Strike Mission: Temple of Febe

Strike Mission: Temple of Febe

Levels

80

Type

Strike Mission

Region

Nayos

API

1520

Loading screen

Image(s)

Temple of Febe Map Click to enlarge.

Strike Mission: Temple of Febe is a strike mission for the Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure expansion. It contains story details from Treachery story step. Its challenge mode came out in The Realm of Dreams release after the expansion.

Getting there

Players must own the Secrets of the Obscure expansion and be in a raid-mode (10 player) squad to join.

• If the Treachery story step has been completed by any character of an account:
  • Interact with the scrying stone or Halbera at  Hall of Gallantry — in The Wizard's Tower (south-east of  Tower Courtyard Waypoint — )
• Enter or be within The Wizard's Tower when the strike mission instance is opened.

Objectives

• Enter the circle to begin the Strike Mission.
• Reach the platform to begin the strike mission.
• Kill Cerus, the Glaive of House Nephus.
• Cerus
  
• Embodiment of Despair
  
• Embodiment of Envy
  
• Embodiment of Gluttony
  
• Embodiment of Malice
  
• Embodiment of Rage
  
• Embodiment of Regret
  
• Strike Mission complete!

Rewards

• One bouncy chest (once per week)
  • Cerus's Coffer
  • Blue Prophet Shard (8)
  • 4 
  • 5,000 
  • 66,675 
• Blue Prophet Shard (8) (on repeat, until weekly cap is reached)
• Sample of Kryptis Corruption (if achievement A New Look is active)

Challenge Mode

• One additional Challenge Mode bouncy chest (once per week)
  • One random FExotic weapon or armor piece
  • Cerus's Magnificent Coffer
  • Blue Prophet Shard (16)
  • 2 
  • 10,000 
  • 133,350 
  • Possible rare rewards:
    • Jar of Dangerous Spirits

Walkthrough

Players must first activate the encounter by standing in the white circle before they can then glide onto the platform. Players not on the platform when the fight starts will be teleported onto it.

Cerus

Health: 53,087,400 (106,174,800 if the Challenge Mode is active; 130,064,136 if the Legendary Challenge Mode is active)

Enrage Timer: None (10 minutes if either Challenge Mode is active)

Enrage Effect: Defeats all players

Fixation Mechanic: None

Recurring mechanics

This encounter allows groups to strengthen or weaken certain boss skills to best complement the group's strengths and weaknesses. Failing certain mechanics permanently increases boss damage due to the  Empowered effect, with each stack increasing his damage by 5%. At a maximum of 99 stacks, Cerus gains a 495% damage increase and all of his attacks become unblockable.

The normal and empowered versions of Cerus's skills are listed below:

