especially if you chose to hold the adds at the crate (blue circle in representing Flare positioning on the map).
   • One tank remains, holding the adds there, while the other takes the droid and Reaper outside the Flare, away from the group, toward the lower right corner of the room. The tank holding the Reaper needs to pop a big cooldown (Deflection, Saber Ward, etc) or 2x Stim, and (if necessary) the other option as the first is going down to mitigate the damage.
   • The idea is to position and hold the Reaper and Enforcer Droid so that the Reaper’s cleave hits the Droid(s), while the DPS focus the other adds or (if those are killed) start killing the Reaper. In HM this is done with one Reaper to each Droid, making aiming straightforward. A tank can position the Reaper to hit both droids, but it’s trickier, and you may just want to do one, then the other
   • Once both Droids die, the Reaper needs to be kited into the Flare, without going so quickly that it pounces (or a Flare needs to be dropped on it), and the tanks trade off holding the adds while DPS keep flaring and focusing the Reaper, then any leftover adds.

Only after the terminal is clicked and the forcefield activated will adds stop coming into the room, and unlike the previous encounter, you will have to kill any remaining adds before the fight is considered won.

Main Facility

Now that you finished getting to the facility, fighting through countless waves of adds… there’s a whole slew of new adds to fight on your way to the next boss.

The Czerka facility you’ve entered is crawling with guards that come in several flavors

Adds Details

Combat Medic

Buffs:

Trandoshan Warrior

Buffs:

Trandoshan Tracker

Trandoshan Deadeye

Strategy

Battery

When you first come in from the last boss, you will enter via the north entrance on the (level 1) map below. Otherwise, you can now walk in from the East entrance of the starter zone (the one that’s been green since you defeated Red), which takes you to the lower-left entrance on the map below (level 1).

The main facility has two levels, and in order to get to the next boss (The Mutant Trandoshans) you will have to do another mini-puzzle. This will take you past a lot of adds, but can be cheesed.

The puzzle starts on level 2, where you have to click a pannel (white circle on lvl 2 map), then grab a battery from storage (yellow circle, lvl 1) and use it to replace the broken battery (pink circle, lvl 2).

Doing this will cause the door to the elevator to open, allowing you access to the next part of the facility.

Later, after defeating the Trandoshans, the door to the right part of the upper facility (the door just past where the player arrow is in the lvl 2 map) and the path to the Huntmaster fight will open (more on that later).

The best way to cheese this puzzle is to have a stealther walk up the stairs and use the lower-left door to go and click the pannel (white thin circle #1 on the lvl 2 map) and immediately run into the room with the broken battery (pink circle #3). Waiting here will let the adds evade, at which point you can come back out. This is using the yellow path on the map above  (the white bit shows the offshoot to click the panel), which will also be the path for the last step. It’s wise to sap (stealth CC) the medic in the pack next to the panel, then start channeling. They won’t kill you or break the channel before you complete this.

They (or another stealther) can then go back down and grab a battery (yellow circle #2, lvl 1 map) and run up the stairs and along the yellow path into the room with the broken battery (pink circle), waiting again for any aggro’d adds to evade before placing the battery and finishing the puzzle.
Care should be taken not to aggro anything you don’t need to (see yellow path on lvl 2 for how to carry the battery). Note also that any Deadeyes, when facing away, will not aggro unless you walk right up to them (they don’t have an aggro circle, but cone).

 If this proves difficult, players may want to kill some of the adds on lvl 1, allowing someone to force pull the battery carrier from the bottom to the upper balcony, making things go faster. Worst case, the adds in the lvl 2 left room can be fought, but those shouldn’t be necessary.

Others should wait outside the facility (outside or in the Control Center from the last boss fight) so that the adds de-aggro instead of swapping to them (and thus forcing you all to fight them.

This can be done by a non-stealther, but the timings are a bit tighter. If a group does not want to cheese this, these same steps apply, except the others help kill the packs as they aggro instead of letting them evade.

Once the battery is inserted, the door to the bottom elevator room (marked “Elevator to Trandos” on the map) is open, and you can continue.

Evolutionary Warfare Lab

In the next room, there will be a short hallway and a pannel on the right side of the glass door that will open the stairs and room beyond. Past this glass door (so everywhere in the map below) you will get a debuff; Organic Purge, which reduces all healing received by 20%.

It is advisable to aggro the adds below and kite them up to the area above the stairs, where the debuff goes away; as healers won’t have as tough a time healing you.

In this bottom room, you also want to click the glowing bodies until you find the access card. These will be located in various spots;

• One will usually be on the landing (where the player icon is, in the map above)
• One will be somewhere in the upper right room (the exit from the Trandos fight)
• One will be in each of the two middle rooms
• A couple more will be spread around the central hallway and/or the two small square areas through which you access the two middle rooms3

Once the right one is found (usually, whichever you click on last), you can go up the steps at the bottom right of the image, where you’ll walk a bit down a hallway and jump through a broken window to fall into the Train Station where you will face the Mutant Trandoshans.

3: Mutant Trandoshans

You’ll be happy to know, this fight has no adds, just bosses. This fight represents the first real coordination check in this operation.

Here, you will fight four beefed-up Trandoshans, two of which will be waiting to fight you, and another two will jump down a minute later.

Each has a unique affinity (Fire, Ice, Strength, Toxicity), and has to be dealt with a different way. They also have different health pools.

The Fire and Ice bosses (Greus and Kronissus) have significantly less health, then the Toxic (Hissyphus) has slightly less health than the Strength (Titax)

These Trandoshans become more powerful when one of them dies, and drop into a healing Torpor when pushed to 15% health.

They can only be killed if a literal train runs them over while in this regenerating state (otherwise, they’ll jump out of the way), so it’s a good thing you’re at a subway station!

Boss Details

Greus – Fire

Lowest health pool (together with Kron) and a Thermal Chaotic Evolution (mutation). This boss emits a circle of fire around him and has several fire attacks.  Otherwise, his and Kron’s attacks buff each other, so a player with Sublimation will take more damage from Greus’s two conals, and someone with Overheating will take extra damage if hit with Kron’s attacks.

A ranged DPS can easily kite him, staying in the fire circle but side-stepping the two conals.

This is the easiest of the four (least dangerous, easiest for a non-tank to hold).

