A guide to defeating the Dread Guards Heirad Ciphas and Kelsara in SWTOR Nightmare Terror from Beyond (TFB)

General information & Video

• HP: Heirad 880k, Ciphas 1.29 million, Kelsara 966K
• Enrage: ?
• Loot: 1x Kell Dragon Relic, 1 random Shadowed item (L75 stuff without set bonus), 8 Elite Commendations, 6 Ultimate Commendations, 1 Mass Manipulation Generator, 2 Exotic Element Equalizer on 8m.

Video

Main Differences from Hardmode

This fight is tightly tuned for nightmare and is a step up in difficulty from The Withering Horror. Phase 3 especially put a lot of stress on healers.

Phase 1 Heirad

Heirads attack cycle abit faster and as a result you have a shorter time between Lighting Fields. This means you will need a much higher DPS to ensure that you only get one Lighting Field for phase 1. Having two Lighting Fields isnt the end of the world but it will put stress on your healers and you may encounter enrage in phase 3.

Our typical Lighting Field configuration is this on 8m. This allow healers to top off anyone that is low on HP before the Lighting Field hits. Ranged DPS and healers stack in the middle after Lighting Field hits for AoE heals (some people prefer to have everyone stack on the boss after having healers and rDPS stack in the middle minimize movement for more DPS and heals). The explosion at end of Lighting Field hits for ~16k on unprotected players.

Also, it should be common knowledge but control your collateral damage to Ciphas and Kelsara this phase as otherwise they will buff Heirad and increase his damage.

Phase 2 Ciphas

The big change to this phase is that Ciphass Doom is now six stacks. This means that you want to try avoid accidently eating a green circle when you dont have Doom on you as that can get the doomed person killed. The player with Doom will probably need to consume all the green circles and then wait for new circles to pop up to remove all six stacks.

When Ciphas dies, all Doom stacks are removed so you do not need to worry about dying to Doom afterwards.

Phase 3- Kelsara

Phase 3 is the most challenging part of this fight and is very healing intensive due to several new mechanics,

1. Force Leach now deals an initial damage (~11k on unprotected players) in addition to damage on healing. This means that you want your tanks to be topped off or they will have a hard time surviving through with all the other damage going around. Baubles from sorc/sage healers are good to protect tanks without healing them.
2. Players will now drop red circles (Expiatory Motes) on the ground in a similar manner to phase 2. These circles cannot be removed and put a long lasting DoT on anyone that touched them that ticks for ~7k damage every 3 seconds (lasts for 15 seconds or more). While most players are able to move away from these circles, you will have to watch for knockback from Kelsara and her adds. You want to place these red circles on the outer edges of the room to prevent players from accidently stepping or getting knocked into them.

• Like in phase 2, watch for swirling orbs around your character. If you see swirling orbs, start running so you dont have a red circle spawn under your feet.

3. The three Dread Guard Legionnaires that Kelsara summons all have ~50K HP each and hit a bit harder. They should be tanked if possible to avoid having them running rampant and killing the DPS/healers.

Reminder of Hardmode mechanics

If you are not familiar with the hardmode mechanics, here is a quick brush up for you. For a more detailed guide, please consult this guide.

Phase 1

• When Heirad casts Surging Chain, he is immune to damage and you must attack Ciphas to remove his Empowered Barrier on Heirad
• Heirads Lighting Field attack hurt less if everyone is spread out.

Phase 2

• Ciphas dooms random players. Doom stacks can be removed by running into green circles dropped by other players.
• Ciphas will also leap and strangle random players. Tanks/melee DPS will need to interrupt Ciphas ASAP.

Phase 3

• Kelsara casts Force Leach on main tank, tank swap and stop healing the tank with the debuff as any heal will translate to damage.
• Kelsara will also put a Death Mark on a random raid member and chase them. She will likely one shot anyone if they dont run away.
• Lastly, Kelsara casts a DoT called Withering Terror on a random raid member that hurt quite a bit, make sure they get healed