The King in the Mists – Boss Guide

The King in the Mists is the Pinnacle Boss of the Ritual mechanic in Path of Exile 2, defeating him grant Atlas Ritual points. This guide will go over his attacks and abilities.

In Path of Exile 2, certain attacks must be dodged, indicated by the boss flashing red and an accompanying sound cue. These attacks and abilities are highlighted in bold with the text (Requires Dodge) throughout this guide.

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Abilities

Zone: Crux of Nothingness.

Damage Type: Physical and Chaos.

King in the Mists is a two-phase fight. At 25%, he goes immune and sends the player to an intermission labyrinth.

Phase 1

• Periodically fires a single projectile at the player.
• Special Attack: Slam (Requires Dodge)
  • King in the Mists slams his staff into the ground, causing the surrounding area to erupt. Note: Only performed if the player is in melee range.

• Special Ability: Thorngrip
  • King in the Mists sends out purple vines in a cone.

• Special Ability: Affliction Totem
• King in the Mists summon an affliction totem that cause the player to take increasing physical damage over time the longer it is alive. Note: These totems have very little health, so should be killed quickly when spawned.

• Special Ability: Mystic Effigy
  • The King in the Mists teleports to one of the 3 Effigies placed around the arena and activates it, while the Effigy is active it gives a stacking debuff that increase all damage taken by the player. The more Mystic Effigies are active, the more dangerous the arena becomes. Spawning in Bug Swarms, Volatile toads and Blood Waves as long as they are active.

• Special Ability: Ritual of Meditation
  • King in the Mists marks the player with a red circle. If you move too much while this debuff is active, you will be stunned and rooted in place for 4 seconds. The mark only lasts for 4 seconds. Note: You should be able to dodge roll twice and move a little, however all movement should be avoided unless you’re dodging attacks from the boss.

• Special Ability: Ritual of Dance
  • King in the Mists marks the player with a purple circle. If you stand still for too long while having this circle, you will be stunned and rooted for 4 seconds. The mark lasts for 4 seconds. Note: Keep moving until the debuff is gone. This one is much less dangerous than the Ritual of Meditation.

• Intermission: Maze
  • When King in the Mists reaches 25% health, he becomes invulnerable and teleports the player to a maze they need to escape from. Note: your goal is to get to the middle of the maze. The Wisps scattered about in the maze will guide you towards the correct path.

When the player gets back to King in the Mists arena, he transforms, gaining all his health back, and this begins Phase 2.

Phase 2

All 3 Mystic Effigies are active and cannot be killed, but no longer gives the damage stacking debuff. They do keep summoning Bug Swarms, Volatile Toads and Blood Waves throughout all of Phase 2. He keeps all of his other Phase 1 abilities, Ritual of Dance and Ritual of Meditation now last for 8 seconds instead of 4 seconds.

• Special Ability: Rat Tornado
  • King in the Mists summons a massive Rat Tornado, and it begins to chase the player around the arena. Note: Getting hit by the tornado applies armor break. This is by far the hardest mechanic to deal with in phase 2, an untimely Ritual of Meditation while being too close to the Tornado can mean your death, try to be as far away as possible.

• Special Ability: Bug Swarm
  • The totem in the middle of the arena periodically sends out creeping swarms of bugs that slowly move outwards from the totem to the edge of the arena. Note: If the player stands in these swarms, they take Chaos Damage over time.

• Special Ability: Volatile Toads
  • These toads spawns around the entire arena, jumping around until they reach a player or the wall of the arena before exploding.

• Special Ability: Blood Wave
  • Blood Waves spawn from the edges of the arena traveling through the center, dealing physical damage and knocking players back when hit. Note: if you have Ritual of Meditation use your dodge roll to move out of the path of the Blood Waves.

• Special Ability: Bug Orb (Requires Dodge)
  • King in the Mists conjures an orb of bugs that slowly flies toward the player’s current location. It explodes when hitting the ground, leaving behind purple blisters on the ground which explode and deal Chaos Damage if the player is too close.

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Scaling

The “Crux of Nothingness Difficulty” nodes on the Atlas Tree make The King in the Mists more challenging and are needed to get more Atlas Ritual points. He gains more health: 2.08M on normal, 3.11M on +1 difficulty, 5.09M on +2 difficulty, 9.66M on +3 difficulty, and 20.7M on +4 difficulty in both phases. On +3 difficulty, Blood Pools will spawn throughout both phases that deal damage over time if stood in.

This is the end of our King in the Mists boss guide. Check out our other related guides below.