Death Pact
Boss Buff Effect: Immune to crowd control effects that break on damage.
Death Pact is a stacking buff that any surviving trandos get when one is killed. This buff makes them do and take 20% more damage for each defeated Trandoshan. While this makes them faster to burn down, it also makes all their attacks more dangerous.

Chaotic Evolution; Thermal Affinity
Boss Buff Effect: Target will enter a regenerative state of Torpor if its health is reduced below 15% and damage dealt increased substantially for each stack of this effect.

Torpor
Boss Buff Effect: Regenerating 1.214% of maximum health every 0.5s, damage received from all sources reduced by 80%. Lasts 35sec Trandoshan reborn from Torpor will gain a charge of Chaotic Evolution.
At 15% health, he hunches over and gains the Torpor buff. When in this state, he will hunch over and not move until it drops. He will take far less damage and steadily regain health. When he does get up, he’ll gain a stack of Chaotic Evolution, causing him to do and take more damage.

No Escape – 15-35m
Effect: Pulls target back, applies 1.5s stun

The Fires of Greus – 3s Cast; Elemental Damage
Effect: Periodically radiating elemental damage
The Fires of Greus is a large ring around Greus (seen in the Fire Blast picture below)

Fire Blast – 3s Channle; Elemental Damage conal
Effect: Periodically dealing elemental damage to targets in a forward cone, applies Overheat. Knocks down target for 2s
Fire Blast is a fireball shot at the target which damages anyone in the long cleave. Once placed, you can move out of it. If you don’t move out of Fire Blast in time, you will get the Overheating debuff; and get knocked back and down. If you have Overheating and Blistering Cold, this will also add the Thermal Shock debuff, which increases damage from all sources by 10%. Overheating – 5s debuff Effect: Overheated, vulnerable to sudden changes in temperature. Thermal Shock Effect: Exposure to Blistering Cold (Endothermic Blast) and Overheating (Fire Blast) has placed you into a state of Thermal Shock. Taking 10% increased damage from all sources.

Ayhis & Eru – 2s Channel; Up to 11m conal
Effect: Pulls target back, applies 1.5s stun
Ayhis & Eru is a flame conal. Once placed, you can move out of it.

Kronissus – Ice

Lowest health pool (together with Greus) and Endothermic Chaotic Evolution. This guy periodically emits an ice conal (Endothermic Blast) that needs to be jumped out of. The slow he applies makes this more tricky, but doable. Otherwise, his and Greus’s attacks buff each other, so a player with Sublimation will take more damage from Greus’s two conals, and someone with Overheating will take extra damage if hit with Kron’s attacks. A tank needs to hold Kronissus.

Here are the boss buffs explained:

Death Pact
Buff Effect: Death of an Ally buffs survivors; Increases all damage by 20% per stack
Death Pact is a stacking buff that any surviving trandos get when one is killed. This makes them do and take 20% more damage for each defeated Trandoshan. While this makes them faster to burn down, it also makes all their attacks more dangerous.

Chaotic Evolution; Endothermic Affinity
Buff Effect: Target will enter a regenerative state of Torpor if its health is reduced below 15% and damage dealt increased substantially for each stack of this effect.

Torpor
Buff Effect: Regenerating 1.214% of maximum health every 0.5s, damage received from all sources reduced by 80%. Lasts 35sec; Trandoshan reborn from Torpor will gain a charge of Chaotic Evolution.
At 15% health, he hunches over and gains the Torpor buff. When in this state he will hunch over and not move until it drops. He will take far less damage and steadily regain health. When he does get up, he’ll gain a stack of Chaotic Evolution, causing him to do and take more damage.

Boss abilities explained:

Frigid Claws – 5m attack
Effect: Applies Sublimation
Frigid Claws is a basic attack that applies stacks of Sublimation. The animation for this is fairly slow and exaggerated, so the attack is easy to see. Sublimation – 5s debuff; Stacks up to 3x Effect: Movement speed reduced by 30/50/70%

No Escape – 15-35m
Effect: Pulls target back, applies 1.5s stun

Endothermic Blast – 7m conal; 2s channel
Effect:Periodically dealing elemental damage to targets in a forward cone, applies Blistering Cold. Applies Hypothermia, immobilizing target for 1.1s
Endothermic Blast is a 2s conal. Every 5 attacks, he casts the conal (note that Sublimation only stacks to 3). Standing in this conal (which you shouldn’t) applies Blistering Cold, which roots you and reduces alacrity. Blistering Cold – 5s Debuff Effect: Movement speed reduced by 100%, Alacrity reduced by 15%, threat generated increased by 15%. Thermal Shock Effect: Exposure to Blistering Cold (Endothermic Blast) and Overheating (Fire Blast) has placed you into a state of Thermal Shock. Taking 10% increased damage from all sources, scales with each charge up to 40% If you have Overheating and Blistering Cold, this will also add the Thermal Shock debuff, which increases damage from all sources by 10%

Hissyphus – Toxic

Second highest health pool; significantly higher than Greus and Kron. He has the Caustic evolution, which manifests in several ways. He periodically drops a small(ish) green gas sphere and applies a DoT that needs cleansing. He also radiates a DoT that affects everyone within 20m, which makes stealth-rezing difficult while he is up.

Buffs:

Death Pact
Buff Effect: Death of an Ally buffs survivors; Increases all damage by 20% per stack
Death Pact is a stacking buff that any surviving trandos get when one is killed. This makes them do and take 20% more damage for each defeated Trandoshan. While this makes them faster to burn down, it also makes all their attacks more dangerous.

Chaotic Evolution; Caustic Affinity
Effect: Target will enter a regenerative state of Torpor if its health is reduced below 15% and damage dealt increased substantially for each stack of this effect.

Torpor
Effect: Regenerating 1.214% of maximum health every 0.5s, damage received from all sources reduced by 80%. Lasts 35sec Trandoshan reborn from Torpor will gain a charge of Chaotic Evolution.
At 15% health, he hunches over and gains the Torpor buff. When in this state he will hunch over and not move until it drops. He will take far less damage and steadily regain health. When he does get up, he’ll gain a stack of Chaotic Evolution, causing him to do and take more damage.

