GW2. A complete guide to the first Guild Wars 2 raid wing, Spirit Vale, which includes the bosses Vale Guardian, Spirit Woods, Gorseval the Multifarious, and Sabetha the Saboteur.
Getting Started
Begin by opening Spirit Vale through the raid portal in the Lions Arch Aerodrome. There will be three colored guardians which you must defeat to spawn the first boss. These are the introduction to the key mechanics of the first boss.
Each guardian has a wide red circle around it, indicating a pulsing damaging area. This is a common mechanic in raids, but it often will not be telegraphed this way. Because this is technically the first thing a new raider will see, it teaches some basic mechanics of raiding and of the first boss:
Blue Guardian – A thunder cloud will strike the ground once a Green Circle fills. Four players must stand inside the lightning cloud to soak some of the damage or the entire party will take 80% of their maximum health in damage.
Red Guardian – Only condition damage is effective against this guardian. Red Orbs (Seekers) will slowly float towards players dealing massive damage while in their radius. They can be immobilized or knocked away.
Green Guardian – Blue Circles spawn underneath nearby players and after a moment they will port players to a random location and deal damage to them.
Standing within the range of multiple guardians will multiply their pulsing damage.
Vale Guardian (First Encounter)
As the first raid encounter in Spirit Vale, Vale Guardian is meant to introduce players to raids. It has a diverse amount of mechanics dealing with positioning, CC, damage types, and support strategies.
Compositions
Condition damage is required to kill the Red Guardian during the split phase.
CC will keep the Red Seekers off the squad and break the defiance bars.
- Mesmer Focus
- Ranger Elite
- Guardian Shield
Boon Rip is necessary to damage the Blue Guardian during the split phase.
- Mesmer Sword
- Necromancer Scepter
Healing/Barrier will mitigate some of the incidental damage as well as allow the squad to ignore some mechanics. Top players’ health bars off when possible.
Roles
Tank – Highest toughness decides who tanks the boss. The boss positioning will determine what part of the arena the Distributed Magic will spawn in and how long the Seekers will take to get to the squad. The boss also cleaves in front of it with a decently strong attack. The tank should face the boss away from the squad.
Conditions – When the split phases occur, condition damage classes should go to the Red Guardian as it can only be damaged by conditions.
Power – Only boon rip is required to remove the buff of the Blue Guardian. Condition or power damage is fine, but generally since the Red Guardian requires condition damage, all the power damage should go to Blue.
Mechanics
The Vale Guardian’s arena is divided into three tiles representing each color that the boss is divided into: Red, Blue, and Green. The following mechanics are not specific to the tiles, but will require positioning to manage. There will be small orbs constantly floating around the arena that will deal minimal damage when touched, but are otherwise not much to worry about.
Red Seekers – Red Orbs will spawn in the center of each tile and slowly move towards a player. These will pulse heavy damage to anyone in their radius. They can be immobilized, chilled, crippled, or knocked back to keep them from reaching your squad. They will despawn and respawn at their original location every 20 seconds, so it is not worth it to do anything but kite them.
Unstable Magic – Blue Circles will spawn underneath players near the Vale Guardian. Players who are inside these circles will see a yellow film around their screen, indicating that they are in the mechanic. If players do not move out, dodge, or block when these go off in the next few seconds they will be teleported to a random location and take considerable damage.
Distributed Magic – A Green Circle will spawn in the tile where the boss is located currently. Four players must stand in the circle to prevent the entire squad from taking 80% of their maximum health in damage. This damage can not be mitigated, but it can be soaked by barrier. During Split Phases only three players need to stand in the circle to soak.
Split Phase
At 66% and 33% the Vale Guardian will become invulnerable and move to the center of the arena. The further from the center the boss is, the longer the transition between phases, giving players more time to recover if necessary. Once there, Vale Guardian splits into three colored Guardians: Red, Green, and Blue. These will each have their own wide pulsing damaging area around them. Every player will attune to a specific Guardian at the time that they appear. Players take much more damage when in the area of a Guardian they are not attuned to.
