One of each class REALLY helps *Strategy* *Long-ish* (Destiny)

by someotherguy, Hertfordshire, England, Thursday, June 18, 2015, 18:08 (3685 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY

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