Skill	Aspect	Location	Notes
Crushing Regret (Greens)	Regret	East	Targets a random player with a green circle that explodes after a delay, dealing unavoidable massive damage to all players. Invulnerability does not work, however skills such as   "Rebound!" do work. Larger than telegraphed with a visible radius of 240 range but true radius of 360 range. Requires at least 5 players within the true radius to succeed and greatly reduce the damage. Applies 5 Empowered to Cerus and 1 Exposed (60s) to all players upon failure.  Empowered: Targets 3 random players, requiring at least 3 players in each (including the targeted players). Green swirls indicate if the minimum number of players has been met. Each additional player halves the damage up to twice. A total of 5 players within reduces the damage to its minimum.
Cry of Rage (Slam)	Rage	Northeast	Channels a large unblockable but dodgeable AoE for 5 seconds, inflicting 1 Exposed on-hit.  Empowered: Increased AoE size and deals unavoidable damage.
Envious Gaze (Wall)	Envy	Southeast	Targets a random player then channels a wall (indicated by a red arrow) that rotates counter-clockwise for one full rotation. Inflicts unavoidable boon corruption to all allies (such as pets) on-hit, but the damage can be evaded. The wall hitbox begins slightly behind the arrow and is slightly ahead of the visual telegraph. Furthermore, the boss hitbox inflicts damage but will not corrupt boons. Standing to the right of the wall and moving clock-wise avoids this attack.  Empowered: A second faster wall spawns opposite of the main wall before joining it. Both walls steal boons (except  Alacrity and  Quickness) on all allies in addition to corrupting them. Standing to the left of the main wall, or right of the faster wall avoids both walls when moving counter-clockwise.
Insatiable Hunger → Insatiable (Orbs)	Gluttony	West	A total of 40-50 small orbs and 3 large orbs emerge from the arena edge and float towards Cerus, each granting him the following effects upon reaching him. Both inflict low damage on-hit. Small orbs: Applies barrier. Susceptible to projectile destruction, reflects, and body-blocking. Reflected small orbs continue to move to Cerus but will apply barrier instead of damage to players on-hit. Large orbs: Applies approximately 75k barrier and 1 Empowered. Susceptible only to body-blocking. Inflicts 1 Insatiable (30s) to players that body-block it, dealing low ticking damage.  Empowered: Two additional large orbs spawn and  Insatiable lasts for 3 minutes.
Malicious Intent (Adds)	Malice	Southwest	Targets a random player with a white tether, inflicting damage and dropping a Malicious Shadow add below them after 5 seconds. This is indicated also with a timer above the target, a sound cue, and a white screen border. The shadow walks towards Cerus and is susceptible to soft crowd control such as  Chilled and  Crippled. Applies approximately 75k barrier and 5 Empowered upon reaching him.  Empowered: Targets 3 random players.
Wail of Despair → Pool of Despair (Spread)	Despair	Northwest	Targets all players with orange circles that inflict damage after 5 seconds, leaving behind a pool that pulses 1 Torment and lasts for 60 seconds.  Empowered: AoE size doubled and pools persist much longer.

• 

  Regret. Animation will change from inward arrows to swirl.

• 

  Rage. Time your dodges. 200+ ping will want to dodge just after 50%.

• 

  Envy. Step clockwise of the wall spawn, then follow a short distance.

• 

  Gluttony. Intercept orbs from reaching Cerus.

• 

  Malice. Make some distance between you and Cerus.

• 

  Despair. Time your dodge to avoid damage. The AoEs can be stacked.

Anomaly:

The indicators for Greens is inconsistent where it may not show the green swirls when the minimum required people are within them (similar indicator as for the challenge mode for Strike Mission: Aetherblade Hideout). Players should thus not rely on this indicator and instead visually confirm if enough players are within Greens.

Phase 1 (100% – 80%)

The fight begins once players near the center of the platform. Cerus then jumps to the center of the platform, where he remains for the entire encounter. Players take massive damage when falling off the platform.

This phase follows a fixed, repeating pattern: Greens → Spread → Wall → Adds → Orbs → Slam

Upon reaching 80% health, Cerus casts the following skill:

Skill

Notes

Petrify

Tethers to all players and de-spawns all of his skills, unlocking his defiance bar for 8 seconds. If not broken, Cerus heals for 20% (13% if poisoned) and inflicts unavoidable damage and stuns all players for 8 seconds. Cannot be mitigated with stun breaks or  Stability. Applies a stack of  Petrify lasting 7 seconds every 0.7s to players until the defiance bar is broken, reducing their damage and speed by 10% per stack; only 2 stacks removed when the defiance bar is broken.

This encounter becomes more difficult if players do not have enough crowd control skills to break the defiance bar. Otherwise, Cerus continuously regenerates his health, restarts his skill rotation for the current phase, and recasts Petrify upon reaching the same health threshold. ^{[verification requested]}

Breaking the defiance bar will expose his aspects of power.

Split 1 (80%)

Health: 1,769,580 each (3,539,160 each if the Challenge Mode is active)

A total of 6 aspects (half of which are small) spawn around the center of the arena in two possible patterns:

1. Large: Regret, Rage, Envy
   Small: Gluttony, Malice, Despair
2. Large: Gluttony, Malice, Despair
   Small: Regret, Rage, Envy

Each aspect uses one of Cerus's six main skills, but cannot attack at the same time as another aspect. The order is random and skills do not repeat until all six have been used in a rotation. Small aspects cast the normal version of their skill but do not grant any beneficial effect when defeated. Large aspects cast the empowered version of their skill and will have the respective effect from the below table.