Some mechanics persist during this phase:
- Unstable Magic will spawn less instances of Blue Circles on the ground near the Green Guardian.
- Only one Red Seeker will spawn near the Red Guardian
- The minimum of players required to stand in the Green Circle for Distributed Magic is lowered to three.
Players should split up into two to three groups to defeat these Guardians with the Red Guardian requiring condition damage and the Blue Guardian requiring boon rip to damage. The Green Guardian can be pulled toward the Blue Guardian to create a large group to kill both while still having enough to satisfy the Green Circle minimum requirement. Since the party is split up it would be harder to sustain through failing the Distributed Magic mechanic.
Alternatively, one player can tank the Green Guardian by itself until the other groups finish their Guardians to minimize time spent in unattuned areas. Once the Guardians have been reduced to zero health they gain a defiance bar which must be broken to finish them off. Once all three are finished, the attunements go away and the Vale Guardian spawns in the center with a few new mechanics.
Tiles – After 66%, one of the three tiles that the arena is split into will become lit up beginning with the green tile. Players who stand in the lit up tile will take pulsing damage. After 20 seconds it will move clockwise which tile is lit up. The tank must move the boss out of the lit up area to minimize the damage that the party takes. The tank can stand on one of the lines between the two and move back and forth between which zone is safe.
During the 33-0% phase Unstable Magic will spawn underneath every player, not just a few. Also two of the three tiles will be lit up, starting with green and blue. This cannot be simplified to standing between two of the tiles, so the tank must kite the boss around the platforms. Try to stay near the middle and near the edge of the next platform so the party can transition to the new safe platform sooner.
Magic Storm – After 66% the Vale Guardian will start to use an ability that launches balls of energy nearby, damaging any hit by them. The boss will continue standing still, sending out damage until their defiance bar is broken with CC. This can be dangerous because being unable to move the boss means being unable to control where the Distributed Magic spawns and being unable to move out of the lit tiles. Distributed Magic cannot happen during this attack, so it may be useful to delay breaking the defiance bar in a more aggressive composition.
Strategy
The three main mechanics: the Red Seekers, the Green Circle, and the Blue Circles can be handled in multiple ways.
- Rotating Strategy – The first method is to kite the boss around to avoid the Seekers and to position near the players who stand in the green circles. This allows more freedom to avoid the Blue Circles and Seekers and is less overall pressure on the healers, but requires the tank to have good positioning and lowers squad DPS.
- Center/Perimeter Static Strategy – The second method is to tank the boss in a static location, either at the center or at the perimeter of the arena. If done at the center the squad needs good coordination and a lot of CC to keep the Seekers in place before they converge on the squad. If done at the perimeter there is more time before and less CC is required. With the squad not moving, the party will be unable to see the Blue Circles as easily and they won’t be able to make it into every Green Circle. Because of this the squad should NOT try to get four players into every Green Circle. This means the entire party will periodically take 80% of their health in damage, requiring the healers to top everyone’s health bars up before the Distributed Magic strikes. This puts a lot more pressure on healers, requires players to not get hit by Unstable Magic, and requires more coordination to CC the seekers, but will increase the squad DPS and require no positioning changes.
There is no correct way to handle these, and often you should swap between the two methods based on the situation. For example, in the 33-0% phase the tiles will pressure the party too much if they stay in the lit ones, so sticking to the Rotating or the Center Strategy will work better in the final phase. In the 66-33% phase the Perimeter Static Strategy is still effective if the tank stands at the edge of the tiles and transitions out of the lit tile when needed.
For the split phases, send a couple condition DPS to the Red Guardian. They won’t need a healer because they will stay in the red attunement and move away from the Seeker. The rest of the squad should go to Blue Guardian to try to finish it as fast as possible to stop Distributed Magic from spawning. One player can pull the Green Guardian over to Blue or just tank it where it is to prevent it from heading to Red. There will be healers at Blue so it should be fine to overlap attunements.
Spirit Woods (Second Encounter)
After defeating Vale Guardian the squad can progress forward into the woods and drop down into a clearing where Angered Spirits wandering the Spirit Vale will spawn. Some of them must have their boon ripped to deal damage to them. Once they are killed, the first part of the Spirit Woods event chain begins.
