With the latest update, Bungie made some changes to the Skolas battle at the end of the level 35 PoE challenge. In the name of science, I wanted to see how the new boss fight plays out. So Vortech, Cody and I ran the level 35 PoE last night.

The final battle against Skolas is interesting. Now that elemental burns are out of the equation, you can no longer bring him down quickly. The fight becomes a long, methodical one. It feels in many ways like a marathon of an encounter compared to any other boss fight in Destiny. Most boss encounters in the game take 2-4 minutes. Even hard mode Crota, with all its standing around waiting, clocks in at around 8-9 minutes, less now if you have a 34 sword weilder. Our successful Skolas fight took us about 17 minutes. So there's a definite "battle of attrition" feel to the whole thing, especially when you consider the hour or more that it takes just to reach Skolas.

The mechanics of the fight work in some interesting ways. The first phase keeps you moving around the arena to destroy the cloaked servators that are shielding Skolas, but you are still able to dictate the pace of the battle. We would find a corner and get to work clearing out all the ads. If we got overrun, we would rotate to the far corner. Once all the adds were eliminated, we would destroy the servator and burn Skolas as much as we could.

The 2nd phase is where things got tricky. You have mines to deal with, which easily caused the most wipes for us. Moving from mine to mine is treacherous enough, and once you reach a mine there is very little cover for protection. We only had 1 defender Titan in the group, so we tried to save his bubbles for dismanteling the center mine.

My favorite part of the battle is the debuff that Skolas sticks you with at the start of the 2nd segment. In a way, having this debuff that needs to be passed around amongst your fireteam actually helps by forcing you to stick together. It took us a while to really get the hang of managing our timing. But in doing so we became more and more efficient at moving and improvising as a group; something that was critical to our eventual success.

My 1 gripe about the encounter is something that has been covered at great length already; this mode needs saveable checkpoints. It took us over an hour and a half to clear the Skolas battle, not to mention the time it took to reach Skolas. The only reason we were able to finish was because Vortech and I are maniacs and stayed up until 4:30am. But that aside, I think the final battle is very well designed, and a great challenge. The length of the fight is exhausting, but not once did I feel like we were failing for unfair reasons. Every time we wiped, we knew it was our fault. So I definitely recommend giving Skolas a try, whether you already have or not. The updates are all improvements, IMO. Just give yourself plenty of time before you dive in.

Has anyone else tried 35 PoE since the update? Thoughts?

Yeah, TDSpiral, Paddy, and I finished it last night! I think it's a great fight now, it's actually very similar to the Void burn version, except now you can actually manage the adds (a big improvement).

Totally agree on the checkpoints. The other two never really bothered me that they don't have checkpoints, but it's a big hindrance against Skolas

I went beyond myself, beyond the team. I was a cog in a machine.

very fun, very rewarding. Get Skolastic today.

The only reason we were able to finish was because Vortech and I are maniacs and stayed up until 4:30am.

Yeah…the energy syphon debuff that lasts until work the next day is OP.

I was doing pretty well at the beginning, but for the last hour or so I could feel my thumbs responding more slowly and my K/D kept dropping. I had fun and I'm really glad we got it done, because I'd be super annoyed to have wasted our time last night, but I'd have to think twice about doing another impromptu mission there, despite liking the fight mechanics. I was so sleepy I think I'm enjoying it more in retrospect than I did in the moment. (it sure isn't the loot I got). Some kind of checkpoints would be totally appropriate.

P.S. I think I'm a zombie now.

The updates are all improvements, IMO. Just give yourself plenty of time before you dive in.

By the end, it seemed very… smooth. I think the more it is played, and the more the DBO crew becomes familiar with it, the less time we'll have to spend. It's just kind of frustrating to spend 12-15 minutes on the fight, only to die to the last wave of mines. But even the mines felt more manageable by the time we eventually did it.

I'd prefer the Trials elemental primaries, but these could settle for a second place.

I also got Void damage again. Ug. :-p

The only reason we were able to finish was because Vortech and I are maniacs and stayed up until 4:30am.

Yeah…the energy syphon debuff that lasts until work the next day is OP.

Totally scored a crit hit against my productivity today ;p

I was so sleepy I think I'm enjoying it more in retrospect than I did in the moment.

I'm in a similar boat. At the time, my only thought was "thank GOD that is over! Never again!", but looking back I think that was more a symptom of playing until 4:30 in the morning and being completely exhausted. The fight itself was actually pretty enjoyable. I'm just not a fan of being required to slog through the entire thing in 1 sitting every single time.

Here's the video of our successful run last night. I missed the first couple minutes of the fight... the video pickups up shortly after we enter the arena, kill the first servator, and burn Skolas for the first time:

The method my group has found most successful involves the use of all 3 classes and a set of "rules" for when to shoot Skolas. It might not be the fastest method but it's certainly reliable. Most of you probably know the basics of the encounter but I'll go over everything for the sake of completeness. Mechanical/Strategy Spoilers ahead:

Servitor Bonds
The first stage of the fight is fairly simple. Skolas will appear in the centre of the room, while a "cloaked", ghostly Servitor will spawn from one of two doors at the extreme left or right of the arena (almost always the left in my experience). Skolas will take next to no damage until this Servitor (Kaliks Minor, incidentally) is killed. At this point a 20 second countdown begins during which time Skolas will take normal damage.