Venom Synthesis
Effect: Stacking buff; Enables Envenomed Strike at 10 charges; also causes Hissy to drop Tx-1Ch E. Gas
Venom Synthesis is a stacking buff Hissy gains until spiting a cloud of Gas.

Abilities and attacks:

No Escape – 15-35m range
Effect: Pulls target back, applies 1.5s stun

Envenomed Strike
Effect: Applies Venom of Hissyphis when Hissy has 10 stacks of Venom Synthesis

Tx-1Ch E. Gas
Effect: AoE sphere; Internal Damage; 15s duration 1sec tick
Tx-1Ch E. Gas is a puddle dropped every 10 stacks of Venom Synthesis, resetting these stacks. The puddles drop centered on Hissy’s target, and should be placed accordingly.

Venom of Hissyphis – Debuff 18s; Cleansable Dot; Ticks every 3s
Effect: Periodically afflicted by internal damage. This effect can be cleansed. Stacks; cleanse removes all stacks
Venom of Hissyphis debuff (seen on PLAYER; unlike Venom Synthesis which is a buff on HISSY) is a DoT that needs to be cleansed. This does a LOT of damage and needs to be cleansed ASAP.

Caustic Plume – 2s channel; Up to 20m range
Effect: Periodically radiating damage

Pummel
Effect: 5m attack

Titax – Strength

Boss Buffs:

Death Pact
Effect: Death of an Ally buffs survivors; Increases all damage by 20% per stack
Death Pact is a stacking buff that any surviving trandos get when one is killed. This makes them do and take 20% more damage for each defeated Trandoshan. While this makes them faster to burn down, it also makes all their attacks more dangerous.

Chaotic Evolution; Might Affinity
Effect: Target will enter a regenerative state of Torpor if its health is reduced below 15% and damage dealt increased substantially for each stack of this effect. Lasts 35sec; Increases the Presence of Titax aura radius by 3m per charge.

Torpor
Effect: Regenerating 1.214% of maximum health every 0.5s, damage received from all sources reduced by 80%. Trandoshan reborn from Torpor will gain a charge of Chaotic Evolution.
At 15% health, he hunches over and gains the Torpor buff. When in this state he will hunch over and not move until it drops. He will take far less damage and steadily regain health. When he does get up, he’ll gain a stack of Chaotic Evolution, causing him to do and take more damage.

Abilities and Attacks:

No Escape – 15-35m range
Effect: Pulls target back, applies 1.5s stun

Presence of Titax – 3s cast
Effect: Increases the effectiveness of nearby allies. Dramatically increases the potency of any existing mutagen affinity.
Presence of Titax is an AoE that buffs allies. It is represented by four spinning fireballs, which outline the ring of effect.

Titax Strike
Effect: Stuns then knocks target back. If knocked into canister, greatly reduces damage from impact, knocked down (stunned) for 3s
Titax Strike is a powerful knockback, which stuns the target before punting them across the room. The person with aggro is supposed to aim themselves to hit one of the 6 green canisters to break their fall, though in SM you can survive without it. Doing so spills the liquid inside, creating green rings (left side container in the image below), which grows until the end of the fight.

Crush the Weak
Effect: Lunges toward the target nearest to death at the end of this channel, immobilizing target. Knocks down target for 1.3s
Crush the Weak is a leap AoE attack, where Titax jumps on whoever has the lowest health when the channel starts. A ring shows up around that person, indicating the area of impact. Ideally, only the person Titax targets should be in this so that others don’t take unnecessary damage.

Brutal Fists
Effect: 3m weapon damage

Area Details

The room you meet these Trandoshans can be seen on the map below. The right area is the train tracks, and standing anywhere on them (except for the alcoves, marked in white) when a train runs through will instantly kill you (as well as any regenerating Trandoshans).

Note also that the seemingly insignificant blue barriers between the room and the tracks DO function as an actual wall, and LoS bosses as well as healers.

The left lower corner has a generator, which will kill anyone that walks into it (or gets knocked into, or pulled into, etc).

The terminal to call the train is found at the upper left of the image (marked “Call Tram” on the map, even in-game) and becomes active 1min into the fight. Once clicked, the train will rush through the station in 15 seconds. This means (at least in SM), you can call the train after pushing.

There are six Canisters (on the map represented as green dots, numbered) along the walls. These are used to mitigate a lot of the damage from Titax Strike, though in SM not hitting one isn’t a death sentence. It is good practice though.

Strategy

There are several ways groups deal with these Trandoshans. Which works best for your group will depend on comp and other factors. I will start with some generalizations, then move on to specific strategies.

Two of the Bosses will be in the room as you pull; Greus and Hissyphus . The other two (Kronissus and Titax) drop 1 minute later.  The four start locations are indicated in the image above with their respective colors. Kronissus drops in front of the ramp, towards the tracks. Titax drops in the middle, towards the tracks.

This is also when the terminal to summon the train powers on.

The train takes 15s to plow through the station from when you click the button, with several audio queues, which help gauge how close it is to coming.

All strategies will require players (DPS especially) to watch boss health and coordinate; a mechanic usually only seen in higher difficulties. All bosses need to hit 15% on the tracks in order to be hit by the train – an early/misplaced push is quite punishing.

All strategies will also require attentive healers (or the tank, unless they’re a PT/Van) cleansing Hissy’s debuff (again, something usually not seen in other SM’s).

In SM (this changes in HM and onward!) the two bosses that seem to give groups the most trouble are Kron and Hissy.

The stacking buff from killing other trandoshans is weaker in SM as well, so killing them one at a time is viable, though I would still suggest you kill the last two together.

Besides the Greus kiter, and the tank holding Titax, people should be staying out of everything (conals/AoE’s/etc) to minimize damage

Suggested Strategy

I would strongly suggest a ranged DPS kite Greus throughout the fight, leaving him for last. A DPS Sorc/Sage is the best class for this, IMHO, as it is very mobile and can easily hit other bosses (after hitting Greus a bit to build aggro) while getting out of his conals. They can run out of the fire ring, though that does not do much damage, and can easily just stand there until he does a conal. This DPS would bring Greus to the upper left of the map, near the train terminal once the other two bosses drop. You’ll ideally point the attacks toward the corner (away from the others) and click the train when it’s called since you’ll be the closest. If a Sage/Sorc cannot do this, a Slinger/Sniper can also do the job; a melee DPS can do this, but will likely want to be careful not to push him too low and won’t be able to hit the other bosses I’ve seen groups put a healer (Sorc/Sage) on Greus, but a DPS is a better choice.

