GW2. Sunqua Peak Fractal Guide
Fractal Guide
Starting
Once inside Sunqua Peak, run across the path until you meet the “Spirit of the Mountain” and from here you will need to do a small puzzle which introduces you to the mechanic called “Charged Leap”.
Charged Leap is an effect that you get from small lightning orbs in the ground that you can grab to jump higher, you can stack up to three for maximum altitude. This mechanic will be needed later on the first boss and the final boss as well.
First Boss – Voice of the Mountain
This Boss is really easy and it’s mostly an introduction on how to use the Charged Leap mechanic with the thunderclouds that you will need to use again during the final boss fight.
The main attack that it uses is to shoot orbs around it, you can easily avoid them by moving around him or blocks, these orbs can be annoying because they have a knockback.
The other important attack is a yellowish circle and you will see the boss charging up to stomp the ground. You can just dodge out of this. Then when the boss reaches 66% health, it will transform into a tornado and you have to do the Charged Leap mechanic by jumping.
Now you have to collect three lightning orbs to max your Charged Leap altitude and simply jump into the arrow area to clear the thunderclouds. Once all the thunderclouds are gone the boss will become vulnerable again and you can continue attacking him. While the clouds are active they will attack randomly with Agony attacks, check the red circles on the ground. If your group fails to clear up all the clouds in the time limit, the boss will do a massive AoE attack with Agony.
This phase will happen again at 33% health.
Afterwards you will be lifted onto a cliffside. Clear the mobs and then cross the waterfall when it is not flowing at full speed or you will be knocked off. Talk to the Frightened Water Elemental whenever you can to progress. You will eventually reach a drop into a room where there are a bunch of fallen boulders in the middle of the room. You must damage these boulders to free the elemental.
Meanwhile dark blue orbs will spawn and target the nearest player. This will give stacks of Tidal Bargain which will deal massive damage to the party if it gets to 10 stacks. To manage these stacks, party members should get in between the orb and its target to block the channel.
After finishing this you will enter into the volcanic portion of the peak. Kill the lava elementals to progress through the blockades. Be careful when they die they leave behind an explosion that gives plenty of burning. Group them up so they don’t explode everywhere and have cleanses ready.
Second Boss – Fury of the Mountain
This boss is just a tank and spank except for the 66% and 33% phase attacks. The boss will go invulnerable and two meteors will fall.
Avoid their location and jump or dodge the shockwave that occurs from the impact. Then the boss will use a massive explosive attack. Simply get behind the meteor shards that fell to avoid this. At 33% this mechanic will track two players. If they stack the meteors on top of each other they will break and there will be nowhere to hide.
This is a mechanic to learn for the final boss. Keep traveling up the mountain until you reach the peak.
Final Boss – Sorrowful Spellcaster
This boss has three elements it casts. During the first phase they use lightning and dash attacks. After 66% they will use fire based attacks and meteors. The final phase at 33% is water.
The boss begins by leaping around and shooting projectiles in a line. Also avoid the wind updrafts which can kill you with fall damage if you are low enough. Break her bar to make her stay still and deal damage to her. One mechanic players must look out for is that orange circles will spawn on players. These will deal damage to the player and any players nearby. It is advised that some players stay at maximum melee range to keep damaging the boss, and then the healers or non-DPS roles go further out. The circles can overlap with each other, but not with other party members. The boss will alternate using this attack without and with a spin attack as well. When using the spin attack there will be a dark red circle underneath her. Avoid being in melee range during this one.
Periodically the boss will go invulnerable and channel a massive attack. Players must jump into clouds to end the attack. There are 8 clouds that spawn on each one of the spokes of the floor design in the boss room. To jump high enough to clear a cloud you must collect three small white orbs first. You can see the buff on your bar is stacked to three. Once you clear a cloud you must collect three more orbs to clear another cloud.
Soon after the boss reaches 66%, the fire phase begins and they will leap into the sky and summon meteors. Avoid being close to them when they land and dodge or jump over the shockwave they create. There will be multiple rounds of meteors. The boss will then return to the ground and summon a powerful attack. To avoid this you must get behind one of the fallen meteors to line of sight the boss. However, some of the rocks are brittle because of the shockwaves of the other meteors and will break before the attack lands. It is important you take cover behind the most recent meteors to fall because they are the strongest and will last through the attack.
