GW2 - The Lonely Tower Fractal Guide - GuildJen (2024)

GW2. The Lonely Tower Fractal Guide. PvE Dungeon Guide. Fractals of the Mists.

The Lonely Tower is a fractal that takes place in the Wizard’s Tower. Assist Isgarren and Mabon with evacuating the demons from the tower.

The fractal can be separated into three sections, the puzzle portion, a boss fight, and then a final boss encounter.

Purifying the Nodes

At the very start, Mabon and Isgarren will be blocked by a magical wall. Go the other direction, passing through the cluttered hallway with damaging ground areas until reaching a room with Astral Purifier Nodes.

When interacting with the Astral Purifier Nodes, you must perform a puzzle of pressing the 1-5 keys according to whichever one of the skills is different than the others. While one player is interacting with one of these, Avatars of Spite will spawn and approach them. If they reach the player, they will explode and knock them back, interrupting the Astral Purifier interaction. These Avatars can be killed using power burst damage or applying conditions to them and CC to stop them in their tracks.

The most efficient strategy here is to have one player with low CC or damage interact with the purifier, and the rest of the party defend them by CCing or bursting the avatars. After several rounds if the person interacting does not mess up, it will be completed and you can repeat with the next purifier.

Swap who interacts with the purifiers based on who has recently used their cooldowns, and if your party has very high CC and damage, they can do multiple purifiers at the same time.

After completing all six purifiers, the magical gate will open, allowing access to the other end of the hallway. Your party can /gg from one end of the hallway to return to the center and move to the other side where there will be one final purifier. This leads to the first boss room.

Deimos and Cerus

Both of these bosses fight you at the same time, but the mechanics are not as punishing as their original forms from raids and strikes. Whoever has the fixation of each boss is determined by the orange and blue icons that appear above players heads. Your team can either stack the bosses together to get more value on cleave damage, or split them up on either side of the room to make their mechanics more visible and easier to play around.

Deimos Mechanics

Black Oil – As in the raid wing encounter, the most important for Deimos is the oil he spawns on the ground. It is much more predictable in the fractal version because Deimos lifts his arms in the air and swings his maces around. This may be confusing for those who remember his raid mechanics, but that animation will now spawn the oil instead. If players stand in it, it will damage them and grow in size until it covers up most of the room. Avoid this at all costs.

Smash – An orange circle separated into triangles will tell that Deimos is about to smash the ground, knocking back any players hit by this. Time your dodge to avoid this or move out of the range. You can’t be knocked off a platform, so this is not too dangerous.

Hands – A kiter is not needed to manage these, but there will be hands that spawn around the room, creating less space to move around in.

Cerus Mechanics

Just like in the strike mission, Cerus gains stacks of empowerment when players fail mechanics, making him deal more damage. In general this is not relevant if your party has decent sustain, but can become an issue if the fight drags on too long due to low damage.

Rage – A large orange circle will appear around Cerus and deal damage and grant him empowered stacks for hitting players. While this looks slightly different, it is functionally the same as the smash from Deimos, just time your dodge or get out of the area.

Orbs – When these orbs that spawn above each player drop, they create a damaging area that adds more clutter to the ground like the Deimos hands. Players should move to the edges of the room to drop these so there is more space.

Malice – One player will have a shadow of them spawn and this clone will run towards Cerus. Kill it before it reaches him or it gives him stacks of empowerment.

With many mechanics taking up space in the room, it can become chaotic. Positioning and awareness are necessary to handle all of these at the same time, but none of the mechanics are too punishing if you fail them. When in doubt, just stick with your healers and hit the closest target.

Afterwards, take the portal outside to begin the final boss.

Eparch

Compositions

Superspeed/Mobility – The most important mechanics of this fight require movement, and because space is limited or you will be pulled involuntarily towards the boss, having extra mobility to be able to fight against these pulls to do the mechanics will be very helpful.

Condition Cleanse – Many of the boss attacks will corrupt boons which results in having many different conditions on you. Resistance or straight cleansing will remove a lot of the pressure. Also try to avoid having stability in your comp naturally, because it can be corrupted into fear which will CC you.

Break Bar CC – The break bar that the boss has is large and gives permanent barrier during it, so the longer it takes to CC will cause the fight to be prolonged and allow the boss to keep getting more powerful. Make sure to have plenty of CC that can be used on a relatively short timer (around every 40-50 seconds).

Ranged Potential – Full melee builds will feel worse to play because of the constant need to move away from the boss to collect globules, avoid mechanics, and survive. Ranged or at least partially ranged builds will be able to upkeep more damage while doing the mechanics to make the fight much easier.