When the fight starts, have everyone (except for the Greus kiter, though they join in after a few GCD’s are thrown at Greus) focus Hissy and get him as low as possible. If one of your tanks is a Shadow/Sin, they should hold Hissy, stealthing out when the other two drop. If there is no Sin/Shadow, a DPS with a Taunt (DwT) taunts Hissy when the others come down, bringing him to the tracks. Hissy should get pushed shortly after, so the DPS doesn’t have to hold him for long. Ideally, the tank holding Hissy starts where the boss is waiting, then slowly walks him along the blue fence as green puddles drop so that the DPS that takes him is already near the tracks and ready to put him in position. Push happens ASAP and the train is called as soon as he is pushed. Healers watch to cleanse the DoT

Once Hissy dies, the Greus kiter starts hitting Greus. If you hit ~30%, stop, with a hard-stop at 20% to not push accidentally before his time – a strong DPS can do this fairly quickly, so be vigilant.

The tanks grab Titax and Kron as they spawn.

The Kron tank holds him at the upper right part of the main room (near the ramp). I suggest a shadow/sin hold him, taking utilities that break movement impairing effects for Force Speed and Stride; though other tanks can do this as well. Count basic attacks, which look like slow, exaggerated swings (aka, the move Kron does like a broken record when notchanneling his conal); Conal will start after the 5^th attack. Start moving out of it as it’s about to start, not after you see it. Use movement cleansing effects before this, to not be slowed (Sublimation).

The Titax tank holds him against a wall, not breaking canisters. You CAN just get punted into the wall in SM, though you will take more damage; the advantage to this being that you don’t have green circles eating up the room. The order in the image is (IMHO) the most logical, as it spares the train terminal and the right side of the stairs from green as much as possible if you DO want to use canisters. Using canisters might require that Titax is killed second to not run out of canisters. A good place is the lower right part of the room, where Hissy was kited previously.

IF the group is not breaking canisters, Kron is pushed next. Remember that he stops frequently, so give yourselves plenty of time to move him onto the tracks and kill him. If the group is breaking canisters, you can still push Kron, or might have to do Titax if you’re worried about running out (again, in SM, you don’t need canisters to survive). Kron is pushed, the train is called, everyone gets off the tracks.

Titax is focused, dropping him to ~30%, then moving him to one side of the tracks. Remember; his Presence of Titax buffs other bosses if they get within the fireball ring. Special care must be taken here, and everyone should be near the tracks in case a Crush the Weak drops right before the push (pushing him off the tracks).

• Greus is then dropped to 30%, if the DPS on him hasn’t done so already. Bring Greus to the tracks. Push Titax. Call Train. Push Greus

 Summary: Push Hissy, followed by Kron then Titax and Greus together, using 3 trains. Have a ranged DPS hold Greus and a DwT take over Hissy once the others drop down.

Alternative Strategy

Some groups find it easier to get as few bosses up as quickly as possible. Personally, I don’t see the advantage of getting rid of the least-problematic boss first, prolonging how long the two most annoying (Kron and Hissy) stay up.

• For this, they kill Greus first, calling the train as soon as it turns on, and the tank holding Greus grabbing Kron when he comes down.
• Other tank holds Hissy and he is killed next.
• A DPS holds Titax until Hissy dies.
• Kron is pushed next, then Titax (or the two are pushed together).

Other Strategies

The two strategies above are (IMHO) the easiest ones for players to use at this difficulty. SM is quite forgiving though, and your group might find other methods more to your liking.

There is also a strategy where a tank holds two bosses after killing one. I would strongly advise against this, as there’s no good combination of bosses to hold. Titax buffs other bosses, while Kron and Greus have synergy from certain attacks. Kron’s slow also makes getting out of Greus or Hissy’s attacks problematic, and makes the fight harder than it needs to be (for tanks and/or healers). It can be done, but forges bad habits and will make later prog harder.

Another strategy, outlined in the HM guide as the “show-off” (often called “two and two”) involves killing two trandos with each train; the first two dying as (or soon after) the others spawn. This also works in SM and is quite efficient, but requires more coordination than is expected for an SM group working on the fight. If you’re interested, refer to the HM version of this guide (the train, as always, can be called after they push in SM).

Path to Huntmaster

After defeating the Trandoshans, you go up the ramp and exit back out onto the second level of the Main Facility. The previously closed door further down the hall will now be open, allowing you to pass. If you are coming from a lockout, you can enter the facility through the door on the right of spawn. You can go directly up the stairs and merge into the path in the image below (showing the path from the elevator to/from Trandoshans).

In the room past the hallway, you will see a Felshade Reaper and two Felshade Hunters waiting in the room.

Luckily, you will find three flares in a box in the middle of the room (yellow circle on the image below).  These have to be tanked inside the flare, the same way you took care of them in the encounter fights.

Beyond this room, you make your way up the steps on the left-hand side (right on the image above), labeled “Steps to Huntmaster” on the earlier map.

These stairs slow you and feel like they take forever. You will keep getting wary stacks, and stopping will let you drop them.

At the top, there will be mines and adds waiting for you on the left and in the elevator room. These will be the same guards you’ve dealt with before fighting the Mutant Trandoshans. Killing the adds will unlock the elevator here, which you access from the room in the image above, except going around the crates and straight/right (far right in the map above).

Further out, you have to fight one more pack of adds, pictured below.

Once this pack is killed, IF you or someone in the group has an achievement (The Dxun Cypher), you can walk back to the elevator and take it to the other floor, labeled “Executive Lounge.”

If no one has this achievement (or if the elevator doesn’t pop for whatever reason), you will have to do an extra step. Ideally, a stealther does this, so they don’t have to fight any more adds. The path across the roof is below, going from the lower left to the upper right of the image;

Beyond this is another set of stairs, just like the one you scaled up, except you can hop down these until you walk out and down the ramp in the following room. In the room below, the turrets (one circled in yellow in the image below) fire at anything moving quickly, so you need to turn on RP walk (or Shadow/Sin pops deflection and speeds past) to get into the final area before the boss (bottom left of the image below).