Spectral Rifts
It is helpful to have healing and support as well as mobility here as the squad must run around and stand within the capture points to close the spectral rifts. The more players that stand in them, the faster they close. The progress can be seen in the top right of the screen. The rifts spawn randomly between a set of five locations and will explode, downing the entire squad if they are not closed within 20 seconds of spawning.
Having scrappers give superspeed to the squad and mesmers use portal to mitigate the travel times between rifts. There are also Adrenal Mushrooms to the sides which can be used to allow long cooldown skills to be used liberally during this event, meaning you should abuse the utility of specific skills to be mobile.
Damage is not really necessary to complete this event, but killing the spirits while capturing the rifts can help to reduce the pressure taken by your squad. Stability and condition cleanse will also prevent cripples and knockbacks from slowing you down.
After finishing the event head to the next room where you must clear out all enemies to progress. Wait until your entire squad is ready to jump down from the balcony.
Ghostly Wall
When the squad jumps down, a wall of angry ghosts will appear and chase you. If the wall catches up to you, it is instant death. The party must escape the ghosts by breaking through Ethereal Barriers which will halt your squad’s progress. To pass these you must damage them, but not everyone can damage the barriers because Spectral Rifts will also spawn along the path. Just like before, if these are not closed the entire party will wipe. Players with higher DPS should run ahead to destroy the barrier while a few supportive or even ranged DPS players should stay behind to capture the Spectral Rifts.
After the third barrier, the squad will need to leap and glide over a gap in the path. Then there will be multiple Spectral Rifts before the final barrier. Rather than having most of the party rush ahead this time, more should stay behind to help close the rifts.
Cemetery
After escaping the wall, proceed into the cemetery. There are five buttons that must be stood on to progress onward. They must all be stood on simultaneously. Their locations are:
- Beneath the staircase to the north.
- Take the staircase to the north then leap across the branch to the south side ledge of the upper level. The button is on a ledge out of immediate sight.
- Take the staircase to the north then leap across the series of mushrooms to the east. Glide to and on top of the gazebo on the eastern ledge.
- Take the staircase to the north then leap across the series of mushrooms to the east. Go inside the gazebo on the eastern ledge.
- Go south and take the staircase to the ledge of graves. There is an opening in the middle where you can enter and then head left twice.
Gorseval the Multifarious (Third Encounter)
Gorseval is the DPS check of Spirit Vale. If your raid lacks damage or efficiency it can be fatal, promoting more aggressive compositions and strategies.
Credit to Mukluk for the video.Compositions
Immobilize/Chills will help to slow down the Charged Souls.
- Ranger Elite
- Engineer Mortar Elite
Aegis/Stability to block the smash attack or ignore the knockback.
- Dragonhunter Virtue
- Guardian Utility
- Revenant Jalis Stance
Piercing or Cleave Damage can clear Spectral Darkness and Spirits efficiently while staying on the boss.
- Necromancer Utility
- Berserker Longbow
- Holosmith Forge
Mechanics
Tanking – The boss will attack the player with the most toughness, but depending on the strategy used this can make little to no difference in the encounter.
Smash – Gorseval will raise its arm and smash the ground around it. Players hit will take moderate damage and be knocked back. Block, dodge, or grant stability to prevent being knocked back.
Rampage – Periodically Gorseval will leap to the center of the platform and gain a defiance bar. While channeling this, hitting Gorseval will deal damage to the player for every instance. Slower and harder hitting attacks are better during this mechanic to minimize the damage taken. Builds with many small instances or pulsing damage should be careful to not kill themselves by recklessly attacking.
There will be a radius of black goo that surrounds Gorseval during the Rampage. After a few seconds the goo will deal heavy damage and inflict 25 stacks of vulnerability to anyone in it. As long as the defiance bar is not broken, Gorseval will continue to create these fields in different patterns. The squad can stick together and try to heal through the damaging effect, or break the bar quickly. Taking two hits in a row without healing or cleansing will surely down you. Stick with the party and move out of the goo until the defiance bar is broken or until the Rampage ends with black goo covering the entire platform.
