Basics Guide to Strikes in Guild Wars 2

Strike Missions are one of the many activities you can undertake at the mid-point of the endgame. These are 10-man PVE activities designed to be easier than Raids to access. Players will inevitably want to do all of them, but some will be much easier than others. So here is the full guide on Strikes in Guild Wars 2.

10 Man dungeons, seven in total make up the current roster of Strikes in Guild Wars 2. Each of these can be basically split into a tier of difficulty, with three being very easy for new players, three being a more challenging run, and one being a true slog. The goal is to basically blitz the boss as fast as possible, as you get bonus loot based on how fast you kill the boss of each mission.

You can enter as a Squad, but try to bring 10 players if you can. If you enter with less than 10, the mission locks out any new attempts to join. All but the one special event Strikes are available from that large glowing portal in Eye of the North. So you don’t have to trek all over to find them.

What are the current Strike Missions in GW2?

Like was stated prior, there are currently seven in total.

• Tier 2 of the Valor Essence Manipulation mastery is required to open all reward chests.
• Only playable during Wintersday.
• Doesn’t require any expansion to enter.

#	Name	Encounters	Location	Possible rewards	Notes
1	Shiverpeaks Pass	Legendary Icebrood Construct	Shiverpeaks Pass	Shoulders of the Ebon Vanguard Choice Chest  Seal of the Chilly Chaise  Hatched Chili Pepper Home Instance Node
2	Voice of the Fallen and Claw of the Fallen	Voice of the Fallen Claw of the Fallen The Voice and the Claw	Sanctum Arena	Eitrite Ingot  Boneskinner’s Totem  Ice Golem’s Maw Box  Reliquary of the Raven Ceremonial Sandals	Tier 2 of the Vigilance Essence Manipulation mastery is required to open all reward chests.
3	Fraenir of Jormag	Fraenir of Jormag Icebrood Construct	Sanctum Arena	Eitrite Ingot  Boneskinner’s Totem  Ice Golem’s Maw Box Reliquary of the Raven Ceremonial Sandals
4	Boneskinner	Boneskinner	Sanctum Arena	Eitrite Ingot  Ancient Boreal Weapon Skin Container  Boneskinner’s Totem  Ice Golem’s Maw Box  Gilded Reliquary of the Raven  Boneskinner Ritual Vial	Tier 2 of the Resilience Essence Manipulation mastery is required to open all reward chests.
5	Whisper of Jormag	Whisper of Jormag	Whispering Depths	Boneskinner’s Rib  Ice Golem’s Maw Box  Reliquary of the Raven Ceremonial Garb
6	Forging Steel	Ancient Forgeman	Eye of the North	Stone Summit armor
7	Cold War	Minister of Morale	Wolf’s Crossing	Bear Ceremonial armor
*	Secret Lair of the Snowmen	Freezie	Secret Lair of the Snowmen	Wintergreen weapons  Wintersday Gift  Mini Freezie

Basic Tips and Walkthrough for each Strike Mission

• Shiverpeaks Pass – Run into the zone and use Stability or Dodge to run through the icy boulders. Take your time and navigate the jumping puzzles ahead. You will see a set of broken bridges along the right-hand wall after the first few rocks. Use Glide to cross the broken bridges so that have that same wall to your right. Hug the wall and make it to the broken pillars, run up and light the beacon. Other players can port to the beacon once one player makes it there.
  • Shiverpeaks Pass Boss – Avoiding attacks isn’t a big deal, nothing lethal that you can’t outheal. At 50% health, it will be more aggressive, stay on top of healing and it will be over soon.
• Voice & Claw of the Fallen Boss – Get the buff from the pylon and be sure to stay out of the red areas to dodge AoE attacks. Try to time bringing them both down at the same time. If one boss is still up when one goes down, the remaining one gains a dangerous enrage buff.
• Fraenir of Jormag Boss – Avoid both the red circles and ice shards. Ice shards will explode on you. The AoE circles can be dodged, usually by standing out of any circles in the center of the boss arena. At 75% health, he changes form, summoning adds shortly after. Destroy the ice crystals to stop adds from spawning. At 25% he will shift back to first form. Both forms have AoE shockwaves you need to jump to avoid.
• Whisper of Jormag Boss – Always trigger the pylon for a buff.
  • The boss has a few dangerous attacks this helps with. When Whisper uppercuts and launches the party into the air, glide to avoid falling damage.
  • The AoE circles that envelop the party should be dodged just before they hit, also actually move so your circle doesn’t overlap another player.
  • At 75% the party is forced to fight clones of themselves, do NOT USE UTILITY SKILLS ON THE CLONE, THE BOSS WILL BUG OUT.
  • Avoid the Chains, as they damage players they touch, not the player attached to the chain. Do not panic and run around while chained. If you are chained, NEVER STAND IN THE BOSSES HITBOX.
  • 25% the boss will spawn arrows on the ground, triggering the orb phase. Move away from the boss, the further you are from the boss, the less damage you take from the orbs. There is a way around the orb phase using Necromancer summons, but only do this if your party is aware, as any standing by the summon will get insta-killed by the explosions.