If you are going for the 15 minute achievement, Running Up the Mountain, you will want to be on the boss during this phase, as they are still vulnerable to attacks. It will be harder to jump over the meteor shockwaves from the center, but getting in some extra damage will be worth it. Then you can hide behind the last set of meteors when the boss starts to channel the massive attack.
At around 33% the water phase begins and the boss will disappear again. Dark blue water orbs will spawn that target the player closest to it and channel a debuff on the target. The first one will always spawn at the south, so be around there when it spawns. The player with the debuff will die if they get to 10 stacks, so the party needs to get in between the orb and the targeted player to share the debuff stacks. Players with high stacks of the debuff should stay further from the orbs and players with lower stacks should go closer. In general your party should just stick together during this phase because there will be green circles that players need to soak by stacking together as well. New orbs will spawn in a counter clockwise rotation.
Later the boss will summon a whirlpool around them, and anyone in the whirlpool will take agony damage. Your party will also be slowly sucked in towards the center of the whirlpool. Ranged damage is effective during this part because you cannot out heal the whirlpool. Dark blue water orbs will continue to spawn during this, making it harder to manage the soaking of the mechanic during the whirlpool. After about 30 seconds the whirlpool will end and you can finish the boss off while avoiding the ground AoEs as much as you can.
Achievements
Sunqua Peak Fractal – 5AP
This is the meta achievement for the Sunqua Peak Fractal, you need to complete all seven eligible achievements below.
Another Side, Another Story – 8AP
For this achievement you need to collect 8 letters around the map, here you can see the full map and each one location:
Tattered Letter
Delicate Letter
Small Note
Rushed Note
Lenghty Letter
Handwriting Note
Short Letter
Simple Note
Once you gather all 8 letter you will get a Sealed Letter.
NOTE: This Letter will trigger an additional scene once you complete the Fractal in Challenge Mode and you talk with the boss.
Elemental Ascent – 3AP
To complete this achievement simply complete the Sunqua Peak Fractal in Tier 4 (Difficulty scale 100).
Energy Dispersal – 5AP
To finish this achievement you must complete the orbs and cloud phase within 10 seconds. To do so you must coordinate with your party what to do. (Needs to be done in Tier 4)
At 80% the boss will phase and channel a massive attack. Players must jump into clouds to end the attack. There are 8 clouds that spawn on each one of the spokes of the floor design in the boss room. To jump high enough to clear a cloud you must collect 3 orbs first. You can see the buff on your bar is stacked to three. Once you clear a cloud you must collect three more orbs to clear another cloud.
At first, orbs will spawn in specific locations, making the clouds in those areas best to do first. The orbs will spawn at the north, east, south, and west spokes first. Afterwards, orbs will spawn randomly around the room. Assign one player to each of those. A 5th player is not necessary, as there are 8 clouds and 4 players can do 2 each. Then decide whether your team will go counter clockwise or clockwise. So for example if your team decides clockwise, then the player who got the North cloud first will then go to Northeast and the East player will go to Southeast and so on. If you succeed in getting all 8 clouds in 10 seconds, the buff will remain on your buff bar and you must finish the boss without wiping to get the achievement. If necessary you can keep retrying to practice this achievement.
If working specifically for this achievement you can also bring more mobility such as leaps, superspeed, and ports to speed up the clearing.
Credit to Vallun for the video.Raging Fire – 5AP
On the final boss fight, you have to avoid getting hit by a powerful attack called Firestorm, just be aware when she goes into the Fire phase, after the meteors fall from the sky, she will prepare the big attack and you have time to find cover behind the meteor rock. (Needs to be done in Tier 4)
Respect for the Dead – 3AP
For this achievement you need to show respect by using the /kneel emote next to three memorials at the location seen on the map:
Running up the Mountain – 3AP
On the Master tier (Tier 4), complete the Sunqua Peak Fractal within 15 minutes. If your party needs a healer for the last boss, have them swap to a DPS build for the first two bosses, and then go to a healing build right after the second boss, since there is a long time-gate between the 2nd and third boss and the first two bosses are not very demanding. Mirage is a strong DPS class for making this boss fight faster because it deals plenty of confusion damage and the boss attacks quickly into it.
Credit to Vallun for the video.Share the Burden – 5AP
On the Master tier (Tier 4), defeat the final boss without anyone receiving more than 9 stacks of Tidal Bargain. This is the debuff that the dark blue orbs give to the player that they target. To stop the stacks from rising, a party member must be between the orb and the player that is targeted. Death removes eligibility.
