Eater of Souls - The Departed

[Ceridwen.6703]

I'm sorry to hear this fight sucked for so many of you. :/ I think it'll go down for me as the one time lots of others have issues and I didn't even realise there were any issues. I don't particularly enjoy this disparity, as I believe all story bosses/creatures/whatever should be accessible for all of us. The hard challenge should be in raids, dungeons, etc., not a part-way encounter in the story.

 

FWIW, I'm running an MM Power Reaper, and I tackle bosses like this in shroud, using combos, and the minions do the rest of the job (flesh golem, etc). I swapped to this as even though I love my chrono, my ranger, and so on, this completely non-meta necro just eats things up and spits them out happily - but don't get me wrong; I'm pretty sure we shouldn't all have to swap professions to reapers just to do story content. If any solo player wants to know the specifics, pm me for build and gear, etc.

[dragyn.5706]

Okay, contrary to my last comment, it is possible with an ele. For those looking, it involves creative use of the mechanics. So, for the casual gamers, like me, who don'y care about even the thought of dying, and don't know every last build code word, here's how:

 

Balth:

- I recommend 2 daggers. They do more damage quickly

- Glyph, Shield, Signets of Air and Earth - the elite doesn't matter, youre probably not going to use it

- Now the fun part: attune to earth and run clockwise around fireboy. Yep, that's it.

- Okay, you'll want to keep casting 1, 2 when its available, and 5 if you think you can get away with it

- 6 (heal) and 7 (shield) at your discretion

- And why clockwise? One of his attacks is shorter in that direction, so its easier to avoid, you'll take less damage

- YOU WILL DOWN

- Sorry, with this method, you will, but he's just taunting you, so he'll res you, and back to the chase you go

- This takes ~10 minutes

 

Eater of Souls:

- But I have no inventory! And you told me daggers!

- Well, after you claim your name, you can now change weapons in the hero/equipment panel, so switch to staff (make sure you have one before starting)

- Again, just my recommendations, but take Ice Bow and the storm glyph - you want as much AOE as possible

- Now the fun part:

- Behind (from the original facing direction) and to your right of Joko, there's a little outcropping

- Kite the mouth of zhaita... er, Eater of Souls until he gets stuck there

- Stand back from the front of the cage, a bit to the right so you can see but not far enough that the mouth follows you

- Now AOE

- Nothing else because he's obstructed, just AOE - Fire is more powerful, but you also have the bow(4) and storm, and earth renews faster, so use that too

- Again, about 6-10, minutes (some of the attacks are a bit random, so...)

 

Congrats, you killed it.

 

This will probably get lost in the long list and litany of complaints, cynicism, elitism, and other how-tos, but I hope at least one person finds this useful (at least until anet 'fixes' the weap change and/or stuck point.)

 

Take a breath. Have fun. It's a game! :)

[Sciger.1679]

Squishy zerker ele here with tips for other eles on how I ran it: I had to try ~~several ~~ a few times, had broken gloves/shoulders by the end of it but here's what I ran and eventually succeeded with: full ascended zerker armor/accessories/trinkets/etc and staff. I have tempest unlocked but was using weaver. For my build, I was running fire (top, top, top), air (bottom bottom top), weaver (top, mid, top). Still deciding if I like those perks on the weaver build but hey, still learning how to build this crap. B)

 

Zerker staff fully attuned to air, this is critical to my success as Gust is your primary hard CC. You won't be able to use it every time his break bar comes available but it casts fast enough that you can use it successfully almost every time you can use it.

 

Skills: Glyph of Elemental Harmony (for the most heals at once), Signet of Air for movement speed increase for kiting, Armor of Earth for a little more defense while waiting to break his bar, Mist Form to escape from the suction if Gust is on CD, and Weave Self for some CD reduction.

 

My strategy: basically, autoattacking and kiting while using Lightning Surge whenever it wasn't on CD. Whenever I saw the circle spawn with his jumping, immediate cue (along with obvious blue break bar lol) to use Gust to break the bar. If you can't break the bar, use Mist Form. If Mist Form is on CD, dodge twice as soon as he lands in his circle to evade the suction damage. Overall, the successful fight was done within about 10 minutes.