• Boneskinner – Always bring extra healing abilities and items for this fight, skip the torches right to the pylon.
  • Boneskinner Boss – The party should stack up together and watch the boss’s movements. When the boss raises its right hand, get ready and watch for circles underneath you. If you see a circle, step to your left out of it. There are smaller variants of this that you can heal through. The more dangerous circle happen when they appear under every player.
  • Sometimes the boss will pull you towards him, just step back to where you were.
  • If the boss’s interrupt bar comes up, try to use your Special Action if you can.
  • If the boss leaps into the air, stay out of the red AoE circle.
  • If the boss backs up, avoid its straight charge.

Now, we’re moving onto the most dangerous Strikes in Guild Wars 2.

Cold War

This boss should involve getting the Pylon and the table activated first, then assign one player to shoot down helicopter adds.

• •  A 10-minute gauntlet of enemies will ensue, just clear than and wait for the boss. Each wave is capped off by a Champion mob.
  • Watch for the shockwave pulses, Dodge these before they hit.
  • Once the real boss spawns, avoid the Firewalls, Charr Cars, and other AoEs.
  • The boss has a voice line that says “Assasin’s Strike Quickly!” Use any Dodge you have to avoid this, it can be very punishing as it will KO most players.

The real danger here is that the boss has special weekly effects  Frigid Vortex creates 4 icy tornadoes around the arena. Frigid Footfalls creates icy areas that damages and chill enemies. Icy Echoes causes players to deal damage to allies when hit. Frozen Barrier periodically generates a barrier that reflects missiles. Lethal Coalescence is a massive AoE. Each week, the sets of effects will change. The sets of these effects are:

• Resilience week (Red Whispers) – Frigid Vortex, Frigid Footfalls and Frozen Barrier.
• Valor week (Green Priory) – Icy Echoes, Lethal Coalescence and Flash Freeze.
• Vigilance week (Blue Vigil) – Icy Echoes, Lethal Coalescence and Flash Freeze.

Forging Steel

This is the longest of all the Strikes in Guild Wars 2. Enter the Scrying Pool instance and get ready for a grind. Your first task is to hit the various quests around the zone and help the warband. You will want to load the ammo and shoot the dummies as fast as possible. Kill the NPCs to the South, or go North and gather tonic ingredients. Head West and help the sniper as well.

There are many other phases to this after these first few quests. The escort quest is made easier by healing the tank and using Speed buffs on it. When the tank reaches the sealed door, destroy the two seals nearby and use the tank to blow the doors down. When you reach the bridge, stand on the three runes to lower it.

The Giant Forgeman boss is next. Be sure to take down the portals to prevent adds. Also, step on the glowing runes to buff the tank. Keep healing the tank to DPS the boss. As the Defiance bar fills, use the Harpoon on the boss THREE times. Grapple the target when you see the prompt for that key and hold the key down. This will lock the boss in place. Then start blasting him in the face.

What are rewards like for Strikes in Guild Wars 2?

You can get some very rare drops if you’re lucky, and these are the chase items that encourage players run these Strike Missions more than once. Some chase items like the seals can fetch a ton of gold. Completions can also earn Prophet Shards, which can be spent in Eye of the North to get pieces of Ascended Gear.

The daily farms for these rewards can be pretty taxing, so most players focus on the easier stuff first. But since you can get endgame gear without risking a full raid, it’s a good baby step into the true raiding endgame content. The large chest in Eye of the North can be opened once per week, provided you have done each of the Strikes in Guild Wars 2 at least once that rotation.