Looking to take down one of Path of Exile 2’s challenging ACT I bosses? Our comprehensive guide will show you the most efficient ways to find and defeat the King in the Mists, making your farming runs smoother and more worthwhile. Whether you’re playing solo, or queuing up in a party with your friends, our PoE King in the Mists guide will offer proven strategies and helpful tips to make your runs easier.
How to Find the King in the Mists in Path of Exile 2
The King in the Mists is an optional boss that players can find in the Freythorn region. However, unlike most optional bosses, you can’t just stumble upon him. To get the boss to spawn, you’ll have to activate three Ritual Altars scattered around the map edges. Each of them have checkpoints nearby so use them as a marker to help you navigate the map easier.
Once you activate a Ritual Altar a wave of monsters will spawn that you’ll have to kill to proceed. After completing all three Altars, you’ll need to locate the main boss arena, which contains the central Ritual Altar. The idea is the same as The Rust King boss fight that players will face in the early game of Path of Exile 2.
King in the Mists Boss PoE Boss Fight Preparation
King in the Mists isn’t necessarily the hardest boss in Path of Exile 2. What makes this fight challenging isn’t necessarily the boss itself but rather the mobs you have to clear to start the encounter. If you find the encounter particularly challenging, a PoE 2 boosting service for sale can make things easier.
Freythorn is a treacherous map with narrow bridges. You’ll have to complete three mandatory Ritual Altars for the boss to spawn, each spawning hordes of monsters for you to slay, which can take your Health Flasks down to zero.
You can take down the boss with pretty much any class. Sorceress, Witch, or other classes that specialize in ranged attacks will have an easier time since the boss isn’t too fast. Warrior class might struggle a bit since they’ll have to get into melee range and won’t have an easy time getting out of the range of their spells.
Make sure your character is equipped with plenty of movement abilities. Curse Removal Flasks can also come in handy since the boss has multiple curses that can make things challenging for the player. As for your gear, go with ones that help mitigate physical or chaotic damage.
King in the Mists Boss Fight Strategy
The battle against the King in the Mists unfolds in two distinct phases, each requiring different tactical approaches and awareness.
Phase 1: Human Form
In his initial human form, the King appears as a hooded figure wielding a wooden staff. This phase isn’t necessarily the hardest one to get through. But players have to be careful of his wide AOE abilities that can easily take out a big chunk of their health pool if they get caught in it. If you’re short on time or need extra help gearing up, consider checking out IGZ to speed up your preparation.
His abilities and attack for this phase are as follows:
- Thorngrip: King in the Mists will spawn damaging vines in front of him in a cone that deals moderate damage.
- Invasive Growth: The boss will create a large AOE of damaging vines, dealing moderate damage as he slams his staff on the ground.
- Blood Pools: King in the mists spawns pools of blood around the arena. Standing on them causes the player to take damage over time.
- Affliction Totems: The boss summons a totem on the ground that curses the player and deals increasing damage each pulse. Destroying the totem ends the ability.
- Ritual of Dance: The boss places a purple debuff on the player for a duration. If the player stops moving before the debuff expires, they will become rooted.
- Ritual of Meditation: The boss places a red debuff on the player. It’s the exact opposite of Ritual of Dance where the player needs to stop moving to not get rooted. Players can still dodge-roll 1-2 times before the root takes effect.
Understanding how Ritual of Dance and Ritual of Meditation works and reacting to them accordingly is the key to getting through the first phase of the King in the MIsts boss fight. All of his attacks are fairly telegraphed giving you enough time to dodge them.
Phase 2: Treant Form
When the King in the Mist’s health drops below a quarter of his max HP, he will start transforming into phase 2. The boss turns into a tree ent and regains all his lost health. He is invulnerable for the duration, so use this time to heal up and get some distance between you and the boss. After his transformation ends, he will gain a new set of skills on top of his existing ones. The boss will also fire three projectiles instead of one with his basic attacks.
King in the Mists gains the following abilities in his 2nd phase of the battle:
- Purple Mines: The boss spawns purple mines on the ground that explode in proximity. It deals heavy damage and applies a stack of Shadow Surge, which causes the player to receive more physical damage. This debuff can stack causing you to take massive damage if you keep getting hit with it.
- Afflicted Swarm: King in the Mists will create a swarm of insects that move in a straight line dealing chaos damage to the player if they get caught in it.
- Insect Ball: The boss fires a purple orb towards the player that deals heavy damage if it connects. You can use dodge-roll to avoid it.
While the intensity of the fight ramps up significantly in the 2nd phase, the overall idea remains the same. Position yourself properly in the arena and make sure the Shadow Surge stack doesn’t get too high to avoid getting killed in a single hit. Keep an eye out for curses, dodge the boss’s attack, and use Health Flasks anytime your health drops too low.
The boss has a massive health bar, which means that even if you have a high DPS character, you’ll have to focus on survival rather than dealing damage. You won’t be able to one shot the boss because of his two phases. As long as you manage to dodge his abilities and stay alive, you’ll be able to slowly whittle down his health.
King in the Mists Boss Rewards
Like most optional bosses in Path of Exile 2, the King in the Mists drops valuable rewards that can help you beef up your character for the late game. Defeating the boss for the first time drops a Spirit Skill Gem Level 4 and a Gembloom Skull that adds +30 Spirit Power to your character permanently. It’s one of the only boss drops that gives Spirit Capacity as a reward in the first act of the game.
On top of that the boss also is able to interact with the Ritual Altar after defeating the boss to access a unique shop. The shop uses Tribute as the main currency which you can get by repeatedly killing the boss. Each time you kill King in the Mist, the shop inventory refreshes allowing you to farm high-end gears if you wish.
King in the Mists Advanced Tactics
Experienced players have developed several strategies to make the King in the Mists boss fight easier. Here are a couple of tips to help you clear this encounter:
- Use the narrow bridges of Freythorn to control the waves of enemies while completing Ritual Altars.
- Position near the edge of the arena to react to the curses during the King in the Mists boss phases.
- The boss fight is significantly easier when you’re playing with a friend.
- The boss has a highly telegraphed moveset. If you’re quick to react, you can dodge most of his abilities.
- Mobility is the key to victory. Make sure your character has plenty of mobility spells to dodge the King in the Mists ground-targeted AOE attacks and navigate around the boss arena.
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