The Vale Guardian is the first major boss in the Spirit Vale raid. This guide provides an overview of the Vale Guardian boss battle, including tactics and tips to help improve your chances for success.

Mechanics & Tips

• The circular arena is divided into 3 zones identified by red, green and blue obelisks
• The Vale Guardian will target the player with the highest armor toughness
• The arrow indicator at the Guardian’s feet shows which direction it is facing
• Default auto-attack is a heavy damage cleave in the direction the guardian is facing
• There are 5 phases to the fight (3 main phases and 2 split phases)
• The Vale Guardian must be defeated before the 8 minute timer runs out
• Speed Mushrooms provide a 10% boost to skills and actions for 20 seconds
• Pre-stacking might is not necessary since it will be lost when the battle begins
• The Vale Guardian will rotate 90 – 180 degrees directly before launching a teleport attack
• Use Food Effect, Utility Effects, Boosters, etc. Every bit of DPS counts.
• Green AOE Circles
  • Spawn in the same zone as the boss
  • 4 players must stand inside the circle to prevent a massive attack
  • If a circle is missed the squad will likely be wiped out
  • The circles can also be identified by visual lightning effects
• Blue Teleportation Circles
  • Spawn near the boss and teleport players standing in them to a random location
  • Deals heavy damage
  • Can be side-stepped or evaded using dodge
• Red Seekers
  • A seeker spawns near each of the three pillars every 20 seconds
  • Slowly home-in on the players and deal massive damage
  • They can be pushed away with knockback skills

Phase 1

• Roles
  • Tank (1)
    • The tank should try to keep the boss facing outwards and away from the green AOE circles.
  • Melee DPS (5)
    • Melee players need to kite the guardian in a circle, avoiding the default cleave attack.
  • Ranged DPS/AOE Circles (4)
    • Ranged players’ priority is moving to the green AOE circles as soon as they spawn to prevent a group wipe.

During the first phase you need to keep the Vale Guardian near the pillar in the red zone. If he leaves the red zone the green AOE circles may spawn too far from the group.

Phase 2

• Roles
  • Red Team (3)
    • Players with high condition damage
    • Red boss takes no physical damage
  • Green Team (3)
    • Players with high DPS
    • Green boss uses teleport attacks
  • Blue Team (4)
    • Players with boon stripping
    • Blue boss spawns green AOE circles

After the Vale Guardian’s health reaches 66% phase 2 will start and players need to quickly split up into their respective teams/zones. Players only have a few seconds before they become attuned to the zone they are standing in. When a mini-boss’s health has been drained, players will have to break their defiance bar to finish them off. After a zone has defeated their boss, they can move to help other zones as long as they stay near each other.

Phase 3

Phase 3 is similar to phase 1 but this time the zones will start glowing and deal massive damage. The red zone is the first to start glowing, then the blue zone, and so on, moving clockwise. In addition to making sure players are standing in the green AOE circles, the squad must also make sure they keep the Vale Guardian moving clockwise, outside of the glowing zone. Eventually the Vale Guardian will enter a new state where it shoots out a barrage of damaging orbs. The squad must quickly break the guardian’s defiance bar using hard CC skills.

Phase 4

Phase 4 is exactly the same as phase 2 and will begin when the Vale Guardian’s health reaches 33%.

Phase 5

Phase 5 is similar to phase 3 but with 2 zones that glow with damage instead of 1. The first 2 zones that glow are green and blue, again moving clockwise.

Squad Composition

• Tank
  • 1 Player
  • Usually a Tempest, Reaper, Herald, Guardian, or Warrior
• Healer
  • 1-2 Players
  • Usually a Druid or Herald (Ventari)
• Might Stacking
  • At least 2 Players
  • Usually a Warrior, Elementalist, Guardian or Herald.
• Condition Damage
  • At least 2 Players
  • Usually an Engineer or Berserker
• Boon Stripping
  • At least 1 Player
  • Usually a Mesmer, Necromancer, or Revenant
• DPS
  • All players not dedicated to another role

 

Successful Raid Squad Composition Data

This data was compiled from a list of 24 successful Vale Guardian kills.

Average Successful Squad Composition:

• 2 Warriors
• 2 Engineers
• 2 Revenants
• 1 Elementalist
• 1 Mesmer
• 1 Ranger
• 1 Guardian

This breakdown is not meant to represent the “ideal” squad composition, but simply to give players an idea of which classes the successful squads are using.