Aspect Effect	Description
Empowered Regret	Weakens Greens upon defeat.
Empowered Rage	Weakens Slam upon defeat.
Empowered Envy	Weakens Wall upon defeat.
Empowered Gluttony	Weakens Orbs upon defeat.
Empowered Malice	Weakens Adds upon defeat.
Empowered Despair	Weakens Spread upon defeat.

Defeating a large aspect de-empowers their skill for the next phase. Only a total of two aspects however may be defeated, requiring players to determine which ones to focus on. The prioritization of which aspect to defeat is group-specific, but a general order is listed below:

Priority	Aspect	Reason to defeat
1	Envy	Removes boon steal on-hit. Non-issue, however, with proper positioning and movement for all players.
2	Rage	Allows players not to move away from boss, increasing damage uptime.
3	Despair	Simplifies arena management and reduces risk of players standing in overlapping AoEs. Non-issue, however, if properly dropped by all players and squad damage high enough to avoid a second set.
4	Malice	Spawns only 1 shadow. Non-issue, however, if properly dropped by all players and either promptly defeating or slowing down the shadows with crowd control skills.
5	Regret	Spawns only 1 Green. An issue, however, if player stacking is difficult or if stacks of  Empowered are high and prevent players from stacking Greens.
6	Gluttony	Ticking damage now expires. An issue, however, if squad damage and healing is very low and other mechanics handled well.

Regret and Gluttony are always the middle of the three large aspects. If following the above priority, players can thus only focus on the two large aspects on the outside.

Upon defeating two of them, Cerus returns and absorbs all remaining aspects, gaining any  Empowered an aspect received during the split phase. Cerus then uses the empowered skills from any remaining large aspect. Additionally during the next split phase, any small aspect from before (even those slain) will enlarge and any slain large aspect from before will shrink and be invulnerable.

Phase 2 (80% – 50%)

This phase plays out the same as the first phase. Cerus will have 1-3 empowered skills depending on how many large aspects were previously defeated.

Upon reaching 50% health, Cerus casts Petrify and unlocks his defiance bar. Breaking it reveals his aspects once more, whereas failing it will cause him to regenerate and restart his skill rotation.

Split 2 (50%)

All small aspects from the first split are now large, along with the surviving large aspects. Similarly, all slain large aspects from the first split are now small and invulnerable. Depending on which aspects were defeated during the first split phase, there will be 4-6 large and 0-2 small aspects.

After defeating two aspects, Cerus again assumes empowered attacks of all surviving large aspects.

Phase 3 (50% – 10%)

Cerus now uses 2-4 empowered skills, depending on how many large aspects were defeated during both splits. Additionally, his repeating skill rotation changes: Greens → Wall → Orbs → Slam → Adds → Spread

Upon reaching 10% health, Cerus casts Petrify and unlocks his defiance bar one final time. Failing this will cause him to regenerate and restart his skill rotation.

Phase 4 (10% – 0%)

Cerus makes a final stand and performs the following skill until defeat:

Skill	Notes
Enraged Smash	Pulses damage every 4 seconds. Can be mitigated with blocks, evades, and invulnerability.

The healing pressure for this phase depends on how many stacks of  Empowered are present, with higher stacks significantly increasing the difficulty. Players must thus quickly defeat Cerus before succumbing to the damage.

Challenge modes

Overview

There are several differences between the normal and challenge mode versions of the fight:

General

• Players have 10 minutes to complete the entire encounter.
• Falling off the platform now instantly defeats players.

Monster buffs

• Increased boss and enemy health.
  • Legendary challenge mode (LCM): Boss health further increased.
  • LCM: Malicious Shadow health and toughness increased.
• Malicious Shadows Adds have  Resistance (30s) that cannot be corrupted or removed.
  • This effect can naturally expire if the shadows are dropped far enough away (close to the arena edge).