Spirits – After the rampage, Spirits spawn around Gorseval. These can pressure your party, and if left alive too long Gorseval will consume them for a damage buff. Try to pull them in and cleave them down.
World Eater – After the Rampage and Spirits, Gorseval will begin channeling a massive attack that will wipe the entire party when finished. There are two ways to avoid this attack:
- Updrafts – There are four Updrafts outside the platform. Your party can break open the barriers on the perimeter of the platform and then glide out to the updraft while the attack completes, then glide back to the platform. The updraft will disappear afterwards so another side must be used to repeat this method.
- DPS – Once at 66% and 33% Gorseval will transition to the next phase and stop using the World Eater attack. With enough damage, the squad can make it to this point before they wipe to World Eater.
Deciding which way your squad will handle the World Eater depends on how much DPS you have and whether or not you lost time due to mechanics. The tank can gauge the DPS and must decide during the Rampage which method they will use to handle the World Eater.
If using the Updraft method, the tank should bring the boss to the side of a barrier near the updraft after the Rampage. The squad can damage the barrier and prepare to take the Updraft. Right before the circle fills the platform, everyone should jump off and glide towards the Updraft then glide back to the platform.
If using the DPS method, stay still in the center and delay breaking the defiance bar of the Rampage to get more damage on the boss until the squad is confident they can meet the DPS check. If your party takes too much pressure to heal, they should move out of the black goo or stop hitting the boss. Committing to this strategy is what makes it work. If the DPS is not enough, then it will be a wipe, but then adjustments can be made to make the DPS check or a decision can be made to use Updrafts. However, if some players prepare to do one strategy and others prepare to do another it won’t work for anyone. Commit to whichever strategy your tank wants based on their positioning (middle for DPS, side for Updraft).
Charged Soul Phase – Regardless of how your squad handles the World Eater, once Gorseval gets to 66% health it will become invulnerable and four Charged Souls will appear at the four corners of the platform (NW-NE-SE-SW). They will walk towards the boss and if they reach it a World Eater will occur, wiping the party.
The squad should move around together killing spirits one by one, usually starting at the northwest Charged Soul and going clockwise. Meanwhile, a player or two can delay the souls that the party will get to later (southeast and southwest) using Chills, Cripples, and Immobilizes. The souls will pulse Weakness to nearby players, making condition damage or medium ranged power damage more effective here. Once all souls are defeated, Gorseval no longer is invulnerable and repeats the beginning order of mechanics with some additions.
Spectral Darkness – After finishing the first Soul Phase, these Black Orbs will begin spawning around the platform. These will create an expanding Bright Blue Area around them. Any players who step in this blue area will gain a debuff decreasing their damage dealt and increasing damage to them. The expanding area can be removed by destroying the orbs which have about 30,000 health. If players get the debuff it can only be removed by picking up two small golden orbs that appear where a Spectral Darkness was recently destroyed.
Because this fight is very DPS dependent, focusing on clearing Spectral Darkness can waste time unnecessarily. However, if left alone for too long, the orbs can expand far enough that the squad is trapped by the blue area. Because the orbs are at the center of the expanding area, the longer they are up the harder it is to clear them without getting the debuff. Players with ranged damage can damage orbs near the outer edge of the platform while melee players can try to hit the boss at the same time as any orbs that have spawned nearby. Try not to waste too much time clearing them, but also be proactive and efficient in clearing ones that you can with little investment.
At 33% Gorseval repeats the Soul Phase but with the Spectral Darkness still spawning. After the Souls are finished repeat the boss phase until the boss dies with one new mechanic.
Ghastly Prison – After 33% Gorseval will occasionally create Orange Circles underneath every player. If players do not move out of their or other’s circles, they will be imprisoned and cannot use any skills until they break out. They can spam the one skill or be damaged by allies to break free. The attack cannot be dodged or blocked, so make sure to move out of the way. This will happen at the beginning of the the final boss phase and after the Rampage attack.
