SWTOR Gate Commander Draxus Dread Fortress operation guide
A guide to defeating Gate Commander Draxus in Dread Fortress, one of the two new operations introduced with Patch 2.4. Draxus is the second boss players will encounter in this operation after going through a small puzzle.
Navigation
Map
This map may seem very confusing at first but I have divided it into 3 sections below and walk you through each section. Once you have done this once you can just use this map for reference next time.
Note: On storymode, the crystals only need to be clicked once as they are destroyed and permanently activated after you have interacted with them. This makes the puzzle extremely trivial since one player can activate a number of crystals at once. 
Split your raid into 2 teams. We do this setup, which may or may not work for you. Note that 1234 and 5678 are exactly mirrors of each other.
| Team One | 1 | Tank |
| 2 | Healer | |
| 3 | DPS | |
| 4 | DPS | |
| Team Two | 5 | Healer |
| 6 | DPS | |
| 7 | Tank | |
| 8 | DPS |
Section 1
- Players 1256 click their crystals all at the same time (that is 2 purple crystals, 1 blue crystal and 1 green crystal). This will open the gates on both sides for players 3478 to pass through. (3 &4 go through one gate, 7 &8 go through the other gate).
- Once players 3478 clear through their mobs, they will be able to click on the two crystals on either side. Once 3478 have clicked the crystals at the same time, the big middle south gate will open, allowing players 1256 to pass through. You will see this message on your screen: The South Gate Has been Opened.
- Behind the South Gate is an elite (Qor’Thest the Guardian with ~180k HP). Each person that pass through the gate will display a red message on your screen (Player has passed through the South Gate). Behind the elite is a group of four strongs with lots of AoE attacks so 2 healers here will help a lot. After killing the strongs, wait for the east and west inner gates to be opened by players 3478.
Section 2
- Once players 1256 passed through the south gate, players 3478 can move up to the double gates. The next part isn’t synchronized on two sides so all four players do not need to click at the same time. Players 37 will need to click on the crystal on the outside of the double gates, allowing players 48 to pass through the first gate. Players 48 will need to click on the crystal between the double gates, allowing players 37 to move beyond the double gates. Players 37 clicking will also open up the West Inner Gate and East Inner gate respectively. (Displayed on screen as West Inner Gate has been opened and East Inner Gate has been opened).
- There is a shortcut here, that may or may not work on live. Players 48 trapped inside the double gates can click on their crystal while standing right next to the outer gate. Since their crystal open the outer gate as well, they can slip through the outer gate before the gate has a chance to shut. If this shortcut works, player 48 can head to west and east gate access tunnel respectively and wait for them to be opened. Only use this shortcut after you know players 1256 have pass through the West and East Inner gates.
- Once the West and East Inner Gates have being opened, players 1256 will need to split again and go through their gates (12 go through West Inner Gate, 56 go through East Inner Gate). They will need to turn a corner and find two crystals. Before clicking them, wait for players 3/7 to arrive at their crystals (they are on a different floor). All three players (123 on west side, 567 on east side) will need to click at the same time to open up West and East Gate respectively. (Displayed on screen as Access to the West Gate has been opened/East Gate has been opened).
Section 3
- If players 48 used their shortcuts, they can now pass through the Access to West/East access tunnel (displayed on screen as Player has passed through the West/East Gate Access Tunnel) and players 37 can meet them up. All four players need to click the four crystals by two big gates at the same time and they will see a message The Gatehouse has been cleared.
- If the shortcut is not functional or not used, then Player 7 will need to come to the West gate access tunnel (make sure players 123 are still there holding it open), pass through it and then click on the crystal right outside the western double gates to bail player 4 out. Player 4 will then need to return the favor by doing the same for player 8 (player 7 will need to go back and hold the East gate access tunnel with players 56).
Storymode Gate Commander Draxus
Loot: Unassembled Arkanian Boots, 1 random piece of Black Market gear (no set bonus), 1x Exotic Element Equalizer, 4 Elite Commendations.
HP: 523k (8m)
Recommended gear: Artifact gear or above. You may want to have some Black Market/Arkanian gear just to be safe.
October 15 changes
- Draxus’s Corrosive Grenade DoT can now be cleansed by any class
- Guardian of Fortress DoTs no longer tick as hard.
Differences from hardmode
- Draxus’s Corrosive Grenade only hit one target instead of AoE in hardmode.
- Draxus does not do random aggro drop and is not immune to damage for the first 30 seconds of wave 9 (this means the raid can attack Draxus right away in wave 9).
- Add waves are identical but Dismantlers do not throw out the debuff that increase their target’s damage intake by 1000% and Guardian of the Fortress’s Slam attacks can be interrupted (Dismantlers are still immune to interrupts).
Hardmode Gate Commander Draxus
October 15 changes
- Draxus’s Corrosive Grenade DoT can now be cleansed by any class
Video (new video recorded on live)
HP: 726 k (8m)
Loot: Unassembled Dread Forged Helm (rating 178), 1 random piece of Oriconian gear (rating 178, no set bonus), 1x Exotic Element Equalizer, 6 Ultimate Commendations, 8 Elite Commendations.
Draxus
Draxus can be damaged usually only 20% every time before he flies off. When he flies off, he will spawn waves of adds that will swarm your raid. The key to this fight is proper add management as Draxus himself is a pushover. He does have a conal attack (Suppressive Fire) so you will need to face him away from the raid.
