Path of Exile The Elder Guide

The Elder Warping The Minds Of The Weak

Table Of Contents

• Elder Spawn Mechanics
• Notes On Damage
• The Elder
• Conclusion

Welcome to the guide exile. In this series we will be going over the mechanics of the Elder's Guardians and the elder himself. For this guide we will just be focusing on the elder. As discussed in my war for the elder's guide. The elder can be spawned on the atlas by expanding his influence the dark tentacle background throughout a subset of maps by completing or killing over 60% of the monsters within the surrounding shaper influenced maps with the celestial star background. Once there are enough maps within the elder influence subset somewhere around 20 Maps, the elder will spawn on a random map base within it along with his four Guardians on nearby map bases marked by their icons on the Atlas.

Elder Spawn Mechanics

Level&Tier

Determined By Map Base On Which

The Elder Spawns

Elder Spawn Mechanics

Level&Tier

All Encounters

(Elder & His Guardians)

Are The Same Level As The Map Zone The Elder Spawns On

Example

Elder Spawns On A Tier 5 Map

Which Is Zone Level 72

All Encounters Will Be Level 72

The level and tier of all the encounters is determined by the map base on which the elder spawns. All of the encounters elder and his Guardians will be the level of the map zone on which the elder spawns. So, this means that the other spawns on a tier 5 map which is a level 72 zone. His encounter and all the other Guardian encounters of that set will be level 72 regardless of the map base that the Guardians spawn on. The elder will also ignore shaped map levels and conform to the original level of the map base.

Follows The 3 Major Tiers Of Maps

White

Yellow

Red

Example

Elder Spawns On A Tier 5 Map

Which Is A White Tier Map

All Encounters Will Be Whiter Tier

The tier in drops of the encounters will be determined by the major tier coloring system of the maps. The other follows the same three major tiers of map difficulty white, yellow and red. As with the previous level mechanics this is determined by the map base on which he spawns. So, revisiting our previous example of the elder spawning on a tier 5 map which is a white map. The elder in The Guardian encounters will follow white tier rules regardless of the map base that the Guardian spawned on. The major difference and all the tier colors is ultimately the elders drop table.

Differences In Drops

Yellow & Red Tier

The elder will be able to drop all of his gear unique from all tiers. This includes the following unique. Note that the Imprudence actually has five variations physical, chaos, cold, fire and lightning. The physical one is shown here in the video. The unique Watchers eye jewel will only be able to drop from yellow and red tier variants. This jewel is very powerful and that it can roll many different combinations of affixes that grant bonus is well affected by auras. The affixes that are rolled on each Watchers eye are random and cannot be changed but their values can be divined. 

Encounter The Elder

Defeated All Of His Guardians

Enter Map Base He Spawned On And Head To The Boss

This is a chase unique that you will want to be looking for when encountering the elder. To actually encounter the elder, you must have first defeated all of his Guardians that spawned on the atlas alongside him. Once they are defeated and removed from the Atlas simply enter the map base that the elder is spawned on and make your way to the boss. The map can be of any rarity and have any modifiers as they do not apply to the elder’s arena. Once at the boss the will emerge from a void portal. Defeat the boss and consumers power returning to the void. This portal will then lead to the elder’s arena. The elder always spawns in the absence of value and meaning. This arena does not have any special environmental effects and will be the same size and layout every time.

Notes On Damage

For this guide damage values were gathered in the following levels zones for each tier of the elder encounter. All damage values shown are averaged raw damage values before any mitigations have been applied. This means with physical mitigation or capped elemental resistances these moves will deal significantly less damage. Looking at the gathered damage data it can be seen that the elders damage grows almost linear persona level. This means that you can extrapolate the data to get a rough estimate of the elder’s damage at any level. For this guide I will use the hard data gathered at these levels for each tier. However, be aware that all of the damage values shown here are averages and each move has a fairly wide variance. I did my best to sample mostly high damage values for the sake of safety.

The Elder - Script

Elder Damage Calculations

The Elder

Now all this information out of the way. Let's get to discussing the elder. Emerging from the depths of the twisted voids of the mapping system is the elder. The elder is an ancient being that twists and disturbs the minds of those who venture into his realm. During the shapers ventures into maps he was challenged by the elder for control of the Atlas and has now brought a war between them. With this we must now assist the shaper and taking down the elder. The elder is a three-phase fight with the first phase being the most difficult. We will be considering all three different tiers of elder that can spawn for our defense and offense recommendations. All of these tiers of encounters are generally easier and more accessible than the shaper. And as such do not quite as extensive defense and offense. Since we failed the map we simply have to run another map of that base which are always cheaper and more available than the shapers fragments. And once you're set up to take on the shapers Guardians or even shaper himself you'll be able to completely decimate the elder. The main defense to consider is our health pool. You want to have roughly around the following for each tier of Elder not considering extensive mitigations. Of course, if you have the correct mitigations and have an active play style you can get away with smaller HP values. You want to have some sort of life sustain such as a flask, regeneration or life leech. As the elder has many moves that apply a degeneration that you cannot avoid. Physical mitigations, cold mitigations and a fast movement skill to avoid an escape boss mechanics. For offenses you should focus on having strong single target damage. This will of course vary per build skill interactions but good gauges are that if you can kill the highest-level bosses of that map tier. You should have no problem on that tier of Elder. This encounter is not technically timed but you will have to manage ads that spawn before they drop patches of d-generation ground that will make positioning tougher as the fight goes on. In the first phase you will fight the elder at his maximum power. In this form he will be able to freely move about the arena and attack you with numerous moves. A basic melee attack, this is a basic melee attack that deals moderate damage.