Strategy
This fight is a DPS check, so maintaining efficiency is the key to success. Begin the fight ready to block Gorseval’s smash attack. Sharing out aegis and stability right after the boon wipe will help DPS players get a good opener. There are two main approaches to handling the Rampage mechanic:
- Your raid has plenty of DPS but cannot survive the Rampage for long
- While surviving the rampage is doable, your raid does not phase the boss before World Eater
Depending on your composition, either CC the rampage instantly if DPS is fine but sustain is low, or delay the break bar during Rampage which will also delay the World Eater and fit in some damage where you can while surviving and avoiding the black goo.
After the rampage finishes there is another decision to make depending on how close Gorseval is to phasing at 66%, 33%, or dying:
- If there is not enough time to reach the phase, prepare to take an updraft by breaking the barrier and any Spectral Darkness in the way.
- If DPS and time are fine, ignore other mechanics and DPS Gorseval because after reaching the next phase there won’t be as strict of a time constraint.
The tank will decide which option the raid will choose and either move towards a wall or keep the boss still.
Once in the Charged Soul Phase, have everyone but a few go north and kill souls in a clockwise manner. A ranger with the Entangle elite can singlehandedly stop all of the other spirits by waiting until they get within the 600 range. Otherwise, a few players can permanently cripple or chill the Souls that the squad is not on.
After all Souls are defeated, repeat the boss phase as normal. Clear Spectral Darkness when convenient or necessary to do so. Because your squad has to manage orbs it can make meeting the DPS check harder and you may need to do an Updraft even if you did not the first boss phase. You will want to clear orbs more aggressively early on and less so later on because they may not be relevant if they never expand large enough before the fight ends.
During the second Soul phase the Spectral Darkness can make it difficult to manage the Spirits, so clearing the orbs early on is important. After this final Soul phase the orbs can be mostly ignored except if your party wishes to use an Updraft or if any blue area encroaches on the center of the platform. Moving out of the Rampage can also be complicated if Spectral Darkness limits your space. Stick together and clear only the necessary orbs then maximize damage output.
After Gorseval has been defeated, glide to the north between some trees. There will be a set of stairs leading to a treehouse. Clear out as many bandits as possible while luring them behind the stairs with line of sight. Climb the stairs and clear out more bandits until reaching a launch pad.
There will be a Sapper Bandit in a tower above who will throw a bomb on one of the players. They will be indicated by a Green Circle. They can use the special action key to throw the bomb at the launch pad, which will send any players standing on the launch pad flying across the ravine. Interact with the cranes on the other side to lower some platforms to allow the rest of the squad to jump across. Clear out the rest of the bandits until the final boss spawns.
Sabetha the Saboteur (Fourth Encounter)
Sabetha, the final raid boss of Spirit Vale, is a race against time as the platform slowly degrades to cannon fire and bombs. If the platform is destroyed, the entire party falls to their death. Keeping cannons and bombs off of the platform will give the squad more time to take out the boss.
Compositions
Ports or Movement Abilities will allow players to reach the launch pads in a timely manner and avoid Flame Wall.
- Elementalist Utility
- Revenant Mallyx Stance
- Thief Utility
Pulls and Cleave will clean up some of the bandits, especially the Thugs who can knock you into the Flame Wall.
- Necromancer Utility
- Mesmer Focus Pull
CC is not integral to the encounter, but it is vital to your squad’s survival during the window of time that “Knuckles” is there.
Roles
Flak Kiter – One player, usually one who can damage from range like a Scourge or provide support in bursts like a Druid will need to stand at a distance to bait the flak mechanic away from the group.
Cannons – Two players, usually DPS with burst damage, will need to be launched up to the cannon platforms by the sapper bomb. They must alternate who does each cannon, so designating an even and an odd or a 1 and 2 will help to coordinate.
Mechanics
Flak Shot – The player furthest from Sabetha will be targeted with a fiery projectile that will leave a burning area on the ground. The player designated to kite flak should stand at range so the flak is not placed on top of the squad near the boss. Standing in between the launch pads rather than near them will clear up the path for players to access the cannons. Flak will only be cast every other attack and not during Flame Wall or when Sabetha is off the platform, so the kiter should regroup with the squad during these times.