Mechanical changes

• Each of Cerus' six aspects spawns by themselves with  Invulnerability throughout all non-split phases, casting their respective skill then de-spawning.
  • Spawn location is identical to their position during the split phases.
  • They spawn on a set timer:
    • Phase 1: Every 30 seconds after 16 seconds into the phase.
    • Phase 2: Every 20 seconds after 10 seconds into the phase.
    • Phase 3: Every 15 seconds after 5 seconds into the phase.
    • Phase 4: Every 3 seconds after 3 seconds into the phase.
  • They spawn in the following order:
    • Phases 1 & 2 (rotation continues post-split): Adds → Spread → Wall → Green → Slam → Orbs
    • Phase 3: Slam → Orbs → Adds → Spread → Wall → Green
    • Phase 4: Spread → Wall → Green → Slam → Orbs → Adds
  • Their skills de-spawn after each split phase.
• Only one aspect can be defeated during each split phase.
  • Defeating a small aspect now grants Cerus their empowered effect.

Mechanic	Notes
Updated Skills
Crushing Regret (Green)	Applies  Extreme Vulnerability on-hit and instantly downs all players upon failure. Two Greens can be stacked and still succeed if at least 3 players (including the 2 targeted players) are within them; however all players within will be instantly downed. Three Greens cannot be stacked and will result in failure. Players standing within will be instantly downed from the second circle, leaving no valid players available to interact with the third one. LCM: Instantly defeats all players upon failure. Players standing in two or more Greens are also instantly defeated.
Cry of Rage (Slam)	Hits are unavoidable and applies up to 2 Empowered to Cerus on-hit. Applied stacks decrease to 1 if hit occurs far away from him.[verification requested]
Enraged Smash	Pulses unavoidable damage and applies 2 Empowered to Cerus per cast. LCM: Applies 3 Empowered per cast.
Insatiable Hunger (Orbs)	Each large orb is effectively three large ones, applying 3 Empowered to Cerus and 1 Insatiable to players. Requires three players to completely body-block them, with each reducing the applied empowered stacks by one (visually indicated by the orb getting smaller).
Petrify	Instantly defeats all players upon failing to break the defiance bar.
Wail of Despair → Pool of Despair (Spread)	Initial AoEs are unblockable. Pools persist for 90 seconds.
New Effects
Extreme Vulnerability (3s)	Next attack that applied this effect deals lethal damage to players affected by it.
Updated Effects
Insatiable (60s)	Lasts for 60 seconds when unempowered. LCM: Lasts permanently when empowered.

NPCs

Foes

• Cerus
• Embodiment of Despair
• Embodiment of Envy
• Embodiment of Gluttony
• Embodiment of Malice
• Embodiment of Rage
• Embodiment of Regret
• Malicious Shadow

Objects

• Challenge Mote

Dialogue

Starting the strike

Strike Initiator: Kill Cerus, the Glaive of House Nephus.

Let's do this.

We're still waiting for more people to show up.

Casting Cry of Rage

One of the following:

Cerus: (screams)

Cerus: Back!

Casting Envious Gaze

One of the following:

Cerus: Do not look away.

Cerus: Run... Run...

Casting Insatiable Hunger

One of the following:

Cerus: I feed...

Cerus: Come to me...

Cerus: (laughs)

Casting Malicious Intent

One of the following:

Cerus: To me, return...

Cerus: I hunger for power...

Casting Wail of Despair

One of the following:

Cerus: (groans)

Cerus: You will suffocate.