Here and Now (Hidden) – 5AP
To complete this achievement you need to defeat the final boss of Sunqua Peak Fractal in Challenge Mode. Rewards the title Defier of Doubt and an Abyssal Fractal Weapon box.
Dancing with Demons (Hidden) – 5AP
To complete this achievement you need to complete Sunqua Peak Fractal in Challenge Mode with no one in your group being defeated. Rewards the title Dances with Demons. If your party wipes once you must restart the fractal and redo the first encounter even if you were working on the second.
Challenge Mode
To participate in the challenge mode of this fractal you must complete all of the normal mode achievements above. Only one player must meet that requirement to allow the whole party to participate. Speak to the Harbinger of Woe at the beginning of the fractal and he will ask to confirm your party wishes to continue. You will be ported to the final boss which has two fights.
Boss Fight
The boss generally does the same mechanics as normal mode but they are more punishing in challenge mode. The red circles that spawn on every party member will be significantly larger, so there is much less room for error in positioning them. Designate one party member to stay in during this and then the other four party members should get out.
The main differences, however, can be found in the fire phase at 66% and water phase at 33%. During the meteor shower, more meteors will spawn. While this is not too much of a problem because you can just keep jumping the shockwaves, it complicates discerning which meteor is safe to hide behind. All of the meteors except one of them will break before the special attack. You can tell which ones will break beforehand by seeing a slight flame coming out of them. It is best to split up but stay as close to the center of the room as possible to be able to reach the safe meteor.
The final water phase will also spawn multiple water orbs which will require much greater attention to managing who soaks tethers while also dealing with the whirlpool’s gravity.
Demon Boss Fight
Once the normal boss is defeated in challenge mode there will be a second encounter. There is a checkpoint at this point so you won’t need to repeat the first boss encounter. The most important thing to realize when dealing with this encounter is that though there are many animations, not all of them are harmful. It can often be overwhelming visually, but panicking can create more problems, so keeping calm will be beneficial.
Two important mechanics that will occur throughout the fight are the large red circles and the beams of light. There are actually two types of light beams. The ones that have the orange arrows on them will give torment and confusion to those hit by them as they pass through. These often will hit simultaneously so aegis is very effective for sharing with the party to avoid a lot of the damage of this fight. They can be avoided by dodging as well as positioning yourself right in between them. Their hit boxes are actually very small so you can fit through them even as a norn.
The second type of beam will not be harmful and you can tell this because they do not have the orange arrow on them. These will, however, leave purple circles on the ground which will explode after a certain time. Their explosion usually happens at the same time red circle mechanic detonates. The red circle mechanic is just carried over from the normal boss, but it is complicated by the other mechanics. Designate one player to stay on the boss during this to make it less chaotic. Usually a low mobility DPS class is best for this.
At 66% the boss will begin summoning Demons of Sorrow and Demons of Fear. The Fears are shadowy elementals that will move toward party members. If they reach a party member they can knock down and deal damage. It is best to kite these away. They are invulnerable so they cannot be dealt with except through movement and avoidance.
Sorrows when spawned will appear on the side of the room and will begin casting an attack that MUST be stopped. Breaking their defiance bar is the only way to do so.
At 33% Demons of Guilt will begin to spawn. These will target players and give them stacks of a debuff exactly like the water orbs from the normal mode encounter. The targeted player will down if they gain too many stacks so other party members must soak the tether by getting in between the target and the guilt. Guilts will despawn later. Guilts will spawn at the same time as the Sorrow which can make managing the debuff while focusing on CC and avoiding ground attacks difficult.
Having an aggressive composition with lots of CC and damage allows you to bypass many mechanics. Breaking the bosses defiance bar at any point will cancel their current attack even if the attack is in the middle of being casted. This includes and is used most importantly for the red circles. Because you must spread out for this mechanic, it costs a lot of DPS. If your team commits to breaking the defiance bar during this mechanic you can increase your damage quite a bit and skip other mechanics on top of the one you interrupt.
Great guide! I have one thing to add. When the boss starts the whirlpool attack, she will reflect all projectiles. So don’t attack when she whirlpools, focus on dodging.
You might want to rework the “Dispersing the clouds” achievement portion.
It is far easier to pick up at NESW, but skip the cloud there and move clockwise, do the diagonal cloud, then pick up orbs and do the next NESW cloud.
Example: Start North, pick orbs, ignore North cloud, do Northeast cloud, pick East orbs, do East cloud
Only takes ~66% of the movement of your current strat, which makes the achievement very easy to do.