Time Bomb – Around every 15 seconds while Sabetha is on the main platform, the player closest to Sabetha will have a red circle appear around them and a text will appear telling them that they have a bomb on them. After the circle fills any allies nearby will take massive damage. The bomb can be blocked by every other player, but unless your squad has coordinated aegis share you should move out of the center so the rest of the squad can stay on the boss when you get this. Be aware of the flak kiter or players going to cannons who won’t always be on the boss.
Flame Wall – Periodically, and usually whenever Sabetha returns to the main platform, she will ignite her flamethrower to create a Flame Wall towards a random player in the squad. This has an obvious audio and visual cue with Sabetha exclaiming something along the lines of “Burn!” and a dark arrow pointing outwards. When you hear and see this move to the left of the arrow facing Sabetha, as the flame wall will rotate 360 degrees counter-clockwise. If you are hit by this wall you will instantly die. Dodging or blocking does not work, so you should move as close to the boss as possible and rotate with it, without going too close that you are within the Flame Wall. Invulnerability will allow you to survive passing through it.
The further you are from Sabetha, the further you need to travel to keep rotating around the center. This means the flak kiter should move in towards the center during the Flame Wall. Flak will not occur during this anyway. Players going to the cannons will need to be aware of their timing and decide if they can make it before or after a Flame Wall passes, then position accordingly.
Cannons – Every 30 seconds a cannon will be armed on one of the platforms surrounding the main platform. These cannons will fire at the quadrant of the main platform that they are near, damaging the platform and any players in that area. It is the most important mechanic to coordinate a rotation of launching players up to destroy these cannons. The cardinal direction that these cannons spawn at is a fixed pattern in the following order:
S W N E
S N W E
An easier way to remember the ordering is that south is always at the beginning and east is always at the end of each rotation. Only north and west swap ordering. The pattern repeats. If you ever lose track of the rotation then look for the 
crossed swords icon on the minimap to know where a cannon has spawned.
Shortly after any cannon spawns, a Bandit Sapper opposite the cannon will spawn and place a bomb on the player that is the furthest west but still in range of the Sapper. They will need to use the special action key to throw this bomb at one of the launch pads so a player can destroy the cannon. It is usually the Flak kiter who wants to get this bomb on them, so they can stand slightly to the west of the party while still being far enough to keep Flak off of the party but still in range for the Bandit Sapper to target them. Every player should be ready to throw the sapper bomb at a launch pad. If you have a green circle around you or your screen gets a yellow film around it, that means you have a bomb
Once any player has the bomb, the designated player to destroy the cannon needs to stand on the launch pad and then the player with the sapper bomb aims at it with the special action key. After getting launched to a cannon the player must destroy it quickly while taking pressure from Bandit Snipers. Glide back to the main platform while accounting for the possibility that Sabetha will cast Flame Wall. There is a debuff that prevents one player from doing consecutive cannons. Cannons must be done by at least two players in an alternating pattern. Usually in most groups the players are assigned as “1/3” and “2/4”. The “odds” always occur at 30 seconds past the minute on the timer while the “evens” occur on the minute, see the timers below.
- 8:30
South - 8:00
West - 7:30
North - 7:00
East
- 6:30 South
- 6:00 North
- 5:30 West
- 5:00 East
- 4:30 South
- 4:00 West
- 3:30 North
- 3:00 East
- 2:30 South
- 2:00 North
- 1:30 West
- 1:00 East
If someone misses a cannon, it is best to not confuse the rotation or stagger the debuff. Either one of the non-designated players can go to the cannon or skip it entirely until the next rotation.
Cannon 1/3 PoV:
Bandit Champions – Every 25% of Sabetha’s health she will leave the platform and be replaced by another Bandit. While Sabetha is not on the platform, she will no longer shoot flak so the kiter can group with the rest of the squad during that time. Instead of throwing Time Bombs on players, she will throw Heavy Bombs on the platform which players must interact with to kick them off the platform. If the bomb goes off the platform loses a decent chunk of health. There are three different Bandits that spawn at different times with specific mechanics to handle:
75% – Kernan will shoot a volley of bullets in a cone to one direction. She will not move during this attack so standing behind or to her side can avoid this. Be careful when going to one of the launch pads if she is performing this attack. You can double dodge or block it.