On the bottom left of the image, the path forks, and the right goes to the elevator room and left goes to the Executive Lounge. If walking into the Lounge doesn’t trigger the elevator, your stealther might have to track back to the elevator on the right.

Once the group can get to the Executive Lounge (shown below), you simply jump out the left broken window (right, if you want a laugh ^_^) and you’ll be at the next boss; the Huntmaster.

4: The Huntmaster

The Huntmaster is an entertaining fight, with some unique mechanics that build off things you saw earlier in the operation… but it suffers from fairly annoying de-sync, which (given the mechanics) can be quite frustrating.

The huntmaster is a boss you’ll have to burn down to 30%, while waves of Lurking Beasts (tweaked Felshade Reapers) spawn. A moving light keeps you (and the Huntmaster) safe from them, but you’ll have to venture out periodically, which gives them ample opportunity to pounce. At the end, the ‘true boss’ is revealed after snacking on the guy who’s been giving you so much trouble so far, and has to be killed in order to finish the fight.

Boss Details

The Huntmaster

Master of the Hunt
Buff Effect: Destacking buff: Starts with 50 stacks; With enough kills he enters transcendence.
Master of the Hunt is a de-stacking buff that counts down each time Huntmaster kills something (usually a Lurking Beast, but also players). If it reaches 0, he gains Ultimate Hunter (which is an enrage) and starts one-shotting people left and right (quickly finishing the fight in his favor).

Adrenaline Rush – Triggers sub 35%, heals and adds DR.
Buff Effect: Triggers sub 35%, heals and adds DR.
Adrenaline Rush is a buff when Huntmaster’s health gets low – preventing you from killing him.

Primal Fear – 6sec Buff
Damage dealt decreased by 70%; Tripled (12s) against beasts
Primal Fear is a 6second buff (debuff) that causes everyone/thing to do a lot less damage. This is very protective when dealing with adds, on which the debuff lasts 3x as long!

Scatterblast – 5s channel; conal
Scatterblast is a large, 90° yellow conal that marks (big yellow blast icon) beasts hit by it – any beast that dies with the mark counts as a kill for the Huntmaster (even if you kill them). Ideally, the player targeted for Scatterblast points it away from the group and any adds (or anyone BUT the person who this is on moves out of it).
Scatterblast is a large, 90° yellow conal that marks (big yellow blast icon) beasts hit by it – any beast that dies with the mark counts as a kill for the Huntmaster (even if you kill them). Ideally, the player targeted for Scatterblast points it away from the group and any adds (or anyone BUT the person who this is on moves out of it).

Powershot Volley – 5s channel
Series of shots, knocks back closest target directly in front of Huntmaster
Powershot Volley is a series of shots, aimed at a particular player. The targeted player is marked by a thin X over their head. The closest player to Huntmaster, who is in between Huntmaster and the targeted player, gets shot and knocked back. Repeated knocks go further, and a full volley is basically a death sentence. It’s best to stack for this, each only taking one hit… or preferably behind a designated player that’s immune to knockback protecting others (god bubble sorc/sage, hydraulics/hold the line, etc).

Penetrating Shot – 5s channel; 24s debuff
Penetrating Shot is a powerful shot centered on a target (tank) that hits everyone in its path. The tank needs to point this away from the group.

Firestorm Grenade – 3s channel; Elemental Damage
Throws an incendiary grenade at the primary target’s location. Creates a large patch of immolated ground at the impact site, which deals continual elemental damage to all enemies within the area.
Firestorm Grenade is an AoE that gets placed where a player (randomly selected) stands at the end of the channel. The fire stays on the ground and hurts players and beasts. Going into it also leaves a DoT. Any beasts that die in the fire count for Huntmaster’s kill count (reduce stacks)…but since he has so many in SM, this is still a great method of lowering the number of adds running around without making the last phase harder. This grenade should be placed with caution, as it CAN ruin a pull if the light covers a grenade (leaving no safe spot). NOTE: In SM these have a habit of not staying visible (aka the left image doesn’t appear), but are still there. If in doubt, watch debuffs for the dot, or place a marker where it drops.

Fortress – 30m range
Deploys a powerful omnidirectional shield barrier around the caster, granting tremendous defensive bonuses so long as the user remains within the fortress boundary.
Fortress looks like an omnidirectional Entrench/Hunker Down. The Fortress can only be broken with a powerful knock (Charger). While in Fortress, Huntmaster reflects damage. When Huntmaster is in his Fortress, he uses Concussive Shockwave on anyone who gets too close, knocking them away and dealing damage.

Holdout Cover – Buff
In cover and waiting to ambush whatever comes into range. Immune to taunts.
Holdout is when Huntmaster jumps to the lake, casting a huge red circle showing his ‘kill zone.’ He also drops a flare that makes all adds attack him (not you, for once!) If you (or an add) step into this 30m circle, you will get one-shot with his powerful Culling Shot. Outside of this ring of death, the Culling Shot still hurts, so the group will want to stack for AoE heals. While in Holdout, Huntmaster reflects (but still takes) damage, which looks like lightning zaps.

Culling Shot – 30m range
Culling Shot does a good chunk of damage outside the red circle as well, but inside it’s a one-shot. He shoots players if there are no beasts within

The Ultimate Hunter – Buff
In a transcendent state of lethal focus. Attacks cannot miss. Damage dealt massively increased.

Melee Frenzy
Damage and Alacrity increased substantially. Immune to taunts (not that you would want his attention right now). This ability taunts all enemies within 5m when used.

Concussive Shockwave
Briefly overcharges the Fortress Bunker, knocking all nearby targets back several meters and dealing heavy kinetic damage. Only usable from Fortress cover.

Cyclone Strike – 5m range

Holotraverse – buff
Moves instantly to middle of the light or edge of the lake, depending on phase.

Lurking Beast

List of abilities and attacks:

• Leap Attack – 6-20m range Force/Tech damage
• Melee Attack – 4m Weapon Damage
• Maul – 4m Weapon Damage
• Seek the Dark – Moves the caster away from the nearest light source. Only usable while in light.

Seek the Dark means that these guys are allergic to light sources, and will be actively repelled by them.

Leap Attack is their highest damage move, and hurts, so if possible you want to avoid getting lept to. Adds will leap on anyone leaving the light.