Related achievements

• Secrets of the Obscure: Temple of Febe — Complete the Temple of Febe Strike Mission. (5)
• Secrets of the Obscure: Weekly Secrets of the Obscure Strike Missions — Complete 2 unique Secrets of the Obscure Strike Mission within a week. (0)
• Daily Strike Mission: Priority Horn of Maguuma Strike: Temple of Febe — Complete the Temple of Febe Strike Mission. (0)
• Horn of Maguuma: A New Look — Help Skyscale Trainer Dyanne investigate what's happening to your skyscale mount. (10)

Requires challenge mode

• Secrets of the Obscure: Apathetic — Complete the Temple of Febe Strike Mission with challenge mode active and with all of Cerus's emotional aspects empowered. (5)
• Secrets of the Obscure: Unbounded Optimism — Complete the Temple of Febe Strike Mission with challenge mode active and without taking damage from Cerus's Wail of Despair or Pool of Despair skills. (5)
• Secrets of the Obscure: Legendary Temple of Febe — Complete the Temple of Febe Strike Mission with challenge mode active. (5)
• Secrets of the Obscure: Legendary Conqueror of Cerus — Complete the Temple of Febe Strike Mission after selecting a legendary challenge from the challenge mote. (0)

Notes

• Two separate challenge mode difficulties were announced to release during the March 19, 2024 game update: a more accessible version and an unchanged version that awards a title.
• Unlocking the Saryx Backpiece and the Possession Infusion from Nikki the Lost requires completing the normal challenge mode. Completing the Legendary challenge mode is not needed for the unlocks.

Version history

Patch	Changes
August 23, 2024	Fixed an issue that caused Secrets of the Obscure strike missions to incorrectly reward Green Prophet Shards instead of Blue Prophet Shards. Nikki the Lost now trades Blue Prophet Shards for Green Prophet Shards.
August 20, 2024	Janthir Wilds release: (Undocumented) Secrets of the Obscure strike missions now reward Blue Prophet Shards instead of Green Prophet Shards.
June 25, 2024	Introduced balance adjustments for the regular challenge mode: Reduced the duration of the  Insatiable effect applied by Empowered Insatiable Hunger to 3 minutes. Reduced the number of stacks of  Empowered that Cerus gains from Empowered Smash to 2. Reduced the health and toughness of Malicious Shadows. Reduced the penalty for failure during Empowered Crushing Regret. Failure to have enough people to absorb an attack will cause players to be downed instead of defeated, as will being hit by two of the attacks. Multiple failures or being hit by the skill more than two times will still cause players to be defeated.
June 04, 2024	Fixed an issue that prevented the map from properly revealing. Updated the instance boundary to better fit the arena.
March 21, 2024	Fixed an issue that prevented Malicious Shadows from applying the  Empowered effect to Cerus upon reaching him.
March 19, 2024	Separated challenge mode into two difficulties: a regular version and a legendary version with increased boss health (same total health as prior to this patch). Empowered Envious Gaze no longer steals  Alacrity and  Quickness. Projectiles are no longer obstructed when attacking an aspect in the split phase if that aspect was active during the phase transition. Selecting an option from the challenge mote now properly resets the encounter if it was already in progress. Fixed an issue that could prevent aspects from appearing during challenge mode. (Undocumented) Increased the frequency of Enraged Smash during the normal mode from every 5 seconds to every 4 seconds.
February 29, 2024	Fixed the invisible orbs during Insatiable Hunger whenever both Cerus and its aspect cast the skill at the same time.
February 28, 2024	Cerus's total health has been adjusted and no longer gains extra health upon completing the 80% health split phase during the challenge mode. Crushing Regret now correctly defeats players when two or more green circles are stacked together. (Undocumented) Increased Cerus's health from 47,188,800 to 53,087,400 during the normal mode.
February 27, 2024	Added the challenge mode to the game. New challenge-mode achievements have been added for both Cosmic Observatory and Temple of Febe, including new titles to obtain.
August 22, 2023	Secrets of the Obscure release: Strike Mission: Temple of Febe has been added to the game.

References

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Strike Missions

Living World Season 1	Old Lion's Court
The Icebrood Saga	Shiverpeaks Pass Voice of the Fallen and Claw of the Fallen Fraenir of Jormag Boneskinner Whisper of Jormag Forging Steel Cold War
End of Dragons	Aetherblade Hideout Xunlai Jade Junkyard Kaineng Overlook Harvest Temple
Secrets of the Obscure	Cosmic Observatory Temple of Febe
Wintersday	Secret Lair of the Snowmen (temporary)