 

Best of luck to y'all fellow glass eles! You can do iiiiit!

[serrano.1405]

> @NitricRose.1863 said:

> No way I will be able to finish this. With a mesmer (trying out mirage) with constant conditions, it's extremely difficult to do damage. A slow connection and slower graphics make timing very difficult. Physical damage seems to work better, but I can't prevent the heals -- apparently that break bar is up for such a short period of time, even with constant barrages from the illusions, it's just pure luck.

>

> Anet keeps creating boss fights that are not fun and are just tedious. The Balthazar fight was much more interesting.

 

I totally agree - any Mesmer who has any even slight lag (try playing from Australia y'all, 400 ping GG) will really suffer because you absolutely cannot break in time.

[Korval.3751]

A nerf is definitely in order.

[Stalkingwolf.6035]

> @FXLEACH.9436 said:

> I killed the eater of souls rather quickly and easily. I'm running chrono using a phantasm build - I switched in blink, and 2 CC utils for the fight.

> I hope this helps in some way and gives some info and perspective for those who have been struggling with this fight. Even if you are not playing the same class as me perhaps you can take some guidance from this video and replicate the strats using the class that you are playing on.

 

nice rotation 1,1,1,1,1,1,3,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,3,1,1,1,1

 

[mbhalo.1547]

Super easy if you have any sort of dps. Just kite around Joko's cage.

[mbhalo.1547]

> @Korval.3751 said:

> A nerf is definitely in order.

 

Please dont ask to dumb down the game before trying to improve yourself.

[mechanizeddeath.3127]

Had a lot of trouble with this too. I kept trying different tactics, changed my build multiple times, and really tried to beat it legit. Eventually I'd tried so many times that some of my armor was broken, so I ended up just glitching him on the chains and beating him that way. Not usually how I like to do things, but this is the first thing in 5 years that has given me so much trouble.

[kenji ural.1782]

I'm playing condi scourge and it was way too easy for me :/

[Korval.3751]

> @mbhalo.1547 said:

> > @Korval.3751 said:

> > A nerf is definitely in order.

>

> Please dont ask to kitten down the game before trying to improve yourself.

 

Says the person who's advocated glitching. Re: "Just kite around Joko's cage."

[Corrada.7304]

> @"kenji ural.1782" said:

> I'm playing condi scourge and it was way too easy for me :/

 

Daredevil staff, easy for me too.

Short bow: 4(poison), 2, 4, 2+ Thieves guild

[kenji ural.1782]

I assume this boss is a dps test for balth (if you have difficulties to kill it, balth will be super hard)

 

[lambnet.2074]

The best strategy is to just walk him into the joko cage and while hes in there beat the stuffing outta him. This isn't a dps test for balth, this is a bad fight.

[Galespark.7835]

I had a very bad build for breakbars starting this fight, so I had to work with my other options. I was also at a disadvantage as a full glass staff weaver, as I had to move so much he hardly stayed in my damage fields. Still finished it on first try, so it's certainly not impossible. Even though I was glass, his normal attacks did not do that much damage that I could not outheal getting hit from time to time.

 

What seemed to work was kiting him around doing mostly ranged attacks, in order to reduce the amount of melee hits he gets in, and keep your dodges/evades/blocks/invulns for his jump+life steal. If you manage to avoid most lifesteal hits, you will whittle him down.

If in addition you manage to break his bar, take a build that can do more consistent dps while kiting and/or is a bit more tanky so you can melee through his normal attacks, you should have an easier time than I did. Just make sure he cannot lifesteal too much!

 

Good luck!

[thewaterguy.4796]

So...can we get whoever looked at this boss fight and said "Yeah this is legit" fired please? Herald Revenant, its fucking impossible

[Nissa Shannar.6904]

Is this a joke ?? I mean this post, I killed him with my thief full berserk @11k hp, without single death in about 15 minutes? I didnt even pay atention, wasnt a challenge at all.