Charger

Confused and Infuriated – buff
Damage dealt massively increased. This charger has no idea what just happened but it is VERY mad about it. Added with Charger knocked down and stunned
Knocking down Huntmaster will stun the Charger, and it will become Confused and Infuriated, which increases its damage output (and turns the bull an angry red). Ideally, you want to have the DPS kill it while it’s still stunned. Otherwise, it needs to be kited while DPS continue to focus it.

Deliberate Charge – 5s channel
Normal attack

Fixated
This creature is fixated on a Huntmaster and its focus cannot be changed. Immune to taunts. Temporarily ignoring threat rules.
Fixates on Huntmaster, with arrows showing its path. It will Trample anything in its path, and Ram any obstacles (Huntmaster). This is the only way to knock Huntmaster out of his Fortress.

Trample
Knocking away anything underfoot. Enemies take damage in the process. Charging at a target, trampling everything on the way.

Charge Ram – 4m attack
Normal attack

Warning Roar – 4s channel
Normal attack

Shelleigh

Crabby Demeanor – buff
Increases maximum health a small amount with each stack. Perhaps you shouldn’t have fed the lake monster… Max health increased 1% per stack
Feeding Shelleigh (throwing beasts into her lake) gives her stacks of Crabby Demeanor, which increases her health.

Toxic Cloud – Internal Damage
Passively emits a toxic cloud that deals ramping internal damage to enemies in a massive area
Toxic Cloud is raid-wide damage that goes out while Shelleigh is up. This stacks, so the longer she’s up, the bigger the heal check.

Nom – 6m range; AoE Sphere
Eats anything in AoE; Adds Lunch Debuff on target; Lunch -Target has been eaten, and cannot be resurrected.
Nom casts a quick, small, pink ring on the ground, indicating the area where Shelleigh will eat whatever is still there. Quickly jump out of the circle, or get eaten. Anything eaten cannot be rez’d (you’re in Shelleigh’s belly).

Pulverize – 1s channel
Pounds target and stuns them in the ground. Unable to act. This effect cannot be broken.
Pulverize pounds the tank into the ground, preventing action. Can’t be broken. Requires a tank swap.

Strategy

When the fight starts, a large circle of light (think spotlight) will shine over a significant portion of the map, and Huntmaster will immediately teleport into it. Adds will start spawning and will continue to do so until Shelleigh scares them off.

The light will gradually make itself smaller, becoming quite cramped, then slowly oscillate around the map. Your goal is to stay in the light. It becomes the size of a grenade circle, so a poorly placed Grenade can rob you of any safe area.

Huntmaster will teleport to its center as soon as the light leaves him, but he will finish any ability/channel before doing so (like any good sniper).

The overhead view of the room is below, with the rough size of the starting light circled, as well as the general spawn locations adds might pop out of (basically, the brush).

The window you fall through is circled in yellow, and the 4 direction names are based on it, the lake, Apex entrance, with the last wall defaulting to “back”. Knowing these helps orient people when calling out which way mechanics are going, etc.

The starting light area is also (very roughly) the confines the smaller circle will move around, giving you an idea of the usable area of the map for the majority of the fight.

Your goal, ultimately, is to get Huntmaster to 35% before he loses all his Master of the Hunt Stacks. As you work on this, he will cycle between the Light phase and the Holdout phase.

Light Phase

In the Light phase, everyone will stay in the circle, and he will do the following moves;

You want the tank to face him away for Penetrating Shot (I like to point it to the left or up toward the Apex door).

Whomever Scatterblast is on takes the conal alone (pref not shooting any beasts, either), moving from the group and off to the side (meaning others should not be spread out, so this player has a place to move the conal.

The group stacks for Powershot Volley (including the tank), forming a line directly in front of  the player Huntmaster targets. A designated player can pop a defensive and protect others from getting shot, taking all the hits. This would be sorc/sage god bubble, sniper/slinger entrench/hunker down, or merc/mando hydraulics/hold the line +reflect to prevent themselves from getting knocked back.

Grenade will get thrown in both phases. The person with Grenade tries to put them between the large circle and the Lower/Left doors. If dropped correctly, and you get lucky, it can help you kill the charger efficiently.

The general ability order for the fight (ignoring filler attacks) is the following (though note, he’s easily thrown off slightly, flipping abilities here or there), at least to start;

• Pwershot Volley > Firestorm Grenade > Penetrating Shot > Scattershot > Primal Fear
• Firestorm Grenade > Pen Shot > Powershot Volley > Primal Fear

Holdout Phase

Every second Primal Fear is followed quickly by Fortress, a Charger spawning, and (after knocking Huntmaster out of Fortress) a Holdout phase.  While in Fortress, Huntmaster will continue shooting the tank with his ranged attack while reflecting damage.

A Charger can spawn at either of the two doors NOT leading to Apex (Top door on the overhead image above). Below is a detailed view of these two doors, with a red circle showing the (again, rough) position where Huntmaster will go into Fortress.

In SM, everyone should stay out of the way to not take needless damage from the Charger, as he auto-aggros on Huntmaster.

35m classes have a distinct advantage; being able to DPS Huntmaster while he’s in Holdout, as opposed to waiting and only being able to fight him during parts of the fight.

• Light and Holdout phases repeat until he drops to 35%, making Fortress the end of each cycle.
• Depending on how desync’d Huntmaster gets, he might skip/flip abilities, the most annoying of which is NOT doing a Primal Fear.
• The adds will do damage to Huntmaster (not just to you) If they catch him out of the light. This can put him into Melee Mode, which makes him a FAR bigger annoyance and often results in a wipe if he doesn’t revert back when fighting players.

Shelleigh

At 35% Huntmaster will jump to the Lake (as if to do another Holdout), at which point he starts rapidly regaining health, foiled when Shelleigh comes out to play.

There’s an obligatory swap after Pulverize so that the person on who the  Nom circle drops is NOT the same one that’s still stunned from Pulverize. Anyone Shelleigh eats (anyone who dies to the  Nom circle) CANNOT be rez’d (stealth or combat) until the fight ends. This makes it a quite important mechanic to get out of, ASAP.

Details

The Huntmaster DPS check centers around not letting his Master of the Hunt stacks drop to 0, which in practice means not letting him kill more than 50 things before he hits 35%.