After the 20 seconds have elapsed, Skolas will go back to taking no damage and a new Servitor will spawn (often but not always on the opposite side of the arena).

For this section of the fight you Want to run left immediately, kill the Servitor if it's there and unload on Skolas when it's dead. Now that there's no burns you'll almost definitely need to kill a second Servitor, so get across the map to the little balcony thing on the far right (above the small rooom with two mob closets). Burn down some adds and keep an eye on the Servitor until Skolas gets near, then kill it and unload on Skolas again. 

Devouring Essence
You can repeat this, alternating sides until you've dealt enough damage to Skolas and the "Servitor bonds are broken". Skolas will now take normal damage for the remainder of the fight, but he'll add a new wrinkle - after a short period he'll "taint a guardian's light" with the Devouring Essence. This functions like a slow-burning poison, with a 30-second death countdown. Once the countdown reaches zero, whoever has been tainted dies, but you can save them by holding square/X when stood next to them to "Absorb Essence", which transfers the Essence to the absorber.

This is where it gets a bit complicated - once someone has had the Essence removed, they are immune and unable to reabsorb for 40 seconds. You can do the maths and figure out then that you can't transfer between just 2 players - you need to rotate between all three. Stick together and keep an eye on that timer and you should be fine. Ideally you want to absorb essence when the victim's timer gets down to about 5 seconds. 

PROTIP: The immune player can also keep an eye on the victim's countdown. Just subtract 10 from the immunity countdown to get the "Taint" countdown.

As if all that wasn't enough, two waves of dismantle mines will spawn once Skolas reaches a certain damage threshold - one at 50% and one at ~20% health. This is where the strategy comes in. 

The Strategy
You want to make sure:
# Your Bladedancer has a Super ready and has specced for max invisibility
# Your Sunsinger has their self-res ready and knows not to use it impulsively
# OPTIONAL: Your Defender has Gift of the Void specced for additional orbs

For this strategy, the order in which you each absorb the Essence matters a lot. It should be:
Warlock -> Hunter -> Titan -> Warlock

Once a Guardian has been tainted, spend a little time getting used to rotating the Essence while you kill adds and build your supers. Once you're ready, you can start burning Skolas' health down towards halfway. Now this is the important bit: Once his health gets near half - STOP. From here on you're only going to burn Skolas when your hunter is holding the Essence.

Use the time inbetween (While your Warlock and Titan are holding it) to thin out adds and reposition yourself away from Skolas, then as soon as your Hunter Absorbs, start unloading your big guns.

Eventually you'll hear Variks warn you about incoming mines. At this point you want your Titan to take the Essence and move with your Warlock towards the mine that spawns closest to your current location - this is your Home Team. At the same time, your freshly immune Hunter Uses Arcblade Vanish to run to mine spawn at the opposite side of the map. This is why the Hunter needs to pass on the Essence first - the mine phase will take longer than 30 seconds, and your lone Huntwr will die if s/he's carrying it.

If the first mine spawns Far or Mid-map, your Hunter should be able to disarm it while still invisible from the Vanish (Don't forget you can re-vanish just before your Super runs out for additional invisible time), otherwise have your Hunter stay out of sight until the Far or Mid-map Mine spawns and dismantle them while Invisible.

PROTIP: You can attack a mine you're dismantling to activate your Blink Strike Escape Artist for emergency invisibility. Just make sure you're visible when you use it or it will cancel out. 

When the Home team mine spawns, have your Titan put a bubble on it and hang out with your Warlock in there.

At some point during the mine phase, your Warlock will need to Absorb from your Titan. Your Hunter may not be able to regroup in time to save your Warlock, but that's fine because self-res - this is why your Warlock needs to be the last person holding the Essence.

After the mine phase is over, work on killing adds and building up your Supers again, then continue burning Skolas only when your Hunter is holding the Essence.

The second mine phase works exactly the same as the first, so just execute the same plan again.

After the second mine phase you can start killing Skolas normally again. Just don't die! :p

General Tips
# Don't get too married to one location. If you see Skolas coming close - RUN
# When moving from left to right, the low route is faster butuch more exposed, while the route that runs past the entrance takes longer but has much better cover - which you should use depends on where Skolas is and how many adds are still alive
# When moving from right to left, go the long way. Just do it.
# Don't forget - adds now spawn based on how much health Skolas has. If you're getting ready to move and the adds haven't spawned yet - stop shooting Skolas

# Break bonds like normal
# Move Essence like this: Warlock -> Hunter -> Titan -> Warlock
# Only shoot Skolas when Hunter is tainted
# When the mines show up, pass Essence to Titan. Titan and Warlock sit in bubble where closestine spawns. Hunter Arcblade Banishes and runs to far side of map. Hunter invis-dismantles far and middle mines.
# Don't die

# Break bonds like normal
# Move Essence like this: Warlock -> Hunter -> Titan -> Warlock
# Only shoot Skolas when Hunter is tainted
# When the mines show up, pass Essence to Titan. Titan and Warlock sit in bubble where closestine spawns. Hunter Arcblade Banishes and runs to far side of map. Hunter invis-dismantles far and middle mines.
# Don't die

This sounds like old strategy pre-health and infinite spawn nerfs. New strategy TBD, but I think it will be something like:
1. break bonds
2. kills adds
3. unload 27 gjallarhorn on boss
4. kill adds
5. unload 27 gjallarhorn on boss

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