SWTOR Dread Master Calphayus Dread Palace operation guide
A guide to Dread Master Calphayus, the third boss of Dread Palace operation introduced with SWTOR Patch 2.4.
Calphayus is located at the top right entrance of the palace (Sanctuary of Eternity).
Storymode
Loot: random Arkanian relic (not a token), 1 random piece of Black Market gear (no set bonus), 1x Exotic Element Equalizer, 4 Elite Commendations.
HP: 1.16 million (8m)
Recommended gear: Artifact gear or above. You may want to have some Black Market/Arkanian gear just to be safe.
Differences from hardmode
- Phase 1, 3, 5: No inevitability debuff or any tank swapping mechanics.
- Phase 2: There is a glowing sphere showing where the past team need to plant the Seed of Knowledge so no communication from the future team is needed.
- Phase 4: Players can enter the same portals as phase 2 as there is no debuff and there are glowing spheres pointing out the 3 crystals that the past team need to destroy without needing communication from the future team.
- Phase 6: You have unlimited Seed of Knowledge to plant instead of just two in hardmode. It appears you can also use certain speed boost moves (i.e. Force Speed) without losing the Seed as well.
Hardmode
Video
Loot: Unassembled Dread Forged Boots (rating 178), 1 random pieces of Oriconian gear (rating 178, no set bonus), 1x Exotic Element Equalizer, 6 Ultimate Commendations, 8 Elite Commendations.
Recommended gear: Underworld/Verpine. Kell Dragon is more than sufficient.
HP: 1.71 million (8m)
Enrage timer: Unknown
Pre-fight preparation
Split your team into groups of 2. Each group with a tank, healer and 2 DPS.
Phase 1 – 100 – 80%
There are two abilities that you should be aware in phase 1
- Inevitability – massive frontal knockback and applies a debuff that will kill you instantly if you take any damage from Calphayus. This is a tank swapping mechanic as the other tank has to taunt immediately after this cast go off to prevent Calphayus from going after the other tank. Be sure to turn Calphayus away from rest of raid to prevent them from getting this debuff.
- Distorted Perceptions – massive red circle under a random player. The targeted player will receive a ticking DoT that hits for ~3k damage per second and have their movement slow. Make sure the red circle isn’t near any other player, especially those with the Inevitability debuff as it will instantly kill them.
Phase 2 – 80%
At 80%, Calphayus will go immune and open up two portals. The blue one is the portal to the past and the orange one is the portal to the future. The raid will need to split into two, with one team going into the past and the other going into the future.
Future
The future team’s room has the boss and Dread Defiler adds that spawn to cast Mass Affliction. Your #1 priority is to kill off the Defiler adds before they can get their cast off (15s cast). You cannot kill off Calphayus in there but if you get him to 20%, he will become immune to damage and stop attacking the group.
Your goal here is to find the Dark Growth. It can spawn in one of five spots. In this picture, it has spawned in the back left position.
Once you have located the Dark Growth, relay the location to the Past team. Do not attack it.
Past
Go into the back of the room and protect that Seed of Knowledge from waves of adds while holding off the boss. You can heal the Seed of Knowledge if it takes damage.
- Dread Ravager – melee adds
- Dread Corruptor – casts DoTs on the seed and then disappears. Can be interrupted.
- Dread Despoiler – casts lighting attacks on the seed.
You need to keep the seed alive for 75 seconds, until it finishes the Pure Seed channel. During this time, the Future team should have told you where the Dark Growth has spawned.
Once the seed has finished channeling, , pick it up and plant it at the the location indicated by Future team. If done correctly, you will receive message that the Corruption of Future has ended.
Phase 3 (80-50%)
Once Phase 2 had ended, players should prepare to get teleported back to the “present”. Calphayrus is still at 80% where you left him and tanks will need to grab him immediately and turn him away.
Phase 3 is identical to phase 1 and more of a filler phase.
Phase 4- 50%
At 50%, the same two portals open again but this time you must pick a different portal from last time.
Future
Keep damaging Calphayus until he leaps to one of the four fountains and smash one of the crystals. When this happens, you must relay the fountain location and exactly which Focus Crystal has disappeared in that fountain to the Past team. For the crystal location, we find it helpful to use the clock system since the position of crystals on every fountain is different and the clock system is just more accurate.
If the Past Team has destroyed the correct crystal, then Calphayrus will be knocked down and be vulnerable to damage again. There is a time limit of 30s to destroy the correct crystal since Calphayru’s Dark Empowerment (which makes him immune to damage) only lasts 30s and if he finishes channeling then you fail the encounter.
You will need to do this two more times before this phase completes.
Past
Your job is to locate the crystal indicated by the Future team and destroy that specific crystal. Calphayus will harass your team inside the past room but if you damage him down to 20% he will go immune and stop attacking you.
You will need to do this three times for each crystal that the Future team tells you to destroy.
Phase 5- 50-20%
This phase, like phase 3, is exactly the same as phase 1 and intended to be a filler phase until you damage Calphayus to 20% and reach phase 6.
Phase 6- 20%
Like the previous times, two portals open again but this time instead of splitting your raid into two, have a healer/tank go into the Past portal (blue) and rest of the raid head into the Future portal (future). You can also have a DPS going into the past portal instead of a tank if your DPS is good.
Past
The tank/DPS will find a Seed of Knowledge pyramid object at back of the Past room behind the throne. They will need to carry it back to the entrance and exit the portal. They will continue to take damage while carrying this Seed of Knowledge and their movement speed will be slowed. Do not use any stun breaker or anything that enhance your movement speed as doing so will cause the Seed to disappear.
- Sorc/Sage healers can pull the carrier back to the entrance to save some time.
Once the Seed carrier has exited the portal, they will need to deposit it on the altar on one side of the throne. This will place a yellow circle on the same location inside the Future room. Make sure to tell rest of your raid where you placed the Seed of Knowledge.
There are two seeds in the Past portal room but the same person cannot carry the second seed again. Need someone new to carry it for the second time.
Future
Tanks need to make sure to taunt him even when he is immune as he might bug out and reset otherwise.
Calphayus cannot be damaged until the Seed carrier has placed the Seed on the altar. He will be able to attack you so you will need to heal the tanks. Once the Seed has being placed, a yellow circle will appear in the same side of the throne that the Seed was placed. Drag Calphayus into this yellow circle while staying out of it yourself and the yellow circle will knock Calphayus down, allowing you to damage to him for around 10 seconds.
There are two Seeds of Knowledge available so you have about 20 seconds in total to kill him. If you fail to kill him within the time limit, the encounter will fail.