In SM, this DPS check is mild (but DOES exist!), and having an add-strategy isn’t as essential as it is in harder modes. You can get away with killing some adds with fire or leaving the bulk for his Holdout phases, assuming your DPS can push him before he starts a 3^rd Holdout phase. Having enough adds for Holdout also means he’s not hitting you, adding a bit of protection.

Two-Tank Strat

Every Primal Fear, one tank can go out and bait the adds. Once gathered, the adds can be handled in one of two ways;

• They can be grouped up and knocked/stunned in Grenades, either to eat some of their health or kill them outright (killing via grenade eats Huntmaster’s stacks, don’t forget!).
• They can be gathered and knocked into the lake, efficiently getting rid of them, but buffing Shelleigh’s health. In SM, he has so many stacks this is probably not the best solution vs leaving them up or killing them via grenades unless your DPS is low.

Every Holdout the adds are allowed to run at Huntmaster, protecting players from getting hit with Culling Shot.Everyone should gather together for AoE heals, shields, etc. If you are low on stacks, you CAN prevent adds from running in, letting all non-35m DPS power through them (since they can’t hit Huntmaster, anyway).

You want to push to 35% before the 3^rd Holdout. If you can’t do this, you will want to start knocking adds into the lake or otherwise killing them directly to help reduce the loss of Master of the Hunt Stacks.

When Shelleigh comes out, the tanks swap after Pulverize so the other tank doesn’t get eaten. When the pink  Nom circle drops, you step out of it. The Tank can minimize the number of swaps by kiting Shelleigh in a large ring around the enclosure (basically treating her like Eyeless) since she can’t really do her attacks while trying to catch you. This is easiest when there’s many ranged DPS that don’t have to run after the crab to hit it.

The tanks can also just keep Shelleigh at the edge of the lake, with a tank to each side and the group between them (T1/T2 and Group in the image above). This means the crab does a 180 every tank swap and the  Nom circle can simply be side-stepped without anyone else having to change position. This also makes keeping people up due to Toxic Cloud stacks easier (AoE heals), with no one possibly outranging the healers.

Single Tank Strat

This is a strat meant to help boost DPS and get him to drop to 35% ASAP. Doing this WILL leave quite a few extra adds up, as DPS are hard focusing the Huntmaster, meaning there’s more chance of someone getting globaled when stepping out to drop the grenade or during Fortress. This strat also requires a DPS with Taunt (DwT), or you’ll have a bad time on the last leg of the fight.

The tank steps out every Primal Fear to gather up adds, which can be kited/knocked/stunned in grenades… or just held onto. The DPS can swap off and kill some adds, though this defeats the purpose of stacking DPS. You might have to play around with how many adds your group needs to kill before Fortress to not over-stress healers or kill players.

Every Holdout the adds are allowed to run at Huntmaster, protecting players from getting hit with Culling Shot. Everyone should gather together for AoE heals, shields, etc. With 5 (preferably at least a couple 35m-ranged) DPS, it should only take 1 Holdout to push to 35%.

When Shelleigh comes out, the DwT taunts and runs after Pulverize, swapping with the tank so the tank doesn’t get eaten. When the pink  Nom circle drops, that person needs to just keeps moving. The Tank can minimize the number of swaps by kiting Shelleigh in a large ring around the enclosure (basically treating her like Eyeless; white path in the image above), since she can’t really do her attacks while trying to catch you. This is easiest when there’s many ranged DPS that don’t have to run after the crab to hit it, but the DwT should STILL be watching her casts and in-range to taunt off if a Pulverize does happen.

5: Apex Vanguard

Apex is a fun fight… mostly for the battery carrier. For everyone else, it’s mostly a dummy parse and tank n’ spank. It has some interesting mechanics, but (in SM) many can be healed through or outright ignored. After the last two mechanic-heavy fights, you will find this final encounter far simpler.

This fight CAN be single-tanked easily, and depending on who becomes the battery carrier (more on this later) getting more DPS makes the fight go easier.  

Boss Details

Abilities and Attacks explained:

Photogenesis – 10s cast
Regenerates health when light is on, and drops stacks of Darkness Overdrive
Photogenesis happens when Apex drops to 93% and remains a mechanic for the remainder of the fight. Once this is cast, Apex will regain health while the light is on.

Darkness Overdrive – 10s Channel; Stacking Buff; (max 20)
Each stack increases outgoing damage and damage vulnerability.
Apex becomes increasingly more powerful as he’s left in the dark; due to stacking Darkness Overdrive stacks. Turning on the light makes the stacks drop, but also regenerates his health due to Photogenesis.

Contagion – 3s cast; Internal DoT (2s); Force/Tech
AoE centered on every player. Can be cleansed, will drop off by itself if not.
Contagion places a green ring around each player.

Acid Blast – 0.5s cast, 100m range; Internal Force/Tech
Drops large circle centered on target. Removed with wash
Acid Blast spits out a yellow circle that stays on the floor until you wash the floor, centered on the tank holding Apex. This means that the tank should position themselves against the outer wall to minimize the amount of space they take up. These can be removed by using the wash station.

Rocket Salvo – Kinetic Force/Tech
Rocket Salvo is a raid-wide damage attack Apex does periodically, targeting DPS and Tanks. Players should not stand next to each other to take less damage.

Zone Defense – 3s Channel; Kinetic Force/Tech
Gives each player a Left/Right debuff – then sends missiles if target remains on that side of Apex
Zone Defense is a position mechanic. Each player is marked as either left or right debuff. These appear as yellow/purple arrow debuffs, as well as icons over each player’s head. They correspond to the same icons the boss gains over his shoulders. When this happens, players need to go to the opposing side of their debuff to take no damage.

Red Venom Cloud – 3s Cast; Raid-wide DoT; Internal
Unleashes a cloud of Red Venom, filling the room. Stacks up to 25
Red Venom Cloud is a purple mist Apex fills the entire room with, which can only be dispelled by using the fan station. As it stays on, it stacks, doing progressively more damage.

Mass Target Lock – 2s Cast; 30s cooldown
30s Debuff, after which Bombardment starts. Canceled by EMP
Mass Target Lock is a 30-second debuff that also shows up as a big red target over every player. Once this debuff expires, if it is not broken via EMP, Apex starts a high-damage Bombardment. This should never happen. Bombardment – 6s channel Explanation: Raid-wide damage. Happens IF Mass Target Lock is not countered in time (should not happen).

