Hall of Chains was released alongside the Living World chapter Daybreak on November 28th, 2017, and is the fifth raid added to the game. Many players have been wiped thanks to the first boss. The raids in GW2 are pretty vicious. You need to know what you’re doing, or you will wipe. Here’s a basic guide on everything to do with Soulless Horror in Guild Wars 2.
What is the Soulless Horror in Guild Wars 2?
The Soulless Horror is the first boss of Hall of Chains raid wing. It is the body of Desmina after she severed her spirit from it to avoid being corrupted. Devoid of spirit, the Soulless Horror acts only on anger and instinct. You must cleanse this evil spirit to continue along the path.
Before you begin, two players must touch the two runes on the side of the first platform. 2 players will receive the Issue Challenge special action key from the Red and Green runes present on that platform. The boss will often fixate on the last player to use this key with her attacks. After you’re prepped and have tanks lined up, glide down and the entire raid should move around in a group, clearing the Flesh Worse as able.
And now, the raid proper begins.
The first thing to watch out for is Necrosis. The boss applies this every 12 seconds and it increases incoming damage by 40%. Swap to a new tank and cleanse when the debuff stacks too much to heal. You can cleanse by not getting hit with the debuff for 30 seconds.
The green firewalls that spawn MUST BE AVOIDED. They will instantly kill any player that touches them. It’s best to have someone who isn’t tanking watching for these and to call the raid to stack on them. The walls leave a gap, have the designated person move to the gap and call the raid over comms.
After a certain point, the boss will begin to summon Flesh Golems. These aggro on the off-tank (the player with Exile’s Embrace that is not currently Fixated). Have the off-tank work with someone who has Knockback abilities to pull these away from the main group and leave them on the edge of the arena. The puddles they leave behind are quite nasty.
At 90%, 66% and 33% Boss HP, the outer circle of the arena will shrink. Do not stand on the outer edges when you see the arena glow orange, or you will die.
When the boss gets below 66%, she will regularly pull up her Defiance bar and try to cast a wiping spell. You have 7 seconds to CC and break her bar, or she will cast Howling Death and wipe the raid. No matter what you’re doing, get her CC’d or you will wipe. After the first time she tries it, be prepared to break her bar again all the time. Soulless Horror will try every minute or so to do it again.
Soulless Horror’s Skills
Different types of AoE abilities will spawn throughout the fight with Soulless Horror in Guild Wars 2, aside from the ones noted above, these are:
- Scythes slowly traverse the platform throughout the fight atop a small red AoE circle. They travel in random directions but will always move in a straight line. Being hit by their AoE corrupts all the player’s boons into conditions. Condition clear is a must in this instance, that’s what Druids should be focused on when Scythes come up.
- There will also be various bigger and smaller red circle AoEs. Sometimes they will show up as a small series of dots all over the arena, other times they will be larger “Donut Hole” AoEs. Stand outside of them if you can. For the Donut Holes, Aegis or Dodge into the inner ring to reduce damage.
- Death Bloom AoEs are the giant cones spanning 8 directions, stand in the gaps.
Here are each of the skills the boss can use, and what to look out for.
- Chilling Aura – The boss pulses an aura every three seconds, causing damage.
- Corrupt the Living – Strikes foes in the area and inflicts damage, poison, and torment.
- The Soulless Horror brings the hammer back over its right shoulder and swings counter-clockwise in a slicing arc about its body inflicting damage, applying Torment, and Poisoned.
- Death Bloom – Strikes in multiple directions for heavy damage.
- 8 cones in a circular pattern that inflicts damage.
- Fingers of the Dead – The ground erupts with deadly skeletal fingers that deal damage and corrupt boons.
- These sprout from the small orange circles that appear in the cone of the Slice attack and in a large ring outside the radius of the Corrupt the Living attack.
- Howling Death – Inflicts Unbridled Fear, causing the target to flee in terror. Cannot be removed.
- Inflicts Unbridled Fear if Soulless Horror’s defiance bar is not broken within the cast time of 6.75 seconds, causing the squad to flee in terror and defeating the squad.
- Quad Slash – Strikes foes with a powerful multidirectional attack. Deals less damage to players with Exile’s Embrace.
- 4 cones in a cross pattern. Always occurs in pairs, with the second executed a few seconds later rotated by 45 degrees inflicting damage. Deals less damage to players affected by Exile’s Embrace (the rune).
- Slice – Strikes foes for moderate damage.
- The Soulless Horror charges up an overhead hammer smash in the direction of the fixated player, and brings it down in a frontal cone of green flame. As it charges up, small orange circles will appear within that cone, which will sprout Fingers of the Dead once the green flame reaches them.
- Vortex Slash – Unleashes an area-of-effect attack for extreme damage.
- The Soulless Horror casts an expanding circle that deals damage once it is full; this is quickly followed by a ring outside of that circle that immediately damages anyone in it.
Once you have completed the task to cleanse the corpse of Desmina, her spirit returns. You have defeated the Soulless Horror in Guild Wars 2 You must now escort that lost spirit past the River of Souls to continue the Raid.