- He will also throw Corrosive Grenades at the raid that can be cleansed (by any class) and seems to lose aggro randomly to a DPS/healer when he throws out Corrosive Grenade so tanks need to keep an eye and watch out when that happens. The Corrosive grenade is an AoE so spread out or you will have half of the raid with the DoT.
- At the 20% phase, he seems to be immune damage for a few seconds right after landing so use that time to clean up the Corruptor/Despoiler adds (while ignoring the Guardian adds) before finishing him off.
The fight follow this sequence, in one of the waves (wave 5) Draxus can be damaged by 40% HP, spawning with only 20% HP on wave 9.
- Draxus –> Wave 1 &2 –> Draxus & Wave 3 –> Wave 4 –> Draxus & wave 5–>Wave 6, 7 &8 –> Draxus & Wave 9
Tip: If you are running low on HP/resources, you can hold one of the adds alive to recover. The next add wave won’t spawn until all the adds from the previous waves are killed.
Add Waves
This picture will help you with directions.
| Wave | West | East | South | Center |
| 0 | Draxus | |||
| 1 | Subteroths | Subteroths | Subteroths | |
| 2 | 3x Dispatcher | 1x Dispatcher 2x Subteroths |
||
| 3 | 2x Dispatcher 1x Corruptor |
2x Dispatcher 1x Corruptor |
Draxus | |
| 4 | 1x Dismantler | 1x Dismantler | 2x Subteroths | |
| 5 | 2x Dispatcher 1x Bulwark |
2x Dispatcher 1x Bulwark |
2x Corruptor 1x Bulwark |
Draxus |
| 6 | 1x Dismantler | 1x Dismantler | 1x Dispatcher 1x Corruptor 1x Bulwark 1x Despoiler |
|
| 7 | 1x Guardian | 1x Guardian | 2x Subteroths | |
| 8 | 2x Corruptor 1x Bulwark |
2x Corruptor 1x Bulwark |
1x Despoiler | |
| 9 | 1x Guardian | 1x Guardian | 2x Dispatcher 1x Corruptor |
Draxus |
Handling the Add waves
Note that some part of it is largely arbitrary. It is what my raid group does which may or may not work for your raid group (Idea taken from reader Josh)
- Wave 1: Take care of Subteroth adds, avoid their exploding AoE
- Wave 2: One tank and melee DPS go west while rest of the DPS focus on east. Once east is cleared finish up west.
- Wave 3: We split the raid, interrupt and kill Corruptors first. One of the tanks go grab Draxus. Leave all but 1 Dispatcher alive and then damage the boss.
- Wave 4: Kill Dismantlers ASAP, if you see Dismantlers pushing the other tank off, quickly taunt it so it doesn’t leap and kill the tank.
- Wave 5: One of the tanks grab Draxus, the other go on east side and grab the adds. One DPS engage the adds on the west and remaining DPS all go to south. Priority is interrupting and killing the two Corruptors on south side.You can ignore Bulwark’s shield by going inside them to DPS. Kill all but Bulwarks and then DPS Draxus down.
- Wave 6: DPS go south to interrupt and kill the Corruptor/Despoilers and then burn down the Dismantlers. Finish Dispatch and Bulwark after the Dismantlers are dead.
- Wave 7: Tanks grab Guardians and kill them first before dealing with the Subteroths.
- Wave 8: Kite the Despoiler from south to either east or west side. Split your raid to interrupt and kill the 2x corruptors on each side.
- Wave 9: Kill the Dispatchers and Corruptors first since Draxus is immune to damage for the first 30 seconds. You may have time to kill one of the Guardians as well. Once Draxus is vulnerable, kill him and then finish off the Guardian after.
Adds
- Subteroths: These guys explode when killed so you will want to kite them away from the raid for the last few % before killing them.
- Dread Guard Dispatcher: Seems to have a random aggro table, casts Force Lightning nonstop. Mostly harmless compared to other adds.
- Dread Guard Corruptor: Casts Mass Affliction (force attack) on the entire raid, can be cleansed by sorc/sage healers but ticks for ~ 1400 damage every second. You will want to interrupt them ASAP. Cast time is 8 seconds so that is plenty of time to interrupt them.
- Dread Guard Dismantler: This add will one shot raid members so you must be very alert and taunt him immediately when you see him pushes someone. He has a one second cast called Strong Swipe which cannot be interrupted. This is a huge knockback on the target player with a debuff that increase their damage taken from the Dismantler by something like 1000%. If the Dismantler follow with a leap attack (Obliterate), it will deals over 130k damage to the player with the debuff.
- Dread Guard Bulwark: Casts a shield which reflects all attacks coming from outside the shield. You can no longer interrupt the shield so you will need to run into the shield and continue to DPS as normal.
- Dread Guard Despoiler: You will only see this add spawning in wave 6 and 8 but he heals other adds and the boss so should be interrupted and killed quick.
- Guardian of the Fortress: Has a massive AoE atttack called Slam with a purple telegraphed area. Cast time is 2.5 seconds so you have time to run into him and avoid the AoE. Also seems to throw out a green dot called Affliction to two random raid members that cannot be cleansed and has no cast time (~deals around 3-4k damage per tick, don’t confuse this with Mass Affliction from the corruptors). Lastly, their Ravage attack will stun you but you can break out with a stun breaker.