This fight is long and your decisions and adherence to the mechanics matters all throughout the fight. It requires good positioning, solid team composition, and obeying mechanics properly. Since there are so many mechanics, they will be organized into two categories: Boss mechanics that happen linearly as the boss performs them with a clear animation, and Area mechanics that are not as telegraphed which you will need to constantly look out for.

Area Mechanics

Globules – All throughout the fight, different colored orbs representing an emotion will be flung out of Eparch and land on the ground. Enable “Show All Usable Object Names” in your general settings to more easily see these. When they spawn you need to immediately run over to them and pick them up. These orbs have effects based on their names, but they can also be taken by Eparch to give him an effect.

• Name – Color – Player Effect – Boss Effect
• Malice – Purple – CC is more effective – Attacks inflict conditions
• Despair – Blue -Decrease damage taken and dealt – Decrease damage taken
• Rage – Red – Increase damage taken and dealt – Increase damage dealt
• Envy – Green – Boons give improved effects but conditions hit you harder – Attacks corrupt boons
• Gluttony – Orange – Take periodic damage but steal life – Gain health when consuming any emotion
• Regret – Yellow – Slowed actions and recharges – Reflects damage

While it can be optimal to give specific orbs to certain roles since you can’t have more than one effect, it is even more important that the boss does not get these orbs if they are left on the ground for too long. So regardless of which orbs they are, you should get them.

Fissures – These red lines dividing the area into hexagonal shapes will inflict agony when you walk over them. They can be jumped over to avoid the damage.

Spikes – Small circles will appear beneath players and follow them, damaging those who stand still after a short delay. Avoid moving towards others while you have this mechanic on you, but keep moving to avoid the damage.

Ground Fire – Many small orange circles will clutter the ground, and while these do not have much of an effect at the start, as the fight progresses and the boss consumes emotions, these circles will start applying effects such as boon corruption and condition application.

Boss Mechanics

Break Bar – Eparch gains a break bar and will channel barrier until it is broken, making any damage useless. However, conditions can still be applied while the barrier is there which will deal their damage afterwards. Eparch also consumes globules from players during this, so make sure to CC fast. Breaking the bar will remove some of the buffs the boss has accumulated.

Shockwave – Eparch will rise into the air and attack directly beneath him, dealing massive damage to those inside the boss and then creating a shockwave that also deals heavy damage but can be jumped or dodged over.

Spin Pull – Eparch will create a red circle around himself and spin for several seconds, dealing damage to those inside the circle and pulling everyone closer towards him. Use dodges and mobility skills to get outside of the red circle and face away from the boss so you can move outwards as fast as possible to keep out of the danger zone. The pull inwards can also prevent you from collecting the globules quickly, so make sure to save your mobility skills for this.

Arrow Wave – Four arrows will point out in perpendicular directions, and then Eparch will spin, shooting out waves of magic which will corrupt boons on any players hit by the wave. If you are too close to the boss you can not avoid these waves even if you are between the arrows. To avoid them you must move away from the boss as soon as you see the arrows and then position in between the waves, or if you have good timing you can dodge inwards through the boss so the wave passes you as it spawns.

This is a battle of attrition, boons will constantly be corrupted so staying near your allies to reapply them is necessary. However, there are many mechanics that require you to move and split from your team. Remember to reconvene with your allies and prioritize getting the globules first.

Gameplay Final Boss Battle Tier 4

Lonely Tower Fractal – 5AP

This is the meta achievement for the Fractal, you must complete 5 achievements from this category. The reward is an Endless Midnight King Combat Tonic which allows you to roleplay as Eparch.

Wizard’s Tower Is Ours, Eparch – 2AP

Complete for the first time the Lonely Tower fractal on any difficulty.

Wayfind Yourself Out – 3AP

Complete for the first time the Lonely Tower fractal on the Master tier (T4).

Brothers, Together – 3AP

Defeat Cerus and Deimos within 5 seconds of each other in their encounter. Have each player fixated by the bosses move away from each other to separate the bosses so you can kill them in a more controlled fashion. Swap targets when one gets lower than the other and save cooldowns to finish the second immediately after the first dies.

Emotionless – 3AP

Defeat Eparch without allowing him to reach 20 stacks of any emotional attunement. This should be obtained by completing the encounter doing the mechanics cleanly and collecting the orbs as soon as they spawn. As players improve at this encounter, this achievement should be obtained automatically.

Fissure Walker – 3AP

Defeat Eparch without taking any damage from the Fissure mechanic. This can be completed on any difficulty, and is recommended to do on tier 1 because the Fissures are not permanent and they take up less space. A build with extremely long range can do this safely, and focus on moving precisely during the pull attack which can move you into the fissures.

The Lonely Tower Fractal CM will be available at a later date…