50% – “Knuckles” will charge a hammer attack that will knock players up into the air and then away. Break the defiance bar quickly to prevent this attack from happening. It can knock players off the platform if they were not in the direct center. After Sabetha returns she will begin giving out multiple Time Bombs.
25% – Karde will shoot his flamethrower to damage enemies in front of him. Like Kernan’s attack just stay out of the frontal cone. He will also summon flame turrets which will pressure the party. Multiple flame turrets can be out at a time so clearing them will reduce the pressure. After Sabetha returns, the ceiling will start to collapse and cause the squad and platform to take damage.
After each Bandit reaches 25% health or a minute has passed, Sabetha will return to the main platform and likely use Flame Wall. Finish the champion off while avoiding the stacked mechanics.
Strategy
After designating a kiter and two players to handle cannons, run towards Sabetha with the first player to get near Sabetha getting the first Time Bomb. The entire party should at first stand on the southwest side of Sabetha, even the flak kiter at range, so that when she begins her Flame Wall it will pass by the south launch pad early and then end before passing it again. The first sapper bomb will occur as the first Flame Wall happens, so if Sabetha randomly targets any player and everyone is south it will make the Flame Wall pass south instantly, removing the threat of the player going to the south cannon getting killed. The squad can continue to move, putting their back to the next cannon to provide some internal coordination if anyone needs to throw a sapper bomb or cover a cannon.
While the Flame Wall is happening or Sabetha is off the main platform, the kiter can also stack with the group for extra support. During the last 25%, if the kiter is playing druid or another healing role, they can swap places with another player so the druid can provide more heals to the group during the heavy pressure and a ranged DPS can still provide some damage while kiting the flak. The party will also want to stop doing cannons when Sabetha is around 20-15% health to just finish her off since they will only be up for a short time and going to do cannons will delay the fight more.
Flak Kiter PoV:
Achievements
Beyond the Vale – 1MP – 10AP
Defeat the Vale Guardian
Closure – 1AP
Collect all soldier tags from the fallen. Their locations are noted below:
1. Under the windswept trees.
2. Among the grass.
3. Near the fallen tree.
4. In the shade.
5. Killed by guardians.
6. Backed into a corner.
7. Resisted his captors.
8. Went down fighting.
9. Broke his leg.
10. Trampled.
Flee the Storm – 2AP
Defeat Vale Guardian without getting hit by Magic Storm. This is the ability used during the bosses defiance bar. Use CC to break it fast or move away from the boss.
White Noise – 3AP
Defeat the Vale Guardian while killing all of the divisions within 10 seconds of each other. This is very simple to achieve because CC is required to finish off the Guardians. Get each Guardian to zero health while waiting for the others, then coordinate CC on them. Bring more CC to control the timing.
Into the Woods – 5AP
Traverse the Spirit Woods.
I Can Outrun A… Ghost – 3AP
Escape the Spirit Woods Ghostly Wall without being crippled. There are orange circles on the ground that will inflict cripple. Avoid them by blocking, dodging, or staying on the sides rather than in the middle of the path.
Quick March – 1AP
Outrun the ghostly mob in the Spirit Woods in less than 2 minutes. Mesmer Portals can be used to fulfill the Spectral Rifts and then immediately be on top of the Ethereal Barrier to speed up the process.
Keep the Lights On – 2AP
Light the brazier at the far end of the Spirit Woods after the Cemetery. To light this you need to carry the torch from the room before the Ghostly Wall without dropping it. It will replace your weapon skills and be lost upon downing or doing anything that changes your weapon skills. Have a support player hold this.
Put to Rest – 1MP – 10AP
Defeat Gorseval the Multifarious.