Ice spears: the older forms numerous ice spear projectiles in front of him and releases them shortly after they form. These steel heavy cold damage and can easily trail and freeze targets that they hit resulting in failure to dodge the next move or secondary waves of projectiles. The elder has four variations of an ice spear attack. One wave with three large ice piers, two waves of two small ice Spears, three waves of two Spears were the first two waves are smaller Spears with a third wave that contains larger Spears. And finally, a hundred and eighty-degree arc of eight small Spears. The damage of each spear within each of these variations appears to deal the same amount of cold damage.

Expanding nova: the elder marks the ground below him and creates a white line circle centered around this mark with an expanding dark circle growing around it. After a short period, this expanding dark circle will cover the entire arena and explode dealing physical damage. The centered white line circle is safe from the explosion. 

Siphon: the elder will disappear into the ground. Only to reappear at your backside applying sprouting madness slowing your action speed greatly. He will then create a white outlined half circle where he will drain the life from you dealing physical damage over time for about four seconds. This is a physical dot that can be avoided by standing outside of the white outlined half circle. But the sprouting madness slow will be applied for the full duration of the attack. Once below 60% health the elder will now perform a new variation of the siphon attack where he will freeze you in place within the white semicircle. After about two seconds the shaper will appear behind the elder hit him over the head with a hammer stunning him and cancelling the siphon attack.

Slamming tentacles: the elder will move up further into the air in summon five sets of three conjoined tentacles that will slam the ground around them one after another dealing physical damage in a small area of effect.

Rise and slam: The Elder will rise into the air throwing a barrage of cold projectiles in a circle area around him. Soon after he will swoop back down to the target location and clap above the ground dealing massive cold damage in a moderate area of effect.

Add spawn: floating tentacle ads will spawn around the arena throughout the fight and attack with ranged lightning projectiles that deal minimal damage but can apply shock. The main concern with these ads is that they can drop Eldritch to K ground if left alive. This ground effect is dark gray in deals physical damage over time. This ground effect will also remain on the ground for the entirety of the fight throughout all phases. So, make sure to kill these as soon as you see them before they can drop this ground effect. Once you bring the Elder to 25% life the shaper will chain him down to the center of the room and thus will begin phase 2. Phase 2 is simply a timed ad spawn phase. here you will have to protect the shaper whilst he completes the four restraints that he has placed on the elder. Nova portals will appear in spawn ads. These portals can be temporarily destroyed but will reappear shortly after destruction. At nuke each restraint that the shaper works on one more portal will be added to the ad spawn aside from the first and second restraint which will only have two portals. If you fail to protect the shaper the Elder will be released and you must fight him in his first phase form again until you defeat him. Effectively skipping part of phase 2 and phase 3 completely for some builds and people this is easier and faster than waiting for phase 2 ad spawned to complete. If you do wait through the ad spawn you will enter phase 3. And phase 3 you will simply have to nuke the Elder down whilst he remains restrained in the center of the arena. However, don't let this fool you as the elder can still perform many deadly moves.

Pulse Nova: about every eight seconds the elder will release an arena wide dark pulse dealing moderate physical damage.

Slamming tentacles: the elder will summon five sets of three conjoined tentacles that will slam the ground around them one after another dealing physical damage in a small area of effect. This is the same move as in Phase one just dealing less damage.

Many expanding Nova: the elder will summon numerous expanding Nova's that can overlap. These act in the same manner as the larger expanding Nova in phase one however will cover less area and deal less damage. You can avoid their damage by standing in their centers or outside of their expanding areas.

Many ice Spears: a large vertical ice spear will spawn and shortly after break into eleven smaller Spears shooting out in Circle. These will deal cold damage. Once you have brought the elder to 0% health you'll want to move over to Zhanna and into her protective bubble. As the elder will explode shortly after dealing deadly damage to anything outside of the bubble.

Conclusion

With the elder defeated he will be temporarily pushed back and removed from your atlas leaving no trace of the elder within it. However, his influence will return once you have completed and moved around the shapers influence on your Atlas allowing you to expand it further and spawn him again. Repeating the never-ending grind to get that red tear elder and that perfect Watchers eye as always. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next one exile.