The Battery

The big mechanic here is managing the battery, an item you break out of the main (central) Power Transformer early-on in the fight. Placing it back in this transformer refills it to full (rapidly, in SM). This job is usually relegated to the off-tank, especially in harder modes (where it is a full-time job), but in SM a Healer can easily do this, or the lowest DPS (allowing you to only run one tank).

The battery holds a max of 6 charges, indicated on the battery itself as 2 blue, 3 yellow 1 red bar indicating each charge.

For the remainder of the fight, you use this battery to power various stations to counter various mechanics the boss throws (usually shoots or spits) at you.

Stations

A carrier takes the battery out of the Central Transformer (top picture, after breaking the cover plate) and inserts it into the stations (blue clamps on the left of the stations below).

Once powered, each station does something different, and a different panel/console lights up that actually works the station.

The details of what the stations do are below:

	EMP: Ends Mass Target Lock; Fully drains battery. Click central Console.
	Fans: Vent the room of toxic fumes (Red Venom Cloud). Click central Console.
	Wash Station: Washes the floor of Yellow Puddles. Click flat panel in the center of the station.

EMP

The EMP station (voice-overs call this “the Disruptor”) will drain any charges left on the battery and requires at least one charge to trigger. To use the EMP, click the center console with the battery inserted (seen lit-up in the image below).

Fan

The Fan station uses ONE charge. Click the center console to start the fans. The fans stay on for some time after activation.

Wash Station

The wash station uses up ONE charge.

You click the large (flat) center panel to wash the floor, causing a series of large sprinklers to come out of the floor, washing away yellow Acid Blast puddles.

Strategy

As you enter the room, you spawn directly in front of Apex (the player icon on the map above) and need to make a sharp left or right to not aggro Apex prematurely.

The easiest method for SM is to have the tank hold Apex (facing the outer wall) between the EMP and WASH stations, moving just enough to get out of an Acid Blast circle as it gets placed. This is called the ‘half-room strat’, and should allow for about 9 acid puddles to be dropped between washes. After a wash, the tank holding Apex turns around, doing the reverse path.

Be careful not to stack the rings too tightly. You don’t want to pinch the DPS, who shouldn’t be stacked (or standing in orange) for Rocket Salvo. Below is about the tightest pattern you want to have. If you aim for a looser pattern, remember to wash more often.

If the wash is late, you can continue, dropping one ring in the center between the stations. This will require a reset at the wash to get back away from the stations. There is very little reason for a wash to be late in SM since the battery carrying is NOT a full-time job.

Assuming the tank places the Acid puddles correctly and the battery is used properly, everyone else mainly just DPS’s Apex until he dies. Besides the battery carrier, the fight is fairly simple for everyone else.

Until 93% the fight is a straight DPS burn, where Apex just casts Acid Blast and Contagion. Once the boss’s health drops below that, he casts  Photogenesis andbegins healing in the light.

The Central Transformer Apex was standing in front of can now be broken open (which is a hard-swap, as it needs to be broken ASAP). This allows the battery carrier to grab and use the battery while everyone else swaps back to the boss. 

Soon after the battery is removed, the boss casts  Darkness Overdrive and begins to gain stacks. Since using the battery is not a full-time job in SM, it is wise to relegate a healer to do it, or the lowest DPS, allowing the fight to be single-tanked to speed-up the fight. Otherwise (and in harder modes) the off-tank runs the battery.

The Contagion can be cleansed, reducing the healing required, but in SM it will disappear by itself and can be ignored.

For  Zone Defense, DPS can help healers out by moving to the opposite side of Apex after they get their debuff. This is the only real positioning check. Apex gives everyone a yellow or purple buff, and his cannons get the same symbols over them. Players move to the opposing side (if you have a purple buff, you move to yellow canon) to prevent taking damage.

There is an alternative method of turning Apex to one side, then the other (facing left/right of mid), but in SM it’s easier to just have the DPS move.

Note also that Apex has a frontal cleave and should NOT be aimed forward to protect the raid from taking extra damage.

Battery Carrier

In SM, the battery carrier has only three stations to worry about; EMP, Fan, and Wash (four, if you count the Transformer, where you re-charge the battery). The other two are disabled. This means that there are large gaps of time between needing to use the stations, and everything can be dealt with reactively (what Apex casts determines what needs to be done).

When Apex casts Mass Target Lock, you have 30sec to use the EMP, meaning you have plenty of time to vent and/or wash (assuming you have enough charges, each station eats one) on your way to break it. Don’t rush there if a wash or vent is needed (unless you only have 1 stack left, which you need for the EMP). If  Bombardment is allowed to happen, it is a direct battery-carrier issue and needs to be addressed.

Washing should be done every time the tank is close to getting to the Wash or EMP stations, assuming the half-room strategy is used.

Fan station should be powered on after Apex casts Red Venom Cloud.

The battery should be charged after EMP and otherwise dropped between uses (unless it runs out of charges) to prevent the carrier from becoming too slowed due to high stacks . Rarely, you can also keep it in the light for a little while if Apex gains too many   Darkness Overdrive stacks (but this will also heal him, prolonging the fight).

About the Author

I am a Sin tank main, and have been playing SWtOR since early 4.0. Most people know me as Elssha or El. I learned NiM Raiding with <Lightning Masters>, and mostly play on Imp Satele Shan.

I raid basically every day, and my main teams are currently working on NiM Apex and Gods timed run. Otherwise, I’ve successfully tanked all bosses in 5.0 and 6.0.

I’d like to take a moment to thank Wunderschon for helping me edit the guide, and giving his healer perspective on things, as well as the people who let me mess around, taking pictures and testing theories. I couldn’t have written this without them.

I think it’s very important to know the ‘why’ behind the tactics, which is why I’ve tried to give a lot of background info in this guide. Without it, you can’t adapt strategies to ones that fit you team best, nor can you come up with new ones (or apply what you learn in this op to other ones).

If you have any questions (or comments/corrections) please feel free to poke me on twitch (Elssha), twitter (@alortania) or on reddit (Alortania). I hope this guide serves you well!