Cmon, dont nerf everything coz kids cant play class properly, for god sake :(

[thewaterguy.4796]

Okay...pretend you aren't a crazy DPS class, not so much fun, also, oh yeah, the game client lost connection after I beat him...so thats fun, I don't get why this is even a discussion, "OH DON'T NERF THE STORY INSTANCES" the hell did this come from?

[Stalkingwolf.6035]

> @"Nissa Shannar.6904" said:

> Is this a joke ?? I mean this post, I killed him with my thief full berserk @11k hp, without single death in about 15 minutes?

 

it took you 15min to kill him? Did you throw cotton balls? srsly ball.s filtered?

[CptAurellian.9537]

> @"Carlin Sanders.3587" said:

> I had no trouble with this boss, so i'm not sure what the deal is. and I ran a dragonhunter with might spam.

 

Pretty much this. I think the break bar could last a little bit longer, but that's about it. That guy went pretty smoothly from 100 to 0.

 

 

[thewaterguy.4796]

No it took me an hour and a half, I came here to rant XD

[Celldrax.2849]

> @Necrid.9601 said:

> The way I ended up beating the boss was just damaging it down, then make sure his pounce doesn't hit you or any illusions/minions you might have. Dodge twice at this point, as the tether won't deal any damage to you so he won't heal from that. He then does a second AoE attack that, if it lands, will also heal him. Use any CC skill to break his bar before the attack goes off. Just keep doing that and the fight isn't that hard, it's just figuring that out took me like twenty minutes.

That double dodge (if you move far enough away) is what allowed me to beat this fuck. It almost, if not entirely mitigated any healing attempts (and consistently, too).

 

Was still a slowish process of kiting. Just had to be very mindful of my position and that leap attack.

 

 

[Lyrion.9248]

ANet fix this shit i tried to kill this "boss" for over 2 hours on my guardian and barely left a dent. If you want something to be story worthy don't make a boss that is impossible to clear. This boss is making me want to never come back to this game because you put this bullshit into the game. i'm about to break my god damn hand out of frustration because of this stupid boss WHY DID YOU LET IT REGEN HEALTH. IT'S OP ALREADY. WE PLAY STORY FOR THE STORY NOT FOR A CHALLENGE.

[SammyB.1590]

I'm torn with what I'm having most trouble with. I've only gotten up to the Eater of Souls twice. Both times I didn't persist too hard since the lag was so bad (I'm in Australia) I couldn't time to CCs on my Mesmer properly (hahaha . . . but seriously it's really difficult). The other times I have just not made it since I've DC'd. I've tried five times and I'm attempting a sixth as I'm writing this (my clones are just attacking Balthazar because it takes fooorrreverrrrr). It would be good if we had an extra second more to break CC just so we can give a bit of padding to people with bad lag (read: everyone in Australia).

 

I don't think I'd mind the difficulty but maaaaaan I can't be bothered fighting Balth again (about 15 minutes), listening to endless dialogue (well, a good 4 minutes of it) and then chasing around my 'memories' (a solid 10), and then either DCing or being in a world of pain. I'd say it takes about 30 minutes to get to that point and I'm listening to Lana Del Rey so this literally feels like my funeral. Can we please at least get a progress/check point so that we get up to this point and then when we DC we can just skip straight to the Eater of Souls? really enjoying everything else about the expansion so far! :)

 

EDIT: OMG you guys I just DC'd again. "Go play a video game" indeed, Lana.

 

EDIT 2: zomg guys it happened again. Is it even surprising anymore?

[Ataraxis.6098]

I gave up after fighting him repeatedly for an hour. I know the mechanics of the fight, but playing a weaver has completely fucked me. They lock out your inventory so I can't switch to a ranged weapon, and melee is completely pointless. Sure, he can't kill me, but I can't do enough damage to overcome the constant lifesteal. At melee range, his breakbar doesn't even last one second. It shows up and then he's draining me instantly, back to full health. I can't believe they locked the entire story behind an encounter that takes forever to get to and then made it essentially unwinnable by trapping me in gear that is useless.