You can receive a Ghostly Infusion as a rare drop from defeating Gorseval or they can be purchased for 1,000 Magnetite Shards and 20 gold from the raid vendor. This can be bought or sold on the Trading Post. This infusion can grant +5 to a stat and gives a cosmetic effect that looks like a spectral black and blue flame. Multiple Ghostly Infusions can be stacked for a more intense effect.
Anger Management – 2AP
Defeat Gorseval without being hit by its rampage attack. Either break the defiance bar early or sacrifice some damage to avoid every single tick of the black goo.
Denied – 3AP
Defeat Gorseval without allowing him to consume any Spirits. These always spawn after the Rampage. Pull them together and cleave them immediately.
Spectral Anomaly – 1AP
Defeat Gorseval without being affected by the Spectral Darkness debuff. Be proactive with clearing the Spectral Darkness orbs. The longer they are out the harder it is to clear them while not getting the debuff.
Fire Extinguisher – 1MP – 15AP
Defeat Sabetha the Saboteur.
Liftoff – 1AP
Get launched up to a cannon by standing on one of the jump platforms while a bomb is thrown on it.
Backdraft Dodger – 3AP
Defeat Sabetha without getting hit by Firestorm. So long as the flak kiter keeps the fire off of the squad and in between launch pads, you should never have to go near it.
Last Cannon – 5AP
Defeat Sabetha while leaving one cannon operational the entire fight. The best cannon to choose to leave up is the east cannon because it is the last one to spawn, making it pressure the squad the least over time. It will complicate some of the mechanics to have one quadrant of the platform constantly under fire, but dodging through it during Flame Walls can help survival. It will also destroy the platform sooner, requiring more DPS from the squad.
My Hero! – 1AP
Speak to all the Pact prisoners after defeating Sabetha. This can be done in a cleared instance, not required to have defeated Sabetha yourself. There are ten pact members in cages around the bandit tree house.
Loot Finder – 1AP
Find all the hidden chests. Their locations can be found below:
1. Underneath the ledge where the Ghostly Wall event begins.
2. On top of a pillar in the room before the Ghostly Wall event. This chest can only be accessed by gliding from a ledge reached by a Bouncing Mushroom after completing the Cemetery.
3. This chest only appears if you bring the torch from before the Ghostly Wall event to the brazier near the Bouncing Mushroom after the Cemetery.
4. Next to a cooking fireplace near the Wing 2 portal northwest of the bandit tree fort.
Piecing It All Together – 1AP
Read all the journal entries to learn more about the bandits. Their locations are below:
1. Cross the narrow bridge to the plateau west of the Vale Guardian arena. Look inside a tent.
2. Climb the tree south of the Vale Guardian arena and glide to the east platform. Clear out some pocket raptors and look to the north beneath the trees.
3. After the Spectral Rifts event in Spirit Woods, take a right before the bridge and look in the corner of a ledge above the spirit river.
4. After the Spectral Rifts event in Spirit Woods, take a left after the bridge and look in the corner of a ledge above the spirit river.
5. In the room before the Ghostly Wall event. In some rubble by the firepit to the east.
6. In an alley to the south of the cemetery, up the stairs and take a right.
7. In a corner of wooden rafters across a broken bridge east of the bandit camp.
8. On some wooden rafters below the ramp leading to the bandit camp.
9. In a tree high above the bandit camp. Glide there from the Skillet.
10. In a corner behind the northern-most shack atop the bandit tree fort.
11. Behind the lower shack near the top of the bandit tree fort. Leap around the prisoner cage.
12. In a tree at the end of the ramp from the Skillet.
13. Climb the tree next to the upper shack at the top of the bandit tree fort to get on top of the shack.
Undefeated – 1MP – 20AP – title: 
The Eternal
Defeat all bosses in Spirit Vale without any party member dying. This can be done on an individual basis. Completion does not require a full clean run, so once one boss has been completed you can keep retrying others without repeating the ones you have completed. Check the achievement tab to see which ones are completed.
Acknowledgment
Special thanks to Vallun for writing up the initial draft of this guide and helping on the process. Check out his Youtube Channel for more of his content.
This guide helped me know what was really necessary to do specially on split times with the green circles. Thanks!