SWTOR Kephess the Undying Nightmare TFB guide
A guide to defeating Kephess the Undying in Nightmare Terror from Beyond (TFB) operation.
General information & Video
- HP: 5.56 million on 8m
- Enrage: ?
- Loot: 1 Kell Dragon Helm, 2 random Shadowed item (L75 stuff without set bonus), 8 Elite Commendations, 6 Ultimate Commendations, 1 Mass Manipulation Generator, 2 Exotic Element Equalizer
Video (Live server)
Main Differences from Hardmode
Phase 1
- Kephess needs to be inside the yellow circle to receive the Laser Blast debuff
- Three lighting balls spawn instead of two.
The first thing you will notice are the big yellow circles surrounding the pillar that Kephess is connected to. If you had a hard time spotting which pillar to run to previously, the big yellow circle made it much easier. The idea here is that Kephess won’t get the stacking debuff that increases your damage on him during and after Laser Blast unless he is inside the yellow circle (as long one of his feet is inside the circle it seems to work). Most of your raid should try stay inside the yellow circle in case of threat issues so Kephess stay inside the yellow circle.
Another major change is the number of Lighting Balls that spawn. Hardmode spawns two but in Nightmare mode three Lighting Balls spawn. We typically have two ranged DPS and the offtank grabbing all three (Offtank can grab Lighting Ball, taunt Kephess to receive debuff, and then have the main tank taunt Kephess back while they run off to cleanse the debuff).
Lastly, you will also want to stop DPS around 52% and then try use the Laser Blast debuff to bring Kephess well below 50% to make phase 2 shorter.
Phase 2: Nanities
- Each “wave” of nanites hit 3 raid members, cleanse them when six members of your raid have nanites (i.e. after second wave). Only exception to this is on the second pillar, where you want to wait for the jump.
- Pillars now get destroyed as soon as the first player that clicks it finishes channeling so you will need to coordinate better on the clicking
- Kephess has a longer delay between jumps, meaning you can no longer wait for him to land to click the pillars. His Dread Bomb when he lands hits much harder and the player receiving the bomb will need to be topped off and shielded.
- Barrage behaviour is a bit weird and can sometimes follow random people. Keep an eye on it even if your name isn’t called on the red text.
You only have four pillars to cleanse nanites in phase 2 so make sure you are using them wisely. I like to describe nanites in terms of waves, and the number of waves get reset once you cleanse them with the pillar. First wave will place nanites on three raid members. Second wave will increase the stack of these three nanites to 2 and place another set of nanites on three other raid members (there is a small delay in between). Typically you will want to cleanse the nanite after the second wave lands (i.e. when six members of your raid have nanites). Waiting until the third wave, which would make the first wave of nanites have 3 stacks, is likely to wipe the raid (exception is on the second pillar, where Kephess will likely perform a jump right after the second wave of nanites land so you will need to wait for him to come back before clicking).
Pillars now get destroyed as soon as the first person that clicks it finished channeling so you will need to make sure everyone coordinate their clicks. Previously in hardmode you could sort of cheese it by having some players click it later and it won’t get destroyed until the last person finishes or stop channeling.
Kephess now have a much longer delay between “jumps” where he place Dread Bomb (red circle) on a player unaffected by the nanite. Dread Bomb hits hard and targeted player will need to be shield by sorcerer/sages or they will likely to get killed at full health. This also means that you don’t want to wait for Kephess to jump and land before clicking the pillar (common tactic in hardmode) as doing so would cause too much raid damage from nanites. The only exception to this is on the second pillar, where you need to likely need to wait for Kephess to do the jump before clicking.
It is also worth mentioning that Radioactive Barrage is behaving a bit erratically in Nightmare mode. The barrage sometimes would switch target and follow someone else entirely. You will need to be aware where the barrage is and if you see it following you, move away from the raid.
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
- Tank on Kephess will receive a debuff and will need to cleanse it by running to the big glowy circle on the ground. Tank swap is needed when this happens.
- Energy Distortions will spawn in the room and tag whoever is closest to them. Once they tag a player, only they can destroy that Energy Distortion. DPS should try to get these distortions but if a tank gets it they can remove It running to the glowy circle when they have the debuff from Kephess.
- Kephess is connected to a pillar by a beam overhead. Tanks will need to drag Kephess to this pillar. Kephess will call out a random raid member and focus his Laser Blast on them. This player will need to run to this pillar so that Kephess is directly facing the pillar. Each time the Laser Blast hit the pillar, Kephess will get a stacking debuff (up to 4 stacks) that increase the damage the raid can do to him for a few seconds.
Phase 2
- Dread Bomb: One player will get targeted by a red circle when Kephess lifts off in the air. Kephess will land on that player and deal quite abit of damage. Other raid members will need to get away from that player.
- Corrupted Nanites: Kephess will throw out Corrupted Nanites on random raid members that can be only cleansed by clicking on a pillar and channel an ability. Finishing or canceling the channel will destroy the pillar. If Kephess is near the pillar when it is destroyed, he will get knocked down and receive a debuff that increases raid damage on him.
- Radioactive Barrage: One random raid member will receive Radioactive Barrage, a ground attack that follows the targeted player. The said player will need to run away from rest of the raid while avoiding the Barrage.
Phase 3
- This phase is triggered when Kephess reaches 10%. You should use the last pillar when Kephess is at 11-12% HP so that you can do some increased damage on Kephess to shorten the duration of this phase.
- Nonstop circles on the ground and raidwide damage. You can get through this phase easily by having everyone stack on Kephess except the tanks who will receive most of the circles and can kite those around.
